May Compilation

Morning friends!

Welcome to the new folks!  The sheep are happy to nibble your fingers while you visit!  They hope you brought them treats!

My friend Sherry and I went to the local sheepherder’s festival in Gillette last Saturday.  We sure had some fun listening to the pipe band, walking around the vendors, checking out the sheep wagons, visiting old friends and making new ones. 

Not my pictures, I got them from the museums fb page. I forgot to take pics!

We did miss the trailing of the sheep thru town as we did not get there early enough for that part.  Each year they are growing this event. 

The sheep wagons are amazing.  I’ve had a love affair with those for many years.  The original camper vans.  Robyn and I were actively looking for a set of wood wheel running gear to build a wagon on top of.  We were scouring pictures online, found a book on how to do this, and drawing up plans for how we wanted it to look inside.

We were going to use it for the local Fun Day’s parade to showcase the farm, go to the few local-ish sheep herders’ rendezvous and as a fun place to have friends stay when they visited. 

Sadly, it will never happen.

Robyn also wanted to re-do the freight/chuck wagon we do have and use that for fun and adventures.  He found a company that could refurbish the wheels as our existing ones were worn out.  Some of the wood siding and flooring was also shot.  Not a huge amount of work for us to do, but it would have been fun to do it with him and for myself to learn more about that skill.

Rob taught me to drive draft horses with that wagon.  At the time we had a team of Shires.  Mother and daughter, Dee Dee and Annabelle.  They passed away several years ago at the ages of 32 and 30.  They were beautiful girls, and so very sweet. 

So along with the fun of the festival, it was also bittersweet for me seeing those wagons and remembering all our plans.

Lots of rain, which I am so grateful for, came in over the past two weeks.  We are just a touch over 3” of water now!  Luckily it was mostly slow rain, which gave it a chance to really soak in and not run off into the highway. My cattle guard at the end of the driveway is full though.  I have standing puddles in the historically driest part of the upper pasture.  WOOHOO!

A few warm days in between the storm fronts really has the grass growing!  I’ll be breaking the mower out sometime next week.  And my lilacs are making flowers.  I love that scent wafting into the windows.  The peepers in the culvert are singing around the clock.  Such a sweet sound to my ears.

Seems that I did catch a lovely stomach bug this week.  Between that and the rain, there was not much outside work done.  I do need to get a couple of my raised beds chunked up and get cukes and pumpkins in soon.  Michael got me a broad fork for Mother’s Day! I also got a beautiful purple orchid, that I shall endeavor not to kill and a lovely card. He will want to plant watermelons and some carrots as well. 

Since I’ve been kind of on my butt this week, I needed some mindless knitting to keep my hands busy between bathroom runs and naps.  I started a cute little poncho for my granddaughter.  She starts kindergarten this fall, and I just cannot believe she is that old.  It’s just not possible.  My little Munchie will look good going to school though!  Bright and colorful!

Despite my absolute love of wool, I have found that good old Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn works so much better for kid clothes.  Don’t hate me!!  Her poncho will wear like iron and should fit her for 2-3 years of good hard use and easy washing.  They have come out with some better color palettes than 20+ years ago. The sweaters I made for my kids were all that kind of yarn, and it worked out great.  They were warm enough for what they needed and were darn hard to kill.  They outgrew them before they wore them out.    

The sheep are all doing good.  Getting all fat and happy on the grass.  They are back to their normal spring/summer schedule of eating, napping, eating, napping, eating and going in for the night. 

Miss Lucy is still struggling with her arthritis.  I am waiting on a call back from the vet to see if there is something else we can try that may give her some better relief and more mobility.  Silly girl when she is feeling good is so very sassy, and we must chase her around to get her in the corral at night.  I swear she has a smile on her face as she leads us on a merry go round, she knows she’s the queen of the farm.

It’s time to get the coffee on and get this day started. 

Blessed Be

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