It’s summertime, which means I’m worried. It is brutally hot and humid in Central Virginia this week, although, blessedly, not dry like last summer. We have plenty of green grass in the pasture but it’s so hot that I worry the sheep will expire while out grazing.

In fact, it’s so hot and moist out there that my camera steams up when I go outside to take pictures.

During the heat of the day, many of the animals crowd into the giant run-in and get as close to the big fan as possible.

I reunited the mamas and babies yesterday, and the ewes are keeping their lambs close, despite the heat. This is Liberty and Kestrel.

Jerry, normally a more of a loner type, enjoying the breeze from the fan.

Miss Daisy seems un-effected by the heat, but I don’t know enough about equines to know for sure. They don’t pant, like the dogs and the sheep do, so I’m not sure what to look for.

The pigs are in the little paddock, with access to one of the barn stalls when they want to escape the direct sunlight. I’ve put Indigo and Scarlett in the other stall with a fan of their own, as the littlest lambs seem most likely to suffer from heat stroke.

The weather services are predicting temps near 100 today and tomorrow, then a dramatic cooling off for the rest of the week, with Saturday being the lowest at 77. I feel like such a hostage of the weather all summer, holding my breath on the hot days and praying for cold fronts. I was telling someone the other day that the only way to be a shepherd and keep you sanity is to look at the year as a whole, rather than any one day, or you’ll drive yourself crazy.

Of course, higher temperatures mean that the parasites are thriving, so when I’m not worrying about the heat, I’m worrying about the worms. We’ve been worming every 3 weeks but the worm loads are higher than I want to see, particularly in the lambs. I’m determined not to lose any animals to worms, but throwing everything we’ve got at them is super-expensive.

It’s hard not to let the heat get me down, but I’m trying to stay busy to keep my mind off it. I’m working on the color stories for the Spring/Summer 2012 lines and I am very excited about the new yarns we’ll be introducing. Can’t give you any details just yet, but the are extraordinary! It’s also nice to be working on yarns for summer in summer, even if it is a year in advance.

In other news, Jenny is hard at work booking my fall trunk show and book signing tour. I’ll be covering most of the North and Southeast, as well as the Midwest and  Texas in the fall, and the West in January. I can’t wait to get into the shops, see old friends and make new ones.

Our summer camps are filling up! We’ve got only a couple spaces left in Culinary Camp and Photography Camp. I am also thrilled to say that Shepherding Camp is filling up.

Finally, a little birdie told me that we may be having a sale on farm stays later this week. Stay tuned…

Have you seen this time lapse video of the blizzard that hit the Northeast this weekend? So, so cool.

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

Cini, the hardest working LDG in the business.

Believe it or not, this is one of this year’s lambs. They are healthy and ENORMOUS.

Sweet Buster. Buster is one of the my original flock and an old friend.

Darcy, another of this year’s lambs.

Miss Sicily

Victoria

Chicken Super Highway

Churchill and Charley

Sqooshy puppy face

Lucy mothering her pups

It totally exhausting being a puppy.

This summer has been a rough one for farmers all over the country and I am certainly no exception. The unrelenting heat and lack of rain has been so brutal. It’s also been expensive. I’ve had to spend a small fortune on fans, additional wormer, electrolytes and vet visits; money I was expecting to have to spend and hadn’t budgeted for.

But the worst part has been losing animals. In addition to losing Nan, a couple of weeks ago Daisy, my Babydoll Southdown ewe, one of the very first sheep I ever bought passed away. Daisy was suffering so much in the heat. She was big girl and I lost her during a week when the heat index reach 116 degrees day after day.

I was with Daisy when she died and I think I went in to shock for a few days. I was just numb. You have to understand that Daisy had been with me for 7 years and she had such a big personality. She had a big everything, actually. One of our friends dubbed her the Sheepapotomous. Daisy was always the first to scold me if- God forbid- I was ten minutes late feeding.

She was a good ewe and I will miss her mightily. I am so grateful to have Alabama and Willoughby and Bennett. Although Alabama was wethered (castrated) Willoughby and Bennett will be bred next year, and in that way, a piece of Daisy will always exist at Juniper Moon Farm.

I wanted to share some of my favorite Daisy photographs with you.

This is the classic Daisy pose. I wish this were video so you could hear how loud she was.

Daisy and Alabama. He was her first lamb and she was crazy about him.

Daisy and Bama.

Daisy and Alabama.

Daisy and newborn Willoughby

Willoughby and Bennett nursing.

A few days after Daisy died the heat broke for a few days and I was looking forward to a few easy days of peace. Unfortunately, it was not to be. After returning from taking a friend to the airport in Richmond one afternoon, I found that Miss Linda, our beloved, ancient nanny goat, had passed away.  In all honesty, Linda’s death was not a surprise. She was so very old and every morning when I went out to feed a braced myself for the fact that she could be dead.

I really want to honor both of these animals that meant so much to me, so I will do a longer post tomorrow about Linda, but I want you to now that Linda died peacefully of old age in one of her favorite sunny spots on the farm. Even though I expected to lose Linda, her death hit me kind of hard. I miss her every single day.

In happier news, Ethel has gone brooding again and is sitting on eight eggs. Michelle re-started the countdown to the hatch up in the left-hand column.

It is stupidly, insanely, brutally hot in Central Virginia. Yesterday the high was 102. Today is expected to get up to 103 and tomorrow will also top 100.

The sheep are suffering mightily.

The goats on marginally less so.

The flock spends most of the day seeking shade and drinking water. We’re going through 150 gallons or so a day and we have to top off the tanks every hour or so with fresh, cool water to keep them drinking it. We’re adding electrolytes and apple cider vinegar as well.

Everyone has a very spot that they return to each day. Colorado and Buster share one of the run-in sheds.

Cosmo takes up a whole shed by himself.

Miss Linda and the rest of the goats stay in the back pasture where the shade of the trees and the slight breeze keep them cool.

Hannah

Jasmine

Waldorf and Statler

Ernie is the one I’m most concerned about. He’s just so big. He’s panting like crazy, but he’s hanging in there.

Even the chickens are suffering. They spend their afternoons in the landscaping, only coming out when I call them to come over for cool treats like watermelon and peaches.

The forecast is calling for cooler temps (92!) starting Monday. Till then we’ll just keep encouraging everyone to hydrate and keep the barn fans running.

I have to say that I think the weather in Central Virginia is out to get me. Twice this winter, Juniper Moon Farm was snowed in with crazy, record-breaking blizzards. Now we are facing a heat wave with temps 10 degrees above average. It was 97 degrees in Palymra today, with about a million percent humidity.

The Angora goats are completely fine in this crazy heat- most Angoras are raised in Southern Texas and South Africa, after all- but my poor, sweet sheep are suffering. They would have fared better if the heat had ramped up in an orderly fashion, but a 10 degree spike is brutal for them. Of course I provide them with plenty of shade and a continuous stream of cool water throughout the day, but I worry.

Sheep cool themselves through respiration, and continual panting all day long can lead to mechanical pneumonia. Mechanical pneumonia provides the perfect breeding grounds for opportunistic bacterial to get into the animal’s lungs. In these conditions, bacterial pneumonia can be fatal in a matter of hours.

I’ve spent the weekend adding blocks ice to the water tank, checking and re-checking the flock for signs of distress. This afternoon, Sicily, one of my original Cormo ewes, started showing signs of heat stress. Labored breathing, snotty nose, listlessness- she had them all. I quickly mixed up some electrolyte solution and got it into her, and dosed her with antibiotics. Then Maggie helped me move Sicily and her lamb, Fairfax, into a stall in the barn where we can have a fan blowing on her and keep an eye on her tonight.

Sicily is already looking better, but she’s not out of danger yet. Even if she seems 100% by morning I’ll be keeping her in the barn for a few days or until this stupid heat breaks. Sicily is one hell of a ewe. She’s given me big, single lambs every year, and I was over the moon to get a ewe lamb out of her this year. It would kill me to lose this sheep. Kill. Me.

Please keep Sicily and Fairfax in your thoughts tonight.

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Sicily made it through the night and seems much better, although her breathing hasn’t returned to normal and her nose is still runny. I dosed her again with antibiotics and electrolytes and am going to keep her indoors again today in the cool. She isn’t happy about it but I’ll feel better today knowing she’s got a breeze on her.

Mr. Hopkins, my hay farmer, is bringing a large round bale over today and positioning it in the shade of the woods in the west pasture. My hope is that the sheep will stay in the shade munching hay for most of the day,rather than grazing in the heat of the sun all day.

1. WE HAVE POWER! Who knew how amazing running water, electricity, WiFi and heat could be? You know what I’m most excited about? Vacuuming. And doing laundry. And taking a hot shower. And not sleeping in the cold. Okay, I’m excited about lots of stuff.

2. THANK YOU! Thank all of you for all the cards and letters and little gifts  you’ve been sending. I am humbled by all the support and it means the whole world to me. I read them all and save them for the inevitable sucky days when I need a little pick-me-up. Y’all are awesome and you make me feel like I can do anything.

3. Due to the crazy weather, I am a scooch behind one dyeing the sample colors for the Fall 09 Shareholder yarn. As long as the power stays on, I should have the photos posted by Saturday.

4. Newsweek’s International edition has a round-up of luxury farm stays this week and guess who’s in it?

[If anybody living outside the U.S. sees a copy on the newsstand, could you grab one for me? I'll reimburse you for the postage.] We are swamped with requests for info, so if you have a specific week or weekend you’d like to reserve, let me know right away so we can get you on the calendar. susie AT fiberfarm DOT com.

In spite of the inconvenience, I can’t help loving the snow. Everything looks so pretty and there’s a lovely hush over the farm.

A couple weeks ago I posted this picture of one of my favorite trees.

It didn’t fare very well during the blizzard.

Still no power and our woodstove seems to be leaking smoke into the house, so I had to let it go out. How happy am I that I bought a super-warm down comforter last month? Very happy indeed. Gulliver and I were toasty until we had to get out of bed this morning.

All of the animals are well and happy, although they goats are looking a little weary. They just don’t have the body fat that our sheep do and they feel the cold more as a result.

Gotta head back to the farm before the next big snow starts. Hope you are all warm and cozy!

Heading back to the farm now.

Can I be honest? I was kind of dreading getting back to the farm today. I missed my flock and my dogs and even my bed, but the lack of electricity and company were daunting. (Paige is in California visiting her father this week.) I not in the mood for roughing it in my own home.

But once I pulled into the driveway I felt my equilibrium was restored. The farm looked absolutely beautiful and it was so quiet and peaceful.

We have a few trees down.

Our driveway still hasn’t been plowed, so I had to park by the road.

Of course, my first stop was the barn to check on the lambs and kids. Dimples was modeling some serious hay-head.

The dogs were super-happy to see me.

We brought the little lambs into the barn during the storm. They don’t have as much body fat as the big sheep and they were looking a little miserable.

They were happy to see me too,

but only because I had a pocket full of animal crackers.

I love the chicken footprints in the snow.

The snow hasn’t stopped the hens from laying.

Alabama (right) is now officially bigger than his mama, Daisy (left).

It was so great to be home that not having electricity or running water didn’t seem like such a big deal. Which is good, because it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting power back tonight. And tomorrow? More snow!

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