Reptilian Visitor

A week or so ago, I was busily mowing with the rider mower outside the yard fence. The sheep had heavily grazed the patch and I wanted to trim it up so undesirable weeds wouldn't go to seed. As I mowed along the outer perimeter fence that borders the neighbors pasture, I noticed something black sticking up out of the grass. I slowed the mower, knowing that wasn't quite what a stick looked like, but what was it? About five seconds before the snake would have been mowed over history, I realized it was a snake, and braked hard.


That darn thing never even budged, but looked at me and the now stopped, but still running mower, then proceeded to slither across in front of us. As I finished the patch, I had to take care on each pass to avoid the snake. Finally I decided to run in and get my camera to take it's picture. When I got back out it was gone! I had left Boone in the yard so he wouldn't bother it. As I looked high and low for the snake, with Boone following along inside the fence, I finally decided the snake had turned and went back into the pasture. That's what any snake with a lick of sense would do. Just then, I glanced down, and about four inches in front of Boone's feet was the snake! Yeesh! Boone was oblivious, and I easily called him around to the back gate. He never did seem to know there was a snake anywhere about.

The snake was clearly on a mission. I mean it had come out of deep grasses of the pasture, onto slick mowed ground, with the mower loud and active nearby. Then it slid practically right under the paws of a huge dog, not to mention the pesky human that kept following it.

Once inside the yard, it went right up the redbud tree, obviously a path it had taken before. I was pretty sure it was probably after baby birds, but I never heard any commotion and once the snake went into the upper reaches of the branches, I didn't see it again.
I didn't really want to see it have a baby bird snack, but I'm a little ticked at the grackles that have invaded here lately. These are big black shiny birds, with loud grackly voices, and rude manners. I'm not sure they are grackles, but they look like and act like what I think anything named 'grackle' should. They continually foul the sheep water troughs as well as the birdbath. They can't just drink out of it, nope they have drop their huge droppings right in there too. They also steal all the dry cat food, so I have to put it up during the day and they are so noisy. Grack, grack, grack... Deep breath.

Back to the snake. When I moved in here years and years and years ago, there were two huge black snakes that also called the place home. We lived in peaceful coexistence for several years. These were monster snakes---six to seven foot long and almost as think as my lower arm. Since the place had been unoccupied for many years, I was happy to let them putt around. Afterall the old saying is that if you have black (or King snakes) around they will keep the copperheads run off. I have no idea if this is true, or just some positive PR the black snakes made up and promoted so they'd live long and happy lives. By and by though the snakes lives got complicated around here. First there was the dog, then the cats, then shortly after that a whole slew of kittens, and even worse, the chickens.
Since they moved to the further reaches of the little farm, I've only occasionally saw a large snake skin or a small black snake here and there and once in the chicken nests. So I was pleased to see that there were still large black snakes making their home nearby. They can come by anytime, but only if they keep those old copperheads away.

Just A Little Wether or Two....

Marty Robbins --Sweet little wether looking for a loving fiber home. Fleece is very soft and consistent. He has his mother's loving sweet personality.

Three Little Lambs went to the vet. When they left home they were rams. Then they had hoo--hooectomies (as Tina so eloquently puts it) and came home wethers. Very sad, miserable little wethers, with their sad miserable shepherd with them.

Tom T. Hall (& his sister Persia) Sold & going to his new home in June, I'm really going to miss this little character.

My little friends didn't want their (formerly nice) shepherd around them. But by nightfall, Tom T. Hall melted and just wanted me to hold him and give him a good scratch. The next day Marty Robbins gave in when he learned the joys of animal crackers. Freddie Fender isn't going to be as easy, but then he had already grown away from needing his shepherd. The boys were stiff the next morning, but seemed much better by the end of that day, running and playing with the others.

Freddie Fender (old picture)
Sold & going to his new home with his mother next weekend

This year has to be one of the friendliest bunch of lambs I have ever enjoyed having about. When I'm doing chores, there is this little entourage that follows me about, begging for scratches and hugs, sometimes jumping on my leg, or in the case of Tom, butting my leg. (While Tom is a gorgeous little fellow, with a very correct look, his early over-friendliness ensured his wether-ness. He will make someone a wonderful pet).

(These little boys went to the vet a week ago yesterday and seem to be doing fine. More importantly they still are my little buddies, tailing around after me as I do chores.)

Shetland Ram Lamb--Conway

Fairlight Conway
(Three Ring Just Jack x Fairlight Luna)

Sire: Three Ring Just Jack
(Sheltering Pines Jerome x Locksfield Brietta)

Dam: Fairlight Luna
(Minwawe Redford x Locksfield Willow)

Luna's Sire: Minwawe Redford

Conway is for-sale and will be ready to go in mid-June. He is a good looking solid boy, with a lovely look to him. At this time, he is showing great promise, he has nice straight, wide hocks, good tail, etc. Wool should be a lovely soft intermediate, with crimp and lustre. He will be moorit in color, and most likely carries fawn and of course, spotting genetics. He was born with a large white krunet which he still carries. Horns look fantastic and I think looking at his sire and grandsire they should clear with a nice wide sweep. Conway is on the shy side and is a momma's boy. He is very respectful of people.

If you are interested in Conway you can see more information on him at my Fairlight Farm website.

The Race Is On

Get Ready---Get Set---GO!

And the race is on...

Can sheep fly? Evidently!

Freddie takes an early lead....

Persia edges out into the lead on the corner

The pack is a blur coming out of the corner
(while the rams look on)

Tom T. and Eve leading out of the turn

Oops....standoff.

And down the homestretch...

That's all folks!

Hope you enjoyed lamb races as much I do. The lambs were running so hard and for so long that they were panting!

And I Also Stocked Up.....

.....on cheese. Sheep Cheese that is! I had been looking forward to getting some more sheep cheese at the Fiber Fest, and wasn't disappointed. I got three varieties of cheese, and some 'Smudge' which is fudge made with sheep milk. It's very, very good. In fact the first package got almost eaten when I passed it around, so I had to go back and get another pack later! ;-) Stoney Acres Sheep Dairy is located just a hop, skip and a jump down the road. I've been interested in going there to watch for several years, but have never gotten around to it. (Read, when they lamb and start milk production, it's usually lambing time around here, and I 'don't get out much' during that time..)

If you've never had sheep cheese (or fudge), it's great stuff and I find it doesn't have any lingering aftertaste either.

Fiber Fair

These first three photos are Selena's fleece. She is a fawn Shetland ewe who sheared out almost five pounds (she didn't lamb this year). This is the fleece I wanted to have judged in the fleece competition. It's really lovely.

Well, it rained all night Friday. I mean all night. I had nightmares of the fairgrounds where the event was to be held floating under water or having to drive fifty miles out of my way to avoid flooded roads. The rain turned out to be steady and slow enough to not cause any further flooding, thankfully.

However it was very muddy at the event, but as far as I know no one got stuck.


I picked up my Mom (and the egg salad sandwiches she made--I love egg salad sandwiches, yes I do, oh, and I love my Mom too..;-) and we pulled out at 7:30 a.m. and made good time, with nary a flooded road in sight. Once we got there, I went to the registration table to find out where my booth was. I was dismayed to find out it was the building furthest up the hill where they also house the fiber animals people bring to the event. My dismayed reasons were twofold. At first it seemed like there was no way to get the truck close to unload--the only access being a steep, wet slippery hill. The other reason was...well.. frankly I didn't want to listen to sheep baa all day. That is not a relaxing sound for me, and I get plenty of it at home, thank you! It was my day off for crying out loud. ;-)

In the end though, I discovered a driveway at one end and was able to drive through the entire building to the booth. Twenty minutes later and I would not have had that option as people were setting up their booths and closing the space up. It was a squeeze to get out, but I just bulled on through, since I had no other option. I felt really sorry for the folks that came later and had to lug heavy tables up that slippery muddy slope. Even worse for the livestock owners that had to lead in their llamas and sheep and goats, from way too far away. (Sheep escape story later...). And except for about two or three times during the day the sheep weren't that annoying. ;-)

I still don't think I like being up in that building, and am not sure I will go back if they insist on sticking me up there, but it worked out alright in the end. I do like the roomier booths this year (they changed them from 8 x 8 to 8 x 10).

Now as to the weather. It was still misty raining and the wind was cold and out of the north. As you can see in these pictures we ended up putting up a very glamorous blue tarp to block the rain and wind. It didn't help much with the wind, and it got progressively colder and the winds stronger as the day went on. I spent much of the time huddled under a fleece (not wool!!) blanket that I threw in at the last minute.

I entered a fleece in the fleece contest, but due to the initial un-organization at the desk I didn't know to fill out a certain part of the form. I did fill it out correctly on the form I filled out, but not the tag. Anyhoo, later in the day, they evidently called for me on the loudspeaker to have me come and give the information, but the speakers aren't hooked up in the upper barn! So I only found out much later from a friend that they had called my name and by then it was too late. I was a little disappointed as I was eager to have this fleece evaluated, plus was out the entry fee.

So, you might think the whole day was kind of a bummer, by all the gripes, but it wasn't. I enjoyed myself, and the people for the most part are very friendly and talkative. My Mom stayed til about 1 p.m. when my Dad came and got her. My sister also came over and stayed a couple of hours. After everyone left, I had some friends I hadn't seen for awhile stop by. The lady in the booth next to me was kind enough to watch over my booth when I needed to make a 'pit stop'.

I really didn't know what to expect with the economy being in the news all the time and the flu and this and that. I hope I'd make my fees back and a little extra to make it worth my time.

It turned out to be the best sales I've ever had at this event! The crowds were huge despite (or in spite of?) all the bad news and the weather. And they came to buy. They would quietly scope out the booths and later I would see someone trudging up over the hill, straight for my booth with determination on their faces. They had made up their minds and were there to get what had earlier caught their eye. Another interesting thing was that everyone that bought from me paid in cash this year. Everyone. The lady next to me had some gorgeous knitted/felted handbags and tote backs, and hats and she did booming sales too.

There were less questions on the sheep, but I did pass out quite a few sales flyers and business cards, so it's hard to say if I'll have any follow up on those. Last year I had question after question on the sheep and never got nary a follow up on them. So who knows.

All told I sold 21 pounds of raw fleece (which is 5 & half fleeces--I split one large merino cross fleece), 39 ounces of roving, and a wet felted silk/wool scarf (not sure that counts though since my Mom bought it even though I told her she could have it!). I was especially pleased to move out that many fleeces. I was able to cram everything that was left into the front of the truck on the way back, except for the tables. I made my entry fee back many times over! Well worth the time and energy.

As for the escaped sheep? I was standing there minding my own business when everyone started pointing up the hill and then some lady started screaming--"someone needs to run around there and head that sheep off from the road". Well, all I had to see was the loose sheep and hear the word 'road' and I took off running around the side of the building. It was only later I thought--hmm...why didn't the screaming lady do this?? The sheep was a Jacob and it reluctantly turned back and fortunately heard it's buddy in the barn and headed right in there. I ran around and blocked the other end of the barn and by that time had some back up on my end. The sheep was cornered in some one's booth amongst the skeins of yarn and ropes of roving. I unwired the corner of the pen and the young fellow stuffed the sheep safely in with it's companion.

My other exciting moment was helping the irate booth owner next to me, tumble a grandstand box to the to the other side of the arena. The powers that be had set up their booth right behind this big plywood box thing, where you wouldn't have been able to see or even get to their booth. The sand in the arena worked against us, but several of us overpowered it and in the end justice was served.

Exciting times. Now I need to take inventory and sink some of the profits back into getting fleeces processed while several of the mills are offering Spring sales.

Hope your weekend was great!

And the Rains Came Down.....

House just outside of the town I work in. This entire valley was flooded, when normally there is a little trickle creek that runs just to the right in the picture. This was about two hours after the storm left the area. I had never seen this house flood.

This is the Niangua River--not at full flood level yet, but overflowing it's banks. I'm sure it got much higher overnight, as I could hear it roaring from the house. (I live in a horseshoe bend area of the river, but it's about a mile and half from my house).

My Mom took this picture out their backdoor. This is their back yard, which is a slight slope and by no means a 'low water' area. There was a pretty good river running downhill.

This weekend is the Fiber Fest--the truck is loaded and I think I'm ready.... I hope it will be a successful weekend. It's been a busy week, trying to get all the fiber and promotional items ready.

It's suppose to rain tonight--maybe more violent storms, but I hope not. It is calling for rain in the early a.m. tomorrow and cool temperatures in the 60s. Fortunately the event is located under livestock pavilions, so that helps immensely.

I mentioned before that we had a crazy storm system move through last Friday. It came mid-morning and lasted for what seemed hours, but was more like 45 minutes. This particular storm type even has a name---Derecho. It's described as 'a long lived thunderstorm induced windstorm'...really. What it looked like was a mini hurricane, with rain and wind swirling and blowing every which way. The storm that blew in on Friday caused wide spread wind damage, with an estimated 17 tornado reports, straight wind and damaging hail. One person was killed near here when he and his wife were sucked out of their home and thrown into a field.

I was at work when it hit, and the sirens went off. We grabbed our purses, radio, flashlight and other worthy things and trundled off to an inner room located on the lower floor. Sadly we weren't in a hurry and even after landing in the 'safe' room, we roamed about looking out windows, and in my case procuring a better radio from the office--and while at it setting up the copier to run 500 more copies. Just in case we didn't get wiped out by the tornado. Only later did we realize how severe the storms were. I had my camera with me but did not even think to take pictures of the wind and rain and the flood waters encroaching on the office behind ours. The sirens went on and on and on. As in the last time the sirens went off, we had people 'wander in' from off the streets to wait out the storm with us.

On the way home I snapped a couple of pictures but they aren't that impressive. We had about 3 to 3.5 inches of rain in about 45 minutes. I have not 'in all my born days' as they say, seen the water rise that fast. There were rivers in the roads, lakes in the housing developments, water where there had never been flood problems before. It was freaky.

Buzzards drying out

I was very thankful that we all made it through the storms, as well as having no property damage. It looked like I had a little 'river run through' my breezeway and some overflow into the kitchen, but it was minor.


When I got home I noticed something 'funny' about the empty house across the street. At first I thought the chimney had been damaged, but a closer inspection showed it was two vultures or buzzards perched on the chimney. I suppose they were trying to dry out, but I have a little hope that they may be nesting in one of the abandoned buildings. That would be pretty cool.

In the evening I started to get something from the cloths hamper and noticed a dark blob on the arm of my office chair. Hmmm...that sure looks like a toad. And it was! I'm not sure how it got in, but I figure it had something to do with all the rain and flooding confuing the little critter. I threw a little rag over it and turned it outside. No house toads, please.

Stranded Toad

The ground is super spongy and soft here and hasn't had a chance to dry out. I had to laugh when I saw on the news tonight that we are going to have an 'extended dry period'....all of three days long that is.

Have a great weekend!

Sage,Just Hanging Out.....

What? You have your friends I have mine. Get over it.

Time Barges On....

Chickens enjoying a warm day in the ram hoop house

Almost mid-May. Not possible. Where did the last month, the last year go? One minute I was anxiously anticipating green grass and the next I'm mowing and chopping and trimming like a mad woman just to keep the green jungle at bay. Wasn't it just a week ago that I put the ram in with the ewes, wondering what special little lambs would be born from this mating? Now the lambs are growing like bad weeds, becoming tall and gangley overnight.

Last year at this time, my family and I were in the trenches after the sudden open heart surgery my Mom went through. Numbness as we went about what needed to be done in the immediate aftermath of her surgery. Mother's day was spent gathered around her hospital bed, where she gamely tried to act alert and interested in the gifts given as tokens of our love. The next day she came home and entered long days of pain and discomfort as her body began to heal.

A year later I feel very blessed that my Mom is still with us and has recovered well. It's still hard to believe a year has passed. There are moments that are simply a blur and I don't care to even try and recall them.

Rosemary, Rosetta and Marty

Today, I've spent cleaning house and fixing food for the Mother's day celebration that will be at my house this year. Even when you think your house is 'okay' suddenly it becomes much more cluttered and messy when you turn a critical 'company coming' eye to it. Right now I'm taking a break. I've spent the morning dusting and sweeping and putting things away and doing laundry. I still have some dusting and a few other things to do, but the balance is done.

The menu is simple and everything is already prepared and ready to go in the oven in the morning. Lasagna, garlic bread, cheese, green onions, salad and greens (some from the garden). My sister is planning to bring dessert.

Sage has been irritated with the whole ordeal, especially when he and his switching tail were told to remove themselves from the kitchen area. Meshach finally retired under the covers, worn out with all the cleaning.

The weather has been, well, crazy to say the least the last few days. Today is cool and mostly cloudy. We did get some sunshine earlier. Yesterday we had torrential rains, wind, hail and basically what amounted to an inland hurricane (really---they even had a name for it...I'll post pictures later). There was damage all around from tornadoes and one gentleman was killed less that 30 miles from here when he and his wife were sucked out of their home. There were rivers where there should have been no rivers. When it was all over we had about three inches of rain in less than an hour. The ground was already squishy and muddy and now it's a hopeless swamp in the sheep paddock. I've had to get out my 'it's seriously muddy rubber boots' with the high tops and risk having them sucked off every time I go out to the lot.

Next weekend is the Marshfield Fiber Fair, and I'm scrambling to get things ready. I will probably only be able to get a few of the 2009 fleeces skirted and packaged, but I have several fleeces from 2008 I can 'fluff' and take. I've gotten a good selection of roving rolled and ready to go. I hope to get a sales list of the sheepies put together and some other promotional items.

Twenty-One Bags Full...2009 Fleeces

Last night, Marty Robbins, Rosemary's little fawn ram lamb scared me to death. I had just brought them in for the night after feasting on their fresh pasture. While I've been working them up to it gradually, with all the rain, the bloat factor is high. Normally I feed just a little bit of grain to the mommas and babies when I get them up for the night, and he always dives right in there. After I fed them, I worked on digging a little trench to divert standing muck water and a few other little chores. Then I went to turn them out, and Marty was staggering about, wheezing with green foam coming out his nose and mouth. I was pretty sure he was experiencing 'choke', which is simply when a wad of grain or grass gets lodged in their esophagus. This will happen from time to time and most of them will work it out on their own, but it can be extremely frightening for both the sheep and shepherd. With Marty, I thumped his back, did a modified Heimlich, dangled him head first, poked my finger down his throat and nothing was working. I began to worry maybe it was 'frothy bloat' and so scooped him up in a towel and took him to the house, where I could work on him. He was quite the good little boy and evidently the novelty of being carried through big dogs and into a house and stood on the floor caused the blockage to slide on down his throat. He stood around with the towel hanging over him, while I rummaged around and filled a small syringe with corn oil to give him orally . Sage nearly had a heart attack and ran hissing and spitting into the other room. Meshach wanted to make friends, but Marty was pretty worried about the mini-puma, so he came and stood by me, looking worried. He seems fine now, and now he has 'big adventure' stories to tell the other lambs.

Now it's time to get back to work. Here is wishing you all a blessed Mothers Day.

Chickie runs by in a blur..overcome by sheer exuberance on new pasture

Remember Me?

I'm trying to be patient...really I am, but these stinking sheep taking up all the time is getting old! It was old one day into so-called "Lambing Season". Now the Big Cheese thinks she has to concentrate on mowing and getting the place looking more like someone actually lives here than a hayfield. Me, I think it looks fine, and her time would be better spent throwing toys for me, and scratching my belly. It's all about priorities you know.

She also told me we were doing 'our' annual cleanup of dead toys in the yard, so she could mow. So far all she did was throw them in a pile and I've been busy scattering them back out over the yard. Some of them things still have allot of play life left in them. And it makes the place look more 'lived in'.

She did take time to get my pool out. There were a few days it got real hot, and I needed a cool soak. I tried standing in my water bucket, but that didn't work out too good for me. So now, when I'm done supervising the sheep chores (from the other side of the fence..doggone it!), the mowing and telling off those dang nosey neighbor cows, I can go and stand in my pool and cool my hardworking feet. I couldn't even wait until it got filled with water before I dipped my toes.

It's shedding season too, so last week I got a bath and several good brushings. BC (Big Cheese) says I'm a snap to groom, compared to the Collies. It sure feels good to get that itchy stuff brushed out. Now, this is what spending quality time is about.

Last night we celebrated Ariel's 12th Birthday. It was pretty fun, until she got to get TWO pieces of turkey jerky (and got to stick her nose in there and get it right out of package!!) and I only got one! But the cream cheese danish was mighty tasty and a good time was had by all. BC says she'll post about that later.

I'm hoping things get better around here, and that this skewed up idea of who or what is the Center of the Universe gets resolved. We all know it's me! What's the confusion? Until then, I'll just plod along, working hard at my jobs, expecting no rewards. Okay, maybe that is a little too much. I do expect rewards. Some things are a given.

This last picture is for certain readers that have commented on my, uhm.. poundage---I just wanted to show them that I still have my girlish figure---maybe a few extra pounds got piled on during the winter, but I'm working it off now.

Happy week, and thanks for stopping by to hear how things are around here, sad as it is.

Boone

Rams Revisited

Fairlight Orion
(Locksfield Griffen x Fairlight Luna)

Remember this little guy? Well, here he is all grown up. That horn kept me guessing for quite some time, but it seems to have turned and cleared fine. Orion is a sweet little guy, but very shy. His fleece is soft, and has a longer flowing staple. Since he is a musket he has faded out quite a bit, but still retains a light oatmeal color to his fleece. This pretty little ram is now for-sale and looking for an ewe flock of his own. He has good solid bone and is on the smaller side of 'medium'. He combines spotting genetics from Locksfield, Minwawe and PetitePet and should produce some nice color when bred to spotted or spot carrying ewes. Check out my website for more details.


...or how about this one? Omen has turned out to be a pretty nice looking fellow as well. We think his horns have turned and are going to be fine. Omen will likely have a more primitive double coated fleece. He has one of the tiniest fluke tails I've seen, as well as being nicely put together. He is also a medium size ram. He has an interesting combination of Locksfield, PetitePet, Stone Ridge and Shandrew to add to your flock genetics. If interested he is also listed on my website.

Fairlight Omen

(Locksfield Griffen x Fairlight Duckie)

Thanks to Allena for taking the time to snap these photos and for boarding the boys over winter.