Bullwinkle's Badge

Duh... Bullwinkle?  Rocky and Bullwinkle?!?  Thanks to Cappy for pointing out the obvious.  I don't know what I'd do without you all!  

The red at the bottom is from something that happened yesterday.  Bullwinkle was playing around in front of the barn and the next thing I knew he was standing in the big red manure spreader (!).  He had to have half climbed, half jumped under the metal beaters (think sharp and pointy). There was no way he could fit back through the other direction.  

Luckily Saint Tim was still home and could lift him up and over and now it makes the perfect spot to customize our ravatars :-).  

Let the Tour de Fleece and France begin!

Poor Bullwinkle

"Auntie Petunia?  The Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow and I don't have my ravatar yet.  I'm not exactly sure what a ravatar is, but I've been told I should have one and all mom is doing is tearing barn walls down and then putting some back up and and some gates up and then going to town three times in one day and feeding some stupid baby bird and then this afternoon she built him a fancy cage on the porch and I've had to sit in the barn with Auntie Lila all day because Auntie Blossom bugged out last night but then wanted back in when it was 'cookies before bed time' last night and anyway, I don't know what the Tour de Fleece is, but I don't think I'm ready."

A ravatar is Ravelry's version of an avatar.  I've done some really cute ones in the past, like Petunia's and 20's, but this year I am drawing a blank.  Well, I'd LIKE to do something with Bullwinkle, this year's team captain, itching his butt on a skein winder or spinning wheel, but in reality, when you get down to it...that's a bit weird ;-).  

Saint Tim tore the barn wall down in between the two sheep stalls.  There's a quick tour on my Instagram and Facebook feed and I'll be taking some regular pictures tonight when all the gates replacing the boards are all in place.  It makes the barn so much nicer and we should have done this years ago.

He took down a few boards too many and I had to put them back up this morning.  All fixed.

I did make three trips to town yesterday.  It was ridiculous.  Luckily it's only 3 miles away.  

I have been feeding a baby sparrow (I think) for almost a week now.  He fell or was pushed out of his nest above the roll up door/in the rafters/? in Bullwinkle and Lila's stall, but wasn't ready to fledge.  He landed in a somewhat secure spot in an old mineral feeder and I watched for a couple hours with no attention or concern from a parent...so I started feeding him.  Sigh. 

He now has most of his feathers and needed to move from his bucket to a cage that would allow him to start testing his wings while still being fed.  Luckily a friend had a baby chick brooder set up thingy that is perfect (wait, that made 4 trips to town in one day! ;-) and even has add on addition that will let him really have some flying practice space if we think he needs it.  

While I was gone picking up the big cage, Tim took down the dividing wall and then unhooked the big mower, hooked up to the big manure spreader (prepping for a summer barn clean out tomorrow)...and drove it (yes, the tractor and spreader) to the neighbors.  Ah, farm life ;-).

I came home, blocked the driveway with the truck (how was I to know he was out joy riding with a manure spreader?), he came home, we unloaded the cage and then drove everything back up to the barn...to find that in the confusion of everything, I'd left a gate ajar and Blossom was exploring the wash room (!).  

Is it any wonder I don't have the Punkin's Patch 2016 Tour de Fleece ravatar created yet???

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SO, if you are on the fence about joining The Tour this year, jump on in!  You can see that it's pretty, um, relaxed around here and in our fun Ravelry group.   I'm obviously hopelessly unprepared this year, so the bar has been set at a record low.  It will be fun!

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Don't forget the Yard/Yarn Sale next Saturday!  Several TdF spinners from our group will be here so there will be butt kicking aplenty if you need it, learn to spin help aplenty if you'd like it,  wool aplenty if you need something fun to spin or knit (or sell or trade) and sheep aplenty to hug if you aren't a knitter or spinner and just. like. sheep.  

There will also be shade aplenty, air conditioning aplenty, ice cold drinks aplenty and peanut butter and jelly.  Feel free to pack your own lunch ;-).

Yarn Along - Are You Ready To Make Some Yarn?

Other than taking care of the "live" fiber, there has been very little "fiber" work done here lately. Am I just not good at prioritizing my time?  Probably.  Is there really just not enough time in the day? Surely I could Find Five somewhere.  Am I just lacking some inspiration?  Uh, I'm surrounded by inspiration every day :-o.  

Well, guess what!  It's Tour de Fleece time...again...seriously...it is almost July and the Tour de France already...again?!?   Time to prioritize my time, Find Five (why do I have to keep fighting the same battle over and over?!?) and get ready to be inspired.  Hopefully this will be just the kick in the pants I've been needing.

I did actually finish skirting all the spring fleeces the other day.  Well, almost all the fleeces.  Right after I took down the skirting table, put away all the sheets and bags, cleaned up the discarded wool...I found two huge bags of wool from Baaxter's cousins at Foxglove Farm.  Sigh...

As I was skirting, I started washing fleeces headed to the mill next month.  Boudreaux was his usually messy mess, Ford is so old and frail that I wasn't sure his fleece would even be salvageable, and Graham...  I'd taken some fleece off him before I took him to the diagnostic lab.  I'd not saved any of his adult fleeces, assuming he'd live forever :-(.

My dear old guys...  Three of my fanciest and favorite-est fleeces over the years.  How did it get to be so many years.  I knew Graham would be okay.  Ohio Valley Natural Fibers always does an amazing job cleaning up Boudreaux.  Ford...I wasn't so sure.  I decided to dig out my wool combs and see what I had.  

Gray - Ford    White - Graham     Dark gray - Boudreaux

Beautiful, as I knew it would be.  I'm not sure how I'm going to spin this or what I'm going to make, but I'd like something to have and to hold from one of the funniest, most irritating, Why you little...! wanted to strangle half the time, dearest sheep ever.

Ford.  You can almost tell by looking this is a bit iffy.  Not only is the fiber maybe not as sound as it used to be, but he has some skin scurf in there that would be gross not be fun to work around. Combing is always the best bet for fleeces like this.

The combs will catch most of the VM and it did take out almost all of the little stuff.  And yes, it does look like a lot of waste...

...but what is left is classic silky soft Ford :-).

Sheepmom - don't look at this next picture!

Boudreaux came from Nistock Farms and should have stayed there and been the superstar of the wool world that he could have been if he'd lived the life of luxury, wearing a protective coat and been meticulously maintained.  That's what it would have taken. Missing something?  Boudreaux probably has it stuck in his fleece somewhere ;-).

Luckily the big machines at Ohio Valley do a great job cleaning most of his yearly collection. Combs would be my choice if I wanted to process it all at home.

Ooh!  Ahh!  Sort of...

This picture looks horrible here now that it's uploaded and that's because blogger "auto enhanced" it. There is a way to turn that off, but it's 71 degrees this morning and I have better things to do than sit in front of a computer.  Sigh...

And yes, I'm still using my trusty beer cheese container lid diz.  Boudreaux and I are classy if nothing else ;-D.

Boudreaux's "bird nest" - an actual spinning term, not just a reflection on his (lack of) cleanliness ;-).

Have you ever tried to take a picture of dark wool or yarn (or other dark items) and had this happen? The color is correct on the pictures above this one.  Would you like to know why your camera does this and what to do about it?

A tiny gift basket, ready to kick off the Tour de Fleece Saturday.  

Once again we have a Punkin's Patch/My Favorite Sheep team started on Ravelry.  This is open to anyone!  You do not have to be a good spinner.  You could even use this event to LEARN to spin. It's just for fun and to challenge ourselves to make yarn, maybe lots of yarn, maybe just a little each day, learn something new...actually get a wheel out, dust it off and see if you remember how to spin.  

Not to worry, it's just like riding a bike! ;-D

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I have no books to share this week.  I started three different (very popular) ones and haven't loved any of them enough to keep listening.  Wait, I did listen to the latest Stephanie Plum mystery, Tricky Twenty-Two, and Bullwinkle and I powered through that.  

Any recommendations for something silly like that?

Joining in with Ginny...

Hmmmm...

"Hmmmm..."

"I wonder why I'm locked in here."

"Hmmmm..."

"I wonder why I'm locked out of there."

"I sure wish I could get in there, I mean, you could get out of there."

Impeccable Character

Even though this is what we all feel like doing, this is Not Funny, B. Willard!

"What?  I was just sleeping.  It's too hot to do anything else."

"I get by with that sort of stuff, kid, because I'm a sheep of "Impeccable Character".  Remember that."

"Impeccable Character.  Got it."