In The Middle of Autumn

Zendala Dare #28 (template from The Bright Owl)

As always, I am behind....on everything.  That old saying "two steps forward, three steps back".  Yep, that's me.  Slowly I am getting caught up on things around the farm, the house, fiber, and other crafts.  And I have to admit that one of the biggest contributing factors is lack of organization or prioritizing my time.  (Okay...that was two contributing factors).  So I've started making myself a list of everything that I need/would like to get accomplished the following day.  I don't always get it all done, but it allows me to cross things off as they are completed, and there is something encouraging about seeing things crossed off your list. 

Here's today's list, and as you can see, I've still got a lot to do!  Most are in preparation for family that is coming to stay at the farm for the Thanksgiving weekend.  But others are 'long overdues'.  Like plucking (angora) rabbits - starting with Runtdungus Fletcher (aka: Runt), getting some custom (craft) orders finished, and attending to our Kombucha brew.  Oy!  That one's definitely long overdue.  Both of our SCOBYs are about 3 inches thick.  If there is anyone other there locally who is looking to start their own kombucha, we can get you hooked up with a fully functional SCOBY!  Otherwise, my sister read and shared with me yesterday that the extra SCOBYs can go to our chickens.  I think I'm going to try that.  

Above is my Zendala Dare #28.  I am also behind with my dares, but I do have so much fun with them!  Can you see the octopus in the center with it's arms branching out.  I really love this zentangle, called Suckers by Lizzie Mayne.  I played around with adding the sharp Cephalopod beak in the middle.  Then I kept with a sort of sea monster theme and added portholes, planks, and seaweed (in mooka form).  I was pretty happy with it.  I've only recently (within the last couple of months) begun participating in Erin's Zendala Dares.  If you are interested in participating, check out the link on the right side of the screen.  

Lilly Bug

Welcome Lilly!  She is our newest addition to the farm.  And what a cute little bug she is!  Last September, when my sister and I attended the second Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA, she purchased two Silver Fox does and one buck.  Lilly is their offspring from earlier this summer.  She is the blue variety, but they are often seen as black with the silvering developing as they grow.  They are an endangered breed of rabbits primarily grown for meat.  When I explain this to people, the most common response is, "Then why do you eat them?"  Well simply put, if they're not being bred for meat, then they are not being bred at all.

On our farm, we are working to be as sustainable in our food production as possible.  It is a process, and currently we can only produce a small portion of our own food.  But each year we are adding more and more.  Starting a rabbitry for meat is our next step.  Lilly is still a youngster though, and we're not planning on eating her.  She will be one of our breeding does once she is old enough.  She's just barely two months old.  In the mean time, I am phasing out of raising angoras.  While I love the fiber, they are a lot of work.  I have four at the moment, and plan to rehome three, keeping one.  Four is just too much for me right now.  Their fiber is fantastic being 3/4 English and 1/4 French.  If anyone is interested, please contact me.  Here's my girls.  They all have wonderful dispositions.  Especially the sisters.  And an angora or two is a great way to produce and harvest your very own fiber for spinning!

Mrs. Buns - 3 years old (mamma to Grey and Ginger)

Grey Baby - 1.5 years old (sister to Ginger)

Ginger Snap - 1.5 years old (sister to Grey)

This has been a tough decision for me.  I love all my rabbits.  But my initial intention was to sell Mrs. Buns offspring.  A few I did.  Three I kept.  And I still plan on keeping their brother, Runtdungus Fletcher.  He's my baby!  As I mentioned above, angoras do take a bit of maintenance, so please only serious inquires.  =)

Summer has gone fast!  I'm back to work full time now, which leaves a lot less time for the farm, garden, and shop.  Perhaps one day I will have more time, but for now we do what we have to do, and plan for future change.  It's all a process.  I'm enjoying the cooler nights (and sometimes days), but can't wait for the frosts of fall!  Autumn is my favorite time of year!  I much prefer the cooler weather.  Most of the garden vegetables have been exhausted, though we've still got a few things growing.  I planted some cabbage, onions, and cilantro earlier this month for (hopefully) a fall harvest.  I'm still trying to figure out what I can grow into the fall to extend our season.  Again...process.

It's Just Part of the Journey

Morning farm chores were pretty miserable this morning.  The mild and sunny weather that graced us for the Christmas weekend has now allowed a large rain system to move into northwestern Pennsylvania.  They are calling for it's change into snow by evening, but for now it's just a lot of wet.  All this rain we've had recently has really turned this farm into a mucky mess!  Needless to say, the chickens have been 'cooped' up since Saturday, so they didn't much care what was going on outside, they just wanted out.  I can't blame them.  I propped  open the rabbits just a bit to let some air flow in, but that's the best that I could do.  I've always been told that "a wet angora, is a dead angora."  Sounds kind of harsh, but it's true.  All that fiber is great for keeping them warm in the winter, but it would be like trying to sled ride in a soaking wet snow suit.

It's supposed to rain all week...

While my farm chores only took all of 20 minutes, I feel worse for my husband, who is out working at the alpaca farm the next three days.  At least he'll get to spend most of his time in the barns.  All I could think as I was sloshing a fresh bucket of water down to the coop (half of which some how ended up in my boot) was how nice it would be to just have a barn to work in today.  One of these days.

On a 'sunnier' note, we were blessed by a friend who at the last minute offered to stop out and take care of the animals for a couple of days so we could go home for Christmas.  I was extremely thankful for her help.  We may only be three hours from home, but it's still too far to just swing back to the farm to close up the animals after that filling Christmas dinner.  I think sometimes it upsets my mom that I can't come home as much.  It upsets me too.  But becoming a "farmer" is a choice that I am serious about.   It's not just a ephemeral hobby.  I am a determined woman.  I know she understands that, and even looks forward to a day when she can participate in the whole process.

Christmas brought pretty much our whole family together; even those a half a country away.  We had 36 people at my grandparent's house on Sunday!  We chatted, played some music, and ate lots of food.  It was I good time.  But we are home now (as of yesterday evening).  It's sad to see the holiday's end.  If we were home, we'd spend most of the next week's days with family.  Sharing meals.  Chatting about old memories.  I do so look forward to the day when we will be homeward bound.  But for now, I will make the best of my life here.  After all, this is where many of my dreams have begun to come true.  I will never forget that.  Life is a journey.  We glean from our travels.  For me, this is a big part of it.  I have learned skills that I will have for a lifetime.

For now, I will take these (literally) soggy bottoms, soak in a nice hot bath, and reflect on the journey.

Unseasonable Weather

Gorgeous landscape on our way to Hell's Hollow

We live in a place were it can be sunny and 70 with a cool mountain breeze one minute, and the next has turned into a blizzard so windy you feel like, if you close your eyes for even a second, you'll open them up and be in Oz.  The weather sure can change fast around here.

This past weekend was gorgeous!  Beautiful blue skies with wispy white clouds, 65 degrees or better, cool breeze.  It was the perfect weekend to be outside.  We took advantage of this on Sunday, knowing that we're not likely to have too many more of these.  After breakfast we decided to go for a walk.  It was my husband's idea, to my surprise, and me and Kenai were all for it.  His first thought was just to take a walk to the back pasture, which is only about a quarter of a mile from the house.  I suggested we head down the the nearby park.  I had an ulterior motive of course, to gather some more osage oranges that were lying all over the ground down there.  I gave my sister my last few the day before.  It's a nice little walk down there, right next to the stream.  And most of the time it's pretty quiet there with a nice paved trail that I would guess is about a mile around.  We were graced with a special fly by from my favorite bird, the Belted Kingfisher as we meandered along the stream.  But once we had gathered the osages and made it back to the car, it just felt like it would be a shame to head back home.  So we decided to take a little hike up to Hell's Hollow near McConnell's Mill.  It too is actually a short hike, but it ends at a gorgeous waterfall and an old time furnace.  I couldn't help but take some pictures along the way to capture the wonder.

Fungi and Bryophytes are my favorite!  I love their crazy life cycles!

Look!  Sporophytes!!!  And when I touched them, spores went everywhere!  

Isn't nature beautiful?!

The weather has since settled into something, err..., more seasonable.  The temps have dropped, and we even had snow the other night.  Not a lot, but I hear that more is on it's way.  We've really been blessed with 'unseasonable' weather for the last month.  So I'm sure it's about time Old Man Winter to lace his icy fingers around this farm.  Bring it on, I say.  I don't mind.  Winter gives me the excuse to sit at my spinning wheel and spin, knit up a storm, and create to my heart's desire.  But for now, I've some fuzzy bunnies out there that need attending to.  They'll be receiving their last plucking before spring.  I do look forward to spinning some of that angora up!

Autumn's Final Hoorah?

This just came out of nowhere.   I checked the weather earlier this evening and (I'm not sure how) I completely missed this.  The storm is long, extending all the way from Oklahoma to New Hampshire.  By the the time I realized what was happening I was battling 60 mph winds in attempts to keep my rabbits covered.  See we re-tarped the hutches in preparation for winter.  Unfortunately the new tarp is not as heavy and blows all over the place.  It was our goal to construct sort of a suspended tarp weight that would help to anchor it during storms likes these.  I now fully understand it's necessity.  With the winds we get on an almost daily basis up here, it needs to be done ASAP.  In the mean time, I did my best to anchor it for now in the hopes that they will fair this storm at least.  I think the worst of it has past now.  I wasn't just wet when I came back in the house, you could ring me out!  I suppose this is autumn's last hoorah before winter sets in and those winds carry white outs instead of just rain.

I hope everyone else out there is staying dry.

A Full Weekend

The past two weeks sure have been sultry!  It was so hot that for a solid week we brought our buns inside to keep cool.  They never would have made it out in that heat and humidity.  Since they don't have the option to burrow into the cooler ground like the wild rabbits, we created for them their own little underground sanctuary - in our basement, which stays a nice 60 degrees year round.  I have a feeling they were much obliged.

The garden (for the most part - I'll get to that later) is doing well.  As a matter of fact, it's doing so well, that I'm realizing that I should have planned it out just a little better.  My butternut squash is taking over the whole lower quadrant.  Not surprising in that I planted 8 seeds (all came up) in a 4 by 8 plot.  I didn't have the heart to thin them out.  And now they will be the squash monster that takes over my whole garden; I'm sure of it!  The roma tomatoes plants are full of fruits.  Beans producing like mad.  Okra enjoying the ridiculous heat.  And pumpkins starting to trellis up our TV antennae tower.

This past weekend we travelled up north to help move my brother and sister-in-law back home.  It was a long and exhausting process, and by the time we left to come back down to the farm, you could tell everyone was whooped.  Even after the moving truck had been unloaded, it was still a full weekend.  We visited the local farmer's market (Eat Local!) and open air market - something new for Warren County, and went a saw a movie.  And of course ate more than we should have.  That always happens when mom's cooking.

Can you find the Sphinx (Hummingbird) Moth?

This is not to say that we didn't find time to relax as well.  We certainly did.  I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures of the flowers and wild life in her gardens during one of those times.  My mom's flowers always seem to attract Sphinx moths.  I love these little things.  They never stop flitting from one flower to the next.

Chinese Lantern Plant

I acquired this plant from a friend of mine when we both lived at the barn.  I think these are fabulously bright and wonderful!  I love the orange color they change as they mature.  Inside is a tiny little fruit that reminds me of a type of tomatillo.  Don't just go out and eat them though, as I can't tell you if they are edible or not.  Some have told me they are edible and others have said they are not.  If anyone knows for sure, I'd love to know!

Foraging

Here's Grey Baby.  I love her color.  All the buns love some 'free-range' time.

8th Annual Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival

(60% Merino, 30% Bamboo, 10% Nylon)

Today we travelled down to Greene County for the 8th annual Sheep and Fiber Festival.  Last year was our first time attending and we met so many great people that we went back again this year.  It is really a great little festival with a medley of different vendors and fiber animals.   We got to chat with some of the people we met last year, eat some lamb, and fetch some fiber to spin.   I even bought a Dorset fleece right of they newly sheared sheep.  We chatted with the couple from the llama farm we visited last spring, who invited us back out for another visit, and I bought some of their llama roving to spin.  I've yet to spin llama.

 (new lamb)

 (Babydoll Southdown Sheep)

(introducing the pygmys to the new pygoras)

We also acquired two pygora lambs (not me, my friend Cheryl).  Pygora means a cross between an angora goat and a pygmy goat.  Their fiber is wonderful!  It is softer than just the angora goat, yet the pygmy gives the goat it's hardiness.  Cheryl already has two adorable pygmy goats (seen above - on left); these two were a perfect addition to her little farm.  It was quite a ride home with these two in the back of the car.  They actually did pretty well.

Lastly (no pictures yet) we found a table loom for sixty bucks!  We couldn't decide which was the better deal of the day: the goats or the loom.  Both were amazing finds.  Stay tuned for some loom productions!

Some Days You Win, Some Days You Lose...

And the past two days, I've lost. Fanny, our only Jersey Giant finally past. Sadly, with a little help. It was a tough decision, but se was literally down to feathers, skin, and bones. It was so sad. I felt so bad watching her get worse each day. We tried hard for the past week, but it just got to be too much for her and I felt guilty watching her suffer. She was a good ole hen and will be sorely missed.

A new hen has now replaced her on the front porch sick chicken ward. One of our new Blue Cochins has come down with the same thing that our other chickens had last November: bubbley eyes (literally, bubbles coming from the eyes) and snot. Anyone have any ideas?? We searched high and low for info last year, and never really came up with a definitive answer. It went through all of our chickens. All recovered but one old hen. So we're hoping that this will pass with her too and that none of our others will come down with it again.

And if all that wasn't bad enough, I come out to the rabbit hutch yesterday morning to find a dead male bunny. They boys and girls were separated about three weeks ago. I had 3 boys and two girls. Apparently, boys of 3 months old come into their male hormones and will fight (really? 3 months?). I feel so bad. This was all my fault. Nothing that I have read, or any info that has come through other rabbit owners expressed that this would happen SO early. So, I am banking this as yet 'another' lesson learned. Next time I will be smarter. Of the two males that were left yesterday, one found a new home. Everyone else is fine. Onward...

Second sunny day in a row and the temperature has been in the 30s during the day and teens at night. Could someone please send spring? I'm not sure I'm ever going to thaw. I've been trying to get all my bunnies plucked, but I don't want to pluck them when the nights are in the teens. I spun a bit of angora last weekend (hopefully I will finish a skein this weekend), and boy is it ever nice. All I can say, if you are a spinner and want to start to raise your own fiber animals, angora rabbits are a good place to start.

Needing Rabbit Advice

I loss one of my angora bunnies today. No idea what happened. He was fine this morning, and fine when my husband got home this afternoon. I went to check their food and water a little bit ago and found Patches dead in the corner. No outward signs of trauma, like he got beat up. They are 10 weeks old and were weaned from mamma buns over the last two weeks. They are eating a mixture of rabbit pellets, oats, flax, and bird seed mix; this is a recipe that I got from the lady who sold me my buck and doe - she's been raising many angoras for quite some time and uses this recipe to help prevent wool block. They have a mineral wheel and are also give orchard grass hay. I'm careful about not giving too many raw veggies and I've been told that this can upset their poor little tummies. Am I doing something wrong? Is this just a fluke incident? Everyone has seemed rambunctious and happy, so this was such a surprise.

Colorful Turkey Casserole

I really must share this recipe as it is fairly quick and easy and surprisingly yummy!! The pictures just don't do it justice! The recipe is from the Kitchen of Ginny Vietmeier - I have to be honest, I don't personally know Ginny, but I feel it only right to give credit where credit is due. Who knows, maybe one day she'll Google herself and find that she's been written about; and that just might make her day. Thanks Ginny for the wonderful recipe!

Colorful Turkey Casserole

1 (6 oz) pgk. stuffing mix

3/4 c. butter

3 c. zucchini diced (I add half zucchini and half yellow squash)

2 c. cooked turkey diced

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 medium carrot, shredded

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/2 c. sour cream

1/4 c. Craisins

Combine stuffing mix and melted butter (save 1/2 c. for topping). Add zucchini, turkey pieces, soup, carrot, onion, sour cream, and Craisins to the remaining mixture.

Transfer to a greased 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining stuffing.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes.

Serves 6 - Prep time 20 minutes

My husband and I double the recipe so we can have left overs to feed us during the week. Just something to think about.

The baby buns are going to be 8 weeks this Wednesday. Where does time go? Here's my favorite, Gray Baby Cinders sitting in my hat on my (messy) desk watching me work. He's a sweetie. I say 'he' but Lord only knows what they actually are. I still can't tell. All look the same still. We let them romp in the kitchen this afternoon and gave them their first combing and nail trip. Some did better than others, but I certainly don't expect perfect little angels for their first time. This week will be 'weening week'. I'm sure Mama Buns is ready and things are getting a bit crowded in their cage now.

Oh the Worm Bin...

Farewell to the worm bin. We will try again in the spring, but the miscellaneous bugs were getting out of control. We got infested with these super tiny little flies. I mean REALLY infested. I think there was more of them than there was dirt, and definitely more than there were worms. I'm not sure what exactly did it or where they came from. Initially we developed some fruit flies and these little black (smaller than knats) flies, but these were something completely different. They were even tinier than the knat-like flies. I've never seen anything like it. The only thing I can come up with was the addition of the rabbit poo. I saw on another YouTube post that worms love rabbit poo. And we found this to be true. Maybe the two are somehow connected? Any other vermiculturists out there? We tried all of the methods we could find to rid the bin of these unwelcome guests: burying the food scraps, laying newspaper over the top of the soil, and placing a jar to catch fruit flies. They really didn't work all that well. Guess I'll have to do some more research and try again in the spring. All I can think is that I missed something, somewhere.

It's been cold here! In the negatives. I don't remember winters this cold since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Today, however, we got a little bit of a reprieve. It was almost 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The chickens were happy to get out. It was so cute to see all their little feet prints in the snow around the farm. Heck, the ice even melted at the bottom of our stairs. I realize that we've still got some winter left, but I sure can't wait for spring flowers. I can almost smell them!

Baby buns are doing well. Feisty things! And curious to boot! Hercules (who I am pretty sure is a female) almost jumped out of the hutch tonight. Quite a feat. I believe their angora is coming in, and I will need to start combing them very soon. Oh I can't wait to spin their fiber! Mr. Buns (or maybe I should say Papa Buns) is in need of a pluckin' but I am hoping to get him to March before I harvest. It's just too cold to be so 'naked'.

Hope y'all are fairing the winter weather and staying warm!

Keepers for Sure

Free Motion Quilting

I've spent the past few days discovering the art of free motion quilting. I love my little Brother Innovis 900D sewing machine. I've had it for almost 2 years now and have yet to fully explore all its capabilities. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that. I purchased it because I wanted the free motion quilting capability along with a bit of embroidery and of course, all the basics to boot. She's certainly not a Husqvarna Viking (I drool over those machines like a dog drools for bacon), but she had all the features I was looking for. Above you can see my first attempts at using the free motion quilting utility. If you look close enough, you can see all the ripple-like stitch through the blocks; that's all done on the fly. No pattern, no lines, just your imagination. I kind of dove into it with the piece on the left, not knowing how it would turn out. It's trickier than you would think as you have to coordinate eyes, muscle memory, concentration, stitch speed, and patience. But the outcome was well worth the time spent learning. I'm going to try to spend a little bit of time each day improving on this technique. I was amazed how many resources are out there, including videos. For those interested, I found this website which not only describes 300+ patterns, but gives you a video tutorial as well. My hat's off to this girl for all the time it must have taken to create these. The above objects are meant to be scarves, with one of them made as a Christmas present for 'someone'. I can't mention names yet, because they just might see this blog post before then.

The baby buns are doing well and growing fast. They no longer bury themselves in their nest, but wander about, snuggling up to mamma buns when sleep overcomes their curiosity. As far as I can tell, all their eyes are open now. I try to handle them a little bit each day, hoping that this will get them ready for the trip they are about to make up north tomorrow. I suppose it's not ideal to move them around, but I can't leave them alone for a week, so they are coming with. We rarely travel with the farm. Note to self: plan breedings away from travel dates. Live and learn. For now, I still have loads to get done in preparation for the trip tomorrow. I think it's going to be a late night.

FO: (More Than) 198 Yards of Heaven

This was a lesson. I had never knitted a lace-like pattern before, let alone an actual shawl. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for completing a project like this. For those of you who don't know me well enough, I have a tendency to start many projects and few ever really get finished. I was a determined knitter this time. This was also the first item that I ever blocked before. I wish I would have taken at least one picture of what the shawl actually looked like before being blocked. You can't really see any of the lacey pattern. Blocking involves wetting the object then stretching it out to create what you see in the pictures and letting it dry. That's what these pictures show. I did modify the pattern just a bit; mainly to make it longer, then followed some other Ravelry knitters mods to finish the border. Many thanks to them for all they helpful instructions. The pattern is not intended for beginners (in many ways I still am), but you can always find help on Ravelry.

The second best thing about this shawl is that it is 100% processed by me (outside of being shorn). I washed, carded, spun, then knit. It took about a month to complete, but boy is it ever warm!

BTW - the buns are doing just fine. We do have a runt and are supplementing his feeding, but he's going strong. So I'm hopeful that he will grow up healthy and happy. More on them later...

Arrival of the Baby Buns

She did it! Mrs. Buns is finally Mamma Buns, and we couldn't be more pleased. This is her second attempt at a successful kindling (giving birth to baby bunnies = kits). I think she's got it down now. We brought her in Sunday night and set up a cozy spot for her in the basement. We figured this would be the perfect spot - quiet, constant temperature (not too hot, not too cold), little disturbance. She almost immediately took to nesting. By Tuesday she had plucked her belly clean. Honestly, I knew that they plucked their own fiber for the nest, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that they actually plucked SO much! I was amazed! She lined herself a good nest and early this morning birthed six beautiful kits. By the time I got up, she had them all cleaned up and carefully divided in two little pouches of her nest. It was like waking up on Christmas day at the age of 9 (I got my first chinchilla then). I can't wait to watch them grow up.

We're Expecting!

Okay, so maybe not it the way you think "expecting". Meet Bracken! The newest addition to our 'farmily'. She comes from one of the many beautiful animals at Highland Alpaca. And she is expecting her second cria in September of 2011. The gestation for an alpaca is about 11.5 months. Her first cria, Blayberry, is a gorgeous bay black. We can't wait to see what this cria will bring. Her herdsire, Enzo, is pictured below. He's such a handsome boy. It's really going to be hard waiting another 9 months to see who pops out.

Life on the farm hasn't been dull. It never is. Each weekend is always packed full of something. Last weekend I plucked both of my angora rabbits. I'm getting much better at it. Poor Mr. Buns no longer loses ALL of his fiber. And I've finally figured out how to keep all the fibers going in the same direction; just in case I want to sell some of my angora in the future. It's a learning experience. And if you expect to go into it knowing how to do everything perfectly, you'll be sadly disappointed. It's certainly not rocket science, but it does take a little practice.

In my 'spare' time, I've been working on knitting a shawl that I saw posted on another blog that I enjoy (it is also available as a free download here on Ravelry). I've been using the alpaca fleece below to spin and knit it from. It's the fleece I picked up at a fiber festival in Ohio this summer and is absolutely wonderful to work with. I'm hoping to have it finished by Thanksgiving so I can wear it. I'm down to the last set of rows before I start the border. I will need to spin up some more fiber for it though, so it is taking a bit longer than I had hoped. I'll post pictures once it's done.

It's been hard to believe that winter is upon us as we've had a late Indian Summer. This weekend has been beautiful (except for today's rain) and the temperatures unseasonably warm. I have a feeling that this isn't going to last too much longer. I'm okay with that. I don't mind that changing seasons. Sure winter can hang on longer than we like some years, but it's a nice time to rest, slow down, and focus on the things that really matter.

Any Day Now...

Mrs. Buns Nesting

A Very Eventful Week(end)!

So much has happened or been accomplished over the past week and weekend it's hard to know where to start! I'll try the 'beginning' with all my little captions:

A NEW BAG

I absolutely love to sew! And I love the fact that I always have so many projects going at once. Sure, sure, it can get hectic, especially when it seems like I never get one project accomplished before I am starting the next. But on those occasions when I do actually finish what I set out to do...well it's just pure bliss! Above is one of my creations from this past week. I found this Debbie Mumm fabric on sale a few weeks ago and couldn't pass it up. The pattern was actually for a simple bag (which would consist of only the outside layer that can be seen. I thought it was far to beautiful for that so I added the inside fabric and quilted them together with bamboo/cotton batting. I threw this together pretty much in one evening. Other than a few minor problems (one of the straps got sewn on twisted...you'd never know) it turned out fabulous! I have some more of the same panels to make a couple more. Simple, fun, and very colorful! I have collected a bunch more of her fabric since I first bought this and I'm hoping to make an Earth Day themed dress before the event next month!

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Some friends of my husband's (I've yet to meet them) sent me some amazing huacaya alpaca fiber (the brown fiber) to spin! I love how God puts such thoughtful people into our paths. I was blown away to think that someone I've never met would send me a gift. You better believe I had that spun as soon as I could get my paws on it. What a dream it was to spin! I'm going to ply it with some Suri alpaca fiber a bought a couple months ago. Oh, and that wasn't the only fiber I received! Another alpaca owner sent me (via my husband) some her her alpaca fiber to card and spin (the white fiber)! Talk about fiber overload! Guess its time to be looking for an affordable drum carder. I still have a whole Lincoln sheep fleece and some llama fiber to wash and card (these were also given to me). My most sincerest thanks go out to all of those people who help make my dreams a reality. What more can I say, I'm blessed!

COW IN THE BACKYARD

We got home late on Friday night. It was dark by the time we pulled up to the house. It had been another gorgeous day! I went about the nightly chores of covering up the buns and closing the coop when low and behold I came face to face with a cow in my backyard! If I haven't already told you, we live on a diary farm; not our cows, our landlord's. I suppose this isn't the strangest thing I've encountered before, but she sure did make my heart jump. We chased her through the fields and back through the yard before we finally got her corralled back into the pasture with the rest of her lot. Oh the adventures of farm life! I absolutely love it!!

CHICKS

This week I will be chick-sitting for a friend. I'm really excited because some of those chicks will find a new home on my farm! And these aren't just any old chicks...two are supposed to lay chocolate-colored eggs and two are supposed to lay green eggs (called Easter Eggers)! I got to see them only a couple days out of the egg and already they were peeping up a storm and waddling all over their cage. Amazing! And the funniest thing is they all seem to have these narcoleptic moments where they just lay down and fall asleep. It's a hard knock life being a chick, I guess. They'll be coming to stay on Tuesday, so stay tuned: more to come!

G'night!

A Pluckin'

Mr. Buns got his first hair pluckin' today. As you can see, there wasn't much left of him. He looks a little pathetic after this event, but it just made me want to cuddle him all the more. I made him a yellow fleece coat to wear to get him through the colder March nights.

You can't deny that he's pretty cute. I've checked on him tonight more times than I'll admit. This was my first time collecting the angora, and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel bad. I gave him some extra fleece to lay on, a piece of an old blanket, and a towel wrapped around the edges. The coat covers his core, but that poor bare butt is hanging right out. I tried to convince my husband that we should just bring him to bed with us, but apparently I wasn't very convincing . Alas, Mr. Buns remains in his hutch. We did however install 'windows' so that Mr. Buns could see Mrs. Buns. I think they do better when they can see each other. Once the weather stays a bit warmer, I will attempt to breed them again. I can't wait to have a bunch of Little Buns hopping around the farm.