Peaches, Butterflies, and Glass

Our peaches did very well again this year. We gave away lots to neighbors and friends and the freezer has many bags waiting to become cobbler this winter. As many of you know, Jonathan loves butterflies. Whenever he sees them fluttering around the cone flowers, he yells for me to bring the camera. Here's one of "his" swallowtails.I have to show you some of Wayne's latest glass projects. The transom over our front door was my anniversary gift. This project began about 2 years ago when he bought glass for the window so he could create a window to match the door and sidelights that we got as a special purchase. He started the project only to realize he needed a refresher course in cutting glass. He took the class and we now have a beautiful transom window. Wayne's brother Wes and wife Chris live in Georgia and we don't get to see them very often. Wayne asked his mom what he thought they would like made out of cut glass. A hummingbird was the answer... This New York hummingbird now flies in Rincon, GA overlooking Wes and Chris's backyard.

Angora Rabbits for Sale!

Katelyn has decided that it's time to market her angora babies. She made up posters and has posted them at the local feed store and at a fiber/weaving shop in Oneonta. Now she's waiting for the phone calls. The good part in this endeavor...if she doesn't sell the rabbits, she can harvest their wool to sell or knit some angora yarn items to sell.

The village of Unadilla is hosting it's first annual autumn celebration farmer/vendor market on September 25th. We're doing our best to produce items to sell at the market. Tomorrow I have to tackle the paperwork aspect of the venture. Today I washed wool and did some spinning. I plan to have alpaca item kits and finished products for sale. I may even be able to make use of some harvested angora fiber. I'm hoping Matt will get some of his decorated gourds ready. Wayne would like to make some cut glass items to display. It would also be great if Rachael got some of her artwork ready by then. Marc may have some goat milk soap to sell...or if it's a good egg production week...farm fresh eggs. Rabbits are portable, too! There's plenty of potential for the Abundant Blessings Farm booth.

County Fair 2010

This afternoon Marc, Rachael, Katelyn and I went to the Delaware County Fair. The fairgrounds are so well maintained and there are beautiful perenial flower beds lining the driveway and the fairground. All the volunteers are so friendly and helpful. It's no wonder that it's one of the most popular county fairs in the area (there are 4 counties that intersect in this part of NY).

The girls loved seeing the horses and took quite a few pictures of the riders being judged.

There is the yearly butter sculpture...this year it's a sheep being sheared. I wonder if this is the sculptor's revenge for being told when he was young not to play with his food! The detail to the piece is amazing. I wish it showed more in the picture.

Katelyn thought this sheep's coat was cute...

My favorite part is going through the exhibit halls to see all the handwork. This appliqued quilt was beautiful. The stripes on the border are prints of a railroad track on a gravel bed. Once again the picture doesn't do the quilt justice.

Maybe someday I'll get to the point of submitting a quilt, but for now I just go and admire all the beautiful work done by the local quilters. I look forward to next year's entries!

So Where Have We Been?

I can't believe August is here! We've been busy freezing veggies (not to mention trying to keep ahead of the weeds!) and trying to finish projects while the weather is nice. (Hopefully, pictures to go along with this blog will be added later this week when we get our desktop back)

Our meat chickens were processed and some of them were the size of small turkeys. The freezer is full of chicken meat, beans, and peas. The squash are in full force this week, as are the cucumbers.

The bunnies are growing and we decided that more cages were necessary to give them some space (and to cut down on future litters!). The woodshed got revamped and now one wall is filled with bunny cages. We let them get some fresh air and grass during the 're-zoning' but they started escaping from their play yard and had to be put back into the cages.

The goat barn is officially just for goats for the time being. We need to work on getting the boys into their own pen, but for now it's much quieter keeping them together.

The 'baby' chickens graduated to an outdoor pen after the meat chickens left. They are much happier out in the great big world instead of in their brooder. The 'run' part of the pen is covered so we don't have to worry about the neighborhood eagles getting some 'chicken nuggets'. Here's a good view of a couple of the turkens...
I've been busy washing alpaca fleece and spinning some alpaca roving for a co-worker. My goal is to get all the fleece I have on hand washed and dried so that will be done before the cold weather hits. (Washing fleeces outside in cold weather is not fun.) I still have a couple of fleeces to wash from our alpaca and then a couple of sheep fleece, but then I'll be done with that job. I really want to get busy getting items ready to sell at the many shows coming up in the fall.

This past weekend we had friends from Maine come down to perform a concert at our church . The East Wind Quartet (plus one) gave a wonderful concert and we had a great time visiting with our friends Nancy & Phil, Nancy's parents Rebel and Norma, and the other member of the group John (who really hit it off with our Jon and Matthew). The weekend flew by and before we knew it they were heading back home.
Wayne ended up in the ER again yesterday due to severe back pain. One of the positive things that results from his going to the ER is that I get lots of knitting and reading done. I've got to learn to pack more yarn in my bag though. Once again I ran out of the yarn I needed for my current project. They sent him home with a sleeping pill after about 7 hours of trying to get his pain level lowered. Thankfully, he's better today.

Matthew is busy getting in shape for a bike trip he'll be taking next week with the local Youth for Christ organization. He's going as a chaperone/participant. The group is traveling to Niagara Falls. I think Matt will wish he had started preparing a lot earlier!

I've been plugging away at trying to get our business plan pulled together. The reading I do in the ER is usually business related and last night I found a source with listings of websites that I need to research. This afternoon I received a call from a local alpaca farm/breeder who is also the president of the Southern Tier Alpaca Association. She wanted to hire me to do some handspinning for her. She is very positive about our opening a fiber mill and told me that local mills have up to a 17 month backlog of fleece to process because there's such a demand. She also gave me several contacts to discuss how they started their mills and what they would do differently. So-o-o it continues to sound that this business idea is feasible as far as there being a need for the service. I'll just keep moving forward and see how God opens the doors that seem to be such obstacles at this point.

Another adventure...

Nathanial came home for the weekend and as we were talking I noticed a big lump behind his ear. I asked him what it was and got, "Oh, nothing, just a pimple that needs some attention." Well, the other night I came home from the hospital and he said that he and Matthew had 'worked' on the lump and got some of the infection out. I asked how they 'worked' on it..."Well, we sterilized my knife and cut into it." "What?!?!" Thankfully, he had an appointment with the family doctor scheduled for an allergy recheck. I told Nathanial that he was to show the lump and make sure it was draining properly. The physician's assistant came out of the exam room, and said, "So now the kids are doing their own surgical procedures?!" She got the other physician's assistant to open up the cyst (that's what the lump is) and drain it. He came out of the exam room with this lovely bandage, much to his chagrin.Now he's on a course of antibiotics and a stern warning to come to the professionals sooner next time. I think the bandage has convinced him to do just that! At least he's not in much pain.

A long awaited project

Wayne has been dreaming of putting a patio out back. Last fall we were able to get some paving stones free from Freecycle. They were piled up in front of his workshop over the winter and when Mom J and Dan were here they moved them over to the 'future patio location'. This is what the site looked like last week...He directed the kids on how to lay the stones and our friend delivered a trailer load of small gravel. This is what it looked like by the end of the week...
The little boys think it's great to have all those big stones to write on with sidewalk chalk. The rest of us enjoy sitting out back on the new patio. It'll be a BIG help in the spring to have less mud right outside the back door.

The weekend took a turn to the unexpected. Wayne ended up admitted to the hospital for 3 days recovering from a nasty urinary tract infection and intense back pain (no it was not from him lifting stones...the kids did the lifting). He did get some great news...the test results from the latest test showed no cancer!

Animal Updates

Here's some pictures of the baby bunnies. They are much bigger now and fluffier, but these are the first pictures we took.

A few weeks ago my dad ordered a shipment of laying hens for us. It was a 'barnyard mix' so we weren't sure what breeds would be included. If you look carefully at the chick on the left of the picture, you'll notice a bit of a different 'fluff style'...we think we have some turkens mixed in with the other chicks. I want to try to get a better picture of these strange looking little chicks, but wanted to get at least one picture posted. Thanks Dad!