The Woolley Farm

I love the view in the dining room. There’s a filmy curtain framing the view down the road, old spinning wheels awaiting Brandon’s restoration, gleaming antiques typical to 1830 when the house was built, nice rugs, and an old lamp circa 1920. The plaster is bronze painted and she’s holding a harp that has lightbulbs on it. When I plugged this in 2 weeks ago, it blew me on my ass with a big “PFFFFFFTTTTT!!!” and flames shot out of the outlet.  Whooooo—eeeee!!!! I pulled the cord back with my foot (thinking that my foot would be safer than my hands) and noticed that not only was there smoke from the outlet, all the little bulbs on the lamp had blown off. Top that off with the house was suddenly quiet & dark. I went & found a flashlight, jiggling the lightswitch in the shed up & down just in case the electricity was still on out there. I found the fusebox and a very confusing 6 page ‘map’ of which switch was for what room.  Or maybe I was still confused by the shock I got.

Anyhoot, I got the electric turned back on, then sat & watched for smoke in the outlet for an hour to be sure nothing was burning inside. This involved sniffing the outlet. The dogs were laughing in the kitchen. I could hear them.  I got some scissors and cut the cord off to the lamp, just in case I forgot about this little episode and plugged it in again tomorrow.

After things calmed down, I went to play work on the internet again and the connection was down. The light was on the box, but there was nothing on the screen. Well. I called the ISP and they so thoughtfully sent someone right out in 3 days.  He worked & slaved over that box & it’s cords for 2 hours. OK OK, so 30 minutes was taken up with the cookies & milk break and another 30 minutes for the barn tour. But he worked really hard on it, is all I’m saying. And still no connection.  So he drives away down the road to the substation. I got his cell phone # before he left in case he decided not to come back.

An hour later he chugged back up into the yard, stomped in the house and said “There, I’ll just push this button & you’ll be fixed”.  I called him “God” a couple of times and gave him an offering of more cookies & milk.

Then he said “It was a blow-out at the substation. Apparently, 2 days ago, there was a massive power surge that got thru the wires and messed things up pretty good down there. It blew out the whole neighborhood.  Did you loose power a few days ago?”

I thought really fast. “Why, no. Wasn’t me. Must have been some other idiot who tried to plug in an 80 year old lamp which blew up and almost burned down their house.”

Then I took back the cookie and shoved him out the door into his truck.

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I just love Jacob horns. Here’s Trubador laying on a blanket he pulled off the stall door. The 2nd pic is Ashcroft.  Can’t wait to shear these guys—they have wonderful fleeces. 

 (click to make it bigger. The photo, not the lamb—that’s natures job)

Jewel’s little girl.  This is Jewel’s 2nd year being a mom, so she should have had twins. Yet, this is the only little one she delivered. It’s not my favorite as there is no black nose patch and Jacob’s should have a black nose if you want to show them. Well, they all can’t be perfect and maybe she’ll have great fleece.

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Here’s yet another new project. Made with Eco Wool, which we carry in our shop, this coat takes 4 skeins for a size med/large. It’s all in garter stitch, just knit knit knit. Good for watching TV with this one.  Each skein winds up into 2 huge balls.  The collar is done and I’m about 4″ into the coat section. Such fun!

Kim, this pic is for you. It’s Poto’s baby in her sweater, standing in her feed dish. She likes to curl up inside the dish, like it’s her little bed. Isn’t she just the cutest?

The wind was the best part. It howled all night & whistled around the house. It was great to be snuggled under the down comforter with Brandon, Wilden, Winston, and Murphy. Yup, just me and my 4 favorite boys.

We don’t heat our bedroom and keep the doors shut, so it’s icy cold up there. It’s better breathing and I love pulling old quilts on the bed on top of the down-filled one and having the dogs at my feet to keep warm. If it gets too toasty, just move a dog around a bit to remove the ‘heating element’.

The snow was tiny, hard little pellets, very dry, and it kept blowing about and piling up in drifts. For people from away, it’s hard to believe snow has different qualities. When Karen & Vincent came over in the winter for a visit from Ireland, Aodhan asked me before he got here if the snow would hurt him when it fell on him and whether it’d crush him if he fell in it. See, you should never assume that everyone else knows everything you know.

Then came the sleet & freezing rain, making the snow pack down with moisture and turning it into a heavy frozen brick. Very hard to shovel & plow. Great for making a snowman or a snowsheep, which is our choice of lawn ornament in the winter.  I was kinda secretly dissapointed in the amount we ended up with, however. Shhhh- don’t tell Brandon as he thinks I hate all snow, no matter the form.  You can see from the pic of Brandon & Wilden plowing the drive that by the time it ended, it had packed down to about 10″.