WHEWWWWW! Christmas is over and I survived!  It was a lot of work for such a short time.  My daughter Darcy and her family were here in the morning and we had a brunch and opened gifts.  Her children are 2 1/2 yrs, old and 5 yrs. old so Christmas day was so exciting for them.  They looked so cute all dressed up and were very good.  My son and his family were her late afternoon and we opened presents before dinner as I knew the children were too excited to eat.  Darcy came back with Declan and Rowan and we all had desert together.  It was a very nice day and I loved all my sheep gifts that I got plus my favorite was a new barn jacket from Darcy.  The new barn jacket is just too nice to wear to the barn!  I have been needle felting like a mad man and have made several dogs in the last three evenings.  I have put my higher priced critters in a new shop in West Dover. It is called Mountainside Photo Gallery and is a beautiful shop.  They are featuring a lot of local artists and I think they will do well.

Well, the cold weather has arrived and the wind chill is suppose to be around -10 to -16 below.  I think it is definitely at least -10 below because I thought my face would freeze this morning doing chores.  Of course, the water has decided to not work, nothing coming into the barn.  That means I get to carry bucket after bucket of water from the tank outside into all the heater buckets in the barn! That does not make me very happy, but I guess its good exercise so I can eat more chocolates.  There always is a positive to offset the negative.  I have decided to have a play day today.  I'm going to stay close to our soapstone stove to be cozy and spin for awhile,knit a little,read a little and just be a slug..... 
Hope everyone has a very Happy,Healthy New Year 2010.   
Maybelle MaMa

Well its Sunday Dec. 20th, 2009 and we really are on the countdown to Christmas.  I guess I'm about as ready as I can be.  We were really lucky with this last storm, it stayed well below us and Boston really got dumped on.  I know its great for us to get lots of snow for the ski areas but it is a lot easier here on the farm to not have another foot of snow.  It is terribly cold here with a minus wind chill.  I have shut the sheep in every night and given them some cracked corn just because I like to spoil them.
I was suppose to go to the outskirts of Albany, N.Y. yesterday to pick up a 8 month old Finn cross ewe that I was getting.  I got a call Thursday evening from the owner saying that the ram had broken in to the pasture where the ewes were and she was afraid that the ewe I was getting might have been bred!  I asked her if I paid for boarding, would she keep the ewe until after she lambs and I could get her in the spring.  Amy was so nice to let me know about the possibility that Jonie Jump Up could be bred and she agreed to keep her until she has lambed.  I will take both Jonie Jump Up and her lamb/lambs.  I put my beautiful white Shetland ewe Arly in with Luther on Friday Dec. 18th and she should lamb about May 14th.  I decided that I could only handle one ewe delivery this coming spring because of working, taking care of my grandson, and just too much to do.  I certainly hope that she has at least one white ewe........with my luck, I can probably plan on one or two moorit (brown) lambs!  Luther my moorit (brown) ram was on major overload to see Arly. I thought he was going to keel over and die from trying to breed Arly.  He chased her until he couldn't even move and wobbled around!  WHEWWWWWW that was quite a love-match!
I was suppose to take some of my needle felted critters over to West Dover,VT to a new Photography/Art Shop, that had its grand opening yesterday.  My grandson was sick on Friday and I ended up taking him to the Emergency room Friday afternoon.  He has a viral cold, raging ear infection and ended up having to have an updraft treatment in the E.R. for his breathing.  He is doing so much better now but it certainly was frightening when he was having trouble breathing.  He is only 2 1/2 yrs. old and their airway is so small, I knew he had to have some help.  Even though I'm a nurse ( over 42 yrs of nursing) there are times when you need help......thats why there are E.R. facilities and I was sooooo glad to be there with him.  I have now come down with a terrible cold and had to cancel out of work for this week-end.  I couldn't go near my little 93 yr. old Miriam as she is planning to go to Florida after Christmas.  I would not want to pass on this awful cold.
My daughter did chores for me this morning and tramped around the pasture to make trails so the boys could get out of the barn.  I know they must be happy to be able to move around.  Its been about a week that they couldn't get out to chase each other around.  Thank goodness, Darcy was able to help me this morning.  I'm afraid if I had gone to the barn this morning, I would have layd down in the hay for a rest.  I took my dog on a short walk and that was just about enough for me today.  I'm headed back to bed for awhile and see if I can kick this cold before Christmas.
Merry Christmas to everyone from Maybelle Farm and have a Happy,Healthy New Year 2010.
Maybelle MaMa

 Here it is Tuesday Dec. 8th, 2009 and we are waiting for a big snowstorm/sleet storm tomorrow into Thursday....will there be a snow day tomorrow?  I was going to move my ram and three wethers from their pasture across the road to the barn but decided it was better not to shut Luther ( Mr. Stud Muffin) in the barn with 23 ewes!  That would be like putting me in a chocolate factory!  The ram and wethers do have sheds to get into but I was worried if we got too much snow, moving them back to the barn.

   Saturday Dec. 5th ( my birthday) was a very nice outing with my family.  My daughter Darcy and her children Rowan and Declan, my son David,his wife Rachel and their children Austin and Ella, and my husband Jonathan took  me on the Santa Express in Bellow Falls.  We rode on the Train from Bellow Falls, Vt. to outside of Chester.  They then turned the engine around and took us back to the train station.  There was a Christmas stocking for each child, hot choclate and cookies in the station and lots of fun for everyone.  We also got lots of nice pictures.

  Last night I went to a fiber meeting at the Dover Library and met with the owners of the Deerfield Valley Inn in West Dover,Vt.  It is a beautiful Inn and it would be a very nice treat to stay there for a week-end.  We are in the planning stages for a week-end fiber workshop.  I'm looking for feedback about what would be some suggestions for classes or workshops.  They offer Friday night/Saturday through Sunday afternoon.  They will provide breakfast for in-house guests and lunches will be brought in.   Some ideas are spinning workshop, needle felting classes, drop spindle classes, knitting classes or projects......and we are open to suggestions.  It would be the first week-end of May because that is a down time in Southern Vermont ( MUD SEASON).

  Well, I have a very nice fire in our soapstone stove, so I'm going to put on my flannel pajamas and curl up by the stove and do some needlefelting.  I taught two needle felting classes, one Sunday afternoon Nov.28th and one Tuesday evening Dec. 1st.  It is such fun teaching a class and watching people learn a new craft and be so excited about what they have made.  I am in the process of needle felting a bloodhound for a special order.  I also have to make two golden retrievers, two poodles, and an Appaloosa horse for special orders.
Well goodnight from Maybelle MaMa

Hello again from Maybelle Mama, I can't believe that its Nov. 28th and Thanksgiving is over.  We had a very quiet Thanksgiving and ate about 4 p.m.  Darcy,Todd, Rowan and Declan came to dinner and we had wonderful food.  Darcy even managed to trick her father into eating sweet potato casserole!  He thought it was winter squash and had to admit it was very tasty. We have had rain and lots of wild wind today, at least it wasn't snow.

The 5th Annual Southern Vermont Fiber Event was last Saturday and I'm finally feeling back to my old self..........whewwwww!  It was alot of work.  There were 29 vendors and everyone had such beautiful things to sell.  It's always so much fun to see other fiber people and talk about our animals and fiber.  A very lucky lady named Jennine won the Ashford Spinning wheel and it will really be loved and used.  Diane won the Golding Drop Spindle "The Shepherdess" and Jill won the fiber basket.  I realize that we will need a much bigger building next year and a committee to run the event.  I will be writing to each vendor to see if they were satisfied and if they would vend again next year.  It didn't seem like as big a crowd as last year, and people were not buying as much this year.

I got my merino/dorset cross fiber for Oct. and my Finn/cross fiber for Nov. and they are both wonderful, I've already spun some of both.  Yesterday afternoon my roving arrived from the Fingerlakes Woolen Mill.......Yippee! I'm beyond thrilled with it and will now be skirting more raw fleeces to send there to be made into yarn.  I am very,very happy and satisfied with my roving.  I have Luther and Ripley's roving that are a light moorit, Sadie and Stuart are black with some brown and white flecks, and my sinfully beautiful Marcus (a coopworth/finn/dorset) cross.  I want to sit down and spin some of this but I have to get ready for a needlefelting class tomorrow.

This afternoon I have to go get all the portable fencing into the shed and clean up everything before some serious snow arrives. Got to go get busy now.      
Kathleen