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!

#$@%$&%*&*))^#

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?!

Flu

Flu in the summer time sucks!   Stomach flu in the summer time sucks double time!

Best Laid Plans....

My Father and Mother just celebrated their 77th birthdays... their birthdays are just one week apart. Yesterday you will recall that I had planned on going on a picnic. X that one... Pops (that's my father... ) called and invited us to go to their house for cheese cake which he had bought for my mother's birthday and had forgotten about. So we ended up there instead. It turned out to be a nice diversion actually. Then Daughter #2 and I came home to watch movies... we've been doing movie marathons each night. Sometime watching three in the run of an evening. Mostly they are movies that are at least a few years old.  I really want to go out on the deck but the wind dies down at night and out come the mosquitoes... that's where the new sun room comes in handy.  We open all the windows in there and sit back in comfort and enjoy the night breezes without the irritation of mosquitoes. It's great... I really think that Teapot and I should look into seriously building a screened porch and maybe make it a little more elaborate than I was first thinking.  The west side of the house has been beckoning to us for several years. I keep thinking that we should build a deck out there but it suddenly occurred to me that it would be a great spot for our screened porch.  We could use clear plastic for the roof.... like the kind that you use for green houses... you know that corrugated stuff. Then have screens that are removable in winter. Or we could get a little more elaborate and make it more fall and spring proof.  We could use sensible glass for the roof and turn it into a real room with a wood stove and sliding glass doors everywhere.  Mind you I could be just dreaming.  I'm sure it would cost an arm and a leg.  Teapot hates them but I love house renovations.... it means something new is happening.... and a change in your location is like going on holiday.

So there was no picnic...

Teapot will be home tomorrow... they are traveling today. they are supposed to be in Grand Prairie tonight which is like a hop skip and a jump away... I might even actually get to talk to him.  All the time he has been away he has been where there is no cell phone coverage, and getting to use the pay phone is a fight against all of those JCRs who are calling home.  I've missed talking to him. Daughter #1 is with him and I will be glad to see her too. It seems like they have been gone a very long time.

All day yesterday... I spun. Something I haven't done for a while.  I've been knitting all along... and I'm sorry to say that I still don't have my shrug finished for the 150 hour project.... I ran out of black wool 12 rows from the end.  So now I'm waiting for Rit Dye so that I can finish dyeing the last skein that I have... meanwhile I have started on the 50 hour project for level 5.  I am making a table cloth out of Ramie and linen.  I started spinning the Ramie yesterday. So far so good.  I am happy with the spinning and Ramie is not so bad.... I know I know... you're all laughing that I would choose linen after the hullabaloo I made last year about hating flax.... but I'm not spinning line... I'm spinning tow and there's all the difference in the world.  I will spin Ramie which is white and lustrous and weave it on my 6 inch pin looms and then I will spin linen and use it to join the blocks together. It will be a picture of beauty as the crisp white of the ramie and the ecru of the linen come together.... I'm excited!

So I just had my juice and toast and I'm off to spin Ramie...

Summer Is Supposed To Be Great... Right....?

Remember the days when summer meant going to the beach... or to the lake... swimming at all hours of the day.... living in your swimsuit. Sun burns were common. running through the forest was part of the game and when school ended the summer stretched out before us with endless possibilities.

What I want to know is why my summers don't look a bit like that any more. Every day.... it's feed the animals. Feed more animals.  Weed the garden. Sleep when you can... (avoid the rain although I do have to say that this last week has been pretty good).... worry about money and how to pay the bills.... (Teapot doesn't get a pay check in the summer). Worry about hay and how much we are going to get. Haul water.... haul more water.... and go to the dump with loads of junk that seems to be generated from my home.  Not once have I dipped my paddle this year... Something's wrong.... right?

I'm feeling the urge to shed.... shed some animals... anyone want some sheep?  I'd like to hang on to my alpacas though... but the horse... well I'd be quite happy to see the end of her...  and Honeydew.... well in a heart beat she could go.

We used to take the kids camping.... We used to take the kids canoeing... I want to go back to that.  Lament lament lament...!

Something has gotta be done! You wait... there will be some big changes around this farm... just you wait!

I'm going to be sittin' by a lake... and I'm going to swim and canoe... I'm done with this sittin around doing nothing.

Yup... Summer is going to be like it used to be... picnics that's how I'll start... with a picnic for Daughter#2 and me we'll do it today too.

Nary A Picture To Be Had

Daughter #1 took the camera with her when she headed for JCR camp a week and a half ago and so I don't have any pictures to post from the dyeing retreat. Now that it's over I can safely say that for the first time ever I really didn't want to hostess it.  Not that I didn't want to see my friends and not that I didn't want them to be here... just that I wasn't feeling up to it.  For about 6 months now I've been feeling bone tired all the time and was actually quite fearful that it might be heart related. But I think that the Doctor has finally figured out what's happening with me.  Just before I went to Olds I figured it was time to see a doctor about my ankle and maybe get some regular tests done to see if all was well with my blood pressure, cholesterol, and my thyroid. So I went to see the doctor two days before I headed off down to Olds.  When I got back I kept thinking about my test results and wondering if anything had showed up... after two weeks of waiting to get a call from the doctor's office I had heard nothing and so I thought since our clinic is all frigged up and no one doctor is reviewing charts.... (we don't have a family doctor anymore) that maybe I should check out what had come back from the blood tests. Friday I found out that I'm anemic. I have lots of red blood cells but they are small which means that there is not enough hemoglobin to make them fat and without the iron they can't carry enough oxygen around to my body.  No wonder I'm tired all the time.

I've been oh so tired..  like bone weary tired.  Like put my head down and sleep all the time tired. Even doing a sink full of dishes just about kills me. And it was getting worse recently. So now /I'm taking iron supplements and it may take a week or two before I start to see a difference... but hopefully soon because I still want to just lie down and sleep all the time.  So you see, when everyone arrived at my house on Friday for a joyful weekend of exuberant dyeing I was not really on the same page. I just wanted to go find a place to lay my head.  But it is all over for another year... and while I was not at my best all the others seemed to enjoy it.  And that's what counts.  I did a little knitting but kept finding that I was making mistakes and having to pull everything out and re-knit.  So then I spun for a while and I tried out my Trindleman spindle with 1/3 cashmere, 1/3 yak down, and 1/3 bamboo.  It is lovely to spin on that spindle... I'm quite enraptured.  We also went shopping at garage sales... I was the big winner. I came home with a rocking chair... a painting, an iron headboard and foot board, an hand woven table cloth, a lamp, a willow basket, and several pretty doilies that were hand crocheted in cotton...and in really good shape too. By Sunday there were lovely colours all over the deck. Purples, turquoise, and blue in every shade. Some had done crowded pots, and some had just dip dyed, but they all had lovely results.  For the most part the weekend was a success.

I'm off to work a little on my knitting... Almost there!

The Dyeing Retreat Starts Today.... Please Can We Reverse Time ; \

Well the dye retreat begins today. Blah ick ugh... the weather sucks.  It is supposed to be rainy today and sunny tomorrow and Sunday.... I'm hopeful. The mosquitoes want to eat me and pester me and make life firmly miserable.  There's recycling to do, and garbage to go to the dump... the lawn mower gave out and so we will be camping in our jungle lawn where killer mosquitoes lurk. The deck is in dire need of being cleaned up but I will do that this morning. The garbage will go to the dump since a good friend is working there and I will take a thermos of tea up and we will have a visit in the shack... there's quite a nice shelter/shack and you can see good stuff going into the share shed.... it's all good.  I have to stop off at the Thrift store for some weaving shuttles that just came in. A quick visit to the doctor's office for a check up on the ankle... (which has moments when its better). And then I should be home for an afternoon of cleaning up my damn kitchen which is a crazy crater right now. I made an apple pie yesterday and just as I was about to clean up after making it and getting it in the oven the contractor who did our house renovation two years ago showed up... I had to leave with him to take him to Mom's and Dad's place because he's going to be doing some renovations to their bathroom.. we hope... So the kitchen was left a la mess... which I partially cleaned up last night when I got home but by the time supper was finished I was pooped. (Well I did have to chase sheep in off the road and haul water (4 tanks) and after all was said and done it was my Dad's 77th birthday.... (the apple pie was for him... his favorite). So by the time I sat down last night knitting was the last thing I had on my mind.  For the first time in a very very long time I sat with nothing in my hands and watched a movie.... I don't do that very often. Even when I watch a movie usually I'm spinning or knitting. I certainly miss Teapot's help... he usually hauls water and feeds and chases sheep and goes to the dump and does the recycling... though the last is generally a shared task.

Now along with all of that I'm training a puppy to not pee and poop in the house... this has generally been unsuccessful so far. He's too young to rub his nose in it... he's doesn't know what that means so you have to catch the wee bugger as he is starting to squat and run out the door and put him on the ground before he poops on you.  It is rather a hilarious scene to see my rather large carcass running for the door with a mini poop machine in my hands.... held at a distance. Yesterday he discovered the thrill of peeing in the furnace. Our furnace is in the crawl space beneath the floor and the vent for it is in the floor beneath the steps.... well the little bugger peed in there knowing full well that no one would ever find it... I just so happened to hear psssspspsssspspsp and looked up to see him standing there with a rather glazed expression on his face. Yup.... I can't reach down to clean it out... my arms are not long enough... so thank God we are not using the furnace right now or else we would have a fine aroma in the house.... Teapot will have to face that one when he gets home.

Meanwhile I'm trying to train the damn kitten to use a litter tray. That has not always been successful either... right now I have a tub full of stinky cat's pee and water and shoes... the cat decided the other day to pee in the closet where we keep our runners and shoes etc... 2 pairs of flip flops, 1 pair of red high heels, and 3 pairs of runners are now soaking and being washed.... they will be finished today and then I have to clean the tub out with bleach. Yeah gotta love those pets.

So if you're coming for the dye retreat be ready to experience Frankie in extreme wacko mode.

Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh.... I think I'll go have some tea and some breakfast.....maybe that will make me sane....

Nah... that's just impossible.