Spring Work Continues

The last couple of days we've been vaccinating the sheep and also doing toe trims. I can't do too many toes before my hands give out so we do them in batches. Pregnant ewes are now completely done except for the spring dewormer. I do that 24-48 hours before we turn them out on pasture so help keep the pastures cleaner. We're holding them in the winter corrals as long as possible because the grass is still not growing well.

Adult rams and ram yearlings all vaccinated. Ram yearlings toes all done.

Left on the list, ewe yearlings shots and toes and adult ram toes. We're slowly getting them all finished.

I've also been doing some farm tours. Yesterday was a group of chefs from Aspen learning about where the meat they buy from us really comes from. Some farms are charging for tours this year but I still think it's part of my job to educate the consumers about real local food.

Paonia Mountain Harvest Festival

Sunday AM down to the Town Park for the Mountain Harvest Festival Farmers' Market.
Ray came to help at the booth and took care of it so I could take a break occasionally.

Monica from Small Potatoes Farm selling potatoes and garlic braids.

A good day, lots of sales of meat, socks and even some yarn.

Farm Tours & Sheep Coats

No Pictures. This morning before the big main farm tours started as part of the Paonia Harvest Festival we sorted out some of the sheep and put coats on. They are now in the winter corrals on hay. They look a bit silly in their coats but it keeps the wool clean.

Promptly at 11:00 the tour folks started arriving and I was doing solid tours from 11 until 5:30 pm. No pictures unfortunately. It was a good day, something like 75 people came to the farm and learned about how their meat and wool is produced.

Garvin Mesa Day 2009

Today was the third annual Garvin Mesa Day. All three wineries on our mesa, Terror Creek Winery, Stone Cottage Cellars & Azura Cellars and our farm coordinate to have an open house day.

We did farm tours and had our smoked sheep kolbassi sausages to sample. Monica from Small Potatoes Farm came with garlic braids, potatoes and tomatoes. Margaret came and spun yarn on the porch.


Here is Ken getting ready to grill the samples for people to taste.




Things got really busy and we had a good day showing the sheep to lots of people. But of course I was busy doing the tours, Ken was dealing with samples and I never got any more pictures taken. Luckily Jim Brett came and took a few more pictures.


This is Monica cleaning garlic.


Margaret spinning.



Me talking about the sheep



Some of the adult rams on pasture.

Farm Tour Days and Garden Woes

West Elks Wine Trail Tour is this weekend so we put out the farm tour signs.


Unfortunately my black thumb is starting to show.


The main batch of corn isn't doing well. Brown and drying leaves and pale green. The corn I transplanted into the main part of the corral is doing ok but several are blowing over. It's as if the roots are not deep enough to hold the plants in our winds.

Stone Brew Visitors & Haying!

Greg Koch from Stone Brewing, Susan Duniphin & Keiffer Koch arrived for a short visit today. We started with some picture taking opportunities at the edge of the mesa.




We had a lovely lunch at Flying Fork in Paonia and then got a great tour of both Revolution Brewing's new brewing facility and their tasting room. Of course I didn't get any pictures but Greg took video and it should be up on you tube soon.



Next stop was off to Monica's Small Potatoes Farm to see what to get for dinner tonight. She let us dig out a couple of potato plants, some fresh garlic and some lovely cooking greens. Then off to Terror Creek Winery for tastings. Greg tweeted from there.


Winery number 2 is Stone Cottage Cellars. Here is Greg, Karen Helleckson & Brent Helleckson in the cellar at Stone Cottage. Final winery stop was Azura Cellars. No pictures because we were running late by then.


Part of the rush to get back was to get home in time to do chores and let Judd in the field to cut our hay. Greg is enjoying a Revolution Beer while watching Judd do all the work.


This field has been years getting in shape to hay and this first ever cutting looks really good. It's about 2 acres so it will be interesting to see how much we actually get off it.

Garvin Mesa Day

Saturday 4 October was our big Garvin Mesa Day Open House. All 3 wineries and ourselves were open with special events. We had BBQ with leg of mutton for tasting and some locally produced cow milk cheese. The 3 wineries, Terror Creek Winery, Stone Cottage Cellars and Azura all had food and wine and cheeses. We were set up to do farm tours as well. Last year this was a very big event for us and we had lots of people. Small Potatoes Farm also came and brought garlic braids and potatoes so you could buy dinner on the mesa all locally produced.

Here Ken is all ready for tasters.

Unfortunately the weather was bad and by mid afternoon we had rain and it got very cold. Only about 12 people showed up. But we did sell quite a bit of meat in spite of it all.

However, we had a lot of leftover meat and cheese so have been eating it almost exclusively. Oh Darn! :-)

Farm Tour Tomorrow!

Anyone who is in Western Colorado is welcome to come visit us at the Paonia Harvest Festival's Self-Guided Farm Tour tomorrow between 11am and 4pm. We'll be here all day talking about our sheep, geese and chickens. I'll have meat, wool and yarn for sale then as well all day Sunday at the Farmers' Market in downtown Paonia.

Stop by and visit us!

Wine, Mutton and Cheese

This past weekend the three main agricultural businesses on our mesa held a wine, cheese and mutton tasting. Our farm had mutton slow cooked shoulder roasts and 2 Welsh cheeses to taste. Terror Creek Winery had lovely fondue to go with their Swiss style wines. Stone Cottage Cellars had a selection of cheese paired with their wines and a fruit and chocolate fondue for their Alpine dessert wine.

We didn't advertise this event very much but we still got between 30-40 people to come by, most of whom had never been to our farm or either winery.

We set up signs on all the pens with what sheep were in there, and notes about our farm and farming philosophy.

It was well received and we hope to do this again next year.

Now we're gearing up for the big Paonia Harvest Festival that starts this weekend. Froday is the Chili Cookoff and the Pie Contest. Last year Ken was a judge, he hasn't been asked yet this year but I am still hopeful. It made deciding which piece to buy much simpler!

Saturday we will be open all day for the self-guided Farm and Winery tours. It usually gets rather crazy, in years past we've had as many as 10-15 people show up at once all wanting to learn about our sheep. Sunday we'll be back in town for hte last farmers' Market of the year.

If you are anywhere near Western Colorado, consider coming for a great time and fun event in Paonia. See you this weekend!