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.
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.
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!
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!
Day One of the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival is officially over, and it was a busy one!
We met some old friends, made some new ones, and renewed some acquaintances. People shopping to fulfill their fiber addictions were a pleasure. Many folks had visited with us last year and some are blog followers! Thanks so much for stopping by to say hello to us! Some had checked out our Etsy shop to pre-shop which was pretty clever I thought! The folks that run the festival here are very friendly and do a great job taking care of us; a big thank you to them for making this a fun event.
Had the traditional vendor dinner tonight and met our new potential alpaca shearer....a young lady who was trained by her well experienced alpaca shearing father. She is going to NMU in Marquette and would be available to shear next year, trim toes, and grind teeth.
I had a near miss with a French angora rabbit; a broken black with the sweetest freckles on her face! Fortunately someone else bought her. :)
Tomorrow we get to sleep in and I will take Lila out for a big breakfast before we start in earnest again tomorrow...and do our own shopping! I have some gifts in mind for friends and family and will pick up some new dye colors.
Tonight, we are parked in front of "Ice Age-The Meltdown" at the Super 8 and soon tucked in to sleep.
Good night!
I had a phone call yesterday from an elderly woman who asked me if I would take the Angora rabbit she could no longer care for because of her deteriorating health. Of course, I said yes. I expected him to be a mess (based on past experience) ...but he is not. He is a well cared for and very sweet bunny and his name is "Mr. Big".
The lady was very happy I could take him...she was afraid a non-angora person wouldn't know how to take care of him. I was touched by her gratitude (and felt a little sad too).
I think he is a tort, but he has steel grey tips on his fiber! Annette? Lisa?
He loved being groomed and fell asleep upside down on my lap. Welcome, Mr. Big.
...why, why, why SIX basil plants?
(32 degrees F predicted this evening so a mad rush to save it all...)
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