Thanksgiving and Destashing

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time visiting both sides of the family with our boys. The food was really great and the weather cooperated for our 160 mile round trip. The best part was that I didn't have to worry about getting back early to feed the sheep and close up the barn.



Now that we're down to only 20 sheep here and no chickens, life has been much simpler. After breaking up Bombarde's breeding group, I only have three breeding pens to keep fed and watered. I've fed the last of the whole corn that I had bought to flush the ewes, so now they're back to hay, water and mineral until March. Hopefully not having grain around will cut back on the mouse population in the barn this winter.

I'm happy to say that Amber, Brita and Geronimo went to live in Missouri at Mark Tucker's place. I met Mark on Nov. 18 at the Mall of America and we loaded the lambs into his well-built trailer for the ride down south. It was a cold day, but they did just fine I'm told. From his reports, Amber and Brita are already coming up to him for treats but Geronimo is still a little suspicious.

The next day I drove Bombarde up to Grand Rapids, MN so that he could live at Boston Lake with Sabrina's flock. I have to say that is the very LAST TIME I will put a mature ram in a dog kennel in the back of my van and drive through the middle of nowhere all by myself for two hours. Bombarde has always been a well mannered ram. I hand-sheared him last spring and he was a perfect gentleman, he walks well on a halter too. So I expected him to be no problem at all during the trip. But after about 45 minutes of driving, he decided to start bashing the kennel. And it was quite startling to me when he did. The whole van jolted! The wire panel door bent and the lock was wrecked. Thankfully, I always tie a strand of twine around the front of the door for just such an instance and it held up until I FINALLY got to a gas station in McGregor. I tied more twine on the door and turned the kennel so if the door got bashed out, he would be bashing the side of the van rather than the back window. It was pretty nerve-wrecking, but we managed to get to Grand Rapids right on time to meet Sabrina. Being the sensible shepherd that she is, she drove her new truck with a really nice wooden crate in back that Bombarde was happy to walk into. Fresh air and fresh hay!

Now I just have two Shetland rams left...Boggart and Eli. I've put them on the MSSBA sales site as well as the NASSA site and my own website because I'm hoping we will not keep any Shetland rams this winter.
The day after dropping off Bombarde, I sold my Ashford Traveller. I shocked myself by doing that. It was my very first wheel and it was so pretty. A great little versatile wheel. But I do have three other wheels, each with it's own purpose. I'm fine with that. And I'm glad someone else will have a nice little wheel to learn to spin on. I guess it was good Karma to pass it on because that day Stan won "dinner for two" at the grocery store where he works. He came home with two thick rib eyes, twice baked potatoes, a salad, fancy loaf of bread, and a pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum, that was so good!

The other night I got to go with my youngest son to the Guthrie and see "A Christmas Carol". The new Guthrie Theater is a huge building which houses smaller more intimate stages so they can do different productions at the same time. I was in the fourth row and it was just fantastic. I hope we can see more plays there now that I know how to get there. Matt had to go to the play for his psychology class and I didn't want him going all alone, so I tagged along.
It's great for me that he's taking his Liberal Arts generals, because he had to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit too. I got us some free tickets and we went there on the 18th (after dropping off the lambs with Mark) . It was so great to see so many of the O'Keefe pelvis bones and sky paintings in one room. She has such a way with color and oil paint! I was especially intrigued by her sculptures which were based on her goat horns studies. They are very much like Shetland rams horns.