New posts

At some point I will start posting regularyly here again. I have a show Saturday in New London at the Elementary School in the gymnasium and the following Friday night at the Bradford Fire Station from 5:30-8:30 (I hope!). I will take pictures and post items I have available for sale after the 8th. I want to start blogging more again. Facebook is nice as I can just post a line or two and be done. But, I think my account may have been hacked... So, I may be pulling away from FB and going old school!! TTFN.

Good information from a man who knows a LOT more about sheep than I do.

Sheep101 Don Drewry · about an hour ago · After raising sheep for 50+ years and giving advise on the for 25+ years. Here is a top 13 list of things to keep in mind, especially if your new to sheep. 1) Have a vet that considers you their client. Sooner or later you will regret not having one and most likely that will not be during business hours. The more "reasons" I read why people can't use a vet the less I believe them. 2) Assume every ram can be dangerous and don't normally work or feed inside of a pen with a ram. 3) We all think our sheep are special but they are really just sheep. This means if you can't get your sheep to stay in an electric fence or get lambs to grow well on a quality milk replacer it really is most likely something you are doing or not doing as sheep really will stay in electric fences and quality milk replacers are better not worse than the alternatives and this is routinely proven on many other farms than yours everyday. 4) If a sheep has access to even a blade of grass you need a worm management plan. 5) Keep on hand at least 2 dewormers from different classes and oxytetracycline and Bo-Se. When you encounter an issue very often one of those will buy you time to get a better treatment. 6) Colostrum Replacement powder really does work as well as frozen Colostrum and is way easier to use. This does not mean Colostrum Supplement is a smart buy. 7) FAMACHA scoring really is a good way to tell if a sheep probably has barberpole worms. The few times this isn't the cause aren't worth the delay in treating. 😎 A rectal temperature can quickly tell you if an infection or pneumonia cause is the problem or not eating or metabolizing enough feed. 9) Total use of antibiotics is usually less if you treat earlier than later. 10) Ewes down in late gestation are usually ketotic or hypocalcemic. Learn how to diagnose and treat. If either happen very often fix your ration. 11) Lamb tubing really is easy and saves many lambs. If you are reluctant to tube a lamb get over it you will keep more alive. 12) I completely disagree with anyone that feels bloat is an inevitable occurrence if you raise sheep. It's not. Pasture bloat occurs you put hungry sheep in a pasture with too many legumes. Grain bloat (acidosis) occurs when sheep eat more grain than they are used to. Your fences or gates will fail some day. You know this. Do not store pails or grain, tubs of grain or bags or feed outside the sheep pen. All belong behind another door or wall or fence. 13) Dewormers, antibiotics, coccidiostats, vitamin, energy drenches are NOT interchangeable. Just because you have one of these on hand doesn't mean it's at all useful for treating something one of the others address.

Darn deer!!

We were sound asleep at 1 AM this morning when the driveway alarm went off. And off. And off... 6 times in less than 2 minutes. And then it was quiet. For FIFTY minutes... Then it started to go off again and again. UNTIL I got up and shut the darn thing off. There were at least two doe and an 8 point buck. I am assuming this is the same buck from last year that was 6 point. I keep looking for his shed antlers, but no luck. Yet.

As I sit here recovering from yet another surgery, I am thinking of ways to get my ways to get my blogs back up and running. I will be taking pictures of available product in the next few days as I am unable to lift anything, but I can handle my camera. I will only be posting available roving, recycled grain bag tote bags and some of my hand knit/crocheted items. Fleeces will happen at a later date. Stay tuned as the dye kitchen gets built and the cabinets and appliances get moved in, and the shop camper gets its floors and walls finished so product can start moving in there. Once I get the business out of the house and the dyeing, and hopefully soap making, all moved downstairs, I hope to start working on the main floor!!

On June 20, 2023 a new to us camper came from Unity to Sutton. Between the heat, the downpours and the flooding, it has slowly been completely gutted. We have bought OSB for the floors as we have sold product. After we bought grain and hay of course! Then we bought 2 rolls of linoleum to make cleaning the chicken camper easier. This week I have been putting hardware cloth on all the windows (all the other openings in the camper were already covered) and the roof openings/vents. I will be putting new (leftover from building the house!) insulation in the roof so I can get that closed up as well. After the roof is done inside, we will build the two dividing walls to make it a 3 sectioned chicken coop. We were able to pick up some free dog kennel this week that needs some love,but thankful I have the parts needed from someone that gifted it to us years ago. Sometimes it is good to say yes to free even though you have no clue at the time what you are going to do with it. God knows!! I will take more pictures when I get a chance. Back to it!! TTFN.

June 25

July 13

July 18

July 23rd

Flipping deer keeps setting off my driveway alarm...

It has been a LONG time

I am working on getting back into blogging as Facebook won't load my pictures from the computer. This post is from 2021 and was in the draft file. I have not seen Pixies stix this year. I hope all is well. Coffin cellars and Ewes Full Things were both at Sunapee Farmer's Market last weekend.

 Since I updated this blog!! Never mind the fiber blog. Face Book is just easier to post a line or two on…

I took pictures today of my fellow vendors at the Sunapee Farmers Market. As soon as the phone is charged I will post pictures here, and links, for y’all to check out the folks that I have the privilege of vending alongside of. 

https://www.facebook.com/lakesunapeeflowerfarm/

https://www.facebook.com/beaverpondfarmnh

https://www.facebook.com/Divided-Sky-Farm

https://www.facebook.com/coffincellars

https://www.facebook.com/hardinghillfarmnh

https://www.facebook.com/Ewes-Full-Things-wool-art-

Not with us today, but not to be left out. https://www.facebook.com/Thymetocook.Bri and https://www.facebook.com/Pixiesstix