Left one out...

If I'm going to do a "silly sheep faces" posting, it would be silly to leave this one out

When Ewe Are Smiling ...

I have a camera on the way!

But meanwhile, here are more old and silly sheep photos.



When ewe are smiling...


and when they shouldn't... (just kidding, you have a great smile lambie)




when they are singing...



Joe's watching his girl on the other side of the fence... (i did mention we had to separate him from our goat, didn't i? )

And back to .. when they're smiling!

BEAUTIFUL Sunset

sorry, no photo available.



But.. if there were a photo that could capture the sunset tonight, it would be incredible!


I will find out in 25 minutes if I won the auction on ebay for my camera replacement. :)

Spring has sprung..

What a beautiful week! Hope everyone is enjoying the weather and blooming flowers.

With the rapid growth of everything, we'll probably all be mowing grass in another week..

Unfortunately, I broke my camera last week - I guess there's never a good time to break a camera - but flowers are blooming! Bad timing.

wool recycling plant...

It was pretty out today - not as warm as it was last week, but still nice. I had the opportunity to do a little work outside, and ran across this little tuft of wool in a birds nest.



Not sure what kind of bird would have built this nest? The nest is built on an a weed..so it must be a small and lightweight bird. Glad to see the wool being put to use!

One last moon photo..

for the week, anyways!




this was taken last night - The moon has been so beautiful out this week - hope you had a chance to enjoy it firsthand!

What a difference a week makes

This time last week it was really, really cold! What a beautiful weekend we had with the near record high temperatures. The moon is as beautiful as could be, and with the symphony of tree frogs, it's quite a night out there!

From the kitchen window

The intent was to wash the dishes, but with a beautiful sunrise, the dishes could wait...



.

It's going to be a beautiful day.

Alright, back to the dishes in the sink...

Sunflower...

It's cold out this morning! 18 degrees...

So here's a photo from the garden to warm things up a bit.

(it's still 18 degrees out... but it was worth a try!)

My favorite barn quilt

I love seeing the barn quilts that have been going up! This is a barn quilt from the Red River Gorge area (in Kentucky)

.

The artist behind this block really put some time into the details..

And that's a lot of detail!

Oh, if only every barn could have a quilt...

Got cotton ?

I had an opportunity to throw a few spindle tops yesterday.

I really thought that tops made out of clay would be really heavy, so I trimmed them on the thin side and I just might need to start growing cotton! They are from .45 oz to 1.77 oz but the weight will be much less whey they are completely dried and they take a couple of trips thru the kiln.

I have really enjoyed spinning on a drop spindle, and looking forward to testing new ones.

We are starting to have signs of spring here - first the warm rain, along with 50 degree days. I was just thinking yesterday that if the groundhog were to come out in his raincoat that he would tell us that the grass was going to green up and we would have spring after all. When we got home last night, the tree frogs were singing! We haven't heard them in so long. It's spring. This morning, not only were 'blades' of grass spotted out in the pastures, but patches of green grass that you could see from a distance. Time to get the mower blades sharpened ...and the wool clippers sharpened too. ( i really was going to send those off back in early winter )

Winter is slowly fading...

it's a beautiful time of year.

A correction to the last post...

He's not "always" on guard.. sometimes he clocks out and puts Carlie in charge

Our Rosco..

If any character around here has earned his keep .. it's this little guy!

By the look on his face, I believe this was his first day here. He seemed quite sad to have left behind his life of play and friends for a fenced area with bullies! He didn't have the opportunity to bond to the sheep or lambs with the over-protective mothers here.. they let him know right off that there would be no play, and certainly no friends!

I know, it's pitiful.

But he overcame all those issues, and has grown into a wonderful guard dog. (who loves to have his picture taken)

(I do remember a time though when he would wait for me to leave from feeding and run off the 'mean' sheep, and let the 'nice' sheep and the goats eat! I don't blame him, the gals were pretty mean to him when he was little)

.

.

He has proved to be invaluable. We hear coyotes quite often, and we know they are close - I don't think sleep would be possible without him.

btw: That "counting sheep" if you can't sleep? I get it now.

Thanks Rosco. Good boy.

What's in the kiln...

There's between 50 and 60 pots lined up awaiting their bisque firing, and today is the day to get them in the kiln! There are a lot of bowls, a handful of pitchers, boo-coo flowerpots, several vases and 2 pottery sinks.

.

I'm excited to get this group fired and ready for glaze!

Another crazy place for a bird nest...

I was really glad when these guys were up and out of the nest! Of all places, she thought the edge of the driveway would be a great place. (the barbed wire nest was much safer!) Every time we would pull in the drive, or walk across it, she would just fuss and throw a fit! "oh, my wing is broke! my wing is broke!" If you've seen these birds, you know what I mean. I think they're called killdare, or kill deer? I ended up putting a little post in the drive so that we wouldn't run over the nest, and if we had company, "watch the nest" would be included in our goodbye. On the "camaflouge" factor, I'd give her a 10, but on "safety", no points. We're posting a 'no nests' sign in the driveway this spring!

.

More spring and summer shots?

What do we have left of winter? Is it 4 weeks now?

One of the first projects of last spring was taking down more old fence on our property. Just a short time after rolling up this barbed wire and hanging it on a limb, it was quickly transformed into a residence. I would only guess that the mother bird realized that this home offered quite a line of defense to keep the predators away! (wonder if we could market this idea? we have lots of old barbed wire! lol)

I really don't know where all these iris came from! We've been here 3 years now, and I remember planting 'some' iris. I am looking forward to the new colors and varieties that were planted last year.

And little lambie... I've posted recent pictures of her and some older ones, but this is 'lambies first photo' She was the last lamb born here last year. She was one of a twin. Her brother was average size (approx 7 lb if i remember right) and little lambie was less than a pound! She was sooo tiny. Her mother had her while she was standing up and cleaning the first lamb. The mother would not accept lambie - even after 3 days of trying every trick in the book. Thanks to Marlene and the wonderful milk and colostrum from her nubians, we were able to keep lambie going. I was determined that we wouldn't or couldn't have a bottle lamb, but on day 3 - after witnessing the mother butting her around and rejecting her for the last time, I brought her in the house.

Lambie was so small and delicate, she didn't even stand on the first day. On day 3 (in the barn still) Just as she was learning to walk, she would take a few steps and climb right up on my lap. (this was her silent plea to move into the house with us) (it worked) Even in the house, and loved, she wanted to just sit in your lap.. I finally just left my pants in the floor for her.

Animals we haven't told you about....

It wasn't intentional, but we have goats.


This is Tanna, she's into everything - and if she can figure out what you don't want her to get into, that becomes her focus! Tanna was given to us about 2 years ago from a friend that said she was 'dropped off' in their yard. I guess if you live far enough out in the country, people don't just drop dogs, and cats,... they drop goats. (and roosters)


And this is Hank... and the girl he tells all his secrets to. We actually bought him so that Tanna would have a friend. (Little did we know that our ram Joe would fall in love with her) (She's not interested, but he won't take no for an answer) (Is this TMI?) (do these kind of things happen on other farms?)

And this is Hank again... getting ready for his saturday evening bath...

So that he can take Tanna out on the town...

Since he's learned to drive, he thinks he's something else!

And this is Jack, and the gang, walking off into the sunset.

So, long story ... longer... we didn't intend to have goats, but we are glad they're here.

From the kitchen window...

Bare, naked..

TREES!

Another thing that I love about this time of year is the trees.

This tree is on our hillside ... where we hope to be fencing this year for pasture. Can't wait to get the sheep over there!

This tree is one that I always enjoy seeing on my way home from town. It's on the last hill before home. The picture isn't so good, but it is a beautiful tree. (it's hard to get a good shot while you're driving... on a curvy road!)

This old cottonwood was on my Grandpas' farm. This was taken last year, just a few months before a windstorm destroyed it.