Living in the land of pee and poop - It's Kristin's late January Newsletter from the Farm

We're talking lambs! And more......

Hello Colorful Friends:

Popping into your inbox so I don’t miss sending a January newsletter. The holidays are behind us. Personally, I’m glad for that. The Christmas tree came down a couple days ago. (It didn’t go up til the 23rd of December.) I’m not sure why - but I always get into a nasty mood the day I take it down. Here’s a photo of said tree the night before I took it down. As you can see, it was looking a little crispy and naked due to the cats pulling everything off the bottom.

It’s mid-winter here in western Massachusetts. We’ve had a super cold winter so far. If you’ve followed along with me for a while, you know that we “lamb” in the winter. (If you are new to the newsletter, get ready for a bit of sheep farm chat. You can skip down to the color and creativity chat if that’s not your jam.) Winter lambing is not ideal but it has worked for us for 40 years. (FYI - When the weather gets warmer and the mud happens, all kinds of bugs hatch, including worms and parasites that can make lambs sick.) Right now, we’re deep into lambing now with over 40 babies born. Most of our sheep are at our barns but we’ve got a few here at our farmhouse which is where I’m taking these photos. We had a nice snow overnight and everyone did fine.

As per usual, we’ve had our share of lambs in the kitchen and bathroom warming up or being doctored for some kind of problem. (If you look closely at the Xmas tree photo above, you’ll see two.) I’m a marginal housekeeper at best (I don’t see the mess) but during lambing, it gets bad. Livestock guardian dogs and herding dogs in and out, snowy manure covered boots, lamb pee and poop to clean up - honestly - it’s a sh*t show. It is what it is. Here are two lambs that were in residence for 5 days. They have since graduated to become bottle lambs living in a pen at the barn.

Lambing isn’t always successful. I have grown used to it after 40 years of watching lambs come into the world. Every year, a new situation or complication appears. The other day, a set of twins were born. One was perfectly fine and the other was deformed and not alive. At least one survived. We don’t go crazy researching what made it happen. We just move on. Sh*t happens on a farm. When we first started with sheep, we had many less sheep than we have now - five to be clear. (There are more than 200 ewes now.) We waited excitably for each birth and hoped there would be no complications. As the years have gone on, we’ve seen so much life (and death) during lambing. Luckily there have been more successes than failures. Most lambs survive and we are sad about those that could not. We have a favorite saying during lambing….. “It’s not dead yet.” That might sound weird and unfeeling but it’s true - there is always hope that a little one will survive - whether it be because of some human intervention or just by the sheer strength and will of a little spirit.

That’s enough farm chat for today….. What else has been going on here in my life of creativity and color? Every January, I try to do a lot of reading and looking at all the books I keep buying and magazines I haven’t had a chance to look at. I relish this time when I don’t have to feel guilty about not working outside in my garden and yard. It’s more me time than in the summer. I crave and need the visual stimulation to keep going.

I ran into Karen H. the other day and she asked me if I still knit. She’s known me for a while and knew that I had stopped designing much knitwear. (You can read about that here if you are interested.) I did tell her that I was actually in the middle of a pair of farm gloves. (Farm gloves you ask? Those are gloves that can be washed frequently, are worn a lot and won’t wear through the fingertips.) I’m proud to say I actually finished said gloves. I made a similar pair a couple years ago that I misplaced and I really loved them. I know they aren’t up to my normal crazy multi-color standards but I’m going to get a lot of use out of them. I used two different colors of (sadly discontinued KN designed Regia) standard wool/nylon sock yarn double stranded and did my normal “winging it” basic pair of gloves. They were so much fun to make and so serviceable that I just finished a second pair in case I lose these. They are a great project to use up odds and ends of leftover sock yarn. They ended up weighing a bit less than 100 grams for the pair. I used one 50 gram ball of two different space dyed colors. If you are looking for a good basic glove pattern, I suggest Ann Budd’s super helpful book The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.

Now I’m looking for another project and I think I’ve found it. I’m going to make my Best Friends Pullover for a new addition to the world. (PDF pattern available on my website and also available on Ravelry here.) Want to join me? In the next newsletter I’ll share what I’ve decided upon.

I had the best time this past weekend. I enrolled in Clay Camp and watched 3 days of ceramic videos on Surface Design. There were teachers from all over the world sharing amazing work. The idea was to work along with the teachers as they created but since I didn’t sign up til the day before, I chose to work on my own stuff while they shared new techniques. I learned so much. Not sure how much I will incorporate into my ceramic design but it was so great to see so much intricate, colorful and fun surface design.

For me, pottery is about the surface decoration. My pieces are vehicles for pattern and color and the cool thing is they can be used instead of being a painting on the wall that is static. I’ll write about why I make pottery someday but for now… I think I’ve gone on too long.

Here are today’s Good Links……

• Here is an incredible handmade home in the heart of London. Kenyan-born poet, novelist and civil servant, Khadambi Asalache made all the incredible decorations, paintings and trims over decades of living at 575 Wadsworth Road. Inspiring video here.

• Ten gorgeous homes from the Cabana website including James Coviello’s Hudson Valley home. I love James’ IG feed.

• Incredible embroidered ceramic vessels made by Swedish artist Caroline Harrius. She says about her work: “I want to make an attempt to highlight all the precious and impressive craft objects that are often left behind within the walls of the home, continue to challenge hierarchies in the field, and make visible traditional female craftsmanship.”

• What am I cooking? Lots and lots of homemade stock for soups and risotto. I love the smell of stock cooking. So homey — making dreams of delicious warming winter food a reality. At the end of this newsletter, I’ve given you my basic directions.

• Have you heard about the Sterling Silver Swan Automaton? Made in the late 1700’s, it’s Incredible what people used to make. Now found at the Bowes Museum in the UK. Watch it here. Kind of crazy what super rich people did/do spend their money on. While you’re at it, check out the Peacock Clock made by the same jeweler-clockmaker in the late 1700’s. Incredible.

Thanks for reading. I wish you and yours a creative 2025 full of learning and making. Would love to hear what you’re making/doing this winter. Leave a message in the comments or respond to this email.

If you enjoy lamb photos, I’ll be sharing lots over on my Instagram. And like many folks, I’ve signed up for Bluesky. If you’re on that relatively new platform, you can find me here.

Here’s my basic stock recipe. Lots of room for interpretation here…..

Take chicken and lamb bones, maybe some chicken legs, a chicken carcass or two and throw them all into a big pot. (I never throw out a bone. I stash them in the freezer to add to the next run of stock.) Add an onion, leek, couple of carrots, lots of celery, salt, pepper, bay leaves, herbes de provence, thyme and a lemon cut in half. Cover with water. Set it on the stove and cook it for at least five hours. Add water when it gets too low. Let it sit overnight in the fridge so the fat congeals on top. In the morning, scrape the fat off the top of the pot. I always leave some fat as it adds to the flavor. (The rest of the fat, I feed to the dogs or chickens or use for cooking.) The stock will be wiggly and gelly like. Heat up the stock and strain it through a colander that has small holes in it. I use a small saucepan to really push down on the bits to get as much pure liquid gold out of the mass as I can. Freeze it in mason jars leaving room for the stock to expand so the jar doesn’t break. I feed the solid matter left to the dogs, cats and chickens. Stock is delicious and so nutritious.