It is Monday morning..... yuck! Actually it is not so bad... the crescent moon is shining down on us this morning in a sky that is a soft blue. The sun is not quite up above the horizon but there is that yellowness on the horizon.... it looks like it is going to be a fine day. There is no snow left on the roof as even on the North side it has melted and slid off. I have noticed that a huge chunk of snow came off the roof last week and hit the lower roof and left a dent. It is now that we will discover all the problems with the design of the additions and that obviously is one. I'm not really sure what we cane do about it other than knock the snow off in the spring in smaller amounts rather than have it fall off in huge chunks.
Each day it warms up and the snow turns to slush and water.... each evening it freezes again and turns to ice. It is treacherous to walk on and so I don't try hardly at all. I will be so glad to see the end of the snow....
I have noticed green grass trying to show itself in the sunny south facing areas where the snow has melted. The deer are coming less to feed on our bails. I just love spring.... except for the dog poo which seems to be everywhere.
I have three more cotton questions done for my level 3 homework... which means that now I have to get back to the big j.c. in earnest. I have done some spinning for it but I need to get really focused.... there have been several people who have seen it and think it is very nice.But the sleeves are calling me today and so I need to wash some wool but while that is drying I need to sit at my wheel and spin, spin, spin.... Everything else has to be put on hold for a couple of weeks.
So that's my Monday morning news, and blues..... the kids are out the door and Hubby too... the sun is up now and my wheel calls.... I'm off....
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Brain Dead
Ok... I can't think of anything to write about because I'm feeling way too brain dead to write. So maybe tomorrow I'll feel more like writing something....
I watched movies all day once I got home from church.... and did a little spinning.... good activities for those of us who experience times when your brain refuses to do anything. I think I'll go to bed and nurse my poor brain....
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz......
I watched movies all day once I got home from church.... and did a little spinning.... good activities for those of us who experience times when your brain refuses to do anything. I think I'll go to bed and nurse my poor brain....
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz......
Friday, March 5, 2010
Dog Days
If I remember correctly "Dog Days" have some weather connotation, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is exactly.... For me "Dog Days" has its own connotation, and I am feeling like this day among others lately, are "Dog Days". I look out the window today and it is windy and sort of grey... with sun.... The clouds are passing overhead at the rate of 'zoom'. It is mostly grey but there are God-like clouds off on the horizon... you know, they are the clouds that are always shown in the movies to signify God. Anyway my "Dog Days" include more than quickly moving clouds. You see, Duff, the big dog, is lying at my feet after a traumatic day yesterday. She went to the vet and so began the oddysey of "Dog Days Supreme"! She first had a thermometre poked up her bum which she was quite indignant about.... then she had a shot in the hip to knock her out, and once conked out, had her face cut open where resided a rather large abscess,.... then she got a severe case of the runs on the trip home from the anxiety of it all, which fortunately she was able to contain till we got pulled over in a gravel pit where she proceeded to stagger to the nearest snow heap to hunch up in a drunken manner and expunge herself. Nice! Dog days indeed.....
Meanwhile I sit here and watch the outcast alpaca trying to eat hay that has been inundated with stuff that has already exploded once from his butt. I always said Axton was a misfit... the other alpacas will have nothing to do with him... he's as much reverred as the boy in second grade that sat behind you and picked his nose and ate it after yanking on your pigtails.... no one likes him. I would never breed him for fear of producing a whole heard of nose pickers... I wonder if he is retarded...
Daughter #1 is in complete disgust today as she and her best friend had planned all week to have sleep over this evening and things have not worked out quite as planned... said friend was supposed to come after lunch but is unable to get a ride and Hubby won't be home till late having difficulties getting computers to work for irritating report cards... try living with an overly disappointed teenager.... and to make it worse, Daughter #2 has friend and so this only draws attention to the fact that Daughter #1 doesn't.... argghhh!
Wind always irritates me and as the clouds whiz past in their ever onward migration, like a heard of elephants across the Serenghetti, I find myself feeling like I'd like to chew nails... it is not a good day to spin.... my spinning wheel may join the clouds if things didn't go well.
So here I am forced to suffer the discontent of Dog Days..... a word of advice though.... sleep through them if you can.... but don't whatever you do try to get things done.... it never works. I think I'll go pick some stitches out of a pocket..... (I bet you thought I was going to say pick my nose.... well, I'm not the kid no one likes..... I hope)!
PS... I hope you like the new look....
Meanwhile I sit here and watch the outcast alpaca trying to eat hay that has been inundated with stuff that has already exploded once from his butt. I always said Axton was a misfit... the other alpacas will have nothing to do with him... he's as much reverred as the boy in second grade that sat behind you and picked his nose and ate it after yanking on your pigtails.... no one likes him. I would never breed him for fear of producing a whole heard of nose pickers... I wonder if he is retarded...
Daughter #1 is in complete disgust today as she and her best friend had planned all week to have sleep over this evening and things have not worked out quite as planned... said friend was supposed to come after lunch but is unable to get a ride and Hubby won't be home till late having difficulties getting computers to work for irritating report cards... try living with an overly disappointed teenager.... and to make it worse, Daughter #2 has friend and so this only draws attention to the fact that Daughter #1 doesn't.... argghhh!
Wind always irritates me and as the clouds whiz past in their ever onward migration, like a heard of elephants across the Serenghetti, I find myself feeling like I'd like to chew nails... it is not a good day to spin.... my spinning wheel may join the clouds if things didn't go well.
So here I am forced to suffer the discontent of Dog Days..... a word of advice though.... sleep through them if you can.... but don't whatever you do try to get things done.... it never works. I think I'll go pick some stitches out of a pocket..... (I bet you thought I was going to say pick my nose.... well, I'm not the kid no one likes..... I hope)!
PS... I hope you like the new look....
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Ahh .... Spring maybe...?!!
The seasons just keep marching on... I look out my window by the computer here and I realize that spring is on the move. All day yesterday the snow was sliding off the roof in great thunderous slumps. Water was dripping constantly and when I went out last evening to go to the monthly JCR meeting I realized that there is very little snow left on the roof at all. The paddocks where the animals reside are now blossoming quagmires of sh-- and hay. It is the time to watch for foot rot. Our ground here is fairly porous and so foot rot is not generally an issue. Still, in the spring when the ground has not quite caught up with the sun and the snow is melting but the grounds is not accepting the extra moisture, there is always a chance that my animals will have issues with their hooves.
More of our pine trees are dieing. The pine beetle has had its way with another generation of Pine trees and so now when the sap would be flowing back into the tree and branches would be starting to put out their new buds instead the pine trees are dieing and turning red. It is sad to watch. I look out on the deck and see that I am going to have to start watering the cedar trees that I have in my planters. I won't pull out the old annuals yet because that is an open invitation for the cats to use it as a bathroom. We get stuck just driving into our driveway as the snow turns to slush each day before returning to ice in the evenings.
Yep Spring is in the air.....
In house there is a turn back to the big j.c. as I start spinning once again black alpaca fibre and black wool... I also have been playing on the Inkle loom and have had a terrible time getting that sucker warped.... but I think I finally have it finished. It was fun having some of my spinny friends come by on Tuesday and see what they have been working on. One was working on plied yarn for sox, another was working on an Inkle loom like me and the other was prepping fibre for spinning on a charkha.... all is good on the spinny front.
Meanwhile Duff the big pooch still continues in agony with eye issues.... I am off to the vet today with her in another effort to deal with the problem of swollen face and obvious infection. I will be driving my way down highways that are at last dry.... no snow.... how great is that! I can't wait till the quagmire of my paddocks and yard are clear and dry once again.
It's at this time of the year that I miss my ducks puttering around in the pools of water.
Ducks in our yard in 2005
More of our pine trees are dieing. The pine beetle has had its way with another generation of Pine trees and so now when the sap would be flowing back into the tree and branches would be starting to put out their new buds instead the pine trees are dieing and turning red. It is sad to watch. I look out on the deck and see that I am going to have to start watering the cedar trees that I have in my planters. I won't pull out the old annuals yet because that is an open invitation for the cats to use it as a bathroom. We get stuck just driving into our driveway as the snow turns to slush each day before returning to ice in the evenings.
Yep Spring is in the air.....
In house there is a turn back to the big j.c. as I start spinning once again black alpaca fibre and black wool... I also have been playing on the Inkle loom and have had a terrible time getting that sucker warped.... but I think I finally have it finished. It was fun having some of my spinny friends come by on Tuesday and see what they have been working on. One was working on plied yarn for sox, another was working on an Inkle loom like me and the other was prepping fibre for spinning on a charkha.... all is good on the spinny front.
Meanwhile Duff the big pooch still continues in agony with eye issues.... I am off to the vet today with her in another effort to deal with the problem of swollen face and obvious infection. I will be driving my way down highways that are at last dry.... no snow.... how great is that! I can't wait till the quagmire of my paddocks and yard are clear and dry once again.
It's at this time of the year that I miss my ducks puttering around in the pools of water.
Ducks in our yard in 2005
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Bust A Move
I like small things.... I'm not small so why I like small things is not necessarily apparent. Perhaps it has something to do with wishing I was small.... I like my hands, they are small even though one hand has no thumb and the other hand has a fused pinky knuckle and looks as ugly as hell. I like my ears.... they are small... when I got my ears pierced the lady said my earlobes were so small that she wasn't sure she could pierce them.... eventually she managed.
I like small things like my spinning wheel which is one of the smallest wheels on the market.... I like small paths through the snow and not big plowed roadways. Last week at the Blueberry I saw a nifty little item.... I saw a cute little Inkle Loom made by Ashford. It is called the Inklet. I saw it and wanted it so I ordered it for my birthday.... No it is not my Birthday yet!
I like little small fishy crackers.... they make me feel young and happy. I like little weavette looms... they're small. My house is small even after all the renovations... it is barely 1000 square feet.
With all the small things that I like, it is odd that every now and again I bust out of the usual small-ness of my life and go big, big, big. My deck is big. At 441 square feet, it is almost as big as my house. My bike is big.... fat tires and a nice fat cushy seat on it... And my children are big as they tower over me.
I mean every now and again I bust a move and do something big.... like my tri loom. Most people were buying/making 3 foot tri looms for the tri loom workshop last year, and while I have one that size I thought, why not go all the way and buy the biggest tri loom you can get.... so I bought a 7 foot tri loom. I have a small house but I have a big couch. 9 feet to be exact and a sectional to boot.
What I have realized is that there is a real dichotomy within me. It is the yin and the yang at battle. It's not really an impractical/practical thing in me.... it's more like I'm made of all the contrasting desires and sometimes one wins out while at other times the opposite wins out.
When I was in University and studying philosophy one of the subjects that really caught my attention was that of a trinity.... and while THE TRINITY came to interest me later on it wasn't so much THE TRINITY that I was interested in then, but trinities in general and how they work..... I've always seen trinities as two opposing forces (though opposing might be the wrong word maybe two forces) and the opposition between them as the third.... so to make this easier.... I want smallness.... I am bigness.... what's in between is the reality of me. Has your brain now done a flip flop.... I wouldn't be surprised! Chinese philosophy explains it like this.... an individual has both the yin and the yang.... male and female (I think).... but the reality of what you are is a combination of the two.... perhaps you are more yin.... or more yang but you are still a combination of the two. Yin (one force).... yang (another force).... you (three in one).
What it all comes down to is acceptance.
I accept that I like small things.... I also accept that occasionally I have a need for big things..... that is what makes me who I am.... hopefully solid (Hubby says I'm not solid because I'm too spinny!) So maybe you are more yin or more yang but once in a while it is nice to bust a move and be the thing that you are not normally. So if you are female maybe once in a while you like to put on black leather and get a roaring motorcycle between your legs and hog it for a while.... or maybe you are a man and once in a while you like to get a fairy tale story out and read it to your kids. Either way it is nice to be in touch with all aspects of who you are....
We are all complex creatures... acceptance is the key....
And that's my waxing poetic for today..... I can't wait till I get my Inklet... : )
I like small things like my spinning wheel which is one of the smallest wheels on the market.... I like small paths through the snow and not big plowed roadways. Last week at the Blueberry I saw a nifty little item.... I saw a cute little Inkle Loom made by Ashford. It is called the Inklet. I saw it and wanted it so I ordered it for my birthday.... No it is not my Birthday yet!
I like little small fishy crackers.... they make me feel young and happy. I like little weavette looms... they're small. My house is small even after all the renovations... it is barely 1000 square feet.
With all the small things that I like, it is odd that every now and again I bust out of the usual small-ness of my life and go big, big, big. My deck is big. At 441 square feet, it is almost as big as my house. My bike is big.... fat tires and a nice fat cushy seat on it... And my children are big as they tower over me.
I mean every now and again I bust a move and do something big.... like my tri loom. Most people were buying/making 3 foot tri looms for the tri loom workshop last year, and while I have one that size I thought, why not go all the way and buy the biggest tri loom you can get.... so I bought a 7 foot tri loom. I have a small house but I have a big couch. 9 feet to be exact and a sectional to boot.
What I have realized is that there is a real dichotomy within me. It is the yin and the yang at battle. It's not really an impractical/practical thing in me.... it's more like I'm made of all the contrasting desires and sometimes one wins out while at other times the opposite wins out.
When I was in University and studying philosophy one of the subjects that really caught my attention was that of a trinity.... and while THE TRINITY came to interest me later on it wasn't so much THE TRINITY that I was interested in then, but trinities in general and how they work..... I've always seen trinities as two opposing forces (though opposing might be the wrong word maybe two forces) and the opposition between them as the third.... so to make this easier.... I want smallness.... I am bigness.... what's in between is the reality of me. Has your brain now done a flip flop.... I wouldn't be surprised! Chinese philosophy explains it like this.... an individual has both the yin and the yang.... male and female (I think).... but the reality of what you are is a combination of the two.... perhaps you are more yin.... or more yang but you are still a combination of the two. Yin (one force).... yang (another force).... you (three in one).
What it all comes down to is acceptance.
I accept that I like small things.... I also accept that occasionally I have a need for big things..... that is what makes me who I am.... hopefully solid (Hubby says I'm not solid because I'm too spinny!) So maybe you are more yin or more yang but once in a while it is nice to bust a move and be the thing that you are not normally. So if you are female maybe once in a while you like to put on black leather and get a roaring motorcycle between your legs and hog it for a while.... or maybe you are a man and once in a while you like to get a fairy tale story out and read it to your kids. Either way it is nice to be in touch with all aspects of who you are....
We are all complex creatures... acceptance is the key....
And that's my waxing poetic for today..... I can't wait till I get my Inklet... : )
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Friends
I have never been one to remember birthdays... I'm bad at it. My friends' birthdays come and go and I just don't remember..... I know.... that's pathetic....
The weird thing is long after I have lost track of friends of yester-year that's when I start to remember their birthdays. When they hang around with me I forget birthdays but when I lose track of them they stick in my mind... I know this is an odd phenomena, but I just can't help it.
I try to make up for this issue with my memory by presenting friends with gifts at other times of the year. Usually I have explained my problem, first so they know that their birthday gift may show up 5 or 6 months after the date of their actual birthday....
Recently I missed a friend's birthday and I am feeling really dreadful about it because I have never told her about the fact that I am so dreadful with remembering birthdays..... I am trying to find a really great gift as a belated birthday gift but I hate just giving anything. I am thinking what kind of miserable wretch forgets her best friend's birthday.... how can I do that. I have been looking for a birthday gift now for about 6 weeks to make up for my mistake..... and I'm not having any luck.... when you forget birthdays your gifts had better be super awesome....
So if my friend happens to read this.... then please forgive and bare with me I will pull through in the end....
Cotton spinning is going well and I'm on the verge of having my cotton section done.....
Have a great day... and if your birthday is today..... and you are my friend..... sorry I forgot.... and I will make it up to you... : )
The weird thing is long after I have lost track of friends of yester-year that's when I start to remember their birthdays. When they hang around with me I forget birthdays but when I lose track of them they stick in my mind... I know this is an odd phenomena, but I just can't help it.
I try to make up for this issue with my memory by presenting friends with gifts at other times of the year. Usually I have explained my problem, first so they know that their birthday gift may show up 5 or 6 months after the date of their actual birthday....
Recently I missed a friend's birthday and I am feeling really dreadful about it because I have never told her about the fact that I am so dreadful with remembering birthdays..... I am trying to find a really great gift as a belated birthday gift but I hate just giving anything. I am thinking what kind of miserable wretch forgets her best friend's birthday.... how can I do that. I have been looking for a birthday gift now for about 6 weeks to make up for my mistake..... and I'm not having any luck.... when you forget birthdays your gifts had better be super awesome....
So if my friend happens to read this.... then please forgive and bare with me I will pull through in the end....
Cotton spinning is going well and I'm on the verge of having my cotton section done.....
Have a great day... and if your birthday is today..... and you are my friend..... sorry I forgot.... and I will make it up to you... : )
Monday, March 1, 2010
One Third
I'm really happy to say that I met my 1/3 goal by Sunday night.... meanwhile I can't show pictures still since the d--- camera batteries died and I can't find the charger... Anyway... I was really happy last night when at 11:30 p.m. rolled around and Hubby came home from working on report cards, and my goal had been attained. I did a research question last night and finished that. I managed to get two cotton questions in my book and I actually started on another cotton question... two actually.... I will spin enough cotton on the charkha to finish the cotton roving question.... and the sizing question... clear as mud?!! Then after all that, I was just too tired to keep spinning while waiting for Hubby to return. After he called to say that he was just leaving, I sat and carded punis... which is a totally mindless job perfect for waiting while being too tired to do anything else.
I do have to get back to the big j.c. and this is the day that I have to do it so.... no level 3 homework. I'm going to miss working on it, that is for sure. But the big j.c. is calling me and I need to have that done by mid March and so the pressure is back on for that one.
I cannot believe that it is the first of March... last year, at this time, Hubby and I were preparing for our house renovation. We were planning and getting things in order for our start day which was April 1st. A year later and there is still a lot of work to be done but I'm not pushing. March break looms and I'm hoping that Hubby will do some then... we will see. If not then we will wait till summer and try to get the rest of the work done then. I am hoping to finish our bedroom and having all winter to ponder it has given me time to think about what I want to do in there.... I have decided to finish the paneling on three walls, drywall one wall and do wall paper on it... then I want to have all book shelves on one wall so that I can do lots of reading in there... (I'm a total read-in-bed addict). I've chosen our bedroom furniture and we have chosen a black leather headboard and footboard in a sleigh bed style with a platform (with drawers in it) for under the bed. That will give us drawers for clothing storage. Then I just need to pick out doors for our closets and I even have room for a small slim electric fireplace.... I can't wait to get it done.... I'm even going to splurge and buy a nice new set of bedding in a pear green shade.... which is a very soothing colour, and of course, that is the point. Soothing... a haven... isn't that what a bedroom should be?
Meanwhile we are all trying to figure out what colour is our new couch.... I say khaki green, Hubby says brown.... and there is now a big debate. The other day I saw in a magazine that the colour of our couch is called espresso.... whatever... there's still flooring to be done in the living room and the sunroom needs flooring, some paneling, and a ceiling and light fixtures. Sadly we are seriously looking at revamping the kitchen to accommodate a wood stove which means more kurfluffle. Suffice it to say that we have a bunch of work left to do.
With spring in the air... (plus temperatures all week this week)... I'm starting to think about house, home and garden.... Life turns outward again and I'm looking forward to spending some time on my deck with a fire in the fireplace... flowers all around.... a new orchard (which was part of the house renovation plan as we will be changing the driveway to accommodate the new front veranda making room for an orchard where the old driveway was). Funny how life is like that. In winter we hibernate, but come spring and life changes... I look forward to it
So life is more than the four walls of this house and my spinning and weaving, and I'm starting to think of other things.... all the more reason to work, work, work, and get the big j.c. finished and then the level 3 homework.
I'm off.... have a real nice day...
I do have to get back to the big j.c. and this is the day that I have to do it so.... no level 3 homework. I'm going to miss working on it, that is for sure. But the big j.c. is calling me and I need to have that done by mid March and so the pressure is back on for that one.
I cannot believe that it is the first of March... last year, at this time, Hubby and I were preparing for our house renovation. We were planning and getting things in order for our start day which was April 1st. A year later and there is still a lot of work to be done but I'm not pushing. March break looms and I'm hoping that Hubby will do some then... we will see. If not then we will wait till summer and try to get the rest of the work done then. I am hoping to finish our bedroom and having all winter to ponder it has given me time to think about what I want to do in there.... I have decided to finish the paneling on three walls, drywall one wall and do wall paper on it... then I want to have all book shelves on one wall so that I can do lots of reading in there... (I'm a total read-in-bed addict). I've chosen our bedroom furniture and we have chosen a black leather headboard and footboard in a sleigh bed style with a platform (with drawers in it) for under the bed. That will give us drawers for clothing storage. Then I just need to pick out doors for our closets and I even have room for a small slim electric fireplace.... I can't wait to get it done.... I'm even going to splurge and buy a nice new set of bedding in a pear green shade.... which is a very soothing colour, and of course, that is the point. Soothing... a haven... isn't that what a bedroom should be?
Meanwhile we are all trying to figure out what colour is our new couch.... I say khaki green, Hubby says brown.... and there is now a big debate. The other day I saw in a magazine that the colour of our couch is called espresso.... whatever... there's still flooring to be done in the living room and the sunroom needs flooring, some paneling, and a ceiling and light fixtures. Sadly we are seriously looking at revamping the kitchen to accommodate a wood stove which means more kurfluffle. Suffice it to say that we have a bunch of work left to do.
With spring in the air... (plus temperatures all week this week)... I'm starting to think about house, home and garden.... Life turns outward again and I'm looking forward to spending some time on my deck with a fire in the fireplace... flowers all around.... a new orchard (which was part of the house renovation plan as we will be changing the driveway to accommodate the new front veranda making room for an orchard where the old driveway was). Funny how life is like that. In winter we hibernate, but come spring and life changes... I look forward to it
So life is more than the four walls of this house and my spinning and weaving, and I'm starting to think of other things.... all the more reason to work, work, work, and get the big j.c. finished and then the level 3 homework.
I'm off.... have a real nice day...
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