Crude, Rude and Socially Unacceptable

Please excuse the crude, rude and socially unacceptable vocabulary used in the previous post. My excuse is that I was in this state....

Actually this pic was taken a few years ago and I can't drink wine any more since I have developed my most inconvenient allergy to alcohol. I would have liked to have been in that state however, I was more in this state.....

In The Dark

We lost the power today. Late afternoon came and Hubby and the Daughters came home from school. I went out to help Hubby feed the animals and when I came back in the lights were out. Those of you who live in a city or at least a town where water is supplied by the powers that be, won't understand that when your water comes from a cistern that means that you can't use the sh-t-er. So for a few hours you turn red, and squeeze your legs together in the hopes that you won't be the first to leave a deposit that just won't go away. Worse still, once there has been a deposit you really don't want to be the next to have to lift the toilet seat and have to smell the deposit while you add to it. Cisterns mean pumps, pumps mean electricity, electricity means power, no power no flushing. Yuck!

Another negative is that when the power goes off in the winter there is no way to cook in this house. We don't even have a propane barbeque on which we can heat something. Hubby did go out and brave the cold and warm some IMPs on a Coleman stove. Thank God for Mr. Coleman. We as Canadian Rangers leaders have on hand at any given time enough food to keep us through any state of emergency for a week. IMPs are the army's way of feeding soldiers in the field. IMP stands for Individual Meal Packet. These are not the worst thing in life to have to expose yourself to and some of the meals are downright tolerable, but to have to live on them for any length of time is to put yourself through meal monotony. They all have a packaged taste that ruins any other effect that might make them good. They also have a bad effect in that the amount of dietary fibre is just not sufficient to do the job. Not to mention the amount of calories that are meant to enable a soldier to live in strenuous conditions and would pile on the weight for any average joe. A week of IMPs and you wouldn't be able to walk because you would be stuck in the chair since your a-- would be permanently jammed into it from the extra unnecessary fat added. For tonight when the power was off though, IMPs meant full tummies on a cold night.

Speaking of cold.... losing the power here means putting on sweaters and praying that the power comes on again before the pipes freeze. I was just starting to feel chilled when the power came on and the furnace blasted into life again. I can safely say I breathed a sigh of relief.

Also, losing the power means Hubby or I have to take the girls to my parents place for showers so that in the morning they don't look and feel fousty. (Fousty is a Newfy term which you will just have to look up). Tonight Hubby was cajoled into doing that, which meant he had to sit with his in-laws for a period of time. This can or cannot be good depending on whether he is enlisted to fix something. Fixing things irritates Hubby no matter who asks.

All I know is, losing the power is an opportunity to take pleasure in knowing that next year when the renovations are complete and we have a wood stove that heats, cooks, lights, and gives joy to those who need to use the facilities, we won't have to rely on IMPs to take away the need.

Meandering Mind

I'm sitting here after a very busy and tiring day, (I spent the day cleaning my house... no small feat let me assure you) and I am listening to some music in an effort to relax. My mind keeps wandering to different topics and ideas. It is actually quite relaxing to listen to music and to let your mind wander all over the place. You are in for a very weird experience since I thought that it might be cool to just write about what ever pops into my mind.

I am listening to Since You've Been Gone by Theory Of A Deadman..... seriously depressing words.... lovely music. Wonderful harmonizing. I can't believe that there is more modern music that I actually like. Most of the music these days has warbling girls who can't sing for beans. They warble all over the place and you have to wonder who actually told them that they could sing.

Hubby and I like to listen to Randy Bachman on Vinyl Cafe on CBC radio on Saturday nights. He usually has good music and gives you a lot of information that you would likely never know, unless you did a lot of research. A few months ago I sent an email and they actually read it out loud.

Hubby keeps distracting me by talking to me and here I am trying to write this and listen to my music and then he keeps talking to me which means I have to pull the head phones out of my ears and he tells me something interesting that Randy just said on the radio which means I'm not getting to listen a whole lot to my music.

My living room looks nice again and I changed the furniture around.... I figure I might as well change the furniture if I am going to have to pull out the furniture to vaccuum under it anyway. A change is as good as a rest they say and I tend to agree. The fact is that the woolies from spinning so much this week was starting to get away from me. The whole house had dust bunnies that were growling when you passed them... they were starting to escape the dark corners and chase us around. Scarey!

I know when the dust bunnies get out of hand that I have been remiss in my housewifely duties. Hubby doesn't see dirt and the kids know that if they complain they will be enlisted to help, so they tend to keep quiet too. I know when they do start to complain that I have really gone too long with out vaccuuming and dusting.

Duff is the culprit. She is so hairy and big and when she sheds hair its just nasty. Tootsie is a non-shedding dog and I like that. Do yourself a fovour and if you get a dog get one that doesn't shed.

I have never been the kind of person who puts housework at the front of priorities.... it is something that gets done when I have no choice but to be swallowed alive by nuclear dust bunnies or the kitchen floor can't support any more sticky stuff. I know that maybe the house needs some attention when there is a shower of stuff that comes down off the steps when someone walks down over them. When the logs in our house start to look grey instead of golden then it is time to vaccuum them too. There are just too many better things to spend my time on. You know. Family, spinning, friends, knitting, strangers, weaving, dogs, felting, farm, writing, spining, spinning and spinning some more. There's just not enough time to sweat the dust and dirt.... I try to get over it and clean when it gets out of hand. I figure I only have 70 odd or 80 odd years to live and I'm not going to spend any more time cleaning than necessary.

Well I had better go to bed and sleep because I need a clear mind for the Church AGM tomorrow...
Does your mind meander too?

The Trials Of A Wannabe Master

It warmed up... that's my excuse for not writing here for a while. I hauled new hay in for the animals. I hauled water. I shoveled pathways. I caught up on outside things to do. Then it started to get colder and it started to snow and that's when I panicked. With thoughts of spring in my mind the previous week, and knowing how much the cold temps have made me want spring in a terrible way, I knew I had better get started working on my level 2 homework while the cold temps kept me housebound. I haven't even let myself knit. All because it warmed up to a balmy plus 7 degrees.

The one thing that I have noticed about my spinning this week is that I can't spin for beans. Grist is certainly an issue. (That's the thickness of the singles for you lay people.) Not one of my skeins meets my idea of good spinning. But it is going off to the instructor anyway, I don't have time to fool with it to make it perfect. I know that I am not going to get the great mark that I did last year but I had hoped that it would be better than just ok. Thing is I have left it too long to be finicky about it now. It is almost February. Being so relaxed for so long has made me definitely notice that my spinning has deteriorated over the months.

I have a problem.... because it is almost February and I have a trip in Feb as well as a trip in April, I know I am down to the wire on this homework. There is no time to lose. If I do one section a week every week (except the ones I am away) I will finish my homework in June. This is not good. I would like to have my homework finished before that so that I could have a month of reprieve before I am back at it again. Arrrggghhh!

Well, if I'm going to finish a section today I had better get back at it. WAAAAAAGGHHH! I suck as a master spinner. : {

I Just Can't Help It! Hmmmm!

I had to go to the wool shop today. This is not a safe thing to do for me. I actually went because the wool store that I frequent is also a beading store and I needed supplies to make stitch markers. I am getting a parcel ready for a friend in Newfoundland. I thought I would include some nifty stitch markers made with semi prescious beads. Problem is that when I went in to the store the balls of yarn nicely displayed at the back of the store called to me and so I couldn't help but go have a look. Hmmmm!

I knew that time was of the essence as Hubby and the girls were sitting in the truck waiting outside the store in the vehicle. I had told them that I would only be a few minutes and I would be right back. Hmmmm!

No one was looking so I grabbed two balls of sock yarn that is self-striping and took it to the cash register along with my beading needs and paid for it without a second glance. I snuck into the truck with my purchases camoflauged beneath my arm so that Hubby would not ask what was in the bag so bulky besides beading supplies. Hmmmm!

I haven't looked into the bag yet because someone might ask unnecessary questions. Problem is that I really am not sure what I bought. I grabbed it so quickly that I didn't really look. I know it was among the sock yarn. I know it was pastel. I know it had the word 'wool' on it, other than that I really don't know what I bought. Hmmmm!

I know that I had better not look because I have a few more rows on another project (next post or the one after I will show you). If I look now I may get distracted from the other project that I have been trying to finish for ages..... I'll want to start my new socks. I know that the wool I purchased will be good with the Leyburn sock pattern (check out Yarn Harlot's blog, Jan 13, 2009 post). Hmmmm!

Ok..... I just can't wait to look.......

75% superwash
25% polyamid (what's that?)
blue, yellow, orange,
green, purple, (interesting)
I hope this works! Hmmmm!

Ok, forget that other project for now. Hmmmm!

True confessions of a compulsive sock knitter.... Hmmmm!

The Llama Came Back The Very Next Day... or Four Months Later

Honeydew is our Llama. When I started writing this blog I did not mention that we had a llama because at that time we didn't..... well sort of. Here is the tale of Honeydew.

When I agreed to buy sheep from my friend who was going out of the business as it were, I also agreed to take in a llama who was known to be 'high spirited'. This did not concern me as I was an idiot and had no clue what a llama can do. Llamas are highly intelligent animals and they are capable of feats of amazing..... well they can clear a fence that is 6 or 7 feet high with out a backward glance. They are large weighing up to 350 - 500 lbs in a grown animal. They have eyes as big as saucers and can see things miles off. They learn very quickly..... and most important they don't trust humans..... at least Honeydew doesn't.

Honeydew likes our sheep and watches over them as if they were her friends, which, I suppose in some sense, is true. Along about September, when we were weaning our lambs, Jelly my Romney ewe got anxious about her lamb who was in another paddock and so she pushed her way through the fence. The llama, who was in the pen with the mother sheep, saw her chance and made a break for it. She meandered out to the road in front of our house and proceeded to nibble the green grass along the edges of said road. The sheep thought this was great and so the whole flock proceeded to follow her.

Meanwhile I was in the house unaware of what was happening. I happened to glance out of the window and noticed that the alpacas in their pen were watching with great interest as my flock of sheep and the llama made a break for it down the road.

Needless to say my heart began to pound as panic set in. I was home alone with no one to help me get my animals back. I quickly ran to the shed and grabbed a bucket of oats and proceeded to run to the end of my driveway in an effort to 'head off' the animals from wandering further down the road.

Getting the attention of sheep is not the easiest when all you have is a bucket of oats and they are head-down in foot long green grass. I knew my best bet was to get Jelly's attention since she can't turn up oats at all, and also the others follow her as she is kind of their leader..... it worked. The sheep followed me quite placidly back to the fold where they proceeded to munch oats as I fixed up the busted up gate. Meanwhile Honeydew took one look at the bucket of oats and decided the green grass was her best bet. For the rest of the afternoon I spent my time trying to coax her to come with me because I had oats and she didn't.

We live on a road that has a turn-around at the end of it. There is a lovely little community forest at the end of that road with walking/skiing trails. There is approximately 200 acres of forest and bordering the forest on two sides is some lovely fenced pasture. I knew that if Honeydew found the trail head that comes out at the end of our road that would be the end of her. She did.

After Hubby and the Daughters spent all afternoon, after they returned from school, trying to chase Honeydew back into the paddock and scaring the freaking wits out of her, she finally bolted off down the nearest trail. I put out a PSA (community service announcement) to let people know she was on the loose. I spent the next few days trying to locate her which I eventually did. She spent the majority of the fall in a pasture of one of our neighbours where she fed voraciously on grass and alfalfa. She had no need to return and every time I tried to coax her to take oats she completely ignored me. Hubby and I even spent an afternoon chasing her back and forth the pasture just about bursting our lungs in the process. Trying to outrun a llama is a completely pointless activity, we discovered. They can run very fast.

She continued to thwart our every effort at recapture. Then finally when the snow came, she decided to move on. We had reports of sightings in various fields over the next few weeks and meanwhile we were getting closer to Christmas. Then finally just before Christmas break the llama was caught by one of Hubby's students..... he wanted to keep her. Considering that we were seriously thinking of turning her into jerky, we felt that if he wanted her and his parents were ok with it, that we were too.

I finally put the llama situation to rest and forgot about her. Then the fateful day came when we got a call from the family who had "wanted" her, to tell us that they had set her free and she was not welcome at their place as she scared their horses. Hm!

Now why they couldn't keep her so that we could come pick her up I don't know. Setting her free was the worst case scenario that I could think of. We were back to square one.

Then, praises be, we got a call from the local rodeo arena that she was getting into hay at their facility and could we please come and do something about it. Hubby and I went to have a look as it was cold..... really cold and snowing to beat the bands. She was hungry and though Hubby couldn't do much with his back in a shambles I proceeded to try my hand at capture. I was able to lead her into a small paddock and that is where she stayed for the rest of the week while Hubby took priority in my mind with his back ailment. Then Friday past I was able to line up some friends with a trailer and some other friends who had experience with llamas and we managed to catch her and bring her home.

It was four months pretty much to the day that the llama was on the loose. She is home now and acts as if it were all our fault that she was able to lose as much weight as she did. She is quite content to be back with her friends. You have no idea how relieved I am to have her home and not causing problems among the members of the community...... However, Hubby is ticked. He says that if she gets out again then the only thing following her will be a bullet! I'm not quite sure how I feel. I certainly look at her with a different feeling than I used to have. I don't think she is cool anymore. I think she is a big pain in the.... well you know. But still, when she looks at me with those big brown eyes..... I kind of feel that she is sorry she made so much trouble for us as she did, that she is glad to be home, that she likes me... a little.

By the way, the one thing about llamas that I didn't tell you is that they are the most coniving stinkers you will ever come across. How dare she make me like her again.....

Unlikely Love Affair

I have been knitting for thirty-five years now and I could never understand why anyone would want to spend their time knitting sox. Why knit something that you can go to the store and buy so cheaply? Recently Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 have grown to the point where their feet are the same size as mine. Now that their feet are as large as mine I cannot keep sox in my drawer.

I have never been hard on footware and so a pair of shoes or even a pair of sox would last forever. I have been known to wear sox for years before they wear out. But since the Daughters have caught up with me in foot size they have begun to wear out their sox like normal people and so I find myself in the distressful situation where my sock drawer gets raided regularly. Theirs have holes in them and so "Mom always has sox, lets go get hers," seems to be the new norm.

Finding myself without sox on a regular basis has created a necessity to knit sox that are different from store bought ones so that I know when the Daughters are sneaking off with mine. I bought the wool, I bought the needles and started to check out patterns. I believe I've told you about N who brought her sox that she was knitting to Knit Night. Her plum lovelies actually started me looking for sock patterns. Then locking my keys and knitting in my truck on a weekend away necessitated that I purchase a new project to knit. What better time to take up the knitting of sox.

I have enjoyed the knitting of my first pair of sox far more than I ever expected, and turning a heal was far easier than I ever expected too. I have enjoyed a stimulating discussion regarding sock knitting on the popular spinning group Canspin. I've downloaded more sock patterns than I will ever knit. As a result, I find I have become caught in some sock vortex and so has begun a love affair with the lowly sock. I look forward to picking up my socks each day and knitting a few more rows. I look on them on the table by my chair with pride. I pick them up regularly and look over the portion I have finished and smile a gratified smile of pride and joy. If this is not a love affair with sox I don't know what is.

I keep wondering if it is the real thing and that my love affair will bloom into a lifetime love or whether the initial joy will burn away and I will discover the flaws of sock knitting thereby ending a beautiful love affair.

In the meantime here is my first pair.....