Little Rascals Farm - Home to a Fiber Artist

ChipIn: Joyful Hearts Farm LGD Legal Fund

2011-12-08T09:51:00.001-08:00

Help Save the LGDs of Joyful Hearts Farm!
Dear Friends,
As development encroaches into the countryside and subdivisions spring up in previously rural areas, conflicts can occur between the established and the new. A good friend of ours, Joyful Hearts Farm, is facing such a situation.

Fern and Jeff have raised Nigerian Dwarf goats & rare breeds of poultry in Riverside County, California since 2005. They sell goat milk to feed orphaned pets and market animals for 4H projects, and soapmakers; homestead milkers, breeding stock, show stock, as well as offering farm fresh eggs to local customers, fertile hatching eggs, as well as baby chicks, and breeding stock in order to make their farm viable. They use two Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs), Maya and Bailey, to protect their livestock and poultry flocks from predators such as coyotes, bobcats and roaming dogs.

To read more follow this link:
http://joyfulheartsfarm.chipin.com/joyful-hearts-farm-lgd-legal-fund

Hay Season 2011 - Part 2

2011-07-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of the first load of bales....John looks ready to get it done!

This is what John looked like after the 5th load of bales!!! LOL!!! We actually found this mask in the barn and John scared his sister with it! We need humor to get thru the day!

Here you can see the truck and tractor getting ready to start making bales of the grass that has been drying for 3 or 4 days in the wind rows....

When it's a hot day this cab must be wonderful - air conditioning!!!

It's two fields that we picked up you can see the other one past the dip with trees growing in it...

I think it's so cool to watch the bales get formed and tied by the baler....can you imagine how hard it used to be in the old days when people used wagons, horses and a lot of pitchforks?!!!

Below you see Al in the cab, always helping us to learn about the fields and the process of making hay, THANK YOU Al, every year you are there and we really appreciate everything you do. John, in the hat, is my hubby and Alex is his step-nephew and the helper of the day, he worked side by side with John all day and helped us bring in all those bales!! Thank you Alex!!!

John's little sister drove the van and did a damn good job of it, no one got run over!!! She also took all these pictures which is why you don't see her in them! Then of course there is Lindsey (see below picture), she bucked just as many bales as the guys, our daughter is one tough lady!! That head of fuzzy hair to the left is me, I threw them up and she stacked...or we'd switch, what ever it took to get it done! 320 bales...but we had to load them up into the van, then drive over to the barn and unload into the barn...so it was like handling 640 bale....each one twice...ugh! And we've got several fields left to go, if it wasn't raining this whole last week we'd probably be out there still!!

Hay Season 2011 - Part 1

2011-07-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

We've struck a deal with the owner of the barn and are going to store a portion of the hay crop in here for the winter.

It was build by some people we know and rebuild about 15 years ago, used to be part of a dairy homestead so it's quite old. The owner's folks homesteaded here and raised their family, he's now in his 80's and rents out the original home to a lady with horses. She doesn't really use the barn so we get to.

Below is the small door (stoop down or you'll hit your forehead!) that leads to the lower level where we stored half the hay. You can see the van we use to collect the bales from the field and deliver to the barn for storage.

Below is the old milking parlor, looks like it has stantions for about 6 cows at a time.

The fencing is all old and weathered, the fields are full of red seed heads of the grass we feed all winter long.

Introducing the Contessa of Little Rascals Farm

2011-05-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is Tessa, the new Contessa of Little Rascals Farm
She is a Maremma Sheep Dog

She's 8 weeks old and traveled all the way from Spokane WA to live with us!

Here is Chica...Tessa's new best friend ever! They love to play slobber & paw (dogs version of slap and tickle) and take long walks and long naps together!

This is Ronnie and Coco, Ronnie is still trying to figure out how to get up on the couch.

This is what nap time looks like around here...Ronnie and Chica are on John's lap and Tessa is snuggled between two cold feet! She likes the coolness,
I would too if I sported such a lovely fur coat!!!

Ronnie, the Nubian goat

2011-05-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is Ronnie, she came to us via a friend who wasn't sure she was going to make it. She was cold and hadn't eaten in awhile when she found her.

She figured if anyone could save her it would be Lindsey, my teenage daughter, who is somewhat of a goat-whisperer. Luckily Ronnie showed up on the day the vet did to read some tests (required every year for the dairy license), and the doc suggested we tube her and showed us how it's done. So for 3 days we tubed her a couple ounces every few hours and she started to fill out and put some weight on. She totally refused to take a bottle though. Finally we took her back to her birth mom for a visit and one look was all it took!! She latched on to that teat and drank her fill!!! No more tubing for her! We figured out her secrete that she couldn't tell us. She preferred the real teat to a rubber one! So three times a day I take her out to the dairy and put a momma goat up on the stand and let Ronnie fill her tummy with fresh warm milk!

Ronnie has some interesting marks on her back...looks like a dog! I almost called her Siris, but Lindsey said she's a Veronica and we shortened it to Ronnie.

As you can see, Ronnie has favored goat status in the house! She gets to wear diapers and live in the house, she sleeps in a cardboard box lined with towels in Lindsey's room, and when she's at school Ronny tries very hard to figure out how to jump on the couch! She's only a few days old and barely as big as her best friend Chica, the Rat Terrier. They like to crawl up on John's lap and take naps together!!!

Shetland Lambs

2011-04-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

We've got 8 lambs this year, 6 white and two brown, all the babies are happy and the moma's are too!

This little girl thinks the best place to lay down is on top of mama!!!

Feeding time!

2011-03-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

This is how you feed baby goats!

With all these mouths to feed it's time to call all baby goats sitters!!

My Babies!

2011-03-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

Melody is saying these are mine!

She gave birth to twin doelings and decided to crawl into their little box to help keep them warm!!! Born 2.24.2011

Triplets!!!

2011-03-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

It's a tripplet year!

Yesterday morning we woke up to Lovie Dovie and her tripplets. Then this morning I got up earlier than usual and raced out to the barn to see if there were more and Spot gave us another set of tripplets, and Penny was shifting from one leg to the other with a funny look on her face. When I got Spot taken care of and in a smaller pen Penny came in and started dropping another set of tripplets!!!!! Now Carrie is in the birthing area making funny noises and looking like she might give birth in the next 24 hours and she always gives tripplets! It's a tripplet year!!

Milking Season 2011 has begun!!

2011-02-28T11:14:00.000-08:00

Melody's Twins 2011

First is Lela...then Harmony comes along....

Here is LIndsey toweling off Harmony...

Melody is a wonderful mom, she's taking time to clean and dry off her girls with her tounge, it helps stimulate circulation and drying them off as soon as possible is important to help them stay warm. They both stood up within a couple minutes of their birth which is a very good sign....then they promptly fell over!!! LOL!! Nothing cuter than the first few steps of a baby!!!

Chica, Rat Terrier Puppy

2010-11-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

This is Chica, the little ball of mischief that John's holding! She's only 4 months old right now and just as cute as a button! She doesn't like to be cold (me neither!) so she came in immediatly after pictures were taken!

Make Your Own Cheese by Rona Sullivan from the July/August, 2006 issue of Dairy Goat Journal. Presenting information, ideas, and insights for everyone who raises, manages, or just loves goats.

2010-11-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

OK! It's late fall and the dairy is closed for the season, so now I've got time to do little things like post pictures and links I've found:

Make Your Own Cheese by Rona Sullivan from the July/August, 2006 issue of Dairy Goat Journal. Presenting information, ideas, and insights for everyone who raises, manages, or just loves goats.

Snack Time!

2010-09-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

Just found this in some pictures I downloaded from the camera, just too cute!!!

Baby Goats

2010-09-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

I am way behind in posting baby pictures! This is from April and show's Jill from Chicago feeding one of the babies while petting another who is demanding attention as well!

Processing Wool & Mohair Fleeces

2010-07-31T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sarah, Laura, Kaitlin, and Belinda are learning how to process fleeces.

First you have to pick the fleeces and get out the largest pieces of hay and dirty wool/mohair. Then you soak them in hot soapy water and rinse, rinse, rinse, until the water runs clean. Then we take them and laty them out in drying racks so the sun and summer breezes can gently dry them.

Then we get to card the wool into bats....here is Kaitlin learning how to card with some Jacob fleece a friend gave her when she visited her farm a couple of weeks ago....

And here are some of the finished bats, while carding the fibers are all combed so they lay the same direction and make it easier for the spinner to spin into yarn.

Mama Chicken and 13 baby chicks!

2010-07-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

Mama Chicken suprized us with a batch of 13 chicks last Sunday! Had no idea she was hiding a nest let alone so many!! She's proving to be an eggcellent mom and takes after anyone who dares get too close to her babies!

They are just too cute!!!

Milking The Goats!

2010-07-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

WE have helpers here to learn how to milk goats! Belinda, Kaitlin, and Sarah took turns milking the girls. They have never milked a goat before and had a great time learning how!!

Bringing in the hay!!

2010-07-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

OK! Lets make hay!!!

July is the month for local hay around Western Washington. My BIL has about 7 acres in hay that we buy from him every year and this is what we've been up to for the last few weeks! What you see here is the loading of the shed at BIL's place with all the kids and neighbor kids to help out!

Curds & Whey

2010-06-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

The G'sons are visiting and for a quick snack I made quick ricotta but spooned the curds and whey into a bowl, added locally raised honey and cinnamon! You can see they think it's like candy!!!

Jack Cheese Round

2010-06-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Made about 5lbs of Jack Cheese! It's ready to be dropped in a brine and then aged for 4 months...don't know about waiting that long though!!!

YouTube - Fresh Mozzarella at Tutto Italiano

2010-06-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Fresh Mozzarella at Tutto Italiano

YouTube - Mozzarella Making Class

2010-06-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Check it out! I decided today is a good day to make mozzarella and started looking online to see what videos there were on the subject, this one is fun! It's a class at a restaurant with an old cheese maker in the Pastosa kitchens:

YouTube - Mozzarella Making Class

Saturday Afternoon Canoe Trip & Paneer

2010-06-13T00:26:00.000-07:00

A Saturday afternoon canoe trip with the girls on Buck Lake.

Then a stir fry dinner with vegies from the farmers market and some fresh Paneer cheese I made after getting home. Hillary said it was the best tasting Paneer she's ever tasted!!

Kid Heaven!

2010-05-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

Truely a kids idea of heaven!

We get 4H kids here frequently and they all love to play with the goats, expecially when we have a ton of baby goats on the ground!! These two kids took home another goat for milk, last year they bought two young doelings to show.

Hansville Creamery

2010-05-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hansville Creamery Goes To Market!!

The kids are selling milk! Ok, not the goat kids, my children! We've been going to the farmers market in Poulsbo for the last few weeks and it's been great. People are really suprized when they taste our milk cause it doesn't have that 'goatie' flavor they seem to expect. It's all in the diet, we feed alfalfa hay and a special dairy mix which they only get when they are on the stand being milked, it helps keep them busy while we get all that milk!

It's a nice sunny day in the first picture, which is not what I see now when I look outside! It's pouring rain! I looked at the radar on K5TV and it’s a solid mass of green and yellow, it’s a wet day all day according to the weatherman. I suppose that's good, it means I'll not have to water the garden today! But milking is going to be a muddy sporting event...did you know that goats hate rain? All the goats are hiding in the barn! I see an occasional nose stuck around the corner as if to answer the eternal question – is she coming yet? Nope! She’s not there yet! Is that her? Nope! That’s the stupid chicken laying eggs under the feeder! Is that her? Nope! But she let the dogs out so she should be coming soon!

Hansville Creamery is open!

2010-04-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

We're so excited!!!
The girls are finally producing some wonderful sweet milk!

Here is Chief and the babies, we put them outside for a few hours to play in the sun with Chief to look after them.

Here are two paying King of the Rock!

Here are the babies and Chief making sure everyting is safe, the little one next to him is my favorite little doe, she so tiny she was only 5lbs when she was born!! But she makes up for it in moxie, she trounces all the larger boys as she is so light she can walk over their backs to get to the bottle with milk!!

Baby Alpine Goats

2010-03-15T00:55:00.000-07:00

It's baby season!!!

Here is Penny Pink Nose and her two new babies, they are wearing sweatshirt sleeves to help keep them warm as it's been really chilly.

Here is Lindsey and the two new kids.

Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian, Chief

2010-02-23T22:11:00.000-08:00

Here is our boy, Chief! He turned 2 years old in Januray and the lights went on and he started guarding the sheep, chickens, cats, and small dogs!! We're still working with the goats, not because he's not good with them but because they are still scared silly of a big dog in their area. I introduced him again (after living next to them for the last year) to the goats and things are going well in the last few weeks, I even caught Chief licking the bucks ear - and Cochise was letting him!

This is a look: Can I get a cookie?

Here is his way of lounging so he looks like he is awake...his head is wedged in a square to hold it up so he can sleep and not look like he's asleep! Smart dog!!! That'll fool the coons!!

Moldy Soil?

2010-02-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

Using Low Tunnels In A Very Wet Marine Climate

We put up some low tunnels last year to help us with our project of over wintering produce. I limed the soil, fertilized, and added some composted manure, then rototilled it all in. I planted a variety of winter lettuce, kale, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, and garlic. The broccoli and cauliflower were an expirement in what will over winter and give us produce earlier in the spring. They died almost immediatly of course. The rest died when we had a really hard frost in December. So today I decided to go out and uncover the tunnels and see what the damage was and what I needed to do to try it again with early plantings, testing the limits of how early I can start in these low tunnels. Low and behold....I've got mold, although someone said it might be algae since it's been so wet this year. I sent a picture to an expert and we'll see what gives when I get an answer. If this is going to be a re-occuring problem I might as well wait until spring to do all that work before planting.

Carding Fiber For Spinning

2010-02-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

Patrick Green Super Carder & Me

I've got a lot of spinning to do.....mostly alpaca for a friend, but I've also got some angora, mohair, and wool to spin up too from my own flocks. The alpaca is slow going, I thought I had a handle on it but there are still so many bags of it to do yet I fear I'll never get through it all! The good news is that two ladies are going to be helping me in exchange for spinning lessons!

Above you see my weighing method, after it's washed & dried I measure out 2.2 to 2.4 ounces and then put it on the carder below...once the carder kicks out misc dirt and dibris it usually winds up with a carded bat that is 2.0 ounces exactly give or take a thenth or so.

Below you see the beautiful bat being pulled away from the carder, so soft and easy to spin!! Alpaca is one of my favorite fibers for softness, but it's not as nice as angora! Last month I finished up 3 more fleeces...I hope to get through another 5 this month before the baby goaties start hitting the ground in March!

Weaving or Twining a Rug

2010-01-31T13:54:00.000-08:00

Twining A Rag Rug

Last summer some friends with a wood shop allowed me to use their expertise to make a simple wood frame using some maple 2x2's I got at Home Depo. They made a jig for me and predrilled the holes for the upper and lower screws and I took the whole thing home and put it together last summer. In August '09 I took some old sheets I found at 50% off at Good Will and ripped them into sections about 2" wide each and started the process of warping and then twining the rug but had to put it aside as fall projects got most of my attention. Now that it's winter I have time to work on it again.

Twinning is the art of using up old rags and making something useful like rugs for the house. In this case I'm hoping to use this rug at the sliding glass door to catch the rain/mud that comes in on the paws of my cats and dogs. It's a nice thick fabric that is turning out nicely. When its done I might over dye it but we'll have to wait and see how it goes, I've got a long way to go before I get to that point!

As you can see above I'm working on a purple stripe, each of the two purple sections are twisted or twined around each of the white warp strands so that only purple shows up on both the front and back. The rug will be the same on both sides.

Winding a Warp & Other Things

2010-01-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

A new year to start new projects! I resolve to get more done!

Funny Picture

Here is Twink, the cat, and CoCo the dog taking naps side by side on their easy chairs...usually reserved for humans but since they were empty I suppose they are fair game!

Here is the part where I get more done...I wound a warp!! It's the towels from Handwoven's issue Jan/Feb 2006, I really like those colors so I bought the yarn and let it sit for the last 4 years! Can't believe it's been that long! Oh well! IT's done! I got the warp done!

Now I just have to dress the loom...sleigh the reed, thread the heddles, and wind it on. Or visa versa if I decide to do it back wards, which I might. I'll start tomorrow and thread 1/4 and take a break and see how I feel! I probably won't get it all done in one day but at least I'll get it started!

Winter Fun - The Inside Kind!

2009-12-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

Making Raw Milk Cheese & Yarn

These are the things that take up my time in the winter, cheese making, spinning yarn, weaving, and so much more!!

This morning I started another batch of chevre, I'm going to make a 2gal batch of Dill & Onion as the last batch was delicious!! Here you see the ladel and the thermometer so I can keep stirring and keep an eye on the temp as it cools down after low-heat pasturizing, it has to be about 80F before I add the culture and rennet. Then I cover the pot and put it in the cubbord for 12hrs before cutting and then hanging the curds. While I like the raw milk chevre I've been making for years I realize that I've got to practice making chevre with pasturized milk so when I get to the point where the dairy is producing cheese for sale I'll be able to make it and sell it. All raw milk cheeses have to age for 2 months before it's legal to sell, which is fine for hard and some soft cheeses, but chevre is a fresh cheese product and cannot last that long in the fridge so it has to be pasturized in order to be legal to sell at markets. Federal regulations.

There are two baskets full of yarn that Lindsey has spun up, and an inkle loom with my learning piece of card weaving on it. the pattern is little sheep - at least that is what it's supposed to look like!! I've taken it out 3 times already as I found mistakes in my cards, and just now found another one on cart 7 that has the colors in the wrong order...grrrr! I'll take it out one more time and then that's it!!!

OK, this is cool! It's a Home Spinning Machine from 1946, it wasn't working at first but John, the valiant hubby, fixed it and you can see the first bit of spinning on the spindle (it's the red/orange stuff inside that bell shape). At this point I'm not sure if it's faster than my normal wheel, but I do think my spinning is much better as this is turning out to be lace weight!! We'll see what happens when I start to ply it.

Winter at the farm, Blue Passed Over The Rainbow Bridge

2009-12-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

Update, Blue was 18 1/2 years old when he suffered a stroke last week and passed over the rainbow bridge. He was greeted by his old friends Sandy and Twila who passed over earlier last year. He was my ambasador on the farm, he was always ready to greet new animals to the farm and assure them they had indeed arived at their forever home where they would be happy and well cared for.

Here is Blue the cat catching a snooze in a sunbeam, he was not yet aware that it moved and he hadn't! This was a favorite spot for blue and is where I found him the morning he passed on. I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted! It's been really busy here, even though it's the end of the season for the dairy and I have fewer milk chores to do. Starting just before Thanksgiving I dried up all the does except Melody who is still giving about a quart a day now so I can still keep the house in milk. But it won't last long as I have to dry her up by the middle of December so she has 2+ months to devote to growing her babies for next spring.

This is a wonderful sign made by some dear friends who brought it over as a complete suprise!!

Here is Chief, he's keeping an eye on the herd while also catching a snooze on the fence!

Here is another reason I've been busy, I've been makign soap for the holidays in many different molds, I love the cat of course, but also really like the new snowflake ones I just got.

I finally got my twining loom finished and warped it up last August. You can see I've got about 7 inches of weaving done on both ends. I will use another color sheet to do another two sections and then repete going back and forth with the different colors. For now this is being stored in the knitting room as I've got to get going with my Christmas knitting and this is just in the way.

New To Me Loom

2009-11-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

Counter Balance Loom

This was one of three looms a friend was gifted when her neighbor passed away. She didn't have room for all of them so she decided to let some of the things go and I purchased this one from her. It's a lovely counterbalance loom that was part of a productionworkshop about 30 years ago. Even though no one had used them in years the looms were in nice condition.

I'd like to know more about this loom and who the maker is, see the logo in two pictues below. It' s by someone named Ross, can't make out the first name but looks like it starts with an L. If you know about these looms please get in touch with me.

More photos below....

From the back:

You can see from the back of the loom here, the piece the original owner had on it was just cut with fabric left on the front beam and warp on the back.

I've got to figure out how to set the sheds right, they kind of came apart in the move but it shouldn't bee too hard with some help from my friends.

Here is the front of the loom, it's got a nice bench attached, and the beater is hung from above so it will be nice on my arms.

Here you can see some notes taped on the bench, this was a production loom so I'm sure it's for a particular pattern.

Point No Point Lighthouse - play day!

2009-10-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

A trip to the beach at Point No Point Lighthouse.

This is a favorite place of ours to take a break from the farm, it's a nice sandy beach and you can easily see the Straights of Juan De Fuca with all the ships that go in and out of Puget Sound. It was cold but it was also a lot of fun! We took Chief for a walk down the beach twice so he got some exercise and was a perfect gentleman the whole time! He is so good with other dogs, actually he ignores them so it's great! Here our wwoofers Emma & Mallory are sitting on a log with Lindsey while Chief tries to get as many pets as he can!!

Chief and I are taking a little rest from our walk, he likes to snuggle - he loves to be near us and spend time with us, but he especially likes to snuggle!! John thought it was a great idea and decided to take a load off too!

The Dairy

2009-09-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well the dairy is almost done!!! Above is the milking parlor, we still have a little left to do on the walls, like paint them, but it's ready to use and I'm so happy to finally be in out of the weather again!

Above is the new handwashing station next to the door that we put in about a week ago, and below you can see the large 3 compartment sink we put in to clean and sanitize the equipment. And I know it's boring but there is the equipment rack beyond the fridge, with the ice bath cooler and the glass jugs with their strainers on them waiting to be filled with milk! Inspector is coming on Friday to see what we've done and let us know what else needs to be acomplished...whew! it's almost done!!!

Fall Football - The Twins

2009-09-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the twin grandsons in their new football gear for their team, they are just toooooooooooo cute!!!!

Bunny Hat

2009-09-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

Here is Lindsey with our friend Salix, she is wearing the bunny hat her mom made from Lindsey's handspun angora/wool yarn.

Late September on the Farm

2009-09-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone works on the farm!!! Weve got milking to do, hoofs to trim, building to paint, plants to harvest and seeds to plant!

I'm busy seed saving spinach here, earlier it was kale and char I was saving. Now that bed is ready to be replanted...except for those two little green pepper plants that are still producing lucious green peppers for our stirfrys!

Our WWOOFers are really happy to be here and really enjoy the varied tasks as well as the oportunity to do things they wouldn't normall get the chance to do!!

WWOOF stands for World Wide Organic Opportunity Farming...check it out on the web.

Plus we get to enjoy the fruits of our harvest such as the cherries canned in mid summer turned into a lucious cherry pie!!!

Mother Hen and her chicks

2009-08-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

IT's been an interesting summer! One of the hens not only laid eggs but she hatched 3 of them and they are just adorable!

Lavender Harvest

2009-07-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

The Lavender Harvest
Here you can see a basket of lavender bundles ready to go to market, these are the five dollar bundles and are about the size of a 50 cent piece.

If you would like to order some fresh lavender bundles contact me at my email address K2P2SSK @ CENTURYTEL . NET (delete the spaces) with the number of bundles you would like to order, We send a little more than double the size you see in the picture above in each bundle, these all weigh out at 5oz each and the ones we send are all 12oz when fresh. I will then send you a request for money from paypal or you can ask for my address to send the check to. WARNING: Lavender harvest is only 2 weeks so we will run out of fresh lavender bundles in another week or so. If you are sending acheck for fresh you need to send it yesterday!!

Here is a the beginning of the lavender harvest with the larger bundles which are as big around as our fingers can reach. We later weigh them all to be sure the count is correct and then arrange in nice neat bundles so we can mail them out wrapped in tissue the same day they are picked.

Use lavender to help ward off moths from your fiber stash. If you soak thestems, leaves, and buds in vinegar in a glass jar for 2 weeks and thenstrain and put in a spray bottle you'll have a wonderful cleaner that willrepel bugs (ants hate lavender) as well as clean your counters and help makeyour kitchen or studio smell wonderful!

One Bundle125+ StemsFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavender$17.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)

Two Bundles250+ stems totalFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavendershipped to the same address$29.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)

I prefer PayPal, but checks or money orders are acceptable too - REMEMBERit's a 2 week window for harvesting the lavender so you need to act quicklyto be sure we don't sell it all before your check arrives!!

Washing Mohair Fleeces

2009-07-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

So here is the patio and my fleece washing station (until DH finds me a new spot). You can see I've got buckets for sinks and a planting flat to pour the fleeces/water into that serves as a strainer (see behind blue bucket on right). On the banister is Cinnamon's fleece, see Thursdays April 30th to see pics of me shearing him, he's so big I had to divide it up into two and use two 5gal buckets to wash it in.

Here you can see the cascading curls....each one is at least 8" long and some are double that. I didn't shear him for a year so I could see if I could use the longer curls in something like a fleece woven rug or perhaps in core spun yarn that I can weave or knit into a vest or what ever.

The one problem I've got with his fleece is that it's hard to dis-entangle the curls, I'm sure given an evening alone with my spinning wheel I'll figure something out.

Large Curd Cottage Cheese

2009-07-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, today I tried to make large curd cottage cheese. I used fresh goats milk, used about 7 drops of that calcium cloride stuff to help make the curd harder, and followed instructions to the letter.......

As you can see the curds didn't hold their shape but it still tastes great!! So its' not a total success but at least it's eadible!! I think next time I'll add more of the calcium cloride and see if it makes a difference. Perhaps I'll make vegi lasgna tonight for dinner and use this as one would use ricotta, could be good.

Angora Herd Sale

2009-05-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

Here is Pralene (left) and her boy from last year, they are both a dark grey but he is more brownish and she is more charcoal. He was born a faded red and turned dark by 6 months.

Herd Sale

2009-05-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the members of our Angora herd. Billy is the oldest buck and behind him is Cinnemon a faded red. Topper is the other buck but he's not in this photo. Billy is so dark he's almost a black.

Here is a little boy who was born much lighter and turned dark, he's a year. There is a nice silver in the background.

Sir Gallahad, Rooster

2009-05-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

Sir Gallahad and his girls in the freshly roto-tilled raised garden bed.

We got Sir Gallahad from a friend a few years ago as a hand raised rooster, he has impeccable manners and never chases anyone including the dogs or the kids. He's a great rooster!

Pyrex Bake-a-Round

2009-05-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

'Make the Best Bread Around with the Bake a Round'

Or so says the advirtising on the box!

A friend just gave this to me, complete with instructions with pictures even!
It says there are seven simple steps to use it:
1. prepare the dough.
2. grease the bake-a-round tube.
3. shape the dough into a loaf.
4. place the loaf in the bake-a-round tube.
5. let the dough rise in the tube, cover both ends.
6. bake in the oven.
7. remove baked bread from tube to cool.

It's kind of cool, a blast from the past and I sure don't ever remember seeing one before. I'll try it once and see how it goes!

Angora Goat Shearing

2009-04-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here is Cinnamon, he's a 3 year old Angora goat with a lot of lovely curls! Angora goats give mohair, many of us know of mohair sweaters as being not only warm but soft and light to wear but not many of us know where that mohair comes from!

Here you can see I've started shearing from his back side forward, and you can see the soft fuzzy side of his curley coat.
And here he is with his completed summer crew cut so he can go out and impress the ladies all summer with how cool he is!

Early Spring Gardening

2009-04-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's Spring!

This year we decided to try and extend our growing season by creating low tunnels over our 4 raised beds. And because of the carrot stealing dogs and the chickens we had to put it all behind a fence with a gate. Although we did create two smaller beds infront of the garden and to the left of the garden that we will fill with flowers as 'scraficial lambs' to the chickens just incase.

I must say the chickens have done a great job of getting rid of the slugs. I didn't know it before but they actually eat slug eggs! Yeah!!

So far we have carrots, celery, cabbage, kale, swiss char, oriental greens, and a bunch more I can't remember, all planted in the two far right beds. We will try modified crop rotation this year, planting every two weeks and replanting as soon as the first sucession plantings are harvested.

Building Raised Garden Beds With Tunnels

2009-03-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

Goal: to eat tomatoes off the vine before August and not have 30lbs of green tomatoes in late September. To have corn and perhpas some watermellon this year, and extend the growing season into early winter so we can continue to get good salads and goodies for hearty soups.

OK, I think you get it, the goal is to have raised beds that we can cover with plastic to keep in the heat and extend the growing season. We got the lunber at a discount by asking for the pieces no one would take and they gave it to us for $2 a board, then just said what the hell and gave us the rest of the stack since they were all cupped or twisted and no one was buying lumber anyway. We also purchased the hoops (pvc pipe), clamps, and 10x25 sheets of plastic.

We started with the 4 beds we made last year (which is when we used the back hoe to 'double dig' the hard pan and work in some composted barn cleanings, and other organic soil augmentations like limestone, bloodmeal, and bonemeal).

We dug in the cover crops (ok its really weeds but they compost well when turned into the soil), then built the boxes with the clamps for the PVC pipes and then filled them up with more composted barn cleanings and 2 year old compost mixed with soil and more of the soil augmentations that we put in last year.

In this shot you can see the inside of the board next to John's & Lindsey's feet has 4 pipes fitted to the board with clamps, these pipes are larger in diameter so we can easily slide the white pipes in them to form the tops of the plastic tunnels.

Next is to cover the hoops with plastic and start planting! The problem is that the following day we got snow!!! We went from sunny and warm to snowy! Crazy weather!

Our plan is to plant early spring crops that do well in cool weather, and as it warms up the tunnels will come off to let the sun do it's thing with out assistance.

Alpine & Angora Goat Babies 2009

2009-02-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

The first three Angora Goat babies have been born! They are so cute with their curly hair and tiny bodies. Here three of them decide to take a nap in the hay bin!

It's been so cold lately we cut off sleeves from some old sweatshirts and cut holes for the front legs and put them on the babies to help keep them warm.

This is Ivy and her two new babies born on Valentines Day- We decided to call them Val & Tino!

Here is Val & Tino (in black sweatshirts) with Bounce (tan sweatshirt) & Downey (pink sweatshirt) in their play area. They cuddle together in a box which helps to keep them warm. I think we'll need another box real soon as Cari is due next and she is so large I think she's going to give tirpplets!

Making Laundry Detergent

2009-02-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

My laundry bucket is just about empty so I need to make soap today. In the past I've used the old fashioned recipe of Borax, washing soda, Fels Naptha, and 5 gal of water. I think today I'm going to try something different and put some of our left over bits of goats milk soap to the mix and see what happens. Or, perhaps I will grind up the left over bits and add powdered Borax and washing soda to get a dry mix. I'll do the old fashioned way with water and try the powdered was also and see which one I like.

I do have to say that the cleaning ability of the home made detergent isn't as stellar as the store bought versions, but it's kinder on my septic system, kinder to my skin, and with pre-treatment of stains I still get clean laundry.

Zeus is now called Bounce, sideways diapers work well on boys!!

2009-02-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

Since Zeus lives in a laundry basket he has now been ranamed to 'Bounce', he bounces in and out of that basket all the time!

Notice the diaper, DD decided to put it on like an upside down saddle. Not only was it difficult to keep on but the diaper didn't cover his pee hole and we wound up cleaning up a lot of puddles until she got the idea to turn the diaper around.

Works great!!

First Alpine Kid of 2009, Zeus

2009-02-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

This is the first Alpine kid born to the farm in 2009. His name is Zeus and he is pictured here being dried off while his mom noses him. She had a difficult time giving birth and didn't make it. She went over the Rainbow Bridge when her son was about 12 hours old.

Zeus now lives in the house, he didn't have a twin so there is no one to keep him company so we have to let him stay in the house and get treated like a little prince until some of the other mothers give birth, then he will be put back in the barn with some friends to play with and cuddle with for long early spring naps.

For some reason Zeus adores my youngest daughter, as does Suki, whos nose is quite out of joint since the little buckling has taken her favorite seat!

Sunrise Over Mount Rainier

2009-02-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Life in the Pacific Northwest has many advantages, we are nestled between two mountain ranges so at certain places on clear days we can see a 360 degree view of the Cascades on one side and the Olympics on the other. I took this shot on a clear day last fall and thought I'd share with you.

Today I'm sorting fleeces and washing them up, it's hard work but someone has to do it and thank goodness I've got a warm day (if you can call 40F warm), with no breezes to do it in.

I put up my DD's old baseball pitchers net against the banister on one side and the picnic table on the other. Then I pull out some fleece and hand pick the VM before dumping a couple of hand fulls into hot-hot soapy water for a half hour or so to soak.

Then I put the soddy mess of wool on the pitchers net to drain while I change the water. I put the dirty water to work on my garden, it's cool enough after a half hour outside to throw on the plants. Once I've got another pot full of hot-hot soapy water I let it soak again for another half hour, then I rince about three times in hot water and then let sit on the pitchers net for a few hours to dry while I sort and wash the next batch.

I do take the damp fleece inside in the winter, it is the rainy season so it's best to dry on the wooden rack in the bathroom with a fan blowing on the locks to help it dry faster. In the summer I leave it all out in the sun to dry naturally. Once it's all dry I bag it all and throw it in the carding room until I'm ready to start carding. Just can't store dirty wool in the house, it stays outside in plastic bags until I can get to it...then stays in plastic bags in the carding room until I can get to carding it.

Hope you are having a great day!!

Seattle/Tacoma Washington Earthquake

2009-01-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

Kingston/Indianola Washington Earthquakes

Today I got up as usual and turned on the news to find out that we had one earthquake early this morning. Then I got on the computer and found out we actually had two. They were practically right out my window and I didn't even budge, didn't even stop in mid-snor to wonder what was going on, probably didn't even turn over!! Not even my dogs woke me up! Yet on the news I heard lots of stories about people waking up and what they saw and heard as the earthquake went through the ground. Oh, well!

I have two notices from USGS that state:

EQ #1
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude
4.5 Mcd
Date-Time
30 Jan 2009 13:25:03 UTC
30 Jan 2009 05:25:03 near epicenter
30 Jan 2009 05:25:03 Pacific Time Zone
Location
47.772N 122.556W
Depth
58 km
Distances
3 km (2 miles) NW (313 degrees) of Indianola, WA

EQ #2
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude
4.6 Mb
Date-Time
30 Jan 2009 13:25:01 UTC
30 Jan 2009 05:25:01 near epicenter
30 Jan 2009 05:25:01 standard time in your timezone
Location
47.890N 122.481W
Depth
5 km
Distances
10 km (6 miles) N (8 degrees) of Kingston, WA

Chief - Livestock Guardian Dog

2009-01-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

Chief, with the girls in the background.

Obviously the girls aren't as thrilled about the new addition to their pasture in this shot. I let him move around a bit and then put him in another pasture next door to the girls so they could eye eachother from across the electric fence. As soon as the girls accept him we'll move him in permanently. Right now he stays in the barn at night and the girls are closed up in the nursery so they don't feel so stressed. Chief has been here for almost a week now and the girls are starting to warm up to him, when I take him for walks inside their pen they don't run and a few of them come up to me for loves and to sniff Chief out! I'm encouraged, Chief is too cause I can tell he just wants to be friends.

A friend came over and Chief was a gentleman about her arival, only barked a bit, but when she moved over to the goats to say hi he was really wary and I was pleased to see him concerned for 'his' girls, I think it's only a matter of time before he and the goats are great friends!

Christmas Hats - Production Machine Knitting Method

2008-12-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2008

Production Machine Knit Reversable Hats

This year I decided everyone in the family would get a hat. So I dusted off my notebook and thumbed through 25 years of notes and found an easy pattern from an '80s Bainbridge Island Bond Knitters Club demonstration (we had over 200 members back then). The club knit a lot of hats for the Caps For Kids program and one of the members showed us how to knit hats one right after the other saving the finishing for tv time in the evening. She used KP3 or KP4 depending on the yarn.

Since I've got a Knitking PC Bulky (aka Brother 260) I decided I'd change the pattern a bit to suit the machine and yarn, which is a large stash of Red Heart yarn a family member passed on to me when she quit knitting, and some Woolese, basically anything worsted will do. Plus since I had a lot of hats to make I decided to do it the production way.

I cast on 38 - 38 at T8.1 and knit one row plain, in other words no e-wrap or closed cast on method, you are going to unravel the first two rows anyway...I'll explain later in the pattern.

I hung the cast on comb with 2 large weights and proceeded to knit 130 rows. Make sure the yarn leading to the carriage is free of the hooks on cast on comb before you knit the second row.

Then knit one row of contrasting yarn, or ravel cord if you have it. Reset your row counter 000. Change colors for the next hat and knit a total of 130 rows moving the cast on comb and edge weights as needed.

You can also just start knitting with the next color which I show here. I just do an overhand knot (see edge where I tied black and white together) to join both yarn ends together so they stay snug but are easy to undo later if I need to.

Then I knit another row of contrasting yarn or ravel cord to seperate each hat or just change colors and keep knitting hats. In the picture below you can see the brown, peach, and black hat all joined together like a long scarf piling up under the knitting machine.

Then I take this extraordinarily long piece of knitting and sit down in front of the TV to do some hand finishing while I watch the news or another football game or even better Extreme Loggers, or Deadliest Catch (knitting gives me something to do when hubby has the remote).

Here is what I do to finish the hats:

(when starting on the second hat you start again from the ***)

***I first unraveled 2 to 3 rows and then picked up all the sts on a suitable circular needle (I think I used size 8 or 9, and you can easily use straight needles I just prefer circulars).

Row 1: K2 tog, all across the row (decreasing by knitting two sts together all the way across).

Row 2: Purl one row.

Row 3: repeat row 1.

((the above can easily be done on the machine by using the garter bar, but you have to increase sts on one end of each hat and decrease sts on the other, so it's tricky and I prefer to have hand work to do while watching tv in the evening))

Thread end of yarn onto a double eyed bodkin (yes that is what I'm using) or darning needle and push through all sts on knitting needle (you are gathering all sts), take out knitting needle and then pass darning needle through all sts one more time and pull tight.

Keeping yarn end on darning needle seam up the side using the mattress st, you are sewing a tube that is gathered at both ends.

Before you can finish the seam you have to seperate the hat you are working on from the rest of the hats, pick up sts with your knitting needle in the 3rd or 4th row down from the next color. Then you have to pull out the row of ravel cord, or just undo the last row of knitting by pulling out the first row from the color above the one you are working on. In the picture below I am pulling out the first st then I will go to the other end and snip the last sts in the row and then pull that row of sts out by pulling on the yarn tail I loosened up first.

Then I unravel the rows of sts above the knitting needle and repeat instructions from *** above, but this time you are going to sew up the seam going in the opposite direction leaving at least 3 to 4 inches clear so you can turn hat right side out before completely closing seam.

Here you see the hat turned right side out and I'm starting to close up the seam using the mattress seam and keeping edge folded inside. If the seam is showing the hat isn't reversable.

What you have now is a tube that is gathered at both ends.

I grab the long tube in the middle and pull....

...and then grab one gathered end and push it inside the hat and pull the edges so they even out....

You put the two gathered ends together and pull the edge straight and then fold up brim, I also sew a few sts in the two gathered ends to secure them so they don't come apart in the wash, stops your hat owner from calling you asking what the hell happened to the hat!!

The top of the hat looks like a flower with 4 petals...

You can see the finished peach/white hat below, it's a cool reversable hat with an all over peach look, or a white top with a peach brim...very fashionable...ok, I confess, I ran out of peach!! I'm just using up bits and ends of yarn so occasionally I don't have enough for a whole hat and I have to invent a design element!

If you have questions just ask!! Perhaps I can get an extra shot of something that will help you see what I'm talking about.

Oh - I almost forgot. I did some fancy knitting by inserting some variagated yarn in the middle of the hat on the green one (middle right in picture on very top of this entry), and used some left over variagated green scrap yarn and a punch card to put some color in the other fancy one (middle left same pic).

See black hat on the left with the fancy fairisle brim is the reverse of the red hat on the right....didn't have enough black!

I divided the rows by 3 and came up with 43 rows black, 43 rows fairisle MT+2, and 43 rows burgandy. It's the same hat with a black or burgandy crown and a fairisle brim, but it's reversable.

Sometimes I only have enough yarn for a hat if I combined colors, but this time I got creative and inserted a punch card and knit the middle rows using fairisle at two tension numbers larger (remember to consult your manual before trying this, I forgot to push in the MC button and wound up with two rows plain and no patterning...I forgot!).

Happy Knitting!

PS: MT+2 means Main Tension Plus Two, or T8 plus 2 = T10 (fairisle requires a little looser knitting to stretch over the head comfortably)

Blizzard 2008 in Washington State

2008-12-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Snow up to their knees!

We've had around 2 weeks of snow and it's about time for it to start melting. We woke up this morning to snow flakes, but by afternoon it had turned to rain so it's starting to melt in the day but since it turns so cold at night there are still problems with fresh ice on the roads every morning. Hopefully it won't take to much longer for it all to melt but I'm not going to hold my breath. We just aren't used to so much snow, we usually only get a dusting if any at all. But since it neither an El Nino 'nor a La Nina year we have what the weather men call a neutral year which is when we usually get dumped on. Happened in '96, 90' and if I remember that far back in '88 as well.

The goats are going to be so happy when the snow goes, they haven't bee getting out of their shed at all except to get a drink of water, I take them on walks so they do get exercise but not much now that it's so cold & wet on their feet! These are the 4 spring babies we kept this year to breed next fall. The mamas and the buck are in the pasture behind them.

Merry Christmas To All!!

2008-12-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day 2008

It's still snowing!

We are still watching snow flakes even though it's supposed to turn to rain sometime today. The boys look like they would like some warmer & drier weather!

Merry Christmas To Everyone!!!

Double Trouble!!

2008-12-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

The twin grandsons came to visit last weekend. It's always a great day when they come to visit us!

I have been flat on my back for what seems like months but it probably only weeks. I pulled something while scooping grain out of a can for the goats and couldn't walk or move or even call for help without pain! I finally got going to the house by slowly shuffeling, and for almost two weeks I was a couch potato before being able to get up and do anything beyond go to bed! I'm supposed to get a steroid shot in the space between the vertebra next week so hopefully I'll be on the mend real soon.

Handmade Goats Milk Soap, getting ready for a show

2008-11-02T00:26:00.000-07:00

I've had an interesting week in making soap. I found that mixing soap is more fun than cooking, and clean up is a breeze!!

Here you can see two batches I did today. One is pale lemon yellow and the other turned out more like a butterscotch or taffy color.

The two batches are exactly the same, but the lighter color was cold processed and the darker was hot processed in a crockpot.

Below I'm stiring a small batch in a plastic bucket, this was a test to see if I liked using coconut and olive oil together, and I do!!

Here is a small bar of soap that didn't work out too well, I'll be using this one in the house as there were lots of air bubbles in all the molds, slao see the dolphins below.

You can see that I've got quite a few bars done, but this is only the latest batch, there is about 40 to 50 lbs of soap in boxes all shrink wraped and ready to go to the show next weekend. I will continue to do about 8lbs of soap a day for the next 4 to 5 days.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T00:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday we had a family get-together to carve pumpkins on the back porch. Grandma and both her daughters were here to help with the carving and I think everyone had a great time!

DD had a great time and is a real artist at designing and then carving her designs.

'

Grandma was cold but got her pumpkin done in record time!

Here is what they looked like later that night on the front porch. The top oen was cool with it's flames!

Natural Goats Milk Soap, made on the farm.

2008-10-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest effort at making soap. I've got a small show coming up with a group of artisans and I'm trying to make as much soap as I can. Since the show is only a week away I decided to try my hand at HP or hot processed soap. I searched the Internet and found the oven method on Diane's Naturally http://www.dianesnaturally.com.au/. For those who don't know CP or cold processed soap takes 4 to 6 weeks to 'cure', while HP takes 24 hours to set up and cure. It's a lot easier to do CP but it's quicker to do HP.

As you can see from the photos below I've got what I think is a temperature problem, but I'm no expert and will ask others what this two tone soap means and if I should turn it into laundry soap (grate it all up into powder). The second photo shows the smaller molds turned out nicely, but the large block mold is discolored.

Wedding Shawl, machine knit tuck lace

2008-10-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter is getting married so I thought I'd make her a nice shawl, you cant really see it in the pictures but there is a silver thread running with the white thread. I used an old baby blanket pattern developed back before ribbers and patterning cams I'm sure as there was a lot of hand manipulation to pull three strands through three strands all the way up for six columns of sts.

You can see I deliberately killed the yarn so it would drape and for picos on he edges, I hope she likes it.

The pattern is formed by leaving several sts out of work across 100 needles on the bulky machine, knit plain for 170r and then latch up the six columns, then knit another 170r and do the same. I crochet cast off so I could have a nice edge to hang fringe, but I like the pico ends so much I decided it doesn't need anymore finishing.

I will take photos at the wedding and post them, hopefully it will show up better than it does on my bed spread.

Baby Shower & Knit Baby Blanket

2008-10-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

Today was fun! I went to the baby shower of my DH's youngest brother and his wife. We played baby bingo, and had delicious sandwiches and soup and just visited with family and had a nice time. It helped that it was a lovely day in Washington, nice and warm with lots of sunshine.

My baby blanket was a hit, the little ball player even looks a little like my BIL!! I knit that last night on my E6000 using T186, it turned out large enough to cover the three of them when they take those naps with the new baby in a few weeks!

Tomato & Pumpkin Fall Harvest - not exactly stellar!

2008-10-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well, so much for growing tomatos this year!!
I only got one or two red ones out of the bunch,
I will say that the bushes were really healthy and there was no rust or other diseases on the plants for the first year in a long time.

Here is the largest pumpkin I've ever grown!!
It's yellow still, but it's a beaut!

This one has a lot more growing to do, don't know if it will make it as it's the middle of October already.

This one looks more like a striped watermellon, but it's a pumpkin.

Making & Canning Jam

2008-10-04T01:21:00.000-07:00

Making Jam!!!

DH & I decided we better start taking care of all the fruit we have around here before the fruit flies learn of our collection and destroy it all! We pitted some beautiful blue plums and filled a one gallon zip lock bag, and then I got the jars boiling to sterilize them while DH pulverized them in the blender skins and all. Then we boiled the mixture with pectin and sugar and voila! We got eight 12oz jars of plumb jam. Then we started in on 4lbs of apples and stirred in cloves, cinnamon, and allspice and boiled it all down to make apple butter and after boiling the five half-pint jars and then filling them with apple butter we processed in boiling water for another 7 minutes.

So we got a total of 13 jars of canned fruit for this winter!! Yeah!! We still have two boxes of apples to go through adn about 15lbs of pears to ripen and can as well. This is fun!! I used to help my SIL many years ago but never did this myself, so I'm really quite proud of us!!

Fall Gardening

2008-09-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

I've felt crummy for days, just sick to my stomach and icky. My DD has a nasty cold and tonight DH said he's got it too. I suppose this is the beginning of the flu season already! But even when sick the chores must be done, like milking and feeding all the animals. In the middle of it all I am slowly clearing off the back deck and getting the vegitables harvested.

The beans are Red Lady, I've put them in soups but they are really too tough to eat that way now so I'm going to let the rest ripen on the vine and dry them for winter use.

Here you see some flowers and a nice tomato plant on the back deck. We were trying to see which would give us more tomatoes, pot on the deck or in the ground. They each have given us lots of tomatos but the weather this year was so lousy I only got one red tomato and that was from the one on the deck. I see lots of green salsa in my future!!

I'm going to be putting most of these in the greenhouse in another week, hopefully they'll make it through the winter and I"ll have some nice plants next spring.

I've got three tomato plants that have green tomatoes on them, just not sure how to proceed with that. I hear you can put them in newspaper and then in a box and in a cold place and they will slowly ripen so you can have fresh tomatoes through Thanks Giving! Sound great! Another told me to up root the plant and hang it upside down, all the fruit will ripen at once and then you have to figure out what to do with it from there. We love salsa so I'm sure canning some would be in order.

Here is a nice suprise in my garden, turnips!! I've already started using them in my soups!! Nothing like it to help make good for you soup.

I know these are considered 'weeds' by some, but I love to look at them! Scottish Thistle is what my mother used to call them and they are a volunteer on our property. I like their pretty pink flowers!

Strawberries in September

2008-09-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today I went out late to feed the animals and milk
the goats, and on my way by the strawberry patch
I saw some color...yum! I brought them in and shared them with DH. A nice little September 20th end of Summer treat.

Now on to working the farm: feed all animals, get teenager up, milk 6 goats, clean house for party today, make large pot of bean soup and bread to feed the hoards, and then maybe I'll get to that pile of fiber waiting for me in the shadows calling my name!

Ananda Farms Shetland Ram

2008-09-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

I"m so excited!! For my birthday my husband got me a white Ananda Farms Shetland ram for my herd!!! I can see the beautiful crimp from here! He's a reall show animal, he is halter trained already (thank you!) and a real sweetie at 5 months old. I think it would be nice to enter him in a few shows as he's a reall nice ram with excellent conformation!!

Dairy Goats

2008-09-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

We are slowly getting our building done for milking the goats. Last winter I was milking in the snow with out the canopy cause the winter winds tore it up, I decided I needed permanent coverage!!

Here you see Melody and Spot on their goat stanchions eating their favorite treats while the milking machine (sitting on the floor between them) milks away! No more wear and tear on my hands from milking since we got the milking machine.

As you can see we are still in the process of finishing up the buildings, I look at it this way, DH has his professional job, his farmer jobs and his building jobs. When he has time from the first two we get a little more building done.

Rainbow Angora & Wool Hand Spun Yarn

2008-09-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

Once more I'm trying to get my fiber 'stuff' done. It seems like the more I do the more there is to do!!! Today I washed out 19 hanks of yarn that we spun up recently and they are now hanging out on the back porch under the canopy so the sun doesn't get them. My daughter dyed these and then blended the fiber on our cottage carder and then spun them up. They are a mix of angora and wool, with the green ones on the left being 100% angora, and the orange ones on the right a 50/50 blend of wool and angora.

I've got some of my ewe's wool on the wheel now that I just finished processing into a light weight yarn, I'm going to ply it using the Andean plying method and then wash and set the twist. If I can get enough of it done by the end of the month I'd like to knit a simple blanket for my DH, he does so much around here (and works too) I think he deserves a blanket just for him.

Here is another project I'm working on, it's recycled t-shirt yarn that I'm crocheting into a bath mat for my DD's bathroom. So far I've used up 3 old white t-shirts and I've got two more to de-struct and turn into yarn. I might have to go to the Good Will and get a couple more to finish it off if it's not long enough. The old cotton fibers absorb the water from your feet and make a nice texture under the toes too! I'm going to make another one just like it for the doggie jail room - which is the laundry room, when the dogs come in with wet feet they have to stay there for awhile until their feet dry or they'll get in real trouble when I sit on the couch and find wet spots!!

Skirting and sorting fleece the feline method....

2008-08-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

Cat sorting fleeces with the 'zzzzzzz' method!!
Now you know what I've been doing this weekend, I sheared my last sheep (I couldn't catch her!) on Friday and yesterday I spent the day skirting the fleece and picking out the vm so I could wash it up. The assistant is named Blue (for his blue eyes), he's about 17 years old now and though he loves to help around the farm he does take union naps often.

Kitsap County Fair 2008

2008-08-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, another year of fairs is almost over for us! We always help in the Kitsap Weavers & Spinners Guild booth, that's me and my youngest daughter doing a spinning demonstration. We didn't do the whole fair this year, just the afternoon shifts for three days. With milking and feeding the goats we can't do more than that for awhile.I managed to skip posting here last week because of the fair so I made a promise to myself to post twice this week to make up for it!

The next photo is of my daughters blue ribbon yarn. She harvested the wool from her Angora Bunnies, mixed it with some wool, dyed up bunches (see previous post about dying) of wool and angora, then carded it together, and finally spun it up. I got a second place ribbon with my black n'brown wool that I Navajo plied (first try).
50 Ways To Weave Your Color
Here you see that I FINALLY finished my warp off from the class I took two years ago! I decided to do finger towels with the remaining warp, it's 8/2 cotton and the colors are lovely. Now I just have to dig out the sewing machine and sew the hems - I don't think it will ever get done if I try and finish it off by hand!

Mystery Loom - 4 shaft floor loom

2008-08-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

I picked up another loom today! This one is a 25" weaving width floor loom with 4 shafts and 6 treddles. There are no distinguishing marks so I've no idea who made this little compact loom. It's got a strange way of lifting shafts, I figured out that it's a Jack style loom, what I thought were double lams were not! So I've got a nice little Jack style 4 shaft that is REALLY sturdy! Look at all those bolts!

I picked it up in a rummage sale to benifit the local community center for a very small amount, so I'm tickled pink!!

Here in this shot you see the bottom of the shafts just above the rockers which are just above the lams that are shown in the photo below.

In this second picture you see the bottom lams that are tied to the treddles.

Since it's a 4 shaft I think I'll try some double width fabric and see if I can do some mohair throws. And a few mohair shawls should be rather easy on a loom like this. nice and easy and small enough to fit in the livingroom so I can weave and watch tv with the rest of the family.

Angora Rainbow - dyed Angora fiber

2008-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks my daughter and I have been dying up several pounds of angora fiber that we have collected from our herd of angora rabbits (no animal is ever hurt while being shorn, it's a necessary and helpful process to the rabbit as they might get wool block and die if the coats aren't thinned or cut off). We have 15 adult angoras, three reds, 8 white, 2 chestnut and 2 black.

Today we dumped it all on the coffee table and put three skeins of her newest blends on top of it all with one bat and the yarn spun from it on the left. I didn't realize we had so much fiber!!! It's going to be fun blending and spinning it all up!

Pacific Northwest Fiber Arts

2008-07-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

I never have time to sit down and actually compose a blog post for myself - time management isn't something I'm good at! But I'm going to persevere and make a promise that I'll post something at least once a week!!

I've been concentrating on getting some fleeces processed, I've got 7 mohair fleeces from this spring that need to be cleaned and spun up as well as 4 Shetland fleeces that also need to be spun up. A few days ago I started washing and picking two black wool fleeces and yesterday my daughter started carding it up for me (on our Patrick Green Cottage Carder) while I started processing one of the brown ones. I love the Shetland wool, it's so soft and I can't wait to get spinning this stuff up!

We are also working on the mountain of angora we've accumulated, light as a feather but takes a lot of space! Lindsey & I died some blue the other day and it's about as yummy as can be! Lindsey is going to spin it up and skein it for a show we have coming up in November. I hope to have a good time at the Art In The Woods Studio Tour this year: http://cafnw.org/AITW-New-2007.htm this is kind of getting out of my comfort zone as I've never done a show before, just sold things online and to other designers.

Below is a picture of some coopworth I forgot about, it's clean and ready to spin up!