Watching...

...for fall?  For rain?  For cooler temps?  For the upcoming Kentucky Wool Festival?  For a new puzzle :-).

This has been the hottest September I can ever remember.  We are still in the 90s and my "if I can just make it until Thursday..." has been changed this morning to "if I can just make it until Friday."  If this trend of pushing back the end of this brutal heat stretch continues, it's just going to become "I hope I make it..."

To make matters worse, other than a freak rain storm yesterday morning, we have had no rain.  Everything is brown and crispy and when the wind does blow, it's a hot wind that does nothing to help anyone.  Speaking of the freak rain, it rained 2" at the house, but only 3/8" at the Wool House, just yards away.  The rain was that spotty.  

Hank is doing pretty well.  His foot has healed up beautifully, but he's back obsessively licking both of his elbows now and right after I took this picture I had to stick the cone of shame back on him :-/.  They are actually blow up pillows now and if it wasn't so blasted hot, it probably wouldn't be that uncomfortable to wear, but still.

I'm in the final crunch week of getting ready for the wool festival.  My Ohio Valley Natural Fibers run scheduled for last week was cancelled, but they are hoping they can run my roving this Tuesday.  I have my fingers crossed, but am still stressing about a contingency plan if they can't get their machine back up and running.  

I've got a good amount of wool pumpkins made, lots of wool balls, quite a few mini wreaths and I'm finishing up some big wreaths.  I'll also have all the usual Punkin's Patch "swag" in tow and hopefully some felted sheep as well.  The calendars won't be ready until after the festival, but we have plenty of the "...and to all a good night" Christmas card packed up and also mixed sets of all 15 years.

Tring Farm has eight pretty raw fleeces to sell and for some reason Andy and Tavia's fleeces (two of my favorites) didn't sell back in the spring, so I'll have them there as well.  Everything else is washed and ready to process,  so it will all work out somehow.  

The booth will be full and fun and pretty and if the forecast holds, it should be a great weekend.  We might even be able to wear some wool in the evenings...which seems odd to say after so many weeks/months of not breaking out of the 70s at night.  

I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm watching!

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!

Back To School Photos

I've been submitting photos for the cover of the Kentucky Wool Festival program for many years now.  Some years I have a photo ready early in the year.  Many years I don't and find myself out in the field at the end of August taking pictures, hoping for that perfect head shot.  I think of this as taking my "back to [the wool festival] photos".  Here are a few favorites.

Maisie!

"What?"

Ah, the innocent kindergartner, Big Moose.

PPPP (Popcorn PeePee Pants), the grand dame.  

The ever enduring Renny.

Handsome Andy.

Spud...the sofa ;-).

Peeking In

Several times a day I go peek in on everyone to make sure all is well in the barn.  This is one of my favorite things to do, especially on a sunny, but chilly "winter" day.  As I quietly walked down the barn aisle I noticed Maisie cashed out (one of my most favorite sights) so I quietly walked out, grabbed my camera and snuck back in.

The little darlin'.

Jared, aka Big J, soaking up some sun.

I seldom catch Kaala asleep.  She's always "busy".

Petunia, with Tavia and Clover Belly on the left.

Andy

Rebecca Boone, for the first time looking like she might be happy(ish) moved into Easy Breezy.  I've been trying for several days to get her settled in there.  A Cotswold with an opinion... ;-).

Good afternoon!

Would He?

While at first glance this appears to be a story about a sheep eating watermelon, I think the better story is actually the chickens.  I took a not super ripe watermelon out to the barn thinking everyone could share it.  

The sheep were all asleep so I quietly set it down for the chickens.  Woody popped up immediately, came racing out and started gobbling it all up.  Would he share it?  No, he Woody not.  The chickens were incredulous.

Note Gladys circling and circling while the others watch on in horror.  

"I just can't believe this!"

"Come on, Woody.  Just a little bit?"  

"No."

"The nerve!"

Here comes Andy.

Would Woody share?

"I guess I'll just eat this piece of wilted lettuce."

And Gladys is back...

One last attempt.

"Please?"  

"No."

I think I'd be a bit afraid to go to sleep tonight, Woody.

And I think I'll go get the girls their very own watermelon tomorrow.

Keeping An Eye On The [Sheep] Trail

Once again we woke to a decent snow cover this morning.  It lasted a couple hours, but as soon as the sun came out, poof!  

Andy

Spud, Murphy and Woody 

Chocula 

Daniel looks like he can smell spring coming :-).

Baaxter

Technology...

So this "memory" just showed up on my phone (?!?).  I don't know how these happen (and probably don't want to know :-o), but this is so cute I couldn't resist sharing.  It's from the afternoon I sat out in the field knitting on the Baaxter sweater.  The clip of Kate in the middle...just keeping it classy here at Equinox ;-D.

This just showed up on my phone. Appears to be images and clips of video I took the afternoon I knit on my #carbeth out in the field (with a short clip of Kate playing with a beer can just to keep it classy 😆). I love this and am sharing here to “keep it” (since I don’t know how it even got made in the first place 🤔). #bangoutacarbeth #knitwithyoursheep #buybettertoysforyourdog🙄 #ilovemysheep #andkate

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Feb 23, 2018 at 10:56am PST

I like that there is a picture of the sweater at the end.  I'm not happy with it and need to frog it and start over, but there's more to that story and I am proud that I made it.  Might be an Iknitarod re-knit.

Pine Party

We had a small ice storm last week and some pine branches came down in the yard and side field.  This is also known as a sheep party!

That Andy

That Andy...  In case you don't remember back to when and why Andy came to our farm, he was "the rogue lamb" at Final Frontier Farm.  He wouldn't stay with the other weaned lambs and Kathy was constantly having to pull him out of the ram field, the young ewes field, the older ewes field...  I was there for one break out and I didn't see how he did it either.

I figured that would stop when he got here because we have four plank fence.  Pretty hard to slip through that.  He did.  I figured it would stop when he got bigger and, um, fluffier.  It didn't.  He's been here almost two years now and it would be hard to get much bigger or fluffier.  I haven't seen him out by himself in awhile.  Turns out that was only because I hadn't locked him out of anywhere in awhile.

I've locked the sheep out of the front field for a bit this fall to give it a rest.  I leave a gap in the gate by the barn so Hank can come and go.  It's just big enough for Hank.  Even tiny Tavia can't get through there.  The fences are all in good repair since the painters were here last month.  There is nowhere for Fat That Andy to get out.

Dingalingalingalingalingalinga...  The helpful bell.

Oh for crying out loud!  Why are the sheep out in the front field?  Did I leave a gate open last night?   

Nope. 

Just one sheep.

I knew it was Andy, but zoomed in just to...oh, I don't know why.  I knew it was "the rogue lamb".

Do you see Hank having to pull double duty watching both fields?  You'll have to click to biggify. Sigh...

It sure was a beautiful sunrise this morning though.  And I don't really care that Andy is out there.  I'd just like to know how he does it.

There's a new puzzle :-).  

Enjoy!