Flapjacks

Yippee, we made it to the long holiday weekend. Happy Memorial Day to everyone. I have been craving crepes with cream cheese and fresh strawberries for months now. I have never made them before and am a little intimidated. So I thought I would make some chocolate chip pancakes instead. These were delicious with butter and syrup. One of these days I will make crepes.

Doll’s Baby

Little Lightening Doll finally had her baby. It’s a white girl.


Doll is a first time mommy and she is doing great. I was a little worried after she gave birth some of the other females whom just had their boys weaned and removed from their pasture, tried to claim the baby as theirs. It was kind of funny one would walk over to the baby and be like this one looks good I called it she is mine. Then another would walk over and say no I think this one will be mine. I ended up putting Doll and her new baby in a separate pen the first 2 days so they could bond and have their space.



Kisses from Mom



She is a sweet little girl.


The fiber on her looks amazing. It is nice and thick and so very soft and curly. We have not named her yet. I was trying to think of something that went with her moms name, and Chris is leaning towards white flower names.

The Barn Progress

We were hoping to have the barn done by the end of May, no such luck. They have completed the dirt work. They also trenched out around for the posts and built a frame on the ground to guide where the posts go.


They plan to start pouring cement next Wednesday. I won’t hold my breath.

My Garden

This is what the garden looked like this year before I weeded it out in preparation for planting.


Here is a photo of one side all weeded and I also added compost and manure this year to better the soil. I have planted blueberries, birdhouse gourds, Turk’s Turban squash, Bunny’s Tail Ornamental grass, Flaming Feather, & three varieties of Peonies: Bowl of beauty, Emile Debatene, & Sarah Bernhardt. Oh and also planted 3 stalks of Lily of the Valley. Not much going on yet hopefully will see some thing soon.


I did start a couple of seeds inside. These are Lobelia & Pansies. My friend gave me one of those planters that hang over the porch railing and you plant on both sides into the pockets. I plan to put these in there to see if it works.

Mad about Plaid

I have been seeing a lot of patchwork plaid everywhere. Like these American Eagle Bermuda shorts.


Also this JCrew Madras Cabana bag.


So I have started cruising the clearance fabric bins and looking for pastel plaids. I did not want the lumber jack flannel Christmas red or green. This is what I have so far. I think I might make a summer table cloth or quilt and possibly a hand bag with the leftovers.

New Knits

I am planning to cast on soon for this wonderful vest. It is named Bette and is in Louisa Harding’s Winter Muse Classics. I have been looking over the pattern and it is not an easy one. I have even tried to find another vest pattern that might be quicker and less thinking involved, but just could not find anything I like as much. This will be a torcher knit I can already feel it. At least it is a vest and no sleeves are needed. I plan to give myself as much time as I need and hopefully will be able to get it done by the end of summer.


Here is the yarn I have chosen. It is Filatura Di Crosa Wave in color 02 cream. It is a 75% merino wool/25% silk blend.

Hope all of you have a wonderful long weekend. I am planning for it to be filled with lots of sewing and knitting with some reading on the side.

Catching Up

I will warn you this will be a long post. For starters my mother-n-law & sister-n-law stayed at our house watching over and tending to the alpacas while we were on vacation. It was so comforting knowing they were here while we were away. Mom noticed right away there were humming birds coming around the porch with nothing for them to eat. I had a plastic feeder up last year and put it away not remembering where I put it. When I arrived home Mom had found and hung up this beautiful ceramic feeder. The humming birds love it and I will have 2 to 3 sipping sugar water at any given time. This photo above is the best one I have taken so far. They sure are fast darting around every which way.

Alpaca Babies

Of course most of my requests for updates are on the alpacas, so I will start with the babies.



The three little ones Honey Buns, Willy Wonka, & Bugsy are doing great. It amazes me how fast they grow. Willy is still the fastest baby we have had and it is a wonder how he can stop on a dime and change directions. Thank goodness he is big enough now where I don’t have to chase him down every day to get his weight.



The three of them are very sweet, and it almost looks like they are in daycare. You will often see them off by themselves out in the pasture plotting some scheme against the adults no doubt.



Little Lightening doll is past due and today she has reached her 361 days into her gestation. Crazy! But look at her she is not budging. Everyday I go out there every couple of hours and take a look at her and say today, maybe today. Then she gives me the look like the one above that says no not today maybe tomorrow. Finders Keepers actually went 370 days when she had Willy Wonka so I am not as concerned with Doll and how long she is taking. I will keep you posted when she finally has it.

The Boys Club

When we got back from our trip we weaned the four 2007 boys, by placing them in the pasture with the three 2006 boys. So here is from Left to Right: Dorian Grey, Radley, Macho Latte, & Calvin. There were many tears and whining at the fence line for the first week but they are doing much better and starting to learn that they are big boys now and Mom isn’t around anymore.



Here is Kingsley & Klaus two of the 2006 boys, they are trying to tell me how mature they are and feel the new boys are babies and are very annoying. They have their moments but the good thing is all 7 of them get along and are forming their own little boys herd.

How many alpacas do we have? I get that question a lot. Right now we have 27 in all. One, Novalei is still in Washington. She is the one I bought at auction this past January. She is being bred there and I probably won’t have her sent home until after she has been shorn. All the rest are here with us. Of course with Little Lightening Doll due to have her baby any time now that will make the count 28. After hers we have 6 more due to have their babies late summer early fall.

My Birthday

I just had a birthday this past April and am now 36. I don’t feel like I am 36 personally I am looking forward to my 40’s. I don’t think I will feel like I am in my 40’s when I am 40ish, so I am thinking I might have more time to do the things I would like in my 40’s. If this is not true, do not tell me let me keep on looking forward to it.

I finally made the appointment and got my tetanus shot. My last one I had was when I was in college. They are good for 10 years. I started thinking about it last summer when we were building the shelter. It took me awhile to actually get up the nerve to go get it done. Seriously I can laugh at it now. The doctor pulls out the needle and it was so small I could hardly see it. He stuck it in my left arm and I did not feel a thing. The whole time I was there he kept making comment s like now the pain begins. I was waiting for the sky to fall or something dramatic. The spot where he gave me the shot hurt a little an hour after and would on occasion that week start to ach a little. Either I have a very high tolerance for pain or people are just lying about the whole situation. Anyway if you are due for one don’t worry it isn’t as bad as they say it is.

Birthday Gift

My in-laws gave me the perfect gift for my birthday. They bought me a Martha’s Vineyard Fiber farm yarn CSA share of the fall 2008 harvest. CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. The money will be used to purchase hay & feed, and also to purchase more livestock for their farm. Then in the fall they will do their shearing and process the wool into yarn and send a portion of the yarn to each shareholder. The photo above was taken from Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm Blog. The baby angora goats are so cute. Go HERE to learn more about the CSA and their farm. I believe the Fall CSA is already sold out, but they do shear twice a year once in the Spring & again in the Fall so eventually they will have the CSA open again to buy shares for Spring 2009.

Finished Object

I completed my Diagonal Scarf and love how it turned out.
Pattern: Diagonal Scarf from the book Morehouse Farm Merino knits
Yarn: 6 skeins of Trendsetter Tonalita yarn in color 2357 coffee Latte
Needles: size 7
This was a great pattern; I will definitely make another one.


I am still working on my reversible cabled scarf. I have two more skeins to go.

I have run out of time and need to go out and check on expecting momma. I Still have more to catch up on like my next knit project, the barn in progress, & my garden.