Thanks for a great weekend at Shepherd's Harvest

I had a great weekend at Shepherd's Harvest last week.

Thanks to everyone who took my birdhouse class, your houses turned out great! I only wish we would have gotten a photo with all the birdhouses that were made. I will remember next time! I've hung two of mine outside and am waiting for the wrens to come back and start filling them up with sticks.

Thanks to everyone who stopped in my booth,  it was great to meet new friends and to see so many old friends. Even though there is never enough time to talk!

Rita and her triplets at 4 weeks old.

 The lambs are growing like weeds and I'm making the difficult decisions as to who will be for sale and who will be retained.

Godiva and her ram lamb at 2.5 weeks old. He's a little doll!

I used the electronet to let the ewes and lambs graze the backyard for the past couple days.

They got into some mischief with the rhubarb and my precious peach tree. But I don't think any permanent damage was done. Next time I'll reinforce my hog panels with T posts. 

Luna's ram lamb investigating the rhubarb.  I'm very tempted to keep this one for breeding, his fleece is so soft!

Flash inspecting the fire pit.

I really shouldn't breed the sheep anymore. Although I love the lambs, it adds a lot of extra stress to life before and after lambing, at weaning, etc. Since I sold my land with the hay fields, I will be buying hay again, so I want to just have a fiber flock of about 6-8 sheep. Soon my sales list will be posted. However, I've still got three Shetland ewes due to lamb after Memorial Day (it seemed like a good idea to run the whole flock together over the winter months but now I'm paying for it with late lambs).  Hopefully we'll get more bling from Jari, the Finn ram and the Shetland ewes.

I'm glad to have some time to create some new work for the gallery in Stillwater and get my planting done. This is my favorite time of year. I'm enjoying watching the leaves bud on the trees and the grass green up.  This Japanese stone cherry tree is a show stopper every spring.

The black hen has hatched 7 ducklings with one more working his way out of the shell now.

These two ducks are setting on a clutch of eggs too.

 For those of you not on FaceBook, the grey cat on the chair is Buddy.  He's the stray cat in my pole barn, except now he's hanging out by the house and he even cameIN this morning while I was on the deck with door open. My cats weren't so sure they liked that...

 Oh my, I find myself with three cats!  But I couldn't just let him go hungry last winter...

Shepherd's Harvest this weekend!

I'm trying my best to get everything organized and ready to go for this weekend at Shepherd's Harvest in Lake Elmo, MN.  I'm teaching the felt birdhouses tomorrow and then I'll be vending all weekend.
I'm packing up all my fibers, a few raw-felted pelts, some birdhouses, a little bit of handspun yarn and even my Louet Victoria wheel.  

Stop by the festival if you're looking for something fun to do. It's a free family event with music, food, fiber demos, herding dogs, sheep, llamas, all kinds of fiber-related vendors. I'll be in Building C, River Oaks Farm & Studio.

Meet Flash, Shetland/Finn cross ram lamb out of River Oaks Godiva. He's such a sweetie, very friendly.

 In lambing news, Luna and Godiva delivered single ram lambs within 30 mintues of each other on the evening of April 30th. They are both first time lambers and they both did an excellent job.

Luna's ram lamb, his name is Comet, he's a BFL/Finn cross and I'm really looking forward to his fleece.

Rita's triplets and Leta's ram lamb are growing like weeds. I can't believe they will be 3 weeks old on Saturday.  I don't have a recent photo, they've grown a lot since I took one below.

Front to back, Letla's lamb Kahn (banded), Rita's triplets, Rocky, Ruby and Rosie.  All are Bluefaced Leicester/Finn and should have wonderful fleece.

I will be offering all these lambs for sale at weaning in late June (all except for Comet and Ruby or Rosie). I'm making up a sales list which will include all my boys  (except Comet), even the ever-so-friendly with fabulous fleece, Mr. Socks.  Four Shetland ewes are due to lamb after Memorial Day, so there should be more lambs on the list too.


It's really hard to keep focused and get all the details arranged for this weekend, so I've got to keep going here. I know I'll have a good time this weekend and be totally exhausted by Sunday night.  Hope to see you ar Shepherd's Harvest!

Spring Lambs!

This has been the winter that just won't let go. The April snows have been frequent and heavy. I am stiff and sore from shoveling all the time and very anxious for the grass to start growing.

I shoveled out that service door 5 times in 24 hours when we got 11" of snow last week.

Hay is VERY expensive due to last summer's drought and this never-ending winter.  I saw some nice small square grass/clover bales sell for $8.10 this morning. Wow, over $200 for a small stack of 25 bales! 

But the good news is that lambs have started to arrive --

Rita had a set of triplets in the wee hours of April 20.  Two ewe lambs and a ram lamb.  I knew she was going into labor and I was watching her like a hawk. But I finally went to bed at midnight to get some rest because I had a class to teach the next day.  I woke up at 4 a.m. and checked the barn cam. I could see there were two big lambs with her. So I went out to jug them and found a very small wet ewe off to the side all by herself.  She had been licked off, but she hadn't been up yet.  It was very cold out that night.  She was about half the size of the other two. I scooped her up in a towel and brought her in the house for Matt to hold while I found the heat lamb and got everyone settled in the lambing jug. (Fortunately, Matt had just come home - perfect timing!)

Once she was warmed up, she was hungry. I gave her a bottle and brought her right back out to mom and the heat lamp.

This is the first set of triplets ever born here at River Oaks. So I am quite excited and maybe a bit overprotective of them and Rita. She lost a lot of condition during the pregnancy. I started feeding her extra rations a couple weeks before she delivered. And now I've upped her rations and am supplementing all the lambs with 2 oz. bottles of milk replacer  three times a day.

I love these little preemie bottles.  I saved them from when Matt was born at just 3.5 pounds -- 24 years ago. They work great for newborn lambs. You can see that Corningware we got as a wedding gift in 1975 too.  I guess I need to go shopping!

The two bigger triplets are starting to refuse their bottles, but the little girl gulps hers down and finishes off what the others refuse. They are all so cute!

Leta had a big single ram lamb in the early hours of April 22.  I found her and the lamb out in the Megahut when I went out in the morning. He was already well fed and followed her back to the barn and into the jug.  He was bouncing and kicking up his heels within hours of his birth.

I am so happy with my homegrown Bluefaced Leicester ewes for being such great mothers right from the start. The Bluefaced Leicester ewes I started out with back in 2008 were good enough moms, but they were not attentive to their newborn lambs and they were reluctant to let the lambs nurse in the first 12 hours. We had to hold them so the lambs could nurse, which was very frustrating. But in March of 2011 things turned around. They all had twins (Rita, Leta, and Luna were born then) and were great moms. So I'm glad I hung in there with the BFLs. I love their fleece and their personalities. 

I've been doing a lot of felting and am currently working on some river themed pieces. Will post felt photos next time. And of course there will be more lamb photos as they arrive!  Six more ewes to go. :-)

Springing Forward

Life has been busy as usual.  The reception in Stillwater went well. I was very honored to be included in the show. The other artists had wonderful quilts, weaving, pottery and jewelry.

I am pleased to announce that my work will stay in the gallery after the River Room exhibit is over at the end of March! I was juried into the Guild and I will have my own space in the gallery. This means I will need to increase production, which is a good thing.  I have so much wool and so many ideas!

My wall in the show, I put up title cards and got rid of the business cards after this photo was taken.

Speaking of wool, the sheep were sheared on Mar. 9, the morning after the reception. I have to say that my shearer, Jim Peterson, just gets better every year. I don't know what I would do without him. The sheep all look good, but only a few are definitely pregnant and due in April.  The others won't be due until after May 26th. And the burdizzoed boys may still be fertile. So it will be interesting to figure out who the sire of the lambs is.  My Finn ram, Jari, was alone with the ewes for two weeks last fall, but the rest of the time the burdizzoed boys were in there too.

River Oaks Heddy, I love her blue-gray fleece! It's already washed and ready for carding.

I have to admit that I'm glad that the dark Shetland/Bluefaced Leicester cross ram lamb my still be fertile. He's a gorgeous dark chocolate BROWN! This is the first real brown fleece I've had  in a Bluefaced Leicester cross. I can't wait to get it skirted and washed. The twin gulmoget Bluefaced Leicesters crosses were a first for me too. Can't wait to see the lambs this year!

I got a Magpie drake for my ducks (he's the one with the dark cap in the photo above). They all get along fine and he's doing his drakely duties. So hopefully we will have lots of ducklings this spring. I read in Dave Holderread's book that Magpie drakes are excellent for crossing on other breeds. Their female offspring should lay plenty of large eggs.

I was fortunate to attend a millinery hat class at the Textile Center in Minneapolis the first weekend of March. What fun, all the hats were different. I made this one out of a rabbit fur felt capeline. It's lined with silk and fits me just right. I'm not really a hat wearer, but I love making them and I have to say that I actually look good in this one. I want to organize a similar class here in Mora.

The instructor is Emily Moe (wearing the hat above), she lives in Duluth. It would be a two day class.  Let me know if you're interested. Maximum of 10 students, dates to be determined.

I have added my 2013 schedule on the right of this blog. You can see I will be teaching several birdhouse classes this sping and summer. My plan is to have an installation of 40-60 birdhouses in early October. Students will be invited to dedicate their birdhouse in memory of someone special in their lives and display it in the installation.  I think it will be great to share the stories of the loved ones as well as the stories of the birds that take up residence over the summer.

Artist Reception March 8th

Hopefully you will be able to read this jpg I made of the poster for the Stillwater Art Guild Gallery Fiber and Clay show that I'm participating in.
 The exhibit is on display in the River Room through the end of March.
 Please join us for the artist's reception which will be from 5-9 p.m. on Friday, March 8th.
We'll have wine and food on hand. I can't wait to meet the other artists and see their work!

Felt Birdhouse and Finished Socks

I showed this felted birdhouse as one of my pieces in the Vasaloppet Art show last week. I was surprised to see that it was among the top four vote-getters in the "viewer's favorite" category.  There were 150 pieces in the show.  There's definitely something special about those felt birdhouses!  I'm planning a project with them for this year, but I'm still waiting to hear if I'll get the grant funding or not before I can announce all the details. Suffice it to say that I plan to teach birdhouse classes at various locations in the state of Minnesota this spring and summer.


I finished my second sock last night while listening to friends playing music and playing cards.
Here they are.  Like I said, I couldn't wait to wear them!

The next pairs will be made using two strands of yarn with contrasting color ribbing at the top of the cuff and at the heel and toe. (I think I will do afterthought heels this time so they will be easy to replace.) Limiting color changes to just those three areas will involve a LOT fewer joins so I could incorporate some cabling or a stitch pattern. But I have to say that changing color every inch made knitting these socks go really fast. I Googled Socka Yarn and I see that it's known as Fortissma sock yarn now.

Poor Matt got stuck in the driveway last night.  I don't think it wasn't my poor plowing job, it was more of his fast backing up.  :-)  Hopefully we can get him out today. He's asking a few friends to come over and help push him out. If that doesn't work, we will get to learn how to pull the car out of the snow with the pick up truck. Today just happens to be Matt's birthday. I made him a cake this morning and I'll make some sloppy joes for his friends. Kind of reminds me of his birthday parties of years ago. :-)

Gradated Socks and learning to Plow snow

I started some gradated socks on Sunday night while watching Downton Abbey and finished the first one on Tuesday while watching the State of the Union address. I just went with K1,P1 ribbing for the cuff on 40 sts, I wanted the color changes to be the focus. Now I've started the second one and can't wait to get it done so I can wear these! With two strands of yarn, the thickness is just right.

I used some Socka yarn that I found in a thrift shop for just $1 a skein.  It's 53% cotton, 32% superwash wool, and 15% polyamid. I should have enough yarn in the 6 skeins for 4 pairs of socks.
 Last summer I dyed the skeins different colors and now I'm using two strands at a time.  I'm knitting an inch with each color combination.  It's a LOT of joins, but I'm getting better at them. I'm splitting the cut ends of the yarn like a Y and then putting them together so the ends of the Y are parallel with the stem of the other Y.  Then I wet them and roll/rub them together and keep on knitting.  So far, so good, I hope it holds up well in the socks.  I'm doing the joins on the top of the foot/front of the leg where there won't be as much wear and tear.

 

On Sunday, the last day of the Vasaloppet Art show, we had  quite a bit of snow.  So Monday morning I decided it was a good time to learn how to plow myself out. It was a bit embarrassing when I got the Mule stuck and the neighbors were heading into school (late start because of all the snow) as I was shoveling away, but I got it out. I know I didn't do a very good job; I didn't have the blade low enough so there was still a layer of snow in the driveway.  Well, last night we got another 3 inches and this morning I got the Mule out again and tried to clean it all up. I can see already that I should have pushed that snow WAY back the first time around. Because now I don't have room to push any more snow into the edges. Next year I will do a much better job.


Tonight is Spinning/Knitting at the Crystal Bar and Grill. What a way to spend Valentine's Day night. :-)  Last week I got all the way in there before I realized it was the wrong week. Guess I was a little anxious to get out. :-)