Rain It Is a Blessed Thing Beloved From Pole to Pole

At least I think that's how it goes in the Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner that I read in high school. Somehow that stuck in my ancient brain taking up brain space for more important thoughts. Oh well, hope Sister Noreen reads this blog and rewards me at my next high school reunion.

Anyway...it's raining! We have had so little rain this summer that it really is a blessed thing today. The formerly dingy BFL sheep looked so clean and white this morning when they came in to eat that I spent lots of time just looking through each fleece as they stood to eat. They made me all wet and sheepy smelling but it's a great smell!

Rainy days give me energy so I carded oodles of roving batts for Rhinebeck this morning. Usually I send my wool off to be carded and blended but today I just felt like blending funky different stuff...Shetland/BFL cross with glitz and silk, Shetland with dyed silk and BFL locks. Spinning the samples of each blend was such a joy.This day just keeps getting better! Hope it keeps raining.

My Hokus Pokus Roving

When the last batch of roving came back from the mill I couldn't believe I had put such awful colors together. It looked like 2 batches of very uncoordinating colors were carded together.What was I thinking? Surely I mislabled the bags it in my haste to get it mailed to my processor. Christine and I sat for days pulling the roving apart into balls of 2 colors hoping to salvage some of the beautiful BFL fiber. We spun it and thought all was well til Christine washed hers!!! Seems the dark blue dye was not rinsed well and the blue ran through all the skeins creating entirely new colors. I had goofed again with that blue. (Thought I learned my lesson when I completely changed the colorway on Tim's Shetland vest that was a Christmas gift 3 years ago. Only I know what it was" suppose" to look like and how beautiful it "was".)

Well.....I've decided to call the roving Hokus Pokus and sell it as magic roving at Rhinebeck. All I need is PT Barnum to sell it. All the skeins in the picture came from the same roving. Some of them are funky and some kind of cool. Should make a novel display in my booth. What you see is not what you'll get! There might be an adventurous spinner or 2 that want to give magic a try.

Christine's Shawl

My friend Christine, who has been spinning for a whopping 4 years, was the Shetland customer who made me discover and love my Shetland fleeces. My original Shetland flock was dropped off on my lawn in 2001 by a disgruntled breeder. (Another breed I just happened into.) I enjoyed them but didn't get into the breed til Christine starting buying my fleeces at Maryland 4 years ago. She made this shawl and won a blue ribbon at the Maryland state Fair. It's made from one of my fleeces and is an original design. The best part is SHE GAVE IT TO ME!!!!! It is a treasure for which I am so grateful.

Apple Ball

The few trees left in our orchard that the Shetlands haven't killed have apples so Fall entertainment here on the farm is rolling the apples down the hill for the Shetlands to fight over and devour. (Who says farm life isn't exciting??) We have a new player this year though....Ruben. What used to be a simple ball game has now become a butt and tackle sport. It's more like football than baseball with the addition of Ruben. Great fun to watch giving me the opportunity to discover and use the SPORTS setting on my camera. Guess that technically makes it a sport!

Calamity Jane

I should write a book about this little ewe who just keeps going. Tiny at birth she hasn't grown much but what she doesn't lack is the spirit to survive. She has achieved the name Calamity Jane.


At two weeks, I found her stuck in a cinder block. Her whole body was jammed in so tightly that extracting her took time and manuvering. Her legs were lacerated and bent but she could walk a bit. Keeping up with mom for milk was difficult. she was treated for infection and pneumonia before finally becoming a real lamb again.
In August she got pneumonia again so I put her in the barnyard with the ram lambs while I went to Utah. Calamity managed to escape, injuring the first joint on her left leg. When I got home she was struggling to walk again. The "cast" in the picture is pipe insulation wrapped with vet wrap. She's running away from me now so she's healing. Calamity is proof that sheep don't just give up and die as some people believe.

Up until about 6 years ago we baled our own hay. The geriatric baling crew consisted of the 86 year old neighbor John, my husband Bill then in his mid seventies and myself. We Tom Sawyered any unsuspecting young kid into helping with the offer of a few dollars an hour. ( Only one ever returned the next year). Our ancient baler had no kicker but at the speed John drove the tractor, the bales weren't exactly flying out the chute. You could hook one and stack it on the wagon before the next bale appeared. We were the poster crew for "slow and steady wins the race." It like riding a lurching Zamboni, but my sheep ate the most beautiful hay and leafy alfalfa ever seen. I lament the day we retired from the business and sold our equipment to the Amish. That baler is now being pulled by horses and it is probably going faster.

Where am I going with this??? Well..... yesterday my purchased hay arrived. Made by a local farmer, it smells like stale cigars and looks like straw that was rained on! My comments were not appreciated by the farmer. I gave some to the Shetlands who quickly left the barn after one whiff. The first load I got from him was nice so I expected better than this! Mumbling under my breath while stacking the stuff in the barn, I managed to grab a handful of wasps nesting on a beam. My swollen hand took my mind off the disappointing bales. Passing the hay entries at the York Fair later that day, I saw what looked like my hay six years ago with a blue ribbon it. Fortunately, the sheep don't remember the good stuff.

York Fair

As always, I worked the Orchard booth at the York County Fair last weekend. I had to miss the BFL show in WI but I still haven't mastered the art of being 2 places at 1 time try as I might.

As Molly's mother, part of my duty at the fair is to attend the free country music shows after my shift and get autographs and pictures of the performers for Molly who can't be there. Tim says if I had a facebook, I'd have to list yelling at small children in my wool booth AND stalking performers as a hobby. Here's my latest victim...David Nail. Doesn't the look on his face say, "why do I have to put my arm around this old chick?" I'm sure Molly will photoshop me out of the picture. I can't wait til Molly can stalk for herself.

When friends were listening to the Beatles, I was into country music. My best friend Madeline got bamboozled into going to NYC to see Hank Williams JR.....I think, back when they wore lightning bolt suits and jazzed up western wear. Madeline was beautiful, blond and wanted to be a Rockette. When the show started the look on her face resembled that of David Nail in the picture..... "how did I get into this?" She never went with me again, but I appreciated her sacrifice that one time. Every beautiful girl needs a dorky friend to keep her humble, right? Sorry, Maddy.