It is a day for basking

Hello faithful readers!  Lucky Nickel reporting from the farm!

See how clever I am, using my ear as a sun shield?!  Oh yes, I am not your average goat, my friends.  But, you already know that.  Today is not an average day either.  Why?  Because it's actually beginning to feel like spring!  My lady came outside this morning and she had to unzip her insulated coveralls because they were too hot!  (don't worry, she had clothes on underneath, in case you are wondering)  It is 2 degrees Celsius, which is 37 or so in Fahrenheit (but we only do Celsius at Whispering Acres).  This is particularly exciting for all of us here, so we took the opportunity to bask in the sun and soak up some rays.

I soaked up some rays.

Misky made a bed for herself on top of the hay bale.

She took some time to get it just right.

Then, she soaked up some rays too.

Coffee (that's Misky's mom, the mini Nubian) was jealous.

However, because she is half Nubian, Coffee didn't know what to do.  She's not bright enough to figure out that she should just butt Misky off the bale and lay down there herself.  So she just turned her back on her daughter and stood there basking in the sun also. 

Opal basked beside the small A-frame shelter.

Lotus basked and ate at the same time.

I ventured into the shade to cool down.  Hahaha!  Did I fool you?  I only went into the shade because my lady put some grain down there for me.  In this picture, you can see there is a light breeze, which helps to show off my stunning fybur.

Osmo is a black goat, so he didn't feel a need to bask because he naturally absorbs any sun rays that happen to be found.  He was more interested in sniffing Lotus' bottom!  My lady said Lotus is "in heat" and I said of course she was because she was standing in the sun and that's where the heat is.  Sometimes my lady states the obvious as if it's a revelation.  

Then Osmo did that funny thing he does sometimes with his lips, curling his top lip up.  He looks weird when he does that.  Lotus kept turning her back to him and looking at him and maaaaa-ing, and he looked like he was trying to remember something important, but then he wandered off.  My lady laughed and said "There you go Osmo, that's what happens when you lose your spare brain."

Horton basked while trying to figure out how to get over the fence.

And finally Misky got off the hay bale and guess who took it over!  Kenzie!  Little timid Kenzie got up on the hay bale and basked, as if she was the queen of the castle.

Clearly, the sun has gone to her head.  All of us here on the farm hope that you see some sunshine too this weekend!

Sun Dogs in Iowa

No, they're not a new breed of dog that you haven't heard of!  Sun dogs are a weather phenomenon.

They are bright patches of white or coloured light that occur on either side of the sun - sometimes only on one side, and sometimes on both sides.  Generally, they're most visible when the sun is low in the sky - either close to sunrise or sunset.  In the picture below, the sun is to the left (obviously) and then just to the right of the church steeple, you'll see a kind of rainbow blob.  That's a sun dog.

Here in Iowa, it can get pretty cold in the winter.  That's when you might see sun dogs.  The reason is that sun dogs are caused by ice crystals that drift in the air.  The crystals can either be randomly distributed through the air, in which case a ring, or a halo, can be seen around the sun.  With sun dogs, the crystals are sinking through the air and becoming vertically aligned, so that the sunlight that passes through the crystals is refracted horizontally.  That results in sun dogs!  Here's a picture of the right hand sun dog without the sun.  I wish the colours were better in these photographs because they really were like vertical stripe rainbows.

This past week was really obnoxiously cold here, and I saw these sun dogs on my way home from work earlier this week.  I snapped a few random shots with my cell phone.  Believe me, I was not looking at my cell phone at the time.  The camera button is on the side and I just held it up in one hand and snapped.  I had no idea if I'd get any good shots, but when I got home and checked, I had a few decent ones, so that's what I've shown you here.

I wish I could have taken a shot showing both sun dogs, but I could only get one side at a time.  Here's the other side...

As the sun went down, the sun dogs grew more faint.

I like looking at the sky and watching clouds and sunsets.  It's not very often that I get to see more unusual phenomena like sun dogs, but when it happens, it's quite exciting.  If you live in a warmer climate, you probably never get to see them.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them vicariously if that is the case!  If you want to see more sun dogs, there are some great pictures online, including this one from Wikipedia, which is actually taken in central Iowa, showing both sundogs.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SunDog.jpg

I don't know about where you are...but here...it snowed.

Maybe it didn't snow at all for you.  Maybe you live in the southern hemisphere and you are enjoying your summer holiday.  Maybe you live on the equator and are enjoying summer, as you do every day.  Or maybe you are somewhere else that is being pummeled by unpleasant weather.  I know, it could be much worse.  I could be in Australia, about to be hit by a cyclone, having only recently made it through horrendous flooding.  So really, I ought not to complain.  However, I am going to complain anyway, because I'm having that sort of a day.

I worked from home yesterday because it was a blizzard day.  It was the sort of day when I would prefer that my home desk was positioned such that my peripheral vision wasn't constantly barraged by snow swirls that looked like a herd of polar bears passing by my window.  (Do bears come in herds or flocks?  Or posses?)  I made cornbread in the afternoon and ate some with fresh butter and felt like a period of hibernation would be well advised.  I retired to bed a little early and lay in the darkness for a time watching the continued polar bear migration past my bedroom window, and wondering what it would all look like in the morning.

This morning, the wind was practically gone, there were no more polar bears, and the view outside the window was a still whiteness, with small ridges on the clean white surface.  Some areas of deeper drifting were visible, but overall, it didn't look all that dreadful.  I had a coffee, and contemplated the prospect of snow removal and getting to the barn.  I then had yogurt, and contemplation on the side.  I read my email for work, answered a few, spent some time on a work project, and then thought it might be time to actually feed the critters outside.  Considering the fact that by it was nearly 10 am by then, I should have been clued in to the fact that I had not seen or heard any goat or rooster yet.  Smart cookies, my animals are!

After donning my insulated coveralls, earmuffs, scarf, hat, insulated gloves and my "tall" boots, I opened the garage and surveyed the polar wasteland driveway before me.  Not to be discouraged, I started up the snowblower (thank you for the "easy start" feature, Honda) and dealt with the concrete part of the driveway.  The gravel part is not so easy but fortunately my kind neighbour had sent over his truck with a plow blade to help me with that part.  I determined, somewhat to my surprise, that the snow was a bit deeper than I had expected.  In fact, it was deeper than the height of my snowblower.  This made for some interesting "double layer" snowblowing feats that took quite some time, not to mention dexterity, to accomplish.  Not to worry though, I looked very stylish doing it, because I am a winter fashionista, of course.

I peered around the side of the house and decided that the walk to the barn looked quite manageable, so I hefted a 50 lb bag of sweet feed from the garage and proceeded to walk down the side of the house.  I began to mutter a number of words, none of which have anything to do with "manageable" and most of which I can't even put on this blog because my mother reads it.  Stumbling through the snow with a 50 lb bag of feed is never enjoyable, but it's even worse than usual when the snow is deep enough to push the legs of your insulated coveralls up over the top of your boots, such that when you heave your leg out of the snow, a copious amount of it enters your boot in the process.  I was less than impressed when Lucky Nickel made her appearance and came dashing through the snow like a legless ball of wool (since the snow was so deep it hid her legs entirely) only to stand in front of my leg each time I tried to take another step with the aforementioned bag of feed.  I cannot tell you how long it took me to get to the barn, but it was too long.

Upon recognizing that the food-giver was actually present, the rest of the animals began their usual chorus and I spent the next half hour trudging about with buckets of feed and water and hay bales, occasionally stumbling on hidden blocks of ice under the snow, or other unseen obstacles.  It wasn't difficult to determine that the snowblower was needed in the backyard too, so I retrieved it and plowed out nice little paths for myself (and a certain small white goat.)

This was no easy feat either.  First, the snow was again too deep for the snowblower, and second, I was on grass, so it was a harder job to push the snowblower.  My calf muscles were disgruntled about the entire experience and my knees complained about the incident where I tripped on an unseen chunk of ice and abruptly fell knees-first into the snow, tipped forward, and wallowed about like a beached walrus for a while in an effort to recover.  Of course, Lucky Nickel felt that this was an opportune time to jump on my back and try to play "pull-the-hat-off-the-human" before I managed to heave her off.

Fortunately, all the animals seemed to have come through the storm unscathed.  Kenzie the lamb is loosing some of her old fleece but new, thicker fleece has come in underneath so I'm not worried about her "patchy" looks at the moment.  She is one of Black Pearl's offspring from last June but she still doesn't really look like a full blue-faced Leicester to me, so I don't know what she is.

The donkeys don't seem to give a hoot about the snow.  The goats are in fine form and Osmo, despite the fact that his 'spare brain' has now fallen off somewhere, persists in grunting and sticking his tongue out at the girls despite the weather.  He even tried to get out to Lucky Nickel today, but she was having none of that.

The angora rabbits are probably the warmest animals on the farm, given their thick coats and unruffled expressions.

After all this, I came inside, showered, and dressed in nice new, clean pajamas and my pink "Snuggle Sack" purchased some years ago from Lands End, a silk scarf, purple fingerless mitts, non-matching socks and slippers, and went back to work at my desk.  When one keeps the house at 58 degrees, one must dress appropriately.  And as always, it is important to be a winter fashionista.  Until next time....stay warm!

The Big News, Part II: Continued Discussion With a Goat

Well Lucky Nickel, it's time to tell the blog people about more of our news!  
     Oh!  Can I type it this time?
No, you have dirty hooves and last time you made the computer keyboard all muddy.
     Hmpffff.  I was decorating the keyboard for your computing enjoyment.  
Today we will add some pictures of you, since you are such a pretty goat.  Would you like that?
     Yes!  The ones you took in the barn?  Today?  
Absolutely.  I have downloaded them and you look as lovely as ever.  Let's start with this one, because when I came out the back door, you came running over like a high speed train, complete with whistles.

     I was very excited.  You don't usually come out in the middle of the afternoon.  I thought you were bringing me treats or presents.  Even Esmeralda was following me, you see?

     We came right over to you...

     ...and I had to taste your buttons on your sweater, just to see if they were treats in disguise.

I wasn't bringing treats, but I was coming to chat with you, and give you scritches, so that was good, wasn't it?
     Yes.  Although treats would have been good too.
So tell the blog people why we are going to Canada, and what we are going to do there!
     Wait...let's show them some goat snuzzle pictures first.

Well, let's tell them in between goat snuzzle pictures.  OK?
     OK, well, we are going to Can of Duck, errr....I mean, Canada....(picture please)

     .....because we are going to WHINE!   Oooh, look at my curly fybur!

We are NOT going to whine.  We are not whiners.  We are going to MAKE wine.  There is a big difference. You are such a silly goat!  Did Coffee the mini-Nubian tell you that we are whining?
     Oh.  She might have.  I thought I was going to be good at it,, because I whine sometimes.
Well you are going to be a very special part of it.  You will be a wine spokesgoat.  
     I will?!?!  It sounds very important!
I know!  I'm very excited about your new responsibilities.  You will even greet people who come to see the winery!  Won't that be fun?!
     Maaa-aaa-aaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  

That's you trying to lick my eyebrows.  You always do that Lucky Nickel.  You are a funny little goat.
      Your eyebrows taste good.  
So tell the blog people what kind of wine we will be making!

      Oooooh yes, we are going to make Bumblebee wine!  
Good grief....you really do get mixed up sometimes.  It's not bumblebee wine!  It's BLUEBERRY wine!
     Well, I was close.  It starts with a B.

You do make me laugh, Lucky Nickel.  What would I do without you to make me laugh?
    You would be very bored.  
Yes.  But I will not be bored at our new home.  I will just tell the blog people in a little bit more detail, OK?
    OK, they can look at my pretty fybur some more while you tell them.

The full story is that I'm in the process of buying a 66 acre mixed blueberry/grazing land farm.  The farm has a house on it that was built in about 1850, and is wonderfully eclectic but fully updated.  It has interesting room layouts and lots of interesting storage spaces.  An addition to the house contains a commercial area with public wheelchair-access restrooms and a small retail area, in which I will be selling my wool as well as the wine.  Underneath the addition is a 55 foot long wine cellar and production center with 8 vats for aging the wine, a laboratory for testing pH, sugar, etc, and bottling and labeling facilities.  The winery has been in business for over 20 years and has existing contracts, so I'm taking over an established business.  At the same time, I'll be using some of the grazing land to have sheep and/or goats as time goes by.  All in all, a very exciting development!

 

     OK Mom, are you finished with your monologue?
I had to give some details Lucky Nickel!  People might want to know!
     They might also want to know that Esmeralda and I like to lick your hand together.  Isn't that funny?!

Yes, indeed it is.  I suppose my hand is salty or something?  I don't mind as long as neither of you takes a bite!
    No, we don't bite you!  That would be biting the hand that feeds us!  We like you too much for that!

Good!  Otherwise you wouldn't get fed!
     Can I give the blog people a goat-snuzzle?
Of course you can!  Here, let's show them a nice snuzzle pose so they can feel the goatie love.

SNUZZLE!!!

I think that's enough news for today.  What do you think?
    Yes, can I come in the house now?

No Lucky Nickel, you know that you live in the barn.
     But, I've been really good!   Hmpffff.  Fine.  I'll show you my bum.

     And then I will run, run, run....

   ....all the way back to the barn.  See me go?  Byeeeee!

    

The Big News, Part I: In the Form of a Discussion With a Goat

Lucky Nickel, today we need to talk to the people who read the blog.
     We do?  I like talking to the blog people.  Sometimes they talk back to me.  What are we going to talk about?
Today, we are going to talk about the very BIG exciting news. 
     What?  I thought we weren't allowed to talk about that until February 18th!  You said...!
I know, I know I said.  But, something happened, and I had to talk about it sooner than I expected to.  I had to tell all the people at my work, and that was why we couldn't talk about it before.  It was a BIG secret.  Now, the people at my work know about it, so we can talk about it.  Isn't that exciting?
     Well, maybe.  Sort of.  I think it's a bit scary.  I don't think I want to talk about it.  Maybe if we don't talk about it, then it won't happen, and everything will just stay the same.
No, that's not going to happen.  If you don't want to talk about it, then I will just tell the blog people about it by myself.  Is that what you want me to do?  
     No.  But...Maaa-aaaaa---aaaa----aaaaaaaaa!!!
Do you want to tell them, Lucky Nickel?  
     Sigh.  OK.  I just...I think I need to practice.  Wait....wait....why aren't you taking any pictures?  
Well, because today the news is more important than the pictures.  We don't want to distract the blog people with pretty pictures, because we want them to pay attention to the news, and if you don't tell them in the next few seconds, I shall have to do it myself!!
    Maaaa!  Maa--aaa---aa!  (deep goat breath)  OK.  Here is the news everybody.  We are....we...(more deep goat breaths)....OK.....let me start over.  Soon, we are...that is my lady and I, are....well, actually, it's more than that, because it's my lady and I, and the 2 fluffy frogs, and....
Wait...what?  Frogs?  What are you talking about?
     Those two brown fluffy ribbet things, they're frogs.  
Oh!  No, no, no....Lucky Nickel, those are RABBITS!  Not frogs!    
     Well, Coffee told me...
Don't listen to Coffee, she's half Nubian.  And we all know what they say about Nubian goats.  Could you please continue properly with the announcement now?
     OK.  Maaa.  Maa-aa---aaaa.  I'm just clearing my throat.  Maaaa-aaa-aaaa.  Right.  Well, so my lady, and I, and the two fluffy rabbits, and the barn cat (Esmeralda) and Kenzie the lamb....is that everybody...?
Yes, that's everybody, keep going....
     So everybody I just said...we are...um....moving! 
I'm not sure that they heard you, Lucky Nickel.  You said that very softly.
     WE ARE MOVING!  Maaa-aaa-aaaaaaaaa!
Are you going to tell them where we are moving to?

     Um....oh dear....I've forgotten...wait...wait...let me think.....maple.  No....not maple, something like that...ummm...OH!  We are moving to Can of Duck!  

Can of duck?

     Yes!  Right?  Why are you looking at me like that?

Lucky Nickel, it is not Can of duck.  It's Canada.

     Well, that's what I said.  Kind of.  I was close.  They knew what I meant!

OK, so that is the big news.  We are moving home to Canada.  Well, it's my home.  You were not born there so it's not your home, yet, but it will be soon.  I have been here in Iowa for nearly 9 years now!  That is a long time, isn't it!  

     Yes, it is....so...why do we have to go anywhere else?

Well, are you going to tell them why we are moving there, and what we are going to do?

     I....well....I think I'm tired now.  This is a bit stressful for me.  I think I need a rest.  Can we tell them more in the next blog post?

Well, alright then.  I guess we can do that.  But we can't make them wait too long.  

     No, we'll do it on the weekend.  I just, well, it makes me nervous, maaaa!

It's going to be fine, Lucky Nickel, it's going to be simply wonderful.  You'll see!

Diapers for goat kids and lambs

Mimi Foxmorton, more officially known as The Goat Borrower, asked about diapers in her comment on the last post that my lady did here on the blog.  I knew, when I saw that question, that it was my duty as a former house-goat to respond to Mimi's question, since I am so experienced in this matter.  Without further ado, I shall present to you the truth about diapers and house-goats (also house-sheep).  This picture below is Marshmallow on her second day of life, already showing her ability to wear a diaper and still look indignant.

The answer to whether they work is a resounding yes, at least from the human point of view.  As some of you who may have had experiences with bottle baby animals know, sometimes bottle milk makes us have a little bit of an unsettled digestive system early in life.  Sometimes we can even be that way on our Mum's milk.  So the fact is, we may have...well...sticky-poo.  From the human standpoint, sticky-poo is bad.  It is especially bad on carpets.  Thus, the humans feel that the diaper "does the trick" in helping with the potential mess. Usually the mess is only for a couple of weeks and then it gets much easier.  In the meantime, you can allow your little one access to carpeted areas.

Even under your desk!

My lady says that girls are easier than boys.  She says all the "equipment" is at the back end on girls, but on boys, the diaper will work for sticky-poo, but may not reach along under their belly far enough to catch their water spigot, so to speak.  She says boys sometimes need a second diaper in the form of a "belly band" that will manage their spigot.  Dear me, this is very complicated!  This is me on my first day in the house in my diaper.  At that point, I was not all that skilled at walking yet.  You can see the iodine stain from where my umbrella cord was dipped.  The umbrella cord kept me attached to my mom when I was inside her.  All babies have an umbrella cord and then later, they have a belly button.

In any case, my lady says that the other aspect to be considered is the cutting of the tail hole.  She says if your bottle baby has quite serious sticky-poo, it might be better not to cut a tail hole, because there could be some escaping of stickiness around the hole.  She says if your bottle baby has moved on to the more solid phase, the tail hole is ideal.  Here is Marshmallow at about 6 weeks of age or so.  She was much bigger and still a good diaper candidate.

Here I am when I was a little older, exploring the office desk.  See how nicely the diaper stays on?!

My lady and I have developed the following easy 5-step program to diapering your goat kid or lamb.

Ingredients:

• one goat kid or lamb needing to be diapered
• one diaper (size depends on size of kid or lamb, I have used newborn through size 5)
• baby wipes (for goat/kid as well as walls, counters, sink, etc)
• clean and dry towel, hand towel size is best
• time (Do not try to do this in a rush, it will backfire.  Trust us on this)
• bathroom, preferably with lidded diaper pail handy
• old apron of some sort
• patience (love your kid/lamb, they may get squiggly)

Instructions:

1.  Approach your subject calmly and pick them up.  They will start to notice if you do the changing at the same time every day.  My lady says I began to wail as soon as she picked me up at diaper changing time, but not at other times.  She said I could also tell as soon as we headed to the human bathroom.  At this point, holding an otherwise calm and well-behaved kid or lamb may become the equivalent of holding a greased piglet.  Be firm.  My lady recommends wearing an old kitchen apron for this procedure.

2.  Human should sit on toilet (put lid down first, of course!) and put subject across their knees with the front legs on the right and the rear legs on the left.  This might be different if you're left handed, she said.  She isn't sure because she isn't left handed.  Undo tabs of previous diaper and remove carefully.  It is liable that the subject will begin wildly waving their tail at this point, causing the possible flinging of sticky-poo in multiple directions.  See point 1 regarding apron.  Also keep baby wipes handy (for the walls).  If your baby is not in sticky-poo stage, this step is much easier to manage.  Dispose of diaper and wipes.

3.  Lift subject under belly, putting their back towards your chest.  This puts back legs forward.  Grasp back legs with your left hand while resting tail/upper back area of subject on the edge of sink.  Keep firm grip on back legs (around ankle area) with the left hand while resting subject's back against your chest, and also using your right hand to gently clean subject's nether regions.  Expect loud wailing and carrying on by your subject at this point.  Do not make the water too hot or too cold.  Comfortable temperature is a must.  If necessary, use a mild shampoo for cleaning.  Ear plugs may be required at this stage if your subject is as vocal as I was when I was a goat kid.  My lady says that this, at first, will seem awkward and difficult.  It gets easier, she said, with repetition.  At all times while doing the cleaning part, make soft little cooing noises to your subject and assure them that their life is not in jeopardy.

4.  Following the cleaning part, grab clean towel and lift subject out of sink area, putting towel under bottom.  Re-seat yourself on the toilet (lid is still closed, of course) and put the subject back over your legs.  Finish drying subject and make a big fuss of them while they are on your lap.  Have clean diaper ready, with tail hole cut, or not, depending on sticky-poo status.  Spread out the side of the diaper with the tabs attached and lay it under subject's back end so that the tabs stick out on either side of subject.  Snug the other end of the diaper up over the back of subject.  Attach tabs FIRMLY despite any further squiggling of subject.  Subjects can be quite adept at flinging diapers hither and yon, if you do not attach them FIRMLY.  The diapers of modern manufacture have stretchy sides and accommodate fairly tight adjustment of the tabs without causing discomfort to the subject animal.

5.  Make enormous fuss of subject following new diaper placement.  Give treats or bottle.  More fuss.  Love them and hug them and play on the floor with them.  Be mindful of flingers, in which case you will have to repeat step 4 and 5.  Then go clean bathroom and sink.  Once you have this down to a routine, it is not that bad.  After the first few days, my lady was able to diaper me first in the morning, feed me, go feed the other animals, do her morning routine, change me again just before putting work clothes on, then come home by 5 pm and do a change, feeding, and then another change at about 10 pm.  I didn't mind except for the washing step, and that was only bad when I had sticky-poo.  After that got better (about 2 weeks) it was much less traumatic.

My lady would like to point out that since she doesn't have any children, she feels a strange compulsion every time she buys diapers or baby wipes, to inform the grocery store clerk  that these purchases are for her goat/lamb and not for a baby.  This has led to many interesting conversations and is an optional step in the process.  The first time she bought diapers, she bought size newborn, size 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, all at once, because she had no idea what would be needed.  As it turned out, they were all needed, over time, but the clerks have a tendency to give you the hairy eyeball when you buy 6 different sizes of diapers all at once.

The following picture is the very best reason why you should diaper your goat kid or lamb...snuggle time!!

And if you are REALLY lucky, you might get to snuggle in the bed!

Let us know if you have questions!

Catching up...

Well, I have been quite remiss with blogging.  It seems that there is always something else going on and I just don't find the time to take pictures and do the writing needed.  Today, I thought I'd try to catch up a bit and say what I've been doing that is keeping me busy, rather than keeping me blogging.  In fact, catching up seems to be what I've been doing lately.  After my Christmas holidays, I had a lot to catch up on at work after being away for 2 weeks.  I had a lot of laundry to catch up on too.  I have had some fairly significant snow clearing work to do also!  I've been trying to keep the house looking nice since it's on the real estate market, but it seems sort of pointless since there isn't anybody looking at it.  Admittedly, it's a bad time of year to be selling.

Of course, I've been spending time cuddling Lucky Nickel.  She has taken to entering the other goats' pen by deftly climbing the fence, hanging out with the other goats all day, and then when she sees me come home, she flies back over the fence and follows me like an ever-faithful dog.  Fortunately, none of the other goats seem to be intent on learning her methods, so they all stay where they are.  One really cold night about a week ago, Lucky Nickel was insistently bleating at the back door.  I finally gave in....I think I was having a weak moment.  An old pair of gym shorts provided an excellent "holder-in-place" for a diaper, since Miss Nickel is too large to fit diapers any more.  She enjoyed her foray into the house where she grew up, and I enjoyed her company for a while.  I did put her back in the barn at the end of the evening though.

Today I did some dyeing of roving, most of which will end up in my Etsy shop in the coming days, when it has fully dried out.  I always enjoy the creative side of dyeing wool, and today was no exception.

I've also been doing quite a bit of spinning.  When the snow is flying and it's cold outside, spinning is a lovely warm and cozy thing to do.  If I want to, I can put a blanket on my lap and spin at the same time.  Very cozy and comfortable.  Many of my yarns have also been listed in my Etsy shop lately, so you can check them out there too!  Here are some of the ones I've spun lately.

Other than that....well....I think I've just been  hibernating.  I should have been a bear.  Something about January just seems to sap the energy out of me and make me want to snuggle under a blanket and read a good book and pretend that the white stuff outside doesn't exist.  Here's hoping you've all been keeping warm this January, unless you live down under, in which case I hope you're keeping dry.