Two sticks of nails..

+ some lumber we had laying around, + the better part of a day = shelves in the pottery room. Jack would have had them done in no time, but it takes a little longer for me to get things put together. They're no frills, but they were much needed. I have shelves in the 'other' pottery room, but I have since invaded Jacks workshop (where it's heated in the winter!) (Thanks Jack)
But the real accomplishment is that I have energy enough to start and finish a project. Jack and I are expecting a baby and I have just been down right tired! It's fun to have energy again. And, I finished the shelves without a nap...lol.

Speaking of being pregnant...
This is Josie, and she is due tomorrow - if she is indeed pregnant. I think she is..lol.

Meanwhile, we have Cheyenne that is due today - She's the one pictured on my profile. I'll update with lamb pictures when they get here.

Here is Henry and Ziggy meeting Roscoe. The lambs have been in a separate / maternity field, and have just met the dog. Looks like Roscoe is trying to ignore them.. probably thinking with all the additions, he needs a raise!

Ziggy again. (ok, he's my favorite)

Our other 2 ram lambs have names now - Frank and Jesse. (Jack just realized last night that he hadn't named them yet...they're only 3 weeks old. It's ok, right? I mean, isn't there even shepherds out there that never name their sheep? Gasp.. ... say it isn't so) My guess is, if you blog about your sheep, they have names.

And of course, the latest iris sightings...

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer-like weather!

Time for a "pottery" post..

It's starting to look like the Flat Creek Wool and Iris site! lol.

Pottery is something that I will be forever learning. When I was learning to throw on the wheel, I would study books, techniques, and thought "when I get this down, I'll be set!" Well, then I got to the part of glazing, and learned rather quickly that I still have a long way to go.

With that being said, I have been glazing this week and fired the kiln a couple of days ago. The kiln needs to slow cooly, so after waiting impatiently, it was ready to open this morning.

Since I've admitted I am still in the early stages of learning this art, I never know what to expect when the kiln is opened. The first 5 or so firings went ok - then the last firing, as pictured below was not so good. This particular glaze seemed promising on the test tiles that were ran the firing before -the test tiles were beautiful! However, this glaze proved to be a glaze that I don't want to revisit.
Just an example of what can go wrong. This glaze blistered, ran off the pots-fusing them to the kiln shelves.. and to make matters worse, it even caused a reaction with the other pots that weren't glazed with this glaze, ruining nearly everything in the kiln.

Fortunately, this firing went a little better than the last one.

Here's a few of the pots from the kiln today -


This is a new glaze that I really like -it reminds me a bit of the old crock style pottery.

Another variation of the same glaze
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And this is one that has been used here quite a bit - however it is not as green as usual.

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A few spindle tops - awaiting assembly now

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And the first completed sink.

These pieces are far from perfect, but I was thrilled to not have any pots that needed to be chiseled from the kiln shelf today!

Barn Quilt

This beautiful quilt top was the inspiration for our barn quilt. The quilt top was made by my Great Grandma - and is such a colorful and fun quilt. What I like most about the quilt is the way that such small pieces of material were pieced together to make big enough pieces for the pattern. Just in this block alone, there were 6 "patched" pieces.

Made in an era when nothing went to waste.

More Iris pictures...

They are nearing full bloom, but we still have some of our newer varieties yet to bloom.


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Enough of the purple iris! For the life of me, I don't remember planting but a few of these! I think I will move a lot of these later this year and replace with different colors.

And here's a short video of Henry and Ziggy playing out in the "maternity ward" this evening.
They were having relay races for quite some time tonight.

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And here's of our guys, Max. This is the little guy that kept getting out of his pen and in with the girls during breeding season - fortunately he didn't breed any of the ewes. He's now a wether- and coincidentally -doesn't get out anymore! He's a good fella.

Mm, smells like Hawaii

The locusts are in full bloom now and they smell so wonderful. It really reminds me of stepping off the airplane in Hawaii... Between the locust blooms and the Iris blooming, it smells really nice outside.

And here's a couple of updates on the lambs.. this little guy still doesn't have a name - nor does his brother. Poor guys. They're doing great- even without names.

And little Ziggy... he gets excited when we go out to check on him. He'll run right up and visit - very friendly lamb!

And this is a color shot of Andy.. I think the other pics of him on the blog here are in sepia. He is the sire of the 4 lambs that we have and he has bred other ewes that will be lambing this season, but the next lambs will be out of our white ram Charlie. Andy has a very gentle disposition. (and the ewe ladies here really like him)

Yeah, he's a real ladies ram...

And another ram

ok, we're 4 for 4 now on the rams!

All the lambs are in a separate pen with their mothers - and coyotes are on our doorstep. (which leads to me being up here at 3:42am... ) The dog was in the pen with the other sheep, but just throwing a fit, so I went out and moved him to the maternity pen and sure enough, we had stalkers outside that pen. I heard coyotes "screaming" several hours ago, but they were across the road and a ways off, but I guess it was their war cry as they were heading this way. But all should be well now.

Another lamb on the ground..

Alice must have thought I was gone today.. our sheep never have babies when we're here! I think they know our schedule better than we do, but i tricked her today. Not sure what we'll call this little guy, for now it's 'funny face' - but Jack will come up with a name for him when he gets home. (we're 3 for 3 on baby rams) She just had this little guy, and I imagine one more is on the way, she's usually a twinner.

Iris are starting to bloom.. hard to believe it is May already!

Henry and Ziggy

Henry...

and Ziggy...

Now a full day old and doing great. Oh - and we can tell them apart now.. Ziggy has just a few white hairs on his head... his curls also are a little thicker. I'm sure these factors will change and who knows if we'll still be able to tell them apart.

and I'd hate to leave Lambie out... so here's a shot of her from today.. she'll be

a year old in a few weeks.

It was a fabulous day out today -thankfully the weather prediction of rain missed us again! It was a perfect day to get things done around here... but still lots to do.

Right on schedule..

Moose had her babies today! We have 2 little moorit (brown) ram lambs.. they're cute as could be.

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These little guys are out of Andy, our moorit ram.
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I can't tell these little guys apart. We should have more lambs in a couple of days and then again in a couple of weeks.

Sunset..

As the sun was setting last night, it reminded me of a beach sunset - it was just beautiful - of course I didn't have my camera. The sunset tonight was just as spectacular! (totally unaltered color on the photo) It's such a great night out there.

Our bluebells are in bloom. These grow wild along creeks in our area, and transplant well. My Grandpa dug these up last year and brought them over to us- and they have been doing great in our shady flowerbed. We don't put out bulbs, so these are our first bloomers of the season.

We had a short pop up shower yesterday and the most beautiful rainbow I think I have ever seen. At one point, it was a double rainbow stretched uninterrupted across the sky - amazing. Of course, I couldn't fit it in the camera, so it's just a close-up.

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One more week and we should have some lambs on the ground! Our lambs are late this year, but it seems to have worked out for the best.(thus far) We had trouble with some of the young rams getting out of their pen, and in with the girls. So - that would delay turning in the ram that was intended to be in there. I would mark the calendar, wait a week, and then @#(&^%! .. another ram got out and in there again! sigh. Fortunately, it has worked out that the girls weren't bred by the wanderers. We have passed all those dates on the calendar! But it did work out for the best because we haven't been home much at all the past few months. (working) And it is a much better time next week for lambs!

Looking forward to April 16...

Our taxes were a bit of a hassle this year... why aren't they due in- say January, or February when it's cold and snowy out? Of course, I could have done them then (but that will probably never happen!) But maybe a resolution for next year: i'm going to make it a reasonable one - not to have them completed early, or mailed off prior to the 15th, but maybe i could make a resolution to ensure that I have all my forms by ... the 13th, or the 14th. It was about 3am on the 15th when I realized that I hadn't received my state forms. Sigh. Of course my printer isn't working either.. so just downloading them and printing them here wasn't going to work. Another sigh. But all is well as they're resting comfortably amidst the other last minute filings.



I'm ready to get back to spring tomorrow.

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Poor Moose... another 2 weeks to go. This picture reminds me that I had a dream last night that she had 5 babies. (guess i'm counting sheep even after i go to sleep) My thought in the dream whan i counted those 5 babies were.. uh oh- bottle lambs. I'm hoping she just has one or two, but it's looking like there's several from this angle!

Moonshine

I don't worship the moon.. or follow its signs and phases, but I sure enjoy it! I especially enjoy going out at 1:30 in the morning and checking on the sheep without a flashlight... (not every night do I check on them at such odd hours... only when I can't sleep! Then, i count sheep - and it's much easier to count them by the light of a full moon)

Tonight is going to be one of those nights I'll appreciate the extra light. Our goat Hank wasn't acting his usual ole' self this evening. I don't know what it could be, he's just been acting a little droopy. He took off running when I put everyone back in the pen tonight -so he's probably ok, but it'll be a nice night for checking on him anyways.

Well.. It's been quite an exciting week. As far as weather, it's been all over the board! From sunny and warm to bone chilling -brrr cold with snow flurries. I wish I had taken my camera to work with me today to catch the snow falling on the tulips. (but then I wouldn't have been working... so it is best that i leave my camera home - lol)

Jack and I are on the homestretch of a job we've been working on the past few months. Maybe one more month and we will be starting some projects around here. We still have a few things to do to complete the barn Jack built last year.. then we're going to get busy with fencing new pasture, and who knows, we might even start building our house this year?... or next... It will be fun to see where the year takes us. It's an adventure.

This time next month, we should have a few 'batches' of lambs! (starting with the 2 girls in the right of the pic above) Looking forward to lambs.. just hoping to not have more than the mothers can care for.

I am really looking forward to 'eventually' getting all the pastures fenced. Running and moving temporary fence can be quite time consuming! We hope to start a more effective 'rotational grazing this year.

Oh, and a garden! I was starting to feel like I was really behind when the warm weather hit.. but now that it's snowing again, it puts everything into perspective.... there's still time!

Sick day ...

Despite fighting this allergy / cold stuff and sleeping half the day away.. it was a great day.

(the rest did wonders!)

My new camera came in last week, and had a chance to take a few pictures / videos. The "no photo available" post didn't go over so well- so, I'm glad to have a camera again. lol.


I sheared (rooed?) the ever-shedding Andy today. He started his shedding in late November and had been roaming around half dressed ever since. After his cut, we finished up with a pedicure. He's looking fine again. He is a great fella with such a gentle personality.

I put up a temporary fence today in the yard for the sheep to mow. (we live in a barn, so it only makes sense for the sheep to mow the yard, right?) Actually, I feel guilty mowing with the sheep watching.. so sometimes I just let them do it :)

Moose - the black ewe in the far right - i don't show she's due until May, but she is sure showing! I might have to go back and recalculate those dates.

I pulled weeds in the iris bed today.. funny how that can be enjoyable, but it was.

I noticed that we don't have anything blooming in our yard.. so I snuck over to the neighbors (lol)

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Ended the day with a brush fire... trying to clean up the new pastures so they'll be ready when we can get to fencing! (i had just started using the video function on my camera a few days before it broke.. so going to try to get more use out of this function on the new camera!) I took this video for the background noise.. I have missed those frogs !

It turned out to be a great sick day.