Chicks and Kids

This was the week for new babies on our farm. When I went out to do chores Monday evening, I could tell that Fern appeared to be getting closer to going into labor. I kept an eye on her all evening and finally at 2:30am she delivered a beautiful little doe. We have named her Charlotte. She is very dainty and so sweet just like her mom.

I came back into the house around 4:00am and as I walked through the dining room I heard a loud peeping. A new chick had just hatched in the incubator that has been sitting in our dining room the past three weeks. Other unhatched eggs were peeping as well. I climbed the stairs to go back to bed but found it difficult to sleep. I am not sure if it was the loud peeping from the chicks or the excitement of having a new kid in the barn that kept me awake.

Our first round of yarn CSA shares from our March shearing went out in the mail last week!! I shipped out the Cormo/Romney/Mohair yarn as well as the Silver Grey Lamb's Wool yarn. I am beginning to hear back from our shareholders about their packages. Here are some of their comments!

Dear Kim--

This week I received the yarn I had purchased from you late last year, and I wanted to tell you how thrilled I am! The entire package was wonderfully presented, and I particularly enjoyed the addition of a few treats in with the yarn. This was my first time participating in CSA: I learned about the practice and your farm from an article in Twist Collective (Fall 08). Your communication right after my order, as well as the care with which the yarn was packaged for delivery, made this a very rewarding experience.

Dear Kim, I received the yarn on Wed and it is gorgeous! I am very excited to work with it and now have to find a "worthy" pattern to use it on. Thank you also for the lavender and the goat soap. Hope to see you on the yarn tour if not sooner.

Thanks again
D.

Thank you shareholders!!!!

I wanted to share what one of my yarn CSA customers knit with the hand spun llama/Romney yarn she bought last year. Wouldn't you love to have this lovely soft shawl wrapped around your shoulders on a winter evening?!

Chloe

Chloe, one of our natural colored yearling ewes went to the New Hampshire Sheep Festival this weekend. Actually, Chloe stayed home and sent her fleece to the festival and entered it into the fleece contest. This is the first time we have ever entered a fleece into a contest. Chloe's fleece was just gorgeous after shearing with nice even crimp and so much luster. I felt surely it would be a prize winning fleece. The judges must have agreed; Chloe's fleece won a second place ribbon out of many other Romney fleeces entered!! We are all so excited! Chloe's fleece will be hand spun and some lucky person will buy the yarn and have this award winning fleece wrapped around them in a knitted item!

Kids at Grand View Farm

Monday was the day! Periwinkle delivered two adorable little babies, one buck and one doe. These babies were incredibly alert and very vocal from the moment of birth. Their little cries echoed through the barn all afternoon when all else was quiet. Periwinkle is such a good mom, attentive to their every need, nickering to them constantly, and tolerating their jumps as they try to leap to her back. It is difficult to keep away from the barn.