Oh Joy!

Autumn Joy, that is. I love it and look forward to this time every year when it starts to take on that wonderful rusty-red color that signals fall is coming soon. Fall is my very favorite season and, with the exception of my husband's ragweed allergy, I love everything about it. The light, the cooler temperatures, the plants that are blooming, the shorter days and longer nights, the food and the change of clothing are just some of the things I look forward to all summer. In some ways, I am like the animals I raise. They seem rejuvinated now. The lambs and yearlings are not spending quite so much time snoozing in the shade during the day and, when I go out to feed them in the evenings, they act almost giddy------jumping and running, doing that boing-boing thing they do when they are having fun.

Earlier today, I was trying to catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs, I read a post on Anne Hanson's Knitspot, where she used the phase her "old bathrobe sweater". That phrase refers perfectly to one of the sweaters I have on the needles at the moment. (And it's one I intend to finish knitting this week! There, I said it and hope that will keep me motivated, or shamed, into actually doing it.) I found the pattern in a 2005 Debbie Bliss book called "Home-27 Handknits for Living". Most of the patterns are what I would call homegoods: afghans, pillows, washcloths and such, but there are a few cozy sweaters, mittens, scarves and socks that are the kinds of things I love to wear. Truthfully, I could happily knit everything in the book and there aren't many books out there I can say that about (though on Amazon it has gotten decidedly mixed reviews). I'm using Malabrigo Worsted yarn in the #173 Stonechat colorway and it is a joy to knit with. It's next to the skin soft and the color is perfect for this time of year. It even reminds me of my Autumn Joy sedums. (I'm knitting both sleeves at the same time, so I really don't have much more to do.)

I've been feeling like a bit of a dead-head lately (and not the Grateful kind, either). I've had too many things going on that have taken me away from the farm, too many days in a row. I'm not organized enough to be gone most of the day and come home to accomplish much of anything else. Are you able to do that? In talking with my women friends who are farmers like me, I have found a commonality in that we all really like staying on the farm all day and find it hard to leave. We seem to crave more "alone" time than most women and the more we stay at home, the more we want to stay at home on the farm. Maybe it's just that I never feel as though I have enough time to do what I need to do and still have time to do what I want to do. The idea of ever being bored at home is totally beyond my comprehension.

Happy Hay Day

That's not an official holiday for most people, but around here we get really excited when it comes along. Yes, we are officially ready for the winter of 2009-10. Our hay was delivered not long ago and is safely stored in the barn loft, awaiting those cold, brown grass days, when the sheep will need it.

Up until two years ago, we raised our own hay and it was nearly always an exercise in frustration. My husband grew up on a farm and one of his favorite things to do is bale hay, but he works all week and trying to get hay at just the right stage for baling, only on the weekends, hardly ever worked out right. I finally convinced him that there were better ways for us to spend that time (I mean, it's not like there's nothing else to do around here!) And, one of the best parts of this arrangement? I don't have to help get the hay up into the loft!

Going to Gee's Bend

Well, I didn't physically go to Gee's Bend.........only in my imagination, inspired by an exhibit of some Gee's Bend quilts and by the two ladies who came to Lexington with the exhibit. Mary Ann Pettway and China Pettway held the crowd at the Carnegie Center in thrall last evening with their stories and especially their songs. What a gift these women have! To just stand up in front of strangers and sing, loud and clear and beautifully of their faith and their lives. I can't imagine, ever in my lifetime, of being brave enough to do that! And then there were the quilts. Some of them were very much like abstract art and I'll confess right here to liking them much, much more than any abstract art I've ever seen. I know the need for their quilts originated in the grinding poverty Gee's Bend experienced during it's history. The women who made these quilts deserve all the more praise for being able to produce something so joyful to warm their families, in spite of their circumstances.

Please believe me that I am not, in any way, trying to romanticise how difficult life must have been for these women. I come from very humble ancestors. My maternal grandmother raised six children and lived her whole life without ever having an indoor bathroom. I know from hearing her stories that every day was hard work from sun-up til sun-down. I'm just saying, I admire the spirit of these women. And it makes me feel ashamed of all the times I have whined and complained about doing the laundry, running the vacuum, having to put the dishes in the dishwasher, for goodness sake.

Getting along

The new CVM girls have joined the "home girls" (the ones who were born here this past spring). I like to keep new arrivals in a sort of quarantine for a few weeks, just to make sure they have adjusted to the routine and are suffering no ill effects from being transported. Usually, when new sheep join the flock, there can be some pushing and shoving, a little jockeying around to show them who's the boss. There was none of that this time. The group took them right in and they all are acting as though they've been together always. It's so nice when everyone just gets along! The boys are still being kept separate, mainly because the little moorit ram has had some health issues. (He seems to be doing fine now.) I'm not planning on dividing everyone up and putting the rams to work until the end of October. It finally occurred to me that because I'm not showing my lambs in competition anymore, I don't have to put myself (or the ewes) through lambing in really cold weather. By the last of March or early April, when the ewes will be due to lamb, we'll have green grass and much more pleasant temperatures.

The CVM boys usually have company in the back barnyard, where they've been hanging out. The chickens can hardly contain themselves in the mornings. When I open their little door to the outside they bail out like parachuters jumping out of a plane! They love digging around in the barn and hunting through the grass for bugs. Frankly, they stay a lot happier and don't squabble amongst themselves as much when they can get out and expend some energy running around (sort of like little children!).

Do you have catalpa trees where you live? As children we called them cigar trees, just because of the way the seed pods look. (We thought we were particularly clever when we pretended to be smoking them!) Catalpa is an Indian word and the tree is sometimes called an Indian Bean tree. Why Jilly was doing this (whatever "this" is), I surely don't know. I've never seen any of the sheep pay attention to the catalpa tree before. They are messy, but interesting trees. They grow rather free form and in the early summer the blooms smell wonderful and the bees go crazy for them.

We are having the most glorious weather this week. It makes me worry a little that there will be some sort of retribution later!