We have been trying to get back into the habit of walking most days again and one of the great advantages of our new home is that we can walk straight out of the back of the property onto a series of trails that are nice and secluded but quite challenging. You either are walking up or down with very little flat areas it is also covered in gravel which makes them slippy under foot.
Part of the route goes through the trees and most days we pass this little chap on his daily stroll, he is clearly on the same fitness gig that we are on. Also at the bottom of one of the hills is this river, the girls were so happy to see it and had a lot of fun cooling down and splashing about.
Given the hot and humid weather here in Georgia we arrived back dripping wet and pretty tired even though it’s just three miles. Given that we have done more than 25 miles on day hikes before I guess we need to just keep going and get more used to it.
Back home in our back garden we have this great tree, the trunk is really smooth and as you can see it has great blossom I think it is a Grape Myrtle.
Today I decided to felt some more soaps, three of them are covered with some merino that I had left over and one with some alpaca, the dark green one is the alpaca one.
Rob shredded the last of our zucchini this afternoon and I made a zucchini loaf and a zucchini chocolate bundt cake.
Now I just need to stop Rob from eating them all at once. Although I guess I should be flattered that he likes my cooking that much
I decided to go have a look at the peachtree spinners guild, something I have been meaning to do since I moved down here. They meet once a month in Decatur one of the Atlanta suburbs only about 45 minutes from home but just seemed to always have a conflict. I arrived just at the start of the meeting after an interesting 3 mile detour because Ponce De Leon was closed with downed trees, the excessive rain in Atlanta is wreaking havoc on the trees this year.
There were about 30 ladies and one gentleman there, which I understand is typical for the summer months, but during the winter there are usually at least double the number of ladies and about 6 men. They were a really friendly bunch and it was fun to see not only some of their spinning but also their other fiber creations.
I spent a very pleasant 3 hours chatting and spinning. Talking to one lady that has 5 wheels, 6 weaving looms and 6 sewing machines and another lady has 20 wheels! These ladies take their crafts very seriously. I don’t feel so bad about my purchases now. I will definitely aim to go back next month.
Quick turn around at home and back out again with Rob to go and have dinner with the PMX crew at the Miller’s Union in NW Atlanta. The drive in off of the 285 takes you through one of the more run down areas of Atlanta, then a complete change after going across the traffic lights into a newly renovated area with lots of good food places and music venues, including the best hip hop venue in Atlanta. The restaurant was excellent, actually co owned by a Brit with a British waiter to serve us. The menu varies each week by what is in season and I have to say it was delicious. Our host ordered some good wine to accompany the food and the conversation flowed. It was a very nice evening.
Third and final project, the rules this month are, must use a minimum of 800 yards of yarn. So that gave me a pretty wide scope. After some research on Ravelry I decided after a hiatus of many years, I would give crochet a chance. I found a really nice jacket done in a sport weight.
After some research on the pattern I discovered something really interesting, US patterns use the same names for crochet stitches but they mean different things. For example a US “dc” would be a UK “treble” that’s going to give my brain an extra workout.
Off to the loopy ewe to buy my yarn, which arrived yesterday along with some extra free goodies, thanks Sheryl.
My best friend from the UK was an absolutely amazing lady called Toni Marr. She is one of those people that truly add color to your life. So easy to talk to and my husband loves her as well. She taught me the joys of quilting, well maybe just the joys of buying fabrics! We shared many a long hike together as well as some great shopping trips. As Toni worked for American Airlines and I had air miles coming out of my ears with all my work travel, we were able to have a great weekend in New York and another in New England. Of course both trips included plenty of walking, shopping and laughter.
When I first arrived in the US I had about a 2 weeks notice and was only able to take what I could carry so Toni flew out with me and made sure I could find supermarket etc in the local area and then drove around for the weekend looking at areas to start looking for houses in.
A year after I moved over here Toni fulfilled her goal and moved back to New Zealand, next door to get parents, where she was able to build her own dream house. I have been out to see her once and we are really looking forward to Toni, Gillian and Toni’s parents coming over here next year.
Anyway that was a long story just to say I got a great surprise in the post yesterday, some beautiful hand painted fabrics posted from New Zealand by Toni. We are also hoping to catch her on Skype this weekend, there are not many times that we can talk as the 14 hour time difference makes it a challenge. We love you Toni !
For those of you that have been keeping up with my crafting exploits will know that I signed up for a virtual knitting retreat run by the loopy ewe. It’s thanks to this retreat that I met the lovely Sally Ball from Rivendale Farm in Colorado and that led me to a whole heap of trouble culminating in my buying 9 alpacas from her good friend Kim Kastner at Columbine ranch. I am looking forward to going to see them all this time next week.
We are just coming to the end of month 2 and I have completed my shawl, the pattern is called boneyard and its by Stephen West. I used an alpaca and tencel mix called ballet.
Last Friday we met with 4 of our friends down in the center of Atlanta at the Shakespeare Tavern. It was preview night for Midsummer night’s dream. We were lucky enough to get tickets as Tommy ‘s daughter was one of the leading characters in the play, Peaseblossom, she also sang and played the flute. Clearly a very talented lady.
It’s a great venue, sits probably 150 people so everyone is really close to the action. At the back of the room there is food served with draft beer and wine etc. All the food is freshly prepared and included some good British favorites like tomato soup and shepherd’s pie. Then during the interval they serve desserts, Rob was powerless to resist the apple crisp and ice cream.
The play itself was hilarious and so well done, we had a fabulous time, what more can you ask for, good food, good company and great entertainment. Continue reading “Shakespeare Tavern”
Yesterday we drove up to Canon to visit our friends George and Judy at Walnut Knoll Farm.
This is where we are getting some welcome additions to our herd, the first is Kloud Dancer and the real purpose of our visit. We were here to see the confirmation that she is pregnant and not just being grumpy when she spits at the rest of her herd. Here she is waiting patiently for the vet to arrive.
Kloud is going to have an external ultrasound and we are hoping that she is 45 days pregnant. This will also mean that when she gets to over 60 days it will be safe for her to travel down to our farm. Here she is going into the chute ready for the vet.
She looks a little bemused by all of the activity although there are a lot if us here, the vet had two assistants with her. The vet was very gentle with her and kind enough to talk us through what she was doing.
The really exciting news was that the pregnancy was confirmed and here is a view of the monitor to confirm it. Bottom middle you can see the head ears and eye sockets and top right you can see two of the feet.
This handsome chap is the sire he s the Mark son of Legato so we are hoping for a real cutie next spring.
The second addition we are getting is an all black male gelding called Magic, the only color variation at all is on his cheeks, he has a lovely burgundy color there. He is a really handsome dude and very gentle. So he will be able to keep any of the others calm if we need to take them anywhere.
The vet was also there for an additional task and Judy asked us if we wanted to see what happens we decided we should probably watch that as well because at some point we may need to have it done at our farm. So we ( well Rob, I was not interested in getting as up close as he did) got to see a castration. First the Alpaca is given a general anesthetic which should have put him to sleep almost straight away but he was so alert it actually took three shots. I guess he must have known what was going to happen next.
Sleepy Boy
The vet then sterilized the area and injected a local anesthetic and the operation was completed. He was up on his feet within 15 minutes and seemed none the worse for the experience. So those of you that don’t have Alpacas may ask why it gets done? well it reduces the aggression levels, if you are not going to breed them and they are overly aggressive with the other males then this helps calm them down.
Last but by no means least – Judy then spent time showing us how she checks their fecal’s for parasites. As we now have a microscope we are going to learn to do our own although we will probably double check the first few times with the vets results. It was a long but very interesting day and as always we had a great time with George and Judy.
Oh one last thing, do you remember last time we visited, we were there just in time to see this little lad being born.
Less than an hour and he can stand unaided, although still very wobbly
Well look at him now he is just a great big ball of fluff and is growing leaps and bounds, Still staying close to mum though.
We decided we should have a horse/livestock trailer. Mainly for any emergency vet visits for the Alpacas but also if we need to deliver them anywhere for any reason.
Wanted to start with a small second hand one and then see how we go — its one of those items that when you need it, you need it now, but you probably will only need it a couple of times of the year. We have been searching for about 3 months and at last we found a few that were a possibility.
Wednesday we took a run out to Loganville which is East of Atlanta to see a trailer – we arrived there at 5 pm and found that we were at a Pygmy Nigerian goat farm.
They were very cute and very friendly as was their owner. You can see them all here . Anyway after lots of chatter and a good look around we left with the horse trailer and….
…. also they make fabulous goat milk soap and were kind enough to give me some samples. The soap is great my hands feel so soft already. I decided to have a go at felting it, why you may ask, well 2 reasons, first its a good use of my fiber that I can’t spin but more importantly you have a built in wash cloth and it prevents you losing all of that fabulous soap getting too soft and disappearing down the sink.
I was quite pleased that I have been able to wear shorts so far this summer and not get bitten. This all came to a full stop with a vengeance last night. The little blighters bit my legs at least 15 times yesterday. So much for my immunity, back to using big spray
Our elderly Cochin was with the rest of our flock pecking at the scratch ( chicken treat ) when the rooster decided to jump on her back. It was clear what he had in mind but he literally flattened her. I chased him off straight away but it was too late he had already damaged her. She did not want to get up although she was not making any noise and seemed alert.
Rob carried her very gently to our large dog cage and made her as comfortable as possible. She is eating and drinking ok but not moving around. We will monitor over the next couple of days and see if she gets better. If not it may be time for the one way walk into the woods. That would be such a shame. It’s amazing how attached you get to these animals, they all have their own little ways and personality. Keep your fingers crossed for good news
