On Manure, Mutton, and Roquefort

Now that's quite a title, isn't it? I'm sure to lose readers with that one..... Stay with me though - you'll see how it all makes sense.

Lambs love to climb on anything they can find. Their only choices at our place are on top of a bale of hay or on top of "ye olde manure pile." They don't care that it is manure - for them it is entertainment to the ninth degree. The manure is composting right now and will be spread on our fields and garden next year for soil enrichment.


One of my very most favorite things in the world is Roquefort cheese which is made in France from sheep's milk. It is very expensive and rather hard to find around here. But about once a year, usually around my birthday, I treat myself to some really good Rouquefort. Seems like I'm not going to be able to do that anymore because the US Government has raised the tariff on real Roquefort by 300%. You can read about it here. I have yet to find a domestic blue that has that exact taste.....

More foodie/sheepie news..... It seems that mutton is all the rage in Paris. In the States, the market for mutton is changing with the influx of immigrants from the Middle East who actually prefer mutton to lamb. At our local livestock auction, older sheep have been selling for a decent price due to this change in the demographics. This isn't to say these mutton sheep are old and worn-out - the better mutton is from a sheep that has reached full size and is only a few years old - not little lamb size. We here at our farm actually prefer mutton - it has a much nicer flavor and you actually can taste what you are eating.

Is anyone else enjoying Mark Bittman and Mario Batali's Spanish food adventure being shown on PBS now? It's on every Friday night here and it is quite a hoot.

If you are here for the fiber and yarns, you'll enjoy this. I'll be at Webs teaching classes tomorrow - there is still a bit of room if you want to spend some fun time learning with me and you are relatively local. Call them. Info on sidebar.

Further Lambing Adventures

Lambing is continuing but not at quite as rapid a pace as in January. Wednesday morning, I found this little teeny lamb covered with afterbirth beside a yearling ewe. The lamb was already up on its feet. Although the new mama looked quite bewildered, she seemed to realize that something important had happened in her life. She was in the process of cleaning the lamb although by no means had she done as good a job as some of the seasoned mamas.


The Farmer arrived a few minutes later and after feeding his crew of 5 bottle lambs, we started the task of trying to pen up the new mama with her baby. Most good mamas will follow their babies if you keep it right in front of them so they can see and smell the lamb. Yesterday there was a bit of confusion with the mama taking off into the sea of sheep. The poor little baby was crying "maaaah, maaaah."


From amongst the sea of sheep, the mama answered "baaaah, baaaah". That was good news because at least she knew she had something important to attend to. The Farmer would slowly walk the baby up to the new mama, have her take a look and then slowly walk backwards, in the hopes that she would follow. There were several false starts.

Finally, the mama started to catch on and walked across the barn, still quite confused as to what she should do and where that foreign object she knew she was supposed to be interested in went. The Farmer placed the lamb inside the makeshift pen. There it lay – “maaaahing” away, hoping its mama would join it.


Again, a bit more waiting – patience is a virtue in sheep farming. Finally, the mama deemed it safe to get close to the lamb. That’s her up on the right side of the photo above.

The Farmer quickly pulled the fencing to the wall. We left them to bond. The Farmer continued to check on them during the day and both mama and lamb seemed to be adapting to life with each other. The lamb was nursing.


I brought Julia and her friend Casey who is animal crazy down to the barn for a little look-see at the new lamb. The mama was settling in but still a bit skittish. I know I had that feeling the first days Julia was home with me after getting out of the hospital.

Sad news just in…..
12 Noon
The Farmer just walked in the door to tell me that he found the new little lamb dead this morning. Oh, it is heart-breaking living on a farm. He doesn’t know what happened but can only assume that the lamb didn’t get enough milk from the mama to make it. Let’s hope that next year, this mama will do better. She will be larger and hopefully have a larger lamb.

No matter how many sheep you have, it still hurts in your heart to lose one…..

In My Face He Is

Eeyore, our donkey, continues to amuse us. We got him to act as a "guard donkey" which he has done reasonably well at (except for last fall when - I think - a pack of coyotes distracted him while the rest of the coyote pack killed lambs and full-grown sheep during a wickedly awful few weeks). Knock on wood, the coyotes haven't been killing lately - I'm hoping they will stay away for a while.

We know Eeyore hates canines. A couple weeks ago, The Farmer took Nessie, our younger Border Collie, down to visit the sheep. It was a big mistake - between the Mamas stamping and Eeyore charging, it was more than bedlam - noone would put up with her and she came back to our farmhouse very dejected. She really misses her flock in the winter when she can't move them around. Chickens and baby lambs aren't quite it for her - she likes to move the masses.

Here's Eeyore yucking it up for the camera. He's quite the personality......


Check this out. And this too! If you are into color, you'll love it. Beautiful Colorful Work Kar and Lucy.

Brown Sheep, Brown Sheep

I love this profile of Cora I took one evening. The other brown sheep just behind her doesn't have a name but she's another one of my favorite mamas. She never runs away when I'm taking a photo of her. They almost resemble horses leaving the starting gate, don't they?

The mayhem of January lambing has passed and the lambs are growing like crazy. Late in the month, this brown ewe had a lovely set of black lambs. They are both girls and we'll be keeping them for replacement ewes. They are so sweet with their blazes on their faces.

How do you get a black lamb, you may wonder? There are no guarantees when breeding for color. We have several black ewes but they don't always have black babies. A couple years ago, we used a black ram and we had lots of black babies - many spotted and looking a lot like Holstein cows. He had a foot rot problem though as did many of his progeny so we chose to not use him for breeding anymore.

This year we used only white rams and so most of the babies are white or touched with brown and black on their ears and legs. It makes these 3 little lambs more special with their beautiful markings.


Black lambs don't stay black for long. The sun fades their coats and they start looking brown. As the sheep ages, their coat is mostly grey although the outside of the coat always looks brown because of the sun bleaching the fibers. Some stay black or dark longer than others - just like people's hair.

The title of my post couldn't help but remind me of the great children's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. We don't live far from The Eric Carle Museum in Amherst and so over February school vacation Julia and I visited it a couple times. What a great place to take children of all ages. The galleries are manageable in size and keep kids attention while also being interesting for adults. There is an art room where there are alway special art activities for children and their grown-ups.

It is the 40th Anniversary of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and Eric Carle's 80th Birthday year. Wow! In one of the galleries, they have displayed the original artwork from that great book along with early prototypes before "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" became "TVHC." It is fascinating to see the progression of that famous book and learn about its development. There is a great video produced by a Rawn Fulton, a local film-maker that is also shown in the main gallery. I highly suggest a visit if you are nearby.

Wouldn't it be a great idea for a children's library to throw The Very Hungry Caterpillar a party? I'll have to suggest it to our local library......

Upcoming Classes and Knitting Sanity

First off - I'll be at Webs teaching two classes this Saturday - February 28th. Would love to see some of you. There are spots available in both the Edgings Class and the Creative Embroidery Class. I'm not sure how you register but a phone call is what I would do. You can find a link on my sidebar for Webs.

I'm getting down to the wire on my new book which is coming out in November 2009. I've got to spend this week making more swatches for photography, reading copy and doing whatever else turns up - there's always a surprise in my in-box. I am really excted about this book and I hope to preview it to all of you the closer it gets to publication. If you are at Webs this weekend in one of my classes, I promise a few sneak peeks into what my new book is all about!


Podcasts help me out during these knitting crunches. I've been to my local library to download a mess of them. I especially enjoy Jennifer's interveiws at Craft Sanity and Guido's at It's a Purl Man. Have you checked them out yet? I'd like to hear if there are other podcasts out there that you enjoy..... Leave me a note in the comments if you can or send an e-mail.

Frankly, the podcast thing is rather frustrating for me. I know it is out there - along with t.v. shows you can get over the internet and the entire world of YouTube. I spent some days at my sister's house in eastern Mass earlier last week and a friend of my niece's was totally stunned that we didn't have high speed internet service. She thought everyone in the USA did.... She couldn't fathom how we could live without it. She wondered how Julia would get through school reports without it as she gets older.

Verizon (our phone company) did come through western Massachusetts and with government money upgraded the small hilltowns to DSL service. The really frustrating part of it was they didn't get to many homes. They made such a big deal about it - that they were helping all the communities out here. Truth be told, very little of the population has been served. We are too far from their box (we are 1.9 miles) and I am giving up hope of ever getting high speed internet service unless I go for satellite and my neighbors have nothing but trouble with it. It is frustrating and challenging. I'm even thinking of writing my State Senator. Never done that before - always a first time for everything.

Thank goodness the library I visit has DSL and I have a laptop now. Honestly, this dial-up is the reason I don't answer comments or comment on anyone else's blog, much less read many of them. It's sad but true - I know there is so much out there on the web but I just don't have the patience to sit and wait for pages to load nor do I have the time to. I could be sitting at a screen all day and night and I really don't want to do that. I do have a life that needs to be lived. Does anyone else share this frustration or are my hilltown neighbors and I the only ones?

A postcard of my swatch board shown above is available in the Shop on my website. Oh - and thanks to all of you who have been ordering from me recently - my family and I appreciate it.

The Boys

The longer I am around sheep, the more I realize that they are a bit like humans. Here are "the boys" - better known as our rams. They are the dads of all the sheep and you can see them on the left side of the photo back by Eeyore, the donkey. There are two Romney crosses, and a Border Leicester. We also have a few more rams that aren't in the photo.


See how they stand around and eat and eat and eat. I suppose they feel a bit useless at this point in the year. Besides eating, they can't do much that is useful - they can't feed the baby lambs. The lambs have no relationship with the rams at all - they are just around. It struck me that the scene was similar to some families when the women are in the kitchen - cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, taking care of the kids and the men are sitting around the t.v. watching a football game.

Rams can be nasty. We once had a ram named Zeno who would charge us from across the field. I always had to be aware of his whereabouts - otherwise I would end up on my back unexpectedly. I never walked into the field when he was around without some kind of large stick to protect myself with.

One day, my brother-in-law David was taking care of the sheep when The Farmer was away. He knew about this ram - everyone did. David has a prosthesis on one of his lower legs due to an accident. He thought he would have a little fun with the ram. When Zeno came charging, David stuck out his fake leg and the ram butted it. The ram was stunned - he couldn't figure out what he hit that was hard. He backed up and butted him again harder. Poor guy, it must have hurt his head knocking into that hard piece of plastic. He never tangled with David again.

We didn't keep Zeno much longer - he was just too dangerous to have around. Off he went to the slaughterhouse and became ground meat. We enjoyed him more as that than when he was always after us, trying to knock us down.

Cora, Jackson, Julia, and Winter

Cora's lamb is growing like crazy. She must have a massive amount of milk -- he's one of the biggest lambs we have.

Here's the scene late one winter afternoon. I love the look of all these neutral colors - the sheep, the hay, the manure, and Jeremy the llama. That's Cora and Jackson right out front. See how big he is! He still has his tail because we don't remove the tails on the ram lambs unless we plan to use them for breeding stock. You can read about how we remove the tails here.


Inside the barn, Julia was goofing with a brand new little lamb. The hat she is wearing is one I am working on a pattern for which will be for sale on my website - soon - I hope!


Later in the afternoon the sun was getting low and making beautiful shadows on the ride home.

Enjoy this late winter weekend.

They're Outside

The "house lambs" have adjusted to the great outdoors although they still wish they were living inside. They wake up pretty early and have discovered how to get out of their fenced in area. They wait at the back door and baaaaaa like nothing you have ever heard. It's a different king of alarm clock - baaaahhhhh-ing lambs instead of the cheep, cheep, cheep of the digital one that sits beside the bed. They all fight for who is going to eat first.

Last night they survived their first snowstorm snug in the "calf hutch" we have for just such animal emergency occassions. I'll try to get some snaps of them in the snow although it doesn't look like it is going to last long.


Phoebe is still watching them although now she has to brave the elements. Surely not as much fun for her.

Last Day

I took these photos a couple weeks ago, the day before our "house lambs" were being moved to the great outdoors. As you can see, the lambs were full-time entertainment for Phoebe and Nessie.

We kept putting the lambs' move to the great outdoors off because it was so wickedly cold. We were worried they would expire from the shock. Finally it warmed up and the time was right. And besides, I thought it would be nice to have friends over for dinner. Dinner guests hadn't been possible for a few weeks due to the state of the place. The date was set and out they went but not before I took these really cute photos.

Phoebe is still bummed about the lack of farm animals in her house.

On this photo, can you see the littlest lamb under the hutch.


What about the one little leg wrapped around the front sheep on the right. Aww.


It took me a good day and lots of scrubbing but the kitchen and the bathroom are sheep poop free. Ahhh, the joys of living on a farm.

Naptime

Arrived at the barn yesterday to find everything so quiet. Slowly, the little guys woke up and started scurrying around.

Bet you didn't know that little lambs take naps just like children do. Of course there's that little one in the middle who refuses to nap - just like my little Julia did.

Love for You

Here's someone who loves The Farmer.... This little bottle lamb follows him around like a puppy. He is her mother.

Here's some Lamb Love for Valentine's Day.


And don't forget the Knitting Love. Here's a heart in progress.

Enjoy the love.

Are You a Biscotti Hottie? a.k.a. Good Books for Kids

Reading plays a big part in our household. It seems that at least one of the three of us has a nose in a newspaper, book or magazine at any moment. (We are all very worried about the so-called death of print. We prefer holding things......) We all read before falling asleep in bed - even if it is only a few pages. I'm always on the look out for good books for Julia to read - those that I enjoy the message from and ones which I think she will enjoy just as much. Here's a few we have stumbled upon lately that you might want to check into for your kids.

Holly Hobbie's Fanny

Holly Hobbie has had an incredible career as an illustrator and a children’s book writer. How she does it amazes me. She lives in the Pioneer Valley (where we also live) and Julia and I have met her at book signings at our LBS World Eye Bookshop. She is as wonderful as her children's books (most recently the long running series Toot and Puddle about two adorable pigs).

Her new book Fanny (I’m guessing it will also become a series) is about a little girl who desperately wants a “Connie” doll and her mom says “no.” Instead of weeping in her cereal, Fanny pulls out the resourcefulness within her and actually sews her own little doll. To say the lesson is lovely is an understatement. For any of you moms and grandmoms (or anyone who likes to make things and is looking for a book for a little girl), I would check this one out.

Linda Urban’s A Crooked Kind of Perfect

I first found out about A Crooked Kind of Perfect when I checked out a blog by a commenter. The commenter turned out to be the children’s book writer Linda Urban. I made a mental note that the book she has written for older kids about Julia's age (10) looked like a great read for Julia. The next week at the Scholastic book sale at Julia’s school, lo and behold, there was a book with a little girl’s legs in a pair of toed socks. Being a knitter, the book cover immediately caught my attention (socks play a bit part in the book but there is no knitting). The book was Linda’s A Crooked Kind of Perfect and Julia and I bought it for the school library. She borrowed it first thing and did her first fiction book report on it.

It’s a great story about a 10 year old girl named Zoe who wants to play the piano at Carnegie Hall. Instead, her parents buy her an organ. Her Mom is an over achieving accountant who works all the time. Zoe's Dad is quite the character – he is terrified to leave the house. To keep himself busy, he takes living room university classes including scuba diving in the bathtub, flying a plane at the kitchen table, and becoming a cookie baker. He bakes a mean cookie and Zoe dubs him a “biscotti hottie.” If you’ve got a 10 year old – boy or girl – they will love this book. There is a great message at the end but I won't spill the beans. The chapters are very short which makes it less daunting for kids to read. I read it and loved it too.

Susan Marie Swanson’s To Be Like the Sun

For the younger set, and all you fans of sunflowers, Susan Marie Swanson’s To Be Like the Sun is based on a poem she wrote to a sunflower. She expanded it and it became a children’s book illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine. It is a lovely tale about the life of a sunflower and how it grows and dies within the four seasons. Sure would brighten up this long winter if you read it to a small child today.

I met Susan Marie last winter in Minneapolis when I was speaking at The Textile Center. She knits – how cool – a children’s book writer, poet, and knitter all rolled up into one. We had a lovely conversation about color and sunflowers during the dark days of winter in Minneapolis. It's funny but all I remember about that night was color and happy knitters.

Mama Getting a Break

Our snow has been melting the past couple days. As it melts, it makes it easier for the sheep to get out into the pasture. This Mama was forging her own little trail out to the untouched snow for a bit of a snack. I couldn't help but think that this was her bit of a break from the twins who have been nudging her all day. Does anyone relate?

There was a lovely blue cast to the scene....

Lamb Races

Just before sundown every day, something pretty wacky happens at the sheep barn. We started noticing it as a couple years ago when we started having more and more baby lambs. The Farmer came home one night and said it was the weirdest thing.... I should get down there the next day at around sundown.

When he says something is pretty cool, I usually listen. He's not a man of many words. The next evening, Julia and I arrived at almost sunset. He told us to be patient and just wait. We did...... and then it began --- The Lamb Races.

For some untold reason, at sundown, every evening, the lambs start racing around. It's always the larger lambs who are growing so fast. The younger ones don't do it - they've got to be fit and of a big enough size to not fall down and get trampled - just like little kids.

So here it is for you all to enjoy -- a wacky little video from me and Julia and The Farmer. (Sorry about the quality - I'm still learning...) You all are going to think we are a bit nutty -- not much to do on the farm except watch the lambs race around. But oh well......

New Mama Stories

Friday morning, two yearling ewes lambed. One I showed you a photo of yesterday with her new baby. The second yearling didn’t quite know what to do with two foreign things that had popped on out of her body. The Farmer, and a very good farmer at that, knows what to look for everyday. He knows that most of his experienced ewes have finished lambing so now it’s time to look for trouble.

We have hog panels set up along the side of the greenhouse just for such an occasion. Hog panels are very useful things that are handy for other things besides hogs. They are made of thick aluminum wire and come in sections about 12 feet long. They come either 3 or 4 foot tall. They are pliable and can be dragged anywhere to reinforce a fence or make a temporary fence. I can lift them (I’m not the strongest farm woman, I must admit – these things are very light.) Add a little baling twine to a hog panel and you have an instant sheep pen. Baling twine is one thing any farmer can't live without. It's made out of sisal and comes in giant rolls. I could write a whole post about baling twine. Whenever I wash The Farmer's jeans, there are always some scraps in his pockets.

Getting a new mama, especially an uncooperative mama into an enclosed area isn’t always so easy. Good mamas will follow their newborn lamb if you pick it up and walk it ever so slowly to the pen. The maternal instinct is amazing with sheep. And then there are the teenage mamas. They can’t be coerced for any reason whatsoever. That’s when The Farmer pulls out the stops and dives - flying into sheep poop or haylage - doing whatever it takes to catch that mama so she can bond with her baby. He always succeeds. Then she can be wrangled into the pen and her baby is placed with her. In a day or two, they will bond. The mama will figure out what needs to be done – stand still while this foreign thing is nosing around her backside. After a few days, the new lamb and the new mama get to leave the hog panel pen and re-join the flock.

Occassionally, this forced bonding doesn’t work. We usually don’t know why and it usually happens with twins. The other day, a two year old had a set of twin lambs. Into the hog panel pen they went. They were little things, very sweet looking to me but to the mama, one in particular wasn’t up to snuff. Sometimes it’s because there is something physically wrong with the lamb that we can’t see and only the mother knows. Sometimes the mama knows she doesn't have enough milk for twins and sometimes, we never figure it out.

All day long, the mama pushed the little lamb away until it got too much to bear. The other lamb was thriving - sucking away while the other lamb slept along the wall. The neglected lamb hadn’t gotten any colostrum (the mother’s first milk) and it was clear that this mama wouldn’t accept the baby. The Farmer "tubed" the lamb so it got some nourishment and then into the truck she went. She is residing in the kitchen. Aren’t those floppy little ears the best?

Here's someone else in the kitchen. Tommie the kitten - boy has he grown.

Our kittens are loving life. They think having lambs in the kitchen is normal life. I have yet to catch a photo of them bonding but every once in a while, there will be a lamb nose to kitten nose moment. Precious.

New Mamas

Our big lambing rush is over. Now instead of ten lambs being born a day, it is one or two or three, or sometimes none. Most of the older experienced mamas have already had their babies. Now is when a different challenge happens.

The yearling ewes sometimes lamb, sometimes not. It's all depends if they are mature enough to become pregnant in the fall. Often, our yearlings will lamb in April and May which makes it much easier for everyone - The Farmer and the sheep - since the weather is much warmer. By then, the sheep are out on grass.

Last Friday, two yearlings lambed. This one had a lovely little baby and she was doing a great job taking care of it - so good she didn't even need to be put in a pen for a day of bonding. I'll talk about the other one tomorrow.

Across the barn, a two year old gave birth to this beautiful set of twins. They were quite large and super healthy. They lay there so still for me after I took photo after photo, the mama kind of wondering what I was doing but not interfering.


Monday, Monday - make it a good one.

Inspiration Disappearing

The Farmer and I are very different people. I think that's why we get along so well. Besides the sheep farming and all the other farming things he does, he has run his own small business (somewhat connected to the construction trade) for the past twenty years. Things have been rather tough over the past three years. The economic down-turn that everyone is seeing now isn't a surprise for our household. We've been experiencing it for some time.

So it wasn't a complete surprise to me when I heard about Domino Magazine closing (read here about it in the NY Times) with the March issue. I was never a complete fan of Domino like so many people were - but I subscribed to it because there is barely a shelter magazine I don't subscribe to. Like many shelter magazines, I thought that almost every issue looked the same -- pretty young thing on the cover standing amongst some furniture. (I think I was a little too old for the demographic they were targeting anyway....) The last few issues have been a little more colorful and different, I must say. That said, I will really miss spending an evening looking at it the day it arrived.

Domino is only one of the magazines that are disappearing in this economic downturn. First it was House and Garden last year, then just recently Country Home, O at Home, Home, Cottage Living, and Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. The publishers are blaming the advertisers which I completely understand. It doesn't matter how many subscribers they have, if the ad revenue isn't there, it's trouble. They say it is because of the housing market but I'm not so sure I agree. There were probably just too many magazines and advertisers can only spend so much money. And tell me, how do the editors get away with stuffing Pottery Barn and Anthropologie in every issue when they never, ever advertise? If I was an advertiser, that would turn me off. Part of advertising is pay-off with editorial. At least that's how I think of it.

The sad thing is, no matter what, good times or bad, women look for inspiration for keeping their homes. I think that in bad times, they look even harder for creative, inexpensive ideas to refresh their spaces - especially in the winter. Living here in the country, I have to find my inspiration in pages of magazines. With dial-up, I barely look around the internet - if a site is image heavy, I don't bother because it takes too long to load. Losing these magazines, no matter how fickle it may sound, really does leave a bit of an empty spot in my mailbox.

I'm positive the internet and how it has changed how people get their news is another big reason publishing is changing. I think there are many more changes coming down the pike and it has me worried and concerned. Personally, I like to hold things in my hand - newspapers, magazines, books. I have don't like to be sitting at a screen all the time.

I really have to re-think things - about how I get the word out about my work out there. Our home was featured in Country Home in 2004 and it really did alot to increase my profile with book buyers (you can down-load that article here). Last September, our sunflower field was also featured in Country Home (see that here). I had an inkling that CH wasn't long for the world because I saw it changing and not in a good and creative way. I saw it becoming more corporate and losing lots of the spirit that former editors Carol Sheehan and Mary Emmerling put into it. But times change. It still makes me sad. I'm just hoping the rest of the magazines can hold on.

I always find it odd how men at publishing houses think they know what women want best. Please don't get me going.... If you read the masthead pages of many women's shelter magazines, it is mostly men pulling the strings. I think that is one reason Martha Stewart and her company has continued to succeed despite some infamous hiccups.

All that said, this post began as a thought of what The Farmer often says, "just show up." So I'm continuing to show up at the sheep barn and here are some new lamb photos for you to enjoy before you start the weekend. It was brutally, bone-chillingly cold this morning - so cold that my camera stopped working. I'm hoping it is the cold and not something else.

I like this photo with the two lambs in the front. In front of them is the feed bunker which The Farmer feeds grain in. Behind you can see a mama with a newborn in a pen built out of a thick wire hog panel. Behind them is the snow that is piled up along side the greenhouse barn.


I call these guys the "push me - pull you" lambs.

Here's one of the bottle lambs with a little drip of milk on the bridge of her nose. She is a real sweetie.


Oh, and back to yesterday's post about Disney... My friend Bob sent me this link.... Oh my goodness, it there anything they don't put their mark on to entice little children. Insanity!

Star Worship - Part Two

After untold discussions with Julia about how I didn’t think it was necessary for her to be so totally obsessed with Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana, I'm not getting anywhere. So I have tried to stop. I know this phase will pass too. Soon she will be on to the next great thing. I myself remember being crazy about The Brady Bunch, Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy and The Partridge Family and I turned out alright. And as one commenter said, HM (the show) is pretty funny itself. She said it reminds her of "LaVerne and Shirley." I am thinking of the slapstick in "I Love Lucy." For me, it is the Disney machine that I object to mostly - pushing all the Disney stars down every little kid's throat and crushing all the independent artists and kid caring thinkers.

Having these discussions with Julia made me think about “hero worship” and how - depending on who you are, where you live, what your hobbies are - everyone has their own "stars" in their life. We all look up to personalities that we'll never meet. And that's okay. After all, there has got to be someone to look to for ideas - people who are more skilled than you are in favorite areas of your life. I do worry about the role the media plays in all of this - knowing that there are lots of talented people out there who don't have a voice because they aren't famous.

This has made me think about the different people I have idolized over the years and also who I myself “star worship” in my current life. So here goes – Here’s who I currently look up to. They are in no particular order.

•Julia Child – for her no nonsense attitude about food and diet. I love how Julia didn't begin real cooking until she was 40. Look how far she got and how long she lived. What a great example she is to so many women and men.
•Jon Katz – for his wonderful photos and stories about his life on the farm he records on his blog. He makes me think somedays with his insightful posts. I wish I could write like that. Oh well. And his books are great too if you are a dog lover.
•Patricia Wells – for her fabulous cookbooks full of wonderful meals. If you go to France, you must take her "Food Lovers Guide to France."
•E B White – for his wonderful way with words. Right now I am reading "One Man's Meat" from the 1940's and it's amazing how well it has stood up. I read his biography a while back - fascinating.
•Charleston House in Sussex, England - home of the artists Duncan Grant, Vanessa, Clive, and Quentin Bell. I visited there a few years ago with my good friend Sally and it was so great to see and feel the creativity in the walls of that beautiful home. Kaffe Fassett's latest book was photographed there - what a visual feast - his sweaters, their home.
•Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and many of the other Fauve artists
•Tricia Guild and her Designer’s Guild team for their inspirational books. It's amazing how they keep creating fabulous collections of home decor and are able to run a successful business. Oftentimes, the two don't work.
•Maira Kalman - the fabulous illustrator who has a blog at the NYTimes.
•My Mom - the fact that five girls turned out relatively okay is amazing.
•My sister Laurie - her dedication and the care she gives her handicapped daughter Elloise is astounding, not to mention Olivia and her husband Bruce.

I asked The Farmer to make a list of his stars…. Here's his short list. I've got to get him thinking more about this. He's been too busy with all those lambs to have much time to think.

Wendell Berry – The farmer, author and poet
Garry Trudeau
Gene Logson - the Author of "All Flesh is Grass" and he has a blog.

I’d love to hear who you “star worship.” Leave a note in the comments if you have time and the energy.

And not to have a day without a lamb picture, here you go.....

The Farmer Behind the Flock

Julia Communing with the Heat Lamp and the Lambs

Another Mouth to Feed

Note that new Carhart insulated jumpsuit. He's one happy guy now. The other one was shredded and tattered.

Star Worship

This isn't exactly star worship. I'll get to that. But it is heat worship. Last week when it was so cold, these 4 little lambs were huddled under the heat lamp - stealing the heat from the one who was supposed to be getting it. Who says lambs are dumb?

Wanted to post a picture of Cora hiding out in the greenhouse barn. I always get asked how Cora is doing, so hear you go all you fans of Cora. Her little lamb Jackson is snuggled beneath her. He's really growing fast. Julia named Jackson after a character in her favorite t.v. show. Which leads me to what this post is all about.......

Julia discovered Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus last year, much to my chagrin. We don't have cable or satellite and get only 6 t.v. channels on our hill (4 PBS after the digital transition that happened here last November - I can't even watch David Letterman anymore because CBS from Hartford doesn't reach here). She only found out we have ABC and NBC this fall. (I was doing pretty good, wasn't I?) Julia tends to find out about all the stuff girls her age like, no matter how hard I try to keep her sweet and innocent. Visits to my mom's house in NJ always bring some kind of television discovery.

Julia has been through many phases of adoration in her few short years. It started with Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney, moved on to Madeline and Eloise. We've been through the Zoom phase, the Mary Kate and Ashley phase, Lindsey Lohan (in her Parent Trap years). So now it's Miley Cyrus. She picks up People Mag at the check-out aisle of the grocery store and devours it until it is time to leave. I try not to say too much, knowing each phase will pass.....

The other day we were on the way home from her diabetes doctor appointment in Springfield. There is a Barnes and Noble near there - it's 45 minutes from our house - so we usually stop for a cappuchino for me and some kind of bit of chocolate for her. Then we browse our favorite sections - for me it is cookbooks and knitting and sewing books. I look to see if they are still selling my books and then I move the display around so someone might buy one. (I always wonder how fast they catch my re-arrangement of their shelves and stick my book back down in the regular shelves.) We usually don't buy a thing but we get our curiosity fix.

On Tuesday, I picked up the new issue of Knit 1 (I was curious about how Tanis and Faith are doing with it and where they are taking it). I felt a bit guilty about buying myself something so I treated Julia to "Star Scene's Miley Mania." Julia was over the moon and read it all the way home.

It was pretty quiet in the back seat until I suddenly heard - "Mom - guess what - Miley knows how to knit! Can you believe that? Emily Osment, who plays Miley's friend Lily Truscott on HM, taught Miley! Wow - how cool is that?"

I was pretty excited to hear that too! Suddenly there was a redeeming quality about Miley and her co-star Emily Osment. The teenage stars actually know how to knit. Julia was so very excited. I said to her - "Julia, why don't we write them a letter and send them some yarn. Maybe they will knit with the yarn named after you." Julia responded - "Mom, you are a genius." My face broke out into a large grin. Maybe she might eventually get interested in some things I like.

That evening, Julia typed up a letter and we're packing it up with some Julia yarn. We're going to send it to Miley and Emily care of the Disney Studios. Who knows if they will ever get it but it's worth a try.

Here's Julia's take on the Miley/Emily knitting situation:

"Hey Y'all" as Miley would say. I think it's really cool about the package full of yarn Mom and I are sending to Miley and Emily. And I also really hope Miley sends us a letter and maybe a gift and also tickets to a Hannah Montana concert!!! I've always wanted to learn to knit (my Mom has'nt taught me Yet!) and Know that I know Miley knits I really want to learn even more!"

From Julia

I think it would be fabulous is Tanis and Faith, the Editors of Knit1 could get an interview with Emily Osment for their magazine and maybe a cover. Can you imagine the flurry that would cause with tweens and teens? They all might want to start knitting! And doesn't that hat on the cover of Knit1 look just like a hat those girls might wear and be photographed for Tiger Beat?

There's more coming tomorrow on this subject - stay tuned.

The Day After

The Day after the big storm, the sun came out. It was extremely cold but the sun really helps to make everyone's mood improve. The sheep aren't so desperate to eat lots and lots of haylage. The fresh snow makes everything look a lot cleaner. This photo shows a bunch of mamas eating fresh snow that slid off the greenhouse roof. The sheep have a source water but they still like to eat snow. I can only imagine how cold the water feels in their mouths. The trough starts to ice up pretty quick in this weather.

Luckily this brown mama decided to hold off on lambing until the storm cleared. We found her lamb outside with her - already standing up and enjoying the sunshine. You can tell she is new because of the umbilical cord that is red. We dip the umbilical cords in iodine solution so they are sterile. It helps to prevent disease.


For all of you interested in photography, can you see how difficult it is to get nice, moody shots on a bright and sunny day? I always prefer my photos when the skies are grey. The sun bounces off the snow like crazy like a giant reflector.

Yesterday we had a bit of a reprieve from winter - the first since December. It was in the 40's and felt so good not to be completely bundled up. The days are getting noticeably longer. I was talking with a neighbor the other day and he reminded me that we could be only a few weeks off from sugaring season. Wow - something to look forward to.