A Quiet Christmas

Weather was pretty good today so we took the sheep for a walk around the neighborhood. We met a wide-eyed lady carrying a small dog. She wasn't sure what to make of all the wooly faces surrounding her but the boys were on best behavior and I suppose she had a story to tell when she got home.  The boys finally met the two new horses, too. They were just as wide eyed as the lady  and pranced along the fence with us. We couldn't stop for any nose to nose meetings because of the electric wires but they seemed to have fun anyway. It was siesta time for the boys when we got home.

It's finally time to crank up the kiln for a bisque firing. I'll be glazing in a few days.

With the warmish weather the duckies are still finding lots of bugs and worms to eat. 

Days are so short. I'm off to do evening chores and it feels like I just finished the morning ones!

Foot Day

The farrier showed up this afternoon with his wife who works at the veterinary clinic where we take the dogs. She recognized Hattie right off the bat and told me how the techs love her and baby talk her. That dog knows how to manipulate people.They were very pleased with my pen setup and the boys were charming for the most part. Gimp and Mocha trotted right in. Stomper was a little hesitant but went in for a small bribe of sweet grains. Boots and Timmi were last, as always, and not particularly interested in taking part in this operation, but going in together sealed the deal. Dan and his wife squeezed in with them and managed to hold each steady and trim them up. Boots had a lesion in a rear foot that we treated with Betadine solution and Wonder Dust but it's hurting him and he's limping badly. Dan said it should be fine now so time will tell. The whole job took about forty minutes and Dan gave me a good discount because the sheep were calm and it was easier than expected. So it all went well and I was very proud of the boys being such gentlemen.

Hattie's Birthday

My girl is six years old today and I must do something special for dinner tonight. Bob is in Arizona fixing up the house for the sale so it's just us girls celebrating. 

It's been too cold to spend much time playing with the sheep. My eyes water and nose runs badly when I'm out. The tip of my nose is red and raw from wiping. I'm tired of winter already and it's only just beginning.

Dan, the man who shoes horses and trims goat feet is coming tomorrow to spruce up the boys' feet. Bob's bronchitis and bulging disc have made it impossible for him to help with tipping them into the chair for so long we are finally hiring the job out. In the meantime, to help with confining and moving them for the operation we put in another gate to create a holding pen with the squeeze pen in the corner. Hattie and I have been moving them in and out the last few days so they won't worry tomorrow when the work starts. Dan says he will halter them and trim their feet standing. I can't wait to see how it goes. They struggled like mad when we did it that way but I suppose Dan knows a thing or two after thirty years experience. I'll charge up my camera battery and try to get pictures.

A Dreary Day

Wet and cold. Wind. Repeat. What to do on these dreary days. I weeded the beds out front. Now I'll be wearing wet gloves to work. Hattie is going stir crazy with so much indoor time. The afternoon pasture and barn cleaning becomes the highlight of the day. The boys were happy to see us but instead of the fresh hay and treat they expected, we took a little walk so Hattie could work.

 An away.

Come bye.

Walk up.

And a good down to let the boys grab some weeds.

Busy eating. Don't bother us.

No more stuffing net bags with hay only to find the bag unopen and the hay all over the ground. I bought a hay feeder and after the initial shock of a new thing in their barn the sheep seem to be happy with it too. Anything that makes eating easier.

The girls, acting like puddle ducks. The molt is almost complete. They do get cranky with the new feathers coming in.

Toadstools

So I'm making my own mushrooms now. It involves a little slab work and some wheel work utilizing the last bits of this golden clay. I could have smoothed out the fine stress lines on the stems but I like them. I think they'll add texture when they're glazed. If I was a little more on top of things I might have used a slurry of paper clay to make raised spots to glaze them like Amanitas. Now that I think of it, that's a good project to use up the last of my porcelain paper clay if I can find a reliable red glaze.

Frosty Morn

Frost on the rose and frost on the boys' backs this morning. Winter is coming. Time to replace the worn out Muck boots before I freeze my toes.

Yard work has slowed to mostly keeping up with weeds but we moved the Twisty Baby Locust that broke in a wind storm two years ago to a spot in the back yard where it can be given special attention and put a new Sugar Maple where it was out front. Looking forward to the maple's fall colors.

Bob's having trouble with his back again (another surgery probably needed) but does what he can to help with chores. I have an itch to replace a flowering currant that's in the manzanita bed with a James Roof Silktassel - if it's still at the nursery - and that will probably be the last of the yard improvements for the year.

Maybe I can put some time into working with clay.

Winter is coming

The ground was frosty this morning and the ducks were not pleased about it. They burst out of their house in search of worms but there were none to be found. I suppose the cold on their feet and frozen water didn't help matters either. It warms quickly though and they need to toughen up for the worse to come. Egg laying has stopped and feathers are being renewed. 

A good exercise for Hattie. She holds the sheep out of the barn while Bob fills the hay bags.

Here is Boots who has finally decided a little cheek and chin scratching is perfectly fine. He is a clever boy, curious and always investigating new things. 

Timmi is still not convinced being touched by human hands is a good thing. An occasional chin scritch is OK but only if he's in the mood.

Hattie waits outside the barn for sheep work to be done.

Meanwhile, Stomper keeps an eye on Hattie.

Neighbor news

The huge shelter in the lovely pasture that we thought was for the mini horses has new occupants. And they aren't minis. They are two very friendly regular size horses. One is eighteen months, the other a few years older. Lean and leggy. The poor minis aren't allowed on pasture, we're told, because they don't know when to stop eating and will get too fat. Life just isn't fair.

This is a shot of a neighbor's sheep. They are a hair breed but quite a bit smaller than my Katahdins. The black ones are very attractive and I may sneak off with them some day.

Fun Fungi in the Yard

It's rainy, days are getting short and fungi are popping up everywhere.

These look like puffy lips in the field but here they look like bagels

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White thready things

Tiny Bird's Nest fungi

Pretty blue fungi

Blobby and weird

Yellow caps

Delicate fruiting bodies

Fun Non-fungi in the Yard

Tux!

Fruit on a strawberry tree

Crabapples

It's Halloween

And it's Tag's birthday. Always ready for an adventure. I miss my guy. 💕

Clay Sheep

Clay Sheep Finishing touches to be made when it dries a bit then we'll see if it survives firing. The clay is CAC Desert Gold and the plan is to glaze with Coyote's Light Shino, a toasty cream color that breaks to orange/brown where thin. 

Sheep Walk

We had a sunny day to walk the sheep. They are a bit tubby and can use the exercise. Hattie gets a good workout weaving back and forth continuously to keep them in line and everyone is happy when we get home. I was trying to snap a few pictures with a new iPhone but somehow ended up with short snips of video instead so that gave me an excuse to play with the very limited video production capabilities in Photos. Here is the resulting extravaganza! *cough cough*

A Neigh...ber

This lovely horse has been staying in the old alpaca pens not far from us. She has come to expect a handful of grass as we walk by. Then came the day I took the sheep along. Poor thing became frantic, snorting fiercely and running around so wildly I was afraid she would hurt herself. Hattie, unfazed by all that fury, hurried the nervous sheep on by keeping them as far away in the trail corridor as possible. For a while the horse reacted the same just seeing the sheep in our driveway, but eventually she calmed down as the boys clearly weren't a serious threat. Last time we went by she hung her big head over the fence curiously. The boys walked up to her, just as curious. All was well. Mocha made nose contact with horse. They sniffed each other thoroughly. It was quite a moment. I think she even wanted to walk along with us. She broke out of the pen a few days ago and spent a glorious 18 hours wandering around the neighborhood dining on alfalfa and lush grasses
before her owners came to repair the fence.

Duck in a Bucket

The little duck pool has sprung a leak so I've been keeping water in this bucket, hoping it is small enough to discourage sitting. But no. Today it's warm enough that one of the girls insisted on getting her feet wet. It remains to be seen if she will be able to squeeze herself out.

The water hog. Not going to move for anything... except maybe tomatoes.

And one of the girls waiting for her chance to take over.

Emmy, complaining about the water hog not sharing the bucket. I will have to go shopping for another pool before all hell breaks loose. In the meantime, she would like her favorite comfort food: tomatoes.

For the Dogs

Time for a commercial break for a great product. We have no more worries when leaving the dogs in the car during warmer weather since we got these Breeze Guards for the Bolt. Windows can be rolled most of the way down. Tux used to bark ferociously at people simply walking by but that has stopped, too. It must have been a reaction to feeling vulnerable, fearing someone might remove her from the vehicle, baggage she carries from being abandoned in the desert when she was a young dog. With the guards in place she feels secure and enjoys the benefit of open windows. Never expected this to happen but we're very pleased. Love the Breeze Guards, too.  BreezeGuard.com