Our new ride

 Our new farm van.  We still have the 3/4 ton

Cargo van, but this is easier to 'muscle' for those

long trips. Like yesterday...

It is a 2003 Honda Odyssey with no rust

(it was a FL car until a couple of years ago) 

with only 107,000 miles.

 Jerry got my Ez-Up in place for me over the skirting 

table. Now I need to find time to get some skirting done.

This is what came home with us yesterday after

being gone for 13 hours and 250ish miles.

A couple of llama fleeces, from 2 different

farms on opposite sides of the state of NH.

2 alpaca fleeces and 6 sheep fleeces from

2 farms in Stark, NH.

We left at 8 am and did not get home until 9 pm.

 Before I cleaned out the van, I let the sheep and 

llama out in the side 'yard'. Tomorrow or Saturday,

I will let them out on the house side of the driveway.

 One of my helpers. Callie Calico.

 We had no idea when we bought the van how big it

really was. My last van would fit a 4'x8' sheet of 

plywood like this van, but Jerry had to cut the corners

to make it fit. Not in this van. And, the llama chute

fits!!! We were just looking for a vehicle for long trips.

This is all a God inspired blessing! From the size of 

the van, to the condition, to the price, and that the 

person before us put in an expensive stereo system

with a CD player. It is wonderful to be able to listen

to the kind of radio we like as we travel NH, and 

eventually to CT. When we get a farm sitter...

 Ready for our next shearing trip.

No, Callie is NOT coming with us.

 Lazy llama laying in the grass, chowing down.

 2 4' gates across the width and 2 5' gates along 

the sides. We are picking up 2 Horned Dorset lambs

today, 1 ram and 1 ewe, from the gentleman that 

we are shearing for. It is great that everything fits!!

Tess FINALLY got sheared

You know the story about the cobbler's family having no shoes? Well, today I got my shearer (hubby) to shear the llama.

She is 17 years old and has never been sheared... Her former owner did brush her out, but her skin has not seen the light of day and it showed. She is a bit thinner than we'd have liked, but under all that fiber you could not tell. We still need to cut her teeth, but she was traumatized enough for one day between getting into the chute and then getting dewormed and a CDT shot.

 

Llamas should not have scurf...

 Yes. She is 17, but we should 

not see this much bone.

 Since we have cut way back on the flock, she

can now sleep with the sheep. But, we had to get

creative about feeding as I have a couple that will

 try to climb the wall to get into the llama grain.

 Someday we may actually find her dead.

She sleeps like this outside A LOT!!

I think I've been forgiven.

POOPED!

I am going to take some time to myself the next few days to recover from festival. As much as I enjoy the people and the talking and the selling, I am tired and sore.  We hope to have a few days off from shearing to finish putting up sheet rock downstairs. Once 3 sheets are up and the covers are in place on the electric boxes, we can start hanging shelves. All of our available fleeces will then go up on the shelves. It will be great NOT to have wool in every room of the house (except our personal bathroom)!

The horse trailer will remain packed until we are able to do this. As fleece goes up on the shelves, we will take pictures in order to post them to the Wool n' Ewe blog. I will most likely have more info about each of the roving we have available as well. And, eventually our yarns.

One step at a time. The last thing I want to do is go backwards in the healing of my ankle, or God forbid! break it again. :(

NH Sheep & Wool

Friday morning when we were setting up, Zeilinger Wool Company

showed up outside our building with 3 different breeds of sheep in

roving form. We got back 4 big bags of Romney which means when

I am healed, I can start dyeing again. We got 2 bags of Dorset X

Romney and one bag of Tunis. Thanks to Shave 'Em to Save 'Em

the Tunis is 1/2 gone. And, I had to send 4 more Horned Dorset

fleeces home with Sallie's Fen Fiber Mill as we are almost sold out.

 Jim (from zwool) no sooner got our roving unloaded and

Sallie showed up with all our new roving blends. I was a 

little disappointed with I saw the Romney lamb with Kid

Mohair as it looked like it was filled with scurf. I quickly

grabbed a handful and spun it up. I do not know what it is, 

but it is NOT scurf. At least 90% of it came out during 

spinning and the rest can be shaken, or picked, out. I

am ecstatic as this fiber is extremely soft!!

 We only had a couple of fleeces this year. ;)

Unfortunately, this was not a big fleece year.

But, it was an over the top yarn and roving year.

Thanks to Shave 'Em to Save 'Em and the newest

roving from the two mills!

 I was a little surprised not to sell ANY of the 

Border Leicester X Romney roving. It looks 

funky in roving form, but it spins great.

I just picked out the 'neps'.

This is from a mill I've (personally) never used,

and most likely never will.

 If anyone is interested in the pictured knitted goods,

email me at eweifarm@msn.com and I can put you 

in touch with the knitter. (These are not mine.)

 I brought my study along to show people that

 just because a fleece may look like garbage 

does not mean that it is. 

 Another 'garbage' fleece that cleaned up nicely!

This year at festival was our best in years!!

THANK YOU to all of our customers!

We sent our 2 Oxford fleeces and a Navajo Churro

lamb fleece to zwool to become roving. They are both

part of the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em, and will be available

at the VT Sheep & Wool Festival October 5 & 6, 2019, 

as well as at the Wool Arts Tour the following weekend.

I also sent a Texel fleece to them to be made into roving.

And, we will have lots of quilt batts at those 2 shows.

I sent 4 Horned Dorset fleeces to Sallie's Fen to become 

more roving, and that will be available in October as well.

I sent 6 Icelandic lamb fleeces home with Underhill Fibers

to become roving. Those will also be available in October.

Jenny Smith is a fairly new mill owner. I am happy to try her out!