Trivia And Trivial

I spun a lot of cotton yesterday but I still have more to spin so will be concentrating on that today.

Trivia Alert:
Did you know that Wiener Schnitzel is breaded veal cutlet and not hot dogs at all. Did you know that it comes from Vienna, Austria?  I didn't know that until just now when CBC Radio had their trivia question for the morning... I had to look it up... you never know what you are going to learn.I don't know why it was important to tell you that... I just found it interesting.


It is still cold in this neck of the woods. A balmy -28 degrees as I'm sitting here. The year that we moved into this house we had a freezing day... we moved in on the 10th of March and it was -32 degrees... it was really horrible. I think this year is going to be very similar... we will be waiting for spring still in May.

No new lambs yet which is good with these temperatures still dipping. I am hoping that the forecast is wrong and that we will be getting warmer temperatures as the week continues. The wee lamb born last week continues well. She is fighting her mother who is a desperately bad mom and tries to shake off her baby every time she tries to nurse. I had hoped that last year was an anomaly but apparently not. For some reason some ewes just don't want the bother of feeding their lambs. Last year this ewe had twins and she was the same then too. One of her last year lambs is doing fairly well and the other is very small. Not what I would call a good mom. I hate to see them ignoring their babies. This year she only birthed one and that is a good thing. We have her in the shed which is very small, we do that to force her to nurse her baby and so that the baby doesn't have to work so hard to latch on, but she still stomps and tries to shake off her baby every time the lamb tries to suck. Generally those lambs get pooped on (literally pooped on), a lot because they have to chase their mom and nurse from the back (between the legs) when the mom is not expecting it. It doesn't make for a good mom or a healthy lamb. I have kept the mom only because she is my only pure blood merino. I am hoping to get a good fleece from her and then I won't breed her again (she'll be able to retire and just provide fleeces). Meanwhile, the other ewe (who goes by the name of Fanny), who is also left to give birth is an awesome mom.... the complete opposite to Queen (the above mentioned ewe). Fanny has always given twins and they are always strong and hardy though usually a little on the small side. This doesn't bother me since my animals don't get a lot of the green feed since we do not have lots of pasture... they are mostly fed on hay all year round and we only put them on grass in the spring before the grasshoppers eat it. Also Fanny is part Shetland which is a breed that tends to be smaller anyway. I'm assuming that her lambs tend toward the Shetland rather than the BFL/Merino which is what she has been bred with.  Clear as mud?

Currently we have ten sheep but two are promised for meat so we will be butchering those later in the spring. I am thinking of getting rid of one of my rams. He is a freak and constantly freaks out and has a good run at the fence whenever anyone happens to look at him. He is not a nice animal. Tending towards stupidity! Twice now I've had to extract him from the fence when he has taken a run at it and gotten his head stuck... he's just too stupid for words.  I'm not sure if he will be butchered or if I will sell him. Maybe someone else can get better behaviour from him.

Anyway that is a little update on lambs and weather... not much interesting going on so I had better go listen to the news about the Oscars... (go Colin... he's my favorite actor anyway)... and spin that cotton.

Grey Sunday

I'm just about to go and sit with my knitting for one hour and then on to the cotton.  I am determined to get this cotton done and off the wheel by tomorrow evening.  Outside the temperatures have dipped to -27 degrees. It has been snowing for two days though you can't really see any accumulations. It is very fine snow but it is blowing too and that makes for an eerie day. The wind is howling around the house and I keep watching to see if Fanny is going to drop her lambs. I hope she doesn't because it would not be good for her wee lambs to have to suffer this cold and wind chill.  But she is due at any time so we wait and hope the the temps warm up soon.  I took pictures of the snow but it just doesn't do the weather justice.  You can't take pictures of wind and cold and that is as much of what is making this morning so blah.  While I'm glad we are still getting snow, (mostly because we need the snow pack to help restore the water table after the last few years of draught), I am sorry to see it so cold.... I just wish it was a little warmer like -4 degrees C. Doesn't this look brrrr....

It makes my nose cold just looking at it.

I think I'll go listen to CBC radio and have some tea and knit on a scarf for a while... before I spin cotton. See ya... and I hope your Sunday is milder than mine.

Getting In Touch With My Inner Pink 2

I'm thinking that after all this is not so bad... at least it is not Barbie Pink. Yuck! Tomorrow I may feel like puking but for today I'm ok with it. I think I'll try snuggling socks next.

In Touch With My Inner Pink

I'm not sure how long this will last... it's pink.... and pastel too! Eeew! It's like snuggling with socks... weird!

Friday... How Did That Freaking Happen????

Ok so the week has passed and I find myself at the end of the week with nothing done. I spun cotton yesterday and as it always seems with fine spinning you can spin forever and never really see what you've done. I wanted to get the cotton off my wheel before I started working on the flax... but I wanted to get flax done and Lopi finished before the end of Feb. I have a friend coming for lunch today and spend the afternoon spinning.   I will spin cotton since I can do that without really thinking but tomorrow I have to work on the flax and get that done then Monday I can work on the Lopi and try to finish that then I will be on schedule... hmmm... we'll see!

It has warmed up to a balmy -13 degrees which is quite cold for the end of February... usually by now we are getting the scattered day of warmth... but not this year so it seems. Mind you if the extra cold means that the snow last longer and more moisture in the end I'm all for that since it will mean a better year for hay.  Still it is gusty out there and so Queen and her lamb languor in the birthing shed with the hopes that when Fanny is ready to drop her babies (Fanny always gives twins) the temperatures will warm slightly.

I went to Knit Night last night and we are sorry to know that one of our knitters will be leaving us permanently.  She hasn't been coming very often this year due to her job taking her away to travel but it looks like she will be transferred... so our little Knit group is starting to drop away. Last year I lost my spinning group here in HH with the loss of Anita and then two other member moving away it left only three people and myself. two were not really steady spinners and weavers anyway so our group just fell apart. I've been so busy that I decided to give it a year and then maybe next fall I will actively seek spinners again for our group. This is one of the side affects of living in a small town. Groups can go from very active to dead overnight. It all depends on whose moving and whose ill and whose not around any longer.  I just continue to spin and weave and knit... it's what I do.... it's who I am...

So about a couple of hours from now I have this friend coming so I should go have a shower since my hair looks like a chicken's arse.  See....

 
Now that would scare anyone....

Relieved

For two days I've been waiting... and hoping.  Our friends that are in New Zealand were not hurt. I finally heard from them this morning. They were almost in the thick of things and their house shook for about 20 seconds but their friend's house was hit and they have been helping to shovel the debris from the streets. I am so glad to know that they are alright. My friend says that the devastation is terrible and there are still bodies coming out of the fallen buildings all over the place.  I'm sure things will never be the same there...We look forward to seeing our friends here in Canada when they come back in May.

I have had a two day break from spinning and have been decadently going back to bed so I guess it is time to stop that goofing off and get back to work... cotton today but then I've just gotten line flax in the mail so that will be my next group of questions to attack. It is great that Teapot brought home a nice printer the other day and it prints stuff like zoom. So quick and efficient. I'm really happy with it.

So a short post today... we'll see you all bye and bye... (now that's a Newfy saying)!

Photos From The Blueberry

MW prepping for a walk in the excruciating cold.

LW picking wool for the drum carder.

MA is working on her spinning.

RG who sat next to me and kept me cracking up looks oh so serious here but is anything but serious.

NC working on an Inkle loom with very pretty purple Inkle bands.

FE and MW chatting while they spin.

MF is spinning mohair and it looks awesome.

KK who is one of our youngest and newest spinners.

I was always the first up in the morning so I would go around and have a good look at everyone's stuff.

Then I would watch the sun rise through the window as I spun... it was very peaceful.

We prepped skeins of wool for dyeing

 

Then we mixed dye.

We laughed a little.

And some of us laughed a lot.

Here are my dye results which was an  experiment with commercial yarn to see if I could get the colours that I want... I like this.

Here are some of my Lopi samples... I also spun flax.

When I laid it all out at home this is what I had.... I'm very happy.

Chill Man!

Chill is an odd word.... but it is most suitable for mt life these days... for several reasons. One time chill meant something like a cold. If you caught a chill then you were sick with a sore throat or a cold.... this happily does NOT apply to me right now. However there is a new meaning for the word chill which does apply to me. Chill can refer, of course to the temperature of the air... and recently around me chill has been the best word to describe it. It has been cold... really cold. Next the word chill can refer to calm down and take it easy and this more importantly refers to me. I need to chill.... seriously I do. So here's what's happening that makes me need to chill

I just heard about the earthquake in New Zealand... we have friends down there who are visiting their daughter and son-in-law.... I just hope all is well with them.  I have been looking at the pictures coming out of there and it makes me really worry. Our friends are enjoying their first grandchild and have spent the winter there for the last few years. They had emailed us with information about the house they are renting and Teapot has that information so we are trying to find out information about where they are and how the earthquake would have affected them. But as in any state of emergency it is very difficult to get information from specific friends due to power outages etc... but I have sent an email to our friends and hope to hear from them soon. I'm trying to chill.

Next reason to chill... I have been reading the blogs of friends and internet friends and have discovered that one of my intructors in the MSP was turned back at the border when she tried to enter the states to teach the MSP there. I was sorry to hear it since I think that these programs are  really good for any spinner and when I see people not allowed to teach for rather dubious reasons it feels like the most powerful and forward countries in the world has been derailed. Sad day indeed for Canada and the US. My instructor has been chillin' in Vancouver for a few days and while it is a big disappointment not to be able to fulfill her obligations I think she's doing the right thing keeping her wits around her and her head screwed on straight. The US border guards get really weird about teaching in the US... Visa's and all that are a little weird when it is just a few day workshop...

Next... we have our first new born lamb of the year. Queen my old pure blood merino gave birth on the coldest day of February. Thursday night while spinning a lovely Lopi yarn my phone blipped and there was a picture of a new white lamb in the barn. It was a whopping -27 degrees with a windchill of -34 degrees... (where I was it was -35 with a wind chill of -43 degrees). It is a lovely sweet female lamb and she's white.... and I want to keep her. Her name is Dewdrop. She's named after her dad who quite frankly surprised us when his ball did drop quite unexpectedly after making us believe for a full year that he was a whether and not a ram...  but ram he is... and lamb he has given us... So Dewdrop is chillin' in a shed with a heat lamp so that she's not chillin' too much.

The retreat.... one word.... outofthisworld!  Ok so I know that's not really one word but awesome just didn't cut it. It was a blast. Totally needed, in order to make February pass away quickly. The weather was cold.... like ohmygodit'sfreakingCOLD! But we persevered and enjoyed our time all the same. But while the weather was cold it meant that once again we were chillin'. When we arrived, the building had not been heated and so we were waiting for the building to warm, it was chilly and so were we in short order. But some of the rooms had heaters and we turned those on upstairs to warm our bedrooms so that we weren't too chilly at night. By the next morning the building was very obviously warming up, which made us all happy. I accomplished a lot but came away feeling like I got nothing done. Why? I don't know.... maybe I laughed too much. But in the end it was a great few days. I started out working on a flax sample then I did several Lopi sample with Icelandic wool and then with merino and mohair... then Saturday was spent teaching percentage dyeing and then finally I spun cotton... it all went well. The only thing is that I can't show my pics because Teapot has the camera with him today and I haven't had a chance to remove them from the camera and put them here. I got home on Sunday and am already looking forward to the next retreat.... but there's lots to do before that. I will post pics later.

Yesterday was a long day as I had to drive Mudder to DC for an appointment with a denturist... it snowed... I hate driving in snow. So today I'm having a chillin' day.... very relaxed. no spinning just a day to put my feet up.... a little laundry... a little cooking and a whole lot of unpacking and wrapping my brain around all that happened. 

See ya later and watch for those pics.....

Baking and Packing

So I have a bad back this morning... should have figured that I'd end up in this state... I've been lifting and doing things that I really shouldn't be doing  in the last few days. I have a batch of herb biscuits in the oven baking and I'm mostly packed except for my personal stuff and the food which I won't pack until the last minute. My back is not so bad that I can't move... but it is really touchy so I'm going to have to be very careful today. No more baking and standing on my feet for more than a few minutes and no more heavy lifting.

Most years I travel by myself in my own vehicle or for the last two years I have traveled with a friend who has been going with me, but this year I find myself in a bit of an odd situation. For the first time ever we decided that the Blueberry retreat was really too short and that we needed to start on Wednesday instead of Friday. This means that if I go by myself then I will be leaving Teapot with no vehicle... which I can't do since he needs it for work. The lady that I usually travel with is not going as she has made a grave mistake of agreeing to do some stupid horse workshop... (can you tell that I'm disgusted... since when do horses take precedence over spinning... : ( hmmm... ). This leaves me high and dry. So another friend is going to town today so I'm hitching a ride with her as far as town and then hooking up with another friend who will be going to Blueberry... then I'm doing the same thing coming back... I'm really feeling the one vehicle thing today... I would have liked to be out of here by 1 p.m. in my own vehicle with my own stuff and not having to lift it and reload in the middle... very inconvenient... I am thinking that I might like to look into buying a new vehicle... a nice little second hand one. Hmm...!

Still there is quite a list of stuff to be done before I go... thank God Teapot cooks... or I would have to be doing that for them too...

I hope to have pics ready when I get back.. see ya Monday...

The Day Before

Ok so I have two pizzas in the freezer and a box of paprika and pepper tortilla triangles ready to go. I have the veggies chopped and ready for the Cavishe. I have packed the dye stuff and the Icelandic fleece and am starting to pack the rest of my gear in preparation for tomorrow. I have just discovered that I don't have enough medication to take with me and so called the clinic pharmacy to get more and they won't give me more without a Doctor seeing me first.... argh! So throw in a medical appointment this afternoon and you have a very crazy lady who is about ready to fall off her feet. I still have herb and cheese biscuits to make which I will get to this evening.... if I don't fall down first. Thank God there's lots of chocolate around to eat and keep me energized... anyone have a drum and a pair of sun glasses?

So Teapot surprised me after all and came home with flowers and chocolate for me for Valentine's Day... I'm feeling a little like a big zit on the bum of scrooge right now! So I have decided to leave him something nice on his pillow tomorrow since i will be gone when he gets home from school... hmmm... maybe some Easter eggs(since you can't get Valentine chocolate anymore...  and maybe a nice romantic letter.... hmmm.... maybe.

This is a short post today, for obvious reasons... we'll see ya all when I get back.... where I'm going there is no internet, or TV. or cell phones.... ahhh... sweet bliss.

Crazy Busy

With the Blueberry retreat coming up it is crazy busy these days. I have spun three of my flax/linen sample though one will need fiddling with to finish it. It came off slightly unbalanced... rather a bit like me. (Teapot always says I'm spinny and unbalanced!) The Blueberry retreat is only two days away and I am greatly looking forward to that. For the first time in a long time the weather doesn't seem to be co-operating. every year there seems to be a nice little lull in winter so that we can go to the Blueberry without concern for driving conditions... but this year there is snow in the forecast for the next week. Blah!  This does not concern me dreadfully since I will be traveling with someone else, except for when I get back I have to take my mother to DC for an appointment with the denturist.  I hate winter driving... but the rest of the year I love to drive... I just wish I had a car of my own.... anyone out there with an extra car that they don't need... : )

Oh! Happy Valentine's day (she says as an after thought).... yeah you can see that it is of such great importance around here.... actually I did get a nice kiss on the cheek this morning. Flowers are pointless since I won't be around to enjoy them anyway and can't think of how chocolates say "I love you" when they just make you fat and your self image plummets. We might watch a romantic movie if a movie shows up in the mail from VM but then that's just a movie..... so I'll just wait till we're in bed at night and then I'll roll over and slide my..... (get your minds out of the gutter....) hand into his and say good night and I love you just as he is going to sleep, and just as we have done for years... I don't think you can get much more romantic after 20 years of marriage. Holding hands and being told you are loved is pretty good don't you think?   Mind you if he wanted to give me jewelry I wouldn't turn it down... (hee hee)! I might even think about buying him a new fishing rod... like spinning wheels... evidently you can never have enough of them... go figure.

Hope you have lots of hearts and romance in your life today... and if not and you find yourself all alone, just remember... it just another big fundraiser for Halmark!

Interesting.... That's life Around This Joint

OK so how's this for interesting....

Bloody bugger... It's bad enough that I've got hay that cost me $75.00 a bale and the flippin' deer have the idea that I brought it in for them... but now I've got this great ruddy beastie bighting off the tops of the bales without a thought!  Every time we go out he runs off down through the bush.... but ten minutes later the bugger is back for another bight or two. My bales are starting to look like crap as he knocks hay on the ground with every bight he makes.  I'm thinking Moose steaks are looking pretty good to me.... damn... if only I had a license.... and I guess it is kind of the wrong time of year..... damn!

Oh That Hurts

I spent the day on my hands and knees putting new flooring on the floor of my mother's and father's living room. I'm totally wiped and the job is finished. But I have blisters on my knees and one on my hands and things are aching that shouldn't be. I'm so totally wiped that this is it for a post today. So good night and I'll see if I can talk about something more interesting tomorrow.

ZZZZZZzzzzzzz......

Do You Ever Wonder Why?

Most of the time very little things occupy my mind like spinning the next skein and what I' going to get for supper and whether or not the pooches have been out recently. But every now and again very vast things enter my mind.... concepts like why? Why I'm here or what makes a person good. I even get to considering space and the vastness of that place. I see pictures on APOD of stars swirling around in darkness and wonder how far they go and how it all got started.

Lately my mind has been consumed with survival.  I have received a copy of Alone In The Wilderness and have watched it a number of times now.  For those of you who don't know it is the story of  Dick Proenneke who back in the 60s at the age of 51 decided to hoof it off into the wilds of Alaska to live alone for a year as a challenge to himself and eventually turned into an odyssey of 31 yrs alone in a cabin he built by a lake. He left his home at 82 years of age because he felt he could no longer handle the -50 degree winters. It is a inspirational story of independence, survival and simplicity.

What is it that makes a man go off into the wilderness alone seeking contentment in a life so devoid of fellowship with one's own species? I spend a great deal of time on my own. There are days that go by where I don't see a soul except for Teapot and the Daughters and times where I can go a week and hear the telephone ring at all. The strange thing is that it does not displease me. I enjoy my families company but I know that one day the Daughters will leave home and head out into the world to create lives and families of their own. I will miss them greatly and I can't imagine life with out Teapot in it... but truth there is no other company that I crave. Still, I am not sure that I could go off into the wilderness to live without any contact for a year let alone 30. It seems almost overly decadent bordering on foolhardy. I love nature as much as anyone and usually can't wait to get out in the bush with Teapot and the girls... one of our best holidays was spent at a lake where no one hardly goes and we pretty much had the lake, and park to ourselves. But it is one thing to go there and know that there is a park ranger nearby if you need help and something else when you have no contact at all.

I have great respect for a person like Dick Proenneke. Somehow being alone instills a sense of inner quiet that is appealing. I think the word for it would be peace. But there is a difference between a man going off into the wilderness by himself and a woman. Not many would believe that a woman could do it and more than likely she would be labeled a witch in the end. Still, there is a local tale of a woman, who during the last century moved to the Northern B.C wilderness with her husband and bore him 6 children before he was attacked and killed by some wild animal. Instead of finding her way out of the wilderness to some kind of civilization she raised her children in the quiet and solitude of her wilderness home. When many years later, after her children had grown up and moved away to various places around the country, a journalist came upon her when happened to be out hunting, he was amazed to find her in her 70s and still living alone with a lifestyle that was to be envied. What got me about the story was that she evidently had enough leisure time to be able to make her own clothing from animals in the bush and be able to decorate the fabric with little bits and pieces of things that she found and even her home had embellishment to augment the decor. Obviously this was the life of a woman content and with enough know-how to provide for herself and at the same time carve out an exemplary existence that included more than just meager necessities.

I wish I had that kind of courage.

A Serious Case Of Sleepitis

For two days I have indulged my inner me... and have gone back to bed after Teapot and the Daughters departed for school. I have had great pleasure checking out the back of my eyelids for several hours each morning and may do it for the remainder of the week.  In the meantime though, that does not mean that I have been doing nothing. No indeed. I have been working very diligently on my work at home here with little or no thought to anything else (the dust bunnies are poking their noses out from under the china cabinet again). In the meantime, it is onward and upward with level 4. I have finished all of the cashmere questions a second time and still am not satisfied but I think this is the Freudian Annal coming out in me and so I have decided to carry on anyway. Two of the samples will do so I will use them and will put the other two away...

and get on with it. The next section was silk and I say WAS most strategically because I have completed that section as well. Reeled silk was the first question and since I had done that one last summer in class there wasn't a whole lot of work to with it... just a write up and voila... finis! Then came 3 wool silk blends.

My first was a Polwarth/silk noil blend in 75% and 25%. I'm absolutely enchanted with that one.
Then came a Finn wool/Bombyx silk in a 50%/50% blend and it turned out very lovely too. My last one is nice and even and nicely consistent but I do have to admit that it would not be my choice in a yarn. It is a 75% Dyed Tussah silk and 25% Polwarth wool rovings and I decided to try something different in the blending... something that is not necessarily recommended but I wanted to try it more or less as an experiment to myself. I carded the blend into a Sausage and then elongated it before spinning. The result was, that though silk is shiny, it lost most of its sheen. I figured it would do this but, all the same,  I wanted to see what exactly would happen... like would it have any lustre at all. it didn't but it is still quite a nice yarn but more of a raw silk look and of course the wool really knocked the lustre back too. Anyway it is going along with the other samples and that is that!  Meanwhile I was listening to Canada Reads on CBC last night, and while doing so, I decided there's no point in pi--ing away time and so out came my cards and I combed some Supima Cotton into punis and began the cotton section. I find myself at mid day today with the cotton section finished too. One of the questions for cotton was to spin cotton on a support spindle (that being a Takli) and I had done that last summer.

So With the two cotton questions done I have 5 sections done on my level 4 books. Still I'm not sure about my Takli sample and I may redo that one in the evenings. I carded some new punis and this time I'll be using yellow.

The next section is Flax. Yikes! I had a look this morning and the first question already has me scratching my head. We are asked to spin a 10 metre 2 ply linsey woolsey yarn and there's nothing in our text book about linsey woolsey. I think this is a serious oversight on the part of the MSP text book people. We are not asked to research linsey woolsey... so why they have that question there without some information in the text is weird to me. I must write to the instructor about that... It's just plain weird.  Since I have the Blueberry retreat coming up next week and there is some organizing for that, I decided to put the Flax section on hold until I get back on the 20th. Meanwhile I am beginning the section on low twist singles yarns better known as Lopi style yarns. The fleece is washed and so I begin.

As for the Blueberry retreat.... my heart does flip flops when I think about it because I am so excited. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that.  5 whole days with only myself to think of. 15 other women all spread out with wool, cotton, dye, weaving, knitting, and more fleece... etc... I think it is going to be awesome.  I am giving a little dye workshop on percentage dying with two colours. But other than that, its relax, and spin for five whole days... yipee, yahoo, hurray!  It is what drags me out of my mid-winter blahs.  For the last few weeks, even though I've been fighting it hard, I have felt it poignantly. (I think that's why I'm sleeping so much.) Something to get me out of the house... something to give me heart again... and who knows I might be able to come up with something interesting to write about again.... (because I'm sure you haven't missed the fact that you could snore your way through my blog posts/ramblings).

The Blueberry retreat is so named because we rent a summer camp for kids called the Blueberry on the Blueberry river. It is a vast log building with beautiful rooms and balconies overlooking the rolling hills beyond, and is just divine for a retreat.  I am soooo lucky. I leave on the 16th.. and there will be pictures.

Meanwhile, Pops' thumb is continuing to improve slowly (more slowly than we would like) but with Diabetes, healing is not that easy, so we are glad of any improvement.

Now that my sleepitis has been dealt with, I am off to spin a little Lopi and do some write ups. But meanwhile, I think that I will leave you with this picture that I'm so proud of... (pat pat pat.... that's on my back if you're wondering)!

Updates On A Bunch Of Things

First..
Dad's thumb seems to be a very little better... though the infection is not gone or even lessened in looks he thinks that there is not so much tenderness as there was yesterday... we are cautiously optimistic.

Second...
I have been really working hard at the next few questions for the level 4 homework... I am now finishing a 75% wool 25% silk sample and have the 50/50 sample ready to spin which I hope to finish tonight. Tomorrow there will be a 75%silk and 25% wool sample done if all goes well. Then on to the cotton.

Third...
I am knitting so--- (well you know). And I am not using the Cat Bordhi pattern either... I am making a textured knee sock... I am hopeful that I will be able to get them to work. Why am I doing this? I don't know.... I haven't worn so--- all winter... maybe they will be for Teapot since they are bulky and will work inside a boot quite well.... I am using a Briggs and Little worsted weight yarn... yes I know I should have spun it myself... Oh well... life is hard and then you die!

Fourth...
Teapot and I have been making retirement plans.... he doesn't retire for another 13 years... and that will put him at 61. But we are not staying here... This is big because this is the first time that I have been able to get Teapot to even consider anything that far in advance. We are going to look for a rural setting close to medical but the definite thing is that we are going to build (I can't believe he's even considering that) on lake front.... Which lake you ask... well we have a couple in mind so we will have to look for land. He wants to go fishing whenever he wants and I want to go canoeing whenever I want.... gotta have a lake!!!

That's it for updates.... I'm off to spin some more... I'll post pictures tomorrow of my spinning samples...

No Real Change... Dull As Dull Can Be

Pops is still having trouble it is not changing for the better though it is not getting any worse.  I am hoping that after a couple of day with the antibiotics that things will improve. We are still watching very closely.

I have decided to redo my cashmere samples as I was not satisfied that they were consistent enough. I redid both of them yesterday and am more satisfied with the 100% cashmere sample the second time around but I am feeling that perhaps my original cashmere/wool sample might be better than the second one. Either way they are both inconsistent and I can't seem to get it any better. It is the grist which is giving me all the trouble. I am now wondering if I should try again and dig into the cashmere that I bought for my 150 hour project but this worries me as I do not want to run out of cashmere for that. Hmmm... such a dilemna.

Sunday seems to give nothing much to write about as I sit looking at grey skies outside my window. I think I need to get out and go for a walk. I have been in doors too much in the last few days. Now that I have enough hay to see us through till the spring if not the summer I am beginning to find time long... perhaps I should go and have a look at Fanny and see how close she is to giving birth.

I'm still worried about Pops and need something to take my mind off my troubles.

Once Upon A Time

... there was a little town in the middle of nowhere.... Everybody knew everybody else and everybody kind of looked out for everybody else. But like all small towns there was some mia mia mia that went on behind backs.

One day a young lady moved to this town and looked around her and had quite an eye opener to small northern towns.  There were all kinds of interesting characters in that small town... like the old man that drove his garden tractor all over town because he was too old to have a drivers license any more and so in an effort to stay active he got his lawn tractor licensed instead. Then there was an old man who had been a war vet and had at one time held the position of mayor... but this old man was now a very old man and though he was deserving of our respect most people would laugh at him because even though he was legally blind he was still driving his Geo Tracker around very slowly. The cops didn't stop him and so all the mothers with children who were just learning to drive themselves were given the warning to watch out for the White Tracker and to steer clear or at least give it a very wide berth. Then there was also a very old lady who was somewhat mentally disturbed... she would take her car when she was off her medication and drive away... and nobody would know where. One day the old lady totaled her car on a back woods road and though she survived the crash she would not take a ride back to town with the trucker who found her so when the trucker got back to town he called the police and sent the police out to get the little old lady. She came willingly with the police and in a few weeks, after she had had a rest in the mental hospital and was back on her medication, she had a new car and was driving again... But it was only after a few months that she once again decided to take her car for a joy ride. This time they found the old lady in a ditch quite a ways up the Alaska Highway (but still in Canada). This time she was badly bruised up... Once again she had a little stay in the hospital and once she was taking medication she came home and bought a new vehicle. It took her quite a while but she was able to get insurance after going through a battery of tests... A few months after she had been driving again she went to the local clinic and when she came out of the clinic there was a little blue car with the engine still running that looked just like hers. She got in it and drove away with the idea that she would go and pick up her mail... back at the clinic a young man came out to the parking lot only to discover that his car was missing... he looked all around and saw that the old lady who was very strange had left her car in the parking lot and putting 2 and 2 together figured that the strange old lady had probably taken the wrong car... he didn't press charges.

Meanwhile the lady who had moved to town saw all of this and thought this was all very strange... how can old people get away with this kind of thing.  Many years later her own parents were getting older and she began to worry about them... and how they could carry on driving in the small town... but having watched for many years how the young people in the town took care of aging people who insisted on driving she knew that they would be alright yet a while.

The End.

I'm worrying about Pops today as he has got a small infection under his thumb nail that looks like it is Necrotizing fasciitis according to his doctor. It is not bad at this point and the doctors have put him on very strong antibiotics but we are on pins and needles watching to see that it does not get worse.


Say a prayer for Pops please.


Sometimes I look around me and think about how very hard it is to get older and watch health deteriorate and how it constricts us... but knowing that we live in a small town where people look out for one another is a good thing I think.

Stay tuned... I'll post here about Pops as we watch this infection.

Another Post

I just read Yarn Harlot's Blog.... OMG... thanks to her I just remembered....  I'm supposed to have a pair of socks knitted by now with silk hankies.... it's the end of January and I was supposed to do one a month until I had enough for everyone for Christmas next year.... right.... I was happily forgetting in blissful ignorance until the Yarn Harlot reminded me of this.....

Argh!

Run Around

Yesterday was a complete run around day. I had finished the 100% Cashmere sample for level 4 and had moved onto the cashmere/wool blend but I didn't get a chance to get as much done yesterdays as I hoped since it had a couple of meetings and didn't get home till  well after 2 p.m. Then I was working for about 1 and 1/2 hours before I had to get supper ready. It's days like that that you scratch your head and wonder where the time is going. Today is lining up to be a better day work wise.

The weather has been very strange here for two days. One day cold one day above freezing with the snow dripping off the roof. With Chinooks blowing in one after the other it almost feels like spring which is not good since if the snow melts too quickly we will not have enough grass for hay again this spring.

I know I talk about hay issues a lot but really it means the make or break of a farmer. Without feed there are no animals... or if the feed is too expensive too many years in a row then it does not bode well for making enough money off the animals to keep them.

Part of the reason why I decided to get animals in the first place was because I needed to feed the mill wool... but now that I've sold the mill I'm trying to decided what direction I want to go. There is not much market around here for spinning fibre... unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) I don't live in an area where there are a lot of people who spin and weave... and frankly weavers want fibre already spun. There is a fellow alpaca farmer who lives north of FSJ and has just gotten back some really nice yarn that came from her animals. She sent it to a mill in eastern Canada and it is lovely and best of all sells like hot cakes.  That is pretty much where I am.  I'm thinking that it is time this year after shearing to sort my fibre by colour and send it off to the mills to be spun... (some of it I will keep for me) and make a business of selling yarn both dyed and natural. My summer dyeing retreat would be all about getting fibre ready for sale... I'm really liking the idea. Ye Olde Batt would have to become Ye Olde Batt... Strung Out.  (Hee hee!! Teapot might think Strung Up!)

Anyway as for the Cashmere samples... here are a couple of pics....

!00% Cashmere 3 ply yarn very soft and lovely to touch.

50% Cashmere, 50% Wool, 2 ply yarn also very soft but not as soft as the first sample.

I think I'm using these as examples for my 150 hour project.  I will decide based on these two samples and a few more samples which yarn to use for this...

yes this was my final decision... I had bought all that Cashmere fibre and I couldn't very well forget that.... almost $200.00 dollars worth of Cashmere.... you don't just throw that away! So onward I go.
no Lopi Sweater... at least not now! : )

So today is all about the write ups for these two samples and then I'm on to the silk section...  I hope your not too bored with all this shop talk. Bare with me and I'll try to say something awesome or funny tomorrow... (snork!)

Valley Girl

Ok... so this makes my valley look like a regular hole! Oh to be in Switzerland.... the Switzerland of Heidi...

Feb. 1st

You know who's poppin their head up tomorrow....

It's Groundhog Day tomorrow and though we just had a quick dip in the temperature with -20 degrees for the last three days, I woke up once again to another Chinook... it sounds like there is a gale force wind coming down the valley... almost like there's a train rumbling through my front yard. The temperature has risen over night to +5 degrees... and though it is still black out there I know it is clear because I can see lots of stars shimmering in the sky.

I never really related to Groundhog Day growing up. But now, when the 2nd of February rolls around, I am glad... not so much because there's a groundhog going to get poked and prodded into showing his face whether or not he wants to, but because for me the 1st of February means that the worst of the winter is over.... and because I have to get crazy speedy on the level 4 homework...and because I can cook dinner in the evening by daylight now.

Several things to update on....

1. I did not get the cashmere section done yesterday, though I'm expecting to today... I finished all the written work for the camel down section of homework, and I have the cashmere ready to spin.... for both questions (there's only 2 questions in the cashmere section). Last night, Teapot was stricken with a head cold and sore throat, so in an effort to be kind to me, he decided to snork his way through the night on the couch... so I went to bed long before I was ready to, and so I, in great foresight, took some of my work to bed with me... I ended up sleeping with a baggie of cashmere, some cashmere and wool rolags, a set of hand cards, my level 4 text book, and my notes that I took when I was in the level 4 class. I know this seems weird but I was working until midnight last night and was so tired when I finally put my books away that I didn't have the heart to get up and actually put my books and things somewhere off the bed, so I slept with them!

2. Daughter #1 now has her First Aid ticket. She was away over the weekend with the JCRs to do a First Aid course. It was her first time staying in a hotel without her mother or father being there and she came home completely wiped out.... I think she stayed up too late and watched too much TV (which she doesn't get to do too often)... I'm filled with maternal pride....

3. Hay.... finally we have some. Ten bales for which Teapot is paying today when he meets the farmer in town later this afternoon. We are paying an exorbitant price for it... $75.00 dollars a 1200 lb. bale (last year we paid $45.00 a bale) which includes shipping.  The price is making me think that maybe sheep are not going to be in my future... however, alpacas will remain here on our farm... and I'm not sure what to do with Honeydew. In the meantime the shipper will send it in to us as of Saturday...

4. Thanks to you all  who emailed or left comments on my blog to tell me that you liked my hair cut... I've had tons of comments on it from people who live nearby and a few emails, and one very nice comment on the blog itself... thanks.  It does the ego good.  It's growing on me more and more, especially as I don't have to fiddle with it each morning. I do rise from my bed with a hen's arse on the back of my head though... it's quite funny... but a wet comb makes short work of that!

So there you have it... my news flash for Feb 1st.... (as exciting as it is snork!)... enjoy your Groundhog Day tomorrow as I will be off line tomorrow and away from the computer....