Chewie

Chewie is the name of the Targhee Sheep residing at Merry Meadows Farms. I was lucky enough to win some of his fleece, and it's mighty pretty stuff, if I so say so myself.

This photo shows the raw fleece. It was amazingly clean which is good because I swore I would never buy raw fleece again, as I'm not particularly fond of the washing process.

I had bought Targhee batts from Merry Meadows farms in the past, and it was wonderful stuff. It practically spun itself, so I was pretty excited to get 2.2 lbs of this stuff, even if I did have to wash it myself.

I bought two lingerie bags, and put approx. 4 oz in each one and started washing, two 4-0z. batches at once.

Look at how beautiful it is washed and ready to be carded! I don't think I've ever seen fleece with a golden yellow glow to it. Leaving it in the sun to dry seemed to make it even more beautiful.






Once it was dry, I started the carding process. I just grabbed handfuls of it, teasing it apart and tossing it into the drum carder. I carded each batt at least twice. My little Petite Strauch drum carder is joy to use.









I now have 3 brown grocery bags full of creamy buttery batts, ready to be spun. The picture to the left doesn't really do justice to the color of the batts.

After washing, and carding I have 27.6 oz. (that includes the weight of the brown grocery bags). I had toyed with the idea of dyeing it, but I just love the natural color, it makes me think of an Aran Fishermans sweater. I don't think I have enough to do one of those though, so for now it's sitting in the bags waiting for me to decide what to make out of it. Do I want a 3 ply? a two ply?

We shall see.

Angel Island

Our Mission to get fit continues!

On Sunday we took the Ferry to Angel Island.
Angel island is my all time favorite hike. You get to ride a ferry boat, see the Immigration center, World War II buildings, Civil War buildings, Nike Missile site, not to mention spectacular views of the Bay from all directions, and the occasional Deer.




The sun was out, but it was a bit cold when the wind kicked up. Due to the recent rains, we decided to stay on the perimeter road, rather than tromp through the muddy trails to the top of Mt. Livermore. The perimeter trail is approx. 5.2 miles, which just meets my criteria: Hikes need to be at least 5 miles.

The only drawback to the Perimeter Road is that it's blacktop, and it hurts my feet to walk that far on blacktop. Dirt trails are much easier on the old dogs.


It doesn't matter which trail you take on Angel island, you are rewarded with views in all directions.


The newly renovated Immigration Station is well worth spending some time at, and even through we have been there several times, this was the first time we sat down for the 20 min. Video. I would suggest, even though the audio could use some work, that you take the time to watch and get an understanding of what the Chinese immigrants to this country had to endure. We headed to the left when we got off the ferry, which put the immigration center at the beginning of our hike rather than at the end, when we are rushed to get back before the last ferry leaves the island.


And no blog post of mine would be complete with out a photo of some cool trees!

The cost for the ferry and entrance to the park is $13.50, then parking in Tiburon can be pricey too, but it's well worth the cost.