Fairy Tales?

A young mother and her bright-eyed children of about 6 and 8 came into our castle this past weekend. Shawn was spinning yarn on his old wheel, Sparky. He started telling them what he was doing and explaining about the process of making yarn.

"Do you know Rumplestiltskin?" the little boy asked.

"Yes," Shawn answered, "He's my cousin."

"Mom," the little boy cried, his voice full of wonder, "Rumplestiltskin is real!"

"Thanks..." the mother said to Shawn, with more than a little negative sarcasm tinging her voice.

Shawn went on with his usual speil - explaining how we raise the grass and harvest it to make the straw (hay) that we feed to the sheep. Then we shear the sheep (give them a hair cut), spin the wool into yarn and sell the yarn to people for gold (money).

"It take us a few more steps," he finishes out. "My cousin just leaves out the middleman."

Usually adults smile at the expanded fairy tale and children are too jaded to believe any of it. But this mother did not appreciate hearing that there was more than a grain of truth to fairy tales.

I never had a chance to talk with her, I was busy at my station in the booth all afternoon, hawking our wares and selling Spirit Bells. But during the slow times, I had a chance to think about life and fairy tales. Most people will agree that fairy tales are archetypes, morality tales and historical fiction. I think they are that, and much more. And I think that if any one of us tilts the glass through which we look at life, we will find the magical side of it.

Consider my day-to-day reality. At this moment I live in a very drafty 16th century castle, complete with counter-weighted draw bridge doors and 2 towers. We share the castle with Nigel, an adorable little bat who I think is older than my adult children, and our 3 dogs, who watch pirates riding elephants through the cracks in the walls. We haul water for drinking and cooking from a community well out by a garden cottage and indoor plumbing is a concept that may or may not be way in the future.

During the weekend, thousands of people visit to catch the magic of our village and see how things were made in Renaissance times. Over the last 3 years we have taught hundreds of people to spin, weave, crochet and appreciate the finer details of fiber arts.

My week is full of weaving shawls, crocheting Spirit Bells, making drop spindles and working with my life-partner Shawn as he makes looms, crochet hooks, knitting needles and assembles spinning wheels. We work together 24/7/365 and get along great - 98% of the time. (The two percent keeps us from taking each other for granted!) For some people, that is the most fairy tale-like part of this story.

When I am not living in the Renaissance, I am homesteading in the Ozarks, (some day I'll catch a fairy tale that has indoor plumbing!) sharing my life with a wonderful flock of sheep, goats, llamas and in addition to Shawn, there is Lena, my adult daughter, who is one of the most capable, competent and caring people I know. She manages that whole part of the enterprise single-handed when we time-travel back through the centuries.

In order to do the time-traveling we have a giant silver carriage, which I am sure must be out of a fairy tale. It carries Shawn, the 3 dogs, a literal ton of our spinning and weaving equipment and myself from the Ozarks to the Rockies in one full turn of the day. I'm not sure if that is more amazing than this little box that I carry that allows me to talk with friends and family from almost any where (or when) we trek. And this computer, which is amazing enough in all the information it holds, but when we connect it to the data network of the World Wide Web, I have the knowledge of the ages at my finger tips.

Excuse me, how can you not believe in fairy tales?

If you want more affirmation of how fantastical life can be, look in my purse. I have my id card which proclaims me as an employee of the US Postal Service, horse racing licenses as a Owner/Trainer from Colorado and Arizona, a business card which shows that I am the managing editor of a publications group and a picture of me as a professional belly dancer. All of these me's are real and the stories they have to tell rival many fairy tales handed down from the ages.

My lives are full of magical people living their own fascinating tales. Just this last week, I was blessed to spend an afternoon listening to tales from a lavender-haired, sparkling-eyed Fairy Godmother who is starting a Fairy Godmother foundation in Colorado. She has brought an amazing group of people together to help children from all places and all layers of life learn to believe in themselves and get their wishes met. In the process of building this organization, Chris has brought wonder into the lives of many adults. Shawn is going to be working on her web site and as it is built, we will link to it here.

So, while sarcasm has its place and analytic analysis can be a useful tool - don't come into my castle and expect me to believe that fairy tales are not real!

Shawls

In between packing orders, making Spirit Bells, walking the dogs and keeping Shawn and I somewhat fed, I have been weaving shawls. Ok, I've been weaving about 10 hours a day, but it seems that it is never enough. These are two of the recent weavings off the 7-foot loom.
"Jackie Blue" is the tasseled shawl above and "Midsummer Medley" is below.

This morning, I took "Shades of light and dark" off the loom and started "Champagne Dreams". Meanwhile, Shawn is making looms and carving hooks.
Summertime - and the living is busy!
Lena is 21 today (how can that be, I'm only....) If you get a chance, e-mail her a happy b-day.

The crafter's curse

I'm sure if you've ever done craft shows or similar events, you have heard the "crafter's curse."

Up front, it sounds like a blessing. "May you sell out by noon Saturday," one crafter will say to his neighbor after Friday night set-up. What a thing to wish upon a true crafter. On the face of it, it seems like a well meaning statement. However, it is along the line of the ancient curse "May you live in interesting times."

If a true crafter sells out by noon Saturday in a two or three day show, it means they have badly mis-judged the show. It also means that they will find some one, any one, grab a passing patron! - to sit and watch the booth while they go back somewhere to make as much stock as they can, as quickly as possible.

This is not because crafters are greedy. Most of us could make far more money working in the real world. It is because we have this compulsion to make things that people like and enjoy. In fact, there is a lot of obsessive/compulsive behavior involved in being a crafter. How else can you get yourself to crochet 10,000 Spirit Bells?

Right now, I am the spindle maker here at Common Threads. This morning I was laying out the stain and tools to make spindles. I always make 48 spindles at a time. My excuse is that it is silly to get everything together to make less than that. But the real reason... well... I make 48 spindles in about 4 hours. I do 12 each of 4 different color stains. I make top or bottom whorl spindles in sets of 4. It just works, ok. What ever you can do to find the focus place and get into the groove to do such repetitive labor is fine. Shawn looked over at me and said, "Time is tight, you don't have to make 48, you know." He almost added spindles to his to do list.

Another mixed blessing of being a crafter is being able to work your own hours. Of course, this means you tend to work all hours. In the real world, this is treated with suspicion. It is very common for one of us to work until 3 or 4 in the morning. I am usually up and at the loom by 6 am. This confuses most people and they tend to look askance at some one who keeps such hours.
However, in a craft community, such as the renaissance festival, it becomes clear that this is another part of the compulsive behavior of being a crafter. I took a break last night about 1:30 to stretch and walk the dogs. Two doors down, I could hear the jeweler's polishing wheel humming. The other direction, the light was on in the potter's shop and there was soft music drifting out the open door. Any time the muse is awake is a good time to create. Any time you can find the focus is a good time to work.

This week, it seems like a lot of the world has been getting in the way of my work - but I did get two nice shawls off the loom. I am trying to make it a habit to photograph them before I take them off the loom. I have sold many of my favorites without ever getting a picture. I name all the shawls I weave. This week's two are Midsummer Medley and Hocus Pocus. This connection is not letting me post pics, so I'll put them up next week.

Have a great weekend! Wish us bright weather and good sales!

Still no internet

Hi everybody,
Just a quick note to let you know we still don't have internet at the Colorado Ren Fair site. So I am probably not getting your e-mails and can only check the ebay store once a day. It now looks like the 28th or later!
sigh... the hardships of modern life!

WOW - With a whole lot of help from our friends!

The only word is WOW!

Take one old, leaky castle,
a pile of wood, shingles, tools, tar and paint -
Add a bunch of fantastic friends
and some good barn-raising energy

- And it equals the most incredible feat of reconstruction ever seen!

We are so blessed that Booth Party has become a tradition for so many of our friends. The weekend before the Colorado Renaissance Fair opens, they converge on the booth, bringing tools, food, energy and enthusiasm. This year, there was a lot of work to be done, and every body out-did themselves.

My dad and Shawn got started shingling the roof on Friday

Danette and her girls came up Saturday and Sunday and painted all the details that gorgeous bright blue. I even got to splash some paint around.

Sandy and Julia turned the whole dark, dingy showroom into a bright shiny Renaissance croft!

Robin and Summer ripped down walls and counters and built them up all shiny and new - in places that work better for our type of business.

The roof got finished with a whole lot of help from Art (who also replaced the porch boards and Nate - who thought he was just coming up to spend the day having fun with his girlfriend, Susan!)

And to top it all off - Kira grew the courage over the last year to make it to the top of the tower. Go girl!


I'll add more pics in a few days, now I have to go finish painting the sign and the porch -
Thank you so much everyone!

Dancing to difference

I started a rug with Nilly's fleece today. I strung a plain white wool warp on the loom, not stripes or bright colors. In part, it is because her fleece is soft and has many variations of gray, mauve, lavender, cream and white. I wanted to let those colors stand out, without artificial coloring to pick them up or drown them out. Mostly though, plain white felt right for Nilly's fleece.


Nilly has always been special. She was born into the name Laffing Horse Vanilla Extract - her mother's name was Vanilla Bean. In her first days, she kept getting lost. We would find her under the grain bin, behind a barn door, stuck in the hay feeder with her mother running frantic and Nilly just standing there with her head cocked. She was a tiny lamb, and seemed a bit slow to figure things out. We watched her mother bump and coax the little Nilly up the step to the barn. She never joined the other lambs in their lamb-pedes or king-of-the-log games. She got better at staying with her mother, who was devoted to this strange little lamb.

Fourth of July fell on a weekend that year. Our sheep barn was about a half mile from the house, but we did not worry too much about the sheep. All the lambs were several months old and we have guardian llamas, who have been very effective against predators. So we were horrified that Sunday morning when we went down to water the sheep and turn them out on pasture to find several dead and injured sheep. We lost four ewes that night, among them, Nilly's mother.

The little lamb was bereft without her mother's support. While she was technically old enough to wean, she did not seem to be eating well. We took her to the vet, with the injured sheep. One had a broken leg, the other a severe laceration. Both of them survived with lots of nursing care. The vet checked little Nilly over and could not find anything wrong with her, but he could tell she was odd. Then he checked her eyes. "This lamb is blind," was his pronouncement.

Thinking back, it made sense. Her wandering off, her mother's directing her, her never playing with the other lambs and having trouble finding food all fell into place. So, she came up to the house for some special attention. Nilly learned how to find hay with her nose and how to eat corn out of people's hands. She was fascinated with Shawn's deep voice and to this day will respond to him. They sing these funny sheep/shepherd duets. She is a four-horned Jacob, like her mother, and she learned to use her upper horns as feelers. The horns developed round knobs at the tip. They look like giraffe horns.


Nilly learned to define her space by "sounding". When ever we put her in a new pen, she runs in tight circles and screams her head off. The first few times we saw this behavior, we felt that we were being cruel keep this lamb here on this earth. But after watching her go through this appearant "panic" several times and then settle down, we realized that she was using a sheepy sonar to learn the boundaries of her space.

When they are young, lambs are so entertaining to watch. They play games with obvious elaborate rules. They form cliques and have turf battles and they dance. It is so much fun to watch what seem to be dance competitions, with each lamb trying to out-leap, out-twist and out-bounce the other. They start dancing when they are a few weeks old and for most of the summer, lamb dancing makes us laugh every evening. By the time they are weaned though, at about six months, the dancing has stopped. Grown up sheep very rarely dance, at least not when humans are watching.

But Nilly, now five-years-old, never lost her dancing. She started late, I don't remember ever seeing her dance while her mother was alive. After she had been at the house a few months though, she started dancing when the wind would catch her. It was like it was a reaction to the breeze in her wool. "Watch Nilly wind-dancing!" we'd say to each other. She'd cock her head and then leap straight up. She'd sun-fish and bounce and twist - all in the same spot. She'd often dance for as much as a half-hour. It seems to be a pure expression of physical joy.

It is extra trouble keeping a blind sheep. Sometimes I have been known to remark that the silly blind sheep takes more care than the whole flock. For the most part, she cannot run with the flock. We have spent more time out with a flash light, in a blizzard or clawing through brambles looking for her when we have tried to let her be a normal sheep. She does love sheepy company, and we have found she is a great (if strange) Auntie Nilly to the weaned lambs.

We never intend to breed Nilly. Who knows if her blindness is genetic? But every year she grows a nice fleece, baby sits the lambs, sings duets with Shawn and brings us daily joy with her dancing. So, even with her blindness, Nilly is a productive part of the farm. In fact, in many ways, she is a big part of what makes our farm special.

Leave yourself a present

Life tends to be so complex, sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.

When we got to our booth at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, (#113 Common Threads in case you want to look us up during the festival) there was the usual flurry of checking the booth over for winter damage and assessing what we had left behind in the way of dishes, cooking appliances, clothing and display items.

The winter damage was not bad - one board in the ceiling rotted out. Courtesy of an afternoon rain storm, we also found that the roof was back to leaking like a sieve. Douglas County has been getting an over abundance of rain this year. The gardens in front of our castle look great, the lavender is just starting, but the rose is lush and the curly mint is busting out of its pots. The afternoon rain storms are a nice refreshing boon to business at the festival, so I hope they keep up.

The booth was also cleaner and more organized than we had left it. The Larkspur school district borrows our booth at Halloween to do a spook house. I guess they raise about $20,000 for special projects with it. They borrow our castle and a few other booths here at the Renaissance Festival. In years past, they have not cleaned up very well, but this year they did an awesome job. Other than a few splashes of fake blood on the floor, a box of Halloween candy on the counter and storage items being organized more neatly than we left them, we wouldn't have known they were here.

We found we had left ourselves a full compliment of dishes and the important appliances - microwave, coffee pot and fridge in working order. There were a few items of clothing, most of them belonging to the teens. I also found toothpaste and other toiletries and a bag of bedding on the shelf.

So we began unpacking, just a bit, bringing in items we could fit in between the drips. Our priorities suddenly changed from fixing the porch and painting to FIXING the roof - a more expensive project than we had planned on...

But for the evening, we just wanted to settle down, find a dry spot for our bed, walk the dogs and maybe watch an episode of Quantum Leap, which Shawn had check out at the library. It had been a long few days, it was cold, and we were tired. In fairness, my parents had invited us to come back there, it is only 40 minutes away and warm and dry. But we wanted to be home - humble as our castle may be.

After we situated our bed and set up electricity, which was a bit of a challenge because our long extension cord had gone walk-about, I pulled down the bag of bedding and found the most wonderful surprise. I had left myself an incredible present.

When I opened the bag, the scent of fresh lavender wafted out. I pulled out the sheets and discovered with delight that I had packed clean sheets with fresh dried lavender blossoms from the castle herb garden. I shook out the sheets and suddenly the whole booth was rain fresh and flower scented. I layered up the bed with sheets and quilts, the electric blanket and my down comforter. The crowning glory was the pillows - clean cases over soft puffy fresh pillows, with a deep relaxing lavender scent. All night long I snuggled in my warm fresh nest and basked in relaxing lavender and the delight that I had left myself such a wonderful present.

Do something nice for yourself, leave yourself a little present somewhere you don't go very often. You'll be surprised at how good it will make you feel.

What a difference a day makes

Last Thursday we traveled from our Fox den in the Ozarks to the high Rockies of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for the Pagosa Fiber Festival. Shawn drove almost straight through, though he took a bit of a nap near Taos. I crocheted Spirit Bells the whole way, so it was a real shock to look up at sunrise and see white splats of snow on the windshield, the aspens just beginning to leaf out, snow still all over the ground and the elk cows looking fat and sassy. What a difference a day makes.

We had a wonderful weekend at the festival. My parents treated us to a vacation at their Elk Run condo and a great dinner at the Ole Miner's Steakhouse. The food was incredible and the portions were so huge that we had two more meals from the left overs!

The Fiber Festival was fun, we have been doing it for several years, so it is always nice to see old friends. I do think the increase in gas prices did put a bit of a damper on the festivities - the crowd seemed a bit smaller than last year.

Meanwhile, Lena has been taking care of the farm. Poppy had twin boys and Bobbin had a little ewe we named Crosspatch. She is posting the pics on her blog.

We are headed to Larkspur today, and internet may be iffy for a few days - I'll update everyone here when I have the chance.

After thought

After 3 days of walking around with her tail in the air, Alice had her lambs last night. She had a gorgeous big ewe lamb, we named her Carroll. Alice got her name from her love of chasing rabbits. Carroll was up and running about 10 minutes after being born.

Alice also had a little afterthought of a ram. I don't know if he'll make it. His sister obviously got all the groceries. The picture shows how tiny he is - that's Lena's ipod. The little guy weighs a mere 1.3 lbs and can barely hold up his head. Lena is fussing over him and is giving him the chance he would not have had in the wild or in a larger flock. She didn't sleep at all last night, she stay up to feed the little one every hour and he slept in a basket on her bed.

Cori rejected her ram lamb yesterday afternoon. It is actually her usually MO. She always has twins and has been to mom of many of our bottle babies. For those of you who remember Toby - this little guy is Toby's brother. We thought of taking him on the road with us, Toby made a great Renaissance Festival sheep, but we are bringing all 3 dogs with us - so we found Toby II a good home. They are coming to pick him up this afternoon.

Homer's a Da!

We are starting to think that the entire flock of sheep has a conspiracy going to not lamb until after we have left the state.

However, Coriander couldn't wait any longer. About 1:00 this afternoon she had twins. Obviously, Homer is the dad. His daughter is Cappucino and the little boy is Catsup. They all seem to be doing well. Cori had the energy to tell Aniken to take a hike in the top picture.

Listening and felting

"Can you make it in green?"

That has been our code phrase for a person at a craft show who really doesn't want to purchase an item, but they want to look and shop and maybe dream up something that is a little different.

It's not a problem, we are happy to be creative and innovative. However, at shows we are generally rushed and our attention is divided among several people. In that venue, we have to focus on the person who is looking to buy something NOW, and hope we can work with the dreamer later.

The internet has facilitated that thinking and interacting process. Now, customers from around the world can ask, "Can you make it in green?" And we can answer yes (or no) as soon as we get the e-mail.

One of our recent customer led innovations is a scroll type needle felted case for knitting needles. This customer wanted several special features - she wanted a set of 5 knitting needles, all done in different woods, with carved ends instead of beaded - and - is is possible to do cases for the knitting needles like the ones I do for the crochet hooks?

Yep, it's possible.

I was in the mood to leave this case natural and plain. I thought the natural wool colors set off the wood knitting needles nicely. I felted braided alpaca ties for the case, a wee bit of luxury. They feel really nice when tying the case shut.
- And, they are green!

Hay there!

We hauled hay yesterday. Sweet gorgeous rye grass with a little clover, put up in heavy, dry, tight bales. Lena drove, Shawn bucked bales and I stacked.
It was sunny and cool, the view was stunning and we had Broadway show tunes on the radio.
Bliss!

Bees behind

As part of getting ready to go to Colorado, we got new hive bodies for the beesies. We figured they'd need new condo's before we got back, so we thought we'd just add them now. We queried beekeepers and they said it should be fine once the exsisting hive was 80% full, before that it would be too hard on the bees, giving them too much territory to guard.
So Shawn loaded the wax sheets into the new frames, suited up, got the smoker going and we carried the new sections of hive out to the bee yard.
Maybe we should have checked the bees before going to all that work. The hives were only about half full. I guess the late freeze has the bees set back, too.
So we carried everything back to the truck - and told the beesies we'd be back in August! Maybe then we'll have honey comb...

Ewe's special!

Meet Cardigan - at six hours old she is sure she is the boss! First time mommy Button is doing a great job.
Her aunty Cowslip has been fascinated with Cardigan since she was born. Cowslip looks like she decided not to have lambs this year, so maybe she'll baby sit for all the new moms.
Penny and Basil also look like they aren't carrying lambs. With the move, I expected many more of them to be open. But it looks like we'll be starting our first year at Foxbriar with a good sized lamb crop. Wish Lena luck - she's gonna be full-time shepherding for the next few weeks.

Bright Blooming Berries!

We are so blessed in where (all the wheres!) and how we live - and I never cease to wonder at it. Ok, I want to write a bunch of silly words about divinity and nature and bliss - but who wants to read that stuff any way :-) So here's the good stuff - pictures!

These are the black berries. They won't be ready before we leave for Colorado next week. So we'll have to have Lena post pics when they are so that we can all drool over them!

The flowers are gorgeous, the edibles, like the chives in the picture at the bottom are bountiful and everything is so beautiful here in Fox.

We are still awaiting lambs and are going to add a hive body to each of the beehives tomorrow so the beesies will have room to build while we are gone.

We have hay to haul, a ram pen to build and so much more to do before heading west on Wednesday. The hay is a big worry. Everybody up here on the mountain cut yesterday. Will it be dry and baled by Monday or Tuesday, so we have enough time to get it hauled in? How long does it take hay to cure here? What are our options if it isn't ready?


Got an e-mail from Susan, she and Bruce are doing ok and her sense of humor has returned.

I don't know how much time I'll have to share - but I'll update when I can. Wish us luck on the road and send Lena bright thoughts and energy for dealing with the animals and the farm!

Homeland Security

Homeland Security on Foxbriar Farm

Muppet the guardian llama roams the entire farm and personal questions every visitor - human or animal!

Aniken, (the white german shepherd running with the sheep) keeps an eye on the sheep while they are out at pasture. When the sheep are locked up, he follows the chickens and keeps them safe.

We only have to listen to the news each day to see the world becoming a little more unbalanced. The government's stance has been to whittle away at personal freedoms trying to get control of the people.
But what can we, as individuals do, to heighten our illusion of security in this life?
Ok, I'm crossing belief systems here - but lets just go with the idea that people are happier and more productive when they feel secure. I want to think I am secure in my home (whether it is a camper, a truck, a castle or a pole barn), that my animals are safe, that my food is nourishing, that my family is comfortable and happy.
So what does the average person need to do to be safe and secure?

1. Learn constantly - learn how to grow your own food, take care of your own body, make your own power....

2. Take responsibility for yourself - It's your body, you know best what it needs - so do it! Eat right, exercise, stretch muscles, rest...

3. Grow your own healthy food - or if you can't grow your own, get to know your local producers. This means you can't eat bananas (do you know what the human and energy cost of a banana is?) , so what local foods give you the same nutrients that you enjoy from bananas? Find out...

4. Build your own shelter, make your own clothes, grown your own fuel... What does it take to be self sufficient? Research it and then try it, even on a tiny scale. Knit yourself a hat, crochet some slippers - you'll be amazed at how empowering it can be.

Boy, I sure got preachy just from watching Aniken and Muppet providing our own brand of Homeland Security here at Foxbriar Farm... sorry.... though those who know me, know these have been my soap boxes from most of my life. Sorry for the rant. I'll turn the soapbox over an go back to making soap

Mother hen lessons for Mother's Day

Last night the chickies decided they were grown up enough to go roost in the trees and not come back home. With trepidation, we let them. (Besides one of them was roosting about 12 feet up in a tree we couldn't climb!)

We do have foxes here. There is a gorgeous little gray one that I enjoy seeing regularly. But I don't want to feed my chickens to them.

This morning, bright and early, all the chickies were hard at work eating ticks and turning the bedding in the lambing pen. I guess for this Mother's Day I get to cut the apron strings and let my little chickies do their job.

I've always found chickens useful - but here at Foxbriar - I think they are vital. And I'm really getting to like the little guys.

So thanks, Mom, Summer and Julia! Some day we'll have a chicken castle and a whole renaissance chicken village. But for right now - I'm just going to enjoy watching the little tick eaters at work and quit being such a mother hen!

Sheep talk and ticks

"Family is very important to sheep."

Some people laugh at me when I say that, others accuse me of being anthropomorphic, most just nod their heads.

But it is true! And I'm not the only one who has noticed. I think most any shepherd will tell you the same thing. This phenomenon is noted enough that researchers have studied "visual recognition in sheep." They could have just asked a shepherd or gone and spent a year living with a flock of sheep.

I spend lots of time with my sheep and I watch how they behave and interact. the picture at the left is Marjoram, comforting her yearling daughter who just went through her first shearing. Button seemed very confused by being naked, she acted like she was just going to huddle under the tree and die of embarrassment - but with her mother's gentle coaxing, she was up grazing with the flock in about an hour. (Sometimes I even think I'm being anthropomorphic!)

I first noticed the strong family bonds when we began separating the first time ewes from the older ewes for lambing. This way we could keep a closer eye on the first timers and give them feed that they didn't have to fight for. After everybody had their lambs and all the sheep were doing well, we put the two flocks back together.
I watched Licorice greet her yearling daughter Ogre and the two of them sniffed and burbled over each other's new lambs. Marj's twin yearling daughters ran right to her and she let her new twins sniff their older sisters and as all 4 new lambs toddled around.

In the move to Foxbriar, several families of sheep moved together. Because we could not take the whole flock, several of the ewes moved to Arkansas without their mother's or daughter's. The sheep that moved here with their family seemed to settle in better, quiet down quicker and loose less weight.

But, as much as I have been worrying about the sheep's health, shearing them was enlightening. They are very healthy, the fleeces are strong, their parasite loads are way low, and they are fat (oops). They are due to start lambing this Tuesday - so I would rather have them on the little too heavy side than too thin.

The most interesting thing though, is, the sheep don't have ticks!

The ticks are terrible this year. The locals say they haven't ever seen them this bad. Some of the people who've moved here are wondering if they will let a little bug chase them off the mountain. We routinely pick between 6 and 20 off of each human every night, and that's not counting the ones we burn during the day. The goats are covered with them, I pulled more than a dozen out of one of Erie's armpits and 3 off of Beth's eyelids (YUCK). The dogs and the horses get their biweekly dose of One Spot and seem to do ok.

But the sheep - the sheep who have been on the farm for 6 weeks now, without any one checking them over for ticks - have about 20 dead ticks (and one live one on Coriander's ear) throughout the whole flock! I find more than that on one goat's udder at each milking!

Is it the wool? I'll check them over the next few days now that they are naked and see if they start picking up the little buggers. Until then, since even I can't imagine wearing wool in the summer in Arkansas, I am going to scatter the "trash wool", dung tags, ruffs, belly wool and some leg wool on the ground all around our camper, Midas.

Is it the lanolin? Maybe. The ticks that I did find on the sheep were dried, shriveled, mummified and covered in lanolin. If that's it, maybe I could make a lanolin tick repellent?

Is it the sheep smell? Sheep do have a distinct odor and they tend to sweat a lot, especially when they are nervous. Maybe ticks just don't find that appetizing?

Is it because we cleared the briar out of their pen and they don't wander the woods like the goats? Maybe, but I can get 6 ticks up my pants leg just walking from the camper to the barn and that is bare dirt anymore.

I'll let you know what I find with the ticks and sheep. Perhaps we can figure out a way to keep the bugs from winning!

Portals to friendship

I used to scoff at the idea of internet as community. I told our teens that virtual friends were not the same as real people. That was 4 or 5 years ago. Now, much of our human interaction happens over the web. I tend to use it as a communication tool with people I know, but even I have begun to meet people and make friends over the world wide web - and in a place that is not generally seen as a community.

As most of you know, the majority of our income comes from our eBay store. And while we have other venues and income streams, in many ways, eBay is my favorite. The interface is easy and intuitive. It tracks inventory well and organizes sales and shipping. It gives me a job to go to - and it integrates with our financial software.

Not to say that it is easy, mind you, I spend 6-8 hours a day on the computer keeping up with the listings and shipping. My camera gets the majority of its use taking product photos for our eBay store. (The farm gives us a beautiful venue to take those pics :-)

And the days I am at shows, I have to make up those hours spent away from the computer in longer days catching up with items the next week. (Especially this last week with the postal rate changes. I have not seen the farm in the daylight!)

We do lots of shows. This year we will be on the road 28 weeks. Most of our shows are marketing, connection and feedback events. We learn things from what interests the customers at the shows and people get a chance to meet us. Then we go back to the farm and make new products, and the people we visited with go to the web site and order the items that have stayed in their memories. In an interesting turn of the circle, this year, people who met us on the web are starting to come to our shows.

We also have an online storefront with our web site, a Half.com store and have had an Etsy store. Most of these are minor in terms of their business value. But lately, with changes eBay is going through, I thought it was time to consider other online venues. I am researching Amazon.com and other types of stores and have discovered that none of them offer the thing I love most about eBay - the chance to interact with customers and get to know people!

Just today, I visited with a triloom customer in Austria about her new loom, helped a lady in Philadelphia with her Spirit Bell, came up with a new weaving kit for a customer in Florida, designed a knitting needle holder for a repeat customer, directed a new weaver to the right weaving book and shipped 17 orders. The interaction with customers is what I love about eBay!

Now it is hard to quantify that in a business plan. And I could maybe spend less time at my computer if I didn't take the time to visit with customers. I could use software that automates most of the e-mail and feedback process on ebay, but I enjoy the creative energy that we share with people who take the time to inquire about us and the things we make. I think it makes our business better and I know it makes my day so much more fun!

So keep those messages and questions coming and know you are brightening my day! And for those of you who don't do eBay because it is impersonal - take the time to question sellers of items you are interested in - you may find a new friend who shares your passions!

Wet drops

The sheep don't get out too often, they tend to drift out to the neighbors pasture looking for grass. They are very much grazers. When I am out working at the farm I let them loose for an hour or two. The pic above is the sheeps in the meadow.
The goats on the other hand, rarely get locked up. They are happy to browse right around the barn and help clean out the underbrush that is close to home. They seem to fit better on Foxbriar as it is now.

I've been waiting for a bright sunny morning to take a picture of the bee houses. (And then I was going to photoshop a ribbon on them for Summer!) but it hasn't happened yet. So here is a quick preview pic of the bee hives in their little clearing. They are in the spot where we will eventually like to put our house. The hive door face east and they have a nice wind break from the ridge behind them.
The bees are loving the black berry blossoms. They are out thick right now. blackberries survived the frost and are only a few weeks late. The grape came back, too and is growing new leaves.


They say the Eskimos have 50 some odd words to describe snow - I think our vocabulary should have more words for rain.
Rain covers the basics - drops of water falling from the sky.
But then we have to add all kinds of adjectives - soft, gentle, driving, hard, heavy, cold, warm, blustery... and the list goes on. It would be nice to be able to let people know if it was a good rain or a bad rain with just one word.


Right now it is raining a good rain - soft, gentle warm rain, just the thing for the new baby plants in the garden, perfect for healing the last of the frost damage on the trees and delightful to curl up in a chair with a cuppa tea and read to... so I'm not going to kick myself too hard for not being out digging sheep pasture postholes at the moment. Besides, with the new Postal rate change coming on Monday, I have enough computer work to do to keep me in my chair until then. The rain is nice to walk in, though...

Shawn's current fascination is mushrooms. Oddly enough it is one that I don't really understand or share. Morels are delicious when you find them, and pretty distinctive - but I have no intention of experimenting with eating fungi! We do have lots of them though and are finding new varieties every day. These are probably Inky Caps... maybe.