Several Things At Once

Teapot just left. He's off for the next eleven days to Cochrane, Alberta for an opportunity of herding kids through leadership activities for the JCRs. There will be some 30 kids from age 16 - 18 who will be doing mountaineering, repelling, kayaking (in white water I might add), as well as wilderness biking skills training. In addition, each individual JCR will be assigned a group and that group will have to come up with a challenging activity that they will have to lead and organize. It is an awesome camp. Daughter #1 will be eligible to apply to go some day.... I hope she gets a chance.

As Teapot headed out the door, it suddenly dawned on me that he was taking his camera with him. This, under normal circumstances, would not be a problem but mine has died and I actually took some photos yesterday, on his camera, of things that I wanted to post here and unfortunately he is gone with them still on his camera. You see yesterday was a lovely day, which you will see as you continue to read.

I have been struggling with the summer idleness of the Daughters and finding it difficult to cope with. But yesterday I got that in hand by having a heart to heart with them. (I kicked them out of bed by 11 a.m.). We discussed things that they could be doing during the summer instead of reading incessantly. So Daughter #1 called her friend and headed off for a full afternoon of riding and visiting with her friend. Dreamer, her horse got a good workout and Daughter #1 didn't laze around all day. Daughter #2 called her friend and they went hiking the creek that runs along the edge of the subdivision that we live in. They both came home thoroughly worn out which is how teenagers should feel at the end of a day in summer. Part of that heart to heart discussion was that I also have decided to put them to work for me.

Now here I have to do a little explaining. First of all Teapot and I did a big re-evaluation of our lives in the spring and we both decided that the carding mill that I had bought was not part of it nor are my sheep. The sheep drive us crazy as they are way more demanding than the alpacas. (They baa all the time even at night and when it is summer and you sleep with the window open this is a miserable affair). With the sheep, you have to bend over in order to shear while the alpacas will allow themselves to be wrestled onto a table making two people with terrible back issues much happier shearing alpacas than trying to shear those sheep on the ground. I have decided to keep a very small flock of sheep and only breed enough to keep my family fed with lamb. I have chosen seven sheep to keep. (I have 24 right now!) I sold the mill with the intention of fencing more of our property so that I could better feed the animals I have. Hay is at a premium price and now we have the added problem that our usual supplier will not be able to supply us any hay at all this year... so we are scrambling and trying to find another supplier. This is not proving to be easy. We may have to butcher all of our sheep. (This would really bother me though since there are several that I really like). When we did this re-evaluation of our lives Teapot and I admitted that we are not getting younger and choosing the way for our lives for the next ten years will mean looking forward with some serious foresight. I do not want to spend the next ten years of my life in some dark shed (which is where the mill would have to go) washing, carding, and prepping fibre for other people. The thoughts of large equipment that is loud and dirty is not really appealing.

It was while I was on my way home from Olds that I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with all the wool and alpaca fibre that I have lying around. One of the things that I have noticed about prepared fibre is that more often than not it is over processed. (Mill processed is sometime overprocessed). There is something really nice about knowing what was used to wash the fibre that you are spinning. Besides, hand prepared fibre has a nicer feel. It has not been treated with harsh chemicals and it has not been stretched, or be man handled in any way. So I thought based on that, that perhaps I wasn't the only one out there with this thought, and if there were others out there like me... that hand washed and prepped fibre might be appealing to a niche market. So, I want to start a little business for myself which I will call Heritage Fibres where I will prep the fibres the old fashioned way.... that is where the Daughters come in.... the Daughters can help for a take of the profits.

Prepping and washing fibre is not a job for the faint of heart. The finer the fleece the more time it takes to clean.... you do not want the stuff to be felted in the process. So the Daughters and I are going to work today to prep, wash, comb, dye, blend, etc... all fibres and blends that I deem fit. Believe me I have plenty of fibres to handle.

In the meantime, yesterday I finished spinning a pile of fibre for the dyeing retreat coming up this weekend. I spent the whole day out on the deck having fun (this brings me back to yesterday being a great day) and while I was there I had a visit from a Hummingbird. I thought this was wonderful since the Hummingbirds have not been coming around as much since the weather has turned dry and windy, but after all the rain we had two days ago, they seemed to be happy to come to the pots of flowers on the deck for a visit. One little fellow got quite ferocious and landed on the rope that holds the tarp covering the deck in an effort to stave off any other marauding Hummingbirds that might want to come to check it out for food. He was quite a chubby little fellow and I decided to name him Dim Sum. He was there for over an hour, braving the dogs and cats, and would hover at times, quite close to me before going back to land on the rope. I did have pictures of him but those are the ones that Teapot has departed with.

I finished plying all that yarn I spun yesterday on the deck and this morning, while I was plying I kept looking at my 8 t.p.i. skein of yarn hanging on my Lazy Kate that I had spun last week, you know... the one that I was most satisfied with.... after looking at it for hours yesterday, I have decided it sucks and I need to redo it!

So call me crazy, call me camera-less, call me Teapot-less, call me business woman with a hopeful idea.... but don't you hate it when I cover several things at once?

It's just sooo confusing.....