Hey, Hay! Hay and more hay.

Also: Sheep!

Some kitties...

Some hardware hacking for work....

And beer.

What have ya'll been up to?

As of this afternoon I am officially a divorced man.

Picture of a localish Traction Avant for your time

But I had a crazy haying season, a bunch of random projects including putting a dump kit on my buddy's Chevy Sierra Silverado 2500HD... But not before replacing a rusty cross member (this is now the THIRD time we've patched/repaired his frame)

Also, I met a woman, and she's aswsome. Like, really awesome, and that's been taking a lot of my limited free time, but I haven't forgotten about you all, and I do intend to participate in the Automation Challenges again...

The sheep say:

Finished fixing the snow blower... Sold some more hay, but still need to get more out of the barn... Unstuck my left rear brake caliper (and ordered new pads) ... And then tackled some less pressing things...

What do you do when the cheap plastic washer fluid resivoir on your tractor is so brittle from UV damage that it shatters when you try to clean it in order to glue the crack that has developed in it?

Step 1) determine that the hole for the pump grommet is a size on one of your step bits...
Step 2) procure appropriate container...

Step 3) rinse.
Step 4) rinse again.
Step 5) repeat steps 3 through 4 as needed...
Step 6) Drill baby, drill!
Step 7) Sharpie!
Step Zip Ties!


Step 9) enjoy the rewards of a job well done.

OK, so here's the part you came for: SURPRISE LAMBS!

Yup! Fall Lambs! Border and Blue-Faced Leicesters are usually very seasonal and tend not to get pregnant outside of the usual breeding season... I had thought Gloria was just fat... I mean, she is fat, but it turns out she was also pregnant with twins!

Loki, the boy, is white with unusual markings, his sister Athena is black with unusual eye color. They were born Saturday October 1st. It's a good thing I had lost my fancy pocket knife in the field and was looking for it when she gave birth, because Athena's left front leg was hung up and required aid in birthing.

Last night 1616 had this handsome little man sheep, who gets the name Hermes due to his wing-like fuzzy feet!

I'm 100% sure Sally is also pregnant, and probably due soon, but I didn't think 1616 was, so I may be in for more unexpected fall lambs!
tons more to do before snow at least the weather this week is awesome...

1. I live in the middle of nowhere and am a part time sheep farmer who owns a parrot.

2. The ratio of women to men in Vermont is about 58% women, but about 25% of them are lesbians, or bisexual with a preference for women (including my Ex: cue that line from Chasing Amy)

3. I'm a balding, liberal, leftist, pinko, commie, atheist video gamer, D&D wierdo, who's also into cars.

4. I just bought this at Tractor Supply because it smells amazing.

Also: some sheep for good measure.

sheep show a surprising amount of interest when they see themselves on the phone screen

1736 likes to make it clear how much she enjoys being scritched

she's also my most smiley sheep

Gloria loves having her chin rubbed...
and she can't understand why I would ever stop doing that. (one ear back and one ear forward is sheep body language for confusion or annoyance)

Fancy and Sally want scritches too.

Sally is also demonstrative of her appreciation of the scritches.

Summer is camera shy, but don't let that fool you, she likes scritches too. Also, Sally is a ham. But that's what I get for naming her Sallyford J. Sheepington, Attorney at Baaaa.

So, I've been sitting on this for a while, since the beginning of the year... Through a series of failures in communications on both our parts, mine exacerbated by my seasonal effective disorder/depression and her's by a culture of never talking about problems/avoiding conflict at all costs and being a people pleaser, no doubt "enhanced" by the last four years of living in this country, Mrs. BoostAddict and I seem, at this point, destined to separate. I convinced her we should go to couples counseling, but our previous long standing issues and a lot of built up grudges and resentment have lead to her declaring that she will not ever want to get back together. I bear at least half the blame, and I accept that... I still feel very cought off guard, as I was/am willing to try to work things out, but she's already made up her mind, and basically didn't say anything (in a way I could understand, as I said I am not blameless in this) until she was already done with it. What this means in practical terms in an end to the farm. Neither of us can do it on our own, and though she will no doubt try (I could rant about her killing herself for her work, but that is just glossing over some of our other issues with perceived levels of commitment and acceptance of "the reality" of various things). This will not be an easy or quick process, she has already moved out, but one way or another the sheep are going to be winding down. I do not want this to happen, but I also don't want to try to run things by myself, or deprive her of what she has always said (and I thought I was trying to support, but apparently in the wrong way) was her dream. The most likely outcome is that we will sell our property amd split the proceeds... As she cannot afford it on her own, and as much as I love this location, the house/land is too large and too expensive/much work for one person. Like I said, this will not be a quick and easy resolution, too many details to untangle and iron out, but she has already said she is "not planning to keep the sheep here this coming winter" what that means exactly is still not clear... Our communication has broken down to the point that just figuring out what is expected of me re: sheep and farm operations is a guessing game. I am continuing to make hay this summer, and spent the last week working 8-12 hours every day, plus regular chores to do so... I feel very lost and aimless... I have had a good spring, depression-wise, and this all feels very unfair, but I have to acknowledge that she felt things were unfair before now, and I can only feel the way I feel, not change the past. I've got friends and therapy, but you folks are my internet friends, and I know many of you have enjoyed sheeppost and ranked it highly on the list Oppo positives... So I thought you should be in on this, also it never hurts to have more conversations about what went wrong and how to avoid the same mistakes again... At least that's my feeling. I really do like the sheep, and this lifestyle in general, but it seems it will be coming to an end. /downer post out.

In case you forgot, I kinda did... Friend of mine had a breakthrough delta-variant infection... he got covid pneumonia and went to the hospital last Friday because he was having trouble breathing... Now he's being shipped off to the big city hospital because it's gotten worse

I think his heavy pot smoking probably didn't help in keeping the pneumonia at bay, but this is a relatively healthy 50 year old guy who's been vaccinated. Don't forget this shit is still out there.

On a lighter/different note I have decided to keep the house, and some sheep, which has thrown a wrench in the divorce proceedings... I can go into details if you want, but I'll just leave it at "the other party doesn't like this" I looked at the real estate market, and I trawled listings, and I realized that sure, I could sell the place for profit right now, but then I'd have to try to replace it. Both the rental and buyer markets are nutzo, so I'm gonna hang on to it.

As for the sheep, I'm going to forgo attempts at maintaining pure breed and registerable blood lines in the small flock I keep, but here's a reminder video of one of the reasons I've decided to continue having sheep in my life:

This may be the only one I have this year... Gloria might be pregnant, but for now Summer has this one big ram-lamb. More pics and video will come later

Also, I got Covid! Took m e until now it's crappy, but not the worst I've ever been illnesswise...

Spread the manure pile, sold all the hay out of the barn so I can finally clean it... Relaxing this weekend with the Girl Friend, since she's got it too... Actually I got it from her, but it's my own damn fault, I knew the risks...

In any case, the part you probably really care about: more lambs! The two from Sally today bring the total to 5. Got a boy and a girl, they were born under the trees, which was very inconvenient, and also meant I had to look up names of tree/woods deities to continue the gods and goddesses naming theme... Went Finnish with the girl being Mielikki, and the boy being Tapio.

Mielikki is alert and watchful

Tapio is a laid back kind of dude

@ITA97 I know...

@Highlander sheep are good, a little worried about the high winds and the hoop barn, but it's withstood 70mph gusts before...

Yep, I'm still alive! Been busy and shit... Sorry Oppo. Anyway I found these sweet things.

@bbg2d thanks! Much improved over the bad ideas I implemented last year.

As some of you (maybe?) remember I bought an old fisher truck plow without the mount last year to turn into a back snow blade for my tractor... I half-assed the job by just welding in a couple angle-iron braces and putting cat 2 pins through the holes in the ears. They (ears and pins) bent badly. (insert picture I thought I had taken of the carnage, but apparently didn't)

As I got 6 inches of snow today, I fixed that fucker. Bought a drawbar, notched the frame, and welded it in... Also improved my chain/float design.

Now I can return to God of War: Ragnarok.

That Guy, up there... ^^^ He gonna burn tonight.

@Bloody-the-resident-LandRover-apologist I get the Darrel Lea all sorts that my local tractor supply sells all the time. These things kick those to the curb. (don't get me long, I like the all sorts...)

@LimitedTimeOnly I think the key is that it's a mild, salty licorice... The end result is much like a salted caramel-chocolate. The texture is sublime too. The chocolate is a little denser than what you'd find in a three musketeers bar, and the soft licorice perfectly matches that firmness, but is more resilient to dissolving in saliva, so it ends up being the last thing in your mouth and the anise flavor is like a palette cleanser after the milk chocolate... They're lovely.

My girlfriend's coworker just got back from a trip to Iceland and she brought a bunch of these to share...

This Icelandic delicacy is an airy milk chocolate mini bar with small peices of salty, soft black licorice embedded in it...
now, I can understand that if you aren't a licorice fan you may be turned off immediately, and that's OK... But if you simply believe that licorice and chocolate don't/shouldn't go together, let me just tell you how wrong you are. These things are AMAZING.

@facw said international live animal exports are hard to begin with, sheep are livestock and have additional restrictions due to thier economic and caloric importance. It's actually easier going US > Europe, but "easier" is relative. Much easier to find local walking, self-heating wool blankets.