Warmest Before The Dawn

In the summer I wake up with the sun (around 6:00 a.m.) and start my day.  I let the dogs out, feed them and Bad Betsy, fix myself a big cup of coffee and walk up to the barn to do an early morning check.  

My main concern is B. Willard.  He likes to dig himself a comfy bed, but if he isn't careful how he lays down in it, he can get stuck with his feet higher than his overly round body and then not able to get up on his own which can be dangerous.  I hate to find him that way and on occasion he's given me a bad scare.

If I wasn't worried about him, I'd probably keep my 'get up with the sun' schedule during the fall and winter and sleep later in the morning like most animals.  However, that leaves him unwatched for a couple extra hours each day as the sunrise is so much later right now and I don't think it's worth the risk.  Plus, I love watching the sun rise

During the fall I sat on the Wool House porch with the dogs, and now frequently Possum, and check on my social media sheep friends while I finish my coffee.  If it's too rainy or windy and cold, we sit inside.  If it's not windy, I can tolerate some pretty cold temperatures and those cold, still mornings are some of my favorites.

This morning the moon was still pretty bright even though it's almost a week past full.  I did a flashlight check to make sure Willard was right side up and then stayed outside talking to Salt, giving Possum a snack, visiting with the horses, listening to the neighbor's rooster crowing and watching the stars disappear and the sky brighten.  There was no wind, so even though the thermometer said it was cold, I wasn't. 

This is the first year I've had to do these early morning checks and by doing so, I've learned a few fun things.  One, I love to be outside at dawn. Being able to watch everything on the farm wake up is a peaceful treat.  Another, you might think the coldest part of the day is right before the sun rises.  It's not.

The first couple of times I got too cold outside I thought I was imagining that it had gotten instantly extra cold.  Then I thought maybe it was just that I'd stayed out too long.  I'd be warm as toast for an hour or so and then suddenly freezing cold.  It didn't happen every day though and I noticed it was only happening on clear mornings with a bright sunrise...

Sure enough, if you google "Why does it get colder after the sun comes up?" you'll find the answer.  

Did you know it got colder just after dawn?

It's Okay To Be A Fossil

I spent part of yesterday learning (a little about) using Zoom.  Luckily the friend I was talking to video chatting with is one of my very favorite people to talk to and while I've never seen her be anything but smiley and cheerful, I know she understood when I got sad and gloomy and it was okay.  Yeesh, what a weird year...

Still, it was pretty nice talking face to face.  And even though it would have been better if we'd been sitting together in one of our messy kitchens or out in our sheep barns, I can see how this technology stuff can (sometimes) be helpful and fun.  I'm hoping I can learn to use it to "open" the Wool House to "visitors".

Meanwhile back at the "calendar store", I am going to hold fast to my old fashioned way of ordering something from the farm shop.  Yeah, there are several other ways I could sell online and look more professional and probably even get my shipping labels printed for me and everything put on a spreadsheet...or whatever...but if all you have to do is click a "buy it now" button then I wouldn't get to hear how you, too, found some joy looking back or who your favorite sheep is or how much you too still miss Hank or what your favorite story was or how much you enjoy the puzzles...

So...

Here's a new puzzle :-).

"Keep the cards and letters coming."  I'll be returning emails today.  I was mired yesterday and wasn't that fun to talk to.

There are several emails I'm going to run through a spam check because I've gotten so many orders for Maisie Orneries that I'm suspicious she's been up to something ;-D

Tim is working to get the calendars put together so they can hopefully start being mailed on Monday...if I can once I figure out the shipping stuff!

I have some fun pictures to post this morning that I took while sitting in the wash room typing this out because it was too chilly to sit out on the porch and work...but the door was open the whole time so it's really not any warmer in here and I missed the sunrise.  One of these days I'll get it all together...maybe.

Good morning!  

The sunset last night.

The 2021 Calendars

From the back cover...

"As most of you know, I really struggled with creating the farm calendar this year.  2020 was a year of incredible loss on and off the farm and I've heard so many folks talking about how much they are looking forward to welcoming the new year and putting the old year behind them. I can't help but agree...and yet, in having to look back through all the photos I took throughout this strange, sad year, I actually found so very much to be grateful for. I hope I’m not alone in that.

So, once again, Miss Tilly is still keeping our feet warm, but now Kate is mostly just trying to keep herself in line.  Salt has taken on as many of Hank's duties as she can and hearing her deep ba-roo makes me smile.  Betsy is still on house arrest for not only the menacing of birds, but now also sweet little Possum out in the barn. Every so often I catch a glimpse of orange out of the corner of my eye and can't help but hope that Comby is napping in the sun somewhere nearby. 

As always, a very special thanks to Saint Tim for doing all the hard work and heavy lifting and a grateful thank you to all of you who have become such an important part of our farm family.  You were spot on in voting to give everyone a Victory Lap.  I hope you enjoy welcoming the new year with this calendar."

The Victory Lap was hard...but it was the right thing to do...if for no other reason than to force me to go back and look at pictures from when the year was new and some of my oldest and dearest friends were still pretty young at heart.

I like the new format.  The calendar is a bit larger, but not outrageously so.  It was a bit more expensive to print, but luckily I "know a guy" ;-).  The shipping will be a bit more too, but hopefully not outrageously so.  

The big pictures are a little bigger...but so are the little pictures and I like that.

There are more columns (7 days) the rows (weeks) which left a gap at the bottom, so I filled that in with a little something, sometimes a story, sometimes just some thoughts.  I like that, too.  The calendar feels maybe a bit too personal at times, but as the only place it will be for sale is here with us, not at a random crowd festival, I think that's okay.

Of course there's Hank...

...and Early and his adopted moms and dads.

...and Comby with some of his oldest and dearest friends.

The Lamb Camp calendars are comfortingly the same.  Lots of cute lambs and good mommas...

...and Early doing what I hope we all remember most about him.

The Lamb Camp calendars are still $10.00.  The Equinox Farm calendars are $16.50.  The shipping, which has become the bane of my existence these last few days, is where it gets a bit messy.  

For the past couple of years I was able to use the USPS flat rate envelopes no matter where in the country I was shipping. The new calendar doesn't fit in those envelopes.  This could be good news if you are close by because it may actually be cheaper shipping to you now.   If you live in California, the shipping could cost around $15.00...if I'm understanding everything correctly.

To make this even more exciting, I'm going to try to do all the shipping from home this year rather than stand in line at the crowded post office every day.  Also, I realize that UPS or FedEx might possibly be cheaper...but I don't have those options in my small town.  Thank goodness for the USPS.

While especially in this year of no fiber festivals, these calendar sales are going to be an important fund raiser for the farm, I also know that the farm calendar is important to many people who look forward to turning the page on each month.  

2020 was hard on everyone.  I'm sorry the costs have gone up.  If you are not in a position to pay for a more expensive calendar this year, send what you can.  It will all work out somehow and 2021 will be better if we all have Hank, Salt, Tilly, Kate, Comby and Possum at our back.  Maybe not Betsy so much ;-).

As always, if you are interested in buying a calendar or anything else from the farm shop (except for the felted pumpkins that I just can't seem to get made this year :-o) just drop me an email and tell me what you would like to order.  Don't forget to include your address.  I'll send everything out from my "on farm postal desk" (:-o) and include an invoice and return envelope and you can drop a check back in the mail.

Best. Anniversary. Ever.

 

I got up Sunday morning and went to Winchester to have breakfast with John and Auntie Reg.  I took Kate and Tilly with me because...they always go with me.  Kate went exploring around their yard like any other visit and I didn't think anything about it.  Kate doesn't get into trouble.  She never leaves me.  

9-14 year old Kate would never leave me.  15 year old Kate, now deaf and significantly vision impaired and while in good condition for a 15 year old dog, but not strong enough to venture into the woods...ventured into the woods.

I'm not sure if she fell, got disoriented because she doesn't see well or just wasn't strong enough to pull herself back up the hill.  Regardless, even though we realized pretty quickly that something wasn't right, we couldn't call her name and expect any response.

And she wasn't just off in any old woods.  She was on the "hillside" overlooking the Kentucky river.  We immediately starting searching, but I knew we were in trouble.  I called Tim and he came over and brought a neighbor with him.  

We searched and searched and I called a border collie friend who I knew could whistle really loudly in hopes that maybe Kate could still hear a herding whistle and find her way back.  She also brought two dogs with her in hopes they would stumble across her.  Nothing.

We searched the surrounding, very rugged, terrain for 11 hours.  The drive home that night was the worst thing I've ever experienced.  I went back over early the next morning and checked in with some near-ish cattle farms in hopes she'd smelled stock and gone to them.  

We got escorted into the nearby old stone quarry and searched for signs there.  We drove from road to road and house to house and Reg talked to anyone she could find and called so many people.  We re-walked and walked and walked all over the hillside, as far down as it was safe to go.  

This was not a "walk in the woods".  If she'd gone down, the elevation drop is 300' and at best maybe a 45 degree angle.  Much of it is a cliff...straight down.  The underbrush was thick and the area is full of old stone walls.  It was unlikely she could get past all that, but after searching along the upper side of the hill for two days and all the nearby open farm ground as best we could, Tim decided to climb down into the Lower Howard's Creek.

It was definitely worth a shot, heck, anything was, but by this point I had very little hope left.  It was getting dark and closing in on what would be her second cold night in the wilderness. A wilderness full of coyotes and bobcats and sometimes other predators.  

He called to let me know when he gotten down into the creek bed and I waited at John and Reg's.  I was exhausted.  I was broken.  Tilly was with me, but she, too, was upset and miserable.  She ate her dinner, but wouldn't stop walking around and kept sniffing pretty close to where I'd last seen Kate.  I decided to make one more trip down into the woods.

I once again crawled under, through and over and slipped and slid down loose rocks and dirt. I'd maybe made it a quarter of the way down, zig zagging left and right, when my phone dinged with a text message.  I pulled it out of my pocket...and there was the picture of Tim...with Kate.  She was still alive and he had her in his arms!  

I don't really remember scrambling up the hill or, honestly, even driving to the point where he was going to bring her out.  He ended up carrying her nearly a half mile, through water in some parts up to his chest.  When he'd try to set her down to walk, she'd turn around and try to go back where he'd found her. Definitely disoriented and maybe a little shocky.

The vet told us some things to immediately check and do for her before we got her to the clinic.  Luckily I hadn't given all the food I had packed for her to Tilly and she gobbled it up.  I'd assumed being next to the creek that she'd had plenty to drink, but when we got to the vet clinic, her blood work was not great and she needed IV fluids.  

She went back to the clinic this morning and stayed for several hours while they ran more fluids, but by mid afternoon they said she was in good shape and ready to come home.  She is laying at my feet as I type this.  It is truly a miracle. 

This is just the highlights of the story.  Don't try to imagine the rest or what she (and we) went through or what could have happened...  I've done enough of that for all of us and I've never cried so hard in my whole life.  

I want to offer up a huge thank you to everyone who helped bring Kate home, especially Auntie Reg and her friends and neighbors.  

Our friends who came from two counties away and gave up their entire Sunday to help search and then drive me home that night. 

The god of old dogs (and maybe sheep and cats) and their angels who I'm sure gave Kate a strong "lie down" so she stayed put when she hit the creek.  

And to 'the old man of the creek and rivers' who had the vision to go down the creek...and carry her back to me.  I guess all that fishing finally paid off ;-).  Today is our anniversary.  I'd like to say we make a good team, but honestly, Saint Tim is always carrying us all. 

Like A Diamond In The Sky

I've spent the last several nights watching for the Comet NEOWISE.  I finally realized that I was probably missing it due to all the trees around our house, so last night I packed up the dogs and my camera (but forgot the bug repellent and my binoculars) and headed for the hill in the back field.

About the bug repellent...I really don't notice many bugs around the house and barn at night.  If the back porch light is on, then yes, but if not, they really aren't a problem.  Bug repellent never even crossed my mind.  The binoculars...never crossed my mind either but that's a mind issue, not an experience issue.

Turns out the bats are taking care of a LOT of bugs each night.  The back field was brutal.  Between not having any luck spotting the comet and knowing even if I did I wouldn't be able to see it very well without the binoculars and The Bugs, I finally bailed around 10:30 and headed back to the barn.  

As I drove through the gate next to the barn I looked up and just like finding a four leaf clover, there it was.  Right over the Wool House.  I took this picture with my iPhone.  I'll try again tonight to get a "big girl camera" shot...or maybe I'll just watch it through the binoculars and enjoy it.  

You can see it pretty well with just your naked eye, but the tail is really incredible with some zoom. Here's a link that might help you spot it.  Sounds like we have a couple more days of visibility.  Go out and find it.  Don't forget your binoculars...and your bug spray if you don't have a hard working bat colony.

The First Picture

Just a random observation and probably of no interest to anyone but me, but it includes a sweet picture of Kate and B. Willard, so I'll share.  This is something that almost always happens and I think it's interesting.  

When I see something that is a potentially good photo, I take the picture and then try several more to make it a better picture.  I move around a little or adjust the aperture or exposure or what I'm focusing on...  I come in with a camera card full of pictures to choose from...and almost always pick the first shot I took.

I wish I'd had a different lens attached so I could zoom out a little more to include more of what Willard and Kate were looking at...but I probably would have still picked this one ;-).

The 2020 Iknitarod

I'm starting this post with my 2020 Ravatar because if I led with the picture of the actual project, everyone would just pass on by because you've seen this yarn so. many. times.  

For the 2020 Iknitarod...I am knitting the Renny sweater!  

I think about the Iknitarod off and on all year long and some time ago I picked this sweet gray dog to be my Iknitarider.  I had originally planned to spin and knit a Jared sweater and have been tossing patterns around for months.  I could never settle on one though and I kept feeling bad about never knitting the Renny sweater and when it dawned on me that Charcoal had something in common with Renny, I knew what I was going to do.

"Are you sure?  That is a LOT of color!" ;-)

Like many animals on our farm, Charcoal was a rescue.  In his early life he had worked hard in a grade school classroom.  So hard that he ended up with a patch on his backside, just like Renny :-).  When his teacher retired, she took him home with her and kept him until she found a new home for him...and he eventually ended up with me.

With the dog connection to Renny - the bad dogs who caused her to end up here in the first place and the good dogs who took care of her for the rest of her life - and how old those dogs have all become, this year the dogs are center stage, along with Comby, who is a close to a dog as a cat can get :-).  And of course Renny is there, too, up in the stars.

I am knitting the Icelandic Star pattern.  The pattern is written as a bottom up sweater.  It's written to be knitted flat, back and forth, not around and around to then be steeked.  If you remember waaaay back, learning to do a steek was one of the original goals for the original Renny sweater.  I'd link all those old posts here, but even I don't want to revisit them (and I'm hungry and want to go eat lunch ;-).  

I have converted the pattern to be knit in the round.  I am worried about running out of yarn, so I've also converted it to be knit top down.  And, just to throw in one more challenge, I am between sizes so I've done the math to create my own personal size.  What could go wrong... ;-D.

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As always, I encourage you to follow along with the actual race at www.iditarod.com.  The Insider coverage is fantastic!  I'll be posting my usual daily Iknitarod updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and the Iknitarod group is in full swing and we have several on the scene "reporters".  

The One She Always Watches For

The Internet Broke My Dog/Blog

Kate isn't really broken.  She was just happily rolling around after playing with her favorite toy on a sunny day that obviously wasn't today...again.  

As far as the blog...I don't know why it works for some people and doesn't work for others or sometimes works for everyone and sometimes doesn't work at all.  Or works on the phone, but not the desktop or with certain browsers or...  I'm assuming it's a blogger issue, but I can't find an online fix and I just keep looking off to the side whistling while I quietly sneak back to the barn.  

Sigh...

Far Out

One thing (of many) I've enjoyed about having Rocky and Jared here is watching how far they travel in search of fresh grass.  We have plenty acres open for grazing, but the majority of the sheep graze just within a stone's throw from the barn.

A big part of that may be because in the early days Hank didn't like them going too far away from the 'safe zone' and for years would call them in when he thought they'd gone far enough.  There's probably another part of it that has to do with being fat and lazy ;-).

Rocky and Jared (aka Big J) could care less if Hank tells them to stay close.  There's good grass out there and they are the men to go eat it all.  That's Jared farthest away in the picture above.

Rocky is usually close by, but I've never seen him go as far as Jared, who I've seen all the way at the back corner.  A few other sheep have taken to following them out there - Cheeto and her boys, Andy, sometimes the Ts.

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Wait! What’s coming?

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Sep 1, 2019 at 7:44pm PDT

There was a fun series of pictures on Instagram one evening with Kate and Tilly herding the boys back home.  They were out there all by themselves while Cheeto was in Easy Breezy being weaned.  You've got to stay with the adults a little bit, boys!

Stone's throw... ;-)

We've had some pretty mornings, but fall is still eluding us.  There are two days next week that are forecast for 98 degrees :-o.  At the end of September...

How about a couple of new puzzles :-).  Enjoy!

Mood

It's Going To Take More Than A Couple Weeks

I've been told the only difference between a good haircut and a bad one is...about two weeks.  I think these are going to take a bit longer.  When the majority of the flock was shorn back in March, we didn't shear the oldest sheep.  If you are frail and thin or not super mobile, you shouldn't have to work hard to stay warm until the weather breaks.  

The weather has broken.  Or is broken.  It was 90 yesterday.  In May.  That extra wool needed to come off.  I managed to get Ewen, Woolliam and  PPPP sheared...and only had to call the vet once. Needless to say I'm not going to quit my day job and start shearing sheep anytime soon.  Or any time.  

PPPP doesn't look too bad.

Well, relatively speaking...

A little Biscuit and Muffin break midway through :-).

Kate nervously watching yet another storm headed our way.

"Rebecca Boone.  I'm trying to take a picture of Ewen."

"Whatever."

Handsome Ewen

"She snipped me under my jaw and to make matters worse, because it's summer and fly season, she called the vet out and she put six staples in on top of it."

"I"m sorry, Big Wool :-(."

By this point it was raining hard so I sat down with everyone to wait it out.  You can tell by Kate's ears (glued to her head) that she wasn't enjoying the storm break as much as I was.

Pretty

I thought this pretty picture of pretty Kate would make a pretty puzzle.  

Enjoy :-)

Keeping An Eye On The Trail

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We are all running strong now.  The sweater looks much better and I think I'm safe on the gauge.  Pip is not convinced.  She thinks it's going to be too big for her ;-).

Confounding

"Shouldn't they do something besides sleep all day?"

They could work a new puzzle ;-).