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 here I am at the CSA fair This was a really cool statewide event that was organized with the help of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. There were venues spotted around all over the state and when I saw that there was going to be one very close by, I leaped at the chance to get involved. I packed up a bunch of roving & yarns and our CSA brochure and off I went for the afternoon. It was fun! There were bunches of people shopping for CSA’s and a number of CSA’s that were a little different — one producer of farmed fish, one offering prepared foods (made w/organic, local ingredients), one offering a CSA where the buyer does a majority of the veggie washing/cleaning in order to keep costs down and then there was me. I can honestly say that nobody came running over to me gushing “Oh, Gosh! I’ve been looking all over the place for a fiber CSA!” But most everyone who stopped by my table thought the Fiber CSA was a cool idea and took info for a knitting/spinning friend or their knitting group or themselves. So I’d have to say it was a few hours well spent.
We’ve been picking shrimp and freezing them. Maine shrimp are small but very sweet and tender. One of son’s friends gave us 8 pounds of already cleaned shrimp in trade for eggs. What a nice thing to have in our freezer and he’s loving the eggs. These yummy little guys make lovely scampi and chowder.
 big fleece in a small coat Pardon me, ladies — you won’t mind if I take a peek under those coats, will you!? Sometimes that works, sometimes not. Some of the girls are starting to look like 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound sack so I need to make sure everything is OK. If the coats get too tight, the fleece can felt underneath. Normally, we would be shearing in another week or two so I wouldn’t be too concerned. This year, we’re shearing later so some of the sheep may need another coat change before then. Looks like so far, they’re OK.
Today I had a new driving experience…adventure? I was on my way to an appointment and went off the road. Coming up to an intersection, I began skidding on the icy road and ended up down a really steep embankment…Jim says about 50 degrees. Thankfully, some trees stopped the car before it reached the river at the bottom. I wasn’t moving very fast so the air bags stayed put. It was more interesting than it was scarey but I wouldn’t want to do it again! The worst part was climbing out and up that big hill in knee deep snow…I was dressed for an appointment, not hiking! I’m OK — the car, not so good — and that makes me very sad because I really love that car. It’s young and I’m already missing the heated seats — #1 on my “wish list” when we bought it. But it can be fixed and we’re very lucky, actually. Poor Jim was more upset than I was and happy to see me walking away from the car. I took a photo with my phone but have to figure out if I can post it here…I’m electronically challenged.
There are still some fleeces that haven’t been sent off from fall shearing and they need to go! It’s been too cold to stay in the barn for any length of time and the fleeces are impossible to unroll so I’ve brought some into the studio to warm up. We did a very good job of skirting them at shearing so there isn’t too much to do — just a quick look through — before packing them up. I always get hung up on what exactly to do with them…to blend or not to, to make yarn or just roving. The problem is that I love it all!! We have some CSA members!
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