A Long Two Weeks

I don't have much to report, but it has felt like these past couple of weeks have stretched out well over their apportioned time. First I had to pick poor Sam up from school on a Friday because he felt nauseous. He and Duncan were supposed to be spending the night at a friends house that evening and staying there all day Saturday. Sam hadn't been home for more than an hour before he started throwing up and the diarrhea started. He started feeling better Saturday morning when we got the call from Matthew's father that Duncan had thrown up....so Will went and got him and the two boys could commiserate. It all passed in a couple of days. So far so good for the rest of us.
Lila had Valentines day off and she and I visited with a friend who met us for lunch in Manistique at the Upper Crust Cafe which is right on Lake Michigan and has the best deli sandwiches..... Joanne brought Lila some Sayklly's truffles and a teddy bear, and fiber stuff for me! Lila also had Presidents Day off and she and I were going to do something fun but.....yes, she woke up at 2:00am throwing up and woke me to say she had vomited in the sink. I won't go up into the difficulties of cleaning vomit out of a sink, but it is sufficient to say it doesn't just go down the drain. I did learn a little bit about the digestibility of asparagus and how well my daughter masticates her food.

Oh, and Mull had to be removed yet again from cavorting with the ladies. He was going over the wall launching from his dog house hide-away. July lambs indeed! I think I was stuck in the driveway once this past week and then we had some really cruddy weather that was sleety with high winds that knocked the power out for a day. And to top it all off, Duncan had a sore throat on Thursday and turns out it is Strep throat. Antibiotics for ten days. On the bright side, my Jury duty was cancelled for Monday, everyone is feeling pretty good now, we played some Yahtzee, and there was a snow day!
I did sneak in some fiber fun too.

Joanne brought me this older Pat Green production carder to try out. It makes lovely batts.

The grey fiber some of last years clip from "Lady Tamar" one of the new huacaya girls we bought.

This is the yarn I spun up from that batt. It is just over a half ounce and it is pretty. Not quite as dark as the photo, but a solid medium grey.
Joanne also gave us these two new large alpaca rugs/ wall hangings/ throws to sell to help offset the cost of shearing this spring. We have a professional shearing crew coming out to shear and trim toes and grind teeth this year. It is more expensive than what we were doing but will be worth it i think. Doing teeth is a bit formidable! The alpaca throws are just under 4' x 5'. The original price on them was $250 for the elephant and $175 for the stag (which is slightly smaller). If anyone has an interest, make us an offer! :) They are in beautiful shape and are very cool! (And unbelievably soft).

I've had to hide them away because the kittens think they are for biting...they have an unhealthy fiber fetish and I've had to take away Lila's stuffed alpaca fur bears from them many times.....a bit disconcerting to see a kitten carrying around a teddy bear and mauling it.

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July Surprise?

We have our Shetland breeding group in the front pen, same as in years past. All has been well and Muckle Mull has his three girls and two additional ewes that are already bred in with him. He has had a roving eye though and has been ocularly fondling the ewes on the other side of the fence.

Imagine my surprise when yesterday I was in the main barn feeding the larger group of sheep and the camelids when I looked down and saw Mull gazing up at me with innocent eyes and what I swear was a smirk....he meekly followed me and a bucket of oats back to the breeding pen, where I fixed up where I THOUGHT he was going over with a couple of panels. Seemed to work and he stayed in there all day. This morning, however, he was back in the other pen! Grrrrrr. I picked him up and put him back over the fence (he weighs about 45 pounds and the fence is only sticking out of the deep snow about two feet). He laughed, I swear. I put more panels up.

Mr. Muckle Mull may have spent two entire nights in with the ewes I wasn't planning to breed. He may have been successful at seducing some receptive females with his flashy good looks and come hither eyes. Sheep have a 145 day gestation period so I've marked early July as possible lambing dates on the calendar.....at least they won't freeze!

 

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Hey Lady; Do you wanna Duck?

On my way home yesterday I stopped at the local market in Curtis to pick up a gallon of milk. The lovely Mandy said "would you like a duck too?". I did a double take at the poor frightened Common Goldeneye on the floor. It had been dropped off by one of the delivery people who found it on the highway. Many diving ducks mistake dark or iced pavement for rivers and unsuspectingly crash down onto hard pavement, and because their legs are set so far back on their bodies they can't move. Diving ducks are not good at walking but are damn good swimmers. I scooped the poor fellow up, brought him home and made a makeshift pond out of an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tote. I also had stopped at the bait store for a couple dozen small fish which I also put in the tub. He greedily ate every fish! Our guest spent the night floating with his bill tucked into the feathers on his back. This morning I went back for more fish, and while I was doing chores he ate half a dozen more.

I released him in Portage Creek right here in town which is the only open water I know of for miles. Hopefully with a full belly he can find his way back to his raft of comrades who are likely in the Straits of Mackinac. I stupidly left the remaining fish in the tub and left the bathroom door open. I suspect the kittens are having some fun....

During our recent flirt with Arctic air I took these photos of "frost feathers" that appeared magically overnight on the breeding sheep's water bucket. It was also very sunny that morning, so there are at least some perks to -15 Fahrenheit.

 

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Skadi

"God's Country" is what Michigan's Upper Peninsula is often called. What isn't widely known, is that the "God" in question is the Norse Goddess Skadi; the goddess of ice and winter....and apparently she is mightily pissed off!

No school today or tomorrow because of the cold (colder than the last cold snap). The kids are beside themselves with joy. The adults on the other hand had lots of barn prep and snow moving to do and we aren't looking forward to morning chores!

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Lady Tamar and Neha Von Hershey

Brrrr.....again. Chores were done in -11 degrees Fahrenheit this morning so little skin was exposed. I accidentally reversed the camera on my phone and took this all too real photo in my humble barn clothes.

My hair IS getting some grey, but those exposed stray bits are covered in frost!

Yesterday Will and I went on a big adventure to Menominee County (just about ten miles from Wisconsin), to visit an alpaca farm that was retiring. There were nine females left and we brought home two (showing good restraint I thought); Lady Tamar and Neha Von Hershey. They sound like baronesses from Ankh Morpork!

Neha is a black registered huacaya alpaca out of champion bloodlines. She has a sweet face and lovely black fiber. Tamar is rose grey in color and very soft too! The breeders were retiring and selling these girls at rock bottom prices. I mean that too.....Duncan could have bought one with the money he's been saving in his piggy bank ( darn! I should have asked him if he wanted one!). There was one more that tempted me with beautiful deep dark mahogany brown fiber. We are rounding out our colors and fiber types nicely with these two. I have my eyeball on a gorgeous dark grey huacaya on the Far East end and hope her price will come down as she isn't registered or breed-able. She has the longest and softest dark fiber I have ever felt.

In addition, they gave us ALL of last years clip from fourteen animals! I'm overwhelmed with fluffy goodness in a rainbow of alpaca colors. Of course it all needs to be sorted and washed and processed...

Kudos to Will for all the work he did digging out our friends trailer so we could go get the girls (and the fiber)!

 

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I'm not complaining....

I'm not going to bore everyone with dire weather reports, because we're pretty much all in the same boat.

That said; it is eight degrees below zero with a -31 degree wind chill.

We are toasty warm inside and I hope the wooly beasts are warn enough without. They do have good bedding, warm fiber, and strength in numbers. These are the kind of conditions that sort out the weak from the strong though. But enough. I did get out to visit and snap some photos yesterday.

My beautiful Fancy Pants.

She is nine years old and is going to break my heart someday.

Fancy and Foula

 

Muckle Mull and his ewes

Sweet, shy Maya

I think it is the little tilt of the head that steals my heart.

Nala and Deja

Daisy is not missing out on groceries! She is half shetland and half cormo bred to Mull for lushly wooled babies.....in late April when it will hopefully be warm again.

 

 

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Merry Merry Ho Ho Ho!

We are working on a second batch of Christmas brunch mimosa's so feeling slightly buzzy.... :)

I told the boys up no earlier than 6:00 this morning, so at 6:02 they were down to get us up. We spent Christmas Eve at Dougette's house and had a wonderful time as usual. Dinners main dish was corned venison and it was delightful! Rachel's beau Orson made me the most incredible Bloody Mary so that I unabashedly asked for a second. It was SO tasty...ground black pepper floated on the top and there was a jalapeño stuffed olive, a pickled tarragon ramp/leek, and a dilly bean in the bottom for snacking on. I've never had a better one. Laurel made all the pickled goodies and they were delicious. Home by 10:45 in time to get the kids to bed since Santa was well on his way. Will and I made it to bed by 1:30. We will need naps.

Some loot highlights: Star Trek original series (Lila) (bad captain), Star Trek next gen (me!) (good captain!), the entire Simpsons series, Black Sheep knitting mysteries, Seaside Knitting mysteries, Legos, art supplies, DS games, Snow Tubes!, snow castle building molding blocks, books!, scotch, a splitting axe, hickory shirts, tea, cheese, kittie doors, the whole earth seed catalog, canned goods, beautiful native copper earrings, knitted hats, hoodie sweatshirts.....and eight inches of fluffy snow overnight.

We will have some family guests the next few days also that everyone is looking forward to seeing; uncle tommy and the cousins and grandma and grandpa. Wish we could beam in all those far flung MacKinnon's too. The prime rib is resting on the counter and there are other simple dinner preparations to be done in due time. Right now we are enjoying some lazy time after doing animal chores and picking up a bit. I think the best gift I had today was a big hug from Will. I can do without everything else, but those are essential.

Merry Christmas and Peace to you all friends.

 

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Happy Winter Solstice!

Happy Winter Solstice and Merry Yule to all!

We've had a busy day here; we've made Rugelach (apricot and cinnamon/sugar/nut), Celtic creme (our Version of Irish cream), butter mints in three flavors, and lip balm.  Home made chicken noodle soup and Eggplant parmesan are thawing and will be supper soon.

The yule fire has been lit just now, whilst still daylight. I'll post a picture of it all ablaze in a bit.

Meanwhile, instead of sending out paper cards this year we decided to make you all an electronic one. 

 It is a little silly, but then I guess we are too.

Click here to see the card! 

Chicken Sweaters

I'm afraid this is a photoless post so I don't give away any Christmas/Yule surprises.

I started knitting some gifts a few weeks back and one of them was a hat for Sam. He had picked out the yarn a few months back and I was afraid he would recognize it when he saw me knitting with it. Of course, I started the hat and he saw it and wanted to know what I was knitting. At a loss for a good answer I told him "a chicken sweater, because it is going to get cold and some of the old chickens will need one".

Evidently he remembered that. His hat has been done for awhile, but I was working on another hat for a gift yesterday and he said "working on another chicken sweater, huh?" (And he is totally serious about this) Well......"yes!" I said.

So, here starts the beginning of one of those familial legends and hats will now forever be "chicken sweaters" in my mind.

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Uh oh!

A fiber optic cable was cut in the Eastern Upper Peninsula by a bridge that collapsed; apparently the victim of all the recent rain over the weekend, which has left three counties without 911 service and mostly without telephone service as well.
Will was called in to sub at the school so I did chores and them went off to work. Around two o'clock one of the administrative staff at work said "I saw a post on facebook that your animals are out"! I couldn't call anyone to check so drove the half hour home hoping I wouldn't find animals in the road. I pulled in the driveway and all seemed peaceful, but I did see animal tracks dancing up the driveway and the critters seemed a bit agitated.
Will came home soon thereafter and said someone had stopped at the school to let him know and it happened to be at lunch time so he was able to come home and put them away after finding them next door at the Heatherington's.
I believe the quote was "My wife is good at many things, but closing gates isn't one of them".

I might need one of these signs by mypoolsigns! Thanks Will for bailing me out again......

Here is a link to purchase this lovely sign... http://www.mypoolsigns.com" target="_blank"> MyPoolSigns.com

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