Yarn for Amy

I bought this beautiful roving

from Loraine Powell a couple of months ago to spin for my friend

Amy. I have been working on it off and on and am finally

getting enough done that I think there is hope for a sweater.

I have this beautiful book I am going to send to her even if she

doesn't use any of the patterns in it. I love the way it handles hand spun yarn.

One more interesting thing. I dyed some yarn (white columbia from Freckles)

with some of the beet juice from the pickled beets we made. What a surprize.

Never dreamed that bright "beet red" what produce this orange yarn.

It's beautiful, but totally unexpected.

This is just a few of the things I've been doing lately.

I am still trying to catch up on the house stuff. It

will probably take me most of this next year, oh well.

Spin on.........................Sheena

Holy Garden!

THE GARDEN

At the beginning of spring we all wanted to plant a garden. So we did. We have 28 tomato plants, and lots of chili's, Anaheim, jalapenos, yellow chilli's and purple bell peppers. We have about 100 onion sets planted 5 packs of assorted beets, 7 different kinds of squash, turnips, okra, egg plant and lots of cucumbers. Green beans and radishes and carrots oh well, you get the picture. BIG GARDEN!

This is the garden. It has gotten totally out of hand. We planted it with all good intentions, then everyone got busy. Papa continues to water and refuses to weed. I weed on my day off, but never get it totally done. There are lots of veggies coming on now. We are drowning in squash (7 different kinds) I just ate my first spaghetti squash last night and it was really good. I of course love zucchini and have been making bread and all kinds of wonderful things. Last week I made chocolate zucchini cake. Yummm. I put zucchini in my spaghetti sauce last night, and probably will put some in the meat loaf tonight.


Now it's time for cucumbers. Oh my goodness. Oh well, had to make pickles. First I made bread and butter pickles because the cucumber got too big. This week was better. I picked cucumbers every day and kept them pretty small. Made dill pickles on my day off. Rhonda was here to help on the second batch so it went pretty fast. We now have 12 pints of bread and butter pickles, and 14 quarts of dill pickles. It's not over, that is just this week. We will have to continue because the over whelming gilt of not doing it is more than I can take. We will pickle and can beets this week. Did I say we planted 5 packets, all different kids. Wow, we have been eating beet greens as fast as we can (which is the real reason we planted so many) Now we have to do something with the beets.

DILL PICKLES BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES
I sure hope we can keep up the pace. I've knitted 4 face cloths for Arlene at work this week and Karalyn and I are starting a new sweater we found on the Internet. Should be fun. I am still working on Amy's yarn.

Spin on.............................Sheena

Freckles after the "Hair cut"

Poor Freckles. I feel so sorry for her. I always make her look so pitiful. Oh well, the other sheep don't seem to notice. Of course they have their own version of the "Hair Cut" so they know better than to make fun of her. I still have three more to do that I hope to have done before we go on our trip.

Wish I was spinning!.......................Sheena

Beautiful Del Mar Race Track

Things are really busy for me right now. I have been knitting when I can, but nothing that takes much thinking. Mostly wash cloths and little stuff. I have been spinning on Amy's yarn, and hope to get that done in the next few weeks. I can't believe how long it takes when I am so busy with other things.

Ron is working on my studio Wahooooo. It is coming along really good. The kids spent there time in there as a dorm of sorts and now he is busy finishing it up. I can't wait to get in there and get all my wool working equipment set up and get to work. I love working with wool and have lots to work with. I plan and setting up a dyeing station too. I have 5 white sheep, so I really do need to learn to dye. I also love color so that's a real plus for me.

When I get done working (Sept. 9Th) we are planning on going on a trip. I have lots of ideas for that going on too. For sure we will go to Morro Bay and see my sister who lives in Atascadero and then on to Idaho to see Ron's niece. We will end up in South Carolina to see Brian and his family and a stop on the way in Alabama to see Dana and her family. I love these road trips and want to go as long as we can do it. I love seeing the country side and all the different things this wonderful country has to see. Every place has such a special quality all it's own.

That's all for now, pictures later.
Spin on....................Sheena

This is Freckles before her hair cut. What a wooley Baby. She is busting out of her coat! Man she has really beautiful wool. I have to take an after picture so you can see how funny she looks after she was sheared. (I am not a pro)

Harvesting Hay

This is the Oat hay we grew this year being harvested. I love to see all the bales in the field. I got home just in time to watch it being baled.

These are the happy Sheep getting out for the first time in months. (while the oats were growing they were confined to their pen. It was a long winter. They were so happy to get out in the pasture again.

A little nibble here, a little nibble there. They had two glorious days of taste testing the bales before they were picked up and taken to the people we sold it to. They will spend the summer grazing on what ever was left behind. We may plant a pasture for them later, but for now they get lots of mowed grass (from our many lawns) and alfalfa too. They also have big mineral blocks to lick and chew on.

More later,

Spin on........................................Sheena

Some Shearing finally got done!

The Sheep on the right is Ebony. She is a black Lincoln Ewe. Her surprise silver back was under the coat. Her fleece is wonderful even is it is a little long. I washed it myself and that is something I don't always do. It took me all day to wash and rinse and set out to dry. Then about three days to completely dry. I hope to make a rug out of the locks.

Another picture of the fleece drying.

I'm back to work and the Fair is coming together nicely. These will be short and sweet. I'm still spinning on Amy's yarn in my "spare time". Classes are ending this week so that will free up some time until the fall.

Spin on..............................Sheena