We've had so much rain lately!  We had our garden rototilled last month, then it started raining off and on.  Silly me, I waited too long to try and get out there to rake and weeds out that were loose.

Here's a picture of what it looks like today.  Those weeds are about knee to waist high now.  I had purchased a couple veggie plants at the store a couple weeks ago.  Waited for the rain to stop and finally took them out to the garden.

Since it was so wet I just sat them on a small cleared spot where I had removed some of the weeds.  Then ... of course I forgot they were out there.  So last week I went out to see if they were still alive.  Fortunately there was enough rain every day to keep them more than healthy.   Today is June 29 and I still have not planted them.

Oh well.  There's always tomorrow.

 If anyone thinks these hardy plants are not going to make it, take a look at our broccoli plant in this picture on the right.  You can see the weeds surrounding a darker green plant.  There's actually more than one plant as this is a six-pack container.

All it needs is a little TLC and to be freed from its prison of the container.  Talk about container gardening!  There are even a few little flowerettes of broccoli on the tops.

The picture on the left is our poor little tomato plant.  If you look very close, there is even a tiny little tomato right in the front.

See?  Not bad for still is the container.  I always said I had a brown thumb when it came to my garden.  Maybe the problem all along was me.  I should just leave well enough alone.

Actually, last year we had a pretty nice garden.  We had purchased the plants we wanted instead of doing the seed thing like the had the year before.  That didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so last year we got fairly large plants and had more veggies than we could use.  We gave quite a bit away to friends and the church love pantry and still had enough to use, dry, and however else we needed to use them.  And we didn't even start the plants until July.

Let's hope this year is warm and drier than the last month.

A friend sent me a new word I just had to look up.   Hugelkultur.  I've never heard of this, its a type of raised garden bed that requires very little care after its constructed and no water!  Yes!!  My kind of garden.  Here is a most interesting link I found, there is a great video towards the top of the article.  Amazing, my garden looks nearly like this already.  I just might have to try something like this.  Actually its looks like our alpaca poo-pile in the pasture, the one where we go over and get a couple tractor scoops to put on our garden.  So check it out:    http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

We haven't planted a thing yet this year.  Its such a perfect year to plant too.  Lots of spring rains, warm weather, cool nights ... we've just been too busy to get out there after I had it rototilled.  Too bad, now we have to pull the weeds by hand.  Oh well, it keeps us young and strong (Ha!).

Our goats are munching down our pasture as hoped.  Bella has resigned herself to staying with them during the day but they all demand to be brought back by late afternoon.  They even stayed out in the pouring rain the other day without too much complaining.  They do have shelter in the barn but I guess they enjoyed the coolness of it.

And Bella was so wet when I brought her back into the house.  Talk about smelly!!  Phew!  Guess our next trip will be to the groomer.  And that dog sleeps on my bed.  Fortunately she had dried off by bed time.  P.U.   :-<

We have nine more baby chickens, lost one of the big babies, now they are nine also.  So 18 big and little fuzzy creatures running around the house with their moms.  Actually the first momma chicken has for the most part ignored her chicks.  They are big enough to roam the yards by themselves.  As long as our great pyrenees Bella can't find them and eat them they are safe.  Can you find the babies?  - - - - - >

One and a half more weeks of school to go, then out for summer.  My niece wanted to help the other day (Yes!) so I showed her how to mow the yard with the big mower.  What a great job she did.  She's very adept at learning new things.  And also very careful and didn't leave any 'holidays' as my husband called them.  Those little places in the lawn that you always miss and don't see until everything is put away.

Spring is definitely a welcome season.  Everything is so green and fresh.  I had a window open the other day early in the morning and it smelled so fresh and woodsy.  We must have had a little bit of rain or heavy dew that night because it smelled damp.  We are surrounded by forest and most visitors just love the smell, but I don't usually smell it any more.  Until the other day.  Heavenly!

Our little chicks are growing, their mama is so good.  Even our rooster takes good care of them.  They walk around the yard all day, mama clucking softly at them if they lag too far behind.  Mr. Rooster right behind them and will attack anyone or anything that comes close.  I think he got Dexter our border collie yesterday.  Dex has several spots on his nose that could use a little bit of hair now.  Because Dex is a herding dog he drives the rooster crazy because he's always just feet away from him and the chickens trying to get them to go one way or another.  Its a natural thing with him.  We've not trained him to do that.  He only likes chickens and won't have anything to do with the goats. 

The pictures below are of my very first hand knit socks I made.  I actually wore a big hole in the bottom because I wore them so much.  Not on the back of the heel, but on the bottom of the heel.  I tried repairing them a couple years ago but it was awful.  I couldn't even wear them.

Then a friend sent me a couple of websites on how to do it the right way.  You can see how big the hole was on the left.  I didn't think I would ever wear them again.  I used a darning egg for the first time and I can see now why they used to be so popular.  You can hardly find the darning eggs any more.  We live in such a 'throw away' world.

The one on the right is the finished product.  I love these socks.  They are wool, and so warm.  I can wear them with no shoes in the house and it keeps my perpetually cold feet nice and toasty.

The last pair of socks I made are too large even though I have washed them several times.  They are so pretty though I just put them away in my closet. 

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.

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.

Saturday I went to the annual Log Cabin Spinners fiber fair and Templin's Best Western hotel in Post Falls.  I love going, have been nearly every year since it started.  Vendors from all over come to show their beautiful wares.  Lots of local farms with freshly sheared fleeces, our new local mill that did such a beautiful job on my alpaca fiber, farms and businesses with supplies, finished yarns, door prizes.  Its always so much fun and I get to see lots of friends.

One of my most treasured friends I saw was the wonderful lady who bought my first two cashmere goats, Hope and Faith.  Janice takes such good care of them and now has around 20 I think.  She has these girls bred and just sent me their photos.  They look just beautiful.  Hope is on the right, Faith on the left.

I am hoping to visit Janice's farm this summer, and of course the 'girls'.  I guess I should call them 'ladies' now though.  Hope's picture shows her huge tummy.  She is due to kid today!  I can't wait to see what she has.  Janice and I agreed she looks like she will be having triplets!  Ouch.

I'm not sure if Faith is bred or not.  But they both sure throw beautiful kids.  There is a picture near the top of my blog on the right showing two kids born a couple years ago to them.

I never did have them bred.  First they were a little young, then I sold them.  I almost (Almost) wish I'd had them bred when I had them, but I know nothing about animal birthing and didn't want to have to head out in the snow and cold and dark of winter in case one came early.

Guess I'm just getting too old.  I'm happy to just be a grandma to them.

No pictures of our new puppy this time.  She has discovered the joys of rolling in chicken-poo.  Go figure.  Fortunately the other two have given up that since they grew up.  P-U!  And my niece and her puppy are doing really well at puppy training on Sat mornings.  Right now they are working on 'come', 'sit', all the cool things that would ordinarily drive you crazy.  Walking off the leash is also a big step.

It would be nice to be able to take at least one of our dogs for a walk without the dog taking Me for a walk.  When we had our other Great Pyr, Jessie, I put both him and Bella on leashes and when they saw the guys working on our woods behind the house, they pulled me face-down through the bushes to get to the men.  Those guys thought is was funny.  Me, well not so much.  Oh well.  I won't try that again.  Over 225 lbs of dog(s) is a little too much for me to handle.

 Here on our little farm we are all about animals.  Big ones and small ones.  We just love them.  In past years my daughter has played foster mom to around 300 motherless newborn kittens.

On the right is a recent picture of Willie.  He was one of our first foster kittens and we couldn't part with him so he is also one of our rescue animals.  I just love him.  Very sweet, very calm, except when it comes to our kitty River, also a foster and rescue.

They just don't get along for some reason.  River is a girl, you'd think they would like each other.  For some reason Willie thinks he should be the main kitty that gets to sleep in my bedroom.  River is actually the one who lives in there because she is such a nervous Nellie that she doesn't like being around other cats.

Then we have Bella, our Great Pyrenees.  She also sleeps in my bedroom because she is so noisy at night.  As a natural guard dog she should be outside guarding our little goats but Noooo, she is guarding me.  Guarding me consists of her sleeping on my bed, sometimes nearly on top of me, and growling from time to time to keep the boogie man away.  I've almost gotten used to having her in there after 2-3 years, but not quite.

Our new little rooster, Kung Pao nearly became chicken soup the other day.  For some reason he decided to play attack rooster and when I went outside to do some chores he came flying directly at me.  He tried several times and finally succeeded in hitting me with his tiny little spurs on the calf of my right leg.  I still have two little bruises!  We seriously didn't think he would do that, he's been so sweet.  After I kicked him in the chest the next several times he tried it he finally walked away.  Then he tried it on my daughter and my niece, both who succeeded in dissuading him in the same way as I had.

So far since then he's been great.  I think he's just in love with those sister wives, one in particular.  The two of them are always in the chicken coop together while the other two hens are cleaning up bugs in our yard.  We have started getting eggs again but are reluctant to take them into the house unless they are ice cold.  We're hoping at least one of our hens will get broody and we will have some spring chicks pretty soon.  So far the hens haven't figured out that part yet.  Guess I'll get a couple wooden eggs so she can get the idea.

Spring is finally here, always an exciting time around here.  Lots of work to do, clean up from the winter, re-doing some projects and yardwork that looks pretty bad after the wind / rain / snow from winter.  But at least we can put away our snow shovels and the rest of the snow-type stuff that we have all over.  Our snow blower will be the first to go back into the garage until next winter.

 Here's my wonderful neighbor snow plowing our driveway.  Now this is the way to do it!  I am upstairs taking his picture, in my jammies, drinking my coffee.  What a life!  Thanks Adam.   :-)

This is the only time we had to plow this winter.  Not too bad for north Idaho.

Our newest addition to our little family is a little Polish Crested rooster the girls have named Kung Pao.  I cannot remember his name.  Sometimes its Kung Foo Chicken and sometimes its something else.  Seldom can I call him Kung Pao.  Oh well, I'm sure he doesn't care.  He is a sweet little guy, a little on the thin side compared to the Sister Wives, those black and white Mottled Java hens we got last summer, but he is a good rooster and takes very good care of them.

He will herd them around the yard clucking softly like he's talking to them.  So funny and so cute.  If I go out there he will side-step towards me giving me the stink-eye look off to one side of his head.  As long as he doesn't play attack rooster we will be fine.  He will walk the chickens all around the yard in different places, and if one heads off in a different direction he will go after her and bring her back to the rest of the flock.

I just love him.

And with the onset of Spring with all the snow melting away, there's always the dark side -- mud.  Our driveway is gravel but the more we drive over it the muddier it gets.  Then the road from our house down to a larger dirt road that heads down to the paved highway, well you can imagine all these well traveled dirt roads turning into big mud puddles.  Here is a picture of the road that heads down towards the highway from our house.

But I guess its better than the summer dust.  There's not a season that something isn't irritating about that dirt road.  Winter, Spring or Summer.  Its all good though.  It gets us home.

This is a picture from last week when it rained every day.  Quite a little stream heading down the hill.

Believe it or not, here is our little black goat Smoky.  His fiber is coming is so beautifully and it is much lighter than the black guard hairs that keep him clean.  As you can see on the tips of his horns, the soft cashmere is just about ready to be combed out.  A few more days and I can tie him to one of the corner posts in the pen to comb the cashmere.  We don't shear them so we don't have to de-hair the fiber.  Much easier.  They are somewhat itchy right now so I think they will enjoy this, even though it will be their 'first' combing.

He is so sweet.  These guys are nothing like the Naughty Boys we used to have, those pesky little Pygoras.  They would jump up on me when I would go in the pen and knock the feed dishes out of my hands.  Cute little faces though.  But these boys are much nicer.

This week I was fortunate enough to find a new supplier, recommended to me by a good friend.  She is located in Ohio and I don't get to preview the feel of the fiber before purchasing.  But ... this is so remarkable of a fiber that I wasn't afraid to order some.  Here it is, this is rose fiber.  This batch is hand dyed by Carol, and is a combination of rose bast fibers, silk and merino wool.  It is so soft and luxurious feeling.  I've tried spinning up a small bit on a spindle and its possible to make lace weight yarn with no trouble.

Since I only have four ounces of this fiber I'm trying to decide whether or not to blend it with something else.  I'm really loving the brilliant colors of this particular batch.  It will take me a while to decide what I want to blend it with so I can get it just right.  Also, so I can make the 4 ounces stretch a little further.

I will let you know when I do.  Oops, almost forgot the link:  RiversEdgeFiberArts.com 



I've finally finished the
rayon scarf I was weaving for my daughter.  It certainly has turned out a lot lighter in color than the yarn was.   But It is very pretty, very soft and also very long.

I'm not sure why I decided to make such a long scarf but since it is I've tried it on several different ways and doubled in half before wrapping it around my neck seems a good way to wear it in very cold weather.

That's what we have going on here, very cold weather.  My daughter said it was 1° this morning when she got home from taking her cousin to school.  Feeding the goats and chickens early in the morning is 'refreshing'.  Walking out to the chicken coop and goat shed is somewhat of a shock after spending time in our nice warm house.

The dogs and cats love going out, however.  Today is very sunny, pretty with all the snow we got yesterday and not yet too slippery on the old ice we still had.  As the week goes on though, we will be getting some rain which of course will change everything.

Believe it or not, this is the very same fleece in both pictures.  I took Jasper's brown and white fleece to Fibers First mill in Post Falls at the end of January.  Karen is such a sweetie and has done a super job.  I had her do this fleece in pin drafted top.  A little more expensive to do it this way (one or two extra steps for the mill) but it is just beautiful and ready for the handspinner.

Trying to get my taxes at least started today but as soon as I get tired of doing that I'm going to spin up some of this gorgeous alpaca fiber.  I can't wait.

I had the mill actually mix the white part of the blanket in with the brown.  The yarn will be a tweedy looking extremely soft yarn.  The difference in these two photos is the one on the right was taken under a bright light.  The photo on the left was after I turned all the lights off and used natural daylight.  The fiber is a dark red-brown, not as dark as the left one but not as light as the right one either.

Here's a picture of Jasper and you can really see the reddish color in his blanket.  He was so beautiful and this was the only fleece I ever got from him before he was rehomed a couple years ago.  Sigh

 I had a very fun week when I took a class at Blue Flag Handweaving in Sandpoint.  We learned to make wool braided rugs.  It is so much fun, very strenuous as far as my capabilities go but I did manage to finish mine along with the other ladies in our class. 

There were four of us as you can see by the photo on the left.  The others were a tiny bit larger than mine but maybe because I braid rather tightly.  I guess I was trying to be sure it wouldn't come undone unlike my knitting which can practically fall off the knitting needles.  Not a good thing.

I'm not sure I will make another one.  I really wanted one bigger.  In fact, at one time I wanted my entire house carpeted in braided carpet.  But I can see why it would be so expensive as these rugs took a lot more fabric than you would imagine.

Here is an interesting picture I took last week.  This picnic table was sitting under a tree.  We've had so much snow lately and the temperatures were so cold that it the snow piled up to about eight inches.

Then the sun came out.  The snow on the tree started melting but the temps were still extremely cold and the little icicles formed upside down from the dripping water in the tree.  Very strange.  I've never seen this before.  Too funny.

A trip to Costco today freed me of a lot of money.  We bought mostly canned goods and pet food.  Yikes.  Prices have certainly gone up.  We usually head there about once a month so other than fresh fruits and veggies, we don't have anything to buy at our local stores.  Maybe a fresh loaf of bread now and then.  And of course a freshly made donut at our favorite grocery store.

Nearly Spring!  Take heart.  Get your seeds ordered, get the house cleaned and it won't be long until we can all be outside.   Yeaaaaaaa!

I've just posted a picture of a scarf I hand painted last summer.  It is 100% silk and the process I used was very simple.  You do have to use special paints made just for silk.  Otherwise its a snap.  Wet the scarf, paint and let it sit covered with plastic wrap for 24 hours.  When you take it out you will be very surprised at how the paint has spread and made your wonderful 'picture'. 

 This one I named 'waterlilies' and its the first one I did.  I have another one not finished but will post the picture at a later date.

This one below a friend did and I remembered to take a picture while she was doing it.  The pic on the left is right after she finished.  It is still wet and in the tub with the plastic wrap covering the top.  After it set for 24-hours, it was rinsed in cold water, hung to semi-dry, then ironed to get the silky shine back into the fabric.  I think hers turned out just beautiful!

Her colors were so much more vivid than mine and she used a little more paint.  I think I am going to try that the next time I paint one.