Sixth Photo Tag

Posted by kenleighacres on December 22, 2008
Posted in: Bearded Collie, Photo Tag. 4 Comments

Joan over at Mud Ranch has tagged me and the guidelines are that you go into your photo archives and pick your sixth file, and the sixth photo in that file and tell us about it.

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Now, this could have been really scary or very comical – but it is actually one of my favorite photos.  It is from the fall of 2006.  I was the photographer for the herding portion of the Bearded Collie National in Washington.  I got there in the evening on Friday and was taking photos of the dogs practicing.  There was a fence in the way, so I knelt down and shot in between two fence posts.  This was the result.  Bearded Collies are another breed of dog that are fun to photograph due to all of that hair.  This boy’s name is Zoot and he is very handsome!

My tagging choices are:

1.  Robin at Meridian Jacobs

2.  Kristine at House of Cardis

3.  Cristen at Caprikoda Croft

4.  Kathy at Cedar Pond

Have fun!

Rain, Sun, Sleet, and Snow…

Posted by kenleighacres on December 21, 2008
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, sheep, Snow, Uncategorized, whippet. 4 Comments

We’ve seen it all in the last 6 days.  Luckily we have missed most of the snow!  We got just enough to play in for a day and that is enough for me.

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I love the fresh snow before it is disturbed.

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Our seasonal creek was dry until it rained on Wednesday night and then it snowed the next day.  It has water in it now!

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We really need to figure out a way to catch all of the run off from the barn.  320′ is a lot of run off and it would have been really nice for the couple days that our hoses were frozen.

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The temperatures dipped down into the teens for a couple nights, then it would snow, then it would warm up and rain, and then the sun would come out and then it would snow again.  It was hard to keep up and I am really happy I’m not a weather man!

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The ewes were excited to go out to pasture…

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but then quickly changed their minds and wanted back in the warm barn.

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This is Wrangler and I can’t wait to see his lambs this year – only 3 weeks to go!

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Infiniti and Lulu are my little friends and I have a hard time taking their picture because they love to come up really close to say ‘Hi’!

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Jonquil on the other hand is very happy to stay away 😉

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My son’s favorite part of the snow is the sled rides.  My husband pulls him on the 4-wheeler most of the time, but I have a special pulling harness that fits Danica and she had a blast pulling him around.  He laughed the whole time!

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Paisley would never be caught laying in the snow 🙂  They are so different from each other.

The snow has all melted and temp’s are expected to be in the mid-40’s tomorrow.  It was nice to have running water today and the ducks were very happy to have water to swim in again!

A good weekend for felting!

Posted by kenleighacres on December 15, 2008
Posted in: Felting, Fiber, whippet. 9 Comments

Old man winter has finally showed up here in the Northwest. We had a light dusting of snow on the ground yesterday morning and this morning. It was a very wet snow and not as pretty as a blanket of snow, so I don’t have any snow pictures.  It is supposed to get really chilly next week – in the teens at night and barely above freezing during the day.  We haven’t felt like spending any more time then we have to outside.

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My son has been playing with his trains – he has a lot of trains 😉

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Paisley has been laying in front of the fire – yes, she is wearing jammies and has a blanket covering her laying in front of a very warm fire.  A girl after my own heart 😉

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Danica has been taking the sites in – she likes to be outside, even when it is cold.  She is a busy girl and doesn’t have time to lay in front of the fire!

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and I have been felting.  I have always admired people that can paint – I certainly CANNOT, but I have found that I can paint with fiber 🙂  This isn’t done quite yet.  It still needs a blanket stitch around the edge and a couple ribbon loops on the top for hanging it.  It measures 12″ x 24″.

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I love the playfulness of this one!

I have my fiber products at a local farm store and these 2 pieces will be headed there.  I made 2 felted vests as well, one was a custom order and the other one was for the store, but I delivered those yesterday and I forgot to take pictures.

I have been working on a large wall hanging – 3′ x 4′ – for a Christmas present.  I will post pictures afterwards, I don’t want to spoil it 🙂

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and this is the wall hanging that I hope to get done for our house.  It is also a big one and my husband’s comment was that I have my work cut out for me!

Of all the fiber crafts I have tried, I definitely enjoy felting the most!

A boy and his lamb…

Posted by kenleighacres on December 7, 2008
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep. 11 Comments

I’m not sure what the difference was, but most of our 2008 ram lambs were overly friendly.  This is not such a good…and we butchered a lot of them – mainly for other reasons, but it made me feel better than selling them.  Unfortunately, the friendliest of them has taken up residence here and is my sons favorite sheep.

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No wonder – he walks around on a halter like he is a dog and that is after not doing anything with him since the end of June!

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They had fun climbing the wood chip pile (well at least my son did)

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Reno was a great little trooper!

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Even out in the pasture with all of the ewes, he was the perfect gentleman.  I was afraid he was going to get loose because my son wasn’t holding the lead rope very tightly, but Reno didn’t pull on him once.

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Even when all of the ewes ran off, he just stood there watching them go.

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After being such a good boy, he gave him a little treat 🙂

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They make a cute pair!

Shearing – part 3 of 3

Posted by kenleighacres on December 6, 2008
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Llama, shearing, sheep. 3 Comments

I was really hoping that the mild weather we have been experiencing would carry over to today, but good old mother nature had other plans.  I woke up to a chilly morning and was dreading shearing the rest of the ewes.

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Here is Danica all bundled up, ready to go out to the barn with me.  I’m sure there were a couple ewes that would have paid good money for her jacket 🙂

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Luckily the sun came out and it feels good to have them all sheared.

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There are a few that are looking very pregnant and some are starting to develop little bags, a definite sign that lambs will be here soon!

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This is Rolling Hills Veronica, she is Reno’s mom.  She has always been on the smaller side and I was shocked when I looked at her today because she seems to have grown this last summer.  She is 3 years old.  I haven’t paid attention to how long ewes grow.  The rams definitely grow well into their 3rd year and it appears that the ewes do too.

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I put them on a new pasture after shearing and Magoo decided that this man made concrete mountain was the perfect place to keep an eye on his charges.  We have numerous concrete pads on our property from where the chicken barns were and my husband is slowly breaking them up and piling them to eventually haul off.

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I am very thankful that Sheryl, my shearer, did such a fabulous job with my girls.  They were all handled nicely and the fleeces are beautiful!

A happy girl!

Posted by kenleighacres on December 5, 2008
Posted in: whippet. 3 Comments

Poor Paisley has been feeling a little blue lately.  She is still on a restricted schedule and will be for another 8 weeks!  So, I splurged a little for her yesterday.  Her favorite treats are bully sticks…

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Look at the size I found for her!

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She thought it was AWESOME!

Her leg is healing well and she is scheduled to have the pin removed on the 16th.  She is able to go for little walks, which are the highlight of her day.  Once the pin is removed she will have to stay quiet for another 4 weeks to ensure the bone heals completely.

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I also found this little lamb in my closet.

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Instead of tearing it up like she usually would, she snuggled with it 🙂

Such a character!

Posted by kenleighacres on December 3, 2008
Posted in: whippet. 6 Comments

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This girl is so silly and full of so much character.  Here she is looking quite innocent – don’t be fooled…

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she definitely has her naughty moments.

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She would be in big trouble if my husband saw her with his slippers 😉

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Since Paisley has been laid up with her leg, poor Danica has had to find other things to keep her entertained.  Currently she loves playing in the water while I am doing chores.

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It is funny seeing her try to catch it with her mouth and trying to pounce on it with her feet.

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She is also becoming a pro at playing fetch.  You can really see how much muscle she is getting.

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Here she is with her silly ears on 🙂

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And she gets so animated with my husband and son when she hasn’t seen them in awhile.  She will pick up one of her bones and wag her whole body while she is talking to them in low little growls.  My son thinks it is hilarious and loves this part of the day!

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Why would you chew a bone normally when you can do it upside down?

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“Whatcha lookin’ at?”

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and she always has something to say!

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She always brings a smile to our face 🙂

Call me crazy…

Posted by kenleighacres on December 2, 2008
Posted in: Dogs, Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Llama, sheep. 8 Comments

but I was really hoping to get a Christmas card picture of my son with a sheep, duck, and dog 🙂  Unfortunately all of our dogs are very prey driven and were extremely keyed up by the presence of the sheep and duck!  I figured Darby was my best bet – boy was I wrong!  He may look slow with his little legs, but it is just a big trick.  He was able to run behind and pull a little bit of wool off of Reno’s butt – poor guy!  So, he was very quickly sent to his kennel for not listening and before my son dropped the duck and became Darby’s dinner.  Next was Kate’s turn and it was very apparent that her and Reno were just going to stare at each other.  So…we went with just a sheep and a duck and Magoo, the llama, decided to join in.

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I’m not thrilled with the picture, so we will try again on the next nice day.  Poor kid, he was quite the trooper.  At least now I know not to try any of the dogs!  I’m happy to say that no animals were hurt during this photo shoot 🙂

Shearing – part 2 of 3

Posted by kenleighacres on November 24, 2008
Posted in: Farm Life, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, shearing, sheep. 5 Comments

This post could have a lot of titles:  Brrrr it’s Cold, Who thought this was a good idea, We’re moving to Cedar Pond (more on that later), Murphy’s Law is in full effect – well you probably get the idea…

The first round of shearing happened Thursday morning and that night it dropped down to 30 degrees!!!  The previous week felt like Spring and now it definitely feels like Winter.  It never fails that when we shear in the winter time, the weather makes a drastic turn for the worse and this year was no different.

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This morning I woke up to blue sky and frost everywhere and boy was it chilly!

I started out by telling the girls that I was very sorry and that I would give them extra food.  They promptly told me that they were running away from home and were going to hitchhike to Cedar Pond’s farm.  They heard that Kathy gives her girls heat lamps to huddle under.  They didn’t care how much extra food I was going to give them.  So, to keep them from causing a pile up on the highway, I had to resort to turning them out on the green grass…

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It may have been sunny when we started shearing, but the fog quickly rolled in and it looked like this when we were done…

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and it just got worse as the day progressed.  Luckily it isn’t going to be freezing tonight and they are all tucked in the barn with extra straw tonight, but if any of you see a group of Jacob ewes hitchhiking up I-5 will you please send them home…