Brother

Last Friday, with the greatest of joy, I attended a Relay For Life event. To celebrate the survival of a very special person that I have known most of my life and all of his...one of my "little" brothers (I am lucky enough to have three). That is him, of course, being silly for the camera ;)

I never think of him as being a younger sibling, he really is more like an older brother to me...the one you turn to and rely on and ask advice of. That is what my brother Darin is for me. We were cohorts as children, and I don't remember ever fighting, although I'll bet my folks would remember differently ;D


This picture is of him with his wife, truly his partner for many many years now. They have two wonderful boys, young men. All were there in full support (as they have been each step of the way)

The emotions you feel at one of these events are so huge they are hard to explain. Different for me, as a sibling, then they are for each other person there I'm sure. Like I said, very hard to explain and still with me nearly a week later. I will never forget it, and I shouldn't. I took other photos with some of the other family and friends but they didn't turn out (I wish they would have...maybe my hands and heart were shaking to much)

Congratulations, brother of mine. We love you so much...

His first horse ~

Thanks to a collaborative effort between his Mama and his Alaska Aunt, we once again have a saddle horse here at Serenity Farms.

Getting Familiar ~


First Lessons ~



Still grinning, and looking with amazement at the tracks he and his horse made in the sand ~


Isn't that smile, from a shy little boy with a big heart, worth it all?


What an inspired idea his Mama had! Here's to all the life lessons and joys that can only be learned from time with your horse ~

A Short Study of Wool

CVM wool, as a matter of fact, along with other wool junkies at The Knitters Book of Wool group over on Ravelry. By the way, if you don't already own The Knitters Book of Wool by Clara Parkes, run right out now and purchase it for your fiber/knitting library...it is fantastic!

CVM (or California Variegated Mutant) wool was an easy one for me, as I have several Corriedale/CVM cross sheep in my flock, including one of our rams, Derek:

Handsome Derek, with his cool hair-do, was officially chosen as the June mascot for the group...a title he carries with honor ;)

Anyway, I knew I could use Derek's wool for my project and I am very familiar with it but I wanted to do more and realized that I had never worked with 100% CVM or Romeldale from the raw stage to yarn. A call to my friend Bonnie at Sheepy Thyme Farm confirmed that she did have some raw fleece available (as well as several new lambs on the ground) so a "field trip" was arranged! Now, two trips later ~ LOL ~ not only do I have some raw fleece, but I also have planned some new additions to the sheep flock! How does this happen? Well, its almost as easy to collect sheep as it is to collect wool and yarn, especially when they are so lovely.

Here are some of the fleeces I came home with:


That gorgeous moorit, above on the right is from a lovely new ram. And below are a few of the ones I have already washed sample locks of (on the left are unwashed locks and on the right, washed:



Below is some of Derek's fleece to sample:

I am having so much fun and trying to take good notes...look for more here in the next week or so as I comb and spin the samples ~ oh my!

Is it Spring or Summer?

Some recent images from our gardens ~






(An old green bench, a recent find at a yard sale for only $5 dollars!)
How are your gardens growing these days?

In Honor ~ Memorial Day

With thoughts and prayers and thanksgiving to all who have served and are serving our country, and to their families this Memorial Day and every day.










Do any of you remember this recitation? When I was a girl growing up it played on the country music stations. It still gives me goosebumps when I hear it. I thought of all the people who may not have heard it, and thought I would share the words here. I understand it has been recorded in more recent times as well.

DECK OF CARDS (SPOKEN):

During the North African Campaign, a bunch of soldier boys had been on a long hike.
They arrived in a little town called Casino and the next morning being Sunday, several of the boys went to church. A sergeant commanded the boys in church.

After the Chaplain read the prayer, the text was taken up next. Those of the boys that had a prayer book took them out. One boy had only a deck of cards, and he spread them out. The sergeant saw the cards and said, "Soldier, put away those cards." After the service was over, the soldier was taken prisoner and brought before the Provost Marshall.

The Marshall said, "Sergeant, why have you brought this man here?" "For playing cards in church, Sir," was the response. The Marshall asked the soldier, "And what have you to say for yourself, son?" "Much, Sir," replied the soldier.
The Marshall stated, "I hope so, for if not I will punish you more than any man was ever punished."

The soldier said, "Sir, I have been on the march for about six months. I have neither bible nor a prayer book, but I hope to satisfy you, sir, with the purity of my intentions." And with that, the boy started his story ...

"You see, sir, when I look at the Ace, it reminds me that there is but one God.

And the deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts: the Old and the New Testaments.

When I see the trey, I think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And when I see the four, I think of the four evangelists who preached the Gospel: there was Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And when I see the five, it reminds me of the five wise virgins who trimmed their lamps; there were ten of them: five were wise and were saved, five were foolish and were shut out.

When I see the six, it reminds me that in six days God made this heaven and earth.

And when I see the seven, it reminds me that on the seventh day, God rested from his great work.

When I see the eight, I think of the eight righteous persons that
God saved when he destroyed the earth: there was Noah, his wife, their sons and their wives.

And when I see the nine, I think of the lepers our saviour cleansed, and that nine of the ten didn't even thank him.

When I see the ten, I think of the ten commandments that God handed down to Moses on a tablet of stone.

When I see the King, it reminds me that there is but one King of Heaven, God Almighty.

And when I see the Queen, I think of the blessed Virgin Mary who is the Queen of Heaven.

And the Jack or Knave is the Devil.

When I count the number of spots in a deck of cards, I find 365, the number of days in a year. There are 52 cards, the number of weeks in a year. There are four suits, the number of weeks in a month. There are twelve picture cards, the number of months in a year. There are thirteen tricks, the number of weeks in a quarter.

So you see, Sir, my deck of cards serves me as a bible, an almanac and a prayer book."

Time To Wake Up!

From what feels like a long winters nap, or at least a slow awakening to spring!


I came out of the barn the other day and looked up the hill to see the rooster (with our neighbors flag behind him), still crowing at ten in the morning! I happened to have the camera with me (taking pictures of lambs) and couldn't resist this shot. It seemed like it was a nudge to me to shake off winter and wake myself up!

"Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for on You do I lean and in You do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my inner self to You..." Psalms 143:8 (Amplified Bible)

Flowers and grass are growing, trees are budding ~


We are done lambing, finishing with thirty five live lambs. Some glamorous whites and wild colors:


We lost two, one at the beginning and one at the end of lambing season. I only had to assist with one birth (with timely help from friend Mary). We have one bottle lamb this year, an endearing little fellow (now wethered) named Gordon that you will see here one of these days. Two sets of triplets, the first set triplet boys from Amanda and the second set, three little ewes from Ava, sired by Autry! The plan is to keep all three of them. Didn't have to help with either of those births!

Yes, it is time to wake up, there is lots to do....always lots to do. But maybe it would be okay to have just one more snooze in the sunshine before getting started...


(Ava's triplets, sleeping in the sun...one is a grey badgerface, one a solid black and one white! Way to go Ava!!!)

Updating Progress and FO's

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments in my last post of projects! I thought it would be a good idea to show you some finished things and progress notes, just to keep the ball rolling you know!

First the finished February Two Needle Baby Sweater from Knitters Almanac:


I'm happy with it - it was especially fun knitting something with my own handspun, and the Lenten Rose was a beautiful fiber. Then I found this "Rose Quartz" color of Lambs Pride superwash...wouldn't it be a lovely complement to the sweater, to make a pair of the baby leggings out of this? Hmmm....

Then, a FO from a project that began some time ago - this is my take on Jane Thornley's Feather and Fan Organic Wrap. I only had a few rows to work on it, and ignored some other things to get it off the needles. Sigh...it just makes me happy to look at!


Now on to the progress of items not yet finished - my Moc Socks, that I made a foolish mistake on ;( Lost my rhythm and have yet to fix it and pick the socks back up:


Then there is my Bountiful Bohus sweater which is way, way far behind schedule. There is no way that I will be ready to cut the steek by class time this weekend! But I am plugging away on it:


The pattern is Bountiful Bohus by Chrissy Gardiner. You can actually find the pattern free online (something I wish I had known before I bought the book Big Girl Knits, where it is also published) Oh well, you can never have enough knitting books and there are some wonderful hints about making items to fit in the book... The yarn is our own millspun Corriedale, mostly from our dear ewe Ainsley, and I call it coffee bean brown ;) The colors for the yoke are handspun from our flock and I added some angora for that authentic "Bohus" look and feel. The class is being held at the Yarn Garden in Charlotte, my home town so I get a chance to visit family on the same day I go to class. I took the class to have some hand-holding for working and cutting a steek! Janeen, our instructor, is wonderful as is Lindsay, the shop owner. I missed last class and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't catch the grandsons colds and have to miss again.

Have been doing a bit of spinning, too, when I don't feel like knitting. My daughter helped change sheep coats this past week, too, and when I looked at my sheep calender I realized that we could begin lambing in just three weeks. Oh dear, time to call the shearer....

Beginning and Ending Knits

Can you guess what this Socks From Stash surprise project is, peeking out from its bag? Read all the way to the end of this post to find out!

A new year brings new projects to begin and some old projects to complete or abandon. I haven't shared much knitting in the past few months, and as I am putting the finishing touches on some completed items and starting some things new, I thought it would be a good time to post about them.

First of all, one of my favorite finished projects - another pair of my Serene Hands Entrelec Mittens. These were a gift for my daughter. They also won first prize for mittens knit from commercial wool yarn at our Michigan Shepherds Weekend Warm and Wooly Mitten competition!

I really did not get a lot of knitting done over the summer months last year, but with some help from the same daughter mentioned above, I was finally able to finish a pair of socks for my friend and fellow shepherdess Cheryl. I spun a 3-ply yarn from her Jacob sheep roving and my daughter finished knitting these so I could get them to Cheryl in time to keep her feet warm for winter! A simple ribbed pattern, pictured below along with an heirloom squash:

We were working from an outline of her foot and they were a bit loose, so Cheryl shrunk them just a touch and now they are nice house socks. Beautiful roving to work with by the way - check out the Painted Rock Farm website!

After the sock work was completed, I joined a KAL on Ravelry and at our LYS, Sip 'n Knit to make the Heather Hoodie Vest (Ravelry link) from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene magazine. I chose to make my version from some stash millspun Corriedale yarn made with wool from our flock. I made some changes to customize my vest, like knitting in the round in one piece to the underarms and not adding the ribbed sleeve caps the original pattern called for, but for the most part I followed the wonderfully written pattern:












I finished my Wrap Me Up Shawl and it was lovely - a work of art! A few folks in my knitting circle were stunned that only days after completing it, I gave it away. It became a prayer shawl for a very special friend who lost her oldest child. My prayers and hugs went with it, and my continued prayer is that it has brought her at least a moment or two of comfort as she faces the new year ~


I don't have a picture of the finished object...it was to large to photograph well ;) I would definately make this pattern again - it was a joy to work on, never boring and a great stash busting project! This one was a mixture of commercial and handspun yarns.

Other small finished items were a pair of Malabrigo Leafprint mitts; a pair of Spiral Rib Mittens from handspun Corriedale plus a few basic knit items for charity - caps and scarves. In January at Sip 'n Knit we started a year long KAL following Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitters Almanac, calling it a "Year of Knitting EZ". I made a Fishtrap Aran swatch cowl from a buttery yellow Plymouth Galway wool stash yarn:

...and immediately cast on for a second version, also from stash yarn, with plans of making this second item into a full hat. Other Almanac projects currently on the needles are this Moccasin Sock in red (Cascade 220 from stash) and the Baby Sweater on Two Needles for February (handspun Corriedale blend):


The Moccasin Sock is going to do double duty to fulfill some knitting obligations of making projects from stash, especially socks, as my Christian Artisan friends and I begin a year of Socks From Stash sock club! My second project for this kal is for a new pair of Felt Clog slippers for me. Here is the stash yarn I chose (I already had the pattern, too...does that count as stash?):



More Cascade 220 in dark green and silvery grey. The small ball of white roving is in the photo for a reason, too...I am planning to needle felt some roving to the inside bottom of the slipper ~ something extra warm and cozy next to my feet!

Whew, those are just some of my knitting beginnings and ends...what are some of yours?

Welcome Twenty~Ten!

I'm a few days late in wishing everyone a wonderful start to the new year. I'm excited...I'm looking forward to learning each day what God has planned for me in all my days going forward, as many more as He allows. I hear people say all the time what awful times we live in, and yes there is much about the world that is bad. But my God knows what lies ahead. And we know, through His precious Word, that no matter what happens to us and to this world, that He is with us and that we will one day be reuinted with Him. As the old song says "Everyday with Jesus, is sweeter than the day before!"

I don't have much else to say, so I thought I would share just a few photos of the year gone by, starting with the snows of January '09 and and continuing on, more or less, through the seasons ~













(These photos are, beginning at the top - January snow, one year ago; bags of feed for "Doc" Smith - no matter how long Bill has been retired, he is still Doc Smith to the community! We're thankful for abundance, our own corn and oats in the grain bank at the local feedmill. Next, bountiful spring grass and a good crop of lambs; the Round House in summer; friends and family - brother Michael and friend Mary at my folks place; zinnias in our garden; Papa Bill & Elliot, special buddies. I'm not sure what they were looking at!. All three boys digging thistles - Mason said the next day "I hate to tell you this, Grandma, but there are hundreds more baby thistles"! A favorite heirloom squash this fall and new favorite apple; an old rope & pulley hanging in the Burnham barn; the Burnham Barn looking cold in the snow and finally the two little brothers at the Nativity. Elliot held the porcelin baby Jesus in his hand and said "Grandma, Baby Jesus has no blanket!" Oh, how profound that innocent little statement was)

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog or our website or our farm. God Bless each of you this coming year. Please be sure to visit often and drop a note when you can...we treasure every one!