Fun with Fiber

I took the alpaca fiber that I washed and carded yesterday and wet felted it into "fabric" that I plan on making a knitting needle roll out of.

And just so I can keep track of dates... I put our American Chinchilla rabbit buck in with our doe Parslane this morning. I will leave them together for a few days and then move him into another does cage until all four does are bred. I hope to have bunnies for sale by Easter.

Snow.... wonderful snow!

We woke this morning to over 8 inches of snow and it was still snowing! This is North Carolina we don't get storms like this. The kids and I loved it... Neil... not so much. This is the most snow we have seen since we left Maine in 2003.

Out in the barn I found all the animals crammed in the barn. I am sure they were confused since we had over 60 degree weather all this past week and now more snow then most of them had ever seen. Chores took a bit extra time since I had to lug water and shovel snow off of the hay bales.

Back in the house we warmed up by the fire and spent the afternoon cleaning up the house.


Tonight I finished knitting up a pair of Mary Jane shoes for Mckayla's Cabbage Patch doll. She is so thrilled will the doll clothes I am making. I have a que of knitting projects I want to get done and a doll's dress is up there on the list.

Cows, Carrots and Cabbage Patch

Cattle round up this morning. An interior cross fence gate came open at some point and the cows, donkeys and our male alpaca moved into our female alpaca pasture... meanwhile three of our female alpacas were out in the cow pasture. I think the gate was not shut tight after the kids were out there yesterday afternoon giving their cousin a tour of the farm. It took 20 minutes and some create bribing with apple wafers to get everyone straightened out.

I purchased 10lbs of Organic carrots on my last shopping trip and have been meaning to do something with most of them so they won't go bad. So, today I pulled out the dehydrator again. I shredded up enough carrots to fill two trays and then diced up enough to fill the other three trays.

The shredded carrots were done in just a few hours but I left the diced ones in overnight.

I finished up a cute little hoodie sweater for McKayla's Cabbage Patch doll tonight. I cast it on just two days ago so it was a quick knit. McKayla has requested more clothes for her dolls so I will be doing a few of these smaller projects in between larger ones.

Finished the hat!

I finished hat number 2 for my niece's birthday present last night. (Hat number 1 was too small once completed so I had to knit another.) H's birthday was 6 days ago but knitting a second hat put me off schedule.

Here daughter McKayla is modeling the finished hat.

So we went to town to run our errands and mail the hat off to H. Although it was fun to knit, I am happy that project is done.

Independence Day Update #3

Between yesterday and today there are three new ducklings and two more turkey poults in the brooder. I expect a flush of ducklings in the new few days. Also, yesterday one of the oldest turkey poults that I had left with its mother found its way into the pasture and became a dog toy for our LGDs. When I found it in the barn I wasn't sure if it was still alive or not. It was missing feathers and wet from dog mouth. After I determined it was still breathing I put it with the young birds under the heat lamp in the brooder. In the afternoon it was dry and sitting up a bit. By this morning it was eating, drinking and looking BAR (bright, alert and responsive). It did not want to get up on its feet though... I wonder if it has a broken leg? They are not floppy at all so I have hope it will fully recover with a bit more rest but its days of free ranging with mom are over.

I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. Took the weed whacker around the outside of the raised beds. It looks so much tidier now. I haven't been able to plant in the 4x8 box that I cleaned out earlier this week as I hadn't figured out how to chicken proof it until today. I cut a 16 foot cattle panel in half to give me a 4x8 metal grid to lay on top of the box. Over the grid I will place a bird net for fruit trees. This should keep the birds from scratching up the bed and eating the seeds and disrupting any tender starts. I hope to get some lettuce, radishes, carrots and cukes planted in that box in the next few days.

Here is my update for the IDC this week.

Plant something - Mr. Stripy tomato, sweet yellow pepper, sweet orange pepper, sweet banana pepper, sweet potato.

Harvest something - Fresh free range eggs from our chickens.

Preserve something - Does feeding my sourdough count as something I am preserving? If so, it is something I do at least every other day to keep it alive.

Reduce Waste - Took our once a week trip to town to save on gas. Knitted up a reusable produce bag. No more plastic produce bags for me... YEAH! You can read about it here. Kitchen scraps went to the chickens and/or the compost bin.

Preparation and Storage - I scored a few more great items on the discount table at the local grocery store to have in the pantry. I am continuing to clean out garden beds when I have time and still keep up with the weeds in the boxes I already have planted. I am using newspaper with aged barn floor straw over it as mulch to keep the weeds at bay and the soil moist.

Our two oldest children have life insurance policies through Modern Woodmen of America. One of the many benefits that MWA offers to their policy holders is a free tree every year. This week I remembered to log onto their website and order our two free trees for this year. I don't expect them to come until the Fall for planting but it is something I got done this week! Oh, I ordered a Sugar Maple and a Redbud. The maple for Fall color and the redbud for Spring color!

Eat the Food - Made a Shrimp Scampi from shrimp from the freezer, pasta out of the pantry and served it with a loaf of sourdough bread, also out of the freezer. Brought a pan of Chicken Enchiladas, made with home grown chicken out of the freezer, over to the In-Laws for dinner Saturday night. Made more homemade granola and bagels this weekend for breakfasts.

Happy Earth Day!

Knitting Update

I have been knitting most evenings while watching a movie with the kids. It is so relaxing to sit in my overstuffed leather chair across from the fire knitting away the time.

So far I have completed one Christmas present (not pictured) and McKayla's mittens and hat as well. McKayla's mittens and hat were knitted and then fulled (often called felted but when a knitted/woven/crochet fabric is felted it is correctly called fulling not felting). I love the processes of knitting an item and then watching the magic happen as it is transformed into something so textually different.

Here you can see the before. They are large and floppy and you can clearly see all the stitches.

As compared to the after fulling version. They are 2/3 to 1/2 the size they started out as. The fabric is now stiffer and will hold it's shape when molded. The stitches are no longer distinguishable from each other as they have meshed to make a solid fabric. This makes them very warm and somewhat waterproof.

If you missed the post with the link to this pattern you can find it here...

My stash grows...

I am so happy today! I had ordered a bunch of yarns so I could start knitting on a few Christmas gifts and make the kids some felted mittens for the winter. Well, my package stuffed full of wonderful yarns came today... yeah! Unfortunately, I can't show a picture of my new stash or tell you completely what I am making since most of it is earmarked for gifts. But, there is some fun stuff in there that I am looking forward to working up in the next weeks.

The pattern for the kids felted mittens (and matching hat for McKayla)comes from a free online pattern by Sallie Melville, auhor of "The Purl Stitch". You can find the pattern "Felted Mitts & Hat" here in PDF format.

New Etsy Farm Store

Well I finally did it...

I have been hearing a lot about a new website Etsy for over a year now. (Etsy like in Betsy without the B.) It is a multiple storefront site developed to promote and sell handmade items and the supplies to create handmade items. The site has been getting great reviews so I figured it was time to get a presence on there too.

You can find our storefront here at http://www.thanesneckfarm.etsy.com/ . You can also get to the storefront by clicking on the Widget in the right hand column of this blog. I have only begun to put things up but my goal is to get two new items listed every week, one material item and one handcrafted item.

I guess I need to get crafting!

Farm visitors.

In the almost five months that we have been living here at the farm fulltime we have had our share of driveby farm visitors. People see the alpacas from the road and are curious about them so they stop. Some just stop at the top of the driveway and watch for a few minutes, other visitors want to see them up close and personal. I don't mind at all... I like having visitors and showing off the alpacas.

This afternoon I had a lovely woman named Robin knock on the door and introduced herself as a "spinner" and ask if those were alpaca. She was very excited to see them and I was more then happy to give her a tour. It turns out she only lives about 20 miles North of here in Virginia. She owns a rug hooking studio called Robin's Nest where she offers traditional rug hooking supplies and rug hooking retreats. Oh, in a world where I had more free time I would like to learn to hook rugs. Robin and I had several interests in common and it was nice to chat with her while she was here. I hope she feels free to stop in anytime for an extended visit, maybe even help me learn to spin!

Robin has a wonderful blog as well. Reading it has inspired me to make more time to work on my knitting. I have at least 4-5 projects on needles right now! I really need to get some done and maybe start working on some gifts for the hoidays.

The Power of Diesel

So, I decided that the lawn could stand to be mowed today before it got really out of control. I went down to the barn to get the tractor only to discover that the diesel gas tank was hovering just above empty. For a brief moment I contemplated leaving it for another day since I didn't figure I had enough gas to do more then a loop or two around the yard. But, something told me to just do what I could get done today so off I went to mow the lawn anyway. Every time the tractor was farthest from the barn I figured that was the time it would quit on me... but no... not only did it mow the entire front yard it did around all four sides of the house and got it parked back in the barn to boot! I don't think the needle on the tank ever dropped lower then when I started. The power of diesel I guess!

In the garden I got my year old asparagus crowns, 25 of them, planted in their 4x8 box today. Evan and McKayla helped mix up the garden soil components in the box. They do love to play in the dirt but what kid doesn't?!

I promised McKayla that we would have meatballs for dinner tonight. The kids have never helped me make homemade meatballs before and I think they thought it was almost as much fun as playing in the garden dirt! I had to make up a recipe since I didn't have all the standard ingredients in the house yet. To a pound of ground beef we added about 1/2 sleeve crushed saltine crackers, some Italian spices, and a little olive oil. We then made them into 1" balls and baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. They came out very tasty! Added them to some sauce over pasta and we had spaghetti for dinner.

While the kids watched a movie before bed I pulled out the Knitting Board and alpaca yarn that I won at the Palmetto Alpaca Classic auction this past weekend. It came with a little book of the different "stitches" that can be done on the board and some easy sample projects to try. I figured I would start out easy and began making the scarf out of the book. Using the board, at least for the scarf, is pretty easy and goes pretty quickly. Still, I think for most of my knitting needs I will stick (no pun intended) with my needles. There is something cathartic about the feel the yarn sliding through your fingers and the sound of the needles clicking away. I will finish off the scarf and might make the matching head warmer for a gift or maybe for sale. I think the kids will really enjoy using this as they get older though. I have been wanting one of these knitting boards for some time and I am happy that I finally have one.