N-Ewes from Hopeful Shetlands

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Fall is in The Air

I can't believe how quickly summer has passed and I still haven't finished everything that I wanted to do. Gil is still busy renovating the downstairs and today I have to clean and reorganize my wool room. I have been spinning up some lovely rovings for sale at the Waterloo County Knitter's Fair September 13th and will be dyeing up some combed top as well. Fencing needs to be done and my inlaws will be arriving for a visit in three weeks. While out yesterday I came upon this nifty and useful device at the local antique shop. It is a skein winder with a yarn meter attatchment, so I will know how long my handspun skeins are. I was looking everywhere at the Michigan Fibre Fest for something similar and wasn't able to find one. I guess good things happen to those who wait.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Update





I can't believe that summer is coming to an end. I have been very busy here and nail biting waiting to see if the rain will ever stop so that my neighbour can cut hay. We are still waiting on second cut when normally they would be thinking about third cut hay. I lost a lamb to bloat one day while I was at work. With all the rains come the mixed blessing of lush pasture and too little roughage. I have been supplementing with dry hay on really wet days and this seems to be working well. Many thanks to my friend Bill, who generously gave me his dogs Nick and Kayla to protect my sheep from further coyote attacks. After the initial settling in period and knowing that Rueben could not go in with them, they settled nicely. I worked with Jackie Church, from New York State, who raises maremmas and Rueben is now trained and guards my ram flock. I have included photos of all the dogs and some photos of the sheep and the beautiful sky. Enjoy