Three Creeks Farm

Babies and more babies!

This year spring brought  27 lambs and one llama cria.  We had the mixed experience of having a bottle lamb. It had been a long time since I was up around the clock giving a baby a bottle. Luckily that didn’t last too long. However, during the time we had to feed her at night, she lived in a dog crate in the kitchen. When we let her out, she would run around the house nad hop up on the couch. The photo at the left was taken during one of her couch adventures. She was facinated with the remote. Looks like she is changing the channel….

We also had a llama cria just after the fiber festival. Steve was able to get in with her and imprint when she was just a few hours old. Now she is spoiled rotten. She’ll walk up to anyone and expect them to scratch her neck and runs up to the fence for attention.

This week we added a 5 month old Great Pyrenees  puppy named Pearl. She was raised with sheep and it shows. Today, when I fed the lambs she ran up to the feed trough and ate with them.

The catalog for the Tennessee State Fair has come out. the link below will take you to the livestock catalog, where on pages 72-74 you will find information on the fleece show and spinning competitions. There will be spinning contests with both a spindle and spinning wheel, with a novice class (spinning less than 1 year) and open class. There is also a Sheep to Shawl competition.

The Spinning Contests will be on Thursday September 17, 2009 at 7:30 held in the Vaughn Building at the State Fair complex in Nashville.

The Sheep to Shawl Competition will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each team is made up of 4 members. They bring a warped loom and a washed (and dyed if they want)  fleece with no further preparation. They then have a limited time (4 or 5 hours) to prepare the wool, spin the yarn and weave a shawl that measures at least 72 inches. The team will be judged on:

30% Appearance of the Team while working

40% Technical Workmanship

30% Artistry

The Fleece Show will be Tuesday and Wednesday, September 15 & 16 ending with the Fleece Auction on Thursday September 17, at 8:00 pm after the spinning competitions. Fleece entries must be mailed in by Aug 10, to avoid late fees, or online registration will be accepted until September 1, 2009.

For more information, please consult the catalog or Call Kim. Below is the link to the catalog.

tennesseestatefair.org/pdfs/catalogs/LivestockCatalog.pdf

Kim Caulfield is the contact person (931)293-4466.

Let’s have a big turn out with lots of participation!

Steve and I returned from our trip to Maui yesterday. Steve’s son Randy got married at the Kula Botanical Gardens. While there, we did a trail ride up into the mountains, and down to the beach. We drove the “Road to Hana” and hiked up the Pipwai trail to Makahiku Fall, a waterfall with a 200 foot drop. The hike took us through a fabulous bamboo forest. Next we went whale watching. march is breeding season for the Humpback whales. They come to Hawaii every to have their babies and to make more! I can’t tell you how amazing it is to see them jump, wave their fins and do tail splashes. WOW!

We did spend a little time on the beach. However the waves waves were really huge with a really strong undercurrent.

On Tuesday morning, we drove up to the volcano crater, Haleakala. It was only 45 degrees and the wind almost blew us away.  That evening we went to the Old Lahaina Luau. I didn’t know hips could move that much!

We also visited the Surfing Goat Dairy, an agri-tourism venture in Mau. They sell goat cheese and give farm tours.

Of course, I had to visit the only yarn shop on Maui, and bought 2 skeins of yarn.

Today, we are trying to recover from jet lag.

We now carry a small supply of yarn and Knitting supplies. In February, we got our first order of Opal sock yarn, JoJoLand yarn in several weights, HiyaHiya Bamboo Needles, Kromski Rosewood needles and some other supplies from Goosepond.

We also have a variety of Interweave Press books on knitting, crochet, spinning and various related topics. We also carry Spin Off magazine.

We are busy planning the 3rd Annual  Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival. We are gathering information on what folks want by way of a survey monkey survey. So far, we have requests for lots of spinning workshops of all levels, some knitting, felting and a variety of others.

anyone who whould like to help us is welcome to pitch in. Just email me….www.tn3creeksfarm@yahoo.com

Hello all! We just got featured in Tennessee Home and Farm Magazine, a publication put out by farm bureau. We are so pleased. Check it out at http://tnhomeandfarm.com/index.php/site/virtual_magazine/

We are on pages 12-15.

Dye Day 2008 was a huge success. We did natural dyeing with poke berry juice and marigolds had a few pots of  commercial (Lanaset)dye. Check out the photos. One of more interesting experiments was to over-dye some black fleece. We used a teal Lanaset dye. It turned out beautiful! Jet Black with just a few teal highlights. Jan Quarles also showed the group how to paint roving. We had a wonderful meal…our group sure can cook!

Next year we will do it again…the second Saturday in October. Stayed tuned for more information.