A Local Farm. January 9, 2013
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: boars, Buckland, bulls, farm animals, farm life, Farmer Chuck, hogs, Llamas, sheep, the Berkshires
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Along the way yesterday, I came across a cool local farm.
OK, I didn’t exactly “come across” it – I hoped to get a few photos of this place, a very organic mix of buildings and animals along a dead-end road in Buckland.
Well, as it happened, I ran into the owner, who gave me a tour! 🙂
He had hogs in a little barn right off the road:
Quite a few of them, from full-grown to this year’s model:
They were cute up close, in a swineish way:
Gotta love that snoot! 🙂
…and cattle, including this painfully skeptical one-ton bull:
Normally, one wouldn’t cross the fence to visit such, but his Farmer-Dude assured me he had been bottle fed by his Momma, and was gentle enough to approach.
This side-o’-beef licked and slobbered my pants into the next wash as I scratched his coarse head with one hand and snapped this photo with the other:
I dug it, though I stuck to my car seat on the way home.
There were also sheep, cute little buggers too, but when I tried to take their photo, their Guardian Llama reared up in my face:
Word had it he’d lost several of his little charges recently to coyotes, and he wasn’t in the mood to humor strangers.
I had a great time talking to the farmer, a kindred spirit who wasn’t shy about proclaiming himself to be a Socialist (!) in this land of hicks and hippies.
This was a cool interlude in my day, weaving between hill-town hicks and the hippy peace-niks.
Ah, Life in the Berks! 🙂
Sheep In Sheep’s Clothing. September 10, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Canon 2X tele-Extender III, Canon 400mm f/5.6L lens, Gizmo, lambs, sheep, Shelburne MA
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Among the livestock populating our local hills are lots of sheep. They’re a favorite of local farmers because they don’t have to be milked at the crack of dawn, 365 days a year, and because they produce something, namely their wool, which doesn’t require slaughtering them and starting all over with lambs. Here are a few shots of sheep from my ride home this afternoon.
A ewe at 800mm:
This ewe is trying to keep a fence post between herself and me, but I only needed one eye to call this a postable shot.
A mother’s life is never easy, and if nursing pasture muffins is a big part of it, it’s downright hard on the knees:
…and the udder, which is constantly tugged at:
I was surprised to find this crew of lambs at this time of year. Obviously, a lifetime of living in the country doesn’t make one a farmer!
At any rate, it was fun to watch the little ones cavort in the tall grass:
…until Momma called them back together:
…and lead them away from the gaze of the stranger:
Buh-bye!
Tregelly’s Fiber Farm. August 5, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: animal communication, Bactrian camel, burros, Deerfield River valley, incredible bargains, llama, sheep, Stupa, Tregelly's Fiber Farm, weaving
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Up in the hills of nearby Hawley (though it’s only accessible by road from Buckland) sits Tregelly’s Fiber Farm, operated by Ed and Jody Cothey. It’s an amazing place filled with a menagerie of animals, many with fur useful for weaving.
Although Ed has largely given up weaving and sold off all of his looms but one (know anyone looking for a beautiful twelve-footer?) the place is still amazing to visit, as I did this past Saturday with my sweetie Susan. She has an affinity for animals, and is in fact a communicator, and needed some photos of her interacting with them, so… 😉
Susan and I were greeted by Ed and most of his nine dogs:
The house and barns sit on the brow of a hill overlooking the Deerfield river valley. The northern exposure gives a beautiful light to the great stone Stupa in the front yard:
Susan had a friend right off the bat –
Our little parade o’ fur meandered around the property, stopping to smile at common animals like goats and uncommon ones like yaks and this Bactrian camel:
These guys are BIG! They grow to over seven feet tall and can weigh over a ton. I asked Ed how they do with a New England winter, thinking of camels as desert beasts. He said these guys are native to the Mongolian plateau and the Gobi Desert, which is a desert only in that it’s dry – they routinely see temperatures of -40C in winter, and the camels do just fine!
Susan connected with some little burros…
…who were so excited and delighted to have the attention that they played up a storm!
They were a lot of fun to watch. 🙂
A little llama joined in the socializing:
…as did this somewhat skeptical sheep:
It was lovely to see, and I got lots of pictures, including this one of a sweet little Jack Russel terrier (I think) who wanted his “fifteen minutes:”
He only got three, but they were good ones! 😆
After the photo tour, Ed invited us in for tea, and we got to meet his birds, which he obviously adores as much as he loves his furred friends:
If you’re going to be in this area before November, I’d like to recommend a visit to this wonderful spot. Ed has a LOT of inventory from his now closed store, items made by his friends in countries all over the world (think Ten Thousand Villages or some such store) and is trying to move it all out before he leaves for six months in the Phillipines. Consequently, the prices are really hard to believe – I bought tee-shirts for a dollar apiece!
And if you can’t visit, I hope these photos will suffice. 🙂
Sheepies. May 14, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: farms, lambs, sheep, Spring
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I do believe that’s the collective term for sheep and lambs.
Anyway, here they are – a Momma:
…grazing contentedly among Mother Nature’s other creatures:
And, of course, their lambs:
They’re cute, those little scamps:
They’re like kids. Here’s one who seemed to be driving his feed trough around the pasture, like a child in a Christmas toy box:
Others, like their human counterparts, were only interested in one thing:
Also like people, there were some who might qualify as the “black sheep” of the family:
…though, of course, they’re not actually black:
Spring is a lovely time to be out here in the country, surrounded by all this new life.
For this, I’m grateful.
March, Going Out Like A Lamb. March 30, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: farm animals, Hop on Pop, lambs, sheep, Shelburne, Wheel-View Farm
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I know, that’s not exactly how they say it, but that’s how it is.
I stopped by Wheel-View Farm in Shelburne this Thursday AM to see their Spring lambs and perhaps take some photos. The weather was, as predicted, grey and drizzly, but I’d previously spoken to the owner and arranged to be there, so I went.
The sheep were in a dark barn, the weather being inhospitable to the young’uns, and the photos weren’t really what I’d hoped for, but the little lambs were so cute, I found myself speaking motherese and snapping away happily at celestial ISOs, resolving to deal with the quality issues later.
Here’s a newly shorn Mom decrying the attention I was lavishing on her twins:
“Go bother Junior, he’s over there playing “Hop On Pop.'”
And so he was:
Owner Carolyn grabbed one of the little ones to hold in the light so I could catch his sweet face, but when he saw my camera, he looked a little suspicious:
When he finally relaxed, he was just as cute as you’d imagine:
Soft, too. 🙂
The calves are due soon, so I’ll be back there in the next weeks to try to share that with you.
Fiber Farming. January 23, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Politics and Society.Tags: fiber farm, goatherd, goats, Jacob sheep, llama, sheep
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It’s not uncommon in these parts to find farms where the primary product is hair.
Animals which get sheared for fiber (think “sheep” as a starter) are common in Western Massachusetts.
At a farm up in Hawley, goats and their man-servant:
Goats aren’t one of the fiber producers, but that guy is – tending stock is a job without Sundays or vacations.
Jacob sheep, noted for their multiple horns:
Generally four, occasionally six. That’s news to me, but then, I’m a country boy, not a farm boy.
A Llama:
These beasties were roaming free, but with short leashes attached, which I suppose would make them easier to get hold of, if (when) you needed to.
This place was also raising pigs and Guinea hens, the latter of which played Chicken with me in the narrow road. I knew my 4-Runner could win that one, but I really didn’t want to fricassee someone’s assets. Or hurt a birdie.
Rural life continues in these parts, but it ain’t a get-rich-quick scheme.
By the way, these were all hand-held with Gizmo, my 400mm lens, from the driver’s seat of my running car. They came out better than I anticipated without image stabilization (which is a whole lot more bucks that I didn’t have when I got Gizmo.)
On The Farm. October 20, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: lamb, sheep, Shelburne
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Sheep dig dinner at a farm in upper Shelburne:
Lambs, too:
The adults were wonderfully protective of this little one, and boxed her in when she seemed inclined to come investigate me:
She disappeared from view just after I snapped this photo.
Very aware, these farm animals are.
Spring On The Farm. April 12, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: birches, calf, cow, farms, llama, Scottish Highlanders, sheep, Spring
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Springtime is busy on our local farms. Maple sugaring is winding down, and attention turns to livestock:
Dim-witted sheep stand around shorn and shivering in their barnyard Johnnies, having just been swindled out of their warm winter coats:
…yeah, I’m talkin ’bout you!
…while their distant cousins remain aloof and above it all:
Most of the farm ponds have iced out, though the grass is still just vaguely green:
…and somebody has been using the barbed wire fence for a scratching spot:
…perhaps this Scottish Highlander and her calf?
I mean, I’m totally ok with that, Yes Ma’am, no problems here…
All in all, a nice time of year in these parts:
I’m still in JPEG mode, so pardon any appreciable lack of photo quality.
They’re calling for rain the next few days, so I was glad to snag these shots today.
More Signs Of Spring. April 10, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: bull, fog, goose, rivers, sheep, turkey, wildflower
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The fabled season of rebirth is being elusive here in the Berkshires; a steady diet of cold, damp, foggy weather has been punctuated by bright days and the first wildflowers.
Here are a few shots from this past week.
A foggy dawn on the Chickley River:
Colt’s foot, with its lush flowers and strangely leafless stems, sprouts in the gravel at roadside:
Water fowl cruise the beaches and sand bars of the Deerfield:
The sheep have been shorn:
…And love is in the air. A wild tom turkey struts like a tipsy frat boy for an obviously disinterested hen:
…while a local Scottish Highland bull does, well, what bulls do:
Notice how impressed his date is.
Anyway, it’s coming, I mean, “imminent.” And I’m talkin’ about Spring!
Little Bang Theory 