This is the path out to the pasture...

This is the driveway ...

This is Mom's Crock floating away when she attemped to get the mail ... LOL

This is the new gate to the yardpen ...

This is our road flooded out again ...

This is where Mom had to park until the water goes down ... 
    On the up side the pollen count is now under control ... LOL

    As most of you know Oklahoma prairies have terrible winds and for the last few days they have been blowing rather hard.  If you add in all the pollen from the grass, trees and flowers around here you get a terrible situation for someone with allergies and asthma.  Today both Mom and I were sick with headaches and both of us slept most the day away.  Mom didn't even go to work this morning.  Now it is 8:30pm and I am off to bed.  Sorry today wasn't anymore interesting then yesterday

    Right now there isn't anything going on really here on the farm.  We feed, hay and water twice a day and sometimes we fill the waterers three times if we are bored ... LOL   The only things bred right now is Wendie, Reba and Carrie and that is just waiting time.  We got word that the Mill is getting ready to mail our inventory back to us but Mom has to group our Money to pay the bill and that is just waiting too for money to get moved around.  
    Oh wait, the farrier did come but now I have to wait to ride the horses too... Why is there nothing going on.  We are even waiting for Libby and B'day to give birth to their calves.  Mom tried to get a movie of the sheep in our yard pen so I could use it on here but the batteries were dead in the camera so she used her phone and can't get it to convert so you can see it.  She said she was sorry but we would have to wait until she picks up more batteries.  Waiting, Waiting and more Waiting ... Now you are waiting to get an exciting postte ... welcome to my world of waiting...

Well, it is called a rope jack.  Mom made it and today Me and Ms. Karen learned more about using it. First we used this ... 

To Make this ... It looks like the one we made yesterday ...

Once we figured out how it worked I used my "good" cord to make this ...

I don't know why but I can't get a good picture of the rope ... It is actually orange and black.  I am still working to figure out how to make the knot at the other end of the rope but other then that I am really happy with how it turned out.  

    Now for sheep news.... I know you are just dying to know this but Reba's quarentine was up today.  She has been here one week and that means since she hasn't showed signs of health issues she got to go into the pasture with the others.  Well, now is the time that you will learn about having sheep that aren't handled from birth.  While some breeds are worse then others if sheep aren't handled they are flighty.  Elliot is one of those.  If you remember he was a bit older when we got him and he hadn't been handled as much as we handle ours.  So when we put Reba out in the pasture Elliot started running the entire heard.  It took some time and some doing but we got him separated and tomorrow we will try to reintroduce him without all the running and acting up.  If he doesn't get better him and Chief will be split off.  
    There were a few other things done today too.  First the sign chains broke again.  So Mom and I toughed it up quite a bit. Check this out ...  That sign is blowing in the wind and I tell you they are still blowing that strong ... The Oklahoma Prairie winds ...

    Also I did one other thing today ... I know it sounds silly but I named my cross breed.  As of now and forever More on this blog and at the mill The cotswold/Southdown babydoll crosses will be known at ...  Cutie Sheep ... or if you prefer QT Sheep but either way I will not longer refer to them as crosses. 

    Hello, it is me again ... Mom.  I have hi-jacked RJ's blog to ask all the other sheep and Goat keepers that read this blog a question.  First let me say that I am in love with my outside spinning room.  Even though it isn't finished I couldn't help myself and had to spend some time spinning there.  A Little Man I know ran down all the AA batteries in the house so the pictures you are about to see are from my phone ... Sorry in advance. 

    Every Minute of today that I wasn't at work I have been working on my yard pen.  My back door area now looks like this, as we have extended the fence to the other side of the back of the house.  In time my whole yard will be fenced for my small flock but for now RJ is using it too (and I am getting my yard mowed for free).

    This evening while the guys are gone to a rodeo I worked to turn a few old pieces of OSB and a couple of 4X4 from other projects (OSB is from the old man pen a storm took out) into this hut.  I have the stuff for the roof but first the guys will spend a few minutes tomorrow cutting the two front braces for it.  After that I moved a flower tub over to my new outdoor spinning room. 

    This is what I am calling my outside spinning room.  I love it and I even took time to spin some Merino fiber I had.  From that bench (which I am going to make a cushion and back for) not only can I see the sheep and pasture but I can see the side of the house. 

    Now if you look real close (the picture really is terrible for this) you can see a small white dryer vent just to the left of the floor vent on the right.  By the way RJ's window is the one open a bit to let sound and a cool breeze in.  Anyway, as I sat spinning I began to question a thing or two about my hut I was building.  First, If I put it right there between the windows there would be extra shelter from the north wind.  And that led me to ask what if I not only put it by the side of the house but what if I cut a cute little hole in the side of the hut to let the heat from my dryer flow into the hut?  I know it wouldn't be great in the summer but since I don't have central heat or Air we don't use the dryer to dry anything but our under garments in the summer anyway.  I use the clothes line most of the time.  And in the winter when the sheep are lambing why couldn't they use the extra heat for the babies?  The one thing I am worried about is that it will be a moist heat.  So my question to you is if I pipe that heat into that hut and use it for lambing would the moist heat cause any problems that anyone can think of???

    Today, was Uncle Shoat's Funeral.  My First and his last.  If you knew Uncle Shoat in real life you would know he would have loved that line ... and in true Uncle Shoat fasion he would have told me he was honored,  Then we both would have laughed and the family would have joined in and made jokes about it.  It is odd that I sit here writing about what he would have done.  We all know what he would say to this or that and he would have been so humble to see the hundreds of people that filled the old Rock Gym.  He would have told us we shouldn't have made a fuss over "this ol' cowboy"  (as he often refered to himself)    
    For this being my first funeral I would say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It was kind of like having Church for the last time with Uncle Shoat.  Only with more of the stories being about Uncle Shoat and not Jesus.  I think my favorite part (if it is okay to have a favorite part of a funeral) was after the service when everyone headed to the cemetary in true Cowboy fashion.  Leading the way was a horse drawn carriage and tied to the back, a fully saddled Riderless horse, with Ol' Shoat's boots turned backwards in the sturrips heading WEST!  If you have ever seen the old John Wayne Movie called "The Cowboys"  You will have a vision of what took place as the carriage drove through town.  
    I will tell  you one thing ... Uncle Shoat was a very well respected man.  Names of people that were Pallbearers and Honorary Pallbearers reads like a Who's Who in the Country Music world.  Names like Roy Clark, Rodney Lay and Pake McEntire to name a few.  I was honored to be amoung such men to say Good-Bye to one Great Man!! You can read all about Uncle Shoat HERE in an artical that was in the Rodeo News Magazine  .. Don't forget to turn the pages it is kind of long but a great story. 

    Tonight I listened to many stories about my Great Uncle Shoat when I attended the Viewing.  I knew he was a man with morals and family values but until tonight I didn't realize Just how much he gave up to be rightous and stick to his morals.  As I stated in my post the other night, Uncle Shoat could have had more titles if he didn't put his friends and family first.  This is reflected in the many stories I heard that took place before my time.  
    One story really floored me.  My Uncle Shoat was offered a job that would have made his name a house hold word but he turned it down.  Why?  Well, as it turns out he was asked to be the Marlboro Man and yes, he turned it down saying "I never cared for smoking, especially by kids,” he was quoted as saying. “And, if they saw ol’ Shoat doin’ it, they might have to do it, too.”
    What would you do if you were offered a job that would make you huge money and get you recognised like that?  Would you turn it down even if you didn't have to really smoke but just look like you do?  And I have to point out he turned down that job back before the dangers of smoking were even known about.  He turned it down for all the right reasons ... Because he didn't believe in it and he knew others looked up to him.  
    So Simple, yet so hard to do in todays world.  Well, it got me thinking.  He put those values into his family and because of it I owe him alot and I am honored to have known him as more then the old man that told everyone to give me some ice cream ... What can I do to honor Uncle Shoat and show his family that us young cowboys did look up to him, and we learned from him, and all that he gave up wasn't in vane?  After all if he had given in to the world their lives would have been so much easier.  
    Well, I figured it out.  I am going to asked each of you that can to donate a 12X12 Knitted or Crocheted square in Uncle Shoat's name to the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund Project.  They have a Ravelry Group that can be found HERE however it is going to take me a day or so to figure out if they can track them or if I should be collecting them and tracking them myself before I send the squares to the group.  This group provides blankets for injured rodeo athletes that are in need of a little cheering up. And they have the blessing and the support from the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund. 
    When I get all the squares tracked I am going to let the family know that this was done in Uncle Shoat's Name.  I know that Uncle Shoat would have loved this as he was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back just because he had an extra.  So Who is in??? 

    Today I learned something new about Mom.  First, I have to tell you that Dad and I made so much fun of her until we realized she wasn't having any of it and she was serious.  I guess I better start at the beginning.  Mom worked all day and when she came home from work she not only had a large donation that will be going to Moore Oklahoma Animal shelters but she had a dog bowl with water and a rock in it.  And in that bowl was a tiny (and I do mean tiny ... wait until you see the pictures)  Turtle.  
    Dad started making Jokes about Turtle soup, hard boiled turtle and how we needed to name it Nugget cause that was all it was.  Mom just told us that we could say what we wanted but it was now a part of this Farm whether we liked it or not.  Then she promptly got the old leaky fish tank out of the well house and then went to town and got a new smaller tank.  I decided to ride along with her to see why she was so bent on this turtle.  Well, as it turns out Mom has had a turtle before.  She told me that today she found the baby while she was working in the shelter garage and she went in the building for a moment to return and find the little guy in the middle of what she was doing.  At first she said she thought it was a toy placed there but then remembered she was the only one in the building.  
    The weird part is that she says this is an aquatic turtle.   The shelter however is quit a ways away from any water source such as a pond or anything.  So where did he come from???  Mom has no clue but she believes he came into her life for a reason .... Who knows what it is but she says there is a reason.  
    Check out how small it really is... that is my hand in the picture.