Today I am busy over the dyepots. While working through my dying to do list I am also testing dyes on the new yarn I've got. Last weekend we were in Kellyville Oklahoma for the Fiber Christmas in July and it was awesome. We had so much fun. This weekend will see us in Franklin Grove Illinois for the Chaplin Creek festival and it's another one of my favorites. I am so looking forward to shopping and vending and getting to see Sarah of Yarn Geek fibers and hopefully get to do some trading!!

 Look at my pretty new lilies! We headed to the yearly lily sale last weekend and I picked up four new named varieties to go into the garden beds. We go to this one every year because I love to see the flowers in bloom and walk around the garden picking out which ones I like. Then I just find one of the diggers and show them what I want, and out of the ground it comes all ready to come home with me. I got one early bloomer (the pink one that is missing some petals) and the rest are mid range. Next year I think I'll focus on late bloomers. We had to get up super early to make it before the husband had to leave for work

 but it was totally worth it.

An Interview with Fluffington Farms!

I woke up this morning to the best news! Phat Fiber, Natural Obsessions, and I sat down with yarnspinners tales and did a super fun mini interview and chat. I was so excited to hear it, her podcast is perfect to listen to while spinning and that's exactly what I did. If you'd like to hear it you can find it here http://www.yarnspinnerstales.com/webpage/yst-episode-73-chatting-with-the-fiber-folks

New additions to the farm and a brand spankin new bunny love shack

 We've finally starting building the new bunny shed! It's got a ways to go, but we've got three walls and the floor done and I ran out to the store about brought home two new windows, paint for the exterior, insulation, a front door and screen door, and a few other things today.
While I was supervising the shed building activities our new turkeys had to come and say hello, they were born this spring and given to me just the other day. They're super friendly just like the ducks and chickens so they should fit right in here. We're so excited to get this new shed done and get our buns settled in. I'm dying to start painting it. As soon as we finish the shed and get everyone settled in we'll be starting on the new bunny play yard so that they will have more space to romp and yummy herbs to munch on.

So what have I been doing?

So much has been going on here! My poison ivy finally seems to be going away so I got back to wool stuff today along with the garden/yard stuff too. I took tons of pictures today as I worked around the yard going from project to project. First is wool, today I got three new fleeces into the tubs, first an awesome suri type llama fleece, then a jacob, and lastly a super crimpy wonderful merino. I managed to dry four other fleeces that I finished plus a bunch of dyed goodies.

Next, we worked on the baby retaining wall that we are building to stop our yard from pouring into our driveway every time it rains. Before we could start we had to dig up all of the bulbs that were there. This is what 1220 (mostly daffodil) bulbs looks like.

and the first layer of our wall. I think we'll probably only do the first layer this year and as soon as we get it down I'll be able to replant all of the bulbs, We're also planting lilacs and peony here this year, and next year it will get a little more attention.


















We're also working on our vegetable garden, we've got four raised beds built and we're in the process of filling them up with good dirt. Maggie and I are working on building a fence around the garden out of last years emergency plant stakes and scrap boards that were in the burn pile to keep the chickens and quackers out, since they are all now officially free range for the better part of every day.














We have six flower beds in various stages of progress at the moment, with plans for two more in the near future (and probably a good handful more after that)Right now we're adding gladiolus, iris, and a few other small things to fill in some of the bare spots later this summer. I'm still a few years away from being completely happy with any of them, but I am definitely happier with them this year than I was last year.

Such a busy time of year

Spring is such a busy time of year for us. We do spring cleaning, inside and out, which for seven people is a LOT needing done. We start on the yard goals which are large and many and include animal related tasks. And lastly, we start really focusing on fiber. New fleeces coming in, old fleeces sought out and used, inventory taken, rovings reordered, wonderful things dyed and carded, and everything packaged, labeled, and priced for the festivals. My workload triples in the spring and I am grateful for the extra hours of daylight.
This year is so promising. New blood coming into the rabbitry and definite progress with our english lines and our broken satins. I finally settled on a breed of chicken and right now we're hatching out black copper maran eggs and if all goes well we will stick with them and the olive egger crosses that will be produced with my americaunas. We added three lovely little khaki campbell ducks this year for the extra eggs too. The chicken coop will be relocated and expanded shortly and the rabbits are finally going to get the improved quarters that they deserve. I've already started building the fence around the garden and very soon the main fence will go up. We've gotten four raised beds built out of the ten I plan to have. The gardens are looking beautiful and we plan to add to them quite a bit this year. We've also started laying down the mulch for the pathways that we'd been planning. Most importantly, I believe we will finally be getting our addition this year! So it's busy, and good, and wonderful.
On another note, my girls are such amazing little people. Today while grocery shopping (me +5 kids) maggie, (who is 8) stopped multiple times without being asked to fix a malfunctioning sandal for cash (who is 2), to help herd the group in the right direction, to put things back on the shelf that the little ones tried to grab as they were walking by, ect. and Amadea who is 6, just blew me away tonight. Baby fell asleep on the couch and I really needed to get things done, so since they were all watching the movie they had earned I put her in charge of sitting next to him in case he woke up. When I came back in after folding laundry she had fallen asleep, but first she had put pillows above tarquinns head and at his feet and then she had curled up next to him with her blanket to make sure that he wouldn't fall. Amazing. We are not just raising children, we are raising extraordinary human beings. It is so good after all the destruction and noise and stress to see such responsible, awesome little people starting to form.
That's all for tonight, here's to a year of progress made and still enough time to sit on the porch and watch the kids play.

Another shopping adventure!

Today we had to run out for milk, and a quick visit to the little shop next door to the closest place around that sells hormone free milk. I love stuff n' more because they almost always have something small that makes me happy (and comes home with me).
Todays finds were both baskets. I paid $8.00 for the big one and only $1.00 for the small one (which is funny because just last week I said I wanted one just like that to hold all of our first aide stuff). I'm not exactly sure what I'll use the big one for yet. I wasn't looking for a basket of that size, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it.
I have actually been hunting for an old crock to put all of my cooking utensils in, but I'd started to give up hope, I'd been to nearly every junk shop within an hour of me in the last few weeks and I've had no luck, but my old neighbor came to visit the other day right after I'd gotten home from another trip with no luck and just so happens to have two of the type I am looking for in his shed! I think we'll be trading our old water heater for whichever one that I like best.