Trenchwork

Over the winter, we had deer visiting our fast-food window at least once a day. We had started throwing out day-old bread for the birds, but the deer came for it as well. We found out recently that we’ve been feeding them, the neighbors (he who fixed the antique wheel) have been feeding them, and the folks at the top of the hill have been feeding them. That explains why they were in such good form! It also explains why they’d sometimes check out the bread, go up to the neighbors for a little while, and then come back. They had a regular buffet line going, and wanted to see who had the best grub! Now that the snow is gone—except for the random pile or protected space—and things are starting to grow green again, and the trees are starting to put out buds, the deer are back to finding their own fare and haven’t been down to see us over the past week. However, this fellow has taken their place:

It’s a horrible photo, but it’s the best I could do without using a flash or setting up lights and spooking him. He (she?) comes down just as it’s really getting dark, or at about 4-5am if it’s a morning run, and looks like nothing so much as a moving footstool with a pointy head attached. It’s not a large badger as badgers go—I’d reckon about 20 pounds—and is rather shy, but seems to have no problem putting away a loaf of bread.

There are definitely some things I enjoy about living in this particular place.

I’ve not tried to pick up knitting again yet, and I’m not yet reading more than is necessary, but I am spinning a little at the end of the day. Currently, this is in progress:

The left is a Merino-Tencel blend (Cafe from Kendig Cottage), and the right is a Merino-Tussah blend (McKenzie from Mielke’s Farm). Both are going at laceweight, which means that there’s a lot of spinning and not much visible progress to show. The spindle is a .7 Bosworth mini, and the bobbin is the Rose’s standard plastic bobbin, which holds about 4 ounces of fiber.   This is the first spindle and first bobbin of each, and it looks as if there will be two more bobbins before the McKenzie is done. No telling how many spindles for the tencel.

I had thought to spin them at the same time so I could compare the silk versus the tencel  and not have problems “remembering” the grist of the laceweight, but I’m already getting a wee bit impatient after only 2 weeks. I can suddenly understand why folks may have dozens of spindles and more than one wheel so they can have more than one thing going at a time.  (And no, I’m NOT, repeat NOT buying another wheel!  I claim the fifth on the issue of buying more spindles, however.)

On other fronts, I’m turning in grades for term 4 at SNHU today, and term 5 starts today.   If I can keep them all from running together, I’ll be a happy camper.