Houston, the Eagle has landed.....

The "Inn at the Barn"welcomed it's first visitors on this fine Sunday afternoon.

This is Sandy with her lambs, as yet un-named - The little white one is a ram and the little spotted one is a ewe. 

This is Sandy and her brother Frosty on their birthday two years ago - April 7, 2012 - Sandy is the brown & white spotted one - the little black & white is Frosty -  The Shepherd thinks that Sandy's new little girl looks like Frosty, so he's thinking of calling her "Frostianna" - Would not be my choice of a name, but they are his sheep.  I can only make suggestions...

And look who was snoopervising...

I couldn't figure out how Bella got up there, but She/he is sitting on the rest of the lambing panels -

Always interested in what is going on in the barn - Neelix was like that too.  Bella loves it when there are lambs. 


The lambs are probably less than an hour old here - so you can still see their umbilical cords hanging down - kind of gory - but The Shepherd takes a hands off approach in that department - many people dip them in iodine, etc.  He just lets the mom take care of them. 










After the trip to the barn, I did a little walk around to see what's blooming right now and what's growing, etc.

I love these little mini daffs - each blossom is about as big around as a quarter.











The rhubarb is growing in leaps and bounds - we will have enough for pie soon. 








This is the front flower bed when you come up to our place.  It is so pretty with the blue carpet of glory of the snow right now.

And I love this little clump of Grape Hyacinths - it is one of my favorite spring flowers - it always reminds me of "home" as there were literally thousands of plants in my mom's garden. They lined all the walkways.  My little sister & I used to pick them, strip the blossoms off and use them as "blueberries" in our mud pies.  He he he he...





We have four more ewes pregnant - so expect the blog to be a little "sheep heavy" for the next three or four weeks. :-)

Next Saturday we will be at a local farm/wool sale with our fleeces and some of my yarn.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can sell some of it.  I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that the weather, which is forecasted to be Sunny and about 60 degrees holds.  The past two years it has snowed!! 

A fit of whimsey

Ever since the 70's  (ie after high school, off to college to become a "hippie girl") I've had long hair, (really long - mid back to waist length) with the exception of a few times over the years.  Yesterday it was almost to my waist. 

I'll add here that it has been just a weird week - at work customers were pissy and demanding.  It seems that my co-workers and I all have just a little bit of spring fever - squirrely, to say the least.  I was ready for a change. 
 
Today, in a fit of whimsey, I got my hair cut!  Well, actually, I knew last Sunday that I would get it cut today, but I didn't think we'd go this short...


It is the shortest it has been in about 35 years (& those waves you see is the natural curl that has shown up since it is being weighed down by length)

Holy Catalina! 




.

The Gravy Train Freeway?

Hello kittehs & peeps!

Gracie here with a Midweek Report for you.

The Shepherd came into the house the other day and asked Mummy if she knew that we kittehs  had worn a path on the ground at the end of the house.  Mummy said something like "Sure" - but didn't realize how noticeable it was until she looked at this picture that she took of me showing off my resplendent furs.  

As you can see, right along the house is the path where our little footies prance and dance while we are outside.

We have our own Gravy Train Freeway!

Mummy says she'll be back later this week with a recipe that she made up for a gathering last weekend - Muffaletta Wraps  - I have it on good authority that they turned out pretty tasty.

Later!

Love, your roving reporter, Gracie



 .

The "fruit's of his labors - - -

Most of the time you think of "harvest" on the farm as being in the fall.  Not so with sheep - your harvest is the fleece, that comes in the spring with the shearing.  The "crop" you have worked on all year - keeping good nutrition, TRYING to keep them clean, etc.

Elliott's fleece is fluffy and soft, and comparatively clean, in regards to what he's been up to lately -










 As you can see, he's taken a little dislike to the "ramada" on his little barn.  None of the other rams we have ever had have bothered it - they seemed to realize it kept the rain and the heat of the day off  of them - but this little  stinker banged on the 4" support post until he broke it, then proceeded to run and jump up at the roof - further deteriorating the particle board that was under the shingles - covering his fleece with it.  Luckily, while The Shepherd was waiting for the shearer to arrive  a few weeks ago, he had some one on one time with Elliott and was able to pick a lot of that crap out of his fleece prior to shearing. 





This is a sample of Vanessa's fleece - it will  wash up a real pretty honey color, I'm sure.

Another sample of Elliott on the left, with Donna on the right - Donna's fleece has really lightened up this year.  It has nice crimp to it though.











This is the sample that really made me swoon - which I was already doing from the lovely smell of the fresh fleece and the grease from the lanolin on my hands - This is Sandy's fleece - look at those crimpy locks.

The ends are kind of sticky with the dirt/lanolin "gunk" that gets out at the tips of her fleece and The Shepherd was going to take a pair of scissors to it and cut off those ends.

"Wait a minute!" I said - "let me try washing out a bit of it!"

Here is part of her fleece after a little soak in a "hot tub" of hot hot water and wool wash.

Oh, yeah -baby - look at that - and you should feel it.  I think any spinner would love to get his or her hands on this fleece, don't you? 

Here's a close up of the washed locks -

Very nice. 

And of course, an obligatory Kitteh picture of George, that I managed to nab while he was out tearing up the nursery the other day. 

Speaking of Cats - A "sweet 16" side note - The Shepherd was beside himself this evening - do you root for your "home team" - in this case the Arizona Wildcats - from his home town of Tucson, or for the "home team" - the Gonzaga Zags - the local team from Spokane.  I think he ended up rooting for his Wildercats - they won pretty handily.   Go Wildcats! 

To Everything There is a Season

A time to live, a time to die...

Ok, so I acknowledge that none of us are gonna get out of this world alive, but golly, we have had two friends pass away in the past month. 

The first, RB, as his daughter put it in his obituary, was "the innocent victim of  a high speed police chase" - he simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.


RB loved music and when he bought a small cafe in downtown Bellingham around 20 years ago, he decided to give it a Coffee House atmosphere on Friday nights and have live music.  The Shepherd & I spent many Friday evenings there - listening to music, or, in my case, performing it - for a while, my friend Nancy & I had a duet going - we called ourselves "The Rusty Sisters" - She played stand up bass and I played my 12 string guitar and sang the songs we played.  We didn't practice much, hence the name, - we were just a little bit "rusty" - but we had a great time, got tips and all the cookies & coffee that we could eat.

And met a lot of nice people - and got to know RB.  But people's lives change, and RB sold the cafe.  So we didn't see him much any more.  Imagine our delight when he showed up at our church one Sunday morning.  He had gotten to know one of our members and began coming to church with her - then, sadly, he took a job in another state and we hadn't seen or heard from him in several years.  Until last month when we got the news of the accident and his death. 

In many ways,  - since RB was no longer "in our radar" so to speak, our life will go on without him.  But the world has lost a good guy.  Rest in peace RB.



Then last Friday morning, one of my co-workers came up to my desk - "Did you hear that LS died? - He fell out of his truck & hit his head" 

"Well, where did you hear that?" I asked.  "It was on Facebook", he said. 

All right - I have to do a little rant here...

Facebook - a friend of my sister calls it "Nosybook" and I have refused to cave.  I do not have a Facebook page, and don't intend on getting one - but I will admit, it is kind of hard to come up with the kind of news that floats around on FB, and not all of it is true, so I finally decided to call his ex, and yes, he had passed away, but he'd had a heart attack. - And these "Facebook Friends" had announced his passing to the world even before some of his family members knew about it.  Kind of rude, I thought.  Oh, well, I guess that's the unsocial part of social media. 

When I thought about it, I realized that I've known LS for almost 35 years - We weren't "friends with benefits" (although I wouldn't have turned him down) we were good friends - he was always there with a ready smile and the best big hugs you have ever gotten.

When he was married, his wife had cancer, twice - I was one of the "food ladies" who kept the family fed so they could concentrate on her recovery, and when I had my cancer surgery eight (can it really be 8 ?!) years ago, they were two of my biggest supporters.  She survived, I survived, unfortunately, their marriage didn't. 

But he stayed in touch - he'd stop by my office once in a while - always with that ready smile and that wonderful big hug.  And, darn it,  in less than a month, the world has lost another great guy. 

Rest in peace LS. 


So, as the saying goes, "to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven"

And if there is music there, those two boys will be in the front row -


.

Yarn, Navajo plyed

Here is my latest project from my spinning wheel.  I have been wanting to learn how to Navajo (or chain) ply -  What is Navajo Plying you ask? 

Well, to quote  Lee Juvan from KnitTV.com, "Navajo plying (also called chain plying) is a way to make a three-ply yarn from only a single strand. Spinners often use this method when they have spun singles from a multicolored top and want to avoid creating “barber pole” yarn as they ply. Navajo plying preserves the color changes of the original singles, giving you a striped yarn rather than a marled one."

I have always just made two ply yarn, but, as a lot  of the  roving I buy to spin is multi-colored, I generally end up with the "barber pole" effect to my yarn and wanted to learn this method so, as you can see, the colors stay together. 

So I asked my friend Yvonne, who is also the current President of our local spinner guild if she would teach a class on how to Navajo Ply, which she did. 

It takes a "bit'o larnin" and a considerable amount of hand-to-eye coordination to Navajo Ply.



Everyone says, "Oh, if you cam crochet, you should have no problem learning how to Navajo Ply.  Au contraire, my friends. 

So the bottom part of this skein is what I plied at guild - kind of tightly wound, so to speak - then I got home, and my wheel sat in the living room for a couple of weeks - and since I needed to get started on some more yarn for The Shepherd's next sweater vest, I really HAD to get this project finished.  So off to the internet I went and ended up watching this video by spinner extraordinaire, Sarah Anderson .  Actually, I watched it several times, and by the time I get around to doing my next project that I need to Navajo Ply, I'll probably watch it a bunch more - ain't the internet grant?

Anyhow, as you can see from the top of the skein above, after watching Sarah's video, my yarn was much more balanced.  I think I will make myself some fingerless gloves for work.

I'm still having a bit of trouble with my eyes and it just isn't much fun to blog when you can't read what is on the screen.  And I've been thinking up quite a few things that I want to tell you about from taiko drummers to, sadly,  dead friends.   So, I promise I'll make an effort to get some things written up in the next week or so.  Till then, Happy St. Catrick's Day! 

SNOW DAY!!

Well, we finally got some snow today!

There were about 4 or 5 inches when we left for church at about 10:00 this a.m.  We needed to go a little bit early as we had a special guest from Oklahoma in the pulpit this a.m. and we wanted to make sure we were there . 

These first two pictures are of our church.  It almost looks black and white, then you notice the green band below the siding. 




I love how the snowflakes look like little balls of light falling out of the sky! 

Church went well - our visitor was a wonderful speaker.

We had to stop in Ferndale at the store because we forgot to get potatoes Friday night - How can you make stew without potatoes??

The freeway was fine, but the back roads to our house were a little bit sketchy - sloppy and slippery!  







And this is what greeted us when we got to our drive way... that's about 10 inches of snow in front of that gate. 












So, luckily The Shepherd had brought a shovel with us - he had to dig out the driveway so we could get in to the house! 











After getting more snow this afternoon & evening there is about a foot of snow on our dumpster now. 











Bella was very interested in something that was happening outside the window.  S/he got way up on the window sill, tail twitching -












This is all she could see - I don't know if there was maybe a "burdie" in the tree, of if it was just the falling snow flakes that were getting her attention.















Out the front door -















and "plink" down over the edge of the deck.  That's George who just went over  the edge (tip of his tail, center of the picture)  - We couldn't get Gracie off of the big bed for love nor money. 

The forecast from my little "weather machine"  - although Weather.com says it will be 48 degrees by Tuesday! 

The Shepherd took this picture out in the pasture when he did chores this evening - the little wires that the snow is perched on are only 1/4 inch in diameter - how's that work? 

We hope you are all in a nice cozy place this evening! 








.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!

This is a favorite picture of a Valentine's flower bowl that The Shepherd gave me a few years ago.  I just love this picture - it just says "Spring is around the corner!"

This pretty necklace was made by one of my spinner pals.

And then there has to be a little Valentine's bling - no, this isn't mine, a talented spinner pal of mine also makes jewelry - isn't this just the bomb? 










And nothing says "Spring is just around the corner" like our Witch Hazel bush - peeking through the landscape to say "Hello!  I'm here to remind you that winter will soon be on it's merry way" 


 




So, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all our friends - peoples, kitties, woofies, what ever or where ever you may be.  I hope this brings a little love to your heart. 

.

Oh, yeah - we beat 'em!

 DID I MENTION THAT WE WON!!!!!

Coach Pete Carroll

Over 700,000 people - yup, almost a million people,  turned out in frigid weather today to watch our Seattle Seahawks in a Victory Parade through downtown Seattle.  My boss was lenient as those of us in the office watched the parade streaming live on our computers. 

It was interesting watching the faces of the young men on the team.  I don't think that they had ANY idea how much this championship meant to their fans.  But I think they know now. 

Congratulations Seahawks!  You Rock. 

Can't wait for next year. 

It's finally (almost) here!

Hello Effurrybody and Effurry Kitty!

It's (almost) here, the Souperbowl!

Of course, Mummy and The Shepherd are rooting for their FAVORITE team, the SEAHAWKS!


 

GO HAWKS!

 And here is something you'll probably only see once on this bloggy and that is a picture of Mummy with her Seahawks Hair do.  Although it doesn't show up really good - it seems to get a bit of attention from people -

And she is in her new Seahaws shirt, which hopefully, iffn the stars align, tomorrow she can order a new shirt that says "Seahawks, Champions of the World!!"  He, he he...

That's all for this weekend!

Love, your roving reporter, Gracie


Rotel, check  Velveeta, check  Chips, check,     Let the game begin!  

.

Soon, we hope. . .

Hello Effurrybody & EffurryKitty!

Everything on the computer is still very blurry  to Mummy - but she has ordered new lenses for her new glasses (they are even going to make them for free!  Sweet!) 

She is hoping that when she gets them she will be able to read and write more on the computer.  We're not sure what we are going to do with her if she still can't see - that would be a very unhappy situation, that's for sure. 

So, meantime, we're spending time watching the pregame fun about the Seahawks.  The whole state is in a fevered frenzy so it should be a pretty interesting week.  We'll keep you posted about Mummy and her spectacles. 

Love, Gracie


.

Ho Hum

Mummy says to tell you that there are 12 days until the Souper Bowl - I want to watch the Kitten Bowl myself.  He, he, he.....

WE'RE SUPERBOWL BOUND ! ! ! ! ! !

                             YAHOO!  GO HAWKS!  

.

Yay!! It's Caturday!

 Halo Effurrybody & Effurrykitty! 

It's me, Gracie, and IT"S CATURDAY!

The big noos here is that tomorrow is Mummy's Hippo Birdy!

I think she is going to be older than dirt. ...  ...



At least that's what I heard her say.

 She said that "old age was setting in"  and her parts were starting to expire.  Wow,  I hope that doesn't happen to ME!

One of the doctors that she saw last fall "strongly recommended" that she start wearing something called support stockings!   She found some that she liked and says that her legs do feel better. (It is pretty funny to watch her put them on - lots of huffing & puffing)   She says that part of the problem is that she sits at a high desk on a high chair and so her legs were kind of dangling  so she also bought a stool to park them on.

And she's still having problems with her vision & being able to see the computer screen.  Even tho she has gotten her new glasses, she still has to make the words really big so they don't all moush together -  And to top it all off, some of her eyelashes started to scratch her eye, so she had to go to her eye doctor and he pulled them out!  She said it felt like she had a stick stuck in her eye.  It has taken almost a week for her eye to feel better.

She says it's heck getting old. 

Speaking of old, this s a picture from last month - when we had snow, we had an introoder!!!  Infact, The Shepherd said there were a couple of introoders.  They walked all over the yard and left their footie prints - he said it was probably a mommy raccoon and one of her babies.


I'm glad they didn't come in the house!

This is mummy's latest string project.  She went to her spinner guild meeting today and everybody said "Oh, you are spinning SEAHAWKS colors.  They are her and The Shepherd's favorite footsball team.  And they won their game today.  There was a lot of shoutin goin on in the libing room!!!

It has been raining and raining here, so mummy dug out this picture that she took last month when the weather was nice - cold but very blu skies - kind of SEAHAWK colors, don't cha think?

Mummy & The Shepherd are signed up to take snacks for church tomorrow.  So she decided to make it kind of an informal Hippo Birdie party for herself. 

Here is what she is taking:

2 lbs each of sliced ham & turkey.  She got it at Cash & Carry Restaurant Supply, so it wasn't very espensive, she said.  With that are three different loaves of  bread, one dark, one oatmeal and one white, and a package of "flat bagels".  Butter, mayo & mustard, of course.

A nice tray of sliced cheese that she got at the grocery store.  It has 4 different kinds of cheese on it and it is all sliced up and ready to put on the table.  And some Wheat Thin crackers.

A bag of corn chips for our gluten intolerant folks, with some salsa, some homemade garlic dip and some homemade salmon dip.

Some oranges and apples to slice up AND her friend Vikki from church is making not ONE, but TWO Hippo Birdie cakes for her, because Mummy couldn't decide if she wanted chocolate with raspberry filling or Vanilla with lemon filling.  And Vikki said, "Well, why don't I make one of each - if there is anything left, you can take it tow work on Monday"

That sounded like a good idea to Mummy, but she wasn't too shure that any of the left over cake would actually make it into her office... he he he...

And then The Shepherd is going to take her out to dinner someplace nice!

So, that's all the noos there is today.  We hope you are having a good Noo Year!

Love, your roving reporter, Gracie! 

The End.