MEET TINY

Hello

Well there was some excitement around the house yesterday.  The closing on my Mothers house in FLorida has been delayed .  I was upstairs in Ollies suite faxing the paperwork back to the realitor and in a cardboard container that I  stored Ollies dry food was a tiny mouse.

I do love mice only not in my house.  Of course it can’t go out at this time of year so I will have to find an aquarium for TINY.  I would have never been in that area of the house unless I was faxing something.

Tiny has found the food, ahhhhhhhhhh cheese and bird food.  Soon he will come across the water.  There are nesting materials for he or she to make itself at home.

I am planning on writing some children stories about my chickens and sheep  trying to publish them myself and now I have a little mouse to add to the adventures.

WINTER WEATHER- CHANCE MEETING -GMO’S -SEEDS

Hello.

Heavy snow, then sleet and rain and back again to huge flakes of snow.  The roads are quite bad and its a day to stay inside by the fire.  

A Chance Meeting with another Sheep farmer

On Monday I got grain for the chickens.  I had an interesting conversation with a gal who raises a variety of animals about 5 miles from my grain store.  I had never met her before and never knew her farm existed and she had no knowledge of my farm.  This is how it is now in this country.  Before there were farm groups and they had suppers and meetings.   You knew every farmer around, when they had troubles you helped them and when you had troubles they helped you.  Now we are isolated.  I want to change all that in my area.

We have a chicken group online, and  have a get together once a year. Unfortunately I missed the get together this year but last year I learned so much from the 3 hours I was there. Sharing tips on feed and bedding, illness and egg production.

 I would like to put up a sign at the grain store for a get together of small sheep and fiber farmers.  I have a web site which is up  but not running that will list small wool producers of fleeces and yarns in our area.  Its time not to be isolated, to share ideas on farming .  I doesn’t matter if you have llama’s, alpacas, sheep or angora goats and rabbits  in these troubled times we need to band together.  We need to be there to help people who are starting off with fiber animals and people who are just interested in buying the fiber from us.  I am going to make up the sign  and will keep you all informed. 

GMO’s    

While I was at the grain store I bought the usual grain for the chickens.  I buy Green Mountain Organic feed.  There are no GMO’s in the feed but it is more expensive.  $10 to $16. more a bag.  I have never bought anything other than organic feed since I got chickens over 11 years ago.  I am on a limited budget but believe that my health depends on the food I eat.  I will save in other areas of my life and grow more food this year. 

TOMATO SEEDS

I have bought  2 packages of heirloom tomato seeds so far.  Beefstake which is a pole variety and Speckled Roma which is also a pole variety.  I plan to grown these on some fencing which will be sturdy enough to hold them upright.  I plan to get two more varieties, a purple cherry tomato and another variety of Roma.  I plan to freeze and can the Roma’s.    Using them whole and diced will work in all my recipe’s.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks for reading my blog and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Carole

 

 

 

VEGETABLE SOUP-RE-KNITTED SOCK-SHORTY-ANOTHER STORM

Hello

The sun is shining this morning and it cast a glistening effect on the snow.  Today promises an above freezing day so some outside work can be done.

We are expecting another storm later on today and it will go into tomorrow.  Heavy snow is expected.   This will help us keep the water table up so we do have to appreciate it even though snow storms are getting old!

Vegetable Soup

A couple of days ago I made  a pot of Vegetable Soup.  Why I don’t make it more often is beyond me.  It’s so easy, everything is thrown in the crock pot and in 6 hours its done.  Some crusty bread or a salad and its a meal.  I have thrown some noodles and some cheese in it too.

RE-KNITTING THE HEELS OF SOCKS

I have gotten one done and the other on its way.  These socks along with others that my daughter and I had bought at a car boot sale in South Cork were difficult to do because of the tight machine knitting.  But once I figured out the first one and reduced the stitches to my sock pattern I was fine.  

I would be glad to help anyone who wants to do this. Send me an e-mail for help wspines@aol.com. It’s just a matter of taking your favorite sock pattern and  having the stitches  match that pattern at the heel point.

SHORTY

Shorty is very happy that the old living room chair moved into the kitchen . He was tired of laying on the hard wooden floor.  Life continues to improve for Shorty.

The darkness of the picture continues to be a problem of this camera.  The flash did go off, sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

 

Thank you so much for reading my blog and I hope you have a wonderful day.       Carole

SOCKS-THE WALL FINALLY GETS PAINTED-SAM

Hello

My camera is giving me lots of trouble so within the next few weeks I will be getting a new one.    I have been advised to get a Cannon and will look at them soon.

THE WALL FINALLY GETS PAINTED

When I moved into this house the walls in the dining room were wallpapered  in a metallic paper.  It was horrid.  I took it all down and eventually painted the walls a cranberry color with cream trim, but I never painted one wall.  They had taken out the beautiful old windows and put in windows that couldn’t be opened, and the window facing the barn had been made 3 feet shorter.  Much work would be needed to restore that window to it original size.  Every year I would think about painting the wall but then what a waste of time if  the window could be done.  Well every year there seemed to be more important things that needed attention.  So when Ricky came last week I finally had him paint the wall.  It makes the room complete.  Thanks Ricky you did a wonderful job.

SOCKS

I cut off these socks today and will knit new heels.  They are from Ireland and are very comfortable.  I couldn’t save as much yarn as I wanted.  They were very tightly machine knit socks.  But I have a color that is similar so they will be fine.  

SAM

Sam is just a happy boy these days.

‘We didn’t have much snow today and the temps will be in the 30’s for the rest of the week.  Spring is coming.

Many thanks for reading my blog and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Carole

VISITORS ON THE FARM-WEE SWEATER- BOYS ARE GONE

Hello

Today the farm had two visitors.  A student at a Boston College and her Father.  The student had to write an interview for a magazine for one of her classes.  It may or may not be published.  She has read my blog about sheep and called to see if they could drop by.  We had a nice visit and she is actually interested in having sheep sometime..  Her father is an accomplished photographer and took many pictures..

WEE SWEATER

I took my last class on the wee sweater.  I have not been able to do much on it but really hope to get going on it this coming week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have come to realize that I should have gotten a lighter color to do this and it would have been easier to see the pattern.

Boys

The boys are gone back home.   The week went by so fast.  Lots of things got done but Chris still has to tweak Etsy which I sure he will do as soon as he can.  At the end of the school year they will be taking their annual trip to Montreal and this year I hope to join them and have a visit with my friend Louise.  We are thinking of taking the train up from Brattleboro, Vermont.  It’s a lovely scenic ride.  I have never been to Montreal so I am looking forward to the visit.

We are having some snow, there are conflicting reports on the amount.  From 2 inches to 8.  I guess I will see in the morning.  Its suppose to be very wet snow as the temps are near 30.

Knitting

I want to knit but don’t want to really think about a pattern.  When that happens I knit washcloths.  They are simple, and I make much larger ones than you can buy in the store.

Hope you have a wonderful day and many thanks for reading my blog.

Carole