fuzzy picture of our beautiful stanley, but something got his nose. wasn't a cat fight but he's also missing a tuft off the top of his head. Scalped right down the the skin, but didn't hurt the skin. He eats well sleeps the same and wanted to go back out yesterday afternoon so I guess it will get better on it's own. Pet ownership is hard sometimes.

Off to a day of spinning with friends, willl try and get pictures taken (yeah right) I take the camera with me, and then get engrossed in my project and forget to use it.

Random Acts

Well, this hadn't planned on being my topic today but life is full of changes. There is a girl who started a movement to make people (especially girls/women) smile and feel good about themselves. We all know there is a serious lack of that everywhere. Check out www.operationbeautiful.com I love the concept and think I'll put a few little notes in my bag for those times I'm out and about too.

Adventures in Wool

I've decided to try my hand at preparing wool from the beginning through spinnning a fine yarn. Well, fine yarn isn't exactly accurate, but yarn nonetheless. And from the beginning means AFTER it has come off the sheep and some of the gross stuff picked out.

the right picture is 4 days of cold soak, the left picture is draining before going into clean water/soap.

A friend of my sisters bought 350 lbs of wool. That is a lot of wool. She was willing to sell some for a very reasonable price. I was willing to buy some at a reasonable price becuase having never soaked and combed my own wool, we're just not sure exactly how this is going to work. After this first soak, it is definately much cleaner and while it smells a little barn like outside the house right now, I waited until this evening to change the water and though we're not expecting rain in the next few days the smell should be gone before most people go to work in the morning. windows seem to be closed, ac is running, it is good.

Looking forward to seeing how this looks Sunday when it will be time, maybe for a hot wash :)

I picked up 2 5lb bags of romney, one brown and one white. I believe I've soaked the white first, here it is after the first 4 day cold soak. It is looking decidedly white to me. I haven't even opened the other bag yet becuase I'm doing 5 lbs at a time.

May 30th

Well, I guess that's not so bad. Of course for someone who is trying to post more often that is really bad.

DD has successfully settled into her new home and last weekend got a kitty. Flynn is a 3 year old rescue kitty from the Fauquier SPCA. He has been there since early March and we don't know why but he is a friendly kitty (except when he is scared and uncertain and then he hides behind the bed) loves to be petted and brushed. And is very familiary with the concept of catnip. His new little brother Charlie gets to come home Friday. I don't know why they insist on neutering kittens so young, but there you go. And I must say that they are much more reasonable about pet adoption. The one reason we did NOT adopt our cat from our rather large area (went to three shelters) as well as the cat rescue league here is because you fill out an application with personal references then they come to your home for an inspection and interview to see if you are "qualified" to own a cat. huh? I told them that I wasn't required to be inspected and interviewed to have a baby and I certainly wasn't going to subject myself to some stranger deeming me "appropriate" to own a cat. Craigs list there I went.

Anyway, Fauquier has you fill out a form, pay your money, tell you that if for some reason things don't work out, please bring the kitty back to them. and then give you a free bag of kitty food along with your new family member and there you go. They were all very nice, the place was as nice as an animal shelter could be and I would recommend it to anyone.

pictures to follow