Catch Up

Here are some pictures of what's been happening around here lately.

We got a few inches of snow the first weekend in March.  It was a wet snow and clung to everything. Very pretty!

I got my hair partially dyed blue!  I wanted something fun, and figured a pop of color would be fun!  It's hidden under the top layer of hair, so it's not super obvious right away.  I love it. It's been about 3 weeks now, and it's starting to fade a bit, so I will probably have it dyed again in a couple weeks. I may add some purple in next time!

I hadn't made a cake in a while, so I made a rainbow cake. Fun with food coloring!

Elmer loves to follow the sun beam around and lay in the warmth, even if that means he has to lay on boots!  Silly boy.

My brother and his fiance just bought a house, so we went for a visit and helped them get some work done before they moved in.  David and Chris worked on patching drywall, and I primed one of the bedrooms.  Devin and Kylee helped with a little bit of everything.

Peppa, one of the New Zealand does (rabbit doe, not goat doe) had a litter of kits.  She had 9, and 7 are still with us.  This is her second litter, although she didn't make a nest for the first litter and they all froze.  She's doing a great job so far with this litter.

We dyed eggs yesterday, and Angie, Isaac, and Ernest came over.  David and Ernest stayed outside talking to David's Aunt Nancy, and the rest of us got to work.  I forgot to get pictures of the finished eggs!

I was making deviled eggs, and I saw how some people put the hard boiled egg white in dye, and then they have Easter colored deviled eggs, so we tried it with a few of the eggs. It looked neat, but I prefer my deviled eggs white I think.

We had lots of dye left over, so I put it to good use. I got some white roving and had some fun making some rainbow roving.

I'll have to get a better picture of the dry roving.  I'm surprised at how bright the colors turned out!  Now that I look back at these pictures, I notice a theme.  I guess I've been a little tired of the dreary winter, because I have been loving lots of color lately!

Kylee helped me make some egg rolls today.  We baked them, instead of frying them. They were pretty good, but I added too much ginger to the filling. I'll have to tweak my recipe (no recipe, just a little of this and that tossed in a bowl) and try again.

Knitting by the Sea 2016

Our aunt is a member of a guild that has retreats every year in Corolla, NC.  Last weekend was my second time going. It's a fun weekend...spending a weekend in a nice hotel with my sister, knitting and having a great time! I was lucky enough to be asked back to teach a needle felting class and to do a demonstration on making felted beads.

The hotel where the retreat is held is so nice!

The view is great.  I'd love to have one of these huge houses on the ocean.  I'd even settle for staying in one for a week in the summer.

Becky and I took pictures on the balcony, but that's as close as we got to the ocean. It was a busy weekend!

Saturday, we set up the Purl & June table and sold some soap, and Becky manned the table for me while I gave my demonstration.

The felted bead demo was fun, and all the ladies ended up going home with several beads.

Later that night, we went down for the festivities.  We play knitting bingo, win door prizes, and eat desserts.  Becky and I wore our matching sheep nightshirts. We got these at our own local Walmart stores, and didn't realize we both had the same shirt until we were talking about what to bring to the retreat.  We decided to coordinate outfits.

Sunday morning was my needle felting class.  I picked 2 cute critters they participants could make- either an owl or a gnome.  The class was a lot of fun.

Aunt Linda made a really cute gnome with the cutest ears. Here he is below, not yet finished.

During the class, Becky let me know Barley was showing signs of going into labor, so she was kind enough to monitor the barn cam for me while I concentrated on the class.

Barley ended up having triplets later that afternoon. 

Here are some of the finished and almost-finished projects from the class.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but lots of fun.  

Healthy Lambs

So, to quote Paul Harvey, here's the rest of the story (of lambing).  After I lost Bean and her triplets, I was convinced my other ewes would all have horrible times lambing.  I had to leave last Friday (the 4th) to go to the Outer Banks (NC) for a knitting retreat.  I was scheduled to teach a felting class on Sunday, so canceling was not an option!  David was home, and I had a few friends I could call if he needed help, so really I should have been confident everything would be ok...but in my sleep deprived state, I was convinced there would be trouble.

The handy thing I added this year is a barn camera that has it's own IP address, which means I can log in on my phone or on any computer and check on the sheep.  Two hours into my drive to NC, I pulled over and checked on the sheep.  I saw Darla was in labor. Crap!  I called David, and he went out to check to see that the lamb was coming in the normal position, which it was.  I drive another 20 minutes, and pulled over again, and checked the camera just in time to see the lamb being born.  I was SO relieved to see a normal birth!  Darla ended up having twins, a ram and a ewe.  A friend of mine was able to stop by that night to dip the lambs' navels (David's not familiar with how to do that).

The rest of the weekend I was obsessed with checking the camera.  I'd wake up every 2 hours and check, but there wasn't any action until Sunday morning when I was teaching my class.  Of course!  My sister was monitoring the computer while I taught, which was so helpful because I didn't need to worry about it as much.

I could tell Barley was restless and seemed like she was starting to go into labor, but after a couple of hours she hadn't really made any progress and it was time to get on the road to head home.  While I was driving home, she ended up having two healthy lambs.  I asked my friend Nancy to go over to help David dip their navels in iodine, and they were surprised to find a third lambs!  Barley had two rams and a ewe lamb.

The ewes and lambs spent a few days in the barn in jugs, and then they went outside.

I've got one last ewe to lamb, but she's not due until around early May.  Luckily I don't have any trips planned around that time!