Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Just a (Mostly) Bad Day

We sheared some more sheep today. Overall, it went okay, but just lots of little things went wrong that turned it into a bad day.

Several of the sheep struggled and rolled themselves into the hay and leaves as we were catching them to be sheared... putting lots of leafy junk into the gorgeous prime fleeces, which we then had to brush and pick out before we could shear, or else the fleeces would have been contaminated.

Ken knocked over the container of vitamin drench that I was giving to each of the sheep after they were sheared, and it all spilled onto the ground and was wasted.

I badly sprained a muscle in my calf, so now walking is slow and painful.

A sheep Ken was leading got away from him and crashed into me from behind, causing me to cut myself on the gate I was opening at the moment.

The check from one of the people who is buying a horse from me has not arrived---more than a week late---and we were counting on that money to pay our mortgage payment, because we used our mortgage payment money to buy hay.

I'm getting really discouraged about the whole horse situation. I wish they could just be gone, so Ken wouldn't have to worry so much about money. I can't even update my website yet, to help sell them, because Ken is still copying files from my dead computer onto his computer.

On the bright side, while he was doing that, he discovered something that might indicate that he can fix my computer after all. We're copying the files over anyhow, because I don't dare to trust that my computer will be fixed until I see it working consistently for several days in a row!

One cool thing about today: my sister Donna, who is an award-winning nature artist, has crafted a gorgeous one-of-a-kind walking stick for me to sell to help my farm. How much do you think I should charge for it? Can you think of a better place to sell this kind of thing than EBay?

One-of-a-kind, hand-carved, hand-painted cherry wood walking stick. The sorrel and white pony has real horsehair mane and forelock, a rawhide war bridle, and decorative face painting. Four bells on colored thread finish his costume. The staff is oiled with a natural oil.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't sell on ebay - sell on etsy.com. It's a huge site for handmade things. .20 cents to post, 3.5% at sale, no reposting fees - it stays until it sells. Great site.

Nancy Chase said...

Hey, that sounds perfect! I'll have to check it out. Thanks, I knew there had to be someplace better than EBay for this kind of thing.

Anonymous said...

Nancy:
Regarding the stick....perhaps start @ $200 and see what happens from there? Perhaps other walking sticks may be on that site and you can see what they are selling for or surf the web for handmade walking sticks for pricing? Good luck! Beautiful work-my compliments to the artist (your sister)! Thinking of you and Ken and all the sheep & horses, sending good wishes your way.
peace,
heather