Out And About

Occasionally, errands take both Andy and I away from the farm at the same time.  Yesterday we both had business in Hammondsport and with the sun shining on the autumn colors it was a great day to be see some sights.

First of course we had to let the sheep out.  They had a very leisurely stroll out into the pasture.



The sun slanting in from the east really showed the colors in the woods south of the ram's pasture.

Holly and Calvin were companionably soaking up a sunbeam in the front room.

One of the reasons we went to town was to see to some things at the Fiber and Art Emporium where some of our goods are for sale.  The shop owners are always moving items about and changing up the displays in an effort to showcase new things or just make everything look fresh.  Quite a lot of the fiber here is ours and I think they did a great job making it look really attractive!

Hammondsport, voted "The Coolest Small Town in America",  is at the south end of Keuka Lake and it enjoys a robust tourist population most of the year.  It's about the only town I know that has every store and shop filled with merchants or services and the windows and sidewalks are always decorated with pretty seasonal displays.  The bakery has an alert doggy sentinel carved out of a log - better than your typical bear I think!

Returning home we still had a few hours of daylight and it was just too nice to work indoors so I finally got back to finishing the rock wall and flower bed on the front of the house.  A couple of years ago while ago we pulled out the ancient evergreens that were supposed to be a hedge.  They had matured to the point that they couldn't be trimmed back to size anymore - they were just thick stumps with no branches if they were cut to fit under the windows - so Andy pulled them out with the tractor and my plan was to put in a nice bed of hostas and other shade loving plants (it's the north face of the house).  Of course a flower bed needs an edge or border of some kind and we do have a lot of rocks........hmmmm. 

Earlier this year dear Andy took my request with good graces and we went to the woods and wrestled rocks OUT of the piles they had been dumped in after being picked out of the field.  He said he had thought when they were dumped that he'd never have to handle them again let alone lug them home.  They joined the load of screened topsoil that we had delivered.  A couple of them were freakin' huge very large ones that I wanted to use to give extra interest to the wall and we needed the tractor and front end loader to pick them out of the pile and put on the wagon.

Wrestling the big ones into place involved both of us, a lot of pushing and a good bit of patience on his part as I waffled over how to best set the big ones into the trench so they'd "look best".  I think at that point Andy thought they'd look best back out in the woods.  But we persevered and got them settled.  Then I started in laying the flat rocks which was actually a lot of fun.  It was like working a jigsaw puzzle with a side of architecture thrown in.  I worked at laying the stones in the evening (when evening lasted till 9 PM) and then things got busy and the project stalled.

Now, in October, on a lovely sunny day we got it finished!  Stay tuned - pics to come!

Small Business Saturday

Today is Small Business Saturday and so I was happy to spend several hours spinning at the Fiber and Art Emporium where a good bit of our yarn and spinning fiber is offered for sale.  It's great to have a brick and mortar storefront available for me and a lot of other local people to display our wares.  The rug hooking aspect of the shop has really taken off and they now carry the largest selection of wool rug hooking fabric in this part of central New York.

 
There are an awful lot of talented people out there!  I really liked this wreath of paper flowers made by one of the vendors (yes, they hold classes on that).

Someone had hand puppets and was working on a presentation for the Christmas event in the park coming up later this month.  How stinkin' cute are these?  Baby birds in a nest and a porcupine!

 

A local caterer had supplied the shop with a super array of snacks and refreshments.  I don't know about the rest of Hammondsport but we were having a par-tay!  (Tip of the day - to keep apple slices on a platter from going brown dip them in a bowl of Seven Up.  Who knew?)

 

 

In other news.... we've had some pretty sunrises -

 



 

It was cold then - around 12 degrees in the barn and Natasha was suffering again so I moved her into the wool shop like last year.  I can totally sympathize with being cold and not being able to get warm no matter what you do unless you come inside.  She was very happy there although probably bored most of the day.  She was super chatty whenever I came in to do some wool work.  Holly does NOT snuggle with the cats - considers them to be way beneath her - but Natasha enjoyed some stealth snuggling when Holly succumbed to a nap.

 

 

And then it warmed up for one magical day and we had rain and a double rainbow!

 

 



Breeding season is over and the rams are back in the bachelor barn.  They are calming down quickly and we'll probably release them from close confinement in the next couple of days.  I've been washing and dyeing wool to make another run of Ferns and Moss roving and I need to dye more yarn for next week's Christmas on the Farm event.  (Uh...next week...yeah, I better get that dyed!)

 

And it IS that time of year, so when you're shopping for gifts remember to support your local businesses.  They appreciate it!





Goin' to the Store

It's taken a while to get myself coordinated but I've finally been able to put a lot of our wares into my cousin Carolyn's new shop - The Fiber and Art Emporium.  She just opened around Valentine's day and is still working on a website.  Actually getting the store stocked with local artists' wares and setting up the day to day operation of the business had to take precedence.  Having a brick and mortar storefront for our goods to be seen was really helpful when she and I shared a nook in the former Lake Country Patchwork quilt store and I'm glad to still be able to have things for sale in Hammondsport. 

Andy built new shop counters for her.

I have a great space between two tall windows.  The high ceilings and track lighting sure work to everyone's advantage.

I've put in roving, yarn, sheets of felt, silk sliver and hankies, shawl sticks and some other small things.  I still need to put in the drop spindle kits I make (I was out of baskets and Andy needs to make me some more drop spindles) and of course more roving and spinning batts - as soon as I get those made. Andy has a standing order with Carolyn for rug hooking frames and he'd really like to get a skein winder in there too.  I need to fill those shelves!

 The store currently features the creations of over 30 local artists and also includes a lot of rug hooking goods that Carolyn and I created together, particularly dyed fabric.  Other sellers have made great displays of finished knitted, woven and felted goods, knitting notion bags, excellent quality large totes/purses, painted furniture and wall art, and a large selection of Old Friend Footwear.  She has a roster of classes lined up and is always seeking more teachers of all things "arty".

With Carolyn's awesome people skills and the range of goods available I'm expecting the shop to become a real "destination" for fiber folk and anyone seeking a fun shopping experience.