Where to begin?

Since lambing season began in May it has been nonstop crazy busy.  

Here are some of the (non lamb) highlights:

Sam turned 10!

Seven visiting kids, hotdogs over the campfire, cheese doodles and watermelon.

Oh yes, Deja had her twins during the middle of the cookout so I missed that.

 

  Got back just in time to light the candles though!

 That very same day, at the same time as the party, Lila had a girl scout end of season gathering at Chamberlin's Ole Forest Inn which was a bit on the swanky side.  She refused to wear a dress.

I rather like her fashion sense...the cotton glovelets have a smidge of lace at the bottom and the white imprint of a skull on the back.  She was the coolest chick there.  

The food was ALL desserts!

Since then, the lambs have kept growing.  Sam received a camera for his birthday and has been practicing taking lots of pictures.  He loves the lambs (they are even bigger now!).

 Sam patting Uist.

 THIS is what has taken up the vast majority of our time. 

Setting fence corners (Will's tenon and mortised cedar posts) and gates...

(isn't that awesome grass?)

and stretching fence.

(I will have another post on this later).

This is a new face!  Her name is Snickers and she has been living at our house for less than two weeks.  She came to us full of kittens!  She is a tiny wee kitty and is a sweetheart.

 Snickers had five kittens under Will's dresser nine days ago.

I moved them into a box in my closet after heaping all the clothes out onto the floor....

and she moved them underneath the bathroom sink, because, you know, that is a more comfortable spot.

Two calico's, one orange tiger, one black/brown tiger, and one black kitten with white paws.

Their eyes are just opening now and I will get more photos of them up soon.

The kids want to keep all five....

Lila came back from Authorquest an amazingly confident writer with new ideas and processes for writing.

What a wonderful opportunity!

This is a photo of Lila with Johnathan Rand and I'd love to know the story about the guy behind the tree...

 The sheep were shorn last Friday....

 ...and now all this needs to be skirted and washed and processed

(along with the 20 alpaca blankets which I'm working on this weekend).

This weekend I'm also working on finishing up the garden...way behind there.  All the plants are in the ground and I've spend much of the day carting waste hay that is mixed with sheep and camelid poo to mulch the tomato plants.  Will is on his way home from an auction in Escanaba...buying lumber for the bunny barn and goodness knows what else!  He scored a couple of cool things from an auction last week in the central U.P. which I will take photos of to show you later.

May and June have flown by too quick!  Haying starts next week, we need to prep for the Ewe-per fiber fair and then getting ready for our trip to NH...and I haven't lined up a house sitter yet (gulp!).  Any takers???