Monthly Archives: April 2012

New England Village …

Posted on April 27, 2012 by mvobsession | Comments Off

Edgartown ~ Martha’s Vineyard

Comments Off on New England Village …

Tagged architecture, Martha's Vineyard, Photographs

A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by countryelvis4 | Comments Off

Tucker!

Tallulah kidded while I was at work on Tuesday, April 10th. I came home to find this little bundle of joy, soaking wet and shivering outside the barn. I quickly toweled him off and grabbed an old thrift store sweater and cut the sleeve off to make a little sweater for the kid, since all my usual coats were too big for him. He was pretty tiny. Of course, I carefully put my scale away so I could find it at lambing/kidding time and couldn’t find it to weigh him, but I think he was in the 5-6 lb range. I didn’t know if he had nursed or not, but when I tried to get him to latch on to Tallulah he was clueless, and had no sucking instinct at all. First I thought it was because Tallulah hadn’t been sheared and so there was too much fleece down there. I called my neighbor Lisa (shown holding him above), and she came over to help me wrangle Tallulah so I could trim her udder and teat area so the little guy could find the teat. That didn’t help, he still wouldn’t suckle.

By the 5 am feeding he finally figured out the bottle, and started to actually suck it and drink. I was ecstatic! I was also happy that I had been hearing Tallulah calling for her kid in the night (thanks to the baby monitor sent by Krysta). These 2 things boded well for a reunion of mother and son. I skipped the 9 am feeding, and brought the kid back to Tallulah instead, and this time, she followed me right into the former chicken coop/kidding pen when I brought him in, and he started to nurse immediately. Such a huge relief! He suckled both sides, ate and ate, and then the 2 of them curled up for a nap. That may have been my happiest moment as a shepherd/goatherd to date.

First nursing!

Hi! I'm Tucker, 2 days old.

So, I’m happy to report that Tucker is growing, playing and sproinging around like a champ. He and Atlas are great buddies. They play king of the mountain on the big rock pile, or their moms, and launch themselves off of everything they can, like little skateboard punks. They are too much fun to watch, and it’s very hard to get any real work done around here, what with all the cuteness out there. More pics to come.

Comments Off on A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

Tagged Uncategorized

A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by countryelvis4 | Comments Off

Tucker!

First nursing!

Hi! I'm Tucker, 2 days old.

Comments Off on A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

Tagged Uncategorized

Know Your Rights

Posted on April 27, 2012 by --Deb | Comments Off

Just in time for World Intellectual Property Day (well, okay, that was yesterday, but close enough) …

Know Your Rights: Copyright 101 for Knitters

Available free from Interweave Press.

To quote the Press Release:

“Most people think of pirated movies or music when they hear about copyright violations,” says Eunny Jang, editor of Interweave Knits magazine. “But we answer questions about copyright for crafters, artists, designers, and authors every day—copyright and other intellectual property issues are a big deal in the DIY marketplace, where the “I can do that!” spirit and respect for original, independent design and authorship need to coexist peacefully.”

Questions around copyright can range from simple queries, like ‘Can I make a copy of a pattern?’ (Answer: For your own use, yes; to give to a friend, no) to more complex issues, like ‘How can I be inspired by other artists without infringing on their intellectual property rights?’ (Answer: By executing your vision independently, and asking permission where necessary).

“Ultimately, copyright is about protecting the creative process, ensuring that the creator of a work can benefit from that work,” adds Jang. “Our goal at Interweave is to educate our consumers about what copyright is, and why it matters—and to give authors, artists, and designers everywhere the tools they need to protect their own rights so they can continue to create new works and share them with the public.”

Comments Off on Know Your Rights

Tagged Asides

Peanut butter sandwich cookies

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Julie | Comments Off

Our anniversary is coming up in a few days so when I found the latest Cook’s Illustrated with a recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, I snapped it up. I’m not much of a fan of sweet and peanut butter together but Jason sure is so this would be an excellent anniversary gift. I followed the recipe almost as written except that I found I needed much less confectioner’s sugar than called for in order to get a filling that was still spreadable and not too stiff. I also found I love the cookies themselves unfilled so I kept just a couple plain ones for me.

Comments Off on Peanut butter sandwich cookies

Tagged Cooking

SWARM!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Susan | Comments Off

We had a very exciting Wednesday! One of our beehives produced a swarm. What’s a swarm?

“Swarming is the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies. A new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees, a process called swarming. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period depending on the locale, but occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season.”

Last year, one of our hives swarmed four times, but we were sadly unprepared with an empty hive to capture the swarm. It was bittersweet watching my precious bees go out into the world, but- with bee population online decline worldwide- I took solace in the fact that they would find a home somewhere nearby.

This year, though, we were smarter. Two new empty hives were painted and at the ready. When we saw the bees starting to swarm on Wednesday, we sprang into action.The bees left the hive and alighted in a not-so-convenient spot in a nearby tree. Not-so-convenient because the brink they chose was high enough to require a ladder to reach.

After carefully positioning a large cardboard box below, Zac climbed he ladder with a pair of pruners and clipped off the swarm branch.

You’re probably wondering why Zac isn’t wearing a bee suit for this operation. We actually only wear our suits on rare occasion when we are harvesting honey. Our bees are pretty mild and most bees only become aggressive when defending their hive and their honey. Since swarms are with fixed abode, they are very easy to work with. This doesn’t mean that the uninitiated should go around poking them, of course.

The branch more or less fell into the box below.

Once the bees had settled a bit, Zac used a bee brush to get them off the flaps of the box.

And smoked them to calm them down a bit.

Then he made a space in the new hive by removing some of the frames.

All that was left to do was to pour the bees from the cardboard box into the beehive and cross our fingers that the swarm would stay put. As long as the queen is in the box, the rest of the swarm will stay. Lucky for us, the queen was in residence. A hive check yesterday showed that the bees were already drawing comb, which means they are setting up housekeeping.

Now we have three beehives! Well reap the rewards when it comes time to harvest honey. We’ve got another empty hive standing by in case of a second swarm, so keep your fingers crossed.

Comments Off on SWARM!

Tagged Beekeeping, Features

In the Works Wed–Wait! What?

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Marla | Comments Off

This is what happens when I try to do a regular, weekly segment here on the blog. I plan and plan (in my head where all the most reliable planning is done dontcha know) about what I want to include in the “In the Works Wednesday” post; what project to talk about and how cool and interesting and squishy they have been.

This morning before work, I was making a to-do list for the open time I had later on in the day. As I write “photograph new yarn for etsy” I think, “I could go ahead and photograph all my projects on the needles, because Wednesday is coming up pretty quick and I have so much free time on Thursdays–Gah! It’s Thursday!” Thursday, you know, the day after Wednesday.

I am not sure how I missed Wednesday, even though I did all of my other normal Wednesday things (except blog!)

Here I am a day late, hoping you enjoy this post just as much as you might have yesterday when the alliteration still made it a cool day to post it. I can’t even think of any cool Thursday alliteration, so before I start feeling down on my brain power, because clearly I haven’t been overwhelmed by rejoining the workforce or anything, let us move on to woolier subjects.

I started knitting Brock’s birthday socks. You will be able to tell I have been running on low bandwidth when you check out the rest of my projects–they haven’t made much progress, but in a week with very little knitting time I have managed to knit most of a large, gentleman’s sock. I excel at stockinette in the round.

The pattern is just a plain top-down sock with a heal flap, pretty much the only sock pattern I ever use because I don’t need a pattern to knit it anymore. (Locals, this is the sock I will teach when I finally get around to scheduling some more knitting classes. Stay tuned.) The yarn is “French Roast” from Swift Fiber Studio in 75/25 BFL/Nylon.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Next up I have a tangle of a super secret surprise project that may or may not be a pattern in the making that is currently kicking my butt.

Can you tell what it is yet?

The yarn is Pteranodon Worsted in Cretaceous Grape. There is still one skein left in the shop if the color catches your fancy.

Then, I have the lace weight cardigan. And I swear I have been knitting on it. I have actually added two whole inches to the length!

Not that you can really tell.

How are your projects going?

Comments Off on In the Works Wed–Wait! What?

Tagged birthday socks, cardigan, In The Works, Knitting, oviraptor yarn, pterarnodon yarn, shawls, Socks, sweater, yarn

In My Crafty World, Thu 26 April

Posted on April 26, 2012 by sheeri | Comments Off

I know, I just posted a few days ago! I am excited and privileged to be attending the Wild & Woolly Weekend this weekend in Proctorsville, Vermont. I will be taking two classes, “spinning textured yarns” and “core spinning”. Both classes are on Saturday, so I figured I’d do classes on Saturday and shopping on Sunday.

This is a kate with 3 bobbins that are on semi-permanent “rest” until I can find something good to ply them with.

The top is remnants from an Enchanted Knoll Farm Batt that I made into a boucle yarn. It’s a 2-ply yarn right now, so it might just need me to take it off the bobbin. Which I really ought to do, since I need all the bobbins I can get my hands on for this weekend! The middle is carbonized bamboo, which sounds neat, but it not a fun spin – it’s a little squeaky (like dried chalk powder rubbed together), and has no memory. I plied a lot of it with some wool, and that’s what I’m making Tony’s scarf out of. It’s plenty fine to knit with.

The bottom of the kate is the rest of the undyed silk that I spun. I wanted to spin and dye this in April, but I have no idea if I want to ply this together (and have silk yarn) or ply it with something else…and of course what I ply it with will probably determine how I dye it. So for now, it’s all spun up but resting on the bobbin, ready to be plied, to itself or something else.

This next lot is some nice blue metallic thread that I recovered from a sweater. The thread was accompanied by blue acrylic, which I threw away, because I just wanted the thread. It looks like it’s not a lot on the bobbin, but there really is – I measured it at 96 wpi (well, I measured 24 wraps for a 1/4 inch):

I also have no idea of what I want to do with the metallic blue thread, it will probably be put into a few different projects since I doubt I’ll make a sweater with it.

And finally, I started and finished spinning some small samples I got in February’s Phat Fiber Mixed Sampler Box. There was some silver sparkly yarn and some red yarn, so I spun them up and plied ‘em together, and got this:

Comments Off on In My Crafty World, Thu 26 April

Tagged Events, Spinning

A Garden Update

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Caroline | Comments Off

I really don’t know how it happened, but, suddenly, it’s been more than a month since I’ve given you all an update on the garden. There have been, well, some ups and some downs.

First of all, we have the saga of the tomatoes:

The tomatoes above are large, beautiful, flowering specimens that Zac bought from our local nursery as a present to cheer me up. Like a fool, I gambled, and, during the first week of April, set out about 50 tomato seedlings and 50 pepper seedlings.

You can guess what happened next.

After they all met their frosty demise, we figured that the only thing to do was regroup and plant more seeds. Thus, the rest of our tomatoes look like this one:

I’m also cherishing a few other warm-weather babies– we have a whole bed of the seductively-named Petit Gris de Rennes melons, arranged 3 or 4 to a hill:

In other ventures, the peas have begun to climb the garden fence (speaking of peas, this article just made me want to die):

The thinned-out lettuces are heading:

The yet-to-be-thinned lettuces are screaming to be eaten:

and, waiting in the wings, we have more of the same– we’re succession planting!

Speaking of, I’ve been enjoying the heck out of this book lately– did you know that Thomas Jefferson ordered the planting of a thimbleful of lettuce, every Monday morning?

The garlic that we’ve been wintering over is shamefully weedy, but beautiful:

Our true success story, though, is these potatoes. Zac bought a 50-lb bag of seed potatoes at our grocery store (the perks of a country grocery store are few, but seed potatoes are one of them) a few weeks ago, and, for the longest time, nothing came up.

Then, almost overnight, they erupted from their tubers:

We’ll be eating new potatoes in less than a month!

In the alium bed, we have two trenches of leeks that one of our recent farmstay guests (Hi, Emily!) helped me transplant:

and, father down, is a section of green onions which are 1) perennial and 2) bunching.

This means, basically, “lots of green onions, forever.” Nothing at all wrong with that!

The one thing that is ready to harvest (besides the lettuce, which we’re eating daily) is the French Breakfast Radishes.

But I’ll show you those beauties tomorrow, because I want to share a few recipes that go along with them. See you then!

Comments Off on A Garden Update

Tagged Planning a Garden, posted by Caroline

So am’rous as this lovely green (Andrew Marvell)

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Julie | Comments Off

My potatoes are just beginning to peep out of the soil and the peppers are doing very well indeed. I set the potatoes out on the step when the weather is nice so they can begin to harden off. I planted my tomato seed in larger pots this year which meant they got big much too quickly. Next year I’ll use the same pots but wait another month before I plant them. I set them out in the garden and have been covering them with a tarp at night. It’s unlikely they will survive with the frost date some weeks away yet but there’s no harm trying. They certainly won’t make it indoors.

Comments Off on So am’rous as this lovely green (Andrew Marvell)

Tagged gardening

Monthly Archives: April 2012

New England Village …

A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

A belated welcome to the new kid, Tucker!

Know Your Rights

Peanut butter sandwich cookies

SWARM!

In the Works Wed–Wait! What?

In My Crafty World, Thu 26 April

A Garden Update

So am’rous as this lovely green (Andrew Marvell)

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Contributors

Meta

Monthly Archives: April 2012

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Tags

Archives

Contributors

Meta