“Autumn burned brightly,
a running flame through the mountains,
a torch flung to the trees.”
— Faith Baldwin
Sunday Muse
{this moment}
A Friday ritual.
A single photo – no words – capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.
Scenes From the Buckwheat Festival
Last week at our county fair, perhaps the most common sight were muck boots, rain coats and umbrellas. Most people would be disappointed in the constant rain and cold, but here in Preston County we know this is just your average Buckwheat Festival weather. Young and old alike donned their rain and cool weather gear and still came out to enjoy the buckwheat cakes, the show animals, the exhibits, the crafts, the amusement rides… all the activities that the county fair brings. Here are a few scenes… more to follow. We hope to have a guest post from Lena about her market lamb experiences later this week.
(In other somewhat unrelated news… we had snow yesterday… no accumulation… but snow… in the higher mountains four inches… brrr.)
{this moment}
A Friday ritual.
A single photo – no words – capturing a single moment
from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A
moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama
blog.
Settling In
Bella and Edward were getting settled into their fair pen last evening.
So excited to have new metal pens this year in the sheep/goat barn!!
This morning they are getting bathed and all ready to be shown this afternoon.
It’s Buckwheat Time!
Fall has arrived and that means that it’s time for our county fair, the Buckwheat Festival! All over the county young and old are making preparations to enter their best – best hay, best pumpkin, best canned beans, best handiwork- competing for blue ribbons and Best of Show. 4-H and FFA club members are getting their animals ready for show and will take them to the fairground barns today. Lena will take Bella and Edward, her 4-H market lambs, this evening. She broke her wrist last week so this is sure to be an adventure; please wish her lots of luck.
The fairgrounds are being readied, and soon we will all delight in the colors, the sights, the sounds, the parades, the pageantry… delight in all that is our county fair… the Preston County Buckwheat Festival!
Autumn in Aurora
Autumn In Aurora from Bruce Dale on Vimeo.
Welcoming the Autumnal Equinox by sharing this lovely film by photographer Bruce Dale
Peeking in on the Peeps
The newest hatchlings are doing well with mama hen in their ultra-protective quarters; the two little ones are shy and just as cute as can be; mama is very protective
This summer’s earlier hatchlings have moved (still with their mama) into juvenile quarters and are at that kind of awkward teenager stage; it’s going to be exciting to see what they will look like when mature
And as for those spring peeps… it just seems that those silver wyandottes are constantly seeking the spotlight… errr sunlight
Not Yellow
Naturally dyeing fiber is always interesting and often unpredictable. When anyone asks us what color we get from a certain plant the usual response is ‘yellow’ … or ‘probably yellow’ if it is a plant we have never tried. This can be manipulated somewhat by the use of different mordants or afterdips, but still usually yellow or tan color based hues are the results achieved from local plants.
So it is always a great surprise when we make a dyebath from…..for instance…. blossums like these:
and these:
(14 oz. total fresh blossoms)
And add 2oz of alum and cream of tartar mordanted wool, and a tablespoon of baking soda in the last 15 min or so to change the pH….
And get a lovely bright shade of …not yellow… but….green…:
So of course we have to add another 2oz of wool to the dyebath and get a still beautiful but pale yellow:
They do look very pretty together:
Now to see if the green can be duplicated with another dyebath. May be most likely be yet another surprise.
Musical Pastures
In our never ending quest for better flock health, we’ve been busy playing musical pastures. The ewes have finally made it to the hayfield by the old barn. This involves putting up more than 1/2 mile of temporary net fencing, which will be moved several times in the coming weeks. They are brought back in to the permanent pine grove pasture in the evening to protect them from predators. This has worked out very well. The ewes are on new pasture in preparation for breeding season, and the hayfield is being weeded and fertilized.
In an effort to avoid another scandal like the one last year involving the young Maebh, we decided to separate the ram lambs from the ewe lambs following FAMACHA scoring on Saturday. The ram lambs are now in the granddaddy green pasture, and the ewe lambs were moved back to the graveyard pasture. We were really excited to score 19 ‘ones’ and 0 ‘fours’ this time. We did have to treat about a dozen ‘threes’, but that is less than 25%. The cooler weather is probably helping. All the lambs are out of the barn and out on pasture. Time to start planning for fall shearing.
