Here's to farmers' markets. The only place you'll find carrots flaunting their 'goodness' to the world. Oh my.

Ok...last months temporary musical visit to China is over. Back to Scotland. I love me some kilts! These guys rock. We saw them live. Lots of banging drums, bag pipes, tattoos and bare knees. I'm fairly certain that I drive A LOT faster when this is in the CD player and turned up loud (which, of course, is the only way to listen to it).

I couldn't find them on iTunes or Amazon (I bought the CDs at their concert), but luckily they have their own site with a Listen Now! link. It seems to be a continuous stream, which is cool I guess, but kind of weird. It opened up as an Internet Radio station in my iTunes??

http://www.albannachmusic.com/

I have the slowest tomato plants on earth. Come on already...turn red!!!!

Here is a picture of the doors actually on the shop and working! Yeh, yeh...big deal, right? As a matter of fact "Yes, it was." We were working in steaming 95 degree heat that day all while wondering if the whole building was going to fall on our heads if we screwed up this DIY project. But the building survived, our marriage survived, and even the mouse who lived in the wall survived. Alas, the ants beneath the studs did not, but they would have been sacrificed regardless, since we are officially at war with several ant colonies at the moment and eventually I would have pulled out the WMD (aka RAID foggers) if they hadn't succumbed to the first whiff of pesticide fumes. Not very PETA of me, I know. But "relocating" the ants just wasn't a viable option this time around.

The other small success is the metal stand (pictured) for the base of the actual forge. Jim welded it all together and would have attached the top, but discovered he's going to need a different welder to finish. The aluminum trash can behind it is full of 100% pure Kentucky coal, ready and waiting to fuel our very first forge fire.

Now I'm off to craft something. I've made a commitment to do something creative EVERY day, and I've only got about an hour to whip up something before bed. Which means "crafty" could easily become "crappy" if I don't get to work right now.

I came home tonight and decided to take some black and white photos out in our fields and around the pond. I couldn't decide on a favorite, but this one was in the top 5. I think the angle makes the rock look huge, but really it's only about 6" across. The rest of the photos are out on Flickr.

We took a week of vacation off from our real jobs and decided it was the perfect time to jump in and turn our carriage house, with it's 'faux' double doors, into what will become Jim's blacksmith shop. The building isn't real big - 20'x25', but it has a concrete floor, a working chimney complete with hearth and pot bellied stove, and running water (when we hook it back up) so it was just begging to be converted into something useful. Luckily no one had yet finished it out to the point where I would feel compelled to making it into something cute like an office or apartment...nope, for the past 6 years we've been here it's just been a glorified garden shed with bare stud walls and a dumping ground for boys' bikes, scooters, pogo sticks, stilts, basketballs, etc. (pictured left, since we had to move a bunch of junk just so we could work) So, other than the double doors that DIDN'T open, it had the potential to be the perfect place for Jim to start blacksmithing.

Our first task was to make sure we had wood to brace the roof once we took out the studs, and all the hardware we'd need to hang the doors. So after a trip to our barn (for wood), a trip to Lowes (for hardware) and a trip to the garage (for tools) we were ready. It took a whole day of sweating and swearing to do it, but we finally pulled the fake doors down, tore out studs and braced it so the roof didn't cave in on us. The next morning we added a nice threshold and reworked the fake doors into real ones and hung them.



So now our carriage house is officially gone...it's now well on it's way to becoming a shop and part-time studio (my kiln and glass stuff lives there too). It's actually kind of a relief, because for the past 6 years every person who's ever visited invariably asked the same question, "It's so Cute! What's it like inside?! Are you going to make an office?"...(those are mostly urban friends who think having a home office is 1. enviable 2. a tax break) And then they just seem rather disappointed when I say "Uh, thanks...no...we just store junk in it." So now it has a real purpose, and I can say in all honesty "Oh, thanks...it's our blacksmith shop." (which our rural friends will think a blacksmith shop is 1. enviable 2. a tax break)

In Part 2 I'll post pictures of the doors up and working, and Jim's first task at building the actual forge - which involved lots of welding, grinding, hammering and plenty of other stuff that involved creating lots of noise.

Today we drove about 90 miles north to Lagrange, KY to visit our friend Rick (right) and his wife Stephanie. Rick used to work with me a few years ago. We were cubicle neighbors in the IT dept. of a big company. The work was dull and boring, but we kept ourselves entertained sharing stories about our hobbies: me, the part-time sheep farmer and spinner and him, the part-time blacksmith. We both left the company soon after, but when Jim (left) decided he wanted to try his hand at blacksmithing, I immediately thought of Rick. So today he showed Jim around a forge and anvil. It was great! And now I have a beautiful new hand hammered wall hook, and the plans for a small forge on our own farm. Should be interesting. Thanks Rick!

The sound of Chinese Pop has been blaring loudly along the back roads of rural Kentucky lately. Sa Ding Ding's album "Alive" hasn't left my iPod or truck CD Player for weeks.

I'm loving this crocheted flower pin by Temptressyarn using one of my pit-fired buttons! Too cool. I need to make more of those. They were fun.

Am I the last one to find out about this stuff? How many shepherds and spinners, not to mention quilters (so I've heard) have been keeping this secret?? This is the most perfect stuff for washing wool fleeces ever! It's sold as a livestock soap, technically it's 100% sodium lauryl sulfate, and in English that translates to "probably the first ingredient on your shampoo bottle"...only this is a 7.5lb tub of industrial strength, lanolin melting, water softening, miracle working lather that can turn the greasiest, grungy wool into piles of fluffy white clouds. In one (maybe two) soaks in hot, hot water. No kidding. It's that good.

I bought 2 tubs (15lbs) of the stuff from Mid-States Wool Growers Assoc. http://www.midstateswoolgrowers.com/GroomingProducts.asp for $16.95 each (it was $47 total with UPS shipping for both). I'm told quilt shops sell it in small tubes for criminally high prices because it's perfect for soaking delicate quilts, but it can be bought at any good horse supply or farm store for a lot less $. Ours just happen to be out so I had to order it online.

No, I'm not a sales rep for Proctor & Gamble...but I do wash a lot of wool and nothing, nothing ticks me off more than spending an entire afternoon, $5 of Dawn detergent and drenching myself with 8 tubs of hot water, then spending 3 days waiting for the wool to dry only to find out the fleece that I 'washed' is still sticky with lanolin and gumming up my wheel!!!

Thank you Sheryl for letting me in on the secret, and thank you Proctor & Gamble for selling this 'Industrial Product' in sizes smaller than 55 gallon drums.

There will be Wensleydale yarns posted on the site soon. I LOVE spinning these curls! They are so soft and shiny and fun. They put mohair locks to shame. None of those mohair knots that are impossible to tease apart at the base of the curls! These just fall apart into little curls in your hands. It's love.

I'll be posting my shetland and icelandic fleeces soon too. I've taken pictures now and the only thing left is weighing everything and updating the site. The two black shetlands' are already reserved, but if anyone would like dibs on Ash's white shetland fleece, Holstein's gray/white icelandic fleece, or Milo and Brio's white icelandic fleeces just let me know. All were coated year round, so there's almost no veggie matter, and I shear using scissors so second cuts are near none. Prices will depend on final weight.

So I got back to work after lunch today just in time to pick up a call from the high school. Then had that dreaded momentary motherhood panic attack while the school nurse tried to explain what happened..."accident...gym class...seems okay...pretty color...do you want to pick him up?" So I immediately drove the 22 miles to his school, took one look at him and drove him straight to the Acute Care clinic.

During the 2+ hour wait, I found out the details. Boys were playing basketball and one pushed another one who then whacked his head into my son's face. Normal teenage stuff. Other than being very colorful, he seemed fine, but the other kid's skull hit his cheekbone so I was worried about a fracture. The nurse practitioner spent a lot of time shining lights in his eyes, poking his face, tapping his teeth (?) and then hauled him off for some Xrays. Nothing. But they are sending them over to some other specialists tomorrow just to make sure.

His father showed up too, but I think it was more of an excuse to leave work early and give him the old father to son "Whoa...nice one!" encouragement than anything else. For some reason black eyes seem to be the symbolic form of some type of male tribal bonding ritual...I don't understand it...but they seemed to enjoy the moment, taking great pride in the bright colors and swelling lids.

Anyhow, for now the prescription is a cold pack and maybe some Advil. He'll mend...and probably get spoiled for a few days while I feel sorry for him.

The three new sheep arrived last weekend! It was way more traumatic for me than for them. My flock and the dogs have been together since lambhood/puppyhood so I had no idea what to expect introducing these new guys. They are all a year old, full grown and tower above my other sheep. I worried way too much...it was deja vu from 3 years ago when I first brought home lambs.

The first day they stayed in the paddock and we let the two Great Pyrenees guardians get acquainted. The dogs were curious at first, Zurich barked a few times but then got bored and walked away (he's not the primary guardian, for obvious reasons). Zell was confused and wanted to get near, but they were more interested in smelling him than he was of them, so he ended up laying down and looking very uncomfortable while three sheep got in his face. We stayed close, and eventually saved him.

That first night was hell (for me, not the sheep). I locked them in our barn using the gate panels we normally use to close off the paddock. They had fresh straw, water, hay and corn...and made themselves right at home. But that night I woke up constantly with images of them trying to climb over the gates and breaking their legs or Zell running around barking and snapping at them, so I ended up going outside in my pajamas after midnight just to check on them. No one, including me, was very happy about this since I ended up waking everyone up, scaring them silly shining a flashlight in their eyes, and setting the dogs off on a new round of barking. I think they had this paranoid idea that I was pulling some kind of surprise inspection to check if they were actually guarding the pastures, because they both took off around their perimeter paths barking at the top of their lungs and proving to me just how 'professional' they are at their jobs. I went back to bed, half relieved, half embarrassed.

The next few days I spent sleeping restlessly and driving home (50 miles round trip) from work at lunch time to check on everything, and although it wasn't completely uneventful things have finally gotten back to a normal routine (there was one incident involving 3 sheep getting tired of being kept from the green pasture grass and deciding it was time to make a jail break and taking a gate off the hinges...but otherwise, things went well)

Now for the introductions. They are all wethers (castrated males), yearlings and white. In honor of their very British heritage and the fact that their wool is the 'Holy Grail' of fleeces, they've all been named after medieval Knights.

So, here they are...freshly shorn and looking very naked:

The three from left to right: Gawain, Erec and Tristan on the first day they arrived and checking out the new digs.



Tristan (left) the smallest and liveliest. He has been caught frolicking like a lamb, kicking up his heels and just romping around enjoying life. Probably weighs about 120lbs but acts like he's half that size.
Gawain (right) the friendliest. I wasn't sure Sheryl was going to sell this guy to me, since he was a favorite and she was really attached to him. He and Milo (our Icelandic that thinks he's a dog and should live in the house) are currently competing on who can be the 'favorite' around here. Don't tell Milo, but I think Gawain may win this one...



Erec is the largest. He is very intelligent and wary of strangers, but not crazy scared that everything living is trying to eat him (like our Jacobs are known to be). He tends to be the one standing just a few feet further away, but can be enticed with corn to submit to an ear scratching or pat on the head. He is going to have a GORGEOUS fleece this fall!



These guys have the most awesome fleeces (I saw them before Sheryl sheared them) and I wanted to protect them right away so everyone got a new coat on the first day here. Here is Tristan sporting his new threads.



Erec living up to his name and looking very noble... (I just love the dreadlock bangs!!)



Gawain wishing I would hurry up and get the camera out of his face and scratch his ears. Check out those long eye lashes! So cute. That is Zurich in the back, looking over from the other pasture.



And finally here is a picture of some of the other sheep. Notice most of them are getting that 'stuffed couch' look and bursting out of their covers. The two on the far left (Annie and Holstein) have already been sheared, and I'll be getting to the rest in the next few days.

We made the trip up to Greencastle IN yesterday for their Fiber Fair. I had a goal of finding a few reasonably priced alpaca and llama fleeces, but didn't really need anything else since we'll be shearing our own flock soon and I'll be buried in wool. Well, needless to say, a lot more $ was spent than planned. I made the 'mistake' of stopping by Susan's Fiber Shop booth and Susan used her super human powers of persuasion to sell me a new Pat Green carder! Not that I put up much of a fight, mind you. I've been lusting after one of these for awhile, and being confronted with the real deal right there on the table in front of me (instead of a pasty picture on the internet) was just too much. I had almost convinced myself to just walk away and order one at a more 'opportune time', but then Susan arrived and suddenly it became perfectly reasonable to buy the thing right then and there and save the shipping charges. How logical right! Yeah... Anyway, it's home and absolutely awesome! I carded about 2 oz of llama this morning and it's just a cloud of lovely fiber begging to be spun now. New toys are so great!

But that's not the big news...yeah, yeah, I know, what could be bigger news than getting a PG? Well, actually this: We're buying more lambs! And not just ANY cute little bundles of wool, but WENSLEYDALES! We just happened to meet Sheryl Meacham of Gwenyth Glynn and found out she only lives about 70 miles away across the river in Indiana! Sheryl has one of the few Wensleydale breeding programs in the US. For those who don't know, no one in the US can bring over livestock from Britain because of import restrictions (hoof and mouth disease, mad cow, etc.) SO, the only way we can get any of their lovely sheep breeds over here is by importing semen and artificially inseminating stock here. It's a long boring process that takes years and years, but eventually breeders can get near purebred bloodlines. Well, Sheryl has lambs and offered me some wethers (castrated rams). Spinners LOVE wethers...no hormone surges ruining their fleeces, no pregnancies to drain their nutrient reserves, just big, lazy boys who do nothing but stand around growing luscious locks of wool. Perfect! So we're going to call her later this week and make plans to drive up to her farm. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

In the meantime I couldn't resist buying two of her fleeces. They are big bags of super soft, dreamy curls of white locks. Soft as baby kid mohair curls (maybe softer) and have a lovely shine.

I also bought two wonderful Romeldale fleeces. I've never spun this before, so that should be fun. They were covered, so they're very clean and real bouncy. Here is the caramel colored one.



Well, that's about it. The only other major thing going on is non- fiber related. We're having our entire roof replaced. It was old, tired looking and leaking so contractors have been crawling all over the place for the past few days. They'll be back this week to put up all new aluminum trim and gutters. So far it all looks amazing, but with a pricetag that makes me want to cry, it should.

I had a weak moment a few days ago and ordered a variety of silk and bamboo fibers from the UK, and they arrived today! I can't believe how fast that was, even with Homeland Security opening and searching the package at Customs (note: how nice of them to seal it all back up with bright green Homeland Security tape so that I knew they opened it, and not that my vendor was some lazy packing sleeze) Anyhow, it got here in record time and even with the dollar exchange rate at a criminal low it was a great deal. Especially since I can't find this stuff over here! The goods: 200gm (7 oz) bamboo fibers, 200gm (7 oz) Italian silk waste, 300gm (10oz) Gummy Silk Throwsters waste, 200gm (7oz) white silk noil and 200gm (7oz) carded silk cocoon strippings.

The bamboo fibers are super super soft and very shiny, a lot like tencel. The italian silk waste resembles bright white sari silk waste, but without the sewn bits that shredded saris leave behind. The gummy silk throwsters waste needs to be washed since it's very hard, but once washed it softens up and is very fun to play with. The husband stood in the kitchen for 10-15 minutes pulling it apart and playing with the threads. The white silk noil is lovely. I can find noil much cheaper, but this is so much whiter than I've seen before and there are hardly any cocoon shell bits at all. I usually avoid noil just because I don't like picking out the crusty bits, so this will be a nice change. And lastly, the carded cocoon strippings...this was a surprise. I had never heard of this before, but decided what the hey I'm game. It's really nice. Looks and feels like silk noil but has been carded into a long roving...all ready to spin. Yeah! Now I can't wait to get out the dye pots and add some color to this new stash!

I bought all this from http://www.papershed.com in the UK. The exchange rate right now is about £1=$2. The shipping for 1100gms (2.4lbs) of fiber to KY was $33, but it arrived in just 4 days so I can't complain. Service was great. They emailed twice, once to confirm the shipping charge and another time to tell me it was on it's way.

Now I just have to go look up some instructions on how to wash this gummy silk waste, I think I saw somewhere I'm supposed to boil it...

Last spring when my father passed away a close friend sent us a beautiful basket of live bulbs for the funeral. They were beautiful so I took them home, but knew that they would die soon since I'm not the most attentive plant keeper. I actually have quite a few plants, but they are hardy beasts that have lived in this plant neglectful house for a decade or more. Mostly philodendrons that don't seem to care if there is a four week drought followed by a sudden flood that drowns them for a month all while living in the dark shadows of a colonial house with little to no natural light.

So the bulbs survived until around June, dropped their petals, wilted, and then shriveled away. The basket was then shoved out on to the back patio to plant purgatory until I had the time or inclination to 'do something with that'.

Well, that didn't happen until about October when my 9' tall braided ficus tree, that has strangely survived 15 years with us, was being brought back inside the house for the winter. He gets an annual vacation from May until October to hang out with the wild maples, red buds and sycamore trees swapping 'tree gossip' and soaking up the sun. He always comes back from this retreat with a new vigor for life.

Well after our killing drought this summer and a few toppling over incidents the ficus was in need of a bit more dirt, so I quickly grabbed the pots of dead plants hidden away behind the ficus and dumped them on the top of his exposed roots. Pressed everything down real hard, rearranged the stones on top and lugged him inside for another winter. I did notice the bulbs, but after the drought they looked more like walnut shells, shriveled, dry and hard as a rock and didn't give them a second thought.

Fast forward to January...while watching TV one night I notice something green out of the corner of my eye. Investigating I find 4 or 5 thick green leaf stubs poking out of the dirt of the ficus tree pot. I'm stunned and quickly pour a few quarts of water into the pot. Then promptly forget the whole thing.

February...the bulbs did not give up. They probably received lots of kind words and 'plant vibes' from the ficus because they certainly didn't get anything from me. I was happily surprised, but not real concerned...until the flowers.

Now opportunistic greenery is one thing, and believe me when you live out in the country everything is opportunistic greenery...but having flowers bloom in your family room in February is completely different! The irony is that if I had been on some gardening kick and trying to force bulbs in the winter I would have probably spent several hundred $$$ buying grow lights and plant food and containers and been completely pissed when some scraggly stalk showed up and promptly fell over. So a little taoist life lesson here...seems the most amazing things can happen when you just walk away and let it go.

Despite the lull between shop updates I actually do still spin yarn. No, really. I do. Honest. The move from my Dell to the new Mac has been slow going though, so actually being able to get yarns posted is still a challenge. All those hours spent treadling away at the wheel has been seriously disrupted trying to learn a whole new version of Photoshop and Dreamweaver. But things are getting closer. I actually have a pile of yarns to post, a working copy of my website up and running and actual pictures of yarns! In the midst of it all, I found this wonderful post at Pink Chalk Studio about taking pictures and immediately ordered the Trumpet Top bulbs from Table Top Studio. They really are awesome! No more standing outside in the dead of winter trying to take pictures of yarns on a frozen picnic table! The lights really work and they have been the best $30 I've spent in a very long time. Believe it or not, this yarn picture was taken sitting in the middle of my dining room table that is normally so dark we have to light candles just to see our food during holiday meals (old house, no overhead lights). But the new bulbs lit up the room enough for my 'nothing special' Fuji F10 to get a nice picture that didn't even need a Photoshop color tweak! Love it! But then I spent another week playing with the camera and not updating my shop like I planned. Progress has been made though, and unless something unexpected happens I hope to have the shop updated by this weekend. Fingers crossed.

This blog is suffering terribly. I would like to say it's because life is just so utterly exciting I'm too busy to share, but alas...no. There is a much duller excuse...I quite simply hate my PC. This isn't something new. I've seen it coming for awhile and like most long term relationships at first I didn't want to admit the truth. I carried on as if nothing was wrong, smiling through clenched teeth, but secretly shuddering at the thought of even booting it up. The poor thing...it's not even old. It never did anything wrong, and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would respect and love it more than me...but l finally had to suck it up and admit (out loud) that I had had enough. Now, of course you're probably thinking what's the big deal. Plenty of people hate their PCs. They cost too much, confuse most people, never do what you want, typically crash at exactly the most inopportune moment and unless you're an ubergeek you can lose hours of work in a millisecond. But you see, there lies the problem. I AM an ubergeek. A datacenter dwelling card carrying system engineer who cut my teeth on Windows. A once proud Microsoft junkie who shunned Unix, laughed at Linux and choked on Apple. Once.

Two weeks ago I ordered a MAC.

It wasn't a whim. I watched all the propaganda. I visited a 'Genius' at our nearest Apple store. I did a full calculation of how much it was going to cost me to re-buy all my software (not cheap...damn Adobe Photoshop!!!) and I talked to people. Not those friends who were already Apple addicts and who never take Steve Jobs name in vain, but to some objective types who dabble in both worlds...the ever patient, if a bit masochistic, and oft misunderstood Java Developers. They were encouraging. Better still, most said they were running both Mac OSX and Windows on their Macs and loved it. I was convinced.

It's been two weeks. I'm in love.

Granted, I'm lost (I haven't felt this dumb around a computer since 1995) but every day is new and fun and exciting and a challenge. Of course adjusting to all the newness is taking it's toll on the website and blog updates, but hopefully soon I'll settle in. Until then, the old PC is still around...for now.

Oh, and the picture above. Just some gratuitous spindles from my foyer. Yarn update coming soon! Promise!

Happy New Year everyone!

Yesterday I spent the morning making a batch of these yummy homemade pretzels. No recipe - it was an Aunt Annies Pretzel kit that the husband bought while out on a business trip. I let the box sit on the pantry shelf for quite awhile, and everytime I looked at it I couldn't think of anything but the mess, having to let the dough rise, washing the kitchenaid and all the time it would take. But for some reason yesterday I woke up in the mood to bake something, so here they are!

If you're lucky enough to have an Aunt Annie's Pretzel shop in your local mall and you've had one then you'll know all about the dripping butter and yummy sweet dough. If you haven't had one, and you have a shop near you GET ONE. They are a delicous sin. Unfortunately our nearest shop is about 65 miles away, but they are a required item if we find ourselves in the Oxmoor Mall in Louisville. These are a good substitute though. They were a little heavier than the real thing, and not nearly as buttery (that's because no matter how hard I try, I could not possibly force myself to drown anything in butter the same way a 16 year old mall cook can), but they were definitely close enough that I wondered why I waited so long to make them.

I don't think 'pretzel' is really the right name for these though, they are the farthest thing from a hard, dry, crumbly pretzel as you can get. More like a sweet, doughy bagel with a buttery salty crust. In fact, if you wanted to make your own you could probably use any good sweet yeast bread recipe. Just let it rise until double in size, cut into 1 1/2" x 8" sections, roll into 15" logs, twist and set aside. Next (the secret pretzel step) dissolve about 1/2 cup baking soda in 4 cups of hot water, then dip each pretzel in the solution and set on a towel to drain. Place pretzels on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with pretzel salt (margarita salt would probably work) then bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 5 minutes, turn pan around bake another 3 to 5 minutes until golden. Remove and brush with lots and lots of melted butter. Repeat with the remaining pretzels until all are baked. I'll probably try making my own again soon, without the kit, just to see how it goes.