What's Happening....

Oh so much is happening that I really haven't had time to write.  The garden exploding, the fruit trees dropping their precious cargo, sheep shows, future travel all keeping us running at full speed.   So here is an attempt to catch up in a quick way.

One of our little hen chickens finally found a very special place to hatch out a bunch of chicks.  A place out of the way of the farmer who searches out eggs to keep this very event from happening.  She disappeared for a few weeks;  we thought she had been eaten.  But no.  I got a call from hubby while I was at work.  He was in a desperate panic as to what to do with all these babies that were spreading around the pasture as the sheep were all trying to get a better look at these little bitty beings.  He was successful at chicken rounding and now they have a safe corner of the barn and are growing....all 13 of them!!!!

Momma trying to hide her little ones from me.

Let me know if you need any chickens.

Check out the nice little ditty done by Michele Ranard about McTavish Farm on her blog Hello Lovely.
http://hellolovelyinc.blogspot.com/  It's very sweet.

Also if you missed it,  Natalie Kilkenny did a great job interviewing us a few weeks ago about sheep and wheels.  Scroll down to episode 32 to hear about us.  http://nkilkenny.libsyn.com/  You have to download the podcast to hear it.

This past weekend was the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.  We were originally not going to bring any sheep, but then at the last minute decided we should bring just three, an abbreviated McTavish Farm Sheep team.  It turned out to be very busy, lots of people to talk to and lots to see.  The sheep, Ninkasi, Miso and Rudy had a good time training passerbys to pet them in just the right place. 
Of course I need to toot my own horn a bit.  I entered my felt vest in the fiber arts show.  I have never had a piece worthy enough to win an award so I wasn't expecting much.  But hey, I got a Judge's Choice award for best felted item and she wanted me to make one for her!  They unfortunately forgot to put my champion ribbon on the vest during the show, so I was a bit disappointed others didn't see.  So to make up for it, here is the finished vest with ribbon and all.

vest with "champion" ribbon

close up of horn button

So now we are madly packing for our Vermont trip.  Heading to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.   Will have more to write about that on our return.