Baby Alpine Goats

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

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.