Just a few scenes from the farm on this sunny afternoon.

Growing garlic in coffee grounds. The idea came from the college age son. He swears it works and that a friend grew some in the dorm this way. I didn’t ask what else they grew in the dorm…

The oregano that I neglect is thriving. I have found that any plant I actually pay attention to dies, so my most effective garden method is to completely ignore everything. If it was meant to grow…it will.

Auron the cat followed me around hoping for attention. He got an ear rub for the effort.

Our horizontal willow. Victim of the ice storm a few months ago. His will to live is heroic. We are taking a wait and see attitude. If he can survive the normal August drought, then the family consensus is that we have no right to deny him life just because he is vertically challenged. He will become a living art installation and we will landscape around him and post a bronze plaque with the word ‘Perseverance’ on it to honor his efforts.

The koi that lived in the fountain were not as lucky as the willow. They did not survive the ice and electrical outages over the winter. The local frogs do not seem very heartbroken about this fact. The nightly croaking chorus has reached a fevered pitch lately, and I expect lots of tadpoles to arrive very soon. And without any hungry fish maybe this year they will actually survive to adulthood. The waterlilies and other greenery also seem happier…it’s like an apartment complex where the one bad family finally moved out. Everyone just lets out a big sigh of relief and enjoys the peace.

I’ve added a new tutorial to the website “How to Spin Uncarded Wensleydale Wool Locks“. The instructions should work for other fibers that grow in curly locks: Cotswold, Lincoln, Mohair, Teesdale, etc.

It’s a brief tutorial and assumes you already know how to spin carded wool.

Enjoy!

I have succumbed to peer pressure and joined Twitter. And for those who may not know exactly what that means…essentially it’s like a mini pictureless blog you can update in 140 characters or less. People can sign up to get updates (like RSS updates) of everything you post. Yes, it’s a bit ego-ccentric…but fun. You can see what all the fuss is about at http://twitter.com and my posts are at http://twitter.com/houndscroft

On the fiber front, here are pictures from last week’s sheep shearing. Check out how HUGE Holstein’s (one of our Icelandic sheep) fleece is all spread out!! Too cool. When I shear, the wool is all in little clumps. This is the first time I’ve ever had the fleeces all come off in one piece like a rug. It made skirting the wool really easy…still very dirty…but easier than I thought it would be.