Blog
Knitting with Sheep
October 9, 2020
Last November Clatter Ridge Farm set the world record for “The Most People Knitting In The Company of Sheep”. Since we were the ones who conceptualized the challenge - we were assured the title, as long as someone, anyone, showed up. We had a total of 15 knitters and 30 sheep.
It was a wonderful couple of hours, and everyone, especially the sheep, made new friends. We had no sooner earned our bragging rights, however, when a sheep farm in New York state announced they were planning to break our
The Chicken Cafe
October 2, 2020
We received our “replacement” chicks from the hatchery this week, and they are not only alive but thriving. It will be at least 6 months before they provide any significant contribution to our egg production, and the challenge, as always, is to keep them safe from predators, until they are big enough, fast enough, and smart enough to fend for themselves- at least a bit. They are growing fast but even so, it will be several weeks before they can safely join the rest of the flock in the coop.
September 2020- picking the breeder ram, post office woes, and hanging with the Birds
September 30, 2020
There is a fair amount of walking in farming, which is just fine by me. I walk at least one fence line every morning, and if it's been stormy, I'll walk them all. Fresh air can bring on fresh thoughts, and it's relaxing to think about something as distant from these crazy times as I can possibly get. My favorite time and place to wander to, is the Bird family living in Farmington in the 1600's. That is really the only thing I know about them for certain. There was a family that lived in Far
August 2020 - drought, water management and lamb thieves
August 29, 2020
August 29, 2020
I'm afraid the rain we are getting this morning is too little, too late to help with feeding our animals. The pastures have given up for the season, and I'm not sure if any rain we get from now on will convince them to grow any more. We have started feeding the sheep hay already, more than 2 months earlier than last year.
The local hay crop was severely affected by this summer's lack of rain, as well. Local hay farmers have cut and baled half to two thirds the amount they usual
July 2020 - cedar posts, Father Joe, and piglets
July 24, 2020
We welcomed 50 new "day old" chicks to our brooder this week. They won't start laying eggs in any quantity, until next spring, but once they do we will, hopefully, be able to keep up with our egg sales.
This heat is stressful for the pigs, so we created wallows (giant mud puddles) for them. It's the only way pigs have to cool off, so they spend a lot of the day submerging and then re emerging, covered from tail to snout with dripping mud. It looks very satisfying.
In our own effort to stay co
June 2020 - unhappy animals, silvopasture, and meat packing woes
June 26, 2020
June 26, 2020
This dry, hot weather has slowed down the pasture growth substantially. It's nice to not have to mow the front lawn, because the grass isn't growing, but it's another thing to hope your animals don't run out of food, because their pasture isn't growing. Very soon, we will start picking up the left over vegetables each day, from a couple of local farmstands. The vegetables, along with what they forage from their woodland pasture, will keep the pigs well fed all summer. The shee
May 2020 - Weaning the lambs, welcoming our Grandson, and building a walk in cooler
May 31, 2020
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All the lambs have finally been weaned. They aren't happy about it, but it's for their own good and crucial for the sake of my sanity. Now all of our sheep are on grass. No more hay until late fall. Yay!
The shiitakes are in full swing, no more of the prized "donkos", which are a product of cool nights and stressed out shiitakes. Every day we soak several logs and then set them out to "fruit" - It takes about a day of soaking and then a week of "pining" for them to finally produce the mushro
April 2020 - Lambing, Shearing and Shiitakes
April 24, 2020
April 2020
April 24, 2020
36 lambs and a record number that need extra help. We have 6 bottle fed lambs that we have to bottle feed every 4 hours. We had the vet out (for the first time in years) to see if he could figure out what was going on. We normally have an extremely healthy flock, but this spring seems to be a never ending rotation of unhappy ewes and unthrifty lambs. The sooner we can get them on fresh grass the better.
March 2020 - sugaring, lambs and a pandemic
March 27, 2020
March 27, 2020
Pandemic or not, the lambs are arriving and with them come stressful days, sleepless nights and equal parts joy and chaos. We wouldn't have it any other way- but it is tiring.....
March 20, 2020
For years I have been assuring Anne, "pretty soon, things will settle down, life will be calmer and we can have a cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon" - I had no idea it would take a pandemic for those words to come true, but there it is, tea in the middle of the day...
February 2020 - tapping trees, planting trees, mushroom logs and solar!
February 29, 2020
February 2020
Freezing night time temperatures and warm daytime temperatures signal the magic that is sugaring season. We tapped the sugar maples that surround our sugar house, and are busy collecting sap and boiling it down.
We set up a solar panel, battery bank and inverter for our electric fence at Hill-Stead. For the 15 years we have had sheep at Hill-Stead, we have had to swap out new batteries, daily, bringing the old batteries home to recharge. Not anymore!!! After a few minor tweaks, t
