LOUET SPINNING WHEEL FOR SALE

I have this Louet spinning wheel for sale.  I believe that it is a 70 or a 75.  It comes with the three bobbins which are the two speed bobbins, the metal lazy kate the bobbins are sitting on which fits into the frame base and has the poly drive band. Single treadle as you can see (sorry about the shading-and-sun light difference in the picture).   A real nice production wheel.
Three more lambs last night and I am sure there will be more shortly.  God blesses us some more.  Thank you God. 

Icelandic Ewes

I always think it is funny how little lambs and little chicks need to try and sit on top of their moms.  Our Icelandic girls are some wonderful mothers.  The last time that we lambed two years ago I was at a show on the occasion that Iris lambed and Stephania was close by her with another baby so my guy thought that it went one mother and one baby as pairs and he was in a hurry to go somewhere so he took them and put the two moms and two babies in a separate pen and off he went.  When he got back there was the two moms and four babies.  My guy decided that Iris had delivered one and Stephania had delivered triplets.  That worked for us but Iris always wanted one of the other babies and was not happy feeding the one that she had so that little girl who has grown to be one of the other horned Icelandics in the picture above, had to wait for us to get in the pen and make Iris behave so she could nurse otherwise she suckled from the backside and took her chances with pee showers.  The little ewe lamb soon developed a yellow ring around her neck and upper shoulders!  Well this time Iris was separated and she was the one with the three babies and I am thinking that she probably had twins last time and Stephania only had twins also.  We don't know the answer to that one but it all worked and all the lambs grew fine.  Iris is a wonderful mother to her three triplets and Pansy came into the barn yesterday morning after grain was eaten and told me "we need hay!" in no uncertain terms so I reached down and loved her up.  We keep the babies in a pen close to the barn when so small that they can go through cattle panel fencing simply because of coyotes and dogs.  When they get a little bigger they will be heading out for grass with their moms.

This is a basket of flowers I have hanging by the back door and I was taking a picture of the hawk moth who was flying around sucking nectar out of the petunia-like florwers.  It is just a brown blur about half-way up in the middle of the picture.  They are very cool to watch, so much like hummingbirds. 
Have a good day...................

"KICK UP YOUR HEELS...IT'S SUMMER!"

It definitely was summer last weekend with highs in the nineties and some steaminess to match.  Thank goodness we had some breeze to go with it.  These cool cowboy rubber boots are at Deer Lake Orchard where we had a local Art Festival this past weekend and I could not resist taking a picture of them and wondering how they would be to walk in.  Perhaps next time I am there I will see if they have any my size!

My little helper was with and her she is with Mimi one of the cutest little residents on this farm.  She delighted everyone with her tiny little demeanor of friendliness and cuteness. Actually both of them did!

This is a picture of some of the plyed yarns that I had there for sale.  My next sale comes up in a few weeks so I keep busy getting things ready and we are still having lambs born at the farm...there was (3) new ones this morning and I think 6 more ewes to go.  God truly blesses us.

..."JUST A LITTLE OFF THE SIDES PLEASE"...

This little guy is also sporting a summer do!  A couple of the lambs had a fever for some reason which caused a wool break and most of their wool came off but it is once again growing nicely.  This little fella is a wily guy and runs fast.  He looks like he has a lion cut hair do.

I counted and we still have (8) girls to lamb yet and I am hoping that all will be okay in that heat that we are supposed to have tomorrow.

Our 2012 lambs!

This handsome guy is the son of BonBon, one of our lovely Shetland girls.  He is a lovely ram and growing nicely.

This is ChocolateChip (don't ask me how she got that name!  I have no idea) and her new little black ewe lamb.  I would love to sell the pair to someone looking to start a nice flock of Shetland sheep.

This is Iris, daughter of Violet who was daughter of Buttercup, cousin of Rosebud...notice the flower theme? So I had to think of three more names for her triplets...so welcome to Pansy, Daisy (who is sporting the cool summer do) and Marigold.  They are just a wonderful family and Iris is a wonderful mom.  Other little Icelandic babies just seem to like to hang out where this gang does.

We will be lambing for another week or two.  We choose to lamb late for the warmer weather. 

This weekend I am at a Art Festival and Farmers Market which celebrates fine, LOCAL Artisans and Growers and it is being held at Deer Lake Orchard at 1903 10th St. Sw, Buffal, Mn. 55313  It is from 10-6 on Saturday and 11-5 on Sunday.  They are planning on live music, nature walks through the orchard, visit with animals and babies and purchase wonderful local art and locally grown flowers, fruits and veggies and other local delicious food. There will be demos put on by some of the artists there, including me as I will have my spinning wheel along and my lovely wool items like handspun yarn for sale.  It is supposed to be a hot weekend but we should be in a cool old dairy barn and it should be great fun. If you have questions about the event please call 763-682-4284 or visit their website at http://www.deerlakeorchard.com/.

Baby Wolf Loom for sale

My Sis has decided that she loves, loves, loves knitting more than she will love weaving so she is selling her Schacht Baby Wolf Loom which she just purchased (used).

It is the wonderful smaller floor loom that folds up so it takes up less room.

  She also has several extra reeds and things that go with it.  See the complete listing under mpls. craigslist and search loom.

She is over on Sat. and we are off to do a Spring Garden Day down at St.Michael/Albertville Middle School where they are having classes on horticulture and all that good stuff plus vendors showing all kinds of their products and Master Gardeners to help answer our gardening questions.  Not quite sure how sheep fit into all of this but will take along the natural dryer balls that I make and naturally dyed yarn and fleece for garden mulch, etc.  I am hoping to find some garden seeds to promote planting for a dyeing garden to any one that may be interested.  You all have a good weekend!

SLIPPERS FOR BIGFOOT OR BIG FEET?

Last week I took a few days and headed out to my sister's home in the woods to do some felting and fiber things.  Previously I had spun some wool from our grey Icelandic ram named Gisli for a pair of slippers for Sis to knit.

 She finished them up while I was out there and got them stitched together.

She then commenced the felting process on the slippers while I worked on scarves for up-coming sales this year.  We ran out of time, as usual, and I brought them home with one started and one not at all.

Last night I had the opportunity to use a top-loading wash machine and took both the slippers and threw them in and let it go.  This is where we are so far:

The one is still larger and they both still need to go a little smaller, like an inch or so and I am thinking that I will make some feet forms from my husbands feet so I can work on felting the shape correctly for his feet.  Not too bad actually and I know he will like them alot when they are done and when our wonderful polled ram has to move on to a new home, hopefully this year, we will have these wonderful slippers to always remind us of him.