Rainy day

Well it's Good Friday. Nice day to be raining but still a good day nonetheless. I am headed out this afternoon for an alpaca shearing. It's at a farm in Raphine, VA which I am very fond of. One of my handspun skeins that took first place in the Handmades Derby was from this farm. This weekend is to celebrate the King of Kings. How he gave his life for all so we have the opportunity to be reconciled to the Father.
I am picking up another rabbit this weekend. Autumn is coming back to live with us. I hope to have quite a bit of agouti fiber to play with. As soon as I can get her sheared I will be putting some of the fiber in my etsy store. I am still spinning the white that I need to get finished so I can start on my next crochet project. Wrist warmers!! I wish my white angora would sell, so far nobody has wanted to buy it. I can sell the yarn faster than the fiber it seems! I am just so slow at making the yarn. Next weekend is the date of my spinning class. I have a new class of drop spindle spinners to teach. I will try to post photos if I can get some taken!!
Have a Great Easter everyone!!!

Bloggin'

Well here I am again. No photos this time but I have been diggin' information on the web. Last weekend I attended a seminar with a nutritionist. Found out lots of good stuff. I have since enbarked on a "new diet journey" and hope to live to tell about it. Now anybody that has seen me will wonder why I'm on a diet since I'm so small. I have revamped my eating habits so to speak and am trying to eat more healthy. The other thing people who know me will say is "how do you eat all that "junk" and stay so small??" I suppose I can give that to a high metabolism. But I have learned that you can look thin and still be unhealthy. Hence my journey begins with the nutritionist. I have very frequent headaches, like two a week, and when letting this out the nutritionist says "you need a liver detox". So in researching about the liver I found out quite a few amazing things... Excess amounts of sugar turns to alcohol in your liver. With me being a sugar junkie well that got me motivated. No more refined sugar! That means no more coffee. This is day three and I have no headache today. I still will be on a roller coaster with withdrawl symptoms but they will go away soon. Then I hope to have no more headaches ever!! I also found out that the liver is an amazing organ. It pretty much detoxifies lots of thing from your body. Stuff you put in it and stuff you breathe in.
I am very bad about not drinking water and I probably stay dehydrated alot of the time. Caffeine is a diuretic and will cause you to "pee" more than you should. That means no more coffee, soda, energy drinks, etc. and I need to drink more water! I have amazed myself with actually sticking to this plan. I am drinking some fruit juice also. No tea unless it has no sugar in it because I tend to overdo it. I can have honey but in moderation as well, it is a sugar just not a refined sugar. I also am taking a herbal tonic to help clean out my liver and gall bladder.You have to use a milk thistle combo or a liver tonic that has some beneficial herbs in it. Can't hurt. I'll let you know how I'm doing in a couple of weeks.

New things

OK, so here I am to post after so long without. Amanda lost my camera somewhere so no photos unless she takes them with her phone. I have not yet made a flyer to attempt to sell Simi but will do that this week. It looks like my husband does not want to take him to the sale this weekend either. Last month I spun up a skein of black alpaca to enter in a fiber arts show. I also crocheted a shrug out of suri and huacaya alpaca to enter as well. Out of the three articles I entered I ended up with two first places and a third place. The shrug also got Best in Show. I was quite satisfied with myself. I have given away my French angora rabbit to Elizabeth because she decided not to grow her coat back. I really wanted that coat! I will be getting another rabbit to replace her. Mirage passed away the other day but I expected it with her problems. She had a good life and was in good spirits that evening. So I am down to one rabbit but hopefully will be getting another. I would like to get another rabbit but my husband can't wait for the one I got left to leave. I'm still thinking about it and it might be better to just buy the wool but why????
I am spinning some white angora with plans to crochet wrist warmers. I wish to write an article for the UARC newsletter on the healing properties of angora wool for arthritis, tendonitis, and carpel tunnel. Should be interesting. The horses got out the other day and I had fun trying to get them back in the field. Trying to move them where they don't want to go is a challenge. Couldn't catch them either! Brushed all the horses for it is sheading season! Simi seems to leave puffs of white hair everywhere but since the rain he is now brown! I really want to get him in a new home because Daisy is pig and won't let him get enough to eat. So basically that's about it. Oh I also have been working on trying to plant a garden. Lots of fun!

Been a while....

Well It sure has been a bit since I posted. I actually updated Parelli Connect before this blog. We got around to playing with the ponies and I got quite a bit done with Simi. I still haven't checked off the whole list but got a good bit of it. We also saddled and rode him again. (4th time) Wish it wasn't so muddy, the horses slip too much to even walk around. Simi did real good, hasn't bucked once. He is a bit pushy with his shoulders when playing some ground games. Need to work on that. It has been quite nice weather wise, we just got rain. I got started clipping bunnies and Carmela and Soncee are done. Carmela's coat was shot and I maybe got an ounce off her, the rest was matted. (soft coats are awful) Soncee yielded about 9 ozs total. 7 ozs of that was prime. Next it's Mirage, don't know what she will give this go round. Found a ride to NC for her this month. Been Knitting dishcloths and dong some spinning. Need to upload some more photos to my etsy store. That's about it this time.

Real Cold!

I do not like the cold! I have had to break ice on water troughs and buckets for way too long! I finally invested in some floating tank heaters for the water tubs and some heated water buckets for the barn. That makes life and watering a whole lot easier! It also has helped the horses drink alot more water in winter. I wish I had done this 5 years ago! Amanda decided not to sell her pony and wants to take her to college with her. She is researching boarding barns and found some nice ones at half the cost of the ones around here. Yes, Amanda got accepted to Liberty University and starts college in the fall. Cimmeron is still for sale and I want to get him started as soon as the weather warms a bit. Whatever price he brings will pay for hay this coming winter or we will be able to build the shed. Haven't been to motivated to play with any of the horses. I did get some grooming time in the other day and the boys appreciated it very much. I just don't want to stay outside! I have been organizing and cleaning and also got in some knitting last night. Got some photos taken to post some new items on my etsy store. (first need to download them to the computer) My dad gave me a flat screen monitor for my home computer and now I can listen to music while I work in the back room. Got to get him to help me hook it up to the internet, I have forgotten how. We had a real nice holiday and got to spend time with friends. Looking forward to warmer weather!!!

Self Assessed Level 1!

I am a Level 1 (finally!) well I knew I was I just didn't fill out my check list till Saturday. Now I am working on Level 2. Lots more to do at this level. I wish it wasn't so cold!!

Parelli Connect Anyone???

Interesting version of Facebook for Parelli Savvy club members. I think it's great!!! You can get ideas and help with anything to do with your horses. I have only found 2 of my friends so far. What I like about it the most is that is gives you tasks to accomplish with your horse. Then it seems to rate your progress at a specific level. You have to be part of the program to understand all of this. But other than that it works just like facebook but has fewer apps and no games. But you can connect with anyone that is on it including Pat and Linda Parelli. Awesome!!

Yarn I'm spinning

This is the Corriedale roving I was spinning. The first photo shows the single and the true color of the yarn. The second photo is the yarn plyed and is a little bit bright because of the flash. In the first photo you can see the bag of roving behind the spinning wheel. I still have enough roving for one more skein.
Weaving is hard!!! I can't seem to get the hang of it and I will probably be taking a lesson soon. I decided to knit this shawl I have a pattern for and since I can't read patterns I will have to get some help on that as well! But I am going to use the Corriedale and the Cormo/Angora I am spinning right now to create the shawl. Purple-blue and gold will go well together. You have to knit with two yarns at the same time. (fun) I have problems with some of the stitches and need to be shown how to knit them. I will get some photos of the Cormo/Angora yarn and post those tomorrow. I am also spinning some giant angora on my drop spindle which I have an order for. I can do that while at work and I also taught my friend Norma to spin today and she is going strong. Only took her 2 minutes! Almost like she was born to do it.

Still got reason to be happy

Well even in the midst of all this I still have things I can be happy about. I have a car to get to work in, get to go to bible study tonite, and I got the roving Dustin sent yesterday. What else makes anyone more happy then having orange roving to spin??? That roving spins like a dream! (thanks Dustin!) I have no idea what I am going to do with it once it is spun. Probably will put it on my etsy store or.... I could weave a scarf with it. I built my own simple loom and have to figure out how to use it. I have been trying to figure out what yarn I want to use to warp the loom with. I think it is going to be mohair. It will be my experimental yarn for a scarf. The weft yarn is going to be angora. I have photos to post and will as soon as get them downloaded from the camera. I have corriedale yarn spun and suri alpaca spun. I also have satin angora on my drop spindle being plyed. I already have it sold. Been kind busy!

Car troubles

Well yeah, we had just got the power steering pump replaced and it was doing just fine when, lo and behold, the shift cable gives out. Can't win for losing with cars. This all happened last night too! We parked the car and worked on getting the power steering pump done and when we got in it to test it we had no gears, well only 3rd and 4th. My dad hopefully is going to figure out if he can fix it. He can make a new cable and put it in, I hope. If not then I have to yet locate a cable to buy and the last one was at a dealership in AZ and they wanted $200 for it! And this seemed to be the last one in the entire US of A! Dad's an auto body mechanic so if anybody can fix it it would be he! Oh yeah, we have another vehicle but it is also in the shop with a transmission problem. The mechanic there said he is going to work on it today. So Amanda and I are stuck with the "blue beast" (92 Dodge pickup) till somebody fixes something. Ain't life grand!