Sale Ewe Lambs

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Lambs on Ground, Photos Soon To Follow

It has been a busy winter. Lots happening- good and bad. Computer was down in January and I still don't have the new tower up and running. Got it a couple weeks ago and haven't had the time to finish reloading everything. I've been working on this laptop in the meantime and am really liking the portability of it. It's nice to work at the kitchen table instead of my little computer cubby.

Lambing wrapped up just about 2 weeks ago. My first lamb was on the ground early March and the rest all pretty much came 2 weeks later, in a span of a few days. I've somewhere around 25 this year.

Vanderbilt Home - Hyde Park, New York

We had arrived in New York a day early and made a stop in Hyde Park. The Vanderbilt's had built one of their homes there and it is available to tour. The view as you drive into their former estate was beautiful.
One can walk the grounds for free, and they are vast. There is a gift shop and the office in one of the homes they had built for guests. This is the main house. We were able to tour it for a small fee, but no photos were allowed inside. It was something to see the beautiful woodworking, sculpted marble, painting on the ceilings....... They brought in skilled laborers from Europe and everything was done by hand.
They had a nice view of the river from the back of the house.


This was the back of the house.

It is something to see all of the detailed hand carving on the pillars and around the outside of the home.
They had several greenhouses at one time and vast gardens. Off to the left, there were terraces where they would have sat at on time.
In the back ground is the gardener's home. When the Vanderbilt's had lived here, there was a farm, as well. It's owned by a private individual and not part of the tour, but you can see the tunnel that went under the road and connected it to the main property. The farm workers would show the livestock at the Duchess County Fair.

At the back of the garden is a water feature that they had. The tour of the house is guided and it was informative. The rest of the grounds your are free to walk and look around.

NY Sheep and Wool Festival

This year I was able to make the trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York. I brought two of my daughters along and we made our trip via the train. It was a long trip out there and back, but well worth it.

There were barns and buildings full of different vendors with beautiful yarns, rovings, shawl pins, handmade drop spindles, hand woven and hand knit items............. It was almost overwhelming. The grounds were packed full of festival go'ers and it was just about impossible to maneuver through the buildings at times.
One of the buildings was dedicated to crafts and wine/food tasting. We came home with several cheeses and a bottle of wine from the Finger Lakes region of New York. Outside, there was a vendor selling various apples and pears from their orchard that was located a few miles up the road from Rhinebeck. They were delicious and we brought home some of those. There were a variety of sheep, lamas and several alpacas. We spent some time watching one of the shows.
We had arrived a day early, hoping to take some time to enjoy the area. We weren't disappointed. The fall colors were beautiful. The water in the background is the Hudson River.
We took a little time to visit the Vanderbuilt mansion in Hyde Park. It offered the chance to drive down to the rivers edge.
One of the last places we visited was the lighthouse in Saugerties.

It's been a long, hot summer here. We saw many days where the heat index soared up to the 100's. There was a brief spell of cooler weather that lasted about 2 weeks. A relief for both humans and animals. The sheep had a rough time with the heat and humidity .
Some of the ewes are in the picture above. We are up to 21 adult ewes with a variety of colors and fleece types. It's about where I want to stay. So next year, there will be several for sale.
This is one of my favorites. Her fleece is extremely soft and has a nice feel.
The lambs were moved to their own pasture. I'm happy with the lambs this year. They are looking good. Nice conformation, soft, crimpy fleece.
The girls named her Cinderella. She is a sweetheart. As friendly as can be. Her mom is Lockfield Eloise.

Spinning Project for the Fair

I entered several skeins at Ozark Empire Fair this year. It's my first year taking anything to a fair since I was a child, in 4-H. All of the skeins received 1st place and one was given a Champion. I was surprised!

Summer is flying by here on the farm. The adult ewes were loaded up and spent several days on a neighbors farm. They grazed around the outbuildings, cleaning up the grass. I saved a little fleece from one of the ewes that were recently shorn. She was out of Salem and Crescendo. It is the most amazing fleece I have felt as to date. An intermediate fleece that is buttery soft. I've carded some and will spin a sample. I didn't save the entire fleece. There was too much new growth.
I have made some changes to the blog. It's primary purpose will be to list sheep for sale, or other sheep/fiber related things. With everything going on, I just don't have the time to "blog" and when I do post, I don't get back on until the next post( long stretch in between) to make "comments" a worthwhile feature.