July

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One month closer to fall!

We've Almost Got The Band Back Together

When they demolished Stella's little shed behind her bee yard I asked that they save the quilt square I painted for her birthday back in 2011.  I hope it's safe somewhere...but it never made it down the hill :-/.    

So I painted a new one.

Again with purple coneflowers blooming nearby.

Hanging next to a hive of happy bees flying in and out, working hard.

Now all we're missing is Stella...

...but I hope she's hanging out in the B Garden sometimes.

 

So I Did A Thing

I decided I wanted to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year.  It only took me over 20 years to get over the extreme heat from the first time I went when I swore I'd never go back ;-).  Anyway, I thought if I was going all that way, I should challenge myself to enter something in the Skein and Garment competition.

My favorite class is the Spinners Yarn Basket and from there it was an easy jump to figure out some way to include Jared.  If you are going to put that much effort into making something, it needs to be with a good friend.

In 25 words or less, you spin at least one pound of yarn, tell how you processed and spun the yarn, include the pattern you are going to use the yarn for and a swatch to show how it will work.  My favorite description for everything after that is "flower arranging for yarn".  

I am extremely honored that Big J and I brought home the blue ribbon.

I always wished I had a picture of the two of us so I decided to paint one.

And I wrote him a letter and put together a little booklet with some more information and "flower arranging".

And some of my favorite pictures that helped illustrate how much he meant to me and everyone who met him.

I made a big "basket" to hold his big yarn from the apple crate I used to sit on in the barn with him.  I lined it with a drawstring project bag that I made from one of Bill's old shearing bags and a sheet that we use to wrap the freshly shorn fleeces.  The tags are my required entry information.

This is the front and back (outside) of the booklet.  The inside spread was an excerpt from his obituary from the blog.

And this was what I would have said to him if we were standing in the driveway.  The Xs were to make sure there was no identifying information anywhere.

Meteorological note - this year was one of the coldest on record.  Of course it was.  

Maisie note - I included the picture of Maisie sashaying away from my wrecked bike with Jared looking on in horror because if you are going to do something bold, you might want to do it with Maisie...or not ;-).

The Spinning Olympics

There used to be a fun knitting challenge during the Winter Olympics, but I haven't heard anything about it lately, so maybe it's become obsolete...like so many things I like.  That's okay, I am pretty good at playing quietly by myself.

I am really trying to get focused back to more fiber art work so I decided my Olympic challenge this time would be spinning every night.  Actually, I'm trying to be more mindful of several things I love to do, but let get buried by daily home and farm chores...and too much phone time...so I created a weekly schedule that I'm trying to follow.

Mondays are for prep work (for what I want to play with during the week, not hoarding toilet paper ;-), Tuesdays are for knitting, Wednesdays are for painting, Thursdays are for spinning and Fridays are for learning.  I am trying to spend one hour each day doing something I love. 

I did reasonably well last week and I'm excited to continue on this week.  The picture at the top is from the last two Thursdays.  The little dark skein is actually from a few weeks ago, but I threw it in the mix too because it's Muuuuffin :-).  The medium dark is some vintage Jared from 2016, just before he moved to Kentucky and the light gray is Mini Moose.  Three of my all time favorite sheep :-).

Are you watching the Olympics?  Are you doing any knitting...or spinning?

Almost There

As has gone the whole year, the 2025 Christmas card about broke me.  While I was putting together the final calendar this fall I thought maybe I should also do one last card while I still had a printer who would be able to run proof after proof after proof as I struggled to get the colors to translate right, fix typos in the text on the back, print a few more when I ran out...

Painting these cards over the years taught me many lessons on what works, what doesn't and what might be a pitfall.  By the end I was pretty good at getting the painting right and we learned that it's better to take a picture of the canvas than try to scan it and all in all I could get usually get it together and in the mail in about a week.  Taking the picture was the only thing I didn't mess up this year.

I spent over a week trying to put on paper what I had in my head and finally gave up and started over.  From there I thought the new design looked promising and I then proceeded to paint the rest of the card breaking every lesson I learned from the first 20 years of painting cards.  Every. last. lesson.

Two of the issues I knew as I was painting that I was doing it wrong...and I did them anyway.  I think that's the definition of insanity, right?  Expecting a different outcome from repeated actions?  The worst mistake was one I didn't even realize until I got it ready to send over to the print shop this morning.  5"x7" is not the same as 8"x10".

I think I learned that in 2004.

I believe I have everything patched up, but I won't know until the printer gets home this evening.  I'm still not completely set on the wording on the back, but again, we'll hash that out when he gets home.  Tim's only comment so far was "Why isn't Digga Digga on there?"

Digga Digga Daewoo is our skid steer and he should be parked in the barn from where the card is focused.  I did think about that.  I also moved the horses all down one stall to try to balance out the barn scene a little and I wished I hadn't done that almost as soon as I did it.  Same with not adding in the chicken coop.  I sadly complained about all that and Tim did what he does best.

"Well, the horses are all in the wrong stalls, you can't find the chickens and the sheep aren't where they are supposed to be, out in the dark, mixing with the horses.  I'm not sure what the problem is.  Sounds like a normal day to me."  ;-)

Wednesdays Are For Painting

I painted this several "Wednesdays" ago, but forgot to share it.  And when I was taking a picture of it I forgot to take one that showed exactly what it is.  It's a drop spindle.

This picture really doesn't show them that well either...and looking at it now I see that I'd forgotten to completely tighten down the hooks after they dried.  This picture was from the November Kentucky Shepherd's Market.  I am nailing this marketing thing!

I just love these colorful spindles.  I especially love to spin with them.  As the spindles twirl they look like kaleidoscopes.  The spindles on the bottom picture are just generic sheep.  The spindle in the first picture is a custom order with Pinto, Short Round, Tabitha and Maggie.  

It's hard to beat spinning with your friends...and actually spinning your friends.  The roving the spindle is nestled down into is some of Tabitha's.  I'm glad it has good home :-).

Schedules

Years ago, when I was thinking about starting my small sheep business, a good friend told me that the best part of working for yourself is that you get to pick your own hours.  You can pick whichever 18 hours of everyday you want to work.  She wasn't wrong.  I've also heard that if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life.  That's not wrong either.

One thing I haven't enjoyed along the way is getting to the end of the day...or week...or year...and realizing that I didn't do all the things I wanted to do.  This is a recurring theme and I know it's not just for me so that's all I'm going to say about that.  There are probably thousands of books about that and I should probably just find make the time to read them.

I do think having a schedule helps me.  I enjoy Tuesday nights because I "have" to join the Wool House Crafters zoom meeting.  Some weeks I get more done than others, but I like having that set schedule...and the company is good :-).  We meet for two hours and that's a good amount of time.  It's amazing what you can get done in two hours if you just put your butt in the chair.

I'd love to dedicate every afternoon to "chair work", but I've tried that and I never manage to pull it off.  Two hours isn't much time, but it's like spinning with a drop spindle.  If you spin 5 minutes here, 10 minute there, 5 minutes another time, 20 minutes after dinner...at the end of the week you've probably spun more yarn than I have with my spinning wheel.

I use "probably" in that last sentence like I've actually done any spinning lately.  Well, I did spend a little time at the end of the Kentucky Shepherd's Market last month spinning with some friends and it was really fun.  Spinning IS really fun.

The same thing happened back at the first of the year when I was playing around with the little electric drum carder I am borrowing from a friend.  Pulling those pretty batts off was really fun.  It was nice...and a little weird...to have to be reminded why I started all this in the first place.  Wool is fun.  Take the time to enjoy it.  MAKE the time to enjoy it.

So I know I can't show up from 1:00 to 4:00 every day.  Seems silly, but we both know that if that was going to happen, it would have already happened.  I don't work for myself as well as I work for other people.  

I'm not even sure I can show up every day.  I mean I show up for work every day, but not the butt in chair work.  Obviously the animal care comes first.  And if I have to be available on the farm, it's hard not to let the art side of life fall off.  It's been a crazy start to the year.  Hopefully things are settling down...just in time for spring :-o.

Here's the plan:

Monday - Catch up day.  Set things up to make the rest of the week successful.

Tuesday - Wool House Crafters.  Already on the schedule and anything goes.  

Wednesday - Art Class.  Butt in chair and pencil, pen, brush in hand. 

Thursday - Spinning...or any fun wool work.

Friday - Make up day.  Get the things done you didn't get done on Wednesday and Thursday (being realistic here).

Weekends are wild cards.  Just try to be mindful of what you'd really like to do with your "one wild and precious life".

Okay, this post went way off the rails.  My original plan was to tell you about the new I-64 Spring Fiber Fling yarn crawl we are participating in this month, but I'll have to try for that again tomorrow.  That means I need to find a new picture to share today because anyone who's made it to the end of this epistle deserves a pretty or at least funny picture.  

Hang tight while I search the archives....because I need to add photography into the schedule above.  Okay, I've added the picture of me and Frankie having a meeting about our spring schedule the other morning.  We're probably doomed ;-).

Merry Christmas

I originally thought I'd stop painting the farm cards after the tenth year.  That was a nice round number and I was having trouble thinking of new "scenes" for upcoming years.  I shared that with some folks, probably at the Kentucky Wool Festival, and new ideas started coming in from all over...so I kept going.

I've enjoyed painting all of these cards.  It's been fun watching them progress over the years.  I invented the scenes and Tim came up with all of my favorite clever titles.  I'm not sure if we started adding text to the backs to explain the titles or maybe the design itself, but that became almost as much of the card as the fronts.

I'm so flattered when people tell me they save the cards each year and some even set them out as part of their holiday decorations.  Back in 2011 I was incredibly honored to be featured in an episode of one of our favorite tv shows, KET's Kentucky Life.  

I just went back and rewatched the story and am so grateful to have that sweet time capsule of Hank and all those good old sheep and horse friends.  I kept expecting to see Maisie and realized that she hasn't actually been here forever.  

I've made a lot of friends with these silly paintings, one in particular, a retired art teacher who I met through blogging and got up the courage to email to ask if she could help me figure out something I was struggling with. I know longer remember which year that was, but it was long ago at this point.  

I didn't have to call her for help with this year's card and I was sort of sad about that, but proud that I've learned enough from her over the years that I was able to pull it off mostly on my own. Thank you, Lori.  It's been a privilege to talk art and horses and life in general all these years.

Thank you also to another good artist and friend, Robin, who always helps bounce ideas around, especially when another artist friend who lives in Texas just laughs when I ask her a question about painting snow ;-).  It's always been a team effort, even down to the proof reading.  Thank you!

Going forward, I'm sure I'm still going to create a Christmas card each year, but I'm looking forward to trying some new ideas and techniques.  I can't imagine not sending out at least a few cards.  I sure enjoy receiving them.

Merry Christmas!

Find You A Sheep...

 ...who looks at your artwork the way Big J does :-).

While I would like to talk to Maisie, even though I feel like I know mostly what she'd have to say, who I'd really like to talk to is Big J.  What a great old sheep.  I'd love to know what he thinks about and understands.  He was very interested in the painting last year as well. 

I've had to wait a couple of days for an overcast sky to take a digital picture of the painting, but I'm sure not going to complain about a couple of warm, sunny days in December :-).  I got the picture taken this morning and it's headed off to "the printer" and if all goes well, we'll be ready to start mailing on Monday.

Behind The Scenes

I almost forgot to share this.  For the last couple of years I've been photographing the finished card instead of scanning it.  It's hard to get the card to print the same color and saturation as the actual painting and this seems to be getting us closer, quicker.

This year, as I got ready to shoot it, Jared came over and gave the painting a thorough inspection.  That was probably due to the fact he was hoping it was a yellow Vanilla Wafer box, but I'd love it if he knew those were his friends and himself in the picture.

If you notice, this is not what ended up being the finished card.  With the different perspective I noticed that the painting was a bit heavy on the left with too much open on the right.  And Betsy was missing.  Back to the [painting] board ;-).

I normally do a Christmas Eve cookie party video, but dealing with the extremely cold weather has taken a toll so I'm not making any set plans.  I think the sun is supposed to be out tomorrow, so I think it will be more fun to "open presents" Christmas morning instead.  

This will be live on IG and I may try to do a live on FB as well if I can get that figured out.  I'm not going to make any promises on a time because animal care comes first and we are still going to be very cold tonight. Hopefully all will be well and maybe we'll shoot for somewhere around 9:00?

Merry Christmas!

BETSY!!!

 

Normally the biggest issue with printing the Christmas card is getting the colors right and we had our fair share of that once again this year.  When it was obvious we weren't going to be able to get it right as it was painted, I headed back home to make some changes and then email a scanned file back to Tim in Lexington.

I really didn't want to make a second 45 minute drive back in to the big city, but I also really didn't want to give the go ahead on a big print job without seeing a new color proof.  I could wait for Tim to bring home the new proof, but then I wouldn't be able to include a card with the calendars mailing out today.  

We decided to do a short run of cards so I'd be able to use them today and then if I hated how they looked, we could continue tweaking the colors before we ran the big group.  They looked great and I gave Tim the go ahead to do the rest of the printing.

I am an obsessive proof reader.  I had looked and looked at the card and was satisfied there were no spelling or horrible grammatical errors.  Something nagged at me though and I picked up one of the printed cards one last time.  Everything checked out...but...maybe I should double check to make sure all the numbers match up correctly.

1.  Krista  2.  Short Round 3.  Ellie...on down to 16.  Cheeto  17. Betsy 18.   18.  18?!?  There was no number 18 on the ID list!  

Guess who is number 18.

Yep.

Possum.

I know when I set up the back of the card that Possum was on the list.  I didn't take her off.  Tim didn't take her off.  

BETSY!!!

I'm going to go ahead and include one of the "limited edition" cards with each calendar order today just so they can get on the way.  Hopefully you will get a laugh as you write in Possum's name...and you can scribble out Betsy's if you wish ;-D.

Procrastination

I wanted to get a post written with some photography news, but I didn't think I had enough time so I threw together a quick puzzle...and then couldn't help working it...which was about the same amount of time it would have taken to write a blog post...

Get busy out there! 

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Quick note:  the 2022 calendars are finally finished and have "gone to print".  I'll post more details tomorrow (No. Puzzles.)

The Christmas card painting is officially underway.  I'm not worried about that because if the calendars are just now printing then it must only be October at the latest....right?

Getting busy!

Well, What Do You Know...

I mentioned that now that the folk art winter/holiday farm scene Christmas painting series is "complete" that I wanted to try something new for the upcoming year.  I love watercolor paintings, so that is definitely on the list.  

I went online looking for some painting tutorials.  You can learn to do most anything on YouTube, including how to operate a skid steer...but that's a story for another day ;-).  For now I'd love to be able to learn to paint watercolor pictures of our sheep.

There are millions of painting videos out there.  There are even several specifically for painting sheep.  How about that?  There is even one teaching how to paint a specific sheep.  What?  And that specific sheep?  Does this big brown sheep look familiar?

Well, hello there, Count Chocula!

While I wish the artist had asked for permission to use my pictures and kindly given a photo credit, we've been in contact and she's working on correcting that.  In the meantime, if I want to learn how to paint one of our sheep, it's pretty hard to beat a video of someone actually painting one of our sheep!

I'm always happy for blog readers to use my photographs as screen savers, inspiration, educational purposes...  Obviously if someone wants to use a picture for commercial purposes, that is a different story.  I'm easy to work with though, just ask :-).

Actually, speaking of commercial purposes, there are 4 Lamb Camp calendars and 9 farm calendars left...if anyone is still needing a 2019 calendar.  Sale price of $7.50 and $9.50 sound okay?

Watercolor...Waterlogue...Waterlogged

The watercolor "painting" from the Wool House Crafters post and the picture above were actually done with an iPhone/computer app.  The app is called Waterlogue and it's one of my very favorite apps.  

And speaking of waterlogged, we have been deluged yet again.  2018 was officially the wettest year on record.  At the risk of jinxing things and causing a drought, we are all ready for a bit of a dry out around here.

Yarn Along - I Thought You Finished That Sweater Months Ago!

 The Maisie sweater is finally really done. It's been missing buttons for almost a year.  

I felt like it needed some wooden buttons, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted.  I tried painting three buttons - one with Hank, one with Maisie and one with a heart.  They were super cute, but didn't look right on the sweater.  

Then, last month, I won a beautiful wooden carved tree necklace.  WoolyMossRoots was sponsoring a giveaway on Ginny's blog - a delightful read every day, not just for the Yarn Along - and I won :-D. 

Possibly it was fate or maybe I just got lucky.  Regardless, in finding their website, I found the perfect buttons for Maisie's sweater.  

I love how the intricately carved Celtic knot so closely mirrors the cables down the sleeve.  And they are wood.  And handmade.  Perfect!  They have many beautiful designs (including chickens!).  I can't wait for my next buttoned project :-).

And then, as with all good knitting photo shoots around here, someone has to volunteer to help.   Eli.

And then when they realize they are actually being helpful (doesn't he look handsome in the first picture?)...they leave.  Eli... ;-)

Sewing buttons on a knitted sweater is as close to knitting as I've come so far this week.  I am listening to a nice story, An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor.  Some of the voices are a little irritating, but the story is good - might be better on paper ;-).  A short story I thoroughly enjoyed was The Tree Nobody Wanted by Tom McCann.  

I love reading/listening to Christmas stories.  Any suggestions?

Joining in with Ginny...

For Anyone Who Is As Stressed Out About Christmas As I Am

No stocking hung by the chimney with care?  Shopping not even started? No greeting cards in the mail?  Guess what - I haven't even painted ours yet :-o.  But I've at least got the sketch done.  At this point, it's a small victory, but I'll take it.

The remodel...what a terrible time of the year to be stuck in the middle of this mess.  I'm sure (I keep telling myself) that it will all be worth it in the end, but when I realized over Thanksgiving that the chances of it being done before Christmas were looking slim...  

I have scheduled the carpet installation for the 18th.  I hope the living room is done by then. Regardless, my beloved Christmas decorations are coming up from the basement.  'Nuff said.

Here is a sneak peek of the 2016 2015 Christmas card.  And yes, that is Graham dressed up like a big fat donkey :-D.

Updated: HAHAHAHA good catch by Linda on this is the 2015 card, not 2016, although if it was, I'd be so far ahead of the game that it would be scary...and never going to happen ;-D.

*       *        *        *        *

I believe I have all the calendar orders caught up.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!  If nothing else is going right, at least the barn loft is full of hay and straw and the sheep and horses and chickens (yet another story to share) are happy.  That's a huge relief.  

If you've emailed me and I haven't responded to you, email me again.  If the embedded email link doesn't work, click on the "view my complete profile" over on the upper right corner and it will take you to a 'for sure' working link.

There are still a few Equinox Farm and Lamb Camp calendars left.  We have plenty of Lamb Camp yarn available.  And there is still plenty of time to send Christmas cards...just running short on time to paint and print them...but it will all work out.  At least I know a good printer who is happy to is used to doing rush jobs for me :-).

What To Do About The Beloved Barn Quilt, I Mean Bat House

In giving folks directions to our farm, I always say "Look for the big black tobacco barn with a barn quilt."  Now it's a barely black barn and the barn quilt is starting to disintegrate :-(.  It used to be just me and Saint Tim discussing the situation.  Now everyone asks about it.

While it may seem rude to think of friends, family, and yes, complete strangers ragging on a quilt hanging on someone else's barn, it's actually more of a curiosity than a complaint.  The bottom of the quilt is 40' in the air.  Yes, what ARE we going to do?

We hired a tree service with a huge bucket truck to hang it in September of 2007.  It was a big job. He'd have to come back out to take it down.  I'd have to re-paint a new quilt and that was a big job as well.  We'd have to coordinate all that with getting the barn re-painted, which is...another big job. And then we have to hire Mr. Clifford to come back out to hang the new quilt. And then the plot thickens.

The other morning, dark and early, the day we dyed Renny's wool, I was up at the barn dividing her fleece and setting out what amounts I wanted to dye.  Around 6:00 I noticed some swooping and fluttering out front and some weird chirping noises.  The bats!

We've hosted a (sadly) very small bat community since we've lived here.  At best count the most bats we've had is probably five.  For the last couple of years I've only regularly seen two I think. I've assumed they lived in the barn, but I've never seen them or any signs.

The curiosity has been killing me and here they were, flying in after a busy night!  I quick stepped it out into the driveway to watch.  They swooped and rose and swooped and circled in front of me. Definitely more than two but they were so quick I couldn't keep track. Then one would whoosh and disappear.  More swooping and then whoosh, another gone.  Where were they going?

Up under the barn quilt!  No wonder they weren't using the bat house we'd hung on the side of the barn.  They were already installed in the barn quilt bat house out front.  Now I definitely don't want to take the quilt down and I'm leery of even painting the front of the barn.  I need to get up with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife to see if they can figure out what kind of bats we have and if they will migrate for the winter.  Until then, we're just going to stay shabby.

Of course, now I'm obsessed with seeing the bats come in and out.  I haven't made any more pre-dawn trips to the barn, but I know I will.  First I wanted to see them fly out!  I set myself up the other night with a concrete block chair on the utility trailer aka spaceship.  Camera at the ready. And I waited.

While I waited, here's the back field before the hay was cut.  Complete with the all too familiar thunderheads building.

Graham and Daniel through the barn portal.  I took some pictures of Liddy and Blossom and Lila through the new shop windows portal, but they were pretty uninspiring.  

So I waited.  And the sun set.  Notice the difference in light between the first and last pictures? And I waited some more, watching very carefully.  And then all the bats were flying around and I didn't see a single one come out.  The end.  

Weekend Wrap Up...On A Monday

This is going to be a quickie. I may come back and add some more "details" later, but I'm worried about the old guys and want to head back out for a barn check.  The weather here is not good. Still, I'm trying to keep the week's end wrap up running...even if it's not technically the weekend any longer. I'd have done it last night, but I got sucked into the SNL 40th Anniversary ;-).

This was taken several days ago (when the weather was lovely) and I've actually added quite a few rows since.  I'm really enjoying knitting the Peerie Flooers hat and I'm hoping my technique is getting better as I go.  This is a "warm up" for the Iknitarod.  We are following the Yukon Quest race.  They aren't having great weather either.

More painting this year.  Wanted a small, fun project.  We'll see what develops.

16 new spindles underway.  I like to make drop spindles :-).

A HUGE box of wool arrived from Nistock Farms.  I'm trying to save opening the box for the Winter Wool Workshop...but the anticipation is killing me ;-).

And while we had cold, but sunny and no wind weather yesterday, we worked to prep the barn for the upcoming nasty week.  I wanted to run a heavy extension cord out to a heated water bucket for Del Boca Vista.  I ran the cord through some PVC jump poles.  You can see why I would want to do that ;-).

Of course Graham had to help.  He was disappointed in the lack of power tools.

As was Baaxter.  Baaxter helps with everything we do around the barn.  He is so curious and interested and not just in a nosy sheep sort of way.  I really think he's watching how we do things and wants to help. He'd totally be an engineer if he was a "real boy".

Jester and Ford enjoyed the warm afternoon.  And it really was warm.  The temps were in the low 20s but with no wind and full sun, it was actually very pleasant.  

Tim and Comby waiting for a parts delivery.

Paige (Talk's mom) and I tore up the manure spreader.  She and Tim had it back running in no time :-).

And this cold looking sunset last night definitely delivered and is still going strong.  The wind and snow is blowing down from Stella's house (the east), which very rarely happens.  The little shed in Del Boca Vista is cold with the snow blowing in.  The boys are cold :-(.  

I added a big piece of plywood to the front this morning and that seemed to help quite a bit.  I just hope it's going to help enough.  I sat in there for a bit and I think it's warmer in there than in the big barn under a lamp like we used last year.  But that's why I'm headed back up to check on them.  The plan can always change.

How did your weekend wrap up?  And for all the folks facing the cold, stay wrapped up!  ;-)