Tag: Edgar

Frank and Felix Come Clean

denisemor 4 April 29, 2018

Thanks to the rain on Saturday morning I was able to get a hold of Frank and Felix and start to help them out of their messy, felted winter coats.

Frank was a tough job. Most of his neck and upper back was felted all the way down to the skin. I think that he feels a lot better now that he’s free of it, even though he wasn’t too pleased about me fussing over him for so long. I found it interesting though that his chest and sides were starting to shed on their own- I don’t remember him doing that before. At least it made that part of the job go much more smoothly.

Felix’s neck was pretty felted too, but was easier to get away from his skin, so it went a little faster.

Most of the fleece from both boys was not really worth saving, but I was able to salvage some nice chest wool (after trimming away about and inch and a half of felted tips off it all). It was all damp from the rain, so I washed it right away, and was pleasantly surprised at how white it came out (really should have taken a “before” photo)

Both of them have such beautiful wool. It’s a shame that so much of it ends up unusable. I think I’m going to try the fall shearing again this year and see if that helps.

In other wool news, I finally spun up a skein of my saved up Sadie undercoat blended with Edgar’s 2017 fleece.

Now I just have to find the right way to use it.

And I also wanted to share a photo of a little post-sweater project I worked up out of my first skein of Bambam Too 2017 (Schoonover Farm)

Between the rich brown color, soft hand & squooshy crimp I enjoyed every minute of this little cowl!

The Problem with February

denisemor 0 February 18, 2018

Is that you can have days like last Sunday

that really get your hopes up, and then out of nowhere, get hit with this

Ugh.

I knew winter wasn’t over, but I was kind of hoping we might just stick with our usual sogginess.
Somehow I can handle that better. Snow kind of gets me down.

So I’m distracting myself with a little sampling.
I decided the time was right to blend and spin up some Sadie fluff that I have been holding on to.
I only had a couple of partually filled ziplock sandwich bags, but a little dog hair goes a long way 🙂

I decided to make this a double tribute project, and selected some 2017 Edgar to blend with my Sadie fluff.

I’ve only spun up the two rolags so far, as a trial run to see how much twist/ply I’ll need.
My resulting sample is pretty fine, and very fuzzy. I about .1 oz, and 13 yds.

I think I’m going to work up a little swatch in a to-be-determined pattern. I might get as much as 280-300 yards of yarn out of the two batts I carded up, so it will be a small project. Maybe a lacy cowl. Something I can wear often, and feel next to my face.
I like the thought of Edgar and Sadie being close by. A couple of the sweetest four-legged friends a person could have.

I’m also making pretty good progress on my SuperGreen sweater.
With any luck I’ll have the raglan increases done and the sleeves separated from the body before I head back to work on Tuesday, as It’s getting a little crowded on my circular needle!

Close Call, Vet Call

denisemor 2 March 19, 2017March 19, 2017

Edgar’s had a tough few days.

Thursday evening after I got home from work a neighbor came by to tell me that she had seen Edgar on his back struggling and unable to right himself that afternoon. She and her son hopped our fence to help get him back on his feet, and he kind of staggered away.

When I checked on him that evening, he was kind of sluggish, with some swelling around his left eye. I gave him some GasX and baking soda and he seemed to perk up a bit. Also trimmed some wool off him in hopes that it would make it easier to get himself back up if he flipped over. But I had no idea how he ended up on his back in the first place.

I stayed home Friday to keep an eye on him.
He seemed ok but subdued when I checked on him in the early morning, and I kept a pretty close watch on him throughout the day.

Sometime in the early afternoon, I think he took another tumble, but was able to get himself back up.
When I got to him he was stumbling around in a circle, and he seemed kind of discombobulated and unsteady on his feet.

I started thinking that perhaps he’s eaten something toxic, so I did a sweep of the pasture to see if I could find anything suspect.
Found one outcropping of mushrooms on a rotting poplar log, and took some pictures to post online and see if I could get a positive ID.
Gave Edgar some activated charcoal capsules.

A little while later he was on his back in the shed. I raced out there to help him. His breathing was very fast and shallow and I steadied him until he was able to calm down and get settled in a good spot in the shed.

Then I called the vet.

He got out to us around 6 and I gave him the run-down on what had happened so far.
By this time, Edgar had recovered from his last fall, and was not in any kind of obvious distress, although his left eye was drooping and he was still kind of listless.

The doc checked his temperature, eyesight, rumen activity, heatbeat, looked for any signs of abdominal discomfort, tested his balance, and I don’t even know what all else. Didn’t seem to be any obvious answer to what was going on. In the end he took two vials of blood to test and see if we can figure out why he seems to be having seizures.

I haven’t heard anything back yet about the results of the bloodwork. But feedback on the mushrooms from a couple of mycology sources agree that they are not toxic (flammulina), so probably not the source of the problem.

We’ve been monitoring him closely over the weekend, and he seems to be improving, up and grazing with the rest of the crew, and this evening his left eye appears more normal.

To me, the most encouraging sign is that he is slowly getting his Edgar ‘tude back.

I really hope that he’s on the mend.
and I am so thankful for the folks who saw him in distress and came to his aid on Thursday afternoon.

So keep a good thought for Edgar. He’s had a tough couple of days.

Shades of Edgar

denisemor 4 October 30, 2016

I was doing a little housekeeping (gasp!) up in the wool room yesterday, and came across a bag of fleece that I’d forgotten I had.

Yep. That’s fall fleece from a yearling Edgar. And look at the color!
I’d almost forgotten how dark his fleece was when he was a young-un.

Here it is carded up, and side-by-side with a sample of his fleece from this past spring

Amazing how he’s faded out over the last 5 years, isn’t it?
I just figured that it was normal aging, and kind of like how the lighter color looks overdyed, so didn’t think a lot about it.

But check this out.
This is Edgar fleece this fall.

It looks like he’s regaining some of that lost color. Not reddish-brown like he was as a baby, but definitely brown.
I’m wondering if it might be a result of changing the mineral that I’m giving them, as I started that in probably February-March.

Hmmm….