Garden Tour

Wordless Wednesday

A Big Scare and Animals on Video

This little lamb you see here almost died today, and it was scary. I mean really, really scary. You see, I normally feed the animals when I get home, after I let the dogs out. Today, I let the dogs out and saw that all the animals were fine so I went inside to eat the mango gelati David brought me from Rita's. After we ate our awesomely delicious Italian ices, we both fell asleep on the couch. I woke up about a half hour later and decided to feed the animals. I was getting something from the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw the electric netting fence moving. I thought it was just a chicken sneaking under or through it, but I looked closer and saw one of my ewe lambs tangled in it. Crap. Crapcrapcrap. I ran outside and hopped over the fence and knew immediately she was REALLY tangled. As in, choking and couldn't breathe tangled.

I grabbed the fence and started trying to untangle her, which wasn't easy because she was almost on her back and had one front leg wrapped around behind her head and in the fence. I was having a really hard time figuring out how to free her. I knew I couldn't yell for David because he was still sleeping and trying to wake him is like trying to wake the dead. I knew I couldn't take time to run inside and try to wake him up, so I just kept grabbing fencing and pulling. By this time the lamb had foam coming out of her mouth, along with a drop of blood. Crap. By the time I finally freed her (which was probably only 20 seconds but felt like a lifetime) she had stopped moving. I thought she was dead. I thought to myself, "Great, I just got her freed and it's too late. What are we going to do with a dead lamb? How are we going to dig a hole?" (we're having a drought) I layed her on her side and pushed on her ribcage pretty hard a few times, then shook her a little and massaged her throat. She finally started gasping for air. I sat down with her head on my lap thinking "Please, please breathe." After a few minutes she was ok enough to stand up, and then she stood panting so hard for a few more minutes.

She's ok now, but I really thought she was a goner. What if I had slept one more minute? What if I hadn't seen her in time? That was really scary. I left the sheep out grazing while I was at work today, but I definitely won't do that anymore until I'm sure the charger is working reliably.


But now that everything is ok, I wanted to share a video I made of the animals tonight. It's just a quick tour, and I apologize for anything dorky I may say. It's hard to think of what to say on camera!

In the Shop!

This felted scene and some of its friends have been added to the shop, along with the purses! I still need to add lots more things and update my shop name (to Purl & June) but that is coming!

As always, the money I get from the shop goes right back into crafting/knitting supplies or the livestock! These animals need to pay for themselves...no freeloaders around here! Well, there may be a few freeloaders around here but they're of the canine and feline variety! :-)

Visit Katiegirl (and now Purl & June) on Etsy

Craft Show

Saturday morning I loaded everything into the car and headed to the craft show. Thankfully David came with me and helped me set everything up. My coworker lent me her tent and it was really nice to have. I think it made my spot feel more cozy, and it shaded from the hot sun in the afternoon.




I really like how colorful everything is.


My mom gave me the two spindles (bobbins?) on the left side of the crate and I think they looked great decorating my table!


I sewed like a mad woman last week and made three new purses in addition to the one I already had.


I'm especially proud of this one!




I really like this pink one too. None of the purses sold.


It was a much smaller craft show than I expected, but I still did pretty well. I'm going to be adding what didn't sell to my etsy shop in the next few days, and I'll update the blog as I add stuff. I also need to post a picture of my new business cards designed by another one of my coworkers.

Who is that?

The other day David mowed the yard. I came around the house and saw this.


He found the mask in the ditch. Who in the world is it supposed to be? Clark Gable?





Masks freak me out. And this particular mask was made in France. Who knew?

Success!

A few weeks ago I noticed my guinea hen wasn't around anymore but the 2 guinea males (guinea roosters? LOL) were. I figured she'd gone off to set a nest somewhere. I have a love hate relationship with the guineas. They love to torment me and I pretty much hate them. Ok, well I hate them 95% of the time. The other 5% they're tolerable. Anyways, I figured I'd try to find the nest, and when that failed I figured I'd wait until she came back with keets. I'd catch the keets and sell them, and them try to catch the adults and sell them as well. I'm a little tired of being woken up at 6:30 on Saturday morning by the alarm call of a guinea who is mad because I haven't fed them yet.

Today I noticed the hen was back and she was standing next to one of the males. He was standing in an odd position. I walked over and when he moved out popped a cute little guinea keet! One little lone keet. I caught him and the hen got very upset with me, so I put him down again. I couldn't bear to take him away, plus I can't really raise a solo keet in a brooder. I know keets don't do well with their parents sometimes, because they're a little more susceptible to cold dewy conditions than chicks are. This little one is going to have to make it on his own though, I just can't catch them all. They're very wily and roost in trees instead of in the coop. I need to figure out some sort of trap.

Maybe when the keet is bigger I can sell them. Maybe.

Pup Sitting

This is Kingsford. He belongs to David's friend's girlfriend but we're babysitting him for the day. He's so cute!! He's getting along really well with our other dogs, and he likes to sit in our laps. It's nice to have a small dog around. I've often though of all the small dogs out there, I'd get a pug if I got one. They're big dogs in little bodies. :-) I think it would take a while to get used to the snorting though.

The New Girl

Meet our new addition! I've been wanting to get started raising meat rabbits for a while now, and yesterday I officially started! I got a year old Silver Fox/American Chinchilla doe from a fellow homesteader that I've been friends with for about a year now. We are bartering, so she gave me this doe and I will give her goods from our place, like a certain substance used in goat milk soap (that happens to be illegal to sell, but don't get me started on that).


The doe's name is Perthra, but I may change it simply because I can't seem to remember it correctly. I keep wanting to say Petra. I told Devin we were getting a rabbit and he wanted to name her Drama Queen. I'm not sure we'll go with that, but I think Queenie would be kind of cute. I have a history of being very indecisive as far as naming things goes!!

I'm excited about raising rabbits, and I think it's great that both breeds she's crossed with are on the critical list on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Well, it's not great that they're on there, but it's great that more people are raising them and trying to preserve the breeds. And it just so happens that my turkeys (Jersey Buffs) are also on the critical list.

Perthra is hopefully bred, so hopefully in a little over 4 weeks we'll have kits!

Can I make a confession? I'm a little intimidated by that little rabbit. She's really got a lot of personality. I thought she'd be pretty shy and not let me pet her. She's very outgoing and not afraid to come right up to the door of the hutch. This morning I think she got sick of me petting her and she pushed me away....which kinda freaked me out. I know it's silly because she's "just a rabbit", but I can't read her yet and I don't want her to bite me (not that she will, I'm just a little paranoid). I am comfortable with horses and cattle, but a rabbit intimidates me. How's that for silly?

Early Developers

The turkeys are a few days shy of 8 weeks old and already they're practicing their displays of manliness. The other morning I heard a strange noise and realized it was one of the young turkeys gobbling. Gobbling already!! Last year my turkeys didn't gobble until they were about fully grown!

And look at this guy below....strutting his stuff!


The pictures aren't the best because they are pretty shy, but I wanted to get pictures of the display. There were 2 males showing off for each other.


The lady turkeys better look out!

Some Wooly Works

The craft show I plan on attending is coming up quickly! It's June 18th, which means I have less than 2 weeks to get everything ready! I've been trying to felt stuff in my free time, which is usually in the evenings when David and I sit down to watch some TV. I've made a few things lately and wanted to share them with you.

This little sheep is made with Purl's wool (just the sheep's body).


There's a pretty big demand for primitive type decorative stuff in this area, so I wanted to make a few things with that feel.


And I love doing sunsets and sillhouettes.

I like this one a lot.

But this one (below) is my favorite. I just love the way it turned out.

I have been selling my crafts under the name "Katiegirl" for a while now, but I think it's time for a change. I'd like to start making and selling goat milk soap, and I wanted a name that could incorporate the wool/felting/knitting side of my craft stuff as well as the goat milk soap. I think I've settled on a name....Purl and June. I'm working with a friend to come up with a logo and business cards for the craft show (well, she's doing much of the work...she's really good at this stuff!). I can't wait to get it all finalized so I can share it with you!

It's Back!

Remember the ram lamb we had processed? I sent his hide away to be tanned, and it came back today! I'm so thrilled to have it. I was really fond of that ram, and now even though it may sound weird, it's like I get to pet him whenever I want!



It's gorgeous! And it's pretty big.


I love the variation of color in the fleece.




This is the underside.


The leather is very soft and supple. I got a washable tan, which means it can be put in the washing machine!


I sent it to Bucks County Fur Products in Pennsylvania, and they did a great job and I'll definitely use them again. They don't have a website (I believe they're Amish) but their info is:

Bucks County Fur Products
PO Box 204
220 1/2 N Ambler Street
Quakertown, PA 18951