Photo Intensive

Didn't want summer to be associated with the previous post so I took some pics of what it looked like yesterday.

First, upstate NY had severe rains which comes down our way. Here is our river which even with the rains is still low, and then NY river and then the convergence of the two.

And then just some of the things growing right now.

Now I hope everyone has a great summer.

Summer!!!!!!!

That beautiful season the Summer!

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape

Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yesterday the landscape was looking kind of bleak. Oh the sun was shining but looking up into the woods was now different. What brought about this diffence? Well after doing the morning chores I came in to do dishes and laundry and I heard a chicken clucking like she had just laid an egg. She was very loud and I thought, Wow it must have been a big one and didn't pay much attention to it. The birds started singing and I just went about my business. A short time later the chickens and ducks started making a ruckus and I couldn't ignore it any more when the dogs started going crazy. So barefoot I go outside to check to see what is wrong. There was a coyote chasing a chicken! I start running toward them and it catches the chicken and starts to run away with it! These broiler chicks are weighing in at about 8 pounds right now so I was surprised that it did it so effortlessly. Right before it gets to the woods the chicken gets away and starts coming back and the coyote started to follow but then decided not to and ran into the woods. The injured chicken wont let me by her as she is totally freaked out with good reason but I see she has some injuries. I walk around the coops and garden trying to ascertain the damages. I was missing a pekin duck, an indian runner duck, RI red hen and 2 broiler chickens. In the front yard I do find a dead chicken. I go into the house to get some shoes on and a bag to put the dead one in. As I am coming out of the house and walking toward the body, the coyote is coming across the yard for dessert! I start yelling and running toward it. Granted that wasn't the smartest thing to do but it worked as he/she decided to take for the woods again.

The rest of the day everytime I heard a squawk I went running. In the end the RI red hen came back uninjured from where ever she was hiding, but I had two injured broilers which the man had to put down and bury. So I lost four broilers and two ducks.

The man and my brother went up into the woods and there was the coyote. They got off a shot but missed it. So the broilers are going to the butcher on Friday and then I just have to worry about my layers and ducks. I have to stop the free range for a while and get a fence up to keep them safe. I don't want to have to kill the coyote but I can't afford to loose any more. If 9lbs of free range chicken sells for $33 then I just lost almost $100 plus two laying ducks. I realize I am not selling them but they are my food for my family.

Today I will work in the gardens so that should hopefully keep it away, if not I guess I will be running again.

I had to do my work today!

I meant to do my work today,

But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

And all the leaves were calling me.--Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947)

Every morning I do have the same bird singing (aka yelling) at me, she has a nest in one of the birdhouses on the fence post. She gets pretty loud! Then mom found this little dandy in her red maple treeWe will have to be careful going to turn on the hose if it is needed. I would love to take the day and watch them coming too and fro tending their nests and feeding their babies but the chores are calling loud and clear. But first I am going to catch every one up of the happenings around here...

We drove little man to DD#1's house on Wednesday as she was taking him to a concert. On the way home we stopped at Farmer Dave's and he had a new addition. When I first saw her I thought she had a coat on but she doesn't. He said she is the ugliest thing he has ever seen, his wife loves her. I think I have to agree with him but then again I would think that she would spin up kinda cool!


Saturday we finally got rain. It was a nice thunderstorm which knocked the power out for a couple of hours but was desperately needed. It was cool watching it move in, do it's thing and then the calm after the storm. The plants took off and so did the weeds! Sunday we didn't go into the garden and compact the soill and then we had dr appts. yesterday so...


This morning after taking little man to catch his ride to day camp, I saw my mother down in the big garden....about 3 hours later she finally said that was enough "for right now"! We weeded and hoed and laid down some grass clippings and hay around plants.
I have tiny little heads of broccoli, the tomatoes are blooming, the potatoes are blooming, pea's are blooming finally, and the yellow squash bloomed and has little baby squash. Can't wait to partake of our labors! The kids are getting paid to handpick the potato bugs and although they like the $$ they don't like the job..neither do I which is why I am willing to pay them!!


On the fiber front, nothing much is happening. I was out carding early yesterday evening and had company stop by to see what I was doing Hope to spin that tonight. I shipped the finn fleeces off to be washed and returned as roving. Can't wait to get that back not that I will have lots of time but for sanity reasons I will have to spin some up when it does get here, weeds be damned!

Time

... time is not a linear flow, as we think it is, into past, present, and future. Time is an indivisible whole, a great pool in which all events are eternally embodied and still have their meaningful flash of supernormal or extra-sensory perception, and glimpse of something that happened long ago in our linear time.- Frank Waters, Mountain Dialogues, 1981

I have been helping a friend empty out her mother and father's house. Her father died several months ago and her mother is in a nursing home. She wants to empty it and move in with her children. The past month my weekends have been devoted to helping her clean it.

She will be the fourth generation to live in the house. In one of it's former lives it use to be a boarding house. There were 6 bedrooms but the two topmost ones became the attic storage when it ceased operation. The guests dining room became another bedroom, bathroom and laundry room. The place is a time capsule.

When we enter a room to start cleaning it, she is one of those people that gives it a cursitory look and chucks just about everything out. I, on the other hand will turn the china over and find....Theodore Haviland or Homer and Laughlin. The books I will open the cover and read the dates. I keep saying "You need to have someone look at this" or "You should take this into town to the bookstore" or "You should put this on Ebay". She keeps saying "Stop looking, your wasting time" or "If you want it take it. I don't have time for this". Her parents were pack rats and I can understand her not wanting to continue to pay rent when she now owns the house. I can understand it when she says you can't hold on to so much of the past that there is no room for the future but still....

I come home each time amazed at the treasure trove that is her house, saddened by the waste, and exhilerated at how much we got accomplished! So far the wrap around porch has been cleaned off, the screened lowest floor porch cleaned off, the pantry cleaned, the livingroom, den, bathroom. laundry room and all the bedrooms are sorted. What remains in them will be used in the house or like the attic will be done after she moves in. All that remains is the kitchen and the dining room.

During the week the garden has been getting it's watering and weeding. I have blossom on my tomatoes already but not my pea's - go figure. Yesterday we finished planting the beans, cucumbers, melons and corn. Hopefully we will have enough time to harvest the last two. My popcorn and broom corn are already knee high. I pulled the spinach and planted beets.

In fiber news, I continue to card the alpaca and mohair and I think I have enough carded to finish this bobbin and then I can ply. I started carding up some of Bozo the Romanov and he is very bouncy, I can't wait to spin him. I am mailing the finns out today for processing. I finished the stocking and have been knitting bottle socks for the kids water bottles.

Today is the last day of school and the kids are very excited. I was too until I realized things would not calm down for two more weeks. The little man has boy scout camp next week and #2 daughter has girl scout camp the following week....I need to plan things better and get it done in the same week! Little man got a surprise from his big sister and got to go to a concert Wednesday night, he was extremely happy to say the least.

The ducklings are getting big, the pigs bigger. The roaster chicks will go next week as they are eating me out of house and home. Last years roamed all over, this years just sit and wait for you to feed them, which I need to go do. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

This IS a fiber blog after all!

I like making a piece of string into something I can wear. ~Author Unknown

I thought I should post some pics with some fiber content...This is the wool that I spun last weekend... This is what I am working on now...It is a blend of black alpaca and my mohair from Storm. I am tring to spin it thin (for me) so I can make socks. I sat outside spinning this morning before I left for a friends house. I carded up some batts to spin while it is raining today or atleast they say it might rain today. We desperately need it but the dandelion is open which is suppose to mean we won't get any.

And this is a stocking that I am working on for #1 son for Christmas... I messed up on the cable and had to rip back but finally finished it and it is all easy from here on out... I still haven't picked up the stocking where I am using the short heel row but I will eventually as I am determined to master that!

In other news we are up to about 16 ducklings. The two moms that sat together took their little flock for their first outing yesterday. The hen is still setting so we put some eggs we know are fertile under her and we will see what happens. And the blue moon is gone now, not to return for a couple of years.

Once in a blue moon....

Tonight is the second full moon in the same month...aka blue moon. They say this only happens every 2.7 years which is how often I will post twice in one day! And why a second post this day? Well we finished transplanting the tomatoes so I am going to post diagrams of the gardens so I remember what went were next year.

The W is a water barrel

The C is carrots in tubs

The MG is morning glories (front blue, back red) and amaranth

The rectangle by the walking onions is glads

The cirlces are where the tomatoes are planted. There are 6 Black Pear, 2 resisentraube and 6 Blondkopchen and there is basil planted in between the tomato plants.

The lettuce is also radish, spinach and mesculin mix

In the big garden there is Green Zebra, Pink Caspian, Amish Paste, Roma, Big Boy and Bell Star tomatoes. The potatoes (excuse the two T's in the diagram) are Yukon Gold, Kennebec and Red Nortland

The melon mix is super dew, charentais, early silvertine and Spanish Moon.

And now that it is planted the weeding begins....

Alpaca

Knock Knock
Who's there
Alpaca !
Alpaca who ?

Alpaca the trunk, you pack the suitcase !

I would have alpaca-ed the trunk of my car full of fleece if I could have gotten away with it! My cousin bought four alpaca this fall and this is the first time she sheared them and today I went to watch.

I don't know the correct names of the colors but this is what she has...

She has the stud muffin (Abe) who is a beige or light tan

His mother and 1/2 sister (Sassy (cria)and Kimberlee) who is a dark fawn or light brown

and a gelding (Amigo) who is black.

It was hot and I am sure they appreciated the hair cut! I got home in time to take little man to the Dr....double ear infection, loosing tube in left ear and strep. When I got home there was one more surprise for the day...

Needless to say the rest of the tomatoes didn't get planted so I have to go plant them now before it gets to 90 degrees.

Cool mornings and hot days

May and June. Soft syllables, gentle names for the two best months
in the garden year: cool, misty mornings gently burned away with a
warming spring sun, followed by breezy afternoons and chilly nights.
The discussion of philosophy is over; it's time for work to begin.- Peter Loewer

It was 44 degrees this morning, meaning a perfect time to go hoe the garden before the temps get high. We got the whole large garden hoed, four extra squash planted, the tomato area rototilled and 27 tomatoes planted. One thing I noticed this year is that nothing shocked when it was transplanted and I mean nothing. I still have tomatoes to plant but should have that done by tomorrow. I will have to do a drawing of each garden so I know where I planted everything.

My greenhouse garden has been done and is now just waiting on things to grow. I sit on my stool and watch but it doesnt' seem to help. This is my favorite seat to use in the garden.
It is a copy of a milk stool my father used. I brought it down from the barn and when it started to fall apart, the man made me a new one out of barn board. The only thing he didn't do was the original had a hole in the top of the bench to put your hand through to pick it up and move to the next cow... I am going to have to make him fix that as it was convenient.

#2 daughter got her immobilizer off and now just has to wear a support sleeve on her knee. She had her band concert and little man had his Wizard of Oz play, he bridged to boy scout and she bridged to cadet in girl scouts. So most of the end of the school year stuff is finished and they just have to get through finals.

Aunt's house and car sold last week and we had a yard sale this past weekend with some of her stuff. We still have the garage to clean out but the buyer isn't in a rush but hopefully we will get it done before the weekend.

During the yard sale I was able to get some spinning done. Last Thursday I started the stocking for my oldest son but I think I have to frog as I tried working on the cabling part at the yard sale...I don't recommend it! As I knew I wouldn't be able to work on it at the Dr's yesterday I started another stocking trying out the no wrap short row....again I got stuck at the pick up part and need to rip back on that also.

The broiler chicks are getting big and we got three white turkeys yesterday. I wanted blue slate or red bourbon but I don't want to order 15-20 of them so I got what I could get. No ducklings yet but 3 of 4 are still setting. I am going to give them to this weekend and then check them.

And since my washing machine is done my time here has to come to a close also. Hope to get back on before too much time goes by.

Living in Spring

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.~ Emily Dickinson

And as with every Spring we are living it and have no time! I didn’t make it to spinning on Friday as I loaned my car out and didn’t get it back but... I did get to spin. I woke up at 5 AM, took my wheel outside and spun. I kept spinning all day except for a walk in the woods were I happened to scare one of the natives... I had walked up there to make sure the dogwood was still there as there is a story behind it. And it was there but to high for me to get a good pic. I was spinning some wool/mohair that Grace gave me (Thanks again) and I wanted to make myself a pair of socks. I dyed some green for the pine trees that I wanted to knit into the sock but it came out gray. I used Rit and I pry used too much. So I am bummed and haven’t started them yet. But I was able to spin, the arm is still weird but it was at least workable this time. And I started another crocheted afghan.

Saturday was packing stuff up and cleaning my aunt’s house in preparation for selling it. I clean house for a friend and hadn’t done it in 3 weeks so I went on Sunday and did that. Then I came home and found out that the Xrays taken on Wednesday said that #2 daughter fractured her knee and I would have to bring her back in on Monday.

Monday we took a ride back into town, more xrays were taken and we were told the immobilizer stays on until the 28th when we have to go back for yet another appt. Tuesday she had an eye dr appt and her band concert which was amazing.

In between all this I did get some tomatoes (Thank You Cyndy) transplanted and some planted in the garden, some squash started and planted in the garden, broom corn seed planted, morning glory seed planted, marigold seeds planted, glads planted, the baby chicks moved outside into their own run, the three sheep and one goat got sheared and today before the rain came Mom and I got 140 ft of potatoes planted.

Whatelse?.?..?,,,? I also ate the very first salad out of the garden yesterday YUMMY!

And I have bird pics…lots and lots…I take the camera whenever I go into the garden and they are so accommodating at this time of year….. Tomorrow is suppose to be nice so hopefully I will be able to get the broccoli planted as it is getting big and the cabbage if I really want to push it! It is such hard work being outside listening to the birds and smelling flowers- I don't know how I do it!

Stitches and not the good kind!

Cuts and bruises go away, but the scars will always stay...

We got stitches and not the good fibery kind. This post is not for the faint of heart. The picture is pretty gross. You are forewarned. On Friday the school called and said I had to come pick up dd. She had whacked her head on her locker and had an egg sized egg on her head and headache. So I drove and got her.

Yesterday the school called and said you need to come get her and take her to the hospital. They said she needed stitches and to get an xray as they saw the patella and were worried that ligaments might be cut. So I drive to the school again and this is what I see….
Five hours after leaving the school we are leaving the hospital with 20 stitches and an immobilizer on her knee. Luckily nothing was chipped or broken and no ligaments were torn just a big cut. And we had missed little man’s choral concert, he didn’t seem to mind as he said the teacher was in a bad mood!! I took the picture because she didn't want to look but wanted to know what it looked like. The man said we would put the picture in her "scrape-book" instead of her scrap book. Dr gave her forceps to take home so when she catches a fish she can get the hook out easier and she won't end up back in the ER with a fishhook in her finger.

So for today she sits at home being pampered and her brother is very jealous. She thinks I am joking when I told her I am going to go look on the internet for a suit of armor or a rubber suit for her to wear. They say these things happen in threes and I don’t even want to imagine what the third one will be!

On the fibery front I did knit a puppet and finished it in the hospital yesterday. I need to get a picture of it. I started crocheting an afghan and I don’t like it so will start another. I want to spin but my arm doesn’t want to. I have an appt. with a neurologist on June 6th and hopefully I will know something then.

In the greenhouse, everything is doing well and I have moved plants outside to harden off and give me room inside. Now I just need to finish getting the larger garden rototilled so I can plant them.

In other news, elder son turned 22 on Monday and on that same day younger son received the highest honon in Cub Scouts, the Arrow of Light, and bridged over to Boy Scouts. So it has been a busy week and one I don't want to repeat. I am looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

May Day

I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become,

I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can

resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from
participating in nature's rebirth?- Edward Giobbi

Like the quote, I am always so eager to get the shovel in the soil and seeds in the ground. I inevitably pot up more than my garden can hold because I would rather have too many than too few. I am transplanting, weeding, raking or repairing fences. If nothing else being sick has awarded me the time to sit and watch this spring unfold. I am amazed at the vibrancy of the green grass, the bronzy green of the new hops and the yellows, soft pale yellow to the bold almost neon yellow, the deep purple of grape hyacinth and reddish flowers of the quince. Uusally I just listen to spring while I am out there but don't take in the emergence of color.

Although not really up and running yet, I have had time to seed some things and I have been catching up on the laundry. The man did a great job of keeping up with what the children brought him…the children however didn’t bring him all of it! The weather has been pretty good in co-operating and I have been line drying everything. I love the smell of the clothes fresh off the line, you can’t bottle that no matter what. I was also able to get some chives cut up and they are drying.

I slept well last night for the first time and the numbness has left my fingers so today I may try to knit or spin. I was able to finish the baby bolero. Springs need to be worked in and it needs blocking but it's done.

In farmy news, the sheep and goat still have to be sheared. I would like to atleast get two done this weekend. We picked up two pigs on Sunday and two of the ducks have started to sit so I am expecting ducklings about the 26th of May.

And now I think I am going to plant some pea's before the rain showers come. Happy May Day