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Monday, October 31, 2022

The Great Pumpkins


After most of the pumpkins in the accidental pumpkin patch were eaten by the sheep, I stashed the last few in the garage for the big day.


And Auntie Reg picked up a few extras at Stepping Stone Farm.


Of course 20 helped and he brought Pip along for the fun, too!


Since Short Round was one of the main pumpkin eaters and she and Maisie are breakfast buddies and we couldn't stop her anyway, we let her join Maisie's Halloween party...but we whipped up a quick hat topper.  She didn't care one bit.




"I think the yellow pumpkins taste the best!"





Pinto was watching all the activity with great interest...and longing (for cookies) so we dressed him up as well.  


I think he liked it...or the cookies ;-).


Bea did her best to talk Auntie Reg out of more cookies.


Her very best.


"I don't mind dressing up for cookies!"



Tricks or Treats!


Thursday, October 27, 2022

Hug A Sheep Day Virtual Tour Info


If you are unable to make it out to the farm for the Hug A Sheep Day festivities Friday and Saturday, but would like to join us virtually and take a tour of the Punkin's Patch pop up farm shop or visit the sheep, horses, Bea or Archie (if he's awake), all you should need to do is follow this meeting invitation link.  

When you get into the meeting, make sure you turn on your microphone and video and then just say "Hello!" :-).  20 will be minding the Zoom room in case we have stepped away so you can chat with him for a minute and we'll be right back.

If you are new to Zoom or are having trouble signing on, we'll do our best to help.  None of us is super tech savvy, but we are cheerful help/not help if nothing else :-).  We'll be available on Friday (10:00 - 4:00 ET) and Saturday morning (10:00 to 12:00 ET).

On the subject of virtual tours, don't forget the early morning flock walk both mornings live on Instagram.  Grab a cup of coffee and join me!



Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Stunning Sunrise


Red skies in morning, shepherds take warning.  

We haven't had a new puzzle in a good long while.  What a crazy, but in a good way, fall.  Enjoy!


 

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Amazing

When I was putting together the Hug A Sheep Day post last week I googled "hug a sheep day" to see what would be the best link to share...and couldn't get over how many links were posted to not only the daily calendar sites, but also from farms from all over the world!

I watched several and then found a video The Fiber Pusher posted from our farm party in 2019.  Grab a cup of coffee and some tissues and give it a watch.  It's so nice to see so many familiar faces and old friends.  

  

Oh those good old dogs and sheep.


Thursday, October 20, 2022

The Opposite Of Love

Jared had to give Pinto a little tune up in the romance department the other day.  A tune up as in "No romance with any of my wimmens...and remember that they are all my wimmens."  The old man was still able to best him this fall, but I hope by next year the young whippersnapper will have given up any ideas of world domination as I know I don't want to see Big J removed from his rightful spot of honor.  




"Ooof!"

I'm sad to see that I apparently never mentioned my Jared yarn over here.  I think I spun it for the Tour de Fleece two years ago...but without a better memory or better journaling that's just going to have to be a guess.  

I wanted to make a sweater that looked like Jared, big and bulky, and I wanted the yarn to look like Jared as well.  I was happy with the yarn and I was happy with my pattern choice, but as oh so frequently happens when I try to knit something, it hit the frog pond during Wool House Crafters the other night.


I've been working hard to finish up the 2023 farm calendar so I haven't had time to steam out the knitting perm and pick a new pattern, but I'm hopeful by this weekend I'll be back knitting on with confidence...or experience...once again modeled after Jared.  It's sweater weather after all!


Monday, October 17, 2022

On Farm Party!


We are once again opening the farm for a Hug A Sheep Day farm party!  While the virtual parties turned out better than we thought they would these last two years, being able to come out and actually hug a sheep (unless it's Maisie, maybe ;-) is always much more fun.  

(Inter)National Hug A Sheep Day is October 29th this year.  This is our twelfth year!  Punkin, my first sheep, who inadvertently started this all, would have been 30 this year.  The original date was picked because it would have been his birthday.  Now the date floats and is always the last Saturday of October.

This year we are not only hosting the traditional Hug A Sheep Party from 1:00 to 4:30, but we are also going to be open on Friday as well in case anyone would like to come out and do some shopping and sheep visiting ahead of time.  Friday's events will be offered virtually (via zoom) as well as in person. 

Both mornings I will be doing a virtual flock walk live on Instagram.  If you'd like to join me, Friday's walk will be at 8:00 and Saturday's at 8:30.  The walks were very popular the last two years.  Being forced to learn to use technology a bit was one upside to the pandemic.  I now love turning the phone on and talking sheep with people all over the world.

Here is the complete schedule:


We hope you can join us!



Friday, October 14, 2022

Two Things


One of the problems with getting so far behind updating the blog is that I forget all things I want to share.  There are two more things I'd like to remember about going to the National Drive.  

First up, as I was perusing the tack swap area, a woman came over to see if I had any questions and then stopped short and said "Hey, I know you!"  She was a fellow beekeeper and we'd talked bees many years ago.  Then she added, "I was so sorry to hear about your neighbor."

We talked about Stella for a few minutes and it made me happy to think of her in such a seemingly random place, still being part of so many lives whether through her bees or her "Stella Knitting".  I'm getting ready to do some Stella knitting myself and it does help to think about her laughing about me ripping back yet another sweater.

The other thing is that when I got home, Pinto didn't talk to me for two days.  He didn't even come out into the barn lot like he does every night.  I was snubbed from afar.  He's since forgiven me...or at least is letting me slide on it.  

He's a funny sheep and a good friend.



Thursday, October 13, 2022

Meanwhile, Back At Pony Camp

Last week Frankie, Bea and I headed off to The National Drive at the Hoosier Horse Park.  The HHP is rapidly becoming my second favorite place in the world :-).  This is the same venue that hosted the Combined Driving Event last month and all the arenas and rings and courses (cones and marathon) were still open to play in and that in itself would have made the trip worthwhile, but there was so much more!


The best campsite ever!

There were extra carriage trails set up, several daily workshops to pick and choose from, three clinicians you could take lessons with, train rides with the Indiana Live Steamers, a tack swap, arena derby, pup parade, safari drive, a knit night, bonfire...  There was more stuff to do than you had hours in the days.  It was like being a kid at pony camp!



"Wait, did you say a knit night?"

I ended up stabled next to a super fun group of spinners and knitters!  Thursday night we gathered in front of their stalls to knit and a couple more people stopped by to see what we were working on and share their own projects and we're all looking forward to knitting together again next year.


I took two lessons with Frankie - one working on dressage and one out in the hazards.  The arena lesson was excellent and I got lots of good (and stern) feedback, but you'll never beat driving hazards for the best fun and again that was an outstanding lesson and we drove the water obstacle for the first time.

First we worked through three of the dry land hazards that we'd driven for the event.  I learned better turning techniques and routes to take through, especially with my two wheeled cart.  Most people use four wheeled vehicles now because they handle the tight turns so much easier.  I'm not really in the position to replace my cart, nor do I really want to, so I need to be smarter and smoother through the obstacles.

After we finished the third hazard she asked if I'd driven the water yet.  I said no, but that I was planning to do so while I was up there.  She said "Let's go do it now. My feet are already wet, so if I need to lead you in, it won't be a problem."  I told her I thought Frankie would go on in and he did.  We let him walk around for a minute, checking things out, and then asked him to trot and then started working on the turns.  It was so. much. fun. :-D

The safari drive was another super fun event.  There were 50 stuffed animals (be still my heart :-) placed along six kilometers of beautiful wooded trails.  Next year maybe my stuffed Fiona will join the safari group.  Or maybe 20!  He could be set up as a wildlife photographer!  He'd love watching all the carriages come by :-).

On the last day I was there they hosted a driving derby.  A derby is a group of cones and arena obstacles.  Normally it would be a timed competition, but we drove it just for practice.  I used it as a sort of "final exam" to see if I could drive the obstacles better now after my lessons.  I did much better on everything until the last gate in the second obstacle.  I didn't set my turn up as I'd planned and had to regroup to get out, but that's a good lesson in itself.  I gave myself a B.

I can't figure out a direct way to imbed the video here, but if you'd like to watch, here's a link to a group of videos posted to Facebook.  If that link doesn't open to me and Frankie, I'm wearing a white turtleneck and green vest, so we're not hard to find.

It wasn't just fun and games for me and Frankie.  Bea was pretty sure the whole party was set up just for her.  One afternoon I didn't see her for almost two hours.  Oh, I'd see her buzz by on a golf cart, then a unit, then a different golf cart...  She had the very best baby sitters :-).



It was a great time and the first real vacation I've taken in many years, but we were happy to eventually head home.



Monday, October 10, 2022

Crazy [D]aisy


I am so far behind on everything (happily for fun reasons :-) and I'm trying to catch back up, but I wanted to share this picture of Maisie gobbling up a stolen pumpkin before I forgot.  Remember when she wouldn't eat any treats?  

Surely back in the good old days I wrote about me trying to stick cookies in her mouth years ago and her torpedo-ing them back out...  Did I post over here about the accidental pumpkin patch?  I'm betting not :-(.  


  


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