All hail 2016

I never saw myself when I came to farming as running a wool cooperative. From my table where I write this I can usually see about 300 sheep across two fields with the moor touched by Jacob’s ladders behind, the first sun of this midwinter. But the sheep are in, the ground poached and this rain just keeps coming.

Once I would have looked at my sheep and thought about how they’d be during lambing. Were they healthy? A good size? Were their feet OK? Do they need dagging? How do their rear ends look? How close are we to welcoming the next generation? What was the weather report - are we lambing in or out this year?

Now, as well as all that, I find myself down in the fields testing fleece. How long is it? What’s the crimp? The texture? Was that a good mix for wool as it was for meat? Is the lanolin rising early in all this warm weather?

This year I’ve learnt to get ahead, or to stay ahead, you have to try new things. I met a lady the other day who only spun Blue Faced Leicester. Occasionally a Devon Close Wool will throw up in its early life a fleece that is similar in texture to a BFL – not as fine – but with the same small crimps. I gave her some to try. I gave her some Dorset and some beautiful Romney. We talked about rare breeds, native breeds, Devon breeds. She’d stuck with what she’d known as she was worried anything more would need a whole new lot of skills or equipment to get the yarn she wanted.

She came back to me today and told me how excited she was by the world I’d let her discover with a simple gift. It had made her look at the world around her differently, to think local.

I realized in that minute I was just the same and 2016 will be a good year for change.

Happy New Year from me :)