Country Lifestyle Experience

Posted by kenleighacres on April 14, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 6 Comments

The Country Lifestyle Experience is the show that we participated in over the weekend.  We had a vendor booth, plus we took some of our Jacobs to be in the animal showcase.  This was the first year for this event and it was small this year, but they have big plans.  There were some wonderful seminars and I met some really nice people.

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Little Lucky couldn’t believe all of the stuff that he saw – Alpacas, cows, hair sheep, goats, and lots of people.

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Reno and Rendezvous took it all in stride.

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Infiniti and Bronwen weren’t happy with the people that were trying to pet them.  We had to laugh when we showed up Thursday night because the pens were 12′ x 12′, we only had 2 sheep to put in each pen!  They had a lot of room.  Most pens at shows are 4 – 6 feet square. 

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This was the first show that I used my new (used) gridwall panels and they were awesome!  I was able to hang and stack and utilize all of the space.  They worked really well.

Here are a few tote bags that I embellished that are still available and can be found in my etsy store.

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I had fun swapping items with other vendors and I came home with some beautiful, handmade cards and a very soft alpaca fleece. 

My husband did a fantastic job manning the sheep pens and demonstrating how the drum carder works. 

He also participated in the Country Olympics and my sister got these pictures of him moving grain bags in one of the events.

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The object was to move the stack of grain bags from one pallet to another.  He won by a second!  Right afterwards he realized that he isn’t as young as he used to be 🙂 

Sunday Stills – The Color Red

Posted by kenleighacres on April 12, 2009
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 9 Comments

This week’s challenge had me searching for the color red at the farm show we participated in the last two days. 

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These guys caught my attention.  They are handsome in a funny kind of way 🙂 

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They were part of the Purina display, which had quite a bit of red in it as well.  This isn’t red, but it really caught my attention…

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How many bags of Alligator Chow do you really think they sell???

Alpacas in a bus :)

Posted by kenleighacres on April 10, 2009
Posted in: Alpaca, Goat Kids, Nigerian Dwarf Goat. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

It has been a hectic week!  We have a vendor booth and are exhibiting our sheep at the Country Lifestyle Experience this weekend.  It is a new event for our area.  There is a trade show and seminars.  I’m hoping I can sneak out of the vendor booth long enough to attend a couple of the seminars.  I will post pictures and details later, but this was too funny to wait…  

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Some alpacas get fancy trailers but these guys have their own bus!

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They very calmly walked down the stairs and seemed excited to get in the barn. 

I wish I had gotten there earlier because my sister hauled 7 goats in the back of her 4 Runner with 2 baby goats at her feet!

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They are such cute babies!

 

Sunday Stills – Animals of Husbandry

Posted by kenleighacres on April 5, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , . 12 Comments

After reading Mud Ranch’s blog this morning, I checked out the Sunday Stills group and thought it would be a lot of fun to join along!  Each week you are presented with a different photography challenge and this week’s is ‘Animals of Husbandry’.  The descripiton is –

This will be easy for most but a challenge for some of us…:-)  For a real challenge how about 3 or more animals in the pic?? Or 2 or more different animals in the pic??  Have fun…Ed

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While I was out enjoying the sunshine and taking pictures of lambs yesterday, I found Liberty and a nutria grazing together.  Here is a close-up of the nutria… 

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For those of you that don’t know what a nutria is – it is a large semi-aquatic rodent that originated in South America.  In the 1930’s they were imported into Louisiana for the fur farming industry.  They were released either intentionally or accidentally and have spread throughout the US.

Enjoy your Sunday! 

Thanks Douglas!

Posted by kenleighacres on April 2, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , . 5 Comments

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Who knew this handsome little guy would start a new friendship!

It all started in 2004 when Joan from Mud Ranch contacted me about buying a Jacob ram.  Arrangements were made for my husband and her husband to meet in southern Oregon for them to get Douglas.  He grew up to be a bit odd 🙂 but they still came back to us for their second ram!  This time they got Debonair (Dub).  A friend and I delivered him and I had a delightful time visiting with her and her husband.  Not such a great time driving to her house – it took us over an hour to go 20 miles due to hills and TURNS!!!  But in the end it was well worth the drive 🙂  We now have sheep from each other’s flocks and I truly enjoy our friendship. 

On Monday I had a package sitting on my front porch from Joan…what could it be?

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Oh goodie, goodie, goodie!!!  It’s the bag she posted about on her blog that I have been drooling over 🙂

It came with one of her beautiful cards and it really got me thinking about all of the wonderful friends I have thanks to my sheep.  Douglas is no longer around, but I am thankful to him for bringing such a nice person into my life.   

In honor of Douglas, his sister Petunia, had her lambs yesterday! 

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She was a bit out of sync with everybody else.  Her lambs are going to have to be extra tough to hang out with the big lambs!

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She had 2 little girls!

   

 

High Desert Wool Growers Fiber Market Day

Posted by kenleighacres on March 30, 2009
Posted in: Fiber, Jacob Sheep, Snow, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 3 Comments

Yesterday was the 12th annual High Desert Wool Growers Fiber Market Day and the first time I made the journey over the mountains to check it out.  I have been wanting to visit this fiber show for the last couple of years, but it just hasn’t worked.  The main reason has been snow on the mountain passes.  This year I lucked out!

My sister and I had signed up for a vendor booth and left early in the morning.  The following picture is pretty blurry, but it was really dark out!  A herd of about 30 elk were on the side of the road on the way up.

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I kind of shocked her as I started saying “Look, look, look, LOOK!!!”  She finally turned her head and saw all of the elk.  The rest of the trip over was uneventful, which I was thankful for because my sister and I tend to have adventures on our trips 🙂

The fiber day was so much fun and very well attended. 

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Here is my sister in our booth. 

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There were a couple times throughout the day that the entrance was blocked by people.

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All sorts of fiber goodies were available and there were workshops on different subjects throughout the day. 

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There were a few vendor booths outside as well as llamas, alpacas, pygoras, and sheep. 

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My sister and I both had a successful day, we sold a little bit of everything.  She makes beautiful and yummy smelling goats milk soap and our booth always smells so good.

This was a last minute tote that I made and the lady who bought it was so delighted.

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We packed up in record time to make it home before the forecasted winter storm hit the mountains.  We made it home before dark and before the passes looked like this…

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We drove on bare pavement and I am so thankful for that!!!  I was really concerned about getting stuck in the snow.

We were in the car longer than we were at the event, but it was nice to not be gone for the whole weekend.  I spent most of today adding the items that I am carrying in my studio to my online store. 

I am also back to lamb watch duty for this girl… 

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She is officially due on Tuesday and is very uncomfortable!

What a boring job!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 27, 2009
Posted in: Call Ducks, Ducklings, Ducks. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

My mama ducks amaze me!  Sitting on a nest of eggs for 26 days is just a little too mundane for me 🙂 but they seem very happy to be doing it. 

During their swimming, eating, stretching break today, I was able to take some pictures of their nests.  I provided a little bit of straw for them to use and they scoop a nest in the ground and pull some of their down out to insulate the eggs.  When they leave the nest they cover their eggs up to keep the eggs warm while they are gone.   

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Pulling the top layer off reveals all of the eggs.

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This nest has 13 eggs and belongs to…

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the little snowy call duck hen in the middle.  She was sitting on a nest of eggs that were due to hatch a couple weeks ago, but silly me I looked at the eggs using a candler and removed the eggs that weren’t fertile.  She got very upset with me for taking some of her eggs and would not sit on the nest anymore.  She moved to the other house and made herself another nest and laid more eggs.  Now I know that she can count 🙂 and will leave all 13 eggs in the nest! 

This nest contains 11 eggs…

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and belongs to the super mama…

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Here she is with some of her babies from last year.  She hatched two different clutches last year. 

 Baby ducks are just the cutest!

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This is the third mama duck and I don’t know how many eggs are in her nest because she is very dilligent.  She must take breaks, but I haven’t seen her in a few days. 

All of the eggs are due to hatch in 11-13 days.  I’ll post pictures as soon as their mamas bring them out of the nests.

Wooly Girls

Posted by kenleighacres on March 23, 2009
Posted in: Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , . 7 Comments

Symphony and Pacifica are lambs from last year and they recently found their way back home.  I am so happy to have them back.  I am amazed at the amount of wool these girls have…

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Little Pacifica is just a head and legs sticking out of a puff ball!

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Her fleece is 7 1/2″ long and so soft.

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Symphony was a lovely lamb and she has matured into a beautiful ewe.  The wide 2-horn girls are my favorite! 

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Her fleece is stunning.  My goal is to get both of them sheared this week.  They are bred to Windy Acres Lawrence and are due in May!

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Infiniti seemed to immediately remember her sis and was happy to have her back too. 

Here is my latest felting project – so much fun!!!

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I bought the tote bag – it is wet felted (I have these available in my fiber shop along with other fun purses) and needle felted the chicken on it.  A very fun activity on a rainy weekend! 

Come on Spring!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 21, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life. 4 Comments

It has felt like Spring for the last couple of days.  I haven’t had to bundle up when I head out to do chores, flowers are blooming, birds are singing, the swallows are back, the ducks are sitting on nests of eggs, the grass is growing, and the lambs…

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are getting very BIG!  This is Dreamer with his mama Holly.  The grass doesn’t really look like it is growing out in the pastures, but I can tell it is by all of the hay that is left in the feeders.  The sheep are thoroughly enjoying all of the spring grass.  A lot of people wonder why we lamb in the freezing cold month of January and the reason is because the lambs are now old enough to fully utilize all of the grass we will have very soon. 

We visited Tammy and her new lambs this afternoon.  You might remember that she had Jacob cross lambs last year but this year she used a Blueface cross ram on her ewes.  Her lambs are adorable!

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This little girl was born just before we got there. 

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The fleeces are so pretty!

I think my son is getting bored with lambs right now, but he loved the goats…

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and they loved him back – as only a goat can 🙂

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It almost made me want to get him a goat – a very BIG almost 🙂  We will just visit Tammy’s!

He also had a LOT of fun playing in the rain.

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It was a typical Spring day in the Northwest – rain, sun, rain, sun, etc.  He was a little disappointed when it stopped raining 🙂  I personally enjoy the sunny times!

The definition of Garage

Posted by kenleighacres on March 17, 2009
Posted in: family. 6 Comments

Wikipedia defines it as – A garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles.

No way!!!  I had no idea 🙂  Growing up it was a woodshop, pantry, and storage facility.  When I got married, our first house didn’t have a garage but for the last 6 years in our second house our garage has been used for a taxidermy workshop, woodshop, dog area, extra freezer storage, and multiple other things – but NEVER for storing a vehicle. 

Thanks to my husband and his new shop in the barn, I now have spot for my car in the garage!  It is awesome, especially living in the Northwest where it rains a lot.