Thursday, November 24, 2011

Counting Our Many Blessings

Grace Valley Farms rejoices in the many blessing of the year! Travel through 2011 with us as we give thanks for the bounty from our farm!

The fleeces from our February shearing were beautiful!  We are thankful to all the folks who came and assisted us on shearing day. With their help, the day ran smoothly!

We are grateful for all the "E" lambs that were born this spring.


While many areas of the country experienced a drought this year, our early summer was blessed with lots of rain. The pastures were lush with vegetation and the hay fields prospered!

This summer we entered 6 of our fleeces in three categories in Montana Fair.  Every fleece placed first or second!

Our BueLingo steers are growing nicely! The green grass and hay helped them pack on the pounds.

We had a bountiful garden harvest this fall. Pictured here are portions of our gourd and Indian corn harvest.  Besides those crops, we also raised sweet corn, basil, parsley, cucumbers, eggplant, onions, sugar snap peas, onions, turnips, cabbage, Swiss chard, kale, beets, lettuce, spinach, green beans, pole beans, potatoes, tomatoes (39 plants), peppers, tomatillos, ground cherries, yellow squash, zucchini, winter squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew.


Happy Thanksgiving from our family!

O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for His mercy endureth for ever. - Psalm 136:26

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Romney Roving For Sale

Grace Valley Farms' second batch of roving is now available!   This roving is charcoal-gray colored with a soft handle. Our Romney ewes and rams produced this lovely wool.

There are approximately 300 oz of roving available.
The price is $2.25 per ounce (shipping extra).

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Abby Joins the Family

A cute, little puppy recently joined our family. Abby is a 10 week-old German Shepherd.
Abby 

Benjamin and Abby

Benjamin and his three dogs, Ruger, Abby, and Bullet.

We've been looking for a suitable, long-haired German Shepherd female to be Bullet's wife.  Abby seems to be a perfect fit!

A Truckload of Squash

A number of our sheep love winter squash. Squash is an excellent source of vitmains for people and sheep. A nearby farmer raised a field of pumpkins and squash this year. After the farmer had picked all he needed, he allowed us to go in his field and glean from the remaining squash and pumpkins. This morning we braved the snowstorm and collected a whole truckload of goodies for the sheep.

We were able to pick around 2,000 pounds of squash and pumpkins.

Some of the varieties include: blue hubbard, Chicago wwrted hubbard, Cinderella pumpkins, banana squash, butternut, Turk's Turban, and kobacha.


Doug feeds a banana squash to Dale and Heather. 

Some of our ewes eating squash out of their hay bunk.

The sheep are delighted with all their squash!  They get very excited when we come out to feed them.  Bernie, our oldest ewe has really benefited from all the vegetables and fruit we've been feeding.  Recently we've noticed a significant improvement in her energy level as well as her overall health.