Again....Chickens!

Beautiful young Buff Orpington hens (and one Roo-fus)

 So much busyness going on lately! In January some friends hinted at the fact that they would like to club in with me and get some chickens if I would provide a place for them and we could share costs and labor. So I plunged in and ordered a breed I've been wanting to try and hearing a lot of good things about from Foxfire Holler Farm down in Warrensville, North Carolina. I've known Nancy for awhile so I knew the birds would be healthy and happy.

After a LOT of work getting the chicken house ready, which included moving and scraping over 600 pounds of metal and a lot of junk, plus rescuing at least 55 boxes of tile meant for the now abandoned store project, we still had plenty of work to do. The floor of the building had collapsed under the weight of so much stuff, so it had to be jacked up, thanks to the help of a neighbor and her husband. Then there was the need for a new roof, which was provided by part of the coop and a lot of fixing up inside. The fixing up inside is still going on but the chickens arrived Tuesday and have settled in happily. They are about three months old and we should be seeing eggs during the summer!

Emma is not sure why I'm so obsessed with these old books.

 Time has flown since my last post but there has been a lot of work to do with the chicken house and a lot of work to do in that making a living thing. I started cataloging the old books and putting them online at Biblio.com. More things are going on the web site as I have time and I did a nice little postcard show earlier this month in Salem, Virginia, that was fun as well as a bit profitable. I opened the shop the first Thursday in April and have been seeing some old friends and making some new ones. Things are flowing along!

Romney carded batt, both natural silver and dyed turquoise and purple

Sadly, I have been neglecting the fiber part of the business and really should do something about that. I did some dyeing this winter and there is a ton of stuff to get carded up around that I should start working on. I carded this one lovely batt of Romney from Thistle Cove Farm and want to get more done for either spinning or selling. Time just flows right away!

It hasn't all been work, although sometimes it seems that way,  and there is a lot going on in Meadows of Dan lately. I didn't attend but there was a very successful writing workshop just over the hill this past week and the Women's Club is winding up a big yard sale today in the community building. When we got back from the post card show we went to the Support Team dinner and had fun visiting with everyone. The events here are a lot about seeing people. Our little stitching group meets here every Thursday evening and there are two book clubs that meet monthly; one of them is here some of the time. Meadows of Dan is never boring!

What I'm spinning: Border Leicester singles from a local farm
What I'm knitting: Garden Pond Shawl by Patricia Clift Martin in Fortissima Socka
What I'm crocheting: It's all hibernating
What I'm reading: Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais; White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Current sounds & sights for spinning along: Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
How the diet is going: Trying to eat better and certainly getting plenty of exercise!