The Woolley Farm

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Last night at 10pm I looked in upon Onyx, who was resting comfortably, VERY comfortably, on top of the heating vent, wrapped in my good beach towel, and her head on my best living room velvet pillow. Thanks Brandon for using that pillow—remind me to teach you how to CLEAN IT!

This morning she is down cellar in the rehab section with Cookie and she was able to stand & try to get away from us. She is munching 2nd crop hay and feeling like a princess. Another 2 days of shots for “Sheep Stress Syndrome” and she’ll be able to go back outside.

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Here is the family of 5 that comes down from the upper woods into the apple orchard every afternoon. The little ones jump and dance and play. The older does stand watch but don’t mind the horses coming up and don’t seem to mind us being out in the yard doing chores. I’ll have to drag the rest of the fall apples out of the basement & put them out in the orchard for them to enjoy.

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Today I looked out the kitchen window and saw 4 legs waving feebly in the far corner of the pasture. I ran out and found Onyx tangled up in the electro net. She was on her back, what shepherds call ‘cast’. Her horns & legs were tangled in the netting and it looked like she had been there since last night.

I ran to the barn & got tin snips and cut the wires. She wouldn’t stand and I knew that she had to get her rhumen back in working order. Being cast can easily kill a sheep. So I got a plastic orange saucer that the grandkids use and pulled/pushed her onto it, then slowly dragged her back to the gate. There was no way to get her thru the gate & into the barn. By this time, the wind & rain had picked up. So I got a plastic sheet, put her on it, and piled blankets on top of her and pushed her into an upright position next to the stone wall.

For the next 2 hours I rubbed her down with towels, gave her sheep drench, and made warm molasses tea & drenched her 2 ounces at a time.

Brandon got home and carried her inside. Her temp was 87* and she should have been dead. We have her on top of the strongest heating duct in our formal dining room (note the antique hooked rugs in the picture) and we’re warming her with a hair blower, towels, the heating duct, and more warm water flavored with molasses.

Meanwhile, Cookie is about the same, still not able to stand and now she’s coughing so we gave her penicillan to ward off pneumonia.

On top of all that, when I was rescuing Onyx I found a baby deer (last springs fawn) that had apparently jumped the rock wall, hit a tree, and broke it’s neck. It’s been dead about 5 days. I wonder if it’s part of the littel family that hangs out in the orchard. How terribly sad. I hate to see nature accidents, but they do happen.

And with 60 head of sheep & goats, we’re bound to have some sick ones or accidents.

I’ve seen a few posts about it.  I’ve checked out a few. And now I’m TAGGED and part of the game. Kinda fun!!  Linda, our Jacob friend over at http://patchworkfibers.wordpress.com/ tagged me and that was great as I never knew she had a blog. She’s a good writer and so is her cat Dorothy.

The rules of the game are this–
Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Post 7 random or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 people and link to them
Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

7 weird things about me.

1. I’m an adrenaline junkie. I like being scared - roller coasters, bungee jumping, parachute jumping, all that sort of thing.

2. I am sure I am going to die drowning in a car, so everytime I go over a bridge, I crack open the window and have one hand on my seat belt to unclip it in a hurry when the car hits the water.

3. If I won the lottery, the first thing I’d do is set up a dog rescue farm and go around the world saving dogs.

4. My 3 regrets in life are a: giving away the family piano in 1974 and b: not becoming a vet and c: not marrying Brandon sooner

5. I have an insane phobia of spiders. Once a spider attacked me at work, jumping off a wall & onto me, and I ripped the phone out of the wall trying to get away from it. Another time I was carrying groceries into the house & ran into a spider web and a huge spider got on me. I fell down the stairs and lay on the ground convulsing with fear. While my 7 year old daughter laughed like hell.

6.  I won a state championship sharp shooter contest. I beat Brandon and we haven’t been back since. I think he’s still pouting but he’s afraid to say anything — after all, a menopausal female that’s a perfect shot is not a person to get mad.

7. My most favorite spot in the world is at the top of Priest’s Leap in Ireland. I’m usually an aetheist but up there I almost believe….

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

This is the shawl from the brand new Rowan magazine #43 done in 2 colors of Kid Silk Haze. I hope to have it done for the Spa show the end of February. I cast on 2 nights ago, do about 9″ and discovered a huge mistake, so now I have to start over.

Yeah, it does call for knitting on a circular but I absolutely HATE circs — I hate the cord and I hate the joint. I really prefer the old pastel metal needles with the sharp ends but the mohair slides too much, so I am using good ole’ Susan Bates.

And of course I expect to look just like this model as soon as my shawl is finished.

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

You can see the 2 colors of Kid Silk Haze. The outside ruffle with be the lighter blue, the base will be the purple shot thru with sparkle.

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

You can just see the one line of garter stitch. Of course, now that I know it’s there, I have to tink (knit backwards) all the stitches till I get back beyond the mistake. Grrrrrr…..

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

In our basement, we are nursing Cookie, a 2 year old Angora goat. A mineral deficiency has made her legs very weak. Compounded with amnemia and being pregnant, she is very weak and cannot stand. She is eating & drinking just fine. We have been in constant contact with the vet and have an arsenal of medicines & vitamins to give to her.

Every 2-3 hours we stand her up and massage her legs and bend & flex them, then we lay her down in a different position. \

Some of the meds have to be given via injections, which Brandon knows how to do. I have to learn this in the next few days before Brandon leaves for Utah on Saturday. He’ll be gone a week and I will have my hands full all alone with 60 pregnant sheep & goats, plus keeping the wood furnace going.

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Cookie does indeed have some eyes under all that mohair!

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Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Some of the $200+ medicines we’ve been giving to Cookie.