It's Been a Quiet Week on the Farm

My Co-Pilot

It has been pretty quiet......although Mom was here for a couple days picking up her dog, Luca, who stayed with us while she was in Florida.  He is a year older than Rowdy and is a Springer Spaniel and they used to play together really well when they were younger, but they each have a different agenda when playing:  Rowdy wants to herd and Luca wants to retrieve.  So often, when playing outside, they end up fighting because Luca is trying to retrieve and Rowdy is trying to herd Luca.  It is very annoying to Luca, which I understand.    However, once in a while in the house they still play what I call the "teeth game" where they just stand face to face and kind of clash their bared teeth together.  I managed to a get a few photos of this the day before Luca left.

 

My what big teeth you have!

 

But it's all friendly in the end.










The sap is still running, though very sporadically.  I did a small batch up on Tuesday, the first batch in a week.  Only about 5.5 buckets for a little over 3 pints of syrup.  It warmed up nicely on Tuesday afternoon and then the temps dropped overnight into Wednesday and it was clear and sunny Wednesday, so Sam said he got 7 buckets on Wednesday!  He is doing up a batch today.  This is his first time to cook sap this year.  Hopefully we will get a half gallon or so from this run.  

My mom's friend, Tom, sent us a very nice photo album from our swamp tromp as well as a disc with all the photos he took, so here are a couple with me in them.  Photos of me are so rare as I am usually behind the camera!

This was about the deepest water we were in in the swamp.  I think this is where Bill (left) told us there was a 'gator hole about 50 feet away that was home to a 9' 'gator and that the 'gator "knew we were there the moment we stepped into the water".  All I could think of was that that gave him plenty of time to prepare!  But he never showed up.  Thankfully.

I never did get around to fringing the end on my rug.  I will make myself do it tomorrow or Saturday!

I am on the last 1 oz batt of my alpaca/bamboo hand-dyed, hand-carded blend I am spinning.  I hope to have it all done and plied by this time next week.  Plying will be much quicker than spinning, but it will still take some time.  I hope to get at least 1000 yards out of this 8 oz of fiber.  Once I ply it, I will measure it and see.  

So we had a quiet week this past week and I expect another quiet week upcoming.  Actually, it's kind of nice.  I think the end of this month I will have a visit from my mother, my sister-in-law and my niece and 2 nephews.  That will shatter the quiet for sure!