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

 This was a busy week!  More company, more rain, more Dug shenanigans, lots of work, lots of fun.

Maisie was once again our little ray of sunshine.  This time shining in from the eastern side of the barn.

The big news was of course the eclipse.  I got scared off traveling to see the totality, but we had a good time watching it from our neighborhood.  I rode my bike with Dug and Bea and we had zero traffic issues :-D.

Frankie is fully embracing his back to work regime.

The sheep slogging out on yet another rainy morning.

Wool cats beds are just the thing for a cool rainy night.  Luckily for Archie I haven't started skirting any fleeces yet :-/. 

The redbuds have been beautiful even with all the rain.

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 But finally the sun came out and Big J and I enjoyed morning coffee out in the driveway :-). 

This is Maisie's morning spot right now.  She still sleeps facing out the back door, just a bit further in the barn at night.  In the morning, if it's sunny, this is where you'll find her.

A pretty four leaf clover.

Among lots of other adventures, Dug embraced the party week and enjoyed a bonfire in the greenhouse.

And then went for a kayak ride and a float out in the pond this afternoon.

Missing are pictures of the raised bed garden area.  Sadly I forgot to take a before picture.  I can still get a "during" picture.  After pictures will be later this week....depending on the incoming rain :-/.

The 2024 Eclipse

Being a potato, Dug knew how important it was to protect your eyes ;-D.

We lucked out and the clouds were intermittent enough this afternoon that we were able to watch the eclipse.  It didn't get dark enough for the birds to stop singing and I'm not sure what the sheep and chickens did because Dug, Bea and I were over at the neighbors.  I wonder if the clouds kept things from getting too weird and maybe they didn't really notice.

Were you able to see it where you were?

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.

 

Dug(gy) Daycare

I didn't have the heart to stick Dug outside yesterday.  It was cold and windy and I have notoriously bad luck keeping baby plants from blowing down the driveway and with the concern of wandering sheep...not that anyone did much wandering out of the barn yesterday.

At the end of the day I smacked my forehead with my palm because I (finally) realized I had a perfect spot for Dug...

...the greenhouse.

So Dug is hanging out with the winter pansies and under the watchful care of Rosemary today.  Look how big she's getting!  Dug and Rosemary :-).

My New Pet Potato

I say that like there was an old pet potato.  There wasn't.  In fact, I didn't even know you could have a pet potato, but here we are.

A week or so ago I used up the last of a bag of organic Yukon Gold potatoes and found a teeny tiny potato left in the bottom.  It was the size of a small olive, a sort of flat-ish olive.  Somehow it had rolled through the sorter and landed in my bag of potatoes.

It was way too small to think about cooking, but it had a tiny sprout starting on it so I decided to stick it in a pot and give it a chance to grow and reach it's full potential and for the next couple of days I carried it outside during the day and back inside for the freezing nights.

And I named it Dug.

Since everyone is already making fun of me, would anyone else like to join in and follow Dug's summer of adventures?

March

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Weekend Wrap Up

The first part of the week was still a struggle mostly due to dealing with the weather, worrying about the weather, being beat down from dealing with and worrying about the weather.  It started warming up during the days some, but stayed cold at night.  We all took advantage of the sun when we could.

Jared and Short Round have been sweet for a couple of years now.  Remember when Jared lost Rocky and she sat out with him in the yard?  They are often seen together, but I've never seen him cuddle up and rest his head on her.  He was tired and still a little beat down by the weather and I was so glad to see him get some comfort from a friend.

You'll have to zoom in to see the bird gathering up stray locks of wool leftover from shearing.  Spring is here...even when it doesn't feel like it.

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This video of everyone heading out one morning was fun.

And on one warm afternoon even Betsy came up to the barn for a bit.  I enjoyed sitting out with everyone for awhile and got a few rows of knitting in.  I love to knit in the barn.  I'm still mushing.

This is an interesting picture and not just because the barn wall is reflecting green...surely not from the grass outside (?).  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this was again a weather feature.  Look how many sheep are standing in the outside shed and how few can be seen in the inside stall.  

The wind was blasting from the south, the back end of the barn.  I had all the doors pulled closed, but left an opening in the door on the inside stall so they could still go out and get a drink and if anyone wanted to brave some grazing.  That opening was enough to drive everyone to the closed off side.  

Wind from the south sounds warm, but it always feels extra cold to me...and it looks like to the sheep and chickens as well.

I have always suspected that if Murphy stopped leading everyone out, Krista would take over.  She's not going to put up with his nonsense and headed out to get busy that morning.  Her kids weren't far behind her and when Murphy realized everyone was leaving without him, he ran to catch up and take back the lead.

For a couple of days Pinto decided he'd like to settle down and tie the knot.  He got sweet on Muffin after shearing and stayed pretty infatuated for awhile, not letting her out of his sight and making sure no one got too close to her...including Biscuit :-/.

Muffin put up with it for several days and then I noticed her walk away with Biscuit once morning and Pinto just kept eating and didn't seem to care.  I wonder how that all got decided.  I never saw any fighting between the boys, so I'd like to think Muffin took care of it ;-).

When Maisie gets cold she stands in the skirting area surrounded by bags of wool.  She's so clever.  That's also how I've been deciding if she needs to warm her puffy coat each night.  Sleeping in the straw with your friends has to be so much more comfortable than standing up by yourself.  She happily kits up.  Last night was the first night she didn't need her coat.

This was a fun new addition to the family and will be a funny story to share heading into the new week, so stay tuned :-).

* * * * *

The week ended on a much better note and I feel like things are getting back to "normal" finally.  Frankie and I have started back to work...just in time for a week of heavy rain predicted.  I'm hoping I don't lose my momentum outside and can instead focus on some inside jobs on the deluge days.

I'm really tired of complaining about the weather.  

Good Help

"I can't believe you were going to start without me."

"I don't know who thinks they're in charge around here."

"So this is what you're using."

"Doesn't look too hard."

"Interesting technique."

"Well, I guess that's one way to do it."

"This sheet feels about the right size."

Archie took lots of breaks...

"It's important to make sure everything stays secure."

These are my friend Rebecca's sheep.  She's been bringing them over for shearing for many years now.

"You should probably add a strap up there."

"It'll ride."

"And that's a wrap."

Shearing doesn't happen without a lot of good help and this year's crew was the best...including Archie...most of the time ;-).  

A Rare Sighting

I was downloading some pictures for a friend yesterday and found some pictures that Miss B took after shearing.  I don't remember exactly what was going on here, but this group of sheep were probably thinking my coffee cup had treats in it.  I don't think most of them would just choose hanging out with me over eating green grass ;-).

Thanks, Miss B.  I don't have many pictures of me with my friends :-).

I have a funny series of pictures of Archie during shearing.  Stay on me so I don't forget to post them!

Weekend Wrap Up

I'm going to try something new.  I've actually been thinking about doing this for a couple of years, but apparently needed the FB debacle to push me to actually do it.  

The Plan - even if I do some blog posts throughout the week (the ideal situation), I'm going to try to do a Weekend Wrap Up post that picks some important IG posts and shares them over here and on FB.

I hate that there are so many good (frequently really good) memories stored over on IG that never make this searchable blog.  While I don't care much at all about FB, I do care about the people who follow me over there and who are now missing all the daily posts.

At some point maybe I'll figure out a way to fix the FB issue, but at this point, a few posts are hopefully better than no posts.

And while there is much of this past week that I'd like to forget, that's not how life and farming works, so without further ado...the first Weekend Wrap Up.

* * * * * 

I'd like to start off by saying thank you for all the kind comments, messages and notes about Blossom.  I knew that was going to hit a lot of us really hard.  I still can't believe she's gone, but I hope she's out grazing along the creek with Hank and dancing in the moonlight. 

If you'd have asked me last Saturday, I'd have said shearing went great.  It did, as far as shearing goes.  Once again, after weeks of really nice weather, we got hit with a horrible cold snap and honestly I think it was worse than last year because it was still blasting us with a miserable cold wind today, eight days later.

I am definitely not going to forget any of that because it's going to dictate how I schedule things next year.  In the meantime, let's remember everyone out grazing that afternoon, the last warm day, and enjoy seeing Biscuit and Muffin still grazing side by side just as they have done since they were lambs :-).

Here's a short flock walk from Monday evening:

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While I don't like the story behind this picture, I do like the picture.

Jared was miserably cold.  On Wednesday, he finally felt well enough to leave the barn and sneak out to get his special second breakfast.  I nearly cried.  He started improving every day after that and was almost back to normal this afternoon.

On a happier note, I heard the first Purple Martins chirruping Friday afternoon.  They'd have been happier a week or two ago when it was warm and there were bugs everywhere, but they'll be happy tomorrow when it warms back up.  

This was a screen capture using the Merlin Bird app.  If you aren't already familiar with that, check it out.  Big fun!

While it might appear that I've just been wandering around lost in the Alaskan wilderness, I am still working on my Iknitarod project.  We'll get there eventually.

* * * * *

Okay, this wasn't too hard and on a better week, might actually be pretty fun to put together and hopefully I'll do more than just hit the high spots.  There were more pictures on IG and some pictures that never even got shared over there, so maybe I'll do a couple of catch (further) up posts.

On to the new week!