So You Think You Want to Live My Life?

When I leave this place and go out on the road, I hear this from many of the knitters who take my classes….. “I want to live your life.” At first it was a bit disconcerting but as time goes on, I know that many of you who read my blog do so because I show you things that are different from your own lives. I'm used to the comments.

On Friday evening before my class at A Loom with a View, I stayed at Rose Ann Hunter’s beautiful old home which she and her daughter Kristen run as the Morrill Place Inn. Rose Ann hosts rug hooking retreats at her inn along with many of the other traditional textile techniques she practices. Rose Ann is amazing and if you ever get the chance to take one of her classes, do! She teaches at the Stitches events, Interweave KnitLab and TKGA events. Here are some delicate teacups from the breakfast room.

This is an antique European lace curtain which is hung in the breakfast room. So amazingly delicate.

I felt like a queen sleeping in the giant bed.

Here is the handpainted fireplace screen and surround in my room below a lovely old mirror.

All lousy phone photos enhanced with PS Express App on my iPhone.

While I was away, life goes on here at The Farm. Julia and The Farmer did the Amherst Farmers Market and then returned to do chores - feed lambs, check on the dogs, cats, chickens, the grazing ewe flock. There are a lot of creatures eating here that need some looking in on. When I eventually returned home, I was greeted with a very happy Julia. She really did miss me on this short trip. Probably because she had to get up at 5:30 and sit at the market for hours. I was gone for a total of 28 hours - not too long but an ocean away from the farm.

It's always a bit of a shock for me to re-enter farm life. On Saturday I was faced with the reality of the stuff that happens every day pretty quickly. I was told that Saturday during afternoon chores, one of the twin black bottle lambs that we have been feeding for months was under the truck when The Farmer was pulling away. You guessed it. Poor little lamb. The Farmer felt awful - she was a sweet thing and very tame. Sometimes the tameness gets the lambs into situations that a regular mama raised lamb doesn't dare attempt. 

I don't fault The Farmer. No matter how slow you go, or how many times you look before you pull out, stuff happens. So I was faced with the chore of taking care of the lamb. There were times when we would probably have just buried the lamb. Not now. The lamb couldn't live her life without purpose. The Farmer had gutted and skinned the lamb. On Sunday, I dragged the carcass out of the freezer where it was being held and proceeded to cut it up. 

Now I'm not the best at this type of job but I have learned my way around a sheep carcass. This isn't the first time this has happened. One time, our first Border Collie Paisley snapped the leg of a lamb. Another time a giant 800 pound bale fell on a lamb. Nothing really surprises me anymore. I cut off the legs - they are easy. I separated the shoulders from the trunk for braising. Next I cut off the neck for a nice stew treatment. Some butchering is easy to do and some of it difficult - like cutting down the center of the backbone to make a rack of lamb. That is a two person job and a hacksaw is needed (when you don't own a bonesaw). I suppose it would be good to take a butchering class but they aren't offered around here. The lamb is all taken care of now and in the freezer. Because she wasn't "processed" at a USDA facility and was processed in my kitchen, we won't be able to sell the meat. We will be having some fine meals even if this lamb's intended purpose in life was to be a mama.

So, do you still want to live my life?