Volume 12,
Number 1, March 2008
It is early March as we write
this edition of "What's New at Whitefish Bay Farm". As yet,
winter has not seen fit to give us any major signs that it will be
loosening its hold upon us. We do not necessarily look at those
conditions in a totally negative light. What it has meant in the
positive sense is that we have experienced a more "normal" winter than
we have over the last few years. We have had greater snow
fall this season which we hopes translates into a better
level of moisture to start the
growing season when the weather turns warm. With luck we may not
experience the extreme degree of drought this summer that we had to
endure last year.
There are signs that spring
cannot be held back indefinitely.
Each morning for the last couple of days,
the male Cardinals in the neighborhood have been serenading their loves
(and us) with song. Down in the barn the ewes are all shorn and
snuggled up. Without their full fleeces it becomes evident just
how far along they are with their pregnancies. Beginning with the
second
week of March the lambs will start arriving. It will be an
intense lambing season this year. We hoped to have bred 77 ewes.
Those who are pregnant will all deliver in a three week period.
We have cut back a bit from previous years on the number of ewes that
we tried to breed, but even with the smaller numbers we expect a good
sized lamb crop by the time the pastures are green and ready to be
grazed.
Once the ewes have finished
lambing and both of us have had a day or two to rest up, we plan to
once again offer our fleeces for sale online. If all goes well we hope
to post the new fleeces to the website in early to mid April. If you
are interested in purchasing one or more fleeces from us you may wish
to look at our Fleece Page and
also contact us to be on our mailing list to be notified when the
fleeces are ready to be listed for sale.
The Bed and Breakfast will be
opening for guests on the first of May. We look forward to welcoming
back old friends and making new aquaintences. As usual we will be
offering a full breakfast to start each day followed by the opportunity
to visit with the sheep and lambs out on their pastures. The tour has
become such a tradtion that the sheep seem to look forward to the visit
as much as we do.
2008 marks the start of the
second 25
years of operation for the Art Gallery. As a prelude to the season we
will
oncce again play host to the Door County
Shepherds' Market. The event offers the fiber enthusiast and the
public in general an opportunity to view and purchase, raw and
processed fiber, yarn
and finished products. All are products of fiber producers from the
Door Peninsula.
We look forward to the
introduction of a number of new artists. The Early Summer Exhibit (May
24th - June 30) features Leonard Quartetti, photographer and Rosie
Dittmann, fiber artist. The Mid Summer Exhibit (July 2 - August 4)
features oil painter David Lupes and wood turner Ralph Pipp. The Late
Summer Exhibit (August 6 - September 4) will highlight Caitlin Leline's
watercolors and handspun yarns by Ginny Killough. The Fall Exhibit
(September 5 - 30) features photography by Hank Erdmann and jewelry by
Jennifer Dahl.
The Gallery will be closing for the season a bit earlier than normal so
that Gretchen can attend SOAR, (the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat - a
national gathering of handspinners).
The
Gallery is open daily from Noon to 5, but is closed on Tuesdays.
Upcoming events:
- Fleece
Sale, early to mid April.
- May 1st the B&B opens for the year.
- The Door County Shepherds' Market , Saturday,
May 17th and Sunday May 18th.
- Whitefish Bay Farm Gallery opens for its regular season
on Saturday May 25th.
