Let the chase begin!

What a day! First of all, the washing machine decided it was overworked on Tuesday, so it decided to take a break from spinning. Well, the part didn't look that menacing on the internet, and since it was raining, Stan could work indoors - hence the honey-do list emerged. Did you know there are more screws in a washing machine than in a car??? Did you know you have to take the whole thing apart in order to replace one little part you can feel under the rim with you hand??? Well, its break is over and jeans are whirling around and around as we speak!

Then Molly got out. Goats can get out of any fence. They laugh at fences. They laugh harder at electric fences. Avery chased his goat down and man-handled (as much as a 10 year old boy can) her back in. At feeding time, Olivia, the new Shetland/BL lamb was out. I got a chance to put my shepherdess skills to the test. Open two gates and call, and here she came, easy as punch. Well, God has a funny way of dealing with the proud. We headed indoors and heard a bull "growling" as only a bull can. Sure enough, Stan's big black Angus bull was in the neighbor's pasture. Apparently he thought he needed to show their bull how things should be taken care of! Off through the waist high pasture Stan went to fetch him back. He is pretty gentle, but still, he IS a bull, so I was not real comfortable when Stan disappeared from sight behind a thicket of trees. Soon enough, here they came down the fence line.

"Lori, go get a bucket of feed and put out so he will come through the gate!" Now, I am not afraid of most animals, but friendly or not, he IS a bull. Feed in hand, I mustered up and threw some out in the feed lot. He just stood and looked at me from the other side. "Bring the bucket down here and let him sniff it!" Yeah, right. Stan has always been soooo careful of us around the bulls, that I figured I could trust him. Besides, he stood behind him with a pretty large tree limb that would have distracted the bull if he got frisky. Once the smell of feed reached him, through the fence gap he came, I trotted backwards towards the barn, and all is well. Stan and Avery are fixing fence as I type.

It is hot. So very hot. The Lord has blessed us with rain off and on for the last couple of days, but when it stops it just gets more humid. Fleece is taking forever to dry in this humidity!

On a blessed note...I will be a mostly stay at home mom again this fall!!! As wonderful as it was to be a teacher, I will get to concentrate on being a wife and mother again. I will still work a few hours a week at a part time job. It has been long time coming. The Lord had to work many miracles for this to happen, and He amazed us over and over! Look out, no telling what I will do with all my new spare time!

July 6, 2010

Jerry Reed fades in here singing "East bound and down, load it up and truckin'"~ (You'll see why in a minute!)

We brought home our new ram from Missouri Saturday. He is a registereed Border Leicester and a pretty smokey color. Our other ram is a cotswold ram named Bandit.......anybody figuring out the music clue? Yep, that's right, we now have Smokey and the Bandit in our ram pasture!

Yeah, I know, corny, but it works for us. But wait, it gets even worse......we will probably be bringing home a white Border Leicester ram in the fall. His name will be Snowman............

The chickens have finally started laying! Nothing like farm fresh eggs (except maybe an ice cold Dr. Pepper from Sonic. Can you tell I am in caffine withdrawls?)



One of our baby chicks grew up to be a beautiful rooster. His name is Jet because of his color, such a classy guy, and he has finally figured out how to crow. He just doesn't have his timing right. He crows in the morning, and then all day long. Maybe it's a maturity thing.



The puppies are growing leaps and bounds. They have to be the dirtiest white dogs I have ever seen. Instead of Scarlett and Ginger, two very elegant ladies, they should have been named Thing One and Thing Two. Both can't drink water without putting at least their front feet in the water, and Scarlett usually gets all the way in and sits down to take a drink, then she goes for a roll in any available dirt. She is also an escape artist and NEVER stays in the sheep pasture like her sister. So much for being a sheep dog. She is asleep on the back porch right now as I type.



But with a face like this, can you imagine getting mad at her?

Been busy with fiber, too. I have been working on our own fleece, washing and carding. The cotswold is beautiful and strong and will make gorgeous socks, the shetland cross is soft, soft, soft. I can't wait to get some of it spun up. Here is some cotswold washed, carded and dyed. I love it!




We are praying for rain. After dumping on us all spring, it has turned off hot and dry. Did I say hot? How 'bout humid. You feel sticky just stepping outside. It is thundering right now.......please Lord, let it rain down.........