A Naked Alpaca...finally!!

The weather has been very warm the last few days so the shearing has started, actually it has been so hot in the afternoons shearing has only been done in the mornings, so it is not going that fast but has started...and now they are saying rain and snow the end of the week. Here is our little Belle...all naked and feeling great...she is so black! her mother and sister and brother are sheared also.

I have been trying for two days to get a post written!! I just get it started and write a couple of sentences and then blogger will not not let me continue do anything, now tonight it let me put Belle's picture up...and will not let me post anymore pictures! Am frustrated!! But so far is letting me write words so I will write. HB sheared all day today and has only one female llama left...she refused to come out of the pasture and we have our three large male llamas left to shear, they will be done if the weather holds good the next few days but that is a bit iffy so we will see. Went on Sat and picked up some alpaca fleeces from a friend, needed some light colors and as we did a calm period this morning I got out the sorting table and sorted for a bit outside, so have been washing alpaca fibre all day, wind came up so moved the table downstairs and now have fibre drying, just came up from fluffing it a bit to help it dry. Hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow to start carding. Started picking and sorting another white alpaca fleece but it is so fine it is full of a lot of debris so it is slow going. Well off to bed and hope I am allowed to post this!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better posting day!!

NOOOOO!!!! Not snow again!!

This is what we woke up to this morning! It must have started about five o'clock as I heard the birds outside carrying on, they have been working on building their nests forever and here came the snow again. Last night it got so cold I finally went out around midnight and put all my potted plants in the shed, thank-goodness! It has not been that warm at all and everything is so slow coming up and the leaves on the trees are barely out. RH got the garden area beside the raised beds tilled up so the moisture was good for that, the sun did finally come out and the snow disappeared but it was windy and cold. The tulips have buds on them but they do not want to open up when it is so cold out. Well off to bed, RH was off to a meeting tonight, just got home and resident dog barfed everything he ate today all over the carpet so had to get out the rug shampooer and get to work, it was bad enough the dog barfed but got worse when RH had to step in it. Spent the afternoon cleaning the carder and trying to get my stuff organized again, thought I had some dark brown alpaca and was going to card it...well guess that was another thing I put in a safe place as I could not find it or it could be that RH had moved all my stuff around again...I am trying to stay sane....why does everything have to be a treasure hunt!! Tomorrow is another day...hope it is a warm sunny one!!

We are slowly getting there!!

We have a had a few nice sunny days although today was so windy, farmers field around us was being planted so lots of dust. RH rented a roto tiller and dug up a large area beside the raised beds he built, we are still waiting for the landscaper to arrive, we scrounged around and found some soil to put in the bottom half of the raised beds and there was an old manure pile out in the barnyard and he uncovered it and dug into the center of the pile with the bobcat and got some nice compost, now we just need some good dirt for the top of the beds. A person does not realize how much soil the beds take. Thank-goodness for the little bobcat as at our ages we can not do much shoveling and carrying anymore. Had an appointment with the eye doctor earlier in the week and all the business's have their plants...it was like Christmas!! I had to contain myself, bought two rose bushes, three iris plants different from what I already have, love this one, it wasn't blooming when I brought it home but look what it did yesterday!!

Also bought a couple lilies and a small geranium, forgot to take my camera out and take a picture of the little Geranium plants in the window of the shed, so nice to see all the bright color. Am not getting many pictures as the little camera that I can tuck in my pocket is having an issue and will not take pictures. Not much on the fibre front as we have not shorn our llamas and alpacas yet and now on the news tonight it sounds like we could get some more rain, hopefully they are wrong but it has really turned cold tonight. Good news is our Alpaca friends did manage to get their Alpacas shorn on the weekend, as we only have black Alpacas I usually get the other colors of fibre from them. So we will go get the fibre this Sat. and then I will be busy...can not wait!!

It looks like spring could be here! shhh! I am whispering this....

After the terrible rain snow wind etc day we had on Saturday and I was ready to run away and live in someones greenhouse...or go stark raving mad, the sun came out on Sunday, it was not that warm but looking out the window you could pretend, water everywhere. Now today the sun was out again and it was a bit warmer and it is drying up, I had an appointment with the eye Dr. today so we were off to town...and ohhhh... the temptations....they have all their garden plants out...made my day...bought a couple of Rose bushes.....a couple of new Iris plants...a Lily plant and another geranium. At the other place I had this beautiful pink rose bush and I was sure I had kept the sticker off the pot so I could get another one like it....I can not find the sticker!!! Am sooo upset!! I have a lot of pictures of that Rose bush, will print out some pictures and do the tour of the greenhouses...meanwhile I bought another pink Rose and a Red Rose bush. Oh Mr. Landscaper man please come and push the dirt around so we can get at flowerbeds! RH said he would go rent a roto-tiller tomorrow and get the garden dug up, it is going to take some work as it is over grown with grass. And we better start fitting some llama and alpaca shearing in too. The farmers around us are out getting their fields planted today. Remember this sweater I knit...it has been a year ago since I finished it, just before we moved...well I finally found where it had been packed away! I want to get it washed and blocked and then can measure it up for a zipper and that will be another UFO finished.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice warm day, hope the weatherman is right about that and we can get some outside work done up. It is such a frenzie out in the yard, birds hurrying here and there with nest building materials in their little beaks. there was a real commotion in the yard when a large hawk arrived and here were the Magpies chasing it away. I do not like the Magpies as they eat the little baby birds but they did good today chasing the hawk off. Well am off to bed, dog is fed and in his bed, cats just finished their snack and are ready to settle down, guess we can call it a day!!

Are we ever going to get spring???

Friday the day started with sunshine and the day was beautiful, we worked outside all day and the ground was drying up. RH cleaned the yard of some of the broken tree limbs from when they took some of the trees out to move the old house out and the new house in and the bad winds we had last fall and winter, the landscaper was supposed to come and move the dirt pile around for us but it was still too wet. I found all the pieces for my little greenhouse thing and got it all together and ready to go, so was a good day. Then we woke up Sat morning to rain and it was worse as the day went on, even had a few snow flakes and the wind was so cold. Glad we did not get all the snow they got north of us...snow in the month of May!! It would have been better to have it in the winter! Now it does not seem to bother the Robins....they just keep on doing Robin stuff but the poor Love birds are sitting there looking so cold. I am so worried about a pair of ducks that are wondering around the yard...there is a slough in the male llamas pasture that has water in it and back in the farmers field there is a pond with nice trees around it.....are they being chased out of the ponds...did something get their eggs...are they not supposed to be sitting on eggs right now......so many questions...I know...I have to get a life!! And I would..if I could be out in the yard planting things!! I had some yarn left over from knitting the blue sweater so made myself a hat, being acrylic yarn and very light weight I thought it would make a great spring hat and it is, can hardly feel I have a hat on. it was a quick knit so think I will make a few more, for some reason I am really into knitting cables at the moment.

Now I hope the day is nicer tomorrow or I think I am going to have to go hang out in what greenhouses are open to reassure myself that spring is going to be here one day. My little tomato plants are not growing like they should under the light downstairs..either it is too cold or they are getting too much light...which it could be too much light as I have not found the automatic timer to turn the lights on and off and I keep forgetting to turn them off. Tomorrow is another day...Hope it is a good day...Sun...no snow... no rain.......

Rain and Snow = mud...mud...mud

It rained all day yesterday and at one point we had a bit of snow but thank goodness not as much snow as they had just southwest of us, their road was packed with snow. There will not be any landscaping done around here for a while!! You can see the slippery mud near the house, farther back the grass is green and in the distant is our raised beds waiting to be filled with soil so I can get them planted.Woke up this morning to fog and frost on the grass, it is finally disappearing and the sun is out, hope it stays. Finally put my grow light in the storage room downstairs as it was just too cold to put it out in the shed, now my little plants have light and a safe place from the cats, just have to remember where I put the timer I used before...searching...always searching.

Here is a picture of one of the Doves in the tree just outside of the window in the computer room. There has been a real fight going on in that tree...a Robin family wants to build their nest in there and the Doves have claimed it for themselves and my goodness those Robins are feisty, There was such a fight going on the other day I could not even see who was fighting with who but it looks as if the Doves taken the tree...I mean...it is not like there is only one tree in the yard. the Robins are so busy gathering nesting materials they almost walk over your feet. We are keeping Batman well fed and so far there have not been any bird casualties.

I have been knitting a pair of fingerless gloves for myself out of the pewter grey yarn I spun from the alpaca/wool roving, had started knitting my the reg pattern I usually use and decided to put a cable st. down the front, what a job trying to get the cable centered and the thumb in the correct spot. Finally got it all sorted out. am getting tired of knitting with grey, keep saying I have to get the dye pots out but it hasn't happened!! Am off to do some baking...good day for it!

A Crochet Alpaca, she is so cute!!

Well the post I sent yesterday actually was posted to will try again, have not had time to smack the laptop around yet. I found this little cutie online, I can not remember the name of the book...I downloaded the book but only printed off the instructions for the Alpaca. It was a boy Alpaca named Sherwin but when I finished him I decided it looked like a her...but have to think of a name for her. She was my riding in the car project but finally decided to finish her last night. She wanted a crochet flower but all I could find was this little red flower and she wanted a red ribbon but had to be happy with a white one as that was all I could find, still do not have my cabinets moved downstairs so I can get all my stuff sorted out. All the time I was crocheting her I kept thinking ...no way this is going to look like an Alpaca...kept calling it a hedgehog. But when all stuffed and sewn together.....it does look like a chubby little alpaca. Took her picture sitting in a plant last night and here she is.

O.K. I just went and checked and the name of the book is Crochet Softies and is written by Stacy Troch, I downloaded it as a e-book from Martingale. of course I thought she was going to be a little softie but she ended up about twelve inches...now...was this because I did not stop and read before I picked up the yarn and hook...do not know..will have to go back and check...might try the pattern in finer yarn.
    Well do not think the landscaping guy will be arriving anytime soon as it rained all night and there are puddles in the driveway...and  our house sits in a sea of clay......busy washing doggie paws. And after fighting with this computer and thinking bad thoughts about what I was going to do about it all of a sudden last night most of the problems disappeared...hmmm...maybe it was because of the hammer I sat on the counter beside the computer...usually my rule is not to have a hammer in the same room as a computer. Well am off to put the grow light up for the seeds I planted...not going to see the sun for a few days the weatherman says.............

Blue Sweater is Finished

I have been having so much trouble with my computer do not know whether this will post. Thought I would use the big computer but something has been going on with it too, the program I download pictures on has decided it does not live there anymore so here I am back to the laptop which is letting me download pictures but the program must have upgraded itself so have to try to figure out how everything works again...why...why!! To make me crazy I think!!
   Anyway not a lot being accomplish in the fibre business, we are going to start shearing when the weather warms up, we are getting much needed moisture but now it is enough...too dark and dreary today and supposed to last all week. Planted a few seeds in the house but it is nerve wracking trying to keep them safe from Sheba, have them shut in the bedroom but they need more light, am going to put the grow light up in the room off the garage, wish it had heat in it as it is not that warm these days. We have three large raised beds built in the space we are going to have the garden, now have to get some loam trucked in. Guy is supposed to be here the end of the week to do some landscaping so will have him bring us some loam. Plants we moved down from the other farm and the ones we moved from the house here before they moved it off are all growing, when we moved the plants from here I did not notice tulips but here they are, growing big and healthy. The ground was so hard in the flowerbeds here HB took the bobcat and got under the plants and moved the whole bed over to a safe area so now am finding out what plants were there, now to get the landscaping done and the front deck built so I can move all the plants to their new area.
   I did get the Blue Sweater finished and washed but then have found a few mistakes which I did not notice until it was sewn up but it is going to stay the way it is, it was a kit and the only way I could get the pattern was to order the kit but why oh why did I use the yarn they sent with it...it is a soft loose spun acrylic so does not hold its shape very well. It did not have a chart for the patterns and it had every pattern in the sweater printed separately and one was repeated ten times and another four times and another.....was so hard to keep track of....plus the sleeves are too long...so will have to cut them off and reknit the cuffs.Here she is...

I keep thinking I should reknit it in another yarn, a natural fibre with some body to it and knit it when I am not moving and will revamp the pattern so it is not so confusing!

I carded up some of the pewter grey alpaca with some nylon and spun a skein, the nylon is called fake cashmere and it is so soft. Will knit myself a pair of socks out of it. The  customer that bought all the alpaca rovings from me has just e-mailed me and said he is almost finished spinning everything and how soon could I have some white alpaca ready for him so better phone friends I get the white fibre from and see if they have sheared yet. Well here goes hoping this gets posted, pictures will not go where I want them and the size of the font has decreased in size as I wrote, am off to work on the computer again!!!!