Our 5th generation of "Babydolls", born

 ...and here she is!!! We were so surprised to see this little one, I was secretly wishing for a white healthy little ewe and that's what Daisy had!!! She is beautiful, adorable and quite personable already!

She comes to us as the 5th generation of our line of Olde English "Babydoll" Southdown sheep! Welcome little one!

March's Farm Friend of the Month

Our farm friend of the month is our wonder dog, "Autumn". She does her very best to be the greatest guard dog ever! She learned from Jesse, who learned from Amy, who learned from Charlie, who learned from Sunny who learned from Jack! All our past farm dogs. She does her very best to keep them proud. She works tirelessly treeing raccoons and making sure that our neighbors are always okay too! She is not the easiest dog we have ever had, she is stubborn and not a good listener but takes her job very seriously!

Making Eco-Friendly Dryer Balls

 In preparation for upcoming Earth Day Festivals as well as our Farm Stand opening for the season, I really want to start offering more eco-friendly things. So I began to do some research on just that! Dryer Balls cut down the drying time of your dryer, absorbs the moisture as well as making you clothes softer. I start with lots of wool to make just one...

 then wrap and wrap and wrap layers of wool as tight as you can, bringing around and around to make it tight.

 Then take a felting needle and felt and felt them as tight as you can.

 With a nice basket of tight and felted balls...

 you can put them in a stocking but I am not a stocking kind of girl and didn't really have any on hand. I did however have a few old socks. Through trial and error, I did use a black sock and it left a lot of black lint on the balls. Also, turning the inside out netted better result.

The whole process is repeated again and even again if the ball is not big enough. This picture shows some finished on the left with some dyed wool as well as some plain. They will be available soon on our Etsy, Earth Day at Ansonia Nature Center April 26th and our Farm Stand which should open when the weather gets a little nicer!

Grooming the buns!

 After work today, I set out to shave down our new English Angora, "Fluffernutter". He was in deep need of a good grooming. So I grabbed my new grooming apron because the fiber sticks to you like glue! I then placed him on the old cat perch I had in the window of my room which made a great grooming table and got to work! I grabbed some grooming scissors, my Oster clippers with a 40 blade, two brushes and a towel. It took only about a half an hour. The finished product was not half bad! We got a full bag of soft beautiful fiber from him and he was such a good boy too!

Maple Syruping season is under way!

Tim as been busy at the evaporator burning down his sap. Today he was attempting to finish off a batch but the winds were so high that I bent and let him finish it down in the kitchen. If any of you have ever had someone boiling sap down in the house, well lets put it this way, you will need a new paint job and wallpaper in the upstairs bedrooms!

and it's another black ewe...

and her she is! She's a big girl too! We have one more ewe to go, hoping for a safe and healthy lamb...

This morning's miracle...

This morning I just got that gut feeling. Turned on the camera, nothing in view, no sounds but I just knew. Went down right away and here she was, a new little ewe lamb! I think we need to change the name of this farm to "Black Lamb Farm"! Glad she's healthy and well! Welcome little one!

The newest member of Coon Hollow Farm!

...and here he is, "Fulffernutter" as his mom called him. He is 9 months old and is a Vienna marked Opal. Sadly she had developed allergies to him and his hay, so she had to make the painful decision to find him a new home. It has always been my intention to get another English Angora who would be a companion to "Tawny" our doe. In the process of deciding if I could take him, I had to do a lot of soul searching and decide if I wanted to begin breeding these rabbits, and my decision is no. So tomorrow an appointment will be made to have him neutered. There are enough breeders of these rabbits and not enough homes for the others out there. These two will net me more than enough fiber to spin. I will enjoy their snuggles and hugs which is all you can ask for!

Boys will be Boys!!!

Here he is a week later! He has ripped his coat, and romps and romps all day. We are waiting for more lambs to come, he really needs a friend! Meanwhile we will watch him romp and play!