Shearing Day 2012

Posted by kenleighacres on November 19, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, shearing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 6 Comments

We used a different shearer for shearing the sheep this year and I am really pleased!  He was fast (in fact, so fast I wasn’t able to take photos during shearing),  the sheep look great, and the fleeces look wonderful!

Mud Ranch’s Susannah

I love the stark contrast of black and white when the sheep are freshly shorn.

Precious

With the wool gone, you can really see the bellies on the girls.

Rolling Hills Veronica

When I checked on them last night, they all had dug little beds in the straw.

Kenleigh’s Azera

We were all happy to see the sun this morning.

Liberty is still among the biggest of the big out there and udders are starting to develop!

I can’t believe little Emeline is old enough to be having lambs of her own this coming year.  Such a sweet girl with great horns!

Huntsberger Venus

A few of the older girls weren’t sheared.  A couple are on the thinner side and they don’t need to use the extra energy staying warm.

Dolly is another one that wasn’t sheared.  Here she is with her new buddy, Banshee.  The ewe lambs were with the retired girls during breeding season and these two have been stuck together ever since!

The fleeces looked much cleaner this year when compared with last year’s.  Right off the top of my head, I don’t have an answer for this, but I am very happy 🙂

Here are a few of them…

Mud Ranch’s Hyacinth

Kenleigh’s Avalon

Kenleigh’s Canby

Timber’s Hallelujah

We couldn’t have done all that we did without the wonderful help from friends!  Toni and Nancy helped me skirt fleeces, Kelly grabbed/pushed/sweet talked the sheep into the chute for the shearer, my husband caught the sheep after they were shorn and trimmed feet and Bethany helped give them vaccinations.  A lot to do in just a couple of hours!  My hope is to go through the fleeces again and have the ones that will be for sale, listed on my website in the next week or two.

Color Me Crazy!

Posted by kenleighacres on November 12, 2012
Posted in: Fall, family, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

I am feeling a little crazy right now and this title seemed fitting for several different things…but the most important is at the bottom of this blog post!

The Fall colors have been beautiful!  I took advantage of the leaves for a felt pup photo shoot and…

and a photo shoot with the cutest kid 🙂

These guys certainly fall under the ‘color me crazy’ title!

They will be making their way to TX for the Whippet Racing Association’s National meet.

Lambing is just around the corner and some of the girls are starting to show it.

This weekend was part 1 of 2 for getting the barn and ewes ready for lambing.  My dear husband cleaned the barn…

a big job!

Luckily, the weather cooperated and it wasn’t pouring rain!

The straw was spread in the sheep area and the panels were rearranged for better flow.

He even spread the big pile of wood chips behind the barn!  The rain has done wonders for our grass, but with it comes mud.  The wood chips help a lot!

The last bit of news for this blog post is that ‘color me crazy’ is going to be the naming theme for this year’s lambs.  I came across a website that has hundreds of names for colors from many different languages.  Some of the names mean a specific color and others mean the color of something.  A few of my favorites are – Delaney, Gwyn, Finley, Fenella, Broderick, Emerald, Scarlet, and Donaghy.  Time to start my list, leave me a comment if you have a suggestion!

Shearing is next weekend 🙂

Reno update

Posted by kenleighacres on November 3, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

Reno and a buddy have been spending some time in the barn.  It was a lot easier to catch him for putting medication in his eye and watching the progress.  He was a good patient and the 12 days went by quickly.

We pulled the stitches out and everything held together 🙂

The swelling is gone and everything looks good.  He had a little pocket by the corner of his eye and we flushed it out and it continues to look better.

Love this boy!

Fun with the girls

Posted by kenleighacres on November 3, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

The rain is back, the days are shorter, and that means it is time for Felting classes!

Today it was all about making 3D critters and laughing and relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.

The company was great, I love all of these ladies…I just wish we had gotten a group shot.

I did remember to take pictures of everyone’s finished project though.

Lora’s adorable little sheep.

Toni’s kiwi from down under.

Loren’s fluffy bunny.

Coleen’s wise owl.

Kelly’s handsome horse.

and my son’s bat, quite fitting for the day after Halloween.

For the sheep, the rain and shorter days, means grazing green grass again and enjoying the cooler weather.  I love this time before lambs start arriving…almost a calm before the storm 🙂

Yay for MOO!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 26, 2012
Posted in: Dogs, Farm Life, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

I have wanted to order business cards or holiday cards or something from MOO for a while now, but for whatever reason I hadn’t ordered any yet.  I was introduced to their products by Joan at Mud Ranch and the quality is outstanding!  Plus, you can choose to have different photos on the front of your business cards – very fun!  I was ready to order some cards with my felt pups on the front and as I looked around for the best deal, I found my way to MOO.  The process to create your product is easy and the turnaround was very fast!

Love the box they come in 🙂

The quality is exactly what I expected!

Love them!

A couple of the cards had a white line on the bottom.  I noticed it, but I wasn’t overly concerned about it.  I just thought I would use them for personal use.

The day after my order arrived, I got this e-mail from MOO…

 ‘Little MOO here again – the bit of software that manages your order with us.

I’m getting in touch because we spotted a problem with your order, and because we want it to be
perfect, we’re sending it back to Big MOO to get printed again. We’ll
put it at the front of the line, but there will be a slight delay before
you receive it – we’re very sorry about that. (But we’d be even
sorrier if your cards arrived looking anything less than perfect.)’

My jaw dropped!  They noticed the problem and reprinted my whole order and I didn’t even contact them about it.  WOW!!!!!  Talk about customer service!

I will definitely be ordering from them again.  Thank you, MOO!

Look at her go!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 23, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Dog Photography, Dogs, family. Tagged: , , . 6 Comments

My son has a nutty little Border Collie and they love playing frisbee together.

I love watching them together.  His throwing accuracy and speed is WAY better than mine 🙂

Rose’s accuracy is getting pretty good too.

She loves jumping…

and leaping.  Not sure what she was doing in this picture, but it captures her perfectly!

Love the motion in this picture.

I am so happy she has a passion.  She isn’t interested in the sheep and a busy Border Collie always needs something to do.

This is by far my favorite 🙂  The look in her eye and the stretch in her toes are examples of just how enthusiastic she is about catching a little plastic disc.

Felting for a Cause

Posted by kenleighacres on October 19, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Farm Life, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , . 35 Comments

I have been asked by a few people ‘how did you come up with making dogs’ and ‘why are you making them’.  My close friends/family that know ‘why’ I am making them have urged me to share a little.  So, here is a little bit of information on what the felt pups are helping support.

When our son came into our lives at 18 months old, neither one of us thought it would be ‘easy’.  Anybody who thinks raising a child is easy, is in for a big surprise.  However, we did not envision the journey would lead us to where we are now.  When they say ‘it takes a village’, it truly does and we have been very fortunate to have some incredible village members.  We have gotten some great help along the way, but lately it feels like someone finally gave us the puzzle pieces we needed to finish this very complex puzzle.

Our son has been seeing an occupational therapist for sensory issues for some time and he has glasses for his strabismus, but he was still struggling.  There is nothing worse than seeing your son struggling and not be able to help.  The consensus was that he needed vision therapy.  His eyes were not teaming correctly and that was causing him tremendous difficulties.  The price tag made our jaws drop.  This was not the first time we had been told that he needed vision therapy, so despite the jaw dropping price tag, we knew we needed to make it happen.

Who knew my love for dogs and felting would be the answer to our prayers.  I have now made 42 dogs and each one that is ordered is a blessing.  We have a long ways to go, but the path seems a little less cluttered with road blocks.  In a weird twist, my youngest niece has also been helped because of the journey we have taken (see I told you it takes a village).  She was having severe difficulties and with the help of a sensory specialist, is now on a better path as well.

I feel a strong urge to help more children and to bring more awareness to both sensory issues and vision therapy.  If you have not heard of Sensory Processing Disorder, I urge you to look at the  Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation page and learn more about it.

****This contest has CLOSED****

****As a ‘thank you’ to all of the support I have received and to all of our friends for helping us along the way….I am having a giveaway of one of my Custom Felt pups!****

To keep up with my felting adventures, you can visit my Kenleigh Acres Facebook .

Prints, cards, pups, bags, calendars, and more information on my Felt Pups can be found on my Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio website.

Scarface!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 18, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

Poor Reno is never going to be the same.  He was in a bit of a tussle with another ram and ended up on the losing end.

This is our son’s ram and while we were waiting for the vet to arrive, he came up to me and said ‘I am mighty worried, is he going to be here soon?’  Such a sweet soul he has 🙂  The vet was here quickly and did a fantastic job of patching him up.

I did my best of not posting the most graphic pictures, but be forwarned that there is some blood in the photos below…

Yes, that is a cut running from his eye down his cheek.  It looks like the top horn on the other ram caught the eyelid and went down and back.

It has been a bad year for the ram’s here at Kenleigh Acres for needing to have stitches around their right eye.  Reno is now the third ram that needed to have the vet sew him back together.  Geez boys!

He had a great pillow to rest his head on while the vet cleaned and inspected.  In addition to the soft tissue damage, he found a bone chip that had to be removed as well.  I’m glad I didn’t see the blow that did this!

Other than the puffiness and a little blood stain, it is hard to tell that his cheek was sliced open.

He will be kept in a small pen for a few days to ensure we can keep an eye on the healing process and to administer pain medication along with antibiotics.  He was in good spirits this morning and dug right into his breakfast.  He is such a sweet boy and let me scratch his chin while he ate.

Meet Kenzie!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 13, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

On my Kenleigh Acres Facebook page, I have been introducing the new felt pups as they are created.  This particular felt pup is near and dear to my heart and needed her own blogpost.

Meet Kenzie!

Here she is in her later years.

She was my first dog and it was so hard to say good-bye.  I had her for 14 years and she was my heart dog.  I have a print hanging in my office that was done by Mary Anne Radmacher and part of it says…

‘kenzie – the finest walks are the longest ones with you.  no matter what time brings you will always walk beside me.’

I wasn’t supposed to get a puppy, my parents were getting a puppy for my younger brother, but I got impatient waiting in the car.  I walked into the area where the puppies were and she crawled out from under a ledge and I knew she had to come home with me.  One of the things I will always be grateful for is that my parents let me bring her home.  My brother came home with her brother, Willy.

This makes Felt Pup #42 that I have made.  With orders stacking up and Christmas gifts being ordered, she wasn’t on my list to make, but the universe works in mysterious ways.  My mom has been bugging  urging me to make a ‘Kenzie’ for my little mascot and I kept saying, at some point I will make a ‘Kenzie’, but not right now.

Earlier this week, I was working on a Border collie that ended up turning into a ‘custom’ Border collie and the coloring wasn’t close to the same.  Funny thing is that the coloring was exactly what Kenzie looked like.  She was a Border collie/Aussie mix and had a natural bob tail.  She used to love bringing the horses in and she would have thoroughly enjoyed the sheep chores, unfortunately we didn’t have the sheep before she passed away.

She can now sit on my desk, keeping me company and herding the little felt sheep.

I’m happy to have a littler version of Kenzie in my life again and I share the sentiments of my sister that had this to say about her felt ‘Kodi’ – ‘…looks just like her and how I wish that it could come to life!’

To see more of the Felt Pups, you can visit their new website – Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio