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.  ;)