Greener Pastures Farm

Emergence... Back Into The Light

2011-12-27T14:07:00.001-08:00

I'm back!

Yeah, I've been out of the loop for a while. A stroke in my eye really sent me into a spin. I'm okay. Lots of expensive tests and doctor bills later, I'm now on high blood pressure medication, and learning to live with a blind spot in my right eye.

Really, all things considered, if I had to choose a spot to be blind in, I could not have chosen better. It's the upper left quadrant of my right eye that is blind, so I didn't lose any peripheral vision. So I'm really lucky!

I have a lot of catching up to do! Emails and phone calls have really piled up, and I'll be working my way through those in the next few days.

Now that the holidays are over, and the house is tidy from holiday preparations, I'm really pumped to get going on my hobbies and my farm work. I'm so glad to be back!

~ Ronda

Horns and Gaps in Fencing

2011-10-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Photo taken August 2011

These are a few of our 2011 Cascade Farmstead ram lambs. Legend, at the far left, and Laredo, at the far right, both have very very wide horns. Louie Louie, center, has horns that are just right. Lionheart, who is 2nd from right, has horns that are iffy and will remain to be seen how they turn out.

Luke, 2nd from left, has narrow horns and will be culled. Narrow horns will eventually grow into the face or eye, causing suffering to the animal. Culling the animal is the best thing for the breed and for your own flock.

Behind these young boys is a neat fencing trick that we discovered by accident and necessity. Directly behind Luke, from the cedar post and to the left, you can kinda see where the old driveway used to meet the road. From there the driveway travels from left to right behind this group of weaned ram lambs. The thistles are growing robustly due to all the compost dumped there.

Twelve years ago we dumped dirt from all the post holes we had dug, and barn compost to fill the two- to three-foot gap between the tightly stretched fencing and the surface of the old driveway. We tramped down each load we added, and when the dirt and compost finally accumulated enough to meet the fence, I pounded into the dirt/compost a number of 1x2 wooden stakes every 2 to 4 inches and catching the bottom 2 strands of the fence. This stabilized the dirt and compost that we dumped there. Each year we added more until we had filled in the entire area that used to be a driveway.

Over the years the new soil firmed up, and the wooden stakes decomposed, giving a level surface under our fencing. It's a technique we now use to fill in any hole that occurs under our fencing. The wooden stakes will slow down a predator, or an escape artist.

Castle and Beckett Growing Up

2011-10-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sweet! Castle and Beckett snoozing when I got up. It turns out that Beckett is a boy, but we are keeping the name anyway. He's ferocious and determined to be the Number One cat; he's clever and is biding his time with the older cats.

I guess somebody (Beckett?) is doing some shrew hunting. I just wish they would not bring their work home with them.

Greener Pastures Redwood

2011-09-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Photo taken April 2011

We had two blonde rams that looked so much alike, I had to get up close and check their ear tags to be certain who was who.

So these photos might be Greener Pastures Redwood, or they might be Greener Pastures King's Ransom. Both are from our Alpha line of Cascade Farmstead Sheep. The photo above is Redwood, to the far right of Jester and Jumping Jack Flash. They are all the same age in this photo; two years.

We butchered Redwood recently... he was a fine ram, but we'd already utilized him for breeding and no longer needed him. At age 2 1/2 years, his carcass weighed 52 lbs.

Below are, clockwise from front, Jester (white), Jumping Jack Flash (gonna use him for breeding this autumn!), either Redwood or King's Ransom, Jackpot (butterscotch color) and the fabulous Jeopardy.

Photo taken May 2011

It's only September, but I'm already dreaming of the possibilities of next year's lambs!

Job Openings Filled at Greener Pastures Farm

2011-06-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, we had a couple job openings to fill, and after weeks and weeks of searching, we found the right candidates!

Introducing Castle and Beckett. They were born to a barn cat, lived full time in a barn, and came home with us when they were 7 weeks old, already conditioned for barn life and hunting. These photos were taken at about 8 weeks. They are still kittens, and chase their own tails and chew on their own hind feet!

But they also stalk each other and wrestle when they are not sleeping or purring for us. Our last kittens were ten years ago, and they were not nearly this advanced or aggressive.

However, Calvin, Hobbes and Susie were/are wonderful cats! (Can you tell that we are avid fans of Bill Watterson?) Calvin was the hunter/mouser, as well as the most endearing cat we'd ever seen. Everyone who met him adored him and wanted to take him home. The last photo of him was taken just before The Kid's graduation:

We knew he was good, but didn't realize how good until after he'd been gone for about 6 months. Small predators began moving in about that time, and we even saw squirrels on our property for the first time since the late 90's.

When we found rodents in the chicken feed, we knew it was time to do something.

Uncle Hobbes has warmed up to the kittens fairly quickly, and is benevolently tolerant of them. Aunt Susie, who declined to participate in the photo shoot, is taking a bit more time to thaw.

The new crew are headquartered out on the front porch after spending the first 5 days living in the house and getting to know us. Beckett is utterly fearless and is the first to try everything. Castle is content to watch his sister first and see how she fares before giving most things a try. I think they will make a wonderful team!

I like this photo. Snoozing husband and snoozing kitties. Too cute for words.

A Picture is Worth Three Stories

2011-06-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

I love this picture. It may not appear so, but there are at least three stories going on in this photo.

It was taken on May 15th, the day Laughter In The Rain was born. So I was out taking photos in the rain, of course! If it's not an absolute downpour, our ewes and lambs prefer to graze in the rain and/or gather under a tree. Here we have Lorelei and another lamb that I can't identify from here, both playing Who Can Climb The Highest Before Gravity Interferes? At right is Belladonna, with a bit of play still in her, despite being a new mother to those ten-day-old twins next to her, as well as a grandmother and great-grandmother.

And last, but not least, are Valerian and Katzenjammer grazing side-by-side. Valerian gave us our first lambs of the season, and Katz produced her pretty lamb eight days after this photo was taken. But that's not the story! What I find so cool is that these two girls are grandmother and granddaughter. (CORRECTION BELOW!) Katz's dam, Jeepers, went to live in Minnesota last year, and because mother/daughter pairs often are grazing buddies, Katz apparently began spending more time with grandma. I like that.

I've heard stories about ewes who were grazing buddies being separated by years and reunited later on and instantly becoming grazing buddies again. And I've seen it happen on our own farm when we used to have Soay sheep; I bought a ewe who was the dam of a ewe I had purchased previously, and they became grazing buddies again as if they had not been separated at all. I'm not looking to reunite any of my sheep; but I do find it fascinating how the relationships are established and sustained.

It may not seem like it in our photos, but we currently have 53 sheep in our ewe/lamb pasture; 23 ewes and 30 lambs. Not counting our adult rams. I would have expected a lot more lambs from that number of ewes, but we kept a higher percentage of ewe lambs last year, so that meant a lot more single lambs this year.

Back to labeling photos!

~ Ronda

CORRECTION: I should have checked before typing that! Valerian is not Jeepers' dam. Valerian is the half-sister of Jeepers' grandmother, and therefore a great-aunt to Katz. Katz' grandmother and great-grandmother are center front in our header photo; the polled white and dark brown ewes. But still, it's all in the family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Call

2011-05-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have a number of photos to gather and present for our buyers back east. It's kind of a big job, and this past week I've gotten behind! Thankfully, my son took these photos today for me.

Sunday, May 29th brought the last lamb of the 2011 season to Greener Pastures Farm. Not only did every ewe produce at least one lamb, but the season ended with quite a flourish! This is Greener Pastures Last Call; a single ram lamb born to black triplet Camellia. Her two brothers were born badgerfaced; Alder went to Minnesota and Balsam stayed here with us. Balsam will be utilized for breeding this coming autumn.

Back to Last Call. These colors and markings are a first for us, and I think we will enjoy them while we see them, because they will fade within a few months. His sire is a blonde ram in the Alpha bloodline, and while Camellia was born black (and still is, despite the brown fleece that is sun bleached), she comes from a long line of blonde or badgerfaced ewes and rams.

He is a pretty big boy; she seems to have "baked" him long and well. And here he is, showing just how he feels about this busy day. Can you just take that camera away and let me catch a snooze?

Ronda, tickled pink at Greener Pastures Farm

Blessed are they...

2011-05-21T16:47:00.001-07:00

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves...

... for they shall never cease to be amused.

I don't know who said that, but I've carried it around in my head and posted it on the fridge and even began a cross stitch sampler with it once. And I just now shared it with a farming friend. (Hi friend!)

~ Ronda

Funny Face

2011-05-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

He does look a bit of a clown, doesn't he?

Greener Pastures Firethorn and his twin sister, Forget-Me-Not have some fascinating markings on their faces that were inherited from their Icelandic dam. Her face was just like this!

With his nice conformation and good horn width, we utilized Firethorn for breeding in the fall of 2009. Two of his daughters inherited his facial markings to some extent; Greener Pastures Katzenjammer and Greener Pastures Kia. And Kia's 2011 daughter did as well. But Firethorn's other daughter looked the typical mouflon pattern. So it was a nice surprise to see Keester produce a ewe lamb that looks a bit like its grandpa, though cuter.

Greener Pastures La Vie En Rose is shown the day she was born, while still wet behind the ears and pretty much everywhere else, too! Gotta love those white bobbie socks.

Here she is the following day, with her cute pink nose. She took her grandpa's funny face and made it glamorous.

Our 28th lamb of this year was born yesterday, and we have two pregnant ewes to finish up this year's lambing season. Due to the higher number of ewe lambs born this year, we unexpectedly will have a Starter Flock available for sale; a group of very nice experienced adult ewes and rams that I had planned to keep for myself. See our website for further information.

~ Ronda

Testing. Testing.

2011-05-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've had this camera for.... maybe 8 years? And today was the first time I used the video option. My first videos were of leaping lambs, but I didn't get close enough and it was too fuzzy. Thus begins the Learning Curve!

Here's my babies. Yes, I really do talk to them all the time. This chatter wasn't for you, but for the babies and me. I want them to be accustomed to the sound of my voice, and I always talk to the sheep when I enter the pasture, so that they know it's me and there's no need to worry or protect the babies, etc.

Next time I'll try to get closer to the leaping lambs! : D

~ Ronda

No More Bottles!

2011-05-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

I've been let off the hook. And in so doing, the ewe with a strike against her is likely getting a reprieve.

She's nursing. And she's not only nursing her own lamb, but my other bottle lamb, too! I'd seen her kick both of them away in this past week, but last night she seemed to turn a corner. Both lambs had full bellies last night when I brought their night time bottles. And again today when I brought their morning bottles. And their lunch bottles. And then I got the above photo this afternoon.

The lambs still clamor for attention. Lollipop comes a running!

They both sniff and nibble my clothing.

Lexie was nibbling at my phone.

And my pocket.

Lollipop was pawing at my leg for some petting. Actually, they both do that.

I think I'll continue to bring bottles out once a day, with just a small amount of milk, so that we keep these babies tame.

Though having a full grown ewe pawing at my leg might not be such a fun enterprise! : D

But how can I resist Lexie's eyes half closed with contentment as I scratch her chin?

~ Ronda

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

I made a mistake on Wednesday's post. I speculated that Belladonna would have her lambs by Thursday morning.

She didn't.

She had them Thursday afternoon. And aren't these two little girls cute? Lisette and Lavinia have brown skin and will likely look just like their mother.

Happy Mother's Day. Kick up your heels a little bit.

~ Ronda

More Cascade Farmstead Lambs!

2011-05-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

The countdown continues. We are currently at 15 ewe lambs and 10 ram lambs on the ground and 5 ewes that have not lambed yet. We have not had to assist with any lambings, which is the norm, and actually did not see any of them born! They've been very secretive this year.

Above are Greener Pastures Lucille and Laverne with their dam. They are 8 days old in this photo taken yesterday.

And here is part of our flock of Cascade Farmstead ewes and lambs as of yesterday. Not everybody is in this photo... they like to spread out, and as I recall, there was a new mother inside the barn behind me with her handsome and still wet ram lamb. His name is Greener Pastures Lionheart. It's the "L" year, you know.

~ Ronda

Lambing Update

2011-05-04T20:40:00.001-07:00

We had 5 lambs born today. Twins from my fabulous Honeysuckle, and singles from 3 yearling ewes. This brings us to 21 lambs thus far, with 8 ewes left to go. For those of you keeping track, we've had 8 ram lambs and 13 ewe lambs this year!

This photo shows a few of this years' lambs. You should be able to click on this photo to see a larger version. Our most recent lambs are show on the left; Honeysuckle's Legend and Lucia. The oldest lambs are shown in the background; Living Daylights and Lacey. Center shows my babies; Lollipop and Lexis. Lorelei is on the compost heap, and I have some pretty cool pics of her testing the bonds of gravity and the bounce in her legs. I'll get those up tomorrow.

I suspect Belladonna will have lambs by morning, but I've been saying that about Honeysuckle for days, so we will see. : )

Lollipop Lollipop

2011-04-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

I have a bottle lamb as of yesterday. Lollipop got trapped in some mud, and when I found her, her dam was having a fit and bleating her head off, and the lamb looked dead.

I went to pick up the dead lamb, and she moved!

Rescue mode kicked in.

I fed her, then dunked her into a nearby water bucket to get most of the caked mud off of her, and when no paper towels or anything was in sight, I took off my coat and then my shirt, put back on my coat and rubbed her as dry as I could with the shirt. She was so cold and barely alive and I made an instant executive decision that she was coming to the house and would likely be a bottle lamb. She had a warm soak in a plastic dishpan while I held her head above the water, until her legs were no longer cold as ice, and I got out the bottles and nipples and fed her some whole cow's milk. We learned years ago that it has more fat than goat's milk and thus is better for a bottle lamb.

I held Lollipop to my chest for hours, she snuggled against me and slept, but kept trembling. After about 3 hours she was alert and ready for another feeding. Who would have thought that just a few hours ago she was so near death. They do bounce back so quickly, and she does have such a will to survive. I hate to think how long she was stuck in that mud with rain coming down on her face and body.

Now she's sleeping next to me in a big box with a towel. She had a busy morning; I took her out with me to check on the ewes and see what new lambs had arrived. We discovered 2 more sets of twins! They are huge compared to Lollipop.

I don't know if Lollipop will become a breeding ewe or become leg of lamb this coming autumn. I don't know if her dam will remain a breeding ewe or become tasty burger. We do cull heavily on our farm. But I can't allow babies to suffer, and this one is getting very good care.

~ Ronda

A Phrase I Never Thought I'd Hear

2011-04-27T21:07:00.001-07:00

"Well, since we used up all of our antacid breaking out of jail..."

Jamie Hyneman

MythBusters

(The Kid is addicted to this show, and rightfully so!)

Today Included a Double Take

2011-04-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

We've seen this before. Several times. But each time I'm startled and do a double take, even when I hoped that a particular breeding pair would produce something like this.

This is Greener Pastures Lorelei with her dam, Greener Pastures Hollyhock. Lorelei's sire is as dark as her dam, but both parents have white with spots in their ancestry.

Bright white. Pristine white. Pink nose and white hooves. And those markings on her face and neck!

And our most recent lamb is another little girl, this one from Greener Pastures Evening Primrose. I saw her being born from inside the house, and got out here just as she was getting up.

Her first meal. I forgot to check her skin color; it could be brown like her sire's, and thus affect her adult coloring. Her dam is quite a looker, and poses nicely for the camera. But she didn't want me near her lamb.

I couldn't get close enough to her dam to read the eartag, so I took a number of closeup photos in hopes of being able to magnify the photo and get a reading. I did, successfully, but just had to include this photo expressly for...

Chai Chai!

It's a good thing the back of the eartag was clean and readable. And what's that? Some brambles in the wool?

~ Ronda

Easter Lambs and Pregnant Ewes

2011-04-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

We had a couple lambs born on Easter morning! Both boys, and both from ewes born last year! This is Kittiwake with her cute little boy. He has brown skin, a white cap and 2 white socks on his back legs. His coloring will change dramatically within a short time. His daddy is Jackpot, who can be seen in yesterday's post.

The other boy was in the barn with his dam, where photos always come out badly, so I'm waiting for a better photo opportunity.

This was apparently the Play Group on Easter; Kittiwake was hanging out in this area and Valerian stopped by to see the new baby. Her son is very curious. Very soon we will see the Lamb Races and these boys will have loads of fun together.

Turning my camera to the left, here are a couple of my favorite ewes, Lavender and Honeysuckle. Lavender is a new "auntie"... she has 4 half sisters on three other farms. One of her nieces was born on Easter and can be seen here. Lavender is also a Grandma. Her granddaughter Lollipop was shown in yesterday's post. I can hardly wait to see what she gives us this year, and Honeysuckle never fails to amaze with her lambs.

And here are pregnant Cascade Farmstead ewes ranging in age from 1 year to my beloved 4-year-old Belladonna.

Obviously, more lambs are coming!

Have I mentioned that I love lambing season???

~ Ronda

Easter Sheep. Sort Of.

2011-04-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here's our Day Before Easter lamb: Greener Pastures Lollipop! And if you scroll back to the post on April 21st, you can see that the "next ewe to lamb" was the big whitish one right ahead of the ewe and her babies. Greener Pastures Jazz is the fabulous lamb shown on our A Life in the Day web page.

And here are a few photos taken Saturday of a few of our adult rams.

Greener Pastures Jackpot has wide horns and is in the early process of rooing his fleece. He was utilized as a breeding ram last fall, and is Lollipop's daddy. Lollipop has brown skin and will likely be blonde like her Pa.

Greener Pastures Jester, Jumping Jack Flash and Redwood are lined up for a photo shoot. You can see how much Jester's and JJ's horns have grown since January if you look at the previous post. Redwood was utilized as a breeding ram last fall. I am surprised that his horns are not quite as wide as I would like... his sire had really wide horns, and his dam carried the genetics for wide horns. Because he has genetics on his sire's side that I really needed, I utilized him carefully with selected ewes whose sires had really wide horns.

I have photos and thoughts on body structure to share in my next post. Oh yeah... and hopefully more lamb photos!

Happy Easter!

~ Ronda

Catching Up On Ram Photos

2011-04-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

While we wait for more new lambs, I'm catching up on all the photos I took last summer and winter.

These handsome boys are just a few of the Cascade Farmstead rams in our flock. Greener Pastures Indigo on the left was nearly 3 years old at the time this photo was taken; Jan 2, 2011. Quite a rack of horns, huh? His twin brother lives in Missouri, and I'm hoping to see photos of Juniper sometime. You can see a larger photo at the bottom of this page.

Greener Pastures Jumping Jack Flash (black with super wide horns) and Greener Pastures Jester are shown at right. At the time of this photo they were nearly 2 years old. JJ's horns are wider than we normally see, and are quite useful when breeding to a ewe that we know carries narrower horns.

Indigo was utilized for two breeding seasons; once as a flock ram for his group of allotted ewes, and I was so pleased with his progeny that the following year he had another breeding group as well as performing duties as a "clean up ram." Last fall I kept him just as pasture decoration and as my Grandpa Ram in the Bachelor Boy pasture. If the economy hadn't sucked so much, I would have kept him longer, but since I no longer needed him for breeding, we ate him. And that's what this breed is for! Several rams were butchered at that time and we processed them into the best tasting burger we've ever had.

More photos to go through, so you'll see more activity on my blog than you've seen in a long time! Woo hoo!

~ Ronda

2011 Lambing Season Has Begun!

2011-04-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sigh...

I love lambing season!

We discovered our first lambs of the year today. The twins were nearly dry by the time we learned we had lambs, and we scrambled for our lambing equipment: the camera.

The Kid took photos of the Mister and Me. The lighter colored lamb is a girl and she will become blonde or a butterscotch color as she matures... this brown color is her lamb coat.

The black lamb is a boy, and the white bits on his head and neck might fade to nearly nothing, or they may indicate a color change coming. We shall see. He's only a few hours old, and has some sturdy one inch horns that are mostly covered with hair. In a week or so they will be more visible.

Good girl Valerian!

Which of these beautiful, fleecy girls will lamb next? Some of them are already beginning to shed their fleece.

I love lambing season!

~ Ronda

Spring?

2011-04-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a couple other blogs and just had to share it:

INSTALLING SPRING...
44% DONE.

Installation delayed... please wait.

Installation failed. Please try again.

404 error: Season not found.

Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try again.

And on that note, I'll continue to wait for lambs, which are due very very soon. : D

~ Ronda

I'm Back, and Just in Time, Too!

2011-03-11T22:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm feeling good! Now that I am feeling so good, I can see that the past year or more I was wading each day through a metaphorical toxic sludge. An infected tooth can do that and more. Anyway, I'm all fixed up and ready for the coming lambing season!

We are shipping two flocks to Massachusetts this year. I think we've got nearly all the "M" states covered by now! I'd sure like to get a flock located closer to me, so that I can more easily swap rams.

I updated the Cascade Farmstead Sheep Association website to include the blog of Flock #4. I haven't read their blog lately and need to catch up!

I've been working on my online store, and have some new patterns coming that will be lots of fun. This morning I added one of my newer designs to the blog and am writing up the pattern this weekend to be available on the store as a freebie. There was no way I could sell that pattern after the 3/11 disaster, and I hope that quilters around the world will find this design helpful in some way, to remember those who were lost in this tragedy.

~ Ronda

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

I was planning to write a long overdue post today, but this wasn't the one I was planning. Got a little something to get off my chest!

I got a phone call from the local police today. They asked me if I would please ship those socks to that guy in BC.

{brief pause for astonishment, and then laughter}

"No, sir, I won't be shipping those socks to that guy. We only learned yesterday afternoon that his check finally cleared, and will send him a refund on Monday. I would have sent it sooner, but wasn't sure if I would be sending free money for nothing."

The officer seemed really confused as to why the guy would call the police.

So the guy called me about 10 or 20 minutes later. He wanted to rip me up and down. I listened. I made it very plain that the check didn't clear the bank until YESTERDAY, that THIS was the cause of the problem, and that it was quite unreasonable that he should expect me to front the purchase of the yarn for customized socks, put all that labor into knitting the socks, and then mail them based on his promise that the check was good. And that I felt a great big red flag over the fact that the check was dated November 3rd, but mailed December 4th, and that it took so long to "arrive", along with the fact that he was in so much of a hurry for the socks to be shipped, which made me wonder why he sat on that check for a month if he was in such a hurry to receive the items, and that this looked like mail fraud or some kind of con to me.

He didn't like that. He argued, he threatened calling the Better Business Bureau because he has documentation of all calls. I said "So do I. On my answering machine." He said he'd call the postal service and charge ME with mail fraud. I reminded him that I had not actually received payment until yesterday. He went off in so many different directions, including even trying the racial thing with me. HE said "I realize that I'm in Canada, and with a name like Raj, you'd be suspicious." I didn't take that bait; I didn't say a word. I went through each step of this transaction IN GOOD FAITH, fronting my own money and labor for this custom order, and it wasn't until the bizarre check arrived that I began to have real doubts about this transaction and that I might have been conned with a fraudulent check.

So, after all this, he still wanted the socks. I said no. I was no longer interested in doing business with him, and would refund his money. He then said "I can see that you are not a reputable business."

It was at that point that I just hung up on him.

I know he said it to make me angry and/or hurt my feelings. I'm trying not to let it, because I know that's what he wanted.

But damn!

So... where's the chocolate? Need lots of chocolate, and need to upload some new photos on my website and farm blog of our Grandpa ram.... he's so handsome and has such incredible horns, and I'd been waiting for some dry days to photograph him before Jon butchers him. We used him for breeding last year and the year before, so it's not like we need him anymore. He was only here to decorate the farm this past year! And he sure did! But we've got some more handsome rams coming up behind him, and I'm sure they will be duking it out to determine who is the Head Honcho once the big guy is gone.

Happy New Year!

Buh Bye!!!

2010-07-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm bruised, blistered, tired, but extremely happy. We've sold our Icelandic sheep. YAY! No more sheep so big that handling and hoof trimming makes me bruised, blistered and tired!

Now THIS is much better... Cascade Farmstead Sheep!

We have our 4th flock of Cascade Farmstead sheep ready to ship. These are the 8 Cascade Farmstead sheep going to Minnesota this week; one yearling ewe and 7 lambs. They are in one of our barns and have that "blue flash" in their eyes, but even so, look strikingly beautiful, with a nice variety of color. One of the rams has the most distinctive badgerfaced markings that we've produced yet.

I moved all of our ram lambs into the "big boy" pastures, which went very smoothly and they are settled together nicely. They are all so handsome. I really do need to get some photos of them very soon.

Growing Lambs and Shedding Rams and Ewes

2010-06-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

Dry sheep are prettier than wet sheep, so after a “drought” of photos, here we go!

Today was our 2nd 80 degree day of the year after an abnormally long and wet spring. Our Cascade Farmstead rams rest and chew their cud in the shade this afternoon. Some are in the process of rooing (shedding) their fleece, some are already finished. One of these boys is 2 years old, and the rest are yearlings.

And over the in the ewe pasture we find Belladonna and her twins, Katydid and Kittiwake.

Cascade lambs above; the handsome ram lamb Kilimanjaro at left, and beautiful ewe lamb Kittiwake.

Gorgeous. Am I lucky or what?

Gates, Alleyways, Hog Panels and our Apple Tree Security System

2010-06-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Fencing and gates are an ongoing topic on any farm, and I’m asked a lot how we do things here at Greener Pastures Farm. We’ve learned a lot over the years about what has worked well, and what has not. Often, the most valuable lessons are what has not worked, and any farmer worth their salt will be willing to share their mistakes as well as their successes.

Today I’ll start with a couple successes, and I promise that mistakes will be forthcoming!

Alleyways are crucial for a farm. I try to explain over the phone how these work, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. This alleyway is a bit wider than we would have made it, but an old driveway was there first, and pounding posts into 80 years of gravel lasted about a minute, and then we revised our plan to include a 10 foot wide alleyway. You work with what you’ve got! Ten years later, here is a photo of what we did.

Before putting fence posts in, we planned ahead to have the gates the same width as the alleyway, and placed the posts accordingly, so that open or closed, the gate can latch securely. This is handy when rotating sheep from one pasture to another. Each alleyway on our farm has access to a barn, and gates like this make it easy to allow sheep access to one pasture, allowing the other pastures to regrow. Our sheep are accustomed to this system and don’t need to be herded from one to another; they know that an opened gate means fresh grass on the other side and race each other to get through it! The gate above is latched in the "open" position, with the top photo shown from the alleyway, and the lower photo shown from the pasture.

These photos are of my Young Apple Tree Security System. Some of our small pastures have little or no afternoon shade, so I planted 5 varieties of “standard” apple trees in five different pastures. Full sized (aka “standard”) fruit trees are not easy to find now that so many people are demanding dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees; Gurney’s is the only source that I’m aware of. Granted, mine are not providing shade yet, but they will eventually, and a smart farmer plans ahead.

If planted out in a pasture with sheep, your lovely apple tree will become an apple stick in a matter of moments. Protection is needed. I placed each tree about 6 feet from a fence, and then overlapped 2 hog panels together and pulled them into a horseshoe shape, attaching each end to the fence on either side. Here is a 3 year old tree, and you can see how the sheep have grazed right up to the hog panel, but have not breeched it to get at the tree.

This photo shows the back side of the system. No, your eyes are not deceiving you; there is no tree in this photo. It didn’t survive for some unknown reason (weather? disease?) and needs to be replaced, but you can see more clearly how the hog panels are attached to each other and to the fence. We used metal fasteners called hog rings. They weren’t as sturdy as I’d been told, so I used 2 in each space, and clamped them tightly. After 3 years, they are kind of rusty, but still holding together.

One more item is a good idea. A few days after we planted the trees and placed the hog panels, my husband brought back a stick and said “Here’s your Granny Smith tree.” A couple metal t-posts were then pounded into the ground in strategic locations to prevent eager sheep from breaching the Apple Tree Security System.

Because we’ve seen llamas and sheep “bark” and eventually kill fruit trees in the past, I’ll keep these in place no matter how old the trees get. Hopefully they will outlive me!

My Bees Survived Record Amounts of Rain

2010-06-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

With the long wet spring, I’ve been really chomping at the bit to check on my bees. It’s been months since I’ve been able to open up my hives to have a peek. Last week we had a few dry sunny days, which allowed me to lean on the fence a foot or so away from the entrance and watch the girls come and go. I saw enough activity to allay my fears regarding their survival. But with the truly sudden onset of summer, I knew I’d be in trouble if I didn’t get the hives opened and made sure they had enough room to expand.

Yesterday I went out at dusk, with the idea that they’d be calm and I could remove the empty feeders, replace the space with a 1x2 cut to fit, and move the queen includer up a super or two to allow for expansion. One of the great things I learned in my research this spring was to use a much smaller entrance located higher than most of the hive, much like those in wild hives, allowing the hive to easily defend itself from robber bees. Imitating Mother Nature as much as I can is my goal as a farmer; it makes for less work and more efficiency.

The Persephone hive has been the weaker hive from the beginning, but they are hanging in there and I gave the queen an additional super for laying eggs and closed the hive back up.

The Aphrodite hive (aptly named) has always been the stronger hive, and after seeing what this queen had been up to, I gave her LOTS more room for laying eggs, and now that I know how well they are doing, I need to go back again to give them another super or two. You can see in these photos taken today that many of the girls are looking for their former entrance which used to be between super #2 and super #3, just like the Persephone hive. It’s now above #3, which isn’t visible to you and me, but it’s there and you can see in this photo that many have found it.

I’ll put another super on top of #3, so the entrance will be visible again, but not today. Last night I found that neither hive was aggressive, but my veil must have touched my face at one point when I was finishing up the Aphrodite hive, and one lone bee stung me on my face. They weren't swarming around me at all; I chose dusk so they'd be calm, so it really was a fluke. It hurt only briefly, and I'm glad to see that these are strong, self-reliant bees that are doing well without assistance, chemicals or any other non-organic practices. YAY! This has been my goal for years! My husband pulled the stinger out of my face, and I slapped some Sting Stop on it, but really, it didn't and doesn't hurt.

Cool.

Oh yeah, I wanted to show the hog panels used to protect my hives from sheep grazing the orchard. You can see that the pasture has been grazed up to the panels, and the hives are safe from being knocked over. I should get in there and tidy up a bit, but it's a small price to pay for utilizing every bit of grass that we can for our livestock.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

2010-06-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

Confucius says… Man who says ‘cannot be done’ should not interrupt woman doing it.

Yup.

I’m a ‘can do’ sort of person, and have accomplished a number of things in my life that I never dreamed I’d be doing. But when opportunity arose, the challenge presented itself, my ‘can do’ attitude kicked into gear and boy, did I get things done!

So when I encounter an “it can’t be done” personality… you know, one of those people who say ‘you can’t get there from here’ and other such the-glass-is-half-empty comments, my glass-is-half-full attitude tries really hard to help.

But you can’t help someone who isn’t willing to help themselves.

I encountered such a person a few days ago. Boy, am I glad he didn’t call back! Because after 2 phone calls from him to receive solutions from me (it became apparent by the end of the first call that he wasn’t going to become a customer, but I was still willing to help and advise him in his quest), by the end of the 2nd phone call, I did something I’d never done before… I called him on the carpet regarding the negativity and the “I can’t do that” responses to the many solutions I was offering to help him DO WHAT HE WANTED TO DO!

I don’t know what that was all about, but I’d had more than enough.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Things are good here. Good things happen (mostly). Beautiful lambs are born. Chickens lay eggs. Sheep graze pastures. Honey bees are surviving the constant rain. Our old truck died, but we replaced it, and are grateful for the nearly 2 decades of service that it gave us.

And my son is writing his Salutatorian speech.

Happy smile. The glass is at least half full.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

2010-06-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I made this for the first time in years, and the guys loved it. Again.

This recipe is slightly altered from one in "Breadtime Stories" by Susan Jane Cheney. I mark my cookbooks with stars next to the recipes... 4 and 5 stars for the best recipes and fewer stars for less stellar recipes, with notes as to why, and what I could do differently IF I decided to give it a try again.

I don't mark books other than cookbooks; I just had to begin doing this so I wouldn't repeat a recipe that was a total disaster.

Anyway, here's my version of Peanut Butter Banana Bread, yummy enough to eat for dessert (we did!) and healthy enough for breakfast!

Makes 2 loaves, no machinery needed other than the oven. Preheat to 325 degrees.

1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup honey
4 eggs
2 cups mashed ripe bananas
2 cups whole wheat bread flour
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Mash enough ripe/over-ripe bananas to make 2 cups. In large batter bowl, use potato masher (a whisk is too flimsy for this) to whisk the eggs, peanut butter and honey.

In a large bowl add whole wheat bread flour, unbleached flour, baking powder, baking soda, coriander and ground ginger. Whisk together. Add half of this to the batter bowl mixture and mix with the potato masher. Add remainder of flour mixture to batter and mix just until you can't see flour; don't overmix.

Butter both pans. Divide batter between them. Bake 50 minutes at 325 degrees. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to cool on rack.

Enjoy!

Musings about Mother's Day

2010-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

2010 lambing season is nearly over, with lots of color and variety. What fun! Have I mentioned that I LOVE lambing season???

Here is a handsome guy, named Greener Pastures Kilimanjaro. He was only a week old in this photo, and look at those sturdy legs! Wow. We ear tagged him yesterday, along with the other lambs, and he spent the afternoon trying to catch that thing that was ever-so-slightly out of his range of vision. Jon was amused. Kilimanjaro was not.

Here are a couple of gorgeous girls; Greener Pastures Kittiwake and Katydid. Kittiwake is staying here on our farm, and Katydid will live in the Midwest after she’s weaned. Their dam is what we call a “banana peel” shedder; her fleece peels right off. Most let their fleeces come off in chunks that wind up on the fences or the pasture unless we want it and manage to get to it first.

This is Greener Pastures Jeepers with her young daughter, shown yesterday morning. Greener Pastures Jitterbug is right behind her.

And here’s a photo taken a short time later that same day; Jeepers’ fleece rooed right off. We were able to take handfuls easily and finished her off within 5 minutes. Her belly wool wasn’t ready to shed yet, and I can see now that we forgot to tidy her tail. It will fall off on it’s own, but I might just pluck it off the next time we catch and roo the ewes. You can see that Jitterbug was willing to let go of half of her fleece; the rest just wasn’t ready yet. And Honeysuckle, who typically gives us 4 to 6 grocery bags full of fleece, wasn’t ready to part with hers just yet.

And here is our youngest lamb to date; Greener Pastures Kia is also going to live in the midwest after weaning!

Rooing and eartagging were one of the things we did on Mother's Day. Have I mentioned that I love lambing season?

.

Life As We Know It

2010-04-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

We have 14 lambs on the ground thus far, with about half of our ewes left to go. Very exciting!!! None of them have needed assistance, which is as it should be with this breed, and we've been sleeping through the night. That's my kind of farming!

I just came in from checking on my bees. As mentioned previously, I'm beginning again with bees after a 6 year hiatus. They appear to be doing well, despite the fact that we've had so much rain. Some hardy little worker bees have been getting out there between rain showers to forage and pollinate all the fruit trees and other blossoms. I added another super to each hive, and moved the small entrance hole up one level in the process, giving them more room, but confusing some of the worker bees returning with their loads. I stayed to watch for a while, and noticed that while most of them were returning with yellow pollen, I saw two with white, and one actually had some bright orange pollen. I wonder what flowers that came from?

Did I mention that I find this all fascinating?

And the lambs... so very cute, and some very interesting colors as usual. I just LOVE this breed of sheep! I need to take photos once we get some dry weather. Wet sheep aren't at their prettiest.

First Lambs of 2010

2010-04-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter how many years have gone by and how many new lambs we've seen (hundreds), the wonder and thrill never diminish. Our first lamb of the 2010 season was born before we woke up this morning, arriving without assistance from anybody. Lamb and dam are both Cascade Farmstead sheep; the mother is a week shy of being a year old. Both are wet... it's raining here. They will be even prettier when we get a bit of dry weather!

I'm still tinkering with my camera; I know I can get crisper photos than this.

And so it begins... I'm smiling as I look forward to many more lambs in a variety of colors. To learn more about Cascade Farmstead sheep, visit our website, which has loads of information and photos: www.greenerpasturesfarm.com

Moving My Quilt Stuff to Another Blog

2010-04-10T17:35:00.001-07:00

Which seems appropriate... I've moved my quilting supplies from one room to another in our house before getting settled into it's very own room!

Because this farm blog is for farm stuff, and because quilting is one of a few subjects I'm enamoured with, but that may not interest most farmers that visit my blog, I'm moving such topics over to Momma Made This.

If you are a quilter, I look forward to seeing you there!

To Bee, Or Not To Bee

2010-04-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know... lame title. But I'm in a lame mood.

I messed around with my bees today. I've been absolutely twitchy in my desire to check on them and see how things are going. And... to get those queen cages out that I really shouldn't have left in when I installed the hives.

So I went out in my bee suit and veil, my brush and hive tool, completely forgoing the smoker. Feelin' pretty proud of myself about that last part.

First I visited Hive #1, now named Aphrodite. Gotta love Linda's Bees... she's got so much useful information, and she names her hives. What a good idea! It's so much easier to remember a name than a number or "that hive that used to be in the orchard but is now over here on the east side of...." Yeah, that works well.

Anyway, I visited the Aphrodite hive, and despite the chilly weather, they sounded active from the outside. I managed to rummage my way through the hive and clumpy, sticky bees and found the queen cage on the bottom (not where I'd left it) and it looked empty, but these blasted bifocals have failed me before, so I'm not exactly reassured. When I picked up the queen cage again, there were 2 bees inside, so I peeled back the wire and let them out. All I could do was put it all back together and watch and wait.

On to the Persephone hive, which was so quiet that I was sure they were all dead. When I opened the hive, I didn't see much movement, but I carried on, and found the queen cage on the bottom (not where I'd left it), removed it, realized that my bees were alive but just cold, rearranged a couple frames, closed it back up, and prayed that I hadn't inadvertently set my queen free. And watched and waited. Test flights began as the sun came out. Good.

But I'm still twitchy. Hub says if I don't make this work this year, I'm done. Which isn't fair at all. He didn't get a deer last fall, so by the same token, he shouldn't be allowed to hunt again. Riiiigghht.

Farmville? Really???

2010-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

I cancelled my personal Facebook account last year because I was sick of hearing about a lost virtual cow from a person I barely knew at school over 30 years ago. And similar stupid stuff. Sorry, but I was looking for real relationships, about real things.

So when I heard on the radio news this morning (cable is no longer in our budget, and we don't have a TV antennae) that people are spending real money to play this dumb game, my hackles rose and I thought about all the real farmers who are struggling to make ends meet.

Yes, a fool may be parted with his or her money however they please, but good grief! If you have that kind of money and want to spend it on farming, please.... support your local REAL farmer!

Signed,
a Real Farmer

Soothing the Soul

2010-04-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

I have so many activities that soothe my soul, that really make my heart sing.

A row of canning jars full of something yummy that I made for my family.

New lambs that arrived without help or incident. (Cascades, of course!)

Spinning fleece into yarn.

Watching geese protect their newly hatched goslings.

Monitoring my bees as they build their colony and create honey.

Watching my garden grow, and won't that be nice once my Jon has put up some fencing to keep the sheep and chickens out of it?

Watching my son flourish at school; he's Salutatorian, and just a few days ago received an acceptance letter from his first choice University!

Making quilts that warm our hearts as well as our bodies.

But today's "Soothe the Soul" is about spinning fleece into wool. I have to admit that I have not done much spinning of our Cascade Farmstead fleeces. While the Cascade fleeces are far superior to the breeds we've had in the past, I'm so caught up in quilting at this time in my life that I just have not been able to get back into spinning for the time being. Someday.

However, I'm hoping that "someday" comes a little sooner... I have the bags of fleece from Greener Pastures Lavender that are truly gorgeous and so nice that after my attempts to spin last year, I decided I needed to refine my spinning skills a bit before working on a fleece this nice. Maybe this summer when it's too hot to have a quilt draped over and around me during the quilting process!

I keep telling myself that, while I want to do everything, I need to whittle down the "want to do" list into a very practical "these are the things I want to do MOST" list, so that I have finished projects to show for my efforts. This seems to be the stumbling block for creative people, but I'm working on it.

We have bees again!

2010-04-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

With the economy showing small signs of improvement in our area, I managed to convince my husband to fork over $180 so that I could begin keeping bees again. And they arrived today, and I installed them with no difficulties.

WOO HOO!!!

I began beekeeping in 2004, and the photo shown is of my lovely English Garden Hives, when I had done nothing more than cover them in linseed oil. It seemed organic, it was sure pretty, but it wasn't practical. My hives are now painted a lovely and subtle green, which looks great with the patina the copper roofs have acquired.

I've been taking a refresher course in beekeeping in recent days. Links about organic beekeeping are now provided at left. I've been following the Organic Beekeeping forum since it began, and I've recently learned that Michael Bush has a wonderful website to share his expertise in small cell (which he, quite rightly, refers to NATURAL CELL), as well as all the good reasons why to go the route he's gone. I've practically lived at his site in recent days while boning up on what I need to do and not do.

Like me, he wants his operation to be easy, and smaller hives are the ticket to that. I bought mine (back in 2004) from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, all 8-frame medium supers, all uniform, all small (4.9mm) cell. I highly recommend them (the hives and the company), and if you want to go all natural and organic, then definitely get small cell foundation.

I'm so happy! More to come in my toxin free adventures in beekeeping.

Easter

2010-04-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's Easter Sunday, and I boiled eggs this morning and didn't color them.

Why?

A) I didn't need to; our eggs come in a variety of colors including blue, green, blue-green, white, brown and dark brown.

B) We've outgrown that for the time being. Our son is graduating from high school shortly, and received an acceptance letter yesterday from his first choice university.

Life is pretty good right now. But bring on the scholarships, because my brilliant boy needs 'em.

In the meantime, I'm going to peel some really colorful eggs and make something tasty with them. Happy Easter!

Quilting

2010-04-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

I recently finished my first bed-sized quilt. This may seem astonishing considering that I've been an avid quilter for 20 years. But I began with miniature quilts, took several detours along the way, and made a number of what I call "nap sized quilts" for kids and adults. These have been loved and worn and loved some more by my family.

While I've designed many bed-sized quilts, and have dozens in various stages of progress, it took this long to finish one for our bed. I can't begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment, the appreciation of the beauty of this quilt, and that it's finally on our bed. Finishing any project brings such a nice feeling, but this is huge, not just in size or impact, but in the emotion it brings every time I see it or touch it! I'm so inspired, and can't wait until I can get the next quilt into my quilting hoop; this one for the kid.

As an artist with so many quilts in varying stages of progress (or lack thereof), I'm in a hurry to finish a few and get them on our beds before I spend the extra time needed for intricate designs. So the "utility quilts" are currently getting nearly all of my "quilty" attention, and I'm investigating something that I never thought I'd resort to... big stitching. I first heard of this technique back in the mid-90's, and dismissed it. But now, I'm thinking big stitching will be faster than tiny quilting stitches, but more personal than machine quilting, and may be just the ticket for the twin-sized quilt that I pieced for my son.

In my research about big stitching and whether this was a technique that would last, or shrink or or or... I discovered that the books on this subject are old and hard to find, and I'm currently in no position to purchase any. But I did run across a blog written by a woman in Australia who is currently enamoured with big stitching, and posted what works and what doesn't work. Yay! Her lovely blog is Quiltsalott. And she helped me determine, through her own trials and error, which thread to avoid. I've got some idea which route I'll take, and will post on that in future.

Hoping that these midnight ramblings due to insomnia do not come back to haunt me...

Post Script
I moved my quilting stuff to a new blog: Momma Made This. If you are a quilter, please follow me there. Or follow both!

Scrapbooking With Taste, Part 2

2010-03-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

If you already create pages with a scrapbook program, this may not interest you much. But if you are new to digital scrapbooking, have I got help for you!

First, you don't need to spend any money to dip your toe into the water. Digital Scrapbook Artist offers a nice scrapbooking program for free, which you can find at DaisyTrail under the Free Stuff tab near the top of the page. You can do quite a bit with this free program, called Digital Scrapbook Artist Compact; I created some really great memory pages using this program.

DSA Compact comes with a number of kits, including some Photobook kits, some with frames, and my favorite has no frames at all. Here is a quick tutorial on how to create a really great double page spread. (I almost always make double page spreads, because I like the 2 pages to look nice side by side in my photo album.)

When opening the program, click on "Choose a Theme" and click on "Photobook, No Frames." Then choose the "Photos" tab at left and upload at least a dozen photos from a particular event that you want to document. With these photos in mind, open the "Layouts" tab below the Photos tab, and choose a few layouts that you like. Pick a couple that have photos off to the side. You can always delete pages, but right now you are just messing around. Open the layout that has 3 photos on the right side of the page, with lots of open white space on the left. Delete the text, then open your Photos tab again and choose one that you'd like to see really big and close up. Drag it over the left side of the page, and then enlarge the photo using the corners to drag it until it covers your page. Don't use the sides to drag; this will distort your photo. Once the photo is big enough, use the tool on the right hand side of your screen, under "Arrange" to move the photo into the background, behind those 3 photos on the right hand side. I now have DSA2, which I received for my birthday and adore, so I don't recall if DSA Compact allows you to make your photo transparent, but sometimes this is a nice effect, and DSA2 allows me to control how much transparency, if any, to use. If you want to include a lot of text, make the photo background as transparent as necessary for easy reading of the story you are presenting.

Next, drag a photo into the top photo frame. The tool on each frame allows you to zoom in and move the photo around inside the frame so that your subject is placed how you want it. Repeat with the other 2 frames. If you haven't already done so, add some text, including the dates of the photos and you are done.

If you'd rather use a simple background instead of a photo background, click on "Add Items from Digikits" and scroll through the options. Dark backgrounds will make your photos really pop on the page.

Some really beautiful and tasteful black background papers are available for free from Cuddlebeez. She also offers a really great paper kit, called Mystical Romance, that goes beautifully with the older black and white photographs from the 50's. She has lots of free items on her site, and restraint is difficult with so much to choose from. My favorite kit from her store is Preserving The Past, which I use without all the doodads. She offers the matching Alphabet for free.

There are lots of little girl kits available, but if you are searching for a great boy kit, Been There Wrecked That is one of my favorite kits from Kelly-Jo's Scraps, and used with restraint, I can produce some really great pages without overpowering my cute kid photos. She has more free kits, and like Cuddlebeez, now has her own store, but maintains her website of free stuff.

There are a lot of artists out there making digital scrapbook items for us, for free or for sale. There are lots of programs to use these kits in. I happen to love DSA2.

Tasteful scrapbooking done easy.

And I click "Save" and keep my work on an external hard drive until we recover from this economic crisis and I can afford to get my work printed.

Scrapbooking With Taste

2010-03-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

I learned to scrapbook with real paper and photos developed from film. I took a class and received some really good tips on layout and cropping, and the necessity to tell the story with words to accompany the photos.

I made some mistakes with really pretty paper that totally overwhelmed the photos they were intended to preserve and "frame." And I learned to love understated simplicity. I learned that my photos showed up better when there was less "stuff" on the page to distract from the photo. A background paper that was subtle and in the same color family as the background of the photo, or leaning toward black or dark green, became my preference.

A decade and a half later, I began to embrace digital scrapbooking, which works nicely with our digital cameras. I played around with all the fun backgrounds and the many "embellishments" like foliage, ribbons, bows and a multitude of stuff. I'll pat myself on the back and mention that, from the beginning of my digital scrapbooking odyssey, I stayed away from the wacky frames that have tons of the aforementioned embellishments already attached to the frame. As an artist, I know better than to use those.

After my initial euphoria with all the new "toys," I re-learned the need for simplicity. And as I read scrapbooking blogs on "how to" or "here's what I have for sale," I feel really sorry for all those folks making scrapbook pages with one tiny photo surrounded by tons of patterned paper, embellishments, ribbons and bows and other stuff, to the point that the photo is lost.

I really do appreciate all the artists out there creating papers and frames and alphabets for purchase (many offer these for free!), and I've patronized several, and applaud their efforts. However, I've communicated with several and they know they need to cater to the general public, and therefore include in their kits a lot of stuff that I don't want or need. But they do work hard on their art, and they do appreciate input from customers, and if you have an idea or a request for particular patterns or colors in kits, they love to get that inspiration and make you happy, and even they will recommend that you don't have to use everything in the kit; they are just trying to appeal to the masses.

Tips on scrapbooking with taste:

Frame the photo with complementary colors, or dark colors to make the photo "pop." The eye should be drawn to the photo on the page. Background means background.

Keep the "stuff" out. Embellishments for embellishment's sake does not make a pretty page. I like the 30 year rule. In 30 years, will you or your descendants say "Oh good grief, that was made during that awful period when people put everything but the kitchen sink on a scrapbook page, and I WISH I could see the photo instead of all that silly stuff."

Stick with the right era. As I begin to organize all the 50 and 100 year old photographs that I inherited, I work to make sure that any backgrounds, frames or fonts are in keeping with the era of the photo, not the era of now.

Instead of using somebody else's photo for a background, use your own! That anonymous photo not only may confuse your future audience (where was that taken?), but it means nothing to your family, friends, descendants.

Journaling. Tell the story. What good are these photos in 30 or 50 years if nobody knows who is in them or what they were doing or where they were taken?

I just finished creating photo pages for my son's graduation ceremony. He's limited to 5 photos, which will be shown on a large projection screen during his part of the ceremony. I made every page count, and used some of our own photos for backgrounds, placing smaller photos over the less important areas. Simple, tasteful, and packed with memories. Yes, I did use a digital scrapbook kit for the last 2 pages, the pages in which he's a young man and wanted to look cool. But it was no frills, no doo-dads, and when he admired an embellishment in the kit (cool pocket watch, Mom, put that in!), I responded with "Let's take a photo of YOUR pocket watch; that will be much more meaningful... you will recognize it, your friends and classmates will recognize it, and we'll keep this real."

And we did. And he loves it. It looks really cool. Tasteful, too.

DVDs by Mail

2010-03-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

We live frugally. And we have been living even more frugally in the last year or so. No cell phone, no tv, cable or otherwise, no movies in theater, no dining out in restaurants, no vacations.

Frugal.

Netflix was the very last indulgence/luxury item we kept while we are trying to ride out the current economy.

So when a month went by without receipt of the movie that my hard-working, doesn't-ask-for-much husband really wanted to see, I was getting annoyed. When several months went by without receipt of this movie, I got mad. I called Netflix. The first person I spoke to was polite, but unhelpful. The supervisor was slick, accusatory ("I've been waiting for this movie for 2 months, too. Should I put YOU at the top of the list?") and unhelpful. I called the owner of Netflix (Reed Hasting, phone: 408-540-3700) and received no response.

After doing a bit of research online, I discovered that there have been a number of complaints since December about this very thing; Netflix members are waiting months for newly released movies. I was going to add a link to this, but there are so many websites mentioning this current problem, I couldn't decide which to add. Search "netflix complaints" to find plenty.

So I looked for an alternative. One of the companies that received good reviews was Blockbuster Online, and the prices are comparable, with the one disadvantage of no streaming movies for free. But the reports were that they ship newly released movies. I called Blockbuster and asked if the movie my husband wanted to see was in stock, and if I joined, would it be shipped. Yes, it was, and yes it will. I signed up for the free trial yesterday afternoon, and the movie was shipped this morning. Good service. All the other new releases, which have a very long wait at Netflix according to my Queue, are available now through Blockbuster's DVD by mail division.

One of the things I really like about Blockbuster is the feature that allows me to see what movies have been released this week, what movies were released last week, what movies will be released next week. With Netflix, we had to go to the IMDB website to see what is currently being released, because that information was not available at the Netflix website.

Bottom line: Netflix is great for obscure movies and tv shows; they have a huge inventory, and if you need to rent something out of the ordinary for the kid's high school research project, Netflix is a great tool. And they have a rotating library of movies to watch online for free. But if you want to see current movies when they are released, Blockbuster is the way to go.

I told the Netflix supervisor that if they didn't resolve my complaint, I was going public. He didn't, and I did.

Post Script
I received a phone call from one of Mr. Hasting's assistants seven (7) days after my complaint. She seemed sincere, and expressed plans for improvement at Netflix. In the meantime, we received currently released movies from Blockbuster one day after ordering them.

Greenest City in the USA... Again!

2010-03-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area ranks number one, again, as the greenest city in the United States.

I can't argue with that. I love green, and I love living here.

On a different note of green, our pastures are lushly green at the moment, which the sheep are enjoying. Only another month until lambs, and I can hardly wait!

Shearing Day

2010-02-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

Shearing Day is coming up again. We'll sure be glad when we no longer need to do this, but as long as we have some Icelandic sheep, it has to be done. (Our Cascade sheep don't need to be shorn, so a flock of exclusive Cascade sheep is our goal.)

We have a gen-yoo-wine Australian shearer come to our farm to shear the girls, and it's quite an experience. He's a really nice guy and does a great job. But, like the rest of us, he needs to make a living, so it's not cheap. I won't worry about him once we've got a flock of no-shear sheep; nearly all the breeds of sheep out there do need to be shorn and he will always have an income.

Until then, we'll enjoy the Shearing Day experience, as well as the fun of providing fleeces to local spinners.

A Farmer's Ode to Insulated Overalls

2010-01-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depths and breadth and height
Of thine coverage, keeping my jammies out of sight.
For the insulation and elastic braces
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most wintry need, darkest night or snowy sunlight.
I love thee freely, moving in comfort through my days
I love thee purely, pockets placed just right.
I love thee with a passion put to use
As I unzip the legs to remove my heavy boots.
I love thee with a love I'll never lose
With every day, and continued wear
Rips, tears, you never let me down, and if I choose
I shall love thee better, even after a new pair.

With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Low maintenance farming: how to do what needs to be done without spending all day on it.

One Year in 120 Seconds

2010-01-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, this short video is too cool not to share. Beautiful. And it's Norway, land of (some of) my ancestors. The photographer even shows the techniques he used to create this video.

And on that note, I'm heading out to the garden to do a little weeding in hopes of planting cool season crops before the month is over. Before the week is over, if I can find my seed collection from last year! Living in the "banana belt" of the Pacific Northwest has its advantages; and year-round gardening is one of them. I'm ashamed that I didn't plant a winter garden, but console myself that it would not have survived the 2 ice storms we had. Now it's time to take some chances!

It's a New Year! Whew!

2010-01-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

I am entering this year even more hopeful than the last. We still have our home, we still have an outside income, we still have our health, and we are learning even more ways to be frugal despite having grown up in the most thrifty of families.

Our wonderful Cascade Farmstead sheep, designed to be economical, are doing fine. Breeding season seems to be over; our littlest ewe lamb was bred this week, and the countdown begins for lambing season. Woo Hoo! I'm collecting names for lambs, which is always fun.

I finished another pair of thick wool socks; this pair customized for a woman who wears a size 8 shoe. Lovely pearl gray with soft plum and aqua; photo coming. I'm working on a handsome color combination to fit a man's foot, having just turned the heel and am on the home stretch toward the toe. This pair of socks can still be customized for foot length at this time, and a photo of this sock-in-progress is on my website. I'm working on another color combination that I'm really excited about; you will have to check back to see this one!

And the stockings were shipped to a soldier with care...

2009-12-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

I donated the socks shown below to one of our fine soldiers. AnySoldier.com is a wonderful organization that makes it easy to support our men and women serving our country. If you utilize this organization, be sure to read the FAQ thoroughly before doing anything. With the large number of deployments coming up, it's important to get on board and do what we can.

Christmas was simple and lean this year, and we took this opportunity to shake things up a bit to make it memorable. Instead of spending money we don't have on turkey and all the trimmings, we ate salmon caught last summer from the banks of local rivers, cooked in a new-to-us way, blackberry cobbler from our own berries picked in August, etc. It was wonderful!

Ronda's Real Socks

2009-11-29T03:33:00.000-08:00

I have one pair of socks ready to mail right now; fits a woman who wears a size 9 or 10 shoe. Amethyst, sapphire and emerald on navy as shown. Custom socks for women and men in more colors available now, as well as gift certificates.

I create hand knitted wool socks warm enough for hunting in the woods, working on the farm, and padding around on wood floors in winter, yet soft, sturdy and smooth-fitting inside boots.

These socks are knitted double thick, using two strands of the highest quality superwashed wool yarn. They are very soft, washable and durable, with a reinforced heel and toe, and they do not shrink!

If you have read any of our farming web pages, you know that we are all about practical farming and frugal living. Slow fashion is the current term for clothing with a long life. My 5-year-old socks are still soft, warm, comfy and sturdy. I believe that you get what you pay for, and my family is worth every penny.

The 10 Net Commandments

2009-11-17T07:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get to the many updates needed on my website, but we are ill and I'm not up for much at the moment. However, I stumbled upon this excellent item this morning and had to share:

"The 10 Net Commandments

1. Thou shalt not buy merchandise found in pop ups or spam.

2. Thou shalt not post thy email address, phone number, address or social security number on the internet, NOR SHALT THOU POST ANYONE ELSE'S.

3. Thou shalt not forget to update thy Windows software with important updates.

4. Thou shalt not connect to the internet without installing an antivirus program, nor shalt thou begin a scan without checking for updates.

5. Thou shalt not connect to the internet without installing a firewall.

6. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's credit card number, nor his bank routing number, nor his social security number.

7. Thou shalt not enter thy credit card number without seeing the tiny padlock icon on thy status bar.

8. Thou shalt not reply to the email from the Nigerian banker.

9. Thou shalt not forward chain letters to thy friends and family. (Friends and family, please take note!)

10. Thou shalt not use "password" as thy password, nor thy birthday, nor thy children's names."

Please note that I am not attempting to copyright the above quote. I don't know who owns it, if anyone, and want you to please feel free to pass the part between the quotation marks along.

Butchering Classes

2009-11-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

There has been some attention paid lately to a new book about eating meat. I haven't read the book yet, but was pleased to see in the review in my local paper that the author doesn't go as far as to promote not eating meat, thoughtfully leaving that decision to the reader, but he apparently did a good job of illuminating the sordid facts about factory farming and agribusiness. And that seeking out small farmers who humanely slaughter is a good thing to do if you plan to eat meat.

We raise small, grassfed livestock on our small farm, and do our slaughtering and butchering ourselves. My husband is rather good at this, being fast and humane, and is offering classes to local farmers and local hunters on how to do this yourself. http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ButcheringSheep.html

We also offer grassfed lamb to locals.
http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/MeatLambFreezerLambs.html

Comfort Food

2009-10-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Flu and colds have been making the rounds at our house. Which means that comfort foods have been in demand. I post some of my own natural, free-of-refined-sugars recipes at our website, and added one today that is a favorite; Applesauce Muffins. But I've been out of applesauce lately, so I substituted canned pumpkin in the last few batches, which worked great! Even my husband, who has been telling me for 25+ years that he hates pumpkin, gobbled them down.

I might tell him. Eventually.

http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/Recipes.html

Enjoy!

When you reach the end of your rope...

2009-10-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." ~ Thomas Jefferson

I was doing some cleaning today and stumbled across an old check register with this quote in my own handwriting. And I'm thinking about all the people trying to hang on besides us; some in truly dire straits, some much better off. And I give thanks for what we have.

But I'm still tying that knot as tight as I can!

Move Over, I Want To Back Up To The Fire, Too!

2009-10-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

When you have to jostle with the dogs for position in front on the wood stove, you know it's cold in the house. And that it's time to keep the home fires burning, so to speak, pretty much round the clock from now through early spring.

Yes, we heat with wood.

We have plenty of seasoned firewood stacked and ready to use, whereas we do not have plenty of dollars to pay an exorbitant electricity bill during winter. And it's nice to have heat when (not if) the electricity goes out during cold winter storms.

I saw an article in some publication in the U.K. asking which form of heat was least harmful to our air and most renewable. The answer is supposed to come out next week, but thus far they showed that burning seasoned wood is on top of the list. I'll drink a cup of hot cocoa to that! Especially considering that our local hydro power dam is causing the wild salmon to die off in increasing numbers. We are not allowed to keep wild salmon; they must be tossed back and hope that they survive. We can only keep the hatchery-produced salmon. Produced at what cost?

But I digress. The house is warming up, and I need to make sure all of our wool socks and flannel jammies are accounted for and ready-to-use in the rooms furthest from the wood stove. Layer up!

I Miss My Geese!

2009-10-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

My husband and I were cooking dinner together the other night (leftover turkey from the freezer, that was actually pretty juicy for turkey), and I just had to say it. “I miss eating roast goose!” He does, too.

We made the difficult decision last spring to sell all of our geese, with the promise from Husband that I could have geese again in a couple years. (We have other projects going on right now that require every blade of grass we have at this time on our tiny farm.)

But still, I miss my “grazing doorbells.” Geese have such keen eyesight that they can see jets flying so high that I can barely see them. They have good hearing, too, and let us know when anything or anybody enters our farm. And boy, do they taste good! I prefer roast goose over a turkey for the holidays.
We are all about hardiness, productivity and easy-to-manage on a small farm. So Pilgrim Geese will make a comeback here at Greener Pastures, for certain!

DOGS: Feeding the BARF Diet

2009-10-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

I just finished feeding our dogs this afternoon, and once again am thankful that we have the resources to provide a healthful, natural diet for them. It's rather ironic to feed livestock and people the best natural foods, then buy dry dog food for our beloved pets.

BARF stands for "Bones and Raw Food" or "Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods", depending on what resources you are looking up, and if you google this, you will find a plethora of controversial sites, many condemning the idea (dog food companies) and many attempting to jump on the bandwagon by calling their prepared food "raw," and many advocating cereals and more. You gotta give 'em credit for trying. It took some searching to find a site that mirrors my feelings on how and why to feed dogs this way, as well as touching on the reasons this subject can be so divisive: http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

We feed raw meaty bones and organs leftover after butchering our lambs, as well as raw meaty bones leftover after butchering wild game, and any raw chicken bones or necks we happen to have. Questions on safety? See above link. I freeze portioned sizes after butchering, and thaw a portion daily. Our dogs are in good condition; not too fat and not too thin, their poop is NOT stinky and actually crumbles and dissolves into the earth very quickly. Stinky dog poo on the soles of your shoes is not an issue when feeding the BARF diet, if you do step in it, nothing sticks!

When we had Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs), this diet made the most sense. There was no need to keep the livestock away from a grain-filled food not made for them (ewwwww!), and the dry, white BARF diet dog poo in the pasture dissolved into powder quickly, as opposed to the stinky brown piles that sit on the pasture the livestock need to eat. (Ewwwww!) I converted a new LGD owner to the BARF diet, and every time we talk on the phone now, he thanks me profusely. Enough said.

Introducing Cascade Farmstead Sheep

2009-10-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

We keep and breed Cascade Farmstead Sheep, which are small, as can be seen in the top photo. They are only knee-high to us, and thus very easy to handle. Yet they are meaty and produce a carcass large enough to butcher in the fall when the lambs are only 6 or 7 months old, yet small enough to fit in the freezer above the fridge, all without the necessity of feeding grain!

Our Cascade lambs grow quickly, and reach a live weight of 40 to 65 lbs by 4 months of age. They are able to breed the first autumn when they are about 7 months old, producing a lamb by the time they are 1 year of age, and in subsequent years they produce twins. Ewes and rams shed their fleece in late spring or summer. You can see that Lavender, above with her strikingly beautiful lamb, has shed off her luxurious fleece in mid-May, while Igraine has not. We gathered Igraine's fleece about a month later.

Keeping sheep that are productive, taste great, don't require shearing, are easy keepers and easy on the land, if managed intelligently, is an absolute joy. They keep our pastures mowed, we get healthy, tasty meat without feeding grain, fleece if we want it, or we can let it drop and the birds use it to make nests. We've tried 5 different Northern Short Tailed breeds of sheep, and our Cascades are the easiest and most productive breed in our opinion.

Play Nicely In My Sandbox

2009-10-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Despite appearances, I have a smidge of Cherokee in my ancestry, and I'm proud of it. Whether the following story is true or not, I love it and posted it on the About Us page of our website.

"An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

(Unknown Author)

What Am I Doing Here?

2009-10-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

It's late, I'm behind on just about everything, and I must be crazy because I'm starting a BLOG!

I find this amusing, because I have a huge website full of information on farming, keeping sheep, geese and chickens in an organic manner, and general how-to tips on making life easier for the farmer.

We'll see how this blog thing goes. This farmer girl needs to hit the hay; tomorrow will be a busy day.