Three words – cold… wet… threatening
Weekend Weather
Category: Uncategorized
Dyeing, Spinning, Knitting
Just a small sample of what we have been up to… when we are not in the barn.
Florence’s Day Out
Florence spent a lovely day out in the corral in beautiful fall-like weather…
disturbed only by the occasional visit from her friend, Spot.
Guinea Duet
For the last couple of weeks the JV Guineas have shared the coop with the two remaining adult guineas, a male with a slowly healing swollen foot and his lovely female companion. We had a large pen within the coop that the JVs could retreat to when they felt the need. We decided to remove the pen on Saturday so there would be more room and it would be easier to get around with food and water.
Well, for much of the morning, this was the view from outside the coop… no harm done, but not a pretty sight… clearly something needed to be done.
Having read on the Raising Guinea Fowl website how much guineas enjoy their reflection, we decided to give the adult guineas something else to amuse themselves. We installed this little parakeet mirror, and it was an instant hit!
In no time at all, the guinea racket of the usual buck-wheat buck-wheat and CHI CHi Chi chi chi changed to a lovely, almost melodious whistling and singing.
The whole atmosphere in the coop changed. It went from pay no attention to us, we are pretending we are invisible… 
to Oh, that is so lovely. Can we be your very attentive and appreciative audience?
Soooo much more pleasant for us all!
Dyers’ Garden Visitors
Whenever we are harvesting flowers from our Dyers’ Garden, we are very careful to not disturb our many friendly visitors.
Minutes after coming upon the big spider above glistening in the morning dew, the lovely friend (below) was found enjoying a morning snack.
Blackberry Time
We are really enjoying the blackberries that have ripened in the last few weeks. We are enjoying not so much the fact that this means summer is almost over.
However, the picking of blackberries always brings this family story about our Great-Grandmother, Hannah, to mind (told here in the words of our Great-Aunt Florence, her daughter).
“One summer my mother went alone to pick blackberries in the back field quite a distance from the house. She was busy picking when she heard a grunting and snorting noise in the thick bushes. She said, ‘You can’t scare me Dave, I know it’s you.’ She finished filling her buckets and came home. But when she got there, my father, probably reading, had never left the house! They later found signs where a bear had been staying around there, eating blackberries, of which they are very fond.”
This story was told often when we were growing up, and we never fail to think of it and share it once again, whenever it is blackberry time.
(Honestly… whenever we find a large patch of blackberries… we are always on the lookout for a bear.)
On the Drying Rack and in the Dye Pot
On the drying rack…
marigold
black-eyed susan
In the dye-pot… a very strong bath of bronze fennel,
zinnia
and more marigold
Hope to share pictures of finished yarn and wool locks later in the week.
Also, almost finished with Baby Jackson’s Welcome Sweater, knit in beautiful, deep gold yarn that we dyed with frosted marigold plants.
Not So Little, Miss Juliet
It has been about 10 days since Juliet, aka bottle baby, was weaned. For several days you could hear her complaining anytime she heard a noise that might mean the bottle toting mama and helper Harley were on their way. It has been hard to get another really good picture of her because this is the usual scene anytime you try to sneak into the field.
Now look at her! Doesn’t she look like a grown-up, young lady? She is almost as big as the other lambs in the field. We are so proud!
Nostalgic Harvest
Continuing the hay making and farm equipment theme…
Great-Uncle Delbert and his team of horses threshing oats.
One Thousand Two Hundred Twenty
