Hurry Up and Wait

Today I am waiting for our hay to be stacked. We grow our own hay but have one of our neighbors cut and bale it for us. He has the equipment to make the big, wrapped bales, which we need, since our storage facilities are smaller than our needs. And we now have over 50 ton of new hay for this coming winter, which translates into over 2600 small bales and I'm too old to help stack that many little bales, even if we did have the space for it. With the wrapped bales, we stack it where we need it, so that it can be fed to the sheep with very little hauling effort on our part.

But in order to get these bales where we want them, we have to be here when the neighbor and his crew bring the bales in from the field. They brought the first load over around 9:00 last night - then they had to get some fuel - so they didn't finish yesterday - and today it is currently sunny (which is an uncommon occurrence this June), so I am thinking they are doing something that is more dependent on sunshine than hauling wrapped bales in from the fields. But, I have to stay put until either they deliver the bales, or Larry relieves me to take his turn at "hurry up and wait". We have decided that Shearing Day is less stressful than Hay Delivery Day, because our shearer has an appointment, which he keeps very efficiently, whereas the Hay Guy is more vague. But, like the shearer, custom hay guys are few and far between, and we bow to their needs. And, he's a neighbor, so we try to be "neighborly".

I haven't blogged in awhile, so since I am waiting today, I thought I would take the opportunity to sit near the fan and try not to move too much (it's hot and humid here, but a cold front is coming through later, although I think that means it will no longer be 90 and humid - maybe low 80's and less humid).

June, so far, has been a bit of both good and not so good. Nicholas finished Junior High and will be going to High School in the fall - of course, in Creek, that means that he goes to the other wing of the Jr/Sr High building. Not a big adjustment. That was a "good". "Not so good" was the day the washer decided to quit just as a load was spinning out. And, on the same day, the faucet on the bathroom sink decided it didn't want to turn off. I'm not good with plumbing, so being alone in the house at the time, I turned it off as best I could and made sure the drain was running clearly and abandoned ship (meaning I went to my parents' for a cup of coffee!) On the "good" side, I found out that my family is actually descended from John Alden, who is rumored to have been the first person to step off of the Mayflower. Apparently, that also means that I am related (a long ways back) to both President Adamses (is that a word?). And, I guess, to Dick Van Dyke, Marilyn Monroe and Dan Quayle, among others, who can claim to be related to John Alden. To heck with the DAR (which I am also eligible to join, I believe) - I can join the Mayflower Society. Yes, I am a genealogy snob.

We finished up lambing with about 100 lambs. We lost one ewe to pregnancy issues and two lambs very early on - one had physical issues and I don't think she was meant to live. Now I am watching all very nervously as it has been so wet and rainy that I'm sure the worm load on the pastures is unreal. The majority of the BWS have been wormed - the Shetlands are next on my list.

I have been doing some knitting. I have started the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell from the Interweave Knits Summer 2007 issue. I am using Plymouth Yarns Llama Cotton Worsted in color 1249, which is a nice "peachy" color. I don't have automatic links to anything, as I am working offline at the moment (in case the hay guy calls to say they will be moving hay soon - or won't be moving hay soon - but chances are, he won't call at all, he'll just show up). The yarn is wonderfully soft, some VM, we'll see how it wears after I finish the top. This is an adventure for me, since I have never knit a garment before, only socks, scarves and dishcloths. But my gauge appeared to be on. I'll let you know. I'm almost done with the body of the top and will soon separate the front and back (currently knitting in the round) to begin shaping up towards the shoulders and the lace portion (which will take me a lot longer than the stockinette portion).

And these are the socks that I actually started when we were in San Francisco in March. I got about an inch knit on the first sock while we were gone (why do I even bother? We are so busy when we go on vacation, that there really isn't time to knit - but, as a Knitter, I feel the need to travel with a project, I guess). After we got home, I was just flying through the first sock - at the rate I was going, I felt I could knit both socks before April ended. Of course, I forgot to figure in the time that lambing takes. So when that first lamb was born, knitting came to an abrupt halt. But the second sock is on the needles and I am working on the foot, so maybe if I go back and forth between the socks and the shell, I could get them both done this summer. Yes, yes, I am a slow knitter - and I want to get my spinning wheel back out and spin the rest of the Coopworth so I can start knitting a cardi for cold weather.

And, as you can see, I have a few hanging baskets planted this year. That's about it - I planted some spinach and mesclun, but the weather turned hot and they haven't grown well. We have some tomatoes, squash and peppers in containers, the perennial herbs are growing nicely, but need weeding and I still have a few pots of flowers and herbs to get into the dirt. Maybe after the cold front goes through - there is no way I am gardening in 90 degrees and humid!

Still no hay, but I feel I have bored you few readers enough. Maybe some knitting time coming up here while I wait some more - I guess I shouldn't be complaining - I'm just not a good Waiter.

What Happened to February???

Here it is, the middle of March, and I haven't posted since January! What in the world happened to February? I know I was here - I watched the Olympics. And I did knit during the Olympics, although I never really got myself signed up for any of the Knitting Olympic events that were going on. I signed up for Ravelympics, but after popping over to their website, was a bit confused and never made it back to figure out how to really participate. But I did finish this scarf, which I had put aside before the holidays to work on holiday knitting -

I thought it fit right in with the Olympics, as it was knit up in the colors that were on all the bibs that the athletes wore and adorned the banners along the sidelines of the events. I'm not sure what they called their colors, but mine are Toe Jamz "Lavender & Sage" and Dream in Color Smooshy "Some Summer Sky". Pattern, "Chevron Scarf" from the book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson. I made my scarf much shorter than the pattern, as I just wanted to hang it over my neck, not loop it all around - an advantage of being short, less yarn used on a scarf! And I have enough of both yarns left that I could do socks to match.

Although the Olympics are no longer a timely subject, I just wanted to say that I thought Vancouver did a lovely job - I would very much like to visit someday, so their tourism board was successful in this household. And I noticed that Canadians all seem to know the words to their national anthem. And they sing it out proudly. Why don't we do that in this country? I suspect that most of us don't really know the words to our national anthem - my excuse is the wide range of notes and my really lousy singing voice. It's quite embarrassing to try to hit those high notes of "the rockets' red glare" when no one else in your part of the stadium is doing more than, maybe, moving their lips. If you need to refresh your memory, or if you want to read the history of our national anthem, see here.

In other news: Well, there really isn't much "other news". February was a quiet month. My excuse for being lazy - resting up for shearing in March and lambing starting in April. We shear next week - lots of rain lately, but fortunately most of the sheep are smart enough to go into their barns/shelters when it is pouring. I was out yesterday feeling of fleeces and they were fairly dry. We now have forecast several dry sunny days before the shearer arrives. If that changes, I will be locking them into their shelters.

Here are some pics of the Shetland girls still in full fleece - can't wait to get those fleeces on the skirting table!

Gaia is the grey ewe with the dark stripe down her back - her fleece is always lovely.

The big news yesterday - I am now officially a "Loopy Groupie"! I not only scored a skein of the Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga Sock yarn (that was what I ordered, it's the dark yarn on the right - the rest is Loopy loot), but I received my Loopy Groupie welcome pack, full of lots of nice gifts. Thank you, Sheri!

Well, Nicholas has a cold and he has just informed me, that in spite of the fact that doing chores would allow him to drive the riding lawn mower around the property, he does not feel up to doing them. So I guess I better have another cup of coffee and maybe a long john and get my own self out there to feed the sheep. At least the hoses are again connected and I don't have to haul endless buckets of water out to them.

Quick - Let's Post Something Before the End of January!!!

I'm sure that any "regular" readers of my blog have all but given up on me. No posts for a month and a half! It's not that I haven't been doing anything or thinking anything. Just really nothing that has been "blogworthy". I could have posted Xmas pictures - I did take some of the tree, but wasn't all that impressed with them. And I took some more outdoorsy photos. Nothing good there either. But here is a picture of the scarf I knit for my father for Xmas. I'm a bit late to the party, but I finally got around to knitting one of those Noro scarves that everyone was doing a while back - this is Silk Garden in colorways 269 and 279. I did mine in a broken rib pattern, as I'm not a huge fan of standard 2 x 2 ribbing. And I must say that I now understand why everyone was going nuts knitting these scarves - they are very addictive. I didn't want to stop knitting this one, but it seemed a good length for my dad and Xmas was upon us, so I had to cast off and wrap it.

So I cast on another one, although, since I'm not made of money, I am doing this one out of Lion Brand's new wool/acrylic blend "Amazing" in the colorways Aurora and Mesa. It is a pinkish/purplish thing with some blues, golds and autumn tones mixed in. Not quite as bright pink as it shows up in the picture. I'm not a "pink" person and I have absolutely nothing to wear with it - of course, I guess it would go with my barn jacket, which is black - but the sheep might revolt if they saw me wearing a scarf that was partially acrylic!

Which brings me to my other excuse for not blogging in awhile. Last summer we got a new computer. But the old computer was still working fine (although since it was about 10 years old, it couldn't handle some of the newer things we wanted to do with it - thus the computer purchase) Well, we had been gradually transferring stuff from the old to the new, using the new for current things. But since we have dial-up internet, the old computer was still our internet computer. We aren't "networked" or anything - no wireless access, so we couldn't use both. Well, I finally caved and Larry unplugged the phone line from the huge, bulky dinosaur and plugged it into the new, sleek, slim CPU. I got all the correct codes and phone numbers and all programmed into the new machine. But - speaking of dinosaurs - my digital camera is ancient - 1.3 mega pixels - can you even buy something with that few mega pixels anymore? And I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to view/edit/post pictures from it. Well, as you can see above, I can, sort of, although I am using different software and I'm not as "fluent" in the editing process as I was with the old software - therefore, a picture of a really PINK scarf, when I wouldn't be caught dead in something that was really this PINK. I wonder if I can find the old software and load it on this computer. Probably too old for this new technology!

So, January is almost over - a quiet time here, really. The rams went back together after breeding season fairly uneventfully, earlier this month. The ewes are getting fat, hopefully the adults are all bred - lambing is scheduled to begin mid-April. We've got a month and a half before shearing. So I think I will enjoy this relative lull and do some spinning and knitting and look forward to warmer weather and lots of woolly twins!

And Now a Fibery Post

First, for those of you who might be wondering, the ewe with the prolapse seems to be doing fine. I kept her in the barn in her own pen for about a week, removing the retainer after about 5 days. Another big dose of LA-200 and I sent her back out with the rest of her flock. And, although the weather has been very hot and humid, she seems OK.

Now, on to other, more fibery news. I knit a 12 inch square that I mailed off to another Ravelry member to be added to a blanket that he is putting together for one of the Paul Newman camps for kids. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was a nice waffle weave done in Caron Simply Soft in a nice dark jade color. Very soft, but I'm afraid I'm a wool snob. It is just so much nicer to knit with wool.

I have also been working on a lace scarf - my first real lace project. I did do a dishcloth with a lace pattern and have done a few swatches, but this feels like my first lace. It is a great "first lace" project. The design comes from the book Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders - the Nancy Pygora-Merino Lace Scarf - a Myrna Stahman design, no wonder it is so pretty (I just read the fine print to see the designer's name) - well, the design is pretty, I'm not trying to brag about my first lace! It knits up very quickly - although since I don't spend huge blocks of time on it, it will take me awhile. But I'm not getting bogged down in endless rows and when I do work on it for a bit, the length actually seems to change - the nice thing about scarves, I guess. But for those of you who hate to purl, all wrong side rows are purled. But I don't mind purling, it's just the switching back and forth, like when knitting ribbing, that I'm not fond of.

I am using a Fleece Artist yarn - their basic merino sock yarn in a colorway I can't remember the name of, but it is various shades of brown, with a few reddish highlights in spots. Obviously not blocked, so it looks kind of rumply - and I always seem to be trying to take pictures in the dark - some of the other blogs I read - well, you take such pretty pictures, in natural light, draping your knitting decoratively over a bush or a fence or some such. I grab a white mattress pad to stick under it, to highlight the holes! Anyway, here it is in all it's rumpled, artificially lighted glory . . . . .

And I got the rest of my birthday present from my folks today. A nice package from The Loopy Ewe, one of my favorite online yarn shops. (I must say, they have VERY fast service - I ordered some knitting accessories from two other online stores at the same time that I ordered the yarn from The Loopy Ewe - this past Thursday, yes two days ago - and I got the yarn today. The other two vendors - well, I'm still waiting on them!) I give you Creatively Dyed's Calypso yarn in the Coconut colorway and Dream in Color Smooshy in Some Summer Sky. The Calypso colors seem to be showing up quite well - mostly natural shades - beiges, browns with some dark purples, dark greens and bits of rosy colors. The Smooshy is showing up as mostly blue, but there is quite a bit of purple highlighting. Both yarns are superwash merino - see, I'm a wool snob - of course, seeing as we have about 200 sheep on the farm at the moment, maybe rightfully so!

The Calypso will probably become a garter stitch stole, the Smooshy is going into the stash for the time being.

Well, the weather forecast shows slightly lower temperatures for the next few days, so maybe I can start getting a few things done again. These last few days we have spent a lot of time in front of the fan and the TV. And speaking of the TV, a "new to me" Doctor Who is on in half an hour and I intend to be firmly situated on the couch by then. Not to be insensitive, but the news that David Tennant was being replaced as the Doctor was more shocking to me than the news of the death of Michael Jackson. I guess we all have our priorities!

It's Always Something!

Today our first cutting hay was being baled and wrapped and it will be stacked in various places around the farm tomorrow. We try to plan ahead and put the hay in the most convenient spots relative to where the sheep will be this coming winter. Lazy farmers (which I most certainly am one of!) are also usually quite efficient! Let's try to do things in the easiest way possible - that's my motto!

Yesterday I worked a little harder. If you're squeamish, skip down past this part.

OK, let's back up one day before yesterday. We had a Shetland ewe who delivered a stillborn lamb - just as well, as a portion of the lamb's intestines were outside of the body. The birth was assisted, but when I went to bed, the ewe seemed tired but fine. Not true, though, as when I got up yesterday morning, I discovered she had prolapsed (uterine prolapse - meaning she kept on pushing and having contractions, until her uterus was turned inside out and was now outside of her insides - no pictures for this part of the blog!). So I went back inside and had my breakfast and coffee and contemplated my next move.

I got together some supplies - antiseptic lube, prolapse retainer, gambrel restrainer, deer sled (boy, that sled comes in handy for hauling sheep around!). The gambrel restrainer is a nifty little device that sort of traps their front feet up near their head so they can't get away from you - which came in handy, so I could contain her (she was still up and fairly mobile) in the pasture while I went to the barn to get the sled. I then dragged her (in the sled) up through her pasture into our backyard - I thought it might be cleaner working there than in the barn or barnyard. That and I had been dragging her uphill and I was tired at that point and found it a convenient place to rest.

Then came the fun part - washing off the uterus and stuffing it back inside of her. Fortunately a Shetland uterus is only about the size of two of my fists and Shetland ewes don't weigh much. Keep in mind that while you are trying to replace her uterus, she thinks she is still in labor and continues to push against you. So you hoist up her back end a bit, with the idea that gravity will aid you in your efforts - then you have to get this organ (is a uterus an organ?) back inside of her and turned right side in (a prolapsed uterus is inside out in more ways than one, so you really are up to your elbows in it, so to speak, when you replace it and turn it back the right way) Then, the grateful ewe urinates all over your arm, because you have just freed up her urethra, which had been blocked by the offending organ. So while you hold everything back in place, you grab for the retainer (which is almost out of reach, but not quite), get that inserted and, in this instance, tied to the wool to hold it in place.

I thought of having a beer at this point, but didn't think it would be kind of me to leave her trussed up and lying in the backyard. So I put her back in the deer sled and dragged her the rest of the way to the barn (still slightly uphill). I got her settled into her private quarters in the barn, gave her a big shot of antibiotics, some hay and water and then I went in for my beer. Well, not really - as it was still morning, I had another cup of coffee.

Tonight she is eating hay and seems to be doing OK. My biggest concern now is infection. While I try to be clean and use antibacterial stuff, I don't have a sterile operating theatre. So now we wait. But, as we used to say in college (hi, Lynn!), it was a "learning experience". I learned that I can put a uterus back into a ewe (whether or not successfully, we have yet to see). I learned how to use the gambrel restrainer (never used that before). I also learned that if this had been one of our Polypays, who are quite a bit heavier than Shetlands and have larger internal organs, I probably would have needed help.

Not all has been so gruesome here. I moved the Shetlands into fresh pasture the other day and the lambs, being the children that they are - and you parents out there know how kids sometimes don't pay attention - weren't listening, and they didn't go through the gate that their moms went through. They ended up on the wrong side of the fence. You can see they are all looking to the left wondering why they are all alone:

Well, there their moms are, on the far side of the fence, grazing on lush, new pasture while they are not:

And the newest lamb - Athena and her ram lamb, who looks a lot like her - his markings have just not faded with age yet:

I do have knitting on the needles, for those of you who are more interested in the "fiber" part of "Farm and Fiber", just no pictures at the moment. Maybe next post. I am knitting a lace scarf and am doing some charity knitting - a blanket square. And I only have to bind off "loosely" the stole that I have been working on for a couple of years. It's that "loosely" part that worries me. Oh, and I am spinning some Coopworth roving in the hopes of someday having enough yarn to knit a sweater or a vest (depending on how much yarn I actually get in the end!). I'll try to get some pictures of all of that for the next post!

And now, after reliving my exploits as a sheep vet pretender, I am exhausted. I think I will call it a day!

Finished Packer Socks!

There they are, the finished socks! That's actually the third complete set I have made. So far, I don't suffer too badly from SSS (Second Sock Syndrome). Knock on wood. Unlike my earlier forays into counted cross stitch, I seem to feel the need to finish knitting projects after I start them (at least most of them - I am still working on the garter stitch stole, which gets put aside quite often, but I worked on it just a week or so ago and found it to still be enjoyable). These socks are headed to Virginia Beach, to my cousin, Dave, who is a HUGE Packer fan. I just hope they fit his feet, or they will end up being wall art or something!

In other knitting news, I am again working on a pair of Happy Feet yarn socks for me - started before I began the Packer socks and picked back up again now that those are finished. Sheep news, the big, white rams have been taken out of their respective breeding groups and put back in their little pen. They did some minor head bashing, but seem to have settled back into whatever hierarchy they have. It is nice being able to go back in with the girls again and not having to watch over my shoulder constantly for a "ram attack". Or, in the case of Sammy's group, not going in with them at all, as he has developed an ATTITUDE. (Our Shetland ram is well behaved and may stay in with his girls until shearing, unless we get a stretch of nice weather and I feel like catching him).

And speaking of the weather, we had about 4 more inches of snow yesterday and now it is, according to our one thermometer, 3 degrees outside, with a windchill of 5 below. They closed school today, although I'm really not sure why, as we were the only school district closed. It may actually have been the drifting snow affecting the bus routes, because I don't believe they actually close school unless wind chills or actual temps are down around 25 below. Tomorrow we are due for another 3 - 8 inches, depending on how the forecast shapes up and Thursday and Friday more bitter cold.

Well, it sounds like good knitting weather to me - must look at the bright side!

Sorting Sheep

Yesterday we sorted sheep. The "big, white sheep". The Shetlands run on their own schedule! It was the day that we pulled all of the ram lambs away from their moms and put them in their own pasture. Some of them were a bit old, but I only like to do this once in the heat of summer and the youngest are only about 3 months old. I really don't like to wean them much before then. We have some lambs who will still nurse, if their moms let them, and they are almost as big as mom!

Larry and Nicholas moving some of the sheep toward the chutes:

Larry muscles the sheep into the scale, if they don't go willingly, and this time, held onto them while I administered wormer (I pulled some muscles in my back a few days ago and have a hard time bending over, hanging on to a struggling sheep, while forcing medicine down their throats. No, no - it's not as awful as it seems. It's a small amount of liquid wormer - but they, like small children, do not always cooperate fully, so there is a bit of wrestling that goes on. But if we don't worm them, they die. And we only worm the animals that need it.) Nicholas helps with getting them into the chutes, lets them out into their appropriate group after weighing and worming and helps wherever else he is needed. I open and close the scale doors, record weights, determine who to worm and administer the meds.

More moving of sheep:

We were probably at it for about 4 hours, with one break in the middle - it gets very hot and buggy - and in the end, we only actually relocated about 30 sheep, but we had to sort through all of them (almost 100). And now the lambs have been wormed once more (and any of the skinnier ewes). Hopefully, we won't have to do much with them now until we take the lambs to market and put the breeding groups together this fall.

In fiber related news, I have once again signed up for the Mystery Stole. I signed up last year, but did not knit it. I was a bit hesitant, being new to knitting and never having knit any lace. But I followed everyone's posts and delighted in looking at everyone else's stole pictures. This year, I have several yarns to choose from and have purchased some beads. I am still swatching, so have not decided on the yarn or beads yet, but hope to actually knit it this year. I have done a small amount of lace knitting, although not with lace weight yarn - and I have never done beads before, so that should be interesting. It will probably take me years to finish it, so don't hold your breath, but I would like to attempt this this time around. Wish me luck!

Off to swatch some more and catch some of the Olympics - I am leaving politics out of it and cheering the American athletes on to victory!

Red Jersey

I have decided to award myself the red jersey in the Tour de Fleece. My goal was to spin every day (or almost every day) and, while I did spin more than I normally would in the heat of the summer, I did not spin as often as I had hoped. So, red jersey.

I did do a bit of knitting while we were out of town last weekend - but I am not a good "car knitter" - I have a tendency to want to watch the scenery go by or take a nap, but I did get a bit knit up on my son's red, white and blue socks. They are pictured here along with some of the oriental lilies that I plucked from my overgrown garden this morning. I am not a gardener to begin with, and this year the mosquitoes are about the size of my sheep, so I try to spend as little time outside as possible. Thankfully, my husband and son planted some tomatoes, peas, beets and squash early in the spring and I got a bunch of herbs in - before the mosquito crop hatched and before the weeds took over. Maybe some garden pics at a later date. Today the lilies and part of a sock will have to suffice!

Still Spinning and Starting Some Socks

Well, I was afraid of this. I'm not a very active blogger. It's already been a week since my first post, and if there is anyone out there who is actually reading this, you have probably already given up on me and moved on. Can I blame it on the heat and humidity? I really don't do well in the summer swelter.

I am slowly progressing with the Tour de Fleece. Still working on the turquoise batt pictured below. I have been spinning most nights, although not for very long periods of time. I did take the wheel to our local "Busy Fingers" group this week and spun for about an hour and a half. That is our version of a knitters get-together. I live in a very small rural community and to only allow knitters - well the group would be even smaller than it is now. This month we had two knitters, one crocheter and one quilter. I'm one of the knitters and I brought my spinning wheel. I am the only spinner in the group, at least so far.

Since the spinning progress has been slow, I thought I would show you my latest knitting project. My son decided he would like red, white and blue socks, so I purchased some Lorna's Laces in the Liberty colorway from the Loopy Ewe and knit up the swatch last night. I will knit a very basic sock, haven't decided on an actual pattern yet. Probably the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe. I thought it would be a good project for a weekend getaway we have coming up - about a six hour drive each way. We are going to St. Louis, where it should be even hotter than it is here in Wisconsin. Oh, joy!