Sheep Sewing Project on a Hot Summer Day

It is 90 degrees outside.

The "feels like" temperature is 98.

That is ridiculous.

My mission today:  be creative and productive inside with the air conditioning:)

Last week my mom and I went down to Charm in Amish Country and stopped at Miller Dry Goods, a favorite sewing store of ours. I fell in love with this sheep pattern, "Sheepish Grin".  After spending $112 dollars ( they were having a great sale;) and listening to my mom tell me I was never going to sew any of this stuff, I had to prove mom wrong!

So today, I dusted off my old sewing machine and decided to make a blanket. Ok, I have to confess, I bought a brand new sewing machine on Black Friday last year. I just took it out of the box today, like actually cut the packing tape to open it....lol.  It has 50 built in stitches and 87 stitch functions and a bunch of offer things. I put it back in the box till my mom can supervise me....it was too overwhelming to deal with and I didn't want to crush my creative momentum.

I am almost done with the blanket.

The blanket will be perfect when........

.......it's snowing outside.......

......and temperature is below 32 degrees.

Wow, I almost got a chill thinking out it!

Back to my sheep sewing project...... don't want to break the momentum:)

Chicken Coop Capers

Living with chickens does not come without its challenges.

Common sense sometimes never makes sense.

I wanted chickens so I built a chicken coop for the chickens......

Common sense.

I even had nesting boxes installed so they could lay their eggs......common sense.

Now this is where common sense becomes foggy.

Enter the lawn mower bag.

The chicken in the lawn mower bag.

Common sense really becomes distorted now.

Egg in the lawn mower bag.

Wow.

All that money I spent on a chicken coop and all I needed was a lawn mower bag.

Again my college education failed me.

Who said chickens weren't smart?

Fairy Garden Delight

It's Friday night in the fairy garden.....

.......sometimes life is just crazy like that:)

One Cute Mini-LaMancha Buck

I just love little surprise breeding.

Just when you think all the babies have been born.....SURPRISE!

So 2 weeks ago I got a surprise.

I thought the mini- lamancha doe pictured below looked pregnant but her udder was not really large.  So why was I surprised when I found her with this little cutie one morning and a nice udder?  

I wasn't.  Stranger things have happened at the homestead.  I have learned to take things in stride:)

He is really developing a personality!

His sire is a pure bred lamancha and his mom is a mini-LaMancha. He has lamancha ears and the cutest little waddles! 

If anyone is interested in mini-lamanchas, this little guy is a keeper;)

Nap time with Mom

Taking a little nap with mom 

on Mother's Day....

..doesn't get much better than that:)

Sheep Shearing Day

Today was shearing day.

It ranks as one of the most stressful days of the year for me.

Today was the only day of the week that had zero chance of rain.

I prayed really hard that it stayed that way.

Corraling the sheep is always a treat. That little grey ewe pictured above is my menace and one of the squirumest sheep to shear.

I used grain to sucker  gather all the sheep into 2 main stalls.

33 suckers sheep were all set for Trevor to shear. Trevor is an awesome shearer! More to come on him in the post on the alpaca shearing.

When all was done it was pretty impressive.

I piled all the wool on the screened-n-porched......so many bags of wool....so many ideas......

Baby Goat Bullying

On the left is a 5 week old mini lamancha buck.

On the right is a 2 week old mini lamancha doe.

 I think the doe might weigh 5 lbs. The buck is a little chunk. 

It's hard to tell who is bullying who.

She stood her ground and made her point!

She definitely thinks she is a little hottie:)