Sheep shuffle

That's what I started today - shuffling the sheep around so everyone can get acquainted with Valentine without ganging up on her. Lois (Valentine's breeder) suggested the following when the quarantine period was over: take Bella out and put in one of the other ladies for awhile, then take that one out and put the other one in, so Valentine can get acquainted with them one at a time on "her" turf. So this morning, Bella went out to the pasture with Dinah, and Rechel went in with Valentine. It worked well. Being in unfamiliar surroundings Rechel was less focused on Valentine, and I've seen no "ramming" - only a couple shoves.

Meanwhile, in the pasture.... Dinah took issue with her "new" companion, squaring off right away to ram Bella. Bella met her head-on nearly every time, so I wasn't too worried for Bella's safety. Her head is hard and the rest of her is padded with thick fleece at least nine inches long. They settled down after awhile.

To end January's posts, I'm including photos of flowers that bloom this month on our place. There is something in bloom here most of the year, so I'm going to use my blog to document what blooms when. The first photo is of sarcacocca, a lovely evergreen shrub that bears inconspicuous but highly fragrant flowers and does well in the complete shade on the north side of our house. The second photo is of snowdrops, little winter bulbs planted by a previous owner that survived the demolition, dirt work, and construction involved with replacing our old trailer with a house - gotta love tenacious beauty!

That's it for now . . .

The fiber is calling...

Today some white-gold metallic thread I bought on eBay arrived. I plan to ply it with some of my Shetland yarn for "fancy stuff." I think a felted handbag out of my first dye job (below) with the added metallic would be fun . . .
but I'm getting ahead of myself. But before I go back behind myself, or on top of myself, or wherever I'm supposed to be instead of ahead of myself, I must also mention that this great eBay seller, memc82/Fiber Options, also threw in a bonus ball of natural cotton flannel yarn that is just yummy and begs to be knitted into something.(There are 1.1 lbs of the metallic and 6 3/4 oz of the cotton.)

On the Yahoo Spinning Group list, I've been introduced to an idea for using the small quantities of yarn I will spin from each of the fiber surprises my friend Kathy sent me, along with the samples of Blue Texel that came with Louie Two, the rooing I plucked from Rechel last year and any other wonderful little bits of fiber that come my way in a special fashion.

And that big Blue-faced Leicester/Romney cross fleece my farrier gave me is begging to be washed and explored - as soon as I finish carding up the rest of Dinah's fleece. I've decided to shear on March 22 unless we're unseasonably cold then (that's the next appointment I have with our farrier, who is also a shearer), so more fiber is coming!

Too bad life gets in the way of my fiber addiction. Would using ALL my waking time to spin and knit feel like enough time, though? Maybe not - especially at my proficiency level! So it continues to be relegated to its "proper" spot, low on the list after I take care of all the "priorities" of family, home, business, and farm. Well . . . after taking care of MOST of my priorities, anyway. :-)

That's it for now at . . .

Such a week

I'm ready for a new week, a different week . . . a less stressful week! Bella has jumped out of the quarantine pen twice, and tried so many other times that I was afraid she would hurt herself. I thought I had catastrophic computer problems (it turned out they were not, but in getting the problems I DID have fixed, I gained other software issues that I still haven't resolved). A track hoe has been hard at work in the once-forested lot on our south side, an unhappy reminder we are getting hemmed in and losing our quiet country atmosphere. This morning when I went to the barn to do chores, Bella and Valentine were BOTH out, and this afternoon when I got home from church they were out again, demonstrating that "temporary" isn't good enough when it comes to sheep quarters.

BUT (You know what "but" means, don't you? It means "disregard everything I just said." Test it and see!) . . . this week has had its blessings, as always. Bella HASN'T hurt herself. I'm only out $20 for the work on my computer AND I have a laptop I can use in the meantime. We're enjoying some glorious weather after the cold, snow, and ice earlier in the month. Wonderful friends enrich my life. Brian has a great, new violin teacher. Valentine continues to be the sweetest thing on four legs around here. And there are many, many more blessings too numerous to list. Thank-you, Lord!

That's it for now at . . .

For my sister