Lambs

There were 29 this spring and they were just as beautiful and unique as each living creature is and shall be. We have Donut, Danish, Jaime, Jiffy, Geraldine, Gatsby and Jasper left of the Valais Blacknose lambs. We are at just 6 left of the Shetlands, and just the little ewe lambs at that. They are Dorothy, Darlene, Persimmon, Frannie, Louella and Laney. All of the other lambs have moved to new and wonderful homes.

I will be bringing 5 or 6 lambs with me to the New York State Sheep + Wool Festival in October to share in the Breed Barn. If you haven’t seen Shetlands or Valais Blacknose sheep in person, you must come say hi to them when/if you go to Rhinebeck. They – are – exquisite! The Shetlands will be represented by Dorothy and Darlene, perhaps Frannie, and the Valais Blacknose will be represented by Jasper, Jiffy + Gatsby.

The Shetlands look out the back of the lambulance at Mt. Rushmore on our way across the US this summer

Across the Country and Back

You may or may not recall that last I wrote, I was about to embark on a pretty big road trip. I took to the open highway with my friend Ellen as copilot on July 1st. We had 3006 miles ahead of us to drive with three sheep in the back. It was much fun. We saw the sights, with mama Galaxy and her twins Galilea and Grace watching out the back window all along the way. We partook of our gracious hosts’ welcoming accommodations when we got to San Juan Island, the new home for the traveling Shetlands, and then we flew back home at the end! Yes, I left the Lambulance behind!

I had seen some car troubles on Day 3 of the adventure that had us pulled over for the day in Custer, South Dakota. We were so very thankful to the folks at the automotive shop which put the van up on the lift(with the sheep in the back) and fixed my transmission so I could complete the journey. Once we got to our destination, though, I wasn’t convinced my aging vehicle wanted to travel 3,006 miles back home. So, we sold the lambulance and hopped on a plane!

I was car-less for a bit this summer when I got back, but I combed the want-ads and found a replacement vehicle eventually and now Lambulance-2 is registered and ready for it’s life as a sheep-jeep/yarn-wagon. It’s not quite as posh inside, there are no side windows and it makes visibility a challenge, but it’s perfect for what I need it for and it has half as many miles on it as my Lambulance had. I’ve even put a tow-hitch on it, and have been practicing backing up with a trailer in the field. You’re never too old to learn how to tow, I figure, and it will sure make things easier if I can tow my farm’s products to events and keep the sheep in the back of the lambulance going forward. (Versus driving back and forth a few times or renting a larger vehicle.)

The Heat of Summer

I had more coyote-related losses this summer, and also an injured sheep from a coyote attack. This has created stress and sadness for me and my helpers. We have learned more lessons, as hard times will teach you what you didn’t want to know, and we have new protocols and plans for next summer.

For wool sheep, regulation of body temperature is correlated to wool length. Wool is an effective natural barrier against extreme weather conditions (heat or cold) due to its insulating properties. Next year we will shear some of the woolier, larger breeds at the end of June to help them stay more comfortable during the sizzle of July and August. We think that will go a long way towards keeping them healthier in the long run. I’m not as concerned about losing their fiber as a ‘crop’ since the ones I have earmarked for this are longwools and they grow more fiber anyway.

I do know that now that the temperatures have dropped, the flock is oh-so-much more animated and hungry. They are foraging more constantly and have silly behavior, wanting more attention than during the summer. It makes me happy to see them enjoying this season so heartily after they spent the summer looking for shade and conserving their energy. Shearing Day was last weekend and oh are they happy to have the wool off of them – fresh and full of vim and vigor.

Natural Dyeing + Dye Gardens:

I taught a workshop in Massachusets this summer and two weekend’s of Natural Dye Workshops here at the farm. I even taught my hostess on San Juan Island to dye using her garden’s flowers when I was delivering the sheep in July! We had a fun Indigo party with our farm’s help and family this summer, too, to celebrate comings and goings. I taught two virtual workshops this summer, also. One for the Atlanta, Georgia Knitter’s Guild and also a second for a 2-day workshop for the docents at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.

I really enjoy hosting Natural Dyeing Workshops here in August because the gardens are in full array and have much to give. The garden has been glorious and, there again, I must thank my helpers Raegan and Nora for helping me to stay on top of it this summer. We’ve been harvesting the flowers every day – a lot of Cosmos, Weld, Coreopsis, Indigo, Black Knight Scabiosa and Calendulas, Dyers’ Chamomile and Marigolds and Hopi Sunflowers. We’ve been foraging, too, and have put up Sumac, Buckthorn, Goldenrod, and Rhubarb every week. The little dehydrator has been going non-stop to keep the flowers drying for storage. The sun has been shining brightly on all of the flowers set out on screens to dry in the back yard. It’s so rewarding to hear the honeybees buzzing about on the blooms and to fill our baskets full of the color and fragrance of summer. My daughter Char put in endless hours of planting, supplementing the beds, digging and building beds, and weeding before heading off to school in Milwaukee this fall. She took over boosting the dye gardens around here a few years ago and it has paid off. I started with 12 small beds for dye plants back in 2014 and I’m up to 20 raised beds, now, in addition to a giant border of dye/perennial plants. It is a lot to care for alongside the flocks, but it is worth it.

Tallow and Sheep’s Milk Soaps from our farm kitchen

About Tallow Soap at Wing & A Prayer Farm:

Nora and I have been making soap this past month. Back at it, as most of the soap we’d made in the springtime had sold out. It is a good time of year to make soap as we can make a few pounds of it each day and it can sit overnight to harden, we cut it the next day or so, and it will have 4 weeks to cure before we start selling it in our fall markets. The dried flowers from the gardens make beautiful embellishments and the calendula oil that we’ve made gives most bars a beautiful, warm hue in addition to being so good for the skin. Making soap is a guilty pleasure – I just love making it and Nora picked it right up after I taught her two separate lessons. She and I are a soap-making team, now, and so, watch out! We’ve rendered all of the tallow that was in our freezers, which makes room in the freezers for the next harvest. Tallow seems to have made quite a comeback in the world of cosmetic products – I hadn’t realized it was so in vogue. Good for us! We’ve been using it all these years and we didn’t even know that we were being trendy! I’ve got a new product I’m testing and hope to have it for sale at our in-person events this fall.

Tallow is a by-product on our farm. The tallow we use is because if we have a sheep that has had to be put down, (not euthanized by the vet, but dispatched by the local butcher, here on the farm. Our animals never know any stress of having to truck somewhere to be put down, in a strange place, with strange animals around them). The butcher will take the body of the animal and process it at their butcher shop. We do not want to waste anything. The pelt gets salted and cured and tanned (this is a very sad, but cathartic experience for me, every single time.) The flesh and bones are turned into meals for nourishment of our bodies. There is very little waste. I simmer all of the bones for a healthy broth, and put it up to be able to feed ourselves in the healthiest way possible for the long winters. We canned 120 quarts of homemade broth this month! Eating healthily is an important part of caring for the farm. Healthy farmers means we can work more efficiently. The fat, or tallow, gets rendered/cleaned and then made into soap. If we do not have our own tallow, we purchase the tallow from our friends that raise Wagyu beef at a grassfed farm in nearby Greenwich, NY. They have a similar practice of having their animals live a very stress-free life and give them the best of care. And, there again, the tallow is a by-product and so using it in soaps is an excellent way to utilize its healing properties.

My work at Maggie Austin’s Workshop this summer in Alexandria, VA

Back-to-School!

I took a train to Alexandria, VA this past summer to attend a long-awaited-workshop with Maggie Austin. It was a weekend of firsts: First time to do something totally unrelated to the farm for over 20 years, first time to learn how to make sugar flowers, first time to take a long train ride, first time to visit Alexandria, VA…

I’m often teaching at the farm or at other venues, but rarely afforded the opportunity to be taught. What a treat, what a pleasure and an honor to be in Maggie’s + her family’s space while they flawlessly conducted the two-day class. I met lovely people from all over the country and learned a new skill. I will try to dabble in the art of sugar flowers if/when I have time as it is a beautiful expression and so soothing to practice. I loved it. There is so much to learn. Maggie’s niece made the most adorable little Valais Blacknose sugar-sheep, which I named “Juno”, (for my sheep, Juno!), and she was my workstation buddy all weekend. Perfect! I added her to my finished work photos and Maggie and her dad packed her into a box with my cake so she could go home to with me.

Another fantastic piece of the trip was that the timing was perfect to coincide with a recent bit of work I’d had this summer. I had given a two-session workshop to docents at the Renwick Gallery (a Smithsonian American Art Museum) to help support their work while a particular exhibit is being displayed. The exhibit is called “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime | Fiber Art by Women.” My role was to educate the docents about all things fiber, from sheep to shawl. The workshop with Maggie Austin was in such close proximity to the exhibit in Washington, D.C. that I was determined to try to take it in.

I took an extra morning to sneak in a visit and was so happy I did so. The Sheep and Wool season is about to take over my calendar and the exhibit was such a worthy way of showcasing fiber as a medium and the movement behind it. There were beautiful tapestries, quilts, terrestrial displays, rugs, and sculptures that had been designed and created by women, and in some cases their partners or families. The history and culture surrounding the artists and their work was especially thought-provoking. A thousands-of-years’-old ‘living’ medium, in the hands of women, making practical and powerful statements since time immemorial was elevated to a deserving level.

I’m grateful to Nora, Maggie, Raegan and Char for encouraging me and having my back while I practiced a little ‘self-care.’ Being a student again and surrounding myself for a brief getaway with creative and knowledgeable folk was exactly the antidote to some of the work fatigue I’d experienced over the last year. If you’re thinking of expanding your knowledge, dabbling in something you’ve long been curious about, or jumping into a whole new discipline, I hope you will be able to make it happen. There were numerous odds against me leaving the farm and splurging on such an adventure, but I’m so glad I did.

Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum’s “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women”

Come Follow Follow Follow - leading the lambs to pasture independently

Sheep, Sheep!

That’s what I sing to the sheep when I’m calling them in. Some of them listen, some don’t! It’s just sing-songy enough that they can differentiate it from normal conversation and calls, but not too complicated that I can’t sustain it when I’m trying to get their attention and move them from paddock to paddock. I’ve taught the little lambs the round, “Come Follow, follow, follow” and they perk right up when I start singing it. It’s adorable.

This past summer, when we were trying to move the weaned mamas to the pasture with Gen Pop this past month, oh it was a silly time. The mamas followed us, sort of, and Nessie, my Border Collie, chose NOT to participate that particular time. When I tried getting the dams into the pasture with the other sheep, the other sheep (led by our llama, Sky) decided to exit. All heck had broken loose.

Several hours later, all of the sheep were returned to the fence and the last three non-compliants were chauferred by Raegan and Nora and me in the back of the lambulance. Those gals had to be scooped up and popped into the back of the van and then driven to their new pasture. We then carried them to the pasture to be with the others, shutting the gate and wiping our brows.

The rest of weaning was quite uneventful. The ma’ams had little recognition that only a day prior they’d had lambs nursing from/with them and they set off to graze and socialize with their friends with barely a glance over their shoulders.

The lambs were also relaxed about the move. Part of the success, I believe, is that we’d had torrential downpours for about 12 hours and I’d kept the lambs in the barn, with fans blowing colder air into their stall. I believe it diffused the sounds of their ma’ams calls, off in the far pastures, that sometimes instigates a ‘call and response.’ Very little baahing later, I was able to turn the lambs out into their own little lamb paddocks for grazing during the day, and that was that. Weaning 2024 had happened.

The lambs are growing well, flourishing now that they are not in competition for food/forage with the larger ewes(who will always get the most and the first of all of the food). It’s also delightful to watch their personalities develop in the absence of their protective or bossy ma’ams.

Isleburgh Toorie as designed by Anne Doull in our flock’s Shetland wool

Into Autumn:

And now I am about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime, as if this summer was not adventure enough! I’m heading to Shetland for Shetland Wool Week in 2 days! I will be teaching a couple of classes while there and look forward to the flora, the fauna, the rich heritage of wool growing on this beautiful and remote island. Can’t wait to catch you up when I return!

Summer '24, In Summary