Apples Has Arrived and the Year is Quickly Coming to a Close.

Apples, the Welsh pony arrived on the farm about a week and half ago.  She is settling in well and I have to admit I am falling in love with her.  She is very sweet-natured and loves carrots and apples and scratches. She looks much more like a small horse than a pony but it is hard to get a feel for her true size without a person in the photo.  I have not yet ridden her since she arrived as I still don't have quite the right tack.  I need crucial things like reins for my bridle and a girth for my saddle.  I ordered a riding helmet for myself for Christmas.

She has quite a fuzzy winter coat on and she and Bodhi are getting used to each other.  She did kick at him when we was sniffing around her back end, but she was not mean and nasty about it.  It was definitely a warning however.  I have also seen him give her the "if you come any closer I will spit at you" body language.  But they seem to be getting along just fine. 

  I am concerned about Bodhi.  He will be 19 in April, but he has lost so much weight the last few months that I'm not sure he will last the winter.  He has had a good long life here and is pretty much at the maximum life expectancy for an alpaca.  We'll keep him around as long as he can move around and eat.  I have a coat I will put on him when it gets really cold.  He's always been a favorite of mine.

 Grover and I spend a lot of time walking in the woods.  Rowdy used to go with us and in fact was the catalyst for my getting out and walking in the woods on a regular basis years ago.  But he will be 13 in April and his arthritis is keeping him from enjoying walks, which I find incredibly sad.  Sometimes, though, like this morning, he surprises me and insists on going along.  I love to see him out in the woods sniffing and being a farm dog.  It brings joy to my heart.

Yesterday Grover and I went across Wayne National Forest to the beaver pond.  Along the way, he got the opportunity to practice agility again.

Sometimes I think it would be SO fun to set up an agility trail through the woods with jumps and logs to run across and climb and a tunnel to go through.  Maybe someday I will actually do it.  

The beavers have been incredibly busy this fall.  I think their family must have grown because  there are so many trees that have been felled or are in the process of being cut down. Yesterday we were on the back side of the pond where there are no large trees because almost all of what you will see in the following photos used to be neglected hayfield.  There was also an old house and some buildings until the government came in and removed all traces of them about 8 years ago.  I will try to get out soon on a nice day and take some photos from the road where it is easy to see where the beavers are gnawing through large trees.

 Where Grover is standing is the very back side of the marsh area created by the beavers.  In fact, the water to the extreme left is covering what used to be my walking path.  While I was taking these photos, I was being scolded by an agitated Kingfisher who was obviously unhappy Grover and I were there.  Back in November, I also saw a family of about 8 wood ducks on the pond .  I have never seen that type of duck in our area before and was delighted to see them.  They may have seen the pond as a nice resting place on their migration south.  They were quite lovely.

 Looking to the right from the above photo you can see across the marshy area to the slightly deeper part of the pond.  The beaver lodge is on the far side of this, somewhat centered in the photo.  From the road (which you can see going uphill at a slight angle) we can actually walk right to the beaver lodge.  No one has interfered with it in some time and it has been made larger and there is a nice big "pantry" of limbs in the water close by for easy winter access.  This area in my opinion has been enhanced by the presence of the beaver family and I only hope they are left in peace.  

Here are some small trees near the old house foundation that have been cut and taken for winter food storage.

This closeup is of a young tree probably about 3" in diameter.  You can easily see the teeth marks in the wood.  



I had pretty much finished up any gift knitting until yesterday when I decided I needed to make one more hat.  And then I have another hat promised for New Year's weekend.  Hats are quick.

Both my looms have had projects removed from them.  I finished weaving my Krokbragh sampler, which I love.
But look at all those ends I need to weave in.  This is 17" X 42".  It looks nice in front of the fireplace in our office, so it may end up there after I weave in ends.  Or it may become a bench pad or a pillow.  






And I took 2 scarves off my loom in the home studio.  I am in the process of twisting the fringes on the ends of both of them and then they will be done.  But here is how they looked on the loom.  The pattern is the same on both, but the second one is my favorite because the colors contrast enough for the detail to show well.  

 When I post next, it will be 2018.  There are a lot of changes coming for 2018.  The biggest of course being the arrival of our first grandchild, but our older son will be graduating from college as well as becoming a father, and Sam and I may see some changes in our own lives as well.  I'm looking forward to a great year.

Thanksgiving, A Trial & A New Farm Resident Coming Soon

Agility is an every day thing around here!

Yes, even on our early morning walk Grover gets in a little practice.  

I last posted just before Thanksgiving which ended up being an "interesting" day.  First, we left home an hour and 15 minutes late for our 3 1/2 hour drive to Mom's because there was a deer caught in our pasture fence and she could not be saved.  Her legs were horribly mangled.  I will  not post the photos Sam took, they are very disturbing and he  took them only in case he needed to prove to the game warden that the deer was beyond saving.  Sam put her down as humanely as possible and got permission from the Sheriff's department to keep the meat.  After all that was taken care of, we got on the road with two vehicles because we planned to drop my truck at the Fieldhouse in Zanesville on the way through.  This way Sam and Rowdy could leave Grover and me there for an agility trial on the way home Saturday.  Long story short, the truck got a flat tire only 15 minutes into our trip and while we had no trouble getting the truck jacked up and the lug nuts off, the tire itself would not break free from the hub until we finally flagged down a guy passing in a truck who had the proper tool, a 12 pound sledge.  We arrived at Mom's 3 hours later than our planned time.  But we didn't miss dinner (which is good because I had the pies!).  The rest of our visit was good, no sick dog this year.  And as an aside, the truck now has all new tires.  I am just glad the flat did not occur on my way home from agility class at night in the middle of nowhere.

Grover and I missed part of Saturday's trial, but we got there in time to do our jumper's run and a premier jumper's run.  No Q's Saturday, but we got our 13th QQ on Sunday!  Our next trial is New Year's weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

I spent this past Sunday outside all day.  It was gorgeous, mid 50's and sunny, especially for December (changes are coming!).  I had some fence maintenance to do.  Alpacas are pretty easy to keep in and do not challenge fences.  They aren't big enough to knock them down by using them as full body scratchers, so sometimes I am not as diligent with fence repairs as I should be.  But we have a new resident coming to the farm who will be sharing pasture with Bodhi, our 18 1/2 year old male alpaca, and she might test things (y'know that rubbing, scratching thing) a bit more.  So I replaced posts and hammered in new fence staples and changed out a gate and removed a couple objects that I thought might pose a hazard to a Welsh Pony!  Her name is Apples and I am getting her from a dog club friend who has a training stable. Kara got Apples from a rescue several years ago.  She now needs to re-home her and after some thought and consideration, I went and met Apples on Monday.  She is just big enough for me to ride, but I think I am about her limit.  The photo above is from summer and she now has a thick fuzzy winter coat and is just as cute as can be.  She will be great fun with my young grand-nephew and also with my expected grandson when he gets older.  If I get motivated to do so, I may even train her to drive and pull a pony cart.  We'll see.  I just think a Nana who lives on a farm should have a pony!  I have also done some work inside the barn to give her her own space.  I am sure there will be more photos to come.

Apache age 27

That's really the most exciting news.  I have to say I have felt like a kid at Christmas thinking about getting this pony.  Dec 29 will mark 5 years since I lost Apache and lately I had really been missing just having a horse around.  I wasn't looking for an equine friend, but now I think one has found me.  It seems right and I hope things work out for her to stay here a long time.

Rowdy is here with me at work today.  He has an appointment with the alternative vet today for acupuncture.  He has good days and bad days.  He is doing well on his diet of homemade food.  Gun season for deer was last week and Sam collected unwanted shoulders as well as hearts and livers from all the guys who hunt in our area.  I think he has close to 200# of meat to grind for me to use in dog food.  He said the guys were giving him a hard time about it and offered to take up a collection to buy him some dog food.  Believe me, the meat they do not want is way better than dogfood they could buy at the store.  Sam grew up butchering meat in his family's business and he is very good at what he does.

Saturday was our local Christmas Festival and I attended along with my good friend, Tari.  It was moved to a new venue this year instead of being at the courthouse, as in past years.  Sales were not as good as in previous years, in my opinion.  However, Tari and I reserved an extra space and we took our spinning wheels and I am glad we did.  We had ample time to spin and I forgot how many people have not seen handspinning.  It always draws attention from children and adults (mostly men who are fascinated by the mechanics of it).  I managed to finish spinning about 4 oz of Rowdy's undercoat, pictured above.  I'm not yet sure what I will do with it.  I can ply it on itself for a 2-ply, or I can ply it with some nice alpaca or maybe silk.  Or hope to collect more undercoat in the spring and spin some more.  Whatever I decide, I now have some yarn spun with which I will eventually make something that I can treasure forever as part of Rowdy.  

I have fun projects on both my looms.  On my big loom I have this sampler of the Norwegian weave structure, Krokbragd.  Don't ask me how to say that.  But it is a fun weave structure, great for rugs, and I think it would make an awesome saddle blanket, so I may give that a try (especially now that I have a pony!).  This is woven using some heavy alpaca yarn I bought several years ago that was too heavy for scarves and too light for rugs.  It would be about perfect for saddle blankets, but I don't have enough and I don't think I can get it anymore.  But it is nice to use it up.

 

On my small loom in the home studio, I am working on overshot scarves, using tencel warp and hand-dyed wool weft.   I am using some yarn I dyed years ago in a dyeing class I took and I have never known what to do with it.  I will make a second scarf on this warp when I finish this one (I have 8" to go) using a wool/silk blend I dyed in a tonal teal color, again a couple years ago.  I am pleased to be using up some yarns that have been languishing in my stash.  It makes me feel less guilty about appropriating new yarns for new projects, which I may have been thinking about lately.

Sometimes, driving home from work this time of year, I actually get to see a sunset before I descend into the hollow.  I had to pull over and photograph this one a couple weeks ago.  By the time I got to a good spot to pull over, the colors were not quite as spectacular as they had been, but still wonderful.  Especially if you can see the tiny little crescent moon up in the left hand corner.