And still More Pink!

I thought you would enjoy a little walk thru The Shepherd's garden - his azaleas are in full bloom right now
























And the maples are all leafed out - (eat your heart out, Michelle - there are more where this came from)



And of course, no walk through the garden goes unsnoopervised.

More pink -

This peony was a gift from our friend Diane two years ago after my cancer surgery. John has carefully tended it in the greenhouse and it gives us the most beautiful porcelain like blossoms. Doesn't it look like a Chinese painting? The gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Diane!

Pink Snow?

The cherry tree in the back yard is so very beautiful this time of the year - loaded with blossoms.











The petals make me think of pink snow!

An H.B. Update

Out for a run with Mom & Auntie Pearl.














Hmmmm - who's this?













Come on, big boy, gimme a kiss...


Friends? We'll see -

At least 20 liters a day –

This is my contribution to Bloggers Unite for Human Rights – May 15, 2008. I feel that I was only able to scratch the surface but I learned a lot as I studied for this entry. I hope you find my findings interesting.


Water - Ever since the dawn of time, human kind has forged their settlements around its availability. Water to drink, to irrigate the seeds that they had learned would supply them with grain. The watering holes were where the animals congregated – good for the hunter – not so good if you were the hunted.

Water – “Cool, clear water” the old cowboy song says – for most people of the world it is there when they need it, without thought – just turn on the faucet. But one of every six people on the planet lack access to safe drinking water – that is over 1.1 billion people globally. “Deprivation linked to water is a source of poverty, of inequality, of social injustice, and of great disparities in life chances.” (K. Watkins, Director UN Human Development Report Office) Water-related diseases kill up to FIVE million people annually. Half of all the schools in the world do not have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. This lack of access disproportionately affects the lives of women and children because they are the “providers” – it is their jobs to provide water for the family and the animals – often they will walk many miles a day and wait in line for hours only to find the water tainted.

Water as a fundamental Human Right, not a commodity - Around the world, people are finally beginning to assert that access to affordable, safe and sufficient water is a human right. International human rights law now requires governments to make their best efforts to provide water to their citizens and demands that they report on their progress.* (“Right to Water”, a Unitarian Universalist Service Committee [UUSC] environmental justice report)

Ironically only 3-5% of the world’s water is used for “human needs” such as drinking and bathing. Most of the world’s water is used by agriculture. A critical problem facing many areas of the US & the world is the contamination of surface and ground water by mining. This contamination becomes a two-fold problem because it destroys agriculture – many families end up having to buy the majority of the basic staples because of the effects of mining.

“Water costs nothing for those with everything and everything for those with nothing.” - It is believed that over 100,000 deaths will occur due to the current crisis in Myanmar [Burma], sadly caused by too much water in the form of a cyclone, which has left this impoverished nation with little water that is not affected by sewage or contamination from the bodies of dead persons and animals. Even before this crisis, it is estimated that a child dies every 15 seconds from a water-related disease, cholera, diarrhea, malaria to name a few.

Reading the articles to write this blog was sobering and yet, I believe that major strides have been made in this area of Human Rights. Simply the global RECOGNITION that the right to clean fresh water is one of the inalienable rights of all members of the human family is a start. All it will take is 20 liters a day.

* Some of the articles that I read for this blog entry are:
“Water Rights and Wrongs” A young people’s summary of the Untied Nations Human Development Report 2006 – Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis.

“Right to Water: Crisis and Hope” a publication of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee on defending the human right to water.

Six word memoirs

Recently there has been a lot of Media buzz” around a new book called “Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure”. It is a collection, by Smith Magazine, of almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities including Stephen Colbert, and Jane Goodall - it also includes six word memoirs from ordinary every day people. Newspapers have picked up the idea and there have been articles in both the Seattle Times/PI and Bellingham Herald Sunday papers. When I read the original small article in the Herald, I had no idea that this project was so large, but after reading the Times/PI article, I looked the book up on the internet and found out more info about the book and "The Legend".

The Legend - “Legend has it that author Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Last year, SMITH Magazine promoted the idea by asking their readers for their own six-word memoirs. Little did they realize what they were starting - People sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”)” * from Smith Magazine’s web site.

So I decided to try my own hand at writing one of these short, sweet stories - I came up with:

“Life with animals is never boring” and

“The Shepherd - my partner in music.” or how about

“Sister, friend, wife, bookkeeper, cat mom” - that one didn’t inspire me very much, but it did describe my life to a “T” - I think the best that I came up with was this one, though -

“Farm girl, city girl, farm girl”

I also tried it out in our church newsletter (I am the Editor) - our members came up with some good ones:

"Young at heart, old everywhere else" G.M.
"Climbed slippery slopes, some sliding back" T.H.
"Life can be empty - or full" S.L.
"Pink and sparkly, flower fairies dancing" from four year old E.W.
and finally - "This I know – alive is best." F.T.

What do you think - share your life's story with us - leave your six word memoir in the comments - or better yet - put it on your blog and see what your friends come up with.



And now for something completely different....



















What do you think? Today was our Spindrifters meeting. I actually haven't been spinning at all for the last month or so - but I had prepped some fiber that Yvonne gave to us from the spinning class I took from her in March. So I took it with me and spun it up today. I can't remember what it was for sure, maybe Coreydale? But it spun up like a dream - but I think that the preparation sure made all the difference - I have some grey shetland left over from my sister's scarf that I think I will ply it with - I want to make a carry bag from all the stuff I've been practicing on.

Then I'll get down to business on Susie's fleece.

Happy Blogoversary to me........

A rather lopsided picture of HB & his momma, I must say - he's growing like a weed - The Shepherd tried putting Anna Dee and her boys in with Gwennie and HB - lasted all of about 5 minutes before Gwennie went after Taylor and Buddy - with the intent to obliterate! So, HB is going to have to be content with his mom's company for the next month or so until we can wean the whole shootin' match - Anybody want a grumpy horned ewe?

I've noticed that several of the blogs I read have had anniversaries lately - You may or may not know that I started my blog two years ago to keep my family anf friends updated on my experience with a diagnosis of uterine cancer. Luckily it was caught early - the surgery was successful and no other treatment was required. After my "recovery" was complete, people asked me if I was going to continue writing my blog, as they said they enjoyed reading what I had to say. What a great compliment that was.

I have really enjoyed the writing and especially have enjoyed the many friends that I have met along the way - sheepy friends, cat friends, spinner/fiber/knitter friends, foodie friends, every day life friends - let's see, have I left anyone out? This is also my 311th post - wow - who knew I had so much to say?

Some things I'm working on - The BlogCatalog Community has joined with Amnesty International for "Bloggers Unite for Human Rights" Day on May 15. "Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or support 3rd world countries."

I hope you will click on the badge along side this blog and find out more about this worthwhile cause. It is so easy to go from day to day and not really THINK about those in this world who are living without the simplest of human rights - access to food and water, freedom of religion - I am looking forward to seeing what others have to say on their blogs.

Another thing that has my attention are "Six-Word Memoirs" - made popular by the recently published book "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six word memoirs by writers famous and obscure" Can you describe your life in six words? Not more or less, just six words. I did a page on Six Word Memoirs for my church newsletter - it was incredibly fun to see what people had written. I'll share some ideas about this soon too, so be thinking of your own six word memoir.


There has been so much excitement about the sheep lately, it's been a while since I shared a recipe with you, so I need to think up something yummy to share -

I guess this means that I'll be blogging for a while longer - There's always something more to say.

Yes sir, yes sir, FIVE bags full!

Do you remember our road trip at the end of March to Gretchen's Wool Mill? We took seven fleeces - four from this year and three from last down for processing. True to her word, she called last week - in just a month, our fleeces were ready to pick up!





Luckily the weather was much better this time around - heavy rain in spots, but no rain at all once we got to Gretchen's place. Finished fleeces were inspected and duly loaded into the truck for the ride home.

Here they are - five bags full - (Anna Dee's & Regina's were combined)

All nicely wrapped in paper - this is Susie's from last year.

Click on the pictures to biggify so you can see the beautiful fibers!

I get to choose between Susie's fleece from last year and Gwennie's from this year - The Shepherd wants to have the other three made into sweater vests for himself. The one I don't choose will be our first offering for sale on the Washington Wool dot Net website!

How could have I forgotten?

Several people have mentioned that they haven't seen too much of the cats on the blog lately. That's because they are "senior citizen" kitties and they spend most of their time sleeping.






This is one of Sinda's favorite places to sleep - or it was until something became "unacceptable" and now she won't sit up there - she's been sleeping in this spot for about three months now. Go figure - but when you are 18 years old and a cat, you pretty much can do what you want.

You see, last week in the midst of all the baby excitement, I completely forgot Sinda's birthday on the 21st.

She turned 18 - looks pretty good for an old girl - can't jump as high as she used to be able to, which, luckily keeps her off the top of the refrigerator...



She also likes to find cozy places to sleep outside, and is rather fond of sleeping in this planter box. John has watered her on several occasions.

The other occasion that passed without much fanfare was our 14th wedding anniversary on the 23rd. I made macaroni and cheese for dinner - how un-romantic is that?

Oh, well, another year of peaceful co-existance. Happy Birthday, Sinda and Happy Anniversary to The Shepherd.

Moving day - or - Out into the BIG WIDE world

It wasn't bright and sunny this afternoon, but it wasn't horrible and rainy either - The boys had lots of visitors - about 20 friends from church showed up to check out the new babies. After they were all gone and things had calmed down some, it was Moving Day. The moms were definately starting to get stir crazy in the lambing jugs and it is best move them at a time when The Shepherd can be around to watch.












Taylor and Buddy aren't too sure what's beyond those walls - Anna Dee didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to get out after all - we had to actually go in and "shoo" them out!




Once they hit the pasture, tho, there didn't seem to be much to slow them down. Anna Dee was having a hard time keeping up with them - Boing, boing, boing - like they had springs in their little feet - back & forth, back and forth - It is a kind of joy that you don't see very often.






The aunties were all curious about what was going on in that pasture - who's out there???











Gwennie is probably the calmest that she has been in the last year. and remarkably polite to Anna Dee - hope it lasts...














Glad we have a digital camera - you know how hard it is to hit a moving target, don't you? We'll try not to drive you bonkers with pictures, but, golly isn't he cute?


























Hmmph, more of those sumb sheep pictures - and not enough of me!



Don't worry, Anna Dee - Regina is used to the boys going off on their own, aren't you Regina. In fact, it's the only time you get a little piece and quiet!

HB, Taylor and Buddy say thank you to all of the "hooman beans" who came out to see them today. Hope you all have a great week!

Cute as a bug -

The celebration banners are out!

Our first company stopped by this afternoon to see the new babies - Paul & Patty and our friends Curtis & Felicity, Anna & Johnny.









The tulips went all out today to welcome our visitors.










Anna Dee is much better - the vet was able to milk her out Thursday night and the boys finsihed the job - they are able to eat normally and her udder is back to normal! Thanks Dr. Mike.






While everyone's attention is on the babies, Jewell checks out Patty's handbag to see if there are any cookies - Sorry Jewell - you'll have to stick with hay.

At just two days old, HB is perky, but very mellow. We had to do a little "poop-otomy" after our guests left - as an only, he is getting a lot of rich milk and his mom hadn't been cleaning him enough, so he had a little case of pasty butt where his new poop sticks to his wool and his tail gets glued shut. Not a pretty sight to be sure. Left uncleaned, it could be very bad for him - a couple of warm, wet paper towels did the trick. He was very good about it too - didn't fuss which would have had Gwennie going for The Shepherd's knee caps!

For a first time mom, Gwennie is being very good and very protective, keeping herself between everyone and HB - can you see the spot right on the top of his head?

Neelix says: "What's the big deal, it's just another one of those vishus sheep!"

Oh, but wait til you see this little guy out in the pasture. He's going to stop traffic on the corner for sure!

Joy and sadness - all part of farming

I got home from work a little late tonight - The Shepherd was rushing around - "Listen up", he said - "Anna Dee has mastitis - and the vet can't come out - I have to take her to Lynden" (about 25 miles away) "AND , I'm pretty sure that Gwennie has gone into labor - she may have a lamb as we speak - go check on her!"

Whoa - that's a lot goin' on - so I jump out of the car, dump my purse and bags from work on the back porch and head out to the little barn where Gwennie is.


Oh, My Gosh!!!! Look what I found!



Gwennie has given us an HST ram lamb!





HST - the Holy Grail of Shetland Sheep - stands for Heads, Socks and Tail - a marking where those parts of the body are white - and he does have the white on the tip of his tail, which I guess was tucked in on these pictures. He has little Panda Eyes - His name is Marietta's "H.B." (alias, Panda Guy) (hey, you'll have to ask The Shepherd, I didn't name him...)

Man, he's cute - little panda eyes - cute, cute, cute!





So back to Anna Dee - as you can see, she has a very painful affliction here - but the boys are doing fine -

The Shepherd loaded her into our trailer and off they went to the sheep V-E-T. Our regular vet (from the same office) is back in Minnesota, but Dr. Mike did a great job and they were back in just a couple of hours.

They are both russet brown - naming is still in the works.







Of course in the mean time, the new boys thought they had been left all alone in the world, and cried and cried and cried. Which upset Regina, who couldn't quiet figure out - her boys seemed OK, who were these little twerps who were making such a ruckus?

But, unfortunately our joy was touched with sadness. Just as The Shepherd had gotten back from the vet's with Anna Dee - we thought that Gwennie was passing her afterbirth - no, there was another lamb, unfortunately stillborn - too long waiting for that first breath of life. Blossom, a beautiful white angel with a few black spots now rests beneath the cedar tree in our garden.

Joy and sadness - all part of farming...

Two more lambs at Marietta Shetlands

News Flash: Anna Dee had two lambs this a.m. - both the reddish brown color that The Shepherd was hoping for. Both ram lambs. That, he wasn't hoping for. We're four-for-four - Film at seven.

Button, button, who's got the button?

What ever happened to my mom's button jar?

I got to thinking about it yesterday after we were getting ready for church. The Shepherd asked me if his collar looked straight and mentioned that he had lost the button off it after he put his tie on.

I told him to keep the button and I would sew it back on for him. He seemed surprised - like maybe he didn't know I knew how to sew?

I remember sitting for hours and looking through the buttons in that jar. There were some pretty cool ones (like the blue flower shaped ones in this picture I snagged off of Microsoft's Clip art website.) Maybe it was that when things wore out, they would take the buttons off before they threw the clothes in the rag bag - don't want buttons on the rags - I suppose they would scratch what ever you were cleaning. Prettier pieces of fabric were reused in quilts. Don't want buttons on your quilt, I suppose, either.

Maybe it's that a lot of things don't have buttons any more - I know most all of my pants are elastic waist bands. (even the ones with buttons on them!) . Oh, well, thoughts to ponder, I suppose.

Ain't it the truth?

How does that old song go - "If you're feelin sad and lonely, call me" - Well if I'm feeling down, I just go over to I Can Has Cheeseburger and laugh at the crazy cat pics they put up. How do people come up with these things, anyhow?

The things I'll do to make a point...

Self portrait. It is APRIL 19, 2008! Any other year, it would be Easter weekend - heck it was this cold Easter weekend this year, what am I thinking? The cold, it is affecting my brain. (The Shepherd wants to know what I'm talking about - he says I wasn't outside long enough to get cold - I say The Shepherd is a blabbermouth)

As you can see, there is a cherry tree in full bloom behind me. But what is that thing on my head? (why it is my Sheepskin Tie-on Earmuff - Wool Tie-On Earmuffs - "For those who want more than an earmuff and less than a hat, this is perfect. Fashionable, yet cozy and warm. This ties under the chin or around the back of your head. One size fits all. Available Gold, Black, and White." - Best $30 I ever spent!)

Why do I look like I am dressed for the Arctic Circle? A winter coat OVER a fleece vest? Because it is COLD out - Because it is "See your breath cold" out. It is not supposed to be 36 degrees on April 19th - It's just not natural.

Ok, so I'm a wimp - HOWEVER, I should be glad that we did not have 11 inches of snow like they did down between Everett and Seattle. Yikes - Global warming, my backside... we could do with a little of that global warming here in the Pacific NW - maybe I'll email Al Gore and ask how we get on the list for a little of that warming around here... Ha, ha, ha...

Lost Generation? Maybe not...

A co-worker sent me this link to this You Tube video - it was the second place winner in an AARP contest for young people that was held last fall, called "U@50" -

The author said it was based on "the Argentinian Political Advertisement "The Truth" by RECREAR".

It gives me hope.

Not much doin'...

Occasionally as I'm out driving around, I marvel at the beautiful views of Mt. Baker that we have throughout the county. Weather permitting, The Shepherd gets to see this view every morning on his way to work.

The view changes from season to season - depending on how hot it is over the summer, she will loose almost all of her snow. It is fun, in the fall to watch the snow to start building up - almost like watching an athlete bulking up before a big race.

I often wonder what the first settlers in the area thought about our beautiful mountain. Were they compelled to try to make their way up through the hills and valleys, that of course had no roadways then - I'm thinking that it would have been a pretty hazardous trip.

These are what have burst into bloom out front
behind the Glory of the Snow and in front of the Narcissus (or is it "Narcissi" if there are lots of them?)












See the pretty blue balloons flying in our driveway? They are The Shepherd's way of telling our neighbors that there are lambs down at the end of the pasture - we normally put them out front - where they literally stop traffic on the street, but Grumpy Gwendolyn is in that pasture, so the little ones and Regina are in the pasture in the back. We are hoping the when GG has her babies, she will no longer be Grumpy and we will be able to put all the sheep together.



Hope springs eternal...





Finally I would like to extend our sympathy to several of the Shetland breeders who have lost lambs this spring. It is very sad to have one's hopes and dreams of the last 5 or six months dashed in just a very few minutes. Our hearts are with them.