Sheep are Jealous creatures!

Well I have discovered that sheep are jealous creatures!

Several times now I will be holding one of the geese and Bert (my white sheep) will come over and nudge me like "HEY, you are supposed to be petting me!" Or he will try and keep the geese from coming over to me.

He sees them headed my way and cuts them off! It is so funny!

I take everyone treats every day--bread or animal cookies. They all really enjoy that. :) And it helps keep them tame and easier to deal with all the way around.

No one wants to even try go get out of the field, cause they have too many good things to leave! :)

And for anyone thinking about geese, I would definitly recommend Toulouse geese! They are very very sweet natured and they are so cute! They do some of the funniest things, like how they take a bath, or how much they enjoy playing with a garden hose. :)

Psaltery

Michael made me a Psaltery a couple of years ago. In all this time we were not able to get it tuned, etc.

But when we went to Branson a couple of weeks ago, we went to the Cedar Creek Dulcimer shop and they helped us tune it, showed us what all we needed to do, how to rosin my bow,etc.

So now it is all ready to go and I am learning to play it. :)

So far I have only progressed as far as "Mary had a little lamb", but I have to start somewhere.

My goal is to be able to learn some 16th Century English songs as I am going to play it for Queen's Prize in January. That will be my entry.

I am not crazy about performing in front of a bunch of people, so we shall see how it goes.. Actually not crazy about it is an understatment. I am terrified!

But I really do enjoy the Psaltery and I have wanted one for years.

Ink

Well I have finally finally been sucessful in making ink! YAYYY.

Who would have thought that all it would take would be:

a pickle jar
Oak galls
rusty nails
water and
gum arabic

The only down side is this stuff really smells bad! Enough to make me nauseous! Sigh..

I have found a way around that though, I just take out like a Tablespoon at a time and it isn't too bad. :)

Now I just have to sit down and use it for my calligraphy project! :)

Geese and Sheep

I saw the most amazing sight yesterday!

I was sitting outside with the geese and sheep yesterday evening. Well Ernie, the black one, was laying on the ground just chilling out and all of a sudden one of the geese climbed up on his back and started grooming his head, horns, face, etc.

What was so amazing was that Ernie just sat there and let him! And when the goose would stop, Ernie would nudge him like "why are you stopping" and the goose would start again!

I wish I would have had my camera! It was just unreal! I never knew they would do that!

And then a bit later on three of the geese converged on Ernie and were all three grooming him!

If I ever get any pictures I will post them!

Rain Rain GO AWAY!

It has been pouring down rain here for the past two days! UGH!

Everything is flooded, the yard, the part of the sheep pen that is under the carport, parts of the field!

The geese don't mind it, but the poor sheep are running out of dry places to get. We have another shed out in the field and they are under it right now, but I don't think it is completely dry either.. sigh..

And from the forcast it is supposed to rain all day again. :(

Though I will admit it does match part of my mood--gloomy. Especially since losing Doc yesterday.

Doc's Gone

We woke up this morning to find Doc had died.

Michael had thought yesterday that he had a broken jaw, cause he couldn't open his mouth at all.

I am very sad as he was my "special" pet of my geese. He was my little Alpha goose. He is the one that would crawl in my lap, chew on my hair, and just sit with me.

I am really gonna miss him.

The rest of the geese are fine, they are enjoying all the rain we are having as it is providing them with puddles everywhere out in the field.

Problem with Goose

One of my geese is hurt or sick, we aren't sure which. And to make matters worse it is my Alpha, Doc!

He is acting weird, like his beak and face hurt. He is still eating and drinking but not sure what is wrong.

We have the geese separated from the sheep right now. The geese are all staying together and I was afraid the sheep would run over Doc, since he is not able to walk around right. It is like he has no balance.

We are making sure he has food and water near him and we are keeping an eye on him. There isn't much else we can do.. sigh..

I am very worried, but I am trying to be positive that he is gonna be okay.

My friend Cassandra said that if he had what some of her geese in the past had, he would already be dead. So she is pretty sure it is not that.

So that gives me more reason to hope. :) Michael thinks maybe Lady, the dog, bit him on the beak and that is why he doesn't want to open his mouth, etc.

I will post again when I know how he is.

Branson

We went to Branson for a few days to have some fun.

And mostly we did! :)

We got down there on Thursday and headed stratight to Cedar Creek Dulcimers down on 76! It is a GREAT place to go! They are very very helpful. I took my Psaltery, the one that Michael built me, so I could get help on getting it tuned, getting rosin, etc..

The lady we dealt with spent over an hour with us, tuning it for me, talking about all different things, getting it all set up! So now I can play my Psaltery! It is great! I can play Mary had a little lamb so far. :)

Then we ran around and went shopping had some lunch and then stopped at the Stone Cold Creamery for ice cream! Oh that was incredible! I had "Cake Batter Ice cream" with pecans mixed in! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! :)

We went to the Dixie Stampede Thurs night and we were NOT impressed! The food was so so, the show was so so..

Friday we did more shopping, looking around at things, etc.. They have a place down there where you can ride a Segway, but it costs $20 for 20 min and that was a bit too expensive for us..

Friday afternoon we went on the Showboat Branson Belle! That was incredible! The food was awesome, the show was wonderful! We had a really great time.

And then we came home Sat morning. We had a really good time and it was nice to get away for a few days.

Happenings

Well several things are going on right now.

Lillies is this next week, unfourtantely Michael and I are not able to go. But we are going to Branson for a few days, just to get away.

Just working on my calligraphy project right now. Trying to focus on it since A&S is a little over a month away. I am having some trouble with getting the sizing right though. The copy I have is 9 X 5, the original document is 27.5 X 14 and the paper I am writing it on is 11 X 17. So you do the math and tell me what my dimensions should be! SIGH..

My paper is not going well either. I really HATE writing papers.

All the animals are fine. :)

The next thing I have to start on is spinning up Bert and Ernie's fleeces. Then I have to figure out something to make with their wool.. I am having a hard time coming up with something though.. sigh.. Maybe my ground up project should just be their spun wool? hmmmmm

Brianna