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I have been spinning the beautiful fiber that Sally gave me. Of course it is alpaca and its from a lovely alpaca called Pearl, she produces super soft fiber with quite long staple length. It is spinning up really well, I have spilt the roving in half so that I can have a nice balanced 2 ply yarn, hopefully!

Next week we are picking up the first two of our new alpacas. We will want to keep them separate from the rest of the herd for a short while so we needed to get more gates, another fan and a feeding trough that will also be low enough for the cria to feed from when they get here.

We must have looked like the Clampets as we drove home.

We bought a large water Mellon and decided to give some of it to our very spoilt chickens as you can see they were loving it.

My rooster is such a good looking dude but he has been very subdued since the incident with the Cochin, he lets the girls boss him around.

This is Rocky my Dorking, I think she looks very stylish with her comb flopped over on one side. All of our animals get treated very well as you can see.

Last Friday lunchtime I flew to Denver to meet Sally Ball and also see my new alpacas. For some reason while on the plane I was remembering one of the best flights I ever had. It was in the early 90’s and I was lucky enough to have a flight from Zurich that was operated by Lauder air, a small airline owned by Niki Lauder. It was amazing, a 20 seater with comfy leather seats.all the crew were in designer outfits, we had drinks served in crystal glases and the food was served on hand painted plates. Not quite the same as my delta flight with plastic cups and a bag of pretzels.

I picked up a rental car when I got to Denver and drive it to the south west to Sally’ s house. It was great to finally meet her and her herd! We were chatting as if we had known each other for ever. Later that evening we drove to the local bar to meet Kim and have dinner, Sally also gave me a fab gift, some roving from Pearl (one of her herd) that was hand dyed a stunning blue color. After more chatting and some good food, I drove off to my hotel.

Next morning I drove back to Sally’s where I also got to meet Jim, her better half. Off to the local knitting so to meet a great bunch of ladies, all part of the lace knitting group.

We then made our way to Kim’s to meet the ladies, they were such sweet girls and the cria were so cute. I also got to feel a soft upper palate in one of Kim s new boys, we are hoping it will harden up but waiting for the vets opinion.

 

 

Kim had made us as great lunch and then off to Diane’s to see her alpacas and also see the sire for two of my next year’s cria.

My lovely weekend was coming to an end, but there was also a severe weather warning, threats of tornadoes and storms. So I decided to get my rental car back to the airport hotel as soon as possible. It was as good job I did as the sky quickly turned and the winds were very strong.

Up at 4 am on the Sunday to fly back home. Can’t wait till the girls all arrive here in September.

I’ve had some visitors to keep me company whilst I wait for Miss Lynne’s return from Denver.

   

I spent the morning sewing, pictures to follow in a future blog. Called my mum to see how she is. Always fun to talk to her and catch up on what she is doing. After a lunch of our fresh eggs poached on toast we decided to go for a hike out through the back of our property again. Our alpaca girls were busy sunning  themselves as we walked around the sides of their pasture.

Either that or they were rolling about laughing at the fact that we were off for  hike on such a hot day. Our dogs were slower than normal as they were also feeling the heat a bit, but they were still happy to be out walking.  By the time we got into the cover of the woods we were dripping with perspiration. In the woods we were treated to some stunning fungi we really need to get a book to identify all these different types. We have seen so many different types in and around the property.

When we got back home I put the fans on and have the alpacas a good hose down. One of our chickens is feeling broody, it’s one of the Ameraucanas, so we have given her some eggs to sit on, let’s see if anything hatches.

Late this evening I got a special delivery, my Pat Green triple drum carder arrived. I am going to read all the instructions while I am flying to Denver tomorrow. Really excited but also nervous to use it.

Nice walk in the morning, the temperature was down in the low 60`s and its surprising how cold that felt to us. Certainly did not take us very long to acclimatize. As the day moved on the temperature went up to the 90`s although was not too bad as the humidity stayed low.

Lunchtime I went out to give the alpacas a house down so they could keep cool. They were fighting over who could get closer to me. They really love to have their legs and bellies hosed with cold water. You don’t spray their backs as the fiber is so dense it would not dry and then you run the risk of it getting moldy.

One of our boys had a very small cut on the back of his leg, probably from a tussle with the others and every day we entice him into the catch pen with some pellets so we can spray Vetricyn on it. It’s healed very nicely. He also had a little bit of scaly skin on his feet that we think might be mites, we have been treating it with a natural cure we saw on paca this a Facebook site. It is 6 lemons soaked in a bucket of water for 4 days then put into a spray bottle with 4 drops of tea tree oil. It really seems to have cleared out up, but it amazes me that he falls for the pellet trick every day!

Last night I was able to finish off some more of my UFO`s plied some of my spinning and actually don’t think I have to pretend it’s at yarn this time.

I also finished the scarf I have been weaving on the rigid heddle and this is a picture I took before washing and finishing the fringe

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.