Today was a sad day on the farm because one of my favorite sheep passed away.

Baron, my moorit Perendale wether, had been sick for about 1 week with what was either bladder stones or a bowel obstruction. He became sick last Thursday night after Linda had her babies ( there was no connection ).

He would lay around that night and act as if he was having stomach cramps and hump up his back. By the next morning he would let me literally crawl all over him ( he would eat out of my hand and let me scratch him a little but nothing like this ), so I called the vet to tell her what was wrong. I got 2 pain shots for him and the 1 worked so well that within 15 minutes he was up and walking.

He ate, or rather picked at his food all week but last night he ate real well and even watched the lambs play. But this morning things didn't look good - he was standing around by himself with his head down. I got him back up to the house so I could watch him better and he went back out but came back again.

I checked on him at 2:30 this afternoon and he looked a little better but I had decided to give him the last pain shot when I went out to feed at 5:30pm. I looked out at 3:45 and he had lain down by the tree and died.

Baron was 7 years old and after a rough, almost cruel, lambhood came home with me in a large dog shipping crate in the back of a small car in July 2001. He met TJ ( my dark grey border Leicester wether ) and became inseparable - where you saw 1 you saw the other and what 1 didn't think of to do the other did.

Baron was such a sweetheart that the ewes would leave their babies with him and he wouldn't leave the spot he was at until the very last ewe had picked up her lamb. He loved animal crackers, alfalfa cubes, sweet feed ( you would have thought he was a lamb the way he would eat it ) and in the last year, had let me scratch him on his back ( he was abused as a lamb and when I picked him you, the man who was helping me take him to the car used a cattle prod on him the entire way as I led him ). He rarely got out but when he did, he'd come back to the front gate and stand until you let him back in. There wasn't a mean bone in his body, he was just a sweet loving guy who will be sorely missed.

TJ was watching when Baron was taken out front ( to be picked up tomorrow ) but didn't try to follow. I think TJ knew Baron was sick because he would stay close to Baron the whole week he was sick to the point TJ would push me towards Baron. TJ will need extra care for a while to help him adjust to Baron being gone.

I know some people think " oh, it's just a dumb sheep ", but Baron had a great personality and loving nature that he could make anyone fall in love with him.

Sleep tight, Baron, we miss you.

Love, MOM and the rest of the flock.

Well, it's THAT time of year again - time to do everyone's favorite pastime - filling out tax papers. I have been up since 5am ( and since I'm NOT a morning person, this is above and beyond the call of duty ) and have been working on the taxes since then. I got the federal ones done without any problem ( and will get a nice return, too ) but let's forget the state taxes. What makes it even worse is that I live in one state but work in another - and I thought my home state taxes were bad, the state where I work is just as bad if not worse, and when you put those together - well let's just say that Chloe's life was on the line ( she decided that because mom was up, she could bark her bloody little head off ) - gotta give girl-pup credit, she made sure she was out of my reach.
I finally finished the blankets/hats for the premies - now all I have to do is weave in the tails on the blankets and pick off ALL the dog hair and ship them. This should only take about 2 days to do.
Had to restart a sweater I started in Nov. because it didn't look right ( something about the raglan shoulders didn't look right - could be that if the top of the shoulders were in place, the armpits hung down to my waist. And I knit the damn thing to gauge and followed the instructions to the letter. Oh well, the new version, without the raglan, looks a lot better.
It has been cold here for about a week now and on Tuesday 2/6/07 we got 6 - count them - 6 inches of snow!!! Luckily, it was just powder and easy to shovel. Will finish the drive-way this afternoon ( so I can go visit with H&R Block tomorrow ).
Chloe has destroyed her sweater. The first one I made her was too big but was ok to wear out to play in until Tuesday afternoon. She went out to play ( and potty ) and was harassing one of the ewes and this ewe turned on her. Now, Linda ( the ewe in question ) is usually very calm and laid back unless she's pregnant and getting close to her due date.
To make a long story short, Chloe decided to chase Linda and Linda wasn't going to have any of her , so Linda chased Chloe behind the kennel and wouldn't let Chloe out. Every time Chloe tried to crawl out from behind the kennel, Linda was there stomping her foot at Girl-pup. Well, Chloe got her sweater caught on the kennel wire and pulled it off, leaving the sweater attached to the kennel for Rosie to work on and she did. The leg was chewed to an unrecognizable mess and another hole was also added ( when Rosie works on something, she does a good job ). So now, Chloe doesn't have a sweater to wear ( I'm not too enthused on working on her other sweater after this episode ).
Have 2 socks on the needles that I'm working on from time to time along with my sweater.
Can't think of anything else to post, so I'll go see who Chloe is pestering . Hopefully, will have some pictures to post next time.

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd just talk a little today - no new pictures.
It got down to 18 degrees last night and at about 9 pm, Catcher started barking at the backdoor ( I thought he was barking at Rosie because she wouldn't let im in the doghouse - she has a tendency to be bitchy with him ). I looked out and he was standing there with his right hind foot up off the ground and when he moved he was limping. I immediately put on a heavy coat and went out and got him out of the kennel and brought him inside ( Rosie was not happy with me - she thought she should come in too, so she woke up Vinnie and Maggie and the three of them made as much noise as possible ).
He greeted the other dogs - Stylle was not happy that he was inside ( and proceeded to growl at him and try to remove his face when he got close ) but Chloe thought it was great because she had someone to play with ( talk about having visions of the place being torn to shreds and those 2 smiling ).
Catcher played with Chloe for a little while and left Stylle alone, got something to eat and drink, and with a cookie and a teddy bear he went into Chloe's crate and immediately fell asleep. Chloe didn't know what to do with him being in her crate - she just stood there and stared at him and then looked at me as if to say " but MOM, he's in MY bed ".
All dogs went to sleep and didn't wake until about 8 am.
As soon as the mail runs ( and the sun melts the snow off the truck ) I'm going into town and get some straw for both kennels and Catcher will be back with Rosie and the house girls will be happy that their routine will be back to normal.
Am still knitting on the premie hats and blankets - have a grand total of 6 and started the 7th last night before Catcher came inside. Have designated about 7 more skeins of yarn for this project and then will start on something else. Have bought enough sock yarn to make 3 pairs ( sock yarn is exempt from the stash and can be bought when needed ) - one pair needs to have 2 more skeins because they will end up being heavy boot socks to wear this winter and I think I'm going to buy some more dk weight wool yarn to make some felted booties to also put inside my boots.
Am planning to make a log cabin blanket from the stash after the premie stuff is finished ( should be done with it by the middle to end of Feb the way things are going ) and I want to make at least 2 shawls ( 1 kind of a turquoisey blue acrylic mohair-type and a fushia/purple acrylic moahir-type in a Faroese or pi shawl - but this can change at any time ). Also want to do some designing from the stash because I found a real nice cotton/ acrylic blend that is just SCREAMING to be knit into a summer T ( will have to make a trip to the yarn shop for this stuff ).
Will try to post soon with some pictures.

Well, just a short post today, as I'm going to spin some singles today.
I've been knitting the premie blankets and hats for about 10 days and am on my 4th blanket at this time. The hats are still cute being so small and I found a website for even cuter hats - one looks like Kermit the Frog and another looks like a duck even down to the " webbed " feet ( will have to make thse at a later date ). These I'm working on need to be done by Easter so I've been knitting like crazy to get as many done as I can before I get tired of them.
This is about all I can think of today - now to spin some wool for me and then back to the premie blankets/hats.
Will post pictures of the premie blankets/hats when I get them done.

Chloe's Sweater
Well, I finished Chloe's sweater and am not at all pleased with it. I used the weight of yarn and needles called for in the pattern but when I put it on her you could see her coat ( she's red and white ) right thru the yarn!!! This is not going to keep this pup warm when it gets cold, sooooooooooo .
I decided to make her another sweater. As I was shopping in my stash - I found some super bulky weight bright red acrylic yarn with bits of orange,yellow,green,blue and white mixed in ( will definitely have to wear my sunglasses when she's outside in the sun and snow with this sweater on ). It has a nice fuzzy halo around it and is soft. Of course, Chloe had to come and help pick it out ( and I had to grab her before she took off like a shot with some of my Shetland yarn, she wanted her sweater made out of THAT - yes, she has good taste but it ain't gonna happen in her lifetime that she gets a sweater made out of Shetland wool ). She did finally, after some discussion, settle on the above mentioned red yarn and I ( of course, WITH her help ) started knitting it.
Chloe thinks whenever I sit down to knit on her sweater that SHE has to put her head in my lap on every 2 - 3 minutes poke her nose up thru the knitting to see how it's going,. And heaven forbid should I have to leave the sweater in the basket to go answer the phone or do anything else, because she has it on the floor rolling in it with her feet up in the air ( I suppose this means she likes it, but it sure is annoying ).
Her sweater should be done next week and I'll post a picture of it on the demon dog child. She does wear the original out to play in the mud ( talk about a swamp-rat ) but it's too big for her, so I made this one smaller and it should fit better. She is learning that she has to put her sweater on before she goes outside and it has reduced the amount of mud she drags in ( in fact, the sweater, after only ONE trip outside to show the ducks what she got, could stand on it's own!!! ), so that will be her " play " sweater and the new one will be worn when she goes someplace ( shopping for dog toys and sheep feed, to the vet's, or visiting ).
Well,I don't remember where I left her sweater and she's quiet so I need to see if she has found it again - talk about a busy girl.

Well, I pulled all of the stash that I could find and did an inventory and skein count and have finally regained consciousness. I counted 131,count them again, 131 skeins of acrylic ( I decided NOT to add the small amount of cotton, silk, and wool to my stash - so I'll have something to work towards next year ) in the stash. I called a friend and she asked me if I'd be willing to help out her guild ( I had visions of hauling this load to her house, but no such luck ) and, since I can knit fairly fast, would I be willing to make caps and blankies for premature babies for them. Seeing a way to get rid of the yarn and do something good at the same time, I stood up and shouted " YES, I'LL DO IT !!! " So, I also decided to make some really soft watch caps as chemo caps and give them to the medical oncologist who took care of my mom when she had breast cancer so she can give them to her patients in my mom's name ( I've been looking for something to do for her since she was fantastic with my mom and I think this will do the trick ).
So, now that all that's settled and the yarn has been cataloged and the patterns for the baby blankies have been chosen, all I have to do is knit myself silly and have ALL this done by Easter!!! Oh, well, it needs to be done, so watch the smoke fly from my needles - dogs beware, MOM's knitting tonight!!!

Well,I got to looking, this afternoon, at my stash of yarn and came up with the conclusion I need to do something with it, it's getting out of hand. So, while I was reading Wendy Knits' blog, I decided to do what she and a friend of hers are going to do - they are going to knit from their stash and not buy any yarn ( unless it's needed to finish an item in progress ) until Sept. 1 and then they are going to buy more yarn.
What I plan on doing is not buy any more yarn until my stash is almost gone ( hopefully by the end of 2007, if not before ) and then start to work on cleaning and spinning the bags of wool from the sheep into tons of wonderful Shetland yarns - natural and dyed colors. I may buy the occassional yarn that I don't have ( i.e., alpaca, camel, yak, silk ) but I'm going to restrict myself to the natural fibers unless someone requests something done in acrylic or fancy glitzy yarns. I have all this wool looking at me and I'm not doing anything with it but letting it sit and that's crazy.
So, as of January 1,2007, I will not be buying any more yarn until my stash is depleted. Good thing I can knit fairly fast. It should be an interesting year.

This is what I woke up to this morning. It's about 1 - 2 inches of powdery snow out back and less out front with the wind howling through the trees as if it were March instead of December.

Chloe and Stylle went out and Chloe proceeded to slide off the deck - I don't think she likes the snow because she was trying to walk without it touching her feet ( nothing like some comic relief in the morning ).

The sheep aren't real happy about the snow but they can get out and graze some.

It's supposed to be in the mid to upper 40's by Saturday so this should be gone. I haven't seen or heard from the kennel dogs today - knowing Maggie and Rosie they've threatened Vinnie and Catcher NOT to move from the doghouses so they ( the girls ) don't get cold. At least I have the dog houses facing with the back of the houses to the wind. If I remember right, the girls get in the back of the doghouses and make the boys sleep across the doorway to keep the cold out. Whoever said labs aren't smart haven't talked to my girls lately. Want to guess WHO runs the doghouses?

This is the start of Chloe's sweater she asked for. It's made out of 100% acrylic ( there is NO way I'm gonna make a sweater for this girl out of wool with as dirty and muddy as she gets ). It's knit on size US 10 needles at about 3.7 sts / inch ( whatever 0.7 stitch is ) in a 3-to-1 knit rib for the bottom and the collar of the sweater and then size US 11 for the main part in stockinette. The pattern calls for sleeves all the way down to her ankles but will end up being midway between her elbow and knee ( again considering the mud factor with her ). It's a bulky weight yarn and should keep her warm and knit up fast. Now to convince Chloe to leave me alone long enough to finish the darn thing ( she thinks that she has to " help " me knit her sweater - but HER idea of helping and mine are not the same ).

This hat was knit as a surprize Christmas present for a friend of mine and , as soon as I get the pattern written, will be for sale as a kit. So watch the side bar for the kit.

She was definitely not expecting it as I did it at the last minute and mailed it last Thursday. It took about 3 hours to knit and came out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.

The picture isn't the greatest but it was dark the day I took this and had to improvise a way to light it so it could be seen.

It's made out of acrylic and can be machine washed. It has a soft fuzzy hand and is very comfortable to wear. The colorway is called " diamond " and is a very pale bluish white with flecks of red/green/yellow and blue scattered through it, so it can be worn with any color of coat and not clash ( which was a good thing since I didn't know what color her coat was and I really didn't want to ask and start an avalanch of questions ).

I designed it myself from another hat I made for me a couple years ago when I was playing around with some left over yarn I had in my stash. Actually, I needed a new hat to wear out to feed the sheep because my original wool hat was starting to look a little ratty ( yes , I do still wear it ) and had the extra yarn and found my needles and whipped up the original hat. The yarn I used for it was Lion Brand Thick and Quick in the wheat colorway on size 10.5 needles. Talk about a warm hat - it's so warm that you break out into a sweat wearing it on a cold day. May have to write up that pattern too.

"Dear MOM

I have been a good girl ( WELL, for the most part ) and I haven't chewed up anything ( unless you consider the Wal-Mart knock offs that I took the strap off for you because it looked uncomfortable ) and I was wondering if you , with ALL your knitting talent, could you please make me a sweater to wear when I go outside to play???

I went out with Stylle yesterday and came back in soooo cold that you couldn't see my beautiful spots!!! It took quite a while to warm up and then I found out Stylle ( who NEVER gets cold - she has a real nice heavy winter coat she grows every year ) was lying next to you on the sofa under the quilt, and I was freezing my spots off. Is that fair???

Please, MOM, make me a nice warn snuggly sweater to wear. I promise I'll be good and not tear up things while you sleep on the weekends. I'M SOOOOO COLD. Love, Chloe."

Now, how could anyone refuse a request like that? OK, Chloe, I'll see what I can find and make you a sweater. - MOM.

Sunrise on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

This is the first holiday, since my mom died in 2000 from breast cancer, that I feel like celebrating. Most of the time since she died, I would just work or do anything so I didn't have to think about how lonely it was without her.

Any way, I have made some of my favorite homemade bread and this morning , I've already cranked up the oven and fixed the sweet potatoes and will be fixing the bird a little later. Chloe, Stylle, and I will be feasting this afternoon in high fashion. If no one else wants our company, we have each other.

We will be watching the football game later this afternoon as I spin some wool and the girls sleep on the sofa and then we'll watch our usual Thursday night shows.

Don't know if I'll be celebrating Christmas yet or not, will have to take it one day at a time. But, I do feel better about the holidays now that I will be celebrating Thanksgiving again. I guess the mourning process is running on schedule.

It's so nice to start to feel good about things again.

This is the newest sweater on the needles. I started last night by casting on 125 stitches on a size US 6 needle and did 1.5 inches of 1x1 ribbing and then changed to a size US 8 needle and will do plain stockingette stitching until the back is done. I want to show off the yarn - it's a 70% 30% soft acrylic/ soft cotton marled yarn that has an extremely soft hand and is very nice to knit. This sweater will be a raglan shoulder affair ( that later I can make and put other elements on it ,i.e. intarsia or varied textural stitches ) . It's more like a big soft well-worn sweatshirt than a sweater - the kind you want to cuddle in when it's cold. This picture appears a little fuzzy but it's the yarn - it kinda has a very small halo but kinda doesn't. Will post more as I get it done.

I decided the other day , that, since I do a lot of knitting , I should start my own business, offering knit items for the family and home and also include hand-dyed and hand-painted rovings and yarns. So, in the next few weeks, as I get things made to sell, I will be posting pictures of them on this blog. I thought about starting another blog just for the business but decided that I could incorporate everything into this one ( and save me the headache of runing 2 blogs with a lot of the same posts ).
The new business will be called " Knits 4 Ewe " and will include hand-knits for the family and home along with hand-dyed / hand-painted roving ( Shetland mainly, but maybe some other breeds, also ) and some hand-spun yarns. There may be some other fibers other than wool ( i.e., alpaca, camel, silk, cotton, acrylic, etc. ) to go along with the rest of the articles offered. I will be formulating a brochure to be sent out to those interested in the items offered. So, stay tuned and check us out frequently to see what's up. Look at the side bar to find out what's going on at Knits 4 Ewe.

A look out the back door to the pasture. It was in the upper 60's yesterday and is supposed to be in the upper 60's to low 70's today but drop about 20 degrees tomorrow. If this ain't the weirdest weather for November, I don't know what it is. Makes you wonder what this winter will be like - I've already told them at work that if I can get out of the driveway, I'll be in but if I can't then I'll see them in the spring after the thaw. They think I'm kidding - if the roads are bad there is no way I'm going to try to drive the interstate to work - did that last year to another hospital - and almost got killed after taking 2 1/2 hours to make a 50 minute drive. No job is worth that.

Well, it ain't pretty but it runs. I got the new truck - it's new to me - this morning. It's a 1985 Ford F-150 pickup with a new engine, starter, tires, and A/C. It runs a little rough at slower speeds but does fine on highway speeds. It also has a hitch and " holes " along the top rail of the bed so poles can be put in them and an enclosure can be made to haul ... oh, I don't know ... sheep!!! Now I don't have to hire someone to haul things for me, I can do it myself. It may be an old truck, but IT'S A TRUCK!!! We will be learning each other during the next few days so everyone watch out. I'm a happy camper now.

Just some early morning pictures off the back deck over looking the pasture. Looks like it could be nasty, but 45 minutes after these pictures were taken, the sun was shining and it was starting to warm up.

This is Baron, a moorit Perendale wether. He's a big sweetie. He LOVES cookies and will stand and give the most pitiful begging look ever for a cookie ( too bad he never gets any attention or cookies ). Can we say spoiled rotten.

This black ewe is Wen. She gave me the spotted ram lamb this year and has produced very nice colored moorits in the past. She has also produced 1 set of triplets and is an excellent mom. The white ewe behind Wen is Brooke. She had a nice black girl this past spring but was unable to deliver her and the lamb had to be put down to be delivered. Brooke makes some of the softest wool ( outside of her mom ) of any sheep I have.

This pretty girl is Candi, a grey katmollet and is the spitting image of her father Underhill Ferguson. She also carries spots and produced her first set of spotted twin girls this spring.

And here he is ... the one ... the only ... Snowy, the big white spot. The only color this guy has on him is light black eye make-up and small black spots in his ears. He was neutered this summer due to being related to the rest of the girls in the flock ( and I didn't want any inbreeding to happen ). He has a nice soft solid white fleece, and if he ( along with the black and spotted ram lambs, after they are neutered ) to a spinning flock with Bandit's moorit wether, he will stay here for wool production.

And, I can't forget the clean-up crew, of 12 hard-working, bug-chasing, water-splashing, dog-teasing blue Swedish ducks. These guys are the after dinner entertainment. If they're is anything to get into ( a water bucket that's almost full ) they are there. I can't count how many times I've had to fish a duck out of a 2/3 full 5-gal water bucket because it decided it needed to take a bath in the bucket and, after the bath , found out it couldn't get out. Sometimes I wonder about the intelligence of these guys but they do earn their keep in that I do not have a tick problem now and they will got to where the sheep are fed and clean up what the sheep missed.

And, now, for some of the " older " woolies at the farm.

This is TJ, a silver border Leicester cross wether, who thinks it's HIS job to protect mom from any and all new rams. As you can see, he doesn't miss too many meals - and talk about a sweet tooth!!!

This is Lacie,( in the middle pic ) an unregistered Shetland ewe. She didn't have any babies last year but has been visiting with Ditto already. Her first baby was a grey/ white yuglet/ flecket ewe ( grey and white spotted ) named Bandit. And last year, Bandit made her a grandmother of a nice little moorit wether with a white cap. Lacie will help you feed by putting her head on the back of your thigh and gently push you along - she DOES like her food.

In this picture is Mollie ( left center ) a musket katmollet ewe who carries spots ( she's the mother of Snowy - the BIG white spot ),a black ram lamb ( to her left ) and a spotted ram lamb ( to her right ). The spotted ram lamb is out of Wen and is the most colorful baby Wen has produced to date. The black ram lamb is Pekin's boy and has Peke's voice ( for some reason at least one of Peke's babies will sound like her ). And that's Pekin herself on the right upper corner of this picture. She has produced some of the loudest colored babies for me since she's been here and she's a VERY protective mom.

Here is another girl from Stephen Rouse's flock in MI - this is Sheltering Pines Branwyn, a light moorit ewe. She is starting to get friendly but is still a little hesitant about taking a cookie from my hand. She is a lighter version of my Maddie ( a darker more hot cocoa moorit ).

This is a mother/ daughter pic of Sara ( on the left ) and Sheltering Pines Kalliope on the right. When Gail brought them down she felt that Kalliope was a emsket ( charcoal/pewter to the non-Shetland folks out there ) and Stephen says she carries the mioget modifyer, so breeding her to Ditto should be interesting.

This is Sheltering Pines Markella, a very nice black ewe. It took everything I had to get her away from Gail. This girl has a beautiful crimpy fleece and good conformation and is becoming friendly also.