When the shearer was here, he started with the sheep's belly...apparently this is the wool most people discard because it is usually quite short and partially felted. His wife mentioned you could use it as mulch in the garden...hmmm. So I thought I would try it around my newly transplanted cucumbers. It has been quite cold here at night...going down to about 4 degrees, so I thought these nice little woolly sweaters would keep my cukes toasty warm! We shall see.
It does look a little funny.
I mentioned in an earlier post, that they had shed their winter coat, so this fleece is not quite as long as I hope it will be next year.
They do look quite funny...somehow less dignified...but they will be so much cooler this summer, so hopefully it will be worth it :)
And now I have all of this to play with...
Last week I was in Victoria, attending the Master Spinner Level 1, class as part of the Victoria Fibre Festival 2009. It was a great course and covered the spinning process from raw fleece, washing, dyeing, carding, spinning to plying the final product. There were six other participants in the class, all of whom had been spinning for sometime...I was the only complete newbie. It was a little daunting at first, but my teacher was fantastic and the other spinners gave me lots of tips and support.
It's pretty lumpy I admit...but by the end of the week...I was spinning silk! This is Tussah silk mixed with merino...
We also learned about using natural dyes including carrot tops, onion skins, marigolds, coccineal and pomegranate....
such a beautiful array of colour, don't you think?
after I get caught up on my garden, etc, etc!
Photo courtesy of Mary St. Germain-Brown
Chicken tractors can be moved frequently, providing the advantages of free ranging with the protection of the enclosure. In a chicken tractor poultry have access to fresh forage, including grass, weeds, and bugs, though these resources will quickly be depleted if the tractor is not moved. This supplements their diet, reducing the amount of feed they consume. Because the enclosures do not have floors there is no need for periodic cleaning out, unlike stationary chicken houses. The frequent moves to fresh grass can also avoid a buildup of manure. Chicken tractors imitate a natural, symbiotic cycle of foraging in which the animals eat down the vegetation, deposit fertilizing manure, and then move on to a new area.
By using chicken tractors, flock owners are able to raise poultry in an extensive environment, where the birds have access to fresh air, sunlight, forage, and exercise, which caged birds in commercial houses do not have. By using one small section of a field at a time, allowing all the other sections to recover, the field can sustain more birds than if they were turned out on the whole field all of the time. Because of this chicken tractors enable people to maximize the use of their land. The enclosures also offer some protection from predators and weather, and in the case of egg producers, the birds lay eggs in designated nest boxes rather than hiding them in foliage.
So twice a day, the girls and I head over to beautiful Big Bear Ranch with water and food for the growing chickens. G. is a great help, filling up the water buckets while the little girls run through the pasture picking dandelions...
Photo courtesy of Big Bear Ranch
It has been a busy time for the girls this past week, preparing for the annual In the Works Dance Studio Dance Recital. Yes, our little town has it's very own dance school with an incredible dance teacher, who choreographs a show for all of her students, every year. There are 6 classes for dancers from 5 years old up to the over 40 crowd :) There is ballet, jazz and a boys only hip hop class. They all did a phenomenal job. This is our school gym, transformed...
The show this year was called Kaimana, which means the 'power of the ocean' in Hawaiian. It was an underwater theme, and the little ballerinas were supposed to be pearls with G. being the 'Mother of Pearls'. She is in white and V is in the blue skirt, second from the left...
This is the finale with the full cast...
It was a wonderful show and the girls had a great time!
