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As is our holiday tradition, the sheep enjoyed the Christmas tree as a snack this afternoon

The chickens received cabbages as gifts, but Esther decided she wanted to sample those as well 🙂

That was about the extent of the excitement here. We’re just keepin’ it real low key and holding out for 2021.

In knitting news, I’ve hit upon a new colorwork motif that I really enjoy working and so have been making up some hats in different color combos just for fun. Hats seem to be my comfort zone right now, so I’m just giving in to it.

Stay safe out there- and I’ll see y’all in in the new year!

And Go Hawks! 🙂

In reverse order-

Last week we lost one of our older chicken ladies, a Partridge Rock.

While she never had a proper name, she was a solid citizen, who had earned her retirement here through her early years of steady egg production.

Sadly, she developed some sort of ailment that I wasn’t able to nurse her through, and passed away last weekend. She was the last of the Partridge/Barred Rock cohort that we raised up in the spring of 2015. Here was their chick nursery class photo-

With this loss of one of the older crowd, it seemed an opportune time to inject a little more youth into the chicken flock. So yesterday I arranged to take delivery of three sweet little Amberlink pullets (3 months old).

I didn’t get them home until after dark last night, and the weather was awful, so they spent their first night here in a comfy dog crate.

This morning they got to meet the gang out in the shed-

It’s always a bit stressful for newcomers, but the girls seem to be learning pretty quickly and sticking together- and I’ll be keeping a pretty close eye on them for the next few days. Welcome chicken babies!

Was off this week on a bit of a pre-Christmas break- and while I didn’t get a lot of wool work done, I did make some progress on my lockerhooking sample-

the plan is to fill in the rest of the open areas with white roving loops. I think that it will make a nice cushion for my home-office chair with a fabric back and fleece stuffing.

Spent a fair bit of time baking Christmas cookies for sending as gifts (and some for local consumption, of course 🙂 )

Also still making incremental progress on the hoophouse- the south end framing is coming along-

And that was enough for one week.

Oh- and I also wanted to share a little wool-on-the-hoof excitement. This morning when I was out in the shed trimming hooves, I got a good look at Felix’s fleece.

It’s so fine and crimpy. And it looks nice all the way back to his rump. Amazing- we seem to have beaten the itchy/felty problem! And his hooves didn’t look too bad either. Good boy Felix!

Got a little sampler started this week-

I’m trying out a couple different textures- white is roving, black is a heavy worsted two-ply. The roving is a little trickier to handle, as it is kind of delicate, but I I like how thick and cushy it is.

And I have another knitting project in the queue that I’m pretty excited about- a new outfit for my good friend Dolores (remember Dolores?)

Well, she’s gone judicial!! In honor of the Notorious RBG-

The kit, complete with earrings and pocket Constitution arrived this past week. Can’t hardly wait to cast on 🙂

Have a good week everyone-