In The Thick Of Things

Well we are up to our necks in renovations now. The Contractor (TC) and The Contractors Main Man (TCMM) has been here since the beginning of the week. Day by day I have seen changes being made to our wee house. At first it was ripping and tearing and then the construction started to actually show some progress. They started in on the front deck and are making good progress in turning that space into a new office and some much needed studio space. It has been a busy week. I have been trying to get some work done but it just doesn't seem to be happening. I tried to get some spinning done for my level 2 homework and that went nowhere. Today I planned to finish the new skin for the couch that I started way back at Christmas time and that just became a buggered up mess. I wanted to work on the beaded distaffs and that didn't go anywhere either. Everything is about bang, hammer, saw, bang, thunk,thunk, thunk, then the electrician showed up and then it was where do you want this and what about that and tea and getting lunch for him and on and on and on. People keep wanting to drop in to see lambs and see what is going on...... sheesh, I love visitors but I need to get some of this work finished.... and I had better do it soon.

Here are some pictures from the first few days.







Say a prayer for us because TC and TCMM will be back on Monday to remove our roof.... I really don't want rain!!!!

Easter Tidings

Happy Easter to all you folks out there in computer land. It is bright and sunny here, a day full of promise. Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 have opened their Easter baskets to find goodies and gifts and all kinds of fun things. I have managed to scorf down a couple of chocolate bunnies myself. We will be getting ready for church in a few moments and isn't that what this day is really all about? Isn't it about those women who found the tomb open on that fateful morning so many mornings ago. Jesus Christ Is Risen Today. That is one hymn that will be sung all over the place this morning and a lovely hymn too.

To all those folks of Christian belief, here is an Easter morning prayer:
O Heavenly God,
the beauty of spring surrounds us.
As we go forth into the beauty of your world,
let us remember the sacrifice of our risen Lord,
who has given us new eyes with which to see the gifts you bestow on us.
Help us to be respectful always of this world in which we live.
Help us to be in awe of your creation.
Remind us through the birth of new baby animals,
of the budding of the first new plants of spring,
through the silver buds on the trees reflected in the last evening sun,
through the lap of the water on the newly thawed shores,
through the chirps and tweets of the birdsong in the newly returning winged friends that we hold so dear, that you are Creator of ALL.
Your love is abundant and free. What more can we ask for.
AMEN

Ahhh! Spring At Last

Yesterday was the first day of spring... yes, yes, yes. I know that first day of spring turned over on the calendar a few weeks ago but the actual first day of spring weather wise was yesterday. We were out in the barn yesterday morning quite early because Fanny, my Shetland/merino x had her twin babies at about 8:45 a.m. The contractor showed up at about the same time to drop off a load of lumber and insulation at the same time. Fanny did a great job bringing her two lambs into the world. It was a textbook delivery. She's a good little mom and everything went perfectly. She is in the barn keeping her little lambs happy. We will let her out into the paddock today and her little ones can get used to Palmer. Our two new lambs names are Quip and Quill. Quip is an all black female and Quill is a black female with white markings on her face and head. It was a beautiful day to be born. Sunny and warm all day with blue skies and snow and ice melting underfoot.

Such a day made Hubby and I think of shearing and so we started in on Kracker, who is one of Fanny's last year lambs. It was quite something to see Hubby and me struggle with her as we attempted to remove her wool. It took us a good half hour to remove what a professional would do in minutes. She went limp as she was supposed to do when you have her in the right position but from there on it was a fiasco. We managed to get her wool off in one piece more or less but it looked like a bear had done it instead of a human. She looks rather ragged today but she is at least bare of all her wool. We did nick her a couple of times and I do say we because it was like a relay team shearing. When Hubby couldn't reach a certain spot he would pass over the shears to me and I would shear an area. Then when I couldn't reach a certain area then I would pass over the shears to him. We certainly wouldn't take any medals for our work. We then went on and shear Kracker's sister Krunch. This time it was harder to shear her wool but we didn't have as many nicks... just lots of second cuts.

I've already sold two fleeces. I am not selling them for great amounts because I know that the quality of shearing is not great. $5.00 a lb is what I am asking. I am seriously thinking of bringing in a Teeswater Ewe and a Teeswater ram and starting the first and only flock of Teeswaters in Canada. I would like to have a pure bred Teeswater flock. But there is a lot involved in bringing in animals across the border. Anyway it is all something to think about in the future.

I am soooo glad that it is finally spring at last. the weather just begs me to be out doing stuff. This is good in some ways but bad in others since I still have three questions to finish in my level 2 homework. The contractor will be here on Tuesday to start work and so I need to get hopping. Almost done. Navajo spindling here I come....

Up And At Em

Yesterday was an exhausting day. I spent the majority of the day shopping for windows, counters, flooring, tubs, toilets and bathroom sinks. I have more information in my mind than I care to think about. As a matter of a fact I was on information overload last night and so spent the night reviewing the budget. The first purchase we made for the renovations came in at over $1000.00 over budget. That's not an auspicious beginning. But it was the windows and to be honest I am not willing to sacrifice the windows and put in cheap things that will steam up every time I cook something on the stove. In the end we chose to go with windows that are tripaned with argon gas between the panes and coated with some kind of silver oxide stuff to reflect the heat in summer back out and reflect the heat in winter back in. I still have to get the upstairs windows and they should have been in that budget too. I think my contractor went skimpy on the window budget actually. For better or for worse the windows have been ordered now and the sunroom/office/studio will look great.

The electrician was here for several days. He changed the wiring and we are preparing to move the washer and dryer, the shower, the toilet, the sink, and the door to the bathroom. The bathroom is in a terrible state and so is the front porch. But messy stuff all over the place is going to be the name of the game for the next little while. I might as well get used to it. We have decided to put a jacuzzi tub in the main bathroom and put the shower in our ensuite and so yesterday we spent the day looking for a tub and surround that will work for us. I looked at more house reno stuff than I care to remember. We were late getting home and then the parents showed up with the daughters... Argh! I was supposed to go to Knit Night and didn't make it. Sorry ladies about that. I hope to make it next week for sure especially since it will be our last night for the year.

With the electrician doing his thing I am amazed that we are able to get around our house at all. Hubby is looking blitzed.... poor guy doesn't know what hit him. It is all rather thrilling for me because I know that at the end of all this there will be much needed added room, privacy for the girls and for Hubby and me and a house with a finish rather than always only half finished. I can do it.... four months of mess to get through.... I can do it! It might pay to remember what the little red caboose said... "I think I can.... I think I can.... I think I can.... I've just got to.

Kermit Or Bust

I know you are all waiting with baited breath (silly people) to hear all about our new little Lamb. He is doing fine and is up and at em this morning. Hubby and I have decided that he is getting enough from momma. We penned her in yesterday and probed her nipples to get the juices flowing, so to speak, and made sure that little Palmer had a good suck several times. We went out at 2 a.m. to make sure he was still o.k. and he was. His belly felt full and again this morning. Momma doesn't want him around much so they are in a very small pen and they are slowly getting to like each other. We will let them out later this morning and see how they do. If she is still off him then back into the pen they go. This will be the routine until I can be sure she is letting him suck. Jelly will definitely not be bred again.

Anyway on to other things. I have just finished the question for my level 2 homework that I enjoyed the most so far. I was given in class rovings in three primary colours. Our exercise was to produce a colour wheel with those colours with primary, secondary, and tertiary colours on it by blending the three primary colours that we were given. Here's mine:



I think it is really great the colours flow into each other very well and I was able to very closely match them to the colour wheel which I downloaded from the internet. Two of the matches were slightly off. But not much. The colours are distinct and bright and the whole exercise was a joy. Some people, however, think my green sucks! (you know who you are) They say my green is not a true green. Now what does that mean? I mean I've got Kermit colour there and I can't figure out how to get greener than that. Even Hubby and the Daughters agree that my greens are as green as can be.

I'm starting to feel paranoid. I've always had a good sense of colour and I thought my colour wheel was bang on. But apparently my ability to discern green is slightly off. Actually I've even gone around the house and compared my greens to plants and leaves of different shades and they are green.

So what is a gal to do? Should I tell my anti-green party that they are wrong or should I just glory in my self-righteous green-ness. Should I try for a more green green or should I just pack it in now and never blend green again. I don't know! (sigh) And I thought I was so perfect! (Do I sound like Miss Piggy?)

Palm Sunday Surprise!

This is what it is all about. Welcome to the world Lamby #1. This morning at just after 8 a.m. our first lamb was born. This is BIG! This is very big since we have never had new born lambs because this is our first year as shepherds. Jelly who is our big Romney sheep is too old to be birthing. She did it though. She brought into the world a very sizable lamb. Poor old girl has had trouble with mastitis in past years and is having difficulty lactating, so she will not be bred again. She will be a nice Romney fleece each year and nothing more. This year, she has decided that she will not be nursing this lamb and so it looks like we will be bottle feeding our first lamb ever. Her nipples are not wanting to do what they should be doing and so I think she is just to tired to keep this mommy thing up anymore that's why she has decided not to feed her own boy. We have spent the day trying to get the little fella to suck but momma is not having anything to do with it. Bottle feeding is what is called for in situations such as these. He's docked and castrated and done. He is a strong little guy and so we really want to keep him going. BFL/Merino/Romney should be an interesting mix of fleece.

Here is our new boy!

Sorry About That Chief!

Wasn't that what Tonto used to say to the Lone Ranger? .... or maybe it was Maxwell Smart in Get Smart! Either way I have to appologize to those of you who have nothing better to do with their lives than follow mine through this dialogue (sic) my life. I haven't been very entertaining of late and so I will attempt to do so now. I do have a good excuse for the last few days.... that being the back door trot as dear old gang-gang would say. (no not gang-bang for you sickies.)

Who is Gang-gang and what is the back door trot you ask. Gang-gang was a lovely lady who had many good sayings and just happened to be my grandmother. My sister started calling her Gang-gang, in all of her innocence, at the ripe age of 18 months. She couldn't say grandmother or grandma which my mother was trying to encourage and so Gang-gang and Gang-pop (for my grandfather) became their names. I called them that till the day they died and still refer to them the same way. Though it was an unfortunate name I loved my grand parents dearly as they were the only ones I was ever to know. My paternal grandfather died before I was born and my paternal grandmother had a parting of the ways in mind and body. She quite literally lost her mind.

As for, what is the back door trot. Well in the olden days there was no such thing as flushing toilets and so when one was making regular and nasty trips to the outhouse, since most outhouses were located somewhere near the rear of a home the back door trots meant running out the back door to the outhouse every five minutes. Mine started, to my dismay, two nights ago. On the up side I have managed to lose 10 pounds in two days, on the down side this has not improved my whey faced appearance. If anything I look horrible.

My bed and the bathroom and a bucket has been my sole existence for two days. I am fianlly able to say that I am mending, I think! Not that my body shares this opinion. My body feels like it has been hit and been dragged by a bus for several miles before delivering me to the gutters with not enough energy to drag myself out. I hate gastro intestinal illness. I think I can take a lot of runny noses and coughs before this.

It all started with Daughter #1 coming home two days before spring break with violent "bringing up" as some folks with more dignity than I, would say. Three days later she was on the mend. Then fate struck and Daughter #2 started to indulge in the same activity. Just when we all thought we had made it through. The "bringing up" hit me, only I didn't "bring up' I "brought down"!!!!

Hubby is left. We will see. Can he get through without the ravages of stomach flu??? Time will tell I guess. Meanwhile I am off to my bed to read another boring book (I just read The English Patient. It was great for helping me to sleep.) until the vestiges of this virus leave me to grasp at someone else.