Shearing, sheep, spring, fleece ... task accomplished.

Shearing is done. I am so glad that chore is accomplished. Now only if we find time to plant the garden.






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Hawkweed and vinegar, no Roundup, not supporting Monsanto.

For three springs now we have been spraying hawkweed with plain store bought vinegar. Let me tell you- it works. The hawkweed patches are getting smaller and smaller and I can safely report that 75% of the them are gone. It takes time and patience. But it is absolutely well worth it. I spray anytime I want, no mask, no protective gear, and mostly I do not have to worry about my farm animals walking by me and munching away. I have a post on my Facebook, well several posts, about very serious health consequences of using Roundup.

As you can see from the images I bought several bottles of regular vinegar, I think one large bottle was about $6. Spray container I got at our local farm supply store and voila. I do not dilute the vinegar. Happy safe spraying.






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Permaculture

Sheep vaccination

In February we vaccinated our sheep. And here is Margo hard at work.

Part I.


Part II.

Evening feed

Enjoying hay, beautiful sunset casting last rays into the shed.

Idaho sheep wagon.

I saw this adorable house on the Tiny house website.
Here is the link, tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/idaho-sheep-wagons/.

Moving the office outside

It got a bit hot in the last few days, so I moved my office into the wood shed behind the house. There is a nice breath and I even have a new assistant, English Patient, he is just as baffled as I am at the new websites I am creating.

Great Friday

Sorry to hear about the East coast baking in that awful heat. What? Climate change? We're having wonderful days, a bit of rain last night gently watered the garden, hopefully our tomatoes will get the message and start turning fruit soon. Everything else is growing beautifully, peas, lettuce, swiss chard, my all time favorite and of course we pick strawberries every day- several cups. Thank you chickens and thank you sheep for your not so sudden contributions to our little ecosystem.

and here is a bit on fun on the set, these are the good times on the film sets I sort of miss, other then that glad hollywood days are long gone from my repertoire ...

Lazy afternoon

Fleece cleaning

Fleece cleaning has started.

An unexpected wolf visit

Yesterday afternoon we had an unexpected visit from a wolf. We spotted him calmly sitting on a hill above the pasture where the sheep were grazing. It was the chickens who created a noisy and loud ruckus, sheep correctly ran into their pen and we observed the wolf with binoculars. Unfortunately not enough time to grab the camera. After a few minutes the wolf slowly got up, turned and walked into the woods.
This is the closest image I found online.

Gray wolf. Photo by Flickr user Fremlin used under a Creative Commons License
Visit Center for Biological Diversity

Sheering

Yesterday we sheered our little flock! I will post images later today. What an experience, I think it was more traumatic for me then for the sheep. They sure did not want to cooperate. As Martin said the more pets they are the less cooperative they are. And aren't these first class pets! All is well and they happily running around without all that weight of one year fleece. Speaking of their fleece- looks very very nice and very very soft. Now cleaning, all all the steps to turn the fleece to a nice yarn. Will keep you posted, documenting all the steps with images of course.

Spring Evening

First warm, sort of, evening, sunset setting over the hills.

A Studio with a View

My studio and my reliable assistants. Yes, those three wooly bears outside the window.

Spring Hair Cut ... Visit to Lee's Farm

Last Monday my friend Lee had her entire flock of sheep sheered. It was rainy in the morning but soon the wind pushed the clouds and the sun came out. The sheep very a bit cold but as Lee said today they are used it by now. See more image on my flickr page.

Working in the garden, feels like spring!

Handmade Wedding Dress

Little Bo Peep bride marries in stunning dress made of wool from her own flock of sheep