Old Friends And Family

"Hi, my name is Salt.  I don't know why I'm here. I miss my old farm and my old family.  I'd been there a long time, almost 14 years.  This farm is okay though.  At least there are sheep here.  The other flock dog is nice to me and I've known the shepherd since she came over to my old farm and picked up a lamb named Keebler."

Salt was one of the guardians at the "big farm", where the Final Frontier Farm mommas and babies live after they leave the lambing barn.  She worked there with Old Zee and Brick and the job they did there was epic...yet standard as good flock dogs go.  

Old Zee passed away last year.  The summer farm help ran over Brick a couple weeks ago.  Taking care of hundreds of lambs was a big job for three dogs.  It would be impossible for one very old one.  The scramble to find a replacement was on.  

Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do.  The instinct even in puppies is incredibly strong, but they need many months of on the job experience with guidance and supervision before they fully ready to work a big farm with freshly weaned lambs.  Kathy needed to find an adult dog, not an easy task.

The best option was a female with four puppies on her.  She could borrow the mother until she found something else, but the puppies would obviously come with her.   Putting two females together safely would have been incredibly hard.  A female with puppies...would have undoubtedly killed Salt.

Stella, at the lambing farm, made it perfectly clear that Salt was not welcome there either. The instincts that make them good guardians are the same instincts that get them into trouble sometimes.  Flock dogs can be complicated. 

Salt's only safe option would be living in a kennel run. Nobody wanted that.  Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do.  We offered to try her here.  Our farm is well fenced, Hank, a male, is as laid back as they come and there are sheep.  Several sheep she even already knew.

The first night was terrible.  She was horribly confused and upset.  I slept in the barn with her and neither of us got much sleep.  The next day she relaxed a little, but as evening came she got very agitated again.   Maybe she was thinking she needed to be out working her old farm. The stormy weather wasn't helping anything either.

As the days have progressed, she's seeming happier.  She likes the barn with the cool, dark feed and tack rooms.  Tim moved the trailer (aka spaceship) next to the barn, but she prefers to sleep out in the driveway under the truck.  She hasn't made any patrols yet that I'm aware of, but she does like hanging out with the sheep.  

Hank is fine :-). 

Hank And June Flip Book

I remember heading out to the barn for evening chores the first miserably wet and cold evening after we got Hank.  I really wasn't sure how I felt about him being outside in that.  I knew how much Iris and Tilly enjoy sleeping in the warm kitchen but I'd been told not to worry.  That livestock guardian dogs were different.  

I looked in all of Hank's normal barn spots and he was nowhere to be found.  I looked around the corner of the barn thinking he was hiding out in one of the horse stalls.  No.  I knew it.  He was miserable and had run away from home...and then I spotted him.  He was out in one of the paddocks running laps with a big happy grin on his face.  

Hank and I actually prefer cold weather :-).  Running laps and bouncing around playing chase and catch me became our nightly routine that winter.  During the hot summer we both played let's just sit out on the hill after the sun starts to set.  Winter returned and the games resumed.

Evening seems to be a common time for animals to play.  I've watched rabbits and foxes and skunks come to life as the sun starts to set.  Big fields of lambs race around jumping on and off round bales or tree stumps until their mouths are open panting.  Hank and June get completely silly too.  

I'm not sure if it's just the playing time of day or if this is some sort of evening warm up, but this is their nightly routine.  They are good about playing away from the flock, but I have to really watch if I'm out there so I don't get run over.  Luckily I can hear them coming.  If you didn't know they were best friends... :-o

June being here has been really good for Hank.  If you'd have asked me a month ago if Hank was "old" I'd have said no.  But as soon as we put a young dog next to him...we both had to admit Hank is getting old :-/.  A month of Camp June has put a little fresh pep in his step though.

Remember June's second night here?  When they divided up the work and she took the front field and Hank stayed out back?  Now when they feel like there is a threat, Hank works the smaller front field and June works the entire back of the farm.  She can get to the fence line next to Stella's house in just a matter of seconds! 

There was some action the other night and June raced up the hill while Hank and I stayed with the flock at the barn.  Once everything had settled back down I gave both dogs a chew bone and they sat side by side out back, prepared for the rest of the night.   

They are a good team. If we'd have had any idea how much Hank would love June, we'd have gotten a second dog much sooner.  Or maybe he wouldn't have loved anyone but this June.  Hank and June were Tim's grandparents.  In case you were wondering how they got their names :-).

Yarn Along - The Daniel Scarf

When my mother passed away this winter I inherited her weaving loom, a (now) vintage Leclerc table loom and floor stand.  I don't remember her weaving with it, but she had a good collection of weaving books and some leftover yarn, so she must have made a good run at it at some point.

Daniel's 2015 fleece went to A Yarn Well Spun last year and she had a run of yarn spun from it.  I picked up a couple undyed skeins at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May and as the Tour rolled around, I decided to combine it with the loom and put both to good use.

The finished scarf.

Before fulling/blocking - you know, my favorite part ;-).  

Notice how you can see each individual strand?  How almost rough it looks?  Woven cloth is not finished until it's been "fulled".  Fulling is done (at least here) in the washing machine and involves hot(tish) water, soap and a few seconds of machine agitation.

Notice how much softer and fuzzier and comfy it looks now?  The yarn all melded together?  You should be able to click to biggify.  Isn't that fun?

Some mandatory blocking (where you size it and even out any uneven spots) pictures.  I used the house porch this time, but I'm going to move back to the Wool House porch next time because the table height is more comfortable up there.  

And yes, it's a simple, straight, rectangular woven scarf (as opposed to,say, a fancy, curvy lace shawl), but any time I put wool and a measuring stick together, you know there are going to be pins involved. Lots of pins.  An insane amount of pins.  I LOVE to block :-).

The cats are all pretty much self blocking these days.  No pins required.

My latest favorite spider, doing a little spinning and weaving above the red bench.  You'll need to biggify to see her.  She's quite pretty.

After several (!) disappointing book downloads, I was luckily reminded that you can never go wrong with a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book, so enjoyed my weaving listening to the latest from Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni.  

I had a pleasant surprise in the mailbox over the weekend, too. Shepherds and Shepherding by Jonathon Brown.  It's packed full of historical shepherding information and pictures and I'm thoroughly enjoying that as well.

Joining in with Ginny...

When We Last Saw Our Hero

He was being carried around the fiber festival.  Yes, just one week ago, I could still carry him around. 

There's not much room to sit on the large dog bed with him anymore :-o.  I could still pick him up on Saturday, but by Monday evening it was all over.  I've never had a lamb grow as fast as Bullwinkle.

"She says that likes it's a bad thing."

I think it's time you moved out of the house and off the porch, big fat lambie.

"What?!?"

"It's not very nice to say things like that."

"There's just a lot more of me to love!"

*      *       *       *       *

Sorry for the delay announcing winners for the festival giveaway.  City Boy and Janbaby were here all weekend and Jan and I were too busy beating Tim and Jeff in Spades to remember we had other things to do.  Ah, good times ;-D.

Since we had three winning cute lambies in the running, I let Random.org draw three winners - Yarnkettle, Small Farm Girl and Katie.  Suess has a little something from the Ballyhoo Fiber Emporium for Yarnkettle and Bullwinkle and 20 will be sending some new Lamb Camp cards to Small Farm Girl and Katie.  Please drop me an email with your mailing addresses :-).

I'm working to get the Farm Shop updated with all the new Punkin's Patch goodies and a few fleeces still waiting to be skirted.  We'll do a couple more giveaways this week to make that all more fun :-D.

More Similar...Yet Different

This looks like a dining room, but it's actually more of a den, also known as "the room where me and Janbaby  beat Saint Tim and City Boy at Spades"

Here's a hand for you, Janbaby!  Tim's other brother and sister-in-law create stunning artwork, including these gorgeous playing cards.  

Peter also carved the two big fish.

Another neat shepherd.  He used to live in the foyer and was temporarily moved in here until the foyer remodel is finished, but I think I'm going to leave him in here.  Aren't they just so fun and such neat detail.

The next two close ups are for Far Side.  I have no idea who these characters are.  I found them headed to a dumpster and it made me sad.  With all the shenanigans and drinking and being out in the woods, they really could be Saint Tim and his brothers and cousins. They can hang out here.

Not all old pictures were serious :-).  

Around the next corner to the bathroom.  This was the room that really needed the most work.  

A favorite rug by our friend Charlotte of Weaving Memories (no website, but you can find her at the Kentucky Wool Festival in October.  She uses all recycled materials and this rug "used to be" a bath towel :-).

You might recognize these knobs from the old kitchen.  They were painted by Ouisha McKinney and I'd originally planned to have her make a whole set of knobs for the cabinets and drawers in the new kitchen, but we really needed something for in here right away and these fit the bill.   

They are all different breeds of sheep and I have one extra left over, a Soay sheep.  Hmmm, wonder if I know someone who might like it... ;-).

Here was the only way I could think to get a picture of the other side of the tiny room.  This blue is the exact blue it used to be.  The only room that actually changed color was the dining room.

I hope you enjoyed the art tour of our bathroom :-D.

Wool Festival Guest Post From Hershey

"Yeah, well, it was kind of a long weekend.  We had to go and be in some sort of hugging booth.  Mom said there'd be some cookies, but we got hosed on that because they figured out Baaxter was going to be too rowdy.  I could have told them that before it ever got started.

It poured rain all day on Saturday and about every hour the tent roof would overflow and it was like someone poured a bucket of water on our heads.  Our wool got so wet that wherever we touched the red gates, we got red stripes. Luckily a nice guy came by and fixed it so that would stop happening, but we were all pretty wet by that point and just wanted to go home.

Luckily the next day was nice and sunny.  It was kind of hot, but not too bad in the shade.  Baaxter said he was done hugging people if they weren't going to give him cookies.  Murphy and Spud eventually joined him in the hugging boycott, so for the rest of the day, I got all the hugs.  That was fine by me.

Mom's booth looked nice and she sold a bunch of wool, tshirts and coffee mugs.  I know she was happy about that because she's made some sort of goal about paying for all of our expenses this year, not just our feed bills.  She said none of us can get sick this year, but I don't know how she expects that when she takes us out in a monsoon.  Good thing we are all tough!

20 didn't get to come out on Saturday, but he was there on Sunday. He helped with the drop spindle instruction.  Auntie Reg was there both days and our friend Miss B was there on Saturday and then Grandma and Grandpa helped tear down the booth Sunday afternoon.  It takes a lot of help to do these shows and I know Mom is really appreciative.

Liddy did a great job all weekend.  We'd all heard the story of how rotten Maisie was two years ago when she had to "work".  Baaxter said he was good last year, but I overheard Reg telling some people that he was pretty naughty, jumping out of the pen and knocking chairs over and such.  I tend to believe Reg on that count.  

I know everyone was really excited about winning some ribbons at the wool show.  I didn't get to enter my fleece because someone had already come down to pick it up earlier in the spring.  I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen next year because I think I can give Murphy a run for his money.

The really exciting win was our friend Karen's win at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival earlier in the month.  She had taken Beanie Baby's fleece last year and spun it into yarn, designed a shawl to showcase all his different colors and won first place in the Spinner's Yarn Basket.  This year she took the finished shawl, you remember the one, from the Hug A Sheep party, and won first place, best in show, most innovative design and best hand spun.  Dad made a nice poster to tell people about that.

The new Lamb Camp cards.

I think Mom was a little worried about hanging up Maisie's sweater.  Something about how the tent might fall down or something.  I can totally see that happening.  That is one crazy sheep.

I don't think people were convinced.

Nobody bought Chocula's huge fleece so I think Mom is talking to Sheepmom about dyeing it.  I'll believe that when I see it.

We all really love Auntie Reg.

Especially Baaxter.

And Liddy :-).

By the end I was pretty tired, but I still loved visiting with all the nice people, especially this young lady.  It was actually a pretty fun weekend, now that I look back on it."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Hershey :-).