Finally Through Lambing!!!!!

I didn't think we were ever going to get through with lambing this year. It's been a little hectic, but not near like it was last year. We brought in new herders from Peru on work visas so they had to be trained to some extent, specially in the way we lamb the sheep in the corrals. In Peru, the sheep they have are just lambed in their pastures. These two men have herded before so I don't think it's going to be a problem after we finally get them and their herds up into the mountain ranges.

I didn't have to help in the corrals much this year but I had to cook for the crew. Ten to twelve people two to three times a day, depending on what (if anything) I had left from lunch. Boy that gets old after a while....trying to have good and plentiful meals on the cheap and at the same time something different every day. I seem to get really lazy about cooking for a little while after we're through lambing.

When we bring in new men, the gov't inspects our sheep camps to be sure they are clean, safe, and the men have what they need. A while back, I had to go to Wally World to pick up some things for the sheep camp, some other supplies and I wanted to look at some fabric while I was there.

There is a mountain community close where a lot of late' type elites live, most of whom sort of look down their long noses at the locals. Anyway, I had no sooner gotten into the store when I noticed two of the afore mentioned young "ladies" who seemed to be following me all over the store. They weren't but it seemed that everywhere I went they soon appeared. They were just silly, loud and obnoxious; ooing and awwing over everything they say. I was getting more and more irritated with them. Finally I gave it up and went to the fabric dept. I was looking at some fabric there, trying to figure yardage in my mind when these two twits showed up and began going on and on about some fabric with kittens on it. (I like cats and we have a couple, ...just not in the house. ) These two gals couldn't be ignored and other customers were smirking at how rediculous they were. Finally one of them turns to me and says, "These kittens are soooooooo cute. Do you like cats?" "Yup," says I, "they taste just like chicken!" and walked away. I looked back and I'll swear one would have thought I had slapped her!

The lady who had been standing behind me looking at some lace on the other side of the isle followed me to the nearby automotive dept. She said, "Boy, you sure shut those two ninnys up!" and began laughing.

I know, ....I'm bad! Yuk! Yuk!

We're lambing again......already!!

Gee whiz! We weren't supposed to start for another week, but here we are with lambs on the ground. Nope, we didn't figure the gestation period wrong, we just had some yearlings who sometimes have their lambs early. They will ease off and then we'll have a few days to catch our breath...I hope.
So now I've got men to cook for, and lot's to do. Not much time for sculpting, or beading, or...or..or...anything else right now.
Will try to catch a breather and update my blog soon.

Winter Weather.

I've been working on the books again, trying to get them done so we can file TAXES! What a job.

It's been storming pretty regularly here, nasty cold, although it's warmed enough to melt the ground snow a little so now we have a loblolly of mud. We're supposed to shear on March 4th. Doesn't look like we are going to have any good weather for that either as we're still getting snow storms every week.

A lot of people who have moved in here have been grumbling about all the snow, but really it's normal to have this much snow and bad weather in the winter. We've just been spoiled by the mild winters the past few wears.

I remember when I was just little ...in the first years of elementary school...we always had so much snow that Dad often times would get the horses out and take us to school in the sleigh picking up other children on the way.
Otherwise, we walked. How miserable was that.

I attended school in a two room school house. There were two 2 room school houses at our school with two grades per room. The school was grades one through eight.

In those days, little girls weren't allowed to wear pants. We always had to wear dresses, and those awful long white cotton stockings with a garter belt to hold them up. It was three miles from my home to school so after walking through deep snow and climbing through snow drifts, I was always wet and just frozen when I got to school.

There was a pot bellied stove on one side of the room with a clothes line hanging over it in the winter. The teacher always had hot chocolate waiting for us and warm blankets to wrap up in after we got those wet shoes and stockings off. The boys even were allowed to get their wet pants off and wrap up if they were too bad. So for all the morning classes, most everyone sat at their desk wrapped in blankets, and a clothes line of little girl's stockings etc. hanging over the stove. I think I must have been in the fifth grade or so before we were finally allowed to wear jeans to school.

However, even when I attended high school, girls weren't allowed to wear jeans or pants to school except on a Friday and then only if we had a ball game that day or evening. Even then, we couldn't wear jeans, but had to wear dress slacks.

I haven't had a dress on for years unless it was for some formal occasion.

Oooops!

For some reason which I am at a loss to understand I can never get all my photos uploaded at once anymore. Oh well. Here is the last one.

Lot's to Do!

Well, I've been busy (as always) . Seems like there is always something to be done and things I need, want to do.
As you see, I've been doing some beadwork. These are some Native American style chokers that I've been working on lately. I put them on my website to sell for $30 each. Don't know if they will or not. Guess we'll see. The photos don't really do them justice. I used mostly metalic beads for these and they're nice.
I ordered some eyes for a couple of life sized spirit masks and decided to do some beading while I was waiting on the eyes to arrive. Can't wait to get at that mask. Our gov't trapper brought me a coyote pelt he had taken here on the ranch. Said that was one of the critters that killed x number of our sheep a year ago last fall. So I'm going to put that pelt on a life size Spirit Mask. Gonna be fun.
Aside from that, I've had to get our ranch books caught up and any number of other things that I've been putting off. We will be lambing again before too long and I didn't want to have a lot of things hanging over my head to be done. Life goes on.
Anyway, I wanted to post photos of these Beaded Fringed Chokers. They are about 6 inches long at the center of the fringe.

Missed One

This is Little Bear. His head dress is a Beaver Pelt.
I fooled around and didn't get photos of all of them though. Shuckydarn!

Back from Denver

These are a few more of the Spirit Masks I made to take to the Indian Market in Denver.
The first is Walks Far, then Black Arrow, Cloud Dancer,
Thunder Walker, Dark Eagle.
The show was a kick in the pants. Apparently sales were down this year as some said they didn't sell nearly as much as usual blaming it on the economy. I was happy...I sold some masks and a couple of high dollar dolls. There were wonderful artists there from all over the U.S, even as far away as Alaska. The art ranged from Jewelry, to clothing, to animal mounts, and furniture, fine sculpture, paintins, on and on. There were two well known popular Native American musical groups there,...Brule and One Nation....who were fantastic. Also the Aztec Dancers from Mexico City were there, and Native American Dancers from the US. Wonderful entertainment, and the food was supurb. I had a great time,..so did Zida...and sort of connected with my roots once again. Looking forward to to the next Indian Market.