SpiderWomanKnits

three bags full*

Well, three full size vintage sheets! And you know what they are full of?

Today was shearing day. Indy and Hayden are back to looking like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Silly little boys.

Their hair cuts are on the sloppy side because we have chosen for the past two years to not tie them up while shearing. The shearer, his assistant and Greg hold on tight while their fleece is remove. It got a little bit hairy (no pun intended) with Indy this year. He was a handful. But, they are shorn and the shearer said that their fleeces were outstanding, "unusually good". Even the seconds were excellent. Soon, there will be some pretty fabulous yarn. Oh, I love shearing day!

fuzzy hellos

Indy and Hayden say, "Hey"! 

 

when boundaries free you

Indy and Hayden have been a part of our life for just about a year and a half now. They have been staying with us this entire time with just the mere suggestion of a fence. Really. Alpaca are fairly easy to contain, they don't often challenge fencing. But you could barely say that we had any fencing whatsoever until this weekend. Metal posts and wire fencing would be shuffled around as needed and in late fall and early spring, when the grass isn't so green, I would spend a bit of time each day escorting the boys back into their suggested area. A gate was non existent. I would just peel back a section of the wire fencing to get in and out of the field. It was a far from ideal situation to say the least but sometimes you do what you have to do until you can do better. And, that time came this weekend.

 

Greg, along with our neighbor and friend, Brad, spent all day Saturday drilling holes and driving in fence posts. And then Sunday the fencing and gate went up. It seems like such a simple and straightforward thing to do. But for me, it meant so much. I have been lucky enough to live in our beautiful home with land enough to keep Alpacas, chickens and really whatever else we chose in the future but those open spaces needed definition before they could become entirely useful.

Dreams are often put off because we need more time, more freedom. In this case my dreams are coming true by the act of limiting. It seems contradictory that the enclosure of an area or space can make you feel so much more free but in this case it does and my heart is just filled with gratitude for the two men who helped this happen this weekend. This may seem like an overly dramatic statement for something as simple as a fence but I know that there are many of you out there reading this with farms or farm dreams and you understand the feeling entirely.

But, I really have so much more to be thankful for as well. This fence was a community effort. Not only did Brad lend us his efforts and tractor skills but the fencing and gate were donated by my neighbors, Rachel and Felix, who finally decided after many years to stop keeping goats. They dismantled their fencing and brought it down to us. Another neighbor allowed us to borrow his post hole digger for the occasion.

I grew up on Long Island, house on top of house, where fencing was a necessity. Good fences made good neighbors. I feel entirely blessed now to inhabit an area where there is literal and figurative 'room to breath' and where good neighbors make great fences.

shearing day! our first ever!

Jim the Shearer came today! We were so excited! There was an incredible amount of anticipation leading up to this day but in true 'Greg and Abi' fashion, very little preparation. So, Shearing Day truly began at 7 PM last night just after we pulled in the driveway from a whirlwind weekend trip to NJ (more on that later). 

Haltering Alpacas is not the easiest thing to do when they are just running free in a field, in fact, it's next to impossible. So the first task at hand was to construct a temporary 'catch pen' so that Greg and I could catch and handle Indy and Hayden easily. We did this simply by putting up metal posts and wire fencing just beyond a permanent gate we already had positioned leading into our backyard. Then we herded Indy and Hayden through the gate closing it behind us so they were now in a 10 X 10 area. At that point they were a cinch to halter and lead into our garage. Since we don't have a true barn for them (just a run in shed) we wanted to keep them enclosed for the night and dry as well as make it really easy to halter them in the morning. By the time we constructed the catch area, herded, haltered and brought them into the garage it was 11 PM. So we tucked them in for the night and went to bed excited to wake up first thing in the morning. 

 

{Hayden waiting for his turn}

Indy and Hayden will be 2 years old in July and they had never been shorn. We were a bit worried about how the whole process would unfold. There are two options when you shear Alpacas. The first, which is the way it is typically done commercially, is to lay the Alpaca down and restrain/tie down their legs so that they are splayed out length-wise. The second, is that you hold on tight while the Alpaca is standing up and hope for the best. That is what what we chose and figured if it didn't work we'd have to go to the 'laying-down' method. Thankfully the boys did really well!

{Indy waiting for Hayden to be done}

Indy was the least happy about the situation and took to spitting quite a bit. But he was actually the most unhappy when Hayden was being shorn. They are so attached to each other. I made sure to keep Indy near Hayden the whole time still on his lead. He kept calling out for him though, making sounds I have never heard before. But Hayden was so compliant his turn went very fast and in short order they were back and frolicking in the field together again. Looking awfully silly I might add.

Our chickens are completely freaking out! They share the field and when we turned Indy and Hayden back out there was the loudest 'uproar' 60 plus chickens could possibly make! They were running around, flapping, squawking like crazy. They still are! I feel bad for everyone. Getting a haircut can be a sensitive situation, I hope the hens don't make the boys feel too bad about their new hair-do's ;)

Unfortunately it started to drizzle just as we finished up so I brought their fleeces in right away, wrapped in old sheets, to dry out a bit. Today's light and weather won't let me photograph them with justice. So, it will have to wait but they are AMAZING! I mean, really, truly amazing! Jim said that even the second cut was very high quality and worth going through. The 'barrel' part, which is the prime area, is just outstanding. I want to start working with it right away. I am a knitter though, not a spinner, so I don't really know what to do? Should I send them out to be processed or wait and learn with these? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

In the meantime you can bet there will be a lot of fleece fawning around here. All I can think about as I type this are the two piles of delicious up in the Yellow Room right now! I feel so incredibly thankful. Our boys are just a delight on so many levels, and of course we knew this day would come, but now that it's here I just feel like someone needs to pinch me to be sure this is all real. 

our lawnmowers

We moved Indy and Hayden into the field this weekend. They had been residing in our backyard since they arrived in November. We hadn't intended on leaving them in the backyard for this long, but man, are fences expensive! So Greg took matters into his own hands this weekend by putting up posts and wire fencing which only took a matter of hours. We still need a proper gate or two. Needless to say, they are SO happy to be in the lush, tall grass. And Jorn and Simonne are happy to have their swing set back ;)

our farm routine : a day on the farm

{this is Rex, one of three roosters on our farm. he's a good boy.}

About a week ago Michelle asked me if I could share a bit about our routines here on the farm.  Well, I'd love to! In case you are just arriving here, we have a small organic poultry farm, Red Comb Farm, in Vermont where we raise 58 chickens for eggs to sell locally. We started keeping chickens about three years ago and our love for them is now blossoming into a home based business. Along with our 58 chickens there are 5 people, two cats, two alpacas and two lizards to take care of.

by 8AM

The proverbial rooster crows around 8 am for us here. By that time Greg is off to work and Jorn to school. On their way out, one of them will let the chickens out of the coop. We free range our birds so from the coop they head out into the field and the yard and the garage and the flower beds and the driveway and sometimes even the house in search of grubs, bugs, tender greens etc. 

{see how busy they are! and happy too!}

by 10AM

Meanwhile, I am feeding Vaughn, Simonne and (in theory) myself breakfast. I water our seedlings and Simonne feeds the cats during this time too. After breakfast Simonne and Vaughn play, safe and secure, in our playroom during the winter months while I run out to feed and water the chickens and alpacas. During the warmer months they will come outside with me but this always adds a great deal of time to the chores. No biggie, but the time line changes. We also collect any morning eggs that have been laid at this time and tidy up our mudroom for the day.

{whatcha got there? an egg?! thanks lady!}

That's it for morning chores! Then we just sit around and do nothing until the afternoon! Ha! Gotcha! Just kidding! We are very busy bees making things, baking things, grocery shopping, laundering, cleaning, listing in the shop, packing orders, answering convos and emails and playing as much as we can before it's our turn to pick up the carpool kids and Jorn from school around 3PM.  As soon as we return home, it's back to work!

By 4PM

Time to collect eggs again! But this time I have help. The chickens babysit while I go and gather their bounty.

 

The eggs are collected, placed in a basket and then set inside the refrigerator until after dinner. We wash our eggs before we carton them which is actually the most time consuming aspect of the whole process. I like inspecting each egg, sorting eggs I feel are too small to sell and generally making sure our customers are getting the most beautiful, delicious eggs that are possible. Seriously. Have you seen them?

{help yourself!}

By the way, our farm is a Honor System, self serve farm. I like it this way. Our customers get to see the chickens up close, meet us (if they want to and if we are home) and Simonne sometimes even delivers eggs right to your car (with help and supervision of course)! So, customers drive up, walk into our mudroom, help themselves to eggs that we keep in a dorm size refrigerator and leave money in a glass jar.

{welcome to Red Comb Farm! we pay her extra to be the greeter ;) }

By 8PM

While Greg is getting the kids to bed, I go out to close up the hens, inspect the coop and replenish feed and water. I like filling the feed hopper and water at night. This way if we are having a particularly chaotic morning or we have appointments or even if we are just feeling a bit lazy I know they have what they need when the sun rises. Chickens roost at night and go into a dreamy state. So, even if I fill the hopper to the tippy top they won't get down to eat. 

I also wash and carton the eggs at this time and restock the fridge for the next day. Then, I call it a day! Whew. That's it! I am more exhausted reading this than I am doing it. It seems like a lot but I would say that I spend about 1 1/2 hours taking care of the egg business each day and about 5 minutes on the alpacas (that doesn't count all the cuddling and hanging out, I am talking straight feeding of them etc.) 

 

This lifestyle keeps us really, and I mean really busy and outside but I really do love it and wouldn't have it any other way. Obviously there is a great deal that we do during our day that I haven't mentioned here. But I just wanted to deal with the egg business primarily because it's good to know that you can be a provider of high quality, organic food for your community with just a little bit of work each day. Chickens are easy peasy and SO much fun.

Here's a basic time line of our day just because it's a bit more clear this way.

8am : let the chickens out of the coop and into the field

10am-10:15am: gather morning eggs, fill feed and water if needed. tidy breezeway. give hay and water to the alpacas.

4pm-4:30pm: gather afternoon eggs and place in fridge. hang out with alpacas and give them some grain.

7pm-8pm: close up coop, check well being of birds and security, fill feed and water. one last check on the alpacas for the night. wash and carton eggs, restock the fridge for the next day. 

If you have any questions about the way we do things, how we manage or if I left something out just let me know! I love talking chicken!

sun shiny weekend

peetu piiroinen and raised garden beds

{peetu piiroinen}

{ raised garden beds}

 

{the half pipe from the base}

{raised garden bed}

{ok, well this is Louie Vito}

{raised garden beds}

So, what do Peetu Piiroinen and raised garden beds have in common? They made our weekend super-uber-happy fun! We went to the Burton US Open on Saturday and then built raised garden beds on Sunday. It was pretty weird and by weird I mean incredibly difficult walking up a ski mountain to a half pipe with three kids on the warmest day of the year so far. But it was really worth it. Jorn was hoping to catch a glimpse of Shaun White (Olympic Gold Medalist) shredding that half-pipe but sadly, he pulled out of the competition last minute. Still, we had a blast. I had NO idea how enormous those half pipes are! Crazy. We got to see the best of the best board the pipe, it was great fun. It made this lady feel like taking to the air and I am someone who usually likes to keep my feet firmly planted to the ground.

Speaking of planting, I started some seeds this weekend and a trip to the big box home supply store for some chicken fencing also found us coming home with enough wood to build four raised beds! There were precut pieces of 2"x8"x4' in the discard pile at a $1 a piece! Imagine our good fortune! Of course they are a bit warped and not perfect but they will do just fine for some raised beds.

We have just planted right into the ground here with much success every year so far but we have been curious about the raised bed method of planting so we thought we'd give it a go. Now, we also have an incredibly perfect supply of alpaca poop to line the bottom of those beds! Alpaca poop can be added straight to your gardens as long as you top it with soil (so you don't attract flies). They digest their food efficiently so there is little chance of getting 'weeds' with their manure and if you don't compost it first it acts sort of like a 'slow release' fertilizer. Something you may not know about alpaca's bathroom habits is that they poop in the same spot all the time! Like a cat using a litter box, this makes clean up much easier and keeps your pastures quite tidy. To top it off, alpaca poop does not smell! Can you believe that?! Seriously. But I guess the poop is worthy of it's own post. Boy, I might have to change the name of my blog!

ps. Peetu was the US Open champion! And, in case you are wondering snowboarders are incredibly difficult to photograph.

Video!

Check it out! We just got a Flip. It's kind of a crime that we have three children and this is our first video camera. I thought I'd share this little video that I took the other day. We had a coop breach and all of the chickens got out of the run, it was pretty funny. A few disclaimers, first I am not a very good videographer and second I don't sound anything like that.  But it doesn't matter because Alpacas are super cute and they will distract you from both of those things with their irresistible eyes.

This is a longer one of the chickens and the coop. Technically it's the first 'half'. Not so interesting but since it was the first video I ever took I thought I should share it too.

Enjoy :)

My Favorite Old Hat

Here's another hat. You might have caught a glimpse of it here. This one was knit a long time ago. Way before I knew anything about knitting. It was one of my first and it has many, many flaws. I made it up as I went along and it's a bit too big. When I feed the chickens in the morning it always flops down over my eyes, sometimes even knocking my glasses off. I curse it and growl at it but I can't stop putting it on. Sometimes favorite things are like that.

Have a great weekend!

ooxx,

Abi