It's been a while .....

I've been SO busy lately.  Mostly at work, but my weekends have been full too. A week ago I went to A Wool Gathering in Ohio.  It was my first time to that festival, and I really liked it, although as we pulled into the parking lot, I realized I had forgotten my camera!

Lisa from Somerhill Farm was one of the vendors there.  She is the breeder of my first French Angoras, Holly and Ivy.  She also breeds show-quality Blue-Faced Leicester sheep, and had these lovely dyed locks for sale, which I snapped up!

Then I stopped by Stephanie's LunabudKnits booth. 

Stephanie  is one of our KSFF board members, and her booth was one of the outstanding ones with all this fabulous color!   

I bought some of this beautiful gold merino top, and another in olive.   I also got some dyed silk hankies from her in shades of turquoise, blues and greens.  I hope all the links will make up for the fact that I forgot to ask before using her images!!!   With all this fiber I'm buying, I'd better get to spinning it!! 

This past Saturday, I went to the Bluegrass Poultry Association show.  I took my camera, but didn't take any photos.  It didn't seem as good as last year, with only about half the entries.  I went later in the day though, and people who had already had their birds judged, might have already left?    Like last year, I was impressed with how huge (and scary) the standard sized chickens are, and glad I have my sweet little bantams.  There were only 3 Cochins there (standards?  A lot bigger than Dolley), the same number of standard Orpingtons, one Polish, a few Silkies, even though they are so popular, but lots and lots of Old English Game Birds, besides the mix of other breeds. 

I also unloaded found a new home for the one Orpington chick I knew was a male.  I was nearly positive, but as a novice, I asked around for someone who could help me tell for sure.  I was finally directed to a man - apparently with some expertise with the breed - who told me no doubt it was a cockerel.  He had a couple of boys with him, about 8 to 10 years old, one who especially seemed interested in the bird, so as I told the man my sob story about not being able to keep it, I said the boy could have it if he wanted it.  Dad said "Go get a cage," and the kid was off like a shot.... so the little boy chick is now living with a little boy in Tennessee.   Cute, and when I said to the little guy I hoped my bird was going to a good home, the little boy said with conviction, "oh, he is."   

I now have 2 in each coop - just right, if the mystery chick turns out to be a pullet.   The pullet I'm sure of is in with Abigail, and the "not quite sure" one is in with Dolley.  I'm willing to give that one some more time, since space is no longer an issue.  It's funny how each chick is being effected by the personality of the older girl in with it.  Abigail is quieter, and picky about what she eats, and the baby girl is following that example.  If her foster mom won't do it, neither will baby.  Dolley eats greens and other things Abigail won't touch, like yogurt, so her 'roomie' does too.  I gave Dolley and 'her' chick some yogurt yesterday and I should have gotten a photo of that!  Both with it smeared all over their faces like toddlers with ice cream cones! 

If I can get rested up and get some energy back, I'll take some photos and post about my fall garden next time.

From Wren Cottage.......

This Week at Wren Cottage

Is it just me, or is it starting to seem like Fall?  It's still hot, but my garden is definitely looking fall-ish.

This week, out came the broken-down pole beans.  In went turnips, beets, and radishes. I still need to find a spot for lettuce.  I salvaged enough beans for a couple of servings, so not bad.   I tore off the ratty foliage remaining on the chard, and hope cool weather will bring another flush of leaves later.   The replacement basil and eggplant, and the bok choy are doing nicely.

This is one of the Comfrey plants, allowed to flower.

In real life, the little bell-like flowers look exactly the same shade as the Petunias planted beneath them



The "roma" tomatoes are slowing down.  I've been calling them Roma all this time, but I looked at the packet and they are "San Marzano."  Still a paste-type tomato.  I've got enough to fill the dehydrator again today.  I've already got lots dried for making "sun-dried" tomatoes.   This is one recipe  I want to try with them.  

The German Pinks are ripening and I LOVE them.  I hadn't tasted a tomato that tasted like the ones I had when I was young, since I left Ohio.  I thought it had something to do with the minerals in the soil - and it might - but this one really takes me back.   The plants don't produce many fruits, but the ones that are there are really big - 1 to 2 pounds.  Meaty, not many seeds, with tender skin - they are yummy!   I think I'll enjoy all of these fresh, and if there are leftover green ones at the end of the season, I found a recipe for a green tomato relish here .  I like that it is salty and tangy - the way tomatoes should be. 

I know I am in the minority on this subject, but two things that should never be said in the same breath, much less put in the same recipe are tomatoes, and sugar.  I know your Momma put just a teaspoon in her spagetti sauce "to take the acid out,"  but I'm sure every Nonna in Italy would blanch at the idea.  Tomatoes are meant to be tangy.  Ragu spagetti sauce (and others like it)  must be the most disgusting things ever put in a jar.  One of the primary ingredients is .....high fructose corn syrup.  blech!  (stepping down from soapbox and changing subject.....) 

Before I had to have a new muffler installed on my car  (which really needed to be done, but didn't fix the problem.  Now I'm thinking tune up / points and plugs)  I bought some more silk from Wooliebullie on Etsy. (and since she gave me a 20% off coupon when she sent my previous order)  The hankies are called "Veggie Tales," which is funny but true, since they are exactly those colors.  I'm not afraid of the really intense colors, because once they are drafted thin and/or mixed with something, it tones them down.

The roving at the top is called "Maple" and is spectacular. I want to just sit and look at it.  I have some brown Corriedale I can mix with Truffle's beige fiber, and either spin this separately and ply it, or card it in.  It would go a lot farther if I did the latter, but there's really a lot there for only weighing 2 oz.

Lastly, on the bottom right is .....something about Titania and Midsummer's Night's Dream... I can't remember the name exactly, taken from a painting the artist saw.   I wouldn't have thought to use those colors together (I rarely mix 'cool' and 'warm' colors) but I really like it.  That might go with my black Angoras - which produce mostly gray wool. 



Whatever I do, I will be sure to save some shreds in case we have someone doing a wet felting class at KSFF next Spring.  Now to figure out how to have my rabbit booth and take a class?

No real news about the chicks this week. Looking more and more like dinosaurs. I'm pretty convinced I only have 1 pullet and 2 roos.  If I'm right, anyone want a bantam buff Orpington rooster?  They are said to have nice, laid-back personalities......

Until next time, from Wren Cottage .......     

Earth stood hard as iron .......

......... water like a stone.   Familiar lyrics from "In the Deep Midwinter, " and very descriptive of the conditions here, only it isn't even winter yet, much less 'mid.'   We had a couple of inches of snow here last weekend that are still hanging on, because it's so coooooold! 

Not much farming goes on at an urban farm in the winter.   I still haul bunny poo out - 5 gallon buckets at a time - and dump it on the garden, but I quit composting when it started getting so cold.  I know it should still be able to 'cook,' in the winter, but mine is such a haphazard pile, I doubted it would do that for me. 

I've upped my diligence about filling the bird feeder - and don't mind other critters that share in the dropped seed.  Last winter I saw definite wild bunny tracks going from heap to heap of bunny poo - checking it out.

Abigail is still broody, the Angora bunnies are about halfway through a coat-growing cycle, the Mini Rexs are molting, and the cats are practically hibernating.   Not much going on here - farm wise.    I went to Versailles after work one day this week to pick up chicken feed, and there inside the door was a huge, black, stove (coal? wood?) giving off lovely rays of heat - just the thing when walking in from the cold.  The hiss of the stove, the homely smells of the feed, the people in coveralls coming in and out.......why do I live in the city?

I made another score at the auction last week - that as usual I did not plan to go to - a lovely old piece of transferware: 

I had said in another post that I would like to find another piece or two of brown transferware, and even though this is a LOT more elaborate in design than what I really like - it was mine for a low bid.  A blogger who seems expert in this area was nice enough to tell me the pattern when I e-mailed her.   The really exciting part is she is sure it was manufactured between 1826-40.  I don't have to have old things, and I'm usually just has happy with reproductions and Home Goods ware, but the history-lover in me was impressed with the age of this.

Lastly, thank you to Michelle , who surprised me yesterday with a package of some samples of her Shetland fiber, because I said that was one breed I had never spun.  The samples are luscious, and I can hardly wait to get to them.  I may even pull out a spindle for the occasion.   I keep telling Michelle I wish someone in this area would get into Shetlands for fine fiber, and now that I've felt her Shetland roving, I'd like that even more.

Until next time from Wren Cottage ..........

at the Auction this week

I didn't intend to go at all. (but of course I did)  Then I wasn't going to bid on anything (but of course I did)
I got a couple more Ball jars with zinc lids.  Pints this time, for storing dried herbs from the garden.  I also got a kerosene lamp converted to an electric that is cute and just needs a shade.  My real find was this though,

It's a pewter chamberstick, a Colonial Williamsburg reproduction made by Steiff.  No one else was interested because it appeared to have been dropped, and had a little dent in the candle cup.  I don't care about that, and thought I got a real bargain. 

In the 'ones that got away'  catagory, I went to a different auction a couple of weeks ago, specifically to bid on an antique standing skein winder.  The arm assembly was a tad wobbly where it attached to the stand, but it was beautiful.  I was way out of my league there, though, and it sold for more than twice the amount I could pay.  As it happened, I ended up in the "pay" line (I did get one hand blown goblet for $5) next to the guy that bought it.  Of course he had no idea what it was - they had advertised it as a Flax Wheel.  He has his Aunt's spinning wheel, which just sits, for decoration.   The winder was going to do the same.  When I told him I would have used it, as a valuable piece of equipment, he just smiled.  Grrrrr....   What a waste. 

They had 4 spinning wheels there that day, 2 that had all their parts, and 2 that didn't.  One huge 'walking' wheel sold for less than $100, and you could have stepped right up to it and started spinning.

Can you tell there's not much 'urban farming' going on at Wren Cottage right now?   The Angora bunnie boys will be getting clipped soon, and I'll try to post some 'before' and 'after' pictures.