The Wool Kitty

I've been meaning to take a picture of this wool ball for several days. My first thought when I saw it sitting in the middle of the porch was I'd accidentally carried it outside. Then I found it in a couple of different spots...and some loose yarn hanging out of my camp stool/spinning tote. 

That wool ball was my plying ball for when I'm spinning on the porch. The yarn?  My Jared sample and swatch. These things don't tend to jump out of bags on their own ;-).

"Do you know anything about that, Possum?"

"I love wool!"

Possum does love wool.  She sleeps on a big bag of wool in the barn.  She has a felted wool teddy bear that she sleeps with and on occasions either wrestles to the ground or sucks on his ears.  She apparently likes other wool "toys" now as well.  

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“I wasn’t doing nothin’ to my bear. Nice bear. Nice nice bear.” Poor bear. Poor poor bear. I tucked the nice bear back in his cozy and mostly safe bed and told Possum to take care of him, not “take care of him.” 🙄 Good night 🌝.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 26, 2020 at 8:38pm PDT

Possum got featured in the 2021 farm calendar...of course :-).  Pictures and details tomorrow! 

Only Cats...

...don't seem to mind the heat.  It's a puzzle ;-).

The Perfect Video...Well Almost

If I'd just thought to Turn The Camera Sideways...

I've been posting some Instagram pictures and videos of the new girls out in the yard over the last couple of days.  Yesterday I missed several opportunities to take Cat Sniffing pics of Eli (yes, surprisingly out of his condo), Comby, but did catch a picture of them chasing Betsy up onto the fence.

Cat sniffing is strong in these girls 😆. #nocatissafe #everyonegetsaturn #jacobsheep #sheepofinstagram #catsofinstagram #calicocatsofinstagram #calicocat

A photo posted by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jan 24, 2017 at 1:34pm PST

This morning I missed them checking out Claire Bear, Eli, and Comby, but did catch this with Betsy. Once it was done I realized I'd taken  "the perfect country and western sheep song video".  We've got cute sheep, Betsy, Eli, Cat Sniffing, sun, Kate, Kate working, Tilly, Tilly "helping", sunshine, sheep sproinging, did I mention the sun is shining?

It was a bit too long for Instagram, so here is a YouTube version.

I was going to say leave a comment with your favorite part of this video and we'd have 20 draw a winner for one of the leftover calendars, but I've gotten several emails in the last 24 hours telling me that the comments aren't working right.  Not sure what is up with that.  Hoping just a temporary blogger issue as I don't have time to try to dig through that right now :-/.

So, TRY to leave a comment (and if it doesn't work, just shoot me an email, but try the comments option first).  If you already have a calendar, let me know and I'll find something else you might like :-).  If you don't win and don't have a 2017 calendar yet and you'd like one, they are half price.  There are three or four Lamb Camp calendars left, too.  First come, first serve.

There WILL be a Yarn Along post (with a surprising book recommendation) coming later today.  I hope.  Stay on me if you don't see it.

Enjoy the sunshine!

That Darn Cat

So I mentioned picking out pictures for the 2017 calendar the other day.  I had quite a few good pictures to choose from, but I was sadly missing the yearly favorite....Comby.  Comby, the hardest working animal on our farm, who somehow always gets posted every year in the calendar sound asleep.

Argh!

I did have a nice picture of Eli though.  He doesn't get much press around here, so that might be nice.

And of course there's darling Betsy.  There were a couple Betsy shots I liked.  One with her and Bullwinkle in the driveway when he was a baby and another with her sitting out with the concrete sheep one evening.

We decided Betsy would be the most wanted (in more ways than one!) cat so Miss September she is!

Until I downloaded pictures yesterday and remembered that I took a picture of Comby sleeping in the greenhouse the other day.

Ah, there he is.  Sound asleep.  Order restored to the universe.

Yeah, right.

Just minutes (I am not kidding) after I booted Betsy from the calendar, my inbox started blowing up with retweets and likes and more retweets and likes and more retweets...for a picture of Betsy and Bullwinkle.

If the Cat Shepherd retweets you, you are going to get some attention.  

Which was apparently what Betsy was looking for.

Sigh...

Both cats both look pretty disapproving, don't they.  And how on earth did she pull that off?!?  Are cats like elephants and can communicate hundreds of miles?  Do I need to check to see if she has her own Twitter account?  Is she on Facebook, too?!?

I guess, as a democracy (not dictatorship like Betsy thinks ;-), we should vote on it.  The poll will be posted on the main blog.  Feel free to share that link with your friends if you'd like to try to stack the votes towards your favorite candidate.  

Vote early and vote often ;-).

A Different Perspective

I've been stalking my neighbor's horse and cat.  Not just any "horse" and "cat", but her "horse and cat".  Traveller and Momma Cat moved in this past winter.  I didn't think anything about it other than we were happy to have some nice new neighbors and that they obviously took good care of their horse.

One morning Tim called just after he left for work and said "There's a cat sleeping in the hay roll out with that horse."  I could see that happening - hay would make a warm, cozy bed and with the early morning sun, heck, I could sleep out there :-).  He saw them regularly and frequently the horse was laying down in the hay, too.

I very seldom go left out of our driveway, so I never saw them.  Then I got busy with lambing and taking care of Bullwinkle and the grass turned green and the hay bale disappeared and I was disappointed I hadn't taken the time to go look.  Always. make. time.  

Not to worry.  It wasn't just the winter hay roll.  Traveller and Momma Cat are actually best friends and they live together year round.  Now that we have "The Unit" and are out and about in the neighborhood more, I see them all the time and it's just the sweetest thing ever.  This morning I walked up the lane to see if I could take their picture.

Looking back, watching the sun come up.

I am so grateful to live in such a beautiful place.  

I need to put some work in to get the "right shot".  If I try to get closer or move around for a different angle everyone gets suspicious and the moment is lost.  I'll get it though.  In the meantime, here's a quick snap.  Could anything be sweeter?

Uff!

"Did you see that huge bee just buzz right by me?!?"

Interestingly, these two lambs are sisters.  The little one on the right was so tiny when she was born that her mother must have thought there was something wrong with her and didn't even clean her up.  Nancy intervened and now she's just fine and, I think, one of the prettiest lambs of the season :-).

I really should bring Lamb Camp to a close and get back to work here.  Well, I've been working here, but you know what I mean.  I have pictures and stories of our "lambs", pictures of stuff I'm getting ready for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, stuff in the greenhouse...and an endless supply of sleeping cat pictures.  

I'm not sure why I keep taking those other than the complete disbelief that they don't. do. anything.  

All day.

The Progression (Or Not) Of The Day

This all started very innocently yesterday morning. I walked by the kitchen door and saw the little darlings napping together out on the chairs and I thought "How sweet.  I'll take their picture."

Aren't they cute?  And so soft looking through my expensive screen door camera filter ;-). 

  Claire Bear's joined them.  This is about an hour after the first shot.

Another hour has passed.  Comby's gotten hot and moved to sleeping on the porch floor. 

Eli's hoping by airing it out he won't have to move.

Early afternoon.  Comby's moved up to a table.

Eli hasn't moved at all.

Mid afternoon.  Comby's back in the chair. 

Now Eli's gotten too warm and had to move out for a bit to cool off.

But looks like there's a sign of life from Claire Bear.  Maybe.

Oops, never mind.

This is getting late in the afternoon.  I've gone to the town and back and they are still. sleeping.  The charm is starting to wear off, I'm telling you.

Right before I went out to start evening chores.  It is starting to get dark.  I refuse to take any more pictures.

Cats...

One More Round, With Cats, Of Course!

Watching over the lamb pens.

Waiting their turns.

Talking with the retired ewes.  It's a shame they aren't friendly ;-).  And yes, those are all bags of wool, all reserved and waiting to be shipped.  There are two walls of shelves and you'd need a w-i-d-e angle lens to capture them all.  Gorgeous fleeces!

Sheep are endlessly fascinated with 20.  20 brought his friend the sock monkey with him this time and they had a great trip.  If you missed their art lesson at Lori's, here's a link.  Lori did such a great job with pictures of our stay there.  She missed nothing!

"I promise to be good, Momma, and I'll be back before dark."

Sunday Stills - Cats

On a Tuesday because cats never do what you want them to do.





I thought this challenge would be a gimme. I could practically phone it in. (Insert hysterical laughter :-).

For more Sunday Stills...

Wordless Wednesday

Hooking Handy

In the old days, "Hooking Handy" would have referred to hooking up Handy for a carriage drive. These days Handy is happy to be hanging out in the field with his buddy Hickory, letting someone else take over the hooking. Rug hooking.



I have a couple kind artists willing to test hook my first patterns. I'm hoping for some feedback on the designs, ease of use, if I drew them out and enlarged them properly... I'm also dying to see what they look like finished :-D.



I like the idea of sticking with simple farm inspired designs. Like Handy, for example, walking past as I'm taking pictures of his rug pattern. Not that Aria could ever be replaced around here, but in a hooked rug, she could be easily changed into Hickory. I don't think it would be hard to customize any of the designs.



And, of note, the sun came out! I don't really mind dreary days, but after so many sloppy days of flooding rains...



The sheep (and Hank - do you see him?) were thrilled as well.

The cats haven't noticed yet...all tucked away in the condo.

Because I Didn't Feel Safe In My Own Home

It started innocently enough. It was 85 degrees. While we are happy to be able to accommodate those hard working cats, we hate the lovely plastic wall and the enormous dog and cat condo that sits on the porch all winter. It was time to evict everyone.



This is Eli. You have to look closely. He's in his "office" on the porch roof...watching the repo man haul his house away.



Not an easy job. The least favorite job of the fall (bringing it down from the barn) and spring (taking it back). It's heavy and awkward.



Here was Eli yesterday morning. It went down hill from there. It started raining and got really windy. And the temps started falling. Saint Tim checked the 10 day forecast which was now calling for cold and wet for several days. Even down to 38 one night. The cats would never had made it.

In their last ffffffrrrreeeeezzzzzziiiinnnnggg breaths, they'd have cursed us. Heck, I wouldn't put an actual curse past them. The dirty looks were brutal. Comby's cries annoying heartbreaking.

Saint Tim brought the condo back last night. In the cold rain.

Eli took one look at it...turned his ears back and walked away. Not really a surprise. We won't get into all his "issues".



He stayed away until sometime late in the night (I'm sure thinking we'd finally learned some sort of lesson ;-), but has been parked on his heated bed all morning.



But still crabby about the lovely plastic being down I'm sure.

White Skies

It was 68 degrees yesterday.



Our first snow of the year started around 4:00 this morning.



If you look closely you'll see one of the horses, tucked in the front shed.



You don't have to look closely to find the "barn" cats.

For the rest of the winter.

It's A Miserable Life

...if you're Eli.



And it's cold and rainy.





Comby seems to be doing okay.





Looks like it's time to bring out the winter accommodations.