Lleulu

She's only 8 months old.

Big as a house.

ALREADY WORKING!

I just can't express how pleased I am with this wonderful girl!  She is constantly surpassing our expectations.  She patrols, she barks, she investigates, she charges...

SHE'S AMAZING!

 

Love my Lleulu!



Needle Felted Critters

A very tiny sheep made with natural wool locks.

I discovered I had to use the tiny locks from around the face area of the fleece to get ones short enough to work on such a small figure.

 

A little Worry Pig for squeezing when one is tense:

 



A second little Worry Pig.  Clancy taught me how to use the Macro funtion on the camera.  So now my photos of tiny things won't be so blurry!

I personally love how the tail turned out.  :)







Leif & Winter Formal 2012

On Saturday, my youngest son, Leif, went to Winter Formal.  I think he had a lot of fun.  And of course, Clancy and I enjoyed seeing him dressed up in a tux for the first time ever.  :)

 

All ready to go...

 

The 'City of Lights' stage in the high school auditorium where Grand March was held.

 

Totally at ease in a tux.

 

Leif and his friend, Erin.

 

Leif and his cousin, Michael, happened to dine at the same restaraunt that night.  Photo has been shamelessly snitched from my nephew's facebook page.  (Michael, I hope you don't mind.  You and Leif were just too handsome to not post!  Proud of you both!)



Rescue Poodle ADOPTED!

I'm so happy to report that this little poodle has found a wonderful home!

I wish him and his new family many happy years together!

My friend, Gail, rescued a little dog that was dumped off on the highway by her house.  She doesn't want another dog herself, so she is trying to find this little guy a good home.

He is a miniature poodle.  Neutered male.  Approximately 6 lbs...but he needs to gain a bit of weight as he was starving.  He eats regular dog food, loves to cuddle, and appears to be housebroken.



More Felting

In addition to making more Dryer Stones, I attempted to make a cat toy...

This mouse was intended for my Aunt Lori's cat, Buck.

But Lori liked it too much to give it to the cat.  lol

So I had to make another toy that was less tempting to humans...

Having fun!  :)



Felting Away...

Here are the Felted Dryer Stones I made out of my Shetland britch wool. 

A few accent colors from yarn and lambs wool were used to spruce them up a bit.

 

I also needle felted inside a large cookie cutter to create this flat rabbit.

I had the idea to create a story and a book for him...but I changed my mind.

 

The project I want to do requires the bunny to be flat, but double-sided.

So I added wool to the back and made an additional two-sided bunny.

I'm going to keep my project a secret for a while longer...



Autumn Fiber

I have been a busy bee with fiber lately.  It all started when a local artist that sells her fiberwork at

Bemidji's Natural Choice Farmer's Market

called me to buy natural colored fiber.  She wanted washed batts.  I had plenty of fiber, but little of it was washed up.  And what was scoured was too precious to sell (read: superfine lambs wool in gorgeous grays). Luckily, Becky had lots of fiber on hand and I was able to refer the lady to her.  This artist even said, "OH, I follow Becky's blog already!"  So I hope it all worked out.

 

This little experience prompted me to DO SOMETHING with all the raw fleece I had still sitting around.  I gathered everything I had from this spring's shearing, and years past, together.  I had to finish skirting four spring fleeces.  Then I made the radical decision to let someone else do the scouring.  After a couple phone chats with Kelly Knispel at

Dakota Carding & Wool

I confidently shipped off nine bags of wool to her expert care.  Five bags will be washed.  Four bags will be washed and carded.  Kelly was great about processing each fleece separately so I could keep my small amounts of colors separate.

 

That left just a few small piles of neck and britch wool that didn't fit into my grand scheme of mill processing.  But these were small enough batches for me to wash in the kitchen sink.  So I got started on that project and I have been flicking and carding ever since.

 

Clockwise from top left:

Carmel neck wool, Charcoal neck wool (from Lana's black gully neck colors), Black britch, Moorit Iset Britch, Moorit Britch, Dark Brown neck wool.

 

Yesterday, a friend on Facebook asked if I had wool she could use to make Dryer Balls.  I figured the britch wool would be great for that.  But I had to make some Dryer Balls first so I knew how much wool it required.

So now I have a couple of kits put together for this craft project.

 

It feels GREAT to finally be DEALING with this wool!



Good Bye, Shachah

 

Shachah's health has been failing for several weeks.  We consulted his vet several times and it was decided that pain management was the most that could be done for him.  A good day here and there kept our hopes up.  But over time, we had to add more pain medications just to keep him comfortable and mobile.  He started eating less and less until all he consumed was a little raw ground lamb covering his meds.

 

 

Saturday night he refused his food and we could not get his pain meds into him.  He would not even lap at a raw egg for me yesterday.  And he was in so much pain he just whined and whined no matter what position he was in.  He could not stand without his hips and back legs trembling.  And he would not let us touch him on the back anymore.

 

 

So I put him down this morning.  Though it pained hiim to do so, he willingly walked up the plywood ramp into the van and rode peacefully into the vet's office.  He was so calm.  I was a teary mess.

 

 

Shachah never once failed in his duties.  He was always gentle with other animals, people and children.  We witnessed him confronting bears and wolves with absolute bravery and confidence.   He patrolled his territory like an old soldier.  We had the utmost faith in his abilities to keep our farm and livestock safe.

 

 

Shachah was an amazing guardian.  I can not do him justice with words.

Hopefully these photos display his great sense of purpose and self.

Thank you, Becky, for sharing him with us.

Thank you, Shachah, for everything....

 

You are going to be greatly missed, Big Guy.



Happy Birthday

I turn 40 today.

It sounds rather daunting, but I'm so glad I made it this far.  Life just keeps getting better and better!

 

I recently started running to try to get fit. You can follow my progress on my new blog;

Bean Can Run

 I guess a birthday like "40" will do that to a person.  I'm rather terrible at it, but I'm learning.  And learning something new is good.  It keeps one young.

 

In the spirit of youthful exploration I decided to post this baby photo of me

P - L - A - Y - I - N - G

 

 

Remember how fun a box could be... or the kitchen cupboards?

:)

Here's to more PLAY in my future.

Late Fall

Just a few snapshots of the ewes.

I'm feeding hay in their winter pen now.  But the weather was just so lovely I thought I would let them out for a few hours.

They enjoyed it!

 

Lyneth...bigger than ever!

My two katmogets:  Nhu & Esyllt

Hannah by the lake.

And I can't forget to add some Lleulu.  She's all NOSE in this picture, which reflects her personality quite well.  ;)









Good Lil' Lleulu

To say I am pleased with Lleulu's progress would be understatement. 

Yes, she shreds anything she can get her jaws on.  She tends to target shoes and clothing that smells like her precious family.  She still is ambushed on an hourly basis by the crazy, extra-long tail that's mysteriously attached to her own hind-end.  But when it comes to LGD work...she is showing excellent promise.

The lack of rain and grass has finally forced me to let the sheep loose to wander through all the woods and nooks and crannies of the farm in search of edibles.  Thankfully there is quite a bit to be had.  But it was the first time Lleulu was exposed to "loose sheep."  My only real concern was that she would want to chase them....as she likes to goof around that way with our border collie, Meg. 

Disclaimer:  I know I'm raising Lleulu with slightly different tactics than the literature recommends for an LGD.  But our facilities and circumstances demanded I get creative.  So my goal was to stick to the spirit of good LGD training even if the details were not ideal.  I would say Lleulu is more bonded to the farm, than the sheep.  But that suits my needs just fine.  If she ends up defending the farm, I still have a good dog!  :)

Lleulu did GREAT under this new experience.  The sheep, in their excitement, did run and jump as soon as they discovered the magnitude of their freedom.  And Lleulu did want to chase them.  But I had her on a long leash and I gave it a quick "yank & NO" and she stopped.  I stayed outside with the flock and Lu for about an hour and decided to let Lu off-leash.  When the sheep ran a second time all it took was a firm NO to prevent her from taking off after them.  After a while I went in the house and watched out the windows.  Lleulu had one more chance to chase and all it took was a rap on the window to make her rethink her choice.  She plopped back down and watched the sheep frolic. 

Good dog!

 

I'm sure I will need to correct her from time to time...but I give Lleulu credit for being a very fast learner.  I'm so proud of her.  She's even starting to look like a real LGD...   lol



Boston Lake Pier

It has been a very dry summer and the lake is down.   The old timbers that were once support for a pier at the south end of Boston Lake are visible once again. 

 

When the original forests were logged off a century ago, the huge logs were floated across the lake and loaded onto the rail spur that bordered the south shore.  The submerged timbers, and the rail bed that became Boston Lake Road, are some of the more noticeable reminders of that era.

 

Our farm shore is in the upper left distance.  Those tall white pines are the trees I often photograph with the sheep.  And the spruce spears are next to our house.

 



Sunflowers

I don't have my wildflower field guide handy to correctly identify these flowers. 

 I just call them wild sunflowers. 

Such a cheerful, Autumn flower.

 

Blue Moon

The Blue Moon rising above Boston Lake on August 31, 2012.

Needle Felted Bible Characters

My facebook friends have already seen these pictures.  But I really wanted to post them to my farm blog as well.

I made these Bible characters to use for the three days I taught the pre-school kids at our church's Vacation Bible School.  They are made from doll pins (clothes pins), Shetland wool for the hair and certain bits of clothing.  I also used fabric scraps and an old white t-shirt.  :)

The Story of Adam & Eve

Moses & The People of Israel Wandering in the Desert

The Crucifixion & Resurrection of Jesus

(Ministry, Crucifixion, Tomb, Resurrection)





I don't know when I'll find the time...but I definitely want to make more of these.  It is fun to design different charachters.... and I like having props when I teach Sunday School and VBS.



It Worked!

We took Nhu's homemade fly mask off and discovered good healing happening.  No more open wounds!  She still has some puffiness around her one eye.  And there is a large area of bare skin on the bridge of her nose.  But all in all, very good results! 

We applied aloe healing cream to her nose and created a new fly mask for her out of the other sleeve.  This time I cut away fabric from both eyes so she has full vision now.  She doesn't seem to mind the mask a bit.   I'm very happy with my little experiment.  :)

Injury-Please Advise!

About a week ago we noticed Nhu had terrible gashes on her face.  Every summer she is the one sheep that is terribly bitten up by flies...almost as if her skin is thinner than it should be.  The gashes across the bridge of her nose and from the front corner of her left eye forward seemed to be from her scratching at her face with her hind foot.

Of course our main concern was fly strike... But our favorite topical for that problem - SWAT - was out of stock at the feed store.  So we bought some aloe healing cream and a different (runny) anti-fly med.  Because the wounds were so open we opted for the aloe cream first to get a scab going. 

front veiw of mask

Nhu, however, continued to scratch and keep the wounds open.  Nothing was healing up at all.  So last night I created a fly-mask out of a sleeve cut off a long-john shirt.  I figured if horses could wear them...why not sheep?  My design is certainly not perfect.  But Nhu is able to eat, chew, and see out of the one eye.  My goal is to keep the wounds free of flies long enough for them to heal up some.  Then I will start using the 'pesticide' topical.  Hopefully by then the store will have more SWAT in stock.  It is a much thicker product that stays put longer.

wet spot is from aloe cream applied before mask

Anyway, the mask is not ideal.  Nhu's wounded eye is completely covered, which could eventually cause irritation to the eye.  But I'm less worried about that, at the moment, than fly strike.  The mask was still in place this morning.  But I have noticed Nhu scratching her wounded areas against trees.  And blood has soaked through the fabric across her nose...so she continues to keep the wounds open.

 I slit the fabric under the chin to keep it from being too tight on throat



Does ANYONE have any ideas for how to keep her from scratching?  Or should I just keep the area moist witht the aloe cream and hope for the best?  Please comment with your advice if you have any.  Thank you!

Busy Summer

I don't remember ever being this busy.  Soccer, soccer, soccer... Business trips for Clancy.  A new part-time job for me.  The boys working for their grandpa at the sawmill several days a week.  Extra-hot weather that seems to make daily activities feel like twice the effort....

But there is MUCH to be thankful for.  We have had just enough rain to keep the pastures from drying up.  They aren't growing a lot...but it is not brown here yet.  Just the lawn is brown in places.  I am so grateful for the rain!

Lleulu came to us mid-June.  Isn't she just precious in this photo taken with Asa on her first day here?

The "precious" has worn off and it has been replaced with "exasperating."

In spite of her "puppy-ness" and tendency to pull my drying towels off the clothes-line....gggrrrrrrrr....Lleulu is developing into a guardian.  She makes the rounds with Shachah.  She has barked at some suspicious things.  And she seems to have a lot of common sense for a pup.  :)

Shachah is doing well.  And he is actually bonding with Lleu.  He definitely thinks of her as HIS responsibility.  I'm sure he wishes that she wouldn't pester him so much.  But all in all, he's being a wonderful mentor.

And he also blew his coat...so now he feels a lot cooler in this heat.

Evidence that there is a little peace and quiet around here once in a while.  The above photo is a good example of how Lleulu tries very hard to imitate everything Shachah does.

Our sad news is that dear Betty Bird died yesterday.  She was about 19 years old, but we had only had her for the last 6 years...ever since Leif brought her home from school in 4th grade.  We will definitely miss her.  She was like a bright little bit of sunshine in our lives.