Sheep to Shawl Competition

Every year the Moonspinners Guild participates in the Puyallup Fair Sheep to Shawl contest. We have 12 hours to warp, card, spin, and weave a shawl. We're paid by the Fair to participate in the competition and that's one way the Guild earns money for programs, and library materials and supplies.

I've tried to be part of the team every year since I first started spinning. It's great fun! This year I was the chairman; I'm not sure how that happened, but I got to choose the project. I donated two Shetland fleeces and a part of a Fresian fleece for a natural colored shawl.

Ahead of time, we got to wash the fleeces and spin yarn for the warp. I got up early enough to deliver the loom to our spot on the fairgrounds prior to the opening time. We all gathered and were ready to start at 10 am.

In this photo, we're just getting started. Georgean is putting the warp into the reed and Michelle is picking fleece in preparation for drum carding.

Rocky and Dawn are carding and picking/combing the washed fiber for the spinners. The white is from a soft Shetland ram lamb. The black is from a Fresian sheep in the Black Sheep Creamery flock. I trimmed the sunburned tips, and it spun up a very black black with great contrast to the very white Shetland.

Below, Tony helps Georgean finish warping the loom. All of the shawls and scarves on display were spun and woven or knitted by Moonspinners, many of them by Tony. The one behind Tony's head is mine. It was woven on a triangle loom using my handspun bluefaced leicester wool.

Georgean starts weaving! Here she has just a few inches done. This shawl is woven as two separate layers to start with.

This is another view of the start of the shawl. The main body is white Shetland wool from Snowflake (the warp) and Phillip (the weft). Two stripes are black, and two are made with one ply of white and one ply of black - sort of a mottled grey effect.

Here are the Moonspinners working busily on the shawl. Georgean is winding bobbins for weaving, Dawn is getting ready to take a break, Tony, Evelyn, and Jill are spinning and Rocky is plying yarn just before giving it to Georgean. The red and cream shawl in the display is the same style as the one we're making this year.

Now we're nearing the end of the shawl. At this point, the warp threads come off two at a time and are woven back through the remaining warps. This joins the two layers and creats a point at the end of the shawl. The diagonal at the left is the center back of the shawl. Notice the high tech shuttle for this task, made from a notched Skarbo yardstick. ;-)

At the other edge, Rocky is taking the warp-turned-weft threads and knotting them at the edge of the shawl. You can't see me, but my task at this point was to hold the remaining warp threads and make sure Georgean had enough of a "shed" to pass her yardstick shuttle through.

Woo Hoo! It's off the loom! ...but is it done yet? Nooooooo, still more work to do.

Below, Georgean and Robin are laying out the shawl and tying the rest of the fringe yarns into bundles. This holds the warp in place and makes a nice finish on the shawl.

Georgean again, tying bundles of threads. After this, three of us wound the fringe bundles and twisted them into cords. This took quite a while! (No photo as I was busily twisting....). Georgean took the still "raw" shawl home to complete the finishing - a little tweaking on the diagonal, and washing and fulling to finish it up.

Today was the shawl judging. I haven't heard yet how we did. The shawl is gorgeous and has wonderful hand. No wonder I have Shetland sheep. :-)

If you get a chance to watch a Sheep to Shawl competition, there are slightly different rules in different venues. We were allowed to wash and spin the warp ahead of time. During the competition we could have 5 members working at a time, and we did this in 3 shifts of 4 hours each, although some of us stayed all day. We had to make a shawl with minimum dimensions, and we had to have people working from 10 am to 10 pm, no matter how early we got the shawl completed.

As soon as I can get a photo of the fulled and done-done shawl, I'll post it!

- Franna

Lads and Ladies Lead Class

We have fun participating in the Lead Class at the Puyallup Fair. It is a class to show off and promote wearing wool. It also gives us a chance to showcase our less mainstream sheep breeds. Each contestant leads a sheep, wears wool clothing and writes a little story about the person, the sheep and the wool clothing items. Typically, there are a few entries in the lads lead, a few more in the "young" ladies classes, and 5 to 8 in the "aged ewes" class - which includes me.

Dave led Sweet Pea again this year. He likes promoting the Scotties, and with their very independent attitudes, they're not so easy to halter train. They're always a crowd favorite. Here's the Dashing Dude in his Shetland vest (spun and knit by moi) and Pendleton wool hat.

Sweet Pea stood nicely in the lineup. They earned second place this year, after having been awarded first in 2007.

Now, it's my turn to brag. After all the years of entering Ladies Lead - I finally won! - Not that winning is a big deal - that's not what the class is all about. It's still nice to win once in a while.

Contestants earn extra points for handmade articles, and more points for ones made by the contestant. This year, I "went Shetland". I wore the Shetland sweater that I designed, spun and knit, carried the Shetland/Corriedale shawl that I designed, spun and knit, led the Shetland ewe, Elora, who wore a Shetland lace sampler scarf that I also designed, spun and knit. I went over Elora multiple times to get her as clean as possible, she was fed and content before the class started.

Here we are in our finery. The white, grey and black in the shawl are the same wools as in the sweater. The dark red is overdyed grey, and the blue is Corriedale from Cary Smith's Serenity Farms flock.

If you get a chance to enter a Lead class, go for it! It's a lot of fun and a good way to showcase the great properties of wool and promote your farm. Most sheep shows have a Lead class of sorts. The Black Sheep Gathering has a Spinner's Lead where all the items have to be handmade by someone. You can often borrow a fiber animal to lead or carry.

- Franna

Bustin' More Buttons

DH entered his first model in the Puyallup Fair competition. Look what we found when we went looking for it in the display cases:

It's all detailed out inside and out. Look closely to see the EverRanch Farm logo on the front hood, and lettering on the side.

He started the model when we still owned a PT Cruiser. The PT was a lot of fun, and I'd recommend it for a great small car with a lot of room. It wasn't, however, good for carrying sheep, pulling a trailer and hauling hay. So I traded it in on the Silverado pickup.

I like my truck and I love my Guy.

- Franna

75% Gotland Ram Lambs

Meet EverRanch Jack Daniels. He's the son of EverRanch Bunny and the UK ram Daniel from Whitehall farm. Jack is 75% Gotland and 25% Shetland. He's got a masculine, expressive head, large curls, luster and beautiful medium grey fleece.


Jack is four square on his feet, a little narrow behind - like grandma Asa, and has a lovely typey Northern Shorttail Tail. He is my favorite of the GotlandX ram lambs.


On the right in the photo below is EverRanch Bill (the Bull), our other 75% Gotland ram lamb. Bill is more refined than Jack with a finer curl and darker color to his fleece. Bill is distinctly Gotland in appearance, and very close in size to Jack. He is 25% Finnsheep and Jack's half brother. The ram lamb behind Bill is EverRanch Leviticus. "Levi" is 62.5% UK bloodlines, combining all three of the rams who were collected for us in Scotland.

Below, Bill shows off his nice, wide rear. If he was a ewe, he would have lots of room to carry a full udder. As a ram, ummm, he carries that well, too.


Now here's a predicament. This is EverRanch Moose, our largest GotlandX ram lamb in 2008. His mom is none other than Hortense, the black/silver BFLxBL ewe who rules the ewe flock. Moose was sampling the tasty blackberry leaves and vines and got his lovely, long, flowing tresses all tangled up. He could still move about, but was not going far from his multi tethers. He was happy to be freed. Moose is 50% Gotland.
It was another "ram" year here at EverRanch. We've been moving out ram lambs as pasture pets and trading for pigs. Many are for sale, as we only need to keep one or two for our own use. I'll post photos of others as time goes on. Any who are still here in another month or so will be sheared for fresh fall fleeces! I'm sure looking forward to those, and most will be for sale.

- Franna

Horned Rams

This handsome fellow is V Creek Buddy. Buddy has lived with us for 2 years now, yet due to our Gotland upbreeding program, has only three lambs living here - 2 ram lambs and Lini. In 2009 we hope to have a whole passel of Buddy lambs! He has an ultra fine fleece with tight crimp and nice length. His fleece won best colored ram fleece at the recent Island County Fair. It is entered in both the Puyallup Fair wool show and handspinning fleece shows. Buddy is very well proportioned and a nice medium Shetland size.

He has a kind face and well behaved horns.
Our other horned ram is EverRanch Butch Cassidy - the recent Best in Show sheep at Island County. Scottish Blackface rams and ewes both have horns, but the rams horns are magnificent!
Neither ram "pokes" with his horns, but of course, the horns go along with head butting, shoving and pushing and the horned rams tend to be higher in the pecking order than the polled rams.

Someday, maybe, EverRanch will go polled, but for now, the horns are here to stay.

- Franna

Rissa and Friends

This is Shady Oaks Marissa. We chose her in trade for EverRanch Franjean at the Black Sheep Gathering. While sitting with her in her sheep pen, I checked her udder, and to my surprise (and Marybeth's surprise, too) felt a small udder, even though she hadn't lambed and supposedly was virgin. Apparently someone had other ideas! Now, 2 months later, she seems a little pudgy, and I can see small pink teats from behind, but not much more, if any udder development. Soooooo, is she or isn't she???????

Rissa isn't telling.

Also from BSG, we brought home Stonehaven Astrid to fill out our 2008 show string. 'Rissa and Astrid have been close friends since. We really like the gulmoget pattern and look forward to exquisitely soft fleeced lambs from Astrid and Buddy. Maybe even another moorit gulmoget!Pastured with 'Rissa and Astrid is Bessie's Silver Lining - Lini. Lini is incredibly petite and wasn't competing well with the other ewe lambs. Due to 'Rissa's "condition" this group is getting extra groceries and Lini finally seems to be gaining. She is cute as a button and extra friendly.

Lini also has the loudest "baaaaa!" of the ewe lambs. We can hear her from any corner of the farm!

Will their group become larger anytime soon???? Stay tuned.

- Franna

Halfway to Junior Hunter!

Remember this Classy Dude? "Clifford" aka AKC and International Champion Briarbanc Brych Red Dog, RE, OA, NAJ? On Memorial Day weekend, he qualified once toward his AKC Junior Hunter title. This weekend we went to more hunt tests. ...ahem... we won't talk about Friday. But YESTERDAY, Clifford's work was brilliant! He earned his second qualifying score toward the JH. He only needs two more for the title.

Dave came and watched the little man do his thing in the field. Of course, we've been hunting with Clifford for 5 years now, and know he's a primo fantastic upland hunting dog. He finds birds that no other dog does, and finds more of them. He has a solid flush, and finds the birds after they've been shot. Up to now, it's been his retrieving skills that were lacking. (He always has a Labrador around to pick up the birds!) Well, yesterday, his retrieving was stylish, quick and to hand - awesome! He even impressed me :-)

He impressed judges Carolyn Joy Evele and Margaret Lindsey enough that his scores were 9.9 and 9.7 out of a possible 10.0!! Dave videotaped as much as he could from his position in the gallery. I'll get that posted so you all can see. I saw some of the other dogs work on land, but couldn't see anything of the water retrieve. Dave, however, saw all of the Junior dogs work and said that Clifford easily did the best water work of the bunch.

Clifford, Mom's pretty proud of you. If I was wearing buttons, they'd all be busted off!

- Franna

Poults show themselves

I found the nest! It was tucked in a patch of thistles (say it isn't so!!! Thistles on a wool farm!) and nettles up against the trailer we use for a chicken house. Well, we use the trailer, but the chickens really don't. The barn cat hides in the trailer to get away from the chickens. heh.

Below is the survivor of the twins that "Slate Hen" hatched. For a couple weeks we thought this would be our only turkey survivor of the year. Its survival isn't assured, as many things can happen yet to a young free range turkey. Slate Hen isn't ever far away and is a very vigilant mom.
A week later, all 15 poults are vigorous and keeping mom on her toes. These inmates have a greater chance of survival - at least while they're in the "big house". They do spend time pacing back and forth along the walls. Just being safe, having food and water, doesn't equal happiness, even if they're just turkeys. I'll be glad when they reach the age where we can release them to the great outdoors, or maybe just to a larger confinement space.

Anyone for Valentine's Turkeys? Ohhhh, how about Easter Turkeys - April 12, 2009! Yum!

- Franna

P.S. We just heard from our next door neighbors that another of the turkey hens is nesting in their pasture! We might be overrun with turkeys this fall/winter!

Surprise!

We had resigned ourselves to no homegrown turkeys this year after several clutches failed to hatch. The many calls looking for pasture raised turkeys we've received have been turned away for lack of poults. We were even suspecting our Tom had gone sterile and were contemplating turkey sausage. (YUM!)

Two weeks ago, our "slate" hen (Bourbon Red x Eastern Wild) hatched two poults, and still has one living. This morning when we were feeding sheep and piglets, I was watching the slate hen with her one offspring and heard baby bird peeping from another direction! Lo and behold, one of the Bourbon Red hens had some yellow fluffballs scampering around her legs. I didn't even know she was setting! As I watched her with her brood, I saw more and more poults emerge from under leaves, between grass clumps and behind the compost pile. My quick count was FIFTEEN! YES! Fifteen poults are worth protecting!

We dug out the chicken tractor, feeders and waterers, bought some turkey starter, and proceeded to set it up in the backyard. Then after some stalking, herding, and coaxing, all fifteen puffballs and mom were safely closed in the chicken tractor in the yard. I hope 3 months is enough time for them to grow up!

This is a peek into the chicken tractor after the poults went to bed under Mom.

Turkey is back on the menu!

Of course, yesterday I'd finally ordered broiler chicks. We'll have 50 Red Broilers from Phinney Hatchery coming the second week in September. That should be enough time to set up another tractor.

- Franna

County Fair Time!

Dave and I have "done" the Puyallup Fair, first with our daughter in dog 4H, and more recently with our sheep in the Open class. Last year we got together with the NW Shetland Sheep Group and exhibited our sheep at the Skagit County Fair - a very nice small sized fair held in Mt. Vernon. Well, when ERN is complete, the Island County Fair will be our "home" fair, so we decided to add it to our schedule this year.


So, off we went, 2 weeks ago to the Skagit Fair with a string of Shetlands (for the second annual NW Shetland Sheep Group show) and a string of Natural Colored Gotland X sheep. We had a great time again with all the sheep folks and showing our sheep. Donna and Tina have posted photos and blogs about our Shetland "show", so I'll refer you to them for neat photos of that event.


Two days after getting home from the Skagit Fair, I packed up another string of sheep for the Island County Fair - GotlandX's in grey and white (ICF allows crossbred, non-registered sheep to be shown), and the 4 Scottish Blackface sheep.

There was a lot of "what was I thinking???" going through my head, but eventually, I and the sheep got packed and ready. The ICF is a smaller fair than the SCF, with a sheep barn maybe 1/4 the size with a dirt floor and cattle panel dividers. Most of the exhibitors are 4H'ers, and the other 2 Open exhibitors were connected with 4H. The kids were wonderful! Friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and were always willing to help this sometimes creaky, never enough hands, shepherd. They had an amazing number of wool clothing items and educational posters on display!

Here's DH finishing up feeding the ewes and lambs.

The ewes could (and did!) poke their heads through the large grids in the cattle panels and solicited pats from Fairgoers, and stole hay from the neighboring sheep pens. Here is another view of our ewe and lamb pens:


And the Ram pen, with our posters on the wall above:




Butch, our Scottish Blackface yearling ram was the big draw in the Sheep Barn. Throughout the Fair, folks were pointing and commenting on his horns. The sheep show judge really liked the length of his loin, his fleece and his conformation. She liked him enough, in fact, to award him BEST IN SHOW over all the sheep there!!! That is really unusual for a minor breed like Scottish Blackface.


He really is an impressive ram, and we are very pleased :-)


Butch wasn't the only one of our sheep to do well in the competition. Two farms brought Gotland X sheep to show - between us we had 12 Gotland X's - 4 yearlings and 8 lambs. Bill, one of our 75% Gotland ram lambs, was awarded Champion Gotland X ram, and Bossie, one of our Gotland/Finn yearling ewes was awarded Champion Gotland X ewe. In the final lineup for Supreme Ram and Ewe, Bill was awarded the Champion Natural Colored Ram! Wow! Here are Bill and I with his Rosettes - they're almost as tall as he is!


And here's a photo of what his fleece looks like under those Rosettes - YUM!


In the fleece show, one of Joanne's white GotlandX lamb fleeces won BEST IN SHOW!!! And one of our Shetland Ram fleeces was Best Natural Colored Fleece!

The best part of the Fair is the people, though. Sheep people, and especially small county fair type sheep people are just the nicest, friendliest folks anywhere. We're really looking forward to moving to the Island. :-)

- Franna

Le Tour Fini!

Well, this is the last day of Le Tour de Fleece, as well as the Tour de France. I managed to spin 5.5 oz of fingering/lace weight singles in light fawn wool/alpaca blend. Not a large amount by any means, but it sure feels like an accomplishment. :-) Company and sick animals combined to keep me from actually achieving my goal of spinning every day, though I spun a lot more than I would have without the inspiration.

I also got some lovely caramel colored alpaca washed and ready to spin. Somewhere there are photos that I'll post later :-)

Thanks, Lucy, for providing my inspiration for the Tour - and Lois, too. I think I'll spin up a bit more this evening.

- Franna

Le Tour de Fleece 2008

In memory of Lucy.

I pledge to spin something "blonde" from my stash every day from now to the end of Le Tour.

- Franna

Just Desserts

Tomorrow the Moonspinners Guild is meeting to work on our Sheep to Shawl project. I have the wool and need to wash more of it so we can card and blend for the shawl warp.

Well, the sink was full of dishes, so I needed to clean that up before I could wash more fleece. Lined up along the counter were a half dozen or so empty beer bottles. We started making hard apple and pear cider last fall, and save the recapable bottles to refill. Typically, they sit on the counter until I feel like soaking their labels off.

Well, today, I decided to soak the labels off and wash the bottles. A few of the bottles weren't quite empty, so I was pouring them out into the sink, not paying a lot of attention. One bottle was particularly heavy and didn't seem to want to pour out. Plus there was this dark, hairy looking mold in the sink - coming from the bottle? I was shaking the bottle to dislodge the "mold", just as reality started to sink in. The stench hit just about the same time I saw a "worm" coming out of the upside down bottle.

Oh NO! It wasn't mold, it wasn't a worm. It was a MOUSE. The mouse had somehow crawled up on top of the bottles and squeezed into one with a bit of left over beer. That must've been one briefly happy mouse!

I don't get grossed out too often, but this one did it! You can't imagine the smell. Dead thing and old beer. YECHH! You can bet THAT bottle went directly and swiftly into a plastic bag and outside in the garbage can. Thank goodness garbage pickup is tomorrow.

NO PHOTOS. You can thank me later ;-)

- Franna

Projects from Done to Far Out

Done.

Three skeins of a very soft Icelandic lamb blended with bits of red and charcoal mohair. The sheep was one of our early acquisitions, an Icelandic lamb named "Cream". She was a wild thing as a lamb, and never calmed down. I got one shearing from her, a lovely flowing typical Icelandic fleece with very soft undercoat. I processed the fleece myself, on a (then new) drum carder gift from DH. :-) The batts sat for three (?) years while I decided what to do with them. Finally, I decided to spin them up in a Lopi style single, but 2 ply it for balance. They're very low twist and it caused some drift when I was plying. My intention is to knit mittens, perhaps, then felt them.

Almost Done.

This is the Bird in Hand knit-along that started with the Shetland Sheep Group. I'm not sure anyone actually finished their pair of mittens - mine are ALMOST done. :-) They're knitted with handspun Shetland. The white is from my flock - Daisy and Daphne with some of Acclaim's alpaca fleece blended in. The variegated red-brown is some kool-aid dyed roving that I bought before we had Shetland sheep. It is wondrous, soft and clean stuff. I just 2 plied it and didn't intentionally keep the colors distinct. You can see the subtle variation, especially on the left hand mitten. Even though my gauge is usually spot on, and I only knit these a couple months apart, the left hand mitten is larger than the right. **sigh** More fulling/felting is in order. I hope I can size them without losing the pattern definition. This was a challenging knit. No pattern row repeats. Each one is different. I got most of Mitten Two done in the car on the way to and from BSG.

Just Started.

At Shepherds' Extravaganza this year, Sharon Hayden of Bel Tine Farm (who does custom mill spinning) had these eye-catching skeins of Cotswold yarn for sale! I'd been eyeing the Farmhouse rug in Knitter's Stash for a while, and this yarn jumped out at me as being perfect for the project - lustrous, strong and lively colors! All of the colors were there except for the sky blue and forest green. I had those dyes at home, so bought extra white and dyed them myself. :-)


You can see I haven't gotten far on the project, but it will go quickly once I sit down and just do it. It is an intarsia project, so I've wound each skein on a ball winder and put it inside a ziploc baggie to keep them contained. So far, it's working.

FAR OUT!

Fair Isle is one of my favorite knits. I just love the natural colors in Fair Isle patterns. This is another pattern from the Knitter's Stash book (one of my favorite knitting books, along with Homespun, Handknit). I include it in the photo as an example, because what I've really been doing is gathering a spectrum of natural colors from my Shetlands and blending them with similar colors of Alpaca in an 80:20 ratio.


All of these samples are from our flock, gathered over the last 4 years. I now have 14 different sheep's worth of roving in the Shetland/Alpaca blend plus four 100% Shetlands. There are 4 distinct shades of brown, white, black, and two distinct shades of grey, with additional more subtle "sheep lot" variations. This is one of EverRanch Farm's products - natural colors of
Shetland blended with Alpaca specially for Fair Isle spinning/knitting.

Gathering this spectrum of natural colors has been a dream of mine since 2003. I just picked up roving at BSG to complete the spectrum, dark brown and light fawn. I don't even have a specific project in mind, though gloves or mittens are high on my list. Sweater... dare I even write that??? DH already has his order in for one of those. :-)

Of course, there are more UFO's stashed hither and yon. Someday, I'll feature more of them.

- Franna

What I did at the Black Sheep Gathering

It took all day Thursday to get ready for our mini vacation to Eugene, Oregon. What? Why a vacation in Eugene? Notwithstanding the Eugene Tourist Bureau's glamouritization of Eugene, and that it is a quiet, University town nestled in the beautiful Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, it is hardly a destination resort town. However, the third weekend of June, they host the Black Sheep Gathering, arguably the biggest and best Sheep and Wool event in the Northwest.

Shepherds from all of the western states bring their nicest sheep and lambs to be shown and sold at BSG. All types of fiber and related vendors bring their wares from all over the West. Many and varied classes are held. Add a huge wool show and sale, and fiber folks are in seventh Heaven at BSG.

This year I went with no particular wish list - I was just going to enjoy, conduct the Gotland Sheep Association meeting and socialize. HAH!

Just before the event, Dave and I decided to look for a second ewe lamb for the 2008 summer shows. We only had one Shetland ewe lamb born here this season, and it's nicer to show two of them. I contacted Lois Moore of Stonehaven Farm who was packing to leave. She was bringing several ewe lambs for sale, at least two of which were already sold. We got on her list. :-)

Several weeks ago, we'd traded the yearling ram, Franjean, for a future choice of ewe from Marybeth Bullington-Bury, who would also be at BSG.

I also had given Robyn West of Kalaya Farms several fleeces to process late in 2007, which were now ready and going to come to BSG with Robyn.

We arrived at BSG about 10 pm on Thursday and found a great place to camp (in the asphalt paved parking lot - "great" because it was close enough to power, in a fairly quiet location, and on the edge of camperville).

This little cutie caught my eye in Lois's sheep pens. Her name is Astrid.

This gal also caught my eye after sitting with her and her pen mates for a while. She has such wonderful, creamy, soft and wavy fleece. She was always near to hand, ready for a scratch. Her name is Marissa.


By Saturday evening, we'd arranged to bring both Astrid and Marissa home with us. :-)
They're enjoying the lush grass in their quarantine pen, and are anxious to make the acquaintance of the other sheep that they see and hear, but can't touch.

Not that sheep were the only items that "followed" us home. I found a nifty combination creep gate and walk gate at Shaul's that will nicely fit our moveable setups. I found some soft, white BFL roving from Tumblecreek Farm. (Our BFLxBL ewes Hortense and Lindy came from Robina.) I found some soft mystery roving in grey, black and red, at the Rowan Tree Woolery that just kept calling my name. I didn't feel bad about that at all since they'd supported our Benefit Auction for the Black Sheep Creamery :-)

Oh, the myriad of spindles, silks, hand painted rovings, lace weight yarns, baskets and wheels that I didn't buy. Look, Honey, how much I saved by leaving them for other folks :-)

- Franna

P.S. HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Tina and John Park for their FIRST PLACE, BLUE RIBBON win in lamb/yearling Shetland Fleeces with Luna's fleece!!!

Progress!

"Construction" at ERN started with a driveway... a LOOOOOONNG driveway... and a well. We've moved on to excavation of building sites - the first is the site for the Garage/Shop. But, in order to prepare for the Garage/Shop foundation, the upper part of the property needed to be graded to allow electrical lines to be buried deep enough they wouldn't be in the way of the future arena. All this equated to moving many tons of dirt!

The panorama photo looks from left (north) to right (south) across the building sites. (I loaded a bigger version, but it won't "biggify" for me :-( The close in excavation is for the "top" of the arena which contains an equipment shed... or WILL contain an equipment shed. After it is in place, you'll see ROOF rising toward the East from this vantage point. Straight ahead is the driveway which basically bisects the 20 acres. In the center right, just to the right of my truck, is the House site. It'll be a while before that one's in work. ($$$$$$!) On the right is the shop/garage site, which will be the first building.

This is my rendering of what the shop/garage building will look like. The windows on the left look toward Mt. Baker. :-) The upstairs extends over about 2/3 of the downstairs. There will be a woodstove in the front corner, a bathroom on the left corner and a kitchen... oops, I mean "wool processing" area between them. ;-) We'll be "living" in an RV under the awning shown at the back.

Of course, Clifford and Villa just love going to ERN. They get to run and run and run, chase birds and rabbits and generally get tired and dirty doing "dog stuff". Villa is growing up! She's taller than Clifford now and almost as fast. What a cutie!

- Franna

What I did Last Weekend - or Hooked!

Some of you might recognize the dog in the photo as the subject of several other blogs, recent and not. This is Clifford, my Welsh Springer Spaniel, known officially as American and International Champion Briarbanc Brych Red Dog, RE, OA, NAJ. I'm the person in the middle - the only girl in the photo. The two guys are Spaniel Hunt Test judges, Erich and Dave. The orange rosette is important.


The American Kennel Club offers competition for a wide variety of performance events, one of those is Spaniel Hunt Tests. I have wanted to enter Clifford in one of these since he was a little puppy retrieving his first birds. He is without a doubt the best upland hunting dog I've ever owned or hunted with in over 3 decades of hunting. The only thing that's stopped me (besides squeezing a little more time out of each day....) was his retrieving. Spaniels are required to retrieve on land and water. Clifford wants to find the birds and doesn't care too much about bringing them back. (He has Labradors to do that for him!) Yes, I tried teaching him to retrieve numerous times over the last 6 1/2 years - making me question my dog training skills - and "something" always came up and I'd put it off again.

About 2 weeks ago a message came across the local Spaniel list announcing that entries were still open but closing soon for three upcoming local spaniel hunt tests. I looked at the calendar and saw (wonder of wonders!) that two of the days were "open". I thought back to the last training session where Clifford was stealing bumpers (retrieving training objects) from the Labradors and bringing them to me. What the heck - I entered him in the two days.

A friend was setting up training sessions, one last Sunday and then one on Thursday. I managed to make both of them. The first one was semi-encouraging and semi-disastrous. He was a bit out of control and brought back 2 of 4 birds. The Thursday training session was much better. He brought back 3 of 3, and did a great job of quartering (finding the birds on land), and one outstanding retrieve.

In between days, I pulled out a bumper and played fetch with him. He was less than stellar at bringing them to me, but improved each time.

Saturday came and we headed out. His land work was acceptable (I thought) and he flushed 3 birds, one was shot and he retrieved it (!!!), one flew away behind us (no shot), and one landed where Clifford caught and brought it in. Unfortunately, the judges wanted to see a little more retrieving. They threw a dead bird, Clifford found it easily but only brought it half way back, left it and wouldn't pick it up again. Dang!

Home again, and I did some fun bumper games with him, encouraging that retrieve to be complete to me.

On Monday, we were at a different site. It was open, thick grass, and the dogs were having a lot of trouble locating the planted birds. Clifford was the next to last dog to run. His work was excellent! He found birds that many dogs had run past, and brought his required 2 all the way in to me. :-) We then got to wait several hours while the more advanced dogs did a couple other tests before we moved to a pond for the water retrieves. Clifford was, again, the next to last dog to run. He enthusiastically ran into the water, swam out to the bird and brought it back... not quite to hand, but CLOSE ENOUGH! He earned the Orange Rosette and the first "leg" of his AKC Junior Hunter title.

So here's the "hook". It takes 4 qualifying performances - or 4 "legs" - to earn the title of Junior Hunter. Now, could someone who persevered to get her PhD at age 52, stop with 25% of a title completed? I don't think so! ...then there's Senior Hunter... and Master Hunter... but we won't go there - yet.

- Franna

Tag, I'm it!

Michelle recently tagged me for a meme and asked me pretty please to play, so here goes:

The rules: Posted here at the beginning. The player answers all questions. The player then chooses six people you want to know more about and tags those people by listing their names at the end of the post and going to their blog and leaving a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Also, you let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, 1998. Life was a lot different for me ten years ago. I was working for Boeing on a fighter aircraft program, making titanium parts. I was a single mom raising my daughter, assisting with her 4H Club - Dawg Gone Dogs, going to school to get my Master's degree in Engineering. We had 3 dogs, none of whom are alive now, and 2 cats, both of whom are still alive and relatively healthy for senior kitties. I had no idea that I would learn to spin and have a farm with sheep 10 years in the future.

2. What were five things on my to-do list today (not in any particular order)?
I didn't make a to-do list today :-) I worked at Take Root farm in the morning weeding turnips and onions. I then took Clifford and met a group for hunting training. I came home and took a nap... zzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzz After that I was inspired and trimmed Clifford's feet and nails, then took on Thomas, and finally Villa. Then I picked up pizza for supper. Last will be a sheep check and change the bandage on Black Market's leg. Well, that's more than 5.

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
Ohhh, snacks. Sweet things, salty things, fruit, finger size veggies.

4. Where are some places I've lived?
Well, I grew up in Seattle, unincorporated King County between Burien and DesMoines, spent a year (4th grade) in Cambridge, Ohio, on an 18 acre "Gentleman's Ranch", lived in Richland, Wa for 12 years, spent time in Pullman at WSU, a few months in Alexandria, VA, and the rest in the Seattle area.

5. What things would I do if I were a billionaire?
Oh my! Keep it quiet then pay off our debts, number one. Put enough away to be comfortable. Travel. New Zealand is high on my list, as are Scotland, Sweden and Nepal. Sponsor research into alternative energy, sponsor some sheep vets. Support charities for abused children and old dogs. Learn to weld. Build a hobbit hole house. Have an electric gate ;-)

Here are the six people I'm tagging: It's hard to ask six... does anyone want to volunteer? Drop me a line and I'll "tag" you. DH said he would, so I'll tag him. Kathy and Tina, will you play with us? :-)

Thanks, Michelle. You gave me an easy post to write. I have several more in the works but have been trying to limit my computer time so I get more done. It works sometimes ;-)

- Franna

Confessions of an Age 55+, Retired, PhD Engineer, Shepherd, Mom, Daughter, Wife, Farm Hand

I am never bored. There is always something interesting to read or learn, or someone interesting to listen to. Sometimes, though, inertia takes hold and I can't decide what to do, or just can't get past that first step.

On Sunday, Mom and I went out to brunch at a restaurant neither one of us knew - the Mark Restaurant, in Olde Burien. It was very nice. I love my Mom and like spending time with her. So why do I see her so seldom?

When I dropped her off, she offered to loan me some books. I like reading books. My taste runs from sci-fi and fantasy to historical novels, self help and the "Chicken Soup" collections. Killer Angels is one I re-read now and then, the Harry Potter series can keep me up late, Nuts! was good (about Southwest Airlines), and Marley was a tear jerker - especially since we'd lost 3 of our dogs in the previous year. On airplane trips, I find a trashy romance novel and bury my nose in it for the duration. (I'm a white knuckle airline passenger.)

I poked through her bedside collection and picked out three very different sounding books.

First I started Dead Wrong by Janice Kay Johnson, an author from Seattle (!) The book is set near Bend, Oregon and kept me up late. It's kind of a romance novel, but also a mystery. The main character was a young woman detective who solves (rather personally!) a violent serial rapist/murder case.

The next one was Big Fish by Daniel Wallace. It was entertaining. A group of short, embellished, larger than life tales about Edward Bloom as told by his son as his father lay dying.

I just finished the third one this morning: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The book is laid out as a biography (purely fictional? historical basis???) of an Afghani who emmigrates to the US after the Soviets invade Afghanistan. During his childhood he watches his best friend get brutally raped while he hides in the shadows. This event colors his whole life. He eventually returns to Afghanistan to rescue the friend's son and finds some sort of courage. This is an outstandingly written book - haunting. Nightmare provoking.

The Kite Runner and Dead Wrong are not the type of books I like to read. (Big Fish was just strange, but I got some laughs from it.) I hate reading or watching (movies) where children and women are the objects of senseless and twisted violence. Couldn't these authors have used some other events to make their points? Yes, they are well written, but is it worth the nightmares, the flashbacks to the violent parts of the books? I like trashy novels where my flashbacks are to the steamy sections. ;-) sci-fi where the flashbacks are to the battles that the (women) commanders win by the skin of their teeth, fantasy where dolphins speak and diagnose illnesses and people ride dragons to battle alien life forces. Yet, I read these books and after some fashion, enjoyed them, and, if you like that kind of book, would recommend them.

Oh, confessions. I read books while the sheep were untended (though they don't need much tending out on pasture!), the dogs in their crates instead of lounging at my feet or being trained and played with, taxes need to be done (we filed an extension), much paperwork is languishing, websites are out of date, fleeces need skirting, yard work, and drywall, painting, and on and on and on.

What I need is a good dose of ambition. Something to get me away from the keyboard and on to tasks that need doing. I find that taking vitamins regularly helps my attitude and gets me motivated. So why do I slack off? heh... just before starting this post, I took my vitamins. ;-) Maybe that will get me taking more photos, sharing more regularly, making progress.

heh... confessions. I'm a farm worker now. The local CSA (Take Root Farm) was doing a work-share for the summer. It was full when I asked, but they needed some part time farm hands. I started last week. We planted beans, lettuce and fennel transplants. It was all bending and reaching. Ouchies. My back still isn't the same. Add exercises and situps to my list. :-\

I did figure out how to make videos (I still have to learn editing) and post them on You Tube. There are two. 1) Franjean (Shetland ram) walking around and eating ( a video to complement photos and fleece samples; he's now living in Oregon) and 2) Clifford at the latest agility trial where he gives me half attention after a bird swoops over him between the second two obstacles. There are flashes of brilliance, so maybe we'll get there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKPdV299xoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoRZw2h7w2E

Ohhhhh, I just got an idea for the Moonspinners Sheep to Shawl project (I'm the Chairman this year). I'll have to hustle to get examples together for tonight's meeting. Inspiration!

- Franna