Missing Willow Farm

Karakachans shed.. a lot.  FiFi will sit for a treat and lets us pet her but she runs away when we try to put flea and tick medicine on her and absolutely wont’ be brushed.  Oh well.  She won’t win any beauty contests for that coat (but just might for that face).

Beatrice isn’t like most sheep, they are usually skitterish and standoffish.  Beatrice greets me when I come near her.   She likes to smell my face.  She’s my favorite.  I think it’s easy to see why.  🙂

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Needlefelting is a craft that can result in some fantastic 3D objects.  You use special barbed needles that sculpt wool fibers, basically by poking and poking them until they do your bidding (while stabbing yourself repeatedly).   I’m just learning myself, but have received some fantastic needlefelted items in craft swaps.  Here’s Bindi checking out her mini-me that we received from a Craftster named Mercedes, who also felted our tiny little Jenna.  I’ve felted a few sheep, but still haven’t gotten the hang of the wire armature inside of the figure.  Needlefelting a great take-along project.  I like to play with it during down time at the farmers’ market, and always have to explain to folks what the devil it is I’m doing stabbing wool in my lap.

Jenna demonstrates one of her ninja powers … the ability to ignore curious poultry.

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Nugget has a tendency to stand out in a crowd!  She’s starting to shed a few feathers again and I’ve been collecting them.  Any suggestions of something crafty to do with her amazing feathers?

Augusta is one of our original three ewes we purchased in 2008.   Her lambs are never far away from her.  It’s unusual to get this close to a sheep without a herding dog in the background of the photo.  She’s very curious and friendly and doesn’t mind having her head scratched.

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Squashes and melons have never done well for us… until this year.  We planted a few seeds in our potato patch and look what happened.  Our potatoes were disappointing this year at best but we’ve got big round things coming up everywhere.  I sure hope there’s a pumpkin in there somewhere!

Thistle’s got beautiful flowers and deadly thorns.  This one is about 4.5 feet tall.  We don’t have a lot of it, thankfully, and recently bought a sprayer to treat it.  Our goats actually ignored it until it started flowering, now it’s apparently a tasty treat.  It reminds me of the movie Braveheart.  🙂

Jessica’s been hanging out by herself in the trees on the far side of our pasture.  With the heat we’ve been having, she appears to be a very smart cow!  We’ve been meeting her over there every day and working on getting her to eat sweet feed from a bucket.  That’s been very successful.  She now comes running in the morning when she hears us because that means breakfast.

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Freeranging roosters means entertainment for Jenna.  She occasionally decides they need her attention and stalks them relentlessly.  It’s amusing and she’s easily called off.  She’s never attacked anything without our command ‘get it’ so I’m sure they are safe.  The occasional misbehaving sheep, however, is easily ‘gotten’.  She doesn’t bite hard at all, it’s like an ‘I’m totally the boss of you’ nip.  It’s a really good day for her when she gets to ‘get’ something!