Most people dye eggs to prepare for Easter. . .

but at our house we are dying wool instead!

How else are we going to find the right shade of pink for the inside of bunny ears and for bunny noses?  And what is Easter without some yellow fuzzy chicks?  I will post pics of the finished products, I am working on more felted critters for my etsy store.

Of course, that means a little less time doing this. . .

not that Gus doesn't try to help with the irresistible smell of wool!  :)

And yes, that is our real-life bunny inspiration in the background, his name is Barney.

March 7, 2011

More of our furry family. . .

 

This is Gus before we brought him home, it is so hard to believe that he was ever that little!

And this is Gus, still growing and growing and growing.  He is over 40 pounds at 4 1/2 months.  He is posing in this picture with all that remains of his favorite Christmas present.  Doesn't he look innocent?

And this is Gus last week with our house guest, Sadie.  It took over a week of letting her sleep on his dog bed, bringing her his favorite toys, licking her face, following her everywhere she went; finally she played with him! 

One year later. . .

Wow, a lot has changed in one small year!  Unfortunately, Zoe passed away in the spring of 2010, I am comforted that she passed peacefully in her sleep curled up under her favorite sugar maple with her sister, Clara nearby. 

There will never be another Zoe but her sister Clara is certainly feeling more independent and brave in her small flock of two at our house.  In late summer of 2010, Clara and Pearl arrived at our home in the back of our good friend Karen's SUV (sorry, Karen :( ).  Clara followed me right into her new paddock, toured her new sheep shed and then seemed like she completely understood that it was to be her forever home.  That is how Clara came to be the 'alpha' sheep of her small flock.  It didn't take long for Clara to realize that she wasn't 'just a sheep' any more.  Her flock mate is Pearl, a very sweet Border Leicester that grew up at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm.  Pearl is credited with capturing John's heart within the first five minutes she was home.  My husband is a very easy-going guy, but I don't think he ever truly believed me when I kept telling him that I wanted a house with a place for Zoe & Clara to retire when their Museum gig was over.  He took the news well, built us a sheep shed, and even put up the fencing, but I wouldn't say that John was as excited about the sheep living with us as I was.  He was gracious enough to come home from work for the momentous occasion, climbed into the sheep paddock to greet our new girls and Pearl looked up at him with those big beautiful sheep eyes and he was g-o-n-e!  She has realized that she has it good in this flock of two, as well.  Pearl even managed to get out last month, not that that was a hard task-the snow is really, really deep and she just had a short hop over the fence.  The trouble was, she couldn't figure out how to get back in and she was in such a panic on the snowy paths that I was worried that she might slip before I figured out how to get her back in.  With a little team work I got Pearl back in over the fence and I guess she decided the grass wasn't any greener on the other side of the fence because she hasn't tried it again-it put her on the wrong side of the hay rack and she really likes her hay. 

Clara & Pearl mowing our lawn, they earn their keep!

Pearl, looking regal!

Clara or Zoe?

Clara and Zoe the sheep are two very opposites when it comes to personality.  As I have said before, Zoe just simply doesn't know that she is a sheep.  Clara, on the other hand, is quite content to be a sheep and follow all of the other sheep around.  She is very sweet and demure and at peace with her 'sheepiness'.  Two weeks ago, our farm manager brought Clara into the barn so he could work on her feet during the week.  This meant housing her with our three goats, no one seemed very happy about this arrangement-but Clara, being a good sheep didn't complain too much.  We have three goats at the farm:  Queen, aptly named and a bit of a bossy one; Heather, sweet girl; and Gracie, Queen's kid from 2009.  I went into the barn on the second day and Gracie had fleece in her horns where she had been repeatedly ramming my Clara.  Clara would just simply walk away and didn't mind if Gracie was above her in the chain of command.  Their order was established and life went on-three goats and a sheep.

I came into work on Monday and noticed all of the goats were inside the barn and the sheep was in the connected outside paddock.  I went outside to visit Clara only to find Zoe had been moved into her place.  I wish I had been there when Zoe was moved in and the goats thought they were going to bully her around like Clara!  Zoe has been living under the hay rack and basically telling the goats when she might share.  Oh, those are my girls!

Not just sheep?

This is confession #1.

One of my best role models is a rogue sheep named Zoe.  

Now Zoe is not just any sheep, she is an independent-minded sheep that really doesn't know that she is a sheep.  In March of 2007 I had the privilege of bottle-feeding twin ewe lambs that were a week old.   The girls were very ill and stayed with a much more experienced shepherdess for the first week in which they were in a very fragile state.  After losing their mother and receiving IV fluids from our dedicated vet, they came to live with us for a month at the cottage.  They spent their evenings and weekends at the cottage and their morning and afternoons at work with me at the farm.  I would load them in their small dog crate in the morning and carry them to the backseat of my car where they would ride quite contentedly (in the beginning) the ten mile route to the farm.  I would then carry them (still in the dog crate) into the Museum building where they were then transferred to a larger, more comfortable crate.  This routine worked well for the first two weeks, until they began to get healthier and healthier.  Zoe and Clara soon learned how to walk on leashes, as they got to heavy to carry in and out each morning and night.

I guess this might sound odd to some people, but I loved every minute of it!  The girls were still weak when they came to stay with us at the cottage, but their personalities were already emerging.  Clara, always has been the sweet, even-tempered sheep.  She has always gotten the 'memo' that sheep are supposed to follow other sheep, stay (fairly) quiet-unless it is dinner time, and enjoy a nice scratch under the chin.  Zoe, on the other hand never or ever has received the sheep 'memo'.  The first night when I let Zoe and Clara out for a romp in the living room she went straight at my dog, Molly, chasing her around the living room.  I ask you, what self-respecting sheep chases dogs?  The answer is Zoe, of course.  She has always been the leader of the two sisters and when introduced to the flock she was convinced that she was the leader of them, as well.  Please note, this 'flock' in the beginning also consisted of two goats that Zoe tried to herd into the barn on first meeting.  Now, don't get me wrong, Zoe is a great sheep and has always been the ambassador that is her job description.  She just goes about it in a not very sheep-like manner.  Zoe and Clara still walk on leashes and in the summer time are walked by our summer campers on the Farm.  In fact, this summer Zoe could be seen beneath summer campers and even joined us for our overnight campfire!

So, what better role model than Zoe?  I do hope that I am a quick study!

Day one

Okay, now that I have a blog-what do I do with it?  I am sitting here in snowy New Hampshire with two warm dogs at my feet.