My First No-Kill 'Sheep Skin' Rug

Rug Designed But Not Yet Felted

After shearing, the fleeces are skirted two times. The first time what comes off is pretty much garbage--good for mulch and that is about it. When I skirt them later for the second time, there is often some really nice stuff that gets pulled for a variety of reasons like excess veggie matter or mats for instance. It can be a bit heart breaking to throw some of it away.

Enter the 'no kill sheep skin' rug! These things are way fun to do and so far I've made two out of the bag full of skirtings. Combining some roving for the base and the individual locks from a variety of fleeces and felting it together is the basic concept. Keeping the lock structure intact is important to give it the 'fresh off the sheep' look. They are lovely soft to step on, even though they do still have some veggie matter in them (hey, just like my real on the hoof fleeces-ha..).

Care of them should be minimal--a good shake out weekly or on occasion a soapy soak in the tub, a rinse and a flat surface to dry on.

They are fun to make and because they are fairly small in size, I can easily 'roll' them in the bathtub. I'm looking forward to making many more--I'm even eyeballing a couple of trashy lambs fleeces for future NK Rugs!

Here are a few pictures of the unfinished and finished rug:

Another view of the rug after assembly but before felting

Rug has been wet-felted and is in the drying process

Finished NK Rug
Rug has dried and been 'picked' to bring locks back up and also some needle felting was done to reinforce thin areas.

This little rug is already in it's new home, where it will help keep a spinner's toes warm this winter.

Collie Puppies At 14 Weeks!

Wow...how quickly time flies.... here are the girls at 14--not so little anymore.

Double Trouble!!

Fourteen Weeks:

Sable Merle

Tri-Color

We gots your back Mom...but we'll stay way back here.......

Do You Hear What I Hear?

In addition to tornadoes and wild and dangerous lightening storms we have also been blessed this year with swarms of Locust. Makes you wonder.

Technically these little buggers aren't locust, but are often called that around here. They are in fact Cicadas, and these seem to be from the '13 year' family. I'm not sure how 'they' figure these things out. Do 'they' band the eggs? Do 'they' wait around to see how long it takes them to hatch? Evidently someone goes to the trouble of keeping track of this.

This particular hatch is very, very loud and could easily drive a person stark raving mad, if you weakened. Thankfully most of them do shut up at night. This variety is a bit smaller than the 'normal' cicada that hatches, and has a more orange cast to them. From what I read it takes about a month of this incessant noise for them to complete their life cycle.

I see allot of holes in the yard (from the larvae) and gobs of these brown husks left around.


So how about the rest of you? Have the '13 Year Cicadas' hatched out your way?

And really, you know this vine is just doing what the rest of us wanted to do....

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Meshach at 14.. My heart kitty...

Lanny Wilson

Ashley & Echo--Friends Furever

The Domino Effect...

Tempe, Gabe & Meshach

The Horrible No Good Very Bad Cats...

Okay, act natural she is looking at us....(still looking....)

Well, I guess that is a little extreme, but let's just say they are on a roll right now, and leave it at that.

Over the course of the last year and half I have thinned down my herd of knickknacks. Well, I haven't really thinned them down but the cats have. What hasn't gotten terminally injured has been packed away for another day of older cats.

Is she still looking, because I can't act natural much longer...

There are very few breakables available for kitties to damage or destroy. In fact right now, my house is looking a little barren and sounding a bit echo-ey. Part of that is due to the cats, but part of it is because my sister is planning to paint some of it for me as an early birthday present.

So back to the breakables...there are few...very few..and yet the other morning at 4 a.m. I heard the unmistakable sound of something crashing to the floor and shattering. At one time I would have thought--oh no what did they break!---but now my conditioned response is to jump (a term I use loosely) out of bed and hurry to the scene of the crime, with only one thought running through my mind. Hurry before some-cat cuts their paws off!

The sight that greeted me at that early, early hour was glass shattered across the floor with gobs and drips and splashes of blood strewn throughout. I did not even know what could have broken, or who or how many were injured. There was an obvious lack of cats in the vicinity, except for Chaco, who was attempting to wade through the glass, until I went into my screaming get-out-of-here-before-you-cut-your-foot-off-what-have-you-cats-done-now rant.

There was so much blood.

Only there wasn't.

The only victim of this crime was my big glass Pyrex two cup measuring cup, which used to have red lettering on it. Red lettering that looks like blood when shattered into a thousand pieces.

Wow! Look at that cobweb on the ceiling..... Yeah, and what about this invisible spot on the wall ?

I can't even imagine how they knocked it off the cabinet. As I knelt there and swept and muttered, I happened to look up, only to see the three most innocent kitties in the world on the bookcase, gazing down at me. Two were sitting in their donut bed--together and the third was next to them.

It was staged, I'm pretty sure. They know how to do cute and innocent, but I believe with all my heart that those three were the culprits. Next time, kitties, don't smear the innocent on as thick as peanut butter and I might believe you. Maybe.

Collie Play Day

Okay, before I even get started...no I haven't named the puppies yet..really. This naming business is hard for me. (as in they have to have just the right name) I have lists and I try them out randomly, but so far nothing fits. And I'm pretty sure they aren't always going to be called Puppy 1 and Puppy 2, or Sable Pearl and Tri-Trops.


So a few weeks ago, I got an invite to Helen's to bring the pups for a collie get-together, which would involve evaluating Helen's eight week old litter. My girls were going for manicures and spa treatments...not really, but they would be getting their ears taped. From these first two pictures you can see how their ears are starting to run amok. Up and down, off to the side....everyday is a new day.


So this was the puppies first big outing, well, second if you count the day they got their eyes tested. A little background on the two puppies I am keeping. Sable Pearl, er, Merle is typical collie--lalala, I love everybody, life is a lark and made just to please a little puppy. Tri girl is the opposite. Very reserved, thinks too much about new situations, worries about new situations, has reservations about new people and going new places. (I can relate...) Both puppies are brilliant, of course, and already know lots of things. Right now I'm concentrating on getting both puppies out and about for extreme socializing--especially little Ms. Worrywart. She is already doing better, and she does love people once she gets past her shyness.


Well, with all that being said, puppies were loaded up for their big journey. We made it about 20 miles before the drooling and vomiting started. Nice. Fortunately I brought lots of towels, and plastic sacks to bundle up the messy stuff.

As expected both pups were glad to get out of the truck at our destination, and their reactions were also pretty expected. The Sable Merle jumped in and loved every minute of it (except the ear taping), whereas the Tri was prone to hang back and be hesitant. She finally started pal-ing around with the little pups and her Uncle Jeff.

Uncle Jeff & Sable Merle
This is Ashley's litter brother

A couple of other breeders/dog showers brought their collies too, and it was a giant collie free-for-all in the fenced yard. Great opportunity for dog socializing! The youngest were the six eight week old puppies, then my girls at 11 weeks. The oldest was Gwyneth at ten. I think there were 14 collies although a couple had to be rotated back and forth. Quite a sight.

While the dogs were playing, the puppies were evaluated and then my puppies had their ears taped. (This isn't a painful procedure--but does take a bit of time and consists of layers of tape, with the ear tips taped over.)

Three stages of puppy

My girl was the only Tri in a sea of Sable

After a bit we humans went inside and had lunch and visited. I enjoyed hearing some of the 'war' stories of shows past, and whelping puppies.

Gwyneth on the left, Sable Merle middle....Bella (also a Sable Merle)
on the right in front & I think Jeff behind.

All said and done a good time was had by all (well almost all...)

Meeting at the water cooler

I loaded up the tired puppies and headed home. No one got sick, but the Tri drooled some. The little Sable Merle lasted about a mile down the road before she keeled over sound asleep. Tri girl stubbornly refused to give in and stood rigidly for the first ten miles, then finally sat. She never did lay down, but she was so tired that she was nodding off.

Look Ma...no ears and all nose!

Ashley was pretty glad to see us when we got home and the puppies ate and crashed for awhile and were then 'good to go'. They did sleep awfully sound that night!

So...tired....Must not sleep....

They have now graduated to individual crates at night and there has been only one 'accident' in a week and half.

Lots of anxiety issues with this one.....

If you wonder why Ashley isn't traveling with us at this time it is because she has some 'anxiety' issues of her own about new experiences which I'd rather her not transmit to the puppies. Handling two newbie clueless puppies is about as much as I can do right now anyway! Ashley loves people, but traveling and going new places is not something she readily jumps into. During these next two months, I'll be taking the puppies as often as possible until they develop confidence in new experiences and ease with riding in the truck. Once they are confident then I'll add Ashley to the mix, as she definitely needs some socializing of her own. Hopefully by then she will look less like a wire-fox collie too. (She has shed out all her fur until all that is left is the longer, coarser outer coat..and well the kindest way to say it is she looks, a bit, uh, odd.)

Hopefully I'll some more pictures taken of the puppies. It's amazing how fast they are growing. They'll soon be entering a rather homely stage of all legs, nose and will lose that lovely plush baby fur. But I can still pick 'em up for a big squishy hug for a few weeks longer!

Almost Wordless Wednesday....

Puppy Meets Terrapin
No one was injured in the making of this photo...

As I lag farther and farther behind on posting, here are a few pictures to show we are still a kicking. It's hotter than, well you can imagine, here and am hoping this isn't going to be an all summer pattern. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Nature Reclaims

Sheep Going Home For The Night

Grateful (?) Butterfly Saved From The Water Trough

Lots of Terrapins This Year--This One 'Rescued' From The Yard & Pups

Innocent Kitties (Gabe & Tempe)
There is so much, much more to this story, and none of it involves innocent kitties....

The End
(Who is that big old puppy??)