I have made a lot more progress this week on finishing the kitchen. I got the cuboards stained and finished and they look so nice. I did cheat and buy two new ones to replace the water damaged ones. You can read the whole sordid details here.

In short we had to pull all the cuboards out, the flooring, subflooring, floor joists and replace half of one wall. Stupid dishwasher was leaking. Here are a few observations I will make after doing all this.

Floor joists and subfloor under kitchens, baths and laundry rooms should be pressure treated lumber, as well as the subflooring. Trust me, it’s worth the extra cash…

If you sandwish particle board between sheets of plywood you end up with a big flat sponge…then suddenly without seeing a single drop of water, the whole floor caves in.

So, we got that fixed and the kitchen sort of set back up fairly quick, but it’s been avoided long enough. I’ve just been too tired/lazy to work on it. But I rebuilt the one cuboard, and finally caved and just bought two new ones since they were small and not that expensive. Now they don’t quite match but I just don’t care. They look good so it’s enough.

Next I put the top on, and then backerboard and start laying tile. Enough boring stuff, for now though.

Lambs are dropping in on us every few days - We have a really fun little theme this year - ewes get named for Mixed drinks and rams get names of liquers. It’s been a really fun theme!

Three Ring Mimosa!

Sire is Jerome, dam is Tassell. This is a moorit Smirslet Sokket ewe lamb.

Next up was Raspberry, who gave us this delightful little ewe lamb with our ram Liam (He was the santa sheep on a front page once)

Three Ring Raspberry Daiquiri

She looks very much like her grand sire Minwawe Lariat. She is a lack Yuglet Ilget Kraiget. I love the Shetland names for the markings. Such fun!

Our First twins from Totter and Liam

Three Ring Buttered Rum and Three Ring Smirnoff

We were really pleased to have three ewes and only one ram since the last two years have been ram years!

Then Sparkle gave us this little sweet girl on Beau’s birthday

Three Ring Mai-Tai

She is a sweet little dear, very friendly. Yesterday Maria gave us another lamb, but this one was a ram, I know I’de get one eventually

Three Ring Wild Turkey

That’s all I’ve got so far, but I have one due today or tomorrow, and another due on Monday.

No, still kicking, but it’s been a while eh?

Well, I am finally getting things back together, so I thought I would write a little post to say hi. I’ve thrown in some great lamb pictures, as this years crop has begun to arrive.

Three Ring Mimosa -

We had the baby, of course, almost a year ago, and then our floor collapsed. Yes it just fell in. So with my Dad and dear husbands help, we pulled all the cabinets, subfloor, second sub-floor, sheeting, floor joists out and put new ones in. Our whole kitchen was destroyed. What a nightmare, what a mess.

It’s starting to get finished up now that the weather is warmed. I can’t beleive it’s been torn up since September!

Partly becasue we have a nice sink in the laundry room, right off the kitchen. So not such a big deal to just wash up back there. I have a new dishwasher sitting here in the middle of the floor. I am putting in marble tile countertops. I will restain the old cabinets I recycled, and also stained the two new ones we had to replace. My laptop died, my car broke down, and it seems like everything didn’t work right this year. Things seem to be getting back on track now, so maybe things will smooth out?

Lambing is coming along, we have 4 so far. For pictures and a play by play you can see the other blog -

Three Ring Raspberry Daquiri

Spindle and Wheel has sat and sat and sat. I think I have started moving forward in getting some more content published. What with Julianna being 9 months, and almost walking I have a little more time now. Too bad she destroys everything in her path. sigh. This is such a bratty baby. If she weren’t so cute/lovable sometimes I just don’t know what I would do. She bites, scratches, pinches and claws. I weaned her it was so bad. Thrown in with the fact that I’ve had trouble with milk supply/quality and her growing well. I hate to do it, but seems like the best choice at this time.

She’ll get bigger, and learn the rules, sometimes they are just spirited and she hangs out with William the Terrible too much! Peer pressure UGH!

So, I am planning out the next issue/release and it has some exciting stuff. Great patterns, a PVC skein winder (that is indestructable and well tested by the afore mentioned little’uns.) Believe me, it stood up to them, after many modifications and changes lol. It does a 2 yard and 1.5 yard skein. It’s great, and I am really happy with mine. The cost is about $20 to assemble and isn’t too difficult you could do it in an afternoon.

I also have some blending stuff for drum carders, combes and other preparation type articles to put up.

We have placed an order and hope to soon have a shop full of ymmilicious Ashland bay products! Silk, cashmere and 21 micron merino! There will also be batts and fun spindles, plus lots of great stuff. I just needed the motivation.

My spindles have went through a good field test. They hold up well, spin wonderfully and seem to have been perfected. So, now that those have been well tested, we will probably start offering them in the shop. The feedback has been great and I think my spindler friends out there will be pleased.

Three Ring Hot Buttered Rum and Three Ring Smirnoff.

If you have anything you would like to contribute, please send me an email allena at spindleandwheel.com

I have had all of my spinner buddies in my thoughts, just didn’t get around to posting! I am hoping to do better, and hear back from all of you too!