One second, please

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you'?"

William A. Ward

If you can't think of anything you are thankful for, then stop what you are doing for one second, take a deep breath and relax. Congratulations. You now have a reason to give thanks. May you always find an abundance of reasons to be thankful.

I love this entry above. watch a lovely little movie at http://www.mayyoubeblessed.com/ which emails me a heartfelt blessing each day http://www.bettertobless.com/hfb.html They are quite nice and thought provoking.

May you each be blessed.

Appledoms

Applebee's has nothing on our flock! These sheep are loving their apples. We have one tree that is dropping golden delicious faster than we can gather them. The deer are helping by night but this afternoon I filled a basket so I'd have a stash for them. The trees in their pasture are not dropping yet...macintosh but still developing. It would be an understatement to say the highlight of their day is the apple toss. I take 6-7 apples and toss them into the grass for them to eat. Here Ashley is enjoying her apple; and for an instant I set the basket down in the field (that was dumb!). Some of the youngsters prefer hand fed! In fact Peach (right corner, bottom picture) will butt me if I walk away from her without an extra apple. We've had words about that behavior!

Living life!

Multi-tasking is at a peak here this weekend. Jack reset fence posts and gates that needed adjustment, let down the hay elevator for winter, spread all the manure since March, mowed and trimmed the perimeter pastures that don't get grazed and went hunting this afternoon. I got a pound of yarn mordanted in two separate baths, a pound of silk pieces "zorbed" (Silksorb to remove the serecin and scoured to clean, all in one), dye kits packaged for the upcoming shows in October, cleaned my truck, filled dye orders and tended the sheep.

The walk from the house to the dye studio is uphill/downhill and the sheep are even further out the uphill/downhill...trips back and forth:100: projects completed: a success: calories burned: priceless!

Misty Mornings

These are some of the nicest days of a New England year. The temperatures are 70's during the daytime, 40's overnight, no bugs, and no humidity. Every morning of late this is the sheep view. It's cool, calm, misty, the grass wet with dew. The sheep are calm and content even though there is not the best grass of summer anymore. It's as if they know to just be free and able to enjoy these bug free, cool days is good enough. It's also apple season, and around the edges we have some great fruit bearing wild apple trees. They love to eat apples. Ashley, Bea, Georgia, Peach and Charlotte will hand feed, the rest eat from the ground. On the outside of the fences the deer come to eat what falls to the ground. Just the other day Jack and I were standing around the barn yard just talking and friends stopped by. They watched, as we came up the lane ,while 3 deer were eating apples just behind the barn! They were in full view except to us!

Hay is in

We got the final load of hay in the barn last week...100 more which puts us great shape for the winter and spring months. Steve(counting bales in the field) and Liza did the offloading and Jack and I did the stacking in the barn and by the end we were unable to move more than 1 foot in any direction for the last 6 bales! It sure is cozy up there though and now with the hay in and the wood stacked we are ready for the coming season.

Our monarch butterfly garden

Out in the far field we keep a large patch of the field unmown this time of year because there is a lot of milkweed which the monarch caterpillars require to feed on. These are pictures of a caterpillar, a chrysallis which is the caterpillar in transformation to a monarch butterfly and then the final picture is butterfly that hatched this morning, the empty chrysallis below and another caterpillar waiting to form it's chrysallis to the right. It is an incredible journey for these winged beauties. If you would like to read more just click on www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm

Painted skeins

Here are two skeins I painted last weekend. I knit the swatches up to see how the variegation played out in a number of different patterns.

Workshop Part 2

Lunches were provided by our assistant shepherds, Steve and Liza who had just moved to the farm August 1st! They took high marks each day for presentation and well rounded lunches from entree to salad and dessert!

Here are some of the colors of the week before and after indigo dips:

Handpainted Variegated Yarns Workshop Part 1

I can't believe it has already been almost three weeks since Michele Wipplinger was here to teach our annual Earthues workshop at the farm. It was a fabulous week with a great group of dyers, some with experience, some with none, but all with a love for fiber and learning. In fact this group was so cohesive they will be back next year! Plans are to have 2 workshops back to back in August with Michele, the first filled; the second will be announced in the Spring, so mark your calendars and contact me if you are interested.
The course this year was learning to handpaint variegated yarns using Earthues natural dyes.
The first day was spent in lecture and discussion as Michele spoke about color and color theory, using many yarn and swatch examples to explain what creates a visually appealing skein.


Palette's were individually chosen by each participant then extract solutions were created, then each student mixed their own colors based on their palette and the painting began.Days two and three were spent painting, steaming the skeins to set the dyes and overdyeing with indigo for some.


Everyone created beautifully dyed yarns and learned and understood the process perfectly.

Shibori with Joan Morris

There is one opening left for Deep Surface: Pairing Mechanical and Shaped Resist Techniques with Joan Morris. For more information contact saragoodman@valley.net Joan is a fabulous shibori instructor www.dartmouth.edu/~theater/people/morris.html and we are fortunate to have her located right here in the Northeast. The workshop is being held in Lyme, NH, from October 3-8.