My Favorite Sheep...Of The Week

This week's Sheep of the Week is Burrnie :-D.  

Burrnie's story isn't anywhere near as harrowing as Renny's was, but it's not for the faint of heart either.  He came out of a horrible neglect situation and was rescued by Nistock Farm back in 2013.  He moved here in February of 2014 and has been a fun addition to the flock.

I teasingly call him a Sesame Street character because even though his wool is a creamy white, everything else about him, like his hair and skin is yellow.  Even his dark red "eye score" (a way to check for anemia from parasites - dark red is good) is tinged in yellow.  I'm sure he has some Tunis in his background.

Burrnie loves being here and loves sleeping in the the barn with all his friends.  He used to always sleep right in the middle of the stall in the middle of everyone, but I'm starting to find him sleeping on the "hill" between the inside and outside stalls lately.  I think he does that because he's starting to have some trouble getting up :-/.

If you scroll back through the blog and IG, there are quite a few pictures of Burrnie sound asleep at the night check.  He frequently doesn't even wake up as I walk through and tell everyone good night.  Even after all these years I still love to see him sleeping like that.  Everyone should feel that safe and secure.

This is as close to a baby picture as we have, taken while in quarantine at Nistock Farms.  You can see how he got his name.  It's hard to believe he was ever that small.

"I'm pretty big now and my eyes aren't nearly as bugged out. I've never gotten covered in burrs like that again, but I don't mind my name.  I'm proud of being tough enough to get through all that with the help of some nice people."

"Here is me getting carried out to the car when I moved to Kentucky.  I was much fatter by then, but Andy just scooped me up and carried me all the way up the stairs and out the door.  I don't think he could do that now haha."

There are a ton of good Burrnie stories if you scroll back through the blog.  I'd forgotten about his first cookie party and putting him out with some of the boys and Daniel causing so much trouble.  Or that he and Maisie used to be good friends.  There are a couple of references to that.  Maybe one of the best stories was Bill shearing him blindfolded.  Burrnie's always been a good sport.

Burrnie has a fairly short fleece, but it's on the finer side so a bit softer than the longwools.  I spun and knit a hat for Robin from what I could salvage from his first shear and I've used it for felting several times. Burrnie's main job here is just being a happy sheep :-).

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.

Tour de Sheep

 

My Tour de Fleece is more of a Tour de Sheep this year.  So far I've spun 10 sample skeins.  Let's see if I can remember them all...PPPP, Henri, Petunia, Boudreaux, Woody, Buddy, Rebecca Boone, Count Chocula, Miss Ewenice and Hershey :-).

I have really enjoyed pulling out these old friends.  I'd forgotten how soft Boudreaux was, how luxurious Hershey was, how...everything Miss Ewenice was.  She's been gone 10 years now.  I have some Renny set aside for tomorrow.  I can't spin Ewenice without spinning some Renny :-).  

February

 It's hard to spell February after a month of spelling it Fiberuary!  All in all it was a pretty good month :-)

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A Wool(ish) House

I found a super sweet bird nest the other day.  It had blown down during a wind storm.  I love all bird nests, but this one is extra special because of all the wool in it. Buddy and/or Woolliam, Petunia and/or Daniel and Chocula, Salt and/or Hank and probably some others as well.  Here's a quick tour:

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Thank you for all the calendar orders! I hope you know how much that is appreciated.  They are still "at the printers" waiting to be assembled, but luckily Tim's been busy this month.  That's appreciated as well ;-).

Some neighborhood news - there appears to be another stray cat hanging around.  Both my neighbor and I have been blaming the sightings on each other's calico cats and two days ago I broke up a fight next door in which "Betsy" took off running towards our farm...but then I found the real Betsy asleep in the house.  "Betsy's Stunt Double" was spotted between the two farms again last night.

Four bossy calico cats in one area is probably going to make for a long winter.  Why couldn't it have been a sweet orange kitty :-(.  Sigh...

A Sweet Story About A Sweet Sheep

A couple of weeks ago I needed to run to town and pick up some groceries and pet food. Or, I should say, go to town to pick up pet food...and some groceries ;-).  

I shop mostly at the small family owned grocery because "small, family owned", but also because there's (sadly for them) less people.  However, when you are feeding a large Pyrenees who likes her dry food topped with canned cat food and a couple, okay all three, "complicated" cats, about once a month I brave the big box store.  

So, well stocked with hand sanitizer and my mask, I headed to town...and the parking lot looked like it was a holiday weekend.

My first thought was to just turn around and go home.  We're pretty good at scrounging the pantry for weird stuff that needs clearing out and, in fact, it's become my main house cleaning strategy this summer ;-).  However, Comby really needed his special food :-/.  Sigh...  Wait!  I could go to TSC (Tractor Supply Company).

As I walked in, for some reason (special sheep spotting super power :-) I looked in the sale bin at the front of the store.  I never look there.  But I did.  And I spotted two dog toys stuffed sheep tossed in the bottom bin!  I picked up one and immediately texted a friend who I knew would come rescue the other one.

From there my new little sheep friend and I "crossed the river" and went to the little grocery.  No four year old tin of black eyed peas for dinner that night ;-D. 

Look how happy he looks to be out in the fresh air and blue skies! :-)

...and then I started worrying about his friend back in the dog toy bin.  What happened if my friend couldn't get there in time and some terrible person who would buy a stuffed sheep for their dog to rip to shreds got to him first :-o.  Since I had to drive right back past the farm store on my way home anyway, I decided I should foster the other sheep.  Crisis averted ;-).

...and I pulled in their parking lot just behind my friend :-).  Before she went in to rescue her sheep, we stood outside talking for awhile.  She's not had a stellar year.  I haven't had a stellar year.  We commiserated on our not stellar years and counted our many blessings and I left feeling a little better and less alone and I hope she did as well.  

...and I thought of how if the box store hadn't have been too crowded, I'd have not gone to the farm store at Just The Right Time and then on to the little grocery and back to the farm store at Just At The Right Time and of how two little stuffed sheep could help brighten up a couple of afternoons.  

Meet Chocula Chip :-)

Of course I had to pull out some Count Chocula roving I have stashed and spin a couple of ounces so he could learn about his namesake and a bit about his new home and what we do here.  He watched very carefully.

...and picked up spinning right away.

Then we washed his skein to set the twist.

That is a happy little sheep :-).

He even has the ear pillow down pat :-).

...and if I can ever get the Renny sweater finished, he'll have a warm wool sweater to wear this winter...before the next Iknitarod starts :-o.

The Titan

There has been a group of sheep here over the years that I've considered titans.  Buddy, Woolliam, Ewen McTeagle, Jester, Marcel, Keebler, Graham Lamb...  Big in stature...and personality.  Count Chocula was The Titan.  

We've been trying to fight through a bladder stone attack for a week.  He patiently tolerated everything we tried and we tried pretty much everything.  I finally had to call it. 

I will sure miss seeing you standing in your doorway.  Thank you for one final classic picture last night.  You were a good sheep.  The bravest Titan of them all.

May 2013 - June 26, 2020

The Fourth Picture

The first picture was good, but the fourth picture was better ;-).  Less distracting sunburst and better composition.

    

Evening light is my favorite.  Evening in general is my favorite.  Everything seems to take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Some days it's the nice end to a good day.  Some days it's just a we made it to the end.  One of the few good parts of summer is the soft evening light after a long, too bright day.  

The trick to these pictures is waiting until the sunlight is perfect.  Or happening to notice the sun is perfect and grabbing your camera and running out.  It doesn't stay perfect for long.  The Golden Hour doesn't last quite an hour I've found.

Once the sunlight is perfect, you still need to work a bit.  It helps to filter the bright light through some trees.  Move around and watch how your camera reacts.  If it's too blown out, change your angle just a little.  Too dark?  Again, move around, put the sun behind a bigger tree...

If you want to get more technical, read up on metering so you'll better understand how your camera is thinking.  I also set my white balance to cloudy.  White balance and exposure compensation are two very basic camera tools everyone should learn to use.  Read your manual or look online.

The always photogenic Count Chocula.

This is too sunset-y, but I like the composition.  Daniel, Liddy, Kaala.

Muuufin :-)

This is Baaxter with the sun shining from the side...

...and now shining from behind.  I like the little bit more definition of the first picture, but the soft light of the second picture.  The background of the second picture is more interesting as well.

And this was my favorite picture of the evening.  Kaala with the light balanced just right behind the filtering trees.  It's also a new puzzle :-).

Spring Shearing Shots

Another spring shearing is in the books and this may have been our best shearing yet.  The fleeces are a little messier than I'd like, but they aren't terrible.  The weather, with the excessive rain and several high wind events, has been extra challenging this winter.  

Bill, our shearer for the past...many years...has stopped shearing.  Without his big shearing trailer with it's ramps and chutes to rely on, both Tring Farm and Final Frontier Farm had to set up in-barn working systems to handle their big flocks.  

I watched how both set ups worked out and decided to set up a similar system over here.  Tring Farm kindly loaned us all the gates and panels we needed and helped design the areas and angles and it worked a treat.  

The sheep were all penned in the aisleway stall which funneled into a small catch pen which funneled into the chute which fed into a tiny catch pen where the sheep were then turned around and backed out onto the shearing board.

The fleeces might have been messier than I'd like, but the shearing itself went great.  Taylor Schwartz came over from Mayslick, Kentucky, and did an outstanding job with our, um, challenging interesting flock.  I've got more pictures to post tomorrow.

Sweet Cheeto

Big Moose marched into the holding pen...and then decided maybe he really didn't want to be the next sheep in the barber chair.  Either that or he's standing up making some sort of speech.  Either seems plausible :-).

All those beautiful baby curls :'-(.

Even prettier on the inside.

Mini Moose watching.  I have a video to upload of Big Moose being sheared, but the internet is so slow tonight that I barely got these pictures loaded.  You can hear Mini Moose calling to him.  First hair cuts are probably a bit scary.

"They are."

Remember Mini Moose's dark gray stripe running down his shoulders as a lamb?  It's still there!  I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow.

Tabitha

Count Chocula

Big J aka Jared

Good old Salt.  I think I've taken a shearing day picture of her at Final Frontier Farm every year for the last...many years.  Seemed kind of funny to be taking a picture of her on our farm.  Seemed kind of funny to not be shearing with Bill, too, but that worked out as well.  

Our 15 Minutes Of [Snow]

We enjoyed it while it lasted :-).

Mini Moose and Chocula

Big J aka Jared

Mini Moose and the little darlin' ;-).  

Big Moose.  He's just so fun to photograph.  What expression.  

Chocula, Tessa and Tabitha.  Chocula was picking hay of Tessa's back.  I'll have to up his pay :-).

Liddle

Petunia and Tessa

And a new puzzle!

The Most Interesting Sheep In The World

It was in the 60s this afternoon so I grabbed my knitting bag and headed out to the barn lot.  I took my camera as well, but mostly didn't get anything worth sharing.  I did kind of like this picture of Big Moose though.  Then, in the background I noticed Maisie watching intently out the back door.  Always on guard.  I find her endlessly fascinating.

2019 Hug A Sheep Day

We ended up having a great farm party to celebrate (Inter)National Hug a Sheep Day this year.  Quite a few people braved the weather and while 20, warm and dry in the Wool House, got the most actual hugs, there were enough cookies flowing out in the barn so no sheep felt left out on their special day.

Amy (Auset Images) battled the dark barn and got so many great pictures that I couldn't narrow it down to just a few to share here, so what follows is picture heavy.  She's posted all of them to a gallery where you can not only view them, but if you'd like to purchase copies for yourself, it's quick and easy to do.  

The Fiber Pusher (aka Kaala's mom ;-) also took a bunch of pictures and some video and has shared those on her site as well.  The first part of her video is some footage of the sheep and sheep silliness and the second half of her video is a time lapse of the barn aisle throughout most of the afternoon and it's a hoot!

Woody kept everyone entertained with his obnoxious amazing gate climbing skills.

Look!  It's the lil' darlin' (Maisie ;-) politely begging for cookies.  Will wonders never cease...

Jared was once again the biggest fan of Feed A Sheep A Cookie Day.

He mugged worked the crowd the entire day and by the end was so jacked up on cookies and crackers that I wasn't sure he would ever leave the barn again to go out and eat healthy grass.  He was still wound up the next day!

Big Moose couldn't believe we would host a party just for him two weeks in a row.  I'm not sure what he's going to think this Saturday when no one comes to see him...and feed him cookies ;-).

Oh look, it's Jared, back for more "hugs" ;-D.

Auntie Reg stayed warm and dry in the Wool House and enjoyed visiting with everyone :-).

Murphy, Chocula and Woody run a racket where they come out to the gate, grab as many cookies as they can, then run around to the side wall and stick their noses through and swear they've not had any cookies yet ever and then go back out to the gate...

"Hey, mister?  Could you tell all the kids with cookies to come back, please?"

I periodically took cookies out to the shy sheep so no one got left out.  Muuuufin ;-).

Follow this link for even more pictures!

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Now here's where things get super awesome.  If you follow the hashtag #hugasheepday on IG or #hugasheepday on Twitter you are going to be AMAZED at how many folks around the world were hugging sheep with us!  And these were just the ones who used the hashtag.

Remember when we had our first Hug A Sheep Day here at our little farm nine years ago?  Seriously, go click those two links (you don't need an account).  You are going to be blown away!  

All from one little sheep...

Happy Hug A Sheep Day everybody!...everyday :-).