Enough Already!

Here's the reason that we will never shear before the last week of May at my farm. This picture was taken Saturday morning.
Not a great day for the Country Roads Tour. The hydro went out for a bit over 5 hours. We have an inline generator, so that didn't affect us much.
However, I didn't have customers Saturday.

I could have felt bad, but I felt worse for my friend that has the tour tea-room. She had spent Friday baking pies and cooking food for the weekend.

Today's weather was better. The wind was bitter, but the snow gradually melted away.

We did have a stream of customers come through today. Several were disappointed that the alpacas weren't out at the front to greet them. Most understood when I explained that I couldn't feel good about putting the alpacas out in a temporary pen with no proper shelter to stand knee deep in snow. The children felt better when I told them that they could call to come back in July to see the baby alpacas that we were expecting.

I demonstrated handspinning to the children, explaining how the pioneers would have made their clothing and they were so interested. I'm always surprised at the number of adults who tell me they have never seen a spinning wheel at work before. It gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to show this historical craft.

At 6:45pm Sunday, it looked like this.
Our area sure needed the extra moisture that the snow brought.
I am looking forward to the return of warm weather this week.

Happy Mother's Day Thoughts

We are heading into Mother's Day weekend.

A good friend of mine is missing her daughter right now, as her daughter is away serving with the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. However, I know that she is very proud of her daughter. They both will be thinking of each other this Sunday.

My thoughts are with all of the mothers around the world that are separated from their children because of war...whether they are away from their family and home serving their country themselves, or whether they are the mothers that are left home to wait.

I'll be busy this weekend, as my studio is part of the Country Roads Mother's Day Tour around the rural roads where I live. This collage shows a few samples of the interesting things and people that you find along the 12 stops of the 2010 tour.

This is the 30th anniversary of the Country Roads Tour. Find out more at www.countryroadstour.com.

I'm reading a book right now by Annie Leonard called "The Story of Stuff'. As the picture shows, it's about "How our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health - and a vision for change."
I'm probably three quarters through the book. It's a fascinating book.

I've been on a downshifting/downsizing/simplifying slope for a few years now. That 'downshift' in career was necessitated by health, and well, after a few years of not bringing in a nice fat salary, the finances get downshifted as well.

I already know that money doesn't buy happiness. My riches in life are made by being with the people I enjoy and by doing the things I love, not by the things that I buy. A message from this book is that once your basic needs are met, you can't get happier by buying and owning more. Most of us in North America need to figure this out - and for the sake of our planet - soon. I speak for myself - I have a long way to go... but after reading this book, I want to do better.

Here's a radical idea for Mother's Day. Bring Mom to your local public library and get her a library card. If you live in Ontario, Canada, it's free! Besides oodles of books to borrow, there are typically internet-connected computers to use, DVD movies to rent, magazines, audio-books, subscription to databases such as Ancestry.com. Our library loans out pedometers, others loan out tools and decorative cake tins. There are book clubs, knitting clubs, and the like. Everything is shared, so that one book or one movie can be used by many people in the community. And to make your mom REALLY happy...sign out a book for yourself...mothers like it when their kids read ;)

Happy Mother's Day!