I'm Dreaming Of A Warm Christmas

Nope, doesn't quite have the same ring to it. What odd weather this year.

We had a nice Christmas. It wasn't the most fun Christmas, but nice in it's own way. We lost Wiwi, our 20 year old "inside" kitty, on Christmas Eve. It was time. She and I were both sad about it, but it was a good gift to both of us to be together.

Christmas Day dawned just as warm and sunny and after church Saint Tim went fishing and I puttered around for awhile and decided a walk out with the sheep would be the best medicine. The late afternoon sun was beautiful.



Handsome Hank cleaned up this Christmas. I loved opening the mailbox and finding boxes addressed specifically to him. He got a really neat guard dog book, The Guardian Team: on the job with Rean and Roo, by Cat Urbigkit, and a good collection of dog cookies. He was thrilled and woofs a big Thank You!



Popcorn PeePee Pants...and her shadow.



Willard and Renny. Willard's feeling just fine now, but is so addicted to Graham Crackers (the reward for being a big boy about getting his shots every day) that you just about can't live with him anymore ;-).



I can't decide if Renny has short legs or long wool.



You can't beat walking around in a sweater, no hat or gloves, sitting on the ground taking pictures on Christmas Day....but some snow would sure have been pretty ;-).

We hope everyone had a peaceful and joyful holiday!

At The End Of A Long Day

Yeah, um, Wiwi thinks snuggling with Lila is not so grate akshully*.

*lolcat dictionary

Plenty To Post

Just too tired to do it.



So...a picture of Wiwi.

Because there ain't nothin' to make you crazier than watching a cat sleep all day ;-).

Running For My Life

I read somewhere that when you don't have time to blog, just post a picture of your cat. I filed that bit of useful information straight away!



Wiwi napping in the sun with her cereal bowl and my favorite geranium. It's a neat picture - click to biggify. I have beautiful yarn shots to post and some weaving shots as well. I'm headed to the Living Arts and Science Center this evening and will probably take some pictures there too. Tomorrow, I've got a ticket to the WEG (world equestrian games).

I obviously haven't had time to wash the corgi prints off the window either...

Egads!

Repeat after me "What are you going to remember 10 years from now?"

It shore ain't gonna be winder worshin' ;-)

Brushy

The naming of cats is a difficult matter... T.S. Eliot

I believe Brushy only had one name though. Brushy.

Brushy showed up as a skinny stray shortly after we moved to Equinox Farm and it took awhile to tame him down. He would sneak up on the porch at night to eat and was hungry enough that he'd let me sit out there as he did, but would growl (as he continued to eat) if I tried to touch him. One night however I decided to try to touch the top of his head instead of his back and as I did, he immediately bumped up into my hand and was completely tame from that very second on.

He went to the vet, passed all his tests and got his shots and 'tutored' and immediately settled in. Three mornings later he brought Claire Bear home. Claire Bear was a tiny kitten and I don't know if she was a relative or not, but regardless, Claire Bear was obviously Brushy's cat. They were inseparable and she got to stay as well.

Claire Bear was somehow named right away. Brushy went for weeks as "kitty". We tried all sorts of names, but nothing stuck. One day I asked him directly, "Hey kitty, what is your name?"

"Brushy."

Clear as day in my head. I told Saint Tim and while he didn't think it so strange that the cat shared his name with me, he agreed it was not a suitable "family use" name. We continued to try other monikers. A few weeks later I again said "Kitty, we really need a name for you."

"Brushy."

Brushy it was.

Brushy would walk anywhere with me. He especially loved to go out to the Frog Pond. That was a trip worthy of all the cats and we enjoyed relaxing out there together on summer evenings listening to the farm put itself to bed. Brushy would sit next to me, Eli would sit off by himself and Claire Bear would entertain us all with her mad hunting skills.

Brushy was also the protector of the family. Shortly after Boo came to live with us, he learned this the hard way. Boo was a cat chaser early on and got in a lot of trouble for it. One day I caught him chasing Eli onto the porch. I ran after him, yelling and hitting him with a dish towel. At my side was Brushy, running on his hind legs hissing and slapping Boo as he made a hasty retreat.

More than anything, Brushy wanted to be a house cat. With the darling Wiwi in the house, this was not just not possible. For the last few weeks though, as Brushy's been ill, we moved him inside, out of the cold. Wiwi did get "paddled" a few times for bad behavior, but Brushy ignored her and enjoyed sitting on the couch in front of the fire. Two nights ago he sat out in the wool house with me and we read a sheep book. He was not much interested though and I knew the end was near.

Brushy was an exceptional cat.

Black And White

I washed the first of the soaking fleeces this morning. It hadn't soaked the full 5 days, but it did have the start of the infamous white film on top of the water. It was a Jacob lamb fleece and I got nervous. The Cotswold fleeces seem almost indestructible...and dirtier. Wasn't sure about the lamb fleece.



Here is what I started with the other day.

I strained it with the laundry basket (great idea!) and then spun it in the washing machine to remove as much funky water as possible. It was actually already pretty clean. So far, so good (and didn't think to take a picture).

I gave it one hot, soapy wash and it looked so good that I skipped the normal second wash and went straight to rinse. I still rinsed twice just because I'm a worrier and don't want any trace of soap left on the fiber.



This is where we ended up. Now that's pretty bright white, eh?

Here's my problem/question. It still feels pretty greasy. It's not dry yet, but I doubt that's going to make it feel better (could be wrong). So, if I still have to give it the full 4 runs through the washer and I'm not saving any soap (expense and pollution), is there any point?

I think what I need to do on the next one is split the fleece in half and process one half the old way and the other the new way and see what I think. It does seem a little cleaner, dirt-wise and I like that. I'll keep you posted.



Wiwi - who keeps herself sparkly black and white and looks like the princess and the pea sleeping on her new favorite kitty bed. The quilts (made by my grandmother) got piled up there the other day after our company left and she claimed them as hers. We just keep walking around her. We are apparently well trained.

Christine won the birthday book (please email me at thecrazysheeplady at gmail dot com with your mailing address :-).

More Working Hardly

There's nothing like a cat to make you really crabby when you are so busy you hardly get a chance to sit down.

The progression of Wiwi's day...











Actually, she doesn't make me crabby. She makes me smile. Wiwi's old and having some health issues, so I'm glad she's enjoying herself.

But, don't let her fool you. She did this when she was a young whipper snapper, too.

Best Seat In The House

Wiwi can find an open bag of roving in mere seconds - apparently a strong cat magnet.

Partridges In A Pear Tree

Or more like feeder pillaging grackles in an apple tree.



And after a very. traumatic. spell. of. no. power and hence no heated beds, the cats are finally much happier.



Claire Bear and Brushy



Eli



Comby



Wiwi, in front of the fire all day, never even knew the power was out.

And that's all that really matters, right?

Yeesh ;-)

Sunshine!

We don't have any. In fact, it's rained so much that many schools and roads are closed. Here is a picture of Wiwi in a better time...two days ago.



Don't you just want to curl up next to her and take a nap?

And NO, I am not posting a picture of Ewen with his really awful haircut. In fact, I feel so bad about it (even though he doesn't seem too concerned) that I just ordered a real set of sheep shears so I could fix it. Three days ain't gonna' help this one.

Christmas Is Coming

And Fifi is working hard(ly).


I'm not sure Fifi/Fiddle/Wiwi has appeared on the blog before. She's our "indoor" cat. The queen of the universe...as most cats like to think/are. I guess the best way to describe her is she is a cat of many opinions. Her opinion right now is probably that it was about time I gave her a nice, warm place to sleep. She's also good at sleeping on unspun yarn, but if you go to the trouble of making a nice permanent wooly cat bed, she immediately decides that she's no longer interested. Of course.

Running Amok

Three years ago this was a beautiful wicker planter brimming with bright colored Pansies. Two years ago the cats claimed it as a day bed. Last year I thought I’d fix ‘em by planting a million sharp pointy toothpicks all throughout the flowers. They were barely fazed. This year Claire-Bear appears to have made an early move. I think the tipped over bird house is an extra nice touch and we won’t even discuss Miss Tilly’s contribution to the Corgi level decorating :-/.

Last night I had to spend 20 minutes scouring the barn looking for one of the Adventure Chickens. There were only 11 on the roost when I went out to shut their door and I knew the one missing, the golden hen, was probably (hopefully) just lost. She’s a bird after my own heart, “Wow, this is a really pretty place...um, how do I get back home?” She had climbed through, ducked under or flown over the fence and found herself in the sheep field. As night fell, her friends were able to retrace their steps back to their coop. I found her huddled on the mineral feeder in the corner of the sheep stall.

It would seem, after a long day of abuse by my animals, that they could at least let me get a good night sleep to help me prepare for a new day of continued attacks. WiWi had other ideas last night. And she wonders why she's never made a Christmas card.

Night y'all.

Finally Finished Farm Painting...well maybe

I'm trying to do a larger, more detailed version of the recent Christmas cards. Everybody got in on this project, even WiWi, the house cat. Those of you who know WiWi, know why she hasn't made a Christmas card - ha ha. Those of you that don't know her, can imagine that she's a wonderful, sweet, non-demanding, quiet little kitty who has been much maligned by her neglect.

Anyway, I'm not super "sold" on the end result, but I'm not really sure what it needs. The best sounding suggestion was that there was too much empty space and to add more horses, trees,... Since this is supposed to be a pretty fair representation of our farm, I don't really want to add any more horses - trust me, three is PLENTY. More trees in the horse field would be desirable except that T-bone eats trees, so I'd have to add dead ones.

Any thoughts?