WhirldWorks Farm
A small homestead and Debouillet sheep farm in Central Texas
WhirldWorks LIVE! Virtual Vending Event TODAY
We were scheduled to be vendors at the Texas Yarn Lovers event this weekend, but alas, as with all else, the event was cancelled. However, you can still have the opportunity to view all of the vendors who had planned to participate through Texas Yarn Lovers Virtual Vendors online event.
Tune in to our live fiber show on Instagram @whirldworksfarm today from 2-3pm. We are located in a rural area so connectivity can sometimes be an issue. If our live feed bugs out, click to our YouTube channel on our bio page for the recorded version of the live show (as soon as we can upload it) and other videos of the goings on at our farm. You can place orders live during the show by sending messages or by sending us an email: whirldworks@gmail.com
Here is a schedule for the other vendors:
Fitted Face Mask with Wool Filter
The mask thing wasn’t something I was eager to participate in. We are, after all quite isolated as it is. What use would we have for such a thing? But my grandparents asked if we could find them a few on Amazon and order them as they aren’t all that savvy when it comes to internet shopping. I looked on Amazon to see what they had…and wasn’t impressed. So I looked for an easy pattern to follow to make them some masks myself. We have a pretty slow internet connection, and not very much data, so we subscribe to YouTube to download videos in the early morning hours when we have a more generous streaming allowance. I found a pretty simple instructional that got me a basic mask but then I decided to add a pleat at the nose and the chin for more protection and better fit and I thought , why not use some wool? So I did! The result is a pretty stout little mask with a measure of air filtration sewn in. It is NOT hot by the way. One common misconception about wool is that it is hot, but truly some of the virtues of wool are that it is a great insulator to keep you warm when it is cold and it breathes very well to also keep you cool, other wise our sheep would die of heat stroke in the hot Texas sun.and the generation of mankind that only had clothes made from wool and had NO air 
conditioner would not have been able to wear it. It is also antimicrobial, antibacterial and naturally flame and moisture resistant. <https://skeinyarn.com/blogs/blog/34415044-10-wondrous-properties-of-wool> So if you haven’t explored wool, there is no better time than now. And of course if you need some wool send me a message and I’ll let you know what I have in stock. Also if you’d like to order a mask from me, made as shown in the tutorial, I’ll try to make you one. I’m charging $12 for these but I have limited materials, thread and fabric choices and fabric stores are a bit slower and lower in inventory than normal. Send me a message and I’ll make as many as I can! Here is a link to my tutorial. This is my first attempt at making an instructional video with text and music. There is a little bit at the end where you can heal my 7yo doing school work 😉 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaCHi38FZQ>
Our First Calf
In these crazy times of ours there are still moments of beauty and amazement. I will try to catch up on all the fun and wonderful times we’ve been having on the farm even in the midst of this terrible pandemic. For now though, I wanted to make a special post announcing the arrival of our first calf this morning.
We now have a few years of lambing under our belt, but the prospect of bringing a new calf into our lives has been something that has brought us some uncertainty. The sheep have been so easy and we’ve never had to intervene. We have heard many stories of difficulties cows can have during birth.
Due to this we have been keeping a very close watch on Ada, the cow. We were pretty sure yesterday that calf day was very close. I checked on her several times and tried, without success, to keep the guardian dogs out of her pasture.
This morning we checked on her first thing, but no calf. We got the boys up, dressed, and began making breakfast. Before we ate I ran out for one more check. There, standing next to Ada, was her brand new baby boy! It was such an exciting moment we left the start of breakfast on the counter and everyone rushed out to see the new addituon to our farm.
He’s a big, strong British White calf whi, for now, is just as frindly and sweet as his momma.
Sybil delivered her first lamb!
Thursday morning when we got to the barn to let the sheep out for the day, to our delight we found that Sybil was beginning to deliver her first lamb. *graphic alert* Read More
2020 Lambing season is here
Busted! I know what you were doing last night
As we approached you two this morning we knew something was up. You both sat quietly at the gate with those “I’m sorry mommy” eyes. It didn’t take too much longer before we realized how you spent your evening.
Aside from your super innocent stares, everything looked normal around the barn. But as we got closer our noses betrayed you. I almost feel sorry for the skunk that you decided to play with last night, but these are not tears of sorrow. You STINK!!
If ever there was a case of chemical warfare on the farm it had to involve the pungent spray from a skunk. It’s not even possible to try to give you a dousing to remove the smell because our lungs try to shut down the closer we get to you.
It may take a day or two before we can even think of getting close to you, much less try to bathe that smell out of your thick fur. Until then, you can eat your dinner around the side of the barn.
Are We About to Add a Calf to the Farm?
When we first purchased our beautiful British White heifer we have been wondering if she was going to have a calf. The rancher we bought her from said that she had been exposed to a bull, but did not do any tests for pregnancy. He did say if she was indeed pregnant that she would probably give birth close to March.
We are almost to march and we’ve been watching her close. She has been an energetic lady since coming to the farm but for the last couple of weeks she has been a little less active and prone to finding a quite place to lay down. But even though she’s laid down, she has always jumped up when we approached looking for a treat.
Today we saw her lying down, but when we approached she didn’t get up. She just kind of looked at us with that look of determination that something is going on and she’s ready to take it on. She was so docile that she ven let our new little puppy play around and jump on her.
We’ve had plenty of lambs drop on the farm, but this will be a first calving experience. We hope she’s as good a momma as our ewes have been, but we’ll be here for her if she needs us. So the next two questions are:
- When will it be delivered
- Will it be a boy or a girl
January 2020 Update
I was going to title this entry “Winter Update” but as winter has yet to visit us for more than a day or two this past season, I simply decided to call it the January update.
There hasn’t been a lot of farm action going on the last couple of months outside of the normal, daily chores. Our big projects so far this Winter have been mostly home-front related. Our son loves the tree-house we built him, even though it still lacks a roof.
Our current farm project involves getting the barn ready for Spring lambs. It’s hard to say exactly how many of the ewes are pregnant this year because due to the mild weather there has been a pretty steady supply of grass. A few of them look exceptionally round though so we do expect a certain number of lambs. The wood floor has worked so well for our sheep that we’ve decided to finish the other side of the barn the same way except for the addition of separate lambing pens.
I was somewhat concerned that we would not have enough time to get the floor and pens in while also designing a way to keep the pens warm, but so far this winter that doesn’t seem to be a problem we need to solve right away.
Our British White cow may be expecting, but again, this is a first experience for us. We were told when we purchased her that she had been exposed to a bull and that it was likely she was pregnant. She does seem a bit rounder in the belly than when we bought her, but again, there has been plenty to eat and we have nothing in our experience to tell us what a pregnant cow should look like at this stage. We’re not all that concerned, but we are making sure she gets plenty of food, water and minerals just in case.
In fact, the other day I was walking around the farm and for a split second I thought there was a calf standing next to her. In reality, what was standing next to her was our #2 livestock guarding dog. He is getting incredibly huge and his feet still seem bigger than his body so I have a feeling he is not yet done growing!
Other than that, right now there isn’t a lot to report on the farm. We do have some seedlings growing in the garage for our Spring garden, so look for our garden updates pretty soon!
Saying goodbye to 2019 and hello to 2020
We want to thank all of you for a wonderful 2019 and wish you a very happy New Year!
There were so many firsts for us in 2019 and we have learned much from each one of them. The festivals we attended for our very first time introduced us to a wonderful culture of friendly, talented folks. We didn’t meet our financial goals with the festivals, but we believe the advice, encouragement, and insight we truly believe we’ll have better experiences next year.
One thing that I believe I forgot to mention though is that we did SELL OUT of all of our wool inventory this year. Although our festival sales were lower than we anticipated, an online customer purchased one of our last fleeces. She was so impressed with it that she contacted us to buy all of our remaining inventory!
We hope to have our next batch of wool from the mill in time to start off our first 2020 festival strong. In the mean time, we do still have many hand-spinning drop spindles as well as a few jewelry sets and crochet sheep remaining.
We look forward to sharing our 2020 experiences as well as reading about yours.
Our Farm Fall Colors of 2019
Yes, we’re almost into the throws of Winter, but for the past month it’s been difficult to tell from the beautiful weather we’ve been having. It’s been a little on the cold side (for us) the last couple of days, but for the last couple of weeks we’ve really had a wonderful fall. I wasn’t quite sure that would be the case after our very cold snap at the end of October and into November. I thought for sure we were in for a long, cold winter, but it has actually been very beautiful.
Perhaps it was that early cold spell we had, but we experienced some really pretty colors in the trees during the month of November. Now the colors here are nothing that even come close to the Northeast, but for around here it was a welcome change. It is more typical for our trees here to go from green to brown to bare in just a matter of a week or two so the colors really invited us to take a walk in our woods.
It was the end of November before we got a chance to stroll under the canopy and I do believe it was the first time we’ve been out there together as a family since last Spring. The woods aren’t a great place to venture into once the poison ivy and snakes come out so we always look forward to the winter months when we can better enjoy the other half of our little piece of heaven.
One thing was certainly different about our first Fall visit to the woods though. In years past we typically received quite a bit of rain and the creek would run making the sight even more breathtaking. Unfortunately we are still suffering drought and our creek had little more than a few puddles here and there. No rushing waterfalls or gurgling stream this year.
Even so, the woods are still a pretty magical place to visit. We do have a couple of paths that we cleared out a couple of years ago, but without regular maintenance nature tries to take over pretty quickly. I do hope some day to have the time (and equipment) needed to make really nice walking paths. When we do get the typical heavy Fall rains, a large portion of our woods does flood and those floods bring plenty of fallen trees and trash from upstream which can add more work to keeping a clear trail year-round.
The lack of rain aside, our walk in the woods was rewarding and reinvigorating after so many months spent working feverishly to get ready for the Kid-N-Ewe festival. When I was living in the city, I really didn’t like Fall and Winter all that much because the sparse landscaped trees just looked sad and lonely. Now that we have our own forest to explore during the cooler months, I have grown a new appreciation for the beauty of the season.
There really is quite a bit of life going on in the forest this time of year and most of it goes unnoticed during the Spring and Summer when the leaves mask and hide everything around them, including the sun and sky. During this time of year you can see where all the birds had been nesting and the plants on the forest floor reach for the light that has been shuddered the rest of the year. We don’t see a lot of wildlife in our woods, mostly I believe due to our big, loud dogs that probably scare most things worth seeing away. But in the damp soil many more footprints and tracks are visible with the aid of extra sunlight. It’s fun to see the tracks of raccoons and deer (and of course coyote and wild hogs). This lets us know that are woods are not void of wildlife as it may seem sometimes.
I’ll now share a few pictures from around our farm and woods so you too can experience, in part, what we’ve enjoyed so much this Fall.
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