Author: denisemor

Turned 50 this week. Acknowledging but not dwelling on it.

Time flies when you’re having fun. And keeping busy.

With that in mind, I’ll just give a brief update on the hoophouse-

We were able to get a little more work done on the north endwall on Saturday, which was beautiful- sunny and about 42 degrees. (About as good as it gets here in January. ) We’re in the home stretch now, but the windows of opportunity are smaller and smaller.

Boo Kitten was also out enjoying some time in the sun- caught here indulging in some catnip remnants in a garden bed

Today is much colder and cloudy. Better suited to spinning.

Elsa is doing a fabulous job on some nice dark brown wool from deep in the stash. She’s such a smooth, solid spinner. And there is something really satisfying about the workings of an antique spinning wheel- the whir of the flyer, the beat of the treadle.

We make a pretty good pair, me and Elsa. Couple of old wool junkies.

This past week we had a major windstorm that brought a big chunk of one of our trees down.

Was thankful it didn’t land on top of anything, but will probably take quite a while to clean up.

Lots of trees (and other things) down in the area- we were without power wed-friday, and didn’t get internet back until Saturday morning.

The generator kept us in heat and coffee, but no internet meant I couldn’t work from home. So I was observing Covid protocols and going into the office for a couple of days.

Perhaps it was best to be off the web for a few days, as it gave me a bit of a break from the news cycle.

Spinning has been a comfort amidst all this craziness. I’m continuing to crank out the Dottie yarn, and have three lovely shades now

Meanwhile, the girl herself is busy out in the pasture growing another big fluffy fleece-

And work continues on the hoophouse – south end twinwall is done!

We’re getting there–

Wow. That was one hell of a week, eh?

For the record, Senior Trump official: “We were wrong. He’s a Fascist.”

Here’s hoping we can hang on and hold our democracy together until Jan 20.

Here locally, I am distracting myself with wool, per usual. More squishy feel-good yarn

And, we’ve made a start on the twinwall installation on the hoophouse

Which is awesome, because our garden seed just came in the mail.

Just trying to stay productive and focusing on what (little) I can control.

Take care, and stay safe folks-

The new year opened with a fair bit of rain and wind, but also with some windows of opportunity to work outside between stormy stretches. Not good enough weather to be working with panels of polycarbonate, but perfectly suited for doing some groundwork.

I’d previously covered the turf within the hoophouse footprint with cardboard to help break it down, and that has mostly worked. But as it had never been planted in, and is fairly rocky, and is going to take a little work to get it ready for all the things I hope to grow there!

So first I had to dig out and haul off some of the gravely-ness.

Then I harvested a bunch of our compost to add to the mix

I felt a little bad disturbing the worms from deep within the compost pile, but really need their help getting the hoophouse soil in shape, so once I spread the compost out in its new location, I tucked them in with a layer of cardboard.

Looking at he structure from the south

The soil just to the right of the long slab is feeling pretty good, as I dug in a thick layer of aged chicken poop back in August, but I’ve still got about a third of the area to dig and amend. And I want to do that before we get the plastic on, so it can get thoroughly rained in.

Just ordered our garden seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, so the thought of all that good stuff growing in our garden this year is keeping me motivated.

I also kicked off the year with a bit of feelgood spinning- soft and squishy Esther heavy worsted two-ply

This time of year Esther is always a little grungey-looking, as she seems to pick up more mud and crud in her fleece than the rest of the gang, but she cleans up marvelously well, don’t you think?

I should go and give her some butt scritches (her very favorite thing) and tell her what a pretty girl she is. 🙂