Matilda coats

The following comment was left on our fleece blog and I decided to show you in pictures how there is less lanolin in our fleeces.
Windyridge has left a new comment on your post "Corriedale ewe": Your fleeces are lovely! As a spinner and sheep farmer and seller of covered fleeces myself, I am curious how coating the sheep causes less lanolin in the fleece.

The white coat is a clean coat. (Brand new they are whiter than that!) As the fleeces grow, or the coats become dirty, we change them and then I wash them. (The website says not to wash them, but I've got to!!) Some of what is on the coat is manure, but the majority of it is lanolin and sheep sweat. And the coats are a lot heavier when they are dirty than when they are clean.
My Corriedale wether gets a new coat about every other month. And his coat looks just like these when we change it.
Because I am so happy with the looks of our fleeces with these coats, we will be becoming dealers for the Matilda coats very soon!!

A day in the country

http://www.bear-tracker.com/coon.html
This morning I awoke to this. Some little varmint, OK it was most likely a raccoon, dumped over the trash can, opened the lid and took out the trash bag. We are used to this here. We get out the broom and clean the entire deck. No sense in just doing where the coon did his thing. (o;
But, it had to get into the one bag that still had some left over paint in it. And it had to leave that paint on my deck. I did scrub the deck and it is not coming out, but I did get up all the 'extra' paint. I wonder if the coon would do my trim...........

Paw prints galore!! I hope it had a good time!

New blog

just for fleece!!

http://eweifarmfleece.blogspot.com

Mid May on the farm

After all the snow we had this winter, I was not sure that things would ever flower again. But God knew what He was doing. The lilacs, both purple and white, are in bloom about 2 weeks early. The peony next to the house is getting ready to bloom. The peonies in front of the deck are behind that one. Some of the irises are looking like they will bloom in the next 2 weeks. I have a tree in front of my office that has what look like apple blossoms on it, but I don't think it is an apple. I don't remember where I got it from. There is one more tree out in front of my office window that I do know what it is either. We will have to wait and see. I do know that I planted the 2 different colored lilacs, a Forsythia, and a Burning Bush.
The grass is greening up and the girls are 'mowing the lawn' about an hour a day. Any more than that at this time and they will get diarrhea. We don't want that!!
Shearing has slowed down for Jerry, so we are getting things done around the house and yard. We had planned a yard sale for this week end (Memorial Day), but there is still much that needs to be done.
We are still planning on putting this farm on the market and looking for a bigger farm. We are also looking at opening our own fiber processing mini mill!! We need to figure out financing for that though. We don't have $100,000 burning a hole in our pocket!
Please check out the newest farm blog!! http://eweifarmfleece.blogspot.com/ We have 80+ fleeces sitting in the kitchen that need a new home!! Another reason to open a mini mill. (o;

A narcisus peeks out from under my mother's roses. A peony bush and day lilies under the cat walk.

Azaleas in front of the rock. An ornamental cherry tree.

My mother's roses. Another look at the unknown flowering tree and the lilac bush.
Some unknown flowering tree.

In front of the barn is a flower bed with rhubarb, a Forsythia bush, iris, bee balm, (at this time) garlic, a lilac bush, a burning bush, and some day lilies.

Rhubarb and Forsythia bush. Lilac and burning bushes.

We just picked up some mulch today. So I plan on sprucing up all my flower beds.

Sheep shots

The girls are getting a little crowded!!

The boys. Cornelius is now a yearling. He looks odd without his wool.

32nd NH Sheep & Wool Festival

The few things and vendors I had my camera available to take pictures of.

'Pogo' Pogorelc, Friends' Folly Farm http://www.friendsfollyfarm.com/

Isn't this wheel gorgeous? It is from the Spinning Studio, owner Robin Russo, 1062 South Road , Bradford , VT 05033 , (802) 222-9240

Sheep Shed from New Boston, NH http://www.sheepshed.net/

Some of our food vendors & to the left, Lenore Sousa. She did the booklets, trifolds and tshirts. Thank you Lenore for your hard work.

Belgian Acres Farm- awesome apple crisp!! and french fries.

Scooter's Pretzels Milton, VT

http://yankeefarmersmarket.stores.yahoo.net/ Buffalo burgers

Holly's Fried Dough. Unfortunately I was so busy, I missed out on this. My fellow vendor Shari talking to the owners.

http://www.riversleafarm.com/ Liz & Jeff Conrad
Adele Dupont, Golden Fleece Fashions, Canterbury, CT

Doreen Billig & Laurie Wiley- High View Farm and Will Ewe Farm

Dave Kennard's dogs alway draw a crowd. http://www.wellscroft.com/farm/farmHome.html

another shot of the fairgrounds, coming from the green gate.

Ann Desmet and David Hull Windfall Farm hooked rugs & supplies

http://www.windfallfarmnh.com/v1/

Michelle Day The Fiber Fetish http://www.thefiberfetish.com/

Decadent Fibers Kinderhook, NY http://www.decadentfibers.com/

Roberta M:Clellan of Moat Mountain Farm

Donna Herrick, This and That Farm https://www.uvm.edu/wagn/biscards/donnaherrick.html

Tom & Josie Speckert, Abi's Web Hinsdale, MA

Nancy Zeller (on right) Long Ridge Farm http://longridgefarm.com/earthues.asp

Gene Matras, Ink Drawings by Gene Matras http://www.genematras.com/

Kat Smith of Stonesthrow Farm http://www.vermontvacation.com/TravelPlanner/ItemDetail.aspx?outsideLink=false&spID=20097

Deb Woolley, The Irish Ewe, E. Balwin, ME http://www.theirishewe.com/

Jonathan & Sheila Bosworth, Journey Wheel, http://www.journeywheel.com/

Loranne Block from Snow Star Farm, Antrim, NH

Adele Dupont from Golden Fleece Fashions, Canterbury, CT

Bartlett Yarns http://www.bartlettyarns.com/

Carol Leigh http://www.hillcreekfiberstudio.com/

The entrance (side) to the Morrill Family Farm Museum. Inside the musuem building is the Annual Fleece to Shawl competion. Below are pictures of the teams. I so wish I had gotten back there when they were done to take more pictures, but unfortunately by the time I got back, they were gone. )o:

**************************************************

Thankful the weather was nice all weekend and full of customers.

Our friend & another booth helper/seller. Sue Maurer makes awesome felted hats!! She found this 'blockhead' flyer to show her husband. It would make it easier for blocking her felted hats.

Ken & Charlene Schultz from Honeybuns Rabbitry & Apiary, and Terry Collard, a weaver friend from Harrisville Designs.
Looking at the customers coming out of the building beside ours.

Looking at our display. Our new hanger from my dyed Romney rovings.

Joyce May. One of our booth helpers/sellers. Looking into the front of our building.

When Shari & I arrived to the fairgrounds on Thursday to mark vendor spots, the front (left) looked like the back (right) and was missing part of the roof. We could not get into the building until Friday at 2 pm to set up. Needless to say, this set my schedule back by quite a bit. We were still working on our set up Saturday when our customers arrived. I don't like having to rush around like that. I much prefer to be rested to greet people.

But, we still had a good weekend and I thank all of those who purchased from us. I am working this week on getting this on the Etsy site. So, stay tuned.

For another perspective of the Sheep & Wool festival go to this blog. http://unravelingsophia.blogspot.com/