Busy Times ...

We have been so busy here of late that I have been slow to get back with photos of the new lambs. They are growing at a rapid rate but are all still cute as buttons. This is Alice. She had a slight accident yesterday when someone stepped on her tail and it came off. But she has already moved on and is her happy-go-lucky self again.

She and her brothers run amok and have discovered the new baby chicks whom they love to try to sniff. The new mother hens are not so pleased and spend most of their time running around the babies with their wings held out trying to look as big and scary as possible. Hard to do when you are only about 6 inches tall.

The new calves are settling in nicely and the two older cows are eating me out of house and home. Bob stepped in a badger hole and wrenched a knee and now has developed quite the peg-legged walk so we have started call him Jack the Pirate. I think the name will stick.

I spent all of yesterday dyeing wool and getting technical help from my own personal tech goddess Dawn over at crochetcompulsive so by this afternoon all of the yarns will be up on the etsy site. Here is a group photo of the sock yarns.

Sometimes it seems like I dye the same 3 or 4 colours all the time but apparently I dye the same 26 colours all the time. LOL.

I love it though ... this is almost too much fun most days. And I keep having more and more ideas of colours to try.

Today we are going to try to get some of the garden in even though this morning it was only 36 degrees. So I am off to pitch in on that project now so I can dye the wooly silk later ...

Every blade of grass

Under it's burden of dew

In time - springs free.

And Then There Were Four

No sooner did I blog about poor Isabella than the next morning she went into labor. Which continued on for a while. I place a frantic call to the vet about the apparent size of the first lamb. He explained how I would have to check to make sure the lamb wasn't stuck due to a bad presentation and I went out to explain this to Izzy who looked at me with that "you plan to put your hand where?!" look and then proceeded to produce her giant sized lamb just to show me that the hand thing was never going to happen. He is aptly named "Andre" after the giant. A few minutes later he was followed by his very little sister who I named "Alice" after the Alice in the Twilight series. She is beautiful and very tiny and dances everywhere she goes. Andre is every bit as big as the lambs who were born a week earlier and they both are true daredevils when it comes to straw bale jumping and head butting ... no fear for any of them. The weather has been terrible but when I can I will try to get some good lamb pics up.

Other Big News! here is that a yarn store in Kenosha Wisconsin has begun carrying my yarn. Huge news for me!! The store is named Fiddlehead Yarns and if you should ever be in the neighborhood please drop in and see them. I may try to do that myself in my migration to Rhinebeck in October.

On my needles this week is a pair of socks in the Fields of Barley colourway in a wheat ear pattern. I am hoping I will get the first one done soon but I keep having to go out and pet the new lambs. Go figure.

Cold rain -

From the pond in my head

The sound of Basho's frog.

What do you think ...

do these babies make my butt look big?

Poor Isabella still has not had her lambs. And she is miserable. Every night I go to bed thinking that in the morning they will have been born ... but not yet. Still, I can hardly imagine it will be much longer. In the mean time, though, these twin rams arrived just a few days ago.
Meet Gizmo and Widget. Too cute huh?

Hopefully more to come tomorrow ...

Tossed among the pines
The little sparrows
Overtaken by the wind.

In Which the Fates Are Not Amused

It didn't work. No lambs yet. And so I admit defeat. Instead I will post on my current knitting which has been a bit challenging of late. First up is my second Sock Madness sock. It was my first foray into stranded colour work and I turned it inside out to show how nice that part turned out. I have to say that I am rather pleased with it myself. I knit it in a wool silk blend. The purple is the Victoria's Ballgown colourway and the salmon was a one time dye job. I actually love the purple and will be knittin gmuch more in that colour in the future. But competetive sock knitting wears me out and when I came to the toe this is what happened. I am so discouraged that I will not be knitting the second one ... but will send the first "on the road" with my yarn. Here is the picture. Laugh softly please as I am still a bit sensitive. And yes I kitchnered the toe crosswise from the decreases. Why? Because I SO wanted to be done and I was SO tired and I chose not to pay attention. There you have it. No one to blame but myself.

I did finish a cute tiny baby hat and then tried 6 times to do the same lace pattern in a small throw for the baby's carseat. I have now ripped it back to the point where I would prefere to burn it but instead will start it this afternoon in a Feather and Fan pattern which I could normally do in my sleep. But here is the hat in the Cherry Blossom festival colour. Blogger is being weird so I think I will go. More to follow I am sure.

Texas Has Nothing On Us...

Here in Idaho sturgeon fishing is a big sport. You cannot kill or keep them but that doesn't stop anyone for going out to see how big a one they can bring in. My neighbor caught this one on Monday ... 8'1" long. Biggest one I have seen. They completely creep me out and these (and the leaches) are the reason I never swim in the Snake River.

Another pastime here in the Spring is the burning of tumbleweeds. I am always sure that we will start a range fire that will consume millions of acres and we never do. Everyone goes out to roll them into the middle of the road and then someone else comes behind and rolls the burning tumbleweeds along into the dry ones ... and great fun is had by all.

I kept thinking that I would wait to blog till I had lambs ... but since they still have not arrived I thought that perhaps I could tempt fate by blogging like I just don't care. If I am back in a few days we will know that it worked. Till then ....

The sound of the wind

In the forest behind me

A raven flies off.

The Iceman Cometh ...

and apparently intends to stay. Ahh, the winter months here ... snow, ice, rain, snow, rain (to create a slicker ice) snow. And did I mention cold? The news would have you think that the world has ended but in reality this is how winter is supposed to be. I remember winters from when I was a kid involved lots of sledding, a concussion or two (the ice) and freezing cold which caused much hot cocoa to be consumed. And there is a beauty to it ...

This is the result of ice fog ... which is a big part of the winter landscape here abouts. Pretty no?

One of the big projects at this time of year is the planning of the garden. And this is sparked by the happy arrival of the garden seed catalogs. After hours of pouring over them my selections have been made, the seeds ordered, and their arrival is eminent.

I have been dyeing sock wool non-stop in preparation for my dear friends, Jennie and Dawn, taking it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year. I am nervous .... but hopeful that it will be well received. As a bribe, I am sending them with several boxes of Idaho Spud Bars ... so if you see them stop by and try one.

On the knitting front ... I am. I have finished several pairs of socks and am currently knitting two different scarves that I am working in a nice 70/30 wool/silk blend. Pictures to follow at a later date.

I am preparing for the arrival of this years lambs in approximately 6 weeks ... assuming that the new ram, Walker, did his part. I only bred three ewes this year as feed is so high but that still means that I could end up with at least 5 or 6 lambs ... maybe more.

Jennie (the puppy) is growing up and is at that gangly teenager stage. but cute as always and sharp as a tack. She has started trying to get the sheep to move about on her own.

And last, but not least, my friend Franklin has bemoaned his lack of orderliness and organization in his creative space. I hold that creativity occurs only where there is fuel to fire it ... and I know my desk/table looks like it could catch fire at any moment ... LOL!

So poor, my poems

But good company tonight

Reading them over.

A Time of Rest

Winter is about the only time here that I get to sit down and knit and rest and plan. It seems like the other nine months are spent running around trying to get caught up. But here we are ... the end of the year and I am finally knitting frantically and trying to get the newest member of the family situated ... and housebroken. I finally have a puppy!!! I am so excited it seems a bit pathetic but there you are. Her name is Jennie and she is a Border Collie. Sable coloured and very very cheerful. Here you go ... cute no? I of course think she is completely adorable.

Other farm news ... the cows have gone to a friends for winter feeding and the ram has gone to the same friends house to get him out of my pens so I could open them up to all of the ewes and the remailing lambs. Not too much else going on ... it has been unseasonably cold after being unseasonably warm well into December. So it has been the usual debacle of frozen water and late baby chicks who are having a bit of a time of it. And on the knitting front ... well they are gifts and can't be covered here till they have been given. New yarn colours are going to be coming out soon ... and even some new yarn as I will start to dye some superwash DK weight yarns too.

Clouds fly across the sky,
The plum tree in the garden
holds blossoms of snow.