Goodbye to Two Good Friends

I am remiss in not posting the passing of two really good barn kitties.  Although they passed on a while ago they deserve a formal mention.  Every animal has a personality, likes and dislikes, and quirks that make then individuals.  We don't have "just" barn cats, we have cats who live their best life in the barn.  Farewell to siblings Chloe and Clem.

Chloe  2008 - 2019

Clem 2008 - 2020

Both gone but not forgotten.

A Blizzard On Number Seven

Today is Knee Deep in Sheep's blogiversary - number seven to be precise. Wow, how did seven years slide by already?  It sounds like a big chunk of time but it doesn't feel that way.  That happens with a lot of numbers we talk about lately... years out of college, years we've had a vehicle, years since someone passed away.....eeesh.

Anyway, we'll remember this date as the Lucky Number Seven Blizzard.

Our power went out around 4:00 AM and Andy crawled out of bed to go fire up the generator.  Because it's wired to a load center pole instead of a house it doesn't have an auto on/off function.  The generator would run for 17 hours today while NYSEG dealt with the outages across the region. We couldn't be without it.

It was hard to tell how much snow we received since the wind blew it into crazy drifts with other areas scoured bare.  We're guessing over a foot - maybe fifteen inches?  We had waist-high drifts around the house which meant wading to get to the bird feeders.

By the ram barn there were big drifts and other areas where the wind had shifted and was chewing into the snow and taking it away again.

We had pulled the doors to the ram barn closed as much as possible but it IS a barn and the doors aren't tight.  One gap about six inches wide let the wind push the snow in all night long.  It looks like a huge mess but it's probably only half a bucket's worth of water when you think about it.

The bigger snow challenge was at the lower barn.  It hasn't happened in several years but Andy had to shovel to get the sheep OUT.  It was cozy as could be inside and the sheep hadn't stuck a hoof out all night.

He had to work his way all along that side of the barn to the other big sliding door and make two lanes out to the feed  bunk.

After that workout we could actually do chores - refill mangers in the barn and then take some hay to the 'picnic area' in the feed bunk.

The sheep were totally unconcerned by the storm and the snow although they didn't like trudging through anything over their knees.

Clem says.........

"I hates snow.  I is pretending to be an indoor kitty - indoors of the barn, that is."

January Doldrums

Winter makes me lose any blogging mojo I have.  Things are mostly gray and cold, days are short, chores are very routine and work in the wool shop slows due to holidays, year end book work and trying to catch up on neglected indoor tasks.  You can only say 'fed the sheep and skirted a fleece' so many ways.  ;-)

I tend to feel like Dexter - brace against something and sleep till spring.

But we do accomplish things every day even if it feels like we're just treading water. Here are a few occasions noteworthy enough that I took pictures.

I finished two scarves for Christmas presents.  As both have finally been presented as gifts I can show them. Both came to me as fiber during the guild's Christmas exchange (different years and they have been in the stash) and both have Blue Faced Leicester as a major component although they are from different producers. The fiber was nice to spin and the projects were simple and quick.  I used a simple pull-through pattern I grabbed off Ravelry - the Noro Keyhole Scarf.

We had a belated but fun Christmas dinner at Julie and Red's and Holly never wants to go home.  She has two perfectly good beds at home she rarely sleeps on and stuffed toys that she walks over and here she looks like the poor rescue dog finding warmth and safety for the first time in her life.  I guess most kids think their friends have cooler parents and better stuff.

The sheep welcomed some short but sunny days and napped in the barn doorway after filling up at the hay feeders.

And we were finally able to get every sheep into a jacket.  We ended up buying from both Rocky Sheep Company and The Wool Tinker.  Both brands are of good quality and the sizes alternate, with Rocky Sheep running odd sizes (37, 39, 41, etc. inches) and Wool Tinker being even (38, 40, 42, etc.).  Between the two everyone has a coat that fits... at least for a few weeks.  We'll have to change up many of them between now and shearing.  Buying the extra coats was a considerable investment but being able to market all the fleeces as coated will be worth it and save me time in the long run during skirting.

And what's better during the cold, dull winter but a little more cat sniffing?


Holly sez....

"I've sniffed enough cats today.  I'd rather go chase that squirrel.....except he 's way over there through the deep snow.....but if he comes over here he's dead!"

Winter Wardrobe

One of the our seasonal tasks is coating the sheep once full time hay feeding starts in late fall.  We were lucky this year with the weather and were able to keep the flock out on pasture up until deer season began.  Because our feeders are designed to minimize chaff contamination we held off a bit more to get other things done and the fleeces didn't suffer but we finally took the time to get at it.  It's not a fast job that we can do in one day, it's more of a process.

Having washed and mended all the coats after the spring shearing (OK, the washing and mending dragged through the summer and into fall) we pulled them back out of storage and put them in piles by size from smallest to largest.  Then we started penning small groups of sheep and put coats on all the non-Cotswolds first.  Their fleeces are such that chaff falls in and stays in so getting them coated first was the priority.

Minnie and Flower in their clean clothes.  

Coating the non-Cots took us a full day.  Handling each ewe was a chance to trim hooves if needed, clip off a felty lump from under a chin, check eye scores and body condition, and then put on the coat.  Sometimes the size that looked right was too big or too small so we'd switch..... it took a while.  

When we did another round of coats a few days later it became apparent that we were going to run out of sizes 37 to 41.  We had decided to coat all the sheep in the flock this year.  The Cotswolds that we coated last year did fine with no felting and minimal distortion of their curl character so we're going all in this year and doing everybody.  The cleanliness makes for a better product and it's easier for me to get a fleece skirted, too.  It was no surprise we would need more of some sizes but you don't know for sure which ones until you get into it.  We've been using Rocky Sheep Suits for years and will continue to do so but they are behind in production right now so while our order of sizes 37 and 39 and 41 is in their queue I also went over to The Wool Tinker and ordered intermediate sizes 38 and 40.  I hope to see them this coming week.  

Right now the Cotswolds are still quite clean but just sitting in the bedding will attract contamination when your friends drop hay bits on you or walk by and kick bedding on you.

So while we wait for coats to arrive the sheep go about their winter routine - walking back and forth from one side of the barn to the other, checking to be sure there isn't some better hay somewhere that they're missing out on.

And of course doing some recreational cat sniffing whenever the opportunity arises, in this case it's Clem passing through on his way to the sunny ledge above the hay manger.

The ventilation fan isn't really this loud - guess the phone just has a good microphone.

Hopefully we've ordered enough of all the sizes to get the job done this time.  And in a month we'll be changing everyone up a size to accommodate the growing fleece.  I hope we catch a warm spell by then!

Geez, Don't DO That!

Being an outdoor kitty is a hazardous life.  While barn cats are often thought of as being super disposable (grrr) ours are not.  They all came here as drop-offs or wanderers and we've been able to accommodate everyone as they've appeared over the years.  Newcomers blend into the social structure with little problem and come to use the lower barn as home base.  Any new cat that shows up gets neutered immediately, receives yearly vaccinations, have dry food available daily, go to the vet when needed, and get petted every day. They range all over the farm - barns, out buildings, fields, pastures, woods, where ever they want to go - and put a dent in the rodent population which we are glad of. We don't want to use poison if at all possible. While we've had as many as seven,  at the moment we have only two "functioning" barn cats (Chloe and Clem),  geriatric Natasha who rarely pokes her nose out the back door of the barn, and Kittin who is now the wool shop cat because of getting hit by a car last year.

Chloe and Clem hunt a lot and feed themselves probably more than we even know.  Still, they usually check in at chore time to get some fresh kibble and some petting.  Sometimes one will miss one chore session but is back at the next feeding or seen strolling around the farm randomly during the day.

We saw both Chloe and Clem Friday night.  Saturday AM Chloe wasn't in but we didn't think much of it.  Saturday night I realized I hadn't seen her all day.  Andy didn't recall seeing her out and about either and he went and checked the big Morton building in case she had gotten shut in by accident.  No Chloe.  Well, it was an awfully hot day and maybe she was just cool and comfy somewhere and we'd see her in the morning.

Sunday morning, no Chloe.  Now I was getting really worried.  Cats have a reputation of being aloof and independent but as friendly and domesticated as ours are it was not normal for her to not check in for this long. We walked the ditches, thinking maybe she had been killed by a car.  Nothing but some empty Red Bull cans and beef jerky wrappers.  (grrr, again).  We don't have any open wells or cisterns, no exposed chemicals, no poisoned rodents staggering around, no buildings or vehicles to be shut in...  No Chloe on Monday.  We went through all the buildings, climbed into the rafters to look at the top of the hay mows, wandered through the tall weeds around the corn cribs, fence lines, backside of buildings, calling and listening for a meow.  A dead or hiding cat could be nearly impossible to find.

A dozen ugly scenarios ran through my head.  She got caught and eaten by one of our too bold coyotes.  A big owl, like the one that likely took the rat off the lawn last winter, caught and ate her.  The fisher came back and got her.  She got attacked by a coyote/owl/fisher but got away and hid and is slowly dying.  Or rolled by a car and is now holed up somewhere, dying.  Or got beaten up badly by a feral tom cat (there are a few around) and is holed up, dying. Has been secretly developing diabetes/kidney failure/heart issues and is holed up somewhere, dying. See the pattern?  It was awful to not know what had happened.

I'm ready to write her obituary and this morning she comes strolling into the barn.  No injuries, no scruffy fur, no sniffles or weepy eyes, full belly.......

"What a nice day.  This cooler weather is lovely."

But the sun is nice too....mmmmm...<rub, rub, roll>..... makes me feel like a kitten."

Where the h*&@ have you been??

"There's no need to take a tone with me.  Call it a midlife crisis.  I went walkabout.  You wouldn't understand."

"No midlife crisis here, no sir, I'll be right here for kibble any time you're handing it out."

Give your sister a talking to, Clem.  We don't wan to do that again.

The Routine

This time of year, when the sheep are fed indoors, chores become a structured routine and boy, do the sheep learn it!  While Andy starts mixing up the grain ration (everyone gets some now even though nobody's bred because the hay isn't the greatest) I go through each pen and pull the leftover hay stems out of the feeders and scatter them for bedding.  The pens with youngsters and old grannies and special cases, like Snubby, get better quality hay but also get grain too.  By the time I move on to the next group Andy is doling out grain and putting hay in the feeders.  We have the flock broken into five groups based on age and body condition and it just makes things less of a madhouse to have smaller groups contained so there isn't a huge stampede when the grain goes down.

The largest group is made up of the biggest, most robust adults and we shoo them outside entirely while servicing their area.

"C'mon, stop lollygagging!  We've been out here five minutes already!"

Fawn:  "I don't think she's really trying - she's just standing there."   

Salsa:  "Yeah.  I sense no urgency at all!"

Snowflake:  "I will stare at you with my yellow sheep eyes.  It's bound to make you move faster!"

And when the bail on the bucket falls and makes a clink sound .......you can practically hear the collective gasp of anticipation.

Clem was keeping one of the inside groups company.

"I'll just sniff this cat for a minute.  Ahhh, I can feel the tension falling away............"

"We've tried an intervention - it didn't work.  She's a cataholic.  So sad to see right in broad daylight.  Before breakfast, even."

And then the morning feed gets distributed.

"She'll be back.  She always comes back.  They can't resist me."

And that's about as exciting as it gets here in winter.

It Be Cold

In the 40s last week, below zero today.  :-/

We did have clear skies all day so that was cheerful.  In the morning there was a halo around the sun from ice in the air.  (OK, it wasn't early morning and I had to block the sun with something tall - one of the trees).

It was the coldest in the barn that it's been all winter.

There's a gap in the concrete next to this post and even through the bedding pack the ground underneath was breathing out warmer, damper air which created ice crystals on the post.

Large but delicate plates and fronds of frost.

And some of the sheep had frost collected on their nose whiskers just from breathing.

Snowflake

Even sitting in the sun, Clem looks peeved with the temperature.

We moved old Natasha up to the shop with Kittin day before yesterday when it was clear that the temps were going to drop this much.  Being short haired and old she just can't take the cold.  Hopefully we'll shift her back down in a week or so when things warm up.

Holly was more than happy to come in and warm up after PM chores.

May we all be as comfy-cozy at the end of the day!