Blog
Tuesday February 28, 2023
It’s That Time Again!
Spring has arrived and with it comes the most fun part of being a sheep farmer… lambs!!! It’s hard to find much that is cuter than a tiny, fluffy lamb. Watching them grow from newborns on shaky legs to toddlers who are learning to run. They find friends among the lamb group, though their siblings are their best friends, and spend a lot of time playing and running races with the group.
Wednesday February 03, 2021
Babies are here!
Wouldn’t you know that winter weather and lambs would show up at the same time. We were so excited to see the lambs from our new Katahdin ram this year, because they are so darn cute. We had 16 Katahdin ewes bred this year. So far, we have had 12 ladies give birth for a total of 21 lambs - 12 girls and 9 boys so far.
Tuesday November 10, 2020
Blues skies and blue ducks
I was on Facebook last week in one of my groups and saw an ad for a couple of Blue Swedish ducks. Of course I have said here that the duck experiment is over. But how can you say no to a couple of beautiful birds who have just lost the rest of their flock to a raccoon and need a new and safer home? The next day I headed off to South Knoxville to pick up the urban ducks from a very nice, worried owner. They rode to their new home silently in a dog crate, as if they took car trips every day and enjoyed the scenery.
Thursday October 30, 2020
Golden memories
Now that it’s fall and the trees are turning, it’s time to share some golden memories, along with a recipe. I was cooking with our duck eggs this weekend, making French toast, and having bittersweet memories when I would have been standing at the stove beside my mom as she made what was always considered a very special meal. It has been years since I was able to cook with my mom in person, but she’s still always there beside me.
Wednesday October 21, 2020
How quickly they grow…
Our new chicks finally graduated from their pen in the garage yesterday. It was a perfect fall day, all warm sunshine. I set up an x-pen out in the grass under a tree so that they could have a choice of sun or shade with grass to explore. They even got a treasure hunt for scratch sprinkled in the grass, something to encourage them to start pecking around looking for things. Those are the simple pleasures of being a chick.
Thursday October 15, 2020
Third time's charmed!
Sometimes things just go south for a while. Every farmer knows it. Things happen that surprise you, sometimes in a bad way. At Namaste Farm, we do everything in our power to care for our animals, but the best sometimes isn’t enough. Last week we had a lamb who looked a bit down and out one night, but not in a way that demanded some specific action. The next morning it was dead. Sheep are like that. I found myself the next day driving the body to UT for disposal. That wasn’t fun.
Monday October 12, 2020
Quack, quack, quack!
Are you dreaming of big, rich, luscious duck eggs? Have you ever had these tasty treats before? If you answered yes, we have an answer to your problem: an excess of big tasty duck eggs from all of our young ducks who just began laying. We are selling them by the dozen now, so contact us on Facebook or Instagram to place your order. Pickup is via local meeting, typically in Lenoir City at Weigels.
Wednesday October 07, 2020
We did it!
This weekend we went to a trial, and we were great! I took all three of my dogs to South Carolina to Red Creek Farm in Townville, South Carolina. They all did their best. We had so much fun. I am so proud! After all of the setbacks, after COVID, after disappointment, it was so nice to have good runs.
Monday October 05, 2020
We got chicks!
It’s time again to raise a group of Cornish Cross chicks, the kind of chicks we raise for meat. They arrived via overnight mail last week, 50 little peeps in a box, keeping each other warm until they arrived. Chicks are able to survive their first day of life without food or water, but they were ready to chow down by the time they got to their new home. Actually, only 20 of the chicks came to live at Namaste Farm. The other 30 went on to live at Redbrooke Ranch. Ordering chicks together is just one way local farming is a joint effort.
Sunday September 27, 2020
It's finally fall!
You have no idea how welcome fall is at our house. Sadly, this fall is without many of my favorite fall things, specifically the Tennessee Valley Fair and the Southern Animal Fiber Festival (SAFF). Who knew that COVID would still be around to rob us of those events? I guess that this year I’ll have to just look back on the past and relive the good times.
Monday September 21, 2020
The luxury of duck eggs
This past weekend we got our first duck eggs. Since we weren’t really expecting them, because only the Saxony ducks are old enough reaching the age to lay, we hadn’t really addressed the nesting situation yet. I guess it’s time to get going, because muddy eggs rolling around on the ground aren’t very appealing. A bit of a wash, though, and I was ready to use our first eggs for some regal cooking.
Tuesday September 15, 2020
He’s a traveling man!
I told you recently about our new ram, Bueller, who is the gentleman friend of our Katahdin ewes. He is co-owned by Redbrooke Ranch, our friends Kelly and Juan. After the Namaste ladies had been with him for a month, it was time for Bueller to head off to his other herd, who he’d never visited before. He ended up having more of an adventure than any of us thought possible.
Sunday September 13, 2020
Puppies and socialization
So you finally have your dream working puppy, after so much dreaming and planning and wishing. What’s the most important thing you can do now to make your puppy a successful adult? Take your puppy out in the world to see as many new things as possible! Your successful adult dog will be traveling and working in new environments and seeing new things constantly, so your puppy needs to get used to new things as early as possible in ways that are not frightening or overpowering. How do you do that?
Thursday September 10, 2020
Back to trialing
Photo credit: Kelly Mayfield
This past weekend we finally got to go back to a herding trial, one of the first since COVID shut everything down last spring. What an exciting time for all our friends, two and four legged! Of course, social distancing was still a thing, so everyone brought individual canopies to stay out of the heat, but no one was complaining about a return to some semblance of normal life. My gang of friends - Kelly, Alicia, and Tori - were there with their dogs, enabling us to make this super cool portrait of Nora and her puppies while we were together.
Sunday August 30, 2020
Hurricane Prep in Tennessee?
I spent Friday afternoon getting ready for the arrival of now tropical storm Laura in east Tennessee. Our thoughts are with all the people in Louisiana and Texas who suffered the onslaught of the storm at full force on Thursday. We know what it’s like to get ready for bad weather. Now that the storm is making its way north, Namaste Farm is in its path.
Friday August 28, 2020
Bad hair days!
Last week I talked about getting a new ram for our Border Leicester ewes. We also had to make a change of rams for our Katahdins. Our meat sheep are a breed that sheds instead of being sheared, which is a great cost cutting advantage when you have a lot of sheep. This limits us to selecting another hair breed as a ram. We wanted to try to get a ram that would produce larger bodied offspring, so we chose a Dorper ram.
Wednesday August 26, 2020
Roasted leg of lamb
Being able to cook and enjoy lamb that we raised ourselves is a privilege we don't take lightly. We are there when our lambs are born and we watch them grow over the months. They live on green pastures and nap in the sun. We know exactly how they are treated and we are grateful that they provide us with such wonderful meals.
Thursday August 20, 2020
We got new wheels!
Even if you aren’t a small farmer, you know what it’s like to need a new-to-you vehicle when your finances are stretched due to the current economic times. We were hoping that our old truck would last longer. Instead, having to rely on it to make longer trips with our livestock made us start looking via the Internet for some new wheels. We finally got lucky several weeks ago when the truck we wanted appeared on a lot in middle Tennessee. We were quick to contact the dealer and make the trade.
Tuesday August 18, 2020
Who’s your daddy?
When we bought our Border Leceister ewes, we needed to find a ram to put with them. I happened on a very nice, older ram whose owner had some unfortunate financial problems and was selling her flock. This ram, very nice, had gotten thin in his old age. She gave him to us with the caveat that we would treat him like the prized stud he’d been in his youth, because the alternative was going to auction. We drove halfway to meet her and get our new ram.
Saturday August 15, 2020
Finding the right working puppy
Unless you have your heart set on some other breed, the premier herding dog for sheep is the border collie. This breed has historically been the best at working sheep. We depend on our border collies not just to go to herding trials, but to work our sheep every single day. We wouldn’t have any other breed.
Thursday August 13, 2020
On the job training
When we started Namaste Farm, my husband and I were not farmers. Oh sure, we raised some vegetables in the yard of our rental property, but everything we know now has been learned mostly from on the job training. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we fail, but we always learn something from the experience. That’s the way it has been with the introduction of ducks to our flock. We have been successfully selling both chickens and eggs to our customers for several years. The customers requested ducks and duck eggs. We decided to give it a try.
Monday August 10, 2020
A weekend on the farm
Isn’t Friday the end of the work week, time to kick back and spend the weekend doing something fun? Actually, if you live on a farm, the weekend is the bulk of your work week, catching up on some of those things you didn’t get to do while you were at your real job. When you add the summer heat and the Daylight Savings Time hours, it makes for some long days. Here’s an account of the fun we got to have this weekend.
Saturday August 8, 2020
I want a new puppy!
In a household with 9 dogs, this isn’t a phrase that I utter lightly. Most of the Namaste Farm dogs have jobs, either herding or guarding the flock. That being said, I’ll admit that we have a couple of canine friends at home whose main jobs are to cheer and entertain us. Today I’m going to talk about things to consider before you get a puppy. Next week I’ll give tips on how to select the best working puppy for your farm.
Friday July 31, 2020
It's date night!
Remember what life was like before COVID, when we all went where we pleased whenever we wanted? Back in those days, we always designated Wednesday as our date night, a time to go somewhere to eat and do something fun, to reconnect with each other away from the farm. Of course, the opposite is now true. Like everyone else, we’ve mostly been stuck at home together. I thought it’s about time to actually sit and listen to each other again, so tonight is date night.
Tuesday July 28, 2020
The real cost of farm to table
Our life on Namaste Farm has been all about raising our own food respectfully and responsibly, avoiding all the bad things about industrial food production. We grow vegetables and fruit, freezing and canning and pickling as much as possible. We also raise and process our own chickens and sheep. As you know, we have just begun raising ducks too, for both eggs and meat. Here’s a little tale of the results, which you should know when you question the price and availability of locally raised products.
Friday July 24, 2020
Second chances
Today we introduce the latest member of the Namaste Farm family, our Eclectus parrot named Laali. Her name means red girl in Hindi. Since both of us have had parrots in the past, we have been looking for the right bird at the right time. I saw Laali on Facebook and fell in love. She comes to us from the Exotic Avian Sanctuary of Tennessee, rescued from an animal hoarding situation. It seemed the perfect fit for us.
Tuesday July 21, 2020
See how I spin
What comes first, the spinner or the wool? Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that, because before the spinner comes the knitter, crocheter or weaver. I happen to fall into the knitting category. These days, with the COVID pandemic going on, we’re all at home more and looking for hobbies to do while we stay at home. Anything that has to do with yarn is popular at our farm, starting with sheep and ending with a knitted cowl for a Christmas gift. You see where this circular thinking is going.
Saturday July 18, 2020
Having a blast working sheep
What could be more fun than working sheep with your border collie? Easy answer… Doing it with your friends and their border collies. At Namaste Farm, we have a small group of enthusiastic friends that meets every Sunday morning to train our dogs. We have a wonderful time, in spite of weather conditions right now, which call for a very early start. We have four regular handlers and a lot of dogs, with others joining us occasionally.
Wednesday July 15, 2020
Red, white and blueberries!
We spent the day before the 4th of July with our blueberry bonanza, compliments of Deyton Bend Farm in Lenoir City. Namaste Farm has it’s own blueberry bushes, but they are still new and not producing. Instead, we got 14 pounds of berries from Deyton Bend Farm, dreaming of all the things we could make - jam, cobblers, pies, pancakes, and you can go on from there. Of course, fresh is the best, especially these berries. The difference in fresh and store bought is amazing.
Sunday July 12, 2020
On Guard!
Two of the most important members of the Namaste Farm family are our two Anatolian Shepherd guardian dogs, Sabin and Bryant. Can you tell we’re Bama fans? These two are a five-year-old brother and sister we got from a breeder as puppies when we first started our farm. Many farms use the Great Pyrenees breed you’ve probably seen - large, long haired white dogs the size of sofas - but we chose this breed instead. We haven’t been disappointed. They keep our farm and all of our animals safe.
Tuesday July 7, 2020
Spring is time to take the winter coat off!
We recently had our woolie sheep sheared, a time the sheep and lambs celebrate when spring comes. They are ready to party when they are rid of their wool in time for warm weather. Border Leicester sheep can be sheared twice a year, which results in locks about 3 to 4 inches long, but we choose to shear only once, in the spring. The locks on our adult sheep are about 6 inches long in the parts of the fleece that are longest. Wool on legs, stomach, and chest are shorter.
Monday July 6, 2020
What breed is that speedy dog?
Border collies aren’t the only breed we have in our house. Rhys, our 5-year-old Chinese Crested, is a special breed we love, only partly because he obviously doesn’t shed. His registered name is Autumn Grace Blue Moon Rising. We bought him as a puppy when we were still building our farm house. He is the kind of happy, funny little dog who wants to always be the life and fashion leader of the household.
Wednesday July 1, 2020
The Namaste Farm Swim Team
We love our ducks, as you’ve read in the past few blogs. I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the ugly duckling who grew to be a swan. No swans here, but the ducklings have all started looking a lot more like ducks lately. Along the way, they have all lived outdoors when possible, including their introduction to water when we had only had them for a few days. Some of them will stay on our farm, grow into true adults, hopefully lay eggs, and produce more ducklings. The rest will be processed and provide some lucky people with tasty meals. It’s the cycle of life on a farm.
Monday June 29, 2020
Prize Winning Wool
While our Katahdon sheep make up the bulk of our flock, we do have a growing number of wool sheep. They are Border Leicesters, a British breed known both for their long wool and for their meat. At Namaste Farm, the wool is the focus. Our “woolies” have produced fleece that has won prizes at both the Tennessee Valley Fair and the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF). At this time we have 13 of them.
Friday June 26, 2020
Duck herding fun
Our new ducklings are not the only part of our new fascination with web-footed birds. This past weekend, Webb and I traveled to Red Creek Farm in Townville, South Carolina for our very first duck herding trial. It was a great weekend, shared with about 20 other handlers and 30 dogs. Webb has herded the ducklings at home, but this was his first time to try a competition.
Tuesday June 23, 2020
It’s raining ducks at Namaste Farm!
It’s raining ducks at Namaste Farm! We’ve decided to embrace the water theme of the last few soggy months with our own wetland fowl. As you know, until now we’ve been building our flock of chickens for both eggs and meat. Now we’re going to do the same with ducks. Take a peek at our new ducklings on the day of arrival.
