The rest of the day was pure fun!  DD#1 and husband cooked fajitas and we gathered with family and friends at their house to visit and celebrate.  Afterward, the girls piled in the Suburban and we headed to the Farm.

Thanks to Lizzie keeping Angelica occupied with alfalfa cubes, we finished her haircut!  I’m sure she if MUCH happier now!

Lizzie keeping Angelica occupied with alfalfa cubes

Lizzie and Angelica

Our Angelica, totally sheared!

Then the fun began!  The girls convinced Papa Ken to turn the pool that we bought for our future Tilapia raising operation into a pool for little girls to swim in!  Forget the fact that the water was freezing cold, and that it was only 84 degrees, and it is only May!  It was time to put up the pool, and put up the pool they did!

Of course, babies had to be fed and held also.  Is there anything sweeter?

Georgia and Saffron

Last but not least, one small warning, in case you come to visit in the next few days:

Grandchildren are truly grand!

Angelica

Well today, Angelica got at least part of a haircut!  This morning I coaxed her onto the shearing stand, and “coaxed” is probably too mild a word.  She did NOT want to wear a harness and be led!

In fact, she actually threw herself down on the barn floor a couple of times!  The first time, it took me by surprise.  The second time, I was reminded of the time that my husband and I took two of our grandchildren to Sea World. When we told the girls that it was time to go back to the hotel, the younger one planted herself  in the middle of the wide walkway crying, “I want to see Shamu,” loudly and repeatedly.  My husband was mortified.  It quickly became clear that we couldn’t reason with her, so he picked her up, held her over his shoulder, and walked her out to the car.  She was asleep before we ever got out of the parking lot.

Drawing on that experience, I had a helper (one of my home school visitors) take the lead, and I picked Angelica up by the fur on the top of her back and head, got her up onto her feet, and we walked her onto the shearing stand.  Believe me, it hurt me more than it hurt her.

Once we got her on the shearing stand, I started separating her fur from her body with my trusty Fiskars scissors.  Soon, she was (mostly) sheared.  About the time I started doing her underneath, she announced that she had had quite enough for one day, and I acquiesced and let her go on out to graze.

Her fur went straight into the boxes to be solar scoured in order to maintain as much of it’s lock structure as possible (what I didn’t pull apart getting it off of her).  I can hardly wait to get it clean and dry! It is going to be a JOY to spin!

In other news from around the farm today, Boysenberry is going creamy!  Born black and white, he has turned brown and white.  A close inspection of his “roots,” however, indicates that he is going to be cream colored before it is all said and done.

Like the swans returning to Capistrano, now that summer is here, the chickens have returned to stick their feet in the cold water pool created by the air conditioning drain line.

And last, but certainly not least, say hello to Cyrano.  Cyrano has come to us from his prior residence at the Lazy Pi Farm.  He was being a naughty boy there, and if you have small children, you simply can’t have a headstrong ram that charges.

Here, he is not the only ram, certainly not the only animal with horns, mixed in with a bunch of other boys, and we hope the experience will humble him.  Plus, we’ll put him to work this fall with the girls.

One last look at Angelica.  The rest of the fur will be sheared off tomorrow, or maybe Sunday.

One of the challenges with our high winds is that they occasionally turn over one of our animal shelters.  Forget the fact that it’s heavy, and the fact that it is staked down!  Two times now (or is it three?), it has ended up on its top, and we’re just flat tired of it.

Enter…. The Welder … fixer of all things metal, builder of fences extraordinaire, and, by the way, my brother, and his helper Gerald, to solve the problem of the big shelter once and for all.

I’m not quite sure what happened next because I left to run some errands, but I know it involved turning the building back over the right way, dragging it to its new permanent location, welding some stuff, and moving the built in hay feeder.

What I DO know, is that when I got back, I had a shelter in the northwest corner of the pasture where I wanted it….

With a built in hay feeder …..

Being enjoyed by the animals …..

Staked down with really long mobile home stakes …..

and all I had to do was write the check.

P.S.  How do we know that it’s hot outside just by looking out the window?

I hope nobody wanted to drink that water …..

Spot was his usual laid back self, willing to share his food with whomever wandered by.

Odin got his head stuck in the fence, again, and had to be rescued.

Bear got out sometime this morning, and eventually came home, only to decide to nap under one of the trailers parked in front of the house j-u-s-t out of reach.

Crazy dog stayed there quite a while, too.  Here he is, still under the trailer, in mid-afternoon when I ran into Greenville to get the oil changed and the tires rotated on Ken’s car.

Our boarders, ZZ Top and Cocoa discovered alfalfa cubes (I was handing them out as treats), and decided they like them.

Like I said, Just another day in paradise!

Today was also a day to say, “Hello!” We welcome Angelica, the Teeswater sheep, to the Fancy Fibers Farm. She was a former resident of the Curly Locks Ranch but, after losing her pen mate to the heat, she was lonely.  Now she will have the opportunity to keep company with other sheep which is a good thing for a flock animal.

Angelica

Angelica

She’s a yearling, and she’s in full fleece.  We hope to remedy that soon because it’s way to warm for all that wool right now!

Of course, our resident Nosey-Rosey’s had to rush over to see who the new girl was.

Welcome to the Fancy Fibers Farm, Angelica!