Weekend Full of Activities

This past weekend was a whirl wind of activities.  I don't think we got to truly sit down once.  Saturday began early with a trip to the Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival just south of Pittsburgh.  This was my third year attending, but the first with out my husband.  He's been so busy taking a class and working full time.  He needed to stay behind and get caught up.  This was okay, as I headed down with a friend who we've met up with the past two years at the festival anyway.  Last year I rode back home with her to 'chaperone' the two pygora goats in the back of her car.  Oh the adventures we have!  I'm really not much for garage sales (I've got enough junk I'm trying to scale down), but we stopped at a few along the way.  I did managed to find this wicked broom!  

I think I'm going to hang it on the wall in my craft room.  Perhaps it will get some use one day, but for now, I just want to admire it.  I attended a broom making seminar last September at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA.  I couldn't believe what all went into making brooms, especially if you grow your own broom corn.  I guess that's why I couldn't pass this one up - for a whole $2.  What a deal!

The Fiber Festival was actually rather small this year.  Perhaps people were still getting over there fiber shock from the recent Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.  Still I picked up some roving to spin.  Here's the before and after.  At least for the purplish one.  I've a ton of fiber I need to process and dye.  I'm hoping these beautiful colors will give me the motivation to get some art batts made to spin.  I've yet to really try some of the core spinning.  There were some amazing handspun yarns at the festival.  We refrained from bringing home any goats this time, but my friend did find a great little loom.  So it wasn't a complete bust, but we didn't stay as long as we have in the past.  


The remainder of the day was spent working in the garden.  We've really been working hard the past few years to try to build up the soil.  We even brought our own compost pile when we moved down here.  Sound silly!?  Well it took at least a year to establish those beneficial microbes and attract the worms!  How could I just leave them behind.  It was only a large Rubbermaid container-full, but we made it, and I wanted to bring it.  Now our pile is 20 times that size (or more).  We're working on building semi-raised beds within the area our landlord has offered for us to garden.  It's just a corner off of his corn/soy field, but I appreciate it all the same.  The only downfall has been that the soil has been stripped over the years from growing just those two crops.  So we've been building the compost to help rebuild at least our little section of the field.  We'll see how it goes this year.

Here's a small section.  We used grass clippings to lay out the plots
for this summer.  We move them every year.

Notice that there is some growth already?  The garden was full of weeds two days ago.  When we went to weed-wack, we discovered that our Parsley and Cilantro came back from last year!  I was really excited to see that. We'll let some of it go to seed.  The Cilantro is already flowering.

Cilantro!

Parsley!

In Comes the New Year

Whether we like it or not, the new year has crept in (for me) almost unnoticed.  I think the older I get, the faster each year passes.  Does anyone else remember how time used to pass slower when we were kids?  Summer breaks went on for ever, Christmas's and Birthday's couldn't come quick enough.  Perhaps that's just part of the magic of being children.

So with the advent of the new year, most people are busy making their new year's resolutions.  I will admit, I've never been one for new year's resolutions.  I think you should be able to make resolutions any time of the year, not just January first.  However, I do like to reflect on where the journey has led me, and where I hope to travel in the up and coming.

This past year we saw the birth of our very first alpaca cria, Bramble (aka "string bean").  She is strong, healthy, and independent.  Don't let the fact that I call her a string bean mean she's "lanky," she's a sturdy little thing - just all legs and neck!  If you're curious about what an alpaca birth is like check out this link to our YouTube site. 

The following month we did our own very first breeding while working out at the farm we board our girls at.  It was a success, and we can expect Bracken to deliver another cria next fall.  We are  very excited to see what this year's breeding will produce.  The funniest thing about breeding, is that it is quite literally a herd 'affair'.  All the unbred (and ready to breed) females cush next to the breeding pair.  The little up and coming herd sires 'practice' on all the cushing mamas.  Don't worry, they're not old enough to be successful yet!  Bramble wouldn't keep her nose out of the face of the breeding herdsire, nor would the other little females.  This is all a part of it.  It's a learning experience, so to speak, for the young ones.

I also vended at my first ever fair, the Johnny Appleseed festival in my hometown.  I was delighted and amazed by how well it went and can't wait to do it again.  Perhaps this has given me the confidence to participate in a few other events.  On top of this, I reopened my Etsy site, which has also done well.  It is sort of surreal to know that you've sent your crafts all over the country.  That my baskets and yarn are being enjoyed by someone other than myself.  I started making basket out of necessity.  I needed some place to put all the yarn I was spinning; something 'pretty' and colorful.  But once I started making them, I just  couldn't stop!  They are just so much fun to watch come together.  And while I'm a huge proponent of baskets, I realized that a girl could really only have so many.  So I reluctantly (at first) decided to offer them to others, though I wan't sure how I could bear to sell them.  The reluctance has since passed, and has been replaced with the joy of knowing that someone too will smile at my creations.  My advice to anyone who has always wanted to be share their creations with others - just do it!  Get out there!  You may be completely surprised by the support and encouragement from others.  I know I was!

Here are some of the other highlights of the year:

We hiked...

...gardened...

...canned...

...spun at festivals...

...grew pumpkins...

...learned to dye fiber...

...attended the Mother Earth News Fair...

...supported my sister's purchase of three meat
rabbits at the Mother Earth News Fair...

...found that we had quite the demand for our eggs...

...learned (or began to learn) to cook in cast iron...

...learned to play the banjo...

...learned to weave...

...and taught my sister and nieces how to weave...

...developed a love for blue cochin chickens...

...and ended the year with family (and pets!).

6th Annual Johnny Appleseed Festival - This Weekend!

Well this weekend I will be a vendor at the 6th annual Johnny Appleseed Festival hosted in my hometown of Sheffield, Pennsylvania.  It will be my first ever vending event!  My feelings are a mix of excitement and  apprehension.  Excitement because I get go home for a weekend, spend time with my family, watch some crazy Appalachian Mountain lumberjacks, and share my products with the world.  Okay, well maybe not the whole world, but certainly a small part of it.  Apprehension because I've had such a busy past month with a series of (sometimes unfortunate) events, that I had hoped to have a better variety of products made. But I suppose I will just go with what I got, and make the best of it!  I've got at  bunch of colorful baskets, bits of fiber and yarn, and some wax dipped origami stars.  And best of all, I'll be sitting right by the horse pull!  One of my all time favorite events.  Weather permitting, I may bring a couple of my angora rabbits to pluck as a fiber demonstration as well as my spinning wheel and knitting needles.  I'll also be sharing that booth with a friend of mine who makes some wonderful hoops (yes folks, for 'hula' hooping).

So if you're out and about this weekend, and anywhere near Sheffield, or if you're looking for a beautiful drive with a unique festival at the end of the road, head on up to the heart of the Allegheny's!  You won't be sorry!  See you there!

Two Busy Weekends and Another to Come

("smile for the camera" - a cute goat from the fiber festival)

Goodness how busy I've been! So much to write that I think I'll have to do it in segments. Where to start:

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.