In one year....

Let me re-introduce myself to myself & my friends reading here!
I am a happy shepherdess farmer gal, who comes from the cheltenham/jenkintown area, has been living it up in berks county for 4 years now.
Since March of '08 I have been a proud employee of Wanamaker's General Store in Kempton, PA (www.wanamakersgeneralstore.com). Please check out our super awesome website (created by a local business) which explains the history of the store. I get to talk with all of the locals, all of the visitors from new jersey & new york, the folks who come to bird, and the folks who come to fish in the nearly drained Leaser Lake. We make wonderful deli sandwiches, sell: local produce & local handmade items for function or decoration, toys that rock, bait, hunting & fishing licenses, penny candy, bulk foods, organic dairy & chickens, and most things that you need like shoelaces or lightbulbs. I have worked at the store since the new owners reopened it & I get to work among other fabulous people! Pure JOY!

I moved around a little bit last year - all among good folks & in supportive environments. I moved my sheep as well, but more about that soon! I now live near the base of Hawk Mountain, with my sweetheart, Victor. Some of you may be familiar with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary or the Appalachian Trail. Victor & I live in a sweet home that he constructed on an old foundation that was once a grain shed, upon his fathers land. We garden like maniacs, preparing for winter in june. We have 4 chickens in a movable chicken tractor/coop. They are quite funny & interesting birds to hang with and it is so nice to have just 4 in terms of bonding & getting to know one another. Currently we have my two rams at home, being rotated around to spots that need mowing, with electric netting. We have some crazy crazy stories about the couple of times they escaped when the electric was off! There are lots of flowers and berries to pick, which makes me a very happy camper! And endless amounts of space in which to create new gardens to grow a full variety of annuals, perennials, and succession crops.

After some wild times with rotating 14 of my sheep in electric netting, I began leasing a farm on the other side of Kempton last July. I lease 12 acres, with a big beautiful red barn, electric, a water pump, and everything my flock needs. The land is quite diverse and seems very nice for sheep as they get to graze on pasture, drink from fresh springs, and wander into the woods for shade and to munch on dried up leaves, poison ivy and such.

Lambing season 2009 lasted for 2 solid months! It just ended the other day so I can now announce to you all the wonderful results - but that will wait for another posting. Please stay tuned.

In the winter, I holed up in the house around the woodstove playing board games, drinking tea, spinning yarn on my Louet wheel. I went on walks in the snow, checked on my sheep as needed, watched some movies, listened to books on tape, ran through the snowy yard in just my robe to get to the outhouse (how refreshing!). It was a lovely winter & I was slow to release it and enter spring. Then again the weather has been reluctant to offer us spring and summer too!

I attended two births as a Doula, at Reading Hospital. One was at the end of February, the other 3 weeks later. They were both incredible experiences that I felt so blessed to be a part of and so happy to be able to offer something that I believe is so important. Birth is incredible! I encourage you all to delve deeper into the world of birth on whatever level is right for you. Maybe it is just to watch a few eye opening films : The Business of Being Born & Orgasmic Birth!

In April & May we picked wild morel mushrooms, cooked them up with eggs and fresh spring nettles, sipped Victor's homemade ginger soda, started seeds, and readied our garden for planting. I had a superb birthday party at home: full of cake, friends, food, yard games, and live music. It was a lovely way to fully enter spring; to say, Hello to spring & welcome it enthuiastically!

Today is the first of July and I am still spinning yarn as much as possible, tending the garden, tending to my sheep, working two jobs, making jam, giving reiki to myself & others, and going to bed early.

This is my best attempt to update you all on highlights from May '08 to June '09. I hope it was fun, colorful, and a joy for you to read.
Please stay tuned for more news on lambing season and other things that pop up in the life of this wanna-be-homesteader.

Let us eat cake!

Greetings, it has been one year and a little longer since I posted a tale on "the lala update".
Bloggy & I needed a break from each other to review why I was writing & what I was writing about. This past year I went through so many tremendous changes and shifts & growth spurts that I felt it was inappropriate to turn my blog into a reality television show like-thing. That is not why I write. (that is what facebook and myspace are for!)

I remained true to my life visions & goals and still worked my tail off on spreading the message of why eating locally & seasonally and supporting our local economies are the most important moves we can make in these times. I just chose to not write about it. I longed to write, but something felt amiss. The time was not right.

NOW IT IS! I am here to write, consistently. To share the joys & trevails of farming, living, and loving.

In my next post I will reintroduce myself and update you all more on what has been going on at Lillian's Farm and the farm where I live.

now go pick some berries while I type!
Lala

Waiting to exhale

Our last lambs are on their way RIGHT now. This is live reporting from the farm house. I was just down to check on Claire - the hugest sheep I have ever seen & the last to pop. Lucky thing I checked when I did because her first water bag was beginning to come out! How exciting. I shuffled her into the birthing suite after I spread out plenty of fresh straw & a bucket of cool water. If only it was that simple for women! (maybe it could be).

I am so thrilled but also a bit anxious. Lambing season is about to finish & the anxiety of lambs at ANY time of day will disappear with the sunrise tomorrow. However in this moment I was planning on going to bed so now I frantically type & am probably using too many exclamation points in my emails and texts of the evening.

The thing is that Claire was always our indicator of "twins or triplets" because of her ginormous size and because she ran away about 6 times per day for most of the winter, in search of greener pasture. She was very hard to please. Well, since the other 4 gals had twins then we have to wonder what Claire will do? This could be a late night for me. They usually lamb in 1-3 hours. I am not sure how that could change if there is a third baby..

The photo in this post is of Claire & some others, she is huge & lying down in the front.. taken last Thursday afternoon while Elsa was laboring.

Our first lambs!

In the morning of April 19th Minikin gave birth to twins, fathered by Mister Chocolate. Since they are both rams we're thinking of naming them Mister ______ after their father & since it begins with the letter M if follows their mama's nameline. Or whatever happens, we may think of a way better name than Mister anything at all.

They weighed 9 pounds & 9.5 pounds, are nursing fine & so so friendly with people. This is so amazing!

Memories, speaking of NAFTA

In November of 2003 I traveled for 24 hours on a bus full of other philadelphians to miami florida so that we could try to put an end to the Free Trade Area of the America's meetings & agenda-along with several tens of thousands of other citizens. I had a lot of amazing moments, scary ones, gut wrenching ones, and joyously informatively inspiring times!
My memory in this moment is about some of the brightly inspiring experiences I had. One day my new best pal, Jade & I walked pretty far around miami to get to a community garden for a work-day that also included workshops & meals & networking & fun in the sun!

We weeded. We dug. We got dirty. We drank a lot of water.

We learned about the history of this abundant community garden, next to a highway overpass, and we learned techniques of urban permaculture - things that we could bring home to our lives. We met really cool folks and ran into a few old ones.

When lunch hour rolled around two different food not bombs groups collaborated and fed us foods that all of them had grown in other states. They had driven across the whole darn country in veggie fueled buses to bring is their pride & love in the body of food! How sweet to stand in this garden after working in the hot sun and get to talk to someone about the roots of all of the yumminess in my enamelware camping bowl. They served fresh corn from wisconsin & even made healing tea with cornsilk & nettles & other helpful herbs. They made bread from grains and seeds that they grew AND they brought it to us!

What did we do to deserve food like this? We stood in solidarity with each other in resistance of greed and intolerance. We all thought that people and everything on the earth should come before profits.

and we still do.

and this is what led me to start volunteering with the philly food not bombs when I returned home.. and shortly thereafter my new best friend & I helped to start a second fnb in philly-which is still working to offer free healthy vegan foods to folks who don't have enough access to good foods. Because healthy food has become a privelge much like healthcare.

Because we will never be able to close our eyes again now that they are open wide - exposing the truths about food security & the effects of bad nutrition on society.

find what opens your eyes because we don't have time to waste before the earth wastes away.

Tea time

My evening tea blend tonite consists of: blackberry leaves, cornsilk, rose blossoms & petals, lemon verbana infused in a giant white mug with a bag of green tea. I added a little bit of local raw clover honey after it steeped.

Which reminds me of this great tea combo I enjoy that may sound unusual. Try it out & then say you don't like it. Find a nice big mug - make enough hot cocoa to fill it. You can make instant, vegan, syrup based - whatever kind of hot cocoa you can or want. While you are making the cocoa place your favorite green tea bag in the mug, pour hot cocoa over tea bag. Yes, it is awesome! I recommend decaf green tea, regular, jasmine!, and any flavor added green tea. For some reason I don't recommend trying this recipe with black tea; I cannot explain it, just believe me!

This is my weird slow foods tea of the evening.
happy hearts everywhere day,
lala

Hey! don't Forget..

..to check out our Internet Shop on Etsy.
Please tell your friends that are looking for handmade wares & wool to spin or felt their own projects.
And always check back because there are piles of wares that haven't gotten up, as well as NEW items being created, with love & understanding, all of the time!
Support the people not the boxstore CEOs!

click here:
www.lilliansfarm.etsy.com

or click on my cute widget at the bottom of the page while you count the days till Bush is in office (and who knows who replaces him??)!!

stay warm folx,
the crew at the farm

ba-bye birdie, part 3

sadly - this past week another one of our original birds died. Her name was Jwalker; she was named after her real parent, Jade Walker (my best pal) of Mill Creek Urban Farm (click on link at bottom of blog!). Jwalker was a RedStar sexlinked chicken from Charlestown CSA Farm in the Phoenixville area (support organics!)

A few weeks ago I noticed another chick missing. For several days I counted the birds when they walked out of the coop after laying eggs in the morn'. I kept getting 13 (that includes our two roosters). Then as soon as I could refill my 5 gallon water bucket & get down to the sheep I would find one of our younger RedStars, which led to some confusion as to wether this bird was living with the sheep over night. I think she was just racing me down there to munch up leftover grain & hay from the loving sheep.

Confused no more - we have ten hens and two roosters..way too many roosters however I am having difficulty taking away life these days (any helpers??!!). Having too many roosters actually affects egg production & hen happiness. In our case these two roosters get along amazingly well; they do not fight. In fact, one morning last week I looked out the window to see them both on my patio, together, alone with no other hens. Only at our place; our peaceable kingdom.

Newsflash! Sheep highly adept at memorizing faces!

Sometimes folks comment on how unsmart sheep are. Often folks compare them to goats, claiming that goats are somehow smarter. Not true! goats are different and have a much more outgoing attitude with humans (they also stink). Sheep are often shy or "skittish". They are just wary & protective. I am sort of a hybrid sheep/goat (geep) as I am friendly and outgoing but also reserved & I wait for my intuitions to spell safety.
My dairy farmer always says that sheep have a low will to live -unlike his 1400 pound cows! Not true! They have an amazing will to live as I have observed with Blink, our wethered north country cheviot, who has been stricken with dermotitis, external parasites & now some infection that is making him have flesh open/scab things all over him! He has an incredible will to survive & to beat this beast of an infection.

An interesting study was done earlier in this century (2000) showing that sheep are highly adept at memorizing faces. A sheep can memorize 50 faces for up to 2 years. One can imagine how this would help identify the flock, since to some eyes "all sheep look the same". Here is an article about this study:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1107_TVsheep.html

Also here is a link to read more on "sheep smarts".
http://www.sheep101.info/stupidsheep.html

And by the way not all sheep look the same at all. Same with cows and all animals I spose. After milking for a year and a half I can attest to that. I am one of those assholes who says, "look at the black cow" while gazing upon a field of 50 black & white cows. Most folks would think I was nuts but some folks would say, "oh yea, she's a beaute!"

We are so proud!

we are so proud to add this little clock at the bottom of this blogg page that counts the days until Bush is out of office! At Lillian's Farm we support life. We love life! Therefore we do not support folks (the Bush Administration) who enjoy killing, putting profit over life, health & happiness, AND those whom live in hypocrisy of all this (oppose women's right to make free & informed decisions about their bodies YET support genocide & encourage poverty on other people's bodies).
ugh, can we rush to election day already??

The one flaw with this clock is that we have NO idea who will be sworn in on january 20th 2009.. we just know that bush is out. out-flat on his GMO eating ass.

so think about adding this clock to your website or blog (they are working on making it myspace compatible-i love myspace).

First Asked Question FAQ

FAQ: Why Sheep? Asked by flederhaus this past month. Sorry for delay in answering.

My earliest memory of a life vision was when I was about 3ish so so. I was in sweden frolicking with cousins and sheep. I remember feeling I needed to be with sheep in my life; to life among sheep. There is a photo of me on my fridge at age five of me trying to chase sheepies to ride them like cozy short horses. I was wearing one of my outfits that my mamma made for me - a cute purple jumpsuit reminiscent of the middle ages (or I guess the 80's?).
Its a vague vision/memory. It did not include farm business plans or ideas for fiber arts projects. But I felt sheep. I have always been drawn to them, to wool, and to sheep iconography (and sheep jokes too).
I love sheep so that's why sheep, sister.
sweet dreams yall, in wooliness, L

Don't fence me in...

...breeding sheep is fun but has it's problems. Since we have a ram on site (versus artificial insemination) our girls initially were pepped up on hormones & were acting a little naughty. Like they were escaping through the barbed wire fence nearly every day for a few weeks. They were on some hunt for the most freshest & greenest grasses I spose, as their bodies encourage them to be at optimal health to bear twins. Unfortuanatly the fields had fresh sprouts of winter wheat that is valuable to the farmer who planted it. So we were determined to be good neighbors by keeping our sheep in their field.
we became adept at herding OR luring the girls and Mr. Chocolate down from the mountain. We learned a lot about our flock. Cool!

Things were not ideal & levels of sheep stress were high (for me or sheep??)

So I ordered some excellent electric netting for sheep from Premier Fencing of Iowa (they are like the rodale institute of fencing & farm equipment - they have large research facilities).

After not too much confusion we got it set up & the wires hottt! Within a few moments the flock learned the netting!

Buffalo, Blink & Wink did not have such a desire to escape so they are still grazing in the "free" part of the pasture. They have learned that the netting is hottt from the other-side. The icelandics are in the netted area that is super simple to move around. Rotating your animals is the way to go for parasite safety & so the grasses grow back healthy.

So all is well except that I need to save up for more sections of netting now that I know it works so well.

The Dub Shepherd & the Pirate Shepherdess shared a big high five, sat back to watch the kids learn the fence! What a day that was! What a sense of accomplishment to set up something with wires, alligator clips, a battery, an energizer, grounding rod and all..oh my!

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions! (and their answers)

Qs: Who is Lillian?
Did you change your name?
Do you work and live on some other Lillian person's farm?

A: Figuring the name for a farm or other business is often hard. Ya want something unique! Something catchy! Something to be remembered!
geez louize --that is a of pressure.
Like how I ALWAYS long to have the most clever, funny & timely costume for Halloween but CAN NEVER think of a good idea that lives up to my visions & expectations. For a farm one wants to consider naming their business with something that will cover all products & services, can travel with you if you move locations, and means something deep in your soul. (well maybe not everyone is thinking about it this much-but I am a heady-farmer who thinks & talks more than most of the locals).
During this long journey S & I talked and made lists & brainstormed. In my Halloweeny desire to have a catchy clever name I kept going back to the name that fits the last two requirements. It can move with me to any farm and it means something deep to my being. This is to name my farm after my grandmother, Lily, who died when I was a preschooler. Funny enough my paternal grandmother, Lillian, has the same name as S's paternal grandmother, Lillian. I find that to have its own depth & special place in my world as our two families are connected by us. Another muy appropriate element is that my Lily is Jewish and has passed on while S's Lil is Italian and still hanging with us. So if one were following the traditional naming ettiquette for each ethnic group than we are right-on target in naming our farm, Lillian's Farm!

great, huh! sometimes I am reminded to find confidence, pride & peace in the simpler things that are part of me.


so are there any more FAQs to answer??
sweet dreams, L

since before...

since my last post the birdies have been sold! 22 hens are living in 2 great & nearby locations. A man split the lot with his sister-in-law; they both live within 10 miles. We are happy to find less poop on our patio, eggs of an extremely high quality..and if the ground was not frozen we would be rebuilding our coop, yard & all which would eliminate all manure from dropping on our patio! But we are not rebuilding nothing. We are doing what we can to keep all warm, watered & fed during this icey spell! No time for extras & the soil is not allowing any additions or changes anyhow. We can barely even walk or crawl without yaktrax or crampons on our boots...

So we now have 12 lovely special hens (3 white brahmas, 1 white leghorn, 3 araucanas, 5 red stars) and two roosters. We will soon part ways with our older roostah, Hunnee. He was hatched out of our eggs last last spring but we cannot have two testosterone infused characters around so we will opt to keep our spring roostah who is an Araucana (they lay blue or green shelled eggs). We happily still have plenty of eggs. There were some excellent articles in Mother Earth News Magazine in he last few months about the actual benefits of eating eggs from healthy chickens (call it what you want: free range, range, organic, grass fed--these are all better than cage raised sad chicken eggs). Folks should read up and I am happy to mail photocopies of articles on good eggs, eating local and supporting local economies! Let me know if you are interested.
www.motherearthnews.com

I am finding this early wintery season to be absolutely breath taking. I cannot take enough photographs or capture enough memories of glistening ice on crop fields with little corn stalk tips sticking straight up, stiffly between spills of ice.

I hope all is well, sending my best wishes out to yall!

ba-bye birdie

we are downsizing.. selling off 22 lovely sweet hens who have done us well and also shat upon our patio and yard daily... we are thrilled to rebuild our fence/redo coop area to more efficiently accomodate a modest flock of about 12 hens & 1 rooster.

And for those of you who know our first four red star chickens that really belong to Mill Creek Urban Farm I will let you know that one of them died of old age last thursday. I believe it was "Olive" that died. We had a nice ceremony to say thanks & good bye over in the solfest fire pit in the field in front of the pond. In this fire ring I found the head & disinegrating beak of a barred rock chicken that had died earlier this summer. It was quite interesting to find a remanant of an animal I had placed in an open field several months back on such a wild property with such a circle of life/food chain presence. Typically one only finds the bones & hair & teeth of the dead (groundhogs, deer & other sacred creatures that we live with).

Funny enough I glanced to the field one day later and saw that Olive had gone elsewhere. go figure.
and go to the Mill Creek Urban Farm 1st ever Fundraiser sunday december 9 from 3-7pm. I have a link to their website below--there will be kegs & music & art & steaz!

Lambing season to start April 15th 2008!

Thanks to Mr.Chocolate! we have a due date already!
He is a beautiful brown ram with small horns and a good frame. Gorgeous brown fleece--yay!
He is the one in the center of the photo approaching my lead ewe, Minikin (the black sheep).

his name is Mr. Chocolate

this could be the best name for a stud I've ever heard!

I will be buying an Icelandic Ram this weekend. His name is Mr. Chocolate. I cannot wait and neither can my girls who have pent up hormone things going on.

It has been snowing in Kempton since before 7am yesterday...it is gorgeous but a surprise to me. I think the sheep must have exhaled when the flakes started falling down. But there really is nothing like a view of yellow maple leaves next to branches weighed down by white snow.

so please enjoy it as you think of how thankfull you are.. List the ways in a comment

reallee nice goodstuff wool for sale - FYI

hey all, I have been washing my wool and even handcarding some of it.

SPINNERS & FELTERS>> For sale I am offering RAW and WASHED, some carded, mostly uncarded WOOL from:Icelandics, Cheviots, & a BabyDoll Southdown. Raw or Washed - both are free of vegetative matter & manure.

My wool comes in several natural colors - no need to dye! (but you could)
Each sheep breed's wool has different purposes, ex:spinning or felting... Let me know if you have any questions! I also have closeup shots and stories to tell about each sheep; I keep each sheep's wool separate. Its a good deal I tell ya!>> wool & stories & pictures! my oh my!

COME CHECK OUT OUR LUSTRE & NATURAL COLORS!

hidden in a pile of soft spongy wool, Lala of Lillian's Farm

me-be mom to a ram?

whoa! yes, I am thinking of actually buying an Icelandic Ram!
well It is breeding time (November) and I am a little late planning. Not for lack of thought & notes & talking to my vet BUT for lack of stability in my physical world..healing from my rotator cuff strain, followed by getting my wisdom teeth ripped out of my thick head. So I realized on Monday- crap I gotto get on this! I have to pick up my list of tri-state area Icelandic Sheep breeders (very few!) So I called the top of the list for Pennsylvania. I spoke with a lovely woman who was also excited to meet another person in our state with these specific sheep. Though she did not have a ram I could rent she kept racking her brain cells to figure out some way she could lend me one..maybe the young guy she just bought from NJ? She was so kind & we were mutually thrilled to be on the phone! I gave a call to the woman who her young ram just came from. A very wise, long-time farmer woman who schooled me and figured that she could sell me a 3 year old ram for a very small price (compared to what this breed normally costs). When I started the phone call I was so set on renting a ram but by the end I was telling this engaging shepherdess that I was pretty dern sure I was going to find a way to come up with the cash! Bring him on over!

You see the day before said phone call I saw some signs in the pasture that my girls are coming around to the seasonal hormones..I have to get a dude in there asap--also to time the births for a good tme.

kay, so that's my big news that is still talk!
more later

buying gas to fuel the beast

The situation has progressed to the point where I do not flinch while paying for gas as long as it is below $3.00 a gallon. Yesterday I had major issues buying gas that was $3.09. Today price is up!
I cannot even remember what the price was when I got my license at age 20.; maybe it was 99 cents? And then it would have seemed outrageous to pay over a dollar!

My how time and perspective seem to be racing each other.

Enjoy today’s scorpio rains.. we gettn stuff dunn!

Peace n hugs