This is how I get so little done some days....

I simply wanted to check e-mail before getting back to wrapping soaps to felt.  Dot, our rescued yellow kitty, loves to say right at the edge of my computer where the fan vents warm air.  She also decided that my roving pile would simply add to the cozy experience.  The only up side I see right now is that she is sleeping.  When she is awake she loves to chew on roving and it is awfully challenging to draft out nicely when soaked in cat spit.

Corn

We began taking down the corn maze at our sweet daughter-in-law's family berry farm a few weeks ago.  Al was cutting corn stalks with a shovel and I was following behind stacking them and hauling them to the trailer.  To make a long story short, I vaguely remembered my father using a boot-mounted corn blade with some Amish buddies in Holmes County, Ohio.  I googled it & the one only option I found was at Lehman's in Kidron.  Lehman's used to be the really good hardware store we went to when I was a child.  Now it is still a good hardware but they have really expanded the whole Amish-tourism thing.  Fine with me, they still have items I need.  I ordered Al a corn blade which has really sped up the process.  Now Al is working hands free (!) so that he can hold the corn stalks as he kicks them down.  So while Al is gathering the stalks I have been walking through the corn field with a few large buckets so that I can gather ear corn.  It has been a pleasantly warm and sunny day so taking in corn for the livestock has been a great way to work off Thanksgiving dinner.

Almost Ready

I determined last week to do my Thanksgiving shopping before things got crazy.  I stopped at the store Thursday after I'd finished my artist-in-residence tasks for the day.  I'd been in a lovely local school for the week teaching weaving to 5th graders.  We had a ball!  During my lunch hour I composed my Thanksgiving shopping list and then hit the store on the way home.  I do keep plenty of groceries in the freezer and pantry so did not have to pick up great volumes of food. The store was already packed and I was tired when I got home. It was so nice to have help unloading:

Little Eve just cannot keep her nose out of anything.  I actually unload groceries in a special order to be sure anything that is potential donkey treats go out first.  I believe by the time she realized I was unloading the car all that was left was the 24 pound turkey and a few canned goods. Now that Eve is getting older she naps more in the afternoon which is probably why I was able to get all but the last few things out before she decided to get involved.

And this morning a friend dropped by with a pleasant treat:

Jeff grows amazing produce.  He knows I don't really keep a garden because my "free range" eggs are produced by chickens that are truly free ranging - no garden is safe from the 300 hens out foraging for goodies.  So Jeff left with several dozen eggs and we have more delicious additions to our big meal!

Almost Done

This curly yarn is spun primarily from Betsy's fleece.  She is one of the Sofa Sisters & a Border Leicester X Cotswold who came to us about a year ago.  The yarn also has bits of mohair from our Angora Goats.  I spun it for a friend who is trying to duplicate one of her mother's scarves that disappeared.  As soon as I took the pictures I popped it in the sink for a final wash.

Fall Abundance

This time of year is so much fun for the livestock.  They get extra goodies from others' fall harvest.  That includes left over pumpkins from our friends, Jeff and Kim.

I drop a pumpkin on the concrete drive so that it splits into a few tasty pieces and then distribute them to the oxen, donkeys, sheep and goats.  Bart, the crippled sheep who lives in the front yard, loves to nibble at the unbroken ones.

The autumn activities are over at the Hardy Berry farm so we are slowly taking apart the corn maze.  We cut stalks, load them on the trailer and bring them home to feed out to the livestock.  Just for fun I piled some against the fence surrounding the donkey pasture so that Zeke and Esther could help themselves.  Eve, our little Ossabaw Island donkey who lives in the front yard with Bart already has all she can eat but still felt obliged to compete with the big donkeys.

After the initial enthusiasm of having "all you can eat" wore off, we found that the donkeys were sorting through the corn leaves to tear off just the tasty ears of corn.  All in all everyone is happy and there is still plenty more corn to be had.  So much so that I broke down and ordered a corn knife for Al to attach to his shoe.  That should make the harvest a little easier than cutting each stalk with the blade of a shovel.

A Fall Day

I was making the noon egg gathering run when I came across Ravi and Sadie napping in the barnyard.  I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say they can enjoy their naps because they are up so much in the night guarding their livestock.  Plus the hay was so soft, the sun so warm and the afternoon breeze smelled of all the lovely moldering fall leaves.  I snuck quietly by so as not to disturb them.