We Turn the Clocks Back, It Gets Dark Too Early!

But you just never know what will show up on the farm.....Over the years, we have had random animals just show up:  a horse (my son thought it was one of ours, but it was a stray), cattle, 5 pigs, and a donkey among others.  And now, a giraffe!  My father-in-law heard I loved the giraffe mailbox I pass occasionally and he made this for me.  Kinda awesome.

Yes, we turned the clocks back this past weekend and it is now dark by 6 pm.  That makes me sad, but in reality, it gives me that more time to spin and knit and weave after dinner.  I have to fill those hours between sunset and bedtime.  Might as well be productive.  I do have a 9' runner on my loom at the office.  It is for mom and not a secret:





 





And I wove some colorful towels for my bathroom.  Maybe too colorful.  Once I took them off the loom, I started weaving the remaining warp in one color and like it better, the pattern is much more obvious.  It's just a sampler as I don't have enough warp left for a full size towel.      

 I am still spinning for my big project, but yesterday I spun up a sample of the gorgeous alpaca/shetland wool roving I had processed.  It spins wonderfully and I hope to ply the sample tonight in a 3 ply and wash it and see how it looks.  I would really like to spin this for sweaters for Sam and myself.

The fall weather has been gorgeous.  I think I take a photo just like this at the pond every year.  But I just love this view.  

I took advantage of the fabulous fall weather this week and did some fence work.   First, I tore down a stretch of fence between the garage and the garden.  It was either tear it down or replace 4 of the 8 posts which had broken off. We do not plan to keep animals over there anymore, so I tore it down.    Then, I used the woven wire fence I removed there to replace this stretch of fence.  This was at the very back of the alpaca pasture and all that was holding it up was weeds.  There was new fence on either side of this 40' stretch, so it was not a huge job.  I had to tear out the old cheap welded wire fencing and I took the easy way out and replaced the 2 broken posts with metal T posts.  And I came up with a makeshift fence stretcher.

The stretcher did a great job and now I don't have to worry about Buck and Star going on walk-about.  And it just looks so much better

 














While I was out there working on fences, I got a couple photos of the 2 crias from this past spring.  They are now 5 months old.  This is Trillium and her cria.  Cria looks almost as big as her mama.  This is the cria who continues to nurse from her great-grandmother, Tunita, as well as from her mother.  Everyone seems very happy with this arrangement.  I still find it amazing.

 And this is B'Nita, who is the mother of Trillium, daughter of Tunita, and her cria, who is probably a little smaller than Trillium's cria.  But then she is getting milk from only one source!