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.  

A Special...But Not Really Wanted Guest

We've had a fox visiting our farm for the last couple of weeks.  With no lambs here, I'm not really worried about him or her bothering the sheep.  I do worry about the chickens though and I especially worry about Comby, who likes to hunt out in this same field.  

Yeah, I see you, too.  I think you are beautiful, but you better beat feet before Hank sees you.

If the sheep are out grazing, Hank calls them in to safety.  Doing that usually frightens the fox away, but if not, he races out to escort him under the fence. 

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“Danger!” Hank, calling in his sheep. Such a good dog ❤️❤️❤️. #livestockguardiandog #sheep #redfox

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Oct 20, 2019 at 6:21am PDT

Hank has been much happier since it's cooled down.  I think the fox is probably less happy ;-).

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The Rhinebeck Blues Party was really fun.  We had a great group of sheep and fiber enthusiasts, the weather was perfect and Auntie Reg nailed the Artichoke French!  The sheep all behaved (because we didn't use Maisie for any of the demonstrations ;-) and the only "workshop" we skipped was washing wool.  Karen taught wheel spinning and wool combing.  I taught shepherding, fleece judging and skirting.  Let's do it again next year!

The forecast for our Hug a Sheep Day farm party this Saturday isn't looking quite as good, but that's several days away.  Hopefully they are just wrong.  It will be fun, regardless :-).  Hope you can join us!

We Made It

It's finally fall!

If it's too cold and dreary for you to go play outside, there's a new puzzle for you ;-).

Frost On The Pumpkins

We've had a couple frosts now. That's the only part of fall I don't like. All the flowers are going gang busters...and then a couple cold nights...which inevitably turn back warm for many more days...so you don't want to let the flowers die off too soon.  I love my flowers.

I cover as much as I can around the house and Wool House.  I use the shearing sheets (which are now so easy to get to :-).  In the morning, as soon as the sun hits the front of the Wool House, I pull the sheets off and the Blanket Flowers get right back to work.

Bees of all sorts work the Gaillardia all fall.  Big bees, tiny bees, green bees, honey bees...  I'd love to know what they are thinking when they fly in for breakfast and find everything covered up.  There are always a few already climbing around under the sheets, probably complaining.

Or maybe they are relieved to see the blooms still safe and sound.

Some puzzle fun for you :-).  I'll try to get a picture of bee rush hour this afternoon.  Almost everyone was headed home last night by the time I thought about it.

Faux Fall - And The Final (For Now) Freebie

Every stinking time I think "Okay.  Whew.  All I have to do is make it three more days and it's going to rain and cool off and summer will finally be over." It teases me with a cool down and then right back into the 80s it goes.  We hit 86 the other day...in the FOURTH WEEK OF OCTOBER!  

It sure looks like fall...

Even sort of like a pretty fall...

This is Baaxter hogging the fan like he does all summer...at 7:30 in the morning...on October 20th. Hershey looked so miserable the night before (how on earth could it be that humid when it's so dry and crispy?!?) that I finally had to do the ole cookie test to make sure he was okay enough that I could go to bed.  If you don't perk up when the cookie box comes out, we call the vet.  Highly scientific...but actually very accurate ;-).

These pictures were taken yesterday morning.  It's cold and raining today.  We'll see if it lasts or if it's just a fake cold down for the big neighborhood Pumpkin (Pumpkin with a P) Party this weekend.   The 10 day is encouraging...but I've seen that before.  

The Punkin's (no extra P) Patch Hug a Sheep/Open Farm Day is next weekend!  I thought about trying to take a new "promo" picture this year, but how on earth can you beat last year?

Actually, that whole post is pretty cute.  I love to go back and revisit the good times.  Even some of the bad times.  The link to the Ewenice and Renny tree had me crying this morning, but it was such a beautiful gift.

You know what - leave a comment on the main blog telling us one/some of your favorite old posts and that will be the third calendar drawing.  Petunia can draw for that one Monday or Tuesday.  And for anyone wanting a calendar but didn't win one, I promise I'll get the Farm Shop updated this weekend!

Cat Week

Fall has arrived!

Taken through the screen door.  

This is supposed to be a Yarn Along post.  Maybe later today.  Couldn't resist sharing Comby and Eli nestled all snug in their bed.  

We made it!  Fall has arrived!!!

Glamour Shots

I took several sheep shots the other evening - my other favorite time of day.  As I was scrolling through them I came to a fun series of pictures of Rebecca Boone.  I'd taken six shots in a row in a span of about ten seconds.  Look at the difference between the first and the last.

These are straight out of the camera, not cropped, nothing changed.  Why do they look so different? Both are nice pictures.  Both show a sheep with a funny personality and cool hair.  Same background, same time of day - as the sun set.

The main difference is that for the last one I stepped just a hair to the right...which changed the angle of the sun.  

I know there's more to it on a technical side, like how the camera read the light and adjusted for it... but I'm pretty happy to just get lucky.  If there's something simple I can do to help that happen, all the better. 

Look For A Different Perspective

It's sure hard to beat a foggy fall sunrise.  The sun is coming up over Stella's hill and shining left to right through the scene.

All the darker green paths were from sheep feet swishing through the dewy grass.  

Most of the flock had already gone back to the barn.  Hank stays out with the stragglers.  This is a pretty picture too, but without the "magic" of the first shot.  I'd moved over to the right, just past the end of the arena.  The sun is now shining more towards me, shading everything it hadn't reached yet.

Another pretty shot, but if you look close, there is a hint of sunlight peaking through Hank's hair on the left (or his right).  That's what I want, the sparkle :-).

I moved back over to the left so the sun really glistened through the grass and leaves.  I love this picture of Daniel.  Click to biggify.

I wish I'd taken this picture "landscape" (wider rather than taller).  Hank was obviously looking over at his other sheep and I missed the moment.  The huge amount of blurred out grass at the bottom of the pictures was so distracting that I cropped it off.  I think I was walking over to the left to take the Daniel picture and just shooting on the fly, but still...

Two things.  Move around and use the light to your advantage.  Also, I take lots of pictures. Sometimes I get one that I really like.  Mostly I take a lot of pictures ;-).

Good Morning!

Jester

Hershey

We've had nice color this year :-).

Spud and Murphy

With Hank running a security check out back.

Isn't October just the best?

Walk With Me Wednesday

I could actually do a Wednesday Yarn Along post.  I finished the second sleeve.  I'm going to try to get it blocked today, but a. I really should be doing other things to get ready for this weekend and b. I'm not sure it will dry.   We sure needed the rain, but at this point, couldn't the rest of the week's forecast have waited until after the festival?  

Still, if it's going to be cold and damp (which is actually perfect for a fall wool festival) it would be nice to have a long sleeve wool sweater to wear in the evenings (we are there until 10:00 p.m. :-o).  Plus, it's technically advertising, right?  I usually say the sweaters are there for inspiration...but if it's for advertisement then I'm practically required to get it blocked. 

Enjoy taking a walk with Hank, Tilly and Kate :-). 

Spiders have been light this year.

The bees are happy with all the fall flowers.

Liddy likes flowers, too :-).

Our walk out back inspired the sheep to come out.  

I guess it was a good advertisement ;-).

An Odd Turn Of Events

...for the middle of November.  Three inches of snow and 10 degrees tonight sounds more like January!

At least the house is toasty warm.  The furnace woes of last year are over and just in the nick of time!

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Here is a link to the auction for Karen's shawl.  http://www.burrenstainedglassart.com/Lace-Shawl.htm

You'll find some other excellent treasures there as well :-). 

Sunday Stills - Fall Foliage

We really have had a gorgeous fall. One of the very best I can remember.

The pumpkins are from a friend's farm.  She set them out for us for the Hug A Sheep party.  I love beautiful pumpkins as much as I love beautiful leaves.  Thank you, Jessica!

We planted these two trees the first fall we lived here.  They came together from the same nursery and we were told that they were the same variety.  One stays green (on the left) while the other turns bright red.  Are there male and female trees?  

We just can't believe how big they've gotten.

Time flies!

I thought I was recording longer than 18 seconds, but 18 seconds is better than nothing.  While I was lining up different views for Ed's challenge, a silly mockingbird was singing his heart out.  Probably not for me, but it sure made it a fun 18 seconds :-).

For more Sunday Stills...

Fall

These were actually from a couple days ago. Our colors are even better now. It's been such a pretty Fall.

I love that there are cows, horses, sheep and Hank all in one picture.  The cows are not ours, but on the back of Stella's farm.

I always think of our farm as being pretty open and bare of trees.  In this shot, being zoomed in, it appears that we have tons of trees.  Well, I assumed it was the zoom.  However, when you look at the non-zoomed (and therefore not compressed) picture at the top...we do have more trees than I think.  

Actually, every tree you see in these pictures (except for, in the first picture, the one on the far right and the ones way back in the cow field) is a tree we've planted since we moved here.  They've gotten big enough that now we DO have trees :-D.  That's pretty amazing!

I was out looking for where some of our shorter sheep were crawling under the fence and heading for the burr filled creek and pond (Don't ask me to name names and there was more than one ;-).  I stopped next to that yellow tree back behind Hank to make a phone call.  I stopped there because in the morning air, the leaves smelled awesome.  Like Fall