Work has been really stressful today because the server is having fits. Information Technology is working on it during the lunch hour, but it would have been much more helpful if they had just sent us home! Gee, you think?
I did another couple of rows on my hubby's socks, but haven't really had much ambition to knit today because of the slowness of the systems. Maybe after noon, they will have fixed the issues, and I can go home "happier" than I am right this moment.
The weekend was fine, and the band practice went much better than expected. We have found that timing and tempo for tunes are often a personal thing, and that by using a metronome, we were unable to play "as effectively" than without the metronome, and that being tied to a certain beat completely threw off the "musicality" of the tune. So we put the metronome away, and played our hearts out after that. We sounded GREAT! I simply can't explain it.
Well, I just got notice that the database is back up, so I will try it again, and see if I can't get some of this work done quickly and effeciently. Thanks for listening!
Word has it that sheeps were born this February on the farm, and for certain, this year has been the year of the ram! Our Romney flock has finally finished lambing, and there are 5 rams and 2 ewes from the 5 ewe breeding stock purchased from the State of Michigan's Premier Breeder of 2004, Cindy Cieciwa and Pitchfork Ranch. There are 2 natural colored rams, 3 white rams, and 2 white ewes. Unfortunately, we will need to retain the ewes since there were only two this year. I understand that it's possible we might retain one of the natural colored rams, as well. The rest are available for sale. Pictures are forthcoming.
March is the month when the Jacob flock will start lambing, and we have two ewes due this weekend (March 5, 2005). I have a lilac ewe and a lilac/white ewe due the same day within hours of each other. Once the Jacobs lamb, the adults will be sold.
We also have a number of cross breeds available, several of which are expected to lamb soon as well. We have a Tunis, a Tunis/Jacob cross and a Suffolk/Romney cross bred to Romney from Cindy's herd. We also have a couple of Jacob/Shetland crosses bred back to a 4 horn Jacob. All the Jacobs were bred to the same 4-horn Jacob ram. The Jacob/Shetland cross is quite interesting-Jacob coloring with Shetland wool.
June 15, 2004- Well, Tenna is a grandma! Brand new grandson, Kyle William, born prematurely, but hanging on, and growing fast! Here's a new pic from the photographer at 3months old! Ain't he just a cutie?
There's a new ram lamb on the Sutfin farm-another Jacob. Bashful, my smallest ewe gave up her baby finally after 3 days of being off, on, then off her feed again! Hips so small, we figured she'd have a difficult birth, but I wake up on Friday morning and find that she'd dropped her lamb unassisted with no problems whatever! We named the newest ram lamb Bud-after a close family friend who had just passed on Monday. The birth was especially blessed, and therefore, the appropriate naming. Had Bud been a girl, her name would have been Anna-after Bud's wife who passed in March 1999. I've updated the pictures to include more current pictures of the other fiber children to show how much they've grown. Now a month old, they are all in various stages of weaning by their mothers.
I decided to link my sheep pictures (read that "grannie's photo album") below, because I started getting too many pictures on the site, and it was taking too long to load. Then I thought-hey, why not also put my pics of all my animals there? So, without Further Ado....
Meet my husband, Jeff, being silly on his way to work this evening. He's a little goofy sometimes, but a lovable sort!
My DH has a business making wicker plant stands and other accessories for the home. He just created a pattern for a wicker laundry basket, which will never (promise!) ever break...even if you stand on it! I can't tell you how he makes his wicker so strong. It's a trade secret!
New to Knitting? Me either, but I haven't knitted for years - actually since my mother shrunk my 100% virgin wool sweater in the washer. Oh, well. Here's the picture (from Woman's World Magazine) of the sweater I knitted (not created) from their pattern. I loved it alot. It was fun to make. I've bought the roving for a repeat performance, and this one will be kept from my mother's washer and dryer! And, so without further ado...
And now, the long awaited sheep sweater, finished and wearing, as it's been so cold in our area these last several days!
The sheep and border collie are from an original design by Mabel Corlett. You can find her here:
Mabel is very active in herding trials for working dogs like Border Collies, and part of the proceeds from her sales is donated to the organizing body for Sheepdog herding trials. This helps keep the Herding Dog heritage alive. You'll notice below that I own a Border Collie, and I plan to have her trained to herd sheep. I can barely wait till she's old enough.
Dec 31, 2003 And for the old year, I finally completed my socks from my wool that I spun, and I'm very proud of them. Here's my cat, Smokey, in a very dark picture, showing off my new socks.
My Quilting software and I play alot together. I have two special programs. One is QuiltPro 4, the other is Electric Quilt 5. Both programs are equally good, each has it's advantages and disadvantages. I find QuiltPro easy to use, and lovely stuff can be created with it. Electric Quilt works differently, but the results are just as spectacular. One advantage of Electric Quilt over QuiltPro is that more people use it, and there seems to be more support for it.
So I suppose that I've now identified myself as a fiber artist. What else would you like to know?
Many thanks to all the web sites that I borrowed from (for dividers and backgrounds).
That's about it for now. More later as pictures become available!