Getting Rid Of A Dog

I have had a throw on my big Macomber loom for over a year. On paper I knew it wasn't the best choice in warp and weft (the opposing threads that cross over and under), but it came as a kit from Halcyon Yarn - one of my favorite yarn catalogs - so I assumed it was okay...

The yarn (all the yarn :-/) is mohair boucle (with the curly loops) and while it is okay, the threads are sticky and stretchy and it is tedious to work with and has sat there. For over a year. Making me a. feel guilty for not finishing it and b. preventing me for using the loom for a more enjoyable project. It has become what is known as a "dog".

Needing to pull the beam off the back of the loom so it will fit through the spare bedroom door, out the front door, onto a trailer and into the new studio was just the kick in the pants I needed. In between finishing up last minute details for not only the studio, but getting ready for out of town company, taking care of a sick lamb, feeding the boys, mowing...I am slowly, but surely getting rid of a "dog".



The throw has transformed into a shawl. I'm short on time and for some reason short on weft (the side to side yarn), but it will be beautiful when it's done and I'm sure my loom is just as excited to be freed as I am.

Big Babies

We are slammed busy trying to get the studio finished so we can move all my "stuff" out of the house and actually set up a bed in the spare bedroom (Tim's brothers and SIL's are coming for the weekend :-). Couple of quick notes:

• power is finally turned back on in the barn - this doesn't seem that exciting until you remember we have a barn skunk.

• the boys are not taking to the idea of weaning very well. Graham Lamb in particular is running the risk of deportation.

• Lorna Doone-Buggy is hanging in there. She worried me yesterday because she wasn't super interested in eating and just wanted to sit on my lap last night. However, when I got up to go get her nighttime food, she raced along behind me and even did a little popcorn jump. She and Miss Ewenice are out across the creek grazing this morning. She's tough! And aren't she and Ewenice just the cutest together?
  

Here's a short video (because the ba-ba's are small ;-) of the boys fighting for their spot at the "lamb bar". They always eat like this - leaning into each other - and if you try to spread them out, they fall back in. I finally gave up and just 'let 'em have at it".

Sunday Stills - Things With Wings

I had grandiose plans to go over to our little Cynthiana airport (where I'd probably get caught hanging out all the time if I didn't have sheep, horses, chickens, studio construction, weaving my butt off to get a blanket off my big loom so I can get it moved out to the new studio...to keep me too busy) and get some fun shots of all the small planes over there.

In my little daydream, some dashing pilot would come up and say "Would you like to go up in one of those planes, little lady?" and I'd get to wear a white silk scarf and cool goggles and fly over our farm...

But alas, it's hard to soar with the eagles when you work with a bunch off chickens, so that's what we've got today.



This is Little Jane. She's a tiny little hen who's been known to crow like a rooster on occasion. Only at Equinox Farm. I had to google that when I heard it the first time and sure enough, there's even a saying about 'whistling women and crowing hens...' This picture isn't in complete focus, but I like it anyway. I'd like it better if it were super clear.



This is a chicken without a name or outstanding plumage, but I love the way the background turned out and if you click to biggify you can see the gate and corner of the barn reflected in her eye.



Of course, no wing post would be complete without one of the bees, also nameless. I love to biggify the bee pictures - just amazing little critters.



Now this just appears to be a picture of neat clouds, but if you look closely (or biggify) there are birds actually using their wings. Taken from the new porch the other night. We've had beautiful clouds and sunsets lately. Has everyone?



And a good excuse to pull out another hawk picture from the archives. In the upper left corner you can see a tiny bird giving him or her what-for. I love to see the big hawks getting chased around by some little pipsqueak of a bird. You've got to be wondering what they are thinking - the hawks that is. I'm pretty sure I know what the little birds are thinking.

For more Sunday Stills...

And A Hard Place

Have you ever noticed, among your friends with tattoos, that no one has just one tattoo? It seems after you get the first one, you've got to do another and another... If we are not careful, our entire farm will be covered in stone.



It started innocently enough with some "simple" steps.



Made from really cool, but big, rocks.





And then...



It grew.

Lorna Doone-Buggy

"Hi there! They told me my name is Lorna Doone-Buggy. Seems like sort of a silly name to me, but I guess it's okay. I've been really sick, but I'm feeling a little better tonight and I made it all the way down to the creek."



"It just looks like I'm a little lamb out in a big field all by myself. I'm really out here with Miss Ewenice. She's pretty nice, but sometimes she tries to eat my food. I have a little house I eat in and she can't fit in there. Well, her head can sort of fit, but her body is really, really big."



"She says she's never had a little girl lamb to take care of. I think she likes me. She calls me Baby Girl and lets me take naps with her. We went out to graze twice tonight and mom was really excited about that. I don't know what's so great about it, but okay."

Poor little Doone-Buggy has been battling pneumonia - too much stress and the nasty hot, humid weather sure hasn't helped. She's a tough little lamb though and on a couple occasions when she has been sleeping really sound and I feared the worst, she pops her head up and tells me she's okay.

Her name has a funny story behind it (as so many around here do). When Saint Tim was a kid, his Grandma Duchild gave all the boys plastic dune buggy toys. They took them up to the U.P. for vacation at their cousin's and cousin Craig started calling Grandma Duchild, Grandma Dunebuggy. I think the more they liked someone the more nicknames they earned.

I swear I didn't name Crazy Esther after Tim's other Grandma, Grandma Esther. They all seem to think that short, feisty sheep fits her though.