Pond Run

I think my animals have it better in some ways when I go to work.  I have no choice but to get out in the barn and do chores at 6 am.  When I'm home for the summer it's a great temptation to stay in my nightie and spin wool, sipping coffee and snuggling with the doggies on the sofa.  They are the only ones who are tended to without delay, as they will punish me with bombs away on the floor if I don't.   I am spinning some teal green wool, as the next to the last ball was purchased at the market on Saturday, along with the last teal green hand spun.  What does that tell me?  People like teal green!  My teal is actually a blend of several different blues and greens, along with a little purple thrown in, skillfully blended by John at Frankenmuth.   I am itching to get to work on this fall's blends, but my wool washing machine is broken, full of dirty water.  Yuck.  I have a nifty space saver washer right outside the apartment door, in my studio room, but I am forbidden to use it for wool.  I prefer the milk room (where the bulk tank used to be) set up because I have dye stove, sink and washer just feet away from each other.  I can spill over and there's no damage.  I do have to work around the chicken poo as the little buggers manage to get in there to get the grain stored on pallets.  When it's frigid cold and damp the milk room is a refuge for barn cats and free range chickens.  I chase them out in the spring.  Hey, they have 18,000 square feet of barn to roam in - a haven for cats and chickens - what's the problem here?  I have four skeins of handspun hanging to dry in the bathroom.  Love it.

I've started to sort through the beautiful fabrics gifted to me by Sally Newhart Upholstery in New Orleans, and my fabulous personal shopper, Carol Crayonbox.   Carol, long time art professor and talented fiber artist, recently assisted a local Ithaca shepherd, and my shearer, Jim Baldwin, with taking the wool off 50 Shetlands.  This was an epic experience for Carol, who has had a hard time understanding "why we keep all those animals - you would have so much more time."  She can do anything with wool, but stops at the hands-on animal part.   Her level of consciousness has been raised I reckon.

 I'm reading a real good book called "The Dirty Life."    I highly recommend it.  Kristen Kimball met a farmer and reluctantly followed him down the dirty road.  Her story reminds me of my situation with Matt as the reluctant farmer, only Kristen eventually embraced the agricultural life wholeheartedley.  She and her husband are MUCH younger, and only work the farm.  We are older and both work off the farm.  Hard to compare, but I like to imagine how it might have been if I found my farm at 25, not 55.