Back from the mill......

with roving and combed top!

Our Etsy Shop is up and running! You will find Cormo, Jacob and Finn. Please stop by!

Farmgirl Proud!

So for Christmas this year I get two gifts from my hubby. Diamond earrings and these boots......guess which are my favorite......

Yep, the boots. Don't get me wrong I love the earrings but you can wear these boots in ANYTHING! I guess that makes me a farmgirl, and proud of it!!


The gardens haven't been tended as well as I would like as I was down with the flu for an entire week (that's a month in farmgirl years). But, they have given me lovelies none the less.

This is PattyPaws. She gave birth to three kittens. One died :( You can't tell but she is nursing EIGHT kittens! Yes eight! Her and her mom and sister take turns tending the brood. Go figure!

We have sheep for sale! This is Zucchini, a Finn Whether. He is full Finn but he is not registered. He has okay fleece. Not outstanding but not terrible either. We have noticed that the growth underneath is a lot more crimpy than the tips so it may turn out to be wonderful. He would make a great pet as he is very friendly.

We also have Alex. Alex is a Finn ram, also not registered. He has pretty good fleece. It's lovely but not outstanding. He would also make a great pet if he were whether or could be used in a breeding program to perhaps increase lambing rates.


Well that's all for this post. I will leave you with a few pictures of my lovely son and my prize chickens!

Hello Pippen!

Just because we don't have enough animals we added one more. (Tongue in cheek here!)

Meet Pippen, Todd's Sun Conure.



She is a busy body and she is busy inspecting my Phatfiber Box!



Yep, Charlie's a bit peaved but he thought I ought to remind you that I will be at Castle Farms peddling wares this weekend ;)

Welcome to the farm!

This is Zucchini. He's not new to farm, just nosey and Oh So Cute!


This is Roland, my daughter's new Ram. He is a registered Finn from New York and she is very proud of him. She also brought home a black ewe named Blackberry but she refused to stand still for a picture.

And this is Charlie! He is a Meyers Parrot and we are besotted with him. We have learned a lot about pet bird (such as they bite, they just do) and he spends many an hour perched on someone's shoulder. (Yep, that isn't the best place safety wise (our's not his) but he behaves himself and is rather small so we allow him limited shoulder time and he loves it!


And finally an update on the fleece set to soak in the Fermented Suint Mix. It came surprisingly clean! Due to the high grease in Cormo fleeces it did need one hot wash but just one. It is drying on the back porch because it stinks to the high heavens. I am told that the smell will disapate as it dries. I will let you know ;)

Getting ready for Charlevoix!

I have been dyeing as much as possible in the past couple of days! My last dye day included merino and a merino/silk blend. There are some lovely silk bells soaking as we speak in preparation to be dyed tomorrow. We will be selling our wares at Castle Farms in Charlevoix, MI on July 25th and 26th. If you happen to come to the festival please stop by and say hi! We are in booth 21.


Today I decided to try out a new method for washing fleeces called Fermented Suint Mix. Sounds daunting huh? Basically all that is required is a really greasy fleece (our Cormo fits the bill!) and soft water. We have well water and that is usually hard so it is recommend you use rain water or distilled. Well, I didn't get rainwater collected the last rain and I was too cheap to buy all the distilled water needed. So, I compromised since I have heard reports of good results using well water, I did half distilled water and half well water. This will not get all of the lanolin out of the Cormo but it's a good start. You can read more about it here. (If you aren't a Ravelry member yet, join! Invites are going out immediately now and it is well worth it.)



Today I am feeling pretty sick so the above bobbin is all I have accomplished spinning wise. I am spinning in the Tour De Fleece so I really had to get at least some spinning in today.


These are all the yummy yarns that I have gotten done so far! And below is a beautiful batt from Moonlight and Laughter (another phattie) that I spun up. Oh my yum!


We've got some new animals on the farm! I will introduce them in the next post :)