​Hard to believe I did not write one Blog in 2016.  Must have been busy.  
​2017 has been pretty wild so far, with more snow and cold weather than we have seen in years. So suddenly I have more inside time than usual.  I am amazed at how beautiful and how tough a winter can be and have to be extra careful to make sure my animals have plenty to eat and warm water to drink.  They have to stay out in weather that is sometimes 20 below zero. Their resilience amazes me.  While they each have a well bedded barn there is no extra heat.  The sheep seem to fair better than the goats with their fleeces growing long and fluffy.  The goats make sure they get the choicest bedding spots, and I imagine they also appreciate bedding down with a bunch of woolly sheep. 

This is a picture of our 20 year old barn cat who has moved inside for the winter, on a rare moment outside of the house.  Casey has never been inside before, but suddenly decided she was a house cat when the temperatures dropped to 15 below zero.  The kittens are fine and still finding mice to eat. The kitties sleep in a big box full of old fleece, and seem to be quite fine, although a tad jealous they can't come in as well.  We have had to start cutting steps into the snow to move from clear areas to areas that are just compressed down from use.  This path leads to the ram pasture. 

​Once all the outdoor chores are done we all come in to warm up in front of the fire.  This old farm house has some cold spots, but the room with the wood stove is pretty popular these days.  

I am also concerned about the honey bees.  Hopefully they made enough honey to make it through this long cold winter.  If it warms to 50 degrees or so I may put some food in the hive for them.  I do not want to crack the hive open now, and let out the warmth they have to work so hard to produce, and break the propolis seals they have built to keep out the winter winds. As you can see there is still a bit of snow on both our roofs!

After a fairly nice day today, with highs around 25 F I see a storm brooding to the south, promising more snow.  But everyone looks well fed tonight and they will move into their shelters after dinner.  Heres hoping you are safe and warm and fed this winter too!

I have to admit I love sneaky cats, and Autumn equally.  I just feel like I missed the summer of 2015.  I was thrown from my horse the first week of May, and have spent much of the summer recuperating.  I know I am lucky to be feeling as good as I am now, as the xray did not look promising.  However I am unable to lift more than 20 pounds, which is not nearly enough for a farmer!  I also never got a chance to train lambs to halter and show at Black Sheep Gathering or Flock and Fiber Festival.  But the good news is, I had help, the lambs grew up, we have hay, wood, wool and fresh lamb.  And the end to a very hot and dry summer is in sight. You can see it creeping down the mountains onto the dry pastures.

Our 19 year old Barn Cat Casey snuggles up next to the Hay Stack. The stack needs to grow a little larger to get all of Ruby Peak's critters through the winter ahead. But Casey and the other wilder barn cats will use the stack to snuggle in, and to find lots of fresh mouse meals.  All the animals are growing their winter coats. Even the little lambs are now fluffy woollies. Here is Ruby Peak Petunia's babies, Pepper and Peony.  They are barely recognizable unless you look at their spots!

So as I continue to heal my back I look forward to seeing friends and fiber producers at Flock an Fiber in a few weeks, as well as to picking breeding groups for next years lambing, selling off the extra lambs ( always the hardest part) and a winter by the window on my wheel.  I hope you all have dreams of warm, white and wonderful winters to come.

March opened with a Virgo Pisces Moon, the Worm moon, rising over Ruby Peak Farms.  After an unseasonably dry and warm winter we are headed into spring. At 6 in the morning I have 45 degree temperatures, something that usually happens in July!  All the animals are happy and well fed, and have enjoyed the easy winter, with cold temperatures and snow basically left back in 2014. 

Spring brings baby animals, and one of my favorite times is when the new laying hen chicks arrive. My friend Penny ordered Black Copper Maran and Welsummer pullets from Backyard Flocks, and these are the little cuties in their first week. Now they are nearly a month old and growing feathers,...by August they will be adding their beautiful dark terra cotta eggs to my egg market. 

Part of the magic of the season is shearing the sheep. They go from magnificent wooly creatures to slick lovely deerlike creatures in a period of several hard working hours. My friend Nancy came down the road to help with the shearing, and Greg as always did a great job. It was definitely springlike, and I love lambing clean ewes. The wool is also better when you shear before you lamb, no weak spots from the lambing month!   I had several yearling ewes that I was very excited to get my hands on their fleeces!  This is Ruby Peak Ammi out of Ruby Peak Aspen and Shadow Moutain Flash. 

There is quite a bit of preparation to get ready for the shearing.   The shearer needs a level clean place to work, and the fleeces need to be bagged and tagged with which ewe or ram they came off of.  The fleeces need to be kept clean from dirt and straw, and then placed on a skirting table and skirted. Skirting is removing the breech wool and any wool that is too contaminated with VM or manure to provide good clean wool.  Luckily my sheep are pasture raised, and the wool is generally pretty clean, I skirt probably 25 % of the fleece to get it ready for sale or to send off to be made into roving or yarn. I love the many different colors I get from my flock.  Only the best will make it to my wheel.  Unfortunately the farm and my job makes it difficult for me to find time to spin more than one or two fleeces per year, and this year we sheared 36 ewes and a ram!

Here is lovely Ammi after her designer cut.  She is still beautiful, but only half the size. This year my ram got out with the yearling ewes for a week while I was out of town.  I don't usually breed the yearling ewes, but it looks like some of them may have been bred. Luckily not all of them!  But everything is more apparent now that they do not have their woolly coats. I can see how large they are and when they bag up.  And of course everything is quick and clean with lambing, and there is no lamb mistaking wool tags for a teat. 

The ewes all gather in the sunshine to discuss their new hairdos.   In the foreground is lovely Shadow Mountain Wind Dancer, who is expecting her first lambs this year. I am very excited for lambing to start, and with everyone vaccinated and sheared,  the barn bedded with clean wheat straw, lambing jugs constructed, we are ready to March into Spring. Lambing begins March 26, or whenever the girls decide to get started!

Fall Breeding season has ended and the ewes are back together without those pesky rams around. I love watching the reunions of mother with their daughters after a couple of months apart.  They are very glad to be together again, and spend alot of time together. Although the nursing relationship is over, a lifelong relationship has begun.  I have many lines of ewes who stick with their immediate family most of the time.  Today I enjoyed seeing the ewe lambs as young ewes, and noticing the similarities and differences of the mothers and daughters.

This is Ruby Peak Electra with her lovely daughter Cassiopeia..  Cassie got her leg markings and lovely 4 horns from her dad Shadow Mountain Flash, but her regal bearing from her mother. I think her fleece is an improvement on her mothers. Electra is a great grand daughter of my first ewe Red Wing Morning Star.

Ruby Peak Aspen already had many attributes I was looking for, a lovely fleece, and beautiful wide sweep to her horns.  Aspen was a little short on color, but her spots and markings were clear and correct.  Her daughter Ammi, has quite a bit of color, including leg Markings from her dad Flash, and an equally lovely fleece.  I love the spot on her nose, and she loves to be back with her mom, can you tell?

This lovely ewe lamb is the last lamb her mom will have. Ruby Peak Iris is 13 years old, and had a tough delivery last year.  I have never been able to quite repeat on lovely lilac colored Iris, but her daughter  Ruby Peak Indigo by Mud Ranch Vincent has a lovely horn set and soft delightful fleece.  Her mom has raised at least 22 lambs on the farm, and doesn't seem quite as thrilled to have her daughter back, but they are spending lots of time together. 

Bide a wee Gwenda is a striking 4 horn from Huntsberger lines. Her daughters have always had very white faces and interesting horn sets.  I think her 4 horned ewe lamb from Mud Ranch Vincent is exceptionally pretty, don't you?  This line of ewes always has a stoic look about them, but I see the beginning of a grin in the nose markings on Ruby Peak Ginger!

This lovely ewe lamb out of Meridian Lassen by Shadow Mountain Flash was one of an exceptional set of triplets. I held on to her as I think she is absolutely beautiful. Ruby Peak Redbud broke one of her laterals but all 4 horns are very strong and well spaced.  She has an amazing fleece, and wonderful markings. I love ewes that are a little on the dark side, and she is quite Flashy.  Her mom is still in the breeding pen with Mud Ranch Vincent and I am anxious to see if they can do as well as this pairing.  

Ruby Peak Verbena is out of Ruby Peak Violet by Windy Acres Oberon.  Her laterals were weak last year, but this year they surprised me with extra horns. I will need to clip these, but Verbena is definitely a 5 horned ewe. She was bred this fall as a long yearling to Shadow Mountain Flash.  As always, I am excited to see what the pairings produee, and it is hard to wait until the end of March.  But hopefully our already cold and snowy winter will be almost over by then!

The much awaited summer kids are here. Our Alpine goat Rita presented us with two lovely Alpine Kids. Our wonderful house sitter Tracy was here when they were born, and I think she enjoyed the miracle as much as I do every time. Very happy with our new buck as I have been wishing for goats with wattles on their necks.  The handsome buck kid on the left and beautiful doe kid on the right may be available to good homes. Their mom is an amazing milk goat., and the sire comes from a long line of exceptional Alpine Dairy goats  We have alot of entertainment watching these two springing around the pasture

The garden has empty places in it already where early crops like peas and radishes, spinach and lettuce have grown. I will fill in the spots with fall lettuce, spinach, kale and greens. Hard to believe how fast the summer goes. We have amazing abundance this summer, and I am very grateful

The Cherry tree is almost overwhelming this summer.  We are still picking cherries. Even though I keep thinking I should pick them all and dry them each day I wait they get sweeter. They are so sweet and juicy now I don't think they can get any better, but I am glad I waited.  I am thinking I will dry them and savor the sweetness in December. Abby has taken it upon herself to keep the birds from the tree, and she is doing a great job.

The Lavender is ready to harvest. I always hate to cut it as the honey bees are busy enjoying it's abundance.  I love the fragrance and the warmth of the sun in July just makes it all that much better.  I am planting a new lavender garden this year, in the shape of a Labyrinth and although it has taken much more time and thought then I planned for, I am excited to see it in it's full glory it the years to come.  I built the labyrinth for contemplation, I have lost so many people and animals I love this year, that building it has been a therapeutic process.  I think it's beauty and design will provide the place to learn acceptance. 

Enough computer time, I have goats to play with, cherries to dry, lavender to plant and harvest, bees to count!

Summer officially arrived last week, but in the mountains there are still some ups and downs.  In my area the weather usually "settles" sometimes after 4th of July.  We have some 85 degree days matched with 35 degree nights, and this week we have been having steady rain, and 60 degree days,much to the dismay of those with hay already on the ground. Our hay crop does not look to be great this year, due to the fluctuation of growing temperatures, but my hope is to get it  cut and baled and in the barn before it gets rained on! As you can see in the photo, The grass has matured, but is not as tall an thick as I would like. 

Some year I will get one more good fence, to keep the sheep grazing where I want them until after I cut the hay, but until then, my pastures do double duty.  The sheep won't eat the long grass, but leave short grazed areas in my hay field.   They are all fat and happy and healthy though, so I have nothing to complain about.  June is always a month of growth. And sometimes it is hard to notice the changes because we are so anxious for things to grow and flower. You can see my neighbors hay bales in the background, drying out after the 3 days of rain.

The cabbages are growing fast, and greens and onions and peas, but the warm weather crops are just biding their time. 

Lambing season is the most anticipated time of year for the shepherd.  It is especially exciting for the Jacob Sheep shepherd as each lamb is so unique.  The anticipation of what each ewe/ram combination will throw is very intriguing.  This is Ruby Peak Cosmos with her ram lambs out of Shadow Mountain Flash. Flash is just barely a year old so he is an untested ram, but these 4 horned ram lambs look pretty promising.  You never know what you will get when you mix the genes, Two, four, or six horns? Nice black spots, more of a black tapestry? Badger face or Panda Face? Blue eyes? Black or lilac wool?  Fleece is very important here at Ruby Peak Farms so that adds a whole other dimension. There are so many combinations of genes at play here, the excitement to meet each lamb just builds and builds.  

Farms are very busy places in the spring, and everyone is anxious to jump up and prepare for our short summer, hoping it is  productive and warm. The animals have been grazing on the hay pasture all winter, and their manure is the major source of fertilization for my hay. None of them are too happy to see the tractor dragging the chain harrow show up in the pasture, it is loud and and the harrow make rattling noises.

It is a beautiful spring day, but in the mountains that doesn't necessarily equate with warmth. About 45 degrees with a stiff breeze, I need a coat and gloves and still get a bit chilled when driving into the wind.  As you can see the horses leave piles of manure that must be broken up to decompose faster, and harrowing also helps decrease the parasite load for the horses by drying out the manure faster.  As I drive around and around I have plenty of time to contemplate the meaning of life.  One of my favorite parts of this job is my ipod which keeps me rocking and rolling the whole time. Just as I get cold, "Island Woman" by Pablo Cruise worms me up. As I drive over the graves of favorite horses "Wild Horses" by the Stones help me remember them in their glory. There is something comforting in covering the same ground so many times each year, each familiar bump and ditch. In 3 and 1/2 months I will be cutting, raking, and baling hay, which will require three more rounds over the same ground. But it is a connection I crave, to be close to my land. 

As the temperature starts to drop into the thirty's I finish up. There is a great sense of satisfaction in seeing the fields ready to grow, de-thatched and fertilized and waiting for spring rains., but apparently Mick still can't get no satisfaction.  The animals have retreated to their corrals and barns, where they won't have to keep moving away from the large noisy red tractor. But all I hear are the refrains of the songs from my past, and all I see is the hay field of my future.