RAIN???

Rolling thunder and Darkness, Today.....I love it!  

                    Yes, the sweet sound of rain on the roof.  Thank you, Lord.

Community Garden Bliss

HOW TO START......

   Personally, I think the first thing you need to do in planning a garden, is select a site.  That will give you an idea of how big your garden will be and what to plant.  Make sure the spot gets plenty of sun. Some plants need as much as 8 hours a day.  Don't forget a nearby water source.

   As you can see this spot on the right is way too shady with all the huge fir trees.  I don't worry about the soil, as we fertilize with lots of alpaca poo.  We've discovered that it gives the soil an amazingly rich dark brown color.  Plants love it.  More on paca poo later.

   We found the perfect spot that was twice as big as originally planned.  Finally, I could create the perfect garden.  Several years ago, while cutting out magazine photos, there was the "Garden of my Dreams".  Then, after starting boards on Pinterest, low and behold, the same photo popped up, so of course it got pinned onto my board "Garden".   Plus, I taped a few garden photos to a large piece of paper and hung it where it could be viewed everyday.  That way, it had to manifest in my life.  Some of the ideas below.  My favorite is top left.  Mainly, I love the fencing (oh, and her big hat).

I marked out our space with small wooden stakes and string, then my hubby, Robert rototilled inside the lines.  If you don't have a rototiller, borrow one from a friend.  Lots of people own them and only use them once a year (there are some things I just can't justify purchasing).  Give them a nice veggie basket, invite them to dinner or  give them something homemade.  They always appreciate the thought.  And, whatever you do clean the equipment before giving it back.  If it was full of gas, return it that way.  If you break it, fix it or have it fixed.  Or, some day they may want to borrow something from you.

     Borrowed Rototiller                                                         Hubby Rototilling

 

We decided to make it a Community Garden, so others could enjoy the serenity of our place, work in the garden and share in the harvest.  We will also, take some of the harvest to the food bank at church.

Clarice Shaw hard at work in the garden planting bush beans.

Do you see my fabulous fence Robert and I made???  We used fallen limbs

 from the fir trees on our property.

                                 Loren teaching Robert how to make his special tomato cages.

                                            And look at the progress of our kale in just over a month.

                                             

Teepees made from our fir tree branches with beans and peas climbing them.  I don't like the look of pvc pipe in the garden, so I'm trying to stick with all natural props, etc.

                                                 

             Alpaca poo or my other coined term "Alpacanure" is used on all our plants.

Our dill has gone nuts.  I have to keep cutting the seed flowers off and trimming it down,
in order for it to continue to grow and give us more herbs.  Also, those are the bushes Clarice planted less than a month ago with tons of beans to pick.

 It has been created from my favorite garden photo, at the top of the page.  Hooray.

The harvest has a just started and what a great flavor everything has; fresh produce from a garden is sooo much better than what we get in the stores and we haven't used any pesticides, just Alpacanure (alpaca poop).

Angie, one of my community garden friends with her Aunt who is visiting from out of state.


Loren decided to thin the cherry tomatoes for room to grow.  Next, it's
Alpacanure time on those babies.

Cyndi finally joined the Community Garden Group, hooray.

Pumpkin leaves getting huge.

More crops for the food bank - took 16 pounds one week and 20 the next.

As you can see the pole bean plant is growing like crazy.

Lola visiting the garden - needed some shade

The cucumbers are yummy and these yellow tomatoes - oh my,,,,,,,

Lola and her mom,  Cyndi

My fabulous snow peas that I didn't even share with my hubby.  Bad, eh???  Well, next harvest I might let him have some.  Wait till you see my teepee.  Next blog on how to build a teepee.

This is a must for my garden or at least somewhere in the yard.  Will keep you posted.

East Olympia Elementary School Event (more)

 More Things at the School Event

Kids got to pan for gold with the help of the Bedrock Prospectors Club.  These guys go to schools all over Washington state to teach people about finding gold and their rights concerning filing a claim.                                      Interesting stuff.                      

                    A family's private collection of old cars  

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Then, my all time favorite, Woodworkers of Olympia (WOO)

           

These guys even made things for people, free of charge.  WOO

That's all I've got to say, except if you need any wood turned, bowls made or????  Look them up. 

  

Gifts of love and appreciation from the children of East Olympia Elementary.  

How precious they are and what fun to read & se what they have to say.

These are the types of things that make volunteering for children's events worthwhile.

Weaving Dreams

LEARNING TO WEAVE

I met my friend Annie through Church.  We started talking about alpacas, fiber and weaving, something I had always wanted to learn.  Then, before I knew it she had me hooked.  She offered to help me learn to weave on a couple of looms that she loaned me.  What a generous and wonderful person.  Little did I know,  there are so many types of looms.  It all depends on what kind of item you would like to make.  Of course, I'm thinking tapestries, you know, like the ones that hang in the Vatican in Italy, hah what a dreamer.

Tapestry Loom

Table Top Loom 

After Annie started teaching me a few things about weaving, my friend Jane Rizika from the Olympia Weavers Guild, also the Librarian (art teacher) at East Olympia Elementary School asked me to do a fiber demo at her event.  So, instead of doing what I know, I volunteered my husband to do the needle felting and I would show the students how to do some simple weaving (of course, I didn't have a clue).  My Dad always said, "fake it till you make it". Jane just happened to have 4 looms that she had made, so I took them home.  I called Annie and said, "help".

Annie Teaching me to Warp

My Lifesaver

  Little people weaving torn sheets and t shirts onto the looms.  They loved it.

 These girls are only in the 1st grade

Jane Rizika , our hostess

Robert teaching wet felting with some of the students.  It's amazing how fast they learn and how much they enjoy doing simple work with their hands.  Creating is always fun.  Just some alpaca fiber, warm water and hand soap.  The ball Robert was making just kept getting bigger.

Wounded Alpaca

   Slept in till 8 a.m. today, ahhhhhhhh.  Got up, looked at my Etsy account, favorited some things and went to make breakfast, but no eggs.

  So, I aimed my vehicle toward the grocery store and found out 40 million chickens were killed from some type of bird flue. Sorry, but expect eggs to be high for awhile. I may have to rethink having chickens and move the plan up a bit on the priority scale after that bit of news.

   When I came home, Robert and I went out to one of the paddocks to check on Klickitat, one of our unproven herdsires. 

   He wasn't putting weight on his right back leg.  Sure enough, it was swollen and a scab had formed above the foot.  I gave him a shot of Banamine for pain and to reduce any inflammation. His temperature was up a little, so I gave him another shot of an antibiotic. We soaked the area above his foot where a scab had formed with epsom salts and warm water.  This made it easy to pull off the scab and it's a good thing we did, as it was full of pus.

   I had my handy dandy plastic carry-all with peroxide, antiseptic, gauze and everything else needed for a situation like this.   In other words, I was prepared.  

   

   After cleaning and squeezing the gunk out of the sore spot, I noticed two small puncture wounds.  It looked like he had been bitten by a snake and it got infected.  

   Thank goodness, there aren't any poisonous snakes in
Western Washington and for Dr. Castle teaching me
what to do in a case like this one.

I had to take a picture of it to see what you think????  Will need to clean in it a couple times a day, continue with the antibiotics and the banamine.

   

   

    

NWA, Ltd. Haldane

 One of the all time greats has passed away.

He was standing stud at one of his owners in Colorado.  They say he didn't suffer and for that I am thankful. We will miss this boy.  Not only did he sire well over 100 other alpacas, but he put our ranch, "Alpacas at the Well" on the map.  His nature was gentle, easy to handle and always eager to do his job.

                                                                                    

We have several females, a brother and a couple of sons out of this magnificent male.  They are

all absolutely beautiful.  All I can say is, "THANK YOU FOR MANY                                        GOOD YEARS", HALDANE.  

Why Alpacas at the Well?

After Robert and I attended some seminars, did a lot of research online and went to numerous ranches to educate ourselves about alpacas, we finally realized why we needed our recently purchased land.   

The first thing we had to do was come up with a name.   One of my life long dreams was to own a wellness resort and of course,  my chosen name was "The Well".  This particular name had been taken, long ago, but once I added alpacas to the mix, it was mine.  Thus, "Alpacas at the Well" was born.  It is my dream to make it a destination.

Our daughter Sarah bond-Yancey designed our logo.