Work and Play

We had a great Memorial Day weekend with a nice balance of activities. Both kids had time for sleepovers, we had two llama treks and we sold a junior herdsire (read about all that here, and see some great photos of llamas with kids). Yesterday we did some yard work (Paul and Mirian even put up my Mother's day gift, a hammock, AND washed my car!) and spent the afternoon yesterday on the Kentucky River.
Last year we never even made it out to the river, as it was such a wet and cool summer. Our only boating experience was a disaster; we hauled the boat all the way to Taylorsville Lake, launched it, and discovered that the steering wasn't working-yikes! After one quick scare when the motor wouldn't start yesterday, all was smooth sailing. Robert did a great job learning to drive the boat.
The river was really beautiful, and despite some backlogs of junk here and there from the recent flooding, it was pretty clean. One exception was this hot tub that was caught in the crook of a tree!
We did have to chase off a few varmints that decided that the parked boat would make a nice home- a garter snake in the trailer wheel, a mouse, a small nest of wasps, lots of ants and this cute little tree frog.
We rode down to Benson's Marina in Frankfort and had a drink and appetizer at their Tiki Bar. It's a fun and friendly little spot that makes you feel like you're on vacation! Pin It Now!

After the Storms

View from the studio window

We ended up having around 10 inches of rain here over two days of Derby weekend, and with it came the flash flooding over our local roads, water running through our older barns, and general soppiness that comes with it.And now, under the most pristine of blue skies, the Kentucky River is still rising as all of the little creeks and ponds overflow into it, and is expected to crest at noon today at around 41 feet. We are on the same pool as Frankfort, and the people there and in the small communities on either side of us are dealing with the miserable reality of having a muddy river invade their homes. Our hearts go out to them, as well as people we know in the Nashville, TN area that are dealing with even worse devastation.

We have experienced this here before, and knew to keep an eye on the small bridge approaching our home as it has been underwater from the river backing up during previous floods. Mirian was home sick yesterday, and we went down hourly to watch the water rise by our bridge, finding it really intriguing but also being aware of it's perils. Paul and I parked our vehicles on the opposite side, and brought over our ATV for crossing the small creek further upstream to get across. Here's what it looked like just before the water got to the top of the bridge:
And here's what it looks like this morning. (These were taken from opposite sides- note the tree standing alone is the same one in both photos).The pastures in front of our house are about half-covered in water from the river, with the water nearly to the top of the farthest gate opposite our house, as has happened once before. The llama that was alone in the paddock on the right was beside himself watching the murky water, and we let him join his alpaca friends in the larger field with more high ground.We aren't complaining, for us it's the most minor of inconvenience and our prayers go out for those who have had their homes flooded. And to think that a month ago we were experiencing half of our normal rainfall and were in a significant drought! Pin It Now!

Making Time....

This morning I was looking at my to-do list and wondering if I have time to go to my Wednesday afternoon knitting group. I have made attending this little get-together a priority (for my own sanity), but sometimes a bit of guilt creeps in.... I've been swamped here at the farm and have found that a certain daughter is pushing my buttons again. In addition, I certainly haven't made time to exercise regularly as I hoped.

But, I was just perusing the blogs I enjoy and caught up with Martha Stewart. I nearly took her blog off my list as it is of course more commercial than most, however I am finding that I enjoy a few minutes here and there of living vicariously through her! In the past month, she has posted about going to a wilderness spa retreat with her daughter in the Southwest, an island vacation in the Bahamas with friends, adopting some Himalayan cats from her local shelter, and riding her Fresian horses on a snowy afternoon (see that one here, MB and Marti Mu, hint, hint!). She posts tons of photos with each entry, many her own, so it doesn't have too much of a magazine feel.
Of course, Martha looks wonderful in all! It's easy to see why, since she has such an active life and does the things that she enjoys. I have read that she has a type-A personality and has worked for years and years obsessively on her career, but it doesn't appear that she is a total workaholic! Yes, she has tons of staff and no longer has children (or a husband) at home, but few could keep her schedule AND find time to do the things they love (and I would bet that like me she watches little to no television). On that note, I am feeling inspired to take a 20 minute walk in the cold with Munchie! (Photos here are from that walk...)
I had planned to write some reflections on the inauguration and have read many beautiful summaries, but I am unable to find many words..... WOW, that music, and the poem, and the benediction, and the SPEECH (oh yeah, and Michele's dress at the ball!) Let me just say simply that my heart is lightened and my mind is completely filled with optimism and pride when I consider the inauguration of Barack Obama.... God Bless America! Pin It Now!

More Fiber Fun

After church I started right back in on fiber sorting, with another two packed-full boxes added to the stack. I do want to clarify that alpacas are really NOT dirty, smelly animals (as I said the fiber sorting job IS), though they are livestock which basically live outside and roll a lot. A lot of the dirtiness of skirting and sorting has to do with the dust and spider webs the bags of fleece have accumulated, and unfortunately the occasional fleece will have mold or moths due to my negligence and lack of space to store it properly. Hopefully, that's all history now that our new barn provides great, clean loft space for fiber storage!

After the hard work, I was in the mood to make something with fiber and decided to make some felted soaps. A new gift shop featuring Kentucky handmade products is opening in Versailles, and they want to carry some of our items including yarn and other alpaca products. I'll give a better description of how these are made in a future post, but wanted to at least feature a few photos of the process and resulting soaps. These soaps are like having a washcloth and soap in one- as you wet it, the soap lathers up and the felted fiber stays intact and acts as a soft loofah.

I was SOOO glad to have my daughter Mirian help- she has a great eye for color and it was fun to make the soaps together.

Later we headed to the river for another Sunday evening cruise, and the kids swam at sandy "Mulholland Beach." Two dogs befriended Mirian and Robert, and couldn't get enough of fetch! It's been great to see my hubby Paul so relaxed during his "vacation at home." We got back just ahead of a quick-moving storm that produced tremendous wind but not a drop of rain.

Pin It Now!

Up to my ears in Fleece!

As a world-class procrastinator, I have let a surplus of alpaca fiber (what I didn't have processed for myself or direct sale) build up for longer than I can publicly admit here.... I had the good fortune of having my friend Mamie (an alias since I haven't asked her permission to use her real name) offer to help me skirt and sort it, as well as box it up for free shipping to the AFCNA (Alpaca Fiber Co-Op of North America). How could I turn that down?

It's a dirty, smelly job, especially in 90 degrees plus weather, but having a fun and chatty friend definitely helped it go more quickly. Last night we got over 60 pounds of our fiber boxed up, a very small dent in a mountain of fleece but a start nonetheless. I do enjoy seeing the luscious colors, since alpaca fiber comes in 22 different natural shades. Here's a large medium brown fleece...

A super-crimpy dark fawn or light brown fleece that I'm showing from Jolly Mon... And a true black....
Actually, white has become my favorite since it can be dyed any color- here's some that I dyed which will soon be turned in to a rug for our new addition.

After we'd had our fill of fleece sorting, we headed to our pontoon boat on the Kentucky River and were greeted by some friends who were fishing beside our boat. We headed off to a sandy spot downriver where the kids could swim and we could picnic, drink wine and tell stories. Time flew, and we had to find our way back in complete darkness- thank goodness our friends had the good sense to have a flashlight on their boat! (My McGyver husband normally has all the right gadgets, but not this time).

I took our herdsire Sinbad to a farm in Stamping Ground this morning for a "drive by" breeding, a follow-up to a visit to a female he bred a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, "Gabby" was still receptive to breeding (she'd have spit at him if she was pregnant) and they bred again. Sinbad felt it was quite fortunate and worth his while to take a ride in the back of my Suburban for such a treat awaiting him!

This afternoon I'm back at it, sorting through fiber and determined to continue chipping away at the pile. Makes me tired thinking about it, I'm gonna go take a nap!

Pin It Now!