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| new dairy cats in training |
See the sales page for our latest natural colored Friesian roving!
The past 5 months have been our crazy season! I added a part-time job and things got crazier!! That is my excuse for the HUGE lapse in posts!
We did LOTS of sheepy things this summer including, milking and cheesing; showing fleeces at the state fair, and helping our neighbor boy with his market lamb project.
Our neighbor, Shaun won honors for the top carcass lamb at the Choteau county fair, and was THE ONLY lamb to meet ASI Lamb Certification standards at the abbatoir.
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| July gelato with sheep milk and grandpa |
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| August Tipi adventure with granddaughter |
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| Tucker the Ram |
Our fleeces did well at the Great Falls Fair- blues and reds. And all sold.
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| Autumn horses |
Thankfully between everything I did get a little more time riding our geldings this fall....
We had a spectacular fall with above average temps and plenty of sun. The tree colors glowed for weeks!
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Sister Jane, Poor Clares of Montana,
receives a donated wheel |
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| new wool comforter |
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Rob and Lucy
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| Black Sheep Creamery ewe lambs |
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| Black Sheep Creamery Raw fleece at DSANA tour |
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| the blue bootie crowd tours the creamery |
The great weather kept us busy outdoors taking on "one more little project before the snow flies..." We managed to rebuild-improve 2 fence lines; and I got a great new wool comforter put together with our ram's fleece carded into batts by Sugarloaf. We are REALLY enjoying our new wool comforter now that the snow IS flying!
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| Inside Black Sheep Creamery |
A major highlight to cap a busy season came for me last week. We travelled to Western Washington to see freinds and family...and attend the 20th annual DSANA Symposium. The Dairy Sheep Assoc. of North America has been the small but guiding organization for sheep dairying on our continent since I started milking sheep. Many of the farms we helped start as "sheep producer and cheerleader", are now active leaders in this organization and they hosted the annual symposium in Chehalis at Black Sheep Creamery this fall. I sold the first dairy sheep to DSANA secretary Terry, who organized this large event. And good friends Meg and Brad at Black Sheep spent many hours tasting and talking sheep cheese in our kitchen.
SO.....this was a culmination of all the years and fairs and emails and displays and classes I have promoted for the past 20 years. It was exciting for me to meet and hear the latest research from Spooner Sheep Station in Wisconsin, and see movies of European sheep dairies of over 10,000 animals! Star author and cheesemaker, Gianclis Cauldwell taught classes and lectures. The all-local banquet was superb, and we enjoyed catching up with Meg and Brad, tasting new cheeses over jelly jars of wine.
At the Black Sheep Creamery farm tour our entertwined story was told by Brad as he showed off their farm to folks from 4 countries and all over the US. As some of the first Dairy shepherds to inventively market their wool, Meg has launched a Friesian Yarn and Wool business along side the artisan cheeses. Her yarns are lovely and have catapulted Dairy Wool into national spotlights.
SO-- I was very proud to have been a small part of their team!
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| Black Sheep Creamery ram pasture |
DSANA was a great cap for our current milking season. With my new school job, and family-home repsonsibilities, we have made the decision to step away from lambing for a while. We will still have dairy sheep and their wool.....but after Dinah dries up this fall, we won't likely be milking for a while.
However, we met new Montana sheep dairy folks and learned of exciting things happening in Montana sheep dairying! Soon, I hope to have a source for sheep milk to continue feeding my sheep milk habit! For now, our freezers are full to overflowing with sheep milk and Dinah still gives enough for my tea. So I can go on being the sheep dairy cheerleader I've been for years to come!
*ps-- see the sales page for more from Dinah!
