Wet and Snowy

It rained hard all day, but then suddenly the temperature dropped a billion degrees, and it’s now snowing like hell. The sheep don’t care, but we locked them in the barn anyway, along with everybody else.

More Dogs?

We’re off to the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair today, just to look, as we have no money to spend! We’ve missed it the last two years, due to poorly timed beach trips, so all of us, but especially ED are really looking forward to it.

Afterwards we are going to pick up two (brace yourselves) puppies. No, they are not Border Collies—that really WOULD be crazy—they’re 5-month-old Great Pyrenees/Kangal crosses. And they will live with the sheep. NOT in the house. Because we are not actually dog hoarders.The field where ED grazes the sheep is pretty seriously coyote infested, so she only grazes them during the day now, and locks them up at night—good thing the weather’s been cool enough for that to work! It would be nice to leave them out grazing all the time, so hopefully the pups will make that possible.

Speaking of dogs, we have a couple of great prospects for a home for Lola—actually three possibilities, and all would be wonderful for her. And sometime in the next week or two, Bandit will be going home, which is going to be heartbreaking, but I think it will be a relief to only have the three BCs for a while. Split has not gotten bred, and if she doesn’t in the next couple of weeks, we’ll wait and consider trying again some other time.

ED’s Lovely Yarn

ED has been working on a Very Special Project. This wool is from her Cotswold/Lincoln crosses, and you might not be able to tell so well from this picture, but there are two distinct colors here—one lighter, and one darker. I can’t say anymore right now, but I’ll try to keep you posted about the Very Special Project.

 

Grass

So ED has been grazing her sheep and the cows and horses, not just here on our farm, but at a couple of different pastures in the neighborhood (thanks to gracious neighbors). One of the fields she’s been using is just down the road—we call it “Tom’s Field”, even though there is no longer any Tom associated with it. ED shares Tom’s Field with another neighbor—he mows part of it for hay, and he lets ED graze the parts of it that are too steep to safely mow. Here’s what the hayed part looks like:

You can see here that the grass is thin enough to see the ground in places, and our recent spate of dry weather has left the grass crisp and curled. The color isn’t great either—yellowish to brown. This was last cut in June.

 

Here’s a picture of the same field, taken the day before, on the part of the field that ED had been grazing, mostly sheep:

Check out the difference.

 

In related news, in another field, which we call Gebhart’s Field, we have recently discovered dung beetles. I don’t even know how to tell you how exciting this is. Those ancient Egyptian scarabs? There’s a reason dung beetles are sacred.

Today in the Kitchen

Today I roasted these little beauties—Sungolds, Blondkopfchens, and Isis Candies—with a little olive oil and salt, and I’ll can them in a couple of small jars. They’ll be a treat this winter, I think!

 

I also canned regular old tomatoes in quarts, and I finally got around to canning the dulce de leche I made a few days ago, along with a batch of sweetened condensed milk. Now I’m making butter while warily eyeing the bowls of tomatoes and the massive zucchinis that are lurking in my kitchen.

 

Yesterday ED and I went over to Tennessee to pick up the lamb from the three sheep we dropped off last week. The meat is absolutely gorgeous—so deep red it’s nearly purple, and well marbled. This is exciting for us, as these fellows were totally grassfed—ED has been rotationally grazing, moving them daily—so we weren’t sure if the meat was going to be too lean for our tastes. It’s not—it’s perfect. Very, very mild and tender, too. ED is feeling a great deal of satisfaction, seeing the fruits of her labors, and I am just so happy to have a freezer full of lamb and pork for the winter. Actually more than one freezer—we had to plug in another one we haven’t been using to hold the legs and shanks.