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?

What's That Smell?

 "Snow!"

Salt kind of shows up everywhere.  She comes up to the house to eat with Kate and Tilly.  She greets visitors at the barn.  She follows me around while I work and sleeps in the tack room.  Hank had his routines, too, but they were pretty much all behind the barn and out of sight...until it snowed.  

I remember his first night of really nasty winter weather here.  I *knew* these dogs were well equipped for cold weather and I shouldn't worry, but I did.  When I couldn't find him in the barn with the sheep or tucked into his dog house, I thought the worst.  He was miserable and had run away.

I finally found him out back.  He was running big excited circles in the front field, bounding through the snow with a huge grin on his face.  I went out and joined him and from then on, any time it snowed he and I would have a party.  

We got our first snow of the year yesterday morning...and even though I wasn't consciously thinking about Hank, my subconscious remembered and I realized I was looking around, expecting to see him.

I ended up having to run a lengthy errand in the afternoon and didn't get back until dark.  As I hustled up to the barn for evening chores, I cut through the snowy yard.  As I approached the big pine tree in the middle, a big white snow dog came bounding out to greet me with a big smile on her face.

A fine memory.

A Wool(ish) House

I found a super sweet bird nest the other day.  It had blown down during a wind storm.  I love all bird nests, but this one is extra special because of all the wool in it. Buddy and/or Woolliam, Petunia and/or Daniel and Chocula, Salt and/or Hank and probably some others as well.  Here's a quick tour:

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Thank you for all the calendar orders! I hope you know how much that is appreciated.  They are still "at the printers" waiting to be assembled, but luckily Tim's been busy this month.  That's appreciated as well ;-).

Some neighborhood news - there appears to be another stray cat hanging around.  Both my neighbor and I have been blaming the sightings on each other's calico cats and two days ago I broke up a fight next door in which "Betsy" took off running towards our farm...but then I found the real Betsy asleep in the house.  "Betsy's Stunt Double" was spotted between the two farms again last night.

Four bossy calico cats in one area is probably going to make for a long winter.  Why couldn't it have been a sweet orange kitty :-(.  Sigh...

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.

What The What?!?

 

I'm still working on the 2021 calendar, but there will be a calendar.  It's been tough going back through all the pictures.  I'm still skimming through the Early pictures and I have not watched any of his videos, but someday I will.  Hank and Comby have been hard as well, but I'll admit it was nice to see some pictures from before their last months.  So Velveteen Rabbit-ish.

Along with the struggle to pick out the pictures, there is also the deciding who gets in and who doesn't.  There are only 12 months. Do I put Hank in, but leave Salt out?  Lancelot, but no Frankie?  Eli's used to playing second fiddle to Comby each year and Betsy's on our last nerves right now for her terrorizing Possum, so it's not too hard to leave her out as well ;-).

I was searching for a good picture of Hank and Salt together when I stumbled on this gem.  "This one is cute.  Hank is still looking pretty good.  Wish the barn lights weren't doing whatever it's called with they do what they are doing with the green dots.  Too bad it's from the old cell phone and not very sharp.  Hey...wait a minute...they left Maisie in charge???" 

Priceless :-D

A Sweet Story About A Sweet Sheep

A couple of weeks ago I needed to run to town and pick up some groceries and pet food. Or, I should say, go to town to pick up pet food...and some groceries ;-).  

I shop mostly at the small family owned grocery because "small, family owned", but also because there's (sadly for them) less people.  However, when you are feeding a large Pyrenees who likes her dry food topped with canned cat food and a couple, okay all three, "complicated" cats, about once a month I brave the big box store.  

So, well stocked with hand sanitizer and my mask, I headed to town...and the parking lot looked like it was a holiday weekend.

My first thought was to just turn around and go home.  We're pretty good at scrounging the pantry for weird stuff that needs clearing out and, in fact, it's become my main house cleaning strategy this summer ;-).  However, Comby really needed his special food :-/.  Sigh...  Wait!  I could go to TSC (Tractor Supply Company).

As I walked in, for some reason (special sheep spotting super power :-) I looked in the sale bin at the front of the store.  I never look there.  But I did.  And I spotted two dog toys stuffed sheep tossed in the bottom bin!  I picked up one and immediately texted a friend who I knew would come rescue the other one.

From there my new little sheep friend and I "crossed the river" and went to the little grocery.  No four year old tin of black eyed peas for dinner that night ;-D. 

Look how happy he looks to be out in the fresh air and blue skies! :-)

...and then I started worrying about his friend back in the dog toy bin.  What happened if my friend couldn't get there in time and some terrible person who would buy a stuffed sheep for their dog to rip to shreds got to him first :-o.  Since I had to drive right back past the farm store on my way home anyway, I decided I should foster the other sheep.  Crisis averted ;-).

...and I pulled in their parking lot just behind my friend :-).  Before she went in to rescue her sheep, we stood outside talking for awhile.  She's not had a stellar year.  I haven't had a stellar year.  We commiserated on our not stellar years and counted our many blessings and I left feeling a little better and less alone and I hope she did as well.  

...and I thought of how if the box store hadn't have been too crowded, I'd have not gone to the farm store at Just The Right Time and then on to the little grocery and back to the farm store at Just At The Right Time and how two little stuffed sheep could help brighten up a couple of afternoons.  

Meet Chocula Chip :-)

Of course I had to pull out some Count Chocula roving I have stashed and spin a couple of ounces so he could learn about his namesake and a bit about his new home and what we do here.  He watched very carefully.

...and picked up spinning right away.

Then we washed his skein to set the twist.

That is a happy little sheep :-).

He even has the ear pillow down pat :-).

The Dog Days

Shearing Shots

Another spring shearing is in the books and this may have been our best shearing yet.  The fleeces are a little messier than I'd like, but they aren't terrible.  The weather, with the excessive rain and several high wind events, has been extra challenging this winter.  

Bill, our shearer for the past...many years...has stopped shearing.  Without his big shearing trailer with it's ramps and chutes to rely on, both Tring Farm and Final Frontier Farm had to set up in-barn working systems to handle their big flocks.  

I watched how both set ups worked out and decided to set up a similar system over here.  Tring Farm kindly loaned us all the gates and panels we needed and helped design the areas and angles and it worked a treat.  

The sheep were all penned in the aisleway stall which funneled into a small catch pen which funneled into the chute which fed into a tiny catch pen where the sheep were then turned around and backed out onto the shearing board.

The fleeces might have been messier than I'd like, but the shearing itself went great.  Taylor Schwartz came over from Mayslick, Kentucky, and did an outstanding job with our, um, challenging interesting flock.  I've got more pictures to post tomorrow.

Cheeto

Big Moose marched into the holding pen...and then decided maybe he really didn't want to be the next sheep in the barber chair.

All those beautiful baby curls :'-(.

Even prettier on the inside.

Mini Moose watching.  I have a video to upload of Big Moose being sheared, but the internet is so slow tonight that I barely got these pictures loaded.  You can hear Mini Moose calling to him.  First hair cuts are probably a bit scary.

"They are."

Remember Mini Moose's dark gray stripe running down his shoulders as a lamb?  It's still there!  I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow.

Tabitha

Count Chocula

Big J aka Jared

Good old Salt.  I think I've taken a shearing day picture of her at Final Frontier Farm every year for the last...many years.  Seemed kind of funny to be taking a picture of her on our farm.  Seemed kind of funny to not be shearing with Bill, too, but that worked out as well.  

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.

*   *   *   *   *

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".  

In Case You Missed It

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While you wait for the exciting finish, you can enjoy listening to Salt’s big booming wooooof 😍. I don’t mind the fox coming around as long as he stays away from the barn. Hank and Salt don’t think he’s as pretty as I do though 😉. . #livestockguardiandog #flockdog #gooddog #goodolddogs

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Feb 23, 2020 at 2:20pm PST

Salt is not standing next to me.  I am in front of the Wool House and she is over by the barn.  That's a big bark, eh? :-)

Morning Maisie

The vice president of security for The White Guard.

And a new puzzle.

A Warm Winter's Nap

Sweet old Salt.  

The Salt thermometer says it's hovering around freezing.  It has to get at least that cold before she goes in search of a warm nap spot.  Her demeanor around the sheep is so quiet that even the most suspicious sheep (like PPPP) don't mind her company.  

*     *     *     *     *

Everything is fine here.  I've just been so stinking busy trying to keep all the plates spinning that the blog (and even IG) has sadly been neglected.  I think it's sweet that when it gets too quiet you all start worrying.  I'm sorry I let that happen though.  Sigh...

Anyone else starting to get a little sore about losing that extra week with Thanksgiving being so late this year :-o.

On a good note, I came up with a brilliant title for the Christmas card this year.  Sometimes it takes a couple of several days and it usually the most stressful part of the design process.  This year I nailed it straight off...and now have the song stuck in my head as I struggle to paint.  Over and over and over and over and over...

"Serenity now!!!"  ;-D

Clocking In

You can pretty much set your clock by where you find Salt.  Currently it's Wool House o'clock :-). 

Before dawn she's in the garage.  As the sun rises she moves out to the front of the barn.  After breakfast you can find her in the tack room.  Mid-afternoon she sits in front of the Wool House.  Late afternoon she's back in the tack room.  Early night she's still in the tack room.  I'm not sure what time she moves back into the garage.  

All Together Now

Awwwww :-)

This is the first time I've seen Hank and Salt actually hanging out together.  The cooler weather has done everyone a world of good.  I feel almost human again and I think Hank feels almost...human as well.  I'm so glad to see him happy.

Thank you for all the good tips and things to check and think about with him.  Because I hadn't actually seen him limping or stiff I hadn't considered arthritis pain causing him to lick his elbows.  Good point!  

We tried treating that first, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  Our next step will be an anti-anxiety medication, but I'm thinking/hoping we won't need to try that.  He's settled way down since the upper 90s broke at the end of last week.  That was making me pretty anxious as well :-(.

Have I mentioned how much Hank and I hate summer?  Oh...okay...sorry ;-).