No I'm not talking about sex....
We are off for a three day trip to a nearby park to camp... canoe.... and generally kick back and relax. We are taking our tent trailer and some food, some bedding and that's it. We are heading off for three days of avoiding everything that is usual or similar...
I have to admit I am relieved. I will roll out of bed each morning for a swim in the lake.... and then I will spend the evenings not thinking about anything MSP.... though I am taking some spinning... I am going to kick back and spin relaxing fun stuff by the open fire as I am eaten alive by mosquitoes.... hopefully not.... except for the spinning part. I'm taking a drop spindle and a spool of alpaca that needs to be plied. Ahhhh... life is good.
Hamburgers for supper on the barbecue.... and shish kabobs tomorrow. Yum. I'll take pictures.... and I'll have fun... and when I get back I'll show you all how much fun I had.
The great thing is that we are close enough that we can come home to feed animals if we need to. Awesome.
I'm already in my swimsuit. Can you tell that I am living in anticipation of all things water.... woo hoo...
See ya... I'm outta here!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Driven To Distraction
Sometimes I feel like I can't keep a coherent thought in my head. I feel like my mind is fractured. For over a year I have noticed that whenever I get a good thought in my head a thought about what I can write here on my blog by the time I get the internet up and running and click on the Blogger Icon and then sign in and bring up the page for a new post, I'm hooped because the great idea that I had to write about has flown clear out of my head and has landed somewhere in Saigon.... never to be retrieved again by me or anyone even resembling me.
Sometimes I think it is because I am doing too much but that's just plain stupid because I really am the laziest person alive.... I really don't do much.... I really do p--s away hours of opportunity. People seem to think that I do lots but in my eyes that's purely and simply a joke. Cause I don't. Do much, that is. Take for example last night... I sat after supper in the sun room with Teapot and Daughter #1 and her friend and we watched a Western movie. Instead of spinning while we were watching I just blew away a full two hours vegging in front of the boob tube without getting a darn thing done. Mindless drivel we watched and there you have it... the whole reason why I'm driven to distraction.
I love movies.... I can sit and watch endless movies. I could start in the morning and go all day if I wanted... but every now and again I do something else so I turn on CBC just for a change. Someone once told me that our brains can only hold so much information and then when new information comes into our brains some of the old must be lost to accommodate the new. I'm not sure I believe that because I have friends whose brains hold way more information than mine, but still with the way my brain works these days I wonder if there is not some truth to that. Loving movies just adds to the burden of brain overload, I think.
Recently I have had no less than 6 good things that I wanted to write about here and do you think I can remember any of them... not a one. I do know that my Dad told one of his Newfy stories that I have heard a million times but when I went to write it down a little while later I couldn't remember for the life of me which one it was. Twice I have thought about philosophizing on some subject that was in direct reference to me and blogging and when I opened up the post page it just drifted away like a leaf on the wind. Poof... if was gone and I was left there with blank page syndrome in front of me. So then I get to thinking... am I getting alzeimer's....?? At 46 years of age.... or is this some stupid brain drain because of the drugs I've had to take over the years for back related problems? Or is this the way I always was and I was a distracted teenager that was somewhat flighty and I'm only recognizing the signs now? Or am I truly distracted and live only in the moment with no thought of the past or present?
The brain is a wondrous thing perhaps it is just that mine needs some training and retraining. Perhaps I need a vacation.... away from the usual and similar. Why on earth would anyone even care if my mind is here or gone somewhere else? Why should I care... Perhaps the flitting of my mind from one subject to the next just means that I'm weird. Either way it is somewhat scary to know that my mind is distracted and I can't figure out why. And it is not just been a short time that this has been going on.
Maybe I need to be less self analytical and relax. I think I'll go watch a movie and spin... and think about those d-mn things that I wanted to write about.....
In the meantime I managed to snag a couple of pictures of Daughter #2's t-shirt after it was finished so I will leave them with you....
Sometimes I think it is because I am doing too much but that's just plain stupid because I really am the laziest person alive.... I really don't do much.... I really do p--s away hours of opportunity. People seem to think that I do lots but in my eyes that's purely and simply a joke. Cause I don't. Do much, that is. Take for example last night... I sat after supper in the sun room with Teapot and Daughter #1 and her friend and we watched a Western movie. Instead of spinning while we were watching I just blew away a full two hours vegging in front of the boob tube without getting a darn thing done. Mindless drivel we watched and there you have it... the whole reason why I'm driven to distraction.
I love movies.... I can sit and watch endless movies. I could start in the morning and go all day if I wanted... but every now and again I do something else so I turn on CBC just for a change. Someone once told me that our brains can only hold so much information and then when new information comes into our brains some of the old must be lost to accommodate the new. I'm not sure I believe that because I have friends whose brains hold way more information than mine, but still with the way my brain works these days I wonder if there is not some truth to that. Loving movies just adds to the burden of brain overload, I think.
Recently I have had no less than 6 good things that I wanted to write about here and do you think I can remember any of them... not a one. I do know that my Dad told one of his Newfy stories that I have heard a million times but when I went to write it down a little while later I couldn't remember for the life of me which one it was. Twice I have thought about philosophizing on some subject that was in direct reference to me and blogging and when I opened up the post page it just drifted away like a leaf on the wind. Poof... if was gone and I was left there with blank page syndrome in front of me. So then I get to thinking... am I getting alzeimer's....?? At 46 years of age.... or is this some stupid brain drain because of the drugs I've had to take over the years for back related problems? Or is this the way I always was and I was a distracted teenager that was somewhat flighty and I'm only recognizing the signs now? Or am I truly distracted and live only in the moment with no thought of the past or present?
The brain is a wondrous thing perhaps it is just that mine needs some training and retraining. Perhaps I need a vacation.... away from the usual and similar. Why on earth would anyone even care if my mind is here or gone somewhere else? Why should I care... Perhaps the flitting of my mind from one subject to the next just means that I'm weird. Either way it is somewhat scary to know that my mind is distracted and I can't figure out why. And it is not just been a short time that this has been going on.
Maybe I need to be less self analytical and relax. I think I'll go watch a movie and spin... and think about those d-mn things that I wanted to write about.....
In the meantime I managed to snag a couple of pictures of Daughter #2's t-shirt after it was finished so I will leave them with you....
... which is far more interesting than the perplexities of my mind....
Well Aren't I just full of myself thinking that my brain is perplexing!!!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Getting Creative
So Daughter #2 and I are being creative. But we're not the only ones around here. It's been 24 hours of creativity.... really.
Daughter #2 got a phone call from one of her friends to say that there was a birthday party in the plans and could Daughter#2 stand going out on a 26 foot cabin cruiser on a nearby lake for a day and stay out for a sleep over. "OH YES" was the response... I'm really happy that she is going to get this opportunity... she hasn't done much this summer so this will be a great highlight for her. Meantime she came to me with a bit of a dilemma. She didn't have a birthday gift for her friend and didn't know if she could afford one. I figured it wouldn't matter if she had had money since there are no local stores that have decent gifts unless you want to buy something that has the name of our town written on it like touristy stuff or unless you want to buy lottery tickets... this for a 14 year old girl would not go over well. So Daughter #2 and I got our thinking caps on and finally came up with a plan.
We decided that we would experiment with making a t-shirt and earrings for her friend. Now this friend is an interesting character. She loves chickens.... like not cooked chicken but the living breathing animals. She has chickens since like us they live on a bit of a hobby farm. She names her chickens.... and she talks to her chickens and she takes her chickens for walks... on a leash... and she has even been known to dress her chickens up... this is a kid with a real chicken thing going on... She has shown up at shearing time and when we saw off the alpaca teeth she has scurried off with the bits of teeth that we would just throw on the ground... a few days later she has come back with alpaca teeth earrings.... so we like to call her eccentric... it is a polite name for what others would regard as odd. We love her and think the world of her...
So Daughter #2 and I planned out a t-shirt for her. I had just bought a package of cotton extra large plain white cotton t-shirts for Teapot since as he gets older he finds the winter draft dreadful and wears them under his clothes. Out came the package and so began an odyssey of making a one-of-a-kind chicken t-shirt. There are two chickens on the shirt drawn on by Daughter #2 and a path of chicken tracks across the shirt from lower left to upper right, dividing the two chickens. This was drawn on in a special marker that I have for drawing on fabric. Then she took my Procion dyes and painted on the design (after soaking it in all necessary chemicals). It has turned out awesome. Today she is putting on the saying. It goes like this, "I dream of a better world where the motives of road-crossing chickens are not questioned." Then last night Teapot and Daughter#1 went to the end of heritage days barbecue and Western style dance. They had a nice time... we had all meant to go but there was more creativity a-foot. Daughter #2 and I stayed home and made chicken earrings.... yup you read that right. So Daughter #2 will be giving her chicken crazy friend.... (crazy meant in the most kind terms of course)... a chicken t-shirt and felted chicken earrings.... very original I think. Here are some pictures...
Meanwhile there was some surprise creativity going on out in the barnyard. Mishka (the female alpaca) has for weeks enjoyed the pleasure of getting out on grass since Teapot put up some temporary fencing so that she could go out on our lawn. It was working well until a few days ago when our wither male sheep from last year decided that Mishka smelled really good and started trying to mate with her. (Yes that's a sheep and an alpaca trying to mate.... this seems almost beyond weird especially when we did his balls in when he was born.) Mishka took it all in her stride... literally and I wasn't terribly concerned since when he tried to mount her his jollies only came up to her knees.... and Mishka quite frankly looked somewhat irritated but like she was laughing at him too. We cornered him and flipped him on his butt and had a good look and there low and behold was a nut.... just one. Da--! We had missed one.... (that sometimes happens if their jollies haven't totally decended)! So now the not-wither-half-ram has met his maker and is in the freezer. This suited Mishka quite nicely though the other sheep are missing the black one. And I have a new fleece to wash.
But that is not the end of the story... the actual creativity took place yesterday. As I was saying Mishka has been enjoying grass all summer. Now you will remember that Mishka miscarried this summer after hoping for a cria all year we were disappointed in June when she aborted spontaneously. Meanwhile once summer came we decided that my boy alpacas would enjoy munching grass and leaves in summer pasture... so we put them down in that paddocks that we fenced last summer. AWAY FROM MISHKA. Yesterday I looked out the window and the what to my wondering eyes should appear....
Yeh! So obviously he managed to smell her pheromones.... and get out of his paddock which is way the hell down on the end of our land and find his way over or under or around her fence and get happy with her. Hmmmm.... !
We had meant to breed her this month so nature took care of it for us..... I guess next year we will be having a cria.... with a little luck. So here they are in all their glory.... you may not want to watch this... if you get embarrassed easily....
So with all this creativity on the go... it's hard not to think about other creative things. I'm working on my tablecloth/runner... and I've started working on my Sumak weaving.... this I will show in another blog post.... I don't want to overwhelm you all... (I'm sure seeing alpaca sex is overwhelming enough....)
Have a great and creative day... whatever your creative outlet is... (wink wink) ; }
Daughter #2 got a phone call from one of her friends to say that there was a birthday party in the plans and could Daughter#2 stand going out on a 26 foot cabin cruiser on a nearby lake for a day and stay out for a sleep over. "OH YES" was the response... I'm really happy that she is going to get this opportunity... she hasn't done much this summer so this will be a great highlight for her. Meantime she came to me with a bit of a dilemma. She didn't have a birthday gift for her friend and didn't know if she could afford one. I figured it wouldn't matter if she had had money since there are no local stores that have decent gifts unless you want to buy something that has the name of our town written on it like touristy stuff or unless you want to buy lottery tickets... this for a 14 year old girl would not go over well. So Daughter #2 and I got our thinking caps on and finally came up with a plan.
We decided that we would experiment with making a t-shirt and earrings for her friend. Now this friend is an interesting character. She loves chickens.... like not cooked chicken but the living breathing animals. She has chickens since like us they live on a bit of a hobby farm. She names her chickens.... and she talks to her chickens and she takes her chickens for walks... on a leash... and she has even been known to dress her chickens up... this is a kid with a real chicken thing going on... She has shown up at shearing time and when we saw off the alpaca teeth she has scurried off with the bits of teeth that we would just throw on the ground... a few days later she has come back with alpaca teeth earrings.... so we like to call her eccentric... it is a polite name for what others would regard as odd. We love her and think the world of her...
So Daughter #2 and I planned out a t-shirt for her. I had just bought a package of cotton extra large plain white cotton t-shirts for Teapot since as he gets older he finds the winter draft dreadful and wears them under his clothes. Out came the package and so began an odyssey of making a one-of-a-kind chicken t-shirt. There are two chickens on the shirt drawn on by Daughter #2 and a path of chicken tracks across the shirt from lower left to upper right, dividing the two chickens. This was drawn on in a special marker that I have for drawing on fabric. Then she took my Procion dyes and painted on the design (after soaking it in all necessary chemicals). It has turned out awesome. Today she is putting on the saying. It goes like this, "I dream of a better world where the motives of road-crossing chickens are not questioned." Then last night Teapot and Daughter#1 went to the end of heritage days barbecue and Western style dance. They had a nice time... we had all meant to go but there was more creativity a-foot. Daughter #2 and I stayed home and made chicken earrings.... yup you read that right. So Daughter #2 will be giving her chicken crazy friend.... (crazy meant in the most kind terms of course)... a chicken t-shirt and felted chicken earrings.... very original I think. Here are some pictures...
Meanwhile there was some surprise creativity going on out in the barnyard. Mishka (the female alpaca) has for weeks enjoyed the pleasure of getting out on grass since Teapot put up some temporary fencing so that she could go out on our lawn. It was working well until a few days ago when our wither male sheep from last year decided that Mishka smelled really good and started trying to mate with her. (Yes that's a sheep and an alpaca trying to mate.... this seems almost beyond weird especially when we did his balls in when he was born.) Mishka took it all in her stride... literally and I wasn't terribly concerned since when he tried to mount her his jollies only came up to her knees.... and Mishka quite frankly looked somewhat irritated but like she was laughing at him too. We cornered him and flipped him on his butt and had a good look and there low and behold was a nut.... just one. Da--! We had missed one.... (that sometimes happens if their jollies haven't totally decended)! So now the not-wither-half-ram has met his maker and is in the freezer. This suited Mishka quite nicely though the other sheep are missing the black one. And I have a new fleece to wash.
But that is not the end of the story... the actual creativity took place yesterday. As I was saying Mishka has been enjoying grass all summer. Now you will remember that Mishka miscarried this summer after hoping for a cria all year we were disappointed in June when she aborted spontaneously. Meanwhile once summer came we decided that my boy alpacas would enjoy munching grass and leaves in summer pasture... so we put them down in that paddocks that we fenced last summer. AWAY FROM MISHKA. Yesterday I looked out the window and the what to my wondering eyes should appear....
 |
| He looks like he's having fun... but I'm not sure about her! Mind you she doesn't look upset. |
We had meant to breed her this month so nature took care of it for us..... I guess next year we will be having a cria.... with a little luck. So here they are in all their glory.... you may not want to watch this... if you get embarrassed easily....
So with all this creativity on the go... it's hard not to think about other creative things. I'm working on my tablecloth/runner... and I've started working on my Sumak weaving.... this I will show in another blog post.... I don't want to overwhelm you all... (I'm sure seeing alpaca sex is overwhelming enough....)
Have a great and creative day... whatever your creative outlet is... (wink wink) ; }
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I'm Finished.... Yeah!
 |
| Daughter #1 said she would model. Sporting an ugly green shirt.... ugly jeans and a smashing and I might add very stunning Shrug. |
 | ||
| Ta da! |
 |
| I started in the middle with pink on black and ended with yellow on black.... |
 |
| There's a closer look at the progression of colours and of the lace stitches in between. |
Finis.... fait accompli.... I don't have to knit on it anymore. Now I get to wear it... I just hope it looks as good on me as on Daughter #1.
Pictures never do something like this justice you know.
BTS
OOOHHH NNNOOOO
This morning I got up and opened my email.... there were lots of things to read.... Weaving Daily, Spinning Daily, Vogue Knitting Email Update, and then there was Spinning Daily. When I got to Spinning Daily I opened it with pleasure hoping that there would be a nice article and not just a bunch of adds.... and there they were... the most dreaded words of the summer.
Back To School
EWWWW!
This morning I got up and opened my email.... there were lots of things to read.... Weaving Daily, Spinning Daily, Vogue Knitting Email Update, and then there was Spinning Daily. When I got to Spinning Daily I opened it with pleasure hoping that there would be a nice article and not just a bunch of adds.... and there they were... the most dreaded words of the summer.
Back To School
EWWWW!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
#$@%$&%*&*))^#
Why am I cursing... I don't know I just felt like it. Teapot is off taking Daughter #2 to her job... she is taking care of her teacher's turtle, cat, and plants while her teacher is away. Daughter #1 went along for the ride so that she could stop off at the local video store for some movies. Teapot went to get water. I'm home knitting. I am so close to being finished that I don't want to stop to write here but my hands were starting to ache so I thought I had better have a little break.
Do you think that cursing for no apparent reason is decadent behaviour?
The sheep are out on the grass and actually they sound as if they are cursing too.
The house has now filled with flies. Not mosquitoes but big hairy blue ass flies. There are about 20 on my dining room window. Yuck! Out came one of those sticky paper thingies that you hang up and catch the flies on.... they are completely disgusting but at least they work... I'd rather a disgusting yucky thing hanging than flies laying eggs in my food.... especially with the amount of poop around this farm... you never know what the little creepies have been landing on! This of course is another reason for wanting to swear and curse. All season long it has been too cold for a hatch of house flies.... but the last week things have warmed up and today... just today... there have been a great big hatch of these gross flies. Sometimes winter and all that snow looks pretty good I think?!
Narmin is fitting in well, and for several nights we have been able to get him through without having to clean up after him... that's good for an 9 week old puppy. Still every time I see him take the stance.... I feel like cursing all over again. He's a fast little bugger and he, as all the animals seem to do, has a penchant for hitting the square footage of the only two rugs in my house. All that bare floor and no, where does he decide to pee... yup on the four square feet of rug space in the house. Like what is that all about?!
@#$@%#%
Yup, cursing has some benefits... I feel much better.
Tomorrow... pics finally of the shrug.... the one, the only, shrug of the 150 hour project fame.... I think?!
Do you think that cursing for no apparent reason is decadent behaviour?
The sheep are out on the grass and actually they sound as if they are cursing too.
The house has now filled with flies. Not mosquitoes but big hairy blue ass flies. There are about 20 on my dining room window. Yuck! Out came one of those sticky paper thingies that you hang up and catch the flies on.... they are completely disgusting but at least they work... I'd rather a disgusting yucky thing hanging than flies laying eggs in my food.... especially with the amount of poop around this farm... you never know what the little creepies have been landing on! This of course is another reason for wanting to swear and curse. All season long it has been too cold for a hatch of house flies.... but the last week things have warmed up and today... just today... there have been a great big hatch of these gross flies. Sometimes winter and all that snow looks pretty good I think?!
Narmin is fitting in well, and for several nights we have been able to get him through without having to clean up after him... that's good for an 9 week old puppy. Still every time I see him take the stance.... I feel like cursing all over again. He's a fast little bugger and he, as all the animals seem to do, has a penchant for hitting the square footage of the only two rugs in my house. All that bare floor and no, where does he decide to pee... yup on the four square feet of rug space in the house. Like what is that all about?!
@#$@%#%
Yup, cursing has some benefits... I feel much better.
Tomorrow... pics finally of the shrug.... the one, the only, shrug of the 150 hour project fame.... I think?!
Monday, August 1, 2011
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