Herbal Forum & Plant/Gift Sale 2024
The Herbal Forum’s featured plant is yarrow, our Herb of the Year. The Forum will be held in the concert hall at Festival Hill Institute on Saturday, March 16, 2024.
Our plant and gift sale will be held Friday, March 15, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, March 16, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring your wagon or cart, as you’ll find plenty of plants to replace those lost to this winter’s freezes!
We’ll see you at Festival Hill Institute, 248 Jaster Road, Round Top, Texas!
Our plant and gift sale will be held Friday, March 15, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, March 16, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring your wagon or cart, as you’ll find plenty of plants to replace those lost to this winter’s freezes!
We’ll see you at Festival Hill Institute, 248 Jaster Road, Round Top, Texas!
Here’s the speaker line-up for the Forum and a little about them and the topics they will cover:
Yarrow: A Resilient and Versatile Central Texas Plant
Presenter: Cristen Andrews
Get to know yarrow, a resilient and versatile Central Texas plant ally with a long history of use. You’ll learn about its many benefits in the garden ecosystem, its herbal effects on the body, and practical ways for developing a relationship with this plant.
Cristen is a permaculture gardener, herbalist, writer, photographer, and lover of the more-than-human world. She and her partner, Miguel, are stewards of their one-acre homestead and small-scale plant nursery where they offer various pathways for nature connection and homegrown wellness.
smalltownfarm.com
Get Your Dye on and Live Wild
Presenter: Penny Nelson
Chemical dyes are great since you always know what colors you will get, but natural dyes are more exciting because you never really know what the results will be. Learn about the unique nature of natural dyes and the surprises they can reveal.
Penny has been spinning for about 20 years and dyeing for nearly that long. Her first experience with natural dyes was a three-day workshop at Carol Leigh’s Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbus, Missouri. She was hooked! Sky Loom Weavers continues to dye yarn and spin fiber.
skyloomweavers.com
Culinary Conversations about Herbs
Presenter: Jana Muniz-Huffman
This talk will focus on commonly used culinary herbs, uncommon herbs to try that you can collect in your field or pasture, and different uses for fresh and dried herbs. Recipes and small edible samples will be available during the demo session.
Jana is the Farm Operations Manager at Deeply Rooted Ranch in Burton, Texas. She is a chef and farmer with a passion for local food, old foodways and teaching others, especially future farmers and farm supporters. As farm operations manager, she draws on experience gained with her husband, Chris, growing nutrient-rich food for their community during the pandemic.
deeplyrootedranch.com
Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary with Herbs
Presenter: Molly Fowler
Choosing a single herb to enhance a dish is easy; adding a harmonious mixture is more challenging. Exploring and learning the flavor profiles of individual herbs may help. Boost your culinary prowess with this new way of thinking about seasoning!
Known as The Dining Diva, Molly is a traveling culinary instructor, host of All The Right Ingredients podcast, recipe developer, television and radio personality, product spokesperson, and cookbook author who demonstrates entertaining with ease, flair and impact.
thediningdiva.com
The Herbal Forum is sponsored by the Herb Society of America Pioneer Unit in Round Top, Texas. herbs.pioneerunit@gmail.com
]]>But, wait! There's more!
Schacht Standard floor loom. It's still here and I would love for it to go to it's new owner before we need to move it. It is out in my old studio on our property in Cat Spring. That property has sold so the loom will need to be moved in the next month or so. $3200
A couple of other things have also made themselves known. Like the first list, these are things that we bought to use ourselves or have used ourselves and love but there just isn't room for them in our new digs.
Fricke Electric "Easy Wind" Adjustable Skein Winder with Counter. This was an essential tool back when we were dyeing yarn. Every skein needed to be reskeined and this beauty did the job. Now we have moved past all the yarn dyeing but I bet someone out there could really use this winder. $150
Hand Spindle Lazy Kates. Similar to the lazy kates that hold your full spinning wheel bobbins so you can ply your yarn, these hold hand spindles so you can ply your singles. I have two that are newly for sale. The first is a Golding's lazy kate that will hold up to three spindles for plying. The second is a beautifully made lazy kate of unknown origin that will also hold two or three spindles. Both of these are beautiful to look at and work just as wonderfully.
I have added a couple of yarn clutches and several hand knitted scarves to the website and am in the process of adding several hand woven scarves so be sure to check them out!
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Schacht Standard Floor Loom. I have loved weaving on this loom. It's 45" in maximum weaving width and 8 harnesses so you can weave large items with complex patterns or simple plain weave and smaller items. $3200.00
15" Cricket loom on stand with attached Quartet. I fell in love with the idea of adding the Quartet to the top of a Cricket loom and suddenly being able to weave with 4 harnesses. That is just so cool! I built this set up but have not yet warped it. It's pretty straight forward to do that but it hasn't happened for me yet. This is the perfect starting place for anyone who wants to learn how to weave or has learned to weave on a rigid heddle loom and wants to step up to a small harness loom. $525.00
AVL Warping Wheel. This is how I learned to warp sectionally and it still is a great way to accomplish that. The other option is to wind the warp on spools that go on a large spool rack. I love warping both ways but based on the size of my new studio, the spool rack will fit better for me. I'll have to let the warping wheel go. $400.00
Schacht Winding Station. This is a particularly useful piece of equipment. It will hold a swift or a ball winder. It will provide the perfect location for your cones of yarn as you wind your warp on the warping board. It will also work in association with the warping wheel (above) for getting sections of warp ready to wind on your loom. $150.00
All these items are best picked up. The Schacht Standard floor loom is out in Cat Spring. All the others are here at my new house in Katy, TX. Let me know what you're interested in and we can make your Christmas dreams come true!
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After moving more and more westerly from Katy, TX out to Simonton and then on to Cat Spring over the last nearly 34 years, we have now moved back to Katy. Of course, it's not the same Katy as it was when we lived here 34 years ago. We are living in a subdivision that didn't exist back then off a road that didn't exist off an I10 exit that didn't exist. We get our groceries from a store that wasn't there before although the little Brookshire Brothers grocery store that was here back then is still here.
We now live in a house that was built in 2016. That's pretty young considering we have been looking at much older homes. And this house sits on 8,000 square feet of lot which is startlingly small considering we were originally thinking of down sizing from 12 acres to 4 or 5 acres, or maybe 2 or 3 acres. And yet, here we sit, happy as little clams, on our less than 1/4 acre of land.
I absolutely adore this house. It's all on one level and new. Not new in that it was just finished but new in that there are outlets for ethernet cables and phone cables and computer cables all over the place. The floors are beautiful porcelain tile and while I miss my old real wood floors and the pier and beam construction of our old house, I love the way this one looks and acts. We have a garage now! That's cool.
There is more than one downside of this move, however. The biggest one to talk about here is how I have or have not been able to squeeze all of my studio into one very small 12' by 12' room that only has 2.5 walls. The answer is obvious. No. I haven't been able to squeeze everything in. I love my new studio space but many things have had to go and still need to go for that matter.
Peggy now has my big Louet computer controlled loom. It did require some de-construction to get it through the doors. She'll by playing with it for a while to decide if she wants to keep it. The Gilmore loom made the trip over nicely and is sitting here in front of my front window. The Schacht Standard floor loom is still in my old studio and needs to find a new home. I'm getting ready to post it on the website.
We announced earlier this year that we would no longer be dyeing commercial yarn. We put that yarn on sale here on the website but have now sold it all. It was a fun sale at the Texas Fleece & Fiber show to rehome the last of it. There are some other things that it turns out I really don't have any room for. They will be appearing on the website so take a look every so often. You might find something that would make a great Christmas gift or something you might want to try yourself.
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We spinners have a similar race for the next 27 days. We will spin on our spindles or spinning wheels while that group of excellent athletes wends their way across France. We will try new things on the days where the bicyclists have hilly travel and go back to old favorites on the days when the route is flat. The days that provide rest of the bicyclists can be days when we rest also. Or we can keep spinning to get ahead of the pack.
Personally, I'm starting with spinning flax today. I love spinning this wonderful fiber although I haven't done it some time. It will be wet spun, as usual but will still be a challenge for me to remember all the tricks that I learned spinning flax in the past. A challenge but also lots of fun.
]]>The crepe myrtles have worked hard to be stunning.
Not to be outdone, the other flowers have been working hard on their blooms.
Then the roses got their noses out of joint and needed to put on their own show.
Last year we planted our sunflowers early in the spring. This year we got a much later start and didn't plant till well into June. The ground has been cleared and leveled and the drip lines are in. The sunflowers were seeded and fertilized and are already up and growing. More pictures when they get a little taller.
I did get marigolds planted this spring although it's a bit of a hodge podge - seed, small plants and self-seeding from last years crop - all going together to create a lovely garden bin full of color. I am already harvesting the blooms and drying them for dye.
I will be thrilled with the rain next week if it comes. All these plants can use some rain and little break from these temperatures would be wonderful.
]]>All of our hand dyed commercial spun yarns are on sale at 25% off. You can think of it at buy one/get one half off if that makes you happier. The result is the same except you don't need to buy two skeins of yarn.
We will continue to carry the wonderful Schacht products that we love including looms, spinning wheels and all sorts of spinning and weaving tools along with books we find interesting and hand cream we love.
If you are interested in a larger purchase or any of the undyed yarns we still have, let me know. We can probably work out a deal to make both of us happy. I don't have a count of the undyed yarn yet but should by the end of this week.
]]>I have sold my wonderful Wyatt spinning wheel. She was a beauty - easy to spin on, gorgeous to watch. The only downsides to this wonderful wheel were her footprint - fairly large - and the difficulty in moving her around. There was no way to move the wheel in my car or my husband's truck without taking it apart. Moving the wheel across the room was easy enough but from my studio to my house would have been a fair amount of work. And sitting in my studio, as she did, meant I didn't spin on her much at all except when a customer wanted a demonstration. This wheel deserved a new home with someone who would use it regularly. Laura bought the wheel and loves it.
I also sold the Tools of the Trade loom I bought a couple of years ago to save it from going to the landfill. I never intended to keep this loom since I have more than enough floor looms to keep me busy, but it turned out to be a sturdy loom with lots more weaving to do. Olga and her husband came by yesterday and tried it, took it apart and loaded it up for the ride back to the Dallas area. Olga is a fairly new weaver so I loaded her up with some additional tools she would need - a copy of Deborah Chandler's Learning to Weave and Strickler's 8 Shaft Weaving Patterns along with a couple of shuttles. I think she is going to do a great job of using this loom and creating lots of wonderful fabric.
I'm so pleased that the loom and the wheel have gone to wonderful new homes with great people. And with both of them gone, my studio is much less claustrophobic and I get to move some furniture around!
]]>We did our usual Christmas fun again this year. Peggy and her family including whichever of her kids are available, come to our house for Christmas Eve. We eat and laugh and talk and open presents. This year we also played a fun game with $10 gift cards. The littles, who range in age from 8 to 12, played with us and we all had a huge laugh. It was great. Then Peggy and her family went home and my kids and grandkids spend the night so we can open presents on Christmas morning. All the food is prepared for Christmas Eve so we just nibble on leftovers for Christmas. It works out well.
The spanner in the works this year was the freezing cold. We realized on Friday morning that our first floor heater was not working to it's full potential. It could maintain a temperature of only 60 degrees. Our bedroom was as cold as the kitchen and living room but the down comforter kept us nicely warm at night. We put a pot of water to boil on the stove and opened up the ovens as they cooled off from cooking. Our furnace guy come out on Saturday and found he couldn't fix the heater without a couple of new parts which he wouldn't be able to get until Tuesday. We would just have to live with the chilly temperature. With 12 additional people in the living room later in the day, the temperature was fine.
Then, just for the fun of it, two pipes burst on the morning of Christmas Eve. We turned the water on and off throughout the day. When our kids arrived in the evening, our wonderful son-in-law cut off and capped the pipe we knew was busted. That's when we realized there was a second break somewhere. So the practice of turning the water on and off continued through the weekend and into Monday morning.
Monday morning I called the plumbers. They arrived and managed to repair our broken pipes in under 45 minutes. We could have showers and wash some clothes and run the dishwasher. It was glorious.
I haven't heard the final word on our heater yet. I'm hoping the parts were available and we can have it fixed rather than having to replace it. Fortunately, the A/C part of the system is working great so when the temperatures rise into the upper 80's again, we'll have the necessary cooling available.
]]>We vat dyed, dip dyed and roaster dyed which just like hand painting but completely different. We also stewed up a vat of onion skins so everyone had a chance to see a natural dye that does not require the yarn to be pretreated with a mordant.
We had a fabulous time! I'll let you know when we schedule another dye day in case you would like to join us.
]]>It had gotten to that point in the process. The goats were not automatically heading for the gate as soon as I opened it. I don't want to terrorize them but I would very much like them to walk out the gate rather than me having to chase them out.
About a week ago I brought Sadie into the feeding area with me. The goats all gasped and huddled together at the far end of the pen. I should say at this point that Sadie is a Labrador Retriever who has no understanding of retrieving and doesn't really listen to commands except when there is food involved. Ask her to sit for a treat and her butt is on the ground in a nanosecond. She never met a stranger and loves everyone but asking her to go around the back of the goats and urge them towards the gate requires skills and training she just doesn't have.
As Sadie wandered around the pen sniffing the ground, the goat herd moved fluidly and easily away from her. Fitz broke for the open gate. I saw him coming and took a step backwards so as not to deter him from getting out the gate. That would have been fine except for Pi who was making a mad dash around my back to get out that same gate. Pi slammed into my leg and I hit the ground. Fortunately, I landed on my most well padded body part. It was immediately obvious that I wasn't hurt, except for my pride, but Sadie dashed over to check on me. When the dogs knocked me to the ground 4 years ago and I broke my ankle in three places, Sadie wrapped her body around my head as I lay on the ground and wouldn't move until Ron brought out a leash and dragged her away. This time she ran up to me, gave me one quick sniff and wandered off. It was clear to her I wasn't hurt and she had other things to do.
By the time I rolled over and got myself up off the ground, all the goats were well up the pasture and Sadie was still looking for the freshest goat berries to eat. Since then, the goats are moving more quickly out of the feeding pen. When I again need to remind them to move quickly, I'll try to be more aware and not get knocked over.
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We have added several new things to our website that you might be interested in. The Schacht Quartet is here! This cool device bolts to the top of your 15" Cricket rigid heddle loom to turn it into a four shaft table loom. I built one and am getting ready to warp it up. I can't wait! If you want this one that's already put together you get the 15" Cricket with the attached Quartet on a stand and I'll throw in the Cricket trap for free. You will need to pick this up here at the studio or I can meet you someplace within 40 miles of here.
All of my floor looms have sectional back beams so I warp them in sections. All the crickets are directly warped using just one peg. I have all the equipment I need for both of those techniques. But the Quartet needs either a warping board that hangs on the wall or a set of warping pegs that you attach to a tabletop. We now have those in stock.
We managed to get two copies of Real Shetland Yarns, a wonderful book full of short essays and comments by Shetlanders about their current or historical insights into wool and sheep. We carried this book in the past but were happy to get more copies. This book is now out of print and out of stock at Jamieson & Smith, Wool Brokers, our supplier.
The poly drive band on my Ladybug spinning wheel had gotten so stretched out that I couldn't tighten it enough for it to spin the way I wanted her to. I ordered a couple of new drive bands. One is now on my wheel but the other one is sitting here waiting on you to order it.
]]>DFW Fiber Fest: The DFW show was September 23-25. It was our first time doing this show although we have applied a couple of times over the past 10 years. The venue was wonderful, the choice of vendors was great and there were lots of attendees. We never expect to do well at a show they first time we vend there but we did great. Our hotel was just down the street from the venue so no long commutes. I found the Starbucks pretty quickly and there were great restaurants almost within walking distance. We are already looking forward to next year.
Skunk Protocol: We usually see skunks out here in the spring. That's mating season and then we have new mommas with babies looking for homes. I think this is the first time we have had to institute our skunk protocol in the fall. Skunk protocol requires keeping the lights on in the barn and having some loud music blaring. Skunks, particularly mommas with babies are looking for dark and quiet so we make sure the area is neither. In this case, the skunk smell was strongest in the barn so I was pretty sure we had a potential tenant in our midst. The smell was gone the next morning after a night with music and light but we kept up the music and light for a week. It works every time and we are now skunk free - at least until next spring when we will probably have to do it all over again.
Schacht Deliveries: We are very proud to sell Schacht products, including spinning wheels, small and large looms and lots of fun tools. This past couple of years, Schacht has been shipping what we order but it is taking a much longer time since Covid. Things we used to get in just a couple of weeks are taking a couple of months and some items are taking longer than that. They always arrive in great shape, it just takes longer. They have had supply chain issues on most of the supplies they order and have had some of their well trained and trusted staff sick so the longer wait times are not a surprise.
Cricket Quartet: One of the things we have been eagerly awaiting from Schacht is the new Cricket Quartet. The two we ordered arrived last week! I have put the first one together and am getting ready to warp it. I think I'm going to love it. It turns a rigid heddle loom into a four shaft table loom so it's the intervening step between your first Cricket loom and that floor loom you've been wanting. I'll have the loom warped and tested out by the time we see everyone at Texas Fleece and Fiber in Kerrville, TX next weekend. Be sure to stop by our booth to give it a whirl.
Dyeing Fiber: My grandsons were out here visiting for a week just before school started. As it happens, the older one got sick and I took him home but the younger one, Tuck, stayed for the rest of the week. I decided he might enjoy helping me dye some fiber and he really did. He picked the colors for his fiber and I picked the colors for mine. We sun dyed them in black plastic garbage bags we put out in the sun. It was easy and fun and although my colors were great, Tuck ended up with better colors on his fiber than I did on mine. So I put his name on the fiber. Check out the color Tuck in BFL & Silk fiber.
Dyeing Yarn: Peggy and I did a great dye day a couple of weeks ago. We hadn't dyed yarn in a while so we got busy. The final total was 70 skeins scattered among our wool and super wash wool bases. I love the colors and it's nice to have our inventory back up where it should be. I have all the new colors on the website and finished photographing them all today. I finally decided my camera needs a new battery since the recharging isn't working as well as it always has.
Texas Fleece & Fiber: We are excited to be getting ready for Kerrville. This is a fun show. It's the newest iteration of Kid 'n Ewe which Grady Ingle managed for many years. KnE was located in several places over the years but spent it's last years in Boerne, TX. We loved Boerne. The new owners of the festival have moved us to Kerrville where the facilities are better even if it's an hour farther from Houston. Be sure to check out Mary's Tacos if you come. They may just be the best breakfast tacos I've ever had. If you can't make it out to Kerrville, be sure to stop by the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston for the Fall Artisan Sale at the Guild House, 1425 Blalock Rd Suite 202, Houston, TX 77055. Check their website www.weavehouston.org for the details.
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A new batch of 100% hemp face cloths, each with a hand made bar of goat's milk soap are waiting for you. I think I like the indigo dyed ones the best but that's just me.
I'm working on a new kit for rigid heddle weavers. Look for that soon. I'm knitting up some fun scarves made with mohair boucle yarn which should be finished soon.
And we have some great new hand spun beauties that are perfect for your next knitting or weaving project.
You just need to come and visit. The website is always open. The studio is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. If you are out in this neck of the woods, please stop by. Just check the calendar on our website to be sure I'll be here. Things do come up sometimes.
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Some of the plants look wonderful. The pecan trees are full of pecans. I'm sure I heard them breathing a sigh of relief when the rain started.
Some of the plants are even full of blooms. Always a cheery sight.
Some of the plants have struggled and we aren't sure if they will survive or not like this boxwood.
And some are clearly dead like the dwarf yaupon and my sunflowers.
Here is a very interesting visual. On the left is a huge shrub that did not survive the heat and drought. It's so dry that the branches will crack if you lean on them - they shatter. Next to the right in the back is our huge pine tree. It's doing great. In front of the pine is a spindly little peach tree that we hope will live until the spring. Then there is a huge crepe myrtle full of lovely red blooms. It's happy. And finally on the far right is our loquat tree which is madly putting out new leaves now that it's had a good drink of water.
All things considered, I think we did pretty well with the unusually high heat and no rain for months and months. I hope the rain will keep coming.... but we really don't need the 25" of rain we had during Harvey. No hurricanes please. Just nice soft reasonable rain. Is that too much to ask?
]]>The goats were sheared back at the beginning of August. I only have two Angora goats right now but the two dairy goats weren't completely left out. They got their feet trimmed. They don't like it but they walk better afterwards.
We were supposed to have our grandsons for a week before they went back to school but the older one got sick and went home on day three. We kept the younger one until later in the week when they both had Meet the Teacher night before school began. It's the first time I've had only one grandchild rather than the pair of them. It was great. Now I see why my grandmother was always so keen to take my brother and sisters and I places individually. One of the things we did together was dye some fiber. The BFL & Silk came out great and we both had a great time. Tuck picked the colors for his batch so his name went of those bumps.
Two weeks later we kept our granddaughters over a weekend so their parents could go to a concert. It was the weekend before they went back to school so there was a certain amount of angst on their part although we had a great time. They helped me out here in the studio fluffing fiber, stamping inventory tags and getting all sorts of stuff put away.
Since sometime back in July, we have been waiting for rain. It has been raining in various parts of the Houston area the last few weeks but not until this past week did we get any. And boy did we ever get some. Nearly 10" of rain fell on us in one day. It was great! Suddenly the grass turned green, the trees stood up taller and the frogs went nuts. It was wonderful. We could do it again a few more times. That would really be wonderful.
]]>Barbara is a painter and works with enameling. I think she is amazing at both. She kindly gave me three small paintings she created and I've now had them framed and they hang on the wall in my living room. A while back she sent me one of her enamels that has a moon and stars on one side and a tree on the other. It sits on the window sill directly in front of my desk. I turn it from one side to the other depending on the season, the weather or just how I'm feeling on any given day.
Judy does amazing work with her community educating people to treat the environment with respect and to tread carefully. She also paints rocks. How cool is that considering Ron and I are both geologists. She has painted dragons and trees, toads and all manor of creatures. But for me, she painted curly sheep. They sit happily on the window sill in front of my desk out in the studio. Mostly they just sit happily in one place but occasionally they go walk-a-bout and end up all over my studio. I'm sure some of my friends, or perhaps family members, encourage them to wander, but they always come back.
It's so wonderful to have family members to trade with. They send me what they create and send them what I create.
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These will be linen face cloths and hopefully will be finished and paired with a bar of goat's milk soap in time for the DFW show this coming September.
I have also planned out the next run of kitchen towels - the warp will be natural cottolin and the weft will be whatever colors of cottolin seem appealing to me. The pattern is a broken twill which will be fun to weave and not require changing colors until I get to the end of each towel. A new beginning.
]]>My dog fits both of those descriptions. It's been on the loom for months and months, years maybe? I'm not sure. And every time I walk by I'm horrified by the pattern that's not symmetrical. I love the colors but switching colors every 6 picks? Nope. I hate that. I got tired of trying to convince myself to just sit down and weave it off. I never could. So now it's well and truly off the loom.
Some suggest that to release the time and energy trapped in this unfinished project you should burn it in a bonfire under the full moon while you dance around it naked in the moonlight. Nope. That's just not happening. For several reasons. The next full moon will be on or around August 11th which is too long to wait. And we are under a burn ban so I can't light a bonfire anyway. And then there is the naked thing. We live out in the boonies so me dancing around naked in the dark, even under a full moon, wouldn't be seen by anyone. But the snakes are really bad this year so doing anything after dark out of doors without clothing is not going to be safe.
So my dog is now in the trash and I am free to move forward with another project.
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Yes, this one is completely brown but only just recently has it stopped smelling. It kindly has continued to hold on to it's needles so I don't have them all over the floor which would translate into all over the studio. So today it is going on the burn pile. It will probably sit there for some time since we are under a burn ban and with this continuing very dry weather, we won't be burning anytime soon. Goodbye, wonderful fragrant Christmas wreath!
]]>If you look directly down at the ground rather than out across the yard, you can see why. Most of the grass looks dry and brown and dead with just a bit of green showing.
Yup. We need some rain! Five to ten inches would be just lovely, thank you.
]]>Also, as it turns out, sunflowers make a pretty good wall. The one pictured above is about 6' tall so far. You may remember that I spent years trying to encourage a wildflower garden to grow over my septic drain field so no one would drive over it. That turned out to be a complete failure so we pivoted to a wall of sunflowers. They are nice to look at when they are small, nice to look at as they grow and stunning to behold in full bloom. They are even passable to look at once they have finished blooming. And we can mow the area over the winter between crops. What more could you ask for in a wall?
We got a pretty late start planting this spring - sunflowers as well as everything else. Only now are they starting to bloom. Just a few flowers here and there but the bumble bees seem pretty excited about them!
This year we used a whole bunch of different seeds so the sunflowers are tall and short, normal yellow but also red and mottled. So far they are just as beautiful as I hoped. I'll post another picture when they are in bloom.
]]>We have roses in the front garden that are blooming and some of the winter color our landscaper puts in the front yard is still going strong.
We lost one of our acacia trees in the freeze two years ago in February but the one that's left has been showing off.
I'm hoping our Texas sage bush will pop out lots of beautiful pink flowers. That usually means that rain is on the way. That would be nice.
]]>Sean Price, my wonderful llama shearer, was here on Thursday morning to take Shiraz from a fluffy puff ball on legs to a string bean. Llamas always look so tall and skinny after they are sheared.
Sean pulls the llama beauty salon behind his truck. It comes complete with air conditioning and seclusion and works really well for even the most flighty llama. My llamas have never had a problem walking up the ramp and through the plastic strips but I'm sure Sean would convince them they really did want to go into the salon if they were unsure.
Shiraz is our last llama and at some point he will be moving up the road from me to be a pasture mate with Maggie, a llama who is currently living by herself. Llamas don't like to be on their own. Shiraz has done well here with my goats. They are his to watch over and he takes the job seriously. Maggie seems to be doing well also but surely will appreciate a pasture buddy. I will miss him when he goes.
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Then we moved out here to Colorado County. Our property is mostly sand and the grass grows much better but with lots of thatch. We have had to call the volunteer fire department to put out fires we started twice since we moved in 16 years ago. It's embarrassing to need help putting our a fire you started on purpose. Of course the VFD is wonderful and never made me feel stupid for ultimately setting the place on fire. They always come quickly and are prepared to put out whatever I've begun. No big surprise, then that I'm just a little goosey about starting a fire these days.
Ron told me last week that he intended to burn one of the smaller burn piles in the pasture yesterday morning. He had carefully checked the weather reports and picked the day with the least amount of wind. Did I mention that we always have a breeze here? That breeze helps spread the fire so no wind is a very good thing. Sure enough the morning dawned clear and calm. The burn pile has been sitting there since last summer so it was good and dry. Dry enough that it went up like a rocket when Ron lit it but it didn't take long for it to burn most of the tree trimmings.
We have several other small burn piles and Ron intends to get them all burned on similar calm mornings. I'm not sure how we will handle the big burn pile. I think we will need help when we get ready to burn it. Maybe our kids will come out and help so we don't need to call the VFD.
]]>Pedi Reporting
Hello, this is Pedi your news analyst reporting from our ranch in Colorado County.
Things have been changing around the ranch recently. First, our visiting Snow Geese seem to have left. We have not heard them making noise in the fields nearby for about a week now. Sometimes I’d sneak under the fence to watch them and see if I could catch one. But they were so awfully big. No more of that for now as the goats say they probably left for their home back up north for the summer.
The guys who plant things for the ranchers came here last week and cleaned up most of the dead plants from last year. I guess they are getting ready to plant some new things soon. None too soon! There are really not many places left to hide, I really miss all those ferns.
This winter it has been cold a lot at night with us cats looking for a warm place to sleep for the evening. Personally, I like sleeping on the stack of hay bales in the barn. Those nights the ranchers worry about the water freezing in the pipes and breaking them. If that happens, they get angry and more workers arrive to get in our way.
We are also getting a few trees and bushes with flowers on them. Very pretty, but it is only a few.
All-in-all, I think that the evidence is that spring may be on the way at the ranch
This is your reporter Pedi signing off from northern Colorado County.
]]>Compared to last February, today is pretty reasonable. But it is still cold: 37 degrees and rain. So, not quite as miserable as 33 degrees and rain but close. The pastures are about as brown as they ever get in the winter.
I have a barn full of hay so all the animals have hay to munch on in their cozy shelters. And it's supposed to stop raining and clear up as well as warm up next week.
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