One Down...

My first Ravelympics project is finished - here is Emma modeling Ishbel:





Pattern: Ishbel (I must be the last knitter on the planet to have done this!)
Yarn: Malabrigo Laceweight, "Ravelry Red," from The Loopy Ewe
Modifications: did size L stockinette portion, and size S lace repeates (ABACDE). Had to fudge some stitch counts but it all worked out in the end.

---

I scored an hibiscus plant at the grocery store yesterday, and awoke to a bloom this morning:



That'll certainly help see me through to Spring!

The roosters are already feeling the change in daylight hours - one lured a hen up to the goat barn last night. The others are sizing each other up in the coop, raising their "manes" until they look like umbrella-heads in order to intimidate one another and impress the females. Our three largest - Golden Laced Wyandottes - are big babies and stay on their roosting perches and out of the fray... which is unfortunate, as they're the ones we want to win over the girls!

---

Off to knit on Ravelympics project two, Traveling Woman... Have a wonderful day!

Ravelympics 2010 and Famous Rooster

Still unpacking, ordering and hanging curtains and hooks, and trying to remember where I put everything, but I've had a few moments to knit and enjoy the Olympics.

My Traveling Woman shawl(ette) for Ravelympics 2010 (Team Wrap Around Ewe, lace luge and short track shawls events) has been easy thus far... but now it's time to begin the lace part! I love the "Persia" colorway of this Malabrigo Sock yarn:



I'm trying to finish up Ishbel before going to the charts on Traveling Woman; this is done in Malabrigo Lace in the "Ravelry Red" colorway:



I did the size L stockinette part, and the size S lace repeats (ABAC - just starting C in the pic above). I was worried about having enough yarn but I would guess there'd have been enough to do a complete size L. Really messed up my stitch count going into chart C, though... I just fudged it as I'll never be able to find what went wrong if I tink it.

My favorite competitors as the Games have been Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Evan Lysacek and Yevgeny Plushenko. So inspiring! (Helping me stick to my diet for sure!)

My favorite ad is, without a doubt... "I'm on a horse!" Brilliant! Not. To. Be. Missed.

What are you liking about the Olympics this year?

---

Our Silver Spangled Hamburg(er) rooster, Keach, was incuded in the latest Hobby Farms magazine:



He's named for a very dear friend, and is a wonderful guy!

Always Busy On A Farm

There really is no "down time" on a farm, and this weekend was no exception.

Chef Jeff shoveled and spread over 500 bushels of manure, alone. The goat barn has a new starter supply of hay for Swedish-style deep bedding for the winter; the chicken coop and nest boxes are fresh and clean as well; and the donkey pucks are out of the paddock. All that organic fertilizer should be great for next year's alfalfa crop - it'll work itself in over the winter and spring.

The house has now been sided outside...





... and drywalled and painted inside:





We celebrated Chef Jeff's 40th birthday with dinner at his favorite restaurant due to a surprise visit from my mother. I also baked orange scones for him this weekend instead of a birthday cake - he isn't fond of sweets. Well, he enjoys sweets, he just doesn't eat them - the man has a will of iron with regard to his diet (which is why he looks 30 instead of 40; me, not so much!)

Tonight we had "dinner in a pumpkin":





This would make a great Thanksgiving dinner for those who don't wish to roast a whole turkey.



The original recipe can be found here (warning: turn down your sound).

I altered it a bit by using dark brown sugar, 1 tsp. of thyme, turkey instead of beef, 3 celery stalks with leaves, Native American hand-harvested and parched wild rice, and white pepper. I used fat from heritage Berkshire hog bacon for browning. The "stuffing" went into a sugar pumpkin that I grew this year. It was delicious!

Next time we make it, we're going to nix the canned soup (albeit organic) and canned mushrooms, and go with dried wild mushrooms. We'll rehydrate them and use the stock from them to deglaze the frying pan, and then add in cream. We will use maple syrup for the sweetener, Worcestershire sauce for the salty, fermented taste, and real chestnuts instead of water chestnuts. Maybe some cranberries as well.

The recipe I made tonight was double what would fit in the pumpkin. Luckily, I have another to use. :)

---

In fiber news, the four Icelandic sheep and five Angora goats are shorn! Need wool or mohair? Get in touch!

We used Bob Rajek from Rajek Family sheep services for shearing, and were pleased with his care of the animals and the fleeces. He was very easy to work with. He is located in Stanley, WI, and also buys and sells sheep (for those interested) - 715-429-0879.

As far as my knitting, I've finished the large, blue and silver Drops shawl, as well as the Colinette Jitterbug Multnomah. I don't think I'll use that yarn again; it is still bleeding color after 10 rinses! I'm not too crazy about having been exposed to excess dye chemicals while knitting.

If you are thinking of knitting a Multnomah, be prepared to do some fudging - it's not the clearest pattern I've ever read, and you sort of have to see the big picture and intention and do your own thing to make it work out. For instance, fit in new lace pattern repeats on the borders when you are able to after making increases - the number of "repeats" in the pattern seems to be off, and I've seen a whole bunch of projects which don't have a steady Feather And Fan border all the way around the edges because of that.

I finished one gray mitten of Garnstudio Karisma Superwash, and started its mate; they'll be lined with lime green Garnstudio Alpaca. I also have a two-color Garnstudio Fabel Baktus on the needles. Pics coming soon... Who knows? Maybe the next Baktus I make will be the lacy version - I definitely have no intention of stopping knitting Bakti!

Next project is going to have to be a durable farm cardigan for myself; I'm thinking garter stitch, neck down, raglan, with a zipper. Also should do a hat for Chef Jeff - most likely the Doubleknitski.

---

So what am I most thankful for this week on the farm? Sleep!

Have a wonderful holiday, US friends!

Moving Right Along

The house construction is moving along so quickly that I can't even get current photos posted before they're obsolete!

I posted on Facebook on Oct. 30th that Dixie mentioned that she couldn't believe how calm I was about the house project. I realized it was because Wausau Homes/Dick Hieb Homes have the process down. No worries. Everything on schedule. The contractors show up on time, right after the last ones have finished their work, and they're all polite and conscientious (they are even friendly to the goats!) We had a single, small concern with one tradesperson - but that was someone we'd insisted on using, who was not part of the usual Wausau crew. We just can't say enough good things about Wausau Homes/Dick Hieb Homes of Black River Falls. If you ever build, check them out if you want a hassle-free house project.

My father was a home builder when I was young, and I remember that there were always problems with the coordination of tradespeople, theft from construction sites, and arguments between contractors (when and if they bothered to show up). I was prepared to have to micro-manage this whole process, and really was not looking forward to it. I have never been so relieved to have my expectations proven wrong. I'm sure that having this house progress on-time and on-budget has saved my marriage and my sanity.

Chef Jeff and I love that this type of "panelized" construction (not modular) is better for the environment, as is the geothermal heating/cooling we chose. We like knowing that the structure didn't get wet or moldy since it was up and roofed in about three days. My good friend Denise sent me this link to share about construction of panelized (different from modular) homes - hope you find it interesting.

To get you up-to-speed, this was the status of the new house on October 2nd:



This was October 27th; the house was up, and they were trenching for the well and the electicity:



And this was yesterday. The interior drywall is almost finished! The UPS man, who is here almost every week, said, "Hey! When did you guys start building a house?!" He was shocked to see it appear suddenly, as if by magic.



The current house is the white building on the right (sinking precariously, day by day, into the hill!)

---

The 2009 chicken harvest has been deemed a success by Chef Jeff. We experienced only minor losses to a great horned owl and Otter. That would be our dog, Otter - not an otter otter. Let's just say that, for a hunting dog, she does not have a very soft mouth - and apparently has hunted her own vittles in her past life on the run. I learned not to walk her, even on-leash, near the pastured poultry.



If our chickens look oddly bright and yellow to you, that is because that is what natural, pasture-raised, healthy chickens look like. The anemic, chalky chickens one sees in the grocery store are not only devoid of color, they taste as bland as puffed rice crackers. If you haven't experienced the flavor of organic, humanely-raised, free-range chicken, well... you have no idea what chicken is "supposed" to taste like.

Wish I could get Chef Jeff to let me raise a heritage breed hog, because the same is true of pork (and beef, of course). What passes for meat at the supermarket isn't worth purchasing - I'd rather eat tofu. However, seeing as we have an overabundance of guinea fowl at present (25 at last count) and Chef Jeff finds himself unable to take them off to be made into roasters, perhaps a cute pig is not such a good idea.

Most important to us, of course, is that we know that our meat animals lived happy, peaceful lives and didn't suffer - either here, or at our great butcher's shop. Many thanks, Enos Hoover! And thanks to Julie and Vince at Coon Creek Family Farm for recommending him! (Julie's goatmilk soap makes a wonderful holiday gift - she even has bars with a skein of yarn on them!)

The pumpkin crop did not fare as well as the poultry; I grew three, two of which are in this photo. I wouldn't let Chef Jeff make them into pie so he was forced to buy others from the farmer's market. I was pleased to see that though my crop was not abundant, at least my pumpkins were larger than the ones he bought.

---

Blogless Denise keeps asking about my mitten class at Yellow Dog Knitting yesterday. It was wonderful! Cindi taught me many things I didn't know. I'm so glad I went and got to pick her knitting brain for tips.



As usual, there were plenty of goodies to nibble on during class. It wasn't knit nite (nor was it yet 5 p.m.) so I was good and didn't ask for wine. :D

Michelle and Dianne (the friendly, fearless leader of the CraftLit tour of London, Bath & Wales in 2010!) are taking a class with Cindi for a specific Drops cardigan. It is great to have access to a local yarn shop where one can request a class for any topic! They have some free patterns on their website if you are interested...



My mittens are working up very fast in superwash Garn Studio Karisma. I love the simple pattern that Cindi wrote, and I think these are going to be very comfy and toasty. You can see here that I've made my thumb gusset. Cindi is a great teacher because she knew how to handle my Eastern European uncrossed crazy knitting style and didn't bat an eye when I needed help with the mount of an increase. She told me how to do it my way, and didn't tell me I had to learn to knit like a normal person. How great is that kind of personal attention?

My other WIPs are a Baktus in Garn Studio Fabel sock yarns, and a Multnomah (the Fall-colored yarn, the name of which I can't recall at the moment). I love small projects, especially for gifts!

This is a behind-the-scenes shot of my stylist correcting the layout of the subjects to be photographed. Emma's such a great assistant.



And here she is with the baby sister she picked out herself from the Humane Association - Miss Molly. Molly always looks small until one sees her next to Dobie Emma! My girls - love 'em to bits!

---

The winners in the contest for the funny Yellow Dog Knitting totes will now be announced! Drumroll, please! They are:

Jen

Linda M

ciuccia

Congratulations! Would you three please email your mailing addresses to me so I can send you your totes? Thanks to everyone who left a comment on that post, and to Dixie for donating the bags for the drawing.

I love to read what you have to say, so I hope you'll always comment, even when there isn't a contest going on. Have a lovely weekend!

Yee HA, Back In Business

Yippee, something got fixed and my entry page is back to normal. Phew! Thanks to those of you who suggested WordPress - I did set a new blog up over there and it was indeed very easy to use. I'll keep it there, just in case Blogspot goes wonky on me again.

Summer on a farm - even a hobby farm - doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging, as you can imagine. Add to that new Facebook and Twitter accounts, and my life took a major detour as I caught up with friends old and new. Sorry - I have missed you and your wonderful comments!

We had many more hatchings of guinea keets than anticipated, the most recent being this week! We are inundated with guinea fowl. They really are the cutest babies - much more adorable than baby chickens. They're like little "scrubbing bubbles" that zip all over the place on their huge, bright orange feet.



We are still awaiting the shearer to clip the Icelandics and the Angoras, both of which must be shorn twice a year. We had snow this week, so I hope he gets a move-on, since I want the goats to get a decent growth on them before the truly cold weather sets in. At least they have a snug barn, and we have heat lamps should we need them.





Speaking of the snug barn, the Golden Laced Wyandotte chickens that Chef Jeff pasture-raised for the freezer are now having a lovely night's rest in the box stall, before their first (and only) car ride to the humane Mennonite butcher tomorrow. They had a week of feasting on cracked corn, carrots, and apples, as I spoiled them a bit. Perhaps I should have fed them garlic to pre-season them? Well, joking aside, they will receive a blessing from Chef Jeff before they make their journey. I hope we have treated them with the respect they deserved, and that they had very happy days here at Tuppinz Farm.

The livestock are all well. The dogs are all doing great.


Otter sleeps very soundly.


Molly stops chewing her cow ear to watch the big machinery pull up the driveway.

We did have to say good-bye to our wonderful kitty Max due to liver failure. He had never been a healthy cat since he first appeared here at the farm. The other four cats are all just fine. Despite our feelings about outdoor cats, we made the decision to move everyone but Abby out to the goat barn. There, they have two levels of room to run about; a large, heated bed; windows to let in sunlight; and no dogs to chase them. Boris and Otter were a little too interested in some of the cats, and the floorplan of the new house will not allow us to keep the cats and dogs separate any longer. Abby is older and keeps to herself - she will live in the studio and loft in the new house, in which the dogs will not be allowed.

The new house - ah, the new house. Did I mention the new house?

Suffice it to say, the old farmhouse in which we now reside is going to fall down soon. Literally. It will cost less to build a new one than to fix up this one, which in all likelihood isn't even possible. We also have five dogs living in this one - can you imagine trying to repair it? So... we have begun building a new house up on the hill and hope to move in in December.



The old farmhouse will be burned - not only to give students in the firefighter program at a local college experience, but also to get rid of all the awful karma, bad energies, and evil spirits which have clouded our lives for the past three years. I wish I could be excited about it, but the fact is, the experience of moving to a place where dishonest folk left so many very, very bad things really took a toll on me emotionally.

Thank goodness Chef Jeff has been up for the task of choosing counters, cabinets, flooring, and fireplace rocks! I never could have made a decision with so many choices, but he narrowed things down very quickly:



The interior will have a warm, Southwest feel to it. We will have geothermal heat, so the puppers will enjoy a heated floor in their rumpus room downstairs. I will have a larger studio in which I will be able to spread out my knitting, spinning, quilting, and painting, and I can hardly wait for that!

It has been a long and troublesome journey but I am confident that moving on up the hill will make all the bad mojo a thing of the past.

---

Crafting kind of went by the wayside as Chef Jeff's company underwent a "rearrangement" of sorts, resulting in much, much more traveling for him (and many, many more chores on the farm for me - ouch!) Absence - and doing without someone else to haul the hay - really does make the heart grow fonder.

I am almost finished with my Drops sparkly shawl A/K/A "Dixie Shawl" (Ravelry link) - just doing the lower edge border now:



I've done two Baktuses (Bakti?) thanks to the pattern suggestion (Ravelry link) from Professor Nannette. If you are looking for a relaxing, mindless knit that will result in something infinitely giftable and wearable, and will let you enjoy your favorite sock yarn in a new way, this is IT!


Baktus Scarves In Drops Fabel and Koigu KPPPM from Yellow Dog Knitting


I'm loving the Fabel sock yarn's stripes.


There are more colors here than meet the eye initially. Very pretty.

---

Things I'm Liking:

The color ORANGE.

This Swedish (or Norwegian?) shop's clothing - I wish I could get it here in the US!

I follow a number of Scandinavian blogs and I like their aesthetic. I'm a big fan of Carl and Karin Larsson, white rooms and white furniture with handmade accents, and the simplicity of the Gustavian style. I can't read the text of some of these Scandinavian blogs, but I enjoy them nevertheless.

http://miaslandliv.blogspot.com
She has many more great links in her sidebar!

http://posidriv.blogspot.com

http://shabby-roses-cottage.blogspot.com

http://kathrinesquiltestue.blogspot.com

http://blomsterverkstad.blogspot.com

http://maalaiselamaa.blogspot.com

http://angelattable.blogspot.com

http://mykindofblog.blogspot.com

http://whitecountry.blogspot.com

http://ljo-s.blogspot.com

And now I just realized that my RSS reader isn't working properly; those blogs have some new entries I haven't yet seen. Argh! If it's not one thing, it's your mother...

I'm thankful for Birkenstock Central, who restored my stinky old Birks and kept them out of a landfill!

---

And so, dear readers, as the chickens go off to market and the "top" of the new house arrives tomorrow by semi truck, we embark upon a new season at Tuppinz Farm - one of gratitude for abundance. We are indeed very grateful.

Have a lovely week! I'm off to listen to the new episode of Electric Sheep!

New Arrivals

There are surprise babies at Tuppinz Farm!

A bunch of "scrubbing bubbles" appeared in the poultry food line yesterday:


"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"

We have 18 new guinea keets!



When the guinea fowl go broody, they do it in secret. We never know if a hawk or fox has made off with one of them (we wouldn't mind too much as we love the wildlife also), or if they're not coming home to roost at night because they're on a nest. Apparently this time it was the latter. I think I spy another hen on a nest out in the sheep pasture... we'll keep an eye on her to see if another clutch hatches out.

Our tick population is well under control, and guinea fowl are amazingly loud, so perhaps if all of these grow up to adulthood, we'll fatten a few for the freezer.

Our chicken coop was also home to another hatch of babies - barn swallows:



The parents kept the coop insect-free while feeding their young, so have been quite welcome. Chef Jeff tells me he would give the babies a little pat on their heads each day. Don't they look like they're smiling? Having barn swallows grace our farm with their presence is something we look forward to each spring. They zoom around like tiny fighter jets all summer long, catching bugs on the fly. Beautiful birds. We always sigh and know it's springtime when we see them return.

This is my favorite hen, Pigeon Pie. She is a Quail Antwerp Belgian bantam.



When it's my turn to feed the poultry, she is first in line, and flies up onto my outstretched arm, or onto my head, or right into the feed scoop to fill her little beak and scatter food everywhere, creating a pile of chickens, ducks, guineas, and geese at my feet so that I can't take a step. Today, she thought I had something special for her in my egg basket, and flew up to take a peek. Sorry, Pidge, just my work gloves and camera in there...

Weather is perfect here today - sunny, not too hot, breezy. Baby kestrels are learning to fly and hunt. Dogs are napping. Sounds like a plan. Blogger just ate a complete post I had done with it's "autosave" feature (I hate that feature!) Perhaps they could nix that, and get the autopublish feature up and running again? Sigh.

Holiday Weekend

It was a beautiful holiday weekend here in Wisconsin. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

The Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks were moved out to their netted pasture. They are about a month old now. They're loving the fresh air, sunlight, grass, and insects. Our broody Wyandotte hen hatched out nine adopted babies, so that little family was also put in the electric netting for "safekeeping".





In addition to moving the chickens around, Jeff and our Farmhand Extraordinaire, Dakota, got us caught up on goat vaccinations and hoof trimming, fencing, yardwork, hay moving, and a billion other tasks. Thanks for all the hard work, guys!

---

We had a great time at the Altoona fireworks with our friends, Dakota's family. Dakota's brother, Tanner, gave us a private fireworks show in his backyard afterwards. This is his stash. It was quite an impressive display!



We watched Tanner's fireworks from the comfort of our friends' new screen porch, which is the ultimate in summer comfort. What a great area to relax with friends! These guys are great hosts and it's always great to spend time with them.



That's Dakota there in the center of the photograph. We are going to miss him when he goes off to college this fall. Jeff says that Tanner will have a job here on the farm as soon as he is old enough. Two finer young men can't be found!

---

Knowing of our love for fishing, our friends generously invited us to access the Eau Claire River from their property. Chef Jeff and I had a lovely afternoon there yesterday. Though we didn't catch anything, we enjoyed being out in the woods and seeing the gorgeous scenery.





Afterwards, the Chef prepared the catfish he'd caught last week according to a recipe from this beautiful book, which also included recipes for homemade refried black beans and great guacamole. It was an outstanding meal, though we somehow got our hands on a jalapeño that must have been grown near a nuclear reactor because that thing was HOT - and this judgment from people who use habañero sauce on a regular basis!

---

We are so glad that Otter is acclimating to her new home. The other dogs love her... well, Molly tolerates Otter, but Molly's coming along (that's just her way - growl first, make friends later.)

Otter has Lyme disease so she's on antibiotics for a little while. She doesn't seem to have had toys or chews before; she's finally understanding that baked cow ears are a good thing:



When Otter was found she was suffering from heat exhaustion. We are so grateful to our wonderful vet for taking her in for us for treatment and boarding, despite her history being unknown. We intend to go to a town meeting to see how we may be able to change the policies and procedures of our township in order that stray animals may receive temporary housing and care in a more efficient manner; we are not served by the County shelter due to the lack of a financial agreement between them and our township. There has to be a better way, and we shudder to think what could happen if one of our own beloved dogs went missing.

So yes, now we are a five-dog family. I would think we were certifiably nuts, except that the entire vet staff said they hoped we'd keep Otter because they knew we'd be good parents. And Valentine is getting up there in years and has Cushing's, so, after all, we may be back to a four-dog family in the not-too-distant future anyway.

But if I had my wish, there would be a loving home for every dog... until there is, we will take in whomever the Creator sends us, sharing our blessings.

---

In crafting news, I am this close to finishing up my Drops blue alpaca lace shawl... just on the final rows. I started a Koigu "mindless" sock for traveling-to-fishing-holes knitting, and I hope to do some sewing this week before Saturday's MaryJane's Farmgirls meeting, where everyone will ask me if I've made any progress on my current stitching project (not yet, and it's already been three weeks since our last meeting!)

I've seen a cute sewing pattern made up on this blog, and I purchased a copy here. The construction looks super easy, and I think it will be a neat use for some of my Tanya Whelan/Free Spirit or 3 Sisters/Moda girly-girl, flower fabrics.

Have a wonderful day!