Wildlife Working Together for a Better Future

This is on a small scale mind you but it is true! Raccoon comes to my deck, and opens the bird feeder, grabbing handfuls of black oil sunflower seed to eat and spilling half of it on the ground below. Fox is down there to make sure none of the midnight raid gold goes to waste. Any stray seeds are pecked up by sharp eyed turkeys later in the morning.  Me, I refill the feeder so my chickadees and nuthatches have their daily supply and make a mental note not to leave the feeder hanging overnight. It may be two weeks before I forget again, but the result is always the same. We are obviously on a forest watch list!



This picture would not have been possible 9 months ago. Now I'm not saying she is worlds friendliest cat, but she comes up to me in the morning for breakfast, purring while she eats. In the afternoon she waits in the tack room and gets some petting time before I head out on the tractor to feed horses and goats. Feral no more and what a relief. If I have to I can handle her should she become sick or hurt.

A little sewing going on. I have a Sewing Workshop pattern in process. The Soho Coat.



 I'm working with a very heavy felted double sided wool. It's lovely warm stuff, but not lending itself well to some of the finer details of this pattern, so I'll modify as I go along. When I bought this wool, I had no pattern in mind, I bought 3 yards, wish I had bought 4 but it was expensive and I was just able to eek out what I needed for this pattern. I put the plaid side in. There was no way I had enough to match and in all honesty, the grey is more versatile.

And there has been spinning and weaving. And napping!



I can say without hesitation and very thankfully, yak and silk fibers are no problem!



 What a relief because this stuff feels awesome. It is not that easy to spin. The yak is a short downy fiber, but the silk helps and the double drive on the spinning wheel aids greatly in the process. The color is called "Paper Roses".



 I also have a braid in the wings which is 50/50 merino silk. The color way "Catherine".



Both of these lovely rovings were purchased from Greenwood Fiberworks. I suspect more from this seller will find its way to my wheel in the future.

Nora got her new warp.



 This is half of it, the other half was mirrored. I made it up as I went along on the board. It is being woven but the pic was so washed out it wasn't worth posting. Better one next post. I'm still thinking about Nick's next warp. Macomber sent the replacement ties for the front apron rod and he's ready to go once I decide.

The elves ( who are we kidding here, the elves spend their time sniffing the boxes and making off with the bows...),  have been busy sorting and wrapping and picture taking for show and share after the holidays. And that about covers things here at our wet little part of the world. The rain is nice. The forest is soft and muted again. No crunch. Secretive. I like it that way. Misty and foggy and just a bit creepy.

Parting shot: DO NOT DISTURB!