This beautiful color has dried and now she looks like the photo on the right. She’s still cute.
I have all the hot dogs and corn done, I was going to start the ice cream cones, but had to get off the knee and ice it. so I’m planning to have at least some of those to show you tomorrow. They look like they will take about an hour a piece and there are 6 of them to do.
This twisted knee is getting in the way. I went to the doctor this morning and he thinks it is meniscus related. so rest it as much as possible for a couple weeks and see where we are. Sometimes doctors are so impractical! Do they think we have little fairies to feed the animals and water the hoop house? And no, the big garden just won’t be going in this summer.
I started working on the picnic quilt again this morning and had nearly finished the third block when DH texted me. These blocks take about an hour each. Since DH is not real comfortable with any new happening in the barnyard, he investigated to see why this sheep was bawling. Then of course, texted me to come see. What I saw was one sheep lying down, with all the other sheep surrounding her. And of course she was complaining. Then came the zoo, which is trying to get her in the birthing pen by herself. She didn’t really want to go, but all the others were very willing (grain helps)
This is the sheep that I thought might have trouble because she is so small. I watched her with one little hoof at the door for about half an hour at which point I called the vet and told him Mauve was really pushing, but nothing else was happening. He had just told me to go in and find the second hoof, when with one big heave, out came two hooves and a nose. And was she ever wiggly! She tossed that little head around like a fish out of water. This was mom’s first time, and she wasn’t really sure what was going on. I picked baby up and put her by Mauve’s head and instant connection. She started cleaning her daughter.
She is beautiful, with the ears and lankiness of her father and a beautiful caramel coat. I have my fingers crossed for a coat somewhat like dad’s long silky one.
Just out of curiosity, do any of you know why the lamb instantly goes to the front of mom for a meal and takes awhile to realize the food is at the other end?
However,
20 peppers have been planted. I really wish more of the red and green mild peppers had grown. Most of these are hot.
Picture taking day – not their favorite.
This is what happens when you forget to follow mom. You stand there and bawl your head off until she comes back for you.
Often times the hens would rather choose their own place to lay eggs, even though they have several very good next boxes. They want to see if we are on our toes, or if they can be a mommy this time and we won’t catch them. There are few dull moments when you have animals.
l had to show you our delicious meal. This is stir fry over rice.
Our prayers are going up for those of you in these Texas rain squalls. Please do everything you can to stay safe.
Today Jeremy came back and nearly finished up with the hives. He didn’t bring marshmallows for the queen boxes and I never buy them. So tomorrow he will come back and fit the queen boxes with those. The worker bees eat it and free the queen, that makes here their queen. Do you see the tiny box – the darker spot in the middle – that is where the queen is right now. There is a cork plug on one end which will be replaced by the marshmallow. The workers can feed her through the mesh on the side of the box. Then Friday, I will check and see if they have released her. If so, I can remove the queen box.
After all our shopping this morning, I worked on pulling the blue scraps out of 4 different boxes and putting them all in one. Then I took this photo to show you, then I turned around to start the greens and there was another pile of blue scraps of which I did not take a photo.
There were reproducing as I was putting them away. Here is the final (I hope) photo of them. I could barely get the lid on them. Remember, these do not include the ones that I cut into squares – only the longer ones. And I’ve used a lot of scraps in my quilts. Oh, well, I just have more to use. Tomorrow, I hope to tackle the greens.
The bees have not been housekeeping very well. They have been storing the honey in bands that go from one frame to the other instead of straight along the frame. Not that it really affects them, but it makes it more difficult for the human to get the honey.
Though there are many, many, many bees in the one hive, it appears that some of them flew off in a swarm with their queen this spring, so there isn’t a queen in there. But there are enough bees, they are being divided into two colonies and the fellow helping me is bringing out 2 new queens tomorrow. The hive I thought was not doing so well, is a slower hive, but has a good queen, quietly doing her job of laying eggs.
How can that be? I thought after the last big scrap cutting event, I had them all organized and in one place. Not so! I found several more smaller boxes that had scraps tossed in them, more or less by width sizes. Now I need to put all of one color together and in one box so they are usable. I find I have about 3 times as many scraps as I thought. That should keep me busy this week.
I spent a considerable amount to time dealing with the people who wanted the dog collars as well as working on the collars. This morning, I cut all of them out – it took 90 minutes to cut the fabric, lining, and interior of all of them – 15 collars and 12 leashes. Then I started sewing the leashes as they were fairly easy. The machine was not cooperative as it really needs to be serviced. I gave up and called these people to tell them what the situation was. Then I “kitted up” each collar with the accessories so that whoever when from here had part of the work done. I am so glad I stopped when I did for the following reasons.
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There was no way that I could make a collar in 10 minutes as they expected,
. I didn’t have the time to keep them informed on a daily basis.
The fabric had at some time come in contact with a smoker.
I didn’t need ulcers over something I was doing to help someone.
Yes, they were unhappy their collars weren’t finished today and didn’t even bother with thanking us for the two finished. But they did ask that when my machine was fixed, would I do collars and embroidery then. I just told them, I couldn’t make promises for the future and we went our way feeling it was a good decision.
We stopped at the tomato place and picked up two more peppers and two more tomatoes. Then we purchased some sheep feed and came home.
For the first time our new mommy brought her babies up from where she keeps them at night to introduce them to the rest of the flock. She has been missing and we feared the coyotes had eaten her. But the last 3 days she has had these little fellows on the pond. If you look carefully, the one in the middle has 2 heads, making a total of 4 babies. Spring is such fun!
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Almost done with this short pair. In summer it’s nice to have socks that just fit into one’s shoes.
Did you know that sheep enjoy raspberry leaves? They why don’t they eat the blackberry leaves? I’m going to have to put a perimeter fence up or we won’t have any berries for ourselves.
Maybe, but there is still more to do than the day is long. Today Mary and I met with a customer and had lunch. Our daughter needed help looking for a different apartment, and the potential next sheep needed frequent checking this afternoon. And the gardening awaits. Maybe tomorrow.
I grabbed a few minutes to get this child’s quilt on and started.
After spending most of the day on the blue quilt, including taking out stitches that just didn’t go in correctly, I came to the last corner and border before taking it off and turning it to do the other two borders. The last corner did not want to set up properly. The best thing I could think of was to quit for today and start some socks. I found this in my sock yarn box and since it isn’t exactly exciting to me, I thought it would be a great summer sock where it is nearly all down inside the shoe. There is enough to make two pair. Since they don’t have the leg length, that part goes and I am ready to turn the heel.
Oh yes, the little black lamb got his first shot and his tail docked. Amazingly, there was little complaint.
