Woah Nelly!

Well! That was a busy day! Saturday is usually market day for me, but not today. Last week, I had a bamboo basketry workshop to go to and I had so much fun that I decided to have fun this weekend too.

First came the Farmers Market. I was there early enough to stand in a small (10 people) line for samosas. There is a lot of history that is attached to the samosa vendors at the Farmers Market. They actually made National news in Canada because there was a fight between the Samosa vendors and the market managers. The samosa people were/are so successful that other vendors complained that their customers were blocking their stalls and the samosa people were eventually kicked outside where they have set up shop in a trailer. For now. They have said that they will probably not occupy the space in the mid-winter because being an outside vendor in January is a rather painful experience.

But I digress.

After my purchasing at the farmers market (I did get a few other things) and did a bit of socializing, I made my way to the place where my market takes place and had a coffee and did a bit of socializing there too.

Then it was back home for a bit and then S came and picked Mira and me up and we went off to a fiber farm that started out as a rescue farm and has ended up as much more. The farm is run by Kim, who is also a nurse and has 3 kids and is pregnant with a 4th. The woman astonishes me! She is one of those people who has managed to find a way to stretch the number of hours in a day and has the energy of 6 of us lesser mortals.

Here are two of her three rams. They are all of different breeds and of course she knows all of their names. They are like her children.
Then we went on to see the ladies of the house. She had Corridales and Shetlands (of many different colours) and Jacobs. And here my brain hit overload. I know that she has other types, but I couldn't tell you what they are to save my life. I couldn't even count them. I'm going to guess that there were about 20 or so. Including the babies.Sooooo cute!
And speaking of cute.... here is one of her Pygora goats. This little fellow is a few months old. She also had Angora goats. I can't begin to describe my reaction to these little guys. All I can say is "I want". I want a few of these goats. ME! Who has enough kids and responsibility and not enough room. I will have goats in my life some day. Not for a number of years. And not until we live close enough to someone responsible enough who is willing to trade critter care so that we can each get a bit of a vacation in the summer. I am not willing to give up our time at the lake, but I want fiber goats.
And she also had an alpaca. I want one of these guys too. This fellow gave Kim three garbage bags of fleece this year. And of course the first thing that ran through my mind was "Baa baa black alpaca, have you any wool?" Apparently, he also bites. She said that he never used to bite until she got word that there was a lady alpaca that she could have. She told this guy (sorry, I forget his name) that he was going to get a wife. Told him all about her and then a few weeks later, the man that had the lady alpaca told Kim that he wasn't going to sell her the gal and Kim told her man, and shortly thereafter, he began to bite. Coincidence? You decide. And I haven't mentioned the rabbits and chinchillas.
Here is part of her fiber room. More continues around the corner and .....
Into the front hall. Right about here my mind stopped working altogether. And my allergies kicked in. She likes to spin "in the grease" and most of the fiber that she had was straight off of the critter. And my allergies really let me know that raw fiber is not a good thing for me to be around in such massive quantities. I bought a sample pack of bits of different types of cleaned processed roving, and some processed mohair roving.

Then when we got home, mom came and took us apple picking
We got quite a few. The kids and I picked 3 1/4 bushel baskets. Mom picked 8. And them Liam asked about the apples on the ground. The lady that ran the orchard said that the ones on the ground were free. So Liam, Mira, and Simon ran off and picked a couple (or three) grocery bags of windfall Macintosh. In about 3 minutes. Some were given to my brothers Belgian horse team (only a few) and the rest will be made into sauce (or hard cider, if we get our act together). This is one of the times when I am actually glad that Liam is a bit of a scavenger. Small boys, eh?

Then it was back home where Bill had been working on chili all day (among other things). Last night it became a family effort to deal with all of the tomatoes at hand. I had suggested a chili for today and the idea received unanimous agreement. Last night we washed, peeled, seeded (or de-seeded) and chopped any tomato that was in any way, shape, or form compromised, and boiled all of their little carcases in a large pot. Today the simmering continued all day and the volume was about half by the time Mira and I returned from the fiber farm. When we returned from apple picking, it was almost ready. Tonight, supper was a wonderful thing.