All things wool...and some feathers too.

Lila wren and Miss Frizz- a bantam cochin frizzle...aren't they beautiful?

This was a weekend of accomplishments...Fallon the crazy shetland was finally FINALLY shorn. It took a bit to get her to trust going into the sheep shed and then WHAM! The gate was shut. She'll probably never go in there again even for treats. I truely wish that we had the camera in there because there were some funny photos to be had of Will wrestling sheep. She pinned him once, honest! I wish I had some idea what the heck to call her color. It is a dark silvery brown...is there a dark musket?? It is awesome whatever it is. So now everyone is shorn and has some nice short toes as well.

We moved the mother ewes and thier babes out of the maternity ward and in with the rest of the gang. Those four were getting pretty fat out back I'm embarrassed to say! They are so very sweet, and of course, the rest of the sheep had to have their say using their skulls- even the most mild mannered. sigh. I probably shouldn't worry, since they are so chubby, that they aren't getting enough hay yet. The interesting part was getting the cozy double shed out of the maternity ward and into the pasture. It was four by eight and fairly solid. We had to put it on its roof and put some small diameter long logs underneath it and roll it all the way there, constantly picking up the logs from the back and running them out to the front...it was kinda fun!

To top it all off, Pikachu the white llama needed her toes trimmed. This is a major chore because of course, she does not like such things done to herself and won't stand nice and calm like a horse to have her toes trimmed. And no, at this point we don't have a chute to restrain her...Mom?! Need your wood working skills now that we have all those 2x4's!! Anyway...the way this goes is you suggest to her you'd like to trim her feet- she lays down. ON her legs. Then the good husband (laying on his belly in the dirt (that isn't really dirt but dried llama and sheep beans))tries to pull her leg to the side- it moves about two inches. BUT- I can see them when I push aside all the long belly hair (while on my knees contorting upside down with my hair dragging in the aforementioned dirt). Yup, I can feel the toes and the nail. Now, I have to reach under her with the clippers get the long horny nail in them and really, really reaf on the bloody things, and then out pops a long nail bonking off your forehead (if you are lucky). Those are the front feet- the back feet are even worse.... It is done though and that felt great!

Duncan and his favorite white crested polish

Jellybean and Taffy the nine week old english angoras were moved to their own individual pens...they seemed a little sad or shocked to be away from Mom, but she immediately stretched out and I swear you could see her say "Whew"! I actually had to pluck fiber from them and it is SOOOOOOO beautiful...Taffy's is a dark brownish grey, and Jellybeans a bluish grey tipped with black. Incredible.

The three week old babies are popping in and out of the box like popcorn in a pan. All the whites do have blue eyes, but I think the black gets all the attention from the kids because it looks so different from the rest!

Sam's eyes are hazel and the bunnies blue despite the red-eye flash

The chickens are also awesome. We could all spend hours just sitting there watching them- I don't miss having TV at all. Sirius Black, our black australorp rooster, crowed for the first time when I let them out of the coop on Thursday. It was so inspired, but all the chickens ran back into the coop when he did it the first time...he has repeated it everymorning since then. The other rooster just looks at him like "whats up with that Dude??" He hasn't even tried. It's okay though because he is so handsome...

Another notable mention for today was the harvest of our Inchillium Red Garlic...just in the nick of time...I used the last clove at dinner. It is so beautiful. Two more varieties to harvest in the next couple of days- German Red and Musik.

As I'm sitting here I'm having some decaf green tea and spinning up some of the white shetland (Nala) and cream angora (Buffy) blend . It spins wonderfully. It takes about ten minutes to upload a photo using our dial up...now you know why I don't post too often! It should be another busy week ahead of us...two more soccer games for the season (YEAH!!), hay to help put in the barn (someone elses barn for now...), trim the chicken coop, go to the farm to get milk (Yup, no more store bought milk for us! AND when the chickens start laying we can TRADE eggs for milk!!), harvest the rest of the garlic, go the work (oh crap!), etc...Friday is an unpaid furlough day so it is a short week. A money short week too! Oh well. It has been nice having an extra day off anyway. The kids are in bed, Will is in the green chair reading Tolkein, and soon I will have to go shut the chicken coop door and put them to bed too.