[Jacob-list] barns and summertime

[Gillian Fuqua]

	My sheep live in a 3 stall horse barn. I agree about the water, my 
pump has been down for some time and hauling water stinks.  What is 
nice is that one of the stalls has a wood floor that I can sweep and 
use as a shearing/work space.  If I were to have my dream barn though, 
it would include a good space for storing rolled up fence in the 
winter, which is long here too, shallow bin like shelves are what I 
would imagine.  I would also make the barn sheep convenient but 
flexible in case I wanted other animals too.  This is coming from the 
woman who arrived in VT with one cat and now has three cats, one dog, 
seven sheep, one horse, and a turtle in the works....

	Despite a cool wet summer, it is glorious to be outside.  Today is a 
big moving day, the flock is going to a neighbor who has wonderful, 
huge pasture.  One ewe and her twins have been off clearing brush for 
another neighbor.  The wet weather is slowing down the fleece washing 
quite a bit but I did manage to skirt and sort the colors on one this 
morning before it clouded over.  I enjoy laying out the fleeces and 
thinking about what to do with them.  the one I did this AM was from my 
daughter's yearling and so it is fun to think about what to do with it 
( a scarf probably so that she can have it for a long time).  Another 
fleece I am planning to separate and then dye the white bits a 
red/orange and gold then pick that together with the brown to get a 
multi-colored yarn.
	My daughter, who is almost 8, and I had a wonderful time last weekend. 
  We lay down in the field and the girls came over and sniffed and came 
to be petted.  If they could have, they would have sat in our laps!  So 
pastoral, especially when they relax and start chewing their cuds and 
give that little extremely fragrant burp that comes with it!

	Hope everyone else is enjoying mild weather, the work, and the play of 
summer!

Gillian