Monday oddities

• Jackson wasn't his usual self. He was listless and weak, uninterested in going outside or much of anything. Very odd for an Aussie. Thankfully, he seems fine today, even though we never could figure out what ailed him....

• When we drove up to Brian's violin teacher's house yesterday, I noticed a BIG cloud of flying insects over the street. Brian thought they were gnats, but they were too large for that. As I looked intently, what I've read on some blogs I follow buzzed around in my head until I realized that we were witnessing a bee swarm! During Brian's lesson, the swarm settled around their queen in a street-side birch tree. How I wish Leigh or Kim or Sara lived close enough to harvest it! In lieu of that, I called a man I know who raises queens to see if he knew of anyone who would come collect them. He told me to call the local fire department as they maintain a list of hobbyists for just such occasions. Who knew! Hopefully someone gave them a good home so they can go on pollinating, rather than getting destroyed out of fear.

• As Rick and I watched the nightly news, I thought I smelled strong coffee. Then I thought maybe one of the dogs had peed on the floor nearby. Finally, I realized I was getting whiffs of freshly frightened skunk through the slightly open window beside me! Whew; it smelled close by – first time we've smelled a skunk at Boulderneigh. Fortunately the dogs were all inside with us . . . and they stayed inside with us until morning!

That's it for now from . . .

Fanfare-free and that's just fine

Mothers(and fathers!)-to-be:

I hope you had a good weekend. I  began Mothers Day with a lovely, long phone conversation with my mom while my guys slept in. There was no fanfare for Mother's Day when they did get up, so I headed to the barn. There I found Blake walkabout for the second day in a row, grazing and watching the chicken channel on RFDTV. Figuring that he was ducking under the fencing in one spot (right in front of Benny in the photo below), I caught him and put him in the Ram-ada Inn until we could stake the problem area. Fortunately none of the wethers had followed his example!

Back at the house, I decided to whip my geraniums into shape. Three needed to be repotted, and one needed some serious pruning, resulting in some cuttings to start. Then I mixed up some fertilizer and gave most of my pots a long-overdue feeding. By then Rick was in the garden planting snap peas, so I joined him to plant onion starts and carrots. When that was done I left the guys to weed the strawberry patch while I herded dust bunnies into the vacuum. A productive morning accomplished, we all cleaned up for a lovely dinner out at a favorite restaurant, followed by some window shopping at REI. Rick and I were surreptitiously checking out 8th grade graduation gift ideas for Brian, but I also got a new water bottle and two pairs of SmartWool socks – so Happy Mothers Day to me!

When we finally got home I headed to the barn for some saddle time. Brian agreed to join me, and we had a lovely ride together. I'll take that over fanfare any day.  ;-)

That's it for now from . . .

Seven ready to ship

Last night I finally got Bramble scissor-sheared. This morning I did the bit of skirting it needed; now seven fleeces (Benny, Browning, Bittersweet, Bree, Vienna, Sarai, and Bramble) are boxed and ready to ship to one of my long-time clients – yes, to ONE client. It is indeed gratifying to have customers who keep coming back for the kind of fleeces I'm striving to produce in my flock – fine, crimpy, next-to-skin-soft Shetland wool! Here is Bramble's on the skirting "table":

Bramble produces a LOT of lanolin, which is visible on the cut side. I also have photos of the last fleece I skirted, Bree's oh-so-lovely hogget fleece:

I am expecting Bree's baby sister to produce just as nice a fleece; Blake and Vienna make "beautiful music" together. :-D Speaking of Babette, she and Bree were love bugs this morning:

At the rate she's growing, Babette could soon be bigger than her yearling sister. If that happens, I might just breed both of them this fall to Lil'Country Nightcap. He is the polled, fine-fleeced moorit ram Franna bought and I leased; he sired Blaise, Benny, and all the other nice lambs born here two years ago. When Franna was ready to move Nightcap last fall, I couldn't let this prepotent sire get away. He's been staying in Sally Tibbet's flock since then in exchange for using him this coming fall before he comes here. I'll have to decide before then if I'm going to breed anyone else; it would be nice to get some black-based lambs out of Sarai. (Blaise could also produce black-based lambs, but I don't want to breed her to her sire and I don't think Blake is a good cross for her.) I've had inquiries for breeding stock this spring that I couldn't fill, but of course next year there could be NO market (or I may only get ram lambs)-:

That's all the sheep talk for today from . . .

Fast life in the slow lane

We had a busy, busy weekend – shoot, we have a busy, busy life! But when I think about what we're busy with, I realize that many people in first-world countries would think our life simple, even boring. Just the way I like it! ;-)

Sky shows instead of Broadway shows:

Fancy flowers instead of fancy gowns:

Growing our own instead of going to five-star restaurants:

Trail riding instead of jet-setting:

Yesterday we got a lot done. The highly visible stuff was done by the guys; they got the grass mowed, finished tilling and weeding the garden, and planted the sprouted Yukon Gold potatoes. On top of chores and kitchen duty, I skirted Bree's fleece, rooed Sarai and gave her a much-needed pedicure (sorry; it was dark by the time I finished so no photos), boxed up fleeces for shipping – and went for that trail ride with friends.



From the simple folk at . . .