Having a Hay Day - no, A Hay Night

When I open the barn door in the morning, I'm always very cautious because I've been surprised with finding horses, sheep, and alpacas standing in the aisle. Below is what I'm hoping for - everyone cushed down and waiting for their breakfast. Yesterday there were no surprises when I slid the door over but lots of suspicious looking alpaca foot prints on the cement aisle. I quickly closed the door behind me and went in to the indoor arena. Yep, there were the girls wandering around. They must have been out all night because they made a real mess of the stacked hay bales, and had enough time to establish a new poop pile. They shooed right in through the OPEN door very easily. Damn! I must have not latched that door. I remember being in a hurry. Usually I check all doors before I come in.
No harm was done except my extra cleaning time, but can't you just imagine what chaos 10 loose horses would have created?
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Yes, I do love these gentle critters ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

BabyDoll SouthDown Sheep

A year ago we were raising BabyDoll SouthDown Sheep. I say we, but really there were Smitty's project. He would sit for hours and watch the lambs play. Even before we realized he was sick, he had decided that he would sell them. It's rather strange that the last of them left about two hours before he died last August. A piece of me thinks he was waiting until he knew that they would be loved and taken care of.

This was one of the sheep pens in front of the barn. Boards were along the bottom to keep the little ones in......and this is where I'm removing those bottom boards. Kelly, my blind pony, lives out there now and she will do a good job trimming along the bottom, saving me more mowing/trimming work.

Weighing, Worming, and Knitting

This morning Beth, John (Beth's son), and I finished weighing and worming the alpacas. They are rather stoic critters and sometimes the only way that you can find health problems is noticing a weight loss.....or if some management is needed. Like these two girls below, brown Sonata and black Chinella are in need of weight stabilization. Chinny will no longer have access to the baby pen for constant access to hay. This picture is proof that these two DO enjoy eating. If you look behind us, everyone else is running to the fence because they spotted a fox crossing the bean field. Not these two....

After we finished our weighing and worming, we came up to the house to prepare Chin's fleece for the show in September. We spread it out and removed lots of VM (vegetable matter) and anything that wasn't consistent with her blanket. Every little fleck of "stuff" shows up on the black and we finally just quit after an hour. Beth was actually using tweezers. We did leave some junk behind. The fleece of huacaya alpacas is folded so that the cut side is on the outside and then put into a plastic bag until the show.

I want to show you this cute hat that I just finished. (That's Beth's horse, Cord, in the background) The pattern was free from SmokyMountainFibers on Etsy. AnnMarie and I are sort of old friends over there.....and we have been following each others blog for it seems like forever. You can get the pattern on her blog for yourself. Her blog is: Here

Blog Neglect Recovery

I have certainly had a bad case of blog neglect for the last week or so. Thanks, Mac, and the rest of you who contacted me to be sure that I was ok. Have been really busy inside and out. Here's some yarn that I just had to spin up from the roving that I dyed. Actually, I dyed up about a pound of that yummy white alpaca/merino top that I picked up a few weeks ago. ▼ That's what it looks like before spinning.

Lucky me, Son Rob was here from Pennsylvania (he teaches at Scranton U). I tried not to have him work the whole time. We did get a permanent fence around the lagoon and some new gates in place. He's out mowing the yard right now.

My two daughters and the two grandgirls came over to spend the day with us on Friday. I love that now we are all friends and can laugh and drink beer and eat pizza together.

Here's a JR update to all his fans who have sent good energy his way as he was struggling to make it in this world. He's the little brown guy in the middle, white Snickers (two days older) is on the left, and gray, herd sire Tribute is on the right. To answer a question from Meg in the comments - no, the vets never figured out why he was so small and grew so slowly. Except for some early lack of immunities, his blood work was normal. I think he is just going to be a little guy but do believe now that he is going to live.

Rob suggested we should use him for breeding when he is older and try to produce a line of miniture alpacas. ☺ Wouldn't that be cute? They would be very easy to potty train, of course, you would have to have two.

NutriSystem update - I've lost 8 pounds now - in 2 1/2 weeks - eating all the time.

Light Brown Alpaca Roving

I want to show you the other bag of fiber that I brought home from Zeilingers on Sunday.

This fiber is from Nick who lives in St. Louis at Diversified Alpacas. I bought his gorgeous fiber in February and had Z put it into 100% alpaca roving. It's a beautiful light golden brown, extremely clean and fine. Cassie → quite insisted on showing you the bag of 5 pounds because yesterday Max got to be poster doggie.
I will be putting it in my Etsy shop when I get done here.

NutriSystem update - Oh, my, another 1/2 pound gone according to the morning scale. I can hardly get all the food into me. Seems like everytime I turn around, I'm sticking something into my mouth. We'll see what happens without my daily exercise. Had a major leg cramp during the night and barn chores didn't really work the soreness out so I'm taking a break from the 2 mile morning walk.

Alpaca - Merino Top from the Mill

Yesterday I ran over to Frankenmuth, MI, to Zeilingers to pick up some fiber that I left in March. I love going over there because they are always so helpful and treat me so well....They make me feel special even though I'm only bringing them a hundred or so pounds of fiber each year - compare that to the thousands of pounds of buffalo that they do.
Anyway, I'm so pleased!!!! I will just tell you about the white. The alpaca comes from Target who lives in St. Louis, MI, with Chris and Jenn at Diversified Alpacas. He's a very handsome herd sire with lovely fleece who we are hoping to breed to my Ariana.

I had left Zeilingers a little over 10 pounds of 75% Target and 25% white merino from Genopalette's lambs. Gary suggested that I have it made into topp instead of roving like I have always done in the past. This picture → is the pound of noils left over that might be considered trash. I can imagine it in an awesome bed for Max or Cassie.

Speaking of Max, here he is posing for you so that you can see what 8 pounds of top looks like. I had a treat in my hand to get him to stay.

I love the way the fiber is coiled around. Looking down into the bag → is like looking into a tornado. I'm really anxious to spin some of this because it's so soft and smooth. When I pull it apart it is about 4 inches long which makes me think it's going to practically spin itself.

I took the picture above to list this in my Etsy store. The picture on the right shows how I use my weaving warping frame to wrap the top and then band it with information like - weight, my stuff, and a picture of the alpaca who donated the fiber.

Note on the warping frame, I've used it only once to measure yarn for weaving. What a waste, but it works to put up roving and top.

NutriSystem update: I thought that I had all my food but the Schwann's truck dropped off a bunch of frozen stuff today. I had a veggie pizza and an ice cream bar for lunch. They were yummy.

I started the program last Monday and have lost 3 pounds. This is amazing because I'm eating constantly.

I was just looking up how to spell top or topp, and came across the neatest little FAQ - How to tell if the fiber is roving or top? Pull the fiber apart. Top pulls apart in a straight line; roving leaves a rough, triangular-shaped edge.

NutriSystem for Weight Loss??????

Asparagus from my little patch - drizzled with a touch of olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and a generous amount of pepper, and briefly broiled. Yummy! one of the best parts of spring. I won't eat asparagus canned or frozen or anyone elses because nothing can compare to snapping it off and eating it 20 minutes later.

I'll be talking about food on here for a while 'cause I have ordered the NutriSystem. I've been walking 2 miles every morning and biking a couple every evening and haven't lost weight. Discussing this with DD Terre and she tells me I'm just not eating enough. I hate to take the time to prepare food so the NutriSystem sounds like a good plan for me.

The 30 pound box arrived yesterday from UPS filled with 28 days of food. It's all color coded and labeled Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Desserts, which is now arranged in my cupboard as such. By the way this cost $299.95, including shipping. The food is all in a dry form. For example: last night I had a chicken thing that I just had to zap in the microwave, this a.m. I added water to scrambled eggs and zapped it. So far the food has been tasty.

A little record book came with the meals but I like keeping track at their online site. I record what I eat, weight, measurements, and exercise. They have a community with forums but I've only lurked there a little. So, my friends, you will occasionally be hearing about the program and my progress.