Sheep and Gardens

Posted in Farming, Fun on the farm, Fun with fiber, Gardening by 4theloveoffiber

Don’t get too excited, it isn’t what you think. Believe me when I say, that I want this title to be about my very own sheep. Alas, the sheep in which my title refers is to all the beautiful sheep that I saw Mother’s Day weekend at the NH Sheep and Wool festival.

I had my mind made up before I left the house, I had a list & knew what I wanted.

And I will tell you friends, that Alpaca was definitely not on my list

But I bought a pound.

Goat was also not on my list…yep, I bought an entire angora goat fleece.

I had considered buying merino again, from a new vendor this time. Alas I found none. Instead I went to the judging barn and fell in love with a beautiful Corriedale fiber. The only thing I got this was actually on my list was Navajo Churro, I am interested to see how that spins up.

Not everything thing has been washed, but I finally got the chance to washed the beautiful Shetland wool that I was gifted last fall. I’ve been using my new combs and combing up a storm at our booth at the farmers market.

I also has some of Noël’s fiber to spin up. She has fought me for so long about getting sheared, last week we had a hot day of 85 and she just sat on my lap with no fuss and allowed me to cut away. She looks like a whole new rabbit!

As much as I love snow, I am glad the heat is here. We have been busy transplanting veggies out into the garden beds. Last week we had the help of my nephew who was up from Georgia!

He helped with the beds and helped us fence off two acres of woods for the pigs

The potatoes are getting bigger every day, we planted thirty pounds this year!

Set up a drip irrigation line in the greenhouse

And finally put the babies out with the big girls.

I have two (yes that’s right) projects finished

This beautiful lap blanket that I had been making for my grandmother, I gave it two her two days before she passed.

The second is the mandala waistcoat I had been working on for my cousins wife. This was a challenging project, but I enjoyed making it.

As we are on our first of many days of rain and it is dreary outside, I will end this with a bit of color. I’ve had a request at the farmers market for colorful wool for felting.

And I delivered!

Have a great week folks!!

19Aug2016

Pets

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

I was going to write an entry about the up and coming craft fair, I was going to post pictures of all the things I’ve actually finished for the fair, and I was going to post about my excitement. Sadly now I come to post about losing a pet.

When you live on a farm, the death of animals you are raising for meat should be something you are used to, it’s right there in your head. “Okay, this animal is going to help us eat through the long winter months, it will help us save money on groceries so we can afford more fuel to heat the house. We will spoil it with good food & attention, but it is still food”

However then there are the other animals, the ones to help guard your home, keep critters away, provide snuggles, and warm fur. Those are the animals, whose passing can really hurt.

Yesterday evening after a very short illness (not even 24 hours), Carrick passed away. I had no idea he was sick, I interact with him every day. Holding him, feeding him, moving him to greener grass.

I’ve never lost a rabbit to an illness before, I’ve had them escape when I was younger, I lost one to an owl when I was a little girl, my last rabbit I had for over 10 years before it passed from old age.

Rest in peace Carrick, I hope you are hopping around enjoying greener pasture.

19May2013

Fuzzy babies

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

The cold front has passed and we have been enjoying the warm sunshine. Catching frogs, singing with the birds, and running in the sprinklers. From sun up till dinner time, we enjoy the smells of wild spring flowers floating around the air, the green grass tickling our bare feet, and the sounds of nature all around.

Our new babies make very little noise compared to the last bunch we had in the house, it is hard to remember that we have them sometimes.

Our older babies like to visit us on the lazy afternoons, when we choose to lay on blankets and listen to audiobooks.

Our pup Moose likes to be lazy to, be it on the deck or over by the logs waiting to be cut.

Carrick enjoys the sunshine as well, though as he has become a little escape artist lately, he enjoys the sun from my arms until we can figure out how he escapes.

Our oldest baby, our cat, Ailey, has been running all over the place. Climbing rocks and trees and whatever else she wishes.

Yesterday I took my kiddos to the Sheep & Fiber festival and they enjoyed it…..ok they enjoyed jumping in the barn more but at least they had fun.

Yes, that is my girl watching the sheep sheering, we had gone to a motorcycle event that morning and she just had to put on the t-shirt her daddy got her.

And finally to leave you with my current progress of my bartók tunic

I am at 11″, 6.5″ more and I begin the next part woo!

Have a great day folks!

13May2013

Meet Jellybean….errrr Carrick

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

We live on a small little 8 acre farm, we have several gardens, a cat, a dog, 19 feathered friends, and my beautiful ~~french~~ english angora rabbit (for those who didn’t already know)

I got my little bunny Jellybean almost a month ago

See isn’t she just cute!!! She was an early Mother’s day present for me,..I also suspect that she was a present for my husbands wallet as well that I would now be spinning my own yarn to knit, instead of hurting the credit card at Joann Fabrics (Well I mean, I will still have to for fabric).

Yesterday I took Jelly bean to these two twins that live a few minutes away, they have raised rabbits for 12 years and I had found them on craigslist when I went searching for a mate for Jelly Bean. Anywho, I contacted them and they told me to go ahead and bring her over. As it turns out, Jelly Bean is actually a boy (not that it matters much, actually we wont need to rush to find a mate for him now, at least not as fast).

Also, they informed me that he was English angora, not french as I had previously been told, still I am A OK with that, their wool is easier to spin.

My six year old daughter informed that Jelly Bean was simply NOT a name for boys and that his name had to be changed post haste. I reminded her that I got the name from an Easter book where the male Easter bunny’s name was in fact Jelly Bean. Still she wouldn’t be budged about the name, so I renamed Jelly Bean what I would have named him had I known he was a male all along….Carrick, after the lead singer of the band Everybody Else.

So my friends, let me re-introduce you to Carrick (after his first haircut. it was 85 degrees and I didn’t want the poor thing to suffer)

Have a nice night folks!