Early Autumn

As is my habit, every morning, I feed our animals.  Chip is usually the last one to be fed.  He is one of the bright spots in my day.  Chip isn't very demonstrative of his love for me-what horse is?  But I know he loves me when I bring him his purple bucket full of tasty food.  This morning's fare was 1 part cracked corn, 1 part steamed crimped oats and 2 parts pelleted senior feed. Chip is the senior member of our animal world at approximately 23 years.  Every morning, as I am walking down to his pen with the purple bucket full of grainy goodness, I am thankful he is there, healthy and waiting for breakfast.  Then  I ask Chip "Where's my pretty boy?"  Sometimes, just sometimes, he slowly moves his front hooves out in front of him for a sweet good morning stretch.  I was not so lucky this morning.  He just stood in front of his pan, softly nickering at me as if to say "Can we please just get on with it and give me my breakfast..."  I think some mornings. he would roll his eyes if he could.  @@  Bless him!

Hungry Chip on a frosty morn.

It's of little matter to me when he doesn't perform.  Chip gives me so much to reflect upon as I go about his care. We are so fortunate to have this beautiful animal to love and care for.  The time I spend with him is invaluable.  Everything seems a little brighter.  The cold brisk mornings are a little sweeter.  When I get his "Pretty Boy" stretch..  He might as well have given me chocolate. 

Beautiful Morning Mums

It's days like these that inspire me to work with fiber and create.  I hope there's something in your life that inspires you to create and accomplish.  For without this, we trudge from one day to the next.  So, look up, around, and down.  Find the beauty in the simplest of things in your day and you too will be blessed. 

Finally. Tea Towel Progress!

I could look back in the blog to see when I started working on these towels...  But I won't.  It will suffice to say it's been quite a while.  But I finally motivated myself to sit down at the loom and start working.  I've been tied on for some time now.  The loom has been daring me come over and get down to business!  

But on days like these, distractions are many!

 

After three or four throws of the shuttle, I see a problem.  Really???  I had one thread that was extremely tight.  After investigating, I found I had, after threading it through the heddle, hooked it around several other pieces of yarn.  Ohhh!  I'm not sure how this little detail escaped me when I was double checking everything before I finished tying on, but it did!

So, now that's it's been corrected, I'll show you the little bit I have woven.   One of the best parts of weaving is when you finally begin to see your web emerge!  This is the payoff for all the other preparation you've gone through -whether you find it boring/tedious/even maddening or not!  ;)

Tea Towel in a twill pattern. 

I'm about to start a hem stitch in the above photo.  I've been weaving for close to 20 years.  It doesn't matter how many times I've done a hem stitch, I still really have to think about how it's done before I start.  I've even had to take it out a few times after I started.  Funny, it's just one of those things that sort of messes with my brain.  Some years ago, I would call a good friend to ask her how it was done.  Very patiently, she explained.  Each time.  Bless her, she has the patience of a saint. 

So the process has begun.  Happy Day!

A lot of shoes. A lot of rice. The groom was nervous, he answers twice...

One of my favorite old love songs.  "Makin' Whoopee". Last weekend our little family attended my niece's wedding.  Her new husband has been a wonderful fixture in our family for what seems many years.  I couldn't have been happier about her choice or the beautiful wedding that was tailored for them.

A stunningly beautiful bride and equally handsome groom after cutting the decoy cake...  It really wasn't a decoy cake at all.  The cake was prepared by my sister so the bride and groom would have something beautiful and yummy to 'cut' for the photos.  It was banana.  :)  There was no real wedding cake to speak of.. We had wedding pie!  All manner of fruit pies were served to the guests.  So many fun and unique elements made up this 'wedding of the year'. Food, drink, music and company were wonderful.  To sum it all up, it will suffice to say that if the bride, her sister and their mom went into the business of wedding planning.. they would be tremendously successful! 

My Dad, Dianne, Geoff, Me and Greg.  Happy Day

 

My hubby and beautiful daughter.  Were they dancing??

Goodness... He's so adorable!

Looks are deceiving.  He's really having a great time!

Lyrics to "Makin' Whoopee"

Another bride Another June
Another sunny honey moon
another season, another reason
for makin' whoopie

Alot of shoes, alot of rice
the groom is nervous. he answers twice
its so Killin that he's so willin'
To make whoopee

Picture a little love nest
down where the roses cling
picture the same sweet love nest
Think what a year can bring

He's washing dishes and baby cloths
He's so ambitious he even sews
but don't forget folks that's what you get folks
for makin whoopee

Another year or maybe less
what's this I hear? Well you can't you guess
She feels neglected and he's suspected
of makin' whoopee

She sits alone most every night
He doesn't phone her he doesn't write
he says he's busy but she say's "is he?"
He's makin' whoopee

He doesn't make much money
only five thousand per.
Some judge who thinks he's funny
says you'll pay six to her.

He says now judge suppose I fail?
The judge says 'Budge right into jail.'
You better keep her. I think it's cheaper
then making whoopee

You better keep her.
I know it's cheaper, than makin' whoopee

Another homeschool-less year.

I've had a huge pile of our homeschool books sitting in a corner for some time.  Our kids started public school last August.  I guess there was a reason I had delayed doing anything about these books. Today, I purchased 2 plastic storage tubs to get it all put away.  They have taken up this space too long now.


But, as I sifted through the books and papers, little snippets of our homeschooling days drifted in and out of my mind.  I miss most parts of those days terribly.  I never woke them up early and forced school upon them.  I allowed the luxury of waking up naturally-unless it was ridiculously late.  School came when they were well rested and fed.  I came across pages of vocabulary words, sentences, math quizzes, and artwork...like the one below.

 This kind of thing tugs at my heart.  Sometimes, I feel like we threw away their innocence.  The lump in my throat is proportionate to the amount of  books I packed away and drawings those precious little hands created.

 Then I ran across these two books.   Many were the days, when we were tired or the weather was rainy and gloomy and we didn't feel like doing the normal work.  We would simply read.  I read Rare Catholic Stories and many other books to them.  Sometimes they listened, sometimes squirmed, sometimes they just went to Bora Bora while I read...

And the Family Journal...I never put one mark in it.  I never had time. 

I know they have moved on to a different way of having school and they like it for the most part.  I enjoy seeing the complexity of things they're learning.  A tiny little part of me is glad I don't have to teach them math I haven't done in many years or listen to them bicker and watch them distract each other... But there will always be that part of me that cherishes every moment we spent together as a homeschooling family.

Sweet, sweet precious babes of mine.

And now for something completely different...

For some time, I have been watching a pair of (get this) Black Vultures.  They've nested in an empty building on our property.  I like these craggy, crusty, old looking creatures.  When one considers the vulture, the mental picture usually isn't pleasing.  But over time, I have to come to see them in a different light. 

There was an old, dead tree near our property some years ago.  It was home to various creatures.  But Black Vultures would use this tree for what I like to call 'conventions'.  They would silently gather in large numbers and talk about their day, plan for the future, gossip...I assume!  I would sometimes go out to stand near this tree and see them-and even talk to them.  I always think of the vultures talking to each other in their best English accents in the movie Jungle Book... "What do you wanna do?"  "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" 

I've lived in a farm-like setting for all of my 22 1/2 years in the South. I've always been somewhat amazed at how quickly vultures can eliminate a...problem. (we shall say for lack of a more genteel word)  I began to realize that these completely hideous creatures were "God's clean up crew".  Everyone and everything has a purpose, and as unpleasant as it is to see these birds for who they are, I now appreciate them.

So, back to the little vulture family in my building.  The Black Vulture incubation period is 37 to 41 days. Young are capable of flight about 75 to 80 days after hatching. So, I've been waiting for quite some time to see their little darling!  When I first spotted their little hatchling, it's body was absolutely covered with light brown fuzz.  Every time I passed this building on the way to or from our house, I was lacking my camera and never got a shot of him.  Finally one day, I had my camera and "Buzz" was sitting on a window sil. 

"Buzz"

 

 

You can only see traces of Buzz's baby fuzz.  I wish I had been able to get a photo of Buzz when he still had it.  It was definitely cute.  I'm also glad I didn't shoo the parents out of this building.  I was told how unpleasant they would be...  But so far, all I'm seeing is the joy it's given me to see this bird grow and change and watch his parents care for him.  I haven't' seen Buzz in several days now.  So I assume he has finally learned to fly and has gone on to better activities-other than cautiously observing me in my car as I pause to talk to him. 

So the next time you see vultures congregating in trees or soaring on updrafts, you might think of them a little differently.  You could be watching Baby Buzz.  :)

If necessity is the mother of invention...

I can say I'm giving it a pretty good work out!  I decided to weave a "wrap " (I dislike that word...too old for me) for a late September wedding.  Since I have a project on my floor loom, my mind began to wander-thinking of how else I could facilitate my desire with my loom already in use.  I thought of using a large picture frame-into  which I would have to hammer nails.  Not good.  I could cut some wood and make the frame myself-too much work!  Other ideas came to mind and left as swiftly as my children are able to devour a bag of sun dried tomato and basil potato chips I purchased over the weekend....

Finally, after walking past my floor loom, I spied my 2 raddles!  This is what I came up with...

My new, no cost to me loom!

This is a 4 X 6 sheet of particle board-to which I have screwed my 2 raddles!  I strung my warp directly on the nails of the raddle and started weaving.  I'm using my own handspun and/or hand dyed single strand yarns.  The list of yarns-A deep purple mohair single, dyed some time ago with Log wood, multicolored bamboo single, a natural colored taupe Alpaca single and from my friend Annie the Romney, a lilac single strand.  I love all these yarns together.  When I put all the skeins next to each other, it instantly felt harmonious.  So, without further ado, I  started weaving.  There's only one problem.  I don't like!  This project was in as simple as can be my head.  Just a loose, plain weave with beautiful, harmonious, luxurious fibers.  But when I look at what is already woven, I fall completely
out of love.

Partially woven wrap I don't like!

So now, the whole contraption is sitting on my living room floor.  It's waiting for me to make some momentous decision, some small change (that does not involve ripping it out and reweaving it!), that will make me fall in love with it all over again... I am wishing myself luck...!

Here is the dress that goes with the 'wrap'.  Maybe now it will make more sense.

Dreamy Blue Softness.

I recently had occasion to spin some beautiful blue fiber comprised of Merino wool and Bamboo.  It was so lovely to spin. I wanted a fairly fine yarn so that when plied, would be something close to dk weight.  

After the yarn was spun, set and dry, I began to knit a lovely hat with a scalloped lace edge and a beautiful star closure at the crown. :)  I spun and knitted this hat for my cousin.  She is going through a rough time as she is receiving chemotherapy.  Her mood is wonderful.  I only see what she posts on Facebook-I'm 500 miles away.  But I haven't 'heard' her complain once.  I have witnessed other people I know go through the process of chemotherapy and it is debilitating.  She has every reason to be crabby and complaining.  God bless her, she is cheerful and positive. 

I hope to be like her when I grow up.  

This is the lovely hat I made for her.  I hope she likes it.

Hopefully. she won't catch my blog and see this.  But if she does, *Surprise*! :)

Faaaat yarn.

The other day, I began to spin some 'fat yarn' as I will call it for now.  It will be made into a hat for my little, great niece. :) I always tell my spinning students to embrace the fat singles they spin in the beginning.  I continue by saying "When you're an experienced spinner, you won't be able to easily spin yarn like this." We can call this yarn 'novelty' yarn.  They usually look at me as if I'm just trying to coddle them to make them feel better about their fat to skinny to fat, lumpy, bumpy yarn.  In all honesty, I am trying to make them feel better, but for a very good reason. 

It's been a very long time since I've wanted such a fat yarn for any project.  I really didn't think too hard about the difficulty involved in transitioning from fine to fat again-until I sat down to spin on Monday.  It is so contradictory to allow so much roving  from my hand into the the spinning triangle and then into the yarn.. I've spun nearly 1.5 ounces of this lovely white, Peruvian  wool roving. This yarn might have to become a project for something else.  There are so many places where I've gone from the thickness I want, to something much more fine.  There has been a lot of eye rolling and sighing happening as I spin.  The words to my students come back to me, echoing in the sound of my s-l-o-w-l-y- spinning wheel.  "It will be difficult to spin thick yarn as an experienced spinner."  Yeah, right..... @@

 

This is the lovely little hat that will sit upon my lovely little great niece's head this Winter.

I will just persist until I get it right! 

Happy Wednesday.

Life is Good

It rolls along at it's own pace, not bothering to see if anyone is lagging behind or getting ahead which is not possible.  The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind and had nothing to do with fiber aside from cleaning around the massive stockpiles.  This results form what I like to call F.A.D.  For those of you who don't know that's Fiber Accumulation Disorder.  Many of us suffer from it and actually live to tell about it.  Suffer though, is a rather strong word.

This last week has brought interesting changes to our household.  A very loud and electric thunderstorm passed over us Monday morning and destroyed our old (very old) computer-thus necessitating it's replacement.  The new computer is wonderfully fast and large with all the newest, coolest bells and whistles.  But when I attempted to plug my phone line into the nonexistent phone modem,I had an aha moment.  I had never considered the fact that new computers might not even have phone modems.  These days, everything is either dsl, cable or wireless...We were about to step even further into the here and now with a new form of internet connection.   Our end result since only one of the aforementioned internet connections are available to us.  We are now the proud  (and poorer for it) operators of our own wireless hot-spot.  (Insert huge grin here)  Now, using the internet has become a sharply contrasting pleasure compared to where we were before.

So even though jumping ahead of life is not possible, we feel through our new technological advancements, we might just be one step ahead of the game. I think, I might just have more time for fiber now.  lol

Have we talked about Yaks yet.... ::grin::

It's putting a smile on my face to even think about them. But I'll back up and give a little history.  In 1992,  I began raising sheep.  They were part of my fiber philosophy-I wanted to raise my own wool and process it myself right from the beginning-and I did.  My little darlings multiplied like rabbits and soon, I had wool coming out my ears.  I sold it, spun it, processed it, dyed it, wove it, felted it and knitted it!  Hence my title of "Shepherdess".

Nearly 22 years have passed since then.  One by one, due to their age or various illnesses, my sweet sheep have all left me.  Lulabelle, my last remaining sheep, passed away over a year ago.  Do I miss her!  :/  Chip the horse misses her too.  They were buddies.  But I digress... 

Ruthie (front) and Lulabelle (rear)

Yaks are hauntingly beautiful creatures.  Their fiber is fine, soft, quite expensive to purchase and dreamy to spin..  Secretly,  I've longed to have my very own Yak.  But I imagined they were cumbersome and ornery creatures.  A couple years ago, I found an article in Country Woman magazine that lead me to believe none of the above is true!  A female Yak is approximately 4 to 4-1/2 feet tall.   They are reported to have sweet and gentle personalities.  They don't appear to eat much either.  This is yet another fine quality in a fiber animal!

Ohhhh I want her!

The fiber from this soft and beautiful creature can be gently plucked or combed.  They are very bovine-like  in their care and feeding.  I have read Yaks are efficient at browsing scrubby pasture and basically prefer it.  Sounds like a winner to me.  I can't wait to have one!  Although, I'm sure I'll have to. Yaks are not inexpensive...  But when I do have one, think of all the Yak jokes you can send me! :)

Pioneer Woman... Book review?? lol

I hadn't been a fan of Pioneer Woman-Ree Drummond, only because I didn't know that much about her.  My wonderful sister gave me a copy of "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" for Mother's Day. This book is the story of how she met the infamous Marlboro Man and how their relationship developed.  I had heard a little bit about her husband "Marlboro Man"  and was curious to know the rest of the story.

For those of you who might not be familiar with The Pioneer Woman (yeah right), she is a blogger who has been entertaining readers since 2006 with her stories of  transition from city life to a rancher's life and all the recipes that go along with it. 

I began reading this book and could not put it down.  My eyes blurred and teared (from weariness and laughter).  I read every available moment.  I seldom devour books like this anymore. I think it has something to do with the 3 children my husband and I are raising...At any rate, I finished my book shortly after receiving it. I loved it.  Every word. I even spent a few days in a mini-funk because I was done living in Ree and Marlboro Man world. We actually had quite a bit in common.

If ever I could recommend a book that would make a person feel good-even though there are a few parts that aren't happy, this would be the one.  As I would read into the night next to my snoring husband, I could even overlook the 100 decibel snores emanating from his head.  I could do this because Ree's book made me remember the reasons why I fell in love with him in the first place. 

I even made her Chicken Spaghetti recipe (from the back of the book).  It's comfort food and I really needed some last week.  It was yummy.  Thanks Ree.


If you have the chance, I highly recommend "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels".  It's one I know I will go back and read again and again. :)