Fox Tales

Um, little fox?  You better not be thinking about climbing that fence.

"I won't bother your chickens.  I promise."

I finally finished my little knitted fox.  He told me his name is Jeffry and he's from the same designer as the frog and the bat.  I had a bit more trouble with some parts of this pattern, but I managed to figure things out and I think he turned out pretty cute.  

His sweater ended up a bit too long, but it was designed to be sewn with a seam up the back and it  worked out to leave the back seam open a bit over his tail :-). 

I used Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn and dyed the orange and dark gray colors.  I stuffed it with the orange combing waste from the Tour de Fleece.  I like to use similar colors for stuffing so any loose spots don't show through.

I have two other stuffed friends in my queue.  One is a knitted lamb and the other is a sewn felt sheep.  January has been a bit busier than I'd hoped it would be, but it's still nice to not have all the summer work hanging over my head so I have time to think about what would be fun to work on next :-).

How has your crafting year started?

We Haven't Had A Good Hank Post In Awhile

As I was sorting through the 'sheep in the snow pictures' I took this morning, I found a couple of Hank and had to think back to the last good Hank picture I've taken.  He's like an anti-virus program for the computer, seamlessly running in the background, keeping all your files (and sheep) safe from harm.  

I took one picture with him looking at the camera, but he was making a funny and not ferocious face and he wouldn't want that posted online ;-).  Before I could take another, he went back on duty looking out towards the ponds where I think the fox has been hunting lately.  

So Hank gets his own post today.  There will be sheep pictures tomorrow.  If you'd like to see a short video walking through the flock while they ate breakfast this morning, it's posted on my "Stories" on Instagram and will stay there until about 9:00 tomorrow (Saturday) morning.  

I missed the "save it" option and I can't figure out how to share it anywhere else.  Also, I think it's only going to show up on your phone/tablet maybe.  I just tried to find it on my desktop version and I don't see it.  Why is this stuff so complicated...

Rebecca Boone is doing better!  She felt well enough to eat some Cheerios this morning :-D.

A Special...But Not Really Wanted Guest

We've had a fox visiting our farm for the last couple of weeks.  With no lambs here, I'm not really worried about him or her bothering the sheep.  I do worry about the chickens though and I especially worry about Comby, who likes to hunt out in this same field.  

"Yeah, I see you, too.  I think you are beautiful, but you better beat feet before Hank sees you."

If the sheep are out grazing, Hank calls them in to safety.  Doing that usually frightens the fox away, but if not, he races out to escort him under the fence. 

View this post on Instagram

“Danger!” Hank, calling in his sheep. Such a good dog ❤️❤️❤️. #livestockguardiandog #sheep #redfox

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 20, 2019 at 6:21am PDT

Hank has been much happier since it's cooled down.  I think the fox is probably less happy ;-).

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The Rhinebeck Blues Party was really fun.  We had a great group of sheep and fiber enthusiasts, the weather was perfect and Auntie Reg nailed the Artichoke French!  The sheep all behaved (because we didn't use Maisie for any of the demonstrations ;-) and the only "workshop" we skipped was washing wool.  Karen taught wheel spinning and wool combing.  I taught shepherding, fleece judging and skirting.  Let's do it again next year!

The forecast for our Hug a Sheep Day farm party this Saturday isn't looking quite as good, but that's several days away.  Hopefully they are just wrong.  It will be fun, regardless :-).  Hope you can join us!