Hello again from Maybelle Farm! 

I can't believe its Wednesday July 27th, 2011 and I haven't written in the blog since July 3rd!  The time certainly does fly by and so much has happened.  It was such fun at the 4th of July with my friends of the "Fab Fiber Five".  There was a very large crowd at the parade and everyone seemed to enjoy all the fiber happenings.  Darcy, Todd, Rowan, Declan and their dog Kara got home Sunday evening July 3rd so then everything was back to normal at the farm.  We had a nice picnic at my sister Bev's house 4th of July evening.

The next event was the Fiber Fun Camp with Cheryl.  It started on Monday July 11th with 4 girls in the morning class and 3 girls in the afternoon class.  They worked all week learning new things to do with fiber and created a project to enter in the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.  It will be fun to see what they make and hopefully win a ribbon or prize.  The August class is probably going to be a bigger group and I will actually be able to enjoy some of the classes.  We also have an adult fiber class set up for the week of Aug. 15th.  Cheryl will teach Mon./Wed./Thur. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the adult classes.  I can't wait for these classes and also to make refreshments for them.

I drove to Gardner, MA. on July 13th and picked up my little Catherine and brought her to Toby Hill.  She is up for the summer and I finally have enough caregivers to do 24 hr. care and not be working soooooo many hours.  I think she is enjoying meeting new people and making raspberry jam,etc...  Art Wright that made a beautiful ramp up to the kitchen door for Catherine, stopped over last Sunday and on his way to the house saw a mother bear with triplets!!!!! WOW!  They must know there are blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, peaches and what a place for a picnic.  I prefer a "Teddy Bear Picnic"... not the real thing!

Mr. Steiner brought 92 bales of beautiful hay so the barn smells wonderful.  He called this morning and will bring another 90 bales next week.  It certainly feels good to have hay going into the barn and not have to worry about where I will get hay for next year.  The sheep are doing well and today we put Tinka and her lambs Clementine and Chet in with Arly, Aphrodite,and Juliette and the 6 lambs Casper, Custer, Chloe, Cecil, Cedric and Cornelius. Yippee!!! No fighting!  Tinka was so busy eating lovely new grass that she couldn't be bothered to fight.  Chet was in little piggy heaven with all the "GIRLS".  He rode Arly's head and then each and every little ram lamb.  There was a conga line going of 5 little rams riding each other.....its just too funny to watch, so Darcy made a video of some of their antics.

Darcy, Rowan,and Declan and I went to Storyland in Glen,N.H. for a short three day trip.  We stayed at the Christmas Farm Inn in Jackson, NH.  It was a wonderful place to stay, very reasonable  and the food was incredible.  We had nice weather and rode on quite a few rides.  The  Geyser raft ride was fun but we certainly got soaking wet.  Declan was even brave enough to ride on the Bamboo Chute (log ride) but really didn't enjoy it!   The picture shows Darcy and Rowan shrieking and laughing and Declan looking scared to death! It was nice to get away for two days but now I need to get back to work.  I'm at Catherine's until 1:30 p.m. then Olivia from our Fiber Camp is coming to work with me packaging roving for the Vermont Sheep and Wool festival.

Life is good at Maybelle Farm.  Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa

Hello from Maybelle Farm.  It's Sunday July 3rd,2011 and it has been a very busy day.  I got up, took my Akita Lettie for a walk, did chores and checked on all 39 sheep, took care of Darcy's chicken and came home.  Forgot to eat breakfast and went to the Town Hall to help my niece Jackie make pies for the Wardsboro 4th of July Event.  We made blueberry, cherry, strawberry-rhubarb, raspberry, peach and apple.  They plan on about 150 pies to sell and its a lot of work. But lots of fun too talking and laughing with other ladies.

Next I went with my friend Alison to the Red Barn to set up for our "The Fab Fiber Five" fiber demonstration area.  I will be with my very good friends: Alison Schantz,  who is going to teach spinning on her beautiful Ashford wheel, Margaret Silvia from Margie's Muse will be teaching table weaving, Jenna Konesko will be teaching the drop spindle, and my buddy Cheryl Flett who will be teaching Wet felting.  I will be teaching needlefelting and the five of us will be selling our own products that we make.  We finished setting up about 3:30 p.m. and it really looks lovely, if I do say so myself!

It has been such a hectic week.  Darcy's family left on Saturday to go to the Thousand Islands for a week.  I had to work all week at Toby Hill taking care of my sweet little Catherine that is 97 yrs. old.  She arrived on Thursday June 23rd and went back to Cambridge, MA on Thursday June 30th.  Saturday night June 25th, it rained so hard that the basement flooded at Catherine's and water was up around the house.  I cancelled having Grace come into work and I stayed.  That meant a 36 hr. shift...........whewwwww!!!  Thank goodness, my son and grandson did chores so the sheep and chickens were taken care of.

I worked at the Tasha Tudor Museum on Wed. and Friday.  Friday was the Gallery Walk and my friend Patty Blomgren came in to do a weaving demo on the very large Barn Loom that was Tasha's.  That meant I was at the Museum from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and then back to the Museum yesterday 10-3 p.m.  It was very busy at the Museum on Friday and lots of fun.  The time goes by so quickly when you are very busy.  We are planning a big event for the week-end of Aug. 26-28 to celebrate Tasha's birthday.   Stay tuned for the announcements about it.

We are having a family picnic tomorrow at my sister Bev's house so I'm baking beans today.   We have ground round, hot dogs, chips, rolls, etc... to take to her house. It will be lots of fun after a day at the fair.  The Wardsboro Street Fair usually has a very large crowd and hopefully we will sell lots of wool!  It certainly would help to buy the hay for this coming winter.  I got a note from my very good friend Donna and her husband had to have two stents put in.  Please everyone send lots of prayers and good thoughts to them in New Hampshire.  I bought two little ewes and my handsome stud muffin ram "Thistle" from Donna.  I am also getting Flopsy,Aster and Aster's little ewe lamb whenever Jonathan and I can find the time to go pick them up.

Happy 4th of July from Maybelle MaMa.