Postcard From The Farm

Remember those great Postcards From Nebraska on CBS Sunday Morning? I just googled that and it looks like RFD-TV has bought the rights and is showing them again! Now I just have to remember to watch.

Here's a postcard from the farm - similar to those great pieces, but without the excellent cinematography, narration... ;-)



I'm standing next to the wet weather creek, which you can hear if you turn your sound up. You'll see Keebler walking across the top, heading over to the now boarded up chicken coop. Boarded up because he and Graham Lamb figured out there was chicken feed in there and it apparently must be like sheep cocaine or something. Boys. That's Jester eating in the foreground and Crazy Esther in the background. And of course Hank. Always on duty.

I always shrink the video format size down so it "lines up with my text". This makes the video a bit small though. If you'd like to see it in regular youtube size, here is a link.

Punkin's Yarn

I finally started spinning Punkin's last fleece during the Tour de Fleece this past year. I spun three more bobbins over the weekend and decided to see where I stood.

I had wound each bobbin off into a center pull ball and tried to pair them up to homogenize the yarn as best I could. I plied most of them during the game last night and finished up this morning. After pairing up 10 unmeasured balls of singles (to make a two ply yarn), I came out 1 yard different. That's probably of interest to no one but me ;-).



I washed my skeins during lunch and hung them to dry over the ladder next to the fire (very convenient!). I have 1600 yards of light worsted yarn. One skein is a tiny bit heavier and 2 skeins are slightly lighter, but other than that, I'm happy. I do have some roving left and I think I'll go ahead and spin that up so I can pick and choose which skeins I want so the Punkin sweater will be the very best it can be.

Now to pick a pattern... I'm leaning towards a ribbed mock turtleneck of some sort. Any suggestions?

Big Bird

We have a resident Great Blue Heron. Well, actually he flies in in the morning, works all day and then flies home at night. He's one of my favorite farm features. The farm ponds around here are all still pretty much frozen though, so the pickings have probably been pretty slim lately. This morning I caught "our bird" working the wet weather creek in the front field.

This is the second day I've seen him. The first day he didn't seen too bothered by my spying - very unusual as they are very flighty - so I decided to go grab my camera. Just as I put it to my eye...



Rats.



Man, I was really sneaky.



I can't believe I was what spooked him.



Bingo - deputy Hank. Always on duty.



Here is a little green grass fix from the other day. There are no fish here and the frogs are all hibernating. Would the heron be looking for creek mice?

By the way, the snow in this picture is all gone now and has been replaced with - you guessed it - mud...again.

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.

Added: no, the horses are not out of water. That's the emergency tank if the automatic waterers go down. Mostly the tank is used by T-Bone as a dinner bell. "Come and bring it!"

Who The Heck Are You?

I am apparently here namely to be an example for others.



Remember all the books, classes, workshops...where you are told to always mark your fiber or yarn because you WILL NOT remember later what it is?

Turns out that's true.

While trying to clean up and organize my spinning basket yesterday, I found a bobbin of white single ply yarn. Hmmm - right color, but doesn't really feel like Punkin. Jester? No, there are no stray silver fibers mixed in. Does feel and look like Keebler, but way too white. Definitely too fine to be Cotswold, although it does have a pretty halo. Looks and feels like some of Michelle's beautiful Shetland, but I was pretty sure I'd already spun that...and found the blog post to prove it.

I'm stumped. My best guess at this point is maybe a Cotswold lamb fleece. Is it some really old Buddy? Only slightly less older Woolliam? Argh. Wish I knew because it plied into a lovely yarn. I'll keep cipherin' on it.



In other yarn news, here is the finished qiviut. I struggled a bit with the silk blended in, but got better as I went along and after it's knit (I'm thinking the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing), I don't think that will show and I'll be happy for added texture. And yes, it's incredibly soft. This is not the best picture, but I picked it so you could spy Weaslie under the bird feeder. It's truly amazing what a Weaslie will eat.



Claire Bear: You're really eating snow? Just snow?



Claire Bear: That's disgusting.



Weaslie: That's okay, I didn't want to share with you anyway...stupid cat.

Can't You See I'm BUSY?

Nice face there, Iris. (as always, click to biggify to see her full set of snarlers)

Hank: Come on, let's play chase!

Iris: No.



Hank: Oh, come on! See? Even Weaslie wants to play.

Iris: NO. Can't you see I'm busy?!?



Iris: Um, Hank, border patrol is NOT a game.



Hank: Whew, those border patrolers are fast!



Hank: Almost caught 'em.



Hank: Wheeee, back the other way...



Later in the evening, as the sun sets, border patrol takes on a different form.



Hank: Hey, put that camera away. Can't you see I'm busy?!?