Our new greenhouse is up!!

We've been busy around here lately. We recently purchased a greenhouse from costco.com and it was delivered on Tuesday, May 7th. We had to tarp it and let it set for a few days while it rained. I'm not complaining about the rain because we need it so badly. I don't want another wildfire summer like last summer! Hubby had Friday May 10th off from work because he worked 16 hours on Monday of that week, so we started putting the greenhouse together. Holy crackers! 56 pages of instructions (that's on copy paper sized paper!!!) and a gazillion pieces and parts. O...M...G... We managed to get one end of it built that day before it started raining again. 

The next day we had a llama club meeting to attend and were gone all day. We went to a friend's ranch and looked at their angora and pygora goats (goat babies!!!) - but more on that in another post (I picked out a doeling and a buckling and hope to get them next month!)

Sunday was Mother's Day and our son-in-law offered to come up early and help with the greenhouse. Our daughter wanted to take some of her Breyer and Peter Stone model horses out of the closet of what used to be her bedroom but is now hubby's home office, and take them to their house. Woo hoo! Closet space! So, while we worked on packing up her things and hauling them out to the truck, the guys worked on the greenhouse. The plan was to work for a few hours and then head down the mountain to Colorado Springs to my parent's house to wish my Mom a happy Mother's Day and take a plant to her (Asiatic Lily in a gorgeous shade of persimmon, by the way). But, they got to a point in building the greenhouse where they felt they were committed to finishing it so that the wind couldn't destroy it before we had a chance to finish it. Our daughter and I went out and helped remove the protective plastic off the panels so the guys could install them into the walls and roof. We managed to get it finished! At least to the point where I could move a few plants out of my studio here in the house and into the greenhouse. 

Here is how it looked when it was almost finished.

The greenhouse has shelves the full length on both sides.

This gives me double the growing space in the greenhouse! I can put smaller potted plants on the shelves and larger pots on the ground below. Years ago an old neighbor in Colorado Springs gave us a fiberglass dome greenhouse which we never had a chance to put up and after years in the high altitude sun, we figured it was too frail to withstand the winds and heavy winter snows so we decided not to even attempt to put it back together. However, there are 12 fabulous fiberglass wedge shaped planting boxes that fit perfectly underneath the shelves. I'll get pics taken of those soon. We put those in today and I planted the remainder of the herb and veggie plants we purchased and most of the seeds. 

On Monday afternoon, we went to the hardware store and bought anchors so that we could secure the greenhouse frame to the railroad ties that we used to make a foundation for it. Once that was done, we removed the boards that we had placed on the ground and I started moving plants, pots, stepping stones, garden tools, etc. from a variety of places around the house and ranch. 

We planted lots of herbs: basil, feverfew, lemon balm, valerian, lemongrass, dill, cilantro and fennel - and veggies: kale and celery. Then today I planted garlic, shallot and red onion bulbs. And lots of seeds: lettuce, short carrots, mesclun mix, basil, chives, cilantro, sweet peppers, oregano and marjoram.

There is a 4'x4' area in front of the greenhouse that is filled with composted llama manure (the best soil and fertilizer ever!). We're going to put up lattice-work panels and will plant beans, cucumbers and peas and train them up the lattice. This will protect them from the deer, who tend to eat everything in sight around here! 

We had one tomato plant last summer that I grew in a large pot on the deck. By Fall, it still had green and almost ripe tomatoes on it so we brought it into the house and put it in my studio, which is actually what the house plans call "the breakfast room" off the kitchen. It has lots of windows and is in the northeast corner of the house so the lighting is pretty good. Apparently tomatoes love early morning sun. I assumed that we would pick the tomatoes once they were ripe and the plant would die off. I picked the tomatoes as they ripened and kept watering the plant. It kept growing. Then I noticed that it had blooms on it. And, a few weeks ago I noticed little green tomatoes. When I took a closer look, here is what I found.

In the last photo, take a close look and you'll see a bunch of green tomatoes! We were going to attempt to move the plant into the greenhouse but after looking at it closer, I realize that there is no way to move it without breaking off branches, which would be a shame since it is doing so well where it is at right now. I have some cherry tomato seeds which I'll just plant in a container in the greenhouse and see if we have any luck with them out there. 

And here are a few shots I just took of the plants in the greenhouse. We're going to be eating really well this summer! I can't eat anything but certified organic lettuce and leafy green veggies due to the pesticides that are used. I am so excited about being able to eat a salad again!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the greenhouse tour!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Oh look, Dad, Mom's watching us.

I know, let's do something crazy!

Okay, I'm a ferocious wild animal! See my gnarly teeth?!

Good one, Dad. High five!

Happy Vino Day - I mean Valentine's Day!

 Its Valentine's day, and that means a bottle of vino or champagne! I've created some wine bottle cozies to spice up the bottle and provide a layer of thermal protection. Above is a champagne bottle cozy in mossy green. Below is a wine bottle cozy in the same yarn with a fabulous handspun art yarn made from Wensleydale wool locks in a coordinating color.

 And then another wine bottle cozy in vineyard colors of purples and greens with a faux fur eyelash yarn around the top to dress it up a bit.

These bottle cozies are hand crocheted and then felted in the washing machine. The trim is added after the cozies have been felted and dried. They are all available in my ArtFire store here.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Was there a fox on the hen house?!

This morning I went out to do chores - feed the horses and llamas and check the water for ice, etc. The last thing I do before going back into the house is let the chickens out of their coop/run. I make sure that they are all in the fully enclosed run every night so that predators can't get them. I lost a chicken in December after running to Colorado Springs one afternoon and we didn't get back home until after dark. Something had gone into the enclosure where we have the chicken coop/run and we found feathers everywhere. My Rhode Island Red chicken was missing. We never found her.

This morning, when I went out to open up the coop and run doors, I discovered paw prints on the TOP of the coop. I'm not sure what they are from but I suspect a fox.

Here is what the coop/run look like.

 One door of the coop opens up outside the fully enclosed run.

The other door opens up into the fully enclosed run.

This morning I discovered this

These prints are on top of the coop roof. The tracks that run from the top right to the bottom left are bird tracks (the wild birds love to get into the chicken run to eat the seed I put in there for the chickens.)

Here is a close-up of one of the paw prints

And, an even closer view, color and contrast enhanced to show better definition

The enclosure that has the chicken coop/run in it is fenced on three sides with no-climb field fencing. The gate has chicken wire lashed to it and a board is sitting over the bottom of the gate. However, the fourth side is hog panels so a fox could probably get through there but they would have to go through the entire pasture where our female llamas are to get to that section of fence. The female llamas' pasture is also fenced with no-climb fencing completely around it, however it has a 10 foot gate that a coyote or fox, etc could easily go through.

I measured this particular paw print - it measures 2-1/2 inches across at the widest point and 3 inches from back to front.

I suppose it could be a tom cat print - there is a huge orange tabby tom cat that roams the neighborhood. But, I suspect a fox. Anybody else care to venture a guess??

By the way, the chickens were all safe and sound in their run this morning. Last summer we put bricks all the way around the entire run because a skunk(s) kept digging underneath and getting into the run to eat the chicken's feed. The poor chickens were scared to go into the run at night and were going to roost on the hog panel fencing for the night (NOT safe!)

Here are all four of my hens - they were no worse for the wear this morning

I haven't been blogging regularly, but I HAVE been staying busy!

I have really been lax about posting anything here on the blog. And for that, I apologize. Sometimes it seems like there isn't anything happening around here that's worth mentioning in a blog post. And with Facebook, I can post quickly and easily and even interact with friends and family after posting. Instant gratification...yeah, I'm into that sort of thing. Sigh...

But, really, I have been busy, I swear! I'm going to post a few of the accessories I have created over the past few months. I'll only post a couple per blog post so I don't overwhelm you.

Here is a shawl I crocheted using some hand painted merino/silk yarn. It is incredibly soft with amazing drape. Its called "Spices" and can be found in my ArtFire store here.

And here is a felted hat I made this past summer. It is hand crocheted from black alpaca yarn and then felted in the washing machine. The brim can be worn rolled up or turned down. And it looks fabulous when you add a hat band. The hat bands shown are from my personal collection and are shown for demonstration purposes only. This hat can also be found in my ArtFire store here.

Thank you for visiting! I hope your new year is going well so far!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a happy new year filled with health, happiness and many blessings.

Meet Our Newest Addition!

Wednesday I posted a teaser photo of our newest addition to the family. Everyone, meet Kodiak, our toy parti poodle! My sweet little girl, Gigi, went to The Rainbow Bridge on 4/1/11, just over a month shy of her 11th birthday. She was my BFF and I miss her terribly. She was a black toy poodle. I searched for months and months and months before I finally found her. I knew what I wanted but nobody had a black female toy poodle in our area. We got River, our standard poodle, a year ago but he immediately bonded with my husband. I adore him (the dog...well, I adore my hubby, too, but I'm talking about River here) and he likes me, too, but he is a Daddy's boy. And, I miss having a little dog sleeping with us in bed, snuggling and cuddling.

For months now I have been drooling over the parti poodles on Facebook bred by Bonnie at Dream Time Poodles in New Mexico. We finally made the decision to add one of her puppies to our family. It was between a sable male and this black and white male. I knew I wanted a male because our Australian Shepherd can be really "bitchy" (as in nasty female dog attitude) towards other female dogs. I kept coming back to photos of this puppy, named Larrikin or Larry at the time. Something about him kept drawing me back to him so we decided to get him.

We have named him Kodiak or Kodi for short. His sire's "call name" is Kobi so we thought this would be very appropriate. Kobi's registered name is Cowboy's Silver Ace and he is a UKC Champion and OMG what a stunning dog he is! He is a silver and white parti poodle and Kodiak should fade out from the black to silver as he ages. Their markings and color patterns are very similar so Kodi should look a lot like his sire when he's a little older.

Here are photos of Cowboy's Silver Ace aka Kobi (his sire)

And here is Kodiak

Is he a chip off the ol' block or what?!



Not only is he a real "looker", he is an absolute sweetheart, too.


Here Kodi is checking out the rabbit on our deck.

Thank you for visiting our blog. I am trying to do a better job of posting more often. Now that summer is over and I'm indoors more, I should have a better chance of sticking to my "promise"!

Wordless Wednesday

Back to Work!

I was going to share the details of the rest of my crappy summer but decided against sharing all the gory details. Long story short, we took a day off and went to a nearby hot springs and sat in the river for a couple of hours. Apparently I had an allergic reaction and a severe sunburn on my legs even after using SPF 40 lotion. This resulted in second degree burns on the lower portion of my left leg. I have heard that severe burns are extremely painful but have never experienced it until now. Wow. I have experienced sunburn before but never to this extent. It had to be a combination of the sun and a sensitivity to something. I was unable to walk for days because every time I got out of bed and the blood rushed into my lower legs, my legs would cramp up to the point where the pain was excruciating and I couldn't possibly put weight on my left leg. After several days of diuretics to reduce the incredible swelling, bed rest (thank goodness for my little DVD player so I could watch movies in bed!) and lots of homemade cream slathered generously on my legs, I was able to walk at least short distances without pain. The left leg peeled twice. The first peel was in huge wet sheets. The skin underneath was purple and developed a brown crust that was difficult to remove. I ended up using a shower puff and some cream soap to remove the dead skin a little each day in the shower. Never again will I repeat this experience!!

The ankle is still sore but healing. My legs have a few scars and discolored areas on them from the burns but  I am back to doing chores twice daily. Thank goodness for my fabulous husband who picked up my chores for weeks in addition to starting a new job the first part of September. This man even carried me to the bathroom in the morning because I was in so much pain I couldn't even use crutches to get from the bed to the bathroom. I don't know what I would do without him! He is my hero.

And, I'm back to work doing fiber art. I just recently started to spin again but will share those yarns in another post. I want to try to do a better job of making more frequent posts on the blog.

A couple of months ago, I found a pattern online for a circular shawl. The author said it was taken from an antique pattern of her grandmother's and translated. However, the translated pattern had a lot of errors or directions that made no sense. So, I figured out how to make something similar and then decided to do something completely different based on the same concept. I ended up making a circular shawl that folds back into a collar. I started out working the shawl in a complete circle. Then, when it got big enough to be folded in half through the center and pulled around the shoulders, I started working only half the stitches and worked back and forth rather than in the round. I'm still working on typing up the pattern so I can share it. It is so much easier to actually DO the work than to document it. Who knew?! LOL

Here is the first shawl that I made. The shawl started with a skein of Kauni 100% wool Effect yarn (Effektgarn) from Denmark in the "EX" colorway in shades of rust, purple, deep orange and golden green. As the shawl progressed, several other yarns were used in coordinating colors that lightened as the shawl grew in size. The additional yarns consist of some 100% bamboo yarn, some wool/bamboo yarn and some 50/50 merino/silk yarn.

 

This shawl is called "Fall Fantasy" and is available in my ArtFire store. 

I decided to make another shawl using yarns from my personal stash. I have been collecting and spinning handspun yarns for my  personal collection in shades of purples and teal greens. 

Here is the shawl I made for myself. Someone suggested that it reminded them of purple mountain majesty, which I think is the perfect name for this piece! It is so soft and warm and luxurious - I feel so special when I wear it!

Here is Purple Mountain Majesty

And another shawl that I made using the same design only I didn't make it quite as long so it is more of a capelette than a true shawl. This stunning shawl/capelette was hand crocheted using wool and cotton yarns in blues and greens and wool yarn space dyed in blues and white.

Here is Waterfall

 Waterfall is also available for sale in my ArtFire store.

Its so good to be back to work again! More later on other happenings in the studio.

Wordless Wednesday

Things are still crazy around here!

In my last post I apologized for not blogging lately because things had been crazy around here. Well, they got crazier.

Hubby went on a little vacation back to Illinois to attend his 40th high school reunion, which actually included any and all who graduated from the school. He drove back, leaving on July 4th and got back on July 9th. I was extremely nervous about him leaving me here alone at the ranch because of all the wildfires. He debated not going but since the Waldo Canyon fire was contained and Ute Pass was open again, and because his younger sister was flying into DIA to drive back with him, he decided to go ahead and make the trip as planned. I spent all day July 4th cleaning up and loading our crates and carriers into our stock trailer so that if something happened I could at least get our small animals (dogs, cats, dwarf goats, chickens and rabbits) safely into crates and evacuated. I wasn't sure how one person was going to do it, but I wanted to at least have everything in one place and ready to go if needed. That afternoon it started to rain for the first time in months. And it rained every day while he was gone! So that took away the worry about wildfires and I actually enjoyed having some "alone time". We both work from home so we spend a lot of time together, although most of the time he is on phone calls all day long. But it was nice being able to eat what I wanted to, when I wanted to, or just not eat at all, without having to think about what to make for meals, etc.

We got notice that a load of hay was going to be delivered the day he got back from vacation so I encouraged him to get home as early in the day as possible. He surprised me by coming home at 7:30 in the morning after driving through the night to get back. I had spent several days moving pallets, locating and washing tarps and then folding them and putting them in the stock trailer, pulling weeds from the area we planned to stack and tarp the hay, etc.  He slept for a few hours and when I saw it starting to cloud up, I woke him up and told him we needed to get started moving hay. We got everything moved, stacked and tarped just as the rain started to fall. 22.5 tons of hay - 75% of what we ordered to last us for an entire year. We decided that we needed to buy enough hay for an entire year rather than buy-as-you-go like we usually do. And it was gorgeous hay - grass/alfalfa mix that was nice and green and very fragrant. You know you're a rancher when you stand at the kitchen sink and breathe deep of the smell of hay wafting through the kitchen window! Unfortunately, I think they baled the hay damp because we are seeing some signs of mold in some of the bales, but at least we have the hay here and have it tarped for the winter so it should be suitable for feeding even by next spring. We were supposed to get another partial load of hay a week later but the guy selling the hay said they ran out because one of the growers sold out to someone in Nebraska (probably at a higher price than we were paying.) We were buying the hay in bulk with several friends and the ranch brokering and handling the deal had a contract with the guy for something like 300 tons of hay. So, everyone had to frantically scramble to find another source of hay. Due to the drought throughout the country this summer, hay is in very short supply in many places, including Colorado and the surrounding states. Another friend of mine is a hay broker and he had already been setting aside some bales for me so we were able to get enough for another month or two and I just need to find enough for a couple more months and we should be good. It feels good to have at least several months worth sitting here already though!

Our clothes dryer quit working a few months ago. We bought the washer and dryer new several years ago and I was surprised when I went to pull the clothes out and they were still quite damp. Hubby hasn't had time yet to trouble-shoot it to find out what is wrong, so my folks had an old clothes line they were no longer using and they gave it to us. I put it through the umbrella hole in the table on the deck and have been hanging laundry out to dry. I then tumble the clothes for 10 minutes in the dryer (it tumbles but doesn't heat) to help soften them up some. For some reason we get all cranky when our underdrawers are stiff as a board. LOL

And I told you that so I could tell you this. While out hanging up laundry on the "solar dryer" (I love saying that...LOL), I heard screaming from one of the llama pastures. I had slipped on some flimsy little leather sandals to go hang out the laundry but decided to go see what the ruckus was about. As I got closer, I saw that one of my four year old male llamas had pinned one of my yearling llamas to the ground and was beating him up. The yearling llama is one of my Grand Champions...I freaked out. I grabbed a crop out of the tack shed on my way up the hill and then leaned over the fence and tapped the four year old llama on the back of the neck. He jumped up and moved away from the yearling male. I climbed through the gate into the corner pen and was going to let my two yearling males into that pen with the weanling males. As I was trying to get the panels open to let them in, the four year old llama body slammed the yearling llama into the panels. I stepped forward quickly to tap him with the crop again and heard a snap as my foot rolled and I fell to the side. I wondered what the snapping sound was. Once I stood up again, I noticed a rock sticking partially out of the ground and realized that I must have stepped on that. As I stepped out on my left foot, I felt a searing pain in my entire left foot and ankle. I looked down and saw a huge bubble forming on top of my foot. Uh oh...that can't be good, I thought as I was still struggling to get the panels open to let the yearlings in. The two yearlings ran into the corner pen the second I got the panels open enough for them. I got the panels secured again and hobbled back to the house. By the time I got into the house, my foot was throbbing and my ankle was screaming at me. Hubby was in the kitchen making himself something for lunch when I came through the back door, crying. He asked me what was wrong and I told him I thought maybe I had broken my foot. He looked at it and told me it didn't look good (yeah...no kidding...ya think?!) I sat down in the recliner and put my foot up on the foot stool as he put a bag of ice on it. The weight of the ice just about sent me into orbit. After about 15 minutes we decided we should go to the urgent clinic in Cripple Creek and have the foot and ankle x-rayed. When we got there, I was the ONLY patient so I was seen immediately. X-rays were taken and sent via computer to their main hospital in Colorado Springs. Within a half hour the x-rays had been read and results had been emailed back to the clinic. No breaks! Whew... but a really bad sprain. Due to thoracic outlet syndrome in my left shoulder and a previously dislocated right shoulder and carpal tunnel pain in both wrists, crutches are a bit of a challenge for me. Let's just say I suck at using them. But, when you can't put any weight on your foot, what else can you do?!

Fortunately, the llamas weren't hurt during their tussle. And, for that, I'm happy. But I would have been happier if I hadn't been injured when I went to break things up!

I married the best man ever. Okay, go ahead and argue with me, tell me that your man is better...I'd actually love to hear stories about how your partner is "da bomb"! Anyway, I digress... Hubby has been doing my twice daily ranch chores for weeks. On top of working a full time job. But, he took an early retirement package from the company he was working for and his last day was August 31st. More later on the fun day we planned at our favorite mountain spot - Mt Princeton hot springs! All we wanted was ONE day of "fun in the sun". And it didn't turn out well...but I'll tell you that story later since this one is already much longer than I planned.

Here are a couple of photos of the boys responsible for my "demise" this summer.

The four year old - Split Rock Ashes In the Snow aka Hot Shot

And the yearling - Wheatfield's Spencer

I'm a bit peeved that I didn't get a chance to do any training or shearing after my injury. I have also not been able to spin since July 23rd. And I really have missed spending time with all my animals. I'm back doing chores this week, and doing morning chores by myself with help from hubby at evening chores. But, like I said, more later on the next chapter of "the crappiest summer in recent memory".