Scared Out Of My Bejeepers

It has been blowing a gale all day yesterday and today. I took out some broccoli stems to the bunnies in the dark last night and all around me were those dead pine trees, (they surround our property), which were cracking and squeaking in the heavy winds.  It felt so much like Hallowe'en with all that noise.  It was a real night for Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. I kept looking over my shoulder and I thanked heavens the doggies were with me.... all of them including the ADHD dog.... Bailey!

I am not one to scare easily.  I used to have a boyfriend who would try to scare me by popping out of closets when I got home from work or would pose as having hung himself off the shower rod in the bathroom. He even bought  a retractable knife and stuck it in himself in the kitchen one evening... I found him lying on the floor in the kitchen with a knife sticking out of his chest... but then, I would pose as having fallen down the steps, unconscious, with blood oozing from a gash on my head.... but none of it was real... still it was a situation where it would scare the dickens out of you if you thought for the split minute that it was real. (I got him really good with the falling down the steps one since I acted as if I was unconscious and kept the act up really good.... Ha!)

Then there's Teapot who comes up behind you when you're not expecting it and knocks your knees out from under you. Or sneaks up behind you while your working hard on something and softly whispers in your ear and makes you want to poop in your pants.  Teapot is a little more subtle about his scaring tactics than was that other fellow.

So I have become accustomed to getting the pants scared off me. I try not to think about being scared too often.  But the one thing that scares me beyond all reason is walking through a forest in the night when the wind is blowing.... Oh man does that scare me.

Now the bunny cage is approximately 20 steps from the house and there is nary a tree for another fifty feet beyond but when I walked out there last night I got the creeping sensation that something was watching me. Now we have wild life aplenty around here... as you know, moose have walked right up to the house, deer are common visitors, the coyotes have been skulking around regularly for the past nine years and owls silently pass your head without so much as a howdy do. So when I felt those eyes on me last night, I peered through the dark in an effort to figure out what was watching me. I looked toward the horse paddock and there was Dreamer lazily eating her food which assured me that whatever was watching me was benign at least. And then I peered through the dark toward the alpaca's paddocks and they were all sleepily chewing their cuds quietly.... this too was a good sign.... so why was the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as the wind howled and the trees waved back and forth.

I just couldn't figure it out.

I started back toward the house taking steps slowly so that I wouldn't fall into the holes that the dogs insist on digging. I didn't want to sprain an ankle or worse. Five more steps and I had another look around. Still there was nothing that I could see.... or hear at that point with the wind chimes blowing back and forth on my deck... but I just knew... I just knew that there was something there with me. That's when out of the corner of my eye I saw it.... it looked like a person standing there with a long grey gown that was blowing in the wind.....

I just about jumped out of my skin..... why hadn't she spoken to me..... I called out.... "can I help you?" I thought perhaps she was lost.

Dead silence.... and I mean dead.... just her two arms raising up to beckon to me.

The hair by now was standing not just on the back of my neck but on the top of my head and on my arms and if truth be told I'm sure the hair on my unshaven legs were all standing at attention too! Every skin cell told me to run like the bejeepers...... I was sure that some specter had come to take me to some other realm...... I turned and walked fast thinking, "you're nuts, you're nuts..... there's nothing there.... there can't be..." that's when the best friend of any man or woman came to my aid.

During the renovation of 2009 we were smart enough to install motion detectors on the front deck lights.... Woo hoo! Halalujah! On came the motion detector light as it detected my now very speedy motion.

I turned as I stepped up on to the steps, to look behind me and there blowing in the wind was not the specter of my imagination.... but......

 Which in the daylight looks like this....

It's just the damn tarp that we used last summer for shelter for the alpacas from stormy rainy days. The wind of the last few weeks has torn it to shreds!

Phew! I'm glad I don't scare easily!

Nasty Weather In The Air

I finished cleaning the house last evening with a little help from Teapot and the Daughters.... good thing too since an Aunt and Uncle who are visiting my parents came to call last evening.  We had a really nice visit. And I felt proud that my house was so nice and neat and tidy... usually I'm apologizing for the mess that is all around me. Here's how it looked after the big fall 2011 cleanup...

Much better now that you can see the surface of the couch and actually sit on it!

Plants watered and window sill cleared off of debris and dead flies. Nice basket of wool for coziness and that cute wee owl to watch over all.... very nice.

Oh! Look at that.... we can eat at the table for heaven's sake.... there's nothing on it except for a table cloth... lovely (except its pink... urgh!) What a novelty.... a table that you can eat at... never heard of such a thing!

This is still the messiest area in the house but it is my work room after all... you have to have stuff laying around where you are working right?!

Wow! And even the computer area is neat and tidy. Gosh though... looking at that old blue chair of mine makes me realize just how ugly and in need of a cover it is.... yuck!

Still though the whole house looks awesome even the front porch which Teapot fixed up... it looks great too.  I wonder though for how long!

Just before our guests arrived and right after they called to say they were coming I took a quick spin into town to go to the bakery so that I would have something nice to put out and eat... (well... we are Newfies for heavens sake... what would a visit be without food on a plate... at least I served nice things... cheese and crackers and the yummiest grapes... the bakery stuff looked gross... honestly!) Anyway... as I was saying.... on the way to town I snapped this photo...

Now if there's not snow in those clouds I'll eat my shirt..... Although the forecast is calling for above freezing temperatures, I'm not holding my breath. Teapot says rain and maybe he's right but I'll wait and see.

Today Teapot will be hauling in hay... and we'll be finishing up winterizing the yard etc... there's a few small jobs around to be done before that snow comes. We've noticed that in the addition there are some spots where you can see daylight through cracks that have formed where the logs of our house butt up against the addition walls... This will require caulking since the logs shrink over time and the caulking needs to constantly be watched as the cracks open. There are a few windfalls from the last few windy weeks that will need cutting and burning. The tent trailer will need it's tarp wrapped around it and the hay will need to be stocked for horse and alpacas. Then we have to haul the ram to his new home where he will be happy to see his girls again. Tomorrow there are a few fence issues to be addressed as the snow of last winter has pulled the fence in the alpaca pen down and if they really wanted to, they could step right over then fence in one place... thank heavens they don't run fences... alpacas are very mild mannered. So these are the jobs ahead...

With Monday being Hallowe'en I feel like I should have pumpkins all over but I don't... as a matter of a fact you'd never know that it was Hallowe'en at all around here.  Nary a witch or pumpkin to be seen.... unless you count me as a witch! (Some days I feel like I could pass as one.) But since we live way out here in the boonies and since the girls are getting older and are not trick-or-treating anymore (this is a first for us) we really don't feel the need to dress up our house. We do watch scary movies on the big night... and eat carmel popcorn made by moi, and go to the fireworks that our volunteer fire fighters put off.  But somehow Hallowe'en just doesn't seem the same now that we are not walking house to house with our children. Still, Christmas is on the way and I guess we will be thinking about that great event as it draws closer....

If I don't get back here before Monday, you all have a great Hallowe'en... watch out for the ghosts and goblins.... and don't eat candy till you throw up... always sage advice from the Batt!

Change Is In The Air

 It seems like day after day goes by and I can't think of anything to say so today is a day to catch up on all the mundane things that are happening that don't really seem worth talking about but yet are my life.

For two days I have been cleaning.  I think it all started when I cleaned up our bedroom a week or so ago.  I got a hankering for a really nice clean house... but then maybe it was the fact that I had this beautiful new loom and no where to put it. Or perhaps it is just that winter is around the corner and I'm feeling the need to hibernate or make a nice little nest for myself. Then again it might be that more and more Christmas is niggling in the back of my mind. Either way it has lead to a massive clean up/move furniture readjustment. Each night I fall into bed with a sore back and stiff joints. It has to do with the pushing and pulling of all furniture in this house... When I say I'm moving everything around I mean it.

Last spring I made a decision to put the dining room table in the big square room off the kitchen which had always been our living room.... and I moved our couch, chairs and T.V. into the sunroom. It was great.  For years we had felt that the sunroom was not being utilized to the best of our ability. Day after day that lovely south facing room was just sitting there as a storage room for all my spinning and weaving gear and for our dining room table.  When we had decided to build the sunroom we had made the decision to put a door in on the west side of it with the idea that eventually we would build a deck on that end of the house but as time has gone by I really have become sorry that I did that... I should have just put a window over there and not a door at all. We've never built that deck but do intend on building it at some time in the future.  The other thing I'm really sorry about is that we didn't extend that room out a few extra feet. The room measures 5.5 feet by 24 ft. It is a fairly awkward space because it is so narrow. Not quite roomy enough for a dining room and certainly not roomy enough for a living room.  It was intended to be used as an office and as a bit of studio space for me but what we have found is that I get lonely when I use it for studio space and want to spin where the familial action is. The office in the was alright but then we had nowhere for our dining room. And the kitchen is just too darn small for it. So in the end we have decided to use the sunroom for our living space with the T.V. in the summer and the dining room will go into this room off the kitchen and then we will switch it back to the living room in.... well suffice it to say that there will be two major moves a year. Which is what I have been doing. We're kind of like a bunch of Beavers with a summer home and a winter home... the deepest rooms in the house are the ones we will use for winter and the other ones will be the ones we use in the summer... clear as mud... I know.

Anyway here are a few pictures that you can look at to see just what I mean... and do realize that I have a long way to go before I am finished....

The couch is back in where we used to have the living room... I already miss the bright light of the sunroom. : (

This is all junk that was in my studio which needs sorting... I have a plan.... really I do! I see the cats have found a cushion on the floor... that figures.

Looking toward the kitchen you can see that the computer and desk are in a complete mess. that's my next job this morning... is sorting out and dusting that area.  Oh by the way I'm not packing to leave Teapot... the suitcase is the one in which I haul around my spinning wheel.

My studio space has received the new loom as you can see but I'm still trying to fit everything else around it! The fore ground is where the mess is but I'm working on it.

The dining room is in the sunroom directly off the living room... I haven't a clue what to do with all those stupid binders... that's all the work from my Master Spinner program... and the table is a little better now because I've sorted a whole bunch of that stuff... Actually Daughter #2 is writing her science test on the table at the moment... she missed it due to her outbreak of Shingles.

Perhaps I will take pictures again in a few days when I get everything sorted out. I might have to do that to prove that I am not the world's worst house keeper!

I figure a big clean twice a year can't be a bad thing... it gets rid of any giant dust bunnies and keeps Murphy at bay... well it's my theory anyway.

Two days ago, Teapot and I went for dental appointments.  For the first time in a very long time I need nothing done.... which means no cavities. Yeah!  Teapot however, has a bunch of small cavities. Poor guy. It was interesting going to this dentist... it was a new dentist that we have never gone to before.  We walked into the office and there was no doubt in my mind that dentists do really well for themselves.  I went into the bathroom and there before me was a T.V. for my viewing pleasure. Then after I went into the office there was another T.V. over my head to look at while I was getting my teeth done. There were six chairs for the dental hygienists and there were four more chairs in more privates spaces for those who were getting more than just a cleaning. Then there was this huge machine for taking xrays and to be quite frank, while I was in that machine I felt like I did the last time I went for a mammogram... it actually was kind of scary... thank God it only took a few seconds to finish. Then as we were leaving they handed us a certificate for a free lunch from Quiznos. Like since when do you get a free lunch on the Dentist... I can handle that!

More importantly though, after our appointments were finished (and my gums felt raw from all that scraping) we went to the Telus store while we were waiting for our half hour after the fluoride treatment.....(we couldn't go to Quiznos yet). OH and we had fun!  I have an iPhone.... like how awesome is that!  I tried posting on this blog from my phone but it wouldn't let me do that... well, I haven't read the instructions yet but I'm working on it... Still it is just the coolest phone on the face of the earth. I love it. It's a big change for me. I am seriously determined to go into mod mode. I refuse to get left behind on the computer/technology front. So I have all the bells and whistles on my phone. And that makes me a very happy camper.  I can take all kinds of pictures which I could do on my other phone but now you can see what they actually are and the pictures are pretty good. I can mark things on my calendar.... I already have appointments written down for the dentist! And I can access the Internet and listen to music and I can check the weather forecast. I love it... texting is so easy now... I have a touch screen keyboard on which I can type like stink... I love it. Last week I thought all those complaining about their Blackberry dying on them were nuts... now I can see why they were complaining... I mean I'm not quite that crazy but you can have a real love affair with your phone you know!  Mind you I still hate people who pull it out when they in company and start texting on the phone... it's very irritating. I will not be one of those kind of people I assure you.

Each morning when I get up, my expectation is that we will be facing snow. But still the snow is holding off. I'm quite happy with that though I don't want it to hold off indefinitely because I know how important the snow pack is for summer moisture.  We need rain for sure if we want hay for the alpacas next year. The days are mostly grey now... no more leaves on the trees. They have been gone for weeks. It is time for packing things away cleaning up the yard and getting the garden mulched. We always try to get it done before the snow comes in an effort to make spring cleanup easier.  We have closed our tent trailer (actually we did that a few weeks ago)... which is usually open all summer but we have not put it away. It needs to be put away soon since it will get damaged where it is by a snow plow if we don't do it before the snow comes, so this weekend will be a time of getting the last of the work done in the yard, before snow falls... and more importantly stays.

Teapot will be going away soon.  He has meetings in Victoria on the first weekend of November. I will be teaching Kumihimo braiding in FSJ on that weekend... I can't believe how time is flying by. This is the last week of October sure!  After Hallow'een there will be no help for it.... Christmas all the way... scary thought indeed.

Remember my plan last year to knit silk socks for everyone for Christmas... yeah that was stupid! : ( When did I actually think I was going to get that done.  I still haven't finished my first pair from my Cat Bhordi book... let alone decent socks for everyone... I must be nuts... mind you there is always next year.... ; )

Somehow I am feeling like the dark days are ahead and I feel anxious to get everything ready for those days of hibernation/ hiding away from the cold and dark... the lights are on longer each morning before I turn them off for the day and God help us on those days when the sun doesn't show its face.... I feel like I'm disappearing into the dark.... Maybe I need to start hiding away some money for a little vacation in late February.... even a trip to Victoria at that time of the year is a break... while we are still having snow and cold and dark, dark, dark, they are having daffodils and sunshine and bright light. Maybe I can convince Teapot to go.... we just need the money eh?! 

Anyway, now that I have rambled on and talked about those mundane things that affect me each day... it's time for me and sort through papers and heaps of junk that haven't gotten put away yet in the great autumn cleanup of 2011.... hope your day is not as mundane as mine.

Getting Ready

I have been watching Grey Jays (Whisky Jacks for you Newfies) scurrying away from my feeder with food for the last few weeks.  When my dogs rejected a certain brand of food that we had been given we decided to put it out for the Jays... sure enough they love it. They have been visiting every blessed day and flying off into the forest with chunks of dog food.  You must know that what they are doing is getting ready for winter.  It's almost here and it is becoming clearer every day.

 We had our first brush with winter the other day.  Friday we had our first snow fall.  It came and then it went and by last night another Chinook was blowing in. I actually had to open my bedroom window last night again after a week of sleeping with it closed. As October slips away I see more and more signs that winter is coming.  The mountains to the west of us (the Rockies) are snow covered now and the few straggling geese are making their way south.

So the dear Daughter #2 is home again today... she has Shingles and is suffering from needle pricks in the area where the rash is.  It feels like there are dozens of wee needles pricking her skin and it is very distracting... poor kid.  She opted to stay home for a couple of days till this stupid rash goes.  In the meantime she missed, on Friday, a Science test and so she is studying to do that when she gets back to class.  So I suppose that in a way she is getting ready. 

Late October seems to be a season of getting ready. I'm not quite sure why.  Perhaps it is because we tend to start winter preparations at this time of the year. For example, we spent yesterday afternoon prepping the alpacas for winter.  They have all gotten their teeth trimmed, toes trimmed and shots for parasites... so they are good to go. The last of my sheep... the ram to be exact will be leaving us this coming weekend.  I started to trim the rabbits and decided that the staple was not quite long enough so I cleaned up the last of the knobs and noils on their fur and and gave them a good combing out.  As a result they are ready for winter.  So that accounts for all animals. Then Daughter #1 pulled all the rest of the beets and carrots in the garden and I covered the garden soil with chicken wire so that the cats wouldn't be using it for their bathroom.... so that' ready for winter.  Daughter #2 has outgrown her winter jacket and so I ordered a new one for her it should be here within a week.... then she'll be almost ready for winter. What's left?  Mittens.... today I will be starting in on a bunch of mittens for the Daughters.  Both girls are the most terrible at losing mittens even though they are 14 and almost 16 years of age.... so I will be knitting mittens for them out of wool that I spun when I first started spinning so many years ago... (yes, I still have some of that old stuff kicking around). In the end they will be ready for winter. Teapot needs boots for winter and we are working on that and so do I and so we are working on that too.

As you can see getting ready seems to be a part of our lives these days.  There are other things to that make me think about getting ready.  I am starting to clean up my spinning studio space which got trashed the day our electrician came by to finish putting in some outlets in the front sunroom.... I also have to figure out what I am going to do with the new old loom. That's something that I am going to be working on today. All this cleaning... including our bedroom the other day makes me think that it is a good time to prep for the almighty season of Christmas.... (there, I said the fowl word).... I'm still thinking of a new couch and chairs for our living room. This too seems like I am getting ready.

Meanwhile my level 5 homework progresses but I haven't actually made my binders ready to receive my work... so that's something else I am hoping to prep today. And last but not least.... in 2 weeks I will be teaching Kumihimo braiding on the Maru Dai in FSJ so I am starting to prep for that too. So even in my professional (snork) life I seem to be getting ready.

It's time I think to make a list of all that I need to do.  I'm sure I will forget something.  I know... forgetting is a way of getting ready for old age isn't it?! Well, if that is the case then I have been getting ready for years now!

Hope this finds you in all readiness....

Have a good day.

I've Heard Of Spring Cleaning... But Fall Cleaning?...

Does anyone want a 7 ft. tri-loom?  Probably not. But I'm selling mine... I have offered it to a friend of mine who was looking for one a few years ago.  I'm hoping she will buy it.  I was really hesitating about selling it at first. But in the end I decided that it took up too much room in my house and I was disappointed that I couldn't get it to work unless I used bulky weight fibre... worsted was just too fine.  I had spun some worsted weight fibre and given it a try and came to the conclusion that it was too open a weave for my liking.  Yesterday Teapot and I decided that our bedroom needed some attention (and how!!! more about that in a minute) and in the process of moving the 7 ft tri-loom this way and then that way, in a fit of frustration, I made the decision that should have been made months ago to sell mine.... part of the decision was an offer from a family member to make me a large pin loom for blankets. He can make one for me and have the pins slightly closer and it will be good for a finer weight of yarn. So the loom goes... if there are any takers.

I have a really hard time parting with equipment.... well some equipment... and I will probably wonder if I made the right decision especially if it sells.... but then I do have that brother-in-law who will make me a new one.... I hope... if the offer is still open. Argh!... See now I'm wondering if I should be selling it.

Anyway, I have been eyeing up my bedroom for a couple of months and thinking it seriously needed an overhaul. We have been sleeping on a mattress and box spring for many years with it sitting directly on the floor.  About a week ago the pooches discovered something incredibly smelly and nice to roll in outside. Then they came home and ran upstairs and rolled in the sheets on my bed. Ugh! It was disgusting. The sheets were ruined and thank heavens I had a mattress pad on because the mattress pad saved my mattress from being destroyed too. That was when I knew I needed to do something with my room for sure.

About a year ago I blogged about buying a new bed to accommodate the mattress and box spring but it was not to be... we were never able to agree on a bed and eventually we just gave up on it and decided to wait till such a time as we could agree. Then this summer past, on the weekend of the dyeing retreat, I happened to go to the Transtor site where one of my friends works....  (that's the garbage dump for you who are unaware...). Now in HH we are lucky enough to have a dump with a sharing shed.  This is a great big shed where people can bring things that are still of use but they don't want anymore. At any given time you can find some pretty awesome things in that shed.  I have been known occasionally to bring home perfectly good wooden chairs and put on some nice new upholstery and voila... a perfectly good chair.  I have also been known to bring home things for the deck... Teapot brought home gates for the paddocks and chicken wire for the chicken pens when we had chickens... perfectly good chicken wire... like who is going to get rid of that I ask you... all kinds of good things can be found in the sharing shed. Well on that fateful day this past summer I happened to find an awesome headboard and footboard that I just couldn't pass up. Home it came.  Teapot gave it the evil eye but he didn't complain so I knew he was ok with it too.

Over the next few months I thought and thought.... believe me, that is never a good sign. And I finally came up with a great idea.  We would use the headboard and footboard and make side rails... and make them high enough to discourage the dogs from jumping up on our bed. It would also be high enough up that we could put their beds under it and they could sleep underneath us.  Teapot agreed to this idea and so yesterday we got down to it and made our bed.... and cleaned up our room like it has never been cleaned before.  A place for everything and everything in it's place... so to speak.  We haven't had a bedroom like that since before the renovation in 2009... like that's ages ago... how we've lived in that pile of poo is beyond me.  It now looks awesome... and we have a bunkbed with our pooches.  Yes the bed is high but it is no higher than a hospital bed... and no need to worry about falling out because Teapot and I like to snuggle close... (and that's the only thing you're going to know about our sleeping habits too!)  I was even able to bring in from our shed a beautiful antique settee that has been in my family for a good long while and use it in our bedroom... al in all it looks awesome... There are a few small jobs left to be done but I will finish them tomorrow.  Today we are cutting alpaca teeth. But in the meantime here are a few pictures to view.

The blue settee in the foreground is the antique that I'm glad to finally be able to use. The windows need curtains.. but that will come tomorrow.

This is looking from the head of my bed toward my closet and the balcony door. I haven't got closet doors yet but that is coming in the new year.... yeah!

This is looking from the balcony door toward Teapot's closet which also needs a new door... The tri loom is the one I am selling... and the shelf and mirror will trade places with the painting that you saw in the previous picture on the other wall.  Yes I know we need an outlet and yes I know there is another box to unpack on the floor in this picture!

And voila... the dog's beds are under our bed with nary a dust bunny to be found... ( I whooped their asses and kicked them out with Murphy a while ago... but I do hear Murphy knocking from time to time.)

Oh! And look there's the Narminator enjoying his new digs now.... Baily and Jiggs sleep over on the other two beds that you saw in the previous picture.  Yes that's plastic containers full of wool on the other side of the bed but they are neatly placed on a shelf..... so there!

I had to add this picture even though it is similar to the first since, with the sun shining in, it looked so inviting that I just wanted to curl up like a cat and have a nap in that glorious light.

 

 

So that's it. I'm off to saw off alpaca teeth. I'm wiped out just thinking about it... I hate sawing off teeth. It is a grizzly job. But it's nice knowing that I have a lovely bed and bedroom to welcome into its ever lovig arms when I'm tired and worn out from sawing off teeth and cutting toenails and giving shots! I can't wait to go to bed tonight!

Pleasant Saturday Morning

Daughter #2 went to see the doctor yesterday because on Thursday night when I checked her over I noticed a rash that resembled chicken pox.... it has been confirmed that the stingling in her skin on the back of her arm and under her arm and all down the side of her back is Shingles... : ( I started to suspect this about mid-week and really wanted it confirmed by a doctor... she is now taking antiviral medication in an effort to get the rash and the lingering pain under control. It will probably take a week or two depending on how tenacious the rash is before she will be better. Poor kid...

The loom has landed!  Sitting on the floor of my dining room is the new/old loom. (New to me, but old in years.) I have decided to give this loom a new name.... I so dub thee MacDonald.  Somehow it looks like a MacDonald. It will need some cleaning up and possibly a paint job.... What colour do you paint a loom that is named MacDonald. My friend thought black.... I do tend to paint things black... but somehow I thought Granny Smith Apple green but then that doesn't sound serious enough for a loom whose name is MacDonald.  Perhaps I should paint it black and the decorate and embellish in Granny Smith apple green. Hmm.... now there's an idea!

We had our first snow fall yesterday.  The wee doggy and the kitten had quite an interesting time checking out the new snow... it was their first time experiencing snow.  It didn't really stick on the ground but the vegetable patch is covered in snow this morning and the deck... but everywhere else, it melted.

Time to pull what's left of the carrots and beets in the garden.  I will need to get them out of the ground today since they will freeze there if I don't. Teapot and I do not have a root cellar and so we leave our vegetables in the ground till the last possible moment since they do not last long once they come into the house.  This way you get the effect of a root cellar until the ground freezes.  Our vegetables last this way until Christmas... after that things tend to rot. We have often thought we should dig out a root cellar under the house but since the crawl space down there is so d--n small it is virtually impossible to get down there to dig.   You can see in this picture that the vegetable patch is covered in snow.... next year our plan is to build another raised bed behind this one for potatoes....it will be just wide enough between the two raised beds for the truck to go so that watering with the water tanks will be easier. Probably the year after we will build another raised bed beyond that for more potatoes.  I also want a raised bed in front of the big shed... (that would be on the south side) so that I can put tomatoes and beans and peas there.  All beds would be readily reachable by the truck for watering purposes. I think I might have to hire someone to come in and move the soil since that is a huge job for a person with a wheel barrow.

Daughter #2 has just come down from a night of very little sleep.  She says she was uncomfortable due to the Shingles... poor kid.  All has been quiet to this point except that the two cats have been pestering each other's tails. They seem to like playing with each others tails.... apparently a flicking tail is almost as good as a ball with catnip.  I have had a lovely peaceful cup of tea and now that I have caught up on the news for today, and read my few favorite blogs, and checked out and answered a few emails, I'm off to finish plying a small sample of rayon that I spun yesterday.  I might even get my Lyocell sample finished today.  Either way, Monday, I will have to get the binders set up for my homework and I have to do the many write ups for the work I have already produced while it is still fresh in my mind. So until then have a good weekend... and I hope your Saturday is peaceful and quiet and you get everything done that you planned on doing.

Wabbits, And All The Junk That Is My Life

Today is shearing day.... or hair cut day for the bunnies.  I've decided that I really can't leave it any longer. They will be so cold if I trim their fur and then we have a cold snap.  But I have checked the weather forecast on three different web sites and they are all calling for above freezing temperatures for the next week. That's good because even though I don't intend on trimming the bunnies down to their skin, I do want to get the best staple that I can.  But then I do want the bunnies to have enough fur grown back in time for the really cold weather.  I have learned that the best angora comes from keeping your animals trimmed every three to four months. The angora doesn't get a chance to get matted and they don't chew on it to rid themselves of those pesky lumps... too much fur means a sick wabbit.... and we don't want that.  Some bunnies can be combed and that will do the trick but I have read some real horror stories about bunnies ingesting their own fur and then dying from associated problems.

Yesterday I had intended on finishing up a spinning sample for my level 5 homework but life interjected and I ended up moving furniture around at Pop's house. Once I got him settled I came home in time to get supper on the table and then I was so pooped that spinning was too much for my poor tired back to handle.  I did card the fibre-blend that I am working on and it looks lovely... hopefully it will spin up just as nicely. I am hoping to get some of the book work done today as well. I have five samples now to go in my book with the next one being spun today. That's six samples... if I keep this up I will be finished in no time at all.... (snort!)

As for the loom... the loom is in the works.  I finally was able to get in touch with the lady who is selling it.  I have a friend coming for a spinning day tomorrow and hopefully if everything works out then she will bring the loom with her. However, I am not holding my breath considering how difficult this whole loom purchase has become. Still, October 26th I have an dentist appointment and I will pick it up then if it doesn't work out tomorrow.

So that's it. Not a lot happening around here other than the normal... though I do start Knit Night again tonight after a hiatus of five long months.  I am looking forward to seeing the knitting gang again.  Daughter #2 is staying home today as she has developed some odd sensitivity in her shoulder that is causing her quite a bit of pain... whether it is muscular or nerve related we are not sure but I will be calling the doctor today for an appointment since we have been trying to self treat for over a week now. October seems so mundane it hardly bares writing about it.  Hallow'een is coming and maybe that will provide fodder for blogging.... but then I shouldn't complain since who knows what excitement might come... and it might not be excitement I want!

I will wish you all a good day and I will wish you a sunset like the one that came and went as I was coming home from Pop's house last evening.

Marvelous eh?