Our fleeces did really well at the California National Wool Show at the Mendocino County Fair last weekend. I entered 12 fleeces from our Romney, Corriedale and Cormo/Corriedale sheep and every fleece won a first, second or third. Brownie’s fleece got Supreme Grand Champion handspinner fleece, and Judge’s choice handspinner fleece. Judging from how Brownie …
Our fleeces did really well yesterday at the wool judging at the Monterey County Fair! Dale, our awesome Corriedale ram, took first place in the Corriedale class, and won Reserve Champion in the Breed division, competing against the first-place of all the breeds. In the Romney class, Sky King’s and Blossom’s lovely charcoal-grey fleeces took …
After giving away my dairy equipment last month, I was eager to set up the newly vacated milk room in my creamery as a dye lab! I got together a table, some hot plates, big pots for mordanting and dyeing the wool, cleaned out the milk room, and was eager to get started. Melinda is …
I gave away my whole milking setup this week! It went to a wonderful part-Basque family from Wilton, south of Sacramento. I met them when 13-year-old Mati sent me an email inquiring about buying dairy ewe lambs to start a backyard dairy. I talked with Mati’s mom, Carmen, and after hearing more about their family …
We’ve had a very unusual May. Usually May is our little bit of summer–the spring winds have died down, the pastures are still green and full of wildflowers, and we have sunny days and lovely long evenings that make me nostalgic for the summers of my childhood, in New York and visiting my cousins in …
Lambing is almost over, and I’ve hardly had a minute to write a blog post this year! We began on February 13, and have had no lambs born for the past two weeks, but we have 5 ewes holding out. We expect them to lamb in the next week or two. My friend Annie is …
Yesterday was one of our miserably windy March days, with gusts so strong anything not nailed down was flying away. It was also a sad day because it was time for my cousin Linda to return to Idaho. After we said goodbye to Linda our minds were taken off it all by a little lamb-storm. …
