The Excitement....

Do you feel it?  How about now?  It's in the air!  What's in the air?  Might it be... only the 2015 Pa State Farm Show!  For me, the excitement started in February of 2014 because I look forward to this event as much as I look forward to Christmas.  This year, the Blue Mountain Farms team is going to very busy.  We will, for the first time, have our very own booth!  It is also exciting for the Fleece to Shawl and Sheep to Shawl teams because there is only one week until our big competition day!  I will serve as the weaver, for the first time in five years of competing, for the team potato.  I look forward to the result.  


I know that as the PaSRBA Duchess, I will be in the rabbit room most of the time.  I also am excited for the rabbit show on Friday.  There are always lots and lots of breeds of rabbits there and only a few get to stay for the whole week.  You see, the Best of Breed and Best Opposite of Breed winners, and some breeds keep varieties as well, stay for the week, other wise, there would be hundreds and hundreds of rabbits crammed into one room.  Also in the rabbit room, there is a stage that the kids get to stand up on and talk a little bit about their breed or breeds of rabbits that they raise.  I love to talk about rabbits and how they are dual purpose animals.  I also like to give a presentation that other 4-H kids participate it.It is a demonstration of taking a coat off of a rabbit and turning it into a garment.  I really enjoy the time that I get to spend with my friends during this demonstration and just being there and representing at the same time!  We are all volunteers and appreciate all that is offered with all of the wonderful opportunities.  


There is one more thing that I am very proud of.  My miniature horse named Journey, you've seen him in previous blogs, and I have been working very hard and we have been invited to participate this year's Miniature horse Extravaganza!  Not to mention the fact that we are going to be driving too!  I am very excited and I can say that there will be a blog about that very soon.


I am looking forward to what this year brings and I can't wait to give you an update in a week!  I will attach a few pictures of Farm Show of 2014.  

My bunny, Brown Sugar, and I were waiting for rabbit showmanship

My brothers cabinet and my jams n' jellies won Best in Show!

My fleece to Shawl team last year

Journey and I waiting to preform last year.

Journey and I before a show with the miniatures  

Snow...

Well folks, we had a white Thanksgiving here and we enjoyed every minute of it!  All of the animals were enjoying the snow as well.  While feeding the animals were getting excited because I think, somehow, they just knew that it was a special day.  Here at Blue Mountain Farms, we obviously live on a mountain, so we get a lot of snow.  

Journey, my miniature horse, who is afraid of puddles, loves snow and frozen puddles, now, does that make any sense to you?  I had to walk him outside for the morning feeding and, at first, he had no idea it was snowing, until he looked up and saw the Winter Wonderland; he went crazy!  After that show, the following goats had to go outside: Peek-a-Boo, Spidey, and Cocoa.  Cocoa was non-stop sneezing because she put her head down right into the snow, and she was not to happy.  Peek-a-Boo ran to the pen faster then I had ever seen before!  Spidey did not seem to care all that much though.  Once they were taking care of, it was time for the kids!  The kids are included as follows: Maple, Eclipse, Luna, Ester-Ella, Meteor, and finally the lamb named Charm.  Maple and Luna, as soon as they walked out of the barn, stopped dead in their tracks.  Eclipse loved the snow so much that I thought he would never want to go back in the barn!  Meteor and Charm, on the other hand, started crying so much because they were unsure of what was going on, or what was falling from the sky!  It was a very interesting feeding session that morning, if I must say so myself.  I took some pictures while the snow lasted and I would like to share them with you.  

Gus Gus and the kids were checking things out.

Harley says, "What is all this white stuff?"

Peek-a-Boo and Oscar look a little mad, don't you think? 

Oscar!

Journey is showing off... like always

Bumble!

She is a very pretty horse, is she not?

"Yeah, Yeah, I get it, I am cute, now where is the hay?" 

Peanut is a very happy cat!

Thank you for reading this blog and I hope you enjoyed the pictures! 

Texas...

Well, I WENT TO TEXAS!!!!!! It was a very exciting experience! On the way down, we stopped in Pigeon Forge Tennessee for the night and in the morning we checked in to the Titanic museum and had a blast! First of all, we are given our tickets, then we are given our "boarding pass" that enables us to enter the Titanic.  If you read the Boarding Pass, it has a name and some information.  The name is yours for the day, and the information is your biography about yourself.  My name was Genevieve and I was from New York.  We were given a mobile device that played a role of being our very own guide for the day.  As we walked through the Titanic, we saw different codes that you would type into your device and the "guide" would tell you all about the room you were entering.  I had two favorite parts of the whole event.  The first one was the fact that we actually experienced 28 degrees Fahrenheit salt water and different degrees of slopes that the Titanic increased while sinking.  I also love the fact that after the tour, you were able to talk to the ships "captain" and we learned that the Bible was a huge part of the Titanic and that the "captain" saw the Titanic wreckage site!  At the very end, you were told if the person that you played for the day survived the sinking or passed away at sea.  Genevieve survived! 


Once we were finished in the museum, we were headed down the road again.  It was a very long drive, but it was all worth it!  Speaking of worth, around midnight of October 30th, we arrived In Forth Worth, Texas!  I was very excited to see how the week would go!  It was exciting by just being there!  The next day, most of the youth studied like crazy since we were about to participate in the royalty contest.  That day just blew right by and before I knew it, I was in the breed ID room putting my best knowledge on my paper in front of me.  In case you're not sure how the contest works, I'll explain it:

King(Boys, Ages 15-18 years), Queen(Girls, Ages 15-18 years), Duke(Boys, Ages 12-14 years),

Duchess(Girls, Ages 12-14 years), Prince(Boys, Ages 9-11 years), Princess(Girls, Ages 9-11 years), Lord(Boys, Ages

5-8 years), Lady(Girls, Ages 5-8 years). Age is determined by the contestant’s age on the last day of the Nationals

Convention. Winners are announced at the Youth Banquet during the ARBA National Convention.  King and Queen, Duke and Duchess, judge four groups of four rabbits, breed ID, and if they do well, they will be a part of a face to face interview. For the judging, you have to place four rabbits the way that you think a rabbit judge would place them for each class, but you only have seven minutes.  As for the Breed ID, there are at least 25 rabbit and/or cavies (guinea pigs) that you have to identify on a piece of paper the breed of the animal, it's variety that it would be shown under, if it is shown under four classes (a small rabbit) or six classes (a bigger rabbit), and what it's registration variety is.  Prince and Princesses, Lords and Ladies, are required to do Showmanship, Breed ID, and if they get a callback, they then have a face to face interview.  All of the youth participating in the royalty contest, will also have a written test.  

I am proud to say that I was called back for an interview!  I also was on a team for Pennsylvania.  We had to again judge a class of four rabbits and our individual scores for breed ID is combined with the team scores.  My Pennsylvania team won third runner-up nationally!  I also won runner-up with my Management application!  I was very proud of that accomplishment because I work very hard to care for my rabbits.  Also, my scarf that I donated to NARBC, the angora rabbit breeder club, raised $125!  Two other exciting things happened for me personally.  My American Fuzzy Lops did very well.  I have been raising them for several years now.  In Texas I showed a solid senior doe, a solid senior buck, and a broken senior buck.  My solid buck was third, my solid doe placed second in her class, and my broken senior buck went on to win best opposite of breed.  That was amazing considering there were over 70 American Fuzzy Lops shown!  Additionally, my Satin Angora won best of breed.  This is also a huge accomplishment considering she is from my own breeding program.  I was very excited and very happy with the week!  I really thought that the Texas crew did a great job!  We all need to remember that clubs volunteer to host these events, it is a ton of work, and I for one really appreciate all that they did!  Great Job TEXAS!

Did I mention the fact that at home there was a litter of seven Crème D' Argents born?   Just one other Texas note:  I even bought an English Lop when I was there.  Yes, I know what you are thinking, "What is an English Lop?"  Simple, it is only a rabbit that has ears at least 21 inches from tip to tip. :)  His name is Len and he is very happy to be home.

My Satin Angora Best of Breed Winner with the judge...

My new English Lop named Len

My American Fuzzy Lop named Nate with Best Opposite of Breed!

Nationals...

Hello everyone! Or should I say, "Howdy ya'll"? I am very pleased to announce that there is only two more days before traveling to the great state of Texas! "Why am I going?" you might ask yourself. ARBA nationals! ARBA stands for the American Rabbit Breeders Association.  ARBA is a huge show that is held in the fall of every year.  I have been a part of this wonderful journey since 2008 and so far I have visited the following states: Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, Last year it was here in Harrisburg, and now Texas.  We have usually over 22,500 animals at the convention.  Wow, that is a lot of rabbits!  There are 48 different breeds of rabbits and each breed has there own standard.  There are also 13 different breeds of cavies.  You might be thinking to yourself, "What are cavies now?" but the answer is simple.  They are guinea pigs, but in the rabbit world, we call them cavies. 

Now for the really exciting part... What rabbits I am taking?  Well, when you are preparing for this big of a show, you must choose your rabbits wisely.  I am taking a total of nine rabbits and I am excited for each one.  Keep in mind that I have those big, fluffy rabbits that love to chew their coats when in stress, so do the math.  A 25 hour drive + A big, fluffy angora + A small cage = A chewed coat.  How do you stop that?  Simple, just put them in a bigger pen.  It still is very stressful for you and the rabbit because you spent eight months to grow this coat on this rabbit for this show; you don't want to lose it now! 

I am also going to participate in the royalty contest and the educational display.  I had to pre-enter the educational projects and the applications and let me just say that they are very lengthy.  I am in the Duchess category and a lot of girls are usually in that category as well.  What I entered for the education display was a pair of fingerless mittens (the pair I made the pattern for) and a woven scarf.  What I did was warped the loom for two scarfs and then wove them both in one day!  It was very good practice for Farm Show(you will be reading a blog on that soon...) One of the scarfs I am keeping and I am donating the other scarf to the NARBC. NARBC stands for the National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club.  Hope they like it!

I will be writing a blog as soon as I get home to update you on our adventure...

My English Angora jr. doe is ready!

My French Angora buck...



My Satin Angora doe...

 

The scarfs that I am entering and donating... (I am keeping the blue one)

 

Make It With Wool....

 Hello everyone!  I am very excited to report about this past Saturday.  I went to a very fun event called The Make It With Wool Contest.  To be a part of this contest, you must make a garment that has a minimum percentage of wool or wool blend (minimum of 60% wool or specialty fiber is required) for each fashion fabric or yarn used. Specialty wool fibers include mohair, cashmere, alpaca, camel, and llama in the garment or garments.  

For my outfit, I knit a sweater with cables that is held together in the front with a button that I made out of modeling clay.  I also knit a hat out of the same yarn that I used for the sweater with except I hand dyed that yarn.  I used more of this hand-dyed yarn to weave fabric which I used to construct a pair of shorts and then lined the shorts with satin.  The best part is, the fact that all of the yarn was made in our fiber mill and it all came off of my very own Leicester Longwool sheep named Boo!  After my brother and I sheared Boo, I skirted his fleece, and then washed it.  I made roving out of it and my sister Ashley and my mom helped to finish it into yarn on the spinning frame.  The yarn I used to weave the fabric and the yarn I used to knit my hat was hand dyed with a lighter shade of purple and a mint green.  I had a great time at the contest!  I was in the junior category with other girls who had beautiful garments!  I didn't know what to expect.  After the fashion show, they announced the winners and little did I know, I WON!  Now, I get the opportunity to represent Pennsylvania and go to nationals!  Guess where... Nevada!  I am more than excited now.

Boo was excited to hear to news that his fleece is going to Nevada!

Waiting to hear the winners....

My outfit....

All of the winners and runner-ups... Congrats everyone!

We Are Up and Running!!!!

Hello everyone!  I know it is a little delayed, but we had the Grand Opening!  It was a great success!  We even had a welcoming committee consisting of: Eclipse and Meteor.  Every time someone came up the driveway, Eclipse and Meteor were on it!  We did learn that Eclipse likes kids (probably because he is one himself) and Meteor does not. It made for a good story... 

That wasn't all, we had a lot going on. Tyler, Papa, and my dad were stirring the soup in the kettle, mom was here there and everywhere and enjoying every minute of it, Nana, Deb, and Linda were in the shop, Ashley and Megan were in charge of the fiber mill tours, Cami and I were with the welcoming committee and doing Rabbit tours, and Uncle Randy kept all of us company when needed.  We had a pretty great Blue Mountain Farms group, if I must say so myself. We even wore T-shirts, Blue Mountain Farms T-shirts and we all looked great!  It was a beautiful fall day and we couldn't have ask for any more of it.  If you are ever around us make a trip up here; Eclipse and I would love to show you around!

Great Group!

Tyler, Papa, and Randy with the soup...



Our snack table! It was delicious!

Cami an I with the welcoming committee! No Hands!

The Fiber Mill...



See, I told you Eclipse likes kids....



Madi's Mitts!

Well, I finally did it!  I wrote my own knitting pattern using my very own fiber from my very own rabbits.  Now that we have our mill, we've been having a lot of fun, in between jobs for others, making our own yarns using our own fiber.  Last week, we used a lot of our rabbit fiber to blend it with a dyed merino top.  Merino top is a fiber that has been processed into a wonderfully soft roving.  After washing, piking, carding, and pin-drafting, we were finally ready to spin.  Once the roving was ready, we spun it into a beautiful yarn!  The one we named Wizzywig Wild and I decided to make a pair of fingerless mitts with the yarn, but I wanted to make my own pair with my own pattern, so I did.  

It took a lot of math and thinking, but I finished with two adorable mitts!  Not to mention the fact that that the yarn was made from our own rabbits, made in our own mill, and the mitts were made right here were the yarn was made!  How about that?

One of the nicest things about angora yarn, not to mention the warmth and softness it provides, is the lovely "halo" that garments made from it will actually start to produce.  Here are just a few of the pictures from the fun we had last week:

Yummy angora roving

Yarn on the skein winder

Yarn in different colors & weights

One of my bunnies being groomed just before shearing time!

Here are my finished mitts!