Autumn in Montana

 We have had a beautiful fall here in central Montana! The tree leaves have been yellow for a couple of weeks and the temperatures are just perfect! The sheep have been enjoying the nice weather too! Here are a few pictures of our sheep relaxing on a beautiful autumn evening.

 Flora

Emily and Jack

Carolyn

 Farley

 Charity and Jack

 Murphy, the guard llama.

 Elizabeth, Daisy, Frito, and Clarabelle.

Carolyn and Dora

Elizabeth and Clarabelle

Eliza Jane and Clover

Almost every night we have been enjoying beautiful sunsets!

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. - Eccl. 3:1

It's Snowing Outside!

The first snow of the fall/winter is on the ground. Grace Valley Farms has had two snowstorms already this week!


The sheep didn't seem to mind the snow. They kept right on eating their green grass! 

 Winter is on the way!

Romney Roving For Sale!

Just in time for Autumn and Christmas projects ...

 Dark Charcoal Romney Roving - $7.50 per 4 ounce ball.

For Sale on Etsy.

Caught!

Emmett was caught with his nose in the goods! As you can tell, he LOVES watermelon!

Iowa State Fair Wool Awards - 2012

Over the last few years, our customers have commented on the beauty and quality of the fleeces produced by the Grace Valley Farms flock.  Their comments spurred us to enter some of the fleeces in the 2011 Montana Fair.  We were pleased to have all of the entries win 1st or 2nd in their classes and every class entered resulted in a 1st place ribbon.  The 2012 Montana Fair yielded similar results but with the added bonus of Darcy's black fleece awarded Reserve Grand Champion of the entire Fair! 

 

Others urged us to enter fleeces in a larger and more signficant wool event, the Iowa State Fair. So, we entered two fleeces in the 2012 Fair ... and, we were excited by the results ... Daisy's fleece won 1st place in her class and went on to take Overall Reserve Grand Champion!  Easton's black fleece took 2nd place in his class. 

 

Daisy's fleece won Overall Reserve Grand Champion.

Easton's Fleece won second place in his class!
 

These awards stir up our heart of gratefulness for those who have provided such help in producing quality sheep and wool:

• Dee and Rick - provided quality breeding stock (including Edison!), encouragement, and many hours of useful information. How we have enjoyed and benefited from those times sitting around their kitchen table soaking up the wealth of information!
• Lisa and Pat - provided many hours of hands-on help during shearing, grading and ranking our fleeces for us, advice over the phone, spinning and knitting lessons, and encouragement.
• Our customers - for not only buying our fleeces but offering feedback on how we could improve our products and buying experience. The photos of yarn and finished products have been motivating for us.
• Robert, Diana, and family - for faithfully praying for us, providing many hours of help on Shearing Day, and farm-sitting when we were out of town! They managed our operation as well as we could have!
• Our neighbors - for many hours of advice and help in raising sheep and farming in Montana.
• Our friends - for helping us when we needed the extra hands.
• Uncle Joe and Dee - photos of the fleeces.
• Aunt Martha - thank you for picking up our fleeces for us.

Bottom Line: these awards are your awards, too!

 

To God Be The Glory !

Garden Goodies!

Our summer garden has been yielding delicious fruits and vegetables!

 

First a report from the melon patch ...

This week we picked a 30 pound red watermelon!  

 

It was ripe and very delicious!

 

A few days later a 31 pound orange-flesh watermelon was harvested. It was tasty as well!

 

This honeydew weighed 21 pounds!

  

In other garden news...

 

This spring we planted about 120 feet of green beans. We have already canned many batches of green beans.

 

This giant zucchini weighed in at almost 6 pounds!

 

We canned sweet gherkin pickles.

 

Our peppers are beautiful this year! We grew jalapeno, pablano, and anahiem peppers. Pictured here are pablano peppers.

 

This weekend we are making homeade spaghetti sauce for canning. Loaded with home-grown tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, this sauce will be a welcome treat when winter comes!

 

Lamb Portraits

 Our little bandito, Frito!

 

 Fitzgerald, the beautifully variegated son of Cordelia!

Fern, our little puff ball!

 

 Foreman, the white teddy bear.

 

 Frosty Anne is growing a beautiful fleece.

 Ferdinand is one of Clarabelle's twin sons.

Farmer looks almost exactly like his mother, Celeste, when she was a baby. 

 Fa'Lisa, winner of our Cutest Lamb Contest!

 

Finale, our final lamb of the spring.

A Report From Montana Fair 2012

This year our family entered 41 items in Montana Fair. We enjoyed visiting the Fair and checking on our entries! We wandered around and enjoyed the different displays and exhibits that had been set up.  Here are photos we took of the event:

 

We entered 12 fleeces in the Wool Show and they all placed!

 

• Hand Spinning White 58s - 62s - 1st place (Diana)
• Hand Spinning White 58s and lower 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places (Deborah, Delores, and Elizabeth)
• Hand Spinning Colored 58s -62s - 1st place (Carolyn)
• Hand Spinning Colored 58s and lower 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places (Dixie, Jack and Charity)
•  Hand Spinning Black 58s -62s - 1st place (Ezra)
• Hand Spinning Black 58s and lower 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places (Darcy, Dee, and Bluebell)

 Darcy's fleece went on to win overall reserve grand champion at the wool show!

We entered our grass-legume hay in the crops department. It won a blue ribbon!

We toured the 4-H barn and inspected the animals that were being shown.

Sally and Emily entered 25 culinary items this year. They won 13 - 1st places, 8 - 2nd places, 1- 3rd place, and 3 honorable mentions!

Sally's blue ribbon cinnamon rolls (before baking).

Emily won the Heritage Award on one of her ginger cookie entries!  The recipe is a favorite from her Uncle Phil.

We enjoyed looking at all the beautiful quilts people had entered.

There were lots of hand-made items on display at the fair.

The horticulture department boasted freshly grown produce.

 We are grateful for all the hard work that went into setting up and running Montana Fair. The feedback we received from the judging will help us improve our future products!

A Sunny Day On The Farm

On warm days our lambs look for relief from the sun. See how they dealt with the weather this afternoon!

 Fiona sported a pair of sunglasses.

 Folgers tried on a Texas cowboy hat to shield his eyes from the sun.

His profile was quite handsome!

BueLingo Cattle

Our BueLingo steers are growing well and looking very sleek on their summer pastures!

We are currently taking orders for all-natural grass-fed beef.

2012 Summer Garden

 Our summer garden has been growing rapidly this year!

Enjoy some pictures of the goodies in our garden!

 Sweet corn, cantaloupe, winter squash, watermelon, and gourds.

 

  Basil, ground cherries, jalapeno peppers, tomatillos, beets, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes.

The flowers are blooming!

Murphy Gets A Haircut

 Murphy, our guard llama, recently had a haircut.

 Before shearing ...

After shearing!