Things are a Bit Crazy Around Here

Things have been a bit crazy around here.  Joel broke his arm playing baseball on Easter at the annual Easter egg hunt, potluck and softball game tagging a 10 year old at second base.  He'll be out of commission until the end of the month and can expect another month before the arm is mostly back to normal.   (His doctor said that softball and soccer are their bread and butter).  So I'm carrying wood, feeding the chickens, planting all the seeds, doing all of his chores as well as my own.  And we won't have curry for dinner for another month as that's his specialty and I'm not even trying.  We've had great help from family and friends and we're going to be fine.  Oldest daughter came out for two days and did heroic work mowing, weeding and planting.  Daughter number 2 has offered her yurt to anyone coming to help out and daughter number 3 has a plane reservation for June and who knows what sort of pieces she will have to pick up by then.....

But the garden keeps growing.  I made the first rhubarb crisp last night. (No pictures as I scorched the crust and although it tastes just fine it isn't very photogenic).

And I've managed to get the next set of rugs with our darkest wool woven in between stuff.  The three hemmed ones are washed and hanging on the line to dry.  The two with fringes will get finished next week.

And Joel has this to look forward to.  Our old BCS tiller that we got used over 10 years ago finally gave up the ghost and we splurged on a new one.  Of course, Joel can't run it one armed but his brother has offered to come over and till so I guess he'll get to take it on its maiden voyage.  I always knew Joel did a huge amount of work but now I am getting to REALLY appreciate it.  He's being amazingly patient but I know he's really tired of this.  He can weed with his left hand he's discovered and thus the therapeutic virtues of dirt will prevail.

Rug Close up

As requested below by The Weaver of Grass, here is a closeup up of one of the rugs on the clotheslines below.  The warp is a heavy cotton rug warp and the weft Joel's handspun wool from our sheep.

Rugs

Here are 3 of the 5 rugs that I finished weaving recently.  These are the ones with hems.  The first and last ones  woven have fringes because I can use the loom waste that is tied onto the front and back apron bars as fringe and not waste it.  I'm currently twisting the fringes on those 2 and will post them in a couple of days when they're finished.

Loom Repairs

I was just about to start weaving this year's crop of wool rugs as Joel has finished spinning up last year's wool, when one of the side pieces on my loom split.  Thought I was dead in the water until we could get a piece of hardwood to replace the board,

but, Joel to the rescue.  Assuring me that epoxy is actually stronger than wood he glued the parts together and added a few screws for for good measure.  It's holding just fine.

So onward. I am almost finished with the first 5 rugs of dark grey wool on a linen colored cotton warp.  I have a black warp and a white one wound and ready to go for 10 more.  That'll pretty much use up a year's supply of our own wool.  It is really nice to be working with it.

Owls

I  love owls.  I've been watching several owl nest cams, barred owls in Florida, great horned owls in Oklahoma, and today there was a juvenile giant eagle owl at Pete's Pond in Botswana.  However, when one got one of my chickens this morning I was less than pleased.  We do share the island with these wonderful birds but I'm not as keen on sharing my chickens.  I figured she (or he) has babies to feed.  And the babies I've been watching on the cams are awfully cute.  The picture above is a barred owl and below is a great horned owl.

Up and Coming Projects

I'm happiest with a bunch of projects going at the same time.  It keeps any one of them from getting tedious and I design as I work.  The colors or textures or pattern of what I am working on makes me start thinking of what else I could do with them.  In the picture above you see on the left a basket of wefts for boas with one on the warping frame. In the back a basket full of scarf warps, a pile of bright pink fabric to the right that I'm currently making into placemats  and in front, a pile of linen colored cotton warp yarn cones for the up and coming wool rugs now that Joel has finished spinning all of last year's wool.  Time to shear again but he won't have time to spin the new wool until next winter.  I am happy and busy these days.  Good thing as it just keeps raining and the garden is a muddy, wet  mess.

Spring Update

 Yesterday was one of those early spring days when you can actually get outside and do something.  As long as I stayed in the sun I was warm and the soil was warm.  So I finally got to weeding one of the two beds of biennial flowers.  This bed of Sweet William, Canterbury Bells, and carnations was planted in flats last June and into the ground in late summer as soon as a bed was free.  They are growing  nicely and we'll have flowers from them in May and into June.

 And while I was doing that Joel was planting a bed of early spinach.  It may be jumping the gun a bit but it's worth a risk.  He'll cover the bed with a floating row cover to keep it a bit warmer and with any luck we'll have an early crop of spinach.  The hoophouse right behind him has little Asian greens coming up nicely in it.

 This time of year we can let the chickens out to run every afternoon.  They poke around in the weeds and mulch and eat bugs and slugs and slug eggs.  They are a great clean up crew.  Later in the season we won't be able to let them run as they eat too many small seedlings.  So enjoy yourselves, ladies.

And, as I walked back to the house I noticed that the rhubarb is coming up.  I love the turn of the season.