Sheep on the Vine

Sheep as vineyard mowers are becoming popular out in Napa Valley and now our own Aries Crossing Sheep are giving it a go as well.  Some friends approached us about trying out our sheep in their vineyard.    We brought part of our flock up to their beautiful hilltop vineyard and fenced them into a small area to see how they would do.

flock's first evening in the vineyard

grapes on the vine

Sheep have been used successfully in Australia and California as vineyard trimmers.   They can be used in place of tractors, human laborers, and herbicides to control the undergrowth beneath the vines. They also provide fertilizer and even irrigation as they go.   It's a very sustainable method of growing grapes.  It reduces the need for irrigation and saves fuel that would be used on multiple tractor passes.  Sheep are self propelled and run on solar in the form of grass.  Even the electric fencing runs on a solar charger.

We were thrilled with the opportunity to participate in such a symbiotic relationship with another local farmer.  

Of course we have to be careful to make sure the sheep don't eat the grape leaves that are needed to protect the grapes on the upper vines.  They will eat anything they can reach so as long as the grapes are up high enough, they should leave them alone and go for the easier pickings lower down.   They will have to be moved often so they don't start to eye those tasty leaves.

We shall see how our experiment goes.   There may be some other tricks required to get this to work really well but we love the idea and hope we can make it work.

Perhaps in the future we will be able to offer a nice pairing of our sheep cheese and the local wine they helped make.

For more about the use of sheep in vineyards, here are some interesting articles:

Sheep Trained to Weed Vinyards

sheep grazing the vines

Wines and Vines

Grass Farmer

Shearing Day!

Giovanna getting her hoof trimmed

We got our shearing team to come shear our sheep on Sunday.  This mother daughter shearing team is amazing.  They got all 45 of our adult sheep sheared and hooves trimmed in just under 6 hours!  There was one small sheep escape that required some quick thinking and running.  Luckily we have gotten pretty good at acting like sheep dogs and got them back in the small penned area without losing too much time.

Our sheep are currently housed at three separate locations in town, all near each other.  We started the day at our house with our small group of new moms and lambs, moved on to the bachelor pad where we keep our males, and then to our ladies over at another field.  

The wool was skirted and bagged for later processing with the help of some great friends.

Our black fleeces

I was so filthy by the end of the day covered in a mix of wool, lanolin, dirt, and sweat - yum!   But we all got the shepherd's special hand treatment from touching all that lanolin and my hands have never been so soft.  Once the dirt washed off of course - you couldn't have gotten better from a fancy spa.  Days later, my hands are still buttery soft.   I might just keep one fleece in a box to stick my hands in instead of using hand lotion.  That or next winter, I really need to remember to take my gloves off and really get my hands in the sheep's wool each day during feeding time.  
After the long day shearing, we laid out all the wool our on a tarp in the yard to get all the way dry before going into storage bags until we can send it off for processing.  We are thinking of having it made into blankets this year.

Fleeces laid to dry

Mutton for Sale

Sadly, we have our first round of cull sheep that can't stay with us any longer.  They  are simply not destined to be valuable members of our flock.   We do not want any of our animals to go to waste however and are hoping we will be able to get some good quality mutton for dog food along with organ meats and bones.

Feeding your pet a natural raw diet is one of the best things to do for his health.  It is easy and very cost effective.  Our dog lives on a diet primarily composed of white rice, raw mutton, eggs, and steamed or grated veggies.  A few supplements help round out the diet to ensure optimal nutrition. His coat has never been shinier.

I cook up a batch of dog food about twice a week and pack it up in single day portions.  The whole process is pretty quick.  It saves money and is great for pet health.

If you are interested in improving your dog or cat's health - please contact us to arrange to get some good quality mutton with or without organs along with bones for doggie chewing heaven.

Lamb For Sale!

We are gearing up for fall meat sales in time for the holidays.    What's better than fresh local pastured lamb for your upcoming celebration?    We will have lamb available starting in the next few weeks and are now taking orders.  

We have in the past only offered lamb  "on the hoof" meaning that we sold the whole lamb and our customer had to pay the butcher and pack it up themselves.  We are hoping to introduce more people to our delicious lamb by selling in smaller quantities this year.  We are selling lamb by the cut, prepackaged for your convenience.    For true lamb lovers we are still offering discount options if you would like a half or whole lamb either prepackaged or "on the hoof".    All options and prices are listed at our online Shop.  Simply download our orderform and get it back to us.    You are welcome to contact us for more information or to order direct by phone or email.

Our lambs were pasture raised, enjoying the summer on open fields.  They have had only minimal grain supplementation including spent brewer's grain from our local brewery Willimantic Brewing Company.

Chicken Day

If you had told me ten or even three years ago that I'd be assisting in slaughtering chickens in my backyard, I would have said you were crazy.  And yet, here I am having just come in from cleaning and de-feathering 8 chickens that were raised in my shed.   We raised just 6 cornish cross meat birds last year but this year we have 18.  We will process them in two batches, 8 this morning and another 10 another day.

This year, we had a good setup which I of course forgot to take a picture of.   We recently purchased a triple basin commercial sink at auction which will eventually be installed in our milking facility for washing milking equipment.  For now, it is sitting in the shed so we thought we'd make us of it and another stainless table which was also purchased for our future dairy operation.

We set the sink and basin up as work stations with garbage cans and kept a hose nearby.   We also have  a two burner outdoor gas stove that fits two large pots of hot water.   A pop up tent was also needed to keep us in the shade.    Once everything was set up and disinfected, we were ready for showtime.  Coolers filled with ice water awaited.  Three of us worked about 2 hours to process 8 birds.  Now that we've got a good system, we hope it will take about the same amount of time to do 10 next time.

So here is what we did:

1.  Jason hung the birds up in the barn by their feet one at a time, slit their throats and let them flap out their final bit of life.
2.  We rinsed the carcass with a hose a bit in the first sink and then plunged the bird into hot water on the burner.  Target temp was about 165 degrees.   This loosens up the skin for defeathering and also removes more of the filth that doesn't come off easily with a cold rinse.   The bird stays submerged for about 30 seconds to a minute though it can be a little less if the water is a bit hotter.
3.  Bird is brought to work spot to right of sinks and the feathers have to be removed.  If the hot water was hot enough, the feathers come out pretty easily but it sure makes a mess.
4. After de-feathering, the chicken moved to a different work station to be decapitated and eviscerated by Jason.  Organs and feet were kept in seperate ziplocks to use for stock or gravy.
5.  A final rinse to clean the inside and into the ice bath in the cooler to chill for a few hours before packing to freeze.

The whole process was quite wet, I and don't think a 90 degree day was the best choice but with other obligations, you gotta do it when you have time.

And so I add slaughtering chickens (though I didn't actually do the killing) to the list of things I thought I'd never do but have.

Meat packing day

We spent the afternoon a few weeks ago packing freshly butchered lamb and pork.  Three ram lambs who were born last spring went to the butcher Monday in our new used livestock trailer.  Our pig joined them.  All had to be packed in vacuum bags, labeled and stuck in the freezer.   We have another freezer practically full of meat including liver, heart, and some pigs ears and feet.  Jason is still working on the last of it that he wanted to butcher himself.   He cut up these ribs himself - don't they look lovely!

fresh cut lamb ribs

After coming home, my last task was to figure out what to do with the tallow that we took from the butcher.  I'm thinking of using it to make soap but after some online research have realized that it is good for many things including cooking, candles, and even skincare.  Who Knew?!

After reading some how to's, I decided to use my crock pot.  I took out the tallow and chopped it up in small pieces and put it in the crockpot on low.  We will see how it comes out.  I have more but figured I'd start with a small batch.   Our lambs were primarily grass-fed with a supplement of spent beer grain from the local brewery.   Hopefully that means the tallow is good quality.   I had no idea that our sheep would give us so many things - and we're just getting started.

Once the meat is all taken care of, the next project is to deal with the 30 fleeces we have bagged from sheering day.  They'll need to be skirted and sent off for carding.  

Started Barn Construction

It's hard to believe but we have actually begun our barn construction for our new facility.  Our barn will include space for the animals with a hay loft, a milking parlour, a milk storage room and a full kitchen where we can make cheese, gelato, cannoli's, and whatever else we fancy.

Jason's been digging the pit for the foundation for over a month, little by little.  Memorial Day we worked all day and go the forms for the footing all snapped together.  We used insulated concrete forms so we could do it ourselves more easily.  The forms snap together like legos.

Our sheep relaxing while we work on their new barn

After hours in the hot sun, we got it done, and even square and level!  That took some doing.  There were couple Oh $*!#  moments but it all worked out.

Nearly completed

Aria has been learning how to use the excavator and she helped with the back-filling.

This week, concrete was poured into the forms so we can begin construction.   The big machines came over too to work on our new septic for the facility.  Our electrician is coming soon to rough in along with a plumber.

Maybe it will even be done in time to do some milking but for now the lambs are enjoying an extended nursing period.