April Spinning Group serenaded by Jan's harp

Once a month handspinners from around the Lehigh Valley gather in our home  for a few  hours to catch up on projects, share information , inspirationand in April compare our lambing and/or kidding stories.

Yesterday we had a harpist join us! What a treat!

Thank you Jan~please come again!

I'm Very Thankful For The Rain...but

...I need some color!

Ahhh, Memories ... and Promise

Shepherd Valley Farm - We're on two new sites!

LocalHarvest and Buy Fresh Buy Local~ Check them out!

Thank you Emily!

It was a pleasure to meet Emily Chamelin and her daughter Lydia on Saturday. Lydia kept us entertained while her mom did a fantastic job shearing our 35 Shetlands. Thankfully the rain held off (just some drizzle) and by 3pm they were all done. The fleeces are so lovely this year,especially the lambs. Three of whom have the emsket coloring we've waited so long for!

It was a joy to see old friends and meet new ones. Thank you for the yummy salad ,Stacy and the incredible chocolate cupcakes,Angie!! I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

Krista demonstrated her wool carder and spinning wheel and hung out with Lydia a lot. Jenna, our daughter, skirted fleeces and skirted fleeces~bless you!

Dave was amazing at broom-making and Judy wowed us with her wet-felting demo. It was fun to see everyone walking around rolling a felted marble between their palms all day long .

We even had a table for Operation Christmas Child,a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, where two kind ladies shared about this worthy cause.

Thank you to all of you who helped!

Sheep Shearing Day 2011 ~ Saturday March 5th 10am-til they're all done!

These are some photos from last year's Sheep Shearing Day.We had a great time!

Eva showed us how easy spinning can be. She also read a delightful book,Charlie Needs A New Cloak, to the children.

Hoyt Emmons, the Gentle Shearer, gave us an entertaining and informative demonstration.

Emily Chamelin ,from Maryland,will be our shearer this year. She has demonstrated at the Maryland

Sheep & Wool Festival among other places.

This year we will have a broom maker joining us!

There will be spinning and wet-felt hat making.

We will have hot beverages,Chili and chicken soup to warm your bones after watching the sheep get their yearly "haircut". You may enjoy a trail walk around our pastures,collect rainbow colored eggs and visit our new Nubian goats and llamas.

Please leave a comment below if you plan to attend!

Still Obsessed

The Old Farmer's Almanac is helpful to determine seed starting dates!

I'm in zone 6a so I don't want to start my seeds TOO early.

I'll be using the Square Foot Garden method more accurately this year... at least that's the plan!

Partial view of last year's raised beds... and Grandpa practicing fly fishing

Just What I Needed Today

So much has happened since my last post! A grandson was born(an exciting, somewhat dramatic home birth), I lost my camera on the way home from said birth in Georgia and lost ALL the precious photos!! We've acquired two darling Nubian wethers(hope to have milkers one day) and two female llamas. This past week I have been obsessed with SEEDS. I did not look at the catalogs when they came in December,no,I was not going to get out of control( like every other year). After this last snowstorm ,though, I succumbed. I'm consumed with visions of this year's garden(plum tomatoes dancing in my head) and feeling somewhat guilty about it and then I turn to today's devotional from Joni. A confirmation of sorts for delighting in growing things but also a wake up call to get my priorities straight. What a joy to be gently prodded by the Good Shepherd~to be affirmed, encouraged and refocused.

Enjoy!

Joni and Friends Daily Devotional February 3, 2011 Dear Linda,

Dreams

"Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.'" --Isaiah 35:3-4 I don't know much about interpreting dreams, but I do know that the Lord used a few weird and wonderful dreams in days gone by to reveal His plans for the future. Take the prophet Isaiah. He lay down one night and had a very strange dream. He found himself in the middle of a desert with nothing but sand stretching to the horizon. He felt depressed in the dream, just like the bleak landscape. He felt hungry and thirsty and very unsatisfied. Just then, the dream took an exciting turn. Out of the sand pushed one small flower and then another. Soon grass sprouted and then trees loaded with fruit. Immediately upon awakening, Isaiah hurried to write down a fantastic description of the abundant paradise blooming and budding all around him. You can read about this strange and exciting dream in Isaiah 35. It's a marvelous chapter for anyone with a fearful, faint heart because it talks about going from gloom to glory, from depression to ecstasy. The good news is that Isaiah forecasts this for all of God's people! So... Is your spirit dried up like a parched desert? Has the joy and singing gone out of your life? Then ask God to replace the endless stretch of your dry days with the Living Water. Soon, out of the sand in your life, will push the beautiful Rose of Sharon. Lord of Joy, strengthen my feeble hands and steady my fearful heart so that I can praise You today. Come soon, Lord, to open the eyes of the blind, to make the burning sands a pool, to crown our heads with everlasting joy, and to make sorrow and sighing flee away.

Blessings, Joni and Friends www.joniandfriends.org