Tag Archives: Farm

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Montpelier Fiber Festival (Sort of)

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Caroline called me up Sunday morning and invited me to the local(ish) fiber festival that was taking place this weekend.  I had been on the fence about going since we’d done Old Farm Day on Saturday and I really didn’t have the cash to be going to a FIBER festival, but I scraped together what I could and we went for it!  Besides, how can you say no to Caroline?  I love hanging with her.

The weather was very fall – like: overcast and chilly.  Perfect for looking at all things wool.

We watched the sheepdog trials for a bit and hit the sheep tent.  We both got plenty of photos of the animals in there, and then promptly forgot we had cameras.  When you’re focused on wool, well.

We made a point to check in on our friend Anna at her vendor station.  I wish I had gotten some pics there, but you’ll simply have to take my word for it that she has beautiful pottery and woven things.  In fact, I’ve linked her website to her name.  Check it out, y’all (she’s the one that did the awesome Juniper Moon Farm mugs and yarn bowls).

Caroline picked out some lovely hand – dyed yarn from Knitting Notions (who I am thrilled has an online store, so I can order from them in the future), and I got some sportweight Superfine Alpaca (actually I bought one hank & Caroline bought me the other – how awesome is she?)  from Delly’s Delights.  I’ll be going back to them again as well.

I really had a great time with Caroline.  I am hoping like mad I can snag her and take her to Rhinebeck next year.  I can’t think of a better travel companion for such an adventure (though all of you Rhinebeck buddies from last year certainly come to mind as well!!)

Anyway, enjoy the only two decent photos I managed to get from the day.  One of an Icelandic who was too hilariously like Feenat to pass up and a Cottswald that looked a lot like Ernie.

Enjoy!

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Old Farm Day

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Our very rural county does not have a county fair.  We barely have a supermarket.  Very little excitement happens here (unless you count the various animal escapes or occasional tornadoes and forest fires).  However, the first Saturday of every October we have our county fair equivalent: Old Farm Day.

The basic idea is a showcasing of livestock and antique farm equipment from local farms.  But that’s not all.  There’s the local orchard making open kettle apple butter all day.  Pulled pork barbeque and kettle corn.  Square dancing and bluegrass.  Draft horse plowing demonstrations, animal sound contests, beekeepers with honey and mechanical bull riding.  And tractors on display.  Lots and lots of old tractors.

This year we met up with Zac and Caroline for their first Old Farm Day.  They seemed to enjoy it as much as we do.

I will say that there seemed to be less animals this year, and there was no one doing any spinning or basket weaving demonstrations.  Otherwise it was quite lovely, and I would have stayed until the bitter end had we not had things to do back home, and small children hanging off us and asking to buy everything in sight.

LOVE this old chicken coop!

11 Ton steam engine built in 1921 to power plows or mill machinery.

The location is beautiful – it’s one of the oldest former plantations in the county.

Waiting for the kids’ “Tater Hunt” to begin.

“How can we get this thing home without anyone noticing???”

Neve & Oona’s “Tater” haul.  You get to keep what your kid grabs out of the ground!

That’s a “Large” size kettle corn.  Paul might have bought an extra – large, had they offered it.

Oona and Neve each lasted (barely) 10 seconds on the mechanical bull this year.

We left happy and satisfied with our Old Farm Day experience, and look forward to next year!

PS – plan your 2012  Juniper Moon Farm Farm-Stay experience accordingly!

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Cute Place Holder

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I’ve been feeling increasingly crummy the past few days and woke up today with a full – blown head cold.  So although there is stuff going on (pies! knitting! school!) I am too tired to upload pics and share just yet.

For now, enjoy these sweet pictures I took last week at the farm of Caroline and one of my new babies (I’m pretty sure it’s Adelaide – she’s a tad curlier than Sophie.  Or it may be the other way around.  I’ll have to ask Caroline what I decided. My brain’s toast).

Also – how awesome is that hand-knit sweater vest she’s wearing?  She’s mad talented. 

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An Apple A Day

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After our yearly apple – picking outing yesterday we should certainly have an apple a day for quite awhile!

Although we try to make it out to pick every fruit of the season – cherries, strawberries, peaches – our favorite “not to be missed” fruit to pick is apples.  It’s something to do with the changing of the leaves and the weather and how we look forward to months of apple pies, apple sauce, apple butter and more.

This weekend was perfect because there was a definite chill in the air and it was over cast – very fall – like.

Three types of apples were ready to pick: Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious.  I’ll admit – none of these are my favorite.  But, I’ll head back in a few weeks when the Winesaps are ready and pick my own little stash.

The orchard was pretty crowded and the air was full of the scent of fresh cider donuts and the sound of apples falling to the ground.  There were lots of fallen apples.

I know the people that run the orchard go through and collect these later for some use (cider?  dunno) but seeing them all there made me wish I could collect a bunch to take to my goats and llama – they love apples!  I also imagine that the pigs over at Juniper Moon Farm would be equally happy to have them.

The orchard we go to every year is on a mountain – top and the views are stunning.  Of course, the day we went was overcast so it had less of the wow – factor.

Oona and Neve wanted to bite into those apples right now but we made them wait until we could go home and wash them.

And of course we went for the donuts – you can’t not get some after smelling them the whole while.

I love the country store there – and I wish my larder looked like this!

The pumpkins were also sorely tempting but we decided it’s still a bit early to be bringing those home.

At the end of our trip we had over 60 lbs of apples to lug home.  I brought a big big over to Caroline and Zac at the farm, but when I got back home and saw just how much was still left I kind of wished I had given them more.  I’ll be spending the next week making every apple concoction you can imagine.  And I assure you we’ll be eating apple sauce all through the cold days of winter.

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Meet the New Babies!!!

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I got a late birthday surprise (it was yesterday) when Caroline called me this morning to say that Milkshakes had her babies this morning!

We now have two little Angora – cross doelings! We’ve decided to give them the names that Milkshakes’ last litter would have had if they hadn’t been boys.  So without further ado, meet Sophie and Adelaide!

I can’t even tell you how smitten I am with these little girls.  They look SO much like their papa!  I can’t believe how curly they are.

Look at those big airplane ears!

Couldn’t you just nuzzle and kiss that little mouth???

Milkshakes is a great mommy and you couldn’t ask for better shepherds to care for the little family than Zac & Caroline.

This is the BEST belated birthday gift ever!

Edited to add: Watch them on Lambcam!

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Nanny Milkshakes

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Last fall we decided not to breed Milkshakes again since we were running out of space.

Then, early this year we moved all of our big animals over to Juniper Moon Farm to stay while we tried to figure out how on earth we were going to keep managing our livestock.

That’s how Milkshakes met Jack.

Jack is the resident Angora buck at JMF.  And sometime this past spring, well.  You know.

My sweet little Nanny goat is looking rather large.  We’re going to start keeping a good eye on her now because we don’t know exactly when she was bred but by all guesses she should be having babies around the end of this month, if not sooner.

Fall babies will be very cute, and they should be all sproingy by Fall Shearing.  There’s not a lot cuter in this world than lambs and goat kids sproinging.

I’m excited to be growing my flock (though honestly I’d rather be growing myself a sheep flock), and I am hoping that we get girls this time around.  I’m not holding my breath; this spring all of Jack’s babies at JMF turned out to be boys.

Fingers are crossed anyway.

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Chicken World

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This post is WAY overdue.  My only excuse is that I was in Boston visiting my wonderful friend Jenny and when I got back I had a new computer waiting for me to learn.  It’s a Macbook and I am used to using a PC.  And I am a techno-dummy so the adjustment period will be longer for me than most!

We really are feeling an awful lot like chicken world these days.  As of this morning we’ve had 12 hatchlings.

It all started last week with Puffy Fluffy:

I wasn’t too sure we’d get more than 2 or 3 hatches out of the 15 or so that our broody hen, Amelie, was sitting on.  In our experience, the hen would get sick of sitting on those eggs after the second or third and then abandon the half – baked eggs still in the nest.

Amelie, though, has proved herself to be made for broodiness and motherhood.  She’s stuck it out almost to the bitter end.

Emily has named them all (with the exception of Puffy Fluffy) after characters in the Hunger Games trilogy and the Harry Potter series.  So please welcome Prim, Clove, Fleur, Twill, Madge, Wiress, Tonks, Bonnie, Effie,  Ginny and Minerva.

There are at least 2 chicks that are a cross of Sicilian Buttercup and Buff Brahma. (Funky weird comb plus fluffy feet equals awesome).

I am only sad that we didn’t have any blue eggs to hatch this time or eggs from our funny “hatted” chicken, Delia:

Next spring?

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Butternuts & Baby Chicks

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We have been thoroughly enjoying the last two days here.  A cold front has apparently pushed through because it’s been in the lower 80’s with low humidity.  Just gorgeous!  If this was what summer was like here I’d have no cause for complaint.  It does make me wish we lived back up in New England but then we’d be complaining about the bitter cold all winter, so yeah.

We have had some sad moments – two of our new chickens, Squeak and Arwen (both gotten this past spring as babies) were taken by a fox two days ago.  I saw the fox from inside the house and ran outside screaming and clapping my hands and managed to scare it off, but it (or an accomplice) had already gotten two of our girls.  There was a trail of Arwen’s feathers off into the woods and no sign of Squeak.  It’s very sad and frustrating, but we are determined to build them a Fort Knox style enclosure soon – one that they can’t fly (or climb, as those dummies have been doing) out of, because there will be a roof.  If we had 4 or 5 dozen chickens then missing a few here and there wouldn’t be so bad.  But we have just about 2 dozen.  Enough that it’s noticeable.

However, at least one industrious hen is looking to help out in that regard.

Our Blue Copper Marans Hen, Amelie, has gone broody.

She’s sitting on a small cache of 7 eggs, hopefully all of which are fertilized.  I’m still counting down the weeks (maybe months) until our 3 remaining Ameraucanas (Arwen was the 4th)  start laying their blue eggs.  It will be nice to have those again.

I am also counting down until I can harvest the butternut squash, which is going gangbusters right now.  I spied a few squash beetles that I am going to have to deal with and I hope all the squash can mature before the bugs get the better of them.

The Jack Be Little pumpkins are starting to deepen in hue and I am seeing the beginnings of my Acorn squash, yellow crookneck and sugar pie pumpkins.  There’s also the start of some Blue of Hungaria pumpkins.

My Sugar Baby watermelon vines are looking fantastic but so far there’s been no flowering.  Hopefully it will happen soon!

All of the seeds I planted this year came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I’m excited to be growing these rare-ish old – fashioned, non GMO seeds.  The selections were beautiful and interesting to look at.  I’m looking forward to when I can have a much larger garden and grow more than enough for us.  My summers will undoubtedly be slammed with canning at that point, but come January, it will be worth it.  Hopefully this winter we’ll still be enjoying the slow roasted tomatoes from this summer.  If they ever ripen.

No, I’m not impatient.  Not one bit.

Nope, not at all.

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Staying Productive

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As I mentioned last time, the kids are away this week and so the pressure is on to get things done before they get back.  It’s actually more difficult than I would have thought, because with no one needing me every ten seconds I can lose myself in things for a lot longer than I probably should and before I know it I’ve spent far too long reading rather than cleaning.

It’s okay.  Relaxation is good for me, too.

Yesterday I spent the day with Susan and Caroline over at the farm working on sewing projects.  We had all been lusting after a dress made with  this pattern, and it just so happened that I have it.  We played with fabrics and zippers and sewing machines and in the end managed to finish a skirt from this Amy Butler pattern.  We’re not necessarily the most productive team when we’re having too much fun enjoying each others’ company.  But it was just what I needed to break up a week of sequestering myself for the purpose of house cleansing.  Being around the animals and hearing the sweet “baaahs” and “maaahs” is wonderfully rejuvenating.

And now, on to the BIG news.

I will be shortly giving away 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden RIGHT HERE to one lucky reader.

Details to come!!!!!!

Gratuitous Wren picture.  Lord, I love that lamb!

 

 

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Scary Night at the Farm

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I went out this evening to check for eggs in the front coop.  And got quite a scare.

Here I was thinking the only danger facing me was our surly one – eyed rooster, Roobert.  And yes, he pecked at me quite a bit.  But still I sauntered quite casually into the coop and was greeted by a horrifying site.  Something no poultry farmer wants to see, but inevitably will some day.

A big black snake.

Thankfully Paul was home to help, because I froze up.  I hated killing the thing, because Black Snakes are not poisonous and are good rodent control, but there was no way to get him out of there without endangering my flock, and now that he knew where the egg buffet was, he’d be sure to return.

In fact, you can see the egg yolks that oozed out of him when Paul got him with the pitchfork.  No eggs for us today.

The other scary bit is that this guy was only 3 or 4 feet long, and presented quite a challenge to kill.  Anything larger (or venomous) would be a much riskier proposition.

I might be going to the coops with a shotgun for awhile.

Just sayin’.