Oh No, The Space Ship Is Snowbound!

One last snow post. We sure enjoyed it while it lasted :-).

"There's no way this will ever take off with all this snow."

"Start eating!"

"You gonna be able to dig us out, Maisie?"

"Yeah, I about got it."

"Yikes!  I didn't know you rode ON the space ship!"

"Maisie, the space ship flies up in the air.  You don't need to dig the gate out."

They ate as much snow as fast as they could.

Munch, munch, munch down the railing, but it was no use.

"I think we're gonna have to wait til spring, Woody."

"I told you all that at the beginning!"

Frightful Only Begins To Describe It ;-)

"Hey, let's go somewhere in the space ship!"

"Wait a minute, where's Baaxter?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, he's down there being a momma's boy.  We can fly without him."

"Uh oh, she's spotted us."

"Just act natural."

"Nothin' to see here..."

"Okay, I think the coast is clear.  Go ahead and load up."

"Hey, stupid Border Collie!  We're going to fly away on the space ship!"

"Yeah, you won't be able to boss us around in outer space! Hahaha!"

"This is the dumbest bunch of sheep I have ever seen."

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.

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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 :-).

Something We All Suspected Was Going To Happen Eventually Anyway

I was already 15 minutes late leaving the farm to go to a meeting for the new Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival which will be held in conjunction with the Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial in 2010. I had the car started and was just getting ready to fly out of the driveway when Stella's son Wyatt pulled in.

I rolled my window down.

"Did you see the space ship land the other night?"
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Oh you KNOW I turned the ignition off.

"Uh, no?"

"Yeah, I got crop circles in my new alfalfa field!"

"Really."

"Yeah! You can see them down there across from your trees."



Sure enough, right there in plain view off our back porch. If we'd just been paying attention...



Most likely he had a mini tornado blow through and flatten everything (that would be Stella's luck).

Except I've been here all week.

And there ain't been any wind.

I Probably Don't Want To Go Here, But...

You gotta love a blog post that starts like that, eh?

So, the last post was a lovely picture of some early morning sunbeams filtering through the trees in the front field. I mentioned that I thought it would have been nice if those ungrateful sheep had gone up there to graze as I'd asked them to (for a nice photo op) rather than foraging through the creek bed (full of weeds and burrs). Christine leaves this comment:

"I'll bet they are afraid they might get sucked up to a space ship, so they avoid all sunbeams. Makes perfect sense."

Which is only one of the many reasons why we all love Christine :-).

But is it?

Or does she know something we don't know?

Or is it just me??

Am I the only one clueless to the whole sheep being abducted by aliens issue???

I've seen references to that in a couple places and I think it has something to do with a video game maybe? But here's an oddity (or is it?) we found on eBay several years ago.



I can't remember the exact translation, but it has something to do with praying to a certain saint for protection against the sheep being abducted by aliens.

In 1981!

Saint Tim purchased it as a novelty and we hung it with (insert nervous laughter) pride near our front door.



I wonder if that's the only reason Peabody is still here???

Oddly, when we got Peabody from a friend about 9 or 10 years ago, she mentioned that her husband thought the Border Cheviots looked like aliens (!).

It's foggy...but I think...the pieces...are all starting to fit together...

Seriously, does anyone know the actual reason(s) for the sheep/spaceship connection?

Anyone?

Tap tap tap.

Is this thing on?

Where did everyone go???

Of Course She Is

Here are a few more shots from Andy's integration day.  I was so sad to not find a good shot of Kate for the calendar this year.  Calendar pictures need to be the right direction (horizontal, not vertical), sharp, good color, interesting composition, high resolution...  I think we've got one for next year!

Kate goes everywhere with me, especially if there are sheep involved...which there almost always are ;-). Her motto is "I can help you with that!"  When I let the main flock into Graham and Andy's paddock the other day, I went in with them to make sure no one tried to modify the borrowed "space ship".  Kate followed me in, but I didn't notice that because I was busy taking pictures.

I don't have much true stock dog experience.  Iris and I figured out more things than I thought we did over the years, but I definitely need more training.  Letting Kate follow me into a paddock full of sheep, while accidentally setting up a nice photo, might be a big no-no.  Not paying attention to my dog in the first place is probably even a bigger no-no.  A dog not as good as Kate would probably teach me that lesson the hard way ;-).

However, to me (again, remember I am definitely no expert), if I turn around and see that my dog has followed me somewhere, but is laying down waiting patiently while I'm goofing off not paying attention, that's not just a pretty calendar shot.  I think that means she's a great dog and I am so honored for the opportunity to get to learn from her.  I am looking forward to stepping up my game this year!

We all sat out there in the paddock for a good while letting everyone get acquainted.  Being a cocky young punk, Andy got a fair sampling of who would send him flying if he got too friendly (Rebecca Boone) and who would make some good new friends for him (the boys).  When I was ready to clear them out of there, Kate was up in an instant.

"I can help you with that!"

We had to make an emergency run to Florida this weekend.  My mother is in the hospital down there and needed someone to come get their two dogs and cat who were traveling with them.  I left a note for our farm sitter explaining how to use Kate to set hay out for the sheep.  "Open the stall door. She knows what to do."  I got a text the next morning, "Kate's awesome!"  She really is :-).

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Here's a new puzzle and a new puzzle tip.  If you click the puzzle piece at the bottom right of the frame it takes you to the same puzzle, but on the puzzle site.  There, if you click "play as", you can change the number of pieces to make it easier or harder, depending on your mood.  Have fun and stay warm!

Well?

"I think it'll fly."

B. Willard's been wanting in on the space ship action for awhile.  He, Murphy and Baaxter gave the "sheep camp" a good check.  And Andy just thought that was a fancy water trough...  He'll learn ;-).

This was my home away from home during the remodel.  The Jeff Foxworthy underpinning was for the couple nights it got in the 20's.  Luckily most of the late fall/into winter was super warm so the living was easy and I was actually sort of sad to move back home.  

Parked next to the barn, I could hear Graham and Petunia's bells chiming any time I woke up during the night.  I'd hear coyotes off in the distance, here Hank's "reply" and go right back to sleep.  Rain on the roof was a treat as well.  It was just like camping, but with a furnace, hot running water, a computer and a coffee pot :-).  

The remodel is basically done.  We are finishing a couple small projects and I have some painting to do.  I've  been waiting for some sunshine (natural light) to take some pictures, but I'm beginning to wonder...  I'll try to get some pictures this afternoon regardless.  It should will all be straightened up before the new year starts.

What are your new year "superstitions"?

Sheep On The Street

I was going to title this post "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas", but I didn't want to give anyone a heart attack ;-).

It is looking like it though. Not only is the new Christmas card finished and "gone to print", but I have a decent (as in Not Zero) amount of holiday shopping completed and I even thought this morning about ordering some new Christmas lighting. In November.

Maybe the post title should be "It's The End Of The World As We Know It."



Last night 20, Marcel, Sherman and B. Willard headed up to the state capital. This weekend is the Candlelight Tour of Frankfort and the folks at The Woolery were excited to have their beautiful new location open for business.



Having some real live wool sweaters (still on the sheep ;-) in front of the store seemed like a fun idea. Oddly, I couldn't believe how many people had no idea why they were there. Once we pointed out the spinning/knitting/weaving/rug hooking store behind us..."Oh, cool!"

Definitely some educational opportunities up there...or (coming from a sheep person) maybe it's because The Woolery has "rabbits" as their logo ;-).



I love the little boy peering around his dad's shoulder. You'd think taking sheep out in public was just for the little kids, but I think the adults love them just as much or more.



The new store is lovely.



Much bigger (translated as even more stuff :-) than the previous location.



And neat things to see. Cotton!

Side note: If you'd like to see commercially grown cotton being harvested and processed, Linda from Life on a Colorado Farm did two great posts this past week.



The weaving section. Well, part of it. Wow!



The street view - very pretty. You can see the sheep pen on the bottom right. What a nice spot.



Willard and Marcel are old hats at "city work", but this was Sherman's first trip off the farm. I was worried he might be stressed, but he did a great job. Some kids feeding him popcorn off and on didn't hurt ;-). Near the end of the night though I caught him staring at Saint Tim - driver of the "space ship" that he knew hoped would take him home. I was pretty cold by that point too.

Yep, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! :-)

Adventures In Shipping

I need to ship nine pounds of quilt batting to California. To someone who has the coolest sounding house no less! And, after I started looking into the shipping, I thought why oh why couldn't I just hand deliver it - argh.



Here it is - and where, obviously, things start heading south. It's the bag of wool that ate a sofa. Not only can I not find a box big enough, but if I could, the shipping was going to be completely outrageous. Completely!

One of my genius friends suggested a Space Bag, which, using just your own vacuum cleaner, sucks all the air out and compresses things down to ridiculously small sizes.



Here it is now. Way small enough to fit in a fairly standard shipping box and save an incredible amount on shipping fees. Not only did it easily fit in the box, but I was able to let enough air back in to let it puff out enough so it could become it's own packing material (gotta love wool for that, eh?) and also give it a little breathing room - so to speak :-/.

My only concern with all this was if it would be bad to compress the wool so much. So, as a test I let it sit for awhile and then opened the seal and presto - whooooosh! Right back to where it started. Just amazing.

I learn something new every day.