Well, they are growing like weeds! Mama still doesn’t seem to have enough millk to satisfy them, so they are being supplemented twice a day with bottles…and as you can see (her mouth open because she’s “baaing” for milk!), Daisy is thriving.
Victorian Acres is Sue and Tom’s farm, located about a mile from Hodge Podge Yarns and Fibers. Yesterday David Hinman came to shear a lot of their sheep. They have already started lambing, so there were little “baas” interspersed with more of the foghorn variety. A lot of the fibers in Hodge Podge come from various commercial yarn companies, but a lot also come from the sheep of local shepherds, include Sue’s and Tom’s sheep. Yesterday, several icelandic sheep were shorn, mostly to get them cleaned up for lambing and get the winter, hay contaminated fleece off them. A lot of those fleeces were too short to keep, but now, as the sheep get ready to go out on pasture, where they are not likely to get so much veggie matter into their fleeces, they will go out with new clean haircuts, and be shorn in late fall. Several shetlands were also shorn, along with some lovely border leicesters, a couple of black welsh mountain crosses, and jacobs. Those fleeces were then taken to the skirting table where Shari, Betty, and Sue took off the poopy bits, pulled out the heavily contaminated bits and any cotted (felted) bits, and rolled the fleeces up, put them in bags, and separated the bags into those going to the store and eventually, the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival for sale, and those going to the processor to be made into rovings. It was a pleasant day and no one had lambs while we were all gathered…but that morning, two ewes had given them two sets of twins. Later in the morning, Jerry and Cindy showed up. They have a farm in nearby Sutton, raise sheep as well, and are considering moving south and farming full time. They’ve been busily reading Joel Salatin’s “You Can Farm,” a good choice for those considering farming. Very readable, practical, and full of helpful hints and ideas for making farming work and be profitable.
Here’s a photo of David surprised, while shearing, with Tom looking on, ready to sweep the plywood clean after each sheep is shorn.
