I Did It Again

I got through 2 days of our shearing and fiber weekend without taking any pictures.  I am just going in too many directions to remember to take pictures.  I have asked people to take pictures every year but sometimes they don't show up and sometimes I can't figure out how to change the format.  Also it seems only part of the event get captured so  that doesn't work too well either.

 Here are a few pictures Courtney took last year.

We had a good crowd but sometimes
I feel funny sharing pictures of people on
this blog.  I am sure these guys don't care since you really can't identify them.

The fleeces were even more beautiful this year.

 This friend of Lyndy's is trying a new wig.

There was a great crowd yesterday for the shearing and demonstrations. We had fewer today but the people today all stayed a long while exploring all fiber techniques.  

I will take some pictures of Rosemary's and Jean's fiber art, that they did not sell, tomorrow.  

The event was free but we received some nice donations, everyone had a great time, and many thanked me personally for making this kind of event available.  Also, several of my fiber friends helped out and made everything run smoothly.   

I would say that this year's "Sheep Shearing and the Journey to Fiber Art" was a big success even if I don't have the proof to show it. 

Spring Fiber Camp 2014

As I was saying in the last blog, last week was Spring Break Fiber Camp.  The weather was a mix and one day we had to come to the house because the fiber shed was just too cold.  It was a great week, anyway. 

 It is always fun to have new kids that have not been to Cabin Spring Farm and introduce them to a whole new way to have fun; learning fiber techniques.  Equally fun is having campers that have been to Fiber Camp many times and see what they master and what new, captures their interest.  K conquered the spinning wheel and spun some beautiful yarn and R met the inkle loom.

These two have taken there skills home with them and

continued there in their spare time.  Actually, K

made his rug at school.

C is the queen of drum carding, and her brother C, is taking some fleece off the comb with the Oregon Diz

 We are always discussing new scientific discoveries while we create and the kids made one of their own.   Slugs eat stink bugs!  If we could get them to eat live ones......

 This session, the boys were in the majority and they really got into needle felting.  They were felting all kinds of creatures and couldn't keep up with a supply of felt so R's mom gave him some commercial felt to bring in.

and share

 In the end though, I think we all decided that hand me felt is the best!

Farm Work - Finally COMPLETED some Projects

Just finished a week of fiber camp.  It is Spring Break for the local schools. But before the cool pictures of Fiber Camp, pictures of all the work we got done before camp.

We brought two new fruit trees home to put in the orchard.  We built these hurtle panels from the design of the fences at the museum shown in a previous blog.  They are lashed together with baling twine (the next best thing to duct tape).  I hesitate to include these pictures because I have readers up north.  The grass isn't quite as green as it looks in this picture but the peach tree did blossom.  I hope not too soon, we are still having some night frosts.



The fencing is done in the upper pasture.
I like the way it turned out.  Now the sheep
are rotating and I can plant some new orchard grass & timothy seed in each pasture as the sheep move out.

John built two gates at the top of 2 pastures.

This picture is kind of like another but without the snow and the sheep are much smaller (eating some morning hay- was that last week?  Look how the walnut tree is almost dancing.

Maybe this week I can get some more planting done.

Blake 's Awake

Warm weather is finally upon us and there is much that we are starting in the way of spring chores.  John's least favorite, I think, is checking the water in the cabin and turning it on.  Every spring there is a  break in the pipe to fix.  He has to take off this box thing around the pipes since the cabin is log and doesn't have walls for the plumbing.

A few days ago John was in a tight area in the bathroom fixing this year's leaks, when Blake, the resident black snake, greeted him by poking his head up.  John said he looks to be 6 feet long this Spring.  I never did see Blake last year, since I didn't get around much with my broken ankle, and John only saw him a couple of times, which was I think a couple of times too many.  John is not fond of snakes and just tolerates them because of all they do for us.  I like snakes since I met many in trees that I climbed, as a kid.

Lyndy brought me a couple of bottles of Black Snake Mead last year and they are still unopened.
see earlier blog
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I hope I will have more encounter with Blake this year, but some very pleasant ones.