It’s hard to believe another summer is behind us. We’ve had a frost, and already the blazing heat is a dim memory. Thankfully, the night noises have returned, and so I refuse to close the windows.
Endless pasture rotations have been tricky. We have been in a D2 drought determination for more than 5 weeks, since the 21st of August. Strange to think of Maine as dry, but the soil and the vegetative litter have been crunchy underfoot, and there was no dew in the mornings, till recently. Fortunately, I have learned to NOT turn the ladies out with their lambs till June, and then there was LOTS of rain, so almost immediate regrowth. A good amount of trampled grass helps retain water, keeps soil cooler for the microbes to work their magic, prevents soil erosion when we get torrential flash downpours, and ultimately composts into more topsoil.
Such is the pre-harvest backstory of growing GREAT wool, and just one of the subtleties of regenerative practices, that make renewable and biodegradable WOOL a double whammy feel good. Healthy soil and increased microbial life supercharges carbon drawdown and stores it safely under permanent cover, while HALF the weight of wool is also sequestered carbon. Can we heal the planet? I like to think so.
After the barn is cleaned out when critters go back on grass, it gets stored in a covered “shit house,” where it settles and heats up, and the rain won’t leach the nitrogen. The pile is then turned for aeration, and more heating up, before it is ready to “dress” the fields, especially where grazing may have been harder or dry spots, or hummocks would appreciate a little more humus.
Though I have usually run the lambs with their mothers all summer, and let them wean when nature is ready, there just wasn’t enough grass this summer. The early rain with crazy hot temperatures was causing extreme parasite loads which the youngstock are not yet equipped to handle. Next strategy was to find them the best second crop dry hay I could find, NOT EASY! If I can’t grow good grass, then the haymakers cannot grow good feed. Such is the pickle we are in with a D2 drought. Fortunately I found retired dairymen who were willing to sell me some of last year’s leftover, so we are limping through with lambs in confinement, not growing as well as they would on good grass, but better than the alternative.
Sunrise on Common Ground Fair weekend (Sept 19) shows some of the rotations and how dry it is. This is the week fog came in, and dew returned to the morning. Normally this time of year I am BUSTING with thick and lush forages, with a variety of grasses and legumes, flowers and deeply rooted stalks of curly dock and others, breaking up any soil compaction, and bringing trace minerals from deep underground to the root mat where the grasses and microbes and fungus can feed on sunlight. Plenty of grazing into December… but not this year.
The ladies returned to the top of the hill. Even here you can see the grasses get yellow and thin where the animals do not bed down on the hillside. A few spots of GREAT grass, wish there were more.
So why all the busy work, you say? BECAUSE! First of all, what else would I do that would give me so much gratitude and confirm my belief in peaceful anarchy. Secondly, THIS!
It gives me SO much happiness to watch people resonate to color and softness, imagining their next fiber project, anticipating their next perfect sweater or hat, looking forward to a restful night under their Maine Blanket, or just simply getting the chance to hug some yarn.
SO HERE IT IS! October 5 from 10-3 SEACOLORS SUNDAY will return as a chance to GET YOUR WOOL IN and even DESIGN YOUR OWN SWEATER from one of our patterns. Linda the amazing knitter will be on hand to fit you and get any specific requests while I help choose your colors from the giant summer stash. LOTS of DISCOUNTED BLANKETS on hand too. There is a statewide Fiber Tour and Trail going on, so don’t hesitate to make your visit to Seacolors Yarnery at Meadowcroft Farm only ONE of your stops on a full itinerary.
Or… I am still at Farmers Market (9-noon) in Boothbay through Oct. 9 and Bath through the 25th. Unless there is a deluge, which would be nice.
Yes. I am still praying for rain, and being able to find my winter feed, with fewer than half of what I need put up and stacked as baleage, which is higher in protein, but spoils fast as soon as you open the wrap. It now waits for cooler temperatures as it ensiles into the great fermented grass I have come to rely on to get the sheep thru winter, well nourished. For reference: Each of these bales costs $75, lasts less than a day, and the sheep need at least 200 of them to get thru till the grass grows again. Only 85 here, fingers crossed for the baleage fairy.
If you don’t want to buy any damn wool, because your stash runneth over, and your blanket chest is busting at the seams, I haved developed a link for anyone who simply wants to help sequester more carbon, build healthy soil, enhance biodiversity of grassland birds, and make sheep happy. “Donate to the Sheep Cause” also helps pay for the imported semen, laparoscopic breeding of Polwarth sheep (only ones on the North and South American Continents), keep three tractors up and running, provide good infrastructure, running water and housing for 200 sheep (more after lambing), and all the labor involved with pasture rotation, fecal sampling, sheep husbandry (why isn’t it wifery?!), digging out noxious plants like burdock and thistle which would get stuck in the wool… you get the picture. It’s a good thing I love my job!
So I hope to see you at market, or on the 5th here at the farm where YOU can see a smidge of the regenerative practices, and meet Linda the knitter. BRING FRIENDS! I am still dyeing yarn, so if there is a color you crave, please do not hesitate to ask. I will do my best to pop into your brain, see what you imagine, and reproduce it in a small batch, just for you. But I prolly already have it… SO COME AND GET IT.
November 1-2 takes me to the Fiber Festival of New England. Always great to see faces! And share the passion.
HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!
~Nanne
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