I had a good thing going here for a while. I felt as if I had good things to say, good photos to post, I was accomplishing what I set out to do. I wanted to tell stories about life on the farm. Family would check in from time to time, perhaps a few friends and even better was the new friends that check in to visit Windy Knob and find out a little more about the place.
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| Full moon rise over Gull Island |
But like everything, I somehow seemed to lose the joy in posting. It seemed like a chore. And then it got to be that awkward pause, you know like when you havent called a friend back in a while. You wait for the right moment, but you somehow hit that point of waited too long. You cant just call now, its been to long, you will have to wait till the right moment. That will fix everything. Anyway, I began to post too far and few between. Waiting for that killer story, as if I was writing for the NY Times or something. Reality check, people just want to browse and get a glimpse of farm life. Dont take yourself too seriously. Um. Working on that one. I may have lost a few readers along the way, but Ive decided to give it more focus. I'm inspired when I read other farm blogs. The photos tell stories, and there is something serene about kicking back and reading about the animals and life on a farm. Winter or not, there is always a lot going on around here, so thats what I decided. 2011. Here we go.
The chickens have been quite the show lately. Every fall they go through a molting period, and egg production drops. By drops I mean from the usual 10-15 a day in the summer down to 6-8 a day. For a few weeks. Which this year turned into a few months. We had to cut way back on egg sales, and honestly I had no idea what the problem was. I contributed it to older hens, which happens, but it just seemed sooner than I was expecting. Sure enough, come the holidays and something lit a fire under these ladies cause they are back and kicking err laying. 10, 12, 16! Not sure where you went ladies, but welcome back.
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| Alaina on the left, Ella on the right |
The sheep of course are the focus at Windy Knob. And things have been progressing nicely, with yarn and fleece sales going well (only one lamb fleece remains) and the yarn - new this fall- has been a pleasent surprise in how well its selling. Especially where it takes us. Selling locally in Leelanau County has always been our goal, but now through sites like Etsy, we have sold all over including places in New York, Minnesota, Grand Rapids. Its great. Who knew. This time of year there is no sheep shearing, only sheep growing. In looking at the ventral body line of a sheep, it should be horizontal, I mean a nice good straight line. Thats signs of good confirmation. That is except when the Ewe is carrying. Then about half way through term (2 and half months) she will start to show. And that belly line starts to drop and thats where you start to get an idea of single, twin, triplet etc. This year there are two already that are large and in charge. I got my money on triplets from Vera Lyn and Alaina. They are two big girls and its still only December!
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| Snow falling down at Windy Knob |
