Sisyphus, I feel your pain

     And here we begin the yearly ritual heralding Spring - the flooding.  For many years, it was the basement - the room which was to have originally been a play room, then a workspace - but finally the place where storage boxes go to hide so they do not need to be emptied.  We would get many inches of seepage and become  quite familiar with the shop vac and  steam vac.  But, after quite a bit of money, we seem to have gotten a handle on that.
     Now, we have the farm, and the barn, which was built (foolishly) below grade of EVERYTHING.  The  original dirt bridge, the driveway, the pasture - so many possible places for water to run from and end in the barn!  We spend a lot more money to have  drainage worked on and springs re-routed, and a pond built, but that still does not raise the  barn. (I'd like to raze the barn and start fresh!)   Two dump truck loads of gravel last fall and we got the  back of the barn raised up some - but the snows startedin Nov., and then our contractor went to Florida, and so on, so the front of the barn is still as it was last year - low, and now wet.
     Today, in the gorgeous sunshine and warm temps, my eldest son, my husband and I spent the day pumping out the barn,  chipping ditches into  earth that is frozen solid, and trying to re-grade the driveway a bit.  We have gotten quite good at "paddling" the water out of swampy puddles with snow shovels.   As soon as it  is pumped out more seeps in... Not to be a total grump, but I am not looking forward to the  next two days of  warm, and then four or five of predicted rain!  Can we jump right to summer, please?

He is not amused!

This was chipped away a sliver at a time.

Armageddon for Shrews

     We have two dogs.  Pound puppies both, we do not know their breed mixes.  One has terrier, and the other most definitely lab, but maybe some husky, or some Staffordshire terrier.  Either way, they are hunters.  Usually, Libby, the smaller one, sniffs something out, and Annie, the larger, does the digging.   I do not know who did what today, but apparently all hell broke loose in the shrew population residing in our backyard.
     All morning the dogs have been whining,  and in and out of the house.   At one point, I saw they had given me a present - a dead shrew was deposited at the top of the stairs for my viewing pleasure.  Oh joy!  I disposed of the stiff little carcass and continued my morning  work.  Upon looking out the window I see two more dead bodies on the patio.  Someone found a nest.
      When emerging from the laundry room I looked down the hall and saw the entire bottom shelf of a four foot wide bookcase, as well as some of the next shelf up had been emptied - books strewn everywhere across the floor!  Was one of my children searching for something?  I doubt it - Daphne DuMaurier, the history of Chinese culture, and William Golding are hardly their reading preferences, and they all know better than to do this to books.  Upon closer inspection, I see scratch marks along the whole of the shelf and the puzzle pieces clip together.
      I am surmising that my "gift" came into the house, not dead, ran into the basement where it was given good chase, and eventually excavated from its hopeful haven in the books.  But a basement bookshelf is not Notre Dame, and perhaps it did not squeak "Sanctuary" loud enough, for the books were cast asunder, the victim dispatched, and the offering laid at the kitchen entrance.
     
   

breeding and what to do afterwards

   We have Finnish Landrace sheep.  They are smallish, very sweet and friendly, and they can breed out of season.  Ours were born in April, so we were debating about breeding them at all this year. The shepherd we purchased them from said it should be fine, but be certain the ewes met a certain weight before breeding.  Like a 14 year old girl, they might be capable of having babies, but should they?  Not if they are too small.  So Rosie was not bred. We made a little pen for her next to the others, and we put Maxine and Frodo together, and Sam and Arwen together.   And we waited about 5 weeks.  And we fed them grain as well as hay.  And we hoped.
    Last week we separated the rams from the ewes.  The girls were pretty pleased to be back together again, but the rams - well...
   We put the rams together in their pen, and they began to head butt each other.  This was not unusual, but they were pretty fierce.   We thought, well, let's put them out so they have a little space.  BAD IDEA!  A little space meant they had lots of room to back up and gain speed before they slammed into each other.  It was sickening.   We tried intervening, but they are strong and fast.  I grabbed the leaf rake and as they approached each other  I would waggle it in their faces.  This was confusing to them, but not completely off putting. Finally they slammed into each other so hard that Sam started bleeding and his  little horn nub was depressed into his head.  Time to break this up.  We got Sam into the pen and left Frodo in the pasture with the llama.  At first he chased the llama, wanting to be next to him.  Then, this silly ram tried several times to mount the llama - who would walk away, or side stepped him.  Finally,  Elrond, the llama, had had enough.  He chased Frodo into the run in, and stood there as if to tell him, "Enough, you puny ovine!"
    As soon as we got home, we turned to the internet for advice from more seasoned farmers.  Well, we had done everything wrong.   So we went back and  put the boys in together, but we  made a tiny pen out of their spacious one by  taking a gate and tying and bracing  it so the rams could get to their feeder, their water and minerals, but they  only had enough room to turn around, lie down, but not ram each other.

Alex checking out the rams.

Close  quarters

Even with these close quarters, they tried to get at each other, so we threw a couple of bales of hay into the corners to  cramp their style a bit more.  The next two days they were living cheek by jowl, but when we  opened up their space a bit, they tried ramming each other some more.  

     The next recommended deterrent was to  spray their  noses and their testicles with perfume to mask any smell of the ewes they had been with.  That seemed to do the trick, but the rams' pen smelled more like a bordello than a barn!

    So now calm has been restored to the  rams, and we wait  to see if the ewes are going to have lambs in April.  Keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for babies in the Spring!

Satisfactions

   There are large projects we all undertake, which, when completed, provide great satisfaction - whether we did the job ourselves, or facilitated its completion.  For example:  re-roofing our house.  It had to be done.  We were the lucky winners in the game of homeowner's roulette who HAD to  put a completely new roof on.  There were three layers of shingles on this place, including the original cedar shingles from 1920.  We know the date, because when he was stripping the house, our roofer found a shingle with the original builder's writing on it, including the date of his work.   For nearly two weeks we had this loveliness to look at, before it was complete.

    There are other, simpler things that I am finding to be small gifts.  Yesterday we broke down the temporary pen in the barn, where we were holding the ewe we were not breeding this year.  The hay that she had used as bedding, etc, was fairly compact, even though it was just over a month of her staying there.  The act of cleaning that out and spreading it on the garden area, and seeing the barn returned to more order is one of the little gifts of farming.  There is so much we cannot control, but these little things we can, and there is satisfaction.  

Temporary holding pen for Rosie - baling twine has so many uses!

     It seems we have made it a habit of doing holiday walks on the farm. That is when we are all relieved, temporarily, of our responsibilities to jobs, school, and "have tos" and we can just be.  The day or two after Christmas was warm, and sunny, and after chores, we all took a ramble through the fields to the high pasture, then into Fangorn Forest, and the day was perfect.  I found some lichen patches to experiment with - making a leaf envelope to carry it home in.  

The dogs got a nice romp in, and we were all able to soak up some sunshine, so rare here in the winter.

the "Gate Photo" a new tradition!

 There were moments of doing nothing - just sitting, warmed in the sunshine, not worrying about whether there would be burrs in our sweaters, or ticks on the dogs. This is one of the greatest "little" satisfactions.  The ability to let go of the worrying, the concerns, the stress, and just BE.

Shopping Christmas Eve.

     I am not a shopper - let's establish that from the start.  I go to a store with a list, a plan, and a desire to leave as soon as possible. You will never catch me near a mall on Black Friday or the weekend following it.
   I do, however, love to shop on Christmas Eve.  There is a different feeling the day before the gifting frenzy takes place.  Everyone is a bit more:  more friendly, more helpful, more sheepish at the lateness of their endeavors, more willing to go out of their way to  lend a hand.  It is what I think we should be doing all the time, but I often do not see it until right before Christmas.
    Examples:  my husband and I went to the  Walmart this morning at 8 a.m.  I was in the  fabric section (big surprise!) looking for some thread, and an elderly gentleman with a completely empty cart was looking lost.  He caught my eye and asked for help locating stick on letters to  put his grandkids' names on a go-cart.  His wife had sent him and he had no idea where to start.  I suggested the craft aisle and  the aisle with mailboxes.  Another lady added that the scrap booking aisle might have them.  He smiled and thanked us and he felt better, we felt better, and the day had a good start.
     We ran to the local bookstore, only to find it was not yet open, and as we turned away, debating about buying coffee next door, the owner of the shop popped his head out and told us he was now open.  He had seen us through the window and rushed over to open a few minutes early.  Cynics might say he just wanted a sale, but I think he was being a good person.
     Later, taking the kids to a different store, we saw a lady who made my 5'3" look tall, trying to find the right size thermal underwear for her 93 year old dad.  All she could find were extra tall, XXL, all too big.  My daughter spend 10 minutes dragging display boxes off the shelf that was over this woman's head, helping her find the right size.  There were smiles, a little background on her chilly dad, and more good feelings.
     So Merry Christmas to all of you.  Remember why we celebrate.  Give your loved ones that little extra bit of your time and attention.  Life is precious, people are good and we can all spread joy, even by doing little things like holding a box, or opening a shop early.    Much love to you all!

The Hopeful Farmer: Eating Snowy

    Ding! Dong! The rooster is dead!  Snowy, the wicked rooster, who terrorized my children and plucked half of the hens naked, is now history.  Right around Thanksgiving we decided it was time.  We had the time and  a tutorial from  Youtube, so what more did we need?

    To start with, we needed to catch him.  Snowy was a pretty smart bird.  My husband almost caught him with a snare, twice,  but the darn thing escaped.  Trying to go into the  run and actually catch him outright would have meant much bloodshed on our part - and I will admit, I was scared of that rooster!  In the process of trying to  catch him, both Snowy and one of the hens escaped the run.  Now shooing the hen back into the  run was easy.  Snowy was free and he was going to stay that way.  He ducked under the car, and literally crawled to the other side. I never knew chickens could crawl!  My husband grabbed an old blanket out of the car and began chasing the  bird around the barnyard.  That is when it got funny.  The rooster  squeezed through the fence - Drew had to go over it.  He  flew, and ran as Drew chased.  Eventually, the blanket won, and the bird was strung up  in the shed.
     There are many ways to actually kill a chicken.  Drew slit its throat. We are not certain we did this correctly, because it took an awfully  long time for the  rooster to bleed out.   It was getting dark, so we took him home for the processing.
   It got more silly as we tried to  scald him for plucking, and the  bird did not fit in the pot.  We got a larger pot, more water, and a computer, and things got going.  With Drew  doing the actual work, and me reading the steps off the laptop, it was eventually done.   I would read a step, "Okay, you are supposed to scrape out the lungs"  and Drew would respond with, "What do the lungs look like?"  I would show him the photos and he would search for the proper looking things to remove.  It was a weird experience, probably best done in the daylight, not by patio lights in the cold of winter, but the deed was done.
     When he was  ready for cooking, that bird was a 5 1/2 pounder!  He became Coq au Vin, and he was delicious.
     Now, the hens are getting their feathers back.  We can open the coop or go into the run without arming ourselves with shovel or rake.  I do not care how pretty they are, the new rule is:  no more roosters!

Don't mess with dad, or he might put you in the soup pot!

The Hopeful Farmer - on Dyeing

    Yesterday I posted about death, so it seems fitting today be on dyeing.   I have been working on  dyeing using a variety of local  dyestuffs.  Here is an example of  the wool I dyed with wild grapes  using an alum mordant. I will have to wait to see how  fast the colour is.

natural wool yarn - I forget what type of sheep it is from - I spun it a while ago, heating in an alum mordant

This is the left over pulp from making wild grape jelly, and I hated the  idea of  wasting it, so I experimented

The colour in the pot is very different from the colour on the finished wool

a nice earthy purple

 I also tried dyeing some yarn using poke berries.  I have a poke weed in the middle of my currant patch which  seems a permanent fixture.  I have tried chopping it,  pulling it - I cannot eradicate it, so I will try to utilize it.  I know that poke berries stain things, but the color has been deemed not fast by many  dyers.  I found one book in which a dyer  found that using a vinegar mordant, AND adding vinegar to the dye pot makes the colour fast.  SOooo, I went out last weekend and cut off all the poke berries remaining on my huge weedy interloper.

The berries were past their prime, and next year I will work earlier in the fall to obtain more, and juicier berries.  After gathering the berries and picking them off the stems, they are mashed and set to simmer at 160 - 180 degrees, with vinegar added.  Meanwhile for about half an hour, the wool was simmering at 160 degrees in  vinegar water.  

After about 30 - 40 minutes, strain the  berries out of the  dye bath because there are MANY tiny little black seeds in poke weed berries and they get caught in the yarn.  Add the yarn and simmer for at least an hour, it you can let it sit overnight after that hour, do so, but with the heat turned off and a lid on the pot.  I was expecting to get a reddish yarn, but after the first hour, I had a nasty, muddy tan.  

     After about an hour of  resignation,  I remembered our fish tank.  What??  What does that have to do with dyeing.  Well,  every time we had to change the fish tank water, we had to adjust the ph. A lot.  The package said add 10 drops of "ph up" to each gallon to reach neutral, and we would have to add 40 drops.   So, I dumped another cup of vinegar in the water, and almost instantly - pink! After an evening in the dye pot. It came out red.  Very pretty.

 Now, I am a frugal soul, so I thought I would try running a second batch of wool through the already used dye pot to see if it would come back somewhat lighter.  The dye still looked red, but apparently was nearly exhausted.  What I got was this golden colour- after following the same mordanting process.

 This is what they look like together.  I really like it, and  I am eagerly awaiting  next year's poke weed to fruit!

          I have begun a several month long process of creating a dye using ammonia fermentation on lichen.  I really am flying blind here for one reason: I am certain of the process, but not what lichen I am using.  I need a friendly mycologist to help me out.  I may ask a friend who heads up the biology program if he or any of his colleagues have expertise in this area.  

            This is the lichen I am using.  I took it off some small trees that had blown down in our forest.  My husband and son cut them out and got them off the road, bringing them down the mountain with the intention of burning them later.  I saw tons of gorgeous lichen and  grabbed a knife and removed it from the logs.  After a long time on the internet and with several library books I learned two things: #1  mycology is an under represented area, and #2 books and internet photos are not very helpful in identifying lichens.  I need a  nature walk with an expert!

    When working with lichens, patience and care are very important.  Harvesting the lichen takes time - I was on my knees for an hour or two collecting what you see in the bowl.  It is a slow growing, yet important  part of our planet, so harvesting ALL you can find is an ethical no-no.  I  did not feel guilty taking everything off the logs that are going to be burned after having fallen, but I would be much more frugal about harvesting it when it has good growing conditions. The fermentation process will take several months, and even then, if I have the wrong lichen, I may end up with a brown dye rather than the magenta that I am hoping for!  I'll let you know in February how it turned out!  I love how nature teaches us not to rush.