Creature Comforts Farm, LLC

08/11/2024

The torrential rain really made their wool shine though!

08/11/2024

I've been neglecting this page, but here are some pictures of the aftermath of the storms that hit northeast Ohio Tuesday, 8/6. Animals and humans here are all ok, but the 16' x 40' roof for the horses' shed is awaiting replacement. Today we gathered all the pieces that were scattered across 1/4 mile of hay field and yards.

05/13/2024

It's a tough life being a sheep here 😂

03/08/2024

There is a law trying to work its way through Congress called the Promising Pathways Act.

Essentially, it would give the FDA a way to let doctors and patients access potential treatments much faster than typical FDA approvals take. This is designed for rapidly progressing diseases where patients might not be around long enough for the full scope of FDA reviews. The decision to try or not try a given treatment would be up to the patient and their care team if there's something that shows promise.

The Musella Foundation has created a page that will autofill a letter and email it to your representatives based on your address. All you need to do is type in your info and it does the rest. It gives you the opportunity to edit the message as well if you like.

07/30/2023

It's a hatching weekend! So far, project white egg layer chicks, a Jersey Giant chick, and Ancona cross ducklings (moms are Welsh Harlequin and Khaki Campbell). Still working in the incubator are at least one more duckling that *may* be a pure Ancona, and more chicks including Jersey Giant, olive egger, and project chicks. A hawk killed our Ancona drake unfortunately so I'm really hoping for at least one or two Anconas but time will tell.

These guys are together while everyone learns to eat and drink, but they'll be separated before the ducklings get super messy. Eventually they'll join our other 2023 babies - chickens are Buckeye, project, Jersey Giant, Marans, and Ameraucana. Ducklings are Welsh Harlequin; black, blue, and fawn & white runners; Cayuga, buff, and white layer, plus a few Ancona/blue Swedish crosses. I need to get more pictures...

I haven't been hatching very many but I do have Marans available, and some nice one-year-old males including Marans, Ameraucana, exchequer leghorn (hatchery), white silkie (hatchery), and gold and silver Sebrights (hatchery).

06/19/2023

Busy couple of hours yesterday! He wasn't matted/cotted, but the dead hair was kinda glued into the new hair. Hair sheep do have lanolin so I got some hand moisturization too. In case anyone else is interested, I used an old metal mane comb because I didn't want to use shears or clippers (clippers wouldn't have gone through it anyway) and the shedding blade wasn't working. Yay for keeping old horse grooming tools around - I don't even know when I'd have last used that metal comb!

06/02/2023

Bert has opinions about haircuts, and he is not shy about expressing them! 😂

04/30/2023

It's pouring. The horses are in their shed, the sheep are in their sheds, the chickens are in their coops, and the ducks are SO HAPPY OUTSIDE!! 😂

04/13/2023

Incubators are full! If all goes according to plan, we should have ducklings and chicks at the end of April! Ancona ducks, wheaten and blue wheaten Ameraucanas, Buckeyes, and olive eggers. (Those dark brown eggs are from a Marans hen, but she's in with the Ameraucana rooster so her offspring should have olive-green-egg genes.)

04/01/2023

Neurodivergent brains in particular can benefit.

"The fine-motor movement required for knitting, crocheting, doodling or using a fidget spinner activates the same parts of the brain used for focus, said John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. So, these activities really do help to sharpen awareness. But other activities that require too much concentration, like reading a social media feed or playing a game on a smartphone, can push a person out of productivity and into unfocused multitasking."

An official in Wales was called out for knitting in a virtual meeting, setting off a debate over etiquette. Experts say the fine-motor movement activates the parts of the brain used for focus.

03/22/2023

I feel like I'm being watched....

02/28/2023

Alyssa and Toby being photogenic. I'm afraid she may have lost her pregnancy, but I refuse to give up until it's past any possible lambing date.

02/12/2023

Which is your favorite team? The Puppy Bowl at our house is much more intense than the one on TV! 😂

02/08/2023

We're getting better and better color assortments as the days get longer. Nutrition and flavor are the same but we enjoy the variety of colors!

02/08/2023

Duckw**d from the fish tanks for the chickens and ducks. They love it!

01/31/2023

I guess I get to move on to that wool-combing practice! Roving Acres came and gave Alyssa her pre-partum haircut a few weeks ago, and now we're anxiously awaiting her lamb(s)!!! The lanolin makes that new wool very shiny.

01/31/2023

Did you know that your plants might like a wool sweater too?

"...wool (soiled wool in particular) provides an excellent slow-release source of nitrogen in addition to a variety of other trace elements as it biodegrades. Wool offers further benefits in terms of soil temperature regulation, moisture retention, soil structure and is an effective w**d and pest control. Wool presents a sustainable, renewable and an all-round environmentally friendly alternative to peat, which is so often used in composts. Other applications for wool include in thermal and noise insulation, especially relevant in light of increased interest in sustainable and environmentally friendly eco-houses, constructed primarily from renewable and green materials."

https://businesswales.gov.wales/farmingconnect/news-and-events/technical-articles/use-wool-compost-and-other-alternative-applications

01/16/2023

I am having a lot of fun learning new techniques in the At Yarn's Length knit-along. I'm a week behind but I'm pretty sure it's not being graded. ;)

01/12/2023

"You wanted more practice combing wool, right?"

Thanks Alyssa.

01/01/2023

I just like this picture. Birds at bedtime, in the red light from my headlamp. I use the red so I don't scare or blind the animals in the dark.

01/01/2023

I finished this scarf last week and I love it, although now it's too warm to wear it. It's wool Urth Yarns Harmony worsted. I got it from Common Thread Saratoga and (got the first ball in Saratoga in July because I liked the colors but I had no plan. Once I started the scarf I got more in Shaker Heights.) I made the headband first but it didn't have enough colors so I made the scarf. :)

12/31/2022

I finished my first hat, thanks in part to the excellent instruction and yarn supplies at The Artful Yarn - Chagrin Falls ! It's alpaca yarn, and it's very soft and warm!

10/14/2022

Good Friday morning from the St. Croix boys!

09/18/2022

The fact that sheep have no personal space at all still cracks me up. There are multiple feed pans, and/or they could spread out around this one, but no. This is the St Croix and Cotswold ewe lambs. Don't mind Moxie's dorsal stripe. She felt the need to crawl under the horse trailer just for fun.

09/18/2022

Toby and Tesla, the Teeswaters, munching some pellets.

09/03/2022

Bert and Bean posing for pictures before being introduced to Almond and Alyssa, respectively. Bert takes himself much more seriously than Bean does.

09/03/2022

Just some cute border collies and a border-collie-sized chicken in the sunset glow.

09/03/2022

"what are YOU lookin' at???"

Bean cracks me up

08/27/2022

Look what we found! This is Toby and Tesla, a pair of Teeswater twins from Hopping Acres !! Toby is a wether who is already growing beautiful wool, and I'm sure there will be times when it's handy to have him as a babysitter. ❤️

08/24/2022

Explore the world of milk and honey. Learn how milk becomes cheese, butter, or delicious ice cream and watch the production process. Learn about bees and their role in pollination, how honey is harvested, and pollinator-friendly plants, as well as how bees contribute to many products that we use in....