Queso

After the UGA CVF auction I was asked to felt a replica of one of the doctor's dogs. I just got his pictures and he is just so cute I couldn't help but share. I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about making his shaggy hair, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. First I need to dye a little for his cute little spots.

 

Meet Queso

 

 

 

-M

Carding All Night Long

It takes quite a lot of time to card an entire fleece. Just sayin'. But isn't it beautiful?


I found it easier to separate out locks and lay them on the carders, so the carding process was almost started before I began. I was frustrated with how dirty the tips still were, but it seems that a lot of the leftover dirt came out during carding. The rest will come out when I wet felt it onto the back of the rug.

 

 

I've already got a small pile of pin-roving going. Just a few (dozen) more hours of carding left.

 

 

-M

Three Bags Full

It looks like Santa came for a visit last night....

 

After leaving Tifton, I took the, er, long way home via the way of Chattanooga. It was a bit out of the way but I don't have a lot of time to do things and there was some wool in TN that was just too good to pass up. I got back in town around midnight so I just threw the bags on the porch so that they wouldn't get wet if it (more than likely) rained.

 

So this morning I started processing. Mmmmm, the smell of fleece!

 

fleece drying in the sun

Locks on drying rack. Note the tips are not very clean

 

I only did one fleece. I didn't really like the way things were going. The tips weren't getting super clean and there was a mess all in kitchen, which I am sure my new roommate didn't appriciate. I'm not sure she was expecting me to dump dirty wool in the kitchen sink. Regardless, I have a much better plan for processing the rest of the wool, mostly involving the washing machine once I get back to Tifton. There isn't a lot to do down there, so I might as well process some wool.

 

 

The wool is a Corriedale/Romney and is beautiful with very, very little VM, so it was very easy to skirt. I got four white and one brown, which is a beautiful textured brown fleece. And like I said, the price was too good to beat.

 

I've decided that I am going to pick through the locks and maybe add some locks from the Shetland fleeces to make a natural wool rug. I really like the looks of the one done by Parvana Creations. I had seen one done with a whole Romney fleece, but it was very patchy and not as textured and beautiful. Her rug just makes my heart skip a beat with all its texture. 

 

Isn't it beautiful? I just hope mine can come close to this.

 

I'll make sure to take some pictures of the project, however good or bad it may be. I've not had the best of luck with my wet felting projects, so I may try a little sampler pot holder or something first, but this rug will be made, I am determined!!

 

Happy Summer, all!

 

  

 

 

    -M

 

 

 

 

 

 

Splosh-splosh

 

We've started the process of reclaiming the pastures. It's a lot of hard work, but boy do they need the attention! The front 5 acres of our property is mostly old pastures that over the past few years have come into direpair. My grandfather couldn't physically get out and do what needed to be done, but also refused to let anyone else touch the tractor or machines to let anyone else get things done.

 

We've been using dog kennel pannels to wrap around the old fencing by cutting through some of the barbed-wire in places. This leaves a nice little paddock along the fenceline for the San Clemente girls to chow down. They've done a nice job helping clean up the lines so far, so at least we will get to salvage the fence posts even if the wire is useless. I'll have to come up with a decorative idea to do with the old wire. Once we've got a section cleaned, all the wire comes down and the mower can then maintain between the posts until we finish a field and are able to replace the fence with a nice goat/no-climb wire.

 

 

 

While the goats are at work, I'm busy trying to get the two ponds in working order again. The three drain pipes that drain the ponds have been backed up so we hacked our way through the briars to get to them and cleaned them out really well.

I've shoved 16ft of pipe down the drain to stir up the silt at the other end.

 

I couldn't believe how much water flowed out of the pond is such a short time. We had to move the tractor out from behind the dam pretty quickly as the drainage area filled with water. Luckily the culvert wasn't clogged and the water kept draining away from the dam. 

After 12 hours the pond is down considerably, you can see the line on the plants where the water level has dropped.

 

 

The two pipes on the large pond side are flowing great, but the smaller one is going to take more time to clean out around. We have had so much rain and both ponds are so over-full that the pastures are mush. I would say around 70% of the pasture with the large pond and 40% of the pasture with the small pond have major flooding. I wouldn't trust the tractor to bush hog through the grass at this point. The water level is dropping, but we are expecting many more days of rain this summer. I've never hoped for a drought before, but I could sure use that typical Georgia dry spell to dry things up a bit and let us get some work done.

 

 

Atleast the pond is nice to look at once more.

 

        

 

         -M

 

Shearing Time

So I forgot to post the pictures of us shearing at my friend's farm. Randy is an awesome shearer, but I only remembered to get pictures of him shearing the alpacas on his fancy table. The alpacas hardly even blink putting them on it. They are so used to it and it isn't nearly as frightening as stretching them out on the ground. They just walk up beside the table and -flip- they're up.

 

Frappuccino was first up on the table. We keep their eyes shielded so the don't get damaged by the halters or ties, and so the hair that is flying doesn't end up in their big, beautiful eyes.

 

Halfway through, and you can really see the fiber. We separate out the cuts into 1's, 2's, and 3's depending on the quality, where it is cut from and the length. We try to skirt as we go but we hardly throw out anything. By the end we had only one bread bags full of unusable items from the 6 alpacas. The bag to the left is the second cuttings from the neck and thigh areas- quite a lot for such a small area!  

 

 

 

The baby hadn't ever seen shearing time before, so she was very curious.

We decided mom and baby would be happier if the little one could walk around and investigate. Turns out baby took it as an opportunity to nurse without mom trying to walk away.

She seemed very interested in the whole process. Hopefully it will help her when her time comes next spring.

We did 'Elvis' last. He was shorn last year as a 4-month-old because he had so much fiber that was super soft. This year his fleece was as heavy as his dad's even though he is a tiny guy, but still as baby soft as ever. His staple length was almost a full 12-inches, crazy for the deep south. 

By the end of the day we had some nice bags of fiber to admire.

 

 

 

 

 

 There's not much I can say after a picture of naked alpacas.

-M