Bwah ha ha!

The annual vegetable marrow carving has been accomplished.

The pumpkin seeds are soaking in a saturated sodium chloride solution and will be drained,

and tossed with tamari and Cajun seasoning from Uncle Dan.

And accompanied with a glass of fine $3.00 wine.

Heaven.

 

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Spinner's End Farm takes to the airwaves!

I met Sara from "Yarns at Yinhoo" through our alpaca kickstarter project.  We have many things in common and she is a sweet soul.  When she started her podcasts earlier this year she asked if I would be interested in talking about the farm in one. I said sure! 

 She supported our project, and I feel wonderful helping to support hers.

So, in Episode 12- Life on the Farm, you can hear me yammering on about the UP, life on the farm, and how we ended up in this big sweet mess to begin with.  If you like the podcast, please leave some feedback for Sara either on Itunes or her website.

Thanks everyone of you (all twelve of you) for being a part of our lives!  

We appreciate you here on the farm.

 

Amongst Other Things....

October seems to have flown by.  This month is a time for getting ready for winter.  

However, I don't feel quite there yet and this was the wake up call this morning....

NO!!!!!

(It didn't stick)

We spent Sunday turning apples into cider at Doug and Ruthette's house, and they had this, erm, "interesting" pumpkin there.  Doug grew it in his garden.

Kinda cute eh?

(turn it over!)

Eeek!

The Kittens continue to grow and wreak havoc upon the house.  

I am dead serious about the havoc wreaking.

The boys are getting neutered in two weeks!

My sweater, the first "big" knitting project I've attempted, is starting to look like the beginnings of a sweater;or if I give up, a shrug.  I have to knit an additional seven inches of the body before beginning a cabled medallion pattern on the back, then add a garter stitch border along the edges and knit the sleeves in the round.  This sweater is all being knit as one piece and so far it has been fairly simple.  

We'll see how the cabling goes.

Dear sweet Uist went to be a breeding ram in southern Michigan.  I had a hard time parting with him, but he will be loved where he is and pass along his lovely genetics.  I would have kept him as a wether for sure.

Duncan, the baby of the family, celebrated his ninth birthday on the seventh.

I'm not sure where all those nine years went!  

(he's only a little bit neater eight years later!)

Cider time!

One of my favorite fall activities is cider making. For the past several years, when apples are abundant, we get together with Dougette and sometimes an assortment of other friends, and press cider.

This year we had four varieties of apples and two varieties of pears that my Mother brought up from her tree and my cousin Darlene's tree. They are an incredible addition to apples in cider.

There isn't much to it after gathering up the apples. You toss a well blended mix into the hopper and grind away and then press the resulting pulp, collect the cider and filter through muslin cloth (a friend jokingly asked if this was Yooper pasteurization).

We ended up pressing thirteen and a half gallons of the nectar! Eight are in our freezer and a half gallon is waiting to be enjoyed with supper (pasties and Brussel sprouts and broccoli). The weather was crisp but the sun peeked out from time to time for which we were grateful. It was a day well spent.

 

 

 

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Suri Yarn

This is the last of the yarn I needed to spin for the Kickstarter alpaca project! Heather was very patient with me as I worked up the fiber and began spinning at a crazy time of year.

The black skein is from Mattie's cria fleece and the dark brown from Iona's. It is pure Suri and was tricky to prep at first before I got the hang of it, and you need to spin it as you would silk or fine mohair; from the fold. It is quite lovely to work with and the yarn just glows.

This week is National Spinning and Weaving week so I've challenged myself to get a pound of dark brown Shetland blended with Suri done this week for Virginia who is one of our CSA shareholders.

This is what it looks like now...

It is so soft!

 

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Long John Silver

 

Today Long John Silver went to his new forever home with Denise and Jeff.

They are kind and loving people so he will be in good hands....and he will be missed here.

Thank you Denise and Jeff!

It was good to meet you in person and we will be keeping up with your blog and will see LJS grow up!

 

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