Marmalade has been watching Marcel the lamb very carefully. Thinking about whether he can be bothered making friends with a barn person.
Yesterday he came down off his perch to say hullo. It was a very quick kiss. Too fast for my camera to catch. But here you are. Fuzzy double Sweetness.
Sweet meets Sweet.
The cold is coming back. I cannot pretend to be happy. There is too much to do in the barn in preparation for the calves and the milking. And of course John is going back to work next week. So I am going to have to do it alone. Which is ok too. Many houses, even parts of small towns around here are now without water, with the freeze over 3 foot down into the ground freezing and splitting pipes. We have done pretty well so far. So I should not complain. But it is getting very cold again. Wait. I will show you my forecast.
Rubbish. See what I mean? I could just Spit! Here is the site I use to transfer the Fahrenheit into Celcius. Just don’t tell me though, I do not want to know.
Today it is bitter out there but I will spend some time making the calf hot house in the barn sun-room that Sheila has recently vacated. I need to get way ahead of the game on this one. I want to be very prepared. I hate calving inside. Daisy does have a few weeks to go but as you and I know, preparedness is the key. Especially when like Daisy and I you have not calved indoors in the freezing cold. And my barn is not big.
It looks like Sheila is not going to be able to breed. So. She will be our Virgin Queen. I know I am not meant to have 400 pound pets, but this time I am breaking the rules. She can stick around. As long as she sells enough calenders to cover her feed. The last calender I made is going to be too expensive for you to buy though. So I am going to look around for a cheaper printer. Any ideas?
Oh and Mama is much happier today. She has been wormed and has had some extra Vitamin B. The sheep have had to move across to the Rat House as I need the barn pens for the cows to calve. But it is East facing and out of the wind so they are even happier out there. We have not been able to get into that field for ages due to the frozen snow banks and gates frozen shut, so they are all much relieved to be in the sun.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the frozen farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
90 responses to “Fuzzy Double Sweetness”
How terrible that the cold is on its way again… and all that work you’ve been doing maybe all for naught… I still admire your tenacity in the face of impending weather…
I have a post tomorrow referring to you and that night at the local, hope you get a chance to look at it… might give you a laugh with all the pains heading your way…
I will pop over, thank you for the heads up!! have a good one.. c
Sounds like you’re ahead of the game with your calving preparations. Very hard for a young animal to be born into such cold, so they’ll be lucky to have Miss Celi as their fairy godmother, standing by with blankies, heat and a cosy barn to stay in. I’m so sorry Sheila’s not fated to be the matriarch of a long line of gorgeous piggies, but perhaps she’s been designed by nature to be an intelligent commenter on Farmy Life rather than a devoted mother.
Hi Celi, I use Shutterfy http://m.shutterfly.com/calendars for all my photo books, they almost always have a sale too.
I can’t believe this dilly weather either, I’m so terribly sick of it. But at least we have sunshine most of the time.
yes, shutterfly is who i am working with now, but they are so expensive.. and SLOW! I ordered one copy three weeks ago (to have a look) and still it has not come… c
Wow, completely the opposite experience that I’ve had, mind you I haven’t ordered anything for about 7 months. They used to be so amazing; we were away on holiday when I was expecting my orange box and figured the mailman will just leave it on our porch but when we got home it wasn’t there. So I emailed them and they sent me a replacement within 4 days! I actually got it that fast, in Canada! It turned out that our dear neighbour picked it up and took it to his place because he was worried it would get wet. Sigh. Nice experience though.
Have you tried Costco? I had some prints made at Costco a few years ago and they were as good as a camera store in Toronto, not sure about the actual calendars, though.
http://www.costcophotocenter.com/Shop/Calendars#/
There is Walmart too: https://photos.walmart.com/walmart/storepage/storePageId=Calendars+NEW
Target: http://photo.walgreens.com/walgreens/storecalendars/size=8.5×11/?tab=photo_calendars_8.5x11siteheader
You may also want to explore http://www.kickstart.org
We were spoilt with the warmth last week. So this week feels a bit cruel. And seriously, the cuteness with Marmalade and Marcel is through the roof. And I’m happy you can keep Sheila. I was wondering what you would do because I know you have a working farm and if you melt every time you could end up not having a farm. Which means difficult decisions get made. But she’s quite the character. I’d recommend looking at Shutterfly as well. Like Eva said, they very often have sales plus I find that they give you more creative options especially with the backgrounds. I like to use my own photos as faded backgrounds instead of the generic ones.
I bet you make some lovely images.. thank you.. c
Thanks, my mum likes the books I make her for gifts.
a wonderful idea..c
:). I did a quote book and used photos from my garden as well as photos of the kids in the garden and photos of my sister and me in the garden as kids. Plus normal photo albums. Makes it personal.
I share your feelings about this bummer of a winter – but what can we do about? Not a lot, just hunker down and keep shuffling forward with layers of clothes on our backs! So glad you are getting ahead of the ball game with getting the calving barn ready. I am sure the hardest part is making sure all drafts are taking care of (this old cottage has a few of those!). Love reading your blog when you slip into native speak like using the word ‘nick’ the other day, offering Marcel as a screen saver LOL. And today ‘Rubbish’ a word I often use and my friends squint at me in confusion. Still don’t think ‘trash’ has the same feeling, especially when referring to something you are not happy about!
Hugs, Lyn
Just underscores that I write like I think.. travelling does point out how english is used differently everywhere.. c
So cute. I did notice Marmalade’s paw – and claws, but I know you would be close by and watching. Marcel would not like to be on the receiving end of a whack from puss. It seems a lot of us are suffering from harsh weather conditions at the moment, you with the freezing cold, the UK and Europe with all that rain and here down under with severe drought in places. We just have to go with the flow and do the best we can. It cant go on forever, can it? Joy
His claws were out like that because he was considering jumping from that chair to my shoulder.. I need to prune them again though, they are getting sharp again. Hard on the furniture! c
With you 100% on the coldness. The best response I can think of is more Marmalade and Marcel!
Sorry, but I’m going to be the bad cop here. I know that you love your pig, your Mama and other ewes too, but these beasties take a lot of feeding (and vet’s bills sometimes). Large pets don’t sit well with the ideal of a self-sufficient way of life I’m afraid. Calendars and wool don’t make for a great income. Sorry once more,
Christine
no need to be sorry christine, of course you are absolutely right. And following that line would mean getting rid of the dogs and the large birds and most of these useless cats for that matter plus at least half of my chickens. This is why I hate to label myself as self sufficient or sustainable. These labels come with rules and benchmarks that i do not have a hope of achieving, nor do i want to. My ambition it to grow or barter enough food to feed myself and my animals. My ambition is to lead a simple country life, enriching my little patch of earth, eating clean food and helping other families grow clean food and leaving behind as little rubbish as possible. I say this gently dear christine as you are a good friend. And I do appreciate you bringing this up. Maybe I will address it more fully in a post tomorrow.. c
If you ever do address it, Celi, I’ll mention it in my university course on Green Marketing where we often discuss the ‘value’ of things and how difficult it is to say whether what appears to be unsustainable is actually of infinite worth. That includes the beauty of a butterfly, the companionship of a dog or the entertainment value of a big Virgin Pig. You do so much that is good and are so honest about the things that don’t work or that you can’t give up, I’m sure we are all far behind you in sustainability. I, e.g., became car-free many years ago but I still fly several thousand miles each year. We do what we can and look for ways to do more.
Bon courage!
Well, it’s good to know that we’re still friends and I shall now remove my bad cop helmet! Even so, when you build up your Hereford herd and you’re worrying about having enough feed/warm, dry shelter for them as well as all the ‘beasties on benefits’, it concerns me that your head is going to disappear into the laundry basket on a regular basis. You MUST take care of yourself too!
Christine
I know darling. The really good thing is that when I develop the herefords I will take over another of the family barns (n a few years) with more land attached. It is awkwardly placed as far as access but a lovely big barn and close by. (lots of politics to play to get that land too!!) c
And when the sorrows hit, of Charlotte and lost lambs and their mamas you need a joyful place to go. If Sheila provides that for you then she is worth her weight in gold – and that’s a LOT of gold! Sustainability and self sufficiency is a wonderful thing to strive for but without the simple joys they are as ashes. It’s like not refusing to use antibiotics or modern methods when they are called for. For myself, I try to help where I can and do as little harm to the world and creatures and people around me. Life is much too short to restrict oneself with self made rules.
Ce—the lovely pictures of Marmalade and the lamb made my morning. I am a sucker for Marmalade and then you added a lamb!!!! 🙂 It is colder than cold here, too, and our walks are covered with snow after being gone for a week. I am looking for a young able bodied entrepreneur…….so far….no takers.
Poor enterpeneurs are probably as sick of it as we are!! ah well .. can we last two more weeks or more? c
Good news! I found one!!!! He will make quick work of it with a snow blower!!! Yay! It gives me hope –spring will come. I know it in my heart.
love those snow blowers!! c
I’ve used mixbook.com with good results, but not for a calendar…just a cookbook type of thing. You cold also price Vistaprint or uprinting–they aren’t always as user friendly as shutterfly but they might well be cheaper. I’m a graphic designer, though, and prefer sites that let me do more of the layout rather than very user-friendly ones that always do more than I want them to (because they’re not doing it how I want it done–ha!) Although, again, that’s not with something like a calendar which if you’re just using one photo/month should be pretty straight forward.
if you need any help with any graphic design/layout stuff don’t hesitate to contact me…anything for the farmy! 🙂
Oh Melissa thank you so much, I am trying to keep it simple mainly because I do not have the TIME to do anything fancy. So I am only doing one photo a month.. Choosing them is the hard part! c
Nothing like a bit of sweet on sweet to help warm the cold weather you are having C.
🙂 Mandy xo
Timprint in Lexington, KY, does my calendars and would be happy to work with you. If you’re interested in a quote, his email is timprint At qx Dot net and phone number is 859-223-7373.
Here is a link to my calendars for a couple examples – http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar
I can vouch for the quality of those calendars – excellent.
thank you, i shall have a look! c
Marmalade can see that Marcel has the same mum 😉
Amazon produce very cheap books if you lay them out yourself, so I wonder if they do the same with calendars. You could always do a book on the farmy… use lots of pictures and just write captions. They might even provide a template to work with.
Yes the farmy book! sigh. still working on it.. it would be great if i could get it done and underway! c
Even my winter loving kids are hankerin’ for Spring! I sure hope it warms up before Daisy calves. I hate having babies born when it’s so cold. Hang in there. Spring can’t be too much farther. Can it? Have a great day Celi.
“Marmalade has been watching Marcel the lamb very carefully. Thinking about whether he can be bothered making friends with a barn person.” What a great first few lines of a book these would be. Love the photos and admire your utmost preparedness. What a long, hard winter it has been.
As a few others have mentioned, Shutterfly, or the nearest Office Depot, Office Max if you are doing mass printing.
Office, now there is a thought.. thank you.. c