Desert Weyr Blog
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Cloak Problems – Need Suggestions
Today, I started laying out the cloak pattern for my 18th-century Black Welsh cloak. Because my fabric is so much narrower than normal, I cut a long piece of muslin to 24 inches to match it. Then, I pieced the cloak pattern together out of that. I cut the muslin and laid it out on… Continue reading
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First Hay in the Barn
Our first load of hay was delivered late in the day today. Unfortunately, the face was uneven, and the stack fell down. Ken re-stacked it so the next ones would be okay. Continue reading
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The Cloak: Pattern Testing
The whole reason I have Black Welsh Mountain Sheep is that I wanted to make a traditional medieval Black Welsh cloak. While most folks would go buy a cloak or, at best, buy fabric and make one, I did things a bit differently. I bought the sheep, bought a spinning wheel, learned to spin, and… Continue reading
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Independence Day Thoughts
As we celebrate our Independence Day (two days late from history, but this is traditional :-)), our town is having its annual Cherry Days event. This year, there are actually cherries! Some years, we have frozen; some years, they come later; and some years, like this one, they’re perfect. Sweet Black Bings (never shipped, and… Continue reading
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Farmers’ Market Day
We don’t have enough regular vendors to hold a regular market, but for the open business day, we held a small market in downtown Paonia. Here’s Monica from Small Potatoes Farm and our Desert Weyr farm booth. Here’s Flying Fork’s fresh-baked goods and Fire Mountain with some vegetables. There were some lovely tomatoes from another… Continue reading
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Stone Brew Visitors and Haying!
Greg Koch from Stone Brewing, plus Susan Duniphin and Keiffer Koch, arrived for a short visit today. We started with some picture-taking opportunities at the edge of the mesa. We had a lovely lunch at Flying Fork in Paonia, then got a great tour of both Revolution Brewing’s new facility and their tasting room. Of… Continue reading
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Sheep Butchering and a Garden Update
The second batch of rams went to slaughter today. We try to sell and use as much of the sheep as we can. One thing we save from the rams are the horns. They get made into shepherd’s crooks and knife handles. Here, Ken is using a sawzall to cut the horns off the skull.… Continue reading
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Lamb Scoreboard
Here you can see the 2009 lamb scoreboard, which shows all of the rams and the lambs they sired this year. Continue reading
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Lambing Is Officially Over for 2009
We have officially finished lambing for 2009. We’re now at 152 days from when we took the rams out. While we technically could have lambs up until 155 days, none of the remaining ewes look pregnant, nor do they have any udders. I’ve declared us finished. This year, we bred 56 ewes. 48 of them… Continue reading
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Solstice!
It’s time for the solstice. Summer has now officially begun. I still haven’t killed the garden, so I’m pretty thrilled about that. Here is the corn. It won’t be knee-high by the fourth of July, but at least it’s still growing. The peas are doing well. I see a few flowers starting to show now,… Continue reading