Life and Times of CrazyAnn

The Inspector General

2012-02-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have been missing. Our only source of internet access is by an aircard. We searched high and low and found the best deal with the best price and the most amount of available bandwidth. Still, with DH now at home all the time, we went all the way to the max amount available by the third week in January. So for a week, I could only check my email on my "not-so-smart" phone and I could also scan Facebook, if I didn't expect to see pics or make comments.

But finally, the first of February arrived and we can now surf the internet with wild abandon. Except maybe DH needs to not download tons of quadraphonic music this month. And no movies. That is what the Netflicks mail option if for.

Like most of the country, we are having much warmer than normal weather. Most of us are jumping the gun and getting lots of gardening done. I have been careful to only plant what can stand a sudden cold freeze, especially if I can offer protection with row covers. I am going more and more towards raised beds and framework that will allow me to use row covers for what ever the weather throws at us. Frost blankets for cold, shade cloth for blazing sun, protection from the bugs and even from the chickens. The raised beds I have used in the past have not worked out to be all that sturdy or helpful. So this year I bit the bullet and spent the money on what I hope will be a better, longer lasting system. I am using regular, standard dimensional lumber from the big box home improvement store. But I am treating it with a new product which is supposed to be an eco friendly product that is safe to use around pets and food, and is reported to protect the wood from rot for many years. I bought mine on line but found out later that Home Depot is also supposed to carry it. The corners I purchased from Gardener's Supply Co. I decided on the 10" set but I might have been happier with the 12". Another thing I realized as I put my bed together was that I wish I could have screwed it together from the outside and not the inside. I know they designed it this way to have a nice clean look but if I ever do need to change the wood sides out, I will have to empty the bed first. Even to add an extension set would require at least exposing the one long side. But still, I think it is a lovely raised bed and with my addition of PVC supports for the differing row covers, I think it will be very useful.

Of course, nothing can be done with out the approval of the Inspector General. I think all 5 of the team are happy with the new bed. They are dreaming of some luscious veggie that I can grow for them to snack on!!

I finally have had to make a decision about my pond. The pump and filter system is just not keeping things clean enough. So after talking to my local pond guy, I have decided to add a waterfall filter to this side of the pond. I really wasn't wanting to do a waterfall, but he assures me I can easily add one, it doesn't have to be all that tall or hard to hide the mechanics and it will keep the pond so much cleaner. So here in the next month I will attempt to add this feature and hope that I can keep things looking attractive. It shouldn't cost all that much and the time involved shouldn't be too bad. But I swear, if I don't end up with a cleaner pond, I will go throttle the darned pond man.

Today, I picked my first spring bouquet. Daffodils out of a large field that runs by my daily walking path. There are so many wonderful wild daffs around our part of Tennessee and I just picked a few to brighten up the house. This is way too early for daffs and way, way to early for my magnolia which is also in full bloom.

The other day, I was not home and my DH decided that he was watching "the best sunset" ever in our new adopted state. So he grabbed my camera and shot away. Mind you, he knows nothing...nothing about my camera. When I ask him to take a picture with it, even with me setting it up, he never gets a good shot. So how in the world did he gets these? Must have been some devine intervention. Enjoy!

Some say, "Boots on the Ground"...I say, "Hands in the Dirt"

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

Boots on the ground. Used to be a military saying to indicate that the planning stages of an operation were over. That soldiers would now be out getting the job done. Now everybody uses it for everything. But I digress :).

For me, winter is filled with gardening catalogs, filled with all kinds of new inspiration for spring. And my head gets filled up with all kinds of new veggies to grow, ways to grow them and then what to do with them after harvest. I drool and dream over all kinds of new flowers I want to use in the landscape to make my world more colorful. But mostly, us gardeners just impatiently wait for the first time we can go out and plant something and get it all going once again. We just hang in there barely, until we finally can go out and get those hands really dirty for the first time of the new year.

And I did that today. Planted peas. Peas need cold and can even tolerate moderate freezes once up and growing. I presprouted my seeds to help them get up and going even faster. I watched the weather reports and knew we have an entire week. at least before the next frost. So today, the presprouted seeds went in and hopefully, they can finish the sprouting process in this next week and be off and running before we have any more seriously cold weather. I do have my beds set up to be able to cover the plants if that old silly weatherman suddenly tells me that we are dipping down into the low 20's or even below. If it really got cold, 15 or below, I would probably loose it all. But that package of seeds cost just over a dollar. I think my pocketbook can handle that. Not sure my spirit will do as well!!

But I do have some nice things growing as we speak. Growing enough to even harvest some. This last fall I took my chances and planted some lettuce and spinach. I got them in very late and had serious doubts as to how successful I would be. But the weather has been pretty mild so far this year and I have been pretty religious in covering the beds when it did get down into the lower 20's. So, so far, so good. And tonight we get a salad to celebrate.

I also have a bed of garlic, planted this fall, that is growing very nicely. We should have all the garlic that we need for the next year!

So, now out of the garden and onto the wilder side of the yard. The pond. I have had 2 really cool frogs living in my pond, almost from the beginning. Whenever it is even a little bit warm out, they come out onto this rock and sun themsselves. Of course, if I get anywhere near, they immediately jump back into the water and hide under the rocks. But today, I almost got him. He was there with the camera trying to focus and he jumped away just a hair too soon. But he only got into the water and I still was able to at least get this picture of one of them.

Here's a picture of last week's birdfeeders from outside the apartment door. Thought you might want to see what it all looks like from this angle. For now. Till I change the feeder poles out for a new easier to use one.

Last, but not least....you must see the chickens as I see them every afternoon about 2. They know they get to run free about this time everyday and they get so wound up and ready that it is quite humorous. Especially the boys. They just can't wait to get out and be boss of the bigger barnyard.

The more that we let them free range, the less they eat the food that we have to buy for them. So the cheaper our eggs are and probably the healthier they are for us. But we could never let them run loose all the time, out here in the country with all the predators that lurk about. Including the one that lives in our house. Holly, the fox terrier/chicken terrier/cat terrier/skunk terrier/squirrel terrier..........and so on, and so forth

Who Knew, I might actually BE a morning person?

2012-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

I have never been a morning kind of person. Normally, I am not a great sleeper and what sleep I do get tends to be late in the sleep cycle and by morning, I am just not all that ready to put boots to the ground.

But all that changed when these came to live with us.

That beautiful rooster above goes by the name Hamlet. He has a brother, Horatio. They don't find any need to be extra quiet in the morning. And as soon as they sense the slightest bit of light in the sky they start crowing to be let out of the coop and down into the run.

And if the weather is particulary cold, I must take the waterer back in the house and refill it with warm water because chickens really must drink a lot and often to be healthy. If you let them drink really cold water, it chills them from inside, and that's not so good.

So once I get all that done, there are 2 very hungry house cats to be dealt with. Most mornings, my old grey kitty is awake and on my upper chest just about the same times as the first rooster crows. He is not all that happy about being 2nd in line but he doesn't get a choice. So as soon as I get back in, that can of cat food gets popped open and that makes them happy campers til evening.

Next up, 2 doggies. One who sleeps in the house and one out in a kennel in the garage. Both are very ready to go outside. Not as much for a nature call, as one to observe what the outside world has to offer them today. So poor tired, sometimes cold me is out trying to get both of them to stop nosing all around and get the necessary potty business done.

Then finally I get to pay just a little attention to me. I get to pour a cup of this.

And I get to take it and another bowl of cat food out to the guest apartment and feed Finn who is also waiting anxiously. Not for the food, but for the company. She has already watched me go make my morning runs out to the coop and she is also not happy that she was not first in line!!

I knowit looks like she could miss a few breakfasts, but actually, she is still a kitten and not all that plump. It was just this position she takes on the floor when she knows I am on my way in the door. She wants her belly rubbed immediately. Before the cat food, before I can sit down to drink that coffee and start the most peaceful part of the morning.

Bird watching. Right outside the french doors of the apartment is a wonderful garden, now with bird feeders positioned for the best view from indoors. I pull the chair into a prime spot, and sit with that coffee in such blissful quiet. Sometimes Finn even bird watches herself, from a perch right by the door.

But much of the time, she thinks she can get those birdies if she really tries. And that involves several charges to the door. The doors, that she finds are very inconvenient for her birding instincts. Oh well, lots of much bigger predators live outside, including one of my dogs. So she will eventually get used to the fact that she can only sit and watch the show.

None of these pictures can come close to capturing the experience I am getting every morning. I find that just getting near the window with the camera sends all the pretty birdies scurrying away. Many times I have as many as 10 adult male cardinals and their mates, 2 or 3 tufted titmice, 2 to 3 blue jays, numerous Carolina Chickadees, white crowned sparrows, white bearded sparrows, towhees, juncos, house finches, ect. Also one very gorgeous red bellied woodpecker. Then of course, the squirrel. Soon I plan on getting one of those really good feeder pole systems with the various add on arms. And a squirrel baffle. But once I do that, I will also buy a squirrel feeder cause, heck, if they already live in my yard, I should get to watch how cute they are. Yes, some call them tree rats. So what, I got ground rats too and unless they come inside, I happily let them live their lives.

But I guess the whole purpose of this post is to let you live my morning, vicariously with me. The peace and serenity that I get from these small hours is amazing. This morning, as I was ready to come in, Finn decided momma's lap was the softest, warmest, bestest place to take a morning nap. Allowing me even more time to watch those awesome birdies.

Hopefully I will start blogging a bit more. Now that I have found Pinterest.com. So many great ideas to do for the garden this spring. I am already working on several of them and should have reveal posts soon. See you then

The 3 Day

2011-10-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

Signed up in February

Finished raising the funds in May

Lost Jan to cancer of the breast on June 1st

Trained all summer

Gathered all the stuff I would need to "camp" out for 2 nights

Trained some more

Fretted over what shoes and socks to buy

Trained some more

Finally, October, walked 6 miles in 3 days!!

This experience was amazing. Walking 60 miles to honor my dear friend Jan was so much easier than anything she had to go while trying to fight off this horrible disease. All the worry and prep was nothing. The blister that plagued me the last day was nothing. The aches and pains can be medicated and will slowly disappear over the next few days.

The money will go for research, education and treatment of breast cancer. Maybe someday we will find a cure. But until then, thousands of dedicated humans will walk millions and millions of miles to work towards that end. Others will volunteer to make it all happen which is just as important as the walking. And if you can not do either of those, you can be one who donates, even a little to get the walker on the road.

I went to Atlanta, saying I would not do this walk again. The fund raising was easy for me this time around. My group of friends were so supportive to both me and Jan by making this part effortless. But raising the money a 2nd time is rarely as easy and I did not want to bother my friends again. But honestly, I do want to participate and will try very hard to make it happen. We will just have to see if my schedule next year will allow it to happen in Atlanta or if there might be another city that would better suite my active social calender!!

Darn.....I was going to post pics. But can't seem to get them off my phone. Drat, darn, dang and damn.......Maybe later I can come back and add them

My other summer project.

2011-10-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

This is my garage guest apartment. Open to any and all who care to visit. But be warned. I now have a permanent resident sharing the space. It is a long sad story about how I came to possess another kitty and I won't go into it here. But this is Finn, the surviving kitten from a pair that I rescued this summer. He can't come in and live in the house cause of all the dynamics of the animals that already live inside. But he does very well out here by himself. He spends lots of time playing with his toys, watching the wildlife out the window and relishing every minute that I come out to spend with him. He is a great kitty and I wish I could do better by him. But at least he is no longer living up a tree and now has some meat on that skeleton that I rescued a few months ago.

We call this Finn Land! He loves climbing on this and sleeping in the very soft bed. I plan on adding some more pieces to it as I find them. There is a tunnel and he needs another climbing wall to get up to the corner hidey hole at the top.

Here he is, probably watching the chickens. One time I let him out and he chased the biggest rooster. He is quite a brave little guy.

This was probably about a week after I took him in. He has already fattened up considerably. He was really nothing but skin and bones when we found him.

This is his mean face!!! But really he has a very sweet disposition.

So now, this is my new fish pond. In the walled garden behind the guest apartment. I dug it entirely by hand, moving the buckets of dirt way across the yard to fill in low spots elsewhere. I estimate it to be about 300+ gallons. Which is a lot of dirt. I would have loved a bigger deeper pond. But those 300 gallons of dirt about did me in.
Somehow I did not end up with any pics of the pond during the in between stages. No laying of the liner, no pics without the edges sticking out. In other words, you get to miss the ugly stage completely. I don't miss it at all.

This is some of the pretties that I have to make the pond even nicer. These statues are not your run of the mill Hobby Lobby ones. They are real art work. And not horribly expensive. I bought both pieces so far on sale and even with shipping were under $100.00 each. And I have a spitter coming that will match these and it was under $50.00
Right now I have a fountain going off the pump to help aerate the water. I have since changed out the fountain head to a bubbler cause when the wind blew it almost emptied the pond over the course of 2 days. The bubbler does not blow as much and still provides the oxygen the fish need to survive.
The plants are ones I just quick bought to help green up the pond and help hide the rough edges of the "manmade"pond. When I brought them home it was horribly hot and I just plunked them in the water expecting them to acclimate wonderfully. Not so. Several did suffer in the hot sun. But they have all recovered fairly well and are slowly growing. Most are perennial but at least 2 are annual. The water lily came from Ken's cousin Sheila in Ohio. She has gorgeous fish ponds of her own that I hope to visit some day.
In these pics everything looks one color. Beige. But with the flower beds surrounding the pond, there is actually quite a bit of color. And now the fish are finally comfortable in the pond and we see glimpses of orange and white all the time. I am not going with Koi. This pond is a bit small. I went with pond variety goldfish that are sturdy and won't get quite so large even after many years. So far we have not had any predator issues and even Holly doesn't seem to bother the fish when she sees them.

I still have a bit of work to do on the edges of the pond. One end is still a little low compared to the rest. And I need to take out the rocks and build it up to match. Then i should be able to fill the pond more and not let the upper liner show so much. The plantings need to be worked on next year. More and different plants are in order. I have been doing pretty well with the balance of the pond so far. I did have some string algae issues but got that quickly under control. next year I may add some trap door snails which are known for keeping the algae down pretty well. I did have a frog move into the pond area almost immediately. And i know for sure that we had at least 1 if not 2 batches of tadpoles mature and turn into frogs themselves because of my pond habitat!! That did make me a bit proud.

I would love to someday have even a bigger pond out front of the house. But unless I can get a backhoe to dig it out for me, it ain't gonna happen any time soon!!

Get ready for a whole lot of Pictures!!

2011-10-07T07:06:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile. I have had so many projects this summer and did not want to post a little bit of progress at a time. Wanted to show from breaking ground to finish product. So here goes.

We badly needed a new chicken coop. The chicken tractor we built this spring proved to be not the best for larger chickens. And mine are large. Woo hoo, believe me. They are large. Red Wyandotte's are a dual purpose breed, meaning we can eat the eggs but also the chickens so they tend to be a meaty bird. But we won't be doing that to any of ours any time soon. Unless they still aren't laying by Christmas!!

So I looked at tons of coop plans on line. Looked at folk's finished coop pictures, bought some plans, bought a book and finally made a decision. I would go on my own for the entire thing!! But the book helped. The book is called, "The Art of the Chicken Coop" by Chris Gleason. It does not give blow by blow construction details or cutting plans. But talks you thru some good basic design elements adding in the ability to make the coop your own artistically.

So I used the book to get me started. And changed a lot to suite the materials I had on hand and the abilities I had as a very novice carpenter. I also don't have a lot of power tools and feel more comfortable being able to use a hand saw as much as possible. I even went and bought a cordless drill which helped out tremendously with the location for the new coop being pretty far away from a power source.

So now here are the pics. With as much commentary as I can figure out how to work in between. I have never really figured this Blogger thing totally out so I am going to just do the best I can.

Here are my reasons for building this new coop.

This is Hamlet. He lost all his immature neck feathers all at once.

He doesn't mind. He has much prettier tail feathers!

One of the girls.

First day build on the driveway. Probably last time all was level and flat

This is the decking and 6 very strong sturdy legs. These puppies were hard to cut with just a hand saw

Flipped over and ready to move

Now moved into it's pretty final position. Before I moved it 2 more times.

First wall up. It needed a tad more support until I could get the next 2 walls attached.

2nd wall. This is the eventual ramp door

Back wall went up easily and the top of the front wall married in.

In comparison. Hard to tell but the chickies are very crowded in their old digs.

The framing to the egg box. This was easy.

It got harder the next day.

Figuring out how to frame it all out and make dividers taxed my simple mind.

But I got it done and moved on to frame out the rest of the inside.

Including the roofThese translucent panels will let more light in during the winter. Better for egg laying

Now to get the front built.

Nice big doors so the coop can be cleaned out easily

No, the gap in the middle of the doors was not a mistake. All in my plans.

I wanted to cover the gap with a trim board. Makes it better when the wood all swells during the hot humid summers we have here.

Now after reading "Art of the Chicken Coop" I just had to add some interesting details. These are vintage cast iron and I spray painted them with Rustoleum for protection.

Close up of Iron Rooster. I have a bid on ebay for some cast iron sunflowers, probably from the same time period. I will add those, if I win, to the centers of the doors.

Here we go with the run. I know it does not show but my only really big mistake happens here. The 2 long boards attached to the coop to support the run are not attached at the same level and later on that proves to cause a bit of frustration when attaching the wire to the run. But it worked out and after all, it is just a chicken coop.More of the run done.

Including the cute chicken run ladder. Almost ready to move in.

Moving day at last!

After a hilarious evening of trying to get the chickens from the run to the coop, the night passed by uneventfully. But in the morning no one was brave enough to go down the ladder. I finally opened the coop front doors and gently convinced on of the roosters to go down the ladder. The rest followed within a few minutes. But it did take some real concentration and bravery on the hens part

It sure looks scary from here

But here I go

All in all, I am terribly proud of this project. Yes, there are mistakes. And things I just could have planned better. If it had not been close to 100 degrees for the first 10 days of the build I would have totally excavated the site and got it all totally leveled out. And put in concrete footers. And so on and so forth. But it was close to 100 and I just didn't have it in me. So where it sits it is very very happy. But a bit on the sloped side. It slopes to the front which i figure will make it easier to clean out when i need to. But it also makes the water dish inside want to leak out so I need to find a better way to deal with that. I am also now having to carry concrete blocks over from the garden to surround the outside bottom of the run. I figure even tho I buried some of the wire fencing, this will help discourage raccoons. I haven't had any problem with them yet but they are in the area and could try to dig under. I will eventually replace the cinder blocks with big flat square paving stones. But I have other things to do first. To include walking 60 miles in 3 days.

I am not totally happy with the roofing. The translucent panels were tough to cut straight and did not screw down over the trim pieces just right. Oh well. It is probably because the 3 panels overlapped properly were meant to cover 72" and I forced them to cover about 73.5" That is another thing that I never gave a thought to when I cut the very first piece of plywood that became the floor to the coop. I guess that is why I worked in medicine for over 30 years and did not take up carpentry for a living!!

I am going to get this posted and then do a separate post for my other summer projects. Neither of them involve nearly so much work. Ok, the pond did come close.

Cute chickens, if I have to say so myself!!

2011-05-27T07:37:00.001-07:00

So it has been a few weeks. And of course, the chicks are starting to grow up pretty fast. They transitioned out into their coop a few weeks back and that all went fairly smoothly. Except for the 2nd day, when it was still too cold for them at night. I needed to get them back out of the coop and take them into the house before I had frozen chickens. The first night they were all snuggled up next to the door waiting to go back in the house. The 2nd night though, they ran away from me no matter which door I tried to use to get them back out. So eventually I had to belly crawl into the coop and bring them out one at a time. You can only imagine that the clothes I was wearing went straight into the wash!!

The next phase came when we left them out in the coop all night. They have plenty of room down on the bottom level to run during the day. But at night they need to go upstairs and roost where it is safe. But they weren't really all that adept at figuring out the ramp that goes between. So I had to go out after it started getting fairly dark and pick them up, one at a time, from the bottom corner where they were huddled and put them into the top thru the egg door. Then the ramp door got closed up to keep any night time predators from being able to dig under the chicken wire to get at them while they slept. In the morning we let down the ramp but the chickens weren't so keen on going down by themselves. So I figured out if I threw feed all over the ramp that they would follow the feed back down. It worked quite well. But getting them to go back up by themselves at night was harder to accomplish. So for about a week I would pick them up, one at a time and move them up thru the egg door. I really didn't mind all that much, cause a sleepy chicken is a sweet cuddly chicken. But honestly, going out and doing all this after dark was an issue. But finally one night, 2 had gone up by themselves. The next night, 4 and then finally they all got the idea.

The last step in all of this was to start letting them free range for an hour or so every evening. The first night I let them out was so cute. They came out a bit cautious. But then realized how much more they could do out of the coop. They stretched their wings and took short flights and headed straight for the garden. Since then they have gotten so used to getting out at night, that they line up at the door when they think it is time. We have had no trouble getting them back in the coop at night. When the sun sinks just below the top of the treeline, they head back in, like March of the Chickens. Except for one guy(we think), that is way more independent. Sometimes he takes longer but eventually he gets in there and all is well.

Most people say chickens will tear up your garden. But so far, we have not found that to be true. They love a little weed called oxalis and will eat that til they are stuffed. They like english peas but only if I shell them out for them. They don't seem to pick at the pea plants much at all. I am not sure what I will do for treats once the peas are done and that day is fast approaching with our summer heat setting in. I love when they peck for bugs. They scratch thru the leaves we are using for garden mulch this year and when they find a bug, they pick it up and then set it down to observe it before they eat it. Then when they are done, they do this sideways swipe of their beak on the ground, both sides, like they were wiping their mouths with a napkin!! And if they see a flying bug it is even funnier as they run to catch them. Wish I could get a decent pic of that, but all I ever get is a big blur.

We still don't know for sure if we have 1 rooster and 5 hens, or 2 roos with 4 hens, or even 3 of each. I am banding their ankles so I can tell the 4 more similar ones apart but I am still waiting to finalize those 4 names. Hamlet and Ophelia are sticking cause I am still pretty sure I have those 2 right.

Now for pics......enjoy

Hamlet and Ophelia

Hamlet and Ophelia dust bathing

I love how Hamlet is so much redder and Ophelia is almost white

A big dusty ball of chickies

Hamlet in his glory

This is where doggies must be when chickies are roaming
Poor poor Holly!

Spring Is Definitely, Probably, Maybe Here

2011-04-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

We have had some lovely spells of weather this spring. And just about the time we feel like it is finally going to stay that way, we drop down to right at 32 degrees and things get nipped back a bit. But I really do think all that is behind us and now we can move on and things can really start growing.

First thing that is growing around here is our menagarie!! We have finally added our first chickens to the family. 6 little darling Red Wyandottes. Right now they are in a brooder box in the house but quickly outgrowing the need for that. I figure about 2 more weeks and if the weather indeed stays warm then we will put them out into the new coop, built mostly by me. Ken did help in the beginning because it simply needed more than one person to hold things while the other drove in the screws. But after the skeleton was in place, I did the rest by myself, thank you very much!! This is really considered a chicken tractor because it will be constantly moved around the perimeter of the garden. But this baby is heavy so we won't be ever moving it far at any one time.

The chickens are actually 2 different ages, but from the same breed. I am not sure if the parents were the same as the girl I bought them from had a decent sized flock. But the 2 bigger chicks are a week older than the other 4. The one I think is a rooster is the darker red and his name is Hamlet. Just came to me that it had to be Hamlet. So the one I think is a girl, the blond chickie, is now named Ophelia. She seems to be the one that will be the mother hen, or ruler of the coop. The other 4, younger chicks do have names. They just haven't been permanantly assigned which one quite yet. They are so identical in appearance and I am waiting for some sign of differences before I hand on their monikers. The 4 names are all girl because that is what I am so hoping for. Dorcus, Mopsa, Portia and Rosiland. All from Shakespere of course. All rowdy minor characters, which seemed fitting for my flock!!

Another thing in full growth mode is the guest garden. I am really enjoying seeing things I planted last year finally come into flower for the first time. And the bare spots filling in with either plants or garden bric a brac. I have really haunted some antique and thrift stores lately and have gotten some great things. I found the 2 really great metal chairs for $20.00 each and then painted them. The baby bathtub is the cutest thing and will probably get filled with potted plants once I decide where I want to actually put it. The crosses on the wall I had in Oklahoma and am just getting around to hanging out. The little bunnies are concrete and were on sale for next to nothing at TJ Maxx of all places.

The bleeding heart was my biggest suprize this year. It came up very early and within days was the size of a bushel basket. It is even bigger now and just keeps blooming its little heart out!! Some of my pansies are gorgeous, the ones that the bunnies and deer decided didn't taste as good. But at least half were eaten to the ground numerous times over the winter. Many other things are very close to starting to bloom and I will try to take pics and post as they do.

Cute as a Button

2011-01-16T13:27:00.001-08:00

The snow is still here, after an entire week. But it is starting to recede in all but the most shady spots. I have to say, if you are going to have a good snowstorm, this one was the one to have. It was lovely to look at, lovely to play in and lovely to be able to not have to get out into it. But now, no more real snow this winter, OK?

This pic was one I got the other night as the clouds finally decided to part and let the last rays of sun peek thru for the day. What a beautiful sunset it was. I did nothing to this picture after I got it off the camera. So the colors are pretty true to what my own eyes did see.

Next, on to more important things. Cute, cute, cute baby knitting. I learned thru Facebook a few months ago that a good friend and former coworker was going to become a daddy for the first time. So I just had to make the family something. Trouble is, he told me the baby was set to arrive in February. And he is a doctor so he should have been trustworthy on the facts. But to prove everybody wrong, Ibrahaim was born in very early January. Before I even had yarn!! I had my heart set on a Baby Suprize Jacket project but found that the selection of yarn in sport weight was pretty slim pickin's. But this pattern, Baby Garter Stitch Kimono was free thru Ravelry and I was able to find some really nice yarn to make it work. The jacket was knit exactly according to the pattern. When done, I found I had very little of the grey yarn left to do anything with. So the hat was something I kinda designed myself to make the most of the yarn left. Off the head, the stripes kind of bunch up. But once the baby has it on its head, the stripes are alot more noticable. The booties are the combination of several patterns. When done I had only about 5 grams of grey yarn left over. If I ever decided to make this in a 6 month or up size, I would need to buy a second skein of the main color yarn.

So now I am finishing up with sock #2 of a set I put down to work on Christmas knitting. I am at the heel turn and I am trying out a new version of a short row heel. As I seem to be on the eternal search for the perfect short row heel. I think I am getting pretty close...........

Big Snow

2011-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and past. Went by in a blur. But the peace and quiet of the post holiday has set in. And now winter has come a knockin at our door. So I hope you enjoy these pics as much as I have enjoyed the snow. And as much as Holly enjoyed the snow!! Daisy not so much. She took one step out the door and pee'd on the porch!! Such a woos dog..

Finished snowman

View across garden to neighbors house

Holly running with the frizbee

Not nearly as big as he looks!

Snow sculpture

No coffee here for awhile

Snow Globe snow gnome

View from our front porch

It is indeed rare for us to get this much snow. And such a nice snow it is. There must not have been any wind, because there are no real high drifts. It is great snowman snow but I have to admit it took me a little while to remember how to make a decent snowman. And then the sciatica kicked in and limited how big I could get this guy. But I may go back out after lunch and try for a bigger snow person!

I never did get a great pic of all my knitting projects that I finished up this Christmas. The tally ended up at 6 pairs of socks, 2 hats and 3 monkeys!! And everybody seemed to really appreciate and enjoy their gifts. I also gave away jars of black walnuts I had gathered, husked and shelled and those went over extremely well. And of course..biscotti. I made my usual cranberry pistachio, a decent brownie/black walnut and then I invented a double orange. I dried several cans of mandarin oranges in my food dehydrator and then snipped them up small and added them, along with orange peel to a basic vanilla biscotti. They were simply amazing. Drying oranges is a slow tedious process but was well worth the effort.

Spring is right around the corner, despite this posting being all about snow. So much going on around here at the homestead to get ready. We have our chicken coop plans all ready as well as some of the lumber on hand. We have picked Buff Orpingtons as our first breed and will buy them after the coop is in place. The seed and plant catalogs have all arrived and we are starting to place orders. So I am sure I will have plenty to post about in the next few months. Everybody take care, enjoy what ever weather God has given you. And stay warm!!

Man Loves Fire

2010-11-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

And so does woman. And most of all, so does dog..dogs to be exact.

When we first moved into our house, we weren't sure if we loved or despised our propane fireplace. It was easy to light and got the house plenty warm. But soon we realized it also did not have thermostatic control so we had to turn it off and on constantly. It made our eyes burn and it took up alot of room in the house. The efficiency rating on it was dismal and we just knew there had to be something better.

We had always longed for a good woodstove. It was not possible in the last house we owned cause it had a traditional built in fireplace. So it just seemed natural that we would swap out the propane fireplace for a brand spanking new woodstove at some point.

But as usual, with my DH, making decisions on things that cost bit bucks end up being a chore. Ken does not part with money easily!! So the last 2 winters came and went without us doing the switch. But the man does suprise me sometimes. About 6 weeks ago he came home with a sales slip from our local fireplace shop for a woodstove and a propane wall heater. Now we just had to wait for a very busy installer to get here and get it all put in for us.

Strangely enough, Ken did not bring home a picture of what he bought, nor could he describe it very well. So I ended up looking the model number up on line in order to be able to see what we were getting. I was hoping for a more traditional cast iron type stove but it was not to be. He bought a more modern looking cold rolled steel design from Vermont Castings. It is said to be a very sturdy model that will outlast us. Cast iron can crack with age, and cold rolled steel should never be able to do that. Yeah, whatever. I know it came down to dollars!! But once it was in, it looks pretty good with our living space and style and I am fine with it. It is one that has a large enough top surface to be able to cook on it if the power ever went out during a snow storm so that is a plus. And it sure does heat nicely without taking up too much floor space.

Now in case you thought we were smart people, shake it off. Cause we didn't think to maybe buy wood to have on hand ahead of time. So when cold weather hit the day after the stove got installed we were in a panic to have something to burn. Luckily, enough people sell wood in the area that we were able to get a load delivered that very next afternoon, just in time for our first very cold night. The stove heats up fairly fast and soon we found that not only were we going to love it, the dogs were in total heaven. Usually in the evenings they get pretty rowdy in the house and drive me a bit loco. But now they are more than happy to veg in the space between the back of the sofa and the stove itself. Sometimes they get so close that I worry they might burn their nose if they stretch wrong in their sleep. But they snuggle up, stay warm and sleep the evening away, leaving me in total peace to knit or watch TV. Who knew? All we needed was a good toasty spot for them to sleep in and we could have saved all that money we spent on toys!!

So here are pics. Starting with how it used to look and ending with a "few" of the doggie sleeping poses that I have managed to catch so far. Every time I think I have gotten all the cute shots, they come up with a new one. Please try to ignore the places where the paint needs touched up. Ken has to take a rather large paint chip somewhere to be mixed to match so we can fix the rest of the wall. At least all we had was a very small hole in the floor where the propane line had come up to the old unit. We simply placed the new stove right over that. Job done.

And now one last photo. This is of some of the wine I have made so far this year. The light colored bottle is dandelion and is now finished and into smaller bottles. The other 2 are elderberry. They just got reracked to get more of the sediment out of the liquid. I hope to be able to finish off the oldest bottle of that next time I do any racking. I also got a batch of wild persimmon into the secondary fermenter this same day and it is going to be some wonderful stuff. Sorry the pics are not as pretty as they should be. I am afraid the flash bounces off the liquid instead of going thru. I guess I could have slupped all this outside onto the porch to make nicer photos for all of you. Nope. I would rather wait and just let you taste it instead!!

There are a few more knitting projects done and I do need to come back and post about those separately. So expect me to do another post soon.

Stitches of Love

2010-10-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Secrets. Used to suck at keeping them. Still am sometimes. But not recently. At least about these 2 projects. But the time has come I can finally reveal them to most of the world. There are still 2 young granddaughters who need to not find out about the monkeys. So please, don't discuss the monkeys if you run into Maddie and Kate!

Several blog posts ago I told you all about my dear friend who is battling the little "c". The Lizzies have decided to not ever call it the big "C" again. Being the big "C" gave it to much credit and we are not going to let it take center stage in our lives. But darned it, if Jan, at least temporarily, isn't having to let it dominate her life. She is smack in the middle of some pretty tough chemo and heading into another round of testing to see how things are progressing. There is also a matter of another big firm place in the surgical breast. Hopefully the PET scan will reveal that it is a scar, seroma or infection and not more of the little "c".

But I knew I wanted to do something for her that would be from my heart. Something to warm her. And to be soft and comforting. And knitting is usually my avenue for that. Yes, I know she lives in South Florida. But when you are not feeling your best, have lost all your hair and are in over air conditioned doctor's offices, I knew a prayer shawl would be just the thing to keep her warm and to keep her spirits up.

This shawl is a generic Pi shawl, first discussed in length by my knitting goddess, guru, Elizabeth Zimmerman. I wish I could say I chose the yarn with the exact intent of making this shawl, at this time, for this exact person. But that is not the case. The day I decided to start, I went in my knitting/sewing room and saw 2 skeins of this wool/cashmere blend that I had bought at a fiber show back in April. I thought that it was pretty then and even prettier now cause it was just sitting there waiting to be knit into just the right thing. Trouble is, it ended up not being enough yarn and I had to order another skein. Twice. And the dye lots ended up not being the same any for either of the subsequent orders. But this shawl ended up being so organic and earthy that it worked. No overdyeing had to be done, which was something I did consider at one point.

I chose to do a simple garter stitch Pi which turned out lovely but I would probably not do again. First of all it ate up the yarn faster and didn't stretch out as far once finished. But the edging I found later on in another book worked out perfectly with it to give it just a touch of romance after all the garter stitch. I loved doing this edging using a "knitted on" technique which meant I never really had to cast off those 567 stitches that were live around the outer edge. I just used them up by doing a knit 2 together each time I got to the inside edge of a row of the lace. I am not sure I ever want to know what it is like to have to cast off that many stitches!!

The gift was very well received by Jan!! Never doubted that it wouldn't be, cause she is such a sweet heart. And I think they both are probably munching away on Cranberry Pistachio biscotti right now. Wish I had saved some of that for me!!!!

Stop the presses....I kinda forgot to take pictures of the monkey. Off to do a quick photo shoot....

This monkey was a fun knit but one pattern that you needed to read line by line and page by page. There are tons of short rows, plenty of increases and decreases and a few new techniques to learn, such as intarsia in the round. But the pattern is written spot on perfect, and is achievable by anybody who is a step above a rank beginning knitter. There are only 2 seams to worry about when the knitting is done. One short on at the crotch which is left open for stuffing and a partial whip stitch seam to fasten the bottom half of the muzzle to the lower part of the face. You do have to sew on the eyes but I found that very easy to do. The pattern does call for any weight of yarn and the appropriate size of needles to have a tight gauge when worked. I chose worsted weight, Cascade 220 Tweed to be exact. The total length is 15" not including his tail or 9" when sitting to the top of his head. The pattern pics show him knit in self striping sock yarn. I am not sure I would personally enjoy knitting him in yarn that small. Doing all that work and having a 5" tall monkey when done just doesn't grab me much. But hey, the striping effect is really cute. Here is the link to the pattern. But if you aren't on Ravelry you will have to join to be able to purchase this pattern. But hey, Ravelry is free, and oh so much fun. So go ahead and join like the entire rest of the knitting world.

I am half way done with the purple twin to Jacobus. It will be for the 2nd granddaughter. And I already have a request to do one for my walking partner's daughter for Christmas so I ordered another skein of Cascade, this time in a pretty aqua blue. I have a number of other knitting projects on the invisible list for the holidays and really need to pump up the production if I want to get most of them done. So expect some more project posts soon. None as picture heavy as this one, I am sure...

Of Beds and Birdhouses

2010-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

OK-As promised, I am back again in short order. Warning-this post has lots of color!! Some of them might make your head spin and leave you feeling a bit dizzy. But seriously, I am proud of project #1. It has been in the making now for well over a year. And still, it is not really done. It needs a sashing put on around the entire outside of the quilt. Then of course, I need to peice the backing, mail it off, sell my soul on the street to pay for custom quilting, wait til it comes back in the mail, sew on binding, design a label and last of all, paint that darned wall behind the bed!! The name of the block is Rolling Stone. Ken thinks it is cause the Rolling Stones are his favorite band. But he would be wrong. I just liked the block. Oh, and never mind the pajamas on the floor. I have never been accused of being a tidy housekeeper....

Next up are little nesties to be. I had some space at the end of my row of lima beans and thought I would throw a couple bird house gourd seeds in to climb up the trellis. Those 2 seeds gave me an amazing amount of fruit. These are all I picked but there are still some out on the fence that might still be large and nice enough to make houses for wrens or other such small birdies. But I am thinking I may have 3 to 4 large enough for Purple Martins and many more for finches, nuthatches and such. They are all now into my attic to dry for the winter and then next spring I will pull them all back down and do the finishing up work on them to get them out in time for the early spring arrivals. Gee, after writing all that, I may be a bit presumtuous to think I will have them done for 2011. Maybe 2012? BTW-the moldy spots on several of the gourds do not automatically mean they should be discarded. I have it on good authority that most of those spots turn out lovely after drying and can add to the decorating possiblities..

I got silly this afternoon and tried to change the look of my blog a bit. I am not sure if I am just not a techie, but it sure wasn't easy or predictable as to how it was gonna look. I will leave it this way for awhile and try to go back and redo it later on. I still don't understand why I can't get the photo slideshow to only be of my pictures. So ignore that. I can only wish I did some of that crazy quilting!!

Be back soon. Got several more projects just about ready to show off!

Retreat 2010

2010-10-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Lake Logan, North Carolina, 2010.....gathering place for Lizzies far and wide. A place to come together to sew, knit, laugh, hug, cry, talk, eat, drink, walk, sit in the sun, run thru the rain and even try to get in a little restorative sleep. A time to see old friends and to finish up projects that have been sitting on the back burner, some as long as from Lake Logan 2009!!

I think this year was a bit more important to all of us than in the 2 years past. Cause this year we have had so many health scares amoung our group. It seems our ta-ta's have been misbehavin' all thru out the group. Several Lizzies have had some bad scares, that have led to biopsies. Luckily most have come back normal. But for one of us, the news came back badly, and in a big way.

One of the sweetest souls on earth found out a few months ago that she did have aggressive lobular carcinoma of the breast. And even worse, they also found tumor in her brain. So our dear Jan had both a lumpectomy and a cyberknife procedure to melt away the lesion in the brain. The rest of us have felt a bit helpless, being so geographically far away from south Florida where Jan lives. So being able to see some of the rest of the Lizzies just made me feel like I was almost able to reach out and hug Jan myself. And I am sure many of the other Lizzies felt that way also. Plus it gave us the chance to all wear our "Friends Don't Let Friends Fight Cancer Alone" t-shirts and have a group picture taken. Our catch phrase for saying our prayers is, I am going to the rock. So we found the biggest rock we could, climbed up and had a picture made. I can not take credit for this photo. My people pictures don't always seem to come out that well.

This year we had 14 of the actual Lizzies participate and 1 honorary Lizzie. I think the furthest any one travelled was Martha, all the way from Colorado Springs. But then there were lots from all up and down the east coast, several from the midwest, me from 1 state over and Debbie right there in North Carolina. Dee, the honorary Lizzie is also local. We were able to occupy the lodge at Lake Logan which had room for almost all of us to sleep and plenty of room to sit and visit. A few girls did have to stay in one of the smaller cabins but it was a whole lot closer to the dining hall!! We still sewed in Celebration Hall which is still plenty big enough for all that came. Everybody brought the cutest, sweetest little personal gifts to exchange. I brought the felted pincushions which I think everybody liked. As usual, these girls work hard while they are there. I even got alot done in my 4 days. I pretty much finished my quilt top and did alot of knitting. Alas, when I got home I realized I will still have to add a small border all the way around the quilt before I can send it off to be quilted.

All to soon, it was time to head out for home. I decided to drive south on Lake Logan road until it dead ended into the Blue Ridge Parkway. It looked on the map like it might be an easier way to go, since I can not seem to keep from getting lost going thru Waynesville!! It was a gorgous day and I was hoping to finally see some of those Smokies without all the rain that kept me from seeing them last year.

About 10 miles south of the lake, there was a gorgeous spot where the river widens and slows down a bit. The banks are rocky but very picturesque and peaceful. But somehow, big clod that I am, managed to fall down and really crack my head. I mean hard. Seeing stars and wondering if I am going to black out, hard. I actually laid there for a minute wondering if I was going to be sick to my stomach. Finally I did get up and was able to walk..stagger...back to the car. After a minute or two, I did feel alot better, albeit, with a headache. But I figured I was going to live, unless a slow bleeder in my brain got me later on. I never even noticed that I had also falled on the back of my forearm and it was bruised from wrist to elbow. So what do I do another 10 miles down the road? Get out and take a 4 mile solo hike thru the woods to a really pretty, very remote waterfall!! Oh yeah, probably well out of cell phone range. But hey, if I died, I would have been a good meal for a bear or cougar!! I did get some good pics of the south section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. When I got to where state highway 74 crosses the parkway and goes on up into the Smokies, I turned and headed home. The headache was finally winning and I just wanted to get home. Maybe next year I will finally drive thru the Smokies, and it will not rain on me!!

This is where I fell

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful. My sciatica didn't even get bothersome til I was less than 50 miles from home. The furbabies were of course happy to see me as well as the poor hapless hubby who just wanted some sort of home cooked meal after a week of sandwiches.

I do have several other things to post in the next few days. Pics of the almost done quilt, some pretty stuff out of the garden, several neat knitting projects and such. But for now it is time to take the doggies out for one last potty and then we are all hitting the hay. See you soon

A Bit of the Blues

2010-09-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

I have a daily walking partner here in Tenneessee that would literally give me the shirt off her back. All I have to do is mention that the new bag she just whipped up over the weekend would go perfectly with the new little bag I am making, and it is given to me without hesitation. Constant jars of jelly and fresh veggies are being sent home with me. And she made sure that for the first time in years, that I had a freshly baked chocolate cake on my birthday, along with a gardening apron she made just for me.

So I knew I had to do something for her birthday. Something that did not involve my sewing machine. Since I guess I took my machine in for service to the most popular place ever, and the waiting list was made longer by some surgery that the service guy apparently needed to recover from, taking off a few days in the interim. And me being the only person I know, with just 1 machine.

So I knitted this lovely little pincushion. You basically knit this wool sphere, stuff it when it is almost totally done, finish off the knitting and then felt it in your washing machine. After 3 to 4 cycles thru it is this lovely shrunken ball that needs to have the fuzzies removed with a shaver. Then you use crochet cotton to sew thru the middle and make the divisons around the pin cushion which further helps the shaping. The last thing is to sew a pretty button in the middle. The one here is a pearlized glass, not antique, but pretty.

The other item that made sense to me was a needle book. She does sew a fair bit, and embroiders some too. She had admired my crazy quilt needle book, before Holly chewed it up some, and so I knew she would like it. I did not have the time to do something quite as ornate as mine but this one seemed to be a pretty compromise. The outside is green dupioni and the inside, which I forgot to take a picture of, is a green striped silk from a blouse I bought years ago at a Goodwill. When I picked out these 2 fabrics, I was not thinking at all about the wool I would need for the pages. I knew I had a few peices put away to do needlebooks but had no idea about what colors they might be. Lo and behold, when I pulled out my stash, the only 3 colors I had were a subtle but matching green, blue and a totally unstuitable orange. So the inside pages are blue and green.

I wanted to dress up the front so I thought doing her initial would be a good fast idea. Trouble is, I can't freehand anything and I only had 2 old books with any monogram ideas. The one I chose was a bit smaller than I would have liked but it still turned out OK. The beads are vintage lucite from my much smaller stash than I remembered having. Must remedy that on ebay!! The bug is a button bought years ago at a quilt show. We both garden and this little green beetle reminds me of the hideous cucumber beetles we both battle all summer long.

So when I got ready to take them down to her I thought to myself, Good job Ann. I rarely say that when I make something for anyone. Which is why I rarely do give handmade gifts. But I just knew she was going to like these. And she did. Told me they looked so professional and expensive. And that she would treasure them forever. This morning she let me know she was already obsessing over what she was going to do for my next birthday!! Let it go, girl. I was at the top of my game with these 2 things. It's all downhill from here out!!

Our Dismal Anniversary

2010-09-13T12:00:00.001-07:00

Now, doesn't that sound ominous? Well, not really.

Our 34th anniversary was September 11th. Sharing our anniversary with that of the terrorist attacks of the same date has been hard. I want to remember what all that day brought to the world but then again, I feel like we should be able to celebrate a marriage that outlasted many others out there. Sometimes the attack wins out but this year I decided to not let that happen.

The weather was predicted to be a bit hairy on Saturday so I had two different destinations in mind. If it rained, we were heading to Cathedral Caverns outside of Huntsville Alabama. We could tour the cave in the rain with no problem. But our first choice was to head down to northwestern Alabama and hike thru Dismals Canyon. A last minute look at the weather predictions led us to beleive we had a large enough safe window for spending the day outside. Turns out it never really ended up raining at all, but that is a whole nuther story......

It took us about 2 hrs to get there, maybe a bit more. But you gotta knock off a few minutes for our wrong turns. They sure could mark some of the highway's a bit better around here. We drove thru some Alabama countryside we had not seen before. I must say it was not the prettiest scenery around and it made me have doubts about how nice the canyon could possibly be. Even up til the last few miles, it was flat, brown and dry. Not appealing at all. But a few miles from our final destination, it did get a bit hillier and greener. Still not as gorgeous as where we live, but not everywhere can be heaven I guess.

Even turning into the parking lot was not impressive. A small gift shop/registration area was at the far end of the almost empty parking lot. We went in and met the parks registrar and resident funny man!! He was a hoot!! We paid our bucks ($8.00, I think?) and went out thru the back of the store and onto a patio. Right behind was the swimming hole and deck. Also pretty unimpressive. But you go across the swimming deck, down the stairs and the first thing you see is a waterfall that comes from under the deck. There is a very old dam holding back the creek right above you that helps form the waterfall, but there would have still been one naturally if the dam had not been built to form the swimming hole. The stairs continue down quite a ways dropping you immediately into a cool, refreshing, all natural canyon with walls going up several hundred feet on each side. The whole canyon is never that wide at any point and goes straight up on each side just steps from the path. But all along the 3/4 mile trail there are huge house sized boulders with little narrow chasms and rifts. Little slot canyons between the boulders exist and may can be travelled thru if you are skinny enough and not a bit claustrophobic!! So even tho it was less than a mile to get to the far end, we probably did twice that by going into and around every single nook and cranny. There is a nice creek running thru the entire canyon and it was filled with the nicest smooth quartz pebbles, a few just had to come home with me. They were all colors from white to brown, with lots of pinks and salmons that were almost translucent. There was some really nice flora and fauna along the way, some of it nicely identified with a sign. At the end there was a bridge that the registrar had actually built himself many years ago. You cross the creek and head back to see the sights on the other side. There was a really cool place called the Dance Hall. It was a flat mega boulder that had fallen centuries ago and the ancient indians had used it for spiritual and ceremonial dances. It was very well hidden by other boulders so it would have been a very cool place for them to hold these special events. Especially at night by firelight. The registrar tells us that after you leave the dance hall area the trail either heads back across the creek or you can take the unmarked part of the trail on the far side of the creek and then come back across a swinging bridge later on. The reason they don't mark the path is because it is a secret!! You have to really look around for it and when you find it, it is a tiny crack between 2 boulders that you shimmy thru and then follow for a ways, eventually coming out at the swinging bridge. It was so much fun to go back thru a second time to see if you could remember how you went. It was not that easy!! We had to look just as hard the 2nd time. We just loved it!!

We would really like to go back and take a night tour. They guide you down into the canyon by flashlights, then turn them off when you get down there. There are thes bioluminescent buggies that glow like fireflies. They congregate in parts of the canyon and I understand it to be quite magical in nature. The peak months are April thru June so we might just have to go back and try again this next year. After all, I need some more pebbles!!

And now for a few pics. Forgive the blurry ones. That is what happens when you didn't think to bring a tripod and the natural light is a little low. But I still think they are worth a look at.

Sticky Wicket

2010-09-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

Honey, elderberries, hummingbirds and jalapenos. What do all these have in common? They can make an incredibly sticky mess when you try and make things with them. Oh no, I am not really making anything with the hummingbirds, I promise. Just making their food!! Sorry, that did sound a bit bad up there in that prior sentence.

First off, the honey. Last weekend my darling DH comes in with 2 supers of honeycomb and plops them down and tells me I need to harvest the honey.......No time to Google and find out how best to do this for the first time.. So I grab my biggest sheet cake pan and start the task of getting honey out of the comb. I don't have an uncapping knife to help open up the cells but I find a regular sharp knife, carefully used, can open up the honey comb just fine. I throw the caps into a sieve cause I can see there is tons of honey dripping off them. Probably mistake #1. But I don't find that out for some t ime to come. I keep trying to position the supers in the pan in a way that let the most honey drain the fastest. I think the kitchen is too cool. The only day below 80 in months and that's the day we decide, well, he decides, this has to be done. So I decide to very slightly heat up the oven and put the whole shebang in there to help the honey flow faster. It works thru several brief heatings. But then, somehow, I let it heat up just a degree or two more than I should have. I hear a thud and look to see that the beeswax has now softened and the whole architecture has slumped out into the pan, on the oven floor, over the racks, ect. Lots and lots of honey to clean up. But you know, honey cleans up pretty well with lots of water and a bit of soap and patience.

I take the pan out of the oven and see this big huge conglomeration of honey with bits of comb all thru it. I for one, do not like honey comb with my honey. There are those who do, I think that is just wrong. So I dump it all into my very large mesh colander. Big mistake again. I think I am up to 3 wrongs at this point. The first sieve, the oven and the colander. But I drain over 1/2 gallon of very nice honey off the mess and I am pretty proud of myself.

Meanwhile, I Google and find that they used to just squeeze the honey out of the comb. Not a bad idea. Well, in retrospect, this becomes mistake #4 and the first dawning of where I had gone wrong. No one told me how sticky beeswax can actually be when it is liquid. When I squeezed out the honey I got about another 2 cups but when I went to wash my hands I realized that nothing wanted to take off that darned sticky goo. And it was not just on my hands but on all the equiptment used up to that point. The sieve, the colander, the oven, ect. It has taken me days to get all the stuff cleaned up and useable again. But the honey has sure been good. This year's harvest was small but they are very young hives, the supers got put on late and it has been a brutally hot and dry summer. So hopefully next year, I will learn to carefully uncap the combs, be more patient allowing the honey to drain on its own and putting whatever comb I want to drain off into a clean section of pantyhose. The combs themselves when drained of honey, can go right back into the hive which is actually a big time and energy saver for the bees. And I have no need of beeswax for candles. The light switch on the wall works fine for me!

Then the hummingbird story. Really quite simple. I mix nectar and fill 2 glass hummingbird feeders. I head out the door and drop one sending nectar all over the laundry room floor and walls. I think I have now mopped 3 times and still I find sticky places I must be missing.

On to the elderberries. Elderberries make wonderful wine. It takes a great deal of effort to find enough along side the roads and ditches to make all I would love to make each year. Stripping the berries off the stems is even more of a time suck. But I do it, cause the outcome is so worth it. But in making elderberry wine, you get this scummy stuff in your primary fermenter that should be investigated as a industrial glue!! There are lots of speculation on what the goo actually is from. My thought is that it has to be a reaction between something in the elderberries and the yeast. You don't get this scum if you just make elderberry juice. But if you then take the juice and make wine, you get the goo. But after the first step, you don't get it anymore so at least there is only one big clean up involved per batch.

Last year, I had a dicken's of a time getting the goo off. I tried everything I could think off to mechanically get it off. Really, really hot water. Soaking with dishsoap multiple times. Scrubbing til my arms ached. A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. But to minimal avail. The primary fermenting bucket got clean enough to be used again but the stain was permanent.

Meanwhile, I discover this year that some really sticky things can be cleaned up well by applying olive oil, then after letting it sit, coat well with liquid dish detergent and rinse. Actually any vegetable oil will do. Obviously, these gluey things are fat soluble chemicals and melt into the oil which is then washed away by the dishsoap. BTW-Dawn is still the best. So when I had elderberry goo on my hands I thought, let me give the oil trick a try. It worked like magic!! So I thought I would share this great discovery with the rest of the wine making world. Well, if you Google the right words you find out all kinds of things. Like, most, but not all of the world already knew this. I am always a day late and a dollar short. But now I will still be that, but with a clean fermenting bucket!

The last but not least fiasco involves me trying to use up some surplus jalapeno's I had brought in from the garden. Jalapeno jelly was just the most sensible thing to make. I looked up a recipe and got going. I was in the process of bringing my mixture to a boil when I turned for just a second to put my jar lids into a pan of boiling water to have them ready when I needed them. Oh yeah, that's right. In just a matter of a few seconds, the mixture came to a full rolling boil and went all over my glass cooktop and quickly became carmelized jalapeno jelly cement. No amount of scrubbing has cleaned it all off. And you gotta trust me on this, I gave it all one could give. I have decided my next option is to carefully take a razor blade to the last bit of remaining spots. This is, BTW, recommended by the users manual. But the jelly did turn out very well. Ken almost licked the bowl clean that I brought to the table last night to serve on crackers with cream cheese.

This batch was made with all green peppers but I want to go ahead and push my luck this coming week and work with the red ones I still have out in the garden. I found a recipe that uses cranberry juice with red hot peppers. I think if it turns out it will be great at Christmas as gifts. But Lord, I sure need all the help I can get to not turn this into any more sticky messes!!

So yes, watch out for these sweet, innocent appearing food products. Behind each one of them lurks a heart of pure sticky evilness that may never be permanently removed from my well used kitchen.

Evening From My Front Porch

2010-09-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally cooling off, especially in the evenings. We had some rain predicted for today, but it totally fizzled out here in the middle of Tennessee. But what was left over was some high thin clouds just in time for a jaw dropping sunset.

So picture yourself on my big front porch. Sleeping dog at my feet, glass of my very own elderberry wine made last fall, at least 50 hummingbirds dashing and darting about all around the feeders and then this. A sunset that takes your breath away. Mind you, there has been absolutely no photo editing done on these. It was really this spectacular. And all about me was the peace and quiet that comes from living way out in the country. So my day ends with this post to share it all the best I can with you.

Icarus Ascending

2010-09-02T05:15:00.000-07:00

A die hard Dan Fogelberg fan like me. How is it I could have missed an entire album? And a song as amazing as this one. The lyrics to this are a testament to what endeared him to so many of his fans.

I discovered it just today as I was reading a newspaper article about the memorial service/dedication they had this past weekend in his home town of Peoria Illinois. This, and 2 other of his important works were inscribed on the stone that makes up his public memorial. The other 2 peices are favorites of mine but this song I could not even place. A Google search later and I am reading words that speak straight to the strength of spirit of the human soul. It immediately had me thinking about 2 close friends who are just starting out with their personal battles with cancer. And also, of my daughter and another close friend, who have recently divorced and are learning to fly solo for the first time in many years. Sometimes we just have to trust our faith and know that we are headed in the right direction.

I hope you will all take just a moment to read thru these lyrics and understand how they apply to your life.

Icarus Ascending

Soaring alone upon a threatening wind
Just fix your eyes on the horizon
Cut off from everything
You've known or have been
I shouldn't think it's so surprisin'
Spiralling upward on a freshening lift
Reaching the realms of fleet Apollo
You have been given the most sacred of gifts
You must be fearless now and follow

[Chorus:]
Don't look down
Though your heart may be weary
Don't look down
Though your wings are on fire
Don't look down
Though the night may seem endless
There's a reason you're flying
This fast and this far

Let your faith be your strength
And your love be your guiding star
Venturing further than
The length of your sight
Out past the reach of your beginnings
There is a gamble in each
Proud act of flight
But the losses pale before the winnings
Circling and diving with this
Freedom you've found
Illusion blows apart and scatters
There is no darkness in this place
That we're bound
Love is the only thing that matters

[Chorus]

Up.....up.....up.....up.....

Just Forever....and a day

2010-09-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time hasn't it. Sorry as always. But let's let that go and hope for a fresh start with this blogging thing.

Alot of life has gone on since last I chatted with most of you. Tons of gardening, a very very hot dry summer which exhausted me, a visit from the granddaughters, another visit with my dad and then very recently a short visit from my Aunt Judy, my dad's sister whom I had also not seen in almost 50 years. All the visits were great and never lasted quite long enough for anyones liking.

Probably the best visit is when I took the girl's down to Atlanta to meet my dad the day before they flew back to New Hampshire. The day before had been a tough one. I think Maddy was a bit out of sorts about the entire idea of meeting a grandfather she didn't already know, leaving and going back home and maybe flying out of Atlanta. Who knows what had her on edge. But she just didn't have the best of days and exhausted herself and everyone around her. But the day we left to go down, she was great and both girls enjoyed meeting my dad and his wife. They were on the very best behavior the entire time, especially when we were out to dinner. I am sure the conversation bored them to tears but you would have never known it. We left late to go to a hotel closer to the airport cause their flight in the morning was so very early. Maddy was an amazing navigator and both girls held up well when we couldn't find a hotel for over 2 hrs. They were very tired when they got on the plane the next morning. They are now back home, in their brand new house and at a brand new school. All is going well from what I have been told.

The sitting garden has made alot of progress since the last posting and pictures. Even thru a very hot summer, lots of things bloomed well and provided me with a quiet spot to drink my coffee in the morning. Well, at least after I found this vintage cafe set at a junk shop and painted it this bright blue. After all, a girl needs a place to sit in the garden in order to have that coffee. I have also managed to place alot of found objects thru out the space this summer. I have a "made" birdbath out of terra cotta pots. I am going to mosaic the large saucer part here soon and use the orange globe from an old hummingbird feeder in the center for an accent. I brought several gazing balls with us from Oklahoma and they are all in their places now. Our local Salvation Army had a nice armillary sundial for 5 bucks that came home with me and is nestled where it hardly even sees the sun!! Oh well, I am not smart enough to tell time in such a complicated way!! The little patio that the table sits on is almost big enough and soon I will move all the pavers and level it all out a bit better. My bottle tree looks right at home next to the french doors to the apartment. And yes, we did drink all that wine at some point! I still have not found the perfect bird house that I see in my mind, living a corner of the garden. But I will find it and get it out there someday soon. By this time next year, it will all have changed again as I plan on letting the beds get a bit wider and there of course, will be alot more growth on all the plants. So stay tuned...or of course, come for a visit and see for yourself!

Another thing that I have not done in forever. A real forever. And a day.......crazy quilting. But this little purse is something I whipped up to replace a bag I had worn plumb out. It is just big enough to carry my money, credit cards & ID, and my cell phone when I leave the car to go into a store. I honestly had not done any CQ in so long that every step of the way I had to really think about what I was doing. Going thru some of my bins, I felt like I was making new friends of all my old supplies. I really need to get back to doing more of this and maybe even finish my big wall hanging that already has so much work put into it.

The slightly bigger bag is one my friend Crystal made for herself or her daughter. But when I saw it I commented on how well it would match my little bag. Being Crystal, the very next day she came down and gifted it to me. I have such great friends!! And alot of the fabric for the CQ bag was from my Lizzie on-line friends. A few years ago, they all sent fabric in my birthday cards. Every time I opened a card, some sort of blue fabric came tumbling out. They swear it was not a coordinated effort and I beleive them. They are just all in sync some times. But I knew at some point I would use that fabric for something that would remind me of all of them. I think I did good with this one.

I have lots of other projects in the works and may have some more to post about soon. So see you next time, when ever that ends up being!

Before, During and Almost After

2010-05-14T08:49:00.001-07:00

Seems like this spring has been one with lots of new beginnings. The best, of course, was the one with my father. We talked that all out in my last post. But this entry is all about the 2nd best one, my new fencing.

Now if you listen to my husband, fencing is made to either keep things in or to keep things out. This fence does neither. It just defines a space. And so he just does not get it and sure didn't think it was an idea worth spending money on. But my brother-in-law, who drew up my landscaping design and I both envisioned a beautiful space filled with flowers to have as a private sitting garden. It encloses but does not close off, a space right behind our detached garage. The nice thing about our detached garage is that it has this very nice little guest apartment built onto the back. And the entry door to the apartment is now going to be within this fenced off garden. You will eventually be able to look out the apartments sliding glass door and see nothing but flowers and the meadow beyond. Pure bliss. Still, husband does not get it. Tells me that it now looks like an old family graveyard that many houses in this part of the country have. Oh well, there are worse things!! I expect once the space is filled with blooming plants and the trellis is covered with vines, it will look a lot less like a graveyard and a whole lot more like the cottage garden that I have long wanted.

So here are some random before, during and after photos. But not really totally after, since the plants are not in at all yet. I did use some Round-Up in preparation to commence planting this next week. You see, I have been expecting this fence to be installed weeks before it actually did. So I have been buying everything I could get my hands on at the nurseries and babying them along while I was waiting for the fence to be put in. So hopefully in just a few short weeks it will look very very different out there.

And now just a few pretty shots from the garden...

Here's to New Beginnings

2010-04-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

I know some of you have been waiting with much anticipation, to find out what my big surprise is, promised in my last post. So without further ado, here it comes.....

I have found my father. He had been missing to me for approximately 45-50 years. My parents had a difficult marriage and an even harder divorce when I was but 6 years old. I always adored my father, as many little girls do. And when I was told I had to live with my mother when I would have much rather lived with my father it tore me apart. Then when my mother further unraveled after the divorce, becoming an even more unstable person I longed for my father even more. At first, after the divorce, he was still a part of our lives. But my mother could never keep her rent paid and we constantly would be moved from town to town in the middle of the night which made us a bit hard to keep up with. Visits became fewer and further apart. We did go to live with him, his new wife and 5 kids for a time but eventually, for reasons I did not understand, we eventually went back to my mom and to a life that just kept getting worse and worse. The final time I saw my father, we were back living in Ohio and he came into town for a day and took us to lunch. I sat thru the meal thinking if I could just be perfect and make my brother and sister also be, then he would want us and take us back with him to where ever he was living at the time. Of course, that did not happen. Then again, my mother moved us and would not let him know where we were. My dad said he called my grandmother for information but she refused to give it to him. So that ended our relationship at that time. Until just a few short weeks ago.

Now all those years did not pass without me wondering where he was or what he was doing. But before the electronic age, I would have had to hire a private investigator to have a prayer of finding him. I wasn't always in the position to afford that, nor was my mental state all that healthy to be able to risk rejection. So I just kept it at curiosity.

But once Google came along, I occasionally would put his name into the search engine. I ran across small items like his Ohio State wrestling record. But nothing really very helpful. I was starting to get a little older, wiser and happier with myself but still not enough to spend a whole lot of money to find him and still risk rejection. Or even finding out that he had already passed.

But about 6 weeks ago I was messing around with Facebook and put his name in just to see what would come up. Lots of people with his name but none with anything that made me sure it was him. So I pulled up Google and gave it one more college try. The 3rd listing in was a document and my computer warned me against opening it, not sure it was not virus free. Never being one to pay attention to threats, I opened it and there before my eyes was his resume'. I searched thru it trying to see if there was any concrete proof that it was my father. The birthday was close but not exactly what I remembered. His degrees were a tad bit different also. But there was way too much for it to not be him. And it included an email address!! So immediately, before I could lose my confidence, I sent him an email. It was a couple of days before I heard back but he was completely glad I had found him. And he said he had been looking for me for many years also. But with all those moves, me going to a married name, me not being exciting enough to make onto Google, I was impossible to find.

In his email he asked a ton of questions about my life up until that point. So I answered as well as I could, glossing over alot of the bad stuff that had happened in my life. I also told him all about my wonderful, gorgeous, talented kids and grandkids. But then I did not hear back from him for over 2 weeks. That broke my heart. I kept thinking something I said upset him and made him not want to reconnect after all. Or that he had gotten suddenly ill and passed before we could get any further. So close and yet so far.

But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking not to give up. Until after my birthday. He had asked to be reminded exactly when my birthday was and I had. So if he had not answered by my birthday I figured it was all over and done. And I was right. First thing in my in box on my birthday was another email. He had been out of town and then had come home with a bad cold that had him taking to his bed for a few more days. He did still want to have me in his life after all.

We emailed back and forth a couple of times over the next week or so. And then I suggested that we meet up for a meal while I was in the Atlanta area the end of April. A friend and I were already going to be there to attend a fiber festival so why pass up the opportunity. We all agreed and set the date.

Now, the fiber festival was great. Lots of great yarn to feel, covet and even buy. Needles, patterns, notions, ect by the score. Classes by big name teachers that I would have loved to have taken. But somehow the highlight of this weekend just didn't end up being yarn related!!

We rendezvoused at a restaurant in Symrna, Georgia called Curry, Curry cause he remembered that I said I loved Indian food. But I can't honestly say I hardly even remember the meal. No, correct that. The spicy chicken coconut soup was to die for. But I walked in and had no trouble at all telling who he was. But I did also have to meet my half sister I did not know I had at all and my Dad's wife Claire, whom he has been married to the last 15 years. They both turned out to be very dear people that I will be proud and honored to have in my life now. We probably spent almost 2 hours there talking and catching up the best we could. He told me many things that I did not know or only partially remembered. I told him things that also validated many of his suspicions about my mother's mental state of mind for all those years.

The weather was threatening to be a big problem for our drive back to Tennessee, but we did still go on over to his and Claire's house to take one final look at the weather channel before heading out. He lives in a amazingly nice retirement village where they have their own house, larger than mine, but they do all the maintenance work for them along with providing a dining hall and other amenities. They can move to different quarters as health demands for as long as they shall live. It seems so perfect for them. I got to see his huge, and I do mean huge, collection of books. His lower level honestly looks just like a public library. Although many of the book titles would bore the average person!! But we really had to get on the road to avoid the severe weather that was brewing all over the tri-state area.

So now we can move this relationship along to another level. Hopefully Ken and I can go down there soon and then hopefully both kids can make it out to also meet their grandfather. I know he is already proud of them just from what I have told him. And he is so very much like Daniel that I know they will click like 2 peas in a pod.

But for now, here is a picture of him, Claire and I on their back deck. I think I look old!! I think he looks to young to be my dad!!

All This Potential...

2010-04-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung. It went from being a cold, wet, horrible, long winter straight into early summer here in Tennessee. We have been so hard at it, working out in the yard digging, planting, weeding, pruning, mowing and such. But in one of my pensive moments I stopped and looked all around me to see all the potential waiting to be realized later in the summer. So here is a photo tour of that moment, enjoy!!

future dandelion wine

a native grape hyacinth that will be the seed of many more to come fill in the area

ditto on the wild violets

these will someday be apples!!

and these, peaches

strawberries-yum!

and if we can keep the bunnies out of the garden these will be our sweet english peas

bell and hot peppers

tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. Like about 15 varieties!!

Last but not least. The long awaited quilt. It is more done than it looks in this pic. 4 rows out of 11 put together. All the blocks done. So now the challenge is to make myself stay inside just enough to get at least a row put on a week. But I would love to make that 2 rows a week so I have a prayer of getting it totally finished before the end of the summer. Sorry the lighting isn't any better but I promise it is a beautiful quilt.

There is also 1 more thing that has a lot of potential to bring joy into my life. But I need to wait a bit longer to talk about it in it's full glory. And in a post of it's own. Cause it will deserve it. And I promise it will be worth waiting for. It has been for me. See ya next time

I'm Back!

2010-03-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

My long radio silence just has to end. We have had a couple of months now of internet restriction and I for one, am flat out tired of it. I love living out here in the country but only having mobile broadband is not much fun at all. It works like a dream but it's slim data transmission limits just suck. We have stopped viewing any utube videos, downloading any music from iTunes and worst of all, no Facebook games!! But I will give all the rest of that up but not the blogging. Better on a random, sporadic basis than not at all.

Not much exciting has happened since I posted last. I think I may have finished 3 sweaters, several hats and am well into another sweater as we speak. But darned if I have a picture of a single one of them. So instead I am going to give you a photo tour of my pretty much completed sewing room. It has been a long time coming and will be where I will spend many happy years to come.

This is the first thing you see as you come in the room. My sewing machine of course and the new quilt hanger I had custom stained to match all the other wood in the room. On the shelf are lots of little things that are dear to my heart, many of them gifts from friends I miss in Oklahoma. The quilt is a true antique I purchased, not one I made. Eventually it will be replaced with the quilt my sewing buddies made me when I left Lawton. But it has to get quilted first. So don't hold your breath waiting on that one.

Then above that table is my bulletin board which right now is pretty empty. The 5 ribbons were all won with quilts I made in the past. Sure has been a long time since I earned one of those!!

Now here is the cutting table/station. I bought all 3 tables in the room and stained them to match the wall unit you will see eventually. After getting everything set up I felt I was losing valuable storage space under the cutting table. So I found these closet maid organizers, put them together and almost filled up the entire underneath area. They almost look like they are built in, but not quite. I am amazed at how much I am able to store there, everything from rulers, templates, sewing supplies, hand weights, light bulbs, precut fabric squares, scrapbook tools, ect. I still need some more baskets to fill up the cubbies and shelves but that will happen over the next few weeks. The quilt is one I made Ken years ago for his office but he didn't want to have it in his office here. So I get to display it instead.

This pic shows the shoe unit which has lots of little cubbies to fill up.

The next 2 pics are from the sides. Aren't the baskets cute?

Now the serger table

And ironing board. See all those quilt squares underneath on the shelf? Those are my next quilt. Just need 11 more blocks and tons of sashing. Note to self: Straighten butterfly picture in the frame above ironing board...

This is the entertainment center that we used in the living room in our old house. It repurposed very well into a bookcase/display center. And even if you don't see them, beleive me, this thing is full of books. Lots and lots and lots of books. The quilt hanging out is the hand quilting project I am currently working on at a snail's pace. The large glass jars on top are full of all my yarn.

Well, the tour has been completed. No? What is that I hear?? 2 doggies saying I forgot the most important feature of the room.....the portable electric heater. Daisy and Holly love this heater almost as much as they love each other. I can not be in the sewing room without these 2 sprawled out warming their bellies by the fire!!

So I still can't be here alot and still be able to check my email. But I will try to be here as often as I can. We keep hoping that DSL or cable internet will be available soon. After all, most of our neighbors have 1 or the other. Or technology will change and they will let us have more bandwidth on the mobile broadband we use now. But living out here in the country has way more advantages than disadvantages. And for now, that is enough

Best Eatery in Town

2010-01-13T05:05:00.001-08:00

Recently I made a trip to Wild Birds Unlimited. I bought a very nice quality birdfeeder for $15.00 which the little birds took too immediately. But it seems my best purchase was this seed block. It is intended to attract cardinals and nuthatches. And it has. But it has constantly been visited by so many other wonderful birds. And the nice thing is I can set it up so very close to my bedroom window. Taking pics is still not easy tho, as the light there is not the best and it is now so close the birds can see me and will take off if they see much movement. But I have enjoyed so many new birds with this seed block. The red headed woodpecker never came to the feeders before and he is a gorgeous sight. There is also a thrasher, although I do not know exactly which variety as it doesn't seem to be in my bird book. I sure need a new one of those.

Anyway, enjoy the pics. Thought they might bring some color to all of you still stuck in winter.

This pic is of new dog, Holly, the smooth fox terrier mix eating what is left of a squirrel. But in the pic it looks like a fox tail lying there so I had to take it to show her daddy who was at work at the time. Of course, I then took it away from her and she was none to happy with me for that.

On the needlework front, I am almost done with a sweater that I have been dilegently working on for about 10 days. And I have a third crazy sock done. Not much sewing tho. I finally bought the 2 tables I intend to put my machines on and right now I am having to sand and stain them in the sewing room due to all the cold weather we have been having. So working around them is impossible. I will be done with table 1 today and then table 2 by this weekend. Then I can get back to the task of my quilt and also covering a dog bed to make it attractive enough to reside in the livingroom.

Colorful Displays

2010-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Just a few shots from my bedroom window. These were taken at a high ISO and fast shutter speed so the detail is not the greatest. But to the naked eye, these beauties brighten my day. Well worth the price of the feed I put out.

Crazy Socks, Crazy Dog, Crazy Life

2010-01-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

I just finished up a pair of socks, knit with left over yarn from other projects. I love them. Good thing too, cause I have enough left overs to knit another 8 pairs or so!! I am already well into the foot of another sock right now. Nice thing about having a drawer full of these babies, is that I can grab any two, put em on and go. No worries about matching each other or my outfit!!

And then the crazy dog. Of course, this picture doesn't give you a clue. But she is!! Right now I am forcing my kitties to come out of the bedroom and spend time in the same space as the dog. So far, so good. Holly runs every time they make a sound and that of course spooks them even more. But Holly is not jumping up to get them off the counters. And she backs away when they growl. Which is all the time!! But sooner or later they have to come to grips with each other. I vote for sooner.

As for my crazy life. It is actually not much crazy at all. DH went back to work today so I am enjoying my peace and quiet. I am trying to get a new sweater onto the needles. And later I will attempt to clean the bathroom. If I must.

And now-Our newest family member!!

2010-01-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Some of you already know about our newest addition, Holly. I first saw Holly a few days before Christmas. I swear I saw a car dump her off in front of the church right on the main street in the center of our tiny town. She followed me a bit and then got distracted by some other dogs and I went along home, releived to not have to deal with a new dog right before leaving for the holidays. But 6 days later, while on a walk, she showed up at our feet and went on the entire 5 mile walk with us. So I felt like she was meant to be our new dog. I still had to get Daisy's approval as head dog of the household.

Daisy was in love!! She took to Holly right away. Played her into the ground the first day out. 2nd day was a bit touchier. Daisy was tired from the previous day and wasn't sure she liked having another dog touch her bones and toys. But they seemed to establish their boundaries without too much difficulty so that by day 3 they were back to playing all the time.

Miss Holly got her name pretty quickly. My sister-in-law names all her pets flower names. Such as Magnolia, Rosebud, Camelia, ect. Ken immediately said that the new dog has to have another flower name to match Daisy. The list wasn't that long but DH decided that Holly, short for Hollyhock would suite her just fine since we found her right around Christmas. I was all for using Aster but it was obvious that I was not going to win that one.

She does seem to be pretty smart. Not as smart as Daisy. No dog is. But she is certainly above average. She has already learned to not go in our bedroom which is a kitty cat refuge until they soften up about the new invader. She knows that come time for bed that she sleeps in the garage and does so without too much difficulty. We have taught her to sit but stay is not working at all. She just wants to be with us too much. There have been just a few potty accidents, 1 of each kind, and luckily we caught her doing it and gave her holy hell. She knew she messed up and hasn't done either since.

She has this cute habit of sleeping with both of her long ears pointing straight up. With her long pointy nose(product of collie somewhere along the bloodlines?), she ends up having a rather windblown look to her when snoozing. Alot like the look of a dog sticking its head out the window of a moving car!!

The Sound of Tiny Hoofbeats

2009-12-23T04:50:00.001-08:00

Most people this time of year are waiting for the sound of hoofbeats. On the roof. Made by reindeer.

But yesterday the dog was outside and when I went to let her in, this is what I saw. Making hoofprints all over my front yard.

They had escaped from my neighbor's pasture. And now I know, not for the first time. Recently we had several big piles of horse manure way back in our garden. Couldn't figure out why anyone would have rode their horses thru our yard like that!! Well, now we know. These beauties may have come over during the night and blessed our garden. Those piles plus what they left last time were scooped up in a bucket and thrown in the compost pile to enrich our garden next year.

But these guys spooked really easy and as soon as I headed out to get pics they started running like the wind. Thank goodness, they headed back home and hopefully right back in thru where they escaped from cause their owner was not home. Supposedly these are very valuable horses and she makes a living of them. Not sure how, cause she never comes outside and does anything with them. They never get ridden or socialized. The guy that feeds them and cleans their stalls told me this. He is the only human contact they really get. Such a shame. But I am not a horse person myself so I can not offer to go spend time with them in any helpful way. But I do admire their beauty as long as it is from a safe distance.

The Bees Knees-Literally

2009-12-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

My husband and I are beginning level beekeepers. Many of the men in his family have been beekeepers. It has always interested my husband and recently one of his older relatives, who is not in the best health, gifted us with 3 hives.

I have pretty much left DH to do all the work with the bees. He has a calmer nature and the bees sense that and stay calm while he is messing with them. But this winter I have helped out by feeding the bees on warmer weather days, when DH just happens to be at work. It is easy to feed them. You just pour sugar water into very shallow plastic lids so they can land, eat and not drown. Usually on warmer days, I will fill their bowls continually all afternoon. After the first fill they are usually buzzing all over the place, just waiting their turn at the sweet stuff I am putting out.

So yesterday I decided to put on the close up lens and try to get some good pics. Trouble is, at my "advanced age" it is hard to keep the camera really really still in order to get real crisp shots with the close up!! But I think these are pretty cool.

I love the last one where the bee has just taken off and is in flight!! Of course, there is always the danger a yellow jacket will also come feed. They are very easy to recognize with the very distinct yellow stripes and shiny body. The bees usually tolerate them when they are really hungry and will chase them off during times when they have the extra energy to do so.

But as I was shooting pics, I realized I have come a long way since the bees came to live with us. I have never been really scared of them but when I saw them crawling on my hands while I was shooting pics, I decided I am getting pretty complacent about them altogether!!

So hopefully this spring we will harvest our first honey. Then work to increase the number of hives and bees for the future. Meanwhile I know they increased our garden productivity and will continue to do so. They are the best pollinators for many plants and I always saw them busy at work ever morning when I went out to pick.

A few more pics from my day yesterday. First some pretty leaves and tree fungi done with the close up lens. Then of our dog Daisy who decided to make her self comfortable in the chair on the porch.

Log Cabin Tour-2009 Elkton, Tennessee

2009-12-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, we had tickets to the local historical society's log cabin tour. There were 5 cabins to be visited spreading over about a 20 sq mile area in just 4 hrs. Plenty of time I thought. Well, we barely had enough time cause we enjoyed each place so much we didn't want to leave that one to go to the next!!

The first cabin I have no pics of. It was the official starting point and stayed a bit too crowded. It was a true old log cabin, restored just enough to keep out the weather. It was furnished with period peices, including a gorgous old quilt on the bed. They had a spinner there with yarns she had spun from all kinds of animals. Even dogs and cats. I am convinced by spring we will be raising angora bunnies and maybe a golden retriever will be added to the family. Don't even get me started on cashmere goats!!

The 2nd cabin is the one I took the wreath on the door picture at. It was a very old cabin with mostly historical value. 2 governors to the great state of Tennessee were born in it many eons ago. The elderly gentleman there was a descendent of the 2nd family to own it and he was great at telling all the history that was held within it's barely standing 4 walls!! Also these cemetery photos were shot just below the cabin in the Bethany cemetary which has some very very old graves.

The next cabin we visited was modern and quite a cute place. I think it is probably just a weekend house for a young couple with no kids and way to much money on their hands. The shell was built but the husband finished most of the inside himself. Funny thing-the husband had put up a teepee in the front yard which had 6 beanbag chairs, a firepit in the middle with a large screen TV hooked up to satellite so he could watch the football games. Gorgeous house that the man builds and still he is relegated to having his mancave outside!!

Then we went to see a amazing large modern log home up on a hill not very far from our neck of the woods. I have been down the road it is on many times and not seen it due to the trees surrounding it. But without leaves you can catch a peek of it driving by. The driveway was so steep that they have a winter parking pad down below in case they can not drive up. Inside the home was lovely, large and although sparsely furnished, it was perfect. I fell in love with a armchair that was obviously from the 50's that they had reupolstered and now I want to find one of my own. But I didn't just love the house the way I might should have. Just didn't have the spark I normally find appealing in a home. The view from the wrap around porch was beautiful tho, and I swear you could see the entire county from up there.

The last cabin was the one that took our breath away and inspired us into wishing for a cabin of our own. Like that would ever happen. But you gotta dream, right? This place was quite aways out to begin with. And it was getting late by the time we finally got down the road to the actual cabin. It was set in a lovely shallow valley away from anyother signs of life. The closest house was over a mile up the road and it was actually the house of the owner and builder/restorer of the cabin. The man had never ever built anything in his life prior to this undertaking. But it had always been his wish to have a cabin. So when he found this land without any cabin to restore he chose another direction to take. He bought a old cabin that had been dismantled and had it brought to his place. He rebuilt the old structure with a new, but done in the original method, foundation. He had to add some new logs to make the place just a bit bigger but he had those hewn at a old style sawmill and he hand cut the mortises to match the original. He kept everything so it looked like it had when the cabin was first built but threw in new technology if it could be completely hidden. Like in the foundation and behind the chinking. But there is no plumbing, electricity or insulation. But my goodness, it was gorgous. Everything about it shown with the love this man put into it. And the view in all directions was pure heaven. I should have asked the man if he rented it out for a weekend occasionally!! The pictures I got were pretty good considering how dark it was getting when we were there. But I think that everyone is worth seeing.

Just Keeping Busy

2009-10-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

As usual, I am horribly suprised by how long it has been since last blogging here. I just live life in the slow lane. A little like my friend up above. Lately, really short, quick messages on Facebook is all I can muster up. But every once in awhile, it is nice to do a something that has a little more content and depth. Especially on the rare occasion my life has had any excitement.

I never really had much opportunity to go to the retreats my friends organized in Oklahoma. I was either working, moving or poor. Well, relatively on that last one. But when my on-line friend Debbie decided last year to organize a retreat for the Lizzies, I jumped at the chance to go. But alas, I did not make it to that one either. Again, that moving thing got in the way. But this year, I knew hell or high water would not keep me away. Ashville, NC was only a 6 hr drive and I have no more excuse of working.

So a week ago Monday, I packed up and headed out. All by myself. I drove the southern route, thru Chattanooga and then points east thru some really nice scenic miles. My 6 hrs turned into 10 cause I kept stopping to look at the leaves turning, the rivers running and even to see a dead black bear on the side of the road. Several antique stores drew me in and I even snagged a nice vintage quilt for a song right before I arrived at the retreat. More on that later.

The weather during the 4 days we were there was not the best. Tuesday was the only day it did not rain. I had to be the luckiest person there, to take my walk at just the right time to get these awesome shots. It was never this pretty again, and I began to think an umbrella and wet socks were pretty much a permanant part of my attire.

The cabins were really nice, with 2 twin beds per room, 4 rooms to a cabin. Ours overlooked the lake with rocking chairs out on the deck. We also had a fire in the fireplace every evening to keep us warm during our last glass of wine for the day.

The food was amazing. 4 star or better. Home made soup, grilled sandwichs, 3-4 salads at each meal, unique desserts, ect. All served by delightful staff members in a warm appealing dining hall.

The space we used for our sewing was a large meeting cabin with windows everywhere. There were tons of tables and floor space to spread out on. The girls who did not travel as far brought extra sewing machines, irons, and lights for those who had to fly in.

We ended up with 15 ladies that stayed the night and 1 who came in just for the day. I can not tell you how many projects got done but it was amazing to see everyone's nose to the grind stone so much of the time. I even stayed on task and got Maddie's little quilt top all hand quilted and Katie's basted, ready to quilt. I also did some knitting in the evenings.

2 ladies were gifted quilts that were made for them by the group. Debbie organized this retreat 2 years in a row so we made her a fall maple leaf quilt on a dark blue background to remind her of our gathering. Marylynn is one of the only ladies who has had a major health issue, who did not get a quilt from us during the worst of her treatment. But we put together a Greek Cross quilt in jewel tones that turned out stunning, thanks to some talented ladies in our group, who could combine blocks that were not quite the called for size and still made it work. Both ladies cried some very happy tears and I am sorry I did not manage to get pics of either gifting.

On the way home I decided to drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway and go home thru the Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park. Of course, as soon as I stopped at the first pulloff, the clouds quickly thickened and rolled in to keep me from seeing much of anything. But I took pics of the signs, by golly. Someday I do plan on going back thru and having the sun shine on the fabulous fall colors.

Now on to my latest knitting project. This is a slip stitch cardigan that I am not going to link to. Cause I think the pics that come with the pattern are not that flattering. If I had not seen this done up in other yarn colors I would have not wanted to do this pattern. But i was looking for a sweater to show off some recent natural dyed yarns. And this needed exactly what I had on hand. So to quickly fill you in, the background main color is sort of a mushroomy color. This was dyed in the exhaust of the red hibiscus that I used to get the darker brown. The red is cochineal. The yellow is from marigolds. The blue is the fresh indigo and the green is fresh indigo over goldenrod. The knitting is going well so far. My row gauge is not coming out exactly right so I may have to add a stitch pattern repeat to make it long enough in the body. But I love all the colors and stitches and it will be one incredibly warm sweater when finished.

The antique quilt I talked about above has not been photographed yet cause I washed it and it is still wet. I can date the quilt for sure at about 1900 by the fabrics. When I looked it over at the store I saw almost no flaws, although the quilting and batting were not all that great. After I got it home I decided to wash it, gently. Tons and tons of clay red dirt poured out of that thing. It is now much brighter but I did find one fabric in one block and one place in the border that shredded despite my tender loving care. That's alright. I will fold that in when I put it on display. It should probably never be washed again but I will keep it from ever getting that dirty again.

I think that is all that has been going on in my life. At least, what anyone would want to hear about, that is. My life is so quiet, that today, I was sitting here knitting and I could hear all 3 of my animals snoring. And they were all in different rooms in the house. Now, folks, that is quiet!!

I'm Ready for Fall, Are you?

2009-09-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

I am ready cause I finished Seneca!! Well, except for blocking and the possible overdyeing. But she is sitting in the sink right now, so blocking will shortly commence and the overdyeing? Well, we will see. I still think she is the color of one of my favorite comfort foods, hamburger gravy. The kind you serve over mashed potatoes. Yummy stuff. To eat, but not to look at, colorwise. But others, who have only seen her on-line, assure me it is a pretty grey.

I have tried this sweater on and it fits me wonderfully. It is a well designed pattern, made to nicely hug a girls curves. Which means waist shaping and short rows. The waist shaping is just increases and decreases. Elementary school stuff. Short rows now, are the devil's handywork. Not that they are hard. I've tried every version out there and no, they are not hard to execute. They just don't ever look good. Ever....So I will keep trying any new technique that comes along and see if someday I don't find a way I like a little more. Cause, boy, they do make a sweater fit like a sweater should. I also have not yet, found a way to get my underarms to look just right. These turned out pretty well for once. But not till I fussed with them a bit. First thing was to really tighten up the armhole stitches that were going to go on the holders for later joining. I mean really tighten. Then when you put them back on the right sized needle to do a 3 needle bind off from the inside, you have to work to get them on. And the extra yarn comes from the last stitches on the body section. So that tightens up that side on both the sleeve and body. But that leaves the side where you have your yarn tail still a bit loose. You kind of fix that by pulling the tail as tight as you can when you start the 3 needle bind off. But still I always manage to have a bit of a hole at the join. So I try to pull any looseness in the stitches away from the gap and out into the body of the peice until the looseness is distributed over many stitches instead of just 1 or 2. I actually like knitting sweaters from the top down just a little bit better because it allows you to pick up an extra stitch on each side of the armhole seam when you are picking up stitches to knit on down the body or sleeves. But enough of all this. I am not good at any tutorial stuff. Better left for those who are. Just know that this sweater is a lovely knit and I may even make it again. Maybe I will try to re-engineer it to be top down.

Next up on the agenda is my wonderful woad dyeing success. I have only once messed with using any kind of indigo and that was a chemical vat with indigo granules. That was fun but I wanted to see if I could get that same blue with something I could grow myself. So into my dye garden this year went both woad and indigo. I decided to go with woad first. The leaves are larger and faster to pick was the only reason. So I stuffed a 1 gallon glass jar full of the leaves. Then poured nearly boiling water just to cover the leaves and left it sit for 1 hr.

The liquid was then a sherry brown and barely cool enough to touch. I strained off the liquid and squeezed the leaves to get out all I could. Then into that went 1 Tablespoon of ammonia. The next step is kinda fun. You get to pour this liquid back and forth between 2 containers, to incorporate air, til it starts to get frothy, blue and has a coppery sheen to it. It didn't take long at all for this to happen to mine. I probably should have kept up the aeration for a bit longer according to my directions but I really didn't have the best containers and I was getting sloppy and losing some of my dye liquor. Besides it was blue and I was a bit over excited at this point!!

Next step requires you keep this liquid at a very stable precise temperature of between 100 and 120F. So I made a water bath out of a large shallow stock pot, put in my glass jar and kept my electric stove on its lowest setting. I checked the temp every 10 minutes or so, and turned off the stove if it started to get a bit high. Then you add 1 Tablespoon of Rit color run remover. Stir very gently and cover. The dye remover reduces the liquid, meaning it removes all the oxygen. It takes the indigo blue, which is not water soluble and changes it into indigo white which is. The liquid is now supposed to go yellow green on you in the space of an hour or so. And if not, add more color remover and wait. So of course, mine stays blue. Even after a second dose.

But my reducing agent was old, from last year. And this stuff is a bit fragile so I think it was very weak. But I threw in a ready sample, let it sit for 10 minutes, pulled it out carefully and it was a sickly yellowy green, swiftly changing to blue!!! OMG, what a feeling that was. Pretty close to orgasmic I think!! Well, for a natural dyer it was! So in went my intended yarn for 10 minutes. It came out the same sickly green, swiftly turning blue. Without a partner, standing right there with the camera you can not get a good picture of this color change. In fact, I have not even seen one to speak of in a dye book or on line. But beleive me, it is cool to watch. I was really thrilled with the blue but felt it needed to be just a tad darker, so it went back in for another 10 minutes. Just about perfect that time. But I still had a lot of dye left so I threw in some shetland I had laying around and got a gorgeous blue on that also. Wish I had some previously dyed yellow to throw in so I would get green. But next time, which there will be very soon. As I still have a ton of indigo and a bit of woad left. And now I know woad will have a permanant place in my dye garden. I will just be careful to keep the self seeding under control so it does not attain noxious weed status here, as it has in many other states.

Not sure what project will be next. I wanted to immediately start another sweater but not all the yarn has arrived and will need dyed once it does. But I have lots of leftover Cascade 220 in that hamburger gravy color to use up. And I have an idea just how to do that.

My Big Black Racing Machine

2009-09-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

Do you have any idea how long I have waited to drive one of these around the track?? Years, many years, way to many years. But I finally took the plunge. Thanks to a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath and Beyond, a rebate sale by Kitchenaid, and a $70.00 rebate check from another transaction I was able to get this at about 1/2 the impact on my wallet than usual. My worst problem was trying to decide between the Artisan at 5qts and the Professional at 6 qts. The motor on the Pro is also a bit stronger. Of course, there is the pesky fact that one cost $100 more and does not come in cool colors like the Artisan. But after weighing all the facts I decided on this pretty black racing machine. Now I could have gone all girly and gotten blue, yellow, pink, ect. But what if my kitchen changes moods down the road a bit? Hopefully this machine will still be purring and black will never be out of style. So far I have managed to make bread dough quite nicely. With great end result, not having depended on my wimpy old lady arm muscles for kneading. The guide book firmly states to not go over 6 cups of whole wheat flour in this size mixer bowl and beleive me, they know what they are talking about. My recipe calls for between 6-7 and as soon as I put a tiny bit more than 6, the dough started crawling up over the top of the hook. So I am going to try another recipe next time that makes just one loaf of bread. Cause I think I was really a bit shy on the flour with this one. But still-NO KNEADING ON MY PART!! How cool is that?? And I haven't even gotten the chance to whip cream or eggs yet.

This is what else has been going on in the kitchen this week. Tomato slaughter. Lots and lots of tomatoes. This was a 30+batch that yeilded 4 qts of rich sauce that got frozen. I didn't even bother to take pics the day I did 60+ and got 6qts finished product. But I think I am about thru with the red guys. Still gots lots of pumpkin to do without a great system worked out yet to get it done. Everything is too small or too messy. But I am moving on to another idea tomorrow. We will see if I grow behemoths like this again next year.

The sweater is progressing. But it just looks all frumpy and lumpy. Not picture worthy at all. But I am not afraid the end product will be awful, rather I am convinced it will be all that and a bag of chips!! After all, Jared told me. Right?

On to the knitting!!

2009-09-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

AS promised, I am back, sooner than later. This time I am opening with a picture of just some of the tomatoes that I need to process tomorrow. I will probably just make them into tomato sauce. Although some are nice enough to leave as diced tomatoes. But seriously, don't you love all the color in these? Yes, some have a tad more ripening to do, but mostly all the color differences come from the variety itself. I have Cherokee Purples, Striped Romans, Cour d'Bue, Yellow Pear and I think some garden variety Big Boys thrown in for good measure. The variety that has done the best for me this year are the striped Romans. Will definitely plant those again next year. And the yellow pear. But for the rest, I think I will go with all new varieties. And keep picking the best each year til I have a full orchestra of tomato colors, flavors, styles and sizes.

And now on to some knitting. Now I warn you ahead of time. This is not nearly as colorful. Not at all. In fact, much bland, in my opinion. But this yarn was on sale. A good sale, a darned cheap sale. So I bought it. My plan at the moment is to finish said sweater. Wear it once and decide. Is it too boring? Or does it look great in the throes of a dull dreary winter. If it is indeed too boring, it will get dyed as a garment. Probably something in a deep bricky red color to cover up the oatmeal gray. But time will tell. On to more pertinent details. First this sweater was designed by Jared Flood and its name is Seneca. Seneca is half way down this page. He designed it to be knit in Classic Elite's Lush yarn, which is a wool/angora blend. But I think that whipping this up in Cascade 220 is still a worthwhile option. It will for sure need to be worn with something underneath, if sensitive skin is an issue at all. Mine is getting a bit more that, all the time.

So far I have gotten the body knit up to the underarm join. I am well into sleeve #1. The sideways cables on this sweater are easy peesey to knit but will demand a really good blocking to set them into the fabric the first time. Jared mentions that, which for sure made me feel better when I could not get my hem to lie flat for the pictures I was trying to take.

Maybe it is because I have knit on some small gauge yarn this last year, but this project seems to be going pretty fast. Of course, when knitting a raglan from the bottom down, you are working on the smaller rows of the project. Just join the body and arms to start knitting that yoke and then you get some long rows to knit!! But when you get to that part on this sweater you get to throw in some interest following the 2 different cable charts. And you get to do those decrease rows every so often.

And yes, I did get all that pumpkin processed. Some went into freezer after much prep work. Pumpkin has a lot of water in the flesh. And to get it to something akin to what comes out of the can made by Libby, you really have to work at it. I think I have the process down to an art now tho and can hopefully breeze thru the other 20 giants out there. I also used some to make Daisy some dog treats. And if you throw some into her dog bowl along with her food she will scarf it down and lick the bowl. It is supposed to be really good for dogs, just as long as she doesn't start turning orange from all that beta-carotene!!!

Back in a Big Way!!

2009-08-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile, hasn't it?? But my busy summer just whizzed on by and left me in the dust. I do have alot to show for it tho. First of all, this 50lb pumpkin!! The variety is Long of Naples and is supposed to be a long necked pumpkin. Although I have also seen it classified as a winter squash. The seed packet stated the fruit would weight between 25-40 lbs. Imagine my suprise, after hauling this up the stairs, that the thing tipped the scales at a bit over 50!! It is taking me several long days of prepping this thing to get a useable end product into the freezer. But this squash is so amazingly sweet and with the yeild I have gotten, I could very well make pumpkin pie for our entire county. For several holidays. And still have plenty left over to try all the new recipes I have bookmarked on Recipezaar.com!!

The girls have gone on home to their mom in N. Carolina in time for school to start. I know they were ready. They had been over 3 months without any real kids their own age around. They were very play hungry!! But we did get alot accomplished by the time they went home. Maddy was well into book 5 of Harry Potter and Katie was ready to start book 5 of her series, which I can not for the life of me, remember the name of.

Then they both did these great little 9 patch projects, which I will be hand quilting for them very soon. They picked the fabric from squares I had already cut for my own personal use. But they did all the sewing, ironing and arranging to make the little top. I signed the very first one they each did with their name, date and location plus ID'ed them as their very first ever quilt blocks.

I had taken the girls up to Knoxville for the AQS quilt show in July. They were enchanted with the quilts in the show and forced me for once, to slow down and actually look at the quilts. I usually run thru, glance at them, and hit the vendors. They were not as excited about the stuff for sale until they got to a booth with all the patterns from Melly&Me. They both really liked this little softie and I agreed to foot the bill for the pattern and a single peice of fabric that they liked. Then back home they could mix and match the other fabrics out of my stash. This project took alot more sewing skills which they mastered very well. They did the trimming around the sewing lines, but I clipped and turned them right side out. They did the stuffing, however, and that was time consuming and tedious. In the end, they loved their little creature, gave them names, and made up stories all about their little stuffy lives!!

My one and only finished knitting project this summer was this beret that Katie wanted. She wanted it to be pink so we solar dyed the yarn with cochineal. Oh yeah, I did do one felted hotpad but that is not exciting enough to even take a picture. Oh, and I also knit those little scarves around the softies necks!!

I am now sailing along with a new sweater project that I will tell you all about soon. It is one of Jared Floods new designs. His first as a grown up professional!! But I am going to save that now for a new post, just to give me a good reason to rush back here and make up for lost time. See ya all very soon, I promise!!

War and Peace

2009-07-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

A lot can happen in a month. Even when one does not get around to blogging much. So here goes an epic post to catch everyone up with the adventure I call my life.

First of all, the girls are here. I picked them up from the Nashville airport, where they arrived, all by themselves, like seasoned travellers. Everything went off without a hitch. I have never flown SW airlines, but from what I could see, they did a great job getting the girls to us on their first solo flight.

Since then we have been busy. I knew there was going to be alot of down time for them, way out here in the country with no other kids to play with. So I suggested maybe they would enjoy reading the Harry Potter series. Maddie dove right in. Katie, not so much. But she did pick out another series at the bookstore, and it seems to be keeping her interest so that's fine with me.

They have had no problem with the sleeping arrangements. Katie grabbed the iron bed, but Maddie seems to like the air mattress on the floor. I gave up pretty quickly on getting her to put it back under the iron bed during the day, tho. Daisy also likes the air mattress and I often find her curled up next to Maddie in the morning. The girls really took to the animals right off, and except for Lexi, they took right to them also. Lexi is just now coming around. Over the 4th I took them over to Chattanooga for a 3 day weekend. The girls felt right at home with all the zoo that lives their great aunt Mary and uncle Richard. Especially the gorgeous new feral kitten they are trying to socialize. This little sweetie is a flame point Hemmingway and took to Maddie like she was her mother. I kind of expected some tears when we headed home, wanting Bluette to come to. But I guess Maddie trusted Aunt Mary to find this beauty a good home.

Uncle Richard came with us downtown to the aquarium. All his extra knowledge delighted them and made the experience extra special. We also hit the museum to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. It was a bit disappointing, being very very small. I have seen more of his work in the hotel at the Houston Quilt show. The girls also enjoyed the pedestrian bridge across the Tennessee River. Of course, having a glorious weather day didn't hurt.

Sunday we hit a local farmer's market downtown and then went to ride the carousel. It is the last totally wooden, hand carved carousel in the country. I wish I would have brought the camera, but alas, hadn't thought of it when heading out the door.

We headed home on Monday with one last activity before hitting the interstate. I thought the girls would really enjoy riding the incline railway up to the top of Lookout Mountain. It really was a pretty cool fun thing to do. Part of the rail goes up at a 72 degree slope. The only thing that keeps you from feeling like you are sliding out of your seat, is that they are mounting in the car at an angle that minimizes the effect. There is a small park at the top that has some amazing views. One day we would like to go back and walk some of the trails that go down from the park to some points of interest. We were all wearing flip flops that day, not exactly mountain climbing gear.

One of the secondary reasons for heading to Chatty that particular weekend, is that the wild blackberries were getting ripe. The girls and I braved the thorns and managed to bring back 6 qts of berries. These are frozen right now, but will be jam and wine when I have the time to deal with it.

Once I saw that the girls liked Harry Potter, it quickly became obvious that they would be my dates for the opening of the new movie. That meant we would have to watch all the others in the days leading up to June 15th. That was 5 very quiet evenings around the house. They got into it from minute 1!! So I splurged and went on line, bought advance tickets for opening day of the Half Blood Prince. We have to say that this is probably the best movie of the 6 now done. Of course it can not cover everything the book does. For instance, I wish they would bring out the personality of Tonks better than they did. But I have to say, several times in the movie, the soundtrack goes silent. During these brief moments, not one person in the audience was even breathing. We were all on the edge of our seats, even tho many of us know how it all comes out in the end. If any of you have not yet seen it, go now. I may even go again.

I have not gotten alot of knitting done. Or quilting. But the girls have gotten some nice 9 patch blocks done with help from me. Maddie can really run the machine quite well, while Katie takes a bit more help lifting the pressure foot and all. But Katie has a lead foot while still maintaining her accuracy. Both girls pick out some nice fabric combos. Now I am very glad I cut those 100's of 2.5" quilt seeds. Katie told me today she really only likes picking out the fabrics and doing the ironing. That's my girl. Always trying to get someone else to do the hard work!!

But I did managed to completely finish the Buttercup sweater and even wear it a few times. I am really happy with the end result. My only change next time would be to knit the top section a size smaller in order to raise up the neck line a little. But the yarn, pattern and sweater are totally a winner. I have now slowly started the Faerie Ring Jacket. I am on the cable that runs along the bottom. Thank goodness it is a totally memorizable pattern repeat since I rarely get more than a few minutes alone to knit these days. The last thing keeping me busy is the garden. It is producing bushels at a time now. I have so many squash that I am dehydrating all the zucchini and trying to keep up eating the yellow squash. And I am falling desperately behind, despite trying every yellow squash recipe on the web. Next year, 2 zucchini and 1 yellow squash. Period. And let's not even start to talk about the green beans. Lets just say the new freezer is already filling up. The biggest one I could buy at the appliance store. I just picked the first ripe tomatoes today but I have a ton of greenies waiting to redden up. I have 14+ watermelons on the vine and many many more little babies waiting in the wings. These are those cute baby melons so it will take 2 at a time to feed the 4 of us. Cucumbers enough for quarts and quarts of pickles. Spaghetti squash enough to feed the county. My only failure seems to be peppers. They were doing well but Japanese Beetles waited until I went into town one day and ate them almost down to the ground. They may come back but it will take a lot of babying and no more attacks from the unwelcome pests. I am getting really really good at hand picking bugs and throwing them to drown in a big Bucket O' Bugs.

This is already long without having added the pics I plan on showing off. So off I go to plug in the photos. Hopefully the girls and I will come to an equilibrium and I will get some free time to post more frequently. Maybe after we get back from the Knoxville quilt show, or the hiking next weekend, or the water park trip the week after.......

Off the Blog Wagon-Again

2009-06-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our last foggy morning

I am beginning to think that I am going to be one of "those" bloggers. One who only reports the big stuff. For me, that would be when I finish a project. But as of right now, I am 95% finished with the Buttercup sweater. And I have so many other pictures to show you that I am going to go ahead and post without any FO or process pictures.

I was just reading my last post. The one where I mentioned rain, buckets of rain. Was that really such a short time ago?? Cause the rain in gone, long gone. And now the heat has settled in. In fact it is quite like Oklahoma outside. Hot, hot, hot and a bit windy. So I am having to water the garden, alot, sometimes twice a day. But we are harvesting squash, peppers and green beans right now. Well, OK, the green beans won't be for a couple more days but I have munched on a few little ones while out weeding!! Sushh, I don't want Ken to know.

The last couple of weekends we travelled over to Chattanooga for their annual music festival, called Riverbend. We snagged tickets thru DH's sister for $21.00. For that we saw Willie Nelson, Train, Montgomery Gentry, 3 Dog Night(original members) and Little Richard. During the week, when we could not be there, they also had the B-52's and Steven Curtis Chapman. I would have loved to have seen both but alas, DH had to go to work and the kitty's were home unsupervised. Willie opened the festival and OMG, the man is so past his prime. He was almost impossible to understand and he kept forgetting his lyrics. The only thing that made his show worth the time was this female songwriter/vocalist he brought up on stage. She had the world's worst boob job and not that great of a figure otherwise. And as far as singing goes, who knows, we could not hear her at all. The whole crowd was gasping at her on the stage and big screens. We made the comment that "someone pimped her ride"!! We figured she was Willie's latest eye candy cause we could not see any other good reason for her being brought up on stage.

The group Train is one I like OK on radio. Not my favorite or anything. But my goodness, they rocked the festival. They sang all their hits and then did a few covers of Led Zepplin songs. I for one, am not a huge Zepplin fan but when Train did them, I was hooked. They were worth the price of admission all by themselves. Montgomery Gentry was also great, even for those of us who are not die hard country fans. To me they were almost rock. They sure could get the crowd going.

3 Dog Night brought almost all the old group together for a reunion tour. They seemed to be able to make it work despite the fact that they are all over 60 years old now. Sure put Willie to shame. I was never a huge 3DN fan growing up but who can resist singing along with Jeremiah was a Bullfrog??

Closing night was headlined by Little Richard. He is showing his age a bit, but no where near like Willie. We did not realize til they were taking him off stage that he must have had quite a stroke and can not move his legs at all. They darkened the stage and had 2 big guys pick him up and put him in his wheelchair and take him off with no encore at all. But then we had the fireworks that Riverbend is famous for. They were just awesome and we had seats front and center overlooking the Tennessee River so we saw them in all their glory. Next year is the 30th anniversary of Riverbend and we are already looking forward to finding out who their headliners will be. It was also nice to have 2 weekend visits with DH's sister and husband. We ate, drank and slept to exces, loving every minute of it.

Some time ago I promised pics of the antique dresser we bought for the girls room. So here they finally are. Never mind that I also promised pics of the new entertainment center and couch in the living room. Taking pics of those would mean having to tidy them up and that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

The buttercup sweater should be finished next time out. If it weren't for a very persistent case of right arm tendonitis, I would have already been wearing this peice. The only thing left to finish is about 10 rows around each sleeve. I may have at least one of those done today. I have tried on the body since finishing it and I love the way this fits. It is one really nice pattern, especially since it was free and the yarn was a good deal.

The girls will be arriving on June 29th. We talked to them this last weekend on Maddie's birthday. They sound very excited to be coming and are looking forward to a nice long visit with us. Katie is bringing her knitting to be retaught. The fact that she asked that warmed a grandma's heart.

Going Green

2009-05-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

Everything surrounding me is so green right now. We have had buckets of rain, and milder temps so all our plants and flowers have really perked up. Even though I had promised myself to not buy any flowering plants this year, focusing on edibles instead, I just could not resist having just a few jewels to spice up my life. So I decided to fill some pots to sit on the front steps. And then that led to putting a few things in the flower bed next to the front walk. And that led to........and so on and so forth!! Oh well, I am addicted to flowers. Always have been, always will be. But I have refrained from doing any new planting beds. I am going to be a good girl and wait for my landscaping plans to be finished. Ok, exception for the dye garden. But that is over in the north 40 and is not included in the landscaping design. So here are a few pics of the brightness that is my front porch right now. Never mind the dirty shoes lying in the back of the photo. They are the down side of all the rain and muck we have been dealing with due to a bit too much rain.

These 2 pictures are out in an existing flower bed. The Oakleaf Hydrangeas were already planted when we moved in. I didn't think I would really like them that much. The snowball type hydrangeas are much more my speed. But once they started blooming I found them to be quite beautiful. The snowball type will be planted at some point but until then these will keep my appetite saited. The lily is one I planted last winter from really really cheap sale bulbs. I have quite a few up but this is the first one to come into bloom.

Now onto knitting. I have been busy. The buttercup sweater is well under way using Hempathy yarn. This yarn is a finer gauge blend of cotton and hemp. While knitting it does tend to split a little. This is due to it being 2 play and the fibers being too smooth to grab between the plys. But really it has been easy to knit with and is supposed to age wonderfully. The pattern has been a joy after that project I did. I am about 1/2 way done and I think it will end up being an awesome summer sweater when I am done. Of course I have not tried it on at all yet. Maybe today. I have to run a peice of yarn thru all the stitches and take it off its needle to do that which is why it has already been tried on a dozen times. But it would be foolish to keep going if something is out of kilter, right?? Anyway, here are a few pics of my green buttercup.

Now onto some rather sad news. I never in a million years thought I would ever have to say this. About this couple. Ever. But here goes. My daughter and son-in-law are in the process of getting a divorce. I think way too many deployments, to much time apart, ect have just finally did them in. I think she saw this coming for quite awhile and was why she was so adamant that she go back to school and get her nursing degree. The fact that she now finallyhas her degree is completely coincedental that all this is happening right now. They just bought a house in New Hampshire and went into that hoping they could make a new start and bring back the love that they used to share. But instead it got worse. Way worse. So she is now going to move back to North Carolina and work in a hospital that she did many of her clinical rotations in. She will be taking the girls. Son in law in no way could care for them with the job assignment he is starting right now. But they vow to stay friendly and get thru this with as little impact on the granddaughters as possible. The only good news out of all this is that we get to have the girls soon and keep them til school starts. We have long wished for them to be the age and the circumstances be right to come spend the summer with us. Just wish it had not been these circumstances. But they should be arriving in a few weeks and so many of my posts will be about them. And that does make me happy. If I can just put the rest out of my mind and temporarily forget that 2 more people are involved and they have their own pain to deal with.

FiFi Finally Fini!!

2009-05-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

So here I am a week late with posting. I just didn't have that much to say. It was all about Fifi and she just would not get dry from her blocking in the damp rainy cool weather we had last week. But finally the sun broke thru the clouds, the temperatures climbed and my wonderful Fifi finally became camera ready. Well, except for a picture of the sweater actually on me. Cause that would mean I would have to stay out of the garden all day, shower and clean up and then get someone to snap a picture. But I promise, this sweater does look quite good on me, if I have to say so myself.

So on to the next project. In fact I have several in the immediate queue. Our local LYS recently had an anniversary sale. So I happily went on in to participate. I fully intended to buy something summery to knit since I feel like I am really going to enjoy wearing Fifi. But I just did not find a pattern ahead of time that I liked very much. Sure didn't want to make Fifi again anytime soon. So I ended up buying a bunch of Cascade 220 to make the Faerie Ring Cardigan. This is a free pattern on Ravelry and there will soon be a knit along starting for her. She is a quite beautiful cabled hooded coat/jacket that I will make great use of this next fall and winter. The color I ended up getting was not that exciting, but by default, cause it was one of the few colors they had 10 skeins of the same dye lot. But then I got home and was cruising Ravelry again and came across a nice summer top pattern that I really liked. And it was free. Alot better than the $6.50 I paid for the Fifi pattern that was so horribly written. So now I am in love with Buttercup. The yarn that is called for is Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy. I have long wanted to try using hemp. It is a great renewable fiber that is supposed to keep getting better with age. It has a long history of being a great useable fiber. But did you know that they can not even grow hemp in the US?? Cause it is the same plant as marijuana, except it does not have the chemicals that make it a hallucinagenic drug. But the silly US of A can not figure out how to have it be the important agricultural crop that it is(it has a trillion great useages) without messing up their ability to track the illegal growing of marijuana. Maybe they should just ease the stupid restrictions on marijuana?? Just a thought, not something I would march on Washington for, LOL!! But anyway, after that regression, back to the story. So I looked on line and found plenty of sources for Hempathy but at almost 8$ a ball I was not so sure I was interested. But luckily I found a vendor on ebay, that I have used and loved before, and she had it for $5.00 a ball. Sure, last years colors, but hey, I am always a step out of fashion anyway!! So hopefully I can start tonight. Hempathy is one of those great yarns that already comes in a useable ball!! Whoppee for me!!

The garden is going well. Once the rains finally slowed down and the soil warmed up. I now have in most of my green beans. 2 full rows of white half runner, 1 row of bush beans, 1 row of Christmas limas and soon to be 1/2 row of purple yard long beans for fun. I also have in 10 tomatos of various sorts. Most I started from seed myself and 2 I bought. My seedlings are a bit small so I chickened out and bought 2 from the nursery to get me some earlier tomatoes. There are 18 peppers. And the same goes for them. They were really small so I bought 6 different plants to give me a jump start on the season. Some folks buy all their transplants at the nursery but my gosh, good plants are now close to $5.00 a pop!! Next year my seedlings will be much better off when time to plant. I will be setting up a light stand and starting those babies way earlier in the year. I also have in 5 summer squashes, 4 winter squashes, 4 cucumbers, 8 different sweet melons, 4 brussel sprout plants and there are still a few things to get in the ground in the next few days. We are starting to harvest lettuce, radishes and herbs out of the herb bed. I keep intending to take a picture of the herb bed now that I got it mulched and it looks so pretty. Maybe next post, OK??

Guess I better get a move on. If I want to be able to knit tonight, I need to get my housework done and the rest of the yard work started. Dinner is leftovers.. And BTW-DH is going to be gone for the next 5 days!! So I am gloriously left to my own devices, wishes and desires. Sleep when I want, eat when I want, go where I want................I have at least one frivolous trip planned involving antiques!! See ya next time.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

2009-05-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah-like I don't know you all have long since forgotten me. But I have a reason. A good solid reason. Well, at least I think it is. The blame entirely falls on the shoulders of my picture hosting site. I have been using Nikon's MyPictureTown.com for some time now. I found the ease of loading pictures onto the blog was so much easier from there. But for way over a month the site has been giving me fits. So today I sat down and restored my computer to a date long before I remembered having the problem. That did nothing to fix my problem. I messed with some internet preference options. Again nothing. So I guess for now I will go back to using blogger to post pictures. Maybe it has gotten easier since I messed with it last.

The trip to Disney is long since over. It has been long enough to forget the bone gripping fatigue you get keeping up with an 8 & 9 year old on vacation in Florida. Long enough to forget the lack of sleep from constantly changing hotels(even tho some of those beds were to die for)!! Long enough to forget how big a fit a tired 9 year old can throw when she gets very very frustrated. But luckily, not to long ago to remember the joy in seeing their faces after almost a year, the excitement of hitting the beaches for the first time this season, the look of wonder in seeing Disney World and Cinderella's castle for the first time, the exhilaration of riding the big roller coasters with them and last but not least of all, the immense love we feel for these granddaughters of ours.

Now the Disney World experience is one most people should experience at least once in their lives. But for us, it will be once and only once. We were not enchanted overall, nor were the girls. Yes, they had a great time. But it wasn't the Disney experience that really did it for them. Plainly and clearly, they just love thrill rides. We could have easily gone to a good 6 Flags and been done with it. Maybe they were just not the right age. Maybe a little younger would have been the perfect time. They didn't care for the crowds that much but they were amazingly patient if they thought the long lines would lead to a heart stopping, jaw dropping, stomach churning joy ride. They never wanted to spend much time or money looking for souveniers and were pretty reasonable about snacks and meals. In contrast though, they loved all 3 beaches we decided to visit. We spent a day each at St Augustine, Daytona and Amelia Island. All 3 were very different experiences and all most enjoyable. Grandma just wishes the beach combing would have been a little bit better while we were there.

Since returning from Florida I have been quite busy with my gardening, knitting and even my quilting. Outside the weather is slowly warming. But at least every few days we get hit with torrential rains that want to flood out the garden. So I am still holding off on putting my tomato, pepper and squash plants in the ground. Someday soon we will turn the corner and start to dry out just a little. On the knitting needles is a cute little cotton sweater that has given me fits. For reals. The pattern is Fifi, found on Ravelry. It is a cropped length, cap sleeved, cabled little fitted tee that has a bit of sex appeal. Yes, even a granny wants a little bit of that. But the pattern is written so badly. At first I thought it was just me. But I promise, seriously, that this is not me. I took a lot of time to carefully go word by word thru the first half of the sweater. It is knit top down, raglan style and I knit all the way past the arm hole divides and into the lower bodice before I totally ripped it all out and started over. If you knit as the pattern reads your cables will not line up at all like the picture. And making sense of where the short rows should go is nearly impossible. And how the short rows are to be accomplished is not all that well thought out. So I decided to take what I learned from what I had tried to knit, look at the picture to get the cable placement right, readjust the short row idea and now I have a gorgeous little number to show off. I went with the pattern recommendation on the yarn and that is one thing that was right on the money. They used Rowan's Calmer. A bit pricey but hands down the best cotton I have ever worked with. I may never want to try anything else after being spoiled by this great fiber. Anyway, hopefully pictures of a finished object will appear next post. Which I intend to be next week......I want to be back on a regular posting schedule pictures or no pictures.

As far as the quilting goes, I have not so much been sewing, but organizing the studio again. I never really got everything unpacked and put away. I had yet to decide on or find bookcases or something to use as a cutting table. But I think that is finally all underway and I will post more on it as it progresses.

But alas, dinner is on the stove. The yard needs some weedeating now that it has slightly dried out from this morning's deluge. And I still have a repeat and a half to finish up with today's knitting quota. So I leave you now and hope to see you again in a week.....But before I go, just a few funnies....

The Girls Clowning Around

The Cows after the Storm

2 Days and Counting til Wonderland

2009-04-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yep. It's finally almost time for our trip to Disneyworld. With our awesome granddaughters. But in the last week several things almost kept this from happening. One I fretted over quite a bit and one happening totally unbeknownst to me. At our end what happened was both a good thing just at an inconvenient time. Dearest husband has finally gotten a job. One that actually takes him out of the house 5 days a week for about 10 hrs a day. This is something I have been longing for for months now. To have my house to myself on a regular basis to do what I want without him being in the way. And the income ain't to bad either. But of course when the job starts a week before you are supposed to leave on vacation and that dearest husband forgets to discuss that with his boss during the interview. Well it makes for one nervous granny, I tell you. But finally on his first real day he does tell his boss and everything is fine. He does get to go. Which saves us a ton of money. The tickets we got to the DW parks was thru the military. His was free. A 5 day all inclusive, park hopper, water park, ect, ect, ect.... Free, Free, Free!! Ours are companion tickets for 5 days but does not include park hopping or the water parks. And he has to be with us for us to use them. No problem with that. We only had to pay $99.00 each. When it was possible he could not go I looked at having to buy new tickets and those same level tickets for only 3 days were well into the 3 hundreds. Each. But I would not have disappointed those girls so I would have bit the bullet and bought them. But alls well that ends well, right??

Then I got a phone call from dearest daughter. Seems oldest grandchild got bit by something a few weeks ago and it got pretty infected. She had to have it lanced, twice and go on very strong antibiotics. I think it is a good thing I did not know this as it was happening. Cause I have cared for many a child who ended up hospitalized for same said infections. And some even had surgery/surgeries before they could finally get over it. And it would have made me so nervous and anxious for her well being, let alone her being able to come with us. So again alls well that ends well. But I am mentally still doing a bit of breath holding. And I think it will be a very big sigh of relief when we finally go thru those Disney gates for the first time. When the rest of the family is oohing and aahing on Cinderells's castle, I will be mentally thanking God we made it there!!

Our weather has been very psycotic this last week. We would have a couple of days of nice spring weather and then a big rain storm, then very cool temps. This morning I woke to heavy frost all over the garden. But a nice warm up is in progress and a tour of the yard this morning shows all to still be well. These tulips are not in my yard but down the way by the church-to-be sign.

Everything is really greening up around here, despite the recurrent chill. The winter wheat down the way is almost neon green. Of course I never have my camera when I go by there. But our grass is growing like a weed. Maybe that is cause there are so many weeds in our grass. Ken managed to finally buy his riding lawnmower and got the grass cut for the first time. The man drives that thing like he is in the Indy 500. And he leaves behind alot of stripes when he goes around curves. I think I will just have to have him teach me to drive the darned thing so we get a nicer looking yard for the effort.

I finally have that finished object I promised last post. I have had it done for a few days but I could not get it blocked. Cause I had no idea where my blocking pins were. But today, while rummaging thru my sewing room I found them in a box. One which only luck put in my way to find. I would have never thought to look for blocking pins in a christmas box I had saved for future use. I was hoping to get this shawl to block out a little wider and a little shorter than it looked unblocked. But it does not seem like that is going to happen. I want to preserve the nice shape of the hexagons and stretching it won't maintain them that way. So I just stretched it a moderate amount and will hope for the best. I figure this is a show piece anyway, one that will rarely get worn. I might enter it in the fair, show it to people to let them see all the natural colors one can get and then let it hang around, draped over something so it can be admired. I will try to get some sort of picture of it on me soon, once it dries.

I am going to try to post while we are at Disney. The girls tend to be very photogenic and Disney makes for a great background. But it depends alot on how dog tired I am at the end of each day. So keep checking back. If I don't get to post while we are gone, I will sure have a doosey to post when I get back!!

Missed by Just this much...

2009-03-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Did you notice? I missed my Sunday deadline by just a tad. I had the best intentions but as always laziness just got in the way. I think it was due to the short return to winter we were exposed to yesterday. I just wanted to stay cuddled up and cozy with my quilting or knitting.

Not much has happened around here this last week. We had some lovely weather, some wet weather and then the chilly weather. Zat's OK, it is still spring. Summer will arrive soon enough. A few more things have popped into bloom. My Flying Dragon trees that are growing in the drainage ditch next to the property have sprung into flower. This tree is such an interesting one. It is a native citrus that will survive some very cold temperatures. It is often used as the graft host for commercial orange growers cause it is so hardy. It does have fruit that can, if you are so inclined, be used. Some suggest making a beverage out of them, much like lemonade. We will see on that one!! But it is a beautiful little tree with the longest thorns!! The flowers are white and smell nice, like a delicate orange.

On one of my little jaunts I noticed some violets growing in a ditch along side the road. Now these were not your typical tiny little purple ones, but big white and lavender ones. The flower is a bit bigger than my thumb nail, but still with the flower shape of a true violet, not a pansy. At first I thought maybe crazy person had planted them there many years ago. But then I started to notice them in other locations. Along with some grape hyacinths or muscari of the deepest purpley blue. So the next day, after a good soaking rain, I went and dug some up and brought them home. I am so hopeful that I can get them to grow as I do so love wildflowers and these are some great ones for early spring. But here is a couple of pics I took of the flowers that ended up on my table. Even if I can't get them to grow well at the house, I can always pick all I need along the wayside. Oh, and the white flower must be some kind of wild statice. I am not going to try to transplant any of that. It grows in wild abundance in the ditch up by the school.

We also had a windy day last week. That brought me another treasure of nature. Under a tall pine tree I found this delightful bird's nest that had blown down. It is a medium sized, twig and mud masterpeice. It seems to have a central "bowl" of mud surrounded by a layer of loosely woven bigger twigs. Among the twigs is some of that curly christmas ribbon. The ribbon is white but wouldn't that have been fun if it had been red or green!! Then inside the mud bowl,which by the way, is perfectly round, is a soft layer of dried grasses on which to cushion the eggs. This next was built on a small branch that included a pine cone which is now a permanant part of the nest, glued to the bottom by the mud. I am not sure if this nest ever got used cause there is no evidence of tiny feathers and such. It could have just been built and then blew down, poor birdies with all that hard work. But at least it still has a purpose, one to decorate my front porch. And it is doing it's job quite well. The other items in the picture are both forms of polypore, or shelf fungi. The brown one is probably velvet polypore and the white, which from the side looks like a perfect mushroom, is probably a cottage cheese polypore. Both were collected off the ground here on the property.

My projects are all coming along nicely. I may even have a finished object to show next week!! The shawl is just 17 units from completion. I have been managing to do about 4 a day so even with blocking I could have pictures by this time a week from now. The quilt blocks are being made at the rate of about 5 a week. Now that is slow but at least it is steady. And this without a dedicted sewing area. I sure hope at some point to step up the pace. This week for some reason, I picked up an old hand quilting project that really needed finishing. It is a quilt made from muslin and plaids. It was inspired by a long ago class taken with Roberta Horton who loves scrap quilts and uses tons of plaids. In fact she had a line of fabrics that were sold at LQS's for many years, may still be. I had 5 of the 35 blocks already quilted and this week I have managed to complete one more and am already working on the 2nd. I would love to finish this up sometime this summer and use it on the bed out in the guest quarters. The colors will be perfect and it will fit the double bed out there nicely.

It is less than 2 weeks til our trip to Disney. We are getting a bit excited thinking about seeing the granddaughters and getting to go to the beach, then on to wonderland!! We now have our hotel rooms bought and paid for, our tickets to the park, bought and paid for so all we have left to do is to make the trip!! I am not sure I will even be bringing any knitting with me to do in my spare time. Cause honestly? Do you really think we are going to have any spare time????

Great Expectations

2009-03-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here I am again. For the third week in a row, I have made it here on Sunday evening. Now if I could just find a way to make my writing a bit more interesting.

Lately I have been feeling a bit expectant. No, I am not pregnant. Those days are so far behind me that I can barely remember them. No, my sense of expectation is all spring related. You see, the first time we saw this house, and the country side surrounding was last November. They had already had their killing frost and the landscape was all dead or dying. The previous owners had cleared away most of the vegetation to make things look better for prospective buyers like us. So now that spring has arrived, I walk around the property wondering what will come up next, where and when. Just like an expectant mother, I go shopping but can't buy much cause I don't know what is coming my way in the next few months. New parents have to buy the important things first, such as cribs, strollers and diapers. We have to buy trees for the orchard and equipment for working the garden. We leave the fun stuff at the store, for now, cause we just don't know what will suite our new babies til we see them. But slowly I am making some progress. I have put in and completely planted my herb/salad garden. I would love to have a few colorful fun things to pop in the middle but that will have to wait til I get some other things taken care of first. We have all our trees coming in this week, have muscadines planted and all the trellising materials in place. A whole long row of asparagus in is and peas are growing on their supports. So I just have to wait and let those labor pains progress and before I know it I can sit back and enjoy getting to know my new garden/baby.

Both my projects have made slow progress this week. The shawl is close to 3/4 done. The quilt has several more blocks made. But the good news is that I am finally making some headway on designing and organizing my sewing room. For my birthday I ordered shelving for the closet. I ordered them on line so they would be delivered right to the door. This company also offered more sizing options that any I could have bought at a big box store. They came in on Thursday while I was out shopping. That was perfect cause Friday was my birthday and I could get them put together that afternoon. I took these pics but it is hard to really see. A wide angle lens would have come in handy for that. It only took a few hours to get them all put together and loaded with stuff. To bad there are still boxes all over the sewing room!! And tons of empty space at the top of the closet. So I am going to need to order the extensions to take these shelves up another 24 inches. I will need a stepstool to get things up and down but I can always put stuff up there I rarely need so no problem. It will probably be a few more months before I do order the rest cause it sure was not a cheap way to do a closet!! Now I just need to figure out the very best cutting and sewing tables.

Now just a couple of cute pics of the kitties. Wouldn't want to bore you all with to many of these in a row. Don't you just love the idea of Lexi having a reference guide for her birding. Kind of like a menu at a restaurant!!

Slow But Steady Progress

2009-03-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

See, I am making a sincere effort to blog more regularly. The drawback is that none of my projects make enough progress in just one week to justify breaking out the camera. Just taking the pictures is not even the issue. With that comes finding the interface cable, downloading, sorting, open photo editing software, import, edit, tag, name and put in appropriate folders. But don't get me wrong, I love digital photography. Compare it to buying film, loading it in the camera, taking all the pics with caution to not waste film, figure out how to take 24-36 pics with the same speed of film, remember to take film out, take to be developed, remember to go back and pick them up, see 2/3 of them be wasted after all!! Yeah-give me digital any day.

Progress is being made on the shawl. I have passed the 2/3 done mark and should be done in 2 to 3 weeks. For awhile I thought I might run out of some of my colors but after rummaging around in the back bedroom I found some more of colors close enough to fit right in. I should be able to complete it with only a couple of colors being skimpy toward the end. No thought yet on what my next knitting project might be.

The quilt is also slowly making its way. I have 14 blocks now done. The plans to make it all red and blue on a neutral back ground went by the wayside today. I picked up what I had done and had that sense of not wanting to work on it any more. I thought about why that might be and came up with the notion that I am totally sick of red and blue!! Even if they were civil war reds and blues, they were just a bit boring. So out came the rest of my civil war prints and I am going to be so much happier including the whole kit and kaboodle. Actually this ends up solving several issues. The fabric I have will go much further and when I need to buy more(which I will) I will have alot more to pick from.

The weather has been quite a bit nicer a bit more regularly now. Although this weekend we did have a generous amount of rain. My lettuce, radishes and peas are all coming up well. The peas will have to be ferociously weeded here soon. I put them into the garden right after it was rototilled and only thought I got out all the grass!! So this week I will try to start getting that bed cleaned up a bit so the peas don't have to much competition out there.

I am loving my bird feeders being right out side my bedroom window. So is Lexi!! The bird population here is a bit different than in Oklahoma and I am constantly trying to use my bird identification book to get them all sorted out. So far some of the new birds(to me) are the dark eyed Junko, Carolina Chickadees and Eastern Bluebirds. In Oklahoma I could not get the birds to eat from the feeders unless they were yards away from the window. Here the feeders are less than 1 yard away and the birds waiting for their turn to eat often perch within inches of the glass. Of course Lexi goes into heavy stalking mode and jumps at the window when they are that close.

Another advantage of having acreage to roam is that I am much more tolerant of weeds. Who is going to try and have a perfect lawn with so much to care for. So now I am learning to enjoy the beauty that comes with those weeds. Hope you all enjoy them thru these pics. And see you all next week.

What A Difference A Week Makes

2009-03-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

I know, suprise, suprise, I am posting after only 1 week!! I am really trying to develop a new routine and making blogging a little bit more of a priority..

In just one week our weather went from freezing, with a dusting of snow to almost 80 degrees for the last 3 days. That allowed me to get outside, alot. I managed to get peas planted in the main garden and to make a salad border to my herb bed. I put in scallions(2 types), lettuce(several mixes of leaf lettuces), radishes and carrots. Everything got watered in and now we are awaiting a week of predicted rain and more seasonable temps. It will be a bit longer before I start planting the intermediate season stuff like beets, more carrots and spinach. And I need to buy some seed starting mix to get all my warm weather crops going in the mini greenhouse I have set up on the front porch.

When I went outside this morning I was greeted by some pretties, brought into bloom by the milder temperatures. First would be my 1 and only daffodil. I put in 2 bags, 30 bulbs each, of naturalizing daffs. They got put in the ground a little late and in a hurry. But so far almost all of them have sent up leaves and I will have a few more bloom before the season ends. But daffs will multiply readily and in the next few years I should have a beautiful driveway lined with yellow nodding heads in the spring.

Then I noticed that I had gorgeous white blossoms all over the bush right by my driveway. Yesterday the buds were all still tight with no sign of color. I think that my brother/sister in law told me this was a shrub magnolia but I could be wrong. But it looks a lot like the magnolia on the other side of the house. And I am confident about that ones identity. And to be sure I walked around the house to look at the leaves on that one to see if it indeed matched and it was in bloom also. It is a bit taller and it's blooms are a dark purple. I never used to be a magnolia fan but I think I am now!!

Now some pictures of my furniture finds. I think I mentioned the display coffee table last week. I ordered this off Ebay hoping to get a decent peice of furniture. Boy was I happy when this arrived at our door. It is all solid oak with tempered glass. It is very well made, all by hand and should last me forever. The seller never even charged me shipping and it arrived in a huge wooden box that he built around the table so it would arrive safely. I will probably be ordering a end table later on. The quilts in the table are some older ones I bought years ago on ebay, before everyone caught on, and things were still bargains. BTW-there are baskets under the table. They fit perfectly and allow me to store my knitting projects right where they are easy to get to.

My next furniture find was a godsend. I was sewing at my dining room table. It was too high and hurting my neck. I had hoped to find a small portable sewing table online, but the ones I found were going to be about $150.00 with shipping. Well, this week on my shopping day, I stopped into an antique store in Fayetteville, looking to see if they still had a ceramic peice I had passed over several months ago. Of course it was gone but this little table caught my eye. It was marked as "antique sewing table" for $125.00. I did think this was a decent peice and the price was probably worth it. But I wasn't willing to shell out that much right then. So I stopped by and talked to the owner, telling him how I was intrigued by the table, but really couldn't afford it at that time. I was not trying to talk him down, really I wasn't!! But he started scratching on his notepad and said "$75.00" And without even hesitating I said "SOLD" And it came home with me..It is solid mahogany with a metal bar on the bottom that holds the legs in place. You lift the bar up slightly to fold up the legs which is what makes it portable. Very very nifty. Wish they still made them like this. Now mine is a bit crooked over all, but still very usable and now is holding the machine in the following pictures. I used it to sew a few blocks last night and it is just the perfect height.

I have been plugging away on the swirl shawl but don't have any new sweaters in the works. The quilt is still slowing making progress also, but alas I need more fabric. So I ordered some today and will probably have to order some more.

My kitties have developed a new daily habit. They found that for most of the mid day, the sun shines into our bathroom right into the soaking tub. So they started taking sun baths together. It was so sweet to see them all warm and snuggled up so I threw in a big feather comforter to make it even nicer. They love it!!

And Miss Daisy can't be left out. Although it is a bit harder to get pics of her!!

What's Been Going On

2009-02-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Just the same old, same old. But I do have a finished sweater to show off. And a few newly started projects. Plus our new-to-us bedroom set, which also led to a new quilt being started. With me, it is always alot of starts, with not quite as many finishes.

So I will start with the finish. To make me feel good. To remind myself that I do make nice, useful, comfortable things and not just waste hours crafting. Cause sometimes when I have to look at all those UFO's piling up I do get a bit down in the mouth with what time and money has gone into them. And that will probably never get done in my lifetime, at least by me.

So here is Gathered Pullover #2. Just to remind. The pattern is from Interweave Knits, available from their on line store for immediate PDF download. It is an easy pattern to work, although my version does have a few modifications made to suite me a bit better. The yarn is DK weight this time, and dyed with the liquid gleaned from soaking black beans before making soup. This took 2 skeins and their is a slight difference between them, despite being dyed together at the same time. I don't have a proven explanation for the difference. One is a more solid blue with tiny bits of a lighter blue. The second, which ended up being the sleeves and top of the sweater, has a lot more variation to it. And the lighter spots were a bit more green than blue. I would have been happy with both skeins being either version. So probably when I run out of frozen black beans, and need to do more, I will re-dye. My feeling is that I had too much fiber in the pot at once. The fiber tends to take up the dye fairly fast and maybe I did not get the yarn moved around fast enough to be even. The other idea is that when hung to dry, 2 of my 3 skeins had contact with my fiberglass shower wall. Maybe there was some sort of chemical reaction?? Who knows. But so far the blue has held up well under 2 washings and wearings, plus all the time that went by while the knitting was underway. So I feel pretty good about it's fastness. And of course, I can always re-dye if it fades!! So here are a few pics.

This next project has been going on for about a month. Previously referred to as "Secret Project" I am not sure why!! But this is my swirl shawl in progress. I have always loved this block and recently finally purchased the pattern. It is a JoJoLand pattern that I bought at a LYS. Every other quilt shop I saw this in was always out of the pattern when I asked to purchase it. The yarn is all fingering weight, sock yarn, dyed with natural materials. These were all the experiments that I did whilst I was new at the whole mother nature dyeing thing. Some of the materials were cochineal, black walnut, apple, marigold, lichen, dahlia, logwood, indigo, black bean, balloon flower, pecan, hibiscus, coffee, hollyhock, and dock. Well at least that is all I remember at this time!! The blocks are knit on to each other so no sewing together which I know would drive me crazy at the end. I am about 1/3 of the way thru and I know it will look a million times better once blocked. But it can not stay secret that long so here goes with the sneak peek!!

Next I do need to show you a few quick pics of the bedroom suite we finally ended up with. Found it on Craig's list for a song. It had been the guest room suite of a guy with a half million dollar house and had hardly ever been used. It is from a high end manufacturer and the only blemish on it is one we put in getting it in the house!! It came with a mattress and box spings that was worth more than we paid for the whole set. And boy is is comfy!! Pardon the the unmade bed. See the gray lump at the bottom?? When that lump is sleeping, the bed does not get made!!

And that leads me right into the last project. A quilt. For that bed. Nothing I have comes close to fitting in either size or style. I had a quilt started. With all brights and polkadots. But I laid those blocks out over the bed and boy did that not work. At all. So I rethought. One block I have always loved was Rolling Stone. I made 1 that is in my sampler wall quilt, hanging in the living room. And of course, my passion for civil war prints is pretty well indulged, so I had plenty of fabric to get started. That is, if I could find the box with all my civil war prints in it. The same said box also has my round robin blocks in it and I have seen it since we moved. But at this time, it is hiding somewhere. So I had to go buy a few new prints, none of which I like as well as what I have hanging around somewhere. But at least I could get started. I made these 2 blocks in just an hour or so. I didn't spend alot of time pinning or matching and they still came out just great. So maybe I can do something without my OCD slowing me down!! When the blocks were laid on the bed, in the room, they felt just like they belonged. So I just have a few hundred more blocks to whip up. Well, maybe just over a hundred. And this will get sent off for machine quilting, so it can go on the bed sometime before the next century begins.

Other than that, the garden's the only thing keeping us busy. I personally dug, with a shovel, a huge herb bed up by the back porch. It is at least 25 foot by 10 foot. Every shovel full of dirt held at least 1 big fat earthworm. And the dirt was so black and healthy looking. Better than the big garden a few yards away. I have not planted any herbs yet. It is still just a bit too cool. But it is ready. This year the bed will also hold all my salad veggies. So I just have to step out the door to pick a bowl of salad. I also put 4 blueberry plants in and hubby planted 6 muscadine vines. We will probably go pick up fruit trees over the next couple of weeks. We are hoping to buy them all locally but may not be able to find everything we want. So then we will go back to mail order. BTW-I ordered but have not received, 3 lilacs that supposedly handle warmer winters better and bloom well in the lower states. I can't wait til I can bury my nose into a bush full of amazing purple pannicles and breathe deep that amazing smell.

I Got the Blues, Yes, I got the Bluesssss.....

2009-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

As usual, it has been a few weeks. I have been busy. Nothing unusual or new. Well, except for knitting projects. And dogs.

Let me introduce my dearest dog, Daisy. DBIL & DSIL brought her over from Chattanooga almost 2 weeks ago. Of course she remembered us and was happy to see us. But when Mary & Richard left she did seem a bit confused. And she hated our tile floors. But she has settled in without much ado at all. She had a couple of accidents in the house until she figured out how to let us know she needed out. She has never bothered the cats(their food or their litter), gotten in the garbage, barked much at all, or tried to sleep with us. We can have her out in the yard and she will run but not run away. She does not dig or chase cars. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?? Well there are a few things that we did have to work on. She chewed a baby tree in half one day out in the yard. We caught her so she did get properly admonished. And for days she kept trying to get in our face constantly all day long. We solved that in just moments when we figured out how to use the "penny can". She will back off and go lie down as soon as she hears the noise. We have actually only had to use it a few times in one day and seldom since. Now she seems so much more settled especially in the evenings. I am working on training her. She sits, stays and comes pretty well. We just started on "lay" down but at the rate she learns it will be old hat in a day or so. The cats have taken their good old time getting used to it all. Especially old Lexi. But for the first time, tonight, Jack is asleep in a chair in the living room just about a foot from where Daisy is also lying. One of the reasons I wanted Daisy to be ours, was that she was a good walker. Turns out she is not able to go on our walks after all. She is awesome but the other dogs out here distract her too much. There are so many dogs that are not confined to quarters and come out when we pass by. There has never been any aggression between them and Daisy. But she thinks they want to play and it is too hard to drag her on by. So I go by myself and most days I walk further than she could anyway. And both DH and I get her out in the yard for plenty of play time. By the way-the picture of her on the love seat?? It is the only thing we can not break her of. She loves to sleep there at night. So we gave up. And everynight I cover the loveseat with her fleece afghan and she gets up there and sleeps like a rock.

The blues that I got?? They are these beautiful ones that I got when I used the liquid from black beans to dye some yarn. The first dip gave me the blues in the hat. Which will also be a sweater(already on the needles, another gathered pullover). The second dip gave me the lighter blue. I am not sure if it is lighter cause the dye was beginning to exhaust or if it was because the yarn was not superwash(takes color faster and better) or if it was cause I ran out of cream of tartar so I only used alum as a mordant. What ever reason, no matter. I am going to knit and felt some hotpads and the color works very well with my kitchen. The third dip was over an already dyed yellow yarn. I threw it in to get some green and although the pics don't really show it that well, it is a very pretty green. Some folks on my natural dyes Yahoo group say that black bean dye fades fairly fast. But so far the hat has been worn out on all my walks for almost a week. Probably at least 8 hours of direct sunlight and I have not noticed any appreciable fading. So I am going to hope for the best and accept any fading that may come over time.

I have several new knitting projects going. Of course you could tell from above that I am making a new Gathered pullover. In that lovely blue that is the same as the hat. This is DK weight yarn so it will have a bit more body than the same sweater knit in sport weight. And I plan on making several more adjustments in the pattern to make it a bit more perfect. The other project is one that I am doing to use up all the bits of natural dyed yarn I have on hand. No pics yet. Lets just say it is going to be gorgeous. More on that later.

We have finally started making real plans to take our 2 DGD's to Disney World over their spring break. We have our hotel rooms booked and most of our travel plans laid out. We haven't told the girls yet and hopefully we will do that this weekend. I can't wait to hear those happy voices shouting out with joy!!

Awesomeness

2009-01-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

Awesomeness on this walk, on a gorgeous winter day, in the amazing state of Tennessee. I know, I do go on a bit too much about our new locale but unless you have been here, don't you roll your eyes.....

Awesomeness on this finished project. The tshirt I am wearing under the sweater simply does not do a thing for the look, but it was what I was already wearing. And DH is so not the photographer. But you get the idea. This is knit from sportweight yarn, hand dyed by me with husks from black walnuts. It is not as dark as I would like but I think I am not going to get it any darker. I want to immediately cast on for another one. But no yarn........must order......must wait for delivery........must dye..........must wash.......and wait for it to dry............swatch........so no new sweater til sometime next month. So I guess I will dig in my stash and start some quicky project to tide me over. I would start peicing a quilt but I can't seem to find my rotary cutter. I know I packed it to be in the car when we moved but I sure can't seem to find it now.

Awesomeness, cause I managed to get thru an entire week of healthy living. I was feeling a bit sluggish due to the 15+ lbs I had put on since summer. I am not exactly sure of how much it is since I have not owned a scale in many years. But I found a website that is proving to be very helpful to me in getting thru the weight loss. It is called Sparkpeople. It is not just a weight loss site but has tons of info, tools, inspiration and success strageties. It was started by a man who made a bundle with an on-line company that he sold to Ebay. He wanted to give back to the internet world so he started this site and offers it all for free. I joined a group that is doing a cyber walk across the US. I chose Portsmouth NH for my starting point. This is where DD will be living very soon. And I will end at the other coast, at my DS's location. I am using Mapmyrun.com to help me track the journey. I am in Mass. right now and I do think this is going to be a very long term commitment!! But the group has been together a long time and are very supportive to us newbies.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/walk/united-states/me/kittery-point/386680740102

Any non-awesomeness in my life right now? The cold we are getting ready to have the rest of this week. I do not do 8 degrees, even at night. But what's a few frigid days deep in the month of January. I have my knitting and my friends to keep me warm.

Last FO's of 2008, On to 2009

2009-01-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

I think I am the only blogger in the whole entire world who did not post a "Good Wishes" type entry for the holidays. But I sure enjoyed everybody else's. I watched lots of great YouTube Christmas Carol videos, saw tons of holiday picture montages, read a good bit of New Year's Resolutions, and laughed over The Panopticon's "12 Days of Christmas" with Delores the randy Sheep. Me-I just sat on my lazy bottom and knit. And for once I actually have pics of a finished object. Of course I had to wait until someone else took the picture, download it onto his computer and then send it to me.

That someone was my dearest brother-in-law, who with his wife(hubby's sister)came from Chattanooga for dinner the day after Christmas. It is the first time they have been over to our new house. Heck, it is the first time they had ever been to our house at all. In 32 years. But now that we are much closer we all vow to make up for lost time. Now maybe we will visit, oh, maybe every 6 months?? We are such a close knit family and all!!

But I did make one heck of a great Christmas dinner for them. I had appetizers. Fresh strawberries, blackberries and 2 kinds of amazing cheeses. We had a soup and bread course. With homemade breads, rustic brown and french. And Curried Pumpkin soup. Well with out the curry cause I forgot to make sure I had some on hand. Then it was the smoked turkey they brought, killer Au Gratin potatos and roasted Balsamic Brussell Sprouts. Oh-and I forgot to say wine. We did have wine. I would say it was good wine, but little did I know that under the foil at the top, instead of corks, they had screwcaps. It is hard to call a wine with a screwcap a good wine. But we made up for it in quantity. Dessert was a homemade Cranberry Cheesecake that did it's damnest to not come out of my ancient springform pan. But the food gods must have known that if I am making a once in a 32 year dinner, nothing should go really wrong.

In between courses, we took walks over our property and up the road to see the view. Richard(DBIL) is doing our landscape plan. I love to grow things, but I have absolutely no idea of how to make things look good. I have no flow, no vision, no clue. But Richard does and I pretty much twisted his arm to help me out. So we photographed, measured and drew out the whole property and hopefully within a few more days, we will have a plan on paper to start implementing.

So while the camera was out he took pictures of Ken and I in front of the house. It just so happens I was wearing my latest finished project-My "February Ladies Sweater". I wasn't sure when I knit it that I would like using the Nashua Creative Focus yarn because of its inherent fuzziness. But you know, it worked up just fine. My only regret is making the sleeves about 4" to long. They come almost to my wrists and they really need to end just below the elbows. I could probably take them out and reknit the cuffs. But you know what?? I am not. I will just wear it like it is and when I knit it again, I will make adjustments. But it is warm and comfortable and well worth the time I put in knitting it. Wish I could say that about every garment I make.

The first project of 2009 is my Gathered Pullover from the IK library. Right now I am in the middle of the cabled area on the front. I have both loved and hated this project at one time, sometimes only minutes apart. I love that I dyed my own yarn, from native black walnuts, hated that it is not dark enough, Loved that I got gauge the first time I tried, hated that it was way to loose looking. Loved when I recast on with smaller needles, hated that I had to take it back out cause I let it twist when I joined in the round. Loved that the sweater will not have cost a fortune to knit, hated that the yarn is not the very best quality, with little breaks coming way to often. Love that it is an easy pattern with lots of stockinette, hate that I can't knit for long without arm pain. Hopefully I will have more loves than hates when all is said and done.

I also managed to get pics of my finished indigo Firestarters. This was the first time to use this base yarns from Catnip Yarns. It is a very soft 100% wool superwash sock yarn that dyed up so very pretty. I could not wait to get these socks done and on my feet. To bad that the first time I wore them they showed serious signs of wear over my big toes on both feet. So I will have to save these for delicate wear and make sure those dagger toe nails of mine are always well clipped before donning said socks. Still they are very pretty. Even if the blue still crocks off just a bit turning my feet a very worrisome blue color..

There was one place in the neighborhood that I did not have a photo for in my last post. I talked about it, but I still had not grabbed the camera any time I was headed in that direction. So DBIL stopped and took this photo of the large billboard right by the side of the parking lot. I tried to convince him to wait til dark so he could also take pics of the christmas lights at the adult bookstore that is also at our interstate exit. They look like fireworks exploding. I love those lights!! It is so much fun living a mile from such interesting landmarks!!

So now for my New Year's wish for all of you. I can only hope that everyone will find peace in their hearts, joy in their lives and happiness in every thing that they do. And that no matter what the differences, that they can lay down together and take a nap like my 2 beasties!!

Walk About

2008-12-16T14:35:00.001-08:00

Don't don't faint dead away. 2 posts in less than a week. What is the blogging world coming to?

There will not be much about knitting today. Not that I haven't been knitting, I have. On the indigo socks, which if you could see my fingers, you would know I am telling the truth. The blue does not lie. And I got a sample of my new sweater yarn into the black walnut pot. What I got out was a nice warm brown with none of the harshness I got with the sock yarn and walnut. So I guess that I will go ahead and start the process of dyeing up 1600 yards of sport weight in a nice yummy brown here as soon as our funky weather gets it's act together. I do not consider 36 degrees and dense fog to be condusive to any kind of outdoor activity.

So on to the real subject of my post. In the few short weeks I have lived here I have enjoyed a number of very nice walks. Some upwards of 5 miles round trip. And I have been amazed at how beautiful the area surrounding us is. So I am taking this opportunity to introduce you to our new neighborhood-with the hopes that some of my dear friends will find it a lovely enough place to come visit some day.

First up will be our closest neighbors. They live directly across the street. And all that separates us from them is an almost invisible electric fence. So some days I look out and it appears they are standing right in our yard. They aren't!! They are so lovely it makes me feel a bit embarressed to not be a vegetarian.

Next house is one we should have bought. It was sold at absolute auction just about 3 weeks before we bought our house. It is a bit smaller house but with about 10 more acres and a killer view. But unfortunately we did not hear about the house while we were searching and missed out on that opportunity. We keep reminding ourselves that it would have meant a lot more mowing and not nearly enough space in the house. We would have had to build on. Still.......

Now these neighbors are the quietest ones we have. No kidding. Never cause a bit of stir. Of course, we weren't around on Halloween. That might have been another story altogether!!

The graveyard shares a nice spot atop a hill with this house. An older gentleman lives there, hopefully not all alone. Cause this house is huge. And again, with what must be a jaw dropping view.

Now, don't start thinking that all our neighbors live quite up to the standards of the last few houses. There are plenty of these around.

There are only a few more houses on our road. They are obviously small working farms with decent houses but really really nice land. They have small herds of cattle, lots of wheat fields and large gardens.

I have always loved old barns with roofs caving in, just barely standing. But enough to protect the hay they need for the winter months.

All around us are old twisted, garled trees, covered with lichen and moss. I love the way they look against a bright blue winter sky.

Even in the depth of winter, I still find intersting bits of color to attract my eye, and camera.

Again, it is not all without its down side. First of all-the interstate runs about a mile behind our house. Of course, it does make it easy access to travel anywhere. Or to come to see us!! This is interstate 65. Runs south from Nashville, thru Birmingham and right down to the coast of Alabama.

And then there is the interesting bit of adult intertainment at exit 6 of said interstate(our exit, of course). I haven't been able to get pics yet. But we have a famous attraction called Big Jim's Boobie Bungalow!! You can Google it, cause it causes quite a stir when traveller's down the highway see all the billboards for miles. Also there is at least 1 adult bookstore and probably one other "club". But honestly except at night, the parking lots are empty. Even then it doesn't bother us. We are just far enough away no one would get lost and come down our road. And it does give us a landmark to tell people to look for. Just get off the interstate at the Boobie Bungalow!!

And so that concludes my tour of the area. Hope you enjoyed the walk along with me. This picture is one of our house taken on my walk back down the hill. I think this summer it will be much harder to see when the line of trees leaf out.

And this my friends-is for you. Just to remind you that I love you all!!

Back to the Business of Pictures!

2008-12-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

I used the excuse of not having the transfer cable to my camera for not blogging. Who wants to read about my boring life, unless I at least throw in a few decent pictures. But out of the blue, the other day, I remembered that my fancy dancy laptop has a card reader! I had never used it, but remember reading about it when I first got the computer. So I located the said device on the front of the laptop. I found it a bit hard to slide the tiny card into this miniscule slot and it made me a bit nervous to try and force it. But lo and behold, it did work and now at least I can attempt to entertain you, both visually and verbally. Whether or not I succeed is up to interpretation!!

First up is an attempt at taking a night time photo. I finally found my tripod and we were about to have one of the 2 biggest full moons of the year(these occur at the full moon closest to the winter and summer solstices). So I refreshed my memory on how to use the shutter delay and shot away. This was the best attempt, although it was not just what I had envisioned.

Then this is the very next morning. We had so much rain in the last few days. Some parts of Tennessee set a record for the most rain in 24 hrs. So the ground was very saturated and with the cold mornings it set up the perfect scenerio for the formation of hoarfrost. When I woke and saw what beauty had been laid out before me, I just had to grab the camera and go outside. Cold hands, be damned.

What I failed to get in a picture are the 2 deer that visit the back of our land each morning. That morning they were standing right next to a stand of trees that were sparkling with all the crystals. Just an amazing sight. Of course, those same said deer, will probably be the bane of our existence come spring planting time!!

My knitting is still progressing slowly. Not that I don't work on it every day. But my right arm has really been bothering me. And I can't blame it on my computer use because I just don't get a lot of time to sit here and use it anymore. I am doing all kinds of stretching and range of motion exercises but nothing seems to be helping right now. So at least I get a little done each day, knowing that things will still get done. Just not prolifically, like in my wildest dreams.

I am now at the heel of the 2nd Indigo Firestarter. Of course, I was already there once. A few days ago. But in turning the heel, I just did not have enough stitches. I counted and recounted until I finally realized, my stitch count had been off from the beginning. Or almost the beginning. Since I started at the toe, the first thing I do is a bunch of increase rounds. So I just stopped with those a little early. And it makes me mad, cause I should have known. At one point, I had put the finished first sock up against the one in progress. And they did not match up quite right. Did I stop then and try to figure it out? Well of course not. I just kept on going another couple of days. So then I had to just frog the whole thing and I am just now back where I was. But hopefully it will just be a few more days to finish up. And in that time I can get my next project started by dyeing the yarn. I have a huge bucket full of black walnuts soaking on the back porch. I will strain that off in a couple of days, throw in the yarn, let it sit for a couple of days. Then rinse, dry and wind into balls. I did decide for sure to make the Gathered Pullover from IK. I have the pattern somewhere in the sewing room stuff, still packed. So I will probably just rebuy the pattern from the IK on line store. In fact I may never buy their magazine again. But just wait until a pattern I like shows up there. Some show up in a matter of months. And I will always be that far behind in my knitting projects anyway!!

So now I will close with a cute couple of pics of my monster kitty Lexi. She has had to become a completely indoor kitty now. And thus, has been a bit bored and restless. She is climbing on everything(she did not used to) and getting into everything. I am trying to be better about giving her some one on one play time each day to tire her out. So far that is working-NOT!! But I will stop in and buy her a few new toys next time we get to town. She loves a laser pointer and we don't seem to have one right now in our possession. But she is a good girl and she let me put her in a dog sweater while we were still in Chattanooga. She didn't even act to horrible about it all. I think she looked quite like a little fashionista!!

And now of one of Lexi helping us unpack.

Just a few Words(and only words)

2008-12-05T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I have gotten quite addicted to using a blog reader. I happen to be using Google's Blog reader, but there are many others. I can go every day to Google Reader and there are all the new entries made since I last checked in. And on the home page there are always 3 new blog suggestions for me. They home in on the content of the blogs I read and then find others that I may also enjoy. So far I have added a number of new knitting and fiber related blogs to my list and very much enjoy reading about all the projects that they are pumping out. And this brings me to today. I bring up my page and there are 16 new entries for me to read. And then I start to feel guilty. Very very guilty, knowing how long it has been since I posted to my own personal page. So here I am, for what it is worth. Maybe I will show up tomorrow on someone else's blog reader. And that someone will say, Gee I thought maybe she fell off the face of the earth.

I guess the best thing to happen since my last post is that the move to the new house has been made. Everything is here, except my camera cable. So there will not be any new pictures for awhile. Til either I find the wayward cable hiding somewhere, go to Chattanooga and find it there, or if all else fails, buy a new one.

We have done a fair bit of unpacking. The kitchen is up and running, although I am still missing a few pots, pans, utensils and dishes. I went and made a grocery run to Walmart which costs the better part of $400.00!! That's right, it now costs a small fortune to restock a pantry and eat for a week.

The rest of the house is partially together. At least the best we can do til we decide to buy more furniture. I have a few pictures up but have already run out of the picture hooks that I use. Both computers are operational. In fact we are quite pleased to say that our internet access is much better than what we expected. We are using a company that provides signal thru cell phone towers. As far as we can tell it is the only company that is not rationing signal by using a FAP, or Fair Access Policy. All other non land based providers ration signal so that if you download much of anything you can not use any more signal that day. Or you can pay an horrendously huge amount of money each month to use a business level account. And even then you probably could only download 2 or 3 songs a day before they cut you off. But for now, with this company we can surf and download just as freely as we did with our cable internet access we had in Oklahoma. Yes, it is a bit more expensive than cable. But until the phone company decides to provide DSL(neighbors on each side of us have it) this is what we have. And darned happy to have it.

The kitties are adjusting quite well. Lexi has regained her bad habits of jumping on tables and counters. I keep putting her down and telling her no but I think she just has to "own" everything first then she will stop. Jack took a bit longer to come out and relax but as we speak now, he is lounging on my knitting on the couch, waiting for me to come back and sit with him.

On the knitting front: I totally have the February Ladies sweater done and it has even been worn. But I do not have a good finished picture yet. I started the Firestarter sock in my hand dyed indigo. I have one sock done and just cast on for #2. The yarn turns my fingers slightly blue every time I knit but it gets less with each session. The yarn, with it's subtle variations in color are gorgeous, soft and cozy. I love the Firestarter pattern and this is the 2nd time I have used it. This time I was knitting with finer yarn than called for so I had to add stitches. But it has all worked out perfectly in the pattern and the socks fit me to a T.

I am starting to think ahead at my next project. I have some yarn here I could go ahead and knit up a shawl. But I am not in the shawl kind of mood. I am in an anther sweater mood. Maybe it is cause the house is cold and propane is so very expensive. But for whatever reason, I think I will go and order enough worsted weight undyed, and dye and knit something fast. I am thinking maybe Gathered Pullover from IK. That is such a nice, easy sweater that I think will flatter my figure and look good with jeans. I have lots of natural dyeing options that wouldn't be too hard to dye up in a large enough amount for an entire sweater. More on my decision next time.

Ken is in his office working with Abba playing. It really makes me want to see Mama Mia. To bad we can't find the DVD player!! We know it is out there, just have to work thru the boxes a bit more!! Meanwhile I think I will go dance a bit in the livingroom(out of DH's sight) and use it as exercise and to warm up just a bit!!

A house, Hopefully

2008-11-13T06:35:00.000-08:00

First a few last pics of beautiful fall color here in the great state of Tennessee.. Maybe it has been a typical fall here in our new home state, maybe it has been a spectacular one, who knows. I choose to beleive the state knew we were coming and put on an extra special show just for us. But either way it is coming slowly to an end as fall approaches winter around us here in Chattanooga. On our last trip over to our new stomping grounds, we noticed way less color in the trees and way more leaves on the ground. But here at the Dube ranch I was still able to find some glorious displays of autumn beauty to document. So here goes for all you westerners who only get that burnt gold/brown colorway this time of year!!

Jack is healing up just fine. He got his stitches out on Saturday without batting an eye. Now he seems a bit more adventureous, coming all the way out of the bedroom, into the living room. I need to get a new pic taken of him but I think I will wait til his fur and whiskers come back in so he looks a bit better. The area around where his eye was will always be just a bit sunken but he can live with that. After all, he never said he was running for a beauty contest!!

The Feb Ladies sweater is coming along fine. I have the body done and am almost done with one sleeve. Possibly today I will finish up with that and move onto the other. I have tried it on and it fits nicely. I even think I can live with the fuzziness of the darn yarn. But I do know this is a sweater to make again, soon. And it will be with a smoother yarn. And a little longer in the body. I am thinking a nice black walnut dyed yarn, maybe a Cascade 220? Or a wool silk blend??

OK-now news on the house. We have had our offer accepted, the appraisal came in higher than the bid, the inspection is done. Our inspector was amazing, thorough and tough. I am glad we had him as the buyer instead of seller. He found the house to be pretty well built but not perfect. Almost everything can be fixed at some point but a few things need fixed now. And so now we wait to see if the seller will agree to fix the most important things. There is a small leak under the master shower area that absolutely has to be fixed. The floor under it is only OSB(oriented strand board) which is not all that strong if it gets wet. So with the leak it is in danger of becoming to soft to support the weight of the shower. So we are asking them to find the leak, fix it and then to add some support in the crawl space under the shower area. There are a few other things but if they refuse to fix we will go ahead and take it on ourselves. So now for the fun part-a few pictures of the property. I took these on a grey rainy day so they are not as vibrant as they could be. But hey-then I can post more photos later on when the colors brighten up. So enjoy..

The rest of the Story

2008-10-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

I decided to leave the knitting out of my last post. So you get treated to 2 posts today!! Yeah-I bet you are excited.

The Duck Soup sweater is completely knit. But the closures are still an issue so it is a bit in hibernation-still. And the little one I was going to give it to's birthday has come and gone. So it may be given to the goodwill or some other organization who can put it to good use.

New on the needles is the February Ladies Sweater. It is one of the most active projects now on Ravelry. It is knit neck down in worsted. I chose Nashua Creative Focus in a soft lilac color. Right now I am finished with the garter stitch yoke and well into the lace section of the body. The yarn, although nice, is not that great in this project. The loosely plied wool and alpaca is just too soft for the design. But the further I get into the sweater, the more I know it will still be a nice garment and will gets lots of wear.

I do have to start thinking a bit about my next project. I probably should start a new pair of socks out of the indigo dyed wool I already have on hand. Trouble is, the other day I found a pair of hand knit socks that I made 2 short years ago are wearing out at the heels. This is my first pair ever to show that kind of wear. And it is the only pair I ever made that did not have the 25% nylon in the mix. And the indigo dyed yarn falls under the 100% wool catagory. I guess I should just go ahead and knit it up and treat them as my really good wool socks that only get worn on special occasions so they will last longer. I will certainly rethink my choice of base yarns from now on and probably always go with a blend.

Gone to the Dogs

2008-10-31T07:10:00.001-07:00

Fall is still in it's glory around here. This is a distant picture of the wildlife preserve that I get to walk in Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The other days are open to hunters so if you want to walk back there those days-be my guest!! But I am not taking my chances. This amazing place is adjacent to the property my DSIL & BIL own so it is a constant source of beauty, seen every day out their big dining room windows. This last week they re-cut some more trails thru the meadow section making the forested area more accessible. Now I can walk thru open meadow, shady forest and down to a crystal clear creek. Each and every walk affords me something new to wonder over. Yesterday I was wandering down this shady path and looked up to see this display of bracket fungi hanging on a tree above my reach. These puppies were huge!!

I am fortunate to get to share my walks with a wonderful dog by the name of Daisy. Daisy Duke I call her. And now I get to call her "My Dog"!! I had seriously told my DSIL/BIL that I would take Daisy off their hands at any opportunity. She is perfect for me. Medium sized, used to spending her days outside, fairly well behaved, smart as all get out and loves to walk!! And I believe if she needed to she would defend me with her life but still gentle and loving if she feels no threat. After making this comment several times I was surprised to have DBIL say I could have her. Thinking it was a joke, I said "no-really". And he came back and said-REALLY!! You have more time for her and she is lonely. So as soon as we get a house and make sure there is a safe outdoor place for her she will come to live with us. So now you get to see some pics of my new pup. The first few are how I usually get to see her-in motion!! And then finally after a very long walk-a few of her somewhat still. And for those of you who are very observant, Daisies eyes are 2 different sizes. But the vets say it is completely normal for her and it is made a bit more obvious by the difference in her eye spots. The larger eye is completely surrounded by a big black eye spot and the smaller eye has no eye spot at all.

On to my other baby with eye issues. Ever since our kitty Jack showed up 5 years ago he had an eye that was way to large. No one could give us a reason, and it seemed to stay stable until just recently when it became obvious that it was increasing in size even more and causing constant irritation. It was also endangering the vision in his other eye so it had to come out. What a struggle for me to accept this and decide to put him thru it. But after a few weeks for Jack to adjust to his new surroundings I made a vet appointment and got a second opinion. Of course it was the same so we trusted them to do the surgery. Jack made it thru and is now back at home. He looks pretty awful at this point. He had to be shaved and have some whiskers clipped. Then of course there is swelling and big ole stitches. The collar he has to wear is too large cause he has a big thick neck. We got brave last night and took it off, trimmed it and put it back on so now he can better get to his food and water. He is still on pain meds but we may quit that today since he seems comfortable and calm. The stitches come out in another week and once the fur grows back in I think he will look beautiful. Beautiful to me and that is all that matters.

Our Time so Far

2008-10-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

We have been here now 2 whole weeks. And still no house. Oh well-our time will come. At least we have a comfortable roof over our heads, thanks to Ken's sister and husband. And our kitties are adjusting to life on the somewhat confined side. Now that DSIL & BIL have gone back to work we can let our babies out of the bedroom during the day to roam and stretch their legs. Lexi has gotten confident enough to do that a bit, but Jack still won't come any further than the hall door. We have managed to make friends with most of their animals. We walked Daisy the outdoor dog almost everyday and she looks forward to her time with us. The kitties, both upstairs and down, want pets from us at every opportunity. CoCo the large Cockatoo will walk up our arm and sit on our shoulder at dinner but we still aren't brave enough to try and feed her. Most of the little white mop dogs(Maltese, for those who want to think of them as something other than mops) think we are a poor substitute for their masters but put up with us. Except for Rosebud who I think would love to take my arm off if I get it too close!!

Arriving here in Tennessee smack dab in the middle of a beautiful fall has been truely a gift to us. We have only gotten out on the roads a few times since we have been here but what we are seeing locally has been amazing. The colors of the foliage and the semi-mountainous scenery has been breathtaking at every turn. Even here on their acreage, and adjoining nature preserve has been a showstopper. Many of my walks so far have been out into the preserve, although I do have to watch for hunters who can only be out there on certain days. There is quite a bit of open grass land, some dense forrest and even a nice sized creek with beaver dams every so often. And of course there is plenty of opportunity for gathering materials for natural dyeing purposes. So far I have gathered a basket full of green walnut hulls, a ton of lichen, some mushrooms both ground and bracket, and a good deal of goldenrod. All these will be dried and saved for when I have the time, space and materials to dye with.

There is no shortage of manmade local attractions and we have only begun to see some of those. Here is a picture of the Chattanooga Museum of Art. The building is a combo of an old Mansion and a large, very modern addition. Each section features items appropriate for the building. The mansion side has art and artifacts representative of the age when it housed some of Chatty's founding family. And the modern side houses much more recent artistic endeavors. We enjoyed an exhibit where they gave artists, whose style tended to be realistic, 5 unrelated items to incorporate into peices of art. Most artists submitted more than 1 peice. It was amazing to see the diversity of their work and how they envisioned these items and incorporated them into the work. Reminded me of some of the quilting challenges our guild had done, in none of them were remotely alike except for the 5 items they had to use.

On the needles-The Duck Soup jacket I was working on is done for the most part. Still no pictures. The I-cord frogs that I was supposed to make for the closures are not working out. The pattern suggests using any yarn to make them, from fingering on up to worsted. I used worsted first and the frogs were way to large in scale and hard to work with. I used a heavy fingering and they were way to small. I have no Sport or DK right now so I will have to rethink the closure area. It is too late to add buttonholes but it is possible to use buttons and maybe do I cord loops for the buttonholes. I shelved the project for a day or 2 to think about it. I still like the pattern and just need to work out the kinks.

I just today started my February Ladies Sweater from Ravelry. I am using Nashua Creative Focus yarn and I hope that I like the slight fuzzyness that comes with it. It should prove to be a fast knit and a useful wardrobe staple. I love that it is knit from the top down. The underarm join seems to work out much better for me when I knit top down, rather than bottom up. I promise in progress pictures on this one folks. And don't say-Yeah Right!!

Tomorrow we travel back to middle Tennessee to meet with a new realtor and to see some more promising houses that have come up in the last week. So cross your fingers. We sure would like a house before we wear out our welcome here. Although I think the fact that I cook dinner every night and the animals love us so much may make the honeymoon last a bit longer!!

The Great Escape

2008-10-11T10:27:00.001-07:00

Or-The Tale of Briar Rabbit and how she rescued the 2 Hairy Houdini's!!

We had planned this move for months. And especially any details that were involving our kitties, Jack and Lexi. I researched on-line and found the best harnesses and made them start wearing them months in advance. I got tags made to put on them with our cell phone #, just in case. I even took them out in the yard with the leashes on to get them acclimated to being on a lead. Right before we were due to leave I took them to the vet to have a healthy check up and get sedatives to give them for the road.

So on the morning we were leaving we got up very early and right away gave them their "sleepy" pills. A bit later we stuck them in their kennels and secured them into the car. I was not impressed at how well the sleepy medicine had worked but I figured maybe it just needed more time to kick in.

They seemed to settle in fairly well for the first 45 minutes or so. But a bit of rowdyness kicked in right about Oklahoma City. I thought it was doubtful that they had used the litter box since the night before, so I wondered if they just needed to be able to "potty" before they finally quieted down.

So I let Ken know we needed to stop for the cats. He picked the only rest stop in Oklahoma with bathrooms-Thank Goodness. It was about 15 miles east of Shawnee on Interstate 40.

We stopped and since Lexi was closest to the car door she was chosen to be let out first. I reached into her carrier, snapped on the leash and put her out on the ground next to her travelling box. She freaked, ignored the box and headed for the grass. But even then she wild and showed no interest in her bladder at all. So I handed her to Ken and went back for Jack. This is where things start to go down hill........

First of all I could not get the lease snapped on Jack's harness easily like I had for Lexi. But finally I got it on and tried to pull him out of his carrier. He absolutely spazzed and on the way out managing to scratch me across the outer eyebrow on the left and also my left thumb. But as soon as we got him out he laid on the ground and seemed fairly calm. Meanwhile I am pouring blood out of the eyebrow wound. So Ken tells me to go wash up and he will hold the cats. So I hand over the leash and head up to the restrooms. I didn't take long but when I got back to Ken, he was in possession of fairly calm Jack and just a harness and lead that used to be worn by Lexi. The little Houdini had slipped out and had headed for the woods at the back of the rest area. Ken throws Jack back in his carrier in the car and runs to help me catch Lexi. At first she acts like she will come to us easily but at the last second she runs again into the wooded area. Now at this point it is barely light outside and we could not see the chainlink fence separating the woods from the rest stop. When we realized it was there we thought-wonderful-she would have to be somewhere along the fence. But the little skinny thing slipped right thru into the thicket. Meanwhile Ken sees a streak out the corner of his eye and yells-There she is!! I look way to my right and the streak I see does not seem black enough. It takes about a second for it to click that it is not Lexi-but JACK!! Ken had not zipped up Jack's soft sided carrier nearly well enough. AND left the car door open!! So now Jack is also on the loose and has slipped thru the fence as well. The fence that is 7 foot high, with barbed wire along the top and many NO Tresspassing signs along the top.

Well-For about 45 minutes we walk up and down the fence line calling for our missing furbabies. We took their jar of evening treats and shook them which normally would have brought them running. We started talking about how long we could keep this up before we would have to give up and go on. Our hearts were breaking and it was all we both could do to keep from breaking down and bawling. But we kept up the fence vigil hoping they would both finally give up and come back to us.

We both kept thinking, if we could just get thru the fence we might have more success. I finally spyed a place where the barbed wire didn't stick up above the chain link. And the fence post seemed good and strong. So in flip-flops I climbed the fence. Remember I told you it was a good 6-7 feet high. I got to the top and swung my first leg over. I quickly got stabbed in the thigh by the barbed wire. I dug the barb out of my thigh and put that leg back. Then tried going the other way with the other leg. Same thing-stuck. I ripped a big hole in my brand new pants. But eventually I got both legs over and had to just jump to the ground. My 54 year old body didn't care for that much at all. But I was over, better get to the search and not focus on my booboos.

I was at the Jack end of the fence so I called and called for him to no avail. He was the one still wearing his lease and harness so I looked for flashes of red in the underbrush. Nothing. I kept carefully working my way back, futher and further from the fence. Then I ended up crossing a dry stream bed, then another, then another. I kept calling and then listening for anything that sounded like kitty. It seemed like forever and by this time I was more at the Lexi end of the woods. I called out and miraculously I heard her crying. She was above me on a rock outcropping and with just a little bit of coaxing, she ran to me. I stuffed her into my hoodie jacket and ran back to the fence. She never budged or tried to jump free. At this point Ken does not know I am behind the fence. He is still out front calling for the kitties. With the kennels. So I called for him to quick bring me a cage. He follows my voice, throws the cage over, I scoop her up and throw her in. I hand her back over the fence and Ken takes her to the car and this time makes sure the car door is shut. He comes back to the fence and tells me that he found a place to get thru, under the fence.

So now we both are in the woods, calling for Jack. It was a long while before I finally think I hear a tiny kitty voice. But a darned noisy crow kept making a similar sound so I had my doubts that I had really heard Jack. Ken headed my way and I told him to keep quiet cause I might have heard our boy. Again we did hear him and between the 2 of us we triangulated and closed in on our little houdini. Ken found him first and kept him til I could get there and scoop him up. But just when I was trying to put him in the kennel he got away again. But by then he must have been getting tired out and I was able to get ahold of him by stepping on his trailing leash. We just stuffed him in the kennel and headed for the place in the fence where we could get back out. Now my husband spent 20 years in the army and had to negotiate many obstacle courses, and simulated battles. So this place he found didn't seem skinny to him but beleive me he had to suck in his breath to skim under this fence. I just held my breath, closed my eyes and went under. It was then and only then that I looked down at my legs and saw all the damage I had suffered from the briars, osage orange trees and prickly underbrush. Plus I was covered with mud and sweat. I could only clean up a bit in the restroom before we hit the road. We of course had no antiseptic with us so hopefully my strong immune system will help me heal up in no time. It is a bit painful and my clothes keep sticking to some of the worst scratches. The gouges on my upper thighs are pretty deep and those came from the fence, so I am glad my tetenus shot is up to date.

The rest of the trip the kitties stayed pretty quiet. Until about 30 miles outside of Chattanooga when Lexi came back to life big time. As long as she was in her kennel I could live with the noise. Since arriving they have been closed into our bedroom and have mostly stayed under the bed. They did get up and sleep with us last night. I know they are still spooked by the smell of all the other animals in the house, the dogs barking, the birds talking and there many kitties moving about. But slowly they are coming back to life and I am sure they will be fine. Well until the other relatives show up on Tuesday!!

Movin' On

2008-10-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Finally-A real Sold Sign!!

This the truck once we got there

Sister & Brother-in-law's House where we will be staying awhile

Gorgeous Morning Sky!!

So They Loaded up the Truck, and moved to Tennessee

2008-10-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hills-That is. Swimmin Pools, Movie Stars....... Yes, I am hearing the theme song to the Beverly Hillbillies in my head. I am imagining us as the Beverly Hillbillies in reverse. It has alot to do with the picture in my mind of our truck once it gets loaded tonight for the trip. We have 6 of these huge wardrobe boxes packed full that will sit in the bed of the truck. They will tower way over the top of the little tiny cab of our Ford Ranger pick-up. Once the boxes are all on Ken is going to use a ton of strapping tape to anchor it all together. Then he is going to throw a tarp over all of that and strap it down. To bad we will be doing all this tonight and leaving well before dawn tomorrow morning or I could get a picture of this amazing feat of crazyness. I have to tell you that I am glad to be driving my own vehicle cause I am just sure that that tarp will flap somewhere and the noise will drive him crazy. The 2 cats in their carriers will be a peice of cake compared to that. Of course I went and got good drugs for them at the vet!!

Speaking of kitties. Got some kind of bad news from the vet this week about Jack, our older, positive for Feline Aids and Leukemia, born with bad eye but the most sweet and loving cat ever, kitty. His bad eye has to go. And it has to go soon or it will start affecting his vision in his good eye. Seems he can't close his eyelid completely anymore and he is getting bad corneal abrasions. And the fact that the globe is enlarging proves increased orbital pressure is present. So as soon as we get to Chattanooga we have to find a vet specialist and get his eye taken care of. Well at least he will look a little less spooky to the rest of the world.

On the Needles-

Mismatched Stripes is done being knit. Now on to seaming and weaving in ends. Many many ends. Millions of ends. Higher than the national debt number of ends to weave in. But I did mention that it was knit, right??

Duck Soup-quick and simple gift for a sweet little girl turning 1, who is allergic to everything. So it is being knit in cheap acrylic. But it is turning out cute and I hope it will suit her well. I already have plans on how to make it easier next time I knit this pattern. I will start the top of the hood just like toe up socks. I will do Turkish cast on and knit around to the starting point once. But instead of going around and around in a circle I will knit back so I have a closed end at one end but not at the other. Hard to explain but ingenious to execute. So much easier than having to graft the stitches together when done.

So for now I will take my leave and next posting should be from Tennessee. With pictures hopefully!! Love me