Category Archive: farming
Today was a day of waits. So I worked on the braided wall hanging – not table runner as I thought. These are all the braids and now I need to trim all the rows and put them together, put borders on and quilt.Starting the braided table runner
I am starting the braided table runner from Jenny Beyer. Each of those little pieces is 1.25 x 3″. There are 60 to a chevron row. There are 5 rows. However, it is fun to watch the colors change.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning in the barn and a bit in the hoop house. The shearing team is coming tomorrow and the sheep will look so different,
Somethin’ new here
DH texted me to tell me there was a wee black lamb and then
another text to tell me there were 2 wee lambs. I love lambing time and these girls are so sweet and little.
Pushing hard
No photos today. We had to go out this morning and take the tax information to our tax accountant, then other mini shopping stops. We did get home in time for lunch and then crashed. I think I’ve been pushing myself a bit too hard.
After the nap, I cleared the cutting table, took out the next pattern I plan to work and decided I don’t have enough energy to choose fabrics today – so it will wait until tomorrow. (I did choose some and they are in the dryer now). I cleared off a book shelf and now need to decide which books to give to which people or places.
The animals are fed. It’s cold out there! It is still pouring rain and my phone weather app promises the same for the next 10 days. So I’ll make supper and knit on my socks that didn’t get completed in January, which sounds like a nice way to spend an evening.
Churn dash; and a surprise!
Churn dash:
This churn dash flimsy is finished because several of you were kind enough to give me suggestions to help this quilt be more acceptable. Thank you so very much for the suggestions. Here are the added embroideries.
Look at what a difference they made and also the borders. Sometimes, it’s just hard to see where to go, when you get surprises like all the white it had. That’s when it is so great to have friends like you. I’m happy with it now. Mary came over today and we spent the day playing with this and catching up on life. I love her visits!
SURPRISE:
I had given up on this Cormo ewe getting pregnant – she didn’t last year – and she sure didn’t look like she had put on weight. But yesterday morning when she didn’t show up to eat, I went looking for her and this little girl was just learning to stand. She is so cute and precious! Under the mud the back leg is white. I am delighted with this surprise.
Fencing, stall walls, some embroidery
Fencing:
Today was a supervising and “go for” day. I had two young men show up to help me which was terrific as I could use the help, one for fencing and one to work in the barn. Here is a photo of the perimeter fence that should be completed soon. It is a work of art. As you can see, it is nice and straight and the angle and corner posts are sunk in concrete. However, while he was working on this, Lacey thought she should check and see how secure the existing fence is. She found that the chain link side which we share with neighbors had no hot wire – just fencing. She worked at getting under that until she succeeded. Therefore added to our day was going after more hot wire and insulators and getting them installed. Apparently keeping the sheep safe is not a big enough job for her. All of our perimeter fencing will be hot.
A lot of the added pasture is open and will support a good number of sheep during the summer. Cross fencing will happen later as needed. The building about mid photo, is our house across the pasture.
Stall walls:
The other young man worked inside the barn, cutting and putting up the stall walls. As you can see there was a run to the store for lumber which will be the doors. I am so pleased that we were able to accomplish this much today. Next weekend, I’m hoping he will come, make the doors, and hang them.
Embroidery:
After all of this was accomplished, I was able to come in and work in the studio for a couple hours. These blocks will eventually be the centers of a churn dash quilt.
And I promised the church I’d try to get at least one quilt done to help with the homeless men that try to stay a bit warmer up next to the church doors. Hopefully tomorrow, after gym, I’ll get to work on that project. I understand there are several men who could each use a quilt, but I am only one person, so do what I can.
.
Donation quilts, fencing, new socks
Donation quilts:
I finally put together a pile of quilts for those with fewer resources than we have and took them to the church. It’s cold out there. The secretary said they have men sleeping in the doorways at night now. I need to make some simple, but warm quilts as she said at this point, anything helps them.
Then it was lunch time. I like a simple tostada with a shell, beans, and lettuce, and of course guacamole throughout. I found that if I order it as a side, I get a bit more.
Fencing:
Remember the fencing, I spent an hour repairing yesterday with baling wire? Since the sheep have nothing better to do than to eat and then figure out how to dismantle things, they achieved the dismantle by pushing the 2 x 4s down. So today I dragged a cattle panel to the pen. It completely fit that area, so we tied it up and hope that it will last until Sunday and we can get it put up more securely. But one never really knows. These sheep are small as they are Shetlands, but they are mighty when they decide they want to be somewhere else.
Knitting:
That was enough fun for this crazy day. So I spent some time knitting a new pair of socks. These are on a size 3 needle and 100% wool, so I will add nylon to the heel and toes to reinforce those areas. I put the socks on hold that were needing more attention. These are going fast because I don’t have to think much and it is a larger yarn. As you can see from my note on the page, I’m only working on 48 stitches. Maybe, I’ll get these done before the month is over and can go back and work on January’s socks.
Hang on tight and enjoy life’s crazy roller coaster ride.
Why I got out of bed today
Today I got out of bed to face challenges – several of them. I started by bringing a bale of hay by wheelbarrow to the sheep. That was enough. I decided that the roads were too dangerous to have me on them yet and I had just had a workout, so didn’t get to the gym. When I went to add bedding to the sheep night quarters, I found that they had for the most part taken these two panels apart. So taking twine, I jury rigged this and hope it holds until the snow melts so I can bring a new panel with which to repair this.
And here is part of the crew supervising. OK, sheep taken care of, time to quilt.
And here is the quilt that does not want to be a quilt. It was paper pieced and that went good. Quilting it was another story. The first thing that happened was the thread jumped out of the disks and I had a big mess on the bottom. This happened not once, but twice. I finally conquered that and the next thing was the machine tried to eat a hole in the fabric when the needle got stuck. Eventually, after a few hours this little 33″ square is quilted and tomorrow I will put the binding on and some little baby will be wrapped snuggly in it.
Why did I get out of bed this morning? Sometimes, it’s hard to know why these challenges are in our day, but I’m hoping that meeting them makes me a better person. They sure do wreak havoc with my plans.
Sheep shelter and last block
Unnamed yet, but leaning toward Frosty, escaped detection from the coyotes last night. Today, in the pouring rain, I tried to make an area safe from the beasts, but failed, so put them in the pen near the Shetland rams. I’m not sure how great an idea that is, because the fence between the boys is in need of repair But the Cormos are safe inside a building for tonight and maybe tomorrow there will be some rainless spots in the day.
Last block:
This is block 16 and paper pieced. Not perfect, but I’m going to let it pass until tomorrow. I spent all morning on this little block. Paper piecing just seems to take a lot of time. Tomorrow is gym and grocery day. I need to pick up my co-op order and should go to Costco. But I really want to stay home. I know there are kindred spirits out there.
A new baby and more blocks
And I’ll soon have enough blocks to put this together.