Long Ridge Farm: Summer reflections

Today is the day before the annual workshops begin here at Long Ridge Farm taught by Michele Wipplinger, founder/owner of Earthues in Seattle. I am almost ready, save for a little more fussing here and there. Michele arrives mid-day and so I have a few peaceful hours before the real work begins. As I looked out across my desk and on into the back gardens, the hens cruised by looking for some early morning goodies in the grass. It is a gray and misty day with a bit of a fall feel and we finally are having rain after nearly 8 weeks of next to none. My mind drifted as I thought '8weeks ago' and mentally counted back, recollecting the spring and summer, and my jaw dropped thinking of all that has happened these past 4 months.

Mid-April we were lambing, I was vending at CT Sheep and Wool, April 24th and then onto NH Sheep and Wool, 5/8-9 and then May 10th promptly left for the trip to France with Michele and friends from Earthues for 2 weeks, arrived home for a week, taught two natural dyeing workshops, repacked and left for Seattle, June 20th for another week, then home again (super kudos to Jack and Katie for holding down the farm!!) to settle down (?) for the summer with a planned foot surgery scheduled for July 2nd. But that had to be postponed for a week due to a rotten cold I picked up on the plane from Seattle. Surgery 7/9 and after a week of behaving I started moving about more and more. I have healed well, it is still a long road and will be months til my dear foot is back to "normal".

Life moves at variable speeds although at this point in mine I find it is zoomier than ever! I would be remiss if I didn't apologise right now for not keeping in touch better these past weeks and months with you, my blogger buds. I suspect it is the state of hobbling that has thrown me off completely. But hopefully as things are now back to my normal zoomy, I will be able to catch up with blogs and all the other regular rituals I have missed.

The lambs and moms have now moved to pasture and joined the regular flock. Here they are coming up the road, with Kalie's help (mmmaybe!) to join the others.

It was a bit chaotic for the first day; lambs couldn't find their moms amidst the "who are you fest" and moms were trying to teach their young to stay clear here and there. Lots of baaaing and jockeying.

But now they are all settled in, grazing, sleeping peacefully by night and the daily chores are immensely easier. You can see Della to the left with three lambs in this picture. Della is all the lambs favorite. She is calm, protective and never minds an occasional jump on the back.