New Homes

Members of my flock are gradually finding great new homes. No trips to the stockyard recently. For that I'm grateful.It's hard to let some of my ewes go but fewer sheep will be better for me when I'm hauling hay this winter. There are still many left but I'm hoping they will move to new homes soon.

My children have moved to new homes as well. Molly settled in her new home in June and Tim is in the process of moving now. It amazes me that both have furnished their places with stuff from home. Can I possibly have had 3 houses worth of stuff in one house? Astounding but true. Their homes are ecletic and funky with a mish mash of furnishings but so homey and comfortable. Antiques that were stored in the barn after I left the antique business have been washed and polished or painted finding new homes and new lives. Grandma's 1960's maple diningroom set lives again with updated funky chairs. She would be so happy. There will actually be an empty corner or two once all the moving is done! MMMMM room for more wool and with less sheep more time to spin it.

Stuff!

Grandma's dining room set gone funky..

Time is Flying

Haven't posted in soo long. Bill continues chemo and gets weaker by the day. Thankfully we have AC this year so at least the first floor is cool for him.

Molly and Tim both have new homes. I am loving helping them get settled but in the meantime my house is chaos with boxes and furniture waiting to be moved piled everywhere.

I have decided to give up my fiber business and reduce my flock. I will still be at Rhinebeck in October but 2011 was my last year at MD. I've lived with that decision since May and it feels right. 25 years of teaching and 25 years of wool festivals. Looks like a pattern. Maybe now I will have time to spin and knit again.

Anyone interested in Shetland or Bluefaced Leicester stock please contact me.

Another One of Those Days

The day began by pulling my ewes into the barn for a general check up. They have been in the upper pasture since their lambs were weaned. everyone was gaining weight and looking good. Eye color was ++++ in all. No worming needed. After a visit with all of them, they went back to their upper pasture.
My hay farmer called telling me to ready myself for some really nice bales of grass hay. I cleared the loft and opened the doors. Having hay in my barn this early in the season is exhilarating! I'm ready for winter feeding. Hopefully I won't have to feed these bales in July as I did last year, leaving me to hunt for additional bales last spring when there weren't any. 2011 was the first year I had to buy hay in the spring and it was frustrating.
Things were going great. Now to take the new GM car to the dealer for a recall. Why should a new car need bolts in the linkage? I'm hostile as I enter the service area. I left my cell phone # and left with Molly being told the car would be ready in 45 minutes. Returning an hour later, Molly left and I sat and watched my car on the lift still being serviced. The service manager asked me to move to the customer area to wait. There was awful coffee probably made this morning, car magazines and a copy of the York paper. I chose the paper. Typically York, there was no world news so I read the obituaries and did the crossword puzzle. Still no car so I moved to the kiddie area hoping for something to entertain myself. YES.... a home decorating magazine from 2009. Finally after 2 hours, I went to the desk to ask about my car. The manager told me he had called me.... AT HOME and left a message an hour ago. What about the cell # you asked for? Hello, didn't you see me sitting here? I'm convinced they would have closed the service department and left me sitting there. What ever happened to customer service? My time is valuable too so I asked that they credit me with 1 hour of mechanic's time on my next visit. Wanting to get rid of me, the manager agreed. Why is everyone else's time valuable but mine?????

The Craziness Continues

May was hectic with so much going on and June is repeating the pattern. All Molly's Utah stuff has been relocated to VA in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. . She begins grad school in August. We have been painting her new home vibrant colors. I wake up at night with my hand curled as though there is a brush in it and the yellow in my hair is better than gray. Thanks to all the blogs with cheap decorating ideas and thrift stores we are creating a really cool place. In fact I like it so much that she may find me on her doorstep more than she wants me!!!! Payback for my painting expertise.

Our last trip to VA we hauled my mother's dining room set in our pickup truck. It's 1960's classic maple and it weighs a ton. My mother would be so proud to see it live again in retro style with colorful new chairs. The trip down was eventful. The happy teddy bear sheet that was wrapped around the top of the hutch fell down between the cab and the truck bed wrapping around the drive shaft. It made a noise that caused me pull over in record time. I couldn't believe I was sliding under the truck on the roadside untangling a sheet of teddy bear faces as traffic whizzed by. Two muffler burns on my arms later the drive shaft was free, only to find that the sheet had taken out the catalytic converter too. At least the truck still drives with the emissions light on the dash lit. It could have been worse.

We are going back on Wednesday to install a glass tile backsplash in the kitchen and paint some more. In the meantime we are still searching through the barn for amazing items with possibilities. No more sheets wrapped around things though.

Home Again

Molly graduated from Utah State! Not one to miss a cross country road trip I flew out to help her drive her car and "stuff" home. The car was so tightly packed that I was instructed that all I could bring was a change of underwear and a bottle of Febreze. Fortunately with some shipping and donated items Molly created enough room for me and a small squishy bag. After spending night one in Salt Lake with some great transplanted East Coast friends we were headed southeast to Colorado. Our planned route included a few sights and friends we wanted to see and over 2000 miles. We got a sheep fix with the Lloyds in Colorado and headed southwest( yes, southwest) to Mesa Verde, a place I've always yearned to see. Refusing to obey the Garmin, we took the Colorado Mountain route instead of the Utah route. Big mistake... 12 inches of snow got us stranded in Telluride,Co. Never dreamed we'd spend a day there but it turned out to be a beautiful stop. When the Lizard Pass finally opened, we were off to Mesa Verde. There was no snow on that side of the Rockies. Had we listened to Garmin we would have been to Mesa Verde already but what a ride we would have missed. Touring the cliff dwellings of the early Southwest tribes was as great as I had hoped. History comes alive in our National Parks for sure. From there we listened to the garmin and took this amazing mountaintop road to Taos, NM. to see Bill's granddaughter and her husband. Sarah and John were surprised that the road was open due to recent snowfall. Garmin would have been thrown out the window if we had gotten all the way to the top of that mountain only to find the gates closed and the road snowcovered! Our stay in John and Sarah's adobe desert home off the grid was cut short due to time lost in the snow but every minute with them was perfect. I am determined to go back to Taos again soon. We hiked up into the Carson National Forest and walked the Rio Grande Bridge. Beautiful. We're home. Back to sheep duties and life in general, but it was a perfect escape week.

Maryland Sheep And Wool This Weekend.

My booth will be in the Vendors North area. I am no longer near the info tent. I missed so many people last year. Hope you find me this year in cooler temperatures. I will have both Shetland and BFL products as well as 4 Leicester lambs for sale. Here they are.