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Our beach “girls weekend” was wonderful! I think it was everything we’d hope for: calm and reflective times, major laughing fits, walks on the beach - and NO RAIN or SNOW! Our cottage was absolutely perfect - just the right size, a well-outfitted kitchen, room for 6 spinning wheels, two bathrooms and enough beds for us all - and best of all: a stunning beach view out most all windows!!! Here’s the front view of our little cottage:
And here’s the view once you step inside…..
A beach view is always nice, but most of us left a pile of snow and ice and to be at the beach with some sun was heaven on earth.
As we unpacked, an odd pile formed on the kitchen table. Heh. A pile of satchels!!!
There was much picture taking - but no photos passed muster for the blog. I mean really, after a nice dinner and a glass or two of wine - we played our satchel snatch game in our jammies. Who wants to see a group of middle aged women in their jammies? I brought the AARP bag that I won from Kathryn last fall at OFFF. Lisa brought the monster-sized animal cracker box (with Ken and Barbie inside! heh). I won’t tell who ended up with Ken and Barbie! We’ll find out this summer!! I ended up with the foo-foo bag that Julie brought - it’s partially hidden in this photo - off to the right - a fuzzy/felted bag. We were all fighting for it and I lucked out and won. What was inside? I’m not telling - well, ok there was a hospital gown inside. Hmmmm, wonder how it got there??
The next day we sat at our wheels and enjoyed each other’s company. This group has been getting together at misc. goat shows for many years - they call themselves the “Wild Goat Women” and I believe I passed my initiation this weekend. Ha. Almost everyone was spinning on a different wheel, and Lisa brought her electric wheel (but you can’t see it in this photo…).
We had two Lendrums, an Ashford Joy, and Ashford Traddy, a Schacht, and an electric Roberta! Dee was getting a bit crazy with her spinning and had a wipeout!
We sat at our wheels into the evening. I took one last picture and I like it - although it looks like Julie’s wheel is on fire!
Next day - walks on the beach! There is a tunnel that goes through a rocky outcropping on “our” beach - and we walked through it. It was sort of scary if you let your imagination loose! And this photo is well illuminated because of the flash. It was much darker in person (really!)….
And here we are (minus a late Lisa Z.) on the beach!
Next up? Today Susan and I are headed north to Madrona! More on that in a later post.
We’re off for a fabulous, four day, fun-filled “girls weekend” with our fellow “wild goat women”. I am calling this our “Wild Goat Women Winter Weekend”. There will be six of us in a rented beach house RIGHT ON THE BEACH! And now that the roads are bare, it will be a far more pleasant drive.
There will be lots of quiet, relaxing spinning time, and reflective walks on the beach, and no phones or computers (I briefly, and I mean briefly thought about packing the laptop - but decided against it). There will be great food and wine! And after the wine? A rousing game of Cranium (heh, I’ve been looking forward to that one) and of course, one night we’ll do the infamous “satchel snatch”.
Satchel snatch is a great game. You take a purse or tote bag (the uglier, the better) and walk about the house, filling it with stupid stuff in your house that you no longer want. Or put in the dorky gift somebody gave you that just isn’t “you”. If it’s a fragile item, pad it first. Once the bag is filled, close it and it’s ready. Now everyone shows up with their filled satchel. Then you need two decks of cards. Deal out one deck of cards and place the other face down. Someone will turn over a card, one at a time, from the face down deck. The person with the matching card then is allowed to select someone else’s satchel. Repeat until all the facedown deck is gone. The satchel you end up with is now yours. It can get crazy while doing this, because for whatever reason, some satchels are more attractive to the group than others. If it’s your turn, but somebody has already selected the satchel YOU wanted, you are allowed to take it from them. During the course of the game some people will be sitting with more than one satchel - but in the end everyone ends up with one satchel and it isn’t the one they came with.
Now the fun begins as each player digs through their new satchel to see what they’ve won. Some of us will put a few nice things in there to sweeten the pot. I’ve received gum, nice smelling candles and the like. I’ve also received smelly soap, really ugly friggie magnets, and the most hideous victorian-looking purse lamp with fringe around it. I’m not sure, but I think Jan ended up with that ugly purse last summer at Black Sheep!
One year our friend Louise joined us from Idaho. We were at the Black Sheep Gathering. Louise ended up with Kathryn’s satchel. We got a great laugh when Louise pulled out a n*ked Ken doll along with a Harlequin romance book and other odds and ends. That was the year I won the ugly fringed lamp from Susan. Louise left us a day early to fly back home….and she got the last laugh. As Susan and I were schlepping our fiber back to her truck in the parking lot, something caught our eye. There was Ken, spread out flat against the truck windshield, held in place with a windshield wiper! He’d been there ALL day for EVERYONE to see. Ha! That was a good one. As we drove north, heading home, we had to stop at Jan’s to drop her fiber off. Jan was out of town. We liked Louise’s idea so well, that we left dear Ken on Jan’s windshield (along with the romance novel)- and drove off. This would be the time to tell you that Jan’s husband’s name is KEN. Hee hee. Needless to say, when Jan got home, she had some explaining to do!
While Jan was stuck with her Ken doll, (remember he is n*ked) - she decided to make him more publicly acceptable and painted on some shorts, a tie, and flipflops on his feet with colored sharpie pens. Now he really looked a sight! Next year at Black Sheep we packaged Ken in a small satchel and handed it to a friend of Louise’s who was vending at the festival. So as of last June, Ken headed back to Idaho! It will be interesting to see how/if he ends up back over in Oregon!
As for this weekend? Somebody mumbled something about a Barbie and Ken doll set….I hope I don’t get them! I AM bringing the camera!!
Terry
Our thanks to Wendy for this cool kitty bed pattern! For those who don’t know ….. Susan does knit! She just suffers from a lack of knitting time (working full time, long daily commute, caring for 30+ goats - who would have time?). While delivering a load of Pygora fiber yesterday, she gave me her newly-finished cat bed to use for a blog photo shoot. She even included a bag of catnip should dear Scooter and Hunter need a bit of encouragement.
When I got home last night, both kitties (they’re not a year old yet) were waiting in the garage for me. I sat the catbed down on top of the freezer, next to their cat food. My kitties live in the garage and have a cat door for coming and going outside. I can’t have them in the house - I’m very allergic to their dander. But I LOVE my kitties! I play with them in the garage and then go wash my hands - and that seems to work just fine. But I digress….. (and I will state right here and now, that no catnip was needed) heh….
Oh look what mom brought home - wonder what it is??
Omigosh! I am in cat HEAVEN - I just LOVE this thing! Woo Hoo!
Hey! What the heck is THAT? Let me try!!
Get OUT of MY catbed!! I was here first - now GET OUT!
Oh why am I having to share with my brother??? This is just embarrasing!
Well, ok, I guess we can share. Harumph!
Thanks Wendy, for such a fun pattern. I’m knitting one up out of some handspun that I wasn’t certain what to do with. Good thing I’m making one because it would seem that Hunter and Scooter need one, too!
Terry
We’ve not exactly been housebound all week - but definately for the past three days it’s been seriously iffy. We live on a steep, curvy hill and well, it’s all about how bad you want to get to town! I will say that I’ve not been overly impressed with our mail service: whatever happened to “nor rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail”?
No mail or newspaper for two straight days! I’m not really expecting anything - well, ok, the HEATED BUCKET would be nice folks. It’s 17 degrees here this morning and I want that heated bucket! Like last week, ok? Thank goodness I took this week off from work! I’m hauling hot water to the barn three times a day.
My scarf is done and I LOVE IT! Warp: Zephyr, Weft: handspun Pygora yarn (80%Pygora/20%Merino). The white and tan are natural colored Pygora (white fiber from Alfalfa, tan from Chipster!). The orangey-brown and the yellow-brown are lichen dyed yarn (from Lobaria and Usnea) -
The dark chocolate brown is a wee bit of buffalo I spun last year at the Guemes Island retreat. Thank you Judith! Here’s an attempt at a close up (to show you the twill pattern and the Pygora halo):
What else is a girl to do while housebound? Play with fiber!! And unlike someone else I know (Sarah, are you reading this??), I have plenty of wine and cheese in the house! But I’m freaking out of VINEGAR!!! I’ve been cranking up the dyepots this week and now I’m stuck with no vinegar. Crap. Here’s a peek at studio happenings (please pardon the appearance of weird colors….the flash sometimes does strange things to colors…..(ok, maybe it’s me, but I’m always gonna blame the camera!).
And now that I’m outta vinegar - I’m warping for the guild project. I love to weave, but I hate warping!!!
I’m going to try some Huck lace for a couple of towels. We shall see, eh?
Now I give you some more COLD photos from the farm!
Oh, and one last story - heh - since I ran out of vinegar, I noticed that I’d depleted some of my dye solutions. So I weighed up about 7 colors and placed the dyepowders carefully in small plastic cups. This I did in the studio. Now I had to cart them back to the garage (studio water gets shut off in cold weather - because some of the line is exposed). So here I am, carefully walking along a snowy, icy sidewalk back to the house with a tray full of dye powered-filled cups. Susan, are you with me here??? Suddenly I had this mental picture of me tripping (I do this alot) and flinging pretty dye powders ALL OVER THE YARD and falling face-first into them. Needless to say that caused me to slow waaaaay down and question the wisdom of transporting so much loose dye powder across a slippery surface. Thankfully I made it without any slips or trips. But BOTH gloves leaked and I now have turquoise colored fingers. Ah well…..
Terry
I’m off from work this week. Normally my place of employement shuts down for a week between Christmas and New Years. That has always been a mixed blessing: I love that time off, yet it is “hell on earth” getting that big old mill up and running and usually takes at least two weeks to get it done. That is completely awful. This year somebody finally got smart and kept the place running over the holidays. But we ran so shorthanded that to have holiday stresses piled on top of work stresses - you get the picture? I was fried, just completely fried.
I think this is the first vacation of my entire life where I had nothing special planned. Just playing around in the goat barn and my studio, and taking daily walks down the backroads with my husband and two dogs. Here’s dh with Buck and Lucky. We’re dog sitting Lucky until his family comes back home in March. They are temporarily located in Laramie, WY and had taken Lucky with them. Then they had to relocate and were unable to find a dog friendly rental. So Tom, Whitney, their two kids, and Lucky flew up for Christmas. Needless to say - they got caught in the mess of the Denver airport during “bad storm #1″. I think the fact that Lucky was with them allowed them to get on a flight and get through the mess quicker than most.
What a difference a day makes!
Same road, next day. And this is just in the morning. As I look out my window today (Thursday), I’m thinking we may need snowshoes. Ok, so there’s only 6-8″ of snow outside, but these are backroads and infrequently traveled. Here’s some shots from yesterdays snow-walk:
And I thought of the artist Bev Doolittle when I saw this:
Of course, the goats are out in the pasture wondering what the heck happened
Lucky is our new guard dog. He sleeps on a bench on our front porch during the day. Ah, the life of a dog!
On the fiber front: I FINISHED MY PYGORA SCARF! Woot! I’m not much of a weaver, so I was scared to death to try this. I’m very happy with it - natural colors and some lichen dyed colors in an asymetrical pattern. Photos later today I hope. I’m still working (albeit not diligently) on the second fingerless glove. I need to get a better pic of those.
Terry (who is happily at home and not having to drive in this crap - can’t flip another Jeep this year!)
Hay there!
You may have heard the saying that “bread is the staff of life”, but for the livestock owner it really should be “hay is the staff of life”.
There are just a few things that represent security to me and one of them is a barn full of hay. Having plenty of hay, especially during the winter months, means that I have one less stressor in my life and the Lord knows that I have more than enough stress right now. It’s far better to have some of last year’s bales on hand when the new crop is ready, than it is to run out during the late winter or early spring months and have to try to locate and purchase more. So my heart aches for the farmers and ranches in Colorado who, after the huge snowstorms, are agonizing over how to get hay and water to their starving livestock in their remote pastures. What a helpless feeling it must be to know you have hay for them, but have no means by which to get it to them. If you’re so inclined, say a prayer or two for the struggling American farmers who are beset with weather woes.
A couple of years ago a huge snow and ice storm hit our area in January. The good hays come from the east and drier side of Cascade Mountains where the best hay growers are located. During this time the passes through the mountains were impassable for a long time and local feed stores and other sellers of feed quality hays depleted their inventories. I took one look at my remaining hay bales and felt my throat constrict with a feeling of panic. Gads, I didn’t have enough left to get us through! It seemed like it took forever to locate some available grass hay. Even then the quality was poor but I had no choice but to buy enough to carry us through to when the next cuttings would be available.
The general assumption among non-goat people is that goats will eat anything! Hah! Goats are VERY picky eaters. They are browsers (like deer) and would much prefer to munch on leaves, woody stems, blackberry vines, and weeds. Grass is what they go to last when given the other options. Therefore, if the hay you buy isn’t of good quality (because most hay is baled dried grasses) the goats take one sniff and then look at you as if you’re trying to poison them. “What? You want us to eat this crap?”
When it becomes apparent that no better hay will be forthcoming despite their yelling and whining, the goats begin to pick through the hay before them. You would think that a creature that has to eat without the benefit of hands would have some difficulty sorting through a tight tangle of dried grasses. But goats are wily creatures and masters at wasting hay. With their nimble and soft little lips, the reach into the hay pile and pull out a mouthful. By taste, if they determine that nothing in that mouthful is worth chewing or swallowing, they let it fall to the floor and reach in for more. Only when they find something that is sweet and green (good hay is ALWAYS cut when it is green and still growing!) will they deign to chew and swallow it. Meanwhile, the pile of rejects builds up on the barn floor and adds to the softness of their bedding. Need I tell you that I never have to add to their bedding during the course of the winter months?
In a very short time, the stuff on the floor builds to such a level that I can’t open gates or close doors. Then the dreaded thought that the barn needs to be cleaned out enters my mind and I groan knowing the agony that I will be faced. Farming is such hard physical labor. Moisture rises up from the dirt barn floor into the lower layers of bedding, saturating it and making it VERY heavy. This wet layer, in the first phase of composting, does a very good job of keeping the goats warm, but then the time comes when it has to be removed and I could care less if the goats stay warm or not. I yearn for a light, fluffy and thin layer of bedding that simply floats into the wheelbarrow with hardly any effort. I pray for only a few trips back and forth between the barn and the muck pile to empty said wheelbarrow.
Yes, I do have a small tractor and a little trailer and I could forgo the hauling and pushing of the muck with the wheelbarrow. But the muck still has to be manually loaded into the trailer, I have to haul my carcass up into the seat of the tractor, start the smelly loud thing up, drive it out of the barn, maneuver it into position, crawl down off the tractor, and still have to fork it off the trailer. Climbing off and on the tractor for an extended period of time is kind of hard on my bum knee so I just stick with the wheelbarrow method.
Late in December the time came to re-evaluate my hay inventory. Although I still had quite a bit left, probably enough to carry me for quite a while, I got panicky when I heard about shortages and the resulting increase in prices. I knew we still had the bad weather months of January and February to go through and I didn’t want to get caught with not enough hay should a huge storm roll through again. I got on the phone, called all my sources and got the shock of my life. Gads, prices have gone through the roof. Crummy old grass hay was going for $200 a ton and the higher quality hays were going for $220 to $260 a ton. Feed stores were selling bales at $19.99!!!! So I bit the bullet and ordered 6 tons at the price of $230. It’s pretty nice hay, green and sweet, but the bales are HUGE and the hay flakes are really packed solid and difficult to make work in my feeders. (sigh) Nothing is ever perfect.
I read another person’s blog and she was complaining about bales weighing 40 lbs. Forty pounds? I haven’t seen a 40 lb bale in these parts for as long as I can remember. The bales of hay we’ve been buying for the last 2-3 years have all averaged right around 100 lbs. each (and these are 2-string bales). The hay I just purchased is averaging over 100 lb each but other sources were quoting me three tie bales at 150 lbs each. Sheesh, I can move them, but I can’t lift them very far. Did I mention that I have to pay for delivery and stacking? As you can imagine, there’s no way I can stack 100 lb plus bales clear up to the ceiling of my barn!
The new hay is scratchy. VERY scratchy. There are wheat heads in it and there are little stickery things that break off and penetrate your clothing. I mean MAJOR penetration. After feeding my goats and as I’m walking back to the house, I’m dancing a jig trying to get the dang things out of my underwear! These things even penetrate my heavy work gloves and can’t be removed. Feeding was never my favorite chore but now that it has become painful, it’s all I can do to make myself do it at all.
Ah, such is the life of a goat farmer. But though I’m whining a bit here, I really wouldn’t have it any other way.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I promised shots of the fingerless gloves I’ve been working on. I wanted to design my own pattern (ha!) just to see if it could be done. I wanted a fingerless glove with a slight lace pattern along the back of the hand. I used a yarn I had been eyeballing in the local yarn shop - and I knew going into this project that lace and a multi-colored yarn would fight for attention. You can see the lace, but maybe not as clearly had the yarn been a solid pattern. But I do think it adds depth and an interesting texture to the gloves (does that sound nice and fluffy?).
Yarn used: Louisa Harding “Kimono Angora” Needles: bamboo sized 2
Lace pattern (forgot at the moment - it’s in one of the Barbara Walker Treasury books).
And, since it’s winter, I tried the light tent. Hmmm
One pic is with the flash - one is without.
I’m thinking I should’ve used the macro lens so you could see closer!
Terry