Pet Breath... Always A Surprise

If you have a weak stomach do not read further.

I love my pets and I have plenty of them but every now and again I feel like sending them all to the moon.

This morning I let the rabble out as per usual... later I let them all back in for their morning meal, cat food in the cat dishes... dog food in the dog food dishes. Of course it was all nutty as the dogs ate the cat food right away and the cats ate nothing as they turned up their noses at the dog food.  So I let the dogs back out and put new cat food down for the cats so that they could eat in peace.  It was while the dogs were out and I was busy getting breakfast for Teapot and the Daughters that I heard Teapot bang on the window and tell the dogs to stop digging. (They have been digging in the garden of late.)

I finished getting breakfast and let the dogs back in, since by now, the cats were finished with their food. I sat down in my chair to enjoy a peaceful cup of tea and while I was sitting there Narmin came over and wanted to get up on my lap.  I was fine with that and picked the little guy up since having a dog on my lap while drinking tea is always a pleasure. (Not!) That's when he breathed in my face and I got the distinct whiff of cat poo.... : (

The buggers had been out have a good old time digging up cat nuggets... and eating them!!!

As one of my spinning and weaving buddies has been known to say, " Oh yeah. My dogs eat cat nuggets all the time... they are like a little protein package for them..."

Disgusting....

I have days when I believe I could totally do without pets....

Setting Up A Loom Bites (Notice I Used The Correct Spelling)

Yesterday was a fiasco once I got started beaming the warp.  I ended up with the hugest tangle. It was a complete mess. It took me three hours to untangle the mess and I never got weaving until 3:30 p.m. As a result I was weaving well into the evening. And I'm still not finished. It is a good thing that I put on such a long warp because I AM NOT A WEAVER and I now have a scarf that is five inches on the beginning end and three inches on the  end I am working on.... so I am going to keep weaving at three inches (I hope) and eventually I will have enough for a muffler type of scarf... at least that is my new plan.

As a Weaver I suck violently!

With The Gallery Show Looming.... No Pun Intended...

With my guild's gallery show looming in the next week, I'm once again down to the wire trying to get stuff done.  (After the show is up and running it is back to the level 5 homework!  That will be on the 7th of October.... yeah!)  I have been weaving on pin looms left right and centre.

This is the beginning of a tri-loom shawl... in pink.... I am trying to use up as much pink as I can just to get rid of it.... I'm starting to feel the need to barf with all this pink on the go.

Yesterday I started putting one project together. I am making a scarf with silk warp and a silk/merino weft that I spun a few years ago.

All the ends need to be darned in yet... I'll show this when I get it finished.

So far it is looking really nice but I still have four more squares to attach and then I have to crochet an edge. Yesterday I was crocheting so much that my poor hands had to be soaked in hot water this morning to get them working.  So today I decided to put that scarf aside for a day and work on a mixed warp scarf or two on my loom.  I just finished stringing the warp and I think I have enough warp for two scarves.  It is a combination of weird and wonderful fibres that I found in my stash.

I tried to get the best picture I could but the light sucks this morning...

...so here is a picture of the fibre I am using... except I don't have the ribbon that I also used in the warp. It's glitzy and looks awesome... only I ran out and didn't have any to put in this picture.

This is a picture of my rigid heddle loom and the warp going on. The living room was quite busy this morning.

I'm about to have some lunch and finish beaming the warp on to the loom and then I will be weaving all afternoon.  I also have another mixed warp scarf that I want to weave and that will be tomorrow's job.

The blue is a merino yarn that I spun two years ago. The pink is the same stuff that's going into the shawl in the previous picture. The pink stuff is alpaca. And the shaggy weird stuff is something I picked up at a garage sale... nylon and other weird stuff... (I have some god-awful orange stuff like it too... not sure if I can figure out how to use that stuff.)  Then I have a green shawl on another pin loom too. But there's a lot of work left on that one so I'm not sure I'll get that one done.  That is next week's project.  I have to have it ready for Wednesday or Thursday next week... we'll see.

Time is a wasting... thought I'd just give a little update... see you soon..... I'm off to eat some lunch and weave.

Previous Post... Corrected

Hopeless... sometimes I read through what I have written and I think.... I should just go back to school. Sometimes I write and even though I reread what I have written before posting, if I am not fully awake or if I am on meds or if I am my normal stupid self, it is full of mistakes. Generally I try to fix mistakes if I catch them but I don't always catch them. Then, a few hours later, I reread what I wrote and I think, "this is sh--"!  That just happened... my previous post read like a bulldozer in quarry... rough... so I fixed it up some... hope it makes better sense....

Raining Cats And Dogs And Sheep and LLamas And Alpacas..... Any Other Animals Here... Oh Yeah Soon Two New Rabbits!

Actually it's not raining at all... it's quite sunny and lovely. But in the house the place has gone to the cats and dogs.  We have three dogs and three cats for those of you who don't know. They often drive me bananas.

We have an old old cat that has reached his age of majority now being 12 years of age. He was so cute when we first got him... the blackest cat I've ever seen.  But as time went by he started getting all the signs of aging. The grey hairs were the first signs that he was aging. After that he started ever so slowly to slow down each year, and then finally he started to gain weight.  He is now huge. Like fat. Like Garfield looks svelt compared to him. We thought we should put him on diet but this has not worked because he is the best mouser in the whole world. I keep expecting him to keel over with a heart attack. However, last night when I went outside for my evening walk, there was Midnite in all friskiness, playing with the kitten. He was jumping up and catching moths and trying to do little flips. I think he even tried to climb a tree at one point however, his ass was so big that he just couldn't get it up over 3 or 4 inches. He is the fattest thing in the world.  Yesterday I was sitting in the living room on the couch and we have a little cushion set up under the end table for the cats to snooze on.  Midnite has been spending the summer outside snoozing on an old fleece on the deck under the work table, but recently he has begun to come into the house for his daytime snoozes as the temperatures begin to dip.  He was lying in there all day, next to the couch.  At one point Daughter #1 came into the living room to chat and I guess we disturbed his sleep, so he came out to see what was going on. After four steps off the pillow he just couldn't go any further. He had to lie down again since the poor bugger was exhausted from all that exertion. As he lay down his fat oozed out over the floor away from his body. It was disgusting. Then he looked up at me and yawned. That was it. The extent of his exercise. And back he went under the table.  Four steps out and four steps back to his pillow and there he stayed until it was time to go out last night. And we had to turf him then.  When a yawn is good exercise then you know that you have the laziest cat on the face of the earth.

Meanwhile as I sit here writing this morning the wee pooch has decided that chewing on the end of my poncho is awesome. And I'm wearing it!

I love animals. They certainly have their very own little personalities.

Recently the whore went missing. She has been missing since last week. We had an appointment for her to be spayed on Thursday the 21st... but Friday the 16th, she scooted out between Teapot's legs as he opened the door and disappeared into the dark.  We went looking for her but she disappeared in no time flat. She hasn't been seen since.  I hope she doesn't come back... (I know that's mean but the coyotes need to eat too... but with my luck, she'll come back pregnant no doubt. Argh!  I hate female cats.

The two big dogs are not happy with us these days either.  We have decided that we cannot allow them to go out of the house unless they are on a leash anymore, because they have taken to wandering away from our property.  They started to run around just up and down the in front of our house and soon it was down to the neighbour's driveway, and then it was to the end of the road, and then they were gone for several hours, and I would spend my time out on the deck calling and calling and calling.... further and further afield they would go. We have decided that they need a dog run, and the only place to make a fenced dog run is where the sheep paddock was. It is about twenty feet from the house, and will have to be seeded with grass seed after all the sheep poo has been scraped out, and the fence will have to be moved on one end slightly... thus they won't be able to run around the neighbourhood any more... it's all a bit of a headache really. While we are waiting for the sheep to go so we can move the fence, the two dogs have to be tied on on leashes.  I hate having to go out first thing in the morning with my nighty on and put them on leashes and Bailey has the obedience of a crocodile and she runs when I call her to put on the leash.  I'm thinking that the air space around our property has been looking a little blue lately.... I definitely need to stop the trucker language first thing in the morning.

Along with all that the sheep are finally going.  I may have mentioned that the sheep have been sold.  But the fellow who bought them didn't have his fencing in place and couldn't take them right away... so Teapot called him yesterday to see how the fencing was going and  he's finished all except for a paddock for the ram. So the sheep and llama are going hopefully this weekend, we just have to get the trailer. Honeydew the llama is too tall for our sheep trailer.  So we have to borrow a horse trailer from friends. We are going to have to keep the ram for now, until the fencing is done... I can't wait till we are only having to care for just alpacas.

Last but not least... on the 1st of October.... there will be two rabbits coming to live here.  They are Angora crosses. Lovely long spinnable fibre.  Silver grey and charcoal grey... I'm looking forward to trying angora.  I'm not sure what will be involved in maintaining them I have to do some research on this but since they are crosses I'm hoping they won't be as difficult as true angoras. We'll see about that though.

So that's my animal news for now.  Meanwhile I'm working on a whole bunch of things... two woven shawls and a scarf and hopefully two more scarves as I go on. That's what I'm doing today. Weaving.

I'll try to post some pics here tomorrow.... hope to see you then.

I'm off to listen to CBC, weave, and sit in that beautiful sunshine and I might even get some exercise from time to time... like the cat, all I have to do is yawn....  I can do that... : )

Faster Than The Speed Of Light

I'm a bit of a science buff... I love Quirks and Quarks on CBC radio, and I love to read the science magazines.... you know popular science etc...

This morning I woke up to a great headline on the CBC news.

Particles faster than light measured

A pillar of physics — that nothing can go faster than the speed of light — appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein's theories.
Scientists at the world's largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity — the famous E = mc^2 equation — just doesn't happen.
(you can find this on the CBC News Website.)

Then the following conversation ensued.

Me: Hey dear, they've proved that Einstein's theory of relativity is false.

Teapot: I've been saying for years that the speed of light is only a finite number and that it couldn't really be true.

Me: I always knew you were smarter than Einstein..... dear why are you feeding the cat again?

Teapot: Oh yeah... ooops!

Me: I always knew you were stund! No intuition at all... hmmmm! Book smart and street stund.... that's you.

End Of The Season

This is the end of summer. We officially enter the season of autumn today. But it has been deceptively warm these last few weeks. Aside from a scattered shower of rain and some windy days it has been unusually warm and soft.  I keep expecting the weather to turn and when it doesn't I enjoy my days wondering when this beautiful weather will end. Nightly Teapot and I have been taking the dogs for a walk and then resting after on the deck in the balmy evening darkness. Last night we sat out till almost 10:30 and I was wearing a t-shirt and had no problem and felt no cold. Though the trees are mostly bare there is a beauty in the season that you just can't deny.  This Sunday is BC Rivers Day and Teapot and I will be celebrating the river as we usually do by taking our canoe down the river and hopefully our girls will come too.  It is a good way to end such a beautiful season.

I have been diligently working on my ceiling tiles.  I try to wood burn two a day. Each tile takes about an hour to finish. Today I am burning and prepping two tiles which need to fit around the light socket. I hope to have them finished before lunch so that I can spend the afternoon weaving. The ceiling looks awesome as each night I add two more tiles to it.  If I am able to keep going I will finish the tiles somewhere around Christmas. It will feel so good to get this job done. I don't know if it is the season or what is causing it but there is a definite nesting instinct that I can't seem to thwart.

Meanwhile, apples are still a priority but the dent in the numbers is becoming increasingly obvious. I'm now down to one last box of apples and have used every possible container in which to keep apple juice. So now I'm bumming containers from friends and family.  Two or three more days and I should have the apples done.  Teapot had to take some to the composter as the older ones were starting to go bad. Yesterday, I was sitting in the living room having some well earned lunch when the dogs started barking outside quite ferociously.  I went outside and discovered that all the animals were on high alert as the alpacas and llama were sending up freak-out signals (they were bellowing). This is usually an indication that there is some great danger nearby.  And they were right... a black bear decided that the apples that Teapot had chucked in the composter were just what he needed. But it didn't take long with the dogs barking and the llama and alpacas bellowing and me yelling for him to decide that there were easier pickings elsewhere. I was glad to see the back end of him.  In short order he had moved on, much to my relief.

With winter just around the corner the bears will be no problem in the not too distant future and like them hibernating could be a good project for those cold winter months.

Well that's it for today...once again my mind can't think of anything worthy of blogging about so you'll just have to put up with the weather/season report... I'm off to wood burn and breath in the fumes of wood smoke then I'm going to weave.....

See y'all tomorrow.... enjoy this last day of summer in your neck of the woods.

Bight/Byte/Bite Me

When I was a kid I didn't think I was very smart. But as time went on I began to think that I wasn't so dumb after all. This was due to the fact that I had a really good memory and was able memorize things fairly easily. I also had excellent observation skills. So I began to notice that people around me would often infuriate me when they didn't "know" what I knew. My sister was one of these people.  I remember playing cards with my sister when I was a kid and getting completely p'd off because her turn would come and she would sit there for ages before she would finally make her move. It infuriated me no end because she was unable to "see" the outcome of all possible moves without really studying them. I even called her Ding Bat all the time which makes me feel really bad now. We found out later that my sister has MS and that it greatly affects her memory and her ability to concentrate.

As I got older I discovered that if I actually took the time to study, memory work was fun.... in grade 11 I actually memorized my Social Studies text book cover to cover. A lot of good it did for me because when it came time to write my public exams I failed miserably on the section on current affairs because at the time I hated listening to the news.  If I passed my exam at all (I'm not really sure if I did because of the Bell curve and figuring out Bell curves just about on-does me because it is so boring... but considering how stund I am, maybe figuring out Bell curves would be a good lesson for me!)  it was because I probably got full marks on the actual history part of the exam.

I didn't want to go to University because all that studying was daunting.... imagine having to spend hours pouring over books sucking up all that knowledge. So I went to college instead to study becoming a Travel Counsellor.... which turned out to be completely ludicrous since the need for Travel Counsellors was completely redundant within a decade of my finishing the program. I hated my time there but finished the program because I was not a quitter. After I finished that program and couldn't get a job (mostly because I was so shy that I had a really hard time making any kind of impression on anyone), I decided to go to University after all. I loved it. I loved the social part of it for sure... it was great. But I also loved the study part of it too. I graduated with an honours degree. Basically all that means is that you do more courses in your area of study and you have to get above 80% in all of them. I did that no problem (except, if I'm honest, in logic... which was double dutch to me... and eventually I did it again to bring my mark up and it made a whole lot more sense the second time around... I do have a tendency to have to repeat some courses to get my marks up where I want them... sounds familiar eh?). So I entered my adult years feeling really accomplished and ready for the world... Like I was seriously smart. I even thought I was smarter than Teapot... (he was stund you see because he had failed out of University trying to get macro economics under his belt). I have since realized that his intelligence far outstrips mine. Though he is not the most intuitive person, his ability to retain the things that he has read is phenomenal especially if it is a piece of information that is completely useless to anyone. And his wit scares me at how fast it is sometimes... if wit was a measure of intelligence then Teapot would be a genius and Einstein would look like a monkey.

So it has been a really slow process coming to terms with the fact that I have an extremely over-inflated ego and that in actuality I'm just of average intelligence and at times quite stund myself.

The most recent blow to my ego and a lesson in humility was discovering that I couldn't spell bight/byte/bite. Teapot, in all his simple smartness, informed me that bight is a geographical and nautical term for a loop of land or a loop in a rope as when knot making. Byte was the computer thingy and to chow down is bite. Well who knew. I thought bight was chowing down in traditional English spelling, and bite was the barbarised Americanized version of chowing down and also could be used for the computer kind. Forget byte altogether....

I, being a good Newfy, should have known bight was a term that many Newfies use for a loop of land like a harbour.... I've heard it aplenty in Newfy music.

And so you see, in all humbleness, I bow to the Gods of knowledge and fully submit to my dumbness and stupidity. I am a slave to my ego and really should get the darn thing chipped down a bit...

But to the whole world I say bite me.... and not bight me or byte me....

If you're stund and you know it clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're stund and you know it clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're stund and you know it and you really want to show it
If you're stund and you know know write on a blog....

Then everyone will know just how stund you really are....

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That... It's All About Being Organized... Right?

Besides the apples, I have been working. (Really I shouldn't have to justify myself but I always feel when I haven't been writing, that there's got to be a reason. Mostly it's because I'm in a spell of brain-farty-ness and I really haven't been able to come up with anything good to write about, but I'm going to say in the next sentence that it is because I've been busy... just watch!) I've been doing a little of this and a little of that and been quite busy trying to get things done. (See?) The apples have been keeping me busy as you know.  We seem to have apples and the baking from apples everywhere and I'm sick and tired of trying to find containers in which I can freeze apple juice concentrate. But there's a ton of apples to deal with yet though I do have to say that I was able to find someone to take about 25 lbs of them off my hands. That leaves me with 11 lbs of green apples and I still have a 20 lb garbage bucket of crab apples that Daughter #1 picked quite a few weeks ago. I'll never see the end of the apples and I'm even starting to dream about apples.

While I have been sitting on my duff waiting for the apples to cook, I have been weaving for the most part.  I have stopped working on the 50 hour project for my level 5 homework

These squares are woven with hand spun ramie and eventually will be a table cloth/runner.

and have begun to work on a shawl for the upcoming show at our local gallery. 

These diamonds are being woven with a sturdy worsted wool. 

I have been making plans for a few scarves as well. Most of the shawls and scarves that I made last year were given away for various reasons as gifts.  So I am left high and dry making things at the last minute as per usual. (What else is new... sigh!)

Then I've been getting this bizarre nesting instinct.  I have been wanting to take care of things in the house.  It all started when Mom's and Dad's hot water tank started to give problems.  I also wanted to move furniture around and make the house a more pleasant place to live.... I'm not sure but it may be that the temperatures are cooling down and I know that winter is not far away. My bedroom has been moved around and I'm looking at buying a new coverlet for our bed as well as new sheets. I would also like to get new window treatments for in there since it is several years since we bought bedding for our room and things are starting to look dreadfully shabby. I had thought of making a quilt but I'll be honest, time is not of the essence for a project like that.  Yesterday I got sick of looking at the ceiling lack of ceiling in the sunroom and so I got out all the tiles I had wood burned a few years ago and clear coated them... then when Teapot came home I got him to set me up with the air nailer (gotta love that tool) and I put them up... they look awesome even if I do say so myself.

I still have tons to do but the goal is to finish one tile a day until I get them all done.  I will need 132 tiles and I have 36 done. That leaves me with 96 to go... 96 days... that's not the end of the world.... right!? I should be finished some time in February give or take with problems that may arise.

Meanwhile level 5 is on hold for now. I have to get to the gallery opening and then level 5 will be on the go.

Then yesterday I got a brilliant idea.  I'm going to propose to my guild that we give to our sister guild next year shrunken heads. Now before you gasp in disgust they are not actually shrunken heads. They are felted heads but I have a couple and I hang them on my deck.

This one is felted....

This one is ceramic.

I  know it is weird but I love them... I intend on hanging them on trees coming in the driveway.... my intention is to make a whole bunch more.... (sorry... I can't help being weird, it's just who I am!!!)... but I thought they would be really cool gifts for our guild to make and then we could send them to our sister guild in Whales for Christmas.... I'm not sure what my fellow guild members will think but I guess I will find out.

So for today I plan on burning a tile.... weaving a block or two working on a shawl that I wove last year but never put together and getting ideas for shrunken heads and maybe even drawing a few.  I'm making bread as we speak... it's rising. And I have to cut and cook a pot or two of apples.... first things first I'll cut up the apples.  Then while they're cooking I'll get the pans ready for the bread and put on a movie.... then while I'm watching the movie I'll weave. By that time it will be lunch ti..... hmmm... I won't bore you with all that stuff...

So see ya... I'd better get to work and tackle all these jobs... maybe I really am busy after all! I hope your day is full of good things that keep you busy in a happy way.

The Apple Of My Eye

44lbs

37 lbs left! That's what I have sitting on the counter in the kitchen.  I started out with 44 lbs of apples and I have managed to use 7 lbs of them so far. In between it all I'm trying to weave scarves and shawls.

Do you know what you do with 44 lbs of apples?  No?.... Neither do I. I wish I did.  I'm making apple juice right now and this will be my third batch. It takes two days to make apple juice. Then I'm using the pulp from the apple juice to make apple and cinnamon pound cakes.  I will be so sick of apple and cinnamon pound cakes by the time I finish that I won't want to eat a bight.  Still, I just can't throw the damn things away.  So I persevere. But the house smells of apples and has done for several days. It's a bit disgusting actually.  And while everyone else thinks it smells wonderful.... well, frankly they're not around it as much as I am.... in the end I think it's a bit gross now.  At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad.... I'm now starting to rethink that as my fingers are starting to feel raw from all the cutting. Argh. Need I tell you that a friend dropped by with apples?... no... I didn't think so!

Today is sunny again after three days of cold and rain.... I was listening to California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas yesterday... it seemed to fit somehow.

All the leaves are brown.... and the skies are grey ....

So I am glad to see the sun shining beautifully again.  The wind is blowing and is taking the rest of the leaves off the trees around my place.  It was really strange though since yesterday I took a drive to town and noticed that all along the highway on the way to FSJ the trees were actually still a little on the green side. So for some reason our place in particular loses leaves more quickly than anywhere else.  Weird!

I took a walk out to the paddock yesterday with a few apples for the horse.... she didn't appreciate them either.  I could smell the rich brown smells of rotting leaves and wet soil... While reaping a harvest of apples will probably be appreciated later in winter, right now I feel that the added odor of rotting apples to the already rich smells of autumn would be a pleasant outcome to my apple ordeal. However, Teapot suggests that rotting apples in the garden might just add another dilemma... that of bears. All around town bears have been raiding apple trees and this is the reason for my apple inheritance.  The friends who brought the apples had an abundance in their tree and wanted to get rid of a "few". Little did I know when I agreed to take some off his hands that I was agreeing to 44 pounds. I've even thrown a few in for the alpacas and llama. None of my animals want them. Teapot keeps coming back to the fact that a pig would just gobble them up... so I told him to go find a pig... but he had better not bring it home. (No fleece.... too bad pigs don't have fibre to spin!) 

We are getting a pair of rabbits.... yes you read that right.  On the 1st of October I will be getting two bunnies that are angora cross breeds... which means that they are not pure angora... a good thing since they won't have hair issues on their faces. But they do have nice spinnable fibre on their bods.  Hey! ... I wonder if the bunnies would like apples.... hmmmm!  Some good might come of this yet.

Well, I'm off to strain apple juice... hope the "fruits" of your labour make for a bountiful harvest.

Cleaver T.V.

I just finished watching the second last installment of the Tudors.  I love British history and I love British T.V./movies. BBC and I are really good friends.  And while I love the Tudors... well, it is a little over the top sexually.

I have begun to think that the art of subtlety is no longer among us.  What happened to those directors who knew that the person watching had a brain in their head?  Perhaps I live in the eternal deception. Perhaps I'm mistaken in my belief that less is more.  I'm sick to death of having my head cleaved apart with over the top images both sexual and violent.  Give me something good. Too bad the Tudors is littered with such pointless pornography. It would have been good otherwise though somewhat misleading in their portrayal of British history. (There are blatant changes in the actual history to make the story better... but I ask you what's better than the real thing? I mean in the end Henry the VIII married six women and had no success with any of them... it's a fit story for the soaps... reality T.V. at it's best... why falsify information. It doesn't add to the story.  Instead I have to keep checking the facts to make sure that I haven't forgotten all that I learned in school!)

That's it... that's all I got for tonight folks.... I'll be back tomorrow with hopefully something better. Hm!

The Reason I Love Yellow

I love yellow. I love all things yellow... even mustard..... (Having said that I do think that mustard yellow has its place and that it should be used sparsely).  The other day when I was giving this blog a new look and I saw the background that I'm using here I knew that it was the right one... reason?: 1. Because it makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like the sun is shining down on my head and shoulders and.... 2. It is the colour of the season that we are experiencing right now. Autumn is soooo yellow.

Now, I know all you Easterners know that fall is all about red but here in this neck of the country, the majority of our trees are Cottonwoods or Poplar.... and they turn yellow in the fall (and sometimes, a nice mellony yellow).  We don't get red... or at least much red (some in the underbrush in late fall).  I never felt my skin respond to Yellow until I moved here. Now when autumn (I love the way autumn rolls off my tongue) arrives, I can feel yellow.

Some of you are giving yourself a mental shake now and thinking, "How can you feel yellow?"

My answer to that is, I don't have a flippin' clue, but it's true, I do feel it.  My body is a sponge at this time of the year and it is sucking as much yellow into my soul in an effort to preserve life as I know it through the long months of winter greys and blues. I'm like a squirrel madly rushing around storing pine cones for food... only I'm storing yellow.

Each day I go out into the yellow as much as I can.... I just look around me and absorb it.  This morning there is ice on the sheep's bucket of water. (Yes the sheep are still here.) The new tin roof on the electrical shed came none too soon... there's ice on it as well and it is red-grey instead of red. But as the sun has been warming things this morning everything has begun to turn yellow again. (Except for the red roof).

I know that it is only another couple of weeks that things will feel yellow and then the yellow will fall to the ground and turn brown and the skies will darken to grey and then everything will be grey and blue.... boo hoo!

But in the meantime I'm going to suck up as much yellow as I possibly can....

A post without it just wouldn't be right.....

Wait for it....

They call me mellow yellow.... just butter it!

I'm off to remove my yellow nighty and put on a yellow shirt and take the dogs for a walk through the yellow woods.... see y'all.

The Songs And Dances Of Time (In Other Words Where Did The Flippin' Weekend Go)

Teapot just got the tin on the electrical shed and it is all finished.  It looks great. Life kind of got a little crazy this weekend.  Yesterday, our nephew (who I shall call Wonder Boy) called from FSJ where he has been living and apprenticing with a very large utility company, to say that he was coming for the weekend to go hunting.  He ended up getting put to work... and Teapot got help which was really great let me tell you.  The shakes came off easily since they were so old there was moss growing on them.

Teapot didn't have to work very hard at all at that part.

Even putting the tin on went quickly.... especially with that young 20 something nephew crawling over it like he was spider man....

Then after a nice supper they went fishing but never caught anything.... : (

This morning they were up and gone at 5 a.m. to see if they could get a moose for din din... no luck there.

In between it all I have been spinning ramie.... I finished a nice spool of plied ramie for the level 5 50 hour project and so I am set for another while to weave blocks for my table cloth/runner.

Meantime, the dear Teapot has had a dreadful weekend running back and forth between the parents house and ours with us running out of water and him having to prime the pump and Mom's and Dad's hot water tank giving problems.... he hasn't had a moment to sit... and with being up at 4 a.m. this morning when he flops tonight he will flopppppp if you know what I mean!

So there it is... Sunday evening and the weekend is almost over.... how did that happen... time is flying by... here it is the middle of September and I haven't got my mark back from level 4 yet and I'm still working on the 50 hour project which I wanted to get it done by the end of August.... like how does time do that.... it just keeps getting away from me.

Well Teapot just walked in the door so I had better go cook some supper before night is upon us and it is time to go to bed!....

See y'all tomorrow.... if time doesn't do another song and dance on me....

Little Kids...

Sometimes I miss having little kids in the house.

In Honour Of The Season

There's just no denying it any longer. Autumn is here in all it's colourful glory.

The trees are turning and what's more is that every time we have even a little wind the leaves are falling in droves.  I took a walk under the silver moon last night and the crunch of the newly fallen leaves beneath my feet reminded me that as often as I sharpen my nails, I can no longer hang on to summer. However, I do think this year Mother Nature is giving it a good effort!  The weather around here for the last few days is decidedly warm and balmy.  It makes me think that winter will be upon us soon since I'm sure that we are actually getting an early Indian summer. My Dahlias, which got hit in spring with a late frost, surprised me and came back just in time to bloom when all other flowers were dying off. They look glorious and initiated the new header at the top of my blog....

...you can see that I have been working on my pin loom squares for the ramie table cloth. It just looked so lovely together that I couldn't resist putting the picture here.

Each morning I get up to Autumn's golden glory. I am surrounded by golds and greens and oranges and browns with hints of red in the under brush.  A walk through the woods is filled with scents of rotting vegetation and fermenting berries which the birds are enjoying immensely. I see drunk birds regularly. The bats have left for the year as their diet of insects dies away, and geese fly low on the river following it to the mountains where they will turn south for another year. The horse is frisky in her pasture and runs about with her tail held high.... but I never seems to be able to capture her in a picture.

The dogs arise each morning ready to frisk in the early morning coolth

and Little Monster strolls around the yard as if she has done it for a long time (she was only born in the spring)...

She pounces here and there looking for mice, attacking the pooches bums and climbing trees, and catches the last of the moths and butterflies munching on them as if they were a buffet placed there just for her.  Her mother is not so lucky as she is in jail awaiting the time of her spaying.

After a walk out the driveway last night with the leaves crunching under my feet....

notice the leaves on the ground....

 ..... I sat out till almost 11p.m. watching the aurora borealis in the light of the almost full moon. It was truly glorious and made me feel big... like how great it is to be a part of this wonderful world and at the same time small.... like how insignificant we humans are in all the surrounding glory....

Now the harvest begins...

Daughter #1 picked crab apples with a friend and brought home a barrel... I've pulled some of the carrots and they are as tasty as can be. I think I showed those to you all a few days ago. Then a friend came by with a sack of potatoes from their garden... Yukon Golds and they are delicious.  I must remember to grow them next year.  There are no blueberries this year, though, due to dreadful amounts of rain in the spring that knocked the blossoms off before they got started... which I find is just too sad.  So anyone out there who would like to send us some blueberry jam from Newfy would make it to the top of our favorite people list in very short order. : )

Teapot is having a quick cup of tea before he heads out to put the new tin roof on the electrical shed which is a job that has needed doing since 2008 when we did the renovation on the house.... at least that is how long we have had the tin sitting on the ground measured and cut and ready to go on. I will be helping him as he will need help... So that is our agenda for the day... it seems like a very normal autumn day.... busy in a good kind of way.

Hope you like the new look of my blog which of course is in honour of the season.

Gone With The Wind

It is nice and calm this morning... a beautiful fall morning with a soft breeze coming in from the south. But that was not the case last night. Although it was warm last night and beautiful, and while I went out at about 8:30 p.m. and decided to put a fire in the fireplace on our deck, I really didn't feel like summer was over yet... actually I think old Mother Nature is trying to convince us all that summer is going to try and hang around for another few weeks yet. I stayed out till  11 p.m. watching the fire and several times had to throw water over it as it was getting a little out of hand with the wind that kept coming up.  The strange thing is that when I first lit the fire there was hardly any wind at all. But bluster, it did, all night long and it was coming in from the south east. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't end up with rain though since any easterly wind usually brings rain within a day or two. Why am I talking about weather... you'd think that I was Dorothy Weather girl!  Still it's hard not to notice warm wind when it doesn't get below +24 at night. It almost feels bizarre. But I'm not complaining as I love this kind of fall weather.   I sat out last night with the pooches running around in the dark, below the deck on the ground.  They were passing through my peripheral vision every so often chasing each other either with a ball or with Jiggs' frizby, with Narmin chewing on Little Monster every so often. It was quite pleasant... especially when Daughter #1 came out to join me on the deck in the balmy night air.

Today the warm air continues and Teapot was quite astounded when he walked out the door first thing this morning and had to come back in and put on a short sleeved top because it was so warm.  Teapot and the girls have once again left for school this morning.  After yesterday and getting back into our morning routine things were a little easier this morning.  Even the dogs seem to be settling into what I would call a regular routine.  Get up and while everyone has showers I'm getting a healthy breakfast. We all eat and then Teapot gets lunches for the girls and himself while I shower.... then they head out the door after a parade of makeup and hair dressing (not Teapot). The dogs know they have to stay inside till after they are gone so that they don't chase the truck down the road.  About mid-morning I take them for a short walk through the bush (weather permitting) after washing dishes and cleaning up in the kitchen and writing on this thing.  It's a pretty good routine and it usually works for us unless there's a boomerang.  This morning there was a bit of a boomerang. I'm dehydrated, and weak and shaky, after a night of a nasty results from food poisoning. Things seem to be better but it was fairly violent while it lasted. I'm not sure what I ate but it was classic food poisoning... we have been eating lots of left overs so I'm putting it down to that. Still nobody but me had it.

Today, will be a classic day of dyeing... I hope as long as my stomach doesn't do anything nasty again. I'm finishing up the last of the plying for some alpaca for the 25 shades of logwood. I've finally decided to go ahead with that project.  The dye is ready to be stewed and the alpaca is ready to be skeined and there's a nice jug of oxalic acid in the outside fridge. I think I have everything ready and so it begins... another question to be done for the redo on my level 3 homework. I am tempted to hold off for a day and spin and skein some merino to put in the pot too... should I do you think?

I have the whole day to dye today... Teapot and the girls face a full day of school today, unlike yesterday when the girls had a half day of school.  Teapot had a meeting last night in FSJ with the Union since he is the school's union rep. There will be a withdrawal of services for a few weeks before they go to a full out strike.  The big thing right now is a withdrawal of recess supervision which the province is making out to be the worst things since devil workship... all it means is that a few parents will have to bight the bullet and go watch their kids and a bunch of other kids for two fifteen minute periods throughout the day... not a real hardship if you ask me especially in this weather. I think the whole teachers union should call rotating strikes school by school (not district by district) when it comes time to pull services.... just think of the inconvenience for parents who are trying to figure out whether or not to get their kids up for school.... it would be awesome and the government can't legislate them back to work if it is only a rotating strike.... and it beats walking a picket line and getting paid $50 a day.

Meanwhile the title for today's post was inspired by of course the wind that blew all night... but also the movie that Daughter #1 borrowed from a friend.... yup, we watched the whole thing yesterday afternoon after she came home with it. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh never go out of style.... I watched it again after many years and Daughter #1 watched it for her very first time.... and yes we both boo hoo'd into tissues at several points.... Daughter #2 typed away on her stories and ignored us....

And so I come to the end of todays blog post... I'm off to walk the dogs.... and then do some dyeing... so, with that gentle breeze blowing in through the windows of my sun room, I guess you could say that I'm gone with the wind.....

Well! This Is Different In A Similar Sort Of Way

I have been taking a break from blogging (maybe you have noticed). It hasn't been because of anything serious just that for the last little while life has been a bit of a roller coaster, with shopping for school supplies and sharpening my nails each morning so that I can cling to the last vestiges of summer. But I can no longer say that it is summer in this neck of the woods. While each morning I get up to soft breezes and warm temperatures, there has been a definite shift away from summer towards a cooler fall. All the leaves have changed around here now and the winds have been blowing enough to even take some of the leaves off their limbs.  There is a stand of poplar trees down by our old chicken coop that are completely bare.  Mom's and Dad's reno is now completed. And the sheep have been sold (though not picked up yet).  Daily, I'm heading off for short walks with the dogs as the temperatures cool. Two nights ago Teapot and I sat out on the deck with a little fire in the fireplace and watched some Labour Day fireworks.  That was when it really hit home that summer was coming to a close. I think I went through a little bit of depression then and just trying to write something here that would be pleasant and worth reading was beyond my reach....

Today is another new beginning for us as the Daughters head off for their first day of school and Teapot heads back to work. We always take pictures of the girls on their first day of school and so we did again this morning... as usual with any picture-taking, things degenerated into a nutty free for all..

So then I had to give the girls a good talking to.....

But as usual things always go south in our family when we are trying to do something good... and it all becomes a Laugh-olympics....

So the only way to combat this is to do one picture that is all about us having fun....

And then finally we were able to capture an image that wasn't sooooo bad!

Though it is slightly uncentered.... but then that is just like us now isn't it!

And so I sit here in front of the computer with two hours stretching out before me. I had planned on doing some cleaning in my bedroom this morning since it is only a couple of hours before the girls are home again.  Tomorrow... now that's a different story. It will be a beautiful day... I will be dyeing.... and I can't wait.

And so you see... life gets back to normal... well as normal as it ever gets around here....

It feels so different to be here all by myself with a day stretching out before me and no one at home.... it's different in a similar sort of way... thus the title for today's blog post....

See ya'll tomorrow....  when life is strangely normal.

Not Allowed On The Internet?!!! Never...

So here it is 3 a.m. and the Northern Lights are beautiful. I woke from a nasty dream and couldn't get back to sleep so what do I choose to do to help pass the time. Write for the blog.

I have been avoiding the internet for a few days because our usage has gone way over our allotted 5000MB. Teapot put the boots to the girls using the internet for a few more days when the clock rolls over and we reset back to 0.  If the girls can't use it then neither can I. But here I am hoping to help pass a few hours and take my mind off that disturbing dream I had.

 In the last few days I have seen the end of Mom's and Dad's bathroom renovation, seen Teapot through another birthday, (he was 48 this year), gone shopping with the daughters for school supplies and clothes etc., had fires in the deck fireplace three evenings in a row, taken my Dad to the hospital for an ultrasound, sheared the ram and gave all sheep shots before the guy who is buying them takes them away, rounded up one love sick alpaca who insists on jumping the fence into the paddock next to his girlfriend, gone for several walks, finished some of my level 5 50 hour project, and worked on some tiles for the sun room. I've even been going for a few little walks with the pooches. They've enjoyed it and so have I.

One thing I have noticed while on walks in the last few days is that somehow in the last week we have been beset upon by autumnal weather for sure.  There is no doubt that camping days are at an end... I've had warm sweaters out and I even wore a pair of.... dare I say it?!!.... socks! I had to because when walking one must wear a pair of descent shoes... and it follows that one needs socks inside descent shoes. I can't believe it... I caved. Socks before October... unheard of....

With September here we cannot, no matter how hard we try avoid the disgusting word... sch--l!  Teapot heads out daily now to work in his class to prepare for those little snot nosed beggars darlings. We have stirrings of strikes in our future as Teapot heads back to school with no contract and bargaining broken down... I dread the thought. I hate with a passion strikes as they stir the blood for a big fight for rights and then nothing ever comes of it. Everyone gets legislated back to work and then meanwhile families bare the brunt of it by suffering worry and tribulation as we wonder if we will meet our regular payments. I hate strikes... everyone loses.

Anyway, it is now heading for 4 a.m. and I'm starting to feel pooped... this is a good thing as I'm supposed to be pooped at night and not in the day... I'm off to bed, this time hopefully to sleep peacefully with better dreams...