I got your farmville...

Farmville is an application on Facebook that has swept the country since its release in June of 2009. It allows users to manage a farm engaging in virtual activities such as planting, harvesting, fertilizing and managing livestock. It's all over the place. Click this, do that and voila. Your farmin'.

Well I have a bone to pick this week people. Farmville nothing- this is a lot of work. And I'll be the first to acknowledge that I too, often live in a dreamworld and somehow take on more than I can handle (although you ever notice how you swear you're at your last straw and that's it, game over - but somehow the next day still comes and everything continues on just the same?), but this weekend was my max. I realized this whole farming thing ain't so easy; and it certainly isn't a couple mouse clicks.

First of all, its been raining for 40 days straight; just ask Noah, he floated by the other day. And when you still have to get your last load of hay in for the winter, clean out the chicken coop, insulate it, finish a couple barn roof projects and yet all you can find time for is to dig yet another temporary trough in the hillside to usher the water runoff down in the right direction (as in NOT into the chicken coop front door thank you very much) it makes for long stressful weeks.

Today there was finally a break in the rain; out came the tractor to catch the four loads of soiled bedding from the coop. It's also time to empty all the water containers and feeders and to clean them with soap and water for disinfecting purposes. Well of course as I'm carrying these from coop to grass to get them out of the way, the chickens somehow translate this to mean fresh new food in the feeders, so I ended up battling them to gain access to the feeders. Meanwhile the sheep think something exciting is going on 'cause the chickens are all stirred up; so they start bah-ing at me wanting whatever it is the chickens are getting. It's quite a scene, trust me this place is more funny farm then money farm any day.

The other post I mentioned how objects can be so "farm" and here is another example. The soiled chicken bedding is full of straw and manure, its not something you bag up and bury in the backyard to hide (umm what do we call those... oh yeah landfills). Chicken manure is high in Nitrogen and is considered to be "hot". This means its not a good idea to put it right on your garden vegetables because they will burn up due to the high levels of Nitrogen. However, at the end of the season, and as long as I carefully mix the manure piles throughout the bedding to avoid saturated piles, I can use it directly on the raspberries and grapes to mulch, fertilize, and help insulate them for the winter. In addition to the chicken bedding, you can see little piles of wool along the row. These piles of wool were second cuttings, manure tagged wool, and other parts of the sheep fleece that were no good for products, but excellent for mulch. Its one more aspect of the sustainable farming being performed here at Windy Knob. Meanwhile, don't forget about our high quality fleeces for sale. These are updated on our website, visit us at www.windyknobfarms.com to learn about the fleeces and see updated photos of each sheep.

I was going to come up with some acronym or play off of swine flu seeing as its all over the news these days. All I could come up with was "time flu." First and foremost I don't want to joke about a serious issue such as swine flu, especially given the levels of intensity I have seen in the area and how hard our schools were hit over the past week; but I also found myself getting more introspective when I thought about how time is flying.

This is the last week of October ladies and gentlemen. Its another reminder that - hey- guess what- it isn't July anymore. There is something about September and October that seems difficult for me. Maybe it's the adjustment period of getting back into the swing of teaching. Or perhaps its getting to know the new batch of students; or being back to five days a week and going at it a solid two months before your first break from kids for a professional development day. None the less people, October is almost over. The sheep have been bred (thanks boys, you're through- we'll call you next October) the chickens are fattening up on corn for the winter, and soon enough our written dates will start with an "11." To me this is a big step that ushers in snow, hunting, turkey and holidays. This week I'm going to take it in - even the weekdays. The weekend will be here soon enough I found as I have longed for them every single work day. After this week another month is ripped off our desk calendars and so will begin the flood of holiday music and ads. So take it in people, deep breath, exhale.

You ready?

Forget the Chalk...

Fall is definitely here. I know because I am reminded by the beauty of all the leaves changing color, the crisp colors of a cool morning where you see your footprints in the grass as you cut through the frost and ample apple cider and sugar pumpkin donuts; that and I'm freezing every morning. But along with fall comes the anticipated first breedings at Windy Knob Farms. This year I am using five rams on seven ewes which is pretty ambitious for a first year breeder. Two of the pairs are being held on another farm, so essentially I am managing three sets.

One of the great things about sheep is their delivery of lambs is like clockwork. My understanding is once bred, you can count 145 days and have lambs within an hour or two. Thus, the hard part is knowing when the deed was done. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me remind you there is no courting here, no buying dinner first, no romance. It's breeding for the sake of procreation, and that's it. So if this sounds a little scientific, and leaves you feeling like romance is dead. It is.



Back to the task at hand. How do you know when the ram bred the ewe? There are all kinds of crayon holders and marking harnesses, but the farm way for me (farm is the new "ghetto", aka make due with what you have. So if you hear me say that is so "farm" that means practical, frugal, or cheap if you will) was to grind up some kids sidewalk chalk on clearance from Meijer, with some globs of crisco shortening and viola you have an underbody rub to spread on the ram. Green on ram leads to green on ewe tail, check daily and call me in 145 days.


Now here is where it gets pg-13 but I can not possibly avoid this part of the story. Imagine this, three rams in one stall, across the way are five ladies wafting their pheromones across and driving the boys crazy. You open the stall door and wrestle out this 250 pounder into the middle aisle, then pull out the 200 pound ladies you want matched up with him. From here, you have to open the barn door, and use the fencing aisles to get them down into the part of the pasture you want them to stay for the next 34 days (two ovulation cycles of an ovine). However... upon bringing the ewes into the center aisle, I couldn't even make my way to open the barn door before they were doing the nasty in the middle of my barn. And you laugh, but I was a bit traumatized. For a minute I had the gumption to try and push these two, while in the act, out into the pasture. And yeah, it wasn't happening; 450 pounds of humpty hump is a lot to move. What did I do? Nothing. What could I do, but wait 'till they were through. Chalk nothing; my retinas are still burning. My therapist said the nightmares and images will go away with time, but I don't know.


On a lighter note, above is the fleece off of 7 month old Dougherty. He is the future of Windy Knob farms. His sire is a Corriedale of great size and confirmation, his dame is a beautiful natural colored Corriedale with an amazingly long and tight crimped fleece. That equates to quite the ram passing on white and colored genetics to his offspring, and producing high quality fleeces. If you look closely you can see the crimp which is the tight waves or crinkles in the fleece. Speaking of fleeces, we sold our first fleece to a lady from Grand Rapids who was visiting the fiber festival in Leland. It should be the first of many, she was very pleased with the product. We have several available in both whites, brown and black. Please visit our web page and contact us at http://www.windyknobfarms.com/ if you are interested.



So now I wait. Wait for the cooler temperatures. Wait for the leaves to fall. Wait till I can check off the last thing on my "before snow falls" list.

Soon enough the snow will fall, and the sheep will be ready for their reunion in the barn, and we will all hunker down for the long winter and wait.

Shear Madness

Well I did it.

I sheard (shorned?, shearded?) my sheep! It was quite the experience I must say. If you asked me that night, I would have told you how frustrating it was, and that it took me forever (fur-ever wouldnt even be funny here but I thought about it), my equipment broke and I was sore and exhausted... but now that it has been a couple days and I have sorted through the fleeces and the sheep are all out grazing and walking around enjoying life a few pounds lighter... you know what... it went pretty dawg gone well for my first time.

And now I have some amazing fleeces to sell. I have learned more about wool than I ever knew was even possible. Did you know that there are characteristics like how many microns thick the fiber is or how it shines in light, how sometimes signs of stress or dietary changes can show up on a wool fiber, how the waves that run the length of the fiber (or crimp) is important, all of these things are used to measure the value of a sheeps' fleece.
These particular fleeces are considered to be fine, making them great for handspinners and for making soft clothes that are for the body (as opposed to heavy fibers for rugs or potholders for example). The picture to the right shows you an up close view of one of the fleeces. If you look closely, you can see the crimp and how tight and even it is. This is a good thing and something people would want when choosing a fleece for either handspinning or turning into a high quality yarn.

Shearing really is backbreaking. Being 6'4" and touching your toes while contorting an animal that needless to say doesnt want to be there, all while hoping your shears are making nice cuts through 5 inches of wool is quite the task. Its a skill; and according to statistics its a dying skill at that. There are rising numbers of sheep flocks in the US and yet fewer sheep shearers than ever before in US History. I'm learning for the benefit of sheaing my own, but I won't be surprised if I am able to turn this into some small weekend jobs. It's that hard to find a shearer in Michigan.

After shearing the sheep you need to collect the fleece and skirt it. This is where you seperate any manure tags, bleached fibers or vegetable matter from the good high quality wool. Windyknob sheep are jacketed, which helps to keep their wool clean and true colored. To the left you see Nez Perce's fleece and can see the amazing cream color of Corriedale Wool. The bottom right corner you might notice a little darker area which is part of the wool that was sticking outside of the jacket. This is an example of wool that gets picked off and used in a variety of other ways besides hand spinning.

Once in a while here in October, the sun shined brightly and made for beautiful Autumn days; but I have to tell you, its been alot of cold and rainy days thus far. I've got my hands full managing the sheep, the farm and school and I even have my Beautiful Sister's Wedding this weekend. But soon enough, things will slow down. The days are now getting shorter and each night gets just a little cooler; but I know fall has hit due to the fact that its time to now set up the breeding pairs which will occur later this weekend. You'd never know it though looking at Meri Jo, who took in the final rays of sunshine after having been freshly shorn this past Saturday.