8.25 And Counting
Inches of rain, that is. It started Friday evening with big wind and frigid temperatures. The rain started late that evening and it rained on and off all day Saturday. Sunday is just poured all day long. Today it’s been raining harder all day long. I don’t know what the weather stations have registered but I’ve emptied our rain gauge three times since yesterday morning and it adds up to 8.25 inches. And it is still raining hard out there. We need the rain so I’m not complaining even though I had to pick up feed this afternoon and I always prefer to do that when it’s not raining. But you do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. I’m especially pleased that it’s been getting warmer and warmer each day. The 40’s, then the 50’s and today it should hit 60 degrees. When I went into town earlier today the ditches were looking very full – not scary about to overflow the roads full but very full. I’ve got small river channels forming outside the studio bringing the rain water down from the higher elevations at the back of the property. I love the rain.
The goats spent most of the very rainy day yesterday in their stall in the barn staying dry and munching hay. I threw them out last night but let them back in this afternoon for some additional dry munching time. The llamas and alpacas were fed in the barn but with their stall gates open so they can come and go. The barn doors are open so they can go outside if they want to but so far they’ve stayed in the barn. They are smart enough to come in out of the rain!
We received four fleeces in the mail this last week from one of our favorite shepherds, Dawn DeFreece of Casper, WY. Dawn and her husband Mike raise wonderful CVM sheep and we have bought CVM fleeces from them for years. We see them when we go to the Taos Wool Festival and Estes Park Wool Market. The last few years we haven’t made it to either of those shows but Dawn is happy to send us samples and we are happy to buy. In the last couple of years Dawn and Mike have been crossbreeding CVM sheep with Wensleydale sheep. The Wensleydale fleeces have longer fiber length and are not as fine as the CVM. The cross is a very happy one. The CVM x Wensleydale is my current favorite fiber to spin. We have always gotten dark charcoal/black crossbred fleeces so we don’t dye them. We just throw them on the skirting table and pick out whatever little bit of vegetation has gotten trapped in the fleece and send them off to be washed and carded. As soon as it stops raining I’ll get right on that!