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?