Sorting Fleece & Box Fun!

I spent this evening finally sorting through the fleeces I'd managed to accumulate in the past few months.  There are 4 Llama blankets, plus 2 large bags of the 'coarse' wool for stuffing.  Those were simple, just had to identify the blankets and mark the bags as such.  A couple bags I think have blanket wool mixed in with coarse wool.  Eventually, I'll have to rectify that, but not tonight.  I also pulled out the Suffolk wool I was given 2 months ago for sorting.  It was a freebie, and as has been said; "never look a free fleece in the lock!" No skirting had been on those, so I flipped out an old sheet and dumped each bag at a time over it on the front lawn.  Each fleece took at least 20 minutes to sort through, unfolding as gently as possible the various chunks of wool, discarding the tagged wool (poop tags), the felted bum wool, the uber dirty wool.  Then selecting the cleanest and longest sections to roll up cut-side in and stuff into pillowcases.  What was left then was the not-quite-as-dirty wool, which was stuffed back into the original bag for use as stuffing and for felting projects.  Altogether I ended up with 3 pillowcases of wool, maybe 3 lbs in each.  Threw away another 4 or 5 lbs and stuffed probably 6 or 7 lbs of grease wool in the bag for stuffing use.

While I was performing this daunting, but necessary task, my pair of Littles: Aydi & Bubba were out on the lawn nearby.  They had discovered the leftover box from the plastic cabinet David had built for me in my new shed.  Suddenly it had become a 'fort' complete with doors and, according to Aydi, a kitchen.  Bubba initially came tearing out the front door in a semi-long fleece shirt and no drawers or diaper.  Two forced trips back to the house and he finally brought out a diaper and britches.  The poor neighbors!!  Then the pair of them proceeded to beat their new 'house' with some long twigs, pulled open the 'back doors' and jumped on it until it collapsed.  By then twilight had settled in and it became more fun to chase down the fireflies. 

Aydi would capture one and declare it to be a girl or boy, though how she determined their gender is beyond me! Then give them names.  She even tucked 2 of them into a paper cup, covered with a small paper plate (they had brought their 'snacks' out with them) and proclaimed the insects to be her pets and that she desired to have them sleep with her in her room.  Fortunately it took very little convincing to encourage her to release the bugs back onto the lawn.

Gotta love early summer!