We’re all doing well and Julianna is growing like the proverbial weed.

Unfortunately, Allena’s laptop died, which is why there haven’t been any blog posts in nearly a month.  We’ve finally ordered a replacement and we should have it next week, so look for more posting then!

Thanks for your patience.

We’re very pleased to announce that Julianna was born at 12:52am on June 18th. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Everybody is doing fantastic, and we’ll have some pictures up in a day or two.

Update - pictures now available (click on the picture of Julianna to go to the gallery on Beau’s site)

Michelle at boulderneigh wins the contest.  So, thanks to everyone for guessing.  Since nobody guessed on Justina, I guess I will close the contest and get on with life.

My kids are all in 4H and Elizabeth and Teresa are in Clover Kids, which is for the 5 and upers.  Teresa is only 4, but they let her come anyhow.  We taught all the clover kids to spin this month at  the meeting.  It was really great. 8 kids ages 4 - 8 were able to learn how to spin on a drop spindle.

There were boys, and girls, 8 in all who learned and everyone had a fantastic time, despite the leaders all being wound on backwards by some assemblist I employ.  Ahem (Beau)  will learn someday which way to wind it on…  Anyhow all the kids had a blast and I have to say it was the fastest meeting ever and a huge sucess.

All the kids picked it up pretty fast, and the parents were nice enough to let me post their pictures on my blog.

Well, I took a bad picture, this one would be me!  Still she’s cute even blinking!

It was kind of hectic teaching 8 littler kids all at once, and the meeting only lasts about an hour, thats  not much time, but we made it count well.  They all left with yarn, that’s what counts, and they spun it themselves.  William took the extra spindles and unspun it… He’s a real out of the box kind of spinner…little stinker.

Heh heh, as you can see, amny of these little kids can do better than most adults lol.  They learn it so fast it’s amazing.  I am always so impressed with how well they do.  Look at that little boogers yarn!  Better than mine was for a few hundred yards….but maybe I’m just a fantastic, amazing and wonderful teacher….probably not.

I think that is all of the kids, except the last two.  Can you believe I forgot to take a photo of my own kids spinning?  What a horrible Mother I am…

On a rather depressing note, Mist finally lambed on Monday and it wasn’t pretty.  I managed to save her and the lamb, but lets just say poor Dominic had to hold her down, and I came away covered in gore head to toe.  Mom is doing great after a pretty aggressive round of antibiotics and anti inflammatorys, and baby is improving, but I suspect he is irrepairably damaged.

I thought I had taken pictures of him but I guess I forgot as they aren’t here on the camera.  I’ll post some in a few days.  He was huge, almost 10 pounds, which in Shetlands 7 pounds is a big boy….  He had one leg back as well, so the leg that was presented got pulled and yanked to the point that his shoulder is all out of wack.  It seems to be improving, there isn’t much to be done about it except hope and give it time.  He would get up and put weight on it from the start, so he has a good chance.  He also had some sort of tendon issue, and walked on his wrists instead of his hooves in front.  Imagine if you walked on the back of your hands instead of on your palms while crawling… I made him some little splints and I am happy to say his left foot is now normal, but the right one (that I pulled on) is still pretty floppy.  So he has to keep wearing his blue shoe on that foot.

His back legs also have something wrong with them.  Poor little guy is floppy in the opposite way back there.  He walks on his pasterns instead of his hooves.  Imagine a cat walking flat footed if you know what I mean.   Anyhow he nurses and gets around well enough to take care of himself.

Mom worrys about him, and I can tell that she wants me to make it ok, and resents that I am not.  Poor girl, I am desperatly trying to save him, so that at least she has a baby to take care of after all that pain.  He is improving and I hope to have him out with the others in a another week.  If I can get that right front leg to working better I think he can manage.  He has a really strong will to go on.  Anyhow, kind of a depressing way to finish off lambing season, and thus why I have been so late to post about him.

So, new contest starts, same rules as always, comment and enter to win!  Every comment is entered into a drawing that will take place around the 15th of next month.

Congratulations Michelle, good guessing.

Well, I have to thank Beau for getting me caught up.  In his compassion he washed ALL the laundry yesterday while I was away teaching Jr High students how to spin.  It was fun and I wish I had taken some pictures, (of the class I mean, not the laundry :P).

They listened attentively and seemed interested.  Several of them commented that the raw fleece I brought was SOOOooo stinky!  And it made me think of dear old Blue my friend Tammy’s Merino ram.   He is aromatic to say the least.  I mean DANG, it makes ME gag!  I contemplated why I found the fleece I had brought not only be NOT stinky, but of a pleasant amount of sheepie odor.  I LIKE the smell of my Shetland fleeces…  Could it be that it’s because I have burned out the smell receptors in my nose by exposing them to the noxious fumes that emanate from the posteriors of certain diaper bearing children that live here?  That is the only explanation I can come up with.

These kids must have never smelled REAL stench, and therefore have no concept at all of what the word “stink” really means.  Some fleeces stink, but this one didn’t, very mild.  It makes me wonder, after I’ve been working raw fleece, and I go to the store do Jr High kids smell me and think I stink???  I mean what if my definition is all wrong and I’ve been going around  smelling disgusting?  Well, if so,that’s ok, because everybody should know what sheep smell like, so I’m doing a public service if you ask me.

The kids were mostly fascinated by the spinning as they watched me.  A few of them fiddle farted around and didn’t do much.  Then some others took it up right away!  I set them to helping the ones who didn’t get it yet.

There were two special needs students in the class, and one of them in particular had difficulties.  One of the lovely girls in the class helped her with the most patience and caring that I was really very impressed with her as a person.  She was a very pretty young lady, and of the sort to be well liked, and I found it to be quite inspiring to see someone so willing to help out someone, despite the likelihood that she would be made fun of for it.  Plus she didn’t think my fleece smelled, so that makes her even nicer yet.

After the class, the two special needs kids drug me by the sleeve up to meet their teacher.  There were about 8 students in that class, and the teachers asked me if I could show the kids there how to spin.  So I gave a demonstration and they were like 10 year olds with a brand new game boy.  Or like me with a pound of some new fiber that I’ve wanted to try forever.  I.. JUST…CAN’T….LOOK..AWAY!  and NO I can’t put it down, (to Beau)  and yes I just might sleep with it.  By the way, where are you sleeping? I hear the couch is comfie…

The kids asked me about our farm and how we live, and I had to tell them the names of all the animals that live here(6 cats, 15 sheep, a dog, two horses, a pony and the chickens).  I failed to tell them all of the chickens names, although they are all named…hee hee, I was hungry and ready to go eat lunch!  They were a great audience, and there is a possibility that they might be having me back to help the kids try to spin.

As an aside, I should tell you I also post on another blog about my sheep and our farm.  You might enjoy that one too, mostly I just talk about whatever, it’s not sanitized and discusses the realities of farm life hee hee.   www.allena.thethreeringranch.com  Someone gave me an award for that blog, and I felt kind of weird because many of the blogs I read, know me from THIS blog, so by the time they knew I gave them the award, they had already got it from someone else.   bummer, well it just shows that people I know are really cool people as I have to compete to compliment them.

So for the kids, I sell the spindles I make with CDs plus some fiber and the lesson for $5 each, so I don’t make a whole lot, but I do get the chance to teach kids to do something productive instead of drooling down their chin parked in front of the tube.  Of course I gave them all my, “Television will Rot Your Brain” speech, but I doubt any of them believed me lol.  I’m not totally against TV, but many people always ask me how I have time to spin, knit, home-school or anything like that.  Well, frankly I don’t waste 3 - 5 hours a day sitting there watching shows that are so stupid that you can see the IQ points falling out of your ears…  I use that evening time to spin, knit, read or do something with the family.  Soo a friendly reminder, watch some TV or movies, but don’t forget to turn it off, because the REAL world is passing you by as you stare off into the depths of the dummy box.  Anyhow, maybe some of these kids will get bit by the bug, and start to spin?  Wouldn’t that be cool?  I don’t mean to be rude to TV connoisseurs, but kids are watching too much TV/video games and all that.  They need to get a hobby!  So take a kid out to smell a sheep today ok?

After that, I was pretty tired, and was treated to a nice red dinner by my friend Liz.  Red dinner is Chinese food, and Elizabeth loves to eat what she calls “red dinner”.  I love the creative ways that children express their feelings, and describe their surroundings.  I will probably call it red dinner for a long time.  It’s a very accurate description.   Speaking of Elizabeth, I would like to point out what happens when little girls play with Legos - at least this little girl…

I have titled the peice, “TK427, Why Aren’t You at Your Post”  Legos on bookshelf by Elzabeth Jackson -  I particularly like the way she used the blaster beams as a table plant..  This shows an irony and depth that is truly evocative of todays modern mindset of childrens toys.  The artist has cleaverly used color for the furnishings to offset the stark whiteness of the figures in the work, which also is contrasted by the black foundation.   The clear reversal of gender roles is refreshing and echoes the irony of the medium used to convey the concepts of violence vs peaceful co-existence.  snicker snicker…

Now, many of you don’t know, but I have a BFA in painting from IU Bloomington.  Back then, I would have painted this, and laughed with every stroke of the brush. I very much enjoyed creating paintings that presented things in a way contrary to their purpose.  For instance I painted a Spiderman reading the paper, like on Sunday mornings he hangs out in his leotard and reads the funnies…  Now, I have to settle for posting it on my blog.  I considered naming it “Storm Trooper Tea Time”  snort.  It does have a lot of interesting concepts, but really, it all boils down to, this is what happens when you give my little girl legos with storm troopers….  Conversely a boy will often take a tea set and suddenly the dishes are flying saucers having in intergalactic battle across the living room floor.  Oh well, I guess what counts, is that they have a good time right?

Kids sure are fun!

Hi everyone - just a little note to tell you we’re not ignoring you, it’s just the time of year for ice storms in Missouri.  Consequently, we have no power, no internet connection, and no phone at our house.  We’re staying warm with a kerosene heater, but other than that things are pretty primitive around our house just now.  We should be back online in a few days.

Stay warm!  Unless your in the Southern hemisphere, in which case, um…stay cool I guess

I just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of Allena. She wrote a FANTASTIC article on dyeing with food color that got published on knitty.com. Go check it out if you haven’t seen it already.

We are back online, hooray!  I spent several HOURS on the phone with tech support over the past five days.  At least 3 hours on the phone today alone.  But at least we’re back online.  If you sent an email or were otherwise waiting to hear from us, we’ll get with you soon.

Thanks for your patience!

Sorry there haven’t been any posts in a few days.  We use satellite based internet, and the satellite has apparently been feeling unwell for the last five days.  We don’t know when it will be back either (grumble, grumble).  Hopefully we’ll be back online soon.

Can anyone else relate?

I will not post it here, but if you send me an email, I will send you a copy of the pattern.  You MAY NOT publish it anywhere however, nor share any part of it.  My email is allena at spindleandwheel dot com.

I wasted Friday, digging potatoes, and then fishing with the kids.  I should have worked, but we caught 4 big catfish for supper, so I guess that’s ok.  The girls would get SOOOO excited when we would catch one, especially a big one.

Dominic is busy on his hat, he has gotten about an inch and half done.

You can see that the yarn Beth spun is very beautiful, and Dominic is making good progress.  He knitts a few rows everyday.  When he drops a stitch, he brings it to me, and I fix it, and I usually do a row for him.  He’s only done it twice so far, and he goes along at a pretty good clip considering that he’s only knitted 12 rows.  10 if you don’t count mine.  A child Protoge!

Look how cute he is, lucky for me he doesn’t read my blog, so I can say that without suffering for it.  On the other man front:

Beau is making a basket weave dishcloth.  He got some purls where the knits went, and vice versa, his face says it all.

So I pulled out a crochet hook, and changed all of them back, it wasn’t that bad, but he sure was cross about it.  He pouted too.  He doesn’t like having to struggle, because he’s used to everything coming to him easily.  But he keeps on going, if slowly.  After I fixed it though, he seemed a little more happy about it.

And because Michelle asked, here is a picture of me:

Beau took this picture, and it’s a very nice one, but I don’t usually look like that.  Only on rare occasions when Beau begs me to look presentable, for his sake LOL.  I am way too lazy for makeup and stuff everyday.  I had wanted to show a picture he took of me making a really funny face, but I can’t find it.  Oh well, you’ll have to wait for a “real” picture.

So I finished the spindles I was working on, and I am still putting Nikki’s packet together.  I am also finishing Beth’s thank you package.  And on top of all that, we got fence built, and the breeding group arranged.  You can read about that here

So, slowly I am catching up, and beginning some new patterns.  Don’t forget to comment, and enter yourself in the drawing for next month’s prize!