Because Every Day Is A Good Day...

...to Hug A Sheep :-).  

 

And it's A Really Bad Day that can't be helped by hugging a sheep.

I went out to New York over the weekend to visit friends and pick up seven bags of beautiful roving from Acorn Works Fiber - Levi, Murphy, Tessa, Tabitha, Tavia, Muffin and Blossom.  I stopped by Skoog Farm and picked up Lori before we went to the mill.  Lori did a fun recap and as always it was a too short visit.

Of course I then went on to Nistock Farms and helped Robin get ready for her WAFA (Wool and Fiber Arts)** sale and learned more about how that works.  We also did our usual visiting, maple syrup and ice cream run, Chinese carry out, sheep checking, dog walking, rock hunting, story telling...  Another too short visit, but what a privilege to be able to go do these things.

A really nice surprise was finding out that Murphy's mom is still there.  Her name is Copper and she's 16 years old.  She's a moorit (brown) sheep, but other than being smaller that the big galoot, she looks and acts just like him.  

It took both Robin and Andy to get their hands on her.  I guess if you can outsmart and outrun two experienced shepherds when you are 16 (very old for a sheep), you are doing alright.  Robin handed her off to me and I told her about Murphy and how he was doing well and how important he was to the flock and she actually seemed interested...for about a minute...and then said "Okay, fine, that's enough updates" and split.  

Those good old crazy sheeps.

Speaking of hugging sheep, don't forget that this Saturday is the Official Hug a Sheep Day.  It's always the last Saturday of October.  We will, as usual, be hosting an open farm party from 1:00 to 4:00.  

This is a very relaxed event and if this crazy nice weather holds, it will be a beautiful day to sit out with your spinning wheel or knitting and enjoy visiting with friends two legged and four.  We'll have treats of some sort and the sheep are hoping you'll bring treats as well ;-).

The party is for everyone, not just fiber folks, and if you have any questions or need directions, just shoot me an email.  We'd love to see you.

* * * * *

**The live sale is over, but you can still watch the video and if you'd like to purchase any of Robin's  beautiful colored curls and roving, fiber tools...I think you just send her a DM or you could also visit her website or email her if you don't do Facebook.

I Guess He IS Paying Attention

There is going to be a 2027 calendar this year and in the calendar I threw Murphy under the bus for not paying attention to anything as he barges through the crowd, leading everyone out to whatever perils might be facing them out back.

Turns out maybe he does.  

This morning I opened the gate to let everyone out and he headed down the hill...and stopped halfway to the bridge.  I watched for a minute or two and then walked down to see if I could spot a problem.  

I stood next to him, Jared style, scratching his back, telling him how much I enjoyed watching him work and that I appreciated his care...and he tolerated that for about 12 seconds and then walked down a little further and let me know That Was Enough.

I walked back up the hill to hang out with my friends.  Lily especially enjoys a good morning chin wag.  I watched out back for most of a large cup of coffee and eventually he slowly lead everyone out.  

I never did see anything of concern which leads me to think he found out I'd trashed him in the calendar and decided to show me up.  That is definitely something Murphy would do ;-).

In The Fall, When An Old Rabbit's Fancy Turns To...

...digging a burrow for winter.

This is a zoomed out picture so I could include the huge pile of dirt he's collecting (on the left) and the entrance to the tunnel he's digging on the right (the dark spot).  

The window spread is over six feet and the big corner rock he's tunneled under is about 16", so the tunnel itself is well over two feet so far and he's pushing all the dirt about five feet back to the dump pile (which is way bigger than it appears).

I've tightened up the flower fence a bit more this morning, but I'm not sure it's going to be enough to stop him.  When he gets a construction project started, he's hard to dissuade.

The papers poking out on the right are calendar proofs.  Pinot is Mr. January and the caption is Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit (said for good luck).  Mr. February is Murphy and his caption is Murphy, Murphy, Murphy (said with frustration).  

If Pinot doesn't watch it, his good luck might not be enough to keep him from a caption change.

 

Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About It.

One day last week I looked up and saw what appeared to be a flock of a thousand light colored birds flying around just over my head.  I stood and watched for several seconds trying to figure out what I was seeing.  

I knew it wasn't birds, but the way the huge group swooped around like a flock of purple martins settling in to bed in Nashville was mesmerizing.  This lasted almost a minute and then the "flock" started to break up and continue floating south.

It was leaves from recently harvested corn.  

My guess is a dust devil formed over a neighboring field, picking up thousands of dry leaves in all shapes and sizes and then luckily flew over our farm.  

Over the last few days I've found some leaves that floated back to earth.  I hope they don't mind hanging around for a bit longer.

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

Mary Oliver

Still Spinning

Well, that's sort of a lie, but it made a good title after yesterday's post.  I did actually spin some yarn over the last two days, but if I spun anything else all summer...I can't think of what it was :-/.  I got my Jared shawl knit though and it turned out exactly how I'd hoped, so that's a win.  I'll share some pictures of that on a later post.

This is a small skein of Levi that I spun for a special project...that has been lost in the mail for well over a month now.  I don't feel quite as bad about that since I found out that the USPS has also lost our entire county's property tax bills too, but it's still very frustrating.  That being said, I'd probably look elsewhere for holiday shipping.  Seems to be some serious mail issues currently.