Garden Guest

You should be able to click to biggify these next shots to watch her slurp up some flower nectar :-).

How Sweet Is That

As The Storm Blew In

The evening started out normal enough.  I love to sit out in the field at the end of the day. Sometimes Hank and I sit together on the gravel.  Sometimes we walk down to the creek.  Last night I was sitting with my back to the waterer by the gate while he covered things from the hill.

I took several videos of the sheep grazing, listening to the birds going to bed, the cicadas whirring. They were all terrible.  I had the heavy zoom lens on the camera and I couldn't hold it steady.  I'll try again tonight because it really is peaceful. From the top, Murphy, Daniel, Clover Belly (not normally in the late grazer crowd?), Maisie.  Front row Hershey, Woody and Renny.

All's quiet and Hank doses off...until out of the blue the skies darken, the wind picks up and thunder starts rumbling in the distance.

"Okay, I'm outta here."

We are fortunate that Hank feels secure ducking into the barn during storms.  In fact, not only does he go into "his stall", but he also has a big insulated dog house in there that Tim built for him last winter. He hides in there even when it's 90 million degrees.  

Many dogs are so afraid of storms that they'll panic and bolt and can travel several miles.  If you ever find a guard dog or border collie (or any other dog really) running around after a storm looking confused, don't immediately think they've been dumped.  Check with your local and not so local vets and animal shelters.

The view behind me.  That orange glow just behind our house (you can see the chimney sticking out) was sure eerie.

Up Stella's driveway.  Yes, that's a sheep on the bottom of the photo.  They stay out as long as they can stand when there's food involved ;-).

Clouds over the barn.

The horses head for cover.

Which finally sends the sheep up the hill.  Except Graham, still out grazing by himself in the next field.  I have no idea why he went out there when everyone else was in the front.   We frequently don't know why Graham does what he does ;-).

"Is this really necessary?  We weren't done eating!"

This was about when the rain started so Liddy and I took cover in the barn and got stuck in there for 20 minutes before I decided it wasn't going to let up any time soon and sprinted for the house.  What an odd summer.

Wheeee!!!

I've been crazy busy the last few days.  It's going to be stupid hot and humid this afternoon. An ice cold movie theater and a sheep movie sounds perfect!

Can't wait!

Yarn Along - Meanwhile, Back At The Wool Mill

Somewhere between shearing and skirting (months ago) and heading to the mill came washing and deciding if snipping the sunbleached tips off Baaxter's lamb fleece was going to make enough difference to justify the effort.  Miss B and I pulled out two samples (also months ago :-o), snipped the tips off one and not the other and then combed and carded each and...

...yes, there was a significant difference.  Baaxter Black should be as black as possible so I snipped as many sunbleached tips as I could stand.  If I ever have another black lamb, I'm going to do that while the fleece is still on the sheep.  It was a Job.

So here's Baby B. all washed, snipped and ready to go to Ohio Valley (at least a month ago - what is going on around here?!?).

I'm sure I am speaking for everyone in saying how comforting it is to see Beth and Darlene still running these wonderful old machines.

The wool is dumped into the back of the machine, comes up over the top...

...down into the beginning of the rollers...

...and out as beautiful ready to spin (if you can just find the time!) roving.

Here's a short video:

We took up seven fleeces that day - Billy Belly, Allie, Henri, Ford, Baaxter, Woody and one for Miss B from shearing at Kathy's (also months ago and still not on the blog even though there are some great pictures to share...I think...if I remember back that far.)  Am I ever going to get caught up???

Maisie's headed to the mill tomorrow along with Auntie Lila, Daniel's stunning first shear from last year that I finally talked myself into washing and processing and the dark green Renny.  I'm excited!

*       *       *       *       *

I listened to A Cold Day For Murder by Dana Stabenow (first in a series based in Alaska) this past week in hopes it would remind me of cooler/cold weather...but it didn't.  It's just plain hot.  To make matters worse, I somehow (and this is actually a pretty funny story, so don't let me forget to share it) ended up jumping into several really miserable (because of the heat) projects outside...in the midday sun...when I could have been inside spinning or knitting!

Joining in with Ginny...

On Patrol

I love watching the sheep head out on a cool, almost fall-like, morning with Hank checking the perimeter :-).

Good morning!

Two Full Moons In The Same Month

Last night the full moon rose early, high in the still light sky.  I sat out for a good while watching it and enjoying the cool, (for a change) evening air, smuggly plotting how I'd get a perfect shot the next day.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the ISS (International Space Station) went whizzing across the night sky.

This evening it was completely dark (?!?) when the moon finally crested Stella's hill - not ideal for a good moon shot.  Tim was trying to finish mowing the upper paddock and I tried for a picture of that. I like this one of him coming up the hill to the barn best - lots of bugs for our bats :-).  One of the fall moons is called the Harvest Moon.  Maybe this is the Mowing Moon ;-).

It's actually a blue moon.  And while it looks tiny in this picture, in real life it was HUGE and I couldn't figure out a way to capture that at all.  I love watching the moon all month long, but I especially love a full moon.  Two full moons in one month is a special treat.  I hope everyone enjoyed it.

You might think my favorite blue moon song is Blue Moon of Kentucky, but it's actually Once In A Very Blue Moon, sung by Nanci Griffith.  The best version is from one of my favorite albums, One Fair Summer Evening.  Enjoy!