Walk Through The Woods

This is a hard time of the year to get through, there is no doubt about that. It is dark till quite late in the morning. When it is 9:30 before it gets light (on a sunny day) and dark again by 5 p.m., you have a tendency to want to sit by the fire and read or just veg. Yesterday was a day for vegging out by our fireplace. The forecast has been calling for warm temperatures all week and while warm temps are generally good this time of year, it sucks since it doesn't come in the form of a chinook wind with glorious sun to perk you up.... no, this warm is coming and carrying with it, freezing rain. My poor sheep are looking bedraggled and sad. Yesterday I sat and read and looked out at my sheep and listened to the radio news coming out of Haiti... and then around late afternoon I couldn't take it anymore, I felt I would sink into mid winter blues, so out the door I went for a walk.

Usually this time of the year, I stick to road walking but yesterday, the bush was calling to me and so after checking to see if the trails were packed with snowmobiles running over them, I felt I could handle a short walk through the bush. I entered the woods where thick pines and spruce border the trails in quiet solitude. I instantly noticed the peace and tranquility of the forest silence. All around me the pines and spruce brooded in their dark green garb. The only noise I heard was the sound of Duff galloping past in pure joy of getting out to sniff new scents, and Tootsie yapping after Duff in an effort to keep up. Shortly they disappeared into the bush ahead and all went silent again.

It was only after about 5 minutes of walking that I had this weird sensation that something was watching me.... I looked up to the right and I am not sure why, but there in all it's wild silent beauty, was a Great Grey Owl. He flew through the tops of the pines seeking a new branch from which to get a better view of me. I of course, stopped dead in my tracks as I watched him/her beat her wings and slip between the trees like a ghost. The thing that amazed me was the quiet of its flight. I could not hear a sound. The wings were beating but it was amazing how silent the beat of its wings were..... and it was huge. I would have to say that if it stood on the ground next to me it would have been about 25 inches tall. Awesome!!!!

I quickly found a fallen tree trunk to sit on, and there I sat watching that owl while the owl watched me too. In the back of my mind I hoped that Tootsie (the Shi-tzu) would stay away for a while and stay with Duff as that owl would easily pick up wee Tootsie and fly away with it's daily meal. The owl watched me and I watched it for a while... I'm not sure how long... but probably no more than ten minutes. Then silently, and with more dignity than I would have thought possible, it spread its wings and jumped off the branch and carried on it's silent way winging through the branches of the pine and spruce.

Such moments renew your pleasure in just being alive. (And Tootsie didn't get eaten....)

Wow I'm glad I went for a walk.

Sometimes You Just Have To Be Gross... Sorry

(I give you warning.... if you have a weak stomach or are sensitive to all things disgusting then you may want to forgo reading this post!)

Our old dog has been giving us trouble for months.... every so often she will have a period of time when her gaseous bowls rear their ugly head by clearing a room in less than 10 seconds flat! I have put her problem down to age and an inability to deal with some types of food. We have been trying to see if her problem stems from what she has been eating and this is not easy since most dogs will have trouble whenever there is a change in their diet. But quite honestly the last food that we have been trying is the worst to date. She is not any less energetic but when her bowls gurgle I know that I have to get her out in short order!

Yesterday our wee dog came into the house and ooh la la... the hum was just plain nasty..... so with a clothes pin attached to my olfactory protuberance, I tackled one of the nastiest jobs ever. I don't have a weak stomach at all, but that butt cleaning job put even my hurling urges to the test. So you can imagine my dismay when the wee pooch entered the house this morning with once again the same problem attached to his hind quarters. Hubby took pity on me and cleaned the horror from the wee pooch's bum and gave me a reprieve, but I am seriously disturbed with what is happening in the canine end of our family.

The current dog food that we are using is Purina Dog Chow dry dog food. I think I will visit the deep freeze today and see if I can find some old deer meat from last year's kill and see if they do any better with that stuff. One thing is for sure... there will be no more Purina Dog Chow in this house.

You have to wonder what the dog food companies put into dog food when your animals are experiencing such horrible results. It can't be nice to have your stomach gurgling and growling all the time and what those poor dogs are suffering when they go out the door and out of my sight.... well I wouldn't want to be them that is for sure. Poor dogs.

So I'm sorry about being gross but when you run a farm sometimes gross things happen... and I guess this is one of them.

How Horribly Scary

One of the problems of thwarting the media form of TV means that when disasters hit there is almost a sense of unreality. When the Tsunami hit a few years back it was many weeks after the event that pictures started to filter through my email... pics of the aftermath. I have noticed since then that any kind of catastrophe really doesn't touch me in the way that it touches people who are inundated with pictures on the evening news. Now when catastrophes hit, I seek information rather than waiting for information to come to me.

Today I have sat here trying to find out as much as I can about Haiti. It is hard to know what is real and what is not. I've listened to CBC mostly and can only imagine the devastation.

Two years ago Hubby and I started supporting a child through World Vision. The child we support is from Port au Prince, Haiti. Her name is Rosa de la Cruz. We of course will not know for a while if Rosa is alive. We can only pray that she and her mother have survived this horrific event and that she is safe.

Please, I ask you, if you have a moment, say a prayer for this little girl and her family and all the children who are and will be so affected by this terrible event.

And if you can..... donate.... this very poor country will need so much help.

I will go now to look again at the World Vision site.

The Jackie Chan Version Of Tai Chi

Daughter #2: Mom, what are you doing?
Me: I'm following this Tai Chi video.
Daughter #2: Why?
Me: I've always wanted to learn Tai Chi.
Daughter #2: Cool!
(silence)
Daughter #2: Mom Tai Chi makes you look like you are Jackie Chan in really slow motion.
Me: Har de har har!
(more silence)
Daughter #2: Hey Dad, Mom looks like Jackie Chan in slow motion.
Hubby: (with a large grin on his face) You do look like Jackie Chan in slow motion.... I think it's the hair.
Daughter #1: (coming down the stairs) Why are you watching Mom.... hey Mom did you know you look like Jackie Chan in slow motion?
Me: (sigh)

Gone To The Great Beyond

My heart is so sad tonight. Wee Reece, our small lamb died this afternoon. If only we understood why......Wee Reece in finer days....

Random

I catch myself talking to the computer a lot. Especially when the computer does something that I don't want. (Hubby says talking is a mild word for what I do) I have a mouse with a mind of its own and the thing is.... it does things that make me really confused and slightly p.o.'d. Maybe I'll be working on something and all of a sudden there's a totally different page from the one that I was working on... It's like I'm walking along and suddenly I trip up and when I look back to see what I tripped on , there's nothing there. Hubby says that I type too fast and I'm not really that good.... harummff! I do type fast but, 'not being that good?'.... well really! Every now and again I'll be typing away and right out of the blue I'm typing in all caps... like how did that happen?!!.... I tend to think that there are little pixies that live in the keyboard and every so often they think it is... har, har... funny to trip me up mid sentence and screw around with what I am doing in an effort to convince me I'm crazy. Sometimes I think it is working.....

Yesterday was a great day to catch up on reading and rest.... having been up half the night meant that I was in no fit state to do anything. However, along about 7 p.m. I got my second wind and suddenly I was full of vim and vigor. I worked away on my Jacket commission and got a nice bit of spinning done and will carry on today on that, but in between it all, I did manage to get my silk skein of my midnight hours of spinning, into my book with a write up and so that is question 2 done. I will carry on working today on the jacket commission, as I said, but as soon as it turns dark out will come my silk rovings and I will start on a silk knitting yarn and I have the perfect idea....

One of the blogs that I follow is my level 3 instructor's blog and recently she posted a picture of a divine sweater that I adore so I am going to try to copy the cabled yoke or come up with something that is close as my 3" x 3" swatch. It is just too pretty. If I have to ad lib then I will, but my 3" x 3" sample will have been inspired by something that is just lovely. I also have an idea for my silk 3" x 3" woven sample..... but more about that later....

I have discovered that my couch is a great place to sit and spin. Perfect height, perfect slope, perfect depth for my back, perfect all round. I get to be with the family for spinning while they do homework, or work on the computer. It is great and meanwhile I still have my studio space for storing all my spinning stuff and keeping it out of sight.... that's great. We are keeping the office in the main room and putting the dining room out in the new room along with my studio and it all works out. I'll have to post pictures by and by when I can.... (my batteries need recharging again).

Well I am looking out on all my sheep and alpacas and they are having a quiet morning.... they are milling about yomping down pins from the Christmas trees. My ewes are all impregnated I hope.... there's only one that I'm not sure the ram got. So we will be expecting lambs in the spring again. I did have to fall back on my black BFL (Blue Faced Leichester) which means that I'm sure there will be a bunch of black lambs.... not something I wanted, (I wanted more white) but my white ram was just a little too young to do the job. We will be downsizing the flock as we are having trouble keeping up with all the hay they need. This summer past was a bad year for hay crops and so hay has doubled in price since last year and unfortunately the price of lamb has not gone up nor has the price of wool. I will pick out a variety of different fleeces and the best fleeces with interest and then the rest will meet their maker. I have a couple of old ones that are ready to keel over anyway so they will be on the butcher block for sure, not so much for their meat since it would probably taste strong and be tough, but I will have a look at getting their skins tanned. There is an old native lady who lives in a town not too far away who tans in the old way so I may possibly try her first. We will keep all of the alpacas.... and we are still debating on the llama... we will see.

We will definitely have to build another paddock this spring. I want my garden back. We are also thinking about changing our driveway and so that will open property up that we never used before for animals..... more pasture type land and not quite so marginal as what the animals are on now. Meanwhile Hubby is seriously looking into the Christmas tree farm idea, so we will see where that leads us.

One last random item..... sox. Ahhh! My favorite pair from the stock that the girls gave me for Christmas are by far the Angora/wool/nylon ones from Wal-Mart. At $4.00 a pair how can you go wrong? I just wish I knew if they were sweat shop made.... I hope not. Mine are black and grey striped.... I feel like the wicked witch of the west.... Nicholsville West that is.... (a good wicked though... my eyebrows are going up and down now) all I need are the red shoes.... who says you need sexy lingerie when you can have wicked witch sox..... scary thought indeed! (Sometimes it is not good to have a visual mind...)!

Well I'm off to spin, spin, spin,... hope your having a lovely mid-winter day. I have my girl Diana (Krall) playing.... how inspiring is that?

The Complete Dummy's Guide To Whiling Away A Few Hours

When sleep is elusive and you are lying by your snoring Hubby and you just can't get your body to cooperate, get up from your warm cozy bed, go downstairs where the furnace hasn't cut in for a while and your toes begin to solidify in the cold and do something you enjoy. For me that is spinning... what did I spin.

TA DA!
My silk sample from a commercial silk hanky, spun, plied, washed, dried and ready to mount and label.

One more question from the level 3 done.

I am carding more wool for the jacket commission and about to watch one of the Harry Potter movies.... or Mad Max... or something as I rip my fingers to pieces again. Rolags here I come.