Derby Days

This morning I went out very early to try to get some nice pictures of the lambs as the sun was coming up slowly and still low in the sky. The lambs aren't used to me taking photos of them and so it was hard to get many good shots. I'll try again over the next few days. Eventually they'll be less afraid of me and my pointing a black thing at them.


This weekend is the Kentucky Derby. If you're looking for an excuse to throw an impromptu party, I would say this is it - even if you don't like horse racing. The first weekend in May is usually beautiful. I've been going to Derby Day parties since I was a little girl. When we moved here, I discovered that my new friend Kay (a Jersey girl too) also shared the Derby Day Party tradition. Our families have been getting together to watch and bet on the race for several years now and I look forward to this late afternoon visit and strolling in Kay's newly planted vegetable garden. I always bring my Derby Deviled Eggs and you can find my recipe here. Eggs are courtesy of my chickens who looked particularly beautiful this morning in the early morning light.

Here's this morning's April Lamb Derby under the apple trees at our farm.


Hard to tell who won though without brightly colored silks on jockeys and numbers on saddles.

Heatwave!

We're in the fourth day of an unseasonal heat wave with temps in the high 80's. It wouldn't be so bad if we were used to it but the sudden change in temperature has everyone cranky. The cats are lazing around, sleeping all day and working at night. The dogs are just trying to keep cool by laying on the stone walkway. When the heat wave started, buds were just little blips on the ends of tree branches. The heatwave has put every bit of nature into overdrive and green leaves are emerging so quickly. It's nature in warp speed. It makes me a bit sad that I haven't had a couple of weeks to enjoy it all. The older I get, the more I realize that a person only has so many springtimes in their lives -- I want to enjoy each one as much as I can.


Having high temperatures without the leaves on the trees feels totally wrong for New England. There is no place to hide - especially for the sheep who are used to spending their days sleeping under shade trees and along leafy fencelines. They have been quite motionless all day long. When the sun starts to go down lower in the sky, they begin grazing and eat all night long. With the windows open we can hear them calling to each other as the night turns to day. It is a lovely noise.


We have about 80 lambs here in our pastures just outside our door. It has been quite fun to watch them explore their new fields. The lamb races happen every night at around sunset although now the lambs are much larger.

My magnolia trees burst into full flower yesterday. The lovely scent is wafting around the yard. I planted two magnolia trees when we first moved here to remind me of my grandmother Frieda. She had a big old magnolia tree in her back yard in Dover. Under it, she had some pink metal furniture. Every year when the magnolia tree was blooming, she would call us over to her house. We would sit under the tree and eat cookies and drink lemonade. There was only a few days each year when this would happen and I have fond memories of Gram waiting for the blooms and my sisters and I waiting for cookies.


Gram was no nonsense through and through. After the magnolia tree would bloom, she would start complaining about the nasty blossoms and how they were littering her yard. She'd be out there with a rake picking them all up and composting them behind her garage. She would complain about all the work that tree made her and think about cutting it down. I always found that kind of funny - how she could love something so much and then complain about it. But that was Gram - she spoke her mind every minute.

I guess I'm a bit different than Gram - definitely not as neat as a pin as she was. I love the day my magnolia tree blooms. I let my magnolia blossoms fall to the ground. They turn brown and shrivel up and the wind takes them away.


Last night I took Julia out to look and smell the blossoms and told her about my grandma's magnolia tree. Then we walked down in the pasture to visit the sheep. It was hot and a sign of the coming season. The blackflies have hatched and the mosquitoes aren't far behind. Spring got a huge kick-start and I'm thinking about all that needs to be done......

On a Bit of a Break

Julia and I are away for a couple of days visiting my sister and her family. She has broadband and I have my computer with me so I am trying to find things to learn from that I wouldn't be able to at my dial-up location. I have stumbled upon some great things and Julia has discovered Hannah Montana on YouTube.

If you sometimes wonder about the back-story as to how clothing and home decor get into stores, you'll love this page on the Adobe website. At the bottom of the page you'll find links to creative people and companies including a behind the scenes at Anthropologie. I have used Adobe products for years and really count on them. Thanks to Decor8 for the link.

Lambs on the Loose

Slowly, we are moving the older lambs which were born in January up to our spring and summer grazing here at our farm. These lambs are large enough to leave their moms. Most of them were probably still nursing but it's time to give their mamas a break. The fences aren't quite set up correctly yet so they've been having a grand time exploring the neighborhood. Their freedom gig will be up soon - by tomorrow the fences should be controlling them, I hope.


My garden is starting to look green - by the end of this coming weekend everything should start popping. We had a lovely bit of rain last night and today is one of those moody grey and cloudy days that is perfect for pictures. My entryway pots will be filled with springtime pansies any day now.

The daffodils I planted a few years ago are out in full force. My dad loved daffodils and carried this poem - William Wordsworth's Daffodils - around in his wallet. I planted 400 daffodils and narcissus in his memory the November after he died. I can't help but think about Daddy everytime I look at them.

My Bit for Broadband at Every Massachusetts Town Library!

Tuesday evening, as I was getting ready for my monthly meeting about lack of coverage by Verizon for high speed internet access - on my road and many others in the small hilltown I live in, I got a phone call from Boston's Logan Airport. A man asked me if I would be willing to be filmed for a "library technology summit" to be held in Massachusetts at the beginning of May. He works for Connected Nation and was working on a presentation to be shown to public officials and librarians. He had heard about me from Jessica who works for the local Pioneer Valley Connect.

You all know how I still have dial-up. The longer I have it, the more frustrated I become, knowing that most of the USA does have high speed internet access. My frustration became even more amplified in December when Verizon hooked up many of the residents of my small town. They passed my road by and have no plans to bring the service here, as far as my neighbors and I can tell. You can read more about this here. A few of us who have been passed by have formed a local group to see if somehow, some way, we can get Verizon to move on bringing us high speed internet access.

I have had to move my professional life forward. Writing books requires me to have an active visual blog and recently I have been making some video tutorials. Needless to say, it is pretty impossible to do all this with dial-up. When Bernardston's Cushman Library staff started talking about getting broadband WIFI for patrons, I became excited to say the least. About a year ago, they got this service and I bought myself a laptop so I could use their WIFI. I sit in my car, outside the library in the snow, in the heat, early and late in the day and do what I need to do with their high speed internet access. I can't believe how much easier this has made my life and time spent on the internet - even if I have to drive 20 minutes one way to the town next door. I usually combine my "library-high speed access" trip with errands to the post office, the grain store, and the general store so it works for me. The WIFI at Bernardston's library has made me become more tech savvy and I have been able to develop new products for posting and selling on the internet. I can download large files for proof reviews, I can up-load video and graphic files to be printed. None of this is possible with dial-up.

Last week, two lovely young men from Nashville, TN came with a whole car-load of camera, sound and lighting equipment and I told my story. The Gates Foundation has funded a grant to bring high speed internet access to every Massachusetts local library. They are going to play my story for local librarians and public officials so that they can see how important having high speed internet access is for all town libraries.


Although I was very busy with a book deadline, I had to do this. I feel so strongly that every citizen in the USA should have high speed internet access - if they want it. I'm still bewildered and maddened that Verizon didn't come down our road. I liken not having high speed access to the internet in 2009 to not being able to get indoor plumbing or telephone service in the last century. We may live in the country, but we are very 21st century here. There are so many self-employed people living in western Massachusetts who depend on the internet for keeping their lives going. WIthout high speed internet service, it is incredibly difficult to compete in the wired world of 2009.

I hope my little bit will help convince librarians and public officials that having high speed internet access is important for every small town's library - even in this time of small towns not wanting to fund their libraries - but that's another post which I plan to write about shortly!

For your Reading and Viewing Pleasure

A while back, I was sent a bunch of questions to answer for an on-line magazine called KnitchMagazine. It is put out by the fine folks at Yarnmarket.com, one of the on-line sources for my Julia Yarn. The interview came out yesterday and you can find it here. Deborah, the Editor, asked me some questions that I have never really been asked about in an interview so you may find it somewhat interesting.

Still working away on stuff for the book. The other day I had to photograph a bunch of older work for upcoming products and stumbled upon some old spot art. Thought you might enjoy the colors in this piece on this lovely spring day. Good weekend, everyone!

My Work as Inspiration - My Sister's Art and Embroidery

For the Easter holiday, my little family got together with my mom, all of my sisters and most of Julia's cousins from my side of the family. It's always fun to see everyone and hear what they are up to. The cousins are getting older - we have one just starting college and a couple in high school. We were lucky to have my mom stay with us for one night and my sister Lynn stay for three nights. Julia loves spending time with her extended family as do I. It's always sad to see everyone leave and go their separate ways.

I've written about my sister Lynn before on this blog - here and here. She's the sister who is the most visually colorful of all of my sisters. She dresses in bright turquoises, fushchia, orange, chartreuse and denim and is always decked out in a colorful costume complete with rings on every finger and piles of necklaces. When we go places together, noone can believe we are sisters. I'm the "Plain Jane" and she's the peacock. I love to hear reactions from people who can't imagine we are related. Julia and Lynn just love to spend time to together. Julia ends up painted up like a peacock - fingernails, toes, lips and eyes. What fun for a little girl.

I taught Lynn to do embroidery a while back - the posts above are about her embroidery technique. Here are a couple of close-ups of embroidery she has done on her jean jackets. She uses 6 strands of cotton embroidery floss, a thimble, and freehands the designs on her jackets with Sharpie markers. Then she fills in the lines with her whimsical colorful stitching style.


This past weekend she told me she has been watching some kind of cable tv channel which is all about art. I don't know what it is called but it sounded quite fun and interesting. She said she has been inspired to start drawing again. We went on a hunt for Prismacolor pencils and charcoal paper which is what she likes to use. I sat there knitting (something for a deadline) and she sat there drawing.

She showed me some of her old drawings and I was bowled over. The last time she was here she photocopied old books of mine and magazines. She has been carrying around these copies and using them as inspiration for her drawings. Here's one of the images she photocopied from the issue of Country Home I was in September of 2004 (you can down-load that article here). The photo is by my friend John Gruen.


Here's the drawing she made from it.


Isn't it just great to see how someone can take an inspiration and turn it into their own art? And isn't it interesting how Lynn's drawings and embroideries are so similar? I thought you all would like to see this bit of creativity considering all the wonderful comments I received during the last day of the giveaway a few weeks ago.

Things remain beyond busy here. Next week is Julia's spring vacation and I'm just about losing my mind trying to pull stuff together. This too shall pass. Hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather. It is absolutely glorious here today.

Holidays Approaching

In a bit of a panic here. I found out last night my mom and sister Lynn are coming to stay for the weekend. The house is in one of those book deadline wrecks – I have no time to pick up – but I’ve got to shovel some stuff upstairs and out the door so that we don’t look like complete slobs. I’ve still got odds and ends of book stuff to do. Starting to feel overwhelming but there is no time for that. I’m also feeling the urge to purge my studio of stuff that is hanging around but that will have to wait a few weeks.

It’s time to put the winter boots away for another year – and boy do we have winter boots. All sizes, all weights, and all caked with manure. I’m stuffing them in a trash bag, putting a twist-tie on them and jamming them in a closet. Can’t wait to open that bag next fall.

I just took the last of the Christmas decorations down. I figured since we’re at the Easter celebration, I probably should stow away the last of the festive, glittery winter decorations. It’s time to look through the windows at some of the lovely color that is starting to happen outdoors.


Not a lot of time to photograph and post for a few days. I’ll leave you with this photo of new yarn colors hatching. It’s a photo I took last spring of Fall 2008’s new Julia colors. Have a great Easter and Passover everyone.

Watch This Tonight

Heads up y'all! (Oh my goodness - Julia is getting to me with that Miley Madness.)

Tonight on American Masters on PBS there is a show on Phillip Glass called "glass. A Portrait of Phillip in 12 Parts." I heard an interview by Bob Edwards with Scott Hicks, the director of the show and it sounds like a fascinating film. Read more about it here on the Bob Edwards' blog. Many interesting links too! I know many of you are creative folks and are interested in the creative process, no matter what kind of art or craft being created. I'll be knitting and watching and listening.

Our Meat Business - Leyden Glen Lamb

A few weeks ago, I told you about my family's new venture selling our lamb as frozen meat to the general public. I've been so busy with book stuff that I haven't had time to update my blog readers with what happened after I announced our new business - Leyden Glen Lamb.

First off, we had to take the lambs to be processed. After loading the animals, they have to be driven to the slaughterhouse. In a week, we pick up the animals in packages and bring them back to our freezer. Below is a photo of a two legs of lamb - one with bone-in, one boned. The lamb is packaged in cryovac by the local USDA certified for resale slaughterhouse we take our animals to. (That spotty white stuff is snow that was falling as I took the photo of the meat.)

For those who haven't been long-time readers, in the past we have always sold our lamb crop at the local livestock auction just before Easter. It's an easy way to disperse of our lambs in one fell swoop. We have always collected the check, paid the bills we owe, and then moved on in the cycle of farming, barely realizing any cash flow until the next Easter. With the surge in interest in humanely raised animals, grass-fed and farm raised animals, we thought it was time we became more involved with the actual marketing of the lambs. Thank you Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver and their respective books - Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for generating interest in many people who never really thought about where their food comes from.

First off, let's say, there's going to be a huge learning curve to this project/business. Secondly, we won't be getting rich but then I don't know any farmer who is. Mostly though, The Farmer, Julia and I we will be meeting interesting people who are passionate about their food, about the animals which become the food, and the land it is raised upon.

So far, we have joined CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture), attempted to sign up for LocalHarvest.org (dial-up isn't helping here!), checked out the local Farmer's Market requirements (probably won't work for us this year), and worked on a flyer for direct sales. There's a lot to starting a business like this and I've had to put some of the things like business cards, promotional signs, and marketing materials on the back burner while I finish up stuff for my upcoming book. I wish I didn't need to sleep, cook, care for my house and family, clean up the winter stuff in the yard nor run errands - then maybe something for this lamb business would get done. But that's just the way it goes - talk about multi-tasking.

First off we delivered some meat samples to some local restaurants and markets. Now that's an experience, walking into a restaurant establishment with a pound of frozen, cryovac wrapped meat to try to drum up business. I guess it's no different than yarn. So far, we've been selling our ground lamb to a fun old-fashioned "drive-in" called The Wagon Wheel on Route 2 on the Gill/Turner's Falls line. They've put our lamb-burgers on their "specials" roster as seen in the photo below. How cool is that? It is selling well - we've had several re-orders. Neat, huh? I just delivered a large order of lamb stew meat to The People's Pint - the local brewery and good food hang-out in Greenfield. No idea what they are going to do with it - have to check in on that one. You can also find our lamb in the meat case at Greenfield's Market, our local food coop. It's a start and we'll see where it goes.

Best of all I delivered a whole lamb to the lovely Marie Duprey while I was in Dedham, staying at my sister's St. Patrick's Day weekend. In the driveway of Laurie's house, Marie and I talked about her folk-singing career, her passion for yarn and knitting, and life in general while we moved the meat from my cooler to hers. She and her husband have been trying to eat local for the past year and our lamb is now part of their diet. They've been buying chicken and pork from a farm in Concord, Mass. The best part of the transaction was that Marie gave me a loaf of her homemade, still warm, whole wheat Irish Soda bread (it was St. Patrick's Day weekend) and a wonderful CD of her music which I have been listening to in my truck.

That same weekend while I was visiting Dedham, The Farmer was meeting up with Carol from Boston-ish who was skiing in Vermont with her family. He waited beside the road at the former Streeter's Store until they exited Route 91. They swapped the meat from his truck to her car and off they went. Later that week, Carol left a lovely message on our phone calling our lamb "stunning." You should have seen the smile on The Farmer's face as he listened to her message.

While we have been discussing this meat business, The Farmer and I never thought about what we would get out of selling lambs directly to the public. Basically, it is an attempt to make more money than we have been earning from our auction sales. But the satisfaction from hearing from both Marie and Carol about how they are cooking and enjoying our lamb has been very gratifying and icing on the cake. Seeing the name of our farm on a "specials board" at a local restaurant is pretty cool too.

We'll see where this goes! We've got two more lambs ready for the next two families. If you want information - send me an e-mail and I'll send you an info sheet. My e-mail address is on a link at the sidebar at left. One day I'll have an official website that will be easy to access -- once I get some other stuff done around here!

Thank you internet and thank you to Adam's Farm for running a top-notch facility for processing our animals.

Springing

We are in for a very wet and cold week here in western Massachusetts. Yesterday, it was one of those raw days when it was impossible to feel warm. There's even a chance of snow later in the week. We need the rain for the grass to grow. Until there is a bit of length to the pasture, the sheep aren't let out to graze. We're counting our bales of hay - hoping we have enough to make it until the grass kicks in.

I love this time of year because of the subtle changes I get to watch. This field is close to our house and I pass it several times a day, whether on foot or in my truck. When I left for Connecticut to teach at Marji's on Friday afternoon, there was barely a hint of green. Yesterday, it looked like this.


To an non-farmer's eye, you may not notice anything much about this landscape. But to my eye, I see the very green section in the center of the field - that's where our sheep spent lots of time last year, eating and fertilizing the pasture. Amazing what a bit of sheep manure will do to make the fields kick in earlier. The upper part of the photo has just a hint of green. The sheep never got there last year and so the grass isn't as anxious to get going. If you look closely, you can see a curving line on the right side of the photo. That's a sheep path. I love how these little paths develop over time as the sheep follow each other to find a new patch to graze. We have sheep paths all through our woods and fields, made over time - they always follow each other, no matter what.


We've brought The Jumper up to our pig pen to live with the growing bottle lambs. We want to make sure she gets some extra food to feed her sweet little babies. So far, so good - she hasn't escaped the hog fencing and the babies are growing a little better. She is doing a fabulous job mothering her little brood.


My chickens have been laying up a storm - I get almost a dozen eggs every day. It's hard to use them all but I try to be creative - frittatas, popovers, puddings. I get out my egg cookbooks and look to see what else I can whip up. The chickens look so droopy and uncomfortable in the rain. I know they are anxious for heat and dustbath season. It's almost time to get my annual order in for baby chicks. I've got to dig out the Murray MacMurray catalog and see if there's any breeds that I haven't tried which will add more color to the coop.

And what are you doing this lovely spring day?

Lambs Lambs Lambs

"Hey Maaaaahhhhh - slow down!" times 3!


Last fall's beautiful black ewe and January's black ewe lamb enjoying the sunny day.


Sweet lamb and mama resting.


Have a great weekend - everyone!

Waiting for Spring

It's been a really long winter here and although we know spring is around the corner - it is slow in coming. The sap stopped running so it is about time for all the signs of sugaring to disappear. I'll miss the old-fashioned buckets hanging along the trees on the sides of the dirt roads around here.


The dogs can feel spring coming -- although the rains sometimes get them down. I know they can't wait until the sheep are out on pasture so they can start doing their herding duties.


The sheep are loving lazing in the sun and trying to nibble what there is for grass although it is mighty short. They're not very patient though and this pasture is going to need a good rest for the summer so it can re-grow.

Our neighbors' cows are starting to come out of the barn although there really isn't much grass to graze on this hill. In a month it will be green and lush and they will be loving it.

This is our neighbor's Jersey cow. She and her human are our source of raw milk. What luxury - we drop off our gallon container during the day with $5 and at night, Kayla delivers us a warm gallon of milk.


The Jumper and her triplets are loving life. They tag along behind her all the time - so cute.

Spring wouldn't be complete without a brand new lamb. The yearling mama had a bit of a rough time but she is bonding nicely and hopefully the baby will find the milk supply.


The lack of green in the woods gave me one more opportunity to catch a wintery shot for an easy pattern which will be on my website soon. I had to bribe Julia to do this after school one day. Amazing how $10 will get her to try hard to look cute.

Crazy Chicken

This is “Crazy Chicken.” We have been calling this black and brown hen “Crazy Chicken” for at least five years now. We don’t know what breed she is – perhaps one of the chicken people reading my blog do know and can let us all know….. She came amongst one of the “assorted rare breed variety packs” I ordered from Murray MacMurray Hatchery several years ago.

Crazy Chicken – with two Capital C’s as Julia says – has been living in our mudroom for several years now. She sleeps in the darkest corner every night - behind the door where it is dry and safe. I don’t particularly care much for her – nor does The Farmer nor Julia. But we do look out for her everyday. We look to see where she is when we are leaving our house in the morning run to school. We look to see if she is in the mudroom at night in her little spot, safe and sound after a day outside working the yard.

All day long, every day and in every season, Crazy Chicken wanders around the yard – snow, sleet, rain, ice, fog, or sun. It seems it is her sole duty -- to patrol the perimeters of the yard and farm, making sure everything is in its place and that no bugs are left uneaten.

Every once in a while, I decide I’m sick of Crazy Chicken Poop in the mudroom. I catch her at night and put her in the henhouse with the rest of the hens. There she paces the inside perimeter of the coop, always looking for a way out. She doesn't stop, not for a minute. Up one side, turn the corner, down the next side, turn the corner.... all day long, and the next day too. She is never content to be a chicken amongst the rest of the flock. I watch her, The Farmer watches her, Julia watches her. We talk about Crazy Chicken, how she is doing assimilating with the rest of the chickens. We decide she just looks too unhappy in there amongst her own kind. We let her out and she finds her way back to “her mudroom.” This has happened too many times to count.

I don’t particularly like that Crazy Chicken is living in my mudroom making it a chicken coop vs. a Martha Stewart type mudroom where our boots should be neatly placed, washed of any mud before entering, tidily lined up next to each other making their own little patterns of heels next to heels below the coats that are neatly hung on the hooks above. Believe me, our mudroom has never been like that, except for maybe when it was first added on to our kitchen about ten years ago. Since then, our mudroom has gone down a slippery slope --- chicken and pig grain, recycling containers, dog pillows that smell like wet farm dogs, mud, and Crazy Chicken. You get the picture.

“Crazy Chicken” has become a dependable character amongst our farmstead. There she is - looking out for everyone else while avoiding passing cars, rambunctious Border Collies, hungry bottle lambs, wild animals, and Fedex and UPS delivery vehicles. The cats know her and don’t love her. Before they rush out the door, they look around, trying to see if she is there. You see -- Crazy Chicken loves to chase all our cats. She torments them. They dive out the screen door as fast as they can, trying to avoid her furious attack. It’s all a bit of a game amongst the species – seeing who can torment the other.

Once in a while, Crazy Chicken leaves us an egg. It’s not often. Mostly she keeps an eye on things – patrolling our lives. Keeping things in place. Making this old farmhouse a real and living farm full of quirky creatures – animal and human.