Speaking Of Cats

I just added a cute picture of Bullseye to yesterday's post.  I'd saved it...and then promptly forgot about it.

On a crazy note, a video of Possum and Archie with a little bit of Bea went viral on Instagram last week.  Not millions of views viral (thank goodness), but as of this morning, 230,000 views.  

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

Leave it to Possum, the Murphy of the cat world here.

I think part of why this happened was a short poem by Carl Sandburg that begins "The fog comes on little cat feet."  I wasn't aware of that, so am happy I got something of value from the 318 (!) comments that the post received...most of which I don't believe were bots.  

The I-64 Spring Fiber Fling

I don't travel much.  It's hard to leave a farm full of animals that count on Things Being Done Like They Always Are.  Having the barn cameras now may help at least my peace of mind if I decide to go somewhere, but taking care of animals, especially lots of older animals can be a challenge.

Some nights Maisie likes to eat her hay on the steps.  Some nights she wants to eat from a bucket.  Some nights she'd like a pile of hay placed in front of her in bed.  Sometimes a young sheep gets mud stuck between their toes that dries into a hard stabby rock and you have to pick it out and at the same time grab the thorny rose branch that they got stuck in their wool...Big Moose!

That being said, I do like when people come to see me.  We don't have the fanciest place and I'm never going to fix you a gourmet farm to table meal, but the farm is peaceful and fun and the sheep, horses, cats, Bea and Pinot are good characters and if you are here around lunchtime, I'd be happy to make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I also have lots of wool in all stages of "production" - raw fleeces, washed fleeces, roving, batts, handspun yarn, small batch mill spun  farm yarns, learn to spin kits, felting supplies, quilt batting, punch needle ideas, ideas in general...so many ideas...

I also have some fiber processing equipment, a couple of spinning wheels, a loaner weaving loom and a whole bag full of knitting and crochet needles.  Want to give something a try?  Come on out.  And while I'm not an expert, I'm happy to teach you what I've learned along the way.  

We've dabbled with participating in more agritourism ventures, but are just far enough off the main road that it would take a little more effort and experience than I really have time for right now.  Did I follow my "schedule" and spin yesterday?  Nope.  I spent my time wrangling with a feral kitten/cat that you can meet on my Instagram feed because I haven't had time to share all that over here because I'm trying to write a blog post about the I-64 Spring Fiber Fling because someone else has done the agritourism prep work for me and I'm pretty excited to be given the opportunity to participate.  (inhale...exhale)

20 and his friends are pretty excited about this "yarn crawl" as well.

I'm going to send you to the I-64 Fiber Fling website for all the details on how to join, who you can visit, what each store or farm is offering, prizes you can win...  I'll also do another post over here next Thursday or Friday telling what I have planned for our stop.  It's going to be fun!

In the meantime, I'm headed out to make a quick barn check and then to the house to make my peanut butter sandwich.  The feral cat escaped from the greenhouse so I don't have that to contend with today...unfortunately.  Maybe I'll get some Iknitarod knitting done this afternoon.  I am working my way down the trail, just not as quickly as I'd hoped.

Whew!

Watching And Looking

Last night I posted a picture of Maisie and Big Moose clocking in for guard sheep duty and wondered "aloud" how long that had been going on.  On the blog I'd just click on a label for either Maisie or Big Moose and be able to quickly scroll back.  On Instagram...it's all there, but you have to scroll back and back and back and back and back to find it.  I've made 5,695 posts :-o.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

It started the night before Hank died. I took this picture as I was sitting out on the hill with him for what I think we both knew was the last time.  They were looking over at him...or me...or maybe already the far hill.  

 

5,695 memories.  Some heartbreakingly sad...but grateful for every one.

 

This WAS A Test - Updated

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

I linked my Instagram to the blog using IFTTT and it DID work, but the formatting was wonky and without knowing how to fix that or having the time to try to learn, it was making me crazy so I deleted the imported post and manually re-posted it to clean things up.  So...barn clean, blog clean, house...still a wreck :-o.

We Haven't Had A Good Hank Post In Awhile

As I was sorting through the 'sheep in the snow pictures' I took this morning, I found a couple of Hank and had to think back to the last good Hank picture I've taken.  He's like an anti-virus program for the computer, seamlessly running in the background, keeping all your files (and sheep) safe from harm.  

I took one picture with him looking at the camera, but he was making a funny and not ferocious face and he wouldn't want that posted online ;-).  Before I could take another, he went back on duty looking out towards the ponds where I think the fox has been hunting lately.  

So Hank gets his own post today.  There will be sheep pictures tomorrow.  If you'd like to see a short video walking through the flock while they ate breakfast this morning, it's posted on my "Stories" on Instagram and will stay there until about 9:00 tomorrow (Saturday) morning.  

I missed the "save it" option and I can't figure out how to share it anywhere else.  Also, I think it's only going to show up on your phone/tablet maybe.  I just tried to find it on my desktop version and I don't see it.  Why is this stuff so complicated...

Rebecca Boone is doing better!  She felt well enough to eat some Cheerios this morning :-D.

Two Birds...

I posted five pictures to Instagram and tried to just embed the post here, but I don't think all the pictures were going to come through so I've copied and pasted it over here mostly to let you know Rebecca Boone is still fighting and maybe showing a little improvement and also a little Liddy and Woody to make you smile.  Those bad Mooses though... ;-).

* * * * *

First an update on Rebecca Boone- she’s still fighting and maybe a little better this morning. Thank you for all the prayers and concern. I love how we take care of each other. It matters. 

If I’d read forward on the Fiberuary list I would have held off on my pictures from the other day because I actually nailed several challenges that day . So I’m not just sharing the same pictures for days, I’m going to combine a few challenges with this post, which also gives me a little more room to keep my focus on sheep care.

Days 4, 5, 6 and 7 - Close Up, WIP, Outside, Technique. 

The close up of my work in progress that I was knitting outside looks complicated, but it’s not! Only one color per row and the patterning comes from a simple slipped stitches technique 

I included a picture of Liddy because... Liddy . The two Moose thugs pillaging my knitting bag while I was rescuing the short dog who was on the wrong side of the gate. And the muddy hoof print at the top of the super close up . Oh, and that’s Woody, the king of close ups.

#fiberuary #fiberuarychallenge #agatecovehat #farmyarn #lambcamplegacy #lambcamplegacyyarn #knittersofinstagram #barnyardknits 

Top Nine 2019

It's the time of year to join the "Top Nine"...whatever you call it...thingy...where you "click the button" (my brain is mush) and it searches through your year of Instagram photos and assembles a collage of your nine most popular pictures.  Mine is pretty cute this year :-).  

Two from Wovember, one of silly Mini Moose and the rest from Lamb Camp at Final Frontier and Tring Farms.  I kind of thought Frankie would show up somewhere, but as we all know, it's hard to compete with babies ;-D.

The card is painted and printed and hopefully going in the mail this afternoon.  Whew!  It was a real struggle this year and I'm not really sure why.  Now that's it's done and I'm almost 48 hours away from it, I'm pretty happy with it.  It's cute and sweet and I think everyone will enjoy it.

Here's a funny story...Saint Tim's superpower is making me laugh when there seems to be nothing to laugh at.  After several super late nights struggling (unsuccessfully) to paint the card, I got up (still too tired) the other morning to find Eli's tree ("the stairway to heaven") had fallen down after the latest 3" deluge of rain.

The tree was very old.  There were only a couple branches left on it and they were barely, but bravely hanging on.  Eli used it to climb up to the porch roof (his "office").  I framed pictures of the back of the farm through it's lacy leaves.  Momma birds raised babies in the hollow trunk.  It was a good old friend.  

I stood there staring at it...turned and walked back inside...stopped in the kitchen...didn't pour myself a cup of coffee...finally went to tell Tim...and then the tears spilled.  Tim's not as sentimentally attached to trees as I am, but it was Eli's tree and it was special because of that.  

He listened to the tree story, the unhappiness with the card painting, the "I wish I'd stopped after last year like I'd said I was going to"...and "clicked the button" in his brain and said, "You should just download the Loony Tunes font and plaster "That's All Folks!" across the front...and all I could see was Maisie pasted in where Porky Pig usually is, saying "Th-th-th-that's all folks!" :-D

That's (probably) not all folks, but it was just what I needed.  

Keep laughing!

And To All A Good Night!

This is the 15th year I've painted an Equinox Farm Christmas card.  We've been caroling and decorating, skating and sledding, sleigh riding, snowman building, snowball fighting, cookie baking, sweater knitting, card sending, eating Christmas dinner and even putting on a live nativity.  

As I was out of winter activity ideas for future cards, I decided 15 would be a good stopping point...and I wanted to do something different.  No light blue sky and bright white snow.  Nothing that couldn't actually be happening...except maybe that snowball fight ;-).

Once I got over feeling self-conscious about my goofy hillbilly voice and started actually enjoying doing live barn tours in the evenings on Instagram over the summer and fall, I knew what my card design for the final year would be.  

 

Here's where it gets a little crazy crazier.  Remember those adorable stamps with the sheep and horses last year?

Best. Christmas. Stamps. Ever.  

I knew the post office had some left over...I stewed on them all summer...and then bought enough for this year...and next year.  And then when I needed to add a little extra postage to two envelopes and the post office wouldn't sell me individual sheep stamps...and I saw there were only five books left in the drawer...I bought them all.

The moral of this story?  If something happens to me, would someone please remind Saint Tim that there is probably $200 worth of postage tucked away in the office (insert that funny grimace face emoticon from my phone). 

Merry Christmas!

The Week In Review...Because It's Been A Busy One

Don't get excited.  There wasn't any knitting.  I had great hopes for posting with the monthly Yarn Along on Wednesday and even took some pictures of my current (sadly idle) project.......  Maybe today.

So, let's see...

The 2018 Christmas card is finished and printed.  Not stuffed and mailed, but they are painted, printed and on the dining room table.  Whew!!!  I'll post a puzzle version this weekend for anyone who'd like a sneak peak and I'll also have some at the Wool House tomorrow.  Not for sale (until next year), but if you come out to the farm (open this Saturday from 1:00-4:30), I'll give you one :-).  

If you didn't follow along with the Wovember Instagram photo challenge by daughterofashepherd last month, I encourage you to go check it out. There were so many interesting prompts and excellent posts from all over the world.  What a fun way to really focus on sheep and wool.  One of my posts was selected for the top ten!  :-D

The sold out calendars are back in stock.  Tim brought home some more Lamb Camp calendars last night, so everything still here on hold will ship out today.  Thank you so much for your patience...and all the orders.  Your support, on all levels, really means so much.

There are still three 2018 Equinox Farm fleeces left (Baaxter, Liddy and B. Willard) and several Tring Farm fleeces (lovely Maybelline and a few other white, gray and black), in case anyone is looking for a fun winter project.  Rebecca Boone was so dirty and greasy I offered to wash her fleece before shipping, so that was my fun project for yesterday.  Look at that shine!  Some is from the grease, some just because it's fun, shiny Cotswold.

I divided her into two parts so there'd be plenty of room in the washer to loosen up all the dirt.  Before washing on the left.  Washed on the right.

Washing wool in the winter is like an all day spa treatment.  The room gets warmer and steamier as the day progresses and it smells like heaven, not "smelly animal fur".  If you aren't aware of the Duluth "issue", here is one article that addresses it.  Clara Parkes always says it best.  

All washed and set out to dry.

Isn't she pretty?

So back to the picture of the yarn and project at the top.  That's Rebecca Boone!  I spun that yarn several years ago and had never found the perfect project for it.  Isabell Kraemer's Indigo Frost capelet kept showing up in my favorites and it (finally) dawned on me that the design shape looks just like Rebecca Boone's cool dreadlocks...and if I dyed some of the yarn, I could match her colors in the color patterning.  So I did!  

I overdyed her light gray to get a darker gray like her nose and legs and a reddish/brown to match her sunbleached locks.  I then spun some Woolliam for her white nose.  I wasn't thinking and didn't wash her yarn before I put it in the dye pot and the remaining fabric softener made the dye take up unevenly and I love the effect.  

I'm now ready to start the colorwork section and I can't wait.  Maybe today!