Happy Baa-loween

After everyone left and we were cleaning up after a fun Hug a Sheep party, it dawned on me that we'd forgotten it was Liddy's first Halloween and her costume was still in a bag in the Wool House :-o.  I walked out back to get her.

"Um, I'm not so sure I want to go trick or treating."

"Especially if I have to put on a stupid shirt."

"Why are you laughing at me?"

"Great, now Stella's getting involved..."

"Oh!  She has Cheerios!"

"Treats!"

"Wait.  How come there are only a few Cheerios in the bottom of this box?"

"Because you had all your treats at the party this afternoon and your mom didn't want you to get a tummy ache."

"That was a pretty rotten trick!"

After Liddy got her head stuck in the Cheerio box earlier this fall, we couldn't resist dressing her up like Winnie the Pooh ;-).  This is the first Halloween costume Stella and I have put together that didn't involve hot glue!  Is the reign of the Hot Glue Girls over?  I doubt it ;-).

We had a great Hug a Sheep party.  Amy got tons of pictures.  I'll start posting them tomorrow.

Happy (Inter) National Hug A Sheep Day!

"Yay!"

"Are you coming out to to the farm today to bring us cookies hug a sheep?"

Good Morning!

Jester

Hershey

We've had nice color this year :-).

Spud and Murphy

Murphy and Spud, with Hank running a security check out back.

Isn't October just the best?

Adventure Chicken Ingenuity

I gave a head's up last night on Twitter that I'd taken a video of one of the Adventure Chickens catching a ride on Maisie's back.  You know that's gotta be good!  In my excitement over that I forgot that I'd taken a couple shots earlier in the evening.  Now, looking back at both sets of pictures, I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence that Lila is a chicken's choice in (wide) backs or if they purposely team up every night. 

 Whether Lila likes it or not ;-).

Kate and I had everyone locked out last night while I put down some dry straw after two days of pouring rain.

This particular chicken likes to sleep in the outside sheep stall, up high on my 'out of Graham's reach' working shelf.  

She's gotten old (or smart) enough that she can't fly up on her own.  She uses several sheep to help out...starting with Maisie.

Yep, that's the face we know and love ;-).

Watch what happens next! 

This is long (three minutes) and sort of like watching grass grow if you aren't really that into interesting animal behavior, but Oh sweet, sweet Petunia.

So here's a chicken question for you.  I've been offered eight laying hens - older, not chicks.  I still have four old hens here.  Very old hens - probably close to nine or ten I'd guess.  Our chicken house is a good size for twelve hens, but I don't want to over stress my old girls by bringing new hens in.  Is this an issue?  Any suggestions on how to integrate two flocks?

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Speaking of questions, I've had several about calendars, mugs and yarn.  I'm going to do my best to have some available for pick up Saturday.  I know where the mugs and yarn are, but I have to find the box of calendars packed away in the house.  As far as mail order...I'm hoping to be able to start that next week.  I so appreciate everyone's patience.

And while the Hug a Sheep Party was not designed to be a shopping party, don't forget that this year we have some special guests bringing some goodies Saturday as well :-D.  If you've been to the wool festival, you probably already know them, but here are some faces to put with the names in case you don't.

Sweet, sweet Hannah, (ewe fluffly ewe) who really is that sweet.  I'm looking forward to her helping carry the sweet load around here Saturday in case I've 'done used up all my sweet' by then ;-).

The talented and also sweet Melanie from A Yarn Well Spun.  We are holding out hope that Daniel's yarn will be ready, but will still have a ton of fun if it's not!

And Tonya, of Flat Creek Wool and Pottery fame, also very sweet and a fabulous shepherd and potter...and somehow I never got a picture of her actual face in all those festival years.

See you Saturday!  Oh, and for everyone too far away, don't worry, another very sweet friend of ours, Amy (Auset Images), is coming to take lots of pictures for us.  Maybe she'll bring her harp as well :-D.

Speaking of sweet, sweet Auntie Reg is bringing her sweet carrot cake cupcakes and some other sweet goodies :-D.  

Yes, all my friends are sweet...but you already knew that :-).

This really should have been two separate blog posts.  

A re-cap - laugh at Maisie, awwww for Petunia, answer chicken question if you can, come out Saturday and hug some sweet sheep :-D.

No, Maisie probably won't be in the hugging pen.  Remember..."sweet" ;-D.  

She hates sweets anyway ;-).

If You Really Want To See...

I took these pictures this morning thinking that most of the demolition was done.

Poor Betsy.  Comby and Eli have hunkered down under the porch and Claire Bear is hiding at the barn.  She's pretty comfortable with that arrangement as that's her normal hide out, but after hours and hours of rain yesterday, she was politicking to move into the Wool House last night.

I think it's interesting that the kitchen's original long ago color was light green, much like the "old" kitchen.  I had already planned to keep the same light green and cream color scheme, but it makes me happy that it's an "historical" color.  Not that the green is still there now.  They decided they needed to just go ahead and completely gut everything this morning.

The laundry room and bathroom were added to the house by closing in a porch - I'm guessing in the 50s.  It appears that a major remodel was done then as our old furnace (serial number 9) was installed in 1953 and that would have been when they dropped the 10' ceilings to 8' to accommodate the duct work.  How exciting it must have been to get a fuel oil furnace and indoor plumbing!

Interestingly, the porch way back then was gray and white, just like it still is today.  I now don't feel so bad about not being able to come up with any significant ideas for color changes.  I like it as it was probably because that's the way the house liked it.  I hope it likes the updated new old colors.

The house used to be a creamy yellow plank.  We know that because when they removed the drywall here in the bathroom to move all the old plumbing into the walls, the old siding was still there.  Yep, more demolition :-/.

The contractor and I were talking yesterday morning about using wool insulation.  If I'd known we were going to end up taking all the ceilings out and that the outside walls really didn't have much insulation to start with, I'd have looked into ordering wool house insulation.  Wouldn't that have been cozy?

Turns out there was some "wool" insulation in the bathroom already.  It isn't sheep wool, but some sort of mineral based product.  Still, seeing the words "long" and "wool" and "Spintex" brightened my afternoon a little :-).

It does look pretty woolly.  At least it wasn't asbestos :-o.

The porch.  Sigh.  Do you see why I'm having trouble embracing all this?  At least we do have a refrigerator plugged in and usable.  And yes, that is our toilet over to the left.  Throw in that case of Mt. Dew and KFC bucket (not ours ;-) and we are a stereotype for sure.

20 and I moved out to the camper!  What a treat it is to have somewhere quiet and clean to hang out.  And with indoor plumbing!  Thank you thank you thank you!!!

A little bathroom humor for you...  We decided someone should really stay in the house at night so the dogs and cats would be more comfortable and we weren't leaving the house wide open if someone figured out we'd moved out to the barn.  Tim "volunteered".  As he stepped out the door last night to pee off the porch he said "It's raining in my bathroom!"  When he came back in he said "And there's a possum in my bathroom (under the bird feeder)!" ;-D

Here are a couple pictures to clean your visual palate.  I took these Monday afternoon before the deluge of rain.  The bees have really been busy this fall.  I hope there are still some blooms left after it dries out tomorrow.  The lavender got pretty toasted by the frost last week, but there are still a few blooms.  I covered these blanket flowers and the porch and mailbox flowers.  I wish I could cover everything.

Speaking of the forecast, the weekend looks okay.  If it's sunny tomorrow and Friday we should be okay for parking by Saturday afternoon and it will be cool enough to wear wool :-).  Looking forward to seeing some handknits!

I've had quite a few folks email for directions, which is exciting.  We're going to be sort of lost without kbdoolin and debky (Ravelry names) this year, but sounds like we're going to make some new friends - silver and gold :-).

Are you ready to come out and hug some sheeps?  

Things Are Starting To Look Up A Little

The rest is just ridiculous whining.  Thanks to a very good friend, I'll be eating my Cheerios sitting at a table tomorrow!

I am SO looking forward to taking the afternoon off Saturday to enjoy being on the farm and playing with my sheep, visiting with my friends and maybe even doing something that (gasp) involves yarn!  

If you need directions or have any questions about coming out to the farm to celebrate National Hug A Sheep Day Saturday, just drop me an email.   It will be fun.  We promise not to put you to work ;-).

Liddle Sisters

I was going to title this post "Big Sister" but realized it won't be long until Liddy will be taller than Maisie ;-).  I thought Liddle would hang with Blossom when they moved into the main flock, but she loves Maisie.  That makes me happy :-).

Yarn Along

Well, the house renovation...what a time consuming, stressful mess.  I'm not the sort of person who can easily handle having my "home" torn up.  And it's ALL torn up.  And...that's all I'm going to say about it.

I was planning on saving Baaxter's sweater for the Iknitarod, but decided to go ahead and start it now so that if I had any spare time or needed to go hide in the barn, I'd have some soothing simple knitting to keep me company.  

Casting on this afternoon was supposed to be my reward for living through the morning without killing Saint Tim anyone.  Of course, the sun was setting before I actually got to sit down.  I have all sorts of details and educational tidbits to share about how the yarn was spun and how I picked my pattern and would normally link it back to the previous posts about shearing and washing and going to the mill...but my brain is mush, so here goes:

The yarn.

The pattern.

It's a pattern from the Fall Interweave Knits (I think).  I get that magazine on my iPad, but hadn't looked at it yet and actually found the pattern on Ravelry and then was just happy I remembered I even had an iPad and a magazine subscription.  See?  Mush.

One thing I always do when I turn on my iPad is look at one of my favorite pictures of our favorite girl.  You just can't look at her sitting on the couch with that Oh So Maisie look on her face and not at least smile (and usually laugh out loud :-D).

And then I scrolled over to a classic good old kitchen picture and got all sad again.  

But I kept scrolling and found a picture of me and Baaxter snoozing in the warm spring sun.  Yeah, those were fun days :-).

With that distinctive white X....and sweet Iris in the background.  Waaaaaaah :-'(.

Of course I haven't had time to even think about a book this week, but did stumble over this favorite while looking for a book for a farm visitor.  

We're sort of camping here for a few weeks, so maybe this will remind me that camping is fun and this is just an adventure...or maybe it's just that I'd like to run away to the woods.  

"Baa flicks off the ant and some pine needles from Boo's sandwich."  

Yeah, that kind of reminds me of my old kitchen :-).  Maybe be springtime I'll have a cute little lambie camping in the new kitchen to break it in decorate.

So I finally cast on.  Of course the light was dimming and the yarn is dark and I think I messed up already but I couldn't see or say for sure so I set it down.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

Joining in with Ginny...

It's Almost Time To Come Out And Hug Some Sheep

I love the look on Woolliam's face.

You've gotta love sweet Petunia :-).

Mobbed by the kids.

And Baba (Blossom).  See her peeking in from the back?  I love to watch how they all act and react to things.  And look how big Miss Liddy's getting!

"Um, maybe this isn't such a good idea!"

"That's better."

"Free hugs, eh?  I remember that from last year!"

Baxxter was completely taken with 20.  He kept coming back over to see him.  I wonder if he remembered when 20 had to babysit him when he was a lamb?

"I'm real sorry I was such a brat."

"That's okay.  I thought you were pretty stinkin' cute ;-)".

Isn't 20 just the best :-).

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Don't forget National Hug a Sheep Day is October 31st this year.  It's always the last Saturday in October.  I hope you have something fun planned!

We are once again hosting a Hug a Sheep Farm Party this year.  It will be from 1:00 to 4:00 that Saturday and we'll have the usual activities - sheep to hug, sheep to feed (NOT TOO MANY) cookies, dogs to feed (NO COOKIES WEASLIE!!!), spinning and knitting, lots of interesting sheep and fiber talk and this year something extra special!

One of my favorite Kentucky Wool Festival vendors, Tonya from Flat Creek Wool and Pottery, was not able to set up at the festival this fall.  One of my other favorite festival vendors, Melanie from A Yarn Well Spun, had purchased Rebecca Boone and Daniel's fleeces this past spring and had yarn spun from both but didn't get it back from the mill in time for the festival.  

I really missed seeing both (Tonya and Melanie's yarn ;-) at the festival, so suggested they set up a "trunk show" at the farm party this year.  And you can't have a yarn party without one of my other favorite festival vendors, Hannah from ewefluffyewe, so she's coming, too :-D.  I'll share a little more on everyone in a few days.  I can't wait!

Things are pretty hectic here right now as we've started a major renovation project at the house.  I'm so glad I took those pictures with the porch flowers the other evening.  The lower porch is now gone :-/.  Don't worry (I keep telling myself).  It will all be back good as new soon (I keep telling myself). Surprisingly the major demolition in the kitchen doesn't really show that much (just kidding - my kitchen isn't that messy...usually ;-).