Took my old Olympus camera out the other day~~

Photo of the sheep.
 Sheared Adda a couple of months ago, so she looks a little scruffy. 
The other sheep are hair sheep.

Dyfra of course, what you don't see is Adda tugging at my jacket and my camera ended up moving, so I cut Dyfra's muzzle off a bit. LOL

Maggie looking as cute as ever.

Was originally trying for action shots but when you do this yourself, the most one tends to get is backside shots.
This is Stjarna doing a very nice Tolt.

New Gotland Roving

The Gotland yarn above was from the Fleece I bought from a breeder in NZ.  Super soft lamb fleece, very curly and a light heathered grey.
However, I do not have enough to finish out a full bobbin.

So I searched the web on the off chance I would find some more online. I came across some Gotland from Paradise fibers.
It is soft, but not as soft as my original Gotland lamb, also a lot more dark.
Spins a lot different too, was having a hard time spinning it as thin as the original.
Only thing common between the two, is you have to over spin a bit, other wise it will blow out when I ply.
Is incredible how different these two batches of Gotland are.

Haven't decided if I am going to ply the two types together or not at this point.
Might have enough for a scarf but not a sweater I was hoping for.

President James Madison Montpelier

Back of the Mansion.
Surprisingly, the inside of the house isn't that big, rooms are quite small. While the outside looks impressive and large, it really isn't.

The Front.
Part of the house was for Jame's family and the other side, for his parents. If they wanted to talk, they had to walk out their front door.

They have quite a pretty brick wall Garden.

Yes, yes you see hills. Was very pleased to see those, as they are the one of the things I very much miss since moving here.They also have a steeple chase course and lots of horse stables on the plantation.

DS and DH by a life sided statue of President James Madison.

Tangerine Tree

The half off, Tangerine Tree, I picked up. So far it is doing well and I made sure to have it some place, there is no wireless net work.
Looks pretty good in the Art Studio.

Wild Sunset

The sky and the air around, looked like this a couple of evenings ago.  Was wild, the color it took on!
Photos are not messed with at all, straight out of the little camera.

Gotland Yarn

This is my latest yarn to be.... Working with the Gotland lamb fleece I bought from NZ.
When finished, it will be a 2 ply fingerling weight.

The Poultry.....

The old little camera, used to take really good video shorts... but I think it is wearing out too.
Granted it is a little over 15 years old....

Not the best photo in the world, was really dark out so had to lighten the photo up a lot.
Basically one turkey decided it was going to roost as close to Stjarna's ears as possible.
The last couple of nights, they have been roosting along her back.
Which means I have to wash her fly sheet.
This will be a problem when I put a rain sheet on her. sigh ~~

Not, that Stjarna likes it... but the turkeys sure love her! LOL

Horses,,,

 Had to body clip the Icelandic's a few weeks ago, as the weather was still super hot.
Think of wearing a real fur coat, with long johns in 90* weather.....

Then we ended up with rain, since last weds. So I put a rain sheet on Dyfra for the worse of it.
Photo was taken last night, when the rain stopped and the sun came out.

Stjarna, right after being let loose after her body clipping.

Poultry ...

The newest batch of baby chicks, not so small now, were let outside of the Hen House yard yesterday for the first time.
Keeping my fingers crossed they stay in the fence around the house.  They are Buff Orphingtons, Speckled Sussex and Welsummers and the later for their super dark brown eggs.

Mean while... the older Hens are Molting. LOL Poor thing.

And a Couple of the Turkeys.,..
They are a lot of fun to have around.  They think they are people.... LOL
Still not sure if I have all hens or not? They are about 5 months old and still haven't heard a Gobble out of any of them.

Sunrise, the Moon and French Flowers....

Not sure I told you, but last month I ran across some Rose bushes that were only $6.00. I bought two of them.
One was a French variety of very hard Tea Rose.  Plant is doing very well and the Roses are beautiful.
Nice to have Roses in the house again.

Not sure how I did it, but I managed to get my not so good camera, to take this photo of a very, very large moon., one night. 
Even caught a star just above the upper right side, though I am not sure you can see it, sized down as the photo is.

A Sunrise, early one morning in Oct..... 

Turkeys...... sigh ~~

Forget Turkey's in the straw, how about Turkey's on the roof.  They love people, and when really happy, bark like puppies. LOL
Right now, we have one female for sure.... one male and can't tell with the other.
And the men of the house... have named them, Patrick, Sponge Bob and Sandy.
(rolling eyes) 

Obama care... not a good thing, not at these prices...

DS needs health insurance.
 So I go onto Healcare.Gov.. and check what the price is.
He makes nothing right now, but has been looking for a job. There is no Medicaid in this State, so that means private.
 Going by their online scale... if DS, makes nothing a year, at the basic health care, he needs to cough up... $197+ a month.
That is crazy. 
He is too old to be on our military insurance. 
This is beyond stupid. 
Thought this was going to help, not make it harder on us. Sigh ~~

We really, really need another small commuter car, but now, that is off the table. 
Letting DS use the Echo, while his father gets another little car, would allow DS to expand his search for a job.
Because here in VA, if you are not related to someone, it is very, very hard to get a job.

Not a happy camper.

Mia and College... Mia and the Turkeys...

Looked into DS's room this morning as he was getting ready for College and saw this.....
Mia laying on his book bag.  She might be thinking if she lays on it he won't go any where or
he might take her with him.
Either way, she is not impressed with him being gone during the day.

Having to feed the turkeys on the front porch for now... they decided to look in and Mia was looking at them, then would look at me and then look at the turkeys again...
Almost feel her asking me....  "What the hell are those?" LOL
And people say Dinosaurs are gone.... ha! 

Spinning Yarn~

Wasn't sure if I should post this here or my Art blog. Decided, I mostly spin yarn for fun, I would place it here.
This is my new giant ply bobbin and flyer.  Have been waiting for years to be able to purchase it.
Will allow me to do full skeins, instead of the two I used to do.

Asked DS to take a photo of me spinning some yarn today, as I haven't done this in a few years. Would of been better if I did my hair up and such... but it is what it is... LOL Am getting old!

My Spinning corner, next to the window. 

Living with Meniere's... an on going story.

If you know anyone with Meniere's... this is a good read. Helps people that do not have it...learn about it. 

 I have had my Menieres for 32 year now.. or should say, it was when I had my first violent drop attack. Knowing what I know now... have had Meniere's longer than 32 years... but I figure I would start counting after that first scary, mind numbing attack.
Over the many years, I have been tested by two specialists.

 I have learned how to deal with it. Working outside of the house is impossible.   
It also makes it nearly impossible to make plans... as one never quite knows when a bad attack will come, though I now know the early warning signs. And adjust my day as needed.

Mostly keep mine some what under control with a low salt diet... means making most food, including bread, if I want to eat. And taking Meclizine when needed.
And drinking lots of no salt added water each day. 

It also makes you both deaf and hyper sensitive to noises.  I am totally deaf in my low to mid hearing on my right side.  What high end hearing I have is very distorted.
If someone opens a chip bag next to me,, sounds like a bomb has gone off and very painful.
Sounds people take as normal... can be unbearable for someone with Menieres.
The high and very loud non stop ringing in ones ears.... can be frustrating.

Also have trouble speaking some words.. and stutter now at times. 
It is impossible for me to walk into those big malls, because of the security systems and lighting. I end up with drop attacks.
Good thing I don't like s shopping.
(so far, I am ...for the most part... mostly ok in the small stores)
All part of the problems Meniere's throws at us.
Its not a deadly disease, but it is not an easy one to live with daily.

Am what they call, bi lateral... but it is much worse in my right ear. 
So surgery to take out my inner ear is not recommended. 
 However, those radical surgeries do not always work, then the person is worse off.
There is no cure and no one way to try to keep it mostly under control.

Few years ago, I join a couple of very good, online support groups. As you can imagine.. would be hard for people with Menieres to get together in person.
If someone has or thinks they have Meniere's, I would recommend they join these groups.

It is one of those unseen diseases......

http://vestibular.org/menieres-disease

A New Lamb and Turkeys.....

I decided to sell my Jacob ewes, they were not taming out like I needed, their horns got in the way and they refused to follow the already tame Lead Sheep, out to the big pasture. With my back, I need easy to handle.
Met this wonderful couple that were interested in the Jacobs.  So I brought the Jacob ewes up to them, through some of the most bodacious horse farms I have ever seen. Was incredible... looked like something out of a story book.
And I saw Hills!! I miss seeing hills!! LOL

Anyway... I decided to trade them for this pure bred Finn lamb. She already taming out fast and looks forward to me coming out.  Decided to name her Adda, which is short for Aðalbjörg.  

Think she will fit in well here. Easy to handle and already following the other sheep.

Will see about buying a couple more Finn ewe lambs, in the next couple of years.

Also came home with three young turkeys... they seem sweet and I know Turkeys are good at eating snakes.

Young Turkey's... pretty sure they are girls... but only time will tell.

I did not get the shot of them flying over to me.... that was impressive!
They follow us every where....
Even followed me when I was riding Dyfra this morning.  LOL  Very glad I teach my horses to tolerate weird stuff well.

Granted,,, Dyfra is most likely thinking, her crazy human has brought her some more baby pets for her.

So....
The young turkeys roosted on the hen house yard gate last night.
We decided not to shock the chickens at that time.. 

Earlier this morning, I open the hen house door and tried to get the turkeys to come in. Needless to say the hens are not happy.
One of the Turkeys hopped in....then back out. Figure if one knows.. the others will follow.
One of the hens became brave enough to come off the perch... and the baby turkeys made happy baby sounds and ran towards the hen...
The hen squawked and and ran away, with the giant babies following her... then I hear a commotion and see the babies come back, running around the hen house, with a very pissed off hen totally fluffed up in fighting mode.
Then one of the baby turkeys fluffed up and ran after the hen.... 
But there's more....
The baby turkey was again, running away from "two" fluffed up pissed off hens.
Hackles up, body fully fluffed and wings out and forward...
OM Goosh.... it was sooo funny.... was like some cartoon skit. LOL

Dyfra and Sheep

The Katahdins had to come stand next to me, when I had the crazy horses playing. LOL

Tried to take some action shots of the horse's yesterday. Needless to say it was cloudy and it didn't work out to well. Some day, I will be able to afford a new camera. 

 You can see, Dyfra has a grazing muzzle on. Dfyra tends to eat too much too fast and with all the green grass.....  better safe than sorry.

Other than that, Dyfra really enjoyed playing in the big pasture.

Thunder Clouds~ Man is it ever hot and Sadie up date...

Thunder clouds off the back of the property last night. Pretty, but Thank goodness they did not come any closer.

Weather is already horrible out, too hot and sticky.

 I got the animals fed this morning, Sheep got their Rabies booster, lambs got their first shot. 

To hot to trim feet.  Let them out to the front pasture to eat.

Worked in my Orchard, Antibiotics to the Fireblight trees, pruning and then sharpening my pruners on the sharping stone.

This is my third Orchard I have sent up......Its a challenge growing anything here...  :P 

Too hot to do anything else.

Sadie has become even more over reactive when people move about and the slightest noise, since the surgery.. 

I haven't been able to clean or vacuum for 4 weeks. 
I don't want to freak her out and have her do a blind panic hobble about the house and un-do the surgery or hurt herself again.

Top that off...that Place that fixed Sadie's stiffle... from the looks of it, skinned out the top 1/4 of Sadie's tail on one side.

No way to repair that.  Am seriously not happy about that.

More damage has been done to this poor cat by stupid Vets or the techs that care for them after...... 
No wonder she is so scare of everything now. sigh ~~

In the mean time, have ordered Sadie a Thunder shirt and some new calming spray for around the house.

Reading info on line,, Thunder shirts are kind'a hit and miss.  Keep your fingers crossed it works for Sadie.

Sadie's normal Vet called and will give her some calming meds, which I will pick up tomorrow.
Need her to mellow out before she hurts herself.

Other than fly spraying the horse's every day, been too hot to do anything with them.

Though Maggie and Stjarna have fun blasting around the big front pasture... they are getting used to the heat.

Dyfra, still not doing as well, heat wise, as I was hoping.  She is a real Nordic horse.. loves the cold weather and snow.

Family is doing well, staying busy.

With it so hot out now, should have the time to work on my paintings more.
Have a cat one, the Bell fighter and the Japanese castle DH took a photo of when he was in Japan.

Kitchen Garden, Maggie, Jacob lambs and a Frog.... Oh My....

 Hen's, doing their job, helping to keep the house bug free... or at least tick and snake free as possible.

So this morning, was out feeding the animals... lots of rain yesterday and I go to turn out the water in the feeding pan .....  and I am greeted by... Mr/Mrs Frog... happily floating about.  Didn't have the heart, to tip it out. LOL

Kitchen garden is doing well. So much easier for me to managed raised beds like this.  Not all the beds are capped yet, I still have a place to sit.

 The hair sheep in the front pasture eating.  Fencing in the front pasture was the best thing would could of done. Saving a lot on hay.

Only problem, as some not so smart people have opened up the fence in 3 different places.
One of these days, my animals will end up on the road, or eating someone else's kitchen garden or crops.
To bad, people don't think.... or don't care what they do.

Because of this, we are slowly putting up WiFi game camera's with locks.
Smile pretty Jackasses,, you are on camera!

Pretty Maggie and the two Jacob lambs.
When the lambs are a little bigger, they will go out with the older sheep.
Right now they are in the pasture with Maggie, Dyfra and the goats, learning about hot wire.

Sadie is also doing a lot better.  Tomorrow, we are allowed to let her roam the house again, however, we still need to keep an eye on her. Though it will not be as labor intensive.
She is still limping, but that will go on for awhile.
Keep your fingers crossed, she will now have one normal back leg to walk on.

Family is all doing well, so busy, we need clones.

Super storm in June~~

It was truly the worse storm I had been through.  Even worse than the storm in Oregon, were the wind gusts were upwards of 135mph... and the Clatsop forest was blown down.
 You can see, if you look closely the center of this was trying to spin.
Wish the camera could of also caught the lightening coming out of the storm front.

Change of color when some major lightening hit.

I did not try to take photos, of it raining so hard and the wind so strong, I could not see out of the windows.

There was some minor damage to the Kitchen garden fence, couple of onions up rooted, few fruit trees looked like someone tried to pull them up out of the ground....

But luckily the damage was all minor. 

Humming Birds~~

I don't know why I try to take photos when it is cloudy out... as my camera has a sensor not working....
But I was having fun, with the hummers finally willing to fly all about me this morning. 
So the first shot I take... is a Hummer Mooning me. LOL 

To the right... LOL

The male humming birds have black heads here and not one we would see in the NW. They even sound different when they fly.

Pretty colors on the back of, I think, a female.