Bring Out Your Wool, Yarn, Books, Used Equipment, Spinning Wheels, Cookies...

Don't forget about the Yarn Sale/Swap Meet/Open Farm Day this 
Saturday from 10:00 until 3:00!

Come out and meet the sheep (and dogs, cats, horses, chickens, birds...), talk sheep "til your eyes glaze over", catch up on your Tour de Fleece spinning (or whatever project you are working on), do a little shopping, selling or trading (fiber related only, please) or just hang out with Jester, Ford and Emily in the breezy barn aisle.

If you are interested in learning about spinning, knitting, weaving or probably most any fiber craft, this would be a perfect opportunity.  Interested in learning about different breeds of sheep, their wool, how to care for them...Robin and I both love to "talk sheep" :-).  Interested in learning how to run a tractor or weed eater?  Yet another Perfect Opportunity - just kidding ;-).

We have plenty of space and cool breeze (and if we run out, the tack room is cool, the Wool House porch and neighboring trees are shaded and pretty cool and the Wool House itself is air conditioned. Jester might even share his fan.  Or not.

Everyone seemed pretty excited about the PB&J offer (my kind of crowd!), so I'll have that and a big bag of apples and a cooler full of water.  Considered it a shepherd's lunch!  I do know some shepherds that can put out a fancier spread than that...but this will the "realistic shepherd's lunch" ;-). Feel free to bring your own.  

"Will there be cookies?"

I'm sure there will be.  Or maybe some tortilla chips, saltines or Cheerios... :-)

Just a head's up - we'll be sharing the barn with Del Boca Vista.  They come in the aisleway when it gets too hot and humid in their little shed.  Keep in mind that these three sheep are quite elderly and not in the best shape.  We love them anyway and as long as they are happy and want to stick around, they can.  

If you have any questions or need directions, just drop me an email.  If you are planning on coming and want to advertise what you'll be bringing to swap or sell, you can do so in the comments or send me an email and I'll post it for you.  

Robin is packing her truck tonight and leaving at dawn tomorrow.  If there is something special you'd like her to bring from NY - prize winning fleeces, roving, sparkly colored roving, Cotswold yarn... let her know right away.  She's bringing two rams for The Training Center, so doesn't have a ton of room, but she's a pretty clever packer.

See you Saturday!

The Young Eagle - Updated

Just to keep things interesting around here, this fell out of a barn nest a couple Sundays ago.

He was in a sort of secure location, so I left him, hoping his mom would figure out what to do.

When she didn't and he started doing this...

...AND THIS!   

...you know what I did.

I couldn't figure out a way to put him back in the nest and he was far too young to be out in the world so I gave him some meal worms (that he gobbled up) picked him up, stuck him in a bucket with some hay, covered him with some netting and took him to the house.

We have two types of birds that aggravate the socks off us live in the barn - big annoying birds and small annoying birds.  I figured he was the small annoying variety, so looked up sparrows and what to feed them and a couple places mentioned dog foods that provided protein and he readily approved.

Fun fact, it only took about two days before he figured out the microwave (aka baba maker ;-) meant food and would start "baa-ing" just like the lambs do.  "Hurry UP, lady!"

I pulled one of the heated beds from the cat condo and set it under his bucket at night and that worked perfect to keep him warm, but not too warm.  After about a week, once his feathers started growing in, I picked up this awesome brooder box from a friend and moved him into it.  

I added some branches so he could practice perching and he grew and grew.

The first few days we had the cage on the house porch.  It was handy, but I worried that he wasn't getting to see other birds eating in real life. Then, on Saturday, he got super excited while I was feeding him - he liked to perch on the side of the bowl while I stuck clumps of dog food into his mouth - and he flew out the open door.

He flew (as Tim said, "like a wiffle ball") to the nearest tree, just out of reach.  Panicked and flew higher.  Wanted to come back down, but couldn't figure out how - up is easier than down apparently - so the next thing you know, yep, I'm up on the roof.

When I was getting his food ready, I'd say "cheep cheep" and he'd answer "cheeeep".  He'd also use that call to tell me when he was hungry.  I used "cheep cheep" and his "cheeep" to find him in the tree and eventually he was able to figure out how to land on the chimney where I was standing, I gave him some food and picked him up.  Whew!

Moving him to the Wool House porch was a great idea.  

Less (a little less at least) cat traffic, much more bird traffic, only one tree (that wasn't quite as TALL), morning sun (he's not an early riser and frequently would want to wait until 8:00 to really dig into breakfast) and afternoon shade.  

I put a feeder out front, scattered loose seed on the railing and in the birds came.  All sorts of sparrows, some his kind, some probably a little different.  They talked to him, he talked to them, I hope he watched them eating and drinking and yesterday afternoon I opened the door.

I felt pretty sure he'd fly around and then come back when he got hungry.  He did.  The plan was to feed him like that until evening and then lock him back up for the night, but then Tim mowed the lawn, scattering everyone, and I feared the worst.  "Cheep cheep?"  "Cheep cheep?"  No reply :-/.

This morning I headed out, hoping for the best, but again, no reply.  I didn't give up hope though because, remember, he's not "the early bird", and by 8:30 I'd found him!  All was well.  I tried to feed him again at lunch, but he wasn't interested, hopefully because he was full of bird seed and insects.

About an hour ago, when I came in to post these pictures (in the air conditioned house with the doors and windows closed) I heard a loud "cheeeep" outside.  Not uncommon because we have tons of these birds around.  "Cheeep".   Surely that's not him.  "Cheeep".  I'd better go check...and sure enough, he'd come to the house looking for me.  

"Hey lady, how about firing up that baba maker!"

I've never been so happy to see a little annoying bird.  I'll keep feeding him like that as long as he wants it, but hopefully he's well on his way.  At least he doesn't fly like a wiffle ball anymore ;-).

Tim named him The Young Eagle because I volunteer with the Young Eagle program at the Cynthiana Airport.  Perfect.

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Saint Tim got a picture of him eating dinner tonight :-D.

Tour de Barn

While the barn set up has been easy to work with (as far as handling sheep) over the years, we have battled air flow in the "inside" stall, especially in the summer months and especially when it's been super rainy or super hot - check and check this summer.

We've talked about taking down the wall between the two stalls forever, but never did it for who knows what reasoning.  It's down now and I can't believe we didn't do this years ago.  The barn is so light and airy and much more comfortable temperature and air quality-wise.  

The view from the outside.

The new view inside.  And by view I mean view!  I can stand in the aisleway and not only see almost any sheep in the barn at any time, but I can also see sheep in the side paddock, like Auntie Lila and Bullwinkle.  Yes, there are still some blind spots, but man what a difference!

We obviously weren't going to take down any supporting beams and the outside addition is slightly higher than the inside floor so we replaced the old wall with gates.  I can still shuffle sheep from the inside stall to the outside stall, shut the small gate and then push them down to the working pen with a solid wall, just like the old days.

And we didn't take out the old wall feeders because everyone likes to use them as pillows and standing blocks.  Woolliam and Woody standing up on the far right.

And the gates make good pillows, too :-).  Andy.  And Woolliam, who would just like to Go To Sleep Now Please!

The "assigned seats" got jumbled around a bit for awhile, but there are still most of the familiar faces here.  Keebs, Renny, Burrnie, Ewen, Boudreaux are all accounted for.  Woolliam got knocked down the wall for a couple days, but he's now back where he wants to be ;-).  Somehow Chocula managed to make every picture, day and night, all over.  That's his butt in the gate pillow pic.

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The Tour de Fleece is rolling right along, too.  Well, some team members are rolling better than others, but we are all having fun.  It's not too late to join and even if you don't want to spin, you can still follow along and cheer lead!

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 ;-).