Merry Christmas, and New Year's Resoloutions

I know I haven't posted here in a while (my bad), but I've been rearranging my priorities lately. Life is always evolving into something different. I've changed up some of the hobbies that I'm going to concentrate on. There's only so much time in the day, and I've always had the philosophy that less is more. Which leads me to New Year's resolutions. I don't normally make resolutions, more like I reflect on the year past and look to the new year and decide on what is important or not and try to improve on the year.

I have sold my wheel and gone back to spindle spinning. Why? Because I want to concentrate more on the hobbies I really, really like namely horses. I've been involved in horses (and dogs) for a very long time. I sold my horses 4 years ago when hay was hard to find, but now I'm back with a horse and a pony. I also want to spend my indoor time (aka rainy weather) on knitting and to some extent spinning. LESS IS MORE.

So, my spinning resolution for this year is that I want to spindle spin enough yarn for a sweater/cardigan. There I said it, crazy as it sounds. It may take me a year, it may take me two. But, either way, there's no hurry.

My knitting resolution is to finish the couple of projects I've had on the needles for a few months before I start another knitting project.

And I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Pony with No Name

Recently we had the opportunity to rescue a pony that had been neglected and was going to the auction barn. Poor guy was thin and did not trust humans. We brought him home, rehabilitated him, and now he is in the work force. As with all our livestock, everyone here has a job, or they go. He is doing well in his training as a draft animal and will be a great help around here doing the heavier jobs that our draft goat, Shadow, can't do.

However, the poor guy doesn't have a name! We, here on the homestead, can't agree on a name either. I like Scout, our son likes Bill (from The Lord of the Rings), and my husband likes Ed. So, I've decided to have a name the pony contest. Submit a name in the comments page and if we agree on that name, the winner of the contest will receive 4 oz of roving from my sheep. The winner can pick from either white or grey.

A Goat, an Electric Chainsaw, and a DR Trimmer

Time flies when you're working the homestead! I can't believe I haven't posted in such a long time. I've been busy, busy, busy.

Our driveway is overgrown with brush and small trees. So bad that we can't drive down without limbs hitting the vehicles. So, this summer I've taken on the task of trimming back our 1/4 mile long driveway. This is no easy task. And I can only work on the driveway when everything else is caught up. I'm now more than half way done. Among all the brush are tree limbs that fell during the ice storm. Photos are before trimming back, and after.

So Shadow is helping drag the small trees that I cut down with my handy dandy electric battery powered chainsaw. Then I use the DR Trimmer with a beaver blade to cut down the small brush and then pile it up for burning later.

The sheep are doing well despite the high temps this summer. Grass is plentiful this year.

New Additions to the Flock and Gardening

 

The breeder I bought my sheep from had some bottle babies for sale, and well, we were looking to diversify our herd anyways. So, I drove 4 hours one way to pick up these little darlings. A white ewe and two ram lambs. The ram lambs are really unique coloring, officially called silver blackbellies. The garden is doing really well this year! I've been picking Swiss Chard, Radishes, and Loose Leaf Lettuce. The Sugar Snap peas have just started producing little pods! Yum!

Surprise!!!

Yesterday, my husband was looking out the window to the front pasture and said "I think you have a new lamb". You've got to be kidding me! Moonstruck really pulled a fast one over me. No way did she look like she was bred. So, I had to go way out in the front pasture and get the lamb and try and coax Moonstruck back to the shed to put her in the maternity ward. A little white ewe lamb! Yehaw! Both mom and babe are doing well and are in their own paddock enjoying fresh grass today.

Spinning, Spinning, Spinning

All the sheep have been shorn. And I've washed all but one of the 2011 fleeces. Yesterday I started flick carding and spinning Jacynda's fleece. What a lovely fleece she has. So soft and easy to spin. Another reason she has become my favorite ewe. I really hope next year she gives me a ewe lamb or two!

Lately we had been having such wonderfully warm weather with higher than normal temps for this time of year. Well, of course, the weather sling shot in the other direction last weekend. Rain, rain, and more rain, plus thunder sleet, a little hail, and temps in the 30's at night. I hope the garden makes it through this last ditch effort of Mr. Winter!

Ramblings...

Last week the weather was nice enough that I was able to get some garden work done. Here's Shadow hauling topsoil and compost to the raised bed garden for me. I'm not done filling the raised beds yet, still quite a few bags to go. Thank you Shadow for being such a help to me.

I've been washing this years fleeces and getting them ready for combing and spinning because it's been rainy lately. This is Jacinda's fleece before washing.

Lambs!

Jacinda and Raven have lambed! White twin ram lambs and black twin ewe lambs! I'm so happy that they both had twins! Hopefully next year Jacinda will have ewe lambs. She's getting on up there in age and I would really like to have a ewe lamb or two out of her before she retires.

This week has been really rainy, good for the pasture seed that I put out to seed the bare spots, but makes it hard to do any work outside. The garden is doing well. Can you tell I have spring fever!?!

Hopefully this spring, we'll be having the tree stumps pulled and hauled off.

I've been knitting another pair of Fair Isle Flower Socks. I just can't seem to stop knitting socks. This pair I'm using Moonstruck's yarn as the main color and some leftover butter cream white as the pattern color. The color has come out really nice.

I just recieved some books from Amazon that I bought and am flipping through them looking for ideas for projects that I want to do with the yarn that I'm going to have spun with my fleeces. These are really good books and are loaded with designs for color work as well as the history of different ethnic traditions of color work.

Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters

Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting

Traditional Fair Isle Knitting

Traditional Scandinavian Knitting

Shadow taking a cat nap between work sessions.

Neked Sheep and Crazy Weather

Well this has been one crazy week when it comes to the weather! We had about 6 inches of beautiful snow with temperture down to 0 F. There were a lot of tractor trailer accidents for over the road truck drivers. Thank the Lord that my husband was able to make it home safely to wait out the weather.

This week the weather is going to be in the upper 60's F. Today, I was outside in a tee shirt! The garden has started coming up despite the extremely cold weather.

 

Jacinda is due to lamb at the end of the month. So today she got her spring haircut. Tomorrow, I'll be giving Raven her haircut as she's the next ewe due to lamb.

This fall, I'll be coating the sheep to help keep their fleeces cleaner. I'm also experimenting with a new way of feeding the round bale of hay to help keep them from getting so much hay on their necks. I need to wait a few weeks to see how they do with the new method.

Two Years Ago Today...

Two years ago today was the worst ice storm we've ever had. We were without electricity for nearly three weeks. Imagine trees down everywhere, no water, no heat, and no way to get out. Our driveway is 1/4 mile long at the end of a dirt road, my dear hubby had to chainsaw his way out of the driveway and then chainsaw as far as he could up the dirt road that is a mile long. We had to walk to town to try and find bottled water (which was nearly all gone). Thank goodness for the kind couple that picked us up and took us part way into town, and a friend that was able to get us to Walmart and back partway home. He couldn't drive up our dirt road due to the trees that were too big for us to chainsaw away from the road. So we had to carry the water and kerosene home.

Here's a video I took out of the back door. Since we didn't have radio or cell phone service, we had no idea how bad our area had been hit by this storm until we had gotten into town 3 days later.

Today in comparison, is blue skies and spring like. I'll be planting sugar snap peas this afternoon.

Feels Like Spring is In The Air

What a beautiful day it has been! It was actually nice enough that I opened the doors and let some fresh air into the house. I got a lot done today, inside and out. I plied another skein of yarn this morning. White alpaca and some of Moonstruck's fleece. Washed it and dried it. Now it's ready to go. Moonstruck's combed top is all spun and plied as well. Just have the woolen prep to do and then spin that and her fleece will be all done.

I've been teaching Shadow to drive so that I can steer him from behind and pick up rocks to put in the wagon. Sometimes he forgets that he has to take directions, those acorns are so tempting. But, once I get him focused on where I want him to go and not the acorns he does very well. I'm gathering rocks from the field to make raised garden beds, it's a good use for some of the many rocks we have. Seems like every time I turn around more rocks have sprouted!

I also burned some tree limbs that had fallen the last wind storm we had. And since I had a fire going I thought I might as well take advantage of the free heat and bake me a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes. Yum.

I've decided which fleeces I'm having made into roving and which I'm keeping here to process into yarn by hand. After pulling out and sorting the fleece, I can't believe how much I have! Two shearings from Jacinda, Raven, Guthrie, and one from Robin (lamb). So, I'm sending out Jacinda's, Guthrie's, and one of Raven's and keeping Robins' and one of Raven's. I'm hoping to shear before lambing, but it depends on how warm it is mid Feb.

Snow!

Last night we got our first snow this winter. Further south, it snowed much more than what we received. Malvern was hit with 8 inches and Interstate 30 is supposed to be closed, according to my dear hubby. I'd rather snow than ice!

I'm back spinning Moonstruck's fleece that I've hand combed into top. I have one full bobbin and a half done. Then on to plying that.

The ewe's are looking very pregnant! If my calculations are correct Jacinda (white ewe pictured) should lamb at the end of Feb. She had a very nice ram lamb last yr.

A Pile of Alpaca

On Ravelry, I was offered a Spin a Fleece, get a Fleece of alpaca. I just could not help myself and have been spinning the fleece that needs to be returned to the alpaca owner. It is nice fleece. However, I've decided that I need to have more self control! I still have 5 fleeeces of my own sheep to process and spin into yarn before spring comes and time to shear them. So, this year I WILL NOT take any more fleeces so that I can catch up on my own fleeces. Just do not have enough time in the day to do that and get the garden and other things done. I am thinking about sending out some of the fleeces to have made into roving so that I can catch up a little. I am also going through my yarn stash and taking pictures of yarn that I don't have a project already picked out for and am going to do a destash on Ravelry within the next month or so. I have so little storage space, that it just needs to be done.

Why Every Small Homestead Should Have a Draft Animal

Small draft animals are a wonderful way to have cheap help around the small homestead when you need that extra helping hand.  Goats, in my opinion, are the most versatile. They are small, inexpensive to feed, are easy to maneuver in tight quarters, are easy to train for most people, and are less prone to step on your feet. I'm not saying they are the only, or the best draft animal. Every homesteader needs to take stock of what their needs are to determine what animal they should use. Very small places could go with one or even two large dogs. But they do eat a lot and require that you feed them meat. Pony's would be good to have if you needed much more strength than what a goat could provide, pound for pound. However, they do get frightened easier, are harder to train for someone not familiar with horse personalities, and they eat more.

Here Shadow is helping me clean out the sheep shed. I do this weekly. It only takes two loads of this stone boat to get the job done. I do need to raise the height of the sides of the stone boat. If I did that, it would only take one trip. After unloading the sheep droppings into the compost pile, Shadow then helps me with moving leaves to the compost pile. Four loads of leaves, 2 loads of sheep droppings = black gold in the garden!