Monday, April 28, 2014




We're so excited ... we have baby chicks.  They started hatching yesterday.  First one died, not even dried off.  It was fairly large but not sure what happened to it.  Just cold laying near the hen.  It probably crawled out from under her too far or she decided to get up for whatever reason and it got hypothermia.  We disposed of its little body, then started checking for more every few hours.  By last evening we had four in the house getting warm with food and water we'd added electrolites to.  When we returned them to the nest before dark, there were several more.

We decided to leave them all there and let momma chicken tend to them.  She's very sweet, a good mom and was getting a little testy with us lifting her up so often.  There is another clutch going on in the little chicken coop we bought last summer.  My daughter actually lifted the flap covering it a couple days ago and a hen was sitting there ... they scared each other pretty good!  We have 10 eggs in there now, but this hen doesn't seem to take her job as seriously as our first hen.  We'll see.  Most eggs are fairly large but there's one that's about a big as a green olive.  So funny.  I'm sure there's nothing in there.  We've had those before.

Our border collie mix Dexter still continues to worry our rooster.  He's herding him, but only the rooster and not the hens.  I think Dex thinks he is in need of some help.  Rooster Cogburn (I'm thinking of changing his name, he's so ornery) never attacks Dex but saves up all his anger and anxiety for one of us when we walk out to the pens.  His favorite trick is to attack from behind.  And it Hurts!  I've been told to spray him with vinegar in a spray bottle.  Maybe that will work.

The goats are nearly all combed now.  Egypt and Smokey feel better, only GE is left.  I saved him for last because he doesn't have a collar to hold on to and his fiber is very thick with very long guard hair.  Its going to take some doing to get him done in a couple days.

Our weather is still cold, in the 30's at night.  We had snow yesterday along with a lot of rain and hail.  Typical spring weather for us.  Our weather person on TV did say it should be 75 by Thursday this week, but then back in the 50's a couple days later.  As I've said before, our summer really doesn't get started until after July 4.  Its not very long, but is spectacularly beautiful.

I promised to post some pictures today when I headed out to the pens.  We wondered how many chicks made it through the night, and how many more there are.  My daughter checked this morning and she saw two under momma but heard a lot of chirping.  At last count this evening we had eight little chicks and still have four eggs in that nest.  The second nest in the little coop looks the same except there's one more in there now bringing the count to 11.  Hope these hatch too but they've been cold a lot for long periods of time.  I would put them under the first hen but she's getting so thin from not eating much and sitting on her little clutch of eggs day and night.



Sunday, April 20, 2014

The picture at the top of my blog is of the beautiful little puppies born a few weeks ago at the farm where my niece and her puppy are going for obedience training and where Jet was born too.  Aren't they cute?!!

My niece's puppy Jet is growing into the sweetest, prettiest little girl.  She's now eight months old, doing her puppy obedience training so well and for the most part behaving like a puppy should.  The only thing that could use a little work is when she's playing with the other big dogs, she really thinks she's one of them.  They are very careful not to hurt her but she's definitely learning some naughty tricks.

Our border collie mix and our great pyrenees play pretty rough together.  The border collie the roughest I think.  He certainly isn't afraid of Bella.

Bella used to be the roughest, naughtiest dog ever.  Her favorite trick was to jump on anyone who walked by.  At over 100 pounds, she could knock me over very easily.  Now, she just calmly walks up for a pat and a hug.  Such a love!


I'm planning on making an alpaca scarf, my wonderful friend in Kentucky gave me some alpaca yarns and I'm wanting to use them for this project.  The scarf on the right is a picture from a magazine that I fell in love with and would like to try and duplicate it.  It is 100% alpaca yarns.  My scarf won't be nearly as large but I like the combination of natural colors.



 These are the yarns I got from my good friend at Serano Alpacas in KY.  The dark brown on my bobbin is from our alpaca Jasper, also from Serano Alpacas.

Since I had his fiber made into the most beautiful roving at our local mill, Fibers First, I've been spinning it not knowing what exactly to do  with it but now I think this will be a perfect fit for this scarf of many colors.

I may not have quite enough colors, so after I get a portion of the warp warped I can tell more easily and I Always have lots of alpaca to spin up, lots of colors including black.  More later on this project.

I still have several projects we call UFO's.  Unfinished Fiber Objects ... like the beautiful red / gold / orange / black scarf I still have on my loom from two summers ago.  I really need to get that one done.  Better vacuum off the dust which has accumulated on the loom!

Have a Joyful Resurrection Sunday, everyone.  May God bless you richly.