Tdf: Day 2

Another online Spin-a-long: Tour de Fleece.

It started yesterday Saturday, June 29 and will end Sunday, July 21, coincides with Tour de France, "When they spin, we spin." "Even after 18 years, the goal of the Tour de Fleece remains the same: Challenge yourself. Spin. Have fun." Star Athena, Spin Off.

Okay this is my first Tour. I haven't joined any teams - that can get intense- but I do have a few goals.

• Spin everyday - at least 15 minutes. (Yesterday I went whole hog and spun 58 minutes.)
• Spin on any tool - Suspended or Supported spindles, Lendrum spinning wheel, e-spinners etc etc.
  
• Fiber - Hipstrings Base12 Spinalong Fiber kits from 2022 and 2023. I have spun a little of the 1/2 oz mystery packages but I still have 15 unopened packages (yesterday's included). If I can use them up I have Into the Whirled monthly Club fiber to spin.
• Challenge days - Sundays, July 7 & July 14. I will ply on those days.
• Rest days - Mondays, July 8 & July 15.
  

That's the plan. Spin everyday, use up fiber, play with my tools. Fun times ahead.

 

Tour de Fleece: Day 1

 

 

 

Bigger Box

July's Box-O-Scarves will be heading out tomorrow. Twenty-five scarves, nine knitters.

 

The scarves were too fluffy to fit in the USPS Large Mailing Box.

 

Fortunately I did find a bigger box to hold the 8 lbs of Comfort Scarves.

Lovely Flower

The Agapanthus in the front garden is a riot of stalks, flowers, and buds; bees and hummingbirds.

Bonded Pair

Sunrise Plus

Last month I combined two different colorways - both with a similar red-orange - to weave on the Potholder loom.

 

The top pic is Coral Seas Ombre.

The bottom pic is Coral Seas Ombre combined with Sunrise Ombre.

It's fascinating to see what happens when colors are woven together.

So, I combined Sunrise Ombre with Earth Ombre. Wow.

 

 

Another process I wanted to try: Wet finishing. As Laura Fry says, “It’s not finished until it’s wet-finished.”

After the potholder was off the loom I wove in the ends (kept the tails long), then poured boiling water over the cloth and let it sit. Just in case the colors bled I added small pieces of Color Catcher.

 

 

When dried the woven cloth shrank a little and became thicker and more dense: nice firm potholders.

 

Natural Beauty

Today has been hot and humid - I thought I would feel a raindrop or two - instead a beautiful mackerel sky.

 

 

Later, more beauty.

 

 

Thriller Cleaning

Who knew that books about crazy things like genetically-modified creatures, global domination, and hard-as-nails characters could be so entertaining.

Listening to these books while doing household chores makes the mundane tasks a bit more fun.

Books #2 and #3 in the Joe Ledger series completed this week.

 

Library audiobook

 

Library audiobook

Lay Low

Summer and the heat is on. I cleaned and filled all the animals' water buckets early this morning.

Rather than having the goats browsing in the sun I gave them grain to fill them up.

 

 

Too hot to be outside, I spun a little on the Supported Spindle. It's been awhile since I've picked up the Spanish Peacock bead spindle.

 

Heavy Duty

My Royal ball winder was having a hard time cranking the bulky-weight Magic Ball I was trying to wind. I still needed another 20 yards but I didn't want to break the 16-year old ball winder.

 

It was time to get the the big guns out: Stanwood Needlecraft jumbo-size metal ball winder.

 

 I think I'll leave them both set up on my "Winding Station".

 

Solstice Sock

Turning the heel on the second shortie sock as we slipped into summer.

 

Even the Cat

For some unknown reason the majority of my animals required looking after this month: Kochi the Broody hen, Mattie with a 24-hour stomach bug, Jack and Boots with their eye issues, and even Rudy took to his bed and stayed there for several days.

Sometimes Rudy will eat something and it makes him sick, yes, well, eating a ground squirrel will do that to you. I kept him quiet, clean, and hydrated with chicken broth and water via a needle-less syringe.

 

Today Rudy is back to his usual sassy, bossy self and that's a good thing.

Live Basil

Excited to receive today's Produce box with the live Basil plant. You're supposed to put it in a cup and "add 3 tablespoons of water to cup daily" but I planted mine last year and it thrived all year till it got too frosty. Here's hoping this one will be nice and hardy as well.

 

 

Lotsa Balls

This weekend I wound twenty-two Magic Balls, aka Scarf-in-a-Ball.

Yup, twenty-two.

Here are seven Magic Balls that I will be bringing to Spinners' group tomorrow.

 

 

Those ladies are wicked fast knitters and have been completing one or two scarves a week. I need to try to keep up with them, you know, try to keep the balls in the air.

 

 

 

Sunday Read

Dinosaurs and zombies - so fun.

 

Library e-book

 

Library audiobook

Skink Eyes

 

 

Snake Eyes

The snakes are out and about, literally.

On Monday as I walked briskly down the driveway to open the gate for the Vet I heard the dry grass rustling to my left. I had been lost in my thoughts and so I was surprised to see a rather large black snake with bright yellow bands leaving the driveway. Which means I must have walked right past it.

Later, I looked at pics of snakes to identify it - California King Snake. Even though I didn't know it's name I knew it was one of the good snakes - a varmint killer. Whereas, I know what a rattlesnake looks like on sight although I might not always know if it's dead or alive.

Then on Wednesday I came across snake tracks. I came upon them as I was heading back to the house after putting the goats to bed. The Man and I looked for the snake but didn't see it which is not to say it wasn't lying in the grass just a few feet away.

 

 

I guess it's that time of year to keep my Spidey-sense alert and my Snake eyes open. Wearing my Ariat leather work boots might be smart too.

Offline

For someone who doesn't like heights The Man sure has been spending a lot of time way up high.

It started when the Ambient Weather Station stopped transmitting the outside temperature. This was before the recent heat wave and inquiring minds always want to know how hot it really is.

The product manual suggested changing the batteries but that didn't work. We had to order a new Array unit.

 

 

In the meantime while we waited for the new system to arrive we thought it would be a smart idea to relocate the outdoor system in a more convenient location that did not require walking across the roof and sitting on the roof's edge.

So he took the weather unit down.

 

  

And found an easily accessible and much safer place to mount the system.

 

 

 

 

 Back online.

 

Coat of Blue

Both goats' eye issues are nearly completely resolved, yay for that. But I noticed Jack's left horn tip was bloody again and attracting a pesky fly.

From the Animals' First Aid cabinet in the garage I took out the bottle of Blu-Kote. I have never used it before but it's supposed to work well as an antiseptic wound dressing. I'm so glad I purchased the bottle with the "dauber" instead of the spray can.

 

 

I had to dab on just a little bit more to the tip and even though my hands were already stained purple (and not coming off easily) I put on some latex gloves.

 

Mostly Fruit

I made several changes to today's Produce box and opted for two Okui Strawberries, two bunches of Spinach, and Mini-Cukes instead of the other veggies offered. It's our first time to receive Bing Cherries and - oh, look - a Honey Dew Melon.

 

All Good

The Vet check went well. Jack's eye was only slightly hazy and the Vet said it was almost healed. Boots had another big piece of foxtail removed from her eye, and they both received antibiotic ointment.

Before the Vet arrived I enticed both goats into the small dog kennel. On Saturday I had watched a Youtube video on restraining goats and it was mentioned to first put the goats in a smaller space. The dog kennel was housing the spare coop but it was easy to lift it up and over the coop. Perfect small space.

I'm sure the Vet and his intern, Riley, appreciated not having to chase the goats around the pen even though it was a bit crowded with the four of them inside the kennel.

One last thing, even though Jack had his horns debudded as a baby they grow back in a weird way. He's got one that grows towards his head. Two years ago the Vet clipped it for me and I asked if he'd do it again.

When I checked to see the progress I saw Jack looking at me with two bloody stumps on his head. Oh. My.

Riley mentioned that the scur came fully off when Jack twisted his own head. The smaller one came off easily.

The Vet went to his truck and returned with an antibiotic spray. He sprayed Jack - and Riley - and coated them both with silver spray.

Good as new.

It's a Circus

I just pulled out a foxtail from Boot's right eye. I glimpsed it when I put them in their goat house for the night but it was too dark to get a good look.

I walked back to the house and put my boots on. Put on the head lamp and grabbed the travel-size contact solution I had been using on Jack's eye.

When I got to the pen I scooped out another pan of goat pellets, climbed into the goat house with the goats, and shut the gate. Then I chased Boots around till I cornered her. I was able to pull her lower lid down and pull out a foxtail from inside her eye. I had her wedged in tight and she was surprisingly quiet until I tried to irrigate her eye then she took off again. I'm not sure if I got it all.

And Jack. He presented with a swollen left eye before bedtime Thursday night. He's had a swollen eye before but now that the swelling has come down and he can open his eye fully it is opaque from his injury. I used the sterile contact solution to irrigate his eye.

 

 

Tomorrow I will call the Vet and have them checked. I'll keep them locked in the pen and feed them nice safe forage so they stay away from the eye-level noxious weeds with the spiky awns.

~ ~

The Man: "Man. Sounds like a circus".