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.