Knits n Weeds

A new way to sample

2011-12-26T11:51:00.001-08:00

I first leaned to dye samples last year with Sara Lamb and the Fiber Trash Girls. Then Jan showed up this summer with a dye sample box, rather than a binder. Using embroidery floss organizers, she samples small amounts of dye, keeping very accurate records of the combinations used, then wraps the small amount of yarn around an embroidery floss bobbin for easy viewing. Her idea was featured in Interweave's Fall Color ezine, Spin Knit.

I loved this idea, and set out to increase the amount of sample colors I had. I began by sampling my primary Lanaset colors: turquoise, mustard, yellow, scarlet, fuchsia, and navy and black. I sampled each at DOS 2%, 1%, .5% and .25% to have a range of tints. Four jam jars fit nicely into the crock pot for steaming.

I then picked my favorite two-color blends and sampled at 2%, 1%, 1% with a drop of black added, and .5%. Here's a different selection of greens drying.

Here are a selection of my colors, all wrapped up and ready for their box.

This project is by no means even close to being finished, and it'll take me a very long time on my current schedule to fill my sample box.

More fuzzy babies!

2011-08-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

At five days old, Dharma's babies were happily scampering about, so we decided they could be let out of the birthing stall. I usually do this at around three days, but because Sprawl couldn't walk, we held off a bit.

Turns out it was really good timing. We heard sounds coming from the pasture that afternoon, and upon investigation we found Maharani had quietly given birth around 2pm to twins. We each grabbed a baby, dried them off, cleaned out the birthing stall and installed the new momma and babies. She had a boy and a girl, and just like Dharma's babies, they are both fuzzy.

When all the excitement was over, we found Sprawl, Spunk and Spot piled up outside napping after their first afternoon in the pasture.

I especially love Spot's ears. She looks like a little bunny.

We continue to give supplemental bottles to Spot and Sprawl.

Kid Update

2011-07-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

I think I'll keep posting updates about the babies, especially Sprawl, here, so check back periodically for new information at the top of the post.

We've been feeding Sprawl every 3-4 hours today. Here he is at the 5:30 feeding when I got home.

Here he's snuggling with the most awesome housemate ever, who's helping take care of him while I'm at work.

Therapy time. At each feeding we let him try to walk on the pebble walkway or dirt, both of which he manages better than the hay covered concrete of the birthing stall. Oops!

He's walking/standing better today. We believe he'll be walking within a couple of days. He's very vigorous, and has already learned to come running towards ankles.

Sprawl has two sibs. This is the girl, Spot. She's got daddy's long ears, with a big, dark-colored spot on the back. (You can tell we're being very thoughtful with the names here.)

We still need a name for the other boy, seen nursing in this photo. We'd like to keep the alliterative theme going.

Dharma's fuzzy babies

2011-07-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

Back in January I took Dharma over to my goat-partner-in-crime's for a little goat-on-goat action. I'd missed getting Dharma bred in 2010, and didn't want to miss another breeding season. So when I failed to catch her again in heat, I made arrangements for her to go on an extended stay with the buck of our choice.

She obviously came into heat after just three days of exposure to the buck. We left them together for three weeks, which should have caught two heat cycles. Goats have 150 day gestation periods, so I calculated out the first day to watch for labor signs as June 17, with a likely day of June 22. The days came and went... No babies...

I had to conclude that she, as well as Maharani, were in fact not successfully bred this winter. Since they were both obviously pregnant, beginning to resemble extra-wide loads, I had to further conclude that they had gotten themselves knocked up by the Angora buck after we moved to new pastures at the end of February. We share a barn and pasture with a big beautiful Angora buck, a couple of Angora does and their babies, and several sheep. Well, my girls decided that they liked this big, fuzzy buck, and perhaps they'd like some fuzzy babies of their own.

So based on moving day, I recalculated the earliest possible day they could possibly deliver as July 22. Sure enough, Dharma at least didn't take long to make friends with the new hunk in her life as she delivered triplets, two boys and a girl, this morning around 3am. My housemates heard the commotion; I slept through it all.

And they are fuzzy. One of the boys has long ears, not a La Mancha trait at all. We have fuzzy babies with some dairy conformation characteristics.

One of the boys, the darkest of the three, was having trouble standing, which meant he couldn't effectively nurse. Luckily I had frozen extra colostrum and milk from Dharam's first lactation two years ago. We thawed the jars and my housemate began feeding the boy on three hour increments while I went off to work. After the last feeding this evening, the little boy looks like he might start standing on his own soon, and we can stop the bottle feeding. Dharma is a trooper and is taking care of all three babies.

Processing the Fleece, Part I

2011-07-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Last year I acquired a Romney fleece from Lindsey, and there it sat in a garbage bag in my shed for the remainder of the year. I knew I could pay to have it sent off to one of the mills to be professionally processed, but I wanted to get hands on with at least one fleece, and this was going to be the one. I just needed the proverbial rainy day to get started.

So finding out last week that I was going to have some extra time on my hands, I decided it was time to fish out the fleece and get started. I missed taking a before photo, but lets say that it was a yellowish bunch of wool that filled a large trash bag and weighed many pounds.

The first step is to scour, or clean, the wool, which essentially involves soaking the wool in large tubs with a bit of Dawn. I used two 15-gallon tubs and split the fleece in two. The first water bath is hot, to open the scales on the wool. The water was instantly muddy brown with lanolin and dirt. These were left to soak and cool for several hours. The process was repeated three times, each time the water being cooler. (Note that there are both hot and cold water taps outside the house. Somebody was thinking ahead!)

You have to be very careful to not felt the fleece during the cleaning stages. Hot water + soap + agitation = felt, so there is no rubbing or squeezing of the fleece. In between water baths it was gently lifted out as a mass and placed in a giant colander for straining.

Finally satisfied that the fleece was reasonably clean, it was placed in the bottom of the washing machine for some quick spin action. Again, no agitation. We went straight to the spin cycle in an old-fashioned upright for some centripetal action. Look how fluffy after just a minute!

Finally the fleece, being reasonably clean, is left to dry outside on a rack. I occasionally shift the masses around to expose all of the fiber to dry evenly. I suspect it will be dry by this evening, and I'll be able to weigh what I have left after most of the dirt and lanolin were removed.

On a Happier Note - Spindle Camp

2011-05-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

And to make up for the very wordy and imageless previous post, here's a short overview of last weekend's Spindle Camp.

Spindle Camp has become an annual event at a small resort/campground at Lake Francis in Dobbins. There are a mixture of traditional campsites, RV hookups and cabins for rent. Spindle Camp itself took up an entire site where we could hang out in the shade of our pop-ups to spin, smooze and catch up. See all the happy spinning wheels waiting for their people to wake up?

There was food. Mardi made a gluten-free strawberry-rhubarb cobbler.

And there were roasted peeps. Yep, roasting peeps on an open fire.

They're really incredible. The extra sugar coating caramelizes beautifully, leaving a thin crispy shell with the gooey inside.

This started as a funny experiment, but they are my new favorite camping food. I couldn't wait to try all the colors.

Special thanks go out to Jan Evers for organizing the event once again, and Susan Prince for photodocumenting everything and getting donations from some of our favorite fiber suppliers. Everyone got a bit of swag.

Here's mine. It's Lisa Souza merino in a color way that I love.

Other attendees have written in more detail about their camp experiences, which you can check out on the following blogs:
A View From Sierra County
In Stitches
Woven Thoughts

Irreconcilable Differences

2011-05-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

Turns out there are exactly three reasons one can apply for divorce in the State of California: (1) irreconcilable differences, (2) incurable sanity or (3) nullity of marriage for legal reasons (ie incestuous marriage, one member was not of a legal age to marry or fraud).

Irreconcilable differences. We hear it a lot, but what does it really mean? Websters defines it as representing findings or points of view that are so different from each other that they cannot be made compatible.

I think about this a lot. I think about the reasons for my marriage of nearly ten years to end. I chase them around in my head. The bottom line is that when you cannot agree on an idea, fact or statement, and in fact debate the meanings of certain words in a semantic fashion to beat those differences into alignment, there comes a point when you realize this is what is meant by irreconcilable differences.

It means we're not going to agree. Ever. Not gonna happen. And when it's an irreconcilable difference regarding a foundation of a relationship, at least you hope you can agree about the outcome, because there's really only one outcome if you can't agree at that point, and that's to agree to disagree. Which in this case means divorce.

Though this was initially my decision, and even though it's been over a month, I still feel stunned as I move through the process of dividing up our property and filling out what seems like endless amounts of paperwork. (It was so easy to get married?!)

I naively thought I'd be able to blithely file the papers, put away my wedding ring, update my Facebook relationship status and move on. Instead I'm emotionally up and down. My future as a single woman is overwhelming. I know logically that time needs to work it's magic, but I won't deny that there' s a small part of me that would like to wake up from this nightmare.

So if you ask me how I'm doing and I don't respond right away, well, some days just suck. The generosity and support of friends, family and fiber are slowly working their magic. Time will do it's thing. Life will go on.

And some day we'll have some warmer weather and we'll get to play in the dirt and plant out all of those seedlings we started in the greenhouse! (Sspt, yes, spring is on it's way. I saw blackberry bushes in bloom in Auburn today. It's coming.)

Shearing Day

2011-05-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Carl the Shearer came to shear Sue's goats and sheep. There are Romeldale and various Romeldale crosses. The white one is a Corriedale, and the greys are fleece mutts. Carl trimmed toes and sheared using his mobile electric shearer.

The process of trimming a sheap or goat has been called the two-minute waltz. Before mechanical shears, it would take six men approximately2-3 minutes to collectively shear a fleece. With mechanical shears and using a consistent pattern to turn the body of the sheep, a good shearer can shear an entire animal in under two minutes by himself. Mechanical shearing and the techniques that were developed by the Bowen brothers in New Zealand mean faster shearing with a more uniform cut edge and fewer cuts to the sheep, all which yield a higher value to the fleece.

Here's a short video of the shearing of Queenie the Angora goat, which gives you an idea of the process of shearing.

Here's some pics of the various wools after shearing. These will need to be skirted (removing the poopy bits) and then sent to a mill to be professional cleaned of vegetable matter and processed into fluffy roving.

Lots of changes

2011-05-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

Where to even begin? Beats me, which probably says a lot about why I haven't posted in months. So lets just gloss over unpleasant things like moving in between snow storms, losing power repeatedly, having first bronchitis, then pneumonia, and discovering that the old place was infested with black mold on the walls after we moved out.

My new home includes the opportunity for most of my favorite things: gardening, fiber, a large yard for Riley, a barn for the dairy goats, and a new flock of chickens. The new place has a greenhouse and potting shed, so we've been starting seeds weekly for the last couple of weeks.

		I'll confess that I've had trouble for years getting my own seeds started. Too hot, too cold, not enough light... Well, not a problem anymore. These seeds are popping up, no problem. Many of them are already developing their first sets of true leaves. That's trombetta squash in the front, then lots and lots of sunflowers. I counted fourteen dozen sunflowers and six dozen zinnias, among other things. We want lots of cutting flowers in addition to our veggies and herbs.

Riley gives it all two paws up. (I was trying for all four paws up, but missed the moment!)

In Search of Some Holiday Cheer

2010-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

I think most of you reading this will understand, though possibly may not agree with, what I'm about to say.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Yep, I said that dreaded PC/non-PC phrase. And why shouldn't I? I've been saying it for far longer than the idea of being politically correct has existed. Why I say it goes back to fourth grade, when my class did a project studying different religions. We visited a Catholic church and a Buddhist temple. The other fourth grade classes visited other places of worship, and then we shared what we learned.

What is it about being nine and suddenly understanding in a big way that there are other people, with vastly different ideas and customs than your own in the world? That was the year I understood that while Christmas was what the majority of the people around me celebrated, there were still many of people right there in my community who celebrated other traditions. I made a conscious decision to recognize that fact by wishing people Happy Holidays as a way to acknowledge and respect others.

Twenty-five years later, I don't describe myself as being aligned with any one religion. Seems to me that most teachings include practical concepts for living a 'better' life, but very little about bigotry, narrow-mindedness and just being rude. I don't want to be boxed into any religion if it means I can't acknowledge all traditions with a non-denominational greeting.

And as for those people who have said to my face that I'm unpatriotic, anti-Christian, etc., the nine-year-old in my really just wants to stick out her tongue. I know better and I'm not going to let anyone take it away from me.

And now for a non-denominational, wintery scene of Riley playing in the snow.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2010-11-20T20:47:00.000-08:00

Back in March we participated in Disney's volunteer program and earned two Disney passes, which had to be used by December 15. So we called some friends, calculated gas mileage, scrapped together some pennies, asked my sister to watch all the animals, and headed south.

We drove and drove and drove some more. We listened to back episodes of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to pass the time. And drove some more.

And finally we arrived. DISNEYLAND! We actually stayed two nights with our friend Debi, who is an amazing artist and just happens to live in Los Angeles. She is lives in the Brewery Artist Lofts, a former Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery turned artist-in-residence community.

Our gracious hostess doing a little product branding. Debi has an annual pass and gleefully accompanied us into the park. And she mentioned to some other mutual friends we were coming into town, so with the wonder of texting, Chris was able to meet up with us in the park.

The park was not crowded, so we were able to hit all of our favorite rides before lunch. Indiana Jones, Tarzan's Jungle House, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Innoventions, Sleeping Beauty's Walkthrough, Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. (I got the high score.)

On our way through the castle back into Fantasyland we found the Evil Queen, and had to stop to show our reverence. She was pleased by our recognition of her greatness.

Then on to Autopia, with a lovely example of LA traffic, including irate drivers. (Chris is a deaf interpreter and has a very expressive face.)

Lunch, teacups, Finding Nemo, Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Indiana Jones for the second time, running around the former Tom Sawyer's island, now Pirate's Cove. I'm sure I'm forgetting something in there, like Winnie the Pooh.

After the amazing fireworks and 'snow' on Main Street we ran back into Fantasyland for awhile, rode the carousel, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Storybook Canal, and Snow White's Scary Adventures. Through Sleeping Beauty's Castle one more time. While waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion, the rain that had been threatening all day finally opened up and poured. It was after 11pm and we were done. A total of 13 hours in the park. Don't know when we'll get back south again, but it was all worth it.

Stuck in Mud

2010-11-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Today was the 8th Annual EcoKids. Today it also rained. A lot. In the last 24 hours it dumped 1.77 inches on Grass Valley, of which 0.64 was received in the last 6 hours. Yep, that would be the same six hours during which we set up the Burton Homestead, opened, and subsequently were utterly rained out.

This wasn't just a little rain. How do I know? Well, first off is this nifty website produced by the National Weather Service that I posted on Facebook during the last storm. Be sure to play with the different time scenarios during and after a storm. So very cool. So yes, over half an inch during the time frame in question.

Secondly, there was water sheeting off of the ground, which then lead to the further observation that our meadow aka parking lot for the event was rapidly turning very soggy.

Why do people assume that just because they have 4WD that this won't happen to them? People were very nice but a bit dismissive of my AWD Scion. I could feel how slick the ground was, thought I was going to make it, but no. Completely stuck, almost to the bumper line on the passenger side. So people in 4WD and big pick ups tried to make it out and got equally stuck. Luckily my Geico insurance coverage included tow service. Within 15 minutes I had a tow truck and got pulled out of the mud.

The tow truck driver made short work on installing the tow bolts on the front of my bumper. I never knew that's what those big eye bolt looking things with my spare tire stuff were for.

We made it home ok after that, where DH had started a fire in the wood stove and had a lovely pot of our locally sourced chicken (see previous post) whipped into a lovely chicken veg rice soup.

Alouetté, gentille alouetté...

2010-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Warning - this contains some detailed photos of our us harvesting our excess roosters.

This summer our broody hens hatched out seven chicks, of which four turned out to be boys. Now, hopefully you know by now that you don't need roosters for hens to lay eggs. Additionally, when you have more than one rooster fighting for dominion over the harem things can turn nasty. Our dominant, three-year-old rooster Kazoo will not share the coop with the young upstarts, so every night we have to go out with a flashlight and rescue the recalcitrant boys off the roof of the coop and shove them in with everyone else. Since it's hard to find homes for excess boys, we decided to take the plunge and do our first chicken harvest.

Neither of us had harvested chickens before, so we watched some youtube videos. I liked this one the best. We dressed in Troy's cooking clothes. Set up an ice bath, trash can, hanging hook, cutting board, and knives, and caught us a rooster boy each.

We didn't have a cone, so we simply tied them up by their feet and bleed them out by cutting a carotid artery on the side of the neck. The chickens are already in a semi-stupor when held upside down, and once they loose significant blood pressure, it all ends pretty quickly.

Troy decided he wanted to try skinning his chicken. Here it is after being rinsed off.

I wanted to go traditional by plucking my bird. There is definitely a knack to it, and while there are a few pins left in the skin, it wasn't that hard. This is my bird after plucking. Really does look like one of those imitation rubber chickens.

There's the crop. Don't want to cut that open accidentally. This is where all of those biology dissections really come in handy. Pulling apart viscera is the same on all animals.

Yes Mom, that's me doing the nitty gritty. I really did stick my hand repeatedly into the chicken. (Ask me about the time I didn't eat chicken for several months after being threatened to stick my hand into the chicken or go without.)

When we were done we rinsed out each carcass and placed them in the ice bath to finish cooling rapidly, finally putting them in a freezer bag and into the freezer. Since these birds are all from breeds that specialize in egg laying, they don't have the plump breasts that meat birds do, so these won't be great roasting birds. Also, at four months of age are probably beginning to toughen up just a bit. Most roasting birds are harvested at 10-12 weeks old. These'll probably go into a soup or stew pot.

The Life of Riley

2010-10-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

I've heard there haven't been enough Riley posts, so here you go, our life with Riley. Enjoy!

Day one with 13 week old, tri-color Welsh Pembroke Corgi, Riley.

Hanging out with Ringo at 49er Feed and Farm Supply, a full size male Corgi.

Running in green fields while I work, 5 mo old.

Going to work. Water? Check. GPS? Check. 7 mo old Riley? Check.

Exhausted after a morning of playing and exploring in Forest City, 8 mo old.

Special canine supervision at work, 9 mo old.

Helping Sue Flynn sweep the floor after Spinning Saturday, 9 mo old.


Hanging at the river and patrolling the boundary, 10 mo old.

After preparing this post, we found out that Ringo, our Corgi friend at 49er Feed and Farm Supply on Wolf Road, was fatally injured after being hit by a car Saturday afternoon. Our deepest sympathies go out to Ringo's family. He will be missed by many in the community.

Grass Valley Celtic Festival

2010-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

The Grass Valley Celtic Festival hosted by KVMR is my annual chance to reunite with friends acquired during the eleven years I worked and played at Renaissance Faires. The last several years I was in faire I braided hair with Adorn Thy Hair/Tresses Entwined, and the Celtic Festival is not only at my local faire grounds, the hair braiding booth comes every year.

Good friends, good music, best fairgrounds anywhere! And then it turns out that my fiber guild also participates as entertainment. Wham! My local, fiber and faire worlds collide. It means a lot of my favorite people all centralized into one place. I even spun a bit when I wasn't braiding.

Barbara Sue with her masses of hair.

Jocelyn with her long hair and sunglasses. (Sspt, those aren't period sunglasses.)

Riley made lots of new friends

Tiffany getting to play...

And even Leann and Shane from Americoprs stopped by!

Getting ready for winter

2010-10-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Last week's chance of rain had us scrambling to put things back under shelter, caulk the holes in the shed and getting the chimneys cleaned out and ready to use. Some things we try to do all summer, like cutting and stacking fire wood, but there is invariably a fall scramble to get everything done.

There's a reason for fall cleaning in addition to spring cleaning. I need this kick in the pants, I mean opportunity, to organize and put away all of that stuff left laying around out of doors while we work on projects. Trimming goat hoofs and making new garden trellises means that bags of screws, drill bits, etc., are often left left wherever I used them last in one mad attempt after another to squeeze one more activity into my day, and now we have the seasoning of reckoning at hand. I've even cleaned out the garden cart!

We're not the only ones getting ready for winter; we found this praying mantis in our bathroom earlier this week, happily munching on a resident crane fly. The first year we were here we had a mantis take up residence behind the African violet on the bathroom shelf. There's no plant there now, but this guy seems just as happy hanging out by my deodorant or on the bathroom mirror.

So going down the list, chance of rain scare not withstanding, we have maybe a cord of wood put by, the yard raked, about half the tools put away, fall veggies planted and chimneys cleaned. We still need to finish roofing the new goat pen, finish organizing the tool box, built a compost bin, organized the garden tools and pots... I think I'm losing the battle.

Of our babies born this summer, well some of them are almost all grown up, with some surprises. The triplet doelings are doing superb, and have put on enough growth that they should handle the cold without any problems. And those twin boys from Pi? Well, turns out one of them was a girl too!

Brack, 3 mo old wither from Pi

Bess and Mary, 5 mo old doelings from Maharani

Unfortunately, it turns out that Pi isn't that great for milking. Small udder, undeveloped teats even after nursing for three months, so we swapped her out with 3/4 La Mancha doe from Quest Enclave, who is Pi's actual owner. In exchange for wintering at our place, I can milk Bean until it's time to dry her up halfway through her next pregnancy, sometime mid-spring. Already Bean is an obliging, sweet goat who is giving us about a pint of milk each morning.

Bean, newest addition

Quick Catch Up

2010-08-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it's a cliché to say that I'm not sure where the last six weeks has gone. I can look at my calendar and see events, one after the other.

There was the rest of Le Tour de Fleece, during which I spun everyday except for the two rest days and the last two days during which I had the flu and was trying to keep the entire world from spinning while I moaned on the couch. I did spin for several days after to make up for the missing days, and have a lot to show for my efforts.

There was a mountain retreat to Forest City, filled with girlfriends, laughter, excellent food and, of course, more fiber and spinning.

Riley was exhausted by it all.

At roughly 5000' and far away from light pollution, I felt compelled to use the stargazing app on my iTouch to identify many of the constellations. I really like this application and have continued to use it at home to learn more about the night sky.

Then there was the always inspiring Nevada County Fair. The local fiber guild hosts the woolen and woven entries at the fair each year, breaking up the duties amongst ourselves. I didn't enter anything this year, having suffered an overdose of procrastination when it was time to register exhibits, but I did help receive all of the beautiful entries and then volunteered three nights of the fair to demonstrate spinning. In other words, it's another excuse to hang out with girlfriends, gab and spin. There may also have been some Lazy Dog ice cream involved, but I'm not telling.

Jocelyn also taught Mardi, Barbara Sue and I how to use the inkle looms, and now I'm thinking about what wonderful projects I might make.

On the home front we've been doing winter prep. It seems far away now, but we only have half a cord of wood, which means we need to keep harvesting. We'll go through at least two cords, more if it's a nasty/early/cold winter. We're also doing a few weatherizing improvements and getting fall vegetables transplanted into the garden. I snugged starts of broccoli, red cabbage, brussel sprouts and parsley into the garden this morning, where the larger summer plants will help shade the new plants while they get their root systems established.

More babies!

2010-07-11T10:48:00.001-07:00

In total we hatched out seven baby chicks between the two mommas. I wasn’t sure what the babies were going to look like, given that we had four varieties of chickens involved, but it looks as though we have two Ameraucanas, one gold-laced, three silver-laced and possibly one blue-laced Wyandotte types. It’s great to see that they take after the individual varieties so strongly even though they are mixed parentage.

This week also yielded more goat babies! This was Pi’s first pregnancy, and her birth was over almost before it even began. I got a quick call that she was in labor, and six minutes later a second call that we already had one baby. By the time I made it home from work twenty minutes later, everything was over and we had two cute little bucklings.

We do not need these boys for breeding stock, so they will be wethered (neutered) and sold as pets/brushers. They’re super cute with elfin ears. Being second (?) generation mini-manchas, they’ll stay a manageable size, about 70 lbs when full grown. I prefer the minis because I can handle them, even with my torn sacrum ligament, and they don’t overwhelm my nieces and nephews. We'll try again next year for some doelings out of Pi.

Last week kicked off the Tour de Fleece/Tour de France. I’m part of Team Spinning Spinderellas. Organized by Steph, our goal is simply to spin everyday the riders are riding. Most days I’m spinning in the evening while the family watches tv. I started with this delicious batt from Rowen.

Yesterday was the monthly spinning Saturday hosted by our fiber guild, and several of the team members joined in the air conditioned meeting room to share what they’ve done so far and get in a solid three hours of spinning. Alas, I forgot my camera, but Birdsong posted a pic of the pile of finished yarns on the floor. I started spinning a roving by Steph, "Gonna Nail That Catfish to a Tree."

More spinning today at Tin Thimble’s spinning Sunday!

Of course, between the heat and the spinning, some things like gardening have fallen to the wayside, at least for the moment.

Chickies!!

2010-07-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

This post is two weeks old, will get a newer post up soon! So much more to share.

We have some new additions to our laying flock. Two of our hens became broody, and so we set them up in a couple of dog crates for some quiet solitude, and three weeks later, voila! We have baby chicks. So far we have three from the first hen, Smoke, and one from the second hen, Ash, though I'm not certain that Ash is done hatching babies just yet as she started 3-4 days later than her sister Smoke.

For those of you not in the know, hens do not need a rooster present to lay eggs, but those eggs are not fertilized. Because we do have a rooster, the eggs we collect each evening have the potential for hatching a baby chick, given the right conditions. Those can be man-made, but a broody chicken is the easiest way to go. Once a hen has accumulated a nest of eggs, if she is broody she will sit on the nest, incubating the eggs and rolling them over. Upon hatching, she will begin to teach the chicks how to hunt and peck at food, even mashing up larger food to feed to the babies. Unlike other baby birds, they are up and following mama within a day of hatching.

We have four varieties of chickens in our flock. Our rooster is a gold-laced Wyandotte. Among the hens I have silver-laced and blue-laced Wyandottes and Ameraucanas. This means that all of the chicks are mixed varieties, though they are exhibiting certain plumage patterns already. One looks Ameraucana, one looks blue-laced, and two look silver-laced. It'll be interesting to see what they look like as they grow up.

We finally named the doelings Mary, Bridget and Bess, three great queens from the British Isles. Bess is the large, pale doeling. Bridget is the mostly black doeling and Mary is the calico, which somehow in our minds most closely resembles plaid. They are friendly and playful, loving to run the length of the pasture in the cool mornings.

Of course, all of the animals, plants too for that matter, are telling me quite clearly that the world is heating up outside. The plants are wilty, and all of the animals are taking it easy in the shade. Everyone has access to lots of water, and when it really heats up we'll set up misters to help keep everyone comfortable.

Speaking of plants, I'm trying out a new system for tying up tomatoes this year. Using a simple A-frame made of 1x3 lumber and a piece of electrical conduit, each tomato is tied with a piece of twine around it's base and up to the conduit. Every couple of days I simply twist leader (main stem) around the twine. That's it. No finding scissors to cut bits of string, or oops, the stake fell over. Just another twist around the twine. All the tomatoes are tied up in just a few minutes, and they look fabulous.

I'd heard about this method, and need to give kudos to this humorous youtube video for the clear explanation about the twisting.

The beans are finally sprouted and climbing up their poles. You can even see the painted lady heirloom beginning to show it's beautiful red flowers.

Triplets!

2010-06-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

Our first dairy goat, Maharani, delivered triplets girls Thursday evening. Just hours after putting the final touches on the new birthing pen, her mucous plug broke, and we were officially on baby watch. This being Maharani's second birth, it didn't take things long to progress. I thought I had plenty of time to run to the feed store on the corner, but when I came back, it was to immediately set stuff down, wash my hands, roll up my sleeves and jump into delivery mode.

Her water broke just as I entered the pen, and then we went straight into hard contractions. My husband said something was coming out, but it didn't look to be a hoof or head. We changed positions, and I determined it was a front elbow poking out. I looked at my husband, said something like, "Here goes nothing," and gently pushed the elbow back inside. This is the first time I've tried to turn a baby, and let me just say, it was amazing, cool and freaky all at the same time. Things were progressing too quickly to do more than rotate the leg back against the body of the baby and let it come out in a modified birth position. Goat baby 1!! Goat baby 2 popped out in the standard diving position twenty seconds later. Goat baby 3 quickly followed, toosh-end first and still encased in her amniotic sac. We ripped open the sac and cleared the mucous away from her mouth, and she mewled too.

Aha!! Three goat babies! You never really know for sure how many babies you'll get from a goat. Twins are typical, but it's just as common to get singles or triplets. After last year's single boy from Dharma, I was hoping for at least one girl, and twin girls would even better. I'm not sure I can share just how elated we were at delivering three (count 'em, three!) girls.

Everbody was up and nursing withing twenty minutes.

Riley really wanted to see. He's not quite sure about the need for any more babies...

So, we've got the light brown with white undersides, the black and white, and the calico. Everyone needs names. Suggestions? I'd love to have some kind of theme...

The light at the end of the tunnel...

2010-05-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

For awhile I was sure the light at the end of the tunnel was the proverbial oncoming train, or even worse, that the light was cut due to budget constraints, but I'm finally there. The end of the tunnel. The 2010 Nevada County Grown Farm Guide is off to the printer, the 20th anniversary land trust event was a success, and everything wrapped up last Saturday with the spring native plant sale. Whew, regular programming can now resume.

In case I hadn't said, I've been volunteering with the local chapter of the native plant society as a way to hone up on my plant id skills. So Saturday found me cashiering at the biennial plant sale. Riley helped too. You can see him here checking out a selection of native plants.

Here's what I can home with: monkey flower 'terra cotta', a hot pink penstemon, coral bells 'red bells',a couple of bleeding hearts and blue-eyed grass. And then we picked up some 6-pack plants at Eisley's, including parsley, celery, chard, some cosmos and strawberries. Here's a wheelbarrow full of the day's haul.

Last Sunday started out with planning the expansion of the goat pens in preparation for the new arrivals expected at the end of the month, testing out the drip irrigation system and getting supplies. Sadly, when one has been working continuously for 5 weeks, the weeds have an opportunity to take over the unmulched portions of the perennial garden, so before I could really plant anything I commenced with the weeding.

Riley liked weeding. We removed quantities of annual grasses, chickweed and a non-native mallow, as well as the ever present blackberry sprouts. The vegetable portion of the yard is ready for planting, having been thoroughly sheet mulched in the fall with straw, hay, and goat poop from the goat pen.

And then I sprained my ankle. Kind of put a stop to my gardening plans for the rest of the week. Troy did a great job of stepping up (since I literally couldn't) and continued weeding out the blackberries and installing a fence to keep the chickens out of the garden. Still gimping around, we managed to get most everything planted this afternoon

Meet Riley

2010-04-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

Riley is our new Corgi puppy, and here are just a few of the questions I field daily:

Yes, he's a purebreed, they're the smallest of the herding dogs, being used historically in Wales to herd cattle and be a generally awesome farm and companion dog. Yes, his ears are really big, no, his legs are just the right length, and yes, you can take a picture of him.

We've had our pup for two weeks, having driven to Oroville to get him from a breeder. He's now fifteen weeks old. We knew getting a Corgi pup would be a big adjustment in our lives, having introduced the equivalent of a toddler to our household. Before bringing him home, we had to puppy-proof an area of our little abode. Luckily, he's a very smart pup (part of that herding dog thing) and we've already started puppy training. We're working on sit, down, stay, leave it and come.

Introduced him to the rest of the animals - chickens, who he finds fascinating, goats, which he finds a bit on the large and alarming size when they jump suddenly, and the cats, who are glad he can't get onto the bed. And we introduce him to lots of people and new places, like the office, spinning Saturday and knit night. Luckily he tires quickly, so if I time it right, he'll pass out for awhile.

Everything was going swimmingly. Then I got the phone call Friday at work, while Riley was home with my husband. "He vomited about an hour ago, seems a bit disoriented and his back legs are a little uncoordinated when he tries to walk." A quick internet search shows that this could be the beginning symptoms of many things, including Parvo and vinca poisoning. PANIC!

My SIL is a vet tech at Grass Valley Vet, where I normally take my cats for their routine care, but they close at 5:30 and there's no way we'd get the puppy there in time. She recommended LOP vet, just around the corner from where we live.

Two hours, a basic exam, blood panel, chem panel, 2 x-rays and a fecal exam later we'd ruled out Parvo, toxins, and blockages to confirm what you already knew, that dogs like to eat other animals' poop! He has coccidia, a protozoa. I have the treatment for that because of the goats, so they gave him a subcutaneous injection of electrolytes to combat dehydration, suggested a bland diet, and sent us home with the treatment instructions. Half an hour later, you certainly wouldn't have thought from watching him play that we'd been concerned for his well-being that same afternoon.

So other than being sleep deprived from getting up a couple of times a night to take out Riley, we're all doing just fine and we love our puppy!

Happy Equinox!

2010-03-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Equal day length. After today the daylight minutes will outnumber the dark and continue to gain in dominance until the summer solstice. Spring is officially here.

To celebrate I joined the California Native Plant Society's wildflower walk along the Independence Trail. The trail exists in the remains of the Excelsior Ditch, which moved water 25 miles from it's source on the South Yuba to the diggins at Smartsville. Since the ditches were designed with subtle elevation differences, the old canal beds area smooth and easily accessible, and it was a good first "hike"since recovering from pneumonia.

Meandering is a good word to use to describe the speed one walks when looking at wildflowers. We stop, gather around a wee flower, consult the book and come up with both scientific and common names. I took pictures. Turns out my new camera has a voice memo utility, so after I snap a pic I record the name. No more notebook! (This is really cool. I love technology. No, I'm not making squeeing sounds, really!)

Highlights?

Some shooting stars. The fertilized flowers flip over and point up, the unfertilized are still pointing down in their come hither pose.

Hounds tongue, in the forget-me-not family.

A view of the South Yuba just downstream of the 49 crossing.

A California newt. We put him back where we found him under the giant chain ferns.

Daylight Savings Rant

2010-03-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Last fall during the bi-annual time change, a friend of a friend on facebook posted something to the effect that daylight savings time was a relic of farmers and farming practices, and since farmers are a minority of the population, Day Light Savings should be removed.

As a homesteading/farmer type of person, I immediately and vehemently objected to his statement. After all, he wasn't the one who was now milking goats in the dark because of the sudden time change at, nor any of the other chores that must be done before and after work. My work hours certainly didn't change just because the time on the clock did, and instead all of our diurnal actions are shifted for this bit of tomfoolery.

So why do we have DST? DST as a concept was suggested as early as 1794 by Benjamin Franklin, and was adopted in the United States in 1917 by an Act of Congress. The basis for DST has always been energy savings, the idea being that people will consume less energy if they are maximizing their use of daylight hours. Unfortunately, studies don't bear out this assumption, but countries around the world continue to follow this principle.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The practice is controversial. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours,but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun. Traffic fatalities are reduced when there is extra afternoon daylight;its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited and often contradictory.

Who really benefits from DST? Well, the pool and BBQ industry fronted the biggest lobbying checks that got the US Government to add an additional 4 weeks per year of DST, with three weeks in the spring and one week in the fall beginning last year. Those don't sound like farmers to me!!

So tomorrow morning the sun will not rise until 7:15am and I'm back to milking in the dark in order to get to work on time.

DST or not, spring is just around the corner, and I have the evidence!

Goats in the sunshine

Flowering quince

The rosemary is beginning to bloom

As is the calendula

And the lilacs are preparing to spring forth!

It's Getting Better All the Time

2010-03-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

In this case we're talking about the state of my lungs. Many of you who saw me at Stitches know that I was suffering from a third round of this bronchitis/cold thing, and let's just say that things got worse before they got better. So finally giving into common sense, I've been home for several days and broken out the honey-lemon-garlic syrup I should have brewed up weeks ago.

I've used this recipe to good effect many times before, often avoiding or reducing the suffering.

1 cup honey

juice and zest of one organic lemon

3-5 cloves garlic (if they're all big use 3, if small use 5)

1-2 sage leaves

Blend all ingredients together and let sit for 2-4 hours to homogenize. Strain using a large mesh strainer and put into a small bottle. Sip 1-2 tsps every 1-2 hours. If blended right it should taste like a lemon drop. Soothes throat stuff, coughing and kicks ass against most invaders as raw garlic is anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal. I think this recipe originated from one of Christopher Hobbs' herbals, though it could belong to someone else...

In one of my rare public appearances this week a coworker came by to carpool from my house for a conference in Sacramento. "Wow, I know you said you lived on the Bear River, but you really do live right on the river! It's right there!" Yep, I really do live right on the Bear River, and the most recent rains have finally brought it up to a decent winter level of flow. I think that both Rollins and Combie Dams have been holding back on the outflow to refill the reservoirs, which is not good for the health of the river, so I'm very glad to see the level up finally. This is the view of the river from my "backyard".

She also met all of the chickens and goats. She particularly loved the goats. "They're so friendly and attentive, just like dogs." Well almost like dogs. They don't play fetch very well, but they do like being petted and scratched, with a few key differences. Goats like having their necks, chests and rumps scritched and rubbed, whereas a dog or cat will like their jaws, tops of heads and ears scritched and rubbed. With goats, scratching of the head is usually a sign of trust as they don't want their horn area messed with.

That little goat Finn, that was born last June to Dharma? He's a big goat now, as tall as his mom but still has plenty of room to grow. He's all leg right now and I expect him to end up about 20% larger than his mom by the time he finishes growing in another year.

Maharani was bred on New Year's Eve to my friend Joanne's buck Glimmercroft Stormfront, a third generation miniature La Mancha. It's very easy to breed these medium-sized goats. We watch for the girls to come in heat, snap them onto a lead and have them jump into the large dog crate in the back of the car. A twenty minute car ride later and they are flirting with the buck of choice. We stand around and shoot the breeze while the goats do their thing. Three rounds is considered successful and back home we go.

You really know you've had success when the doe doesn't come back into heat, as was the case with the little black doeling Pi. This was Pi's first time, and she didn't have a very strong heat at New Years, so even though the deed was done, it didn't take. She was very much in heat two weeks ago, so DH ran her over (I being sick) and there's no question about it this time.

Goats have a gestation period of 5 months (150 days), give or take 5 days either way, so we're expecting our first kids of the year at the end of May, and Pi in mid-July. We haven't bred Dharma just yet, so we'll have some late babies this fall. Then I'll be posting more pictures like this one of Dharma giving birth to Finn last June.