How come, what you think you will do, it isn't what gets done?

Today is Labor Day 2010. How can it be that we have flown thru so much of this year already? Today, I had plans to work on those graphic jobs for my Imprint Design business, shear the billy goats and fix some goat houses - and maybe get to the coast to see my Mom. But what I am doing is sitting outside with my laptop under a nice group of valley oak trees in my yard, guarding the baby chicks and their mom while Jim races to the lumber store to get a smaller gage chicken wire to lace their pen with to keep them inside until they get bigger. The last two weeks all has been fine with these chicks having the run of the farm. But the last three days, we have lost one chick a day for three days in a row, down to 13 chicks. And no one is telling who did it. I am thinking it is ravens, yet could it be a tree squirrel? Well - I am watching and will continue watching as I write this blog. 

Tex, my Angora buck before shearing  fall of 2007

I did get the 6 Pygora bucks moved from their field into the smaller working pens and have used a pour-on to de-lice them. I really didn't look to see if they had any lice, thought I would just hit them up and then give them a good 48 hours for the lice to leave before shearing. However, I think I used the stuff I didn't like last year. I have noticed that there is two different types of pour on. One that will make the lice leave and one that kills the lice and leaves die bodies that then get into the fleece and stay all the way thought the mill process of washing, carding and spinning. So, I will have to deal with that if that is the case. I plan on getting a move on shearing this week. 

2007 at Santa Margarita Lake 

Riding my horses, hasn't worked so far, but yesterday I helped with the lunches at a dressage horse show. I don't think I have ever been to a dressage horse show other then seeing it on tv and my friend Ann needed help so off I went. The advanced freeform with music class was good, but the collection of that big beautiful bay horse was not to my idea of a happy horse. But later I saw a darling Half-linger that did a great job with its pattern and wasn't over collected to my taste, and I thought - hey - maybe Spice and I could do that some day! It all starts with getting my foot into the saddle and making the time - Right? 


I did list a couple roving products on my Etsy store. And one mohair roving sold, Yea!  Still need to list a lot more, but got a start on it. Link to my Etsy Store, click here. And I did sell a natural colored Pygora knitting shawl this week to a friend - thank you my Cheri! - all goes to feeding those goats.


So I need to get about 5 more beads from the bead store in Pismo  - Beads Beads Beads is its name, love that store, so I can finish another shawl. In the mean time, I should get working on those hobby horses, but I just don't want to. What I want is to find a knitting pattern that will be good for the mohair cranberry yarn that I have spun up and dyed from Tex- my angora buck. So far, I have swatched 4 different patterns and I don't like them - so I feel I am wasting time looking. But this is another - what I want to do, and not what I need to do. But this cranberry yarn is sooo pretty. 


Gosh I am getting hungry - this chick guard job is getting tough, hope the husband gets here soon, so he can take his turn guarding, wonder if I can get the chicks into the house so I can fix lunch. Until next week... don't count your chick sales until they leave the farm and money is in your hand :-)


Updated - 4pm today - we have the chicks and the hen locked in their now very secure pen and are they mad! Chirp chirp chirping away. Now two ravens are high in the oak tree above them, I really think it was them that like chicks for dinner each day. So far we still have 13(now) mad chicks locked up - hope we can practice "tough love" and keep them in until they are bigger or have a chick sitter while they are out. Now, back to that list of stuff I wanted to do today.