Weekly-ish notes on navigating big change

Month: September 2009

Sheep! My Sheep!

Friday afternoon, I went with my mom to pick up our first sheep from Hobby Knob Farm.

Sheep are NOT into leashes

Since we don't have a trailer, we used my mom's minivan to bring them home.
Sheep in Minivan, Pt 2
This is no easy task, as sheep don't understand the whole “hop in” concept.

Sheep in Minivan, Pt 3
(if these pictures are shaky, it's because I am laughing SO hard)

Once in the van, they calmed right down and gave one look back to their former farm.
One last look back

I was intimately involved in getting them OUT of the van, so there aren't any pictures of that. (Imagine me holding onto the leash, trying to talk the sheep into jumping down).

Once they were out and into the yard, the youngest one (we haven't decided on a name yet – I call her Shera (Princess of Power) and the brothers call her Baby) started munching:
Shera (I think)

The older one, formerly named Itsy Bitsy, is decidedly UN-itsy. My 8 year old brother promptly renamed her Fatty Maddy.

Giving me the eye

At her age, she deserves more respect, her official name is Madeleine.

Shera/Baby is still a lamb (born this spring) and is 3/4 Cotswold, 1/4 Border Leceister with a super curly fleece. Maddy is 4 years old, always twins and is a Shetland/Romney cross.  Her fleece is the first I ever worked with (last fall!) and it is just lovely and fine and squooshy.

The girls were sheared (shorn?) last week and I'm going to get started on their fleeces this week. If you want some of their fiber, let me know in the comments!

The ladies will be living at my mom's house, a short drive my place. I go over there a few times of week to babysit my little brothers, so I'll be taking care of them a few times a week. I just came in from wrangling them, right before writing this!

If you'd like to weigh in on the Shera/Baby debate, let me know in the comments! What do YOU think we should call her?

Welcome Autumn

Happy First Day of Autumn!

I'm celebrating  with an uncharacteristically autumnal color: Plums. I usually dye and spin crazy bright colors, but these rainy first day of Autumn (and, I'll admit, a dyepot mistake) inspired this deep purpley gray.Plums

I'm stocking up on Autumnal inspiration by reading about everyone else's fall crafty-ness. Here are a few of my favorites:

I don't know if I'll be dyeing many more autumnal colors, because I still love my brights, but I love soaking in the colors of the season!