Milkweed, Not Just For Butterflies

If you ever get the chance to stand in a patch of blooming milkweed, do it!  When it's really blooming, I can smell it from all the way across the yard as I walk up the driveway.

Here's a new puzzle for you if you are looking for a cool "inside job".

The 2025 Tour de Fleece

Against my better judgement, I'm putting Murphy in as our Team Leader this year.  What could go wrong...

Hopefully he'll just lead us to good grazing and some grand fiber adventures...but he could also lead us into trouble, so everyone should be prepared.  I have a small stash of bail money.  20 knows where to find it.

The Tour de France and Tour de Fleece start Saturday, July 5 and run through July 27.  The women's race starts July 26 and finishes August 3. This is primarily a spinning challenge, but any fiber work counts on our team.  You can officially join our team on Ravelry or just spin along on your own.  Feel free to tag me on IG if you'd like to share your progress.

I think I'm going to once again do a sampler of some of my favorite sheep, but this year I'll also be including some processing as well.  I have several fleeces already washed and ready to card or comb, but I'll be washing a few more and hopefully I'll take some pictures of the entire process from sheep to spinning.  

Air up your bike tires and get ready to ride :-D.

Pinot's Porch

So glad it's at least a little cooler this morning.  I've regretted every complaint I made about being cold last winter.

Looking for a new puzzle?  I think this one might be fun :-).

I Mean, What Else Would You Do When It's Nine Million Degrees?

I don't remember why I started flipping through my natural dye books looking for a green, but I did and came across comfrey.  I'd been given a start of comfrey this spring to add to the B Garden and was pleasantly surprised to see it is also a dye plant.

I messaged my flower giving friend (who's also into natural dyes) and she said she had a big patch ready to be cut back so we decided to put a dye pot together.  Another natural dye friend was coming into town so it was perfect timing...and then the August heat dome arrived.  We had fun and learned a lot, but it would have been more fun if it had been a more reasonable temperature.  

 

Did you know that the screen drying rack flips up to access a perfect work table underneath?  I love this set up.  

The freshly started comfrey in the B Garden.  See the bee?  Mine was still blooming because it was a bit behind Rebecca's due to the transplant.  

It's a beautiful addition to the garden!

After a brief soak.

And a little bit longer.

The gray on the left and the white on the right were where we started.  The gray became pretty army green and the white, with just an alum mordent, became the light yellow green.  I wasn't super excited, but was instructed to reserve judgment until we had added in the iron modifier.

And that's when we got the two greens on the left :-D.  So those two skeins were mordented with alum, simmered in the comfrey dye pot and then dipped in an iron modifier bath afterwards.  Much better!

Another plant that could give us a dark green was ivy and I thought I had a source for that, but when we prepped it, we didn't get any color so I must not have the right variety.  We'd already mordented a couple more skeins so we looked through the book for other plants we could find and set up quickly and chose goldenrod.  

It's too early for blooms, but the leaves work well too, so I headed down to the creek in the blazing sun and picked a pot full.  The leaves started green and cooked to a greenish yellow color and when I dipped out a cup of dye to see where we were, it was barely colored.  I thought it was another fail, but was cautioned once again to give it a try.  

 

See the bright yellow strand on the end?  That was our test strand. The book cautioned that cooking too long might dull the color...and that's what happened with the skein.  The dark yellow had been in the dye pot for about 5-8 minutes.  The skein, closer to 15 minutes.  Yep, it faded it right out.  A good lesson. 

The other good lesson learned was to mark your skeins better.  I no longer remember if the middle skein was with the copper modifier added in or the iron.  At one point we lined the skeins up in alphabetical order (alum, copper, iron), but I don't remember if we did that before or after I took this picture.  It was hot.  

Overall it was a fun experience.  I got a green that I think will work well with my walnut dyed yarn from last fall.  And now, looking back for the link to that post I see it was the fall of 2023.  At least the blog remembers to put the "tags" on.  

If I want to wear that sweater this fall I better get knitting!

A Hundred Guests In The Wool House

 Those pesky summer visitors ;-).

This is a harmless wolf spider...and about 100 or so of her kids on her back.  Click to biggify.  

All spinners and weavers are welcome in the Wool House.  Spiders are beneficial insects.  Don't grab a phone book!

Nobody Died

 Or why you might not want to eat one of my cakes ;-).

I'd watched enough Bake Off to learn that store bought jam is too sweet for cake filling so I decided to buy fresh raspberries and cook my own.  After it's finished on the stove, you need to push it through a fine sieve to remove all the seeds.  This was harder than it looked on tv.

I had a small strainer I'd planned to use, but quickly realized I needed a larger one.  Well, that's not a problem.  I have one up at the barn.  I use them to scoop hay and other detritus from the water tanks.  A thorough washing with soap and hot water and it was sparkling clean.

After working all the seeds out of the raspberries, I had just as much trouble washing the seeds from the strainer.  I washed and scrubbed and finally took the spray nozzle to it...and a bunch of hay (and possibly other detritus) flushed out from under the shiny clean rim (!).

There was no way I was going to waste re-make the fresh raspberries.  It had boiled on the stove.  Surely there's a five minute rule if boiling is involved.  I kept my mouth shut...and no one died.

I have since bought a set of dedicated kitchen strainers ;-).

About All The Cakes

Back in the winter when life really got extra mean and depressing, several friends told me "You need to watch you some Great British Bake Off!"

I don't like to cook and I'm not really a baking person.  I don't watch much tv and definitely not reality tv.  Why would I want to waste time watching a reality tv show about baking?

"Just try it."

So Tim and I sat down one night to watch one episode to shut everyone up...and now have binge watched 11 seasons.  If you're having a bad day...go watch you some British Bake Off :-).

Cakes are not my favorite dessert.  I like them (if they are good), but I don't love them.  I only marginally like frosting (if it's good).  I would probably never order a piece of cake at a restaurant.  

Cakes started showing up on my IG feed.  Usually when something shows up that I'm not interested in, I flag it as such and "like" some new sheep or fiber account and my feed stays fun and focused.  One day I saw a picture of a beautiful robin egg Easter cake...and I clicked on it.

Hmmm, that's really pretty...

At this point we'd watched maybe two seasons of GBBO and I'd so thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone bake cakes together, helping each other, cheering each other on, being nice and learning new techniques (sort of like fiber arts, eh?) that I sent the post to Auntie Reg and told her I wanted to try to make that cake.  

It looked a little like this cake.  Or I should say this cake looked a little like that cake.  It was nerve wracking to say the least, but with Reg's help, the cake was edible and the icing...mostly stayed on the cake.  It wasn't super fun, but I knew/hoped I could learn to do better, so the following week I tried another cake.

This was a lemon cake with lemon curd inside and on top and the flowers really made it pretty.

Rhubarb upside down cake...from our garden!

A flourless chocolate roulade, straight from one of Mary Berry's books :-).

This Surprise Lemon Pudding was too and I would definitely make this again now that I know I need to weigh my eggs.  I learned that from The Cake Bible.  Yes, I bought that.  Now, if my baking doesn't kill you, I can always bean you with a nearly 700 page book ;-D.

Chocolate inside and outside and even on top.  I'd like to re-make this cake just to do it better, but like seldom knitting a pattern more than once, I'll probably not repeat it just out of spite.  There's not a shortage of chocolate cake recipes out there.

I was pretty happy with this one.  Still not getting where I want icing-wise, but getting better.

I highly recommend placing some mint leaves on top of lemon cream cheese frosting.  It infuses (?) into the frosting where it touches and it gives it a fabulous minty flavor.  

Angle food cake with the whites and lemon curd with the yolks.  Raspberry frosting...that I should have made a note about because I don't remember which recipe I used, but I think it was a whipped cream frosting, not butter cream.

That was the best lemon curd I've even tasted - from The Cake Bible. 

Lavender blackberry cake with ermine frosting.  I didn't harvest our lavender to make this, but I did want a picture with it while the bees and butterflies worked away.

This was the first cake I wasn't just thoroughly panicked making.  There was lavender infused milk in the recipe and lavender syrup brushed on each layer before frosting.  I wasn't sure how much I could add to the layers so I erred on the side of caution.  It could probably have used a little more to increase the lavender flavor, but it was still really good.  

The reason I wasn't sure how much to add is because I got smart and put the third layer of the cake in the freezer so I was working a bit off recipe.  Now if I don't feel like baking a new cake some week I can pull it out and make a trifle and tick that check box ;-).

So now that I'm pretty into trying to learn how to make cakes, I've decided it can be my summer "thing".  I'm calling it Scratch Cake Summer.

Anyone have a good cake to recommend?

 

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time there was a little lamb living in London, England.  Not out in the countryside, but right in the city!  They've never shared how they got rescued by Loved Before, but their adoption profile said their name was Merino and that...

"Despite being a sheep, they never grow fluffy wool and shiver in winter.  Once, they tried to warm up by snuggling with the cat, who was not amused.  Merino's charm lies in their endless quest for warmth and their knack for finding the sunniest spot."

I'm sure it's no surprise that I couldn't resist helping a little lamb.  Even stuffy sheep need to be rescued sometimes!

Merino arrived safe and sound, albeit a bit chilly because it was so long ago it was still winter.

I set the Iknitarod vest aside and started their sweater right away.

And to help Merino not feel too homesick, we watched eleventy episodes of  The Great British Baking Show.  

 

And then, like magic, a warm wool sweater.  Not really.  I've never managed to pull off a quickly knit sweater before, so why start now.  It's been long ago enough though that I don't really remember what my issues were except for general nit picking and needing to make the sleeves longer.

The best part was how both sheep made a new best friend and enjoyed all sorts of adventures together as we got back on the Iknitarod Trail.

And it turns out, Merino just hadn't found the right cat to snuggle up with.  Bullseye made a couple of new best friends as well :-).

The yarn for Merino's sweater was some Woody that I'd spun for the Tour de Fleece a couple of years ago.  Little sweaters like these are a fun way to use up sample skeins and practice new techniques...like knitting sweaters.  

And the 2025 Tour de Fleece starts in just over two weeks.  

WHAT!?! :-o

Now Where Did I Put That Red Lantern

The Iknitarod is finally over!  Well, technically the Iknitarod was over months ago, but my team, hindered by me, finally crossed under The Burled Arch last week...just as the weather here turned into full on hot and humid Kentucky summer-time.  Oh, to be in Alaska.

This cute vest is the Petite Knits Lulu Slipover and this is the second of her patterns I've completed and I can recommend it as a fun and interesting knit.  It starts at the top of the back and is knit down to the bottom edge.  You then pick up stitches at the shoulders and knit down the front.

You pick up stitches to add the mock turtle neck and pick up stitches to knit around the arms and then pick up stitches on each bottom corner and double knit up the sides to the bottom of the sleeves and add button holes on the two front corners and buttons on the back two.  

Every bind off was an Italian bind off, which is basically Kitchener stitch, and I can say after doing it so. many. times.  I now have it down pat.  It's a pretty bind off and I'm glad to have that in my arsenal.  I also liked how the four plackets were added on and I'd use that technique again as well.

The yarn is Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb and it took a beating with as many mistakes as I made and had to rip out and start back and rip out and start back and rip out (you know, the usual...) and it held up perfectly.  You just can't beat some good medium wools with a bit of long wool blended in :-).

I enjoyed knitting this and really can't say why it took so long, but I am glad to finally have it finished so I can start my next project.  There's always a next project :-).

And as far as the Red Lantern, not to fear, my Iknitariders had everything under control :-).

And May...

Much of May was second verse, same as the first.  Pinot was still digging his hole and filling it back in.  Bullseye kept getting friendlier and friendlier - just a charming young cat.  More rain.  More green grass and also a special mix of grass planted out front for Pinot.

The cake baking continued.  

Short Round made it all the way out into the yard to graze a few evenings.  Maisie grazed in the driveway.  Baaxter had been kicked out into Summer Breezy because he was being a bully.  Boys...

The cicadas arrived and that's been...interesting.  I can stand the mess and the noise, but fer cryin' out loud, get off me while I'm trying to weed eat!  

There's a funny story about poison ivy and Short Round getting some props for helping support the removal at a friends house...by goats.  Since Short Round will eat anything, I figured she should be there in spirit :-).

Betsy enjoyed another party.  Bea enjoyed a trip to Dairy Queen.  Everyone enjoyed the beautiful full moon.  

The gardens are coming along, both vegetable and B Garden.

The horse shenanigans continued.  Boys...

Knitting as fast as I could to get. this. project. finished.  My Iknitariders had fun riding along and didn't mind too much when Bullseye fell asleep with them.  

Maisie is a Good Sheep.

Losing Burrnie and Kaala was not unexpected, but still sad.  I love the barn camera shot of her sleeping tucked up with Liddy near the end.  Kaala enjoyed her friends here.  So did Burrnie.

Speaking of the barn camera, I love being able to check in with everyone whenever I want, but also, if I see something odd I can go back and see what happened.  One evening I saw the sheep all jump up startled.  I switched to the barn lot camera to try to see what they were looking at.  Something small and light colored, but I never could decided exactly who it was.  

The month ended with a fun steam train ride at the Heavenly Hilltop Railroad with 20 and Pip and Skipper (Rebecca's lamb), who is now far too big to pick up.

I love these scrapbook compilations :-).

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And April...

The big story in April was shearing.  We traditionally have shorn around the middle to end of March, but after two years of horrible cold snaps afterwards, I decided to hold off until the first week of April and then it poured rain for days and we postponed until the second week of April.  The time lapse video of the afternoon was very fun.

The best part of April were that everyone was still here.  Frail old Burrnie had moved into Eazy Breezy and loved being able to get some extra treats and still be able to go out to graze with some of his friends.  We knew Kaala wasn't feeling well, but she was doing okay and still happy to hang out with her friends, eat treats and enjoy the tall grass in the side field.

Pinot dug a big hole under one of the huge sidewalk rocks.  A big hole.  I think it measured to something like 32 or 34 inches deep.  I'd go out and re-measure it...but he turned right around and filled it back in.  His fur is still stained brown on his back.  He was a hard working bunny, day and night, and the hole was impressive.

Frankie and I did quite a bit of riding and I was pretty encouraged by our progress, especially working over ground poles.  Tim made me a set of short cavaletti blocks.

The late winter/early spring sun was enjoyed by everyone.  When it was not warm and sunny, the wool sweaters and winter coats kept everyone comfortable.

Betsy enjoyed the shearing party and a couple spinning parties.  Betsy loves a party :-).

Lots of wool pictures.  The fleeces were in better shape than I was afraid they might be with the long winter and delay in shearing.  Maisie had picked up a chicken feather somewhere along the line and it made it through shearing so I tucked it in her wool bag.

Bullseye helped with skirting and became quite a lap sitter.  He loves the barn and has several favorite spots in and around and sits out front at night. 

The cake baking started.  More about that to come.

Rebecca brought her bottle lamb over one afternoon and managed to get him back in the car to go home.  

Gato arrived/returned and the other two horses lost their ever loving minds.  I'm probably not going to add anything to that story (!).

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Meanwhile...Back In March

As the days passed at the beginning of March and I didn't get the Month End done and didn't get it done and didn't get it done...I could feel the spiral...and could. not. make. myself. fix. it.  I even gave up to the point that I turned all my calendars to April, which I don't let myself do until the compilation is finished.

I'm glad I finally got these caught up because A. there was a lot of March I'd forgotten about and B. there were a lot of Maisie and Short Round pictures in there.  Maisie and Short Round still getting up and into trouble.  Things are deteriorating with them and it was nice to know that not that long ago, everything was still fine.

Everything is still fine and whatever happens, when it happens, will be fine, but I am pretty sure if I didn't have these caught up, it would have been very, very hard to sit down and go through everything if everything wasn't still mostly fine.

A lot of these pictures made it to IG, but not all, and if they did they may not have been explained.  There's at least one picture that even I can't explain*.  I wish they'd all have been posted to the blog, but that obviously didn't happen, so here are some notes.

The month started with trying to trap a feral cat with a huge belly that I was sure, knowing my luck, was going to be a teenage mom.  That was Bullseye and he thankfully ended up just being a really wormy boy cat and your can watch his transformation from feral to friendly after he got trapped and vetted.  He's just as sweet as he looks.

The Iknitarod happened.  Yeah, remember that?  Noticed that I still haven't posted any finished pictures?  Yeah, I'm still working on it, but it's close to being finished even though all the snow in Alaska has probably melted.  I enjoyed "making time" to go sit and knit with a couple of the sheep in the yarn.

I hate how the pictures get cropped sometimes.  I have no control over that and the barn camera picture of Murphy standing all by himself in the barn lot with no one wanting to follow him out to the cold field is disappointing.  It's a funny shot in full.

*The fried chicken bone.  I have no idea.  It just appeared in the yard one day.  (!)

I love the light in the winter.

I remodeled Pinot's Patio with a new fence and built some big wooden planters to put my flowers in this year.  Big so they don't dry out so quickly and tall so Pinot doesn't eat them all.  Don't worry, I planted some stuff for Pinot.  I think that shows up next month.

I got a drum carder.  More to come on that...I promise.

The purple martin scouts showed up and then the rest moved in.  The video clip cut the sound off.  That unmistakable sound is the sound of spring.

It rained a lot.  

Frankie and Lancelot enjoyed doing all the stuff they've always done together - grazing, playing, taking turns watching while the other slept...best friends stuff.  I miss those days.  I don't regret taking Gato back.  He has earned a nice retirement and lots of old lesson horses don't get those, but I wish the herd dynamic hadn't gotten so skewed.  

I got a little stuffed sheep named Merino.  He came from Loved Before and he needs his own intro post.  Yes, I did knit him a warm wool sweater.  That needs a post too.  Since he came from across the pond, I thought he might enjoy watching The Great British Baking show so I added him to the Iknitarod team bag and brought him in for house knitting.  More about the baking to come.

I kept all of Dug's kids from the previous year.  I just couldn't bring myself to eat them so they lived on the counter in the kitchen all fall and winter and just as they started to look like they might not make it until spring, they did, and out they went to the garden and are doing Dug proud.

The picture of Maisie standing at the feed room door is a great story.  As crazy as she's always been, Maisie is extremely polite while waiting for breakfast and dinner.  She stands there waiting patiently...and because of that usually gets a little something extra :-).  

Like the purple martins, the redbuds are another great mark of spring.  Always beautiful.

Enjoy!

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Somehow I Thought It Would Be Noisier

I'm finding everything about this very interesting.  I've seen them in all stages individually and I've seen their holes in the ground, but I'd really love to be able to watch one emerge from the ground all the way through to shedding.

The Farmer's Almanac has a great article with all sorts of information if you are interested in learning more.  

'

Kaala

 Kaala

2016 - May 14, 2025

I sure hope there's a big group of good sheep somewhere all hanging out telling great stories.  

A Rabbit Hole

An actual rabbit hole and not just the usual ones I find myself falling into...

So I mentioned Pinot's underground tunnel a few weeks ago.  He worked Very Hard on that project and ended up tunnelling 30" under that big rock.

And then one evening he filled it all back in.

Digging and filling are fairly similar processes.  Use the front feet to scrape it under your belly and then use your back feet to kick it out behind you.  When the pile gets too big, you turn around and start pushing it in front of you with your front feet like a bulldozer.  

Rabbits can move a lot of dirt.  

The other day...he dug it all (or most of it) back out.

"I can change my mind."

And now today he's filling it back in.

My dilemma...  

I usually plant zinnias in that area.  

It is my patio.  

Who am I fooling.

But I really like my zinnias.  

Sigh...

 

Burrnie

Burrnie

2013 - May 2, 2025

My dear little Sesame Street character.

I moved Burrnie into Second Easy Breezy this spring because he was having a lot of trouble getting up and I worried about him toppling over out in the big field and not being able to make it back to the barn with everyone if something sent the flock running.  

He loved being in the Easy Breezy group because he got a little handful of grain twice a day and extra cookies and he loved going out to graze in the side field with everyone...until he couldn't.  

I will miss this sweet old sheep.  

A New/Old Horse

Long time readers of the blog might recognize this horse.

Or maybe you've noticed him on the blog header painting.  

The dates are all foggy now, but I found some pictures of Gato back in 2012 and a picture of him still here when Hickory was here...which I'd have bet money that never happened, but there you go.  Pictures don't lie.  Thank goodness for the blog.

Gato has spent the last however many, many years at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, as part of their Equine Studies program.  He has been a long time favorite there and, as was stipulated when we donated him to them, has returned here to retire.  He's now 28 years old!

I picked him up yesterday and let him explore the front field by himself for a bit while the boys watched from their stalls.  Everybody seemed pretty chill.

"I'd never do anything bad."

 

"Yeah, right, Lancelot!"

"Let's get him!"

Things started off okay, but Lancelot got very possessive of Frankie and told Gato to stay away from HIS best friend.

Gato said, "No problem.  I'm just here to hang out and eat some grass."  

And then Lancelot repeated, "I said STAY AWAY from Frankie!"

"Dude, I heard you the first time."

This continued on until things escalated to the point I had to lock the two idiots in one of the smaller paddocks so Gato could settle in in peace for the night.  Everything seems to be going better this afternoon.

Boys...

Gato's in great shape for his age and is still a very beautiful horse.  I'm glad to have him back here...even if Lancelot's not thrilled ;-).  

Want a new puzzle?