One of these things is not like the other....

I don't normally bring my work life into the blogosphere, but yesterday was a bit of a treat.

I was called to the front desk to identify a skull for a couple, so reference book in hand up I went. I didn't need the book though because the large skull was clearly from a cow. The reason I say clearly is because I have many of them in the back because they are frequently, and rightly so, mistaken for moose skulls. I tried to break the news gently.

Me: " hi! That is a really nice skull you found, it is a cow skull."

Couple: "yes!"

Me: "I mean a moo cow skull not a moose cow skull."

Couple: "No, it can't be a cow, why would there be a cow in the middle of the woods?" ( the wife has her eyes narrowed at me and the fella is very skeptical)

Me: "Well bear hunters and coyote hunters place carcasses and parts when they are hunting and those parts end up being brought to the office to be identified. I have several cow and pig skulls as references, I will go get some." (I trot to the back and bring out a cow skull and a young bull moose skull I have that only has one antler.)

Wife: "That can't be a moose, it only has one small antler!"

Me: "It is a yearling bull moose and he lost an antler in the altercation that allowed me to have his skull."

Wife: " It doesn't look any different from the skull WE brought in."

Me: "Let's look at the dentition. Cows have very flat grinding surfaces on their teeth while moose have somewhat sharper cusps. Also, the top of the skull is considerably narrower on a moose as is the back of the skull. You can see that your skull is almost identical to the cow skull that I have and different from the moose skull here in these ways."

Wife: "Well it looks the same to me!"

Me: " Erm....."

Wife: (eyes narrowed to tiny slits) "Do you know any Wiccan witches? I'll bet THEY can tell you how that skull got into the woods!"

Me: (incredulously maintaining my decorum) "Ma'am, I think I'd bet on the hunters."

The couple left muttering, utterly unconvinced of my scientific prowess. I am left one bovine skull richer and the idea that any Wiccans in the greater Luce County area (population 5,000) are about to be discovered by this couple.

p.s. the moose skull is on top and the skull they brought me on the bottom. Another cow skull is sandwiched in between. You be the judge!

 

 

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B.o.B.'s Girls

I took advantage this past lovely warm and dry weekend to spend some quality time with the sheep. 

 Some of them were quite eager to get some chest scritches.

Fancy was the first one there.  I can always depend on her for some sheep hugging. 

I Love Her.  We Understand Each Other.

Then Snowball shows up.  He is one of those silly southdown babydoll sheep.

I find him hard to give scritches to because he has so much dense wool.  Hard to find those bare spots.  It is almost time to trim the wool away from his eyes.  AND change sheep suits.

He is beginning to look like a stuffed sausage.

Elle came next.  She is going to be one of B.o.B.'s girls. 

She has a sweetly bossy personality.  When she wants pats, she walks up and pushes her face on mine or will paw at me until I give her attention.  If I am sitting down, she will walk onto my lap and stand on those sharp little hooves with her face pushed into my cheek or shoulder until she gets her chest scritches.

Slightly more stand-offish is her daughter Gaia, who is also going to be a B.o.B. girl. 

Isn't she cute?  Her cuteness is misleading...she is the girl in charge out there; the lead sheep.

Deja is also going to be a B.o.B. girl.  She has a BIG fleece.  Soft too.  I like the way she looks.

The last and final B.o.B. girl is Zanibar.  She, typically, wouldn't come anywhere near me. I'll sneak up on her to get an updated photo.  They all need their suits changed or adjusted so there will be an opportunity!

Not something I had considered.....

It has been awhile, and much has happened in our neck of the woods.  Fall is most definitely upon us and the wood furnace has been a comfort.  All of the rain that was denied us this summer has deluged us this fall, making those few sunny dry days delightful indeed.

A dear friend needed to find good homes for some of her fiber animals (I bet you can figure out which kind) and it was rather hard to say no to her given the situation.  Her business parter, at whose farm the animals lived, wanted to get out of the UP and head south after some life changes so he is selling out and wants to be gone by the end of November, hence the desperate search for homes.  I am honored to be considered a good home for those lovely ladies and they have taught me a few new things already!

Item number 1:  It is good to have friends.

Item number 2:  Having one good eye is a blessing.

(Luna, the alpaca in front, only has one eye...an accident we were told)

Number 3:  If you have two bad eyes, having friends is helpful.

(Star, the paca in front, has a cataract in one eye and very limited sight in the other.  She is Luna's mother...perhaps accidents are congentital for alpacas?)

Number 4:  Black is not ALWAYS black.  The golden brown alpaca's registered name is "Black Ice".  We call her "Soleil" because she is golden as the sun.  The wee cria next to her is a suri alpaca...also black.  (Brownish black is called Bay Black in alpaca speak.  Looks like dark brown!)  We have been calling her "dark matter" in fitting with the space themes but it is a bit clunky.  Have any suggestions???

The small white alpaca is "peggy Sue".  She came with that name and is a sweetie!  She has HUGE eyes, but wouldn't look at me when I wanted her too.

This is Lyra.  She is Soleil's daughter.  One eyed Luna looks on worried I am going to put eye medicine in her socket...she had an eye infection when we picked her up.  That sounds confusing I realize...but there is an actual eye sunk in the socket but it doesn't work.

We also have learned that it is easier to handle alpacas than llamas (they are half the size), you can pick up the leg of an alpaca to trim their feet (you have to lay on your face in the dirt to trim a llamas toes because they immediately lay down on top of their feet when you bring out the clippers), and alpacas are much more vocal than llamas with quite the range of tone from soft humm's to indignant squeals!

So, now Spinner's End Farm is home to two species of camelids (which seem to be getting along fine now after a brief altercation which put miss bossy Igraine in her place!).

Over-exuberant Gardening

I know I should be grateful that the fruit of our earlier labors has been so prodigious, but I can't help thinking that I really am tired of canning.  Don't get me wrong; I love canning and seeing the pantry shelves pile up with lovely glittering jewels.  It makes me feel good. 

It is just that there are only so many hours in the day.

Yesterday's forcast was for 30-32 degrees overnight.  This meant a panicked rush concerted effort to bring in what was left in the garden that is susceptible to low temps.  I came home from work after lunch to help Will bring it all in.

This is a reasonable amount of squash for our consumption.  We generally plant butternut squash instead of buttercup squash but a friend gave us plants she started in her greenhouse.  I do think they are cool looking!  The wee delicata's in the background are amazingly sweet.

I appreciate their stripey-ness.

The flower end of the buttercups have an interesting texture and pattern.

Peppers in the basket were a nice surprise...they were hidden under leaves on the pepper plants which had dissapeared under the tomatillo plants.  We will be making sweet pickle/pepper relish this evening. MORE tomatoes.  Mostly heritage in the box in front.  Some of the green tomatoes were fried last evening at the Lila Wren's request.  The leeks were a gift; they will go in potato-leek soup (at Duncan's request).

Tomatillo's and even more tomatoes.  We'll be making salsa verde this evening also.  The tomatillo basket was overflowing but I shared with a few friends.

Eggplants or aubergines did overly well this year!  There were two varieties; one japanese or asian eggplants that had a lighter skin and were much thinner, and another that were supposed to be egg or globe shaped...which were not.  They were long and a chubbier- skinny eggplant!  This is about 20 pounds worth, and after my friend Jodi came and took about fifteen off of the top.

Seventeen pumpkins (not all in the photo) of varying sizes, and yes; we picked sprays of green cherry tomatoes to enjoy later.   Psychologically we had a hard time leaving even the green tomatoes in the garden even though we had way too many tomatoes to begin with.  That is not to say we didn't leave any tomatoes there....we did.  There were way to many cherries to pick!  Will estimates our tomato harvest at ~300 lbs.

This is probably about three bushels of basil.  Some will be distributed to friends and the rest dried or turned into pesto.  This is not a typical harvest in the U.P.!

We ended up with a very light frost, not a killing frost.  The plus side is we don't have to rush next time a frost is predicted.  The down side is....we have to deal with preserving all of this that much sooner!

Lila is taking a canning class at school that meets twice a week.  She is learning how to use a pressure canner and they canned beans on Monday.  The school has a lovely garden that was started by the kids; click this link for a video story done yesterday from a "local" news station out of Traverse City.  Lila could barely stand it because she is certain that the jar of beans the reporter is holding was the one she canned.  Much better evidently than having your face on the news! 

Meet "B.o.B"

Wintertime B.o.B is a fine fleeced Shetland ram belonging to Karen Valley and Meghan Namaste.

He will be coming to our farm this November to hang out with four of our finer fleeced Shetland Ewe's to make some fine fleeced lambs. 

This is why he is coming!  He has such lovely fine lock structure.  He is going to make some lovely babies.  He will be paired up with Elle (black gulmoget), Deja (solid black), Zanzibar (musket) and Gaia (moorit gulmoget).  I'm hoping for some more fine fleeced black sheep, and I think I'm going to get them with this fella around!

We had a fine morning hanging out with Karen, Meghan and all of her woolies too!

The Keepers

All of the bunnies from this years litters have gone to their new spinning homes.  The closest bunnies went to Paradise and Marquette, while three others took a ride to Chicago land.  My friend Erin in Marquette took three kits that are going to be spoiled brats as she and her husband Pete are doting on them.  I'm so happy that they have gone to such good and loving homes.  Pet and Erin are also buildling a "Tiny House"...visit them at their blog to see the bunnies and their humorous and insightful adventures in simple living.

Here are the bunnies we decided to keep:

This little doe is a tort.  She has a lovely personality and loves to play on the bed!

I didn't have a regular tort (except for a vienna marked doe) so thought I should keep her

(I have a soft spot for torts).

Nice wooly coat too.  No name yet.

I'm not sure why bunnies like jumping up on the window sill...probably just because they can.

This is the chocolate agouti buck.  I think his name might be Bramble. 

See his nice banded fiber?  Characteristic of an agouti.  I didn't have one of this color either.

He also has a nice personality! 

This is Spinner's End Thistledown.  Our first litter of REW's so we just had to keep one of those too!

Lila is quite attached to Ms.Thistle and is considering entering her into the 4H circuit. 

Thistle is very tolerant of lap holding and ear stroking.  Bronwyn visits regularly to give all of the animals their needed pats and to gather the collective rabbit wisdom into her soul.

We have been busy dealing with tomatoes!   It seemed like a great idea to plant 60 of them at the time...  I've made gallons of tomato puree,  1.5 gallons of dried tomatoes, 20 some odd pints of salsa, ketchup, and pizza sauce.  The remaining Roma's and Amish Paste will go to tomato paste.  Maybe another batch of ketchup; the first one was a bit too sweet for our taste

(Will says it tastes like New Zealand ketchup which he evidently didn't like).

Beets, eggplant and basil are still awaiting processing as well.  Brussel sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower are safe for the time being and the onions are in and safely stored away.  I think we'll have to pick the pumpkins and winter squash soon to keep them safe from maurading deer. 

Nights are getting chilly and into the low to mid 40's which has been great for sleeping!

Catching A Breath

The interesting thing about getting older, is that you start to understand those idioms you heard when you were younger, but thought were silly.  "Catching one's breath" comes to mind immediately and is a perfect fit to the past four weeks.

Vacation in New Hampshire was lovely as always.  We probably spent more time hanging out at Auntie Alis's and Grammy Jo's than in years past so it was a bit more relaxing. It was so bloody hot and humid there that we spent much of our time in the swimming pool at the kids request.  We took an excursion to Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the Kittery Trading Post in ME.  We did a little back to school shopping for Lila (she is getting into the clothes faze at 11 and 3/4), took in Ice Age 4, and spent a blissful hour at Barnes and Noble perusing books.  We spent a lot of time visiting with family and eating wonderful food.

There was a bag party, of course, and it was a rich one!  The kids were spoiled rotten (and still greatly enjoying the fruits of the bag party), as was I....Will put my anniversary present in the bag party and as I called out the "right" number, the universe granted me with my very own Ipad!  I have been sneaking in a few minutes here and there to try and figure out how to use it.  I was interested in having one so I could accept credit cards here at the farm and when out and about at Fiber fairs.  It works a treat!

The drive home was fairly uneventful, though long.  Trip casualties (there are always some) include losing Duncan's sandals at the Pimisi Lake rest area (he left them under the picnic table and told us when we stopped somewhere else hours away...), Duncan's brand new water bottle that Uncle Johnnie and Auntie Syl brought him from New Zealand was left in someone's car (see a pattern here?), all three kids ended up with swimmer's ear, and a stray dog got into our chickens and ate three of them (all three of them hens of course....all six or seven of the roosters survived).  Our farm sitters did an outstanding job as usual, though it is always strange to come home and have your stuff moved around and out of place!

I had two days home before having to head downstate for a three day meeting (and stayed up too late those two nights and overindulged in fermented grain beverages), came home for two last workdays and then a blissful weekend...or so I had hoped.  Before we left on vacation there was a critical work deadline looming...it came to fruition the Friday after the meeting and was due the next Friday (this past Friday).  This meant working some longer hours, though granted OT which is unusual, but many of them were spent at home sneaking in early morning hours or evening hours.  I was able to work from home, the library, and my friend Kristie's house (who is on vacation and I'm watching her animals for her....turnabout is fair trade!) to accomplish it.  phew.

In between all of that, the Schacht spinning wheels arrived!!!  They were assembled in no time flat and are beautiful.  I have really come to appreciate the skill and work involved in manufacturing those wheels.  Each wheel was assembled, test driven, and disassembled enough to fit into it's shipping box which in and of themselves are engineered to be sturdy and efficient of space.  Kudo's to Schacht.  Will loved the Sidekick, Sam was enamored of the Ladybug, and I love the elegant Matchless.  I think I want a Matchless and a Sidekick for myself...  I've sold the Sidekick already and have another on order so I have one to take to the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Festival at the end of September.

This week my brother and his daughters and my Mother arrive on Tuesday for a visit.  Tommy will take the girls to Copper Harbor for a couple of days while they are here.  We don't have any hard and fast plans, but will probably take the kids to the movies to see "ParaNorman", have a few campfires and roast some hotdogs and marshmallows, camp out in the backyard (in the new ginormous tent Will bought at the Kittery Trading Post), and some general merriment and chaos.  We may have to involve the grownups in a few minor work projects (oh, say, like a bunny barn, some new porch steps, and a shelving unit for the fiber fair). 

Art on the Lake is coming up this Saturday in Curtis too and the Ewe-per Spinners and Weavers have a demo tent.  Will and I and kids also help out with Fin and Fern the Giant Puppets at the art show; Will has been working Finn's body and I've been working a hand the past couple of years.  I'll try to catch some photos.

What else?  Baby bunnies are going to their new spinning homes, the Llamas need to be sheared, I need to order fiber and accoutrements for the Sept. fiber festival, two dolls to make, a business plan to write (for a possible venture with a friend...more on that another time)....  maybe October will be a good time to catch that breath. 

I guess I asked for it....

Pictures next time; promise!  :)

En Francais?

As I sit at the dining room table at Grammy Jo's house, contemplating making a breakfast frittata from Aunt Ann's fresh eggs, summer squash, zucchini, onion and red pepper from the garden; I've been mullling over incidents from our trip east.

No, not just the 21 hour drive from Michigan to New Hampshire which seemed longer than usual due to bickering male siblings in the way back of the van.  Nor the lack of air conditioning; a pricey repair on a decade old vehicle that may be worth less than the price of said repair and insurance paid on the vehicle.  Not even the fact that Duncan left his new Land's end sandals under the picnic table in Mattawa (Note to self: call the Ontario Ministry of Transportation today).  What I've been mulling over was prompted by our passage through Montreal, Quebec (and it wasn't the horrid stop and go traffic at the hottest part of the day either). 

Someone had to pee (someone always does) so we stopped at the Quebec welcome center just over the border of Ontario.  It was a lovely place full of all sorts of informational brochures en Anglais et en Francais.  I was the first person through the door (everyone else was still using the toilette) and was greated by a lovely twentysomething young lady, en Francais....which after the "Bonjour" was lost on me and I had to, apologetically in low tones, speak Anglais.

What I realized was, thinking about this on the rest of the ride, how I failed myself miserably.  I took four years of high school french, compulsively translated "things" into french for decades, and was going to be a French major in college.  I grew up with a Grandmere who was from a long line of French-Canadian ancestry (whose family did not want to speak French because they were "Americans") so the words she spoke were those mysteriously tame swear words and phrases of a lady born in 1904.  However, by the end of the ride I decided to cut myself some slack since I realized I'd been out of high school for 26 years, I can still read all the signs en Francais after a fashion (and still have that French-English dictionary from way back when),  I chose a college degree that actually landed me a career (BS in Resource Ecology and MS in Conservation Biology), that I like the mysterious phraseology from my Grandmother and maybe it should always be a mystery, and I really am not too old to learn conversational French....if I want to.  I just don't have anyone to converse with at home!

Johnny and Will are now sitting across the table from me both on a 'pewter.  Coffee has been made (by the boys after some hilarious antics which had them giggling) and the veggies are awaiting slicing and a quick pan fry before sliding into some silken golden eggs.  Bon matin!

Some Eweper Fiber Fair Fotos

The 2012 Eweper Fiber Fair was a success!  We had a few more vendors and would have been full except for two last minute cancellations.  Hopefully next year we'll be crammed to the walls! Having variety and many things to look at and touch is key to a good event.

I'm hoping that folks in the rest of our crew had their cameras out because I didn't get many photos of the Fair this year.  Lila had the camera while I was doing the Spinning a Rabbit demonstration so there are a few more of those...

Yarn bowls, hand knit shawls, bobbin lace bookmarks and handspun yarn.

Hand woven baskets (I coveted many of them, but took my money home to buy hay instead).

Susan, the basket weaver, is working on piecing together a hand knit cable cardigan.

Hand woven shawls and hand made beaded shawl pins.

More hand woven goodies (dishtowels!), felting kits, and fiber.  There were many spinners demonstrating.

Handmade quilts, locker hooked rugs and supplies.

Alpaca fleece, roving and yarn!

That is my handspun on the far right front...I forgot to take a picture of my own table.

Spinning a rabbit.  This had a few folks confused (and some concerned)!

Buffy (the Were-rabbit slayer) sat nicely in my lap the entire half hour.

It was a long half hour!

Because all of those things happen to you when you are under pressure and slightly claustrophobic and answering questions...you know, breaking your yarn, coming undone from your leader etc... everything but a rabbit peeing on you. (phew).

The learning demonstrations were the best of all.

Hopefully, there are more photos!

Bunny Snorgeling

Early Morning Bunny Snorgeling for Duncan.

Duncan is the early riser (after me) in the household.

Mystery color agouti kit tummy

More tummy...cute toes and nose too!

Side view in the sunshine.  His/her fiber looks ticked to me.

This litter of four is very active and bouncing around in their nest box.  Poor Nuala look dismayed to find one of them wandering out into her private space yesterday.