Has everybody missed me? Wow, what a past couple of weeks! We've finally gotten some of the garden in, most of the sheep have been shorn, llama shorn, most of the fiber is packed and ready to go to the processor, filling orders at a much slower pace than I am taking them, goat's milk soap and lotion has definitely become something that everyone wants NOW, life is good. I am tired. Always remember, you can order our soaps and lotions through our website.

By the way, we now have a Store on Local Harvest and the Spring 2009 Fiber CSA is available through it. In the listing it shows that when you order you will get 5 skeins of yarn. That's not necessarily so, it's just listed like that to give LH a quantity to work with. Before making the decision to purchase, be sure to check out our website www.breezehillfarm.com for more details and be sure to email me at breezehillfarm@verizon.net with questions or concerns. As with so many other things in life..knowledge is power! Being fully educated in this process is very important. Knowing what to expect makes all of us happier. The sheep wool and alpaca fiber blended yarn is just wonderful. I worked up some samples for potential shareholders and I think that has made the decision to participate for quite a few folks. 

Within the next week or so, I will be sharing some new and exciting ideas and plans for Breeze Hill Farm's future. Keep checking back to see what's happening.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Magi’s Wood Farm. They raise Icelandic sheep and we are adding this breed to our farm. As you will see in the photo’s below, the sheep are a really cool looking breed and I enjoyed the time spent with them, but Magi is an incredible Felt Fiber Artist. I wish I had photographed some of her work to include in this post but didn’t even think about it until I had left..that’s OK, I’ll be back there next week giving a spinning lesson so I’ll be sure to get some great photos of her work. What she has done with this fiber art medium is too beautiful to put into words. I am so impressed and so fortunate to call this amazingly talented lady my new friend.

In the top photo below you’ll see Holly, she is one that we will soon have at our farm. I’m trying to make up my mind which ones will be the other’s. These girls all have such cool personalities, it’s hard to choose. Being a dyer, I’m always looking at white sheep but I’ve learned through the years that over dying colored sheep fiber gives some excellent results too.  I just can’t wait to have all of our new babies here at the farm. Once everyone has moved in an are settled, we are having a Field Party, to introduce everyone to the neighborhood..any excuse to have a party!

With all of these new additions, Breeze Hill Farm’s Fiber CSA will be absolutely awesome in the Fall.

Things are progressing nicely with the Fiber CSA. Several shares have sold but there are many more still left. This is an exciting concept for the knitter, crocheter, felter, spinner and it is an excellent opportunity to add some really cool fiber to your stash.

This coming weekend we will be at the St. Stephen's Farmer's Market again in Richmond, VA and are looking forward to seeing the new friends we've made and hope to see more new customers. I just can't say enough good about this market and hope that their success will keep them going strong.

After the market we will finally plant our garden. It's been really slow going this year because of all of the rain and the fact that we kept having frost. Can't wait to see the first sprouts! Also, on Sunday we will have our sheep shearing day. Since we do this ourselves, it will be more like sheep shearing "days" but Sunday will be the start. The fleeces are absolutely beautiful this year. Looking forward to getting them skirted and shipped off for processing. I've done a little sample blending of the wool/alpaca blend that is being offered in the CSA, on the roving carder, it is spectacular! Not only is it beautiful to look at but it takes dye like I had not expected. The alpaca fiber that I have this year has a high luster so it takes the dye much like mohair. The handle of this blend is so wonderfully soft too and it spins like a dream. I will have the samples that I've worked on at the Farmer's Market Saturday for potential share holders to see.

Don't forget, until the Store Listing on Local Harvest is available, you can always go to www.breezehillfarm.com to read more about the CSA and to order.

Would you look at what we found at the barn this morning. Twin doelings and oh my are they just too cute? We were hoping that these two would be black. Their Mother "Blackie" (our stray goat - another story for another day) is obviously black and our Angora buck is white but his father was black. It looks like one wants to have blue tiping but the other one, as you can see is white. So exciting, more milk for soap and future fiber for next years Fiber CSA. I have to share just one photo of the babies. I just can't believe how perfect they are and I cannot say enough good about their Mom. She isn't in the photo because she was taking down a bale of hay all by herself. Busy night she had.

Can you believe how big they are? We know at midnight last night she had not given birth and she was showing no signs of labor.

Again, we need to give them names. Any suggestions? We ended up naming our first kid "Regan", so maybe we're doing presidents this time. Who knows!

There was alot of chatter out at the barn last night when Breeze our picture perfect Border Collie rousted up a skunk. She is such a cool dog. When she goes out for her barn work, she has to stop off and kiss the other dogs, kiss the cats, kiss the pig, she’s just a sweet kisser. Well, she seems to think that skunks are cats, so she tries to kiss them too. Aparently her doggie genius only goes as far as what to do with the sheep, she just never learns. You could smell what Breeze had done all over the place. She got a bath in what we have found to be the best skunk odor remover, disposable douche (found this in a natural pet care book), and the otherwise nightly sofa hound spent the night in an outside run. This morning she smelled fresh and clean and dishing out kisses again!

She really is a pretty girl.

What an absolutely wonderful Farmer's Market St. Stephen's turned out to be. I found out from being there yesterday that many of the people who visited are keeping up with Local Harvest, so I thought it would be nice to use this Blog venue to say a few things. To begin with the Market itself was the nicest Market we have ever attended. The organizers had really done their homework and worked hard to make sure there would be a steady flow of people coming in and out. These organizers were kind, helpful, gracious and eager to make this work. The people who attended the Market were some of the most pleasant, generous and complimentary people. Being thanked for participating in a Market is usual and customary from the Market coordinators but yesterday the attendees were thank us for being there. How cool is that?

We are scheduled to be there again May 16th and we can't wait. It's so funny, last night my husband and I looked at eachother and we were still smiling!

Keep up the good work guys!

This Farmer's Market is in Richmond, VA at the interesction of Grove Avenue and Three Chopt Road from 8:00 til Noon. We can't wait it is a new market and it is an all producers market. They have really done a good job of getting the word out so it should be a great market. So far, we gotten a lot of calls asking if we are going to have our goat's milk soap and goat's milk lotion available..of course we are and we'll be selling "shares" in the Spring fiber CSA too. It may not be the best day for that since Maryland Sheep & Wool is this weekend too, but not everyone will be heading in that direction tomorrow.

It's going to be so much fun to introduce our new products too! This will only be the third time we've put our Collina Breeza in front of people, so I can't wait to see the reaction to a lotion and cream that is "paraben free" and is made from 92% organic materials. So many of our customers are cancer survivors and they appreciate how gentle our soaps are on their skin and now they will have a lotion and cream that they don't have to worry about it harming them. If any of you are ever interested in what we carry you can check us out at www.breezehillfarm.com .

To everyone heading out to the market's tomorrow have a great successful day!

This Blog post may look familiar to all of you. Because of some changes in content had to take the original post down, so I am announcing the CSA again!

The Breeze Hill Farm Spring Fiber CSA is up,running and available.

The Local Harvest Store Listing is soon to follow.

We offer you the opportunity to enjoy the fruits (of a different kind) of our 2009 fiber harvest. We hope that this first offering will be a great success and look forward to everyone who will choose to sign up. What a wonderful thing to be able to purchase fiber from someone you know (kinda). A farm that believes in leaving the “bad stuff” out and only offers pure quality.

Check out our other blogspot at: www.breezehillfarm.wordpress.com

You can pick up our “Tweets” at www.twitter.com Look for screen name: Shepherdmal

The day we've waited for since last November is finally here. I love the surge of energy that comes with getting everything ready for the first Farmer's Market of the season. Doing last minute details to the products I'll be carrying. Setting up the canopy to let it air out from the few months it spent in the basement and realizing that I am missing two large tubs of yarn! Kind of hard to sell it and the Fiber CSA if I don't have it. So, I took a break from frantic searching to bore all of you.

The goat's milk soaps and lotions are always a work in progress so finding them..not a problem. Oh, by the way, we have still not had another baby here since the first one that I announced earlier in the month. So, of course, we will have to have a farm sitter while we are gone tomorrow. We got new table covers (aka Walmart bed sheets!) this season and I noticed this morning that something had spilled on the packaging and bled through to to sheet, so now I get to add laundry to the list of the "To Do's".

Each year, the inventory grows, the tubs and boxes get heavier, I seem to get heavier, and those first time organization skills are out the window. You know what? We wouldn't have it any other way!

Good luck to everyone who is getting started tomorrow. My hope is that it is a healthy and proffitable season for all of us. It's our time to get the word out to "buy and support local" and to educate.

Thought I was seeing things this morning. There was the bright light coming in the bedroom window..it was the sun! When I went to the barn for feeding and baby check, I think I could actually hear the grass growing. It'll be nice to open up the house and let all that wonderful fresh air in.

There are no new babies this morning but from the looks of it, it should be "raining babies" the rest of the week and weekend.

We have a new Blogspot, in additon to this one. Feel free to take a look and leave us comments. The address is  www.breezehillfarm.wordpress.com. Maybe now that this is done, the new website will follow. Right now it all looks like "Frankensite", which doesn't equate to many sales.

Well good rainy morning! Went to the barn around 5:00 a.m. and look what we found. This little "buck" is our first birth of 2009. We really thought our girls were just going to keep the babies this year. Apparently, our careful planned breeding didn't work our exactly as we had planned. Usually by now we are done with kidding for the year. This little guy will be a keeper. In an effort to grow the herd, we will make him a wither and enjoy years of wonderful fiber from him. His photo is not that great but when they are newborns you tend to get a lot of butt shots!

We haven't named him yet. Maybe some of you would like to do the honors. We did names with an Italian theme last year and have done the Irish and Scottish names for our sheep. Let's see what you come up with!

Saturday is our first event of the market season and I am sure, at this point, I'll be working the market event by myself. Someone will have to stay at the farm for continued birthing assistance if needed.

I promise I won't bore everyone with every birth but the first is just special.

Wanted to share a photo of Antonio. He is dad to the kids that are about to be born this spring. As of yesterday, he has become "Daddy In Waiting". The girls most likely to birth the soonest are on the other side of the barn wall from him.

He is such a good guy. Each year at kidding time he takes up his post beside the barn and spends most of his time there until he hears that familiar “na” of a newborn. Then he gets up, goes in the barn and checks on mother and child (children). Then he's back to his post. This time he has a friend..that's "Boggie" our 18 or 19 year old ewe.

 The next time you see Antonio he will have on less clothes..it's shearing time for him..today!

(sorry the photo is so big..I'm still learning)

Spring has definitely sprung here at the farm. Still no babies yet but our Mama's are about to burst. We spent the day shearing the goats yesterday. All of our Alpine x Angora's produce beautiful fiber that is blended with our sheep wool to make a glorious yarn for our knitting and crochet customers. When this blended fiber is dyed it is simply beautiful. Thursday will be Alpaca shearing day which will bring us about 150 fleeces and Saturday we'll shear the sheep. So much fiber! I love it. Within the next several weeks we will announce the details on our Fiber CSA. So far, just sharing this idea with our customers, we've sold several shares. Having been in the fiber business for since 1994, we've developed a good size customer base that is familiar with the quality fibers we offer. We love this time of year even though our aging backs don't!

Thanks to the fact that goat's milk can be frozen I've been hard at work making soap. With Farmer's Market season upon us, it's time to grow inventory. The selection of new Farmer's Markets in this area has grown unbelievably for 2009, so this year we are employing family and friends to help us out. This way we can be at more than just one or two markets. It is a good positive feeling to see so much interest in providing local grown to those who are seeking it. It is also good to see so many people adding vegetable plants to their landscaping..this is how it should be. We should know where our foods and yes, even our fiber and soaps come from. One of the sell points we use with our goat's milk products, that seems to really make a difference is, "we are trying to take care and put only the best there is in our body's but let's not neglect the largest organ we have..our skin". It's a great feeling to see that lightbulb go on when they get it.

Our new website is almost ready to launch. For those who have painfully looked at our existing site, I am so sorry you had to go through that. This has been an exciting task..though at times it has gotten tense. Having your husband as your web designer can prove to be, let's say annoying. After 30 years of marriage, I simply cannot understand why he can't read my mind! He's a great guy and he's doing a beautiful job on the new site. Can't wait!

Well that's it for our news from the farm. Until next time, take care.

This is my first Blog ever, so please excuse me if I get chatty. I promise I will get better.

Welcome to Breeze Hill Farm! We woke up to a beautiful 1" snowfall this morning. Still being a true kid at heart, I ran outside, took pictures, made a couple of snowballs to throw for the border collies and came back in to the woodstove. It always amazes me how just a light snow can make this farm look so beautiful. Aparently my craziness rubs off on the animals because everyone was frisky this morning. Our llama, Kosmo, was running all over the pasture, kicking up his toes, clucking and prancing. The sheep could have cared less about their breakfast, they just wanted to hoof around in the snow and lick the camera lense and the goats were all over the place. Many of our girls are pregnant now and tend to laze around but not today, they were full throttle. We love to watch the adults, both goats and sheep gamble. I think it suprises them as much as it does us. Our "Grand Dam", Barbie was spending more time on all 2's, dancing like a true clogger..she is 12, as best as we can judge..but never let her know she is getting old, she won't hear of it.

Once I finish getting my toe wet on the blog scene, I'll be off to making soap. Uusually, January is my dead season for sales but not this year, I have carry overs to start February off. It's been unusually busy. Also, joining a local co-op has made an amazing impact on orders. If anyone reads this blog, check out www.farm2Udirect.com. This is the site for the co-op and if you happen to be local to Goochland/Richmond, VA, it's well worth participating as a consumer and producer.

I've gotten a lot of emails over the last few days from people requesting information on raising livestock on small acreage. Mostly goats. I think that all of the hype about the bad economy is causing people to think more about what they can do to help themselves. I always welcome these requests because I think we should all, as farmers, do what we can to educate and assist anyone who is seeking a better more natual way of life.

Well, I guess that's about it for today. Before I get started, I think I will have to go outside again before the sun melts the snow away! Have a wonderful day and keep on the lookout for more entires in the future.