Between a flock and a soft place

I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!!

 Know what I mean?  This guy does.

We went to visit a fleet of alpacas at Rancho Alamogordo out in Parker the other day.  I try not to say this too often, but OH EMM GEEEEE! 

Gosh!  I have never seen anything so darling!  Well besides maybe this:












or this:

Yes I'm comparing the sweetness of a farm animal to the sweetness of my newborn children.

Fluffy, clumsy... And the stink is endearing.

I found Sally, the owner of Rancho Alamogordo, on craigslist.  She had an ad up for fleece and I was curious.  I emailed her and explained my desire to teach my kids about how we source different materials, food etc, including down to the toys we play with.  After Christmastime, and the abundance of !!!THINGS!!! they received, I am even more motivated to simplify and educate.  To be creative and responsible for what we use, where we get it, and the value associated with that responsibility. Eventually I would like me bebes to understand the time it takes to source materials, prep it, and create with it.  Starting small with projects like felting or spinning/weaving etc. would be a really fun way to get the renaissance going!  Sally was so welcoming, so we made the trip out there to learn a little bit more!

My mom has been talking about alpacas almost as long as she's been drooling over donkeys.  Not sure I would know what they were if it weren't for her introduction probably 10 years ago!  Alpacas are in the llama family, only they're much less aggressive and their fleece is an even bigger treasure.  I respect any animal that can live a happy life in a relatively small space, who just needs another pal or two to be content, and who is eager to donate her locks to the love of the fiber/knitting community, as well as other lovers of all things warm and cozy.  When we bought our acre, I was dying for a sheep.  We would look at a house, and I would say, "Well is it zoned for a sheep??"  That was the big deal for me.  I was very hard to please, clearly!  As we spend our days here, learning the ropes of a giant (to us it's giant, come on, we're from the city!!) lot, I'm always excited for the prospect of a smallish farmish animal or two.  It will happen.  When we're ready, that is.  Out here in Golden, there are so many ranchers eager to show off their homesteads and to educate you in whatever knowledge it is you seek.  I didn't have to go all the way to Parker to learn more about alpacas, but Sally was so inviting so we were happy to make the trip!

Hey lady!

After our visit with the ladies, we went inside and there Sally had THREE GIANT BAGS OF FLEECE waiting for me!!  Whew!!  I got a great price on it, which is good because I will have enough to last me through the next 5 hard winters :)  It is gorgeous!  Mostly I got fleece for felting, which I cannot wait to try with the kiddos.  I'm eager to start dyeing and experimenting, I think it's gonna be tons of fun!  One bag had fleece from the blanket of the alpaca, which is the sides and back (I think I remember this right...), which is ideal for spinning.  It's longer and has more crimp in it.  Let's add spinning wool to my list of obsessions, shall we???

Check it:

two bags of felting fleece... the other is inside waiting for me to try my hand at washing :)
ps, that's Nick's bike which has 29" wheels... just for a sense of scale!!

the colors!!!  Oh my goose!!

I've been spending the better part of my very vast and plentiful moments of free time scouring youtube, ebay, craigslist, and my local yarn shop for all things FLEECE.  I might even be looking at alpacas for sale on cl, but don't tell Mister Boree or he will poop.  While we're not anywhere near ready to invite livestock over for an extended vacation, I am ready to dive into a cozy new hobby that I can share with my munchiekins.  

Today I'm washing the blanket for the first time.  I had to watch a few videos on youtube to get my plan, but the fiber people who post on there are super helpful and tell you a lot of what NOT to do.  That's good for me, I need a clear plan, as well as a pause and rewind button.  I decided to use the washing machine after much research: way easier and faster than using my kitchen sink!  Which would end up being my kitchen STINK because DANNNNG is that fleece smelly!  Duh.

the third big bag of fleece.  I'm gonna be a busy boree!

 Since I can smell your curiosity from here, above the stank of the wet wool: 

 Basically you fill your washer with enough water to saturate the fibers and get nice and soaked, but not a full basin.  You use extra hot water to help rid of the oils and uh, "waste" on the fleece, and about a half bottle of dish liquid.  I used ajax because that's what was here from the previous owners.  I soaked it for 30 minutes, the ran a spin cycle.  Filled and soaked again, and then what was left was just some fluffy, fleecy love:

aw.

I don't have any fancy drying hammocks yet, so I spread it out on an afghan and let it sit outside on some patio chairs.  It's gorgeous and way too warm out today, so maybe it will even get a little sun tan fade.

not a bad life for a bundle of wool, eh?

Last night I ordered a handspindle on ebay and it should be here Saturday!  Pretty excited.  Seven bucks and free shipping... sure beats the $20 minimum I found at the yarn shop!!  I went with a top whorl, and it's handmade of maple in PA.  If it seems like something we can do together, I'm going to make one for Tulah to practice with too.  

Now for the really big news.  

I can't really get to starting if I don't get to CARDING.  I have to pick through and brush the fleece out between wool cards (brushes to make it all fluffy and orderly) which are hard to find affordably!  I am not one to spend real money on ANYthing, but I am one to get me undies in a bunch to get the heck GOING on a new project!  On the count of three, let's all cross your fingers for MY SO-FAR WINNING BID ON EBAY... One, Two, THREE...

Are your fingers crossed??? 

Mine are!  

That's a lie, I'm typing. 

But as of this moment, as of the most recent of the 335 times I've refreshed my bid page, I am 41 minutes away from winning, as long as some fiber-carding, primitive hand-card bidding, sneaky little chef doesn't outbid me at the last minute.  Let's hope the forces of good, and not e-vil, are on my side.

So that's about it... as far as the alpaca ranch goes.  I am very excited about all that we have to be excited for... so that's good!  I hope that by early next week I'm dyeing, carding, roving, and spinning away through the cozy snowy days ahead!  Yes the forecast calls for snow to follow up this 60 degree day.  Thank you, Colorado :)  

Knox is still asleep in the bottom bunk, with me right next to him. 

Tonight we're going to our first Kindergarten open house, as it is Choice-in time in Jefferson County!  I will let you know how weird that is tomorrow.  Mwah!

**update as of 5:49 pm mountain time**  I WON!!  Let the carding begin :)

O Christmas Pee, O Christmas Pee: A Tutorial.

So this is just a tiny bit super late, but I will now show you how a family might go about obtaining a tannenbaum.

First, make plans to wake up super early on your husband's premeditated sick day.* 

Be sure to get off to a lazy start upon awaking.  

2.  Rush around the house and gather snow attire.  

Husband:  You track down half of it.
Wife:  You track down the other half and extras of everything because the kids WILL get soaking wet and cry.  Wife will then carefully and intentionally divide everything into piles of round 1 clothing, round 2 clothing, and items for herself.
Husband again:  Make sure you stuff all of said piles into one tiny backpack with no sort of rhyme or reason.

3. Next, gather your cute children and stuff them into the truck and drive to the mountains, stopping once for coffee and overpriced mountain-town breakfast sandwiches.

If you cannot gather your own cute children, you can borrow mine.  You cannot, however, borrow my high-end breakfast sandwich, for I am hungry.

4.  Upon reaching your parking spot in the land of tree-cutting, pause for a family photo such as this one.  

Tailgates clearly make excellent tripods in the event you forgot yours AGAIN this year.

5.  Double-check the security of kiddos' mittens and start hiking!

(at this point, you will realize you forgot to bring sleds for the lazy-children-pulling.  AGAIN this year.)

Don't worry, you can rest a time...

or two.

A snow angel stop is permitted as well.  It's almost mandatory.

But naps are to happen on the return trip home, not during working hours.

6.  When you find your tree, you'll just KNOW it.

Or someone will dutifully point it out to you:

7.  Send in the Big Man to do the heavy cutting and lifting.  

 8. Haul it back.  It's a long way back, so just haul like you've never hauled before.

A photo shoot midway back to your truck is encouraged. 

You might be thinking they're pretty handsome.  And that's because they ARE!

 

Do not hesitate to continue the shoot long after the kids are done being cute.

she loves this moment.

 9.  Another tailgate photo, with the new member of the family.

They're so totally over this.

10.  Grab lunch in town and head home!  

 

We could end this tutorial here, on this very pleasant note.  I could tell you the kiddos slept in the car on the way home, ready and rested when we got back.  This is almost true.  What is totally true is... Two things:

1.  When we got home, we saw Howdy destroyed the bathroom Carpeting That Doesn't Belong in a Bathroom Anyway.  So I had to rip it out, as well as shreds of carpet padding.  I had to pry up tack strips and nasty nails out of the cute pine subfloor.  Bored, lonely, naughty puppy.

We should have just brought him with us, even though the rules state they must be leashed, which we all know is not going to happen with a big ol' puppy wanting to run all over the place and half the hike is straight up climbing.  But we should have brought him anyway.

Tulah, ever the biographer and illustrator, made a "note" that said, "Hade (Howdy) tor up a rug." Oh yeah smartypants?  Try illustrating THAT.


The second truth is this:
Christmas trees smell like PEE.  The fresh Frasier smell we all dream of is a lie.  A big fat Christmas lie.   At least for us.  This year's variety emits a clear urine-like tangy smell all the time and laughs at us as we start threatening to re-home that gift-with-purchase cat for spraying in the house.  Maybe a deer or 30 marked some territory all over it this summer as it sat in the woods, living a full tree life.  Maybe some law-unabiding citizens let their dogs OFF THEIR LEASHES and they staked their claim on OUR tree.  Varmints. 

It's still pretty though, and that New Pee Smell is less pungent daily. 
We decorated it a week later and didn't even bother trimming much off of it.  I could have cut branches, drilled holes in the bare spots of the trunk, branch-grafted, watered, trimmed some more, but I didn't.  We like it all wonky and Super Ultra Mountain Realistic.  So here we go.  Our Christmas tree Our Christmas tree, how lovely are your cray-cray branches and questionable fragrance...

Talk to you soon about all of the thangs we been makin'!!
Merry Christmas if I don't get to it before the big day!


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*the aforementioned sick day in no way shall indicate that Mister Boree has in the past or shall again in the future make habit of such premeditation.  All counts suggested by Missus to indeed take a "day of sick" have in their utmost and complete entirety been as the French say... "Shot Down With Wild Disdain."  It must also be noted that the day in discussion was not presented to management, or any Sayer In The Matter of his failure to appear in the workplace, as a day of sickness for himself but rather his wife, who in such an event would not be able to perform her Housewifely duties, thus requiring Husband to remain home to attend to matters she would not be willing or able to insuchaclatter that she were in fact sick that particular day.  Good day sir.

my goodness.