Still in Winter's Grip....

The cold just doesn't get through that heavy coat Rowdy has on!

repair work!

January is past, but February can be every bit as much of a challenge.  Often, we get our coldest weather the first week or so of February.  So far, that seems true this year.  My thermometer read -0.9 this morning which is as cold as I've seen it this year, though the neighbors say we had some deep cold while we were away in the Caribbean.  Probably why our kitchen/bathroom drain is STILL frozen, despite Sam's best efforts.  He had dug a trench, if you recall, in early January to run the new gas line for the compressor for the CNG car.  He never really totally filled it in since the ground was so frozen and our best guess is that there was not enough insulating earth over the drain pipe and we have a slow drip in the kitchen sink, which over 10 days of non-use was able to fill and freeze in that trench area.   I have to give Sam lots of credit for trying to thaw that out, but as cold as it is, it ain't gonna happen soon.  Maybe next week.  Things are supposed to warm up.  But in the meantime, he got out the backhoe and tried to dig down to the pipe and managed to hit an old gas line, so the gas went out and of course he did not have the proper repair parts for that, so I think maybe today as I am at the office, he will get that repaired properly!  It's always something!!

 

I had my camera with me last Thursday as I was coming home from the office just at sunset (which is happening later and later!!) and managed to get a beautiful sunset photo on the road down to our house.  We live in a "hollow", or holler as some like to say, so we almost never see a pretty sunset.  It goes behind the hills way before the sun actually goes down, so I was quite thrilled to see the beautiful display over the top ridge of our property as I came down the hill..

 

And then I caught some naughty boys in action when I got to the bottom of the hill......I noticed some romping and running of young alpacas through the pine trees and stopped and grabbed the camera to photograph the antics.  Of course, instead of continuing with the play, everyone came to see what I was doing.  Now in this pasture, we have the 6 young'uns we weaned in December, so they are all about 8 months old now.  2 are males and the other 4 are females.  We usually separate them by the time they are a year old to avoid any unplanned adolescent pregnancies.  I realized when the 2 males came up to the fence that they had been chasing the females and biting at them.  Can you guess how I figured this out?  The 2 males are the ones closest to the

camera and they each have a mouthful of black fiber! There are 2 pretty black females in the field behind them (one is hard to see).  What ornery little fellows!

This past Monday the weather was warm enough for some light rain most of the day and then it turned to heavy wet snow about sunset and we accumulated about 2 inches of the type of snow that looks like wedding cake icing.  Tuesday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky and that gorgeous coating of snow and was incredibly pretty.

I had an appointment in Marietta to have cataract surgery on my left eye, so we were up before the sun to do chores so we could be on the road by 8 since we weren't sure what the roads would be like.  I took a few photos, but it was really too early to do justice to the beautiful day it turned out to be.  My surgery went well and I am now 20/20 in my left eye, which I have had poor vision in for years.  I hope I do not have to go through it again, though.  

Our weather forecast shows a warm up starting this weekend and I have been on some sugaring sites online and folks are saying we should have a good sap run starting this coming week if we can get some taps in.  Yikes, we are really not ready!  We do have the trees marked and the wood cut, but we need some more taps and buckets and gallon jugs and Sam has to build the "arch" for the evaporator.  Last year's season started so late I guess as newbies to all this we figured we'd have some more time.  I'll keep ya posted!

This weekend I am going to western Ohio to visit family and also to pick up 2 new dogs.  A 7  month old Maremma and a 2 month old Pyr.  Watch for news on them next week as well.

I have not had much time to work on fibery stuff, though I did send off some fleece to be carded into a 3 colored roving at Zeilinger's.  I sent 7 pounds and dyed part of it teal and part in purple/pink and left 4 pounds undyed light fawn.  They do a "3-way swirl" roving where the colors are not blended and I hope it comes out nicely.  Time will tell.  I probably won't get it back until sometime in late April.  

My chore list for February includes: making syrup, painting my downstairs bathroom, finishing insulating and then paneling my studio,  and skirting the rest of the fiber I have set aside for more rug yarn, among other things.  I plan to warp up my rug loom in the next week (count warp today?) to do a 3' X 5' black, grey and white rug for our computer room.  I better get busy!

 

 

I'm Back!

Rowdy enjoys the snow, even when we don't!

I know I kind of skipped the whole second half of January, so now it is time to catch up.

Sam and I celebrated our 25th anniversary on Jan 25th, so we went on a 10 day Caribbean cruise to the Panama Canal.  We left Ohio on Jan 21 and the days prior to our leaving were so full of planning and preparation for being gone so long that the blog just had to be put on the back burner.  We had a great time and we are home and very happy to be back!

We have a neighbor who comes in and takes care of our animals for us when we go away.  We have never been gone so long before and I try to have as much taken care of before we leave as possible.  I make sure there is ample hay for the time we are gone in each building as well as feed and I have to leave instructions with emergency phone numbers and what to do if this happens or that happens.  Needless to say, by the time I leave, I am usually quite stressed.  And on top of that, I don't really like to fly, and it's a 2 hour + trip to the airport and who knows what the weather maybe like in January, so I get myself in quite a state. Once we are at the airport and through security (which was a big nothing both ways folks, so don't sweat it) I can start to relax a little bit.

So here are Sam and I in Costa Rica after going zip lining.  I won't post any other photos on this blog of our trip because that's not what this is for, but one pic of us should be ok.  Besides, we rarely get a photo of the two of us together!

The week before we left, we had a minor woodburner crisis.  It seems there is a wire mesh "cage" around the top of the new chimney liner to keep birds out and this clogged with creosote and consequently, the house filled with smoke.  Of course the roof was covered with ice and snow and I do wish I had taken pictures of Sam up there cleaning it out.  He had a rope thrown across the lower part of the roof and tied to the tractor on the back side of the house and then once he got up there and needed to get on the upper part of the roof, his rope was not long enough.  So I had to find another rope and throw it up to him and then he had to throw it over the house to me to tie to one of the cedar trees which are right in front of the house.  Now, you know a man trusts you when he assumes you will tie a knot that will not come loose when he is on an icy roof in January.  I was never a boy scout, but I've spent some time around boats and horses, so I CAN tie a decent knot.  But I was still glad when he got the problem fixed and was back on solid ground.

Otherwise, I have not had time to work on my studio or weaving or much else.  I did take some knitting with me on the cruise.  I finished up a sock I was working on and decided I am going to frog ( rip it, rip it this is a technical knitting term for unraveling) it and re-do it on smaller needles.  I also took some commercial alpaca yarn and started a purple lace shawl, which I will be gifting.

Here is a photo of the first skein of yarn I spun for Michelle.  If you are reading this, I hope you like it because I intend to finish up the second skein and get it to you by the end of the month!   it's not as green as I had intended, but it's quite colorful.

I went into my hairdresser to get my hair and nails (nails only EVER happen prior to a vacation!) done a couple days before we left and I came home with this awesome bench:

 Of course it's kind of hard to see with Rowdy sitting on it and one of my hand woven rugs thrown over it, but it is made from an old whiskey barrel.  The father of one of the hairstylists made it and I could not resist it.  It will go perfectly in my studio and will be great for spinning or even for sitting on when I weave on my smaller loom. 

I also felt bad about leaving the shelter for so long.  Shelley, who runs it with me is great, though and we have some other great volunteers as well.  But the morning after I returned home, I had to show up in town at the courthouse at 9:30 for the arraignment of a local man who had shot his former tenant's dog.  The local news was going to be there and there was a possibility that one of us would need to speak to them on camera because we have contributed heavily to the dog's considerable vet bills.  But as it worked out, I did not get interviewed.  Saturday we are having a benefit bake sale for this dog and the "Secret Angel Fund" we have that the money has come out of.  I think I will be baking Steeler's cupcakes and dog biscuits all day tomorrow. The cupcakes should go over well since many residents of this area are Steelers fans and of course the Super Bowl is Sunday.

Just going to finish off this post with a couple photos of a very cool tree that I call the Octopus tree which is on the border of our property and the next one.  I took these photos a couple weeks ago.  Maybe next week I will post a photo of what we just call the "big tree" which is an incredibly immense poplar tree that is on our farm.  

Octopus tree from our hiking trail

 

 

 

 

This is the view we see every time we hike by the tree and below is from the other side, where you can see it is a semicircular formation of popular trees.  I think it's pretty cool that they have grown this way!

Rowdy in the center of the "Octopus Tree"

 

BRrrrrr, It's Cold!

Rowdy and Tigger are making the best of the cold weather in front of the wood stove.  

I am still plugging along with the Spin-Off for the Missouri alpaca show.  I plan to have it done and in the mail back to the coordinator by Tuesday the 18th.  I'm getting there.  Meanwhile, I have not had much time to work on things I'd like to work on, like finishing up the bindings on my rugs and painting my downstairs bathroom, for which I purchased paint around Thanksgiving time!

Sam bought us a new car a few weeks back.  It is a dual-fuel car and runs on compressed natural gas and gasoline.  So we are now (or I should say Sam is) working on installing a compressor so that we can park the car in the garage and hook it up and fill it with gas from our wells.  The compressor is on its way here from California as I write this, but its installation has required that Sam run a new gas line over to the garage since the compressor has to be inside and easily convenient to the car and have a source of electricity.  So I came home the other day to  this.

 This is a backhoe dug trench from the back deck through the yard to the corner of the garage.  I have to cross it every time I go to the weanling pasture to feed, but it's not hard to remember it's there!

I think if this works out well, we will have other natural gas vehicles in our future.  The nice thing is, they are relatively inexpensive to purchase used as the availability of compressed natural gas is very limited.  That's a shame because it it much cheaper than gasoline.

Sam also cut the window opening in my studio.  We just used part of a window that we already had  from when we remodeled the house and it's not real big, nor does it open, but its purpose is light, not air at this point.  I had purchased a nice stained glass of running horses a couple years ago and it fits in the window perfectly!  I still have a lot to do before the studio is done, but I won't have time until next month to really get any work done out there.

 
January is a pretty quiet month around the farm as far as the animals go, mostly limited to feeding and scooping and the monthly worming (boy was it hard taking my gloves off to vaccinate 53 'pacas this past Sunday morning!).  February is quiet as well except we will hopefully be tapping trees for sap again.  This will be only our second year of maple syrup production and we hope to produce enough to sell a little bit.  We are going to set up our evaporator up near the pond, which is close to where the trees are we are using.  We have already put in a supply of wood, but I am sure much more will be needed to keep a hot fire going for 12 hours or so at a time on boil days.  I will get to put my new chainsaw into action!  The wood is stored under the pavilion at the pond and you can see the cement block we bought last summer at an auction to build the new evaporator with.                                                      

 Our pond is still down almost 2 feet.  The current snowfall we have should remedy that when it thaws.   The open area you see in the photo is where the windmill powered aerator bubbles up.

 I have managed to finish up 1 of 2 skeins of yarn for Michelle.  It is pretty cool, I think, but I forgot to take a photo, so maybe you can see it next week.  I also finished up a pair of mittens I started way back in November and realized partway through mitten #2 that I was going to run out of my hand-dyed variegated yarn.  So since it was multi-colored anyway, I went through my "stash" and found another hand-spun hand-dyed yarn I could use and I think it looks ok.  The white is my mill-spun yarn.

Keeping warm has been work.  The cap on the new chimney liner we put in managed to get  clogged with creosote and the whole house filled with smoke.  Last night and this morning Sam took the woodburner out and cleaned the chimney and climbed up onto the icy snowy roof to clean the cap as well.  Kind of a tense job requiring ropes tied to tractors and treesfor him to hold onto.  We were burning some elm that I think was not dry enough and hence the problem.  Dry wood only from here on out!

Ringing in 2011!

Check out what I got for Christmas!  It just goes to show a girl should NEVER tell her husband she wants to learn to use the chainsaw.  Next think ya know, he's buying one in her size!

Seriously though, it is nice to have one that is smaller than either of the ones Sam uses.  I don't plan to be cutting down any trees, but it will be nice not to have to rely on Sam when a tree is down on a fence or across a path.  Plus, I got him a MOP for Christmas! 

So it is now  2011.  Do you prefer to say Twenty Eleven or Two thousand eleven?  I myself prefer the latter.  twenty eleven sounds goofy to me.

After a downright frigid December, 2011 has arrived with very warm temps and rain.  Of course to the alpaca farmer this means MUD and suddenly thawed POOP!  Two of my least favorite things.  It's kind of nice when the ground is frozen because all the mess is also frozen and I have better things to do than chip at frozen poop with a shovel, so my theory is that it will still be there once it thaws out.  Boy do I regret it then!  This is when I am thankful to have lots of sawdust to spread in the barn to sop up the wet stuff which was previously frozen. 

Summer kitchen soon-to-be Fiber Studio

The warm weather also means I was able to finish painting the shelves in my soon-to-be fiber studio.  I may have mentioned previously that I am renovating what was once a summer kitchen into a studio.  Actually, it was a summer kitchen when we moved here 12 1/2 years ago and then it became a catch-all, mostly filled with bags of alpaca fiber waiting to be skirted, sold or processed.  I spent a whole weekend cleaning it out and going through all the fiber and deciding what would become rug yarn and what would be sold to spinners, etc. 

This little building sits just outside our kitchen door and the studio part of it is about 10 X 12.  The far left side is actually an outhouse Sam added on a couple years after we moved in.  It is right above the line to the septic tank and since we had only 1 bathroom, it seemed handy to have a second.  It flushes and everything.  It is "seasonal" however.  But it is great not to have to go into the house in the summer when you are outside working and have muddy shoes on and nature calls.  

Anyway, back to the studio.  2 walls inside were lined with shelves which the former owners used for canned good storage (there was NO storage in my kitchen when we bought the place).  These shelves were narrow, about 8" wide.  Not good for storing fleeces, etc.  So, I tore out the shelves along the long wall and moved them over in front of the shelves on the 10' wall and while there is a gap between the 2, I now have shelves that are almost 20" deep.  Perfect for fleece storage!

Under construction

I have also put up 1" foam insulation on 2 walls and put it in as a drop ceiling after Sam installed 2  6" X6" pine beams.  I will be able to put pegs or nails in the beams and hang small baskets or herbs or whatever.  And they hold up the insulation.  Once Sam puts in a small window in the front (where the wreath is in the photo) I will insulate the front wall as well and then I plan to use old barn siding as panelling on the front and back walls.    Sam has already put in a small gas heater for me.  I haven't really decided what to do with the floor yet. 

I will have room in here to skirt fleeces and I will move my drum carder out here, as well as a lot of my fiber tools which currently share the sunporch on the front of the house with the winter's firewood.  My wheels will stay in the house.  I would like to put in a countertop on hinges that I can use when I am dyeing so I don't have to make such a mess in my kitchen, and maybe even a small microwave.  The possibilities are limited only by the 10' X 12' space!!

Krista with Tigger:  I can't believe I still have this cat!

Speaking of dyeing, I had a nice visit after Christmas from my mother and she brought along my 2 nieces.  Krista, my brother Mike's daughter is in college and likes getting away at the farm.  Haley, is 11 and is my brother Larry's daughter and this was only the second time she has been here without her parents.  We are both hoping she can come for a longer visit this summer.  

To further the efforts of all fiber-holics to keep the addiction alive, I introduced Haley to  dyeing and then felting.  I had some carded batts of 75% alpaca/25% blue faced leicester (breed of sheep) and I had her pick 4 colors of dye and away we went!  

Haley with her dyed batts

After the batts were dyed, Haley felted around a bar of goat's milk soap and I sent her home with the rest of her batts and a few bars of my friend Tari's homemade goat soap.  It was  a great, fun, easy and clean project.  Awesome to do with kids.

Haley with her felted soap.

Haley's color choices were so good I decided to use the leftover dyes to dye some of the same batts to spin some sock yarn for Michelle, Ian's girlfriend.  I had sent her a skein of my white mill-spun yarn for Christmas and she said she wanted to use it for socks.  I told her it was probably not a good choice since it was a very soft 2-ply and it would wear through in the heels and toes in no time.  So I told her I would spin her up a 3-ply sock yarn and she said she likes jewel colors.  I had hoped for more green, but ya just never know how these colors will come out!   This is the single prior to plying.  I have a pair of socks made from this blend and they are wonderful!  I hope Michelle likes the yarn.  

I have also been weaving more rugs.  I have 2 finished on the loom and enough warp to do one more before I take them off the loom.  I think the next one will be a 3' X 5' in black and grey and white for my computer room which has a gorgeous hickory hardwood floor made and installed by Sam from a tree on our own property.  

Happy New Year to All!

Happy Holidays to All!

 

We had to choose a Christmas tree this year that was "Tigger-proof", so we went with the one Sam had in his apartment when I met him oh-so-many years ago!  Rowdy doesn't seem to mind.

It is hard to believe another year has passed and Christmas is upon us.  It is very hard to get excited about the holiday when I don't know when I will get to see my 2 sons next.  I keep thinking how sad it is that no one is counting the presents under the tree on a daily basis to see if any more for him have shown up.  You would think he would have realized that  this only kept me from putting out his gifts until the last minute.  And if I DID put them out he spent all his time shaking them to figure out what they were.  He and all my relatives know of whom I speak.  I don't  think anything will shake in that gift I sent you this year to put under your tree!  And of course, watching 24 hours of a Christmas Story by myself just isn't the same.  

Tomorrow we will spend some time with our neighbors, exchanging gifts and sharing in Christmas spirits so tonight I will be baking rum cakes.  On Christmas, Sam and I will go to his folks' and have Christmas dinner with them and his brother and our niece Jessica and her boyfriend Alejandro.  My mom and niece, Krista, plan to arrive for a couple of days on Sunday, weather permitting since they have a 4 hour drive.

Yesterday Sam and I drove to Dayton and picked up our "new" car.  It is a white 4 door 2001 Chevy Cavalier with 45K miles on it.  But it is duel fuel, running on natural gas as well as gasoline.  Sam has already ordered the compressor to allow him to fill the car with gas right from our own gas well.  I have a feeling once he gets this working right we will be acquiring more natural gas vehicles!

Just before I sat down to write this post I finished warping my loom for 3 more rugs.  I mentioned that I would at some time do a post on "warping" (and other weaving terminology) and I suppose there is no time like the present since I have not had time this week to think much about what I would post about this week.

So, to start, "warp" is the threads that are placed on the loom that the "weft" or yarn is woven over and under.  In the case of rugs it is generally a cotton or poly-cotton blend and so far I have only used a natural white color with my rugs, though I have  other colors on hand.  The first step in warping the loom is to determine how many "warp ends" you need, which you do by calculating how many inches wide your rug will be and how many warp threads you want per inch of rug width.  My rugs are 24" wide and I use 12 threads per inch so I multiply 24 X 12 and get my number of 288 warp ends.  I also need to figure how long each of those need to be and for 3 rugs, I need each one to be 4 yards long.  I have a warping board which has pegs on it that I use to measure out 4 yards of warp 288 times, but without cutting until the end.

Once I have my warp counted out, I have to put it on the loom.  This is the time-consuming part.  Each one of those 288 threads needs to be threaded through its own slot in a "reed".  This is called "sleying" the reed.    After each end is passed through the reed, each end must be threaded through a "heddle"  My loom is a 2 harness loom.  That means that there are 2 different pieces that each move up and down when I step on a foot treadle.  Each of these pieces is called a harness and each harness holds metal "heddles" which have an eye in the center through which I pass the threads.  This way, half the threads will be up while half are down and I and pass my yarn in between the 2 (this space is referred to as the "shed").  So half my threads need to go through heddles on one harness and half on the other and they have to be alternated without getting them crossed or mixed up.  

wire heddles waiting to be threaded

This is the part that takes a lot of time.  I have to check and double check to make sure no threads are crossed.  In the photo to the right, you can see the front harness is raised a bit so you can see that half the threads are going through the front harness and the other half are going through the rear harness which is lower.  The black structure in the back is the back beam, onto which all the warp will eventually be wound in preparation for weaving.

Once all warp ends are threaded through the heddles, I have to tie groups of threads onto a rod and them carefully wind all 4 yards of warp onto the back beam.  This back beam will hold the warp as I weave until I am ready to advance it, at which time, I will wind the woven portion onto the front beam and bring unwoven warp up into the weaving area.  To the left is the rear view of the loom with the warp all wound onto the back beam.

To the right is the warped loom with the "shed" open as it would be to pass the weaving yarn through.  You can see the reed to the far left.  It is mounted in a structure called the "beater" which I move forward firmly after each pass of the weft in order to "beat" the yarn into place.  You can see the 2 harnesses (also known as shafts) to the right.  The front harness is lowered and the rear is raised.  

That is warping a loom kind of in a nutshell.  It gets easier each time I do it.  I think next time I will do up a 3' wide rug which will be 36 X 12 warp ends or 432!

I have finally gotten a good start on the Spin-off I am judging.  It is hard with everything that goes on over the holidays to set aside the time I need each week to work on it, but I have managed to get through the 2 largest color classes, which amounts to almost a third of the entries (white and light fawn).  Although they are not quite finished as I still have the last 2 classes hanging on my drying rack in the mud room, waiting for the final scoring and tallying and placing, which WILL get done tonight or tomorrow!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM EVERYONE AT STRAIGHTFORK!

                      

              

 

Ready or Not, Winter is Here!

Yes, winter is upon us.  Rowdy is standing in front of my soon-to-be-studio.  So far this is about the extent of my holiday decorating!  


Winter really came in with a bang this past week.  Sunday it rained and then became frigidly cold on Monday.  Our highs have been in the low 20's and the temp has been dipping down into single digits by the time I go to bed.  We are really grateful for the woodstove, I can tell you!


The animals are dealing with things well as usual.  I keep an eye on the alpacas to make sure no one is shivering.  I did put a coat on Chiquita, as she seemed cold.  She is 12 now and is nursing a big boy who is sapping her weight and energy, so she got a coat.  I keep 2 adult size coats on hand and every year, someone needs one.


Since he is now 25 years old, I even but a blanket on Apache this week.  He seems to appreciate it, even though he is still quite well insulated without it.  Isn't he stylish?

I took several photos this morning and the snow was coming down pretty well.  Hmmm, the weather forecast I looked at online said 1 to 2 inches possible, this afternoon.   They never seem to get it right!  


We do now have water in the creek.  Or actually it is ice now, so we really do need the bridges.  I remember before we had the alpaca barn on the other side of the creek, I used a 
1" X 6"   as a bridge.  That just would not cut it anymore!

I took this photo from the bridge we can drive across and what is waiting for me in the other direction are all the alpacas, anxious for their morning feed.  Note that they have seen me coming and are heading into the barn and no longer craning their necks gazing over the fence to see where I might be.  It's nice to be wanted. 

Here comes breakfast!

Once I get into the barn I distribute the morning grain and while they eat that I put out hay in the hay feeders.  We have one outside that they really prefer to use if it is not raining.  No fear of that today.  And then there is one under the overhang and 2 more in the barn.  I generally put out 3 bales of hay divided up into these 4 feeders this time of year.  I like to be sure everyone can get to the feed without too much squabbling.  Squabbling, however, is inevitable.

After I put out the hay, I do the scooping.  When it is frozen and snowy, clean up is relatively easy.  I can only clean up what I can see and what is not frozen solid.  I have better ways to spend my time than to chip away at frozen poop.  My theory is that the poop will still be there once there is a thaw.  That theory HAS been proven.

bean piles

Here, most of the girls have gone outside to the hay feeders and we just have a couple of "hoovers" staying behind to get what may have been missed.  I have raked the "beans" into piles prior to shoveling up.  There is a partially full hay feeder under the window, but the girls prefer to eat outside (so do I, but not in this weather!).

outside hay feeder

We did finally get the plastic on our overhang on Saturday, which was a beautiful sunny day.  It just gives that much more protection from the wind and blowing snow and rain.  There is also a deep layer of  hay on the floor of the overhang, so it stays nice and warm  with the plastic up.  

Here is how it looks from outside.  And how it looks on the inside.

Of course, after I finish at this barn, I still have to go down the road to the other house and feed in the 2 pastures down there.  We have 8 males in one pasture and 6 females in the other right now.  But since I came to the office today, Sam takes care of those animals.  I have already fed the 6 "weaners" that are in the small pasture by the garage, since that is my first stop on my morning rounds.  After that, I fill the bird feeders and head on over to the girls' barn, then to the horse barn where Apache and the cats are waiting.  If I don't need to move any hay or feed, I spend a good hour to an hour and a half on this morning routine (on the days I don't go in to the office).  

I don't really spend a lot of time on this blog writing about family.  But today I am feeling nostalgic and missing my 2 sons so I will write a bit about them and what they are currently up to.

Ian and Sam/Zac (long story for another day) spent the last 2 1/2 years working at a lodge near Yosemite National Park, but moved in November to Lake Tahoe for seasonal work there.  They are really living a pretty cool life right now since both are in their 20's and neither has anything to tie him down.  Ian has a girlfriend, Michelle, but she is doing the same thing and moved with them.  There  4 of them living in a condo near Heavenly at Lake Tahoe.  I guess the condo even has a hot tub on the deck.  Ian has a job working at a retail store which is located in one of the big casinos but is owned by Heavenly, so one of his perks is a ski pass for the season.  Sam/Zac who has become a very good chef is starting a job at a new restaurant opening soon and is training at their other location.  Along with their 4th roommate, Ryan, they play in a 3 piece band called "Those That Kill", which for those of you who don't know is the English translation of "Yosemite".  Here is a link to them playing  a song in the bar at Evergreen Lodge, where they all worked until recently.  
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1762729186#!/video/video.php?v=541160648138&oid=357790829700&comments 
My 2 boys are left (Sam/Zac)and center (Ian).  Ryan is on the right.  I am so glad that through the internet I can share in what my boys are doing even though they are 2/3 of the way across the country from me.  I hope this link will work.


I am in the process of warping up my loom for more rugs.  I sold 2 rugs this weekend to an alpaca friend,  I hope she likes them.  I'll do a post on warping one of these days.  It is tedious and time consuming, but must be done in order to weave.


I have gotten a start on the 118 Spin-off entries that are in my dining room.  I hope to really make a dent in it this weekend.  My biggest class is 10 entries, which is nice.  I've had classes as large as 15 and that is an entire 8 hour day + which becomes more like work than fun. 


Until next week, stay warm everyone and finish up those Christmas chores.  I will be baking Rum Cakes this week!

Winter Has Arrived and We Are STILL Trying to Get Ready!

 

But maybe you can tell from this photo that the new chimney liner is installed and the woodburner is crankin' out the heat!  

Yes, despite the fact that we have free gas from our oil and gas wells, we really like the wood heat when the winter cold sets in.  Our house, being 100+ years old and having gas from its own wells, was never insulated.  Sam did insulate our attic after we moved in, but that's about the extent of it.  In addition to no insulation, we did not have a furnace either when we bought the house.  It was heated with several ancient gas space heaters, which we used until we added on our mud room addition in 2006.  At that time, we installed a furnace, but mostly when we run it, the downstairs is cold and the bedroom upstairs is hot, especially because the thermostat is downstairs.  We installed the woodburner our second year in this house because with well gas, one never knows when it might freeze up or get a hole in a line and when it does, you can't just call the gas company to come fix it.  You ARE the gas company.  Or more specifically, Sam is the gas company (and yes there is a joke in there somewhere).  The wood burner went in as a back up heat source for when (if) the gas goes out, which it generally does at some point during January when our useage is high and the pressure drops.  But we also found that the woodburner put out a much steadier, warmer radiant heat.  It keeps the living room warm and also keeps the furnace from kicking on as often, which in turn, keeps the bedroom upstairs at a much cooler temperature.  We prefer to have a cooler bedroom and use a nice alpaca blanket!

I can give a little more information on the oil and gas wells, but Sam is the one who handles all those details and he definitely knows more than I do, such as how many barrels of oil we produce a year.  I can assure you, however, that the Middle East does not have to worry about us taking over their oil business!  On our 197 acres, we have (I think) 5 or 6 wells.  Our house is supplied by 2 wells which produce both oil and natural gas and we own the wells outright, which means we have to maintain them if we want them to produce.  They are old wells, and do not produce a lot, but we sell a couple tankfuls of oil off every year and of course the house is heated, as is Sam's garage workshop and my soon to be studio.  Once a week the wells must be pumped.  Salt water must be pumped out of the well and then the oil must be pumped into a holding tank (or maybe it is the oil first, water second, I'm not sure, this is Sam's area).  Natural gas is a by prodcut of the oil and if we do not pump the oil and water out of the wells, the pressure will eventually drop.  

There are 2 wells on our property which are leased, so we do not have to maintain those, nor do we get the oil that comes from them.  We do get a royalty from any oil and gas sold and we get the right to free gas to 1 dwelling.  This is where part of the gas for our guest house comes from. Some of it also comes from another well we have.  

So getting the new chimney liner installed was an important part of getting ready for winter.  We also like to put heavy duty plastic wrap (it comes in rolls that painters use for protective coverings) across the overhang on our barn.  It turns the 8' wide overhang into a more protected shelter for the alpacas and keeps the wind and blowing snow out.  This was supposed to be done the same day we were scheduled to replace 130' of fencing last month and was of course the only day it rained in November!!  Saturday, it WILL get done.  The fencing will probably have to wait for spring, yet again. 

I attended our local Christmas Festival this past Saturday and took alpaca products to sell.  My biggest seller by far was my alpaca socks that I have made right here in the US.  I send my fiber in to a fiber "pool" where they put everyone's fiber together and have products made.  I just have to send in so many pounds of fiber and so much $$ and I get a dozen pairs of socks.  This is a much less expensive way of getting socks than having my own fiber spun into yarn and then knitted into socks.  They do it in much larger quantities this way and it is much more cost effective.  I sell the socks for $13 a pair and I sold a dozen pairs Saturday.  I have more!  I also sold the lacey mitts I made.  I thought they came out cute and they were one of the first items I sold. 

 I took my rugs to sell, but unfortunately did not sell any.  To be honest, though, lower ticket items do sell much more easily at these functions.

Fingerless Mitts, hand-dyed, spun and knit

I have all the rugs priced at $50 except 1 which ended up a bit shorter than I wanted (miscalculation) and it is $40.  Here are the rugs all lined up on my love seat. The 3 on the right had side are the most recent ones and are 24" wide by roughly 36" long, though the second 1 in is a little shorter.  The farthest left is 30" by 36" or so and the second from the left is the one that is $40. It is 30" wide and I think only about 30" long.  Reminds me of a horse blanket.

Here's another photo of the second batch.

So right now I really don't have anything in the works.  I need to make some neck cowls and of course I will warp up the loom again probably next week for 3 more rugs.   Last night I joined the dogs and cats in front of the woodburner and carded some fiber while I watched a silly movie.  Thoroughly enjoyable!

Drum carder on stand, Rowdy, Lucky & Tigger in front of woodstove

I use the drum carder to prepare fiber for spinning.  It cards it into nice smooth batts a little over an ounce each.  I am working on some chocolate brown right now.  To theright is the carder with some fiber on it which is being put through for the second time.  I am running this fiber through 3 times.  It is "combed " between the large drum and the "licker in" drum and then I peel the finished batt off the large drum and it is ready to spin.  

                                                                                         I also just recieved a whole box  of Spin-off entries for the   Missouri alpaca show which I believe will be held in March, so I have to get those all done before we go on our anniversary trip in late January.   You may remember I did a post on judging a Spin-off probably back in April.  There are 118 entries in this one,   so I will be kept busy the next month or so!                       

 The shelter has also been keeping me busy.  We have adoption days this weekend for the dozen or so cats we still have and the Puppy-Mill Poms will be heading out to a rescue in Canada this weekend.  They are taking all 5, even the old blind guy.  I hope they will find wonderful caring homes.  Every dog deserves a nice warm home, even if they don't get it until they are older.  Old dogs can be so wonderful.  I know we have never once regretted bringing Ginger into our family.  So all of you reading this, keep that in mind.  If you get a chance to do something nice for an old dog, it really is worth it.

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."  Mark Twain