I cut my hair before Christmas. I used to have nice long hair... What the hell was I thinking... I took the scissors to it and it looked quite nice for about two weeks... Now it looks like I stuck my finger in a light socket... or you know those rats I was using as cuss words yesterday.... yes well, they got into my hair and made quite a nest there....
I like long hair. Long hair is easy to deal with... you braid it at night and brush it in the morning and put a buckle or band in it and it's done. No styling. No fussing. Simple. It suits me well. I've never been one of those people who likes to spend time making myself look nice (I gave up on that years ago)... I'm the kind of gal that shaves her pits once a year when the hair starts to look like it needs to be combed. I shave my legs in the summer when I wear skirts... and I don't wear them very often any more. Teapot says that the fur there is quite cuddly. But God help me if the nose hairs starts to get long.
I just heard on the radio that those nail dryers that people use to bake a nail polish onto their finger nails causes cancer. Well... Duh! I'm not one for nail polish either other than a little on my toe nails in summer. I don't dye my hair, though sometimes I think Lucy Neatby's hairstyle would be cool. I don't perm my hair either. I kind of have this thing about making myself over. I look in the mirror and other than the 70 extra pounds I'm carrying around I'm pretty happy with myself. Nice eyes... check. Decent skin.... check. Shiny hair.... check. Interesting hands.... check. Somewhat straight teeth.... check. (I would get rid of the mole that has developed on my chin... but that's an aging thing....) My best parts are my cute wee ears (not good for listening with) and my handsome feet.... (generally I don't like feet but mine look ok)! If I could wish something for everyone on the planet it would be that they are satisfied with themselves when they look in the mirror.
Still that rats nest on the back of my head is really p-----g me off!!!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Rats! (It's a cuss word and not the real thing!)
I just spent half the day spinning camel hair.... yup, camel hair and I can't get the sucker to balance. Argh! First it came off under plied .... no problem just put a little more ply in it then it came out over plied... no problem... just take a little ply out... rats! Then it was under plied again... I hate coarse fibre. I am terrible at spinning coarse fibre... I can never get the wretched stuff to balance. So once again I plied it to put a little more twist in and now it is over plied again... so my reaction.... soak the sucker in extremely hot water for a while and then go back and bang the sh-t out of it.... maybe it will stop bugging me (because we all know that the fibre gods that live inside fibre just do it to bug you..... right?!) : {
My washer died... it's been making nasty noises for a while now so I knew it was only a matter of time. But I have four day old wash water stinking in the d-mn thing.... (yes I've tried emptying it but it just won't empty) so Teapot and I got buckets last night and took all the water out that we could ...
Problem! No matter how much water you try to get out with buckets and small containers... there's always some left. Tonight I will try to sop (soak up for you non-Newfies) the rest of the water with old towels, sponges.... whatever... meanwhile it stinks.
Obviously the pump is defunkt (sp?) on the washer... can it be fixed.... yes... maybe.... not sure.... Teapot will have a look when he gets time.... Right! I might as well go buy a new one!
Next problem! My washer and dryer are an upright set so that means that if it has to be replaced then I have to get rid of a perfectly good dryer. Sh-t!
I hope 2011 is not lining up to be like this.
My washer died... it's been making nasty noises for a while now so I knew it was only a matter of time. But I have four day old wash water stinking in the d-mn thing.... (yes I've tried emptying it but it just won't empty) so Teapot and I got buckets last night and took all the water out that we could ...
Problem! No matter how much water you try to get out with buckets and small containers... there's always some left. Tonight I will try to sop (soak up for you non-Newfies) the rest of the water with old towels, sponges.... whatever... meanwhile it stinks.
Obviously the pump is defunkt (sp?) on the washer... can it be fixed.... yes... maybe.... not sure.... Teapot will have a look when he gets time.... Right! I might as well go buy a new one!
Next problem! My washer and dryer are an upright set so that means that if it has to be replaced then I have to get rid of a perfectly good dryer. Sh-t!
I hope 2011 is not lining up to be like this.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Mondays
It's 7 a.m. and I should be in the kitchen... I'm the breakfast getter in this house. Teapot and the girls are sleeping peacefully and I haven't got the heart to wake them yet. I've decided to give them an extra 15 minutes. So that gives me a little time to post here. Why is it that on Mondays it is so difficult to get going? I know I am not alone in this sentiment. Half the planet is of the same mind as me. All over the world (well in some places they've been there and done that and are thinking about different times of the day) there is coffee perking and tea brewing and toast popping and cereal slurping and eggs frying, while in other parts of the house there are showers spraying, and lights flicking, and transit catching, and school a learning, and jobs a starting.... It's kind of nice to know that I'm just a small part of this engine of humanity.
Breakfast is usually some sort of combination of toast and eggs with juice on the side. This morning's menu is home made whole wheat toast with butter (not margarine) and corn and cheese omelet with orange juice and tea to follow. I always like to send off the Daughters with a little protein drifting through their blood. I think it helps them think straight and gives them energy.
One thing I have noticed, living in the north, is that I am much more aware of how exhausting it is to get up when you know that there is still two and a half hours of dark to get through. The sun barely rises above the horizon, only about one and a half fingers... (I realize that most people don't measure the distance of the sun from the horizon by using their fingers sideways... but it works quite well here.) Actually I'm not even sure of the half it might just be one finger. It is that lingering dark that makes you want to crawl back into your bed and sleep for another hour. Mind you, summer time, we are quite the opposite especially at the summer solstice when the sun barely dips below the horizon.
The only thing I can see in the window right now is my very scary reflection. (I haven't brushed my hair yet and it is every which way.) I'll be glad when the light returns and you can look out and see something other than your own face peering back at you.
What's next, I find myself asking. There's Valentine's Day, but Teapot and I are not really all that hung up on celebrating romance that our society has.... well... romanticized. I mean, I'm all for romance but sometimes I think we blow it out of proportion and give romance such a high standard that its hard for anyone to find that kind of romance. To me romance is feeling your husband's hand grasp yours in the middle of the night after 19 years of marriage. It is the quiet moments that remind you of love. You see I'm not hard to please on Valentine's Day. I think the most romantic thing I've ever heard is what a friend of my mother told us after her husband passed away. She told us the her husband in the last lucid moments before he died looked her straight in the eye and said, "For all these years, my dear, I've have been very fond of you." They had been married for 60 something years. "Very fond" may seem lame to you but it is those soft moments in life when something special passes between two people that brings romance to life.
So what is next? Well, I'm off to get those eggs a cooking and once everyone has left for the day I'm back to my level 4 homework... One question down and a whole lot left to go.
I guess Monday' are best when you have a focus.
Breakfast is usually some sort of combination of toast and eggs with juice on the side. This morning's menu is home made whole wheat toast with butter (not margarine) and corn and cheese omelet with orange juice and tea to follow. I always like to send off the Daughters with a little protein drifting through their blood. I think it helps them think straight and gives them energy.
One thing I have noticed, living in the north, is that I am much more aware of how exhausting it is to get up when you know that there is still two and a half hours of dark to get through. The sun barely rises above the horizon, only about one and a half fingers... (I realize that most people don't measure the distance of the sun from the horizon by using their fingers sideways... but it works quite well here.) Actually I'm not even sure of the half it might just be one finger. It is that lingering dark that makes you want to crawl back into your bed and sleep for another hour. Mind you, summer time, we are quite the opposite especially at the summer solstice when the sun barely dips below the horizon.
The only thing I can see in the window right now is my very scary reflection. (I haven't brushed my hair yet and it is every which way.) I'll be glad when the light returns and you can look out and see something other than your own face peering back at you.
What's next, I find myself asking. There's Valentine's Day, but Teapot and I are not really all that hung up on celebrating romance that our society has.... well... romanticized. I mean, I'm all for romance but sometimes I think we blow it out of proportion and give romance such a high standard that its hard for anyone to find that kind of romance. To me romance is feeling your husband's hand grasp yours in the middle of the night after 19 years of marriage. It is the quiet moments that remind you of love. You see I'm not hard to please on Valentine's Day. I think the most romantic thing I've ever heard is what a friend of my mother told us after her husband passed away. She told us the her husband in the last lucid moments before he died looked her straight in the eye and said, "For all these years, my dear, I've have been very fond of you." They had been married for 60 something years. "Very fond" may seem lame to you but it is those soft moments in life when something special passes between two people that brings romance to life.
So what is next? Well, I'm off to get those eggs a cooking and once everyone has left for the day I'm back to my level 4 homework... One question down and a whole lot left to go.
I guess Monday' are best when you have a focus.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
4F Goes Down The Tube... and some Other Stuff
4-F is not going to happen... my intention was to work on that blog every Sunday but the thing is... I sit here and think about age and quite frankly I can't think.... I'm sure its a sign of aging!!! : ) So as a result of my lack of clarity of thought, I have deleted that blog and decided that for now I will continue to just concentrate on this one and Feathermist. I don't write on Feathermist much either these days, but really that is the place where I want all my creative diversions to go... like poetry and paintings. I haven't really had a lot of time for poetry lately or painting (though I'm still working on the Nude for Teapot's and my bedroom...) so I haven't been posting there either. But I will eventually. Right now all that's consuming me is level 4 and level 3 homework and of course the day to day grind of life in this little home of ours and when I write about that, I write here.
Teapot opened the last bale of hay... I have a line on more though so I'm not too worried. Evidently the price of beef has just bottomed out and so people are selling off cattle at astounding rates since it is more expensive to feed them than the farmers can get for the meat. So now there seems to be an abundance of hay on the market since the farmers won't be needing it to feed all the cattle they had.... at least in this area. Go figure.... so even though I'm down to my last bale of hay I'm looking at buying some and I've got a likely source for more... yeah... this is good news.
It has been snow on again off again for the last few days... after the chinook stopped blowing the colder temperatures returned and we are back to snow and blowing snow. I'm not sorry because every Chinook that blows means that there is less moisture in the spring. I really want the wet to stay around a while this year so that we don't have to worry about hay in the fall and maybe I can go back to buying hay from the guy that I always bought from.
Teapot has just finished building Dreamer (the horse) a nice shelter to go into when the snow is falling or the temperatures dip. It is good to see her using it and know that it was not a waste of time. It is not a barn just a little lean to type shelter where she can go if the North wind is blowing or there is sleet or rain. The business of farming keeps us going as we try to figure out the best way to care for our animals. I am contemplating getting rid of my sheep altogether and just keeping my alpacas though it is hard to consider. There has been a severe reduction in my sheep this last year that's for sure.I am down to two ewes and four lambs and two rams. One of the rams will be butchered, all of the lambs will be slaughtered and then I will just have two ewes and one ram until the lambs start coming again. But Teapot and I think that it is just too much work to keep the sheep. So alpacas and a couple of ewes that we can breed for meat lambs. That's it! Really this is quite a big decision for 2011.
So that's it for this very non-descript day.
Teapot opened the last bale of hay... I have a line on more though so I'm not too worried. Evidently the price of beef has just bottomed out and so people are selling off cattle at astounding rates since it is more expensive to feed them than the farmers can get for the meat. So now there seems to be an abundance of hay on the market since the farmers won't be needing it to feed all the cattle they had.... at least in this area. Go figure.... so even though I'm down to my last bale of hay I'm looking at buying some and I've got a likely source for more... yeah... this is good news.
It has been snow on again off again for the last few days... after the chinook stopped blowing the colder temperatures returned and we are back to snow and blowing snow. I'm not sorry because every Chinook that blows means that there is less moisture in the spring. I really want the wet to stay around a while this year so that we don't have to worry about hay in the fall and maybe I can go back to buying hay from the guy that I always bought from.
Teapot has just finished building Dreamer (the horse) a nice shelter to go into when the snow is falling or the temperatures dip. It is good to see her using it and know that it was not a waste of time. It is not a barn just a little lean to type shelter where she can go if the North wind is blowing or there is sleet or rain. The business of farming keeps us going as we try to figure out the best way to care for our animals. I am contemplating getting rid of my sheep altogether and just keeping my alpacas though it is hard to consider. There has been a severe reduction in my sheep this last year that's for sure.I am down to two ewes and four lambs and two rams. One of the rams will be butchered, all of the lambs will be slaughtered and then I will just have two ewes and one ram until the lambs start coming again. But Teapot and I think that it is just too much work to keep the sheep. So alpacas and a couple of ewes that we can breed for meat lambs. That's it! Really this is quite a big decision for 2011.
So that's it for this very non-descript day.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Bare Naked Tree
Well, tis the season to lament.... boo hoo sob sob.... there's nothing more depressing than a bare naked tree...
It's over for another year and all the Christmas gear is in being put away once again.
Teapot is in the process of stowing away all the boxes and I have been cleaning up the bits of paper and bits of cardboard that were used in the stowing process. It will take a day or two, I'm sure, before everything is back to normal but that generally is how it goes.
The last thing we did before we took the tree down is to take our annual family photo in front of the tree...
I wasn't sure if I was going to post it since I'm feeling rather sensitive about how I look these days... overweight and getting older and showing it badly.... but in the end I might as well accept it and be satisfied that I'm willing to have my picture taken at all... unlike some people in my family!
So that's it for Christmas... and now.... I just can't wait for spring!
The last thing we did before we took the tree down is to take our annual family photo in front of the tree...
So that's it for Christmas... and now.... I just can't wait for spring!
A Few Pics For Those Interested In My Homework
Bison....
Fibre content: 100% Bison Fibre Preparation: rovings
Spinning Technique: semi-worsted Direction of twist: zzzS
# of Plies: 3 t.p.i. 5 & w.p.i. 20
Weight: 4.3 gm Yardage: 18 yds/16.4592 m
Count: 3.82 NM 261.25 TEX Suitable End Use: lace shawl
19 stitches 38 rows on size 3.5 mm knitting needles.
The picture just doesn't do it justice. It is soft and lovely... I'm very happy with this sample.
Spinning Technique: semi-worsted Direction of twist: zzzS
# of Plies: 3 t.p.i. 5 & w.p.i. 20
Weight: 4.3 gm Yardage: 18 yds/16.4592 m
Count: 3.82 NM 261.25 TEX Suitable End Use: lace shawl
The picture just doesn't do it justice. It is soft and lovely... I'm very happy with this sample.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
~O^O~
The above title is an attempt at making digital glasses.... why?... I have no idea.... just that my glasses are sitting on the desk in front of me... that's why!
I finished the Bison skein yesterday and it is very nice. I had hoped to have a picture ready of the lace square that I am knitting from my Bison skein but after school Teapot and I took the girls shopping for Twelfth Night. We didn't get back till late and we didn't have supper while we were shopping so we needed to eat when we got home. As a result I didn't get back to the knitting until later than planned and so I have a half knitted lace square. At one point I was making a Nupp (don't ask what a Nupp is) and I was trying to get a needle through 5 stitches and was cursing on it so badly that Teapot said I should go to bed. In my defense, it was really hard to get the needle through all 5 stitches at one time. In the end, I got out my rosewood dpn with the really sharp tips and that sucker (Nupp) was finished after that. Then I went to bed because I just couldn't face another Nupp and believe me there are plenty of them in the pattern I chose. I'll finish my sample today, then I'll start the Bison blend sample. I'm not sure yet what I will blend the bison with... maybe silk.... but the silk will need to be cut. Maybe angora.... but I'm not sure if I can use angora. Maybe I'll just use cotton. But enough about level 4 homework.
It has been chinooking here since New Years day. Last night, the wind was so high that I'm sure there were a few trees torn up by the wind. I never sleep well when there is high wind. But the temperature is high... usually at this time of the year we are looking at temperatures ranging from -30 to -15 degrees C, but this morning the temperature is a balmy +2 degrees C. The snow has been melting off the roof and is sliding off the tin roof and scaring the heck out of the kitten and the dog. (Tootsie the little dog who has been around for five years and the old cat whose been with us for ten years are old hands and don't pay any attention to the noise at all.) The snow comes roaring down off the roof and does sound rather like thunder so it does not help us sleep easily. There is ice everywhere and walking is treacherous. So mostly I walk in the house. (It is part of my get fit in 2011 regimen.) Last year I tried Tai Chi but lets face it Tai Chi on your own really is lame. So this year I'm just going to try walking.... The up side of this is that I don't have to learn how : ) Still walking outside will have to wait till there is not so much ice around.
Tomorrow I will post pictures of the bison.... and still there are no more rodents!
I finished the Bison skein yesterday and it is very nice. I had hoped to have a picture ready of the lace square that I am knitting from my Bison skein but after school Teapot and I took the girls shopping for Twelfth Night. We didn't get back till late and we didn't have supper while we were shopping so we needed to eat when we got home. As a result I didn't get back to the knitting until later than planned and so I have a half knitted lace square. At one point I was making a Nupp (don't ask what a Nupp is) and I was trying to get a needle through 5 stitches and was cursing on it so badly that Teapot said I should go to bed. In my defense, it was really hard to get the needle through all 5 stitches at one time. In the end, I got out my rosewood dpn with the really sharp tips and that sucker (Nupp) was finished after that. Then I went to bed because I just couldn't face another Nupp and believe me there are plenty of them in the pattern I chose. I'll finish my sample today, then I'll start the Bison blend sample. I'm not sure yet what I will blend the bison with... maybe silk.... but the silk will need to be cut. Maybe angora.... but I'm not sure if I can use angora. Maybe I'll just use cotton. But enough about level 4 homework.
It has been chinooking here since New Years day. Last night, the wind was so high that I'm sure there were a few trees torn up by the wind. I never sleep well when there is high wind. But the temperature is high... usually at this time of the year we are looking at temperatures ranging from -30 to -15 degrees C, but this morning the temperature is a balmy +2 degrees C. The snow has been melting off the roof and is sliding off the tin roof and scaring the heck out of the kitten and the dog. (Tootsie the little dog who has been around for five years and the old cat whose been with us for ten years are old hands and don't pay any attention to the noise at all.) The snow comes roaring down off the roof and does sound rather like thunder so it does not help us sleep easily. There is ice everywhere and walking is treacherous. So mostly I walk in the house. (It is part of my get fit in 2011 regimen.) Last year I tried Tai Chi but lets face it Tai Chi on your own really is lame. So this year I'm just going to try walking.... The up side of this is that I don't have to learn how : ) Still walking outside will have to wait till there is not so much ice around.
Tomorrow I will post pictures of the bison.... and still there are no more rodents!
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