What I did on my Summer vacation...by Kylie Knight aka Sprites Great Adventure

I decided to do a bit of blogging since Mom has been to busy trying to get the place spiffed up for family visiting next week.

We just returned from vacation down to No. CA to go to Guerdon's family reunion in No. San Juan.

We got to stay at his Aunt Gens house in Nevada City. OH! the wonderful smells around her place!! I had such a good time, and everyone spoiled me. :)

My favorite smell at her place was DEER!! Mom kept her eye on me pretty good, but I tricked her into thinking I was just smelling the ground. I ACTUALLY had my eye on five deer that were out in the woods. Before Mom could get my name out of her mouth I was gone like a shot! WHEEEE! Through the woods we went, I could hear Mom and Guerdon yelling my name.

The deer leaped over this huge ditch filled with water, but by the time I saw it I wasn't able to gather myself to spring completely over it and I got a bit wet.

Then I heard Mom yelling "AUS!" which is from Shutzhund training and means for me to stop what I'm doing. Sigh. I stopped and turned around.

Mom and Guerdon were on the OTHER side of the ditch. She kept telling me to stay on the other side though I know I could have just sprang back over to her. She was really worried as I guess this is the NID ditch where people get their water and many a dog has fallen in and can't get out until someone pulls them out.

So I followed along on the other side of the ditch till we came to a road. Mom told me "Platz!' and I laid down and waited until Guerdon came over and got me.

Boy! was I tired. Mom thought it was funny and kept taking pics of me in the back of the Subaru when they were on their way to dinner.
They went to a place called The Willo. It's an old roadhouse and they have a limited menu of mostly beef. Like that would be a problem!!
You can grill your own meat or pay an extra 50 cents and have them grill it for you. Personally I would rather they just hand it to me raw, but people are funny that way.

This pic is of my Grandma Lucy, Guerdon's Mom. She grew up here in Grass Valley and Nevada City and met her husband Ray here. This is her showing off her leftovers, which she brought home for ME! :) She calls me her granddaughter and spoils me all the time.

The next day was the family reunion. Affectionately known as "The PIG". Was I excited when I heard that! More food!! There were lots of people there, and dogs.

They had a horse and a mini donkey. This little human really liked them.


This one male human came up and wanted to meet me. I was more than happy to make his acquaintance. Mom said he probably didn't want me licking his tonsils but I personally think he liked it.

They had a Border Collie there named Elvis that put on a show with tricks. I watched him carefully, but I didn't see anything that I personally thought was special, I'm sure I could have done any of those tricks. He got a lot of applause though. Every time his person threw a ball for him I wanted to go get it (I KNOW I could have beat him to it) so I had to stay on a leash during his show.

After we ate lots of good food we went for a walk down their road.
Lots of good smells here too. There were some pretty flowers by the side of the road, though they weren't near as interesting as the smells!



There were these orange flowers Mom said were poppies. I sniffed at them but there was this bug in there that yelled at me and said I'd be sorry if I kept smelling so I left it alone.

I guess I'll finish up my story later....Mom is going to plant some plants and I have to go show her I can dig holes better than she can....she obviously must have forgotten how well I re-landscaped the yard last year! Later!! Kylie

Ah Spring! warmer beautiful days, blooming flowers and shearing!

Saturday dawned clear, and as the day progressed the temperature rose. I LOVE this time of year.....it actually makes me enjoy going outside to do things. :)

Walking out of the house I am greeted by the sunny colors of some mini tulips (the brown spots on them by the way, are from my dogs digging in the dirt/mud next to them.....at least they didn't dig them up!), and a crocus and another bulb flower that I can't remember at this given time......



Walking down over the hill to the barn the valley opens up into a heart-warming expanse.




At the gate I am greeted by a disgruntled llama and a more than tickled ewe lamb, Jet.


Last night I had placed my girls and boys in stalls to make sure they were dry for the shearer. Gallo was definitely not pleased, and kept humming questions at me. Jet, on the other hand who had been picked on since she was the new girl in the flock was extremely pleased to be the only girl that Gallo had to share his hay with. I really should have taken a pic of them laying down together the previous night.

Here is a pic of everyone in their stalls, wondering what the heck was going on. Even standoffish Bella stood up on the door and allowed me a chin skritch.....anything that might get me to let her out!




Franna of EverRanch and Sally of Sleepy Hollow Shetlands were extremely kind and offered to show up to help (Molly of Blackberry Moon Farm also offered but was unable to come at that time).

Eifion (from Wales) showed up with his brother-in-law, Joe (from Whidbey Island) and set right to work. I tried to be organized (something I have to REALLY work at....) and somehow managed to forget the first thing I had on my list. Running extension cords to the barn for his shears! Boy, did I ever feel sheepish (pun intended) when Eifion said "C'mon Tammy!". I'm definitely going to get power down to the barn this summer!

He started with the boys and worked thru the girls. Joe would grab the next sheep and pass them to Eifion. He sheared, gave shots, wormed and trimmed their feet. He was definitely quick. A few of the girls got nicks, but I learned (from Franna) that the difficulty he was having getting thru some of the fleeces was because of the rise. (That and that the Jacobs don't have that problem).




Here is my help. :) I learned so much from Franna and Sally, it was worth it's weight in gold just to be able to hear their thoughts on the process and Shetland sheep in general.



And here are some pics after the work was done.....






Jet, was laughing (I KNOW, I could just hear her....) "Ha, Ha now I have more wool than you!" And they all are on the same page now as they butt each other and get to know each other all over again.

After Eifion and Joe were on their way, Franna gave me a skirting lesson with one of my fleeces. She also showed Sally and I how you can spin with just your fingers! It was fun (and amazing)!

Now I just have to get busy and skirt the rest of my fleeces. I wish I had been able to take more pics but I was definitely hopping when Eifion was shearing and I was so intent on learning how to skirt that it completely slipped my mind.

Anyway, thanks again to Franna and Sally. I have to say that all the sheep people I have met in both the Jacob and Shetland world have been the most wonderful people to get to know!

OH! Another sign of Spring? The return of our Osprey from South America. I need to get some pics of them. It's really not very picturesque when they are in their nest....it sits on a big high tension wire tower. They have used this nest for the last 12 years we have been here and I'm not sure how long before that. The nest is HUGE. They have 2-3 babies every year and it's great when they are all learning to fly and circle over our home.

I'm definitely reveling in this beautiful Spring weather....and dreading what I hear is coming next in the middle of the week......more cold and rain. sigh.

Lazy Saturday at Wrensong Farm

Had the day off today and just thought I would randomly take some pics as I wandered around the farm.

My friend, Niki, of JNK Llamas, who has worked SO hard to find me a llama that would be a good guard as well as be easy to handle and preferably friendly (I've already mentioned how much of a sucker I am for friendly animals). My current llama, Lady Rena, is an awesome guard, chases anything that doesn't belong and even things that do if they mess with "her sheep" much to my Border Collie, Finns dismay.

Rena isn't really fond of being handled though (most llamas as Niki says are like cats....like being touched when they WANT to be touched). I do need to handle her to trim her toenails, worm, give shots, brush and shear so things have got to change. So today Niki came over with some knowledgeable llama friends and they worked with Rena a bit. Gave me lots of pointers and I'm going to work with her over the next couple of weeks to see if it gets better.






















After they left, I went to feed the Call ducks and see how they were doing. I added three BEI (Black East Indies) Call ducks to my 3 Snowys. The BEIs are obviously not quite as good of quality as they are quite a bit larger and are just babies. At first the Snowy Calls wanted nothing to do with the BEIs but they seem to be getting along fine now. My Snowys, from Shannon of Kenleigh Acres, are actually magic ducks. One minute you will see them sitting by the pond and the next you can't find them anywhere. Then literally a couple minutes later there they are sitting under a Japanese Maple. Shannon said if she had known they were magical she would have charged me extra. :)






















When Fall arrives I go around to different places like Coast-to-Coast that has a little area of lily pads and buy what they have left at usually 45% to 50% off and toss them in my pond. Figuring it won't be too painful financially if they don't make it. This year two of them are blooming, here are some pics:
























Down over the hill to see how the sheep and poultry were doing. The grass is dying off, been awhile since we had rain. I'll probably pull everyone off the pasture this week and start feeding hay again until the rains start.





Then I just wandered around my yard looking for plants in bloom. I am a very random and eclectic kind of gardener.....if I see something I like I'll buy one of them and just plant it "somewhere" in the yard. This makes for an enjoyable tour around the yard for me as there is always some "surprise" that I have forgotten about. I may not win any awards with my yard but it definitely gives me pleasure. Although I DO have a doggy landscaper crew that has been going around re-landscaping which doesn't make me very happy....more on that on a later post.