The I-64 Spring Fiber Fling

I don't travel much.  It's hard to leave a farm full of animals that count on Things Being Done Like They Always Are.  Having the barn cameras now may help at least my peace of mind if I decide to go somewhere, but taking care of animals, especially lots of older animals can be a challenge.

Some nights Maisie likes to eat her hay on the steps.  Some nights she wants to eat from a bucket.  Some nights she'd like a pile of hay placed in front of her in bed.  Sometimes a young sheep gets mud stuck between their toes that dries into a hard stabby rock and you have to pick it out and at the same time grab the thorny rose branch that they got stuck in their wool...Big Moose!

That being said, I do like when people come to see me.  We don't have the fanciest place and I'm never going to fix you a gourmet farm to table meal, but the farm is peaceful and fun and the sheep, horses, cats, Bea and Pinot are good characters and if you are here around lunchtime, I'd be happy to make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I also have lots of wool in all stages of "production" - raw fleeces, washed fleeces, roving, batts, handspun yarn, small batch mill spun  farm yarns, learn to spin kits, felting supplies, quilt batting, punch needle ideas, ideas in general...so many ideas...

I also have some fiber processing equipment, a couple of spinning wheels, a loaner weaving loom and a whole bag full of knitting and crochet needles.  Want to give something a try?  Come on out.  And while I'm not an expert, I'm happy to teach you what I've learned along the way.  

We've dabbled with participating in more agritourism ventures, but are just far enough off the main road that it would take a little more effort and experience than I really have time for right now.  Did I follow my "schedule" and spin yesterday?  Nope.  I spent my time wrangling with a feral kitten/cat that you can meet on my Instagram feed because I haven't had time to share all that over here because I'm trying to write a blog post about the I-64 Spring Fiber Fling because someone else has done the agritourism prep work for me and I'm pretty excited to be given the opportunity to participate.  (inhale...exhale)

20 and his friends are pretty excited about this "yarn crawl" as well.

I'm going to send you to the I-64 Fiber Fling website for all the details on how to join, who you can visit, what each store or farm is offering, prizes you can win...  I'll also do another post over here next Thursday or Friday telling what I have planned for our stop.  It's going to be fun!

In the meantime, I'm headed out to make a quick barn check and then to the house to make my peanut butter sandwich.  The feral cat escaped from the greenhouse so I don't have that to contend with today...unfortunately.  Maybe I'll get some Iknitarod knitting done this afternoon.  I am working my way down the trail, just not as quickly as I'd hoped.

Whew!

February

I almost forgot to do my beloved Month End compilation.  What a brain...

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February was crazy...but not too shabby.

 

The Blog Is 18 Years Old!

I'm glad the blog is still here and it's back doing more than just recording the month end compilations, but just the same, here's January.  Lots of good memories of one of our biggest snow events since we've been here :-).

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Cheers to another month and another year!

PS  As I'm typing the labels (far right column and a good way to search for things if you are looking) I realized that I don't think there are any Possum pictures this month.  That would be because Possum spent most of the month curled up in the house ;-).

Chicken Math...But Not The Fun Kind

It's been a rough couple of days on the farm.  While the temps were brutally cold and the ground was snow covered I started leaving the walk through door open on the chicken coop during the day so the chickens could hang out in the hay shed next to their coop and not just be stuck in the coop all day.

As the days started getting longer (because this has stretched on for weeks) they weren't always ready to go back in at the normal feeding time, but I didn't worry.  I just left the door open for them and closed it when I came back up for the night check.  

Sunday night, before I came back up, a team of possums walked right in and ransacked the coop.  Tim heard the ruckus when he opened the kitchen door to see if Possum (the cat) was ready to come in and we rushed up to save what we could.  If he hadn't opened the door, we'd have lost every one I'm sure.

Clarice and Goldilocks are dead, The Bald Eagle and Air Fryer are missing chunks of feathers and everyone is terribly traumatized.  Air Fryer hid outside Sunday night and I found her Monday morning, cold and shaken, but still alive.  Pecky Becky made it to the house somehow and I found her under the porch in the afternoon.  Smart, brave birds...and lucky.

I kept them locked in all day on Monday and did what I could to assess injuries and provide supportive care.  As night fell they were all panicked trying to figure out where to safely sleep.  Air Fryer tried repeatedly to crawl under the wing one of the other hens.  As they all grew up in a hatchery and not with a mother hen I thought this instinct was interesting...and sad that she was so scared.

On Tuesday I opened just the chicken door so they could venture out to the front field and horse stalls during the day if they wanted.  No one wanted to and I didn't blame them.  They were really rattled.  I kept checking in to make sure nothing was bothering them and to let whoever might want to bother them know I was around and finally, by late afternoon, they tentatively stepped out.  

I stayed out with them and then herded them back in before evening chores.  This morning they are still hiding in the coop, but I'm hoping they'll start to feel more comfortable soon.  I feel awful that I let this happen to them.

My gang of remaining tough girls last night.  Clarice was always the bravest of all and I wonder if she got caught because she was trying to defend the rest.  Goldilocks is an extra sad loss because she was one of the "sister chickens" and I know The Bald Eagle is missing her.  Don't ever think chickens don't have feelings and aren't family.

We were able to trap and relocate two possums Sunday night.  Another was dispatched the next afternoon and I trapped another one just before the night check last night.  I set the game camera back up and did not have another sighting the rest of the night.  I'll keep the trap and camera up for a few more nights just to make sure.

I like this picture of me and Bea heading over to pull the memory card out of the trail camera this morning.  Bea is always by my side.  And if she wants to catch a possum from now on, I might not try to stop her.  

It's Lovely Weather For A Sleigh Ride...

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring tingle tingling too.

Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

Outside the snow if falling and friends are calling "Yoo hoo!"

Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

 

Driving a sleigh was something I've always wanted to experience, but honestly never thought I'd get to do.  Kentucky is not known for it's outdoor winter sports so I really had no reason to even think about owning a sleigh.  This epic snow fall has been crazy fun.

In areas where snow is common, sleigh trails are compacted with a big roller and can go on for miles.  I used our utility vehicle to create and then daily maintain (even that was fun) my little figure 8 track in the side field and really, that was about all Frankie was going to be able to handle anyway.  

While Frankie may never be able to power up a big hill or hit the big time in a competitive ring, one area where he cannot be beat is safety and dependability.  We were loaned this beautiful antique sleigh because "It's Frankie."  It meant a lot to me to hear that and I'm very proud of him for his good reputation.  

I'm grateful he gave me the opportunity to try out something very special and the opportunity to really enjoy it.  Thank you, Frankie.  

Of course I had to take 20 and Pip for a ride :-).

Bea does not ride in my cart.  I've tried several times and she just isn't interested.  The sleigh?  Holy moly, she loves the sleigh.  I can't remember what 20 and I are talking about, probably how good Frankie was doing :-).

"Are you getting a good picture of me?"

If you zoom in on the painting on the back you can see a dog following the sleigh.  That was Colonel and Kathi's dog at the time of the sleigh's restoration :-).  

I loved getting to watch our friend Leslie take him for a spin.  Bea did all the rides.

Then we both took a lap so I could get a video from behind. Bea was disappointed, but not deterred.

She does not follow me with the cart.  I think this is funny and interesting.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling...

.

... ring ting tingling too...

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A huge thank you to Colonel and Kathi for the loan of your beautiful sleigh and for coming over to help with the first drive.  Thank you also to Leslie for your joyful Frankie encouragement all along the way.  These great pictures were taken by Saint Tim.  There may be more pictures coming :-).

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Maisie

As I picked my card this morning I knew it was going to be Maisie.  I haven't had a feeling about any other sheep so far, but today I knew it was going to be her.  Granted there were only seven sheep left so the odds were in my favor, but still, I've enjoyed some of the magic of the draws.

I had a picture already picked out for Maisie, but at the last minute I wondered about if we'd ever dressed Maisie up with a Santa hat and I don't believe we have, so here you go.

"The things I have to do around here."

Maisie was her (now) usual good sport self and got lots of vanilla wafers for her effort.  Those are her favorite treat, but Maisie didn't always eat vanilla wafers or treats of any kind, really.  She also used to Not Wear A Hat Of Any Sort, but that story has already been told and can be found in the archives ;-).

I'd always offer her cookies, but she wanted no part of them.  Finally one day I just popped one in the side of her mouth.  I knew if she'd just get a taste of them, she'd love them.  That cookie shot out the other side of her mouth like a torpedo.

Cookies, crackers, healthy snacks...nothing.  I'm not sure why she was so adamant about it, but I wondered if she thought I was trying to give her medicine.  I'd try off and on for a year or two and finally just gave up.  

One day Auntie Monica came over with her big bag of treats for everyone and as soon as I told her not to expect Maisie to eat anything she said she'd already given her some cookies.  I assumed she had the sheep confused...but no, there was Maisie eating cookies like a pro and she's eaten them ever since.

"I like to keep everyone on their toes!

"Baa Humbug"

You better watch out, Maisie, or Santa will put you on his naughty list!

October

October was a blur, but it was pretty much a fun blur.  I missed posting about pretty much all of it.  I even missed taking pictures of one of the fun things because I left not only my camera, but also my phone at home.  That was unintentional.  Sigh...

The biggest event of October was obviously The National Drive.  There are several pictures and videos included here.  I'd love to say I'll get back to post more stories and pictures, but if we've learned nothing else...that very rarely happens so here are some highlights you can watch for as the video plays:

We saw the northern lights one night!  One of my favorite memories is my friends out walking around in the dark taking pictures and texting me that they were not too far from my camp so Bea and I jumped out of our warm (it was cold up there a couple of nights) and went out to join them.  I was wearing sheep pajamas so it was extra epic haha.

My friend Amy has a new horse and she and Remy came to the Drive.  It was big fun.  They both did a Really Good Job and we had a great time together at horse camp :-D.

Another friend, Julie, came over and I hadn't seen her in years.  She was originally a horse friend, but was also the first person who sat me down at her spinning wheel and let me try it out.  I spun some Punkin roving and will never forget that feeling.  Oh, Julie also took that great picture of Punkin I use on his page.  It was so nice to see her.

Bea had a blast with all her aunties and 20 not only did Safari Drive photos again this year, but also got to drive one of the trains next door.  

The Italian dinner was incredibly good and fun.  I wish we all lived closer.

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Archie made sure I didn't leave him out this month.  There's some footage of Tim cleaning the barn...which is fun to watch if you ain't cleaning the barn ;-).  Pinot had a good month too now that it's cooled down and he can go out more.  The market day over at Country Boy was fun.  

Hug a Sheep Day was perfect in guests and weather.  Maisie's Halloween costume was a hit - maybe our best one yet, well, except maybe the angel one.  My bumpy pumpkin is still hanging in there, but fading fast.  I wish they could all live forever.

We are a week in to November now...speaking of blurs!

Monday Morning Magic

I was up early this morning.  Dogs, sheep, horses and shepherds don't understand daylight savings/wasting time.  I decided to go organize my Christmas card stock and make up some individual year packets I was low on.

I don't sell a lot of cards anymore.  I think mostly because I'm not setting up at the big Wool Festival in Falmouth, but also, sadly, I don't think people send cards like they used to.  I love getting cards.  I love sending cards.  Yes, I will be painting a card this year.  It's just going to be a little different ;-).

As I noted my inventory, there were two years I felt were getting too low.  I wrote out a "purchase order" (aka note to Tim on the back of a used envelope) and realized this would probably be the last time he'd need to print cards for me.  I took it kind of hard.

I then walked outside as the sun was rising and it felt like spring and there were birds singing that I don't think should be here, and the lilac bush is blooming again (fourth time this year) and I saw a group of Bradford pears blooming the other day...and it's November.

There's a lot going on these days.  A lot that feels very heavy, personally, nationally and globally.  My horse is lame, my sheep are getting old, the planet is on fire.  Bea and I headed out for a walk and I caught myself noticing trash on the side of the road rather than the beautiful leaves, green moss on a decaying tree trunk, the scuttle of little creatures.  

Time to git yer head on straight!

A bit later I was poking around the Wool House looking for some tasty greens for Pinot and I spotted a tiny dot of color.  "Now what's blooming that shouldn't be?!?" 

(head. straight.)  

A tiny zinnia, smaller than a blade of grass!  And it has two more buds! 

The zinnias who worked so hard all summer tossed out some seeds and one volunteered to stand up and bloom this fall, sheltered under the frosted dried leaves left from a long, dry summer.  

Isn't that delightful!

All Treats This Year...Big Treats

We were trying to work around some (too minor) rain showers so I didn't get the pictures I'd hoped for, but Maisie's costume this year was one of our best.  Odd sort of noteworthy fact, this is the first costume we didn't assemble with hot glue.  We upgraded to duct tape ;-D.

Clarice Cluck, running off with one of Maisie's cookies, is maybe my favorite part of this picture.

Hopefully you can biggify to see her "expiration date".

This would actually be a nice picture if the gate wasn't in the way.  I need to remember this lighting option.

Any other time a sheep wearing a costume tried to walk into a barn full of sheep, there'd have been a stampede to get away.  

Apparently they can either read or have a strong association with the color yellow ;-D.

Happy Halloween!  Nilla Wafers for all :-D.

The 2025 Farm Calendars

It's time to reveal the 2025 farm calendar!

Putting the farm calendar together has become one of the best parts of fall....besides the cooler weather. These calendars started as just a fun way to share some pictures with friends and family, but gratefully grew into a "bake sale" way to help our small flock of sheep support themselves.  

I had a fun group of photos to work with this year and I like the whimsy of several of them.  Who wouldn't like a sheep blowing a raspberry at a big pile of snow? :-)  Once again I added a short story to each month and lots of mini pictures fill in the blank spaces and add extra fun and tell further mini photo stories.  

We also created a limited run of companion note cards again this year.  I used quite a few of them last year and was happy that I sent more snail mail than I have in years.  If you'd like to share a favorite calendar picture with a friend, the companion card is a perfect option.  The accompanying stories are found on the back.

It is still unrealistic for a small farm to "upgrade" to a fancy online shop site so once again we are doing the old time ordering system where you send me an email letting me know what you'd like and where it should be shipped and I'll include an invoice and return envelope in your package.  Add an extra note if you'd like :-).  

Those notes are how I learned that several of you don't turn the calendar pages until it's time so that each month is a surprise.  I love that idea and now do that myself.  Even though I made the calendar, by about March I've forgotten who comes next.  I love being surprised!

That spoiler factor is also why I've put all the boring text up here and hidden the sneak peek calendar and card shots below.  Don't look if you don't want to!  Or you can peek...but goreallyfast ;-).

2024 Equinox Farm Calendar $25.00  

Companion Calendar Note Cards $10.00 

Buy together and save $5.00  $30.00

We charge just actual USPS shipping cost with no mark up for packaging and handling.  If you'd like a quote, send me and email with your zip code and I can give you an exact price.  

If you'd like to see all of the pictures, I did a video tour and talked a little more about the pictures and what these calendars and cards do for our small farm.

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Well, Lancelot is still rolling in the mud.  We lost Jared over the summer so Maisie is now the “friendly” face of the farm.  She might look a bit frail these days, but it’s still a good idea to watch out for the sheep with the tail.  Possum and Archie take turns (mostly) in the wool box bed.  Pinto continues to jump in and out of the arena at will, and a new friend, Pinot, is keeping spell check confused.  When Bea's not out ruling the world, she’s now moved from our feet to the bed.  She has no idea what we would do without her.

We will always miss our old friends.  If you aren’t familiar with their stories, we encourage you to visit the farm blog to meet them.

As always, a special thanks to Saint Tim for doing all the hard work and heavy lifting and a grateful thank you to all of you who are such an important part of our farm family.  Your care and kindness through the years is appreciated more than you could ever imagine.