Sunshine and Sunny grazing

Today felt different, like the season was changing, it was hot, but the wind was softly blowing, the clouds were very high and the moon was out. More like Indian Summer, I can only hope. Wormed the big flock of sheep that are mostly BFL-Cotswold crosses and some BFL's. They all looked healthy, but it is almost August and they have not been wormed since their shearing in March. These sheep eat grass and mineral, lots of cool water and hang out in the shade until dark, then graze by the light of the moon. One old black Cotswold, Jasper was limping, soaked her foot and she is fine, trailed along after the rest of the flock. Jasper, Fancy and Freckles, and Jewell are all registered Cotsowld's and all are getting old and thin. All still have beautiful fleeces. That will be the end of my Cotswold line when these ewes are gone, I haven't used a Cotswold ram in so many years, changed to BFL then Cormo. So many breeds of sheep to try, but the Cots have done well in this part of the country.

To everything there is a season

And tomato season is over. Kinda happy and kinda sad. The early garden is dyeing, glad all the work is over, but I'll miss all the fresh vegetables. There will still be tomatoes to eat, peppers, okra, beans and peas. Next week grapes will be ready to pick, they ripened several weeks before the usual date. This was the year of the tomato, so big, so red, so many and so good. If you don't put up all the vegetables you can by the end of summer, you will have an empty feeling, not to mention an empty pantry.

Got milk?

Couldn't get the milk poured out fast enough for the kittens. Barnie is drying up, but they still try to nurse her. She caught a rabbit in the garden yesterday and brought it to her kittens. Last week they had a mouse. Still a kitten herself, but a real barn cat.

Fresh goat milk

Moved Tanner to the other side of the kidding barn yesterday, her 2 kids are draining her. They are plenty big enough to be weaned. I have been to busy with the garden to start milking, but I canned the last of the tomatoes last night and nothing is producing much in this heat, so it's time to start. Gave her a nice bath then a hoof trimming and sheared her. She was pretty dirty, finding any wet spot in the barn to wallow in to keep cool. The good thing about Tannner is she loves to be pampered, she is very good on the milking stand and even likes to be sheared. Since I had no bottle babies this year there will be plenty of fresh goat milk. Barnie and her kittens got to enjoy the first milking.

Late night show

It was late last night when I made it to the mother-in-law farm to feed the goats and Dollie, the Pyrenees, but the moon was bright and beautiful. It is hotter at this pasture than any of the others, not enough trees to create much of a shade, but a big open shelter that they pile into during the heat of the day. One lone persimmon tree where they wait for the fruit to ripen and fall to the ground, then gobble them up. If you have ever eaten wild persimmons you would have to think goats do not have the same sense of taste as us. Even the ripe ones are bitter. Another tree fell on the fence in the sheep bottoms last night. The goats in that pasture feasted on wild green muscadines and vines. They spend a good portion of their day under the wild cherry trees waiting for the fruit to fall. I read the seed in wild cherry was poisonous, but the sheep and goats love them.

Saturday

It was hot and humid when I walked out the door to feed and water the sheep and goats before loading up the truck with fiber. We had a good crowd at PHG and sales were good, a big thanks to Helen, another Mohair lover, like me, that cannot get enough of the silk like handle of kid mohair. Not all sheep and angora goats have that feeling, but I try to breed for it, lustre and handle, that is what catches my eye, for some it is softness, crimp, or bright color. It was 101 degrees when I left Atlanta, as I made it toward home there were several showers and many car wrecks, the temp dropped down to 79. We got a half inch of rain and the temp stayed low for a couple of hours giving everybody a break from the heat.

White Elephant

We got just a sprinkle of rain yesterday, but it did cool down into the eighties for awhile, so I decided to run the carder. Can't stand the heat long enough to start the dye pots so I spent several hours cleaning the ten drums on the carder. Every colored fiber must be picked out to keep it from contaminating the white roving. I had two nice white, cream or natural as it can be called by different spinners, already washed and dryed. One a BFL-Cotswold fleece that was creamy and the other a BFL that has a silkie handle and pretty much white. I'm off to Peachtree handspinner's guild meeting tomorrow and looks like it will be a white elephant sale this month.

Goatherding

We let the goats out in the unfenced wooded area behind their pasture for awhile every morning, their grass is short and this is what they love. Lots of small trees, privet, honeysuckle and berry brambles. Wolf goes out ahead of them and stays close by. They are gradually exploring a little bit farther everyday, then someone runs back to the barn and everyone follows, it's all over with until the next day. It was so hot this morning they decided to stay at the barn and wait for their grain and for me to reload the hay feeders, the more they eat the less time they will spend out in the heat looking for forage.

Dog Days of Summer

The cotton plants are really loading up the bolls in this heat. We didn't get the rain that others around us did, but hopefully the plants will hold as many bolls as possible. If it gets too hot and dry the plant will start throwing off the bolls. It can only support so many bolls, and it's first priority is to maintain the plant. I am ready to throw my bolls off, I've had enough of summer, Dog Days are taking their toll on me. I have no energy, and I am having a spinner's, dyer's, weaver's block. Only three months til SAFF and so much to do. I have good ideas and intentions, it's just hard to process wool in 90 plus degrees.

Falling leaves

I didn't notice the sheep reflection in the water tank when I took this photo. I would like to think fall is coming early with these yellow cherry tree leaves floating in the water tank this morning. But, I'm afraid it is from the dry weather. I moved several water tanks around the pasture for the sheep so they won't have to travel so far in the heat to find water. It didn't take them long to find them. A lot easier on them but more work on the shepherd. I have a wagon with a fifty gallon water tank that I pull around to different pastures where there are no water lines. A lot better than carrying water by hand to them. So you always have it easier than someone else, no matter how hard it seems.

Where's the grass?

Sheep trying to stay cool in the shade but find some grass to graze. They are already getting hay and a small amount of grain and it's just July, going to be a costly year for hay. I think the different wormer I gave them is working, hope it will last. If they can keep the fleeces on for 2 more months it will be long enough for spinning, it is about 3" now and very clean, but things can change in a hurry. They seem to have adjusted to the heat a little better and moving to the wooded pasture helped, now all the sheep are back together at one pasture. They still sort off into two different flocks in the morning but end back together to bed down for the night. There is one certain place where they sleep that they come back to ever year when it is hot. And they say sheep are dumb.

Squirt's fleece

Squirt's fleece is on its way to Irene in MA. Squirt was a 2# lamb born to Jewell about three years ago. He was raised on a bottle about a week until Jewell learned to squat for him to nurse. I appreciate Irene supporting my sheep farm, we have never met but she loves my longwools. She asked for Jewell's fleece, but it was not as nice this year as her sons, since she had twins last spring. Jewell is getting some age on her and this maybe her last lambing, it is hard to keep weight on her. She has two Cotswold-Cormo ewes to take her place, but she has one of the finest Cotswold fleeces I have ever seen and more luster than any of my sheep.

Remembering a cooler day

By ten this morning it was already 84 degrees, this maybe the hottest day yet. Kept the yearling sheep up in the old lambing barn with a big fan blowing on them. I'll keep them from grazing for awhile, grass is where the stomach worms are picked up by grazing sheep. Sheep and all living creatures, have internal parasites, they are pooped on the grass, then when the grass is grazed the parasites are picked back up, when there are too many they suck the blood out of the sheep until they are anemic, if not dewormed the sheep will die. They looked fine this morning but it will help break the cycle if they stay in the barn eat hay and grain. Decided to keep the mama does and kids up in the kidding barn, it would be bad if they got parasites, so hard for a nursing doe and kid to fight off stomach worms this time of year. They are happy, their shepherd brings them grain, fresh alfalfa hay, bermuda hay and cool water every morning. I have become a slave to these angora goats.

Sultry day

The cotton fields are beginning to look sultry. The rain has missed us forever but the heat finds us everyday. Several of the yearling sheep are bottle jawed (wormy), got them in late last night, about 10:30 to reworm them, the last wormer didn't work very well. Sheared another ewe this morning, Jewell, an elderly Cotswold, she is very thin, so I can't blame the heat stress on her being fat, it's just too hot for sheep this year. And now the pastures are burning up, the sheep no longer find the grass palatable and just hang around alot yelling for feed. Managed to get a load of bermuda hay in the barn last week, not the best, but it will have to get us by for now. I am being blessed with tons of tomatoes. I have canned tomatoes, frozen tomatoes, canned salsa, canned pasta sauce, and eaten so many tomatoes  my mouth and stomach are sore.

Bright morning

What a bright morning it was down at the creek that is getting low on water. Gave the kid goats their CDT booster then onto getting everyone checked and fed and watered before the heat. I cut okra and picked tomatoes and butter beans while Alex picked more blackberries. Worked my shift at the art gallery yesterday afternoon, it's so hot I might as well be indoors with beautiful art work. We are getting lots of traffic in the gallery and many compliments. I have two bushels of tomatoes waiting to get in the jars.