Keets Graduation

The keets graduated to spacious new quarters in the barn today! Whoa, wait a minute, just realized that you have been introduced to the lavender keets but not to our other special little ones.


They started here in the incubator.





And about 28 days later (+ and -), here they were! Five successful hatchlings!





Today, we moved all the keets from the brooder box into this spacious new lodging in the barn. They have been so excited all day hopping and fluttering and exploring their new space.

The Dye Pot

In the dye pot this week . . .

We have been harvesting hibiscus blossoms daily and it took only about a week to get a quart baggy full in the refrigerator. After simmering the blossoms, I added 1 oz. of alum mordanted lambs wool. Not getting much color I added a little baking soda which turned the dye pot very dark:

Letting it soak a couple of days. Looks like it is going to possibly be a very dark green/grey/black color.

The daisies were harvested from roadside, field, and flower gardens: over 2 lbs worth was chopped up and boiled for a couple of hours

yielding this color of dye bath after straining:

Baking soda was added along with about 7 oz. of unmordanted wool. The addition of the baking soda is suppose to result in a chartruse colored wool. It didn't seem to be taking up much dye so I added alum as an additional mordant. So far the wool is looking Surprise!! Yellow.

Tomorrow after I take out the wool I am going to see what the addition of more baking soda will do the dye bath and dunk some of the wool back in to see if it changes any. If not, yellow IS a very pretty color.

While the sun shines...

Yeah, you guessed it



The sun is finally shining. We have spent almost all week making hay and here we are 1,048 bales later. Many, many thanks to everyone in the family for all their contributions!! A great big thank you to Mom for having a feast ready every evening!
Now to rest up for the few hundred bales of second cutting we hope to get. Time to pray for some rain to get that grass growing once again.

On the Peeps front...

The peeps that Sharon hatched out moved into the chicken coop last week. They were very shy at first but have made themselves right at home. They are a great variety of colors and are great fun to watch.

There are several lovely Turkens who, it turns out, grow up to be great egg layers.

And, speaking of eggs, last year's peeps are producing very well. There are plenty of eggs and they are for sale.

The guineas are busy all day long with their fast and furious 'bug patrol'.

Isn't that a good looking bird?

When the need arises, the guineas can move and move fast!

And here are the newest 'Peeps' additions; lavender Guinea keets picked up Saturday at the local Southern States store.

This week... in the dye pot

Bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpurascens') dyeing lace-weight yarn and


some of Daisy's lovely 'lamb-locks' which are now in the process of being hand-picked (mostly because we just can't keep our hands off them.)


Hibiscus dyeing worsted weight yarn

We're also experimenting with what we think might be majoram that has been growing in the lower garden for several years. (In fact, so many years that we can't remember what it really is.) Anyway it is in the dye-pot boiling away so keep your fingers crossed that this smelly mass of chopped up green matter produces the 'fragrant, unpromising dull gold' dyebath the book says it should.

This week... from our dyers' garden

Chilling in the refrigerator...


Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)

On the drying racks...


Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)


Garland Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium)


Lavender


Marigold (Tagetes erecta)


Yarrow (Achillea)