Salty Ewe Debut

The poster.

It was a rich day. My debut as a fiber grower. While it was a less than auspicious beginning - between a dark and foggy drive to awkward newness among apparent veterans - the day in general was just remarkable. The fog and my eagerness to get to the fairgrounds on time caused me to miss a turn, and so the drive was longer than it needed to be. Narrow, winding backwoods Maine roads. In the fog. In a hurry. Not a great combination, and yet it all worked out. I arrived at the gates within minutes of their closing to vehicle traffic. Found the Fleece Tent, unloaded and met Penelope - the woman in charge of all things fleece. Managed to get off the fairgrounds in time and parked in a meadow... as close to the fair as I could get, thinking ahead to the walk back. 

As I walked through the old pine forest to the gates, the reality of what I was doing there hit me. It was my coming out as a sheep farmer, the wooly debutante. Making it official, making it real - although it's been so real for so long. An odd thing, this making things public. When I arrived at the gates, it felt only right to join MOFGA, the Maine Organic and Farmers Association - which, among other things, includes entrance to the fair for free all three days and moving through the lines faster. I think the membership will continue to open doors and invite all kinds of new possibilities for the farmette.

Seeing some old friends, making some new friends. Enjoying the hippy vibe that was still palpable amid the hundreds and hundreds of school children (sneaking cigarettes, making out on grassy knolls and delighting in the foods and festivities of fair over school). I enjoy watching the kids at the Fair - and, while it was a day off from my day job, it's easy to see why that work fulfills so much. The sheep do a lot, but the children really do a lot, too. Good to be reminded of that when you least expect it.

So, I will wait to hear the outcome of the fleece sale and contest. It doesn't really matter in all reality. The debut was the prize. 

Salud.

How lucky I am to have such a creative and supportive friend in Lori Schafer. For nearly thirty years now, we have shared a special connection and in the past decade or so have moved in the fiber direction in our own ways - me with my sheep and knitting - Lori with all things fiber ... from spinning and dyeing to organizing spinning guilds and taking gorgeous photographs of sheep and other fiber animals (walkingwool.blogspot.com) to knitting and felting. I have Lori to thank for the fun poster that will represent my farmette and me in the Fleece Tent at this weekend's Common Ground Country Fair. It is just perfect and suits the sheep and salty shepherd perfectly.
I am so thrilled...and so thankful.

Springing into Spring at the Salty Ewe Farm. As seen through the special lens of a special neighbor.

And, as soon as I can figure out how to post it here I will. In the meantime, here is one of the images that was used on the poster. It was taken by my neighbor, and I love it. I think it captures the joy and fun that raising these sheep brings to my life. Salud!

Getting Ready for Common Ground

In a few days, I'll be heading up to Unity, Maine for the Common Ground Fair. Two fleeces from The Salty Ewe Farm are going to be entered into the Fleece Judging Contest; very excited and also eager to see how we do and what kind of feedback the wool gets. Since I refuse to coat my sheep, the skirting and picking process is more important. I have picked, picked and picked again, removing small pieces of hay and grass and even some errant pieces of grain. I selected a beautiful brown fleece and then a white one; there's a limit to what people are allowed to enter and my fleeces will be judged against other fine wools, and since I am pretty sure that there are usually no other babydoll fleeces in the show, I am feeling optimistic about our chances of being recognized...somehow.

Taken by Lori last December

I've ordered more business cards in preparation for the show and will be putting together a small informational poster that will be displayed in the fleece tent along with information about all of the other small fiber farms in Maine. This photo is one that I like especially because it shows the range of colors in my flock...and the sheep also look happy and healthy (which they are). The informational poster will be posted here later in the week when I am finished with it.

Later on this morning, Bill will be having some female company for a few weeks. He has been very good this year since being pulled from the ewes (later than I should have this year); to think that it was ten years ago that I borrowed Zvookie - the great, four-horned Jacob ram from Jackie Horn - to breed my three Jacob ewes...and, here I am offering the stud services to others. It's been quite a ride, these past ten years. Feeling like things are really taking off in terms of making The Salty Ewe a more sustainable venture. Very exciting. Exciting indeed.

Labor Day

Labor Day has always felt like an oxymoronic holiday for me as a teacher. Coming off of two month's vacation and returning to the day job is what this day marks for me, so the whole concept of celebrating a day off from work feels confusing every year; it has traditionally been a day of contemplation, getting clothes and lunch together and trying not to slip into a funk.  So far, so good.

Twenty years at the day job now, and so the itch to do something else is understandable. And, while the recent sale of some roving is very exciting, it's not a good time to leave a secure job to go chasing dream jobs. So, keeping that balance between day job and Salty Ewe work will continue to be the third job. Happy to have one, let alone three.

Getting There

Half- ounce balls of natural roving for Camp Wool!

It's been an exciting day for the salty shepherd and The Salty Ewe; the sheep's roving is going to be carried in a local store called Camp Wool. After communicating a bit with the owner, Leanne, we met this morning in her amazing shop in Lower Village and she agreed to take some of the roving! It's a thrilling day. After ten years of raising sheep and learning more things than I'd ever imagined I would, it finally feels official.
The shop is incredible. She's been there for two years or more, and from what I saw in the time I was there, the shop is very busy. From unbelievable original designs (From Hand to Heart-My Garden was especially impressive) to a book full of amazing designs by a woman in town who has run Crow Hill Primitives, the shop is full of wooly eye candy. It smelled good, too. Wool. Everywhere, there was wool.
I left Leanne with two of my favorite images of the lambs - Maya as a wee lamb and the lambs heading out one spring morning - and will return next week with a basket or box of roving. It will be another day to celebrate.

Goodbye August

The air is feeling cooler on the morning walks, and the geese have started to move in recent days. Almost overnight it seems, the flocks of tourists have also left and town is quiet again. That love-hate thing that so many people have with tourists, I have with the changing of seasons. Autumn is probably my favorite season, yet seeing the summer end always creates some pangs of sadness. That transitional time is always the worst. Once the seasons truly shift and we're in full-blown fall mode, with sweaters and falling leaves and apple everything, those pangs dissipate quickly. Settling into the shifting seasons.

Lots of chores to do around the barn during the coming months. The gardens have been very weird this summer, with some crops doing really well and others not well. At all. Not sure if the rainy and cool June is to blame or my soil...either way, for the first time in recent memory I did not grow one zucchini. The summer squash did great, as did beans and cherry tomatoes; cukes were a bust. The grapes that I planted three years ago have finally taken off. This will be my first grape harvest ever, and while there won't be enough for stomping this year, it is fun to think about focusing on a few crops and doing them well. Grapes and garlic and maybe greens would be my pick, not only because they're three of my favorites to eat but because they seem to thrive in the Salty Ewe's growing conditions.  Learning how to make the most of what we have...reminding my salty self that sometimes what we have is far beyond what we really need, and transitioning from season to season.  Signing off on August from the farmette and looking forward to an Indian summer into fall.

Ram, Bam, Thank you Ma'am

Irene was a breeze along the southern Maine coast; not so in many other areas and so again finding many reasons to be thankful. We lost power for about 24 hours and some trees and limbs definitely fell around town (two on a friend's house, sadly) but no reports of injuries or major damage in our area. The sheep were in for most of the day, but when there were peeks of blue sky in the mid-afternoon, they were let out and happily grazed until it got dark.

Without power there was little to do but read and take walks; found myself laughing out loud as I read Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. After taking several tries at the book, I'm finally into it and remembering why I like Irving's writing so much. His storytelling is rich and full of quirky details, and the characters always feel like people I have either met or would like to meet. The macabre sense of humor and flow of his words have always attracted me to him as a writer, and when I was a young student of twenty and actually met him after a small reading (from Cider House Rules, which he was still writing), it was something else that attracted me to him. He has always been a favorite, and Last Night in Twisted River was a perfect book to read on a rainy, windy day in Maine.