This Time With Feeling

 ...or at least a correct link ;-).  Sorry about the missing link on the last puzzle.  If you weren't able to find it, it's fixed now.  

I thought it was cold last night, but tonight feels worse.  The predicted 10 degrees (that we were all actually looking forward to) didn't deliver and I just got a texted picture of a neighbor's thermometer registering -1.  This is not good.

Everyone ranged from very to miserably cold this morning (6 degrees) and Tabitha didn't want to get up and eat any breakfast so she started pneumonia protocol, just to be safe.  She looked much brighter this afternoon.  This is not good weather to be sick.  Everyone else looks okay so far.  

I'm hanging out in the Wool House so I can just walk out the door to do a late night check and feed extra hay rather than slogging up here from the house.  I should be doing something productive, but I'm catching up on some puzzles.   Much more fun.  

I made this puzzle with bigger pieces in case you are as bleary eyed as I am ;-).  Enjoy!

Also Rans

Here are a few more pictures I liked from the Solstice shots.  It was really nice "having" to take my camera out to the barn.   Thanks for playing along :-).

Ellie

Murphy

Maisie

Mini Moose and Big Moose.  Big Moose is not so big compared to Mini Moose.

Kaala

Levi, Big Moose and Ellie in the back.

Muffin

Biscuit

Tavia

Krista

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Biscuit

I took at least a dozen pictures of Biscuit on a sunny day (which it is definitely not today!) last week and turns out in all but three weird looking shots, he had his mouth open.  I thought, briefly, about trying for another shot this afternoon (in the definitely not pleasant weather)...and talked myself into this picture.  

It definitely shows his signature curls.  And his messy foretop.  And the constant piece of something stuck in there (he's a mess).  And him watching his buddies head on out for a late afternoon graze while he then sidles over to me for some back scratchies.

He does this every morning too as I open the gate to let everyone out.  He'll stand there as long as I'll stay and scratch his back and then finally I get tired and stop scratching, give him a gentle pop on the butt and tell him to "Go get 'em, tiger."  And off he goes to catch up.

Biscuit mostly stays in the background.  He can fight his way in for cookies, but he doesn't fight too hard.  There are some tough nuts in the front and who needs all that conflict.  Muffin is still his best friend and they are frequently side by side, especially when they are eating.  I just love that.

I let Mrs. Pepperpot take over as his mom when he moved from the house to the barn and his transition was seamless.  She was a kind old ewe and took him under her wing.  She probably knew Muffin was going to need a good friend by her side.  She was right.

Biscuit is truly grateful for any treats you can sneak in to him, but he's also pretty happy with a good back scratchy.

Solstice Sheep Day One - Muffin

As I was preparing to get up this morning I decided I would wear my Maisie sweater today.  I love all my sheep sweaters and I like to think the sheep know I'm wearing their wool and are maybe a bit disappointed if I wear something not from our flock.  

I was rustling around trying to find Maisie - I do this by feel in the dark - and felt Muffin's sweater and changed my mind and decided to wear her.  As I was pulling it on I thought "Wouldn't it be fun if I drew Muffin's name this morning!"

I cut all the name tags out, folded them tightly and then shook them up in a bowl and without looking put each one into a pocket.  I love surprises and if I'd seen a name, I'd have put it back in the bowl and tried again.  I was Very Careful.

And on the very first day of Sheep Solstice I drew...Muffin :-).

Muffin and her mom, Mrs. Pepperpot, moved over here from Final Frontier Farm in...are you sitting down?...2017.  Good.  Grief.  Time flies.  She'd been the sickest little lamb I'd ever seen who actually lived and she still looked pretty rough when she moved over here to be Biscuit's best friend.

"First hot day this summer, you are probably going to lose her, so don't get too attached."  Too late.  I was already attached.

Watching Muffin and her mom take the very best care of each other was one of the highlights of my sheep life.  Remember them sleeping together, Muffin's head tucked over her momma's back?  The day we had to put old Pepperpot down was soul crushing, but the last thing I told her was that we'd take good care of Muffin and here we are seven year later, still enjoying some Muffin magic.

About an hour later I walked into the front room and found a ceramic sheep laying on the floor.  Archie!  It was a sweet little shiny black sheep and I picked her up and set her on the kitchen counter.  She'll be our mascot for the season.

Muffin is a sweet treat lover, but she also loves pumpkins, so today everyone got to have a pumpkin party.  My friend Celia and I picked up an entire car full of pumpkins at the season end at our local orchard.  I never shared that picture and need to go find it.  That car was loaded!  I think we had over 150 pumpkins of various sizes piled in there.

Muffin's portrait?  One only a mother could love.  Look at that slimy pumpkin face :-o.  Her calendar picture is so much prettier, but this one tells a good story.  Oh, and who is that sheep trying to share her pumpkin?  Yep, it's Biscuit.  I love that they are still best friends.

We'll try to do better tomorrow ;-).

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

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. 

 

Weekend Wrap Up

The first part of the week was still a struggle mostly due to dealing with the weather, worrying about the weather, being beat down from dealing with and worrying about the weather.  It started warming up during the days some, but stayed cold at night.  We all took advantage of the sun when we could.

Jared and Short Round have been sweet for a couple of years now.  Remember when Jared lost Rocky and she sat out with him in the yard?  They are often seen together, but I've never seen him cuddle up and rest his head on her.  He was tired and still a little beat down by the weather and I was so glad to see him get some comfort from a friend.

You'll have to zoom in to see the bird gathering up stray locks of wool leftover from shearing.  Spring is here...even when it doesn't feel like it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

This video of everyone heading out one morning was fun.

And on one warm afternoon even Betsy came up to the barn for a bit.  I enjoyed sitting out with everyone for awhile and got a few rows of knitting in.  I love to knit in the barn.  I'm still mushing.

This is an interesting picture and not just because the barn wall is reflecting green...surely not from the grass outside (?).  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this was again a weather feature.  Look how many sheep are standing in the outside shed and how few can be seen in the inside stall.  

The wind was blasting from the south, the back end of the barn.  I had all the doors pulled closed, but left an opening in the door on the inside stall so they could still go out and get a drink and if anyone wanted to brave some grazing.  That opening was enough to drive everyone to the closed off side.  

Wind from the south sounds warm, but it always feels extra cold to me...and it looks like to the sheep and chickens as well.

I have always suspected that if Murphy stopped leading everyone out, Krista would take over.  She's not going to put up with his nonsense and headed out to get busy that morning.  Her kids weren't far behind her and when Murphy realized everyone was leaving without him, he ran to catch up and take back the lead.

For a couple of days Pinto decided he'd like to settle down and tie the knot.  He got sweet on Muffin after shearing and stayed pretty infatuated for awhile, not letting her out of his sight and making sure no one got too close to her...including Biscuit :-/.

Muffin put up with it for several days and then I noticed her walk away with Biscuit once morning and Pinto just kept eating and didn't seem to care.  I wonder how that all got decided.  I never saw any fighting between the boys, so I'd like to think Muffin took care of it ;-).

When Maisie gets cold she stands in the skirting area surrounded by bags of wool.  She's so clever.  That's also how I've been deciding if she needs to warm her puffy coat each night.  Sleeping in the straw with your friends has to be so much more comfortable than standing up by yourself.  She happily kits up.  Last night was the first night she didn't need her coat.

This was a fun new addition to the family and will be a funny story to share heading into the new week, so stay tuned :-).

* * * * *

The week ended on a much better note and I feel like things are getting back to "normal" finally.  Frankie and I have started back to work...just in time for a week of heavy rain predicted.  I'm hoping I don't lose my momentum outside and can instead focus on some inside jobs on the deluge days.

I'm really tired of complaining about the weather.  

A Rare Sighting

I was downloading some pictures for a friend yesterday and found some pictures that Miss B took after shearing.  I don't remember exactly what was going on here, but this group of sheep were probably thinking my coffee cup had treats in it.  I don't think most of them would just choose hanging out with me over eating green grass ;-).

Thanks, Miss B.  I don't have many pictures of me with my friends :-).

I have a funny series of pictures of Archie during shearing.  Stay on me so I don't forget to post them!

Weekend Wrap Up

I'm going to try something new.  I've actually been thinking about doing this for a couple of years, but apparently needed the FB debacle to push me to actually do it.  

The Plan - even if I do some blog posts throughout the week (the ideal situation), I'm going to try to do a Weekend Wrap Up post that picks some important IG posts and shares them over here and on FB.

I hate that there are so many good (frequently really good) memories stored over on IG that never make this searchable blog.  While I don't care much at all about FB, I do care about the people who follow me over there and who are now missing all the daily posts.

At some point maybe I'll figure out a way to fix the FB issue, but at this point, a few posts are hopefully better than no posts.

And while there is much of this past week that I'd like to forget, that's not how life and farming works, so without further ado...the first Weekend Wrap Up.

* * * * * 

I'd like to start off by saying thank you for all the kind comments, messages and notes about Blossom.  I knew that was going to hit a lot of us really hard.  I still can't believe she's gone, but I hope she's out grazing along the creek with Hank and dancing in the moonlight. 

If you'd have asked me last Saturday, I'd have said shearing went great.  It did, as far as shearing goes.  Once again, after weeks of really nice weather, we got hit with a horrible cold snap and honestly I think it was worse than last year because it was still blasting us with a miserable cold wind today, eight days later.

I am definitely not going to forget any of that because it's going to dictate how I schedule things next year.  In the meantime, let's remember everyone out grazing that afternoon, the last warm day, and enjoy seeing Biscuit and Muffin still grazing side by side just as they have done since they were lambs :-).

Here's a short flock walk from Monday evening:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

While I don't like the story behind this picture, I do like the picture.

Jared was miserably cold.  On Wednesday, he finally felt well enough to leave the barn and sneak out to get his special second breakfast.  I nearly cried.  He started improving every day after that and was almost back to normal this afternoon.

On a happier note, I heard the first Purple Martins chirruping Friday afternoon.  They'd have been happier a week or two ago when it was warm and there were bugs everywhere, but they'll be happy tomorrow when it warms back up.  

This was a screen capture using the Merlin Bird app.  If you aren't already familiar with that, check it out.  Big fun!

While it might appear that I've just been wandering around lost in the Alaskan wilderness, I am still working on my Iknitarod project.  We'll get there eventually.

* * * * *

Okay, this wasn't too hard and on a better week, might actually be pretty fun to put together and hopefully I'll do more than just hit the high spots.  There were more pictures on IG and some pictures that never even got shared over there, so maybe I'll do a couple of catch (further) up posts.

On to the new week!

Who Am I?

I like this little cartoon.  I really didn't think I'd be able to successfully put that many friends into a small square, but it works :-).

I didn't do my Muffin sweater right.  It's now a yoke sweater with Mrs. Pepperpot's white showing.  Much better.  I fed Muffin a lot of bottles, but she never lived in my kitchen so I hadn't included her in the yarn mix...but she fits perfectly in this scenario.

I don't have a stuffed sheep Iknitarider this year.  I stewed on that a bit and finally decided Bea was obviously my rider this year.  Duh.

I've finally cast on and have a few rows knitted.  I really struggled with what to knit this year and had it narrowed down to two choices, neither of which I was super thrilled with.  One I will do eventually.  The other...maybe with some different yarn.  I ended up going with a back burner third choice.

More to come!

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 :-).