You Think You're Funny?

"You just wait."

I think Maisie was actually happy to take the blame for a natural disaster.  She's got an image to maintain you know!

In the middle of the "natural disaster" I almost forgot to do the farm-iversary drawing.  Random.org picked Michelle  :-D.  As soon as the calendars are printed, I'll get one sent out.  

Speaking of the "natural disaster", thanks to Stanley Steemer and Auntie Monica, the Wool House has dried out and we are close to putting the carpet back down.  It could have been much, much worse. 

Now to deal with the barn.  The friend rebuilding our skid steer has "run out of parts", so it's apparently ready to be picked up ;-).  

I Can't Help But Think

"Hey!"

"How come every last thing that goes wrong around here is my fault?!?  What on earth happened now!?!"

I went in to the Wool House last night to get some of your wool to make Christmas ornaments for the Wool Festival and found it had flooded.

"Oh."

"Sorry about that."

"You're still going to use my wool though, right?"

Um...

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The new water feature at the Wool House 😳.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Sep 23, 2018 at 7:11am PDT

We received 4 1/2" of rain yesterday morning on already saturated ground.  I posted a few flood pictures throughout the morning culminating with a pretty video of the "new water feature" in front of the Wool House.  Sigh...

I'd watched to make sure the water hadn't breached the door frame, thought all seemed good, was in and out of the wash room side all day, walked into the big room last night...and found it had flooded.  Maisie... (said like "Newman..." from Seinfeld ;-).

I can't help but think if I'd gone in there to get some of Liddy's or Bullwinkle's or Blossom's wool that I wouldn't have spent much of last night and most of today dealing with water damage...  

Equinox Farm

Today is our 15th anniversary.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  And it seems like we've been here forever.  Now that I think about it, I haven't heard our farm referred to as the "Douglas place" or the "Singer place" in several years.  Usually now it's "the place with the sheep."  I guess we've become part of the history now.  Or the sheep have.

I found some old pictures Tim took from the early days, the day we first saw the farm and some of the early work we did.  I thought I'd share them here because they are fun to look at and try to put then and now together...and if the house ever burns down, they'll live on forever on the internet.  Worst Case Scenario reason #168 for blogging... 

From the road.

This is looking at the back of the barn.  Tim took this picture from what is now the back of the Del Boca Vista paddock.  I am standing near the gate to the arena.  The corgi is Sophie.

Standing at the back corner of the barn, looking out to the road.  Tim is standing pretty close to where the Grahaminator2000 is now.

This is the barn lot.  The weeds on the left are now where the front corner of Del Boca Vista is, the two gates that make the corner.

Looking out towards the back.  I think that's basically where the curved alleyway goes down the hill to the left, heading to the middle paddocks.

The gate at the front corner of the horse side of the barn.  Now the fence curves down to the left, following the driveway.

Looking up from the road.

The old stripping room, now where the Wool House stands.  The collie is my beloved Sam.

The corn crib on the left is now the garage.

Looking at those two buildings from the yard.

View from the back corner.

Closer view of the big pond, now known as the skating pond :-).  Where Tim is standing is all full of trees and undergrowth.

The old cistern.  Now the home of the greenhouse.

I find this picture one of the most amazing.  I'd forgotten how you could see the neighbors across the sheep field.  The raised bed garden is the asparagus bed.  Punkin is buried underneath; Abby on the right side.

There were two round rock gardens, one on each end of this.  There were quite a few little gardens or landscapings scattered throughout the yard.  I wanted to consolidate and clean them up so we connected the two gardens here and it made a nice natural division from the yard to the orchard.  

I fought weeds in here for years though and finally this summer I'd had enough and we took it all out.  I'd hoped to transplant the bleeding heart, but I couldn't find it.  I should have dug it just after it bloomed this spring.  I'm hoping a piece will poke through the grass next spring.  I did get my favorite rose bush moved and so far it seems okay.

This must have been the next spring when they started fixing some eroded areas and sink holes and had the riding arena enlarged.

I'm not exactly sure what this is.  I know the wet weather creek runs through there, but there isn't water anywhere else so maybe this is leftover from the spring fed pond that used to be out front.  

It had been filled in years before, but I believe it needed some work and they also put in a bridge to drive from one side of the creek to the other.

This is looking out back towards the Frog Pond.  The guys doing the grading work wanted to just tear out the little pond.  I'm glad I fought to save it.

The barn.  Tim tore out almost everything on the right hand side and put it the big sheep stall.  

And the rock.  Oh the rock.  

This is something else I barely remember.  We walked up and down the grass hill to get onto the porch.  There is a concrete sidewalk to the front door and I think the couple we bought the farm from were front door folks.  I primarily use the back door and it didn't take long for this to get messy.  The rock sidewalk was a huge improvement.

I think pretty much everything was a huge improvement.  We've let some shrubs overgrow that I wish I'd stayed on top of better.  The beautiful tidy porch...will never be the same, but it's a porch that is well used and well loved and I think it's happy even though I'm sure it would appreciate an overhaul.  I think the rest of the farm is happy, too.  

Happy Anniversary!  We're glad to be here.

*     *     *

And if you are still here, leave a comment telling us your favorite part of the farm and Sunday night I'll draw for a winner and send out a 2019 Equinox Farm calendar.  They are almost done and ready to print :-D.

The first three pictures were actually taken a week or so ago and I just found them on my camera.  I love the light on Hank and how it glides across the front field as the sun rises over Stella's hill.  The iPhone Memories video below is from this morning.  

I love mornings.  I don't really think of them as "Oh boy, a new day!"  I just enjoy the quiet beauty of the moment.  The sun rising, the sheep venturing out, the birds waking up...  I suppose I could find beauty if I lived in a city, too (there truly is beauty everywhere), but I am so grateful to live where I do.  

It never gets old.

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A beautiful morning. Enjoy 😊.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Sep 19, 2018 at 5:55am PDT

And here's a new puzzle :-).  Enjoy!

Still [Chicking]

I'd love to say Gladys is all better and back to running the farm, but she's not.  She's somewhat better though and still with us and that is, sadly, an accomplishment with chickens much of the time.  She hung out in the wash room a little yesterday afternoon and it was nice to have her company.  She's a funny chicken.

It's That Time Of Year Again

Time to figure out which picture of Comby sleeping is going to make the calendar this year ;-).

This Time With Knitting

While we're on the subject of stuffed animals, my teddy bear turned 50 this summer!  She'd been wearing the same store bought acrylic sweater and worn out blue jeans for many, many years, so I decided to make her a new outfit.  

I started the sweater back in the winter...I think...and finished it maybe in July?  Why oh why didn't I keep the blog current :-(.  I made her jeans just after the sweater...I think.  

The yarn is some leftover Jester and the buttons came from Auntie Reg's stash.  They are actual shell buttons and we decided we liked the colorful natural shell backs better than the polished white fronts.  The biggest design feature is that I knit this sweater in the round and did my first steek...and it worked :-D.

From The Department Of...

In what is looking like the summer that will never end, Gladys is not well and I had to take her to the vet last week.  If you are asking yourself how one takes a chicken to the vet, if your chicken is Gladys, you just put a towel down on the front seat and off you go.

"We're going where?!?"

Here is a short video as we headed down the lane.

Once she got used to the movement, she settled down on the edge of the seat and just rode along like she did it every day, looking around the car, out the window, at me, out the window...

Taking Gladys to the vet seems like it should be an entire story all on it's own, but no, there is a whole 'nuther chapter in "This Could Only Happen To Me."  As we were cruising down the bypass, headed home, I spotted a tiny sheep on the side of the road.  Screeeech!

???

After being abandoned on the side of the road since, I'm guessing, the end of July and then picked up and hung on a road side marker, this poor little sheep can only be thinking "What now?", looking up a big chicken who's just been to the vet and had her car ride home interrupted.

The reason I'm guessing she's been out there since late July is the county fair ribbon tied around her arm.

Is this not the saddest little sheep you've ever seen?  

Three or four washes later and she has a whole new lease on life :-).

"Someone loves me and is going to give me a good home :-)"

So what is this little sheep's story?  How did she end up on the side of the road?  Was it purely an accident?  Maybe a toddler tossed her out the window?  A tired parent set it on the roof and forgot it?  Is someone looking for her?  Or is that third place ribbon a clue?  

She looks like she might have been made by a child as a 4-H project.  Was her maker disappointed by a third place ribbon?  Disappointed enough to throw her away?  There is no way to know for sure, but in the off chance that this is what happened, there are a few things I'd like to say to that child.

Well, I'd like to say something about not being a bad sport and would she have been more valued with a blue ribbon and what that might say about a person...but I'm going to leave that be.   

What I am going to say is:  Hey, you made a stuffed sheep toy.  A sheep toy that looked enough like a sheep that I spotted it out of the corner of my eye at 40 miles an hour.  A sheep toy that someone loves and is enjoying playing with.  You made something of value.  Be proud of that!  

"The crazy chicken lady says I'm not the first little sheep she's found and rescued from the side of the road.  I think she's actually a crazy sheep lady!"

Speaking of chickens, Gladys is doing "okay" and while not out of the woods, she did boss around the crowing hen this evening so I'm taking that as a good sign.  I'll keep you posted.

Sweet Symbolism

I seem to have lost my words, but I want to tell a short sweet story, so I hope this ends up making sense.  

The two tiniest hens sleep in the barn loft at night, usually quite high up.  Tonight (it just looks bright out back because I was metering off Woody in the dark-ish barn) the two hens hopped up on the cross gate together.  The light blond chicken immediately flew straight up to the loft.  

The blond and gray chicken danced around, looked up, walked to and fro, looked up, turned around, looked up, flapped her wings, walked to and fro looking up...and Woody walked over and stood next to her, exactly the way the sheep used to with the Sheep Chicken.

We are all still here, trying to take care of each other.