First, prior to class I spent the afternoon emptying off the TiVO and spinning.  I worked on some of the alpaca that I got on Saturday.  This took a bit.  I later learned in spinning class why I was having more trouble.  Apparently alpaca fibers don’t adhere to one another like wool fibers do so the roving can get away from you.  Anyway, I eventually got the hang of it.  Here’s my progress (don’t expect much… I’m new at this!)

I was moderately pleased with myself. 

Once Dana got home from work I loaded up the spinning wheels (the Ashford Traveler that I had borrowed for the week and my brand spankin’ new Lendrum DT) and headed to Seattle.  I still enjoyed my drive.  I still saw cool things.  But the sun wasn’t really out so I didn’t actually get much in the way of a sunset.  No sun = no sunset.  (OK all you science schmience people… just leave it alone.  This means you Dana.) 

I did, however, still get a couple of pictures.  Most had to be deleted because they were blurry but here’s what I did get (warning…. really really bad photography up ahead.)

Starting to see some of the skyline

I think (THINK… don’t know but I think) this is Safeco field in the center and then Key Arena at the right border.  This could be totally wrong.

Spinning class was great.  Our teacher had us working on some Corriedale wool and then some Romney.  We learned how to card wool (what a lot of work… man oh man.  I have pretty weak upper arm strength so that was quite the effort for me).  The coolest thing was that she had a fleece that hadn’t been washed or anything.  She just rolled it out on the floor.  It was still pretty much in the shape of the sheep.  She reviewed what to look for in a fleece, how to clean one.  It was very cool.

This brings me to a recent discussion around here.  I was never one of those folks who thought when I retire I’m gonna….. fill in the blank.   I was hoping, I suppose, that the good life wouldn’t  have to wait until retirement.  And not sayin’ it does but….  I’ve come to the conclusion that I would love an alpaca farm.  Or a sheep farm.  Or a combo.  When I told Dana this he was the one who said "you mean when we retire". Yeah, yeah…. whatever it is I need to say to get you discussing alpaca farming.

Right now this is in the isn’t-that-cool stage and not in the man-what-a-lot-of-work stage.  And the two may never meet.  But, I wouldn’t mind seeing if one of the farms would let me volunteer just a bit to learn more about it.  This will probably have to wait until AG is a bit older but doing some work on one of the farms sounds like a great way to give it a try and see what I think.  We’ll see.