The Birthday Parties

Maisie got two birthday parties yesterday! We tried to do her party at 2:00 thinking that might be the warmest part of the day.  Turns out this is more of a Happy Hour crowd and that party sort of flopped.  Not to fear, Reg "baked" another cake and we had a birthday party re-do around 4:30 and a good time was had by all.  

The first party wasn't a complete bust.  Maisie enjoyed eating some birthday cake, but most of her friends didn't realize it was party time so they were heading out to graze the front field and she wanted to go with them.  If you are the birthday girl (or pretty much any time), you get to make the rules.

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A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

I had technical difficulties with the live and recorded video with the first party, so I didn't even try to use my phone for the second party...and that may have been the best gift of the day.  I dusted off the Big Girl Camera and took actual pictures just like in the olden times.  

Love her little pink nose.  That's Andy in the front.

I love sweet Baba on the right, politely waiting her turn.

Walking out into the middle of this crowd carrying a box of "cake" is not for the faint of heart.   I always forget how big Murphy (at Reg's left elbow) is.  Jared, in front of her, is not small.  Muffin, in the background, is not small either, but she's doesn't like to get bounced around in the mosh pit so I snuck her a cookie later.

Reg shared with everyone, but made sure the birthday girl got the biggest share ;-).

Baaxter loves Auntie Reg.  Liddy's just there for the "cake" ;-).

Now that was a party!

Happy Birthday, silly Maisie :-)

Honestly...

 

(graphic all over the internet the last couple of days)

...I feel a little (#7).  I don't really care that they used one of my pictures to what I'm hoping is promote wool...but if that's the case...I'm pretty sure number(#3) ain't even a sheep :-(.  

Sigh... I should probably just stop complaining about it (#8), go stick my head in a bucket (#4) of margaritas,  jump off a cliff (#9) or put myself down for a nap (#5).  Then maybe I'd feel a little more (#2).

Pfffffttttt (#1).

In case you don't remember, (#6) is Blossom ;-).  

Sleeping Off The Cookie Hangover

Merry Christmas!

That's Woody in the foreground, still hoping there might be yet another cookie party ;-).  I bet this would make a fun puzzle!  Enjoy :-).

A Good Day

Like most [days], best celebrated every day :-).

Don't Wake The Baba

Everyone enjoyed the sun today.  Even Blossom aka Baba even if she didn't enjoy the chickens bothering her ;-).

Friends...With Assigned Seats

Remember how I painted all the Jacobs sleeping together on the right side of the barn in the Christmas card?  They really do all tend to sleep there.  There actually being the aisleway stall...which is the furthest to the right in real life.

Blossom is sleeping in there with them right now.  She picks a spot for awhile, then moves to another spot and then when she's tired of that spot she moves again...  I should keep a note of how many days she stays each place, just for curiosity.  The "T" in this picture is not actually a "T".  That's Clover Belly.  

Clover Belly stayed with her mom, Baby Belly, her whole life, the way Muffin did with Mrs. Pepperpot.  After Baby Belly passed, Clover Belly just sort of drifted.  No one ever picked on her (Baby Belly saw to that early on ;-), but she didn't really seem to have any close friends.  

I'm not sure why that was and I don't want to speculate on all the reasons that might factor in.  I'm just happy to see six T's now, whether out in the field or napping together in the sunshine.  

Don't get excited.  It's not sunny here.  I took this picture last week before the weather changed.  Sigh...

Sheep To Shawl

Oops, I'd forgotten we'd taken these pictures at the end of October :-o.  Probably better to show them for Wovember anyway.  That would be rationalized procrastination ;-).

"Hey, Baba?  Would you mind if we took some pictures of you and the shawl I wove from your fleece?"

"I've got cookies :-)."

"Those are pretty good cookies, so...sure."

"You made this from my wool?"

"Yep."

"That's actually pretty cool!"

It's very cool!

I always love to see what kbdoolin has made, especially when it comes from our flock. Just beautiful, Karen! 

I Can't Help But Think

"Hey!"

"How come every last thing that goes wrong around here is my fault?!?  What on earth happened now!?!"

I went in to the Wool House last night to get some of your wool to make Christmas ornaments for the Wool Festival and found it had flooded.

"Oh."

"Sorry about that."

"You're still going to use my wool though, right?"

Um...

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The new water feature at the Wool House 😳.

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We received 4 1/2" of rain yesterday morning on already saturated ground.  I posted a few flood pictures throughout the morning culminating with a pretty video of the "new water feature" in front of the Wool House.  Sigh...

I'd watched to make sure the water hadn't breached the door frame, thought all seemed good, was in and out of the wash room side all day, walked into the big room last night...and found it had flooded.  Maisie... (said like "Newman..." from Seinfeld ;-).

I can't help but think if I'd gone in there to get some of Liddy's or Bullwinkle's or Blossom's wool that I wouldn't have spent much of last night and most of today dealing with water damage...  

Sunlight

I had big plans to do a New Year's Day post and even took some project pictures throughout the day, but I just don't have the gumption to put that together this evening.  I'll give it a try again tomorrow.  

One of my "goals" for the new year is on days when I can't pull together a full blog to at least post some pictures, sort of Wordless Wednesday style.  Writing blog posts takes energy, clarity and concentration, all frequently on short supply by the time I sit down in the evening.  Pictures can tell stories...and if they can't, you can have fun making one up :-D.

The morning sun was lovely.  Cold, but lovely.  We are headed down to zero tonight, but I'll take that over -31 any day.  Stay warm out there!  And enjoy some pictures from the barn this morning.

Blossom

Baaxter

Beanie Baby and friends

Petunia

Don't do it, Muffin!  (click to biggify ;-)

"What?"

Hank and Murphy

Gotta love a June photobomb ;-).

A Funny Lambing Story

Lambing stories are usually sweet.  Or crazy.  Or heroic.  On rare occasions, heartbreaking.  I can't really think of a funny one...until a couple days ago.  

I help out at two nearby farms each spring, The Training Center and Final Frontier Farm.  TTC lambs primarily in March and FFF starts lambing April 1, so I get to spend at least two solid months playing shepherd almost to my heart's content.  Luckily I have my own sheep to take care of or they'd all be saying "When is she ever going to leave?"  

Several sheep in our flock have come from each of those farms.  Ewen McTeagle, B. Willard, Maisie from TTC and Keebler, Lila, Blossom, Liddy, Andy, Levi, Bullwinkle from FFF.  Both flocks feel like just an extension of our farm and I've cared for some of those sheep for years now so I was thrown the other morning when, after receiving my day notes, the shepherdess from TTC said, "Oh, and Glenda lambed this morning!"

.

.

.

I don't know a Glenda...

.

.

.

"Glenda?" 

"Glenda!  The Good Witch!"

.

.

???

.

.

"The Maisie lookalike!"

It's uncanny, isn't it?!?

I about fell over laughing.  Poor Maisie.  Yes, there is a sheep over there that, with her pink nose and fuzzy forehead, could very well be related to Maisie.  Her primary claim though is she somehow missed getting her tail done as a baby, so while pregnant, she looked very much like a short, fat, long tailed sheep we all know and love. 

The similarities end there.  Glenda is a good witch who would never think to run over and punch you in the kneecaps or bite you while you try to trim her feet and there is no fear that she'll be teaching that cute youngun anything other than how to be a good citizen and productive member of the flock.

So, speaking of similarities...that cute black lamb has an Uncle Willard!  Her mother is one of Willard's cousins.  The first clue should have been that distinctive Border Leicester nose.  The second clue...straight from an earlier blog!

Random.org picked Shelley (drop me an email with your mailing address :-) as the winner and Willard picked LannieK as a second winner, as the only person who guessed him correctly, and now all the Lamb Camp calendars are gone :-).  

Hank's Nest

It was 14 degrees this morning.  Much as I love cold weather, if the sun hadn't have been shining, I'd have been pretty cold.  The sun makes all the difference.

This is where I found Hank this morning as I headed to the barn.

A couple years ago, I guess the manure spreader was broken, we had to pile up cleaning from the horse stalls.  Hank loved sleeping on that pile!  We've made him a "muck pile" every winter since.

I think it gets him up off the cold ground, probably heats up a little as it composts, he can snuggle down into it and with the wind usually coming from the west, the old Grahaminator2000 provides a little wind block as well.  Plus, with his sheep all tucked in behind him, he can keep an eye on the rest of the farm.

It was cold enough that Baba slept in the barn last night.  That doesn't happen very often.  She's back out this morning.  The sun...

Hank has several other places he can sleep, inside the barn, inside the barn on a deep straw bed, inside the barn on a deep straw bed inside an insulated dog house...  This is his favorite spot.

Of All The Things I've Lost...

...I miss my mind the most.  ~Mark Twain

Found it - the picture...  Baba, Rebecca Boone and Renny.

Pretty sheep, pretty background, pretty light.  Funny that I took this pretty picture one day and the next a picture of her wearing a huge rose bush branch with a tuft of wool at the top.  Looking at this realizing I painted her body dark and her 'do light and it's the other way around.  This Christmas card is never going to be finished :-o.

Rebecca Boone has come in with some funny things stuck in her wool, but this Cotswold Wool Flag takes the cake. Love Baaxter sniffing it :-) #cotswoldsheep #fleecewithcharacter #whatsalittleVMamongfriends #ilovemysheeps

A photo posted by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Dec 13, 2016 at 3:41pm PST

The After Party

"Please, ma'am, may I have some birthday cake?"

Oh course you can, sweet Daniel :-).  That's Liddy behind Maisie.

And you too, Baba (Blossom, Maisie's best friend :-).

Look at Murphy high stepping it over the trot pole!

"What'd they put on your head?"  "I don't want to talk about it."

Lil Fat Bullwinkle.  Levi to his right.

Big Fat Willard looks like he maybe needs to lay off the birthday "cake" :-o.

"This was a pretty darn good party if I say so myself."

Another Happy Birthday!