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March 10, 2008
It wants to be spring so bad here. It still gets really cool and cloudy, but everything is wanting to bloom. Bees are busy and the birds are so very happy. I really want it to be completely spring with the warmth that comes with it. Azealias are beginning to bloom along with the Camilias, and of course all the fruit trees. We tried to start shearing, but it turned cool and begin to rain, so that stopped that. Will try again as soon as the weather stablizes.
We have had some real excitement here though. We have a new little Ram at our farm! He is RMF Daijon, a beautiful blue ram lamb born Dec 10, 2007 from the Meilsheimer farm, and out of pure Perkin's farm stock.
Daijon
 
He is just a baby yet, but it won't be long until he is adding to the flock!
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February 9, 2008
I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated the News page. I just get so busy with farm life and other things!
Fionna and Faralee have their babies now. Both had twin ewe lambs. The really fantastic thing is that Russel is giving so much color. Both setts are from Russel, and have so much red. I thought you would like some picture of them.
They were born the last week of January, but they have grown so much! Here is, of course "Alyssa", and one of the babies
here are two of the others:
 
and this is the one with the most color,
I hope I get back to you sooner than the last time, and our next babies are due in March. Of course we will be starting our shearing too!
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November 25, 2007
Today it was 100% percipitation, rained all day. Gray, overcast, but not too cold. So after a total boredom day, and Lloyd saying that I needed a teapot for the Llama cup, here it is. It has an Incan woman with her drop spindle, leading 2 pack Llamas, one with a load of fiber and the other trailing with packs. Now I just need to have some sunshine!
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November 24, 2007
The weather has been truely wet and cold, but I did get one more mug finished. Its probably the last for the season--hopefully not as long as it was before I did this bunch, and no large horrible storms to mess us up. Anyway, its really a pretty mug, with an Inca Indian woman leading a pack Llama with large baskets of fiber, her drop spindle trailing. Now if the weather will just co-operate, I can get them poured and fired.
So now, as soon as I can there will be the Girl with Angora Bunny on her lap spinning on a Saxony with an another Angora bunny beside the basket of Fiber Mug, and the matching TeaPot; The Shepherdess carrying a lamb with ewe at her side to match the TeaPot and Cocoa Pot, The Sisters Spinning Flax on their Castle Wheels with matching teapot, The Colonial lady spinning on a large Walking Wheel cup and saucer with matching teapot, and the Mug with the Inca Indian lady leading her fiber laden Llama with her drop Spindle. I hope you like them, and enjoy them.
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November 22, 2007
I am back in the designing stage again and we have 4 new cup/mugs and 2 teapots soon to be ready in the catalog. Right now I am getting ready to start pouring them as I have finished all the work on the new molds! They are very pretty--Look for them to go up in the catalog soon along with some old favorites!
     
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Oct 24, 2007
We have got the greenhouse just about done now! Thank goodness. We got all the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants into it this afternoon. Sure feel better now, and its been a job, but when we go into that nice big warm building I get a really neat feeling. Now we just need to get started on the beds and get them planted and going!
Here are some pictures of the outside I thought might interest you.
  
The inside is barely ready for us to work in it, but here are some pictures of it
   
Although the plants we have moved into it in the big pots are not there you can see that there is a lot more work to be done! We still have the side beds to work up and get ready for planting, and I haven't even started to do anything with the center beds. I am not sure how I am going to deal with all those ferns, but they got to go!! We will be bringing in new soil for the raised beds and working them up for winter vegetables. I can hardly wait to get started on the beds!
Of Course the whole time we are working on the greenhouse, all the sheep and goats keep checking on us regularly! hehehe, so noisy, and such busy bodies!
 
Left to right is Jennie, Tony, & April the babies in the maternity paddock, and the other picture is of Mandy and Snow, our Alpine Milk goats. Being so close to the greenhouse they can make themselves heard very well, haha.
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Oct 19, 2007
This week has been really full! We got the winter hay in, and both milk goats bred for hopefully March kids. We started work on recovering the greenhouse. Rita had tore the cover on the greenhouse and made a major mess, so we started that project the first of this week. First we had to get all the old cover off and replace boards that had not managed to weather the time since the hurricane came in and made a mess. Lloyd said that he felt it was getting to be too hard for him to get on the roof of the greenhouse everytime we needed to replace the UV PVC covering, so we are going up with fiberglass panels this time. Its been an eyeopener, but we have the north and south sides covered, and about 3/4 of the north side roof. We are hoping to get the rest of the north side roof done tomorrow. Thought you might like to see a couple of pictures, sooooo,
 
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Oct 13, 2007
Still planting. This is Lloyd disking the maternity pasture. We got it and the small pasture we use for the dairy goats today. All three pastures are disked and planted now. We just have to get the fertilizer out and we will be done with the winter pastures for this year.
 
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Oct 10, 2007
Its planting time again! Lloyd is on the tractor putting out winter seed. He spent the morning disking and getting the ground ready while I went to town for the seed. I hope its a beautiful stand!
  
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Oct 1, 2007
I had not realized it had been so long since I updated the news page, so I am trying to get some of the updated things in here now. we have had a very hot, humid and wet summer. It has kept us so busy we don't know if we are coming or going! It has been so hot I thought that the fleeces would be less than normal, but apparently nature is much smarter than I am and the sheep put on fleece earlier than normal. They are beautiful, thick and so nice! This morning in the cool after I had milked and was waiting for Mandy to finish her feed I got to take some pictures of the ewes as they were going out to pasture, and the rams as Lloyd turned them out, so I thought I would share.
     
Russel has gotten so beautiful, and we should have some lambs from him next spring
 
Jacque and Chicote still try to convince each other they are the most beautiful!
 
Babies don't stay small, and Tony is almost as tall as Faralee, her mama, and that blue color is striking. She is so sweet, and wants me to pet her whenever I am at the barn. Of course Jennie, my bottle baby is still convinced I am her mama. April is growing and making a beautiful little goat, I know I will love milking her!
  
The circle drive is beginning to be beautiful again. I noticed some camilias beginning to bloom now (wow its early too) and the Spider Lilies are beautiful!
  
now that its nearly fall we are beginning to get the fall garden ready, still fixing fence and trying to get stuff still left from Rita done. I don't think that will ever be finished! We are getting hay in and trying to decide what to do about the big greenhouse that Rita tore the cover off of. Geesh, we just can't seem to get caught up!
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July 15, 2007
Its still raining--we are very wet, but its a blessing considering how many other places are so dry. The little ducks just love it!
 
they are so funny, I get such a kick out of them. They stick together like glue, and gossip about everything!
I finally got Mark and Kriss's wedding gift off the loom. Its the new undulating twill pattern, and it came out very nice. It looks very elegant and has a brown/tan/cream/white twead look. I was very pleased at how nice it was, long enough to use as a wrap, or perhaps for a baby in the future in mama's arms??
 
they tell us we have at least a week more of rain. I guess I will be weaving and spinning trying to not get too wet! Chore time we both get soaked, but Lloyd got a roll up blind (a big one!) across the barn gate area that would protect the milking stand. It makes it much nicer for me and Mandy.
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July 6, 2007
Its been a really busy summer! Retreat was in May, and it was really good. You can go to the SWIC pages to see how that came out! Then we made the Heartland of America Show in June, and that was very nice, lots of stuff to see and do! The last 2-3 weeks have been really wet here. We needed the rain very bad as the last 2 years, well really 3 or 4 years have been real dry and our water table was very low for Louisiana. We are practically floating right now.
  
The really good thing is that the yard is at least beginning to look like someone lives here and cares! hehehe. Its been so wet I haven't even felt like working at the studio washing fleece or dyeing, so---I have been weaving! Of course its been over at the house, but that's ok, I like the little 36" Nilus LeClerc that is in my play room. I got the Undulating Twill pattern I have been working on finished and wove the first piece day before yesterday using a hand painted Warp that Rhonda had dyed from some of her Marsh Romney lace weight yarn. I used some really nice Gulf Coast/Mohair blend for the weft and I think it really came out pretty. I haven't fulled it yet, or cut and knotted the fringes, but it does look good!
 
I got another warp on the loom yesterday and started to weave on it. I used Gulf Coast/mohair 2 ply blend on the warp, a beautiful blue black with small bits of different color mohair in a worsted weight that is so very pretty. I had a very beautiful blue 2 ply worsted weight that I am using for the weft that is just turning out so nice. I am eagar to finish it! The colors tuned out a bit red in the pictures, but I think it was because the lights were florescent and incandesent. That new pattern is very attactive I think. I will know more when I full the pieces.
   
Everything is so wet! The pools in the patio stay so full I worry some about the Koi jumping, but they seem to be fine, and the water lilies just keep on blooming!
 
I wish I had pictures of the new lambs from Chicote. They are about a month old now, but its just too wet. We have to wade to the barn now in our rubber boots. They say its flood watches, but we are not having any problems other than the place is really muddy and we have to use our rubber boots to get everywhere. At least the Gulf is not getting too hot!
Really cool! The new front gate is up!!!!!! I am sooooo excited. Funny how little things like that can make such a big difference. Its almost like we are normal again. We still have some work to do, like the big post on the east side of the gate that we had the old gate mounted on just rotted out in the center. I guess it was just too much on it, and so we had to remove it. The other one will have to go too since we had to back up to the Chain Link fence posts. Hinges will have to be turned yet, but I am able to use the gate----YIppppeeeee!
 
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September 19, 2006
I thought it was time that the Rita stuff had its own page and was away from the news page, so if you want to see pictures of that go to the year of Rita
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Brothers Lloyd and Norman Working Together
Cedar Board in the Process of being Planned
A Work Bench of Cedar and Cypress ready to be made into beautiful TriLooms
Lloyd's Brother Norman works with Lloyd in the Wood Shop. The two brothers work so well together and both are wonderful Carpenters. The Cedar of coarse is special order, but the Maple and Cherry are regularly used woods in these beautiful pieces of weaving equiptment.
Norman, Lloyd and Terry Selser work at preparing a rail
 
putting in pegs
Rhonda's Shawl
This is the Shawl that Rhonda Selser made on the 7 ft Triangle loom. The yarn is a Gulf Coast Native/Romney/Mohair blend.
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