2023 Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

I didn't spin quite as much yarn as last year, but I'm not too far off.  I did spin at least 15 minutes every day, taking the Tour's two rest days when I needed them, and ended up with well over five hours of spinning in total.  I wish I could commit to 15 a day all year.  Or not "commit" to it, but just enjoy doing it without needing the structure.  

I ended up with a whole basket of yarn I really like. 

The red is the yarn from Blaze, my friend's sheep.  The dark gray is Tessa.  The creamy white is Ellie.

I love when the yarn looks just like the sheep.  Ellie is definitely round, soft and cuddly.

Murphy is quite a "sheep with too much character" most of the time, but he grows some beautiful wool.  This light gray skein is especially soft and I would bet most people would pick it as their favorite.

The beautiful medium gray is Mini Moose.  I spun a sample from him last year and it was one of my favorite yarns I've ever spun.  This skein did not let me down.

Another sheep who never lets me down is Muffin.  She's finally starting to get some gray hairs, but I actually like that better than her solid black lamb fleece.  I think it gives her yarn some depth. Can you believe she and Biscuit are six (!).  

I was going to link to the finished black and white sweater, but as I scrolled through the March posts looking for the best post, I decided 20 catching up with us on the trail might be my favorite.  Lots of reminders of what was going on and now that's over and I love my finished sweater, I have to admit it was all pretty fun :-).

I didn't get a great shot of Big Moose (the little dark gray skein), but it's too hot to go back out and try for a new one.  I took some "in process" shots while I was combing it, so he'll (hopefully) get some more attention in a day or so.

We are continuing on spinning this week in support of the women's race.  I decided I'd only spin ewes so I've spun a little bit of Emily and Annebelly for old times sake and am now working on a bobbin of Cheeto so Big Moose could bring his mom along for the ride :-).

My Favorite Sheep...Of The Week

I thought about just taking a week off from the Sheep of the Week.  I hadn't found the time to go out and get a good portrait and I'm running so behind on the Iknitarod that I really needed to focus on that.  I hated skipping a week though because then it gets easy to skip another week when I can't manage my time and then another week...

The request for this week/last week had been Tabitha.  She is one of the five young(ish) Jacobs we have.  She's the only sort of chummy one in the group so she stands out.  Chummy as in she will come up to you to get a cookie.  The rest like cookies...but you have to toss them from a distance.  Jacobs... ;-)

 

When I was doing the barn check this morning, I found her front and center, almost like she was reminding me I hadn't taken her picture.  It was still pretty dark, but the iPhone does a great job in low light and this is not too bad.  I will try to get a better portrait this week though.

Here is as close to a baby picture as I have of her.  She and her fellow Ts arrived in January of 2017. She would have been maybe eight or nine months old here. I don't have any funny stories about these five crazy Jacobs, but their trip up here from WV was a pretty cute post.   

I had them set up in the horse stalls for quarantine and I enjoyed using Kate to move them out to the yard to graze every day and then back in.  Tilly even helped a little.  Those were fun days.

I love Jacob sheep.  I think they are beautiful and if I could only spin one type of wool for the rest of my life, I'd pick Jacob.  Their fleeces are easy to care for and process.  They yarn spins easily and can do quite a few jobs depending on the individual and whether they are on the softer side or more medium.  The fun you can have blending the colors is the best.

What I don't enjoy as much about Jacobs is their more "primitive" personalities.  Henri was a friendly Jacob and Annabelly was sweet, too.  Tabitha is as close to "friendly" as we have anymore.  Tavia could probably be talked into being more friendly if she didn't have the other three bad influences around.  

That's okay.  We have quite a few less colorful...but more colorful sheep who are more than happy to fill the sheep are so fun roles :-).  Everyone has a place.

Special request for next/this week?

From The Way Back Machine

Back in 2005 I sent our Jacob fleeces off to be made into quilt batting and kept the darkest batt for myself thinking I'd get a quilt made to match our barn quilt.  Fast forward to 2019 and I've long since given up hoping for a custom quilt and realized I could send that batt back to the mill and have it re-run as roving and spin it into yarn.  

The five sheep in that dark yarn are sadly long gone.  They were our original five Jacobs from Indiana - Jester, Jacob, Joshua, Elizabeth and Crazy Esther.  That yarn is a treasure.  Part of our history.

When I found a sweater pattern I liked and saw that I needed a contrast color I dug through my stash of handspun and found the perfect light gray.  Coincidentally (or not) it was a blend of Emily, our sixth Jacob and Annabelly, her first lamb.  This too is a treasure.

This sweater.  So much history between those sheep and the sheep that followed them.  

Maisie scritches :-).

I love Short Round's sweet face.  One of our newest sheep looking at the wool of our oldest sheep...or the food scoop ;-).

 

Spring Shearing

Our favorite shearer, Bill Haudenschield, was in town for a few days last week (with his nephew Dustin :-) so we decided to go ahead and shear a week or so early this year.  It was a beautiful day, the company was excellent, the sheep all behaved (mostly ;-) and the fleeces look good.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Lila

Rebecca Boone

Woody

Muffin

Biscuit...all those pretty curls :'-(.

The video.

Renny

Daniel Note Liddy in the background.  Just after I took this picture, she stuck her head through the gate and grabbed a packet of french fries!

Murphy

Clover Belly

Levi 

Levi 

Chocula

The Little Darlin'...

...who actually behaved quite well this year!

This is the extended version of the video I posted the other day.  Instagram has a 60 second limit.  This is 30 seconds longer...and cuter.  I just love these!

You'll notice a few sheep didn't get shorn.  They are the oldies who don't have enough fat on them (Allie, Annabelly, Billy Belly and Mrs. Pepperpot) for me to feel comfortable taking away their woolly jumpers before we are certain the cold is over for the year. 

After a couple weeks of 70s and 80s, we have now, of course, turned a bit colder, but with the barn shut up when it's windy and plenty of hay in front of them, everyone is doing okay.  The warm sunshine has been appreciated though for sure.  And look at that green grass and bright blue sky!  It matches my hat :-D.

And here's a new puzzle!  Enjoy :-).

Sheeps...

The sheep have had access to the recently repaired and then replaced water tank all winter. Before it was replaced, I'd frequently find them out there trying to "repair" it themselves, so I assumed once it was back operational it would be their favorite water spot. That would be no.

Yesterday I found B. Willard pawing around on the old plastic water tank we'd used up next to the barn while the automatic water was not operational.  I decided to go ahead and fill it back up since we have a few warm days coming.

As soon as I did that...

Oh you know it.

Sheep With Character

Perhaps a little too much character!

While we haven't had the cold that, say, Minnesota has had, we've been extremely cold for Kentucky, especially as we were just enjoying temps in the upper 50s and 60s last week.  If you are following on Instagram or Facebook, you saw the picture of Mrs. Pepperpot sporting her new winter coat yesterday.  She's had the most trouble with the cold.

We'd moved her, Lila, Annabelly and PPPP into the "lamb pen" so they could get extra food with less competition.  We put up some sheet plastic to block the wind coming through the end gate and bedded them down in deep straw and hay.  It wasn't enough.  Mrs. Pepperpot was shivering hard yesterday morning.

I scrambled, adding extra wind blocking on the three coldest sides, deeper bedding and a heat lamp.  When that didn't seem enough, I took one of the old horse blankets and cut it down to sew a Mrs. Pepperpot size.  That did the trick.  She finally looked warm and happy.  And no one else was.

The other three could not abide with a sheep wearing a coat.  PPPP was so unhappy that I let her move back into the main flock.  Lila and Annabelly settled down with some Cheerios and I thought I was in the clear.  Annabelly didn't seem bothered by the jacket anymore but started looking extra cold and miserable herself.  She's old and skinny.  Cold can kill...and I honestly thought that was where we were headed.

Okay, we still have Renny's old jacket.  That should fit her.  I struggled to get her to her feet and checked the size.  Two straps needed to be moved over so I marked them and headed for the sewing machine.  When I came back she was huddled next to the gate to get back in with the main flock.  She looked so bad that I decided to let her go back in with them.  She'd still be cold and couldn't wear a jacket in with them, but least she'd be happy and what would happen, would happen.

That's her on the other side of Baaxter just a few minutes later.  Miraculously cured.  She spent the next hour or so either chumming around with him...or trying to beat him up.  I guess their "relationship status" would be listed as "it's complicated".  At least she's happy...and not dying.   

Sheep...

The reason everyone was allowed in Del Boca Vista was because I was switching out their plastic water tank with a new galvanized tank.  I have no idea why they are no longer happy drinking from the old tank, but water is important all the time and especially so when it's cold. 

I'd checked the tank, checked the heater, nothing seemed amiss.   Saint Tim had replaced the automatic waterer in the side field, but they no longer had access to that now with Lila and Pepperpot moved into that area.  Replacing the tank with a different style, material, color, whatever was worth a try.  Replacing it and building a new top (different size) with sheep "help"...was not going to be helpful.  I knew a free trip to DBV would be the perfect distraction.

The number one reason to "break into" DBV is to steal all of Allie's food and sleep in her bed.  You'd think it would be all the grass, but no.  Chocula is a repeat offender.  Look who his new sidekick is.  Yep, that's "sweet" little Muffin.  Even the chicken can't believe this bad behavior.

Look at the big wad of stolen hay.  Keep in mind that it's the exact same hay they all get.  She then proceeded to go around to the back side and rip half the plastic down.  

Kids...

Speaking of "kids", this is the funniest story of the day.  I noticed Buddy was involved in a bit of a scuffle mid afternoon.  I don't let anyone pick on old wobbly Buddy.  I headed into the barn lot to break it up and saw that actually no one was picking on Buddy.  Buddy was mixing it up with Murphy, the biggest sheep on the farm...over a girl!  Poor Renny.  

This went on all afternoon and into the evening with only short breaks here and there to grab a few bites.  I love the look on her face as she watches both morons during one of their short breaks.  I'm hoping things have settled down by the time I head out for the last barn check in a few minutes.  

Boys...

2017 Hug A Sheep Day Party - Part One

We almost cancelled the party this year. Every day for a week the forecast looked worse and worse and by Wednesday/Thursday/Friday it was calling for 45 degrees and 90% chance of rain.  Rain is not fun.  Cold is not fun.  Cold and rain?  No one would want to come out in that :-(.  

Turns our we were all wrong!  One of Saint Tim's big sayings is 90% of the things you worry about happen 10% of the time.  There was a 10% chance it wouldn't rain and it didn't!  And the sun even popped out for a little while.  And as the afternoon went on, we had about 50 sheep huggers...and cookie feeders ;-).

Amy (Auset Images) came down from Indianapolis and took a ton of pictures for us.  Thankfully.  Not only because I never pulled my camera out, but also because she always gets such fun pictures.  The best part is you never even notice she's doing it.  She also sees shots I'd never notice.  Very fun and a great eye.

Woody and Murphy: "Now that's what I'm talking about!  Wait...are those cookies low fat?  What are you saying, lady!"

Buddy never fails to crack me up.  He is licking the bag of treats ;-D. 

As usual, Ewen preferred to just stand next to me while Liddy worked the crowd.  Boy bottle lambs... ;-)

We rotated sheep in and out of the "hugging pen", but even the sheep not in the pen were able to get plenty of attention...and cookies.

"Plleeeeeeeease???"

Chocula and Woody showing how it's really done.  "You've got to climb up on the door!"

Liddy trying to mind meld "Look at the cookies.  You know you want to give me one."

Tabitha made several attempts at being brave enough to come up for treats.  I was surprised that Tavia never came around.  She's usually the friendliest of the Ts.  

Dear old Annabelly was the only Jacob who got duped into volunteered to come out in the hugging pen.

Woody worked the crowd from inside the stall to the hugging pen to the field to the back of the barn to the hugging pen back to the stall and then the field and...

Next up - Biscuit, Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot :-D.

Some Sunday Sunrise Sheep Shots

Note the Ts running across the top of the field.

Annabelly coming up to say "Happy Birthday!"

Three old timers.  Too many birthdays!

Baaxter and Chocula getting ready to have less birthdays.  All that nice grass and you are eating grass covered in fence paint over spray?!?

Pretty Petunia.

All the fences and barns have been freshly painted.  The over spray makes this look like I photoshopped the  paint on there.

I'm not sure what is going on in this pictures.  Obviously Woolliam doesn't have a clue either or else he's just decided to sleep through whatever those two girls are having words about.  Baby Belly and Annabelly.

Three new puzzles up :-). 

Enjoy!