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.

new technology

Today is a big day for the advancement of Solitude's technological scope. Today the Solitude blog began. You can find it here. Sue, Gretchen and I sat around for 3 hours pulling this thing together. I think it looks great. But this little fledgling is no longer in my hands. I'll help it along and guide it, but that is all I can do. When I get back, I will help Sue put together her own blog. Its all so exciting!! But I'm going home for a bit first, and I should really get my things together.

oh noes!

Today I'll start from the end of my day and work backwards. This evening we had to wrangle a sick lambiekin! After much deliberation and deduction, we decided to just keep an eye on poor little 23, also known as Blackjack. He didn't want to hang out with any of his buddies and he would just flop over. He looked pathetic. But his eyelids were pink as they should be, and he was relieving himself just fine. Before that we found some lovely ripe wine berries, something I was unaware of. They look like round raspberries, but are a little more tart than the sweet raspberries I've become used to from the patch. Tasty none-the-less. We stopped at 7-11 on our way home from the library and I forgot that my mini ice cream has a spoon in the lid. I waited til we got all the way home to eat it. But my Hershey bar was perfectly melty. At the library I found a great resource for my senior thesis. I like the book so much that I think I'm going to order it. Other than that it was hot, hot, hot!! The actual temperature today was 100, but with the humidity, it felt like 106. Ouch. I'm glad I spent the morning inside skeining. And now it's time for bed. Early to bed, early to rise!

seeing stars

Today was relaxed, as I said it should be, or at least most of it was. After sheep chores, Gretchen and I pulled out a slightly mangled sheep shelter and she and Joan are going to turn it into a pumpkin structure for the pumpkins to grow on. Afterward I went inside and skeined a whole batch of sock yarn. Tomorrow I intend to do the same and hopefully reskein some of the hand-paints. We also got almost all of Solitude's yarns up on Ravelry! Gretchen was so excited about that. I spent the latter part of the day knitting away and I've only got another 2 inches to go before the toe! After dinner and an intense game of "Bananagrams" (its like Scrabble against yourself, but way more fun) we went outside to see the moon. And out with the moon were the stars. Even with the moon being as bright as it is, there were still more stars than I've ever seen at home. It was beautiful. Gretchen says I should see it when the moon is new. Probably before I leave, I'll get to see the stars without the overshadow from the moon.

chilled out

After the first few weeks of my internship being busy everyday, it was kind of nice to take things at a slower pace yesterday. After sheep chores, cleaning the house, and a pleasant lunch, Sue came over and we counted skeins of yarn. It was nice to see all the colors laid out next to each other. Each type of yarn has a different color palate. Sometimes the colors overlap between types, and sometimes they're vastly different within the same type, but it's nice to see them anyway. We got though all the yarn in the truck, thus effectively unpacking the truck from Thursday's market adventure. Then Gretchen decided she was done. It was pretty hot out there. So, Sue went home and we came inside and watched a movie, and knitted. I finished the gusset on my sock, and Gretchen is almost done her scarf. Whip It, the roller derby movie, was fantastic.

Today and tomorrow should be pretty much the same idea. It's too hot to be outside, so we'll find things to do inside, like skeining, and re-skeining, and computer inventory things. There will be plenty to do, just not outside. Monday we should be ready to dye some more sock yarn and Sue will come over so we can finish the inventory. Tuesday Gretchen and I are going to DC to see the Textile Museum and then send me home for the week.

But now it's time for sheep chores.

breaking records

Oh.my.goodness.

I am surprised I am not a puddle of mush right now. Gretchen and I braved the heat, which was "record shattering" the newscaster said, and went to the White House market today. Was it worth it? I'm not going to lie. Nope. The sales were crap and the weather was atrocious. I drank 3 whole water bottles! I'm a camel; I never drink more than 2! 3!! And I started a 4th on the way home! And the sales were the worst they've been this summer. They were worse than the crap festival we went to a few weeks ago! And I didn't think much could be worse than that. The upside? I got the heel done of my sock and have started the gusset. Anyway, I'm going to keep this short tonight. I need a shower, and probably some rest.

fleece and fiction

Another day of "holy-crap-its-hot" heat, but this time there was no shopping to save us from the brutality. This morning we went out and washed out the second fleece. The first was yellows, oranges, reds, and speckles of green. We kept referring to it as the chicken fleece. This one is the fish fleece. This is some of it drying on the skirting table. We were trying to get it done as quickly and efficiently as possible to avoid being out in the sun. We managed to get the whole fleece done in two hours, which is pretty good. We were back inside before 11am. I finished skeining all of the Icelandic yarn that is coming to market with us tomorrow and now all that's left is labeling it. Gretchen wanted to save that for later, just in case the thunderstorm in the afternoon forecast hit and knocked the power out. It never came. But it's fine because I happily spent the rest of the afternoon knitting away on the sample sock, of which I have started the heel. I've never finished so many projects in such a short time! I'll need to harness this for the coming year. I also finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, so wonderfully read to me by Stephen Fry. No, I haven't finished the series. Let's not talk about it, shall we? Just know that I am on my way. I have them all on audio book, and will get through them. Eventually. For now, I'll continue on my sock, and maybe make progress on Pride and Prejudice. I seem to be working on a classics tour alongside Harry's adventures.

shopping spree

Today was so brutally hot that Gretchen and I went shopping. Hey, its cool in the stores and its cool in the car. It was far better than being outside all day. I know, I know, I can hear you telling me its going to get worse, but at least now we have all the supplies we need to be able to stay inside... hopefully. At least for tomorrow, anyway. Right? No? No, tomorrow we need to wash out the fleece and clean out the pots before they get scary. And I don't want any scary pots. But we should be able to do that early before it gets too hot. Thursday we're going to be at our last farmer's market of the summer. Gretchen keeps telling me not to worry. We'll be in the shade early, she says, which is true. We'll bring frozen towels, she says. They work, I won't argue. The gelato people should be there. Now that's an enticement. That's something to look forward too. So I will suffer through the heat to enjoy gelato. mmmmm. Gelato.

I thought I'd take the time today to introduce you to another friend on the farm. This is Karen, the goat.
Isn't she cute?

cobbler and dragonflies

Today was an inside day. It was hot and humid outside, so we tried to stay in as much as possible. Gretchen got another 2 sock yarn colors dyed while I spent all day skeining. We're getting all this sock yarn ready for sock kits to be released in the fall. They're going to be a lot of fun!! Tomorrow we're going into town to run some errands and avoid the ludicrous heat. For now, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my cobbler.

Oh! While I was picking raspberries this evening, I looked up and saw a black and yellow dragonfly with the coolest wings. They were clear with black veins, but closer to the body they were bottle green. I wish I had my camera, but I know it wouldn't be there when I got back. It was awesome.

this little piggy went to market

Today we want to our final Dupont Market for the summer. We have one more farmer's market while I'm here, and then another market in July. Otherwise we shall be creating beautiful yarns for the fall. We had a rather successful day today, despite the heat and humidity, which was awful. I thought I was going to melt, but I was saved by a short trip to a bookstore on the next street. Gretchen told me to check it out, and I told her that was a bad idea, but she urged me on. It's her fault! I bought two lovely books today. Two classic pieces of literature which I can hardly wait to devour. Like I have time to read! HA! Actually, I did get a substantial chunk of reading done this afternoon while working on the test sock I'm knitting. I got through 6 chapters of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Anyway, I was so excited after the market because we sold two, count 'em, two! of my yarns today! I know, it doesn't sound like much, but I feel like my babies are out making a difference in the world, and it makes me happy. That and the fact that I did not get burnt today! The old sun burn is finally starting to resolve itself. Thank heavens, because I am tired of being itchy! But I'm sure the mosquitoes will see to dissolving that small pleasure. They always find me. Its like they know. I should probably get some sleep. We're back to making yarn tomorrow!