My Week

We had a wonderful short week with Kevin at home! Joy is absolutely enamored with him! I love the way she says 'Ke'in'! She couldn't get over it, and kept saying "Ke'in's here! Ke'in's here!" with a cheek splitting grin.

 And of course, for two days after he left, she was asking where he went. Heartbreaking :(
 Especially since my heart already hurts when he's gone.
We had a very nice dinner the second evening he was here, with lamb chops, boiled baby white potatoes, and fried green beans. I am a simple cook, but the food never wants for flavor!

Our central AC has gone south on us, the motor is burned up, so we ate on the porch. It was a really nice evening! And thank goodness we had several more to spend with him, and a lot more good food, before he had to get back to base in Twenty-Nine Palms last Wednesday.

We had the shearer out on Memorial Day (as mentioned in the previous post), I really don't know why they seem to want to travel on holidays! One year I didn't get my sheep sheared at all because they were supposed to be here on Mother's Day at 9AM, I wanted to go fishing and picnicking afterwards, and when they still hadn't called or shown up by 1PM, I left!
This is a different shearer now, he comes down from Idaho and shears at least 5 flocks, mine being the smallest by far at three sheep. He does a decent job and is familiar with and sensitive to a spinner flock owner's wishes.
This is a washed portion of Babs' fleece. In 2010 Laura bribed me for it, and while she is working her fleece from last shearing, I've been working on this one. I think hers is cleaner. 2010 was the year the shearers didn't show up on Mother's day, so in October, I sheared Babs and Gracie myself. So what I'm working on now is 18 months of uncovered growth, wind injected, broken up bits of super-Nevada-sun-dried poo, bug dust, dirt and hay. It certainly washes up nice though!

I pick the locks apart and put them in a box, then take my trusty doggy brush and my cutting board and flick the locks out. Then I run them through my drum carder and ....

Viola! Soft, fluffy, wooly goodness for the soul!

I also got another box from Morro Fleece Works this week. I had sent her a box of very light to white wool and said just mix it all up! The only real color in the box was a bit of light fawn alpaca, the rest was white; a super fine Merino from The Wool Ranch, a pound or so of hoget BFL, and something else... Shari called me and asked if I really, really wanted the BFL and the 'something else' in with the Merino and alpaca, I told her if it didn't match up to go ahead and run it seperately. This is what I got back, so far.

I absolutely LOVE the way the color came out in this blend. As I said, 18 micron Merino and light fawn baby alpaca... scrumptious! I would call this color 'champagne'. It is so soft and silky you will be sorely tempted to sleep with it!

Also, for those of you who saw me at BSG in 2010, do you remember the Romney fleece I got in the fiber sale after the show? It was the winner of its class, a beautiful, grey-brown, long stapled, silky fiber. I didn't feel like I would ever get to it to process myself, and its so pretty, so off to Shari it went! I will be playing with this one today :)

I have some of the Merino/Alpaca blend and some of this Romney for sale in my Etsy store.

On a final note, the third day Kevin was here, he went out to feed with me. I got to show off all my new chickens, who are doing great! He remarked on all the work I did on the pen, while we threw small pieces of wheat bread to the 'hens'.
On our way back up the drive way to the house, I heard...  'cock-a-doodle-do'. I turned slowly in the drive way to look back toward the chicken house, and asked Kevin if he'd heard that. He said, 'Heard what?'. As I started toward the chicken house, I heard it again. Kevin said behind me 'Are hen's supposed to do that?'