Winding down

I love the kind of weather we've been having lately. It's been quite cool for the end of August. Today it's in the low 70's and tonight's forecast is for low 50's. There's a certain slant of light that accompanies the change of seasons here in Kentucky. One afternoon you look up and the sky is deep blue and the air is so clear. Everything comes into sharp contrast after the steamy days of summer. I'm sure we'll have more hot, muggy days before autumn is here to stay, but I'm enjoying every moment of this coolness.

The weekend went by in a blur, as it always does. We stayed on the farm all day Saturday and most of Sunday, working in the garden (which is pretty much lost in the weeds at this point), mowing, doing some chores with the lambs and lots of outdoor clean-up and maintenance. One thing about living on the farm is that the to-do list never, ever ends. Sunday afternoon, we packed a small cooler, the Sunday paper and my knitting and took the boat to the end of the road for a few hours on the river. It was so quiet and calm. We saw a few people fishing, but otherwise had the river to ourselves. Nearly as soon as we were underway down river, we hit something and broke the propeller on the motor. Instead of hauling out and coming right back home, we decided to drop anchor and just relax for a while. Forced relaxation is about the only way we can seem to stop working!

Heading back home, we came to our farm lane and look who was there to greet us! Remember this girl? Once again, there were two of them, but one ran off into the woods as soon as we came in sight. This one was just as before, curious and nonchalant about us as long as we didn't make any sudden movements. I was so happy for Mike get to see the foxes for himself.

I'm knitting on Christmas gifts for the grandchildren. It's a little less than four months from now and I need to get more disciplined about finishing things. Maybe I can get some pictures on here soon, just to prove that I really have been knitting and that this blog is still trying to be about fiber (at least occasionally!).

Boy's club (or Wally's World)

Oh look! Wally has been allowed to join the "Boy's Club". After being shunned by his mother* and wandering looking lost and lonesome for a few weeks, the juvenile boys have invited him along on their scouting expeditions. This is a good thing for him, but not necessarily a good thing for us. Three peacocks on the front porch = some rather large "gifts" left behind.

Seriously folks, this situation has gotten completely out of hand. I'll be placing an ad on craig's list soon to find these boys some new homes!

"What are you lookin' at?"

*By the way, it turns out that the reason Wally's mom decided to put him out on his own is that she is now sitting on a nest of five eggs. Just what we need.......more pea chicks.

Large immoveable objects.....

We've had some (wonderful) unusual weather for August the last few days. It's been cool and cloudy, as opposed to very hot and sunny. On days when it is really overcast and cool, the sheep will often be found scattered around, snuggled down and snoozing in the fields. These adult ewes looked like boulders strewn around the field on Saturday morning. Sometimes when I see them sleeping like this, I have to yell or clap my hands, just to see if they lift their heads or wiggle their ears, to reassure myself that they are alive!

At the risk of being perceived as just another blogging, bragging grandmother (who me?), this story was in the Lexington Herald-Leader in the Inside/Out section on Saturday. These boys put their gardening grandmother to shame.

What the heck is a CVM?

Good question! CVM stands for California Variegated Mutant and it's a sheep. No, really! CVM's are Romeldale sheep with certain markings and fleece characteristics. All CVM's are Romeldales, but not all Romeldales are CVM's. You can read all about it here.

I have been on a mission to improve the fineness and softness of my fleeces for some time. I had Romney sheep for many, many years and loved their personalities and fleeces. I have noticed that more and more spinners are looking for really soft fleeces and so, a few years ago, I added Bluefaced Leicesters to my flock. After getting fleeces that weighed 10-12 pounds or more from my Romneys, it was a shock to see how small the BFL fleeces were. For the last several years, I have been cross-breeding the two to produce the fleece type I wanted. I now have a group of ewes I'm really happy with in terms of personalities and fleece characteristics. After doing much research, I decided that using a CVM/Romeldale ram on those ewes should produce more color and compliment the fleece type I already had. The CVM/Romeldale breed is classified as a critically rare breed and, to do my part in promoting the breed, I also bought two ewe lambs in order to have purebred CVM/Romeldale lambs born here. I am so excited about this adventure, I can hardly wait for lambing to start! (I'm sure someone will remind me I said this, when I start complaining about how tired I am, come spring!)

I began corresponding with Chris Spitzer of Yellow Creek Cottage Farm months ago and finally settled on a small starter flock to bring to Kentucky. We now have two ewe lambs and one CVM/Romeldale ram lamb and one moorit Romeldale ram lamb. Chris did a terrific job of putting together a combination of genetics that should give me what I am hoping to produce.

The lambs made the trip just fine, even though it was about 90 degrees for most of the 5 hour drive. I am so impressed with the calm, sweet personality of these boys and girls. Mike was not home yet, so I had no help getting them out of the back of the truck. I backed the truck up to their pen, stacked a few hay bales by the tailgate and opened the back of the pen in the truck. They hopped down and went into the pen, as if they had been trained! Their first night here, when I went to check on them at bedtime, I sat down in the middle of their pen and they all came right up to me and ate a little snack right out of my hands. I love these little guys already!

I haven't come up with any names for these babies yet. Anyone have any suggestions?