Oh Crap!

Sometimes rotten things happen. You just have to throw up your hands and go with the flow. Lately it seems I have been on a "Rotten Thing" roller coaster ride. It just keeps going downhill.

I decided yesterday to take a trip to a nearby town.... not FSJ but a smaller town CH, where I can buy some of the things that I need which I can't get in my own small home town. This trip was not the most successful trip in the world.
I got up after a not so great night of sleep at about 4:30 a.m. where heat and nasty things on my mind kept interfering with the visit to the back of my eyelids. I decided that a day away from the sawing and cursing on plumbing pipes might be a nice reprieve. Hubby was all for it since it meant that I could pick up a few gadgets from the hardware store that had become a necessary evil. E/P showed up just before I left with one of the items that we needed and so that was one less item I had to get. That's when we discovered that Hubby had made a mistake and drilled holes in the new $1800.00 tub for Hot and Cold taps where they should not have been. This is a serious problem but we thought we would be able to overcome the problem by changing the fittings on the back of the tub. E/P is fed up with us and wants to get this job done and over with as soon as possible since he has been working on the electrical for the house and the plumbing for far longer than he thought he would. Suffice it to say that HE'S NOT HAPPY.

I dropped Daughter #2 off at Drama camp which she has been attending for the last week and a half, and Daughter #1 and I continued on our way. It was about twenty minutes into our fifty minute drive that we were attacked. We were attacked by a prehistoric gray bug the size of New York. The bark beetle was climbing up my leg and I was able to maintain my equilibrium long enough to get us to the side of the road before I jumped out of the vehicle to do the freak out dance. Meanwhile Daughter #1, who has a terror of bugs, and especially freaky bark beetles, was maintaining her equilibrium by squashing into a very small ball and threatening to jump from my speeding vehicle like a coiled spring. By the time we got off the road we had a problem....WE COULD NOT FIND THE DAMN THING!

We checked my pants and we checked the interior of the vehicle with our trusty snow scraper to beat the crap out of it, but we could not find it anywhere. So back into the truck we got and continued on our way assured that the bugger had flown off my pants when we weren't looking. Two minutes later I maintained my calm as it crawled closer to my neck up the front of my shirt by screeching to a halt in the middle of the highway. Thank God there were no other cars around. Daughter #1 maintained her calm by screaming terribly loud and threatening to jump into the lake which we had just passed. The poor bark beetle probably was as freaked out as us but we were too anxious trying to remove the bugger from my shirt without having a HEART ATTACK!

It flew off over the lake that Daughter #1 had just threatened to jump in and Daughter #1 and I breathed a sigh of relief!

When I finally got in CH, I headed straight for the hardware store. Daughter #1 was with me and we went in looking for little brass elbows in the plumbing supply section. We had an old one to use as a guide, and so I found them with very little difficulty. All was good. We bought a few more things there at the hardware store including the stain for the floor of the girls room. We left the store with our purchases and that's when I discovered my keys hanging nicely on the key chain inside the locked vehicle. GREAT!



So I called Hubby. I mean what else does a gal do? Especially when I am in another town and I don't know who does that kind of thing (break into vehicles). He basically was useless. So I went back into the store and told the girl at the cash register my dilemma and before I knew it there was a brigade of people trying to help me. It wasn't long though that I knew they were not going to be able to help. I had to call in the PROFESSIONALS.

I called an autobody place and they gave me a number of their towing service and so I called it. Finally, someone who could help me. Meanwhile the hardware brigade were hard at it trying to break into my vehicle. I have misplaced Hubby's key to the car when I came home from Olds, so I knew there was no point in going that route. ($85.00 to get a key cut for our vehicle since it requires a computer chip.) I told the hardware brigade that someone was on the way to help and they dissipated like water back into the store rather like rats jumping ship. There, Daughter #1 and I sat at 'the picnic table for sale' in the blaring down sun, waiting for our Knight in Shining Armour. He showed up in a large white duelly. (This sounds stupid even to me!) I sat there wondering how I could be so DUMB.

Half a minute... that's all.... half a minute and I was in. There was this nifty little pad that looked like a blood pressure strap that fit in between the door and the door frame and a long coat hanger-like gadget that had a yellow rubber coating to pull the handle and that was it. Now I know how to break into cars.... not that I would. It was rather wham, bam, thank you ma'am and it was all over. Well... not quite. I still had to pay him $45.00 for his half minute of work..... well I guess he deserved it... after all he was a KNIGHT.

When I got home with all of my purchases I discovered that E/P had fallen down the trap and had hurt himself badly and would likely not be back to finish the plumbing for ever.... I mean a week. While I understand E/P not wanting to come back for a while until he heals, I'm sick of stinking in this heat and having no shower to de-stink-ify. Off to the school we went for another shower. I HATE THE SCHOOL SHOWERS!

Hubby is not happy..... He hates renovations at the best of times and I can see his positive attitude dissipating daily. I will just have to smile A LOT and other things that I can't mention because his mother reads this!!!! ; }

Who Knew!

I taught the most unlikely fella how to spin last night. There's a bit of a story behind this.....

Remember the Canadian Rangers who showed up at my house for New Year's Dinner? They were half frozen and there were quite a few of them..... then remember the ill fated Exercise Western Spirit that I blogged about back in February.... well among those Rangers was the very gentlemanly CP (remember no names here).

CP came to visit this weekend. He was here in HH to teach Military CPR to Hubby and his Rangers. Of course I couldn't let the fellow come to HH and not give him a meal in our home. That would just not be very mannerly..... besides, CP is a delightful man. I met him the first time down in Valemount, when Hubby was on exercise. If I remember correctly, he drank tea in our campsite.... how can you not like that!

Last evening he came to join my family and I for dinner and a more enjoyable dinner I have not had for quite some time. We had some very intellectual conversation about everything from politics, to history, to the great outdoors, to spinning and wool. Of course being a military man we discussed uniforms which led to doeskin (red woolen fabric for you folks who don't know the lingo). CP you see was a member of the Scottish Battalion (Fort Garry Horse... I think correct me if I'm wrong CP) of the Canadian Reserves for a while before being hired by the Canadian Rangers. Hubby at one point served with the Governor General's Foot Guards. Both wore red serge-like uniforms. And so the discussion of wool began based on the nastiness of the various uniforms that are meant to look good but torture our military men. Now anyone who knows anything about wool fabric, knows that it is a very expensive product that is very difficult to get your hands on. It runs at about $120.00 a metre and itches like hell fire, leaving the wearer in warm weather with a skin rash that is just sick.... I love the stuff.

I revel in wool and woven woolen fabric is the best. There are all types of woolen fabric and while discussing wool, I began to wonder what the difference between doeskin, Melton cloth, and serge is. And so began the research... here is what I have found out:
Beaver cloth: A heavy woolen overcoating which is intended to have the appearance of natural beaver skin. The lustrous nap of short fibres is produced by milling the cloth and raising the fibres, which are cut level and laid smoothly in one direction.

Doeskin cloth: A fine woolen, warp-face cloth usually of Merino wool, milled, raised and dress-face finished. It is similar to beaver cloth but lighter and finer.

Flannel: A plain or twill weave fabric with a soft handle due to being slightly milled and raised. The cloth was originally made entirely from wool but now commonly contains some other fibre also. Both woolen and worsted fabrics are produced weighing about 200g/m2

Melton: A heavyweight fabric suitable for overcoats. Lighter weights are used as undercollars in suits. It may be entirely of wool or with a cotton warp and a woolen weft in 2/2 twill or other simple weave. It is heavily milled, raised and cropped.

Molleton: A heavy reversible woolen flannel with a nap on both faces. Now made from other fibres.

Serge: A piece-dyed 2/2 twill cloth of almost square construction with a clear surface. The twill line runs at a low angle to the weft. It is often made of wool but other fibres and blends are used.

This is the website where I found the information:

http://www.narrow-fabrics-manufacturers.com/textile-terms.html This is an excellent web resource.... I'll post it in my links....

I also found out that melton cloth is made in Melton Mowbray, England. This is what I found out here:
Melton Mowbray is home to Melton cloth (first mentioned in 1823), which is the familiar tight-woven woolen cloth which is heavily milled, and a nap raised so as to form a short, dense, non-lustrous pile. Sailors' pea coats are traditionally made of Melton cloth, the universal workmans' donkey jackets of Britain and Ireland and in North America, loggers' "cruising jackets" and Mackinaws. Doeskin cloth, a fine woolen, warp-face cloth usually of Merino wool, milled, raised and dress-face finished. It is similar to beaver cloth but lighter and finer.

Sorry I forgot to write down the website..... ooops.... this is not my work though....

Then I found this:

Since desertion was such a problem, soldiers under the rank of sergeant were not permitted to own civilian clothing. With only their uniform to wear, they would easily be spotted if they tried to desert.

Red Tunics indicate that the wearer is a member of the infantry. Soldiers were supplied with their uniforms, while officers purchased their own.

Officers' uniforms were of a much finer weave of wool, usually doeskin, while the rank and file had uniforms made of melton (wool) and to a lesser extent, serge.

http://www.royalengineers.ca/Uniforms.html

So there you have it Beaverskin cloth, Doeskin cloth, Flannel, Melton, Molleton, and Serge..... FYI.

Now back to what I started out telling you.... here is CP spinning his first yarn.



Don't you love the Harley Davidson Shirt! By the way Hubby and I drank all the beer.... ; }

I love being a spinner and a weaver....so cool!!!!! CP thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to teach you to spin..... next time I'll teach you weaving? : )

Cool Fog

This morning I woke as per normal around 4:30 a.m. and had to go visit the loo. On my way there I looked out the window and saw a lovely sight. The garden was filled with ground fog. I love ground fog.... especially early in the morning. It is so peaceful to see such a lovely sight. It is eery but lovely. It is mysterious. I took a picture last summer of just such a morning and I think it is one of the loveliest pictures I've ever seen.



I know what you are thinking.... you are probably thinking that I am nuts. I mean who likes fog? Well to be honest, even though I grew up in Newfoundland where fog abounds and lighthouses abound, where the sound of the drawn out honk of the foghorn is a normal day to day sound, it is what turned me off from fog until three years ago. When this region had a draught three years ago so bad that we didn't get a speck of rain for well on four months, everything dried up to the point where it hurt to look at things. There was so little moisture in the air that there wasn't even enough to produce dew at night. Jets would fly overhead and there would be no vapour trail behind it. That's when I learned to love fog.

Fog has a purpose. It creates an invisible amount of moisture over every living thing, and every non-living thing to come to think of it, and while that's not good when it comes to the clothes you left hanging on the clothesline overnight, it is good for all the plants that you see growing right outside your door. It also nourishes all the little insects that get their daily moisture from the dew that forms on the leaves that provide them shelter. There's a whole world that we don't see that relies heavily on the fog and mist that forms overnight. Dew is the nectar of their lives.



Now, while I love fog that brings moisture to the flowers, I do not like fog that keeps me from seeing it. Right now my eye is still coated in a thin glaze of fog. The corner of my eye is still very irritated and will take a while to clear.... if it ever does ... I just wish that fog would go away!

I Can See Clearly Now The Rain.... Tears Are Gone

I can see all obstacles in my way.... which is really good since it is a pain in the a-- to keep tripping over things. It is not entirely true that I can see clearly now, as my vision seems to be improving when I look at near things, not so much with distant things. And, oh man, do the muscles that move my eye hurt. It feels like they have been in a blinking marathon. Keeping my eye closed, seems to do it the world of good and yesterday I definitely overdid it. Waaaay toooo much eye strain! By last night I could barely open it and my whole cheek hurt. I even felt like I had a tooth ache.

Who knew that the healing of your eyes would be so complicated. Gunk I expected, redness I expected, but muscle fatigue??? I mean that's what athletes get. So here I sit with my eye closed once again. (sigh) By the way, the picture up above was taken last winter. Here is what they look like now.



I didn't get everything that I set out to do done yesterday. But well I guess I have to set my sights (no pun intended) a little lower. I did start on my tri loom piece. I definitely have to figure out a better way to hang the loom so that I can work on it more comfortably. Today I will rig up some hooks on the wall and see if that works. I also finished the book that I was reading. Probably not the smartest idea but I will dry up and blow away of boredom if I sit around and do nothing.

So there you have it..... the eye is on the mend but feels like its been working overtime. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do but what else is new. It's the weekend and I think I'll be lenient on myself. I think I will go back to bed.... nobody else is up yet.....

I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

I never realized the heavy duty lines to that song! Whoa! The next lines go "So I can, so I can, watch you weave then breathe your story lines..."

Anyway, yes.. I wear my sunglasses at night. In bed while I read "Weaving In The Peruvian Highlands" Funny about weaving... I've always wanted to learn how to weave on a back strap loom. I think it is really neat how such intricate designs can be woven using a few sticks they may or may not be picked up off the ground. It is marvelous that weaving can be so intimate and so all empowering. There is a picture where a group of women are sitting on the ground around a central post with back strap looms attached to it. They are all weaving and they look happy to be able to enjoy each other's companionship while concentrating on these lovely pieces of weaving that they are creating. That kind of weaving is amazing to me. It is where the primitive meats the complex, in the weaving and in the relationships of the women who produce the ideas. I am suggesting to you all if you are even remotely interested in fibre arts or for that matter other cultures, this is an interesting read.

I read for quite a while last night but had to wear my sunglasses to avoid the glare of the light. I fell asleep with the glasses on and some time after midnight woke enough to remove them and put them on the bedside table. Hubby had come to bed and turned out the light and removed the book from my hand but left the glasses in place so as not to wake me. I woke this morning with my eye (the bad one) severely gummed up. I washed it out and seemed to have a lot less swelling. I am able to get my eye open this morning anyway. It feels like a piece of sandpaper in there and when I look out of it with my other eye closed I can't tell the difference between a baseball bat and a broom at ten feet. So still quite blurred. But at least there is some improvement.

I decided right away this morning, that since it was still cool (it was 6 a.m.) I would get down to it and finish staining the deck. My eye was in good shape, (sort of) I didn't have to keep it closed and so this seemed a prime opportunity to get some work done. I am happy to say that the deck is nearing completion and as soon as Hubby finishes breakfast I will hit him up to help me move the fireplace so that I can paint under there. I have left a small corridor to the door for walking that I will finish late tonight so that it can dry overnight and not inconvenience anybody. Then tomorrow I will follow up with a coat of Linseed Oil to help protect the stain. Then later in the fall I will do the new North deck when we are not using it and everyone is back in school and there is not so much traffic over the floor.

Hubby and E/P will be working on the plumbing today and hopefully will have the shower installed by tonight. That would be nice as I am starting to pine for daily showers again. We had to go to the school (thank heavens Hubby is a teacher and has a key) last night to wash ourselves and this is not the most pleasant situation. The showers at the school suck! Then we will be working on the new toilet in our upstairs bathroom and moving the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. This will require peeing in the bushes for a day I am told. Thank heavens we live in the country where the only thing that might peep at you while you squat is a sheep or alpaca. (Perhaps I am getting vulgar!!) Inconvenience seems to be the name of the game these days.

In the meantime I am taking out the much anticipated 7 foot tri-loom today and will be starting on the freshly plied Alberta Summer (bought from Legacy Studios). A 2-ply worsted yarn will be used for a woven shawl.... and I might just have to wear my sunglasses for a while longer..... in that bright sunshine. A good day for weaving.: )

Why I'm Here

I started this blog not quite a year ago in an effort to keep a bit of a journal... if somewhat public journal.... of the beginning of my hobby farm and new business. The interesting thing about blogging is that anyone can read what you write. I really have no idea of how many people read my blog. I do know that some family members and friends who do not live near by keep tabs on my family and I and all of our doings through the writing of this blog.

All along I have only had two official followers who have registered with Google, and I know them. Then suddenly I get another and she is a perfect stranger. There are other people who follow my blog who are not registered. I know this because I have friends who mention that they read this or that on my blog and seem to know as much about my life as I do. But when perfect strangers are reading your blog you really have to try to have something interesting to say.

Even the Daughters are starting to have comments made about their lives to them..... it's neat in a kind of weird way.

Anyway, it dawned on me this morning, that even though this blog is supposed to be about starting up my mill and hobby farm, I really have not said a whole lot about that. I have spoken about the animals, and they are crucial to my milling business, but I haven't spoken about the mill itself. I guess it is time to update everyone on that.

Two years ago, I started the Master Spinners program at Olds College and I figured that the next few years would be a challenge and keep me very busy. Shortly after I registered for my first year of college I got an opportunity to buy a cottage mill and picker for an excellent price. I had a dilemma. Do I carry on with the Master Spinner program or do I buy the mill and start a business, which I knew would take a terrible amount of time. I decided to do both, and Hubby encouraged me in this.

I agreed to buy the mill right away. However, I knew that paying for it in one lump sum would be a stretch. So I paid for it a little at a time. The owner was fine with this. My goal is not to overstretch and to hopefully not take on huge amounts of debt. Next, I knew I would need fibre to feed the mill. That's when the animals became a part of our life. Part of owning a mill is having enough of viable fibre to produce a good quality product. Not all wool and alpaca will work in the mill I have bought. I am trying to find sheep that will produce fibre that will work in it. I do know that my mill will not take really fine fibre and so I am crossing breeds of sheep to find the right mix. Nelly is looking like she might be a good mix. I am hoping Oscar will be good too. Palmer, who is one of the lambs is looking good too. Little Red is not and so she will be culled this fall. As will Izzy. Fanny is a little on the fine side of good fibre but I like her fibre for me so will keep her just as a good hand spun. Greigg also has decent fibre for the mill. The alpacas will be used to blend.

I also am not able to house my mill yet. The mill is still at the previous owners farm. Which is where it will stay until she sells her farm or we finish the house renovation and move everything out of our overly crowded workshop. I also knew at the time of my decision, that if I was going to continue on with the Master Spinner program the business would have to wait until I finished. So suffice it to say that I am working on being in business but am not there yet and will continue to work on that until I'm finished the Master Spinner program. These six years, are years of planning and transition. I have all the time in the world to work on this business and I want it to be the best it can and I want to have it ready when I am ready. I think these are wise business decisions and so that is why I do not write about the milling yet. I am hoping that by next summer I will be able to house the mill in a new building that will accommodate a small shop too. But I am not willing to kill myself or Hubby who helps me in every aspect of this business.

So the resultant is that I will continue to experiment with sheep and look for animals that provide the kind of fibre I want. I have four new sheep coming in the fall. One is a pure Merino which has much too fine fibre for the mill but might make a good cross breeder. I also have another Cotswold/Merino sheep coming which has lovely fibre as well. There is also a Candian Arcott/Charlais/Merino who I am hoping will produce nice fibre. I have a new white ram who hopefully will help me to get lambs that produce dye-able white fibre. (Oscar threw too many black lambs this year.)

So there my fibre business sits at this time. Ye Olde Batt is in the motions of getting started but it will be a long haul. In the meantime, I am looking for a Battmobile this winter. We need a second vehicle and will combine family use and business use in the same car. But I'm sure you will hear more about that as time moves forward as does the planing of my business.

I'm Being Followed By A Moonshadow

If I ever lose my eyes.... if my colours all run dry.... I won't have to cry no more. Thank you Cat Stevens for those most appropriate and applicable words!

Ok so this is what I look like right now.


I'm not sure what that blue thing is by my head and the scowl is because I have my right eye closed and can't open it due to icky stuff coming out of it.

I have been in the hospital all afternoon. I landed there only to get a silicone contact lens stuffed in my eye with a hose attached and a saline solution dripping into my eye in an effort to wash out all the nasty stuff that had gotten in there. Then I had to wait an hour for the drip to go through and then another hour before the doctor was able to see me. Both eyes had been affected but the one eye seemed to be on the mend while the other one wasn't. So there I sat listening to the nurse cleaning the bum of some poor woman who had had diarrhea for several days and wasn't able to clean herself and now had, in effect, a severe case of diaper rash. This was not the most pleasant thing to have to listen to. Worse still was the fact that I had polished off three cups of tea and no solid food for quite a while. The tea pees were affecting me with every drip of saline solution that entered my eye. I lay there wondering if I could sneak off down the hall with the whole thing still connected to my eye and if anyone would notice a lunatic with a hose in her eye and tears running down her cheek into her shirt collar as she sought out the facilities. After an hour of the saline solution dripping into my eye while I crossed my legs (tightly) and then the drip stopping and the contact lens now starting to hurt because there was no longer any fluid dripping into it to help with lubrication, I finally couldn't wait any longer. I gingerly sat up and felt for the edge of the tape holding the whole apparatus in place and eased the contact lens out of my eye. Then I gingerly stepped out into the hall looking for a likely door with a lady in a skirt or some such thing. Let me tell you how good it is to rid yourself of some fluid that you don't want to be there but have had to hold onto to for far too long.

I got back in my room and the contact lens was still on my pillow where I had left it. Shortly after a nurse came in to remove the lens and so I apologized and explained my dilemma and why I was no longer lying with the lens in my eye. She understood..... I'm thankful for that. She then told me I would have to wait about an hour before the doctor would see me to put more stuff in my eye. By this time my eye was gummed up with some icky looking stuff that was starting to concern me. That was when the visions started. I looked at the walls for a while and read the eye chart about 15 times... you know... the one that starts with a very large E that if you can't read it you are in serious trouble. I got up and walked back and forth, I sat down, I read labels I tried to get my severely gummed up eye to open (but it was stuck) and then I had my first vision.

I sat there and started to dream of drop spindling and some lovely merino and silk rovings in an undulating red and purple and of a nifty little Turkish spindle that I had bought in Olds. Like what was wrong with me!..... I could have brought it with me and had a lovely 20 metres spun while I waited for the doctor. Take it from me.... always bring a supply of fibre and a drop spindle with you in your purse. You never know when you might need it.

I digress. Anyway eventually the doctor came in and dropped some more drops into my eye (which were a nasty messy yellow) and had a good look. He pronounced me to be fit to leave and that my eye would undergo some swelling and irritation for a few days but would be as good as new after that. No sh--! I must say that I am glad to hear it but three hours in the hospital listening to an old lady get her bum cleaned was not a great way to find out. Oh well.... all's well that ends well.

In the meantime look what Hubby and E/P were doing at home.


This is Hubby removing the old shower stall.


This is E/P who didn't want his picture taken and so produced his butt at the crucial moment.



This is the corner where the shower was. It had to go out through the window.


The bathroom window is out and plastic will do the trick for the next twenty-four hours.


The shower made it upstairs.


They started to drill the hole for the plumbing. It looks pretty good there in the corner.


The shower had to come in through the door... the front door that is.


Like the window, the front door got a coating of plastic for the night.


The jacuzzi came in the front door and sits waiting in the living room for it's final move to the downstairs bathroom.

Wow and this is the worst of our bathroom renovations and we are getting there with them.... I'll be glad when the shower is hooked up again. Anyway... I guess we will see how my eye is doing in the morning.