An Evening at Havenscourt Homestead and Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, the Boy and I spent a LOVELY evening in Oakland at the Havenscourt Homestead where we learned to milk goats, collected eggs and spent an evening of leisure around the fire pit listening to the goats bleat, quail coo, chickens cluck and the occasional distant siren-- the sounds of urban farm life.

Kitty Sharkey started work on her homestead about 2 years ago and has an impressive back yard farm in high production now. With four Goats, twelve hens, four quail two hives, two cats, two oscars and a couple dozen pond fish, you'd think her place would be crowded but I was very impressed with how well she had used her space. Between two goats, she milks just over half a gallon every evening and collects a handful each of quail and chicken eggs daily as well. She swears her gardens are a mess but I look at them and am in awe of the tomato harvest she filled her fridge with. She's looking forward to a time when her organic farming practices will bring her up to 75% self sufficiency. It is an ambitious goal, but certainly one worth working towards.

Aside from her day to day farming practice, Kitty is working with her goats to train them as therapy animals. Sammy, her young wether (castrated male goat) is often the favorite of visitors as he is small, friendly and has an extraordinarily soft coat for his breed. Many of the neighborhood children have been invited into the yard to meet "the kids", as Kitty affectionately calls her little herd and she will be bringing them to the Norther California Renaissance Faire's brand new petting zoo starting this upcoming weekend (September 18th and 19th).

Speaking of which, The Ren Faire has 2 for 1 tickets THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Come see the court, stay for a show (or three) and cool down with a pint while you browse he marketplace. Stand aside when you hear drums and fanfare because the Queen is coming! Boy and I are at the head of the parade as part of the St. Blaise Town Criers followed by drummers, revelers and the Yeomen of the Guard. See you there!


Homestead photos are property of Kitty Sharkey and Havenscourt Homestead.

NCRF Promotional photo is property of Play Faire Productions.

Maker Faire!

As some of you know Maker Faire is in San Mateo this weekend. No we don't have a booth, but yes we're going! And we're excited! You should be too, dag nabbit! I mean how can you not be excited about the world's largest and most comprehensive DIY/inventors' festival?

The coolest part? I GOT FREE TICKETS!!!

I'm the manager for a local pizzaria, but a sizable chunk of my responsibility is a 5-hour shift behind the counter Monday-Friday. Yesterday I was on the register taking delivery orders by phone as usual (bored out of my mind if it weren't for the kindle app on my ipod). A woman called in and said she needed a huge delivery to the San Mateo Event Center ASAP. She was feeding a set-up crew of 80+ people. On a hunch I asked what event she was working on. The answer: Maker Faire! I was super excited about that and gave them a discount for being awesome! (Well, technically for being an educational event but that's just what we're telling the boss-man, right?) After paying she says "I'm giving you a couple tickets so let your driver know to pick up an envelope from me." To which my response is naturally to jump up and down flail my arms and jibber gratefully at her! I may also have squeed. :P

That made my freakin day! C., f you read this THANK YOU!!!

Craft-fair Goodness!

As some of you know, the Monarch Craft Fair at Louden Nelson in Santa Cruz was this past weekend and WildWoodYarn attended in full force! Apparently the only thing that wasn't really full enough was our inventory of felted critters! Brianna had made a whole menagerie and I'd brought a couple of my pieces as well as a mass of felted Christmas ornaments and I sold all but a couple ornaments, and Brianna did even better with her creatures! Ria and Sarah both did well too.

Best of all we made contacts and spread our name to people interested in our crafts.

Beyond just our inventory, we came across several people interested in learning the skills we have and we're interested in teaching a workshop or two! These are fairly informal since none of us are experts however some of us are teachers of one sort or another. We love what we do and want to pass these skills on to others who are curious about bookbinding, felting, spinning and dyeing. For this reason we're taking a tally of who'd like to attend a small class and what subject should be first.

Lets have some feedback guys!