Cleaning the Gardens

Today was gorgeous here in upstate NY!  I knew from the forecast that it was supposed to be nice, so I was a bit worried in the morning when it was still overcast and cold.  By the time I got back from my errands and had lunch, the sky was blue and it was quite warm.  Perfect for working outside!

I originally planned on pulling the plastic and old carpeting off the vegetable garden (and of course take pictures to blog about), but my other "to-do" items got in the way, so that will be for tomorrow.

Most important on my list was to get the grass seed that I planted yesterday covered in peat and old hay, so that the llamas could stomp it down over the next few days.

Freshly seeded pasture!

I also seeded some random spots around the lawn by the house.

Last but not least was cleaning out the flower gardens around the house.  Luckily there wasn't too much to clean, just some dead iris leaves and flower stalks from daisies, hostas, cedum, etc.  I can already tell that the weeds are going to be terrible this year though!  The bulbs are just starting to poke through the soil, and we finally have crocuses blooming!  Guess it really is spring after all!

First signs of spring...crocuses are blooming, irises are just starting to grow, even the grass is thinking about growing!

A clean garden on the front of the house.  I'm not a perfectionist, the rest of the dead weeds can come out later!

Crocuses!!! 

Llama Birthdays!

My mom thinks it is silly that I concern myself with remembering the birthdays of all our llamas (at least the ones we currently own), but I think it is important to remember their important milestones!

April is the big one this year...on Tuesday she turned 20 years old!!  They say that the average lifespan of a llama is 20-25 years, but the more I talk to breeders it seems not uncommon to lose a llama due to old age at 15-16 years old.  So, 20 is pretty old for a llama!

April was part of the second batch of llamas that we bought in the spring of 2000.  You can read her full biography here.

Baby April, back in 1994.

April in her prime, spring 2003.

April's crowning achievement...winning 1st in Heavy Wool Adult Female and 3rd overall Heavy Wool Female at the 2002 Great Lakes Regionals!

April as she looks now...this was spring 2013.  She hasn't changed much!

Duque's birthday is tomorrow...he will be 17!

Duque was part of the very first group of llamas we purchased in the fall of 1999.  You can read his full biography here.

Baby Duque with his mom, 1997.

Duque in his prime, spring 2003.

Duque's biggest achievement, Reserve Grand Champion Non-Breeder at the Great Lakes Regionals.

Duque as he looks now...this was spring 2013.  He is so grey!

Kara's birthday is at the end of the month...she'll be 2!

Fiber Forecast

While carding away at work today (I work at a local fiber mill, if I haven't mentioned that before...), I realized that I'm barely going to have any of my own fiber to work with this year!

I may be the only person who plans ahead this much, but I look forward to shearing so much each year that I fantasize about what I'm going to do with each fleece while I'm waiting.  Silly, maybe, but it helps pass the time!

Last week a woman from a nearby farm pre-ordered Kara and T's raw fleeces.  I was planning on having them blended together into roving, maybe with some bamboo, but I'm excited to see what she does with them instead!

T has a bit less fiber this year (he was body shorn last spring), but it is still the best on the farm!

I will still be showing Kara's fleece this year.  I need to decide how many shows I can afford to send it to...

I really need a more recent body shot of Kara!

April's fleece is too coarse for roving, so hers will be made into insoles with the rest of the neck/belly/leg fiber that I shear off the boys.

April has many great qualities, but fine fiber isn't one of them!  Luckily her crias had it!

The felted insoles I had made last year.

Duque's fleece is going to be made into a special project this year.  I'm going to wash, card, and spin it myself, and then knit a lace piece.  Details to come, I can't give too much away!

Good old Duque!  It is hard to believe that he was born almost coal black!

And last but not least is Ralph.  His fleece is the only one I will have available to get processed into roving!  Last year it was processed into a beautiful roving, with 20% brown merino wool and 10% red multi firestar.  It sold out pretty quick, so I might just have to repeat the blend!

Ralph with his terrible haircut.  Hopefully we'll get his legs trimmed better this year.

Ralph's roving blend from last summer.

Of course you could always purchase his fleece for yourself...it is available as part of our fiber CSA!

And in other news...today is April's birthday!  She turns 20 years old, which is quite a feat!

Baby April!

Still Waiting...

While Spring has finally sprung, it is nowhere near warm enough to think about prepping the garden yet.

I did get to start the next set of seeds on Monday.  I started 4 different types of tomatoes, parsley, and echinacea.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share pictures of my pitiful garden.

This is 2/3 of the available garden space.  This is what I will be planting this year.  I really need to get down there and remove all the plastic and old carpeting!

The plastic/carpet covering has been on for almost 11 months...much longer than needed!  The garden never got planted last year!

This is the other 1/3 of the available space.  There were tomatoes between the posts for the past 3-4 years, so I'm going to pile on the llama manure this year and let the area lie dormant this year.  If I manage to be successful with the other part, I'll add this part on next year.

Lots of space to expand!

And now for a bit of comedy...

This is the original compost pile that I built back in the fall.  I figured it would be more than big enough.

A little llama poop...

This is what happened after 6 months...I wasn't able to pile the manure/bedding more than about 3' high, so I had to keep expanding horizontally.  The pile is now at least 3x wider than the space that I set up!  Luckily this can be fixed...once the pile thaws out we're going to get at it with the tractor and front-loader, and condense the pile.  We'll also take out the oldest part of the pile to mix into the garden.

A LOT of llama poop!

Next week I'll be planting more seeds indoors, and hopefully my tomato/parsley/echinacea seeds will have sprouted by then!

Pasture Improvement

I mentioned in a previous post about all the pasture improvements I wanted to work on this spring/summer.  It finally warmed up enough this week to get started!

I don't know about everyone, but for me the minute it is relatively warm outside I throw myself into outdoor projects.  Luckily I had a good amount of stuff that could be done before things really warmed up for good (and the ground thawed).

The big thing on my mind right now is getting the pasture re-seeded, but before I can do that I needed to get the brush cleaned out of a few areas.

The sticker bush area almost a year ago.

The tall weeds up by the barn.  Luckily the llamas took care of these themselves!

Luckily the llamas did a good amount of the work last fall, eating down two areas that had shoulder-high weeds!  They wanted nothing to do with the sticker bushes though, so there were lots left for me to deal with.

Llamas make great weed-eaters!

That was the first thing I dealt with...cutting down all the sticker bushes.  After they were cut down, I raked them (and the underlying dead grass and weeds) into piles to be removed.

Another shot of the sticker bush area before clearing.

And after clearing!

Once the sticker bushes were out of the way, I tackled the grapevine.  I don't think there was a square foot of pasture without a piece of grapevine running through it, at least before I started pulling it out last fall.  I pulled out a good amount in the lower part of the pasture, where they set up their poop pile.  This week I worked on clearing it out of two other spots higher up in the pasture.  It is quite hard work...the stupid vines are really stuck to the ground!

This is where the tall weeds were by the barn.  There was also a lot of grapevine underneath, which I took out this week.

The last thing I focused on was moving some of the smaller rocks (well, anything small enough for me to carry) out of the middle of the pasture, and distributing them around the fence line to block holes.  The ground on this property is really uneven, so there were quite a few spots where there is a 4-6" gap between the fence and the ground.  Luckily the dogs haven't tried to get through them, but they could if they tried.  The chickens have also been getting through and into the pasture, and I definitely don't want that once I plant grass seed!  I've got most of the gaps filled now, another 2-3 loads of rock should finish the rest.

This is kinda hard to see, but this is one of the huge gaps in the fence that I plugged with concrete blocks and rocks.

Oh, and I still have to block off the rabbit holes.  I want to "evict" the rabbits but not kill them, so I'm afraid to completely block their holes...  I've been trying to scare them off...clearing all of the brush around the hole, and bringing Abby out to sniff around their hole.  I'm going to give them a week or two to "get with the picture" and move on, and then I'm blocking them off.  Don't want a llama breaking a leg!

Rabbit hole...

It has been a long few days, but I'm pretty proud with our progress!

All done with the work!

We're supposed to get a lot of rain for the next few days, but after that I think I'll plant the grass seed. If the ground is fairly saturated, it should be easier for the seed to get soil contact without too much work.  My plan is to rough up the soil a bit with a hard metal rake, spread the seed, rake again (and/or spread a little peat on top), and then walk over the area to compact it a bit.  I'm also going to spread some hay over the top to discourage run-off.  I really hope it works!

CNY Fiber Fair

I don't think I ever officially announced it...I got a booth space at the CNY Fiber Fair in June!  I'm really excited.  I've heard from friends who were past vendors that sales weren't great but they are improving every year, so hopefully they will continue to grow!

I have 3 big projects to work on before the festival...

First and foremost, I need to SPIN like crazy!  I do have quite an inventory (at least by my standards, maybe 60 skeins), but more is always better.  I've been pretty good though, trying to spin at least a skein or two each week.

Handspun yarn that I've finished in the last 2-3 weeks.

Second is figuring out and building a display.  I brainstormed ideas for a display with my mother, and we decided that something like an a-frame spool rack (typically used for winding rug warps) would be perfect.  I can display 2 rows of yarn on both sides, and the yarn can in a loose skein rather than twisted up.  I'm secretly hoping my uncle is going to make it for me...not sure if it is something I could figure out on my own.

This is originally what I wanted (metal grid panels), but they are EXPENSIVE!!

This is what we are thinking of now, with dowels on both sides.

And last but not least is writing more patterns for my handspun yarn!  I really need to get motivated with this, I wrote my last pattern more than a month ago.  I still need patterns for DK, Aran, Bulky, and art yarns.  I'd greatly appreciate suggestions if you have them!

My latest pattern, a sport weight cowl.

I Want Spring!

Technically spring was supposed to start a week ago, but today was the first day that really felt like it.

Of course spring around here means lots of rain (and thus lots of mud), but I'm so ready for things to be green and it to be warm!

The llama pasture last spring (technically almost summer).

I want to be able to work in my flower beds!

Flowers in bloom.

I want to put in my garden!

Baby broccoli.

I want the llamas to have fresh grass in their pasture!

Grazing llamas.