The Hollyhock Blog

Sometimes the planets align in the worse of ways.

All of a sudden it seemed I had too much on my to-do list.   But one big project is nearly off my plate.   Upper Midwest Alpacas  (the group formerly known as Alpacas of Minnesota) is creating a membership directory and I’ve been helping with the collection of data and fees.  Several of us have been compiling information and it is nearly ready to be sent off to UMA member Kathy of Jackpot! Alpacas.   She will make a first-class directory out of miscellaneous documents and a database of member information. 

And I managed to knit these:

Mittens - knitted

Knit on my knitting machine from 100% alpaca yarn from Alpaca with a Twist.  And then they got a little time in the ol’ washing machine:

Mittens - felted

And they are now dry and ready for the trip to a customer in Northern Minnesota.

Don’t mess with my ‘pacas

My excuse for being late

Don’t pet that kitty

I didn’t know I had it in me

I had lots of titles for this post as I wrote it in my mind last night, but I owe the title I used to my husband.   Here’s what happened last night.

My Elk River fiber group (that still has no name!) was to meet last night.  So I planned my evening carefully:  to be there by 6, must leave at 5:30, must be in shower by 5, must start chores by 4.   Maybe there would be some wiggle room in there to eat supper and maybe leave some supper for Darryl! 

I got a bit of a late start when heading out to do chores, but an hour is generous for evening chores.   I was merrily filling my alpacas little feed dishes from the convenient bucket of feed.  When the bucket runs out, we refill from the big 50 pound bags.  As luck would have it, the bucket did not have enough feed for all the dishes.   The bag was about half empty with the top sort of bent over, so I open it up and see gray / black fur on top of the feed.   For a split second, I think it is our kitty Molly, who is a gray/black/brown tabby.   Thankfully, my mind was quicker than my hand and I realized how stupid it would be for Molly to be in the alpaca feed.  As I stood there, frozen stiff in shock, my mouth open, eyes wide, my mind processed the scene.  An opossum was in my barn, in my alpaca feed bag, within my reach and I had to do something.  Holy marsupial, bat man!!

The opossum seemed quite content and was not moving around at all, so I hoped I had some time.   I emptied a big trash barrel, rolled it near the feed bag, and lifted the feed bag, opossum and all over the barrel and dropped it in!  I then proceeded to roll the barrel outside.  To get the thing OUT of my barn was objective #1. 

That done, I moved on the objective #2 – getting the opossum out of the feed bag.  I tipped the barrel on its side and attempted to bash the opossum on the head with my shovel.  But I didn’t have much range as I was trying to swing inside the trash barrel.  The opossum had wisely moved toward the back of the feed bag.  I tried to scoop the opossum out with the shovel, but that didn’t work.   All I got was a scoop of feed.  Realizing I needed a new plan, I retrieved my pitch fork.   With that I could scoop under the offensive beast and drag it out – which I did.  Objective #2 completed! 

Objective #3 was to prevent the disgusting creature from bothering me or my alpacas again.  (Or foraging under my bird feeder, as I had observed a few days earlier.)  This guy/gal was not the brightest critter.  It didn’t run or even walk away, so I skewered it with my pitch fork.   But that proved to not be a very effective way of immobilizing the opossum, as the ground is still frozen.   I managed to sink the fork in the dirt maybe an inch. 

In the meantime, the alpacas were still waiting to be fed.  But I was not sure the feed aka opossum bed was safe to eat, so I opened a new bag of feed and dished up feed, fed everyone, filled water buckets and filled hay bins.  I did check on the opossum once and it was trying to drag my pitch fork away.  So I firmly (as firmly as one can when the ground is froze) planted the fork back into the frozen ground.  On my way back to the house, I stomped the fork into the ground one more time. 

Off I went, a half hour behind schedule.   But I HAD to take the time to get this event documented.   I made a mad dash back to the barn with my camera! 

Don't mess with me

 Then I took a shower, decided neither Darryl or I would get any supper, left a message for Darryl at his work.   I was nearly ready to go and I looked outside to verify the fork was still standing.  I couldn’t see it.  I quickly gathered all I thought I would need for the fiber group meeting, put that in the truck and went to find my walking pitch fork.

It hadn’t gone very far, but I did notice the ground was much softer up by the house.  So I carried my loaded pitch fork near the front of the garage and was able to sink the fork tines at least a couple inches in the ground.  I felt secure leaving my foe there.  I headed off to my meeting.  I left a message with our vet as to the safety of the partial bag of alpaca feed.  I also left a message at home for Darryl to finish my dirty deed – Objective #4!

I later called home from the meeting to be sure Darryl had found the opossum where I left it.  He did.  His comments: “I thought that was my supper!”  “It could be the next big thing at the state fair – ‘Possum on a stick’!”

'Possum on a stick

Objective #4 done!

Last weekend I was on retreat with 9 other gals from my spinning guild.  We stayed at Linden Hills Retreat Center.  There are 2 mansions on the property built by 2 guys who were buddies in the lumber industry long ago.  We all stayed in one of the mansions and had room (and rooms) to spare!  Here we are in the ‘Music Room’! 

Spinning at the Mansion

More spinners at the Mansion

It was spacious enough for 10 spinning wheels to fit in an oval around a wonderful gas fireplace.   (Please excuse the poor photos.  Check out blogs by Karen  and Lisa.)

Karen and I were the first to arrive at 3:01.  Check in was 3 PM.  Only minutes later, Lisa arrived.  Our intent was to maximize our spinning time!  And I sure did.  I brought a couple knitting projects and even a pattern to start a scarf, but I did not knit a stitch.   I spun and spun and spun and SPUN!  I finished the Mixed Cria roving I’ve been working on for many months.  This is going to be the scarf pattern I brought along and didn’t start.

The final bobbins of Mixed Cria roving

The bobbin on the right is plied.  The left bobbin still needs to be plied onto itself.

Then I moved on to the roving of Vagabond, our light fawn herdsire.  I spun 4 bobbins of single ply yarn.  The first 2 bobbins I plied together onto my huge bulky bobbin.

Yarn from Vagabond's roving

I still have more roving to spin – after I ply these singles so I have empty bobbins!  My plan?  I want to knit a shrug for myself.  That big bobbins is so soft and cushy — yummy!  

Before the retreat, I finished these:

Wrist warmers

3 pair of wrist warmers of 100% alpaca Baby Twist yarn.  Dark blue, black, and dark green.  $12.50 / pair. 

Oh,  and those flowers in the pictures?  Yes, they are real.  They are orchids.  They are blooming and I didn’t cheat and buy them in bloom.  They are my little bit of the tropics in the cold Minnesota winter!