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!