A Walk On A Sunny Winter Day

Don't you just love days like this?.....

Sleeping On The Job

It's beautiful and sunny here today... Which is why I find it strange that I can't seem to keep my eyes open.  I slept like a log last night... 10 hours of uninterupted sleep... I can't remember when that happened last. I never opened my eyes until 10:10 a.m. this morning, so feeling pretty darn good, I jumped out of bed and had a shower. Downstairs a short while later, I decided to read a little on the couch while drinking tea after breakfast.... it was 12:30 next when I opened my eyes after falling asleep while reading... Teapot is absolutely astounded at my ability to doze off after only getting up 45 minutes earlier. It has been a once in a lifetime relaxing Sunday morning... one of the reasons I retired from the church almost a year ago... I think I was burned out at that time and now I'm always ready for this kind of relaxing day. As a matter of fact, I'm still feeling like if I dropped my head back on the back of this chair I could doze off once again.... which is really weird.

Meanwhile I wanted to finish the little sweater that I was doing for my level 4 homework. All I had left to do was to sew on buttons... so I did that just a few minutes ago. And here is the result of all my last few days of work.

Sweater in foreground and behind it is the 10 metre skein and the fibre I used to make it.... and in the far background you can see all of my camel down skeins, blended or not....

Teapot is quite disgusted that my little sweater is so little... he wanted to wear it. : )

So I will spend a few hours sorting my samples and getting the write ups done and putting them in my binder. Later today, I am going to get my Cashmere out and get going on the next section which only has two questions... so if I'm very good I might.... I just might get my three sections done before the end of January yet!

That is if I don't fall asleep again.....

Catch Up On Work

It's been a while since I have blogged about what I am doing. It can be hard to balance this blog with all kinds of information. Some of my readers are family and couldn't care a fig about spinning,weaving and knitting... while others follow this blog for exactly that purpose, then there are others who follow this blog because I farm so I try to write a little about that too. It is hard to find the perfect balance and I know that I'm not even close doing this perfectly, but today I'm going to show you all some pictures and tell you all about what I've been working on.  

 The current question that I am working on for my level 4 of the MSP is a camel down blend question... basically I have to blend camel down with something and make a yarn and then use it to knit or weave or crochet a tiny garment. I decided to blend camel down with silk at a 40/40 blend and then blend in some bison too. So I have 40% Camel down, 40% Silk, 20% Bison. It is very luxurious and soft. I decided that a 3 ply in a worsted technique would be best and I decided to weave it on my tri loom in a continuous thread thereby not breaking a perfectly good yarn. It started out really well and I just love, love, love the yarn.... this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice.... it is so soft and all the silk really makes it sparkle in the light... this picture just makes it look brown but in actuality it is a combination of silver, (that would be the Bombyx silk),  gold (that would be the camel down), copper, (that would be the copper dyed Tussah silk rovings), and earth (that would be the Bison)... it is gorgeous... even if I do say so myself...

Here are some pictures....

This is the best picture I  could get.... God, it's nice! Just look at that shimmer and then imagine that ten times more and you might be close!

Then I started weaving.

But I realized in very short order that the weaving was not showing the yarn to it's best advantage so I pulled the weaving apart. Considering that it is a 3 ply, (for you non-knitting types, 3-ply yarn works better for knitting because it is a round yarn and looks best in knitted form), I decided that knitting was the best option and so I got to work and cast on 32 stitches and began knitting a man's vest... but really tiny... like for a Teddy Bear.... but I knew after a few rows that I had too many stitches and would run out of yarn before I could finish it... so I raveled it out and began with fewer stitches. It took two more times before I got it right but I have the back of the mini vest done and I have half of the left front done. It is showing the yarn off as I wanted it to... but I will show pictures here later today when I get it finished.

So I have not been idle... these last few days... it took two days to card and blend and spin enough yarn to have the required ten metre skein and enough for the little vest too. 

It doesn't look like I will get the third section done before the end of January but I hate doing a half assed job on stuff and so I wanted to do this question well before I moved on. But if I get this question finished today there's still a chance I can get a little done on the next section before the end of January. We'll see...

Anyway, do stay tuned to see my itty bitty vest.....

Before And After

Before Christmas.... I liked it but very hard to maintain that hair style.... sooo.... I did this last night.

I'm not really sure about this... it's been a few years since I had my hair cut this short... but I've had lots of compliments. I was even told that it took years off me. Hmm... not sure if that was a compliment or not!

A Little Politics

When the daughters were born I was living in North Western Ontario. I was living on a Reservation and the nearest hospital was an hour's drive over treacherous roads. This is considered a mild situation to be in and during spring and summer it really was not much of a concern... but Daughter #1 was born in December and at that time of the year it was a big concern. I also had two previous miscarriages which were also a concern.  I traveled those roads for days before the baby was born always concerned that we would have an accident... and after Daughter #1 was born Teapot traveled those roads so that he could visit me and our new wee baby and to support us both. It was a time that I needed him and his love. His travelling back and forth sometimes in the worst kind of weather worried me no small amount... I was so happy when Daughter #2 was born in May.

All around me, I am hearing about the state of maternal health in Canada. I think about my situation when I was at the age where birth giving was part of life, and I think about the people who are coming out of even more remote places and I wonder how they do it. Yesterday, I was listening to the CBC radio and they were interviewing a family from Fort Nelson, which is about a 6 hour drive from a hospital that can deliver babies, and I didn't realize how difficult for them it is.  Here are young women who are having to leave their community, all of their friends and family, their complete support system and staying in hotels sometimes for weeks with their other children while their husbands continue to work at home.... or not.... as the case may be, while they wait from their due date till the time their child is born. It is a time of stress and anguish and it can't be good for the fetus. I keep thinking that there has to be a way that a non profit organization can set up a program whereby families who need to, can stay in cabins or hostels, that are set up to make the birthing experience a much less stressful event on the whole family. You know... like a Ronald McDonald house for pregnant women.

 This morning I got up and read the news and I find that our dear boy (I say that tongue in cheek), Steven Harper is at the G8 spouting on about maternal health and pledging a whole pile of money to that end.... Hmm.... I wonder where all that money is going to go... will we get our own house in order before we go raging off to save the world? He's had a year to fix the problems at home since the last G8 when maternal health was a topic of discussion and I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference.... Wouldn't it be nice if we could have mid-wives in those communities that are remote and need it... and for more high risk pregnancies, it would be nice to see something done for the mom's who need to be near a hospital... so where's all that help that our government is promising... it seems once again that our government has a whole lot of empty words in their mouths.

But then that's just my opinion...

What do you think?....

Dawn Is Creeping Up The Sky

It's only when I get up in the morning, and I'm sitting here, and I happen to glance out the window and realize that the sky is starting to get light long before Teapot and the girls go out the door, that I realize too that January is almost over. Normally January drifts by in a lazy turn of days, but for some reason this January flew past so quickly that now I'm sitting here trying to figure out where it went. Blazing by in a flurry of days, this month has left me gasping in an effort to finish the first three sections of my level 4 books. That was my goal... I haven't reached it... but I'm close, so we will see if this can be accomplished. I haven't looked at section three yet, since I'm still finishing the last question in section two. I should have that finished today. Then I will do the required reading before embarking on the next section. I just have to remember steady on... I guess.

Teapot and Daughter #2 are leaving for school. This is exam week.  Daughter #2 has two exams today and will be finished after that. Daughter #1 had her first exam yesterday, her second will be tomorrow and then her last one will be on Thursday. It is a very easy week though there is lots of studying going on.

As Teapot leaves the driveway there is a little green sky on the horizon... I know that sounds kind of weird because if I were to describe the sky, I would say that it is lime green on the horizon, then yellow fading out to a greyish yellow with darker grey clouds drifting passively by, then a soft baby blue changing into a medium blue and then darkening as you go west where it is still quite a dark blue with a half moon shining as it sinks towards the opposite horizon. It is quite lovely and I'd take a picture but Teapot seems to have taken his camera with him this morning since I can't find it in all the usual places. (Definitely time to get one of my own.)

It has not sunken below zero degrees for days now and all through the night you can hear the water dripping from the roof of the house. I do believe that we will get more snow before winter's grip has loosened, but it is nice to have this mid-winter reprieve. I have been walking out every day lately which is so nice after a month of cold temperatures and bitter winds. I would walk down through the forest... my forest, but there is deep snow in there and even though the ski-doos have the trails compacted it is still quite treacherous to walk there.  I miss the woods. So I walk the road here in an effort to hear the birds and see the deer, and hear the squirrels chirping on a beautiful winter day.... but I am looking forward to a walk through the woods again and smell the rich brown earthy scents that call me out there.

The sky is quite light now and I must get back to my work... I hope your mid-winter day is as fine as mine.

I'm off to spin some camel/silk/bison blend yarn.... and dream of that Lopi sweater.... will I or won't I????

Hay, Knitting, And Spinning

It's been extremely mild this last little while, which is good for our lambs. We lost one of our lambs a few weeks ago while we were having the really cold temperatures. I always knew that he was not really healthy as he was born late. He was born in July and that just doesn't give them enough time before they are weaned to put on the fat they need to get through the -35 degree temperatures that we get in the winter. I had thought about leaving him through the winter with his mom... I probably should have but at the time he was so lively and his mom was being sold... but I should have sent him with his mom... but it was right at the time that they were being weaned anyway and I thought it would work out. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do. I am thinking though that this year I will keep the lambs with their moms and only breed them every second year... that way they will have time themselves to recuperate and the lambs can self wean. We will have a Cria this summer too and he/she will need to be with her mom too. The rams will just have to suffer on their own this year mind you they'll be fine I'm sure.  I am seriously thinking that I will keep all the sheep that are left except one black one with a white stripe on his face. I'm hoping that the hay situation will be better this year. I will also speak for hay earlier in the season and not wait for the farmers to get their hay up out of the fields. As a matter of a fact I've already spoken for next summer's crop with a fellow who we bought hay from this year. It will all be good I'm sure.

I went to a wonderful workshop on the weekend. I got lots out of learning how to knit in the Kaffe Fassett way... using colour to amplify pattern in your knitting. To be quite honest I'm having a bit of a dilemma.. I enjoyed the workshop so much I might be changing my mind about my 150 hour project that I have to do for my level 4 course. I had originally planned on spinning a cashmere blend yarn for this pattern... but now I can't get the idea of a Lopi sweater out of my mind.... I was thinking a nice Lopi Sweater with some colours that I dye myself... something like this...

I'm totally hamstrung... if you have ideas please let me know since I would love your opinion.

Lopi yarn spins fast and knits fast. Cashmere, not so much... but I have tons of cashmere...  Icelandic fleece only a little though I do have two small ones, which would mean that I would have to go looking for Icelandic fleeces now too (like that's a hardship!).

Oh! I am in such a quandry. HELP!

If you want to leave a comment... please, please, please, do so.

Meanwhile I'm off to have a shower and spin some camel down for the last camel question on the level 4 homework...

How Good We've Got It

Yesterday I got up and made oatmeal for breakfast for everyone.  I don't make oatmeal very often because I find it makes me nauseous to eat... it has something to do with the high glycaemic index and I use the old fashioned oats too.  Anyway, I made banana oatmeal... and it was good. But there was tons left over even though we had a good sized helping each.

During the morning when I went to do the dishes I looked at the glop in the pot and thought, what can I do with this... it is a shame to throw it out. We were down to the last few slices of bread since I don't buy bread but make all our bread and have done so since we got married. So I threw the whole works of glop into the bread maker and put in my usual ingredients and went to it. When it was finished it was very nice bread.... except that it had a really tough crust for some reason. Not too tough to eat just a little tougher and chewier than the bread that I usually make. It was when Teapot was cutting himself a slice this morning, that we had this conversation.

Teapot: (cutting slice of bread and having to work a little harder at it than normal..)

Me: Hmmm, that bread has definitely got a tougher crust than normal.

Teapot: Yeah, I don't know why... did you remember to put oil in?

Me: Yes.

Teapot: Sometimes if you leave out the oil then you get tougher crust.  I like it though... it is kind of like French Bread.

Me: Yeah, I like a bread that has a chewy crust... I didn't always though.

Teapot: When I was little I would have complained about bread with chewy crust and I probably would have cut it off.

Me: Really!

Teapot:  Yeah, the girls (daughters) love the crusts especially when they are chewy.

Me: Hmm....

Teapot: I hated bread with holes in it too.

Me: That's weird... why?

Teapot: Because when I put molasses on it the molasses would drip down all over my arm. It was gross.  The kids these days don't know how good they've got it....

Me: : \

Isn't it terrible to get holes in your bread.....especially when there's people in this world who would love to have holey bread.... they'd eat it holes and all!

Enjoy the privileges that are yours today... including holey bread if you have it.

Yesterday... And Tomorrow...

No I'm not going to get all sappy and start singing that old song by Paul McCartney...

Actually, yesterday was a great day.... I finished 2 questions on level 4, went out for a walk in the beautiful warm sunshine, got some really lovely cinnamon Tussah silk in the mail, and had an awesome evening at Knit Night.

On the down side, (which I'm debating whether I should even talk about since I hate dwelling on not so good things) I found out about a couple of friends who are separating and thinking about a divorce after almost 20 years of marriage. They have a daughter and a son, one of which is disabled... I hate to see them going through such trying times. Also I didn't get a call back about some hay I'm trying to purchase, I discovered that Fanny is about to drop a lamb in January which is not good, and discovered that Benny (alpaca) has an eye infection.

As a result of these things I'm going to continue to work on the level 4 homework, go for another walk if it is not too slippery, stroke my cinnamon Tussah silk in glee, and bask in the pleasure of a good turn out at Knit Night.

I will also think hard about my friends... and say a prayer for them... (if my prayers are any help at all). Then I will try again to get in touch with the hay guy, Hope that Fanny will carry for another few weeks before she drops, and call the vet about Benny's eye and hopefully get some drops for it.

All day yesterday the water was dripping from the roof which pleased me greatly because the Chinook had ended and still it remained balmy. Perhaps a nice January thaw. It was an absolutely lovely day. Gorgeous in fact. The kind of day that you just can't pass up... and so out into it I had to go... a walk was what was needed. I didn't go far as there was quite a bit of ice under the snow and several times I felt myself slipping but at least I didn't fall down. After that I confined myself to the yard where the ice hasn't formed. Still it was a reprieve indeed.

In other parts of B.C. I hear that the Dafodils are starting to poke through the ground but we are a long way from that. Still with warm air stirring, it does make you think of gardening.  Teapot came home after school and brought with him the mail and there in front of me were seed catalogues. What a pleasure to look through their pages. It made me think of florists and vases of flowers... and colour blooming everywhere.

There will be colour in this house too, as another of my Christmas cactus' are putting out buds in an effort to become glorious for spring. Now that a few weeks have passed, it feels like the colour and sparkle of Christmas was all a dream. We need some colour in this house.

I passed a house last night on my way driving to Knit Night and there was a Christmas tree standing in the front room in all its winter splendour.... and I thought about the family (who I do not know) and thought how difficult it is to let go of all that sparkling glory. To trudge onward through the dark days of winter until the next bright spot of cheeriness... what will it be?

Since the solstice we have gained just less than an hour of daylight. 1 month today since the solstice. That means that our daylight is equivalent to that of Nov. 21... 2 more weeks and it will be much more bearable. Perhaps I will decorate the house in groundhogs...Wireton Willy Day maybe!

Slowly, slowly the light is creeping up the sky... and so the day begins.
I hope your day is full of warm breezes and bright colours.... though I know someone laments the joys of Las Vegas!... you know who you are : )

Oh Dear!

Is there anything so heart rending as seeing two friends in distress... I wish I could help but then all you can do is stand back and watch because interference from the outside will only add to the problems... my thoughts have no place there.

I say a prayer that all will come right in the end...

Divorce is such an ugly word...

Short Posts

Due to illness I have been having a hard time staying up.  Stomach issues again.  There may be a few very short posts here over the next little while.

To update a few things...

1. The washer is fixed.... it was nothing more than heavy lime and calcium build-up that was blocking the filter and pump.

2. Level 4 is progressing though very slowly since my constitution makes me want to sleep lots.

3. The snow in our area has come to an end and the temperatures have returned to a normal -5 to -10 degrees.

4. The Daughters are home today as there was no school bus running though I'm not sure why. Teapot had already headed off to FSJ for work and I have no vehicle to get them to school. They are watching the BBC version of Pride And Prejudice right now which I have watched some 50 odd times.

Well... there's not really a lot to write about so I'll check back here tomorrow and see if there's something to write about then.

Snore....

Check This Out

Out with 4F and in with this.

Sick Today

I've not really been doing much of anything... a little spinning this morning but after that I wasn't feeling too good. I've had a stomach ulcer for a while due to medication I take for my back... it is flaring up quite badly today... argh... will be back soon I promise.

The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow

I've been told that this very long stretch of cold and snow will be over soon... but in the meantime a little warmth in my blog would be nice I think. I'm dreaming of a warm sunset over a lovely beach.... Hawaii would be good eh?!

A Case Of The Grouchies

It's interesting how not getting enough sleep can make you over sensitive and grouuuouchy!  We finally had Daughter #1's birthday celebration on Friday night.. She had wanted a sleepover where she would have her friends over and they could talk and yak until the wee small hours of the morning. 6 teenagers kept yaking until 3:37 a.m. and that was when the light went off. I know because I was awake when it did. 

Teapot and I had our supper in the kitchen letting the girls have their fun in the dining room. After dinner had been served and cake too Teapot and I made our way up stairs to avoid the gab about boys... sometimes there are things that you just don't want to know and having your head firmly ensconced in terra firma is good with me in those circumstances. We had our tea a la bedroom while reading and generally passing the time. At 10 p.m. we decided that we were ready for bed and so Teapot made his way down into the sea of giggling girls to tell Daughter #1 not to forget to put the cat out and to turn the heat back.

Obviously the cat took priority because somewhere around 2 a.m. I woke feeling like a Raygo roller had just gone over me and left me looking like Flat Stanley only with a dead rat in my mouth. I managed to get to the sink where I poured myself a glass of water and downed like a camel who hasn't seen an oasis in 6 months. Once that was done I seemed to have my wits around me a little better. I covered the vent where the warm air from the furnace circulates from and crawled back into bed. I had already been having disturbing dreams about giving Daughter #1 a birthday party and not having enough food and other likely dreams where her birthday turned out to be a disaster. At this point I mumbled something to Teapot about being really hot and maybe we should open a window.... meanwhile Daughter #1 and her giggling band of friends were still to be heard downstairs with no end in sight. I rolled over and put it out of my head as Teapot mumbled something about baking to me.

3 a.m. I couldn't stand it any longer! I had just woken once again from a disturbing dream about my father and mother requiring home care..... and they came to live with us (a horrible dream for sure... probably as much for them as for us)!!! I had to go figure out why Teapot and I were baking in our oven like bedroom. I sneaked downstairs in my nighty... and peaked into the kitchen.... they weren't even in their jammies yet!!! I whispered to Daughter #1 to please turn back the heat... and she informed me that it was reading 24 degrees in the kitchen... no wonder the dear boy and I were dreaming bad dreams. About a half an hour later they settled down as one after the other got into the pjs and crashed on the foamies on the floor of the living room. I was upstairs trying desperately to regulate the heat in our room with open windows where -32 degrees temperature poured through the window... however, the temperature Gods were not having anything to do with it... the room was warm and would remain so for quite a while by which time I was wide awake. And that was it.. no more sleep for me for the whole night.

As a result of our night of no sleep... we have all been super grouchy yesterday and even this morning I still feel like stomping on the head of anyone who looks at me...

Reasons to be grouchy:

1. It has been snowing here for days...
2. I have a three day head ache happening...
3. I feel fat and ugly after a Christmas of eating, eating, and more eating....
4. Teapot complained about nothing being done in the kitchen and I was feeling sensitive about being lazy yesterday.... so I snapped at him and he snapped at me. (this is a rare occurrence).
5. I snapped at Daughter #2 for complaining about a head ache that she wouldn't do anything about. (Like take a Tylenol)
6. There were piles of dishes that needed to be done.
7. Teapot was late getting home from the JCR shoot and so we were late for a dinner at our friend's house... I hate being late.
8. I felt like a pork barrel after eating pizza and ice cream cake at Daughter #1's birthday and then eating sushi, and shrimp jambalaya at our friend's house.
9. Because I was really tired and didn't want to go out at all
10. The dog chewed up a catalogue all over our bed while we were at our friend's house for dinner.
11. The cat kept running away every time I went to put him out...
12. The other cat slept on the couch all night long when he knows he's not allowed up on the furniture and he has a lovely bed of his own in the form of a footstool under the steps...

And the most important reason for feeling grouchy....
13. I was really really tired!
It didn't help that we are coming up to the full moon here in just 4 more days... that means that the werewolf is almost upon me... I bet I'm sprouting hairs on my back!!!

Maybe today will be better.... I've had a good sleep, there's soup in the pot, there's bread in the oven, there's peas soaking for another pot of pea soup,  the dishes from yesterday are done and the nicest thing of all is that everyone is avoiding me because I was so grouchy yesterday which means I have peace and quiet to read the news and blog here... I just had a cup of coffee which was really good and now I'm going to go make some more bread.

See ya tomorrow and I hope you are having a nice Sunday.

Youth (Conversations Between My Teenage Daughters And Me)

Daughter #2: Mom your nose looks like there's sugar on it.... Ooops! Is that skin flaking off?

Me: Sigh

Daughter #2: Oh Mom! Your poor nose!

Later...

Me: (to Daughter #1) Will you brush out my hair for me?

Daughter #1: Sure Mom...

A little while later while hair is being brushed.

Daughter #1: Mom your hair is so shin.... Oh! That's grey hair!

Me: Sigh

Daughter #1: Well grey hair is shiny...

I should have known that Murphy was watching from under the china cabinet when I wrote my blog yesterday morning....

Among My Gadgets You Will Find...

I've been having a good look through all the old posts... I love blogging... what a hoot and then you remember things that you had totally forgotten...
In the process of looking through all the old posts I discovered that over the years I have posted quite a few recipes... so I thought I'd gather them up and put them in a gadget of their own... so now if you want to find any of my favorite recipes you can find them here or at least on the right hand side of my blog.

Good Morning (I Say In A Sing Song Voice While Gritting My Teeth)

I cut my hair before Christmas. I used to have nice long hair... What the hell was I thinking... I took the scissors to it and it looked quite nice for about two weeks... Now it looks like I stuck my finger in a light socket... or you know those rats I was using as cuss words yesterday.... yes well, they got into my hair and made quite a nest there....

I like long hair. Long hair is easy to deal with... you braid it at night and brush it in the morning and put a buckle or band in it and it's done. No styling. No fussing. Simple.  It suits me well. I've never been one of those people who likes to spend time making myself look nice (I gave up on that years ago)... I'm the kind of gal that shaves her pits once a year when the hair starts to look like it needs to be combed. I shave my legs in the summer when I wear skirts... and I don't wear them very often any more. Teapot says that the fur there is quite cuddly. But God help me if the nose hairs starts to get long.

I just heard on the radio that those nail dryers that people use to bake a nail polish onto their finger nails causes cancer. Well... Duh! I'm not one for nail polish either other than a little on my toe nails in summer. I don't dye my hair, though sometimes I think Lucy Neatby's hairstyle would be cool. I don't perm my hair either. I kind of have this thing about making myself over. I look in the mirror and other than the 70 extra pounds I'm carrying around I'm pretty happy with myself. Nice eyes... check. Decent skin.... check. Shiny hair.... check. Interesting hands.... check. Somewhat straight teeth.... check. (I would get rid of the mole that has developed on my chin... but that's an aging thing....) My best parts are my cute wee ears (not good for listening with)  and my handsome feet.... (generally I don't like feet but mine look ok)! If I could wish something for everyone on the planet it would be that they are satisfied with themselves when they look in the mirror.

Still that rats nest on the back of my head is really p-----g me off!!!

Rats! (It's a cuss word and not the real thing!)

I just spent half the day spinning camel hair.... yup, camel hair and I can't get the sucker to balance. Argh! First it came off under plied .... no problem just put a little more ply in it then it came out over plied... no problem... just take a little ply out... rats! Then it was under plied again... I hate coarse fibre. I am terrible at spinning coarse fibre... I can never get the wretched stuff to balance.  So once again I plied it to put a little more twist in and now it is over plied again... so my reaction.... soak the sucker in extremely hot water for a while and then go back and bang the sh-t out of it.... maybe it will stop bugging me (because we all know that the fibre gods that live inside fibre just do it to bug you..... right?!) : {

My washer died... it's been making nasty noises for a while now so I knew it was only a matter of time. But I have four day old wash water stinking in the d-mn thing.... (yes I've tried emptying it but it just won't empty) so Teapot and I got buckets last night and took all the water out that we could ...

Problem! No matter how much water you try to get out with buckets and small containers... there's always some left. Tonight I will try to sop (soak up for you non-Newfies) the rest of the water with old towels, sponges.... whatever... meanwhile it stinks.

Obviously the pump is defunkt (sp?) on the washer... can it be fixed.... yes... maybe.... not sure.... Teapot will have a look when he gets time.... Right! I might as well go buy a new one!

Next problem! My washer and dryer are an upright set so that means that if it has to be replaced then I have to get rid of a perfectly good dryer. Sh-t!

I hope 2011 is not lining up to be like this.

Mondays

It's 7 a.m. and I should be in the kitchen... I'm the breakfast getter in this house. Teapot and the girls are sleeping peacefully and I haven't got the heart to wake them yet. I've decided to give them an extra 15 minutes. So that gives me a little time to post here. Why is it that on Mondays it is so difficult to get going?  I know I am not alone in this sentiment. Half the planet is of the same mind as me. All over the world (well in some places they've been there and done that and are thinking about different times of the day) there is coffee perking and tea brewing and toast popping and cereal slurping and eggs frying, while in other parts of the house there are showers spraying, and lights flicking, and transit catching, and school a learning, and jobs a starting.... It's kind of nice to know that I'm just a small part of this engine of humanity.

Breakfast is usually some sort of combination of toast and eggs with juice on the side. This morning's menu is home made whole wheat toast with butter (not margarine) and corn and cheese omelet with orange juice and tea to follow.  I  always like to send off the Daughters with a little protein drifting through their blood. I think it helps them think straight and gives them energy.

One thing I have noticed, living in the north, is that I am much more aware of how exhausting it is to get up when you know that there is still two and a half hours of dark to get through. The sun barely rises above the horizon, only about one and a half fingers... (I realize that most people don't measure the distance of the sun from the horizon by using their fingers sideways... but it works quite well here.) Actually I'm not even sure of the half it might just be one finger. It is that lingering dark that makes you want to crawl back into your bed and sleep for another hour.  Mind you, summer time, we are quite the opposite especially at the summer solstice when the sun barely dips below the horizon.

The only thing I can see in the window right now is my very scary reflection. (I haven't brushed my hair yet and it is every which way.) I'll be glad when the light returns and you can look out and see something other than your own face peering back at you.

What's next, I find myself asking. There's Valentine's Day, but Teapot and I are not really all that hung up on celebrating romance that our society has.... well... romanticized. I mean, I'm all for romance but sometimes I think we blow it out of proportion and give romance such a high standard that its hard for anyone to find that kind of romance. To me romance is feeling your husband's hand grasp yours in the middle of  the night after 19 years of marriage. It is the quiet moments that remind you of love. You see I'm not hard to please on Valentine's Day. I think the most romantic thing I've ever heard is what a friend of my mother told us after her husband passed away. She told us the her husband in the last lucid moments before he died looked her straight in the eye and said, "For all these years, my dear, I've have been very fond of you." They had been married for 60 something years. "Very fond" may seem lame to you but it is those soft moments in life when something special passes between two people that brings romance to life.

So what is next?  Well, I'm off to get those eggs a cooking and once everyone has left for the day I'm back to my level 4 homework... One question down and a whole lot left to go.

I guess Monday' are best when you have a focus.

4F Goes Down The Tube... and some Other Stuff

4-F is not going to happen... my intention was to work on that blog every Sunday but the thing is... I sit here and think about age and quite frankly I can't think.... I'm sure its a sign of aging!!! : ) So as a result of my lack of clarity of thought, I have deleted that blog and decided that for now I will continue to just concentrate on this one and Feathermist. I don't write on Feathermist much either these days, but really that is the place where I want all my creative diversions to go... like poetry and paintings.  I haven't really had a lot of time for poetry lately or painting (though I'm still working on the Nude for Teapot's and my bedroom...) so I haven't been posting there either. But I will eventually. Right now all that's consuming me is level 4 and level 3 homework and of course the day to day grind of life in this little home of ours and when I write about that, I write here.

Teapot opened the last bale of hay... I have a line on more though so I'm not too worried. Evidently the price of beef has just bottomed out and so people are selling off cattle at astounding rates since it is more expensive to feed them than the farmers can get for the meat. So now there seems to be an abundance of hay on the market since the farmers won't be needing it to feed all the cattle they had.... at least in this area. Go figure.... so even though I'm down to my last bale of hay I'm looking at buying some and I've got a likely source for more... yeah... this is good news.

It has been snow on again off again for the last few days... after the chinook stopped blowing the colder temperatures returned and we are back to snow and blowing snow. I'm not sorry because every Chinook that blows means that there is less moisture in the spring.  I really want the wet to stay around a while this year so that we don't have to worry about hay in the fall and maybe I can go back to buying hay from the guy that I always bought from.

Teapot has just finished building Dreamer (the horse) a nice shelter to go into when the snow is falling or the temperatures dip. It is good to see her using it and know that it was not a waste of time. It is not a barn just a little lean to type shelter where she can go if the North wind is blowing or there is sleet or rain. The business of farming keeps us going as we try to figure out the best way to care for our animals. I am contemplating getting rid of my sheep altogether and just keeping my alpacas though it is hard to consider. There has been a severe reduction in my sheep this last year that's for sure.I am down to two ewes and four lambs and two rams. One of the rams will be butchered, all of the lambs will be slaughtered and then I will just have two ewes and one ram until the lambs start coming again. But Teapot and I think that it is just too much work to keep the sheep.  So alpacas and a couple of ewes that we can breed for meat lambs. That's it!  Really this is quite a big decision for 2011.

So that's it for this very non-descript day.

Bare Naked Tree

Well, tis the season to lament.... boo hoo sob sob.... there's nothing more depressing than a bare naked tree...

It's over for another year and all the Christmas gear is in being put away once again.

Teapot is in the process of stowing away all the boxes and I have been cleaning up the bits of paper and bits of cardboard that were used in the stowing process. It will take a day or two, I'm sure, before everything is back to normal but that generally is how it goes. 

The last thing we did before we took the tree down is to take our annual family photo in front of the tree...

I wasn't sure if I was going to post it since I'm feeling rather sensitive about how I look these days...  overweight and getting older and showing it badly.... but in the end I might as well accept it and be satisfied that I'm willing to have my picture taken at all... unlike some people in my family!

So that's it for Christmas... and now.... I just can't wait for spring!

A Few Pics For Those Interested In My Homework

Bison....

Fibre content: 100% Bison                      Fibre Preparation: rovings

Spinning Technique: semi-worsted         Direction of twist: zzzS

# of Plies: 3                                              t.p.i. 5 & w.p.i. 20

Weight: 4.3 gm                                        Yardage: 18 yds/16.4592 m

Count: 3.82 NM    261.25 TEX               Suitable End Use: lace shawl

19 stitches 38 rows on size 3.5 mm knitting needles.
The picture just doesn't do it justice. It is soft and lovely... I'm very happy with this sample.

~O^O~

The above title is an attempt at making digital glasses.... why?... I have no idea.... just that my glasses are sitting on the desk in front of me... that's why!

I finished the Bison skein yesterday and it is very nice. I had hoped to have a picture ready of the lace square that I am knitting from my Bison skein but after school Teapot and I took the girls shopping for Twelfth Night. We didn't get back till late and we didn't have supper while we were shopping so we needed to eat when we got home. As a result I didn't get back to the knitting until later than planned and so I have a half knitted lace square. At one point I was making a Nupp (don't ask what a Nupp is) and I was trying to get a needle through 5 stitches and was cursing on it so badly that Teapot  said I should go to bed. In my defense, it was really hard to get the needle through all 5 stitches at one time. In the end, I got out my rosewood dpn with the really sharp tips and that sucker (Nupp) was finished after that. Then I went to bed because I just couldn't face another Nupp and believe me there are plenty of them in the pattern I chose. I'll finish my sample today, then I'll start the Bison blend sample. I'm not sure yet what I will blend the bison with... maybe silk.... but the silk will need to be cut. Maybe angora.... but I'm not sure if I can use angora. Maybe I'll just use cotton.  But enough about level 4 homework.

It has been chinooking here since New Years day. Last night, the wind was so high that I'm sure there were a few trees torn up by the wind. I never sleep well when there is high wind. But the temperature is high... usually at this time of the year we are looking at temperatures ranging from -30 to -15 degrees C, but this morning the temperature is a balmy +2 degrees C. The snow has been melting off the roof and is sliding off the tin roof and scaring the heck out of the kitten and the dog.  (Tootsie the little dog who has been around for five years and the old cat whose been with us for ten years are old hands and don't pay any attention to the noise at all.) The snow comes roaring down off the roof and does sound rather like thunder so it does not help us sleep easily.  There is ice everywhere and walking is treacherous. So mostly I walk in the house. (It is part of my get fit in 2011 regimen.) Last year I tried Tai Chi but lets face it Tai Chi on your own really is lame. So this year I'm just going to try walking.... The up side of this is that I don't have to learn how : ) Still walking outside will have to wait till there is not so much ice around.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the bison.... and still there are no more rodents!

Baker Street

One of my all time favorite singers has passed away. Gerry Rafferty.... I loved Baker Street.... I still do and as I write this I am listening to it...

It is sad when the old guys die... especially when you hear the canned music of today and then think about the real music of yesteryear... Gerry Rafferty was anything but canned or fake... This world has lost a little of it richness and I am sad that he is gone...

Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha... It's Dead It's Dead It's Dead!

A Vole.... I knew it wasn't a mouse.... after I got to thinking about it I knew it couldn't be a mouse. It ran funny like it hoppity ran instead of just flat out running. But this morning we got up and the blighter was in one of the traps that we had set last night before we went to bed. We have set the trap again because where there's one usually there's more than one. I wonder how much cat and dog food he's stolen and where he stashed it all... probably somewhere in the walls of this house. Yes this is a log house.... no he couldn't get into the log walls but the house has interior walls that are not log and the walls of the second story are 2 x 6 construction. So a little rodent could get into any of those spaces.  Earlier in the fall we heard something in the roof above Daughter #1's bedroom so I suspect that we will have to finish this renovation before our rodent issues end.

Meanwhile I started the level 4 and after 4 years of spinning for the MSP you would think that I could get a balanced yarn without having to fiddle with it but Oooh noooo... fiddle I must! Thank heavens it only needs a little more S twist. I washed it slightly last night but I will wait till I've put some more S in before I give it a hard washing. If I can get it to work then I will move on to the second question today. I didn't get a chance to work on the level 3. I'm hoping that next week will not be so crazy as this one.

Why is this week so crazy you ask... well, it has to do with Twelfth Night celebrations. Twelfth Night is Thursday evening... and we do celebrate it, so we are preparing for that... shopping is involved but only a little. For us it is the end of the Christmas season... we hang our stockings once again and hope to catch Santa on his way home (thus the shopping).  Friday we will have either another Turkey if we are up for that or a ham dinner.... this year it will be ham... and scalloped potatoes... and then after dinner is over the tree comes down and all the decorations go back into their boxes and while doing so we listen to the last of the Christmas carols.  I have a couple of CD's that have music that is specific to Twelfth Night celebrations. When we go to bed on the 7th we are ready to say good bye to the tree and the season until next year. Actually I think I enjoy Twelfth Night celebrations far better than Christmas... it is a wonderful tradition... full of richness and history.  The animals are supposed to kneel down to the star at midnight... of course I've never seen it and don't expect to in my life but it would be wonderful if something like that happened.

Meanwhile Teapot and the girls are getting ready to go out the door to school and I figure I should get ready to work on that skein of Bison.

Hopefully I will see no more of those pesky creatures.... It's dead, it's dead, it's dead....mwa ha ha ha ha!

Ack!!!

Peaceful quiet reigns supreme
Munching on my crackers and cheese... lunch
Sitting on the sofa looking into the kitchen...
A small black thing runs across my kitchen...
Chewing stops.... heart stops....
Brains kicks in as adrenaline courses through my blood stream,
All animals are acounted for... sleeping peacefully
There is an extra animal in the house... too small to be anything that I really want.

Unwanted small creature running across my kitchen... ack!

Mouse.

Clearly the cats are not doing the job that they should be doing.
Phone Teapot.... "Bring home poison please...."
Will put poison in the crawl space where the only creatures that will eat it are the unwanted ones.

Where there is one there are eight... superstition... but it has always been true whenever I've had dealings with mice...

Da--!! Now I've got to kill a rodent... and all our food.... where are the plastic containers that will seal it from the pesky little creatures...

I wish our cats were not so well fed.

Da--!!

Sigh

They're gone. They just went out the door. (sigh)

Today I have to get back to my spinning for my level 4... This was an early morning and I don't know if my sleep habits have changed as I am getting older but I must say that getting up and staying up this morning is not as easy as it used to be. I always loved to get up in the morning. It was that quiet and peace that I craved... and I always was at my best and most energetic... not so anymore.  Now I get up and all I want to do is go back to bed. The bed is extremely soft warm and cuddly... but I'll never get any work done if I end up back in it so I guess I'm off for a shower... that'll wake me up and get me going and maybe a strong cup of jo to wake me up too.

Either way I'm spinning Bison this morning... hopefully it will be great when I'm finished.

This will be a short post this morning as I figure I've already lost some time to Videomatica... which Teapot joined for Christmas so that we could watch movies whenever we wanted.  The idea is to order movies from an online rental place and when they come watch them and send them back. Then order more... you can set up a list of movies and have them cued so that they come automatically... We are nothing if we're not avid movie watchers. We just finished The Pacific, (very gruesome but worth watching if you're a WWII buff, Ken Follett's Pillars Of The Earth, (I love medieval history), Sense and Sensibility (The Daughters have been getting into Jane Austin), The Thomas Crown Affair, (best con movie of all time), Sliding Doors (interesting take on duel time type movie), and Possession (I have wanted to see it for a couple of years).  That was our movie line up for the Christmas holidays.

But the holidays are over and we are back to a regular schedule... now where's that coffee and Bison. Hmmm... interesting mix... Bison and coffee. Obviously this is a weird combination... but I'm all for it so I'm off... see you in the morning and I wonder if that one will be any easier....

A Change Of Pace

Tomorrow Teapot and the girls go back to school.... and my work begins again. I will be back and hard at my homework for my Master's Spinning with Olds College. This is the time of the year when I really get down to it and work like a Trojan. (I'm not sure if that is the soldier, the horse, or the condom...) I have been looking at the two spools of Bison that I spun before the Christmas season hit me full in the face and now I'm thinking that a three ply yarn for that would be nice so I will start there with the third single for a 3 ply Bison yarn. That's in the day, by night I will be back at my level 3 homework. And I begin with cotton there. I will put down my knitting needles and take up cards, spinning wheel, charkha, and niddy noddy, and then I will try to get on top of what needs to be done for this June.  If I don't see really good progress I may decide to put off doing level 5. This is the first that this idea has actually crossed my lips, but it has been in the back of my mind. I may wait a year and do level 5 in 2012 instead of 2011. Because I want to enjoy this and not feel so much pressure that I begin to lose my desire to finish at all. I did that with Philosophy... I should have taken another semester to finish and didn't. In the end I was so burnt out that I didn't want to do anything with it again at all period. I know that burning out with me comes easily if I lose sight of my goals. It's not that I don't finish... I've never finished the race yet... but I don't want to finish and then hate it so much that I never want to look at it again. I've been on the Olds Website and there is nothing up yet anyway. Perhaps there will be such a spectacular instructor this year that I will want to do courses with that person and not do my level 5.

In the meantime, I have one last Christmas gift to finish... I am knitting a tote bag for a friend who surprised me and gave me an unexpected gift this year. That needs to be finished today... but since I am almost finished that will not be a problem.

At the end of the week is old Christmas day. It is the beginning of the Epiphany season.It is the day when all the Orthadox religions celebrate the birth of Christ (the Ukranians etc..) It is the day when our celebrations come to an end. We hang our Victorian style stockings and go to bed and wait for the magic to happen one last time. Then the next day we cook a turkey and open stockings (after school) and take down the tree while the last of the carols play... when the last decoration goes in the box and the last box is put away we turn off the music and put the Christmas CDs away for another year.... we sweep and clean and try to get rid of Murphy and his dust bunnies that are still hiding under the china cabinet and that's that.

With a look to the future, we put all thoughts of the old year away and begin thinking about exams and end of semester for the Daughters, report cards for Teapot and I just tick along doing my thing. When the Daughters stopped believing in Santa we decided that there was something bereft about the end of Christmas and so we decided to enjoy the end of the Christmas season with a celebration too. Meanwhile the daylight gets longer and the long haul of winter begins.

Last year, I had the big j.c. to focus on after Christmas... I had my level 3 homework with all the positive possibilities of that... now I'm worried.  Once burned twice shy.  This will be a difficult haul over the next four months... I will have to get down to my work and work hard.... and many long hours.

But for today... the puzzle is finished... and glued so I can take that off the table... knitting to be done.... and life starts to get back to normal.

Are you planning new things for a new year?

Glorious Day Indeed

The weather has decided to turn nice. The Chinook winds blew in yesterday morning in a matter of twenty minutes it changed from -23 to 0 degrees. The wind was blowing the snow off the roof of our house with the wind chimes on "My Deck" twinkling away. All the animals are happy to have the reprieve from the cold temperatures. Dreamer, the horse has been galloping happily around her paddock  with tail held high.... and nose to the wind. The sheep are moving around more freely Honeydew and Mishka (llama and pregnant alpaca) are staying close to the feeding trough. Meanwhile the male alpacas have gotten dreadfully lazy. They only move two feet from their feeding trough.... and they have begun to poop where they eat.... right into the trough.. teapot went out the other day and because he was fed up with the dirty bu--ers he spent a good ten minutes chasing them around so that they would have some trails in the snow where they would be able to move freely and poop away from their feed. So much of their feed is wasted when they poop and pee on it.... quite disgusting actually..... We are going to have to get serious and start looking for hay again. I dear say it will be harder to find some at this time of the year but we are down to our last two bales and we will have to find some fairly quickly.  At the least by the end of the month. This business of hay shortages is enough to make you want to get out of having animals at all!  It will be a hard spring for sure and I'll be glad when the grass starts growing again and we can get these animals out on the grass.

But today the sun is shining and though the sun is low in the sky there is not a cloud to be seen anywhere.

I have been working on a 100 piece puzzle throughout the last week which my sister gave our family for Christmas. It is quite a lovely scene of a log house by the edge of a lake with loons floating along in the water. The Daughters have been helping with it. Teapot hates puzzles and so he ignores it totally. But the girls and I have been having a relaxing time working on our challenge. We are almost finished. There's something nice about working on it since we can only work on it during daylight hours. We sit here in the newly paneled sun room and the sun is shining brightly... it is a lovely room. I'm happy in it. Sun streams through the window calling to me...

Today is a great day... a day for doing things outside... and that is where I'm headed... outdoor for a breath of fresh air. 

I hope the sun is shining on you too....

New Year

Ok so I have come to the conclusion that I have no more stories left in me at this time... so I will say it straight out instead of sitting here staring at a blank screen for an hour tapping out inane sentences before finally giving up in desperation and eating chocolate in an effort to overcome any mental block I might have. Somewhere I have read that you should start your year as you mean to go on. 2 seconds after the new year Daughter #2 placed on our relatively new coffee table a still burning sparkler and left a nice big burn in the wood. How do you deal with that when you mean to go on as you start the new year.

This last few days of the old year has been a very large disappointment. We are just 6 hours into the new year and there is a very strong Chinook blowing in this morning. But at 12:01 a.m. my house was in order.... except for the burn. The dishes were washed. The bills were paid. Pretty much everything in the house was clean if not neat. But then there was the burn... not an auspicious beginning to the New Year.

I have to wonder what 2011 will be like... especially after such a lousy ending to the old year.

Let me tell you why the old year ended so badly. Actually it wasn't the end of the world and we certainly have much, for which to be thankful.... still we have had our share of disappointments and bad patches this last year. The most recent downturn began on Christmas Eve when we discovered that my main gift which Teapot had ordered from Sears would not get here at all.... really it was nothing... I wasn't disappointed there were still lots of lovely Christmas gifts under the tree. The other disappointment was that Daughter #1's main gift came the day before Christmas and was too big... and so it had to go back... right away. Now I'll be honest, though they are disappointments... for the givers... neither of the receivers were terribly upset. That's because we do not have, in this house, a big desire for material things. But for the givers there was much disappointment. These things could be dealt with later on and so we put it out of our minds and had a lovely Christmas anyway. Then we looked forward to an anniversary party on the 28th... we had invited many of our friends and we looked forward to celebrating our 19th year together. Two couples came! That was a greater disappointment.  We had scrubbed and cooked and gotten ready for a party that just never happened. The electrician and his wife came, (they happen to be an older couple and have done much for us like our electricity renos for no pay), they are a lovely couple and we were happy to have them come and be with us for our nineteenth. Then another couple who are from back home came by in the evening with their two children (who are the same age as our kids) and are like family. They are always reliable for a party. That was it. Not another friend. Zip. None. Nada. We were heartily let down in many we call friends. And so our 19th anniversary passed into ignominy. Still we were not going to let that get us down and we looked forward to New Years Eve when we had invited a couple of friends by for fondue and to help us ring in the new year. After telling us they would love to come, they emailed yesterday to say that they were going shopping and that if they made it at all they would be late?! Like what's that all about? We ended up ringing in the new year on our own... and that's when the table burn happened.

2010 was a strange year... full of unwanted things... like an unwanted jacket commission, (remember that) a break with our church, the moving of one good friend and the death of another, a disappointment in my level 3 marks, unreliable friends, a horrible flair up with my back, and the most worrisome of all, a steady and visible decline in my parents health. If I didn't have a stronger resolution then I guess it would be enough to get me down.

Recently, I have found myself looking at real estate in Spain. It is an out you know. I never ever indulge in fantasies but recently somehow it has helped to keep my outlook on life positive. Running away makes me think that perhaps something good will come of it all, maybe a little adventure and some new acquaintances.... but here I sit with a burn in my relatively new table and a Daughter who is upset and a Teapot who is also upset at me for my reaction. And in the end who cares about the table... tomorrow I might saw the blasted thing in half and make a headboard out of it. (I thought of that at one point when I stubbed my toe on it a while back!) I lay in bed this morning thinking worrisome thoughts, I thought about my parents... but there's not much I can do there other than continue to help them the best way I can. I thought about the table and while it bother me to look at the burn I can apologize to Daughter #2 for my reaction and help her to understand that the table is not important and that I might just saw it in half.... that will appease Teapot. Then I thought about my bank account this morning, while lying in my sleepless bed, and figured that I might as well deal with the budgeting for January... so up I got, and down I came, and I checked the bank account, and low and behold... money... a little that quite honestly I wasn't expecting till later in the month. It's nice to get a little unexpected bonus. And so begins 2011. One bad thing and one good thing.

Start the year as you would wish to go on. Is my house in order.... is it ever? But I suppose... in the end... life is like that... full of ups and downs... and facing it... well, you just have to.

Have you got your house in order...?

Here's to 2011... may it be better than the year before. Salut!