("smile for the camera" - a cute goat from the fiber festival)
This weekend we travelled ALOT! On Friday we travelled an hour and a half (one way) across the state line to pick up a new partridge silkie hen. I lost my Eleanor a few months back and have been looking for another, as one silkie hen just doesn't seem like enough. She's pretty cute and we refer to her as the "new" Eleanor. Some may think that recycling a name is a dumb thing to do, especially if you're other one died, but I have to tell you...new names are more difficult to come by that one might think. So she's 'Eleanor the second' in memory of my wonderful first partridge silkie hen.
Saturday we went BACK across state lines to a fiber festival in upstate Ohio. It was quite the drive (120 miles one way!), but I came home with 10 pounds of unprocessed sheep's wool and 5 pounds of a gorgeous gray alpaca fleece. Give me fiber, and I'm a happy girl! I've been processing a good bit of alpaca fleece lately. Today was my first experience washing a sheep fleece. For what it lacks in cost, it sure makes up for in washing. It's very different to process. It will take some practice, but I can't wait to dye and spin it. Our travels were extended another 60 or so miles on the way home as we swung up to Butler to pick up a dozen silkie eggs to stick under my broody silkie hen, Delilah. She just finished raising a clutch of six (who need to find new homes) and had already been found in the coop making nest. It's a little crowded in the coop right now with all the new chickens, so we've created her own little protected sanctuary in the corner in a big old dog cage that keeps everyone else out. Though her chicks are certainly old enough to be on their own (and almost twice her size now), they still seem to want to be close to mom sometime.
Last weekend was an exciting one on the alpaca farm. But that will have to wait for another day, as my bedtime has come and gone, and 6am will come far too soon for my liking.
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