Yes

I think it was in my dentist's office on the cape that I used to read the poster about all the things you are suppose to do to live a good life.

There were all the ones you would expect like laughing a lot and and a hug a day and all that stuff, but the one I remember the best and live by is "say yes unless you have to say no" (or something like that). Too often people say no because they are used to saying no or it is easier because then you don't have to think.  I would recommend a long pause before saying no to anything (except maybe, carrying a terrorist's bag at the airport).

We got an interesting phone call and request a few days ago.  Could we rent the cabin to 2 juniors at one of the local universities, for the rest of September.  This was a plea from a woman who rents apartments in town, one of which was being renovated and was not ready yet.  In my mind, I said yes and no many times, before she was finished with her story and when she finally paused, I responded with the "let me talk to my husband" line.  John and I sat on the steps of his workshop considering many sides of the situation, before I went and called her back with a yes but…...

We have a couple of weekends booked-- no problem.  We don't have a reliable internet connection-- no problem.  It is pretty small, by today's standards, for that length of time, for 2 students (one of each sex- but not a couple)-- no problem. Well O.K. then.  The adventure begins.

The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is consider the possibilities for the day's events, and I wonder who I might meet that I don't know already.  I believe, everyone has the opportunity to meet someone new each day, with few exceptions.  There is the commute to work, the grocery store, the gas station, coffee break, lunch, the library (Gail) ….. think about the number of people who cross our paths in a week-- all potential "people of interest" who could make a difference in our lives.  Sometimes, we have actually seen or met a person before, but then one day have the opportunity to learn something new about them.

With the animals here, I think it is the same.  There seem to be new deer, rabbits, mice, snakes, etc. every day.  Soon, I hope there will be new chickens.

I look forward to getting to know J… and K,,,  and  seeing what kind of connections we make.

Pictures from August Fiber Camp

I keep forgetting to post pictures of our last Fiber Camp of the summer.  When I go into my fiber studio now, to work, it seems so quiet.

 Above:
a beautiful blue batt created on the drum carder






Spinning on a drop spindle.

Weaving a bracelet on a small frame loom

goldenrod, pokeweed, mullien, and concord grape for natural dyeing

 amazing homespun yarn

le chapeau-wet felting 

a fun bracelet

We had a fun week and now the kids are back to school. We will have to find time for some creative workshops this fall.

Hangin Out

 Cirrus and Sal decided to help me pick the grapes off the vines to use for dyeing some yarn.  They didn't eat too many.

It is so nice that the sheep and geese are working things out.  It looks like Gretta and Cirrus are best buddies in the picture below.

The sheep still don't like the geese to come into the barn when they are resting and the geese seem to respect that.

The geese have their pen and little house to rest in.  John says he saw one of the sheep checking out the pen the other day.

The fiber campers love the sheep and are fond of the addition of geese to the farm.  Everyone misses the chickens.  It seems like you can't find a free range farm that hasn't had a heavy loss of chickens recently.

I do want to get chickens again.  I wonder what Cirrus and Sal will say to that.  I have been thinking that when I schedule some workshops for the fall,  I should have the charge be $30.00 or 3 chickens-- kind of like the canned goods for the food bank for admission that some events have.

August Rain and Rambling

It is raining AGAIN.  We have had rain everyday since, I don't know when, BUT it isn't constant rain, more like Denver Colorado where it rains every afternoon or evening.  Scattered T-storms.  The other evening we were sitting on the front porch watching the lightning outline big puffy clouds.  What a light show.  Brilliant!  Most of July was pretty dry so I am glad to have the rain.

Unfortunately, with my short term memory shortfall, I forget to put my van windows up and close the two windows in the house that are notorious for flooding the floors.  The barn isn't too bad, no one is complaining.  I remember when the barn used to flood badly.  That was before the gravel drainage pit was put in above the barn.

 I was just out mowing a small area behind the garage/barn where the sheep usually do the job.  It has been off limits for awhile because we had to remove a piece of the fence.  As I was finishing that area, the wind came up and it started to get dark so I decided that was enough and pulled into the garage/barn.  I was going to mow the lower upper field.  I am glad I picked the smaller closer area, otherwise, I would have been drenched.

I was down at the community festival earlier and someone  asked me how the pastures were this summer with the lack of rain.  We had some brown brittle grass in spots up near the house in July, but the pastures were good, do to dew (ha ha) and fog, I guess, and rotational grazing.

When it comes to rain, timing is everything.  We had a full week of fiber camp this week with the daily rain not really being an issue.  A couple of the days, it rained after 3 and when it did rain during camp it was still O.K. because it was on and off.  The kids love when it rains so they don't have to use the rain water fed sink water, in the fiber shed, sparingly.

I almost had a fleece dry on the rack a few days ago but then it keeps raining and re-rinseing,  I can't wait to see how soft the fleece is when it finally does dry.

With 467 posts and a short term memory shortfall, I never know what to title the blogs. Rain is probably in the title of a few, I know August is in one or a few, and rambling, probably many, so I titled this one, August Rain and Rambling and the titles of subsequent blogs will probably be longer.

Pictures of August Fiber Camp coming soon.

Interviews

Tomorrow, is the first day of the last week of Fiber Camp for this summer.  While cleaning the fiber shed, I was rewarded by a special radio interview with Paulo Coelho.  He is one of my favorite authors.  For those who don't know him, he wrote The Alchemist and several other books and writes a column in the "Intelligent Optimist"(formally "Ode") magazine.

It was a great interview, and I don't think coincidental.  Today is Wednesday's birthday.  I think of Wednesday when I think of Coelho.  Paulo, in the interview, was talking about how when he wakes up in the morning he doesn't know what the day will bring and he looks forward to the opportunities that may unfold and the people he may meet.  I feel that way every morning as well, and I imagine Wednesday did too.

Probably his most notable quote is

"when you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"

I heard an old interview with another person who I admired greatly, a few days ago.  I was tremendously saddened by the death of Robin Williams, last week.  The quote, that stood out through all the gibberish in the interview, for me, was "Life isn't for everyone."

  I think you can learn a lot more about someone listening to them being interviewed, than reading a bio.  You can feel who the person is by listening to their voice as well as the words they say.

I think I will begin interviewing the animals who live here at Cabin Spring Farm.  And I think I shall begin with Zora.  She doesn't seem herself lately.

Maybe I will interview the campers this week too.

Nearing the End of Summer

 THIS is who I share my fiber shed with.  I can't get over how big insects and spiders are in Virginia.  At least the snakes and mice have spent the summer outside for the most part.













I am not even sure what this one is -- all I know is it is big.  I think this is one of the flies that occasionally bother the sheep.  Anyway, it is time to move them out so we can have fiber camp next week.

It seems like autumn is coming early this year.  It is mid August and we have not had our air conditioner on since sometime in July.  The only really hot weather I can remember this summer was the last time we had fiber camp in June.  It will probably get hot again next week.

Robbie's garden down the road is mostly harvested and I picked most of the concord grapes in my dyer's garden a few days ago.  I made a wonderful grape pie and some grape jam.  The pie was so beautiful!  Why is it that I take pictures of these guys in the fiber shed and not of the beautiful concord grape pie?  I will use some of the grapes to dye some yarn.  I have some blueberries to dye with too.  I like dyeing with berries but I also have some leaves I want to dye with and of course some wonderful end- of- the- summer flowers.  A great project for the weekend.

The Drama is Over

At least for today.  It was a quiet day at Cabin Spring Farm.  This morning I let the geese out of their pen but left them in their run area because I was walking with friends.  As I was getting ready to leave, Sal flew over the run fence.  I quickly put her back in and went off thinking, it won't be long before she flies over when I am not around.  I came home from walking and she was out again.

Cirrus has not gotten out without me letting him out--yet.  When I changed my shoes and went down to the barnyard to see how things were going, Sal was down by the gate, Cirrus was as close as he could be but still inside, and the sheep were resting in the barn.  John had just opened the gate to the geese run but Cirrus didn't notice.   I decided to let Cirrus discover the open gate on his own and just be an observer to the barnyard goings on instead of a participant.  A few sheep came down by the gate and I decided to let them into the area behind the garage/barn to graze.  Sal was still near the gate so the sheep had to maneuver around her.  That was interesting.  Some sheep gave Sal plenty of room, others just took the straight route and Sal had to make some quick moves.  It was all so much easier with one goose in the mix.  I had a story I had to write so I sat in a chair between the gate and the geese run.  At some point Sal went up to the gate in the run and Cirrus saw that he could come out, and did.  The sheep returned to the barn as Sal was walking up that way.  With both geese out, I stayed awhile longer to see if they would go in the barn and harass the sheep.  They didn't so I went back up to the house and fiber shed but stayed in hearing range.  When I peeked a little while later, the geese were resting outside the barn, the sheep inside, and all was calm.  I went back to what I was doing.  Later in the day, I went down to just hangout in the barnyard and sit in the sun.  Cirrus was resting too and Sal was entertaining us.

I am so glad things are working themselves out.  Usually, it just takes me figuring out how to stay out of the way.  I hope tomorrow is as calm as today.