Farmama

He's Here!

(King Winter that is!)

 



Welcome our friend.........we're glad you've come!

(Sorry for the dark photos......they were taken in the last light of this day!)

Weekend Scenery

No weekend fiber fix to share with you today. I did get a lot of knitting done, but that's a surprise I'm working on and it will be posted later.  Here's just a little bit of weekend scenery.....

A little trip to town to escape from all the construction dust in the house. Soon there will be a fire in our new wood stove!

Our 2010 Calander

 Last year Isaac made our calender, it was a homeschool project. He measured out the grid for each and every month with a pencil and ruler. (He was super glad when that was complete!) This year I decided to make a calender with some of my favorite photos. I didn't get my camera until August, so most of the photos are summer themes......next year I hope to have winter images in the winter months!

Comments/suggestions are most welcome!

I hope you are having a nice weekend! Thanks for visiting the farm!

Assignment #3

Our assignment for this week was to chose a theme and then go out and photograph only images that would fit that theme. I chose to do it backwards.....I photographed and then hoped that a theme to sum it up would come to me......but this was even more difficult than I had imagined! I can't think of a single word or theme to sum up these photos! I've been sitting here for way too long trying to think of it! I guess that's why the assignment was to chose the theme first! 

How about "transition"!? Right now we are transitioning from autumn to winter......the leaves have nearly all blown away, there is ice forming on top of the pond and along the gushing spring. The farm animals feel this transition, and so do the wise old trees.

 

I hear that by Monday there will be snow on this old country road.

Not many words

just a few.........

the barn doors are almost complete!

Here's the little greenhouse where our winter greens are growing. I've been posting about it so much lately and realized I never showed it to you! It's just a very simple structure built off the south face of our barn. We built it mostly out of scrap lumber, so it was pretty inexpensive.

  Every evening I go out and tuck in the new sprouts!

 So there you have it! I hope you have a nice Friday!

yarn

Remember that roving I dyed the other day (or should I say messed up on the other day?) It coulda (shoulda) been so pretty! Well, here's the color it ended up:

Yup.....that's what happens when all the colors run together and become one color! But I started spinning it today........it's not so bad.....just not what I wanted.

Here' the silvery bright full moon shining through our big greenhouse tonight.........

happy full moon to you!

Wintergreens! (Part II)

This morning I sent Isaac out to do chores, and he quickly returned to the house to proclaim (excitedly!) that the winter greens we planted last week have sprouted! Then the whole family ran out to admire the new life in the greenhouse. Hooray......we shall have winter greens to eat after all!

I have to admit.......I was a little unsure whether the seeds would sprout! It is December after all, and we have seen lows of 11 degrees F. throughout the week!  And an unheated greenhouse? How's that for permaculture? So far only the Maruba (a yummy Asian green) has sprouted, but I kinda dug around (just a little!) and the spinach and radishes have sprouted too!  

Now.... on a much less exciting note, I finally got around to the fall cleaning in the chicken house. Ila sat in her stroller and watched load after load of chicken manure be hauled off to the compost pile.  So hooray for another chore checked off of my ever growing list!

The chickens are free ranging at this time of year (causing all sorts of ruckuses.....naughty birds!) So once the cleaning duties were complete, I sat in the grass with Ila so she could say hello to her feathered friends.

Well, that's all I have for you today my friends! Thanks for stopping by to visit the farm!

Weekend Fiber Fix

I was determined this weekend to finish spinning some yarn that I had dyed with walnut husks a couple weeks back. So I spun.....and spun...and spun for many, many long hours! I spun up five skeins of double ply yarn!!....I really didn't think I would be able to finish it in one weekend....!!  My wheel was a little creaky after all that! I'm not going to share that yarn with you today though......(it's a surprise!).....that I will share  when the knittings done! So after all of that spinning I needed to do something else! After spilling blue dye all over my kitchen(!!!!) I decided to set up a "dye studio" in the greenhouse on my planting workbench. Enough words.....I will let the photos speak!

 

(okay....just a few little words!) Funny how long a bucket of dirt & a spoon can keep a baby smiling!

 

I finally figured out how to download the color formula chart.....now I can make specific colors without all the guess work!
 

 

Once the color is painted on you wrap the wool up in plastic wrap...like a burrito! 

Then steam it so the dye will set! Well......if you remember to add the vinegar the dye will set! Yup.....I forgot the vinegar.....and I learned that if you forget something as important as the vinegar.....then all your beautiful colors run together and you end up with a rather barfy looking colored roving! Well......on the bright side.....it was good fun, with good buddies, and good music too! ...... and I will never again forget to add the vinegar......lesson learned!!

I hope you had some fun this weekend!

 

Environmental Portraits

This weeks assignment was to photograph people through the objects of their lives....including a self portrait. We were to do five portraits....here are mine:

"Farmer Lyla"

I visited my neighbor Farmer Lyla and found her at her work bench planning all the many crops she will grow next season.

"Tom"

My husband Tom's most useful tools.

"Benny Black"

Now how could I leave Benny Black out of this assignment? And this being the only thing that he owns....he was easy!

"Brit"

Our master barn door builder friend!

"Me"

Some of my most cherished tools.

Here is a list of other folks who are participating in this assignment:

Bloom
Rose Notes
Bee House Hives
Earth Mama
Florali
Neuro Knitter
Filamental
Hartwood Roses
Made by AnmariePotjethee
Under the Big Blue Sky
Give A Girl A Fig
Mackvilleroad

Earthy Crunchy

Just in case you want to see some more environmental profiles!

My new tool

After what seemed like a lot of research I decided to get the Fancy Kitty drum carder. I chose it because it's hand made from solid oak right here in America by a nice fellow named Ron Anderson, who is proud of his quality craftsmanship (as he should be for this really is a quality product!) When I was researching and inquiring about which carder to get many people recommended the Louet carder, but recently the design changed and they are no longer making it out of wood, (it's laminate now.) I like the idea of solid oak better! Another deciding factor was that the Fancy Kitty has a really affordable motorized kit that I can save up for.

and here it is!

 
We've already made a big stack of beautiful batts!

 
You must have clean wool to begin so the drum carder doesn't get all greasy. I found great instructions for scouring in the washing machine here. As recommended by Pennie I used dish soap and soda ash, which worked very well....thanks Pennie! (While you're over at Pennie's check out her awesome give away!!)

Here's some clean fiber that I dyed:

 
I tease it just a little bit before feeding it through (someday I hope to get a picker to help with this!) I feed it through the carder twice which leaves me with a beautiful ready to spin batt!

 
And here you can see the fiber before carding and the batt fresh off the carder.

 
I chose the fine 90/120 carding cloth as Recommended by Ron, for my fine Corriedale wool.

Here's the Fancy Kitty in action.

 
And here's a finished batt coming off the drum.

 
I have a lot of work to do.....good thing I have a good helper!