Bluegrass Yarn And Fiber Crawl - Random Tip #1

Today starts the 2026 Bluegrass Yarn and Fiber Crawl.  Of the ten days of the tour, our farm stop is scheduled to be open on both Saturdays from 11:00 to 4:00 and also Wednesday afternoon/evening from 4:00 - 8:00.  I am happy to schedule other times as well, but please email first as this is a working farm, so who knows what's going on each day.

My focus for this year's crawl is education.  There are shopping opportunities here for sure, but I enjoy teaching and encouraging more than selling, so if Auntie Reg (the boss) isn't here, let's go out to the barn or sit on the Wool House porch and have a good time talking sheep and wool and fiber arts and teach each other some fun new things.

I know most readers of this blog are not local or not in a position to travel out here so I thought it might be fun to post some random tips each day that anyone might find helpful...or at least interesting even if you aren't a fiber or sheep person.  The tips will mostly be geared towards folks just starting out, but you never know everything :-).

Today's random tip is about angle of twist.  If you are having trouble with either over spinning or under spinning your yarn, use a color of wool that isn't a solid color.  Let's zoom in.

This is Kaala and her gray is a mix of light and dark and those dark strands show up as you spin, making it easy to see what you are doing.  As you add more and more twist, the angle (shown here in the dark diagonal line) changes.  

In general a 45 degree angle is a good starting point, but you may want to spin looser or tighter depending on what you want your finished yarn to do.  You might want to add in more twist for a stronger yarn for a pair of socks or less twist for a softer feeling yarn for a scarf.  

Bonus tip today!  Don't set your roving down on top of a dried up marigold flower.  Free seeds included with each purchase ;-D.

Are You Ready To Hug Some Sheep?

(Inter)National Hug a Sheep Day is this Saturday, October 25th (always the last Saturday in October), and we are planning our usual shenanigans here on the farm and virtually on Instagram.

We'll start the day with an early morning virtual Flock Walk on Instagram.  I've done these for several years now and each time I think it's going to be boring and silly and they always turn out really special.  I'll try to save the live video to publish other places so everyone can enjoy walking out with the sheep at a more reasonable time if you live elsewhere ;-).

In the afternoon we are hosting our usual On the Farm Party complete with sheep, horses, chickens, cats, Bea and Pinot.  It's looking like it's going to be cool enough for wool wearing, so that's exciting.  It may be too cool for wool spinning, but bring your wheel or current project just in case.  We'll have a fire going!

Since we are bumping up the time an hour this year, Auntie Reg is going to be cooking up our favorite October wool festival snack, Artichoke French, and we'll have fresh bread, hot coffee, cider, pumpkin donuts...

The sheep are hoping you'll bring lots of cookies and crackers.  Gato will eat most anything too and he's heard some stories about Hug a Sheep/Feed a Pony day and is looking forward to his first farm party ;-).  Pinot loves treats too, but rabbits really shouldn't have many treats, so don't let him trick you.  

We have changed the time a little so that anyone who'd like to go over the Don and Rebecca Saager's fall train run afterwards can caravan over there from here.  It's a bit of a drive (40 minutes), but well worth the trip.  

As always, there is no admission and everyone is welcome here.  I know I'm late getting this posted, but most of the "regulars" know the drill and if you would like to come in from out of town and need some accommodation suggestions or travel direction, just drop me an email.

Are you ready to hug some sheep?  Or a ball of yarn or a squishy warm wool sweater or blanket?  :-D

September

I must remember there was still a lot of good in the month...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

About All The Cakes

Back in the winter when life really got extra mean and depressing, several friends told me "You need to watch you some Great British Bake Off!"

I don't like to cook and I'm not really a baking person.  I don't watch much tv and definitely not reality tv.  Why would I want to waste time watching a reality tv show about baking?

"Just try it."

So Tim and I sat down one night to watch one episode to shut everyone up...and now have binge watched 11 seasons.  If you're having a bad day...go watch you some British Bake Off :-).

Cakes are not my favorite dessert.  I like them (if they are good), but I don't love them.  I only marginally like frosting (if it's good).  I would probably never order a piece of cake at a restaurant.  

Cakes started showing up on my IG feed.  Usually when something shows up that I'm not interested in, I flag it as such and "like" some new sheep or fiber account and my feed stays fun and focused.  One day I saw a picture of a beautiful robin egg Easter cake...and I clicked on it.

Hmmm, that's really pretty...

At this point we'd watched maybe two seasons of GBBO and I'd so thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone bake cakes together, helping each other, cheering each other on, being nice and learning new techniques (sort of like fiber arts, eh?) that I sent the post to Auntie Reg and told her I wanted to try to make that cake.  

It looked a little like this cake.  Or I should say this cake looked a little like that cake.  It was nerve wracking to say the least, but with Reg's help, the cake was edible and the icing...mostly stayed on the cake.  It wasn't super fun, but I knew/hoped I could learn to do better, so the following week I tried another cake.

This was a lemon cake with lemon curd inside and on top and the flowers really made it pretty.

Rhubarb upside down cake...from our garden!

A flourless chocolate roulade, straight from one of Mary Berry's books :-).

This Surprise Lemon Pudding was too and I would definitely make this again now that I know I need to weigh my eggs.  I learned that from The Cake Bible.  Yes, I bought that.  Now, if my baking doesn't kill you, I can always bean you with a nearly 700 page book ;-D.

Chocolate inside and outside and even on top.  I'd like to re-make this cake just to do it better, but like seldom knitting a pattern more than once, I'll probably not repeat it just out of spite.  There's not a shortage of chocolate cake recipes out there.

I was pretty happy with this one.  Still not getting where I want icing-wise, but getting better.

I highly recommend placing some mint leaves on top of lemon cream cheese frosting.  It infuses (?) into the frosting where it touches and it gives it a fabulous minty flavor.  

Angle food cake with the whites and lemon curd with the yolks.  Raspberry frosting...that I should have made a note about because I don't remember which recipe I used, but I think it was a whipped cream frosting, not butter cream.

That was the best lemon curd I've even tasted - from The Cake Bible. 

Lavender blackberry cake with ermine frosting.  I didn't harvest our lavender to make this, but I did want a picture with it while the bees and butterflies worked away.

This was the first cake I wasn't just thoroughly panicked making.  There was lavender infused milk in the recipe and lavender syrup brushed on each layer before frosting.  I wasn't sure how much I could add to the layers so I erred on the side of caution.  It could probably have used a little more to increase the lavender flavor, but it was still really good.  

The reason I wasn't sure how much to add is because I got smart and put the third layer of the cake in the freezer so I was working a bit off recipe.  Now if I don't feel like baking a new cake some week I can pull it out and make a trifle and tick that check box ;-).

So now that I'm pretty into trying to learn how to make cakes, I've decided it can be my summer "thing".  I'm calling it Scratch Cake Summer.

Anyone have a good cake to recommend?

 

Solstice Sheep

I have always been one of those people who struggled to enjoy the holiday season, for various and the same reasons so many others do as well.  I understand.  I also hated the holidays being over though, usually because I felt sad and stupid that I hadn't made the effort to enjoy them.  Two years ago I decided to try to fix that.

Wing and a Prayer Farm did a beautiful winter solstice advent calendar and I treated myself.  If I did even just one deliberate thing to find some joy in the season, I could open my treat for the day.  I didn't miss a day and I ended up actually enjoying the holidays for the first time.

Last year I re-used the calendar and had Auntie Reg tuck a bunch of tiny sheep figurines in all the pockets as my prizes.  Not only did I enjoy some holiday cheer during the day, I got the fun of finding my sheep and then adding them to the flock that night and taking a pretty picture to share.  The whole year had been awful in so many ways, but it ended with some peace and joy that carried on into the next year.

This year I thought about what I wanted to do and decided I'd give little gifts back rather than get them for myself...although gifts given are usually gifts received as well ;-).  

Tucked in each of the pockets is a tag with a sheep's name.  Each day that sheep gets to be extra special and get their portrait taken and a short (or maybe long) story written about them and also sneaked a yummy treat.  

I've got some apples for the ones who are willing to eat a healthy snack, crackers for those who like salty treats and of course some good old fashioned vanilla wafers.  I'll try to remember to tell which treat each sheep prefers.  There will probably be treats for everyone each day because sheep don't understand calendars and special days and the treat bin is extra full thanks to you all :-).

I'm only doing current sheep this year because I don't want to risk making myself or anyone else sad thinking back on dear old friends now gone.  There is a place for that for sure, but not right now.  I do love having their pictures and stories on the blog, but it can be a rabbit hole lined with tissues.  

I chose the picture above because not only is it one of my very, very favorites and made a beautiful "cover", but those sheep are many of the dear old friends.  I don't think there is anyone in that picture who is still here, but they are always with us in spirit and I hope they still enjoy the treats as well.

I will post each Solstice Sheep over here and on Instagram.  I will try to share at least a few on Facebook, but as always that is not my favorite platform and part of trying to make it through the holidays is setting some boundaries.  There will probably be extra stuff on IG because it's fun and easy.  I posted today's sheep this morning.

There is already a good story about this draw!  I'll share it later today :-).

The Birthday Girl

Happy Twelfth  Birthday, Maisie!

"Thanks!"

"This birthday cake sure is good!"

I'm thinking Maisie might ought to sleep with one eye open tonight!

"What's that mean?"

Auntie Reg had to be the bad guy and keep Short Round and Tabitha from crashing Maisie's party too early.  The look on Short Round's face in the third picture cracks me up.

The rest of the flock was way out in the field and the "cake" was disappearing quickly, so it became a party just for Maisie and her Easy Breezy friends...and the chickens...and Bea.

"Stop taking pictures and do something!"

In some ways it seems like forever ago that she was such a tiny baby...and in some ways it all feels like a dream and she was just always here.  

Best. Twelve Years. Ever.

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.

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.

Will THIS Be The Last Christmas Post?

Probably...

 As I slogged through yet another month of 2023, I was having trouble getting excited about the upcoming Christmas season and even toyed with just skipping it.  I knew that in the end I would have been really disappointed not seeing all my holiday lights and old friends including my 25 year old Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

I set myself up with a Solstice Advent challenge and I made a special effort to find the space to enjoy even tiny bits of joy every day and by the end of the season I'd had one of the nicest winter holiday seasons ever.  As an extra special treat I made a new friend and received a beautiful card with three two and a half of my favorite sheep.  Murphy....

Okay, when I mentioned the Advent challenge, I realized that I never shared the final picture of my daily prizes.  To avoid yet another Christmas post, I'll do that now.

I'd collected a bunch of these vintage lead sheep figurines ahead of time and Auntie Reg wrapped them all up and tucked them into my calendar.  Every day I got to unwrap and place another sheep or two in the window.  I grouped ewes, lambs playing, lambs with their mommas, rams watching over, rams thinking about fighting...  It was grand fun :-).

One day I got surprised by this cutie and there were a couple other fun sheep mixed in as well.  It was a fun way to end each day and to make each day a little special...the way every day should be.  

Solstice Advent

The holidays can be so stressful and are frequently not nearly as fun as I wish they would be.  I always manage to get my tree put up, but there have been some years it's only because I don't want to hurt the tree's feelings and all the ornaments who I know are looking forward to their time to shine.  Once it's up I'm always glad I did it :-).

Last year Wing and a Prayer Farm offered a beautiful Solstice Advent calendar and I decided to treat myself as a challenge to be more deliberate in looking for joy throughout the season.  Every day I had to do something, even just something small, a glimmer, and if I did so, I got to open my solstice treat that night.  I'm good at challenges like this.  I didn't miss a day...and I ended up enjoying every day.

The year has not been an easy one and even though early on I had formulated a plan to refill the solstice calendar pockets this year, I was finding it hard to garner any enthusiasm as it approached.  Still, I knew if I didn't make the effort, I'd end up disappointed so I started scouring eBay for my calendar pocket fillers.  And in doing so...finally started to get a little excited.

By the time all the little boxes arrived and I handed them off to Auntie Reg so she could to open them all up and tuck something into each pocket, I was actually looking forward to December first and thinking about all the little things I could do so I could have a miniature solstice party each evening.

December 1st

Oh!  A new sheep and she has a lamb by her side!

* * * * *

I'll share my solstice prize each night on IG and FB.  If you'd like to play along virtually, please join me!  Try to do something every day that brings you some holiday cheer.  It could be something as big as baking cookies or as small as sitting down to drink a cup of tea with your cat and thinking about a happy memory.  

This is going to be fun :-)

Happy Birthday, Maisie

"Auntie Reg said I could eat some of your cake."

"She absolutely did not say that."

(She probably did ;-)

"It's MY birthday!"

"That darn cat."

11 years old.  Wow.  It seems like only a few years ago she was just a tiny baby...but also seems like she's been here forever.  

I wanted to look back to see when we first started making her a birthday crown.  A fun way to do that is to follow the drop down date menu on the right hand side of the blog screen.  Select the year and then "November" and her birthday parties are always titled in a way that you know you are at the right place.

It's fun...and a bit bittersweet...to see all the old parties and party guests.  It's also kind of sad to see all the comments from readers over the years.  One year 90 people wished Maisie a Happy Birthday!  I wish blogging and reading blogs was still as popular as "the good old days". 

Back to the party! 

We kept Jared away from the cake as long as we could.  Of course Short Round followed him out.  Maisie had had enough "cake" by then anyway.  Everyone else joined a few minutes later and another crazy Maisie birthday party is in the books.  

The 2024 Calendar And New Note Cards

I remember back in grade school being asked to figure out how old we were going to be in the year 2000.  2000 was sooo far away.  We were going to be in our 40s!  2000 is now just as far away...but the other direction.  I can't believe we are preparing for 2024.

Once again we are offering a farm calendar for sale.  These calendars started as just a fun way to share some pictures with friends and family, but gratefully grew into a "bake sale" way to help our small flock of sheep support themselves.  

I had a good group of photos to choose from this year and I was drawn to the quiet peace in all of them, especially sweet Maggie, who starts the year.  I find her picture especially meditational and I hope it creates great ripples of calm throughout the rest of the year.

There are of course pictures of the horses and cats and I've already shown a preview of Bea's month.  There is a special guest in the B Garden and two of the biggest characters on the farm each get a feature as well and a couple other beloved characters round out the year.

Once again I added a short story to each month and even added one of those new fangled QR codes to further tell the story on one month.  Lots of mini pictures fill in the blank spaces and add extra fun and  tell further mini photo stories.  

I've had a few requests for note cards the last two years.  I'm hoping that's a sign that letter writing or at least thank you notes might be coming back in style.  I wonder if that's a holdover from the Covid lockdown as I'd had no inquiries about farm cards in several years prior. 

I love getting notes in the mail, but have been guilty myself in not sending them.  This year we made a set of note cards to go with the calendars and I really like the idea.  I hope you do as well.  Maybe pick a favorite picture (with the story on the back) and drop it in the mail to a special friend and make their day :-).

It is still unrealistic for a small farm to "upgrade" to a fancy online shop site so once again we are doing the old time ordering system where you send me an email letting me know what you'd like and where it should be shipped and I'll include an invoice and return envelope in your package.  Add an extra note if you'd like :-).  

Those notes are how I learned that several of you don't turn the calendar pages until it's time so that each month is a surprise.  I love that idea and now do that myself.  Even though I made the calendar, by about March I've forgotten who comes next.  I love being surprised.

That spoiler factor is also why I've put all the boring text up here and hidden the sneak peek calendar and card shots below.  Don't look if you don't want to!  Or you can peek...but goreallyfast ;-).

2024 Equinox Farm Calendar $25.00  

Companion Calendar Note Cards $12.50 

Buy together and save $5.00  $32.50

Extra note:  Auntie Reg and I have made up some fun 'make your own' wool wreath ornament kits.  Since the calendars are so late getting listed and the holidays are at least a month early this year (right?) there could be a postage saving overlap if anyone is interested.  I'm going to do my best to add them to the website today and share them to the blog tomorrow.

Sweet Maggie always checks in with me when I'm in the barn or barn lot.  I've mentioned before about there being some animals who look at me and she is one.  There is a difference between looking and watching.  Everyone watches me (I might have treats ;-), but only a few really look at me (if I don't have treats ;-).

She has also taken on the role of night guardian now that Maisie has moved up front to Easy Breezy.  I frequently find her resting comfortably just behind the barn at night, keeping an eye and ear to the back.  Sometimes her brother will sit with her, but he's not quite as dedicated.  She's a good sheep.

Of course Murphy got his own month.  If you'd have told me even just a year ago that I'd be featuring him in the calendar, I'd have laughed.  "Yeah, right.  That obnoxious pain in the butt?  Not a chance."  What an interesting sheep. That story line was probably the highlight of the year. 

I hope enough folks know how to use a QR code by now.  I'm so behind on technology that I figure if I know how to use it, most everyone else does as well.  If not, the box links to that amazing story about the sheep coats.

Plenty of sheep, horse and corgi shenanigans :-)

And everyone can spend an entire month staring at Archie sleeping.

"Dis my home."

I wanted to get a good high resolution picture of Pinto jumping in or out of the arena, but after an early spring drought turned into a rainy summer of good grass everywhere and Pinto didn't need to go looking for greener pastures I was worried that he'd outgrown his fence jumping days.  Not to worry :-).

This picture got moved into the calendar at the last minute after I received so many comments about it needing to be there.  I love seeing "That's a calendar shot!" throughout the year.  I had not even considered this one as I was afraid it wouldn't print well, but everyone was right.  It's a perfect choice.  It made a lovely note card as well.

If you've made it this far, you get one more story...and it's a funny one.  Tim has a machine that creases and folds items like cards.  When he brought home the box of card sets there was a loose bundle on top of the box.  "That's not a complete set.  One of the cards got jammed in the creaser."

Yep, it was Maisie's ;-).