Moorit Hill Farm

07/01/2026

With a few super hot days ahead of us and summer heat waves becoming more and more common in Maine, I figured I would share the ways we help keep our animals cool. Icelandic sheep are extremely hardy, but they were built for Iceland where it never gets this hot, so these really high temps can be especially dangerous. Despite our best efforts we have still lost animals to the heat. It’s a tough loss because there is really nothing you can do about it outside of providing them with the best resources you can given your housing/feeding/pasture set-up.

Regardless of what you are working with, fresh cold water and deep shade are essential. For water we like to use a small water trough with a float valve to fill it automatically. This keeps the water turning over so it stays fresh and cold as it keeps filling all day as the animals drink. It’s also much easier to keep it clean. In really hot and humid stretches we add an additional water with either apple cider vinegar or electrolytes in it to encourage them to drink more and replenish salts and minerals. We keep fans running in the barn all summer to keep the air moving and give them some spots to sit to cool off. We also make sure they have plenty of their loose mineral available. In extreme heat we feed them hay in the barn during the day so they don’t have to be out grazing in hot sun. An alternative to bringing them in and feeding hay is putting them in pastures with some woods and a lot of tree cover so they can graze in the shade.

These heat waves are a good time to pay attention to which animals handle it the best and which animals struggle. This can give clues to overall health and resilience and help inform decisions on who is a good fit for your flock and climate.

Stay safe and cool over the next few days!

06/17/2026

Hay day!! We depend on hay to feed our sheep through the long Maine winters when grazing is not an option. They are off of pasture from roughly November to May each year and that adds up to a lot of hay!

Haying season has begun, so now is the time to start stocking up. The nutritional quality of hay varies a lot throughout the growing season. We ideally like to feed either early first cut or second cut hay, which are both higher in energy and very palatable. Very early first cut hay, while it’s still nice and leafy and before the stems get too tough and the seed heads mature, is high in protein, sugars and digestible energy and is great for when nutritional demands are high. The generally wet springs in Maine can make getting this early season cut tricky, but this year the weather cooperated and we were able to snag a trailer load of it. We’ll be stashing this bit of green summer away until mid-winter and will feed it to our ewes during late gestation and early lactation before they can get back out on pasture next year.

This load will be about half of what we need for the winter and we’ll shoot to get the other half as second cut later in the season as long as the weather allows for it. Last year’s drought made for limited amounts of second cut available, so it feels good to have this nice early cut already in the barn!

06/14/2026

Breakfast with the old man. Magnus is one of our first rams. We credit so much of the hardy genetics and nice temperaments in our flock to him. In his prime, he was absolutely spectacular, and always a gentle giant. Now at 10 years old, his breeding days are long over. He’s showing his age and needs a little extra care and attention. Does it make financial sense to keep him around? No. But farming is hard and if you don’t make some decisions that just make you happy, whether they are practical or not, it can feel impossible. Magnus has more than earned his spot here and will live out his days having special breakfasts and slow pasture walks.

06/09/2026

Hoof trimming day for the flock!

Hoof trimming is an important part of general sheep care. Keeping hooves trimmed and healthy helps to prevent lameness, reduce the risk of infections, and keeps the sheep happy and comfortable. Overgrown hooves can trap mud and manure which can lead to infection and create uneven weight distrubution. Discomfort from poor hooves can affect their ability graze and maintain a healthy body condition. A little preventative care really goes a long way with hoof health.

Sheep generally need a trim a few times a year depending on the breed, the weather conditions, and the terrain they are walking on. Twice a year is typically good for us, but we keep an eye on the sheep with less nice hooves and do extra trims as needed for them. Mineral is of course an important part of hoof health as well. We’ve seen big improvements with feeding a mineral mix with plenty of zinc in it.

06/04/2026

We’ve got our new yarn and hats from our spring wool up on the website! It turned out as a lovely sport-ish/DK-ish weight yarn and I love the lighter weight hats from it! I know it’s not exactly wool hat season but these are great for chilly nights camping or evenings at the beach. And even better, come see us in person at this weekend! We’ll have all the new goods as well as the usuals: lopi, hats, rug yarn, woven mats, and sheepskins. We’ll also be accepting fiber for processing. Hope to see you there!

06/02/2026

It was mineral bolus day for the sheep. Getting your sheep the right minerals is probably one of the most important things you can do for your flock. Having the proper mineral balance impacts pretty much EVERYTHING: general health, disease resistance, resilience to environmental pressures, fertility, lambing ability, parasite resistance/resilience, fiber quality, etc. It can take time and a lot of trial and error to find what works for your flock. Over the last few years we have started giving these slow release mineral boluses twice a year in addition to loose mineral and kelp. These help to ensure every animal is getting what they need even if they don’t eat much of the free choice mineral we provide, and boy, we have seen huge improvements in areas that we were having issues in! It feels really good to try something and see positive results! Thanks for making it easy to get our hands on these!

05/25/2026

05/06/2026

Shearing day! It’s always nice to get those winter fleeces off. The girls were looking a bit ratty. Now to get busy making yarn! As always, thank you for wrangling our feisty bunch.

04/24/2026

Exciting news! We are returning part time to the Skowhegan Farmers' Market this year and our first market is tomorrow! We were at this market for a few years and loved it and after some time away in the mill we are ready to get back! We’ll be guest vending once a month with all of our sheep goods. We’ll have our pasture raised lamb and naturally tanned sheepskins, and our yarn, hats and woven mats that are all grown, spun and knit on our farm. Can’t wait to see you all there! Our dates for the season are 4/25, 5/30, 6/27, 7/25, 8/29, 9/19 & 10/31

04/23/2026

Our 8th lambing season has come to a close! Our final count is 33 lambs from 18 ewes. After mostly ewe lambs to start the season the rams caught up a bit by the end and we finished with 19 ewe lambs and 14 ram lambs. It was one of our smoothest lambing seasons yet. Over these past 8 years we have worked hard to get nutrition dialed in and have really seen it pay off. Less grain during pregnancy cut down on giant lambs, and our current mineral and supplements seem to be working well for fewer malpresentations and quick and easy labors. It’s a slow process to learn and adjust from because it takes a whole year to see if our changes worked, but we are getting there! We had no issues during pregnancy and no losses or stillborns, so I am a happy shepherdess!

We had a special treat this year of having come to visit and beautifully capture some lambing season moments. The first 7 photos are from her, the rest are mine from later in the season. I’m sure you’ll be able to see the difference!