the first of the last, part 2

Things are settling back into their typical routine around here. It's nice to be home, and to have a little time to relax, but I know there is plenty of work to be done. This may be the end of this chapter of my life, but it's nowhere near the end of the book. My adventures on the farm are over, but I know it's never far. There's a lyric from a song I love that greatly applies: "The doors we close behind are never locked and always drafty". Now I open a new door and begin a new adventure. My senior year of college. And I'm warming up for take off. You can find my new blog here, Stevie Makes Art. I'll see you there!!

home at last

I'm home. Back in New Jersey. Things are starting to settle down and I'm settling in again. Tonight is going to be absolutely boring. And that's just fine with me. It'll give me time to digest all that I've learned. And it very well may take me a while. As for now its snuggle time with my kitty. Maybe I'll snuggle with the boy later, maybe.

the first of the last, part 1

It's my last night here on the farm, and I can't sleep. I'm a contradiction of emotions. I'm excited to go home, but sad to leave. The farm has really become a second home for me, and at times, more "home" than, well, home. But I miss my fiance, my friends, and my grandparents, (and the rest of my family too), and most of all, cell phone reception. The garden has produced some of the greatest food I've eaten in a long time, and the prospect of having to eat cafeteria food again is almost revolting. But Gram's homemade gravy is worth it. I can't get that here. I can do without getting up early, but really, it isn't any earlier than I usually get up for school. I'll miss the sheep, and they might miss me. I'll miss the song of the tree frogs lulling me to sleep, and I'll have to remember what they sound like when the construction team is "fixing" something at three a.m. I'll miss George, Annie, and Lucy, and the goats, I guess. I know the goats won't miss me, but the cats might. And I'll miss all the wonderful people I've met on my adventure here. Such wonderful, caring, kind people who have opened their lives to me to let me see what it's like in their world. I feel like I've learned so much about these people in such a short time. I know I've built bridges to wonderful people now. But I'm at the edge of a canyon, in a way, somewhere where there is no bridge. I feel ready to move on, and yet feel afraid to move at all. What if I jump, and there's nothing on the other side? But I'll never know unless I jump. So here goes, the last practice, the last warm up. The last stretches to get those legs moving fast enough to fly. And baby, I'm gonna fly.

poof!

I'm sorry everyone, I was a little out of it yesterday. So much so, that I didn't even realize I didn't blog until this morning. So let's see if I can fix that.

Yesterday was a very off kind of day. Gretchen had some errands to run in the morning, so I worked on the photo-journalistic piece that I'm writing for the website on how Solitude products are made. Then I spent the afternoon spinning some yarn for the ties of the bags of roving that we're putting together for Saturday's market. And that was pretty much it. Doesn't sound to crazy, does it? But it was overcast and very windy, and for some reason it just seemed strange. I'll just blame it on the weather. Everyone else does. :)

As for today, I'm still working on this writing piece, and this afternoon we should be making more sock kits and labeling. Maybe if I get ambitious, I'll post again later.

a storm!

Finally, the promised storm we've been waiting for! The frogs sound happy. The sky keeps changing from shades of grey to ever darkening grey. We needed this rain so badly. But enough about the weather. On to the yarn.

We started construction of the sock kits today. We've got seven 5-color kits and five 3-color kits done. We'll do some more later this week. I am almost positive we'll be taking these to market on Saturday. I'm almost done knitting the 3-color sock, and intend to have it done by Saturday, but other things take a higher priority. Like preparing for the market. But dinner is a-cooking, and the storm may be worsening, so I'll leave you with this.
A turtle being groovy on our front walk.

internetz fail

Back at Solitude tonight after a long day at the mill. I won't bore you with all the details until I have pictures. But right now the internet and my laptop don't feel like speaking to each other, so I have to wait until tomorrow to fix the router box. (Yes, I turned it off, and I turned it on again. Yes, I tried plugging the internet directly into my laptop. No, I don't want to upgrade my internet access package.) But I'll have tons to tell you tomorrow. Hopefully. Gretchen and I will be preparing for our very final summer market for the next week. We plan on dyeing tomorrow, as well as getting the sock kits put together. And so the countdown begins. My final week here at Solitude. I'll be heading home next Sunday, the 18th of July. I'll stop myself before I wax poetic on you. I'll save all that mushy stuff for later. For now, I think I'm going to go read a book.

peace?

Another peaceful day at RedGate Farm. I'm sorry, did I say peaceful? I meant filled with the obnoxious sounds of construction, with interludes of the World Cup in Spanish. But it was a good day despite the noise. Sue and I got a black merino and white merino washed today. We also got some new tubs for organizing stuff at Target. This afternoon was pretty relaxed. I spent most of it knitting the three-color sock that I'm now working on. Tomorrow we'll be visiting a mill with Gretchen, so we'll need to pack the car tonight. But it will be good to see a mill. So tonight, I leave you with a family portrait, and no, it's not mine.