In my studio I have a lovely Daybed which is the perfect place for an afternoon nap. As you can see here Taffy is very much a Daddy's girl and she is out of coat right now so gets a bit chilly. Agatha on the other hand much prefers to be on the floor where it's cooler. As for me? As you can see there was no room so I took a picture instead!
It has been a bit of a rough few months at Corgi Hill Farm. The problem has been caused by a single dose of an endocrine necessary medication. Apparently sometime in the past year there have problems with the manufacturing process of the one pill I take. I don't know what the entire story is but I do know that when I was out of my pills that I had purchased in 2008 in Idaho that I refilled my medication and things started to go awry.
This summer was an emotional roller coster for Wes and I as we dealt with varying degrees of not feeling well and a resurgence of symptoms that led me to believe I needed to get re-evaluated for dosing. Then in August I found out my regular medication was no longer available and I'd have to change. I had 4 days notice and frankly I panicked. Fortunately I have a lovely physician who not only listened to my panicked phone call but she agreed that things were out of whack and prescribed a dose she felt would fix things.
She warned me it would take a few months and that things would be not fun. I ended up with about 8 more weeks of emotional roller coaster, a few problems and finally things seem to be getting better.
During this time of *the crazy* I decided I hated my house, my village and we needed to move. Wes kindly drove me all over hell and gone and I announced we were A. going to buy land B. going to buy another house in a tiny village C. moving to Egypt. Well, not really C but honestly I thought if I just did some huge change it would all be better.
Now that things have smoothed out, and my husband who is truly a saint has helped me make a few minor changes around the house, I love my house again. The changes had to do with how my work space is organized and how the work load of Corgi Hill Farm is split between the two of us. He managed to help me work through my discontent and helped me find fixes that work for both of us. We moved a few pieces of furniture, bought a few (very few) storage bins that fit my existing fiber organization system and made some plans to change a few things as time and money permits.
Today the final brick in a wall of happy fell into place. I love fresh produce. I especially love fresh seasonal produce that doesn't have pesticides and is tasty. I would love it if I didn't have to drive a long way to find this. Wes drove me to a farmstand that had closed for the season, unbeknownst to us, and I was sad. Then he suggested we explore just over the border, two miles from the house, and see what that grocer had. Jackpot!!! I found baby bok choy, organic cranberries, purple carrots, rabbit meat, 15 kinds of pate (none of which I bought but it was cool), 8 different local apples and so much more. I also found biscuits!!! Not the fluffy kind but the cookie kind and I got Blueberry/Flax/Wheat biscuits and they are good!
Little changes but huge results. I am fantastically luck to have a husband who will help me work through things and I have come to realize that I can indeed bloom here in this tiny house, this tiny town and once again, it's all good!
Oh.... my Diva Dog, Taffy? she's figured out how to tip toe her way around all the fiber tools and still get to her fave afternoon nap spot.
This time last year I was freezing my buns off and I do believe this year is colder yet I don't seem to be freezing quite so much. I remember the knock, knock on the door and two wee lads selling popcorn in short sleeve Boy Scout uniforms. I remember thinking they were nuts for not wearing anoraks or at least a black bear coat or something. They showed up again yesterday in the same short sleeve uniforms seemingly unaware that we were in the 40 degree section of the thermometer.
We purchased a bucket of unpopped popcorn and my husband asked them when we could expect it. The lad told us it would be here by the time it started snowing. Since we are expecting snow later this evening we were more than a little skeptical. Upon telling the wee lad it would be snowing on Tuesday he revised his statement and said by Christmas *g*
I don't believe it snowed this early last year and I very well remember that Halloween had children in costumes, not bundled up, so maybe it will heat up a bit in the coming weeks For now it's chilly out but toasty inside with our lovely wood stove. I've been playing in dye pots, thinking about the continued shoveling out of old stuff (and really need to be doing not thinking about that) and keeping together hearth and home.
I've been trying to get cute shots of the girls for Ravelry advertising. Sometimes they cooperate beautifully.
Sometimes.... not so much.
Yesterday was such a lovely day, slightly overcast with the promise of sunshine and the foliage here is truly amazing. Wes and I have explored so much of Orleans county including all over Westfield, Troy, Lowell and Holland but we had not gone south yet so off we went to Coventry (don't blink), Irasburg, Albany, Craftsbury, Hardwick, Greensboro, and up the back side of Craftsbury to Glover.
Very picture heavy post ahead...
Scarlets in the forest near Irasburg.
Cow against foliage on the mountain near Albany.
Cemetary I think near Albany.
Birds on an old barn.
Christmas Tree farm against Fall foliage.
Really, really friendly cat at Pete's Greens who wanted lots and lots and LOTS of scritches!
The roof on the Pete's Greens Farmstand with loads of sunflowers, neat!
I want this place for my local grocery store.
Scarlet tree just peeking out of the surroundings near Greensboro.
House tucked into fall foliage near back side of Craftsbury.
Fields and Fields of Corn!
Headed down to Glover through the Holler.
Just before we dumped out into Glover there was this cute little waterfall, maybe three feet high. Crystal clear water too.
I think we'll probably drive down to Craftsbury more because shopping at Pete's was amazing. Fresh produce, the best chicken we've ever eaten (just finished that for dinner today), fresh eggs, an amazing loaf of Foccacia, local cheese and it's all on the honor system. Yup, a HUGE selection of foods and you just write down what you got on a pad of paper, there's a board with prices and you add it up with the calculator provided, there's a cash drawer there and you just get it all and go. Friendly cat, friendly teddy bear akita, friendly loud hound dog and good eats. It doesn't get any better than that!
This weekend may have been the perfect Fall Vermont Weekend (tm). Seriously. There was foliage, a fiber festival, a drive in the country and a visit to one of my all time favorite farm stands. Photo evidence as requested (demanded).
I started the weekend with a drive down to Lyndon in the early hours to pick up Gayle and then on to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. This was my first New England Festival and I was super excited. Sheep! Alpaca! Goats! Fiber! Yarn! The only fiber festival I've ever gone to in the past was the Snake River Fiber Festival and it's held on a community college campus indoors with no fiber animals at all.
As Gayle and I wandered down the back roads of Vermont with Google Map in hand I had an inkling that maybe my navigator wasn't like me. She didn't have a compass in her head and a hawk's eye for road maps. We muddled a bit but we arrived at the festival and I forgot my thoughts about this.
I was thrilled to be there even though it drizzled, spit and outright poured. There were knitted items everywhere worn by knitters not just consumers. I wanted so much to take some pictures of these but alas I'm a lot more reserved than most would think and I never asked. We wound through the animal barns, small old Vermont barns with small darkish stalls and critters. We wandered through a smaller pavilion with old friends at the Montgomery Fiber Folks to talk to and more fiber and yarn to touch and dream about. We wandered through the outdoor vendors who were bravely trying to keep things relatively dry in the inclement weather. I had serious moments of weakness when confronted with cones of shetland yarn from vendors like Harrisville and Barlett. I find myself drawn more and more to the slightly rough yet long wearing wools like these for sweaters and blankets.
We finally wandered into the main pavilion where wonders were everywhere you looked. A woman spinning from a rabbit with another one right there to run your fingers through. So amazingly soft and not the slightest itch to be felt as is my issue with commercial angora. A booth of fabulous hand knits, another with wool blankets that took my breath away. I was going to walk through the entire festival and then go back to buy. See everything before I spent the money I'd been saving for the past five months in dribs and drabs for just this day. I had good intentions.....
As I rounded a corner there was Judy of Ball and Skein. We've practically been neighbors an entire year now and finally we meet! She's an amazingly talented dyer and I've lusted long after her yarns but she dyes fiber too! I managed to snag two amazing skeins of a vivid Turquoise silk/wool singles yarn that will be another soft shawlette for me. I also managed to get 4 oz of the most amazing pansy colored fiber although Judy was giving me a bucketful since I dye fiber too. She was going to make me dye my own, a long journey that everyone knows is fraught with danger. Trying to dye the color you saw once and get the same look? Not for the faint of heart and I wanted her fiber right there, right now. She finally gave in and it's mine.
We had a long discussion on internet in rural Vermont, Balsam brush and finally how I'd left my husband home (hers was there) to care for Corgyn, drop off the post and fluff my Yak. That does sound a bit... dirty? We all had a racuous laughing fit and started asking one and all if they'd fluff our Yak and men scuttled away..... For goodness sakes, when you dye a pound of yak fiber the day before and it's damp out if one fluffs it a bit during the day it will dry faster. That's all.
From the main building Gayle and I went in search of sustenance and unlike the normal fair food they had the NOFA wood fired pizza oven so I had fresh grilled all local ingredient pizza and Gayle had a lovely lamb burger. With new resources of energy we went in search of the elusive Norma. Found her right away too decked out in fingerless gloves, sweater, scarf and new jewelry. Only Norma goes to a fiber festival for glitters *lol* We got to meet Joan and spent almost an hour nattering in the middle of a wide hallway laughing and cackling and that's what it's all about. This weekend was all about the laughing, the fun, the friends and the fiber and I adored every wet soggy minute of it. I especially adored the Maple Creemee and that's going to be an ongoing hunt for me because it was really that good.
I only have a few pictures but there's loot, the foliage at Tunbridge and folks at the fair. Tomorrow I'll do the drive in the country post. Oh and Gayle? Apparently she can get lost in her back yard and on the way back there was this little side journey through lovely Royalton but we found the correct highways, did not run out of gas and had a lovely drive home in the rain.
Waiting in lines for food in the rain.
We heard churchbells alot and it was lovely.
Muddy ground and wet roofs.
One skein of pink Kauni, two skeins of turquoise silk & wool, 8 ounces of Merino Tencel, 4 ounces of Merino Tussah and the hard won 4 ounces of Pansy from Ball & Skein. It's all good!
I can see my breath most mornings now and the dew is icy cold on my feet. Here at Corgi Hill Farm we're winding down in the garden, picking a few strawberries today, the last of the cucumbers and as always there is still Zucchini. Wes is slowly removing all vegetation from old garden beds and getting ready to re-jigger the entire garden to make it more efficient next year. He's busy making plans for hoophouses and pricing materials.
I have been playing with my dye pots and after months of angst and concern have realized that dyeing fiber really isn't all that difficult and well... it's not that time consuming either and wow, I should do more of this *lol*
The Girls got their long awaited Baths.
Did you say Bath?!!!
It looks too far to jump down but I'm thinking about it!
I can't believe you did this to me....
I'm going to shake my booty all over your pouf.
If you insist...
Are we there yet?
Ditto!
It's cookie time now right?
They were so soft and sweet smelling and I blow dried them and brushed even more fur out (where does it all come from!) and made them generally gorgeous since we had a weekend engagement.
Our weekend engagment was a seed saving seminar in Lyndon at my friend Gayle's home. I decided that a fall treat was in order for the group.
Local Apples.
Chocolate, Caramel and Sea Salt from King Arthur Flour.
These were a definite hit!
I had enough leftovers to make myself some turtle candy and it's going to last a good long while now that I've got it all pacakged up and off the counter *lol*
Taffy had fun running around the sheep pen at Gayle's and Onyx didn't seem perturbed at all! Considering this is the second time Taffy has seen sheep and the first time she was not enthused at all this was a definite improvement. We are going to some Sheep Trials in October and I'm hoping they'll have a herd instinct test there so I can see Taffy really strut her stuff.
Agatha and Onyx sharing a moment. I suspect Agatha didn't want to herd as much as cuddle up.
Very curious chickens. I'm hoping after seeing the chicken set up Wes will realize how frickin easy it is to keep them and we will have our own next spring.
Our little farm made a bit of the green this year, not enough to do much with but enough that our road to being farmers is at least started upon. I'm hoping as years go by we'll have more produce to sell, eggs, herbs and who knows what else we can come up with. Every year we'll add a bit more to our knowledge base and before you know it Corgi Hill Farm will be on Vermont's Farm map like so many others. We're learning all the time and it's all good!
