Sojourner Design roving at WEBS

A couple of weeks ago I replenished the stock of Sojourner Design roving at WEBS.  It's always fun to stop by the store with a basket load of brand new colors... and even more fun to walk back out with an empty basket!  (If your plans involve a trip to WEBS, please look for my roving.)  But the MOST fun was visiting the WEBS Yarn Store Blog yesterday and seeing a photo of my roving along with a ball of yarn spun from it!

Chicken House on Wheels

Yesterday I captured an annual farm activity here:  my chickens' change of address from their winter  quarters to their summer house on wheels.  From now until sometime in October, they will lbe backyard nomads.  Every few days the house will be moved and the portable fencing will re-installed, providing them with fresh hunting grounds.  The house was built on an old trailer from wood framing and metal roofing, and can be hitched to my ATV.
After moving the chickens out, it was time to clean out a winter's worth of dust and debris.  It all got shoveled into the bucket of my husband's tractor and was deposited in our compost pit where it will mix with grass clippings, kitchen waste, etc.  This is very dusty work.

The photo is overexposed because the sun was streaming into the house... but it's clear that there was a need for cleaning!

And here's why: the fleeces from the last shearing in late February had been temporarily stored in the barn basement.  It was time to get them into a more suitable storage space.  I choose to store my raw fleeces in plastic bags.  The bags are left open for ventilation and are placed on temporary shelves constructed from cattle panels (metal fence sections) to facilitate good air circulation.  They will now be steps from my basement door, enabling me to pull out a fleece and get it sorted and ready for processing whenever I have the time to do so.  By midsummer they will all be sorted, skirted, and ready to deliver to the fellows at Twist of Fate Spinnery for washing and carding.

This whole process of moving chickens out and fleeces in has developed a rhythm and is a spring ritual!