Don't Forget

The Bluegrass Classic Stock Dog Trials is this weekend. Grand fun and fascinating to watch. Sadly, I won't be bringing Ewen McTeagle with me this year, but come and visit anyway!



It seems like just yesterday he was sitting curled up next to me watching the dogs and sheep.

Hmmm - Needs A Little Something

We have the best porch. It has everything we need and then some. Shelter in bad weather, a good breeze and shade in the summer, a swing, comfy chairs...



It's right off the kitchen, the perfect size for the hammock and even has a ceiling fan to speed dry freshly washed wool.



The cats love it, the dogs sleep on it, the bottle lambs play on it...



Yet, it needed something.



A sheep fan pull!

It's fun to be a crazy sheep lady, especially when your good friends are sheep enablers, because you know, you can never have too many sheep ;-).

The Dance

Killdeer are well known for their defensive broken wing dance - an ingenious way of drawing attention away from their nests to protect their babies. Here are some pictures of our "momma bear".







I'm happy to announce another "momma bear" won the notecards. Congrats Tonia!

Roadside Assistance

...or how I was bossed around by yet one more animal on this farm.

While out mowing the front field the other day - and I'm not talking about walking around pushing a tiny lawn mower - a Killdeer attacked me. I immediately knew why, but it took me a minute to find it.



I marked the nest with a couple construction flags and while it's hopefully far enough away to keep our punk cats from finding it, it is in the middle of a fox path. However, I'll give any bird willing to take on a 48 hp tractor a better than average chance of backing down a fox.

Let's have some fun. What in the world is this?



Submit your guess in the comments section by the end of the weekend, say Sunday evening, and if there are more than one correct guesses, I'll draw a winner who will receive a set of Equinox Farm notecards, courtesy of Punkin's Patch.

A Day In The Life...Of Eli

9:00 a.m. Headed out the door.



3:30 p.m.



"What."

"Have you been there ALL DAY?!?"

"Yeah."

"Do you not feel stupid with wool hanging off your ear?"




"Nope."

Big News

Meet Hank.



Hank is a 17'3 hand thoroughbred. "Hand" is the measurement system for horses, each hand equalling 4 inches, so Hank is 17 x 4" + 3" = 71" or almost 6' tall. That's big. He is a gentle giant though and I am so excited to have him. Even Saint Tim thinks he's pretty cool.



Hank's had a nice show career (here he is with his previous mom, Seana) and is looking to slow down a little, and in riding horses, slow is just where I want to be. You won't catch me in the picture above, but if I could learn to do half that, I'd be thrilled.



Welcome Hank. And don't feel bad, we're a little afraid of those sheep too ;-).

Market Research

I felt obligated to try out the Vanilla Honey Bee Haagen-Dazs ice cream last night. YUMMMM!

Busy As...

...well, you know... bees!

One of my bee friends, who's way more experienced with bees than I, came out yesterday to see how my bees were faring. After having the hive rolled during the tornado, there was really no telling what we might find. Stella and I donned our protective bee gear while Les fired up the bee smoker and in we went.



Look at all the bees! Both the top and bottom hive bodies were completely full. We nosed around for a few minutes trying to find the queen and looking for any sign of trouble (parasites, disease... all clean) and then he dusted the hive with powdered sugar.



Huh? Aren't there enough sweets in there already? Turns out, if you dust them with powdered sugar, as they clean it off themselves and each other, if there are any mites on them, they'll get picked off with the sugar dust. No chemicals - I like it! So, for the first time in my short beekeeping career, I was able to install a honey super (the small box on the top).



If all goes well, we'll harvest honey this year. Yippee!

Now, for some real fun, visit the bee fields at http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/ . We should all do our part to help the bees, and if that means we have to eat a lot of ice cream? Well, so bee it ;-).

Happy Earth Day!

Go outside and enjoy the natural world around you. Even in a city you'd be surprised what beauty you will find. You will most likely also find some ugly, so let's make every day Earth Day!

Holy Cow

...spring is beautiful around here! I took some pictures of a felted sheep heading to Pennsylvania and was blown away by the background.



Not that I wasn't already aware of the beauty of this place, but sometimes a different perspective really smacks you with "Wow". Even better to think about this as where I was sitting, with this backdrop, while I made him. Is there any nicer place to "work"?



If you'd like to use this red bud picture as a screen saver to brighten up your inside office computer, you are welcome. If you need a different version, email me at thecrazysheeplady at gmail dot com (replace symbols).

Happy Spring!