So Many topics to cover - so little time!

For a while there I had nothing to blog about, and now a million things are coming to my mind.
Like our new refrigerator and my agonizing day spent trying to get through to the Minnesota Energy Star Rebate program.  Luckily I got through at 8:30 p.m. and reserved my rebate funds just before all the funds ran out -- on the first day of the program!

Also, we had a strange black lab decide to come to our house and stay last weekend. Our LGD Shachah was beside himself trying to get at the stray. Which made it very nervous, but it wouldn't leave our place for some reason.  I couldn't let a strange dog run loose around here with our sheep and poultry, so we had to lock him in our garage while we started calling all the neighbors and the sheriff. Luckily our friend was gracious enough to house the dog while we continue to try to find his owner. We've called the vet's office and put ads on the radio and in the paper.  He's a nice dog and he knows how to sit when told, so he has to belong to somebody.

Recent blogs have inspired me to write about subjects like finding and keeping a good shearer (our shearing is scheduled for Monday),  lambing in cold temps, BFL hardiness vs. Shetland hardiness, bottle babies in the house (vs. in the barn), selecting rams. Oh yes, the list of subjects I've got opinions on is suddenly quite long.  But I'm going to spare you the agony of reading all that now and get to the point here because I am swamped with work and it's gorgeous outside.

I'm working on the booklet for the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival and I just want to let everyone know there is still time to put an ad in the booklet.  The circulation of the booklet was around 8,000 copies last year.  Lots of people save their booklets for reference all year long and the web ads remain on the SH website all year too.  I think the ad prices are reasonable.  So if you want to advertise your farm, fiber, or shop, you can check out the information at http://www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org/Ads.shtml  (FYI, the inside cover ad spaces have already been sold.)

Another announcement regarding Shepherds Harvest is that the 2010 class schedule is now up! There may be more additions coming.  Bob Padula has agreed to come on Saturday (May 8) to do a presentation for shepherds and handspinners on wool qualities. He will have the OFDA 2000 on hand to do micron testing also.  This is the same machine they use at Texas A & M, so if anyone is looking to have their flocks' wool samples micron tested, this is your chance to have it done without having to send your samples off and wait weeks for the results. The cost will be comparable -- although that information is not set in stone yet.

Also, I'm excited to see the Midwest Felting Symposium class schedule has been posted. I love the atmosphere there and I'm planning to go for at least a couple days again this year.  I might take the Nuno Felt- Origami folded purse class on Sunday.  My friend Nancy Hoerner is taking the Creative Felt Textures class that day along with her friend Caroline.  I was tempted to take that one too...but maybe Nancy and I can compare notes on the ride home.

Still plodding along through winter

I'm upset that the carder reader on my computer has gone out again and I can't upload the lastest photos of the sheep.  I replaced the reader a few years ago and had ordered a new one when this same thing happened last fall.  The card was on back order for weeks and then suddenly, mysteriously, mine started working again so I canceled the order.  Well this time I'm thinking a whole NEW computer is in order!

Our shearing is scheduled for March 8th, bright and early.  I'm feeling sorry for the girls already thinking of how shocking it will be for them to lose all that warm wool in only about two weeks. But I've tried lambing in full fleece and there's no doubt in my mind that shearing before lambing is the way to go.  I need to know well in advance of lambing what kind of condition they're in under all that wool.  Our two older BFL ewes look to be making bags already and they aren't due until mid April.  I am crossing my fingers for multiples from them this year, but surely nothing can beat the lambing season Carol Densmore had with her BFLs this year. 

I just can't believe how fast the winter has sped by. We've enjoyed perfect winter weather in February this year. Highs in the 20s and even a couple 30s, lots of sunshine and enough snow cover to keep things like a Christmas card.  Yes, life has been good this winter!  But in true Minnesota style, I have to wonder if we'll pay for the nice weather by enduring the cold nasty stuff in April when the lambs start coming.

With the art show history and the Shepherd's Harvest booklet layout coming up next week, I've enjoyed a bit of respite from my volunteer responsibilities. I got the taxes filed and was presently surprised at how much we are getting back this year as a refund. Paying the big bucks for our youngest son's college has some added benefits after all!  He'll be done with his coursework next month.  I just hope he can find a job. He's been taking Digital and Video Editing and has been interning at Fox9News here in Minnesota.

About a month ago I was talking to my mom on the phone when she mentioned seeing Matt in a commercial. I thought oh no, he's not in a commercial, it must be someone else.  But she swore it was definitely my Matt. Of course, being a guy, he never even mentioned this to his own mother! After weeks of watching for the commercial at the wrong time of day, I finally got to see it last week during a re-run of "The Office".  Yup, it's him all right, walking by in the background carrying a board.  Well, that was pretty cool after all. :-)

Art Show today

Well, it was nip and tuck, but I managed to get my four felt entries framed and wired and to the show on time -- okay, I was 10 minutes late, but it was close enough for all concerned. This year's show has about 150 pieces of work and 42 area artists displaying work. My felted sheep portrait was placed in the best spot of the show with its own spot light even. :-)

I had to race home to make a few last minute title card changes and help frame up a dear old friend's work. With the poor driving conditions this past week, she wasn't able to get her work ready. She was going to stay home, but we begged her to bring in what she had and we took it from there.

Our scurred shaela ram, Sebastian, was returned from his breeding season lease during my little break from the art show. The poor guy was getting pummeled by all three of our boys. In only a matter of minutes of headbutting with his 1/2 brother Greyson, his horn stump was bleeding so I got out the tight pen one more time. They are all snug inside with hay and water now. I'll leave them like that until tomorrow.

The local newspaper came to the art show this afternoon and did a video clip of the show. If you have time to see a quick little ad for the local hospital at the beginning, you can see some of the work in the show. I did a short interview which is at the end of the clip. I'm standing in front of the felt pieces I entered. It's difficult to hear what I'm saying, but at least you can see my work pretty well. Here's a link: http://www.moraminn.com/detail/54172.html

I will head back to the show for the gallery tour at 7 p.m. and this time I won't forget the camera.

This weekend I'm taking a class on making Ojibwe Mittens up in Onamia, MN. I can hardly wait! Better bring the camera for that too. :-)

Back Up and Running

My website is back up again and my regular email is working. Any email that was sent to my regular address between Jan. 29th and this morning is lost forever in cyber space. Oh well, I hope there wasn't anything important in there.

I took several felt pieces down to be professionally photographed on Saturday. The thing is, some of them were my entries for the art show which starts on Friday morning this week. It's a good thing I do the title cards and can change my entries right up until the last minute. :-)

It's so hard to photograph the wool paintings. I hope the photographer can do it successfully.

I was going to enter an acid-etched emu egg in the Foot in the Door exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on Saturday also. But when I found out there was a TWO HOUR wait just to drop it off, I decided to forget it about it. There will be another exhibit in 10 years and maybe I'll have a felt piece to show then. The stipulation is that the work has to be less than 12" in any direction, so each Minnesota artist gets one cubic foot of space to show their work. The emu egg with stand was only about 9" tall. I would love to do more wax-resist acid etching. I've got rhea, goose, ostrich and lots of home grown goose eggs and dark brown chicken eggs to work on if I ever find the time.

I can't believe how many people brought work to show! From what I heard, they had a two hour wait time Thursday and Friday too. I wonder if Sunday went any faster. Oh well, I'm going to try and get down there to see the show when it opens in a few weeks.

Okay, after I feed the sheep, it's back to work on the title cards for the Vasaloppet Art Show that opens on Friday...

We're getting some snow too, nothing like what the poor people on the east coast had to deal with, but enough to keep our youngest son here another day until the driving conditions improve and get me in the mood to make some homemade pumpkin pies...

Quick Update

There is so much going on lately, it's hard to keep up. My email and website are still down, it's been 5 days now! I may have to look into a different ISP, because when this one goes down there's no communication, all I can do is leave a message and wait to see when it finally comes back in operation.
I've set up a another blog for our local art association, the Kanabec County Art Association. You'll see the link in my blog list on the right. Our annual art show is coming up next weekend, February 12 to 14th. I take the registrations and do up the show brochures and title cards.  So far we have 36 artists and 128 pieces of work registererd! 
Here's a link to the KCAA blog:
http://kcaaarts.blogspot.com/
I hope to post photos of the show and the results of the viewer's survey that we do each year.
I've got to get in gear and finish up my own felted art pieces and get them matted and framed. So much to do!
The sheep are all doing fine, but I need to get Sebastian home soon. That will likely disrupt the boys for a few days. 
I called the shearer and asked for a mid-March shearing date. Now I need to ship LAST year's washed fleeces in for processing.  A year passes by so quickly!

Email and Website Down

Unfortunately, my server is experiencing difficulties and my website is down. My email associated with the website is also out of commission.  So if you are trying to contact me, please use riveroaksshetlands at yahoo dot com.
Sorry about the inconvenience, hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

This is our oldest ewe, Bramble Cordelia. She'll be 11 in March.  She's an F1 Minder, Ag Katmoget, one of a set of quadruplets. Her fleece is the longer wavy type, very nice.  Her micron tests for 2009 came back at 25.9 AFD, 5.7 SD, and 21.9 CV.
She's still quite a character and one of my favorites.  I kept both of the twins she raised last summer, Camille, an Ag gulmoget and Greyson, an Ag grey with 1" scurs.  She wasn't exposed to a ram this year. I will keep her in with unbred ewe lambs at lambing along with Shachah.  No lambs due here until the second week of April.

Busy!

Sorry to scare everyone with that last title. I've been so busy with all my volunteer activities and the excitement of LOTS of new arts grant funding here in Minnesota. So many things to consider and possibilities!
Life is pretty good with only 16 sheep here now (until Sebastian comes home) and lambing not due to start until April.  The ewes run and jump enjoying the cool weather.

Shachah and Ozzie are doing great, but the cats are driving me crazy again.  The young one gets stir crazy in the winter and bugs his poor old mom to no end.