Sheeples

Dear Knittah,

The day after we went to the Ex, we went to Sheeples, a sheep farm near Inwood, Manitoba. Did we tell you about the last visit a couple of years ago? I can't remember if that's one of the things we kept meaning to blog, but never got around to. (Sorry, we've been slackers!)

Sheeples plans their lambing season to happen when it's warm: it's easier on the lambs, and since they don't have to worry about having the most weight come slaughter time (these are fleece sheep, not meat sheep), that's what they go with. Noricum *loves* spending a day at Sheeples during lambing season. (Frankly, I think she'd love to spend more than a day there!)

We took a bunch of photos so that you'd be there in spirit too.



We even got a demonstration of sheep shearing this year!

Did you know that when sheep are upside down, they can't burp/fart? The gas can build up, and essentially suffocate them! They try to do the shearing as fast as possible, and also check the sheep several times a day to make sure they haven't tipped over. (They're like turtles, and can't right themselves... especially when they have their full fleeces.)

Now, you might be wondering where I am, since I'm not in any of the photos? Well, I was there, but hung out incognito all day... Noricum says it's too hard to hold a baby sheep, take photos, *and* hold me up too.

I was kind of jealous... but how can you compete with a face like this?


One of the boys:




If you ever manage to visit us in Manitoba, make sure you come during lambing season... Noricum says she'll catch you a bottle baby lamb to hold in your lap. :)

Love,
Swatchy

Red River Ex

Hello Knittah! Swatchy here. Noricum took me to the Red River Ex last week, so we thought we'd invite you along too!

We went on Friday, so we could help Noricum's mom carry stuff in for her demo. Here she is, demoing:

The other person is Noricum's step-dad. He's cool!

Both Noricum and her mom got art in the art show at the Ex. The theme was "Manitoba Homecoming", so everything had to have something to do with Manitoba. (Although some artists seemed to ignore that rule.) Noricum entered her Great Blue Heron:

and Forest Chickadees:

since both are present in Manitoba. Both paintings got accepted. (As you can probably see.)

Noricum's mom entered four paintings (the maximum). Only three got in, but one won a prize! Here's her prize winning painting... it's the one with the brooms:

Isn't that buffalo awesome? It was done by a *teen*! (There were three categories: teen, amateur, and professional. Noricum entered as an amateur, and her mom entered as a professional.)

Noricum really liked this painting of mushrooms, but it wasn't for sale:


Another cool painting:


Okay, enough art... let's show you the fairground! (Note: if you're wondering why there aren't many people in these photos, it's because we went during the workday.)

Look, a pig on a spit!


This guy was carving logs with a chainsaw:


Yep, it's a fair:


Whoa... *fresh* fruit? Not candy coated?!? Must be because it's operated by the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg, an organization which raises funds for charities:


Noricum remembers this fun-house from when she was a kid:


This is new, though:

(Or maybe she just wasn't tall enough?)

Hee! A little train!

I wanted to ride, but Noricum said that I was too small to ride without her, and she was too big to ride. Oh well... she took me to the petting zoo instead. (We were too busy petting the sheep, alpacas and goats to take any photos, though.)

We hope you enjoyed the tour! (And you didn't even have to pay admission, or get sore feet walking on the pavement!)

Love and hugs,
Swatchy

We Kinneared Gord Leclerc

Dear Knittah,

Gord Leclerc is a local celeb... he's the anchor on the CTV Winnipeg news. January 6th, we were on our way to knitting (late, due to having to make a trip home to pick up something Noricum forgot... silly Noricum!), and Gord Leclerc got on our bus! It took us a moment to recognize him in everyday wear, rather than his suit. Noricum doesn't often run across celebrities, so she kinneared him:

He's the one behind the silver pole... sorry for the motion blur, but using flash would break the rules of kinnearing, as it would alert the subject. Given that he looked asleep, she risked a second shot:

After that, she stopped trying. I wanted to be in the photo with him (actually, I wanted to run up and get my photo taken with him for real), but Noricum said that kinnearing didn't work that way, and that we shouldn't bother the guy after a long day at work.

Love,
Swatchy

PS: For those who haven't heard of kinnearing, see here, or here, or here.

Christmas Tree Hunting

Christmas Tree Hunting

Dear Knittah,

Yesterday Noricum and I went Christmas tree hunting. It was *cold*, but it didn't take long for us to chop down the ditch tree using a pair of pruners. You can read more about the tree here.

Love,
Swatchy

PS: Noricum still hasn't found my tuque! I'm going to pester her to make me a new one, before my hair freezes off!

Manitoba Art Expo

Dear Knittah,

On Friday, Noricum, her friend, and I went to the Manitoba Art Expo. There was lots of lovely art there. I mostly hung in my travel pouch, but Noricum remembered to bring me out to introduce me to Linda Glowacki:

She does lovely needle-felted artwork, and got a real kick meeting me. She seems like a fun person!

We enjoyed looking at all the art, and Noricum saw lots of people she knew... some were from the art club she belongs to, and others she took workshops from.

The driving to and from the show was really scary, though. The roads were really icy! Plows and sanders were out, but they were having trouble keeping up with the conditions. Noricum's friend is a really safe driver, though, so we made it there and back without any accidents, although one red light we weren't sure if we'd manage to stop before the intersection. (After that we watched the walk signals, and slowed to stop if they turned red. That method had us stopped at a green light once, though. We felt a bit silly... but safe!) We saw one accident happen when someone couldn't stop for a red light, and another where someone slid all the way through a red light. In that second case, we were really glad there was a clear lane beside us, because that person *had* been in our lane. Had there not been an empty lane, we would have been rear-ended!

Driving was much better on Saturday when Noricum took me grocery shopping. We were both very relieved that the roads had improved so much.

Love,
Swatchy

Winter Wonderland

Dear Knittah,

Winter has arrived. Please send warm thoughts.

I wonder where I put my tuque...

Love,
Swatchy

Manitoba Military Tattoo

Dear Knittah,

I'm sorry I haven't written much lately! Noricum and I have so many posts to write, but life has been so busy. This post couldn't wait though... because we met Fred Penner, and he said he'd look for our post!!! Do you know who Fred Penner is? He's an *awesome* singer of children's music, and Canadian, and Noricum has an autographed record of his from when he sang at her elementary school. He even had his own TV show!

Anyway, I suppose I should give a wee bit of a back story (before Noricum hares off to that silly desk of hers that she's trying to refinish).

Noricum's dad is in the Winnipeg Male Chorus, which was singing today as part of the Manitoba Military Tattoo. Fred Penner was the Master of Ceremony. After the performance there was a dinner, and Fred Penner (and the recently retired Chief of Defense for NATO) were sitting at the next table! After the speeches were over, Noricum twisted up her courage and asked for a photograph:

(Don't mind Noricum... she's a little star-struck, and didn't think to straighten out her vest.)

While we were taking photos, this one is of Noricum's neighbour, Don McCrae, who is the grand-nephew of the poet, John McCrae, who wrote "In Flander's Fields":


And this photo is of one of the handsome fellows from the 402 Pipes and Drums Band:

Noricum was a big fan of the pipe band performances in the show, and also loved the purple tartans. :)

We also spotted an RCMP officer in full formal dress while we were waiting in the car to figure out what entrance to use before the show, but Noricum was slow to think of me and her camera, and he was already half a block away (on a *cold* and *WINDY* day), so she didn't chase after him. Also, she was delegated with making sure Don made it to his seat, and didn't want to abandon him. Sorry! Next time, Noricum promises to think faster.

Well, I'd upload a few blurry photos of the show, but Noricum is complaining that she needs to do a tiny bit on her desk before dark. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up on some of the backlogged posts soon!

Love,
Swatcy

PS: No, Noricum didn't have the guts to pester the former NATO Chief of Defense for a photograph. Plus he had wandered off, talking to other people while Noricum was busy with Fred Penner.

PPS: We're getting kind of low on postcards... do you have more of them?

Alpacas!!!

Dear Knittah,

Today we got to see alpacas!!! And other furry critters! We petted lots of soft things, both living and processed. :) Noricum is being a stick-in-the-mud, and hasn't even taken her photos off the camera. (She said that she *had* to do laundry. Harumph!) Anyway, another member of our tour group is obviously much better organized than Noricum, and has her photos on Flickr. :) Hmmm... let me see if I can get this slideshow thingy to work...



Did that work? At any rate, I'll work on getting Noricum to do something about her photos, and the cabin post, and the Toronto post and... *sigh*

Love,
Swatchy

After all that...

We were just wiped. It was time to end the sleep over by actually getting some sleep. I got in to my PJs, and Swatchee and I cuddled down for a snooze, under a lovely afghan that Pele's human crocheted for me, and sent all the way from Arkansas!

I hope Swatchee will keep in touch with us all

Thanks for the visit (and your patience listening to the ramblings of a bear

After the game..

.... time for my music. I'm a real rock'n'roll bear.!! :) Swatchee was right into it and can do a pretty mean percussion in his boot, by hopping up and down on the desk. We ROCK!!!!

FINALLY!!!

We finally get to do our real man-thing, beer, nuts and football games. Well, I shouldn't say "man-thing" because my human is the football nut in this family, and she ends up screaming at the TV! Go Bombers!! Win a game, once in a while, will ya?

We had fun hanging out.

After all that running around..

.. we had to toake a little break on the deck swing. We're pretty good friends at this point! It was nice to relax for awhile and listen to the deck pond.

After being yelled at...

We ran around to the front of the house and tried to hide in the flower bed there. My human found us of course, but she wasn't mad at us anymore. We're both there -- can you find Swatchee?

BTW, that a first-time chrysanthemum behind me. Isn't it going to be fabulous when it blooms?! It's huge!

One of those "QUIGLEY!!" moments ;)

"You boys get off the grape trellis!! What are you thinking??? "

Well, she is right. The grapes aren't ripe yet.

High Flying Swatchee

I guess it's a super-boot, because he was able to jump really high on to one of the birdfeeders. He hung around for awhile hoping the birds would come back so he could say hi, but I guess he was scary looking or something.

DON'T PANIC!!!

Hippo was just horsing around. Startled Swatchee at first, but they both ended up giggling. Swatchee was glad to be having some adventures. Not very often that you get to be "eaten" by a hippopotamus. BTW, Hippo is Gnome's friend, and spends that whole year outside too.

Swatchee REALLY like his boot!

Not only was he able to get close to the the Vomiting Frog on those slippery rocks, he was able to get right into one of the flower gardens, and meet one of my favourite buddies, the Garden Gnome. He doesn't have a name either -- wel, he does, but he says it's secret. Gnome names are something special that only other gnomes know (?). Anyhow, he stays out all winter and disappears under the snow each year and hibernates. We really know that spring is coming when his cap starts to peek out thorugh the snow. Swatchee and the Gnome really seemed to enjoy each other's presence.

Out by the pond.

The water lettuce did really well this year. Maybe TOO well since it covers most of the surface of the pond! Swatchee was quite impressed by the Vomiting Frog. That frog has never told us his name. He just sits there and spits up all the time. My human started calling him the Vomiting Frog some time ago. She had been hoping to get a fountain in her pond kit a few years ago, but ended up with a frog. She was going to replace him, but the Vomiting Frog has kind of grown on us all, even if he doesn't talk like me.

Finally outside!

It's been a weird day, alternating with heavy rain and hail, and sunny blue skies. We got out while the weather was good. Swatchee and I were going to see if we could pull some carrots, but the garden was too wet, for too much playing around. Swatchee preferred standing in the flowers anyhow. My human plants marigolds around the vegetable garden to help keep the rabbits out.

Before we got outside...

Swatchee had to check out what my human was doing. She and her male human were peeling apples for apple pie and also for freezing. He is standing beside some jars that are all apple stuff too. That might have been and adventure for Swatchee, but my human has been playing with apples for a couple of weeks now, so I thought it was rather boring. I was polite though and didn't rush him.