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Fresh Start for the Pond

We have a funky little concrete pond in our side yard.
Over the years we’ve had goldfish in it from time to time, mostly just to eat the mosquito larvae that inevitably collect there.

And in recent years we’ve had icky algae issues, due to not enough oxygen/too much organic material.

So this spring we decided to clean it out and start fresh.

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I’d emptied it a couple of weeks ago, and it seems like the neighborhood wild birds must have really missed having it as a water source and general hang-out.

We went to a local pond supply place (very nice folks at Mud Pond Koi) and they hooked us up with some submerged plants: Water Lilly and Mare’s Tail), a couple marginal plants for shelf areas (Creeping Jenny, and Houttunynia Cordata Variegata), and some floaters- Water Hyacinth.

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We’ve also placed an aerator in there to keep things moving and oxygenated.

So we’re on our way to hopefully having a nice little ecosystem- just need to get some new fishes to populate it.

For now we just have yarn posing by the newly planted pond- this is Dottie aran-weight two ply, bouncy and fluffy.

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Just like the girl herself 🙂

Sunny Sunday Stills

Earliest Peonies
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Reine de Violettes
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Stanwell Perpetual
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Edgar Yarn
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Edgar hangin’ loose
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Chone and Felix basking
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Freshly washed and carded Dottie fleece
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Dottie and Moto
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And Baby Chickens getting bigger by the day
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Just over five weeks old now. I figure at 7 or 8 weeks we’ll transition them out into an area near the big chickens so they can start to integrate into the flock. Just gotta work out the logistics.

Report from the Surface of the Sun

Yeah, we’re a bunch of weather wimps.
Sunshine is a lovely thing as long as the temps don’t get above 80.
When it gets into the upper eighties we run for cover. 🙂

The sheep spent most of the day hanging loose in the shade, but once the sun started dipping over the hills to the west they enjoyed some good grazing time on the newly mowed pasture.

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One thing the warm weather is good for is drying fleece- and I’ve been making pretty good progress on this year’s wool crop.
Today I finished up Edgars.

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It’s a beautiful golden brown and so soft- should coordinate beautifully with Bambam.

I finished up another batch of Bambam yarn this week- here it is posing with Stumpy the rooster-

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Moto the e-spinner is doing a marvelous job with Bambam. I think that being able to just set a certain RPM makes it so easy to be consistent. And we just put the finishing touches on Moto, so now he’s got his regular scotch tension set up.

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And on the knitting side of things, look who I finished up this week!

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Her name is Flora, and she’s such a sweetie.

Of Sheeps and Skeins

So I think I forgot to show you how the little estonian sheep puppet turned out!

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Isn’t he a cutie?

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It occurred to me that you could do so many different things with these little sheeps. So many different styles and characters-
I’ve had this really lovely book for a few years now that I’ve been wanting to make something from,

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and I found a great floral chart to make a very girly puppet

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So pretty. Just needs ears, stuffing and some features. Hopefully complete by next week.

In other sheepy news, I am pleased to report that my boy Edgar is doing better. My current theory, as weird as it sounds, is that this is somehow related to him eating chicken poops, so I’ve been trying to keep areas around the shed cleared where the droppings tend to accumulate. Perhaps that will help break this nasty habit.

And I have a little Skein show and tell- I took my first batch of Bambam out for a photoshoot in the garden-

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Sadie the sunshine pup says- have a great week!

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