Of Course She Is

Here are a few more shots from Andy's integration day.  I was so sad to not find a good shot of Kate for the calendar this year.  Calendar pictures need to be the right direction (horizontal, not vertical), sharp, good color, interesting composition, high resolution...  I think we've got one for next year!

Kate goes everywhere with me, especially if there are sheep involved...which there almost always are ;-). Her motto is "I can help you with that!"  When I let the main flock into Graham and Andy's paddock the other day, I went in with them to make sure no one tried to modify the borrowed "space ship".  Kate followed me in, but I didn't notice that because I was busy taking pictures.

I don't have much true stock dog experience.  Iris and I figured out more things than I thought we did over the years, but I definitely need more training.  Letting Kate follow me into a paddock full of sheep, while accidentally setting up a nice photo, might be a big no-no.  Not paying attention to my dog in the first place is probably even a bigger no-no.  A dog not as good as Kate would probably teach me that lesson the hard way ;-).

However, to me (again, remember I am definitely no expert), if I turn around and see that my dog has followed me somewhere, but is laying down waiting patiently while I'm goofing off not paying attention, that's not just a pretty calendar shot.  I think that means she's a great dog and I am so honored for the opportunity to get to learn from her.  I am looking forward to stepping up my game this year!

We all sat out there in the paddock for a good while letting everyone get acquainted.  Being a cocky young punk, Andy got a fair sampling of who would send him flying if he got too friendly (Rebecca Boone) and who would make some good new friends for him (the boys).  When I was ready to clear them out of there, Kate was up in an instant.

"I can help you with that!"

We had to make an emergency run to Florida this weekend.  My mother is in the hospital down there and needed someone to come get their two dogs and cat who were traveling with them.  I left a note for our farm sitter explaining how to use Kate to set hay out for the sheep.  "Open the stall door. She knows what to do."  I got a text the next morning, "Kate's awesome!"  She really is :-).

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Here's a new puzzle and a new puzzle tip.  If you click the puzzle piece at the bottom right of the frame it takes you to the same puzzle, but on the puzzle site.  There, if you click "play as", you can change the number of pieces to make it easier or harder, depending on your mood.  Have fun and stay warm!

Yarn Along

Well, the house renovation...what a time consuming, stressful mess.  I'm not the sort of person who can easily handle having my "home" torn up.  And it's ALL torn up.  And...that's all I'm going to say about it.

I was planning on saving Baaxter's sweater for the Iknitarod, but decided to go ahead and start it now so that if I had any spare time or needed to go hide in the barn, I'd have some soothing simple knitting to keep me company.  

Casting on this afternoon was supposed to be my reward for living through the morning without killing Saint Tim anyone.  Of course, the sun was setting before I actually got to sit down.  I have all sorts of details and educational tidbits to share about how the yarn was spun and how I picked my pattern and would normally link it back to the previous posts about shearing and washing and going to the mill...but my brain is mush, so here goes:

The yarn.

The pattern.

It's a pattern from the Fall Interweave Knits (I think).  I get that magazine on my iPad, but hadn't looked at it yet and actually found the pattern on Ravelry and then was just happy I remembered I even had an iPad and a magazine subscription.  See?  Mush.

One thing I always do when I turn on my iPad is look at one of my favorite pictures of our favorite girl.  You just can't look at her sitting on the couch with that Oh So Maisie look on her face and not at least smile (and usually laugh out loud :-D).

And then I scrolled over to a classic good old kitchen picture and got all sad again.  

But I kept scrolling and found a picture of me and Baaxter snoozing in the warm spring sun.  Yeah, those were fun days :-).

With that distinctive white X....and sweet Iris in the background.  Waaaaaaah :-'(.

Of course I haven't had time to even think about a book this week, but did stumble over this favorite while looking for a book for a farm visitor.  

We're sort of camping here for a few weeks, so maybe this will remind me that camping is fun and this is just an adventure...or maybe it's just that I'd like to run away to the woods.  

"Baa flicks off the ant and some pine needles from Boo's sandwich."  

Yeah, that kind of reminds me of my old kitchen :-).  Maybe be springtime I'll have a cute little lambie camping in the new kitchen to break it in decorate.

So I finally cast on.  Of course the light was dimming and the yarn is dark and I think I messed up already but I couldn't see or say for sure so I set it down.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

Joining in with Ginny...

Good Morning - Even Though It's Almost Noon

A drive by post. If I can make it through today and tomorrow, I'm hoping things will settle down. Stop laughing.

Three of my (many) favorite things - Kate, Liddy and our awesome smelling lilac bush.  Haven't they been wonderful this spring?  In fact, I have to own up to thinking this has been a really nice spring all around.  Nice and cool.  The red buds were light this year, but I'll take that over being too hot anytime!

Kate has done amazingly well with Liddy.  After so many years of unbelievably sweet service from Iris, I knew it would be really, really hard to find another Border Collie who'd tolerate having a lamb running loose around the house and yard.  That's not saying I don't watch them like a hawk momma sheep, but Liddy is respectful (mostly ;-) of Kate and Kate has been very kind to her.  Good girls!

Here are a couple of cute videos.  The first one was yesterday morning - there's Claire Bear again! The second was a couple of days ago.  It's amazing how fast she's growing :-o.

Yes, she's stopped to pee pee at the end.  And yes, she does that in the kitchen, too.  I keep a ton of old towels on hand and it all cleans up with no trouble at all :-).

Gotta run!

When The Kate's Away

The snow was so deep last week that the dogs were really struggling to get through it.  So much so that I felt it was best for them to stay in the house rather than risk a leg injury.  Once again I found out how much Iris and Kate work in the background to keep everything running smoothly and under control.

I had my back turned when I heard the barn gate get knocked open and rushed through.  I assumed it was the boys (Baaxter, Murphy, Woody and Spud) and was surprised (and a bit tickled) to see it was B. Willard and Graham, the old bad boys :-).  They still got it!

Willard headed for the feed room and Graham went dumpster diving.

"Whatcha got over there, Wills?"

Job Security

While it looks for all the world like Weaslie's zooming in to pick up a straggling sheep.

She's not.

She's skirting around the outside.

Nobody tells Large Lila what to do ;-).

"Except Kate!"

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I've had some questions about how Weaslie and Kate get along.  Weaslie (aka Miss Tilly) and Iris always seemed to be more rivals than friends.  In fact, there were times we'd have to "Knock it off!" as they'd get a little snarky with each other, jealous that one was getting more attention than the other...  

When Iris died, we wondered if Tilly would even care.  She did.  She and I sat with Iris for a good while after Doc left and when I got up, Tilly stayed next to her for the rest of the afternoon until Tim got home.  She was devastated.

Iris had always been "The Police".  She watched our farm and Stella's, too.  Nothing missed her attention.  Dogs coming up the road, a cat down by the creek, a strange car driving up Stella's driveway...  She didn't like the sheep coming up to the gates either.  They needed to Stay Back.

Doing chores that next day was so weird.  And sad.  The sheep knew immediately that the sheriff was gone.  They rushed up to the gate as I was dishing up feed.  I then heard some very nervous barking. "You, you sheep..." she stammered.  "You, you get back.  You get back off the gate."  

Tilly, who'd never barked at a sheep in her life, knew that was against the rules.  She was scared, but she was going to try to handle it.  Somebody had to.  Even though I personally didn't care if the sheep stood at the gate (that was Iris Law ;-), I praised Tilly profusely.  I understood The Law and knew what it had taken for a small, timid Corgi to step up.

The next couple of months we got along like that.  Without Iris to hang out with, Tilly shadowed me even closer than she already did.  Corgis are very loyal anyway, but Tilly had been loyal to both of us and I was all she had left.  While she did enjoy all the extra attention, we never walked up to the barn without her looking back for Iris, thinking maybe this time she'd race around from the front yard where she liked to sleep.

Kate had been a hard working "professional" dog.  She'd had big jobs to do and she took them seriously and we were concerned how she'd feel about a corgi shadow.  That she might not suffer a fool gladly...and Tilly could definitely be fool ;-).  Not to worry.  Professional Kate concentrated on her job here (bossing sheep around) and left Tilly to her job (farm security).  

Tilly was greatly relieved to be off sheep duty.  She was still nervous about the farm security part, but she'd had years of watching Iris for basic training.  For the first nine years of her life, all she had to do was look cute...and Stop Barking At Iris ;-).  Now she had been promoted to Assistant Security Officer, even if we did make her keep her bullets in her pocket ;-).

The other night we were all headed in from the barn.  Unless it's super cold, everyone comes out to the barn for evening chores :-).  I could tell by the cat's behavior that something was amiss.  I started looking around and just a split second after I saw the black cat hiding in the dark behind the Wool House, so did Tilly.  "RRRRR!!! YOU GET OUT OF OUR YARD!!!" as she chased hard after him until he cleared the fence into the side paddock.  

I was stunned.  I called Tim.  He was stunned.  Seriously.  We'd never seen something like that out of Tilly.  Ever.  Tilly doesn't chase cats.  Tilly has never chased anything.  I again praised her as I thought, wow, that was showing some real initiative.  Maybe listening to the Mrs. Murphy stories and hearing about "the mighty little corgi" (one of the main characters) had made an impression!

Two nights later, as I was finishing up chores in the barn, a big pack of coyotes started yipping and howling off in the (not so) distance.  Hank was on it of course, racing out through the arena, sounding off with his deep growling bark.  At his heels?  Tilly!  She'd busted through the end gate, raced through the loitering sheep, under the short fence and out through the arena doing her best to sound quite ferocious as well.

While we sure don't want her out mixing it up with coyotes - they'd tear her to pieces - I again let her know she'd been very brave and thanked her for doing a Good Job (and carefully latched the gate ;-). We've just been astounded by all this and I wanted to share the story.  How does all this tie together with how well Kate and Tilly get along?

I think because the two female dogs each have their own separate "professions" there is less rivalry between them on a basic level.  I think also that having to go it on her own for a few months was really hard on Tilly.  We now know that she truly loved Iris and really missed her.  She is back to being a happy, excited (and barking...sigh ;-) corgi, racing to the barn with her partner...and friend.

How many people made it to the bottom of this long story?  Leave me a comment and let me know and I'll draw for something fun as a reward :-D.

2014 Hug A Sheep Day - Yes, There's More

"I'm ready for my close up!" - Murphy

Buddy is just so darn cute.  I'd love to know what he's telling Aaron.  Patient Petunia, waiting her turn.

Spud and Murphy thoroughly enjoyed their first party :-).

I ended up with only a couple pictures of Graham.  How did this happen?  He's usually the center of everyone's attention.  Usually.  There was lots of competition this year with Spud, Murphy and Baaxter in the pen.  

"I'm just going to stand over here in this corner all by myself with no ones to love me..."

"I'm getting ignored too, Graham.  Don't feel bad." - B. Willard

No you're not.  There was plenty of love and attention and cookies for everyone ;-). 

And a little too much attention paid to Weaslie, who without Iris to keep her occupied, ran in and out of the hugging pen at will, following anyone with cookies.  She'll be wearing a cookie muzzle next year as she indulged in way too many treats :-o.

Hershey and Baaxter

The titans of the flock, Count Chocula and Ewen McTeagle.  Those are some Big Boys!

And Hank hung out in the shade most of the day, carefully watching his sheep...even if it looked like he was asleep ;-).  

Spinning, knitting and weaving show and tell tomorrow!

It's That Time Of The Year

The 2015 calendars are ready!

A good mix of our favorite cast of characters.

Renny

Queen Elizabeth

Comby's sleeping again.  It's become our little joke (since he's the only hard working cat on the farm ;-).

We can't fit everyone on a month, but there are lots of little pictures.  Don't worry, Hank got his own month.  He's also in the small pictures to keep an eye on Miss Maisie though ;-).

Plenty of Maisie.  Maybe a little too much of Miss Maisie (look at that tummy!).

Of course, 20.

Iris hated having her picture taken, but sometimes she'd grin and bear it.  Sort of like having to babysit silly lambs or sleep on a sisal mat rather then her own comfy bed (Baaxter!).    

The horses, Betsy, Emily and Casper Belly, baby birds, Spud, Hank, Blossom and Miss Tilly.

The Lamb Camp calendars are a different shape this year.  The pictures are approximately 6" x 9". I'm not sure why I do these smaller, but I kind of like that they'll fit almost anywhere.  Please let me know what you think.

Again, lots of favorites :-).

Lots of snorgling :-).

Lots of good naps :-).

And a bit of (temporarily) controlled naughtiness.

If this isn't a kissable face...

Getting kissed...

Napping AND kissable combined!  Excuse the glare on this picture of the picture :-/.

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Let's do this like we did last year.  Equinox Farm calendars are $12.50 each and the Lamb Camp calendars are $10.00. Shipping (to the US) should range from $4.00 to $6.10 and the padded Priority Flat Rate envelopes will hold at least three farm calendars for that price.

Shipping overseas last year was not as expensive as I feared (except one country, maybe Australia?). I'm happy to get a quote for you.  Likewise for Canada.  

If you'd like to order one (or more), just send me an email with what you'd like and your shipping address. I'll send them out with an invoice and a return envelope and you can drop a check in the mail upon receipt.  

There are also Lamb Camp note cards, Christmas cards, drop spindle kits...in the farm shop if you are interested.

One other (and more fun :-) option - for the local (and maybe not so local) folks - everything will be available for pick up at the Open Farm Day celebrating National Hug A Sheep Day this Saturday!