_Good morning from Maybelle farm!   This will be my final blog for 2011 and just around the corner is 2012!  I can't believe that it is the end of another year and the start of 2012.  We had a very nice Christmas this year with my family.  I had to work on Christmas Day from  9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. with my little Mr. G.   When his family arrived and I could come home.  My son David, his wife Rachel and their children Austin and Ella arrived about 4:30 p.m. and then my daughter Darcy and her children Rowan and Declan arrived about 6 p.m.  We opened our stockings and presents and then had a crazy Christmas dinner with a combo snacks-supper!  Wow, I am certainly was ready to crawl into bed that night, as I had stayed up late baking beans, half a ham and making rolls, etc... 

The Monday after Christmas was a great day to clean up and just relax and rest.  My grandson Austin arrived and helped me clean the upstairs in the barn, getting ready for a load of hay.  Austin then helped me load and bring a load of wood down to our woodbox on the front porch.  By that time we were ready for hot chocolate and snacks.  Austin stayed until 2 p.m. and then I went down to visit with my sister. Monday afternoon Mr. Steiner arrived with his hay wagon loaded with 92 bales of hay.  Jonathan pulled the hay wagon out to the barn, I unloaded half the hay wagon of hay alone and then told Darcy she would have to finish it!  That just about finished me.  I did chores, came home, ate supper and curled up in my chair with a good book. 

On Tuesday Dec. 27th Jonathan went with me to Greenwich, N.Y. to the Battenkill Fiber Mill to pick up some of our wool that they had processed for us.  The "Marcus/Tinka"  (coopworth/finn/dorset) roving that is beyond beautiful.  I also picked up a bag of "Thistle" that I had made into incredibly beautiful yarn.  I am so happy with their work and can't wait to spin some of Marcus.

I did chores early last night as it had started to rain a little while I was in the barn.  About 8-9 p.m. it really began to rain very hard and the wind certainly was howling!  There was a lot of rain then the temperature dropped, so I imagine it was pretty icy early this morning.  I fixed a birthday box for Donna Carlucci and also packaged up a box of roving for an Etsy order and just went to the post office to mail them out.  It is cold and lots of snow flurries this morning.  The temperature tonight, with the wind,  is supposed to be about -5 below zero.......YIKES!   I'm going to close the big back door on the barn and that will help keep out alot of the cold.  My sheep are getting too old to be in that kind of weather.  If I could, I would put a furnace in the barn for them!

Well, I'm putting a very cute picture of my grandchildren on Christmas Day on this blog. I will now say Happy New Year to everyone from Maybelle MaMa.  I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year.

_Ho,Ho,Ho from Maybelle Farm!   It's Saturday evening Dec. 17th and it has been such a wonderful day.  I went to Santa's Land with my daughter Darcy and her children Rowan and Declan.  We met my son David and his wife Rachel and their children Austin and Ella and just had so much fun.  We have been going to Santa's Land since the early 1970's.   Last week an article in the Reformer announced that Santa's Land would be closing for good on Sunday Dec. 18th, 2011.  We decided we just had to go and enjoy the place one more time.   It just made my whole holiday season in one day.  I'm going to attach some pictures and you can see how much fun the children were having on the little rides.  What a great day weather wise too! 

There still is no snow, it was chilly but not too bad.  We left Santa's Land and I stayed at McDonald's so Darcy could finish up a little last minute shopping and then we came home.  At 4 p.m. I went up to do chores and Darcy helped me move Lyra, Star and Colby to the barn.  That meant taking them away from Thistle - where they have been for the past month.  He is just frantic that his women have left him!  Oh well, at least they were with him for just about one month. This means that lambs should be born hopefully about May 1st.  That is such an exciting time but also stressful too!

My grand daughter Rowan is having a sleepover tonight and then tomorrow I work in West Brattleboro all day.  Monday Jonathan has to go to Dartmouth/Hitchcock for a consult with a surgeon as to what has to be done for his Diverticulitis.  Oh my.... it's such fun growing older and having the old bady parts go to  #@!* !!  Well, I guess that is all for now and things are very peaceful here at the farm.  Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa

_Hello from Maybelle Farm on Tuesday Dec. 13th, 2011.  It is a beautiful sunny day but very nippy!  I write this blog with a very sad heart.  I read on the VT Sheep Breeder Site that Dan Korngiebel, owner of the Yarn Farm in Cuttingsville, VT, passed away last week.  The day I read that sad news, I went up to the farm and walked around looking at 25 green metal gates, many hog panels, 6 rolls of portable fencing rolled up in the barn, and thought about how many times Jonathan and I went to Dan's house to pick up these things.  I loved calling to order sheep wormer and having a nice chat on the phone.  He was such a nice man with so much knowledge about sheep and farming.  He had such a great sense of humor and quick wit.  He certainly willed be missed by the whole sheep community that knew him.  I am so grateful to have met and known Dan.

Things are O.K. at the farm right now and trying to get everything ready for serious snow to arrive!  Heater buckets are now plugged in and everyone seems to be doing alright.  I went with Darcy, Declan and Rowan to Flood Brook Union School for their Christmas concert on Thursday Dec. 8th.  I went to Windham Hill Inn this past Saturday to their German Christmas Event.  There were about 12 vendors with absolutely beautiful items to sell, but not a lot of business.  There is just so much that goes on this time of year.  Attached are some pictures of my booth.  A BIG "Thank You" to Olivia for going with me and helping all day.  Olivia helped me with chores when we got back and I came home, ate supper, put on flannel pajamas and went to bed!  I think that is all for now.  So-long from Maybelle MaMa.

_Hello from Maybelle Farm.   I wanted to add this blog to show the wonderful pictures of Maggie, Cedar and Flopsy going for a walk with Bill, Olivia and Emma.  I bought a blue harness for Maggie, a pink harness for Cedar and a lovely blue flowered harness for Flopsy.  My grandson Austin went with me on Saturday morning to Over Every Hill Farm with the harnesses and you can see from the pictures that both the sheep and the Hoos family enjoyed walking around the their farm!  It was just too funny to watch!   Flopsy was more than happy to go with Bill, Cedar was glad to follow along with Bill and Flopsy, but of course little Maggie had her own way of doing things.  She jumped and ran around and it took her a little while to adjust to being on a leash.  We all had a great time as you can tell from the pictures.  I trimmed their hooves and then Olivia came back to the farm with Austin and I to do some farm chores.  We cleaned out in the barn, cleaned up the water tank, packed up for the Saturday German Christmas Event at the Windham Hill Inn.  Donald Hall did some work to the fence and put in another gate for me.  It was a very busy day but so much was done.  Jonathan and David went to Meridan,CT  to put Christmas wreathes at the cemetery and they did a little shopping.  Darcy's family was away for the weekend so I took care of the sheep and chickens.

December 5 was my 64th birthday.  I spent the day with my sister Bev, brother-in-law Francis and niece Carleen.  We went to Saratoga Springs to the mall for some Christmas shopping, late lunch at Ruby Tuesday's and then to do a little gambling at the Saratoga Casino.  I didn't win much but had lots of fun and got home about 10:30 p.m.  I took care of Declan on Tuesday.   We went to Bev's to visit then we both had a nap!  Chores are done, supper is over and now I have to finish some needle felting for my Saturday event. 

Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa.

_Hello from Maybelle Farm.  A few changes have taken place at the farm in the past week.  On Friday Nov. 25th, Bill, Olivia and Emma arrived to help me load up Flopsy, Maggie and Cedar to go to their new home at Over Every Hill Farm in Podunk.  I will put some pictures on for you to see how happy everyone is.  My grandson Austin arrived Friday morning and helped me move sheep around and do chores.  He helped me get the dog crates all ready to load the sheep. The two little girls went in one dog crate together.   Bill thought they felt like little puff balls of wool.....they are such tiny little girls!    Flospy went right into her crate because there was food in there.  We put the two crates in the back of Bill's truck and off they went.  Austin and I followed them and helped to get the girls all settled in. 

Saturday Nov. 26th Darcy, Rowan, Declan, Olivia and I loaded Cornelius into a crate.  We then had to move Custer (our little white ram lamb) to another pasture with Cecil and Chet (our two little wethers).  We moved them to  the manger area down next to the barn in the big shed.  I know Custer is thrilled not to be butted constantly by Cornelius.  Olivia, Rowan and I took Cornelius to River Bend Farm for Sara to use for breeding. He was thrilled to have a new home with two lovely Shetland ewes and a wether.  I hope this all works out well for everyone and there are some beautiful lambs born in April. 

When I got back Darcy, Rowan and I moved Star and Lyra to the pasture with Thistle, Colby and Stuart. We decided to breed both of them this year as well.   Thistle was very excited to see Lyra.  Star blatted and cried constantly saying "I know what he wants, and I want out of here"!  Everyone is settled down and things are O.K. for now.  On Sunday David ,Jonathan and Ella went to Mr. Steiner's and brought back 20 bales of very nice hay.  I just need to Darcy and Todd track down at least another 100 bales soon.

Well Declan is here today and we are headed to the post office to mail a package from a order that I got yesterday through etsy.com.  Next we will go visit my sister Bev and then this afternoon its nap time.  The weather is a gray foggy, gloomy day and its great for napping.  That is all for now from Maybelle MaMa.

P.S.
I will be a vendor on December 10th, 2011 at the Windham Hill Inn for a wonderful Christmas event.  I have added a picture of a few things I will be taking to the event.  Please check on the Windham Hill Inn site for this wonderful event.