Chickie Nap Time…

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One of the cutest things with baby chicks is how they love to pile up when it’s nap time.  They are so cute when they all decide it’s nap time.  Everyone just sort of nods off and they all cuddle up together.  I love the silly one in the lower left hand corner, he fell asleep with his beak in the water cup.  Thank goodness they mess it up all the time so he didn’t drown.  I moved him after I noticed it with the photo!  The two bigger buff brahma girls are awake and keeping an eye on everyone else.  Although the one on the right seems to be drifted off to chickey nap time!  They are a week old now…

 

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Saturday Morning Chores…

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We got Maggie a new farm jacket at the Rural King…  she just looks like she’s lived in the country for all her life!  Digging her muck boots and is ready to take on chores with her new Carhartt duds on!  Our chickies are doing good too!  I would love to put them out in the big brooder but it’s just a teeny bit too cold still out there.  Even with a heat lamp or two, it will be a little chilly.  Another week when they get more feathers and the temps come up a bit, they will probably be moving into their new digs!

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Cody is always waiting for you when you come out, he knows the food ladies are his best buddies when he has to be locked up in the paddock.  It’s so muddy out, that it’s really better for them to be locked up in an area than out making the whole place a mucky mess.  I really want the grass to get a good start once it starts warming up.

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The ewes all look so funny when they are sheared!  So neat and trim, they almost look like goats.  Little Bridget is so cute with her little white socks.  She is such a doll.  Holly and Noel are showing off their lovely black black coats.  Emily told me that they are not Shetlands, but she thinks they are both Black Welsh Mountain sheep!  I knew they were not purebred Shetlands for sure, but the lady we bought them from thought they were cross bred with Shetland and something else.  But after checking photos and from Emily’s sure recommendation, I have to agree, they look just like Black Welsh Mountain sheep!  They are the only true really black sheep.  That is really cool!  I wonder what their lambs will look like, crossed to a purebred fancy Shetland ram!  Time will tell!

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There is always one that has to complain in a crowd, eh?   Ivy is annoyed by something.

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Angus and Fergus have been hanging out in the ram shack!  I guess they are getting tired of listening to the ewes talk about baby stuff.  Can’t wait for the weather to get a little warmer so I can paint the doors and frames of the buildings!

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I dunno, but that looks like a baby bump to me!

I’ve learned that sheep don’t really show their pregnancy until the last 3 weeks or so.  We have about 6 weeks until the first possible times…  Can’t wait!!!

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Awww….  Rana and Rafeka snuggling under the heat lamp!  I know they will be happy as soon as it warms up a bit more!

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Rafeka with his new more manly coat.  It fits him a little better as well.

 

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Buttercup still likes her cuddle time after her bottle.   Did we mention that she is just the cutest little darn thing?????

 

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Everyone enjoying some nice yummy hay!   Buttercup is starting to eat with her big siblings.  She should start to really learn to graze a bit more as the weeks go on.  She is just one month old now…  As I understand, we’ll be feeding her another couple weeks but will start to wean her off as she eats more and more hay and a little bit of goat feed.  I need to get a bag of it so she can enjoy learning about real food!  The angoras are just on hay for the most part and doing fine, but I do give them a little sweet feed now and then to keep their heat up at night.  But a decent goat chow will be good to get Buttercup all her grown up vitamins!!!

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We lost a few good sized branches with our last ice storm, and one tree up front lost a big major branch.  It looks like that tree is pretty much dead and we’ll be cutting it down soon.  It lost a big branch at the first of the winter as well, and it’s just not looking very good.  Thankfully we didn’t loose too many branches or trees though!  I haven’t been out to the back to check out the wood lot, but we haven’t seen any obvious downed trees.  We were lucky!  The news was showing a lot of really messed up trees from this last storm!  We just got a little bit of kindling for our firepit!

Just another Saturday morning of chores!

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Some new rugs on the loom!

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I am so enjoying this next batch of rugs!  Getting over my newbie fears and really enjoying experimenting and learning on line from the tons of talented weavers out there.  This particular rug I wove in an artsy thick yarn with the rag strips.  The pictures don’t quite do it justice, you can see the little bits of fuzzy yarn peeking out through the nice earthy tones of this fabric.  It turned out fantastic!

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My stash of to-be rugs keeps growing!  I need to weave faster!  It’s really cool to go to thrift stores and garage sales and find nice vintage sheets and other nice fabrics that no one wants and convert them into beautiful floor rugs!  It’s like a recycling green craft!  And I love that it’s an old old craft…

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Many of the fabrics have a thick border seam, an edge that I clip off.  I did one with it but didn’t like the lumpy part that leaving the seams on, left.  I use these strips to put between the rugs on the loom, as I weave.  Once the rugs are cut off, I save these strips to use over and over.  I suppose you could make a fun crazy rug with all the strips!  Perhaps someday!  In the meanwhile, I just love my strip basket and all it’s delightful colors and patterns!

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The take up reel is getting fatter and fatter!  Each rug I weave goes on this reel underneath the loom.  Eventually it would get so large that I think it would interfere with your weaving!  Some folks cut off rugs as they make each one, but I think that would be a huge waste of the somewhat expensive warp strings.  It’s about $3 to $4 a cone and you need 24 cones to set up the loom!  That is a bit of an investment!  Depending on the length and the width of your rugs, you can see about 20 rugs or so from those 24 cones…  After this run of warp, I’m going to use up my last white warp on a different style of warping…  with two strings in the reed with one space skipped.  It allows a little more of the fabric coloring and pattern to show through.  I’m excited to try that next!

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And when I am totally out of warp, I’m going to order black for my next series of rugs…  to see how that works out.  I’ve seen some with the black warp and it’s just really stunning.  Especially with dark fabrics.   Stay tuned!  More cool weaving to come!

 

 

 

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