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So I don't have anything specific to blog about. Just a bunch of random stuff.

We've been getting a lot of snow for the past few weeks. The last few days we've had new snow. This morning about an inch and yesterday about 3 inches. I'd normally stay home and enjoy it all but preschool and feeding the animals has me out and about.

Our chickens are doing just fine with the cold weather. Egg production has been down a little. We've gone from getting 3 eggs some days to about 2. Our Black silkie is now and official member of the egg producing society. For the past week or so she's been giving us an egg every other day. Which according to the web is normal. so Yay! We get a cute little taupe colored egg every other day. Its cute, but I'm a little afraid to use them in my cooking due to most recipes asking for a large egg. I already have to deal with all the different egg sizes that my rhode island reds hand out. They give X-large and large? I think. When making bread I grab 2 of each size in the hopes that it will average out to the right size.

The sheep are growing fluffier and fatter with wool all the time. Charlie, the lone male is still very friendly. Cally (or gladys as I've re-named her) has become slightly jumpy when I'm around. I think its because she got out a few times and I had to catch her. For some reason that seems to make the sheep jumpy for a few months. One of the scardy sheep has warmed up a bit. She and Gladys hang out and are equally jumpy together. Then there is still one holdout for the scardy sheep status.

The rabbit continues to do well despite the cold weather. She hasn't gotten out since the last episode. Mostly because I don't get her out. Well, except that once when she was covered with snow and I grabbed her to wipe it all off. Still hoping to find a home for her.

A fellow ward member was telling me that they had a coyote get 2 of their chickens. They never put them in a coop before this, so I guess it sort of serves them right. But it still isn't pleasant. And since they live about a mile away it makes me a little scared for my chickens and sheep and rabbit. And reminded me about when the neighbor last summer told us about hunting for 2 wolves that were hanging out around the neighborhood. A little scary for the animals.

Oh, and on the wool front. Cleo over at The Sheep Shed was so nice this past weekend. She called out of the blue and asked me if I wanted some wool! I was all for it. Who could say no to free? Anyway, she gave me a couple of bags of wool that had been in a wet corner of her barn. They needed to be dried out before storage. But besides that they were just fine! She said that she had found ice in one of the bags! Anyway, a day or so in front of our fireplace and they were dry as a bone! I'll probably was them this month sometime and then store them until I decide what color and what I want to do with them.

She also gave me about 1 lb 9 oz of brown merino. I've never used dark brown wool before so that has been an adventure. First I did some research and found that I had to wash it in water that was 160 degrees. That was almost boiling! So it took me a while to get water that hot. Then I couldn't let the water get cooler than 160 degrees or the lanolin could redeposit on the wool. So I got the water to about 170 degrees and it sat in the water for about 15-20 minutes. But you know what? that wool had almost zero felting!!!! That is big for me. I usually handle the wool way to much and end up with a lot of felting.

This time I put the wool in mesh laundry bags and didn't handle it much at all. I just handled the laundry bags. I also spun the wool dry in the washing machine. by the next day it was dry and ready for carding.

Well, I'm about halfway through with carding the wool and so far have about and oz of wool that got clean, but still has a bit of lanolin on it. Which is fine. Its much easier to boil a pan of water than it is to get a whole laundry bucket of water boiling. After I'm done with this, I'll clean the other wool. I'm planning on using the mesh bags again and hopefully I'll be successful again with the lack of felting!!!!!

On to other subjects....

Mom and A have a really bad cold. They have of course spread it to Myself and C. But that's life.

With all of this snow we've been spending a bit of time over at mom and dad's house. Since they live next door its fun to go over for a change of scenery. We've been working on fun puzzles and the kids like to play with grandma's toys. Over all, its been great fun to have somewhere to go when the weather is horrible.

I've finished spinning enough wool for a church bag for myself. I'm really excited to get started on it! I did have enough wool spun at Christmas, but then my mother in law saw the bag I made for my mom and requested one for her birthday. She requested it several times while she was over for Christmas. So what could I do? I just wish that people who don't know how to do crafts realized how long they took. Her birthday was january 14th. lets just say I worked like a madwoman. Also, I wasn't able to put as much thought into it as I would have wanted. But it was cute. Somehow it turned out much bigger than the one I did for Mom. Also instead of a tulip, I put daisy's on it.

I think on my bag I'm going to got back and do the tulip again, but this time I'm going to use the picture from the cake that you make in Nancy Drew and the Secret of Shadow Ranch. Its a really pretty tulip in red and green. Although I'll probably change the color to white or something that will look good on a purpley pinkish bag.