Rest Before The Storm

Yesterday Hubby and I had a day of rest. We stayed in bed late and then leisurely got up and ate a nice breakfast before sitting out on the deck which is where we stayed until it was too cool to stay out any longer. We had a great deal of rain and thunder yesterday and Hubby and I were able to stay out and watch the whole thing on our new covered North deck. So it literally was the calm before the storm.

The Daughters relaxed and laid around reading their books until the cows came home (actually in our case it was sheep)! All in all it was a lovely day. Today however, Hubby and I wasted time. It was not a day of rest and it was not a day of work. It was a day of frustrations. First the compressor that I bought to help Hubby get the wall paneling up for the air nailer, was without the right connection. So off to town to get a connector Hubby went and he was gone for quite some time. Then when he came back, he brought along some movies which distracted him while I was snoozing. In between it all, I was weaving blocks for my level three project. If I have enough blocks then I am going to make a shawl. Suffice it to say that the house renovations were not on our priority list today. Hubby finally managed to get two sheets of paneling up by 8 p.m. We then ate supper and I washed the dishes while Hubby put away the power tools. Not what I would call a productive day.





Tomorrow a friend will be coming at 9 a.m. to help install the plumbing for the new laundry closet. I expect to see progress tomorrow, because he will not let Hubby sit around and do nothing. Meanwhile, while they are working on plumbing, I will be staining the paneling that was put up today. I will also be staining the trim boards around the entry to the sunroom. It is high time that we got some more work done on this joint. If it is warm enough and dry enough.... we've had a lot of rain... I will try to get some of the deck stained too.

It is high time that we start tackling some of those 40 something jobs I listed off on my to do list last week. So the only thing I can do is consider this the rest before the storm.... I just wish the storm would hurry up and pass.

A Day To Remember... Or Two....

Hubby and Daughter #1 are finally home. Daughter #2 and I had a great day in FSJ yesterday, as we waited for THE FLIGHT to come into the airport. We started out with lunch at Boston Pizza and then some shopping at Reitmans where Daughter #2 got some much needed peddle pushers. Then between all the jigs and reels, we ended up at the furniture store where I spied a really nice mattress and box spring. We ended up checking out new couches and bedroom furniture with wardrobes too. (Let me tell you wardrobes are a thing of the past.) Then we went to a hardware store and bought a compressor so that Hubby and I could carry on with our home renovations by using an air nailer.

We mosied out to the airport and got there in plenty of time to pick up Hubby and Daughter #1. Then Daughter #2 and I just waited until Hubby and Daughter #1 arrived. It was a good reunion though more reserved than I expected. Daughter #1 is growing up and throwing your arms around a mother in public is not cool. So I got a quick kiss and hug and then Hubby looked like he was going to fall over from fatigue. I think he hugged me because it was a momentary reprieve from standing independently. It didn't really matter as I was glad enough to see them for all of us.

I wanted to stop at the furniture store to have a look at the mattress and box spring with Hubby in tow. I really wanted the mattress as we have been sleeping for the last two years on this.



This is the combination of the two mattresses from our tent trailer. When our cat defecated on our mattress two years ago it made a quick one way trip to the dump since the stink was enough to knock you backwards. Enter the mattresses from the trailer. Now these mattresses are really comfortable. Of course, they would have to be to be able to sleep on them for two years. But there comes a time when even really good tent trailer mattresses can not stand up to the wear and tear of nightly use all year round. That is why with this new renovation, a new mattress was definitely in the works.

Hubby was in a good mood after his flight home. This was good. And he was tired. This too was good (especially for unannounced mattress shopping. And most important of all HE HAD JUST SLEPT ON AN INSTITUTION MATTRESS FOR TEN NIGHTS!!!! What could be better at this most opportune time than to go to a furniture store to try out decadent, wonderful, comfortable mattresses.

We pick up our new mattress and free memory foam pillows and mattress cover on Thursday.

Hubby also got to have a look at the different bedroom sets with wardrobes. I will have to wait till he is sick and tired of not being able to find his clothes and hit him up for the new wardrobes and furniture. I'm not really that calculating.... but it does seem so lately.

Never mind... our reunion was much more satisfactory in the privacy of our own home. Daughter #1 came to tears when I gave her a really nice hug once there were none of her peers to see. And Hubby, well.... lets just leave that to your imagination..... I'll just say this, I'm glad we are getting a new mattress.

A Case Of The Chickens

We have chickens.... we've never been what I would call successful chicken owners. We have them and it is a real love/hate relationship. Last year when our little flock got knocked back to 7 we felt it was time to buy a few more. The damn things wouldn't lay. Normally after about 6 months with new chicks they are old enough to start laying. But all winter we waited and watched as our old hens died off one by one and the new ones were being fed but with narry an oval globe to be seen. Mostly their butts were sealed. Finally Hubby blew a fuse and said, "I'm not feeding those useless excuses for chickens, anymore."

But feed them we did. Daughter #2 has a friend who loves chickens.... like normal people like dogs. So one day I looked out and noticed Daughter #2 and said friend sneaking off with chickens under their arms. I decided to find out what my chicken rustlers were up to. I carefully eavesdropped the next time they were close to me and discovered that they were liberating our chickens from the chopping block by sneaking them away to said friend's chicken coop where they could live in peace without fear of losing their heads. This struck me as funny, and so I proceeded to watch their efforts over the next few weeks as chicken by chicken disappeared. Finally we were down to twelve and I felt that this had gone on long enough. So I spoke to Daughter #2 and told her she had to leave the chickens alone now. That's when we noticed that the chickens were starting lay eggs. Damn chickens! Contrary that's what they are.

Hubby and I concluded that the buggers were overcrowded all winter and that we should have butchered a few.

Two nights ago I was sitting in my new sunroom with a lovely cup of tea and noticed that in the bushes by the chicken coop was our large Huskey dogwho happens to love gettin an odd egg from the chickens. Then I realized that the colouring was wrong. It was too light to be our dog. All I could see was the fur. That's when I noticed that it wasn't a dog at all..... I thought briefly it might be a coyote, which have been known to enter my chicken domain and carry off a few from time to time before. Then it lifted it's head and I saw that it wasn't a coyote either. No sirree, this chicken thief was a bear. A cinnamon bear. A young, obviously from it size, starving, and lonely bear!

Oh did I tell you I was by this time heading toward the chicken coop with a large stick in hand to get rid of the coyote. No I didn't think I did. Well Mr. Bruin came up on his hind legs and took one look at me and recognized me as a treat and proceeded to drop down on all fours and start walking most sedately toward me to check out if my stick was something good to eat. I turned and ran. Thank heavens there was still 30 feet between us. He didn't find me interesting when I headed for the house so he turned and ripped the ever living sh-- out of my chicken coop and fence and started to catch my newly laying birds one by one while I frantically tried to think of someone who might be able to come shoot the scoundrel, before he decided the lambs were on the menu too.

Honeydew, our llama was bugling by now, and Daughter #2 was beating sticks on walls to make as much noise as possible. That's when I thought of a friend who lives just up the road who would come and deal with this. I called and his wife answered. I explained the situation and let them know that Hubby was away (which is my usual line of defense). They were there in minutes but it felt like hours. Meanwhile Mr. Bruin had made the fence look like matchsticks and my chickens.... or what was left of them.... were headed for the house, which meant that Mr. Bruin would be following directly when he was finished with the chicken he was devouring. The friend with the gun showed up and shot above Mr. Bruin's head in an effort to get rid of him but Mr. Bruin who was starved from the look of his ribs and hips was not having anything to do with departing from his food source which was my coop. He would run away but circle back after a few minutes. Finally after 7 - 8 shots with no success of encouraging Mr. Bruin to leave permanently, Mr. Bruin met his maker.

My chickens eventually returned to the coop and we are now down to 10. Mr. Bruin ate 2. My chickens are so permanently scarred by this that there has been narry an oval globe since. Back to square one. At least Mr. Bruin didn't get my lambs.

I've noticed the crows and ravens have been quite happy for the last two mornings. Poor Mr. Bruin. Too bad he found my chickens.

Reunion

My family and I have a reunion coming up. We are looking forward to the day when we are all together again. On June 26th I headed down to Olds, Alberta for a ten day working vacation to complete my classes in Level 3 of the Master Spinner Program through Olds College. Daughter #2 headed off to Victoria for the historical fair on the 29th of June. Then Hubby and Daughter #1 headed off to Cochrane, Alberta on 2nd of July, for the summer camp that the Junior Canadian Rangers has each year. We all went our separate ways.

Daughter #2 came home on the 3rd of July closely followed by me on the 4th of July, and so now we are waiting patiently for Hubby and Daughter #1's return. They are home on the 11th of July. It will have been 15 days since we have been together as a family. I think we are all looking forward to our reunion.

While it has been a bit of a mad dash we all have enjoyed our various trips I think. I'm not sure about Hubby since he is working and overseeing a whole platoon (60) kids. He has called practically every night and I am amazed that he has had the time to do so. Even Daughter #1 has called her own call to me and of course I am always happy to have her call and tell me how her day is going. But I do find it strange that she is able to call me amongst all the activities that she is experiencing. They are mountain biking and canoeing and rock climbing and repelling. Backpacking was a huge one as she was totally exhausted after a night in the bush with a 35 pound backpack. Poor kid. They had a day at the Calgary Stampede and they will have one more day at the Calgary Stampede. They were supposed to get a day in Drumheller at the dinosaur museum but they got rained out and won't be able to do that part of the trip. I was disappointed that they weren't able to go horseback riding because I'm sure Daughter #1 and her friend who is with her would have had a blast. But with such an intensive schedule Hubby and Daughter #1 are not relaxed.

These trips for all of us are intense. We do not come back well rested. It takes days to get over something like that. Summer is half over already and we really haven't had time to just be.... and so we look forward to our reunion, not because we are all tired. That just sweetens what would be nice anyway. We are a family and though Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 fight occasionally and Hubby and I sometimes get on each other's nerves over the summer with our expectations, we really miss each other when we are apart. That's what being a family is all about.

Two sleeps to go till we are all together again. Wahoo!

The Original Plan

Plans change. Yes they do. Mine change regularly. Mostly because I can always see a better way. Hubby and I planned to turn part of the addition into an office but recently I've looked at our space and thought wouldn't it be nice to use the room as a breakfast nook or luncheon nook or supper nook. In other words lets try the dining room table out there. And so I did.



I think it is a great idea. Except (and there is always one of those) there is a door that we installed in the sunroom. It's in the way. I know that the wall paneling is not up yet but I wanted to see if I could make the dining table work in there. It does but it is tight and that means the door access is cut off. Bad drag! Now I am wondering why in the world I would ever want a door there in the first place!




The nice thing about having the table in there is that it gives us room for a living room. We could actually buy a couch (since the one I covered at Christmas ended up at the parents house indefinitely) and actually have seating in our house to comfortably watch movies on our TV.




I look forward to Hubby getting home and getting his opinion to see if he likes it that way. If he does then it's all good, and I am getting a couch. I also want a nice desk to put our computer under the steps and not have to worry that it will fill up with dust. A covered desk is what we need. I want a roll top. For some reason dust drifts down the steps and sabotages anything we put under the steps. Sometimes I think it looks like snow under there. I think because Duff has taken to sleeping at the top of the steps there is a lot of hair from her. Not to mention laundry from all of us contributing to the problem.

Anyway the desk will go under the steps, the table would stay in the new addition, and the rest of this room will be used like a living room. I think it will be cool.

The good news is, if we keep the table in the addition then we won't need another addition. Next project would be the west deck or maybe we should build a screened porch. Now that would be really great!

Summer Jobs

Hubby and I have a lot of work ahead of us. Mostly we will need to finish the renovations but there are other tasks ahead which when I stop to think about it I just about freak out. Here's a list of "to do" before school reopens in September:

1. Fix bathroom taps at rental.
2. Complete shearing on animals.
3. Breed Mishka.
4. Put siding up in girls bedrooms.
5. Install doors in girls bedrooms.
6. Bight the bullet and buy wardrobes for girls rooms.
7. Finish installing pine paneling in studio and office.
8. Install strapping for ceiling tiles in office and studio.
9. Install ceiling tiles in office.
10. Finish wood burning enough ceiling tiles for studio.
11. Install ceiling tiles in studio.
12. Plumb the new laundry closet upstairs.
13. Move washer and dryer upstairs.
14. Remove shower stall from downstairs.
15. Install plumbing for upstairs bathroom.
16. Remove current plumbing for downstairs bathroom.
17. Install new plumbing for downstairs bathroom.
18. Move downstairs shower to upstairs. (If we can!)
19. Bring in new jacuzzi tub and install in downstairs bathroom.
20. Install electricity for Jacuzzi tub.
21. Remove downstairs toilet.
22. Install new downstairs toilet. (this is a medical toilet for Dad)
23. Cut new doorway to downstairs bathroom.
24. Install step in downstairs bathroom.
25. Install door to downstairs bathroom.
26. Install new wall cutting off old doorway to bathroom.
27. Install shelves in new kitchen pantry. (I can do this while the men carry on with the upstairs bathroom.)
28. Install toilet and sink in upstairs bathroom.
29. Make sure plumbing and electrical are to code.
30. Install all new electrical switches and outlets as well as light fixtures.
31. Install fencing for new paddock.
32. Put new roofing on electrical shed.
33. Put pine on ceiling upstairs.
34. Install pocket doors upstairs.
35. Panel hallway and stairway upstairs.
36. Panel closet and new bathroom upstairs.
37. Panel master bedroom.
38. Install flooring.
39. Move furniture back to house from shed.
40. Clean shed.
41. Pick up cottage sized mill and picker.
42. Buy new bed and mattress.
43. Build new wardrobes (2) for master bedroom.
44. Install new counters in kitchen.
45. Put window in the door to the office.

I'm tired just thinking about it. I have to also paint the deck as soon as we get a warm and dry day again. I also have to finish wood burning the table on the deck and do some finish work on soffits on the veranda. I will also have a little work staining edges of logs and trim boards in the house. Not to mention staining the floor and walls and ceilings upstairs. This I can do in the fall when the weather gets cooler.

It is a daunting task to get it all finished. But I'm going to try.

Level 3

So Level 3 in the Master Spinners program begins. I returned on Saturday to an empty house as Daughter #1 and Hubby are off at JCR summer camp until the 11th and Daughter #2 was in Victoria for the Historical fair. I am very glad that my girls are getting opportunities to fly off to interesting locals to partake in programs that allow them to see things other than their own backyard. While I just happen to love our own backyard, there is more to life than it. I really want my girls to have a more well rounded view of the world. Daughter #2 is home now and we are having a very relaxing mother/daughter time together. Yesterday I took her to FSJ for some lunch out and a little shopping. We purchased some fun things for "My Deck"! A fountain with squirrels tipping out buckets of water and a shiny metal ball that has whirling things for in the wind, and a lantern. Problem is that "My Deck" is wet.... really wet. We are having the first real rain of the summer. It has been pouring for two days without fail. This is a good thing because the grass was so dry that fire was a serious issue in our neck of the woods. With so many dead trees from Pine Beetle kill and with the undergrowth like dry tinder most people around here were worried that anything would set off a fire and evacuations. Not to mention the farmers and their crops. Most fields are standing at about 5 - 6 inches where they normally would be at about 12 - 15 inches. For those who rely on hay to feed animals (like us) it was getting to be a concern. We are not out of the woods yet. A lot will depend on what is in store over the next couple of weeks.

So I was in Olds for ten days and thoroughly enjoyed my courses this year. I didn't burden myself with a heavy course load as I never finished my level 2 until early June. This meant that burnout had not completely disappeared. I was sorry that I didn't take a Spinning Cotton course that was awesome but at the same time that spinning cotton course would have exhausted me. Level 3 was awesome too. I had to unlearn some bad habits and I was able to learn some things that will improve my spinning... especially woolen spinning. I have some things on the floor of the living room still that need to be picked up and put away but for all intents and purposes I am unpacked. Hubby and I are going to have to bight the bullet and purchase wardrobes quickly because I can see that until the reno is complete putting stuff away is going to be an issue.



One of the days spent in Olds on my level 3 class was a day spent dyeing with natural dyes and learning what different mordants and different modifiers could do to change a dye. We used Madder which is a dye that comes from the root of the plant, though all parts of the plant can be used. It is one of the earliest used natural dyes in the history of man. It gives lovely Turkish red which are predominantly used in Turkish carpets. I was really pleased with the strength of the colours that I got as for some reason, my colours from natural dyes are usually sad and pale. I want to use these beautiful colours from our experiments with Madder to make something and present it in the fashion show next year when I return to Olds. I was looking through my pattern books and got a lovely idea but I do not want to start that project until I have had the opportunity to mount my samples for my level 3 books and do my write up. This means work. I am completely out of ideas as to how to mount the samples and so they sit there mocking me and tempting me. Hopefully today my brain will kick in and I will be able to get that question done and mounted in my book. One down and plenty to go.

Sunday was a down day for Daughter #2 and myself. We took the opportunity to lounge in bed till an unprecedented 11 a.m. Unheard of for moi and rare for Daughter #2. I got up and had a noble lunch of ice cream smothered in caramel sauce. Daughter #2 added to that with Oreo cookie crumbs and chocolate sauce. It was very decadent and quite a pleasure. After lunch I tried my first attempts at spinning ginned cotton. This is not as simple as it sounds since the best preparation method, and in my estimation the only preparation, is punis (rhymes with loonies). So after working for an hour I had spun two punis in which there should be enough fibre for something like a quarter mile of thread. I got four inches which looked more like crochet cotton in the single (and lumpy crochet cotton at that) than thread. Clearly my cotton spinning needs practice. So today after I clean up from a breakfast of toast and tea, I will get out my puni stick and make punis till my hands bleed and then every opportunity I get I will be practicing spinning ginned cotton. Obviously I need all the help I can get.

Level 3 finally presents a real challenge. I think the learning curve for this level will be quite high. I know that I will have to spin about 4 hours a day to see my spinning improve greatly. Level 1 was no challenge but lots of fun. Level 2 was some challenge and some fun. I expect level 3 to be mostly challenge. I am learning to spin things I have never spun before like cotton. I am learning to perfect my woolen technique... that needs lots of practice, I am learning to spin forms of silk that I have never spun before, and I am learning to spin fat yarns and novelty yarns. This is something I've wanted to learn ever since I learned to spin fine and stopped spinning crappy beginner yarns (which were fat because I didn't know any better). I am excited to begin my level 3 homework. Challenge never daunts me but more likely excites me especially when it comes to spinning. That is why I love it. Life should be exciting. It shouldn't be confusing or scary (well maybe a little scary)! It should be real and full of what you love best. That should be family first, a place that you love, like "My Deck" and the thing that you love best to do too. For me that's spinning.