I didn't realize how long it had been since I published my blog last, but it's been since October 2003. Oh dear...what's the matter with me? Must have been really busy, my only excuse. What with fencing, irrigation, planting, picking, canning/drying fruit, the farmers' market, the First Annual Dayton Fine Arts Festival and everything else I was doing last year, things couldn't have been too much busier.

I'll be doing the 2nd Annual Dayton Fine Arts Festival again in June, which I will be a part of again this year. The Walla Walla Farmers' Market will begin on May 21 from 8 AM -1 PM, so things are starting off with a bang because the day the market starts, the 1 or more of the colleges will be having their graduation ceremonies and all the touristas will be in town so it's a great sales day for the market. There are 3 colleges in both Walla Walla and their twin city, College Place, so it's not unusual for things to be happening. Each summer in and around this area, there are an enormous amounts of fairs, festivals, and markets going on, so there is always something. The biggest things I'm looking forward to is to be teaching at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this year in September, affectionately known as OFFF (say off and you've got it). I've gone there for the last two years, but have never taught there. I also will be entering some skeins and garments I've made in the competitions. at OFFF, but I'll also be entering some skeins and garments at the Walla Walla Frontier Days Festival which is the county fair on Labor Day Weekend, so we'll see how I do. When I taught and entered things at Lambtown (www.lambtown.com) the year I lived near there and the year I had just moved to Walla Walla, I won a second prize and a red ribbon for a skein of alpaca yarn, and the next year I won a first prize/blue ribbon for a skein of alpaca yarn, a second place red ribbon for a skein of mixed fiber yarn, a first prize/blue ribbon for a hand spun/hand knit and crocheted set of baby hat and booties, and a third place yellow ribbon for a handspun/handknit baby hat of alpaca and wool. I brought 4 items for competition and won 2 first prizes and 4 ribbons (2 blue, a red and a yellow)...not too shabby for someone who has only been spinning for 5 years. The people who took my Beginners' Spinning also enjoyed my classes which was great.

Things have been extremely hectic October 2003. I sold all (had 23 sheep, one died) but 10 of my sheep. I had 36 lambs (5 died) sold many of the lambs with the ewes and kept the 3 bottle-fed lambs for myself. I sold or slaughtered the remaining rams and castrated one ram because he was the only silver-gray sheep I had and I wanted to keep him. I also raised 15 guineas and 10 Americauna chickens (most of them died through the summer, but 1 chicken and 5 guineas remained at the end of winter 2004).

Most of the apple trees are gone now, as are the grape vines (they froze out in the fog each year when the mornings were below zero and we had a bunch or two of grapes at most). This year, we're planting hardy kiwi in the front along the chain link fence (I'm hoping I'll be able to start a new market for them in this area), everbearing red and yellow raspberries where the grapes were, 75 everbearing strawberry plants (25 of 3 different types), two tulip trees (a type of magnolia), 4 yuccas, and several other types of plants. I have some seedlings started for the garden: indigo, several types of summer squash, several types of gourds, several types of winter squash, 3 types of tomatoes, 4 types of sweet peppers and 3 types of hot peppers, and a bunch of flowers and fiber plants. The currants and gooseberries I planted last year will be giving me berries this year (2 red currants, red gooseberries, and a yellow currant). I'm changing around the gardens in the yard and replatning many of them because the plants that are there are taking over, so have lots of cuttings and transplants that I'll be sharing with my friends in Walla Walla and the surrounding areas. I forgot to mention that I'm growing a lot of herbs and dye plants this year as well as cut and edible flowers (to add to salads) to keep things busy at my booth. If you don't have variety in your booth, it doesn't keep people coming by to see what you have.

I'm expecting 5 guineas and 20 Americauna chickens on March 28, so I have another chicken coop to build, but all in all, I'm pleased that my birds are doing well. "Chicken," my Americauna from last year has been laying turquoise eggs at the rate of 1 every 1-2 days. I named her because she has gotten so tame that she lets me pet her each morning before I feed all the birds. If the chickens lay as well as my one Chicken does, I'll have extra eggs to sell and probably more colors of eggs. The Americaunas are a type of Aracauna. The Americauna is also known as the Easter Egg chicken because of the color assortment. I'll be blowing out the eggs and selling the colored shells at the market as well as both the Americauna and guinea feathers for fly fishermen who tie their own flies. The eggs are bright dark orange and the whites are so firm...I never had such great tasting eggs before Chicken started laying eggs this spring. If someone had told me 5 years ago that I'd be eating eggs from my own chickens and guineas, I'd have told them they were crazy, but here I am and I love the taste so much.

I have a registered Finnish landrace aka Finnsheep ewe (with rare spotted genes) named Bess and her two ewe lambs arriving around mid-May or so. The woman I'm buying them from is bringing them over from SE Montana, over to the Experimental Sheep Station around Boise, ID, and I will pick them up there and bring them home. My two Finn/Icelandic cross ewes, Sophie and Rabbit, are both pregnant and are expecting as is Madge, my registered Finn ewe, had triplets last year but one died. My registered Icelandic ewes, Molly, Black, Ebony and Blesa are also pregnant and I'll be expecting to register anywhere from 4 to 9 lambs depending on how what they will have. Molly had triplets last year and all but one died, Black had twins, as did Ebony and Blesa, so if things hold as they did last year, I'll have a few lambs to sell. I'm hoping for at least one lamb from each sheep, but Madge had triplets her first time as a mom, so I am not sure how many to expect from her or her two crossed daughters. Finnsheep can have from 1 to 8 lambs...they're called the sheep who have litters. They're also related to the Icelandic and Shetland sheep who are also short-tailed sheep.

Well, back to work...I've been spinning yarn, knitting, crocheting, making hats, scarves, toys, baby items and other things to build my stock for the markets and fairs.