Well That's Impressive!

Our winter straw was delivered yesterday and it's hard not to be impressed by this parking job :-o.  I'm glad I turned the video on!

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The Rest Of The Story

I've been holding out hope that this part of the story would have a happy ending, but it doesn't.  Last Tuesday evening a raccoon got in our chicken coop.  Right at dusk I heard a commotion in the coop and raced in to see what was going on.

As I opened the people door, all the chickens flew out in a panic.  I started looking around and couldn't see anything and the chicken door was closed.  As best I can figure, something came in just as the automatic door was getting ready to close and then got spooked as it did and split.

I counted heads and Yaya, the beloved crowing hen, was missing.  Even though she crows, she also lays eggs and once or twice a year goes off to set.  I looked in all of her usual spots and nothing.  She was good about coming when called, even while setting,...and it's now been a week.  

I put out the game camera that night and a raccoon came back three times to try to break into the coop.  I was able to trap it Wednesday night and it now has a new zip code and things have been quiet since.  Too quiet. 

Not only did I really enjoy hearing her crow each morning, but she was another early morning driveway greeter.  Jared waited at the top of the hill.  Yaya marched on down to meet me.  She got special treats each morning and it was best I not be late.

I'm here all day on the farm by myself.  I spend more time with these animals than any other people.  These are my friends.  My strange funny family.  I miss everyone.  A lot.

Thank you so much for all the kind notes and comments, here and on the "socials".  I'm always torn about writing the obituaries, but I know I'm not the only person invested in this strange funny family.  It's a shared family of not only you all and the animals, but you all and me and you all and each other.  Family is important.

Everybody take care of each other.

And let's not have any more of this for a good long time.

Jared

I got home late one night.  After dark.  This was unusual.  I really don't leave the farm that much and if I do, I seldom get home after dark.  Hardly ever.  I think I'd been doing something fun.  Probably with Auntie Reg.  I can no longer remember. 

As I drove up to the barn my headlights flashed onto Jared standing up on the hill watching down the driveway waiting for me to come home.  Everyone else was tucked into the barn.  Just Jared, out by himself, in the dark, standing watch.  Making sure I got home safe.

Jared and I spent hours together in the driveway.  Up until just a few days ago, he met me out there every morning.  We'd greet each other and then I'd go make a quick barn check and come back out and drink my coffee while we watched the sun rise and the day begin.  He loved to watch it all.

We'd stand side by side, my hands stroking his face, rubbing his ears and twining in his wool.  If I was tired I'd sit on an apple crate or an upside down bucket and he'd stand there beside me.  The last few months, he stood leaning against my leg and I helped hold him up.  And then I couldn't hold him any longer.

All of my sheep are special.  Jared was outstanding.  As I waited for the vet I talked about all the sheep and dogs and horses and cats who had gone before him.  We talked about Rocky.  I told him to look for everyone and tell them we were all doing okay.  

I told him some of my favorite stories.  

I just realized I forgot to remind him about beating up Pinto when he joined  the flock and tried to steal all the 'wimmens'.  There's no chance Jared had forgotten that one though.

I reminded him about how he and Rocky defended the flock from the stray dog.  How proud I was of them.  

About him and Rocky going way out in the field together to graze even when no one else wanted to go out.  How I loved seeing them do that.  Such great friends.  Brothers. 

What a great job he did welcoming everyone to the farm.  He was so kind.  The friendliest face.  I don't think he ever missed getting up and walking out to greet every single person who visited.  

I brought his sweater out to the barn and thanked him for giving me such a beautiful gift.  He looked and sniffed it all over.  I never showed him something that I'd made that he didn't show interest in.  

How much I loved him and how much I was going to miss him and how sad I was...which I couldn't hide even though I tried to put on a brave face and finally gave up.  

How I wished we could stand out in the driveway one last time.  

And I thanked him for taking the time to stand out in the driveway with me all those mornings.  And nights.  And it came into my head that maybe he'd say the same to me.  And I hope that was a message from him.

May 2010 - August 22, 2024

I think I'd been doing something fun.  Probably with Auntie Reg.  I can no longer remember but I'm trying.  The date isn't important.  It's just a time stamp to find a picture I'm pretty sure I took.  Of Big J standing at the top of the hill watching down the driveway waiting for me to come home.  

I'd give anything to see that one more time.

Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

Last week I walked out of the Wool House and around my car to find my beloved bike crashed and all the accessories strewn about...and a sassy little tail sashaying away.  Hit and run.  A bit like my Tour de Fleece this year.  If you look closely, Jared is standing up the hill peeking around the back of the truck.  Jared does not like drama.  He lives with Maisie...

I ended up spinning four bobbins of Ellie's lamb fleece.  I had some issues with back fatigue because I was using a not ideal chair in the air conditioned wash room so I could hang out with Pinot while I spun.  I didn't make any effort to change my chair until almost the end.  I'd have probably spun more if I'd done that earlier.  My typical can't get out of my own way strategy.

Removing the chair aspect, Ellie was a fun spin.  The yarn is super soft and just a bit fuzzy and a beautiful creamy white.  I loved it even, or more so, as a single, which is not very common for me.

I did my weights and measures thing and paired up the appropriate skeins for plying and then swapped out to the double arms for my skein winder.

This is my favorite way to ply.  Everything stays nice and tidy and evenly tensioned and by using skeins rather than balls or bobbins, you have a better idea of what each skein looks like throughout and I find I have better luck matching up my singles that way as I'm not a very consistent spinner, especially over a long time frame.

I was able to get most of the plying done during the day with just a little bit left for after evening chores.  The porch was cool and comfortable, even in the heat of the afternoon.

As I was plying I noticed a pretty big spider crawling on a ball of wool off to my left.  Just as I was thinking I needed to remember to watch for that in the morning it took off towards the ceiling and I realized she was building a big web.  That really struck me, the two of us spinning on the porch.  Two Wool House Crafters :-).

I ended up with a little over 700 yards of smushy, cozy, sportweight/dk yarn.

It lost a bit of it's fuzziness being plyed, but Ellie's dad was a Cotswold cross from Nistock Farms so I know if I want it back all I'll need to do is run a soft brush over my finished item.  The pattern I've picked will look pretty either way.  The skein winder is from Nistock's as well - good sheep, good tools :-).

I started knitting a few practice rows with the small skein yesterday.  I'd have more to show if I hadn't had trouble counting to nine, but I've practiced doing the stitches required for the patterning and I'm hoping to get started for real this afternoon or tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to go back to In Person Crafters here on the farm.  We'll still be on Zoom as well as we are every Tuesday, but if you are local and would like to come out from 7:00 to 9:00 on the second Tuesday of each month until it gets too cold, the porch is really nice now - spider approved :-).  We'll have to over flow onto the grass so maybe wear long pants if you are a bug magnet.

July

July was a pretty fun month...except the heat and drought...which is easier to forget when it takes over a week to get the month end compilation put together.

The highlight of the month was getting to see my friend Robin and her dear cousin Caroline.  We had a great visit and did pretty much everything we wanted to do including driving Frankie, complete with Christmas in July sleigh bells, making sauerkraut, taking a small painting class, setting up together for the Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl, some punch needle work, checking for monarchs, watering gardens, taking care of sheep, talking sheep and fiber, cooking good food, going to the farm market, taking Bea to Dairy Queen, and really, really enjoying just getting to hang out together.

"Our" purple martins had already headed south, but we had plenty of company from large groups stopping by on their way though.  More this year than ever.  I wonder if it's because we have two houses now and we are "on the map".

The Tour de Fleece happened and while I lost the course several times, I did get some nice yarn spun and I'll share that in my next post.  Maisie "kindly" has provided the perfect TdF wrap up picture to lead it off ;-).

 

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A Cereus Showdown

The last two nights have been exciting.  Wednesday night I had THREE night blooming cereus blossoms open.  I stayed up until midnight watching them and walking past them to stir the air so I could smell their beautiful fragrance.

I've had this plant for quite a few years now, maybe ten.  In the early years it was just a big unwieldy plant.  When I moved it out in too much sun, even if I did it gradually, it sunburned horribly...but in the hot sun it finally started blooming.  Just one bloom a year or two in a big year.

The sun burning really bothered me, but if I moved it to a less sunny location it didn't bloom.  This year I built it a lattice shade.  That's the weird contraption in the earlier month end compilations.  It apparently loves it.  Just the right amount of sun without the blistered leaves.  

I had two more blooms last night and there are at least seven more starting!  

But wait, there's more!

I was gifted a moon flower seedling this spring.  I'd seen pictures of the giant flowers and decided to create a safe space to grow one here.  The plants are highly poisonous and while there is plenty else to eat around here, we all know one danger lamb who'd grab a pretty flower just to be a brat...  Most of the fence around the Wool House it to stop the chickens from tearing all my flowers up.  The moon flower fence is to keep "honest sheep honest" ;-).

Last night it bloomed for the first time.  Two blooms.  Over six inches across.  And less than six feet away, the two cereus blossoms.  It was a night time showdown!

I'll give the moon flower points for opening up early, by 9:00, and it's still open this morning.  The blooms are gorgeous.

I'll give the cereus points for being even "extra" and the fragrance...oh, the fragrance.  This time of the year it takes until almost midnight to fully open though.  Midnight is past my bedtime ;-).

So...it's a tie.  Two gold medals.  Or with their color, I guess they'd be silver.

 Here's the moon flower as it was starting to open yesterday late afternoon.  It's probably eight inches from the green bottom to the top flair.  I have several more buds so the show will go on :-).

A Fine Memory

I was doing evening chores and as I checked the water tank out back I noticed the sheep starting to gather up to come in for the night.  I just love watching my sheep and thought to turn on the camera to video them.  I'm so glad I did. 

Not only did I capture how they all start collecting themselves to wander up, but also their walk up the hill to the barn and then several of them checked in with me and then the bats started flying out and it was all so peaceful and something I never want to forget.

For the Biscuit and Muffin fans, notice them walking up together at the beginning.  They are still best friends or adopted brother and sister all these years later.  They were lambs in 2017 (!).

I know I've mentioned how Lancelot watches me throughout the day and you can see him raise his head to check in with me as I'm filming.  I'm glad I caught that as well.  

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Green Morning

It's amazing how fast the grass starts to green back up.

We finally got some rain.  I am grateful...but you could probably also hear a bit of ungrateful in my tone :-/.  Frequently, when it waits until the heat of the day to rain, we get storms.  We got some rain, but it destroyed my plant shade area and flattened most of my sunflowers.  

Well, the first storm did...and then I spent about an hour yesterday morning standing as many back up as I could and while it wasn't pretty, most would still feed the bees and the birds...until the second storm blew through last evening.

I haven't been out for a close look.  I'm just so disappointed.  This was the best sunflower patch I've even grown. I'm not sure I can bring myself to go out and try to fix everything again.  I can probably tuck everything back into the dirt and keep them alive for a bit longer, but...sigh...

The second worst thing I regret is that I didn't take the time to take some good pictures.  I've had so many gold finches out there on them and I was excited for a gold finch photo for the calendar and I didn't make the time.  Thought I'd have plenty of time.  There's a lesson there for sure.

My neighbor has a stash of seeds, so I'm going to hustle and put some in pots to try and grow a few more that might make it to maturity before we get a freeze.  At this point I'd guess since I'll need it to hold off and give me some more time, fall will come early this year.  It would be a win either way. But I'd really rather have my sunflowers back.

A cell phone shot from an evening last week.  

Both pictures are new puzzles.