Introducing....

And he-e-e-ere's.....MIDNIGHT!

The farm has a new addition...Midnight, a 5 year old black lab, arrived last Saturday and has been settling into life on the farm. His previous owners lived in the city of Binghamton so he's adjusting to all the empty space surrounding the house. (They had to move and couldn't take him with them.) Midnight loves to play ball, chase sticks, and roll on the ground with 2 little boys. He's escaped more than once but since he loves to ride, he happily ran and jumped in the backseat of the car when I followed him and opened the back door.

Brittany is adjusting to having a very active male dog around...she can frequently be seen giving him disgusted looks. (Yes, she is a VERY expressive dog...the only one I've ever seen who literally pouts when she's offended.)

We've brought in all the gourds and are hopeful that they'll dry properly so we can attempt some gourd crafts. I'm really hoping the bushel gourds cure well--they'll make some neat bowls/baskets. This is just a sampling of some of the gourds we harvested.

I've finally finished working on the pattern for the earwarmer I've been working on to put into a kit. Here's a picture of Rachael modeling it. (This picture is on the package) I plan on getting at least one kit into the shop this week.

Yesterday I picked up 2 big bags of babydoll sheep wool to try spinning. In my reading, it was described as a good blender for alpaca. A fellow spinner that my teacher told me about gave me one fleece from her sheep (Babydoll/Romney Cross) and one from her neighbor (100% Babydoll). I must say, spinners are such a generous lot--they are so willing to help you find what you're looking for and if they have it, they are more than willing to share. She encouraged me to come back sometime soon with my wheel so we could sit, spin, and get to know each other. She also offered to give me a couple of rams for lawn trimming and future fleece harvests, but that's jumping way too far ahead of what we're up to having on the farm at this point.

Ian says, "See you later! Come back soon!"