Look what hubby found

 The baby came out of the long grass on the side of the

driveway. (I blew it up as he did not know how.)

 But, as he is taking pictures, it is coming down the hill to him.

I blew up the final picture. 

Look how white it is.

Hubby says it is the size of a kitten.

Last night's visitor

These were taken around 7 pm last night.

She did not have her baby with her.

 Not too many years ago, 3 maybe, we put down black

gold manure (manure that had aged 5 years or more 

and was pure black) and a Hayland grass mix that we

purchased from Henniker Farm and Country Store.

While it is loaded with great grass and also has quite

a bit of clover in it. This was planted mainly as pasture

for our sheep, secondly as it makes a nice looking

lawn when mowed. But, Miss Porcupine is pretty

sure that we planted the clover just for her.

 She just realized that I was talking to HER!

 OH NO!! A HUMAN!

Look how big her eyes look.

 Quick! I need to get into the tree to hide.

From here she stayed on the backside of the tree.

At the angle I was at up on the farmer's porch, I was 

unable to get any more pictures of her. Generally,

I am on the ground taking pictures. Husband says 

that she has a WHITE baby that he has seen 2 out

of 3 nights, including last night. If I can I will get 

pictures of the baby as well. A couple of months ago,

we saw a large adult WHITE porcupine about a mile

from the farm crossing the road in front of us from the

farm side of the road. I wonder if that is daddy.

Is it garbage, part 2

This is the fleece drying.

It is on a screen that is setting on a couple of 5 gallon

buckets that we use to water the sheep. They are both

cracked, so they now have other purposes. Today, fleece drying. 

 

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I've taken this fleece, and another, out onto the

deck to photograph in the sun.

 LOOK at the color difference.

I knew these fleece all had some mud on

them, but who knew how dirty they were.

This was 2 soaks with HOT water and blue

Dawn and 2 rinse soaks in HOT water.

(I have my hot water tank at 185 degrees

because of the number of fleeces I wash.)

 Click on the pictures to see the dirt and lanolin

in the dirty fleece, and to see how much of it is

gone in the clean fleece. Amazing!!

 I will be picking and processing this clean fleece

at some point in the upcoming week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am not sure, yet, the breed of this fleece. 

Or, if it is even one of mine.

It has a lot of straw, or coarse hay on it.

It also has burdock in its front.

I thought we got rid on all of the burdock

on the farm, but this spring (not long before I

broke my ankle) I noticed the dock/burdock

plant has spread. 

 I have taken a large chunk out of this fleece to wash.

At the bottom of the picture where the fleece goes up

in a point at the left, and across the right of the fleece,

I have taken that big chunk out.

 You can see the VM in this fleece clearly.

 Yup! That is my newest cast under the sheet.

And, the next pictures down is the milk crate I 

use to transfer myself to, or from, the wheel chair.

It has a nice long staple, and I do like the color.

I hope I do!! I have a number of Dorset/Romney 

in various shades of brown. 

The fleece has now had 2 washes in HOT water

and blue dawn. I did not take any pictures as the 

bowl had a lot more water in it since I took twice 

as much fleece this time around. Suffice it to say,

the first wash water was as dark as the fleece, the 

2nd wash was 1/2 as dark. As I type this, it is in its 

first hot water rinse soak, and the water is already a 

lot clearer. I will set in up on the same screen set up

that I had for the gray fleece.

Now to get into the guest bedroom and find 

a VM'd and dirty white fleece!

One thing I wish I had done was to have weighed 

each 'chunk' of fleece before I shook them out and

washed them. The scale is set up in my living room,

but unfortunately I am unable to plug the scale in 

by myself with this cast. I can not get close enough

to the outlet. I think when I find a white fleece, I 

will have hubby plug in the scale. In this 'study',

I would like to know just how much weight is being

lost in shaking out the VM and washing out the dirt

and lanolin. If I do this with the white one, I will also

try to remember to weigh it again after it has been

processed into yarn. Stayed tuned!!

I am doing my own 'Is it Garbage?' study

I am using one of my gray Dorset/Romney fleeces

for this study. I will later use a white fleece and a 

darker fleece. This is either Ebony or her 1/2 sister Midnight.

 After skirting, but before doing anything else.

If you click on the pictures, you may be able

to see the dirt, mud, hay and other VM in this fleece.

 What is left behind after I pulled a section out of

the fleece and gave it a quick shake. I did pull out

the 2nd cuts that I could see. I believe what I am 

sampling is along the lower front of the sheep, 

just above one of her front legs, judging by the coloring.

 The first hot water and Dawn soak was dirty!

The cat is requesting I don't get him wet.

I did not feel like trying to wheel a hot

bowl of water over the threshold to empty

off the deck. So, onto the deck each pour goes.

 The 2nd wash. Still pretty dirty.

 The fleece still has quite a bit of debris in it, but it is cleaner.

 The first rinse.

 The 2nd and last rinse.

Some of the VM fell out in this rinse.

 It is laid out on an old pillowcase under the ceiling

fan. If I could get outside better, it would be on a

screen allowing the air to dry it from both sides,

and taking advantage of the summer heat. With 

the cast on my foot, I am making due.

When it is fully dry, I will finish pulling it apart in

order to get out more of the VM. I might card 1/2

and comb 1/2, or I might spin it right from the picked pile.

I have not used any of my spinning wheels since before

my 2nd shoulder surgery in December. This will be a 

good reason for me to give it a go. Obviously, the only

wheel I will be spinning on is the single treadle. 😉  

In another day or two, I will pull out a white fleece.