RIP Lightening...

It's been an eventful week. Poor baby ram. Raising sheep shouldn't be this hard. Lightening McQueen was dead last Thursday morning, the kids and I found him in the back part of our lot as we were leaving. I *really* couldn't do anything about him then, I left his body in the woods and called Wesley as we were pulling out of the driveway.

Me: "Um, honey? Lightening McQueen is dead."
Wes: "Huh?"
Me: "You know, Lightening, the ram. He's dead. He's in the woods. Do I just leave him there, or what?"
Wes: "But what else would you do with him? Maaaan, he's going to stink this afternoon."

Sorry friends, no pictures of this one. Lightening had a decent burial after Wes dug a very nice hole that afternoon. Thank goodness we got him in the ground before Tropical Storm Fay hit. Our back lot went from dry woods to swamp pretty quick. More on that, with pictures, later.

He's so clever

One of the things that makes being married to Wes both interesting and challenging are his contraptions and ideas. It's wonderful that he can create just about anything and solve many problems for me, but he frequently makes me nervous.

For instance, check out this setup. Wes says it's based on how the Egyptians moved stones for the pyramids. That's the kid's fort, and he's trying to get the clubhouse part back up on its legs. He's usually the only person working on these sorts of projects, so he has to find a ways to lift and move heavy pieces by himself. Wes is great with a lever, and has moved lots of things I thought were impossible for one person.

Here, he has the clubhouse counter-balanced with a 50 gallon drum of water. He tied it all up, then turned the hose on and had it on the legs in no time! He just has to put up with my worries -- what if the rope breaks? Don't let the kids near it! Careful! How are you going to make it stable? He says "Don't worry, it's fine." I guess we make a good pair, Odd Couple style.

And this, my friends, is how we mow the yard

Katahdin Hair Sheep. The kids named them. The one closest to the camera, with horns is "Cookiepie Sweetie Face," the youngest ewe. Behind her is her big sister "Marshmallow Christmastreecake Bouncy Girl," and the white one is a ram called "Lightening McQueen." Can you guess which child named which animal(s)?

Sew and Show - "Jayme" Tanks

I used the pattern for the "Jayme Dress" at Sewingmamas to make some new tank tops for Kaia. The largest size I could find in the downloads was a 4T, so I used the general shape of it to come up with a size 7.

My first attempt isn't shown here, as it was in the wash, but it wasn't a great fit. It gaped in the front and back, and the straps were waaay to long. I hacked a few inches out of the straps on that one to make it wearable, then modifed the pattern again. The shirts shown here have 1/2" taken from the center, then added back to the sides to keep the shirt from being too snug. 5 3/4" straps seem to be the right length to keep the shirt decent. None of them are getting hemmed, my theme here is "quick & easy," and it doesn't matter so much with knits anyway.

The shirt is a baby rib I think I got at Fabric.com ages ago, you can't see the print, but it's ballerina bunnies. Kaia loves it, she has a nightgown from it too. I used FOE (foldover elastic) for the straps. I promised she could do a special pose after one normal picture. :-)

And of course, Doug had to get in on the act!

Last two shirts have fabric straps, and I like the way these turned out too. I just hate ironing the binding strips, I manage to burn myself everytime I use the iron! I was talking to my friend Lisa as I finished them, and she reminded me that I have a gazillion iron-ons. So, they says "Flower Power" and "Chicks Rock." Kaia was tickled pink by the chicks shirt.