Before...

Is Maggie taller than she is wide?

Big Moose

Pinto...only taller because he has long legs ;-).

White Krista.  What a sweet little ewe.

This is a fun puzzle :-).

 

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!

Stupid Springtime

Too much to do and not enough time to do it.

80 degrees one day and frost the next.  Luckily nothing seems to be too damaged except some asparagus.

Why do I get these ideas of new garden things I want to do each spring?  See sentence one...

This picture seemed to resonate this morning, so how about a new puzzle?

Weekend Wrap Up

Things mostly started settling down this past week and we could all take a deep breath.  We still had some cold and windy weather, but there were some nice days mixed in and that was appreciated by everyone.

I suspected this would be the case if Murphy messed around at the barn too much in the morning.  He figured out that Liddy and Tabitha were getting to sneak into Easy Breezy for breakfast and he spent a couple of mornings thinking maybe he could do so as well.  Krista ain't waiting for no stupid man to tell her it's okay to go out for breakfast ;-).

Our new friend Dug had a big week.  Or I should say a getting bigger week :-).

Big J met me in the driveway one morning.  What a relief!

Maisie reminded us that she is our little ray of sunshine :-).  This is an odd occurrence, the sun shining in the front of the barn.  What actually happened was the sun hit the front of the horse trailer parked over next to the Wool House at just the right angle to reflect back into the front of the barn, spotlighting Maisie.  It will probably never happen again.

On the cold days the cats took turns tucked in next to the heater in the Wool House.

Possum pulled the night shift.

Dug went to Dug(gy) Daycare in the toasty warm greenhouse.

The cats fought over the wool box on the porch.

And Archie eventually won.

Dug got a warm wool poncho...as one does on a wool farm :-D.

Another frosty morning.  The last one...I hope.

And today two of my oldest (long time, not old ;-) and one of my newest friends came to visit and Andrea (of TdF fame) gave spinning a try and I tuned up an old wheel.  Thanks for the photo, Ericka (of Foro/4-0 fame).  It was a great way to end the week.

 

Spring Shine

Everything budded out early this year and right as the redbuds were getting ready to open...we got a hard freeze.  The redbud show is a highlight of spring and I was sick about probably missing it this year.  Not to worry.  The trees were smarter than me and had saved up buds to replace the damaged ones.

The bees have been enjoying them as well.  Bees of all shapes and sizes.  It seems like they all take turns finding their own "peak" time throughout the day.

Here are two favorite pictures from the last couple of days.  

And they are new puzzles :-).  

Enjoy!

A Bee Story

Literally a story about a bee.

There are several lambing, but not lambs, things I enjoy each year.  The dogwoods over by Tring Farm, the blue and white barn surrounded by redbud trees at the main intersection, daffodils on the road to Final Frontier Farm and the wild bees on their farm driveway.  

They were busy...as bees...yesterday afternoon and I stopped to watch them as I was heading home.  "I should get out and take some pictures and a video for Stella!"  

If you look closely you can see the bees who have been out gathering pollen.  They are flying into the hive with their pollen sacs stuffed full.  Look for yellow on their back legs.

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See the honey comb they've built near the bottom of the opening?  The comb probably goes throughout the whole tree, top to bottom.

These good old trees provide habitat for bees, bugs, birds and all sorts of other wildlife.  I wish folks would think twice before cutting them down.  Just because you don't think they look pretty doesn't mean there aren't thousands, literally thousands, of other animals who think they do.  But this is not just a story about thousands of bees.  It's also a story about one bee.

As I drove towards home, listening to an audio book, enjoying the scenery...uh oh...I hear a bee buzzing.  Sure enough I'd accidentally rolled the window up with a bee stuck in my car.  If I'd done that just a mile down the road, I'd have rolled the window back down and let her fly home.  I was almost to the river, way too far for her to have any chance of survival.  

Sigh...

I turned around and drove 15 minutes back past Tring Farm, the dogwoods, the blue and white barn, the still blooming redbuds, the daffodils to the bee tree, opened the window and out she flew.  I realize it was just one bee, but I'd caused the problem.  I could fix the problem.  Many problems are not that easy.

And as I repeated my track back home for a second time, the phone rang.  It was Stella.  I was hoping she was just calling to check in and I could tell her my story about my one bee, but this time of year I had a feeling she wasn't.  She too had a story about several thousand bees.  She was watching a swarm from one of her hives.

Well, How About That!

We have had a beautiful spring and the redbuds have been glorious!  And here is where I google "redbud" to include a link with information about the trees and find their scientific name is cercis canadensis.  

Canadensis means 'of Canada', so...interesting, but probably not super blogworthy.  Cercis, however, comes the Greek 'kerkis' which means "a weaver's shuttle" because of the shape of their fruit/seed pods!  

That just made my day :-).

There are six new spring puzzles :-).

Stand By Me

This might be my favorite horse picture to date.  At least the top five.  I wish Frankie didn't have his grazing muzzle on, but with all that green grass, it would be a death sentence if he didn't.  It sure is pretty, but it's not doing anyone any favors here...except a photographer.

Both this picture and yesterday's are new puzzles :-).  Enjoy!

Sigh...

I think spring is here.

Sigh...

Springtime

It is pretty...

Biscuit and Muffin

And a new puzzle.  Enjoy!

Vernal

To "celebrate" the spring equinox today, I'm not going to rehash the previous laundry lists of reasons why I hate spring.  I'm going to share a new one!  

I always end up with one crazed robin who spends much of the early spring "fighting" with his reflection in my car mirrors and windows.  I'll spare you the picture of what my car looks like with this going on.  

Happy Spring ;-).

This better not be one of the babies from The Great Robin Rescue last summer!

My New Favorite Picture

No preview this time and I made it a little harder, just for fun ;-).  Remember, you can change the number of pieces and a few other things if you follow the icons at the bottom of the puzzle screen. 

Enjoy!

Don't worry, I'll post the complete picture later :-).

Bright

I normally don't like pictures I take in the middle of the day with the sunlight directly overhead, but after the storms of yesterday, everything seemed almost fake bright.

Enjoy!

Springtime

"Hey, where's everybody going?"

After a couple weeks of really nice weather, we had two really cold nights.  22 degrees cold!  We closed up the barn doors and fed a bunch of extra hay and everyone seems to have gotten through okay.  The low tonight is 43.  Much better for sheared sheeps.  Still, even though it was cold, about half the flock was so excited about the green grass that they didn't even stick around for breakfast this morning.

Baaxter just realized he'd been left behind.  That was him eating with Rebecca Boone in the first picture.  He's a good eater :-).

Hank realized he'd been left behind, too!

Another big group, but still not everyone, races along to catch up as well.

Happy sheep.

"Wait Up!!!"

I'm Just Going To (Try To) Do This

I got a note the other day from one of my favorite artists and sheep photographers, Junelle Jacobsen. You've seen her here before.  She did a Draw A Sheep class for us that was so cute and fun.  She periodically offers online art workshops and I've always wanted to participate, but I never think I have enough time.  I never have enough time for anything.

Winter flew by.  I practically missed most of the Iditarod as I tried to race to (barely) keep up with everything.  Then presto, the sheep were sheared, the grass started greening up, the temps hit the mid 70s and I kind of felt like that kid in the group that couldn't keep up and finally stops in the middle of the road crying, yelling for everyone to Wait Up!  

Junelle asked if I would like to contribute a lamb love story to her spring workshop, pink cheeks and mud puddles.  She was thinking of the story of Lila coming to church for Easter Sunday in her little sundress, sitting on my lap while I played the piano.  I reminded her of the story of Miss Maisie going to (and leaving!) church.  In exchange, she gifted me a spot in her workshop :-).

My first thought was of course, how sweet.  My second, I just don't have time.  My third, if you are already standing in the driveway crying, why not pull out a sketch journal, sit down in the mud and slow everything down, even just for a few minutes.  Maybe by the end of April I wouldn't be wondering where April went.

I don't know if I'll have time to actually do this, but I really want to.  Even if I only participate for half the time, I'll be ahead of where I'd be if I didn't make a conscious effort to not let spring whoosh past me.   Anyone want to join me?  Maybe be the one kid in the group who turns around and walks back to the sniffling kid sister, grabs her hand and says, "Come on.  You're fine.  It's only spring."  

*      *      *      *      *

I've divided the sweater body for the front and the back and am about 1/3 of the way up the back. So far, so good.  My goal is to be completely finished for a Yarn Along post on Wednesday. Coincidentally, that's when the art workshop starts.  I need to go pick out an art journal :-).

Held In The Light

It rained much of yesterday. Dark, broody clouds, big rain drops pounding the roof.  A dogs sleeping in the wool house sort of day.  As evening approached, it tried several times to clear off.  I kept looking for a rainbow as it poured in bright sunlight, but never found one.  It's probably that you can't see the rainbow if you are standing in the pot of gold.