Thanks to everyone who entered to win a copy of Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens. I wish I had enough copies for everyone but, alas, I have only three. And the winners- chosen at random- are:

Congrats Rosemary, Kiewies and Christina G! You have 24 hours to email me at Susie AT fiberfarm DOT com with you mailing address to claim you book.

Things have settled down a bit on the farm as the weather has improved. The ewes and does are finally starting to gain a bit of weight due to the removal of their nursing babies and because they no longer have to compete for food with the boys. Everyone has settled into a new routine and the lambs are becoming much more independent.

The only thing causing me concern was the kids. They are a little on the thin side and I wanted to be able to keep a better eye on them, so we moved them into the small paddock last night. This morning we wormed and deloused them, trimmed their hooves and gave them an overall health check. They were actually in better shape than I thought and I’m sure we can get some weight on them pretty quickly.

I’m not sure there is anything in the world cuter than an Angora goat kid. Just look at that little mouth!

In other news, we have added three new chickens to our flock from our good friends at Chicken World.

A Cuckoo Maran

A Buff Orpington

And another White Leghorn.

This brings our flock to 19 hens and we are expecting Ethel to hatch at least four or five chicks in about a week. To celebrate the new birds, I’m giving away three copies of the most charming chicken book I have ever seen, Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens.

I have to say that I found this book one day when I was poking around reading the blogs of my commenters, which is what I do sometimes when I should be working, but I can’t remember where I found it. If you blogged about this amazing book, please leave me a comment so I can give you proper credit!

In addition to the darling illustrations, the book is just packed with information that you won’t find anywhere else.

Far and away the greatest into to chicken keeping I’ve ever seen.

Minnie Rose’s story is equally wonderful! In 1912, Minnie Rose and her brother decided to immigrate from England to Canada and booked passage on the Titanic. When they found out that Titanic’s sailing time had been delayed, they were too impatient to wait, so they took another boat.

I have three copies of this treasure of a book to give away. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. Three winners will be chosen at random on Monday, August 23rd at 6 p.m. and will be posted on the blog some time Tuesday. Winners will have 24 hours to email me with their mailing address to claim their prize. Good luck!

Gracious! I absolutely loved reading all 237 entries in the You-Pick-the Yarn Giveaway. I discovered so many new lovely patterns that I’d never seen before and I’ve fallen crazy in love with a few of them. It was great fun and really appreciate all the time you put into your answers.

As always, I wish that every single one of you could win, but alas, I have to pick three winners. And without further ado, the winners, chosen at random, are:

Congratulations to Daphne, Allison and Deb! You have 24 hours to email me at susie@fiberfarm.com with your mailing address to claim your prize. If you didn’t win today, do not despair. Because this is my blog and my business, and I can do whatever I want,  I’m going to pick three more winners from the existing entries and post them, one at a time, some time this week. Be sure to watch the blog, because you’ll only have 24 hours to claim your prize before we chose another winner. Good Luck, y’all!

Now for the news. First, and most excitingly, the Juniper Moon Farm 2011 Cormo Shares are now available for purchase! This year we allowed current shareholders to purchase their shares before they went on sale to the public, so the number of shares available is very limited. If you really want a share don’t wait too long and miss out.

I am very close to announcing the date of our Fall Shearing Celebration (just waiting to get a confirmation of the date with the shearer) but I can tell you that this year we will be hosting the first ever JMF 5K run as part of the shearing weekend. Members of our Ravelry group, including yours truly, are doing the Couch to 5K training program which is easy, easy, easy, even if you’ve never run before. Honest! I hate running and this program is very gentle. So lace up those shoes and start training tomorrow.

Suzy and I spent the last couple of weeks dyeing yarn for our Fall Collection and I cannot tell you how proud I am of these colorways. Rich, beautiful yarn in every weight will be coming to the shop late this week or early next week. I’ll post some sneak preview pics tomorrow.

Finally, I want to thank you all for reading this blog and leaving comments. You make this whole endeavor worthwhile for me. XOX

Hope you are sleeping late and waking up to the aroma of fresh coffee and bacon. Me? I’m going to spend a few hours helping Erin move and then returning home to work on getting the Fall Collection of colorways ready for the shop.

The new Twist Collective is live today and it is spectacular! I am especially fond of Elli Stubenrauch’s Arboreal Beret made with JMF Aran Weight Farmstead but the whole issue is just lovely.

If you haven’t entered our You-Pick-the-Yarn Giveaway yet you still have time. Just leave a comment on THAT post before 6 p.m. EST tonight.

Have a beautiful Sunday, my friends.

In honor of my mama’s and Leo’s birthdays I am having a giveaway. And, just to switch things up, the winners will get to choose the yarn they win.

Here’s the deal: The winners will receive SIX SKEINS (1980 yards) of Anna Karenina (worsted weight), Basil and Josephine (worsted weight) or Catcher in the Rye (worsted weight). Leave a comment on this post telling me which of the yarns you would like AND what you would make with it. The more detailed the better and I strongly encourage links to the pattern you’re considering.

Entry period closes at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday, August 1st, 2010. Three winners will be chosen at random from all the entries- one for each colorway- and posted on the blog Monday, August 2nd, 2010. The winners will then have 24 hours to email me and claim their prizes. In the event that a prize goes unclaimed, another winner will be chosen at random. One entry per person please!

I’ll be off-line for a couple of hours this afternoon, so please don’t worry – or re-post- if you’re comment doesn’t show up right away. I’ll moderate them as soon as I can this evening.

Oh, how I loved reading all your fantastic news in the comments of this little della Q needle case giveaway. Every time I read a batch of them, I’d spend the next half hour or so smiling like a perfect idiot! It’s very easy to get caught up in all the bad news these day and to forget that there is a lot of lovely out there, too. If you need a little pick-me-up or a reminder of what a wonderful world we live in, I recommend you check them out.

I discovered last night that I actually have TWO of these cases to giveaway, not just one. And the winners-selected at random- are:

AND

Congrats to Lucy and Julie. Please email me (susie AT fiberfarm DOT com) within 24 hours with your mailing address to claim your lovely little prize. The first winner I hear from gets first color choice- the blue pictured in the first post or a beautiful purple.

XO

Have you ever seen a lovelier morning, my friends? I can tell you without a doubt that I haven’t because I woke up without any pain this morning! That’s right- my weirdo eye episode is over and I feel fan-flippin’-tastic! Let us all celebrate by talking about something else for a change, shall we?

Like the fact that, at last count, we were up to four new baby chicks, hatched by our very own Ethel. Or how excited I got last night working on some new projects, including the new fall colorways. Or just how all-fired lucky I feel to live at Juniper Moon Farm, to be a shepherd and to have such an A-MAY-ZING group of friends, readers and customers.

TNNA was a lot of fun, in spite of that-which-will-not-be-named. I got to hang out a lot with my friend Tanis, who always makes me laugh and eat more ice cream than I should. I’m not fussing about the ice cream because oh what ice cream it was! Jeni’s ice cream is the fuel of TNNA (I may have stolen that line from Jess; it sounds familiar…) and everyone eats it multiple times a day when they are lucky enough to be in Columbus, Ohio. I want you all to know that I may not have tried every single flavor but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Guess what? You can order Jeni’s and have it shipped to you! It’s all I can do to make myself wait for a very special occasion. Like the day we change the batteries in the smoke detectors. Or the dining room table’s birthday.

In other, non-edible news, my first TNNA was sort of like that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when Charlie Bucket and those other brats are first led into the room with the chocolate river. I wanted to see everything, touch everything, meet everyone and just soak it all in. The colors! The fibers! The drop-dead gorgeous new patterns! The entire weekend was a creative re-charge, but in a very different way than sleepy, nurturing Squam Lake was the week before. I am so inspired and ready to create. Thank you, TNNA!

I also picked up a little sussy for you, my lovelies. della Q has a new travel needle case coming out in October but I snagged one at the show to give away to one of you lucky ducks.

From the della Q website: “A compact case that is perfect for traveling with your current project! There are three pockets for circulars, or perhaps interchangeable cords. Five pockets for double point needles up to 8″ long or interchangeable tips. A handy organizer to keep your stitch markers in order and a zip pocket for extra notions. Simply fold it in half and secure with the tie.”

These little cases are so beautiful AND covetable, ’cause when you whip yours out at your next knitting group and everyone wants to know where you got it, you can tell them that they won’t even be available in stores till OCTOBER!

To enter to win this little cutie, just leave a comment on this post telling me something fantastic that happened to you recently. [I'll get the ball rolling- the other day, there were four humming birds drinking from my feeder AT THE SAME TIME.] One comment per person please- although you are free to pack it with as much fantastic as you like. Entries close at midnight EST, Thursday, June 17th. One winner will be chosen at random and that person’s name will be posted here on the blog Friday morning. The winner will then have 24 hours to claim their prize or else we’ll draw again.

Good luck, y’all. Now go forth and wring every last drop of awesome out of this day. That’s an order!

Entries are now closed! I’ll be posting the winner in just a bit.

When Gale Zucker was here last weekend for the photography workshop, she showed us some pictures she shot for the Orphan Foundation of America’s Red Scarf Project. I think everyone in the room but me had heard about the Red Scarf Project, but seeing as how  I live in a cave on Mars, that didn’t surprise me a bit.

The Red Scarf project really knocks me out. Basically, it targets kids who have aged out of the foster care system and gone on to college. These kids have worked their backsides off to get to college and they did it without the benefit of parents to guide them through the process. Once they get to college, they are at a disadvantage because they don’t have parents sending them care packages or encouraging notes. They don’t have anyone to call when they get a bad grade, or a good one for that matter. On school holidays when the dorms close, they don’t have a home to go back to. Heartbreaking, yes?

The Red Scarf Project collects hand-knitted scarves to give to these college students at Valentine’s Day as a little sussy. Just  a little “someone-is-thinking-of-you-and-thinks-you’re-great gift. In addition to the scarves, knitters are encouraged to enclose hand-written notes of encouragemenT.  Small gift cards to national chains like Starbucks or Barnes & Noble can be enclosed as well.

I can’t even write about this project or these kids without getting all kitten-headed and teary. Remember how hard college was? How many times did you call your mom after a bad day or to ask for money or just to reconnect with home? I’m guessing a lot. And the fact that these kids don’t have that connection breaks my heart.

Juniper Moon Farm will be collecting hand knit red scarves for the Red Scarf project and I want you to participate. And I’m willing to make it worth your while.

Here’s how it works:

We will sell 100 skeins of JMF * red yarn at a special reduced price of $10/skeins. (No additional discount codes will be honored on this item and yes! you can buy more than one, but please be realistic about the number of scarves you can knit) You lovingly knit up a beautiful, UNISEX scarf that meets the OFA guidelines and send it back to the farm.  We’d love it if you could enclose a hand-written, encouraging note with each scarf you send. We will tag all the scarves and deliver them to OFA during their submission period – September 1st through December 15th.

For every scarf you send back to the farm for OFA, you will receive one chance to win a sweater’s worth of Juniper Moon Farm yarn. What’s a sweater’s worth? Totally up to you. You chose a pattern, send it to us with your size and we’ll supply the yarn. The winner will be chosen at random from all the entries.

So you get a big yarn discount. A college student gets a little encouragement in the form of a hand-knitted scarf. And you get the chance to win a whole sweater’s worth of yarn just for doing something good. It’s win/win/chance to win! Now get to knitting!

* Does it have to be red? Yes, it does. The scarves are shipped at Valentine’s Day and red is a good, unisex color. There are lots and lots of reds, obviously, so your scarf will be unique and loved.

Before I get into the farm update I want to say an enormous thank you for all the birthday cards, gifts, wishes, emails and tweets! I can honestly say that my 40th Birthday was the best one I’ve ever had, thanks to all of you. I’m regularly spoiled by all the lovely things you all send me even when it’s not my birthday and I’m pretty sure the luckiest person I know.

Well, my unplugged weekend didn’t exactly go as planned. I did (mostly) avoid the internet from Friday to Sunday, but several things went wrong with the flock and I was up to my ears in stress nevertheless. On Friday night around Midnight, Miss Liberty decided that she didn’t like the way Lucy was looking at her lamb through the fence, so she repeatedly rammed the gate until I heard the ruckus and went outside to stop her. The result was a cut on her head and a bloody nose. I got her penned up with Knightly, her lamb, and doctored up her wounds before finally getting to bed around 2 a.m.

Bloody wounds are bad news in the Spring and Summer when the flies are a problem. Flystrike is a nasty business and all cuts must be treated with an anti-fly ointment ASAP.

Liberty and Knightly are fine and she seems to have calmed down.

Saturday got off to a lovely start. My good friends Kris and Charlie brought me lunch, we walked across the street to an art show and spent some time just talking about nothing. My favorite kind of Saturday, actually. Then my aunt Ann and cousin Jack (15-year-old) came over to spend the night. We went out to dinner in C-ville and watched a movie. All good stuff.

Disaster very nearly struck in the morning when Jack found Alabama tangled up in the moveable fencing and choking to death. Luckily, Jack didn’t lose his head and we were able to cut Bama free of the fence, but he was in very bad shape. I built another pen and doctored all the deep cuts that the wire fencing left in his skin. The fence had been wrapped around his face and head and he was so swollen that he was unrecognizable. Both of his eyes were swollen shut and he was in shock.

Bama is almost fully recovered and should be out of the isolation pen tomorrow. It scared the bejesus out of me, though and we won’t be using movable fencing anymore. Alabama spent every day of his life in that fencing and still managed to get tangled up enough to nearly kill him. Erin’s goat, Sweet William, died last month after getting tangled in the same fencing. So, unfortunately, it’s going.

In better news, Dr. Grover, our lovely and amazing vet, came by the farm today to castrate all the ram lambs and buck kids, dock the lambs tails and ear tag everyone. I felt a bit guilty asking Dr. G to come, as I usually do all of this myself, but with so many lambs this year I just kept putting it off.

Each lamb and kid was given a pain killer before they were docked and castrated. Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal to the lambs at all. Maggie, our resident vegetarian, was amazed by how un-traumatic the whole thing was for the babies.

In the past, I haven’t docked my lambs tails. My flock was small enough that I’ve always been able to manage the kinds of problems that docking prevents without cutting off the tails, but the fly situation this year is already so out of control, and I decided that it would be far crueler to subject a lamb to flystike than to dock their tails. I don’t know if I will dock next year- it depends on the conditions- but I’m comfortable with my decision this year.

We chose to dock tails by banding them after doing a lot of reading and talking with Dr. Grover. Basically, a special kind of rubber band is placed around the tail under the third vertebrae. The band cuts of the blood supply to the end of the tail and, in a few weeks, the dead portion drops off. The advantages are that the procedure doesn’t cause much pain- only a little discomfort- and doesn’t create an open wound.

As you can see from the pics bellow, the lambs and kids were completely fine after the procedures and spent the afternoon jumping, playing and grazing.

The Tiny Man was looking a little bit hunchy today which worried me. Hunchy is what we call it when I lamb has his back legs pulled in a bit and just doesn’t look right. I don’t think that Rush’s mama is making enough milk to supply him anymore, probably because his tiny appetite was enough to keep her producing. We have gone back to feeding him and will probably have to bottle feed him till it’s time to wean him.

Since I brought Rushworth inside to tube feed him anyway, I decided to give him a bath. He is now the whitest lamberoo in the pasture!

In other news, MY BEES CAME TODAY! I got a phone call from the post office at 7:30 a.m. asking me to please come pick up my bees. I did pick them up but I didn’t install them in their hives today. It was rainy and, according to my cooperative extension, rain makes bees cranky.

Several people asked me how the bees were packaged so I took some pics. More tomorrow when we’ve put them in their hives.

Finally, I want to thank all of you who purchase the pattern Willie to help cover the cost of Crush’s surgery. I got an update from Pam today and I am thrilled to report that sales of Willie have thus far raised $1900, nearly two thirds of Crush’s vet bills! Isn’t that amazing?!? Y’all are amazing.

To see more pics of the lovely Crush in her cast, check out Pam’s flickr stream.

And the winner of the half share in the 2011 Juniper Moon Farm Yarn CSA is…

Congrats Kathy! Please email Maggie at Maggie AT fiberfarm DOT com to claim your prize!

The winners of tickets to Guido’s MDS&W After Party are:

Congrats, y’all! I need all five of you to email Maggie (maggie AT fiberfarm DOT com) right away and let us know if you can make it to the party. If you can’t we’ll pick another name at random tonight.