Hot ... busy ... fun!

So much going on right now! We've had extravagant electrical storms at night, and lots of rain (lovely compared to last June when the County was already in drought conditions, HOWEVER impossible to sleep through at night!). I've been getting the house a bit organized since I have a new web maintenance position that starts Monday ... wishing that these jobs would show up in September rather than when the kiddoes are off school. However, the timing is excellent since Iain has a retainer in as of Thursday morning and we are now juggling Alison's brace adjustments and around 8 months of his retainer appointments. Claire will need exposure surgery, but we're praying that she won't be ready until Alison is out of braces.

Yesterday morning I was able to skirt the three fleeces shorn earlier this year. I must apologize to Miss Jasmine, whose fleece I've referred to as carpet brush and even slightly more derogatory terms in the past ;-). Yes, it sticks out like a wire brush, but in fact it was quite fine, decently crimpy, and because it was SOOOO dense it was surprisingly clean, with little vegetative matter. Here it is!


I was able to make it to the spinning guild meeting last week. I took a washed fleece (Billie's from last year) and was able to borrow hand carders from Diane Torney. I still didn't spin, but I was able to start carding and Liese, a local handspinning guru, taught me how to make "rolags" -- small carded rolls that can be spun from easily. Hand carding is quite an art; I must go back to another meeting to make sure I'm doing it correctly!


Hand cards above, and completed "rolag" below:


We have a busy month coming up, and I suspect posts here will be sporadic. June 13 we are going to attend Refuel '08 in Delhi, Ontario. Kevin and I are manning a UCB booth, which means that (hurray!) our gas will be paid, not to mention our tickets. On the bill are Casting Crowns, Britt Nichole, Hello Kelly, NewWorldSon ... oh my goodness ... some of our very favourites. Iain wasn't that interested in such a long day, and will hang with Grandma and Grandpa instead, and likely go for walks with Grandpa and play unlimited computer games much to his delight. Alison graduates from Grade 8 on June 24; I will be decorating, providing snacks for the dance, etc. Claire is headed to Nan and Papa's for a week right after school is out. She has been looking forward to this for months! And then, to cap off the craziness, we will go to pick her up, on our way to six days of camping at Bruce Peninsula National Park!

I called directly to the camp this week ... reservations are now completely done online, but because we only just sorted out our vacation dates, there was very little left. We've been camping at Bon Echo most recently, but Kev's cane makes varied terrain a bit less desirable this year. I got to thinking about the Bruce, and realized that it would be perfect. It has an inland lake/beach with easy access, as well as the tougher hike out to the escarpment. We'll be able to divide and conquer if we have to. Anyway, I spoke with a wonderfully helpful woman, and between her and I we found a WONDERFUL site that is private, level, level trek to the washroom, AND is actually a camp host site and normally unavailable to the public! This, of course, means that it's a pretty nice site. However, the camp hosts will not be arriving until the week after we check out, so it has fallen in to our lap! The site is right on Cypress Lake, but at the far end of the campground. And icing on the cake, wonderful Laura from UCB is going to stay here and animal-sit for us! She has a farming background, and enjoys hanging out with the sheep occasionally.

That's it for now!