A [Three]fer

Three new puzzles for the price of one ;-).

April

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April was busy (unless you were Archie), but fun.  Lots of spring flowers, new bees, new raised beds (that I'm having to replant after the really hard freeze over the weekend :-/) all the spinning, a little painting, beautiful moons, interesting fog, good sheep, good friends...

Renny's Henny

I've been coveting an Emotional Support Chicken for quite awhile, but other than purchasing the pattern, hadn't gotten any further.  When I finished the...what did I end up naming the walnut dyed sweater/vest?...checks blog...it's not on the blog?...are you kidding me!?! 

Okay, start over.  When I finished the fall sweater/vest I decided the leftover yarn would be perfect to use for chicken colors...so I finally cast on...a couple of times I think, but who can say since I never wrote any of that down either?  

Once I was pretty much committed, I ventured into the garage for something and found the leftover yarn from my Renny sweater.  At least that one is on the blog...finally.  The naturally dyed yarn from the vest would have been nice, but the Renny yarn would be perfect!  I grabbed that bag of yarn and started over once again.

There were the usual fits and starts and starts and starts, but I finally have my chicken.  And I do think having a knitting project to work on did provide a little respite from the awfulness of everything going on right now, so this was a great first project for 2026 on a couple of levels.  

I thought it would be fun to take a picture with her out in the coop with the other hens that night so before it got super dark I set it up.  She looks enough like a real chicken that the other chickens hated her!  Chickens are like that.

Air Fryer (the gray chicken) took a couple of swipes at her and then split.  Zelda got a couple licks in too, but stopped to think...a little.

"Why are you trying to sneak in another chicken?!?"

Zelda was actually more afraid of her than it looks like here.  I only snapped a couple of pictures and then removed the intruder.  When I came back a few minutes later to finish evening chores, I found Zelda hiding in a laying box.  I put her back on the roost and she was okay.

I wasn't completely surprised that they acted that way because a few days earlier, "the other Sarah" had come to visit and brought her hen and three chicks and they received the same negative attention from another hen.  

Chickens are complicated...but if you actually read the pattern, they are pretty easy to knit :-).

Another Thanksgiving Dinner That Couldn't Be Beat

In my mind it will probably always be Maisie's birthday, but from here on out it will be known as Sheep Thanksgiving and if I mess up the date, it's okay because every day should be Thanksgiving.  Leftovers (more cookies ;-) this evening!

It wouldn't have been a party if an orange cat didn't show up and then the chickens.  By that point it was getting dark and I didn't think to change my ISO so the chicken pictures are mostly a blur...like chickens.

Show of hands for who knows what the title of this post is referencing :-).

Hug A Sheep Day Fun

The sheep started their day before dawn so I missed walking out in the back field with them and had to punt on the flock walk and ended up opening the arena to talk them into a second breakfast.  The arena is a big treat for them and they were happy to comply. 

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Hopefully you can just click the above picture to watch if you'd like.

There were plenty of cookies and crackers and everyone mostly took turns trying to trick everyone into sneaking them an extra or two ;-).

After 15 years of farm parties that were too warm to wear a wool sweater, I knit not one, but two vests over the summer and fall in hopes of being able to wear a farm sweater to our farm party...and it was too cold.  I wore my Lamb Camp poncho for awhile, but was glad to switch to my B. Willard sweater to warm back up.

All the party pictures were taken by my friend Amy (more to come about that) except this one of Naughty Bea having to be carried up the driveway in a car so she didn't get run over by a car...

...and this sweet picture of Bullseye sleeping on the swing with his favorite party guest.  I tried to get a video of him swinging, but that was when Naughty Bea drove up and he woke up and jumped away.

Even the chickens got some cookies.  Zelda is in the middle of her fall molt so she needed the extra calories to help stay warm.

In the afternoon several of us headed over to the Heavenly Hilltop Railroad and rode the trains.  

It was the perfect way to end a really fun day.

 

June Was A Pretty Good Month

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Good Evening!

Taking care of old sheep can be a real challenge, balancing quality of life with whatever issues they face, usually just arthritis.  Seeing these three out grazing in front of the Wool House the other night made me very happy.  All that green grass made them happy as well.  

It's still sad seeing The Bald Eagle out by herself without her beloved sister, Goldilocks, but she's chummy enough with the other chickens, so she's pretty happy too.  

Do you see Pinot?  He's pretty happy as well, living his best bunny life :-).

It's too nice out to be sitting inside, but if you'd like a puzzle to work later, I think this looks like a fun one.  Enjoy!

Chicken Math...But Not The Fun Kind

It's been a rough couple of days on the farm.  While the temps were brutally cold and the ground was snow covered I started leaving the walk through door open on the chicken coop during the day so the chickens could hang out in the hay shed next to their coop and not just be stuck in the coop all day.

As the days started getting longer (because this has stretched on for weeks) they weren't always ready to go back in at the normal feeding time, but I didn't worry.  I just left the door open for them and closed it when I came back up for the night check.  

Sunday night, before I came back up, a team of possums walked right in and ransacked the coop.  Tim heard the ruckus when he opened the kitchen door to see if Possum (the cat) was ready to come in and we rushed up to save what we could.  If he hadn't opened the door, we'd have lost every one I'm sure.

Clarice and Goldilocks are dead, The Bald Eagle and Air Fryer are missing chunks of feathers and everyone is terribly traumatized.  Air Fryer hid outside Sunday night and I found her Monday morning, cold and shaken, but still alive.  Pecky Becky made it to the house somehow and I found her under the porch in the afternoon.  Smart, brave birds...and lucky.

I kept them locked in all day on Monday and did what I could to assess injuries and provide supportive care.  As night fell they were all panicked trying to figure out where to safely sleep.  Air Fryer tried repeatedly to crawl under the wing one of the other hens.  As they all grew up in a hatchery and not with a mother hen I thought this instinct was interesting...and sad that she was so scared.

On Tuesday I opened just the chicken door so they could venture out to the front field and horse stalls during the day if they wanted.  No one wanted to and I didn't blame them.  They were really rattled.  I kept checking in to make sure nothing was bothering them and to let whoever might want to bother them know I was around and finally, by late afternoon, they tentatively stepped out.  

I stayed out with them and then herded them back in before evening chores.  This morning they are still hiding in the coop, but I'm hoping they'll start to feel more comfortable soon.  I feel awful that I let this happen to them.

My gang of remaining tough girls last night.  Clarice was always the bravest of all and I wonder if she got caught because she was trying to defend the rest.  Goldilocks is an extra sad loss because she was one of the "sister chickens" and I know The Bald Eagle is missing her.  Don't ever think chickens don't have feelings and aren't family.

We were able to trap and relocate two possums Sunday night.  Another was dispatched the next afternoon and I trapped another one just before the night check last night.  I set the game camera back up and did not have another sighting the rest of the night.  I'll keep the trap and camera up for a few more nights just to make sure.

I like this picture of me and Bea heading over to pull the memory card out of the trail camera this morning.  Bea is always by my side.  And if she wants to catch a possum from now on, I might not try to stop her.  

Wolf Moon

Yesterday was depressing with all the slushy melting snow that I knew was just going to melt enough to turn to very slick ice as the temps dropped back down last night, but we've had a nice inch or so of fresh snow this morning that has brightened things up a bit and provided just enough traction that I can once again walk to and from the barn without as much trouble so I can revisit this picture from the other night and turn it into a fun new puzzle.

I've enjoyed the snow.  Even yesterday was a bit fun driving out on a errand.  I know the animals are really struggling and that's depressing.  The horses were finally able to go out into the field yesterday and that surely cheered them up and the chickens made it around the corner and were able to hang out with the sheep in the afternoon.  Everyone is tired of being cooped up.

The tracks in the snow in the picture are where Lancelot did make an effort to go dig through to find some grass last week.  That's how you could tell the Krista was the sheep who'd been eating grass in the last post.  If you look closely you can see the snow on her forehead where she'd dug through and buried her nose deep into the snow.  Ellie's just been hanging out in the barn eating hay ;-).

The Breakfast Bar

One thing you can never say about Maisie is that she's a chicken...unless there is chicken scratch grain on the ground and then she is totally a chicken ;-).  Makes for a good new puzzle.

All Treats This Year...Big Treats

We were trying to work around some (too minor) rain showers so I didn't get the pictures I'd hoped for, but Maisie's costume this year was one of our best.  Odd sort of noteworthy fact, this is the first costume we didn't assemble with hot glue.  We upgraded to duct tape ;-D.

Clarice Cluck, running off with one of Maisie's cookies, is maybe my favorite part of this picture.

Hopefully you can biggify to see her "expiration date".

This would actually be a nice picture if the gate wasn't in the way.  I need to remember this lighting option.

Any other time a sheep wearing a costume tried to walk into a barn full of sheep, there'd have been a stampede to get away.  

Apparently they can either read or have a strong association with the color yellow ;-D.

Happy Halloween!  Nilla Wafers for all :-D.

The Woodworking Olympics

Here's the plan.  

Decide to get a rabbit.  

Do a bunch of research on how to house and care for said rabbit.  

Build a temporary house for the rabbit on top of the drying tables in the Wool House because you assume it will take a couple of weeks to get comfortable with each other and it might go quicker if you are on eye level.

Adopt a super sweet bunny from the Lexington Humane Society and realize it won't take much time at all for everyone to settle in, but that's okay, it's fun to have him up high every time you walk in the door.

For exercise and socialization, you install a fence around the lower half of the Wool House porch so the super sweet bunny can go out in the mornings while it's cool and run around while you do a little work and drink coffee.

The sides with the wide railing are fairly cat proof, but the front is completely calling "Hey, kitty kitty" and while Possum won't try to breach it while I'm sitting there, Archie is pretty much "Here, hold my beer."

The bigger issue is what happens if you need to pee and Pinot's not ready to go back inside yet.  Figuring it would be easier to screen the porch in than build a bathroom on it we decide to build the screens.  We maybe should have rethought the plumbing idea. 

Mixed in with all the porch work was a water leak in and then under the sink in the washroom which was an olympics all it's own, but no one really wants to think about plumbing problems, even if it's on someone else's blog.

Insert (only a small amount of) blood, (lots and lots of) sweat, (only thoughts of crying, surprisingly) tears and (a few) bruises...

Well, the chickens might have done some crying.  Added benefit of screening in the porch is the lack of chicken traffic up there.  We should have screened it in years ago.

That far end is higher up than you'd guess :-o.

This is a work in progress picture before the door frame was finished, but I love Pinot hopping around enjoying his safety porch :-).  The newly added roll down blinds made a huge difference in temperature on the porch and I have no idea why I never thought to add them before.  Slow learner...

Once the porch was finished we moved onto Pinot's permanent house.  I thought I could do most of this by myself and I probably could have, but it quickly became apparent it would be much easier if I had help.  Poor Saint Tim...

The move from the fun upper level to the almost as fun middle shelf is so Pinot can come out and run around the wash room if he wants. I also was using the middle shelf mostly for storage, but used the top shelf for almost everything including, but not limited to, drying wool.

I did build Pinot's ramp by myself.  Not a hard job, but I'm sharing it because I salvaged a scrap of carpet from the garage to give him traction.  Not just any carpet, but old wool carpet from our house.  It had been living in the garage under mowers and weedeaters and muddy feet and...chicken parties.

I scrubbed it with Dawn and some carpet cleaner and while it's not spotless, it did clean up better than a piece of synthetic carpet would have, especially as many years old as it is.  I loved having that wool carpet in the house years ago and I'm happy to see it still working hard in the Wool House now.

While the tools were still out I finally built a better sun filter for the night blooming cereus.  I have the best luck getting it to bloom by putting it in the bright sun, but it always sunburns so badly that I feel awful for it.  I decided to try a filtering the sun this year and some of the contraptions I'd set up were pretty hillbilly.  This is much better.  I hope it helps.

And thus extinguishes the flame for the Woodworking Olympics...I hope.