There's only one MonaLisa...

One leaning tower of visa, (oops.. Pisa) one new york town- one fifth avenue. There's only one Eiffel tower , one somethin..somethin.. (finest hour?) one Paris and there's only one....EWE! Ok, now I can get that old song out of my head... (sorry if it's in yours now) Wanted to share the news that out of 8 lambs now, we have a ewe lamb. This was a bit of a surprise last night- I wasn't expecting Dixie to lamb until tomorrow, but had been noticing that she had been off to herself more than usual the last 2 days, so I should have been watching her closer. I went to close the gate last night and all of the sheep were up but Dixie. Sure enough, she had lambed during the day. Dixie is one of our lambs from last year, so she's the youngest we have had to lamb here. Fortunately, she did ok on her own. The lamb is brown moorit.

Took a few shots of some of the other lambs while i was out this morning - this is Virgil..

...and his brother Leroy

and remember the freckle faced white lamb? He's solid white now (other than a black marking on his hind foot) This is Frank and Jesse.

Ziggy is getting to be quite a chunk! (As well as his brother Henry, who is now bigger than he is) I caught on to some of the mischeviousness that is going on last night. I feed the dog morning and night as I go in the pen... the dog follows me around while I'm in the pen, meanwhile- Moose is eating his dog food. (and teaching the little ones to do the same). So, this explains why Moose is so big, and the dog looks like he's been dieting.

No way this can be good for the sheep, or the dog for that matter! We had this problem with Lambie when she was still in the house. She wanted to eat the dog food because she saw our little dog Oscar eating it. Rosco broke her of it - but now we have to start over with these guys.

And our yearling Charlie.. I have been noticing that his wool 'glistens' even when the sun isn't shining on him. He really has a beautiful fleece. I love his rosy cheeks too.. looks like we made him blush.

sunset

The Good Shepherd..

I have signed up to do an art show/festival later this month. This will be the first time the pottery here will be leaving the property, so the goal has been to throw and glaze as many pots as possible this month. So, with that in mind, I'm already off track and on to something else! lol.


This little sculpture of Christ was to be a flowerpot. I had thrown a few small mugs, pots and was just struggling with everything. I decided it was not a day for throwing, so I just "coned" the clay up and began to add clay and shape it into a rough figure. As the clay started to harden, I continued to add a few details.

This is the first time I've tried this. so I'm not sure if this is the proper way? I saw something on one of those 'creative channels a few years ago where a gal sculpted and when the clay was at leather hard stage, she took a wire (i used thread) and cut the figure in half and hollowed out the center so that it would dry evenly.

After both pieces were hollowed out, I scored the edges and sealed them back together and now I'm just waiting to see what happens. In a few places, it was a bit thin, and it might crack during the drying process, or in the kiln, but like everything, it will be a learning experience either way.

If this works, I have some ideas i'm excited to try, shepherdess and lambs - shearing sheep, etc. But for now, back to making and glazing pots....

7 Little lambs = 7 little RAMS!

Well, you guessed it, Josie had 2 little rams Saturday afternoon. They are quite a bit smaller than the other lambs, but are just as cute. It doesn't seem like they are getting near enough milk, although the mother is making milk- just possibly not enough. I have been supplementing a little bottle milk a couple of times a day for the time being. This is Virgil here, still quite messy from his mother lambing in the dirt. He has a big brother LeRoy.

And this is "Howie" the lamb born on Friday, all cleaned up and curly.

This little video "get up brother" is Virgils first attempts to get up. Once he did make it up, the first priority of course, was finding the milk machines. He's pretty small, but very determined!

Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend!

Where are EWE?

Out of 5 lambs, wouldn't you think we would get at least one ewe? Not yet. We're 5 for 5 - rams in the lead. But what a cute little guy! He was born yesterday evening to Cheyenne, our moorit ewe. She loves her little baby, and it is so sweet to hear her coo and sing to him. I have to throw in that I'm not complaining about them all being rams, I'm just really glad they have had them all unassisted! I had gloves and book in hand yesterday just in case. I haven't had to assist with a birth yet, so the book comes with me to the field.

And this is Daddy Charlie, hanging out in the shade nearby. He's a yearling ram that we bred with Cheyenne and Josie (who is having her babies today!) Wonder what the odds are of her having 2 little ewes to start to even up the score? Maybe she could do 3 little ewes??

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.