Washing my first fleece

I had to try it...the bag sitting in the other room was just calling to me...."please..wash me...I'm soooo dirty". So, last night, I pulled out the most pathetic bag of wool I had..and decided to skirt it and wash it. Both of which I had never attempted...ever...I didn't have a skirting table..so I did the best I could on the bar top....I won't be doing that again...way too much stuff left in the fleece after washing..but like I said..this fleece is from my oldest ewe...and its short and not very good quality...so it really was just a practice run, I don't feel that I've lost very much from doing it..In fact I feel like I've learned quite a bit.

Let me run you through my evening..because I know you want me too :-P

Letisha's fleece...she's 7 years old..and white..not that you can tell she's white from this fleece...ICK!

So the first thing you do after you skirt the fleece is soak it for at least 20 minutes in COLD water. Look at the color of that water already...so nasty.


After 20 or so minutes you take it out..and look at that water!! It looks like tea!! Sooo dirty...ewwwwww...LOL


Next step is a soak in detergent and really HOT water...I used Dawn..because that was what was easy for me to get..there are other detergents that are just as good if not better...Anyway...you need to move the wool from the water to the colandar carefully...any kind of agitation will make it start to felt...Icelandic fleece in particular is apt to do this because it is so low grease.


After the water begins to cool a bit, you take it out and refill the water tub with more HOT water and rinse by letting it soak until the water begins to cool...repeat that process until the soap is all out. Look at how much whiter that wool looks!!


And here it is after a spin in the washer (only on spin..not on rinse cycle). There is still stuff in the fleece itself..but like I said..I really think that is due to my horrible skirting job. All and all it was a pretty easy job...:)

/div>

An inside tour...

I realized that I've never shown the whole inside of the new house....between moving in and construction...you know how it goes...always too messy..never organized the way it should be...I finally just came to the conclusion that its NEVER going to be good enough for Home & Garden...so I might as well just take some pics, mess and all and give you all a tour. So here goes...oh..and forgive the mess..I'm still moving in and we're STILL under construction...:-)

This is what you see standing at the front door...the door directly ahead of you is where our laundry room and master bedroom will be...the door just to the right of that is the door to the scary basement.

OK..what you need to know about the kitchen...when I painted the kitchen cabinets and replaced all of the hardware...well..the hinges are wrong..I couldn't get the kind they used originally...which were all hooked on the outside...so I made due...badly...IGNORE the cabinets LOL...when I replace them..Ill re post pictures.


Looking out from the sink.


To the left of the sink..where I make my coffee.



Standing in the dining room/area looking back through the kitchen to the mud room.


The living room...and temporary bedroom :-P


This is the front door..that we never use...its also the catch all for our clothes and the stuff we just don't have a place for until the laundry room and our bedroom are done.


See? That heaping basket of clothes isn't really laundry...it's the basket we're living out of because we don't have a closet or a dresser over here lol :-P


Standing at the front door looking toward the dining area...Ill be so happy when the cat boxes can vacate the living areas and go into the laundry room.




Hallway...kind of obvious eh? LOL



Formal living area...Oh..No..wait..this is the bathroom..sorry..I get those confused ;-P

I took pictures of the kids rooms...but...I can't post them...their rooms are too messy...my fault..Saturday's are clean your room days...and this Saturday was Halloween..so we kind of worked on it on Friday..but really didn't clean the way they should have.

Well..that's it..that's home. Nothing special...Nothing fancy...and certainly not organized :-P lol..but..we love it..and we love being able to work on it here and there...and improve as we go.

What exploded?!?!?

My younger son will be 11 next month, and as a "good" parent I will point out all of his wonderful virtues here: he's extremely thoughtful and generous, he is always trying to give to those less fortunate, he is very intelligent, creative and adventurous.

As we all know...along with the good, comes the not-so-good. He has SPD, which makes everyday things like a new pair of shoes a HUGE challenge, he is chronically in-flexible and he tends to frustrate easily..leading to "blow ups". Even with those qualities the good far outweighs the bad...at least for me...except for one little quirk that drives me crazy...

He doesn't sit down completely on the toilet...he kind of hovers/leans. He has done this from the time he was potty trained...I have NO idea where he gets it from...perhaps its part of his SPD, the feel of the toilet seat just isn't right. I don't know, but today...almost sent me over the edge.

I had to go and buy hay this afternoon...we picked up 10 double bales..stuffed them in the back of the caravan and started for home...and realized that we lost everything on the dash...speedometer, odometer, rpm gauge, directionals, brake lights...we pulled out and checked every fuse, they all looked fine. Since I had left the boys at home for the hour we would be gone, I didn't dare drive to a garage, so we headed home to call our mechanic..and used bicycle signals the whole way. Yes, we looked like huge dorks I'm sure.

When I got home Zephryn came out and announced "Mom..I figured out what was wrong with my stomach!" (before we left he was complaining of gas pains...I knew what was wrong with him...and knew it would take care of itself in time...you can only eat so much Halloween candy before it comes back and bites you in the ass...literally) "Oh? what was that Zep?" " I just had A LOT of diarrhea!" "uh....ok...thanks so much for sharing". I should have asked him to elaborate I guess...but, I was distracted with the van's issues and left it as he pooped and felt better. No harm no foul. HA!

After the call to the mechanic (Its going to have to go into the shop...like I can afford that at this juncture in time) I ran to the bathroom to relieve my teeny tiny bladder of the big glass of water I had downed when I got home. I stopped short at the door...and screamed. My son, whom I love..so so much..had "hovered" and his ass had exploded...literally exploded...all over the toilet...the seat...the back..the TOP.

*shakes head* I wasn't expecting it...My oldest is a girl...and yes shes had diarreah..but...*shudder*...not like THAT....please..PLEASE tell me one day he will stop the ass-hover and actually plant it to poo....because I don't know how much more of THAT kind of thing I can survive....

*sigh*...boys...

Evening on the farm

Yesterday was the first full day after daylight savings. Which means its gets really dark..really early..making me regret putting off installing a light between the barn and the back of the house. That's alright though, last night the moon was so bright and big that I could walk around outside without worrying about stepping in a gopher hole and losing my leg. Not only was the moon bright, but the sky was amazingly "crisp" looking...that's New Englander talk for "Wooo...it's going to get COLD tonight!". I stood out there...looking up at the moon, listening to my sheep making content little noises while they ate their hay and the ducks softly quacking inside the barn, then turned and looked inside my house and watched my husband interacting with our kids...and I just closed my eyes and smiled...This is exactly where I want to be... even if it means I'm going to wake up to frost ... or snow...and have to put on a ton of layers before I go outside. There is nothing quite like that feeling..the one where you know you've finally come "home"...and that's where I am...under a crisp autumn moon...with everyone I love..and all of my dreams fulfilled...and I am happy.

Just a BIG, FAT VENT.

The following is me venting...spewing really....you probably shouldn't read it...I probably shouldn't post it...but I'm going to...because..well..I took all that time to write it, didn't I?

My husband is a Major in the National Guard. He works full time and therefore is considered a federal employee and part of the actual Army...not just a "Weekend Warrior", as they are often called. From the very beginning of our relationship I've wondered WHY so many people use that term...and if ANY of them actually have a spouse or sibling or parent in the guard...because I have to tell you...when they say "One weekend a month and two weeks a year"...THEY'RE FREAKING LYING!.. Yes, the do have the once a month drill...and the once a year, two week annual training...but there is OH so much more....mandatory meetings, mandatory conferences, mandatory this..mandatory that......maybe its just because he's an officer...I really don't know...when we got married he was a Lieutenant so I've always dealt with "more"...but I'm just about at the end of my rope.

Tonight was supposed to see him home after being gone for 2 solid weeks. Tomorrow is Halloween. Where is he? He's stuck in Atlanta...missed his flight. When is the next flight? oh..at 2:26 tomorrow AFTERNOON. Nope..its not his fault. I know that. It still doesn't make me feel any better though. I spent a year and a half being a single parent...and doing the holidays "single" is a real sore spot with me. So..tomorrow will see me dragging my kids, probably in the rain, trick o' treating by myself. Joy. And my mother is supposed to take the kids overnight...which is going to drive them crazy because they haven't even TALKED to their father in 2 weeks...don't even get me started on that....him not calling to talk to the kids when he's away is a completely different blog/vent that I don't even want to THINK about venturing into...ever...it makes my frontal lobe hurt just thinking about it.

You know what I wish? I wish that his commander would realize that I outrank him..and all of these business trips need to be OK'd by me first. I'd also like to be able to call him up and chew his ear a bit about scheduling something so close to Halloween when my husband still has kids that are young. I'd also like to tell whomever is in charge that FAMILY SHOULD COME FIRST...teaching a bunch of soldiers about stuff they'll probably never use...and being away for weeks/months on end isn't helping my kids find their Happy Places....its not helping me find my happy place either...an I so want a happy place..just a little one...with sunshine..and a hardwood floor ...maybe a jacuzzi....*sigh* OK...I might feel a little better...I just needed to vent...like Mt St Helens...BOOM...better on here than on the phone...

What are guinea's good for anyway?

I get that question a LOT. "Do they lay eggs? " "Can you eat them? " "Well...what are they good for then?" Besides the fact that they are voracious bug eaters, these funny looking birds are extremely good watch "dogs". In fact my little herd of 7 guineas keeps better track of whats going on around my property than my dogs. When I hear them going off I get up and look..and there is usually something very obvious out there that has gotten them upset....a car in the driveway, a stranger walking too close to "their" boundary line, cats, dogs...you get the picture.

This afternoon I could hear them "chittering" and w

ent out to look...they were chasing a bunch of wild turkey down the property line.

They were done by the time I got my camera...I wish I had been quicker..it was funny watching them running and "chittering" at these HUGE birds....and the turkeys were just moving along...trying to get away from those noisy little things....They snuck back in after the guineas went out front.

And for the record...Yes you can eat guineas...and they do lay eggs that you can eat and I hear are delish! But I get so much amusement out of watching these little guys I don't think I could ever eat one....

This guy on the other hand.....is WAY past due for the freezer...

A nice day to be outside!

Baa'rack Orama enjoying the sun

I woke up this morning to blue skies and a warm breeze...that doesn't happen often in the tail end of October in Vermont..so I hopped up and headed out to the barn to see how the naked sheep were. They were SO happy when I opened their doors and let them out! Ada, our black mouflon was prancing and running and butting the other sheep...it was funny to watch. The rest of them were just happy to be out of the confines of the horse stalls.

They look even funnier out in the pasture...much like goats to me. It is nice to be able to see their body condition though, and their confirmation...things that were difficult to see under all of that wool!

Darlin' being nosy

Ruthie...she looks strange with no wool!

My pathetic attempt as a field shelter....:-P

Ada...I keep forgetting who she is with no wool...

her coat is grey..so the black is throwing me off.

Baa'rack...he looks TINY!