Where things stand in soggy bottom land!

First, another picture of Lela's Lucky--isn't he handsome? Keep up the good karma ok?

We are lucky today (no pun honest) because our wonderful electrician was out and re-connected our power--hooray and yey! Now we can be in the house (no tumbling routines) and tomorrow it will be all shored up and safe. Then Tuesday the house jacker upper guys will be here to lift the house up for the cement guys to get to work. Once the house is up on jacks, life will be more 'normal'--if we are ever that. bwaaahahaha!

SO, on the website front, had time to get it cleaned up today, now have to get my disc drive working again--have a disc full of pre-blowout pictures and can't get to them! ugh-sometimes seems like bad luck is the only luck right? ha! I also have new roving dyed up and locks, waiting to get more roving back from Argyle and Shari of CA. Please hang in there and know how much we appreciate your patience and good cheer--it means the world.

I also have to tell everyone what wonderful parents we have--my mom and dad made a surprise visit yesterday and it was SO good to SEE their faces. Jim's dad has been great too--thank you ALL! Tomorrow hope to sort fleeces while the workers are busy on the house since I have to stay away--stay tuned!! Soggy bottoms over and out for now! :0)

Lela & Lucky need your good thoughts....

You may remember Lela and her sheep Lucky from a previous post on our site.... Today I got word from Lela that Lucky's situation is very dire, and her heart is hurting. Lucky came to her as an orphan lamb with many health issues, she got him healthy and he has had good times with her. However, the after effects of his illness left him with leg issues that may not be reversible at this point. Lela is so sad for her friend (Lucky is her only sheep) and I am too--it makes my troubles seem tiny you know? SO, please please think good thoughts for them both--you are all SO comforting....

Soggy Bottom Sheep Rodeo?!

Yep, that is right, a sheep rodeo, right in the middle of all our 'mess'!

The girls decided the grass in the big pasture should not go to waste so they broke out and took off on us! Ugh! Bobbi and Andrew told on them right away as did the others who could not find the hole in the fence! Naughty Shetlands were the main culprits but is so hard to stay mad at them! They led us on a merry chase for almost 45 minutes and then got tired (it was warm!) so went back home--on their own terms of course! Silly sheep! We have not been letting them onto the biggest pasture lately because the bottom of the hillside is very boggy--not good for sheep to get that wet! Too hard to get them out of a bad water situation--they weigh lots more soaking wet for sure!

SO, as far as the website goes, I am working on the update--it is taking longer than planned because our server was being hacked repeatedly (don't people have better things to DO??) so our wonderful web host recently moved us (and her 69 other sites) to a spanking new server--that is more secure too--yey! SO, my last update is not on the site, so I am working to restore the August 8 update AND the new I have to add NOW. It is slow going, have to share the computer with hubby Jim so he can work from home til our little house is up on jacks/beams.

Speaking of which, thank you all for the kind, comforting words and thoughts--they mean so much to us. It is amazing to open up our email and see so many encouraging emails from you all--thank you SO so much! It really make a difference and you help us that way more than you know--honest!

SO, please bear with me, the house mover guys are coming tomorrow and barring any more stinking rain, our little house will be up out of harm's way very soon--and our power, water and such will be back in working order. It is very overwhelming to be the person needing the help--we are used to being the helpers. We are amazed at the support from our families, friends, customers, neighbors (some we had never met) and even people we do not even know offering food, showers and even water wagon for our sheep (thank you Calaways!). I hope you were all spared the severe weather and looking forward to each day being a bit better than the last! Happy fiber everyone!

Thank you for your good thoughts/vibes!

Good morning! Hope you are all fibering away! We are ok here, our neighbors are taking wonderful care of us and providing huge tanks of water for the sheep. Whew. The grass is all pretty and green so the sheep are eating well--and looks like if the field can dry out we will have a second hay crop as well. Our house has been deemed 'sound' for now and we are waiting for the house mover guy (wonderful people) to come out and jack the house up--then we get a new basement. Our basement used to be/still kind of is the old sand stone or limestone basement, the walls were almost two feet thick and very well cared for. The main part of the house was built in the 1840's so this little cottagey place has stood the test of time--and will again!

Just think, two new livable rooms in the basement will almost double the space in our house! That means I can reclaim our cute little house from having wool everywhere--we can wash/sort and store it in the new rooms, lots and lots of room for shelving and long tables with lots of window light and good lighting to work by year round. Can pack boxes down there also--really starting to look forward to the new space, and that keeps our minds off all the paperwork with FEMA and being exhausted every night--however we sure sleep well!

We now have our phone hooked back up (but can't make outbound long distance for some reason) so people can call us and we have power to the computer so I don't go nuts. Scary being in the house but they said it is ok as long as we are not doing jumping jacks--hee hee. The dogs are having the most trouble, most of our littles are very old, two can't see or hear well and this is going to be very difficult for them to adjust rapidly as things change and we have workers here too next week. Been spending what time I can spinning as that seems to not only suck the bad out of me, but gives them peace and they sleep while I am 'working'.

We have only 'lost' a few things, such as fleeces stored in the garage that are a little damp--but will be manageable as my washer and hot water heater get working again. SO, feel free to order, I plan to add to the website either later today or tomorrow and will be able to work on things after our website gets on the new server.... No more outage issues--yey yey yey! Hope you are all well and that if you are dealing with weather issues, you are faring as well as we are.... The Ryans

We are here--really....

Well, not a fun post, hope you will all have better luck than ours this week. Please bear with us, we not only are having issues with our website (again) but the corner of our house foundation crumbled so we are scrambling to deal with the floods we have invading AND getting our house on solid footing. The sheep are fine, and so are we so please do not worry, please just be patient while we get hooked back up to the Internet (I am at the library now) so I can get back to your emails asap. Going to be a long weekend here and appreciate your good thoughts and prayers. The Ryans and the sheep

She made it!!

You may remember Beth, my mom and dad's neighbor, who decided to walk the SIXTY MILE breast cancer walk in my mom's name. She did it, she made it and we are so proud of her! She told my mom that it was an amazing sixty miles--she walked by herself but met new friends along the way. She said it was a very profound experience and whe was glad she went--and very tired when she got home! She said there were some ladies who followed them through the walk by driving from cheering station to cheering station--greeting them with hoorays and ringing noisy cowbells to cheer them by--then hopping into their cars and beating feet to the next station for more of the same good cheer. What amazing people in this world! Thank you Beth for your courage and determination!

I am determined, in spite of the heat and rain, to get a web update done this weekend that includes unwashed and washed wool, roving, batts and lots of cool yarn! Keep an eye out and hope you all have a happy fibery weekend!!

Update and more!

Finally finally finished an update on the site and our etsy shop! Yey me! Now the sheep won't fire me--bwaahahaha! This cute little loom popped up in my travels and hope someone can give it a good, useful home. The new fiber pictured is a blend of brown/red llama fiber--our new 'clouds' that have been run through the Argyle mill's de-hairing machine. They are a breeze to spin and very pretty yarn! We are happy to combine items for shipping between the etsy site and our website so always just send an email if you have questions!

I have new Crazy Quilt yarn coming soon that is made up exclusively of our own sheep's fiber--fun fun fun! Hope to get it washed and dry shortly and onto the site so keep an eye out. Remember we are also happy to run fiber to Argyle for carding/washing so if you have your eye on a natural colored fiber--keep that in mind. Saves you one direction of those nasty shipping costs! Hope everyone is having fiber fun and look forward to hearing from you!