Why Yes...

"I DO have a servant named Betsy."

Daily (At Least Trying ;-) Dose Of Cute

Good Morning - Even Though It's Almost Noon

A drive by post. If I can make it through today and tomorrow, I'm hoping things will settle down. Stop laughing.

Three of my (many) favorite things - Kate, Liddy and our awesome smelling lilac bush.  Haven't they been wonderful this spring?  In fact, I have to own up to thinking this has been a really nice spring all around.  Nice and cool.  The red buds were light this year, but I'll take that over being too hot anytime!

Kate has done amazingly well with Liddy.  After so many years of unbelievably sweet service from Iris, I knew it would be really, really hard to find another Border Collie who'd tolerate having a lamb running loose around the house and yard.  That's not saying I don't watch them like a hawk momma sheep, but Liddy is respectful (mostly ;-) of Kate and Kate has been very kind to her.  Good girls!

Here are a couple of cute videos.  The first one was yesterday morning - there's Claire Bear again! The second was a couple of days ago.  It's amazing how fast she's growing :-o.

Yes, she's stopped to pee pee at the end.  And yes, she does that in the kitchen, too.  I keep a ton of old towels on hand and it all cleans up with no trouble at all :-).

Gotta run!

Quiet As A Church [Lamb]

Actually, much quieter than the last few church lambs I should say ;-).  

Liddy is just one of the snuggliest lambies ever.  She snuggled in for the ride to church, nibbled on some hay tucked in the door and then fell asleep.

I was worried after the good nap on the way over that she'd be wide awake for church, but after visiting with everyone before church, Auntie Reg got her all tucked in and warm and she soon was back to sleep.

The piano didn't bother her, the singing, nothing.

She just slept and slept.

Look at the cute fat little butt :-).  Little Liddy might not be too little too long!

A big stretch as Dow wound up his sermon and then church was over and it was time to wake up and go outside to peepee ;-).  We had a towel handy just in case, but sure couldn't have asked for a better behaved lamb.

A Girl And Her Cat

Remember A Boy And His Cat?  Iddy Biddy Liddy Lammy apparently has Claire Bear.

"I don't really want a lamb..."

Liddy is doing great.  No more sniffles and she's growing like a weed.  She's loving her goat milk, loving her kitties, still loves to sleep in the bed with me us.  Yes, Saint Tim got to sleep in for a change this morning.  I'm not sure he'll make that mistake again ha ha ;-).  

Working Hardly

Little miss snuggly actually got a little bit sniffly yesterday so we've put her on some antibiotics and she's feeling much better.  But still snuggly :-).  That's her back foot in my hand.  Lambies like to have their little feets rubbed while they're sleeping and will sometimes stretch way out and spread their toes and make cute sighing sleepy sounds.  

She weighed 7 pounds at 10 days old yesterday so I'm guessing she was maybe 4 pounds when she was born.  Just a little bigger than Maisie.  Maisie, who has shown zero interest in her even wearing her old coat (it's all about Maisie ;-).  Baaxter on the other hand heard me talking to her the other morning at the barn and must have triggered something in his memory and he reverted back to his baby talking to me "Mam mam ma ma mam mam." Sweet Baby B.  Murphy and Spud are fascinated by her.

When they get the Google Glasses thing figured out to where everyone is wearing video recording glasses, we'll be in business.  As it is, I'm the only one getting to see all the cute stuff she does as she's figured out how to negotiate the steps in the house that are almost as big as she is and how she races around the house bucking and her doing her favorite sliding stop on the carpet.  

I'll try to get some out in the yard pictures later today.  Right now I'm trying to catch up a little (tiresome broken record) and get emails answered and boxes to the post office.  I did figure I would end up with a bottle lamb at some point this spring, but was "planning" on it being later in the spring when everything was more under control.  This little lamb who'd had a pretty tough start to life needed me though and it will all work out.

She Followed Me Home. Can I Keep Her?

"My new mom says you'll probably remember me from the other day."

"My old mom said I wasn't too interested in going mainstream."

"I think I made the right decision ;-)".

Still no name yet, but maybe Liddy?  Since she's such a "little-y" lamb?  She's 9 days old and still smaller than her two day old cousins.  She'll fit right in here :-).  Here are a couple pictures from the car ride home yesterday.

And a shot from this morning.  She slept in the kitchen last night, but I think she'll be negotiating for a spot in the bed tonight ;-).

Any Thoughts?

After a bit of confusion with the replacement Mug Shot mugs, they are all finally here and look great :-). Now to go back through emails to make sure I don't forget anyone.  If you are either waiting on an ordered mug or waiting on a mug to replace one that got damaged in shipping, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to "remind" me.  

In the meantime, as things got confusing and drawn out with the re-order/replacement of the second group of mugs, our printing rep (you know you're a problem when you get assigned your own rep ;-) thought the design was cute and offered us a good deal on some t-shirts.  Yikes.

T-shirts are cute, but they're a bit complicated to order with what color, what size, what style of shirt, what design...  Mugs are easy.  Order white mug, insert coffee (with cream and sugar :-), enjoy.  At the risk of sounding like I'm turning into a garage sale, is there any interest in t-shirts?  If so, any thoughts about these possibilities?

1.  A Mug Shot design - on white or colored t-shirt?

2.  New possible design with no criminals....except one of those crazy Adventure Chickens leaving the scene ;-).

3.  No black line around outside?

4.  No background, but printed on a light blue shirt?

5.  No background, on a white shirt?

See what I mean?  To make things even more stressful, if I want to do this, I really need to be able to have them ready to sell at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival next month (aka less than 30 days away :-o) so I need to be making some decisions very quickly (not my strong suit).  More coffee!

Gambolin' Lambs

Doesn't this look like every mom and little kid?  Mom paying close attention to what's going on around them and the innocent child doo-te-doo-te-doo'ing along :-).

The Training Center, Cynthiana, Kentucky

Facial Drama

I might be making this up or remembering it wrong, but in the back of my mind I think I've heard that color on lamb faces is "facial drama".

Ear drama :-).

This little patootie almost came home with me the other day.  What a cute little snuggle bug.  How could her mama not love her!  Must. Resist. ;-)

Facial drama and a dramatic expression.

Body drama ;-).

Now I don't think that kind of drama is necessary ;-).

Final Frontier Farm, Paris, Kentucky

Nobody Loves You Like Your Mom

Final Frontier Farm, Paris, Kentucky

Yarn Along - From Sheep To Sweater

I've had some questions about fleece skirting and what comes after that. The one fleece I know I'm going to keep for myself this year is Baaxter's. I always keep the first shear from my bottle lambs because that's the fleece I held on my lap.  The fleece I know by heart :-).  I think it will be fun to chronicle it from start to finish.  

So we watched Baaxter grow up (well, he's actually still growing for probably another year) and get his first big boy hair cut.  His fleece was then wrapped up in a sheet, tagged and added to the pile (:-o).  Sheets make great storage "bags" because they are easy to use (just tie up the four corners) and breathable.  Plastic bags can be problematic sometimes.

I love untying fleece bags and taking that first peek.

Everything's so smooth and orderly (you hope) and ready to unroll/unfold/untwist whatever it takes to get it laid out like it just came off the sheep.  The easiest way I've found to do that is to locate the back legs (the wool is usually longer and coarser so easy to spot) and work forward to the neck.

I think the boys are very handsome with their crew cuts, but I sure miss their cute fuzzy snuggly warm wool. They on the other hand are not missing it one bit.  We've had several really hot days already :-(.

After I have it laid out I start working my way around the outside, pulling off anything I don't want in my yarn.  Obviously anything super dirty and gross gets tossed.  VM (vegetable matter - hay, straw, sticks...) get picked out.  Belly wool or short wool or hair from around the face and legs gets pulled off, second cuts, coarse britch wool...toss it.

Side note:  If you find any prickly burrs, don't try to pull them out.  Not only will you hurt yourself but they can also break apart and then you'd have lots of tiny burrs instead of one big fat one.  When you wash your fleece, the burrs slide right out.  Don't worry about them until then.  That being said, I wouldn't want to buy a fleece full of burrs but a few wouldn't bother me.

Hard to see in this picture, but this is short wool from around the front legs and also full of VM. Tossed.

The only white hairs I'm aware of on Baby B. are on his face, so this must have been a pass up along his cheek.  That wool is too short but most important, any time you see loose hairs, quickly pick them out before they contaminate the rest of the fleece.  Hair is prickly even if it's from B's cute X.

Belly wool and a second cut off to the side.

Coarse britch wool on the left.  I set a couple locks from the rest of his body on the right for comparison.  Britch wool is found where their britches would be...if sheep wore pants.  Sheep don't wear pants ;-).  

Sometimes the britch wool is very different - like Baaxter's - and I separate it out.  Sometimes it's not really that different and wouldn't really detract from the rest of the fleece and I leave it in.  Baaxter's fleece is short(ish), soft(ish) and nearly black.  I don't want to add in some long, silver. heavy/thick "hair".

Second cuts - a big controversy among handspinners.  Second cuts happen when the shearer makes a pass along, say, Baaxter's fat tummy, notices that he or she left a strip of wool a little longer than the rest and they go back and make a second pass over it.  

I don't worry about second cuts as long as they are just super short like these.  I wouldn't want a shearer to leave an inch of wool in spots and then go back over it.  That 1" second cut would still shake out like the short ones, but your beautiful fleece is going to short that inch.  

The other reason I personally don't worry much about second cuts is that I want my sheep to look pretty ;-).  If you don't make that second pass over the sheep, there are no second cuts.  However, if don't make that second pass...your sheep look a bit funny, all lumpy and bumpy.  Baaxter needs to look good for his pictures :-).

And here he is, ready to head to the wash room.  Next week!  Any questions?

Joining in with Ginny.  I don't have a book to share this week :-/.