Category: Blog

Chicken Report

denisemor 0 June 12, 2016

The not-so-baby chickens moved into the pasture a couple of weeks ago.

They are acclimating ok, but as expected, the old grumpy chickens are not being especially welcoming.

The two chicken populations are mostly keeping to themselves, but occasionally they cross paths and much fussing and squawking ensues.

And,,, it’s kind of looking like we might have a couple or three roosters in the bunch.
Here are the candidates-

Bertrand

Stumpy

and Mr. Speckles (because he didn’t have a name and he’s a Speckled Sussex) 🙂

Was hoping I could capture a little bit of the crowing and posturing going on out there, but everybody was pretty cooled out this evening.
Here is a little impromptu footage from the pasture.

Also started reading another sheep-keeping memoir this week

I’m not very far in yet, but it looks promising.
I have a little bit of stay-cation coming up in a week, so maybe I’ll just save it for then!

Hot Hot Hot

denisemor 0 June 5, 2016June 5, 2016

Best to stay in the shade

and munch apple branches.

Or hide in the house and play with wool.

You might remember that I kind of have a thing for Zauberball.
Zauberball makes great socks. But it also makes awesome cowls.
I give you…….ZauberCowls. 🙂

Fun, eh?

Also been trying out a new hat pattern- Honegart by Stephen West

I’ve always liked earflap hats, and this one is nice and thick and squishy with the garter stitch and the honeycomb cabling.
Gotta be ready for when those cooler days come back around!

Haircuts and Hoof Trims

denisemor 0 May 22, 2016

I got lucky and caught everyone in the shed Saturday morning, so it seemed like a good time to get everyone tidied up.

Edgar, Felix, and Chone finally got their rear ends sheared- so they look a little more respectable now.

We tried to trim off part of Felix’s horn that is growing down right next to his eye, but it proved a challenge keeping his head still long enough to get it done, so we’ll have to revisit that at some point later.

The only one who didn’t need any fussing was little Dottie. She’s got a fresh haircut from the end of March, and her hooves looked great.

Got a little bit of wool-work done this weekend too-

I still only have one bobbin for Sigrid, my antique Norwegian (Swedish?) wheel, but I’ve come up with a pretty slick way to wind off singles for plying on my Lateral treadle wheel. More on that next week!

New Girl in the Pasture

denisemor 2 May 15, 2016

And she’s not a chicken!

We are all still feeling the loss of Griff.
But there is is a lot of grass out there to eat, and an opportunity presented itself to add another player to the roster.

So I jumped on it.

(Sorry this photo is through the fence, but it’s the best one I have so far of her flashy facial markings.)

Her name was Wynette, and she’s a Gotland/Finn/Shetland cross from Schoonover Farm. Born last spring.
I wasn’t looking for a ewe, but she has a lovely fleece, and is very sweet and friendly.

In fact, I had already spun up some of her fleece, as it was the one I brought home from their shearing at the end of March!

I was originally thinking that I would keep her name, as she’s had it for a year.
But it doesn’t roll off my tongue very easily, and I thought it would be fun to keep the baseball theme going.

So I’ve decided to call her Dottie, for Dottie Hinson from “A League of Their Own”.

So happy to have her on the team!