Farm News (the blog) | Hatchtown Farm

Here We Go Again…

You guessed it! We had another nasty snow storm on Monday…really wet snow — and lost power just before midnight. The power was out for just about 12 hours. Jim and I were fooling with snow when it came back on and thankfully, he hadn’t made the trip down the road for water yet so he was spared that chore. I was grumpy and cold and refused to get out of bed this morning…just pulled the blankets up and stayed there as long as I possibly could. It’s a good thing we have animals or I might’ve just stayed there until I heard the furnace come on.

What About the Boys

teenage rams, Hatchtown Jenks & Hatchtown Reece

teenage rams, HT Jenks & HT Reece

I haven’t spent any time talking about the rams. It’s not because we don’t pay any attention to them. They’re really very funny and sweet. At this time of year, Jim spends more time with them than I do because of the division of chores. I deal with the hens on a daily basis and he takes care of the rams. But I do visit them to say “hello” and give chin scratches. I’ve often thought it’d be fun to have a flock of rams…just love their personalities but we’ve only ever had Coopworths so I have nothing to compare them to. They’ll almost always accept scratches and stand still while you check under their coats…and oh! what beautiful fleeces they have!! You know, the ram is 50% of all the lambs he produces so it stands to reason that you want him to be a very spiffy guy! Our boys live in their own little group and even have the best accomodations — a very nice greenhouse. Ram temperament is really important to us and we believe its genetic, at least to some degree. But we also feel strongly that rams are much better behaved when they’re in a group and have playmates. It’s true that for just a small flock of ewes, you really only need one ram but if you keep him alone, he will undoubtedly become a pain…your pain!

ram lamb, Hatchtown Onyx

Sadly, lone rams often end up at the auction because they appear to be mean when in fact, they were just needing companionship. All sheep are flocking animals ie they need to be in a group…this includes the males. Keeping a wether (castrated male sheep) with your ram is an economical way to keep him happy. Choose a wether with a beautiful fleece and selling it will pay for his feed (almost)…and maybe he’ll save you from the emergency room. Another approach is to keep 2 (or 3) unrelated rams (intact). This will initially cost more but if you do, you may still avoid the emergency room, still get big, beautiful fleeces to sell and with good record keeping, you may not have to bring any new animals onto your farm for a number of years. This is a big plus because new animals need to be thoroughly checked for disease and/or parasites, quarantined, etc. and that means more work for the shepherd. In addition, when we disrupt the pecking order by bringing in a new ram, it has to be re-established.

ram lamb, Hatchtown Beck

This usually means a stint in “the rubber room” — that’s a small stall in the barn with wall-to-wall tires on the floor. The rams have to think about where they’re putting their feet and because the stall is small, they can’t really get far enough apart to do any serious ramming. Usually after a few days, they’ve figured it all out and they’re good to go. But…the less often we have to do this, the happier we are…and I’m sure the rams feel the same way.

Making Progress in the Car Department

here's Jim hacking away at Mt Hatchtown...again!

here's Jim hacking away at Mount Hatchtown...again!

Finally, we seem to be moving ahead with repairs to the car. It took a while for the insurance company to take a look at it because of yet another snow “event.” Living with one vehicle has been OK so far but the truck is so darn big in the parking lots in town. They’ve been shrinking because of the big piles of snow that occupy every nook and cranny. We’re not seeing any sign of warming and the current weather trend includes snow events on a pretty regular basis so…the piles grow. They’re growing around the farm, too, but Jim keeps chopping away at them in attempt to keep the lanes open enough to get the hay trailer in. We have a house guest for a couple of weeks.

our Grandog "Sitka" is a sweetie

Our grandog, Sitka, is here while older son and his girlfriend are in CA. Sitka is a most excellent guest except that he does like to play with (chase) the kitties sometimes. But he’s very well mannered around the hens and sheep. In true Aussie style, he does bark at the sheep, trying to get them to pay attention to him.

In this photo he’s sitting in the truck waiting for Jim to go somewhere.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We were going to go out but it was one of those days. The reservations never got made so we’re going to have a pizza fest — 3 kinds — and a big salad. Today we took advantage of decent weather to get work done outside. Jim spent a bunch of time cleaning up in front of the barn doors. It’s an ongoing project to keep that spot as clear as possible. Any time the temps are above freezing and there’s even a little sun working on the snow and ice, we have another shot at making the build-up go away. A couple of years ago, we had a big snow followed by a big rain followed by a big freeze and we had to get the sheep into the barn for shearing. There wasn’t any way to defrost that huge ledge of ice in front of the doors so we shortened them a bit. Yes! we actually cut the bottoms off.

I dug through some more fleeces and checked the stash of white ones I’ve been collecting. We’ve had so few white sheep for so many years that it’s been difficult to get any white yarn made. It really doesn’t make sense, economically, to send off just a couple of fleeces. It looks like there may be enough to send off now. While looking through them, I found myself not wanting to part with them…I don’t know why I have such a problem with this. Maybe it’s because in my heart, I love fleeces just the way they are and I wonder whether that has to do with having learned to spin in the grease (before it’s been washed) — thanks to Betty O., my wonderful (and patient) teacher. To some (maybe most) handspinners, this way is unappealing — you do get your hands “dirty” (if you think lanolin & suint is dirt) but surely seeing the fleece as it grew on the animal, the smell of fresh fleece, the liquid feel of lanolin as the fiber glides through your fingers — there’s a connection to the animal that makes it worth having to wash your hands.

Going to pick up another load of hay tomorrow. We’re getting about 12-14 days out of each load.

Sheep Heads

Kelly's girls wonder, "Who are you?" They're very sweet.

Kelly C. very kindly agreed to show me how to make a 3D wool sheep head and we’ve been trying to get together for ages. Between sick kids, sick adults, snow/ice well…today we finally managed to get together! Betty S. came, too, and she made a natural colored angora goat head. I wonder whether she ever figured out how to put horns on the thing! So my head isn’t finished but at least I’ve got a good start on it. I have to find just the right fleece to use for the locks that get attached. And when it’s done, I’ll post a photo. While I was there, I had to visit Kelly’s sheep…they’re very friendly…a big plus in my book.