Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Fairy garden and garlic

We (our au pair, who is just as addicted to craft as I am, and I) decided to make something special for my boy's girlfriend (they are 2 and he is besotted). She is crazy about fairies. I have a beautiful book of 100 flowers to knit and crotchet by Lesley Stanfield which I have been wanting to play with, so we decided to make her a fairy garden. 
I love the butterflies...
And in a special box...
Hope she loves them!
In other news we harvested the garlic! I had fun braiding some of it. 




Wednesday, December 11, 2013

alpaca shearing 2013




Shearing alpacas is always interesting. They are tied up and shorn one side then flipped over and the other side is shorn. Some taken it in their stride, others like our young wether squeal the whole way through! It is amazing the difference in their size and presence before and after shearing! 
You can see the difference in the photos above and left, Silver Rose our pride and joy with her fleece a few days ago on the left and Silver Rose and Tux in the photo above. They look so skinny!
They sulk a bit but as you can see above Tux was still willing to talk to me!


I couldn't help but show you the snow pea growing in our veggie patch and I love this photo of our new chooks enjoying their new accommodation!


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Chickens finally!

We finally have some (hopefully laying) barnevelder hens on our property! As the old isa browns died off we have been wanting to replenish with barnevelders but they have been very hard to source locally. We found some 1st year layers at Parkes and my hubby went to pick then up today! I really hope there will be fresh eggs to be had over the coming days! 
We also picked up some young roosters to fatten up. They are a bit cute which might make them a little difficult to eat! I couldn't get a good photo as they were busy running from the toddler!
The one remaining isa brown chook is giving them a bit of a hard time but hopefully they will all settle down after roosting tonight. 



Friday, December 6, 2013

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!


With a small boy in the house we are getting organised for Christmas earlier than we have in previous years. Putting up this quilt has made it feel like Christmas is on its way! I finished this quilt last year after a few years working knit sporadically. It is a Kellie Wulfsohn pattern and I enjoyed every minute working on it! 
The cream walks look terrible! One day we will fix that...



Sunday, December 1, 2013

Milo vest finished!

alpacas and milo vest
I love this pattern! It was my first time knitting in the round and cables but very easy!  The pattern is from tiKKi details here. I would definitely knit this again. The size is to fit my boy next winter… Lets hope I guessed right!

The yarn came from this beautiful animal, silver rose. So lovely to knit with. 
Silver Rose


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Proper farm!

Wow we feel like a proper farm! We have 9 soon to be 10 alpacas, 6 head of cattle...
Well I might be dreaming about the proper farm bit but 4 heifers have come visiting for a few months. We have an extraordinary amount of feed for our property size and one of our friends farm is low on feed so its a win-win situation! The photo above is of the heifers arriving and below are the alpacas milling about checking out the newcomers.


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

baby kina christening gift

Wow, I now understand everyone's obsession with the baby kina pattern! I love it! The knitting needles I used were a bit of a struggle to fit it all on so I'll have to find longer needles or circular needles next time but the results were worth it!

It was knitted using yarn from our alpaca Julie's 2012 fleece. It has such a beautiful feel to it! Hopefully this will be an extra special christening gift for our friend's baby. It just needs some small wooden buttons now!


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Pelicans are a bit lost!

We came home this afternoon to find 6 pelicans sitting on our lawn! Spring creek reservoir must be full of fish!





Friday, November 8, 2013

Windy and dry...

The weather here is usually glorious but today is hot and windy, oh so windy! The poor alpacas are particularly uncomfortable, they should have been shorn by now but we have been waiting for Goldie to have her cria so she can be shorn at the same time. She looks particularly uncomfortable camped out by the water! Julie doesn't look to happy either! (Goldie and Julie are the light brown and white alpacas respectively either side of the water trough.) if she doesn't hurry up and have it we might need to organise the shearing for the others  regardless!
I really hope this weekend brings the rain that is forecast, I just did a short drive around the local area (to convince my non-sleeping 2 year old that it was a good idea to have a sleep) and I can't believe how dry everything is! 


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Ducks!

I looked out the window to see a huge number if ducks feasting on our lawn!
The photo doesn't quite show just how many there were!!!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sweet water for steers

I peered over the garden this afternoon to check the steers water and I became very worried as it appeared to be empty. All I could see from a distance was what looked to be empty white sides of the bath. On closer inspection I found it was petals floating in the water!! Very pretty!
One of the goldens helping me inspect the fallen tree branch.


Saturday, November 2, 2013

Roses and puddings

I'm a bit late with my Christmas puddings this year. I would normally put them on on the October ling weekend but this weekend has been the first chance I've had over last few weeks! 
Our first roses of the season are out! We are usually about 2 weeks behind the rest of Orange but it seemed longer this year.






Thursday, October 31, 2013

more alpaca yarn!

Life at adagio alpacas continues to be hectic! In the last couple of weeks we have done so much! We welcomed our wonderful au pair (oh wow, why didn't I do this before!?! My boy is so much happier and so much less mummy guilt about working!!!). We attended the Australian National Field Days and had some wonderful alpaca friends from Keiana Lodge staying here whilst they were exhibiting as well as some family!
Today I felt like it was Christmas or my birthday! When I went to the post office my yarn was waiting for me! We had sent to Fibre Naturally off Tux's 2012 cria fleece and Julie's 2012 fleece to see how they came back and I'm so pleased! I can't wait to start knitting! Now I just have to finish the vest I'm knitting so I can start something new! Will I be that patient? Probably not!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

dusk

It has been exceptionally busy around here, I've returned to work after 4 months leave and it is taking time for us all to adjust to the new routine. My return to work also coincided with the start of daylight savings on the long weekend which was a difficult co-incidence for my 2 year old. It caused some major disruption to sleeping patterns for quite a while. Hopefully life with settle down a bit for a while!
Dusk was just so beautiful here that I grabbed the camera and took some photos! I found out that we can see the sun set over Mount Canobolas from our veggie patch, someone's tree must have come down so that we can now see through! Unfortunately it didn't photograph well. 
My Father-In-Law has been busy mowing so with the warm weather our lawns look amazing! 




Friday, October 4, 2013

Gorgeous golden, butter wouldn't melt... Right?

From the look for Bartok you'd think that butter wouldn't melt... Right? Wrong! 
The dog that looks at me when getting into the car to go to the park and refuses to jump into the car because its just too hard to jump that high... can manage to break then scale the fence to escape into the paddock! 
Caught! I saw him do it this time and the fence is now fixed again!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Pullet needs to move out!

It's been funny having this chick living in my bathroom but it is nearly feathered enough to be outside overnight and I can't wait!
It seems the food is tastier around the back...
It is also looking like this chick is a pullet, contrary to my initial guess, no sign of a comb or other likely rooster signs. I'm quite happy about this since it really was hens we were after! Now we just need to source some more.. I think I'll invest a better incubator before I attempt to hatch chicks again!




Friday, September 27, 2013

Kookaburras!!!

Wow! I woke up this morning to hear the sound of a kookaburra chorus! I hope I spot one soon!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

photos of adagio alpacas


Tulips in bloom
Ebony
I love this time of year, we are planting veggies, attempting to keep the weeds under control and generally enjoying the warm weather! My husband has had a beautiful camera for some time but I've never really had a play. On the weekend I picked it up and had some fun!
 The tulips are just starting to bloom. They are my favourites...







Some alpaca action photos, the photo of Ebony is so cute, she was checking out the camera, probably wondering if she could eat it! Its nice to have a good photo of Ebony, usually she doesn't come out well in photos as she is too black and needs a really good camera to show depth.










Have you got food for us?

Run! Maybe there is food?

The young steers, just watching...

All the fruit trees are about to bloom, hopefully we will get fruit off this one this year.
 I don't normally post photos of my boy, but he was being so cute! So lucky to grow up on a farm!
 We had a huge pile of rocks in the middle of the veggie patch that we originally intended to grow pumpkins on, however we found it was just a fabulous home for snakes. This last week we organised for a large digger (excuse my ignorance... a backhoe, I think?) to come with an operator and remove the rocks. It looks so good and ready for a new garden bed to be built! Now we just need the time...
Veggie patch area renovations