Snowing at Last!

Yesterday evening when I went out to tend the bunnies a few flakes of snow were drifting on the breeze. This morning it is snowing in earnest, already covering the cold places and whitening the ice on the pond. It's cold and looks like it might actually amount to something. I don't love snow, but it seems appropriate to have a little in winter!

Yesterday I collected some ambition and went out to start the grape cuttings that Wendell gave me last week. It was still cold out; colder than it's comfortable for me to shear a rabbit. The rabbits don't seem to mind losing the coat no matter what the weather. They are sheltered from the wind in the barn. But I mind sitting outside when it's below freezing!

There's a description of what I did to plant the grapes on my other blog. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they do. Yesterday evening I had to add a refinement to my setup, though. TJ discovered the little sticks and thought they would be wonderful to play with. So now there's a fence around the pots!

Instead of shearing I worked on the computer in the afternoon, putting up some of the scarves I've been making on my web page. It's fun to go back over my work and see how it turned out. I'm still happy with all of them, oddly enough. Sometimes I look at something and wonder what on earth I was thinking when I did it!

There was a downy woodpecker at the bird feeders yesterday afternoon. Lily was whining at a dove so I went to see what was so interesting and sat watching the birds with her for awhile. I had put out some suet for the birds, which attracts the woodpeckers. The downy was climbing on the apple tree when I saw him, while the finches, sparrows, juncos and other birds flocked to the feeders. The dove was on the ground; sometimes there can be a dozen doves there feeding. In the late evening the birds rush the feeders to get enough to make it through the night. When I came here I didn't feed the birds, because I was working long hours and didn't think I had time. But during an ice storm I went out and found a dozen little birds lying under the big spruce tree. I picked them up and put them in the barn with some water, and they recovered and flew away. I started feeding the birds then; just couldn't stand to think they were dying like that. Over the years they've gotten quite tame when I'm around, only flying a few feet away when I fill the feeders and sometimes staying right in the tree. This despite the fact that I'm usually accompanied by at least one cat or a frolicsome puppy!

I received a box from Wooly Knob Fiber Mill yesterday. I hadn't exactly been haunting the mail box waiting for it but it came back way before I could become impatient! About six weeks, not bad at all for a turn around time. The Coopworth I sent was one that was a little rough because I wanted to make rugs from it. What I got back is very, very nice. It's an ugly yellow color (not the mill's fault, of course!) which I'm planning to dye. I spun up some last night. Spinning from roving is SO fast! I started soaking my walnut hulls last night; they should sit three days, according to the dye recipe I found, before I do the rest of the process.