Saturday, November 14, 2015

Upgrades, Renovations and a New Aviary

 I am slowly adding to my etsy shop: www.uniquedesignsbykathy.etsy.com and my finished goods page: www.artweaving.etsy.com. Above is a lovely supercoil in natural colors that has kid mohair and tencel. Perfect for embellishment.
 Due to all of the traveling that I have been doing, my right leg has developed serious issues. My sciatica has flared up dramatically and I can no longer spin more than half hour on a regular wheel. Since spinning is my major passion, I invested in two different electric spinning wheels. Featured above is the Spinolution Firefly. I also bought the Ashford espinner. I love both of them and will usually take the Ashford to shows since it is smaller. This weekend I am taking the Firefly to the Maryland Alpaca Fiber festival. I am already set up in the dining hall. I am so excited to be there since it is warm and a lot of the vendors are my friends. Great place to hang out for the weekend. It also has the advantage of being only 15 minutes from home, so a lot less driving.
 With six peafowl now, their own aviary became a must. This is the beginning stages. It is almost finished now. Just the door to hang on the shelter. We moved them into it last night. They are edgy, but it is better for them to not be with the chickens.
We decided to have our barn restoration begin now. The guys have almost finished replacing the doors and windows on the front. It is already warmer since the wind is no longer whistling through the slats. I love being able to open the doors by myself. The hanging doors were designed for big husky guys to open. The front is now white till they finish all of the windows. It will be repainted red once the new wood is all in place. Of course, when they started removing the bad sections, they found lots of water damage and termite damage - none current, so it will cost us more than expected, On the Mark Construction is doing the work. They are very diligent and will hopefully have the exterior done by the end of the year.