Carding wool. And some other stuff.

I love this picture of Misha. I wish I could have taken more time with it and gotten a better shot. But taking pictures of moving animals is not easy. He is so gorgeous. He wouldn't come eat without his brother. Sugar Baby was way out at the fence. So I waited til they were both at the feeder to give them their feed. I've been a little worried about Misha, since he was gelded 1 1/2 weeks ago. His right side is still swollen. So the past 2 days, he's let me lift his tail to spray it. He still kicks but doesn't try to get away.

Here is my first attempt at carding Lucinda's wool after washing yesterday. It's really fine and so soft. But this could take a long time! I brought the rest of the damp wool in and put it in the side porch to finish drying. And I still have half a pillow case full to wash. Plus the table is full of drying wool. And this box is half full. I'm going to check on electric carders to see if that would be something I can afford to get. I know I am going to be getting a portable spinning wheel.

This morning's picture of the garden. The kale and collards are growing good now. That brown row to the far right is the onions I planted Sat. Sweet and multiplying.  I water with my well water and had it on Sat evening to water the garden.  If I go inside, I forget it's on. And I did. It was on all night. But it's a well, so there's not that much water in it. It was completely out of water for a few days. And that's what I use to water the animals. But this morning, it was filled back up. I need to write me a note from now on!

Saturday, before mowing down most of the garden, I picked all the peppers. I cut up all the bell peppers and put them in the freezer. I love the colors. And the red ones are SO good!

Then with the jalapeno peppers, I made jelly. It was interesting, to say the least. I have had pepper jelly that a friend makes and I love it! She makes mild and hot. I like the mild. It still has a little kick to it. Just right for me. So I found a recipe and got everything together. I used gloves of course. But hate gloves. I can't feel anything and it makes it hard for me. Anyway, I could hardly breathe while I was cutting and blending the peppers. Then cooking them! And I got exactly 5 jars full. Isn't this pretty? I'll wait awhile to try it. But I did lick the spoon, on accident! I always do that to taste the jelly. I'll have to remember NOT to do that when making hot pepper jelly!

Skirting and washing sheep's wool

Ok, so I looked on Youtibe and jumped right in. I cannot seem to get someone to actually LET ME do anything with wool. Like carding or spinning. They want me to just watch. And I need to DO it. So I watched some videos and got the general idea.

I still have some fleeces from last spring. Plus 3 from this spring. So I took Lucinda's wool from the grain sack and started cleaning all the crap out of it. It wasn't too bad.

And got Adele's from this spring and cleaned all the crap I could find out of it.

Then washed Lucinda's wool. I don't have much room yet to dry. So just used my 2 picnic tables. Which worked great. It was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze. So most of it's dry now.

To all you who do this all the time, how does this wool look to you? This is Lucinda's wool. She is full Finn. She's my ewe who died last year. I love her wool.

                                                            This is it on the table after skirting it.

                                         This is Adele's all spread out on the table to be skirted.

Adele is mostly Finn. Her wool was really long. First ever shearing for her, as a yearling.

Here is Lucinda's wool, washing. I still have a little bit to wash tomorrow. I used Dawn.

 

                                                And all spread out on the drying tables.

I need to go get it now. The sun is going down. But would really love some input. What do you think? Will it spin into nice yarn? That's next, after carding. Which I can do, but can't seem to get the hang of getting it off the carder in one nice piece to roll up. Practice,  practice, practice, right?

Let me know what you think please. I can take it. Really, I can. Being my very first time doing this, with no one to tell me if it's good wool or not, I think it looks good. I need to practice doing all this anyway.

Vultures...

Doing what vultures do.


I've been driving by this dead deer all week. Then started seeing vultures. So Friday, I had to turn back around and go back to take pictures. I think this is fascinating. Just watching  the food chain working, it's amazing. I know some people might think this is gross and they don't want to see it. But this is life. And death. And the way things are supposed to happen. And vultures are about the best clean-up crew around. If we didn't have these huge birds, there would be nasty, stinky corpses all over the roads. It would take weeks for the flesh and skin to rot. But these birds, they come in and in just a few days, it's like it never happened.

                                             I got closer and closer. They started walking away.

                                   Then they started opening those huge wings and flying away...

     

to this tree. Can you see them all? They are just amazing creatures. Ugly as crap, but amazing creatures.

On the way back home, the vultures were nowhere to be seen. The deer was half eaten. It was hot. So maybe they were taking an afternoon siesta. Waiting for dinner later.