The Snow is Gone, But....

Yes, the snow is gone, but I just had to show you the pic of Molly playing out in the snow a couple of weeks ago.    She loved it!   She kept running back and forth on her leash and running circles in the freshly fallen snow.

There's just one problem.   She has hair, not fur and when she is out in the snow, it tends to stick to her belly and legs and any other area that touches the snow.   When she comes inside there are little snowballs meshed into the hair on her belly and legs.   Sometimes the only way we can get rid of them is to rinse her in a warm bath!   Or use a hairdryer to try and melt them.   Um, yea....that's loads of fun!

 This particular day we tried using a large towel to dry her off and that worked fairly well as she wasn't covered in large snowballs this one time.   She is so patient and simply stands there and let's us do anything we need to do to get her dried off once again.   I guess she knows we're trying to help her stop shivering.  

 Because there isn't any fresh grass during the winter, I try to get some greens out to our chickens everyday.    You know, things like leftover lettuce, wilted veggies, the ends of carrots and celery that you cut off when making a salad.  It's amazing how much we normally throw away when preparing meals that can go to the chickens.   They even like eggs shells!

The rooster on the left of this pic is Joel's prized rooster, King George.   I know, I know, but Joel is the one that takes care of the chickens and he has named a few of them.    His other prized rooster, Prince Edward, was taken by a fox several months ago.   That made Joel really sad as these two roosters are part of our original flock of chickens and he has gotten pretty attached to them.  

Well, when we got home at dusk this past Saturday night after a day in town, Joel went down to make sure the chickens were all in their coop and as he was preparing to close their door he made a horrible discovery.   King George was stuck in the poultry net that surrounds their pasture.   And the net is electrified.    And the poor rooster was convulsing with each pulse of electricity.   I won't go into any more detail, but suffice it to say that Joel was horrified.   He quickly turned off the fence and rushed to release the animal.  

That is when he discovered that there must have been a terrific cock fight between the 2 young roosters and King George.  And King George lost.    Joel had to get his gun and put King George out of his misery.   And the following day the two remaining roosters were fighting again, so, now one of them has also gone to chicken heaven.   Lesson learned, there can only be one "top dog" in the chicken coop.

Yes, sometimes the lessons we are learning are hard ones, but we won't soon forget how things work in the animal hierarchy on the farm.

Live and learn,
Debbie

Animal Antics

 Look who was showing off when I walked out to the barn......Miss Chloe.   These cats have shocked Joel and I with their acrobatic stunts.   We have found them way up in the rafters of the barn.....walking around like it's an everyday occurrence.   Ok, so, it is an everyday occurrence for them.   But it's still surprising to look up and see a cat sitting oh-so-comfortably in the corner of a 25' high rafter.

Yup, she just claws her way up the thick support posts....and in a flash, she is high upon a rafter under the roof overhang.

She seems to be saying,"What are you looking at?".

We have had a very wet winter this year as promised by all the weathermen who predicted an El Nino year.   I was so grateful for a sunny day a few days ago and apparently, so were the boy alpacas because I went out to check on them and they were all in the pasture up near my studio.    I had put out rows of hay for them and they were so happy to have their favorite hay to munch on while basking in the warmth of a winter sun.

Apollo, the light tan alpaca, and his buddy, Alphonso, the fawn colored boy, hung out together near Joel's bee hives.    They kept looking off into our woods, I'm not sure what they saw back there.

Here's Diablo.  He's one of two of my favorite boys.   I can always tell him by the little dot of brown fleece on his left hindquarter.   He has the thickest coat of fleece and is always the first one to greet me every morning when it's time to get fed.

 He was enjoying this row of hay so much that in between munching on it, he laid down right on top of it!    And then he sighed as if to say, "How wonderful!".   He just cracks me up.  

And that, folks, is the round up of animal antics for today.    Who needs any more entertainment than that?
Debbie

Sandhill Cranes

I recently overheard someone talking about how our area is part of the flyway for Sandhill Cranes.   And then, 2 days ago while Joel and I were out in the barn, I heard several large flocks of birds coming toward our farm from the South.   Luckily, I already had my camera with me and this is what I captured in my lens.

Pretty cool, huh?    There were at least 6 flocks of birds that flew right over our heads that morning.   Joel kept telling me they were Canadian geese, but the "honking" didn't sound quite right to me.   So, I ran inside the house and grabbed the binoculars and when he looked up at the sky he was shocked to see that they were not geese after all, but were actually Sandhill Cranes.  

Their wingspan is enormous.    And they were right over our heads, flying nice and low so I could get a good look at them!  How pretty.

And then, just like that, they were all gone.....heading north to another destination.   Meanwhile, Joel and I got back to work in the barn.

 Look at these two cuties......taking a little siesta in the alpaca hay bin.    We often find the cats in the hay bins, sometimes 3 of them are snuggled together and taking a nap.   The alpaca don't seem to care.    They just eat around them.    And the cats show no fear of the alpaca, often running in between their legs to get to the other side of the barn.

  This gal was having a bad hair day......but I don't think she cared one little bit that she had hay stuck in her hair over her eyes.    She was more interested in my camera than anything else.

All the other girls stayed a safe distance away from the camera......I guess they had forgotten to put on their makeup and were a bit camera shy.  But they sure did keep a watchful eye on me.   They may be aloof, but they are curious creatures and like to know exactly what you're doing.

I've been doing some reading on pasture management lately, and one family farm explained that they put out hay on the ground for their animals to eat.    It enticed the animals to leave the barn, poop out in the pasture, which re-deposits seed heads from the hay.    That, in turn, helps to reseed the pasture. Hmmmm, well, I figured it was worth a try.    So, I spread out a couple rows of hay in both the boys and the girls pasture.

Just for fun, I picked up a clump of hay to hand feed to the girls.   It's one way to get them to come closer to me and shows them they can trust me.    Building a relationship with these animals takes time and a lot of patience.  

But I do love them so!   Who could resist such fluffiness?    I can hardly wait to have them all sheared in a couple of months so I get to play with their fleece on my spinning wheel.

I know you wanna feed them, too?    Don't ya?   Come one, I can see it in your eyes.    Well, if you come to visit our farm we'll give you a pair of boots for your feet and you can step into the pasture with them and feed them, too.

Having.   Too.   Much.   Fun.

Happy Farm Chick,
Debbie

Daily Chores

Sometimes I sit and marvel at how much our lives have changed since moving to Tennessee two years ago.   When we lived in Florida, my daily routine usually entailed some housework, laundry and maybe a little gardening.  Of course, I always made time for sewing.

But now that we live on a farm, those daily chores have altered quite a bit.    For instance, as soon as I wake up, I need to don "work clothes" so I can go out and take care of the cats and alpaca.   They're pretty hungry in the morning and are always watching and waiting for me to walk out of the house.   As soon as they spot me coming toward the barn, the whole gang of girl alpacas stroll outside of their stall to make sure I'm coming to feed them before the boys.

Every morning, the alpaca get some specialized pellet feed, which they greedily gobble up as fast I can put it into their feeders.    Then I need to heft half a bale of hay onto my shoulder and divide the hay up into their two hay bins. As soon as they realize all the grain feed is gone, they mosey over to the hay bins and start happily munching on the fresh hay.  

They're all saying, "Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum!"   I wish you could listen to their little sounds.....sometimes humming, sometimes arguing with their neighbor over the best bite of hay.  Once I'm done feeding the girls, I go over and do the same routine with the boys.   I have 2 boys that almost tackle me when I walk into their stall with the bucket of pellets.    It makes me laugh as they jostle each other, vying to be the first one to get their share of the pellets.

Joel makes sure there are at least 4 bales of hay stacked inside the barn next to the alpaca stalls so I have easy access to the hay twice a day.   Yup, they get fed early in the morning, and then in late afternoon I top off their hay ration so they don't run out until I get up and do the whole routine all over again in the morning.   After a bit of trial and error I finally figured out the easiest way for me to cut thru the 2 cords holding each bale tightly together was to use my tree loppers.   Those suckers do the job nicely.

We have the hay stored in the low shed portion of the barn where the double doors are.   At least this keeps the hay dry and makes it easy to pull the Polaris up inside the barn and load the hay bales into the back of the Polaris.   Sure beats carrying the hay all the way around the barn in our arms.

Our alpaca eat Bermuda hay and we drive an hour away to a huge farm to pick it up.   I wish we could get it locally, but it doesn't grow up here on the Plateau, so, we drive down into the valley where it's warmer and buy it from a reputable farmer that doesn't use pesticides, etc. on his fields.   Who knew there was so much to learn about H. A. Y. !

The hay needs to be stacked on wood pallets for air circulation under the bales.    See what I mean?    Who knew???   We definitely need to make a hay run soon as this stack will only last us just over another month.   As soon as our pastures produce fresh grass, we can cut way back on the hay consumption since the alpaca will get most of their feed from the pasture grasses we grow here.

 It warmed up today and the temps were in the high 30's.    We sure have had a wet, rainy, foggy winter this year.    Our farm is still like a sponge when you walk around.    Hence, the boots on Joel!   There are actually places on the farm where you sink into the ground because the land is so saturated with water.   I hope all this rain helps our orchard......the trees certainly won't be dry this Spring.

Our barn cats weave their way around my legs, willing me to feed them first.   And I do.   Feed them first.   Because they are so cute.    And because they will trip me if I don't feed them first.  But did I mention how cute they are?   Yea.   Well, here is fluffy Chloe, looking off toward the bluff, wondering where have her siblings disappeared to?

OH.   There's Domino in her favorite corner just outside the pasture.   She is our adventurous cat and spends her days wandering the huge boulders of the bluff.   I have no idea what she does down there all day, but it is her domain now.

"Hey, Domino!   Wait for me!   I'm coming......."  Chloe loves to play with her siblings.

Doesn't it look as though Belle Meade is saying, "This stuff is really delicious, isn't it Mimosa?"   (Mimosa is the fawn colored alpaca.....who doesn't care who is chatting with her, she just wants her pellets!)

And that, folks, is a quick glimpse at some of my farm chores.   Oh, yeah, I still need to do the house cleaning and laundry, too.   Darn.   Guess I'll never get out of doing those chores.   It's hard for me to believe how much I enjoy being around these animals since I didn't grow up with any pets of my own.   Now I can't imagine our life without the alpaca, the cats, the chickens and yes, our dogs, too.

Yup, I don't mind my new chores one little bit,
Debbie

The Last (I hope) Slipcover

Yes, I hope this is the last slipcover I make for the foreseeable future.    A few days ago, I switched around a couple pieces of furniture in the farm house and put this green rocking chair out in the studio.   The white chair that had been in the studio is now in the living room where I sit to stitch at night while Joel and I watch tv together.    All in all, the switch of chairs was a win-win and they both "fit" better now.    This swivel rocker is very comfortable, but the dark green fabric hails back to our days at our much more formal Hunt Club house.   Ummmm,  not gonna work in my cheerful studio.   Yup, time for a change!

 Once again, I pulled fabrics from my stash and began tearing into yet another slipcover project.    Here you're looking at the right arm fitted and sewn.   Whew!    The pink fabric is oh-so-soft Minky and the front panel of the arm is left over fabric with, you guessed it......blue birds on it!

 Making progress.......the two seat cushions are done.   The lime green fabric was a throw that I had draped over a chair in its former life.   Now, the soft fabric is very cozy to sit on.

 Yup.    The second day of sewing yielded great progress.    The cream fabric is actually a vintage chenille bedspread I found at a thrift shop a couple of years ago.   I am always keeping my eye out for these babies because they make up great pillows and add a funky vibe to clothing as pockets and cuffs on jackets.  

 Just add the seat cushion......

 .....and the back cushion.......

 ......and my fun pillow that I made at my shop in Florida and it's done!

 I think this slipcover is now my favorite of the 4 that I stitched up this month!    And the easiest part of sewing this one was taking the original ruffled bedskirt already attached to the bedspread and repurposing it as the skirt of the slipcover.   Ta-da!  

That chenille bedspread yielded a whole lot of usable fabric.   What a find for $4.00.....wouldn't you say?

Here's a close up of the hot pink piping  and the bluebird fabric panels.    I love mixing all those fabrics and patterns together!  And this is the softest, snuggliest( I made that word up) chair in the house now.

Molly especially seems to enjoy the soft, cozy feel of the fabrics.   She hopped up here on the rocker when the job was complete and actually sighed as she settled in for a nap.    What a funny dog!  She knows her fabrics!

So just when I thought I was done adjusting the studio while Barb was here......I went ahead and added another tweak to the whole design.    Happy colors, happy fabrics, happy quilter.
Deb

From Hideous to Fabulous

This........

.......is Joel's hideous office chair.    The faux "leather" upholstery is actually a sad imitation of the real deal.    Yup, it's vinyl.   Ugh!    I don't especially like fabrics that try to replicate the real fabric because they seldom live up to my expectations.    And this chair covering is no exception.   The rest of the chair is exceptionally sturdy and Joel swears it's really comfortable....except for the cracked and peeling vinyl seat.   What's a girl to do?   Seamstress Debbie to the rescue!

I dug thru my stash of home dec fabrics and found enough pieces from previous projects to make a slip cover that would hold up to heavy use, look masculine and be comfortable.   Ta-da!  This is how it turned out.

 Not too bad, even if I do say so myself.   I deplore making slip covers.   Really.   Don't.   Like.   Sewing.   Them.    But they work so well.   And, in this case, it cost me nothing but my time to make this one.   Sure beats buying a new office chair for hundreds of dollars, right?

 The part of the slipcover I had the most fun making were these arm chair covers.   I decided to  put "patches" on the top.....reminiscent of elbow patches on an old favorite sweater.   The mattress ticking stripe fabric helped to keep the cover less formal.....more in keeping with the farm house.

 Figuring out how to make the fabric go over all the curves was the hardest part of the whole project.    But with a few pleats here and some creative adjusting there, I think it all worked out ok.  

And in order to be able to pull the whole thing over the chair, I had to allow some extra fabric in the form of a pleat in the back.    Yup, that worked just fine.   And it added a bit of dressmaker detailing that I love.    And the three antique buttons I found in my stash worked perfectly as closures for the pleat.

All in all, not a bad project.    Now that I'm on a roll with this whole slipcover thing......I am tackling another one that I'll show you in a few days.

Off to the sewing room,
Debbie

The Hush

It's snowing today.   I love when it snows here on the farm.   When I was a child, all of us kids would look forward to getting a "snow day" off from school.   Of course, I didn't have to shovel the sidewalks or trudge to work in the white stuff like the adults, so snow was totally a fun event for me.   All I could think about was taking my sled down to Bungalow Hill, a favorite spot for sledding in our little town, and riding at break neck speed to the bottom......trying my best to avoid the barbed wire fence of the cow pasture down near the end of the ride.

Now, after 34 years of living in sunny Florida, I have a renewed appreciation for the white, fluffy stuff.   Here in Tennessee we don't usually get tremendous amounts of snow.    The locals tell me that 3-4 snow events in one winter is more the norm.....with just a few inches of snow accumulating each storm.   I'm so grateful to have 4 different seasons in my life once again instead of 50 weeks of summer with 2 weeks of "cooler" weather in January thrown in like we had in Florida.   That just wasn't very seasonal if you ask me.

Well, it's been snowing here since yesterday.   Itty bitty tiny snowflakes.....barely amounting to 2" or so.   But what speaks to my heart the most when it snows is the hush.   Yes, the hush of snow quietly falling down, covering the grass and tree limbs.   I find myself searching the familiar landscape of our farm, checking to see what each building, each bush, each structure looks like with its features softened by the layer of snow.

When I walked outside early this morning, the only discernible sound was that of the birds twittering as they swooped back and forth from the high tree limbs down to our overflowing bird feeders.   Otherwise, there was a reverent sort of quiet that touched my heart.   I wish I was a poet so I could be more eloquent about  how moved I become when walking our land, making bootprints in the freshly fallen snow.  And I wish you were with me so I could share how special something as simple as a little snow in the quiet of the country can feel.

 The alpaca and cats down in the barn were most certainly happy to get fed this morning as they all stayed inside the barn where it was warmer.   I sat on a hay bale and listened to the alpaca quietly munching their ration of hay and watched the cats play with one another.  Yes, a snow day is still a special day.....even if I won't be fearlessly flying down Bungalow Hill.

I hope your day brings you happiness like mine has to me.   Happy Snow Day!
Debbie