July 22, 2010 PLUS A GIVEAWAY!!!

Well, there it is. The thermometer on the back porch at noon yesterday. Folks, it has looked like that every day for over a week now! Remember when it looked like this:



Sure did seem like a long time ago!

Things are staying very busy here on the farm. With the weather so brutal, we are keeping a closer watch on the animals. The wool sheep are miserable - can you imagine wearing a wool coat in this weather? The cows are spending most of their time in the pond, jockeying for who gets the coolest spot under the dock. One huge benefit of this heat is that clothes dry oh so fast out on the line!

Do you ever want to start a project, but just can't figure out what to do? Maybe it is what color to paint a room, or what to bake, or what to knit. Well, I am there. The problem is that I already have so many projects started, that I almost feel guilty about beginning another. Almost being the key word there. I have two skeins of lace weight silk, so soft and shiny, that are just begging to be knit.



I am spending so much time thinking about it that they have moved from the yarn bin in the sewing room to the basket beside my chair in the living room. I have perused my knitter's encyclopedia several times imagining how the different stitch patterns would look in the two different colorways. I know, I know, lace weight yarn, it will take ump-teen rows to even create an inch of scarf, but it is SO PRETTY!!!

Speaking of pretty, I have a giveaway! This is a coffee cup cuff (like the cardboard ones from the coffee shop) that is made from yarn that I handspun. It is knitted in ribs, so it will stretch to fit pretty much any cup. The pic shows it on a meduim sized cup.



All you have to do to qualify is leave a comment for me! Also, I let my friend, Jan, of Little Paula Designs, talk me into a facebook fan page for the shop - the button is above. If you join that page, I will be having giveaway and contest announcements there, also. Be watching for a BIG giveaway in the shop during the month of August!

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.........