July 2012 Trials Continue

Another general update of things here at Fire and Fluff.
It has been a Spring and Summer of machinery trials here.
First it seemed no end of electrical issues to set the card up including installing a single phase to 3 phase adaptor. Next came sizing a motor to run the workers and then getting all the timing set up!
Never did so much math before in my life!
Seemed all was well and we got under way only to now have a cog, as I call them, break.
So we sit again waiting for parts.
Eventually I know we will look back on this as a part of the learning curve and talk fondly of how far we have come. For now though we can only see how far we have yet to go.

But we keep going. The washer is fine so we keep washing and drying fibre.
The picker is fine so we keep picking as things are ready for that stage.
We are even doing some dyeing in the fleece on our own fibres and on ecru yarns and fibres from Ashland Bay awaiting the big card going again.

If the fibre Gods smile on us we will have the part and the millwright here in early August.

Other areas are singing right along though.

Been a good year for colour in the Icelandic Lambs. After starting with all white ewes, we added a coloured ram who had the potential for moorit 2 years ago, still we got white lambs. Last year we added a Moorit spotted horned ram and this year we have spotted moorit and spotted black lambs as well as more white.

Ready to go this month are 3 registerable ram lambs.

Ram Lamb #1

White with strong phaeomelanin factor

His tail and legs are very reddish looking

Ram Lamb #2

Black spotted Badgerface full brother to ram #1

Ram #3

White,

his full sister is staying here.

All of this year's ( 2012) lambs are at least half Icelandic as I ran all of our ewes with the Moorit spotted Icelandic ram. All were born between March 31st and April 24th.

Here are the half breds that are also ready to go:

Half bred Rams

Truffles ram #1

Half Icelandic and a mix of Coloured Lincoln/Columbian/Dorset and Suffolk.

Large ram lamb, but a suck up.

I am 5 foot 6 tall and he is 3 inches taller then my knee now.

Truffles ram #2

White with scurs.

Full brother to black above.

Just as big and even more of a suck up.

Half bred ewes:

Anahiem Ewe #1

Grey with horns and strong phaeomelanin factor

Mom is half Romney and half coloured  Lincoln/Columbia

Anahiem Ewe #2

White, polled, full sister to grey above.

All of the above lambs are ready to go to new homes anytime.

And then there are the lambs that will be staying.

This year we will add two ewe lambs to our little flock.

This one is Missy Adventure.

Her mom( first timer) could not produce enough milk for her and added injury to insult by stepping on her and injuring her shoulder. Missy is now walking on all four legs but has a limp.

And last, but not least we have the latest daughter of our founding ewe.

White, horned ewe. Full sister to Ram #3 above.

And here is everybodies' Dad, our very proud Gerard.

The meat rabbits are doing well. We have second litters from everyone in the nestboxes now.

The turkeys, ducks, guinea hens and easter egger chickens have all increased their numbers too.

Funny watching mixed broods of ducks, turkeys and guinea hens all figure out who is what :)

Finally got some barn cats. Was given a pair of female cats that turned out to have 4 kittens amoung them. Yes, I was lucky it was only four kittens, more lucky that all are hanging around so far. Barn is very much more rodent free then it was 2 months ago.

Here is the only male kitten in the bunch:

We call him Figaro, after Pinocchio's Cat.

On the beading front things are always busy.

Seems to be the year of the floral bead.

Ones such as these:

But in ever shape imaginable going all over the world.

I have been on a bent wire kick lately with lots of different chainmailles and other all metal designs like this Byzantine Link bracelet:

This one happens to be in Sterling Silver, but same design looks good in copper, brass and even coloured niobium wires.

Next big event here is the Sheepdog Trials in Kingston on August 10-12th at Grass creek park.

Than end of August/ start of September we move my daughter to Barrie so she can start her 3 year college career in Fine Arts.

Later in September on the 29th Fire and Fluff will be back in Barrie for the Central Region Spinner's Seminar at the Simcoe County Museum.

Of Course I will stop to visit the daughter and see how her world is going while in town.

And this is where July 2012 finds us at.

Some successes, some setbacks and lots of things to look forward to.





First Baby of 2012

Moorit, mouflin, polled ram lamb, 3/4 Icelandic. Looking at his colour I wish he was Purebred.

Born March 31st, 2012.

Had a sale running at Etsy and Artfire to celebrate first lamb. But time between first and 2nd was so short I never even got to list it here. Tweeted it though at @fireandfluff and posted it on the facebook page. Maybe next year it will be a longer sale!

And here is lamb 3. His sister beat him out by 20 minutes.

He is a Purebred Icelandic, Will be horned, just look at those buds on his head!

And here is lamb #2. She is still very shy. Hides behind Mom and brother every chance she gets.

White like her sibling, she will be polled. No buds of any kind here.

Other events round here. We have the wiring in the shop adjusted to feed single phase to 3 phase to run the card. Still awaiting a final motor to run the worker rollers. Beginning to feel alot like Rome round here, Definitely not built in a day, but usually worth the wait.

Latest beading adventure has been toying with stitch markers. As a sock knitter they are handy to have and others have noticed them as well.

Here is the only set that has made into any of the on line shops.

There will be more with other patterns on the beads with pricing depending on the complexity of the beads used. This set of 6 which will fit a needle up to 4mm in diameter  and is priced at $24.

Watch for us at THE GATHERING in Port Hope on April 14th, 2012.

We won't have any lambs with us, but there will be lots of fibres,

 yarns, wheels, beads and other goodies.

Quick update.

Card arrived January 15th,2012. We are currently framing a viewing area by it. Once that is done we will get it wired and then the fun begins. Hoping by Feb 17th we are starting to run fibre to learn our new babe's abilities.

Some pics of moving day!

Card on moving truck on side of highway at end of driveway.

Card on the rollback truck for the trip up the driveway.

Rollback truck starting to slide card into building.

View from inside the building of the above procedure.

That is my adorable hubby watching at the side.

Here is "The Beast" uncrated, but not yet positioned.

Four guys, with minor assistance from 2 women, shoved this thing around 90 degrees and back 8 feet from the door. Thank god for jacks, crowbars and good friends!

"The Beast" in her final location.

Do not have the pictures uploaded showing the wall now being put beside her. When the process is finished I will post another update. Especially once we are operational!

Till then Happy Fiber day!

Finally we have a date!!!

Just a fast post to say we have the bigger card lined up. Arrival is expected this coming Thursday...Once it is here and in place we will get the elctrician out to wire it in.

Then the fun begins!!!! 

Will put a picture when it is placed....

Now to clean and rearrange the shop to make room for it...