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”
Category Archives: open-source shepherd
How Haying Works
By request, here’s a basic primer on how haying works! First, some definitions: Hay is grass and grass stems that animals eat. It’s cut from fields that could also serve as pasture. Correctly made, hay provides most or all of the nutrients an animal needs to survive the winter. The best hay is greenish inContinue reading “How Haying Works”
Summer Arrives
Summer arrives to find the bobolinks have fledged from our neighbor’s hayfield. Three streaky brown birds making little plink calls were flitting and bouncing around the pasture I set up for the sheep. I’m grateful for the opportunity to provide habitat to this struggling species. We are so close to weaning time. I know the ewesContinue reading “Summer Arrives”
Bringing Home the Bacon
Matt had a hard task ahead of him: Ten hours of labor taking the front of the tractor off, replacing a $12 gasket, then ten hours of labor putting the gasket back on. I thought that the best way to thank Matt for a really grungy, fiddly job would be to finally make a bigContinue reading “Bringing Home the Bacon”
The Reality of Yarn
Don’t get me wrong. Playing with yarn gives me great joy. I love the texture, the sheepy scent, the slight dust of it. I love the whole sensory experience and I am always happy to have more yarn. This year, instead of having our yarn made into pre-measured skeins at the mill, we elected toContinue reading “The Reality of Yarn”
Making a Few Changes
I’ve had a long-term struggle with this website and blog that I am finally ready to talk about. There is a conflict between my efforts to sell yarn and my efforts to sell meat. It seems like the folks who are here to see the sheep and the yarn aren’t always keen on meat, andContinue reading “Making a Few Changes”
An Ice Storm
Last night, we could hear the logging trucks trying to drag their loads up the temporary road. At the top if the hill, the skidder helped pull the truck onto the ice-covered road using its chained tires. The logging job is almost done, but our logger is scrambling to get the crop off the fieldContinue reading “An Ice Storm”
The Snow Came
Did you wake up today, look outside, and then decide to say in? Or was it time to go to work anyway? On the farm, it’s time to go to work anyway. After all, the sheep are already up, working hard at growing beautiful lambs, so the least I can do is put on someContinue reading “The Snow Came”
We Went to Rhinebeck
This post should have been part of a series of posts where we prepare for Rhinebeck, talk about our journey getting our stock together, and then go. I didn’t get that done. Picture me weighing and packaging just-finished roving from the flock the night before I left, because that’s about the pace things were taking.Continue reading “We Went to Rhinebeck”
Going to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival
It is that time of year again! We are headed to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, where we have 350 skeins of Border Leicester yarn to sell along with many other fiber goodies. For starters, both my Northern Borders and Derby Line yarns have been selling well. Even though the Montpelier Farmer’s Market isn’tContinue reading “Going to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival”