Knitting again

My mom signed me up for a knitting class with a group at her church. It's at a home not too far from me. There are 7 of us, counting the girl teaching the class. I had taken a few knitting classes before and kind of know the basic casting on and knit stitch. But I forget between classes. So I thought I might learn a little more here as it's a 10 week class. The first project is a prayer shawl. We just cast on between 50-60 and go from there, just a knit stitch. Pretty boring when I'm doing this alone, but with others it's fun. Because all of the others are beginners. And I am the only one using these needles. Everyone else likes the round needles. I don't like them because there's no place to put the needle to wrap the yarn. I am not comfortable using them. I use my leg to hold the right needle when I wrap the yarn around. Anyway, I know I'll have to use the round needles to make hats, which I have made a few already. I will get the hang of it I'm sure. So we are all knitting at our own pace and when we get done with this project, we will move on to a hat I hope. Anyway, it's fun to be knitting again.

I hope to be learning to spin all this wool I am washing and carding. I'll be shearing again soon and will have at least 7 fleeces to do.

No lambs yet. When I went out to feed this morning, Adele was the farthest. I didn't think she was going to make it over to the feed pans. She is really slow and laying down a lot. They all are the past few days. But she's really slow. I hope she'll be ok. I wish they'd come on with these lambs. I stayed home to keep an eye on them while my husband goes to the wound care doctor. He's been so sick with whatever is going around. He was fine last week. Then I think it was Thursday evening, he went down fast. I mean, fine one minute, deathly ill the next. He was in bed for days. He's finally feeling a bit better, but not out of the woods yet. There are a lot of people with this, whatever it is.

I hope everyone is out of the snow and having some nice weather. It's been so nice and warm here, we let the fire go out and have open windows! We are in for some nasty storms though for later tonight. Tornado warnings for middle Tn. which we are very close to.

Have a great day y'all!

Lamb watch!

 It's coming back to me now. I remember when I took John Henry down to my friend Stephanie's does, that I put Abraham in with the ewes. And that was Sept. 17th. I was thinking it was the beginning of October.

So I just went out to check on Adele and all the sheep except Adele are laying down. I got closer and they all stayed put. Unusual for them. They see me and come running. So I go to check Adele and notice Leelah. Go over to her and she gave a little push!

These 1st 3 photos are of Leelah Belle. She had Adele 2 years ago and this is Blossom from last year. She has so far only had single ewe lambs.

 I hope no one is grossed out by close ups of sheep vulvas and udders. But she's getting pretty floppy and loose. Also noticed a little stringy goo. So she is really close to lambing!


This is Fiona. She's Bonnie and Bridget's mom. I hope we don't have a repeat of last year! That'd be great if she had her lambs first.

And Graicie. She's got a nice udder there.

Adele is just fooling me I do believe. I thought for sure she'd be first to lamb. But who knows? They always fool me.

Poor Bilbo Baggins. The only ram left. I took Abraham to the butcher yesterday. Really hated to do it but he got sick so much. I need to find a good healthy wool ram soon. I will keep Bilbo for the hair ewes though.

April is the big fat white one laying down next to Bilbo, the black ram.  When I got her she was already bread so she should have full Katahdin lambs. If these are ewes, I will keep them. I didn't realize how big she is til she lays down.

This is Adabelle. She was born here several years ago to my doe Ocho. I sold her to my friend up the road when she was just about 5 months old. She had a hard time getting pregnant but finally had twins last year. I went over yesterday evening and she was barely walking, poor girl. S this morning, Stephanie called and said Ada had the kids. She had triplets but one died. Or was stillborn. She had a white doeling and a black and white buckling. They are adorable!

They also have another doe, Jessie Belle, who is HUGE! She should have triplets too in the next few days.

It's warm here. We let the fire go out and have windows open. We also have tons of flies. All over. I have been killing them like crazy since last night. I hate flies! So here we go. Lambs, kids and flies! Yippee!

Part 5: Back home. (and that's all folks!)

I just had to post all my favorite goat pictures. And some dogs too.

Zarah and Penelope, looking toward the house.

                                                                   My sweet Sandy.

Zarah again. She is getting to be quite like her momma Abby now. She has the beard like Abby. And I have noticed she is a hay and feed hog like Abby too. I'll put down 4 piles of hay and she's hogging all of them. Just like her momma. I sure do miss her. It's been a year now.

                                                                        I love this one.

                        Penelope Jane. She's a little sweetie, this one. Can't wait to milk her again.

                                                      Bubba, the man! I love this dog.

And here's their favorite spot to be. Even in winter. They got out one day a few weeks ago and came back home full of icicles hanging on them. Silly dogs!

                                          Finally back home again. It was a long hike we took.

This is where we were. It's so beautiful up there. I need to go back out there to see if those daffodils have bloomed yet. I need some in this house!

A few days after this, I sold John Henry to a couple in Tn. I got a text from the man's wife today, saying how she just loves him and what a great buck he is. I was really happy to get that text. It made me feel so good to know he has gone to a good home. I really was a bit worried that they might have taken him to a goat sale or something.  I am happy for the ole stinkin' buck. And my sister will be happy to know this too.

I am done with this long story. I just love taking pictures. I have my camera with me all the time. I sure hope you all weren't bored with this. I will be back to blogging about other things now!

Oh, just have to say that yesterday and today, in the high 60's with beautiful blue skies. Just glorious here. We had a little rain last night and some tonight but I am fine with that.

Also no lambs yet. Still waiting.

The walk: part 4

Ok, 1 more after this and we're done.

Zeeboo said to go this way. Bubba is already over there, ready to go down. Look at that pretty bright green moss. So green.

Now across this ridge. It only went so far, then stopped. There were a lot of trees across the end, so we just headed straight down toward the house. Don't these guys look worn out?

Through this limb, that long white shiny thing is the roof to one of the chickens houses across the road from us. I think there are about 5 or 6 at least. But I never knew they were there when we bought this place. The house we moved from in Ringgold had 7 chicken houses down behind us. And they really stunk bad. That's one of the main reason we moved. But these houses are way across the road and back over the hill, so we really never notice them. Just every once in awhile, after the chickens have been taken away, when the houses are cleaned, that's when we smell them. But not always.

What we are walking down. It was pretty steep in some places. I found 2 pretty long branches for walking sticks and I'm glad I did. They saved me several times from rolling all the way down. It was pretty slippery.

Aw, down in the valley at last! Just look at that view. That's Pigeon Mt. You can just see the shine of the garage roof to the left through the clearing. To the right, that shiny spot is the pond the dogs love to swim in when they get out.

This is the little hill I usually climb up when we walk out back. It's got the best view right there.

                                             So I sat down and took a break. I love it here.

Poor Bubba was quite worn out here. Stella was way down the hill, waiting for us. But we stayed here a good 20 minutes, just resting.

I'll do one more post because there are some really good pictures of the goats.

It's a beautiful day today. There might be some rain later, but tomorrow close to 70! It was amazing yesterday too. I told all the pregnant ewes they can go ahead and have lambs now. I am thinking Adele is just about to lamb. She is getting pretty loose in the back end and walking really slow. I keep hoping I'll go out and see a few little lambs but she's holding on. I think I put the ram in about the beginning of October. So they may have a few more weeks to go. They are all SO huge though. It's so exciting waiting for lambs.

Right now. This minute.

I'm not gonna lie. I do not like winter. I used to love it. Til I hit 50. For some reason, after that, I just cannot get warm enough. And I think it has a lot to do with having a farm with lots of animals on it. They are messy. They tear up the ground. They aren't big animals like cows or horses, but they can still tear up the ground. And where animals are, it's a mud pit. And I feel bad for them.

This winter has been cold. And wet. And lots of snow. More than we have had in years here. I like snow ok. For about a minute. Then I'm all over it and ready for it to go away. But these snows seem to like to hang around. I think on the news last night, they said kids have missed 17 days so far from this crazy weather. And that's just since January. They went one day this week, Monday.

So last night, I was a bit depressed about all this mess. My farm is literally a mud pit. From front to back. All mud, everywhere I look. Brown ugly wet slushy ooey gooey mud. That's it. Til the snow came and covered it all up with about 7". Yes, it was beautiful. For a minute. Then here comes the dogs. The sheep. The chickens. Not the goats, because they will not go out in this. And where ever they step, they made mud. So pretty soon, it was a mud pit again.

Yes, I went to bed depressed. And I cried a little. Wondering if this will ever be over. Will I ever see green again? Will the ground ever be dry again? Will I ever mow again? Or even get the tiller in the garden again? It was bad. I just wanted to stay in bed til summer.

I know there are people who love this snow. I saw people actually having fun. Sledding and skiing and laughing and building cool snow people. Snow is beautiful and fun and serves a purpose I suppose.

Then I thought of how people are all basically the same, physically. We all have hands and feet and a head and all that. But God put something different into each one of us. He made some people love the cold and some love it hot. He made some people dare-devils and want to jump off and out of things. He made some people want to fly like birds and go higher and higher, into the heavens. He made some people want to be doctors and lawyers and business managers and want to stay up all day and night. And love it. He also made farmers and ranchers and butchers and vets. We are all different and I am so glad I am who I am.

So I have been thinking about all this today. Because I woke up to this. A totally different world. It looks dry out there, doesn't it? I was amazed that just last night, when I went to bed, it was all muddy and still snow all over. But right now, looking at this picture, I feel hope. That soon, this will all be green again. And the trees will have leaves again. And I will mow all this and probably complain about it. And also complain that it is so dry and when will it ever rain again? The ground will be so hard and dry I will pray for rain. I know I will. Because I am human.

And God knew this would happen, way back before we were ever here. He knew that we, as humans, would not be satisfied with summer 12 months long. Or spring 12 months long. Or fall, even with all it's glory, we would not be happy with it for 12 long months. So he gave us seasons. That only last 3 months at a time. Thank you, Lord!

Because I remember saying last summer, how I wanted it to be over. It was a crappy summer. Nothing in the garden was growing right. I had to replant so many times. I wanted it to be over so I could start all over again. With a a better garden. And now, I am saying I just want this horrible winter to be over. Why can't I just be happy knowing that this too shall pass? And that it will be spring soon. Then summer again. And I will long for fall.

So I think, right now, this minute, I will be content to wait. Because I know.

Part 3: up and across

 Here's my mountain goats! I don't think any of us realized how high up we would be going. But I think we were about as high as Pigeon Mt. to the East of us. Pretty far up there. But it wasn't really that hard. I wasn't winded or having to stop as much as I thought I would have. Just kept on going.

                                                            The stream, going down.

                                I found this really pretty mossy fairy castle. Almost a heart shape.

A little level spot on the way up.  Looks like the goats are wondering which way to go.

 This is looking straight up to the top. Not much farther to go now!

Here we are, at the top!

 There's Lookout Mt. I have always wanted to go up this ridge to see what was on the other side. There is a valley called Crowe Gap. Lots of chicken houses back there. But really beautiful. Couldn't see too much with all the trees, but I did see some houses.

The goats are ready for a little rest by now. I am too.

Looking straight up this very tall pine tree. So beautiful.

Bubba and Stella, getting tired by now.

Stella looks like she is wanting to go home! She's pooped. She has done nothing but run the whole way up. Time for a little rest before heading back down.

Grand Adventure: Looking for spring, part 2

 We got up to the big old oak tree to see if there were any daffodils up there yet. It's so beautiful up there. I would love to have a little cabin right on the little knoll under the oak tree. Very peaceful. I wonder if there used to be a homestead there a long time ago? It's just the perfect spot.

We did find the daffodils! Not very many, but they were popping up! Really short and had some buds on them too. I'll go back next week after all this snow is gone and pick some. I love to have them all over the house this time of year. Makes me feel all springy.

Also saw some leaf buds on some of the tree branches. So exciting to see those! You can see in the background, the brown hill. That was at the end of this journey, when we headed back down.

So, I spotted this little stream on the other side of the oak tree down below it. I decided to follow it to see where it came from. That's where the real adventure began!

I am amazed, that even way out here, in the middle of no where, there is still trash. So sad to see this.

And there was more green to see. Ferns on the little banks of the creek, all pretty and happy. I love ferns.

And here is the stream we followed that day. It went up and up and up some more. At one point it split. We decided to go right. Isn't this beautiful?

To be continued....