WIP Wednesday …

So today I have decided to try and get back on track. Starting today I will be getting back to Work in Progress Wednesday. Let’s get started …

First up Mom is working on her Phat sample project. Remember this??

Mom made it into a magic ball and then made it into a center pull ball. It now looks like this.

She says she is going to make it into a Bandana Cowl. She has it started but hasn’t gotten very far …

Then Mom also has what she calls a pinwheel table cloth started. However, it is a thread crochet project. So far she has this much done.

This week Mom also made her first batt. So how do you think it turned out??

There are two other things I wanted to pop in here on this post and that is that today we got this in the mail…

These are the scrapies tags for the babies that are to come in the Spring…

Also to add just a bit of cute … I have found the best seat in the house when it is cold out… Check this out …

So where is your favorite spot to let the winter blow on by???

Calves are Here…

It has been an iteresting day today. First, Mom and I picked up three calves. One has a swollen leg but it isn’t really that bad. Mom thinks when the swelling goes down the little guy will be just fine. The other two we think are just wormy so they will all get medication and we will give them a few days and go from there.

When we got back in the house from dealing with the calves, Mom found that the bathroom hot water had thawed out so we stopped everything and took showers. Mom was afraid that in the night it would freeze off again and trust me when I say working on the farm means showering everyday … LOL … We have insulated the pipes but there is one spot in the hot water line that runs through a cinderblock footer for a wall under the house and we can’t get to where it is so it can’t be insulated. It is okay though because when we first moved here the water froze off all the time. Then Mom made Dad insulate the pipes under the house and it is much better.

Anyway, following our nice hot showers Mom and I worked on two fleece. First is the fleece of Pickles. Pickles is a Shetland Ram that was born to Momma Shetland and he is grey in color. We aren’t sure if his fleece will turn out very good but Mom is washing it up and we will see. The second fleece is that of a cotswold. We don’t remember if it is Twix, Skittles or Snickers but it is from their first shearing.

Mom has decided that she will be watching and processing the fleece that we have and getting things in the shop to sell but while we were working on the ones she is starting with she got a rather rude call from a 4-H parent.

I don’t know what it was all about but I could hear the lady on the other end of the phone yelling at Mom from half way across the room. The sad part is that the lady had no business even taking issue with Mom because she had nothing to do with the issue at hand. I will tell you I feel bad for Mom because I know she is only being the leader because of me.

To top that off when Dad got home he was in a mood. He wasn’t so happy about the calves and he started taking Mom’s head off. Mom had had it with the other lady at this point and told Dad that she wasn’t going to take it from him. I went outside to rope… LOL. Tomorrow I am sure will be a better day. For the record I love the three new calves!

A whole lot of Nothing

I have to say that today I didn’t get a whole lot done. Mom and I got up on time but at 7am I started watching the big cattle sale online. It is a really big sale and it went on from 7am to after 6pm.

Mom and I took time to clean out two cabinets but I have to be honest. That didn’t really take all that long. Each of the two we did were only one shelf each. I did the shelf that houses the winter mittens, hats and scarfs. While Mom did the cookbook shelf over the stove.

Mom did make me try her endeavors from yesterday though. On her menu was oregano – basil farmer’s cheese and apple jelly…

First came the cheese and I have to say I was not impressed. It just wasn’t my thing… Mom liked it but I will have to pass on that one from now on.

After that I wasn’t holding out for great results for the apple juice jelly she made. However, I was surprised … It was really good.

In other news Mom spun up all her samples from her Phat Box. She put them In some kind of order that works in her mind and she is going to make something like a hat or scarf but I am not sure which. It will depend on how much yardage she has …

Roping day

Today started out kind of weird. Wonder had scours really bad. He didn’t have them yesterday so I had Mom make his a bottle. It was a bottle that will help him have all the nutients he needs as the scours pass. He perked up and took it just fine so I am sure by tomorrow he will be just fine.

I didn’t do much other then that but I did go to a roping. I caught all three of my calves but the first one I roped kicked me right between the eyes. I now have a headache and will attempt to sleep it off … However, I wanted to take time to let everyone know that the poll is now closed for this years naming convection. And the results are as follows:

Cookies 17

Scientists/Mathematicians 16

Ice Cream flavors 7

Birds 4

Colors of the rainbow 3

Snacks 2

Food Brand names 1

So be thinking of names of Cookies that you want to use for names of the babies this year…

I am the Champion!!!

So today Mom was having a fit. She was cleaning out the frig and found that Dad is only eating things with a ton of Sugar in it. He ates oatmeal for breakfast each morning… That is good right?? Not when he puts a cup of Brown sugar in it. He won’t drink water but koolaide and Mt. Dew are the first thing he grabs to quench his thirst.

Mom also makes sure that he has chili and stew type things for his lunches as well as meat and cheese for sandwiches. To bad he take Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches for lunch. Mom does take time to make cookies each day but she doesn’t expect them to be all eaten in a day … but guess what Dad takes to go with those Sandwiches. Yup, Cookies.

Anyway, Mom was getting on to Dad about it and has decided to take sugar out of Dad and Her’s Diet. She said if she didn’t do something he was going to end up being Diabetic. So Mom says sugar is out. She will no longer buy Pop and sweets. She did tell me that if I keep my snacks in my own frig I can keep getting the snacks I am used to But the rest of it is out….

After the Big Frig raid and the Sugary snacks were gone I hit the roping pen. I took time to practice on my new roping dumbie. I was getting ready for the Goat roping tonight and a roping tomorrow.

At the Goat Roping tonight I won first place making me and my partner the Goat Roping Champion of the night… Now I am off to bed so that I can go get feed tomorrow before I head out to my roping.

Phat Box Day

Today was Phat Fiber Box day … What is Phat Fiber Boxes? Well, they are a way we have started advertising. You can learn all about them HERE And in true Phat Fiber tradition we did our own little video so that you all can enjoy it as we explore our box … Enjoy!!! And make sure you watch the end to see my first rejection …

No calves yet

Today Mom and I headed to another calf Sale. We tried to get some calves bought but it just didn’t happen. We got out bid everytime. While we were there we ate a really good lunch at the sale barn cafe’ I have to tell you Pup is doing great about going with us and he hasn’t had even one accident as we travel.

When we got home Mom got on dinner and I hit the roping pen. By the time Dad got home it was time for chores. Ms. Karen joined us for dinner and after that Mom made all of us clean out the coat closet and the two coat racks in the front room. As of right now everyone has all their coats put in their own closets and the coat closet is being used for feed.

I think we have every kind of feed there is in that closet. Dog, Cat, bird, Puppy, sheep, Calf milk and sheep milk … Yup it is all in there. I have a headache so I will be heading to bed now but don’t forget to vote on last night’s blog ….

A Bitter Day …

Today we were back to bitter cold weather. Mom and I got up at 5am for the first time in awhile. Since the Fiber Show we have been all off schedule but today was an attempt to get back to where we need to be.

By Noon we were at the very cold Welch Sale barn. They don’t sell online so we had to go to see if we could get any calves. Mom and I sat and watched and took notes about prices. This evening, I used the information I got at the sale barn to come up with working prices I can afford. Mom calls it math … I call it buying roping calves. Same thing I guess because I have to know the price two ways in order to know how high I can go.

Younger light weight calves sell by the head. Which means it doesn’t matter how much they weigh because their price is auctioned in dollar amounts. Older heavier calves are sold by the pound. That means unless you can do math in your head at the speed of the auctioneer, you better know what weight and what price per a pound you want to pay for that weight.

I took the time tonight to get my per the pound prices all lined out. I will be looking for calves between 250 and 300 lbs at the lowest price possible. But Mom made me figure out the highest price I can afford to pay and still make a profit. She says it will help me keep my spending in check.

Other then that I did a bit of roping but mostly I cleaned on my room and used the left over tile to retile a spot in front of the fire place. Mom says it looks better even though she knows it probably won’t last as long as she would like with the animals getting on it everyday but it is better then wasting the left over tile.

I did take time to put together a list of the convections suggestions we will be voting on this year, so take a minute and cast a vote for your favorite …. We ask that you only vote once that means everyone in your home has one vote. Thanks for understanding!

Another Busy one …

Today was another busy day. I started out with chores likes normal. Then Dad and I ran to town to pick up a few needed Items.

When we got home we took on cleaning out the pasture stalls. To really get it cleaned out Dad used the tractor while I used the shovel. I will say that it is really clean. After that Dad took the tractor and worked up the arena and even leveled a few low spots.

After that We took time to play in the roping pen. Other then that I will say that we are getting in a few suggestions for naming convections. We have the following so far:

Brand names
Birds
Scientists/Mathematicians
Colors of the rainbow
Ice cream flavors

To make the blog a bit more exciting today I did take some time to give you a few Pictures. Check these out…

Oh what a Day …

Man, today was kind of cool but very busy. It was a kind of day that Mom calls a lazy Sunday. Although I don’t really know why because we were anything but lazy.

Dad and I started the Day by working all the animals. We have birthing season right around the corner. In one month we should have babies either on the ground or about to hit the ground. So we worked all the Mommas. They had their feet trimmed and got wormed if they needed it and just got a good once over.

Pup helped me but he really didn’t even care to see the sheep or goats. He just sat with me and then went in his working kennel and went to sleep. (A working kennel is a hard kennel that is put where ever he is so that if Thing go wrong, he gets scared or tired he can get in and be safe) Check him out … he wasn’t excited or anything …

The Alpaca Seem to be doing fine. At least at this point, they seem to be holding steady. They also, seem to be more active but that we believe is due to an “experimental” treatment we gave them. We worked with our Vet and as many of you know the issue we are having with the Alpacas is anemia. As many of you know we have no idea what the under lying cause for the anemia is. We have ruled out so many things with test and a necropsy. So Instead of just sitting and waiting to lose another Alpaca, under the guidance of our Vet, we did something. Before we say what we did, we are going to say this … using medications off label for uses not for their intended purpose is illegal and we only did so with the guidance and advice of our Vet.

So what did we do? Well, Most know anemia is a disorder of the blood. Most also know Iron is good for blood. The problem is that there are no iron products on the market labeled for Alpaca. So we ended up giving our Alpaca Pig medication. Yup, you got it … We gave them a shot in the form of a Pig Iron injection. Now, did it help the Alpaca? Well, we had noticed our alpaca were starting to lay down alot. That is a sign that they were getting anemic. Anyone who has ever lost a large amount of blood knows you are very tired for sometime afterwards. As of this morning however they are starting to again come running for their feed. I know it is a small step but we believe it is a step in the right direction.

After working all the animals Cinnamon got to join everyone in the pastures. She still is sporting her cone but she is happy and running amuck with the others. As you can see here she is loving it …

After that Dad and I came in to a large Lunch of breakfast foods. Mom had made sausage and bacon to go along with her from scratch pancakes, homemade butter and homemade syrup. The pancakes were even made with the butter milk left by the home made butter.

That meal gave Dad and I the energy to get the wood chopped and ricked that we brought in the last time we went and cut a load. We topped the afternoon off with a round or two of roping. Mom cleaned the house, did dishes and laundry, did some mending and made a sold out sign for the Egg sign.

Not only was that a full day of work for me but now it is your turn to get a bit of work in. I mentioned before we have a month before lambing/kidding season… Well, I need to know what everyone wants to use as a convection for the babies this year. So please make a comment and get your suggestions in so we can get to voting … This year I will not start the season without a convection in place.