Hello from Maybelle Farm,

We are getting hammered with snow right now and it is really getting to me to have so much snow!  The sheep were finally able to get out of the barn thanks to my brother Everett and my son David.  Everett arrived with his bucket loader last Sunday and made a road up to the barn so all the ewes could get out.  Darcy and Todd had gone to Massachusetts to pick up Luther and bring him home.  Everett couldn't go down on the back side of the barn because he was afraid of getting stuck.  That meant that Darcy and Todd took Luther down the stairs and put him in with Stuart and Spartacus.

Everything was going well until I noticed that Arly's right eye looked all milky.  We put eye ointment in it and it all seemed better!  WRONG!  Wednesday morning I called Stephen, our Vet and talked to him.  He said to put the eye ointment in and I made an appointment for him to come on Thursday.  Thank goodness I did, because I started looking at everyone and then noticed that Java had terrible crusting around her eyes as well as Stella, Matylda and Aphrodite.   Stephen arrived and gave Arly, Stella, Java, Matylda, and Aphrodite all 5 cc of LA 200 and said to keep watch.  If in three days, they are not better to give another shot of LA 200! What is up with my sheep this winter!!!!!  I am really questioning if I know enough to raise sheep anymore??????? 

Stephen watched my little Ripley clippity, clop around the barn.  Ripley still holds his head a little off to the side but he is so much better that Stephen said he can eventually go in with the old ewes.  I am very grateful that things are getting better, and could be so much worse.  I need to focus on the good stuff and let the problems go!  HAHA! That's easy to say but not for me to do.  Arly's eye looks so much better today and at 1 p.m. I have to trudge back out through the snow to put more eye ointment in her eye.  Its four times a day until her eye looks o.k.  I have to watch the whole flock to make sure it doesn't spread to everyone.  Stephen said that some sheep are just more prone to pick up things than others.

My Non-Profit Management class was canceled at Marlboro College in Brattleboro toda.  Boy, I was so relieved to get that e-mail last night.  They will re-schedule the class for March 25th.  Tomorrow is a Fiber Demo at the Wardsboro Town Hall to benefit the Wardsboro Public Library.  Margaret Silvia from Margie's Muse will be there demonstrating Weaving.  Jenna Konesko from Thumb Think Green will do drop spindle and I will do needle felting.  We will also have things to sell.  Its fun just to be with other fiber people.  I stopped at Handknits in Wilmington on Wed. afternoon with my friend Jenna and had my book signed by Jeannine Bakridges.  I love her new book  "Spinning Around".  She even mentions Maybelle Farm in her book because she processed some of my beautiful Shetland wool donated by Avocado. You definitely need to check out this book if you spin, knit, weave, crochet or just plain love fiber.

I will be teaching a needle felting class on Sunday March 6th at the Wardsboro Town Hall.  It is "Make a Gnome or Leprechaun"  and will be 1-4 p.m.  It costs $25.00/person and includes all the supplies needed to make a Gnome or Leprechaun.  Please call or e-mail to reserve a spot as the class size is limited.  We will be adding the classes and workshops to our site as soon as we can.  Another exciting happening is that Cheryl Flett of CherylAvenue and Maybelle Farm LLC will be sharing a booth at the Vermont Sheep Festival at the Tunbridge Fairground the first week-end in October.  I am so excited to be there as "Shetland Sheep" is the featured breed for the 2011 Festival.  This is also the 25th anniversary of the first Shetland sheep import into the U.S.   They were first brought into Vermont, from Canada, to Maple Ridge Sheep Farm in Randolph, VT.  Please keep watch at our website for more information.  

I'm also going to add pictures of the socks I made from a pattern on the cover of Spin-Off magazine.  There is also a  picture of a hat I knitted from my wool, donated by Spartacus and Blake.  This yarn was processed at Stone Hedge Fiber Mill.  There is a beautiful article in the new Wild Fiber magazine about their fiber mill.  I will be having more wool made into yarn at their mill shortly.  The colored balls of yarn is what I have over dyed on some of my sock yarn.  The cute little couple is my needle felted pair, Maude and Wilbur!

Got to close and do make some donuts for Rowan and Declan.

So-long from Maybelle MaMa

Hello again from Maybelle Farm,
It's Saturday night February 12, 2011 and I am very happy to report that my sweet little old Ripley is eating again. Thursday night he ate a tiny little bite of grain and a mouthful of hay!  I nearly keeled over and didn't even dare believe it but then Friday morning he ate about two tablespoons of the sweet mix grain and started just grazing away on the hay.  I called Stephen, our Vet, and told him that I finally believed old Ripley had turned the corner!  He said I had done some darn good nursing to pull him through. 

(Darcy is inserting a comment here - Ripley is doing well because my mother has worked morning and night for the past two weeks, feeding him with a giant syringe, giving him shots, and worrying herself about sick, and contacting all of her sheep resources and people to try to help him. She is why he is better!  Also - doing this while she is recovering from a broken finger and broken toe!)

I believe it was a combination of Stephen and Deb (that are my two Vets), Elizabeth that works in their office, Faye, Kat, Nadine, Donna and Jocelyn all offering suggestions, advice and encouragement and lots of prayers that pulled my Ripley through.  Thank you to everyone for all the help, especially Darcy for bringing the children to the barn and helping feed the alfalfa/rumen starter to poor old Ripley.  Oh yes, thanks to my son David for coming to hold Ripley one night because I couldn't manage on my own.  I guess I need to back up and thank Stephen and Todd for starting to treat Ripley two weeks ago when he was first sick.  Whewwwww! I am worn out from this and think I'll go to bed early tonight. 

I'm attaching some pictures and tomorrow my brother Everett is coming with his bulldozer to clean out around the barn on both sides. First so Luther can come home from Massachusetts and get into the back of the barn with his buddies.  And then second, Everett will clean on the girls side so they can all go out and run around and also I can finally muck out the stalls.  I thought the sheep would be pressed up on the roof before I could get it cleaned out around the barn.  Well that's all for tonight. 

Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa.

It is Sunday Feb. 6, 2011 and a beautiful sunny day with a bright blue sky and the eaves are dripping!!!!!  We got a little of everything yesterday for weather.  It was the Valentine event at the Tasha Tudor Museum and we were not sure if we could even hold it because of the weather.  It turned out to be alright and we had it from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Just as Jenna and I were packing the car to come home at 2:30 p.m. it started to rain.  By the time I walked up to Darcy's at 5 p.m. to go do the chores early, it was snowing hard.  My grand daughter  Rowan walked home with me for a sleepover at YaYa's house and as we went to bed at 8:45 p.m.  Then we had a thunder storm and sleet!!!!!  I am very worried about our barn and if it can handle the snow that has stayed on the roof all winter.  The barn has a very steep metal roof but the snow has not come off at all.  A dairy barn collapsed in Londonderry this morning with 4 people in it and some injuries.  I don't know much more but will find out tomorrow.  Darcy knows the farmer that was injured because the farm is just down the road from Flood Brook Elem school where Darcy is the Librarian.  Last year they lost a brand new barn from the weight of the snow on the roof.  I just went up and blocked the gate so the sheep can't get on the side of the barn where the snow might come off.

My poor old Ripley continues to be sick.  I wrote to Faye Whitney and Kat Smith and both wrote back with suggestions.  I also got a very long, very helpful e-mail from Nadine Chounet and I'm trying everything to pull him through.  On Friday I was at my class at Marlboro College and called my Vet Shephen.  He said to give Ripley 2 c.c. of Penicillin for 4 days.  I've also given him 1.5 cc of Vit. B-complex.  This morning for the very first time in one and a half weeks, he pawed through the hay and picked up three tiny,tiny little pieces of hay.  He pushes the grain around and lays his head on the feeder and its ripping my heart out to watch this.  The more he doesn't eat, the more I do eat,  so if he can make it through this I should be able to wear my husband Jonathan's clothes!!!!!!!!!

I've managed to clean a lot here at the house today and that is a major undertaking!  There is just so much to do and not enough time to do it.   Or else by the time I get home in the evening, I'm too tired to do what needs to be done!  Darcy took Rowan and Declan out to lunch and to the Movies because Todd worked today.  I've been out taking pictures of how much snow we have and all the out buildings because I am fretting myself silly about the weight of snow on everything!  I guess I might as well stop worrying because nobody else seems to care!

I'm taking a 10 week class through Marlboro College for Non-profit Management.  This is to help with my new job as Executive Director of the Tasha Tudor Museum.  It was extremely hard for me to walk into that first class, wondering if this old brain could still absorb knowledge!!!!!  My class on Friday was a really good class and I learned so much about fund raising.  This Wed. we are having a Valentine lunch at work and Amy will be able to sit down with me to brainstorm about all the projects for the Museum.  I just love this new direction my career is moving in.  I have loved being a nurse and will continue to do it part-time, but I truly love Museum work.

Well I'm going to add some pictures, one of poor old Ripley and several of the snow.  Hope everyone is doing o.k. and don't shovel any snow.......it will melt sometime!

So-long from Maybelle MaMa