She Who Measures

It is still That Month.  I was just thinking yesterday that I’d got away with it and really [Prosperpine] has been going fairly well.

So this morning I tripped and fell  (there was a sheep involved, but I am not sure who, or what exactly happened).  I was just rather suddenly on the ground with a broken arm.  I have broken “two or three” chips off my Radial Long String Of Medical Terms, and they are floating and twisting around and it HURTS and tomorrow I have surgery because apparently I can’t even break an arm like a normal person.

And I will tell you more after surgery, but how the heck do all you hunt-and-peck types do this?  It’s taken forever to write this little bit, and it turns out the letters have worn off some of my keys.

I have actually started getting some work done around here.  I mean, creative me-in-the-studio-for-longer-than-ten-minutes work, not just stable-mucking.  Of which there has also been a lot, of course, and we will simply not discuss the post-winter chicken coops.  Ick.  But I had been getting to the point of serious irritation/depression about my inability to accomplish anything, and had reached that stage – you know, where the list of things that you want/need to do is so much longer than your actual potential lifespan that the whole idea of starting anything seems futile and ridiculous?  Yeah, that stage.

Fortunately I was able to hum “I need a hero” ad nausiam while making this one, which helped lighten the mood considerably:

You’ll have to use your imagination a bit; I don’t have a photo on the actor.  Super hero costumes have a universally terrible hangar-life, they really need a body.  The actor had a pretty good body too, I hope I’ll get a picture someday.  That is Super-Duper-Ultra-Guy, who is rumored to be saving the day at various locations in the Windsor area.  Keep an eye out.

There has been knitting.  I made some yoga socks (?)  I dunno about yoga, but they are legwarmers with stirrups, is what they are.  And they are warm.

That is handspun from a while ago.  I still like it.

I also made (am making actually, one down and pushing to get the other done  by month’s end) socks – “Knits Inebriated” by Emma’s Daughter Designs:

This is a good elastic pattern with a simple, effective design, and it turns out that I am making them for Raven, because he said “that is a nice sock… who’s it for?” which he never says.  Probably this has something to do with my propensity for making socks that are yellow, pink and/or green.  Although he doesn’t steal the socks I made from Blackie’s wool, so maybe this really is just a guy-attractive pattern.  Take note for xmas, I guess!

They’re striped discreetly like that because I got the wool at the Salvation Army, two skeins in brown and grey with enough for one sock each.  So there you go.

And my current favorite of the knitted FOs, I have knitted a hat.

See?  Knitted, really.

Hat love.  I had no idea why I was making it except that I had to, but then Jeff needs a fop who will be conveniently garish in pink, mauve and silver, so I gave it to him for the show.  I’ve been otherwise spending my time churning out fops for this play, but haven’t bothered to take pictures yet because they’re all waiting to be trimmed and hemmed and such.  So that will be next.

Animals continue well, except that they all say they will starve to death RIGHT NOW if I don’t go top up the stores, so I’m off in the rain to buy everybody-chow.  I leave you with a cuddly little tiny puppy,  and her teddy bear:

Every year I announce that it is Spring at some point, just because I’m tired of it being Winter, and don’t want to put up with it any more.  It doesn’t really matter what the weather is doing, there is always snow in spring just when you thought you were done with it, and cold winds, and all that.  It’s all psychological.

This year we’ve had such a mild winter (sorry, East Coast!) that I haven’t been tempted at all, and was perfectly willing to let the seasons change as they would, without interference from me.  But, I was moving some dirt tonight, and the inevitable Helping Hen found… worms!  Quite close to the surface too.  So there’s no help for it, it must be spring.  Crazy – we haven’t even run out of wood, yet!

Pupdate – Ulster doesn’t live here any more.  Ulster was killing chickens, and although he felt quite bad about it after, he wouldn’t stop.  Since the whole reason Ulster lived here at all was to prevent someone else from killing chickens, that just wasn’t going to work.  So he has moved in, at least for a while, with CK and The Ed.  And their other five hundred dogs and cats.

Ulster had not been gone twenty minutes when I walked in on this:

Funny, I didn’t think I was the one keeping the dogs off the furniture.  On the other hand, I was enjoying the lack of destruction.  Oh well.  Does anybody else have this problem where the thing that you do is “make nice stuff” and your whole life and acquaintance seem specifically arranged to “make stuff dirty and broken”?  I get upset about this, I’m not kidding.  I hate so much living in and around junky ripped-up furniture or whatever, but if I fix it, it will just be junky ripped-up stuff that I spent a lot of time and effort on.  I’m not sure which is more depressing.  Oh well, at least the puppy is cute.

Honestly, I love that picture.  I think we should blow it up and hang it over the couch.

Speaking of cute, you will no doubt have noticed that there are lambs.  Freyja’s two, born yesterday morning, are both ewes.  Freyja had no problems, and gave me just enough warning that I was able to be there and watch the whole process, from clearing a little nest with her hooves to lambing.  I had put down fresh bedding, but apparently it was not good enough.  What do I know, I’ve never had lambs.

Vellum watched too.

Chloe and Solly were more polite, and took Dash (yes, we went with Dashing the WonderLamb) outside.  I ran out of battery power, and thus have some really gross and exciting pictures on my cell phone.

The babies are adorable.  It turns out, apparently if you mix a white sheep with a blackface sheep, you just get polka-dot sheep, it isn’t only Chloe.  The youngest literally has white ears with black dots on them.  She looks more like Freyja, the older favors Vellum.

This is big sister:

And here is the baby:

That’s at about ten hours old.  As you can see, they are not as camera-shy as previous lambs have been.  Probably they get that from their father, as well.

That’s what I kept getting when I was trying to take pictures of the babies.

The older twin is the leader, and I swear, at less than ten hours on this earth I was already saying “you’re just like your mother”.  She was the first one to find and want to play with Dashing

(The pink is pepto-bismol, Chloe really did have a tummyache).  Chloe is good with Freyja’s lambs, she just kind of nudges them away, and she baby-talks to them the same as she does Dashing.  I love sheep baby-talk.

Apparently Freja and Chloe have both decided that Solly will be a good baby-sitter.  I’m not sure whether they asked Solly or told him, but they both left him watching the lambs today while they went to grab a quick bite to eat and some alone time.

Day One:

Today I woke up. Then I went to sleep and woke up again. I had a pee. Mommy says I’m doing everything just right. She says I’m smart.

I had milk, too. I really like milk. And sleep. And waking up.

Day Two:

Last night I got half the barn to sleep in, except Mommy stayed with me. She said I needed that much room in case I grew, but I didn’t.

This morning I am learning how to be a sheep, which is what Mommy says we are. She knows everything. This is a picture of Mommy, isn’t she beautiful?

That is our favorite sunny spot.

Sometimes Sheep go Over There Really Quickly. We have to do it all at the same time. I don’t know why yet. I think it has something to do with chickens. There are a lot of chickens. Mommy says don’t worry about it unless they are eating, but I don’t know how you tell. I didn’t see any milk.

Sometimes other things happen like Wheelbarrows. If it was up to me we would run then too, but it isn’t. There is a lot to remember.

Day Three:

Mommy had a tummyache today. Bucket Lady said Mommy had too much corn but Mommy said no. Bucket Lady is dumb. I stayed by Mommy and licked her. When Mommy licked me it felt good, so that will help.

Freyja had a tummyache too she said, but then she started acting really strange.

I don’t think Sheep should do that. Mommy took me to the sunny spot for a nap. Now there are more Sheep! I don’t know where they came from. They are dumb, they don’t know anything. They don’t even know about the sunny spot! Mommy and Freyja said I can teach them how to be Sheep.

They have little coats. I had a little coat when I was a baby but then I lay down in a puddle so now I don’t.

Here is a picture of Everybody Except Solly Who Was Over There. That is Vellum. Bucket Lady says he is “Daddy”. I don’t know what that means. Mommy says sometimes the lady doesn’t make any sense but she has treats. That didn’t make any sense either.

Last spring, Chloe had a lamb.  But she had a tough labor and some sheepy form of post-partum depression and she didn’t want anything to do with her baby, so I raised it.  Solly still thinks he’s my lamb.  Chloe still thinks he’s my lamb too, he’s certainly nothing to do with her.

This is a picture of Solly.  He is unfocused because he already thought I was mommy, and was heading toward me.

This morning, Chloe had a lamb.  He is the spitting image of Solly.  This is the new lamb:

He is in focus, because he does not care about me, he is safe with his mommy Chloe, who loves him.  This time around, Chloe has gone the other way.  She adores her lamb.  Right now, he is snuggled up in a corner trying to sleep, but probably he can’t sleep because Chloe is standing over him nickering softly to make sure he knows she is there.

The other, inferior sheep are not allowed near the lamb.  Nobody is allowed near the lamb except me, and that only with close supervision.  The lamb wanted to play with Hera (he probably can’t focus very well yet, she’s round and wooly and she was bouncing in a way that looked like fun), and Hera was briefly thrilled to find a sheep smaller than herself.  Then Chloe chased her away.

The new lamb hasn’t got a name yet.  He hasn’t had much chance to show off his personality or any special traits, I’m waiting to see what develops.  Chloe thinks he should be named “Prince Delightful” or “Dashing the WonderLamb”, but Chloe tried to tell me he was the smartest lamb ever birthed because he figured out how to pee on his own, so I suspect her judgment is a bit skewed right now.

Although you know, “Dashing the Wonderlamb” is kind of catchy…