www.FiberArtFest.com

It’s been a while since I last wrote.  So, I’ll try to get everything caught up here.

FAAF is on Facebook now and we are posting snippets of different things every day.  It has been great to interact with so many people about their likes and wants about different aspects of fiber art.  I look forard to keeping people up-to-date.

Our June event is growing.  We have been receiving exhbitor’s application just about every day now for the last week.  I expect more to come in as the date gets closer.  Since it is an outdoor event, many exhibitors wait until the last minute to send in their application.  This has the added benefit of knowing (or at least the forecast) weather will be for that day.  However, our spaces are first-paid first-served.  So, those who get their applications in first, get the spaces closest to the incoming customers.

For the October event, we have booked a sheep judge and we are looking for a few good volunteers to assist with just about every aspect of the event.  I should have the sheep show application up on the website in the next few days.

In regards to farming, we have had a wonderful crop of lambs this spring.  Just about every color and shade that Icelandic sheep come in, we seem to have this year.  Definitely more rams than ewes this year.  But, they are all fun to watch.

We started a small brood of Black Australorp chickens too.  Twice daily, I go out and feed and water them in their heated tank.  It will be nice when they can go out and wonder around with the rest of the hens.  They should lay brown eggs throughout their life.

Well, only a few weeks until the June event.  I’m looking forward to it!

After our successful first-time October two-day festival (even with the bad weather), we discussed the possibility of having a sheep show in 2010.  We toured the barn and it appears to have everything we will need.  At this point, we are startnig to work with folks interested in putting on a sheep show and working out the details.

On the farm, fall has definitely come in full force.  The apples dropped with the leaves this year.  Our Icelandics really enjoy eating up the dropped apples.

We lost our dear Lunetta with what was likely a bacterial infection.  Harley also appeared to have it as well.  However, since we saw similar symptons in Lunetta, we were able to treat Harely.  He looks a little skinny but appears to be recovering well.

We started putting together breeding groups for the sheep last week.  Moving sheep around is always an experience.  Rarely do they ever go exactly where you want them to go.  If someone not from around the farm were to watch the humans running around herding the flock around, I am sure they would be completely amused.

We’ve started receiving some applications for the October festival.  The spacing for the booths is going to end up be quite generous.  However, everything won’t be finalized until a few days before the event.  Several people have expressed interest in volunteering for one thing or another.  It is always nice to have a few extra hands.

In other news, we are finding feeding round bales instead of small squares is saving time and our backs.  Moving the round bales does require a tractor.  Once we overcame that issue, getting the round bales from the field to the critters really isn’t that much of an issue.

If any of you have some ability to make it rain, we could use it here in Michigan.

It is hard to believe that the June festival is right around the corner.  Everything is basically on auto pilot now until just before the festival.  The ads are out and the signs have been ordered.  We’ve posted signs in businesses around Marshall.  Our spot on the Michigan Farm & Garden show will air June 6.  We’re even on their website now! 

Here is a list of times:

Lansing and
Mid-Michigan
Fox 47 WSYM
Saturdays at 7:00 a.m.

Kalamazoo and
West Michigan
CBS 3 WWMT
Sundays at 6:00 a.m.

Northeast Michigan
Fox 45
Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

Northwest Michigan
Fox 33
Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

Northwest Michigan
Fox 54
Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

Upper Peninsula
Fox 64 (Pickford)
Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

Upper Peninsula
Fox 61 (Sault Ste. Marie)
Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

We’re going to get a copy of the show and post our segment on the website.  The owner of the show, Jody, has been very gracious in letting us publish it.

Side Track is creating a special menu for all the exhibitors this year like with other years.  It is designed to fit in a small, covered box that a person can easily put away or store when customers arrive but won’t go bad if left unattended for a short period of time.  On top of that he prices the box lunches special to keep the costs to the exhibitors down.  He’s really gone the extra mile for us year-after-year.

In other news, we had two large ram lambs about a week ago.  They’re doing great along with all the rest of the lambs this year.  We have hay being cut and will bale some of it this weekend.  Fencing is going in this week.  Hopefully, it’ll be done by the end of next week.  It’ll be nice to finally pasture the critters out in the field.  Next year, we’ll fence the rest of the pasture.

A couple of new arrival the other night.  Coming home from work, we went out to the barns to check on everyone before starting chorse and found one of two of these little guys.  The second wasn’t far behind.  About a half hour later or so, they were both up and looking for their mother.

Tawnys Ram Lambs

We have had some great response over the last week regarding interest in our June festival.  I have three exhibitors information I need to get up on the website yet.  It appears this is going to be the Year of the Bunny.  We have a few exhibitors bringing different breeds or rabbits.  Normally, we try not to overlap too many art forms and live animal exhibits.  However, since most of the rabbits are actually different breeds, I decided it was okay this year.  We may revisit this next year depending on the results from this year.

For many people, April 15th is a time to celebrate and to be sad.  However, in the last week or so, we have signed up another three exhibitors.  So, for us, April 15 is less stressful and more jubliant.  We are very happy to have back two of the three exhibitors and sign up a brand new exhibitor this week.  It is always great to meet new artists and learn about what they want to display and provide to the public.  Our newest exhibitor will bring Shetland Sheep and Angora Goats to the June venue.

We also have another new arrival.  A very healthy and loud ewe was born a few days ago.  She is starting to be bottle fed as her mother has a good amount of milk but is having problems deliverying it some how.  The bucket feeder is filled daily and lamb #2 is getting her fill.

It was very dark around 11:30 PM last night in the barns.  Our big ewe, Puddles, pushed for only a little while before a new, big ram lamb arrived.  He was very lively from the beginning.  After a few short moments, he was up and about looking of his mother’s first milk.

It was a long evening.  I think I finally warmed up sometime this morning.

This weekend, we attended a small get-together with a bunch of other frantastic fiber artists.  There were spinners, weavings and all kinds of things going on.  I knitted and talked for nearly two hours.  It was a blast and too short of a time.

During my visit, I got to meet some wonderful people with a local Art Center.  If all goes well, we will exchange links and do some great things together soon.

We did some light cleanup on the farm this weekend.  Nothing too exciting, just stuff that needed to get done before that evil white stuff dumped on us again.

Lambs are due any day now.  In fact, as I write this, they’re probably out there having their lambs just to make sure I can’t help them or watch.  As they arrive, I plan on posting some pictures.

Well, the power was out this mornnig due to the several inches of very, very heavy snow we got last night.  With no power means no heat as well.  It was a brisk 57 in the house when I got up this morning.

This weekend I had the pleasure to talk to the president of an organization in Marshall.  We discussed back-and-forth the pros and cons of setting up our festival and what we were trying to do.  At the end, he tried to recruit us for his festival and him to ours.  From afar, it probably was a bit comical listening to us.  After we parted ways, I noticed that we were talking and talking about the benefits of providing art and its many facets to the public.  There were nothing but good things to say. 

In other news, lambing is just about here.  We are out and about gauking at the ewes several times a day now.  We have the lambing pens just about setup and the lambing areas are clean.