And Funnel Clouds

I was walking up from the barn tonight after work - when what should appear:

So - I quickly dashed into the house and grabbed my camera and snapped an entire series of
pictures as we watched the funnel cloud forming - and ultimately fizzling. This was just over the
town that is to the south of us - about 1/2 kilometer away. It was ultimately scary - and very transfixing at the same time. I was standing just outside my back door about 20 feet from the house taking these pictures. There were actually 3 funnel clouds all in a row - this one was the most pronounced.

Oh - and don't think I was overly calm. I was yelling at my son between shots to get the cats downstairs into their cages in the event it came down. I am a storm watcher - they fascinate - and terrify me at the same time.

And now - the main portion of the storm is approaching - I guess I'd better sign off before our house gets struck by lightning - again.

Here There Be Dragons

As Promised - I am posting some of my most recent raku pots. Click on the picture to make it larger if you'd like to see more detail. The first picture is of one of my dragon pots. Now - with raku - it is a low fire glazing technique which gives lovely lustres.
The fun thing about raku - is that you never really know what is going to happen. See the green dragon pot below.

The funny thing about the green dragon - and the red dragon - is that they are supposed to both be the same colour. They are the same glaze - Turquoise. Everything depends on the heat tempurature, the location in the kiln - and the reduction process. I was surprised to say the least - however - very pleased.

This pot here with the dragonfly was an oopsy. The picture was very hard to take - the flash
keeps making the dragonfly too bright. However - if you were to get a good look - the dragonfly is a very lusterous red glaze. The rest of the pot is supposed to be a black and white spot called naked raku. When you quench the pot - the glaze is supposed to crack and fall off - it didn't.
However - if I could show you the pot - because the glaze stayed on - and only flaked off in small areas - it has the look of being very old and fragile. Sometimes oopsies are OK.

These last two pots I picked up in early June while on a pottery run. They are by a small pottery shop in Miller Lake , Ontario - about 4 hours from here - called, what else - Miller Lake Pottery. Funny thing - the guy who makes these pots used to live just down the road from me - and we do know his family. It's a small world.
Rob Nantais (the potter) - makes these pots loosely based on the Lord of the Rings. They are a big seller. The jug on the left is a wizard (Gandalf) - the jar on the right isn't really based on any of the characters - but he does all of these faces in pots, mugs, jars - they are quite captivating.

That's it for pottery tonight.

It's still crazy busy here - we have sold several sheep - and deliveries will start in the next few weeks. I also have to start preparing fleeces for the mill, and I have several pottery commissions to get done as well. Let's couple that with a trip to Newfoundland in August - and it's going to be one busy summer.

And I said I was going to take it easy this year - Yeah Right!

Lambing is Done

Lambing is all done here at Kalwa Taure Shetlands this year. Now, you'll remember that I said, due to surgery, I wasn't going to breed any sheep this year - and I didn't. However, I am babysitting some sheep for my friend Shauna - and well - 4 of them were pregnant.


This first little darling - is our first ever bottle baby. In 13 years of raising shetlands, we have never had a bottle baby before. It's very heartbreaking to watch a baby that's been rejected. So, you'll forgive me for not posting this past week - but I have been busy. This is Windwater
Bertram. He's a beautiful black spotted gulmoget out of Willow Garden Latifah, and Verilaf Silver Streak. Bertram has a twin brother, Bernard.

This is a picture of Bertram and Bernard together. Bernard is all black and has a large white krunet. He tries very hard to spend time with Bertram - against his mothers wishes. At least the other lambs haven't rejected him. For the first 2 days he screamed bloody murder. Then I figured, he may just want to be cuddled. Sure enough - after 30 seconds wrapped in the blanket and rocked - he calmed right down. Now, he follows me around like any lamb would follow their mom - and he's as quiet as
a mouse. What a sweetie. He will be going to a good home near Ottawa some time in the very
near future.

And last but not least - Windwater Flower was born on June 25th. I came home to find this little
lovely laying with her mom in the barn - no issues with her. She's very delicate - all black with a little white krunet. We also lost one lamb - a beautiful mioget ewe lamb. Unfortunately, she was born during the afternoon when I was at work, and her mom started to clean her from the wrong end. She suffocated with the sack over her face. By the time I got home it was too late to save the lamb even though she was still warm - I tried everything - cleared all the passages, tickled her nose with straw, swung her around - nothing worked. It was a heartbreak to take this lamb from her mom.



So - along with Rose, we had 5 lambs - 3 ewes, 2 rams - 4 survived. I have to say that I do enjoy watching the lamb races, so I'm glad Shauna did give me an opportunity to have some lambs here this year.


And finally.................................................

Last week I arrived home with a very unusual flock of sheep :-)


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I went to a raku bash (no- not a raccoon bash) - and made up these little guys.

Raku is a type of firing that is done in pottery - in Japanese is means "Just Right".
These are so fun to make - as with raku - you never know just what you will get - it all depends on the intensity of the heat, where they sit in the kiln - and what you do during reduction.
I actually have several more that I have to photograph yet. But keep in mind - these are all about 2 inches long x about 1 1/2 inches high. The hardest thing - is not losing them in reduction.

I did some more raku last Saturday on my dragon pots. I will try to get pictures and post them in the next few days.

First Lamb(s) this Year

We had our first (and so far only) lamb here at Kalwa Taure on June 3rd. A cool, rainy day, I decided that it was OK to let the mioget group outside. I came home to this little lovely:

Windwater Lipstick Rose (hey - I didn't name her). We will call her Rose. All the lambs born here this year will carry the Windwater name, because they were bred by Shauna Grey at her farm - they are only visiting with us. So, I'm kind of like a Gramma this year - I get the enjoyment of the lambs, and get to spoil them - but I don't have to worry about selling them in the fall. Kind of a sweet deal if you ask me.

She's a little darling - as all first lambs are. She's very tame. Oh - and she's also a black, smirslet, gulmoget. Her dam is Windwater Rolo (hey - I didn't name her either), who is a mioget gulmoget.

Here she is with her mom "Rolo".

Now - Rolo is just staying for a visit till next year, along with Windwater Caramel. Their owner, Shauna Grey, (Windwater Shetlands), is selling her farm, and I have offered to keep these two for her this year, and a few of the lambs until she can get the other farm up and running.

Shauna is going to take Rose back to her new farm with her as well (this will probably be difficult - because I'm getting attached).

Needless to say - we brought the lamb inside and warmed her up. For the first time, we had a retained placenta. It was a bit disconcerting, but with no intervention from us, she did drop the placenta on Saturday with no other assistance.

I tend to take a very hands "off" approach to lambing. Shetlands are very hardy, primitive sheep, and usually can handle everything themselves. For the most part - I dip the navels in iodine, and watch to make sure they are sucking well. If feeding appears to be a problem - I will supplement some colostrum. Selenium shots are also given - and that's about it. We also tend to keep them in the barn - and separated for a few days, just so mom and lamb can bond. In this case, we are going through a heat wave right now (34 degrees celsius, 93 degrees farenheit), it's very muggy - and the sun is scorching, so I am keeping Rose and Rolo in the barn where I do have a fan going to circulate the air. Besides that - we're having a lot of thunderstorms right now (my poor border collie is going crazy) - and little lambs in thunder and lightning and torrential rains is not a lot of fun.

Yesterday - I went on a pottery run - I'll post about that tomorrow. Enjoy your day - hope it's not as hot as here.

All Sheared for Another Year

Well, we're all done shearing for another year - whew!

It wasn't the best shearing we have ever done.
We used a new shearer - who is more used to doing
commercial flocks than our shetlands, although he has done shetlands before with little problem.

I think most of the problems were that the weather was cool - and those fleeces were sticky. We had lots of little nicks and splits, even though he tried to be extra careful.

So - ignore the bluespray on the sheep in these pictures.

In the top picture - is Ewenique Spencer - he's a yearling ram.
I'm pretty positive that he's a mioget flecket judging
by his colour. He's still quite small.
I love the look of just sheared shetland rams. They look like
goats with long johns on.

The second picture is my group of miogets.
There are actually 6 sheep here - but only 5 are
mioget. The ewe on the front left is a moorit
flecket. These miogets all belong to my friend Shauna Grey of Windwater Shetlands. I am babysitting them for her because she is selling her farm, and needs somewhere to board her
sheep until she gets set up again next year. Two of the ewes will be going back to Shauna's new place, and 3 will stay with me. 4 of the ewes are pregnant - so we will be having lambs at
Kalwa Taure this year - they will just all have the name Windwater in front of them.

This last picture is just of some of my ewes
standing around in the middle pasture - waiting to come inside for the night.

I'm sure everyone is so happy to have all of those
long hot fleeces off now. I see lots of happy scratching going on at the fence posts.

Soon - an update on pottery sheep - and lambs. Until then - stay posted.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Last night, I spent the evening in
Chatham (a town about 45 minutes from my home),
setting up for a pottery show and sale that will run
for 10 days.

Tonight, I spent the evening putting my
tiny flock on strings - and making them
into mobiles (see the fuzzy pictures at the right).
I've got 4 mini-mobiles finished now, and will
take them with me to the event that I'm going
to on Saturday..






On Sunday morning, we will be shearing
the flock - and lambs should also
start arriving within the next few days.

Nothing like being super busy all the time.

On Sunday afternoon, my darling daughter is leaving
for Ottawa for her summer posting with
the Army Reserves. She will be spending the entire summer
as a ceremonial guard at Parliament Hill - In August she
will come home for 1 day - and then head out to
Newfoundland for University.

Of course - I still have a commission of wine goblets for a local
winery to keep me busy through June - and I have to start washing
fleeces in preparation for processing, oh yes, and we are in the process of revovating one of our garages into pottery/fleece studio for me................ and somewhere in there - I'd really like to clean
my house.

Oh - I'm getting tired just thinking about it all.

Anyway - just a heads up - I am going to start making pottery sheep again next week - so - if you are interested - now is the time to contact me and put your name on the waiting list. There will be a limited number available this year.

Getting Closer to Being Done

It's been so incredibly busy here - but I am getting closer to being done. That's a good feeling.
I have 2 pottery sales coming up this weekend. On Sunday we are shearing sheep and my Daughter Brittany is leaving for her new posting in Ottawa. After that - it will hopefully slow down a bit - and I can concentrate on getting a few things done around here. Here are some pictures of
my pottery. First of all - sheep.

These are the larger sheep - they are about 4" long. There were more - but we had a little accident - involving my clumsy husband - and a few of them are now shall we say - pushing up daisies in the shard pile. They are getting there - but I still want to experiment with some more
glazes to get better colours.


Now this second picture is of the miniature flock.
They are so cute. They are only about 1 1/2" long each. We unfortunately lost several of them in the clumsy accident as well. And I dropped a section of fence and broke it while taking it out of the kiln (so I can't totally blame him).
I especially like the little ram out front - and the
border collie. I plan to add string and turn these guys into little mobiles - I'll try to post a picture before they go to the sale on Saturday.


And last - but not involving sheep.
The pictures don't do these mugs justice.
These mugs are black clay - with a bas relief of dragonflies. Then I have lustered over the dragonflies with either Mother of Pearl - or
real gold. The mother of pearl (on the left) - actually picks up the background colour - and makes the dragonfly look pewter in colour.
The gold is also very stunning. I envision doing a few more of these - I've had a great reaction from everyone that has seen them. I actually plan on adding some sheep mugs to my collection - so keep an eye out - as soon as I get the first batch out and glazed - I'll be posting them for all to see - and ahem - blatantly for sale.

More later.