Five weeks old

The puppies in Florida are five weeks old tomorrow. Todd says they are wild. I think he means that they are normal puppies. He also says that they are totaly different from the first litter that Maggie had. Go figure! I guess it is just like humans. Each one is different.

I am enjoying the balmy weather today. It is above freezing. Wonderful!

January 20, 2009

This has been a fairly emotional day for me. Seeing a new president sworn in and hearing him address the nation with a message about responsibility and hope and hard work, has made me think that maybe now I can go back to being proud that I am an American. Maybe I will even fly the flag again. It has been a sad eight years because I have felt that we were on the wrong track. I hope we are back on track and will proceed in a more "American" way in the future.

Frosty

The birds wanted food this morning. The male downy woodpecker was sitting on the feeder even though I was within arm's length of him. He is a real brave little fella. The picture is through my kitchen window and poor photography, but it gives you an idea of "the view" that I see so often.




Today was our day to have the frosted coating on everything is sight including the animals. It is very uplifting since even the ugly things take on their own form of beauty. And....we can use some beauty at this time of year in Wisconsin. (Yes, Beth, we finally got it up here; it just took a while.)



The Christmas wreath still looks fine with its snow and frost decoration.

















The old elm trees out by the road were beautiful probably for the last time since they have succumbed to Dutch elm disease and will become fire wood soon.







Even the boys and the woven wire of the fence had a decoration of frost.

It's Now or Never..........

The "old fool" has learned something. We are able to go out walking if we are careful where we walk. Today I could see how deep the drifts were. Today was the day to go out because tomorrow will be an indoor day. The sun is out today, as you can see from the pictures, and the wind isn't tooooooo bad. Tomorrow is predicted to be "a day to remember". AND......not because it will be so pleasant. The dogs seem to love the snow, but they do hesitate when it gets real deep, especially Scooter. Libby is more adventurous. It must be her youth although Scooter is only six months older than she is. At least they got some exercise and so did I.


This is how deep the snow was especially in our enchanted forest.



Dogs in the enchanted forest


The snow dogs and the four boy sheep.




The big boy sheep


Two snowy doggies

No fool like an old fool.......

This is the best picture so far of the litter of little bullies in Florida. I like the one with the belly showing. Even though you can only see five of them, the pile was precious.

(No pictures of this today.) Since Libby has been kind of naughty, I knew that she needed exercise. Soooooooo I decided that after church, I would take both dogs out for a walk in the snow. I figured I could break through the ice crust with my weight, and they could find a place to run. Not true!!! In some places it was fine. In some places I had to crawl to stay on top of the crust because the drift was so deep. In some places the snow had been blown off of the ice, and I didn't wear my ice boots. There was no "just right". Even Scooter did not appreciate the real icy places. Libby was just off on her own. Scooter stayed right by me. They both were nearly on top of my when I was crawling. Everyone can use a little good help, and two good helpers were more than enough.

I won't be going out to try and walk again. I will stick to knitting, spinning and running the quilting machine. I might even clean the house. Much safer!

BTW........Yesterday, Butthead got removed from his three black girls. It was necessary to insure that what was left of the shed and fence could still be used as a shelter and a fence. Ami and her two daughters are either PG or not. They only had two weeks exposure to the ram. I guess I will have to look to the other two rams to do their duty.

Not much, you?

Pansy chose this place for a photo op. I couldn't resist although I did not get a super picture. She is our beauty queen.

What do you know? There is not much happening up here on the ridge this week. I am finishing a quilt on the quilter and waiting to go to town tomorrow. I can't bare to take down the Christmas tree, so, I guess, I will leave it up until I am good and ready to take it down. It is cold,......nothing new. It isn't snowing........something new. As they say.......clear and crisp.

Butthead has ruined more of the shed. Jake will have to do something to shore it up, or it will collapse soon. Just when I thought that that ram was settling down, he up and ruins more of the shed. Go figure!

Not much, you?

My little "Lincoln"

This is the reason for the title. Fluffer is my white ram without horns. He doesn't even have scurs since he was put in with my wether and my ram lamb. He looks better without those misshapen scurs. This morning, when I went out to feed him, I realized how much he reminded me of a Lincoln. I just love the Lincoln breed when they have those beautiful crimpy locks hanging down around their heads. He doesn't make it in length, but he sure does in the crimp category. He has a part down his back and just beautiful crimpy white wool. He is my little "Lincoln". Now I wish he would work on giving me a little ewe lamb to carry on his mother's genes and disposition.

I do have breeding groups finally --- for a week now. Pogo has been renamed Butthead. He is totally destroying the small ewe shed. You would think he would be happy to have three black beauties for his own, but "OH, NO!". He has to be a butthead. He has been somewhat better the last three days, so maybe I can leave him in with them. They do not seem to get along well at all. The two other groups are much more settled, especially after the first day.

I am finally spinning again. It has been a long time, and it feels good. Yesterday I plied some yard to use for a hat for my daughter-in-law. I am not an accomplished knitter, but I will give it the "old college try". She said it could stay the white that she saw me spinning on Thanksgiving. It is a beautiful cream color, and I really love how it looks. It is in a sink full of water now being "finished". I need to gather up some other stuff....aka.. needles, stitch holder, etc. When the wool drys, I will be ready to get started. Time will tell.