Journey to Ohio Valley Natural Fibers

 

Since beginning my fiber foray about 15 years ago, I have made the long trip to this fiber mill, Ohio Valley Natural Fibers, in Sardinia, Ohio dozens of times.  It's where I take much of our alpaca fiber to be carded into a more usable form (roving) so that it can be hand spun on a wheel into yarn, used for making felt, or prepared in a way so that it can be sold to other hand spinners.

The owners, Kent and Ginny Ferguson, are very focused, fun and unique people that run a great operation, using equipment from old textile mills, some of which dates back to the early-mid 1900's.  Their carders are LARGE, taking up a small warehouse space, and they welcome visitors to look around and see the big machines in action.  On a typical visit, they start with weighing and going over the order with me.  I had spent the prior afternoon sorting through the fleeces overflowing in the barn loft, "skirting" them to remove unwanted "vegetable matter" (VM) and coarser fibers, and deciding which ones I wanted to combine or blend with other exotic fibers.

Each lot of fiber that will be blended first goes onto a "picker" which helps to open the fleece's locks, fluffs it, and throws it into it's own little "room", mixing it with the added fibers as it goes.  Then it is taken to one of the giant carding machines.

The machines require constant attention and maintenance as the fine fibers float around.  Here, Kent is checking the machine and lightly spraying the fleece to help it go through the series of dozens of spiked rollers more easily.  Ohio Valley works hard to produce a clean product, and doesn't use acids or other chemicals to dissolve the vegetable matter as the large commercial mills do, resulting in a more green product which we can offer to our customers.  The process requires a lot of manual labor to keep all of that fiber cleaned up, which is why they're slated to be featured on the Discovery Channel show, "Dirty Jobs" this season!

As the fleece goes through the final roller from which the fiber comes off in rope-like roving, a person is there ready to carefully lay it into a box.  I love this part, as I can see how the fleece turned out, which is usually beautiful!  I'm always anxious to get home and start spinning on the most special fleeces.  I do believe that having this much hands-on with our fleece has helped me be a better alpaca breeder.  I'll soon post pictures of some of the projects I've already completed using my favorite fibers.

Thank you to Kent and Ginny for their many years of quality, friendly service to Seldom Scene Farm!

Searching for Unicorns

 

Before the weather turned off cold again, I had the special chance to go creek-walking with my lovely friend Marti.  If you've ever checked out Marti's art, you know that she has a special gift of imagination and humor that is second to none!  (Not to mention her special compassion for horses...).

This creek lies behind their horse pasture, down a steep hill covered in honeysuckle and seemingly hidden from the rest of the world.  It is a secret paradise that Marti and her husband only recently discovered.

 

In spots, the vegetation is as dense and green as the Pacific Northwest.

There was one waterfall after another, each prettier than the one before.

 

It was the perfect place to look for unicorns.... really!  Did you know this is the Year of the Unicorn?

Marti says to listen for them... can you hear them?  We did!

Listen to them here

EMBRACE

Embrace.... that's my new Word of the Year.  I'm not sure where I got this idea originally, but it seemed a good alternative, for me, to traditional New Year's Resolutions, which I normally keep for about 5 minutes!.  Last year my Word was ADAPT, and boy did that turn out to be a good one.  I had to constantly remind myself to adapt, as many changes took place here on the farm with a lot of turnover in help and some other challenges.  I remembered to adapt as we tightened our pocketbook.  And we adapted as our kids grew further into their teen years!  It became a positive little mantra in the back of my mind that helped me through a variety of challenging situations.

I've been thinking for a while now what my new word would be, and this one was spoken from a voice deep within.  What does it mean?  I've interepreted it, so far, to mean that I need to...

Embrace new opportunities that come our way, such as our llama treks and new property in Millville.
Embrace the things that make me happy... I've realized that using my hands, creating and crafting, are things   that I need regularly in my life, almost daily, and I'm going to make time for that.
Embrace new skills, always keep learning.  (I plan to take some classes at the Living Arts and Science Center this spring).
Embrace chances to volunteer, help and do some good... at home, in church, in the community.
Embrace the people that matter to me, which is everyone in our circles... family, friends, and acquaintances that I don't see often but whom I care about.  I'm going to choose not to be a handshaker, but a hugger... EMBRACE!

Finally finished a few

 I've been working on spinning up the yarn I need to finish a vest I started last year- the cold weather had me wishing it was done, so I tried to discipline myself into spinning more and more of the seemingly endless and boring rose grey yarn. 

My reward was to spin and knit with some really pretty and bright baby alpaca that I dyed last week.  I worked on it while at our annual Lexington Spinner's Retreat, rewarding myself with something super-soft and interesting which I spun fairly bulky.  I then knit it into an equally mindless-to-make scarflet- the Ribbed Mini-Scarf, (found on Ravelry,) and the pattern can be downloaded here for free (I didn't actually do the ribs, but rather did a simple K1P1).  Yes, I made it for myself- I've heard that January is Selfish Knitting Month!

Well, I wasn't entirely selfish- I'd been needing to knit a few projects for new babies.  The blanket I started for my niece's baby last fall just didn't get finished- it was another case of taking on a too-big project with fine yarn. I knit these Seed Stitch Shoes (pattern found in Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners) from hand-dyed and hand-spun baby alpaca.  I love the colors for a baby boy, but they did come out pretty large- oh well, maybe he'll wear them when he's two!  I plan to spin more of the roving into a much finer yarn for my friend's newborn baby boy.

It's amazing how much cold, yucky weather gets me back into the spinning and knitting mood!

A Walk in the Woods- EDITED!

Blogger has some new editing functions which I'm not getting along too well with quite yet- please excuse the poor layout and sending this out three times- hopefully you'll read this version (still not great, but at least better!)
 It was so good to get outside the other day and take a long family hike on a sunny afternoon, after being cooped up with coooollld weather and snow.  I've totally been nesting for most of the past week (except for while helping take care of the animals), with lots of knitting, spinning, and sewing activity,  and have been feeling grateful that I enjoy domestic and creative pursuits so much!
But still, we all needed to get outside.
 

The four of us (and Munchie!) strolled through the woods, with Paul and the kids taking along their shotguns just in case we saw any squirrels.   (Yes, Mirian actually has a pink one!)   Paul has put a lot of food on the table from our own farm these past months, and it's been wonderful trying out new game recipes and knowing that we were eating local, organic, and humanely-harvested once again!

 There were deer tracks everywhere as well, and we could see where the deer had laid down for the cold evenings and also where the turkeys were scratching around beneath the snow cover for food, especially under the oak trees where they could find acorns.

This track (above right) appeared to be from a coyote; it was good size (too big for a fox) but much smaller than those left by our livestock guardian dogs.





We were always on the lookout for "deer rubbings", places where the bucks rub their antlers on the trees, and have begun looking for antler sheds- it's early but Paul found a perfect pair about 2 weeks ago.  Normally the rubbing seems to be on our smaller, newly planted trees which then require protection via wrapping with special tape or pipe.  Paul says that the larger the tree, the larger the buck and this was a larger tree to see rubbing on than usual.

It was a great afternoon, and we all returned to the house refreshed and renewed after several grey days.




The picture below was taken nearby on the same day at Glenn's Creek, which flows beside our property in Millville where the new "Addie's Creekside Cafe" will soon be opening.

Wherever you are, I hope you're able to find some beauty in this time of year!

What to see... at Bybee!

Yes, I'm back! My writer's block may be thawing slightly (plus my computer has been fixed to nearly peak performance), and I have much more written in store for tomorrow with a recap of 2009. I couldn't resist a quick mention of my stop today at Bybee Pottery (Bybee/Waco, KY) while on my way to pick up our son at church camp in Eastern Kentucky.

I've always loved Kentucky's Bybee pottery pieces for their simplicity and traditional, somewhat primitive appearance. I hadn't realized that the Pottery celebrated 200 years in operation this year, with the same location used throughout to make their hand-thrown pottery with local clay.

If you visit, it's best to arrive early when shelves are stocked on "either Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Monday and Thursday". Call the week before you visit for best shopping days. Serious shoppers arrive before their opening time of 8 AM. Tours are encouraged, and I enjoyed taking a few minutes to meander through the place.

While I was meandering around, the phone rang. I heard the owner say, "No thanks," and then mutter, "We don't need no web page, if people haven't found us in 200 years they're not gonna!" So, no web link here, but you can call ahead at (859)369-5350. Yep, I did leave with a small haul- a baking dish, 8 cereal/dessert bowls, and 4 ramekins... for $21.00, can't beat it AND it's LOCAL (gotta love that!).

P.S. Photos are from my iphone, could be worse!

Alpaca Heaven- Peru!

If you want to learn more about alpacas, or to see a LOT in one place (even more than AOBA Nationals!), go to Peru! That's what took me there the first time, in 2000, when I went with Paul and about 25 other alpaca breeders to see the International Alpaca Fiesta in Arequipa, visit the famous Accoyo Ranch near Macusani, and to have personal instruction from world-renowned judge, Dr. Julio Sumar. As it turned out, I found myself even more captivated by the people and culture there which is what truly led me back, to volunteer with Quechua Benefit and to ultimately adopt our daughter.

Most of the country's alpacas (somewhere between 2 and 3 MILLION) are located in the high-altitude areas of Southern Peru, the altiplano. I was mesmerized on that first trip by the huge herds we'd see along the road and sometimes even IN the road. It is fascinating to observe the sparse vegetation on which the alpacas and llamas thrive there when we try so hard in the United States to optimize their nutrition (and ultimately overfeed, "the American way!").
On this working trip we had very little leisure time to observe alpacas except from a distance while driving, though our team did spend one night at Pacomarca and an afternoon at Accoyo. Pacomarca is a private ranch owned by Grupo Inca, one of the large fiber companies in Peru. Their breeding operation, overseen by our friend Dr. Renzo Morante, DVM, is very progressive in their use of artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and EPD's (Expected Progeny Differences, a statistical analysis of breeding results, in a nutshell). Pacomarca has a beautiful facility for teaching and examining the animals, set up somewhat like one of the luxurious thoroughbred breeding farms close to us in Central Kentucky! It was brightly lit with natural light, and had lush sod which accentuated the beauty of their high-quality studs. We had a short time to look at several, and all of us were very impressed with the depth of quality in Pacomarca's herd!
We also had the special opportunity of visiting the Accoyo Ranch near Macusani, which feels like driving to the moon! There was one spot where we had to get out of the van so the driver could move rocks and get through a narrow spot, and it was spitting snow. Once we arrived at Accoyo (at nearly 16,000 feet altitude!), the telltale rock formations around the stone corrals stood out to accent the group of white suris inside (nealy all of Accoyo's alpacas are white). This black "wasi" (magical unshorn suri) is included with the herd structly for good luck. Since few of us breed suris, we were anxious to get our hands on some huacayas. There were many spectacular animals for us to check out, and we felt very welcomed by Elena and Guadalupe Barreda, daughters of Accoyo's founder, the late Don Julio Barreda. The Barreda women are now running the ranch. Our friend Marcus, who has been in Peru for over 8 weeks overseeing the construction of Quechua Benefit's new orphanage, Casa Chapi, joined us for the day and although he had been very ill that morning he felt good enough to fulfill one of his dreams... to shear an alpaca at Accoyo! It was fun to experience this with him as just the right animal was selected and he hooked up his shears to a truck battery. The staple length on this gorgeous 5 year old male was around 9-10 inches after 14 months growth, and we all put money into a pool to guess the total fleece weight. I guessed the closest to the 21 pounds, estimating 21 pounds 5 ounces.
I later tried to engage Mike Safley in a conversation about the effect of environment on fleece growth and fineness, but we got sidetracked and I hope to continue that conversation with him another time! All I can say is, we have some phenomenal genetics in our herd at Seldom Scene Farm, many full Accoyos that excel in the show ring for us, and none have ever sheared close to that weight.
The workers at Accoyo seemed apprehensive about Marcus with his electric shears at first, but he did an outstanding job and they appeared satisfied! Although this alpaca looks a fraction of it's orginal size, we were pleased to see it in very good body condition.
After the Barreda family graciously fed us, our team's doctors examined and treated several of the workers at Accoyo, and we left vitamins and parasite medicine for them. It was an awesome day, and we all felt very fortunate for such a great day with alpacas in Peru!

Yes, we did eat alpaca on our trip-it's a healthy red meat and can be prepared many different ways. Here, alpaca pizza that we had in Cuzco!

Alpacas are certainly important in many areas of Peru, and they have enhanced my own life in countless ways and led me to great friends and global adventures which I will never forget!