2010 Continues.... Murphy's Law Prevails

Brew a pot of coffee for this blog. It's a doozie! Today I had my ewes artificially inseminated for the first time. I had purchased semen and was happy that it had arrived just in time for my date. Good luck there but it all goes downhill at this juncture. I borrowed a trailer from my friend so I could haul my 6 ewes to the procedure site. As long as I am going forward I can pull a trailer. The trailer was parked in mud this morning so Bill and were like hogs on ice getting the thing hooked up. Bill walks with a cane but his cane wasn't any help stabilizing him. Finally hooked, we pulled out onto our little country road which is now the detour for 2 main roads. It's rush hour and passing traffic is not happy that we had taken up on side of the road to load sheep. My ewes, not being halter broke , do not want to lead to the trailer but with the help of my friend Bev we get them loaded. At this point we notice that the jack on the trailer is only inches from the road surface. We need to switch hitch balls. Out comes the hydraulic jack, which has to be used from the road side of the trailer since the barnyard side isn't level. More comments from passing traffic but I didn't care since their traffic has been a pain for us for the last year. OK now we have the correct hitch ball and are off. Still time to get there on time. The garmin took us on the scenic route but Bev and I were enjoying the barn arcitecture as were traveled. 3 miles from our destination we come to a bridge that is closed with no prior warning. Did I mention that I can't back up a trailer. After trying my charm on the road workers to proceed ... they said I was too heavy for the bridge... add insult to injury guys! So much for charm, I made a U turn in the front yard of the house by the bridge. Good thing we had that jack raised or we would have made a huge divot in the grass. Bev was hiding under the dash waiting for incoming fire as we made our getaway. The DOT workers yelled something but feeling like Jesse James in Northfield I put the pedal down. Thankfully the garmin rerouted us to our destination but we were late and lost our turn. I enjoyed watching the procedure on all the sheep in front of us. I even helped. I was so stressed by this time that being "gas man" took my mind off the day. Finally... our turn. I found someone to back the trailer in and we got my ewes ready to go. OH NO.. my semen straws are not in their containers. Somehow they had been dumped into the bottom of the nitrogen tank and are irretrievable. Choices now are
1. go home 2. use semen from another ram in the tank which I will have to pay for 3. or use semen from another breed of sheep Choosing option 2 we now discover that there are only 4 straws of Bluefaced Leicester semen in the tank and I have 6 ewes. Splitting straws is now in my vocabulary because that is what we did on 4 ewes. Conception is not 100% under the best conditions so I'm not looking at good odds right now. I choose to be pessimistic because a pessimist can only be made happier,right? Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised when all 6 ewes conceive. Those 15 straws that I paid for are still in the tank but do I want to do this again? I don't think I can afford it financially or mentally. Bev and I did laugh all the way home. What else could we do? My Murphy's Law flag will be flying tonight.

Rhinebeck

Rhinebeck was perfect. Usual Autumn weather, which I love, and a really well attended show. It was so much fun seeing other breeders from all over the country. Robina and Shirley were in from OR. I only wish I could have spent more time with them. Shirley was amazed at the size of the Rhinebeck show! It is a fabulous wool show for sure. Lisa and I were so busy in the booth that we couldn't escape to get food on Saturday....NO complaints tho.... busy is good. We didn't get to party as much this year since everyone was super tired at the end of the day. That's good too, I guess. Thanks to Bill's lighting purchases, our booth was well lit and beautiful this year. Sending that man to a hardware guarantees more than anyone could ever imagine.

Got home late late night and had to get up at 5 to give hormone shots to my ewes being inseminated this Wednesday. Everything has come at once. Maybe I can sleep after Wednesday???

Pre Rhinebeck Fiber Frenzy

We leave for Rhinebeck NY show on Friday. Yesterday I got a wild idea to make Shetland roving with tencel and another batch of Shetland with silk to sell at Rhinebeck. Usually I have my roving done by professionals, but since this was last minute I fired up my Supercard. Now don't get me wrong, I like my supercard and it gives me the most wonderful batts to spin but it takes forever!!! Not getting empaled on the picker was a good start. But I could feel myself getting frustrated by the rate the carder was going, so I got a cup of coffee. This made me move faster but it didn't help the carder speed one bit. Tencel was in my coffee, my mouth and stuck to me everywhere. I was moving at the same rate of speed as I did when I took steroids a few years ago. Dinner thrown in the oven and I was and back to carding. By this time I had produced eight four ounce bags!! Don't know if I can take another day of this. From now on Biltmore Fiber Mill can do my carding and deliver it to my booth. So much for being cheap and trying to do it myself. My nerves can't take it! The only joy was spinning samples of the fibers. OOO La La. Dinner was so-so but each mouthful provided enough strands of tencil and silk to floss our teeth while chewing.

Rusty

Since Tim's last dog find was returned to his rightful home it was just a matter of Tim til he came home with a new adoptee. Here is is... Rusty a Cairn Terrier/Jack Russell. Molly's dog Judy just loves him. She and Rusty run around just like she did when Garrett came with Sadie. It's funny to see Judy the lump move so quickly. More doghair in the corners!

Facebook

OK.... Today I gave up the fight to protect my children's privacy and NOT join Facebook. For years now I have allowed Tim and Molly to be themselves on Facebook without my scrutiny . I thought they were happy with that decision. Today I finally caved in to friends and relatives denying me pictures unless I went to their Facebook site and secretly ( or so I thought ), set myself up on Facebook. It wasn't long before I got calls from both Molly and Tim berating me for not friending them . (Aside, spellcheck doesn't recognize the word friending.) Guess a mother just never does anything right!

With this new Facebook status, I have done something unheard of... posted pictures of myself on line. Usually I don't even agree to allowing a picture to be taken but I must finally be accepting the fact that I am who I am and there's a lot more of me. There's no hiding it anymore. Some people grow old gracefully but I'm going down in denial all the way. At least I can still find my way home.

Shawls.... Love 'EM

I love shawls. When I taught first grade, I used to flap around the room in one like a giant crane, tickling the kids with the fringe. Many of those children are probably suffering from "shawlophobia" as adults and seeking professional help.

I still have the shawl I wore on my first Communion Day thousands of years ago. It was made by my Italian neighbor who taught me to knit in Italian. That's probably what I like best about my shawls.. .the memories they evoke. Every shawl in my collection reminds me of a the person who made it. One was made by my spinning guild for a demonstration. It is a conglomeration of thick and thin singles that would make a sheep to shawl judge cringe but it's made from the wool of my first sheep. I laugh to think of the day we made it. The bagpipe player began accompaniment, playing faster and faster. Of course, we spun faster and faster til someone screamed in a tangled mess of over spun yarn .

My Shetland sheep and a Scottish grandmother gave me the impetus to learn more about traditional Shetland knitting and try my hand at some shawls of my own. Not finely spun or well knit, they have made me feel connected to my sheep and my Grandmother' homeland. There is something special about knitting with wool from your own sheep and putting a name on the fiber.

This summer I fell in love with a shawl made by Tari Lohrey at the Wooster show. It was handspun BFL wool, dyed with natural dyes. The pattern was Irish, the other part of me. I couldn't believe that Tari agreed to trade her beautiful shawl for one of my sheep! It is in my collection and another treasured memory.

With Fall in the air, I'm anxious to get some of those shawls out and go swooping around again.(Get your children off the streets.) Elisabeth counts the sheep pictures in my house. Maybe I'll get her to count my shawls.

Ramona aka Daisy

Remember Tim's canine stray Jack Russel who arrived while I was away? Well she became a member of the family. Tim named her Ramona but Dad kept calling her Magnolia. Tim bought her a new collar,special food, a bed etc.Romona went everywhere with Tim. She had moved in for sure, until last Friday. Tim had her out for their usual walk when a passing car stopped and the driver yelled "Daisy....you have my dog!" Tim was stunned as Ramona/Daisy happily hopped right in the car and never looked back. Not so much as a parting wave of the tail. (Sort of like the Irish kid we kept for the month of July.)
Well, Tim just showed me a picture of a dog at the shelter that he'd like to get. Just when I had just gotten used to being a 2 dog household again.

To be continued....I'm sure.