Lamb updates-they won't stop growing!

It's hard to believe that some of the lambs are already a month old. They grow at such an incredible rate that subtle changes can be seen almost every day. I love to watch them as they mature and evolve from tiny newborns into beautiful young lambs.

I am posting newborn pictures of each lamb followed by recent photos so that you can see how they are changing and growing. Oh, and they even have names now! As I stated in a previous post I am going with a Cape Cod theme for names this year since that is where my family grew up and some of my fondest childhood memories are from that part of the country.

The first lamb up is Bayberry (Baybe). She was the last lamb born (just two weeks ago) and we lost her twin shortly after delivery. She is the Baby..or 'Baybe' of the group.

Newborn Crosswinds Bayberry.

Bayberry just turned two weeks old. Baybe is a sweet girl with very soft fleece.

Crosswinds Mountain Laurel .

Laurel growing into a beautiful ewe with gorgeous fleece and conformation, plus the spots that I love so much. She will be making her home here with us.
Crosswinds Ashumet (Ashley...or Shu...or Ash). Very nice Gulmoget ewe with awesome fleece and killer conformation. Ash will also be staying here.
Crosswinds Circe (formerly the 'skunk-sheep'). Circe is a pretty little ewe lamb that claimed a family in Decorah, Iowa early on, so I allowed them to choose a name for her, it fits her well.

Newborn Circe.

I am going to miss Circe's antics. She is quite the character and has the most endearing personality. Most of the photos I get of her look like the following picture, probably because her favorite thing to do is jump into your arms anytime you get anywhere close to the ground, consequently every time I bend over to take a photo she is trying to leap up, expecting me to catch her. Connor, you had better get a big shoulder bag to carry her in because I think she has designs on becoming an accessory like a Paris Hilton dog.

Crosswinds Katama.

Kat is a very feminine solid black ewe lamb with soft, crimpy fleece and wonderful conformation.

Crosswinds Menemsha as a newborn.

Menemsha is a gorgeous mioget ewe lamb.

Menemsha's fleece...yeah, I'm keeping her.

The last ewe lamb is Crosswinds Natale Holly. Holly as a newborn.

Holly at one month old.

Oh, yeah, she is staying too!

Now for the boys.
Crosswinds Brewster.

Brewster is a handsome little ram lamb with great markings, nice fleece and square conformation.....we are just waiting his naughty bits to fall into place. One has managed to find it's way to the proper destination, but the other is not wanting to come down from it's lofty perch and join it's friend. If it doesn't fall into place Brewster will end up a wether (castrated) and be offered for sale as a fiber pet. As a side-note, all hope has been lost that my neighbors on the "big farms" will ever stop wondering about my sanity. I think several of them have caught me, in recent times, out in the sheep pasture feeling Brewster up in search of said missing parts....yeah, they are talking about me at the feed store right about now.

Brewster today.

Crosswinds Nantucket (Tucker) as a newborn.

Tucker is growing to be a gorgous mioget ram lamb with perfect conformation, soft fleece and a tiny tail. If I didn't have so many ewes that are related to him I would be keeping him or his twin.

Below is Tucker's twin brother, Orleans.
Orleans is a nice solid boy with super-soft fleece, awesome horns (so far), and really square conformation. At this point he looks like he will be a bit bigger than his twin. I love those striped horns : ).

I took most of these pictures a few days ago, so the lambs have changed even since then. It is sad to think that in 2 months most of them will be leaving for their new homes...as usual, I have gotten waaaay too attached.....I need more land so that I can keep them ALL.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there that give it their all everyday......

.....even when it isn't easy.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Friday afternoon, do you know where your kitchen table is?

I can rarely find my kitchen table on Fridays. I know where it is, really, I do. This table-clutter problem arises every Friday as it is my main "prep" day for Saturday's market, causing my kitchen to become enveloped in all things of a markety nature.

Some of the things that are obstructing the view to my table are the many jams and jellies that I make all year long. The jam usually lives in my pantry but being that I don't always remember things unless they are in plain sight the jam makes it's migration to the table on Friday so that I won't forget to load it...still not a guarantee. Much of the produce to make the jams is harvested from the trees and gardens on our property and then frozen or canned while it is in season. Our Rhubarb is growing fast and furious right now, so Wednesday I made a batch of fresh Strawberry Rhubarb Jam-one of my favorites. I was searching for other ways to use up some of my tart little rhubarb friends and came across a recipe for Blueberry Rhubarb jam...hmmm....interesting. When I mentioned to my dear husband that I thought I would try making the blueberry/rhubarb concoction for next weekend's market, he wrinkled his nose and with a look of great pain on his face said, "Ewww, you can't do that, blueberries and rhubarb don't belong together!" Well, he has been married to me long enough to know better-if you tell me it can't/shouldn't be done-it's getting done. Now he has sealed his fate, he will be eating blueberry rhubarb jam on his toast next week....I will let you know how that all turns out. In the mean time, I have a large collection of other flavors headed for market: Blueberry, pear butter, caramel apple, peach, pear, strawberry, apple pie, strawberry rhubarb...why is that any different than blueberry rhubarb?
Salted Nut Rolls also adorn my table, for the time being.

For the first few markets I only bake about 5 different varieties of cookies. Once the season gets fully underway I will have about 8 varieties plus "Puppy Chow" and some other snacks. I do all of my baking on Fridays because I am kind of a freshness nut...among other types of nuts that I have been called. Interestingly many of my neighbors 'happen' to stop by on Fridays...coincidence?
Fridays are impossibly busy and always fly by so quickly. Once the baking is done everything has to be labeled, the truck has to be loaded, any produce that I am taking needs to be harvested and cleaned, hand spun yarn gets boxed, clay figurines need to be packed and loaded and lastly, eggs are sorted and ready to put into the cooler in the morning. You may be wondering- if I am so busy why am I writing on my blog? Well...I have to do something while I am waiting for the oven timer to go off every ten minutes or so!

Incidentally, I am not very excited about the weather forecast for tomorrow morning-

Cloudy and 39 degrees by morning with winds at 15-25 miles per hour......I may be eating a lot of baked goods myself.

Chicken math

This morning I was trying to get some photos of the lambs because my intended blog post was going to be an update on the littlest of sheepies......that was my intention....until I got a call from Sand Hill Preservation. It was Linda calling, "Corinne, we have your order of 5 Blue Orpington chicks ready...and Glen threw in an extra." Those of you that have been following my blog can guess the rest of the conversation. "He didn't want to leave just 6 chicks in the box, so there are a few filler chicks." I hesitantly ask, "How many filler chicks, Linda?" Wait for it, wait for it. Her response was, "Just 12." Aaaaand there it is.
I love these people. They are the best chicken enablers EVER!
So, in addition to the five...(or six) Blue Orpingtons that I ordered, I ended up with a few more friends than I had anticipated. I am bad at math, I think we all know that by now, but even I know that 6+12=18, right? So why did I end up with 20 chicks?

I love that the extra chicks are always an interesting breed. This time, other than a couple of unidentified chickies, there is a Red Dorking, 5 Barred Hollands, and a few Red Pyle Cubalayas.
Here's the problem...once again this was only part of my original order. So, let's review. I ordered 20 chicks all together last winter. I received the first group of 10 a couple of months ago, which ended up being 24, this group of "5" turned out to be 20, I still have 5 Welsummer chicks coming at some point.....5 more.....5. Just 5.

To market to market.......

Today was the opening day for the outdoor Freight House Farmers' Market. I sometimes do not relish getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays-even before my roosters have awakened, to load the truck, drive all the way downtown and get my booth set up before the sun comes up, but I must admit I was very excited this morning at the prospect of seeing my fellow vendors and my favorite customers again. There is always somewhat of a party atmosphere at market, especially so on opening day.

See, there was even a marching band performing!

Even some of the dogs got in on the celebration.....I am not sure what a dog has to do to get this number of Mardi Gras beads.....

One of the things that draws many people to the market is the endless array of goodies. Unfortunately, I am drawn to the goodies as well and I am forced to be in close proximity to them for a good portion of every Saturday. Most people gain extra weight in the winter, but I place the blame for my summer 'Farmer's Market 5' squarely on the shoulders (or pastries) of my market buddies....or ARE they my buddies???

Market generally turns into a 5 hour long brunch.
I guess you could eat healthy...if you wanted to.....but I don't eat meat so I clearly had no choice but the goodies.
My other downfall is the selection of beautiful plants that are available. I am probably safe for the short term since most of the bedding plants are not quite ready for sale..yet. I will be in HUGE trouble when my next door vendor returns with his Hostas. I am addicted to hostas and unfortunately there are thousands of varieties and even a few that I don't have..yet. Maybe...a few. There were lots of nice hanging baskets this week though.


It was also fun to see all of my canine friends again. There are three booths that sell gourmet doggie treats so there are a large number of dogs in attendance at the market. Like these three cuties.
Oops, four.
There are also ample opportunities for 'people watching'. It is one of the few places where you can see manly-men doing what they probably consider to be kind of unmanly-man stuff. Like carrying around baskets of pretty flowers for their wives....and looking SO excited about it.
Or walking his wife's cute little dog that happens to be sporting a John Deere tee-shirt and bandanna....maybe the John Deere tee-shirt was an attempt to 'man up' the little dog.

Or carrying a hot dog shaped balloon.........
Yep, I needed to see that again too....
I am really hoping that this guy is a hot dog vendor.

Thanks to all of my regular customers for making it a great day today and for finding me after the market shuffle.