Pasture Rehabilitation Progress

It has been a few weeks since I let the llamas out on their old pasture.  So far I'm pretty happy with how the rehabilitation of the pasture has been going.  With a few small exceptions, most of the new grass that I seeded has begun to grow, and I'm slowly working on getting rid of the weeds (mostly burdock).

Pasture in mid-spring, before grazing.

A little bit later in the spring, after I mowed but still before being grazed.

And as you can see, the llamas are VERY happy about being out in their pasture!

T, Duque, and Kara out grazing.

The added bonus is that their dry lot area is starting to recover.  I still have a lot of straw to remove, but it has been raining cats and dogs this week!

Grass is growing back in the dry lot!

The pasture after a few weeks of grazing and some more mowing.

The llamas aren't great about eating weeds in general, but I've discovered that they love these berry bushes!  I'm not quite sure what kind of berries they are, probably rasp/black berries.  I chopped down all the old stalks last year, but of course they came back.  Within days the llamas had eaten every single leaf off the new plants.  I don't hold out much hope that the plants will survive, and that's just fine with me!  Unfortunately they won't eat burdock, so I'll have to continue to mow and pull those by hand.

Stripped berry plants!

Unfortunately it looks like the llamas are going to have to go back in their dry lot next week.  They're not grazing the pasture very evenly, and the areas closest to the barn are getting too short for comfort.  I can't afford to let any of those grass plants die!  I'll probably return to letting the llamas graze in their portable pen (either in or around the garden fence), and give them some freshly mown grass in addition to their hay.  They won't be happy, but they'll survive!  Hopefully it will start to dry out so we can get back to working on their new pasture!

Pattern Sneak Peek!

One of the things I've been busy working on before the CNY Fiber Fest is designing new patterns!  I've been so busy that I haven't gotten around to publishing them, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek!

For worsted weight yarn, a pair of very versatile ribbed hats.  The large (in purple) should fit an adult small to adult large, and the small (blue/yellow) should fit a large baby to large child.

My new favorite type of yarn to spin is an aran weight spiral ply.  I made up an aran weight version of the ribbed hats shown above, as well as a buttoned ear band, all of which can be knit with the spiral ply yarn.

I made another DK weight project... another ear band!  It is hard to see the texture in this picture, but there is a simple slip stitch pattern which makes a subtle design.  It is very cool!

And last but not least, an art yarn project, specifically for my thick-n-thin spiral ply yarn.  This is a stockinette cowl, knit flat and seamed together.  Super easy and cute!

All of these patterns will be debuted at the fiber festival this weekend.  I'll be selling yarn (and roving) in kits, so you can get your choice of pattern for free!

More Planting

The garden wasn't as busy this week as last, but there were still several big things going on.

A good looking garden if I do say so myself!

Most importantly I planted and mulched (and then re-mulched) the tomatoes!  At first I had red plastic in solid sheets going down both rows, but after talking with my dad about how he uses the plastic, I went back and cut it into squares to go around each plant.  I think they will get more water this way.

About 40' of tomatoes!

When I planted the tomatoes, I dug a 3-4" deep trench all the way down the row.  I pruned all but the top 3-4 branches, and buried the rest of the plant sideways in the trench.  Tomatoes can grow roots out of their stem, so this way they will have a better root system and be more stable in the wind.  Just before I buried the top of the stem, I wrapped a newspaper "collar" around each plant...this is supposed to keep cutworms away from the stem.  Once they were planted I also sprinkled some crushed eggshells at the base of each plant for added calcium.

Newly planted, mulched, and caged tomato plant.

A couple days later I planted 4 basil plants between the tomatoes.  Basil is supposed to make the tomatoes sweeter.

Tomato and basil plants.

The day after I planted the tomatoes I had something come through the garden and take out a few plants (mostly flowers, but it also got the parsley and a broccoli plant).  Turns out there was a groundhog burrow just inside the garden fence, so my husband set out a trap and we caught the little bugger the next day.  I could've sworn there was more than one groundhog, but that's the only one we've caught, and since then the garden seems *mostly* undisturbed.

Abby is checking out the newly-laid trap.

 Other than planting a few more flowers, the rest of the week was fairly boring.  Everything is growing well (although a bit slowly in my opinion).  I may start watering next week...we're only getting water about once a week right now, and maybe it isn't enough?

My first batch of onions and radishes are doing great!

The potatoes finally sprouted too!

Even my poor chomped broccoli is recovering.

I just set the cucumbers outside to harden off, they will go in the ground next week!  Then the peppers the week after that and I'm done with planting!  I suppose I do have more root veggies to sow...

Starting on the New Pasture!

I apologize for not posting this last night...first time I've forgotten since I re-invented the blog!

Anyway, we finally started on the new pasture this week!  Granted we haven't gotten a ton done, but we are 3/4 of the way done with the aisle from the shed to the pasture.  We're out of t-posts though, so next up is a trip to Tractor Supply!

Pounding the posts.

Our stick-chewing helper.

The southern edge of the pasture (a gate will go where the orange flag is).

Happy llamas grazing in their current pasture.

Countdown to the CNY Fiber Fest!

It is getting close...the CNY Fiber Fest that is!  Just a little over a week away, and I still have a ton of stuff to do!

I have been busy though...  I've been spinning like mad, finishing up some last-minute knitting patterns, and sanding my new display.

At my "day job", I've been carding 4 final batches of fiber.  One was done last week, I did 2 more today, and I think the last one will get done tomorrow.  The first batch is all wound into 4oz balls, but I still need to do the last 3.

Unfortunately I still have a ton of stuff to do!  

• One last batch of skeins (8 so far, we'll see if I get any more done before the weekend) that need to be washed
• Lots and lots of batts to card, wrap, & label
• Tons of skeins to measure, weigh, and label
• Patterns to fine tune and print
• Signs to design & print

Luckily I'm not too worried about getting it all done...I'd just like to get it all done before next Friday night!

Planting the Garden!

Once we finally got the garden tilled, all I wanted to do was get it planted!

So that's what I did...

On Monday I planted the broccoli, as well as some onions, carrots, radishes and beets.

Broccoli in the distance.

Broccoli on the left.

Bed of onions, carrots, radishes, and beets.

Onions coming in.

Radishes (I think).

On Tuesday I planted the squash and pumpkin.

My poor covered squash.  They were being eaten by cucumber beetles...more on that next week.

Baby squash.

On Wednesday I planted the potatoes.  We also set up the trellises for the cucumbers and squash.

Two rows of potatoes.

Cucumber trellis.

Cucumber trellis.

Squash trellis.  This was a previous tomato cage, so we figured it might as well get used.

On Thursday I planted some of the flowers around two borders of the garden.

Parsley.  Something ate it yesterday...

Marigold (bottom) and nasturtium (top).

Calendula (top) and sage (bottom).

I planted some tomatoes today, but didn't get around to taking pictures!  I'll report on those next week.

My beautiful garden!

Planning For A New Pasture

I'm sure I've mentioned it at some point, we're planning to build a new pasture this summer!  Now that the garden is started, it is time to do less planning and more building.

The first pasture we built ended up too small...the available space was pretty confined next to the barn, but we made it as big as we could.

The second time around we're going big...about 2.5 times bigger!  We're planning a 150' x 350' pasture, which makes it about 1.2 acres.

This pasture will be for spring/summer/fall use only, as there isn't any water or electricity nearby.  We were originally planning on building a 3-sided shed to use for shelter, but in an effort to save time and money we're going to use part of the equipment shed.

Luckily the shed doesn't need much work to make it livable for the lamas.  We removed the junk (mostly wood boards and barbed wire rolls, but there was also an old lawn mower!) last week, so now we just have to fix the boards on one wall and close up the other half (with cattle panels to make a wall and a gate).  The front will be left open for the lamas to come and go.  The floor is dirt and gravel with some tiny wood shavings mixed in, so I'm thinking about getting some ag lime to cover it...need to price that out.

Due to space issues, the pasture is going to be separated from the shed by a long aisle.  The aisle will come out of the barn, past the apple tree, and out into the pasture.

And this is where the pasture is going.  I bush-hogged it last week (though it needs it done again already!), and measured to lay flags for the corners.  We're hoping to start setting the corner posts this weekend, followed by the wood line posts and then the metal t-posts.  Then we'll hang the fence and be done!

I hope we get the new fence in quick...the llamas are really sick of being stuck in their dry lot, and I'm sick of them looking like scare-crows!