it's outta here

Finally, the fleece project without end was shipped off.

Now it is no longer my problem. It is the mill's problem. What a relief! And a tremendous sense of accomplishment too. I have birthed lambs, held sheep while their blood was drawn, sheared them (badly), treated them for any number of ailments and problems, skirted and picked fleeces for hours upon end... but I now feel like a "real" fiber farmer since I washed a few of their fleeces. I can't explain it, probably because it makes no sense.

I did learn a little lesson in the shipping. The box was, obviously, massive, and came in just shy of 20 pounds. The fleece was going to a mill in Oregon because the felting came very highly recommended by someone who should know. I figured that UPS was probably my better bet, because how could so many people be wrong?

I should back up and explain that, in spite of this little defection, I am a massive fan of the United States Postal System. I find their website extremely easy to use and very accurate when I am quoting shipping prices to customers. I love our little quaint downtown post office, with red geraniums in the windows, even though the parking situation is a bit tricky.

Even the clerks are wonderful, though I do acknowledge that is not necessarily the norm at your run-of-the-mill post office. Case in point: a few years back, we used to mail out documents for my LSH's office every Saturday. One week my father went with Primo to do the errand for me. The clerk asked if he wanted delivery confirmation, and he didn't know. She asked: "Is this your grandson?" When he said yes, she replied, "Then you don't want it."

So I am very loyal to my post office. I try to do everything I can to keep it going. I mail every piece of mail possible through it, because one of the metrics of post office health is letter volume. I buy all my stamps there, and ship all my packages there, and just generally try to be one of their best customers, in spite of the knowledge that the institution itself doesn't seem to care one way or the other (one of its failings, I suppose).


When I went to the UPS shipping center though, I received comeuppance for my disloyalty. Almost $70 in shipping, and it would arrive next Thursday or Friday. Reeling with shock and the weight of that box, I staggered back out to the car to assess my options. Back home with the package in tow, I went online to my old friend, the postage meter calculator. I think my mouth dropped open when I saw the price for parcel post: $24.92.

So back to my old haunt I went, where one of my favorite clerks assured me that my calculations were correct, and moreover, it would arrive around Thursday or Friday. 

Lesson learned: I will never cheat on the USPS again. But I did spring for the insurance. I may be loyal, but I'm not stupid.

final fleece

Thanks for all the comments, calls and e-mails I got regarding my fleece drying issues! You were all most helpful with my dilemma. I think the biggest problem was that I was washing in big batches, and the fleeces weren't spread out enough to allow the air to circulate. The towels on the bottom weren't helping. Through much attention to fiber rotating, I am almost done.

The last fleece is a very different sort. I had a special fleece from last year, from Hermione, that unfortunately had felted under the sheep coat. Those things are a double-edged sword. They do a great job of keeping the chaff and dirt out, but they can sometimes cause even bigger problems.

The fleece was so beautiful under the mat, and it was her last fleece, so I carefully cut off the mat, lock by lock. I decided that fleece deserved special treatment, so I went looking for the right fleece to blend with it.

I found it just down the road, at Windy Hill Alpaca Farm. Too bad pictures can't do justice to the feel. I can't even think of a good way to describe how wonderfully soft it is.

It was unskirted, so I ended up going through it, also lock by lock. Funny that the two fleeces required the same careful handling. I can think of many worse ways to spend an hour than sorting through an alpaca fleece, however.

I was fairly confident I could handle the washing process given all my recent on-the-job training. It was actually one of the easier ones, since I didn't have the lanolin to deal with. I did discover that alpaca fleece does a masterful job of hiding dirt, however. That thing was filthy.

Jackie, the owner, did a great job of matching the colors. The alpaca is the front fleece, with Hermione's washed Coopworth fleece in the back.

This is going to make one gorgeous pin-drafted roving.

fleece drying machine

Namely, I need one. If such a thing even exists?

I finished washing the last of the fleeces today (more on that one tomorrow) but I am having a devil of a time getting them dried out. Allow my camera to illustrate the problem:

That's what happened when I took the camera from the cool house out to the front porch to take a picture of the fleeces trying to dry out there. The humidity level is crazy.

Here's what they actually look like, once the camera had a chance to acclimatize. The one in the back has been drying out since I finished washing it last Friday!

I am hopeful—perhaps overly optimistic is a better way to put it—that the fleeces will be done drying tomorrow, and I can get them shipped out by Wednesday at the latest. What a relief it will be to put them into someone else's hands!

fleece washing machine

I am waaaaaayyyyy overdue on getting the last of the fleeces shipped out to the processor. Part of the problem is how long it is taking me to wash the dang things. I have two fleeces done (although one is still drying) and one in process, with one more to go.

I must be incredibly inefficient at this, because I cannot for the life of me understand why I wouldn't pay someone else to do it. Not that I am made of money, but the time I am spending washing them is taking away, in a major way, from getting anything else done around here.

As I said, though, maybe it's just me?

The process has been helped along somewhat by the incredibly helpful tip I received, from two different people, to soak the fleece for several hours in cool water prior to starting the process. As you can see, quite a bit of dirt is removed this way, and what is left is considerably loosened for further removal efforts.

blackberries

A berry bush, thought long lost to drought and neglect, suddenly came to life this year with a vengeance. It had been so long since we planted it, we even forgot what kind of berry bush it is. No doubt now.

Yep, they are as delicious as they look.

Luckily, there's plenty more where that came from, and I even managed to get it netted so we can enjoy most of the crop. It's a welcome treat at the end of garden watering duties.

back to three

We picked up the older two boys from camp yesterday. I wish I had some beautiful illustrative pictures but I forgot to bring my camera to drop-off last Monday. I drove up with two other moms and their sons, both good long-time friends of Primo and Secondo respectively. It was a lovely social drive but we barely fit the kids and their gear in the car; Terzo had to stay at home because there wasn't enough room for him. It was a "thin mint" sort of situation and I would like to think that I forgot my camera due to the space issues and not my increasingly forgetful brain. 

Luckily camp looked the same but if you haven't seen pictures you can go here or here.

For pick-up yesterday, the car was relatively empty, but our minds were full (and our hearts heavy) with a different situation. Though we had the camera, we didn't get too many pictures. This one shot of a grubby Secondo on the porch of his cabin is just about all we managed.

The house is once again full of the clutter and chatter of three. Terzo had his last week alone with me, since he will be old enough to go to camp next year. I savored every minute of the week: playing board games, taking him on outings, watching his choice of movies, and just generally enjoying him to my heart's content. He was a little morose on Monday about the prospect of being without "the guys" (his term) for the week, but by the end, declared it was the best week of his life. Success!

catching fireflies

What else to do on a lovely summer night? Though there don't seem to be as many this year as last. I hope it is just due to my poor powers of observation, and not a worrisome trend in the general firefly population. 

Seems just about everything is a cause for more worry these days.

Sorry for the downer of the post. It didn't start out that way! Just generally indicative of how the past few weeks have been going for so many around us. Yet another worrisome trend.