Category Archive: sheep
The dogs have been loving it!
Churn dash blocks
This morning, I stopped to have some fun with those half triangle I was making yesterday. They make the best Churn Dash blocks. Playing gave me the energy to go clean the barn.
Did you see the moon turn red last night? Here are some photos in case you missed it. The first is one I took, but my Iphone would not capture the red color, so I borrowed a photo from the news. It was amazing!
Sewing triangles
I tried a new to me way to cut half square triangles. First I stiffened my fabric, because somehow drawing on fabric tends to distort it. So on the stiffened fabric, I drew corner to corner both way. Then a scant 1/4″ on either side of that line, I drew a sewing line. I sewed the 4 sewing lines, then drew another line across the middle of the block each way. I cut on those lines as well as the diagonal lines
Then after pressing these squares open, I trimmed them to size. I loved the fact that they didn’t stretch and I got 8 squares out of each larger square. 
These half squares can then be used in any pattern using half square triangles.
AND THE LIVESTOCK
The sheep know that when I have done the cleaning for the day, food mysteriously appears in their feeders. As soon as I have unloaded the last tractor load, they are on their feet waiting to eat.
Chickens don’t herd like sheep, but that doesn’t keep Bracken from trying.
I’m for more sewing time this week, though it will be slow while I’m still working on taxes. I hope you are taking time for fun.
Lamb baby quilt
It’s finished and even has the satin binding that babies love to hold next to their skin. I will put this away for the right baby to come along.
Other than that, today, we changed a few sheep coats and did chores. We seem to have filled our day.
Hopscotch socks
These are the socks I started with the Felici yarn pattern called Hopscotch on number 2 needles. The photo is true to the colors. Since I am a slow knitter it takes me about 40 minutes to do each color stripe and this pattern is just k3, p1 around and around. I am ready to do the heel. After I finish the heel and the turn it, I’ll put it in the car to work on while waiting for appointments, etc. So far, I’ve been working on them in the evenings when I’m too tired to do anything else.
Today was a good day. I have 2 stalls 12 x 15 each, this being one. The other area is 12 x 30. I cleaned the larger one yesterday and this one today.
Then I worked at getting hay down. The shadows changed the color of the hay, but you can see a bale on the tractor and I did manage to get another bale on top of this one. This type of work takes more thought and tractor maneuvering, because I don’t have the strength yet to lift these 100# bales. But I did get it loaded and moved down the road and into the rams area to be able to feed them. Usually my neighbor man does this, but was not available today.
After this and lunch, I took DH to the chiropractor and while he was there, I was able to get the groceries. After dinner, I rested for a bit. I don’t want to spoil a night’s sleep by resting too much.
It makes me happy when I can see accomplishments like this and I feel like I didn’t waste the day. I’m hoping to get back on track after too many of life’s interruptions. Well – after the holidays anyway. Part of the problem is that I didn’t set goals and make schedules for myself this year like I normally do. When I don’t, it seems I don’t get much done.
God’s nudge
I have a long list of things I want to get done – just like most of you do. Yesterday God ‘s nudge turned my path a different way. I’ve been feeling guilty about not visiting my neighbor in the rehab home since she broke her hip. Yesterday, she called and said “when you come today, will you bring….” Well, I wasn’t planning on going, but decided that must be God’s nudge.
I went to the post office and got the stamps she wanted, then we went to visit her. After that we stopped and did two other chores not on yesterday’s list. The interesting thing was that I got everything done that needed to be done without feeling the normal stress.
Pierre is our dominant colored ram and has been in pain all week. He is very weak and having a difficult time standing. We called the vet who doesn’t know what is causing the problem. So we are giving Pierre a shot of B vitamin + .
He dislikes the shot and does get up when getting it, but you can see he is not a bit perky. He is eating, drinking, and eliminating normally, so we wait and watch a few more days.
It will freeze hard next week and then even these few flowers will be gone. I will miss there happy yellow blooms.
One thing leads to another
All of you know how one thing leads to another. This morning after making Broccoli soup and steel-cut oats, I was cleaning off the counter top. I wanted to put the potato starch into a specific container. That was no problem, but I didn’t know where the lid was. Usually the lids are kept with the container, but this lid was missing. So I proceeded to look in the possible drawers. I ended up cleaning out 9 drawers plus the pantry, looking for that lid, which I never did find, nor did the counter get totally cleaned. I gave up
In the midst of this, I remembered that we are changing a few more sheep coats tomorrow and I needed to wash coats to have enough clean for that. Now I also have a few more coats to mend.
Next, I needed to move the dog food that Costco delivered Friday. I order every 3 months and get 12 bags each weighing 30 pounds. Again, not a simple task, because as you know, one thing leads to another. I got the tractor, brought it to the front door, and piled on 8 of the boxes (Costco puts each bag into a box). While I was doing that, I noticed that the plants in front had frozen, so pulled them out and loaded them on top of the food. I took the food to the barn, and put the frozen plant material on the compost pile.
Now to get three more boxes to take to the studio, which is where we keep the food for the dog who guards the sheep in the lower pasture. I picked those boxes up and went around to the studio, delivered them, and then decided that it was a mess around the door. So I loaded the peat moss , some garbage and the water trough that I will be using for the boys in an upper pasture. Off I went to take the peat moss to the upper hoop house along with some other items. On the way, I left the garbage in the garbage house, the trough near the gate in the upper pasture, and the peat moss in the hoop house.
But it didn’t stop there. Once you clean up a part of an area, you want to keep going, so we loaded all the parts of the fleeces that are too soiled to sell and took 3 loads of that up to the compost – well, I started a new pile near the new garden. Then there was another load of thermalite etc to go to the hoop house and another load of junk for the garbage shed. Most of this stuff was too heavy for me to move before I had the tractor. We spent 3 hours doing this and enjoyed a late lunch. It was nice to have it already made and we could just heat and eat.
After lunch it was back to the barn to clean a third of the stalls and feed the animals. We will finish the other two stalls tomorrow and sweep off the cement areas by the two back doors, since they are now free of all the “extras” Like I said, “one thing leads to another”, but it feels so good to have it done. Most of it I couldn’t do without the tractor. I am so thankful we bought it.
October refinish
October refinish is now truly done. I thought these two were finished last year, but when I got them out to hang this year, I found some little finishes that still needed doing. Now the two are totally done. Now it’s time to find another project that needs to be finished.
DH is now reading “Uncle Tom’s cabin” to us and as you can see, Bracken is right here listening to the book. She so enjoys being right in the middle of whatever. If you haven’t read this book lately, it is worth re-reading.
Coat changing day
I finished the lower cardinal today. Then I put the whole project away for a rainy day. I am not enjoying it as much as I would like. It’s time to do some piecing instead. There is a pattern for a reverse rabbit and male cardinal as well as a moose in the kit yet.
We have a new chicken coop for the dozen babies we bought a short time ago. They have grown so fast and needed a bigger, safe home. So my neighbor put chicken wire and a door on this 3 sided structure which he finished tonight and we have moved the chickens into it.