These sheep.

My husband asked me the other day if the sheep tell me when they need to be moved. I said pretty much. If they've eaten all they can in one pasture, they stand at the gate and wait for me to come move them to another pasture. Pretty smart sheep right?

So yesterday, I put them out back with the goats. They did pretty good. First time they've been together since I got the little doe kids. The goats stayed together most of the time.

Then this morning, the sheep were ready to go back to the bigger pasture.

A good cuppa tea...

Since I quit drinking coffee back in March, I am drinking a lot of hot tea. My favorite is dandelion tea, picked right out of the yard and gardens. It's so good. Then next would have to be peppermint, also picked out of the garden. But, since the dandelions are no longer blooming, I've been picking loys of peppermint. And it's almost all gone now. This morning, I was out back and found some wild mints, 2 different kinds! Yay! So I am going to go pick all I can find and dry them. Plus I just might go and rob Mrs. T of all her mint too!

I was at Whole Foods the other day, looking for a good tea, when I found a green dandelion tea. And it tastes just like I went out and picked fresh dandelion flowers! It is so good. So I am drinking at least 3 cups of this each day.

I also like cranberry tea too. And ginger. And lemongrass. I drink a lot of tea. With honey. Which is not going to last long y'all. I just had to open the 2nd gallon of my honey awhile ago. I am worried. I may have to go rob the hive one more time before fall.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Are there any other hot tea drinkers out there? Can you share your favorite tea? And how do you make it? What's your best ever cup of tea? And your favorite cup? I picked this one up at Tybee. I like it, but it's small. It does make a good cuppa tea though.

I also like to drink tea while knitting. Makes me feel, I don't know, like a cool knitter. Hot tea and knitting. 2 really cool things!

Little baby sweater.

 I think I'm going to rip out the first arm. It's SO big! I could tell after a little knitting on the other arm that I had knit really loose. It's not that much more work and it'll look so much better when finished. I am loving this little sweater. I hope there'll be enough yarn left over to make a little baby bonnet to match it.

Now to find some cute little buttons. I think I'll see if Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots has some little wooden buttons with honey bees on them. That would look cute. Then I need to find a cute little baby to wear it!

When I am done with this sweater, I want to start on a big sweater for me, using my sheep's wool. I've been hearing we're in for a really cold winter!

Long day.

It's been raining here the past few days. I mean, really raining. Like a lot of rain. I am so glad to see it too. It's been so dry and I was worried I might have to start feeding hay already. And it's supposed to rain all week! I know all the grass and trees and so thankful. The sun is shining right now, but that could change in a few minutes.

I spent the day with my hubby. My Trooper broke down and I've been borrowing Mrs. T's car. Her daughter is coming this weekend, so that means she'll need the car. That means we'll need to get a tow truck out here to tow the Trooper to the transmission shop to get checked out. It broke down the day before we left for Savannah. And of course my husband had towing insurance dropped on all our vehicles. One guy wants $75. I'm waiting on another guy to call for his price. Just seems like a lot for 16 miles. And I hope it's not the whole transmission that's messed up. I drove it down the driveway and onto the road when I heard the loud scraping noise, then turned around and went back home. Last time the transmission died, it just stopped right in the road. So this makes me think it's not completely dead yet. And last time, the check transmission light was on. It's not now. So I hope we caught it before it was too far gone.

So I went with my hubby to his doctor appt. after we dropped Mrs. T's car off. That takes forever at doctor's offices. Almost 3 hours. I just don't like going. Then we had lunch.  Stopped at my mom's to get my tea I had bought yesterday and left at her house. Then I had to go back to the yarn shop to get my knitting friend to fix my baby sweater sleeve mistake. I sure wish I could figure things out myself. Then we came home. I am tired.

This is the rest of that beautiful Romney fleece I bought last year. I had washed half of it and got it spun up and I love it. I think I'll make the Barn Sweater out of this wool. It's so soft and so many pretty colors all mixed up together. I just want to sleep on this wool!

Goats are mean.

 Yes, sometimes goats can be just plain ole mean!

Look at this face. Olga is so pretty and sweet. Most of the time. But then, for no reason at all, she will ram her whole body into poor little Inga. A lot. But just look at her. She has invisible devil horns, this one.

This is Inga, in the front. With the horns. Every day, I go get some branches for them to eat. And Olga rams poor little Inga. I can put piles in 10 different spots, but Olga will go to each spot and push the little ones out of the way. They run to the next pile and here comes Olga. Goats!

Sweet little Alva. I have still not pet her. But I'm feeding Inga and Alve when I bring Olga and Freja into the milk room. So I get to be a little closer to her and talk to her. She's so sweet.

So I am really thinking about banding Inga's horns when it starts getting cooler. I've read about how to do it. I think I'm going to. Has anyone ever banded goat horns before? What was your experience? Inga is young and her horns aren't very big yet.

Last week, I started milking Freja once a day. I'm getting nearly a half gallon. That's what I was getting when milking twice a day. This way, I'll save a little on feed. I sure hope I don't have to start feeding hay yet. It's been so dry here. But it's raining as I type! And chances for rain all week! We really need rain. I have lost a few blue berry bushes.

In the fall, I plan on planting blue berry bushes down between the apple and pear trees. I'll be able to water down there now. And I want more blue berry bushes here.

Just realized we've been here at Outback Farm 11 years. The 2nd longest place we've lived. We'll be married 37 years Oct. 28th. The 1st home we lived in for 6 years. Then moved to Flintstone and lived there 17 years. Then to Ringgold for 3 years. Now here. I keep saying when I can't do this anymore, we're moving to St. Elmo, right inside Tn. I love it there. And it's right near Chattanooga, where I am several times a week.

Lots of sky pics...

                                                         The pier is to the right here.

                                               There was a bird flying across the sky in this one.

                            I love this picture so much. It was in Savannah while on the ghost tour.

                                                        See the elephant on the right? And a horse on the left?

This is one with all the chairs and umbrellas all lined up in a nice row. I would have gotten one, but they were $25 til 4:30.

Didn't realize I had taken so many pictures of the sky. But all so pretty and different.

And I keep forgetting to say that I have lost 48 pounds since I started March 7th! I only have 3 pounds to get below 200 and it seems to be taking forever!But I will get there. Then I'll have 40 more pounds to get to my goal weight of 160. When it starts getting cooler, I plan on walking and riding my bike, plus exercising some too. Just to firm up. I still hate my big arms.

But I feel fantastic and am so proud of me!!! 48 pounds is like half of my mother's weight. Geeze.

My leg is better today. I was at Mrs. T's all day, so got to keep my leg up and knit a lot. My favorite thing to do anymore. I love knitting! I just wish I could read patterns without someone telling me what to do.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

More Savannah...

 This is the house my mom, brother, sister and I lived in when I was 12-14. I loved it there. Just a few blocks from the beach and near the light house and the old fort. It was an old bakery and we had the left side. It has a huge old oak tree to the side, where we'd climb and my brother built a tree house.

This is one of the squares in Savannah. My 3 beautiful grand daughters, Kansas, Coryn and Chloe.

And this is the first house tour we went on. I cannot remember the names of the houses, sorry. But there's a gift shop at the bottom right corner of the house. That's where the tour starts. And they are leaning more towards letting people take inside pictures.

This is the 2nd house we toured. It was bought by a young single lady way back in the Great Depression. Fawlkner I think. She went on to buy several more houses in Savannah, on her own. Also owned antique stores. She was quite a lady, way back in the day.

She added this really big nice 3rd floor for her Irish servants.

I just love Savannah and all the old buildings and doors and secret places.

I took SO many pictures I won't bore y'all with. But it was really fun. And Savannah is a great place to go. I would love to go by myself once, just so I can take my time and wander the streets. It's really beautiful there. Maybe in later Fall?

So last night, after being on my feet all day yesterday, my leg was huge. And hurting pretty bad. I was just a bit scared to be honest. Thinking I might better get to a doctor in the morning. But my friend Stephanie had called and told me to get plantain leaves, crush them up, put a little honey and ACV in it, and put it on the wounds and wrap it up. So I did that last night when I got home. Kept my leg up til I went to bed. I have 2 pillows I put my leg up on in bed. This morning, it feels SO much better. I mean, I was scared and worried and cried a little. I know, I'm a big baby really. But I was just thinking of all the doctor bills and how we just really cannot afford anything extra right now. Especially with my husband just being in the hospital for 5 days last week. So I am feeling a lot better, knowing I will pull through this. I am so mad at that darn rooster. They are still locked up, til I get better and can figure out what to do.

I had to go out back to give the buck (who is not mine, he's just staying here til the guy comes to get him) some worm meds. He had horns too. Well, he almost got me right on my left leg with a horn. I should have just stopped and let the guy do it when he comes to get him, but I finally got it in him. Darn buck!

So I'm just hanging out here today. Just finished another wool hat. Going to start on a cowel or shawl next, with some of that beautiful Romney wool. Just need a pretty pattern to use. I'll look through all my Taproot magazines to see what's in them that I could use.

Y'all have a great Thursday!

Baby sweater...

I have knit this baby sweater that past few weeks. I am now at the part where I do the arms. I think I'll go ahead and sign up for another 4 weeks of this knitting class. I love going to this place. I feel like I've really learned so much.

I see a really bad mistake that I made right after starting under the arms. It looks like I started adding stitches on the left. I didn't notice it til I was already done and had binded off. But I still like it.

Looks like I'm going to once a day milking. It takes 3 milkings to get a little over half a gallon now. I'll save a little money by not feeding twice a day. Anyone else milking once a day now?

My leg. And some elderberries.

So yesterday, I was thinking my leg looked lots better. It seemed to not be hurting as much as at first. I did go ahead and start on the Cipro last night. I always seem to get a nasty yeast infection the few times I have taken antibiotics. I know if you eat yogurt, it's supposed to help. But the last time, I was eating the yogurt with the pill and they were counter-acting each other and I got a yeast infection anyway.

So I did a little research and found several places that said to eat yogurt 2 hours before you take the antibiotic. So I did. And this morning too. I hate waiting because I think I'll forget. I sure hope this helps. I have plain yogurt that's really good and thick. Wish me luck!

So I've been trying to keep my leg propped up since this happened. But last night, my whole middle section of my leg was huge! Like I couldn't even see my kneecap. I was a bit worried. But no streaks or excessive redness. I slept with my leg up on 2 pillows last night, so this morning it looks a bit better.

I'm going to meet my mom today, and she might insist I go to a doctor. But really, all they'll do is give me a prescription for antibiotics and charge a fortune just to get in. (And I have no insurance) When I have  a good fresh bottle right here. And Cipro is used for skin problems, staph, E-coli, and various other problems. So I think this is a good one for this  just kind problem.

It's kind of strange that both my husband and I are having problems with our left legs right now. He ended up in the hospital last Tuesday, while me and the kids were at the beach. His left foot had a blister that just got out of control and got infected. His doctor put him in Memorial on Tuesday. He got out Saturday. His foot is SO much better. They got it in time. If he'd waited just a day or two longer, he'd have lost his foot. But it's good now, thank the Lord. So we are both limping around the house, looking quite pitiful right now.

And I have elderberries! I've never gotten the berries because the birds get them first. I've always had to buy them to make my syrup. But not this year! I have them all over the place. And a friend gave me hers. I am so happy about this! I am trying to dry them, but am wondering if they can just be frozen? Aren't they beautiful?

Dang rooster!

Black Bart attacked me this morning. In the coop. I was feeding the one little lone chick that made it from the snake invasion a few nights ago. I was trying to keep the other hens away and he came up behind me and got me twice. I was bleeding like crazy and it hurt so bad. I could hardly walk it hurt. And blood gushing out and down my leg. I cried. A lot. And screamed and cussed that damn rooster up and down.

I was just shocked that he'd do this to me. I have always said what a wonderful rooster he is. Now I am wondering if he tried to do this a few weeks ago. They always follow me to the coop for dinner in the evening. He was right behind me and I stopped for some reason and he ran into my right leg. I just thought he was so close that when I stopped, he ran into my leg. Well, it bled then too, but not like this. I thought his beak got me. But now I'm thinking he was attacking me.

So now I'm afraid to go outside. And we have our youngest grand daughter today. And the Dish guy is coming out to hook us back up to Dish. We were stupid and switched to Direct. We HATE Direct! So they will be gone today. And also the Home Health nurse is coming out to check my husbands foot. So we called to let them know to call before they get here because we now have an attack rooster. Don't know what I can do though. Stand out there and let him attack me instead of them? This ain't good folks.

I guess Black Bart might make some good chicken broth.

Tybee beach

 I loved this view. Every day it was always a different view. A few times there were big shops or shrimp boats. And every day the sky was different. Most of the time, it was cloudy. And very windy. That's the way I always remember Tybee. Windy. But it was nice.

There are like porch swings on either end of every walkway, all along the beach. I sat in them a lot. I really hate sand. Especially beach sand. So I sat on swings. And did a lot of knitting. Which I am quite obsessed with at the moment. I love knitting!

But it was really peaceful there. I loved the beach in the early morning or later afternoon-evening.

There's a bird in there, if you can see it.

This silly black bird hung around awhile. I thought he was quite interesting. I wonder what he was looking for? Something shiny, I'm sure.

Me and Chloe's feet in the water.  I stood in the same place, as the water rushed over my feet, and I sank lower and lower. Chloe thought I was sinking! I was cool.

More later...

Goats and boats.

Hello again my friends! I am SO glad to be back home again! It's been a long 1 1/2 weeks for sure. And over 1000 miles. But we had fun.

So here are my new goat kids. I got them from my friends Bill and Jane at The Pocket Farm, over the ridge from me. They have a very spoiled herd of goats. I got 2 sets of brothers and sisters. She has the line of goats that Penelope came from. I had her for several years. Really great doe. She was naturally polled. She usually had one with horns and one without. So Alva and Oden are brother and sister and they are from this line. Both hornless! I sure hope they throw some hornless kids.

This is Alva on the left and Inga on the right. Inga and her brother (who I have here til my friend up the road builds a buck pen) were obviously bottle fed and handled a lot, because they are super friendly. Alva and Oden were not handled much and are very skittish. But Alva looks so much like Penelope. She'll be a fantastic milker in a few years. They are all about 5 months old. The girls are in back with Freja and Olga. They are all getting along great so far. The big girls sometimes ram into the little girls, but that's to be expected with goats.

This is Oden. He's so cute!. Both he and Alva have elf ears, so they have a little Nubian and Alpine in them too. I named the girl Alva because it means female elf. A perfect name for her. Oden is over at my friend Cara's farm right now, visiting her girls. Cara milks for me while I'm gone. I love her!

Just an udder shot for y'all. Freja is doing great. Still getting half a gallon each day. Poor Cara had a hard time this time, trying to get her to come into the milk room. I have never had goats like Freja and Olga. They are the jumpiest goats ever. Every little thing they see, they'll stop and act like they're scared to death and want to go back. It takes a few minutes to get them to go into the milk room. Cara called me Friday and said she just could not get Freja into the milk room, so she didn't get milked that morning. When I got home, I milked a half gallon. She's the strangest goat. Her udder is finally evening out, so they are both about the same now.

Last weekend was the Sherrill family reunion up in Ozone and Crossville Tn. Saturday, we all met at Camp Ozone. It was beautiful. The perfect day for a reunion. They have cabins there, so Tiny and the girls stayed the night. I had to go home to milk. It was just $10 per person per night. I think me and Tiny will go back sometime for a few days. There's a beautiful lake with paddle boats and canoes. Good fishing. It's quiet there, although Hwy. 40 runs nearby. Can hardly hear anything.  We had the best time, visiting family, seeing new babies, eating lots of good food.

Kansas and her cousin Jewel, on the pretty lake.

Then Sunday, we all go over to Crossville to the big park. That's where the rest of the Sherrill family  meet. Then we eat a whole lot more there. It's so fun to talk to all the out of town family. Most come from Indiana and Ohio.

Another goat kid shot. Alva is so cute, with her little ears. I have been reading about banding goat horns and might do it to Inga later, when it starts getting cooler, so there won't be so many flies. She's young and will be ok. I just do not like horns. All the others don't have horns. And it seems when I have 1 goat with horns, she's always meaner and uses the horns.

I will have LOTS of beach pictures this week to share. We had so much fun there. But so wanted to be back home. My husband had to be put in the hospital because his left foot got infected. While I was gone. But he was in great hands there and well taken care of. I would have sat in his room and knit. And I did a lot of that at the beach. So he said I should stay there. I got him out yesterday, so he's back home. I just have to get the 2 older grands back to their house today, so they can get ready for school later this week. Yay, school! And then we are back to normal. I hope.

Knit Shetland wool hat.

This is the back of the hat I knit right.  I did put it on the first post, but it didn't show up.