Extra busy on Fathers day! Sheering demo and Blacksmithing!!
Happy Father’s Day for those who are celebrating today!
Today, which will be yesterday, by the time you are reading this, tomorrow, was a bit overbooked. I hope you will come along and check out the day. At 8:30am, We were to be at the log farm, where Ann has a stall at the farmers market (Yummy goodness!!!). the Farm has barns and other out buildings past the trees and fields beyond the market area. Today was sheering day for their sheep! They had been very generous and given us previous sheerings form their flock so I really did want to go demo for them.
We packed up the Mer-Boyfriend, the mostly finished picture of the sheep and the moose back with landscape. I could not find where Glenn had put my Core wool from WOW so grabbed the last of a bump of coreidale. No not what I want its combed top not carded roving. Drat.
It was quite the hike for me into the farm but the ground was flat until we reached the farm. We saw lots of grape vines and little apples on the way.
1.1) the end of the path heading to the farm
1.2) apples and grape vines with tiny buds of grapes
It has some old log buildings and lots of different types of animals. Including the volunteers of honor the adult sheep. They were quite loud so someone may have tipped them off the Shearing was happening today.
2.1) some of the animals on the farm
2.2) The guests of honor, one of whom thought my walker wheel a tasty snack!
For very early on a Saturday morning there was quite a crowd to watch the sheep loose there winter coats. A new volunteer was brought forward about every 20 minutes until noon.
3.1) shearing in front of an audience.
While this was going on we were next door in a 3 sided barn, I was a bit farther back and could not see the sheering happening until I went out to take a peek.
4.1) Demoing spinning and felting
4.2) touch samples of various fibers
4.3) the sample table
4.4) Inkle weaving and electric spinning wheel (with portable battery power source)
5.1) sheep may be having an Instagram moment after a strange seep trys to sneak into the herd
Post sheering the sheep were looking for food.
5.2) small girl in yellow dress gives hands full of grass to sheep wating at fence
5.3) The lambs having a nap after the sheerer relieve there moms of all there fleece
Just past the sheep were the Alpaca. They had already been sheered
5.4) Alpaca
It was after noon by the time I packed up my felting and we headed back to the car. Unfortunately we had another place to go today and a long drive through traffic to get there.
5.5) some form of snow ball bush I think, it was very pretty and there were variations near the farm
5.6) it was a very pretty walk but it felt like it was much longer on the way back.
They may have snuck in more trees while we were demoing? We passed Ann on our way out, she still had some of the cookies and a few tarts. We would have got a beef and mushroom pie but I knew it would have to sit in a hot car for the rest of the day so not a good idea. (The AC seems to have stopped working, oh no back to the old fashion windows!)
5.7) Ann at the Farmers market
Did you want to follow us to our next and more appropriate fathers day location? We are off to well past Ottawa heading towards Montreal to the town of Dunvagen (still in Ontario). The Glengarry Museum is located there and they have an annual Blacksmith group teach a workshop on father’s day weekend. This year they are making scissors.
Since we had been at the sheering this morning we are running late to watch the making of scissors. We arrived and they had made the blades ends and were doing the offset and starting to do the tapper for the handles. Glenn went to check that out and I headed for the ramp to the school house where the lady with alpaca fiber usually is. I missed the bag of black and the dark brown but got a bag of a light creamy badge.
7.1) Alpaca seller
7.2) Pottery vendor
7.3) Sassy by Nicci had figures made of resin. I like these little guys
7.4) this woodworker had bird houses, as well as these bat and bee houses
7.5) This one had some weaving
7.6) horns and horn cups. They are finished so you can drink hot or cold drinks or pop in them.
7.7) There even was a vendor selling blacksmith made stuff. Do you see the woven centure fleshay belt?
Now to the main event the usually very photogenic blacksmiths. There were 2 groups, one in the log building with a forge. They were again working on making a musket. (I think it was a musket it was a gun barrel of an old design.)
8.1) smithing a gun barrel
The other group of blacksmiths were taking a workshop on making a pair of scissors.
9.1-9.2) the blacksmithing class
We arrived as they were discussing forging the handle loops. They could decide the shape and cross section to fit their hands.
9.3) inspecting samples of scissors looking at the handle loops
9.4) The instructor traced a sample scissor handle on his anvil so he had a pattern to work from
I gave Glenn my old camera and he was having fun trying it out.
9.5) Glenn trying out his new camera
9.6) some of the sample scissors and scissor parts
9.7) this is one of the students, we saw her last year. She had an ingenious way of working when she ran out of hands.
9.8) a guillotine tool in the hardy hole
On our way to the museum, we got stuck behind an agricultural parade going very slowly. I am pretty sure we saw the same Vehicles in the field behind the museum. One tractor pulling swirling round rakes that gathered the hay and the second tractor pulled a strange machine that made hay bales that it gathered then dumped behind it. It was fun to watch them work too.
10.1) the field behind the museum
It was a fun day, lots of driving, now I’m sore and its getting close to bed time. I want to leave you with traditional blacksmithing imagery, coal and flames ready to bend mettle to your will. I think I will stick to bending wool to my will but its fun to see the skill involved to move mettle where you want it to go and make useful things, like scissors.
11.1) lovely fire in the forge. just remember not to breath the green smoke!!
I hope you have a wonderful father’s day and get to do some felting ether wet or dry! maybe you made something cool for your Dad?
1) Sign for the smith in with a muscle-y drawing of a blacksmith, there is something odd about the shoulder rotation, and thumb and wrist rotation but it does get the idea across. (Although this depiction will have you disappointed when you get there by the lack of shirtless working smiths.)
2) stages of this year’s project, a spontoon. Parts and various stages of the project are displayed on a wooden pick-nick table, there are two spring swages just out of the picture (you can see the handles).
3.1) montage of making the collar for the Spontoon, Borax is used to forge weld, since the area being welded is so thin we don’t want to see the magic Cross shaped sparks. The last image is one of the spring swages that will be used in this project.
3.2 These are two of the samples being admired by other museum visitors
5) turkey Vultures circling, coming in for a landing and then in conference, possibly discussing dinner?
7.1-7.2) Glenn getting answers to some of his questions 
8) great wheel with interesting tilt tension.
9) Flax Tools, Hackles, Scutching knife, Flax and teasles
10.1) Small Saxony style flax wheel with distaff. Note the coverlet in red black and white behind the wheel.
10.2) Close-up of the coverlet 
11)Roses on top, unknown Purple flowers and Pink Peony
12) My Lendrum Rook spinning wheel from the mid-1980s. there is Cashmere on the bobbin, I will have to ply it to empty the bobbin
13) Starting to spin the BFL
14.1 14.2) A display of figures, I have taken pictures of the fibre-related people
15.1-15.2) Students packing up their equipment. There were pickups, transit vans, a trailer, a cube van and a little hatchback car.
16) Oh I almost forgot to show you my perches from Saturday! a support spindle and a small beater for weaving
1 from last week
2-4 The Infestation (not necessarily a bad thing)
5 hooks and guillotine
6 These are over 2 years old and I need to use a wire brush and a bit of spray lacquer. After a couple of winters, they have picked up a bit of rust. I use them to hang and drain the strainer baskets between the washing and rinsing soaks of the fleeces.
7 blacksmiths are also handy for lifting strainer baskets out of the soaking buckets.
8 At his point I have a backlog of fleeces sorted and waiting to be washed.
9-10 My present 2 hooks and the sorting table.
11 I hang the baskets on an angle so the water drains from one corner removes more of the water than when it hangs straight.
12 He has also made me a couple of hooks designed to hang over 2×4’s both horizontal and vertical orientation. I have been using this for the 3rd strainer basket but it drips right in the carrots and I don’t like to think of the soap and other material the carrots are getting from the drippings.
13 Oops, found one more this was hiding!
14 Once the fire is made and the coal had burnt off the green smoke (don’t breathe that part!) it’s time to start heating up the bar stock to make hooks.
15-17 Blacksmith at work, don’t startle him.
19 This is his bigger anvil hidden partly amongst this year’s very good growth of catnip. The tool in the hardy is for cutting metal.
20 These are the hooks he made while I was wrangling dirty fleeces.