Sheep Update

We have sadly lost 3 of the littlest sheep. One male, two females. I sat with the first one as she passed, Matt sat with the second one and the third one. It does not get any easier. We try to keep in mind that they had a better go of it here with us than they would have otherwise.

Luckily the rest of the crew are looking pretty good. A couple of foot issues but I am learning that there will most likely always be something. We still have one of the littlest ones and he is fat and sassy! I give him a pep talk with every feeding that he WILL be staying with us and there is NO other option but for him to live....So far he is listening.

I get an amazing pleasure out of seeing them in the morning and especially watching them in the pasture. We only let them out to graze for short periods of time to get them and their bellies (they each have two) used to the grass as they would literally eat themselves sick. Once they are a little bigger and are used to the pasture we will be able to leave them out to graze freely.

Matt is a great shepherd, watching over his flock and herding them in! He has started calling me Bo Peep. I need a name for him, any suggestions?

Other news on the Grove is the lilies are blooming and the veggies are growing! We have eaten lettuce, spinach and peas so far. Tomatoes are doing great and so are the peppers, onions, squash, pumpkins, beans and melons! OH, and we have apples on two trees!

4th of July

Our second annual 4th on the lake!

The kids and I went up to Dan and Co's house for the Fourth of July. We spent Friday night (til around midnight!) on the water, swimming, enjoying one of the most incredible sunsets I have seen and watching some great fireworks set off by the Crosslake Fire Department. Then we reluctantly went home to bed.

We were up and on the boat by 10:30 on Saturday (pretty good for this crew!) where we played for most of the day before returning to the house for some sprinkler fun, crochet and some fantastic (albeit illegal) fireworks by Dan and Zane and the neighbors.

Sunday we hit The Chocolate Ox for ice cream-yes before lunch but AFTER breakfast-then back to the boat until Mik, Zane and I had to finally head home late in the afternoon. We had such a great weekend and wished Matt could have been there to share it.

Shady Grove

Ok, so I have been REALLY bad about keeping this up to date!!!  To say the least, right?

For those of you who don't know,we have moved, once again, and this time is for keeps :)  We bought a 10 acre farm with a beautiful house that is 109 years old-very well taken care of- and many outbuildings!  We have planted a veggie garden that is doing nicely and inherited several lovely flower gardens that, thanks to Mom T and Mom E,  I have some idea of what is growing and how to take care of them.  

One of those out buildings will come in very handy to house and maintain Matts spreaders!  The barn is simply gorgeous!  (See Dan and Co's blog for some great pics of that) and there is lots of yard and space to play. 

 We also seem to have inherited two barn cats, one of which just loves.......Matt!!  He is a cool cat that loves to run in front of you and plop himself down for a good belly rub.   I am not sure who is happier out here- any of us or Shim!  He doesn't even mind the cats.

We have even had our first official, non born-in-to-the-family guests!  Suzanne, her daughter Grace, and Judi came to spend a few fun filled days with us!  We did yoga, jumped on the trampoline, played in town, played guitar, played with Grace and drank wine.  It was GREAT!  Thanks so much for coming girls and I can't wait to do it again!

And to add to the news, yesterday we decided to expand our family...........

by 24...........

We bought 24 orphaned Katahdin Dorper cross sheep.  They are hair sheep that shed and do not need sheering.  Some of them still need to be bottle fed and we are not 100% that all of them will make it.  

Matt and Zane went to western Iowa yesterday to pick them up and we spent the evening getting a space ready in the barn and a small pen for them to be outside.  Shim was not sure what to think of them all in the back of the truck while we built the pens.  Today we spent the morning talking to a vet, vaccinating them and trying to get the 6 that are in the worst shape to eat some medicated feed all on our own.  We all think we did pretty darn well being the greenhorn sheep herders that we are!  Everyone had a job and it went pretty smoothly!  There was talk of naming them all after lawn mowers but coming up with 24 brands was harder than we thought.  We may try to stick with names that have been used in songs.  So far we have named two and I must admit one is not necessarily from a song.  We have George (#1730) who is very curious and his gal pal Lucy (think the Beatles) (#2014).  George and Lucy are presenting themselves as leaders of the flock.  Lucy seems to be some what of a "mother hen" keeping an eye on the others  and George is very, um, vocal and personable!

So wish us and the little ones luck!  I should have plenty to blog about now yes?  We will try to keep you posted on how things are going.  Next we need some chickens....

Hope this finds all of you well and having a wonderful summer!

Peace!

Firefly Yoga Studio

The entry, looking in from the front door, Lucky Bamboo in the window (a gift from Lizzy Simon and family) and the space set up for class.  I am having a long term temporary sign made and will post  a picture of that and the outside once it is complete and in place.

Down to the Wire

My official opening day of the studio to the public is this coming Wednesday, April 14. I have great pictures-thank you Mik!  A fabulous logo-thank you Aaron, I have great brochures-thank you Liz and Suzanne. I have a beautiful space-thank you Matty, in which to truely follow my heart and bring yoga to people. I have lots of interest from folks here in town and even some dedicated students already. So why am I so afraid?

At last months Teacher Training Intensive at SunMoon Studios in Mankato, my home away from home as far as yoga goes, we were presented with the question, "Why am I afraid to succeed?" WOW~what a perfect question for me to spend 3 days pondering and processing through movement!! Although not everyone took it as literally as I did, it was a deep question for all of us. I have given thought to the reasons and even voice to a few of them. 

But I am still processing. I am not a business woman, what if I fail, what if I don't fail! What if people notice me, what if people laugh at me. These are my current Top 5 at 5. Lots of things to wrestle with.

So, I think getting these things out there is a good thing for me to do right now. Just knowing you will read this and knowing that some of you have been here helps. I am not asking for answers from you. Just your prayers and energy headed my way for a little bit.

Namaste!

Something out the window

....caught my eye this evening.  When I stopped to look, there was not only a nice sunset but an owl sharing the moment with me!

Time to get outside!

So Zane, Shim and I decided to bundle up this afternoon and get outside!  You'll never guess where we went.....Call Park, surprise, surprise.  All 3 of us had fun slipping and sliding on the creek and the hills.  Zane took some yoga pictures for me and I call this one "Crow in the snow" :)  Zane finally found a boarding hill in Algona.  Even though he didnt have a board.  Unfortunately it quit filming before he went off the last bank, across the creek and stuck his landing on the other side :)