Thursday, March 31, 2011
Spring Cleaning... Yuck
The kitchen pantry needed cleaning... it had never gotten a door.... well, actually that is not true. We tried putting a door on and it was really small so we decided that we would put a larger door on... that never happened so now I've decided to switch pantries. The cabinets that I was using for dishes will now be the pantry for food, while the pantry for food will now be utilized by the dishes... and electric thingamabobs, like the sandwich griller and the blender etc. It's all very boring I assure you. But it is a perfect day for spring cleaning because the weather is changeable... one minute sun.... one minute rain. There's still snow on the ground but it is taking a really big cutting this week. The driveway is slush to the elbows and poop reigns supreme in my yard. Rubber boots seem to be the footwear of choice theses days. There's not much to do outside unless your happy to see soft gooy poop of every description and be wet to the knees. A week of this and my house will be spotless!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Back To The Main Event.... Level 4
My Lopi samples are done and I'm happy with them and the first worsted sample is also finished but looks like crap... but I think that was the point of the exercise... We have to do worsted samples and woollen samples from different preparations and do a comparative study... So that's what I'm working on today.... that.... and turkey dinner.
The turkey is in the oven and the parents are coming for dinner.... that is a mid-day dinner.
It's our Christmas turkey that we never cooked.... we ate the parents turkey instead. March and Turkey dinner... how weird is that! It will probably be the last cooked dinner for a while.... from here on in it will be barbecue all the way!.... but then you never know maybe I'll cook turkey on the barbecue sometime over the summer... that wouldn't be unheard of.
So that's it for this very spring-like end-of-March-day.... just wish that snow would melt faster.
The turkey is in the oven and the parents are coming for dinner.... that is a mid-day dinner.
It's our Christmas turkey that we never cooked.... we ate the parents turkey instead. March and Turkey dinner... how weird is that! It will probably be the last cooked dinner for a while.... from here on in it will be barbecue all the way!.... but then you never know maybe I'll cook turkey on the barbecue sometime over the summer... that wouldn't be unheard of.
So that's it for this very spring-like end-of-March-day.... just wish that snow would melt faster.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Our Little Guy
I think I can bring myself to talk about this now...
Yesterday was dreadful... the day before was dreadful too. We've known for a while that Tootsie was not himself... about a month ago Tootsie's breath began to stink... badly... and so I had a look in his mouth and discovered that his teeth were getting really bad. He needed work done on them before too long. I started to save money since usually it costs about $600.00 to get a dogs teeth cleaned. About two weeks later I had a look at his teeth again and I discovered that the gums were starting to rot. That was way faster than we expected. I started saving faster. Then he went off his food so I bought canned food thinking that his teeth were really bothering him and he loved it... for a few days...
In addition to all of this, Tootsie started to have violent shaking about 6 or 8 months ago and we just put it down to the fact that he was cold and so we let his fur grow out a little longer after all it was coming on for fall after a very hot summer.
Little did we know that something very bad was happening. Inside his wee body things were starting to get screwed up. It was because his Adrenal glans were no longer producing the hormones that made his little body function correctly. It's called Addison's disease... over the weekend it was clear to us that Tootsie was not feeling well. We thought that it was because he had taken a flying leap off Daughter #2's bed and had hurt his back again... he has been on medication for jumping and hurting his back before. Saturday he was very listless... Sunday he stopped eating and Sunday night he stopped moving around much and whined every time he moved. We called the vet first thing on Monday. By Monday afternoon we knew the worst.... that there was not a whole lot that the vet could do and his chances of bringing Tootsie back from the brink was very slim indeed. So we made the horrible decision to end his pain which he was so very obviously in... a tough decision but one that had to be made.
We miss him terribly because he always followed us around and went where ever we went.
Two dogs in less than a year... it has been a hard year indeed. And we will keep our dear little friend in our hearts...
Yesterday was dreadful... the day before was dreadful too. We've known for a while that Tootsie was not himself... about a month ago Tootsie's breath began to stink... badly... and so I had a look in his mouth and discovered that his teeth were getting really bad. He needed work done on them before too long. I started to save money since usually it costs about $600.00 to get a dogs teeth cleaned. About two weeks later I had a look at his teeth again and I discovered that the gums were starting to rot. That was way faster than we expected. I started saving faster. Then he went off his food so I bought canned food thinking that his teeth were really bothering him and he loved it... for a few days...
In addition to all of this, Tootsie started to have violent shaking about 6 or 8 months ago and we just put it down to the fact that he was cold and so we let his fur grow out a little longer after all it was coming on for fall after a very hot summer.
Little did we know that something very bad was happening. Inside his wee body things were starting to get screwed up. It was because his Adrenal glans were no longer producing the hormones that made his little body function correctly. It's called Addison's disease... over the weekend it was clear to us that Tootsie was not feeling well. We thought that it was because he had taken a flying leap off Daughter #2's bed and had hurt his back again... he has been on medication for jumping and hurting his back before. Saturday he was very listless... Sunday he stopped eating and Sunday night he stopped moving around much and whined every time he moved. We called the vet first thing on Monday. By Monday afternoon we knew the worst.... that there was not a whole lot that the vet could do and his chances of bringing Tootsie back from the brink was very slim indeed. So we made the horrible decision to end his pain which he was so very obviously in... a tough decision but one that had to be made.
We miss him terribly because he always followed us around and went where ever we went.
Two dogs in less than a year... it has been a hard year indeed. And we will keep our dear little friend in our hearts...
Monday, March 28, 2011
Too Many Sad Days Recently
And one more to add.... this one came so unexpectedly.... we will miss our little guy... our Most Awesome Little Wonder Chicken herder...
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| Tootsie 2005 - 2011 |
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Brilliant
Sometimes Brilliance astounds me.... but then sometimes Brilliance departs for other regions and I'm sure that I have been abandoned for good, but then Brilliance comes sailing into my life (usually I'm on the toilet at the time, which I'm told is the creative person best spot for Brilliant ideas) and once again I am amazed by myself...
A while back my guild had decided to start an Afghan project. The idea was that each individual member of the guild would look through their mighty stashes and use fibre that would be rejected for larger projects to knit 15 inch squares, which then would be pooled in order to find common themes among the squares. then one brave person would put a number together to make a lap afghan. After a number of these were made we would have a supply to give to members of the guild who might find themselves in distress due to a loss of a loved one or for deteriorating health... sort of like a prayer shawl ministry only not so religious but with heart and feeling.
The project went forward and at first there was great enthusiasm, with many 15" blocks being supplied. But over time it died a natural death... We were starting out the project with acrylic yarn and then moving forward and using wool or other natural fibres. I, myself, am not an acrylic person because for some strange reason I can't bring myself to purchase the stuff. But I went home with good intentions of spinning fibre or at least making some interesting striped concoction that could be used for the project. Months went by and this did not happen so when the decision to put them together came, I volunteered out of guilt about not having contributed one square.... well in my eyes, putting them together was just as good a contribution because without sewing/crocheting them together we just had a bunch of squares and no afghan at all... besides, nobody wanted to sew them.
I put one together and after that, I didn't have enough in a similar colour scheme to put another one together so I put out the call for more squares.
Meanwhile while all this was happening I was attending knit night regularly and all the knitters were ooohing and ahhhing over a scarf that my mother had given me for Christmas. The scarf was fuchsia which is not a favorite colour but it was cannily made up. So we all decided that we would go home and try making one up even though we did not have the pattern... how hard could it be?! Now the reason why this scarf was so interesting was because it was knit and woven at the same time. I can't show you all a picture of it because I loaned it to one of the Daughters and it was never returned. However, I and one of the other knitters did knock one together developing a pattern of sorts.
Now to bring both subjects together...
It was while I was sitting on the couch trying to put together the last of the squares that I had for the afghan project that I suddenly got a visit from Brilliance. (And I wasn't even on the toilet.) I would be able to make a 15" square quite easily using the method of knitting and weaving that was in the scarf...
I started in right away.
First I went digging through my stash... I would need a fibre that was somewhat hairy and had a lovely halo.... mmmm.... mohair would be perfect. I had several cones of mohair from a weaving project that I had completed a few years ago... I had bought a lovely dark forest green, and a lovely navy blue with flecks of other colour throughout.... I had also bought pink.... (we all know my feelings on pink so I won't bore you on that front). Perfect! I could use up the pink and have it out of my life once and for all! (I love killing two birds with one stone.) In combination with the Navy Blue it would be awesome.
Da da da da... da da da da da..... drum roll please....
It is absolutely inspirational.... at least I think so....
To hell with making a few for the guild.... I'm off to knit some more so that I can make a whole afghan and donate it to the guild.
Who knows what attracts Brilliance to your life.... I'm just glad she comes to mine....!
A while back my guild had decided to start an Afghan project. The idea was that each individual member of the guild would look through their mighty stashes and use fibre that would be rejected for larger projects to knit 15 inch squares, which then would be pooled in order to find common themes among the squares. then one brave person would put a number together to make a lap afghan. After a number of these were made we would have a supply to give to members of the guild who might find themselves in distress due to a loss of a loved one or for deteriorating health... sort of like a prayer shawl ministry only not so religious but with heart and feeling.
The project went forward and at first there was great enthusiasm, with many 15" blocks being supplied. But over time it died a natural death... We were starting out the project with acrylic yarn and then moving forward and using wool or other natural fibres. I, myself, am not an acrylic person because for some strange reason I can't bring myself to purchase the stuff. But I went home with good intentions of spinning fibre or at least making some interesting striped concoction that could be used for the project. Months went by and this did not happen so when the decision to put them together came, I volunteered out of guilt about not having contributed one square.... well in my eyes, putting them together was just as good a contribution because without sewing/crocheting them together we just had a bunch of squares and no afghan at all... besides, nobody wanted to sew them.
I put one together and after that, I didn't have enough in a similar colour scheme to put another one together so I put out the call for more squares.
Meanwhile while all this was happening I was attending knit night regularly and all the knitters were ooohing and ahhhing over a scarf that my mother had given me for Christmas. The scarf was fuchsia which is not a favorite colour but it was cannily made up. So we all decided that we would go home and try making one up even though we did not have the pattern... how hard could it be?! Now the reason why this scarf was so interesting was because it was knit and woven at the same time. I can't show you all a picture of it because I loaned it to one of the Daughters and it was never returned. However, I and one of the other knitters did knock one together developing a pattern of sorts.
Now to bring both subjects together...
It was while I was sitting on the couch trying to put together the last of the squares that I had for the afghan project that I suddenly got a visit from Brilliance. (And I wasn't even on the toilet.) I would be able to make a 15" square quite easily using the method of knitting and weaving that was in the scarf...
I started in right away.
First I went digging through my stash... I would need a fibre that was somewhat hairy and had a lovely halo.... mmmm.... mohair would be perfect. I had several cones of mohair from a weaving project that I had completed a few years ago... I had bought a lovely dark forest green, and a lovely navy blue with flecks of other colour throughout.... I had also bought pink.... (we all know my feelings on pink so I won't bore you on that front). Perfect! I could use up the pink and have it out of my life once and for all! (I love killing two birds with one stone.) In combination with the Navy Blue it would be awesome.
Da da da da... da da da da da..... drum roll please....
To hell with making a few for the guild.... I'm off to knit some more so that I can make a whole afghan and donate it to the guild.
Who knows what attracts Brilliance to your life.... I'm just glad she comes to mine....!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Up And At Em
Teapot and Daughter #1 are home. Yeah.... they are both exhausted and so I am up this morning by myself, full of vim and vigor. Yesterday I managed to finish my first Level 3 sample again. I spun ginned cotton and it looks very nice actually. Now I'm going to work on the second cotton sample. I might just work on cotton because it is relaxing. Level 4 is put aside for the moment while March break is here. I'm into too many things that require timing, thought, and not mindlessness. Cotton can be spun fairly mindlessly. So I will work on that for the moment.
It's an overcast day and once again I'm craving sunshine. This has been the longest and most dragged out spring on the face of the earth... I DO NOT want wind. Wind will take the snow away too fast and I want it to just rot and melt down into the ground and replace the ground water which has been so badly decimated over the last few years. It might mean a greener summer and hay supplies that are more reliable, which would be a bonus after this last year... always, am I thinking of hay. Still a little sunshine would perk me up in no time... I'm sure.
Dex is definitely doing better. He's definitely sturdier on his feet. My lambs from last year are beginning to look healthy again. After a long winter, I need to get out in the barn for a day and give it a good clean out. While all year long we try to keep against the fecal matter that accumulates in there it does freeze in the cold temperatures and so by spring there is a dreadful build up... so I need to have a few good warm days where I can get in there and rake it all out. Nasty job, that! But there's nothing for it unless you want to tear down the old barn and build a new one every few years. Uhhh No! Sometimes I wish I had a little tractor. Then I could clean up poop no problem.... but then I'm sure you don't want to hear about poop this morning.
Well, it's Saturday morning and the coffee pot is brewing.... mmMMMmm... the smell of coffee is permeating the whole house... there's a pastrami on rye sandwich in the fridge with my name on it... for brunch, and North By Northwest is on CBC radio.... oh and cotton waiting to be spun... I just love Saturdays. And Sundays are good too.
Hope your weekend is great!
It's an overcast day and once again I'm craving sunshine. This has been the longest and most dragged out spring on the face of the earth... I DO NOT want wind. Wind will take the snow away too fast and I want it to just rot and melt down into the ground and replace the ground water which has been so badly decimated over the last few years. It might mean a greener summer and hay supplies that are more reliable, which would be a bonus after this last year... always, am I thinking of hay. Still a little sunshine would perk me up in no time... I'm sure.
Dex is definitely doing better. He's definitely sturdier on his feet. My lambs from last year are beginning to look healthy again. After a long winter, I need to get out in the barn for a day and give it a good clean out. While all year long we try to keep against the fecal matter that accumulates in there it does freeze in the cold temperatures and so by spring there is a dreadful build up... so I need to have a few good warm days where I can get in there and rake it all out. Nasty job, that! But there's nothing for it unless you want to tear down the old barn and build a new one every few years. Uhhh No! Sometimes I wish I had a little tractor. Then I could clean up poop no problem.... but then I'm sure you don't want to hear about poop this morning.
Well, it's Saturday morning and the coffee pot is brewing.... mmMMMmm... the smell of coffee is permeating the whole house... there's a pastrami on rye sandwich in the fridge with my name on it... for brunch, and North By Northwest is on CBC radio.... oh and cotton waiting to be spun... I just love Saturdays. And Sundays are good too.
Hope your weekend is great!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Weird And Wild
Once again it is overcast.... and Fanny has her eyes crossed.... I mean that is one tenacious ewe. She was bred on the 23rd of September..... dumb ass. It is now almost 6 months since then (gestation is 5 and 1/2) and she's as wide and she is long.... if she's not pregnant then she's got some weird and awful growth going on there. Meanwhile Dex is getting stronger every day. I think it is the oats that I'm hand feeding him, (so that the others don't push him off his food). Meanwhile, I let the dog out this morning as I do every morning, and she took off after some deer that were hanging out munching on my HAY! (Erg) One deer took off straight away and the other was limping... of course my dog did what comes naturally to her and circled... the deer was not happy. So I thought maybe he'd go off down through the trees if I went out with my pitch fork... (best laid plans of mice and men!)... the stupid thing jumped over the fence to run through the thickest snow there is... Erg. Of course with it having a limp it jumped the fence with not much success.... and there it hung with its hind leg in the fence.... stuck....! "Great!" was all that I could think... now what do I do? So carefully, and then more carefully, I approached the deer. It was down on it's side... not moving. So I grabbed a hold of its leg and shoved the wire this way and that way and managed to free its leg but not without scraping some of the hair off its leg first..... then taking Jiggs with me (who really was behaving admirably considering that there was meat on the ground not defending itself) I moved away and came in the house. We watched to see what would happen but the deer wasn't getting up... I was worried that it had broken its leg... and the alpacas kept wanting to go over and check it out. That worried me because I really didn't want it hurting them.... After 20 minutes of watching it, I decided to call the police.... so I did... (That's because the conservation guys are at least an hour away!) Usually the police respond. Anyway I talked to a very nice person... a receptionist I guess... who switched me to the Conservation office, (figures) and I told my story again. They would respond. I figured I had better get dressed so I went and had a quick shower and got dressed.... While I was in the shower the phone rang and they wanted me to go see if the deer was there still... and so I did. The stupid thing had finally gotten up and disappeared.... I was very grateful that it didn't have to be dispatched here. But I know that with it's bum leg and now the big scrape where I tried to get its leg out of the fence.... it is coyote fodder for sure.... The coyotes have been very active recently as I hear them every night since the full moon last week. This time in the year when the deer are emaciated the coyotes are always active.
So, that was my excitement for the morning.... now if the damn moose would just die... yes he's still around and yes, he will die.... but not by my hand. The poor old guy is covered in ticks... we've been able to get close enough now that we can see where it is riddled with them and there are bare patches of flesh all over him. Also I saw where he peed in the snow and he is passing blood. There is no doubt in my mind that he will die... no wonder he is eating the hay. He is probably too weak to do anything else.
God, living on the frontier is weird! and wild!
So, that was my excitement for the morning.... now if the damn moose would just die... yes he's still around and yes, he will die.... but not by my hand. The poor old guy is covered in ticks... we've been able to get close enough now that we can see where it is riddled with them and there are bare patches of flesh all over him. Also I saw where he peed in the snow and he is passing blood. There is no doubt in my mind that he will die... no wonder he is eating the hay. He is probably too weak to do anything else.
God, living on the frontier is weird! and wild!
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