I spoke too soon about the rain passing. We did have a downpour and I got very nervous about not hearing gurgling in the downspout behind my bed and The Bear nobly went out in the rain up a ladder (which he hates) to make sure the gutters were clear. The tree surgeon comes next Tues and I'll arrange a roofer to clean things up after that. I had horrible visions of our new ceiling disappearing from water damage again.

On the fibre front, I have only spun BFL and knit socks. I figure if I continue the cotton blend socks at my current rate I will get wearable socks before it turns cold. I was briefly tempted by an ad in one of the fibre lists for cut price llama fleeces (somebody with 150 llama and alpaca fleeces to offload!!) because I can't find a processor who will make the transaction possible. I have been unable to raise Wooly Knob for quite some time about the state of my fleeces that they are supposedly processing so I am hardly going to send them more. In spite of my vow not to buy more fibre I had to console myself with some llama roving instead. I think I will take some of the hanks of handspun in natural coloured wool and knit a jumper for the bear. It is chunkier than the usual 8-ply which means those oceans of stocking stitch will go faster. I think I am going to knit the red tweed into something for me but I haven't decided on a pattern. Is this the time to try a top down? Side to side?

There was an article in last week's Bulletin about the wool industry and (among the other things mentioned below) about the bounce back of the wool industry in some parts, the picture was painted that farmers are hedging their bets with sheep these days and breeding sheep that can be sold as reasonable meat sheep as well as producing wool. Dual purpose sheep have a better chance of turning a profit than wool only. Interesting sites I found were the Australian Wool Testing Authority and The Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association which has some breed photos, a history of wool in Australia and other such stuff.

Speaking of the land, we are heating up on the search for our future farmlet/nature preserve/market garden. We may take off to Bendigo soon avoiding Weds nights! Because.....

Tonight (!!) is my first session in the learning to weave course at the ANU School of Art and I am simultaneously very excited and more than a little nervous. What if I'm hopeless? What if I can't see well enough to actually do anything? What if I'm just not up to a 3 hour class? I intend taking a nap this afternoon and have done nothing more taxing today than cleaning the bathroom, doing 2 loads of laundry and changing sheets.

I have gotten some encouraged emails about my blog and I thank all of you who read it. It was never really intended as being an authoritative source on anything but I'm glad some of you find it at least interesting.