Shearing tomorrow--April 1....

Here you see a sheep who has realised we are not doing an April fool's joke! We truly are shearing sheep tomorrow (April 1) and are hoping the weather warms up sooner than next week. Our sheep do not like their freedom taken away--but hey, stinks when someone cares about you right? ha!

This picture is our Spirit sheep, he is a little more cautious of us, will snatch a treat from you but always runs off with it--doesn't stay around to see if we are going to try to catch him--out runs me every time (which I have to admit doesn't take much these days)! He is a beautiful Lincoln/Romney (?) cross with a sinfully gorgeous tri-color fleece. He spends his time romping with Toshi (Ross' Shetland sheep) and the other Shetlands in the group that is watched over by our Dalai Llama. That brings up another thought--very unhappy llamas tomorrow too--they do NOT appreciate their charges being seperated from them. They stalk us all day waiting for their sheep to come back, only to get back an unruly mob that does not recognize each other.

It is sort of sad that they get shaved and lose who is who in their little group of friends. I swear, it takes a few days for them to stop fussing trying to find that special friend again. The llamas are not patient with them either, they just want things to stay the same and after shearing, not so--the sheep REALLY do not like change! Specially when they are almost naked! eek!

The sheep got an update on the site today so please be sure to browse -I am hoping to be alive and kicking enough to get another one done this weekend. There will be lots of new fleeces, dyed wool and even batts I believe. Wish us luck, the rains have so far passed us by, only sprinkles but the sheep are all tucked into the barns to keep them dry any way. We are hoping for a dry, warmer day tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed! We will be catching up on email tomorrow night or at the latest Wednesday morning so we have not forgotten you, we are just slogging through tomorrow--and of course I have to do a swan dive into my ridiculous stash of new fleeces right? Maybe Ross will snap a picture of his weirdo, fiber piglet (oink) mom rolling in fresh fleeces??!! ha! Cheers!

Shearing date? eek!

Oh my, shearing is looming for next week (no confirmation on the exact day yet) and your friendly Sandy fiber piglet is scrambling for shelving so I have room. I tend to be as attached to the sheep's fleeces as I am the sheep--now how silly is THAT? SO, watch the site for lots of great wool as I work to make room for new. If there is a fleece you would like to share with me/reserve, please email and let me know. Then I can keep the fleece aside from the start which saves me space and time. It will probably take me a few weeks to get them sorted for you depending on how many of you take me up on reservations so please keep that in mind. It is just me skirting the fiber and I am not alway so fast! Part of my charm right? hahahaha!

As you can see, Lily the Shetland is ready for shearing--she is actually much woolier than the picture shown now! She will lose 10 pounds or so at shearing--wouldn't it be great if we girls could lose that kind of weight by shaving our legs? Bwaahahahahaha! Fleeces will be reserved first come first serve....

We have had lots of great pictures shared for our gallery on the site so be sure to check out the new inspirations! We are also re-stocking our Etsy shop with sheep related art, paintings and rug hookings from our Dennis. Have a look and more soon!

Monday Update! Giddy up!

Oh my, I am not sure I have introduced our Ingrid (Bergman)--one of our famous glamour girl sheep?? She is a peach and quite the character! She raised a family of chicks a few summers ago--they were so happy to warm up on her wooly back! Their mama was disappointed they left her but Ingrid carried them around all over the pasture--never saw a sheep do that so it was quite a good time to watch! She is cute! Her twin sister is Greta (Garbo), brother is Arthur and a relative is our little Claire. They are all gorgeous Shetland sheep and we just listed Ingrid's fleece on our unwashed fiber page--be sure to get some glamour for your next project!! ha!

Don't miss out on our Circlin' the Wagons for Holly campaign either! We still have some great, generous donations on her page and we will be closing this effort on March 31. Be sure to browse and see what is fun and available ok? :0)

I will be updating again later this week, have some goodies in the dyepots and drying downstairs--of course not as quickly as I think they should! Hope you all are having some nice weather--we shear sheep next week and we are crossing our fingers for cooler temps til after that day--it is a mud pit around here and want our fleeces DRY dry dry!! Keep good thoughts for our weather and will keep you posted! Over and out!

My latest distraction!

Well, Spring has sprung here, with lots of surprises & distractions for me! :0) This is the first bottle lamb of our season--born at our friends the Thompson's place on Monday--have to think of a good Irish name for him for sure!

The mama had three babies of her own, then adopted/stole one more from another mama. End result, too many babies to keep healthy & this one fell behind. Thompsons love the lambs too but get too attached if they have them in the house, SO, twist my arm and wa-la, a sweet little lambie for ME! He is a Border Leicester/Tunis/Suffolk & maybe more cross--healthy and happy hopping about my office keeping me company. My little shadow.

Love my family for sure--he even got an invite to Easter dinner on Sunday--how cool is that? He will spend the day lapsitting and sleeping in his playpen--and will sleep like a champ on the way home. Just like a little kid who has too much fun all day--out like a light for the drive home! ha!

We are hoping to get an update done again this weekend but depending on how fast things dry, might be Monday. Keep an eye out and will keep you posted--cheers!

Hooray for an update!!

Giddy up! Got the update done today finally and there is LOTS to check out! Unwashed wool, washed, batts, clouds, handspun AND 3 Chic Knit items! Oooh la la!

The pink handspun is all dyed up now for the Kidlet blankets--will keep you posted on the progress!

Here is a funny story for the day--still cracks me up! Noodle (our deaf Border Collie puppy) was not happy to see our Buddy Schnauzer--after he got his spring hair cut that is! I shaved him, leaving his face in a typical schnauz look and when Noodle came back inside, she took one look at Buddy, started barking at him and ran and hid on the stairway! Silly girl. She just could not recognize her friend and it was not a good thing--however, Buddy took advantage of his new do and chased Noodle all around the house for about 1/2 hour before Noodle gave it up. Almost like the sheep on shearing day--they do not recognize each other and it is noisy for a few days while they get back with their buddies--who all look funny! Never a dull moment here and as you can see, I am very easily amused!! Over and out for now!

Pig Tales....

If you ever wonder why I get nothing done on line, here is a good example of why.... We have some housebound critters here, they are just like us, want to be out and about and no more COLD! Our two pot belly piglets (Peanut-yep the bigger one and his friend Pal, about half his size) had a brawl today and we actually had to seperate them. I am shocked. They have been together their entire adult lives and I cannot believe Peanut is such a bully. They are usually such happy piglets, they share a warm house, and live in our little apple 'orchard', spending their days in the sun and being very good friends.

Peanut did such a number on Pal today, his poor little back is just so sore and he has some nasty gashes for me to get all healed up now. SO, in the interest of stopping the cycle of nastiness on Peanut's part, we set up a seperate house for Pal and tricked him into coming over to eat his supper in the new piggy hospital pen. We have been out several times since to secure fencing, put hay bales back where WE had them and I am hoping he will settle in (moving around quite well for as bad as his poor back looks) and go to bed! (And believe me, if they were not so 'private' about their houses, I would have gladly curled up out there--and their houses are definitely cleaner than mine most times.... )

I even made Pal a bed with lots of new hay and even some very warm/soft felted sweaters that were hanging around waiting for a project. Pal did not appreciate my efforts however, he promptly threw all six sweaters OUT of his bed and is still looking at me with his nose stuck through the fence like hey, what IS domestic violence??? :0)

SO, today was spent running to town, picking up supplies for the new digs and dragging our two flu ridden bodies through the mud pit outside to make our little pig comfy for the night. I am on my way out AGAIN as we speak to go move that flipping hay bale one more time and throw some popcorn in Pal's new house--think it will work? Next thing he will want me to rent a few movies too? Ugh. Over and out, hope to have no more mutiny on the S.S. Ryan so I can try to accomplish our update tomorrow..... Keep your fingers crossed!! That'll do pigs.....you're breaking my heart.....

Thank you and way to go!!

You are all so wonderful! I just sent some more cash to Holly EQQ and you have raised a total of $1,668.40 for her medical related expenses (trip stuff). Yey! You are all amazing and we are going to continue the Holly fundraiser until March 31 so be sure to shop shop shop!!

We will start our next fundraiser this fall and already know who it will be for so please keep us in mind in October--you are all absolutely amazingly wonderful!! Thank you to everyone for being so generous donating items and purchasing, bidding on them too!!

Bobbi and Andrew (pictured) are ready for spring and more daylight hours to sleep through! ha! They are up all night guarding their sheep so in the day time, we find them sleeping in amongst the sheep-snuggled up against the favorite sheep of that nap time. They are very dedicated and we adore them. :0)

The yarn pictured is my next knitting adventure--finally got some projects accomplished this past weekend so my needles are free. Well, at least more of them.... Our neices are twins and told me at Christmas time that they 'needed' pink blankets for their beds. They had their Polly Pocket dolls with them so that day I spent knitting blankets and cat beds for their dolls--and one thing let to another (including finger knit scarves for taking naps!). SO, the yarn is spun bulky thick and thinner out of soft Superwash merino wool I had stashed away. I plyed it with a strong pinky thread--now that I have it all skeined up, will be putting it into the dyepots to be shockingly pink--I hope!! More pictures to follow, really cannot wait to get knitting, going to be a warm snuggly couple of blankies! ha! TTFN!

Wowser, we are up EARLY today!

Have you checked out our 3 Chic Knit pages?? If not, added some very fun new items this morning--the sheep and I got up early and have it done (til later anyway!). Yey sheep and sleepy me! ha! The shawl and scarf are my mom's wonderful work and the throw is my creation--be sure to read about them, might tempt you into a fashion statement with sheepy hugs involved? :0)

Have some fun items coming up too--will be adding warm hats, more shawls and a gorgeous white cotton (handspun) throw/shawl that is great for those of you with sensitive skin!

Today is gloomy but warming so the sheep are happily eating their hay salads outside. We are not far from shearing again (eek!) so working on getting that scheduled, and keeping control of the River Ryan! Over and out, might see more tonight--have new yarns to add too!

Update Ahoy!! ha!

Well, we all busted out our slosh boots and got the update done--the sheep are back outside having dinner--hee hee! We have lots of new washed & unwashed fiber, dyed fiber and batts galore! Handspun update tomorrow, waiting for yarn to dry--story of my life these days....

We are also featuring several of our sheep's fleeces on the unwashed fiber page -including our Riley! Riley is a little more shy than our other sheep, although he does love to sneak a treat, specially if you don't look directly at him--must be the I can't see you you can't see me trick? Goose! He is a Shetland/Merino cross sheep with locks of 4+ inches, very little debris, and his fleece is definitely next to the skin soft--and leans toward the Merino side of his heritage--with out the high lanolin content. Have some fun and try out smiley Riley's wool!! Over and out for now, off to see if we need to man the life boats! ha! (see last post for full edition of THAT story!)

The River Ryan....

What a freakin' day. Ugh. These are pictures of what we not so affectionately call 'the River Ryan'. When the RR is running, we are not happy campers. As you can see by the second picture, excuse my French but that is Bobbi for WHAT THE HELL??

This farm is over 150 years old and the natural water run off from the ridge behind us runs from Ida's 80+ acres behind/above us in a natural course, right through our farm, and out to the marshy end of our largest pasture. It is downright frightening some times and today is one of those times. Our group of boys is marooned in their barn, and the girls are ok but three of our groups cannot safely even get to their water this time. Rats. We will of course be moving water inside today!

The view of the barn and RR are from our back porch door. We will be spending our day on water patrol--if a sheep gets into the water (maybe pushed in by a playful buddy because they won't wade in) their wool gets drenched and they can't get out. I am thankful it is not warm out though, if a llama decides to bathe (they love water) they can have the same problem. SO, Ross and I will be ready with our faithful sidekick the Gatormobile in case anyone take a tumble into the water--keep your fingers crossed they won't ok? Yuk and ugh.

We will be sending packages tomorrow, sorry for the delay, it is brutal out there, windy and the roads are icy so please bear with us--we appreciate your patience as we deal with this wacky 'winter' weather!

The GOOD thing about today is I will be able to work like a devil on the update--have lots of dry fiber ready to go, yarn, 3 Chic Knits and Holly items! Please be sure to stop back later in the day! Off to don my scuba gear! (that is not a pretty picture either--believe me! bwaaaahahahaha!)

Update Rescheduled for Monday--wah!

Well, humid/melting weather is here and our fiber is not cooperating by drying FAST! SO, update on the site tomorrow--thank you for your patience! We will have new batts, unwashed fleeces, picked fiber, dyed fiber and whatever else the sheep decide to play in! ha! Also new 3 Chic Knit items & Holly items--be sure to browse about....

Speaking of Holly items, the donations are still pouring in for our fundraiser! This is one of the donations from our Dennis, a talented rug hooker who likes to hook pictures of our sheep! This is the artwork available on Holly's page from Dennis, signed and oh my, I am so attached to her, selling the artwork is almost like selling my own sheep-which I NEVER do!

The picture is of Gabriella, a sweet Cotswold girl we rescued a few years ago. She has a beyond soft, curly fleece and is just a peach! Her best friends are Athena and Jada, two of her family members who came along with her at the time.

Will have to post pictures of my current (one of them anyway) knitting project! It is so fun, I am creating a throw/shawl that is completely made up of our Homestead fibers--AND for once I am keeping track of the yarns I use and who they are from--and that info will be passed along to the buyer, along with the sheep's pictures and stories--might be a BOOK before I get it done! ha! Over and out--off to spin some fun yarnies!