About Last Night

I feel like we've gone below zero before, but maybe because of all the snow and ice it felt even colder.  It was miserable.  

I kept hay in front of everyone and they all made it through, but when I walked into the barn this morning feeling around for the light switch and heard a tiny little voice respond "Momma?" to my "Hey guys, just me." and knew that Maisie had stood all night in the skirting area, I nearly cried.  I'm as tired of it as they are.  -7 is just. too. cold.

I took 48 pictures this morning.  Pictures I thought would tell a story.  They probably do, but the pictures themselves weren't worth sharing.  This one is cute though and does tell me a story.  Crazy old Burrnie has fully embraced sneaking over to the gate for handfuls of the Easy Breezy alfalfa or cookies.  

We've had lots of cookie parties to not only help with morale, but also to make sure everyone is acting right.  Tabitha looked better yesterday, but was a little off again this morning.  She's due for her second dose of antibiotics and the weather is sort of breaking so hopefully she'll be on the mend.

Hang in there, southerners.  It's got to end eventually...and then we can all go back to complaining about the heat ;-).

This Time With Feeling

 ...or at least a correct link ;-).  Sorry about the missing link on the last puzzle.  If you weren't able to find it, it's fixed now.  

I thought it was cold last night, but tonight feels worse.  The predicted 10 degrees (that we were all actually looking forward to) didn't deliver and I just got a texted picture of a neighbor's thermometer registering -1.  This is not good.

Everyone ranged from very to miserably cold this morning (6 degrees) and Tabitha didn't want to get up and eat any breakfast so she started pneumonia protocol, just to be safe.  She looked much brighter this afternoon.  This is not good weather to be sick.  Everyone else looks okay so far.  

I'm hanging out in the Wool House so I can just walk out the door to do a late night check and feed extra hay rather than slogging up here from the house.  I should be doing something productive, but I'm catching up on some puzzles.   Much more fun.  

I made this puzzle with bigger pieces in case you are as bleary eyed as I am ;-).  Enjoy!

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Thelma

Thelma is easy to spot...because she has a spot.  I prefer the two horned Jacobs, but sometimes at a quick glance they are harder to tell apart without their crazy extra horns.  Thelma is easy because of her special nose spot.

Thelma is not a sheep of great personality like Tabitha, but she's started letting me walk past her in the shed lately, pretty closely, without jumping up.  That's pretty noteworthy for a Jacob ;-).   She's also frequently seen near Pinto, or I should say Pinto is frequently found near her.  

I don't think he's sweet on her.  He's pretty much given up the Romeo life.  I think they are friends.  My Jacobs have always tended to stay together and I think that's partly a breed thing, although the Ts did all come here together, but also sometimes seems like a spotted sheep thing.  Pinto is a spotted sheep...but he only hangs with Thelma, so I think she's his best friend.

The ratio of black to white in her wool makes her blended fleece pretty dark, like a mottled dark gray.  It's a little softer and finer than I prefer spinning, but her roving is a customer favorite.  

Thelma likes cookies, but only if you toss them to her from a good distance away.  Those silly, spooky Jacobs :-).

Solstice Sheep Of The Day - Tabitha

Aside from being the only Jacob we have who will come up and grab a treat from anyone who shows up with a box of treats, Tabitha's main claim to fame is her horns.  

Jacobs are a polycerate breed, meaning they have multiple horns.  For the breed standard they have to have at least two horns, but they can have up to six.  Tabitha has five.  They aren't show worthy horns, but they've served her pretty well and have the scars to show for it.

Looking at the first picture it appears that she only has three horns, but here's a better view.  There are actually two nearly fused upright horns on the top of her head along with another upright and two lateral horns, one on each side.

She's not afraid to use those horns and while the sticking up horns aren't good for direct punching, she can give you a bottom hook and flip or a top down smack.  She's not a mean sheep, but she's also the only Jacob we have that can battle her way to the front of the cookie mosh pit ;-).

The Birthday Girl

Happy Twelfth  Birthday, Maisie!

"Thanks!"

"This birthday cake sure is good!"

I'm thinking Maisie might ought to sleep with one eye open tonight!

"What's that mean?"

Auntie Reg had to be the bad guy and keep Short Round and Tabitha from crashing Maisie's party too early.  The look on Short Round's face in the third picture cracks me up.

The rest of the flock was way out in the field and the "cake" was disappearing quickly, so it became a party just for Maisie and her Easy Breezy friends...and the chickens...and Bea.

"Stop taking pictures and do something!"

In some ways it seems like forever ago that she was such a tiny baby...and in some ways it all feels like a dream and she was just always here.  

Best. Twelve Years. Ever.

All Treats This Year...Big Treats

We were trying to work around some (too minor) rain showers so I didn't get the pictures I'd hoped for, but Maisie's costume this year was one of our best.  Odd sort of noteworthy fact, this is the first costume we didn't assemble with hot glue.  We upgraded to duct tape ;-D.

Clarice Cluck, running off with one of Maisie's cookies, is maybe my favorite part of this picture.

Hopefully you can biggify to see her "expiration date".

This would actually be a nice picture if the gate wasn't in the way.  I need to remember this lighting option.

Any other time a sheep wearing a costume tried to walk into a barn full of sheep, there'd have been a stampede to get away.  

Apparently they can either read or have a strong association with the color yellow ;-D.

Happy Halloween!  Nilla Wafers for all :-D.

A Good Day

 I love it when the oldies are having a good day.  What a fabulous fall we've had.

That wrinkly nose :-)

Respite

This has been the hottest summer I can ever remember.  Usually I can count on one hand the number of days over 90.  I've lost track of how many we've had this year...so far.  Today was a blessing.  Low 80s, a nice breeze, low humidity (because we are so, so dry unfortunately).

After lunch I grabbed my favorite chair and settled in with some of my best friends.  

Bea was by my side.  Jared and Short Round were napping to my right and Baaxter and Tabitha were napping behind me.  

Great Morning!

I frequently put up a "Good morning!" post on IG.  Sometimes I just say "Good morning!".  Sometimes I end up writing more of a blog post.  Today was one of those days so I decided to add it over here.  For the record...

Great morning!

Look who I spotted out the back door this morning.  It was cool and comfortable and he'd followed Tabitha out to graze and made it all the way to the house.

I stayed hidden on the porch and let them graze for awhile and then finally carried my coffee down to the driveway.

Jared and I stood there like old times, leaning on each, watching the sun rise and I tried to remember to enjoy the moment without being sad about the future.

We were a long way from the barn.  Up hill.  If I could carry him, I would.  Forever.

He kept leaning his weak hip on my leg and reached down and began to pick some grass.  He took a small leaning step and I stayed with him.  He took another small leaning step and I took another small step with him. And another. And another.  And we walked each other home.  And I cried most of the way...but was also grateful for the journey.

#goodoldsheep

A Rare Sighting

I was downloading some pictures for a friend yesterday and found some pictures that Miss B took after shearing.  I don't remember exactly what was going on here, but this group of sheep were probably thinking my coffee cup had treats in it.  I don't think most of them would just choose hanging out with me over eating green grass ;-).

Thanks, Miss B.  I don't have many pictures of me with my friends :-).

I have a funny series of pictures of Archie during shearing.  Stay on me so I don't forget to post them!

My Favorite Sheep...Of The Week

This week's Sheep of the Week is Kaala.  Kaala actually has two names, but I never can remember the second part.  Hopefully Benita will chime in.  Actually Kaala has several names.  Tim calls her Klaatu, who I think is a character from a movie, and I call her Kaala Mary, pronounced kalamari ;-).

Kaala has been here for almost five years now, retiring here from a disbursing breeding flock in Indiana.  I'm guessing that makes her at least eight now.  She's a Clun Forest (always easy to spot because of their cute little upright ears) and interestingly she's not white.  She's actually a light gray, which is very rare.  You can see that where her wool parts. 

Note: in reference to Saturday's post about hair and wool, it's easy to see where Kaala's face hair (black) turns to wool (cream colored).

I love looking back at the history of these Sheep of the Week.  I'd forgotten about her and Lila being best friends.  Lila always did such a good job helping new sheep transition in.  Kaala sleeping on her hip is a good memory.  Nice to see old Buddy in there, too.

Kaala has a big personality.  She'd have been one of the popular cheer leader types if she was a person.  She is always popular with the boys and when the girls get into scuffles, she's almost always (probably always) right up in the mix.  When the boys get into scuffles, it's frequently something she started. She's very sassy ;-).

 "I am not sassy!"

;-D

Any requests for the next Sheep of the Week?

My Favorite Sheep...Of The Week

I thought about just taking a week off from the Sheep of the Week.  I hadn't found the time to go out and get a good portrait and I'm running so behind on the Iknitarod that I really needed to focus on that.  I hated skipping a week though because then it gets easy to skip another week when I can't manage my time and then another week...

The request for this week/last week had been Tabitha.  She is one of the five young(ish) Jacobs we have.  She's the only sort of chummy one in the group so she stands out.  Chummy as in she will come up to you to get a cookie.  The rest like cookies...but you have to toss them from a distance.  Jacobs... ;-)

 

When I was doing the barn check this morning, I found her front and center, almost like she was reminding me I hadn't taken her picture.  It was still pretty dark, but the iPhone does a great job in low light and this is not too bad.  I will try to get a better portrait this week though.

Here is as close to a baby picture as I have of her.  She and her fellow Ts arrived in January of 2017. She would have been maybe eight or nine months old here. I don't have any funny stories about these five crazy Jacobs, but their trip up here from WV was a pretty cute post.   

I had them set up in the horse stalls for quarantine and I enjoyed using Kate to move them out to the yard to graze every day and then back in.  Tilly even helped a little.  Those were fun days.

I love Jacob sheep.  I think they are beautiful and if I could only spin one type of wool for the rest of my life, I'd pick Jacob.  Their fleeces are easy to care for and process.  They yarn spins easily and can do quite a few jobs depending on the individual and whether they are on the softer side or more medium.  The fun you can have blending the colors is the best.

What I don't enjoy as much about Jacobs is their more "primitive" personalities.  Henri was a friendly Jacob and Annabelly was sweet, too.  Tabitha is as close to "friendly" as we have anymore.  Tavia could probably be talked into being more friendly if she didn't have the other three bad influences around.  

That's okay.  We have quite a few less colorful...but more colorful sheep who are more than happy to fill the sheep are so fun roles :-).  Everyone has a place.

Special request for next/this week?

Haircut Day

First up, Short Round.  She marched into the chute from Easy Breezy like she knew exactly what was coming.  I just love this old ewe. I wasn't expecting much from her fleece, but I salvaged quite a bit and tossed it in the washer and it's actually quite nice :-).

The Ellie Monster.  I was afraid she might be sassy, but she did just fine.  

She and her momma, Short Round, have something sweet planned for their fleeces :-).

Muuuufin

Still very black!

Jared aka Big J

After you get your hair cut you get to go eat grass in the yard. It was a bit drizzly, but no one seemed to mind.  Yard grass is a good treat!

Mini Moose, now being called Macro Moose :-o

It was actually mostly wool...mostly.

Amos helped push sheep from the big pen into the catch pen.

Lots of Pinto pictures because his family wasn't able to come watch...and we all love Pinto pictures ;-).  Here he's listening carefully to a discussion on catch pen/chute set up.  Big Moose (looking on) is not paying any attention and is only thinking about ways he can get in trouble once he hits the chute. 

I love how intently he's watching :-).

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Tabitha on deck

Maisie on the board.  She behaved herself...as best she could :-D.

And Amos has the last sheep penned.

Great catch, Rusty Ewe!

Another shearing in the books.  It is always a huge relief to have this out of the way.  We had yet another great crew this year and I'm so thankful for everyone's good help!