Repast

Eating like a queen tonight at . . .

Gearing up for NaKniSweMo

I learned from Chocolate Sheep that November is NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month). Great. I just happen to have two gift sweaters (cardigans) on my to-knit list, so I am taking this as a kick in the pants to get my rear in gear. One of the sweaters is for Brian, who has outgrown his modified Baby Surprise Jacket but still wants to wear it to church sometimes. He has a birthday coming up, and I have my eye on this pattern in red (his favorite color) with grey stripes (stash yarns) - modified, of course to fit a BIG boy!
Remember this? My dear friend, this little sweetheart's mother, would like a matching cardigan for herself. No problem; I have plenty more of the rose chenille and the side-to-side Sonnet pattern should work well. Now if only I didn't need to sleep - or could knit IN my sleep. Because I also need to keep working on thisand other gift knits for the holidays!

Off to knit while helping Brian with his reading and math at . . .

Thar's gold in them thar hills!

On a drive over the hill into Amity Tuesday, I had to stop and snap a couple of pictures. Between the vineyards below and the native maples above, the scene positively glowed!

By yesterday morning the weather was changing, but my big Japanese maple in the island bed made up for the lack of sunshine. This tree used to be outside our bedroom window in the old manufactured home (we moved it to the island when we built our house), and really did give the effect that the light was on in the room when it was in full fall foliage!

This morning we're socked in with fog, and Brava is acting friendlier toward Franjean. Could there be more March lambs?

That's it for now at . . .

Yippee! March lambs!

This morning Inky is receptive to Franjean! Based on this handy lambing date calculator, I'll be keeping watch towards the end of March 2009 for surprise packages. The offspring of these two will be F3 Holly, double F4 Roban Dillon; will I get a full-poll out of the match? Will they be black? Moorit? Modified? Gulmoget or solid? Oh, it's going to be a loooong five months. :-)

It is, indeed, breeding season, at . . .

The roving has landed!

Last night Rick was able to pick up my roving when he was near the processor's for a veterinary call. I love it all, especially Valentine's two colors, and will definitely save some of each to spin myself. SOMEday I'm going to knit myself a Fair Isle jacket out of homespun in natural colors!

Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering who the contest winner is! I am pleased to announce that Catskill Mountain Fibers gets to take her pick from the girls' roving shown and described below. She guessed I'd get back 19 1/4 pounds of roving from the processor, and she was only off by a few ounces. In case you are interested, I sent in 28.95 lbs. of fleece, so my return was 67% and some change. How does that compare with what other you other Shetland breeders have experienced in processing your own fleeces or sending them out?

Many thanks to all who entered my contest. If you see something below that you just have to try, it IS available for sale. :-)

Dinah, white (bump, long staple):
Rechel, light grey (loose roving, shorter staple):
Valentine, dark fawn (bump, long staple):
Valentine, light fawn (bump, long staple):
Bella, grey lamb (bump, long staple):
Bella, light grey adult (bump, long staple):
Proud to be grown in the U.S.A. at . . .

The sheep speak

"Hey Food Lady, what's the deal with the girls around here?"

"Rams! They are SOOO impressed with themselves, and think we should be, too. I wish he'd just leave me alone. You would think that having 15 lambs in seven years would be enough to earn me some peace."

"Just keep eating, Brava. Maybe he won't notice us."

"Oh shoot, he's coming this way!"

"Maybe that cute little Butter would be easier to woo."

"At least you're nice to me; I appreciate the chin scratch."

"Thanks; I feel better now. I know they can't resist my charms forever!"

That's it from the breeding group at . . .

Lovely, lovely light

Morning light:
Evening light:
Midday light:
Cloudy bright:
ALL the light is lovely this glorious time of year! While we may not have as much color in our indigenous flora as the east does, I think the color in the agricultural crops (above you see cherry trees and blueberry bushes; the vineyards are turning gold) and landscaping plantings more than make up for it. And as my friend Kathleen says, the colors contrast so nicely with the ubiquitous Douglasfirs.

Of course, perfect Indian summer days increase the sensory pleasures a hundredfold. Today on the way home from Brian's violin lesson, we took the time to do something I've long wanted to do - follow the signs for "U-pick kiwis." We turned west in Dundee and headed up into the hills, past acres and acres of vineyards,to HB&K Farms (which stands for honey, bees and kiwis).While our eyes feasted on more fall color,Brian and I sampled our first "baby kiwis" - small fruits as soft and fuzz-free as a newborn baby's bottom. Yum! We headed into the trellised vines to pick - not these hard, fuzzy things- we want THESE tasty morsels!
Before leaving Dundee I pulled into a parking lot to confirm my suspicions. Indeed, the business that used to reside in the commercial space behind that brilliant young tree, Pacific Wool and Fiber, is gone. But I checked for a web presence when I got home and see that they have only moved to the next town, Newberg, so we haven't lost a local resource for fiber addicts. Whew!

That's it for now at . . .

The best-laid plans . . .

I got sick Friday, on top of my cold. Didn't pay much attention to the symptoms at first, as I was busy cleaning and preparing food for the next day, but by suppertime I didn't feel much like eating (you KNOW I don't feel good when I pass on the homemade German Chocolate Cake I made for Rick's birthday!), and went to bed shortly after that. Didn't sleep much from discomfort, and stayed home from church the next day. I rarely get sick and when I do, I'm usually over the worst of it in 24 hours, so I was hoping to bounce back in time for the barn party Saturday night. As the day dragged on (Rick was on call and had to go on several emergencies; he had Brian with him) it became clear that I was not going to be up for socializing, but Rick and Brian still planned to go to the party and pick up my roving, too. To Brian's great dismay (the barn party was held at his best friend's house), they didn't get home from the emergencies until nearly 7:30 p.m., way too late to drive over an hour to a party that started at 6:00. Obviously, the roving didn't wing its way here by itself, so the announcement of the contest winner must be delayed.

My typically cast-iron gut is still in turmoil, but I feel enough better today to be out of bed more often than in it. (I have no idea what I'm dealing with. No fever, so I think that rules out the flu. I've had food poisoning, and this isn't it.) When Rick and Brian left to pick grapes to juice, I decided to spin some more of the luscious batt Allena gave me in MO - and finished it!Not only was it good "fiber therapy," once I get it plied and skeined my wheel will be free to play with roving from my own sheep.

Speaking of fibery goodness, I so enjoyed the mohair yarn I made my moebius shawl from that last week I bought more - and in more colors! (Did I mention it's on sale?) This really is nice stuff, not at all itchy. If you want to buy some and pay the shipping I'd be happy to pick it up and send it to you. It's also available in dark eggplant and burgundy. Email me (link at right) for details.

That's it for now from . . .

A successful experiment

Before we left for Texas, one of Rick's clients gave us a bunch of Asian pears. He pressed a lot of them into cider last week (unfortunately his little helper wasn't the best on quality assurance and some bad ones slipped through, resulting in some "off" batches), but there were still some left. Last night while Brian and I were on the "sheep run," Rick loaded our dehydrator with slices. Having never dried or tasted dried Asian pears before, we didn't know how they'd turn out. I am happy to report that they are DELICIOUS! There's a stockpot full of fresh ones left, so we'll dry those, too. They will join the dried cherries and dried prunes already in our freezer. Next week I need to start canning applesauce to join the tomatoes and condensed tomato soup in the pantry.

In other culinary news of the day, I made deviled eggs for potluck at church tomorrow. I set a dozen eggs aside at least two weeks ago (a couple may have only been a week and a half old), and most of them were STILL hard to peel. I am here to tell you that there is NO GOOD WAY to make fresh eggs easy to peel! Not salt in the water, not ice and or baking soda in the afterbath, not picking holes in both ends and blowing - NOTHING. Sure makes me wonder just how old those store-bought eggs are - you know, the ones that are easy to peel? Since I don't plan to buy eggs again in the foreseeable future, I'm just going to give up on hard-boiled eggs. No big deal.

I THINK that's the last post for today from . . .

Speaking of contests...

I got an email from the processor saying that I can pick up the rest of my fleeces Saturday night when we're in her area for a barn party. I asked her to weigh what she has there (she doesn't usually weigh the end product) and I'll add what I have here (plus what I've already sent to buyers) to come up with a total weight for the finished roving. Sunday morning I'll look through all your guesses and see who the lucky winner is! (If you haven't guessed yet and would like to a chance to win 8 ounces of Shetland roving - your choice of color, leave a comment here or on the original post by midnight Saturday night.) You also have until midnight Saturday to buy roving at the sale price of $2/ounce (I take PayPal); after that the price goes up. Many thanks to those who have already taken advantage of this offer so I can more easily pay the big bill come Saturday night!

That's it for now at . . .

A closer look at Franjean...

...after a clarification on poll/horn genetics. I erred in my comments two posts (can I claim jet lag and a head cold?) ago when I said that genetically both Braveheart and Franjean are the same (PP/pp). They ARE the same genetically, but it's written Pp, since they both carry one poll gene (P) and one horn gene (p). We know this because Franjean's sire is a full-poll (PP) - and Franjean has scurs; and Braveheart only has bone knobs but has thrown both scurs and full horns. There may be a gene locus that influences the size and type of scurs, but none of us know that for sure. Certainly Braveheart's little bone knobs are more visually appealing to those of us breeding for polled Shetlands, but both these rams can contribute to a polled breeding program. As Juliann said in her comment: "Us polled Shetland breeders are trying to breed for smooth polled rams, and we have to use 'half polled' (Pp) rams to get there. And many half polled rams have scurs of various shapes and sizes. Pp + Pp + 25% chance of getting PP. We need these scurred rams."

This morning I had a chance to take a closer look at Franjean. While his fleece is weathered and a bit harsh at the tips, the inside has a soft hand and the same lovely shade that Valentine used to be (and still is along her topline). Could he be a fawn gulmoget instead of a moorit gulmoget?

He has a very nice, typey tail - a big plus, but is not as wide or square in the rear as Braveheart - a bit of a minus. Braveheart has proven his ability to pass on good backends, though, so I'm not worried about getting off track there.

I'll have to run another contest next spring to see who comes closest to guessing correctly what this handsome ram gives me for lambs - that is, IF anyone lets him mount!

Inky says, "I'm not much impressed with him - yet."

That's it for now from . . .

Our first SIX-egg day!

Yesterday the hens gave us SIX eggs, but I must say I'm still waiting impatiently for our first "chocolate" egg. (The friend who did chores for us while we were in Texas didn't get any; I asked.) I have never seen Welsie in a nesting box, but I HAVE noticed that her comb has grown since she arrived a month ago:
When I compared the colors of five of the six eggs we got yesterday, I did notice that one of the brown eggs has a slightly darker, richer color than the others (clockwise from left: Tawny-the-Wyandotte's egg, the darker egg, a Rhodie egg, Ebony's egg, and Morgan's egg). Now I'm wondering if Welsie IS laying, but not "chocolate" eggs. I guess only time will tell!

Coming up a bit later - a closer look at the "man of the hour."

That's it for now at . . .

3-2 & 1+1=breeding season 2008!

I didn't pick up Franjean yesterday afternoon after all. Tuesday night was a short one after getting home from the airport well after midnight, so Rick thought it safest for me to wait until after a good night's sleep to make the drive to Shady Oaks Shetlands. I must admit, this morning did dawn a bit clearer to my eyes!

When it was time to load up the wethers that were leaving, I caught Browning first. When Brian found out I was planning to take both the brown boys and keep Blizz (the grey), he started pleading for Browning. Even though Rick and I both think Blizz is the friendliest and has the most marketable fleece, Brian was adamant that Browning is the friendliest to him. So off came the halter, and although it made the pit of my stomach feel like it was lined with lead, I loaded up Blizz instead. I was going to get one last photo of him and Bryden, but never did. Maybe it was just too hard.

We had an uneventful drive to Creswell. After admiring Marybeth's girls and feeding them cookies, we unloaded the wethers and caught Franjean. My halters were too small to fit on his head, but he led nicely with one strapped around his neck. He's a nice, long ram, although not as wide as Braveheart.
When we got home, the sheep had to be divided into three pens within the sheepfold: Butter and Browning in one (when Browning starting ramming Butter, I felt even worse about getting rid of Blizz), Braveheart in another, and the three adult ladies with Franjean in a third. When Franjean realized he was in with GIRLS, he could hardly believe his luck! It might take him awhile to learn some finesse, though, since this is his first breeding experience. I doubt any of them are going to get much rest tonight.

Braveheart and Franjean sniffed each other through a stout new pallet. During the day there will be much more distance between them; I hope the pallet - their only common wall - is enough to separate them at night!

That's it for now at . . .

In case you were wondering...

...I did finish the moebius shawl in time to wear at my sister's reception! I finished the knitting shortly after arriving in Texas last week. The rectangle measured 16"x47".Then I twisted it and seamed one short end to the end of one long side to get the moebius effect with a longer "V" back.

The wedding was held in my folks' little church in Hereford, which was much too small to accommodate the reception. For that we moved down the street to the Community Center, which was well air-conditioned or I would have been too warm to don mohair. I wore it for awhile, and my new brother-in-law's Aunt Bonnie, a fellow knitter I was delighted to meet, took these photos on her cell phone:
For more wedding photos, you'll have to wait until I get home and download my camera (we're in the airport waiting to board as I type). You may have to wait awhile, though. Tomorrow will be crazy, because after a busy morning playing catch-up and going to the homeschooling cooperative in the afternoon, I'm driving to Creswell to pick up a very special ram to meet my three adult ewes!

That's the long-distance report from . . .

Brian's favorite person

This is Brian's favorite person. Oh, he loves his other grandpas and grandmas, and us, his parents, but he does have a favorite. Us parents and grandparents aren't supposed to have "favorites," but young children rarely feign impartiality.

And what's with the beanie on Grandpa's head? Well, Grandpa had a very special surprise waiting here in Texas for Brian: a go-cart. Rick and I knew ahead of time and were instructed to pack Brian's helmet; Grandpa figured he'd better have one, too, to be a good example.

Of COURSE Brian was excited to try out "his" go-kart (also referred to sometimes a "motorized Hot Wheels"), so he and Grandpa took it for a spin on the driveway. Grandpa helped at first, as the steering was a little stiff.
After a bit of practice and the application of a grease gun, Brian was able to steer it himself. Look how intense he is about his first driving experience!
Soon he was driving solo.
He had to make a pit stop to put a racing number on the front; this should have worried me about what was to come!
As my son added goggles and confidence, he started enjoying the power available to him more and more.
At one point he didn't make the turn and accelerated right into a front post of the house, knocking it out of position and leaving a big scuff! (Later he also hit both the split-rail fence and a tree.)
He also ventured off the driveway surface, discovering how much fun it was to spin out in the wet grass and standing water from the recent heavy rain.
The result was not only a mud and grass covered go-kart (and boy),but a torn-up lawn to go with the cattywampus post. I was fretting about the mess and Grandpa just said, "The grass will grow back, and the post will be easily fixed with a sledgehammer and a bit of paint." See why he's the favorite?

That's the long-distance report for now from . . .

Fall colors (warning: photo heavy)

As you can see, the fall colors at home Sunday morning were quite different than those in the Rose Garden Sunday afternoon!

I think I've mentioned that a horse-camping friend of ours (Greg, above) is the Portland Trailblazers' dentist. Through him we can get greatly discounted tickets to games, so Rick has taken me and Brian on separate game "dates." With last year's top draft pick Greg Oden back in play and a pre-season game on Sunday afternoon, Rick thought it would be a great time for us to all go as a family (he obviously did not appreciate all the other things I HAD to do!). Brian was excited, because when Rick took him he got to shake Greg Oden's hand!
Friend-Greg met us at this entrance and took us down to the family room. There's actually two, one for the adult members of players' families, and one for the kids. Both have age-appropriate food, but Brian was more interested in playing with his friend (Friend-Greg's son) in the toy room.
Once we got seated, Brian was fascinated with all the goings-on.There was Blaze, the Trailblazers mascot, the Blazers Dancers and acrobatic team (cheerleaders?).
Once the game started, Brian employed his complimentary noisemakers whenever possible. (They didn't help; the Blazers still lost.)Synconized dancing?
Above are Brian's favorite player (Greg Oden, #52 - the big guy in white) and mine (Sergio Rodriguez, #11 - the "little" guy in white). That Spaniard was quicksilver on the court! And after the game I got to meet him, and can report that he is very easy on the eyes and ears as well. :-)

Brian was dying to have a #52 jersey; he's wanted to live in the one we got him ever since!

That's it for now from . . .

Huff, huff, pant, pant.... Whew!

Tomatoes (ours and a bunch given to us) canned in one form or another? Check.
Remaining garden produce picked and stored in frig? Check.
Clients' "must-finish" jobs finished, proofed and sent to client or printer? Check.
Knitting for trip (for wedding!) organized? Check.
Chores arranged? Check.
Violin lesson rescheduled? Check.
Substitutes found for homeschool co-op classes? Check.
Laundry caught up so everyone has enough clothes for the trip? Check.
Everything packed for play, exercise, vespers (including Brian's violin and music), church, wedding, and homeschooling? Check.
Jackson delivered to Camp Cummings? In a couple hours.
Camper off-loaded from pick-up so I'm ready to move sheep when I get back? Negative.
House cleaned in the last two weeks? Are you kidding?

Trying to get everything done that HAD to be done before leaving for eight days has me worn out and on edge. It wouldn't have been quite so stressful if Rick hadn't decided we should all go to a Blazers game Sunday afternoon (another post), taking eight hours out of the amount of time I THOUGHT I had to get everything done. It would also have helped if Jackson hadn't been so busy proving that dogs are, indeed, omnivores, not carnivores. While I was absorbed in other tasks, he stole a banana AND an apple off the dining room table and ate them, snitched a too-green-to-process tomato off the kitchen counter and sampled it, and hauled off the smaller pumpkin (purchased for Brian to carve so I could use the good garden pumpkin for cooking) from by the front door into the front lawn to gnaw on.Sigh.

After scrambling through my to-do list this morning, I'm hoping for a pleasant trip with Brian later today (Rick follows in two days) so I can recuperate a bit. We'll have schoolwork to do on the plane, but I'm also taking my laptop (more work to do in TX) and a couple DVDs for Brian to watch so I sit quietly and knit. It would be good to arrive in Texas in a more relaxed state of mind!

That's it for now from . . .

Jackson's birthday "party"

We had "better than birthday candles"along with fun and games.(look at that crazy-happy face!)!

This evening while Rick was out treating an injured horse, Brian, Jackson and I walked down to the mailbox to get our mail. The sun was setting over the western horizon (the top photo was taken going, and the second one was taken coming home) like a brilliant birthday candle from God. I have been terrible about walking/jogging lately, so Jackson hasn't seen his "fence buddy" Sally in quite awhile. My friend Kathleen, Sally's owner, has suggested I let Jackson come over and play, so I thought, "What better birthday present could a dog get than to romp with a friend?" Nine-year-old Sally tuckered out faster than Jackson, but they had great fun - as did we just watching them.

That's it for now at . . .

New chews

Jackson was in need of some new toys. He's eaten or destroyed all but his wishbone Nylabone, and that thing's so hard I'm afraid he's going to break a window when he gets wild and flings it around the house. Of course, there are always Brian's things to chew up, but if Brian ever learns the lesson that whatever is left out is fair game, it's back to slim pickings. So I shopped on eBay and got two new Nylabone toys from the same seller; a rubber wolf-size Rhino Cone and a jumbo TennisBone. They arrived today, and Jackson has been enjoying them both. Happy Birthday, Jackson! (Our canine buddy turns a year old tomorrow.)

That's it for now at . . .

What is it with the corner nest box?

You would think they could at least take turns! There ARE two other nest boxes, but the majority of the eggs are laid in the corner "office." Go figure; it doesn't even have a window!

"Fall dog" (not to be confused with Fail Blog; Boulderneigh is a family-friendly site!).

Butter Baby getting some love from Brian. In a couple more weeks she and a wether will be separated from the ewes and their new beau, Franjean. But which wether will stay? I can't decide between Browning, with his lustrous dark moorit fleece, and Blizz, with his big crimpy grey fleece. Blizz is friendlier, but that may not matter if he spends most of the year with Braveheart (it's hard to love on the wether without encouraging the ram to be too familiar). Do you shepherds who are spinners or who at least sell fleeces and rovings have an opinion about which fleece would sell better, if I don't keep it all for myself?

Awaiting your response at . . .

The breakfast crowd at the Fenceline Cafe

After all my sheep juggling this summer, someone commented that they need a primer on which sheep reside at Boulderneigh now. You can see everyone but Braveheart above - a view not unlike the pan of cookies I made and assembled for refreshments at the homeschool co-op today, below!Oh yeah, sheep. Let's see, from left to right above that's Blizz, Bryden, Inky, Browning, Butter, Dinah, and Brava. Blizz, Bryden and Browning are this year's wethered ram lambs (two of which I still need to move); Inky and Butter are the two I bought from Susan Kimball this summer; Dinah is the first Shetland I committed myself to, and Brava (along with Braveheart, below) I bought from Beryl Baker last summer.
The other day after chores I was loving on and admiring all my sheep, and snapped topline fleece photos of all the uncoated ones. I thought it was a lovely assortment of natural colors and Shetland fleece types! From top are Browning, Butter, Inky, Blizz, and Bryden.Enough sheep photos for you, Allena? :-)

Breaking news: today I got an email from Franna, asking whether I would be interested in taking in a moorit gulmoget half-poll ram for the breeding season before she can get him back to Everranch, where he was born. Would I?!?This ram (photo taken a year ago) was one I was keenly interested in adding to my flock, but my ever-practical husband pointed out that we really don't NEED a second ram, no matter how well I could see him fitting into my long-range plans. Now I will get to use him without keeping two rams long-term, and if I don't have any buyers for wethers before I pick up Everranch Franjean from Marybeth Bullington-Bury (who bought him from Franna), Marybeth has a good home for two of the wethers as well. I plan to put the new boy in with Dinah, Brava and Inky just as soon as I pick him up after my trip to Texas. The anticipation over next spring's lambing season may kill me. Just think; I could get full-poll black AND moorit gulmogets from this fellow if all the genes line up nicely!

Doing the happy dance at . . .

My kind of rush hour

Tuesday morning: the girls well on their way to a five-egg day. Now, if I could just find time to do some baking and cooking with all these fresh eggs! Making anything that requires boiled, peeled eggs is just too frustrating. I have yet to find a technique that makes peeling really fresh eggs easy - and I can't stand throwing away so much good egg white trying!

Last night for supper I didn't use any eggs, but I did use onions, carrots, yellow straightneck squash and corn from the garden to make this vegetable chowder. Yum!

Since one of my blog readers has complained that there haven't been enough sheep pictures in my blog lately, I plan to remedy that tomorrow - or maybe even later today. It's the least I can do for Allena, considering the exquisite batt of merino/angora lavendar loveliness she gave me when we met in Missouri - which just happens to be on my wheel now. :-)
I'm going to have to put spinning aside for awhile again, though. I'm leaving on the 14th for Texas, and besides all the other stuff I have to do, I NEED to knit a shawl! I've been fighting that miserable black chenille, and WILL finish a moebius shawl with it - eventually (I'm a glutton for punishment that way). But yesterday I found some black mohair blend yarn at the LYS and it whispered that it would be MUCH more cooperative than that chenille, not to mention faster to knit on bigger needles, so it came home with me. Cast on! Knit like the wind!

Scrambling to get it all done at . . .

Cocooning

I was going to attend my local dressage chapter meeting last night while my son and husband went off and did their own thing. But when a friend who was going to ride with me backed out, I got to thinking about how nice it would be to have the house to myself and do more catching up - and SPIN again! Can you guess what I did?

First I made myself a cup of decadent hot chocolate in one of my dressage chapter's mugs as a nod to the missed meeting. Then I wound off Bella's hogget fleece single into a center-pull ball so I could ply it. After plying, it became this darling little 24-yard mini-skein.Then I took a small sample of Bella's lamb fleece and spun that up as a single.VERY yummy - softer with a bit more color than her hogget fleece. I got it plied but left the skeining for another time.
Lest you think I was a total slacker while cocooning last night, I'll have you know I washed and hung a load of laundry, did chores (which Rick expected to have to do when he got home), put away the jars of condensed tomato soup and a case of canned blueberries a client of Rick's gave him today (he was also given a box of pears; hurray - free food!),and worked on a couple of graphics jobs for a client.

It was lovely to have a quiet house to myself and my charming companion:
How true yesterday's calendar page is!
That's it for now at . . .

Headway

Yesterday I made headway towards getting caught up, so maybe the bit of rainbow in this morning's sky was my "atta girl." I finished two newsletters, created color flyers advertising the wether boys, cleaned the bathrooms, did laundry, and made and canned a batch of homemade tomato soup.
Somewhere in there, wonder of wonders, I got to SPIN! First I grabbed a small sample of Bella's recently processed hogget fleece and gave it the "neck test." Granted, I don't have sensitive skin, but it felt nice and soft. Then I quickly spun up a single.Bella has a very long staple, making her fleece SO easy to spin - and spin fine, if you wish. It felt strong, too. I was pleased to find the roving pretty clean, even though Bella's fleeces contained the most VM (vegetable matter) of any of my fleeces because she went mostly uncoated. Bella is an Ag grey, meaning she has white and black fibers mixed together.There is more black in her lamb fleece; as you can see, her hoggett fleece is mostly white. This is still available at the pre-pick-up sale price of $2/ounce, since I don't have to pay the processor until I pick up the rest of my fleeces (and yes, I take PayPal). If you haven't entered my fiber contest, you still have time to do that, too!

I hope to find more "moments" to spend at my wheel this week, for I just learned today that it is National Spinning and Weaving Week (October 4-10).

That's it for now at . . .

Signs of fall against a backdrop of grey

Changing colors:
Bright mums (and a cold bumblebee):
Full woodshed:
Crisp apples:
Wet dog:
Lit candles:
Lit burnpile:
Impatient ram:

That's it for now at . . .

Ten eggs in two days!

We did, indeed, get five eggs yesterday, so I didn't really think the girls would do it today. But when I checked for eggs this evening, I saw this:and this!
Enjoying the bounty at . . .

All kinds of excitement

(Warning: it doesn't take much to excite most of us around here. :-)

I love this colorful row of sheep "bellied up to the bar" this morning. It's raining steadily today, after a few sprinkles yesterday. The change in the weather has given Inky's black fleece a wonderful hand; I can hardly wait to see next spring's micron testing results on her - and everyone else!

Brian checked for eggs during his mid-morning break - and came up with four! Wow, we may actually get FIVE today! I was pleased that he found a safe way to transport them:
What fun to get one of each of the colors we're receiving so far! Clockwise from top: Ebony's (Easter Egger), Tawny's (gold-laced Wyandotte), Morgan's (Easter Egger), and one of the Rhodie's. (Think maternal thoughts towards Welsie, the Welsummer hen. Come OOON, chocolate eggs!)

Another bit of excitement came in my email inbox this morning. Ever since Woodland Woolwork's quarterly newsletter, The Wool Rag, arrived, I've had it sitting in my office for one reason: a small black-and-white photo from the book Knit So Fine of, believe it or not, LEGWARMERS! These are not the slouchy, sloppy legwarmers of my youth (a pair of which, I am embarrassed to admit, I owned once upon a time); no, these are gorgeous, fitted, cabled, SEXY (on the right legs) legwarmers the likes of which I had never seen before. Imagine my excitement to see these very legwarmers featured in today's Knitting Daily email as a free pattern!Not that I anticipate EVER having enough time in my life to tackle these, nor do I fancy my legs the perfect recipient for them, but you can bet I downloaded the pattern and saved it in my file of knitting dreams.

That's it for now from . . .

Another one to keep my eye on

This morning while doing chores, Ebony laid one of her lovely green eggs. As I was finishing chores, I noticed Morgan was in a nest box, so I decided to hang out in the chicken yard until there was a pretty pink egg to take up to the house, too. Oreo saw me standing there, unoccupied, and pushed through the unlatched gate to join me - in the chicken yard! She's a little cat so I wasn't really worried for the hens, but her boldness surprised me. She checked out all the accoutrements of the henhouse,and then noticed Morgan.She actually batted at Morgan with a paw, but Morgan was in the process of laying her egg and paid no attention. I gently collected the egg, then removed Oreo and ova and securely latched the gate - can't have a cat figuring out the superior eating qualities of farm-fresh eggs! (If you look in the comments to my last post, you'll see that someone else's cat has figured out just that!)

Here are the Easter Eggers' eggs with one from a Rhode Island Red. Yes, chickens and the eggs they produce are a never-ending source of edibles, entertainment and "art" around here!

That's it for now from the henhouse at . . .

More casualties

Yesterday was our first five-egg day! Alas, only four made it to the frig. And today only two made it safely into cold storage. But it's not what you're thinking - we haven't had a broken egg in the henhouse since we modified the boxes (and one of them wasn't a "chocolate" egg from Welsie, although she did seem to be taking notes while this Rhodie did her job).

No, last night when Rick and I headed to the barn to do chores in the dark, Rick found a broken egg in the driveway. There was only one explanation; Brian had dropped one on the way back to the house. I was disappointed, not only in losing a precious* egg, but also in my son for not owning up to the accident.

*Perhaps only those of us who have waited impatiently for fluffy little chicks to grow up and lay their first eggs, like Pamela, can understand just how precious these fresh-from-the-chicken-with-a-name-and-personality eggs are. They are certainly more valuable than those so-called fresh eggs from the grocery store, especially if you figure in the hens' housing, feed, the time to care for them, etc.!
This morning I asked Brian if anything had happened yesterday when I sent him to check for eggs. The little fibber looked me in the eye and said, "No. Why? What do you mean?" So I told him we had found an egg on the driveway, and he continued to deny any knowledge of how it got there. I continued to gaze at him while he talked, and he finally looked up and off, saying, "Let me think. Oh yeah, now that I've thought about it, I remember; I did drop one." I told him I was disappointed in him, not because he accidently dropped an egg, but because he hadn't told me what happened the day before, and then lied about it when asked. He then allowed how there had been another casualty some other day down by the henhouse. Sigh.

This evening when I got home I checked the henhouse for eggs myself, and found one. I took it up to the house, setting it on the dog food bin in the garage while I went out to pick tomatoes. When I came back from the garden, the egg was gone. I asked Brian and Rick about it, and while both had seen it, neither claimed to have moved it. That left one possible culprit: Jackson. The garage door was open, and he is not above checking out higher surfaces for interesting tidbits. I'm guessing he knew the egg was a tasty treat from the two that Brian dropped and left on the ground. It's a good thing our hens aren't free-ranging!

That's it for now from . . .