I have some entertaining pictures of recent sheep activity. After 45 days in the barn, the ewes express their restlessness with weird stunts. Activity #1 – Fighting BFL 129 Amelia and Border Leicester 1736 go head to head, with our resident ram lamb goading them on. Sheep flocks have a hierarchy, and apparently these girlsContinue reading “Sheep Behaving Badly”
Category Archives: helpful stuff
Bottle Lamb Shenanigans
This is a Covid-19-free post, so read and enjoy! We have a whole passel of bottle lambs in 2020. We have the two remaining ewe lambs from the quadruplet situation. We have a BFL ram lamb who never caught on to nursing his mother. We have a Border ram lamb who was rejected due toContinue reading “Bottle Lamb Shenanigans”
Considering Sheep?
I often meet folks who are considering getting sheep. Many bashfully tell me that they only want a small flock and some seem to worry that they are wasting my time asking questions. Questions are never a waste of time! Judging from the kinds of questions that I see in sheep groups on Facebook, moreContinue reading “Considering Sheep?”
Pregnancy Checks and some Updates
With temperatures in the low single digits today, we are surely in the thick of winter. Last week, we finally received the replacement barn-ends that we ordered after the back of the barn tore in half during the Halloween storm. Unfortunately, Matt and I concluded that we won’t actually complete the repairs until spring. NeitherContinue reading “Pregnancy Checks and some Updates”
Two Old Women
I’ve been sharing a series of pictures of ewes in the flock to help show people the individuals in the web of stories in the flock. I am enjoying sharing these images – I want people to know how we see our ewes as singular beings with their own personalities. We have two ewes whoContinue reading “Two Old Women”
Review: “Fibershed” by Rebecca Burgess
I just finished reading Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists and Makers for a New Fiber Economy. Reading this book was like reading a book I wish I had written – I am completely on board with the author’s concerns about our current clothing system and vision for a new one. I hope thisContinue reading “Review: “Fibershed” by Rebecca Burgess”
Our Bountiful Wild Harvest
At Cloverworks Farm, we raise lamb as an enterprise plus chicken and ducks for our own use. We also have some wild foods on the farm – you may recall that a few months ago, we were hastily picking a variety of berries. Now is the harvest time for our apples, crabapples and rosehips. WeContinue reading “Our Bountiful Wild Harvest”
Lamb Enterprise Calculator
I recently read a conversation on the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association listserv on the topic of calculating a profitable lamb production enterprise. Some producers hadn’t calculated their production costs, while others weren’t sure what market prices looked like. For our lamb enterprise, I calculated our cost of production and then did a bit ofContinue reading “Lamb Enterprise Calculator”
Berry Picking
Many days leave me feeling utterly spoiled. Even with a huge bruise on my leg from handling a lamb who didn’t want to be medicated and scratches on my arms from moving through rough brush, I feel like the most fortunate person alive. After a long day of work, I took a moment to walkContinue reading “Berry Picking”
Our BFL Yarn is Here
I am so happy with the BFL yarn that came back from Battenkill Fibers this year. In past years, our BFL clip has been too small for me to send it to a mill. Bluefaced Leicesters are bred to have light fleeces. In the UK, this was done with the idea of reducing the fleecyContinue reading “Our BFL Yarn is Here”