Orphans no more and how I became a sheep keeper

I was on the way home from the Saturday Farmers Market, this was last May, Memorial weekend. The pasture with the lambing ewes is located about 1/4 mile from our land. The ranchers were in the field working with the newborns. I chatted with them, as I have done numerous times during the lambing season. Early in the spring they brought 690 ewes and each had between 2 -3 babies. It was an exceptionally cold spring, rain, hail, many moms and baby lambs did not make it. I was going over there often, several times a week to help out. This rancher has (as I found out later) a common attitude towards life stock- it is a commodity.
That last Saturday of the cold and went May the guys carried three bummer lambs from the field towards the road. They put them down at my feet- Hey Lida these are for you. I resisted and asked the guys what are they going to do with them. Not saying much, they silently looked at each other. They knew very well how upset I was with all the lost moms and babies. And I knew, the lambs will be left in the field to fetch for themselves.

I took them home in the back of my Subaru, the ranchers gave me a half a bag of milk replacer and a bottle. I put them with the chickens, brought extra hay under one of the chicken coops and made them a nice small shelter to stay out of the cold rain. One was a half day old the other two, brother and sister, were about two days old. Next day we build them a little shelter in the woodshed, a couple of days later a friend drove over here from Lenore and did her vet procedures. The same day I drove back with her to pick up penicillin, looked like one of the lambs had a slight pneumonia, she also gave me several gallons of goat milk. I spend over four weeks feeding them every 4 hours, including nights, giving the sick one penicillin shots, spending countless nights in the woodshed keeping them warm on my lap wrapped in old jackets.

They thrived and as the weather warmed up and new grass started popping up they learned grazing and drinking water from the watering can. Now they have their own sheep shed, their own fenced large pen, but they still prefer to hang out in the open, play with the chickens and munch on their feed.

They are a wonderful addition to all our creatures. Everybody loves them and of course I love them the most.

A picture are worth a thousand words, check out the greeting cards I made out of the thousands of images I took and still taking. Enjoy.

Etsy new page layout

just to illustrate new layout product detail page on etsy, actual size of the page is much large

Stay tuned.

It has been a busy and fun summer. We have new additions to our little ranch, you see one above in the banner, Little Princess. I will soon post her entire story and the story of her brother and Lady Gaga (yes, another baby lamb). In the meantime you can see view them as beautiful note cards in my etsy shop.

I'll be back soon.

Sharpen those crochet hooks and get a goat!

Getting hosed! Hand-crocheted socks for $500.
And I naively thought crocheting is boring.

Frances McCue and "The Triggering" Towns

The last day of April I went to a reading at our very independent bookstore, Bookpeople. Francis McCue, the founder of Richard Hugo's House in Seattle, poet and writer was reading from her new book "The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs." Very inspiring and intense evening. Her travels following Richard Hugo's footsteps brought her all over the Northwest. One of the small 'triggering" town she visited was LaPush. I have my own connections to LaPush, a small Native American community sitting on the very western edge of the Olympic Peninsula, forgoten by our civilization, surviving barely. A few years back we, my cameraman, Katherine and the crew of Indian education project, made a short documentary there, Circle of Courage". We enjoyed soaking in local culture, eating a lot of fresh ocean goodies, discovering hidden treasures.
Seems like LaPush is the begining and the end of my Pacific circle. First time I visited LaPush was on hunt after Raymond Carver's landscapes. We spent a nice time with Tess Gallagher in Port Angeles, and continued on to LaPush. All these little connections converging in LaPush.

Later on I will post a visual poem I created about this magical, for me, place.

"Writing is a way of saying you and the world have a chance."
Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town

More on chickens

The Femivore’s Dilemma

"Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place."
read more

My friend Bobbie of Spring Valley Garden in Troy, bravely sporting one of my hand knitted hats.

Happy Chickens have their own website

Happy Chickens have their own online presence. Visit Buffalo Girls Farm. I will be at the Moscow Food Coop Growers' Market on Tuesday selling their fabulous, yummy, very organic eggs. Our stand will also feature my friend Bobbie, of Spring Valley Garden in Troy. She will bring a wide variety of herbs and vegetable starters. See you there!

And Growers Market is on Facebook. I worked on the "facebook logo" for the Coop website last night, I think it came out nicely.

Queen of copy

Nice to have good friends. My friend of Simplicity of Form wrote a great copy for my PR postings. Thanks you Mis Queen of Copy.
"How many ways can you say adorable? Knitting theme cards, mini- heart socks that are hand knit in every pleasing color combination, Heart shaped cards form original photography, an artisanal way to say I love you. This is your place to find that perfect unique hand crafted present from one hardworking mom's home art studio."

And here is my work on a very successful blog Miss Malaprop.
Thank you Miss Malaprop.

The Art of Knitting or Knitting ART

Margi Geerlinks, Untitled, 1997-1998
Photograph: Courtesy of TORCH gallery/In The Loop
Knitting has enjoyed a massive revival in the last few years, and boy, haven't we heard about it. But while the papers and glossies have been falling over themselves to report on the rise of yarn sales in John Lewis and how many twentysomethings have been seen knitting in pubs, contemporary textile designers have been busy doing some rather more brilliant things with their needles. New book In The Loop: Knitting Now by Jessica Hemmings charts their work, and Perri Lewis guides you through it.

Handmade Wedding Dress

Little Bo Peep bride marries in stunning dress made of wool from her own flock of sheep

Everybody knits continues: Truckers knit!

"Mr. Banks, who lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., and hauls romaine lettuce between California and the Midwest, learned to knit last year after load-volumes slowed. Creating something tangible beats sitting around the truck stop "talking about who has a bigger radio," he said. He's finished a scarf and socks, and is working on a sweater for his wife."

How cool!

Wall Street Journal

Thank you Graft Gossip. What a nice write up about my Buffalo Girls Design enterprise. Traffic to the site has been increasing steadily, you'll great gifts and useful tools for knitters and art lovers.

My wee teeny tiny socks are featured on Amy's Stocking Stuffers Blog. Amy has a cute tag line: Don't think outside the box, think inside the stocking!

These little socks make a great Mother's Day gift. Especially if your mom is a knitter! You can order them from my Etsy store or from my Buffalo Girls Design website.

Thank you Amy.

I am working on new Mother's Day cards. Please check back soon for new wonderful designs.

A good friend and natural dyes

My good friend, Lorena, is deep into natural dyes. Here is the results of her fabulous work. She "borrowed" two skeins and created these beautiful colors. I just love the earthy look and feel. Way to go Lorena. Visit her blog to view more of her awsome artistic ventures,

simplicityofform.blogspot.com

And here is a link to Margo's blog. Margo was the teacher of the natural dyeing workshop. More beautiful natural colors, yes we do need more colors especially now, when the ground is still brownish, just a bit of grass here and there poking out. Notice a tiny bit of snow in the top right corner of the images.

My studio

and here is my graphics and web design studio-
my knitting studio is everywhere, of course

Bandits Knit

Police hunt 'The Midnight Knitter' wool graffiti bandit.
A guerilla knitter is gradually covering a New Jersey town in brightly coloured wool - and authorities have no clue who the rogue crafter is.

Everybody knits, and some knit for chickens!

Watch this video from BBC. Knitting jumpers for bald chickens. Lovely!

I am a big fan of chickens, and actually all animals. Here is an art piece I recently created for a chicken show, Why a duck?". View larger image at my Buffalo Girls Productions website.

Our new series Everybody knits continues.

Betsy Lee McCarthy who left a lucrative career as a health care executive so she would have more time to knit socks. Really.

Everybody knits!

Some of us knit for real, some of us pick up the needles and use it as a prop! Way to go Kiss!

This image gives me a new idea for my knitting inspired cards.
"Dreaming of turquoise socks!"

Any other ideas?

My friend Lorena's ideas (I know she will come up with more):

"Just what every woman wants, a guy who knits."
"It is not just your grandma's knitting anymore!"

Share your heart!

We created this beautiful heart out of our little socks. Just too cute.

SPRING, SPRING, SPRING!

I guess I am going to be writing about spring coming till the grasshoppers come home:)) I took this picture early in the morning, I was hoping the geese will stay but they decided to check out other ponds in the neighborhood.
Yes, we have a tons of grasshoppers in summer time, they usually invade our garden at the end of July and pretty much eat everything. Now we have a bunch of very cute chickens who are already diligently working in the garden and hopefully eating the tiny larvas of the grasshoppers.
Sitting on the front deck, knitting and watching the wildlife enjoying a warm spring day!

Felted Teapot Cozy

We love our tea. We go through at least two pots a day. Nice herb tea from hand crafted herbs I picked last year. What a great idea: knitted/felted tea cozy and save energy! The idea is to encourage drinkers to make tea in a pot instead of a mug or cup. This will reduce the number of times we boil our kettles, thus reducing the amount of household energy we use.

And do I need to tell you how much I love this cozy with the nice big heart?

Sock mania is in full swing again. My sister and I are knitting away teeny tiny socks for our friends. Yoga and sock knitting, what a way to enjoy our time while we waiting for the sun to come out in full swing, the last of the snow to melt, mud dry out and start planting the next Victory Garden!

A couple of days ago we saw the first red wing black bird, happily chirping on the dry cattail surrounding the pond. Even a pair of canada geese has landing although briefly but with a lot of wonderful noise.

New Society Socks Logo

I have been playing with the Society Socks logo and made a few tweaks. I think it looks nicer now. Check it out in the right hand column. And I also added new knitting inspired greeting cards on my Etsy shop.
Have a great productive Monday!

It's beginning to look like SPRING!

I have been busy working on my clients' websites, producing, directing and editing another documentary, and knitting tiny little socks. Just having a great productive time. What a fabulous winter we've had. Hardly any snow, and now the grass is starting to show up!
Please visit my new Etsy store which I have just opened after over a year of neglect. You will find nice note cards made out of my collages, my very popular knitting inspired note cards, very natural lichen and moss freshly picked in the beautiful Rockies, our backyard!
Cheers!