polar bear club

You know those people that go swimming in the cold icy waters?  No, I'm not out swimming this time of year, but I do feel like I'm drowning, and its on the cusp of winter, so there it is. I'm a polar bear club member.  I haven't posted since October 3rd?!  Not that I haven't had stuff to write about, its just that priorities get the best of you and I feel like I can not keep up.  And of course Murphy and his laws tell me that everything will come at the same time, so no point in fighting it.  So the months of October and November bring deworming, shearing, breeding set up, breeding, breeding take down, re-introductions, snow poles, driveway prep, on and on.  Oh yeah and all the fleeces to be procesed... etc. 

We all have a ton of things to do. For instance there are plenty of daily routines that families have that I never have to deal with.  For somereason, individually we all feel like we have the craziest life of all.  I sat down at one point to write on the blog, but I just talked myself out of posting it.  Then the longer I wait, the more hype, and the more I want the perfect post.  When in all reality those that check in here from time to time just want to know how the sheep are doing and perhaps a picture or two.  Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present to you exhibit A, compulsion of a perfectionist. 

Sorry I've been gone for 7 weeks people.  I'll try harder.

So yeah, the fall sunsets this year were amazing, weather just seemed to be a little warmer for a little later into the season.  The fact that its November 20th and we have yet to have snow on the ground is amazing.  Since the sheep were shorn in October all the fleeces have been sold except one lamb's fleece that remains.  WKF also has a truckload of yarn on the way back to the farm sometime in December, along with several lamb pelts that are for sale.   How amazing is that though? Our first full year and we sold out of lambs (breeding and meat), yarn and just about all 14 fleeces.  A great first year if I do say so myself.

So were in now.  Ewes and Rams alike are hunkerd down in the barn for the long winter.  No snow just yet, but hay is required at this point.  So every morning, making the donuts, feeding the hay.  You wouldn't beleive it, but Mary Jo yells out from the barn every morning at 6am.  I think the roosters gave up trying to compete with her honking every day.  Those sheep love their feeding time. 

Gunnar.  Gunnar is still a three year old horse and acts like it.  There are days I hug him, smile like I'm 12, and literally think I have the most amazing life as we ride across orchards overlooking the bay.  Then five minutes later he starts kicking and snorting and I think I am about to die.  But were good. (sigh)

At one point this fall we had a huge wind storm that blew through with upwards of 60 mile per hour gusts.  Can I remind you that the place is called WINDY KNOB!  So, theres hold onto your hat windy, and then theres hold onto the wall as you pass through the living room cause the mortar on the basement foundation is crumbling and you just saw todo fly past the kitchen window- windy.  Yeah.  We were the latter one.  And here is Milos and his ears in the following days "breeze" to prove it.    

Naked Ladies

Nothing like a completely deceiving title that screams for attention. 

I could have personalized it, like naked ladies in the barn, or something of that nature. Its even remotely true.  There are some ewes that were just shorn this week, hence the naked part.  And they were just in the barn. Sorry. Bad marketing hype I suppose.

However, if one could have a busier farm week, I'd like to know how.  Be it picking up and delivering lamb from the butchers, organzing and pricing the new yarn and roving fresh from the fiber mill or having the shearer visit and lots and lots of skirting fresh fleeces, I earned my breakfast this past week.  I now have enough lanolin on my hands to last me the year.  I don't knit, and I can't spin; but anyone handling wool right off a sheep's back can't help but appreciate the fiber.  I envy people that can take it from this raw state where you can see the lanolin luster droplets on the tips of the fibers and still feel the sheeps warmth trapped within the wool, and create items to wear be it hats, mittens or sweaters.  It's a skill to say the least; one that I'm okay with not having at this point.   But I do appreciate it, and it is something I use to take for granted.  It's one thing to buy a commercially processed sweater that has been mass produced with over worked and dyed merino wool shipped from God knows where clear across to who knows what before its primped and fussed with on mall store shelves.  No.   This is as close as you can get; where you catch a stink eye from the ewe whose wool is now in your hands and no long on her back.        

September has closed its doors and October annouced itself with amazing colors and sunshine (imagine that).  Now that we can check a few things off the list, it is time to make way for final seasonal farm duties like fresh stalls, final filling of the hay loft  and of course breeding season responsiblities.  The boys sit patiently, waiting down wind from the girls, watching them get flushed with grain every day in an effort to make them fat, happy and fertile if you will.   The bonus jolt of protein and calories can increase one's odds of twinning, which in terms of business equates to bang for your buck.  The boys have definitely been acting like boys, ramming eachother to establish whose boss; like anyone stands a chance against Johnny.  250 pounds of beast pictures all the way to left.  He is gentle enough to not cause alarm, but big enough to make you think twice about turning your back.   

There is some strategery to breeding.  You have to know your genetics, like whats dominant and whats recessive.  Then you map out your needs; what sells, what combos produce large enough lambs and high quality fibers.  Then of course you must consider your bloodlines to prevent inbreeding.  Sure there are farms that open the gates and let nature takes its course.  But when you take pride in your flock, and study the genetics behind each and every possible combination, one can really produce a wide variety of bloodlines and types even within a smaller flock like Windy Knob.  And of course my sheep are the best.  Duh.

Be sure to watch the website (http://www.windyknobfarms.com/) for updates.  Soon there will be pictures of fleeces and wool products which are always available for purchase and we do ship orders as well.  A half order of grass fed lamb is all that remains after our first butchering.  Also some skeins of yarn are for sale including Moorit browns and a white 50/50 llama and sheep blend.  Roving is now available so please contact us with any questions or interest in any of these products.  Selling them is the only thing that seperates this operation from becoming my very own crazy petting farm.  I joke about that now because of the influx of new products this week, but fleeces sell fast around here people.  In the previous two shearings, all fleeces were sold out within three weeks.  Get your orders in now.  And please tell a friend or two about us. 

Time for another glass of apple cider and maybe a run to get more pumpkin sugar donuts.  Again.   

There's always a before

Next time Ill stick to writing about farm chores, but in the meantime here's to a little philospohy and a peek into life in my head. 

Any given moment has a before and an after. The before is always described with words like anticipation, ignorance, excitement, expectations and unaware to name a few. The after is then associated with descriptions like proud, upset, thrilled, angry or perhaps more specific terms like letdown, accomplishment, disbelief or proud. For every moment the before and after are significant parts of a process, usually a learning one, and of course always one that defines and shapes us for who we are.

Right now I’m in the before. Before a phone call actually. One that is particularly odd in that it’s a phone call that is exciting and promising, I’d even go as far as to say thrilling for me, yet just an everyday business type of call for the person on the other line. What’s stranger still is how I play out all the "after" scenarios and fill my head with many outcomes of how this call might play out and what can come of it afterwards (both good and bland -luckily no bad possibilities here, its like extra credit I suppose). 

There are other before's such as “before pictures."  In this before photo of my dining room its all about the vision, what can I make this place become and what do I want it to look like? I love the fact that the house is over eighty years old, because then I get to ask the other questions like what was it like before this? What were some of the conversations here seventy years ago? Who has sat here around a table, and what dinners were had or what stories were shared around a game of cards some fifty odd years ago?   But with out a before, there is nothing to compare too, nothing to measure progress and advancement.  However with the before above, I can compare my restoration project and see how far along it came. 

There is a dichotomy presented with the existence of a before, meaning with it, comes an after. In the case of the dining room remodel, the after is easy. You can clearly see the after in the photo above. 

Another example of a clear before and after is, well, like with the lambs. The before, where a few lambs were in the barn for a last night, thriving, existing, eating and sleeping. The after, a bit more grim I suppose, is the part of farming I’m still becoming accustomed too. Where after is a trip home from the butcher, no longer lambs in the back of the truck like earlier that morning, but instead the promise of food for a table and for familes to gather.   A before with life, and an after without. The before will always stand out to me, truck lights across the paddock at 6am loading up the lambs; and then backing the truck up to the curved white plywood wall, where thousands of animals have been unloaded previous to us arriving.  All necessary moments and a necessary part of life, yet still before moments that leave me feeling awkward. At this point anyway.  Its been an interesting week for me, being responsible for the end of the same lambs I was responsible for starting.

I think of remodels with the before and afters, I think of all the ideas and concepts and situations I play out in my head during the befores and anticipation and then of course the after where I compare notes to see what worked and what didn’t. Even still, what about the before moments where we are blindsided?  You weren’t expecting the moment, but for some reason we still remember exactly where we were, or what we were doing just before it occurred; the recent anniversary of September 11th is the example that comes to mind.  Moments are so important and so influential to us as humans, we must create a before and after to bookmark the particular moment, in an effort to monumentalize the significance of it.

I processed all this thinking, and I realized (again) I thrive more on the before compared to the after. I like (and hate at the same time) the unknown. I can make it, define it or create it as big as I want it to be. With a before there isn't a right answer.  It’s the before, before there is definition of what it actually becomes, that makes me feel responsible for what comes next. This explains why most of the time I’m onto the next project before I even finish the current one. What's so great about a completed project, I’m always thinking of the next thing I can do, build, create, or become.

Student, Landscaper, Teacher, Builder, Renovator, Farmer. It’s easy to reflect back and see what I have already become, ‘cause it’s the after people- get it? But it is so much more exciting to anticipate what’s next and what I want to evolve into!

Not all before’s are great; some moments lead to a let down. But the funny thing is, it’s all about perspective. Because rather than look at it as a before that led to a letdown, just look at it as a moment that never existed at all. A moment yet to occur if you will. Leaving us to forget about disappointment, avoiding discouragement and move on. Because with every after, there is soon to be another before.  

It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in doing so you bring everything into the realm of possibility. - Einstein

History Revealed

Windy Knob hasn't always been the sharp dressed wool raisin' farm that it is today.  Shocking I know, but a lot of work has gone into restoring it and helping the farm to puff its' chest out and be proud of the character and quality that has stood here on site for almost 100 years (barn 1912).  The sheep of course haven't been restored, they are just plain new.  Windy Knob Farms was Windy Knob Orchards for most of its existence, under the direction of the Wick family with master minds Frank and Doris.  You can read more history on our website to learn more about it, but I wanted to share with ya'll this image I saw the other morning.  While pouring my morning cup of coffee, I perused the pastures from the kitchen window only to see the shadow of the lone sweet cherry tree casted up onto the barn.  And there it was.  A moment to stop and reflect on what was, and what has become.  The farms way of telling me, yeah you've shinned me up good but don't ever forget I've been around a lot longer than you.  I was humbled and proud all at the same time; realizing how much work has been done to these grounds long before I was even born.  It's like showing up at the end of a project and tucking your thumbs in your beltloop and boasting "Yup. I'll take it from here."  No.  The vision was made, and I've worked hard to keep that image; not changing it, not making it better, just dusting it off so to say.  It was a serene moment with the sun rising up over Grand Traverse Bay, and the cherry tree stretching to catch as much of the morning sun rays it possibly could, leaving its' tall shadow down the gentle dewey hill, across the driveway and up onto the barn wall.  Enough to make me stop and appreciate everything thats special about this place. 

But get this.

Its even better.

So after a long day of haying (hay-ing: usually occurs on the hottest days of summer, loading 40 pound bales of hay into a truck bed using Tetris like strategies, followed by unloading said bales up to an even higher loft in which case space is of the essence and must be strategically stacked), we gathered in the doorway of the barn.  The tall double barn doors were shifted down, opening the door way to its fullest extent.  It was midday, so all the light in the world filled every usually dark nook in the barn.  When you first walk into the barn, you tend to look up.  And in looking up, you'll see the massive beech tree trunks that have served as the loft supports for the previous, I don't know, 80 years I'll guess.  In this loft, is a pile of old wood.  Its like the Home Depot clearence section; anything left over after projects for the past 80 years ends up thrown into this storage loft.  

But as we stood there, one of us noticed a piece of the scrap pile that seemed to have a color.  And the gap between the Beech tree, was in the perfect position (and now exposed by that generous sunlight pouring in) to expose a letter.  A letter that looked like a K.  On the other side of that massive support trunk, you could follow this scrap piece of a wood, and see another letter.  Well by now the three of us are basically standing on our heads trying to turn upside down to read what seems to be some sort of sign.  Dan jumped up in the loft and began to frantically chuck wood, in an effort to get to the bottom of the pile.  However, from the top of the pile, you don't get the benefit of the massive sun rays.  Instead Dan was working with the dark, the cobwebs, a few wasps and the bats that live up there.  So I shouted from below, directing him to the left, no not that piece, the other one, now move that, throw that one aside, yeah! That one.  Pull it out. 

As Dan dropped it down, I was able to read the K, followed by the N,  and an O...  It was the original Windy Knob sign.  This barn protected sign, painted in a forest green and creamy yellow lead paint, had sat in this storage pile for God know's how long.  It was such a reward.  I mean it too. I'm smiling just typing this, because its like a treasure to find this sense of belonging, original character that can't be made or created.  Its the original Windy Knob sign for Pete's sake!  And now it sits, with all of its farm freshness in the new Dining Room.  What's old is new again.  

Leaving the nest...err I mean farm.

I will not even begin to say it's the same. What I am saying is, for me, I imagine it must be a little something like this.  You watch them born and find a part of you instantly connected, sometimes even assisting in the delivery.  Shoot. I even bottled fed one for a week.  And through the spring, into summer, they grow and grow.  And eat.  And grow.  I digress, but anyway, you work to raise these great specimens of sheep for a purpose.  As I am able to accomplish just that, people want them.  That is what is supposed to occur.  The goal is to sell them.  But the day comes where visitors ogle over of which ones they like.  And you watch the would be buyers, and reminisce about the excitement you too had when you were picking out your own starter flock.  Soon you're loading up sheep into a trailer and the smells and sounds all start coming back to you.  While you watch the trailer close up, you hear their final few bah's, recognizing each call and placing the face you saw out on pasture all summer with its individual unique sound.  These same sheep that are now leaving your farm are the ones you intended through intentional breeding, watched stand for the first time, introduced to pasture, trimmed their tiny hooves and sometimes even petted and said hello too.  This is now the business side of raising livestock.  

I can imagine at this point some of you are wondering just where these sheep were headed.  Doherty the one and a half year old "veteran" of the group, Abagail the beautiful Moorit ewe lamb and Ike too, the farm favorite that developed a larger fan base in his 6 months of existence in Northport than I have in over two years here.  Well I'm happy to report that these sheep have a destination of a barn in Wisconsin.  They will continue to be the founding ram, the pretty little girl and the farm jester; it just so happens it will have to be on another farm.  

I feel proud, accomplished, and weird all at the same time.  Perhaps I would have been more cut out for this had I been raised on a farm.  Or maybe even a little 4H in the background.  Tae Kwon Do and little league never covered animal behaviors nor prepared me for the psychology of raising livestock.  And of all the books I've read there wasn't a Ch 12: This is how you will feel.

It's true not all lambs leaving this farm will carry the badge of good enough, but from my side of things its the same regardless.  Despite the destination, they leave here never to return.  I did my job as a farmer, gave them the best life I could and raised them in a sustainable manner.  One farm, one sheep at a time, trying to make our food and our earth just a little better, a little more honest and doing it a little more responsibly.

 

Autumn calls

I was going to try and fight it.  August seemed ever so quickly to go from single digits to double digits, but the rate at which we hit the 20's was outlandish.  Soon enough the weather was in on it too.  Cooler breezes, bigger brighter clouds, even a few leaves changing.  Just enough to gang up on me and outnumber my "I dont want summer to end" fit. 

They say the first step to any, shall we say "fault", is to acknowledge the problem. Well I acknowledge that I am an ADD, OCD, workaholic who can't sit till for two seconds to save my life, madman. I admit it. But it's not solving any problems for me, I just realize that I’m nuts. Who are they anyway.. and what do they know?

I set a goal of finishing a house project or two and then capped it for the summer.  But soon I found myself into antique table restoration, and furniture salvaging / making.  Funny thing is, this chair that I had found in the dumpster of all places (and later restored) has become Noah's new spot long before I could even tell you what its like to sit in it.  And now the fall duties have crept up on me.  The calendar tried to tell me this a few weeks ago; the weather had started yelling it.  But it wasn't until I realized all the ram lambs were running around mounting eachother that it dawned on me...  Oh yeah.  Its breeding season.

Windy Knob is still in the midst of selling its few remaining breeding lambs, and of course our humanely raised grass fed lamb will be available at the end of September.  But what I find ironic is that this "year" isn't quite finished, and yet as a shepherd I have to plan out the next month, in order to plan out the five months thereafter which lead to birthing.  One wrong move (or shorted out fenceline) and my 2 am barn checks could be in the roughest parts of January instead of mid March.

The lambs are looking better than ever after an incredible pasture season.  I was basically able to save and revitalize one of our largest pastures, and sustain all the sheep on just the two pastures with more than enough to spare.  Above is Ulysses and Chester on the left, and Ike and Woodrow on the right.  One of our Moorit Ewe lamb twins, Alaina, is on the right.  Contact us at windyknobfarms@yahoo.com for more information.     

Finishing up main floor remodels, restoring furniture, moving-shearing-prepping and ... almost added breeding sheep, but that wouldn't exactly come out like I meant it.  Anyway its been a great summer.  And to think that Fall is often my favorite time of year.  The colors in the area are amazing enough to draw visitors from around the world, taking their vacations in the same area I get to live in; a blessing I will never tire of.  The beautiful colors, the cool weather, and the honeycrisp apples.   'Nuff said.  Let my OCD ADD or what ever you want to call it, run away with me. I'll have the rest of my life to rest right? Does anyone around Windy Knob just relax and take it easy?  There's got to be someone who gets to relax and take in the views isn't there?  Why Yes.

Funny you should ask.  

Have you met my disproportioned, all leg, Great Dane named Milos?

Summer rolls along

Things are moving along here in the summer of 2010.  As we approach the halfway point of summer, I realize Im letting another summer slip by.  All the "fun" activities, and excurgeons somehow get replaced with duties and farm projects.  Dont get me wrong, its been a great summer, wonderful weather, the pastures are in great shape so far, but somehow the fall always comes too soon.  Above you see our new delaware chicks, growing up ever so quickly, yet still under the watchful eye of their surrogate mother.

New and exciting news brings our Windy Knob road sign!  Its great to have as a marker for family and friends to find out driveway, great when someone is coming out to look at a fleece or purchase a lamb and its nice for all the random visits we get now from strangers and vacationers.

Look for our next sign... by apt only. 

What happens at the farm this time of year?  Separation.  The ram lambs become fertile and acting all rammy by about 5 months old.  At the beginning of August, all the lambs are brought up to the barn, and we seperate the ewe lambs from the ram lambs.  The girls are quickly seperated and then run back out onto pasture to join the Ewes.

The boys remain in the barn, where in tight quarters, the adult rams are less likely to get enough running steam to inflict injury on the newbies.  After being eyed in the stall overnight, they are then giving the paddock area outside the barn, and within a week they too were out on pasture.  Here you see the ram lambs of 2010, werent exactly being social, when they huddled in the corner away from the big guys.

With fall shearing a few weeks away, fall butchering also coming up, its time to start selecting the keepers from the not so keepers.  We butcher and sell grass fed lamb in the fall, please contact us for more information and to be on our mailing list.  With just a few ram lambs (colored and a registered Corriedale) and one Moorit Ewe Lamb left, its been a great first year with the lambs.    

Heres to the last few weeks of summer...