They're finally here! Apollo and Harley were sheared and brought home Saturday. How cute are they? You decide by this picture of them. They are quite a bit smaller because they are so young and are a little intimidated by the 'big' boys. They seem to be blending in very well, each day getting easier for them. Nothing is quite as soft as baby or yearling alpaca fiber. Right now I'm working on some of Oso's beautiful black fiber from last year. I've spun a single and plyed it with a single of some Mawata silk hankies that were dyed a beautiful dark turquoise and purple. Wow, with that black alpaca, its really striking and extremely soft. Guess I better do some more of the same. We're remodeling the old house on the property and will make it a garage, two shops with a small bedroom and bathroom. So much nicer. Now my studio can be out there instead of upstairs.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I salute all our veterans including my brother Dave, for their service to our country. May God bless each and every one of them. Thank you. Yesterday we got the four alpacas sheared. Finally! I'm sure they were all so happy to rid themselves of those hot sweaters they have been enduring. The temps have only been in the 70's but even so, they were too warm. I got over 12 pounds of blanket fiber off them plus the 2nd and 3rds. We keep it all separated; I will send the blanket fiber to Going To The Sun Fiber Mill in Kalispell MT and do something with the 2nd and 3rds myself. GTTS does such a fantastic job. So far I've gotten rovings and lace-weight yarns done. Thank you Diana! I will spin the 2nds and maybe try a little felting work with the 3rds. We got the goat side of the barn finished this weekend. Now the alpacas and the goats each have their own areas to eat and sleep in if they wish. Most of the time they prefer to be together, but when they eat its so much better to separate them. Dolly seems happy no matter which side she is on. She's so sweet and calm. Nothing disturbs her except loud noises or strangers. Such a love. Here's a picture of coming home after taking them to be sheared. The gray alpaca is really my white one after rolling in the dirt because it feels so good!

Spring, finally. The last week or so has been much warmer. We're shearing the alpacas this Saturday. I'm sure they will be so happy to get rid of all that hot fiber. And I'm getting two new babies the following Saturday. They are young and named Apollo and Harley. So cute. We will shear them when I pick them up. Finally got another side put on the barn. Now the alpacas and goats can be separated for eating and it gives them so much more room without them having to go inside the barn. I plan to use the barn this year to store hay. That way I won't be carrying it over to the pasture daily. I can carry almost enough for one day, but with two more boys, that would mean two trips. Since I have a booth this year at our local fair (very small), I really need to get busy preparing my fiber and other related things. Hopefully more folks will get interested in spinning and weaving. Right now I'm still working on spinning the black alpaca fiber and also some beautiful dyed silk hankies. Both of these will be yarn for sale in the booth.

Good grief, April already.  Where is the time going?  Three days into spring!  Since we've had snow every day this last week it sure doesn't seem like it.  Went to a friends a couple weeks ago, here is a picture.  The babies are so cute! My babies are all getting along well.  I think today is the day we shear the little goats.  Its been so cold I've been holding off, don't want them to get chilled.  The weather is warming up now so hopefully everyone will be ok.  We have been going to garage sales and went to a swap meet yesterday.  I bought three old pickle crocks for nearly nothing.  They are great for holding fiber-y stuff.  I will have a booth at our local fair this summer, so always looking for stuff for that.  I've been working on my spinning, trying to get some yarn made up to sell.  Its hard for me to knit any more but I do love the yarn.  Pics when I get some done.  I like dying and spinning and blending fibers.  I guess I'm partial to a tweed-y type yarn.  Its so pretty when you make something.  Come on summer!

Well, tomorrow is the first of March. I just realized I haven't posted here for some time. I've been busy trying to keep on top of things at home, get everyone fed morning and night, and trying not to make my back any more sore than it is already. Today I finally bought a tractor to make things a little easier in cleaning up around here. With winter's end approaching rapidly, there will be plenty to do with the animals. In the past I've done it all by hand with my daughter's help. This year hopefully the manual part of the labor won't be as much. Its a cute little Kubota, just my size with a bucket on the front and a snow blade. WooHoo. The chickens are getting big enough to butcher. Since I've got only two hens out of my remaining 11, I won't be sorry to see and hear those roosters go. They are so noisy and start crowing around 3am every morning. Between them, the coyotes that run past nightly and howl, my big pyr barking to warn them, and the wild turkeys that are now back, its a cacophony of sounds all night long. I finally found out where the moose were entering the property, its along the fence all the way in the back. Two very large trees came down on the fence and broke it in several places. How easy for them to just walk over the downed fence in the very deep snow and just keep going. I can't fix it yet as the snow is still too deep and the ground still to frozen. Welcome spring ... hurry hurry.

Check this out! This guy was hanging around my house for the longest time. I had gone down to the chicken coop with the border collie when she started barking and barking. Just about the time I told her to stop and come back, this guy peeked around the corner of the coop. I ran as fast as I could back up the driveway. I was so scared! I decided to go feed the alpacas and the goats over in the pasture instead and when I came back, here was Mr Moose camped out on my front porch. Waiting for his breakfast I guess. Mom and I were inside taking pictures (without the flash on). This one I took from upstairs. When he heard me open the window for this picture, he put his big front foot on the edge of this roof and looked like he wanted to climb up. Our snow is so incredibly deep that he was nose high with the edge of the porch roof. I was on my way to Arizona that day and wasn't sure I would be able to make it out of the driveway. If he decided to stand in my way, I don't think my little car would have been a match for him. Luckily he decided to go eat somewhere else.

My trip to Arizona was fruitful. My mother-in-law passed away and I needed to get a lot of paper type work accomplished. I met some wonderful people in the process. The weather was cool and very windy but nothing like ours here. It was 12 degrees this morning when I got up. Quite a change from 70! I had almost (almost!) forgotten. I'm so glad to be back home. All my little animal friends were so happy to see me ... even J2, my snooty male kitty came and made himself comfortable on my bed last night. Hopefully now I can settle back down and get some spinning done before this winter is completely over.

Almost Christmas. Time passes so quickly any more. I've been knitting tiny little newborn baby hats to take over to the Open Arms Crisis Pregnancy Center. I hope they like them. Its been a fun project. More snow that usual has fallen already and its only the start of winter. We had about 27 inches in 24 hours. We've had moose in the yard too. The snow has drifted in the back by the fence and I suspect the moose just walked right over the 6' fence there. I left and front and side gates open last night so they could get out, but this morning there were no large footprints so I guess they didn't go out that way. I'm so disappointed! One of my goats ate a very old gold earring I was wearing. LoverBoy (so aptly named) loves me and loves to taste and nibble my fingers, face, hair, ears. He reached up this morning and grabbed my ear and I heard the earring unsnap. He gulped a couple times and bye-bye :-( No sense grabbing him, they are so fast. Everyone is doing well in the pasture. I had to take the snowblower over a couple days ago and plow some paths for them to run around. They were so happy to be out of the barn and shed, which are remarkably warm even when the wind blows like it has been lately. Just getting out of the draft sure makes a difference. This picture is almost the same one as at the very top of the blog. Some difference! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

No snow yet! I'm so glad, I still have work to complete outside before it does. Yesterday I took six of our chickens to be butchered. They certainly looked a lot bigger with their feathers on. She does it so quickly. It would have taken me most of the day, it took her about 1/2 hour total. Thank You! I can't wait to eat them. If you've never had fresh chicken, you are in for a real treat if you ever get the chance. A few weeks ago I was blessed with a Clemes carder by a friend. I've been carding a Gotland fleece I started several years ago. Gotland wool is from New Zealand and is what they made those beautiful capes from in the movie Lord of the Rings. It is so crimpy that I didn't want to use my big carder, afraid it would be too much. This carder is just perfect for it. Now I can spin the beautiful silver fiber either alone or blend it on the big carder with something else. That's my favorite, a gorgeous natural fiber blended with a dyed or over-dyed fiber. That's what makes the heathered yarns I'm so partial to. Pictures if I ever get it done. Nephew coming this weekend from out of state. Hope he likes the farm.

What a tragic day. At 4am and again at 4:45 am this morning I heard a chicken squawking. Since it is very dark up here at that time I waited until it was light to see what was wrong. I found two dead chickens, one in the yard and one out by the orchard. I think I've finally figured out there's an owl that hunts at night that may kill them and partially eat one. Then in the daylight we have a very aggressive hawk that will swoop down right next to the porch and try to get the chickens. So far this month I've lost about six I think. Some were babies, but some were the moms that were trying to protect the little chicks. Our last remaining mother chicken I rescued today from the hawk. She looks like she has been through a windstorm with her feathers half gone and the rest all sticking out. The goats and alpacas are all doing so well together. I had a three-sided shed built so they can get out of the weather. They seem to like it ok, but this morning everyone had frost on their coats from laying out in the freezing air in the pasture instead of inside the shed. Silly things. With everything going on ... leaves to rake, apples to pick, chickens to rescue I haven't had much time to do much fibery stuff, although I did start spinning some of Oso's beautiful and soft black alpaca fiber. The two scarves on the loom haven't been touched since way last summer but I'm hopeful I can get back to finish them before too long. After all, Christmas is coming!

The month of Sept has flown by. Already we are putting away the summer tools and preparing for winter. How quickly time passes when you are so busy. I was in Arizona for a few days. The heat is oppressive, 92 degrees on the porch at 8:30pm, air conditioners still going strong. Our nights up here are so cool and fresh with the days in the fall warm and sunny. I was so glad to get home to both families ... human and otherwise. Yesterday my wonderful friends Mary and Stan from Aspen Alpacas brought me two more beautiful gelded alpacas named Raulito and Coop. They are both a rich copper color and the fiber is incredibly soft. It will be next spring before they get sheared and I can't wait to start spinning some of it. The turquoise dyed alpaca and apricot silk yarn I made a while ago was from another of Aspen's geldings, Diego. I gave the yarn to Mary for a scarf she will be making. How fun. You go girl! Here's a picture of the two latest additions to our farm.

I just realized today is the last day of August and I haven't done anything here this month. It really feels like fall already, last night was cold at about 39 degrees. The weather is usually so beautiful this time of year, dark blue skies, warm sunny days but cold nights. We are hopeful that this winter will not be as brutal as the last one. Just in case it is, today my daughter and I finished putting up the cattle panels on the new alpaca pen. It is next to the goat pen and much closer to the house than the barn and pasture are. There were a few times last year I couldn't get the gates open so I could feed the livestock because the snow was several feet deep. This year if that happens, at least the animals will be on this side of the property. Our little foster kittens are so cute and ready to be re-homed. Little Princess has already found a loving home with a big sister that is so delighted to have someone to play with. Reggie and Mr Comfy are still looking to be adopted by loving families. Since they didn't have a mama cat, they are so friendly with people. I've been so busy this summer that I forgot to enter anything in the Fair this month. I didn't finish my projects this summer either so maybe next time I will have a new scarf to post. I have started spinning the black alpaca's fiber. It is incredibly soft. For a black alpaca, Oso has remarkable fiber. I hope to be able to weave a scarf from it. We'll see what happens.

Last week the new rescue pyr got a new 'forever' home. I'm sure he was so happy to finally be in place of his own. Today I tried taking a picture of the yarn I just finished along side the Campanula flowers that I dyed it to look like, but the flowers were all gone! They only last a couple of weeks. Our weather has been warm but not hot so I was hoping they would last a little longer. I took it with the lavender instead. This coming weekend is Art of the Green and the craft fair in Coeur d'Alene. Its always one of my favorite things to do. They have tons of food booths in the park, lots of shade to sit in and its right next to the lake. I can't wait! Our little foster kittens are about five weeks old today and are so cute. They have just learned to eat soft cat food from a bowl and insist on getting inside the bowl. Their faces are covered. It won't be long before they are old enough to adopt.