What's growin?

The Shepherd has an amazingly GREEN thumb

Seedlings turn into bedding plants, seemingly overnight...














The bonsai collection comes outside for the
summer. 

Ok, so he didn't plant this one, but, I thought she kind of fit in with the train of thought...












Our wedding rhododendron bloomed it's little heart out this year.  Did it realize it was our 20th anniversary?











This picture from Vikki is a couple of weeks old - she is growing like a weed - but her spots are still brown!












And what is this interesting thing?


It's a SNAIL!

These scourges have quietly moved up the coast, hitchhiking in plants brought into the area from southern growers. 

Kind of a pretty thing, but quickly crunched under the boot of The Shepher  Gardner.  Snails are not something that he wants to be growin' in his garden. 








And finally - a couple of pictures and a short video of our FAVORITE band of all time, Pearl D'Jango - They were playing at Bellwood Acres - Not the best sound but a fun venue, and GREAT crowd. - The sax player was just sitting in with the band - but he proved to be a fantastic addition!

Our table was only a few feet from the stage - it was a fun concert -

Enjoy the music - (it takes a minute to buffer - be patient )    I'll be back later this week with some updated lamb pictures - WOW, they are really growing fast!




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A long ago promised post...

Oh me, oh my... it seems like eons ago that we promised you a Caturday report on the 2014 Wonderful Woolies Farm Sale - in fact the sale was a WHOLE MONTH AGO!

But, you see, I have a good 'scuse - Mummy came down with a bad case of "The Mizzries"  She said on a scale of 1-10, her pain was a 15!! (pain from the right side of her neck down to her fingers & back!)  Her kiropraktor said he thought it was a pinched nerve in her neck - and when his ministrations didn't work Mummy even went to her GP doktor, (and if you know Mummy, you know she praktikally has to be dying before she'll go to her GP doktor)  He said - "oh, yeah, it could be a pinched nerve.  Here, take these good drugs and maybe they will help."  She actually missed two days of work at the Salt Mine - probably only the 4th or 5th time in 20 years that she has missed days for being "sick" - Poor Mummy.  (but we had lots of cuddle time on the big bed.  I made it a practice to lay down on her middle so she couldn't get up and go anywhere)

But I promised to tell you about the farm sale that she and The Shepherd took part in - That happened B/4 the Mizzries, thank heavens)                             

Their friends Yvonne & Dr. Doug invite about a dozen or so other "wool farmers" to join them for a day and people are invited from far and near to come & buy the fiber that they have to sell. 

Set up was Friday afternoon - Here are The Shepherd, Dr. Doug and another Shepherd called Rocky pushing racks form the house to the barn, where everything is getting set up for customers to come on Saturday morning.  We have people come from as far away as Seattle (90 miles or so) because they know that the fiber we offer will be top notch. 

Here is The Shepherd getting his booth set up in the barn. 

 Meanwhile Mummy was in the house helping Yvonne tag bags of roving.  That's Niki with Miss Daisy.

Over the years, one of Mummy's favorite spinning fiber sources has beem Kathy Green Roving - She buys bulk fine micron white wool, dyes it and processes the roving into 6 & 8 ounce bumps - Kathy has announced that she is retiring from the wool processing business & selling her mill.  Darn.

There were lots of choices for people to make -
batts, bumps, colored or natural fibers. 

Yvonne has CVM Romeldale sheep.  She sends some of her fleeces off to be mill spun. 

Sadly, the one thing that they didn't take a picture of was Mummy's yarn display.  She had eleven skeins of yarn to sell and sold 5 of them, including the one of Blue faced Leicester/silk for $69!!

Here was the happy sales desk crew.  There was ONE check out counter - that way the different vendors didn't have to worry about keeping track of money separately. 

Vikki (with her back to you in the beautiful hand made vest) was making her annual deal with The Shepherd for her annual Shetland Fleece.











The finished booth.

Mummy thought that the 4 oz packages of white roving would be very popular, but only a couple of them sold.  She's hoping she can tempt some of her spinner guild buddies into buying them. 

Mummy here -


So this is what I did with the money I earned from selling my yarn - bought a stash ahead of Kathy Green Roving. 










These fun little 4 oz. bags of mystery colors spin up quickly and make pretty yarn.  I've already got plans to make presents for the ladies that I work with out of some of the blue/green (Seahawks colors, you know)

The Wonderful Woollies sale is always fun and it is nice to see so many people come and buy our local fiber.  I can't wait for next years!! 

Sigh

Beautiful tulips in The Shepherd's garden

Sigh –

I’m sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of tomato soup with tuna fish on crackers (is that the oldest lunch in the book, or what?).

Sitting at the kitchen counter because it is the only open counter space in the house (have I ever mentioned that my housekeeping methods leave a little to be desired?) and sighing because it is my last day of "my" spring vacation.

Lambs first day outside!

My Staycation – as they are called – little bits of time carved out so you can just stay home and nourish your soul - - - man, I had a lot of things planned – but with lambs, general exhaustion, gosh, they just didn’t get done.

So,  I’m trying to decide if I should go finish cleaning the living room or make these yummy looking cookies I found on the Land ‘O Lakes web site - maybe if I get off the computer and get busy, I could do both…


But first, a few pictures from around the farm -




Everything in The Shepherd's greenhouse is reaching for the sky.  This stuff is only a week or so old - spring is so marvelous...










And here is some of the pretty stuff I bought on Saturday at the Wonderful Woollies Farm Sale that we participated in.  "Oh," you say, "the object of being in that sale was to sell, not to buy..."

Huh - coulda fooled me...

I did sell five skeins of yarn (one of which was priced at $69!  Yay me. 

And this is the view from the barn.  In the chair where I spend a bit of time waiting this week.

Waiting for lambs to be born....

Waiting for The Shepherd to get home and check on the lambs that were being born...

But generally enjoying one of my favorite views in our garden -

Maybe I can get Gracie to tell you about the Wool Sale in her Caturday report.

No doubt she'll be bummed out because her Mummy had to go back to The Salt Mine tomorrow - but not as bummed as her Mummy is. 

See ya Saturday. 




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Oh, my - lookie what I found in the barn this morning!

Well, I got kind of a late start this morning - I was supposed to run a fan motor into town "early" but, you know, it IS my vacation this week -

But I did agree to go out and check on Wendy a couple of times - when I got out there at about 10:30 - look what I found!

Wendy had her babies.  All by herself, thank god.

I did get them settled in a jug (small pen for mom & lambs for my non sheepy friends)  -







There are two little ewes, both around 3 3/4 pounds (The Shepherd weighed them when he stopped in after lunch to "check on them"

They are both "moorit" or brown, and by looking at the amount of white on their heads and tails, they will probably turn and be fawn colored. 

Like I said, Wendy was a very good mom and had them all cleaned off in no time. 
















Here is Donna & Django - it is amazing what a difference even 24 hours makes as far as the little ones getting around -

He seems like he is pretty mellow and laid back - that is a good thing for a ram. 









Here is Vikki & Wether #2 - they are hopping around and head butting each other already! 

Here is also a little video so you can hear the mamma talk to the babies.  (and them talk back)

Four down, one to go - the lamb count is 7 - 4 ewes, 1 ram and two wethers.  (or at least they will be as soon as they are big enough!) 

More Babies!

 OK, so I warned you.

A little sheep heavy, I said -

The Shepherd stayed home from church this morning.  #1 he was exhausted from the Wonderful Woolies Wool Sale that we took part in yesterday (I promise I'll post some pictures later in the week)  #2 - he was pretty sure that Donna was ready to deliver.  Two years ago (her first baby) she delivered one honkin' big ram lamb. 

 This year, she did the same thing.  Good thing he stayed home, although she did not need his help this year. 

Another fine, big (over 6#!) ram lamb.

And I introduce Marietta's Django.

And that color is pretty true too.  Donna spent a couple of hours cleaning him up.  He's pretty darn handsome!  

 Ahem, excuse me, sir, do you know when my room will be ready? 

So once she heard Donna talking to Django, Violet was knocking on the barn door, waiting and gnashing her teeth...

He no more than had Donna & Django settled in their jug, came in to get a snack, went back out and Violet had delivered a little grey & white ewe lamb, and wascleaning her up.  He came back in & got me (out of my nap, mind you) and so I grabbed my camera & headed back out with him.  Oh, Shepherd, I said - I think she is having another one.  "Oh, no, that's just the aftrebirth from the ewe."  Well, no, it was the second lamb.  This poor little guy made his appearance, kind of unnoticed by Violet - Plop, right on his noggin! 

 Which is why The Shepherd hangs out while the ewes are giving birth - they are generally pretty good, and Violet is a very good mama - but, they get a little sidetracked by the first one, and the second one often needs a little help.  He hadn't made a trip to Goodwill to get extra "sheep towels" so I had to dig through my stuff and came up with this paint stained t-shirt that I used to wear around the house - well, it's in the garbage now....

Wether #2 was a little bit slow getting on his feet, but was up and nursing in about 15 minutes. 

Unimpressed by these births, Bella took a nap in a sun puddle.  

Marietta's Vikki has some pretty unusual markings.  After Violet got her all cleaned up, she is bright white on the sidewalls with a browish gray stripe from nose to tail and grey brown legs. 

The Shepherd thinks she is the cutest thing going right now. 

Look at those curly little locks on her back.  

She really is pretty cute, don't ya think?  And boy, is that going to be a pretty fleece - 

Another gratuitous flower photo - this rhododendron was in the "decor" for our wedding 20 (!) years ago next Wednesday.  Wow, how time flys!

Ease on down, ease on down the road -

Elliott & Frosty have been barn mates since we brought Elliott back from Eugene last June.  They've gotten along pretty darn well - but, Elliott was getting bored, and decided to take out his energies on his "Ramada" - do you see how the little roof over the door is "slightly" listing?  - That's because the blockhead punched the other 4"post out from under the back corner of it. Then he proceeded to work on the roof - Run, run, run, JUMP, bang, hit the roof.  Dot it again, do it again, do it again. 

It doesn't take much for a ram to get bored. 

After all, he "did his duty" in November and December and then The Shepherd took all his girlfriends away. 

It doesn't take much for a bored ram to get into trouble...See the big divot in the middle of his nose.  Big dummy -

Elliott photo bombing my picture of Frosty

It doesn't take much for The Shepherd to lose his patience with a destructive ram.  Oh, Elliott was always very respectful of The Shepherd, and never charged him, but Run, Run, Jump, Bam - he loved banging on that Ramada. 

So, now we come to the part of farming that I hate.  When The Shepherd takes somebody to The Auction.  :-(    -  It leaves me unsettled and with a longing for the way things were,  for days - sometimes weeks afterwards. 

Even the excitement of the new lambs doesn't dull the ache - Oh, I know, they've had good lives and were well treated here, and maybe, just maybe, someone will buy them to live on another farm, instead of going to "freezer camp" (ad my friend calls it)

But,  that's life on a farm - (and that's why all my chickens all died of old age, rather than for the stew pot...)

And like Dorothy said to the scarecrow in the Wiz - They've got to ease on down the road...

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! 




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