More Hay

After some false starts and rain, the second crop of hay is now filling up my barn. And granary. Yep, so much hay that I spent a good part of yesterday morning cleaning out part of another building to store hay in.

The barn is quite literally filled to the rafters. Yay!

We were baling like mad Friday night, until it got too humid and too dark to bale anymore. We got about half the field done.

Then we stacked it in the barn in the dark. (No electric in the barn) I think we finally stopped around 10.

Unfortunately, it rained Friday night/Saturday morning. We let it dry Saturday, raked it again Sunday afternoon, then baled Sunday late afternoon/evening. We again stacked in the dark Sunday until after 10, then I went over yesterday to the neighbors' to help them unload their half. Mom came along and sat in the truck right next to us with her coloring book and magazine. We finished around 9 last night.

It isn't the best, but it is certainly better than the crappy hay I was forced to buy last year, because it was the only hay I could find. The animals were snarfing up the stuff that fell to the ground when we were stacking it, so they seem to like it just fine.

Today we are having a nice steady rain. This will do wonders for the hayfield. Heck, we might even get a third cutting. I don't know where I would put it though. What a wonderful problem!

I'm tired, but there is nothing like the feeling of having my barn full of hay for the winter. Even more so since it is hay we did ourselves, so we know the quality, whether it got rain and how much, and what exactly it is made of. Yeehaw!

Fair

Yesterday my sister came over to watch Mom so I could go spend the day doing spinning demonstrations at the fair. Can you guess what town?

I have no idea what it actually was. I didn't really want to know. Pieces of it dunked in batter and fried? Pieces of it mixed with cheese curds and batter fried? They were also offering Spamburgers. I declined and continued on my way to the Dairy Association's shake truck. Yum, strawberry shake!

This is the grand sum of spinning I got done.

It is the gray llama with streaks of purple and blue roving shown in the previous post. It amazes me how it spins up into such a steel blue color. I like it. This is destined to be a pair of socks once I get it finished.

The day ended with this.

It was a good day.

Exciting Phone Call

For me at least. My mail carrier called me bright and early this morning, because I have a huge box to be delivered, and he wanted to know if I'd be home? Although my dispute with the USPO over the payment of my insurance claim hasn't been settled, I know that I am hugely lucky with my small town post office.

So anyway, yep, I'm going to be home, but we agreed that he is going to leave it at the gate, because I never know if the llamas will have snuck out of their temporary fencing and are wandering the yard. Or if Mom will be wandering the yard.

Why is it so exciting? It is some of my fiber back from the mill. I don't even remember exactly what it is, but there should be a few pounds of heathered gray alpaca/wool/silk/angora roving, I think.

In the meantime, the rust alpaca is almost ready to come off the drying rack, so I am washing some white llama to take its place.

I'll update with photos later today.

We should be baling second cutting hay tomorrow. Woohoo! It got rained on a little bit last night, but I think it will still be ok.

Edited to add photos:

Over 2 lbs of alpaca/wool/silk/angora. This should spin up to a nice heather gray yarn. Of course, there is always overdyeing too.

I had forgotten about this one. It is llama/wool/silk, mostly gray with random streaks of purple and blue. I have almost ten pounds of this one.

I also have another ten pounds of white alpaca/wool/silk/nylon roving which makes great sock/mitten yarn. Let the dyeing commence!

This was all still from last year's clip. I am just getting to the skirting and washing of this year's clip. Oh my.

Goner

Yeah, I think the screen room is done for. Almost every support connector is either completely snapped off or twisted, some both. It would take somebody with a lot of patience and welding experience to fix it.

The roof supports, the canvas roof and the screens are still good though. I'm trying to think of a way to connect the existing roof supports to 4 x 4's sunk in the ground, and 2 by 4 going around the sides. In each corner, the roof support fits into a sleeve that is then attached to a plastic cap that sits on top of the poles. One of them is broken where the sleeve attaches to the plastic cap. I don't know, I'm not an engineer. Or even constructionally inclined. I have mentioned before my troubles with angles. Now if you need something spun, I'm your woman!

Here are the two fleeces I managed to get washed.

Black and rose gray. These two are now off the drying rack, and have been replaced with two rust colored fleeces. Only a few more to go.

I bought the wasp killer. Now which of you brave souls is going to volunteer to come here and open the car door so I can spray from far far away?

Zuke bars

Here's Mom's recipe:

5 eggs, beaten
2 c sugar
1 c oil
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T cinnamon (yes, two tablespoons)
2 c grated zuchinni
1/2 c nuts

Bake 30 min in 350 degree oven or until done.

That's it, no step by step instructions. She assumes you know how to bake.

For those of you unsure...cream together the first 3 ingredients, then add the rest except zuke and nuts. Mix that lightly, then fold in the zuke and nuts.

As for the frosting, you can use any white frosting recipe you like. Cream cheese frosting is great on these, which taste like a spice cake/carrot cake. Frosting from a can works too.
I used this recipe, which creates a very creamy almost filling more than frosting.

5 T flour
1 c milk

Stir together in saucepan and heat until thick. Let cool.

Cream together:
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c margarine (I'm not a margarine fan, I used butter)
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla

Then add flour mixture and beat until smooth.

Must be stored in the refrigerator! It is probably a good idea to store the bars in the fridge anyway, because they are very moist.

Mom got stung by a wasp yesterday. I saw that she was by the (sadly currently disabled) car and had the door open, so I started walking over to guide her away and close the car door. The cat was sitting on the roof of the car. Mom cried out and started moving toward me, at first I thought the cat had scratched her. But she was moaning a little and holding her hand, so I started running. When I got closer, I saw several wasps flying about. I hustled Mom away and into the house as fast as I could. By the time we got to the house, she was singing. She was holding her hand a little, but I couldn't really tell where she got stung. I assume it just got her a little, her hand didn't swell anywhere that I could tell, but I did hold it under cold water for a while. She was getting impatient, just wanted to get back to her puttering.

I went back out to shut the car door, and sure enough, there was a wasp nest in the door. I generally have a live and let live, tread lightly on the earth policy, but unfortunately for these wasps I'll have to change that. I can't have a wasp nest where Mom will get stung, and she likes to play with car doors enough that I know this won't be the last time she'll open the door. Sure, I could lock the doors, but they would still be in there and still be disturbed by Mom trying to open the door. I'll have to get some wasp killer. I'm sorry wasps, but Mom comes first.

Fibery Pursuits

When asked my plans for the weekend, I said I was going to do something fibery while sitting in front of the window air conditioner. The forecast was for hot and humid. I hate hot and humid.

Lucky for me, the forecasters were wrong, and we had a very pleasant, dry day yesterday, and today is overcast and windy, almost cool, so far.

So yesterday I stood under a shade tree and skirted five alpaca fleeces. OK, to be accurate, it was four alpaca and one llama. I also washed two of them, and those are now on the drying rack. I'll wash more as those dry.

I also finished spinning more Emerald Lake fiber, and wound it off into a center pull ball for plying.

6.2 ounces, destined to become a pair of socks or two.

I didn't ply it right away, because I wanted to get my hands on this.

Remember the giant suri monster? This is a fraction of it put through the drum carder once. I am spinning this as finely as I can. It has a much longer staple than I am used to, but is turning out nicely, I think. The luster is amazing.

In other news, I lost my fly swatter. It normally hangs from a peg by the window, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the house. I figured Mom took it outside somewhere, but didn't want to traipse all around to find it.

This is what happens when you don't check the zucchini every day.

The one on the right is the size I want to pick them at for eating. The one on the left, a little big. So when confronted with a zuke bat, you make zuke bars!

Made them yesterday, using Mom's recipe. I turned the oven on, and almost walked away. Then I remembered to check, because sometimes Mom will put stuff in it. Sure enough, there was the fly swatter.

Art of Alzheimer's

Baby in a box. Or a plastic canister. Whatever you want to call it, I like it. The utensils usually do sit on the counter, and the canister was sitting on the draining board in the sink after being washed. I thought it was funny enough when I saw Mom putting Judy in the canister, but then when she placed the baby-filled canister next to the utensils, like Judy was one of them, I had to run for the camera.

I also like how the angle of the spaghetti spoon, with one of the prongs covering a corner of the eye, makes it look like the spoon is looking at Judy and smiling.