"Fall" shearing

This afternoon three of my six woolies got sheared again. It was a very summery mid-90s and the girls are all a bit pudgy (okay, two of them are downright FAT), so it was an uncomfortable ordeal for them, poor dears. I will be taking their clean, coated fleeces to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival to enter in the fiber show and hopefully sell. Not that I would be heartbroken to have these nice fleeces to use myself! But I still have three dirty fleeces from this spring to process, and I must be realistic about how much time I have to play with fiber. Below is my sweet Valentine, and her until-recently attached fawn(?) fleece -- dark belly wool skirted off.

With a little help from our friends, we made it home last night from our final horsecamping trip of the year. When we arrived at the campgrounds Friday night (we had to fix a flat tire before leaving), I noticed that our extended hitch was angling downward under the weight of the horse trailer. I don't remember it ever looking like that before, so I pointed it out to Rick. He crawled under the truck to discover a broken weld (one of six). He thought it would "probably" get us home okay, but when you have three horses in your trailer and are driving on interstate most of the way, "probably" doesn't cut it! So a committee of men came up with a way to rig up some extra support, someone who lives out our direction with an extra spot in their trailer took Rick's horse Sam, and we loaded Oliver and Russell as far to the back of our trailer as we could. Thankfully we made it home just fine, but will be replacing the hitch on our truck before hauling with it again!

That's it for now at . . .

A daylily did it!

In spite of the meadow rats' appetite for all things growing, one of the daylilies I planted this summer is blooming! This is "Fencing Master," a much prettier color than its written description led me to expect. (Beggars can't be choosers; you take what you can get when they are 50% off!)

Next summer I am looking forward to lots of color around Boulderneigh. In addition to the shrubs and daylilies we planted this spring and summer which will hopefully produce blooms next year, I have dahlias on my birthday and Christmas "wish list." We learned about a big dahlia farm's annual exhibition just in time to take Rick's folks last weekend when they were here; it was spectacular! So next spring I am going to skip the local Bi-Mart's paltry offerings and order some tubers from Swan Island Dahlias. Its just a hop and a skip down the road from the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, if any of you are going. Below is a sampling of the photos I took there.

Easily entertained at . . .

The great plant rescue

Ever watch "Miracle of the White Stallions," the 1963 Disney movie about the World War II rescue of the famous Lipizzan horses of Austria? (If not, go do it! Beautiful horses, harrowing history, handsome soldiers -- all without gratuitous foul language or other unsavory junk!) Well, Rick and I have been engaged in the great plant rescue of Eola Hills, summer 2007.

Our friends at the other end of our lane had a new house built this summer. It's located behind their manufactured home, with its extensive mature landscaping. The manufactured home has been sold and will be moved this month, and all that beautiful landscaping was slated to be bulldozed so that area could be planted in cherry trees to go with the orchard that covers most of their five acres. When I asked why they didn't have at least some of the shrubs moved to grace their new yard, my friend said it would cost too much to have it done -- but we were welcome to help ourselves to whatever we wanted.

How could we pass up such an offer -- and let all those beautiful plants be destroyed? We have been pecking away at our landscaping ever since we built our house almost five years ago; it's definitely been a slow work in progress. So Rick traded out vet work for the use of a client's small tractor with front-end loader and backhoe attachment (don't you just love bartering?), and we went to work over a couple Sundays and Labor Day. Since the water supply to the landscaping's sprinkler system was cut back in May during construction, the ground was dry and hard and the plants were more or less drought-stressed. Our main "tool," the little backhoe, was not big enough to just scoop the various shrubs out of the ground, so we had to crudely "claw" them out and hope we didn't damage them too much in the process. By the time we finished yesterday, we had transplanted 25 assorted shrubs and some ground cover; it remains to be seen whether or not they all survive the trauma. (I'm hoping they will all be so grateful to get water on their roots again that they respond with a vigorous will to live!) Following is a pictoral inventory of our hard-earned booty.

Looking west along the north side of our house toward the garden. All the shrubs on the banks to the right and ahead are new, except for the junipers above the boulders.A big purple rhodie we tucked between the spruce and the thyme and lavender on the south side of the house.We added the three shorter, fuller bushes, pieris japonicas with deep burgundy flowers, to the two lilacs in the southeast corner of the yard.The two rhodies on the right joined one Rick planted this spring on the bank at the northeast corner of the deck.Three new evergreen shrubs help hide the concrete foundation until my little vine maples and two clumps of daylilies grow enough to fill in the space better.A huge daphne odora and a burgundy laceleaf Japanese maple got tucked in the shade of the flowering plum in the island bed.
It doesn't really look like that much in a few photos, but believe me -- we moved a LOT of dirt and plant material!

That's it for now at . . .

Fiberly pursuits

I finally finished spinning, plying and skeining the wonderful "Black Forest Truffle" Corriedale roving; I got 528 yards from slightly less than 8 oz. The photo doesn't really show all the yummy colors in this tweedy yarn.

So, with the Corriedale roving (thanks again, Arianie!) off the wheel, I'm finally diving into the big Romney/Border Leicester ram fleece my farrier gave me. I'm flicking the washed (but not very clean) locks and making my first attempt at a bulkier single (which I will probably dye and make into a bulky two-ply yarn). This is STRONG fiber, very different than anything else I've spun so far (like I have vast experience.... ;-). There is a LOT of it, so there's plenty to play with.
And I'm nearly done with the mini-cardigan! I just have to add the contrasting trim around the front and neck, seam up the sleeves, and sew on three big buttons. I think I will really like this sweater IF it's not too short in the body. I have a high-waisted moleskin skirt that matches the darker contrast yarn; they should look sharp together. I sure I'll use this fun pattern (from "Fitted Knits" by Stefanie Japel, on the Lion Brand website courtesy of North Light Books) again; I really like all the shaping. Hmm, that bulky yarn I'm planning to spin from the fleece above might work nicely....
That's it for now at . . .