Sunday, June 24, 2012

Musk Oxen

We now have our replacement fridge part, but it hasn't been attached yet. We're still limping along with an ice box - and I think I killed my sourdough because it's just not as cool as a fridge and I got kind of distracted - a weekend of Tai Chi, then a quick trip to Seattle. I'm going to try the rescue, throwing away big wads of it, feeding the rest, repeat until something is bubbling in it.

In other news, we got invited to the musk ox farm to look at some yarn just back from a mill and to maybe make some shop samples. How could I resist? I'm trying to finish up some socks first, so I don't have any of it knit up yet. There is a qiviut-silk blend and a qiviut-wool blend (with extra-fine merino) - I have some of each to try. The qiviut isn't of the best because this is from the year they were having malnutrition issues (the animals weren't getting enough copper and cobalt), so they only had the blends made up. We talked about the fiber for a while, then we got to go see some animals:
Orphan female, still nameless.

Same little gal.

One of the mothers in another pen. Note the qiviut hanging just behind her ear. The farm people comb them out, but the animals don't like to be bothered near the face.

Just to prove that it's not just a musk ox farm, but a Large Animal Research Station. This is a caribou.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

June flowers

Last fall I rashly bought some bulbs and planted them. The crocuses in front don't seem to have flower buds...

Labrador tea blooming too

Tulips up close - will they come back next year?

Iris plants - no flowers here either.

We've got a lot of tansy plants - we brought seeds from the dye garden.
In knitting news, I'm working on an advent scarf in colors mom wouldn't approve of.






        
In other news, our fridge died after less than three years of use. Our freezer stuff is in a neighbor's large freezer and we bought blocks of ice.