What a beautiful day!

Today, we started out early, heading off to the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio. We picked up some of our friends from our spinning guild and started our journey. It was HOT! I'm glad that the sheep, goats and alpacas at the show were sheared. It would have been a miserable day for them. We bought a traveling spinning wheel made by Ashford! The mill that sold it to us also offered to take our freshly shorn fleece and wash, skirt and card it for us so that we'll have our own Alpaca roving. So soon we can spin our own fiber and the three of us won't have to share one wheel. I also found a good price on carpet warp and bought some weft from the same vendor visiting from Indiana. Now I need to set a date with my weaving mentor to warp our table loom. We are anxious to start this project. Our goal is for each of us to complete a weaving project (place mats) in time for the Canfield Fair. In exchange we need to show our mentor the subtle art of spaetzel making.

After a few hours at the fiber show we journeyed onto Lehmans Hardware in Kidron, Ohio. Please note, Garmin (the GPS) doesn't recognize Kidron, so beware and enter Dalton, Ohio instead.
Lehmans is an experience in itself. We thoroughly enjoyed this store. We found our favorite kitchen knives and picked up Dad's Birthday present. We got him an 8' windmill. Even though his birthday is next week, he quickly put it together and it is now proudly displayed in our yard. He did an awesome job in its assembly and has it balanced perfectly.
Back at the farm,the Iris' are in bloom. The peas, strawberries and black raspberries are growing nicely. We purchased some tomato, bell peppers, zucchini, and eggplant plants and we'll be busy planting this weekend. The sunflower seeds I encouraged to sprout...sprouted!! I'm glad it worked. Emily tried to plant them in a garden spot near Grandma's deck. Now we wait to see how the sunflower garden will mature. Hmmm...I think I will try this method with some gourds.

New Book find!

The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen by Teri Edwards and Serena Thompson. This is a wonderful book filled with yummy recipes and treasures of all kind. I want to re-do my pantry, look for local history, renew my interest in garage sales, dig out my antiques and make myself more aprons! Oh, and cook and bake some new recipes. I borrowed a copy from the library, but feel I must add it to my wish list to add to my home library. Enjoy!
PS Click on The Farm Chicks above to see their web site.

Second World Alpaca Conference

Our Shearer's also told us about the Second World Alpaca Conference to be held in Cleveland, Ohio this June! That's practically in our backyard. Must review the family calendar to see if we can make it. I would really like to go.

Shearing

Our boys were sheared last night. Many thanks to our Shearers-- April Chestnut and Connie Ortz of CA Shearing. You've done a fantastic job. You've taken real good care in shearing of our Alpacas and the best yet, no shearing stripes! You both are AWESOME! Sebastian and Samson say thank you --are both cooler now and appreciate your gentleness.
My daughters watched the process in awe. They learned alot about the shearing process and now they get to help me prepare the fiber for the mill. We need to wash and skirt the fiber before the mill will accept it. We're off to learning something new.
Our shearer's imparted some wisdom to us about how to keep our critters cool in the summer... buy FANS! They also said we need to provide 2 to 3 times the water for them too. They gave us a source for their upkeep, in order to provide them their rabies and tetnus shots. And a few tips with how to keep the flies away this summer. They also recommended their vet for any health issues, should one occur.
Thanks again ladies for a wonderful job. We can't wait for next year.

The pictures are posted in reverse order - DUH.

Hummingbirds

Last night while my husband and I were throwing sheets over the black raspberry bushes, something fluttered out towards me. I ducked because I thought it was a large bumblebee. I looked up and saw a hummingbird... it was protecting its' nest -I think- because it kept "dive bombing" me. We continued to cover the berries because of the frost warning. I just hope our hummingbird will be back in its home soon.

Weaving Baskets, Spinning at the Agland Co-op Fiber Day and new photos of our ducks and chicks.

Wow the ducks are huge! (Compared to our chicks)
The shearing day was rescheduled for Thursday this week. Good thing,these poor guys are getting warm! Over the weekend, it warmed up and they were breathing heavy. Gotta get the fan before too long!
Due to a freeze and frost WARNING... We've had to cover the strawberries for the last two nights. Tonight we also covered our black raspberries. We noticed that the leaves for the Concord grapes were 'nipped' last night (forgot about those) :( We don't know how this will effect the itty bitty grapes sprouting.
We finally got some peas to sprout and our lettuce bed is full! I planted the broccoli and can't wait to plant the rest of the garden. I think we will be able to safely plant the tomatoes and peppers over Memorial Day weekend. I hope to throw some beets and carrots in also.
I finally got out the Sunflower seeds and put them into some dampened paper towels. This should help them to sprout quickly. I hope Grandma will like her Sunflower Garden this year. While deciding which packets to open... one of my seed packets I read stated it was a non-pollinating Sunflower. I didn't open this packet as I want honey bees and hummingbirds to pollinate all around us. I found an interesting book entitled - The Ultimate Sunflower Book by Lucy Peel, Harper Collins Publishers, 1997. It has everything you ever wanted to know, garden, craft and cook with/about sunflowers. Check it out at your local library (a blatant plug). *smile*
The girls and I are anxiously awaiting the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio this weekend. This is our first time to this show and we are excited to see all the fiber, vendors, and animals.
I attended another Mahoning Columbiana Bee Association meeting and met up with an individual that is willing to be a mentor to me. He has hives on his father's property in the suburbs as well as hives on his urban lot. I hope to learn alot from him so that I can start my Apiary next season. They informed me of workshops that are held in February and March that I plan to attend next year in Wooster, Ohio as well as Western Pennsylvania. I also subscribed to the recommended magazine Bee Culture. I can't wait to learn about bees and become a good guardian for them.