Something doesn’t belong

Look!!!  We have baby chicks.

You may think it is the black one that doesn’t belong, but look closer…

one of them is a baby duck

The mama is being great to all of her adopted babies.  None of these babies are actually ‘hers’.  They are all from eggs from other hens.  She had her mind set on being broody and I felt bad for her, so I gave her some fertile eggs.  She has 5 chicks and 1 duckling.

Baby chicks aren’t as fun to play with as ducklings, but he was still enjoying them.

There’s a bunch of pretty colors – all the way from solid yellow to solid black.  I have no idea what they will turn out like, except for the duckling   All of the chicks are some sort of silkie cross – they are the best mamas.

The whole family had to be moved because we have several camping trips on the calendar and the pen that the chickens are in isn’t chick proof.  They can fit through the smallest crack!  My brother made these off the ground pens for me when we had the raccoon attack.  I have two that are empty and they are the perfect place for a mama chicken and her brood.

Now that all of the babies are hatched and they are in a safe house it is time… 

for…

a…

little…

nap.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

A new blog and a giveaway!

I have been struggling with promoting my fiber studio on this blog, I would like to keep it a little more personal and WordPress does not support selling items, so I have started another blog over at Blogger.  In celebration of the new blog I am having a giveaway over there. 

Here is a hint…

Join me at - Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio  

Favorites from the weekend

I went to the race meets this weekend and had a great time.  SORCA (Southern Oregon Racing and Coursing Association) is a small club trying to get established and everyone is so nice.  I took pictures both days and enjoyed visiting with people I haven’t seen in awhile.  It was a little sad that Paisley couldn’t participate – she loves to run - but it isn’t safe for her to race after her accident. 

I love seeing the hounds run!

As you can see they certainly enjoy it.  These beautiful dogs are Salukis and came all the way from Redding, CA.

The dogs ranged in size from these little Italian Greyhounds…

all the way up to these guys. 

They thundered down the field.  It was very impressive watching them – they are Scottish Deerhounds.

This little girl is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and it was her first time running in competition.  She was a little confused and was looking for her mommy. 

She had it figured out by the second day.

This group of Whippets was a lot of fun to watch – they were very evenly matched and really pushed themselves.

The Silken Windhounds were my favorite to watch.  They are about the size of a whippet and were created using the whippet, borzoi, and sheltie!  Quite the combination. 

You can really see the sheltie influence in this little girl’s face.

The weather was beautiful and fun was had by all – not a bad weekend!

You can visit my photo website to see all of the pictures from the weekend.

Black Sheep Gathering – Part II

Black Sheep Gathering is full of fiber arts and inspiration!!! 

I started my Spinner’s Lead entry several months ago, but I was still working on it Thursday morning – just a few hours before leaving.

As you can see, I had a lot of little helpers – too bad they couldn’t sew snaps on.  They were using the excuse of no thumbs… 

Here is my finished jacket.  I entered it in the Fiber Arts division and it placed second in the felted division.

My son entered his felted snake in the Pee Wee division and won 1st place and then went on to win Reserve Champion in the whole felted division… 

right behind this entry.  I was in awe!  It was felted by a 14 year old that also raises Jacobs.

Here is the back – I love the sea turtle.

 

Thanks to a few good friends, I have some pictures of us in the Spinner’s Lead class.

These pictures are from Joan at Mud Ranch.

While I was wet felting the fabric for my jacket, my son felted his scarf.  He very proudly told everyone that he wet felted it and that his sheep was a ram    

This picture is a little blury, but you can see the different colors in my jacket.  The back is a beautiful hue of brown, the front is cream, and the sleeves are a brownish gray.  I used the fleece from Symphony and am walking Symphony’s sister, Infiniti.

They limited the Spinner’s Lead class to 20 this year, last year there were 30 entries!!!

To see individual pictures of the entries, visit Michelle’s blog.

This entry was the winner.  She knit it!!!  She copied the watercolor picture from her farm sign.  It was amazing.

This piece is my inspiration for next year’s Spinner’s Lead class.  I best get started now.

 

Black Sheep Gathering – part I

What a great weekend!!!  There is so much to share that I am going to do several posts.  This post is all about the jacob sheep show on Friday.  There were many beautiful representatives of the jacob breed and some of the classes were pretty big.

 

Ram lamb class

Yearling ram class

My son has been so excited to show his ram – Reno.  You have to see this ram in person to appreciate his temperament and I will preface these pictures with the comment that I don’t like friendly rams, they usually turn into mean rams and you always have to be careful around ALL rams.  That being said this ram is one of those odd ducks.  He doesn’t come up to us out in the pasture but once you put the halter on he becomes a big puppy dog.  He isn’t pushy and has always been respectful.  They are quite the pair!

I was there the whole time, but he did a great job by himself.

He was thrilled when he got a ribbon…

and gave Reno a big smooth   I sure hope Reno keeps this mellow attitude.  My son has already picked out a few ewes to breed him to.

Three great ladies – Cathie from Swallow Lane, Karen from bide a wee, and Joan from Mud Ranch.

This big boy is Windy Acres Cisnero and was Champion ram.

bide a wee Winsome was Champion ewe and is a beautiful girl.

bide a wee Gerald was Reserve Champion ram.

bide a wee Tucker

Windy Acres ewe lambs with my girl, Flirt, in the background.

Mud Ranch Hudson reminds me a LOT of Reno – a laid back, mellow dude.

I love this girls face – a bide a wee ewe lamb.

There were 28 Jacobs in attendance from 5 different breeders.  We all had a great time and enjoyed each other’s company.

They are smiling about something

Meet Althea and Rae-Ann…

I picked them up a couple weeks ago from Sue at Rolling Hills.  I am really excited about both of them, but especially Rae-Ann.  We inquired about buying her as a lamb, but Sue had already made arrangements to buy her.  She has matured into a beautiful ewe and has a great temperament.  

Aren’t they pretty?  That is what I thought too, until I noticed their smirks smiles.  They knew something I didn’t  

They both had small udders when they arrived here but I didn’t think anything of it since they are mature ewes and Sue didn’t say anything about them being bred.  Then I noticed this last night…(caution sheep rear ends)

what in the world!!!

Althea in particular looks suspiciously pregnant!

I called Sue and asked if there was any way they could be pregnant.  At first she said no, but then she remembered her very handsome ram – Sundance – made a break for it and obviously had a couple romantic interludes  

What a bizarre lambing season we have had this year – started in January and ended in ??? with lambs in every month inbetween.  I separated the ewes with weaned lambs and left the ewes with lambs or lambs coming in the pasture that is connected to the barn so I can keep an eye on them and feed them a little extra.  Even though they are unplanned and expected in the middle of summer I am still excited – I think   

Purses, Totes, and Bags – oh my!

With the weather so beautiful outside, I have had a hard time finding the time to felt.  I finally found some time the other night and worked on these purses…

I can only take credit for the needle felted design on the front, the purse itself is 100% wool and wet felted.  The quality is very high and I have been carrying mine around for months now and the strap hasn’t stretched at all.  Stretching is a common problem in felted items that aren’t felted enough.

While I was going through some pictures, I realized that I hadn’t shared the other tote bags I have made…

This is one of my favorites

Some of these are in my Etsy store and the others will be going to the Black Sheep Gathering with me in a week. 

Have a great day! 

He loves dogs :)

The pictures say it all! 

No, we don’t have a new puppy – her name is Mardi and she belongs to a friend.  They had a blast together!  Have a great day! 

The harsh reality

Living in the country with animals can lead to some difficult times.  Yesterday was one of those days.  I wasn’t feeling very well and spent most of Sunday inside due to some mild food poisoning from Saturday night.  I still wasn’t 100% on Monday and didn’t go out until mid-day.  You always expect everything to be as you left it the night before, unfortunately this wasn’t the case.  I went out and let the chickens out and peeked in to check on the ducks out front.  They are in huge aviary pens that have netting on the roof.  The first group looked good, but the sight that met me in the second pen was absolute carnage.  Something came in during the night and killed 3 of the 4 ducklings and 3 mama ducks.  I was horrified, sickened, and very sad.  These were my really good mamas that have hatched out most of the eggs this year.  I felt these pens were fairly predator proof and was comfortable with the moms and babies in there.  I walked in the pen to check on the eggs - one of the moms was sitting on another clutch of eggs.  Amazingly, they were fine and when I lifted up the house the last little duckling slid out from behind.  I expected it to be dead, but it wiggled out and was unharmed!

Here is my son with little lucky.  I’m really hoping it is a ’she’.  I can’t imagine what it experienced during the night and I am filled with joy that it survived.  We have had ducks in open topped, outside pens for 3 years and haven’t lost any and in one night we lost 6 in a pen that I thought was safe.  I understand the ‘wild’ animals need to eat, but 5 of them were just killed – almost like it was just for fun.  There was no time to sulk because I had to find a more secure pen for the other 11 ducks that were in the other pen.  They weren’t very happy to be put in dog kennels!  My husband helped me start some new pens last night and my brother is helping me today.  My husband also set some traps last night and we found out who was to blame – raccoons.  We will leave the traps out for a few more nights to see if anything else comes back.

I didn’t want to lose the eggs too, so I took advantage of my broody chickens.

Here they are fighting over an egg in the corner.  Can you see the third one’s tail under the other two?

They were very happy to have their own eggs and my appreciation. 

 

 

What would you rather do?

Unload 14 tons of hay…

or play in the pool?

Load 51 telephone poles onto the truck…

or ride bikes?

Ah, to be a kid in the summer

My brother brought a load of hay over the mountain for us.  It is a beautiful alfalfa/orchard blend. 

Luckily, we were able to rent the services of a local hay company and they squeezed the blocks off and put them near the barn.

Once the hay was unloaded, my brother and husband loaded some of the many telephone poles we have onto the truck.  These poles are leftover from the 3 barns that we had demolished.

Luckily, we were able to borrow the neighbor’s ‘big’ tractor.

My son was thrilled to get to play with his cousin.

Before you make your decision, I should probably show you a picture of the water after they played in it for awhile…

NASTY!!!