Cat rebellion part 2

Posted on May 10, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I guess Jare’s misadventures didn’t end with him chasing them all into the barn after all. He called to tell me the story before the day was over, but Tiki had one more surprise for him that evening. When he went into the grain room (where the cats live) for the last time, Tiki escaped, climbing up into the rafters of the barn.

Now, Jare couldn’t leave her up there. The barn is hardly a sealed building, there are all sorts of ways for an enterprising cat to get out (and be eaten by a coyote or owl). But he had long ago lost patience with the situation. So he hooked up the hose, climbed up onto the hay bales and had a conversation with Tiki.

“Tiki,” he said, “You have until I count to three to get down, or I will make you come down. You are not going to enjoy it.” She meowed piteously, just out of reach.

“One, two….” he began to count slowly. He was just about to unkink the hose when she meowed one more time, jumped down, and sat in front of the grain room door, ready to be let in.

Between you and me, I don’t think Jare is a cat person. 🙂

Posted in animals | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Shearing day preparations

Posted on May 9, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Shearing day is next Tuesday! It’s one of the most important days of the year for our ranch, and we prepare accordingly. Though this year may be a bit more hectic than usual since Mom and Dad won’t be getting back from London until late Friday.

It’s a trebuchet. Why? Because Mom and Dad are in London. No other reason.

Organization is the key to keeping track of fleeces during the controlled chaos of shearing. Thankfully, all our animals are different colors (or different enough to tell apart, at least) and we don’t have many. To keep confusion to a minimum, we pre-print two labels for each alpaca: one for the prime blanket off the back and another for the less desirable leg and neck fiber. We bag the fiber as soon as it comes off the animal, preferably in clear plastic trash bags for the prime and plain white bags for the leg and neck hair. Finding clear plastic bags is the hardest part of the whole thing, really. I’m going to try an office supply store.

I think this year we may also try to skirt the prime (remove the lower quality fiber around the edges) before we bag it. So we’re likely to have a skirting table set up in the barn as well as the shearing table. Dad, Jare, and the shearer will handle that part of the operation while Mom and I prepare the fiber to be sent to the mill.

Posted in animals, business, fiber art | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rocker Gurl Yarn

Posted on May 8, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

I’ve been thinking about the design of this yarn for so long that I actually thought I HAD spun it already. I don’t really love pink, as a rule, but I picked up this rich and colorful silk roving over a year ago and was inspired to ply it with Brittany’s black for a bold, yet fun yarn. At the time, I still spun all my yarn on the drop spindle, and had none of the many miles of yarn I now have under my belt.

I’m calling it “Rocker Gurl”, because correct spelling should be optional (and that’s how Mom pronounces “girl” when talking to the alpacas anyway). I spun the black single, or strand, very bulky and loose so that it would stay fluffy. The pink single I spun tight, thin, and strong. When I plied the two, I got that characteristic “bubble yarn” look I’m so in love with.

What do you think? Too bold? A little too crazy? I certainly wouldn’t call it subtle, but now that I have around 265 yards of the stuff, I’m hoping it’s not going to sit around in the closet for years.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The great cat rebellion of 2012

Posted on May 7, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Oh lo, how we shall remember these days. Days when those perfectly trained cats did strike out on their own, did shuck off the shackles of loving repression, and hiss in the face of tyranny. In short: they ran away from my brother.

Mom and Dad are in London for a fancy-schmancy programmers conference. Right before they left, we took in another barn cat by the name of Tiki. While she learned where she lived we couldn’t let any of the cats out of the barn. But after a week, it was deemed safe to open the barn doors once again. 

Tiki bravely exited the barn via the alpacas’ paddock and encountered Merlin, who has been on a kill-all-small-animals rampage ever since he met my dog Derby. Tiki quickly decided she’d had enough of the outdoors for one day and went back inside to lounge on hay bales.

Such was not the case for the other three “trained” cats. When my brother tried to call them in for the evening, using dinner as the usual incentive, Squeaky decided to explore the backyard, trying to find a way into the house. Zip crawled up into the chassis of the truck and refused to come out. And Whisper, that trouble maker, led Jare on a merry chase. He ran across the arena and to the back yard, down to the lower barn, through the alpaca turn out and all the way up to the manure pile. Then, he turned around and ran back down the driveway and into the garage.

This is the view from the manure pile. Whisper covered pretty much all the ground in this picture, and then some.

Eventually Jare intimidated Zip out of the chassis and into the barn. Whisper he pulled from the cabinets in the garage, and Squeaky decided it was his idea to go back (the others were getting to eat). Jare is a remarkably good sport about the whole incident. But I don’t anticipate the cats will be let on his watch, ever again.

Posted in animals | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Random fiber word of the day: pilling

Posted on May 4, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

When short fibers work themselves out of yarn or fabric and are subject to abrasion, they form little balls of fiber called pills. No doubt you’ve noticed them forming on your favorite hat or sweater over time. Washing clothing inside out and hanging it to dry (instead of using the drier) can reduce pilling. Pills form an essentially all fabrics, even synthetics. 

As a spinner, it’s good to understand the process behind pilling because it drives home the importance of good fiber preparation. When sorting/skirting a fleece, we must be extra careful to remove the short fibers that can weaken our yarn and make it subject to pilling. Of course it’s tempting to try to keep as much of the fleece as possible, but in the end, the quality and longevity of your product will be better if you discard the short stuff.

Posted in fiber art | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A recommendation: Wild Fibers Magazine

Posted on May 3, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Do you know where the fiber in your yarn came from? Do you know what animal makes cashmere? Mohair? Where do those animals live and what are their lives like? What about the farmers and ranchers who care for them?

If you are interested in finding out, then the Wild Fibers Magazine is for you. It’s kind of like National Geographic for fiber, with beautiful glossy photographs and stories from distant lands, all revolving around the people and animals of the exotic fiber world. In the most recent edition took us to Oman and Tajikistan, and taught us about goats and well…more goats. But the articles usually represent a better mix of exotic animals, including oxen,  bunnies, and our beloved camelids.

I don’t like blatant product endorsements. I don’t write glowing reviews; this isn’t one. But this quarterly magazine and the accompanying emails from the editor make me think about what it means to raise fiber animals, for our family and for families in India or Pakistan. Somehow, reading about the differences between our lifestyles and cultures actually reinforces my fundamental sense of our shared humanity. Whether we live by our animals or not, whether we are rich or poor, we’re all in this fiber adventure, and the larger adventure of life, together.

Posted in animals, business, fiber art | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An alpaca vignette

Posted on May 2, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

On Saturday morning, I borrowed Mom’s barn clothes and went to turn out the boys and clean their area. As I shut their stall door behind me, Trip came running in at break neck speed, and skidded to a stop in front of me. Glaring at me, angry and slightly distressed, he hummed “MMmmmmmMMMM!!”, before turning around and running into the paddock without a backwards glance.

"MMMMmmmmmMMMMM!!"

I was still standing in the center of the stall trying to figure out what that meant when Tuscany entered at a sedate walk. He froze in the doorway and studied me. He started at my toes, and slowly scanned me, his whole head moving up and down, before catching and holding my eyes. I blinked. He blinked. “What?!” I asked. His ears flopped backwards. Then he turned around and walked out as well.

Who are you again?

It took me awhile to figure out that it was probably Mom’s clothes with me in them that had the boys confused. I can’t say I blame them, I probably smelled/looked like some sort of Mom-doppelganger.

Posted in animals | Tagged | 1 Comment

April snow showers bring May snow showers

Posted on May 1, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

When you live over 1000 miles from the nearest ocean, weather turns on a dime (large bodies of water regulate temperature fluxes, because water changes temperature slower than air).

After a ridiculously warm spring, some areas of Colorado experienced 8-10 inches of snow a few weeks ago. The snow crab apple tree (ironically named, I know) managed to shed all the heavy white stuff without losing its branches, though it did drop the flowers. 😦 Last year, we got snow after the “last frost date”. Poor ‘pacas had already been sheared too!

Posted in completely unrelated | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Manure spreader upgrade!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Hi all, I’m home! And the rest of the family has been busy while I was away. They are most proud of their new purchase: an enormous manure spreader. Remember these pictures?

The family spent hours loading the itty-bitty spreader, zooming up to the fields to dump a bit of compost, then making another trip. Well, no longer:

That’s a big spreader. Now, you may be asking yourself, can Kabuto-san pull such a big thing? Well…we don’t know. Maybe? It’s been pulling it empty with no trouble, which is nice but not impressive enough to really give us confidence. I guess we’ll find out. Or, I’ll go out-of-town for a week and they’ll have another tractor when I get back. Maybe a Tractor, instead of a twactor.

Posted in business | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Blog break

Posted on April 20, 2012 by cliffhousealpacas

Sorry for the late notice everyone, but I won’t be posting to blog until Friday, 4/27 (at the earliest).  In fact, I’m not even posting today. This is a message from the past me, who had not left for a conference yet.

I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for conference.

Posted in business, completely unrelated | Leave a comment