I Thought

When I saw Blossom and Hank sleeping together in the shade of the corn crib yesterday morning, I thought "These will be the cutest pictures I take all day."








I was gladly mistaken :-).



"Why, you could take cute pictures of me all day long!"

Fog Follies

Poor Hank. Most of the sheep closest in, maybe all but Renny way over on the left, still hate him. After all these years. Woolliam there on the right with the nose spots takes every opportunity to punch him. Boudreaux will run over the top of you to "get away" from him if he just looks his way.

As soon as Hank sounds his warning bark however (this time just for Hickory), they'll all go running back to the barn, the bad apples leading the way. Isn't that always the way...

"We'll USE you...but won't give you any credit."

And good ol' Hank just keeps on.

Campfire Stories

Blossom spent her first night in the barn without me last night. It was so nice to get back in my big comfy bed in the air conditioning, but I have to admit missing (just a little) the jump on the bed, jump off the bed, just back on the bed...walk up to stare at my face...

"Are you awake?"

"Can I have my baba now?"

"Mom? Are you awake???"

"I want my baba now."

Get. Down.

Boing...

Boing...

Boing...

Boing...

"Are you awake?"



To keep things fun, we pretended the super heat of the weekend was a roaring campfire. We roasted some Cheerios, had hot chocolate babas and read Blossom's favorite story, Borreguita and the Coyote.



"That sheep looks just like me!" she says with a big smile :-).



And she loves how the lamb keeps tricking the bad coyote.



"That's exactly what I would do!"



Blossom loves Hank. When it's hot and Mia and Blizzard tell her "Get lost, brat!" she happily goes under the utility trailer to take a nap with Hank on the cool gravel.

The other night we were all out in the front field and Hank heard some suspicious coyote noise out back. Without a moment's hesitation he took off, charging under the fence, racing out back, roaring...with fearless Blossom right behind.

Maybe we shouldn't have read that story so often ;-).

Thanks, Amy - it was a winner!

The Cat Days Of Summer

Lamb Camp

Well, the time has come for the Great American Barnyard Campout. Extra nice because it's nine million degrees. Yeesh :-/.



Once again it is too hot to use the little lamb lot with miniature run in shed, so I kicked the tractor out and set up base camp at the end of the sheep shed. Complete with sort of comfy cot, electric fan (thank you Thomas Edison!) and big sheep (but not dog, cat or chicken) proof lamb creep feeder (the triangle).

Now if I just had a big sheep to put in there with Blossom. Keebs was a bust. Willard was a bust. Mia is now on trial and hasn't punched the baby yet, but she's not so happy to be away from her brother, Blizzard, and the rest of the flock and isn't sitting in here with us. Maybe when the sun hits the side of the barn she'll come around to the shady, fan side. Sigh.



So, sunrise came early. At least it felt like it. Actually, it was a bit of a relief to "have to" get up after darling Blossom found the next morning's baba tucked away on the shelf next to the cot around 2:30 a.m. and proceeded to jump on and off the cot until I finally gave up and gave it to her. That lasted for a couple hours but then the baba 'lympics kicked back in around 5:30...her "normal" baba time. Except there was now no baba...



So she ate some Cheerios.



And crawled back in bed for awhile.



Up with the chickens. How nice :-/. Yawn.



And giving me the cold shoulder as I left to go get my own baba (coffee).

Janbaby and City Boy are here so it would sure be nice if Miss Mia could shoulder some babysitting duties. Cross your fingers!

~iPhone Photos~

The Day I Met Mama The Sheep*

It's been a busy several many days. Hickory and I have had the wonderful opportunity to ride with a fantastic dressage trainer while she was in town for a couple weeks, so we jumped on it. We fit in as much riding as possible, like being at horse camp. So fun.

However, I've been running as fast as I can and still not keeping up. Blossom's doing great, but it seems like she's still such a baby and needs so much time and attention. I think "This may be your last bottle lamb, crazysheeplady. You apparently don't have the energy for this anymore."

As I (and Comby, Iris, Weaslie, Hank, but no Betsy as she was locked in the house for bad bird behavior!) was sitting out in the front field last night letting Blossom have one last run around before bedtime, I was talking tired with a friend who pointed out that by now Ewenice would have taken over many of the momma duties.

Oh, yeah.

What am I going to do without Miss Ewenice? While I kind of like "being a sheep", I can't be a momma sheep forever. At some point I'm going to have to come back in and clean up this house.

In the meantime, breath deep and inhale some wool fumes. It will all work out.



This is Mama*. From Celi at thekitchensgarden. Disclaimer: that is probably not Mama on the picture postcard, but it's such a funny face I set it on there. It shows Celi's love of her sheep.



She sent me a box of Mama and Hairy McLairy and some beautiful "farmy" postcards. Which I could have spread out and taken a picture of...but the brain was too scattled. Her blog is full of them though and the accompanying stories make them that much better.



So, I am washing these two fleeces and spinning some yarn for her. Celi has a wheel on order and I have a feeling she'll be an easy convert, especially after she sees how lovely her wool is. After it's clean. Well, it was lovely before too (I love the smell of a freshly shorn fleece :-) but this is a scoop of the first soaking water ;-).



Here is Mama after two washes and three rinses (following my normal washing procedure).



How pretty and soft.

I can't wait to card and spin some. Maybe that would be a good job to do this afternoon while I'm sitting out playing momma sheep in the barn.

Sorry this post is kind of rambly/wonky. I've been trying to get it posted for two days, if for no other reason than to let everyone know things are okay and Blossom is growing like a weed and (along with everything else) keeping me really busy and away from the computer. And vacuum, stove, grocery... ;-).

The Bluegrass

In 25 words or less (I'm beat!)...



Loved this pretty horse!



20's mom and his brother Huck...



...have definitely got these sheep's attention.

Congratulations on your 5th place finish!!!



Blossom got to come over for the afternoon. Doesn't it look like she's looking over at 20, asking "You've been doing this all weekend?!?"



But at the end of the day, she was truly "the sweetest, softest lambie on earth".

It was a fun weekend, but we're glad to be back home.



Hank and Comby, the horses and Blossom and Betsy (you have to look close).

Travel safe everyone. We'll see you next year!

Right At Home

Long before the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival started, I always set up my booth at the Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial.



I fell in love with those amazing herding dogs, the handler whistles, the goosebumps that run up the back of your neck when watching a good one.



I love how everyone sets their dogs out front when they come in to look around and seldom do those dogs take their eyes off their person.



We had a fun day. I thought my booth looked nice, sales were good, saw lots of good friends...



...and took a spinning lesson from the always amazing Aaron.



And I had a special visitor too.



My booth is sitting next to a tree full of chipmunks! They ran through the booth all afternoon (maybe because the handlers leave their dogs out front ;-). This one is eating a moth. I'm betting he'd like a vanilla wafer too, eh? :-D.



I love putting out a few flowers out front to brighten things up and help keep folks from hitting the tent stakes. With the flowers, sheep, dogs, my spinning wheel, someone cooking my breakfast (he he), I feel like I'm right at home.

The only thing that would make it better would be little Blossom by my side. Maybe tomorrow. She's doing very well (whew!) and has really enjoyed bossing Auntie Reg around for the last few days.

Tomorrow is the finals. 20's mom, Debbie Bailey, qualified and will be running Huck. I bet 20 won't be able to sleep very well tonight because he'll be so excited!

The Best Laid Plans

I've been looking forward to the Bluegrass Classic Stock Dog Trial/Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival all year. I was excited to move my booth back down to the dog trial this year so I could sit and spin and watch the sheep and dogs, visit with friends, eat blueberry pancakes cooked by the Boy Scouts (it's the little things in life ;-)...



Unfortunately, Blossom has been really sick. The way I understand it, it's something to do with pneumonia caused by a selenium/vitamin E deficiency (unfortunately common in this part of the country).

She's feeling quite a bit better, but is still not the bouncy, happy, healthy lamb we all love, so I am still staying home with her today and am hoping maybe to make it to the dog trial tomorrow.



20's all packed and ready to go. He has his new fancy khaki shorts and an Equinox Farm polo shirt and picked out a yellow hat to go with. Never too early to start thinking about football season, you know ;-).

I hope all the local folks are coming out this weekend. Lots of fun stuff going on! The dog trial is just down the hill from the fiber festival and it's a lot of fun as well, especially the finals on Sunday. I hope I'm there to see it...but mostly just hope my baby gets better soon.

Every Night

Gato and Handy spend a few (or quite a few) minutes every evening scratching each others itchy spots. I've started collecting pictures while I sit out while Blossom runs around and eats clovers and it's become something I really look forward to seeing :-).



Somehow each horse lets the other know where to scratch.



Usually by itching the same spot on their buddy.



Or not.



Handy has it worked out so Gato uses his grazing muzzle to scratch fly bites on his stomach.



Yep, that would be a pretty good itcher.

The grazing muzzle is a life saver. Literally. With just a small hole in the bottom to really slow down their grass intake, the horses are able to stay out on the super lush spring grass without (usually) foundering. They still get plenty to eat; they just aren't able to over-eat.

I'm not saying a word...

The Beatings Will Continue...

...until morale improves!



Look at the pretty light this morning. We actually had even prettier fog, but it went from too foggy to not foggy enough in just a matter of a couple minutes. Still, the light was nice and I decided I'd go ahead and try for a few pictures.

The sheep had all come back to the barn by that point though. They go out and eat, come back and sleep. Go out and eat, come back and sleep. Go out to eat, come back to sleep. Would it kill them to do a little "work" and go pose for some pictures?

Apparently that would be a yes.



"Rabble, rabble, rabble..."



"Seriously. I can't believe you are making us do this."



"We hate this place."



"Rabble, rabble, rabble..."

I ran PW "lovely and ethereal" action on this...because it should have been lovely and ethereal just on it's own. Sheep.



Yeah, this was a real hardship for you all. Lila and Graham Lamb.



Ewen and some of his little friends.



"I'll go out and play and eat any time you want!"