R.I.P. Ruby

We lost our dog Ruby today. Yesterday she was fine, and today she was just dead, with no warning. She was getting to be fairly old for such a large dog, but still, apart from a little stiffness in her hips lately, she hadn't shown any signs that anything was wrong, so this came as a surprise.

When Ken and I first moved to Virginia, long before we bought our farm, we rented a house with a lot of land, and before long started talking about getting a dog. We discussed what kind of dog we would like, looked at all the pictures in dog breed books, and still couldn't quite decide what kind of dog we'd like.

Finally, after much debate, I said, "It doesn't matter what kind of dog we get. When we're ready for a dog, the right dog will come along."

The VERY NEXT DAY a litter of puppies was abandoned on our property. We figured one of those must be "the right dog." Out of the four, we picked Ruby as the one we'd keep.



She was smart, a little bit shy, and (usually) very obedient. I taught her many tricks. The normal ones, like Sit, Stay, Down, etc. But also others like Shake Hands, Speak, Growl, Crawl, and Shut the Door.





After about a year, it was obvious that Ruby was lonely, so we went to a shelter and got her a border collie cross, Jesse, as a companion. They made friends instantly, and have been companions ever since that day.

When we moved to the farm, they shared the large shed and 1/3 acre run we gave them, and spent many happy days romping together.

So, sad as it may be that she's gone, she had a good life and appears to have had a quick, relatively painless death, since we found her just lying in her shed as if she was resting.

Could be a lot of worse fates for a dog. Could be a lot of worse fates for any of us. And we'll always remember her fondly as "The Right Dog."

Goodbye Ruby. Rest in Peace.

Trainer Who Starved My Horses Claims Another Victim

Remember when I posted back in June about the Trainer Who Starved My Horses?

Well, not long ago I was contacted by another horse owner who had almost the exact same experience with the very same trainer. One of her horses DIED, and another was severely malnourished.

Here's her story.

Now the trainer has moved to a whole new farm with a new website, with lots of pretty pictures to make everything look clean, happy, and professional. As if nothing was ever wrong. As if the suffering, starvation, and death of dozens of horses could just be erased by a change of location.

It makes me sick!!!

Ultra the Fairy Sheep

Wet-Felted Soap and Beads

After getting used to needle felting for the past month, I decided yesterday that it was time to try a bit of easy wet-felting. I'd attempted wet felting a couple of times before, with poor results, so I didn't want to try anything too complicated this time around.

First, I made a felted bar of soap. Based on the directions I had read online---and my previous unsuccessful felting experiments---I was prepared for the process to take a long time. I was amazed when it took almost no time at all!

I fluffed up the wool into a criss-crossed mat, wrapped it around a bar of our sheep's milk soap, dipped it in warm water, and gently rubbed the wool. In almost no time at all, it had formed a felted case around the soap.

The next test was to see how the felted soap worked, so today I took it in the shower with me. I was very pleased with the gentle exfoliating action of the wool. It had just the right amount of scrubbiness, like a good washcloth.

I'm used to using store-bought shower gel, so I had to remind myself that our sheep's milk soap is olive-oil based, which means that it cleans really well but it doesn't produce lots of big, showy lather. I got plenty clean, I just had to not expect a lot of bubbles. At this rate, the bar of soap is going to last a long, long time!


My second little experiment with wet felting was to make a couple of wool beads. I've been making wool beads by needle felting, and I wanted to see how the wet felted ones compared.

I just took a little wad of wool, got my hands wet and soapy, and rolled the wool around and around between my palms until the wool formed a sphere. Again, the process worked fairly quickly. Much more quickly than when I make the needle felted beads.

Visually, the two types of beads look nearly identical. In this photo, there's a handful of needle felted beads at the top, and two wet felted beads at the bottom.

The difference, though, is in the feel of the beads. The needle felted beads are sturdier and more evenly and thoroughly felted all the way through, while the wet felted beads were a bit softer and without quite as much structural integrity.

So, my verdict is a thumbs up for the wet felted soap, but I'll be sticking with needle felting for my beads.

Did You Notice Our Redesign?

If you look at this blog regularly, it's probably pretty obvious: I gave the blog a bit of a redesign today.

Since we finally sold our last horse, I exchanged the horse photo at the top of the page for a sheep photo, and removed a couple of references to "raising horses" from the site.

I also updated our list of websites (on the right side of the page) to include our Etsy store, our CafePress store, and our brand-new Facebook page, which will be featuring some promos and giveaways in the coming weeks.

I've introduced several new products to the farm in the past year. Now it's time to figure out how to market them!

The Magnetic Attraction of Hay

This is the time of year when my sheep are mostly eating hay, but I let them have access to our big pasture anyway. There's not much to eat out there right now, but they seem to enjoy having a choice, and I enjoy watching them "commute" from the hay feeders to the pasture and back several times a day.

Sheep, of course, are always hungry. And when they're hungry, they're pushy. So it's always a bit of a challenge trying to fill the hay feeders when there are 50 hungry sheep crowded around trying to eat everything in sight.

So imagine my delight when, yesterday at feeding time, I went out to fill the hay feeders and discovered there was not a single sheep in sight. Every sheep was at the other end of the farm, out in the big pasture.

"Wow," I thought. "Feeding time's going to be quick and easy today. I'll have these feeders filled before the sheep even know I'm here." Since the hay feeders are currently located only a few yards from the hay storage, I thought that was a reasonable assumption.

Quietly, quietly, so as not to attract any attention, I wheeled my garden cart down to the hay barn. Pushed open the sliding door. Turned around. And there at the top of the driveway was the entire flock of sheep, coming at a gallop!

I don't know how they could possibly have known I was there, but I didn't even manage to get a single bale loaded into the cart before they were swarming everywhere, "helping" with the hay distribution.

More Needle Felting

I spent the long weekend doing more experiments with needle-felting. Like the previous ones, these are all made in natural colored wool from my own flock.

Acorn and Oak Leaf Necklace (needle felted wool with wooden beads and hemp cord):


Sweet Hearts Necklace (needle felted wool with wooden beads and hemp cord):


Triple Moon Necklace (needle felted wool with metal beads and leather cord):


Silver Balls Necklace (needle felted wool with metal beads and leather cord):


Book Lover's Bolo Necklace (two little needle-felted wool books---one open, one closed---with wooden beads and a leather thong):


Needle felted wool rose:


Needle felted wool fortune cookies (You can put wishes or affirmations inside!):

I'm posting these here first, but later today, most of them will also go up for sale on my Etsy site.

Needle Felted Necklaces

Today I tried my hand at needle felted wool beads for the first time, using natural-colored Icelandic wool from my own flock.

Aren't these fun?


This one has a pendant of hand-polished sheep bone, two needle felted beads, and smaller wooden accent beads.

A New Home for Senter Stage

Congratulations to Heather Bolding of Noble Farms in Clinton, IN. She is the new owner of our beautiful Oldenburg stallion, Senter Stage.

As most of you know, I am going out of the horse business, and have spent the past couple of years selling off all of my horses. Senter was the last one to go, so our farm is now horse-free.

Senter left here yesterday to go to his new home. I know he's going to be happy there, and will be able to continue his training and be much more active on the show circuit.

He will also be standing at stud to outside mares again this season, so if you want to breed your mare to get one of Senter's wonderful foals, be sure to contact Heather for more information.

Goodbye Senter! We wish you a lifetime of success at your new home!

Snow Sheep

It started snowing here last night at about 4:00 pm. Twenty-one hours later, and it's still coming down. The snow is about knee deep now, with is a huge amount for Virginia.

One of our sheep shelters collapsed from the snow, but fortunately, it was the one in the paddock the sheep aren't in right now, so we can wait to fix it at a more convenient time.

Since it doesn't snow here very often, I rarely get the opportunity to take pictures of my sheep in the snow. So, even though it was still dark and snowy out, I took some today.

Small, medium, or large? Wotan, Ukraine, and Nicholai follow me through the snow.


Ken helps carry hay through the snow to the ram paddock.


Nicholai, always photogenic.


Nothing bothers Ultra.


Pretty Tsarina.


Where do Icelandic sheep come from? They hatch from snow drifts, of course!


Snowy flock.