Wintervine Farm

10/18/2026

Bob spent a couple of weeks slowly working his way through the flock, getting ready for breeding season, which included pedicures. Once the rams are in and the ewes are pregnant, we try to keep things pretty quiet. Some of the ewes are very skilled at evasive maneuvers, but it's a cat-and-mouse game. For Eleven, who is notoriously skilled at evasive maneuvers, Bob hid behind Maxima to slowly creep up on her until launching himself to grab a leg.

Bob is posing here with Eleven like he bagged a 12-point buck! 🤣
After he successfully caught her and trimmed her hooves, she came back for head scratches, like she had made peace with being handled, or wanted to demonstrate her good sportsmanship when he prevailed.

Someday, we might have a working facility in the pasture to make it easier. The days we can use the shepherd's crook are over. As soon as they see the crook, they are on high alert and keep their distance. 😅

We have the last batch of lambs going to slaughter in a couple of weeks (USDA-inspected/Halal). This is your last chance to get half a or whole lamb at the lowest cost per lb and to choose your own cut sheet. The next batch will be next July. A few are spoken for, and a few are available.

10/17/2026

It's hay day! We have lots of help and are paying family/friends in 🍕. 😁 Second cut hay took a while this year since our area had so much rain. This will feed the sheep from December to March. Can you smell the hay through your screen? It smells wonderful.😊

09/28/2026

Hello autumn!! The weather is gorgeous. I'm starting to shift to lunch or early-afternoon walks instead of evening walks. We had the first apple from the Cortland tree Bob planted for me. Delicious!!! Bob cleaned out the woodstove pipe. We had our first light frost this past week.

After several years of investing heavily in the land and livestock, we are shifting gears to address the house. When you buy land to grow food, the house is probably a very distant second priority. Bob would study soil maps before we would look at a house and after several months of searching, we bought this 118 property with Bob's parents in 2018.

After a few months of estimates, we have a host of repairs starting up this week. Here's the last photo of our 30-50-year-old roof. One contractor thought the exposed fastener roof was installed in the 1930s. It doesn't seem possible, but then, I would never doubt what Walt Joba Jr was able to accomplish. 😅

09/26/2026

Goodbye summer. There's a certain grief of never feeling like you totally enjoyed all of it, while also being ready to embrace the routine of slower seasons.

09/07/2026

You might not want to buy ground beef from the store soon... or fast food burgers...

"President Trump signed a proclamation last week that will allow the duty-free importation of about 660 million pounds of inexpensive beef.

If American consumers knew where that beef was coming from, they might not want to eat it.

The cuts of meat covered by Trump’s proclamation aren’t fresh sirloins, rib eyes and filets. They’re lean beef trimmings that will be added to fattier American cuts to make ground beef. They’re small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers.....

Until a new labeling act gets passed, if you want to eat a hamburger, I suggest going to your local butcher shop, rather than the supermarket, ordering cuts of American beef, and asking for them to be ground on the premises. Or grind it at home. Otherwise, there’s really no way of knowing what’s in your meat, or how many international borders it crossed to reach your plate."

On second thought, I’m not that hungry.

09/02/2026

Happy September... which... do not forget, we are still in late summer!

The rams are wondering when breeding season is... almost fellas, almost. Usually, we make breeding groups in early fall.

Pambo is the ram out front here. Our newest ram. He will add a lot of length to his offspring, and he's just pretty. Judas, is on the left- he's a master of muscle. His son Cleopas is on the right. Some breeding pairings are tried and true, where we really like the lambs. Some breeding pairings are made to complement traits. Other breedings- like with Pambo, is to keep the genetics from being too close (keeping an eye on the inbreeding coefficient).

08/31/2026

Some summer evening friskies.

One video is in the newly seeded area with horseweed. It takes some time for pasture to get established when converting from corn to pasture. We seed orchard grass and clover ,but Horseweed seems to be part of the process of new pasture. The sheep love it like it's a delicacy. 😅

08/27/2026

Why Local Meat Matters- featuring our farm and Beatrice as a cover girl. 😍

08/24/2026

Groggy doggy. She has a dog house, but she seems to enjoy making a bed in the cool dirt to keep cool.

08/22/2026

Garlic is harvested! $1/bulb

I was cooking the other night and went out and cut off a couple of bulbs!! It’s mild with a lot of depth/breadth to the flavor. You’ll never eat storebought garlic again! 🧄