At The Start

After last year's musher and dog issues I was no longer looking forward to the next two weeks as my favorite two weeks of the year...but I had a new project ready to start so I've decided to give it one more go.  I miss the old mushers and the more historical feel the race used to have, but maybe the kids will do them proud.  For the 2025 Iknitarod...

Yes, this is the same Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn from last year and the same general project (vest) that I did not finish last year, but I've switched to a different pattern.  This is the Lulu Slipover from Petite Knits, the same designer as the Jared sweater.  We cast on this afternoon!

The ravatar is still basically the same, but I've lost my red hat (!) so I changed that out to a new hat made from the same Lamb Camp yarn...for good luck.  My Iknitarider (I almost forgot to pick someone :-o) is a nameless (!) little gray faced lambie wearing a Jacob sweater that I knit maybe as a pattern for a sweater I knit for a friend.  

I think I might call the lamb Punkin because as I was dusting off my ravatar from last year and looking at all the sheep, I couldn't for the life of me think who was standing next to me. Most of the sheep are pretty obvious, at least to me, but I was completely stumped by...Punkin :-o.

Maybe I'll find my brain when I dust off my Red Lantern and my sled!

Happy Birthday, Punkin

32 years ago

I doubt I'll ever be more grateful for anyone or anything ever again.  What a gift.

Meanwhile, Back At The Wool House

While it sure appears that all I've done lately is yard work and gardening, I actually made something.  Out of wool even!

A couple of months ago I spilled a cup of tea on the carpet at the Wool House.  Yes, the white carpet.  It didn't blend.  A friend came over and we got the carpet cleaned and while we were working on it and the place where I always sit and my dirty pant cuffs have grundged up the floor I thought, hmmm, why don't I have a rug here?

So I made a rug.

The light and dark gray warp (the threads that go longways) is Lamb Camp Legacy yarn.  I used a strand of each color together in every dent (space).  I knew Rocky and Jared's kids could hold everything together with ease.  The white weft (the threads that go back and forth) is the old Punkin yarn from the beginning of everything wool here.  This was the yarn my now friend spun before I knew I even liked yarn.  

I'd asked her to spin it bulky without either of us knowing the bulky yarn for a sweater should be very lightly spun and lofty.  While it did make a sweater and Punkin and I had our pictures taken together dressed alike, it was not a warm sweater (needs loft to trap warm air) nor was it super comfortable to wear.  I ripped it all back out (my sweater frogging started early ;-) and I tried to reknit it on a larger needle, but it just wasn't to be.

Rebecca was over here last week and I told her what I was doing.  I was worried she might be sad that I was using her yarn for a rug, but we both looked at the yarn and she said something about how differently she spins now and I said "Yes, but look at what all this yarn started!" 

It made a perfect rug. Something I'll be able to use and enjoy for the rest of journey.

Gratuitous picture of Pinot, napping in his favorite spot on the porch.  He naps for a bit, does a little grooming, eats some snacks over in his portable cage or litter box, hops around exploring, does a little jig and some zoomies and then goes back to his spot, takes a nap...  :-) 

Wait! I'm Here! I'm Here!

I'm off to a late start, but we are finally ready to hit the trail.  I'm still not 100% certain of what I'm making, but I'm going to be using the Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn so I put everyone on the Ravatar with me.  I'll start knitting tomorrow.

When you aren't competitive and are mostly in the race for the experience, it's called a "camping trip".  That's going to be my plan for this year.  I'm going to enjoy spending time with some of my very best friends and hopefully have a vest to show for it at the end.

Can you identify all the sheep above?  A couple are a little vague, but the "characters" should be easily recognized :-).

2023 Hug A Sheep Day

Thirty-one years ago this month I rescued a tiny lamb born at the local stockyards and, looking back, the only thing I regret about that was that I didn't save his mom.  I wish I could have changed her life the way I was able to change her lamb's...and how he changed mine.

I can't even imagine a different life than I have today.  I cannot fathom not walking out to the barn to check on my sheep each morning.  Standing in the driveway with my oldies, wearing a wool hat I spun, dyed and knit from my own flock. The way it's feeling this afternoon I'll be wearing a wool sweater tomorrow as well, probably Jared's.  He and I will both be warm.

I'm proud I know how to trim feet and check eye scores and what different wools feel like and how they are best used.  And how to move sheep through a chute or work in a pen and how a herding dog is different from a guardian dog and how to prepare my sheep for shearing.

Would I have learned how to take pictures?  Paint folk art Christmas cards?  Needle felt wool ornaments?  I had zero interest in fiber arts and now I can shear (if I have to), skirt, wash, comb or card, spin yarn, knit a sweater or weave a blanket.  

I opened a calendar last night and found Hug a Sheep Day included as a national holiday.  I'd been told a paper "days" calendar had picked it for October 28th, but I wasn't sure I'd ordered the right one until I saw it for myself.

Hug a Sheep Day was based on Punkin's birthday.  He was actually born on a Friday, but when I decided to host the first farm party 15 years ago, his birthday fell on a Saturday so we've since stuck with it being always the last Saturday on October.  This year it's the 28th.

We are once again hosting an on farm Hug a Sheep Day party.  The traditional party will be on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 as usual and will include sheep hugging and cookie feeding and visiting with old friends and new.

On Friday, the 27th, we are adding in an extra day for anyone who'd like to come out to learn about sheep, sheep care, wool processing, spinning, knitting, felting...  I'm open to anything!  We could even take some pictures or do some sketching or painting...  I am no expert on any of this, but I'm happy to share what I've learned over the years.  

I'll post some more details as the next two weeks fly by, but wanted to give everyone a bit of a head's up.  Let's get together and have some fun and celebrate all the gifts of our wooly friends, near and far.  

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Last year I grew a completely accidental pumpkin patch and it was the most fun thing I've ever grown.  I had the best time watching the plants overtake a pretty big section of the side field and the pumpkins were all different sizes and colors and the sheep had two big pumpkin parties at the end of the season and I decided I was going to be a pumpkin farmer.  Pumpkins at Punkin's Patch!

This spring I picked out three different varieties of seeds (including one called Big Moose!), figured out my plant date for fall pumpkins and then found out the extension office was going to do a "Who can grow the biggest pumpkin in Harrison County" contest and I was All In.

I waited with great anticipation for the date I could go pick up my free pumpkin seeds and in the meantime strategized as only I can over-think things and gathered up special dirt and compost and researched and watched YouTube videos and created a baby pumpkin nursery and went ahead and planted my earlier chosen seeds out in a special safe zone in the yard, fenced off and everything.

Since all the volunteer pumpkins last year grew so well just laying out on top of the pasture, I thought if I made a little effort to amend the soil for each seed this year they'd really take off.  And I thought the Big Moose pumpkins could just live in the fenced area with the other pumpkins. I mean, how big could they get?

When I got the educational handouts from the extension office I found out that the Big Moose pumpkin getting labeled as a "giant" meant it was going to be...a giant.  Who knew.  I carefully dug as many of  those seeds as I could find back up and put them in starter pots along with the extension office seeds.  The rest of the seeds sprouted, but have not taken off in any sort of manner.  Pumpkin farming, not as easy as I'd hoped.

Four of the five extension office seeds sprouted and four of the five Big Moose seeds I found sprouted as well.  As the babies grew I made their fancy growing mounds, which involved lots of shoveling and moving of heavy materials on some really hot and humid days.  I was becoming less enamored with pumpkin farming by the day...but the baby pumpkins all grew well and looked good.

When the plants got big enough to transplant, I moved them into their respective mounds.  Four Big Moose plants and three of the extension office plants (I'll try to remember to come back in and update the variety) were planted in Del Boca Vista.  I put the biggest and strongest extension office plant out front, next to the driveway so I could really keep an eye on it, in preparation for the October 27th weigh in at the office.

I lost one of the Big Moose pumpkins in a wind accident fairly early on.  I moved a tiny volunteer from just outside the Wool House into it's open spot and babied it through some hot weather and it survived and is now doing a great job trying to catch up.

I'm concerned about these leaves turning yellow.  This is my biggest Big Moose plant...of course.  It's also the first one to produce any female flowers and now has two pumpkins growing along it's reaching vines.  I haven't decided if I'm going to limit it to only two in hopes of growing a true giant.  At this point I'm probably just going to be happy if I get any pumpkins.

This Big Moose plant did not look good yesterday and has not rebounded today so I'm afraid it's going to be a another casualty.  I've been carefully watching the plants for bugs and mildew and all sorts of other problems.  I've used diatomaceous earth and a couple of careful applications of organic Neem Oil in the evenings when the bees are long gone, but I don't have any control over the too wet conditions that may be causing some of my issues.  

Three of the extension office plants.

While my volunteers last year were big, hardy, heavy producers, the volunteers this year (probably a different variety) have been a bust except for a couple plants here and there.  This nice volunteer is growing out in the barn lot, so I have zero expectations for a pumpkin to reach maturity surrounded by sheep, but it's helping provide pollination for the female flowers in the main patch.

The bees, hard at work.

Oh, here's a funny story.  The first morning I knew I had a female flower ready to open it was drizzling rain.  The flowers are only open for a short time on one morning so there's just a small window where they can get pollinated.  I didn't think the bees would be out until the rain stopped, so I read up on how to manually pollinate it, grabbed my paint brush, picked up some pollen from a male flower and when I went to dust it into the female, two bees popped up and scolded me.  

"Do you mind?!?"

I shouldn't have doubted them :-).

I think this epistle basically catches everything up on the 2023 great pumpkin venture.  I have lost any expectation that it will be a Great Pumpkin venture, but I hope I'm wrong and will have some happy updates through the next couple of months.  

I'm glad I'm just trying to find something fun to do during my least favorite time of the year and not trying to feed my family.  Farming is not for the faint of heart and we all need to be cognizant of that fact and remember that food does not miraculously appear at the grocery store.

It would be nice to be able to feed at least a couple of pumpkins to my sheep family.

It is really hard to type pumpkin instead of Punkin.

On Farm Party!

We are once again opening the farm for a Hug A Sheep Day farm party!  While the virtual parties turned out better than we thought they would these last two years, being able to come out and actually hug a sheep (unless it's Maisie, maybe ;-) is always much more fun.  

(Inter)National Hug A Sheep Day is October 29th this year.  This is our twelfth year!  Punkin, my first sheep, who inadvertently started this all, would have been 30 this year.  The original date was picked because it would have been his birthday.  Now the date floats and is always the last Saturday of October.

This year we are not only hosting the traditional Hug A Sheep Party from 1:00 to 4:30, but we are also going to be open on Friday as well in case anyone would like to come out and do some shopping and sheep visiting ahead of time.  Friday's events will be offered virtually (via zoom) as well as in person. 

Both mornings I will be doing a virtual flock walk live on Instagram.  If you'd like to join me, Friday's walk will be at 8:00 and Saturday's at 8:30.  The walks were very popular the last two years.  Being forced to learn to use technology a bit was one upside to the pandemic.  I now love turning the phone on and talking sheep with people all over the world.

Here is the complete schedule:

We hope you can join us!

The Yarn Might Not Be The Best Part

It might be the stories :-).

Mother's Day ended up being very busy, but in a good way.  The spring barn clean out, originally planned for Friday/Saturday, was rained out.  We were afraid the ground would still be too wet Sunday, but it dried up enough and Tim was able to knock it out.  Well, you don't just knock it out.  Cleaning the barn is an all day job.  I can't think of a better Mother's Day gift :-).

By late afternoon I was finally able to gather everything and set up a photo shoot under one of the redbud trees by the Wool House.  I mixed and matched and rearranged and fought the too bright light and then Betsy's head popped up in a perfect photobomb.  I love that she is in the picture.

Do you remember her babysitting the bottle lambs?  She loved to sleep in the crate with the lambs, especially if there was a heat lamp involved.  Curling up with a warm lamb was a close second.  I'm not sure Maisie ever took a nap without Betsy.

I don't think Betsy knows her lambs are in this yarn blend, but it's sweet to think that she does and wanted to be part of the pictures.  To make it even better, I told a little story about Betsy and her lambs in the booklet.  Do you remember which lamb ruined it for her?

The bright sun did work out in my favor to help show off the little stitch markers -  sky blue, grass green, tree green, dandelion yellow and redbud pink.  These are my favorite type of stitch markers for knitting.  I haven't learned how to make crochet markers yet, but I enjoyed learning a little about beads and wire and I doubt this is the end of it :-).

The stitch markers are hanging around their necks like a sheep bell and can be easily removed to use or can just stay part of the decoration.  Do you remember which lamb wore the first bell and why?

The yarn wrapped ornaments are for the small gift boxes and the unwrapped ornaments are for the yarn kits.  There will also be a little bit of Blossom roving tucked in the yarn kits so you can wrap your own with any leftover yarn.  It's not a surprise why I picked Blossom to help with them and that is part of her story in the booklet.

This shady tree is actually the redbud tree most loved by lambs...and cats and dogs and chickens and lamb moms.  Remember Early sleeping next to the yard sheep?  He knew they were real sheep, too, and you still can't tell us any different.  

So...that's Early and Abby on the bag logo, yarn tags and leather tag.  They are an important part of our story here and I didn't want them to be left out just because they couldn't contribute any wool.  I loved sitting out under this tree with them tucked against my legs.  Using them in the logo helps a little.

The drawstring bags are a handy 10"x12" size, just perfect for a skein or two of yarn or a small project. The booklet tucks nicely in there as well.  

The booklet was a true labor of love.  I thought it would be easy to write up some stories, describe each sheep's wool, find some good pictures and send it off to the printer.  Phew!  The stories weren't too hard other than trying to pick out what stories I wanted to tell.  I could probably write whole chapters on each sheep...and maybe I will someday.

The problem was the pictures.  Those early lambs lived here long before I had a decent camera or even any real practice at taking pictures.  I love the pictures I have, but they do not compare to the pictures of the more recent lambs.  I wanted Punkin to look as good as Biscuit.  

I played around with several styles and finally settled on a sort of pen and ink/wood block sort of look.  I used the original photographs to make sketches and then a fun iPad app to turn them into black and white line drawings and then fine tuned them with another drawing app.  I enjoyed learning how to do this and it was fun to spend a little extra time with each lamb.

The booklet not only has pictures and stories about the lambs, but also a bit about their breed(s) and fleece.  There's also a little story about how the yarn came about and how I became thecrazysheeplady.  Karen Battersby designed a beautiful lamb sweater using the yarn and the pattern for that is included as well.  Even if you don't have a baby lamb to dress, it could easily be adapted for a small dog or agreeable cat :-).

About the yarn.  Each skein is 250 yards of worsted weight yarn and weighs around 4.4 ounces.  I find it knits comfortably to the gauge of around five stitches per inch and is a very nice versatile yarn with good Punkin's Patch character.  It's soft and cuddly, but hard working enough to do most any job.  

As this blend can never be replicated, it's a very limited offering and will only be for sale here on the blog.  Feel free to share this post with your friends, but I'd rather it didn't get posted to the wider public.  There's not much of it and I want to make sure everyone who's been along for the ride, new or old, gets first dibs.

This is my favorite picture from the shoot.  Isn't it a bit funny that Betsy came over here as well?  Maybe she can smell her lambs in there.  

* * * * *

The yarn box includes 1, 2 or 3+ skeins of Lamb Camp bottle lamb yarn, the lamb stories booklet, drawstring bag, plain ornament, spring stitch markers, a leather Lamb Camp tag and a fun surprise gift.  

         One skein $52    Two skeins $77    Three skeins $102 

If you are wanting a sweater quantity of yarn or unwashed yarn for weaving, drop me an email.   

The ornament box includes a Lamb Camp bottle lamb yarn wrapped ornament with the spring stitch markers and leather tag attached, the drawstring bag, lamb stories booklet and the fun surprise gift.

$36

As always, if you are interested in purchasing something from the farm shop, just send me an email and let me know what you'd like.  I'd also love to hear who your favorite lamb is or your favorite lamb story.  Even if you aren't interested in purchasing a Lamb Camp box, I'd love to hear about your favorites :-).

Shipping is always a struggle these days.  If you would like a shipping quote, I am happy to get that for you.

You are also always welcome to come to the farm and visit the sheep and save your shipping costs entirely.  Punkin's Patch won't be setting up at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival later this month, but I'll be around that weekend and we would all love a visit :-).  Please send me an email to let me know you are coming.

We hope you love our yarn :-)

Thecrazysheeplady, Punkin, PPPP, Ewen McTeagle, Keebler, Graham Lamb, Baaxter Black, Lila, Liddy, Blossom, Maisie, Bullwinkle and Biscuit

It's All Been Fun...

...but washing the yarn is the best part :-).

I've spent the last month (or so) working on the new Lamb Camp yarn release.  Remember the bottle lamb fleeces I sent to Stonehedge Fiber Mill?  Here's a video link.  

I've got the yarn "finished" (skeined, washed and ready for tagging).  I wrote a short book telling a little about the yarn and all the sheep who made it.  I also created a picture of each sheep as a lamb to go with each story.  There was a huge learning curve there, but I'm happy with the end results.

At that point I realized that the project was much more than just throwing together a pamphlet with some yarn and more of a celebration of all the sheep and each of their special stories, so I designed a small project bag, some Equinox Farm inspired stitch markers, a project tag and a wooden ornament to all go with it.

Whew!  I've got way more time in this project than I should, but I always end up putting more time into each lamb than I anticipate as well, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.  

The first batch. 

The yarn isn't "finished" until it's washed and dried.  The main reason you need to wash it is to get rid of the spinning oil and any residual dirt, but washing it also wakes up each fiber and allows it to relax back into it's original character.  Some fibers bloom into fuzzy yarns, some get really stretchy, some get puffy, some relax with more drape and flow...  This yarn, being a blend of several types of sheep does a little bit of all of that.

One skein before washing, on the right.  One skein after, on the left.  Isn't that fun?

The yarn is really pretty.  I've made a lamb sweater from it and also a matching short poncho for myself.  The lamb sweater was pretty straightforward, but I have some epic stories about the poncho that need to be shared here so I can add more details than what hit Instagram at the time.  Miss B made a gorgeous sweater from the yarn and I would love to share that as well.  My poor neglected blog.

So, yes, there will be some of this yarn for sale and my plan is to post it on Sunday for Mother's Day, mostly for sentimental reasons.  Of course I don't have any pictures taken and it's crazy/normal springtime on the farm and Frankie and I have our first horse show tomorrow... so it may be the afternoon before I can actually pull that off.  

Wouldn't it be nice if I got all that done and posted a horse show update tomorrow evening like the good old blogging days?  I'm going to try.

Hug A Sheep Day Is Extra Special This Year

The first year we celebrated National Hug A Sheep Day was October 30, 2010.  Punkin would have been 18 that day.  This year the "last Saturday in October" has once again come back around to the 30th, Punkin's birthday.  He would have been 29.  Twenty...nine...

Punkin...what a funny life story.  Who'd have thought one little "throwaway" lamb could change a person's life so completely and inspire an official holiday. 

Days of the Year has posted a great update, adding in more information about sheep and wool products.  Happy Days 365  has as well.  It's fun to follow #hugasheepday on various platforms to see sheep from all over.  Don't forget to add the hashtag to your photos!

This year our farm party will once again be virtual.  That actually ended up being pretty fun last year because everyone could watch.  We'll do another virtual flock walk, cookie party and of course, the now annual embarrassing of Maisie.  That too sounds like something that could become a new national holiday, but we all know that at some point she's going to take us all out and that will be the end of that ;-).

This was the original Hug a Sheep Day logo, with my good buddy Ewen McTeagle, the best hugging sheep ever.  Punkin would let me hug him, but pretty much tried to punch anyone else.  Still, as it's his birthday this year, I updated the logo to match his cute fuzzy gray face.  Feel free to use it for anything non-commercial.  If you would like to use it for something commercial, please just email me for permission.

Show And Tell

The prompt for today's Kentucky Wool Week photo challenge is Show and Tell, so I'm going to use this as an opportunity to show something I did over the summer and tell how I did it.  If I keep this up, I might eventually get the blog caught back up :-).

Instagram followers might remember taking a video tour of some fleeces getting ready to be shipped off to Stonehedge Fiber Mill and then seeing the following picture a few weeks later.  The project in the works is a new Lamb Camp yarn that for now I'm calling The Bottle Lamb Edition.  It will be a blend of every single bottle lamb I've ever raised.

I should say the video tour showed at least a tiny bit of wool left from every lamb...except Punkin.  I really, really wanted to include Punkin, the lamb who started it all.  While I didn't have any wool left, I did have some leftover yarn from way back when I paid someone to spin for me before I learned that I liked doing such things.  I wondered if it would be possible to un-spin some of that yarn.

In 25 words or less...yarn is really nothing more than fiber held together by twist.  You spin two singles and then you spin those two singles together to get a two ply yarn.  Without getting really complicated, that's all you really need to know to follow what I decided to try.

The first step was to un-twist the two plies.  I tried to do this as a whole skein, but it got way too messy and was headed for disaster, so I started cutting off a yard or so at a time.

I then tied it to the hook on a drop spindle and started twirling it backwards to untwist the plies.

Then I pulled the two plies away from each other.

So far, so good.

Next I tied one of the singles to the drop spindle and twirled it backwards to take out the spinning twist. 

After the twist was removed, I pulled the now unspun yarn apart into 4" pieces and lashed them all onto my hand cards and then brushed the pieces to make sure everything was loose and flowing.  The yarn had been sitting for 18 years so it was a bit compressed and felted.  

This was a Huge Job.

Crossing that last and most special name off the board?  Worth every hour.

Wovember - Day 11 - History

Where would I be if this hadn't happened?  

View this post on Instagram

Wovember - Day 11 - History . 🐑 At the end of October, 1992, I rescued a lamb who'd just been born at the stockyards. Knowing what I know now...that lamb should never have lived. The stress, the sanitation, did he even get colostrum...? To add insult to injury, someone who knew absolutely nothing about sheep and especially lambs picked him up at the *end* of the day (!). Luckily I found a vet who'd raised sheep himself and he did his best to help him get started and assured me "He'd be just fine". Months later, he'd look at Punkin and say "Well, I never thought I'd see you make it this far." . 🐑 I didn't know anything about sheep or wool or spinning or knitting or weaving or...I just wanted to save a baby lamb...who probably ended up saving me...and the rest is history. . 🐑 #wovember #wovember2019 #bottlelamb #destiny

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Nov 11, 2019 at 10:26am PST

Something Special At The End

We...well 20, Pip, Auntie Reg, Miss B and I...had a great weekend at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival.  Tavia, Tabitha and Kaala...won't be going out in public ever again.  They hated it.  A lot.  And Tabitha made sure everyone heard about how much they hated it.  A lot.  

(After you start the video you can click the [ ] at the bottom right to make it bigger.)

This was the 10th year for the fiber festival. Seems kind of crazy when I think about it.  That just flew by!  Here is a quick tour of the booth for anyone who wasn't able to go and would like to take a peek.  You can even hear Tabitha...because I know everyone would like to hear what she had to say...all weekend long :-o.

We were stopped by a road block on our way out of the park last night.  As the person walked up to my truck to explain why the road was going to be closed for a few minutes, she laughed and said "Oh, I don't need to tell you what's going on."  The Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial was over and they were moving 500 sheep into a secure field for the night.  I got out of the truck and walked up to watch.  

Before there was a fiber festival I used to set up my Punkin's Patch booth down at the stockdog trial.  It was my favorite weekend of the year.  I'd be set up close enough to the trial field that I could watch the sheep and dogs all day long.  I'd bring my spinning wheel and my dear old collie Sam.  I made some really good friends down there over the years and it was like the best vacation ever.

I'd stay until the very end of each day because once the last handler finished they'd run all the sheep out into the open field to graze for the night.  That was my favorite.  I love big flocks of sheep and I wonder now if my love of big flocks came from watching all those sheep filter out across that big field each night.  

I didn't have a good camera back then.  Heck, I didn't even know I liked taking pictures in those days.  Maybe that was a good thing.  I might be able to still see things in my mind and heart that I probably couldn't have really captured on film back then.  Now, 16 years later, I pulled out my iPhone and recorded some video as they trotted up the road.

I included a bit of that footage at the end of this compilation.  I did that mostly because it is a treasured memory from my weekend.  A little gift from the universe to a crazy sheep lady who, while she enjoys being a part of the fiber festival, sure wishes there was a way to be two places at once.  

I also included it because there's something of Punkin's Patch significance at the very end.  The man walking past in the red and white striped shirt is Paul Tucker, now one of those good dog trial friends.  But I met Paul long before I knew anything about border collies or sheep or that I even liked sheep.  27 years ago he gave me a little bottle lamb...that I named Punkin.

Equinox Farm

Today is our 15th anniversary.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  And it seems like we've been here forever.  Now that I think about it, I haven't heard our farm referred to as the "Douglas place" or the "Singer place" in several years.  Usually now it's "the place with the sheep."  I guess we've become part of the history now.  Or the sheep have.

I found some old pictures Tim took from the early days, the day we first saw the farm and some of the early work we did.  I thought I'd share them here because they are fun to look at and try to put then and now together...and if the house ever burns down, they'll live on forever on the internet.  Worst Case Scenario reason #168 for blogging... 

From the road.

This is looking at the back of the barn.  Tim took this picture from what is now the back of the Del Boca Vista paddock.  I am standing near the gate to the arena.  The corgi is sweet Sophie and the collie is my beloved Sam.

Standing at the back corner of the barn, looking out to the road.  Tim is standing pretty close to where the Grahaminator2000 is now.

This is the barn lot.  The weeds on the left are now where the front corner of the Del Boca Vista fence is, the two gates that make the corner.  The sliding doors are the barn aisle.  Those doors now roll all the way to the right along with two more doors that cover the end openings for the inside and added on outside shed.   

Looking out towards the back.  I think that's basically where the curved alleyway goes down the hill to the left, heading to the middle paddocks.

The gate at the front corner of the horse side of the barn.  Now the fence curves down to the left, following the driveway.

Looking up from the road.

The old stripping room, now where the Wool House stands.  

The corn crib on the left is now the garage.

Looking at those two buildings from the yard.

View from the back corner.

Closer view of the big pond, now known as the skating pond :-).  Where Tim is standing is now all full of trees and undergrowth.  

The old cistern.  Now the home of the greenhouse.

I find this picture one of the most amazing.  I'd forgotten how you could see the neighbors across the sheep field.  The raised bed garden is the asparagus bed.  Punkin is buried underneath; Abby on the right side.

There were two round rock gardens, one on each end of this.  There were quite a few little gardens or landscapings scattered throughout the yard.  I wanted to consolidate and clean them up so we connected the two gardens here and it made a nice natural division from the yard to the orchard.  

I fought weeds in here for years though and finally this summer I'd had enough and we took it all out.  I'd hoped to transplant the bleeding heart, but I couldn't find it.  I should have dug it just after it bloomed this spring.  I'm hoping a piece will poke through the grass next spring.  I did get my favorite rose bush moved and so far it seems okay.

This must have been the next spring when they started fixing some eroded areas and sink holes we and had the riding arena enlarged.

I'm not exactly sure what this is.  I know the wet weather creek runs through there, but there isn't water anywhere else so maybe this is leftover from the spring fed pond that used to be out front.  

It had been filled in years before, but I believe it needed some work and they also put in a bridge to drive from one side of the creek to the other.  Cecil Aguilar later added the stone work to all the bridges and culverts.

This is looking out back towards the Frog Pond.  The guys doing the grading work wanted to just tear out the little pond.  I'm glad I fought to save it.  Not only is it pretty, it's also good habitat for birds , rabbits and frogs, monarch butterflies, sometimes muskrats and even a skunk family has lived in there.

The barn.  Tim tore out almost everything on the right hand side and put it the big sheep stall.  

And the rock.  Oh the rock.  

This is something else I barely remember.  We walked up and down the grass hill to get onto the porch.  There is a concrete sidewalk to the front door and I think the couple we bought the farm from were front door folks.  I primarily use the back door and it didn't take long for this to get messy.  The rock sidewalk was a huge improvement.

I think pretty much everything was a huge improvement.  We've let some shrubs overgrow that I wish I'd stayed on top of better.  The beautiful tidy porch...will never be the same, but it's a porch that is well used and well loved and I think it's happy even though I'm sure it would appreciate an overhaul.  I think the rest of the farm is happy, too.  

Happy Anniversary!  We're glad to be here.

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And if you are still here, leave a comment telling us your favorite part of the farm and Sunday night I'll draw for a winner and send out a 2019 Equinox Farm calendar.  They are almost done and ready to print :-D.