June 11, 2021
We welcomed a much anticipated litter of seven piglets this week and one completely unexpected lamb. (The mom's got some explaining to do). The piglets all hit the ground running and if everything goes as planned, they should be about 280 pounds in as many days. The lamb, on the other hand, seems determined to not make it through the week. I had a vet once tell me that “Sheep are born looking for a way to die.” I haven't really found that to be true, but this little one is as unthrifty and accident prone as they come. She spent the night in the back of my truck (which during lambing season we refer to as the “Loser Cruiser”). I figured the lamb had about a 10% chance of making it through the night. However, when I got up to feed her at 3am, she was, just to prove me wrong, very much alive and well enough to complain about it. There was also, I quickly discovered, a coyote standing in the driveway listening intently to her and looking rather dismissively at me.
Wool collection day for the CT Blanket Project was this past weekend. We love being a part of the project as it connects and helps support shepherds from around the state. We always contribute some of our dark fleeces because CT sheep farms tend to have flocks of white sheep, so our darker wool helps to create a two tone pattern, using undyed wool.
Every fleece gets inspected before being either accepted, or rejected, and every shepherd is expected to help in the inspection process. The fleece has to be meticulously clean, free of structural defects and have the appropriate fiber length. There are usually half a dozen or so fellow shepherds at the table examining your fleece every bit as carefully as you examined theirs. As much as I dread the peer review inspection process, it is kind of fun to be in the company of other people who dress, talk, and live like we do – people, who when we discuss the weather, it means a whole lot more than just idle chat. And I find it refreshing to be among people with whom we quite naturally talk about things that would make the rest of “polite society” squeamish. Farmers in general, and I think shepherds in particular, tend to be introverts so about the only time we see each other is at this annual event. It's a forced communal exercise that serves us all well.
The Charles House Factory in Unionville used to make the CT Blanket with wool they purchased from Connecticut farmers. When they went out of business in 2001, they suggested the Ct Sheep Breeders Association take over the project. It was a nice farewell gesture, but every year, its been a struggle to get the blankets made. The wool is local but the manufacturing is not. The textile industry which used to dominate the New England economy, is virtually non existent today.
Each year, The Blanket Project ships about two thousand pounds of wool to South Carolina to be washed and then to Rhode Island to be spun and woven at one of the few remaining mills. Last year, though, the mill was sold and the looms were disassembled and shipped (along with our yarn) to a new location were they have sat for for the past 9 months waiting to be reassembled. The entire textile infrastructure is frighteningly decrepit and the workforce not much younger. I can't help but wonder if the looms will ever be rebuilt. What was once a thriving industry has dwindled- and sadly is in danger of becoming extinct. New England's textile industry has for centuries supported the sheep industry, and the sheep industry has happily supported it as well.
The local food movement helped save the infrastructure of the New England's meat industry, with two new abattoirs having been built in this area in the last couple of years. That alone is enough to help save several hundred local farms from going out of business. There is, as well, a burgeoning “local fibershed” movement which has recently started to take root in this area, so maybe there is hope for a small scale sustainable New England textile industry after all.