Old Friends And Family

"Hi, my name is Salt.  I don't know why I'm here. I miss my old farm and my old family.  I'd been there a long time, almost 14 years.  This farm is okay though.  At least there are sheep here.  The other flock dog is nice to me and I've known the shepherd since she came over to my old farm and picked up a lamb named Keebler."

Salt was one of the guardians at the "big farm", where the Final Frontier Farm mommas and babies live after they leave the lambing barn.  She worked there with Old Zee and Brick and the job they did there was epic...yet standard as good flock dogs go.  

Old Zee passed away last year.  The summer farm help ran over Brick a couple weeks ago.  Taking care of hundreds of lambs was a big job for three dogs.  It would be impossible for one very old one.  The scramble to find a replacement was on.  

Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do.  The instinct even in puppies is incredibly strong, but they need many months of on the job experience with guidance and supervision before they fully ready to work a big farm with freshly weaned lambs.  Kathy needed to find an adult dog, not an easy task.

The best option was a female with four puppies on her.  She could borrow the mother until she found something else, but the puppies would obviously come with her.   Putting two females together safely would have been incredibly hard.  A female with puppies...would have undoubtedly killed Salt.

Stella, at the lambing farm, made it perfectly clear that Salt was not welcome there either. The instincts that make them good guardians are the same instincts that get them into trouble sometimes.  Flock dogs can be complicated. 

Salt's only safe option would be living in a kennel run. Nobody wanted that.  Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do.  We offered to try her here.  Our farm is well fenced, Hank, a male, is as laid back as they come and there are sheep.  Several sheep she even already knew.

The first night was terrible.  She was horribly confused and upset.  I slept in the barn with her and neither of us got much sleep.  The next day she relaxed a little, but as evening came she got very agitated again.   Maybe she was thinking she needed to be out working her old farm. The stormy weather wasn't helping anything either.

As the days have progressed, she's seeming happier.  She likes the barn with the cool, dark feed and tack rooms.  Tim moved the trailer (aka spaceship) next to the barn, but she prefers to sleep out in the driveway under the truck.  She hasn't made any patrols yet that I'm aware of, but she does like hanging out with the sheep.  

Hank is fine :-). 

Yarn Along - A Barnyard Scarf

One of my favorite things to do is to sit down and spin yarn from our flock.  I have a big plan for the Tour de Fleece this year involving spinning enough yarn for a sweater, but mostly I only get allow myself an hour or so here and there and then I end up with baskets full of small amounts of yarn...that just sit there.  

I do enjoy the baskets of yarn.  There's something joyful about all the different colors, textures, weights and especially all the individual sheep tucked in there, but I've been trying to think of something special to make that would utilize those small skeins.

I decided to try weaving a multi-yarn scarf.  I used my handspun bits and bobs for the warp (the up and down threads) and some Nistock Farms Golden Fleece Cotswold singles for the weft (the side to side threads).  

Since the warp threads were all different thicknesses, I used a reed that would accommodate the thickest yarns.  Actually, I started with a 6 dent reed (6 ends per inch) but didn't like it and, you know, ripped it out ;-).  The 8 dent reed worked reasonably well, but a 10 would have been better.

I wanted to showcase the individual handspun yarns rather than the solid color weft, so I worked for a warp faced weave (more warp showing than weft).  I know who most of the yarns are.  The white Cotswold is Keebler, the warm brown is Petunia, the thinner white is Peabody, the too thick for the 10 dent reed gray is Rebecca Boone, the medium weight gray is probably Jester...

And it's too hot to even ask 20 to model it, so I hung it on the barn ladder.  Next to the fire extinguisher.  

Some day it will cool down enough to wear.

Regarding books...I have lost the energy to listen to "grown up" books and after thoroughly enjoying the Terry Prachett young adult books last year, decided to delve into the Newbery Medal Winners list this year.  I may just stay there.  I've listened to The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The One and Only Ivan, Moon Over Manifest, Walk Two Moons and Bridge to Terabithia.  

I highly recommend them all :-).

Wool Work

"...is boring."

"So boring."

"If you'd quit taking pictures of me you'd get done quicker!"

The Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival is this weekend!  I'm about as ready as I'm going to get.  I have a couple more things I'd really like to get done, but the fleeces are all skirted and weighed and the spindle kits are assembled and packed.  I've got some Punkin's Patch "swag" packed and, of course, Biscuit.  A few others will be coming as well, to work the Hug a Sheep pen.

I think we are going to bring the bottle lamb brigade - Biscuit, Bullwinkle, Liddy, Baaxter.  Or maybe Andy and Levi.  Andy's fleece is so pretty and Levi is a gorgeous color.  Not Maisie for sure although she's been on her best behavior lately.  You'll have to come see who ends up being dumb enough to get caught Saturday morning making the cut ;-).

Thanks for all the kind words about Keebler.  He was so loved by so many.  I remember taking him to the very first Lexington festival.  Kathy Meyer (who started the festival and where Keebler came from as a triplet lamb) couldn't believe the number of people who would walk past the sheep pen, look over to see Keebs and call him by name.  He was that sort of sheep, eh?

Sadly, if you start doing the math, there are a lot of old sheep in our flock.  We will treasure and enjoy everyone as long as we can.  Someone I'm especially enjoying right now is Jester.  If you haven't been following the Biscuit thread on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook you really should.  All I can say is Jester better live forever.  And it this point it looks like he might!

Because we can never have too many cute pictures of Biscuit and Jester ❤️. #Biscuit #Jester #jacobsheep #bottlelamb

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on May 17, 2017 at 6:31pm PDT

Come see us this weekend!  Buy wool!  Lots. Of. Wool. :-o

"What the heck is all this?" #fromthemouthsofbabes #Biscuit #wool #lotsofwool #gettingready #kentuckysheepandfiberfestival #thisweekend

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on May 17, 2017 at 12:14pm PDT

Keebler

This is the internet's favorite picture of Keebler.  It shows up everywhere.

But this is my favorite picture of Keebler.  This is the picture my mind calls up when I search for a image of Keebler even though there were so many other good ones.  He grew from an adorable lamb into a handsome photogenic sheep.  This always remained my favorite.  

When the vet came on Saturday, I held his head in the crook of my arm like that and once again this picture came to mind.  Or maybe my heart.  I love all of our sheep, but some...  There is another big hole in the flock.

I'd like to say that Keebler would want to tell everyone to get up and take a walk every day.  Stay active so your legs hold up longer.  But he wouldn't.  He'd say "Meh. Enjoy life sitting in the shade in front of a fan or in the warm sun in the winter."  

I don't know what's the right answer.  But getting up and taking a walk every day probably wouldn't hurt anyone.

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 :-).  

Soaking Up Some Sun

It's been a little colder than I'd like (down to 4 the night before last) but I've loved the snow!  Walking out to the barn late at night to check on everyone and toss out a little more hay - everything is so bright and crunchy and sparkly and quiet and...  

We've been lucky and no wind.  Everyone can handle single digits when there is no wind.  Beautiful sunshine yesterday.  Clouds moving in today and we are headed back to the mid 60s and rain in a couple days.  I (and the sheep, but maybe not the chickens ;-) will take sunny cold and frozen any day!   

Annabelly, Billy Belly and Heidi

Keebler and Allie

Keebs again

Buddy.  He may never have a cool 'do but he has awesome ear fuzz :-D.

Hershey, Hank and Liddy

Ewen

Oh, and from the If something weird is going to happen, it's going to happen to Maisie department...here's a sort of funny Maisie story.

I did remember to unhook the hose from the hydrant last week, but forgot to drain said hose...so it's been full of ice for the last four or five days.  Not really a problem as I can carry buckets of water to refill the water tanks.  Just an inconvenience...much like the pioneers faced ;-).

The other night I was carrying out a big bucket of water.  Somehow Maisie bumped into it and got thoroughly splashed.  It was heading down to five that night.  Five and wet would be horrible, except it was Maisie, who has probably five or six inches of wool on her so it probably hadn't reached her skin.

Still, I didn't want her to lie down and have it soak in, so I quickly (and sort of without thinking) started madly brushing as much water off her side as I could.  For those who've met the little darling, let's just stop and think about what was going to happen next...

 At least I lived to tell the story ;-D.

Speaking Of The Christmas Card

On the last day of Christmas...

I love, love, love to get comments on my blog posts.  Especially comments with questions.  And even comments questioning missing characters on the Christmas cards.  

From Cheryl... "I have to ask, where is Eli?"   Eli is sleeping winter away in his heated cat condo.  He would not be caught dead out playing in the snow ;-).

From Lorraine..."Did I miss PPPP?"  Un, (gulp) no...I missed PPPP :-o.  How could I leave out PPPP???? For crying out loud, she's one of my very favorite sheep and is even one of the "oldies" coming out to eat twice a day, the inspiration for the design!

I was sick about this.  Eli...I purposely left him out when I was getting too many characters on there. PPPP?  She had to be on there.  This may sound crazy, but the card was ruined to me without her on there.  

So now she is!  I tucked her in next to Keebs :-).

I haven't decided what to do with the first group of cards Tim has already printed.  I hate the thought of sending my [albeit not quite complete] family to the recycle bin.  Probably no one but me (and Lorraine ;-) would even notice they were slightly different.  Do I leave them in circulation?  Make it a game to see where they end up?  

And while we are talking about it, Tim printed extra calendars to make sure there were plenty of Comby and Betsy calendars to go around.  We only have a few Lamb Camp calendars left, but there is a good stack of Farm Calendars left over (!).  Would anyone be upset if I put them on sale to try to find them homes?  

Meanwhile, out in the cold snow...Comby says "No pain, no gain, Eli!"

I will give Eli some credit.  I'm getting ready to head out to the barn to check on everyone and throw out some more hay before I go to bed.  Eli will make the trek out with me.  Or at least I think he will. It's going down to 4 tonight.  Wonder if he'll bail?  I doubt it.  He goes with me every night.

Bullwinkle And His Shadow

Even though this black lamb is at least five weeks older than Bullwinkle, he's a slower growing breed*, so Bullwinkle is more like his big brother.  He's pretty nervous about everything in his new home and never leaves Bullwinkle's side.  BW alternates between being really excited to have a minion to being mad he has a minion.  Typical big brother ;-).

The new lamb came from Final Frontier Farm and is one of the Rocket lambs.  While Rocky would seem to be the perfect name to go with Bullwinkle, his grandfather, Rocket's dad Rocky, is one of the new rams at The Training Center this year and that's just too many Rocks in the neighborhood.  

I took a fecal sample to the vet this morning to have them check for parasites.  I wrote his number (601) on the bag.  The tech looked at my messy handwriting and thought it said Levi.  I think that works :-). 

*His mother is Clover and she's a Cotswold/Wensleydale/Texel cross (one of Keebler's cousins) and Rocket is a Border Leicester/something cross.  He has a beautiful fleece that reminds me so far of Murphy.  He's bred more like Hershey and Spud though I think, so we'll have to wait and see.  

Assigned Seats

When I peaked in on everyone this afternoon, Boudreaux was cashed out, eyes closed.  He was so cute I had to go get the camera.  Of course he was wide awake when I got back.

"I wasn't sound asleep, I swear!"

"That's right because no one sleeps sound when I'm around hee hee hee ;-).

As I was reviewing the pictures I noticed Boudreaux was in his spot, Maisie in hers.  Beanie Baby and Andy were in the old hay mangers, right on cue.

Ewen's sleeping in his spot.

And Keebs...the first one not in his assigned seat.  Surely it's not cooler in this stall (?).

"Nope, it's hot both places." 

Bullwinkle provided a little distraction for Baaxter...who is, yep, in his assigned seat.  If I had the time I'd go back and pull out all the old posts that show everyone in these same seats year after year. I think that's interesting.

Stay cool!

The 2016 Great American Barn Yard Camp Out

Well, we are two nights down in the transition to the barn.  He woke me up several times the first night "Momma?"  "Hey baby, you okay?"  "I guess so."  "Okay, go back to sleep." "Okay."  and a few times last night.  I'm hoping tonight he'll sleep on through.

I sleep out there with them for a few nights just to make sure they aren't any more stressed than they have to be.  During the day I try to take/keep them out there as much as I can and we graze and nap in the barn so they get used to their new home.  

Usually I really enjoy hanging out in the barn, but this has been the hottest "camp out" ever.  Even with an extra fan blowing right on us yesterday afternoon we were all pretty close to miserable. Luckily the nights have cooled off enough to sleep, but the fans are running 24/7 these days.

Cashed out by my cot.

Waking up for a few seconds and then back out.

Poor Baba with her gate pillow. 

This is how we all feel.  Groggy.

But then, when you wake up and you are hungry, you can just walk out the door to eat even if your mom is too hot to go out with you.

Hershey is currently winning the fan war this year.  The big fan is sandwiched between the two gates.

The view from my cot.

A closer look at handsome Keebs.  At least there was a good breeze yesterday.  It helped a little.

You have to have a sheep pillow case for sheep camp!

Oops, he must have heard the camera clicking.

"Is it baba time yet?"

The Morning After

Of course it cooled off right after shearing, that afternoon in fact.  The next morning everyone was out soaking up some heat from the sun.  I sat out with them for awhile and then went back for my camera.  It was a very nice morning.

Handsome Ewen

B. Willard

Napping Andy

"Can you believe all the things that she says I say???"

That's not Liddy's coffee ;-).

Comby

The only shearing tragedy - Woolliam's cool hair :-(.

Keebler lost his 'do too, but it was on purpose.

Taking good care.