I have failed to post a few things due to the distractions of working a lot and the pellet stove trying to burn our house down. So now I will catch up.
I have been spinning about one hour per week thanks to being able to zoom from 8-9 with friends. It is so nice to watch the sun rise over the hill, talk with fellow fiber nuts and get some yarn made. Recently I have finished spinning some Manx Laughton roving that Denise got for me. Now I am moving on to Zwartbles roving, from the same gift.
Tom has been building a shelter for some of our equipment out of pallets. I am always impressed by how he can recycle objects into structures.
On January 24 we went with friends Pam and Tommy to see C.D. Woodbury in Snohomish. It was so much fun to go to a bar and see blues again. I cannot tell you how much it lifted me. Here are some clips.
This morning I made bath bombs. We are stocked up again for relaxing baths.
The hens have been laying more. I am really admiring the two turken hens. They are laying well and sweet. They let me pet them although I am not sure they like it.
We have been pruning the orchards’ trees. Today Tom finished the apples, and I have finished the Asian pears. We have about 100 trees so this is a major task. We still have one cherry, one pear and one quince yet to prune. Tom cut a bunch of bamboo away from the trees as well. I fed them to the goats. I consider it free food. We are running low on hay, particularly since we are feeding a bull a lot longer than we had planned.
I was surprised to see that Hutch likes bamboo as well.
I was worrying about the bees as I hadn’t seen them while I was pruning. This morning it was 48 degrees so I thought I might see them but didn’t. But this afternoon Tom saw a few bees going in and out of the hive. I hope they are doing OK inside.
One nice thing is that Tom no longer has to clean the pellet stove out 1-2 times per day and haul wood pellet bags around. We were even able to return three bags of pellets for a refund. But now we need to decide what to do about the stove and about heat going forward. Right now we have electric wall heaters we can use. We shall see how high our electric bill goes now. One concern I have is heat when there is a power outage. We used to be able to run our pellet stove with our generator, but that is not possible with the wall heaters.
So now I am caught up!
P.S. I posted this video on facebook from 2 years ago. It is Ryeleigh fetching. So cute!!!
P.P.S. I forgot to mention that Tom replaced our water pump as well. Really good work!!!
Very interesting! It does seem to make sense that the critters would enjoy the bamboo.
I’m glad you’re getting some spinning done. Marlys and our friend Jan, have been spending time upstairs, spinning.
Did you have a wood burning stove before you invested in the pellet stove?
Ryeleigh was so cute, running after the toy! Rico will run for it when we throw something, but he doesn’t bring it to us. Little rascal!
I knew goats like bamboo but didn’t realize that pigs do too. It’s good to hear that Marlys has been spinning as well. There was a wood burning stove when we bought the place, but our insurer would not let us keep it. So we bought the pellet stove. I had them before and liked them. Ryeleigh was adorable in that video.