Itsumo Mawaru

Hi readers! I haven’t been posting here too often, have I? Indeed I am posting a lot over at the farm’s blog.

But here is a special post with some pictures of crafts I’ve done recently.

I participated in a stamp swap with two other Canadians. One partner sent me this quartet of stamps. She did a great job on my logo stamp and it’s so hefty that it stamps wonderfully and authoritatively. I will get a lot of use out of it! In fact I used all but the sewing machine stamp when I replied to a friend’s wedding invitation. Yup, I stamped the heck out of the return envelope

This is  a set I made for one of my partners. It’s The Veggie Bunch. They were super fun to carve. I’ll make up a set for myself eventually.

I am waiting for the second partner to post pictures of my stamps before I post the picture here. Her theme was tattoos, so those stamps were things I had never really carved before and were a lot of fun to carve as well.

Oh, and what’s that secret stamp on the letter? It’s a sneak preview of one stamp in my first series of Farm Sketches prints! I’ve been casually sketching and carving stamps based on living here on the farm. In the near future I will be making some prints involving these stamps for people to purchase. Since most of the proceeds go right back into the farm and animals, it’s a great way to support the farm and get something of value in return. These prints will range in size from business card individual prints to 8.5×11 montages, and as with most of my creations, will be available in the best of colors: rainbow!

Attention readers. I have an announcement to make.

I love my little boys! Look at Volcano God! Those tender loving eyes! That pink nose! (Yes, it changed from black to pink, how magical!) That timid but inquisitive attitude! That frosted mouth and white ears! That soft and luxurious fleece! And best of all, he’s now in the mood to come and say hello (if you don’t spook him by moving suddenly) and accept pets and snuggles. I feel confident that I have picked a great herd sire. He’s like a super better nicer version of Frankie.

Who would have ever thought sheep would give me so much pleasure? Look at little Peebs. Well he’s not so little anymore! I can still pick him up, barely, but the next time I do so I’ll probably end up injuring myself. He’s still as full of love as always, and he’ll tell you when you aren’t snuggling him enough. Look at that gorgeous fleece. It’s crimpy and jet black at its base, although I did see one grey hair mixed in so I expect he’s not a pure super black. This is the kind of sheep I want to raise, personable but not aggressive, soft and loving and happy.

And my golden boy, Price. The timidest of them all, he still won’t come up for pets. But since his older brother is, I expect he will soon. His horns are growing faster than Volcano God’s. He also has a chocolate brown nose. How can twins from the same mom and dad be so different! This is part of the wonders of Shetland sheep, their natural color spectrum and varied genetics means your sheep aren’t carbon copies of each other.

I honestly had no clue how happy these guys would make me. No matter how you feel, no matter what the weather is like, these guys are always there ready to distract you from your worries. They have no worries of their own. They live happy fun-filled lives. In fact, I’m pretty sure sheep are happy batteries, they save up their daily happiness and share it with you when you snuggle them. I never knew that my life was incomplete without these sheep. Now that they are with me, I could never think of letting them go.

Everything and everyone is growing like crazy. The tomatoes have long since expanded past their racks, next year we will need to make a super support for them! We even have one baby cauliflower growing!

Cleaning out the barn by hand is probably the most hellish task I’ve ever had to do in my life, especially when the weather is 40 degrees C. And that’s with a ton of help. Being a farmer without any type of heavy implement seriously impedes your ability to do anything. As a farmer, you need to spend money to make money, else you’re spending time to get a fraction of the benefit.

One of the spotted hens hatched her eggs yesterday. We moved her inside just to be safe. There’s 4 so far and 3 eggs yet to be hatched – two gold ones, one black and gold one, and one black one. How cute

Jane and her duckies are doing great. The duckies grow bigger every day. They still have little tiny wings, and when they get wet they stand up high on their duck feet and flap their little nubs around, just like a T-Rex would. It’s so adorable!  Jane has gone back to cooing instead of squeaking, and is willing to fly up to the deck for food again.

The turkeys are doing great, but as they get bigger it becomes so apparent how dumb they are. We will be letting them outside soon, clipping a wing to make sure they don’t fly away.

Rabbits are enjoying the outside weather, though I think I’ll be bringing Riker inside with this hot weather.

I am participating in a stamp swap with two other Canadian gals. I have completed carving a set of stamps for one partner and am getting inspiration to carve up the other partner’s stamp(s). The completed ones are so cute I wish I could keep them, but it’s good knowing they’ll be off to a home where they’ll be appreciated!

I can’t believe we are halfway through June already. It seems like December was just a few days ago, but in reality it’s been half a year. At that time I was excited to be making progress on purchasing my first home and farm. Almost a full year ago was when my mother and I went down to Juniper Moon Fiber Farm and I became enchanted with the thought of being a shepherd. And here I am, a year later, with a small menagerie of my own.

I couldn’t begin to list all the things I’ve learned so far: raising all sorts of animals, gardening, home repair, growing plants from seed, country living, and the sounds of a coyote pack. Then there are the tons of things that I’m made aware of that I want to start doing: growing all sorts of other plants, raising other animals, preserving various foods, and all sorts of neat crafts.

Just this month some brand new activities I’ve experienced include dehydrating blueberries (in my new-to-me electric dehydrator) and seeing baby ducklings.  Another new activity is cultivating a successful garden, and successful it is – every day the tomatoes get taller, at least four of them have exceeded the height of their cages, many have flowers, and the leader plant already has a baby tomato on it. The cauliflowers are massive and I fear I’ve planted them too closely, perhaps I will harvest one at a younger age to make way for others. Tom thinks he planted the leeks too close together but at least we will have baby leeks this way. Best of all there are no pests or interference – the biggest pain has been a maple tree whose keys landed in the garden, forcing me to do some weeding. I wish we had constructed the beds a bit earlier, the mosquitoes are killer right now down in our dirt source and we could have been eating some carrots and beets by now. Oh well, we can’t do everything at once!

This is Ewenique Franklin #S28147 June 5 2008, a grey katmoget ram. He is for sale or trade.

This year he sired three rams, two twins (a moorit or dark brown and a grey) and a single (black).

I call him Frankie cause he reminds me of one of those guys from the movie Grease. He’s a bit of a punk, a bit of a rough guy, and you can certainly never trust your back around him at all. But when you’re safely behind the barn fence, he loves to have a scratch and a snack. Please don’t mind his scruffiness, it’s fleece that I have yet to trim.

I would prefer to trade him for other Shetland ewes, preferably registered ones, but I’m willing to consider non-registered purebreed Shetlands or Angora goats. I might also consider other fine wool sheep breeds.

If you are interested in Franklin, please contact me at meaganhanes@gmail.com, or pass this on to anyone who you think might be interested