Cider Mill Farm

06/22/2023

My recent hand spun yarn right off the wheel. My my my! If I do say so myself - gorgeous!! Polworth, black bamboo, and silk fiber mix. Yum!

06/11/2023

Update: We changed her name to Daphne! Why? Because her new boyfriend was delivered today and we named him Niles! Who gets the reference??

Please welcome this beautiful Blue Faced Leicester ewe lamb to the farm! Meet Sybil, our first BFL! A big thank you to my friend and fellow sheep-lover Karen Bowles who took the trip to Trial & Error Acres farm with me in MD today to pick her up. Thank you so much Nancy Cox Starkey! We love her!

06/03/2023

06/03/2023

Biggest sale ever in my Etsy shop yesterday- Whoo hoo! 10 hand-dyed, multiple breed yarn skeins to a repeat buyer in Alaska! Feeling gratefull! 🥰

06/02/2023

Shearing the big fluffy rams yesterday at the farm- a massive thank you to the master shearer Kevin Hickman! The before and the after 😃

05/30/2023

This gorgeous bundle of registered Cotswold ram joined our farm yesterday- welcome General Washington! A massive Thank You to Trimont Farm for sending this beautiful boy our way. Just look at that lustrous fleece! He’ll be making some gorgeous little recruits later this autumn!

05/30/2023

Hahahaha!

Love it.

05/29/2023

Welcome to the farm! Our two registered Katahdin ewe lambs arrived this week. Thank you to the University of Maryland - yes they have a flock of sheep! These beautiful and sweet-natured girls join our ram lamb Freddy Mercury. Welcome Tina Turner and Janis Joplin!

05/22/2023

Two milestones on the farm! Yesterday, fellow shepherd and friend Karen Bowles and I ear tagged most of this season’s lambs. Here’s what this first-timer learned: 1) You can’t do it alone. You need one person to hold the lamb very close and as still as possible while the other person operates the ear tagger, 2) The ear tagger takes two hands to push the tag through the ear (at least for me it did), and 3) there wasn’t as much wailing as I thought there would be. Karen and I only wailed when the first tag we inserted didn’t connect the male end to the female end in the lamb’s ear. There was wailing and hand-wringing until Karen (the logic) figured out what we needed to do to hand-connect the two parts. The lambs never wailed once, Lol. I was surprised! And the second milestone was weaning! I’ve separated 3 mama ewes from 6 lambs today. NOW there’s plenty of wailing going on - from both mamas and babies. It’s gonna be hard to sleep tonight. The remainder get weaned in about 10 days.

05/20/2023

Photos from Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival's post

05/20/2023

If you understand this, then your childhood Saturdays were well spent!!! 🤣🤣

05/20/2023

05/19/2023

Off to a new customer in Alaska! Hand-dyed baby llama- ohhhhh sooooo sooooft! “Island Days” from my Etsy shop “Cider Mill Farm”.

05/18/2023

All is right in this shepherd’s world tonight. ❤️❤️❤️

05/14/2023

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, Godmothers, aunts, and other mother figures out there.

05/07/2023

This is so.much.fun!

05/05/2023

And this is how big the LGDs are now- !! They’ll be 8 months old in 10 days.

04/30/2023

Yesterday’s project: building the Cider Mill Farm Cafe for the lambs with friend and fellow shepherd Karen Bowles. No adults allowed! A super cool hangout place where the lambs can grab a snack anytime, catch a couple of hours in the shade or get out of the rain, talk smack about how their parents just don’t get them, or get some undisturbed “Me Time”. It’s the talk of the neighborhood- 5 stars on Yelp already!

04/29/2023

I’ll be there!

04/24/2023

The 2023 Running of the Lambs!

04/22/2023

Sounds about right.

04/21/2023

I need this sign for the ram pasture!

In other words, you're not welcome here. 🤣

04/21/2023

True for me!

04/21/2023

I love this design!

Just wanted to take a minute and congratulate Alexis Knight on winning the OFFF logo contest. We love it so much.

This talented young woman has been attending OFFF since the age of 10. We are so glad to be able to use this great graphic that celebrates both weaving and the long wool sheep breeds.

We also want to thank all the others that entered the contest. We hope you will participate again next year.

04/18/2023

Our Babydoll Southdown ewe lambs Ani and Abbey are settled in on their new farm tonight near Charlottesville VA. We’ll miss you girls! Have a happy life! ❤️

04/17/2023

Just another day when you see a mama and her twins hanging out in the backyard.

04/16/2023

Your laugh for the day! And darn, I need one of these!

04/16/2023

And……. It’s a wrap! The farm’s first lambing season is officially over with the birth of two American purebred Wensleydale ram lambs last night! Of course the ewe Mimi kept them hostage until the ONE night she knew I’d be out of town. But my shepherdess-in-training did a great job assisting Mimi and has officially earned her shepherd’s crook! Way to go Karen Bowles!!

04/15/2023

Hahahahahahaha!

04/15/2023

Welcome our newest ram lamb to the farm! He’s a registered Katahdin and will be our herd sire for our Katahdin herd in the coming years. Thinking of names for this handsome hunk…. Suggestions welcome

04/08/2023

04/06/2023

This year’s crop of lambs - so far! - enjoying the afternoon out on the farm.

04/06/2023

Why do I even bother with being on social media? My answer today is the same answer I gave when I started agvocating (advocating for agriculture) a few years ago. I do it because I feel like it is something God called me to do.

Honestly, when I first felt like God was telling me to sharing my life with a bunch of people I didn't know, I just wanted to ignore Him. Even people that do know me in real life sometimes think the fact that I am outspoken on social media is rather ironic because I am such an introvert. I'm the type of person who thinks that the earth swallowing me whole is preferable to having to speak in public. I actually considered dropping out of the Veterinary Tech program in college over the fact that I'd have to do a 15 minute presentation in front of class. Seriously.

But I decided to go for it. Ignoring God after all doesn't tend to work out that well; He will find a way to get you to listen. The first few years I was only on Instagram but then I felt like God was pushing me to include also being on Facebook. I'm not gonna lie, it takes a ton of time to be as active as I am on social media and it can be really hard. So why bother?

Because I want to fight for the future of agriculture in America.

Because I want to help people learn a little about farming.

Because I want to be able to teach farmers about what I do with dairy calves.

Because I want to change people's minds.

Because I want to bring glory and honor to God.

And social media gives me the opportunity to do all that.

I've gotten so many positive comments and messages from people thanking me for sharing the truth about agriculture.

I've been told by a lot of other dairy farmers how much my posts have helped them to do a better job raising their own calves.

I might not feel like I can make a difference, but then I realize my posts reach 600,000+ people a week. That's 600,000+ people who have seen something posted by a dairy farmer, some of whom God has used my posts to change and save their lives. Literally.

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So I'm here. I'm letting God use me how He wants and fighting for the future of agriculture. Thank you for being willing to listen!

04/04/2023

I love this baby Border Leicester lamb!

04/03/2023

My Babydoll bottle baby Ani enjoying the sunshine today. She’s a happy, lively little girl, loving life!

04/03/2023

Annnnnd…… another new Customer in PA! This is Kent Romney combed top, hand dyed by moi - “Candy”!

04/03/2023

Another surprise birth of Babydolls on the farm last night - our little Gracie delivered a healthy baby girl all by herself! Meet Abbey! Less than one day old ❤️.

03/30/2023

Mailing off to a new Etsy Customer in Oregon - “Tomato Patch”!

02/05/2023

So excited to have picked up our farm’s FIRST Harlequin today, a 10 month old ewe with lineage tracing back to the original Harlequin flock created right around the corner in Warren County VA! Momentous! Please welcome our farm’s Harlequin dam, Beyoncé (Queen Bey) fka Maureen O’Hara ❤️. A HUGE thank you to Seeing Spots Farm for parting with this beauty and another HUGE thank you to my two partners-in-crime who helped me get Queen Bey from their farm to ours, Emily Simon and Karen Bowles! ❤️❤️❤️

02/04/2023

Yep!

Dreaming and planning about this year's garden in between shoveling and kidding😊