Wether Report

The vet’s coming out on Tuesday to wether the boys! I won’t know until then what method he’ll use. I probably should have seen to this earlier, but it’s been a very busy couple of months. I’m going to have him help me with the adult hooves if I haven’t yet tackled them all (I only got two feet in with Agnes the other day before I got wounded; and last night, we left early to go see The Hangover, so I didn’t have time to try again).

The whole gang, including Jayne, is finally dressed for success! The twins went up a suit size today. Both they and Jayne were in between sizes, so I just put a quick seam up the back of the next biggest size, and when they outgrow them, I’ll just need to snip out the back stitching and zip out the bobbin thread and voila! They’ll be ready to go, already dressed in the next size up!

The twins are modeling tailored (“tailored” here = that loose fold you see flopped over on the top of Hokey Pokey) size C sheep suits, the size Mr. Shivers is wearing (he’ll probably need the next size up in the next month, because his fleece is growing quickly). Jayne is already way too big for a size C, but too small for the E (I don’t have any Ds), so he’s wearing a tailored E, the same size Agnes will soon outgrow.

After shearing next year, I’m going to wash all the sheep suits and have them screenprinted with something cute. Maybe I’ll make up a Cupcake Ranch logo….

I was all fretful about my hay not getting cut in good time, but as usual, I think I was really worrying over nothing. It should all work out just fine. I haven’t really seen any hay everywhere else being cut yet this year, so we can’t be too far behind (and after all, the folks who hay for me take their payment in hay, so it’s not in their best interest to let it get past its prime); and besides, this will give me a couple of extra days to get my hayport made. The hayport will basically be a couple of posts with cattle panels bent over and a tarp over the whole thing, but unlike my awkward weighted tarp-and-pallets arrangement of last year, this will be a more or less permanent arrangement (the less part being the fact that the tarp will probably  need replacing every  couple years), and won’t be a horrible pain in the ass for me to get to the hay on a windy day, and the tarp won’t be able to flap around mightily, then wear out prematurely and let in rain and snow and spoil my hay. I may even have enough room under there for the dead freezer I was planning to use for grain.

The original plan was to keep the dead freezer in the barn on cement pavers (the freezer box would keep the grain dry and the sheep and mice out of it–but it still can’t be out in the elements, or it will fill up with water), but that was when I had 4 sheep instead of 7. Now they’ll pretty much need the whole little barn–although it’s still perfectly ample for them–they don’t seem to mind being cozy, even in the heat. And really, I’d feel much safer knowing the freezer is away from the  sheep entirely. While they’re not rocket scientists, I’m not 100% certain they wouldn’t find a way in, and if they did, they’d just eat grain until they died (unlike dogs, sheep don’t really know when to quit, apparently).

Rachel has like seven intriguing projects on the needles, and I’ve got knitting envy. I’ve been so occupied with workshops & the animals that I haven’t knit anything besides that one little baby vest in forever. The sweater I’ve had on the needles for Ron since winter is totally boring me. I’m thinking of starting my Wildcat Hollow cardigan, which should be a relatively mindless but still fun knit.

Here’s the handspun, made from Alpacas of Wildcat Hollow 100% alpaca roving. I’m either doing a gradation yoke (the original plan), or I may alternate reverse stockinette stripes of each of the marls with a solid stripe of knitting (which I’m leaning toward now).

And I also want to spin up a bunch of crazy yarn for the Spinsters Club Farmers’ Market booth next weekend. And I need to finish my pegboard display for that and make some Spin Sacks. But first, I’m WAY behind on a million other things. To the batcave!