Charlie & Churchill, enjoying the sun.

I want to talk for a bit about this warm winter we’ve been having, and what that means for a sheep farmer (leave it to me to write about the weather). Because I run lots of rural small-town errands, I spend lots of time talking about the weather to my fellow rural Virginians– in line at the post office, gas station, and feed store– and most of us are a little worried.

Having grown up in the South, I’m used to a winter that doesn’t exactly line up with the cultural (which I guess is English? or New Englander?) ideal of what winter should be. There have been more Christmases without snow than with it, plenty of Januaries that have seen 70 degree days, and the daffodils are up and cheery by February. But, somehow, this year, things seem different (and it isn’t just that I feel cheated out of that heartbreaking, blanketing look of the snow on the fields and fences).

And I’m sure that part of it is that I’m more out in the weather than I ever have been before– I don’t just walk between my house and a handful of academic buildings anymore– and that the weather now has a more direct impact on both my physical and emotional comfort. By “emotional,” I mean that the health of the flock weighs constantly on Susan’s, Zac’s, and my minds. Which brings me to my point.

The parasite that gave us such a rough time last summer lies dormant over winter. If the ground freezes hard, deep down, then the eggs that infest the pastures are destroyed, and the pasture is “clean”. If not (or, perversely, if the ground is so insulated by its snow-blanket that the ground itself never freezes), the eggs are already all over the pasture, ready to hatch, and ready to bedevil the flock in increased numbers. What’s worse, a good portion of our flock in the springtime is either 1) newborn lambs or 2) lactating mothers, both of which groups have reduced resistance to parasite infestation.

We’ve had all winter to cook up new ways to get ahead of our friend Haemonchus contortus (whose name, by the way, means “twisted-up blood-hook.” Nice.). In addition to our good management practices, and one-two punch of antihelmintics plus the copper boluses we started using at the end of last season, we’ll be grazing the pastures with non-small ruminants first (before the sheep graze that pasture). This will be key, since Haemonchus only affects small ruminants. Daisy & Coconut, Madison, Monroe, and Jefferson, and even the trio of geese can ingest all the parasite larvae they want and be unaffected.

We’re crossing our fingers that a real winter– or at least a few more days of hard freeze– comes soon, because, until then, we’ll be a little uneasy.

P.S. A preemptive request: I bet we have the same views on Global Warming (or, if you prefer, Climate Change). Given my age, and my upbringing in a town known pejoratively as Commie Hill, you can guess mine. But, because this isn’t my blog, and the topic can be so inflammatory, and there’s so much to discuss, I’m really leery of starting a minor conflagration in the comments of someone else’s living room, so to speak. I just want to talk about the effect that this warm winter is having on us, please.

A cheery good morning to you from Richmond International Airport! It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’ve been up for two hours already! Wooohooooo!

I’m fixing to board a flight to Dallas/Ft Worth, where I will catch a plane to JFK, followed by a long flight to Zurich. Weirdest itinerary ever? Perhaps, but I’m not complaining, for three reasons. 1. My ticket free, thanks to my sister’s air miles. 2. I’m going on vacation.  and 3. I believe this is what they refer to as a “first-world problem”.

I did pack a startling amount of gear for the flight(s) though. I don’t deal well with boredom and I’m not wild about confined spaces, so the more I can distract myself the better off everyone will be.

In my two carry-ons I have books, magazines, an iPod full of audiobooks, a bunch of stationary for catching up on my personal correspondence, two kind of tea bags, bottled water, hand lotion, face lotion, foot lotion, extra socks, a tooth brush and tooth paste, two kinds of prescription eye drops, my laptop and, believe it or not, a whole lot more. (Which totally reminds me of this classic Bert and Ernie episode. Have I ever told you that I was crazy in love with Ernie when I was little? May have been the best relationship of my life, now that I think about it.)

Caroline and Zac have a bunch of fun blog posts planned for you this week and I’ll be popping in from time to time.

Got to go- they are calling my flight. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Switzerland!

I promised you all a story about our poultry, and so am proud to introduce you to our most illustrious duck, Bananafish.

Bananafish is a call duck. Her breed was developed as a decoy duck– they were bred to be small (the better to wear under the jacket) and noisy (the better to lure other wild ducks to their deaths), and Bananafish is definitely both. The use of live decoys has been illegal in the US since 1935, but the breed has survived as a show breed (trans: saved by their own cuteness).

She & the other call ducks are named, of course, after characters from Salinger (Franny & Zooey are the other two female ducks, and Seymour is the drake). She got the weird name because she was by far the weirdest of the four ducks– wiggling her head down & leftwards every time she quacked, stretching her wings out, one at a time, over her feet, and generally acting a little daft.

Turns out, she was just the furthest along the path to adult duck-hood– those weirdo behaviors, turns out, were her putting the duck moves on Seymour. It worked (I guess).

Around the start of December, she laid a nest of eggs in the secrecy of the juniper bushes in front of the farm. We ate them.

So she laid another, in another, more secret place. By this time, Zooey had also reached egg-laying maturity, and (this is the cool part) started working on the nest together with Bananfish. So, in this dug-out, duck-down-lined little nest, there are two different colors of eggs from two different mothers.

I cannot wait until they hatch! We aren’t eating them, because we’re drowning in chicken eggs already.

Bananafish’s real breakout role, however, has been as a model. Here are she and Oona, modeling Pam’s Charlie (which pattern makes everyone wish that it came in adult sizes).

When the shoot was over, Oona wanted to keep her!

Bananafish is MINE!

I absolutely do not blame Oona for wanting to take her home. Bananafish looks exactly like a toy, plus she’s incredibly soft and endearingly nutso. Worth their weight in comic gold, these ducks.

NEXT WEEK on SotW: Keep your suggestions coming! Let me know who you’d like to hear more about, and I’ll be happy to indulge you.

]]> http://www.fiberfarm.com/2012/02/duck-of-the-week-bananafish/feed 11 http://www.fiberfarm.com/2012/02/this-morning-in-pictures-16 http://www.fiberfarm.com/2012/02/this-morning-in-pictures-16#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:39 +0000 Caroline http://www.fiberfarm.com/?p=16116

Wren

Brooks

Lyra

Finch

Carina

Milkshakes and Mrs. Doubtfire, with Braeburn, Adelaide, & Sophie. They’re probably plotting a followup adventure to their escape into the woods yesterday.

A little over a month ago, I drank my very last Diet Pepsi. Those of you who have spent any time with me know that my addiction to Diet Pepsi was serious and  complete. On bad days, I was drinking  5 or 6 20 ounces bottles of Diet Pepsi a day. That is a lot of diet soda by anybody’s measure.

I had tried to quit a few times before but with no success. I knew that all those chemicals were terrible for me but the cravings and headaches that go along with giving up that much diet soda were too much for me take and when any other stressors presented themselves, I would head directly for the store for a bottle of the thing that comforted me and gave me energy.

So what was different this time? I think I was just really tired of having to plan my day, my life around making sure I had laid in enough Diet Pepsi for the day, the weekend, the car trip. I was definitely tired of feeling achey and tired all the time. And there as some speculation between Joel and my doctor that Diet Pepsi might be setting off my auto-immune disease (since then I think we have found another factor that’s probably the culprit.).

I was assisted in quitting by the fact that I got a nasty stomach virus over the Christmas holidays and couldn’t really keep anything down but water. I had my last Diet Pepsi on the afternoon of December 30th and I haven’t had one since. I’m not saying it has been easy, but it is getting easier all the time.

I am far from an expert but I will share the things that helped me quit. I should start by saying that I wasn’t trying to give up caffeine entirely, which made things much easier.

1. Lay in supplies- I hadn’t ever had much use for hot tea, but I knew that there are lots of health benefits associated with drinking black and green teas, so I ordered four or five varieties and rotated through them until I found my favorites. Right now, I’m loving Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon and Republic of Tea’s Blueberry Green Tea. I wasn’t a huge fan of green tea at first but I read that one cup of green tea increases your metabolism by 13%, so I kept trying until I found one I really liked. The Blueberry Green Tea is just wonderful!

2.Since I was used to the instant gratification of opening a bottle, I invested 25 buck in an electric tea kettle. Best $25 I ever spent in my life! This thing is crazy, crazy fast. If it’s not full of water, I can boil water for tea in less than 60 seconds, which is pretty instant as far as gratification goes.

3.Use sugar, not a substitute. In the beginning, I was adding Splenda to my tea because I didn’t want to add extra calories of sugar. Don’t make the same mistake!  All it did was intensify my cravings for Diet Pepsi. Sugar only has 15 calories per teaspoon which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I started by using a teaspoon to measure the sugar to make sure I didn’t put in too much. I’ve been slowly decreasing the amount I use every couple of days, and it only takes a pinch to sweeten it sufficiently.

4. Water water water water water. I am drinking tremendous amounts of water these days and already, in one month, I can see difference in my skin. Seriously! People have commented on it. (Green tea is also supposed to be great for your skin too.) I never go anywhere without a bottle of water anymore.

5. Avoid situations and foods that you associate with drinking soda. For instance, I can’t imagine going to the movies and not having Diet Pepsi with my popcorn. Pizza is another thing I’m currently avoiding. I also avoid the checkout lines at the grocery store that have drink refrigerators in them.

6. Reward yourself in other ways.  I figured out that I was spending about $6 a day on Diet Pepsi, so I’m setting $6 aside for every day that I don’t  have one and, this time next year, I will have $2190 to spend on something I really want.

7. Pay attention to how you feel. Since giving up soda, I feel a thousand times better physically. I’m not achey anymore, my insomnia is GONE and I am no longer getting tired at 2 p.m. every afternoon. This should be #1 but it has taken me a month to get to this place. You will get there too, though, I promise. I won’t go back to drinking soda because I don’t want to feel terrible all the time ever again.

Here’s the thing: if I can do this, ANYBODY can do this. I was about as addicted to Diet Pepsi as a person can be and I don’t even miss it anymore. That’s a pretty amazing thing to say after 4 weeks.

Do you have any tips for giving up an addiction? Share them here.

Michelle, my dear friend and brilliant web shepherd, has a full-time job and a new baby, but she always finds time to help us out here at Juniper Moon Farm.

Today she put together a page for us to post free patterns on. You can find it here but it’s also permanently displayed in the menu bar. I made this handy illustration (all by myself, I may add) to help you find it easily.

There are three free patterns posted right now, but we’ll be adding to them from time to time, starting with four of Marie Grace’s gorgeous patterns that will go up as soon as the yarn is available in store.

Last week, I was trying to explain to someone where the pattern errata are on our website and suddenly realized that other people may not realize that we have drop down menus hidden under some of the menu buttons either.

If you hover over the “Our Yarn Lines” button, you will find the link to pages about the Design Contest, a list of all our stockists and the Errata from our pattern books.

Hovering over “Features” will pull up a drop down menu of some of our most popular posts, such as Ask the Shepherd and Probably something you would like… (PSYWL).

My little illustrations took me all of 15 seconds, while Michelle’s coding certainly took a great deal longer, but I am still tickled pink that I was able to make them by myself. It’s the little things, y’all.

Caroline and I both love all forms of cured, smoked, pickled, or any way preserved fish. Caroline’s favorite might be gravlax (it might be her Swedish  ancestry). The problem is is hard to find good gravlax out here in the county. Also gravlax tend to be very expensive (usually about $20.00/lb). This is what inspired me to finally try to make them at home. After some research I realized it was super simple and could be done in just a few days.

I started with about a pound of sockeye salmon. I also decided to use both fennel tops and dill. I love the sweet flavor of fennel tops and thought it would go well the dill.  Combine all of the dry ingredients so that they rub evenly into the salmon

Rub the salmon down with the salt, pepper, and sugar mixture.

Wrap the salmon up in all of the dill and fennel. I bruised the fennel and dill first to make sure that the flavor gets into the salmon.

I took all the extra salt, sugar, and pepper and covered the salmon.

Then using parchment paper I wrap up the whole thing nice and tightly. I put it in a dish and then put that dish in the refrigerator for 3 days and forgot about the whole things.

The results were more than I could have hoped for. The flesh was firm and a lovely dark pink color. I brushed the excess curing agents off and began to decide how I was going to eat such a lovely treat.

I decided I would first eat it in a very raw state to taste all of the flavors. I served thicker than normal slices with a sour cream and a small salad of pickled fennel. It was fantastic. It still tasted like fish but you really tasted the rich fattiness of the salmon.

Glamor shot!

This was one of the most satisfy things that I have cooked (cured?) in a long time. The result tastes better than what you can get in stores and cost way less. The possibilities are endless and you can do just about anything with the result. Caroline and I both ate the whole pound in one day and then started making more that evening.

Recipe:

Gravlax

1 lb salmon

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons ground black pepper

5 sprigs dill

5 sprigs fennel tops

Dry off salmon. Remember to use the freshest salmon (sushi grade). The salmon will be cured but it is best for food safety reasons to use high quality fish. Mix sugar, salt, and black pepper. On a large piece of parchment paper place the dried salmon skins side down in the center of the parchment paper. Pour the sugar, salt, pepper mix over the top of the salmon and rub into the flesh. Bruise the dill and fennel then place on top of the salmon. Take the excess salt, sugar, and pepper on top of the dill and fennel. Wrap the salmon in the parchment tightly and then place in large pan and put into the refrigerator for at least three days. After the fish is cured remove form the parchment paper and brush off the extra curing spices. Slice and serve however desired.

The last ten days have been a total whirlwind. I spent 5 days in Phoenix for the TNNA Winter Show. TNNA hosts two national trade shows a year for the yarn industry and, as always, it was a wonderful time. I love the shows because it allows me to meet lots of shop owners, see lots of friends that are as busy as I am, and show of our new collections.

Everyone said wonderful things about the new yarns for Spring/Summer 2012 and the new collections got all kinds of attention and love. It was incredibly satisfying to get so much get positive feedback. It was also exhausting! I collapsed in a heap every night and slept as much as I could.

Phoenix was followed by a trip to Texas for my beloved Stock Show and a shop visit to The Woolie Ewe in Plano. The gals at The Woolie Ewe were incredibly nice to me considering the fact that UPS lost my trunk show! Yup, the whole thing. We shipped it form the floor of the TNNA show, because I was concerned that the airline might lose my luggage and obviously I HAD to have it. Instead, UPS had no idea where the box was for about 24 hours. They delivered it promptly at 7 p.m., the day of the show.

I felt like such a jerk but everyone at the Woolie Ewe was SUPER nice about it though, staff and customers alike. I showed pictures of the garments on my MacBook and everyone oohed and awed. Honestly, they couldn’t have been kinder.

For Texas I hopped on a plane to Tampa (and checked my trunk show) for a visit to A Good Yarn in Sarasota FL. The owners of this shop are amazing! They picked me up at the airport, took me out to dinner and had me as a guest in their home all weekend. Very, very nice people.

And what a shop! I am crazy envious of the people who live near enough to make A Good Yarn their local yarn shop. Wonderful yarns, an incredible (and incredibly hilarious) staff, great snacks and very loyal customers. If you’re ever in Sarasota (or even Tampa) do yourself a favor and stop by.

Sunday I flew back to Baltimore and I spent all of today at the passport office in Washington, D.C. trying to get my passport renewed. Rumor has it that my new passport will be ready tomorrow morning, which is really most amazing. It was a hellish day of filling out forms and waiting and waiting and waiting, but the people at the passport office couldn’t be nicer and I will get my passport in less than 24 hours, so I’ll try not to complain too much.

I needed my passport because I am going on a doctor-ordred vacation to visit my sister in Zurich, leaving Thursday. It’s all very sudden but the stress of the past few months has started to affect my health and my doctor gave me the option of taking a very nasty drug (one that I have been avoiding for almost two years now) or taking a couple of weeks off and trying to get my stress levels down. I opted for the latter.

I will be doing some work in Switzerland. I’ve got a couple of long neglected projects that need attention and of course I will blog about my adventures, but mostly I plan to sit on my sister’s couch and watch Swiss daytime television for a couple of weeks. I will not be answering phone calls or emails while I’m away (that’s part of the “vacation” aspect of the trip) but Caroline can help with whatever you need- Caroline at fiber farm dot com – and she and Zac will take care of everything at the farm until I get back, so no worries there.

As you can imagine, I am spectacularly bad at taking time off and I already feel pretty guilty about absenting myself for two weeks. I know I need to pace myself but I want to take advantage of every opportunity while I can. I want to live life to the very edges and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for napping!

I’m trying to look on this trip as a chance to re-charge my creative batteries so that I can come back refreshed and ready to tackle the next big thing. Cause there IS a next big thing. But more on that in a few days…

We’ve got another set of handsome hooves in the pasture– I’m delighted to introduce Coconut to you all!

This morning, Mike and Carole of Tulip Hill Farm (who have already been extraordinarily good to us– donating Miss Cleo as a prize for the Pete’s Greens fundraiser, and giving Daisy to Susan for her birthday last year) brought down their lovely jack, Coconut.

He’s a pretty shy young jack, so my first view of him was a glimpse of his shadow as Mike and Carole led him down the ramp from the horse trailer. With persistent friendliness (and treats), though, we should be able to become friends pretty quickly.

As soon as we turned Coconut out in the pasture, Jerry ran up to investigate. Then Daisy made a beeline for him, braying, overjoyed to see another equine. And then all the rest of the flock ran up, because everyone else was running, and it seemed like a good idea.

At such a welcome, Coconut took off. After a few minutes of investigative run-around, everything settled back down.

He’s also pretty small– both because he’s still young, and because of his breeding. Mike and Carole told me that he shouldn’t ever get bigger than Daisy. Currently, he’s about the size of a largish sheep. He’s also a little bit fat (but he’s nowhere near Daisy, who, as you can see above, is wearing a grazing muzzle to help her lose all that not-actually-a-baby weight), so we’ll have to be careful to keep him at a healthy weight.

We also discussed donkey breeding (since we did buy him with an eye towards this kind of cuteness). I think it’ll be a while before he’s mature enough to get the job done, despite the sexy-looking maneuvers going on in that pasture. At the very least, though, I think he’ll do a good job keeping her company.

Everyone, say hello!

I am tickled to death that Country Outfitter asked me to giveaway a pair of Justin Boots. BUT- and this will come as no surprise to those of you who read the blog regularly- it kills me that I don’t have a pair to give to each one of your who entered! I hate that there can only be one winner in anything, even football games.

However, seeing as how I have no desire to drive Country Outfitters into bankruptcy, a single winner must be chosen. And today, the lucky lady, chosen at random, is…

Congrats Blendab1! You can email me with your mailing address, choice of boots and boot size (which is generally a 1/2 size lower than your shoe size) and Country Outfitters will get your boots on their way to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered! We have another pretty cool giveaway coming up very soon, so check back. (I think we must have passed some important blog traffic milestone of late, because I’m getting loads of emails from companies who want us to give their stuff away. I only accept the ones I think are appropriate and products I actually use or love or covet. Just in case you were wondering…)