Doing a Bit of Everything

It seems at this time of year there is so much to do and all you hope is the weather stays nice enough it will get done. The garage is going up slowly, so many interruptions, it was the llama convention so RH was off to that for four days and I held the fort at home, chores morning and night and RH had brought home a large case of plums and a large bag of apples from the market so when I wasn't doing chores I was making plum jam and making and freezing apple pies thinking when am I going to get things made up for the two sales coming up pretty soon. Charlotte is still here...taking over the place, has gotten so tame but stays an arms length away from us, she is getting too brave marching around on the ground and for some reason she is not afraid of power tools, she just sits there supervising. I think we have ourselves a pigeon friend. We started putting the siding on the garage today, side door and windows are in, I keep thinking we should put a pigeon door in somewhere too.....but do I dare mention it to RH??? Now he has a conference call tomorrow morning for a couple of hours, please let the weather stay nice. While he is doing that I will make some pickled carrots, I picked and sorted some carrots last night and there are some nice long thin one's that are going to be great to fit in the jars, they are washed and ready to go so will not take me long. Meanwhile every spare minute I am carding fibre on the new carder. I did well on the entry's I had in the llama conventions fibre show. The two oz. of llama fibre I cleaned for the handspinners choice of which they spun one oz and displayed it with an oz of the unspun fibre I placed first, I placed first and second in the fleece show and I placed first for the 100% llama spun skein and first for the llama blend skein and placed third with my knitted item. I donated a pair of slipper socks knit from alpaca for their silent auction and the man that bought them phoned me on Monday and ordered three more pair, so that is what I am trying to do right now all the while thinking I should be at the dye pots. Have started on the second pair and hope to have them finished by the weekend and then one pair to go. It never ends, never enough time. Have to sit down and make a list and get organized....right?....right!! Will get right at it....in my spare time...

Her name is Charlotte

It is already the first of October, where did the time go? thank-goodness we have had some summery warm weather this week to try to finish up outside things. Got the onions out of the garden because the ground was so wet some them were turning mushy, have them drying in the furnace room. Still have to dig the potatoes (what the gophers have left me)and the carrots. Wanted to get at the flowerbeds too and split up some of the Iris's, will see if the weather holds. We are building a garage beside the house, I need some where to sort my fibre, moved my sorting table in there as soon as the sheeting went on the roof. So have been in there working while RH is pounding on the roof nailing the shingles on it, it is so great I have claimed it as my work room, I do not think a vehicle is ever going to be parked in there. So far it only has a dirt floor but will eventually have a cement floor with underfloor heating, I am so excited am already planning to put a stove in it to dye my yarn...great plans going around in my head. But someone else arrived at our house that thinks she should move in too....a lost homing pigeon...but I said no diapers...no pigeon. We have been trying to get her tame enough we can read her leg band and then we can find out who she belongs to, meanwhile she is checking the place out. Found her sitting beside Maxx the Jack Russel yesterday morning and in the afternoon she was walking around with both dogs, gave her a good talking to and told her to get off the ground and get safe!! The problem now is....we are bonding to each other....her name is Charlotte...how can we give her back if we find who she belongs to....it is running through my mind.....that I should clean the chicken house that the chickens do not live in and make a winter home for her....and then what do you do for a lonely girl pigeon.....you have to get her a boy pigeon...and then you know what happens....when you put a boy and girl pigeon together.....I am just saying...will keep you posted.....

Back Again

Well I guess it is about time I wrote again, time seems to fly by. So to continue from last post....how did I place in the fair. Well the baking was eaten a while ago and no pictures. I only baked three things, the Saskatoon pie, the spice cake and some squares. Now three years ago a family in honor of their mother donated a special of five hundred dollars for the best Saskatoon pie, that year I came in second, last year being the hundred year anniversary for the fair the prize for best Saskatoon pie was a thousand dollars and I did not even place, berries were so terrible around here, now...this year it was a hundred dollars....AND I GOT FIRST!! for my Saskatoon pie! I got first for the spice cake and second for the squares. Then on my fibrey items I entered I got first and best of section for my vest I knit out of the painted knit tube of wool and for the rest I have the ribbons on the items in the picture. I had entered four llama fleeces and I got first second, third and fourth in the class. So did not do too bad, was such a hot! hot! day. Then I had time to play with my new carder and I love it, the picture shows the first fibre I carded on it, some grey alpaca in roving and a skein spun, you can see by the drum on the carder I was already into brown llama. I am entering a skein of 100% llama and a skein of a llama blend, the blend is of llama, superwash merino and a bit of tussah silk. Now have to get them spun up, am also entering the feather and Fan scarf out of llama and I have three llama fleeces to go into the competition at the conference. Then I carded fibre and I carded fibre sometimes long into the night and I spun the fibre and spun the fibre..long into the night....no wonder I have had this headache for the last few days. I had a lady ask me for some insoles for her boots made out of alpaca fibre, now I am not a felter unless I have knit it first....and then just toss it in the washing machine, but I said I would try it, so I made felt...did you read that....I made a big piece of felt...and it did not kill me. And I just cut some insoles out of it and they look so warm. So now I will be felting too. Daughter M.J. the felter said now you have caught the bug....I said NO! NO! not another fibre bug, I am wondering if you can be done in by fibre bugs. I also knit some heavy socks for this same lady, just finished them and they are washed and blocked and ready to go. Mean while I have been picking beans and getting them in the freezer and enjoying the lettuce, carrots and potatoes out of the garden. Loved the colors of the lettuce, had to take pictures, some of it was too beautiful to eat!! Was so glad I took pictures as we had a hail storm come through the other afternoon and the lettuce is not so pretty right now.Just finished the chores, RH is at the farmers market today, hope he did not have to set up the tent in a mud puddle as it really rained last night. I should get busy and clean the house a bit before I start naming the dust/cat hair bunnies rolling around, cats have really been having their tussles lately, they are not young, should not have all this energy for tussles, right now they are sleeping peacefully in a sunbeam

Where have I been and what am I doing!!

As I say every time I log into post "where is the time going"!! Has been so busy lately have to think back to remember what I did first. The exciting thing is I did get my new carder and the big problem I have been having is finding time to use it, I have carded some adult alpaca on it and can not believe the beautiful job it does in one pass, I wanted to add some merino to the alpaca so I put it through the carder a second time and then a third to get everything mixed together and it really mixes the different fibre together. I could have eliminated one of the cardings if I had layered the merino with the alpaca on the first pass, will remember that the next time. I took the carded fibre off in rovings and it spun so easy. I ordered a picker too and it just came yesterday but have not had time to take it out of the box yet. Then it was my mothers birthday and my sister was having a get together at her house, usually we have it in the town hall but not that many could make it as they had other commitments for the weekend. I took a day to go into the city to do some shopping and stopped in town to fill the car with gas, when I got in the car from gassing up I happened to look down at a pair of gloves between the car seats....AND....was that mouse droppings!! IN THE CAR!!! Then I looked at the floor under my feet....IT LOOKED LIKE A HERD OF MICE WERE LIVING IN THE CAR!!!! I did not have time to go back home and knew that RH was in the yard so would not answer the phone or I would have had him bring the truck down for me to use. So I had to keep going....wondering if I had something in the car (did not take my knitting as I was driving) to tie my pant legs closed, so shopped all day hating to put my bags in the car, where could I put the apple I brought with me so the mice would not get on it etc. etc. I never even thought when I grabbed my cloth shopping bags as I went in for groc. that they could have been a mouse in them...it wasn't until after I put them up on the counter that I thought of it and was so relieved nothing jumped out when the girl packed my groc. Can you imagine the excitement if that would have happened!! So managed to get everything done and get home without a mouse siteing. I told RH that I had to drive around all day with mice in the car....he did not believe me until I had him go out and look....then he came in with a panicked look on his face... he said how could they have gotten in... there is no food in there... I said there is enough crumbs from you eating on the go in the car to last them for months I said they probably got in when you decided to take the garbage from the barn to the dump and used the car instead of the truck, the barn is running with mice this year. I had him take the live mouse trap out with some dry cat food in it and in about an hour there were three mice in it. Now he knew I was going to go down to my sisters on the weekend and the car needed the brakes fixed plus when I got up to speed on the highway the car shook all over...it needed a wheel alignment...how can he drive like that, I had not driven it for ages. So I said I was going to take the truck when I went, we just got a new one and I had not driven it yet, I do not think he thought I would....well the weekend came around....he had not taken the car in to be fixed....so I took the truck and oh my goodness!! It drives so nice...people give you more respect when you have a truck instead of a small car...I do not think I want to drive the car anymore. Anyway got down for my Mother's birthday party, my sisters horse had her baby the morning before I left so got to go admire it, then stopped at other sister's and got to admire her beautiful house plants, her bottle calves and her cutest little dog in the world, and then came home. Was worried as my pygmy Mom's had not kidded before I left but I thought whatever happens happens, one girl had her kids without a problem just before I drove into the yard. one more had her kids a day later which left the last one who looked like a balloon. We had friends stop in and stay the night, they were on holidays, had a good visit, had not seen them for years. Then it was get the llama show organized for the fair, plus I had entered some fleeces for the fleece show and some cooking for the bench show and some of my knitting and spinning. so got everything ready to go for the weekend. As I have run out of time for now I will let you know in the next post how I made out at the fair. Will leave you a picture of a couple of the new kids.

Summer is going too fast!!

Well I am still doing a little bit of everything, running in circles. I dyed a pot of wool fleece, it was quite dirty and matted even after I had washed it so put it in a pot on the stove and sprinkled some dye colors on it and poked it around a bit. When it was finished I rinsed it and spun the water out of it and put it to dry on my drying rack, as it dried I teased it apart and then when it was almost dry I took it out on the deck and teased it apart some more, the matts came apart and most of the debris fell out, now to decide what to do with it!! I finished knitting the feather and fan scarf out of the llama yarn, now just have to wash and block it. The llama club was gifted with some cones of llama yarn for a fund raiser, there were two cones of a light tan color so I bought them and skeined off a skein from each cone, one was a darker shade of tan and thought I would paint them and see how they came out. Well first of all.....100% llama does not grab the dye like wool does and I ended up with toooo much dye on the skein so there was a lot of blotting of extra dye and the dye ran together which concerned me a bit but in the end it turned out not too bad, the colors are dark as when I thought the yarn was not going to be dark enough to cover the natural color I added more concentrated color. I am wondered if I should have used a thickener in my dye so that it would not have ran together so much before it had a chance to absorb into the yarn??? Have never used it before so do not know....will have to investigate.. Now what to make with the yarn, I have not knit that much lace weight and this yarn is really lace weight so have been knitting a few patterns of different lace patterns. Might just do the feather and fan pattern and make a scarf to get used to knitting with it, are there lace needles?? I find I am having a hard time not splitting the stitches, knitting with the needles I have it is a slow process. That is another thing I will have to investigate. The fleece sorting is an on going thing, so far I have all the alpaca fleece sorted and am working on the llama fleeces, had stop the sorting for a bit and get my two oz of llama fibre dehaired and pick out the debris for the entry for Handspinners Choice Competition in the fibre and fleece section at the Llama Conference the end of Sept. I have to have it in by the end of July as they have a spinner spin one oz and it is displayed with the unspun oz of fibre. You do not realize how much two oz of llama fibre is until you start weighing it. But it is done and ready to go!! I could not wash it so for the competition but as soon as I got my two oz sorted I washed the rest of the fleece and it is so much easier to work with, just had to spin up a tiny skein this morning to see how it will spin and it is so nice, now to get it carded and spun. Now before the conference we have the local fair so have to decide what I am going to enter in that as the deadline for entry's is the first of Aug. might have a few things already made that I can enter, better go check. I had ordered a Pat Green supercard carder early in the spring, they were so backed up on orders and said it would probably be later in the fall before I would get it.....guess what??...Paula phoned me yesterday and they will be sending my carder out on Wed.(picture happy dance here) I have had one of their smaller carders for years and love it but this one is electric (another happy dance)the best thing is I can take my carded fleece off in rovings if I want to(another happy dance) Then of course I have been taking many pictures of my flowers, everyday someone else is popping a flower out that needs it's picture taken and I am still battling with the gophers in my vegetable garden, will not have any peas this year because of the mice and the gophers but am guarding my carrots and lettuce and beans so far o.k. Well am off to wash the lettuce I just picked from the garden and then decide whether I should sort more fleece or spin the llama fleece I just washed. Hope everyone is having a great summer!! For me it is going tooo fast!!

Where has the time gone?

I don't know whether it is because of the late start with our spring but time is going fast and all I am doing is trying to catch-up. Was out working in the front flower beds but a rain and a bit of hail storm blew through, it looked pretty bad but moving fast so we only got the edge of it so no damage thank-goodness. I could not believe how well I did at the fleece show at fibre week at Old's College. I had to enter the fleeces before we sheared the animals so just had to wing it and when we sheared the fleeces were so full of trash I did not have time to pick it all out so I entered fleeces that were easy to clean up. The fleece from our girl Ginger-Spice was not that long, barely making the three inch minimum, in fact I thought it would be too short but surprise!! she got first in her class and then took the grand champion. I should have got a picture of her. The shearer came and finished shearing the Alpacas as we were having trouble with our clipper and I have got all the alpaca fibre sorted and ready to go except for baby Blackberry, because his fibre is so fine it has some debris that needs to be picked out. Now have to get at the llama fibre and get it sorted but have gotten carried away sorting things and cleaning up downstairs. RH was at the stampede grounds in the Llama section for most of last week so on Monday I had him back the stock trailer up to the doors downstairs and load up the dead treadmill etc. etc. and do a dump run so today I vacuumed and tidied up as we want to finish up the flooring down there, which is a job for rainy days. I finally took the sweater hat out of time out and took it's picture, then I have been knitting a pair of socks out of the grey alpaca mix skein I had overdyed red, I love the red color, because of the dark and grey mix of the alpaca yarn there is dark and light red in the yarn. Then I have been knitting a scarf to put in the show at the Llama Conference in Sept. I am knitting it in a fine yarn made of 100% llama, I bought the skeins off a friend that had her fibre processed at the mill, the yarn did not have enough twist in it so I put replyed it and it came out great. Could not decide what pattern to use, finally decided on the feather and fan pattern, I added another pattern across as I thought it would not be wide enough and I really did not have to but it will make a wider scarf...but it is more knitting!! Have not decided what else I will enter. The llama club was given some cone's of llama yarn for a fund raiser and I bought two cone's of a fawn color and skeined off some of it and am going to overdye it and see how it comes out, it is a lace weight so is very fine....have to look for some patterns. Well I am on chore duty tonight and I hear my kids in the barn calling me, I am watering down their noon bottle as I will eliminate it pretty soon and get them down to two bottles a day, they are growing fast and eating grain and grass so do not really need it (but they think they do) I am still waiting on my three pygmy girls to kid, they look like any day, just hope they only have twins as I do not want to be tied down to bottle duty all summer and fall although pygmies are very portable, a few years ago I had two of them on the bottle and we had to go into the city so we tucked them in the dog carrier and took them in the back of the car with Maxx the Jack Russel to keep them company along with their bottles, had to find a shady car parkade to park while we did our business and then on our way home find a grass area for them to get out a bit and give them their bottles. Off to feed the kids!!

A Rain Day

We are having a few rain days and we needed them as we had a couple weeks of heat and things were starting to dry out, the rain gives me a break from watering. Iris's have been blooming and some of my lilies are starting to bloom and it is going to be quite a show as I counted over sixty blooms on the one bunch of plants. We had hail a couple of nights ago but ended up with just white spots on the leaves thank-goodness. I thought for sure after all that wet snow on my plants this spring I would not have any flowers at all. Not much on the knitting front, I did finish a scarf and hat set I was working on, it was a no-mind knit as it was just garter stitch, just have to put the fringe on the scarf. Also finished the sweater hat (headache hat), haven't taken any pictures yet as it is in time out until I feel more kindly to it. The Llama Conference is coming up so am thinking about what I should enter in the knitting etc. classes, took some skeins out and looked at them the other day but should decide on some patterns pretty soon. They also have the class where you send two oz of llama fibre picked free of guard hair and debris. I won the class last year with one of our young males fibre, but we sold him last year, have to look at the fibre of the three young animals we sheared this year, it was so trashy I could not send their fibre to the fleece show but will look and see if I can clean up two oz. As it is going to be cool today I have bread going in the breadmaker, baked bread yesterday too but we were having trouble with the power going off and on and did not know if it would get baked but it held in there and bread turned out great. As we can not work outside we I am getting some flooring put down in my work area downstairs, it will be a treat not to standing on concrete!! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer...it is going by fast!!