Look What Came In the Mail Today!

My wonderful husband bought me a beautiful skein winder for Christmas. I love this skein winder! It has everything I would want in a skein winder/swift. Yardage counter, different skein sizes, solid wood, and easy to use.

This is the picture from the website, but it looks exactly like the one I received. Here's their etsy shop address, in case someone was interested in checking them out. Wooden Spinner skein winder

Merry Christmas!

Catching Up...

My son is home for the holidays and he brought his camera with him.

Yea, now I can catch up on all the things I've been doing. To me, blogging without pictures is boring (no offense to anyone who doesn't blog with pics) so that's why I haven't done any posting lately. 

The lincoln/alpaca yarn came out lovely.

I would certainly do this mix again, should I come across more lincoln.

I'm knitting Spring Tulips Stole as an introduction to lace work because I have to admit, I'm a bit intimidated by Gwendolyn, the shawl I'm going to make with the lace yarn I've made with Moonstruck's  fleece.

I've also finally gotten through combing Moonstruck's June clip 2010.  It was soo clean that I am able to use the "waste" from combing. That will be hand carded for wollen spinning. But, that will have to wait till I've gotten a few other projects completed, and Christmas over with. Next yr, I'm GOING to start Christmas projects in summer!!! So much to do, and so little time (grin).

Here's what I've been doing outside with Shadow as my helper.  Raking leaves and piling them up for a compost pile for the spring garden. This pile is about four feet tall and about 30 feet around. When I clean out the sheep shed (thank you Shadow for helping here too) the cleanings go into this pile. I still have more leaves to gather, but it's been so cold and damp I haven't been out to get it done. Plus, Christmas is coming upon us very quickly and I have many projects to finish!

I've also added a solar light on my portable chicken house. Yea, solar chickens! It only cost $15, and works very well for what I'm using it for. Lighting for winter eggs.

I'm closing for now, though I'm sure I've left something out. But anyways, Have a Very Merry Christmas.



Worth His Weight In Gold

My friend, Shadow, is worth his weight in gold. Shadow is the last goat I have left. We raised dairy goats for nearly 10 yrs and this yr. it was time to let them go to a new home. I do miss them, but I know that they are loved in their new home. Shadow was one of the kids that was born on our farm destined to go into the freezer, but he was so loving and followed me everywhere (not that the others didn't :), but for some reason he became like a dog to me. So I started singing "Me and my Shadow" every time he would follow me around the yard. So, my husband came up with the idea of keeping him as a pet. Therefore he got named Shadow.

Shadow is now 3 yrs old. All grown up and ready to help me around the homestead now. So a few weeks ago I made him a harness. And last week his cart shaft was delivered. He has become such a big help for me now. This week he has hauled several hundred pds of brush, tree limbs, and cut wood that has been lying around from the ice storm we had. I was able to get one paddock completely picked up in a couple of days vs. several weeks. Next week he'll help me pick up rocks out of that same paddock.

Unfortunately, I still don't have a camera. Tried to get my son to let me borrow his, but that didn't happen. So, you'll have to imagine Shadow in his new wagon.

This is Shadow out with the sheep this summer.

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.

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!

Uninvited Guest

Last night when I went out to gather the hens' eggs, I found an uninvited guest taking a nap in the nesting box. I'm sure he'd not only eaten the eggs from the day before, but also from yesterday. Normally, I would leave a snake like this alone. But because it has become an egg eater, I couldn't do that. The snake would find it's way back to the hen's nest.

This is a rat snake. They are a helpful snake, as long as they aren't eating your eggs!

Flying the Coop

We settled our dear son into university life yesterday. This is a big step for him, as well as us. I know he is excited and nervous at the same time. After homeschooling him from 5th grade on, it's a little strange not having him in the house. I'm glad to see him move on to the next step in his life, but a bit sad too. My little boy is all grown up.

Anyways, I'd been borrowing his digital camera to take photos, and he took his camera with him. Until I can get my own camera, I'll have to do without.

Been working on some socks, in between moving son into his new living quarters. Hmm, maybe I have a new craft room now !?! grin...

Here's a photo of Raven's ewe lamb after her first haircut in late June. I put the sheep up on my old goat milking stand to handshear them. Less stress on my back and less stress on them. I haven't given her an official name yet. I'm thinking of calling her Felicity. It would be more logical to me to give her a name starting with "R" so that I remember that her mom is Raven, but we'll see...

Sheep in the Shade

Finally got a few good pictures of a couple more ewes. They were lounging under the trees for some shade. Today hasn't been quite as hot, and the sheep are enjoying the break in the heat.

This is Moonstruck. I've been spinning her spring fleece for a Gwendolyn Lace Shawl

This is Raven. Her fleece won 1st place in the colored fleece category in 2005 with her previous owner in MO.

Everybody is Looking for Water

Last night when I went to check on the sheep and feed the pigs, I saw this little frog seeking water where he could. He found water in the pigs stock tank. It's been so hot and dry, I'm sure he was thankful to be able to take a dip in the tank.

I haven't had a chance to get more pictures of the sheep. It's either been too dark or too hot, so hopefully tomorrow, I'll get the timing right and be able to snap some good pictures.

Meanwhile, I've been a spinning away at the combed top from Moonstruck.

Singing In the Rain

Yesterday afternoon it rained enough to take away some of the heat. I think the sheep were secretly singing in the rain. They seemed so much more comfortable. Some of the local fiber farmers have lost animals due to the heat index recently. I have so few sheep, I can't afford to lose a single one.

This is Jacinda. She's my favorite ewe. Very friendly, easy going, and a great mom.

One of our hens hatched out a clutch of chicks this summer. A predator

took a few of the chicks, but one is left. Here's mom and chick.

My last fleece that needed washing, is on the drying rack now. It should be dry by tomorrow. Now that the washing

is done, my goal is to try and spin 1 oz a day. I love spinning the top I combed off of Moonstruck. I'm thinking I need more sheep!

Life in the Fleece Lane

My little experiment with using the "magic" fleece basket worked! I soaked the fleece about 24 hours in water, did 1 hot water wash, and 2 hot water rinses. Not only did the lock structure stay intact, it was easy to clean. The next fleece I did, I soaked directly in my rainwater barrel that my hubby made for me while experimenting with trying to heat the rainwater with solar power. That worked even better because I could then drain the dirty water directly into the garden without much work.

Only one more fleece to wash and then I'm done. Yea! Just the lamb fleece to go. It's a beautiful chocolate color. I hope it stays that color once it has been spun, but ya never know.

Then it'll be on to spinning the wonderful top that I combed from the first fleece. A beautiful grey.

For a quick knit in between washing fleeces, I knit up a reusable produce bag. It's a very nifty little bag. All those yarn overs nearly drove me to not finish it. I think if I make another one, I'll just do a simple knit stitch all the way up so I don't get frustrated with all the yarn overs. I did use lace instead of the fingering weight yarn and that might have been part of my problem!

Fleecy Happenings

After having bought a couple of mesh laundry bags to wash my sheep's fleece in, I decided that I didn't like how the mesh bag was compacting the fleece and not allowing it to get as clean as it was when I was washing without any bag. So, I came up with a plan. I wanted a mesh container that would hold it's shape, allow the fleece plenty of room to float around for better cleaning, and that I could take in and out to drain the dirty water.  I had on hand an old mesh laundry hamper that I could re purpose into my magic fleece washing basket. I took out the wire, cut the mesh, sewed the pieces together. And now I have a fleece soaking in it. We'll see how the outcome of this experiment is in a few days.

Suprise outside my back door

My dear hubby and son have been working diligently to rebuild the well house so that come winter our water (hopefully) will not freeze this year. While outside, a little bird has been very loudly telling us what for. We could not figure out why the little bugger was so persistant at telling us we needed to work somewhere else. Well low and behold, dear hubby looks up and notices a birds nest just overhead. While working on the well house I noticed that the bird telling us what for was the male and the female would come by every so often and feed three little babies in the nest.  I get out my camera and take a few shots of the nest and the parents, look it up in my bird book. The birds are Scarlet Tanagers. It's nice knowing that they are willing to create a home for their babies just a few feet from our back door. Now, every time I go out that door, I'll be looking up to see how they are doing. Howdy, neighbor!