Updates and ramblings....

Well, I am sure you all know I am a rambler-most of you have been subjected to my novella emails by now right? AND generally I can't even use the humidity 'fried brain' excuse either! bwaaahahahaha! Hope you are finding ways to stay cool- we are easily amused so that is a fun one here!

Here's our Dalai Llama, he is tired too! On these hots days, you may not hear from me as often because I worry (who me???? really??) about the critters. The Sandy rule is comfort first so I have to watch how much I disturb the sheep. I would rather they stayed in their cool spot than chase me around looking for treats. THAT said, Monte & Cricket (horses), Casper (honkey donkey) and even the llamas/alpacas love a nice mid day shower- or two-or three! We also play in the water tanks and keep the pot belly pigs cool by filling their self dug swimming pools- they look like little hippos, but they blow bubbles in the water- don't think hippos would stoop to bubbles???? hee hee
The sheep updated the website today with some very pretty unwashed and washed wool- along with dyed and undyed roving.... be sure to take a look about! The picture above is our gorgeous, elegant Dalai Llama's fiber, all washed and ready for a project- he is actually a llama/alpaca cross so his fleece is soft soft soft!!

This is another silver Coopworth fleece from Jacob's flock! It is soft, 6 inch locks, gorgeous silvery to steely grays with the cinnamon tips- and coated so clean clean clean!!

The sheep are also working on their Etsy shop update today! The My Little Pony spin along shawl has finally made its way to Etsy, along with some of Marshall's natural Corriedale single ply- spun on my Krosmki Symphony wheel....

The llamas and alpacas are voting today on which type of sprinkler we will be installing for them to play in- so far the front runner is a 'stand up' sprinkler that is about 3 feet tall and sprays a misty shower.... We'll let you know (and share pictures) when they decide! They sure do bicker a lot! Look forward to hearing from everyone when you have time- stay cool!

A new sheepy adventure!

WHAT??? Another new adventure? You heard correctly! Culley the Border Leicester is here to introduce you to the sheep's new shop- CrazyQuiltHomestead at Etsy!!
We have always admired and enjoyed the creative atmosphere at Etsy and the sheep finally got me moving to get them there. It has been fun to set up the shop, we will be offering our handspun yarn and Crazy Quilt batts. We will also keep yarn and batts on our website as usual- just expanding our horizons a little! Pictured above is Culley's single ply 'energized singles', one of the first yarns featured at CrazyQuiltHomestead....

Golly Green Crazy Quilt batt- new addition to CrazyQuiltHomestead this evening....

AND, we picked up the famous McNair Romney fleeces last weekend! Hip hip hooray! It is difficult to capture the fleeces on camera -but here is a reasonble sampling of colors. The McNair Romney sheep are beyond happy, wonderful and as you may have noticed, we have oink snorted many into our own flock over the years- they have great personalities AND fleece that is just out of this world! The fleeces are spanking clean and free of debris, locks of 5 inches +, pretty, shiny crimp, and next to the skin soft. Yeeeeum! The flock is a little smaller this year so fewer fleeces- and they never last very long. If you are interested in this fiber, just email the sheep!

Hope Spring has arrived with some nice weather for everyone. And please keep good thoughts for all the people, wildlife and pets affected by the fires in California. Our hearts are with them, wishing we could do something-anything.

Monday Update & fun pictures!

Hello everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start-even if it IS Monday! ha! Here is a picture of a day in the life of a Ryan sheep- and Andrew the Great Pyrenees who has to 'put up with' his sheep! That is Sunshine the black Shetland on top of the bale, not long after I snapped this picture, her twin Mario joined her- and then a huge game of king of the bale followed! Andy can't believe his eyes! ;0)

This is another pair of sheep that made a great picture perfect! On left (white sheep) is Devlyn, Jim's Scottish Black Face Sheep- on right is Angus, my little Shetland buddy. They are very good friends- and right after this picture, Devlyn gave Angus a head butt to the hinder, and they ran off to play tag..... No rest for the silly right? Is that how the saying goes???

The sheep just finished updating the website too- lots of delicious roving, clouds, locks and more- be sure to stop by!
Above picture is 'Sultry Garden' created by our Rudy sheep (with carding help from Shari of Morro Fleece Works)

Pinks and purples are a wonderful pair for a Sock Hop! Soft and slinky Huacaya Alpaca fiber from our friend Jen's happy Alpacas- washed/dyed by the sheeps.

And last but not least, our Cosmo's locks- two colorways, this is Mystery Cove!

We have a lot more fiber on the way for the site, and the sheep are making progress on the fleece reservation list too- yey sheep! Hope your week goes well and look forward to hearing from you when you have time! Cheerio!

Contest results!

You are all so fun- the sheep have called the contest finito! You are all also very very good at naming sheep- even naked ones! ;0)

Here are the names of the naked sheep:

1)Pipi; 2) Steeler; 3) Gilmore; 4) Athena; 5) Aina and the bonus sheep was Frosty!

Our first prize winner is Faun D- and her sheepy present will be on its way this week. The sheep are emailing each of the participants today- so be sure to check your email later on!

As you can see, the sheep were probably scheming up this contest before shearing- don't they look all secret-y here? Stinkers! I know they enjoyed this contest so much that I am hearing rumblings of another one in the works soon-- be sure to keep an eye out! look forward to hearing from you- oh, also have our crashed/fixed computer home today- and wa-la, can receive email and not send? grrrrr. SO, keep emailing us if you need to, I can answer them and get them sent out as soon as Jim gets back home- he is my techno hero! ;0) Thank you again everyone and hope you had fun!!!!

Happy Easter!

This is a picture of our little Cosmo- when eh was a baby- always a sass when the camera is on that is for sure! (there is a surgical staple under his right eye- he was born with an eyelid that rolled in, with out the correction he would have gone blind) Thought it was a pretty cute picture of the day.... Hope you all had a fun weekend, full of family, good food and of course- fiber!

We are working from our old computer- be careful on the Internet! Our new computer crashed yesterday and is at Geek Squad so they can retrieve ALL our files. Ugh. At least we have this one to work on- but it is all hand writing- look out for your receipts! Might want to save your emails because I can't even get the printer to work. Never ends.

I hope scammers/hackers can find a better way to channel their innate ability/happiness about creating havoc and making others miserable--SOOON. What the ****? Sad that there is no other way to use what could be a talent.... maybe in computer security???

Anyhoo, hope all is well, our update will most likely be on Wednesday again so keep an eye out and look forward to hearing from you when you have time. Check out our links here too, the sheep love Twitter, Flickr and Ravelry -and would enjoy seeing you there! Toodles Peeps!

What's a spinnin'?

Howdy do everyone! From the land of naked sheep-who want less wind and more WARM! Got any to spare? hee hee. Been getting back to my spinning and got some nice pictures- so here they are. I splurged and purchased the batts from my friend Jazzturtle Creates - be sure to check out her shop- LOTs of wonderful fiber and yarn- she is a good friend of the sheep!
There are two kinds of batts, the front are her Treasure Chest batts- and they are definitely that! Full of fiber that just pops out at you as you spin. Color, texture and goodies- yum! The batt at the top of the picture is the exact opposite- all sleek, shiny and smooth- I decided to combine the batts and this is the in progress shot. I have a secret plan in mind for this yarn so stay tuned! Thank you for your creative batts Jazzturtle!!!

These are Wensleydale locks I am spinning for a yarn shop- yum. The colors are so pretty all together- and yep, have to spin it ALL. Shucky darn. PS- these sheep live in a heated barn??? Don't tell our sheep, they might pack up their little hobo bandanas and leave! bwaaahahahaha!

Lash yarn in progress (above)

And drum rolllll palease! Mini coils spun on my Kromski Symphony wheel? What has the world come to- mini art yarn? Took me two entire afternoons to get 20 yards done. Ugh. That was just the coil part, not counting spinning the single ply. Do not know how all you spinners keep cranking this yarn out!

In the past, this style has never worked out for me- the yarn always fell apart when I skeined it up. This one did not fall apart at that point, but am not sure it won't when I knit it- going to do a test run before I offer any of this yarn-eek. It is spun from a blend of our Merino cross boys that came from Pennsylvania a while back...

Happy fiber/yarn fun everyone, hope all is well and look forward to seeing you! Toodles!

Tuesday update.....

Wow, what an update- just finished up after 5 straight hours-and the sheep, they skipped after the pictures were taken- stinkers! Kind of out of words so picture update here for now. Lots of dyed, washed and unwashed wool, roving too!
Our Keebler's Lamb fleece - help me bust my stash pleeeeaase? New shearing is here and I need to get my stash under control- but does that ever happen??? ha!

Suri alpaca from Jen's happy flock, plyed with a lilac colored thread that I hand strung lilac glass beads.....

And of course, what would an update be with out a wild lash yarn? Crazy CRAZY Quilt lashes at that! Look forward to seeing you all when you have time! Smooches from the sheep!

Naked Sheep and Where the *** is Spring???

OK, OK, most of you have heard enough of my whining about our down right COLD freakin weather since shearing day- but the naked sheep are actually using naughty words now! Eek! I had to edit this post heavily-they are not happy campers. They HATE being locked inside but I tell them it is too bad for them that someone loves them enough to do so. Right? When they DO get out to stretch their legs (when we put their feed inside-otherwise it is like a football team gone mad-and you in the middle of the tackle) they just stand outside the door fussing-or running around like goofy sheep to stay warm. Then they come in and give me the evil eye for locking the door behind them. Big circle. AND, why am I the one playing the guilt card on myself??? Guess if you know me, that is part of my 'charm' (?) and one of the things I do best! Tee hee! Poor poor sheepies....

I am finally back to work, last week was a slooow moving Sandy after the marathon of shearing. David the wonder shearer did a fantastic job, and I was happy to see that our sheep actually cooperated with the clean fleece mandate- or at least most of them. We did have a few stinkers that are on my list to go over the rules with every year though.

I am sorting fleeces all day today and taking pictures for our update, which will be tomorrow- gonna be a big one with lots of goodies. Those of you with fleeces reserved will be hearing from me soon so we can make arrrangements- will take some time to get to all of you, only the best fleeces for our friends. Also, we still have plenty of wool to go around, email the sheep if you want to add your name to the reservations! Chow!

Taking one for the team......

Hello all! As most of you already know, we sheared our sheep on Sunday-a big 97 of them! LONG day but happy sheep, happy people with fleeces to share!

Every shearing someone takes one for the team. One year Ross got clocked by Bram (Shetland)-a surprise shot to the chin. ANother year, a good friend helping us got it from Riley (Merino/Shetland x) trying to avoid his vaccination after shearing-- by going airborn to jump over the top of her- eek! First instinct is to try and catch them, and she almost did-but over she went.... LAST year, Foster (the wild Merino x) tried to avoid being shagged into the barn for his turn-by attempting to get past David the Wonder Shearer? Foster was shocked when David stood in there, took him on the fly, turning him around and sending him into the barn before Foster even knew he had changed his sheep mind! tee hee! (although, NEVER wish a sheep to run down your favorite shearer- could be a disaster in so many ways!).

SO, this year it was apparently my turn to take one for the team? I think there may be a conspiracy a foot too? Vaughan the Shetland (pictured) had already been sheared but decided to double back, heading pell mell for David & the next sheep- shearing already in progress, with a very expensive shearing set up I might add. Vaughan dodged Jim, gathered speed and came at me like a linebacker trying out for the football team- and yours truly was the tackle dummy. Guess what? I did not move! :0) That sheep would have impressed any coach- hurling at me with his last ditch attempt to avoid me and down we went. HOWEVER, I did CATCH that stinker mid air-right around the tummy, and Vaughan is NOT a lap sheep by any stretch of the imagination!

Part of the story here is that every sheep knows that in this type of situation, I am the 'push over' that will step out of the way if they charge me. Specially if they want to evade Ross and/or Jim. Head Mom's way, she will move!

Not so fast sheepie! And har dee har har on Vaughan.... we had a good laugh that was for sure--but I think Jim might want to really watch out next year? Must be his turn for taking it for the team.... hope not but will be interesting never the less!

Our update will get back on schedule on Monday, April 6 so please excuse our need for 'recovery' around here-also all the extra work to keep our naked sheep warm-it is nasty out, not so bad temp wise, but windy, rainy and just raw- isn't it spring? ha

We have plenty of wool to go around, you can check out the previous post for info- and there is only a 1 pound minimum on unwashed fleeces-and I am starting the fleece sorting tomorrow. Look forward to hearing from you - toodles!

Fleece reservations!

The title 'fleece reservations' make me giggle- kind of sounds like you are planning a sheepy vacation- hee hee! We are shearing sheep on Sunday March 29 and are ready to take reservations for your favorite fleeces. If you are not sure of the sheep we have available, just take a trip through our meet the sheep pages to see pictures & read their stories. Here's the sheep's general fleece info:

Fleeces are set aside first email, first served. We will answer all emails and let you know where you are on the list for that sheep, or that the fleece is yours....

I am the only 'fiber diva' here so it will take me some time to get the fleeces sorted out- and that could be weeks so please know it will not be an immediate purchase!

I never sell an entire fleece (oink snort) so half is usually the 'norm' here. AND, I will only sell the best part of the fleeces, no stinker fleeces leave here - sheepy's number one rule-thus the need for time to sort sort sort.

Prices will range from $8 to $15 per pound, depending on the sheep type and how clean they decided to keep their wool.

I am happy to wash fleeces, so when you email, please indicate washed/unwashed. Also, if you only want a certain amount (say a pound) please indicate that also, then I can reserve remaining fleece for the next person on that sheep's list.

I will email you when I get the fleece sorted and ready to head out- if things change for you in the mean time, it is never a problem. Just let me know and I can always offer the wool to the next person- the sheep know all about life changes--specially in the current world. :0)

If you have any questions, please be sure to email- we look forward to sharing the sheep with you all!! Happy weekend, keep your fingers crossed for little or (drum roll) NO SNOW tomorrow! The sheep do NOT like to be locked in the barn for long--they tend to plan rebellions!--and somehow manage to carry them out-eek! More soon!