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.

shearing and not melting

I'm working on my blog a little earlier today so I can help Sue with hers. When it's up and published, I'll put a link up for that too. But this gives me a great opportunity to post the shearing pictures I've been promising.

"But I don't need a haircut!" "Yes, you do!"

Classic shearing. At its best.

So, its a bajillion and 4 degrees today, yesterday was a bajillion and 7, and though it feels much better today than it did yesterday, I would be totally fine with rain. Rain that came in, and rained all over everything, and put water back where it belongs, and cooled everything off. That would just be great. But the rain forecast just keeps getting pushed back. It's making me notice the environment around me, and not just the whole big picture, but the little pieces, the environment in my own backyard (well, Sue's backyard anyway). Its so interesting to me how I pay attention to things now that I never would have paid any attention to before. I notice that the sun set just a little bit earlier last night than it did the night before. The moon is rising in a slightly different place then it was when I got here. A week really does make a difference. There are plants that are ready for harvest this week that just were not ready last week. There are plants ready today that weren't ready yesterday! Its all the little things. And I've learned to appreciate things too, like the honey bees. I've watched honey bees drink water and not even notice that I was there. I've had butterflies land on me, big ones, and not worry about a thing. Its so different here. And I think I'm beginning to like it.

wet and wooly

This is Gina. She's a llama. Well, go on! Say "hello". Ok, fine. I'll get back to her later. Today, at RedGate Farm, we washed wool. All day. I have decided I like this job. It is a great job for multi-taskers. Wool washing goes something like this: Fill up buckets of fleece with hot water. Let soak for an hour. Dump out buckets of fleece into plastic strainers. Dump out dirty water and fill clean buckets with a scoop of soap, wet fleece, and more hot water. Let soak an hour. Drain soapy fleeces out and fill clean buckets with plain hot water and soapy fleeces. Let soak for some time. Repeat draining, filling, and waiting until fleeces are substantially clean. So, that's what, three hours waiting time? Like I'm going to sit around all that time? Nonsense!! That gives me a whole hour to knit! Or skein! Or knit! Or do computer work! Or knit! Did I mention knit? Now, of course, once we had gotten one fleece started and through the clean rinse part, we started another fleece, but we still can really only do two at a time, and they still need to soak. Thus, this and inventory are my favorite jobs so far. Mind you, I do at least like everything I've been doing. But anyway, back to Gina. You should already be familiar with Gina. This is her friend, The General. On insanely hot days like today, they like to be sprayed down with water to help keep them cool. Gina may look like she's flinching, but really, she just doesn't like getting water in her eyes. You don't either, do you? While Sue and Bill were walking the llamas, this butterfly landed on Bill's back. The butterflies here are very brave. Tomorrow brings more epic heat, and shearing photos.

big day

I'm back. And already I've been busy. Today was a big day across the board. Today is my first real day back, and marks the beginning of the second half of my internship. This morning we sheared the sheep at Solitude. The little ewe lambs looked so adorable. I'll have to try and get a better picture of them. The shearer, Margie, didn't shave the bottoms of their legs (known as the boots) or the tops of their heads (known as the caps). They looked like they were wearing leg-warmers and blonde-tipped afros. The ram lambs only had their bellies sheared. That is because they will be shown at the 4H fair later this season. Some of the older sheep were also sheared. There are pictures, I promise. I just have to get them off my camera. After all the sheep were settled, and the barn was clean, and the goats were back, Gretchen and I headed over to Sue's farm. And now, I'm here. I'll be here, at Red Gate Farm, for the next few days learning about washing fleeces. And I've already begun a little. There is a lovely white Targee fleece out to dry right now. But I think I'm going to settle in for now, and get those pictures off my camera.

little break

This fun little guy greeted me on my adventure in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. Actually, he wasn't very tiny. It was pretty big, probably about 4 feet tall. But I thought he was adorable. We wandered past him along with several embassy houses. Gretchen and I went to the Textile Museum. There was a lovely little show called Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-century Britain. It features Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler. I thought the show was interesting. It was certainly inspirational. Day used a lot of floral motifs, but they were sketchy and reflected the growth process more than the realistic rendering of fully bloomed flower. I liked the humor in her tea towels. Afterward we went to a great pizza place for lunch. I had the tastiest mint gelato. Then I got on a bus and headed back home, to New Jersey. The bus ride was uneventful, which is an event itself. The last time I took a Greyhound bus home, my eight-hour trip took twenty four hours! The fact that I got home on time was impressive. I came home, snuggled with my hubby, and went to bed. The next day, my room-mate came up from Delaware to hang out. We had a lovely afternoon at the pool, and then I decided to kidnap her. So she stayed over and we played "Bananagrams"all night long. This was my best hand. :)
Friday night we'll be leaving for North Carolina. I'll spend the weekend there with hubs and my in-laws. But it's cool, I like them! I'll be back in Virginia by Monday.