Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival

We had a very exciting time at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this year.

It was our first year bringing sheep to show and we got Reserve Champion Ewe with our yearling Bluefaced Leicester.

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Tony showing Ellesmere at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival during the Great Lakes Bluefaced Leicester Show

Tony and Nicole showing off Ellesmere as the Reserve Champion Ewe of the 2009 Great Lakes Bluefaced Leicester Show.

Ellesmere
Reserve Champion Ewe

We look forward to next year's show and hope to bring some winners. Thanks again to Brenda Lelli of Beechtree Farm for giving us a great start in Bluefaced Leicesters.

Welcome home to our new Bluefaced Leicester sheep

We've been keeping busy here at Grace Haven Acres. We just added some beautiful Bluefaced Leicester sheep to our flock of Border Leicesters. I would like to thank Brenda Lelli of Beechtree Farm for helping us get a strong start in Bluefaced Leicesters.

MacLellan

We like to call him Mac.

Ellesmere

This is her as a lamb when she was Grand Champion Ewe at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last year. She is now a much larger yearling; we haven't got our new camera up and running yet.

Nightshade

This is her in 2006 at the Michigan State Fair;

Grand Champion of the colored show I think.

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We also have two other ewe lambs but I don't know their names at present. When I get the camera going I'll take pictures of them and post their names.

Glorious Gardening

Today was a glorious day for gardening! I got all of my pepper plants in the ground and my onions. I put some well aged compost in the holes of the pepper plants. Hopefully it won't be too much nitrogen and give me only beautiful plants and few peppers.

Tomorrow we'll be putting up some woven wire and planting the tomatoes. No tomato cages to be found here so we're using what we have on hand. The nice thing will be, once we have it up, we can leave it there forever.

I'm going to try to plant a small patch of peas and see if they will grow well even though I should have planted them quite a while ago. There's nothing I like better about gardening than eating fresh picked peas. Do I have to bring some to the house? :-)

My seven year old is excited to plant some corn tommorow. I told her that she could sell it at the farmers market. I should get a lot of mileage with that. She'll be keeping the weeds well picked so her corn can grow big and tall! I'll teach her how to bag the ears and do hand pollinating so we can save seeds for next year.

Sustainable farming at Grace Haven Acres

Welcome to the beginning of our farm's blogging adventure.
Grace Haven Acres is a small farmette located in the beautiful unglaciated hills of Southwestern Wisconsin.

We practice sustainable farming methods to improve our soil and our environment. Composting, cover crops and crop rotation are the three Cs we utilize to achieve our goal of being sustainable. We do not use the three chemical cides:pesticides, herbacides or fungicides.
Our goal is to improve our soil each year and to increase the health and depth of our topsoil. Another goal is to provide nutrient dense produce that will provide people with nourishment and not just a full belly. Real Food for Real People is our motto along with Healthy soil=Healthy plants=Healthy people

We currently have a small flock of purebred Border Leicester sheep that rotationally graze on our pastures. I'll be talking more about them on one of our other blogs:http://leicesterlover.blogspot.com/.

We also are starting a small flock of Speckled Sussex Chickens that won't be ready to lay eggs for some time. Welsummer chickens are another breed that I would like to get some day. They lay some of the darkest eggs you've ever seen.

We have a very limited amount of lamb for sale each year. We can take orders to raise meat chickens and turkeys for you for your eating pleasure. Our poultry is pastured poultry and they are moved to a fresh salad bar each day. They also get to enjoy fresh caught worms that our children find for them to eat. The children find it very amusing to see a chicken with a worm in its mouth running around trying to keep the others from snatching the worm from its mouth.

Our first chickens will be available in six weeks. Be sure reserve your birds with a downpayment. gracehaven@mwt.net