Scenes from the Open House

Sunday morning dawned foggy, damp and a little dreary, but it wasn’t long until the farm was filled with…
sheeps…

and peeps…

bake sale goodies…

happy painted faces…

wonderful 4-H’ers…

equally wonderful music…

solar dyeing…

very merry wagon riders….
spinning….
 
and many, many happy faces

(Many thanks, once again, to everyone that attended our open house! We are also very grateful to all the family and friends that pitched in helping out. Photos courtesy of Jonathan and Megan.)

Open House

Thank you all so much for all the good thoughts and well wishes that you sent our way!   They certainly must have worked because despite threatening clouds and rumbling thunder, only a few sprinkles dared to show up at our open house on Sunday.  We are experiencing some technical difficulties with photographs, but in the meantime we thought you would enjoy these videos of the Cranesville Country Mule Team Wagon Rides.  They were a huge hit.  Thanks, Laura and Rob!!  Many, many thanks to the mules, Buster and Brown!  They worked very hard and were so patient.
(Please be patient with the audio.  We thought about adding music, but the running commentary from our great-neice/granddaughter was just too cute to remove.)

Catching Up

Last weekend we moved the rams into the barn for an evening then set about shearing them the following morning. Such nosey boys… Liam and Aragorn are right there watching as Poseidon gets his haircut. After the 24-hour ram cram we moved the boys into the goat pen as the goats are still in their winter paddock. This has worked out great as the grass was pretty high, so on top of having a great deal to eat, the tall grass has seemed to cut down on their ram hi-jinks following the shearing. So far, no bloody heads and not much neck wrestling.
We also moved the yearling group from paddock three of the barnyard into the paddock vacated by the rams.  We must remember this moving schedule for next spring (hence recording it here) because this was the easiest (on the shepherdess/s) succession of paddocks we have ever done.  The sun has been so hot, everyone has been enjoying the shade.

Happy Memorial Day

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
excerpted from
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.

We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders.

Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from hishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

Grave of Civil War Veteran, Daniel Wiles

Please thank the veterans in your life, today, for the sacrifices they have made.