Making it on small acreage

[emilosevich]

Had a great time out at Wooster! We sold quite a bit and got to meet a lot of new people. The weekend was well worth it, but now I'm exhausted. I'll post pics of the sign the lady made for us tomorrow. It looks really awesome. We're talking about doing more shows now what great fun. I really hope this starts to work out!

 

[emilosevich]

What a great time at Wooster. Saw some friends and met lots of new people. Got us in the mood to try and do more shows. We did a lot better than I had even imagined. I've put some pictures below.


This is of a sign that a friend made for us. She did such and awesome job.

This is the yarn and some of the rovings.

And this one is of the whole booth. Not a good picture though.

Wish I had gotten more pictures, but I spent a lot of time in the booth. I did get out and find the next wheel that I'd like to buy. Just fell in love with it. Very practical and sturdy, plus it is set up on Irish tension just like my Louet. Now to get the money for it together.

 

[Denim Deb]

I like that sign! It's very ewenique!

 

[keljonma]

Love your sign and the way it looks surrounded by your yarn and rovings.

 

[emilosevich]

Thank you for the comments about the sign. I do like it surrounded by the rovings as well


Went shearing with K yesterday. I was never happier to have a/c in a vehicle. It was close to 90F if not over and the humidity was outrageous. We ended up doing quite a few llamas. That always makes for a different day. We didn't take as long as I though we would either. That's always a plus. One of the llamas we sheared had some really fine hair. I love the feel of it, but have to remember that I won't like spinning it at all. I will list it though because someone else will love it.

Got home last night and DH tells me he lost his old rooster. Kind of weird to be attached to a rooster, but I am kind of sad about it. This is the guy that started our RCRIR flock. We do have some hens out of him and have his son out in the breeder pen right now. He also told me the Polish have started to lay finally. DD will be so happy. They are her birds and she waits every year for the first chicks to come. It'll be a little while though because the turkey eggs are still in the incubator for another 2 1/2 weeks and the chicken eggs in there have another week and a half. Really wish we had another incubator or a bigger incubator.


DH got 45 tomatoe plants in the ground yesterday After all of the rain that is a great feeling.

 

[emilosevich]

We might have a line on a bigger incubator. That would be really nice. The guy said it holds up to 400 eggs plus he has a couple of hatcher boxes that go with it. Awesome set-up if we can afford it. Gonna go take a look at it and see. Chick eggs should be hatching next week and turkeys the week after. I have a guy looking for ducklings next week but don't know if the muscovies will come off a nest in that time. We'll have to wait and see. The turkey hen should be coming off of her nest soon. DH said she's starting to get anxious so she's close.

Tried to get pics of K shearing the other night and couldn't because the dang battery died on the camera. We have a couple more places to shear so hopefully at one of those places. The battery tends to stay charged for a really long time once you charge it.

We dug through fleeces today to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. It's a yearly thing and always a pain in the butt, but it needs done. We have some really nice fleeces for later. A couple are just spectacular. The one was absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to really get into them. Right now was just a once over to see if they were worth keeping or not.


The neighbor had a bee swarm while I was at work. Her kids thought it was awesome and asked a bunch of questions when I got home. I answered the best I could. Kel or QA would've done better at answering questions.

 

[keljonma]

Good news about the larger incubator!

What do you do with the unacceptable fleeces?


You probably did just fine answering questions about swarms.

There is an old poem about swarms that is really very true....

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly


Hopefully a local beek will get an opportunity to hive it.



Hope you are having some of this great weather we're getting up here.

 

[emilosevich]

The unacceptable fleeces get to go to the pool which is where the local sheep producers take their fleeces and they get baled and shipped to China( I think). I do know they get shipped overseas. Always seemed funny to me that we buy our wool from overseas and ship our will out of the country, but what do I know.

Thanks for the rhyme. I really do hope someone got the swarm. The only thing I really know about swarms is that a new queen is moving a new group of bees out of an old hive. The kids were really interested and they used it as lesson for homeschooling so really double cool. I've seen a couple of swarms before and they are always kind of scary and cool at the same time.

 

[emilosevich]

Thought I was going to plant today since I have a day off with not much to do(besides grocery shop), but Ohio weather has a different idea. So grocery shopping working on cleaning the house and then working on hats for fall festivals this year.

Took the kids to a friend's house yesterday. They have a working dairy farm, plus her sons have started raising pigs. Kids got a nice lesson in cows and how pigs stay cool in mud. Fun for all, plus her and I had a nice talk about homeschooling and approaches to such.

Got one goat registered this morning and now need to find the buck slips to register the other two. I'm still waiting on the registration for the buck and the one old doe.

 

[keljonma]

Thanks for the rhyme. I really do hope someone got the swarm. The only thing I really know about swarms is that a new queen is moving a new group of bees out of an old hive. The kids were really interested and they used it as lesson for homeschooling so really double cool. I've seen a couple of swarms before and they are always kind of scary and cool at the same time.

In most cases, the old queen leaves with the swarm and the new queen stays in the hive to build up the colony.



ETA: what breed of goats do you raise?