A Day About "A" Things.... Alpacas, And Anticipation

For the last few years hay has been a great concern to Teapot and me. We had many animals and not enough land to provide for them. But with all the farms around we didn't worry too much when we got our sheep and alpacas because we knew there was enough hay around to purchase. But as you all know, as the years passed, hay became the primary issue in raising our animals. Well as you also know we finally decided that raising sheep was not for us. We liked the alpacas but the sheep really, if truth be told, irritated the hell out of us.  It got to the point that if you walked out through the door they would baa and fuss and try to run at the fences because you might have food. We'd give them more food and they would just get fatter and the never ending racket would never end. Summer would come and we would put them in the fold at night and let them out in the day, and when they weren't running the fences and terrorizing our neighbours and pooping all over their lawns they were staring at us and baaing for oats. So last summer I finally made the final decision to sell the buggers. And so they went. But by the time I sold them I had arranged for 18 large bales of hay. Five of them we used over the end of the summer and the early part of the fall while there were still sheep here. But finally the fall came and we had a hauling business haul in another ten bales in the hopes that when we ran out, spring would be here and we would be able to haul the rest of our hay ourselves. The last of the sheep made his way to his new home and Teapot  and I were left with a pile of new hay and one horse and 6 alpacas. 10 bales of hay is a nice chunk of hay.... I don't think we realized just how much... Since November we have used 2 and 1/2. Now I knew that the alpacas eat a whole lot less than sheep but this is far beyond our expectations. At this rate they won't run out of hay till June and we still have three more bales to fetch in that have been paid for.  So we are sitting on more hay than we really know what to do with. The nice thing is... if hay is well protected it can be used well into the next year.... I'm not sure if we'll have enough for that but as the temperatures get warmer then the alpacas will eat less, so I am sure the hay will last well into the summer anyway.

Other signs that spring is coming:
This morning I woke at 6:55 a.m. and there it was... light in the sky. Getting out of bed seemed much easier to do. Teapot and Daughter #1 just went out the door to school and it is full daylight. If it were a sunny day the light from the sun would be touching the tops of the trees. To the north there's a little blue in the sky but to the south the sky is dark from storm clouds. It looks like all across the country there is snow coming.... but they never mentioned snow in the forecast for us in the North... so I wonder, will we or won't we get snow in the next few days. If we do then I might safely say that the February thaw is over and the March snows will be blowing once again. March can be a snarky little month... but it helps to have a week break thrown in to ease things before Spring arrives. Teapot will be heading off to Haida Gwaii for a few days with the JCRs and we decided that that would be best since I am in the market for new furniture to use in our sunroom for the summer months again. He will get paid for being away.... and that will be money to help us buy new flooring... yeah!... which is the first step to making the sun room into a living room. Then we are looking for a leather reclining loveseat that will fit in there. Just the fact that I am beginning to think about the sunroom for the main living area is a sign of spring. But it leaves me with a slight dilemma... what do I do with the loom!?

There are certainly birds making their appearance for spring every day. I should finish off the coffee so that I can use the can finally to make a new bird feeder. I have been seeing great flocks of snow birds.... and then I have even seen a crow or two. The ravens are starting to fall in love because you see them rubbing their beaks and getting cozy.

Even the Redpolls are starting to put on their colours....

it is still a little early for anything else. But by March then we should start to see other birds arriving like finches and a few ducks and geese.... by the end of March there will be a huge influx of birds.... and I can't wait because that is my favorite time of the year. I sit out on sunny days on the deck and put in a fire in the fire pit and enjoy the sounds of new birds arriving.... I spin, knit or sew as needs be and all around me arrives spring. And tea over a fire pit is far nicer than tea in the house on the stove. That and a lemon biscuit... makes for a fine tea break... and a fine spring day.

One last note:
It did get sunny yesterday and I did knit a little more and I did watch a nice movie while doing so... It was just a little too cold to go out on the deck... so I sat in my living room and enjoyed the sunshine streaming through the window.

Hope your late winter days are full of sunshine and anticipation for good things in spring.

In The Dark Of The Night

Don't you just hate when you have one of those all consuming nights where you spend hour after hour tossing and turning worrying and wondering about what will be. In the daylight, things just don't seem so problematic. Last night was one of those nights for me... toss, turn, worry, worry... it does no good. Thinking about things that can't be changed make worries pointless bed mates. And then the coyotes started. From 12:02 a.m. till about 1:45 a.m. the coyotes were yipping and howling... they must have dragged down a dear. I worried about the horse... I worried about the alpacas,.... and then I worried about the rabbit, (though the rabbit is close enough to the house that I felt she would be ok). Still, when the coyotes come that close they have a reason and generally I hope it is not my animals. Still that was not the only thing I worried about.... worry, worry, worry... I hate it.

On nights like that I hold Teapot's hand and try to stare out at the stars and watch their passing. Orion is in the sky again and he always cheers me. He has super strength... is all powerful.... and last night he came to my bedroom window with Northern lights.  Blue ones.... Still he couldn't chase my worries away. He was in the south through the bedroom window and the Northern Lights were in the Northern sky, through the bathroom window...  I was surrounded by night visitors. It made for an active night... but I really would have liked to just sleep.

Today the sky tells me that this will be a grey dull day. I think it will be a good day for some more knitting. I am trying to knit that lap comfort blanket for our guild and I made some good progress yesterday. Tomorrow will be a day to return to the level 5 homework... four more samples before I start the TPI questions... My goal was to start them on the 1st of March. A good goal I hope. But for now it is daylight and the dear ones have gone to school. I guess it is time for me to move on with my day too. It is certainly time to put those night worries out of my mind.... also a good goal for today.

A little sun wouldn't go astray and what a lovely pick me up. Maybe a nice uplifting movie too that will take my mind off those worries.

A Dull Roar

Things should get back to normal today. At least I am hoping so.

It has been a week of non-stop running around. The Blueberry was one thing but when I got home there were several days with plans made and activities to complete. Yesterday was swim day.  As I said I had been invited to join the seniors swim day... and even though I am not a senior, I decided to take them up on it. The Community Events Coordinator for several years has been trying to get a group of people interested in twice a month (every second Tuesday) taking the Lion's Club van (which is a 15 seat passenger van) and heading off to an indoor swimming pool in Chetwynd, which is about a 45 minute drive away from our town. We have a pool here in our town but it is an outdoor pool and shuts down  during the winter. So most people in the winter time head off to the Chetwynd pool which has a really great indoor pool. So there is a lot of interest from seniors around here but none serious enough to take the Events coordinator up on her proposal. Some times she get three or four people but some times she gets none and it is hard to justify this program if there is no one to swim.  So she has been looking around the community to find extras who will join in this program. Insert me. I am a stay at home mom and while I am not a senior,... I am creeping up there and the Events Coordinator is a good friend of mine. It seemed like the right thing. So yesterday we headed off for a day of two hours of swimming. It was great. 30 lengths I did which turns out to be almost a kilometre of swimming. It was a beautiful day and the roads were awesome and once again I forgot to take pictures.... I know I am pathetic. I felt great.... until last evening.... but that is another story. Before I get to that I have a few photos to post of the Blueberry retreat.

In hind sight I'm kicking myself because I really didn't bring along my camera... I thought that the camera on my iPhone would be good enough.... it wasn't... It sucked. So here are a few pictures of what was going on at the Blueberry and to those who had their picture taken but didn't get it posted it probably is because the image was just too blurred to keep.

Now this picture needs some explaining. It is an image of Noah's Ark... but it it not just that... It is the coolest image ever because the whole image is made with 234 smaller images. The whole image is made up of small four inch square images done in colour schemes so that when they are put together they colouration makes it look like Noah's Ark.  This mural was hanging on the wall of the Blueberry's big room. The Blueberry in actuality is a summer Christian Bible camp... in winter they rent the main building which is a huge log building, to anyone who wants to use it for retreats. The Scrapbookers use it quite frequently and so do the quilters and then there's us spinners and weavers. It has a huge dining area that we set up tables in to work at. But there is another room off the main room that has a mic and amps and guitars and drums and it is where they have their church type services. That's where this image was hanging and I liked it so much I thought I should take a picture of it.  For my level 5 homework I have to design a skein of yarn based on a photograph or image of some kind and when I saw this image it gave me something to think about.... I think I will base my skein on this image.

This is two of the spinner and weavers that I have such a good time with. They are a laugh a minute but they would say that so am I... Norma is on the left and she was a Home Ec teacher for years and years then Marjorie is on the right and she feeds the five thousand. She works with street people because her church puts off once a week a free lunch for street people.... so she literally feeds the five thousand... only with more than just a few bread and fishes.  Now while I organize the food for the Blueberry.... these two ladies keep the kitchen running and keeps us all in order. They are awesome. Always they are working to make sure we are not poisoned with food that has been left out too long and also they take food out and get it ready for eating... they are wow and amazing.

 Marjorie was finishing several scarves and hats... this is one of her scarves.

 Now here are Linda who's the money lady.... we pay her for our retreat.... and in the background is Mary.... she likes balls... and to be exact, she likes the balls of Arne and Carlos!

And here are the balls of Arne and Carlos....

Don't Arne and Carlos have nice balls.... (you can see why we laugh so much while we are at the Blueberry! We do tend to be a little like a bunch of 14 year olds giggling over anything to do with sex.) By the way Mary had a go at knitting Arne's and Carlos' balls and I think they are really awesome.

 Linda had finished the purple scarf and then she was working on some spinning too.

Cheryl was working on her tapestry and she also was working on a pair of knitted gloves which only had the fingers left to be knitted. The tapestry is awesome... but very time consuming.

This is a sample sized picture of one of my level five homework skeins. This is my garnetted yarn. It is a very pretty black merino with colourful silk noils blended in. I was very happy with it.

One of our members from FSJ while we were at Blueberry was going through a life altering and dreadful experience.  She was in hospital having surgery for Breast Cancer.  So our minds were very much on her.... and we missed her dreadfully at the retreat. She is not the first of our group to go through Breast cancer and cancer in general. In the last year or two our group has been hit over and over again with cancer if not in our members then in their husbands. So two years ago we decided that we would start making comfort blankets for those in distress... whether it be in the form of cancer or just distress of illness or loss of a loved one. The idea was that 15 inch squares would be knit by various members of the group and then donated to a stash held by one of the members till such time as it would be needed for one of our members. But we have not been able to get ahead of the people we love finding themselves in a stressful health situation. I have begun knitting one on my own... I am determined to try to get something done so that maybe we can get ahead of the game.

It is dreadful to watch your friends dropping like flies... sometimes they get up again but sometimes they don't.

So last night I was working on my comfort blanket which is a dark green only... later I will add another colour but I have no idea what colour I'll use. That's when the swimming of yesterday morning began to make itself known. By the time bed rolled around last night I was so sore that I'm sure my neck and shoulders even looked red. It was terrible. I went to bed early hoping that that would help... but eventually I had to get up and open the bottle of Tylenol. This morning things are feeling pretty good.

I'm sure today will finally be a time of settling down... and getting back into the swing of things. You know that dull roar I'm hoping for.

I'll let you know if today was a dull roar....see ya tomorrow.

All Over Once Again

I'm home. I have been for a whole 24 hours. How in the world did it come to a resounding end so fast?

Wednesday seems only like yesterday but already it was 5 whole days ago. Teapot and I left here right after school on Wednesday, and we arrived at Blueberry at about 5:45 p.m.  It was just in time to get my casserole into the oven and ready to eat for supper. Unfortunately the oven wasn't warming it fast enough and so we ended up eating the darn thing almost cold! Other than that the food for the week was amazing. Between eating home made basil pasta with garlic chicken and asparagus to Taboulie salad, from cheese cake with fresh mandarin orange slices drizzled with dark chocolate, from home made cookies of all sorts to  fresh fruit of all sorts, the food was just outstanding. I didn't get my Aspic made... I kind of figured that was pushing my luck... so I will save that for another time.

As for spinning... 556 metres of merino, plied and off the spool into a skein ready for washing. Then I spun two 100 gram bags of black alpaca/merino rovings... into singles. I am turning that into a 3-ply yarn. Two of my skeins for level 5 are now finished.... I have a garnetted yarn done and I have a two tone yarn spun off two different colour rovings at once. I finished the large 14 inch pin loom woven sample piece. I didn't get a chance to work on the tapestry but I did get some of Teapot's mittens knitted. So all in all I am happy with the results.

The weather has been glorious for the last week... temperatures have been hitting highs of +6 degrees and the sun has been shining for the most part. At Blueberry there is an outdoor wood burning furnace and the first night there the caretaker must have thought we were cold.... at night in bed it seemed like hell had risen up and swallowed me whole. I woke in the night with a mouth so dry I thought it had turned inside out. In the dark I fumbled to open the window... I unhooked the lever... but the window would not budge. I thought that I had chosen the wrong blasted room and so went in search of one of the empty ones in hopes of finding a room with a window that opened. I found one and scampered back to my room in the hopes of dragging my gear to the other room with the working window. I had a problem though. Being an old log building with squeaky floors, I was trying to figure out a way of hauling my gear to the room with the opening window without waking everyone up! I really wanted to cool down but I didn't want to make a big disturbance in the middle of the night. When I got back to my room I fumbled around in the dark and found my cell phone and switched it on so that it would work as a flash light. I made one last ditch effort. I had a look at my window and worked the locking lever back and forth in the hopes of getting the window open... the curtain was in my way so I hauled that back and that's when I discovered that the window actually had two locking mechanisms. Well that made all the difference in the world... sometimes I wonder at my stupidity. The rest of that night was fine and as a matter of a fact all nights from that point forward were really good.

I am sad actually that it is a whole year before I can go to the Blueberry again. Sometimes I wish we could have more than one retreat... but we have tried and we never get a good turnout later in the year. People are busy... people are doing things and so our retreat goes down the tubes. One year we tried a retreat in the fall but that didn't work either. No... I guess February is the month of our Blueberry retreat. And that's that!

Meanwhile Teapot and the girls held down the fort at home while I was away. Poor Teapot had dogs with diarrhea to deal with and Daughters who didn't do their chores when they were supposed to. However, it worked out in the end as he got everyone back on the straight and narrow.

Today was a day of relaxation, unpacking (slowly), electrical work since we had a friend come by and finish off a couple of more electrical outlets. As of this moment in time, we are now completely hooked up except for five light fixtures and some wiring for lights on the deck. (The renovation continues.... will it ever end!)  Teapot had to go to town today to take the truck in for some servicing and while there, he mentioned that the truck had been bucking a bit when it was shifting from second gear to third. The transmission is now in parts and we have a loaner from the dealership for the next few days. A red monster truck. He arrived home with a whole pile of groceries at supper time so once again a day of family time was lost. (Darn!) We are trying every which way to have some family time together but it never seems to happen. But I guess we will have to keep trying because when he got home a friend called to say that his truck had broken down on the highway and he was looking for someone to give him a tow. That will happen tomorrow afternoon. And so another afternoon bites the dust for family time.

Well, all are in bed and I am getting tired. I have some pictures to post from the Blueberry but it is going for 11 p.m. I think I will post them tomorrow. That will be later in the day because for the first time in a long time I am going swimming. The seniors club has a few younger seniors that want to swim and they are having a hard time getting enough people to go with them so they have asked a couple of young whipper snappers (I'm one of them!) if they would come along just so they can justify using the Lions Club van.  I'm going just so I can help them out and because I love swimming. (Not because I'm a senior.... I'm nowhere near that! Sure I'm not even menopausal yet! So don't go calling me a senior cause I'll send nasty thoughts your way! ... Just kidding... maybe)

So for now I will say nighty night cause Teapot is warming up the bed... but not too warm because I'd hate for hell to swallow me whole again! : )

Blueberry Retreat Day 4 Already

I don't seem to be doing very well with this damn phone I've tried posting a blog post twice and cyber space eats it. The food here is awesome, the conversation is delightful with many gales of laughter. I'm not getting much work done on my levels but I'm getting above bit done on Teapot's mittens and yarn for his hat. I will write more when I get home and have access to the REAL computer. I'm off too spin grey Alana/merino and knit mittens. Later, i will be spinning two colors at once, eat food, yum! Ta ta for now.

Blueberry.... Today.... Oh My!

Wednesday morning at last. The crescent moon is shining down in a medium blue sky. Teapot and Daughter #2 are getting ready for school and the other Daughter is lying abed with stomach ills. I am surrounded in chocolate. The living room looks like a chocolate bomb and flower bomb hit at some point recently. Valentine's seems to have been better than it started yesterday. I spent the day cooking and baking. I made a Curry Pork and Beef Shepherd's pie and cheese biscuits, and Birdseed bread buns and white and millet bread buns. Today I will be baking once again and trying my hand at salmon aspic.

I've made jello molds before but I have never made aspic. Aspic is slightly different from Jello molds because you are usually using clarified meat or fish broth to make your mold. Aspics are generally hard to make because traditionally they did not use gelatin. The meat was simmered until it formed a gelatinous substance and then other things were added so that the mold would look nice and taste even better. Now-a-days gelatin is used to help form the jelly substance and the sky is the limit for what you can put in it. Have a look at some of the pictures I found of pretty aspics.

This one has macaroni and wieners.

This one is ham and olives.

This is my favorite one for just shear prettiness with tomatoes and mint leaves.

This one has peas and asparagus and some kind of fish I think

Not sure what's in these but they are so pretty.

Carrots and asparagus and inside there is a meat substance I think.

This one I think would be really tasty... love mushrooms in beef broth...

I think they just look amazingly pretty. Clarified broth with anything that your heart desires for ingredients... think of the amazing combinations you could put together.

Anyway, I packed mostly what I am taking to the Blueberry, yesterday afternoon. I am taking a variety of wool and fibre for spinning. I am taking silk cocoons and my mawata frame and washing soda. I am taking my weaving frame pin loom in the 14 inch size and I am taking my weight scales and the bamboo and cotton for the level 5 50 hour project. I am taking the mittens that I started for Teapot as his Valentine's gift... the one's I started about four years ago and never finished. I am not taking the silk socks to knit... I am leaving those at home. I am not taking my rigid heddle loom and I am not taking the logwood dye and stuff. I am leaving all of that at home. I have one more lot of Tea buns to make today that have to have no dairy in them... this will be difficult since flavouring them will take a little stretch of the imagination and I can't use baking powder and I can't use anything with cornstarch... this leaves very little to bake with... I will use oil instead of butter or margarine since both have dairy in them.... I will use baking soda and cream of tartar instead of baking powder because baking soda has corn in it. I will use water instead of milk. But what to flavour it with I don't know.  I thought about garlic and onion powder since they are both ok ingredients and I thought about
jalapeno and ham.... that should make it tasty eh!

I still have personal packing to do... but that won't get done till later since I have to do some shopping before I go and I have to dig out my sleeping bag and foamy.  There are beds but they are institutional beds so I always bring my foamy... and we have to provide our own bedding. It's a lot of work getting ready for the Blueberry but I love going and once you get there it is so worth it. Four days... four full days of relaxing and spinning and most importantly laughing and gabbing...

The day is getting on... Teapot and Daughter #2 have been gone for over an half an hour. Daughter #1 is stirring and I had better get to it if I am going to be ready to go at 3:30 this afternoon. I'll be posting from the Blueberry so stay tuned...

Today And Tomorrow And Then.... The Blueberry

Jeepers creepers... for heavens sake... even the best laid plans get smoked. So my partner in crime.... my buddy... my pal extordinaire... no not Teapot... ok let me clarify that.... my SPINNING partner in crime... my Spinning buddy... my SPINNING pal extrordinaire.... is not able to come to the Blueberry retreat. Poop! (I'd use stronger expletives but I'm not in the mood... "poop" will suffice thank you very much!) So the dyeing will be once again not completed. I will be leaving the merino and logwood at home. (sigh) However, on the up side... my decision regarding my spinning wheel is made. I WILL bring my spinning wheel.... and now today I will sit down and figure out what else I have to bring...Oh decisions decisions.... (sigh... that's two today so far...)

Since it is February 14th... I will wish you all, Mar Faultin'!!

I can see you all now... what the hell does "Mar Faultin'" mean. Well if you are a regular and have been reading here for a while, you will know that "Mar Faultin'" means "good morning Valentine". Right,... I'm not sure what language it comes from, it might even be something from the dark ages... I just know that people in the little town where my mom and dad grew up would say Mar Faultin to each other on Valentine's day and it meant "good morning Valentine". So I will say it again.... Mar Faultin to ee. (Good morning Valentine to you). I hope your day is full of hearts and love and romance. So far I have stepped on Daughter #2's foot as I tried to kiss her cheek... All I got in return was complaints and irritation. Then Daughter #1 stayed in bed because she has a twinge of stomach flu and felt like she was going to throw up! This of course was very flattering to me... "Oh mom,... don't kiss me... I'm going to puke!" The dog tried to slip me the tongue.... which was very scary and somewhat disconcerting since I had recently brushed my teeth and so am weary of what the hell I have on my breath after all night long... as a result when my true Valentine tried to kiss me, I put my hand over my mouth and turned my head to the side and mumbled something like...."the dog likes my breath.... you however, may not." I am hoping that this is not an indication of the rest of Valentine's Day for me.... it could be bad.

We will be celebrating via the parents house which will tell you why I have nixed Valentine's Day as one of the most unromantic days of the year. When other people are celebrating love with candlelight, wine and sex.... I will be discussing the merits of stomach medication with or without food with my dad and reminding my mother of the next church service five times in ten minutes while Daughter #2 rolls her eyes around in her head fifty times in one evening and Daughter #1 tries to avoid spewing... and Teapot quietly gets tea and ignores all by staring diligently at his cell phone. Yes.... Valentines' with all it's significance is lost to me. Romance blooms not on Feb 14th but at any other time of the year when my dear one and I can avoid all familial obligations. That will be some time in July possibly when we sneak off for a walk through the woods and some hand holding and other stuff that you need not know about... (if your mind is in the gutter then that's your problem... I'm glad to have aided the Essence of Valentine's day.)

On that note I will head off to the kitchen to cook Shepherd's Pie for my contribution to the Blueberry food. I will avoid all things Valentinish as I'm not sure I want to particularly go down that road right now.... especially after the start it has had.... we're not quite sure where it will end.

But I do hope you enjoy it.

In the meantime... I'm all about the Blueberry.