I resolve...

This is Gulliver. Gulliver is our 3-year-old long-hair chihuahua and, like a lot of small, over-bred dogs, Gulliver has some health issues. The hole in the top of his skull never closed up when he was a puppy. His tear ducts often get clogged. And he never lost any of his baby teeth, even when his grown-up teeth came in. He's kind of like a shark- he has two complete sets of teeth.

Which isn't as cool as it sounds. No matter how often I brushed Gulliver's teeth his breath was horrific and getting horrific-er all the time. Imagine the worst breath you've ever smelled. Without even knowing how bad that bad breath was, I know for a stone cold fact that Gulliver's was worse. The problem was that plaque and all kinds of ick was getting trapped between his two sets of choppers and rotting.

So today Gulliver went to vet to have his superfluous canines removed and get a though teeth cleaning. He's still a little groggy from the anesthesia but his breath smells like a summer breeze and his teeth are clean enough to eat off. 

What, you may be asking yourself, does this have to do with New Year's Resolutions? Glad you asked. 

When Gulliver- or one of the sheep or goats- has a problem, I take them to the appropriate professional and I get it taken care of. Gulliver had teeth problems, I take him to the dentist. 

I, on the other hand, haven't been to the dentist in three years, not since I lost my dental insurance in my divorce. And for three years I have been putting off going to the dentist because I don't want to want to spend the money. Do you hear me? I didn't want to spend the money ON MY TEETH!

Today, when I was writing a check for $230 for Gulliver's dental visit- which seemed perfectly reasonable, BTW- I realized that I take waaay better care of the animals than I do myself. 

What's that about?!?

So I came home and made myself a dentist appointment. And I'm dreading it. I'm gonna have to listen to a lecture about flossing and going to the dentist regularly, and it's going to be expensive, but I'm going to do it. 

My New Year's Resolution is to start treating myself at least as well as I treat my flock. There will be many, many smaller sub-resolutions, like finally getting the Diet Pepsi monkey off my back, but the that's the big, over-arching, umbrella resolution. To take better care of me.

The Worst Week Ever

I don't mean to sound like a whiner but this summer is kicking my butt. 

And this last week was, without a doubt, the worst week ever. Ever. EVEREVEREVEREVER. Ever.

Don't believe me? Well, the week started with my getting poison ivy on my eyelids (MY EYELIDS!) and ended with Gulliver, our chihuahua, getting sprayed by a skunk. And, friends, those were the highlights.

But I am not ready to write about that yet (give me a week or two to regroup, por favor). Instead I am going to focus on the positive.

I have had some really great visits from shareholders in the past two weeks. Jessica and Jennifer came for what they thought was a day trip but I talked them into sleeping over and attending Patrick's big fundraiser with me. (Jennifer danced her butt off on stage with Jim Belushi. Photos to come.)  Dawn and her husband came for a visit and asked loads of questions in anticipation of starting their own alpaca farm down in Texas. Lisa came all the way from Hawaii. I have serious concerns about her being charged extra for her luggage because she bought so much yarn. And today I got to meet Susan and Ellen at the Farmer's Market and got a visit from Adele!

If you haven't made it over to the Island yet you should start making plans to come. 

Speaking of which, we are still trying to nail down a date for the Fall Shearing. I apologize for the delay in giving you a the info- I'm really completely at the mercy of the shearer and we have several calls into him now. Several. I will let you know ASAP because I know many of you are anxious to make travel plans. I'm shooting for the first or second weekend in October. I'll keep you posted...

This morning on my way to the Farmer's Market I got the phone call we have been waiting for for ages. The Spring 08 yarn is a spun up and ready for pick-up at the mill! [INSERT FIREWORKS AND CANNONS BEING FIRED HERE.]

As those of you who have been waiting ever-so-patiently know, we have a couple of glitches getting the fiber process this spring. The mill we had been using with great success for ages was overwhelmed by the amount of fiber we are shearing now and, after having our fleeces for a month, told us they wouldn't be able to get the job done. This was followed by lots and lots of phone calls to mill across the country, most of whom told us they would love to process for us but were on a six-month wait. 

We finally settled on a mill in Canada, which brought with it's own problems because of shipping and customs and whatnot. But our long national nightmare is finally over because IT'S READY!!! The roving for our Spinner's Shares is being processed at a third mill (are you following all this?) and it will be shipped next week.

I can't thank my original 100 shareholders enough for being so kind about the delays. There was a steep learning curve for us with processing this much fiber and we learned a lot. (Some day you and I will have a long and serious conversation about the relative merits of mini-mills vs. full size equipment.) I can promise you that next time it will be much, much smoother. And faster. And less likely to make me want to bash my head against a wall repeatedly. 

In other news, Patrick and I are busy getting ready for the Fair. The Agricultural Fair on Martha's Vineyard is the highlight of the year. It's a very wholesome event- not in a kitchy way at all though. It's very sincere in it's wholesomeness. There are all kinds of categories to enter, normal fair things like "Best Preserves" and "Best Pies" but there are also things I've never seen before anywhere else. Like the vegetable sculptures. I will take pictures this year, I promise.

We are entering three of our goats in the fair and I am entering a couple of my photographs. We will also have a big display in the fiber tent, so if you are going to be on Island during the Fair (August 21-24th) you must come by and say hi. 

The video that the etsy production team made about MVFF was featured on the front page of youtube for a couple of days this week, which is a huge honor. You can see it here if you haven't seen it already.

Things have been so crazy that I haven't taken many picture in the last couple of weeks but I am settling down and promise to get you some in the next couple of days. Here are a few new ones to tide you over.

Salina and Turman

Astrid and Tansy

My friends Eric and Karina let me borrow their children to model our MVFF t-shirts. I love this picture!

This is one of my new fall yarn colors. It's a lovely pinkish brown called Chocolate Milk.

Eggplant

Mermaid

Quansoo Beach

Cranberry

Rise and Shine

More soon...

xoxo

Gulliver's 15 Minutes of Fame

Our Chihuahua, Gulliver, is feeling a little left out these days. Due to the rule against dogs at Felix Neck  he never gets to ride in the truck with me to feed the animals anymore. This used to be the highlight of his day and he still stands by the front door every morning wagging his tail and looking hopeful.

Last year, when we had bottle babies in the house, Gulliver was in his glory. He loved having little goats to play with and boss around. I'm still committed to my goal of no bottle babies this year, but it was awfully fun watching them play together

As you can see, Gulliver was dwarfed by the five-day-old Jack.



Here's a picture of Jack that I took last weekend. Lord, I love that goat.