Christmas Surprise!

On By stefrobrtsIn farm2 Comments

I couldn’t post about this earlier, because I didn’t want to risk spoiling the surprise. Scoops and Patrone are gone. They have moved just up the road to live with the boys who used them for 4H last year. The boys were so good with them, and enjoyed them so much their parents decided to surprise them by building an area for them at their house, and with the effort they put into that Martha and I were happy to give them Patrone and Scoops. It was an easy decision for me – I haven’t had the time to work with Patrone that I wanted to have, and I know the boys will, especially with them being at home instead of having to beg their mom to bring them to our house to work with the llamas. So I know they have not gone far, and I will be seeing them again soon. I was happy just to be part of such a wonderful surprise for the boys. I know what it would have meant to me if my parents had done something like that when I was a horse crazy kid.

For us this means I only have Houdini left, and he is back with the sheep and goats in the backyard, so we only have one paddock of animals to care for. I think that’s just enough work for now!

Just for Annaliese!

On By stefrobrtsIn farm2 Comments

I know Annaliese particularly enjoys the pictures of her little buddies, so here you go, enjoy!





And remember, these guys have a nice dry shelter, there’s no reason to be standing outside covered in snow and looking pitiful. Except for the fact that sheep apparently aren’t too bright 🙂 You’ll notice the goats stay under cover more so they are not frosted with snow, so I’m going to label them as slightly smarter!

Super 8!

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Who remembers Super 8 movies? Dave played with them a lot as a kid, and my Grandpa had a regular 8mm movie camera. So what better to do on a snowy evening than pull out the projector and go through the films.



Luckily Dave’s a whiz with these things, because five minutes into the first film there was a snap and the projector started making a funny noise. Turned out the drivebelt had been replaced by a rubber band years ago and it had broken again.

A little projector surgery later and Dave had replaced it with a new rubber band and got the whole thing going again. Next post I’ll have to show off some shots of what we saw!

Snowdays!

On By stefrobrtsIn alki, barclay, farm, pets, snow4 Comments

We got an early blast of winter weather. Snow at Christmas is just about unheard of around here! But lucky us, it started snowing a couple days ago. First day we got around fine in the Stealth, because it has front wheel drive. The van is useless in the snow, and it was a bit hairy getting it home the first day. It was snowing hard and I closed the shop early and slowly drove home in the van, and it hasn’t moved since.

The next day we headed out in the Stealth to go to work, and hit a slick spot and put it in the ditch! Luckily it was a shallow ditch, so the only damage was a few scratches from the bushes. Kyle came and pulled us out with his monster truck. Our hero! Once we got safely into town Dave bought cable chains for the car and then he was able to safely drive between town and home.

Yesterday (Saturday) Dave had a matinee play, so he dropped me and Barclay off at work in the morning, and I was there all day, watching the snow come down down down. Only a couple customers came by all day because of the snow, so it was just me and Barclay entertaining ourselves for hours on end! He didn’t make it back to pick me up until after 7, so it was heading for 8 when we got home.

Since Saturday was so bad we decided to close today (Sunday) and just stay home and enjoy the snow. And it snowed all evening and this is what we woke up to.


8 inches of snow with a nice icy crust on top! That’s a LOT of snow for the pacific NW. I can hear it occasionally falling off the trees with a crash!

Alki didn’t like it at all! She just wanted to get back inside! Barclay liked it so much he went way out in the pasture and just sat and watched and listened.

The sheep didn’t seem to mind. Some had snow on their backs, even though there’s a cozy covered stall for them to use. The chickens didn’t want to come out of the coop, so I fed them in there and moved their water nice and close. The llamas also do not seem to care about the weather, though they are staying under the shelter for the most part.

I don’t think there is anything quite as beautiful as fir trees weighted down with snow. Days like this make me feel so lucky to be able to live out here in the country!

The Superplexus

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized3 Comments

I love physical puzzle toys, you know, those interlocking horseshoes or little wood puzzle boxes. I also love labyrinths, the little ‘ball on a tilting maze’ toys. So when I saw this, I decided I had to have it. I hope it’s as cool as it looks. It’s a 3D labyrinth inside a hamster ball – basically. You try to get the enclosed ball bearing through the plastic maze. It sounds like a great time waster 🙂 Cool story behind the inventor’s struggle to bring it to market too. Available at ThinkGeek, but since I saw it mentioned on Boing Boing I doubt they’ll last long! Supposedly mine is in the mail, I can’t wait!