April was busy (unless you were Archie), but fun. Lots of spring flowers, new bees, new raised beds (that I'm having to replant after the really hard freeze over the weekend :-/) all the spinning, a little painting, beautiful moons, interesting fog, good sheep, good friends...
Showing posts with label frankie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frankie. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2026
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Fire Horses?
A few mornings ago I walked up to the barn, saw Gato resting on the hillside in front of the barn, didn't think anything about it. When I came back out of the barn a few minutes later I saw him flat out, legs flailing. Instant panic mode.
I raced over thinking about what to do. Was he colicking? Having a seisure? He's 29. Anything could happen at this point...and then he stopped. Okay, now what? I still need to figure out what is happening and how to handle it.
I watched him for a few seconds and saw one ear flicking back and forth...sort of like he was asleep and dreaming. I've never seen a horse run in their sleep, so I'm still thinking seizure...and then his lips moved a bit...like he was...dreaming...
"Gato!"
(Rolls up on his chest) "What?"
"Oh, good grief."
(Goes back to sleep)
A few days later I saw him sleeping not far from where he and Frankie are in this picture...and he did it again. I have never seen or heard of a horse running in their sleep and I asked a few friends and they are in agreement, no, even though it makes sense that they could.
Maybe Gato's just faster than anyone else's horses...in his sleep ;-).
Lancelot was standing watch. Sometimes I'll catch all three asleep on a sunny afternoon, but usually one horse stays up.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
The 74 Days Of January
It wasn't really that bad, but it does seem like a long time ago since we had green grass!
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Merry Christmas!
Every now and then I catch a little glimpse of white out in the field or a flash of orange in the garden and I hope we are all still here together under Hank and Maisie's watchful eyes, the bright stars and occasionally the northern lights. I wonder if Maggie and Big Moose see them, too.
* * * * *
I couldn't fit every beloved ghost in the scene, but ghosts are fluid and other than Hank and Maisie watching out back and Salt and Comby out front, everyone else can be whoever we are missing the most and catch out of the corner of our eye. Remember, they might be tucked in the barn or curled up in the Wool House.
I'd love to know who you see.
Merry Christmas!
Oh, and it's a puzzle too :-).
Friday, November 21, 2025
Calendar Worthy
During a break in the rain yesterday I caught this sweet picture of everyone sleeping together in the upper paddock.
This would be a great calendar shot...if it wasn't FINALLY FINISHED and just gone to print. Whew!
Oh well, it will probably be a fun puzzle ;-). And I love Frankie's white dot showing :-D.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Monday, August 4, 2025
July
July...was brutal. So incredibly hot and humid. Demoralizing. I did manage to spend about 36 hours up north for a wedding...and that made it almost worse. Worse in a "need to buy a lottery ticket" way. And yet, watching these photo flash by, there was a little good mixed in...but I can say it was better watching it than living it.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Friday, July 4, 2025
Friday, June 13, 2025
And May...
Much of May was second verse, same as the first. Pinot was still digging his hole and filling it back in. Bullseye kept getting friendlier and friendlier - just a charming young cat. More rain. More green grass and also a special mix of grass planted out front for Pinot.
The cake baking continued.
Short Round made it all the way out into the yard to graze a few evenings. Maisie grazed in the driveway. Baaxter had been kicked out into Summer Breezy because he was being a bully. Boys...
The cicadas arrived and that's been...interesting. I can stand the mess and the noise, but fer cryin' out loud, get off me while I'm trying to weed eat!
There's a funny story about poison ivy and Short Round getting some props for helping support the removal at a friends house...by goats. Since Short Round will eat anything, I figured she should be there in spirit :-).
Betsy enjoyed another party. Bea enjoyed a trip to Dairy Queen. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful full moon.
The gardens are coming along, both vegetable and B Garden.
The horse shenanigans continued. Boys...
Knitting as fast as I could to get. this. project. finished. My Iknitariders had fun riding along and didn't mind too much when Bullseye fell asleep with them.
Maisie is a Good Sheep.
Losing Burrnie and Kaala was not unexpected, but still sad. I love the barn camera shot of her sleeping tucked up with Liddy near the end. Kaala enjoyed her friends here. So did Burrnie.
Speaking of the barn camera, I love being able to check in with everyone whenever I want, but also, if I see something odd I can go back and see what happened. One evening I saw the sheep all jump up startled. I switched to the barn lot camera to try to see what they were looking at. Something small and light colored, but I never could decided exactly who it was.
The month ended with a fun steam train ride at the Heavenly Hilltop Railroad with 20 and Pip and Skipper (Rebecca's lamb), who is now far too big to pick up.
I love these scrapbook compilations :-).
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
And April...
The big story in April was shearing. We traditionally have shorn around the middle to end of March, but after two years of horrible cold snaps afterwards, I decided to hold off until the first week of April and then it poured rain for days and we postponed until the second week of April. The time lapse video of the afternoon was very fun.
The best part of April were that everyone was still here. Frail old Burrnie had moved into Eazy Breezy and loved being able to get some extra treats and still be able to go out to graze with some of his friends. We knew Kaala wasn't feeling well, but she was doing okay and still happy to hang out with her friends, eat treats and enjoy the tall grass in the side field.
Pinot dug a big hole under one of the huge sidewalk rocks. A big hole. I think it measured to something like 32 or 34 inches deep. I'd go out and re-measure it...but he turned right around and filled it back in. His fur is still stained brown on his back. He was a hard working bunny, day and night, and the hole was impressive.
Frankie and I did quite a bit of riding and I was pretty encouraged by our progress, especially working over ground poles. Tim made me a set of short cavaletti blocks.
The late winter/early spring sun was enjoyed by everyone. When it was not warm and sunny, the wool sweaters and winter coats kept everyone comfortable.
Betsy enjoyed the shearing party and a couple spinning parties. Betsy loves a party :-).
Lots of wool pictures. The fleeces were in better shape than I was afraid they might be with the long winter and delay in shearing. Maisie had picked up a chicken feather somewhere along the line and it made it through shearing so I tucked it in her wool bag.
Bullseye helped with skirting and became quite a lap sitter. He loves the barn and has several favorite spots in and around and sits out front at night.
The cake baking started. More about that to come.
Rebecca brought her bottle lamb over one afternoon and managed to get him back in the car to go home.
Gato arrived/returned and the other two horses lost their ever loving minds. I'm probably not going to add anything to that story (!).
Monday, June 9, 2025
Meanwhile...Back In March
As the days passed at the beginning of March and I didn't get the Month End done and didn't get it done and didn't get it done...I could feel the spiral...and could. not. make. myself. fix. it. I even gave up to the point that I turned all my calendars to April, which I don't let myself do until the compilation is finished.
I'm glad I finally got these caught up because A. there was a lot of March I'd forgotten about and B. there were a lot of Maisie and Short Round pictures in there. Maisie and Short Round still getting up and into trouble. Things are deteriorating with them and it was nice to know that not that long ago, everything was still fine.
Everything is still fine and whatever happens, when it happens, will be fine, but I am pretty sure if I didn't have these caught up, it would have been very, very hard to sit down and go through everything if everything wasn't still mostly fine.
A lot of these pictures made it to IG, but not all, and if they did they may not have been explained. There's at least one picture that even I can't explain*. I wish they'd all have been posted to the blog, but that obviously didn't happen, so here are some notes.
The month started with trying to trap a feral cat with a huge belly that I was sure, knowing my luck, was going to be a teenage mom. That was Bullseye and he thankfully ended up just being a really wormy boy cat and your can watch his transformation from feral to friendly after he got trapped and vetted. He's just as sweet as he looks.
The Iknitarod happened. Yeah, remember that? Noticed that I still haven't posted any finished pictures? Yeah, I'm still working on it, but it's close to being finished even though all the snow in Alaska has probably melted. I enjoyed "making time" to go sit and knit with a couple of the sheep in the yarn.
I hate how the pictures get cropped sometimes. I have no control over that and the barn camera picture of Murphy standing all by himself in the barn lot with no one wanting to follow him out to the cold field is disappointing. It's a funny shot in full.
*The fried chicken bone. I have no idea. It just appeared in the yard one day. (!)
I love the light in the winter.
I remodeled Pinot's Patio with a new fence and built some big wooden planters to put my flowers in this year. Big so they don't dry out so quickly and tall so Pinot doesn't eat them all. Don't worry, I planted some stuff for Pinot. I think that shows up next month.
I got a drum carder. More to come on that...I promise.
The purple martin scouts showed up and then the rest moved in. The video clip cut the sound off. That unmistakable sound is the sound of spring.
It rained a lot.
Frankie and Lancelot enjoyed doing all the stuff they've always done together - grazing, playing, taking turns watching while the other slept...best friends stuff. I miss those days. I don't regret taking Gato back. He has earned a nice retirement and lots of old lesson horses don't get those, but I wish the herd dynamic hadn't gotten so skewed.
I got a little stuffed sheep named Merino. He came from Loved Before and he needs his own intro post. Yes, I did knit him a warm wool sweater. That needs a post too. Since he came from across the pond, I thought he might enjoy watching The Great British Baking show so I added him to the Iknitarod team bag and brought him in for house knitting. More about the baking to come.
I kept all of Dug's kids from the previous year. I just couldn't bring myself to eat them so they lived on the counter in the kitchen all fall and winter and just as they started to look like they might not make it until spring, they did, and out they went to the garden and are doing Dug proud.
The picture of Maisie standing at the feed room door is a great story. As crazy as she's always been, Maisie is extremely polite while waiting for breakfast and dinner. She stands there waiting patiently...and because of that usually gets a little something extra :-).
Like the purple martins, the redbuds are another great mark of spring. Always beautiful.
Enjoy!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
A New/Old Horse
Long time readers of the blog might recognize this horse.
Or maybe you've noticed him on the blog header painting.
The dates are all foggy now, but I found some pictures of Gato back in 2012 and a picture of him still here when Hickory was here...which I'd have bet money that never happened, but there you go. Pictures don't lie. Thank goodness for the blog.
Gato has spent the last however many, many years at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, as part of their Equine Studies program. He has been a long time favorite there and, as was stipulated when we donated him to them, has returned here to retire. He's now 28 years old!
I picked him up yesterday and let him explore the front field by himself for a bit while the boys watched from their stalls. Everybody seemed pretty chill.
"I'd never do anything bad."
"Yeah, right, Lancelot!"
"Let's get him!"
Things started off okay, but Lancelot got very possessive of Frankie and told Gato to stay away from HIS best friend.
Gato said, "No problem. I'm just here to hang out and eat some grass."
And then Lancelot repeated, "I said STAY AWAY from Frankie!"
"Dude, I heard you the first time."
This continued on until things escalated to the point I had to lock the two idiots in one of the smaller paddocks so Gato could settle in in peace for the night. Everything seems to be going better this afternoon.
Boys...
Gato's in great shape for his age and is still a very beautiful horse. I'm glad to have him back here...even if Lancelot's not thrilled ;-).
Want a new puzzle?
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Schedules
Years ago, when I was thinking about starting my small sheep business, a good friend told me that the best part of working for yourself is that you get to pick your own hours. You can pick whichever 18 hours of everyday you want to work. She wasn't wrong. I've also heard that if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. That's not wrong either.
One thing I haven't enjoyed along the way is getting to the end of the day...or week...or year...and realizing that I didn't do all the things I wanted to do. This is a recurring theme and I know it's not just for me so that's all I'm going to say about that. There are probably thousands of books about that and I should probably just find make the time to read them.
I do think having a schedule helps me. I enjoy Tuesday nights because I "have" to join the Wool House Crafters zoom meeting. Some weeks I get more done than others, but I like having that set schedule...and the company is good :-). We meet for two hours and that's a good amount of time. It's amazing what you can get done in two hours if you just put your butt in the chair.
I'd love to dedicate every afternoon to "chair work", but I've tried that and I never manage to pull it off. Two hours isn't much time, but it's like spinning with a drop spindle. If you spin 5 minutes here, 10 minute there, 5 minutes another time, 20 minutes after dinner...at the end of the week you've probably spun more yarn than I have with my spinning wheel.
I use "probably" in that last sentence like I've actually done any spinning lately. Well, I did spend a little time at the end of the Kentucky Shepherd's Market last month spinning with some friends and it was really fun. Spinning IS really fun.
The same thing happened back at the first of the year when I was playing around with the little electric drum carder I am borrowing from a friend. Pulling those pretty batts off was really fun. It was nice...and a little weird...to have to be reminded why I started all this in the first place. Wool is fun. Take the time to enjoy it. MAKE the time to enjoy it.
So I know I can't show up from 1:00 to 4:00 every day. Seems silly, but we both know that if that was going to happen, it would have already happened. I don't work for myself as well as I work for other people.
I'm not even sure I can show up every day. I mean I show up for work every day, but not the butt in chair work. Obviously the animal care comes first. And if I have to be available on the farm, it's hard not to let the art side of life fall off. It's been a crazy start to the year. Hopefully things are settling down...just in time for spring :-o.
Here's the plan:
Monday - Catch up day. Set things up to make the rest of the week successful.
Tuesday - Wool House Crafters. Already on the schedule and anything goes.
Wednesday - Art Class. Butt in chair and pencil, pen, brush in hand.
Thursday - Spinning...or any fun wool work.
Friday - Make up day. Get the things done you didn't get done on Wednesday and Thursday (being realistic here).
Weekends are wild cards. Just try to be mindful of what you'd really like to do with your "one wild and precious life".
Okay, this post went way off the rails. My original plan was to tell you about the new I-64 Spring Fiber Fling yarn crawl we are participating in this month, but I'll have to try for that again tomorrow. That means I need to find a new picture to share today because anyone who's made it to the end of this epistle deserves a pretty or at least funny picture.
Hang tight while I search the archives....because I need to add photography into the schedule above. Okay, I've added the picture of me and Frankie having a meeting about our spring schedule the other morning. We're probably doomed ;-).
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