Sunday, September 26, 2010

Nineteen Years and Counting

This weekend my husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. I love him even more than I did when we first got married. Okay, enough of the mushy stuff.

We went to Hardy and strolled the shops, had lunch at a cosy diner, and did some shopping, and had an ice cream.

Today a north wind blew in, seems like fall today.

The alpaca and lincoln lamb has been spun up and plied. I washed it this evening, and it's now hanging to dry. Will post pictures when it's dry.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Fall is Around the Corner

The sheep are preparing themselves for fall breeding season and fattening themselves for winter. The ram, Guthrie, has started testing the ewes to check if they are ready for breeding, as sure sign that fall is just around the corner.

This is Guthrie, our BFL crossed ram. And a pic of his fleece, on the hoof.














I've replanted the garden with cool season crops. Lettuces, radishes, sugar snap peas, chard, and bunching onions.

I've finished spinning Moonstruck's spring fleece. It turned out very nice. I'll probably wait until fall cleanup chores are done outside before I start on the shawl I intend to make with it. But, in the meantime, I've been experimenting with blending alpaca and wool. I combed the alpaca and wool (lincoln lamb) separately, and then hand carded 2/3 alpaca and 1/3 wool into mini batts. I spun up 2 oz on a bobbin and then my friend that has an Ashford drum carder, let me come over and card the rest on her drum carder. The batts were so much faster to card on the drum carder. Makes me wish I had the money to go out and buy one!