Yesterday was an exhausting day. I spent the majority of the day shopping for windows, counters, flooring, tubs, toilets and bathroom sinks. I have more information in my mind than I care to think about. As a matter of a fact I was on information overload last night and so spent the night reviewing the budget. The first purchase we made for the renovations came in at over $1000.00 over budget. That's not an auspicious beginning. But it was the windows and to be honest I am not willing to sacrifice the windows and put in cheap things that will steam up every time I cook something on the stove. In the end we chose to go with windows that are tripaned with argon gas between the panes and coated with some kind of silver oxide stuff to reflect the heat in summer back out and reflect the heat in winter back in. I still have to get the upstairs windows and they should have been in that budget too. I think my contractor went skimpy on the window budget actually. For better or for worse the windows have been ordered now and the sunroom/office/studio will look great.
The electrician was here for several days. He changed the wiring and we are preparing to move the washer and dryer, the shower, the toilet, the sink, and the door to the bathroom. The bathroom is in a terrible state and so is the front porch. But messy stuff all over the place is going to be the name of the game for the next little while. I might as well get used to it. We have decided to put a jacuzzi tub in the main bathroom and put the shower in our ensuite and so yesterday we spent the day looking for a tub and surround that will work for us. I looked at more house reno stuff than I care to remember. We were late getting home and then the parents showed up with the daughters... Argh! I was supposed to go to Knit Night and didn't make it. Sorry ladies about that. I hope to make it next week for sure especially since it will be our last night for the year.
With the electrician doing his thing I am amazed that we are able to get around our house at all. Hubby is looking blitzed.... poor guy doesn't know what hit him. It is all rather thrilling for me because I know that at the end of all this there will be much needed added room, privacy for the girls and for Hubby and me and a house with a finish rather than always only half finished. I can do it.... four months of mess to get through.... I can do it! It might pay to remember what the little red caboose said... "I think I can.... I think I can.... I think I can.... I've just got to.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Kermit Or Bust
I know you are all waiting with baited breath (silly people) to hear all about our new little Lamb. He is doing fine and is up and at em this morning. Hubby and I have decided that he is getting enough from momma. We penned her in yesterday and probed her nipples to get the juices flowing, so to speak, and made sure that little Palmer had a good suck several times. We went out at 2 a.m. to make sure he was still o.k. and he was. His belly felt full and again this morning. Momma doesn't want him around much so they are in a very small pen and they are slowly getting to like each other. We will let them out later this morning and see how they do. If she is still off him then back into the pen they go. This will be the routine until I can be sure she is letting him suck. Jelly will definitely not be bred again.
Anyway on to other things. I have just finished the question for my level 2 homework that I enjoyed the most so far. I was given in class rovings in three primary colours. Our exercise was to produce a colour wheel with those colours with primary, secondary, and tertiary colours on it by blending the three primary colours that we were given. Here's mine:
I think it is really great the colours flow into each other very well and I was able to very closely match them to the colour wheel which I downloaded from the internet. Two of the matches were slightly off. But not much. The colours are distinct and bright and the whole exercise was a joy. Some people, however, think my green sucks! (you know who you are) They say my green is not a true green. Now what does that mean? I mean I've got Kermit colour there and I can't figure out how to get greener than that. Even Hubby and the Daughters agree that my greens are as green as can be.
I'm starting to feel paranoid. I've always had a good sense of colour and I thought my colour wheel was bang on. But apparently my ability to discern green is slightly off. Actually I've even gone around the house and compared my greens to plants and leaves of different shades and they are green.
So what is a gal to do? Should I tell my anti-green party that they are wrong or should I just glory in my self-righteous green-ness. Should I try for a more green green or should I just pack it in now and never blend green again. I don't know! (sigh) And I thought I was so perfect! (Do I sound like Miss Piggy?)
Anyway on to other things. I have just finished the question for my level 2 homework that I enjoyed the most so far. I was given in class rovings in three primary colours. Our exercise was to produce a colour wheel with those colours with primary, secondary, and tertiary colours on it by blending the three primary colours that we were given. Here's mine:
I think it is really great the colours flow into each other very well and I was able to very closely match them to the colour wheel which I downloaded from the internet. Two of the matches were slightly off. But not much. The colours are distinct and bright and the whole exercise was a joy. Some people, however, think my green sucks! (you know who you are) They say my green is not a true green. Now what does that mean? I mean I've got Kermit colour there and I can't figure out how to get greener than that. Even Hubby and the Daughters agree that my greens are as green as can be.
I'm starting to feel paranoid. I've always had a good sense of colour and I thought my colour wheel was bang on. But apparently my ability to discern green is slightly off. Actually I've even gone around the house and compared my greens to plants and leaves of different shades and they are green.
So what is a gal to do? Should I tell my anti-green party that they are wrong or should I just glory in my self-righteous green-ness. Should I try for a more green green or should I just pack it in now and never blend green again. I don't know! (sigh) And I thought I was so perfect! (Do I sound like Miss Piggy?)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Palm Sunday Surprise!
This is what it is all about. Welcome to the world Lamby #1. This morning at just after 8 a.m. our first lamb was born. This is BIG! This is very big since we have never had new born lambs because this is our first year as shepherds. Jelly who is our big Romney sheep is too old to be birthing. She did it though. She brought into the world a very sizable lamb. Poor old girl has had trouble with mastitis in past years and is having difficulty lactating, so she will not be bred again. She will be a nice Romney fleece each year and nothing more. This year, she has decided that she will not be nursing this lamb and so it looks like we will be bottle feeding our first lamb ever. Her nipples are not wanting to do what they should be doing and so I think she is just to tired to keep this mommy thing up anymore that's why she has decided not to feed her own boy. We have spent the day trying to get the little fella to suck but momma is not having anything to do with it. Bottle feeding is what is called for in situations such as these. He's docked and castrated and done. He is a strong little guy and so we really want to keep him going. BFL/Merino/Romney should be an interesting mix of fleece.
Here is our new boy!
Here is our new boy!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sorry About That Chief!
Wasn't that what Tonto used to say to the Lone Ranger? .... or maybe it was Maxwell Smart in Get Smart! Either way I have to appologize to those of you who have nothing better to do with their lives than follow mine through this dialogue (sic) my life. I haven't been very entertaining of late and so I will attempt to do so now. I do have a good excuse for the last few days.... that being the back door trot as dear old gang-gang would say. (no not gang-bang for you sickies.)
Who is Gang-gang and what is the back door trot you ask. Gang-gang was a lovely lady who had many good sayings and just happened to be my grandmother. My sister started calling her Gang-gang, in all of her innocence, at the ripe age of 18 months. She couldn't say grandmother or grandma which my mother was trying to encourage and so Gang-gang and Gang-pop (for my grandfather) became their names. I called them that till the day they died and still refer to them the same way. Though it was an unfortunate name I loved my grand parents dearly as they were the only ones I was ever to know. My paternal grandfather died before I was born and my paternal grandmother had a parting of the ways in mind and body. She quite literally lost her mind.
As for, what is the back door trot. Well in the olden days there was no such thing as flushing toilets and so when one was making regular and nasty trips to the outhouse, since most outhouses were located somewhere near the rear of a home the back door trots meant running out the back door to the outhouse every five minutes. Mine started, to my dismay, two nights ago. On the up side I have managed to lose 10 pounds in two days, on the down side this has not improved my whey faced appearance. If anything I look horrible.
My bed and the bathroom and a bucket has been my sole existence for two days. I am fianlly able to say that I am mending, I think! Not that my body shares this opinion. My body feels like it has been hit and been dragged by a bus for several miles before delivering me to the gutters with not enough energy to drag myself out. I hate gastro intestinal illness. I think I can take a lot of runny noses and coughs before this.
It all started with Daughter #1 coming home two days before spring break with violent "bringing up" as some folks with more dignity than I, would say. Three days later she was on the mend. Then fate struck and Daughter #2 started to indulge in the same activity. Just when we all thought we had made it through. The "bringing up" hit me, only I didn't "bring up' I "brought down"!!!!
Hubby is left. We will see. Can he get through without the ravages of stomach flu??? Time will tell I guess. Meanwhile I am off to my bed to read another boring book (I just read The English Patient. It was great for helping me to sleep.) until the vestiges of this virus leave me to grasp at someone else.
Who is Gang-gang and what is the back door trot you ask. Gang-gang was a lovely lady who had many good sayings and just happened to be my grandmother. My sister started calling her Gang-gang, in all of her innocence, at the ripe age of 18 months. She couldn't say grandmother or grandma which my mother was trying to encourage and so Gang-gang and Gang-pop (for my grandfather) became their names. I called them that till the day they died and still refer to them the same way. Though it was an unfortunate name I loved my grand parents dearly as they were the only ones I was ever to know. My paternal grandfather died before I was born and my paternal grandmother had a parting of the ways in mind and body. She quite literally lost her mind.
As for, what is the back door trot. Well in the olden days there was no such thing as flushing toilets and so when one was making regular and nasty trips to the outhouse, since most outhouses were located somewhere near the rear of a home the back door trots meant running out the back door to the outhouse every five minutes. Mine started, to my dismay, two nights ago. On the up side I have managed to lose 10 pounds in two days, on the down side this has not improved my whey faced appearance. If anything I look horrible.
My bed and the bathroom and a bucket has been my sole existence for two days. I am fianlly able to say that I am mending, I think! Not that my body shares this opinion. My body feels like it has been hit and been dragged by a bus for several miles before delivering me to the gutters with not enough energy to drag myself out. I hate gastro intestinal illness. I think I can take a lot of runny noses and coughs before this.
It all started with Daughter #1 coming home two days before spring break with violent "bringing up" as some folks with more dignity than I, would say. Three days later she was on the mend. Then fate struck and Daughter #2 started to indulge in the same activity. Just when we all thought we had made it through. The "bringing up" hit me, only I didn't "bring up' I "brought down"!!!!
Hubby is left. We will see. Can he get through without the ravages of stomach flu??? Time will tell I guess. Meanwhile I am off to my bed to read another boring book (I just read The English Patient. It was great for helping me to sleep.) until the vestiges of this virus leave me to grasp at someone else.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
For Everything There Is A Season
Finally it is spring break and like all good vacations we have started ours with sickness. Daughter #1 was the first to succumb. Vomiting is something no one likes. then Hubby came down with a cough and runny nose and now Daughter #2 has started in with vomiting this evening. I live in fear. I really could do without this nasty vomiting and I know Hubby is hoping it will pass him by too. Not likely. It has hit almost every house in this town at some point of the year. I guess our home couldn't avoid it forever.
I am expecting that if we can just get past this next few days hopefully the rest of spring break will be restful and easy. I get up each morning and look out on my sheep and watch to see if there are any new additions. Fanny and Red and Jelly are pregnant. I am not sure that any of the others are pregnant but those three are for sure. Fanny looks as if she might burst at any minute. Jelly is big, but she always has been. Little Red is as broad as she is long. All three have been pregnant before so I am hoping that there will be no problems.
The girls are excited to have lambs coming. To be honest so am I. It is so neat to see these little cute things bouncing around, and they do bounce. They are happy little creatures. We did not breed the alpaca this year as she is too young yet. She will be bred this July. 11 1/2 months is the gestation period for the alpaca. So if she is bred in July she will have her cria (baby) in June 2010. A long time to wait but that will be an exciting time for us too. Being new to the farming game is cool. We are more excited than kids waiting for Christmas morning.
I am also hoping to get quite a bit of work done on my level 2 homework. There finally is a light at the end of the tunnel. I only have 5 questions left to do. Woolen spinning, Navajo spindle spinning, sweater calculations, colour blending and my 25 hour project. I will be glad to get it done as I am itching to start some other projects. I have wool calling to me wanting to be spun. I have a shawl on knitting needles that is needing to be finished. I have a new loom that wants threading and an old loom with a weaving on it that needs finishing. I have rug warp that needs locker hooking too. All these projects are projects I'm really looking forward to getting done.
Then there is the house. We are hoping that the house renovations will begin soon. I am now awaiting the appraisal and the banks finalization of the money set up. That looks good but the appraisal is late by only a day but I'm hoping that Monday it will be ready and then we have an appointment with the bank. With any luck we will begin by the latter part of this week. There will be packing to do as we have to clear out the top floor of the house. But we don't have to have that done until later in the month. The contractor will begin on the front of the house and for that we don't have to do anything. We may even be able to stay in the house while the work is being done upstairs. that is exciting too. All in all it is exciting times for us... now if I can just get Daughter #2 through this next few hours hopefully she will be on the mend and we can move forward with no other afflictions...... I live in hope.
I am expecting that if we can just get past this next few days hopefully the rest of spring break will be restful and easy. I get up each morning and look out on my sheep and watch to see if there are any new additions. Fanny and Red and Jelly are pregnant. I am not sure that any of the others are pregnant but those three are for sure. Fanny looks as if she might burst at any minute. Jelly is big, but she always has been. Little Red is as broad as she is long. All three have been pregnant before so I am hoping that there will be no problems.
The girls are excited to have lambs coming. To be honest so am I. It is so neat to see these little cute things bouncing around, and they do bounce. They are happy little creatures. We did not breed the alpaca this year as she is too young yet. She will be bred this July. 11 1/2 months is the gestation period for the alpaca. So if she is bred in July she will have her cria (baby) in June 2010. A long time to wait but that will be an exciting time for us too. Being new to the farming game is cool. We are more excited than kids waiting for Christmas morning.
I am also hoping to get quite a bit of work done on my level 2 homework. There finally is a light at the end of the tunnel. I only have 5 questions left to do. Woolen spinning, Navajo spindle spinning, sweater calculations, colour blending and my 25 hour project. I will be glad to get it done as I am itching to start some other projects. I have wool calling to me wanting to be spun. I have a shawl on knitting needles that is needing to be finished. I have a new loom that wants threading and an old loom with a weaving on it that needs finishing. I have rug warp that needs locker hooking too. All these projects are projects I'm really looking forward to getting done.
Then there is the house. We are hoping that the house renovations will begin soon. I am now awaiting the appraisal and the banks finalization of the money set up. That looks good but the appraisal is late by only a day but I'm hoping that Monday it will be ready and then we have an appointment with the bank. With any luck we will begin by the latter part of this week. There will be packing to do as we have to clear out the top floor of the house. But we don't have to have that done until later in the month. The contractor will begin on the front of the house and for that we don't have to do anything. We may even be able to stay in the house while the work is being done upstairs. that is exciting too. All in all it is exciting times for us... now if I can just get Daughter #2 through this next few hours hopefully she will be on the mend and we can move forward with no other afflictions...... I live in hope.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
What's Ahead!
So my first tri loom weaving came off the loom tonight. I finished my piece on the 36" loom meanwhile I have a fleece in the sink washing to prep for the next bit of spinning in my level 2 homework. I am spinning for my braid. I did some of the spinning but didn't have enough so I am working on some more. Tomorrow will be a day of work. Today was not. Today I exercised and now I am paying for it. My back is killing me.
Once I have the spinning for my braid done then I will carry on working on my blends. I am just about finished.... well at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need two more blends and then I only have to spin yarn for my colour wheel blends. That shouldn't be too hard. Yeah right! There's the sweater calculation and the 25 hour project. Onward and upward. But it is getting harder to concentrate as I have more on my mind as the house renovations get closer. I will just have to buckle down and keep going. I want to get it done before I go to Olds. I want to have my mark back by the time I leave to drive there. I don't want that hanging over my head while embarking on the next level.
Meanwhile my big tri loom is calling to me and I want to start a project on that. I bought beautiful mohair boucle and merino fingering weight yarn to do a shawl..... but that will be my reward for when I finish my level 2 homework. I can't wait. I will warp up the 36" tri loom tomorrow and carry on with that as I need four triangles in order to finish this project. I think it will be lovely. Green and cream for two triangles and cream and green for two triangles, altogether making one sweet baby blanket. It should be nice.
I still have my pink lace project too. Yikes! There is a lot of work to be done before June. I had better go do it.
Once I have the spinning for my braid done then I will carry on working on my blends. I am just about finished.... well at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need two more blends and then I only have to spin yarn for my colour wheel blends. That shouldn't be too hard. Yeah right! There's the sweater calculation and the 25 hour project. Onward and upward. But it is getting harder to concentrate as I have more on my mind as the house renovations get closer. I will just have to buckle down and keep going. I want to get it done before I go to Olds. I want to have my mark back by the time I leave to drive there. I don't want that hanging over my head while embarking on the next level.
Meanwhile my big tri loom is calling to me and I want to start a project on that. I bought beautiful mohair boucle and merino fingering weight yarn to do a shawl..... but that will be my reward for when I finish my level 2 homework. I can't wait. I will warp up the 36" tri loom tomorrow and carry on with that as I need four triangles in order to finish this project. I think it will be lovely. Green and cream for two triangles and cream and green for two triangles, altogether making one sweet baby blanket. It should be nice.
I still have my pink lace project too. Yikes! There is a lot of work to be done before June. I had better go do it.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)