Pasture Management Continues...

If it hasn't been clear from my posts last year, pasture management is an ongoing chore around most farms!  And since I didn't do a great job with preparation last spring, it is going to take me a bit longer to get the pasture just the way I want it.

I'm happy to say that the grass seed I planted is coming in great!  It still isn't long enough to graze, but it will get there.  There actually are spots that need to be mown!

View of the top of the pasture.

There's one big chore left to work on though...ridding the pasture of burdock!  Originally my plan was to pull them all up with a handy little dandelion picker tool, but after giving myself a nice blister on my hand, I decided that wasn't such a great idea.

Next I wanted to try another dandelion picker tool...this one you use while standing up, which is much easier on the knees and hands!  Unfortunately the burdocks have a longer root than dandelions so the tool just twists them, it doesn't actually pull them up.

Now I'm going to take a 2 prong approach...pulling up the biggest plants, and mowing the areas with lots of burdock.  Hopefully between the two methods, I'll be able to make a dent in the population.  It will get more serious when the burdock goes to seed, I just hope I'll be able to keep up with them!

My tool of choice.

I've picked buckets and buckets of burdock in only a few days!

I can't wait to see how the pasture looks at the end of the fall!

A burr-free area!

Knitting Pattern #6: Karakoram

I figure over the course of my life I will have knitting patterns named after most of my animals.  So far I have the Abby Cowl, and this one I'm naming after one of my beautiful llamas, Kara (Autumn Hill's Karakoram).  I'm terrible at coming up with names for patterns, so this will have to do!

This is a super easy pattern, and also super quick!  You can adjust the number of knit and purl rows for your preference.

Karakoram Cowl

Adult

Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, 1 skein (or ~102 yards Super Bulky weight yarn)
#11 needles (circular)

10.5sts = 4" in stockinette

Cast on 68 stitches, join to work in the round.

• Knit 3 rows
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 6 rows
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 4 rows
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 8 rows
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 2 rows
• Purl 1 row
• Knit 5 rows

Bind off.

Tomato Transplants

All the tomatoes are now transplanted to bigger pots!  This was the first batch that I transplanted, the Iron Lady and Cherry tomatoes.  They are now about 6-8" tall!

In other news, I think my cold frame is too hot!  I've been careful to ventilate it, but I think the onions got overheated.  About half of them are very wilted and looking dead.  I'm now on the lookout for some organic onion plants/sets to order.

We finally got the tractor fixed, so after I'm finished shearing I hope we can start making real progress on the garden!

Llama Biography #17: Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian

I'll warn you...this is a sad llama biography.

Llama #17 in our herd was Autumn Hill's Snowflake Obsidian.

Sid had a lot of symptoms of being dysmature (looked premature but wasn't born early): floppy ears, weird fiber, and soft pasterns.

In the spring of 2004, we finally managed to get our junior herdsire, AAL Navarro, to successfully settle a female.  He was bred with Casa Loma's Little Sheba, and in May 2005 she gave birth to a little male cria.

I came home from school one afternoon to find Sheba looking very uncomfortable.  I waited around to see if anything would happen, but she hadn't made any progress by the time my mom got home.  We finally decided that we needed some help, so we loaded Sheba up in the trailer and headed for the vet.

By the time we got there Sheba had managed to deliver the front legs, and the vet quickly pulled the rest of the cria.  The vet thought that Sheba's contractions weren't strong enough for her to deliver the cria, possibly due to a selenium deficiency.  We then spent an hour or so waiting for the cria to stand and nurse, and finally we headed home- Sheba in the trailer and the cria on my lap in the truck.

The night was very stormy, and after hearing a song on the radio I really wanted to name the baby "Rainmaker", but I'd been waiting for awhile to name a black and white cria "Snowflake Obsidian", so I went with that instead.

Sheba and Sid spent several chilly days and nights locked in a pen in the barn, but finally they got to have some time outside in the back yard.

Sheba and Sid.

When Sid was 2 days old, we had our other vet out to the house to draw blood for an IgG test (which evaluates the cria's immune system and how much colostrum they got).  Two more days later, we found out that his IgG was low, and the vet was back out to give him a plasma transfer.  Sid seemed to have turned a corner by the time the vet gave him the plasma, but shortly after he finished the transfer Sid started straining and acting very uncomfortable.  I'm still not sure what happened, but the next day Sid was septic and going downhill fast.  Unfortunately he didn't make it through the night.  I'll never forget my sister's voice on the phone (I was at dance that night) when she was telling me that Sid had just died.  I cried all the way home, and on and off for the next day or 2.

Sid had the coolest fiber...he may have been our first suri!

Sid was the first cria (actually the first llama of any age) that we had ever lost, and it hit all of us very hard.  Sheba cried for days, it was pretty heartbreaking.  We gave Sheba several months to recover, and then bred her for another cria.  She sold before the cria was born, but luckily she easily delivered a healthy cria the next time around!

RIP Sid.

Novelty Plying- Wrapping

I will admit, I'm not much of a novelty yarn spinner.  I try from time to time, but I don't think I'm creative enough.  One thing I love to do though is novelty plying.  

My usual go-to is spiral plying.  I was given a huge box of rayon embroidery thread by my mother-in-law, and it is perfect for spiral plying.  With spiral plying, you hold one strand taught (usually the embroidery thread for me), and let the other strand spiral around it.  It is quite fun and very easy, and perfect for extending the yardage of a unique single ply yarn.

Spiral ply yarn (wool single and embroidery thread).

Something more new for me was wrap plying or wrapping.  Wrapping is the opposite of spiral plying...you keep the handspun single taught, and let the embroidery thread loosely wrap around it.  It is easier on a wheel with a flush orifice, but can be done with my Delta orifice as well.  This is a pretty simple wrapped yarn, but you can get very creative with it!

Wool single, spun very loosely and roughly.  I wanted to preserve the texture of the dyed locks. 

This shows how to position the strands while plying.  The wrapping strand should be at a 90* angle to the taught strand.  (My hand isn't actually positioned like this while plying, I had to use my other hand to take the picture!) 

A wider view of the strand positions.

Finished wrapped yarn.  (This picture shows the wrapping strand better.)

A true-color view of the finished yarn.  It is very light and fluffy!

I just finished setting the twist on this yarn tonight, so once it is dry in a few days it will go into my Etsy shop!

Straw Bale Cold Frame

Here in upstate NY, our growing season is really short.  Adding in lots of rain in the spring, it makes it very hard to get the garden tilled very early in the year.  Thus, I realized early on that I would need to start plants in the house before the weather was nice enough to plant.  To make the process easier, I decided I wanted to build a cold frame in which to house the larger seedlings before I could transplant them.

I found a picture on Pinterest of a cold frame made of straw bales and old windows.  This seemed like the best plan for me, as I have tons of hay bales for the llamas and several old windows from the barn.  So a few weeks ago when we had a nice day I got to work.

The cold frame itself is very simple.  Mine is 6 hay bales arranged in a rectangle, with 2 old windows on top.  Originally I was using tiltable windows from the trailer we took down, but it turned out those were too much trouble (they would open on their own), so I switched them out for the simple wood frame ones from the top of the big barn.  Luckily the new ones fit as well.  I placed it on a south-facing slope (a gentle one though) so it would get the most sun.

My cold frame.

Thermometer in the top left corner.

The old windows.

The first day after I erected the cold frame, I checked the temperature when I was leaving for work (about 7:30 am).  Unfortunately, it was only about 8*F higher than the air temperature- not nearly warm enough on nights when it is almost freezing!

Temperature before windows were added (air temp).

Temperature just a few minutes after the windows were added.

So I started researching ways to heat cold frames without electricity, and made some modifications.  I added black landscape fabric to the sides and bottom of the cold frame, and put in a bucket of water.  Both should absorb heat during the day and release it at night.  Next week I'm also going to put a black trash bag in the bottom (for more heat), and some more landscape fabric on top (to shade the plants).  I figure I can also fill the bucket with hot water from the house on really cold nights, which should help increase the temperature.  It is supposed to get really cold again Monday night, but after that I'm going to try putting the onions and broccoli outside.  I need to transplant more tomatoes, and I'm running out of room in the house!

If anyone has suggestions on better ways to design or heat a cold frame (without electricity), I'd love to hear them!

Ag Day at Morrisville College

I love doing public relations stuff with the llamas.  Most kids (and adults for that matter) have never been up close and personal with a llama or alpaca, so it is fun to introduce them.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do as much PR work with my animals since going to college, but I used to do a lot in high school.

A few weeks ago, a student from Morrisville College contacted me about bringing llamas to their "Ag Day".  Our FFA group used to do this in high school, so I was excited about participating.

Yesterday I was really worried about the rain (it has rained for several days in a row), but I decided to brave it this morning.  Turns out the weather was spotty...it went from nice and sunny to pouring rain, and everything in between.  In the end I didn't get too wet, and even ended up with a sunburn!

I took Kara and Ralph to be my ambassadors.  Ralph wanted nothing to do with anyone...he was much too preoccupied with staring down all of the other animals (especially the turkey!).  Kara was a little angel though!  Once she warmed up, she let all sorts of people pet her, even on the head.  She may have been a bit overwhelmed by the end, as she laid down just out of reach, but she was still really well behaved.  I was so proud!

They were really excited about the green grass!

I really hope I can find some additional PR opportunities for the future, it is very rewarding!