Starring…The Rat Pack

They arrived at their new gig this morning ready to party.

Allow me to introduce you to the one and only…

Frankie  (aka Ol’ Blue Eyes, The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra)

and his cohort…

Dino (aka the King of Cool, Dean Martin)

and, of course, their buddy…

Sammy Davis Jr.

oh, and let’s not forget…

Peter Lawford.

They seem to be pleased enough with their new dressing rooms, they even have groupies hanging around outside the gate already.

The groupies were too shy to ask for an autograph though.

“Those are some freakishly tall sheep,” said Blanche.

She’s a little confused. I had to explain that they were alpacas and not sheep.

“What the heck is an alpaca?” she asked.

“Well, they’re kind of like a camel,” I said.

“In Indiana? Camels in Indiana? Why would you want a camel in Indiana?”

“Well, they’re not really camels, they’re alpacas. I wanted them because they produce the softest fleece in the world.”

Then she gave me a dirty look and walked away. I’m afraid I may have hurt her feelings.

“Not that your fleece isn’t soft, Blanche! I just…”

Newbies

The newbies come here
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be four!
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's no more!

When I'm stuck in a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The newbies come here
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I’ll show ya Tomorrow!
They’re only
A day
A way!

A New Girl in Town?

I don’t know who this animal is.

I used to have a sheep named Rose. She was fat and fluffy.

Now she is gone and I have this skinny thing.

“It’s ME, Rose! I swear,”  she says.

I don’t believe her.

Anticipation…

We’re moving piles of cement blocks,

and piles of firewood,

and stacking them up in nice tidy rows outside of the pasture.

We’re hauling away broken bricks and piles of old barn roofing.

We’re relocating the compost pile,

generally cleaning up the barn lot,

cleaning out the North side of the barn,

and then we’ll build a couple of stalls over there.

When we’re finished we’ll have added 800 square feet of living space in the barn. We’re going to need it. Our guests will be arriving soon.

Since When is this Blog Based Out of Seattle?

It’s raining again. I’ve emptied a completely full rain gauge three times over the past three weeks. Then it dried up for two days and I could actually walk to the barn without sinking ankle deep in the mud. Now the rain is back.

I’m not complaining though. Nope, not even a little bit. Rain is good. Rain makes the grass grow. I’m not going to complain because if I do then the rain will dry up and  go away like it did last year. I like rain. Rain is good. It makes Old-One Eyed Calico Jack all shiny, sleek and sexy looking.

And heaven knows he could use all the help he can get.

Nobody died but…

It was a little crazy. I felt this photo accurately described what shearing day was like on Monday. Crazy sheep!

Seems the girls are smart enough to know what a halter is and that bad haircuts happen when one is involved. Debby and I managed to catch two of them and I only took one nose dive while doing it. Not bad if I do say so myself.

The actual act of shearing on the other hand didn’t go so well. I gave up on the idea of using electric clippers almost immediately after nicking Blanche a couple times without even realizing it. I quickly switched to the smaller size hand shears that I bought this spring and have to say that will be my weapon tool of choice from now on. Easier on all of us over the larger shears I used last year.

The girls just LOVED having Debby give them ear scratches and corn nibblets while they were getting their spa treatments. They were much calmer than last year and so was I! Had it not been for Debby I might have quit immediately after I nicked Blanche and called it a day. We had a great time, I love how meeting a fellow blogger always feels like catching up with an old friend even though you’ve never met in person before.

I wanted to give you some nice after shots of our handiwork but the girls are way out on the north pasture.

I’m telling myself it is because the pasture is dry out there and not that they’re avoiding me today.

There Has Been a Delay

Shearing has been postponed until Monday.

While mudwrestling a sheep kinda sounds like fun (I once played on a mud volleyball team) it would surely make processing the wool a tad more difficult. But Monday? Monday I’m shearing rain or shine, come Hell or high water.

Anyone that wants to come over and help just let me know. I might even upgrade from bologna to ham.