Okay so I have tried really hard not to mention the drought or the unreasonably hot temperatures that we are having on the blog.  I know everyone knows about them.  No, it isn't fun and yes, we are hot and sticky most of the time due to us not having central A/C but to be honest Until now I really didn't want my readers to think of us as, well for lack of a better word ... suffering.  Yes, the heat and drought have affected us.
    Right now it is 6pm and 111 degrees outside.  During the hottest parts of the day the heat can soar up to a 118 easy.  At least that is the highest temperature I have seen on our thermometer.  With the weather so hot we have started doing a few things different. First, we are now getting up at the crack of dawn to get anything we need done outside done.   Then there are more water trough filling trips to the barn yard as well as the pump running every moment there is water in the well and let us not forget that there is a whole lot less cooking going on in the kitchen so we don't heat up the kitchen, which is the biggest room in our house.  
    This morning was no different.  Mom and I got up at day break and headed out with a few chores on our minds.  There are always things that need to be done around here and the heat can't stop us or things might go wrong.  Let me back up and explain.  There is one other thing I have been trying not to post here and that is that we have large Coyotes around here.  Well, I am sure you knew that but what the trouble is that with the drought they are having to look harder for food and water.  The water they are finding is our pond and without Ranger we have been worried that they will look to our flock/herd as food.  We have woven wire fence to keep them out but we had one spot that was needing to be fixed.  The more we fixed the worse it seemed. So, this morning we took out a new role of wire and refenced the whole section that was older.  Mom says she will sleep a bit easier knowing we are doing everything we can to keep the coyotes at bay.  
    While I wired up the new fence section, Mom took on the chore of spraying all the pens for weeds.  She always says it amazes her how we are so dry that the ground has large cracks in it and the grass seems to be burning up but the weeds are thriving... Anyway, she sprayed all the pens.  From the Man pen to the shetland pen to the Empty holding pens.  The East pen is now empty because with the end of the haying season comes the leaving of the heavy equipment and work crews.  That means the pasture is now safe for Sweet Hope, Charlie and Juneau.  So we turned them out.  Hope has had a grand time rolling and wondering the pasture exploring ...

    After our morning chores and work we came in to spend the heat of the day doing little to nothing.  Since Haying season is over Mom wanted one day with a planned nap in it.  That was today.  So before she napped she set me up on her wheel with the pencil roving I got from Morandia's MIB Fibers.  It is 4 oz of 100% wool pencil roving in the Twilight colorway. 

And this is how it turned out.... Not bad... I think I am going to enter it in the fair ... What do you think is pencil roving cheating???  No one has ever entered homespun yarn in our fair before ... Would they know the difference???

Well, this morning Dad and I messed up big time.  We stayed out in the roping pen way to long and it made me kind of sick.  So I talked Mom into working on my notebook some more.  We got more then one done too.  We started with Romney

Then we did Karakul

Teeswater

And Alpaca

    After that I carded up the Navajo Churro and the Tunis but Mom and I didn't get them done yet.  We got the information sheet for the Tunis done and the locks on the page and then all we got done for the Navajo Churro page was the locks in place.  Then the fun started I worked to  put together a little Video as promised about the Fiber Christmas in July Festival I had my booth at. 

Hope you all enjoyed it.... Now I want to show you why I got in trouble.  First Mom told me that I needed to get the stuff put away from the Festival.  I told her that I couldn't She asked why not.... This is what she sees... A mess

But is you look closer you can see the guards.... They have been there since we brought Coco Puff home.... Do you see them....  Check this out....

And you think there is only one??? Look again ...

See they are Coco Puff Guards ... LOL

    Okay, I know I was suppose to post the video blog but I didn't get the video edited.  I kind of ended up taking a nap this morning and then this evening I hauled in the very last load of hay that we do.  Yes, that means we are done with haying season for another year.  
    So What did I do with the rest of the day.  Well you see , at the Fiber Festival I took this class Rememer this picture???

    This is the notebook that I learned to put together.  So I sat down today and talked Mom into helping me with one breed a day.  Today's breed was Jacob.  First did you know that the different colored fibers on a Jacob are two different lengths.  The White fleece on the sheep is longer then the black.  Also did you know that Jacob sheep can have either 2, 4 or 6 horns??
    I learned alot about Jacobs and Mom spun up a sample and even crocheted me a swatch for my notebook.  The best part is that Mom let me Laminate all the pages so my Notebook will be able to go to the sale barn with me so I can check out breeds if the come through.  I am even going to add the breeds I have to it.  
   That will be the cotswold and the southdown baby dolls and the shetlands.  So instead of just 10 fibers in my notebook I will have 13.  
    

    Each breed will have two pages.  The first will have a picture and description of the animal and it's fleece

The second page will have a sample of the fleece, a spun sample and a crocheted 2X2 square sample.  I am suppose to have a knitted sample but Mom is better at crochet.  You think anyone will care??

Ok so I tried to blog last night but we couldn't get online at the hotel.  So tonight I am going to show you all my treasures and then tomorrow I will take you on a tour of the festival its self.  First, let me say that Mom and I had one big purchase in mind when we headed to Kellyville.  We wanted a drum carder.  However, we did have a budget.  When we got there I set up the booth and Mom scoped things out.  Well, there was one carder in the whole place and it was way out of our price range.  She came back and helped me set up the booth and said that it just must not have been ment to be.  Then, Ms. Sarah and Ms. Karen took to the booths for a deep search for bargins.  All of the sudden Ms. Sarah told Mom Ms. Karen needs  you now.  So Mom leaves we again and goes to see what is the matter with Ms. Karen.  Mom came back really fast and got the cash while Ms. Karen stood right in front of her find until Mom could get back to that booth.  Take one guess what Ms. Karen had found.  Yup, a Drum carder and in our price range.  Check this little treasure out....

After that I had to find Mom something to spin.  So I came up with a Merino Superwash ... what do you  think

Mom and I both did a bit of Christmas shopping that we both found when we unloaded the truck.  Mom got me this to make a scarf and hat out of for hunting season...

I got Mom this ...

Mom and Ms. Karen also knew I like spinning pencil roving the best so Mom found me this...

And Ms. Karen found this

And I am going to try to spin this too...

Then we found a few small things that we liked....

Oh and look what else I got .... this poor guy was there with a lady cutting mats out of his fur and you know Mom ... Oh I wanted him but when Mom saw his fur and how bad it was she couldn't help it.... She had to bring it home...

He now needs a name and is living in the indoor pen in the kitchen until we can make him an outside pen.  I want to call him Coco Puff because he is a Chocolate Angora bunny and he has Puffs where the lady cut the mats out.  But in true Blog fashion leave a comment and get your votes in for the perfect name for our new addition.

I did take a class while I was there.  Last night I took a fiber notebook class with Ms. Sarah while Ms. Karen took a knitting class.  (I left Mom to man the booth, she said it was the perfect bragging time.)  I got homework too...

All in all it was great. I had alot of fun and met alot of great people.  And Someone ever gave me this so I can come back and teach the other 4-Hers how to drop spindle ....

But the best part is that I brought home this to give away.... To enter just comment on your memory of a favorite festival you went to or the perfect find you home to come home with from one someday with. 

Just a side note I did have a few skeins of yarn left and a couple of bags of roving that I will be putting up on the web page tomorrow. 

Okay so I did a bit of research and Mom got a better picture.  Thanks to Jenny I read about benchmarkers but I wanted to know more so armed with a better picture.  I found a site that lets you figure out where these markers are all acrossed the world.  Yes there are some that are not in the US even though it was a US project.  Guess what though.  Our Marker isn't on the map.  Click here to check out all the markers on record.   

Here is the actual Marker.  It is just sitting there in the middle of our Right away.  Dad put the pipe up so that we wouldn't hit the marker with the sickle.  Then when the Rail Road did a survey the Rail Road  put up the two wooden sticks with the orange tape on them.  We cleared it a bit so you can see it better.

Here is the marker top.  We went to the web site and put in the marker ID but now they use 4 digits and this one isn't on their map.  Mom emailed them and we will see what they say.  I am not sure I want ours on the map.  Some people

Okay so we were out hauling in the last of the hay and I thought I would ask everyone here if they know what this is.  It is some kind of marker that is on our property that is dated 1933 I couldn't really get a good picture of it on my phone but Mom says tomorrow she will take the camera.  I do have to say that we all know it is there we just don't know what it is or why it was put there.  Mom says she thinks it was some maker for sea level but we don't know any more then that.  (it says the words sea level on it ... No Mom i

    So let me just start by saying at High Noon today, thanks to Random.org, Ms. Karen won the candle.  Before Noon I was in the hay fields.  After noon I was still in the hay fields but with a full belly.  Being in the hay fields doesn't stop the fiber thoughts around here though.  Mom was on a two day sewing marathon to finish some notions bags that I wanted made for Kellyville.  They look great and Mom made one extra that I hadn't counted on.  It is her prototype she calls it and we might look into making them a bit more detailed. 
Since Mom was working so hard I let my mind do some work while I hauled in the hay.  I came up with what I think is a good Idea.  I want to do my first club.  I want to put together a western or leather, knitting and Crochet accessories with Lace weight all natural yarns.  Then every other month those that joined would get a natural, soft, different blend or different natural color yarn and a western/leather surprize.  There are three blends and so some months you might get a repeat blend but it would be in a different natural color.  And the surprizes would never be the same. 
    The problem is that when you put a new idea out on the social media to get feedback there is always someone who wants to make things dirty.  I want to call the club Leather and Lace.  I think it fits and I really like it.  To bad that people started right in about how I shouldn't  be allowed to do a club called that and then all the remarks started.  No one heard the idea just thought the name was something it wasn't.  Why does everything in the world seem to have to be something dirty?  
    I know people think that I just sit here and make stuff up and don't think about it.  First off, I did think about it and I did my research.  Do you know that I couldn't find not one western or leather fiber club online anywhere?  So I think that is a market I should look into.  At least it fits my personality.  So I wanted to see who I could market it to.  Did you know there are groups of Men on Ravelry?  I wonder if any of the 608 men that crochet in the crochet group might be interested.  Or what about The Oklahoma men's Group.  They might like western themes.  Or what about the 832 members of Smack?  And did I mention that there is even a group called Dudelace?  I do think there is a market for this club.  So why can't it be called leather and lace?  And why does everything have to be dirty?  What ever happened to good clean fun?
    Okay, I am done whining now ... I will figure it out and it will be awsome.  On the upside tonight I went and got my 4 roping steers.  Okay, only one is a steer and the other three are heifers but they are for steer roping so I am calling them all steers.  And Just an FYI tonight by the light of the moon, and his headlights, the neighbor will finish the rest of our hay.  Then all we have to do is haul in the last of the squares and move the rounds down to the house and haying season will be officially over ... YES!!!!!

    So today was suppose to be an awsome day.  I was going to rope at Cavalcade and do great.  Then I was suppose to come home and post a great blog post that included two things I had planned.  Well,  That isn't how the day went at all.  
    First, I messed up my run at Cavalcade.  I was angry and mad and upset too.  Things just didn't go well.  Not only that but before I ran I went to the bathroom and left Mom along with Many other people to witness a horse break it's leg while stopping after a high speed run.  It was awful.  That horse gave it's all and for what?  This is one of the reasons Mom doesn't like to go to the rodeos with me and Dad.  I don't know if anyone notices but she only goes when it is a rodeo of importance.  Finals, Districts, State, Regionals, Cavalcade... You get the picture.  It seems to upset Mom more because being in her line of work she knows the out come before most just because she has to think on  her toes and sees injured animals more in her life.  Anyway, I ran my calf only three runs after that and pretty much all of us were over doing it on not pushing our horses after what had just happened and all of us pretty much blew our runs.  By this point in the day I was upset, hot, mad at myself and ready to throw in the towel on the day but I couldn't.  There was more that had happened before all this that I had to deal with when I got home.  
    You see, we had a big surprize that was coming today.  And if all went well I would have just come in the house and found it here and posted about it and it would have been so great.  Wellll, that didn't work that way either.  And it was partly my fault so by this point in the day I was feeling like I ruined everyones day all the way around.  At one point Mom got me to joking and she said not to worry I hadn't ruined the whole day there was a good 5 hours left yet to go ... That was before we walked in to the house when we got home. I guess I better back up and fill everyone in.  
    You see while I was at Cavalcade messing up my run Ms. Karen was picking up something very special ... Take a look at this....

    I was suppose to tell you that I am please to introduce Elliot.  He is the new Shetland Ram.   Well, I am please to introduce him just not at all pleased with the whole story of him getting here.  First I was suppose to put up my Dog, Buddy, because he is a biter.  Well, I forgot and he decided he didn't want anyone in the house. Ram or no Ram.  Then he decided he didn't want the ram in the inside pen because it was too loud.  All in all a burrito lured Buddy into my room so Ms. Karen could put up the doggie gate and keep him under wraps.  To bad at this point Elliot didn't like the pen himself and tried ramming it a bit.  Ms. Karen swears all was calm when she left.... I have never had a reason not to trust Ms. Karen but somehow today I Just don't know ... (that is a joke ... I still trust her)  
    So to recap -  while I was messing up my run at Cavalcade,  Ms. Karen was having fits at the farm with the dog and the Ram, in part to my doings.  The worst is yet to come.... I know most of  you think Mom is pretty cool and easy going ...
    Okay, Well today Mom was at her best.  NOT ... When we got home she had to go to the bathroom so I unloaded my horse and she headed to the house.  Next thing I hear is A yell and Dad saying "Son Get to your Mom".  I get to the door to see Mom doing her Pee Pee dance while face to face with Elliot that is loose in the her house.... Okay I know ya'll are laughing and that is fine but trust me when I day She was not ... There was trash all over the front room, piles of Poop and pee in both the kitchen and the front room and one very upset Ram at a stand off with Mom doing her Pee pee dance while holding a can of pepsi with her teeth so she could block the door and he couldn't escape. 
    I managed to catch him as Mom blocked the front door and then she went to the restroom.  She just came out shaking her head and asked where is he??? We then tried to put him in the Shetland pen.  He is only 6 months old and shouldn't be ready to breed....  In sheep talk that doesn't mean he won't try ... Trust me on this.  After he ran poor Momma Shetland half to death we put him in the man pen.... Check him out,  he is huge for his age... or at least we think so...

   Remember Chief is a whole year older then him and a Southdown Babydoll but still Shetlands are suppose to be a smaller breed of sheep.  
    With all that said and our plans laid so well, Mom had cooked up a small give away in anticipation of all the great that would be wrapped up into one day.  It is something that represents Oklahoma, Home to the world's largest Ameteur Rodeo with a sent of the west... Rawhide... Made right here in Oklahoma by the Keepsake Candle Company. 

    So now instead of just leaving a comment to be in the drawing, you have to tell us of a time your best laid plan went a-rye ... In true Western tradition the Drawing will be held Tuesday at high Noon.   Lol

So today I went to the sale barn and worked with Dad.  When we got home we worked on the pen that Petunia half ate.  We think we now know what was causing her fleece to fall out.  She ate the drywall in her pen.  It wasn't funny and it was very scary.  Now she is outside and Mom wants her pen fixed.  Dad and I worked hard on it and it is about half done.  The new walls are up we just have to chalk everything and put up the new trim after it is painted.... Tomorrow there are Three things going on that make it a big day.  Cavalcade for one and the other two you will find out soon enough ... Just make sure to come back tomorrow and you will love it ...

    Okay, so Let me start by saying I went to Cavalcade today and with my first run I did well enough to get to go back for a short go on Sunday.  Cavalcade is the World's largest amateur rodeo and it takes place right here in Oklahoma about an hour from our home.  Even though I have roped many, many times, today, for some reason I was really nervous.  I was up against kids I didn't know and that didn't know me ... The announcer knew these kids and their families and he really made them sound hardcore cowboy.  I guess it was just because it wasn't the normal bunch I am used to but for some reason as I loaded into the box I thought I was going to pass out.  It showed on my face too... 

But when I gave that nod and the chutes opened and that calf left ... I did get the job done and I get another run on Sunday and this time I won't be so nervous.

    Now on to bigger and better things.  As promised I am going to explain a little bit about the way we do our pasture practices and why.  First, Yes we rotate our pastures and yes those same pastures are the ones that produce our hay.  You see if we were a big farm we would have one pasture for the small livestock and one for the large livestock and we would rotate the pastures with the large and small livestock.  We then would have yet another pasture or more for the hay crop.  The thing is that we are not a big farm.  We operate on just over 40 acres.  Not all of that is fenced suitable for the small livestock and the pond isn't the safest place to allow things like sheep and goats to play.
    So, how do we do it??  Well, we have our new pasture and the back pasture.  The cattle are out on the back pasture with the pond for water.  The small livestock is in the new pasture around the house.  When fall comes and the weather changes we will worm the small livestock and then rotate them.  The sheep and alpaca will got in the East pen.  The goats will go into the shetland pen and the cattle will come to the front pasture and the back part will get a break.  Then in the spring we will worm everything again and the cattle will go back to the back pasture and the small livestock will once again come out onto the front  pasture. At that point the men will all got to the man pen.  In the fall and winter we have no man pen because we have the men in with the girls.  So the man pen is at rest.  The only pasture that doesn't go empty at least one season is the new front pasture but we don't let the animals eat it all the way down either.  
    Since we aren't a large farm we limit the number of animals we will have in our herd/flock.  We keep the numbers down so that there is more grass then needed to feed the animals all summer.  That way since the livestock doesn't eat all the grass we have plenty to hay.  That, with the Right-of-way we own, we have more then enough hay to get us through the winter and some extra to sell.  
    With all that in mind,  Yes we do use older equipment to hay.  And yes, we have looked at getting newer fancier equipment in the past.  The problem is that the equipment costs tens of thousands of dollars and for the amount of hay we do it just isn't worthwhile.  Another issue with new equipment is that if we get new equipment we have to purchase a new tractor to handle the bigger, fancier equipment.  And all that new equipment can cost a pretty penny. 
    Yes, there are other options that we have tried.  We once contracted our hay pasture out to be hayed.  I am sure you guessed that since we don't do that anymore that means it didn't go very well.  As it turned out, the man cut the grass down smooth to the dirt leaving nothing for our cattle to graze through the winter.  Then when it was dry our pasture was just a dustbowl.  With so much dust, it lead to pink eye in the cattle and caused respitory health issues in the babies.  
    Well, we desided from there on out that we would take care of our own pastures and from that day forward we always have.  With a few minor changes.  #1 we don't use a disc mower.  We use a 9ft sickle.  Because the sickle is from an older time it isn't as efficient as the newer disc mowers of today.  In this case we think it is a good thing.  Here is why. 

   

    If you look at the picture of the front pasture close enough you can see the lines left by the sickle and you can see that it leaves one side a bit longer then the other. This is actually left because the sickle is old and it bounces a bit as it vibrates and mows the grass. On the other hand that is what we leave for the livestock to graze for the winter. When we get some rain it will start growing again and then shoot up stocks with seeds to seed new grass for the following year. We think this practice works better for us then any other. 
    By doing this and keeping the number of animals we can have at a constant rate we are able to support our herd/flock year round on our own grass in the form of grazing pasture or hay. Speaking of hay ... We use both Round and small square bales on our farm. The back cattle pasture will be cut and raked by us but a friend will come roll it up in to big round bales for us and we supply him with the small square bales he needs for the winter. The other part of the pasture and the right-of-way will be put up in small square bales. We put up enough for us and then sell the rest to a couple of buyers that we have. We then feed round bales to the sheep and alpaca pen and the cattle. The Goats and horses are fed small squares bales. Yes, it is the same hay. So why do we feed square bales to some things and round to others? 
    To be honest there is no magic formula. We feed large round bales when there is enough room in a pen to allow it to be brought in with the tractor. The front pasture is large enough easy and the sheep/alpaca pen is fine too. But it wouldn't be such an easy thing to get big round bales through a few of the gates we have like the Goat pen and the horse pens. And in those pens the big round bales would take up so much space and the animals wouldn't have anywhere to move around to. So Square bales it is.... Same great taste just a different shape and size. 
    I hope I didn't leave any questions unanswered ... If I did drop me a line and I will be happy to answer it... And make sure to read the blog on Sunday ... We have a little surprise coming up.  Okay, two surprises actually and yes both on Sunday ...