Birthday Memories

It was getting late and the sun was going down and I thought about postponing Maisie's birthday party.  When I walked out back and saw that all the sheep were grazing out in the back fields, it was the icing on the cake...until I saw Maisie standing just down the hill staring up at me...like she was waiting.

I grabbed a bale of straw and carried it through the barn lot.  I tossed it over the short fence, turned around and found Maisie now standing right beside me.  "I know what today is!"  I opened the gate and she walked herself through without any fuss.  I think she really DID know it was her birthday.  

I went back and gathered up the "cake", her candle, one of Auntie Reg's birthday balloons and my camera.  Maisie was grazing at the far corner of the...whatever you'd call that little area with the mounting block.  She watched me assemble her cake and then quietly walked over and dug right in.

She totally knew it was her birthday.

"I've never seen a balloon before."

The only sheep near the barn were Cheeto, who's knee is bothering her, Clover Belly, who was hoping for early dinner and Biscuit...who probably also knew what that bale of straw meant ;-). After Maisie had eaten as many Cheerios as I thought she needed, I let them come in and join the party.

"I've never been to a birthday party before.  This is fun!  I LOVE birthday cake!"

"I love this balloon!"

And then we all heard it.  Sheep bells.  Coming in fast.  Someone out in the field finally noticed the party in progress at the barn and everyone  raced in.

And that was the end of the Maisie's seventh birthday party.  It was one of her very best.  Another great Wovember Memory :-).

Wovember Memory

The prompt for today's Wovember Instagram post is "Memory".  I thought, oh, this will be easy and started scrolling back through the blog...and scrolling...and scrolling...and couldn't pick a specific favorite memory and finally, after I'd long drained my coffee cup, just. picked. one.  

I chose Liddy playing on and falling off the wool bag when Miss B and I were skirting fleeces for the first batch of Lamb Camp yarn.  It's a great memory.  It's got everything - cute lamb, lots of wool, funny story, friends, good photos...  Done.  Checked the Day 25 box.  Headed out to do morning chores.

.

.

.

And then I remembered that I almost anti-memoried that today is Maisie's birthday!  She's SEVEN years old.  Seven seems wrong.  Like surely she's been here for longer than seven years.  She's been here forever, hasn't she?  And yet, seven...was it really seven years ago that she rode home on my lap and started sleeping on our couch?

That in itself is a good memory.  Her whole childhood was a....well...it was memorable, eh?  Here's a bonus memory for today.  In fact, I don't think this story ever made the blog, so it's a new one for almost everyone...although it's one of my favorites.  It's about Maisie's name.

Maisie came from The Training Center, now known as Tring Farm.  Vergil and Annemarie Holland are two of my favorite sheep and dog mentors.  Vergil is sadly no longer with us, but he's still mentoring, as just yesterday I was able to share something he'd told me about flock dogs years ago.

You'll have to read back through the archives if you don't know Maisie's story about how if she wasn't so tough and ornery she would probably have never lived through her lambhood.  It took a village to keep her alive and I stayed in close contact with Vergil and Annemarie.  

It took a couple of days to decide on a name for her.  I wanted to call her Poppet.  Saint Tim picked Maisie.  We went with Maisie.  When Vergil heard that Maisie wasn't my choice, he said "It's your lamb.  You should call her whatever you want."  I said "Well, Tim pays all the vet bills."  Without missing a beat he said, "Helluva name!"  Seven years later and that still makes me laugh.  

Seven years later and Tim no longer has to pay all the vet bills...but he still comes up with all the best names.  Maisie did end up being the best choice.  Crazy Poppet just doesn't have quite the same ring ;-D.  

Thank you for all of the calendar and Christmas orders!  Thank you for being part of the village. Your support means more than you'll ever know.

View this post on Instagram

Looks like Maisie is taking the first shift so Hank can sleep for awhile. Good night 😴. #livestockguardiandog #guardiansheep

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 19, 2019 at 8:52pm PST

Happy Birthday, Crazy Maisie!

Lamb Camp Legacy

The new yarn just back from Stonehedge Fiber Mill is a blend of some of the nicest fleeces from the Lamb Camp lambs sired by Rocky and Jared when they were over at Tring Farm.  Their "legacy" flock.  I'm trying to design a label/tag for the yarn and have been trying to take a nice picture of the two "boys".

Handsome Jared is always happy to oblige.  He reminds me of an old lion.  Maybe it's his big gray nose and mouth.  Maybe it's his power and demeanor.  I just love this funny old guy. Now, if handsome, but cranky pants, Rocky doesn't straighten up, he might just find himself kicked off the label! 

"Whatever."

He's really not that cranky.  I think he just hates to have his picture taken.  I completely understand ;-).

Zzzzzzz

Nobody naps like Liddy :-).

The 2020 Calendars

I still can't believe I'm typing 2020. I remember when the year 2000 seemed Really Far Away. But here we are...2020...so, our 2020 calendars :-).  

Here are some samples of the Lamb Camp pages:

Who is this bug eyed lamby?  Not to worry, Mini Moose made the Lamb Camp calendar, too ;-).

And some samples of the farm calendar pages:

Lots of little fun pictures on the farm calendars.  I wish I'd had a big picture that included Miss Salt, but I've now got one filed away for next year :-).

Equinox Farm Calendars - $12.50              Lamb Camp Calendars $10.00

USPS rates increased again this year, so we've kept the calendar costs down to help cover that.  Remember, if you are local(ish), you are always welcome to run out to the farm and save your shipping costs...but that probably doesn't pay off in the end with the cookies you will probably bring with you ;-).

I'm going to stick with the "old school" format from years past.  I know I should use a "buy it now button", but I prefer hearing from you personally rather than just a computer :-).  If you'd like to order a calendar (or anything else from the farm shop), just shoot me an email and let me know what you'd like and where you'd like it shipped. I'll send everything out with an invoice and return envelope and you can drop a check back in the mail at your convenience.

Speaking of the farm shop, I am running way behind getting everything caught up myself, but the yarn I wasn't expecting until the very end of the year ran ahead of schedule and I'll be sharing a sneak peek of that later this week :-D.  If you think you might be interested in adding some yarn when it's ready to hit the shelves (hopefully next week!), just let me know.  I would be happy to hang on to your calendar order so it can all ship together. 

As always, a huge thank you for being a part of our farm family.  Your friendship and support means more than you will ever know.

One Last November Snow Picture

See how I've cleverly tried to jinx it into giving me more November snow?  ;-)

Snow Warriors

This was just a split second standing still shot, but I have to laugh at how those two silly boys look like they are the bravest of warriors standing tall as a huge attacker charges their way.

Really, Levi was just bouncing around in front of them trying to get them to play tag or chase or whatever sheep play when they don't have a space ship to defend.

This is a new puzzle!  I hope you have as much working it as Mini Moose had creating it :-D.

View this post on Instagram

Snow Day! 😀

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 13, 2019 at 12:15pm PST

And a fun snow video from yesterday.  That's Big Moose chewing over the background music :-).

That's One!

There will be a few more snow pictures tomorrow, but I have a Wovember - Day 12 - [Wool House Crafters] Gathering at the "actual" house (warmer and with running water ;-) tonight and even though I clearly advertised that because Auntie Reg was not coming and therefore wouldn't find out, I was Not Dusting...even I'm starting to get a bit twitchy about it so I'm going to go at least run the vacuum.  Probably still not dusting though ;-).

That's Moose Who's Only Slightly Smaller Than Big Moose having fun playing in the snow.  Big Moose and Biscuit are just behind him and almost hidden is Levi, who got the whole gathering gamboling in the beginning ;-D.

Wovember - Day 11 - History

Where would I be if this hadn't happened?  

View this post on Instagram

Wovember - Day 11 - History . 🐑 At the end of October, 1992, I rescued a lamb who'd just been born at the stockyards. Knowing what I know now...that lamb should never have lived. The stress, the sanitation, did he even get colostrum...? To add insult to injury, someone who knew absolutely nothing about sheep and especially lambs picked him up at the *end* of the day (!). Luckily I found a vet who'd raised sheep himself and he did his best to help him get started and assured me "He'd be just fine". Months later, he'd look at Punkin and say "Well, I never thought I'd see you make it this far." . 🐑 I didn't know anything about sheep or wool or spinning or knitting or weaving or...I just wanted to save a baby lamb...who probably ended up saving me...and the rest is history. . 🐑 #wovember #wovember2019 #bottlelamb #destiny

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 11, 2019 at 10:26am PST

Girls, Girls

I thought about titling this "Three French Hens"...but it's not even Thanksgiving yet, fer cryin' out loud!

"Girls, girls" is what I call to tell them I've put food out for them.  And to get them to look at the camera ;-).

Wovember - Day 9 - Traceability

I'm enjoying all the Wovember challenge prompts. Today's post is one of my favorites so far.  Oh to scroll back through old pictures :-).

View this post on Instagram

Wovember - Day 9 - Traceability 🐑 . I can trace my Muffin and Mrs. Pepperpot sweater all the way back to the day Muffin was born 😍. I can also trace the knitting of the sweater...but let's not remember that part/all those parts 😆. 🐑 . #wovember #wovember2019 #sheeptosweater #handspun #handknit #motherdaughtersweater

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 9, 2019 at 5:32am PST

I remember all the challenges with raising up Muffin and her sweater.  Both were worth all the effort :-).

It's Wovember Again Already?!?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Good grief.

Today, being November 4th, is Day 4 and the prompt is "Wool in color".  My first thought was to post a picture of some Jacob roving and praise the color GRAY...but then I remembered I actually had a colored wool project started that needed a blog post.

I thought it might be fun to show the two original GRAY colors that were then overdyed to make Not Gray colors.  I used the rocks around the blanket flowers as my setting since the flowers have a nice "fall" feel to them...

...and then I noticed that if I tweaked a couple of the unused colors (yellow and burgandy) I could almost match the flower colors...

I think the obvious tweak on the yellow is just to add a little orange.  The burgandy...I'm not so sure I can change enough...but I think I'm going to try...and if it works...and I like it better than the current colors...

Hey, it wouldn't be a knitting project if it didn't hit the frog pond at least once ;-).

Clocking In

You can pretty much set your clock by where you find Salt.  Currently it's Wool House o'clock. 

Before dawn she's in the garage.  As the sun rises she moves out to the front of the barn.  After breakfast you can find her in the tack room.  Mid-afternoon she sits in front of the Wool House.  Late afternoon she's back in the tack room.  Early night she's still in the tack room.  I'm not sure what time she moves back into the garage. 

Hope the time change this weekend doesn't throw her schedule off ;-).