Hello Spring

Winter on the Open Prairie - A sea of sienna.

Winter came and went on the ranch.  I have to say, that after last year's nightmare of a winter, this one was a breeze.  We had our cold snaps, but they didn't last.  We had snow, but it was never a lot, and it didn't stay around long.  (I think I spent more time on the tractor moving alpaca manure than moving snow.)We had ice and fog as thick as a down blanket. We had a lot of wind, which made the cold even colder. But here we are, March 1st. 

Oh, I'm sure it's going to still snow, but again, it won't last.  The sun is high.  Even the thick ice on the 1800 acre lake below us is gone.  Only the thin ice that forms each night on the still water greets each morning, but is gone by noon.

The flocks migrating snow geese fill the skies like a cloud of smoke when disturbed from the lake or when coming in to roost on the water at night, and when leaving by the thousands each morning.  The sound is alien, but joyous.

I've been busy on the ranch this winter doing all the little things that don't need to be done outside.  Things that you can manage inside as to not waste a lovely day outdoors. My shop on etsy.com, GnomeGnomeOnTheRange, is up and running.  It has some antiques, some weaving, lovely pillowcases, and soon will have wonderful gardening aprons and what I call Orphan Barrel Dresses for Toddlers, and of course, an array of alpaca yarns.  Which are going fast, so don't wait too long to get yours.  For my spinning and fiber art friends, I also have bags of cleaned and washed alpaca fleece.

I gutted and remodeled another bathroom. Yes, the ugly urine yellow one on the lower level has been brought into the 21st century and is now a lovely shade of stormy sea blue, and the floor is cherry.

We decided to add another 10 trees to the orchard and the irrigation that goes along with them.  The trees are all heritage grafts, to include one from a certified Johnny Appleseed (Chapman) tree.  How cool is that?  The trees should be here at the end of the month.

I built a small animal chute, which will hopefully help with alpaca toenail spa day. (Now, I just need to catch a victim, em ...volunteer.)

I built a second Top Bar Hive.  This one went much faster than the first, due mostly to the fact that I'd done it before.  It has a few changes from lessons learned last time around and is painted a lovely glowing blue shade of Hydrangea/Lilac/Wisteria.

I earned my State Teaching Certification, which required me to take a modern Human Resources College course to update. It was an 8 week course that I took as a full time job, and finished it in 10 days- 24 essays and papers.  I thought my brain was going to explode and my fingers were going to fall off.

I earned my State Food Handler's permit so that I can now sell baked goods at my friend's floral shop along with the honey and eggs.

I earned my CHP certification, and was awarded this year's Swiss and Royal Canadian Mounted Certifications.

I created a custom Tartan design for the Ranch and it was accepted into the Scottish Register. (I'll share it when the official paperwork gets here.)  I'll be getting it warped onto the loom this week and hopefully have the sash done for my DAR convention at the end of March.  OH....

I was accepted into DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution, and have continued to do research to add to my long list of patriot ancestors.  It is time consuming, but fascinating.  I had a fellow etsy.com artist design me a custom wardrobe and it is gorgeous.  LOL.  On a day you feel like a giantess, I suggest you put on a 18th century bumroll, and all 3 petticoats and jacket, and see how slimming your 21st century clothes make you feel.  Although I am perfectly comfortable in my period costumes and wish I could wear them all day long, all the time like my fellow online blogger Thea ,but it's just not practical here.  She's an inspiration.

My friend Kelsey, had her re-Grand Opening of her new shop in Stromsburg, Spindle Shuttle and Needle.  In celebration of that event, I made her a large 4 foot square Dala horse of her very own for outside the shop.  Shops all over downtown have them in support of the town being the Swede Capital of the State.

We've been playing with making our own Farmer's cheese and we're hooked.  We especially like plain with cinnamon and honey, but garlic-onion-black pepper is our hands down favorite.

I've taken to grinding my own wheat in a KtichenAid Grain mill which turned out to be total garbage.  I had to grind it 6 times to get it to the quality of flour and it almost killed my machine, and I have a professional machine! 
I switched to the NutriMill Plus Mill which takes all of 2 minutes to grind two weeks worth of fine flour from high quality red wheat berries. Those I order from Minnesota, and have come up with a delicious 100% whole wheat sandwich bread.  I've been making it once a week. 
It freezes well and makes a great toast, which is high on my 'must' list for a bread.



I found an enormous, antique, bread dough trough that was brought here by homesteaders in the 1880s.  I scrubbed it down, dried it, and rewaxed it.  It is now ready for use, but I almost don't dare.  I might break it in this week or next.  She's almost too pretty to use.

The seeds for this year are on order.  The sweet potatoes are in jars on the window sill sprouting starts for me.

The chickens and alpacas are doing their best to entertain us all while they themselves are going stir crazy.

Twill Place Mats fresh off the loom.

So here's to the last day of a productive Winter, and to a busy Spring!

Knit, Knit, Purl. Knit, Knit, Brrrrrr.

The Arctic chill has come and gone.  We were on the western edge and our windchill made it down to -27 degrees.  The actual temperature was -9.  It honestly wasn't so bad.  We've been far worse, for far longer.  All the animals have places out of the wind, so it's not a factor for them.  It doesn't matter how cold or windy it gets.  They still want fed and watered twice a day.

The unfortunate human has to pick through the racks of drying winter clothes to find all the correct layers and then fight to get them on.  This is about the time you remember you forgot the warm chicken breakfast up on the stove, so the boots have to come off and you have to fight the stiff legged coverall legs up and down the steps and then wrestle the boots back on.  All this has to be done before you start to get hot.  Too late.  Unlock the door, and then remember you haven't turned off the alarm yet, which cannot be done with bulky gloves on.  Off come the gloves, and you dig into a deep pocket for your cell phone.  Sigh.  It's up on the coffee table.  Off come the boots, up the stairs, down the stairs, boots back on, alarm off, gloves on, and NOW you can trudge out to the workshop.  There, two 5 gallon buckets are filled with steaming water from the sink, the chicken bucket is filled with feed and scratch, and everything is balanced on the buckets.

The lower level takes on the look of a camp laundry, or the outerwear
section of Tractor Supply about October and stays that way until the
beginning of March.

Happy with their breakfast of chicken feed and warm
mixed veggies.

The trip to the hen house is downhill, but in the full blast of the wind.  The open area is notorious for ice and the journey must be taken carefully, made easier by the new lower center of gravity of carrying about 65 pounds of water.  The hens can hear you coming.  What was a quiet island in the field, now fills with the excited chatter of two dozen birds happy to hear your boots crunching through the ice topped snow.  When the door is opened, hopeful beady eyes look past you at the bleak landscape and then lock eyes with you.  They understand they aren't going outside today.  The ice has to be broken on their heated water dish.  It's too cold for the element to keep up.  The hens gather along the trough and you oblige and fill it high with feed and warm veggies.  Satisfied, they ignore you as you turn to leave, locking the door behind you.

"You're late." "We've had to amuse ourselves."

Next are the alpacas.  Warm and snug in their own vicuna coats, made all the better by their fleece lined winter coats, they wait, annoyed that they are taken second in line to the feathered blobs.  No matter when you go out to feed them, you're late.  Every feeding is treated like they haven't seen food for days and days.  Everyone has their favorite dish, but somehow Angus feels everyone is getting better food than he is and must sample from each and every one of them.  Growls and spitting follow, but it's all show.  Everyone lets the little guy in, and they know he'll move on after a mouthful.    Ice is broken, water is topped off, hay is thrown, and feed buckets are nibbled upon.

Our hearty human warrior, treads the whole path in reverse to make sure doors and gates are closed and locked and to put now empty buckets away, noting anything that needs accomplished outside during the day.  Upon entering the house, off come the countless layers of winter gear.  The whole routine is repeated about an hour before sunset.

It honestly isn't hard, too much time, or taxing, but adding the winter gear makes it suck more energy from you, and I swear it would take less time to manage to get ready for a space walk.

I usually have first breakfast before I go out to the barn in the morning.  When I get in I work on my Norwegian for a while, then it's time for second breakfast.  Yes, it's a real thing.  Not just for adventure seeking Hobbits.  You have a very small something - a piece of fruit, toast, or a yogurt; just too keep your growling stomach from freaking out the animals, and to keep you from eating one of them.  Then later, you have a real breakfast- cereal, grits, eggs, or the like.

If I'm not leaving the ranch for the day, this is where all the other adventures of the Ranch come into play; projects (I'm almost done with the bathroom remodel), art, Ranch management books, housework, planning notes, writing, or KNITTING!

I've been doing it a long time, but have had lapses in activity levels when we lived in warmer climates, and when I was constantly chasing a child around and juggling home schooling.  Now I can be found spending quiet downtime before bed, or the later half of my lunch break, perched on the sofa, my toes hooked on the edge of the coffee table tackling some new found pattern.

The 7000 stitch wrap. Done in Aran
weight yarn and #3 needles.

The Bubble Bauble Hat.  A
quick 5 hour knit on #8 Circs,
and with Pantone colorway skeins.

Go into any yarn or knitting shop and you will find a sign that says, "Knitting, it's cheaper than therapy."  Some days I wonder if it's the knitting that is driving me to insanity.  I recently finished a project that took a couple hours a night over the course of a month.  It's over 7000 stitches.  By the end of it I was sick of looking at the yarn, sick of counting, and ready to lock my needles away until next winter.  I took a two day break, found a new skein of yarn I LOVED and couldn't wait to tackle and I was off and running again.

I am a member of Ravelry, which just about every fiber artist knows about.  I've been on there for years, and after all this time JUST found the filing cabinet!  I had no idea I could track my yarns and needles!  How handy when you're out shopping to make sure you don't buy duplicates or if you come across a sale and only want to fill in the holes of your supply.  Since The Boy needed to go to Omaha for an exam, I visited a local shop, The Wooly Mammoth Yarn shop, as they carry my most favorite needles in the WHOLE WORLD, the Kollage Square needles.  She is discontinuing them, so I used my Ravelry account to identify the missing needles in my basket and stocked up!

Well of course I had to get my things on there.  I am a huge fan of organization.  Upon opening my basket, I realized I wasn't at all organized in this aspect of my hobby.  Everything had to be sorted and put in its proper place.  Certainly I could work faster if things were in their place!

The previously piled, junk cabinet, freshly cleaned, a new shelf and cubes added
for yarn sorting.  The new Knitting cabinet.  It's like having your own yarn shop
in the house.

I'm a Portuguese knitter, which means I use a pin on my shoulder to keep my tension and only have to move my left thumb to move the yarn.  It is much easier on my work tired hands.  If you suffer from arthritis or have trouble keeping your tension, I highly recommend it.  I use a magnetic pin/hook which I purchased from a great jewelry artist on etsy, who makes them from upcycled vintage broaches.

What's currently on the needles.  I wanted a nice looking utility hat
for around the Ranch.  It's a brushed cotton that, surprise, self stripes!  My
knitting pin is resting on top, waiting for me to stop typing for the night.