Bye, Bye, Blackbirds

The red-winged blackbirds are flocking up for their big fall migration.  This morning they gathered in great throngs in the trees along our pasture, thick as leaves.  I was hoping to catch a murmuration flight on video, but no luck.

Here is a bit of video, but it doesn't capture the incredible surround sound of being there:

Surprise!!

We have not had the greatest success raising chicks this year. We lost several families to a raccoon, then a bunch to a feral cat, and recently, two half-grown chicks out of a batch of three mysteriously disappeared.

So, yesterday when I heard peeping I was a bit dismayed - it is so late in the year and going to be so cold for a hen to raise a clutch, and these chicks were hidden somewhere in the cluttered, storage section of the barn.

Today Cadence and I found and  caught the hen and her babies, all nine of them, and put them in a dog crate in the chicken coop.  The other chickens won't be able to harrass them in the crate and they will be much warmer in the coop than the barn.  Not to mention they will be fed and watered.  In a few days I will open the crate door so the family can go in and out at will.

It is impossible for your crabbiness not to melt a bit when you see how cute the chicks are and how proud and motherly the hen is.

Wordless Wednesday; Oh, Goosefeathers!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Because we had a healthy jungle of tomatoes taking over the high tunnel greenhouse and couldn't bear to pull them out, we got our winter crops planted quite late.  According to Elliot Coleman, the guru of  cold-climate winter gardening, the winter crops we planted will grow in the cool weather, but the greater issue is the short day length.

So, we are experimenting with  adding some light for a couple hours a day. Now, once it gets dark, the greenhouse glows beautifully.

The lights are just 4-foor fluorescent shop lights, the same lights I use to start my seeds in the spring. I don't know if  we are adding enough light to spur the plants on to greater growth, but it can't hurt.

Bittersweet Season

As lovely as autumn can be, it always makes me feel a bit sad... days getting shorter and darker, garden harvest wrapping up, bare trees, impending winter.  I do appreciate the  change of seasons but it is a bittersweet time.
Appropriately,  the bittersweet vine I planted on the chain link fence two years ago is now covered in brilliant orange berries.  Bittersweet, indeed.

Last night it started to rain and continued a warm, gentle drizzle most of today - the first real precipitation we have had in months.  By evening chore time, it started to get foggy and I was inspired to get out the camera. Everything had been so parched and dusty for weeks, but the muted colors became saturated in response to the rain.

Amazing how fast the brown lawn greens up with a bit of moisture.

Beautiful Bovines for Sale

I have been procrastinating facing this, but we really need to reduce our herd size.  We have too many cows for our little pasture.  So, I am listing our Dexters for sale. This makes me very sad --they are  so sweet, and aren't they pretty?

I hope to sell Lariat and her  bull calf Poblano together because is still nursing - and will nurse until he is even bigger than his mom, if allowed.  But he is plenty old to be weaned, so I could sell him separately if somebody only wants a Dexter bull.

I am also offering Jitterbug,  Lariat's year-and-a-half old heifer calf, for sale.  I hope to keep at least one of the Dexters, but if somebody wanted to start a small herd, I would sell all three together.

Dexters are very small, hardy cows,  bred for meat, milk and work (although they don't really do any of those things on our farm.) They are the perfect cattle for a small hobby farm.  Our Dexters are  mostly pets,  very food-motivated --offer a cow cookie and they will follow you anywhere.

All of the cattle were abundantly blessed at the Cow Puja two weeks ago, so I hope that means they will find wonderful new homes.  

Wooly Booly

Yesterday my friend and neighbor Virginia invited me to check out the Sheep Farm & Fiber Tour.  We only had time to visit two farms, so  we headed to the two closest sites. First up was Barn Quilt Farm, which has lovely barn quilts on each of its buildings.  This one was my favorite - with maple leaves which honored the owner's Canadian roots.

Barn Quilt Farm is unusual because it is a  10.5 acre farm  completely within the heart of the city of Rochester.  Developments sprouted up around it, but it has continuously operated as a farm so farming has been grandfathered in.

A delightful family purchased the farm last winter and is diving into their farm dream.  They have their own llamas and also board llamas for other people.

They also have a few alpacas --this is Zipster.  He is so  cute!! I am smitten --now I really want an alpaca...

The new family added chickens - and built the most beautiful chicken coop!  Look at these fancy nesting boxes!  The newly-laid egg rolls out  the back of the box for easy collection by the farmers.

The colorful barn quilt on the Chicken Coop.

Here is Virginia with one of the huge fluffy, Angora rabbits. Barn Quilt  Farm has  diverse fiber  livestock.

Their pride and joy seems to be the  sheep, a small flock of Romeldale CVM (California Variegated Mutant) sheep, an extremely rare breed with wool that is  excellent for hand spinners.  I just loved these stocky, wooly, badger-faced sheep.
We had so much fun meeting this family and  exploring their  beautiful farm!

Next we went to the Ellison Sheep Farm in Zumbrota. Nancy Ellison is  sort of a legend among regional textile artists. The farm is very old and she has installed a tiny fiber arts gallery in the barn silo - this is the view looking up inside the silo.

In addition to raising Godtland and Icelandic sheep,  goats, and geese. Nancy teaches spinning and weaving and sells many kinds of spinning wheels and looms from her  barn shop. Virginia tested out a wheel - and is now re-inspired to take up spinning again.

Nancy's talented daughter Elsa Jo creates charming felted characters and animals.  The faces are amazing. I love this felted Santa with a raccoon on his back!

I purchased this darling felted black-faced sheep with a crescent moon blanket.

Our final stop was a new shop in Zumbrota, Bee-lighted, which sells  textile art supplies and sells the work of local textile artists. I succumbed to buying this cute felted hat, garnished with vintage trims, made by an artist in Chatfield.   Something tells me this hat will be my signature look this winter.

It was so much fun visiting these farms with Virginia. Now I have a rekindled yen to acquire some sheep...or goats...or maybe an alpaca...and learn to spin and dye and felt and knit!