flock increase, 3+5=8

my flock has increased & now I have entered into the holy land of sheperding.

I feel like I jumped a few steps on my road to becoming a real sheperdess.. with 8 sheep.
With three I was floating in some nether world.. now it is real. I have enough sheep to be able to sell lambs & wool next spring..

Those who are interested in purchasing wool. I now have icelandic sheep--they must be shorn twice a year and their staple length will be about 8-10 inches each time. If you want to get some wool contact me at any time- I have 4 colors.
I currently have three fleeces yet to wash - two cheviots & oen baby doll southdown. If folks want some for spinning or felting, just get in touch.
Lambs will be ready in the spring and will NOT be sold for the purpose of m/eating. My icelandic lambs to be will be offered for use of their wool, breeding or milking.

curious about icelandics, look on http://www.icelandicsheep.com/
They are gorgeous sheepies, with horns & spotty colored fleeces.
And dont forget to love on my cheviots and babydoll southdown as they are special friends as well, and add a lot to the personality of Lillian's Farm!

uh-oh, did I start a blog & forget??!!

HA hAAA,
I am a blog-flake.. I think that is a new noun in our computer age...

Look, I did not forget about my dear bloggy, I just am busy outside & have little time or enthuism to be online these days.. In my head I write blog posts all day long...but get me off my feet and its bedtime...
Here is my third vow to use my bloggi-friend.. Hey friends, keep me accountable... make comments & let me know if you look here..

(ok, I must confess that I joined myspace & have been two-timing with bloggi.... but the function of myspace and blogs are quite different...so here I go to be a cyber-farmer/artist person... help support me!)

lots of love & bunches of kale,
lala

Product Lists

Sometime in the next week I will be sending our first newsletter ever along with the full list of what Lillian's Farm will be offering for the 2007 season.
Please contact me ASAP to tell me if you would like me to mail you one. Also let me know if I can send you a few extras to pass onto your friends.
Produce, eggs & herbs & maybe wool will be available for purchase or trade AT:
the farm, monday deliveries to Melrose Park, and Thursdays at the North Wales Whole Foods.
Stay tuned, but make sure to get outside too!

stay posted for our wish list--to be out by tonite maybe!!

Can I Get an "M" for manure??!!

So Sorry for not posting in nearly a month!
The weather has been crappy & I haven't felt that inspired or like I have that much to report about Lillian's Farm. I have been able to plant a few things here & there, clean animal areas. AND the big news is that we rebuilt our chicken yard!

The redesigned chicken yard is not 100% complete due to the fact that we ran out of materials... Our new chicken yard consists of three runs. Two will be rotated and used for our flock of layers. We will plant crops that will be yummy while the birds are in the other run, vice versa. Our third run is smaller & connects to the smaller chicken house. This is designed for two things: babies & eating birds. Since it is smaller we can put in creatures that will not be in there very long. And it won't be used year round so we can plant grasses there too. Right now we have 11 baby chickens and 4 ducks! (super soft & cute!) Some of these will stay in that run until we eat them and the others will join the crew of hardworking layers when they grow bigger.

This project was long anticipated & it feels so good to have met spring with our enthuisism to complete this as soon as we could bang posts into the ground. (well as soon as Chris & Sammy could bang posts into the ground).

I also have been working slow & hard (like a tortoise?) to clean out the sheep barn of their year of manure & straw bedding. The amazing thing about sheep poo balls is that they can be placed directly on your garden and are second highest in nitrogen to horses. Most manures - like cow & chicken one must dry or compost these first. In addition to having tons of chicken manure we are set to fertilize our garden. We even have enough to share!

Please contact me asap if you want any sheep or chicken manure for your garden projects. We are rich in the black gold and want to share it (plus we do not want to have a nitrogen imbalance so it would be nice to find land for some of this).

Last year I had another farmer graciously dump huge amounts of cow manure on our garden, which I am so gratefull for. However, does it not feel amazing to be sustainable in terms of manure as fertilizer! YES IT DOES! Can I get a M? Can I get an A? a N? a U? R!! E!!
MANURE!!
hurrah

Egg Cartons & Lending Hands

Slight update from yesterday's post. I will be working on garden & animal areas wed-thurs-fri afternoons & saturday all day. Not sunday, as I will be milking.
ALSO! we need egg cartons, now more than ever!
Preferably paper boxes, but we will take styro.
I will be posting a wish list asap, which will just be a secret catalyst to encourage yall to clear out some junk. Egg cartons is on the list but we need them often , like yesterday! please help, help

We get about at least a dozen eggs per day, feel free to buy some! do not worry--you won't be robbing us of our homegrown-protein.


If anyone wants to come & lend a hand maybe we could boil some eggs pretty colors or something? to celebrate the fertility of spring & the wholeness of the egg shape.
Good Pesach, Yom Tov yall!

lend a hand, if yr inspired

next weekend I will be getting a lot done in the garden, unless the weather is crappy.. then I'll stay inside prolly. This week was semi-productive in the garden, but have some hold ups so I had to work on other things like: drinking herbal teas that help with spring allergies and seasonal changes, walking with puppies, having breakfast with my girlfriends in my writing group, making cheese , bread, muffins, preparing food for the week.
At the influence of her new housemates, smokey n roti, Haley had her first dinner of raw chicken with buckwheat, carrots, and lots of other great ingredients. She ate that down, every little bit of it. Well, except all of the crumbs on the floor..

oh yes, next weekend I plan to be working on the garden& sheep barn & chicken coop & yard. I will be out on saturday day& sunday day. I invite anyone to help out on one of those days. I don't have much to trade with this at this early season, but we can be creative. Please call or email to say you can come & help. thanks so much!
If the weather is sunny, warm, with blue skies maybe the beautiful views, the brisk breeze and friendly animals will inspire you to pay a visit to the hawk mountain area.
peace, peas, n carrots,
my best spring wishes

eyes on lillian's

Keep your eyes on this blog.. the blog of all blogs!
Soon I will be posting a schedule of garden project days, in hopes that some of my city & suburban friends want to get their hands a little muddy by offering a few helping hands. (It'll be fun I promise).

I will also be posting a garden & farm wish list, which will consist of things yall may have in your garage/basement/shed/trash.

And as the season moves on I will post lists of what crops we will have for sale or barder/trade this season. An exciting variety of fresh Salad greens will be first up!

We always have eggs for sale at $3/dozen. I do deliveries to the Cheltenham area every monday morning. You CANNOT beat buying eggs from a small producer. We are able to feed our chicks well & give them love in so much excess since we are small producers that their egg yolks are nearly red! (that's from the love from my red heart, right? or was it those red bell peppers?)

This week I am starting seeds (later than norm because of highly valuable trip to sweden), working on the chicken yard, and finding a shearer who can handshear my sheepies, among other normal things that I do.

Oh! Also tomorrow we have a marvelous new roomate moving in with two sweet pups! (thats big I guess!)

peace,
keep your eyes on lillian's
(not in the surveillance way, ya know what I means)