Services

In addition to our products, we offer a number of services at Shaltz Farm which have grown out of our personal needs and interests. Some we have more time for during the winter months.

Fiber Flock Mailing List

is available 24 hours a day to support people who raise animals for handspinning fiber. Sign up through the links on this page.

Shearing

is offered year round to flocks near us in northwest lower Michigan. Suggestions to make shearing day easier on the shepherd, the shearer, and the sheep may be found on this page.

Wool Assessment

is offered to all shepherds who want to know just how good their wool is for handspinning.

Web Design and Updating

is an affordable service to shepherds, farmers, and small businesses who need a functional website but don't need glitz.

Classes

on spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, and related skills are also available. Use your browser's back button to return here, or go to the links page to come back to the farm home page.

Please contact us for additional information about any of these services.

Winter: Time for Indoor Activities!

Winter in northwest lower Michigan can be long, and dark, and snowy. Eight or nine feet of snow for the winter is common, and seems to arrive between Christmas and mid-January each year. Chores take longer, but at least we can move hay bales on a sled rather than having to carry it to the sheep!

This is the time of year when we spend more time indoors than out. Web design and updating, spinning and weaving, skirting, washing, and dyeing wool, and planning gardens are some of the things we do during the short, dark days.

Looking from the front door of our house to the barn, down the steps Zack shovels daily in the winter. This picture was taken January 12th, 2001, during what was really a rather light winter.

Looking up the steps from the bottom, our two housecats find their way through a late-winter snowfall. This photo was taken on March 11th, 2001. Hard to believe just a month later we were planting peas!