Goodbye Douglas and a Sock Conundrum

Hello dear readers! Thank you for bearing with me for the past two weeks with the pain flair up, then some kind of cold/flu/sickie kind of thing. I think I survived it all.

Welcome to the new folks, the sheepies would be happy to cuddle with you during our most recent cold snap.

After a week of 40 degree temps, we back down to the ice age cold again. The night before last was the worst of it, and we should be climbing back up into more reasonable temps starting today. Another 5-ish inches of snow have also fallen upon the farm. I’m glad for the moisture this will bring the area, we have been in a bad drought situation for many years. This is the most snow I’ve seen since 2019. I do hope we have a fairly wet spring to go with it.

All the critters came thru it again like the troopers they are. No pneumonia, snotty noses, or injuries!! Always a good thing! I don’t think any of them are too keen on the frosty faces they have had to endure thought.

I for one am glad of it will be warming up, I’m pretty tired of feeling cold all the time this winter.

Sunday was a sad day for me, and the farm. My last ram, Douglas, has moved on to a new farm. This is the first time since I started with sheep 13 years ago that I have not had a ram here. He has gone to the farm that the two visiting ladies came from. All three have left together.

The two main reasons for his leaving are…

As a breeding ram he was getting too close genetically to my existing ewes without having genetic birth defect problems show up, so he worked himself out of a job.

And

Michael and I decided last fall that it is getting harder for me to physically do the work needed on the farm by myself anymore. Particularly in this cold weather.

Along with the expense of buying hay, vet bills, equipment repair, fencing, and other associated costs required to run this place, and the absolute lack of dependable income from the fleeces over the past two years. Financially, I am just not generating the income from the sheep needed to keep it going that way.

So, in essence, we are in the decline of the farm. And that breaks my heart.

This was the dream of my Rob and I, and it’s starting to slip away no matter how tight I try to hold on to it. This honestly makes me feel like I have failed him.

Don’t worry though, the existing 30 girls and boys we have will stay here to live out the rest of their lives. I have no plans to sell anybody off. It will be several years before they have all crossed the rainbow bridge. Until then we will go along as we have been to give them their best life. I’ll keep filling this space with stories as they come about.

I wish Douglas a happy new life on his new farm, and I look forward to seeing pictures of his new babies as they come along. I will miss his beautiful face and sassy ways. He is the bestest boy.

Thanks, Brandie, for taking such a great pic of him. I lifted it from your page!

In other news.

I decided to get brave this week and make another attempt at the circular sock machine. This thing has been intimidating me since it came into my life. And I am not exactly sure why. I understand the concept and how it works. I understand how to knit and the different parts of a sock. I have had tons of help getting it into working order and finding the various tools needed. You would think I could do this.

Yeah, not so much.

I think it’s a frustration thing for me. If I can’t do something correctly at the beginning, then I back off until I think I can. Procrastination syndrome LOL! Heck, it took me 20 years to learn to knit by hand!

I gave it another stab this week and was not so successful the first shot. I got the hung hem part done the right way.

Alas the heel was kicking my ass. The weight on the heel was not in the right areas and the whole thing went cattywampus on me.

There were stitches coming off all over the place, it was truly an ugly scene!!! Oh the inhumanity!!!

Ripped it all back out, cursed a few times, and put the whole thing away for a few days.

Gave it another shot and working on just a heel, I was successful!!! WOOT!!!

Next up, a toe, then put the whole thing together and hopefully get a whole sock that actually fits. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Mastering this skill will, I hope, open a new revenue stream for me. It’s almost time to change out the mittens and hats I have for sale at the store.

PS if you need cute mittens for kids or adults, let me know, I have several pairs looking for new homes. Also, beautiful handspun and knit wool hats from my flock. Send me a PM and I’ll get you pictures and sizes of what I have.

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Special shout out to Chris M! Thank you so much for your kind words and the coffee you bought me. I am grateful to have you as a reader and for your support. Thank you!

If you would like to buy me a cup of coffee, I would be grateful! Thank you!

I hope you all have a great week! Until next time!

Blessed be.