Author: denisemor

A couple weeks ago I was gifted a fleece.

Said fleece was enormous. 2 years worth of growth (apparently sheep would not accede to being sheared last year). And embedded with a fair volume of wood shavings.

A fair bit of it went into the compost straight away. Perhaps more of it should have. But underneath it looked fairly fine and crimpy, and since it was a two-year fleece, there was a lot of staple length. It seemed like it might be worth putting some time and energy into.

The only thing I could do with it right away was to throw it in a couple bins and let it soak. I was hoping that might get rid of some of the dirt and loosen it up a bit so I could get a better sense of how felted up it was.

It seemed like it was working ok at first, but then the weather got really warm and the fleece got quite stinky.

This was a major setback, as The Man forbade me from bringing it into the house to wash.

So I let it soak for another week or so, changing the water a couple of times.

The smell was better, but I didn’t want to push my luck, so I setup my propane burner and dyepot to wash it outdoors.

THis is what it looked like post-soak, awaiting a hot bath

and after it’s bath

After the wash, it was time for phase 2 de-crudding

Here’s what stayed

and what was trimmed and tossed

The real transformation, however, happened on the combs

After that, it was smooth sailing. Mighty Red is making quick and pleasant work of spinning the combed top

which I’m then chain plying on Moto

I do so love a fleece redemption story 🙂

And as promised last week, update on Cherokee Purple tomatoes

We’ve harvested a few so far, but I think they were more productive last year when they grew in cages, rather than trellised.

And Blot Peppers are starting to show interesting colors, but I think that they are still a ways off from being ripe.

Alrighty, I probably ought to go out and do some watering.

Have a good week!

Was a warm day out at the Alger Sunday market- a bit of a challenging environment for wool sales. 😉

But was nice to be out and have a chance to chat with folks about the sheeps and their fabulous fiber- and also to have a bit of quiet crafting time. I brought along a long-dormant project, my locker hooking sample

And I made quite a bit of progress! It is very close to being a pillow, or maybe a seat cushion.

Garden update-

Tomato lineup- clockwise from upper left: large Italian, German Pink, Orange Paruche, Blush, Black Cherry

Cherokee Purple are just starting to color up, as are Blot peppers. More on those next week

And I found my first Weinlanderin bean!

Also, I’m pleased to report that I got my hay. Boo Kitten is so happy to have her sweet-smelling highrise hangout back, and I’m relieved to have sheep food put away for the winter.

Have a good week folks!

But I’ve been trying to make good use of the mornings, before the full force of the sun is upon us. Making sure everyone has fresh cool water and trying to stay on top of garden chores.

The garden, of course is going nuts with all these heat inputs- so that’s the focus today. Standby for photo-overload 🙂

Also noticed this morning that Black Cherry tomatoes are starting to show some color.

Also wanted to share a photo of a new-to-me plant that I got in a seed swap this spring. Malabar Spinach. So unusual and beautiful.

and my Weinlanderin beans are flowering. Aren’t these just the sweetest little flowers?

ok, that’s probably enough for now.

Forecast is promising a cooling trend starting tomorrow. Low 80’s will be such a relief!

Have a good week folks-

It had been quite a while since an eagle had made a move on one of our chickens out in the pasture.

Despite having two good roosters on the job, I suppose it was inevitable that it would happen at some point. So many raptors around here. Everyone looking for a tasty morsel to take home for dinner.

At least I was home when it happened. I was upstairs carding some wool and I heard the commotion.

Raced out to the pasture to see the attack in progress, and managed to disrupt the eagle’s plan by causing a scene like the crazy chicken woman that I am. 😉

No tasty morsel for you!

I collected up my poor chicken and went about assessing the damage. She’s intact, but her back is pretty ripped up. She’s a really healthy, feisty chicken, so I hope that will give her an advantage in recovering from this attack. I’ve got her wounds dressed with gauze and covered with a chicken saddle. She’ll have to stay in a crate for a while so i can get her healed up. She’s not thrilled about that.

But having another unexpected special-needs chicken meant that I had to come to terms with the fact the my poor gimpy chicken wasn’t responding to physical therapy, and was growing weaker. I felt like I’d done as much for her as I could, and it wasn’t going anywhere. So I had to admit failure and let her go. That was hard.

So one chicken saved, one chicken buried. Enough pasture drama for one weekend.

The peace is restored, for now.