May Day

The 1st of May has been celebrated by many but for me at least, I think of dancing and Maypoles. No dancing today outside, the promised rain has finally arrived.

Inside, I'll do my final loom dance on the saddle blankets. The hem is being woven and should finish up quickly today leaving time to weave in ends, hem and do the wet finishing. Since I am heading to MA for the annual lengthy visit with my parents I won't put a warp on the Barbara V until I come home. I will get pics of the models in their blankets though and post.

All sorts of fun stuff has arrived for future fibery goodness though. I was lucky enough to find a very good buy from a destash of lots of good tightly spun moth proofed wool in shades of orange for that rump rug. The blue is certainly bright! 

A new to me yarn has come home in the last week or so, which is being knitted up into a quick and very fun project. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag on this one until it's done and I'm over half way with it. 

The yarn itself is grown and processed in Oregon by Imperial Stock Ranch and what got plopped into my basket is their "Lopi" style of yarn, a thick, bouncy and lightly spun single. 

 This isn't cashmere or merino but I am always attracted to a good sheepy wool and it's getting harder and harder to find. It is perfect for the project in hand.

Websters also is carrying another of their products, a not spun at all pencil roving and I am going to certainly pick some up for use as weft in a project or two. There is a good color range and they are very soft on the eyes and allow the nature of the wool to come through. The pinky peach ball is Nashua's Natural Focus Ecologie Wool which will also make it's appearance in the surprise project. 

On the farm front, finally after 3 years of struggling to shear the goats with scissors, I acquired a used pair of Oster shears. Yippeee! I need to change the blade out with one more suitable for doing goats instead of making cows pretty, but that's small potatoes compared to the cost of the shears themselves. Another score for craigslist!

Puck has been seen back on the farm. In fact I came around the corner and ruined what was probably a very nice cat nap in the sun for him. He's a very fast cat. 

It's also official that the deer have arrived. Our first band of 5 does tiptoed through the property on Wednesday morning. It looks like 4 yearlings and a mature doe, pretty typical to have a few first year maidens with a seasoned matron.

Trust me, although hard to see there is a deer in that picture. They are so skittery the first few weeks it's hard to catch them well. By June, I can go out and try to chase them away and they will just look at me like I'm nuts until I get within 20 feet. Then they may slowly move away. :-)

 The bucks will arrive in small bands also. Last year we had a spectacular group of three well pointed bucks, all big and robust and by fall, full of themselves. The yearling bucks seem to have it the hardest, no one wants them in their group. Too old to hang with the girls and too young to be allowed with the big boys. We had one that did like to spend time in the paddock with the horses and during the end of summer when it was very dry, my water tank provided for a lot more than 5 horses. We also had a doe with twins that would bed down in the late morning with her two babies in the upper paddock. It was not uncommon to see the horses sleeping not more than 30 feet away from Momma and babies and her hiding place for the fawns was  in some dense shrubs just outside the fence. The babies would dance around the horses in play, Imp even tried to get in on their games a few times that I saw.