Building a brick path

Back in 2004 when we were here seeing our house for the first time, the previous owner mentioned how nice it would look to have a brick patio between those four trees at the bottom of the steps out front. I think it was something she'd planned to have installed at some point if they'd stayed here. I agreed, and ever since then it's something I've often visualized but never got around to working on. Well, one night last year a very old house just down the road burned to the ground. Thankfully, it was empty at the time! There was nothing left but ashes and a pile of old bricks from the collapsed fireplace and chimney. I asked the owner if I could have some of the bricks and he said "take them all!" So Ken and Josh and I made numerous trips to save as many as we could before the bulldozer came in and leveled the place for a new house to be built. These are pre - civil war, hand made bricks. They're rather soft so I don't know how long they will hold up out in the elements but I've decided to use some of them in this walkway. I'm still in the process of sweeping sand into the cracks here.

I had to build a couple of extra steps down to the path. These are just wooden boxes filled with rock and gravel. I could have made wooden steps like the others but that particular spot gets very icy in the winter. We had a little concrete paving stone there and Ken went flying one morning in December when he went out to work and didn't notice it was covered in ice! The rock filled steps offer much better footing as you let go of the hand-rail and step off that bottom stair.

I built in a couple of planters on each side of the bottom step and plan to put herbs in them. In fact I'd like the whole thing to be lined with fragrant herbs! There's also going to be a gate and fence. I'll take more pics as it develops. So far though I very happy with how it's turning out!

More Scottish Black Face Pictures

Taken just a few minutes ago. I love these sheep!

Scottish Black Face Lambs!

Yes! We have our first little lambs on the ground! Quite a surprise to wake up to. Twins, a boy and a girl. They were born on March 4th. I thought they were early but remembered that this ewe got out and went to visit the ram while he was still supposed to be in quarantine. Little hussy!

So first we have the boy. His name is Windy

  

And here is the little girl, Marchie with her Mum.

It was a sunny day but bitter cold ( Way below freezing) and the March wind was howling! Hence, their names :)

They're all doing great so far. Amazing how much weight they've gained already. I'll take more pictures tomorrow.

The other two ewes shouldn't be too far behind so I'm watching them very closely. One is as big as a bus! Can't wait to see how many lambs she has.

The Gelli Pad

Yesterday, while ordering stamp carving supplies I saw one of these:



Isn't it amazing? Life's just too short not to have one!

Thanks Dad!! ( He sent me some money for Christmas)

And here's their bog.

 http://gelliarts.blogspot.com/2011/06/welcome-to-gelli-arts-blog.html

It's full of ideas, techniques  and inspiration. I entered the give away for some MagicStamps. I don't usually win things but maybe luck will shine down.

Hand Carved Rubber Stamps on Etsy

Hand carved tea kettle rubber stamp

I finally bit the bullet and decided to open an Etsy shop, selling my hand carved rubber stamps. Here's the link if you care to take a look:  IkkiPokki Rubber Stamps

I'm torn over selling them mounted or unmounted. So any suggestions are most welcome. Something in me wants to mount each one and add  a little handle, but that, of course adds more time and cost. I uploaded a few of each so we'll see what customers prefer.

I love carving stamps. Inking one up for the first time is always exciting because you're never quite sure how it's going to look printed. This little tea kettle was one of those " Ooooh, I like that !" moments.

Happy New Year!

I don't know where to start; it's been so long since I posted. I was having problems getting pictures to upload so I would shut everything down, thinking I'll try again later.

So here we are the first day of 2013 and I just want to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year and will attempt to upload some of the pics that I couldn't get to post last time. While I haven't blogged much, there has been quite a lot going on here on the farm.

First, this is Russet our Scottish Blackfaced ram. We found him not too far away. Who would have guessed that there was another SBF breeder so close! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll have a bunch of little lambs in March.

You know last year when I said I'd been doing some stone work? Well this is the wall I've been working on: (It's still in progress) Don't forget to click on the pics to see them larger.

Before and after....

The driveway, before...

The beginnings of the wall

Ta Daaa!

 Not finished yet though. Just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. 

I still can't believe that I managed to find most of the stone just laying around in the pastures. Some came out of the creek bed and some was given to me by a neighbor. He had it left over from a retaining wall he'd had built and just wanted to get rid of the left overs. He still has some more and wants me to go and get it out of his way so I should be able to make more progress in the near future. 

Once it's done, I'm thinking of trying my hand at building a timber-frame lytch gate in the gap between the two walls.

I also finished the other side of the culvert:

So far we haven't had any torrential rains that raised to creek level. That will be the true test of it's integrity! In the past, we've seen the water way higher than the top of the culvert!

What a summer!

Gosh, I don't know where the time has gone to this summer. Lots of things have been going on on the farm so I'm going to yet again, attempt to update the old blog, and as usual try to keep it updated!

So; we had a great six weeks with Dad. At almost 80 he didn't want to be on the go all the time but he got to see some of the local tourist attractions. Some kind person took this picture of us both at Mabry Mill over on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Ken and Josh were up ahead of us somewhere. This is the most photographed spot on the Parkway and it's a really neat place to visit with not only the working grist mill but other old log buildings and demonstrations of Appalachian rural life as it was for the early settlers.

Dad likes antiques and "junk" so having him here was a good excuse to go to Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke. I've been wanting to go there for so long but we never got around to it. Lots of  cool architectural salvage but a bit too expensive for us. 

So we moved on to the Irish Pub!

This is Annie Moore's in Roanoke. It's excellent!

Not long before Dad came someone dropped off a pregnant cat. We took her in, of course. She's the nicest, most docile cat we've ever had. We named her Patchouli. Here she is, very pregnant, soaking up the warmth from the lamp in the chicken brooder!

She just lay there purring while the chicks hopped all over her.

She gave birth to four beautiful little kittens. This is Dad's favorite. He named her  "Millie" after my Mum.

Getting a clear picture of them all together was next to impossible.

                                           
                                                  It was nice having someone to walk the dog!

Long faces all around when he had to leave.

Seventeen

Dad had intended to be here for Joshua's seventeenth birthday but that didn't work out. It was just the three of us and Birthday cake:

I can't believe it's seventeen years since we brought home that precious little bundle. Now he's all grown up and taller than both of us. Last year we came to the decision that he should go to the local public high school for his last three years. There are no kids his age for miles and really no activities going on for his age group either. It seems like every time he made a friend the family moved away. So, last September, after 8 years of being home schooled, he started 10th grade 20 miles away. I was so worried that he would have trouble adjusting. Worried that perhaps he would be behind - though he always did well on the end of year tests. Thankfully, he settled right in and made Honor Student. His overall  average is 100! We're so proud of him.

One of his birthday gifts was a two day Beginning Blacksmith course at The Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd. It's something he's been wanting to do for a long time. Now he plans to build his own coal fired  forge, like the ones they use there:

Apparently they're not that difficult to build and Ken can get the parts easily.

My Dad's Here!

A lot happening here on the homestead. My Dad's here for six weeks. Actually, he's already been here for 3. I just haven't had much chance to blog about it.

First, I was busy getting his room ready:

I love this room. It's bright and colorful. The walls are a pale sage/apple green. It doesn't have a name. We mixed it ourselves from lots of left over paint we had under the stairs. The comforter and other furnishings are in blue, orange, raspberry, yellow and violet! Sounds atrocious but amazingly, it all works together.

And here's Dad enjoying a bit of fishing up at the pond.

Afraid our fish are still small as you can see!  Ken took him over to a neighbor's pond the following week where the fishing was much better.

More new faces on the farm

We've been talking about getting sheep for quite a while but I couldn't make up my mind what breed to get. It's strange but I had a very set image in my mind of what to me, constituted a "real" sheep. When I was in England last year I found out that the sheep I was thinking of were the Herdwick breed. The ones you see running wild up on the high fells in Cumberland, shrouded in mist and fog. Alas, no Herdwicks to be had in these parts. Then just before Easter I saw a for sale ad for three Scottish Blackface ewes! Now they are also my idea of "real" sheep. They're the ones you see up in the Highlands, also shrouded in mist and fog, or standing in the middle of the road stopping traffic- no fences up there. Wild, ancient, extremely hardy, curly horns. Yes! real sheep!

We drove 4 hours to go and get them.

First, they had to be caught. 

Then pointed in the direction of the stock trailer. 

"I'm not going, I'm not go-iiing Really, I'm not!"

 Phew, all loaded up.

From left to right: Cornelia, Morag and Kirsty.

Our route home took us through Appomattox, a place steeped in civil war history. We decided to take a break and stop at the restored village of Appomattox Court House, the site of Lee's surrender.

So, we parked the trailer.

And left the sheep...

to go sight-seeing.

And what a nice afternoon it was.