A Wool(ish) House

I found a super sweet bird nest the other day.  It had blown down during a wind storm.  I love all bird nests, but this one is extra special because of all the wool in it. Buddy and/or Woolliam, Petunia and/or Daniel and Chocula, Salt and/or Hank and probably some others as well.  Here's a quick tour:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

Thank you for all the calendar orders! I hope you know how much that is appreciated.  They are still "at the printers" waiting to be assembled, but luckily Tim's been busy this month.  That's appreciated as well ;-).

Some neighborhood news - there appears to be another stray cat hanging around.  Both my neighbor and I have been blaming the sightings on each other's calico cats and two days ago I broke up a fight next door in which "Betsy" took off running towards our farm...but then I found the real Betsy asleep in the house.  "Betsy's Stunt Double" was spotted between the two farms again last night.

Four bossy calico cats in one area is probably going to make for a long winter.  Why couldn't it have been a sweet orange kitty :-(.  Sigh...

The Titan

There has been a group of sheep here over the years that I've considered titans.  Buddy, Woolliam, Ewen McTeagle, Jester, Marcel, Keebler, Graham Lamb...  Big in stature...and personality.  Count Chocula was The Titan.  

We've been trying to fight through a bladder stone attack for a week.  He patiently tolerated everything we tried and we tried pretty much everything.  I finally had to call it. 

I will sure miss seeing you standing in your doorway.  Thank you for one final classic picture last night.  You were a good sheep.  The bravest Titan of them all.

May 2013 - June 26, 2020

Golden Oldies

My original paragraph started by stating "Renny is the youngest sheep in the Golden Oldies group...", but I wanted to make sure about Rebecca Boone and then started checking everyone and, yikes, time has flown.  

PPPP is 14, Ewen is 12, Billy Belly is 14, Rebecca Boone is 11, Woolliam is 11.  At 10, Renny is not the youngest sheep.  That would be B. Willard, who is just 9.

(!)

Ewen McTeagle.  It seems like just yesterday you were terrorizing the cat food on the back porch. 

There's a new puzzle :-).

Wool In A Bird Nest

Or a Wool-li-am bird nest :-D.

Do you see him/her?

How about now?

I've seen lots of wool in bird nests over the years, but I've never seen a bird go straight to the source ;-).  

This little bird fledged this morning.  I'm not sure where it started, but it ended up hopping around in Easy Breezy.  It panicked when it saw me and ended up hiding in Woolliam's curls.  I was worried it might get smushed or tangled up so I moved it back into the straw where the parents could find him.

It's Going To Take More Than A Couple Weeks

I've been told the only difference between a good haircut and a bad one is...about two weeks.  I think these are going to take a bit longer.  When the majority of the flock was shorn back in March, we didn't shear the oldest sheep.  If you are frail and thin or not super mobile, you shouldn't have to work hard to stay warm until the weather breaks.  

The weather has broken.  Or is broken.  It was 90 yesterday.  In May.  That extra wool needed to come off.  I managed to get Ewen, Woolliam and  PPPP sheared...and only had to call the vet once. Needless to say I'm not going to quit my day job and start shearing sheep anytime soon.  Or any time.  

PPPP doesn't look too bad.

Well, relatively speaking...

A little Biscuit and Muffin break midway through :-).

Kate nervously watching yet another storm headed our way.

"Rebecca Boone.  I'm trying to take a picture of Ewen."

"Whatever."

Handsome Ewen

"She snipped me under my jaw and to make matters worse, because it's summer and fly season, she called the vet out and she put six staples in on top of it."

"I"m sorry, Big Wool :-(."

By this point it was raining hard so I sat down with everyone to wait it out.  You can tell by Kate's ears (glued to her head) that she wasn't enjoying the storm break as much as I was.

At The Ceremonial Start

This is my seventh Iknitarod!  I always have to like to go back and count - Marcel/Woolliam, Keebler, Maisie, Baaxter, Liddy/Buddy, Baaxter and now Muffin/Biscuit/Mrs. Pepperpot.  

Each race has been different, but they've all been fun.  I've learned a lot about knitting each year.  I've learned a lot about mushing.  I've made some great new friends and we've enjoyed challenging ourselves and cheering each other on. 

I treat the Iknitarod very seriously.  Well, not like life and death seriously, but definitely seriously as in embracing the spirit of the Iditarod race itself.  I enjoy thinking about it throughout the year, planning my race.  I push myself to do something hard.  I choose my team carefully.  I get as prepared as possible.  

And on race day eve, I pack my sled.

My race map this year is the Dreyma sweater by knit.love.wool.  I took a bunch of pictures of the yarn and the color gradients (yes, there are colors if you look closely) and thought I'd already downloaded them to post here...but I haven't.  I'll include those in a future post.  

Before each Iditarod race, for a fundraiser they auction off the sleds for each musher and the winners  (IditaRiders) gets to ride in their musher's sled for the 11 mile Ceremonial Start. For the last several years I've carried a mascot in my sled throughout the race. My IknitaRider this year is that sweet little sheep I picked up off the road last summer.  

I didn't think sending a sheep to Nome wearing acrylic was a good idea, so I knit her a little wool poncho featuring some pattern colors and thereby getting to practice the increase stitch I was going to need to use for the sweater pattern.  I think she'll be toasty warm :-).

Muffin and Pepperpot came to watch the sled packing, but they won't be riding along.  The trail can be messy and dangerous (Oh, Graham, how we miss you!) and I would hate for something to go wrong.

Packed and ready...and without further ado...

This might be my favorite ravatar to date.  Like a Dreyma (dream), Biscuit and Muffin and I are at the Iknitarod, watching the Northern Lights and staring up at a bright shining star (Mrs. Pepperpot).  I have my hand on their backs to let Mrs. P. know I'm taking good care of her babies.

My project is too big, my hands are too sore.  Still, the pattern with it's bright shining star yoke is perfect and the ravatar is so sweet I just want to stand there forever...and so we once again hit the trail.  

*      *      *      *      *

The Ceremonial Start begins at 2:00 p.m. EST today.  I believe you can watch live for free on Iditarod.com .  If you enjoy that coverage and want to watch video updates throughout the race (these are so fun!), I encourage you to sign up for one of the Insider packages.

Oldies But Goodies

I think I've talked about "Easy Breezy" on the blog, but in case I haven't, it's the bigger version of Del Boca Vista, utilizing the end of the outside stall and the level paddock next to the barn.  DBV is perfect for a couple sheep, but when the population as a whole starts getting older, more and more sheep needed to move into "assisted living" this fall.

Silly Lila, one of my very favorite bottle lambs from quite a few years ago.  She's not exceptionally old, but she has some arthritis issues that make it hard for her to keep up with the younger sheep.

Popcorn PeePee Pants.  Her birthday is in January, but I don't remember the exact day.  I'd look it up on the blog...but she's older than the blog!  She will be 14 next month.  

PPPP is the lamb on the bookmarks we hand out in the festival booths :-).  She makes a nice puzzle, too ;-).

Renny the invincible.  She's not old and definitely not skinny, but she's starting to have trouble with her horribly damaged back legs and can't negotiate the hills on the other side of the barn any longer.  She's loving the Easy Breezy life ;-D.

Billy Belly and Heidi.  Heidi is another of the old girls.  She'll be 13 this spring.  Billy Belly is only 12, but he was a bit thin heading into fall so I moved him into EB so he could get some extra food.  He's also loving the EB life ;-D.

Ewen McTeagle, Woolliam and Allie do still come out and graze at least a little bit.  Ewen can usually be talked into grazing in the yard for a few minutes after breakfast if I stand out there with him.  Allie likes to go out in the afternoons and Woolliam does a bit, but he's also quite happy to hang out indoors and eat hay and wait for the next Bingo game ;-).

Old Friends

I wanted to add Ewen McTeagle and Woolliam to the "easy breezy" paddock.  Allie was doing really well in there, even getting out to graze some, so I knew if I could talk the boys into moving they'd be happy.  

Well, they weren't.  The two grumpy old men who have always slept in the back of the inside stall were absolutely Not Happy that they were now being forced to sleep in the front of the outside stall.  I had to lock them in there the first night.

The next morning (yesterday), when they only had to walk a few steps to the breakfast bar and could just step out the door to graze, they started to come around ;-).  This is what I found when I headed back out after dinner.

Woolliam and Ewen would normally already be tucked deep into the barn, missing out on a nice evening outdoors.  Allie, too, but she'd be more to the front...and yelling at everyone to come in with her.  They all have to be happier outside on a nice evening.  I know I was happy to see them out there :-).

Warm Winter Sun

It can be way down in the teens, even single digits, and as long as it's not windy and the sun is shining, it feels warm to me. Some more pictures from the Del Boca Vista Distraction Party the other day.

Maisie

Heidi - who's foot is all better now since I popped a big mud ball from between her toes after the Boxing Day cookie party :-).

That is Muffin (!) standing just to the right of Levi in the foreground.

Renny

Bullwinkle, Levi and Spud

Biscuit

The Sheep Chicken and Woolliam

A little slice of heaven...and two new puzzles :-).  

Enjoy!

Some Sunday Sunrise Sheep Shots

Note the Ts running across the top of the field.

Annabelly coming up to say "Happy Birthday!"

Three old timers.  Too many birthdays!

Baaxter and Chocula getting ready to have less birthdays.  All that nice grass and you are eating grass covered in fence paint over spray?!?

Pretty Petunia.

All the fences and barns have been freshly painted.  The over spray makes this look like I photoshopped the  paint on there.

I'm not sure what is going on in this pictures.  Obviously Woolliam doesn't have a clue either or else he's just decided to sleep through whatever those two girls are having words about.  Baby Belly and Annabelly.

Three new puzzles up. 

Enjoy!

April Showers

The chickens love Del Boca Vista, especially when it's raining.  Jester is a good sport about it.  Just realized I never shared that we put Ford down a few weeks ago.  Jester was pretty upset about it for awhile, but he's doing okay now.  He's had to watch a lot of old friends go over the years.  There are a lot of old friends...and some sad decisions coming up :-(.

Front row:  Chocula, Burrnie, Levi  Back row:  Murphy and Spud

Chocula

Liddy and Murphy.  I don't really think of Liddy as being super small, but I guess she is.  Or maybe Murphy is just super big, which is true.

In case child services comes after me, I had to pick up a new sheep arthritis prescription for Woolliam at the "people pharmacy" today.  I had to sign off on my "relationship to the patient". Since there wasn't a check box for sheep/pet/animal...I checked off that he was my "child". They'd put it under Murphy's name I guess because he was the most recent animal on the scary vet bill this month.  He's fine now, but gave us all quite a scare.

  Maisie: "I stay inside when it's raining."

Not sure why Hershey felt like he needed hair extensions.  Kids...

Charge!!!

As soon as a gate is opened, any gate, but preferably one out to a field the flock hasn't been in for awhile, everyone comes running.  Even sheep who really can't run anymore.  This is Big Excitement in sheepland!  

Yesterday was Integration Day for the two "boys".  We need to use their paddock to park cars Saturday and they were ready anyway.  Both had started sleeping outside the barn next to the two gates into the main barn at night.

Charge!!!

Chocula has the jump and run down pat, but somehow Clover Belly got out ahead of him.  That's Levi in the foreground. 

Baby Belly, Daniel and Buddy.  The group charge is always cheered on by Buddy yelling at the top of his lungs.  This is also how I know if an Unscheduled Charge is taking place.  Buddy is always the very most excited...much to escapees chagrin ;-).

Lila and Renny

Now Boudreaux and Woolliam

Allie and PPPP, under the shade cloth.  Buddy, out front, didn't get very far before he started chowing down.

Maisie and Hershey, bringing up the rear.  Usually Maisie is out front.  She must have gotten stuck in a traffic jam ;-).

 

No one got very far.  And they were far too interested in all that green grass to even think about the two boys.  I always like to integrate the main flock into the new sheep's area.  Not only does the main group have more interest in the fresh grass, but the new sheep know the 'lay of the land' and are more confident in familiar surroundings.

And interestingly, Bullwinkle had lived with the main flock for at least a month or two before Levi got here, right?  I know I have pictures of him with B. Willard and Petunia.  See, this is why I shouldn't have slacked off on the blog over the summer.  Bad records.  Anyway, Levi marched right over to the big group, but Bullwinkle stayed back out of the fray for quite a while.  When did Mr. Bossy get so bashful?

And to answer the earlier question about Kate...I was sitting on the Wool House porch knitting. Knitting!  Cooking I can understand.  Anything involving sharp knives or possibly burning the house down, sure!  Spinning I sort of get, too.   Your tail could get squished under a treadle or your pointy nose bumped in the turning wheels.  Knitting?  You are going to go sit under a tree, not able to watch me knitting???

Sadly, she's probably pretty smart.  I was sitting there happily knitting away on the re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-start of the Renny sweater, thinking all was well.  I was knitting both sleeves at the same time and they were the same tension and same size.  I had over-dyed some of the pink yarn to a more fall color that I really liked.  I was plotting my next Yarn Along post sharing my great successes......

I still think the gauge is not good.  On the size 6 needles I think it's just too tight dense inelastic wrong.  I didn't really like the gauge on the size 7 needles any better though.  What am I going to do?  I haven't wet blocked a size 7 sample.  I guess that should probably be my first step.  Although at this point I think I might join Kate under the tree :-/.

*     *     *     *     *

The winner of the second giveaway is Renee :-D.  Send me your mailing information and which calendar you'd like!  I'll post the final winner tomorrow.  I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about everyone's favorite blog posts!  Blogging is a ton of work and it's so nice to know it's appreciated :-).

style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">