Here and There, This and That

We've had a very busy few days.  Friday morning I hit the road with Julie for a quick overnight trip to Maryland to deliver some Cotswolds.  Four rode in the back of the pickup in our fitted sheep container.  These two girls - a yealing and a lamb - are staying in Maryland.  We also took along two rams lambs - one will be going to Virginia and one to Pennsylvania.  The boys were too shy lazy to come to the open tailgate for snacks and pictures.  It was a pretty hot trip.

Once unloaded at the first farm into overnight accomodations they all perked up and dove into some nice hay.  The gray ram lamb near the back and the white ram lamb in front both were picked up the next morning by their new owners.

Besides talking sheep we got to pet this little charmer - a two month old cria from the resident herd.  Love his blue eye!

 

Part of the reason for the trip was to retrieve the yearling ram that I was getting in trade for the yearling ewe.  He's  a colored Cotswold and I'm looking forward to putting him with my colored ewes.  His registered name is Titan.

 

 

We have him in the livestock trailer for a while to serve as quarantine.  Since he was vetted before he left Maryland I don't have any reason to think he'd become ill but it's always a good idea to make sure some sickness doesn't pop up from the stress of travel.

 



 

He has a nice head with a blocky, square muzzle.

 

 

And good curls.  His fleece is nice and soft for a Cotswold which is important here.

 

 

We returned home Saturday evening and Sunday morning I washed a batch of lamb wool in preparation for dyeing then went to the last committee meeting prior to our Fiber Festival next month.  Everything is on track.  We still have some openings in the classes which we expect will fill soon.  Right after evening chores I went back up to the wool shed and dyed the lamb wool.  That was a long day.

 

Monday was my annual day to demo handspinning at the NY state fair.  It's two hours each way so Julie and I got an early start.  The route takes us right by the front door of our vet clinic so I stopped to have two prescriptions refilled - prednisone for Holly's seasonal allergies and hyperthyroid pills for Ivan.  Then on to the fair! 

 

The wool superintendant is very dedicated and makes the building a great educational display.  The skeins and all the hanging hats and mittens are also for sale.

 



 

 

All the bags of fiber on the shelves were prepared by the superintendant and her helpers and was available to all spinners to use for demonstrating.  It was replenished daily as needed.  It was a very busy building and just while I was there for four hours there were three spinners, five knitters, a fellow turning out spindle whorls and nostepinnes on a lathe, one person using the drum carder and the great wheel, a weaver, a needle felter and two people dyeing.

 



 

After spinning we took a walk around the fair to get some great fair food and check out a few favorite exhibits.  I always make a beeline (OK, the line wandered past the Bloomin' Onion booth) for the art and crafts exhibit which is huge.  I'm amazed every year at the collected display of talent.

 

A town full of knitted mice.

 



 

Painted birds.





 

Rug hooking whimsy.

 





 

We ducked into the DEC's building and admired the big display aquariums full of native fish.  These big tanks must have a heckuva filtration system because the water was crystal clear despite being densely populated.  The other fish were real active, darting around but that big catfish occupied the center of the tank the whole time, just hanging there like he was being entertained by watching the people on the other side of the glass.

 









 

And of course we had to go through the sheep barn.

 



"Why yes, I do have great hair.  Thanks for noticing."



 

I don't know if these two were siblings or just good friends.

 





 



This one is just so comfy.  It was that kind of heat - just makes you keel over and fall asleep.

 

 

Holly says.........

 



"If someone doesn't put something in my kong......"

 

".... I might keel over too!"

 

And we can't have that!



Summer's End

The end of August doesn't always feel like the end of summer.  It's still hot and sunny, the grass and leaves are still green, flowers and gardens are still producing......but the clues are definately there that the season is changing.   If you're on schedule with your work it's not cause for alarm.  If you're behind you start hyperventilating into a paper bag.  Happily, we're pretty much where we should be for the date.  (Hey, statistically we were due!)

Remember that field of oats Andy put it?  They really ripened over the last week and the moisture meter said 11% so they were ready to be combined and put in the bin.

Literal 'amber waves of grain'.

We are fortunate that a fellow farmer a few roads over acquired an aged combine and agreed to cut our field in exchange for some hay for his cattle.  The man who did it last year was unavailable, so we were actually looking for a combine ourselves, but this is a much more sensible arrangement.

The cavalry coming over the hill!  (Sort of)

At this point I had to leave and take some boxes to the UPS depot.  I was only gone a bit over an hour, but when I came back he had gotten this far.  Notice the dust coming off the machine as the dry straw and grain get a thorough threshing.

Nearly done

We're as happy to have the nice clean straw to bed the sheep barn with as we are the grain. 

Another sign that summer is almost over is the NY state fair.  It runs for 12 days, with the last day being Labor Day.  Our tradition is for me to go up on the day of the Fleece Show with my entries and whatever friends are available, do a four hour stint in the Wool Building demonstrating spinning, and then spend a few hours seeing the sights with those friends.  Andy isn't a big fan of crowded venues...... or long drives (two hours each way)......or hot weather......so he's just as happy to wave a fond farewell as we trek off and he stays home to take care of things.  After spinning, we eat a bunch of good stuff, go through the animal barns........

Lucille makes a new friend.

..... and then check back at the Wool Building on the way out to see how the judging went.

Wheeee !

Those four with the big purple ribbons are Rocky (Cotswold/Border Leicester), Jazz (purebred Cotswold) , Ashes (another Cotswold/Border Leicester cross) and Cessna (CVM/Rambouillet and Border Leicester cross).  Yes, there were other fleeces there.  Yes, I'm VERY happy.  Yes, they are all for sale and will be at Finger Lakes Fiber Festival if they aren't bought by spinners at the fair.  The other four of the eight I entered took 1st or 2nd in their divisions, so I earned just about enough premium money to fill the truck with gas. 

Tomorrow is a work day in the barn - weighing and checking eye scores on all the ewes and ewe lambs - and Sunday I go back up to the fair to pick up the fleeces.  Then it's full steam ahead to get as much done as possible for Fiber Fest. 

So the technical end of summer doesn't mean much to the work load, but I think at least today is ended, too.

Pooped pets