Kittens, kittens and more kittens!

Well the excitement just didn't stop around here this week. After shmoozing with Al Franken on Sunday night, our recently adopted cat delivered SEVEN kittens on Monday night. So suddenly we're up to eight cats in the house. The kittens are so very cute and tiny. They're all different colors -- two tiger striped, one black, one orange, one calico, one black and white and one gray and white. Not sure on the sexes yet....They will be ready for adoption in time for Christmas gift giving, so if anyone is interested, please let me know...of course they are FREE to good homes.

I wanted to get a photo of the mama kitty before she delivered and we made her a little cat bed, but she picked out a spot in our luggage set at the back of the closet. I was spinning away on Monday evening when I heard a faint squeaking noise. Ozzie, our Aussie and I followed the noise only to find a purring mother cat and 5 kittens already born. That was plenty in my opinion, but by the next morning we found two more for a total of seven. The mama kitty just purrs constantly with her babies in there. We have to use a flashlight to see them. We tried moving them out into the cat bed, but she would have nothing of that and carried them back into the suitcase.

Heritage Crafts and Politics

What a great weekend!
Last night my friend Denise, her daughter, Lily and I attended a fundraiser in Pine City for Democratic candidate Tim Faust. He's running for the MN house. It was a fun evening. Democratic state senate candidate Tony Lourey and his mother, Becky Lourey who currently holds that office, were there and they were very personable.
Al Franken was there and he was fantastic. I love the way he mixes humor and politics - his speech was great. He was mixing with the crowd and seemed very interested in all the people that attended. I loved all the speeches and how personable all the candidates were. I encourage everyone to get out and vote in the upcoming election. Every vote counts!
On Saturday I took a class at the Kanabec History Center and learned to do "countered twining" rug weaving. Using fabric cut into stips and a simple loom, you can make beautiful durable rugs that will last for decades. These rugs look like they are braided, but they aren't. I was surprised at how heavy they were. I wish I had a photo to show you, but I'll have to wait until I get one made -- I didn't bring the camera to class.
Stan worked on repairing the pole barn even though it was so cold and windy over there. He got the roof done (except for the peak) and started on the walls. We now have cattle grazing the pasture, about 30+ head. It's so nice to see them out there making use of the nice grass that grew in after the fire cleared it this summer.
Oh, and Saturday night we were guests for a delicious spaghetti and lasagna dinner at our friends, Dick and Kate's. Kate is an excellent cook and a truly creative person. She has a wonderful old spinning wheel dated 1899 that she got from her grandmother. I wished I had brought some string along so we could have gotten that wheel going. It looks to be in excellent condition with all the parts...

Fall is here...some photos

Our kitty is getting bigger every day. I think the kittens are due around October 22nd.

We had our first snowfall this morning, here's a shot of the deck and my poor petunia.




Yesterday was nicer, I took this shot of Donder with one of the three remaining turkeys. Those turkeys are the coolest things! The rams don't seem to mind at all having the turkeys roost on their backs. Yes, I do watch for turkey droppings in their wool, only once did I find some. You can see in this photo that Donder is holding his head back for the turkey to pick VM out of the wool on his head. And you can also see that Donder has filled out and looks like he's about to drop twins himself. I hope he's not too heavy for breeding this fall.


Here's a shot of our oldest ewe, Bramble Gillian. She's 9 years old and has such an inquisitive look about her. She's a moorit ewe, but I've noticed a small white spot on her nose this fall. Her 4 year old daughter Diana, also a moorit, has a matching one. Interesting...

Thinking Ahead to the Holidays...

Here's a shot of our newest additions with Ivan and Angus, they are turkey poults from the Minnesota State Fair Miracle of Birth Center. My friend Denise's daughter worked there five days and was awarded with several babies to take home afterward. When Denise stopped by my house Tuesday night looking for chick feed, I told her I was desparately in need of newly hatched chicks for my broody hen. (I don't keep a rooster so my poor broodies set on empties unless I buy them some fertile eggs.)
Denise and I decided that I should take the turkey poults and see if the hen would accept them. They were already 5 or 6 days old and picking at the smaller chicks.
I picked them up the next morning. When I got them home ,they were sleeping pretty hard and the hen happened to off the nest eating. They stayed quiet and sleepy when I put them in the nest with a few eggs. Then I chased the hen back in. It was so cute, one of the poults started peeping when she came in and she looked and looked in her nest at the peeping stranger. Then she hopped in an adjacent nest and settled herself over those eggs. So I put the peeping poult under her wing. That went well , so I popped another one in and another and another. They were quiet as mice and poked their heads out of her feathers. I wish I had the camera then! After a few hours I moved the new family into a dog kennel on the floor and all has been well since. The hen kept her new babies in that kennel for three days before taking them out into the big, beautiful world. That's when we realized that they are imprinted on humans and have a tendency to follow us as we do our chores. They also love being near the rams, much to their mother's chagrin. Fortunately, the rams are curious about them and none have been hurt yet.
Our kitty may be their biggest threat. But so far she's been good.
If all goes well, Denise and I will each have two turkeys for our families in time for the holidays. Just so we don't get too attached to them in the meantime...

Home from MFF

I just got back from my first trip to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Michigan. It was so much fun! Seeing all the shetland breeders again and checking out all the breeds of sheep on display. And the shopping was great -- so many vendors.
I was able to get all my fleece samples from 2006 micron tested and I learned lots of new things from the workshops I attended and other sheep and fiber people I talked to over the weekend. I bought a couple of good books so I can keep on learning more too.
Kim Nikolai and I arrived on at MFF Thursday morning and camped on the grounds of the MFF. The campsite was great, but our camping neighbors were quite the partiers so we didn't get much rest the whole weekend.
Since I was picking up my new mioget ram from Heather Ludlam, I decided to show him in the shetland show as well. He has grown a lot since I first saw him back in June at Heather's. His "rose mioget" (thanks to Theresa Gygi for telling me that) fleece has gotten really long. I was so happy to find out that he is a very mellow, friendly ram too.
It was my first time in the show ring and fortunately he was pretty well halter trained by the Ludlam children who showed him in late June. I wasn't sure what exactly to do in the show ring, I tried to do what everyone else was doing. Imagine my surprise when he won first place in the large ram lamb class! He would have done better in the Champion competition if only he would have stood up straight. He was too mellow for his own good and his handler has a lot to learn to learn about showing.
It seems that our new kitty came into heat while I was gone and she hasn't been home since yesterday. Hmmmm....I wonder if she will come back...we may have to get some healthy kitties from Kim and keep them in our barn instead.
All the sheep are present and looking good -- thanks to my guys here at home for taking care of them.

We've been Adopted!

When I got home from work on Friday night I found a snarling young calico cat in my chicken pen. The door had been left open all day and the chickens were out scratching, doing whatever they like to do. We have a problem with chipmunks and mice in the barn, so I wasn't too worried about the cat as long as she wasn't going after my birds. I'm rather partial to calico kitties and we haven't had a cat for over a year now since we had to put down our little Destiny, a stray who was the sweetest cat we ever had.

Anyway, this little calico was snarling and trying to look ferocious so I locked her in the pen and went to call our neighbors with cats to see if they were missing one. Sure enough, one neighbor was missing a calico kitten. They said they were coming to get her.

While we waited, I gave her some yogurt and that's when we noticed she looked injured in the left front leg. Upon closer inspection, the poor thing had had a compound fracture at some point and the bone is still sticking out. She's all healed up and is able to use the paw on that leg, but she can't walk with it since it's completely broken up near the shoulder.

When the neighbors arrived, they said she wasn't theirs after all. So now what to do? By that time my cat lover son was already making plans for her. We left for a few hours and when we returned, she was still there, sitting in the doorway of the barn. Okay, we got her some cat food and introduced her to our Australian shepherd. She's been on our deck ever since. Like I said, we can use a cat around here and what an ispirational cat we got! Talk about being a survivor and dealing with adversity.

Tomorrow we'll bring her to the vet and see what to do about that leg...in the meantime it's kind of nice to hear that little meow by the screen door...

And Life Goes On....

I can't believe how fast the time has flown by since my last post! Things have been busy with the funeral and all insurance claims after the fire.
A few night ago, I took this photo of the new green growth over at the land. Yes, they're just weeds in the burned out ditch, but definitely a sign of good things to come.

The heat has been absolutely oppressive this past weekend. The sheep are definitely stressed by the weather. I wish I could bring them all in the house to cool off when it gets this hot. Thankfully they all made it through the heatwave, and this morning a cool front has moved in. Temps are in the 80's again. Yay!!!

We sent two sheep to the butcher this morning and poor Willy, my big Shetland/Border Leicester/Finn cross wether, is beside himself with concern. He's been bellering away for his buddies. So I'm going to use this opportunity to wean the ram lambs and put them over with Willy and Minwawe Donder, their sire. The ewes need a break from the lambs so they can get back in condition for fall breeding.

I've included a photo of me with Donder and Willy taken back in June. They are such friendly boys and they photograph much better than their shepherdess.