Warmest Before The Dawn

In the summer I wake up with the sun (around 6:00 a.m.) and start my day.  I let the dogs out, feed them and Bad Betsy, fix myself a big cup of coffee and walk up to the barn to do an early morning check.  

My main concern is B. Willard.  He likes to dig himself a comfy bed, but if he isn't careful how he lays down in it, he can get stuck with his feet higher than his overly round body and then not able to get up on his own which can be dangerous.  I hate to find him that way and on occasion he's given me a bad scare.

If I wasn't worried about him, I'd probably keep my 'get up with the sun' schedule during the fall and winter and sleep later in the morning like most animals.  However, that leaves him unwatched for a couple extra hours each day as the sunrise is so much later right now and I don't think it's worth the risk.  Plus, I love watching the sun rise

During the fall I sat on the Wool House porch with the dogs, and now frequently Possum, and check on my social media sheep friends while I finish my coffee.  If it's too rainy or windy and cold, we sit inside.  If it's not windy, I can tolerate some pretty cold temperatures and those cold, still mornings are some of my favorites.

This morning the moon was still pretty bright even though it's almost a week past full.  I did a flashlight check to make sure Willard was right side up and then stayed outside talking to Salt, giving Possum a snack, visiting with the horses, listening to the neighbor's rooster crowing and watching the stars disappear and the sky brighten.  There was no wind, so even though the thermometer said it was cold, I wasn't. 

This is the first year I've had to do these early morning checks and by doing so, I've learned a few fun things.  One, I love to be outside at dawn. Being able to watch everything on the farm wake up is a peaceful treat.  Another, you might think the coldest part of the day is right before the sun rises.  It's not.

The first couple of times I got too cold outside I thought I was imagining that it had gotten instantly extra cold.  Then I thought maybe it was just that I'd stayed out too long.  I'd be warm as toast for an hour or so and then suddenly freezing cold.  It didn't happen every day though and I noticed it was only happening on clear mornings with a bright sunrise...

Sure enough, if you google "Why does it get colder after the sun comes up?" you'll find the answer.  

Did you know it got colder just after dawn?

The 2021 Calendars

From the back cover...

"As most of you know, I really struggled with creating the farm calendar this year.  2020 was a year of incredible loss on and off the farm and I've heard so many folks talking about how much they are looking forward to welcoming the new year and putting the old year behind them. I can't help but agree...and yet, in having to look back through all the photos I took throughout this strange, sad year, I actually found so very much to be grateful for. I hope I’m not alone in that.

So, once again, Miss Tilly is still keeping our feet warm, but now Kate is mostly just trying to keep herself in line.  Salt has taken on as many of Hank's duties as she can and hearing her deep ba-roo makes me smile.  Betsy is still on house arrest for not only the menacing of birds, but now also sweet little Possum out in the barn. Every so often I catch a glimpse of orange out of the corner of my eye and can't help but hope that Comby is napping in the sun somewhere nearby. 

As always, a very special thanks to Saint Tim for doing all the hard work and heavy lifting and a grateful thank you to all of you who have become such an important part of our farm family.  You were spot on in voting to give everyone a Victory Lap.  I hope you enjoy welcoming the new year with this calendar."

The Victory Lap was hard...but it was the right thing to do...if for no other reason than to force me to go back and look at pictures from when the year was new and some of my oldest and dearest friends were still pretty young at heart.

I like the new format.  The calendar is a bit larger, but not outrageously so.  It was a bit more expensive to print, but luckily I "know a guy" ;-).  The shipping will be a bit more too, but hopefully not outrageously so.  

The big pictures are a little bigger...but so are the little pictures and I like that.

There are more columns (7 days) the rows (weeks) which left a gap at the bottom, so I filled that in with a little something, sometimes a story, sometimes just some thoughts.  I like that, too.  The calendar feels maybe a bit too personal at times, but as the only place it will be for sale is here with us, not at a random crowd festival, I think that's okay.

Of course there's Hank...

...and Early and his adopted moms and dads.

...and Comby with some of his oldest and dearest friends.

The Lamb Camp calendars are comfortingly the same.  Lots of cute lambs and good mommas...

...and Early doing what I hope we all remember most about him.

The Lamb Camp calendars are still $10.00.  The Equinox Farm calendars are $16.50.  The shipping, which has become the bane of my existence these last few days, is where it gets a bit messy.  

For the past couple of years I was able to use the USPS flat rate envelopes no matter where in the country I was shipping. The new calendar doesn't fit in those envelopes.  This could be good news if you are close by because it may actually be cheaper shipping to you now.   If you live in California, the shipping could cost around $15.00...if I'm understanding everything correctly.

To make this even more exciting, I'm going to try to do all the shipping from home this year rather than stand in line at the crowded post office every day.  Also, I realize that UPS or FedEx might possibly be cheaper...but I don't have those options in my small town.  Thank goodness for the USPS.

While especially in this year of no fiber festivals, these calendar sales are going to be an important fund raiser for the farm, I also know that the farm calendar is important to many people who look forward to turning the page on each month.  

2020 was hard on everyone.  I'm sorry the costs have gone up.  If you are not in a position to pay for a more expensive calendar this year, send what you can.  It will all work out somehow and 2021 will be better if we all have Hank, Salt, Tilly, Kate, Comby and Possum at our back.  Maybe not Betsy so much ;-).

As always, if you are interested in buying a calendar or anything else from the farm shop (except for the felted pumpkins that I just can't seem to get made this year :-o) just drop me an email and tell me what you would like to order.  Don't forget to include your address.  I'll send everything out from my "on farm postal desk" (:-o) and include an invoice and return envelope and you can drop a check back in the mail.

Like A Diamond In The Sky

I've spent the last several nights watching for the Comet NEOWISE.  I finally realized that I was probably missing it due to all the trees around our house, so last night I packed up the dogs and my camera (but forgot the bug repellent and my binoculars) and headed for the hill in the back field.

About the bug repellent...I really don't notice many bugs around the house and barn at night.  If the back porch light is on, then yes, but if not, they really aren't a problem.  Bug repellent never even crossed my mind.  The binoculars...never crossed my mind either but that's a mind issue, not an experience issue.

Turns out the bats are taking care of a LOT of bugs each night.  The back field was brutal.  Between not having any luck spotting the comet and knowing even if I did I wouldn't be able to see it very well without the binoculars and The Bugs, I finally bailed around 10:30 and headed back to the barn.  

As I drove through the gate next to the barn I looked up and just like finding a four leaf clover, there it was.  Right over the Wool House.  I took this picture with my iPhone.  I'll try again tonight to get a "big girl camera" shot...or maybe I'll just watch it through the binoculars and enjoy it.  

You can see it pretty well with just your naked eye, but the tail is really incredible with some zoom. Here's a link that might help you spot it.  Sounds like we have a couple more days of visibility.  Go out and find it.  Don't forget your binoculars...and your bug spray if you don't have a hard working bat colony.

A Funny Story About Early...And Maisie

I've had several questions about what Maisie thinks about Early...and there's a funny story there.  

"This is NOT a funny story!"

I know she's seen him playing in the barn aisle.  There's no way she's missed that.  He's in and out all day long and usually at least once at night.  She's the barn guardian now for crying out loud.  

One night last week I was putting out minerals in the feeder in the outside stall and I heard a loud commotion in the barn aisle.  My first fear is always the short dog.  Tilly hates lambs...and Early LOVES Tilly.  Not a great combo and I try to never be out of sight when they are together.

I raced back in and found Maisie frantically running laps in the aisleway, Early close on her heels doing his very best "Hi!  I'm Early!"  Her eyes were as big as saucers and I'm pretty sure she was using some grown up words.  Very grown up words.

There has never been once in her life that she's ever done anything I told her to do.  I opened the cross gate and called her name and she raced back in, tail twirling.  And I'm pretty sure she'll never sneak out that gate again ;-).

The 2020 Iknitarod

I'm starting this post with my 2020 Ravatar because if I led with the picture of the actual project, everyone would just pass on by because you've seen this yarn so. many. times.  

For the 2020 Iknitarod...I am knitting the Renny sweater!  

I think about the Iknitarod off and on all year long and some time ago I picked this sweet gray dog to be my Iknitarider.  I had originally planned to spin and knit a Jared sweater and have been tossing patterns around for months.  I could never settle on one though and I kept feeling bad about never knitting the Renny sweater and when it dawned on me that Charcoal had something in common with Renny, I knew what I was going to do.

"Are you sure?  That is a LOT of color!" ;-)

Like many animals on our farm, Charcoal was a rescue.  In his early life he had worked hard in a grade school classroom.  So hard that he ended up with a patch on his backside, just like Renny :-).  When his teacher retired, she took him home with her and kept him until she found a new home for him...and he eventually ended up with me.

With the dog connection to Renny - the bad dogs who caused her to end up here in the first place and the good dogs who took care of her for the rest of her life - and how old those dogs have all become, this year the dogs are center stage, along with Comby, who is a close to a dog as a cat can get :-).  And of course Renny is there, too, up in the stars.

I am knitting the Icelandic Star pattern.  The pattern is written as a bottom up sweater.  It's written to be knitted flat, back and forth, not around and around to then be steeked.  If you remember waaaay back, learning to do a steek was one of the original goals for the original Renny sweater.  I'd link all those old posts here, but even I don't want to revisit them (and I'm hungry and want to go eat lunch ;-).  

I have converted the pattern to be knit in the round.  I am worried about running out of yarn, so I've also converted it to be knit top down.  And, just to throw in one more challenge, I am between sizes so I've done the math to create my own personal size.  What could go wrong... ;-D.

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As always, I encourage you to follow along with the actual race at www.iditarod.com.  The Insider coverage is fantastic!  I'll be posting my usual daily Iknitarod updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and the Iknitarod group is in full swing and we have several on the scene "reporters".  

The One She Always Watches For

'Twas Just Hank

...or was it?

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!

Blooms

It's been a week (since I last posted) and it's been a week.  We're all okay, basically, but the summer has taken a toll on everyone around here...except maybe Saint Tim...who's a summer loving freak...and that's all I'm saying about that...freak ;-).

Hank has had issues with the heat and also has an ulcerated lesion on one elbow that doesn't want to heal.  Salt ended up with an abscess on a foot that is slowly healing.  Tilly still has her ongoing band aid butt.  Renny got an infected hair follicle that had to be lanced.  Big Moose got a cough that needed doctoring and now Frankie's got a hitch in his get-along.  I'm getting a hitch in my get-along just trying to doctor on everyone :-o.

So it's raining AND pouring...but not actually rain...which we could use.  So how about some pictures of some of my birds, bees and butterfly plants?

Sunflowers.

Pink buckwheat.

White buckwheat - flowers and grains.

Milkweed mixed in with the white and pink buckwheat.

These are the short sunflowers.  Somehow I got some packets that were supposed to 12' and 15' feet tall.  These are the 12's, but they are probably only 10' tall. 

The 15's are probably 12' but still a pretty darn tall plant and kind of fun.

I planted milkweed, dill and parsley for monarchs and swallowtails.  The birds and the wasps are getting them all :-(.

I guess I should start bringing them in to the safety of the porch when I find them, but honestly...I'm maxed out right now...and I feel bad about that...on top of everything else.  Maybe things will settle down this week.

A friend posted on IG that every day there is "one less day of summer".  We (except Saint Tim) are feebly counting it down to ZERO.

Keeping An Eye On The Trail

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We are all running strong now.  The sweater looks much better and I think I'm safe on the gauge.  Pip is not convinced.  She thinks it's going to be too big for her ;-).

Abby's Week Two Recap

Abby's having a much better second week at Equinox Farm :-).  She's feeling much better, much to the cat's dismay.  Still hasn't figured out the grazing/eating thing, but she's working on it.  Here is a fun recap.


Life is starting to settle down some.  Not to jinx anything...

And It's Back

We got several inches of snow again last night which reminded me that I'd forgotten to share some cute Tilly pictures I'd taken for the "camping" post during the Iknitarod.

I'd taken a whole series of pictures of Tilly digging a snow bed...

...but a corgi digging in deep (for a corgi ;-) snow...the pictures all look pretty much the same ;-).

And then, when she lays down...it's kind of hard to tell that she actually has ;-D.

But it's pretty hard to top a corgi with a snow ball on her nose ;-).