Today

We you can all start laughing now :) Smiddy has decided the woods across the street looks like a lot better eaten than at home. This is looking down our drive, he likes the pond. So hubby is on his way to get a stronger electric fence charger. Part of it is our mistake, we didn't really introduce them to the fence so they knew what to expect. So Smiddy found a little low spot and decided if he went thru really fast, it didn't hurt enough to make him want to not do it again!!

It probably wouldn't be so frustrating if we hadn't just lost our Out Building we have been working on :(( We had it ready for rafters and outside sheathing the next day, we had winds over that evening in the 70 mile range with gust of 80. Well now we have a pile of match sticks on a solid floor :{{{{

At least nothing else was damaged, but shoot! So this week end we will cut all the nails and start putting her back together again. And everything is cut and ready to go and not but a few pieces actually broke.

I have a farm up north of my that raises Highland Cattle,Donkeys,Llamas and Alpacas. She has alot of wool to get rid of, so guess where I am going tomorrow, if Smiddy stays where he is suppose to. I will take some pictures and show you what I get!

I'm spinning some Alpaca,Salish and Merino now on the Mach 1. It is a Red,Brown and Cream and I am going to triple ply it. It is very fine so I am hoping it will make a light yarn as it will be warm. But I don't know what I am going to make out of it yet! I will take some pics of it when I have it plied.

Our Goats!!

Girls first, this is Peanut, she is 5 months old and a Boer goat. She loves to be picked up and scratched on her sides. Look at that face!

This is Smiddy, he is 15 months old whether. A Boer goat and as cute as a button, he likes his ears petted.

We have 3 acres of leaves,bushes and pine trees for them to live in. a creek to drink from and lots of love to receive :) I am thinking if these guys can't keep up with the growth, it will be time to get a couple of Angora's to go with. Hubby is a little sceptical, he knows what happens when we start acquiring animals! We have our old Great Danes and of course our rescue Capt. Jack and I am thinking after we no longer have our old guys, hopefully quite a while, we could look into a Great Pyrenees or Anatolian Shepard for an outside dog. It is hard for me to imagine a dog that would really prefer to be outside, but that is what I hear. Of course I will have to do much research to make sure we will be a good home for them :) Isn't he pretty? The people where we got our goats raise these sweet dogs!
http://www.billiesgoats.com/



We also almost have our out buildings done! I am excited for that as I can have a whole huge area for fleece, my carder,picker, lots of other stuffs. I have my sewing room but working with all the fleece is messy for in the house, I would rather have it set up out there. Will also have the drill press and grinder set up for hackles and who know what else :)


We have the possibility to acquire 3 more acres around us, I would love that, I like not seeing anyone at all when I am out doing my things, but there is the up keep ect. We'll see, I was thinking also maybe we could put a little park model trailer on the back lot so when Heather,our daughter, and the grand kids come they would have nice place to stay and I would have my time to recover from grand kids!! Two boys, energy, never still, how much of that can you take in one day????? Love them to death but boy!! And my poor dogs, they have been raised as the only kids in the family.

These are my Daughters children

Here is Hayden, he is grandma's boy, 4 years old and as smart as a whip!




Here is Zachery,2 and such a charmer, and those eyes!

Here is a pictures of Jeffery's kids, the first is Lauren as her kindergarten graduation, she is almost 6




This is Caroline, she is almost 5, quite the prissy girl as I'm sure you can tell :)





And this is Parker Jeffery, he is just like his Dad, what a pill




I don't have a picture or Elliot, our little guy that was born 3 months after Daddy died. He was a blessing. We have had very rocky time with the DIL and we don't get to see the kids anymore. I won't even go into that one.!

So I have been doing some experimenting with some spinning and here is a beaded yarn I did for my Etsy store, I was really please at how it turned out, I am thinking I may go ahead and spin up the Raspberry Chocolate into yarn for a scarf and trim it with the beaded yarn. It is so soft and I think Heather would really love it for her weather there in Wisconsin!




I blended another group of Salish,Polypay, a little mohair, it is a springy color I'm anxious to spin it up and see how it turns out, not sure what to make from it yet, maybe as I am spinning it will talk to me :)

Then I got busy and spun some Fuchsia for me, about 1900 yds.
And I got the brown Salish for Randy a cardigan, it is soooo soft and springy. I just love that fiber! 2300 yds

Then there was this :(( Ever think something will turn out good and then you end up with something like this????
Maybe I will felt it and make some slippers. There is about 300 yds.






Well I sure have made up for not posting for a while! I appreciate any feed back people have about my blog or my Etsy site. So let me know you were here!!

Boy, It's been a long time!!!!

Well I was going to be one of those that kept up on my blog! Oppps. I have been very busy. I set up and Etsy site, having alot of fun. It is really therapy for me to play with my wool and now that I have been just busy getting things for my site, I feel like maybe I am accomplishing things too. I made a blending hackle, I'm going to start selling those on my site too. I am having sooo much fun with it, I used to try to blend on my combs, but it really doesn't work very well. And on the hackle you can blend combed fiber or carded fiber, or the roving you purchase. Sometimes I get alittle disappointed that things are not moving very quickly, but I just have to remember that I am really doing this to have fun. After all, it's not like I can't use everything I make!!
I also have been playing with the Mach 1 wheel. I will have to say it is a nice wheel. I have had a couple of issues with it, no directions came with it, changing out their knocking piece, can't figure why that have that, it is just confusing. And the peg on the orifice I didn't like. My yarn kept slipping off and when I spun thick yarn it would split on the peg and get hung up. Very annoying! So I talked to mike, he sent me a brass cup hook and I replaced the peg with that and it works great! I am also getting the new orifice made to very bulky yarns, it will be here this week. Now that I have worked thru those several troubles, I am going to continue to spin on her a couple of more weeks to make sure there are no hidden problems then the Rose goes up for sale. I just haven't been able to get close to the Rose, I know they are a nice wheel, but just not my cup of tea. And it is so nice to be able to spin very fine to very thick on one wheel, and it is easy to use. Okay, enough of that.
We got goats!!!!

Just a time to write

I have been having people looking at my blog. That is so exciting. I am one of those people that really don't like being in public much so I mainly communicate thru the web and this is so exciting to me. I guess I have never really liked the social thing, although when my kids were growing up we were always busy and in the middle of things. Now I am older and I don't have to do that unless I feel like it, and I am so busy with the things I enjoy, I choose to stay home and do them! I also have a great hubby that allows and in encourages me to do so. We you get older I guess they call you eccentric, is that me? I just thought I was different:)

We have had a rough year and 1/2 so my "hiding" at home has been out of necessity for a while now. We lost our oldest son Sept. 29 2006. He was on a walk around his home one evening and was hit by a car. He was only 36 and had 3 young children and one on the way. I can't even begin to tell you how this has changed our families life. Everyone around you life goes on, yours stands still. I am doing better, some days are awful, it helps at times to write about it. People around you get tired of hearing the story over and over so you run our of ears. We are estranged from our DIL so we don't even get to see the grand kids, I don't know what happened there, she just got mad one day. They were Jeffery's life and reason for being, he was such a good dad. I'm thinking the DIL wants to move on and it is easier for her if we(his family) aren't involved. She won't even talk to my daughter and her family. How things change. Someday the kids will be old enough to seek us out on their own, I wonder sometimes what she tells them, I know they ask about us, we only live 2 hours away and I was there atleast once a week. I hope they don't think we don't care, and that daddy's family is just gone.

So now on to funner things! I just ordered some more Knit Picks needles. I just love those things! I got to cables and some tips. I thought about ordering the set, but I have the Denise set and I really never use the bigger needles so I thought I would just pick and choose.

We have finally had some rain! Our lake out front got so low and now it looks like a lake! The creek is running, sounds so pretty, but boy do we have some clearing to do! I'm still playing around with the idea of a couple of sheep. But I'm not sure I really want the responsibility of taking care of them everyday. It may be better to just purchase fleece at the White Barn Farm. :))

I have decided I want to try Fair Isle knitting, I saw the cutest Tam my daughter, lives in Milwaukee, would get so much use from.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9101466

Isn't this beautiful? Now if she would develop a pattern for a pair of gloves to match! Hint Hint.

I think I will dye some yarns today for this project. I was thinking that I would have way to much yarn now that I spin, but it is turning out that I am always in need for more more more!

Now to go find more projects!