Last Day of Summer. Where Did it Go??

I have had very little opportunity to get my camera out this last week and a half or so.  It just doesn't seem right that there are no dog photos this week, but that's how it is.

Since my last post, Grover and I went to an agility trial.  While I thought we did really well, we did not get any Q's.  Both our Jumper's runs (one each day) ended with a jump and then into a tunnel (which was the last obstacle).  On both of those runs, we managed to be on course for a qualifying run until that last jump.  On both, I think I moved too soon to direct him toward the correct end of the tunnel and on both he dropped that last bar.  Wow.  Disappointing, but that's ok.  On our Excellent standard runs, our inability to get the weave poles under pressure kept us from having clean runs.  But our Saturday run was beautiful other than that.  I came out of the ring feeling we had done a fabulous job. Sunday was ok, but not as good.

Then this past Thursday, Sam left before dawn on his hunting trip out to Idaho.  I was supposed to be a vendor at the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs Ohio this past weekend, but I thought it was more important that he go on his trip, which had been postponed from earlier this month due to fire.  I don't expect to hear from him for a few more days.

And Saturday, I had a lady come in the morning and purchase one of our yearling female alpacas, Tempest Sonata.  Later that night, some other folks arrived from southern Indiana to pick up 5 more of our alpacas.  They stayed overnight in our guest house and I fixed them breakfast Sunday morning and then we loaded up Mayhem, Tempest, Dulci, Jubilee and Opi and sent them on their way to their new home. 

This leaves me with 17 alpacas on the farm, several of which are geriatric and almost all of which are white.  Most of the white ones I have left are my best fiber animals however, so I don't feel bad about that.  I would really like to get down to 10 or less.  But even now, it just seems strange to have so much space in the barn and buildings.  Wow.

I have also been at the office during the week since Sam left, so that's another reason for lack of photos.  I get home around 5 or 5:30, walk the dogs and feed them and it's about time to shut the chickens in for the night.  It is pretty much dusk by 7:30.

The garden is coming to an end for the year, though we do have lettuce coming up and will use a glass cover over it.  The squash and pumpkins are hardening in the field  and the tomatoes are pretty much done.  I have lots of green tomatoes and need to look up a recipe for green tomato jam.  I've never had it it, but willing to try it..

We still have a lot of peppers on the plants.



  I have done up 3 quarts of pickled hot peppers as well as several pints of hot pepper mustard.


While at the office I have been able to work on some new alpaca rugs.  

 
 This is a white, black and red striped warp and I am using mostly grey weft with some leftover red I had.  I will also be doing a white weft with some grey and red stripes, I think.  

My light fawn rug yarn for a custom runner for my mom arrived last week (I knew it would as soon as I warped the loom for something else!), so that will be next on here.  It will be 30" by 9' long.  I have never made a rug that long, though I have frequently made 3  3' rugs on one warp before, so this will actually be easier.  My rugs are selling nicely at the Arts Center in town and I may take some to a consignment shop in Marietta here in a couple of weeks.  I need to have some more yarn made.  I'm glad because I love weaving these.  

I continue to work on the brightly colored towels on my small loom.  These are much more challenging and go quite a bit slower than the rugs.  I am almost finished with the first one of two.