Happy Father's Day!

This is the first Father's Day I have ever picked tomatoes!

Last year I thought I was lucky to pick tomatoes in mid July. These little Bumble Bee tomatoes are delicious and apparently very early. I started them from seed in February and they were flowering when I planted them. The ones we had last year from Rodale were a little bigger, but we shall see as the season progresses. And the snow peas are just beginning as well.

My hubby is having fun with his Father's Day present, a pressure washer, and washing our camping trailer with the youngest.

It looks soooo much better after just a rinse.

Washing Wool

My daughter and I finally tackled washing some of the skirted wool from the fleeces. It had been soaking for about a week and was starting to get nasty. Of course I couldn't find the bottle of Kookaburra wool wash I picked up at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival last month (it must be somewhere really safe!)
When my husband built his shop in the garage he put in this great big double bowl sink. It works great for washing wool.

The best parts of the wool are at the processor so these were the bits I couldn't bear to throw away, but will take a bit of carding/combing to be able to do anything with it.

After drying I tried my hand at carding (boy do I need to get better at that!) Finally I was able to spin my own sheeps' wool that I processed myself. The top half of the bobbin is some mystery roving I got from a friend, the bottom half is all mine!

I am a very beginning spinner and still have a lot to learn. But, heck, I spun my own sheeps' wool!!!
(Note to self; write post on my spinning wheels and beginning spinning attempts.)
 My indigo plants are just about to bloom so need to be cut back. Maybe we can try dyeing some of the cleaned wool blue.

Trellises

Finally, the raspberries and grapes have their trellises! Last year I could only pick about 2/3 of the raspberries because of the way the branches fell over. And we have never harvested any grapes.

The job went much faster with the new post hole digger.

The grape vine trellis had rotted away years before we moved in and the grapes had taken over the arborvitae for support.

I found these cool gadget called wire vises that make stringing and tightening the wire supports so much easier. They work like a chinese finger trap. The wire goes through in one direction only.

There is a predrilled hole (1/2 inch) in the T post that accepts the end of the wire  vise.

The wire is cut flush with one end and has a little tail on the other end to tighten up the wire as needed.

The grape vine trellis is just three posts with two holes drilled in each post to accept the wire supports. The raspeberries have two cross pieces attached to each post at 24 and 48 inches with the wire at the ends of the cross pieces. Most of the Mennonite farms in the area have similar raspberry patches and we took the design from them.

We had a nice surprise when we received the package of wire vises from Orchard Valley Supply. Turns out our niece works for them and packed our package and this was written on the back:

Our niece moved to North Carolina years ago and we had no idea where she was working.

Now the raspberry patch is nice and tidy.

Just in time for a bumper crop in July.

Finally, Skirting the Fleeces

I have vacation this week and next and a long list of things to get done. Number one on the list is getting the fleeces skirted and taken to the mill. The fleeces were skirted yesterday and today and we have an appointment for Wednesday at the mill. I am really looking forward to the consultation part of the fiber drop off.
My make-do skirting table worked fine. Alan has two 36 inch high saw horses and I placed a 4X7 sheep and goat panel on top then a hog panel on top of the sheep panel. The sheep panel has 4x4 openings so the hog panel just made the openings a bit smaller. Other then sagging a little in the middle this set up got the job done.

Above is Hazel's fleece. After skirting her fleece weighed 5 pounds. Now here is Mercer's fleece below:

His fleece covered every bit of my skirting table and I could have used a little more room. After skirting his fleece weighed 11 pounds! Mercer's fleece has the tightest crimp but Elwood has the prettiest color. Just look at those locks:

All this sheep wool feeling had me wanting to watch the sheep shearing episode of Tales From the Green Valley. After shearing they mention cleaning the odd bits and using them to stuff pillows. Alan is making a new bed for our reenacting camp, to be more 17th century, and I am making linen sheets. So now we will have real wool-stuffed pillows! The bits I skirted off are now soaking. I'll wash them and pick out as much of the vegetable matter as I can then stuff them into a thick linen cover.

Elwood v Mercer

About a week ago my daughter told me she found Mercer, our bigger ram, stuck in the calf hutch with the door up against the fence. Saturday afternoon I found him again stuck in the calf hutch. He was making a very soft, deep baa (more of a growl) and standing, very patiently, looking out.

Once I pulled the hutch away from the fence he still kept looking out the back window.

I have to blame Elwood for Mercer's predicament. Elwood loves to head butt the calf hutch and must have been bashing it with Mercer inside. Hopefully, Mercer has learned to stay out of the hutch when Elwood is being "rammy."

Color!

We have finally decided on a color for the house. It took a while since I had a whole list of parameters that needed to be met with this color. First, the color had to help the house look old (like 18th century old.) Second, I felt that one of the best ways to help make the house look old would be having the trim and windows match the color of the walls. Third, that meant I needed good samples of modern window exterior colors. Fourth, we had to decide on a window company to get their colors. Then to make matters more complicated, the Pella window store told me Sherwin Williams paints has the codes to all their colors. But a call to the Sherwin Williams store taught me that they knew nothing about Pella window colors. Ah, but Lowes has the codes. But not in a solid stain, just a paint. I really wanted to treat all the new wood with a solid stain rather than a paint. But Lowes did have a decent sized sample of Pella window trim in the color, Portobello, I was thinking of using. Using their color match system this is what we have come up with:

 And it looks nice on the new garage doors too. I love a color that changes colors in different light. This color can look gray, tan, brown, and greenish. And is a pretty close match to stink bug poop brown!

Eventually the whole front of the house will get new wood clapboard siding painted Portobello. This is my inspiration house from Colonial Williamsburg:

I think we came pretty close with the parameters I was using. We have the garage side door painted the darker color to see how it would look. I think the whole house will look more settled and a part of the land with the new color scheme.

The Manure Fork

The best thing we bought this year is the manure fork. It attaches to the front bucket of the tractor and does an incredible job raking and scooping up manure and bedding. My least favorite job in the barn is raking up soiled bedding, especially if is packed down for a while.
The fork in action, lining up for a scoop:

then picking up nearly half of the bedding in an 8x8 stall.

And taking it away.

And onto the manure pile.

We cleaned out a 16x16 area in about two hours; a job that would have taken three people all day if done by hand. A well spent $260 dollars!