Getting ready for the big show!

With just one week to go, we are getting ready for the New England Sheep and Wool Festival at the Big E Grounds in Springfield, MA! I have been busy dyeing, spinning, packaging and getting ready for the fun!

I have handspun mohair drying in various places around the house.

Bags of handmade items I have been busy all year making.

Bins are all around the house filled to the gills of many things too!

And "Frankie" is all ready to make his debut too! So if you are coming, look for us in the animal barn. We are the last booth at the exit door on the right. I will be there with my friend Naomi and we are hoping to have as much fun as we did last year! See you at the Fair!!!

Not all is lost when dyeing

While on my dyeing mission lately I made the ultimate mistake and this is my story!!! A few weeks ago we had our angora goats sheared so I had sometime to dye one morning before work. I grabbed one of the fleeces, popped it into a pot with some hot water to soak.

Got the water going and added the dyes. I was going for a chartreuse and deep lavender dye mix. Placed my dyes on the mohair and got busy doing some other things which I am always multi tasking because life gets crazy right?!

I did my usual skerer poking to get my color through...

and then I noticed this which was not good, my colors blending together. Then I realized I had forgot the most important thing, the mordant!!! I forgot to add the vinegar!!!!

I quickly rinsed it and got this, oh my!

I pulled some of the mohair, put it in the pot with a mordant this time and some dye. I now have seafoam green and a pretty dark lavender! All is not lost, when you have lemons make lemonade and in this case you can rescue a dyeing mistake if you try!

A season for dyeing

This time of year, with the cooler temperatures and less to do outside, we move inward and for me, it's dyeing all kinds of colors. However this time of year I do love the fall colors. The picture above is some merino I had. I am getting ready for the New England Fiber Festival. So while the dye pots are simmering, I take a moment to grab a cup of tea and admire the lovely colors of Autumn.

Autumn insired dying day

With a fleece of mohair, I was feeling inspired with all the fall foliage, so I decided to copy the colors with some dyes. I filled the pot and added the dyes onto certain parts of the fleece in the boiling pot.

The colors blended nicely, giving more color to the next. I used about 10 different dyes, browns, reds, yellows and a hint of grey too!

My autumn inspired mohair could not be caught as well as it actually came out by the camera.

However the colors are amazing and I can't wait to begin to spin it.

A close up of the many different colors, all inspired by my favorite time of year, Autumn!

A day of beauty for the girls

It was time for the girls to have that one last hair cut before the cold weather sets in. Their coats are full of beautiful mohair.

Their ankles are so adorable with their cute curls...

and Pru's are even fuller!

With Maddie on the left and Pru on the right, they wait for their shearer to show.

Ron East showed up and got right to work with Maddie first, she's such a good girl!

We saved Pru for last who had some choice words for her captor!

A couple banana chips later made all okay again.

They are talking to us again! Now to get that beautiful mohair into the dye pot!

Welcome to the Coon Hollow Family little one!

We welcomed this handsome new  English Angora to our Coon Hollow Family today! He is a sweet handsome Blue eyed white buck aka BEW. Just 5 months old and already a big boy.

Such a happy boy too! The moment I put him in his cage he did a binky! Just in love with this boy!

Just look at those blue eyes! Now to find him a name, kinda thinking "Frankie" for old blue eyes! Thanks to Daniel Kuyoth for such a quality rabbit. We are truly in love with this boy!

When bears attack!!!

Sadly it has happened, after 8 years of beekeeping our hives were hit by a bear early this morning. My heart dropped when I discovered them this morning. It seems to have only tipped them over. Tim may have startled them on his way out to feed the farm yard this morning.

It has decimated our neighbors hive and has discovered ours.  

We plan to harvest everything we can because I am sure this is not the end of the bear. I think its time for a bear fence! Or a nice dead bear! My neighbor has tried countless times to call the DEEP and she has fallen on deaf ears. when it comes to our livestock we will protect it at all cost!

The drones must die!

This time of year is sad, the end of beekeeping season but it is also the end of the drones life cycle. The worker bees chew off their wings and send them to their death. This was the scene on the landing board.

And this was the scene of the drone bees outside the hive on the ground. Dead drones, those slackers who the bees cannot afford as they move into the colder months. Here's hoping for a better season next year!