02/26/2021 Photo Friday

It's been a while since I've done one of these. And since I've been keeping that little Canon in my pocket, I'm starting to get a collection of daily life farm shots. Time to share some.  

02/17/2021 Practicing Acceptance

Yes, it's pitch time again. Those of you not on social media may have missed that the e-version of Bound in Shadow is now available for pre-order. It feels like it's been forever. Release date is officially March 6 for the e-book. You can pre-order from just about any place e-books are sold, but to make it easier for you, here are some of the most popular spots:   Amazon Apple Books Barnes & Noble Kobo   And remember, if you read it and enjoy it, the best way to help out an author is to let others know and to leave a review. Reviews don't have to be anything intense. Just a couple lines on why you liked the book. Which hopefully you will.  

12/31/2020 Out With a Bang

My dogs have an uncanny ability to see challenges in the strangest places, and they are more than happy to pick up the thrown gauntlet. For instance, if my vet says, "I'll be out of town this day this day this day." One of my dogs will invariably counter with, "Time to develop some mysterious ailment." When my vet says, "I'm retiring from doing surgeries." You guessed it. Challenge accepted.         Happy New Year   May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

03/08/2020 Shaking it off…

I realized it's been quite a few weeks since I last posted anything. I've been meaning to, I just haven't had the energy or the motivation. It's a late-winter-not-quite-spring thing. This time of year, with the promise of nice weather right around the corner yet not quite within reach, I tend to get impatient with not being able to venture out and do the things I most enjoy, which leads to being more irritable than normal, uninspired, and generally frustrated and restless. Besides which, not a whole lot happens this time of year and I don't have a lot to share. Jig appears to have similar issues as she's been moody lately. Actually, she's been a downright bitch, just ask Finn. Poor guy can't even look her way without her curling a lip. Seems Jig and I are both suffering from the winter blues. Thankfully, Saturday was gorgeous. A good

01/10/2020 Photo Friday

I haven't done one of these in a while. It was gorgeous today and we're due for a winter storm tonight and tomorrow because Winter has finally chosen to make an appearance, so, I decided to do one of those feed-the-soul things and take my camera on a little walk-about. This little guy was one of the few birds I saw out and about. When you have hair sheep, you have spindles of wool on fences. Linus

03/10/2019

March was off to a rocky start not only with Cian's breakthrough seizures, but with lambing as well. The weather was absolutely frigid, the majority of ewes were first timers, we lost a couple lambs, and one mother earned herself a spot on the fall trailer ride. All-in-all, that's life on the farm. Things seem to have leveled off, however, and we're down to just one ewe left to lamb. Seems there always has to be one holdout. To give us all something to smile about, I give you Photo Sunday, and a level of cuteness only lambs can achieve. All images ©2019 K. L. Schwengel/Rustic Photography

04/23/2018 Spring Has Sprung! I Hope

Sunday was a gorgeous day - finally - and I had every intention of taking advantage of the beautiful afternoon by getting in some training. First, however, I had to feed the bottle lamb. Done with that, I decided a quick walk-about was in order to check the footing in the pens and arena. The day before they had been slick and soupy. On my walk-about I noticed the duck-proofing was off on part of the arena fence. I don't have ducks this year, so could have just removed it. That would have taken more time than I wanted to spend, so I opted for a quick repair with baling twine instead. Before taking care of that, however, I needed to bring over several wheel barrow's worth of wood chips to fill in a soft spot in the roundpen, which reminded me that Cian's outside run needed a bit of

04/16/2018 Out of Hibernation… Sort Of

Usually around this time of year I'm starting up the blog after the winter hiatus, bombarding you with pictures of lambs cavorting, and laying out my training/trialing plans for the year. Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating. With any of it. I know other areas of the country are worse off. It's hard to take solace from that, however, when, as I write this, it's snowing. Again. Lounging on the couch is all well and good when we're under-the-weather, pun intended, but we've had enough downtime. We do have lambs on the ground, but there is very little cavorting taking place. Except inside, around the feed bunk and the other sheep, and occasionally around the hay bales when the little reprobates sneak out during feeding. Some of the lambs have taken to cozying up to the trough when mom is otherwise occupied, probably because we still have the tank heater in. I warned Rebel