April is Almost Over...

And in just 5 days this beloved old dog will be 14 years old.  I have many days had my doubts that he would make it this far, but every time I think he is nearing the end of what he can tolerate, he seems to rally and I see in his eyes that he is not quite ready to leave us yet.  His appetite is great, it's the getting around that is tough.  And yet, true to this dog's stubborn, independent nature, he wants no help.  However, since he can no longer get up on the couch, he very much seems to enjoy my spending time with him on the floor in the evening.  Sam and I wonder if Rowdy is just biding his time until our new puppy comes home in 3 weeks.  Maybe he needs to let us know it is okay in his own way.

Getting a new puppy?  What I did not mention in my last post was that while Missy and I were driving through downtown Indianapolis (well I was driving, Missy was looking at Facebook) on the way home from Tulsa last month we got notice that a litter of puppies I was looking forward to had arrived!!  A dog named Miranda, a red merle Australian Shepherd, who I know from agility trials, delivered 9 puppies, one of which was to be mine.  This was such exciting news.  In the intervening 5 1/2 weeks, I have visited the puppies twice and have chosen one to be my next agility dog.  He is a red tri in color, which means he is red with white and copper, which can be seen in the photo to the left.  His daddy is also a performance dog, doing herding and dock diving as well as being shown in conformation.  So this litter was purpose bred for performance puppies.  Not having had a puppy in the house since Rowdy joined us in July of 2005, this will cause a  huge change in the Moore household for the foreseeable future.  Oh, we will be calling this little guy Rufus.  

The boys enjoying hot dogs and s'mores on spring break

The last week of March, my nephew brought 2 of his friends to the farm for their spring break from school.  They are all juniors in high school, and they had a wonderful time.  They stayed at the guest house and were responsible for their own meals as well as taking care of my nephew's family's 2 dogs who came along with them.  Sam and I were greatly pleased with how they kept themselves busy and enjoyed their "off grid" mini vacation.  They also left the house in very good shape and are welcome back anytime. 

Immediately following the boys' stay at the farm, I left for a girls' weekend with my cousin Tracey, who was on spring break from her teaching job in Michigan.  I met her in New Orleans and we spent 3 days eating, drinking and laughing.  New Orleans is a great city and the food was wonderful!  Tracey and I always have fun when we get together, which doesn't happen as often as we would like.

 
 And when I arrived home it was April and the weather was starting to warm up.  I finally had some nice warm sunny days to do the clean up from syrup season.  I had 4 dozen buckets and lids to bleach and put away and also 38 taps.  I do this outside because I have no good indoor space in which to do it.  So I wait for warm, sunny weather which also aids in everything drying after being cleaned.

 

 This is a job I like getting finished because until I do, those buckets just sit on the back deck reminding me every day that they still need to be done.  And now it is finished for another year. The buckets get stacked and stored in the sugar shack and the pan and taps and other things we use get stored in the basement at the guest house until next February.

Of course the warmer weather has lead to more and more time outdoors.  The garden has been tilled and I have planted lettuces, chard, kale and beets so far, most of which are coming up.  There is still a lot to do there, though.  I also cleaned out the summer kitchen, which had become a catchall and repository of alpaca fleeces that were not the best quality.  I put most of those out for the birds to utilize in nest building and in the process found a few nice ones I would like to clean and spin.  When I get time.

 Nature is also waking up around us and everything is in bloom.  The bee hive has made it through another winter and the bees are very busy.  This week should be a great one for pollen.

Maple tree in bloom

  



The maple trees in our yard are in bloom and there is a yellow coating of pollen on the table on our deck. 

Fungus in the woods

 
This brings us up to this past weekend, where Grover and I had our first agility trial since Nationals last month. It was our club's final trial of the season in Zanesville.  We had a pretty good trial, though we did break our Double Q streak, but only after QQing on both Friday and Saturday, bringing us to 11 QQs in a row at trials.  Nationals didn't count because even if we had gotten a QQ there it would not have counted toward our MACH.  So Grover and I now have 19 QQs toward MACH2, but we still need 420 points.  I predict we will be running for points for several months.  Maybe in December we will get that second MACH.  We are consistent, but not overly fast.  This means we need to go to a lot of trials this summer.

 I am now spending more time outside, but I have still been able to get into my studio most days for a little while.  I have both looms warped and weaving in progress.

I have scarves on the small loom.  I finished the one to the right and cut it off and re-threaded the loom for a different pattern.  This one came out a little shorter than I intended.  That's what I get for counting pattern repeats instead of measuring as I go, which you can see I AM doing with the second scarf.  The warp for these is tencel and the pattern weft is handspun merino/tencel.  I am so happy with this color combination, though I did not dye the yarn myself, but I did spin it.  It is just beautiful.

 Scarf 2 is still on the loom.  This weave structure is called overshot and there are 2 different yarns being used in the weft, one of which is the same yarn as the warp.  The other is called the pattern weft, and that is the on that creates the pattern you see.  It is a heavier yarn than the pattern and background weft, also known as "tabby".  

 


There is an informal weave-along in an online group and I decided to join in and weave bath towels.  I used some yarns I had gotten a few years ago in a large purchase  of yarns from a weaver's estate.  I am having fun with this project and hope that the towels will be nice to use.  They are 100% cotton and will have some texture since the weft yarn is rather slubby.  These are going much more quickly than the overshot scarves since the pattern is much simpler.

Upcoming:  Our grandson will turn a year old in less than a week and I am flying out to Oregon for his birthday party next Friday.  Sam would be going with me, but Rowdy is still with us and until that is no longer the case, Sam and I just can't travel together.  I really wish he could accompany me, but at this point I don't think it will happen.  Nor do I want it to at this time.  I will be seeing younger son Sam/Zac/Satchmo there, as he is coming up from the Yosemite area for the party as well.  That will be nice.  And once I arrive home, from Portland, I will have only about a week before Rufus is ready to come home.  I plan to stay around the farm for the first month we have him, with no plans to be away until mid-June.  It will be a nice respite from all the travel I have been doing so far this year!

And there are sheep (and goats) grazing on the pasture across from the guest house once again!

 

So Far Behind! So Much Has Been Happening!

4 generations!

Life has just been crazy busy, I'll blame it all on that!  When last I posted we were in the midst of a very good syrup season and I was getting ready to head to Oregon with my mom to visit son Ian and his wife, Michelle, and of course grandson, Wilder.  We had a great visit, which of course included a trip for Mom and me to the Pendleton Woolen Mill Outlet, where I bought more selvedges for weaving rugs.  Mom also spent some money there and agreed it was a fascinating place.  While we were visiting, Michelle spent a good bit of time getting Wilder's bedroom ready so that he could move into his own room and out of theirs.  I understand he loves his room and is adapting well.  He was on the brink of walking while we were there and has just started to really walk within the last few days.  Just shy of 11 months old.

Sam stayed very busy with maple syrup production while I was away and once home from Oregon I jumped back into it as well.  He was ready for a break by then.  So this year we tapped trees on 2-9.  We collected our first sap on 2-13  and started cooking on the 14th.  Our final boil was on 3-11-19 after pulling the taps on the 10th.  Had I not been leaving on the 13th for AKC Nationals, I think we could have left the taps in and done at least one more good run, but we had reached our goal of 10 gallons and it is such a hard job for just one person.  The season isn't really finished until all the cleanup is done, however.  All the buckets, at least 40, are stacked on the back deck awaiting a day warm enough to get out the bleach and the hose.  Not my favorite job, but it's not bad as long as the sun is shining and it is at least 60 degrees.

Sometime during all this craziness, Sam had time to smoke a moose eye of round roast.  That was really good.  We had it with au gratin potatoes, salad and a Brut IPA Homebrew. It was excellent. He is planning to do a moose rib roast today.

So that covers the end of February, which we are always glad to see, and the beginning of March.  Grover and I attended a 2 day agility trial March 9th and 10th.  We had a fabulous weekend, Qing in 6 out of our 7 runs and adding 2 more QQs to our total toward MACH2.  So we still need 3 QQs, but a lot of points.  At the rate we are going, we may have enough points accrued by October. Really.  That is what I have calculated.  We are consistent, but not fast.  I know that.  I'm okay with that.  Grover is almost 8.  I don't think I can speed him up now.

I was home less than 3 days and  Grover and I were back on the road with our friend, Missy, and her 2 border collies.  We headed out Wednesday morning for Tulsa, OK.  We drove as far as St. Louis, where we spent the night, meeting up with one of our stall mates there. We arrived in Tulsa around 1 pm on Thursday, just in time for check in.  I had an amazing time!  We had a practice run and 4 other runs spaced from Friday morning to Sunday morning.  We Qd in our standard run Saturday afternoon and our Hybrid run on Sunday morning.  It was so much fun just being there.

Each dog had a banner!

On the road in windy Missouri

In addition to agility, there was a lot of shopping opportunity and also a chance for Grover to get his Trick Dog Novice title.  He really seemed to enjoy doing it.  It was simple stuff he already knew like rolling over, high five, getting in a box, getting in a crate, running through a  tunnel , etc.  Treats were involved and he had an audience, so he excelled.  He got a ribbon and they had a medal to photograph him with.  

With my "stall mates" in front of our stall

This was the view of rings 1 2 & 3 while we waited in the check-in line.  We were going to run there the next morning!  Our names would be on the big screen!  

My goal for this trip was to have at least one clear run, so I could get a ribbon from AKC Nationals.  Well, my little rescue Aussie and I got 2 ribbons and they are hanging on my display on Grover's wall out in my studio with his MACH bar and MACH ribbon. 

While none of us West Virginia teams(I train in WV, all my stall mates are from WV)  made finals, we all agreed it was a wonderful experience and we hope to all qualify again for 2020 which will be in Georgia.  A little closer to home.

And hard to believe, but I am heading out again this Saturday to meet my cousin in New Orleans for 3 days.  We planned this over Thanksgiving.  We only see each other a couple times a year and she will be on spring break.  I'm looking forward to it.  That will take us into April! Already!

Here is a photo of a rug I recently wove on commission for a customer at the Arts Center in Woodsfield.   They wanted purple. They got it.  It's alpaca and wool. 28" X 36" 

Syrup Season Once Again!

Apples is such a pretty girl.  The muddy weather gives her a whole new look.

February is more than half over.  Late February means Maple Syrup Season gets under way.  And it is definitely under way here now.  Our last two years were very poor.  Last year it got very warm very early and I think 2017 was similar.  We need nights below freezing and days above freezing to make the sap run.  I don't know how 2019 is going to shake out, but it is off to a big start.

Sam put out 38 taps while I was at  the agility trial on the 9th.  Some trees he puts 2 taps in, and many just one.  He runs tubing from the taps to holes in the lids of 3+ gallon buckets.  There are many ways to tap trees and gather the sap, but this works for us.  

The conditions were not right for the sap to run until Tuesday, when it rained pretty much all day and was around 50 degrees.  Wednesday afternoon I went up to the maple grove and discovered full buckets under every tree!  I collected 21 buckets and hauled most of them to the sugar shack.  In a nutshell, we started the evaporator early Thursday and ran it Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We gathered another 22 buckets of sap on Friday, 6 more on Saturday and only 4 on Sunday. This wonderful sap run yielded 3 gallons of finished syrup.
 
Once the sap is gathered, it goes into the sugar shack, which is where our wood-fired evaporator is.  We stack the buckets and load them one at a time into a warming pan on the top of the syrup pan.

To the right, the syrup pan is full of fresh sap that has not yet been brought to a boil.  It looks and tastes like water at this point.  Once we bring the sap to a boil, we will add wood to the fire about every 15 minutes.  All  Day   Long.  We use pine because we have a big supply of it and it burns hot.  It is split fairly small and stacked outside the sugar shack.

We  slowly add fresh sap to the pan as the water in it boils away.  We put 14 buckets into the pan on Thursday and it took pretty much all day to accomplish that.  There is an opening in the roof of the sugar shack to allow all those gallons of water to escape in the form of steam.  And there are great huge clouds of it.  When you consider we boiled approximately 150 gallons of water away to end up with 3 gallons of syrup, it kind of boggles the mind.

Our sugar shack is a mile from our house.  Uphill most of the way and the road is a sea of mud this time of year.  So one of us stays at the sugar shack  to keep the pan full and the fire going.  We read, do Sudoku puzzles, games on our tablets, etc.  We have no electricity up there, but we have a comfy van-seat couch and there is always something to do.  Yesterday I cleared a lot of brush and briars on one side of the pond and piled them up to burn.  Grover is always with me, as Rowdy used to be (and still would be if he was able to go). If it is warm enough I have been known to sit in the sun and knit and listen to an audio book.  Oh, there is also an outhouse.  All the comforts of home.

The season can run until mid-March and we hope we get a few more good runs so we will have syrup to sell.  I already have a gallon of syrup in jars set aside for our use and some for my boys.  When we decide we aren't likely to get enough sap to run the evaporator again, we will pull the taps and clean everything and put it away for next year.  

I have been keeping a paper Syrup Season Journal since 2013.  it is fun to go back and look at daily temps and weather and see if we were getting sap runs and how much and how long we cooked and what the yield was.  

We had some more snow early this month.  We got about a 6" snowfall maybe the first weekend of the month and Sam was able to use his new tractor to clear the driveway.  he has also been using it to load round bales on his trailer and deliver them to his dad for his cattle.  I think he is happy with the tractor.  

Grover and I attended an agility trial in Zanesville on the 9th and 10th.  We had 6 runs and Qd in 4, earning 2 more Double Qs toward MACH 2.  That brings us to 15.  We only have a third of the points we need however.  We will trial in Zanesville again March 9th and 10th and then head to Tulsa, OK for AKC Nationals.  I am very excited about that.
One of the people I am going with said last time she went everyone decorated their stalls with banners, so I had a banner made.  It is 2' X 2' and is vinyl with grommets for hanging.   I will go this week and order similar ones for the other 3 people with whom I am sharing a stall.  These will be fun to display and will make nice souvenirs for us.

But before all that, my mom and I are heading out to Portland in just a few days to visit my son, Ian, and his family.  My little grandson will be almost 10 months old.  He looks like he will be walking any day now.  Mom has not seen him since June so I know she is looking forward to the trip.  Ian was her first grandchild, so he is special to her as well.  Like all her grandchildren.  

I did finish my other thrummed mitten, and I started a hooded vest, and have a warp on the big loom for a custom order rug, but when it is really cold, I don't spend much time in my studio and I have been busy doing other things as well.  

Spring is just around the corner!  But meanwhile, here are 2 snow-loving dogs:

 

Snow, Cold....It's January.

This old dog LOVES just laying in the snow.

We have had a couple of good snowfalls, 5 to 6 inches, which is plenty to make one feel like they have experienced winter and are ready for spring.  Unfortunately the coldest days are yet to come.  It seems to me that the coldest weather occurs the first week of February.  And this year is no exception, though the coldest days are expected at the tail end of January, so starting tomorrow.  They are telling us things like the "coldest weather in two decades"  and "wind chills well below zero".  I hope they are wrong again.  I remember in the mid-90's when we lived in Indiana having almost an entire week when the temperatures did not rise above 0*F.  You tend to remember that kind of thing when you have to take care of horses before going to your 8 am job in the morning.  At least we lived in a new house there.  Here in our 120+ year old house with no insulation we have to worry about frozen water pipes, frozen drains and more.  The good news is that this cold is only expected to last about 3 days.  And we have LOTS of firewood just outside the door.



Since my last post I have managed to keep busy.  No agility trials this month, though I did ride along with a novice handler and her dog to Incredipaws for their debut in the ring earlier this month.  I went for moral support and to help her navigate trial protocol.  They did quite well, though they did not Q in either of their runs.  But the very first time in the ring is kinda scary for the handler and can be somewhat overwhelming for the dog.  They really did a great job and they are entered in our trial in Zanesville coming up in just under 2 weeks.  I can't wait to see how they do.  They are a great team.

I spent a good part of yesterday prepping for the cold weather to come.  I bedded the stall area in the barn for Apples and Truffel and Grover and I used the Gator to take a couple loads of hay and dog food for Star to the barn.  I do worry about the chickens in the cold weather to come as their coop is large for 3 chickens, despite having a heat lamp.  I have been debating putting them in a dog crate in the barn and piling hay around it, but then I can't use the heat lamp.  I haven't decided yet.

This past weekend, starting Thursday and going through Sunday, I took a class for certification in Canine Massage Therapy.  I ended up being the only student for the weekend and so I got more hands on training than I would have had there been 2 other students in the class and I came away with my certification.  I am contemplating what I plan to do.  I still feel like I need a lot of practice, but I have Grover here to work on.  Rowdy has some physical issues that make him difficult to work on, but he may get some massage as well.  I wanted to learn this to work on my own dogs, but people keep telling me they think there would be a market for it around here, so I need to have some cards made up.  Tomorrow Grover will be my first client.

Other than that, I have been working on finishing up some projects and have started a new one or two.  The towels I had started in the last post are off the loom and just waiting for hemming.   Well, one is hemmed the other 4 are waiting.  One of the black ones was the request from the Arts Center that prompted my weaving these.  There are 2 black, 2 red and 1 green.  I am happy with how they turned out.  The black and red ones will go to the Arts Center and I will keep the green one or possible gift it.

I also made a second baby sheep hat for my grandson, Wilder.  The first one I made him was much too small.  I was very pleased to see that this one fit him and may fit him for a little while.  Isn't he adorable in it?  I will be back out to Oregon to see him in only 3 weeks and 2 days.  Not counting or anything.  My mom will be going as well.

I need to get all of us in my family I have knit these hats for together for a photo. But there are 2 of us in Ohio, 1 in Oregon and 1 in California, so it won't happen soon.  Sadly. Maybe I will get 3 of us when Mom and I are in Oregon next month.

 



This particular project was on the loom for almost a year. I decided it was time to finish it.  Yes, it's a guitar strap.  It was meant for a gift when I started it and it will still be a gift, just a year later than planned.  I don't think the recipient reads my blog.  But I won't say who it is for.  Handy that I was even able to find a guitar in my house.  And it goes so well with the strap.  I would be willing to make more of these straps. Just let me know what colors.  We'll see who reads this.

I also finished my lacy beaded Mystery Knit-Along shawl that was for the month of October.  I wonder who had time to knit this entire thing in one month?  Not me.  It is beautiful!  This is my favorite kind of knitting, though the finished item is very impractical, especially for someone whose daily wardrobe is jeans and a hoodie.  Can you see Rowdy over by the creek?  I love this photo.

And I have knit ONE "thrummed" mitten.  The white "hearts" are actually chunks of carded wool that are knit into the inside of the mitten, so it is kind of like one of those fleece lined jackets, only a mitten. I am sure the wool will felt to the shape of my hands once I start wearing them, after I knit the second one of course.  It was kind of hard on my hands working with the yarn (handspun by the way) and the wool together, so I will finish up my towels and another project before I get to the second one, but I will.  After all what good is only one mitten?  Too bad I don't have them ready to wear this week!

I think that is about it for now.  Upcoming events include Agility in Zanesville Feb 9th and 10th, then a trip to Oregon with Mom Feb 21 through 26.  And somewhere in that period of time, we will be tapping trees and making maple syrup as well!  We are due for a good sap year.  I do like syrup season, especially now that I have a new Gator to use, as our Honda is getting pretty rough and not always dependable.  We have some pretty serious hills to deal with in snow and mud during syrup season and I haven't trained Apples to pull a sled, so I'm glad I have the new Gator.  So is Grover. 

Wrapping Up 2018 and Looking Forward to 2019!

2019 is upon us.  I'm not sure how 2018 went by so quickly.  I must be having fun, right?  Time flies when you are having fun.  Lots of fun.

2018 was a huge year for our family.  We had some momentous events.  I think the very most important one was the birth of our grandson, Wilder, in May.  The news that I was going to become a grandmother came to me in late August 2017 and was one of the biggest surprises of my life as my son and daughter-in-law had told us previously that having children was not in their plan.  They did not tell anyone that they had, in fact, changed their minds until it was confirmed they were expecting.  And Wilder arrived in May.  Here he is, now 8 months old with my son, Ian.  I have been out to visit him in Oregon twice, and will be there again next month.

Speaking of my son, Ian, the second huge event this year was his graduation in June from Oregon State University's College of Forestry with his bachelor's degree in Recreation Resource Management, also earning the honor of being named "Outstanding Senior" in his major.  Way to go, Ian!
 


And of course we have had yet another year with our beloved old dog, Rowdy.  He will be 14 in April and every day with him is treasured. 

Officially on the list!

And speaking of dogs, we certainly cannot forget that Grover and I earned a huge title in agility in September, our (first) MACH, or Master Agility Championship!  We worked 4 years for it and I am so very proud of what my goofy rescue Aussie has been able to do.  We both had to learn so much!  
And then of course we also qualified to enter the AKC National Agility Championships being held in Tulsa OK in March.  We are entered and we plan to be there!





In April, Sam and I closed the Real Estate business we had taken over from Sam's Mom back in 1999.  The shale gas industry coming into our area and drilling and paying landowners to lease their land really hurt our business and we decided it was time to retire and spend our time on other things.  It was rather a 2 edged sword, as the gas industry that hurt our livelihood in real estate also allowed us to retire a little earlier than we had planned. But having a 200 acre farm, one is never really "retired".  There is always so much to do!  

We have also had losses.  One of the first alpacas we bought back in late 1999, Peg, died at almost 19 years of age in June.  She was the last of our first alpacas and a special favorite of mine.  This leaves us with only one alpaca, Truffels, who is now 15, and she shares the barn and pasture with Apples the Welsh pony and Star the Italian Maremma.  We also lost most of our chicken flock to hawk predation this past fall and have only 3 hens as of this time.

I think in all, we have been very blessed this year.  There were things that could have been much worse than they turned out, such as my mom breaking her humerus in Italy in March and the flooding we experienced here in late May while Sam was off on a fishing trip.  We had the rainiest year on record here, with over 57 inches of rain in the area, which is 20" above average, according to the Wheeling Intelligencer. This made it a rather poor year for the garden, with some of my veggies being flooded out.  I will be hoping for a year of better weather in 2019, but otherwise, 2018 may be hard to beat.





I can now post some photos of projects I have been working on that were gifts this year.  Socks for Mom for Christmas.












 

A Steelers blanket for Mary, my mother-in-law.  I was disappointed after fulling the blanket that the colors became somewhat blended and muddy.  This photo is pre-fulling.  I learned that wool blankets and small checks do not work well in the finishing.

 


 I also knitted this Death Star hat for my son in California.  He loves it and says it is "ridiculously warm".  He lives in the mountains, so it will get used.

And currently on the looms are some black and gold towels, which were a request from a customer at the Arts Center in town.  I will do 2 in black and gold and 2 in a dark red and gold, I think.  I do love the way the colors and pattern are working together so far.

                                                                          





  And also some silk scarves in natural and navy blue with just a tiny bit of wool in the blue yarn.  The threads are very fine so these are taking a little longer than the towels.  But they will be lovely, I  think.                                                                       
 
I am almost finished with the lacey beaded mystery shawl from October.  I should have that done and blocked by my next post.   

I have also been working on re-knitting the sheep hat I made for Wilder which was MUCH too small.  I have now started it and ripped it back out twice and re-started it.  I am hoping the third time is the charm.  It would be nice to finish it in time for him to wear it this year.

A rare sunny day!