July!
I love summer in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia! Lush green pastures, wheat & corn fields, fireflies and wild rainstorms! High humidity and freaky weird insects are a small price to pay to live in such a beautiful place!
Our spring and summer has been full of lambs, weaning, worming and spending a lot of time with just giving treats and making friends. Almost all of them love to be pet and scratched and follow us around like puppies. This summer I finally opened an etsy shop to sell my wool, soap and wool products. Look us up under GettingLibertyFarm!
Our oldest daughter returned from her proselyting mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in early June. We are so happy she is home, and as she's my farm photographer I will have many more fun pictures to post! It didn't take long to trade in church shoes for muck boots! :)
This spring we added 2 Angora goats to our farm. I fell in love with their fiber at the Berryville VA fiber festive last autumn and knew I had to raise them! This is Delilah, registered with the Colored Angora Goat Association.
Summer lambs! Cosette, an Icelandic here with the horns, and Farley, a Finn.
Felted sheep, I make these primitive sheep with Icelandic wool which needle felts beautifully! Needle felting is a time consuming fiber sculpture done with special barbed needles.
My son with Wild Bill the piglet
This summer after a visit to Mount Vernon we decided that our 70's country kitchen did not fit out 1808 house, so my kids helped me to gut the entire kitchen one week when Dad was out of town. It was a major demolition zone! We took the floors down to concrete, got rid of all cupboards and warped countertops, ugly old oven and a huge middle island and replaced out cupboards with antique dressers. It's not exactly a historic reproduction but it is primitive and we love it... in part because we all worked together to make it happen!
Hand dyed, handspun Icelandic yarn available on etsy! :)
A felted kitty in honor of our best hunting cat!
This summer we purchased a yearly pass for our family to George Washingtons Mount Vernon. We feel it a patriotic duty to support the preservation of the home of the father of our country. We were treated to awesome reenactments, musket and cannon fire!
Black Finn sheep yarn available on etsy. I absolutely LOVE spinning Finn wool. It is very soft and springy, with no typical wool itch at all!
My sweetheart and I on Independence Day at Mount Vernon. <3
Hungry sheepies and the pitbull who thinks he is a sheep.
My baby boy and I with our big Finnsheep ram, Figwit. This guy is as gentle as a teddy bear!
Throwback to April, Cicilee and Cagney as new babies!
My Angora buck kid, Cedric. Also registered with the Colored Angora Goat Association. Hopefully within the next 2 springs we'll have some baby goat kids!
Felted Frodo! Available on etsy. I'm happy to do custom felting projects. :)
Hugging Figwit. He loves the kids.
Crochet purse with a star stitch pattern done in Finn yarn, handspun on a spindle. avail. on etsy
Oh gosh, Cicilee as a baby...this is just about the cutest picture I've ever seen.
Dagny <3
Our sons fiancée announcing the sex of our first grandchild! Our son is currently in boot camp at Parris Island SC. We are very proud of his decision to serve our country in the USMC!
Figwit is so patient, he lets my little boy go along for the ride, leaning on him as they walk along down to the creek. :)
Not a very good photo, but the end result of our kitchen demolition!
Hand shearing sheep with my daughter and a friend.
Summer in VA is incomplete without a frog or two.
Day time fireworks at Mount Vernon!
Figwit loves a neck scratch! Usually we aren't this friendly with rams but he has such a mild temperament. So far we've experienced no issues with him, even during breeding season.
Handspun Icelandic yarn available on etsy. :) I just love making bags out of this!
Captain Kitty with my yarn. :)
Farley, a Finnsheep ram lamb with a super sweet temperament, available for sale @ $150.
Baby pic of Carmen, our spotted Icelandic lamb from April. She's filled out and lightened up with a beautiful fleece.
Finnegan, another Finn ram that my children love, so he is a ram we'll be keeping. He is as sweet and friendly as his dad.
Love my Angora doe! My husband calls her a sheep, he's not ready to admit we are going to raise goats. ;)
Pretty daughter with one of our Finn lambs. :) I think this is such a beautiful photo!
From back in April, Cagney, a super sweet Icelandic ewe lamb for sale.
On any given morning when I can't find my son in the house, he's up playing with his sheep. He's very proud of his role as a shepherd!
More from the kitchen re-do. Amazingly with no cupboards we simplified enough to keep this functional to cook for our family of 10, and LDS missionaries who are frequent visitors for dinner!
Baby pics of Carmen, Caspian and Aunnakah
My boys asleep in the car ...what you can't see is two goats in the back seat. haha! They did get their share of those chips.
Wool projects :)
This is Carmen out grazing. You can see her color lightened significantly, but her wool is thick and lush, and she has a super sweet temperament!
I love my home. Independence Day.
My oldest and I enjoying a piece of birthday cake at Mount Vernon. Happy Birthday America!
Getting Liberty Farm
My goats in summer pasture. That mohair!!! After a massive storm and flooding which took out part of our fence, I had to rescue this little guy by hiking to the bottom of a cliff, through brambles and after a serious injury...but you just do what you have to when you are caring for your livestock.
Finn ewe lamb available for sale, $200. She's a beauty!
Cicilee and Cagney out grazing behind the house.
yummy flowers!
I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing my weanling lambs!
Finnegan napping in the shade
Cagney, a super sweet Icelandic ewe lamb for sale $200
With her brother Cirden, napping by the garden, also for sale. $150
Here kitty kitty!
Dagny and our Marine sons pitbull, Roscoe, guarding the barn.
Delilah! She's so pretty, if goats can be pretty. B-) lol !
The family at Mount Vernon, minus 3 who couldn't be there. We love that place so much!
Missionaries came to help us clean up after the Woodstock flooding... downtown was hit hard and we had several feet of water in our yard!
You can see my impractical but pretty new basin sink. I love it! Couldn't afford a farmhouse sink so we improvised. :) Sunday morning breakfast with my youngest dressed for church and trash ready to go out.
My Finnsheep waiting for grain, they are cutie pies!
Poor Roscoe waiting for his Daddy to come home. Tied up because the sheep broke the electric fence wire and our electrician is in boot camp! :-O
Thanks for sharing in my spring and summer pictures! Soon it will be autumn shearing time and all the washing, carding and spinning projects will start again! We are so blessed to live in this historic home, and after 2 years on this shepherding adventure we are still learning, but loving it. I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for helping my family so that we can live the country life I've always dreamed of!
Please support small farmers!
For a visit to our farm or for information on purchasing lambs, please email us at samsbillthepony@yahoo.com
For yarn, wool, sheepmilk soap, paintings or other local handcrafted products, please visit Smith Building mercantile on facebook! Ordering online is available!
For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#
