Whaaat??? A camel in my basement??? Don't tell Jim!!

Time to meet a new friend--Humphrey the camel!! He is a very lucky boy who came to our new friend Cindy's place very very sick and sporting a broken back leg. That was nine years ago and he is now a happy healthy camel--even though his broken leg healed 2 inches shorter than the other. Cindy rescues horses and ponies--and has even rescued several llamas. The pony baby in the picture is one of her rescues from doom--who Humphrey actually fostered. The baby grew into a beautiful boy and is one of Cindy's many success stories of rescue and re-training.

I myself will probably never be able to have my own camel, so I am living vicariously through Humphrey!! ha! I managed to purchase half of Humphrey's gorgeous fleece this year and have made arrangements to purchase it every year now--the entire thing--oink oink! We also plan to purchase all of her llama's fiber too--oink again! SO, have all this year's fiber washed, tumbled and ready for the mill to run it through the magic de-hairing machine. I plan to offer up Humphrey's fiber asap and am even planning to spin up the longer guard hair into rug yarn.....

Hope your weekend is full of fiber fun!! over and out!

Meet some MORE sheeps!

These are not the best pictures but they truly capture the personality of these little stinkers! Hay in the fleece--eeeeeek! These are our little Shetland twins we purchased from our friend Naomi. They are black and both were bottle lambs--so they are very happy to see us and our pockets full of treats! Mario has short stubby horns and was sick most of the first months of his life. He is now happy, healthy and re-growing his fleece. His sister is Sunshine, she definitely lives up to her name! They love to romp and play--and live with our best babysitter ever--Kelly. They are only the size of a small springer spaniel so this means everyone bigger eats over the top of them--this year. Their fleeces will still be gorgeous so look out at shearing time for these teensy sheep!!

I am working hard to get through my fleeces at this point--it dawned on me the other day how close shearing is getting--oh my. Have to make an apointment with David the wonder shearer--better get cracking huh?

Watch for more fiber this weekend, have Romney in the dyepots, in the washer and am sorting through several of our own fleeces too. Fun fun fun--happy Thursday everyone!

Happy N-ewe Year!!!! hahaha!

The sheep are proud of their sheep related 'slogans'--silly! Happy new year to all of you and thank you for another great year here at the Homestead! We appreciate every one of you! This is Ross' sheep Amelia, daughter of his sheep Athena-and she also has a twin named Macki! Cotswold cotswold cotswold I say! wheee!





My good friend Holly Eqq sent me some beautiful (as always) batts that I had to get out of the envelop and onto a wheel! I am adding in left overs of my own fiber and this yarn will be available on the website as Holly & Me yarn soon.... I am spinning it up on my first ever wheel--an over 100 year old Russian spinning wheel. From Russia yet. It has its 'thoughts' on things, a little chatter but to me, it is telling me stories of long ago hands that used it to spin wool and flax for clothing and linens... Too fun!

We just finished an update that includes washed fiber, dyed alpaca fiber and yarn--more pictures here!

Be sure to check out the snapshot pages--I got out with the camera and am almost done adding all the newbies--trust me, it has been too long! Still have to go chase around the sheep in Dali's group that are not on the site yet--just a few more! Hope all is well and look forward to hearing your holiday fiber stories--what do you think of a name the lamb contest?? More on that tomorrow!

Holiday Update Completo!

Well, the update got done, no thanks to MOOSE! He loves to sleep on the couch in my office--it is an old wool tweedy couch and very warm in winter. The only trouble we have Moose and I is the race to the couch every time I want to spin yarn--he is quite the crabby pants when I make him move over. He refuses to share, growls and even shows me his teeth, then hops down to slep on his office bed. He is a dude with a tude but he is my office supervisor and never a foot from my side. I adore him--and this picture shows him not only taking over the couch, but hijacking my knitting also!

The update on the site includes new yarn-crazy quilt and Magpie's almost lash yarn to name a few; dyed fiber and lots of new fleeces on the unwashed fiber page--including a sweet little baby alpaca fleece, blanket fiber and so so soft--almost black in color too! Wheee!

Have you seen our new Crazy Quilt sheep yet? They are on the 'Sheepy Gift Originals' page, along with lots of other fun stuff I dabble with in my 'free' time..... The CQ sheep are originals created by our friend Dennis (our Barbara's hubby) with left over wool from his rug hooking projects. He finds wool coats at thrift stores, takes them home, dyes them, cuts them into strips and wa-la, perfect recycling a perfectly good coat into something unique and special! Each is a little different and I adore them--be sure to have a look!

Hope you all had a special holiday and have time to recover for the next one-- N-ewe Year's Eve-- bwaaahahahahaha!