Sunrise Haven Farm

Hmm, I appear to have missed July. And half of August too. But I’m back! Life has been very busy off the farm this summer. I suppose on the farm things have been going non-stop too. The sheep have been having worm issues this summer. The hot wet conditions have been ideal for internal parasites to flourish, and they’ve been trying to do just that. Battling them has been an ongoing struggle, but we (the sheep and I) are still winning. The lambs are growing well, and the males and females have been separated. One of my oldest girls, Tara, has just developed an eye infection that I think is pinkeye (contagious!) so I’ve confined her to the barn for treatment. Keeping a close watch on her progress, and checking the others for signs every day but so far it’s isolated to Tara.

I think the biggest news from the past month is YARN! Yes, I have yarn again. And I’ve been dying and knitting and loving it! Look at the beautiful colors I have done so far:

The wool has been spun into a sport weight yarn, a little bit lighter than last year’s crop. The 3oz skeins are $14 each, dyed or undyed, and contain approximately 150yds of yarn. I am working on knitting an aran sweater for my husband’s birthday in December out of undyed yarn:

Let’s see, what else… gardening has been a complete hit or miss this year. Raspberries, basil - hit! Lots! Red cabbage, tomatoes - miss. All eaten/destroyed with not a one harvested. Parsley, cucumbers - in the middle I suppose. The parsley was doing great and I’ve been using it fresh from the garden quite a lot, until a few weeks ago when I found nothing but a patch of stems, with all the leaves eaten away! They’re sprouting new leaves though so I may get more out of them. The cucumbers also did well for a little while and I was able to harvest a few, before the plants were killed by beetles. Win some, lose some. I also really wanted to plant a pumpkin patch this year, but it was not to be. One thing after another trying to get the bed prepared, with huge tiller problems that when finally resolved culminated in tilling up an underground nest of hornets or yellowjackets or something with horribly painful stingers! That was the final straw on trying to get the pumpkin patch prepared. I did rescue four of the pumpkin seedlings and planted them in the garden in front of the house - so far they’re growing well, I hope they survive!

Today was raspberry processing day! I adore raspberries. The jam is cooling, the sherbert is freezing, and there’s still some juice left in the refrigerator for adding flavor to water, lemonade and iced tea.  I think there are still enough berries out there for one more round of picking and processing too.  We’ll see if I get to it in time - if not, the wildlife will enjoy the berries!

Lots going on since I last wrote! For those of you asking about purchasing my yarn - I neglected to mention in the last update that I dropped off all of this year’s fleeces at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with the Zeilinger Wool Company for processing into yarn again for me. They are the same folks who processed my fleeces into yarn last year. However this year I requested a slightly lighter yarn, sport weight instead of worsted. I’m looking forward to getting the yarn back this summer, but don’t expect to have it for another month or two. I will let you all know when it is available! I will also be hand dying some of the yarn when I get it back, so please let me know if you are interested in a particular color - sooner rather than later!

I held back my two favorite yearling fleeces from the crop sent with Zeilingers for processing: Buttercup, the reddest of my reds; and Valerie, the whitest of them. I wanted to keep these out for spinning myself, and so that I could have some roving to sell to handspinners interested in trying out California Reds. These two fleeces were given to Singleton Fiber Processing in Walkersville, MD to be washed, picked and carded into roving. They did a wonderful job hand washing and picking the fleeces (kept separate throughout the process) and carding them on their mini-mill into roving - and they turned them around for me in a week! I will certainly be calling on them again next year, and I’m happy to recommend them. You can contact them at orders@singletonfiber.com.

The photos below show an example of Buttercup’s fleece: the processed roving, a handspun skein of yarn (forgive my novice spinning skills, I need a lot more practice!), and a sample stockinette stitch swatch knit from the handspun. Look at all those gorgeous russet highlights against the naturally tawny wool color! I just adore the subtle natural variations of color in the fibers of my Reds. Please contact me if you’re interested in buying some of the roving for handspinning.

The sheep themselves are doing great, the little ones are now about two months old and boy do they grow fast. They’ll be weaning from their moms next month. Everyone’s doing great, though they are HOT and spending a lot of time in the shade during the daytime. The gardens are growing, though I did not get to plant as much as I’d have liked to. The first batch of pesto has been bottled, the blackberries picked and made into sorbet (YUM!) and the first of the raspberries are ripening now. I forsee jam in the near future. I’m hoping for a large pickle crop this year too, if I can keep the critters away from the cucumber plants! Oh how I love the sweet summertime - going back outside! Life is good.

The 47th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was held last weekend. I attended a workshop taught by Carol Bodin on dyeing in variegated colors. Fun and educational, I had a wonderful time and I’m very pleased with the results of my lesson:

I also entered one of my braided wool rugs into competition at this year’s festival, and I won a 4th place ribbon! Not too bad I think, for the first time I’ve ever entered something. I call it “Caribbean Sunset Sailing” and made it for the lovely Christy Van Aken of California, who I met while cruising the Caribbean.

The weather for the festival weekend was extremely hot, and it was difficult to think about buying wool while browsing the vendors. Probably a good thing for my bank account! I did of course purchase a few things… I certainly couldn’t stroll through such a huge array of fabulous products and not go home with something. Maryland Sheep and Wool is always a great festival, and this year was no different.  Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Remember the yarn that I dyed in pretty red and purple shades a few weeks ago when I did my natural dye experiment?  I liked how the colors looked together so much that I knit a sweater out of them.  I like it!

A little video introduction to the new members of the flock:

All the lambs have now been born. Daisy delivered twin girls, Belize and Bequia, on 4/19, and Violet delivered twin boys, Norman and Jost Van Dyke, this morning. I’ll get some pictures of all of them posted as soon as I get a minute.  That brings our total inventory of lambs for this year to a whopping NINE! In order of appearance: Cayman (m), Jamaica (f), Panama (m), Trinidad (f), Tobago (f), Belize (f), Bequia (f), Norman (m), and Jost Van Dyke (m).  Three sets of twins and one triplets; five females and four males.  Hooray!

Tara delivered twin ewe lambs this morning! They’re adorable (aren’t all lambs?) and doing just great.  We’ve named this set Trinidad and Tobago. I am so impressed with these moms. They are so careful and attentive, they dote on their little ones like a grandmother with her first grandchild. I know I’m biased, but this is yet another reason I think California Reds are the most wonderful breed of sheep in the world.

No more new lambs yet, but I let Rosie and the two day old triplets out of the barn today.  They enjoyed their first taste of green pasture and meeting the other adult ewes.  These first three have been named Cayman, Jamaica and Panama - so adorable! Enjoy:

Rosie started delivering triplets at about 6am today. Male-Female-Male. Mom and lambs are doing fine, pics and more info later!