I haven’t written in so long, you missed a whole season of animal husbandry, crop tending, pool mending and summer mayhem. There’s so much to review, it’s overwhelming. So instead of going chronologically, I’ll just tell you what happened this week.

Had to share this photo. Sunrise on the anniversary of my mom’s death. It’s been a year. Also sharing a song by Ashley Cooke, “it’s been a year.” Maybe you relate.

Last Monday night, Rachel and Madison moved in! We’ve been waiting with bated breath! They drove from Canada — all the way west in Lake Louise and Banff — and will be here for a while. We’re so excited! Rachel’s been applying to PA school and she and Madison are finishing some online classes. I wrangled them into taking a break from that and unpacking to hike one of my favorite short hikes Bear Wallow Trail.

This Ain’t Your Mama’s Knitting – Southeast Animal Fiber Festival

If you’re familiar with the “Sheep and Wool” annual event held in Rhinebeck, NY, you’ll understand the hoopla surrounding the Southeast Animal Fiber Festival (SAFF) that happened this weekend. It’s a big deal. People come from hundreds of miles away to buy yarn and learn how to do things with fiber. They have classes on everything fiber, soup to nuts. You could start with how to knit or how to knit a hat on circular needles. Or you could do what I did and learn how to spin wool into yarn and how to prep, test and spin a variety of fibers. I didn’t learn how to dye wool or ply or weave, but you could. And it’s just 10 minutes from our house!

I went with my goat/sheep guru Amber the first day. She got me the low down, introducing me to wool mills, cool yarn spinners, etc. We went our separate ways for class as she is in the upper levels learning about plying wool and more detail level work. I’m still a freshman, but I got in with some amazing teachers. I met a great homesteader in my fiber class. Toby is a font of info. While I like to say #thisIsNotAHomestead on my social media posts, he doesn’t shy away from that. Nor should he, since he is actually trying to live off the land with his alpacas, shetland sheep, goats, veggies and bees. It all works for him. Me? I still need to go to the store every few days.

In the course of the day, I found out a lot about what I could do with the fleece from our sheep. Unfortunately, I also found out that our little puff balls may have grown their fleeces so fast, that noone would be able to process their wool unless I clipped it now. Who knew you might have to shear sheep twice a year? Not me. Learning as I go…

Sheep Shearing

Luckily Amber knows the sheep shearer. This is a hard person to get in with. Everything fell into place though. I got in touch with his assistant who mentioned that they would be giving a live demonstration on Sunday at SAFF. It didn’t take much convincing for David to help me put the sheep in the back of the covered pick up (yep they fit with plenty of room to spare) and drive over to the fairgrounds. Rachel and Madison came too. The shearing was epic. We waited in line with dozens of others and got to watch them shearing angora goats as well as lots of sheep. And then we stopped over to watch the border collie demonstration — as you do.

Our sheep look so small without their fleeces. And they look so fragile! Without their coats, and the colder weather coming, we stopped off at the Goodwill store and bought some $4 coats we could get dirty. We cut off the sleeves or bought down vests and wrangled them in. Of course we forgot that they might pee in them if they are in the way…. Learning as we go! We’ll adjust the clothes further tomorrow. Ugh. Or I’ll borrow coats from Amber — At least for a template!

Everyone’s home safe and sound. But not in Israel…

Israel – Hamas War

I didn’t mention that David’s sister Jan and BIL Rich came to visit. (Wonderful!) We tried to have fun but the black cloud of world events loomed over our heads. Unfortunately, I felt very distracted during their visit due to the Israel-Hamas situation. We’re so distraught. That’s not even the half of it. The terror raids, the abductions, the kidnappings of mentally disabled people, grandmother, babies… I will never get over this. No one should. The barbarians are knocking at our doors and some people, not you dear readers, but some people are apologizing for the terrorists. Of course there are innocent Palestinians and they are also terrorized by these animals. But some people have been brainwashed, not only those living in Gaza but the West. Hamas is not just trying to get their own country to rule autonomously. They want to wipe Israel and all Jews off the globe. And we are just the first step in their ploy for world domination. Jews are always the canary in the coal mine.

Let’s not all be Sheep.