Summer Plans 2009

It promises to be a busy summer here.  First, each of the kids has been blessed by a week at camp, here.  They are very excited … it’s been a few years since they were able to go to camp!

Plus, each of the kids has at least one job!  We have always encourage the kids to start working at a young age, and to volunteer to build up a good reputation.  Iain has chosen this year to start, and he is volunteering at a local Nursery called Arbour Gardens.  He has so far been twice, and has weeded and watered for the owners.  It’s a lovely place .. incredibly restful and a wonderful environment for a first job. The owners are very involved at the high school, and are educators at heart … so he will learn tons.  He is thrilled :-).

Alison will be continuing on at her job at the stable, with the added benefit of a pay raise this year.  A few months ago, her employer deemed her capable enough that along with the lesson she also receives some cash.  In addition, she is HOPING to get some weekend work at a local upscale restaurant called Blumen, due to a chance conversation I had in No Frills (Mom, I’m just SO MUCH LIKE YOU .. it’s scary!!!).  This one is not for sure yet, however.  She is a very talented cook and baker, and rather than a dishwashing-type or waitstaff job, he is considering her for dessert and meal prep (can I tell you how much I would hate being in a kitchen for work :-P; she finds kitchens restful.  So not related to yours truly!)

Claire also has a first “real” job this summer.  She will be working at a local resort belonging to our friends Scott and Sophie, West Lake Willows, where she will be doing various tasks including working in the office, watching their three young children, working in the store and cleaning (cottage turnovers).  She is SO excited!  She will work 3 6-7 hour days per week.  She has a high need for busy-ness, and was dreading a summer “doing nothing”, but didn’t think at 13 she would be able to find a job.  So if you are reading this, Sophie … thank you again!!!  She can hardly wait.

One more thing I will always appreciate about this place … there are infinite opportunities for kids who want to contribute to the local economy! 

Willow Garden Shetlands Open House 2009

 

Here are a bunch of photographs taken (mostly) by Claire, as I was pretty busy at the skirting table all day.  We had a PERFECT day weather-wise … ranging from overcast to sunny and a nice breeze so not too hot.

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And here are a few photographs taken by a visiting fleece buyer.  This is the main yard.

Here is the fibre area of the yard … my skirting table was set up underneath the blue tent.  This was a great idea in principle.  Note to self, however:  very hard to see the true colour of the fleeces underneath a blue tent!  Since the majority of our fleece buyers were helping to skirt so they would get the best fleeces right away, we had to keep dragging the fleeces out to the daylight!  Dave Jones (our shearer) sheared for Bill this year, and he did about 35 sheep on Saturday.  He will be finishing the lot on Wednesday.

Here I am skirting a large moorit fleece … Claire is in the middle.

I saw very little of either Iain or Alison all day.  Iain helped a lot with parking, gates, and back field, and Alison spent most of the day helping the shearer and delivering fleeces to our area.  We didn’t get a photo of the amazing peg board put together by Jeff Gilbert with all the Wool Club members’ knit, crocheted and felted objects on it, but both of Alison’s amigurumi sold (the piggy didn’t even make it up on the board but was sold as it came out of the box first thing :-) ..)  Claire wasn’t feeling all that great, so she helped with tamer things like the skirting table and the bake sale.

In the photo album above, there is a shot of my spinning wheel, which I took, however I had absolutely NO time to spin the whole day.  Two other spinners arrived as well though … my friend Tricia from the County, and Elizabeth from Belleville.  This is the first year we had a very educational display and we had a lot of interested enquiries from visitors.  It was quite fascinating to present the whole process, from newborn lamb to finished skeins of handspun wool.  Elizabeth arrives every year faithfully to purchase Iris’s fleece … Iris is an older ewe of Bills who is a lovely mioget (golden) shetland.  She prepared a series for the guests (raw wool, washed wool, combed wool … and her current project which is a lace shawl she is knitting from the wool!)

We didn’t have the crowds we thought we’d have, and I’m not sure how good a fundraiser it was for the club, but it sure was FUN :-).

Tomorrow is the big Open House at Willow Garden Shetlands …

and here are photographs of Alison’s contribution to the sale table.  The winter fiber club was each asked to use some of the skill they acquired this year to contribute an item to sell.  Alison decided to crochet amigurumi … much to my chagrin because I do not have a brain for crochet work and could not help her at all lol.  Needless to say, she didn’t actually require my help!!!

 

 

Yay, spinning!!! And Alison’s last project in geography

I have to say that spinning is one of the most contemplative, meditative serene pursuits I’ve ever tried.  The fact that there is also an end product is icing on the cake :-).  Now, please keep in mind that these are my very first attempts …

 

Single ply (so far) … continuing my trend of only being able to spin lace weight :-P.  This is very interesting because my first attempts were at the bottom … what a mess, as I figured out the above-mentioned rhythm … and end at the top where it started to flow.

Here is my very first attempt at doing something other than lace-weight.  I also figured out how to ply it (SO much easier on a spinning wheel!!!).  So this is two-ply, and somewhere between worsted weight and chunky … actually, in some spots worsted, and in others chunky, lol.  But oh my … so fun!

 

I think I will knit a square from this … just to see what it looks like :-).

 

And one last photo … Alison’s geography project from this semester, finally finished.  She had to scale up an 8.5 x 11 map of Canada to bristol board size, and fully label and colour it.  She put dozens of hours in to this (and I even helped colour some of the water when it came down to the wire!!)

All for now!  A busy weekend awaits … big 4H fundraiser at WillowGarden Farms and the kids and I are all involved.  Once again, I am skirting fleeces … all day … :-P.  Heh, heh, heh.  Hopefully I will get some actual photos this year!

Learning How to Spin 101

The drum carder works beautifully, and I have a series of lovely roving photos that I will add shortly.  So now that the drum carder is functional, today I turned my attention to the wheel.  Here are the steps as I set up and began learning to spin today.

 

1.  Wheel is dirty.

2.  Dust of all wood pieces, all sides, use orange oil on them.

3.  Wheel is wobbly.

4.  Figure hey, if I’m going to tighten everything, might as well loosen everything and oil all moving parts as well.  So, dismantle entire wheel with great fear, and oil metal parts, and wax wood meets wood parts, and clean everything well.

5.  Put it all back together again (which, surprisingly, went smoothly save for one screw which I over tightened and it actually burst through the cap thingy at the other end.  See how technical I am??? :-P)

6.  Wheel now looks beautiful.

7.  Get out The Best Book on How to Spin that there is, and place on lap.

 

8.  Keep dropping book because lap keeps moving.

9.  Rearrange furniture so that end table supports book.

10.  Spend ages trying to master the knots that hold the leader yarn on the spindle. Literally, ages.  (Specifically, this would be a lark’s head knot on a bight knot).  Experiment with different types of yarn to find one that works well … (when in fact, it’s not working because I keep messing up the knot).

11.  Wheel is now spinning, spindle is now spinning, but the flyer is not.  I’m not sure that this is a problem until I notice that only thin roving is going around the spindle.  Hmmmm.

12.  One more search of YouTube (what a resource!!) to discover why .. no luck.

13.  Start nudging it gently to see if that helps.

14.  Nope, wrong direction.  That was bad.  Nudge the other way.

15.  And suddenly … it worked.  It squeaks, and bangs so there is more work to do, and my first 15 minutes of work was pretty sad, but once you get your rhythm it is FUN :-).

 

Oh, yes … the chore list for today … hmmm … laundry still in process … yikes.  More tomorrow :-).

We are blessed …

I had a lovely chat with the mom of one of Alison’s good friends a few weeks back. She was very interested in fibre, so I answered lots of her questions. Recently she went to an auction, and happened to see some things that looked fibre-y and like she had to take them home. She convinced her husband to bid on a box of stuff (good man that he is, other than “What IS it?”, he complied) … then decided that she would likely never use it and remembered our conversation. She saw me at the high school last week, and invited me over to her van, showed me a lovely Louet drum carder and asked if I would like to purchase it for $50. My only hesitation in accepting her offer was in the time it took me to tell her she could likely get a lot more than that from someone else :-). She also mentioned that there were a couple of other things along with it … some “spools” (aka spindles) and something else.

Today I went to pick up the drum carder, and after paying, she grinned and said “So, do you want to see what comes with it??” and showed me the rest.

Guys, I almost cried … it was a spinning wheel. A Louet S15 .. just a starter low end one, but nonetheless, a real spinning wheel … PLUS the drum carder, PLUS a skein winder. All for $50.

I am blown away. I have wanted a spinning wheel for a couple of years, and there has been “just.no.way”. Not in the world’s economy. I couldn’t have set this up myself. List for the spinning wheel is around $500 new … and even MORE for the carder. This has been completely and utterly a God thing, aided by a timely conversation with a then-stranger and the genuine goodness of a very sweet woman in the County. I am grateful. Check out my happy fibre stuff!

It came complete with ages old Shetland or Icelandic fleece blended on the drum carder; the removal of which will be quite a project! I’m looking forward to getting it all fixed up and working!!!

On a sad note … my friend Bill Stearman lost his ex-partner today. They had parted ways last summer, then in November Gene was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He has gone downhill so quickly, and has spent the last few weeks in hospice in the upstairs apartment at Bill’s farm, along with caring relatives and an ever-changing shift of nurses. It has been a very challenging situation on so many levels. Gene was a gentle, artistic man and we will miss him.

Lambs and more lambs … lambing photos, once again!

I’m just checking out the Windows Live Writer capabilities …  what do you think of these photo albums?

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These are the birth pictures of Rosemary’s twin lambs.  They are just lovely, although I’m waiting for Babette’s (black lamb) fleece to improve.  Paris has a lovely, fine, crimpy fleece, and is sooo gentle.  Babette is a bit of a mitt-ful, on the other hand.

 

We’ve taken some of the moms out, with and without lambs, on to the front lawn to graze (the grass is always greener over the septic tank :-P).  And I’ve been taking great pains with the electric fence;  there is a coyote/wolf crisis in the county right now.

Bill Stearman's Willow Garden Shetlands (Kivu’s breeder) lost six purebred Shetland lambs this week to one ornery coyote, and my NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR has lost four full grown cattle to a pack of them.  It’s really, really bad.  We only use temporary fencing … six strand electric fence called “ElectraNet” which is especially designed for sheep.  Up until now, the coyotes have shown it some respect.  The last week in July and first week of August, we usually have a few days of newly-hunting puppies hitting the fence at night.  Much yelping and carrying on results from this :-).  Other things we do?  The dog is allowed to circle the sheep pasture regularly, marking his territory. 

Truthfully, the coyotes could jump this fence with ease.  Thankfully, they always check low before they jump … so far … and once they are zapped they yelp and back off silently into the bush.

And yes … I pray … an extra hedge of protection around the sheep as I lay in bed.

I was shopping in Sobey’s two weeks ago, and commented to Iain that the leg of lamb (frozen and flown in from NZ!) in the meat section cost almost the same as what it costs us to take a whole lamb to the abbatoir.  I was overheard by two men shopping nearby, who then promptly begged me to sell them farm-gate lamb.  I often wish we were in a position to overwinter more sheep and officially sell lamb; that we had a GST number and official zoning.  I know we could sell at least 10 or more lambs every year direct to consumer.  There is a great market for lamb in Ontario.  And there is so much to be said for “happy” livestock … livestock handled well (spoiled, heh heh) from birth, well fed, relaxed and happy prior to slaughter.  The meat is extraordinary.  It’s a far cry from feedlot lamb.

I am so far behind in posting I can’t believe it … I will continue to catch up as I can, amidst gardening and chores :-).  Enjoy the day!

One more attempt to save my blog …

This is a test … this is only a  test :-)

 

One more ..

Ack ... Post eaten by Blogger

I am not enjoying this right now. My bad ... I am attempting to use the "Preview" screen to create posts. Sigh.

It's working? Really?

I don't believe it.

I will be posting photos of our new lambs later on ... if Blogger still continues to function that is.

I have been pestering their help forum ... it looks like it has worked? Maybe?

For those who can't wait and are on Facebook, I have posted photos in my photo albums. The last three photos in Lambing 2009 are the newborns, and the album titled "Birth Photos" (or something like that) has a play by play of the latest lambing. Rosemary was a doll, lambed in the sunshine at 11:10 and 11:20 a.m. two mornings ago, so we got some great photos :-). Please feel free to look me up at Karen McIlroy Stenhouse!