Chicken Wrangling!

Just had to get a video of Gary and Alex rounding up the chicks for the night.  Most of the chicks go in on their own but there are a couple of roosters that are highly independent.  Gary made a chicken catcher with a piece of hanger and a pole to catch their legs...seems to work better than my method of chasing them into the tall grass and diving for them.  They are quick little things!

Meanwhile I am cleaning and making curtains and thinking of menues because Adam, Alicia and Ava are COMING!!!  On Saturday for dinner and staying until Thursday.  I'm probably going to follow them down to Keene, NH and take pictures of my Mom with her newest great grandchild.  They they will go on to Worchester, MA and I will stay a couple of days with Mom, visiting, crying because they left...

Meanwhile, hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend!  Happy Barbeque All!!

xo

Katie is Visiting!

Katie is back from Texas and border patrol for a visit!  And she came over for coffee and photographs...I have missed her so much...she is like a daughter!  Texas is just too far away!



Triangle scarf woven with respun silk sari material...



A free-form jacket--actually a little large for her...

One of the new cotton scarves woven with cotton and tencel

Triangle scarf woven with a bit of everything!

Another Triangle scarf woven with some cotton, silk, and a wonderful complex yarn called "Ziggy"

We had a wonderful afternoon and hopefully over the next week or so I will get these on Etsy.  But first I have to work on the Sunshine and Shimmer scarf which I just got on the loom...

Happy Thursday! xo

Sunshine and Shimmer...again

Well I'm designing as well as staring at a basketfull of cherry tomatoes wondering what to do with them.  And the bigger tomatoes haven't even started coming in the house yet.  So here's my escape...another Sunshine and Shimmer scarf.  I'm probably not going to put it on the loom today because I have to clean the guest room and hang some curtains and there is a horse ladies pot luck tonight...a gathering because my model Katie is back from Texas for a visit!  YAY!  I've been riding with her since she was 10 yo.  Can't wait to see her.  I might even get to photograph her as well if she has time.

Meanwhile, my poor husband is chainsawing the tree that came down in our tornado and it was 90 degrees yesterday.  Today is not going to be much better so I should get cleaning instead of procrastinating on the computer (I've already spend hours a little time on pinterest, facebook and Etsy).  At least the placemats are finished.  Can't seem to photograph them because the maroon comes out pink.  I'll have to work on that...

bye tree...

Happy Weekend Everyone!

xo

August...

Yeah, it's been hot.  I wilt in the heat.  But life here goes on, sometimes relentlessly.  We got chicks for meat.  They are called Freedom Riders or some such nonsense.   They are outside now and about 3 weeks old.  Gary built them a chicken wagon so that he can move them around and they can eat grass and bugs and stuff. 



My neighbor's granddaughter holding one of the babies





Three weeks old...

I have been weaving placemats for a good customer of mine.  The pictures are awful so I'm not posting them.  And I have a Sunshine and Shimmer scarf on the warping mill ready to go when I get a minute or two. 

I had to include this pic...See the cream on the top?  So rich you can whip it and farm fresh from the farm up the road.  The best milk EVER!!! And he farms with work horses!

Gary and Alex have almost finished this side!!!  And two stalls are done, the third almost done.  Fencing is up but there are some stumps in the way that Gary has to chainsaw down and pull out with the tractor so the horses can get to their new digs.  The back of the barn is wide open yet and there are no stairs to the haymow.  We need shutters on all the windows, electric run, water hooked up and more siding and flooring but it is almost FUNCTIONAL!!!  YAY!

Said goodbye to Noah cause he went off to Skidmore.  But he will be back on the 8th because Adam, Alicia and Baby Ava are coming for four days!  I am so excited but the room where they are going to stay has some issues.  Like it's full of my stuff and has to be cleaned and a door has to be hung...

I could use a crew here.

My First Grandbaby...Ava Marie Kailani Serra!!!

My oldest, Adam, called me 2:30 am Aug. 2 to tell me his daughter was born...It was a hard long labor.   Alicia was two weeks overdue, had to be induced...after a day they gave her a spinal so she could rest and the contractions became ineffective.  When I went to bed they still thought they could deliver naturally and she was dialating but ended up with a C-section.  AND that baby was 9.4 1/2 lbs!  We are just happy that mother and baby are fine!  Drama from afar!  Safely delivered!!

Alicia and Ava

Welcome to the world, Ava!  I wish I could hug you!

Barn Update...

So much progress has been made on the barn.  Roof is completed.  Upstairs flooring is being finished as I can afford wood.  Stalls are close to being done.  Leveling out the floors in the stalls so there are no gaps for hooves to get caught.  Leveling out the paddock, also.  All in 90+ degrees.  What great guys I have!!!

Noah putting on siding while Alex plays with Mieux...

Gary and Noah shovelling in the extreme heat!  And putting in fence posts for the paddock.

Inside view...two stalls almost ready...water ready for trough...still have to box in electric and connect...doors ready to be hung on stalls

Dommie's stall...

none too soon...the old barn is way past gone!  Started collapsing this past month...sigh. 

Cooler weather today--hope you are all enjoying it!

xo

Tornado in Potsdam???!!!!!

It was soooooo hot...when we got back from vacation I couldn't really accomplish anything in the heat and humidity.  My sister Faith came for a visit for a few days and we set up a fan, happily wove triangle scarves,

Faith weaving her first one!

and more adventurous for the second one!

went shopping in Potsdam, and on Wednesday went to the coffee shop on the campus of SLU.  When we were driving from SLU the sky looked kind of menacing but I was determined to buy meat at the organic place about 1/2 hr from here.  Midway there we figured we were making a mistake with lightening all around us and thunder so loud we couldn't even talk in the car.  Noah called on Faith's cell (I lost mine on my vacation) and asked if we were alright.  Thank god he was home because he said the rain was blowing in all the open windows, the dogs were freaked out and one of our remaining big maples had broken and blown over, just missing the house as well as the new barn.  sigh.  I loved that tree and now Gary says he has to take the rest of it down.
. 

Meanwhile, in town, roofs were blown off several of the buildings and they declared a state of emergency. 

http://northcountrynow.com/slideshow/thunderstorm-damages-buildings-boats-spews-debris-potsdam-and-st-lawrence-county

We got power back that evening but by morning had lost phone and Internet.  So two days without getting my pinterest fix.  AND the baby is overdue in Hawaii and Faith had to leave so Gary went and bought me a new cell phone before he went to work. 

Still no word on the baby today...Alicia was due on Tuesday and hopefully she is resting and enjoying the quiet time.

Phew...all this and I haven't even worked on all the photos from our epic trip across the country!  Maybe tomorrow.  Meanwhile I'm enjoying the weather.  Last night it was in the high 40s!  Woooooo Hoooooo!!!  I'm not one for the heat!  And we are hoping to move the horses into the new barn this weekend if we can get fencing up.  There won't be electric yet and the back end is not finished but they have stalls and a place to get out of the bugs at least.  

I'm off to photograph the Painted Mountains scarf which I took off yesterday, twisted the fringe, washed, ironed, and sewed on the label.  Happy Friday!
xo