More Random Farm Photos

I can’t ever seem to get my blogs written when I intend to, but I will share photos of some of the latest things going on.

Dan wanted to have one more burn before May when we won’t be able to. I took this photo just after he started this fire.

Then I got distracted by this. Last fall I had buried some heads from the butcher lambs to see if they would turn out better than my other way—which is to just leave them out and hope that birds and bugs will clean them well enough, but they never do.

We had dug a shallow trench with the tractor and then piled compost on top. It was very easy digging, and I felt like I was at an archeological dig. I had to be careful to not put the shovel right through a skull. I found five there and they are remarkably free of all the things you don’t want on a skull (skin, tissue, etc). They are brown right now but I think some peroxide will take care of that.

In the meantime I was washing yarn in preparation for labeling it for the shop. This happens to be yarn spun from the lilac fleeces. Here is a post I wrote about lilac sheep. When I looked at this yarn I thought that the lilac color went well with the lavender colored wisteria flowers—it doesn’t look the same way in this photo. Maybe it’s in the eye of the beholder.

My focus last week was getting the shop organized for a couple of groups coming on the weekend. That was quite an undertaking. I moved the natural colored cottons to the back wall so I could have all the wool yarns together on the wall to the left. That is my Jacob yarn on two shelves, the Timm Ranch yarn on one and Ashford DK on the bottom two shelvers. Things feel a little more orderly now. I spent a lot of time labeling yarn but there is still some more to do.I also need to get those new yarns on the website.

Lambs in the evening light.

Saturday was the day for KiraK’s knitting retreat. She had 16 people signed up for the farm visit and a class from her. We spent a lot of time outside at the picnic tables and in the barn with sheep.

After lunch they gathered in the Weaving House to be guided through the workshop cowl project. Kira and I have another retreat planned on June 3. You can find out about it here.

On Sunday another group came. About 20 people from Spindles & Flyers were here for their monthly guild meeting. Again we spent time in the barn and at the picnic tables. Fortunately the weather was great for both of these weekend events.

A long-time guild member brought a blanket to show me. He spun Jacob fiber and wove this blanket several years ago. Don’t you like the way the colors transition from dark to light?

I have been trying to work through the rest of the fleeces. Not only do I need to get them to the mill, I wanted to find some to show when I go to Estes Park Wool Market in June.