I was Incorrect

As of this moment Apple is still pregnant.  Today is her due date. So I was incorrect, she will not deliver early.

These maidens are hard to judge.  This is her first time down the pregnancy road and it was clear she wasn't comfortable with what was going on.  I thought she was going to deliver about 2 weeks ago...  I was never in the, "It's going to be today" mode but I was certainly in the "we're within two or three days of this happening" mode.

Then about 10 days ago, I noticed her momma hanging out with her more.  This seems to have relaxed her.  She's spending a lot of time in the shade and joins the others when I bring the water hose out and of course joins every one at feeding time.

She's progressing and I'm back in the "this could happen in the next few days" mode.

Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece, part 2

As I mentioned last week, my bobbin of cotton was started before this year's Tour de Fleece.

Saturday, June 29 - sheared alpacas

No spinning happened today.  I was on the road before 6:00 am, shearing by 8:30 am, finished at 7:00 pm and home at 9:15 pm.  I sheared a personal record of 18 alpacas in one day at a farm about 2 hours from here.  So by the time I was home, clean and said hello to everyone, the spinning just wasn't going to happen.

Sunday, June 20

My Tour is underway and I managed to see a little coverage of the race as well.

Monday, July 1

Tuesday, July 2

Wednesday, July 3

Literally only 5 minutes available for spinning today, but I did spin.  :-)

Thursday, July 4 - Independence Day, Holiday from the DayJob, Sheared Alpacas

I sheared a for new client who is also relatively new to alpacas and gave one of their boys a Mohawk which I think turned out pretty good.  ;-)

Then I managed about 90 minutes of spinning.  :-)

At the end of the first week, I am down one day and I have spun a 1/2 ounce of cotton.... only 5 ounces to go.  I'm thinking I may not finish this ball before the three weeks are over.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday, and Happy Independence Day weekend if you are State-side.

Slow Living; June 2013

Usually I'm very prepared for these monthly reflective posts, but today has me surprised it's July.  I think this year is taking off without me.  ;-)

Anyway, here's my June installment for the Slow Living Project (link updated).

NOURISH: Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch overpackaged, over-processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead. Share favourite links/recipes/tips from the month here.

The cleanse is over, the Farmers Market has started... so the eating has been pretty good this month.  :-)

PREPARE: Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season. Aim to reduce dependency on store bought items especially those known to contain BPA and other suspect additives. Stocking up on dry goods when prices are low counts too.

I got off to a very slow start in my garden this year, and missed the window for beans and peas. A few people have suggested giving them a try anyway, but I think it's too hot now.  The back garden is as planted as it's going to get and the front garden is waiting for some time and attention. :-(

We bought hay and had it delivered.  This will feed our alpacas until the end of August.

Most of my non-dayjob time has been spent preparing for and shearing for clients.  I am still booking new clients and have had to make sure that my sharpening rotation is ahead of my shearing schedule.

REDUCE/Reuse/Re-purpose/Repair: Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing. A ladder into a strawberry planter? A sheet into a dress? Share ideas and project links here, allowing others to be inspired.

We reused baling twine, T-Posts and wood stakes in the garden as well as many of the plant markers.

GREEN: up our lives. Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.

Hmmm, I have no idea.  I may have said that last month too... must spend some time thinking about this one, because I know we're not as green as we could be.  :-/

GROW: plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden? Herbs in a pot, sprouts on a windowsill or and entire fruit/vegetable garden -opt for what fits space and time constraints. Don't have a backyard? Ask a friendly neighbour or relative for a small patch of theirs in return for some home grown produce, they may surprise you!

The back garden is planted.  We have tomatoes in progress, the herbs are looking great and we'll be harvesting our first zucchinis in a few days.

Also Miss Apple is VERY pregnant.  Her due date is still a week away, which means we really could have a brand new cria at any time.

CREATE: to fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others. Create something as simple as a handmade gift tag or something as extravagant as a fine knit shawl. Share project details and any new skills learnt here.

The knitting, spinning and kombucha are still happening, but are taking the back seat to shearing and spending more time outside.  However, the Tour de Fleece started last weekend so spinning is ramping up a bit.

DISCOVER: Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests. Trawl libraries, second hand shops or local book shops to find titles that fill the need. Share titles/authors of what is being read this month.

One of the things the Nutritional Cleanse taught me is to take time in the morning.  To take an easier, softer, slower approach to the day.  This may sound silly but before the cleanse I was waking up, making coffee and going to straight to work.  During the cleanse I had to be mindful about eating breakfast and I found that I enjoyed the process of making and eating breakfast in the morning.  So rather than having less than 15 minutes between waking and working, I was spending closer to an hour.

Since the cleanse, I'm back to drinking coffee, but I am still making and eating breakfast.  Now I am also spending time reading non-electronic media.  I'm thinking about re-subscribed to a couple of favorite magazines and have started into the books on the shelf that have been waiting patiently to be read.  I think this is putting a better intention on my day.  So rather that starting with the stress, chaos and electronics of my IT day job, I am starting with ink, paper and subjects that are important to me on a personal level.

ENHANCE: community: Possibilities include supporting local growers and producers, help out at a local school/kindergarten, barter or foodswap, joining a playgroup or forming a walking or craft group. Car pooling where possible and biking/walking instead of driving. Even start up a blog if you haven't already - online communities count too! Or maybe just help out someone trying to cross the street! The rewards for your time are often returned tenfold.

Shearing season continues.  I've met several new clients this month and have helped them with their alpaca fiber harvest and in one case, their first-ever alpaca fiber harvest.  I have also done a little mentoring for a Cattle Shearer who is interested in learning to shear alpacas and llamas.

I was on the receiving end again when our neighbor gifted me with some extra squash seedlings.

I donated a truck load of spent hay to my friend's garden.  She came and helped me rake up a couple of the alpaca corrals and load the truck, then I helped her mulch her garden beds.  It was a very fun afternoon and a win situation for the both of us.  :-)

We've also collected Tibetan Mastiff fiber to be spun.

ENJOY: Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment. Share a moment to be remembered from the month here.

Met a friend's momma that was visiting, had visits with family I don't see nearly enough, spent some time with Gunnar's breeder, gardening, fibering, sunshine, wool festival and art museum. June has been pretty full.

Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece, 2013

It's been a crazy spring.  My garden is not yet fully planted and I am still shearing alpacas and llamas, but I am committing myself to the Tour de Fleece this year.

I have joined up with the Team of Wonder again... though the name has changed a little (Team Wonder Why Alpaca Farm), it will always be the "Team of Wonder" to me.  :-)

As usual, I plan to post my daily progress in my weekly Fiber Arts Friday Post.  But before I get started, I have already started....

This is what my bobbin currently looks like, about 1/2 way thru the first pass, spinning a lace-weight, colored, cotton.  I have 5.5 ounces to go.

I will continue to spin this on my wheel and would love to finish it out over the next three weeks.  I will also be travelling a couple of days so I will get some drop-spindle work on a currently undecided roving.  I have no idea what my "challenge" will be yet either, but I do have a few choices when it comes to prepared camelid, so so I promise to meet the one-and-only requirement for my team.  ;-)

My goal again is to spin at least a 1/2 inch each day the Tour races.  Most days I will spin more, but I know that some days there will only be a few minutes available.

You should join us, we start tomorrow.  ;-)

Happy Spinning and Happy Fiber Arts Friday.

Reminiscing

Nearly 11 years ago, this happened...



I was one of the many people that made it happen.

This video makes my heart race, gives me chills and puts tears in my eyes.  The amount of work it took to get to this day... well, I don't think I can quantify it.

Even though we did everything, checked everything and knew the baby was ready to fly, there was still just that tiny bit of unknown.  It was literally THE First Flight.

While reflecting on this day, the amount of trust we had in each other was awe inspiring... the amount of trust that we had in Bill Bubb to let him take the controls and the amount of trust he had in the rest of us to agree to take the controls... really, just awe inspiring.

This day was my first First Flight experience.  I was one of the many people on the ground... cheering, hoping, praying, waiting and cheering again.  We experienced a couple-hundred First Flights after that, but this was a brand-new aircraft, partially made with brand-new manufacturing technology and lots of other brand-new things.

Not much work happened after those speeches that day.  Hubba had to fetch me from the office and, as I recall, I was home "sleeping it off" by about 2pm.

May you be as blessed as I was to work with such an amazing team on such an amazing project.  These, most definitely, were the "the good ol' days."

Veggie Garden 3.0

My time for gardening has been haphazard at best, but I do have some food in the ground... which seems like a huge accomplishment for me this year.

What little time I have spent has been in the initial garden... mostly because I didn't have enough water hoses to also reach the new garden until a couple of weeks ago.

I'm very excited about my initial garden.  What was once a light-colored clay is now a dark-colored rich soil, that holds moisture and has an abundance of earthworms.

The difference between the initial (3rd year) and new (1st year) garden soils is stark.  Both have weeds, but they are fewer and easier to pull in the initial garden.  The new garden is in what used to be a parking area so it was clay topped with road base... not the best environment for growing food.  ;-)  The top few inches were hauled away with fill dirt and alpaca manure being added last fall.  Then we added another layer of alpaca manure over the winter so the soil is better than it was, but seeing what has happened with the initial garden, I am very excited about what it will be next year.

In the initial garden I have a row and a half of tomatoes... mostly Romas for sauce making but there is also one pear tomato and a couple other unknown varieties.  There are a few pickling cucumbers, chiles, bell peppers, winter squashes, zucchinis and brussels sprouts.  Also my neighbor gave me a Giant Pumpkin seedling that I think my niece and nephews will enjoy.

I added a second row of old T-Posts and baling twine to use for holding up the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Last year, even with the drought, all of our tomatoes outgrew their cages so I'm hoping this structure will be a bit stronger.

I've also planted several herbs... two varieties of basil, sage, cilantro, rosemary and chives.  It appears that my thyme gave up the ghost last week after surviving a couple of years in a whiskey barrel.  I really need to add more manure to that barrel so that it has a better chance of holding moisture too.

I also have a few apples that I did not expect.  We had a late hard freeze and very few blossoms, so I'm excited to see apples.

I noticed a Robin checking out out my Cherry progress... certainly he was remembering how delicious they were last year when picked my tree clean.  So before he got too comfortable, I hung a few old CDs from the branches and I have not seen any birds hanging out in my tree since.  So fingers crossed that I actually get to eat some of these myself this year.

I would still like to plant beets, carrots, parsnips, onions, shallots and potatoes... hopefully it's not too late for these.  I know it is too late for the beans and peas which means my long-awaited Fava Beans will have to wait a little longer and I'm thinking it's probably a little late for greens and lettuces as well, but I may just plant a few seeds anyway.  ;-)

Finally, even with just the little bit of work this year, I am being rewarded with tomatoes.  :-)

Fiber Arts Friday: Tibetan Mastiff Fur

Last weekend, we had a visit with our Tibetan Mastiff breeder.

Part of the visit was to let Gunnar play with his siblings and part was to pick up some TM fiber.  Our breeder has been diligently brushing out his dogs and saving the fur for us in grocery sacks.

I should have taken a better photo, but in this large garbage bag is about seven grocery sacks of TM fiber separated by color... light gold, darker gold and black.

These Tibetan Mastiffs have an average staple length of two inches with a nice crimp.  My hope was to have this fiber as well as the large amount of black we have collected from our girls ready to begin spinning for the Tour de Fleece which starts next weekend, but I don't see that happening.  :-/

There is good news in that the Black Forest Fire I mentioned last Friday has been fully contained as of yesterday!  It will be a while before it's fully controlled but in the meantime this is a huge relief.

We have had Stellar Jay chicks learning to fly in our back yard yesterday and today. Happy First Day of Summer and Happy Fiber Arts Friday.