Virtual Travel

This past week my brother, Kyle, his daughter, Iz, and M went on a whirlwind trip to Pittsburgh, Hershey, Baltimore and Monticello.  Those of you who know me on Facebook know that I did not go on this trip, however I feel as though I did since I provided Shea*Star(tm) services the whole time… complete with restaurant suggestions AND directions.

Sigh.

The life of a virtual traveler.

Anyway.

M & Co. had a grand time!  Kyle was speaking at the RPCNA Synod in Beaver Falls PA as a fraternal delegate from the ARP and had thought that M and Iz would enjoy exploring Pittsburgh while he was off doing the church thing. 

First they had a picnic:

Then they crossed the New River Gorge Bridge (notice the haunted look of terror in Kyle’s eyes:

 

After a delicious supper at Abay Ethiopian Restaurant they saw this lovely church and decided to have a look around:

This is the East Liberty Presbyterian Church.  Kyle said it’s the most ornate Presbyterian Church he’s ever seen!

Kyle and Iz inside the church… the stained glass windows look so lovely!

M took this knowing how much I love thistles.

The next day Kyle was off to speak at Synod so M and Iz were off to explore on their own.

 They hit Penzey’s

Happiness is a well stocked herb&spice cabinet. There’s a whole other side of the cabinet that I was unable to open due to a milk pail in the way so imagine even more spice-goodness and you’ll have the full picture The only thing that I forgot to tell her to get was more ground ginger… oh well… I can order that!

Then they went to the Carnegie Science Center where Iz got to meet the “for-real” R2-D2 and C-3PO (I won’t go into the hilarity of M explaining to Iz who the iconic robots are, but seriously Kelly… aren’t you a Star Wars fan??).

Don’t you love the look of confusion on Iz’s face… it’s one of those “O…K… Mamama… if you say so” kinda faces.

And while at the Science Center Iz got all turned around and ended up here:

which she quickly discovered was NOT the ladies room.

Anyway, while M was looking around the souvenir shops she found a little something special for Sophie:

And really, doesn’t EVERYBODY need a posable Albert Einstein Action Figure???

So anyway, it was a full day! The next day they left Pittsburgh and headed for Hershey.

Chocolate World… how I wish you were Valrhona and not Hershey…
Iz had a grand time on the tour (there are photos, but I’m already pic heavy on this post so suffice it to say there’s lots of chocolate) and making her own little candy thingie.

And then they went to Gettysburg.

At this point, those of you who know my brother know that this is a near religious experience for him. For those who don’t know, Kyle’s major at Erskine was history. And he’s a regular Southern history guru. He knows amazing amounts of stuff. Seriously. It’s amazing.

Kyle took this pic and I think it’s really great. Good Job Kyle! Especially since you were using the little point and shoot.

Here’s Iz at Pickett’s Charge.

And finally here’s a pic of Kyle and Iz in front of the statue of Robert E. Lee and Traveller

And then they were off to Monticello.

Where Iz hung out with Thomas Jefferson:

And they had a fabulous meal at Michie Tavern

I love the metal plates and cups.

And that’s about it. Or at least that’s all the pics I have. M brought me back a cookbook from Monticello and two glass dip pens with several small bottles of ink. Jim got a space-ink pen from the Science Center and the boys got super cool Thomas the Tank Engine Flashlights (with Morse code button) that have a (not so cool) whistle on the other end. M picked up several other this and thats along the way. Several books, some seeds and a really cool inlaid wood stamp holder that she got for Martha.

All in all I think it was an excellent trip both for real and virtually

The post that will only make sense to Jim… but that’s ok

To Jim,

Even though we sort of oops into this whole thing, there’s no other person I’d rather have as my partner in parenting  

Your calm and peaceful mindset offsets my often mercurial nature and just maybe our kids will make it to adulthood without serious mental scarring

It helps that we have similar senses of humor.

Too-doo-ta-doo-doo… Too-doo-ta-doo-doo (yeah, it’s still going thru my head… thanks)

And that we have the same core values, even if they don’t fit into society’s norm.

the system is down…. the system is down (it won’t go away!!!!!!!)

And everyday I am thankful that you are kind and caring and compassionate and wickedly amusing to boot. 

Dentist… jiggy jugga wugga… (at least it’s a different one)

And that you truly believe in our children’s potential, even when many would’ve given up or run away.

Deli-style… jiggy jugga wugga

So anyway… I love you… the kids love you and pretty much the whole world (that knows you) loves you too. 

You’re an A1+ Poppy

Just FYI:  It’s not “jiggy jugga wugga” it’s  “jugga jiggy wugga”  who knows when we screwed it up… but I like it our way better

And since we’ve been quoting it randomly for the past couple… years (even though we haven’t actually been to the homestarrunner site in AGES) the different bits keep floating thru my head.

Somehow… I know you’re laughing.

Clean Up

Since I don’t post all that often anymore (why is that anyway?) I thought I would force myself to do an entry while taking a bit of a break from cleaning up.  Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day making a birthday cake for one of Jim’s co-workers and in my typical style I managed to dirty nearly every surface in the kitchen.  This morning I was determined I would work until I could find the bottom of the sink (and that’s saying something if you’ve seen our sink) and I’m now waiting on the dishwasher to do it’s thing  before starting in again.  At least my technicolored fingers are fading.  Unfortunately the kids are still alittle hyped from the icing frenzy or it could’ve been the strawberry muffin they had with breakfast.

So anyway… M’s started pulling some of the potatoes.  We’ve enjoyed all kinds of new potato dishes, my favorite being new potatoes boiled and then finished in heavy cream with chives.  I think partly this is my favorite because everything in it was produced on the farm (potatoes, cream, chives and butter… all made right here!).  Probably not something you could eat everyday, but definitely yummy!

M has finished up planting all the tomatoes and peppers and I believe that she’s made a second planting of greenbeans (the first didn’t do so well).  She’s made all sorts of little lettuce boxes on the porch and I am very excited about having our first homemade salad!  She also made boxes for carrots and radishes and for the first time that I remember we actually have little carrots coming up!  The radishes have made glorious tops but no radish… not sure what that’s all about, but the greens taste good.

Let’s see what else is new? 

We put up another clothes line.  It’s much higher than the other one, although right next to it.  Now I can hang out King sized sheets and they have no threat of touching the ground, which is a good thing.  I love our clotheslines, we got them from Lehmans and it’s just too cool to walk out on the porch, roll out the laundry and not have to drag the clothes basket along with me.  Yeah… lazy… I know. 

Jim possibly destroyed his phone this morning.  Maisie side stepped and kicked the bucket (not figuratively… she’s still alive) which caused a great tidal wave of milk to slosh over the side which somehow (and I’m a little sketchy on the details) his phone was completely drenched.  I purposefully saved by old BB Curve just in case something like this happened… but here’s hoping that his phone is actually ok, otherwise he’ll be carrying around a pink phone and he’ll lose all kinds of man-points for that.  Just kidding of course… if his phone is totally dead then I’ll give him my Storm and I’ll take back the old Curve.  But I’m still hoping his phone is ok.

The pigs are growing nicely.  They are soon going to outgrow the pen they’re currently in and will need to move to the “permanant” pig pen below the sheep paddocks.  Only thing is, that hasn’t been fenced in yet.  Good thing Jim is finished with school for a little while and can work on it otherwise I think the pigs are going to succeed in digging up that big dogwood tree in their current paddock!!

The pigs are so funny!  I enjoy watching them and their pure joy whether it’s eating or wallowing in the mud… they are thrilled with themselves!  They, unlike most everybody else, can tell the difference between my voice and M’s.  I call them up with a good ole “pig, pig, pig, pig!” ala Farmer Hoggett’s wife (from the movie Babe) and if M does it they just sort of cock an ear and roll their eyes but if I call them they come running!  Smart wee piggies.

I think I already mentioned that we put the new chicks out in the big poultry paddock.  They don’t have that much longer before the meat birds are ready to be… harvested? what is the right word? processed?  Whatever… I’m looking forward to it as the price for free-range chicken has gotten appreciably higher (most recently we payed roughly $6/lb for breasts).  The naked necks will take a little longer to grow off, but the others should reach prime size by the end of next  month I think.  Again, it’s a good thing that Jim’s going to be off for a bit as we’re going to be mighty busy!

And in completely unrelated to the farm news:  Jim and I will be taking our first ever just-the-two-of-us vacation.  The only other vacation we’ve had was 9.5 years ago… when we got married.  This vacation (and I use that term lightly) is only for one night and we still have to do farm chores (ie milk) so it’s not like an escape-it-all kind of affair.  The hospital periodically has silent auctions to raise money for Rape Crisis services.  This year one of the items was a night at La Bastide, including dinner and breakfast.  Jim won that one and also the weekend loan of a X6 BMW.  The X6 is made right here in the Upstate and I think Jim is just as thrilled about getting to pick it up at the factory as he is about getting to drive it for the weekend.  Luckily too, La Bastide is relatively local as it’s on the TR side of the Cliffs.  Also the chef there is big on sustainable cuisine!  Anyway… I’m excited… even if it’s only for one night. 

And the whole dressing up for dinner thing led me to realize that I have no shoes to go with the dress Jim bought me so I found myself at Belks since they were having a shoe sale.  But unfortunately I had no Jim with me for a second opinion so I had to resort to this:

 yes, a pic of the contending shoes…

complete with the little footie sock that the shoe-woman all but attacked me with.  She’s a serious footie-pusher, and she almost got mad at me for the pics, but she let it slide… this time.  Not too many weird looks… but there were a few.  Hey… I don’t like to shop alone!  The dress Jim bought for me is a black and white number.  So what do y’all think… black shoes (which are comfortable-ish) or candy-apple red ones?  which I will have to practice walking in as they are the highest heels I’ve ever worn… seriously I think I am well over 6ft tall in these jewels but they are soooo pretty!  By the way, M, I bought the red ones, they were seriously on sale (like under $30).  The black ones ended up being under $20 once all the discounts and coupons were added up.  So I have options.  Jim likes the red ones, probably because I have to hang on to him to walk in them!  Xander, y’all might recall, has a thing about women and their shoes.  My fellow KG APs will remember the fine shoes that most of the women sported over in Bishkek (I should’ve bought a pair of the pointy toed shoes… just so Xander would be happy!).  Anyway, Xander has been most upset that I seem to have an “ugly” shoe collection (I sport Danskos as a general rule, although I’ll occasionally wear a pair of Keens just to mix it up… LOL).  He has taken to pointing out women with appropriate shoes (and clothes) when we are out in town… going so far as to physically point me in the right direction when he’s spotted a particularly lovely lady.  So you can all imagine his joy when he spotted me showing off my new heels to M.  He was like “FINALLY!!!” everytime he sees them he grins and gives me a thumbs up.  He likes the red ones too.  I modelled the whole outfit for him and he was most impressed, telling me I was quite “prilly” but would be even “prillier” if I did my hair and put on my face. 

Seriously.

So anyway… the dishwasher is done and I must return to the grind… especially since I now have 3 children telling me that they are starving and are desperately in need of lunch.  Tacos anyone?

A Message for the Thief

To the people who have been stealing our horse feed… please stop.  I appreciate that the economy isn’t good right now and that feed prices are continuing to climb upward  but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you are a thief.

For the first time in the 30+ years that I have lived here we are going to have to lock down our feed room because the thieving is that out of hand.  Just this week you’ve taken over 40lbs of feed. 

We do not use a commercially available feed.  It’s not like running a couple miles into town to pick up a new bag.  In an attempt to support our local SC economy we use locally milled feed, so we have to CALL in an order, WAIT for it to be milled and then DRIVE 45 mins to go pick it up.  So not only are you stealing our feed, you’re stealing our time.

And furthermore… if you are who I’m most definitely sure you are… your horses are nice young light horses requiring minimal feeding on your lush green pasture, especially since you use them for absolutely nothing.  My horses are older DRAFT horses that require a great deal more feed and because of their age and condition screwing with their feed ratios isn’t a good idea.  When I take on a horse I take it for the long haul, not just for the duration of it’s usability… so I really don’t appreciate your stealing the food right out of their mouthes.

And further-furthermore… I am not particularly happy that you feel that it’s “OK” to steal our feed so that you can continue your self-destructive lifestyle.  If you can’t get your drug money and your feed money to run out evenly then either kick the drugs or get rid of the horses.  Simple.

So, just so we’re clear… DO NOT STEAL OUR FEED… it’s wrong, illegal and in your case stupid.

Overheard outside the bathroom door….

Me- Beckett you have to go potty AGAIN?!?! You’ve been what 10 times today?

B- I need to go PEE-AH!!!

Me- OK, OK, go!  Bring me your pants when you’re done.

B- OKkkkkkeeeee (running to bathroom).

enter Dandy, who follows Beckett to the bathroom.

B- I’m going poop.

D- Hey Beckett!! (said petulantly), you can poop more!

B- I done.

D- No Beckett!  This is how it’s done.  First you sit on the potty (sits on potty) and then you poop (poops).

Sounds of toilet paper…

D- See look,  1…2…3…. you poop all at one time.

Beckett- Ohhhhhhh

Totally Awww-Summmm!!!

  So my pal Michelle crowned me a Queen of ALLL things Awe-Summm!!! even though she accused me of an unverified addiction to Facebook since my sporadic blogging has become more sporadic than normal.  I’d play the “busy” card but she’s not buying it (it’s that whole doctor thing)… but I must say that if I could find a WordPress app for the Blackberry I’d blog on an hourly basis.

ANYWAY!!!  The way it works is simple!  First I give you 7 reasons why I think I’m awe-summm!!! and then I nominate 7 peeps to be totally Awe-Summmm!!!! Queens too   This should be totally interesting since I don’t think I’m all that awe-summm!!! (or even just awesome) at all!

1.  I’m the person everyone wants to know when they need info.  Need directions?  I’m a whiz with a map.  Need to find a restaurant in a state I’ve rarely been to?  I’ll find it! (and have multiple times… just ask Kyle).  Need to modify a recipe? or recipe fail?  Call and we’ll work it out.  Need to google that guy that might be a potential suitor?  I’m all over it.  The Internet is my friend

2.  I can cook anything and can typically replicate meals I’ve eaten out with relative ease.  I personally enjoy this ability as I love to cook and while I love to go out to a fine restaurant, I can’t always justify the expense.  The only thing I don’t attempt is sushi.  I just don’t think I can match the quality at our local sushi place… that and I just don’t like handling fish.

3.  I’m a regular she-bear about my children.  I’ve fought doctors on Sophie’s behalf (garnering myself a reputation with her b/d group) and teachers on Xander’s (anyone remember the McD’s episode?).  I think it’s awe-summmm!!! as I wouldn’t have always thought I had the strength (or the fortitude) to stand in the face of their education and experience and say “this isn’t right for my child” and know that I am right. 

4.  Everyone says I have an amazing memory… but I don’t think so.  I can remember really weird things like snap-shots in my mind, but can’t remember what I was supposed to pick up at the grocery store… I’m blaming it on having kids.

(running out of ideas… asking family…)

5. I can make cheese and other dairy products.  Apparently this is akin to working magic for Jim and his crew and the kids think it’s “cool” too.

6.  I know how to make my own food from scratch (grow it, raise it, kill it, clean it, cook it) or at least know enough to muddle thru and come out with a usable product.  I know how to clean, spin and knit wool, and I know how to ride horses and drive a team.  I can milk a cow and assist with birthing a lamb.  I know how to preserve the food from our garden.  Everybody wanted to be my friend back during the whole y2k scare

7.  I’m really ok with being highly eccentric (geneticist certified!). 

Wow… that was really really hard to do!!!

So on to my 7 similarly awe-summmm queens!

1.  Sally- homeschooling, unschooling, birthing babies (her own very soon!), living and learning in her old farmhouse in VA… we met when she still lived locally and became good friends just before she moved far away to VA!

2. Robin- Sugar maples and mega-mooing bulls… she’s living the dream somewhere up north… I never can remember where… I feel good about saying NY… she’ll correct me if I’m wrong.

3. Mia- Even if Mia and I are complete and total opposites, I think she’s pretty darn cool

4. Andrea- The mother of “Dandy’s Baby”… she’s totally cool :)

5. Esther- Even if she’ll no longer be local, I’m sure she’ll be totally awesome way down in Florida

6. Rosemoon- Totally awesome, totally almost my neighbor… hey NC isn’t THAT far away

7. And even if she did crown me, I’m totally crowning her back: Michelle!  Here’s hoping that we can work out that visit this summer during break   I’m determined to keep Des on a bottle until L can have a go at feeding him

So there you go   Takes me forever to get around to these things!

Catch Up Continued

- the boys dentist appointment went well, although Beckett screamed like a banshee for the duration!  No cavities!  Yeah!

- continuing on the farm front: We’ve made the decision to raise Desmond as a beef.  We took care of his “bull-ness” earlier this week and all seems well on that front.  Honestly, he doesn’t seem to even notice. 

-I’m growing tired of all the people who think that we will not actually take the pigs and Des to the processor.  The pigs were brought here with one purpose in mind.  Desmond had the possibility of being our herd-bull, but his size ruled that out.  Our desire is to breed for ease of calving and his birth wasn’t exactly easy. 

-Sophie has taken over Des’ bottle feedings as well as feeding Zenzi, although Xander “helps” to some degree.  Sophie really likes feeding Des because it’s over quickly, but she doesn’t like to feed Zenzi because it takes so long.  Seriously.  The other morning Sophie was sitting on the edge of a bucket, legs crossed, arms crossed with her head in her hand while feeding the lamb with an extremely bored expression on her face… I wish I had the camera… it was a classic M pose.

-Jim is being very patient about me blogging instead of doing morning chores… even if I was playing QWERTY just moments ago because I was suffering from a continuing bout of writer’s block.

-Just to pat myself on the back: I played the word “sermonizingly” which caused the person I was playing to leave the room.  That so amuses me.   Of course I just had my butt kicked by the last guy I played… but it was actually a really good game. 

-We are averaging about 5.5 gallons or about 44lbs of milk a day, which is somewhere between AWESOME and OVERWHELMING!  I need to make more butter and cheese, which is probably on the docket for today.  The pigs shall be happy regardless

-Speaking of butter.  We finally broke down and bought an electric churn.  It’s lovely.  It has a really quiet motor and best of all can do 2 gals of cream at a time!  WooHoo!!

-We also went ahead and upgraded our canners.  We’ve had the same pressure canner for ages so we decided it was high time for a new one.  We now have an incredibly cool looking All-American Canner 930.  Yes it is wickedly expensive, but since so much of our pantry is stocked by home canned goods then I think it’s perfectly ok… plus the thing should last forever.  We also went whole-hog and got a Weck water-bath canner(no photo on that link but have a look-see at those beautiful jars) as well (with faucet), simply because it can be used for cheesemaking as well as canning.  We did break down and buy a couple different jars… how can you resist?  They’re just too lovely.  Even Angry Chickenmentioned them on her blog a couple times   FYI: Weck doesn’t have online ordering, but their phone people are so incredibly nice that it’s sort of fun going old-school with a call-in order.

-Feed situation update:  We are now mixing the feed half and half with no problems whatsoever.  Seriously, I totally don’t understand why the feed doesn’t bother them as long as it’s mixed with the old.  We’re going to keep weaning out the old feed to see what is the lowest percentage of mix they will tolerate.  Even at the current rate it makes our feed bill much nicer.

-just read the above paragraph and realized it’s a grammatical nightmare.  Meh… I’m leaving it.

-And because I really need to jump on the whole dairy aspect of my day I’m going to stop here.  I seriously hope to have something more interesting than a “bullet-post” next time!

Catch Up

-Maggie had her baby.  I had the distinct feeling that she was holding out, but I wouldn’t have thought she’d lamb a whole month after everybody else.  By my rough calculations, she was bred right before I took Nick out of the ewe paddock!  Anyway, she had a lovely black ewe lamb that we’ve named Pauley, after the actress who plays Abby on NCIS.

-It always takes me a few days to get used to seeing the sheep with their shorn wool.  Harriett, Molly and Storm are nearly unrecognizable and Lyle just looks like somebody else!

-Due to thinking that my back was “all better” I have managed to slightly hurt it again so that I don’t sleep so well at night.  I sleep great for about 4 hours and then I’m all tossy-turny which is no fun.  I need to just go ahead and get up… but no, I keep thinking I’ll go back to sleep.  Sigh.

-The pigs are getting big and have started making demands.  If I feed them, but don’t bring any milk/whey they snort and huff and puff (oddly enough) at me until I do.  They prefer to have their feed and the milk mixed but I’m still offering them the dry feed in a separate feeder which they are eating, but there’s a definite preference for having milk with it.  Actually every time they see me they think it means there should be food in their “slop bowl”.  By far the funniest thing they do, that I didn’t know they would do, is blowing bubbles.  Every time I water them, or give them milk they’ll stick their snouts clear to the bottom of the pan and blow bubbles.  It’s hilarious! 

-Anybody with livestock knows that the price of feed has gone through the roof!  By luck we were told about a local mill in Campobella that makes their own feed with the help of a nutritionist so that it’s actually a complete feed (minerals etc added) without the preservatives and chemicals that are added to the national brands to help prolong shelflife.  Our animals are absolutely loving the new feed!  Our only problem is that this mill doesn’t make horse feed, although they assure me they will in the future and I hope it’s soon! 

-The situation with the horses and the feed has gotten worse.  Last night Alise, Fantine and Maddy were effected, so we’ve decided step back and try to figure out what’s going on.  We picked up horse feed from a mill down the road from the above mill and while it looks goods and the horses seem to like it,  it’s caused us quite a few problems.  When we were mixing this feed with our old feed there was no problem at all, the horses ate it without so much as a cough… but when we went straight over to the new feed we’ve had at least one horse at every feeding seemingly choking on her feed.  I really think it’s more like an esophageal spasm as normally when they choke I can feel a lump where the feed has stuck.  This time there’s not a lump and their whole neck spasms.  It’s weird and I don’t like it.  We’re going to try mixing the two feeds again and see if that helps.  I’m really not happy that this new feed isn’t working out.

- On the plus side, Fantine has been letting me touch her without having feed or treats to distract her.  At first she’d only allow me to approach her from her left side and then she progressed to allowing me to touch her right side.  I’m working on getting her to allow me to touch her with two hands.  During the worst of her “choking” yesterday she did allow me to touch her neck with both hands, but I think that’s because she was so focused on the problem that she didn’t notice.  The only bad thing is that once she’s over the spasms it’s like she totally forgets the progress we made.  It’s all baby steps.  It took her 3 years to relearn basic horse behavior, so I’m not surprised if this takes a long time too.  For more information on PMU horses (which Fantine is one) click here.

-The boys have a dentist appointment today that I totally forgot about so that’s it for this post!  Gotta go get dressed in a hurry!!!

-

Waiting

Waiting, originally uploaded by Tapsalteerie Farm.

This is my favorite pic from shearing day. Molly (or was it Storm?) was totally relaxed and just sat there with Jim waiting her turn. I love the hoof and leg up on his arm…

Shearing Day!

Lyle gets a shave, originally uploaded by Tapsalteerie Farm.

At loooonnnngggg last we finally had worked out a time for the shearer to come this past Saturday. All the sheep (Lyle pictured above) were greatly appreciative, even if there was a great deal of baahing and general confusion among the lambs who were unable to figure out which Mama was which without all their wool.

Unfortunately the bulk of our wool is pretty much trash this year. Too much felting in the tips for the most part. We do have about 8 fleeces that we’ll be keeping (the Cotswolds and the lambs) and I kept Lyle’s because I want to play with dyeing, and his wool, while exceptionally long, isn’t particularly matted.

It was a very long, very tiring day! Jim had worked the night before and stayed up until 3pm helping out. Unfortunately I was unable to find a sympathetic supervisor at his work, so he did have to go in as usual.

For the record, it’s exceedingly difficult to plan for a shearer to come. The weather has to be nearly perfect and several major and minor stars have to align… we’ve never had more than a day’s notice before shearing and we’re too afraid to reschedule for fear it’ll take months to do! This shearer didn’t even call to tell us he was on his way. We called to see if the conditions were ok and found out he was about 45 mins away!! EEK! The sheep weren’t up and nothing was really ready, so we busted our tails to get everything in order.

By far the funniest moment was when the shearer pulled up. Jonathon (the shearer) drives a red pickup truck. He has shocking white hair and a very long white beard. The boys were out playing when he pulled up and all of a sudden I saw the two of them get that elated gleam in their eye.

So my two boys, who most of the time are quite shy around new people, came running up to Jonathon’s open window and immediately started into explaining why they wanted new bicycles (their old ones are broken) with their hands clasped together and their faces angelic in their request/begging.

I immediately understood what had happened and no matter how much I’ve tried to dissuade them from the idea, the boys are convinced that Santa shears sheep in the “off season”.

Interestingly, they were exceedingly good for the entire shearing.

Anyway. The sheep were less than cooperative. M lost both her shoes and did a Hollywood stunt-person style fall/roll at one point. Actually I think she lost her shoes more than once… I lost mine once, but recovered quickly!

Jim was blessed among men in that he was able to catch Keegan not once, not twice, but three times… a feat that has never been matched. This is impressive because I’m fairly certain that it’s been 3 years since he’s been shorn… he’s that wily and simply impossible to catch.

Anyway. So now I have a paddock full of naked sheep. They look like they feel better, although a couple of the lighter colored ones did appear to get a tad bit sunburned that first day… but it’s all getting better. I’m amazed at how different some of the sheepies look! Harriet is barely recognizable and a couple of the musket/moorit ewes are no longer fawny brown but more of a creamy white… which is weird. I can’t wait to see the wool grow in. I’m seriously contemplating jackets for the sheep to keep their fleeces cleaner. We’ve had a horrible time with VM this year and it’s just annoying to deal with. Besides I think a couple of our black sheep would have truly incredible fleeces if they didn’t get so much sun-bleaching.

Anyway (again). Our friend Melinda was able to bring her four over and they had a shear too… their wool turned out lovely (I can brag, they used to be our sheep before Melinda took them to start her flock).

Julie and Kaedence came by as well, so it was a regular social day on top of a work day too! By the time it was over we were nearly ready to start evening chores and because of Jim’s work snafu I ended up milking solo (my first time!) which turned out great, but Maisie did try to act up a little but we did ok.

I was so exhausted that I barely remember my head hitting the pillow and I think I’m still getting over it all. The almost sun-burn isn’t helping either!

Be sure to click on the flickr link in the side column to view the pics. For some reason I’m not able to post pics to my blog anymore, so just click over there to see shots of a few of the fleeces and some of the shorn sheep!