The Sewing Ladies

The sewing ladies hit Moms office big time this past week. The girls love to look through the boxes of fabric that I have stashed in tubs 3 and 4 high...I know it is some sort of fiber issue...LOL. They pull this out and that out...they make believe that this fabric would make a lovely skirt and this makes a wonderful cape...the list goes on all the while I am with them but still able to work...somewhat as it is a rather small space with all of my stash.

Meghan was working on sorting some of the fabrics into types and Julia said she wanted to make a pillow. Julia found a bright orange piece of fabric and a tattered old doily...she said it was just beautiful... We put the fabric on the table so we could cut the orange fabric into a shape...I asked her what shape she wanted? She said a square. She then sat their and said hMM...I know what this could be.

She took the tattered oval doily ..laid it on the pillow top and then ran into the other room for more fabric...got the scissors and came back into the room. She said to me Mommy this can be a sheep...she cut two strips for the legs and then said to me can you help me make a head, ears and a tail...I was so proud of her! She is just 4 1/2 and to realize that I have given her the tools and inspiration to be creative is just so wonderful...it truly makes up for all the times I want to wring her neck...!

I helped her with the other features and then showed her how to pin the pieces to the pillow top. We then sat together at the sewing machine...she kinda lost interest as it took awhile but she still sat next to me and sorted through the gallon jars of thread that I have accquired...another fiber thing!

The next day I gave her some clean babydoll wool that was to short to use and she stuffed her pillow. She hasn't finished as this is probally at least a 20x20 pillow...but it will make a nice project for a day in the office when her sister and brother go back to school! My little blessing...it was a good day!

Dear Sweet Little Abner

Sometimes in life their are special things that come into your life that you don't forsee. This little lamb was one of them

His name was Abner and he was born on a bitter cold night in early March. He wasn't breathing when he was born so I had to revive him with a few swift suctions of his mouth and nose...with my mouth...I know yuck but it was all I had at the moment and I knew time was of the essence. He wasn't strong enough or it was just too cold and he couldn't stand. I tried everthing to get him to nurse but he was just too weak. I milked his Mom and then tubed him with the colostrum...still no luck...mind you the whole time it was freezing and the middle of the night. I then remembered hearing about giving them coffee to jump start them...I did it twice and then got a quilt from the house and put him and me inside of it and sat with him all night until he could stand....Hooray we had victory he slowly started to come around and could stand and nurse! Boy what a great feeling!

He grew we docked his tail and he was so cute! So cute in the way he seemed to toddle from side to side just like a human toddler! It took me a while to realize that he wasn't interacting with the other lambs and kids in the barnyard...mind you he was the only Babydoll that we had born this year..but their were many other types of lambs and kids. Abner stayed with his Mommy alot ...Boy did he love his Mommy, Abigail!

We had the vet come out and take a look at him it seemed to be that his front left leg had some sort of defect in that it turned inward...yet could be palpatated back in place...MMMM. The vet recomended we cast it and see if it would help. We took Abner to the vet and he was sedated and his cast was put on. Abner was in the cast for approx. 5 weeks. He learned how to walk with the cast. We had to keep him up at the barn and make sure he wasn't out in the rain or mud. I'd see raindrops and fling myself outside to get Abner and put him in the barn. A lot of effort but we just knew this little guy needed us!

After about 5 weeks of the cast it seemed like he was having trouble getting up and one morning I found him down in the pasture and he couldn't get up. He was anemic , pale membranes, even though he had been wormed 3 weeks prior. The worms this year have been terrible and very resistant to wormers. We called the vet, we wormed again and she took a fecal sample.

Come to find out he was full of coccidia too...treated him for that. He seemed to be improving but then he started to have trouble standing again. We thought it was the cast. We took him to the vet to have the cast taken off. They discovered he was still full of coccidia. It was the last time I saw him.

The vet was heroic and we thank him for that..he kept him 10 days...hand fed him...treated him for the coccidia with everything they could. The vet even made a special stand with a sling for him to stand in but to no avail. Friday evening, July 31, around 8 the vet called and said I think it's time...I said okay and then handed the phone to my husband...I just couldn't talk anymore.

The vet brought his body around the next morning and my husband buried him under his favorite tree in the pasture. Goodbye little boy