Farming is hard work

Haying is definitely HARD work….

The hottest days of the summer is when hay is ready to go into the barn. This year is no exception. We often have to get hay in under the pressure of potential rain, which can ruin good hay in the field. This year we are getting second cut hay the first of July, earlier than ever before. We got the call from our neighbor that he would have 300 bales ready for us on the 4th of July. Weather reports suggested sunshine for the next 4 days.

Normally we hook up to a hay wagon in the field, pull it to the barn, count the bales as one tosses them out of the wagon to the barn floor, one loads them on the hay elevator, and two stack them in the hay loft. The wagon can hold over 120 bales per load, and there is only one wagon. Once that is empty we go back and load the bales left on the ground into the wagon for the second and third loads.

So we arranged for two boys with strong muscles to help us move the hay elevator from the pole barn to the main barn and come back around 6pm, avoiding the worst heat of the day. We cleaned and organized in the barn to facilitate the hay transport process. And we went to a friends house for a holiday gathering. As we were heading home from Buckfield it started to sprinkle. Nooooo.. This can not be. And we had to beat the rain. Maybe it won’t rain in Sumner, we said, checking out the overcast sky.

..And when we pulled in to the driveway we saw the hay wagon at the barn door it was not raiding and the neighbor had brought the wagon over, and he with our 2 boys were already unloading hay likety -split. We got that first 130 bales in and went back for the remaining 180 bales of first cut hay for Bubba (the draft horse) and for the goats.

The next morning we headed to Wilton to help bring in second cut hay for friends who have Shetland sheep. It was a beautiful morning and a pretty 45 minute drive seeing huge fields of blooming potatoes, some fields of corn, and big beautiful barns. The hay was stacked in a wagon that we pulled up beside.

Loading wagon to truck, and wagon to trailer went very quickly for the 4 of us and we loaded 120 bales and were on our way home within an hour. Much easier than loading out of the field. We are storing this batch of hay in the north side of our barn for them since we have plenty of room for it. Then back to the field for another load, this time second cut hay for our sheep. Second cut hay is said to be better nutrition for pregnant and lactating ewes. We then had to move the hay elevator from the big barn to the pole barn and by 6 pm we were unloading the last of the hay into the pole barn. It was still hot, we were dripping with sweat, and pushing to find the energy to keep going until we were done. Haying only takes us a few days, and they are always very hot days of very hard work.

Yesterday morning we got an early start separating the boy sheep from the girl sheep. Because it promised to be one of the hottest days of the summer we started at 5am transporting 2 boys from here and 3 boys from Buckfield to Otisfield and taking 4 girls back to Buckfield. Early in September the girls will be ready for Lester, the Border Leicester to come courting . If it takes 2-4 weeks for the girls to cycle we can hope for lambs in February next year. (We don’t want any unplanned babies come December.)

We actually have sheep at 3 locations right now….here, Buckfield, and Otisfield and we are fortunate to have people willing to provide our sheep good care and lush pasture. This arrangement gives the sheep plenty of high quality pasture to graze while we work to improve our pastures here. Moving sheep involves lifting lambs into the back of the truck. We realized they are getting big. Mamas are even heavier to lift. When we are moving a crowd we set up a walkway and ramp so that they can walk into the truck. The trick then is getting them to stay there once they are in. We actually had very little trouble this time and was glad we could do it in the cool of the early morning.Mid day Mary Ann went to treat a lame goat and realized her foot was in awful shape...way worse than we thought. Food scald is fairly common when pastures are wet and relatively easy to treat. We treat foot scale with a liquid application twice a day for several days, and that’s it. Foot rot is something we don’t like to see, but it happens occasionally. This year has been particularly challenging. For that we trim off the dead and damaged hoof, which is softened by the disease and treat it with a green paste applied with a gauze wrapped in place with vet wrap. This is what we were prepared for. But what we found was a very bad case that had become infested with maggots as well. Yuk! So we cleaned it up, flushed it out with antiseptic iodine, and flushed it clean with a spray water bottle. We will give her antibiotics to help her fight the infection. It will take time, but she will mend.

Thyme Flies

A whole month since I last wrote, and how the time has flown. As I look out my window I see a concete slab, which will be the floor for the new building. Plumbing and drains, electric, insulation, pex tubing for the radaint floor, insulation are all there AND I can walk around imagining the walls and windows. Behind that is a slab for the new sugar house and a new water pump. Mary Ann is putting stain on the shingles, and the builders will most likely start next week.

The chickens are rotating weekly in the "chicken tractor", that is mounted on an old camper frame with wheels. She sheep, lambs, goats and Bubba, the horse are rotating in the orchard. The asparagus in bushing out, and there is much work to do in the garden.

Fiber Frolic happened at Windsor Fairgrounds, and preparations involved dyeing, making needle felting kits. I came up with several new designs while at Kim's in New York, and they were very popular. I also created a little Kitty felted and framed. Already I have ideas about what to create next. I have started dyeing yarn in larger lots (about a pound in a lot) and have experimented more with using just 3 dye colors, canary, cherry and peacock to make an infinite range of colors bright and muted over gray.

We prepared a fleece, a skein of handspun yarn,a handspun hat and a felted landscape for competition. The fleece from Sadie, our Finn cross, did not get judged and Mary Ann took second place for her handspun yarn, and I took first for my landscape. We have new yarn back from processing...sport weight with 10% nylon and dark brown bulky 100% lambs wool that will make wonderful felted mittens or a bulky sweater.

At the Frolic it rained a lot, but we were inside and dry, and the rain let up when we had to pack and unpack. Kate was a great help in planning and creating the display, and both she and her hubby, Steve, came along to help load and unload. We slept in the pup up tent camper. About 3:30 am we were all awake when a gully washer let loose. It sounded like we were inside a drum. And some poor lamb away from its mother for the first time kept calling and calling...

Mary Ann demonstrated braided roving and sewing together a chair seat. I did needlefelting and tried to inspire people to try it. Sales were good and it was fun for me to meet and talk with people who enjoy fiber.

Onc little girl at the frolic asked about our lambs for sale. We learned that she requested that her family no longer shop at Hannaford when she found out they sell ground lamb. She really wants to buy a pet lamb. We need to get pictures of our lambs for sale and post them on the web site. The lambs are growing well, and weeks ago were over 70 pounds, which is as high as our scale will take. We now have a new scale so we can weigh up to 200 pounds. They are all out on pasture and their fleeces are gorgeous. Some have gone to new homes permanently, and some are visiting a friend who has wonderful pastures and likes them as lawn ornaments.


Every Tuesday is knitting circle, and things needed to be back together by 1 pm for that. Monday we unloaded, and took on the task of cleaning the empty room before finding just the right spot for everything. As this was happening I thought about how we will arrange things in the new space within just a few months, and how that will free up living space in the house.

I took a break yesterday and planted some woad plants given to me by a friend in the Bethel Spinning Group and indigo seedlings we bought at Fiber Frolic. Then joined in with the Hebron Spinning group for a wonderful day of spinning and inspiration from other spinners and knitters.

Now, at the top of my list is the wedding gown for Jessica, which I will have done by next Wednesday when we go to Denver for the bridal shower. I need to put in the lining and zipper, dye and sew on the lace.

My tea is about gone, and I have things to do, so bye for now.
I will post pictures when I can.

The "Tesseract"

We had a few friends over a while back to celebrate in the site for our new fiber building and express our gratitude for all that has brought us to where we are with this project. Now we have begun actual construction. Our project is no longer just a dream...it is a reality.

At the gathering the question was raised, what do you call this building? We have named many of our buildings, for example we have a small building in the back field we call the Celestry (and that is another story). The room that is now the yarn shop is call the "Shed Room" as it was one the woodshed. And the old "Carriage House", now the woodworking shop. By the end of the day we had named our fiber building "The Tesseract".

"Explanations are not easy when they are about things for which we still have no words...." ...a quote from the book by Madeline L'Engle, "A Wrinkle in Time" which inspired the name of our farm. Chapter 5 in the book is about the Tesseract, which is time travel. Here are some excerpts from that chapter.

"..traveling the speed of light is the impractical, long way around. We have learned to take short cuts whenever possible. Mrs Who took a portion of her robe in her hands and held it tight.

You see, if a very small insect were to move from the section of skirt in Mrs. Who's right hand to that in her left, it would be quite a long walk. Swiftly Mrs. Who brought her hands, still holding the skirt, together. Now you see, he would be there without that long trip. That is time travel in the fifth dimension, a tesseract.

Here at A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm we like to do things the old traditional ways, like spinning yarn and using our draft horse to collect sap from trees around the fields, and using wood heat. We find it important to make do with what we have, and use our resources wisely. Oh yes, we use electricity and have many modern conveniences, but still, we really enjoy many of the old ways.

The building will provide space for storing, picking, washing, dyeing, carding and felting our wool. One key component of this building is solar hot water and radiant heat, which will minimize the energy requirements. It will also provide educational space for dyeing, felting, and fiber art workshops including school groups, families, and fiber groups.

This building will include space for a cooperative of fiber artists and owners of spinners flocks to process small lots of raw fiber at an affordable rate with a short turn around time (1-4 weeks). Currently many shepherds wait at least 3 months for wool processing, and some can not find anyone willing to take small quantities of fiber.

It is not our intention to become a commercial mini mill where wool is processed for other people, but rather a cooperative with memberships including people willing and able to make an investment in the equipment. The vision includes investment of funds from willing participants offering them a way to work together to process their fiber as well as ours using the premise that “many hands make light work” and is more fun besides.