2006-06-07 - 8:05 a.m.

Last week my brother James got poison ivy on the right side of his face. His eye swoll up and left just a little slit to see out of. He looked weird like some other kid. The swelling has gone down now and he's starting to look like himself again.

The man came here yesterday to shear our sheep. We had to round up the sheep for him. That was hard because some of the sheep are scared. Not Crumpet. Crumpet is our crippled, castrated sheep. He's slow and gentle. He sat perfectly still for his shearing even though he got cut on the chest. He is the best! He doesn't buck you or try to get away at all. He stands by me and he is always licking me (although I don't like the lick) and he is always loving on me. The other sheep just run away scared.

Ma told Mom she doesn't like it when I write about some of our barnyard things like castrations. For some reason people who don't live on farms think it is unpleasant.

Our shearer, Dr. Kittell, is retired. He was a vet. He had a golden tooth on the top right side toward the back. He had an Amish beard and he lives on a homestead. They homeschool too. His first name was going to be Cornelius after his grandfather but his mom shortened it to Cornel. He sheared all our sheep in about two hours. We watched so that we can start shearing our own sheep. Australians and people from New Zealand are very fast shearers but Dr. Kittell did a nice job. All the sheep looked beautiful and cool and clean.

We have to make a table out of chicken wire to clean the wool before we send it in. If we keep some we could learn to spin it and crochet with our homegrown wool. Spinning wheels are very expensive. Maybe we could sell enough blankets to buy one.

Yesterday we made a tent out of a tarp and stakes and sticks. We made a flag out of a paper bag. This morning it was still standing. We made a hut out of logs but we're scared the logs may have gotten poison ivy because we made a curtain for it that had poison ivy in it. We are afraid to play in it but that's a shame because it is really cool looking.

Between the goat and sheep pens, there is a blackberry patch. We go there for a snack when we're outside. One time I saw what looked like a thicket so I threw two sticks inside and I saw something red. I said, "Wait, what's that?" I backed up because I saw thorns so I went to an opening and I crept in and it was a maze of blackberries everywhere! There is enough to make hundreds of jars of jam! We can make pies and cobblers and ice cream! They're still red but they will blacken up soon. They should be called purple berries because they make my teeth and lips purple. I should have picked some for my cereal today but I forgot.

When jam doesn't set up right, it makes really good syrup for pancakes. But you shouldn't hope it doesn't set up right when your mom goes to so much trouble over it. Just like you shouldn't hope the bananas go brown just so your mom will make banana nut bread with whole wheat flour and pecans toasted up with soft butter on top.

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