Haulin’ Water 02/08/2010

It’s that time of year when it seems that I am always tired.  Physically, creatively, and mentally tired.  I’m tired of the snow, sick of the unending monotone of the landscape.  Watching the sheep and llamas has even lost it’s intrigue.  I just want to snuggle in bed, go to sleep and stay there until … spring! …  lambs!

At this time of year, I question myself on why I have so many sheep.  Each sheep and llama means additional water to haul to the trough in the barnyard or to each separate pen.  We don’t have a water hydrant near the barnyard.  We DO have an outside hydrant which is 75 paces from the nearest water troughs.   No, I don’t know how many feet.  I don’t want to know!

Approx. 15 gallons of water per trip are hauled to the barnyard in this mixing trough. The trough is very strong and glides nicely through the snow. I bought the gas can specifically for water. It works well through the fence.

Today, while I made four trips to the water hydrant, I reminded myself that spring will arrive soon and the sheep will hopefully be sheared in less than a month.  Then the udders will begin to swell and lambs start to arrive.

We are in the midst of more snowfall.  I am not complaining.  We aren’t getting much compared to other places in the country.  At least the gray will be replaced with some fluffy white.  Hmm…I’m tired of that also… .   At least the sheep enjoy the snow.  The ewelings and whethers have been running and kicking up their heels daily.  I DO enjoy watching them play!

Chester and Jester always greet me when I am in the barnyard. I think they are happy for the water and the new bales of hay!

What do llamas think when they see a hot air balloon? 01/31/2010

Yesterday I pulled back the drapes to open the door while letting the dogs outside.  I was surprised by what I saw.  It’s not every day that I open the door to discover a very large balloon.  In fact, I have never had a balloon hanging over my house, have you?

Hot air balloon floating over our house.

I threw on my boots, hat and jacket, and grabbed my Nikon DSLR as I ran outside.  I didn’t want to let this photo opportunity pass by!  The balloons were in town for the Center City Winter Festival.  We usually can’t attend because of work.  It’s too bad because we enjoy watching the snowmobile and ATV races on frozen Center Lake as well as turkey bowling, sled dog rides, chili cook-off, hay and helicopter rides, etc.  We went the first year we lived here; it was about -20F., windy and frigid!  My brother, his wife and boys went with us and we had a blast!  Unfortunately, that year the balloons could not launch due to inclement weather.  This year, the conditions were great for ballooning; although it was very cold, the skies were clear with a light breeze blowing in the right direction to bring them over us.

Here come the balloons! You can't see them but the chase cars are idling on the road to the right.

A beautiful balloon in the distance.

The flock was a bit confused by the silent beasts in the sky.

Balloons float over the east pasture.

The camera battery died after a number of photos; as a result, I didn’t get shots of all the balloons.  But that was okay.  I enjoyed the show from a vantage point right outside the barnyard.  I stood quietly next to the llamas and sheep while we all watched the stealthy, colorful beasts of the air.  The balloons silently floated away to the north, leaving no trace  of their passing.  I wonder if the llamas will retain this memory?  For me, I will always keep a joyful memory in my heart of brightly colored balloons on a cold, cold winter day.

Friday’s Photos – The View from Somewhere Else 01/29/2010

Today I wanted to post some photos from our vacation last October.  We had rain, rain, snow, clouds, ice, a bit of sun … and more rain.  But we had a wonderful time.  We drove from Minnesota, through the Rockies and on to the southwest of Colorado.  We camped in solitude with our dogs and scouted out some fly fishing possibilities.  Most of the rest of the country goes camping when it is warm.  Not us!

We drove back to camp in Custer State Park in the Black Hills, stopping to visit our little patch of the west on the southern edge of the Black Hills. A number of years ago, I drove out to the Black Hills with my dog, on my birthday, and signed a contract to buy a piece of western land.  The man I bought it from was bemused that a woman would drive from Minnesota, by herself, to buy a piece of land.  “Where is your husband?” he inquired.  “My husband was at home and couldn’t get away,” I replied.  Smiling, he asked if I was a “woman’s libber?”  I told him that I am a woman who loves the West.  I just wanted my own little piece of it.

It’s not the first time we’ve driven into the southern Black Hills in a snowstorm.  We have had many a camping trip with our children on their March/April school break.  It was nature, off season, and an inexpensive family trip.  We grew to love it out there, it didn’t matter to us what time of year.  In the Hills, we spend time with the pronghorn antelope, buffalo, turkey, deer, and bighorn sheep.  The wind in the pines is amazing and the western prairie starkly beautiful.  Enjoy the photos.

Southwest Colorado. It was about 40 degrees.

An abandoned fence in southwest Colorado 2009

The Shepherd took this photo from the rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River, Colorado 2009. The river is 1/2 mile below.

Snow at Sylvan Lake, Black Hills, South Dakota 2009. The trout were saved by the snow. Too cold to fish.

The view from our western cabin....some day. Elk Mountain burned several years ago in extensive Black Hills fires. The fire came within 1/4 mile of our vacation property.

Fiber Fun 01/25/2010

BFL X North Country Cheviot in an exhausted food color dyebath

It’s snowing, blowing and cold outside.  We are in that monochrome time of year – white… gray…brown…black.  My last post, Friday’s Frosty photos not-so-vividly displays our winter colors in Minnesota.  Needless to say, I am in the mood for color!  I pulled up some photos of recent fiber adventures.

I love dyeing.  I enjoy seeing how the colors will reveal themselves; I also enjoy those “oops” moments when I don’t stir the dye well enough (see below) and the color separates.  I particularly enjoy working with food color because the only thing I need to worry about is preventing spills and cleanup.  No mask needed and I can use whatever pots and utensils I choose.   This BFL X NC Cheviot was dyed using blue with a few drops of black.  I didn’t stir well enough so the black separated out a bit.  This black has red in it so it leaned more toward the purple end of the spectrum.  The colors came out beautifully.  I am still spinning it so I will post a photo when it is all done.

BFL-NC Cheviot dyed and dried.

BFL X NCC Mule fiber. I carded this fiber, leaving in the short fibers for texture. This fiber is VERY SPROINGY! I am combing some blue to spin for comparison. I will post pics when done.

BFL-NC Cheviot dyed and dried. I used yellow food color with a few drops of red.  This fiber has a very nice, springy soft handle.

Last week I visited my llama mentor Sheila Fugina, of Shady Ridge Farm.  It was an enjoyable afternoon spent with our hands in fiber, chatting, and petting her lovely llamas.  I asked Sheila to share some of her knowledge of llama fiber and skirting techniques.  It’s always helpful to gather some tips from the experienced fiber person!  It was a wonderful afternoon.

Sheila showed me her new corespun yarn.  It can be used for weaving, crocheting or knitting, or whatever your imagination desires.  The llama was blended with sheep wool, in this case Shetland, and loosely spun around a twine core.   I will have some made this year.

Sheila holds a bump of Llama/Shetland corespun yarn.

Corespun Llama/Shetland yarn

Friday’s Frosty Photos 01/22/2010

A few apples still cling to the old apple tree

Frosty fleece wreckers

The birds left a few berries for a winter treat

The absolute worst fleece offenders

The land rests

Aargh! The weeds! But they ARE pretty covered in frost...

Meet the President(s) 01/20/2010

Meet the ??

This past weekend my daughter Amanda called to say that her school was to have a Very Important Person come to visit on Tuesday (yesterday.)  This person was so important that the Secret Service spent two days photographing classrooms, gathering names, birthdates and social security numbers.  The school staff was told they would have to park almost a mile away and be shuttled to school.  So they new it was someone important.  Perhaps the First Lady Michelle Obama or Vice President Biden or even the President, himself?!?  Amanda could hardly contain herself.  She didn’t know how they were chosen, but the sixth grade classes, as well as the sixth grade teachers, were the ones who would meet with the VIP.  Amanda felt especially thrilled because she worked locally on President Obama’s campaign.

Tuesday afternoon, Amanda called me to say that is was President Obama himself who came to talk with the students!  She said it was quite a morning for the children and school staff.  Everything went smoothly in the morning and they were back to their usual studies later in the day.  Amanda has a nice description of the events on her blog.  Check it out at my Daughter’s Blog.  I saw her class room on the news last night; they spoke of the President’s “Race to the Top” education initiative, which was part of his news conference held at her school.

Here is a photo from the visit.  If you are interested in the video of the President greeting the students, you can click on the Whitehouse.gov website.  I can’t figure out how to get the link to work; you can click here if you want to learn more.

Amanda is the blonde woman smiling on the left. She is wearing her self designed, hand knit "Stockholm Dress."

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking with the students.

So I wondered why Amanda’s school was chosen?  I’ve visited her school.  Her school is old, small (TINY!), with limited parking space and outside space for the children.  It is right off a busy highway and near a busy intersection.  This is what I copied from the Whitehouse.gov website:

“You can learn more about Graham Road in the White House background release, but the school made a mark on its community by implementing a comprehensive strategy to turn around student achievement, adopting rigorous and high-quality student assessments, teacher evaluation and professional development, along with innovative and effective use of data systems to track student performance.  As a result, in 2008 all of the school’s sixth-graders met Virginia’s reading standards, and 96 percent met math standards, despite being one of the lowest income schools in the county. The expansion of Race to the Top comes with a plan to encourage precisely this kind of visionary change in schools that apply for the challenge.”

Isn’t is nice when our children take part in doing good things?!?

Meet the Presidents?

As I thought about this post I realized that every member of my family has met a United States President.  Trophy Husband and I met and shook hands with Bill Clinton, as well as HilaryClinton and Al Gore, when they were campaigning in Minneapolis before Clinton’s first term.  Our son John, recently met and shook hands with former President Jimmy Carter when John was on a Marine Corps assignment.  And now Amanda has met and shook hands with President Obama.  These are minor things, to be sure, but nevertheless a fun family remembrance for us all!

Friday’s Photos – Faces and Fiber 01/15/2010

Karma and 7 month old cria Primo Jan. 2010

BFL x NC Cheviot Mule ewe lamb Fiona has such an adorable face and ears! The moorit lamb behind her is Shetland ewe lamb Bonnie. Next to Fiona is a BFL x Shetland Mule ewe lamb.

NC Cheviot Mule lamb Fiona's feathered tips of her fiber. I can't wait to get to spin it!

BFL x Shetland Mule ewe lamb fiber, also very lovely. It has a nice luster that isn't visible in the photo.

The perspective is askew because I am standing over them. But this photo does illustrate the size difference between the BFL x NC Cheviot Mule lamb Helena (foreground) and purebred Shetland ewe lamb, Bonnie. Helena was born six weeks earlier than Bonnie. The NC Cheviot mule lambs have the most growth compared to the Shetland Mules also.

BFL x NC Cheviot Mule ewe lamb Helenas black fiber. At this point I have not observed that Helena has the side dusting like our black Shetland Mulesheep.

Shetland LRO Lily (FOR SALE) is jacketed. I coated three Shetland ewes this year, Lily, Bella (FOR SALE) and Jellybean. I think I may coat more sheep next year...

I can't remember if I posted this photo or not. This is the Shepherd walking Blue through a field in a failed attempt to lure Ben back home when he jumped the fence last October. If you want to read more about that adventure, click on "How Does One Convince a Llama?" on the sidebar.

Sheep for Sale & Meet the Boys (Yet Again!) 01/13/2010

Sheep for Sale

It’s time to sell off a bit of my flock to make room for lambs.  We have limited space and pasture and my breeding goals are moving toward a Finnsheep and Mulesheep fiber flock.  I am offering several exposed Shetland ewes, a crossbred ram lamb, and a few Shetland whethers for fiber or companion pets.  The sheep are listed on the FOR SALE page.  As usual, please post a message or email with questions on pedigrees or for additional photos.  All prices are negotiable!

Meet the Boys…again

Finnsheep ram lamb Little Red Oak Eino (NFS) and Bluefaced Leicester ram Dougal (NFS). Eino is our first Finnsheep sire and Dougal is sire to our Mulesheep.

Finn ram lamb Eino with BFL-Cheviot-Shetland ram lamb Rocky (For Sale)

Male Llama cria Primogenito is our only intact male llama. He is now seven months old; his dam Karma is weaning him now. He will be housed with one of our llama geldings until he can be gelded when he is 18 months to two years old. We do not plan on having any intact male llamas on our farm.

Friday’s Fab Five – Woolly Babes! 01/08/2010

As promised, on Fridays in January, I will post some of my favorite photos from the past year.  I will try to keep it to five photos each post.  Enjoy!

Little Red Oak Bella is yuglet, moorit, with a white tip on her tail and white socks on her rear legs. She had twin black krunet rams last year; in this photo she is shown with her Mule ram lamb. She has had trouble free lambing and plentiful milk. She has a nice conformation, Her fleece is lovely and she always has an inquisitve "baaa" for me when I am near the barnyard. She is bred to BFL Dougal again this year for Mule lamb(s). She will be for sale after weaning next summer.

The llamas are so curious about the new lambs. The lambs just take the llamas in stride. No worries to them - they are all part of the same flock!

Shetland Nugget (musket) with 2009 lambs Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie (moorit)has been retained in the ewe flock.

Llama cria Primo when he was a few days old.

NC Cheviot Molly and her BFL X Mule lamb Helena.

My Daughter’s Very Interesting Life 01/07/2010

If you have followed this blog you may remember that my daughter got married last July to a wonderful Korean man, Kisu.  They met while Amanda was working in the Seoul area teaching English to school children.  TH and I were fortunate to be able to visit Amanda while she was in South Korea but she had not met Kisu yet.  We met our Korean in-laws and family at the wedding.  Amanda has a good match in her husband and his family love her.  All is good.  Just what any mom wants for her child!

Amanda and Kisu married July 11, 2009

Allow me a moment to boast…

Amanda has an excellent blog about her life as a American woman aka World Traveler, Elementary Teacher, New Wife, Tae Kwon Doe 2nd Degree Black Belt, Culinary Chef, Amateur Photographer, and -  IMHO  – Champion Knitter and Designer (my mentor.)  Hmm, I’m sure I left out something… Oh, yes, she helps me out with questions about blogging, the internet, and my Nikon Digital SLR also!

As her mother, it’s fascinating to read her blog.  I imagine it’s almost like peeking into a diary of my daughter’s daily life.  I am constantly learning something new about her.  And now that I have a blog, I understand Amanda’s point when she laments that I haven’t been reading her blog.  Oops!  She caught me!  I would have known (insert the latest news here) if I had read her blog in the past few days.

And while I’m on the subject…

Blogging is ALOT of work.  Don’t get me wrong – I do find it creative and satisfying and I just love connecting with the folks who leave comments.  I put so much thought, time and effort into my blog; and taking photos, downloading and managing them is time-consuming, albeit enjoyable.  I don’t have the time or energy to re-write everything in an email, on Facebook or Ravelry.  I try to post a link saying, “Check out my blog!”  I’m sure that the other sheepy bloggers  and bloggers in general understand what I am trying to express.

We do talk on the phone quite a bit.  Quite honestly, the conversation usually starts off by Amanda giving me a hard time because I am difficult to reach.  MAAAHHHM! YOU NEVER PICK UP THE PHONE! (Not true, by the way.) Okay, so I still work outside of the house … and when I am AT home, I am often outside in the barnyard for hours at a time.  And when I am outside working, I prefer to be with the flock, not talking on my cell phone… Amanda, I’m sorry that I can’t sit around and wait for your calls; in about 30 or 40 years it may be so.

Amanda’s Recent Life

Amanda and Kisu spent the last few weeks visiting Kisu’s family in Seoul, South Korea.  She has had fascinating posts about their trip.  Her latest post is an interesting look into Buddhist funeral practices.  Kisu’s paternal grandmother has been ill for quite some time; she recently passed away.   And for you knitters, check out her photos on their visit this past October to Stockholm and Gotland.  She is modeling her hand knit dress of her own design in this post.   Now my daughter says she finally understands the allure of living the country life.  (Gotland and it’s sheep made and impact on her!  (And yes, she labeled a sheep statue as a goat in one photo.  I corrected her but I see the “goat” title still remains.)  Below I have posted several photos from her album.

Sheep on Gotland

This photo says it all!

I hope you check out her blog.  Click on this link or you can always click “Daughter Amanda’s Blog” which is on the sidebar.  It truly is an enjoyable read into the life of an adventurous young woman and the man who loves her.