Why Did I say The Snow was Off the Tulips!!

Well the snow came back this week, this is what it looked like out the kitchen window yesterday, today the ground is covered with snow but it has stopped snowing. It got to below zero with a good breeze so brought my little greenhouse in with all my little plants in it just in case, have all the garden planted and only the beets and the spinach was up and they should be o.k. Last year our last big snow fall was June the sixth and my peas and beans were up and even though I covered them I lost a lot of them, so here is hoping this is the last of the snow for this spring. We really needed the moisture but could we not have a nice warm rain but should not complain as other countries have worse problems with their weather.
The biggest problem with the wet snow is we had just sheared the alpacas and a few of the llamas, most of them can get into barns and shelters except the males because with them one will go into the barn and will not let the others in so RH was out moving animals around to get them all in, he had to take panels in and separate the bad boys who were chasing everyone out into their own little space and managed to get everyone in out of the wet and cold. So please Mother Nature....no more cold and snow!!
I have been doing a bit of knitting and crocheting, made another scarf out of the same one row pattern I had made the other scarves, took me a while to find what pattern I had used until it came to me I had not used the patterns I had....I had made up my own pattern...why do I not make notes of what I do. Then I had dyed up some more of that very fine llama yarn and decided to crochet a large scarf or mini shawl thing and when I got it long enough decided to crochet a curve on the end....and it turned out so great but.....when I had started the scarf I had a square end and I went back to add a curved end to it....and can not remember how I did the curve....another problem with not writing down how I did something.....grrrr....put it aside for a bit and have been knitting on a scarf, will go back to it on a nice sunny day when I am not stressed out about all the snow on the ground...and on my tulips!!
I just got my order back from the llama and alpaca fleece I had sent to be processed, the llama was too long for them to spin into yarn so they made it up in roving, I had them mix the llama with some merino and bamboo and it is so soft, can not wait to spin a sample and the black alpaca they spun into yarn was mixed with merino and soy silk. Did not get any pictures of it as yet. Well off to transplant some herb plants I still have under the lights, hopefully it will warm up enough they can go into the little greenhouse in a day or two, wondering whether I should put the greenhouse back out or leave it inside for another day.......

The Snow is off the Tulip!!

Well the snow is off the tulip but we still have a couple snow drifts still remaining in the yard. Sun has been out but is not that warm and today the wind is swirling around the house....and the smell of smoke...is there a forest fire out there somewhere?? Am going to go out and blow down to the garden area in a bit and see if it has dried out enough to plant some seeds (if the wind goes down....don't want to plant the neighbors garden....) I can not believe the perennials have survived all the snow days we have had lately, they are tough little guys. Knit a couple of scarves, love this pattern, it is so easy to knit, is called a one row pattern. I had picked up this sparkly yarn a year ago but could not find a pattern I wanted to use until I found this pattern I had scribbled on a scrap of paper, can not wait to knit the pattern up in some of my handspun. Then wanted to knit something different and always loved this little sheep pattern...for some reason I keep calling it a bear...it had some cabling on the tummy but I did not care for it so did seed st. and I love it, looks more like fur.....see I did it again....I think I am going to say it is a bear. Just pinned some felt on for eyes and nose for now, trying to decide whether to use the felt or just emb.the eyes and nose on. Just heard from the mill they have my fibre processed and it is on it's way, wanted to have it all spun into yarn but the llama fibre was too long so they put it into roving but could spin the black alpaca into yarn. The black alpaca is from our Blackberry Boy, it was so silky so it should turn out great. Now hopefully the weather will warm up so we can get the llamas and alpacas sheared for this year. Meanwhile I am off to the garden to see what is going on down there!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

This is what we woke to today!! my poor little tulip trying to bloom, I keep telling my perennials to hang in there as this can not last forever. Hope everyone has a great mothers day today, this is usually the day I go to the plant places to get some new plants.......but if you can not put them outside.....need a greenhouse of my own again..maybe a greenhouse big enough to just live it with all my plants!! Can always dream!!

Did I say Spring was here......silly me!!

I really did think that spring had come, got all the raised beds ready to plant, admired all my perennials coming up and then.....this is what we got....this is what it looked like a week ago. Snow and blowing snow with hurricane force winds, our power was out for fourteen hours one day. usually we can just go out and hook up the generator for a bit but RH had been doing some work in the barn and did not have it hooked up, he finally went out and got it going just before the power came back on. We have the wind fence and our winds usually come from the southwest but this time the winds and snow came from the northwest and really whopped us. Younger son Ryan had a few days off work so he came down from northern Alberta and brought his holiday trailer to leave, we always put it down on this side of the windfence so it has a bit of protection. When the wind and snow were coming from the northwest I suggested he maybe should sleep in the house, he said no he would be o.k. in the trailer....well...when I looked out the window when I got up in the morning the trailer had blown off the front support and was sitting at an angle, we were just going go down and see how he was doing when he came out of the trailer and blew up to the house. He said he felt it go down and was sleeping with his head lower than his feet. Later in the day when he came in from outside I asked him if it was still blowing so hard and he said he did not think so as he could keep his hat on. The drifts are slowly disappearing as the temp has not been that high. The llamas could even walk on the drifts without falling in, when I went out to take some pictures it was so icy it was all I could do to stay upright. We thought we had it bad but south of us they had more snow and the ranchers lost a lot of baby calves as they got buried under the snow, people we know who have llamas managed to get out to their pasture and could see the cows but could not find their llamas, finally they seen a couple of heads barely above the snow, they called neighbors and with everyone working shoveled them out, thank-goodness they were o.k. Sure glad we did not have the llamas and alpacas sheared as yet but shearing is going to be so late, fleece shows are coming up soon and entry forms have to be sent in, but we will not know what fleeces to put in until we shear and see what condition they are in after all this wet weather. Today we started out with sun but has turned into rain-snow. Planted a couple of dahlias and lilies in pots in the house thinking I would put them out during the day and bring them in at night until it warmed up, now they are going to get too tall. I am going to take them out to the garage and put them in the window, won't be so warm out there, hopefully it does not get cold enough to freeze. I am having a terrible time writing this post as I keep getting booted off, thank-goodness it keeps saving!! Hope I can post next week that we finally have spring....or maybe not...look what happened before when I said it was spring!!