Peggy Gets Back Into the Groove

You’d think winter on the farm would be slow and to some extent you’d be right.  Some of the work is prepping for the big work. Do we have enough CDT, a vaccine we’ll give to first time moms about a month before lambing begins.  I know we need a fresh supply of colostrum replacement powder since the stuff we’d been using was years old.  I also know we need new nipples for any bottle lamb or lambs we might have.  I checked on what we had and it was sad. We’ve got two nipples that will screw onto plastic soda bottles, but one is cracked and the other I had clearly been avoiding because the hole at the tip is too big because I didn’t know what I was doing, having forgotten the early days of feeding my own babies from a bottle.   

Some of the work is winter related – fetching square bales from a large barn down the hill, 20 or so at a time. Todd has been handling this since my foot surgery in November.  But I should be able to assist on the next round. And my recovery has progressed enough for me to load two tractor buckets full of logs, drive them over to the front door and stack them.   New work this winter includes prepping for two fiber festivals I’ll be attending/vending over the next several weeks. One is in The Farm Fiber Day in Wayland, MA (January 26) and the other is the Boston Fiber Festival at the Public Market in downtown Boston (February 9).  I’m at the tail end of my inventory, but a long time sheep farmer and fiber aficionado has pressed me into getting “out there more.”  “Peggy, I need to introduce you around.”  Those were Gretchen’s kind words which I took to mean, “Peggy, you don’t know anybody.” And she’s right.  I do the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival and I do the local Norwich Farmers Market but that’s about it. I believe we have the best colored Corriedale fiber around and yet I have been treating it a little too much like a part time gig.

To that end, I won an Instagram marketing course at a local charity auction a few months ago.  Class will be on Friday.  I’m too young to be so clueless about social media. To be fair to myself, I’m not entirely off that grid, but I know only enough to be dangerous or more likely, inept. PLUS, we asked our website designer Jackson Whelan to update our site. We found Jackson back in 2012 as we were moving from Illinois to Vermont.  He was a Vermont resident then, but now he’s in Loveland, Colorado. Todd and I had a conference call with him last week, and we’re excited to see the site get refreshed after over seven years. Stay tuned!

So, onward Social Engagement & Winter Chores!

Peggy