The Finished Project

I sheared the alpaca, who's name was Ozzie.

I brought his stunningly white fiber home and carded it into fluffy batts.

Then I dyed it in varying shades of brown, buff, grey, and gold.

I spun the dyed fiber.

I plied the singles together.

I wound the yarn into a skein, and counted out 90 yards of it.

I started at the beginning, and worked my way almost to the end.

Now, what shall I do with it...? ;)

Hello? Anybody out there?

You know that it's been awhile since you last blogged, when you have to sit a moment and try and remember what your blog password is. :-/ Ooops.

So what hast kept me so busy lately that has made me shamefully neglect you faithful blog readers? I dunno'. ;)

Life is busy! I know, that's a poor excuse seeing as everyone's busy and many people still manage to keep their blog updated, but I'm afraid that's my top excuse.

I'm still trying my best to get my 30'x50' garden covered with as much mulch as possible. I didn't realize just how big my garden was, until I began trying to cover it.... It's undecided yet if I will be gardening next year or not; I would love to, but I don't know if I will have the funds or time. I've toyed with the thought of joining a CSA for the year and bartering services. I'd get fresh veggies, and they would get pasture raised chicken, turkey and/or rabbit. But right now it's still just a thought.

My Jersey heifer is huge! Standing up to my waist and somewhere around 100 lbs. She is adorable and she knows it! She's still on the bottle, and still getting three feedings per day, which keeps me at home (much to my delight!). I'm hoping to keep her on the bottle until she's 6 months old, which will be interesting.... My left side is pretty bruised due to her bunting at the bottle very hard, but hey, bruises eventually go away. And they are worth it; Poppy is the sweetest little thing! A lot of times, I'll just go outside and lean into her soft, fuzzy neck and enjoy some "cow time". ;) She's a good listener.

Goat wise, I still have Ivy and Capri, as well as having a newcomer named Heidi. All three are pregnant, with Heidi due around February 25th, Ivy is due around April 21st, and Capri is due sometime around May 9th. I am SOOOO EXCITED to have little goat kids again!! I can't wait to see their floppy ears that they will trip over, and hear their little 'Maaaas', and watch them race around the pasture with their mamas. :) Sigh....

Spinning has been pretty slow, which is NICE. I kinda' burned out in the summer, trying to finish up a big order and am now trying to get back to spinning for myself (yes I know, I'm so selfish).

I'm also busy doing school. Or does one call it college? Or maybe just further learning? Well, call it what you want it, but I'm doing a home course on herbal family care. The study course has been very in depth, and I am learning a HUGE amount! Many of you know that I had wanted to try for a degree in the veterinary field, but the Lord very firmly closed that door and I am now seeing His purpose for that. I am so happy and blessed to get to stay at home while still continuing my education!! :D

So, life's been all sunshine and roses for me, right? Ummmm, well maybe exclude the sunshine. ;) December has hit, and with it has come the annual puddles, the flooded feed stall in the barn, finding out too late that one of my rain boots has a crack in it (guess how I found THAT out!) and remembering what a Southern winter is like. It's funny, I don't even think about it when I say "Ya'll", "Ain't" or comment on what wet winters one gets in Oregon, but people almost instantly will ask if I used to live in the South. I just reply, "Yep." ;) I guess I do use the word "ya'll" a lot....

Christmas is coming!! I know exactly what I want to do for each family member, and haven't gotten one single thing accomplished. And Christmas is 15 days away.... Yes, I am a procrastinator. ;D

I am really hoping to raise meat chickens next year, as well as getting some turkeys, ducks, and more laying pullets too. But we'll see where the Lord leads. My rabbits are all doing well; I have two does right now and am hoping to start having some babies hopping around the place in a couple months. If all goes according to the plan (read: hare-brained scheme), these will be sold to some local restaurants, but then, when do things ever go "according to the plan"? Keeps life interesting I guess. :)

Hmmmm, what else?

I tried getting our farm 'Certified Naturally Grown' a couple months ago, and still haven't heard if I'll get the certification or be denied, so I'm in the "hurry up and wait" stage. I have a hunch that we won't be certified since our neighbor sprays his fields and we inevitably get some drift from that. :-/

You can find our farm listing at www.localharvest.org !! I am so excited!

Think, think, think.... What else....

Well, I think that must be the jist of things! I can't think of anything else! I'll try to be better about updating more often; I can see by my ClusterMap that I have a lot of visitors here. Thank you all my readers!! :D :D

~Caitlyn

At it again...

Just know that I am a farm girl.

And I'm at it again.

Mom and dad gave me permission to try again and get our little farm up and running, so I have been very busy working on just that!

Change number one started when I was at the annual Flock and Fiber Festival with my friends.... And saw an adorable rabbit.... To make a long story short, I saw a gorgeous Champagne D' Argent doe, who had excellent conformation, I haggled the price down to what I could afford and brought the poor thing home in a cardboard box. Don't ever take me shopping where there might be animals for sale. I would've brought a sheep home too, but there wasn't any room in the back of the van.... Next time maybe. ;)

Second half of that story is that when I first saw the rabbit, the area was crowded with people, The owner and I could barely hear each other because it was so loud and I was constantly being jostled while looking the rabbit over. I didn't do a thorough check, basically just looked at its conformation and whatnot. It wasn't until I got home that I did a very thorough check and found out that I just became the new owner of a lovely buck, and not a doe! I still have the goofy fellow, as the previous owners live over 5 hours away. Apparently they got mixed up about which rabbit was their doe and which was their buck. Oh well, he really is a nice buck; I wouldn't mind taking him to a show or two someday....

Change #2. We got chickies again!!

20 Deleware pullets to be exact. :D I chose these birds so that we could breed them with a Rhode Island Red rooster, and the resulting chicks will be sex-linked, meaning the males with be white and females will be red.

And change #3? Okay, this has been the biggest thing of all. After many months of praying, searching, learning, making phone calls, etc... Today, I became the new owner of a 14 day old Jersey heifer!!!

Isn't she sweet!?

I haven't decided on a name yet, but I'm thinking maybe 'Poppy'. ;)

She is such a sweetheart too. :) At first I was worried about how the goats would take to having a newcomer in their pasture, but thankfully they are fine with her around. :D

[sigh] I love bein' a farm girl....

~Caitlyn

A disgustingly fun day

Some may say that my friend and I are devoid of common sense. Others may say that we are crazy. But to my friend and I? Well, it may be all of the above, but at least we're having fun... ;)

Both of us being herb nuts, we eventually had to try using an herb that brings mixed thoughts the the public: Henna.

When most people think of this herb, it's usually not thought of in a good way. My friend and I use it in a blend for our hair. Henna is a colorant, but not exactly a dye; It doesn't change your hair color, it instead brings out undertones that you already have. You can get a rainbow of shades from the plant everything from neutral to almost black, but again, these are shades to use for hair color that you already have. It's also really nice that it isn't permanent; it lasts about a month before you are once more back to your original shade. I love using it, not only for it's coloring abilities, but because it leaves your hair so shiny that when you're in the sunlight it shimmers brilliantly! :D

But there's a catch. In order to use it in your hair, you have to make a sludge that, I'm sorry to say, resembles a cow pie very well. :-/

So my friend and I began! Unfortunately, there were three cameras documenting everything from start to finish.... ;)

Here we are, mixing up our "sludge". ;D This is a mix of horsetail (the herb!), oat straw (yup, same thing that you find in a barn), stinging nettle (see! It has a use!), cinnamon and of course, henna. Our liquid ingredients included olive oil, eggs and black tea.

Applying henna is the funniest thing. We (I had sisters and another friend watching) were all laughing so hard because we looked so comical! We do it outside as it is a very messy process.

You just have to wrestle your victim to the ground (Ooops! I meant to say "politely ask them to lay down ;D) Get a nice disgusting handful of your mixture and start rubbing it in! Yes, it is as gross as it looks. ;)

After it is completely rubbed in, and your head feels ten pounds heavier that when you began, you have to stay "turbaned" for 1 to 2 hours.

Oh dear, then it was my turn. By the look on my friends face, I figured I was in for it (and I was). To keep a teeny shred of dignity, I threw a towel over my face. With three cameras clicking, I really didn't care to be their sole object of interest. ;D

Yummy....

We kept our lovely up-does in for about an hour, then began the next step. Rinsing. We've learned that the best way to get henna out is to just grab a hose and start washing. You can kind of see in the picture my "new" hair color (blue shirt). My hair used to be a dark brown, now it's got a lovely mahogany tone to it.

And sure enough, when our hair dried, we were rewarded with shimmery, soft beautiful hair.

As disgusting as the process is, my friend and I love doing this to each other, and can't wait until next time....

~Caitlyn

Well THAT was unexpected!

While upstairs this afternoon, I was suddenly called down by mom and Megan who were urgently telling me (and all who were upstairs as well) to hurry. Upon getting to the kitchen I looked out the window that views the porch and saw....

A huge, fluffy black dog that didn't belong to us! "Where on earth did he come from!?" But none of us could identify him. He looked quite comical; lolling on our porch as if he had always belonged there. :)

He turned out to be a very friendly fellow and our dog Copper was ecstatic to have a playmate. But alas! He had a collar; so we had to phone the owners and tell them that we was here. As it turns out, he lives just up the road from us. :)

Quite fittingly, his name was Bear. ;D I'm thinking he is perhaps a chow chow/ lab cross? He's got a very blue tongue, which hints to his chow chow ancestry.

I admit, when I got called down I was expecting to see a squirrel or something; I never expected a dog!! ;D

~Caitlyn

Anyone still here?

Hmmmm, methinks I have neglecting a certain blog of the late.... Ooops! :-/

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who prayed for sunshine!! So far we've gotten four sunny days in a row (yesterday and today are pretty overcast though), and the weathermen say that we are "supposed" to have more sun coming. The Lord heard your prayers, and a few busy farmers have gotten small parts of their hay in. The silage farmers were the lucky ones, and most of them got their crops in.

So now you expect a huge list of everything I've been doing that has kept me away from blogging right? Surely I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to even look at the computer, right?

Ahem, well.... Let's just say that I'm human through and through.

Actually, I've mostly been busy with my goats. Feeding, milking, mucking, scrubbing the milk stall, trimming hooves, desperately trying to find a local farmer who has hay, taking the girls (my goats, that is) out foraging, fixing fencing. Etc...

Oh yeah, I sheared my alpacas!! :) Last time we had alpacas, it took three people to hold each thrashing animal down, while the shearer speedily attempted to get all that wonderful fleece off. I was expecting the same thing with these alpacas, so I had one of my sisters plus a friend come and help me. With fear and trembling, I cross tied my first victim, and brought out my handshears.... I was dumbfounded. She just stood there! I clipped away, rather slowly at first; and my dear little 'paca stood patiently all by herself! After a while a let my sister and the friend go, and finished the shearing up alone.

I learned some very important lessons that day.

1. You can't shear suri alpacas with handshears; only electrical. So the fleece from two of my alpacas is pretty much worthless. :(

2. Handshears start to hurt your hand after three hours. By the end of the day, my hand was so swollen that I couldn't bend my fingers and almost had to make Emily do the evening milking.

3. It is really hard to shear the neck with handshears, while the animal is standing up.

4. Shearing isn't hard at all, once you get the hang of it! :)

My white alpaca, Marina, did the best and I got 6 lbs. of usable fleece off of her, so that made up for the disappointment of the loss of two fleeces.

The other day, while transplanting some tomato plants, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw.... My fiesty goat 'Capri', gaily dancing outside of her pasture!! "Capri! What on earth are you doing over here!" She stopped as if she had run into a brick wall and gave a look that clearly said "uh-oh, I'm caught." ;)

She tried the oh-so-innocent look, but I didn't buy it. After marching her and Ivy into the barn and locking them in, my mom, big brother and I began working on fixing the low part of the fence that they were jumping. After about four or five posts, my memory on fence fixing was jogged, so I went ahead and fixed five more by myself.

After finishing, I had a "brilliant" idea (not very often that happens!). I decided to wrap bright orange, electric fencing tape around the top of the fence posts , so as to make it look more daunting, and to give the goats a visual as to how high the fencing was. It worked! My goats are subdued for the moment. :) The only downside though, is that my pasture looks like a WWII concentration camp now.... ;D

The one thing I haven't mentioned during all this, was that I somehow completely forgot to put some leather gloves on. :-/ Yeah, you'd think I would have been smart enough to go get some. By the end of working, my hands were pretty scratched up, and I got bit by a spider that was hiding in the wad of electric fencing. Ouch. Oh well, 'Tis the price I have to pay for being a country girl, and I am willing to pay it. :)

Well, I'm off to go trim some more hooves, make some phone calls about hay, and then take my goats out foraging. :D

~The Herdess, Caitlyn ~

Of Daily Doings...

Here I be today, still on the laptop, as our computer is still down, but I shall bear it I guess... ;D

I'm always saying "I've been busy", but what on earth is there to keep a seventeen year old girl as busy as she says!? Ahem, the following is a sample of my week... :)

First off, I have started another knitting project . Certain family members keep on asking if this is project #21 or #23, and of course I tell them that I really will finish this one in no time at all. Anywho, I'm working on my second pair of socks; they are entirely too fun to make and it doesn't take long to become a sock addict.

No pattern this time. I'm just knitting as I go and deciding things as I come to them.

Yes, I am using my own handspun. ;) This skein I named 'Reminiscence', because I used all the different fibers that I got from the Flock and fiber festival. So it's a beautiful blend of alpaca, sheep, mohair, cashmere, silk noil and I few other things that I can't remember right now. ;D The yarn very subtly yet beautifully self-stripes; which helps keep me interested, as I tend to get bored with some yarns. :-/

daddy has taken to keeping his hammered dulcimer upstairs in our sewing room, where it is moderately safe from little hands. It is sooooo fun and easy to play.

A new favorite instrument!!

And the yearly, dreaded tree pruning. Of course that's said in a dramatic, spooky voice. ;) I really despise pruning, and we only have four fruit trees! Dad and I have finished one tree for sure, and are almost finished with two more.

Don't ask me how many seed catalogues I have. Because I don't know! 'Tis the season for ordering, and I have been scribbling down all sorts of kinds of plants that I want. We'll see how many I end up getting though.

[stage whispers] I got something new the other day!! I got my own little greenhouse!! Isn't it cute?

Of course, our barn cat 'Rowan', thinks that we bought it especially for him! He's given up hunting for a warm cozy sleeping area. :-/

OH! And I got some adorable little things a few days ago too! I got 102 Hidcote Lavender plants!! They are so sweet and tiny! I'm planning on keeping only 30 or 40 and then selling the rest, but mom is sure that I'll end up keeping all of them. ;)

Let's not forget the ongoing spinning projects. :D Right now I am finishing up on a lovely milk-chocolate brown, cashmere skein. And then will be finishing a suri alpaca skein that someone asked for.

There is always something to do around here, that it isn't hard at all to be busy! I shall try and be better at blogging more frequently...

Well, I'm off to go do something! Haven't decided what yet, but I'm sure it won't take long...

~Caitlyn

Well, I didn't exactly feel like a shadow

I am thoroughly exhausted.

But thoroughly happy.

And full of tales to tell!

With college looming, my parents have been questioning me as to what I wanted to do in college, and to be honest, I really didn't know. I wanted to do something with herbs, animals, medicine, or all three! I had a small thought of wanting to go for a degree in veterinary medicine, but wasn't sure if my parents wanted me to go for something as big as that. So I prayed about it, and thought about it. And then went to my parents and reversed the question.

What did THEY want to see me do?

My dad wasn't in the room when I asked my mom this. Mom thought for a few moments and hinted that maybe something in the vet field would be a good choice. I was good with that answer! ;) Along came dad, whom I fired the question at next. He too, thought about it and then told me that he thought perhaps doing something in the vet field would fit the bill! :D God is so amazing how he can give three people the same thought....

With my parents permission, I then e-mailed a vet who lived about an hour away (don't ask me why I didn't do it closer, I don't know) and asked if I could shadow her for a day, to see if this truly was something I wanted to pursue. So today, dear daddy drove me aaalll the way up to where the clinic was.

Now that I am home from shadowing, I think I can say that 'The vet field is where I want to be!' First I want to bust a myth. They may call it "job shadowing", but you don't feel very much like a shadow. You really feel more like someone who is in the way 80% of the time. ;) But all the people there were really nice and it didn't take long for me to be comfortable.

While I didn't get to do very many "hands-on" things, I learned a ton by watching. I got to watch two x-rays performed, and ultra-sound, three surgeries, 8 puppies have their dew claws be removed (it was pitiful to listen to the pups cry!), work with dry ice and do a lot with the microscope. Did I mention that I was on my feet all day? Comfier shoes next time...

I'm thinking that I would probably get a degree as a veterinary technician, rather than a full-blown vet, just because it would be less time (in college that is), less money and the job is a little easier. A vet tech, is basically a nurse; you don't diagnose, prescribe, perform surgery or anything big, but instead you would help the vet perform all those things. But we'll see where the Lord leads....

It's been a good day....

~Caitlyn

A few of my favorite things....

Listening to 'Josh Groban' while making dinner with my sisters.... Then we each try to sing along with the CD and fail miserably since he's a tenor and we are all sopranos, so one must try and sing like a tenor! 'Tis hilarious to listen to.

Waltzing in the moonlight with a sister.

Singing a duet with a sister while washing dishes.

Watching Pride and Prejudice with a sister and using as many pillows as possible while watching it.

Creating and then drinking purple smoothies with a sister!

Laughing at absolutely nothing; with a sister.

Talking in bed until the wee hours in the morn. With a sister.

Playing out of tune instruments.... With a sister.

Dreaming about the future, with a sister.

Screaming because there is a huuuge spider in the bathroom! With a sister.

Sewing, knitting or whatever else it may be at the time. (with a sister)

Enjoying all that life has to offer every day! With -- a -- Sister.

I love life. I love my sisters.

Life is good.

~Caitlyn

The Making of Bread...

~Caitlyn

Two year olds are so fun...

Today while at the grocery store, a grizzled old man with a long gray beard walked past us while on the dairy aisle( he reminded me of a trapper of old times), little Carver was fascinated for some reason and couldn't stop staring at the stranger. Finally after a few moments of silent awe, Carver looked at me and whispered:

"See-see (my nickname), look! It's Santa Clause!" ;)

Thankfully the man didn't hear the comment, but I did have a difficult time controlling my mirth...

~Caitlyn

Too much of a good thing?

You wish to know the reason as to why I have been neglecting my blog so shamefully of the late? The answer?

Cashmere!

I have been up to my ears in cashmere for the past week!

I had a custom order on my shop for two cashmere skeins, had another request for for three cashmere skeins from a different person, there was a confusion in my cashmere fiber order so I ended up receiving 5 ounces of cashmere that was the wrong color, I ended up keeping that five ounces but ordered more cashmere in the right color, which came in the mail today. Cashmere, cashmere, cashmere!! Is it really possible to get tired of something so lovely as cashmere?

Ahem, to add to all this cashmere, I'm thinking very seriously on adding a couple cashmere goats to my little fiber flock! Yup, I'm crazy! ;D

Cashmere anyone?

~A cashmere crazy Caitlyn

Enjoy the teeny things

I love life. I love finding little things throughout my day to smile at. Little things that make my day all the more cheerful. A chickadee outside, a hug from a baby brother, a walk with an alpaca.... Or a phone call with a stranger. ;)

Today, while on Craigslist I found an ad for fencing (which we need!). 'Twas a short ad; merely giving heights and saying it was cheap. No definite price. And wouldn't you know it, he gave a phone number instead of an e-mail address. Mustering up what little courage there was to muster (I don't particularly like making phone calls. and even worse! Having to talk to a guy!) I dialed the phone number....

The man was friendly and answered my questions, and even repeated aaaallll the prices two times over because I got confused. Then, we somehow got onto the conversation of animals, (I guess it was the fencing) the conversation got really enjoyable then! As it turns out, he raises exotic birds (pheasants and peacocks) so we traded off questions on birds and alpacas, talked about if we really thought the alpaca buisness would stay good (we decided, yes) and talked about predator problems and how to manage them. I thought it was funny how when we were talking about fencing, he spoke very quietly, but when we got going about the animals he got really excited and loud.

The phone call really made my day. I only know his first name, and he has no idea of mine; but it was so fun getting to talk about those things. I learned a lot about pheasants as well! I guess this guy sells his birds for $400 to $1000 a pair and makes like $70,000 a year on them! No idea how he does it though....

It was just a little thing, a phone call, but it sure made me smile. Maybe phone calls will be easier now...

~Caitlyn

Snow

Adorable little brother playing in snow + Big sister with camera = Pictures!! ;)

Dare I hint that those wee mittens were handknit?

I love those wee little boots...

'Rina, how did you sneak into this post? Silly thing....

~Caitlyn