Beginning Again......

First lamb of Lambing Season 2013 (in 2012!)

Snow

We have been pounded with about a foot of snow. We weren't ready. We never are. Winter comes quickly. One day, it is beautiful and warm and then next it is coming down hard. Last night after driving five hours to get home from my mom's to escape the storm, The Farmer and I drove around in the dark picking up piles of electronet fence from fields all over town. Some of it is still in piles under the snow and will probably be there until spring unless there is a good thaw. 

I went out in the height of the storm today to take some photos of the sheep. Such a beautiful sight. So gray and white and cold and raw. The sheep have hay to eat and stand around and eat while the snow is coming down. They hunker down and sleep in one place, standing up and shaking the snow off them. Most of the sheep in these photos are last year's lambs. We are expecting lambs any day now but we're hoping that they hold off until this storm goes away.

 

Happy Christmas

From our farm to yours......

Peace to all,

The Farmers.....

Kristin, Mark and Julia

Dark Day

Hanging Indian lamps + colored windows

My collection of colorful boxes

Julia's collection from her grandma and friends

The lower pasture at sunrise on dark day

Last year's ewe lamb

More last year's lambs - they'll lamb later in the spring

Mama sheep with her summer born twins

Let's just say we here at the farm are happy that begin going the other way beginning tomorrow! Happy Solstice everyone.

Sheep Going Home

First off, still time to order lamb for tonight's Lamb Meat-Up at Webs in Northampton. See this post. I'll have extra with me too!

Seems like this time of year everyone goes home. On Sunday, most of our ewe flock moved back to their winter quarters. Lambing will begin really soon and The Farmer is getting the facilities prepped, ordering important supplies, and generally getting nervous. Pretty soon here at our Leyden Glen Farm, it is going to be all about babies. 

Kate waited anxiously - our job was to guard an opening to a tempting hayfield.

Down the road they came....

 

The big guy is our Polypay ram who is one of three rams we used for breeding this year. 

Sheep run......

 

Off they go....

 

Home safe and sound.....

 

 

All in all the move went smoothly.

I'm sure some of you are curious about the polka dot sheep. The ewes are covered with burrs. The pastures they graze in the late fall are inundated with burdocks. Not much we can do about it. They fall out and unfortunately the seeds spread. And no, I'm not interested in making coats for 300 plus sheep.

Good day everyone!

Free Knitted Elf Wine Topper Pattern

If you just received my newsletter with the link to the FREE Knitted Elf/Gnome Pattern, you may have discovered that the link didn't work! UGH! Not sure why. If you want the pattern, go to this blog post and the link at the bottom of the page is working!

Sorry for my poor technical skills. No time to trouble-shoot the cause.

You can sign up for my newsletter on the top right of my sidebar. 

Happy elf-ing everyone!

Snowflakes + 100 Snowflakes Giveaway

I've always been partial to making snowflakes of the paper kind. What a great way to while away an hour or two clipping away and making flake after flake. At this time of year, they make nice decorations that people of all ages can make.

 

I was so excited to receive this great new book from St. Martin's Press the other day called 100 Snowflakes to Crochet by Caitlin Sainio (nice interview with the link).  Considering the season, I thought it would be fun to try out a few of the patterns. I used a thinish cotton and a smallish crochet hook that I had on hand. Just want to admit that I am not the best crocheter! I picked random designs and followed the instructions which are very clear. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours one evening. These snowflakes would make lovely ornaments, holiday cards, and fund-raising craft items. I'm going to starch mine and hang them on our tree when I get a minute.

 

I liked the book so much, I asked St. Martin's for a book for a giveaway for one of my lucky readers. Here's how you enter.....

Answer the following question: 

What is your favorite WINTER activity? It can be a memory from childhood or your present day life. 

US addresses only. Contest closes Thursday December 20th at 11:59 p.m. so we can get the book in the mail to the winner before the holidays. As always, leave an easy way to get a hold of you - email, Rav ID, or blog address.  Good luck everyone!

Thursday Evening! Lamb Meat-Up at Webs!

Hey Locals! Julia and I will be at Webs Yarnstore in Northampton MA this Thursday evening December 20th at a MEAT-UP! from 5 to 7 p.m.

Local grass-fed lamb raised on our farm for your holiday meal. All lamb is frozen to travel. Lamb makes a great holiday gift for foodies or those hard to shop for friends! Recipes here on our Leyden Glen Lamb website.

Here's the cool thing - Bruce Weinstein, author of the new STC book Boyfriend Sweaters, will be signing from 5 to 7:30. Register here. And Bruce is a super prolific cookbook author - including this book on cooking goat meat. He is bringing cookies too!

Please e-mail or call me to place an order. I won't be bringing much extra product.

413.774.6514 or kristinnicholasATgmailDOTcom

Whole Leg (not too many available)        $11.00 (gorgeous presentation 4-5 lbs.)
Half Leg - Bone-In                                  $11.00 (2 1/2 - 4 lbs.)
Leg - Cut in Half Butterflied                    $13.00 (feeds 4 people 2 1/2 - 3 lbs.)
Lamb Chops (RIb or Loin) (pack of 2)     $13.95
Ground Lamb                                          $ 9.95/lb. (for shepherd's pie - 1 lb. pk)
Linked Lamb Sausage                            $12.50 (easy and tasty 3/4 lb. packs)
Shoulder Roast - Cut in Half - Bone In   $8.50 (for stews and curries 1 1/2-2 lbs.)
Shoulder Chops                                      $8.95 (for stews)
Lamb Liver                                              $5.00
Hearts and Kidneys                                $5.00

One of My Favorite Days of the Year

I've been getting together with a handful of friends for the past few years every December. We pick an afternoon that will work for us all. I bake something sweet - this year it was this  brownie recipe from King Arthur Flour -  Yummy! Luckily I sent most of the brownies away with my friends!

Before the BIrch House Day, I trudge around in the woods near our home and in the sheep pastures collecting whatever I can find that looks interesting and fun to add to a Birch House. Lichen, decaying bark, moss, fungus - it all can be used. This year I had to dry it out in the oven because it was a bit wet.

 

Who says this craft is only for kids? So not true.

Love this project because you literally make everything for almost free. 

 

The only thing I spent money on is glitter (still using the same bottle from 4 years ago), Elmer's Glue for the glitter, and glue sticks for the hot glue guns. 

 

Here's my tutorial if you want to join in the fun. One of my readers - Sarah from In These Hills - and her family make the birch houses every Christmas Eve. What a nice day!

Welcome to Our Farmhouse Kitchen

Back in September when our farmhouse was first featured on the Houzz website, I started telling you about the different rooms and things in our house. Somehow I got off track and never finished. Truth be told, the Houzz people told me to stop sharing the photos because they were going to feature our farmhouse in one of their newsletters. I stopped like they asked and then we were featured as their top house of the week. What a fun surprise! What followed was a crazy series of comments from their readers - people I didn't know putting in their 2 cents about how I have painted, decorated, collected, and lived in our farmhouse with my family. 

I must say, that series of comments was one of the oddest things that has happened to me this year. To read what strangers thought of our house - both good and bad - was eye opening to say the least. One of the wackiest comments was from a woman who feared for my sanity! OMG - if she ever knew how normal we are, how grounded and common sense-ical we are she would be so disappointed. Then there were the people who were worried about resale value because of the paint colors. My comment to them is "man, don't worry about money all the time - live your life!"

I never did join in the discussion on the comments thread because it was just too much fun reading what these strangers thought from afar. It is a good thing I have thick skin and really do not care what anyone thinks of my style! There were plenty of folks who loved all the color too!

What I did realize from all of the comments is that many, many people live in their houses in fear of color, in fear of resale, in fear of what their neighbors think. They are fearful of painting a room the wrong shade. They pick beige because it is safe and they see it in all the decorating magazines over and over and over. I get a kick out of the different decorating mags all they time - their "color" issues just feature beige houses with some pops of color in the pillows. I feel sad that so many people live in fear of color. I say embrace it - play with it - see what happens. It's only paint and paint isn't that expensive in the giant scheme of things!

There have been some really nice things that are evolving from the Houzz feature and I should be able to fill you in on at least one of them after the New Year. For now, I'll share the photos from our Farmhouse kitchen and the back-story to the different photos. I hope they will inspire you all to look at your homes and mix it up once the dust settles after the New Year.

For some this may seem an odd thing to share but I don't mind. For me, any "good" house is a series of stories - tales of parties held, holidays celebrated, trips traveled and souvenirs purchased, meals cooked, visitors welcomed, lives lived, and projects accomplished. Now that I write this, it is a bit like my blog has become here in my internet home. I thank you all for going along with me on this journey and value your readership and the comments you add, whether by email or in the comments section. 

Welcome to our Farmhouse Kitchen via the lovely photos by the talented Rikki Snyder (all photos on this post by Rikki via Houzz).

Let's start with the dog! That is 13 year old Border Collie Phoebe. Isn't she beautiful? 

I totally love all the rooms in our house but probably our kitchen is my family’s favorite room because we spend so much time there. When we bought the farm back in 1998, the kitchen was in the basement! I planned to fix it up some and my mom and friend Sally mentioned that the kitchen really shouldn't be in the basement. I jumped on the chance to knock down 3 walls on the first floor and do a completely new kitchen. Our plan for our home is to stay here for a very long time, hence I was not worried about spending money and not getting it back out of the place. The kitchen (and for that matter, this entire house) was a really fun project for me. I grabbed my graph paper, my tape measure and began dreaming about how I wanted my kitchen to look and to work.

I designed our kitchen to mimic a British style country kitchen that I had become familiar with when traveling in the UK for work and pleasure. Long had I lusted over the gorgeous kitchens in British Country Living and World of Interiors. I found a medium priced cabinet maker in New Hampshire who understood the look I was going for (pictures do tell a thousand words). I measured and coordinated all the work with our friend Kevin Gray, a local builder who has done work for us at the farm for over 20 years. We knocked down 3 walls, took out windows, put new windows in and I learned a whole bunch. At the time the work was going on, we weren't living here during the week so it made it much easier to live through.

The cabinets were made by Crownpoint Cabinet Makers in Claremont, NH. They were painted with "milk paint" and then finished with some kind of coating. They have worn quite well but are starting to show some wear (it has been 13 years and we live hard in our kitchen - cats, dogs, people, manure, little lambs, chicks - it's not quite the normal house). The counters were made with local “Ashfield” schist stone complete with a slotted drainboard carved into the stone. What fun it was to go to the quarry and pick out the stones that would be on my counters. It has the look of soapstone but is a bit more durable and at the time was rather inexpensive. The kitchen island is topped with a handmade maple top made by a local friend. 

The corner cupboard is old and came from my mother-in-law. I designed the kitchen around it so that it would be used, not just looked at. It has lovely turquoise "old" paint in it. All the lights are all old and were wired by our electrician friend Dave Laprade. Over the kitchen table is a black iron electrified oil lamp that came from a general store in NH. Over the island is a wacky iron lamp with a handmade opalescent glass shade that I carried home from England shortly after we bought our house. I've never seen anything like it again. Glad I took the chance of it making it to the States safely. The walls are filled with pottery, some old, some new, some I made myself. I found the "pottery shelf" at a local junk shop - it is actually a bookcase that Kevin screwed into the wall for me. 

The table came from my hometown and was found in an elderly friend's kitchen when he passed away. It is really worn and the veneer is past repair. I can't bear to part with it because it has been our kitchen table since our first apartment. When the cats land on it the whole thing shakes. One day the table will just fall apart.

The floors are pine and half were here in the house and the other half were replaced with new pine. When the kitchen was new, I painted them a mottled, streaky greyish taupe shade and topped them with poly-something. With all the boot traffic, dog toenails, and manure (not to mention little lambs in the winter running up and down) that gets brought in, they are now highly patinaed and distressed! They wash up nicely with ammonia but it doesn't last a day. I love the look and it only comes from years of wear. Suburban people (yes, you Mom!) would never have these floors. I love them.

The stacks of magazines by the side of the table are The Farmer's farming magazines that he likes to read and refer to. I gave up along time ago nagging him about them and now just shut up and think of them as part of the decoration. He loves to leaf through past issues to refresh himself on different farming trends. I should say they are just like a knitting or decorating magazine in my little world.

Here's a close-up of the sink, the island, and the counters. The window looks out onto my chicken pen and the hill beyond. The sink is from England and I purchased it way before "farmhouse sinks" were in fashion. I had to look so hard to source this thing. I was prepared to have it shipped in from England because I was so desperate for this kind of look and giant deep sink. Now almost every sink company has their own version. I wanted taps that were old fashioned and looked like they had been there for years. Mine were made by Perrin and Rowe and I have had little problem with them. Just so you know.... the kitchen is never this clean and spare looking!

Above is another close-up of the kitchen table, the beat-up chairs and table, and a bouquet of my beautiful garden sunflowers.

This is a close-up of the junkstore bookcase turned pottery display wall piece. We call the armchair "Pop's Chair" as it was the chair my Dad always sat on when he came to visit us here at the farm. Pop's Chair always has a colorful throw or a coat on it. The cushion cover has been ruined by the cats and I haven't gotten to replacing it. One year. I just wrap an Indian blockprint around it and it fits into the mishmash just fine. The lamp is made out of antique lamp parts that I picked up at yard sales and flea markets. I had a local guy string them all together and make them into a floor lamp. One day I will paint it. The lampshade is by moi.

This cabinet is my German immigrant grandmother Frieda’s “Hoosier Cabinet” which was made by G.I. Sellers in Indiana in the early 1920’s. It was in her American kitchen her entire adult life and has a flour bin with a sifter which I use when I bake. I keep all my baking supplies in the cabinet and love that connection with my grandmother. I painted it bright orange and have some antique folk embroidery hanging from it as little curtains where the roll-top is broken. The embroidery came from the Brimfield Flea Market over a decade ago and was actually sleeve pieces from a man's shirt. I love the connection this cabinet has with my gram because she and her mom were amazing embroiderers, quilters, tatters, crocheters and bakers – part of my family history and who I am. The metal shelf extends and makes a great desk area.

This corner of the kitchen we call "the daybed nook." I think every kitchen needs a daybed. I got the idea from my friend Sally's home in Maine and copied it. Her house is on an island in the Atlantic Ocean so her view is much better than ours. Kevin built the two bookcases and at the bottom, added a support for a piece of plywood. I purchased a twin bed mattress and voila, a daybed. The phone is right there too and the shelves are stacked with my cookbook collection and The Farmer's animal husbandry and farming books. Julia's "picture books" from when she was much younger are on two shelves and neither of us can bear to part with them. We all have spent many hours on the daybed reading, napping, or talking on the phone.

The daybed is piled with my handknit and hand embroidered pillows and some I made out of Cuna Indian molas from Central America. I use a rotating assortment of Indian blockprint bedspreads on the daybed as covers. I love that I can change the feeling of the nook by the season. It's amazing what a change in fabric and color can do! The paintings on the wall are two of my first oil paintings - one of Julia as a 1 1/2 year old and one of The Farmer in his signature "plaid shirts." I was going for the naive look.

Opposite the daybed is an ottoman that is made out of an old damaged kilim. I bought it out of the back of a guy's truck one time. The closet holds my "wedding china". I open the closet once a year at Thanksgiving! Boy, I guess the wedding china trend has gone the way of the local dimestore, hasn't it? On the wall are all kinds of little prints I have collected - many to do with sheep and textiles. I collect old frames at yard sales and sometimes spend an afternoon mounting the little pictures into the frames and then finding an empty spot on the walls for the pictures. I love that Rikki wanted to take the picture without straightening the frames. It gives an honest to goodness lived in look to the photo but I also realize it may drive some of you nutty!

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of our kitchen and the back-story behind all the things in it and how it came to be. I want to thank Rikki Snyder for all the lovely photos and for introducing me to the readers of Houzz. And Photographer Sarah Zimmerman for introducing me to Rikki! I thank the Houzz people (whoever they are as I have never corresponded with anyone there!) for featuring my wacky farmhouse style on their website this year!

I hope your pre-holiday festive weeks are going along nicely. I'll be back tomorrow I hope.