First, let me say I am deeply touched by and grateful for your response to my invitation to Flock for Healthy Hearts, in support of Go Red for Women and the American Heart Association. With your help we quickly surpassed my initial goal of raising $2500 and the giving continues. It says a lot about the strength and love within the larger fiber community, how we rally and tend to each other. I can't thank you enough. I encourage you to share this post and this link for Go Red For Women. There's information about the movement and more importantly a list of cardiac warning signs.

I still have 2011 Flock for Healthy Heart calendars available, my personal gift for contributions (up to the first 100). Visit my page at Go Red For Women to make a donation. (Please be sure to include your postal address so I can send you a calendar when they are ready in November.) Thanks for continuing to spread the word.

And now some news from the flock front.

Mistral, Georgia and Arial are practicing walking on leads in preparation for a special television appearance. Later this month Holly, Mike and I will take them to the Springfield studio of our local NBC affiliate, channel 22. The gals will make their big debut on the program "Mass Appeal".

Teaching lambs to walk on leash is not as easy as it sounds. You can't just snap on a collar and tell them to "heel". Mistral needs little coaxing, since she already wants to follow us everywhere we go. Georgia isn't shy but she's headstrong. She balked at being led, stubbornly putting her head down, "Please do I really have to wear this thing?". But now she's use to her collar and is comfortable walking along, as long as Mistral is with her.

Arial is surprisingly reluctant. Although she's one of the friendliest lambs, I'm not sure if she's a confident at the other two. We'll see how far they all come over the next week. With sheep, it's a matter of introducing things slowly and then practicing new routines. Flocking together is natural. Walking on lead, not so much. But it is teachable.

I certainly don't want to stress them out (I'm definitely not a stage parent!). We'll take whoever is most comfortable. I'll be sure to keep you posted and will share some shots of them at the studio.

A final comment for the weekend: it feels very strange to us, not being at Rhinebeck this year. It's such an autumn ritual for me. I miss being with my people! But the break is doing me much good and I'm glad I had the sense to make this decision (albeit reluctantly). I will look forward to being there again in 2011 all the more.

If you go to the festival, please pat some yarn and nuzzle some sheep for me. Happy fibering!