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For some time now, I have been planning on spinning some lace-weight for a Shetland shawl, and even have the fleece and the pattern chosen for the project.

But here I am,knitting a shawl from NOT-Shetland:

At the Black Sheep Gathering, I succumbed to a beautiful book: Victorian Lace Today. There are so many gorgeous shawl patterns, but this one caught my eye…and I wanted to start knitting right away. So I bought some cashmere/silk blend. It is soft, drapey and light…just right for this triangular shoulder shawl. Progress is slow; knitting is tucked into my days amidst a jumble of farm chores, but carried with me whenever I go anywhere that I might conceivably have a moment to knit…even so, I am loving it!

Yesterday and today, we hosted the last session of our valley’s Summer Art Camp…our class was “From Sheep to Yarn”. We had 7 young people who came to see the Shetlands, and work with their wool. The light in the Wool Room wasn’t as bright as I had thought, so please pardon the occasional fuzzy photo….

The children who signed up were amazingly enthusiastic, and almost all of them kept spinning without getting bored! River and Hayden had to gain some height to be able to use the drop spindles for any length of time:

Elise watched me spin for a minute or two, I handed her the drop spindle and she began to spin effortlessly. She made skein after skein of yarn; she must have spun in some other lifetime:

Kayt had signed her daughter up for the session, but it was SHE who wanted to learn to spin!
Having her there was a real joy…

River’s little brother, Red, arrived with the group…much too young to learn to spin all by himself, but he gave it a try. Mostly he loved being with us all, and was very quiet and sweet…and he adored Toby (our middle Border Collie and official “wool room dog”). Toby was happy to have him there:

For a couple of weeks now, it has been time to move Constantine from his isolation group (with the 3 ewes who came at the same time as he did from Sheltering Pines). Oh how I have dreaded the inevitable bashing and jousting that happens when a new ram is introduced….and so delayed subjecting Constantine to the intensity of life in the ram group.

Although it is too early for the ewes to cycle, there are two yearlings in the group, and ewes that age CAN cycle out of season. If Constantine did breed any of these girls, it wouldn’t be a serious problem….but we really don’t want January lambs!

So last night after evening chores, we put Constantine and the other rams into a tight pen for the night.

He looked at me pitifully whenever I came near, wondering why I would do this to him.

I doused all of their heads with vanilla extract, and we said goodnight to them, as they pushed and shoved, jostling for space (where there was none). The wethers were saved this torture and got to eat hay all night; there were enough rams to fill up the space in the tight pen. All of the boys had been on hay for a few days now, both to rest the upcoming paddock, and to make sure that they were preoccupied eating grass when Constantine joined them.

In the morning, all the rams were standing quietly, except for Clarion, who was lying down (keeping out of everyone’s sight and horns). You can see his little white blaze low down between Centaurus and Constantine.

First we brought over the April ram-lambs to join the big ram group along with Constantine. They had to stop to sample the grass (Finn was right there, ready to move them if we asked).

We then put them out with the wethers, just before we let the rams free from their prison:

First we pulled out the two year-old bully-boys, and put them on the other side of the ram-barn so that Constantine wouldn’t have to contend with them. Then we put ram-shields on Willym and Centaurus (the ones most likely to try to dominante Constantine), and let everyone out of the tight-pen:

Constantine didn’t want to fight, tried to stay out of everyone’s way. He even made “friends” with Nicolas. Well, that was after Nicolas gave Constantine a resonant head-thudding bash (which bloodied Nickel’s own nose in the process…so that was the end of THAT).

But they eventually ambled over to join the main ram group….all seems peaceful for now. We will take the ram-shields off Willym and Centaurus later on today.

We have had two wonderful visits now from a young girl who was here the past week attending a Summer Nature Camp at her aunt’s and uncle’s lovely home against the northeastern wall of our valley.

Therese has not only a 10 year old girl’s delight in animals, but the deepest love for them. She enjoyed the horses, the llamas, the chickens, the ducks, the cats and the dogs, but loved sitting with the sheep the most.

She would have stayed for hours if she had had the time; she declared that she wanted to move from her Washington home, and live here with all the animals. Therese petted and hugged the sheep; she learned their names quickly and didn’t forget them between visits; she told the ram-lambs “no” when they tried to push too much for attention, and she picked chaff from the lambs’ fleeces.

She made friends with lambs who hadn’t yet come up to us for love…as well as some of the usual snugglers. All were drawn to her, and trusted her completely.

Whatever Therese does in her adult life, I am sure that it will include animals…and no doubt there will be sheep! She has the soul of a shepherdess….

Lefty tempted me away from sheep updates yesterday…with his garden antics. I meant to write about the June lambs…

Our bottle lamb still is hungry for his milk replacer, but as soon as he has finished, he walks briskly away from me (the word “shuns” come to mind). His mother watches over him obsessively, so there is no doubt in his mind that he is a sheep. Perhaps beginning bottle-feeding at 3 weeks will save the day…it couldn’t be going better. No one can know if he will make a good ram on other counts, but at least there is a chance for him.

The other lambs are growing fast and eating LOTS of grass, and they are their mothers are going through the pasture rotations so fast. We are grateful for the current two-day break in the hot weather, hope that the cooler temperatures continue, and that the grass will grow fast now.

All the ram lambs from June will be overwintered; only one of the April boys is for sale…this is Egan (from Elita and Robin Goodfellow):

There are number of the younger lambs who are looking (and whose fleeces feel) stunning…here are a couple of the ram-lambs, sired by Baltazar.

This fellow is one of Cascadia’s twins:

And this handsome lad is one of Sarah’s twins:

Lotte’s Lorna (also sired by Baltazar) is a beauty and a real sweetheart as well.

And here are two ewe-lambs who have been eye-catching since the day that they were born…these are Desdemona’s twins by Nicolas. They look very exotic, and have the softest fleeces!

Usually by this time of the year, we have a clear idea of who is for sale and who is staying, but the June lambs are so young that it will take a while to see how they grow and develop.
In the meantime, I am enjoying every moment with them!

Today it only got to 82º today…what a treat! It was breezy, and actually cool this morning (in the 60s) while we worked in the vegetable gardens. Brook tilled a space for a second planting of greens, even though we are still getting lettuces, and some spinach from the spring plantings.

It wasn’t easy! Lefty thought that it was time to play, and no matter how many times I took him with me to search out the newest crop of zucchini and cucumbers (too, too many of them), he always returned to “help” Brook planting the seeds. He was so funny that I ran to get the camera…

Finally Brook gave up and played with him, but things happened so fast, I only got a few photos of the action:

There could be a mouse in there!

When the games were over, Lefty made his own fun, and scurried up one of the plum trees. He and his sister Juliette were born of a feral mother, and Lefty has the “wildcat” in him; he has always has been able to walk on the tiniest branches, perfectly comfortably:

And leap from branch to branch…

and then run down the tree as fast as he went up!

Once down, Lefty resumed “gardening”, in the herb bed, relaxing on the newly sprouted plants:

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I have written anything…there just hasn’t been time. Certainly there hasn’t been a lack of material; there are TOO MANY happenings to cover in one post, and sadly there still isn’t that much time (to allow me the luxury and the pleasure) to sit and write.

It has been unusually HOT (high 90’s for a month!)…this has driven all of us (2 and 4-legs) to stay shaded up in the middle of the day. If one has to be outside, Finn has the answer…

The gardens have loved the heat…all the vegatables had a very slow start from the long cool spring (we liked it just fine!) but now that the days are so warm, the green biomass is amazing!!!

In addition to the heat, it has been very DRY…we never expect rain in summer, and depend on irrigation to keep things green…that works fine. But the mountains didn’t get enough snow last winter, and it is exceedingly dry up there. So when thunderstorms happen, there is often only a smattering of rain, and the lightening strikes start fires in the mountains. This year, wildfires began much earlier and seem more numerous…very scary.

Today, it is clearer…but last week, there was so much smoke that you couldn’t tell the mountains were there:

There are actually 5 of these sweet little ones! We didn’t need any more chickens…but several of the hens who came with the Salmon Faverolle chicks from last year are obviously crosses and they are very broody girls!

Well, back to the busyness…