A Few Rays of Hope

We are still dead broke, but there are a few hopeful signs on the horizon now.

I have two horse sales that are in the "almost definite" stage, plus another couple of potential deals still in the inquiry-and-negotiation stage. Anything that reduces the number of horses we have to feed and also brings in some much-needed cash is cause for celebration at this point.

Ken and I are so VERY tired of being desperate all the time!

But, with those rays of hope encouraging us that this whole horrible situation may be resolved eventually, we were actually able to start looking around the farm and begin making tentative plans for how we will readjust the farm to our new situation.

Surprisingly, the farm itself feels more amenable to the new course of action. The old antique barn, which is completely inadequate for the number of horses we have had---and not particularly useful for sheep, either---is quite beautifully suited for the greatly reduced number of horses we hope to have in a few weeks or months.

And the old run-down former country store that is on the property---it's spacious, and we kept wanting to find a way to convert it into a horse stable. But its layout and dimensions made it totally unsuitable for horses. However, now that we look at it a different way, it would be incredibly easy to convert it for sheep!

Not that the sheep need to be inside much, but it has plenty of room where they could go in during ice storms and such, and plenty of room for me to set up as many lambing pens as I'm ever likely to need.

In looking at these buildings differently, we also began to look at the adjoining pastures differently. Currently, the horses are in the front pasture, next to the store. While this is convenient for feeding them (we keep our hay supply in one part of the store), it's also unsightly, because whenever it rains, the pasture gets muddy from the horses' hooves tearing it up, and that's the first thing anybody sees when they come to our farm. Yuck!

But if we have only a couple of horses, we can switch them to the paddock near the barn, which attaches to the back pasture. Nobody sees that pasture, so if the horses muddy it up during the rain, it's not going to make the whole farm look bad.

The sheep, on the other hand, don't destroy the ground they stay on. So, someday when we have money again, we're going to disc up and reseed the front pasture, divide part of it up into additional sheep breeding paddocks (we'll need more breeding groups now that we have added polled sheep to the flock), and then the nice neat green sheep pasture will be the first thing people see when they come in the driveway.

In time, we'll add a permanent run-in shed to each breeding paddock, instead of the cheap-but-unsightly tarp shelters we now have. I think it will be very convenient and will look very nice.

I'm so tired of having our resources stretched so thin we can't do right by the farm, as far as maintenance and improvements. This could be such a beautiful place, it was just so incredibly far run down when we bought it, we started out with a huge handicap, and have been playing catch-up ever since.

Here's an interesting thought I had about using the store to shelter the sheep. It has WAY more space than the sheep will ever need. Which means I'll be able to store my fleeces for sale in there too, instead of having them take up huge amounts of space in the house.

That got me thinking what else I could use all that extra space for. If my wool is going to be down there, why not my spinning wheel and loom as well? It could become my fiber studio. And if it's going to be my fiber studio... there's not much of a step to go from that to having it be a store again, where I could sell stuff I produce. Plus I know a lot of other creative people who might like an outlet to sell their stuff too.

The place would need lots of renovation to fix it up, but it IS already set up as a store, with shelves everywhere, large counters with tons of storage behind them, and even a nook where the cash register would go.

And don't you think it might be a fun gimmick for the people to be able to come to the store and buy, I don't know, a handwoven blanket or something, and be able to see the sheep the blanket's wool came from, right there in another part of the same building?

The sheep wouldn't spend much time inside, so it wouldn't be too hard to keep the sheep part of the building clean and presentable.

I don't know, maybe it's a silly idea. But I know *I* would enjoy shopping at a store like that, so maybe other people would too.

What do you think?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, that's right. I admit it: It's my birthday today.

We don't have any money for presents or special activities, but my husband is cooking me a lovely breakfast right now, and the weather has given me the gift of a beautiful warm, sunny day, so that's not too shabby.

As far as happy goes, I'll take what I can get!

Who Do You Love?

In honor of Valentine's day, I invite you all to take a moment to tell the world who YOU love!

For me, without a doubt, that would be my wonderful husband Ken.

He laughs at my jokes, sticks with me through the hard times, and loves the REAL me, prickles and all. I can't imagine anybody being more suited for me than him. After all these years, he's still the best thing that ever happened to me.

Here we are on our wedding day back in May 1995, exactly one year after our first date. We got married barefoot in a meadow, with flowers in our hair.

I love you sweetie! Thanks for 14 wonderful years!

Leaderless

A light, freezing rain has been falling all day.

Although I opened all the pasture gates so the horses could choose to go take shelter down in the cedar thicket or come around to the barn and go inside the run-in bay, instead they are standing outside: cold, wet, and miserable.

Without their boss-mare Char here to lead them to shelter, the rest of the horses apparently can't get organized enough to figure out what to do. Maggie, the oldest, knows that something should be done, but waits for someone else to decide what that something is.

Callisto tries to lead the babies to the cedar thicket, but they all get distracted halfway there, and stand around dripping in the pasture instead.

Finally, about 2 minutes before we went out to give them an early feeding, Maggie figured out that she could lead Callista around to the paddock where the run-in bay is. Unfortunately, from that paddock, she could SEE that we were putting hay in the hay feeder, but she didn't remember how to go back around the other way to actually GET to the feeder.

The babies all came galloping when I whistled, but Maggie and Callista had to be led around the back way until they remembered how to go around to where the feeder was.

Once the hay feeder is empty, we'll see if any of them remember how to come back around to shelter again!

Straw + Camel's Back = ???

Don't get me wrong: I'm really glad I traded the mares Char and Scylla for the new group of sheep. I think it was a true example of the best of bartering: two people offering the best of what they had in exchange for something they wanted or needed more.

And I know that Char and Scylla are going to have a great life in their new home. David has already sent me several batches of pictures, showing them happily exploring and eating hay in their new pasture. They are going to be well loved and taken care of, so I have no regrets about letting them go there.

But even though it was a good choice that needed to be made, all the same, parting with Char took something out of me. It left a hole. It changed the way I feel about our horse operation.

Even though I've cut down our herd from 15 horses to 9 in the past month---no mean feat in the current horse market---we're still floundering in our financial crisis. No matter what I do, it's never enough to keep up with the hay bills and vet bills and so on. So Ken and I have been discussing our farm's future.

We're both so tired of the stress and worry. And after parting with Char, I just don't have the heart to continue struggling to keep the whole horse enterprise together, so we've decided to sell all the horses except for Senter and the two Art Deco fillies.

That means Torchsong, Callista, and Callisto will go on the sales list now, as well as Maggie, Andromeda, Penny, and Libby. They are wonderful horses, and I love them all, but I just don't have the heart for it anymore. I never wanted the horse operation to overwhelm the rest of the farm. I wanted to have a more balanced mix of livestock. And I definitely want a more sustainable lifestyle.

I'm tired of being on the brink of crisis all the time. I'm tired of watching my husband killing himself worrying over money. I'm tired of watching every penny I make siphoned away to pay for hay and still not be enough.

If the horses are not giving us any joy, then what's the point of all the struggle? Time to get the farm back on track. Maybe once we've thinned the herd down to just the two Art Deco fillies (and Senter, when he comes back from training), we'll be able to recapture some of the enthusiasm, on a smaller scale.

Meanwhile, I have seven more horses to sell. I wish it were over already, so we could just get on with our lives!

Five Things About Me

A few days ago, my friend Monica at Small Meadow Farm tagged me to respond to the "Five Things About Me" challenge, where I write 5 things about myself and then tag 5 other bloggers to do the same about themselves.

It took me a few days to get around to it, but I've tried to come up with some unusual and interesting bits of Nancy-trivia. Here goes:

1. My nose is a little bit crooked because my horse ran into me and broke it when I was a teenager. Lesson learned: Never let a horse get between you and something it's afraid of, because when he bolts, you'll be directly in his path and his head is a lot harder than yours!

2. I'm a direct descendant of both Mary Towne Estey who was one of the women executed during the Salem Witch Trials, and of Henry Herrick, Jr. who served as a juror at the trials.

3. I used to be an art model. Among other things, in my 20s, I modeled for Ed Materson's life-size sculpture, Legend of the Silkie. On a slightly related topic: Several years ago, I was the first person ever body-painted by the extremely talented artist (and my good friend) Scott Fray, who now holds the Guiness record for the most bodies painted.

4. I once did a Native American vision quest: 4 days and 5 nights of silence and fasting (only water to drink... no food) alone on a mountainside in the Sierra Nevadas. It was very peaceful and very profound. Deer, eagles, and even a bear visited me during my quest.

5. Famous horror writer Stephen King used to spend a lot of time in and around my home town of Waterford, ME. My brother went to college with him. One of my first jobs as a teenager was working at a stable where his daughter's horses were boarded. And although King always distorts the real-world geography in his books, to fit his fictional towns in where no real towns are, I may actually know where the "real" Castle Rock is.

In his book, "Bag of Bones," King writes that you follow Route 2 from Newport to Bethel and Route 5 from Bethel to Waterford. "Then you take Route 68, the old County Road, across Castle View..."

Now, there's no Route 68 in Waterford, but the "old County Road" is a dirt road---overgrown until it was little more than a trail---that ran through the woods directly behind my house. I used to play there all the time. Up the small mountain a ways, just a short walk up from the old County Road, there is a small set of stone cliffs in the middle of the woods where no one ever goes. I used to climb up there to daydream, and pretend that it was my castle.

Perhaps Stephen King also discovered the cliff, found it conducive to sitting and thinking up story ideas, and decided to name his town after the place. Or perhaps it's just an interesting coincidence. Either way, I find it fun to imagine that I grew up playing on the REAL Castle Rock!


But enough about me. Now I have to tag 5 other bloggers to tell us 5 things about themselves:

My dear friend Vanessa, in hopes that it will inspire her to write more in her blog. She's a wonderful writer, and I want to read more of what she has to say!

My friend River, whom I've known for several years but whom I'm now getting to know on an entirely new level by reading his blog.

My friend Nataraj, dancer, photographer, and all-around awesome guy. His blog is primarily photography oriented, so maybe he'll choose 5 PHOTOS that reveal 5 aspects of himself!

Fellow Virginia farmers, Carol and Andrew at Loafkeeper Farm

Another fellow Icelandic sheep breeder, Elaine at Frelsi Farm.

Hmm... What do you think? Shall I notify them that they've been tagged, or just wait and see if they discover it for themselves? :-)

Fire and Wind

The wind roared through here all day yesterday. It shook the house, shredded a couple of the sheep shelters, blew everything that wasn't nailed down across the yard. It was like being at the bottom of a floodwater river---only with air instead of water: just that constant feeling of fierce current pulling at you.

Due to the low humidity, warm temperatures, and ferocious winds, the weather report had warned of a high risk of fires. As it turned out, they were right! There were several fires in the area, including one large one on the hillside that I can see from my office window.

Smoke poured out of it in huge billows all afternoon and evening, but it seems to have quieted down by this morning. I don't envy the firefighters who had to do battle with it in those fierce winds!

The gossip down at the local corner store is that it may have happened from the wind blowing down some power lines and starting the fire that way, but we don't know for sure.

Meet the New Sheep

To distract myself from being sad about Char and Scylla being gone, I asked Ken to help me do a photo session with the new sheep today. He held a bucket of grain to get their attention while I took the pictures.

So, without further ado: Meet our brand new flock of POLLED Icelandics---now we have both horned and polled varieties!

Bylgja, Nina, and Halsa: "Do we hear a grain bucket rattling?"


"We do hear a grain bucket rattling!"


"Yum!"
Bylgja and Halsa:


Twin sisters, Inga and Ida:



Halsa and Petra:


Our new polled ram, Preston. He was the National Champion Icelandic Ram at Rhinebeck, NY in 2005, which is particularly meaningful because that's the year the experts came over from Iceland to do the judging:


Preston is enormous! You can see in this photo how big he is compared to Inga, who is a good-sized two-year-old ewe:


Here he is again in the background, with Mona in front:


Here's Ida again:
Petra:
Our other new polled ram, Freyr:


Nina trying to make friends with our cat Lugh (who is playing hard to get):


Petra and Ida whispering secrets, with Preston in the background:


Aren't they beautiful?

Going, Going, Gone

I woke up before dawn this morning, knowing that Char and Scylla would be leaving first thing. I was a little worried, because the trailer, which was spacious enough for the 9 sheep, was very small to fit two pregnant draft mares.

When the time came, Char loaded up just fine, but then I turned around and saw that she filled up so much of the trailer, I couldn't imagine how we were going to fit Scylla in there too. After a bit of coaxing, I got Char to move over to one side, instead of standing right in the middle of everything, and that made just enough room for Scylla.

For several minutes, Scylla wasn't sure she wanted to get into a crowded space with her more dominant sister, but with a little coaxing, she climbed in. Once they were both in and tied, and the trailer door closed, they realized they were going somewhere and started shifting around nervously. But after a few soothing words, they settled down.

In the mare pasture, Maggie kept whinnying loudly. She's the boss mare now, because she's much older than all the youngsters, and she doesn't quite know what to make of her promotion.

As Char and Scylla drove away, I managed not to cry---but only just. It's going to be a long, tiring, cramped ride for them all the way to northern Wisconsin. And I won't be able to help worrying about them until I hear that they have arrived safely.

New Sheep Are Here!

The trading-horses-for-sheep deal is halfway done.

The new sheep have arrived, but Char and Scylla haven't left yet. They'll be leaving very early tomorrow morning, and will have a 2+ day trip to Wisconsin. Poor girls, they're going to be tired and cramped by the time they get there. That's a long time to stand in a trailer.

The new sheep were very happy to get out of the trailer and explore their new paddock. They'll be staying in a quarantine paddock for a few weeks, then they'll be able to mingle with the others. In another couple of months, they'll be having lambs with the rest of the flock.

The newcomers are VERY nice. Beautiful, cute personalities, and excellent meat conformation on them too. I'm very pleased with them.

David took some time this afternoon to groom Char and Scylla and get acquainted with them. It was good to let them meet him while they are still in their familiar environment, so he can see their normal, mellow personalities. Once they get to their new home, they're probably going to be rather wound up for a while, until they adjust. But at least they will already have gotten to know David a little bit.

I think the mares are going to have a lot of fun at their new home, once they're used to it. They'll be able to go on long trail rides through the woods, and see fresh scenery instead of just standing around in our pastures all the time. They'll enjoy that, I think.