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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