Meet Myrtle - (aka. Lilly)

Myrtle arrived here at our place earlier this week. She was raised on a bottle by a family that we attend church with. Myrtle grew up with lots of love, and good attention! She is adapting really well to the other sheep, the goats and the dog. (which is a LOT more than I can say about the bottle lamb we raised last year, lambie. Lambie still doesn't know why she's out there in the field with those "other'' creatures!) But Myrtle seems to like the other animals - and they have accepted her quite well too. We're glad to have her here.

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Rosco giving her his blessing. I wasn't sure how he would be around a new lamb, and when he started licking his lips, she didn't know about him either! She thinks he's ok now.

The other animals realized with all the attention on Myrtle here, that if they wanted their picture taken, they better move that way. (Poor Josie, seldom gets her picture taken.)

Wool I planned on shearing this week...

Sometimes the best laid plans... are interrupted by the weather! It's done nothing but rain this week.. looks like i should have started shearing last week when the wool was dry and the sun was shining! Instead, I was taking pictures.. here are a few pictures that didn't make it on the post last week.
This is Alice. I think she likes us, but we'll never know for sure. She is a very hardy ewe, and that's good, because she is really hard to get in the barn. I have to plan ahead weeks in advance to work up to catching her. They say 'sheep are dumb' (i know, it's not my friends that talk about sheep like this!) .. well, this won't say much for me, because she generally out-smarts me.

This is her boy Frank... seems this is the only kind of picture i can get of him.. head down and eating! (well, it's that, or his back side and he's running away!) His mother definitely passed on her hardiness to him.

And this is gal is out of Alice from 2 years ago.. LeAnne.

And sweet Carlie and Ziggy.

I hope the weather is more cooperative next week for shearing!

A few sheep pictures...

I had the opportunity to take a few photos this morning... I am going to start shearing here soon (doesn't mean that i'll be "finished" shearing soon.. just starting..) But thought i should get a few pics before they're bare! It ended up being a bit of a contest to see who was the most photogenic... Delilah won.

But Lambie came in a close 2nd...

She seems to enjoy having her picture taken.. and once she realized what was going on, she relocated to another location and started posing...

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And Andy.. .not sure how photogenic he is

Handsome Joe...

Joe Again..



And Cody. Nice pose Cody.

Introducing Ewenice...

In preparing for the Ky wool festival that is coming up soon, I wanted to make sheep related pottery.. this is the first idea - Meet Ewenice.

Currently, her image is plastered on mugs, vases and flowerpots and will be moving onto pitchers and bowls soon. I have a lot of silly ideas.. i can see her with a baby lamb, or twins.. but she's quite young for that - however, it looks as though she could be carrying twins. We'll see.

Knitting and crochet needle holders.

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Of course this is all experimental... and a learning process here, but I plan to glaze the pots, leaving Ewenice "bare" .. well, she has a good covering of wool, so not 'exactly' bare, but she'll be unglazed.

And a few more yarn bowls and some "iris coffee" mugs.

I plan to carve a folk art style sheep design today to use on mugs, etc.. and I need to start thinking about horse ideas too. the Ky Horse Heritage Days is coming up even sooner than the wool festival! Oh no, I have to get going!!

lol

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Polyester and Wool

I ran across these pictures a couple of days ago.. they are of my brother, myself -and lambs!
(from approx 1976..1977)

All this good training and I take a lambing book to the field during lambing season? lol.

From the kitchen window...

We're planning on building a house.. we haven't settled on any particular plan as of yet, but i'm wondering first and foremost - where should the kitchen window face??? I enjoy washing dishes, but mostly because I can look outside while doing the dishes! This is a scene from earlier in the week when I put up yet another temporary lot to get the sheep off of the grass in their lots (the barberpole worm seems to be lasting more than 30 days on the pastures, so moving them back from one lot to the other after the "rest" period hasn't been so efficient this year) Temporary fence is a hassle to move, but it's worth it.

This is Frank.. one of the first ram lambs born this year. It was hard to get a "heads up" picture of any of the sheep once they were turned out on the fresh grass. Frank and his brother Jesse seem to have good potential to be breeding stock. They are quite young still.

Ziggy wanted to know if "this wool made him look fat?" Yeah, i think it's the wool, Ziggy.

And yarn bowls... I had not made any pottery for a month or so, but had an opportunity to throw a few pots yesterday and trim them this afternoon. These are the first yarn bowls I've made, and if anyone out there has any suggestions or comments, experience using yarn bowls, etc... I'm open for ideas!

Hope everyone has a great, safe Labor Day!

Summer wear...

Thought I'd try to take a few pictures of some of the gang before we changed their wardrobe and put them in their fall wear (freshly shorn). A lot of the Icelandics are shorn in October, after the first cold snap (when they really put the growth on their summer coat). However, we will most likely shear a little earlier than normal this year. We won't have quite the length on the wool by shearing earlier, but it will give them a head start on their winter wear!

This is Joe... I wanted to get a few good pictures of him for a "rams for sale" page on the website I'm working on. Joe has really grown into a beautiful ram this summer. I can't believe how fast he's grown! As you can see from the weeds in his face, i still need to get good pictures! lol.
Once he caught on that we were taking pictures for the web, he did strike a pose.. weeds still in the way though... He's trying to look like a tough ram here in the picture, but he really is gentle and easy to work with. We have rams that haven't been "handled" but I have to admit that this guy likes to have his head scratched.

And where did this big mushroom come from? From any other angle, she does look like a mushroom laying on the ground like this. This is our 'fluffy' Carlie. She doesn't get any grain -well, maybe an occasional treat, she just does a little 'too well' on pasture.

Next, Lambie....

Dottie..

Another beautiful ending to a beautiful day.

Inside the kitchen window..

Here's a bit of a change from the regular "outside the kitchen window" post..

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I put up some tomatoes yesterday.. made a huge mess in the kitchen, but in the beginning stages, it looked ..pretty! I had just a little over 5 gallons of tomatoes - which made 11 quarts.. not a lot, but i don't know much about putting up tomatoes (or anything else for that matter) - so it was a good start. Other than the mess i made, it was quite enjoyable! The next batch will be made into preserves.. my favorite ;)

Lamb and Wool Post...

Wow.. it's been forever since I posted, I thought I would take some pictures today of the lambs, and do a little update on them. First, I have to say that it's been a rough two weeks with that darn barberpole worm. The past two years we used Prohibit (levasole) wormer which worked wonderful and was taken off the market last year (not sure why? ). This year, we have been using Garlic Barrier and more recently Diatamaceous Earth - and different chemical wormers when necessary. We have found that the chemical wormers have been useless this year. Our vet said that Cydectin was the only thing working these days, however it's not labeled for use in lambs under 4 months old - and I really couldn't tell a huge difference when I used it on a few of the adult sheep we have here. Fortunately, the majority of our adults have a good resistance to the barberpole, and only one of our original 10 ewes needed wormed at all this season. We're still looking forward to fall though when this worm season will be over.





Remember Ziggy?

That's little Virgil there next to him. We'll be keeping Ziggy as a ram and we'll keep Virgil as a wether. We'll be offering Ziggys twin Henry for sale this year. (I hope to have a website up and running within the next month)





Ziggy curls.



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And this is our Dottie. She has just recently become friendly - she's really a beautiful lamb.



This is little Emma.. another sweet little ewe.

LeRoy curls (we'll be keeping LeRoy too as a wether)

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Brother Virgil curls

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And this is handsome Howie

He has the most beautiful wool of any little ram that we've ever had...

His wool is dreamy soft!

There's several other lambs out there that I'll be posting an update on soon...

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Rabbit Hash Art Fair...

Well, if you haven't been to Rabbit Hash, Ky, it's a great place to visit - especially this weekend, come on out! This is the first year for the art fair there and they had a really good crowd today. There is always events being planned in Rabbit Hash, such as the Friday night barn dances.. and so much more. (www.rabbithash.com) It's a very unique town.

I was excited to be a part of their first art fair.

I've added a few new items to my booth - such as these 4x4 painted barn quilts

And a few wool items! We will have a lot of wool to share come September when the sheep are sheared, but at this time, just 3 small bags full. Yes sir, yes sir, just 3 bags full. (looking forward to ''30" bags full.)

We had a great backdrop for our booth too! A beautiful rustic log cabin.... would love to have that cabin on our property! (who wouldn't?)

The show will be going on tomorrow, Sunday from 12-5.. so if you're up for a scenic drive, stop on by!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Rain, rain, rain...

It seems like it's been raining for weeks.. we don't mind the rain, it sure beats a drought! Plus, it is a good excuse to get things done indoors that would normally be neglected when the sun is shining.

The sheep don't seem to mind the rain either.. they generally stand out in it - even though they have sheep sheds and barns that they could go to for shelter. The rams generally will go to shelter when it rains, along with the dog and the goats, but the girls generally stay out in it. The goats hate to get wet! Which... brings us to this little "goat box" When we got the goats, it was before sheep, and sheep sheds, and the fencing to the barns... so Jack built a little goat box for them to sleep in and to have shelter. Keeping in mind, they were really small goats when we got them. Many times I have thought of getting rid of this little goat box because it's just not so pretty anymore, but seems when i'm close to throwing it on the burn pile it has a new use. (like the time i went out in the rain and saw little (big) lambie with her head in the box and the rest of her just out in the soaking rain. (now that was a picture) So, once again, I put off getting rid of that old box.

Then, two nights ago in the pouring rain, I noticed a set of eyes in the box when I checked on everyone for the evening.. assuming it was a lamb in there, I found the next morning that Hank had reclaimed his shelter. I was silly to think he had outgrown the little goat box!

Let it rain! (good luck getting out of there Hank)

Genesis 3:17-18

Cursed is the ground...and it will produce thorns and thistles for you.. (what about burrs?)

At least someone is enjoying, and making good use of the thistles!

We are getting ready to expand one of our pastures and there is a lot of "toiling" that will need to be done before the sheep are allowed in, as all of these pictures were taken in the new field.