Life's Ups and Downs- RIP, Sweet Yoda

Last Tuesday was a rainy, lazy day in which I couldn't get motivated to do much. Little did I know that I'd be saving up for a crazy several days in a row after that!

It started with a phone call that one of our alpaca guardian dogs, Yoda (a Great Pyrenees), had been found in a coyote snare on a nearby farm and that he was injured. I went to pick him up, and despite the wound on his hind leg not looking all that bad, he didn't even look like himself due to the dullness of his eyes and I knew he was in serious condition, with a cold leg and poor demeanor.

As I was dealing with that, our farm manager notified me that one of our top herdsires and most valuable animals was acting very ill and had an extremely low temperature (the nearly 50-degree drop in temperature can be rough on newly shorn animals). The vet was fortunately already coming, and after checking both animals she advised taking them both to inpatient vet clinics, including the OSU Vet Hospital for the alpaca. I immediately got on my way and drove the 3 and 1/2 hours to Columbus (I had taken two alpacas there for the first time in over 4 years, just 6 days previously!). Long story short, the alpaca made it and is fine but after much intervention including IV fluids and treatment in an ultra-oxygenated hyperbaric chamber, Yoda slipped away. I like to think that he perished in the line of duty, perhaps determinedly chasing a coyote far away from his beloved alpaca herd. Above are a few pictures of him, the one when he was just a puppy. Below is our alpaca being examined by a vet at OSU- they gave him AND our others AWESOME treatment! The next day I was glad to take a little bit of time that I really didn't have to go for a ride with Mary Beth. That was so much fun and so good for us all! We ended up finding some of the elusive morel mushrooms (more on that in the next day or two).

On Friday I helped Jenny with some farm work and we joyfully welcomed a beautiful new female cria into the world! (Her name is, fittingly, Passion since she was born on Good Friday). The weekend was filled with family and friends as we celebrated my wonderful stepson Jason and Crystal's impending marriage at two couples showers and hosted Easter dinner here on Sunday. I finished the quilted table runner just in time, and was pretty pleased with how it came out since it's really my first "quilt." I'm ready for more sewing projects, now just need to find the time! (By the way, I'm sorry that this post was "sent" before I had it completed! Sorry if you got it twice).

What is my medium?

I have become obsessed and sidelined with yet another new hobby... sewing and the bright and lovely fabrics that go along with it (a few of my first feeble projects are shown here). But before I get further into that, I have been musing about something else. Just what IS my medium?

I know that to some, it appears that I flit from one thing to the next (this loco blog certainly isn't about any one thing!) At times, I'm cranking out the handknits (though I have big boxes of unfinished objects- UFO's). Then I'm talking about mixed media art, raising alpacas, digital scrapbooking, gardening, motherhood, felting, cooking, and now... sewing? Am I simply one of those craft-supply and book collectors? (Well, I am but I really DO use things, she says to justify it!) And how, you might ask, do I have time to run a farm, do all this crafting and be a parent and wife?

Becoming part of the "blogging community" has led me to reading about so many interesting people making and doing beautiful things, that I can't help but be inspired. It's only natural that reading about dynamic and creative people doing a variety of things would stimulate my own desire to learn those skills as well. Feeling inspired gives me the energy to do the things that are the major part of my life... having a family and running a farm.

So, I'm perfectly justified in wanting to be a sewer now since I have Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams to Me and Alicia Paulson's book, Stitched in Time. ... right? I was telling Mirian about how my mom tried so hard to get me to sew when I was young and even bought me a very nice used sewing machine, but I just wasn't interested (the same goes for cooking). As I encourage Miran, she now reminds me of that and says, "I'll do it when I'm ready, Mom", and I know she's right.

Being a mom is number one on my list, but there is just too much personal stuff there to write much about here. On the other hand, I can gush about my other passions and I appreciate you coming along with me. I guess I don't have A medium- I am rediscovering just how good any kind of creating makes me feel.

(P.S. This is my $50 Janome "Sew Mini" machine- it works great, has several decent options, and paid for itself immediately when I bought it a few years ago to make curtains for the skylights in Mirian's room).