Farmer's Market

Our booth at the Farmer's Market at Billings Forge in Hartford has been doing well for us.

The market is open every Monday and Thursday from 11am- 2pm through October.

We have been bringing our wool batts, mohair, angora, etc. for our handspinners, Felting supplies and "learn to" felt, knit, spin etc. kits for children and adults, Fresh Goats Milk soaps, Needle felted jewelry and gifts and more.

On Mondays we offer free "mini- classes" where you can try your hand at various fiber arts such as spinning, needle felting, and more. On Thursdays we do demonstrations of our fiber arts such as needle felted wall hangings, teddy bears, spinning, etc.

Come join us! There is so much else to see at the market: fresh vegetables and breads, plants and herbs, farm fresh milk, cheese and ice cream, handicrafts, music, and so much more!

We also set up our booth at the Nutmeg Spinner's Guild in Enfield every other month, and at area craft fairs.

Fiber Art - Pink Dogwood Tree

I've been working on quite a few needle felting projects. We now have needle felted barettes, necklaces, bracelets, earrings...and now landscapes.

After studying watercolor painting for a couple of years under an outstanding teacher, I used some of what I learned about color, light and more to create these "paintings".

One of the things I really love about these felted paintings is the texture that can be created using different kinds of fibers.

New Craft Kits Available!

New craft kits are available now! Choose from Needle Felting starter kit, Make a Felted Soap Bar, Felted Ball Toy, Felted Bead Jewelry, Make yarn with a drop spindle kit. More kits are in development.

All kits come with:

*Complete Instructions with Color Pictures

*Plenty of beautifully dyed wool (some with mohair as well) from our farm

*Everything you need to complete the project(s)

These kits can be ordered through our website www.tranquilmorningfarm.com or email me for more information tranquilmorningfarm@hotmail.com

A typical day on the farm

This is a busy time of year for us (and most farms). I do this pretty much by myself, while taking care of the kids, so things are slow-going quite often. We start each day with getting big kids off to school, and little kids fed and changed, dogs fed and let out for a while, and then finally, I get to sit down with my breakfast and coffee to check my emails and handle any online business I need to do.

That finished (two cups of coffee are necessary for my proper functioning, LOL) the toddlers, dog and I head out to the morning farm chores. We give hay to the sheep and goat pens, feed the chickens, ducks and turkey, give water to the rabbits (they get their grain in the afternoon when the girls come home), empty and refill the duck pool, bring fresh water to all the various animal pens, collect eggs and milk Pearl. The toddlers get to have their fun playing on the climbers and swings etc. in the yard.

By the time this is all finished, it is time for the littlest one's nap, so in he goes. I pasturize the milk and put away the eggs. My 3 yr old and I (and the dog, of course) head back out, she to play, me to tend the sheep and goats. The pens are let loose, one pen at a time to graze (which is a good thing when the lawn tractor is broken, yet again). Addie helps keep them in check, that they don't wander past the borders. I take this time to work with the sheep/goats with whatever is needed- hoof trimming, shearing, worming, whatever. If that is done, some time can be used to clean cages, pens, etc. On a good day, I may even have time to play with the kids a bit!

Then its lunch time. We head in, the little one wakes up and we all relax for lunch. After lunch we hop in the car and head to the big pasture where we keep the horses, most of the sheep, and llama. Luckily the other horse owner there does the early morning feeding. We tend to the animals there for a couple hours. Feeding, cleaning, shearing (oh, I try to get some time alone once a week to ride the horses, if I'm lucky).

Then we head home and the older kids are all home from school. Time for homework, housecleaning, making dinner. The kids have some animal chores at home they do after school, which is a big help to me.

After the little kids go to bed and the older ones are settled watching TV, I take some time to wash fleeces, dye fibers, process fibers, spin, whatever needs to be done so we have plenty to offer at the farmers market.

Oh, and then at some point, I go to bed, LOL.

Hard work, often dirty work, but I love it!

Welcome

Welcome to our farm. Here at Tranquil Morning, we raise Santa Cruz Island Sheep, Shetland Sheep, Finnsheep and Blue-faced leicester crosses, as well as a few meat sheep crosses (tunis crosses); Colored Angora Goats,and San Clemente Island Goats; German and FrenchAngora, mini rex, Polish and Thrianta rabbits; chickens (ameracauna, aracauna, Crele old english game and Dutch bantams.), ducks and peafowl . We also have an amazing farm dog, Adelaide the English Shepherd.
We sell fiber, yarn, drop spindles, and goats milk soap- all grown and produced right here at our homestead. We can be found at the Nutmeg Spinners Guild meetings, Ct sheep and Wool Festival, . You can also order our products online from our website, www.tranquilmorningfarm.webs.com or www.localharvest.org

We hope to share with you here some of the special fibers and colors that we produce!
Thank you,
Kristen Bacon