Scenes From the Craziest Week EVER

September 29, 2013 by WoolyMama

This week we played host to “Yarn Share” prep with Susan and Lauria to get out the latest yarn shares and The Shepherd and The Shearer shares.

This involved dyeing some yarn, packaging some yarn, and just a smidge of tagging yarn. And by “smidge” I mean something like 7,500.

Yup. We took turns stringing twine through product tags and tying them onto hanks of yarn to be packaged and shipped out.

Fortunately Maddie had a ready supply of friends willing to help out while Lauria got the dyeing and labeling of packages accomplished. It took nearly two weeks. But friends, let me tell you. Our hands felt divine after handling all that wool with its soothing lanolin still intact!

I even got to try my hand at dyeing yarn for the first time!

I didn’t dye any of the share yarn – I was waaaay too nervous I’d mess that up! But I had some farm yarn (Cormo/Mohair) kicking around that I threw in the pot.

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s exactly what I was hoping for.

My friend Tanya threw two of my skeins into a batch of the cranberry dye as well, and it is AMAZING. But I don’t have any pictures of it at the moment. Sorry!

Luscious wool.

Our house was overrun with it!

There were times where every one of us was tempted to lose hope that it would ever get done and sent out, but thankfully we had some of the most hardworking and fun people on the job.

Now we are done and our Tibetan mountain range of wool has become a mere Catskills.

Time to relax, recoup, and get back to routine.

Little Pocket Meets the Big Woods

September 21, 2013 by WoolyMama

Once upon a time there was a smallish possum called Pocket. No one knew how he’d wound up living in the garage, but he was glad that it was warm and dry, and there was plenty of food that Furble the cat was willing to share.

One day the big human named Paul found Pocket hanging onto the back of the fridge and tried to chase him away. It frightened Pocket and he spent the next month hiding in the relative safety of Under-the-Auto-Lift.

Every day Pocket could hear the goings-on of the humans. They spent a lot of time stacking boxes of sweet-smelling wool and moving around bins of delicious feeds of various types. It was scary, but Pocket was afraid to venture out of his hiding spot into the great, wide, open world.

Then one day, a large group of the humans was making quite a racket above him. Pocket became very worried; the noises were very loud and right above his head! Were the humans aware of his presence?

Very, very timidly, Pocket poked his nose out to sniff at the air. Before he knew it, the commotion had increased all around him. The humans had found him!

They gathered around Pocket, blocking him in and poking around him with a stick. It was very scary!

They were trying to make Pocket leave his hole. But Pocket didn’t want to leave!

“Get me something to smack it with!” yelled one human.

“Don’t you dare!” yelled another.

Pocket was very confused.

Pocket kept turning in circles, trying to avoid the little stick they were poking him with, and trying to get a better look at what was going on above him. Perhaps he could find an escape route!

Perhaps his friend Furble could create a distraction while Pocket escaped!

But Furble was taking a snooze. She said “I ain’t bovvered”.

There was a small colorful human that kept squealing. Pocket was starting to think he should try to escape.

All around him and above him were boxes and faces. On one end, there was a net!

Pocket thought he could aim for one corner and climb over the weakest box wall.

He went for it!

But then suddenly there was a giant hand around him! And that hand pushed him into the scary net!

What was going to happen to Pocket? He squirmed and twisted, trying to break free from the net!

The humans were standing all around Pocket. He was very frightened, but he tried to be calm.

Some of the humans were gathered close, smiling at him. Pocket wasn’t sure what to make of it.

He held tight to one end of the net with his tail, hoping he could squeeze out through one of the holes in the net. As he sat there with the humans all around him, he saw trees coming into view.

Trees! Something deep inside him stirred. The trees made him feel happy!

Then the human with the net set him onto the ground!

Pocket felt so happy as he sniffed the air and moved cautiously from the net. He was free!

The lovely green, wet smell of the woods smelt delicious. Pocket was a free Possum, and he was on his way into the woods, many grand adventures ahead of him!

Pocket felt so happy as he ran into the woods, the sounds of cheering humans behind him.

Weed Patrol

September 15, 2013 by WoolyMama

The weeds are out of hand this year. I know I say that every year, but I had truthfully done ZERO outside to control them since spring. For one, the weed whacker is broken. Two, it’s either been mad rainy or mad hot.

This weekend, however, it has been clear and sunny and relatively cool, with a high of around 80. Time for some weeding!

But wait!

The weed whacker is still broken!

And my pinky toe that I broke a few weeks ago (stupid, stupid. Misjudged the bottom of the stairs around 2 in the morning and landed on my pinky toe. It made a nice “crunch”) is still not quite healed.

How on earth to manage those pesky weeds??

Duh.

I brought up four goats: Milkshakes, Roquefort, Bertie and Sam. We’re calling it their “work release” program.

🙂

They all love munching down those virginia creeper vines that make me so crazy. In one weekend these four will rip out and eat all of that overgrowth that has been plaguing the front garden for months, and I won’t have to get sliced up by prickers or assaulted by spiders.

As for the back garden: there are still sweet potato vines that look like they may produce fruit, so I don’t want to throw goats or pigs in there quite yet. For now I have put the ducks out there. There’s plenty of forage in there for them and bugs and they shouldn’t be able to damage the sweet potatoes too much.

Win!

Today in Animals

August 24, 2013 by WoolyMama

After yesterday’s monsoons it was quite a treat to spend some quiet time outside with the flock while they soaked up the sunlight.

He’s got a very “I ain’t bovvered” look about him today, doesn’t he?

Nanny McPhee always has a smile on her face. It’s deceptive, though, because she won’t let me any closer than this.

Caramel and Adelaide

Cosmo

This lady (I think it’s Lyra) does this every time I show up with the camera.

Samantha

Beautiful Miss Hannah

Alabama looks (and feels!) like a giant cuddly teddy bear.

Patmore

Ursa

Cini, who insists on always being rightatyourside.

Aster, waiting by the feed trough.

Cross your fingers the weather stays like this for a good while. We could use the respite from the rain!

This Morning in Pictures

August 8, 2013 by WoolyMama

Well, it’s not oppressively sunny and brutal, but it’s pretty humid and yucky out. The sheep aren’t doing too badly with it, but they’re still not totally comfortable.

I tried to do a little garden weeding and maintenance, but as you can see, it’s kind of a losing battle.

But the sunflowers are doing well anyway. From what I can tell, the sweet potatoes seem to be thriving as well. Hooray for small miracles!

Miss Adelaide is getting into the habit of getting stuck in the fence every morning. Even though she has two giant tanks of fresh water easily accessible to her, she wants that water in the blue tub outside the fence.

Pretty much sums up goats.

Sweet Caramel. Who is actually not so sweet anymore. She’s decided she doesn’t like people.

The infamous Milkshakes.

Lovely Miss Hannah.

Darling Isobel.

Martin. As you can see, the Angora goats are looking forward to their fall shearing.

Georgia.

Well hello, there!

Cassie.

Alabama, hanging out in one of his favorite snoozin’ spots.

They are all ready for this wet, muddy summer to be over. I can’t really blame them. I’m kind of ready, too. Their hooves grow ridiculously fast when it’s like this and it’s difficult to keep on top of when you don’t want to constantly round them up and stress them out in the heat.

Plus once it’s cooler and shade isn’t such an absolute necessity at all times, we can pen them into a smaller section and blanket the field with more grass seed.

For now let’s hope that what is left of summer doesn’t come back and smack with with any record heatwaves, shall we?

Celebrating Summer

June 25, 2013 by WoolyMama

We welcomed summer and the Solstice a few days late this year, but it was no less sun – drenched and magical.

Oona’s favorite book.

Cat naps are a necessity on hot summer days.

Pigs looooooooove carrot tops!

These purple beans turn green when cooked. Magic!

Dinner was Brisket Tacos followed by s’mores stuffed with mini Rollos on the back deck.

Welcome, summer. We hope you are lovely and slow and full of lazy fun.

On Hold

June 21, 2013 by WoolyMama

This week normal life has been on hold while the girls are at theater camp preparing to perform in The Princess And The Pea. It’s a week – long camp hosted by Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater in conjunction with Missoula Children’s Theater.

Children audition for their parts on Monday (everyone who is registered gets a part), rehearse all week, and present the play on Saturday.

Since the theater is a bit of a drive and Oona’s schedule is a bit shorter than the older girls I have been in town pretty much all week and away from home. It’s been stressful, crazy, fun and a total whirlwind. We can’t believe that the performance is tomorrow already!

In the meantime the gardens and the house have been completely neglected.

The sheep and goats have of course not been! In fact I had a hectic day meeting the vet back here to administer copper boluses to everyone for parasite control and then screaming back into town to pick up the kids. The same amount of work is still going into livestock care; the hours have just shifted a bit. Still, it will be a nice return to normal after Saturday!

Hidden cache of eggs discovered in the mint.

There’s always time to play with lambs!

Oona named the surprise new chick “Dorito”.

And now I am back off into the whirlwind. We’ll be celebrating the Solstice on Sunday, and we can’t wait.

The Longest Week

June 16, 2013 by WoolyMama

Hello, my poor neglected blog!

This week has been one of those “knock you down on your backside” kind of weeks, but I’m cautiously optimistic that things will be a little less crazy now.

Here is a brief rundown of the weeks’ highlights:

I harvested my first bunch of radishes. And they were yummy! I just love the crunch they give to a big, green salad.

We’ve had “escaping dog” syndrome. He’d rather hang closer to the house during the day, and then he heads back in in the evening. It’s a good thing we have all that barking power out there, too. Last night we heard a chorus of coyotes off in the distance.

My hydrangeas bloomed!

Emily discovered a missing chicken hanging out in the honeysuckle overgrowth in my front garden. And she wasn’t alone. She’d apparently been secretly brooding over a cache of eggs, and one had hatched. I haven’t gotten pictures yet. And no, we really don’t need more chickens.

The entire flock got wormed. Maddie helped me with the first half; I finished them up on my own.

They’re not too pleased with me now. The indignities of having a medicine cocktail shoved down your throat will do that, I guess.

While walking out to check on everyone this evening I spotted a tiny turtle in the stream. He darted away when I tried to get closer, but it was a brilliant moment nonetheless. It’s rather nice spotting something wonderful in the stream instead of all the copperhead snakes that we have been finding.

Alabama still doesn’t like it when I try to take his picture. It gets in the way of him stuffing his face with hay in his bid to become world’s fattest sheep.

Starting tomorrow the kids are in theater camp all week. Hopefully it will be an easy week.

Difficult Days

June 11, 2013 by WoolyMama

Today we were forced to say goodbye to our darling little Beatrix.

She had a bit of diarrhea the last two days, and despite treating her with everything we could, she had passed on when I went to check this morning.

Losing animals is always difficult; it’s especially hard because since we only had two lambs this year we got to know both of them well, and spent a lot of time with them.

I have a call in to the vet to be sure there was nothing else going on I may have missed. Darby and Amelia are doing wonderfully – they are still penned out in front of the house on grass and I am loathe to put them back out in the field now. Since there is no grass back there yet it has gotten very muddy with the heavy rains, and I worry that may have contributed to Beatrix’s decline. Amelia is also still very skinny despite the grass and grain, and I fear she shouldn’t go back to a hay – only diet at this point.

I pray everyone else stays healthy and the heat and mud don’t become more of a problem for anyone. I have been out to the field four times a day to check on everyone, and I am having to fight the urge to just stay out there all day now. But, having me fret over them constantly won’t help, either. These things happen despite our best intentions and care.