A Boy And His Dog

And sometimes his chicken ;-).

A Boy And His Cat

And sometimes his dog :-).

Monkey Boy

"If I was just a little taller..."

"'Cause those leaves are sure yummy!"

He can stand up for the longest time - great strength and balance.  These were taken a couple of days ago.  Yesterday he figured out how to stand up and then jump even higher!  

I've been posting some cute pictures on Twitter, including the jumping shot.  I'm using the hash tag #baaxter for all of his posts, so you can click on that and scroll back if you haven't been following along.

Under The Table And Dreaming

Baaxter has been so easy to work with. We do go out and play and graze a bunch so he has as "normal" a life as possible, but we also get quite a bit of work done too because he takes such good naps.

Sleeping under the skirting table.

"And all this hay and straw and stuff keeps falling on me." 

I love this picture with the wheel in the background :-).

He'll sleep and sleep and sleep.

"Because this place is so boring!"

"This is my sleepy face."

He looks like this when he first wakes up after a big nap.  Super sleepy, then a little more alert, but still sleepy, then he makes a sleepy tiny baaa, more like a m-m-m-m-m? (I think he's saying mom? ;-) and then he gets up and stretches really big and he's ready to roll...to the house for a baba ;-).

[He] Coulda Been A Contender

I always pick a fleece or two (or three) to keep for myself each spring.  Usually it's a special friend who's getting older (this year, Henri), someone who's given me LOTS of gray hair (Maisie :-o) or someone with an interesting color pattern that I think will change as they get older (Daniel Not-Boone).

I knew Daniel had a "nice" fleece, but it wasn't one I was especially excited about.  It was definitely a huggable fleece, but not really my favorite, being more of a coarse wool girl ;-).  Still, I wanted to keep it because I could see his moorit brown was quickly fading to oatmeal and his white lightning streaks would never show as well again.

I didn't bother to skirt it before the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, knowing I was keeping it.  When I laid it out on the table the other day, I felt a little sick.  Somehow, in all the heavy hay feeding during a long, brutal winter, Daniel managed to keep himself almost spotlessly clean.  The cleanest fleece I've ever raised here.  But that's not all.

It was a huge fleece, especially for a lamb shearing.  The color was very pretty and interesting.  The locks structure was nice and pretty consistent from front to back.  The length was consistent throughout. The crimp was pretty and pretty uniform from base to tip and head to tail.  There was very little britch wool (the coarser wool from around the hips and back legs).  And did I mention that it was clean???

If I'd had any idea that's what was in that bag, I'd have entered it in the fleece competition!  Even if it really wasn't as nice as I thought, I'd have loved to have gotten some feedback on it.  While it's sure nice to get ribbons, I'd always rather learn something.  I think I blew it :-/.

The first side folded over to roll it up.  Keep in mind this is a 4'x8' skirting table.

The other side folded over the top of the first side.

And now pretend it is rolled up nice and tight and not flopping out the sides, top, back...

Nine and a half fat ones!

I bagged it up rather than tossing it in the wash because as much as I like to wash wool, I'm going to get more enjoyment looking at it for a few more days :-).

Teefers!

More under the table shots tomorrow.  Right now someone who's been very patient (such a good lambie), needs to go outside and play!

"Hurry it up, Mom!!!"

Sleeping It Off

I had planned to share some pictures of a beautiful fleece this a.m., but we had bad storms here last night and the dogs were upset, which in turn kept everyone up for an (extra) hour or so in the middle of the night...and when I started to pull out pictures, I came across these from the weekend and couldn't make it any further.  

So in case anyone else is in need of a couple pictures of an adorable sleeping lambie to start/slow down their morning...

I'll be back later.

Zzzzzz (I wish ;-)

Remembering

Hank has had to work a lot of overtime lately.  He's always worked hard at night, usually mostly early on and then an occasional warning throughout the night if he hears something suspicious.  Lately we've been even hearing coyotes yipping in the mornings, after daybreak.  That's not happened before.  

I'm hoping it's just because there seems to be a good rabbit population this year, but one did come way too close to our back porch the other night, so we do what we can to help.  Baaxter, Tilly, Iris and I ran down the sidewalk "barking" and Hank quickly "escorted" him off the farm. We are our own special pack :-).

I didn't want a guard dog. Hate hearing dogs barking in the night.  When other shepherds told me that his deep bark wouldn't bother me the way other dogs do, I didn't believe them.  It's true though.  And I do find comfort hearing him "on duty" if I wake up in the middle of the night.  

Hank is here because we lost a lamb to coyotes several years ago.  We never forget that.  

For all who serve and protect...

In Slow Motion

I love Betsy in these pictures :-).  She loves tolerates her lambies.

Wheee!!!

I finally made a point to take some "real" Baaxter pictures today and I got some good ones :-).  It's late though and I'm beat so I'm heading to bed.  Besides, it would be pretty hard to compete with this anyway :-D.

Ram Camp

The new mowing crew - Final Frontier Farm's 11 breeding rams.  We feel mighty official with that many  rams out back.  Baaxter's dad is back there and I'm wondering if maybe Blossom or Lila's dad might still be in this group as well.  I'll find out!

Hard at work.

I'm really enjoying seeing sheep all over the farm and will be sad when the seasonal crew heads back home.