The Corgi Of The Sheep World

For years Short Round has been called Short Round.  Other than a ewe we called Eeyore, she was actually the shortest sheep on the farm and before she lambed each year she was...well...round.  We'd watch her waddle around for weeks and be relieved when she finally lambed and then look at her short, round lambs and laugh.  

It's cute name for a cute sheep, but it's not a pretty name.  I have concerns that it has racist undertones from the character in the Indiana Jones movie.  Also, Short Round was one of the Tilly's nicknames.  We can do better.  

I've tried out several great suggestions for a week now and nothing is sticking.

Ellie and her mom had been here for four days before Saint Tim finally went out to the barn to see them.  Who waits four days to go meet sweet little Ellie?!?  Those are four days he's never getting back ;-).  He took one look at Ellie's short and still pretty round mom and said "She's the corgi of the sheep world!"

So for now...she's Short Round.  

While we continue to puzzle over names, here's a new jigsaw puzzle :-).

The Little Weasel

Miss Tilly was named after one of my favorite old neighbors from years past.  I always seem to end up with a good neighbor almost everywhere I've ever lived :-).  

As most puppies do, Tilly dug some holes in our gardens and Tim started calling her The Garden Weasel after one of those "as seen on tv" ads.  The Garden Weasel soon became Weaslie and then Tim's dad called her Weaser.  She picked up Short Round and Tilly Bobby from a couple of favorite movies.  The Little Shriner came from the guys who drove the tiny cars around in circles at the circus.  Tilly would run in circles trying to figure out what direction Iris was heading.  Dammit Weaslie because...corgis ;-).  

We got to sit outside under the still standing Christmas card tree yesterday and enjoy a dog picnic and one last afternoon nap.  There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Miss Tillly

September 2006 - March 29, 2021

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Easter Eggs For Christmas

I came up with a plan for the Christmas card early in the year.  It was something cute and fun with the horses and sheep and I was excited about trying to draw and paint it.  Just before I started to work on it, B. Willard got into a bucket of greenery I'd cut and ate just enough off each branch that I could no longer really use any of them and would have to start cutting all over.  

I was laughing with Auntie Reg about that and we agreed it was 2020 in a nutshell and that should be the card design this year.

I sketched it out, had my yearly conference with my favorite art teacher, started painting...and I didn't love it.  It wasn't terrible...but it wasn't great.  There were good parts...and parts that I just didn't feel  were working out at all.  There were several things I wished I had done differently and I considered just starting all over.

It's been a sad, sentimental sort of year.  The thought of painting over the top of naughty Cheeto and Willard or the horses running around the yard or Salt sleeping under her favorite tree made me...sad and sentimental.  Those were good stories.  Good times.  

Tilly digging in the bucket to see if there was anything to eat, Possum, so happy on "her" porch, Maisie standing watch over the flock...and wearing a Santa hat, no less!  Rocky and Jared grazing in the yard and the chickens...the chickens... ;-)

There's probably too much focus on the Wool House porch, but sitting in those chairs with Kate and Tilly, watching the sun come up and Willard hobble out to "make the donuts" each morning meant a lot to me.  I hope we aren't the only ones still sitting out there somehow.

Maisie floating around by herself out in "left field"...is, well, kind of Maisie.  I added her red hat to try to draw some attention away from the heaviness of the porch and it became a nice reminder of the fun we had dressing her up this year. 

Oh wait, I did paint out one character - Betsy (said like "Newman" from Seinfeld).  I'd originally had her looking out of the window of the Wool House, but after yet another vicious attack on sweet little Possum, I replaced her with a potted plant.  It's a special plant though.  Every year Stella gives me a beautiful poinsettia and it made me happy to include it.  

So...while I might not love the overall design of the card, when I notice all the little stories behind the big story I have to admit it's still a pretty good card. Sure, there are good parts and not as good parts and things I wish I'd done differently and stories I wished had ended differently, but...that's probably 2020 in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas!

Best. Anniversary. Ever.

  

I got up Sunday morning and went to Winchester to have breakfast with John and Auntie Reg.  I took Kate and Tilly with me because...they always go with me.  Kate went exploring around their yard like any other visit and I didn't think anything about it.  Kate doesn't get into trouble.  She never leaves me.  

9-14 year old Kate would never leave me.  15 year old Kate, now deaf and significantly vision impaired and while in good condition for a 15 year old dog, but not strong enough to venture into the woods...ventured into the woods.

I'm not sure if she fell, got disoriented because she doesn't see well or just wasn't strong enough to pull herself back up the hill.  Regardless, even though we realized pretty quickly that something wasn't right, we couldn't call her name and expect any response.

And she wasn't just off in any old woods.  She was on the "hillside" overlooking the Kentucky river.  We immediately starting searching, but I knew we were in trouble.  I called Tim and he came over and brought a neighbor with him.  

We searched and searched and I called a border collie friend who I knew could whistle really loudly in hopes that maybe Kate could still hear a herding whistle and find her way back.  She also brought two dogs with her in hopes they would stumble across her.  Nothing.

We searched the surrounding, very rugged, terrain for 11 hours.  The drive home that night was the worst thing I've ever experienced.  I went back over early the next morning and checked in with some near-ish cattle farms in hopes she'd smelled stock and gone to them.  

We got escorted into the nearby old stone quarry and searched for signs there.  We drove from road to road and house to house and Reg talked to anyone she could find and called so many people.  We re-walked and walked and walked all over the hillside, as far down as it was safe to go.  

This was not a "walk in the woods".  If she'd gone down, the elevation drop is 300' and at best maybe a 45 degree angle.  Much of it is a cliff...straight down.  The underbrush was thick and the area is full of old stone walls.  It was unlikely she could get past all that, but after searching along the upper side of the hill for two days and all the nearby open farm ground as best we could, Tim decided to climb down into the Lower Howard's Creek.

It was definitely worth a shot, heck, anything was, but by this point I had very little hope left.  It was getting dark and closing in on what would be her second cold night in the wilderness. A wilderness full of coyotes and bobcats and sometimes other predators.  

He called to let me know when he gotten down into the creek bed and I waited at John and Reg's.  I was exhausted.  I was broken.  Tilly was with me, but she, too, was upset and miserable.  She ate her dinner, but wouldn't stop walking around and kept sniffing pretty close to where I'd last seen Kate.  I decided to make one more trip down into the woods.

I once again crawled under, through and over and slipped and slid down loose rocks and dirt. I'd maybe made it a quarter of the way down, zig zagging left and right, when my phone dinged with a text message.  I pulled it out of my pocket...and there was the picture of Tim...with Kate.  She was still alive and he had her in his arms!  

I don't really remember scrambling up the hill or, honestly, even driving to the point where he was going to bring her out.  He ended up carrying her nearly a half mile, through water in some parts up to his chest.  When he'd try to set her down to walk, she'd turn around and try to go back where he'd found her. Definitely disoriented and maybe a little shocky.

The vet told us some things to immediately check and do for her before we got her to the clinic.  Luckily I hadn't given all the food I had packed for her to Tilly and she gobbled it up.  I'd assumed being next to the creek that she'd had plenty to drink, but when we got to the vet clinic, her blood work was not great and she needed IV fluids.  

She went back to the clinic this morning and stayed for several hours while they ran more fluids, but by mid afternoon they said she was in good shape and ready to come home.  She is laying at my feet as I type this.  It is truly a miracle. 

This is just the highlights of the story.  Don't try to imagine the rest or what she (and we) went through or what could have happened...  I've done enough of that for all of us and I've never cried so hard in my whole life.  

I want to offer up a huge thank you to everyone who helped bring Kate home, especially Auntie Reg and her friends and neighbors.  

Our friends who came from two counties away and gave up their entire Sunday to help search and then drive me home that night. 

The god of old dogs (and maybe sheep and cats) and their angels who I'm sure gave Kate a strong "lie down" so she stayed put when she hit the creek.  

And to 'the old man of the creek and rivers' who had the vision to go down the creek...and carry her back to me.  I guess all that fishing finally paid off ;-).  Today is our anniversary.  I'd like to say we make a good team, but honestly, Saint Tim is always carrying us all. 

The One She Always Watches For

'Twas Just Hank

...or was it?

Sunny Sunday

We had a nice break in the weather Sunday so I headed out with the sheep for a late afternoon graze.  The sheep were spread out between the Pond Field and the Lower Paddock.  The Pond Field is...the one with the ponds in it, behind the arena.  The Lower Paddock is the closer of those two paddocks next to the Front Field.  I was sitting in the Lower Paddock with Kaala and about 12 other sheep.

This should be a fun puzzle :-).

That better just be a lot of wool, Kaala ;-).

Hark!  Who goes there?

An intruder!

And someone or something else?

If You Want To Get All Technical About It

With enough cute corgi pictures to keep it interesting ;-).  And some stats at the end that will probably surprise you.

Even 20 looks overwhelmed with trying to decide how to decide which singles to ply to which to get the most evenly matched skeins in the end. 

Here is what we did:

We re-weighed each finished ball.  The reason?  A big fluffy pile of wool doesn't necessarily weigh the same as a compressed ball of wool.  I used my "science" scale to get really fussy technical.

I then put each ball in a water pitcher (so it wouldn't bounce all around the room) and pulling from the outside of the ball carefully wound it into a two yard skein.

Noted yardage.  I love, love, love having a counter on my skein winder*.  It's life changing...well spinning life at least...but spinning is life...no wait, sheeps are life... ;-)

I tied a piece of yarn to the loose end of the single.  I did that so I'd easily know which end I was supposed to start with for plying.

I also tied a couple of tight bow knots to secure the rest of the skein.  I used the bows to be easy to untie but also to help keep track of the outsides of each skein.  

Next, the Jethro cipherin'.  Skein #11 actually weighted 2.024 ounces.  It is 220 yards long.  Solve for x to get the yards per ounce, in this case 108.7.

You can do the next part by hand...or use a spreadsheet.  I like math, but love spreadsheets ;-).

I sorted the skeins by yards per ounce and then paired of skein #6 with skein #17, #4 with #9, #3 with #7...  

Making sure you have the two loose ends facing the same direction...

 ...and the bows are all facing up (if facing down then the skein is twisted)...

...and your skein winder securely anchored with a corgi butt...

...ply as usual.  My skein winder has a tensioning feature and I cranked it down pretty tight so I didn't go free wheeling off into space.  

The final results?  

First I re-weighed all the plied skeins.  The yardage of each skein could only be as long as the shortest single so there were leftovers on several of the skeins.  The leftover singles were all on the thinner side (longer yardage per ounce) so when they were plied together, the resulting two ply is significantly thinner, hence separated out at the bottom.

Ply shrinkage - when you ply the two singles, the plied yard will end up shorter than the original singles because as you twist the two yarns together, the yarns are no longer straight.  The more you twist them, the shorter the yarn will become.  

That skein with the shrinkage of 14 was either plied with more twist or I wrote something down wrong.  Just looking at the finished skein I can't see a significant difference from the others so regardless it will knit up just fine.  Likewise with the shrinkage of 4 yards.  

Verdict?  I am much, much happier with my finished yarn.  The difference between skeins now is much less than any yarns I've spun previously.  Plus I found it interesting to track all the stats.  

While I was thinking along the lines of statistics, I decided to track my time spinning and plying.  It took me 27 hours to spin the singles and 6 hours to ply them.  I didn't figure in my time cipherin'.  That would have been an embarrassing number ;-).

Want to take this a little further?  If I paid myself $10 an hour, that's $330 just for the spinning work.  It costs $10 per sheep for shearing and about an hour for skirting, so another $10 there.  $24 to wash and $27.50 for processing into roving, not counting gas and time going up to the mill and back.  

Just counting BASIC yearly costs for hay, grain, bedding, vet work...it costs us $100 to produce a fleece.  That doesn't include mortgage, insurance, utilities, fuel, buying the sheep, farm equipment... Also, spinning wheels aren't cheap.  Neither are the workshops I've traveled to take to learn to spin the yarn...

The moral of this story?  I might just print this out and hand it to the next person who can't believe I can't sell them a hand spun and hand knit sweater.  That's $501.50 Just. For. The. Yarn.  Figure in the weeks I spent knitting the Muffin sweater?  Even if it wasn't Muffin...it would be priceless.

*     *     *     *     *

*My skein winder is from Nistock Farms.  Even if they weren't good friends of ours, I would say this is the very best skein winder I have ever used.  It's solid and stable, easy to use winding on or off and being able to easily count yardage is...life changing ;-).

Keeping An Eye On The Trail

*     *     *     *     *

We are all running strong now.  The sweater looks much better and I think I'm safe on the gauge.  Pip is not convinced.  She thinks it's going to be too big for her ;-).

A Good Day For A Nap

Yes, it's raining...again.  Tilly probably has the right idea.  Sigh...

And It's Back

We got several inches of snow again last night which reminded me that I'd forgotten to share some cute Tilly pictures I'd taken for the "camping" post during the Iknitarod.

I'd taken a whole series of pictures of Tilly digging a snow bed...

...but a corgi digging in deep (for a corgi ;-) snow...the pictures all look pretty much the same ;-).

And then, when she lays down...it's kind of hard to tell that she actually has ;-D.

But it's pretty hard to top a corgi with a snow ball on her nose ;-).

Camping Away From A Checkpoint

After a warm, sunny afternoon yesterday, we had our biggest snow of the season last night.  It was beautiful!  Huge, dropping flakes that piled up quickly.

It looks like June is running the Iknitarod Barn Checkpoint by herself, but Hank is just down the hill 😉. This only makes sense if you’ve been glued to the Iditarod Live Feed half the day 😆. The big mound is muck I’ve been scraping away from the gate and water tank for the last few weeks 😵. #iditarod #iknitarod2018 #crazyweather #livestockguardiandogs

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 11, 2018 at 8:17pm PDT

I hung out in the barn and barn lot for, well, I don't even know how long.  It was late.  I'd been knitting in the Wool House with 20, Carbear, Kate and Tilly, trying to catch back up from my wrong turn during the afternoon.

Kate and Tilly are working the Wool House Checkpoint 😀. Made up my lost ground this evening. Whew! #iknitarod2018 #iditarod #crazybigsnowflakes

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Mar 11, 2018 at 8:21pm PDT

Sometimes mushers will come through a checkpoint and then continue on down the trail to camp for awhile away from the noise and crowds.  20 and Carbear thought that sounded like a great idea and found the perfect spot to set up camp under a favorite pine tree.

I think Carbear was a bit confused about the whole Carbeth/Iknitarod event to begin with, but he's enjoyed hanging out with 20, listening to tales of previous years and is quickly becoming a veteran musher.

"How's it going out here, 20?"

"It's good!  This snow is amazing!  Just a beautiful morning for sure and the company's good, too!"

"This tree is a perfect camping spot, even with the big globs of snow falling off it, onto us.  Wool's good that way."

Mushing on!

Keeping An Eye On The Trail

We woke to snow this morning. Of course we did :-/. Once the sheep are shorn, I no longer wish for snow.  Sigh...  Luckily it was still pretty warm and it didn't last long.  Barely long enough to get some Iknitarod team pictures.  

June looks like she's lost the trail ;-).

Iris made this trail from the house to the barn years ago and Tilly still uses it.  

The Tilly Trail.

Kate may not use Iris Lane very often, but she does keep an eye on the traffic.

The snow melted so fast you could watch it happening.

I have both sleeves re-knit and I've started the body.  I was hoping to reach the 4" mark this evening, but I'm running out of gas and my "paws" are a little sore, so I may "take an eight".

Hank and June are happy about the cooler weather.  The sheep...are actually doing okay.  This weather is not ideal, but the barn is closed up to block the wind and they have plenty to eat to help stay warm.  Sure glad we didn't do the oldies!