Farm Visits

by Sarah Lake Upton


I am back on the boat cruising north along the coast of British Columbia.  Tonight we will cross Hecate Straight to Haida Gwaii (also known by their English name, the Queen Charlotte Islands). 

 

Before I get sidetracked posting about what I am doing now, I wanted to share photos of the farm visits I got to make the weekend before I returned to the boat. 

We spent a cold, raw early spring Saturday at Two Sisters Farm in Warren.

An important note:  I always forget what town Two Sisters Farm is actually in - at various points I have said "Waldoboro" and "Woolwich" but I don't think that I've actually ever gotten it right.  At this point people may be wondering if I'm making the farm up entirely, when in truth I always just forget that the town of Warren exists, and anyway I think the farm is pretty close to the Waldoboro town line.  (Or that is my excuse - Willy, if you read this please correct me).

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Skeins of DK weight BFL return to the farm where they grew

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Willy keeps a mixed flock of Scottish Blackface, Bluefaced Leicester, and Northern Cheviots.  I snag as much of her Bluefaced Leicester fleece as I can, and every year despite my best promises to myself to keep my buying to fibers that other knitters might reasonably buy once they are yarn, also snag a couple of Scottish Blackface fleeces (because I love the yarn even if I may be the only one).

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Sunday was a perfect bright warm April day.  Sarah and I again made our way up the coast, this time to Wiscasset and the lovely forest sheep of Buckwheat Blossom farm.  The flock is mostly Coopworth, but Jeff and Amy have been slowly turning their land back into pasture, in part by grazing their sheep in amongst the thinned trees, which led us to joking about a new breed of sheep, something along the lines of "Penobscot Bay Forest Sheep" or more correctly, "Sheepscot River Forest Sheep".


My sailor-lay bias is probably showing in the need to name the sheep by the body of water they are closest to, despite the fact that that whole point is that they live in the woods.


Anyway.

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We spent a lovely afternoon catching up with Amy while sorting and skirting fleece, guarded by the newest member of their family.  

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