Peace and Joy

Well, Christmas is almost here.  Shiny coloured things all around!

This is the last bit of yarn painting that I did...probably the last of the year.  Interesting that these two skeins were painted using the same three colours: burgundy, olive and golden ochre.  The one you see on the left had the dyed applied with distinct colour repeats and little overlap.  On the skein shown on the right, I applied the dyes randomly throughout the skein and the colours mixed quite freely.

On a cool crisp day, the hayloft is one of my favourite places.  I'm not sure what it is about the hayloft that is so comforting.  Perhaps it is the peace in knowing that my alpacas will have enough to eat until spring pasture time.  It could be the quiet stillness and isolation of the hayloft is a good place for reflection.  It might be that the hayloft is a drawback in history, that the skeleton of this post and beam barn reflects decades of honest, hard work by farm families.  Our full hay loft is the result of the labour of two farm families - one who produced the hay and ours that put it up.

Peace

It doesn't matter to the herd that they eat the same hay from fall to spring...every new bale that gets brought out gets the same reaction.  It's like throwing candies into the middle of a kindergarten class.

Joy

I Wish You Peace and Joy at Christmas and always.







Out in the Pasture

The grass here in Northern Ontario is still pretty brown.  However, the alpacas are neglecting the hay feeder and spreading out in search of the new grasses coming up.  We have quite a lot of pasture for our small herd.  If we didn't, I would be keeping the alpacas off all the pasture until the grass had a chance to get hold.  But I like the sight of them moving around the pasture in the spring after hovering around the barnyard for so many months. 

The ratio of alpacas to pasture is said to be 4-7 per acre.  I think that is quite high, unless you are blessed with exceptional pasture.  I currently have 19 alpacas and 2 llamas on about 22 acres of pasture.  We usually end up trimming our pastures down with the mower at some point in the summer, as they can't graze all of the grass down.  If the grass grows too high, the alpacas won't go into the pasture.  This is the alpaca's instinctive way of protecting themselves from predators that may be hiding in tall grasses.  Alpacas are very nervous of anything touching their hind legs, including tall grasses.

Alpacas like to move around in their herd and they keep a watchful eye for anything approaching through the field or neighbouring bush.  There are usually deer grazing in the hay fields beyond the pastures (sometimes right in the pastures). 

Sometimes it is difficult to get some nice photos of the alpaca group as they often move away from the person walking in the field, so that I have a great collections of retreating alpaca butts.

Well, except for Raven, who comes running to me across the field and then walks beside me, as if directing me as to which angle I should be taking the shot from.  Sometime I think that Raven is really a farm dog in alpaca clothing.

We are expecting 40-50mm of rain today and then continuing rain for the next few days.  That is a lot of rain, but I suspect that it will cause a major greening in our landscape by the weekend.
Enjoy your day!

Gales of November

Snow tires with studs...worth every penny when you drive a little car.  This past week has brought freezing rain, high winds and snow.

Looking outside the kitchen window, I don't relish venturing outside for chores.

Even the herd doesn't want to go outside these days.

But the hay is outside.

My 'good life' fitness program includes lugging these 40 lb bales out to each hay feeder.





When I bundle up against the cold, it's actually a good way to start the morning.  My cheeks are rosy red from the biting wind, though.

I went to my local spinning and weaving guild meeting the other day.  We have "show and tell" after the meeting.  It's supposed to be about fibre arts, but I showed my new e-book reader.  I didn't think my recent spinning project would dazzle anyone.

Guild member Rosalynn had this beautiful jacket in an undulating weave structure using funky coloured yarns.
Gorgeous!

 And these colourful woven teatowels.  What a piece of art.

I am inspired by creative people.

My Favourite Time of Year

Fall is certainly my favourite time of year. There are no bugs. The day temperatures are moderate. The nights are cool for sleeping. The night sky is clear. The June cria are old enough to stop worrying about them. The start of the school year seems to put everything back on a schedule. Harvest vegetables are plentiful.


Here are some fall pictures of around Eau Claire and Bonfield, Ontario that I took on a drive this past weekend.





Another great thing about fall....people start thinking about wearing warm alpaca and knitting again!


I find handspinners, handweavers and handknitters to be an incredibly social and sharing group. Once a year, I try to have a "Friends on the Farm with Fibre" event. I invite lots of fellow fibre artists. Sometimes the date works out, and my house is jammed with friends and spinning wheels, fibre and yarn for the day. This year, the date I picked had a few conflicts with other events, but still we had about 14 fibre friends come for the day. While it rained outside, we had a relaxing day of spinning and knitting and friendship.


I am a member of the Country Roads Artisan group that celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. Prior to our Fall Studio tour, we hosted a celebration at the shopping mall in North Bay. We displayed our wares, did demonstrations of our craft, shared cake and coffee and information with the public. The city mayor, and both our provincial and federal members of Parliament came to congratulate us. I always love to spin in public. People are so interested in this craft and in awe of the process. I get to meet a lot of very nice and interesting people while doing the demonstration. I found it especially satisfying spinning so relaxedly, watching others run about in our usual fast-paced, "gotta-get-the-errands-done" mode. Spinning brings me inner calm.


Our Country Roads Fall Tour was the last weekend in September. You can find more information about this tour and our group at our website http://www.countryroadstour.com/.
If you are planning to be in the area at any time, check out the information and hours of operation for the studios.

Below is an example of fellow member John Stephens' work from his studio At Wit's End Glass.

John's work is really unique. Many of the pieces feature birds or other wildlife. As well as 2D pieces, he also creates 3D works that incorporate other items such as rock, lichens, driftwood, etc.

Here are some of my recent handpainted sock yarns...

And I leave you with a fall shot of my farm....

and, of course, a recent picture of Lily for those who have followed the story of her hard little start.

For my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

Cria Memories

Well, it's just a couple months until the new Misty Haven cria are expected. If all goes as planned, we will have 3 young alpacas scooting around in early June. For the first time on this farm, all the pregnant females are first time moms.
Anyway...I've been spending way too much time looking through the pictures of cria today...reminiscing. Some of these little ones have grown up on the farm and stayed. Some have moved on to other farms.


Okay...I have to say it, cause you are all thinking it. CUTE! CUTE! CUTE!

Actually, these pictures above are all of cria that are between a few hours and a few weeks old. They get even cuter once their fleece gets a bit longer and they get a bit pudgy and "grow into their ears".

Cria average from 14 to 20 lbs at birth. We had one weigh in at 24 lbs once. They hit the ground (literally because mom is usually standing, sometimes continuing to eat grass) and are immediately trying to get up. They've usually found their balance and are on their way to the "dairy bar" within an hour of birth. Alpacas are usually born between 6am and noon. By evening, they are racing around the field trying out their legs.

For the most part, we keep a distant eye on the birth proceedings and mom handles things all on her own. We've had many births on the farm and have only had to get "hands-on" a few times.

Given that the average gestation is over 11 months, the anticipation is high to see what last year's breeding strategy will produce.

O Tannenbaum!

O Christmas Tree! It's fake - can you tell? I promise I will never buy another one...well, maybe if it comes with the lights already installed. 10 more days until Christmas. Our community public school had their Christmas concert tonight. The countdown is on.

Here's a spinning project that I've been wanting to try for some time now. I handspun the alpaca\merino blend singles and now I am plying them together with a polyester thread strung with beads. I'm finding it kind of tricky to hold the beaded thread in one hand to pop a bead off into the yarn while plying. The tendency is to hold back on the thread itself, so it is much tighter than the singles yarn. I'm thinking that the colour beads on the white yarn looks kind of clownish, but perhaps it will make a nice edging on a scarf or shawl someday. Come to think of it, it looks a little Christmas-sy itself.






Our chickens are not loving the winter...although they do venture out of the chicken house to get fresh air.

















The rooster Big Red is a handsome devil, isn't he?
The hen's name is Elsie.

People ask me whether alpacas like the Northern Ontario winters. Well, they do like the cold weather of December better than the heat and humidity of our typical August. They need shelter from the wind and from getting too wet, but other than that, they do very well in our climate. Today was a mild winter day, but when the sun started going down, it got cooler. In the twilight - which now happens about 5:30pm - I could see this 6 month old weanling and another running about playing and pronking. It's fun to watch.

Friday the 13th!

Not only is this day remarkable, being Friday the 13th...but it is also the birthday of my sister Sue. Being 2 years apart in a big family, Sue and I, at one time shared a room, a bed and even bathwater! We may not be as present in each others lives now, but we share some similar memories of where we came from and who we once were. Happy Birthday, Sue.

Here in Corbeil, we are still enjoying a very mild and sunny November, although it is frosty in the morning. This is a picture of Benecio in the barn this morning...notice the frost on his head and back.

Velma, the silkie chicken, is very eager to sit on her egg. Perhaps, she's the smartest chicken...it's a whole lot warmer in the hen house than out on the ground outside. Isn't she pretty? She won't move when you go to get the egg, she's quite protective.








I did some yarn dyeing today. I have some white alpaca\merino blend that was spun at the mill into thick singles. It wasn't what I expected to get back as it's a bit overtwisted, but, that just gives it some other possibilities. I am having fun with the dyeing though. This is what I dyed in the crock-pot last week.


Today, I tried a bit different method of crock-pot dyeing with the 3 primary colours. It's still cooking. I'm not sure if it will be to 'clownish'. I layered the skeins and the ones on the bottom got kind of muddy...but perhaps a nice muddy? We'll see when it is done.

I also did some immersion dyeing with just purple. It's still cooling in the pot, but it looks like the purple took differently at different places. This is probably because I soaked all the white yarn in vinegar, instead of soaking the immersion batch in a soap bath. The vinegar made some areas take the dye too quickly. That's my theory, anyway. I'm still learning...always learning.

16 Celcius on November 8th!!!

What a gorgeous weekend this was! All the more appreciated after having the first day of winter driving through snow and slush on Thursday.

The alpacas were taking advantage of the beautiful weather to try to get the last of the pasture goodness. It's amazing that there is actually green grass at this time of year, but all the rain and fairly warm fall has helped.

The sky was so blue today, compared to November's usual gloominess. I feel uplifted.

The spring cria don't know how good they have it. They'll get a taste of their first winter soon enough. Actually, alpaca take the winters here pretty well. They have lots of fleece to keep them warm, access to the barn and shelters with straw bedding to cuddle into.

This fellow is MHA Vivaldi. He was named by one of the fibre artists who gather at my farm on my annual 'Fibre Fun with Friends' day in June. I call him Valdy for short. He's a handsome lad with promising fibre. It's been hard to get a good picture of him...he'd rather hide behind the other cria or his momma, usually.

Having lived most of my life in Northern Ontario, we know better than to take this weather for granted. Today, we got the snow equipment ready and put away some more firewood.

This week, wear a poppy. Say thanks to a veteran. Say an extra prayer for the men and women serving our country today and for their families. Talk to your children about why we observe Remembrance Day.

Mini-Vacation Ends

Slow getting this post up...I've been back for 8 days and I need another mini-vacation (warning to "the Nancy's" not to answer the phone!)

After saying my goodbyes to Nancy and Paul and leaving the Silver Cloud Alpaca farm, I drove over the beautiful countryside to Stirling to visit Marj Brady at Amazing Graze Alpacas. Boy, the sky was blue that day...a perfect day to go and check out Marj's fine herd. Just look at this shot...isn't that a perfect fall day?

Following a nice but too short visit at Amazing Graze Alpacas, I drove over to Enniskillen to Spinning Wheel Alpacas, farm of Nancy and Garth Hutchinson. For the past two years, I've joined Nancy in a booth at the CreativFestival in downtown Toronto. This year, I couldn't participate, but thought I'd pop down with Garth to the show, in time to help Nancy dismantle her booth.

The CreativFestival was a smaller footprint this year, but from my quick scoot through before closing time, it looked like there were more fibre and yarn vendors.

It was too short a visit with Nancy this time, but I did get to check out her new critters! Her alpacas (of course), angora rabbits, new LGD puppies, rescued pot-belly pigs...and ROCKY! Rocky is a young male camel that Nancy is fostering for a local zoo. Nancy is committed to training Rocky on halter and to trailer.

You might have seen Rocky and Nancy in the Toronto Star earlier in the month. It's like a love story...which is a bit twisted (but well...you have to know my friend, Nancy, to understand that:)).

Anyway...visits to the Hutchinson's farm is always interesting and always too short.

What I appreciate about the time spent with these other alpaca fibre producers, besides their warm friendship, is the information and knowledge shared about our product improvements and discoveries. (Sometimes, seeing the great things that others are doing keeps the fire under us to work harder!)

Home again, home again....jiggity-jig.