Tuesday, May 25, 2010

So here's the deal.....I go to my shed and what do I find?  Another kitten that has no mother in sight.  I waited until the next day, just to be sure she wasn't coming back for the poor thing, and sure enough, no mother!!! 
I seriously thought I was done with baby animals this year, but apparently I was mistaken, AGAIN. 
I have this very cute, 3 week old, long-haired tiger kitten that needs to be bottle fed and then I have to find it a home, as I've got a full house here.
The guys at work have nicknamed me Ellie Mae, I can't imagine where they got that. 
Kathy brought me 2 angora bunnies on Sunday evening, and they are exceptionally tame thanks to her.  You can open the door to the little coop and they just hop up to you to say hi.  We have to do some serious remodeling to the rabbit hutch, so they are taking up temporary residence in the little chicken. I opened up the little door to the chicken run that we had seeded with new grass and they are in bunny heaven. 
Now to get the alpacas home and settled in with everyone.  I'm a little concerned that our female llama, Dolly, (yes, that's Dolly Llama, I'm not responsible for that name) will be less than cordial to our new 4 legged arrivals, but she may surprise me too. 
We had our 7th annual Wine Tasting fund raiser for the Davis Welding Relay for Life team and it was a huge success.  We had approx. 70 guests this year, which is a full house for us, and the usual array of great food and wine.  Thanks to all for their generosity to help raise money for cancer research, one day we will win this fight. 
Sunday was hot, but that was easily rectified by getting out the bike and taking an afternoon trip to Sauk Prairie with Jim, Rhonda, Nick, Emily, Mucket and Terri.  Had a great time and found some nice goodies at the HD dealer in Sauk. 
So, far the beginning of the week has been uneventful, and I'm perfectly ok with that...gotta run some errands after work and then home for the night, maybe work more on my knitted afgan or maybe read my book.  Decisions, decisions...
Toodles for now.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

OK Acres Shetlands: New sheep coming to OK Acres

OK Acres Shetlands: New sheep coming to OK Acres

New sheep coming to OK Acres

I am so pleased to have made some nice sheep purchases this spring.  I waited far to long to make up my mind last year and missed out on some very nice sheep.  Well, fool me once......that was not going to happen this year.  I got my little fanny on some waiting lists and I've managed to snag some nice additions to my flock.
Corinne Rasso, from Eldrige, IA has a wonderful little morrit (possibly modified) spotted ram lamb for me and after a very chilly and wet motorcycle trip to her place last Sunday, the deposit is in her hands and I'm pretty excited to add Nantucket to our flock.
Once again, I will be purchasing nice stock from Meghan Namaste.  I got 2 ewes from her last year and was very pleased with them.  So, another trip north  is in order to pick up Sarah and Solace.
Another northern acquisition is Shelter Pines Ceylon from Stephen Rouse in Michigan.  Ceylon is a 2 yr old fawn and white flecket/smirslet spotted ewe that he has decided to part with this year. 
My final purchase for this year will be a katmoget ewe from Juliann Budde in Wilmington, IL.  Juliann has been working on her polled genetics for years and is making some real progress.  I met her last fall at the Midwest Fiber Festival in Jefferson, WI and she is kind woman that took the time to help me with a lot of questions regarding showing the shetlands and the complicated world of shetland colors and patterns. 
I have not met an unfriendly shetland breeder yet, we are all just thrilled to be chatting about something we love. 
Tonight is my weekly knitting group in Argyle, WI.....lots of laughter and encouragement can be found with these wonderful ladies.   I am going to try my hand at spinning very soon, but have to find a wheel to practice on first, I'd like to see if it's something I'm going to like before I invest in a wheel.  I love to knit, it's addictive for me, I always feel lost without a project bag in the car with me.  (grin)
We have our annual Relay for Life Wine Tasting here at Davis Welding on Saturday night, so this is a busy week of preparations for us.  There's wines, food, lots of fun and laughter and an auction of donated items afterwards.  We have over 70 confirmed guests this year, so we are going to have our hands full, but it's always a good time and even if we get tired, it's all worth it.  Last year's contributions were well over $2000, so it's our biggest fund raising effort for our team. 
Enjoying the spectacular weather this week......ta ta for now all.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Shetland updates

I have certainly dropped the ball with this blog lately.  I sure hope that being busy is a good excuse, because it's the only excuse I have right now. 
Lambing was over the 2nd week of April and I have 15 lambs on the ground.  I lost one little moorit ram, our first ewe to lamb too.  I've got an almost 50/50 split of ewes and rams this year, and since I've decided to redirect my breeding program a bit, most of what I have is for sale.  I've purchased a handsome spotted moorit (possibly modified) ram from Corinne Rasso in Eldrige, IA, a lovely ewe from Stephen Rouse, an equally lovely ewe and her ewe lamb from Meghan Namaste and a sweet little katmoget ewe from Juliann Budde.  I'm hoping to retain 5 of my current ewes and one ewe lamb and the rest are for sale.  I've got a lot of great fleece on my flock, but I really want to see what I can do with some spots and possibly some modified sheep also.
I have fallen in love with Karen and Meghan fleece since purchasing 2 ewes from them last summer, so I was keeping a close eye on their sale list for this year and choice a older ewe and her lamb.  I'm hoping I can incorporate a trip north to get them when I pick up my ewe from Stephen. 
Besides sheep happenings, we have been very busy with gardens, flowers and tree planting.  We got about 30 new trees in the ground this spring, tilled up a section of ground behind the chicken coop for a potato bed, added 3 more raised beds and got all the flower beds planted and mulched. 
We had a terrible scare this last month with my favorite horse, Misty.  She had a bad stretch and developed founder, so I had the vet out and now we have to get a specialty farrier to fit her for special shoes.  I'm so relieved that we can help her that I didn't even care what the shoes were going to cost.  I cried when the vet told me she would be ok!  I guess I didn't know how much I was dreading bad news until the relief flooded over me with the GOOD news. 
We also have our usual new batches of chicks running around the place this spring.  They are still about 2 months away from laying, but what a nice bunch we got this year. 
I recently got an opportunity to acquire a couple alpacas (babies) and they arrived last Wed. night at my friend's house and once it warms a bit and we can shear them, they will move to my house.  Next on the agenda, angora bunnies that I'm getting from a lady in my knitting group.  I think that will bit the extent of the new animal additions to our place this year.  I did have a tragic cat versus budgie incident last month....RIP little Leroy!  Buster now has a girlfriend, welcome to our home little Violet the Budgie. 
My husband feels horrible that his actions are what led to poor Leroy meeting with his makers, but he sure didn't do it on purpose, so there's no way I can blame him. 
That's all for now, I'm hoping to keep this updated a bit more in the future.  Cross your fingers.

Mike and I

Mike and I
Mike and I at Nick and Emily's wedding

Raised beds & chickens coops

Raised beds & chickens coops
Can't wait for this stuff to actually be food....