Crazy Aunt Ter's Life And Times

Note To Self....

2011-10-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

Note to self.... when the temps are in the high 30's, bright sun or not, wearing gloves on the motorcycle ride to work doesn't hurt.

Note to self... wearing a white work t-shirt out to the barn and expecting fate to keep it clean is just stupid. But I did it, and it stayed clean. How's that for kicking fate in the teeth!

Note to self.... the dog's chain gets dragged through the dirt and.... When you pick it up and wind it around your leg to untangle it, you're going to get dirty. Count on it.

Note to self....Striking a match to a pile of papers to be burned does not necessarily mean that said papers will burn. Even if they've promised you they would. This may or may not have a direct connection to the amount of dew that has settled on them overnight.

Note to self....The oatmeal may or may not explode in the microwave. But it probably will. This does have a direct correlation to whether or not I've just cleaned it (the microwave, not the oatmeal - cleaning oatmeal is just stupid!).

Note to self....the cows will probably find a way to get out, likely on a day when I'm already late for work.

Note to self....Iphone's auto correct feature can turn SVSU (local-ish university) into absurd. That's not only stupid, that's absurd!

Note to self....The way this day is going I might be further ahead to order pizza and stay away from the stove.... just sayin'.....

Life is Good!

Let's Winterize The Fences, Shall We?

2011-10-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hubby is going away hunting. Last year when he decided to do this, he came back damaged. We're hoping he doesn't do that again.

It's traditional for me to undertake a big project when he leaves me alone for any length of time. The project that I wanted to do has been vetoed because he doesn't want me to run the saws while I'm alone. If you know me personally, you realize this sticks in my craw, and he's smart enough to know that if he's going to make a statement like that, he damn well better back it up with a rational rationale.

His reason this time: We can't have you hurt, because if you hurt yourself and can't work, we are sunk. (he still can't work from his last year's injury).
Ok, I know he's right, so I revised my plan. Now I'll spend my time getting the farm ready for winter, so that he doesn't have to and can help me with my project when he gets back.
Smart, eh?

Don't think for one minute I didn't see through that, but when he makes a valid argument I usually try to pay attention.
So, instead of redoing my bathroom cabinets, sink and vanity, I will fix fences and just generally winterize the farm.

Without a skid steer.

Let me say that again, in case any of you get the implications of that statement.

Without A Skid Steer! (Bobcat)

I will attempt to haul up a couple of loads of wood to the deck (without a bobcat, or a truck if the battery doesn't get replaced or the tire fixed...)

I will finally get the chicken pen enlarged and the hen house cleaned out (yuck)

I will get a few odds and ends picked up, like old fencing, fence posts, wire, get hoses drained and rolled up, a bunch of trash burned... little stuff like that. Maybe get the barn cleaned out.

And hockey watched, and knitting knitted, and a lot of bike rides if the weather cooperates.

This time of year I'm very cognizant of the fact that my riding days are coming to an end so any excuse to fire her up and take her for a ride pretty much takes precedence.

I need to get my cabbage shredded, crocks washed and put the two together to make sauerkraut. More grapes need to be turned into juice.

Hay loft needs to be rearranged to make it more suitable for winter, and the tops of the chicken pens need to be sturdied so they don't collapse under the snow load.

So much to do. So little time....

But I love fall.
And you know I love my farm.

Life Is Good!

Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival, and Finally, A Diagnosis!

2011-09-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here at the local fiber festival. You know, all of the knitting, spinning, and weaving stuff and all of the critters that make this all possible.

Gorgeous stuff, and the yarn and fiber fumes will totally draw you in.

And I'm finding that all of the people aren't bothering me. All of the chaos and commotion is being taken in stride, and I'm smiling and I'm relaxed! And how different is this from the woman that just 6 short months ago suffered from debilitating anxiety with depression.
Debilitating. So bad in fact that I sought out the services of a doctor who specializes in such things. Not only debilitating anxiety and the depression that goes with it, but social phobias, and an almost bi-polar approach to changes in life. (note to self - changes in life are gonna happen - deal with it!) Except I couldn't. And I seriously did NOT know what was wrong with me.

Why was I driven to such frustration that I would lash out unexpectedly and probably undeservedly to anyone close. Why couldn't I do my job and be part of the team and get along with others. Why couldn't I have close friends. What was wrong with me? And the anxiety! That's what finally drove me to seek help.

And now, after 6 months of a battery of tests and counseling, the diagnosis is in.

ADHD!

Wait, what? Isn't that what kids have?
Yeah, kids have it but adults also have it. But adults are supposed to deal with the symptoms and the world doesn't so often see this.
Except when it's bad. Except when it's so bad, that the fear of being around people or situations that I couldn't easily control could bring on a panic attack and a rousing case of anxiety that would last for days!

This was so bad that I considered quitting my job. I tried to work at home but that wasn't best for my employers and co-workers (although I'm sure they didn't want me anywhere around any more than I wanted to be).
This was so bad that at the end of the day I'd go home and hide from the world. I didn't want the world to see this "me" that I had no control over. And I tried everything. I tried giving up caffeine and dietary changes. I tried meditation and yoga. I tried medication, small amounts and large amounts, over the counter and prescriptions. I tried being by myself. And I desperately tried talking myself down. Every. Single. Day!

We had no social life because I couldn't possibly go out with another couple let alone go be in public. Now there were good days, don't get me wrong, there were days that I felt almost normal. Almost. But never quite like I thought I should.

And I always just KNEW deep down inside of me that if I could stand face to face with this demon I could beat it down. If I could put a name and/or a face to it I could win this battle.
I tried, day after day to face the world and be like everyone else, failing miserably almost every day.
But I did have one thing going for me.... I never gave up. I never quit fighting this demon and I never totally let it have me.

Well, now the demon has a name, a face and a presence and this demon is going down. Educating myself has been key in understanding the cause and effect of the whole thing on the human mind. Medication helps, but I really believe just knowing that I'm not crazy, not stupid, not lazy, not any of those labels that I've lived with my whole life has been the turning point. Just knowing that there really isn't anything wrong with me and believing it. Realizing that this scattered, unorganized way of thinking and working is wonderful in and of itself.

My mind works differently than a lot of other people. Now I get that, and you know what? It's ok!
It's ok when I feel scattered. That's just my mind pinging around inside my head and trying out all of the ideas that run through like a freight train. Just knowing this lets me be able to stop that train, get off grab hold of those ideas and make some sense of the things around me.

I am very productive at work, always have been, but have never been the kind of employee that got along with all the other employees that didn't understand my brain style. I thought this was all my fault, and was led to believe that if only I'd "open my eyes" or "think before I act" everything would run smoother, but I couldn't. And I didn't know why, or how.

I certainly don't blame my former co-workers for not understanding my style of thinking and acting, how could they when I didn't? But now I do understand it, or am getting there. Now I know my trigger points, and I know how to re-route the train before it derails into whatever object I'm heading toward. I've learned and discovered strategies to deal with different situations that just 6 months ago would have sent me home hiding.

I now understand how to better keep my ducks in the same puddle so as to be as productive as possible, while maintaining the creative pinging that keeps me going.

And I'm not done yet. I'm still learning and trying different things on. I am now so much more comfortable with people that I don't dread going out in public. I'm still fairly quiet, and still shy but I'm not afraid any more. New situations stimulate my creative senses now, rather than send me into hiding. Changes in my routine don't send me spiraling down into the black hole anymore. And that is soooo cool!

And this year was the best fiber festival ever and I truly enjoyed it. And maybe, just maybe, someone will see this post, think of someone they know and maybe suggest that they do some research.

What Happened To My Summer?

2011-09-24T18:10:00.001-07:00

This may be forever known as The Summer That Wasn't. The winter lasted forever, then we got a few weeks of spring, a few weeks of "hotter than hell" and then fall.

As luck would have it, lack of summer, also means lack of projects that were slated to be completed during the summer, didn't get done.

Let's revisit some of the projects that were supposed to get done, shall we?

Chicken pen to be enlarged? Nope.

Back deck steps and railings? Nope.

Barn painted? Nope.

Greenhouse? Major nope! (major bummer....)

What did get done?

On the farm.... Chickens raised and butchered.

That's about it!

Spent a lot of time on my bike touring Northern Michigan, and , OH YEAH!!! The Rockies!

Some friends, hubby and I took our motorcycles out to Colorado where we spent one glorious week riding our bikes around and through the great mountains (and myself, having dropped my bike on my foot resulting in a broken bone or two, hobbled along for the ride as it were).

Totally awesome!

But then as we drove back into Michigan, real life creeped back in. There was a garden that needed to be weeded, a house and farm to be maintained and critters that required attention. That and the Mouth decided to move to Alaska, but I'm not over that yet so....

So, the garden got weeded and the foot hurt.

The critters got maintained and the foot hurt.

The house and farm were revisited and the foot hurt. And it continues to hurt, despite the fact that it has been over 2 months and it should have healed by now. Just sayin....

The tomatoes have been canned, and the grapes and cabbages are next in line, but this weekend is the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival, so in the kitchen playing with jars and canning lids is not where I want to be.

We have a new addition to the critter family. When The Mouth moved to Alaska she kind of forgot to take her dog with her. So guess who got her. "her" is a 4 year old boxer, the sweetest girl ever, very affectionate, loves to give hugs and kisses, and has a loveable goofy look about her. She's not the brightest crayon in the box, but she's nice and since I didn't want her to go to just anyone, we took her.

I've got two knitting projects I'm working on. The first is an awesome side to side knit vest from a new book by Interweave called Knitting Off The Axis. I'm using Knit Picks new Wool of the Andes Tweed in a purple heathery tweed. Sooo cool!

The second is a pair of socks with Noro's Silk Garden sock yarn. These ones will be warm. The first heel got turned today, and maybe tomorrow while at the Lamb and Wool Festival, I'll be able to finish it. Maybe. Still having arm issues, so have to take it easy but as long as I go slow, the knitting will still happen.

So that's all that's been happening. Looking forward to a color tour in a few weeks on the bikes, will be awesome!

Life is Good (and as if it needed to get any better... hockey season is starting!!!!!!)

The Summer That Wasn't!

2011-09-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

This may be forever known as The Summer That Wasn't. The winter lasted forever, then we got a few weeks of spring, a few weeks of "hotter than hell" and then fall.

As luck would have it, lack of summer, also means lack of projects that were slated to be completed during the summer, didn't get done.

Let's revisit some of the projects that were supposed to get done, shall we?

Chicken pen to be enlarged? Nope.

Back deck steps and railings? Nope.

Barn painted? Nope.

Greenhouse? Major nope! (major bummer....)

What did get done?

On the farm.... Chickens raised and butchered.

That's about it!

Spent a lot of time on my bike touring Northern Michigan, and , OH YEAH!!! The Rockies!

Totally awesome!

So, the garden got weeded and the foot hurt.

The critters got maintained and the foot hurt.

The house and farm were revisited and the foot hurt. And it continues to hurt, despite the fact that it has been over 2 months and it should have healed by now. Just sayin....

So that's all that's been happening. Looking forward to a color tour in a few weeks on the bikes, will be awesome!

Life is Good (and as if it needed to get any better... hockey season is starting!!!!!!)

Helping The People of Japan

2011-04-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Some of them have lost everything, including family members and we have so much! So, to help raise money, myself and my peeps over at the CraftGossip blogs are having auctions where 100% of the proceeds will go to the Salvation Army to help with relief efforts. I have 6 books over there, check out all of our auctions....

Today it's all About the Tomatoes!

2011-03-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes are what's on my mind today. I even have my tomato red shirt on. Don't mind the fact that it's advertising some bar in Alaska, that's ok. It's my tomato shirt. My story...sticking to it... you know the drill.

I didn't get any tomatoes planted yesterday but today I will. I'll also get some cool new varieties ordered from the seed catalogs too. I will only buy from companies who have signed the Safe Seed Pledge. No GMO crap for me, there's enough toxins in the air and water, don't need to put it on my maters.

I do need to get back out to the barn and try to wade through some of the winter overflow. You know, the stuff that gets thrown in the corner to get it out of the way, to be dealt with later? Yeah, it's later! Next two days are supposed to bring rain and mid 40 temps, we'll lose a lot of snow then.

And, since most of last night involved taking my bike over to the bike fix it guy (and resulting grease and dirt on my hands) no knitting took place last night. Tonight, however, there is a Red Wings game on, so knitting will occur!

Life is Good!

I'm Over It! Time To Start Over....

2011-03-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

I am sooo over this cold. It had it's day (week) and then came back for round 2. No! No round 2!
Jumped out of bed (crawled, whining and crying) with renewed ambition.
Spring is right around the corner, and someone has to whip this farm into shape. This year will be the year of the farm!
Yup! This year the farm will start to pay for itself.

And my first act is to get the chickens in shape. Have to wait a bit for some of the 1.5' of snow remaining to melt, but with temps in the 40's this week, plus rain coming that will help. The chicken pen needs to be enlarged. We set the posts last fall and then someone who shall remain nameless saw fit to break his leg and ankle, sending us down a 5 month road to nothing getting done. I have to go to Home Depot, maybe today and see what kind of netting or hardware cloth I can get (cheap) to drape over the top of the chicken pen. Yesterday I hacked enough ice away from the door of the coop so that I could pen them in again. Pen them in at night, let them out during the day. At least until I get a "lid" on the pen so they can stay in there.

I can't go to the Tractor Supply Store yet, (because they have baby chix) and I can never resist those. Especially since I want to get turkeys again this year.
I'm torn between my chickens. On one hand I wanted all of one breed (did the research and figured that for eggs and meat, in this climate, buffs were best, so I bought a bunch of them last year, they would lay and give me eggs and more little birdies, but on the other hand, it looks kind of cool to have all different kinds of chickens, all shapes and colors, running around. So I'll wait a week or so to visit the Tractor Store, then probably come back with more chickens than I need.

In the knitting arena, I'm still working on a mohair cowl made from Aloft (Knit Picks). I got the yarn to try out, and Clover USA was totally cool enough to send me their new line of bamboo interchangeables from Takumi to try out. I LOVE them, but I knew I would. I'm all about wooden and bamboo needles. I have the Addi Clicks and the Denise set, but even though they "click" into place and the others "screw", I prefer the bamboo. Easier on these old, arthritic, farmer hands. They have just enough "grab" to keep the stitches in place while my stiffer than they should be hands and fingers have a chance to work the stitches. Anyway, the pattern is just a long rectangle with a herringbone stitch. Totally cool stitch pattern, but it's not one of those mindless patterns. Have to watch every stitch. But it's almost done, then a picture.

So, for today, after work, I'll get into town and do some grocery shopping, then come home and put Bu-Dawgh's trolley back up. I have a run for him, from the cabin to the barn, but last year during haying season, the trolley broke and never got put back up. That will get done today, as well as planting more tomatoes.

Going to set up my Ebay shop again too, lots and lots of stuff I can get rid of to make room for living as well as make some money to buy more yarn, I mean to get stuff paid off!

My bike is on the trailer, ready to go to the bike doctor. It needs a few fine tune ups, to survive our Ride in the Rockies this summer. If hubby doesn't go fishing tonight, we'll take that over.

Life is Good!

Outside My Window

2010-12-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

I see snowflakes gently spitting around. There's snow on the ground and it's cold! Making ice cold. Well, ok, it's not like it's really all that cold, but you don't wanna be caught out there without a coat, some gloves and nice boots.
Also there's a plume of smoke. This morning bright and early I went out and gathered up all of the sticks left over from the last windstorm, the ones I could pick up anyway, a lot of them are already frozen in, but everything I can get cleaned up now, will be less to do in the spring. Also, there are some garden leftovers in there. Still left to do outside today is get the grill moved up by the house and get another skidder of wood.

Hubby went in to work, he'll have help there today, so maybe he can get things back on track. He sure is frustrated not being able to do much.

Outside my window there is also a plethora of roosters, too many for the hens I have, so soon I will put one of them in the oven. Can't butcher all of them as the freezers are still full from butchering the steers and also from deer season. And ice fishing season looms.
Mmmmm, nothing like blue gills through the ice, which now that I think about it, will make a nice dinner tonight.

Throughout the winter I'll butcher the roosters one at a time as I need them, until I have only 2 left, that will make a nice ratio and ensure babies in the spring.
I also have one hen who thinks shes a cat. Go figure, I'd have a strange critter. She sleeps in the window wells and up in the hay loft with the cats. She doesn't hang with the other chickens at all, but it's ok I guess, the others are content to be locked up in the hen house at night, but she sleeps out with the cats. Whatever.

Still working on my shawl, got a lot more done yesterday and will knit a bunch today too. Next will be a cowl, big enough to pull over my head for a hood. Would be awesome if I could make one out of Quiviet, but probably no go. I do, however, have some angora sport weight that will work nicely.

Ok, back at it! Gotta get the fish out of the freezer to start thawing, and go see if I can start the skid steer.

Winter Is Here

2010-12-03T05:03:00.000-08:00

Winter in the Northwoods has finally arrived.
I'm sitting here, drinking my coffee, watching the snow fall (the same snow I'll see again in April or May) and just loving winter.
So many summer projects didn't make the cut. My big autumn project (greenhouse) didn't make the cut either but that's ok.
My arms are better so I can knit again, and with the continued pileup of the white stuff on the ground, I can make my goat paths again.

Up here some say it "snows every day". And mostly it does. Sometimes it's just a few flakes falling from the sky, and other times, look out! Today? A few flakes falling. Since we're supposed to be getting snow throughout the weekend, we should have a bit of a pile up by then.

Must get my sled running. Last winter it seized up and hubby has to fix it. He also has to tear down my bike and fix that motor too. And, he has to get all healed up from the nasty fall he took while hunting out in Wyoming (and the subsequent surgery to fix the ankle that resembled a jig saw puzzle). It will be awhile! But he'll get it done, and then I can ride.

Currently I'm knitting a shawl in the most gorgeous colorway of Aurucania you've ever seen! It's more of an autumn colorway, with the browns, greens, oranges, yellows, but it sure is pretty.

And, since it's getting a bit chilly in here, I shouuld probably get the stove going again!

More Corn Crib

2010-10-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

We've been building a corn crib. (And when I say "we", actually this time it's hubby).

This is where we'll store the corn until we can grind it for the steers and chickens.

What's with the 76 sign in the background? Well if you've followed my blog for any time, you know that I'm a scrounger. While looking for a top for my baby chicken pen which is 6x6 we came across this at an auction. It was on a "just take it" trailer, so we did! It fits perfectly. Let's light in. Keeps rain out. And keeps critters out.

It's been beautiful up here this last week, all the reds, oranges, yellows and the stark greens of the pines and cedars. Beautiful. Can't walk in the woods cause it's bow season, but I can walk on my property, which is 9 acres of just about every color you can imagine!

This weekend I will likely take one day (saturday) and scour the countryside for old apple trees to make my applesauce and apple butters. Sunday we are riding! My Colorado brother will be here and hubby and I and my brother along with an undecided number of friends will take a bike trip over to the west side of the state to see the colors over there. Not that they're any different from here, but when he comes in October we like to ride around and look. This weather won't last long and from here it's all down hill.

The garden is pretty much put away for the summer, although I still have to dig the potatoes.

My two knitting projects are progressing, have 2 baby sweaters due in a month or so. Yikes!

Sometimes my arms hurt so much I can't knit, but they're going to hurt anyway, so on days when it's not too bad.....

Lots and lots of fall projects. There's a hole in the chix coop floor, have to get that fixed, finish the enlargement of the chicken pen, get another pen ready for 2 new steer calves coming to live with us in a week or so, finish up a few projects that I started and never finished due to my weird summer. Among these projects is one I like to call "steps on the back deck". It's fun to jump from the deck to the ground, and it tests my athletic ability to try to hit the big stones, but it's not good when the ground is covered in slippery stuff. Have to get the screens out of the windows, washed and put away for the winter... I don't know how people who don't farm keep busy! If I didn't have this place to tend to, I'd be so bored, I'd probably have to go buy a farm or something!

Tonight there might not be a lot of "stuff getting done" as it being Wednesday and all, I might find myself partaking of the ale down at the local watering hole!

Under 2.00 a Pound!

2010-10-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

The steers, Salt (shown right) and Pepper(left) are both nestled snugly in my freezer, and hubby's taxidermy freezer, and my mom's freezer, and the neighbors freezer. Holy S%^&*(!!
2 Steers is a lot of little packages to try to fit even in a big chest freezer that's mostly cleaned out.

Next time hubby decides he wants to go play with his friends and it's "pick up the steers from the butcher" day, JUST SAY NO!!

Here's how I got to my "under 2 bucks a pound" figure.

500 bucks for processing, roughly 600 for grain, 200 for the calves themselves, 100 for the milk replacer, and 300 for miscellaneous expenses (fencing, salt blocks, baling twine for the hay, feeders, castration, gas for the tractors, beer, electricity for the fencers...) that figure is probably low.

I have in my possession 1280 lbs of meat. So I did a bit of simple division (yeah, ok, I used the calculator) and came up with somewhere around 1.32 a pound. Since the 300 for miscellaneous is likely quite low I rounded up.

Before you get all "but I pay 6 and 7.00 a pound in the store" on me, let me tell you, we grow our own grain and hay. All of our feed and hay is organic, and we do all the work ourselves. These little boys take 2 years to grow to butchering weight. If you had to pay for grain, hay and veterinary care as well as routine maintenance (they do like to have food and water on a daily basis) it adds up.

So that's done for the year.

Seems we got only about 5 roosters in this latest batch of chicks, cool! So we'll cook them up one at a time as we need them, through the winter. I'll keep one to hopefully have babies in the spring. That was my rationale when buying one breed, to keep the flock going so I wouldn't have to buy them every year. Hopefully that little investment will pay off. I got Buff Orphingtons, a nice size bird, definitely large enough to provide a nice dinner, good layers and hardy through the winter.

More tomatoes to do. A neighbor says he's got all he wants from his garden and the rest are mine. YAY!! Soup, sauce, salsa, or just stewed tomatoes, don't know what they will end up as yet. I was going to freeze these ones to save myself a bit of time, but the freezers appear to be a bit... um... full of steers.

Plan B - can tomatoes instead of freezing them.

My baby sweaters are coming along - got a new granddaughter due mid November and another nephew about the same time. A few months ago I started to notice that my arms were hurting quite a lot. I'm a farmer. This isn't acceptable. Went to the doctor. Went to the specialist. Did all the tests. Tendinitis, likely brought on by too much knitting. Wait! What???? Too much knitting? A knitting injury? Really???

So now I either have to live with the pain, not knit or try to remember to knit "the new way" that doesn't move my arms a lot and cause too many problems. Seems to be the only solution. The only problem with that is that it's a bit cumbersome. Kind of like trying to type with my toes (I'm guessing, really, I haven't tried it). I begged the doctor to give me some mysterious diagnosis just for the respect thing. I mean if I told people I couldn't knit because I had a knitting injury, well, lets just say I've been the recipient of the "sideways look" before. But the best she could come up with was tendinitis due to too much knitting.

Also trying to get myself back into my groove. My Dad was sick for a long time. My mom, daughter and I took care of him until he died at home, just 2 short weeks ago. While that didn't throw me quite as much as I expected, it did throw me that it didn't throw me. Go figure, that's me, give me something to over analyze and I'll go to town!

Well, now I find myself with more time on my hands. Trying to get moved back into my house (the last couple of weeks of his life, I pretty much lived over at his and my mom's house), trying to clean between the edges... stuff like that. Hubby was awesome in keeping up with laundry and dishes.. even swept the floor, it kind of scared me.

And now I have time to decorate for holidays again!

Along that line I had youngest son bring up 2 or 3 bales of hay from the barn to put on the front porch for my "autumn display". They're still in the yard. Seems like when you're blessed with a batch of extra time, there's a whole lotta stuff just waiting in the wings to fill that void. Oh well, I will get them on the porch, get my scarecrows and pumpkins (to be displayed for awhile, then canned for pies in the winter) out, and Halloween and thanksgiving decorations put up. Likely just in time to take them down for Christmas.

Life is Good, and on the farm, it's never boring!!

Jam Is Gelled!

2010-09-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, the grape jam is all jammed up! And so is the kitchen, but that's another story, didn't have time to clean up or was too tired, or NCIS was on the tube, take your pick, but the jam is done.
All jars sealed and this morning, just because, I flipped them over. I don't know why you do this, but they used to, so I do.
I haven't tried it yet, maybe tonight.

Just eyeballing the big bowl of picked grapes, I estimated 2 gallons of grapes, and complete with the added sugar, minus the skins and seeds I got 4 quarts and 3 pints. Pretty good.

Monday night (when I should have been jamming, but decided to go spinning instead), I went spinning. Not the riding the imaginary bike up and down imaginary hills kind of spinning, but the turning fibers into yarn variety. It's been awhile so I had to get tuned back in, but luckily, I have "J", the spinning extrordinaire instructor at my disposal, she got me going again. I had a nubby pink/blue/off white/brownish fiber that jumped out and attacked me while having early morning coffee in a very small Colorado Cafe. Go figure. I had to have it, you know how it is. It is spinning up into a very nice, trying to keep it a sport/sock ish weight, fiber, maybe a shawl will magically emerge from the bobbins full of this stuff.

Tonight Survivor starts, more knitting of the baby sweaters due in mid November, and maybe we'll get the bike that doesn't run taken over to the "bike that doesn't run so I'll fix it" guy.

Life is Good!

Grapes, Grapes and More Grapes!

2010-09-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

I got grapes (concord)!

5 or so years ago, hubby bought me a grape plant for mother's day, or an anniversary, or a birthday, I don't remember. I planted it out in the yard and it entertained me for a few years. I cut off the grape vines, made stuff out of them, and occasionally would it provide me with a handful of yummy, tart grapes.

This year, I GOT GRAPES! Lots and lots of grapes. And they are soooo yummy. They have seeds, but no matter.

So this morning I went out and gathered them all up, not sure what I would do with them. Showed them to hubby and he said "jelly"! I said, "no"!

I don't make jelly, only because I can't stand to throw away all of that flavorful pulp just to make a clear jelly, so we compromised on jam.

Never made grape jam before, so I Googled a recipe and came up with the one below. Have a birthday party to go to this afternoon, so later on today I'll make my jam. I'm estimating I have about 2 gallons of grapes, so that should make for quite a bit of jam. Sooo excited.

Still have to gather up the remaining tomatoes, we will likely have frost this week, and the cabbages are almost ready too.

The steers have been butchered and the new roosters are starting to fertilize eggs (red spots when I crack them open).

Fall on the farm! Time for harvest, and this year, harvest I will. Didn't plant any pumpkins so I'll have to buy some, but that's ok. I'll put them out on the front deck for decorations, then can them up for pies and butters in the winter. After the first hard freeze I'll go after apples. Hoping to make tons of butters and applesauce. Yum! The smells of autumn in the kitchen.

Grandson #1 got his first deer this morning, very excited for him, now he can enjoy venison that he actually harvested.

Lit the woodstove for the first time this season last night. It only got down to about 39, but it's been cool for a few days, so the cabin is starting to cool down. Time to bring up more wood to the deck! I LOVE the hustle and bustle of autumn, and the colors of the trees? Let's not even go there. Spectacular!!

Taking a motorcycle trip over to the Western side of Michigan in a week or so to see the colors over there! Can't wait!!

This weekend was the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wood Festival and while I didn't do much shopping, I did take a couple of classes. One was in hand painting sock blanks, and the other was knitting 2 socks at once. It was fun and relaxing. Between classes I sat on a picnic table outside and enjoyed the smell of the cooking vendors and the cool breeze blowing through the gigantic oaks out on the fairgrounds.

Life is Good!!

Grape Jam

2 qts of grapes

6 cups of sugar.

Wash and mash the grapes in a stock pot, mash them to get the juices flowing

Heat until soft, then run through a mill to get rid of seeds (keep them in the fridge so they can be germinated next year!)

Stir in 6 cups of sugar

Bring to a boil and boil rapidly until the sugar is dissolved. Skim off any foam.

When it has boiled long enough that the cooled jam is of gel consistency (a frozen spoon will tell you immediately if it's cooked long enough) ladle it into clean, sterilized jars.

Process in a boiling water bath for 15 mins (either pints or quarts).

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Summer Recap

2010-08-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

This will forever go down as The Summer of "I Got Nothing Done".
Garden? Planted, weeded once in awhile, harvested- yeah right! Not yet.
Critters? Minimum amount of chickens, no pigs, 2 steers (to be butchered within a month). So there will only be a small amount of chickens to winter over.
Household projects? Stove restoration - still sitting on the front porch. Greenhouse? Still sitting in my head, although I think we have all the windows we need now. Back deck? Still there, still unfinished, still no steps or railings or cute little planters.
And on and on it goes.

Why? Because I got nothing done - or did I?

My Dad (my hero, my superman, my Daddy) is dying of parkinsons. Could be days. Could be weeks. Knowing the strength of my Dad's character, will and personality, could be months.

This is what I know about parkinson's (no respect for this disease, so you get no caps! Deal with it!)
The experts all say that no one dies from parkinsons, but that it's just a miserable way to live until something else kills you. I respectfully, now, disagree.
My dad can no longer eat much. He can't stay awake long enough to eat enough or even drink enough. He is quickly losing the "swallowing" instinct so chokes frequently.
How does this not kill him?
He's been totally and thoroughly degraded, humiliated and broken down by this disease.
How does this not kill him?
His body is ravaged to the point where he can no longer walk, talk, communicate, think, or even spend any amount of time awake, let alone spend any time at all in this world that I still live in.
How does this not kill him?
There are no more "good" moments for him, he is just lingering.
How does this not kill him?
So, while I don't have the appropriate letters after my name to make a statement like "parkinson's does not kill...." I disagree.

So, what did I do this summer? Between my mother, my daughter and myself, along with the awesome, wonderful, bestest (not a word? don't care!), most compassionate people on earth who fall under the tent called "Hospice", I have spent lots and lots and lots and lots of time with my Dad. Time that will never be wasted. Time that I can never get back with my home and farm (again, don't care). Every day I still learn something new from this man who most would only see as a shell. Every day I gain time, more valuable than all the gold on earth or in heaven, with this man who when I was a small child, did the same for me.
Because he's still there. I defy you to look in his eyes. Deep into his eyes, into his soul and tell me he's not still there. He is.

Whether he has days, weeks or months left, we will still continue to give him our best, to give him everything we have, while our heart breaks. While we watch him slowly slip away.

Because he's my Dad. And he would have done it for me.

And when it's my time to linger at death's door, I can only hope that I can pull it off with a shred of the amazing strength that he has shown. And when I am able, when he's asleep, I will tell him to go. That's it's ok to go. That his parents, siblings and one of my brothers are waiting for him. That he's done his job here on earth in shaping the lives of myself and my brothers, who are 4 of the most amazing people I know. And that it's time for the next chapter of his life, to make his Heaven into an equally amazing place.

I love you Dad!

4 Red Leaves!

2010-08-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

This totally goes on the "What In The World" shelf. The other day (date is important here), I found, under my maple tree, are you ready for this? 4 RED LEAVES!

"So what?" you might say!

"???" I say! (complete with silent waving of arms and expression of disbelief on my face)

"What does finding a few red leaves on the ground have to do with anything?" you might say.

Well, for one, it means that fall is coming. You know. Fall. Autumn. The season before all of the white stuff falls from the sky and covers everything for months and months and months. And it gets really cold. Yeah, Fall, you got it now. It's coming. Soon. The Maple Tree says so.

"But it's only August", you might say.

"I know, right?" I say. (I love that new "saying"), it fits so well. Kind of like when my teenagers started the "whatever". "As if". thing.

But back to reality.....Yeah. Red leaves in August.

Everyone I've told this too just about shrinks in horror. With all of the dire warnings no doubt contrived from NASA, NOAA, the Farmer's Almanac and Uncle Joe. But to tell the truth. It happens every August. Right after the blackberry season. This is the first tree in all of Michigan to start the color show.

Before long, the whole landscape will look like this:

Yeah, I get it, it's gorgeous, and Michigan rakes in big bucks from tourists looking for color tours in mid October, but it's a harbinger of whiter, colder times. When all of the reds, yellows, golds and half of the greens turn into varying shades of grays, browns and whites.

When the whole world is covered in white. When Jeff Foxworthy, the famous comedian states, "You might be from Michigan if you sit on a frozen lake and wait for your dinner to swim by". Yeah, good times!

But before you get all "awwwwww, these pictures are gorgeous, I wish I lived there....", note that the REAL result of these red leaves falling and the soon to be white stuff on the ground is the end of motorcycle season. Go ahead and say it now..... "awwwwww......"

And Still, It's The Chickens

2010-07-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I went home from work bound and determined to reclaim my house. After an awesome week at Bike Week the house had been lived in but not cleaned.
But that didn't happen.
Was very tired. Too many nights of bedtime in the single digits of the AM takes it's toll.

So what did I do instead? Well, chores are a given, critters do appreciate being fed and watered. As does hubby.

As I was dreaming up reasons to not clean up the kitchen I hear the unmistakeable rumble of the skidsteer motor coming to life. Here's the sequence (the part I understand anyway). Skidsteer rumbles to life and tears it's way across the yard. Skidsteer is engaged in moving "stuff". "Stuff" has to be moved for reasons unknown at that particular point in time. Skidsteer, after moving "stuff" rumbles back across the yard, tearing up things as it goes and rolls to a stop in it's place of residence.

Next I hear the "invention of words". This is indicated because hubby, who's big, strong, and all that, isn't as big and strong as he needs to be at the moment and a particular piece of machinery is trying it's best to defeat him.

This piece of machinery is the power auger. And lifting it up to put it on the PTO of the tractor is a 2 person job at best. But since no one came in to ask for help, and since I was in the process of making dinner and didn't go out to volunteer my services, it became a 1 person job. A 1 person job that required the "invention of words".

Mission accomplished on both fronts. Dinner? Done! Power Auger? Done!

Next thing I know, tractor, complete with power auger properly attached to PTO, rumbles across the yard and starts drilling holes for the often talked about but not yet planned, larger chicken pen. Guess what this means? I'll tell you what this means. This means that although my "current project" of finishing my back deck has now been put on hold, my chicken pen is FINALLY getting enlarged. YAY!!! Pictures to follow.

So, holes are dug. Poles are set. Plans are made for finishing, which likely will fall to me since the use of big toys is no longer needed. So tonight if it rains, I'll try to reclaim the house. If not, I'll work on the pen. Then try to get the deck finished. That will probably round out the summer, and my fall project is my greenhouse.

This is my world. Welcome to it!

It's all about the Chickens!

2010-04-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

So I deep-6'd 50 chickens. See, this is how it went.....

I ordered my supply of chicks from one of my favorite hatcheries (Mt. Healthy Hatchery). Originally wanting 25 we noticed that they had a special of 25 free chicks with the purchase of 50. Well, math not being my forte, I figured, ok, 25 more chicks. But then when that little concept sunk in got it was realized that 25 + 25 + 25 does not equal 50. Not even in my world, but more like 75 (most days). This was still ok (sort of), I'll let them grow and then put them in the freezer, keep a rooster and maybe 8-10 hens over the winter to re-populate next spring. But then a niggling feeling kept at the back of my brain. 75 chickens is A LOT of chickens. Way more than we need, really, and started thinking that maybe I should just call and re-do the order (even if that means giving up 25 free chickens!). So I did it. Just today. They're due to ship May 2, so likely they haven't even been laid yet (the eggs, not the chickens, let's not get into that).
My life is a bit complicated right now, and I neither have the time or space (or time to make more space) for 75 chickens. 25 additional will be a stretch, but MUCH more manageable. And they can still re-populate. And that, is how you deep-6 50 chickens!

Finished a pair of slippers last night, now have to throw them in the washer and dryer to shrink and felt them. Doesn't seem like the season to be knitting slippers, but my toes still get cold. I knit them out of bits and pieces and scraps of Lopi (which is really more of a roving than a yarn, but it knits up nicely, and will ~~shrink~~ felt just fine. Nice. Warm. Slippers = No. More. Cold. Toes! YAY!!

Lots of miles on the bike. Another YAY! The bike is my Zen, I start off down the road and "whoosh" everything just goes away. Very relaxing. Hubby and I are planning a 5 day bike trip around Lake Superior in July. I cannot wait. Have to talk The Mouth into taking care of my farm (and the Bu-Dawgh). She's more than capable, having grown up there, but she has time constraints too. My ultimate dream... one of these days I will ride my bike out to Colorado (brother), then on to San Diego (another brother), then up to LA (another brother), then up the coast to Alaska (another brother, that's all, I swear, there are only 4 of them, sometimes that's more than enough!) Then I will ride through the Canadian Rockies back down home. One of these days. And if hubby wants to go with, that will be even better!

Lots of Stuff Done - check! Lots of Stuff Left To Do - check!

2010-04-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Took yesterday off of work so I could get bunches of stuff done. The problem is that for some reason, when I take a day off of work, my brain follows suit and figures that we don't really have to do anything because, well, because we took the day off!

So did I get the gourds out of the garden? No, I do need to do this because when hubby tears around in there with the rototiller, the seeds will get spread willy nilly and I'll have gourds and squash everywhere.

Squash is a good thing, but I prefer to put it where I want it. The zucchini, will grow where it wants, there's no getting around that, I'll just cut away all of the vines that are not in their appropriated space and in a day or so it will send out new ones.

I located some of my hollyhock plants, always good to find them, so I can mark them, thereby ensuring their safety from the lawn mower. Or bulldozer. Or whichever hits them first.

Got all of the laundry done and hung out, which with only 2 of us, is about 3 loads. But it still takes time, and when the brain is on vacation it's tough to stay on task.

That's about it. Oh, yeah, I did get out for a bike ride, that's a necessity when the temps are in the 70's.

And the temps hit 80 today. Not sure what this is all about but I'm not complaining. Tonight though I have to actually be productive.

I have to locate a bottle jack and jack out of the ground the fence posts that are surrounding the chicken pen. Then I have to repound them back into the ground along with a bunch of others. With 75 chickens coming, I have to make some room. Hopefully won't need more fencing, we'll see how much I can scrounge from my fencing pile. Thsi is a more than one day project, but since it's nice tomorrow too, and I have the afternoon off, maybe a good portion of it will get done. Also plan to plant a few more pea seeds, so far the chickens have left them alone.

Survivor is on tonight, plus I have a good book to read, plus hubby is gone fishing for most of the night so a full night is planned!

Is It Too Cold To Ride?

2010-03-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Is it too cold to ride when there is a skiff of ice on the chicken water? Or in the cow tank? Is it too cold to ride when walking from the house to the bike shed results in frozen fingers, and your every breath hangs in the air?
Yeah, probably, but that didn't stop me. After the first 2 miles my face was frozen anyway, so it was all good.
So we have less than 32 in the morning (see above mentioned ice in chicken water) and up to 70 (tomorrow possibly 80) in the afternoon. What the heck? I will ride later this afternoon and tonight, I get on my motorcycle and whoosh. Everything goes away. It's a Zen thing.

Hubby and I built a couple of wood duck nests to take out into the swamp. Ok, I should clarify. Hubby built them and I stood there offering various opinions regarding sizes... with my hands in my pockets. Then on our trek out to the swamp I carried the hammer. He couldn't have done it without me. You might ask why we did such a thing? The recent acreage that we've aquired has a few swamps on it. Those swamps are ringed by trees. Some of which fell down over the winter. Trees do that sometimes. Especially while holding 583 tons of wet snow. Trees also contain nests, and when said trees fall, so do the nests. We felt it was our responsibility to help out the little wood ducks with new nests. That and it was a nice day and we didn't feel like doing anything else.

I planted peas yesterday. The seed package clearly stated and I quote, "As soon as soil can be worked in the spring".... we'll see. I only planted a few, then every couple of days I'll plant more, that way I'll have a steady supply of seeds for the chickens to dig up, I mean I'll have a steady supply of peas come end of June. The strawberry plants weathered the winter beautifully. No, they're not blossoming yet, it IS only March, but they're green, and growing. Peppers, tomatoes and cabbage have been started in flats. They go outside on the back deck once in awhile when it's warm enough, which would have been today if I had been home.

The cows have persisted in testing the fences and a few times I've had to chase them back into the pasture. They're so affectionate, but this is not good. They're big. And they have horns. And when they come at you at a good speed with their heads waving (presumably to get scratched behind the ears) it can be a bit daunting. Always want to make sure there's a tree to hide behind, they really don't know how big they are.

Some of my onions that I missed from last year are poking their heads out of the ground, I pulled up a few and they're mushy - duh, so they'll just get tilled under. The asparagus has been under attack by the chickens but the rhubarb is really doing well. My mints are coming up as are the wild violets back behind the cabin.

The stove restoration project still sits, I really have to get back to that. The only oven I have right now is a little toaster oven, which is a marvelous excuse for not having dinner ready, but when I want to cook, it's a pain. The chicken pen needs to be enlarged. I ordered 25 baby chicks this year from one of the hatcheries that I use and while checking out I noticed that they offered free 25 chicks if you bought 50. So instead of the 25 I really wanted, I will end up 75, all because no one ever showed me how to say no to a good deal. And, since the pen really isn't big enough for the 8 hens I have, it probably won't be big enough for 75 to grow until we butcher in the fall. They've been running around the yard scratching to find bugs and pecking at new green coming through the soil, funny to watch them. And they've started laying again. 8 hens = between 7 and 8 eggs a day. There's only 2 of us, but there is a steady stream of people who can and do use them up for us.

Been experimenting with making gas.... yeah, that's gonna wait for another post....

What's on the schedule for tonight? Well I've GOT to get out on my bike, that's a must, no excuse for it, but also have to scrounge out some t-posts so I can start on the chicken pen. And hang out laundry, and make dinner, and, and, and.... and then when the light goes away I'll sit and knit for awhile. Currently making some slippers cause my toes in their old and arthritic condition still get cold.

Is It Really Here?

2010-03-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

Spring on the farm!

The chickens have started to lay again (good thing as I was getting down to my last 3 dozen eggs). I froze eggs this year in batches of 2, 3, and 4 for baking, but never needed them. Now I haul them out of the freezer and give them to the barn kittens, they love them!

I've had some coon problems the last week or so, so the chix are locked up again, unless I'm around and can hear the commotion, and the 22 is loaded and by the back door, just waiting.

My new batch of chix is due here the first week in May. I have to wait and get them later in the year because of the temps. We are "officially" zone 4, however, because of this little microclimate that we enjoy, it's probably closer to a 3.5. Anyway, because of this, unless I want to keep my chickens in the house until they're half grown, it's just easier to wait until later in the spring to get them. This year I got all Buff Orphingtons. Last year in my "mix-o-chix" I got one and she's such a nice size, lays nice big eggs, is docile and tame, so this year, we're going with all of them. I ordered them from Mt Healthy Hatchery and they had a special. I wanted 25, but if I ordered 50 or more I got 25 free, so I jumped at it. Only later did I realize that while I only really wanted 25 chix, I'm now getting 75. Good thing I like me my baby buk buks. And, it's still a crap shoot as to whether I walk into Tractor Supply and find turkeys that call to me. I like raising turkeys, but they sure are messy, and dumb. Turkeys are really dumb, but oh, so personable!

It's time to start seeds too. Tonight after work, I'll start some hollyhocks, tomatoes, peppers, and parsley as my parsley that I brought in died over the winter. It's a good thing I brought dirt from the garden up to the barn so I'd have some to start seeds. The garden itself is still under about a foot of snow and the dirt beneath that is frozen.
Part of my front yard will become garden this year, I'm thinking maybe the potatoes, and I'm going to start them early, outside in tires (which we have about a million of them around). Then, as they grow, you put in more dirt, and add another tire, then more dirt and another tire.... To harvest, just knock down the tires and you don't have to dig for the taters. Plus the tires help keep the soil warm during the cold nights.
And, if I have tires in my front yard, that's less yard to mow, right? The front yard is also going to see more berries. Raspberry and blackberries to be specific. I'm just flat out tired of mowing everything and I might as well use it. Want to extend my grapevine wall too, it will border one side of the chix pen, which I also have to enlarge, because in some strange universe, ordering 75 chickens when you only wanted 25 makes sense.

Have some fences to fix tonight too, while I was out chasing coons I noticed that the cow fence is down in at least one spot, so that needs to be fixed. Bu-Dawgh also pulled one end of his run line loose, gotta grab the ladder and secure that before he pulls it all the way out.

Tried a yarn dying experiment this weekend. I dyed some angora yarn in the crockpot using koolaid. Result... didn't use enough koolaid but it did smell good. The colors are more pastel than I wanted. Pink socks? Not so much, oh well. I'm in a sock knitting frenzie lately, they're a good take it and go project, can't ever have too many of those. My shrug is almost done, actually, probably tonight I will finish up the knitting and sew it up. Big Bang Theory is on and that will command my attention in front of the screen.

Also made yogurt in my crock pot. (Not the same one, I have 2) Don't know if it took or not, I'll have to try it and let you know.

It's a beautiful day today, me and the Bu-Dawgh walked to work and it was about 30! This afternoon, walking home it will likely be 45 or maybe even higher. The daylight is shining longer and longer during the day making outside chores more pleasant, but we're still burning wood at night. That will likely continue until May.

Getting anxious to ride my bike, but there's still ice on the back roads, of which I live on one, and salt on the main roads. So I really need to wait for a good spring washout rain to take the salt off the roads and that will also likely help to melt the ice. (I road my bike on ice once, didn't turn out so well, and while it seems I like to learn the hard way, eventually I do "get it").

Update on the stove project, - yeah, it's gonna be an outside thing when I start sanding, so I will also wait on that for a bit more.

Weather Alert!!

2010-02-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

A Weather Alert Has Been Issued For The Entire Viewing Area....
3-5" (with up to 8" possibly) of snow is likely. Yeah, ok! 3-5? I get it, really I do. The folks that issue these dire emergencies live down in the cities, which just happen to be populated with citiots who either can't or won't stay off the roads when The Weather Alert happens, thereby turning a stretch of asphalt into a slippery, icy length of destruction. Up here? Put it in 4 wheel drive and keep going, oh, and if you happen to have a plow on the truck, lower it and help out the road commision.

But. Even though 3-5" (with up to 8" possible) isn't really anything to be alarmed about there are still preparations to be made.

This time of year the wood pile is getting scarce. We don't run the stove as much, and I don't want to have 30 cords of hardwood on the deck at the end of the season, so I don't stock it up as much as say, in December or January. So, before the 3-5" (with up to 8" possible) happens, I do need to get some wood up to the house.

And get more laundry done, I have to do that too. At least another couple of loads hung out on the line.

There's another thing this time of year. We every now and then have a day that is so nice and sunny and actually happens on the weekend, that the realization that spring is on it's way begins to seep into the corners. And then it hits. Plans are made that require lists. Lists are made tha require plans. And the dirt out in the garden that still lies under a foot of snow (with more on it's way) starts it's siren song and the seeds and seed catalogs make their way out of the basement.

Must Get Hands In Dirt

Start thinking about spring critters (chix have been ordered, they will be here around May 3). I'm doing all Buff Orphington's this year. Last year in my "mix 'o chix" I got one and it was such a prolific egg layer, so gentle and tame and a nice size that I decided to concentrate on the one breed. We don't have a million kids around here anymore so I don't need to grow up the big breeds, the Buffs are a perfect size.

Also thought about getting some more pigs this year, but I'm going to wait. There are a few uncertainties in my life at this point and although I'd love to have some little porkers around (they till up a mean garden!) there are some time issues I may have to deal with.

I'm going to wait a bit before I start hauling dirt up to the house. Every fall I make a mental note to try to remember to remind myself to store buckets of dirt, so that when the ground is still under snow and frozen, I will still have dirt to start my seeds. We can't reliably plant anything that will be killed by frost until after June 1, so there's really no hurry. Last fall I actually remembered to remind myself. Not only do I have buckets of dirt, but I also filled up seed pots and trays. LOTS of dirt is ready for me this spring.

Found my perfect greenhouse in a magazine this morning while having coffee with hubby. PERFECT! And, what's better, is we already have most of the stuff we need to construct this gem. (why yes, it went on the list, why do you ask?). I've been wanting a greenhouse for so long. Up here our growing season is very short, so if I can extend it a bit on both ends I will be a happy camper. There seems to be a difference of opinion on where to build it, we'll see who wins this discussion. Oh wait, I'll win! The thought of having fresh lettuces, and spinach.. all winter long makes my mouth water! I'm so tired of the store bought, no flavor stuff.

As for today, I'll get more wood brought up to the deck and get the water troughs cleaned out (and laundry), they get dirty even in the winter. Maybe organize the barn again, and make more plans and make more lists out there. Have to keep myself busy after all. First the wood.

Northern Lights - NOT!!

2010-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

So I have a standing ~~order~~ tradition with my oldest brother who happens to live in Alaska. I text to him: "Cold, Clear, Night....Ready...Set...Go" and he turns on the Northern Lights so we can see them. He lives in Alaska, he has control over those things, I'm pretty sure that in a conversation somewhere he mentioned that.

Last night, being Wednesday night, and taco night, I took my Dad to the bar (why, yes, I take him to the bar regularly, don't you take your dad to the bar?). Apon (upon? I really need to look that up someday...) coming out of said bar we both looked up to notice that the stars were very bright and twinkly, as stars have been known to be. So I issued the command..."Cold, Clear, Night....Ready...Set...Go!" to which he promptly (don't you love texting!) responds. "No, Can, Do. It's overcase up here so we've turned them out". Excuse me? So Not An Option! He knows better than to tell me "No", we're gonna have to have a 'scussion about that.

I took today off. Yay, right? Not so much. This requires planning, and I am a planning GENIUS!! Planning must be done, not only to secure a day off, but also to make the most of a day off. Rather than jump out of bed this morning excited to have a day off, I nudged. You know. Inch by inch, very unwillingly, crawled out of bed. Why? Why am I not excited that I have a day off? One reason, well, two reasons actually, one involving the inside temps this morning in the cabin, but the real reason:

Failure To Plan!

So rather than scurrying to start my day, the coffee was made, poured, and sipped while I made lists. This never fails to get me going. A list maker extrordinaire, (I have lists of all of my lists, just can't always remember where they are, or more importantly, to look at them) my reason for being quite often includes the making of lists, which always leads to more lists and adding to lists that already include sublists.

This morning, my list included cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry. And paying bills, all stuff that I just love to do. I also included a bunch of fun things. Like taking the Bu-Dawgh for a walk. The sun is out (because the sky is clear, which is why the stars were twinkly last night), they seem to go together, unless they don't, in which case there would be precipitation of one form or another (usually white this time of the year), and since there isn't any, precipitation that is, it's a beautiful sunny day. I should go fishing, right? Screw the laundry!

Tomorrow? Dad and I have a pizza date! Maybe with wine, which is usually a good thing, actually the only thing better is a cold beer, or homebrew (ahem... Jeff...running low here.....)

Still Working On The List....

2010-01-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Today, filled with enthusiasm, vim and vigor for continuing work on my stove and my list of other stuff to do, I bounced out of bed at the crack of 7:45 or so.
Immediately, my plans came to a screeching halt!

No. Coffee.!

I'll say that again so you can get the full effect:
No. Coffee.

Is everyone ok? Yeah, it was a rough realization for me too. So, the next best thing being hot cocoa, we made do. Hot cocoa with marshmallows and coffee creamer (chocolate, raspberry) was in line. Although the lack of caffeine made the starting of the day a bit rough (yeah, I get it, there is caffeine in hot chocolate, but It. Was. Not. Coffee).
First thing hubby pops out of bed and says, "Is the coffee done"? After relaying the events that lead up to resigning myself to drink hot cocoa, he promptly dug into one of his bags and produced a hotel sample of coffee.
Augh. Sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown holding the football for Lucy to kick it.

I knew I had to go to work for awhile so I did that early to get it out of the way. Got home late in the afternoon and noticed that hubby had cut and split a bunch more wood.
Cool! Except that the last batch he cut and split hadn't been stacked yet.

I stacked the last load, took the wheelbarrow up to the woodpile and got a bunch of starter stuff. We have 3 kinds of wood. Starter stuff, stuff that will keep the warmth going after it dries out a bit and "holy cow it better be -84 outside cause it's gonna get hot in here". Stacked all in their appropriate pile and swept off the deck. The cows were demanding to be fed so I did chores. They're so funny, since I've been giving them a bit of grain now and then all of a sudden hay isn't good enough! So they watch me up in the hay loft and moo at me until I drop down the grain. Then they're happy. It's good to have happy cows. Kind of like the commercial, but mine don't smile. I know they're happy cause they're not yelling at me.

Finally got some of the clothes off the line. I believe they were wetter than when I hung them off, but we have a storm coming, so there's just no use in leaving them there, plus we do need clean clothes to start the work week.

Got 4 varieties of lettuce started, and some parsley. These will obviously live in the cabin for quite awhile, but I'm tired of paying grocery store prices for iceberg lettuce, so I've started some of my own. Plus parsley! People! Parsley! The folks that sell that little item must have seen me coming and know that I use it in just about everything! Well, take that "parsley sellers", I'll grow my own. Currently I've put all over by the woodstove to get a bit of heat and some light from the window.
Pouring through seed catalogs in January is a favorite activity. I've got my tomatoes and peppers picked out. Potatoes and onion sets I'll buy locally, but I like the heirloom tomatoes. One of these days I'll get organized enough to save seeds!

Currently I'm fixing dinner and trying to figure out which project to knit on tonight. Probably the baby sweater, I do need to get that done.

The next step in the stove saga is to construct some sort of "container" to keep the sandblaster sand in. Apparantly it is quite spendy and while hubby went yesterday to get new tips for his sandblaster, he ended up picking up a pneumatic hand held deal for me to use. That's his way of telling me he's not ready to bail me out of this project yet. So a "tent" will be constructed to put the pieces needing to be sandblasted in, so as to catch the sandblasting media for re-use.
This will be a good time!

Get 'er Dun!

2010-01-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

So about 2 or 3 weeks ago, we decided to start restoring the Hasty Baker oven I bought over a year ago. Tarps were brought out and laid down, tools were assembled and deconstruction began. In the middle of my living room floor.

All was well and good until we hit a snafu. We both got kind of tired of working on it. So, this morning, I decided enough was enough. Today was the day. Carpe Diem and all that stuff. Going to get this project done! So I made a list, and put "stove" at the top of it. I put a bunch of other stuff there too, not humanly possible to get it all done in one weekend, but you have to at least try.

One of the other "things" on my list was to get as much laundry done as possible, being as how it's going to rain tomorrow. As much as possible is 3 loads which is all the outside lines will hold and the one every other week load that goes in the dryer.

There was lots of other stuff, but these two were enough to concentrate on.

A couple of different sized screwdrivers were needed as well as needle nose pliers and crescent wrenches. Some of the screws were obstinant, to say the least. No problem. Go get the cordless screwdriver/drill. Hunt up some drill bits and 3 hours later, all screws have been either removed forcibly or otherwise and we have lots of pieces. Still in the middle of the living room floor.

Since before my owning this stove, it belonged to a rather large family of mice, a good washing was required of all of the pieces and parts. I'm not going to lie, the smaller, more greasy parts went in the dishwasher, and I don't even wanna hear about how I can justify using the dishwasher when I'm hanging clothes outside, in January, in N. Michigan. I can, I just can!

So while the smaller parts are in the dishwasher, I'll continue to wash up the remaining larger pieces and parts and put them over by the woodstove to dry. Next step - sandblasting to remove rust, maggot juice, and everything else that the washings didn't get rid of. Wouldn't it be nice if the next things to do were simply to paint it and put it back together?

The paint part I can handle, the putting it back together, well, that might get dicey. However, I am, in possession of the most skilled hubby on the planet when it comes to reconstructing my disasters. And I did take pictures, of various pieces and parts coming apart. Lots of them, so when it's time, with any amount of luck at all, this might happen.

The downside? This is only 1/3 of the whole project. The upper, warming ovens and ledge. Still out on the front porch, but definitely on(the) deck is the oven/range part of this project. Then the bottom part that the whole she-bang sits on.

After washing up all of this stuff, I should probably go get the clothes off the line, as the weather people have opted to lie once more and instead of raining tomorrow, it is starting to mist a bit. The air is heavy, and the temps are hovering around 33. Not a good situation, as when the rain/mist, that will lead into snow hits the frozen roads, yeah, instant ice! Fun!!

As for knitting... so much for my "Project Monogamy"! Whils't in Colorado, I found some extremely pretty yarn - it was definitely a must have!, and promptly started turning it into some nice, dressier than normal, fingerless mitts to wear with my nice leather jacket. Those aren't done yet. There's the throw-it-on-to-run-outside-quick shawl in alpaca and wool that isn't done yet. There's a baby sweater, that's almost done (on my list for things to do today), there's a few other sweaters that I'm fiddling with as they don't have a pattern, just kind of winging it, another pair of fingerless mitts in some new yarn that I'm reviewing, and enough socks to feed a small army. Yes, I did just say that. I'm sure there's a few other things I'm not thinking of right now.

Back to the mice dropping, maggot infested pieces and parts that need to be washed! And where, might you ask, is hubby while I'm doing all of this deconstructing? As usual he stays clear of my disasters until I fly the white flag, but this time, he went in search of new tips for his sandblaster! YAY!! It's really gonna get done!!!

Pros and Cons of a Steel Roof

2009-12-10T07:29:00.001-08:00

The pros of having a steel roof are pretty obvious. The snow slides off, greatly reducing if not eliminating the snow load.

The cons of having a steel roof, the snow slides off, usually in one thunderous avalanche, scaring the daylights out of the Bu-Dawgh and greatly reducing if not eliminating the need for any front steps.

This happened late last night after more than a foot of snow (the reported measurement was 8.5 inches, it was more, trust me. Lots more. My boots run up to my knees, and I was in over my, well, knees as I trudged through the yard doing chores.

The snow in the barn (yes, I did say "in" the barn) measured about 4", that was what blew in during the night. The barn kitties were not impressed. At all. They filed more than one complaint. There were also a bit miffed that their water was frozen, although I'm not sure how they'd know, seeing as how they'd have to go through the snow to get to the water.

They're also used to getting an egg or two every night, overflow from the hens, and they haven't gotten that in a week or so. Their life is not good currently. Just ask them.

Me? I think they're expecting a bit much, it is Michigan after all. And it does snow here, regularly, every fall, winter and spring.

Back to the avalanche? Yeah, I'll be shoveling this weekend, at least a tunnel to keep ahead of the snow that will regularly cascade down the roof. That will that much less snow to shovel next time.

A September To Remember Turns Into Where In The H*%^^ Did October Go?

2009-11-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

And she's back! I looked at my profile picture and shivered. Yeah, it's getting to be winter here. There has officially been snow. There has officially been ice. Sleet, rain, mixed with all of the above... The only thing we don't officially have yet is snow that has stayed on the ground. Nope, still mud, and mushy leaves.

I know that October existed. I know this because my brother turned 50 during October, and a deal was made about that. Not a big deal, but it wasn't forgotten either, and I'm not done with that yet.

I know that October ended because little ~~parasites~~, munchkins dressed up in all manner of ghoulish things knocked on my door wanting candy. Lest they take over the world, they got candy! And I know that November is well on it's way to being half way over because The Mouth turned 25 (and let me know about it).

But, what I don't know is how it all slipped by so fast. One minute I'm canning up a storm (along with tomatoes and sauerkraut) and the next I'm wondering how apple season got missed. There are still pumpkins to be put into jars, awesome for pumpkin pie, and although there will not be any home canned applesauce and apple butter this year, the pumpkins will make up for it.
The livestock has pretty much all been battened down for the winter, but I don't really remember doing a lot of that. Probably the routine of it all.

So with winter knocking on the door (literally, the wind is doing it's windy wind thing), there is precious little time to finish up fall chores. There is still a couple of crates of spuds out on the deck that need to be brought in, and more firewood brought up to the house. And the next nice day (meaning, no wind and preferably not a lot of precipitation) I will burn the last of the summer's garbage.

But the next big thing to look forward to is our family reunion in 2 weeks! Yes! In 2 short weeks I will be sitting atop a very large boat in a very large, hopefully warmish body of water, drinking margaritas and coronas and playing with things like stingrays. We will dive in Grand Cayman. We will do the Margaritaville thing in Cozumel and maybe Carlos and Charlies too. And in Jamaica we will climb the falls in Ocho Rios. And swim in the water. Warm, warm, Caribbean water. And then it will all end and we will come back to cold, snowy Michigan to resume real life.

But first... all of the details like getting someone to watch the critters... have to be figured out. How to keep the aquariums warm without the heat being on, stuff like that. It will all be worth it, just as soon as we step off the plane in Miami and head out to the pier!

Are You Tired of Tomatoes Yet? I'm Not!

2009-09-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

Been reading through some of my previous entries and it has been brought to my attention (by myself) that I may be a bit of a dreamer. Wait! What? Yeah! Me! A dreamer! I dream of all of these projects that need to be done, and then I say I'm going to do them and actually post my intentions here and then I guess it's gone. What it really boils down to is that in my mind, I accomplish a lot more than actually gets done in reality (which is usually on a far distant planet from where I live).

Where does that leave me and my mind? Here we go again!

My tomatoes are ripening! A bit at a time, this last week we've had beautiful sunny skies and normal temperatures. Perfect for ripening tomatoes. So, seeing as how I'm only working for 1/2 a day today, when I get home I will get these picked and turn them into juice! Lots and lots of juice! Yum!

I say that a lot, "Yum", must be I like food!

Speaking of food, I have some leftover roast beef in the fridge that will get turned into pasties tonight. With home growed potatoes and onions, and mine will have green peppers in it, all smothered with beef gravy.

So, yesterday I posted my current intention to have my Grandson's birthday sweater finished this week, and guess what? Last night I finished the main part of it. There is still a few pockets to knit and attach, weave in ends, and wash and block, but I just might be able to pull this off. Most times I will, when my current project is almost done, start on my gauge swatches for my next project, to give them time to rest, and block out so I can get good solid accurate stitch and row counts, but this time, I'll go ahead and finish the sweater, then work on some socks while my gauges are resting and blocking... My current sock project is a cotton self striping yarn called Jamaica. Picture neon pinks, greens, turquoise and white stripes. I didn't put in a design because it would have been lost! Then I have yarn for 3 more pairs just waiting. I'll work on those while my gauge swatches are doing their gauge thing.

Another current intention is to actually get out and PICK SOME BLACKBERRIES! They're free for the taking, it's just a shame not to go get them. Mosquitoes and flesh eating pickers and brambles aside, they're just there. And they won't be a lot longer. So here's the plan: Get home, pick tomatoes, turn them into juice and while they're cooking down go pick blackberries. Sound do-able? I thought so, but then I never plan for Murphy's inevitable appearance either.

Another must do this afternoon is to get tools, etc.. rounded up so we can start on the wall unit tonight. Hubby got a HUGE aquarium at the resale shop (thanks bunches, CS) and in order to keep me happy about having that much water in my living room, he's agreed to build it into a wall unit that will also house the tv that we can't watch because we no longer have satellite service, the dvd player that we can't use because neither of us can figure out which group of buttons to push to make it go, and the stereo that doesn't work because of some wiring issue.

But... I will get my desk back! That's a plus.

And, yes, the dishwasher did get fixed! Not by me, but not because I couldn't have done it, but I was busy canning, so hubby fixed it for me. Yay!! No more washing a gazillion canning jars by hand!

Gardening, Knitting, Canning and The Egg/Boat, Or Is That The Boat/Egg?

2009-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

This drove (floated?) into my driveway (down the river?) this weekend:

Hubby is nothing if not imaginative and he wanted to take his canoe with him. Good to know that if the Egg flips over then all would not be lost!

The floor mats in the driveway? Don't ask, you probably wouldn't want to know.

So in the last few days a lot of different colored produce has found it's way from the garden into jars in my kitchen. We've got enough carrots now for the winter, beans too. Only about 1/2 the beets have been canned and I did get one head of cabbage that is presently being turned into kraut.

But the tomatoes. And the onions. And the green peppers were all mixed up, mashed up, sieved, food milled and processed to within an inch of their life to create tomato soup! Went over and grabbed my Dad on Saturday and we went to the farmer's market. My tomatoes aren't quite ready yet. I love this soup, it's soooo good with a thick slab of cheese, homemade bread or some crackers.

The next batch(es) of tomatoes will be for juice and then after that will be stewed tomatoes. Then our attention will be turned toward the apples. Apple butter, applesauce and even just apples for pies. Yum!

And then pumpkins for pies. We're not even 1/2 way done with canning season yet. It's nice to have shorter hours, it feels like I can get a lot more done.

But the calf feeder isn't done yet.

Neither is the wall unit.

But people, come on, I've been canning!

And knitting! The Muskrat's sweater is done except for sewing on of the buttons, and Grandson's sweater is just about done. This one's a bit late, his birthday was last month, but with any luck, this week will see that going out in the mail.

The Mouth has decided that I should knit for her a cardigan and she wants it bluey-charcoaley. Ok then. I don't have enough of any one yarn in my stash in that color so rather than go out and buy more (seriously, the yarn shops could buy from me, thanks to the oldest!), I've found some off white alpaca sport weight that will do quite nicely. Then I can just dye it the color she wants. Lots cheaper to buy a bottle of dye than spend upwards of 100 bucks for bluey-charcoaley colored yarn!

Tonight Bu-dawgh needs a bath, and there a few other things that need to be done too, however if my book comes in the mail, all bets are off. We're currently reading the Betsy Taylor series from MaryJanice Davidson. Hilarious! Also, if hubby comes home and wants to go out on the bikes there's a good chance that a lot of projects will be left undone.

Busy, busy, busy...... But at least it's not boring!

In Which The Doing of Stuff....

2009-09-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Actually results in stuff getting done.

Stay tuned here, I've really stumbled onto something. It hit me just the other night as I was reading all of my knitting blogs and wishing that I could produce finished projects like that.
All of a sudden That Little Voice In My Head That We All Like To Ignore, For Obvious Reasons, decided to push it's way to the front of all the gray matter and declare that if I would actually pick up the needles and knit something, that maybe my knitted projects would get done.

Well, not to be outdone by That Little Voice In My Head That We All Like To Ignore, For Obvious Reasons, I thunk up my own version that went something like this:

Are you ready? You might want to sit down for this, and don boots as it's pretty deep....

Getting stuff done requires actually doing it!

I'll let you ponder that one for a bit, but I did warn you!

Let me explain. Like mowing the grass the other day. The only reason that it got done is because I did it.
That's also probably why the berries haven't gotten picked yet, because I haven't actually done it yet. That one's not my fault, I just haven't had time, what with the stumbling upon of philosophical concepts and all.
Do you see where all of this is going? It's exciting, seriously, it's like a magic formula gifted to only me.

I'm going to take this concept a bit further and see if I can get a few things done that way.
Going out on a limb here but I'm predicting that if I sweep the floor, the floor will actually have gotten swept.
If I hang laundry outside (providing it's not raining), then the laundry will dry, (providing the line doesn't break and end up in the dewy "lawn"). Well this one might be a multiple concept so it's probably not a good example.
How about this one - if I pick up the hammer, nails and saw and finish the cow feeder, then guess what..... Yes! You got it! The cow feeder will be finished! This is so exciting I can hardly wait to go start doing stuff!

But back to the knitting, seriously, I read about 184 knitting blogs and they're always finishing stuff (probably by actually knitting them). It's a cumulative effect, while it seems that there's a lot of stuff getting done, the doing of the stuff is being accomplished by a whole bunch of people, not just one. That's where my train gets derailed. If I can keep that in mind then I'm a whole lot further ahead.

Yup, it's a fine line we tread here. Some call it procrastination, but I call it "thinking up stuff"!

The Philosophy of Lawnmowers.

2009-09-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how much my lawnmower will take and keep on going.
This little push mower was born to be a pampered baby. It sat there, cute as can be, on the showroom floor in our local Sears store, and begged me to take it home (it was the cheapest model and I was tired of the Rain Dance required to get hubby's lawn mower to start - you gotta work with what you have).

"Look at my shiny paint job and wheels", she boasted.
"Take me home", she said.
"Once a week I will delicately stroll through your manicured lawn and keep it just as pretty as I am", she purred.
"I will never give you one lick of trouble", she promised.

Well, I'm a sucker for big, red, Craftsman eyes, so what the heck. Did I mention it was the cheapest model available.

I'm pretty sure once she saw my "lawn" she fainted, but being of the feminine sort, she rallied and quickly rose to the task.

Not once did she remind me that she was built to "delicately stroll through a manicured lawn" as she had to wade and chomp through my "lawn", more meadow than manicured, and more hayfield than lawn.

She bravely went where no lawnmower should have been required to go, chomping up to 18" long grass and spitting it out the side. She never complained when we hit dirt patches or rocks. Actually the only time she complained is when I forgot about her and left her outside buried under 47 feet of snow all winter. But then, all she required was some TLC from hubby and his endless knowledge of how such beauties work (and a spark plug).

As we spent some quality time together yesterday I was reminded again just how hard she works and I vowed (as I do every fall) to take a few extra minutes when winterizing her (dragging her to the barn) and maybe scrape some of the grass/grease/dirt/oil... off of her. Maybe even clean her up underneath (daintily, of course), sharpen her blades, put some stabil in the gas tank, change the oil (or at least check the levels), tighten up the bolts, things like that, you know, spoil her a bit. Maybe even, *gasp* tighten up the handle so she won't have to sport the latest in binder twine necklaces! I could straighten the wheels a bit and pretty her all up, but you know what? It would be like washing my truck, her feelings would get all hurt and then she'd throw a fit in the spring. We can't have that now can we. So, unless I want to borrow some goats from a friend (wanna play, Joannie?), I'll just try to remember to get her in out of the snow and rain and make up with her next spring.

Sounds like a plan, and we all love The Plan! She's stayed true to her word (2 or 3 pulls on the string and a "vroom" happens) and since I never promised her anything but what she got, she doesn't complain!

What's that you ask? How do I know she's a girl? Come on, what guy would take all of that neglect and keep on going? ;-)

The End of the Weekend

2009-09-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I didn't fix the dishwasher. YET. That's next. And it's not because I got started and then got lost, I really did find other things to do over the holiday weekend. And besides, there is the procrastination part of the project. You know, the part where you think about it, and think about it, and figure it out, and then once you jump in, it takes far less time to actually complete the project than it did to think about doing it. That's where I'm at now. I have to hunt up a torque driver to get the inner door off so I can find God only knows what! Yup, procrastination, it's a good thing.

So, let's go over what I really did get done!

Spent a lot of time over at my Mom and Dad's because my brother was visiting from Colorado, which automatically means that my bike saw some serious riding time! That's cool. Included in one of our meanderings was a trip over to the closest Big Lake - Lake Huron, it was a beautiful day and surprisingly, not much traffic.

Dipped a bunch of pine cones. Pine cones are plentiful here. So are half burned candles at garage sales. Melt some candles, mix liberally with pine cones and you come up with an awesome fire starter for the wood stove in the winter. Probably the reason that half burned candles are so plentiful is because a lot of folks try to get rid of the "inside wood smoke" smell during the winter. Still working on this little project, seems like every time I go get the last bag of pine cones, there is yet another. That's ok, come around February, I will be glad for them.
Of course, once all have been dipped, that's really not the end of this fun project. Next comes cleaning up the stove, counter, wall and floor. Scraping all of the hardened, then melted, then hardened again wax off of every surface within a 5 foot radius.

Found a tolerable wall unit plan to build around hubby's newest aquarium aquisition.

Did a bunch of laundry, which required *GASP* the use of the dryer! For all of you who know that I'm a card carrying member of the "You Can't Use A Dryer Unless It's Snowing Or Raining Out And You Have No More Clean Underwear" club, know that every now and then, it is required. You have to reshrink jeans, underwear, socks. And you have to de-lint stuff. Everything. After awhile, no amount of snapping wet laundry outside over the grass is gonna rid it of all of the lint that builds up. Especially on the dark stuff, so once in awhile, you have to de-lint.

I got the first two books of MaryJanice Davidson's 'Betsy Taylor' series read. This was a wonderful diversion, however, since I don't have book 3 yet, that means I actually have to get up and do stuff.

Getting up and doing stuff is overrated. It's a fine line we walk here, I tell ya, between doing stuff, and just thinking about doing stuff. But, since I have given myself yet another day off in this long weekend, Tuesday will find me doing bunches of stuff, unless I go to my mailbox and find book 3.

Dishwasher Repair - Good Times

2009-09-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not a faint-of-heart sort of gal, and I can weather a storm as well as the next guy (or gal, or critter..) but I'm ticked. Actually it's worse than that, but this is a family friendly blog.

Background... We bought a new dishwasher in June. Came with a 1 year parts and labor warrantly. Close to a month ago, this dishwasher quit working. Just quit working! As skilled in The Rain Dance as I am, I could not find the appropriate combination of buttons to push, ways to stand, fingers to hold behind my back and chants to spout to make this work. Wasn't happening. So I did what anyone would have done. I called "the company".

Promptly Mr Nice Dishwasher Repairman came out and deemed that the dishwasher didn't work.
Wait! What? Oh, ok, that must have been why I called you!
"We'll order the parts", he said. "I'll come back out next week and install them", he promised.
Ok then. So we schedule now 2 mornings off of work.

The morning of the "promised installation of parts that would make this contraption wash my dishes" arrived with no parts having been delivered. I called "the company". They told me that the parts were back-ordered and hadn't been shipped yet. Ok, now I'm really getting ticked. Not only did I schedule another morning off of work, but I wasn't notified that my presence would not be required at the home of the dishwasher because the parts hadn't been shipped yet!
"But, we are shipping them to you in 3 days and then the following Tuesday, we will send someone out to install them".
"No!" I said.
"What?" They questioned?
"No!" I said. "I've already scheduled 2 times off from work for this and now you want me to schedule another time off when you've already demonstrated that you will fail to call me if my presence isn't required".
"Well, I don't know what you want us to do then". They said.
"What I want you to do is tell me when you'll ship the parts, and tell me when they'll be here, and then schedule a time when you WILL be here so I know when to take off work and be here".
"Well, that's what we're trying to do".
"Next week is not acceptable", I stated, "This is a new dishwasher, and I want to be able to use it. Call another repair place that can be here this week".

So here it is, the end of this week and still no dishwasher that works. And for some reason this statement, or string of statements made it though my filters and came out of my mouth - out loud:

"This is why I bought a new dishwasher. So I wouldn't have to take off time from work, chase parts, make service appointments, schedule another day off from work, find out that you won't be able to make it requiring me to take yet another day off from work.... If I had wanted to do all of that I would have stayed with my old dishwasher. No, that's why I bought a new dishwasher so I wouldn't have to deal with all of this. This isn't right...." And that's where I lost it and totally came apart at the poor repair guy who really had no clue that this had all gone down.

And what did he do then?
He asked me, very nicely, if I felt qualified to do this repair myself. (he was very nice about it, not insulting or demeaning, he was truly trying to help). I said if he could do it, so could I (a cheap shot, I know, but I was still beyond ticked). He then talked me through how to do this 15 minute repair, and gave me his personal cell number so if I ran into problems (which he guaranteed was close to idiot-proof) I could call him and he would help me. And if he couldn't help me over the phone he would then come up and fix it.

So, it still isn't fixed, but it's a lot closer. Tonight when I get home I will attempt this 15 minute "idiot proof" repair.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling this is gonna get good!

A September To Remember, or, Is It September Already???

2009-09-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

Today will most likely end up in a long list of what I was gonna do and what I actually did do.
But, since this is Sept 2, we have to start with Sept 1.

Sept. 1.
What I WAS gonna do: go home from work, do chores, dinner...., pick blackberries, maybe get a head start on picking beets, carrots and beans to can tomorrow.

What actually happened: Got home from work and hubby was already home. Not that that's a bad thing, it just usually means instant derailment from any previous made plans. The picking of the produce turned into a semi-long road trip to dive for a fishing pole. Really? When we signed up for the diving search and rescue team I kind of thought it would be neat to, you know, like, SAVE PEOPLE, or maybe even find them beyond being saved. But, no. So far, we've rescued a sunken canoe, and lost to the ages a prized, beloved "I caught 3 state record bass on that pole" fishing pole. We're one for one. But knitting was accomplished on the way there and back from said "fishing pole grave". And then, since it was late and diving is a rather rigorous sport (up here when the water already has ice cubes floating in it) we sat down to an old DVD of Survivor, Panema. (Rupert is one animal, that's for sure!)

Well, not a bad start to my September to remember.

Let's move on to Sept. 2, shall we.
Today,
What I'm GONNA do: laundry, cleaning and dishes (since dishes did not get accomplished last night). Head outside to pick beans, carrots and beets and get them canned. Finish mowing the lawn for likely the last time this year. Go to Tractor Supply for my critter food (cats and chickens in case you wondered), bank, and oh, yeah, I have to go get one of those bullet hole decals for the dent in my gas tank on my bike. (No, I didn't put it there, it came "pre-dented" thank you very much).
Whether or not the picking of the berries happens will depend on whether or not all of the canning of the green, orange and red stuff gets done. The lawn can wait, the berries won't. Nor will the laundry. The dishes will wait, but it's hard to can in a dirty kitchen, so.....

But knitting will happen!

A Funny Thing Happened....

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I get a call from my son, who is home on leave.

Son: "Uh, Mom, we have a problem"

Me: "What's up?"

S: "The cows got out".

M:"Ok, so put them back in, it happens".

S: "But dad left the garage door open and they got in the garage and one of them fell into the pit".

M: "hmm, not good, ok I'll be right there". (not at all sure that there's anything that can be done about it, by me anyway, but what the heck...)
In the meantime I'm thinking about what in the world I can do about this, to rescue my poor baby from the pit. So I call a friend to come help.
Get home, and Son is still there, waiting for me. He had thought to give the poor critter some water and hay and it's just standing in there, obviously stressed, but no worse the wear.
He also throught to send a mass text that probably said something like: "need farm help, beer involved". (you know, just to make sure his friends actually did show up to help).
Which they did.

A ramp was built, and the cow was dragged out of the pit (yes, dragged, as in rope around his horns and it took 3 very large, very strong farmer boy types, and me behind "goosing" him.

He promptly ran back into his pen, and was later observed drinking and eating just fine (the way to determine if a critter is truly sick or stressed is if he's not eating and drinking).

So that was fun, no I didn't have time to run and grab my camera although I did think about it.

My vacation time was spent dragging cows out of pits and fixing fences so it didn't happen again!

Ya know, just one day that could be boring....

Butterflies and Babies

2009-06-17T06:18:00.001-07:00

Butterflies don't taste good. And anyone who tells you otherwise maybe never tasted the yellow ones. They're nasty. Yuck! I don't know, maybe it was a moth, or a canary. It was yellow and had wings. And it didn't taste good.

You may or may not have surmised that I was on my bike when this non-tasty event occurred. Usually watching for deer is the order of the ride, but last night the yucky tasting winged creatures were all over!

I ride without a windshield, never have liked them, to me it's just one more piece of plexiglass to have to see through, but last night it may have been nice to not be peppered with winged creatures who did or didn't taste good. Keep the mouth shut!

Last night was knit night, and I worked more on the Muskrat's sweater. It's coming along really cute, I'm totally in love with it, and it's almost done.

I'll let that sit with you for a minute.

Yes. I'm Al.most.done! like only 3 inches or so on the 2nd sleeve, then sew that bad boy all together. And it's not even due until August! Am I good or what?? Well, before you get all "atta girl, way to think ahead" on me, there are two other grand-kid birthdays in August and to meet my goal of making every one of them a knitted item for their birthdays this year, I've got to get going. One will be a set of leg warmers, that's easy enough, and the other a cute little blue jean type of vest. That will be cute too. But neither are started. Or swatched for. but I DO have yarn picked out, so I'm pretty much ahead of the game on that one.

And... apparantly we're going to be blessed with another grandchild. This would be daughter #6 (I think, after awhile, all of the imports get all mixed up). The Muskrat belongs to daughter #5 (or import #1), I think I need to order some tags, like I do for the chickens, so I can keep them all straight!

But since it's an "I just found out" event and I haven't even really been formally told about it yet, he/she/it is not yet on the list. But I'm still excited. This daughter is a close friend of The Mouth (actual daughter #4) who we adopted along with several others, making her #6 (I think). Math was never real strong. So, girl...... tell me already, for sure, so I can get you on my list!

Morning Smells

2009-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

The first thing I smelled this morning on my way out to do chores was the rain. What? You can't smell rain? I can, I guess that makes me superhuman or something. I can live with that. I smelled the rain, and after two days of 850 degrees the cooler weather and smell of rain was a nice change.

Then I smelled the lilacs, relaxing, mesmerizing, sweet lilac smell. Love it. They're pretty too, don't get me wrong, but the smell is why I keep them around.

Then I smelled the skunk. Much preferred the lilacs, and even the rain, but there it was, sneaking it's way through the air like a snake. A very fragrant snake. And not in a good way.

In the country there are lots of smells you just take for granted. When they fertilize the corn fields, when hay is cut, the smell of rain (it's a superhuman thing, what can I say), pine trees when the air is damp and heavy..... stuff like that. And skunks. And road kill. And the only thing worse than smelling skunk is smelling a dead skunk, which is the equivalent of live skunk plus road kill. And if it's close enough it actually smells like hot tar. Makes you appreciate the better smells, like the fertilizing of the fields.

Anyway....

Since two days of 850 degrees and being superhuman and all pretty much took me out (headache, nauseous, I know it's spelled wrong, but it's ok, I'm good in lots of other ways, and generally just worn all out) nothing got done last night. Hubby even felt sorry for me and took me out for dinner. So no cooking or cleaning up either. Sometimes 850 degrees can be made to work in your favor. And after returning home I collapsed into the chair and knitted and watched one of my favorite shows... House. Arrogant asshole at his best!

What did I knit? I knew you'd ask. Well, I worked on my Muskrat's sweater, and... are you sitting?.....

I. Even. Took. A. Picture!!

And here it is:

In case you're not familiar with what knitted pieces look like, the big piece is the back and the smaller is one of the fronts. There is a mistake, but I'm not going to point it out, if you can't see it chances are a 3 year old won't care either. Tonight, since my Wings will get their 3rd chance to take the Hawks down there will be significant progress on the front, may even get the left front done and a start on the right front. That's one of the fun things about knitting smallish sweaters, for smallish people, they go pretty fast.

I love the colors, pretty much just went through my stash and picked out 4 colors, just to see. Even I didn't think they'd look this cool together, but I'm happy with them.

There won't be much done in the garden tonight as it's raining (seeing and feeling rain isn't a superhuman feat, just smelling it is), so maybe I'll find some counters or floors or something inside the cabin to clean off or sweep. Maybe even a dustrag, but that's pushing it.

And maybe, just maybe the rain will take it one step further and give me the ultimate in spring weather.... a good old fashioned thunderstorm! In which all bets will be off and you'll find me sitting out on my porch (covered) knitting and listening to the storm. Good times!

And guess what??? My son, affectionately referred to as The Army Brat is now OUT OF IRAQ!!! YAY! Let the breathing re-commence~!!

Whacking Rhubarb

2009-05-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

Before you go all "O.M.G she's killing her rhubarb" on me, let me explain. I planted my rhubarb a long time ago, along an old fence line. Then I fenced in the horses, which would later turn into steers, which would then become sheep and goats, and of course the chickens,and now has become my garden area. Between the rhubarb fence line and the horse fence line, which has now become the garden fenceline, there is about 6 feet by 100 feet of weeds and raspberry canes. Doing battle with raspberry canes is not my favorite activity, and my arms now have the scratches to prove it, however, their eventual surrender of juicy little reddish berries is worth it.

But not in my rhubarb.

Since the 6 feet isn't enough room to get my tiller in, I have to hoe out the weeds by hand. Not happenin'. Sorry. Not gonna weed a strip 6' by 100' by hand (or hoe), especially since it's riddled with crabgrass, all manner of forest undergrowth and raspberry canes. I'm just not that adventurous.

But neither do I really like to use gas powered appliances, since they use gas and all, but in this case, the gas powered weed whacker won. Well, technically I won, since I had to do 7 different rain dances to get this thing started, eventually I did and the rhubarb was sucessfully whacked. No, let me rephrase..... the weeds surrounding the rhubarb were whacked, and all but one or two rhubarb leaves survived. This is a good thing and it looks a lot nicer than a weed and mosquito infested patch in which to wander around lost in until you happen to run into the rhubarb.

So, the rhubarb doesn't care if it's weedy, but I do, so I whacked. And won! And Murphy (of murphy's law) didn't show his face once!

Radishes are coming up, so far no show on the spinach and carrots, and one potato plant has emerged through the hill to peek up into the sun.
Tonight maybe I'll get some lettuces planted, my designer lettuce collection depends on this, after all!

I'm still working on the multicolored cardigan for the muskrat (3 y/o granddaughter). One of these days I'll take a picture of it, the back is done as is 1/2 of one front. Tonight probably won't see much knitting, being as how I'll be playing with my designer lettuce collection, but tomorrow night there is another hockey game, so a lot of knitting will happen.

Go Wings! Pluck them Hawks!! (pay no attention to the grammer, it sounded better than "pluck those hawks"!)

Murphy Conspires With The Strawberries.

2009-05-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you're hanging on with every thread of your being waiting to hear about my strawberries. You know, the stone wall I built to contain them, and the crowns that I planted, that never came up, and then the garlic that I planted there because the strawberries never came up and something had to go there?

Up to speed now? Ok. So Saturday, hubby says...."let's go for a drive". Never one to shirk off a possible adventure, we hopped into the truck and headed off for points unknown. Actually, we had a known point, but because I've been on his little adventures before, whether or not we would actually get there remained to be seen (we did..... eventually...)

Stop one... to see my muskrat (or monkey as she's also called. Some would also call her my almost 3 year old granddaughter). This was fun, they moved out (her and her mother) close to a month ago and I hadn't seen her since. While we were there, I noticed blueberry bushes by the tra-zillion, so we had to stop and dig up some of those.
Stop two... a fruit stand on the side of the road that had........STRAWBERRIES!!!!! Plants, not just crowns, where there was actual greenage visible! So of course we had to get some of those.
Stop three....lunch.... after this and a few yard sales it gets routine, so we'll just end there.

Strawberries plants people! Lots of them! On Sale!!! Enough to fill up the stone hedge (that is now planted with garlic and chives and a few beet and spinach seeds thrown in for good measure) and more!
Strawberries, the ones I've wanted for so long! Finally I have them. I paid for them and hauled them out to the truck as I heard a faint chuckle in the background. Dismissed.
Got in the truck and headed off to the next unknown stop and heard that chuckle again. What the heck?? Oh yeah, it was Murphy, for sure. The infamous Murphy who conspires to throw obstacles in my path just to watch me trip over them.
"Where are you going to put the strawberries?", he taunts?
"You already planted the stone hedge, you can't put them there".
"You'll have to find another spot"... he continued. This went on and on until he was laughing so hard he couldn't say another word.
So I'll show him! I planted those strawberries in with my garlic, and chives and beet and spinach seeds thrown in for good measure. And next year, at this time you can all read my bestselling book: Strawberries, garlic, chives and Murphy! Just to see how it all turned out!

Oh, and a special shoutout to my cousin. She's a California gal. She's a Sharks fan (as in not a Red Wings fan). I'll just leave you to digest that for a minute.

Yeah, I know, and I'm sorry, I had little to do with her upbringing.

Financial Decisions

2009-05-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

Our farm is not a money maker, it will most likely never support itself, let alone us, but it's my hobby, my passion and it's just what I want to do.

However, that doesn't mean that we stop looking for ways to make it pay better. We scrounge and rearrange, we save "stuff" and collect "stuff" for future use and try to have fun doing it.

The latest "rearrangment" involves all of my chickens (there are somewhere close to 60 of them). I want them penned up, this protects them from critters, keeps them out of my gardens and keeps the chicken crap off of my porch and patio. I do not like chicken crap on my patio. I'm a barefoot kind of gal, always have been, always will be. I don't care if I walk around barefoot in the lawn, I know there is "residue" there, but choose to ignore it, besides, it beats shoes any day!

When the chickens are loose, it's obvious, and it's yucky, and yes, even for me, gross. Where in the world is the financial decision involving my chickens hidden in all of this?

When I keep my chickens penned up, I am happy, I know they're safe and I can walk barefoot all summer long. However, it costs at least 20-30 bucks a week to feed them. Hmmmm.

If I pen in the garden rather than the chickens, they will stay out of the garden, and basically feed themselves. They're already trained (as much as you can train a chicken) to go into the coop at night, so I can shut the door and keep the critters out that way. Then in the morning I can let them out, and let them eat bugs, weeds (not tomatoes, thank you very much - those are mine!) and be actually healthier in the long run. And yardbird beats penned up bird in taste any day of the week.

The pros for letting the chickens run loose seems to outweigh the cons, there is however one fairly large project first. To pen up the garden. Yes, I'm sure we have enough fencing (remember the note about scrounging....), so this weekend, set poles, string fence and build a gate and then let the chix out. It will be better for them, and I'll either learn to wear shoes, or learn to not care about what I step in. And I really, really, really don't like shoes.

But free range it shall be!

Check!

2009-05-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Outside version of chicken condo (the adolescent cage) assembled. check!
Baby stinkies, I mean baby chix moved outside. check!
asparagus weeded. check!
onions weeded. check!
beets planted. check!
spinach planted. check!
radishes planted. check!
3 loads of laundry done and hung out. check!

pictures taken of all the above. uncheck!

Busy day, and all in 1/2 day! Started raining shortly after lunch, so the rest of the day I stayed in and played with my seeds. (my laundry, if it ever dries, will smell soooooo good!)

Thunderstorm last night, power in and out. this isn't good. normally power out doesn't really affect us, however when we have baby stinkies, I mean baby birdies that need heat, it's not good to have the heat lamps go out. So the first night they're outside they're subjected to a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Only lost one, I think he/she got squished when they all huddled together.
That sounds glib. It's not meant to be. Even though these birds are destined for the table, it's still heartbreaking when a baby dies. They depend on me to keep them healthy and alive and this one got let down, it's not taken lightly. And it's not even from the financial aspect of losing eggs or meat... it's just the fact that one of my babies has died. It hurts.
But life on the farm moves on, it's not the first loss, it would be great if it were the last, but I know better.

Enough of that! tonight, the rhubarb needs to be weeded. Whether or not that gets done depends on how much happens between that and Game 7!

Go Wings!!! Drown them ducks!!!

Some Of My Critters

2009-05-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

This post has lots of pics, sorry dial-up readers!

This is Dr. Pepper and Mr Salty. Yes, even though we raise these boys to eat, they still have names and still get lots of hugs and cuddles.

Barn Kitties (4 sisters - by next year I should have about 29 cats!) looking down out of the hay loft.

My horses, Mike McMustang and Sierra's Mercedes Benz. They look a bit rough in the spring, before they get their winter coats all combed out. They are both mustangs, both branded. Mike was captured in California and Sierra, in Wyoming.

My baby chicks are going outside TONIGHT!!! they are getting a bit stinky! Also on tap for tonight, get beets planted, then if I have time, carrots and spinach too.

Last night I dug up all of the strawberry crowns that didn't grow and used that space for my garlic and chives. I might put some radishes in there too. Rather have strawberries, but oh well!

Yeah, and about the lawn, if I don't get after that, might need to break out the haybine!

We plowed up 1/2 of our 1st hayfield last night. It's getting too weedy and doesn't produce, so tentative plan is to seed corn for a year, then put in a pasture mix. So far the tractors are not acting up. This is huge (and unusual) and now that I've said that...... aye!

In Which A Trip To TSC.....

2009-05-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

just gets out of hand! Went to the local Tractor Supply store (my favorite store in the whole wide world!) and what did I find? Baby chix! On sale. As in clearanced out! And no more coming in! So I did what any sane, logical, demented farmer would do, I bought a bunch of them! See! Aren't they cute?
So, 47 new babies have arrived! and were housed in my bathtub, something hubby's not real fond of, but what was I supposed to do? They had to be contained, and they had to be somewhere that was waterproof, washable and I could put heat lights on them.
Below, is an example of the elaborate Chicken Condo's that I've built. My architech brother would be rolling in his grave, or maybe just laughing so hard.... never mind....
Anyway, enter the Chicken Condo. Several rooms, some with food, some with water, and 2 with heat lamps. This all lives on a tarp in our guest room until they are feathered out and it gets a bit warmer outside, then they go to the adolescent cage. There was a time I used to keep them in the barn in lights, but they got drafty anyway, so for a few weeks, they live inside.

That wasn't the only fun we had this weekend. After our momentous trip to Tractor Supply, we decided to stop by Walmart and what did we find? Come on, think about it, what sits outside of Walmart on the weekends, attended by cute little blondes in a box marked "free......". Yup. Kittens! They are so cute. 3 of them are identical, I've named them Inky, Stinky, Blinky and the other Chuck because well, she's not identical. So 4 barn kittens have come to call our zoo home. They have so much fun up in the hayloft, climbing in the hay, hiding between bales, waiting for the slightest breezes to stir up the loose strands of hay, pouncing on each other, and that's not even counting how much fun there is to be had up in the eaves. A Disneyland for kittens! That's what a hayloft is. Especially since there isn't a Mother to tell them "No"!

I didn't get ANY gardening done this weekend, the weather was beautiful, but circumstances beyond my control kept me away. I've decided to start the rest of my seeds using the paper towel method. So far the only seeds that aren't responding to this treatment are the parsley, but they take a long time to germinate anyway. I direct seeded (into pots) tomatoes, peppers, and some flowers, but being away from home and not able to tend them didn't work out so well for them. So, paper towels it is! And, because I don't buy stuff like that, I use extras that we always get when we go to places like Dairy Queen and McDonalds. That experiment will play out over the next few weeks. Tonight, maybe, just maybe I can get part of the garden tilled. My onions are doing GREAT!! My asparagus is peeking up and my strawberries NADA! I'll give them a few more weeks, then take the roots back and get a refund. Seems like I should see some green within this time!

Is It Spring Yet?

2009-05-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

Let's take a wander around the old garden shall we? The rhubarb is coming up, no this isn't a picture of my rhubarb, my camera got left in the house this morning. Still have to dig some of that for my Dad who wants some in his garden.

I've planted my strawberries in the stone ledge border I built around the pool, they also don't look quite like the picture, actually, I'm not at all sure they're alive.

Asparagus has been planted as well. Oh, and onions. Onions are important.

Garlic is ready to go in too, although normally a fall crop, someone didn't get off their behind long enough to get it planted in the fall, so spring it will be. Started it in the house probably in January or so, not too much longer, actually the tops are starting to die back already.

My Tiger Lilies are popping up all over as is all of the mint that seems to find it's way around the place.

Started in pots are Hollyhocks (I know, they'll grow anywhere, anytime, but I wanted to make sure I got a good bunch of plants before I put them out for the rabbits to munch on - gotta feed those rabbits ya know!)

Also started are tomatoes (3 dif. kinds of regular tomatoes and 2 different strains of heirloom) as well as peppers, hot and regular.

As soon as hubby gets the garden rototilled for me (or Sunday afternoon, whichever comes first) I'll put in some radishes, carrots and spinach and beets maybe. Don't know about beets, have to check on those, but definitely the first three.

One of these nights when it's nice enough, I'm gonna grab hubby and go tooling around the countryside and woods, looking for blueberry plants to transplant. Tried to grow some from seed, but no go.

One of the next big projects in the barn related area of the homestead is to Clean. Out. The. Barn. This spring has been very busy with work and other stuff, and that just hasn't gotten done yet. If I could get hubby to get the dozer outta there, it would help. Then I have to build a wood rack (actually just reinforce it as I've already built it) and start piling all of our scrap wood up there, off the floor. The next task would be to corrall all of the binder twine, actually, this is valuable stuff. But scattered all over the floor, not so much.

In the knitting room, I'm still working on granddaughter #1's sweater. Purpley heathery Lithuanian Birds and Blooms design, and I do need to get a picture of that.

Here's the reason for a recent er, um, stash addition!

So, daugher #1 calls and says, “Go to this yardsale. They have TONS of yarn”, she says. “More yarn than I’ve ever seen in one place, ever!” She recants. “It’s your heaven”, she teases, “your own personal paradise”, she continues.. yadda, yadda, yadda….So, being the dutiful mother that I am, I went. Seriously, this woman had a problem. She needed to start her own Yarn-a-holic 12 step program. She had yarn. LOTS of it. Yes, TONS! of good stuff! Mohair, cashmere, alpaca, wool, actually very little acrylic. She had skeins and balls and cones. She had needles, and lace wires. Stitch and row counters were coming out of boxes. Patterns, books and leaflets jumped as I walked by. But she doesn’t have alot of this stuff anymore. Bet you can guess why! Because now I have a yarn problem. 8 (yes, count them - 8!) lawn and leaf bags later I’m now looking into 12 step program requirements for myself.
Part of my New Years Resolution was to knit from my stash and not buy any more new yarn. There’s a loophole here, can you spot it? Yup! New! This yarn was not New, so it didn’t count!
I wonder if justifying addictions is addressed in the 12 step programs?
Moral of this story? Sorry, got nothin’ for ya. But yard sales, garage sales and auctions rock for possible stash enhancement!

So, now that I've fessed up about my recent purchase, I better go. Got a few minutes before I leave for work and that means I have a few minutes to pet and drool, I mean to admire my recent aquisitions!

Updates.

2009-04-10T05:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, it's been awhile. I know, I know. But.... I've been busy!

Bu-Dawgh's training has taken a back seat to a bunch of other stuff in my life. I don't know that he'll ever be allowed to be outside without the chain, he's very fond of chasing anything that moves, like my chickens. Time will tell

Knitting.... I've completed exactly 4.2 projects since last checking in. Don't ask, see above about being busy. But after this next project is done, which should be today or tomorrow (there's a direct corelation between a hockey game being televised and how much knitting is accomplished), I worked up the test swatch for one of the granddaughter's birthday sweaters. I'm doing a Lithuanian type of design from Donna Druchunas' book, Ethnic Knitting, Exploration, and blogging about it on my other blog at knitting.craftgossip.com. The solid color knitting is a different gauge than the multi color only because for some reason, I knit tighter on 2 or more colors than on just one. The purple is much more vivid in real life and the pattern isn't true, it was just to test gauge.

In the homesteading category, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of The Great 2009 Strawberry Event. So far, our players are a pool deck in the full sun, about a trillion 5 gallon buckets full of black dirt (the skidder is broken plus there's still a mound of snow and ice where it would have to go into the pasture to retrieve buckets of dirt), and stone, turned into a hedge.

Before: Gotta get the area cleaned up from the winter first. Plus, last year I used the pool deck as king of a staging area for the gardening equipment, pots.... Also, underneath the pool deck is leftovers from the filters, decks.....

Ok, cleanup has pretty much been finished. Now to start messing stuff up again.

The rock ledge has been built and I've filled in with cement blocks I had planned to plant the strawberries in. Change of plans..... The holes in the cement blocks aren't big enough to allow the strawberries to roam, so today, I'll take out the blocks, board up the back of the planter so the good dirt doesn't walk away and then fill. (this is where the trillion 5-gallon buckets of black dirt comes in).

What's on the horizon after the Great Strawberry Event of 2009? Well, then we get to start working on the Great Chicken Pen Expansion project! Stay tuned, or better yet, bring your fence stretchers, this one could be fun!

In Which Bu Takes Me For A Walk

2009-02-09T03:29:00.000-08:00

We've been working with walking the Bu-Dawgh. He's a tad bit excitable and very narrow minded. Likes to chase things that move, like rabbits, chickens, deer and leaves (not this time of year, the leaves are hard to chase right now), but you get the picture. He likes to run.

I don't. I will do a fast walk with the best of them, but run? Um, no! Old. Arthritis. Hips hurt. Whatever excuse you can come up with, I've already thought of it. If I'm going to run, it's gonna either be from a house on fire, a wayward steer or on the back of my horse.

Bu-Dawgh, on the other hand, would rather run than anything. And he has no qualms dragging me along behind. Through the woods, on the ice, it's always an adventure.

Enter Cesar. And his method of being the pack leader.

Ok then. Walk, Bu-Dawgh, Walk! As long as I take him for the equivalent of 5.5 hours of walking/running/chasing/dragging every day, he's good, but at this rate, my shoulders are going to give out.

I took him out for a walk the other day through the woods, not the smartest thing I've done in awhile, but it was a beautiful day. Being pulled face first through 3 foot of snow was even exhilarating, reminded me of my days on the sleds when we were younger. But back then, it was fun. Yeah, good times.

So, with a bit of a variation on Cesar's techniques (walk, don't run, don't pull, walk, that's good, ugh, no don't run, ice - slow down) we're getting there.

Weather related, it has warmed up, at least for a few days, we actually saw 50 on Saturday, with bright sun. It was beautiful. Sunday was about 40 and I hung clothes out and They Dried! This is huge. This hasn't happened in a long time. I always hang clothes out, but end up draping them over furniture in the living room by the woodstove to get them to dry.

Supposed to start raining tonight, that will be a fun little mess.

We'll see how that all plays out!

Snow. Again.

2009-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

This time of year, snow is a moot point up here. There's gonna be snow. There's gonna be lots of it, and then there's gonna be more snow. It happens. Every year, you can almost set your calendar by it.

End of year, get lots of snow.
Beginning of year, snow starts to not fall quite as hard, quite as often, this is a sign that the big lakes are frozen over (or mostly frozen over).
Middle of January, the sun (remember mr. sun?) makes his appearance again, once in awhile, you know, just for a teaser. There's no heat in this sun, it's just pretty and yellow and mostly deceiving, because it makes you think thoughts of going outside to do stuff like plant the garden (which is under 3-4 foot of snow). Deceiving.
End of January, the January Thaw! where traditionally temps rise above the average for a week or so, again, deceiving us into believing that the winter gods are done with us for yet another year.
But it's not so. Phil lets us know every Feb 2 that we are not to be deceived. If you don't believe him, ask the natives. They get deceived also, but know better. They'll tell you that the snow won't go away until August (they're mostly tired of it by now and view it as a never ending curse).

Me? bring it on. I love it. I love staying inside and looking out at it. I love being outside in it. I just love it, yup, a northern girl at heart. What can I say?

But, even though I profess my never ending love of winter every chance I get, does not mean that I invite head shots with snow shovels, ice picks or skiis. I didn't do it. I didn't make it snow, I just like that it does.
And, I look forward to the thawing of the lakes, so the great Lake Effect Snows can once again dump enough of the white stuff in 20 mins to cover a house.

So what do we do until it starts snowing again, but it's too cold? (cause snow and cold, while seemingly compatible, are not! It can comfortably be 30 degrees and still snowy, what I object to is 75 below zero with a wind chill just short of Mars).
We do as Jeff Foxworthy suggests and go sit on 18+ inches of ice, drill a hole and wait for our dinner to swim by!

Gotta Love Michigan!

If It's February, It Must Be 2009!

2009-02-02T02:58:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day. About 35 deg. bright sun, and down in our little hole, almost no wind. So Bu-Dawgh got the bright idea to go for a walk. In the woods. Where's there's about 3 foot of snow. (I may be short, but mid thigh, is mid thigh, and that's right around 3 foot). So I made him lead the way, figured we'd get a head start on making our path for walking to work.
This was fun, he's not tall either, there was kind of a gazelle effect as periodically he would jump up into the air (with me attached to the other end of the leash) to get a look around.
Kind of made the whole path thing hard to follow, but at least he kind of blazed the trail. Kind of. We still slogged through the snow, but it was a nice, if not invigorating, walk.

Would have been really interesting if I'd have gone with my first thought and strapped on the cross country skiis. We'd probably still be out there.

So, lately I've discovered Facebook. This is pretty cool, and I've already connected with a cousin who (whom?) I haven't seen in a coon's age. Most of my brothers are on Facebook too. And my parents. Seriously, don't you people have better things to do?

Apparantly I don't!

21 days ago!

2009-01-30T04:22:00.000-08:00

21 days ago was my last post. If you've wondered that maybe I wandered off and fell into a snowbank, I didn't. Not un-intentionally anyway, but I did get to reading alot of my old posts and came to a conclusion. My life is kind of boring. The same stuff that happens last January, happens this January, mainly that it is cold and it snows. I routinely beat on frozen water to make it drinkable, haul firewood to heat the house and then haul ash out again.

Sidenote: I should be saving those ashes to make lye water, so I can make soap, because.... yeah, I need another hobby!

But, this January, I did take a trip. My brothers, parents and I all met in Colorado for a long weekend. The first day we hiked 40 miles up to 40,000 feet straight up. (My brother who lives in Colorado seems to think it was more like 4 miles and 11,000 feet. He's wrong, I was there, I did the math, mostly laying face down in the snow gasping for what little oxygen hadn't already been gasped by everyone else).

The following day we all strapped boards on our feet and headed out to the slopes to torture what was left of our aching muscles. Great fun! We grew up skiing, and being a bit of a fearless fool anyway, standing at the top of a really big hill and pushing off to go breakneck speed down said really big hill seemed like a great idea. Yes, I did fall a few times, but in my defense, my legs were sooooo tired from the previous day that I could not successfully accomplish what is known in the skiing world as "stopping".

We lounged in the hot tub (there were at least 16 of us in that tub and the floor had no drain - you do the math). Hmmm, a hot tub room with no drain. Someone didn't have their Wheaties that day.

I wandered into a coffee shop in outback Colorado (big buck - I think- in Fairplay, CO) and found..... are you ready....... sitting down for this one.....

YARN!! Well, not really yarn, but pre-yarn, roving in cool little packages. I didn't even care that it cost more than my plane ticket, I had to have it, just because I found it by accident in a coffee shop in some really small mountain town far far away from N. Mich.

That was pretty much the excitement for January.

This weekend, if the weather gods permit (meaning if it's not 75 degrees below zero) I've got to get out to the barn and build a calf feeder, they are wasting too much hay and I fear I may not have enough. And just now looking at the calendar, June seems to be about 1/2 year away.
This was not a good discovery. Still half a year before 1st cutting and my barn is maybe only 1/3 full. Most likely we'll be buying hay this year.

The New Roosters

2009-01-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

My new roosters are working out well. (In case you didn't read about where they came from, they were dropped off, probably as a joke. See, people don't just drop off furry cute kittens and puppies, they drop off other livestock too.) They seem to have found their place within my little chicken community. There's a heirarchy, but they've worked it out. I found both of them battered and bloody one morning and was concerned that we may have had a creature trying to attack, but it was just them, working out which rung of the ladder they belonged on.

It has been determined that Mr. White Rooster will spend his nights guarding the barn, and Mr. Black Rooster will stay in with the ladies in the hen house. I say ladies, but there are 2 young gentlemen in with them... I don't wanna know....

And, as a gentle reminder that roosters don't only crow at sunrise, as a lot of people have been led to believe, they crow whenever they want, even if that whenever is 3 AM, Mr Black Rooster crows all the time. I have to believe he's strutting his luck with his ladies. That's ok with me, the neighbors? Probably not hearing it this time of year, I'm sure they have their windows closed.

So, on the knitting front, I've already broken 2 of my 3 New Year's Resolutions. The first being to not buy any more yarn until I can walk around in my craft room again (too much stuff in there!) and the second to not cast on for any more projects. But this didn't count (it never does!) Besides, I had to do it to fulfill the 3rd of my resolutions.

My grandson has a birthday in March, he's at that age (13) where there's nothing you could get for him other than cash or something electronic that would make him happy, except for maybe.... A scarf knit in U of M colors (blue and gold) with the U of M logo on it.

1st resolution broken - bought more yarn

2nd resolution to be broken - cast on for new project

3rd resolution to be kept - to try to knit something for each and every one of my 7 grandkids for their birthdays this year. (the twins will be interesting, as often happens with twins, their birthdays are coincidentally on the same day as each other! How does that happen??). Clearly whoever planned that one wasn't a knitter!

So, birthday one is in the works.

See? I can justify any resolution breaking, especially if it involves knitting. Got a resolution you want to break? Send it to me, I'll justify it for ya!

Keeping Murphy Away From My New Faucet...

2009-01-08T02:15:00.001-08:00

My new faucet is here, my new faucet is here! Alert, alert!

UPS delivered it yesterday. To hubby's shop. And he forgot it. Sigh!

Oh well, that's ok really, I didn't have time to do an install last night anyway, probably won't get done until Saturday. Have to dig out the new sink and get that ready too.

And I hear there are silicone applications to be done. Yippee! Silicone is fun!

Assuming that the existing sink is the same size as the new sink it should all go fairly well. Having said that..... yeah! But it will be really nice to have that done. Might even inspire me to start thinking about refurbing my Hasty Baker Stove.

Assuming that the existing sink is the same size as the new sink is probably where all of this is gonna fall apart. I've heard they're all the same. People have said, don't worry, it will fit. But I do. Worry, that is. Because me and Murphy? Best Friends Forever! Yeah, that's us.

I've only installed one sink ever and that was close to 20 yrs ago. Thinking through the process, it didn't seem all that hard, but I'm wondering if maybe I should replace the counters also, at the same time? Hmmmm. Have to think about that. Kind of flies in the face of my "nothing new for 09" strategy (the faucet and the sink were both bought in 08, so they don't count).

What I could do is this. Dig out some of the floorboards left over after we installed the hardwood floors, use them, sand them down real good, put a nice thick layer of poly on them, that would look nice! And while I'm at it, I could build a backsplash and, and, and.....

This might work, will have to think about it some though.

Nah! The existing counters are just fine, they don't need to be replaced. And I will probably need those floorboards when we finally get the upstairs loft done. Yeah, I have enough projects, don't really need any more, and, keeping Murphy away from my new installations will probably be all I can handle!

Obligatory rooster photos, well one anyway, it's dark in the mornings and evenings when I do chores, so hard to get a good photo!

Well, It's Been Awhile

2009-01-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

So let's take a look at what has been happening around the farm lately.

You know those old farm houses on the end of the road where people drop off stray cats and dogs? We have one of those. Well, not an old farm house, but we are at the end of the road.

And to be honest, I've only had one drop off puppy, one we ended up keeping for a long time, and the cats that show up, well cats do roam so...

But, I'm not talking here about dropping off 4 legged furry critters. Nope. Here's the story.

I was sitting at my computer the other morning and kept thinking I was hearing a rooster. We have 2 roosters, but they're young, and to my knowledge haven't found their "crow" yet. At least I've never heard them. If you've ever heard a rooster trying to learn to crow, it's not pretty. Pretty much sounds like they're being tortured. But this was a full on crow.

After daylight I ventured out to the barn to do chores and what did I see? A rooster! A real, full grown, complete with a healthy set of spurs, rooster! A really pretty one too, black, with reds, browns and iridescent greens and blues. Very pretty. Ok then. We now have an honest to goodness rooster. Whatever.

Part of my doing morning chores dictates that I open up the hen house so the chickens can escape, wander around the barnyard and peck at the grains and corns that the horses and cows leave behind. Part of my morning chores involves counting my little birdies as they exit the hen house, just to make sure I didn't lose anyone. Currently there are 14 birdies living there. Or so I thought. Until I opened up the door and out strutted another rooster, proud as could be (spent the night with 12 ladies and 2 young gentlemen....). This one was also very pretty. White with black and brown and red and other colors, iridiscent blues and greens, very pretty, but very much different from the other one.

So now I'm curious, just how many roosters found my barnyard, when did they arrive, and most importantly, how in the world did they get there?

There's close to 4 foot of snow on the ground between me and the other farms in the area, not likely they just strolled over. Domestic chickens don't fly real well, so that's not likely either. They had to have had a ride. But who??

Stay tuned for the answer coming up after this ad.....

Hey? Need your driveway plowed? Need your walk shoveled? Just call the local Mr Snowplow man (who also, conveniently as it happens, has a few extra roosters, want a couple?)

Ah Hah! There's the culprit. Seems he had a few too many (roosters). Seems they were eating him out of house and pig food. Seems last year he asked me if I wanted a few and I said, "Sure, why not!". Actually that last part I don't remember, but he swears he "mentioned" it. And while he's "swearing that he mentioned it" there's an unmistakable gleam in his eye and a shit-eating grin on his face. Uh huh! Ok. You "mentioned" it. Was I anywhere near you when this pseudo-conversation took place?

But it's all good. I needed a new face in the flock anyway, gotta introduce some new dna every now and then to keep from getting chickens with fur, or 3 eyes and stuff, or feet growing out of their ears. And these boys are gorgeous! They will make pretty babies. Unless of course they don't know how to do that, then, Mr Snowplow Man and I are gonna have a 'scussion!

When it Snows, It Rains...

2008-12-23T03:37:00.000-08:00

I love snow, and again, the standard disclaimer applies. I have no control over whether it snows or not so don't hate me for saying that I like it. The only amount of control I may, or may not have is this; there seems to be a correlation between whether we get precipitation or not, based on whether I hang out my laundry or not.

But then again, I didn't hang out my laundry and we're getting more snow. So, see? No control.

The fact that I love snow, more snow, and even more snow is not lost on hubby. He's the one who has to make sure that we can get out and go, no matter how much snow. And he doesn't like it. At all. None of it. He'll take the cold without snow, and I'll take the snow, but you can keep the cold. It's a match made in heaven, I tell ya!

But snow isn't the only precipitation on tap currently at chez C-A-T. We have rain in the cabin. Yes, we have rain IN the cabin. Snow outside, rain inside. See it all happened this way....
Once upon a time CAT went to turn on the faucet to wash dishes. All was good. We had hot water, we had cold water, we had it all, and all was good. Until..... CAT noticed that she was wet. As was the counter, wall and floor. Seems the faucet sprung another leak. Again. Enough! It's not a fix something on the inside of the faucet to get it through kind of spray either. It's an either it's gonna spray or you can tie a rag around it to contain the spray, but either way, there's water coming out!

So, as I pen this prose, I'm also searching on ebay for a new kitchen faucet. The current faucet has no sprayer (it sprays a lot, but it's not supposed to. I told that to a customer service rep once when I called to get another thingy for the inside to keep it from spraying, and she didn't get it). It also has no lever (just a nub where the lever used to be, kind of hard to grip and get an accurate temperature, and which, with the additon of the new dishwasher and the subsequent turning up of the hot water heater, gets rather hot).

The new one will be a country styled arc faucet, with pull out sprayer, and anything but a stainless steel finish. It will also be NEW. And it will be under 100.00 with shipping, thank you very much.

I've found two that I like and another I could live with, all meeting all of the criteria (single lever, sprayer, arc, not stainless and under 100 bucks) and I set them to send alerts to my cell phone as the time to auction end got nearer. There's one I like better than the others, we'll see how this all plays out. It's almost as exciting as an episode of Survivor.

Technology! Gotta love it. Except for the VHS and DVD player, don't go there.

Man, these 3 day work weeks are tough! And next week, another 3 day work week. Not sure I'll make it. And after that, I am back up to 5 days! 5 days a week at work, until, oh, wait, until middle of January when I have a short vacation. But after that it's back to normal.

My Coffee Pot Broke.

2008-12-22T03:05:00.000-08:00

If you're not a coffee drinker, then you don't get the significance of this. I may as well not even get up if I can't have my coffee.
Well, we can't have that either, especially, when my insomniac affected body decides it needs to be out of bed.

So I did the only responsible thing I could think of, that being to dig around in the camping stuff and find the old percolator, look in my old farm cookbooks on how to brew coffee in this archaic manner and proceed. Keep in mind, all of this had to be accomplished SANS COFFEE!!

We did pretty well, here at Chez C-A-T. And to be honest, it makes a pretty darn good cup of coffee, even if it did balk at being used on a electric stove, rather than a campfire. It does take awhile though, like about the time it takes to boil water hard enough for it to be forced through the little stemmy thing, up into the percolator thing and drip back down through the coffee grounds. And then do all of that for 6-10 mins. And then cool down enough so it doesn't scorch the tongue right outta the mouth. But the coffee is pretty good. Due to my New Years Resolution...(this is a hint here), I will use this coffee maker rather than replacing the old one. Unless of course this one takes a hit, then all bets are off. We do have to have our coffee to survive after all.

So, today is The Brat's birthday. Happy Birthday Brat! I'm not real sure how this happened, but he's 22. Seems like just yesterday he was falling out of trees, jumping off of anything guaranteed to buy him some airtime (and in one case, some hospital time), learning how to ride a 2 wheeler (while being pushed downhill by two of his helpful big sisters - "dodge the trees!"). He's always been my baby, which when he was growing up was a pretty easy position to be in, what with 4 older sisters. And now he spends his time 24/7 in Iraq. Baghdad actually. It goes without saying that I WANT HIM HOME! True to his positive nature, he finds it not so bad. He says the Iraqi's are people just like we are. They want peace and stability just like we do. They want the same things for their families that we do. When he and his buddies got one of the tanks stuck in the mud during the rainy season (rainy season? In Iraq? Who knew?), several locals showed up with shovels and tractors to help them. The kids are adorable, he says, but then he's always loved kids. And he's always wanted to help people, which I suspect is one of the reason's he's there, that and the US govt sent him there.
Like many, he was a teenager when he first set foot on that sandy soil, when he left home he was still my baby boy. Now, when he is able to come home, there's a quiet maturity about him, he's grown into a man; a man who would do just about anything for me and the girls. A protector. And I'm so proud of him. And I miss him so much.
Be safe Brat!

See what happens when I don't get my coffee?

The Lights Are Coming! The Lights Are Coming!

2008-12-18T09:43:00.001-08:00

So this is a picture (really bad scan - the book is just about totalled) of my waaayyyy cute sweater jacket that is a bit small. I'm fixing that. Hopefully it will fit better. And I'm almost done spinning the yarn for my Colorado project, a shawl/scarf/hat/vest type of thing. Might make matching legwarmers too. We (me and the Bu-Dawgh, he's a great spinner) were going to finish spinning last night while I watched the Red Wings, but due to this mysterious time change my body seems to be subjecting me to, I couldn't stay awake long enough to even get the wheel out. By the time these are done it ought to be around August.

I found out yesterday that in our area (N. Mich) the Northern Lights should be viewable around the 23rd of this month. (note to baby bro in Alaska. I don't even wanna hear about it! Don't even go there. Not one word. Zzzziiiippppp!!) Used to be I'd go outside for whatever reason and maybe catch a glimplse of them, now they can predict that (no glimpsing required!) And they tell me. So I can do what with that info? I have no idea. Put it in my Palm I guess, but then I never remember to check that either, so it's a crap shoot. At any rate we're smack dab in the middle of 3 amazing snow storms that will likely last through the viewing period.
It's hard to look up in the sky and see anything when it's snowing. If you're lucky you can see the clouds, this time of year, if you tip your head back to look up, you're likely to get schmucked by a snowflake. They can be mean. I've complained about this before, however nothing seems to have gotten done about it.

And the solstice is coming. In some areas of the world this is celebrated as a revered holiday. Actually it's pretty cool, the shortest day in the year and all, and they usually schedule it on the same day every year. This is a good thing, unlike the Northern Lights, and any assorted manner of comets, shooting stars... which are mostly random, the Solstice can be counted on. I've made cookies before. It's the day before The Brat's birthday. Now that one I remember!

But this scheduling thing has me flummoxed. (I love that word). Might need a phone call, or an email or something to remind me that this stuff is coming. Not really gonna worry about viewing the lights this time, the anticipated snow and all, but it is kind of cool that they seem to be able to predict this stuff.

Maybe I'll be a meteorologist when I grow up! Look out wayward snowflakes! You WILL conform!!! Muhahahahahahahah

Random Stuff

2008-12-18T01:16:00.000-08:00

So, usually when I sit down to write this I have something in mind. This morning, not so much. See, it's 4:18 AM. That's 4 in the morning, people, 4! As in 4 hours after midnight. And, I can't sleep. This recent (the last couple of months) turn of events does a lot for getting knitting done, my blogs written and the web surfed, but come around 4 pm, I'm ready for a nap!

Naps don't happen here, not for me anyway, at least not until I sit down to watch tv with hubby, then I'm out cold. Seems I do my best thinking in the early morning. I used to work 4-12 and seriously, it was great. Not only did I have all afternoon off, but I was able to apply myself when my brain was at it's best. But I worked at home too, set my alarm for about 3:50, threw on my bathrobe, came downstairs and fired up the 'puter.

Speaking of 'puter's did I mention I'm getting a new one? Yay!!! Very excited here. Very. I'd jump up and down, but it's 4:22 AM and I'd probably incur some sort of wrath reserved for people who naturally wake up waaaayyyyy too early and as a result, make enough noise to wake everyone else in the house up.

So I'll sit here and quietly type, and knit while waiting for my ULTRA SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW dialup connection to load new pages. Good times!

The knitting progress here at Chez C-A-T has progressed progressively. Lots getting done. Right now I'm working a a waaayyy cute sweater jacket for myself. Started it about 2 years ago and quit when I started sewing it together and found it to be tooo small. Could have given it to one of my daughters, but was pretty disgusted by the way things were shaping up. Followed gauge and everything. Supposed to be a size 10-12. OK then.

Well, lately the waaayyy cute sweater jacket crawled it's way out of the UFO (unfinished objects) void and demanded that something be done to it. So I tried it on again and guess what? Yup! Still too small. After weighing a bunch of options and asking expert advice (thanks, J!), a plan was hatched. Look for that coming soon. The waaayyy cute sweater jacket, not the plan. Rarely do my plans go into writing, that's just asking for crap to happen.

Also seems that the 120 days ago sweater (see the tags at the right for the drama of this particular princess) requires assistance. Blondie, who the sweater was made for didn't really like it too much, so she gave it to The Mouth, who loved it. Except she's a bit taller and longer than Blondie and wasn't so much enamored of a sweater that was that short. So, longer it has to become. Soon. But I want to finish the waaayyy cute sweater jacket first.

Well, I went and did it. The awful. The unspeakable. That which every human on the planet (well a lot of us anyway) does come the end of the year, with a fresh new calendar just waiting to throw failure in our faces. Yes maam, you guessed it. I MADE THE RESOLUTION. The big one! The NEW YEAR'S one. But I'm not gonna tell anyone what it is (see above comment regarding putting plans into writing). Well, I did tell one brother, and he laughed at me, so the heck with the rest of you. If this can actually be pulled off, I will end the year in a much better way. Stay tuned for this bit of juice!

Let's review some of my "Life On The Farm" stuff.

Red Wings... not doing so good this year, but I have every expectation that they'll pull it out.

Eggs.... pretty much dwindled down to nothing, this time of year that happens.

We've already covered the 120 days ago sweater.

Driving in and on the snow and ice have been touched on recently.

My lack of ability to figure out how to sleep has been documented.

What else?

Bu-Dawgh continues to be a HUGE baby, who insists he's a lap dog (at 60 lbs). But he's so cute, and those big brown eyes, and the wrinkles (shar-pei) and, and, and. As to his bolting problem, a shock collar has been introduced into his equation. He's pretty good with it, unless we have chicken or kitten issues, than all bets are off. Bunnies are pretty distracting too.

I have not done a blasted thing about starting my winter project this year, which is the restoration of an old antique cook stove, turned electric, that continues to live on my deck. I'd love it if it could come live in the kitchen, but not yet. It must demonstrate it's ability to be productive and not merely decorative to earn a spot in the kitchen. Especially since the currently productive appliance that it will replace is well, currently productive.

Guess that's about it. Until tomorrow morning at this ungodly hour (it's not 4:39 AM). Getting close to time for a nap!

The Road Toad Hits The Ice Capades!

2008-12-17T03:23:00.001-08:00

Or, a funny thing happened on my way home from work last night.

Allow me to set the scene. We got snow. Lots of it. Tons, even, this being Michigan and all. Which was all good and well, until the rain came. And landed on the frozen snowy back roads. And then the "brutal arctic air came down from Canada causing unseasonable cold, and bringing with it plummeting wind chills". Meteorologists can be so graphic, I personally think that's one of the things wrong with today's kids. But we'll touch on that a bit later. Now, there is so much wrong with that statement that I don't even know where to start. I'm quite upset about it actually, may need to hit the wine to settle down.

First of all, the snow, yeah, it's snow. Yeah we get it. By the tons, until the big lakes freeze over, or mostly freeze over, it's called lake effect snow. More meteorologist speak for lots and lots of fluffy snow caused by cold air sailing over warmer water and producing moisture.
That part I'm ok with, but the rain? In December? In Michigan? WT...?
Sleet or freezing rain, yeah, but downright, if you stand out in it you're gonna get wet, rain?
That's just wrong. On so many levels.
And then the brutal temps. Come on, Mr. Meteorologist, that's January stuff, not December. Update your map! (and calendar).

Let me recap. Tons of snow, followed by rain, then "brutally cold air". That's the recipe for ice. And ice there was (and still is). Black ice. And lots of it. Lots!

Now, let's bring the Road Toad into this equation. I'm used to playing in my big truck in the winter, drift busting, ice sliding (didn't really matter if you hit the ditch, it was big enough to climb out - mostly, there was that one time when we had to call Mr Wrecker Driver but never mind). And, while the Road Toad is awesome, it doesn't weigh too much more than a few sacks of corn. It's cute little shape and 4x4 to boot makes wintertime driving fun again. Until we hit the black ice and realized that a cute little Road Toad doesn't weigh nearly as much as the big truck, thereby we have sliding all over the place, the back end trying to pass the front end, spins and jumps that would rival the best Olympic skaters, stuff like that. Still fun, until the ditch loomed. Still doable, it's not like the ditches are 169 foot drop offs, they're ditches. And they're on back roads, where there are not a lot of people, other vehicles or other stuff to hit, so it's still fun.

Then we remember the problem. Lock Out Hubs. These were awesome on my first jeep, back when I was younger. Much younger. They were fun. A status symbol even. Gotta get out and lock in the hubs so we can get through this mud puddle the size of a small lake. No problem, it was fun, and mostly there was alcohol involved.
Now, not so much. You gotta get out and lock in the hubs of all things. Which means slogging through the snow in the ditch (usually a good amount more than in the fields or yard), which is ok in itself, but dressed for work and not for the farm or not for 4 wheeling is not so good. Plus there are seat belts to fight with, and usually not alcohol to dull the pain. And with the big truck I merely jumped out, with the little Road Toad I have to climb out and up. And I'm older.
The big truck didn't have lock out/in hubs, all I had to do to continue my fun was play with the shifters.

So, moral is, the Road Toad has been initiated to my way of winter driving (when there aren't people around, or cows, folks, I don't drive that way in the city, just where if someone was to get hurt, which is unlikely, it would be myself).

But I still love the Road Toad, it's too much fun, and it still pretty much goes anywhere, even if it requires a bit more effort from me to get there. Gotta make the best of it, eh?

My Paths Have Crossed

2008-12-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

Every winter, I delight in making paths through the snow. I don't know, it's just something I do, like in the spring when the heavy melts occur, hubby and I walk up and down the road making rivers.
So, back to the paths, in a normal winter, I'd have a path out to the barn from the porch, and a path from the porch to the driveway. I'd have a path from the barn up the hill to where I drag the hose and from the barn to the back yard where the clothes hang, then a path from there back around to the front porch. I like my paths, they keep me, well, on path.

Yesterday I was out following my paths, doing chores, and I noticed a few extras. When did they get there? Is there another path maker in the house? There's the main path to the barn, but there seems to be a crossroads. One path splits off to go to the garage, one to the puppy poop pile, one to the chicken coop, one to the barn, one to the top of the hose hill, and they all intersect at the same spot. It's a crossroads, my little path system has become a super highway. And that's just up by the house. Down by the barn they go from the barn to the water, to the hose hill, to the cow and chicken pens, past that to hubbys road back into the woods (how did that one get there?) and so on. No wonder I get confused. It used to be so easy, pick up the corn on the way home from work. Feed the rabbits, chickens, cows and horses in that order, make sure everyone has hay, water and throw some sugar beets for the horses, but now.... everything is out of whack! But, hey, I got a really cool pump house! Water hasn't frozen yet! Uh oh, I just jinxed myself didn't I?

Wintertime Farm Stuff

2008-12-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

Last night we got more snow. Today we're getting more snow. Tonight, guess what? Yup! More snow. Totals should be in the 12-15" range. YAY!!! Should I grab the shovel and clear a spot on the pond for skating? (We'll have hubby test the ice first), should I grab the snowshoes and go for a walk in the woods, or fire up the sled and go for a ride?

What? I have to go to work first? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But if there's enough gals at work and I get stuff done early...... maybe I can get out of there early so I can go play.

The Road Toad loves the snow. This picture was taken about 15 mins after hubby cleaned it off for me. Hasn't even seen 4 wheel drive yet, that thing is unstoppable. And kind of cute, if you get past the dull, camo green, spray paint job.

I love snow, not the bitter cold so much, but we could be dumped on time and time again with snow and it would just be ok.

So, first thing in the morning I slog my way through the snow (I get to make new paths, as the ones' I'd been using got covered up! - this is fun), taking my time getting to the barn, enjoying the fresh new whiteness. Hear the critters contentedly munching their dinners from last night, and make sure they have enough to last the day. They need more hay and grain when it's snowy and cold, but that's ok, they can have it. The water is always frozen, so grab a shovel and break the ice. Since it hasn't been that cold yet, I don't need the tank heaters for their water (although it's getting close, the ice is building up in the horse tank, so this morning probably will see me digging at least that one out.)

The water hasn't frozen at the pump either, thanks so much to hubby and his brother who built me a totally cute pump house. It's in the shape and style of an old outhouse (complete with half moon drawn, though not cut out, on the door). There's a heat lamp in there that can be plugged in at a moment's notice, but it's not been needed yet, they insulated it well.

Then on the way back from the barn I check on the chickens and then head back to the house. Grab an armload of wood for the stove, and enjoy the hot chocolate that's waiting for me. In the morning, this all takes about 20 minutes (unless dawdling occurs). At night, closer to 30 or more but I love it.

Maybe tonight I'll convince hubby to wander out onto the pond and see if the ice is good. We'll clear a spot for skating. This is lots of fun, the clearing of the spot that is. Normally the ice would be just fine this time of year, and I'm sure it is, but we've had a lot of snow, that has insulated it, it might not be as solid as it should be. Also need to get my sled out and started, that's so much fun that it's worth the extra work. I'll get out the snowshoes too and check the bindings.

Realizing that all of this should be done before I want to use them, generally, when these things should be done is when other things are getting done that should have been getting done before that when still other stuff was getting done.

My cabin as seen from the barn. The ladder to the left is a necessity, have to clear snow off the satellite dish every couple of days.

The "pile o stuff" to the right is a combination of the table and chairs, hot tub and grill all in a pile and covered with a tarp, which is covered with snow. The snow is now about a foot deep, but we'll get more, today and tonight.

Then, we're gonna go play!!

Road Trip!

2008-12-04T03:02:00.000-08:00

So, did you enjoy all of the snow pictures yesterday? I can't help it, I love snow.

And I love snow storms!

But that's not the best part! Unless we get slammed with another storm (yesterday's "storm" totals were just over .5 inch. Come on! That's not a storm, that's a dusting!), tomorrow smells like a road trip!

And just what does a knitter do on a road trip? Finish stuff!

Our current resident (friend of one of the girls, heck she is one of the girls) is undergoing quite the custody battle, and since tomorrow is another one of those "in court all day" days, and since she doesn't have anyone to go with her, I volunteered.

This will be quite ok. I won't spend 8 hours in the courtroom yawning, I'll spend 8 hours knitting! And I won't spend 6 hours on the road wishing to get where I'm going and then home again, I'll spend another 6 hours knitting!

And, I'm taking every knitting project I own that is not finished. And, I'm taking some yarn that doesn't have a project assigned to it to practice a new technique just learned.

And knowing my luck, the snow will come down hard and fast in one of those storms that is really relaxing to me, and I'll end up driving. Ugh.

Tomorrow night one of the churches in town is having a Christmas Tea. This is the church that my cousin's husband is the preacher for (I'm sure there's a better way to say that), and they've invited me. Depends on when I get home, last time we did the all day in court thing it was 8:30 when we got home. Long day!

But it's all good! I'll have my knitting!

Yarn tree picture courtesy of Knit And Purl Mama's Blog

Just Pics

2008-12-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

From my bedroom window
Horses

From Back door

From Back Door

From Bathroom window

Pepper is chillin'

From Bedroom window

SNOWDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

What to do, what to do.
Do I go outside and make a snowman? Do I go get the sled fired up? Or the skiis or snowshoes? (I do have that trip to Colorado coming up, might not be a bad idea to try to get into some sort of shape by then).
What? Snow days are only for school kids? When did they make that a rule?
What? That fun little 4x4 truck I have that I love to go play in?
But I don't want to go "play" on my way to work.
I don't wanna!
Besides, we're supposed to get more snow today plus blowing and drifting! Did you hear me? Blowing and drifting. That screams "come and play in me" pretty loud, I mean, who in their right mind would want to drive in that?
I could work from home, I can do that, but that wouldn't be very responsible if no one else showed up.

Ok, fine, I'll get ready to go into work, but if I encounter ice in the driveway, I'm turning around!

Ambition Strikes..

2008-11-29T02:11:00.000-08:00

At 3 in the morning! WTF??
Why is this? I lay there thinking about all the things I didn't get done yesterday and all of a sudden I'm awake and I find myself upright and vertical in my bedroom. This is how my body knows it's time to be up. When it finds itself upright and vertical.
It takes a bit of time for my body and my head to sync watches here. My eyes are telling my head that my body is frickin' nuts because it's only 3 AM.
My body is telling my head that it's time to be awake, because, well, we're awake.

Body: It's 3 AM, look at the clock, we could be nestled snuggly under the covers awaiting our usual wakeup time of between 5 and 6.
Head: But there's noone in the house. Noone to wake up if we turn on lights, noone will care if we turn on the music and start the vacuum.
Body: Dude! It's 3 AM! I care if the vacuum starts and the lights are on. Besides, if you make me get up now, I'll have to let out Bu-Dawgh, start the stove and by then I'll be awake and I'll never be able to go back to sleep.
Head: Come on, think of everything you didn't get done yesterday, we can tidy up the stash room, clean out the truck, get next week's hay supply moved into the hay supply place in the barn, heck we could even get the barn cleaned out before Saturday morning, when you're supposed to clean out the barn.
Body: It IS SATURDAY MORNING!!! I'm going back to bed.
Head: No, you're not, besides, you have to go to the bathroom, and then, you'll be awake, so you might as well get used to it. We'll be so productive today, we'll get knitting done! Lots and lots of knitting.
Body: Can we go to the library and return books and get more?
Head: Dude, we can do anything we want. It's Saturday and we have a whole day to do whatever we want.
Body: Except sleep.

And so it goes, and of course, Head wins, we are already upright and vertical when this argument ensues, and by the time it's over, we've already visited the bathroom, started the stove, checked our email and let out the Bu-Dawgh.

The only thing left to do is enjoy our coffee, while making a to-do list!

The Dishes Are Done Break Out The Tree!

2008-11-28T03:42:00.001-08:00

This year's Thanksgiving Dinner was at my cousin's house, who happens to live in the same town as me. This doesn't happen very often, usually we travel, so this was pretty cool. Plus it meant I got to drink wine, and play scrabble and get down on the floor and play with the kids and since I was drinking wine, noone thought anything of me being down on the floor, or making up scrabble words. (Mark, you rock at scrabble! I'm your partner next time! What? Scrabble doesn't have partners? Snap! You still rock!).

This year's Thanksgiving Dinner almost didn't happen at my cousin's house. Earlier in the week we had gotten our first storm of the season and while on the way from point A to point B, she rolled her Blazer. Her daughter was fine, and she was fine (after hanging upside down for nearly an hour, while they tried to peel the blazer away from her). This was not fine, and this was definitely cause for a Thanksgiving Dinner if ever there was one. Plus she got a new jeep out of the deal.

So, because her husband is hunting (what male isn't hunting at this time of year in N. Mich?), I offered to take her and her kids to go get their tree (she's not quite up to driving yet). We'll just fire up the farm truck and drive over to the local Tree Farm. Who knows what will be picked up. She's a balls-to-the-wall kind of gal, a go big or go home type, so I know I'll need the big truck. No matter, it will be fun. It will be a 'venture, as one of my grand-twins used to say. And we will have a blast, and there will probably be more wine.

For the last few years I have not gotten a real tree, the kids are gone, it's just hubby and me, and I really don't like cutting down trees, or buying ones that had already met their demise. It just seems wrong. So, in my lodge decor that adorns the inside of my log cabin, I have several very very realistic "fake" trees. Realistic to the point that if I put the big one (acutally a stand of 3 trees) in a pot, people would have to look to see that it wasn't a real tree. They are imperfect, they are different colors of green, and they really look real. So anyway, this tree, or set of trees, stays up year round in my house. It holds lights (year round) lodge type of ornaments, seasonal goodies and I take it out onto the deck and hose it off twice a year, because it also houses seasonal critters and dust. But this year......
You guessed it, we have a child in the house again! We have a gal who used to live with us when she was in high school for awhile (one of our daughter's friends), and she's back, going through a rough time, and has a 2 year old! How much fun is this gonna be!!
I won't pick out the tree for her, I'll let her do that, I remember how much fun my kids and I had when we did it, but I'll look forward to helping decorate it (gotta dig out the tree stand, if I even still have it).

This will be fun! And we'll drink more wine, or hot cider maybe, and have leftovers from yesterday and, and, and.......

In Which The Mouth Swipes My Pie!

2008-11-27T02:35:00.001-08:00

So, today finds me over at my cousin's house armed with pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and rolls.
Since I'm totally a homemade gal, I did almost all of it. The pumpkin pie came from pumpkins, that no, I didn't grow, but I did can. Those are the best. Don't even have to have pie pumpkins, any that I've tried will do, they just taste way better, fresher than the canned pumpkin mix I've "bought" in the past. Takes 3 qts of home canned pumpkin for 2 pies. The pie shells are made from a centuries old recipe I've had for, well, half a century anyway.
I bought the cranberries and the oranges, but will mix them together with a bit of sugar and cinnamon, add some heat and water and produce cranberry sauce.
As for the rolls, yeah, they're just plain white rolls, but I'll throw in a bit of whole wheat flour just for kicks.
I didn't whip up the cream myself, I don't have access anymore to fresh milk and cream so I bought the old standby, CoolWhip. Hey, that stuff's not bad!

I will take my pie (made 2 of them, The Mouth swiped one), Cool Whip, cranberry sauce and rolls and head over to my cousin's house as soon as the rolls are out of the oven (and I haven't started them yet, but it's still really early, she'd shoot me if I showed up really early).

And in return for all of this early showing up and all, she will reward me with wine! Lots and lots of wine. Knowing her, it will be an all I can drink kind of thing, bottomless, and not even in good wine glasses, but in tankards. Yeah! That's what you should drink wine out of, saves the need to keep going back for a refill.

I did not finish my mossi cardi, grrrr, but I will take it over to work on, when I'm not swilling wine or on the floor playing with the kids.

So, two things happened yesterday that merited remembering. When The Mouth dropped off my groceries (my vehicles are in various states of protest, and the one that runs currently does not have plates or registration on it so I can't go too far), she spotted the pies. Pumpkin pie is her favorite, and as it was, the 2 pies happened to be cozily nestled into my 2 remaining pie pans, my favorites, as it were, mostly because they're the only 2 I have left.
The minute her eye went for the pie, I knew I was in trouble. So, I did the only thing a loving mother would do. Grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and hastily scrawled out a contract regarding loss of life and limb if the pie pan was not returned. Laughing at me, she signed it, making such comments as "you know I'll bring this back". Yeah right, if I knew that, I'd still have 8 pie pans instead of my current favorite 2!

The second thing that had me rolling on the floor relates directly to the new tin roof we put on the cabin this summer. And Bu-Dawgh. And the current location of his leash, which is outside the front door. I knew the snow was going to come down, the temps had warmed up and you could almost see the snow inching it's way down off the roof. And Bu-Dawgh loves to play in the snow, next thing I heard was the goosh-plop of the snow off the roof hitting the ground. Thinking this would be an awesome thing for an oversized puppy I went out fully prepared to see him happily bounding around in the new fallen avalanche. He was not. He was up on the deck, hiding underneath the summer aquarium, shaking. Not shaking as if to shake off the snow, but shaking as if he was scared to death. Trembling. And very much willing to leave his snow outside. He's such a baby. He's recovered though, already been out playing in it. I suspect before long, he'll be looking forward to the goosh-plop so he has some new snow to play in!

Off to start the rolls now. Have a great turkey day!

Time To Get Warm

2008-11-24T03:28:00.000-08:00

Today, will find me taking a brief respite from my real job and out slogging through the woods cutting firewood. To me, this weather is perfect for this job. No hot sun, no sweat, no bugs, cold enough to keep you cool!
Actually I should rephrase that, my saw isn't really big enough to keep up with the big boys, so I do more loading and stacking and less cutting. Whatever, it gets done and we all have free wood. It's a great deal!
Every now and then we get a tract of land to cut, either the owners want some cleared, or they've sold off the good stuff and want it cleaned out, that's how we get our firewood. It's not really free, and I'll feel how much it cost tomorrow, but it will go a long way toward heating our house this winter.

Several times we've mulled over the idea of taking out the woodstove, or of just using it to supplement another heating system. When we put our wood floors in, we talked about putting a sub floor heating system in, but I think, no. I like the stove.
Don't so much care for the mess, and it's a real bear to regulate the temperatures, sometimes on a really cold January night, we have to crack the windows in the bedroom because it's so hot, but I think the system we have works just fine. It could be better, but it's not broke, so....

My shawl is almost done, could probably finish that today if I had a notion, but it won't happen. Also, the mossi cardi that I want to wear for Thanksgiving is close to done, I really want to finish that, more than the shawl, so that one will rate higher.

On the farm, we continue to meet the weather head on. Ice is made every night, so until it gets too thick to break with a shovel in the horse and cattle tanks, that's what we do twice a day. When it gets too thick, I'll break out the tank heaters, don't like to do that, costs electricity, and they are notorious for deciding to not work.

Hubby built me a "shack" around the water pump by the barn. It's insulated and everybody! Now, 1/2 hour or so with the heat lamp and my pump will be thawed out and ready to use. I fill tanks every other day in the winter, I'll have to take a picture, it's a rare sight!

Try to stop at a neighboring farm on my home from work at night to pick up corn for the cattle, they are getting so big.
The chickens aren't crazy about the snow, but they'll get used to it and best of all, I've started to make my paths again.

Making paths in the snow rocks! Kind of like an adventure!

Your Daily Physics Lesson

2008-11-20T03:29:00.000-08:00

In which the forces within are equal or greater to the forces without, Or in layman's terms - Bring It On!
First of all let me dispel a myth that may or may not be disturbing you. Ready? Here goes:

I am not a physicist. I'm not even sure I spelled it right. I know, it's shocking, what with my incredible insights into the world around me - or inside my head - whatever. But, no, I'm not one of those people who wear the pocket protectors. I'll just leave that to settle in for a minute.

If you've recovered enough from that statement, I'll continue.....

My particular version of "forces to be dealt with" this morning include not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of my vehicles. Yes, I have 4 vehicles. Hey, hubby has way more than that, but around here, they each have their own special brand of usefulness. Even if they are just yard ornaments.

We can eliminate the bike, bike riding season is pretty much over, and li'l bro in Colorado who's temps still see 75 in the daytime, you don't even need to comment here, I'm not speaking to you anyway. I took the insurance off of the bike for the season. It was hard, mindbendingly hard, actually, but I did it. I am no longer a biker chick, but this is just for the winter.
Vehicle #2, My Egg (geo metro - 50 mpg - I can put up with a lot of ugly for 50 mpg!) currently is displaying issues involving the spewing of antifreeze all over the driveway. Apparantly, according to hubby, it is the heater core, or the heater line, or something not even remotely close or even connected to the actual heater.

That was yesterday, so I hopped in my favorite winter vehicle of all time, The Truck.
The Truck is a 1993 (I think) GMC Sierra Full Size Pickup on Big Tires, with a Crew Cab and , um, of course, 4 wheel drive. Oh yeah! The Truck!
The Truck rocks, it is my favorite vehicle in which I must ride in rather than on, but alas. The windshield wipers, as well as any assortment of dash, headlights, or taillights only work when they want to, which wouldn't be at night, or during a freezing rain session which is what we had last night coming home from work.
It gets dark here early. By 5 oclock when it's time to leave work, there is a definite need for headlights. Oh it's easy enough to see driving home, but not so much for people to see me, so working headlights are a great option.
And, when I have to stop every 1/2 mile to scrape the windshield (remember the wipers don't work and it's freezing rain) it's really cool if the people behind me can not only see me, but see that my intentions to pull over to the side of the road are documented by application of the brakes and taillights. Oh, and I forgot to mention, there's no plates and insurance on The Truck.
So, that was yesterday.
Today.... we are driving our "new" vehicle of choice, the assembled and altered, Izusu Rodeo, or The Clomper as I like to call it. I like this vehicle because it's different I guess. Really there's no reason not to like it, but it starts and stops without rain dances, goes forward and backwards, has 4 wheel drive, and the wipers and lights all work.
No, it's not legal for the road either, that should be remedied this morning, yeah, I'll be a bit late for work, deal with it.

And, if it weren't dark out still, I'd sooo take a picture of The Clomper for you. I know you'd find it just as alluring as I do.

And baby bro out in California who seems to have forgotten what snow looks like, give me time, daylight hours are limited and most of them find me inside, actually working. I'll get you pictures, don't you worry.

Edited to add pictures of The Clomper (who really doesn't like his/her name and we're working on that) and also snow pics for baby bro in CA.

Click to bigify, come on, you know you want to!

Winter Seems To Be Here

2008-11-19T02:53:00.000-08:00

It has been snowing non-stop for pretty much 4 or 5 days. Not the lake effect snow, where it builds up at the rate of an inch an hour, that would be a lot of snow (and how cool would that be???). But this little piddly flurry stuff that just floats around and finally lands. It will do this now pretty much all winter long. There isn't a lot of snow on the ground, but it's there. As is the cold. This, I don't like. I love the snow, bring it on, but the cold brings with it a whole host of "stuff".
For one....the water in the barn is now officially frozen. When I lift up the handle to the pump, nothing happens. Well, that's not true. This following is what happens:
Lift up handle to pump.
Figure out nothing is coming out.
Go find the heat lamps.
Set up heat lamps to try to get the water thawed out.
Get bales of straw to stack in and around the pump house.
Get old blankets and sleeping bags to wrap around pump.
Come back a half hour later to see if the pump is thawed yet, (which last night it wasn't, so the heat lamps have been on all night.)
I hope it is thawed this morning. Otherwise I'll be hauling water for horses and cows again. That's a lot of water.

I know what you're saying. "Um, excuse me, doesn't this happen every year? Wouldn't you think you'd be ready for it? Like, already have this plan in place?"
Oh come on! You know better than that!

All of this brings me to a comment I had to make on another's blog. (I have no idea how I made that leap, but I got there, so can you!) Apparantly the cost to feed Thanksgiving Dinner to 10 people should cost around 44 bucks, acording to the Farm Bureau.
Let's see, my turkey, vegies and pumpkin (for pies) are all home grown - not much cost there because I DO NOT count labor of love.
The pie shells, and rolls are home made, the pumpkin for the pies is home grown and the berries are picked out of the woods.

The butter and whipped cream are home made, just because I can!

I suppose it's doable, but in today's society, not every has those skills or the opportunities that I have. (a 1 acre garden fertilized daily by just about every critter known to man, except water buffalo).

This life is great! In a time when the world around us seems to be collapsing, we are safe, warm, well fed and now that gas has gone back down, not really noticing a whole lot in the cost of food.

Oh, wait a minute, there is the cost for toilet paper for all of those people! What was I thinking!

Knit Like A Ninja Day!

2008-11-17T02:57:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday was Knit Like A Ninja Day.

It was fun, and I stealthily knit, most of the day, well, when I wasn't doing laundry, dishes, making cookies and dinner, sweeping floors and putting screens away. Yes, I finally got the screens put away.

So, what did my little stealthy knit-a-long produce? This:

A miniature Christmas stocking to send to my son who is in Iraq. I'm making another one too, for his roommate, that one's not quite done. It was a fun knit, all in my own hand spun yarn. I know it looks a bit funky, hasn't been washed or blocked yet, it was Knit Like A Ninja Day, not Finish Your Knitting Like A Ninja Day. Geez!

And now, for the question that everyone has been asking.... where was I? Where did I do all of this Ninja knitting? What? You didn't see me? Guess I was pretty good eh? Was I in hubby's deer blind (it's heated, it's doable)? Was I out in the barn (not likely, we now have snow on the ground, and that means mittens or gloves and that's kind of non-conducive to knitting), or was I, in fact, sitting right in the living room watching the last Nascar race of the season? I'll never tell! I'll give you a clue, if you've been in my house, you know the picture was taken on the bathroom floor, but that's not where I was! (rules out the bathtub!).

And, that's all I got fer ya today, I was so busy Ninja-ing yesterday, that i really didn't do much else, except the screens, and it's about time! We now officially have snow on the ground.

Your Regularly Scheduled Friday Report

2008-11-14T02:20:00.000-08:00

Today's report comes to you from the rainy wilds of N. Mich, where this reporter finds herself, once again, unable to sleep, and in which case, this is the case, may just as well regale you with the super duper interesting facts of her life!

As I was reading my email this morning, I came across something that I've been meaning to do for awhile now, and think I'm going to try. It's called the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. Begins 11.15 and runs until 3.15 (of 09, sometimes my time warp abilities are capable of running backwards, this time, not so much).
Basically, what you try to do is as much as possible, eat locally grown or produced foods, from within a 100 mile radius. Should be easy in tropical N. Mich through the winter, eh? This losing weight thing keeps getting easier!
Anyway, if it's something you're interested in, go here for a look:
http://urbanhennery.com/2008/10/14/dark-days-challenge-0809/

Aside from my inside designer lettuce collection, it could get interesting. Oh, once a month or so I get a tomato from my hanging plants in the living room. That should spice things up a bit.
The challenge here is gonna be first thing in the morning with the go juice. Coffee. Gotta have coffee. Gotta.
Excuse me while I go research how to grow a coffee tree, (or bush or whatever), in Michigan. I can promise you this, I won't resort to birch bark tea, yeah, ok the Indians used it to get rid of headaches, and if you've ever tasted it you'll know why. Just sayin', there's no danger of losing me to that stuff. Don't ask me how i know.

And, with the current state of financial affairs, those of us needing less than a million, trillion in bailouts, will probably not get their money, and eating locally may be the only way to go.

Now, our reporter rambles over to the ~~coffee pot~~, I mean the calendar and discovers that this Saturday, the 15th of Nov. is the opening day of deer season. Actually I did know this, it's a sacred ritual not only in this household, but in all of N. Mich.

You know what I need? Slippers. Yeah, I want slippers for Christmas.

Where was I? I have no idea, oh yeah, deer season.

Here are the basic rules, as applies to this household.
Beginning 11.1 and pretty much continuing until the end of the year, outside chores are to be done either after the hunter leaves for work in the morning, or after dark at night. If you must be outside during hunting season, you will walk as swiftly and quietly between the house and the vehicle as possible, making no noise whatsoever. No breathing is allowed. This does not apply to the hunter, only the hunter's family.
If you get up before the hunter, you are allowed to turn on outside lights, so the deer can't see in, but you can't turn on inside lights, we don't want stalker deer now do we?
No baiting is allowed anymore, although this is fairly ridiculous. I totally get the concern about wasting disease and tb spreading, but some of us have real critters, who still like to be fed. It kind of defeats the purpose to feed the livestock only to have the deer come to them to get food, rather than keep the deer out in the woods.
Going outside to get wood for the stove is permissible, only if the inside temps have dropped to 40 or below and you can see your breath. And only then if you can do it without any stalker deer spotting you.
TVs must be turned down and all inside noises must be kept to a minimum.
Any 2 or 4 legged critter caught out where they're not supposed to be (um, Bu-Dawgh?) will be shot on sight.

Now about those slippers....

Vern Lives!

2008-11-13T02:36:00.001-08:00

"Once upon a time", is how most fairy tales start. That would be a normal tale, you know, with unicorns, and talking frogs who turn into princes, stuff like that, that you would just take for granted.

This isn't your everyday, basic B flat, fairy tale.

This is the story of how a homely, very unlucky moth became a beautiful young girl, who just happens to be my pre-niece. (I probaby spelled that wrong, its hard to know how to spell words that are just kind of made up as they're needed, seems like Webster would have thought that one through).

So this particular tale starts at a cabin in the Rockies somewhere, where 4 or 5 drunken siblings were sitting around playing Euchre (loosely, sitting means we, I mean they were all in the same room, most of the time). If you don't know what Euchre is, get out your Michigan map. It won't tell you there either, but you're one step closer to figuring it out.

It was late, the moon was full, out there somewhere, it usually is and said drunks were blatently cheating at a card game named Euchre (see another hint!).

As it is with a lot of the fairy tales composed by drunken siblings, this one happened to have a very unlucky moth, who (which?) very unluckily happened to fly into the light. Didn't fare out well, this moth, so in their serious "lack of sobriety" state, one of the siblings decided that this moth was only probably out trying to collect a bug or two to take home to the wife and kids, at any rate it shouldn't have died.

Now, this is the part where I try to reassure you that I was not a part of this, I'm sure you believe that.

Knowing that this moth didn't need to die, these 5 did what any drunken good samaritans would have done. They attempted CPR to bring it back to life. Several times, in between more card games and beer, we, I mean they tried their best to save this poor critter. Still unsuccessful, it was decided that since this noble creature had died trying to provide for his family, the 5 planned a funeral. For the moth.

First however, was writing the obituary, which proved difficult since they didn't know what his name was. It became increasingly difficult to notify the family, when his serious lack of ID on his moth-ness didn't give any clues as to where he might live (or really that he was even a he!). But since he was a Colorado moth and not a California moth they were pretty sure that whether it was a he moth or a she moth, most likely the other half was the other half and should be invited to the funeral.

First, we they had to settle on a name, and for whatever reason, "Vern" was chosen. So now that Vern's identity was intact we they had to notify the family. This involved much yelling, howling at the moon and talking to other moths until they were sure that enough moths knew of the event so as to get the word out.

The service was a quiet event, as after awhile, the body seemed to disappear.

Until.... ta da.... Vern lives! Vern is now a fun, sparkly pre-niece who lives in Colorado (see, the connection here?) and goes to school in S. Dakota. She prefers to be called Sunny, but alas, some things just can't be granted, so Vern it is, and being the gracious pre-niece that she is, she lives with it. I think deep down inside, she might have issues with being a moth in a previous life, if not being a possibly transsexual moth in a previous life, so we don't really mention it, but if we did....

And that's Vern's story, and if I hadn't been there myself (quietly sitting in the background watching) I would never have believed it, but it happened, yes it did!

Now if you're wondering why I chose to call Vern out of the closet, you should read the comment he/she/it left on my Space Time Continuum post; that will explain a lot!

The Space-Time Continuum

2008-11-12T01:44:00.002-08:00

Let me explain the space-time continuum thing for those of you less, well, knowledgeable of such things.

In any given moment, there can only be so much matter occupying a certain amount of space. If you wish to change this, you have to move stuff, or delete stuff so you can add more stuff. And this all takes time. See? Physics is easy!

Here's the equation:

A certain amount of Matter A has to be moved to the Matter B area to clear up enough space so that Matter C doesn't have a meltdown and totally affect the Matter D area. This all requires a certain amount of time to produce.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Now, how this relates to real life, I really don't get other than that I need to figure out how to move some stuff out of the A drawer so that stuff in the B drawer will fit, and this needs to be done soon. Either that or my brain is gonna get all filled up and Matter C is gonna have that meltdown.

So, back to deleting stuff so more stuff can be added. Let's see, what can be deleted. Oh, oh, oh, here's one. The very first phone number we ever had (from when I was like, 10 - shortly after Alex invented the phone). This is the stuff I really don't need to hang on to. Or the fact that on a cold February day sometime in 1960's I finally got the Partridge Family album I couldn't live without.

Here's one, how about the time I climbed the tree with my guitar so I could sing in the moonlight. Yeah, that one can definitely go!

I'm pretty sure I'll never need any of those. And if I looked even further, I'm sure I could find lots of stuff, and even more pieces of long forgotten stuff that I could get rid of. Think of all the space I could recover. Sort of like defragging the hard drive, only selectively, like I would totally choose to keep the images I have in my brain of watching my little brother get run over in the driveway, that particular film clip could have useful black mail tags some day.

Ok, say I've gotten rid of a bunch of old dead stuff I no longer need. And I now have the brain power of a rocket scientist (for you, baby bro, who got run over, who hasn't heard the end of it yet); what am I gonna do with all of this extra space?

For one, I maybe could remember what I did with my socks that I had in my hand not 3 minutes ago. They have to be in the house somewhere, I didn't go out to the barn yet, although finding them out there would not surprise me in the least.

I don't have to worry about losing my keys, one of the perks of being married to the best mechanic in 3 states, is that my vehicles have multiple ways of being started, and I'm good at all of them. I totally excel in rain dances!

Remembering that I left the water on out in the barn might be a helpful thing, well, at least the water troughs have been thoroughly washed out.

Remembering the number of stitches I cast on for the sleeves in my latest creation, or how about this: remembering to write down the number of stitches I cast on....

Remembering to look at my list of stuff to do would be good too, that would eliminate a lot of remembering in itself.

So, now that I have the problem isolated I can work on the solution.

I'll get back to you on that one. It's probably gonna require some sleep, which I seem to have forgotten how to do also.

Schmucked By A Snowflake And Other Ridiculousness

2008-11-11T03:21:00.000-08:00

Let me set the scene. Happily, if not merrily, working away at my real job yesterday and oops. Left something in my car. Better go get it.

Happily, if not merrily I wander out to where I park my vehicle to retrieve said item. While there I discover a bunch of things that need to be transferred, not just one, so more than one trip needs to be made.

Happily, if not merrily, I meander back and forth between vehicle and work space relishing this little break, and loving the fact that it's snowing. Even if it is just a little.

The skies are cloudy and dark (it might snow), the air is brisk and cold (definitely gonna snow), and I'm lovin' it (with apologies to McDonalds).

When all of a sudden.... a kamikaze snowflake ATTACKS me where I stand. I've never seen such a thing, usually snowflakes are such docile little objects, but not this one. Noooooooo, this one has a death wish. I didn't mind when it flurried around my head, snowflakes are kind of known for their ability to flurry, and I didn't mind that it actually seemed to rush me a time or two. Silly little snowflake. But then, it schmucked me! Right in the eye! Hard! It probably weighed a pound at least, and I really have no idea how it managed to flurry for so long, being that big and dangerous. This seriously cuts into my happily and merrily meandering as now I'm jumping up and down, holding my eye, waiting for this huge ice chunk to melt. There had to be blood. I'm sure there will be a bruise.

But Bu-Dawgh protected me, he did. While I thought I saw him laughing, probably not, I was only able to see out of one eye, he did chase down a few of my co-conspirators though.

And, that's how my day ended yesterday! Today looks to be much better!

And It Snows And Snows

2008-11-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Which in itself is all good. It's November, we expect that. But, what I have a hard time with is that it didn't stick. The snow, that is. It all went away. It snowed all weekend, like I knew it would, you can look at the sky and see that the snow just wants to come down. But, the ground isn't all frozen yet, so the snow goes away.

Some people think that the snow going away thing is good. Me, not so much. I like the snow.

But, it will come, and it will stay and then I'll be ok.

So, this weekend totally rocked! ALL DAY SATURDAY I GOT TO KNIT!! Should I say that again, or did you get it?
All day! From Saturday at about 9:30 am when I planted my butt firmly in the yarn shop and sat there, until about 5 pm when the shop closed and I found myself home again. Hubby was going to be gone that night, so I didn't have to do anything except feed myself and my critters. 6 oclock rolls around, myself is fed, my critters are fed and the game starts. So, from 6pm until the game is over, roughly 10 pm, I knit.
That translates into ALL DAY SATURDAY I GOT TO KNIT! This is huge, it's great, and sooooo very relaxing. And, we won the game, another plus!
Sunday, with all that relaxation on top of me I actually did get stuff accomplished. Check out this list!!
1. Calf pen cleaned out
2. Horse pasture bulldozed out.
3. Feeders and waterers for both of the above cleaned out and ready for the onslaught of the freezing temps.
4. Barn cleaned out.
5. Firewood stacked.
6. Roof ridge cap put on and secured down.
7. Batch of home growed, home made Turkey soup done, and flower pot rolls to go with!
8. Deck cleaned off (part of it).
9. Lumber for winter and summer projects stacked in the barn.
1o. Various hot spots in the house cleaned up.
11. Laundry done (couldn't hang it out, it was snowing, so had to use the dryer, that scores me some minus points, but it's done, ok??)
12. I got to sit and knit some more!

Very productive and relaxing weekend!

And now it's Monday and I have a major project to figure out, or, I have it pretty much figured out, now I have to detail the details!

Good times!

Last Ride Revisited!

2008-11-06T06:33:00.001-08:00

Ok, so yesterday wasn't the last ride, but this afternoon very well may be. It was a gorgeous ride to work, I took a detour. Just cause I could!

Tomorrow is bringing rain, Saturday is bringing more rain and Sunday is bringing the "S" word and freezing temps. I know not to ride when it's snowing. Don't ask me how I know, just know that I know.
Just like I know that Indian Summer is probably officially over and the next thing we look forward to is months and months of dreary gray skies.

NOT!!

I love winter, I really do. Here in N. Mich it virtually snows every day. OK, these days that means something else to most people other than what it means to me, or something like that.
It snows every day. It is humid here. When there is humid-ness in the air and the air is freezing, well, you do the math, or meteorology, or whatever. It snows all the time. Which is cool, cause some of my favorite activities require the presence of snow and ice. Skating is fun, after the initial workout of shoveling feet and feet of snow off the ice. (do not suggest that I shovel snow off the ice as it falls, it does take awhile to freeze enough to support said snow, plus my weight, usually by that time, there is quite an accumulation). Skiing is WAY fun, the problem there being that I have been skiing my whole life so I'm not afraid of going break neck speed down a steep long hill with boards strapped to my feet. Eventually my age is gonna catch up with this. Hopefully this won't be the year that happens. And there's snow mobiling, which is awesome and how I intend to get to work some this winter, now that I have a sled that doesn't require my neice to help me start! And, the dreary gray skies usually only last until the big lakes freeze over, then the sun makes it's presence.

Logging (a really cool term cause it makes people think you're big and bad) is fun too even if it is only cutting firewood on a smaller basis than what you'd normally think of as logging.
Snowshoeing is really fun (when you don't fall off of them... just sayin'....) and cross country skiing is fun too, especially when you go backwards on the trails, at that point all bets are off.

So, Mother Nature, bring it on, I know just what to do with all of your snow, ice and freezing-ness, lake effect or otherwise. I grew up here, I've lived here pretty much my whole life, I can handle you, BRING IT!!

Let me set the every morning scene..... get up early, cause that's how I'm wired for whatever reason, have a cup of coffee while looking at the night sky, which includes a really cool pale yellow moon, watching the frost settle over everything turning the landscape into fields of diamonds glittering in the early morning darkness. The wind is usually nil and I'll go out to start my chores.
I get to make my paths out to the barn and critter houses, I like making paths. I get to have my breath taken away by the cold fresh air, I get my usual cuddles, kisses and snuggles with all of my critters and then I go inside where the dry wood heat goes right through me, wake up hubby, have another cup of coffee and then venture back outside to go to work.

Life is good!
(plus, my electric bill went down, so now I'm all happy all over again!)

Last Ride?

2008-11-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Rode my bike to work this morning. May just be the last time until Spring. This is distressing. Riding my bike is my zen. It's where I live, I am a biker chick in the true sense of the word. I even wore my brand new black leather coat! See. Biker chick all the way.

Well, all the way until it gets a bit colder and the icy and white stuff starts covering the roads. Then I'll be a sled chick.

Won't that be fun? Bu-Dawgh doesn't like my bike, or my snow machine, there's not enough room to sit comfortably, and there aren't walls to keep him from falling off.

So, is the time change kicking anyone else's butt? Does it even matter anymore, now that Nicolai has taken office?

Ugh. Good times are comin' I can feel it!

Oh, btw, happy birthday, Mouth, but if you want me to sing to you, you have to show up once in awhile!
Love you!

Some Stuff Done, Some, Not So Much

2008-11-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

The roof is done!
YAY!!

The dishwasher is installed!
Yay!

Ok, well almost.
The roof is all up there, 45 or so sheets of tin. Most of it is screwed down, the hard part is done. The ridge cap isn't screwed down yet, or however you put a ridge cap on, and the tin needs to be finished with the screwing down.

The dishwasher, almost.
It's installed.
It works,
It doesn't leak (any more).
I still have to trim the cabinets so it fits better, and adjust the bottom so it looks nicer.

I spun up another batch of yarn this weekend, this, some beautiful off white and brown heathery mix and started to knit my next project - a scarf/hood/vest kind of thing with cables and everybody. I really like the yarn, it turned out a bit darker than I figured it would. My other choice of color would have been an off white, and that would look just a little too "snow princess-y" for my taste.

We're smack in the middle of starting our Indian Summer. A week or two period around the start of deer season when the temps suddenly go through the roof (60 degrees), the end of the motorcycle riding season, the time when walking through the woods and hear the crunching of leaves under foot would be glorious, but the sounds of gun fire kind of makes one think twice about it.

Yup, good times.

Colors are gone, the little ghouls and ghosties are back home and back to school, and now we get ready for Thanksgiving.
Got all of my decorations out and put them up. I love doing this. In the fall season I collect pumpkins, I guess. I didn't do this intentionally, however looking around my house at all of my fall decorations, there seems to be a plethora of pumpins and pumpkin type stuff. Candles, sculptures, tree decorations, hanging stuff, sitting stuff, it's everywhere.
Not really a lot in the way of ghosts, spiderwebs (well, scratch that, but I didn't put them there), and other hallowe'en stuff, just pumpkins and more pumpkins. These will make way for snowmen and Santa Clause's after Thanksgiving.

I love collecting stuff - from the looks of my house, you'd seriously never get that!

My Egg Rocks!

2008-10-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

I always do it.
Every year.
Every year I put my vehicle in the ditch.
Only happens once, but every year.

So this morning the only reason I was surprised is because THERE WAS NO SNOW AND THE ROAD WASN'T ICY!!

So why did I drive into the ditch, in the exact same spot that this happens every year?

Because I was gonna be late for work.
And I forgot to park my egg so that the windshield was facing the sun (such that it is).
And the windshield was icy
And I am out of washer fluid.
And I didn't take the time to clean off the window, I just turned on the defrosters (hey, this is huge, normally they don't work!), scraped the window a bit with my fingernails and went on my merry way.
Right into the ditch.
Where I drive every year.

This time, however, I didn't require a tow truck (thanks, Dave) to pull me out (refer back to the statement above about the lack of snow, usually there would be anywhere from 4-6 foot of snow in this particular ditch), I was able to do the reverse, forward, reverse, forward thing and drive out on my own.

And I was late for work.
But I bet I won't forget to park the egg where the sun (such that it is) hits the windshield again!

My egg rocks!!

Vacation Woes

2008-10-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

So, I'm going on vacation. That's it. That's all there is to it. I'm going. Deal with it world. Deal with it family. Deal with it critters, well, ok, I'll deal with it there.

I'm going. Mark it down, a decision has been made.

Believe it or not this is not the hardest part of this whole thing. Next is to figure out the dates. I know when I want to go (mid Jan.), I know where (colorado) and I have a vague idea that flying will get me there faster than either driving or snow shoeing.

So, now we have 3 things figured out.
1. I'm going.
2. Mid Jan.
3. Flying.

Which airports?
Well, if I fly out of Flint it's cheaper than Saginaw. If I fly into Denver rather than The Springs, it's waaaaayyyyy cheaper. (sorry, li'l bro, you're gonna have to drive to Denver to get me).

So now to research flights.
This is like sticking your head in the dryer and putting it on spin.

So many options, well first off we can rule out the 6 hour layover in Atlanta!
Then there's the exact dates, + or - a day to see if I can get a better rate, + or - a few extra miles to another airport to save on rates.
Nope, the airports I've chosen and the dates chosen are still the cheapest.

Now, the hard part, to actually get out the credit card and book the flight. This is serious. It involves spending money. I don't do that well. I seriously don't do that well, especially since I don't have the money yet to spend. (expecting it later this week, I've been guaranteed by my son that it's on it's way.)

Side note.... have you ever been guaranteed money by one of your kids and then....
yeah, I know, but if I go ahead and book the flight, I will have to figure out how to pay for it, but I will be able to figure that out because I've already technically spent the money. If I wait for the money, I'll miss out on this great rate! (317.00 from mid Mich to somewhere in the Rockies).

What to do, what to do.

Augh!
I did it.
Now I have to go.
Now I can't back out.
I have no excuses.
Plus now I have to come up with money.
This is kinda fun - spending money I don't yet have.
I should do this more often.

On second thought.......

Oh yeah, there is one more detail.... I have 45 minutes in a major airport to change planes. This will be fun! Usually it takes me longer than that to get from my bathroom to my living room. hmmmmm, maybe I can flag down one of those cool karts.
maybe they'll let me drive....
maybe.....

Never mind...

Slippage and The Penguin Waddle

2008-10-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

This time of year, as the slippage rate increases, we have to once again relearn the fine art of what I like to call the Penguin Waddle.

Take this morning. I went out on the deck to put out Bu-Dawgh, and what happened? Slippage. The deck was all frosty and icy and slippery.

As I looked around, I noticed that in the pale light, most everything else was frosty and icy too, and most likely slippery.

It's not really surprising, the People at the Weather Place are telling us it will snow today. Anywhere from 4-10 inches as the cold Canadian air makes its way over the "warmer than the land" lakes. This is called Lake Effect Snow. It's also cold. And there's usually a lot of it.

No matter how many times I said No, it's not time yet, it's still coming. I can feel it. My hands, elbows, wrists, hips, heck who am I kidding, my whole me can feel it. I hurt. Its "the old" thing. Remember how Grandpa used to say he could tell when it was gonna rain because his toe hurt? Well, now that's me.

Yesterday there was sleet-age, you know the rain mixed with snow, mixed with ice thing. That was fun. Of course there's not enough snow to make a snowman, or run the sleds, but it was there. Mixed with the rain and ice. And then this morning, slippage. This all leads to one thing - winter. Well, at least I have a store of firewood on the deck, at least it won't be slippery inside.

PS.... We're no longer under a snow watch, so say the People At The Weather Place, however the clouds and sky are telling me different.
We'll see!!

Aren't Weekends Supposed To Be For Relaxing?

2008-10-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

Someone told me that once, I think they lied. "They" said that weekends are for relaxing. "They" said that weekends are for doing whatever you want to do. "They" also implied that the reason for having weekends in the first place were so one could unwind, put the feet up, and recharge for the upcoming week.

Again... "they" lied.

I think what was actually implied was that weekends weren't for the work you get paid for, they are for the work that you don't really get paid for, like laundry, cooking, mowing the lawn (well, not this time of year) and such.

All of this nonsense brings me to a point. I actually have points now and then.

This weekend was sheer work!
I did dishes, can't tell, but I did clean up before I messed it up again. I hung out laundry, I mopped floors, I cut, split and stacked firewood, I canned pumpkin, I put up some frozen dinners, and what do I have to show for it? Laundry that's still out on the line because it rained. Floors that got muddy again because it rained. A pile of firewood that actually looks pretty good all stacked nice like on my deck. REAL pumpkin that I can get at a moment's notice, to actually make a pumpkin pie. You know, a REAL one, with real eggs, real crust, real milk.....
And my kitchen is trashed again. Because inbetween all of this canning of pumpkins, sweeping of floors and basically taking steps backward, what did I do? Not dishes, nope, I spun lots and lots and lots of yarn. And washed it, and hung it to dry, and blocked out a sweater, and, and, and... then fun stuff that you're supposed to do on weekends.

I didn't got out to the barn at all this weekend, except to do chores - my bad. I didn't change the lightbulb in the hall (waiting for The Mouth's boyfriend to show up wanting food, he's about 7' tall, he can change it easily!), and I didn't wash windows.

Oh well, I got to spin, and I knitted a bit, and I got my pumpkin canned and I watched my Red Wings take Chicago by the throat and win 6-5.

Tonight, will have to be for the kitchen, putting away the mounds of yarn that I spun and washed, finishing up the last sweater, and of course. Dishes.

Never ends........

In Which Ter Quits

2008-10-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

At any given day I have quite a bit of stress going on. I work full time at a job I love. I work part time at another job I love. I run my farm, home and on the off chance I have a few minutes to myself, I like to breathe. Keeps me going.

But, I quit! (not breathing, because that would really mess up the rest of my day).

Hey, hubby gets to quit and go up North fishing and hunting for the weekend, why can't I quit too?

Let's identify some stressors that I'm resigning from

There's always money, yeah, I'm not doing money anymore.
Taking care of the parents. Well, that one I can't really resign from.
Taking care of the kids. Come on, seriously, they're full grown people (sometimes they don't act like it, but then either do I). The oldest is successfully out on her own. Once in awhile I'll help her at her store, gives me something to do when I'm not breathing. The 2nd is successfully out on her own also, married with kids and the whole deal. The 3rd, Blondie, is not married, however she is out, pretty much on her own. Still requires a bit of help now and then but pretty much....
4th, The Mouth, see above, and the 5th is in Iraq. Now there's some stress I'd love to get rid of.

Let's see, what else. Probably not enough hay to last until June, water pump shouldn't be freezing already which means something just may be amiss (doncha love that word? AMISS!!), it's supposed to rain/snow for the next 6 months which means my laundry is going to get seriously piled up, there's not enough room in the garage for my bike.....

I could go on and on but I won't. The main thing right now? Not enough time. I just "got" spinning. I mean, I've been spinning my own yarn for awhile now, but just last night I got it. It worked. The hands and feet and wheel all seemed to be in sync, and nice, even, consistent yarn was produced. This is a good thing. Something I've been working toward now for awhile. Now I have to find the time to produce more, because, of course, I have the perfect project to knit with this perfect yarn. So, yeah. If you could just send me a bit of time, I'd be really grateful!

But before I start to spin more of the perfect yarn to knit the perfect project, I have to finish the last 2 that are still in my basket waiting for me.

And there's the pumpkin that STILL hasn't gotten canned. Spinning and canning, sounds like the perfect Sunday to me!

Sequences Revisited

2008-10-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

So I got up yesterday morning, and did what I do every morning. Put the coffee on, and went out to say good morning to my furred and feathered friends. This is usually a 1 way deal. I say hello, good morning, get in some scratches, petting and hugs and kisses, but generally all they want is food. I'm good with it. I've accepted it.

Yesterday morning, there was a twist.

Yesterday morning, October happened.

Yesterday morning, the water was........ gasp....... FROZEN!!!

Now, I totally get the change of seasons thing, lived up here pretty much my whole life, so I know that come October, every year, this is gonna happen. The leaves all over the ground is kind of a clue.

And for some reason, every October, it kind of catches me off guard. I supposed it's directly related to my denial that summer is really over. And the fact that I'm always busy doing what I should have done yesterday. What did I do yesterday? I did what I should have been doing the day before that. I think sometime in July, I must have said, "Oh, my gosh! I have a whole day that nothing needs to be done. I'm gonna do all of that - nothing!" And that's where it starts.

So back to the frozen water. This is what has to happen. I have to pull up the handle on the pump and water has to flow through, and out, and into the hose that's connected, and into the various water troughs.

Yesterday, what happened is this. I pulled up on the handle and nothing happened. And since I was gonna be late for work I decided to let it ride until night, they did have enough water to last the day.

Yesterday I happened to have to go to the butcher and pick up our two pigs. I don't have room in the freezers for all of this, and they are christmas presents for the kids. So, we went to various surrounding towns delivering pork. By the time we got back home, it was late, the critters needed to be fed, they had enough water to last the night, and I put it off again.

To be dealt with this morning.

So, first I have to find the heat lamp to thaw out the water pump. Then I have to find the 100' extension cord. Then I have to drag out the winter hose. (the winter hose differs from the summer hose in that it is quite a bit shorter and is old, so I keep the good summer hose for, well, summer). Did I mention it's still dark out when all of this happens. So anyway, the reason the hose needs to be shorter, is so I can unscrew it when I'm done with it every day and drag it up the hill, so it will drain, and not freeze. Then I have to put this all together to produce enough water so my furred and feathered friends remain healthy and happy.

And so it is, another morning chore session, successful. And the pork is in the freezer, and the Christmas presents for the kids have been delivered and everyone is happy. Well, maybe the pigs aren't all that happy, but they knew going into this......

Never mind.

A Day Off

2008-10-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, kind of.

I took the day off to watch my 2 year old granddaughter. We had fun.

Apparantly Dora something or other is the new Sesame Street. I learned how to count to 7. I learned that Zebra starts with a Z, Elevator starts with an E and Bridge starts with a B. I could probably even draw a Z if I had to.

Yup, I good day!

I was going to can up some pumpkin for pies but I ended up on the floor playing "cow".

This is a complicated game. It involves, of course, a fairly large stuffed cow, and the life and times of it and it's buddies, which involve a zebra, more cows, and a chicken. These all live together in the toybox (well, ok, they live on the living room floor but we won't go into that). Oh, there's also a couple of fish and some duck decoys in the mix. They interact, they take naps, fight and play together, eat together, and have a fairly complex relationship. This I didn't realize. After this 15 minute game was done, we folded laundry. She's a very advanced 2 year old, but still with the attention span of such.

We had fun taking the high chair apart and discovering that it could be turned into a chair and table, and that she could then climb into and out of it by herself. And we ate "real people food", not this processed, packaged, cardboard crap they make for toddlers now. She ate and LOVED baked beans (have fun later with that one, Mom!), fried potatoes and onions were ok, but the fish I made. You'd have thought she had never eaten! She scarfed that down as fast as I could pull it apart and check for bones. Lots better than frozen mac and cheese!

This girl does not own a doll, but if it's furred, feathered, or finned, she's got a replica of it.

After her nap, she discovered my spinning wheel, which I was ironically, trying to use. She thought that was fun, and scattered all over trying to find things for me to feed into it to make pretty yarn. I was taking apart, strand by strand, a silvery piece of lame to spin in with the dark christmas green yarn I was making. This was fascinating, and soon she was on the floor pulling the fibers out and handing them to me. Made a pretty good assistant.

All in all it was a nice relaxing day, it was cold and rainy, so we were confined to the house, but I managed.

Still didn't get that pumpkin canned though, maybe tonight.....

It's Friday

2008-10-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

This is a good thing, for various reasons. I can sleep in tomorrow. I won't, but I could if I wanted to. Well, that's not entirely true either. I do want to, really, but it won't happen. My happy little self will be awake and alive and vertical by 6:30, it's how I roll. Happy Little Self could try to go back to sleep, just so she could wake up at a more normal Saturday time, but she'd end up flopping around like a fish out of water and wake up hubby.

Hubby does not like to be woke (awoke? woken? awoken?...) out of bed on a Saturday morning. Not until he's good and ready. It wouldn't be good. He'd be grumpy.

Happy Little Self doesn't like a grumpy hubby.

Friday means I can do whatever I want to do tomorrow.

Well, that's not true either. I can't really hop on my bike and head off to Jamaica. I'd get wet, and again, hubby would be grumpy. We really don't like to go out of our way to make hubby grumpy.

I could go shopping, but that wouldn't happen either. All I really need is peanuts, and I can't justify going to the store just for peanuts. Although, while peanuts are a good thing, almonds are even better, and lets not even get started on cashews. Ok, add in some raisins, craisins and m&m's and we're good to go. Now I have a reason to go shopping.

If I wanted to.

Which I don't.

So, this being Friday, with a whole weekend full of Saturday and Sunday coming up and nothin' to do 'cept what I want to do (and laundry), I'll probably just putter around the house and yard and garden and barn. Puttering is an art form, and the best part? When someone asks what I did all day, I can say "nothing! deal with it!".

Hard To Be Optimistic...

2008-10-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

When stuff around me keeps going downhill.

Take the aliens. They were supposed to show up on 10.14. I was kind of counting on it, actually planned for it, had the tailgate invites all sent out, potato salad was chilling.... I was ready. Apparently they weren't.

Aliens are inconsiderate like that. If they're going to announce their presence or upcoming presence, I really think they need to take some consideration into our space and time conundrums. I get that their space and time stuff is probably different than ours, but seriously, I was counting on it. And being of a lower race than them, it's really their responsibility. You know, ball in their court kind of thing that they make sure their presence, or upcoming presence is in a time frame that we lower beings can understand. Unless they want to get shot with our bb guns.

Just sayin'......

More leaves have vacated the upper levels of the ecosystem we like to call "the woods". I really can't believe that in all of these years they haven't gotten the clue that when they fall to the ground, it's gonna get cold.

leaves fall.... cold comes. It's an every year thing. Without fail. The leaves come down, then the snow comes down.

Hmmm. Maybe there's a connection to the aliens there. Maybe they're waiting for the leaves to fall. Maybe their engines, having come from a leaf-less world, are incapable of being bombarded by a falling leaf. Yeah, that's got to be it. It's the leafless world phenomenon.

The acai berry diet probably had them scared off also. I'd be scared if I weren't from this world and just on the skeptical side of such things. Being really thin, the aliens are really (I'm guessing here) trying to avoid any further weight loss. I mean, seriously, have you seen them? They're skinny! And green!

I'm going to recommend a more rabbit friendly diet when they do show up. After counseling them on the proper etiquette of showing up when they say they're coming that is.

Designer Lettuce!

2008-10-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Just a random smattering today of all the goodies running through my brain.

Pigs. Gotta call the pig guy and get 2 pigs ordered today. I love pigs. I love pork, but I don't raise them anymore. Found a great source to get them, all finished out, for cheaper than what I can raise them myself, plus this source is pretty much organic.
good deal!

Teenage Chickens. Hmmmm. Found 6 eggs the other day. Found 4 yesterday. I have 3 adult hens. This isn't adding up. The teenagers must have come of age. And since some of the ones I've broken open lately have been fertilized, again, the teenagers must have come of age. Good to know! (I guess, for whatever reason...)

Baby Bovines. Gotta get a new feeder built for them before winter (which will be here, like next week). The feeder they have doesn't hold enough hay, even filling it twice a day. They are eating 1/2 bale of hay each a day now. They are still soooo cute though.

Tomatoes. I have them hanging in the upside down containers in my living room. The Mouth laughs that when sitting and knitting I can just reach up and grab a tomato to munch on. If there were any that is. For some reason the light in the living room is receding. Tends to happen this time of year. Funny how I didn't see that coming. Might have to turn their little worlds upside down (or right side up) and actually plant them in pots to set near the windows so they get enough light. Even if they don't produce over the winter, they are pretty and smell good, plus I get the benefits of extra houseplants that produce good oxygen and stuff. Extra oxygen is needed up here in N. Mich.

Laundry. Someone seems to have forgotten where we keep the washer. That someone is me. When I took a long weekend off, for some reason the clothes kept getting dirty, but not clean again. It's gonna take all week of hanging laundry to catch up. And even that won't work, I can only hang 3 loads, and this time of year they don't exactly dry real quick.

Dishes. The upside to taking a week or so off is that dishes don't really pile up. I wasn't there to make them dirty, so I don't have to make them clean again. All's good in the dish department.

Designer lettuces. I thought it would be ultra cool to have pots of lettuces everywhere. Me being a rabbit food freak and all. It wasn't. Ultra cool that is. They were all on the counter. There wasn't enough window space for all of them. Funny how that escaped me also. So I condensed them into all one big pot and put it by the window. They kind of look really cool, maybe they'll be happy, looking all cool and everything. And probably the lack of light will cause them to turn yellow and shrivel up and not grow. You know, I've lived up here pretty much my whole life, you'd think by now...... never mind.

Garlic. It's coming up in my designer lettuce pots. Hmmmm. Guess when I planted it and it didn't grow so I planted other stuff in there it got it's garlicky nose out of joint and decided to step up. At any rate, now I will have garlicky tasting designer lettuce. Might have something there. At least I know the garlic will be ok over the winter.

Still in ga-ga over our bike ride this past weekend. Really. That was cool. Ultra cool even. And my cardigan/wrap in foresty, mossy colors is looking pretty also. There are parts I will probably redo, because I got crazy and put in colors that now I don't like. It's all good, it's a fast knit and the better I like it, the more chance I'll actually finish it.

At least that's what Murphy says.....

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves!

2008-10-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

2 of my brothers visited up here this past weekend. It was great!
We laughed, drank some (funny, we used to drink a lot more, before we got, well, older than we were then), sat around, helped the folks get the place winterized and RODE BIKES!

The leaves were beautiful. Every color of red, salmon, pink, purple, yellows and golds, different shades of greens, if the color has been invented, we saw it in the leaves. As we traversed along back country roads, the temperatures approached 80. Typical Indian Summer. Stopped at various landmarks to drink in the crisp autumn air, hot sun and the scents, sounds and sights of middle October.

And then the wind came.

And now most of those pretty leaves live in the next county. But they'll be back. Every fall we experience what we call "Peak Season" where the colors of the leaves are at their "peak colors". This happens right around the middle of October. Normally I'd say the peak was still a week away, but with the wind last night, we pretty much saw what there was to see, and now there's nothing to do but finish getting ready for winter.

My current knitting project is a cardigan/wrap/shawl thing, reminiscent of the colors of the leaves this time of year. A lot of greens and browns, oranges, rusts and yellows, and even some blue and red thrown in. The back and one front is done, so it's safe to say I'm at the halfway point. The feature I really like about this project is that since I am changing yarns every other row, I can do my own color scheme, with pretty much my stash only to work from.

Yarn of the Month came, in typical fashion, toward the end of the first week of the month. Hmmmm. Autumn colors! I know where I'll use these!

There's nothing like a relaxing weekend to give me the attitude adjustment I need once in awhile. Next "reunion".... Colorado in January, where we'll meet to ski and snowshoe for a long weekend. Better buy some stock in Tylenol while the market's down! I think I'll probably need it!

I'm off! (again, no comment!)

2008-10-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

I have the next 4 days off!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

If you count in the weekend, I have the next 6 days off!

That's almost a week.

On the downside, my CO brother insisted that we have nice weather while he was here and now it's raining.

uh huh! Who do you think is to blame for this one!

Oh yeah! You can bet he'll hear about it!

I fiddled with Excel for over an hour yesterday afternoon trying to get it to jump through the hoops I wanted it to jump through. I mean, come on. A bar graph. That's all I wanted. Surely a program as sophisticated as Excel could do that.

So I texted my AK brother, who is somewhat of an Excel Guru and he said no problem, he could make it do what I needed it to do, would probably take less than 15 mins.

Ok then, here's the file. Do your stuff!

I love passing the buck, kind of makes up for all the times I end up with it!

Did I mention I have Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday off?

Life is good!

Rant!

2008-10-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

I hate confrontation. Not good at it, stresses me out, and I generally would rather avoid it.

However, sometimes it needs to happen.

I board a horse for someone at my farm. All I've ever asked is for supplies. You know, pay for wormers and hoof trims, get me some hay.....

I don't think that's too much. Actually, it's damn little.

Back in July I asked for a years supply of hay for this horse. Just this horse, not my own, just this one. Back in July.

End of September I was asked if this person could just make payments toward hay. Nope. Sorry. I don't have extra. I HAD enough for my two horses and my cattle back when haying season ended. I asked for a years supply of hay for one horse. I don't have extra for this person to buy back. I understand that it's hard to come up with the money to buy that much hay, so why is it expected that I'll do it and then I can be paid back. If it's so hard to come up with x amount of dollars to pay for x amount of hay, then why is it ok for me to do that, and just have this person pay me back. Sorry, I just repeated myself, but I think the ranting rules will allow for that.

I'm sorry. Again. I don't have the hay. I have no way of getting the hay, so no matter how much you offer to pay (a little every week) I still don't have it to sell to you. Why don't you go buy the hay and make arrangements to pay a little bit every week to someone else.

This leads to quite a bit of stress on my part. Hubby, who helps me with my hay, and whom I really couldn't do this without, wants the horse gone. Why should he put up hay for someone else's horse. I get that, I just was willing to do it to avoid the confrontation. Remember the part about me not liking confrontation. So it was with great trepidation, loss of sleep, and even near tears that I had to make the phone call to say "I think it would be best if you came to get your horse and find someone else to make payments to". Knowing all along that I had been feeding said horse at my expense all summer and didn't really expect to be compensated.

Ok, no problem, I'll come get him, I appreciate all you've done, I won't screw you over.......

Guess we'll see. Even if I don't see another dime, I'll be a lot closer to getting through until next haying season only feeding 2 horses than I ever was feeding 3.

Whew. All better now!

And the good news.... yes the horse is now gone, but hubby hasn't yet realized it, wonder how long it will take, but I digress.

The good news? I have 2 brothers coming in from California and Colorado end of the week for a long weekend. I'd like to think they're coming to see me, but I know better. But, that's ok :-)

Can't wait!!

Scraping the Windshields in October - NOT

2008-10-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

So, once again, my fail safe frost and freeze advisory warning system failed to warn me. I really need a backup.

Because going out in the early AM to do the chores and being hit in the face with the woeful death cries of all of my lettuces, herbs and tomatoes and peppers is not a fun way to find out.

There wasn't time this morning before work to do the CPR thing, being as how I was SCRAPING THE ICE OFF OF MY WINDSHIELD so this afternoon, I'll have quite a bit of damage control to do. Since my greenhouse platform isn't done, I'll have to beg, borrow and steal window sill space to try to keep these things going. But the rewards will be fresh grown "stuff" in the middle of the winter.

Yummy!

Fresh rabbit food when there's 5 feet of snow outside.

And, I lit the stove again last night. Again, some warning would have been nice, and you know who you are!

This weekend I have some serious "clean off the deck and find a spot for firewood and then haul said firewood up to the deck" to do. Serious. As in, Large Amounts of firewood.

It's just that time of year.

One more thing before winter, I have to build a bigger hay feeder for my calves. That's easy. Almost no-brainer. How hard can it be.

Ugh, don't say that.

And the deer carrots are out in full force. I didn't get any canned last night, so this weekend will find me hauling, building and canning. No wonder hubby is going away (duck hunting - yummy!)

Good times! Monday night, roasted duck with potatoes, carrots and onions and maybe a sage stuffing.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Seasonal Musings.....

2008-10-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen. This time of year it always does. Sometimes a bit sooner, sometimes later, but always this time of year. When the weather is rainy and damp and chilly, before Indian Summer officially hits. When the last of the tomatoes out of the garden desperately try to ripen before the final freezing frost. The deer bait comes out in full force at gas stations and fruit markets, the pumpkins and squashes are ripe and ready to eat or can, and of course, the leaves...

It was bound to happen.

Usually before I'm ready for it. This year being no exception.
I'm usually at least 3 weeks behind myself, kind of interesting trying to catch up!

Before "it" happens though, I'd like to have the porch all cleaned off and filled with fire wood. I'd like to have the garden put away for the winter. I'd like to have all of the summer clothes put away and all of the winter stuff drug out of their short hibernation.
Before "it" happens.

But I never do. Have it all done that is. It's futile. So I just go on and on with my daily tasks, knowing I'll never catch up, but at least I'll never be bored. Never have nothing to do. And now... there's a new task on my plate, 3 times a day or so.

Because it was bound to happen.

And it did. I had to light the wood stove last night.

Tomatoes

2008-10-01T05:48:00.000-07:00

Ugh. If I ever see another tomato.

Yesterday afternoon, I canned tomatoes. And then I canned tomatoes, and then, you guessed it, I canned tomatoes.

I'll love this in January, but right now? Not so much.

It's not that I don't enjoy the canning process, I really do, but it's work, and I'm kinda against manual labor of any kind.

And the greenhouse? Well, I finally got hubby on board, but it's gonna be a bit different than I had envisioned. That's ok, sometimes you gotta give up some floor space to get hubby interested in helping with this.

That's all I'm gonna say at this point, I don't want to jinx it, he's seriously interested, even busted out the tape measure and started tape measuring and all. Got a board out and put it in place "just to see".

So, that's the update on that little project.

Sunrise Circle Jacket is done. Well, the knitting is done. Still have to block it, sew it together, wash it and then sew on the buttons.

I'll take a picture when it's all done, other wise you wouldn't believe it.

My next project, a kind of "free form" wrap/cardigan I'm knitting in "colors of the forest". From dark browns to dark greens and sages (moss) with a hint of oranges, yellows and even some blues. So far I LOVE it.

We'll see. All I'm really using is measurements for this project, not really a pattern, and it's really gotten me thinking about opening up the knitting process.

Yesterday, hubby and I went on a road trip, scored some serious knitting time. And serious "alone" time. With a hurricane and her 2 year old tropical storm living with us, we don't get a lot of time to just talk. It was very nice. Saw some of the colors that are Autumn in Michigan, a lot of road kill, some deer, and even a few possums. Gotta get some of that to spin into yarn!

What's next? Still picking tomatoes, so is everyone else, and by now everyone is getting tired of them, so I'll take all I can get, and I'll put them into jars for spaghetti sauces, chili's and gouloshes in the winter.

Deer carrots are out in full force, you know the 50 lb or so bags you can get for little to nothing, and the only reason they didn't make the food grade cut is because they're bent or twisted? Yeah, I'll put them into jars too.

Sigh, then it's time to start hauling firewood up to the deck, cause any day now.........

Relaxation!

2008-09-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

Did ya ever feel like you needed to go back to work to relax?

I feel like that a lot, however, it's not so much going back to work to relax, but just going. Somewhere. Anywhere. Other than here. Wherever "here" is.

Thursday and Friday I worked until late, like 11-12 hrs a day. Saturday and Sunday I was at my fibery best at the Lamb and Wool Festival at the fairgrounds locally here.

Doesn't that just evoke all kinds of warm and cuddly feelings? Lamb and Wool. mmmmmmmmmmm

It was great. Very relaxing, but not the kind of relaxing I need after life beats me up a bit.

I bought stuff I shouldn't have bought, which while at the time is relaxing and all kinds of immediate gratification-ing, I then have to go back and figure out how to pay for it. Not so relaxing.

Years ago, hubby got me an antique spinning wheel at an estate sale. I was gonna learn to spin. You know, get fleece from, well, fleece bearing critters, and make beautiful designer yarns from which I would knit beautiful sweaters, socks, afghans and all manner of other knitted fun things.

It didn't work. The spinning wheel.

Went online to find a diagram of what it should look like as it was a bit obvious that there were pieces missing. Couldn't find one, so it sat in the corner for years.

Last year at the same festival I found a guy who makes wheels. Well, if he makes them, he could restore them, right? You know, all fix them up and everything?

Cool! He was up to the challenge so I sent him on his way with my little antique wheel. I figured if I never saw him again, it was all good, I was only out a wheel that so far had only taken up space (a premium in my little cabin). If he couldn't fix it I was only out, well, nothing.

So we agreed on a "not to exceed" price and he up the challenge and went home.

Anxiously, I sought out his booth this year to see the results of my challenge. (there were a few emails in between too). There it was. All cleaned up. There were pieces attached to it that weren't there before. He proclaimed success, told me all about what he'd done, how to do this and that to it and sent me on my way with the agreed apon amount in his hands.

And I learned to spin on it. It's not a big spinning wheel, nor is it fancy, but it's worn out, used a lot and very comfortable. It makes this noise while I spin that's reminiscent of an old rocking chair, now that's relaxation!

And life was all good. I was happy. Happy enough to try to further my relaxation by taking a day off from work.

Cleaned up the house (very relaxing to come home to a semi clean house), made some turkey noodle soup from a leftover turkey frame, and made home made rolls. Yummy. Very relaxing.

Today, I'll only probably work 1/2 a day and go with hubby on a road trip, score some serious knitting time.

And there's only one obvious path to this spinning wheel solution. Leave it to me to go backwards on this. First I learned to knit. Now I'm learning to make the yarn I knit with. What's next?

I thought you'd never ask.

Alpacas!

Oh, and I found some yarn made from possum fur too. This opens up all kinds of new uses for road kill.

Just sayin'....

A New Toy

2008-09-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

Squeeeeeeeee!

Last night, as I pulled into the driveway, what did I see in the back of hubby's truck?

A Snowmobile! Not a new one, but it's new! It's 1979, hardly new, but it was driven twice a year by a little old lady who only took it to church.....

You know the story.

Seriously, the paint on the running boards isn't even worn off yet. Stuff isn't even rusty. The tunnel still has paint on it.

I probably has less than 50 miles on it. But you know what's the best part???

It's ELECTRIC START!! I'll leave you with that for a moment, let it sink in!

Ok. Electric Start. You can't even imagine what electric start +snow machine means to a little old 50 year old lady. Ok little is stretching it. Lady is out of the park, and old? well, that's just ridiculous, but the fact is that I already have one sled, that I can't start cause it's a pull start. Not one of those Fresh-Out-Of-The-Showroom ones that start the instant you start to pull the rope. Nope, this one required triceps the size of Lisa's. Er, I mean, well, you have to be really, really strong to start it, and I never could. Unless it was already warmed up. Which it never was cause Lisa's not here to start it for me, er I mean, cause I could never pull it hard enough to start it to get it warmed up. (add in the layers and layers of restrictive clothing usually accompanied by snow machine rides).

It cost me...... NOTHING!! Well, it cost hubby some sort of trade or something or other, I've learned not to even try to keep track of his horse trading. If I were you, I wouldn't bother either.

Electric Start rocks. Now I don't even have to think about putting my 4x4 gas guzzling truck on the road for the winter. Nope, if my egg won't make it through, my sled will! YAY!

Do they make side cars for sleds? Hmmmm. Wonder what Bu-Dawgh's gonna do?

It does get better, really it does. Know where I'm gonna hang out this weekend? All weekend? From sun up saturday morning, till sundown sunday night weekend?

At the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool Festival. I will be face down drooling in fiber and yarn and new books and patterns, and needles and, and, and, and.

And I will ride my motorcycle there, cause I am a biker chick (with sticks) and one of the gals in the office is a biker chick too, but her bike is a bit, well, more modern than mine (she has a new 1500 Harley). Mine's, well, not a new 1500 Harley. But's it's all good. Mine will beat hers any day! I'll even bet hers lives in the garage and never see's inclement weather. Mine laughs at rain, sleet, bugs and the errant killer leaf. It also laughs at me once in awhile. I can live with that. When I can't ride my bike anymore, I'll just get on my sled! Ye-hawwwww!

Sleds, Motorcycles, Fiber Festivals, and Bu-Dawghs. Life is good!! Electric Start? Life is REAL GOOD. This was just what I needed to jump start me into the impending fall/winter season.

Bring on the snow.................

The Tree Out Front

2008-09-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

My neighbor has this beautiful Sugar Maple Tree. Huge. Gorgeous. Beautiful Tree. Really pretty. And I'm going to cut it down. Once again it has betrayed me.

This really really pretty gorgeous huge tree, every year, this time of year shows it's betrayal by *gasp* turning red. It's really pretty when it turns red, it seems to go branch by branch, from the outside in. But my own personal belief, at least this year, is that it doesn't really need to advertise the fact that summer is in fact, *whisper* "over" *end of whisper*.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, I get it. I know. Summer's over. My dead and dying garden is a testament to that. My closed windows yell it to me. The ferns in the woods shreik at me every time I ride by. The cool crispness of the air on my bike ride to work, and the colors... Well, the colors are really quite cool, everything from pale yellow to deep, dark burgandy. Salmons, oranges, reds, even purples. The air dries up, the leaves show their colors and then fall and walking anywhere produces a crinkle under foot.

Fall does have it's good points. There are the leaves, as previously pointed out, breathtaking. Peak season is in about 2-3 weeks.

The cool crisp air is perfect for getting those last minute projects done, perfect for cutting and stacking firewood. The season seems to inspire the "nesting instincts" of even highly evolved (or less highly evolved) humans. There's the "hurry" to get stuff done.

And there are the bike rides.

O.M.G. You haven't lived until you've ridden on the back roads of N. Mich during peak season. Just gorgeous. Take a break here and there to sit and enjoy the sights, smells and sounds.

Because....

it's coming......

Care and Feeding

2008-09-23T06:04:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, in my world, the care and feeding of 2 people takes 5 people to pull it off.
Take this morning, if I didn't have my daughter, The Mouth, to help me I would be running in circles, and riding babies on my bike.
My Dad requires not so much constant care, but pretty much constant supervision. Most of the time this isn't a problem, there is my Mother, The Mouth, and myself, and Hubby, and The Monkey's Mother to make this happen. Piece of Cake.
My 2 year old granddaughter (The Monkey) lives with us, as does her mother. This morning, her mother got called into work early. No, problem, we'll just adjust accordingly. We're holding strong at 4 people to watch 2 people. It's all good. My Mother had to go out of town, ok, we can still do this, there's still 3 people to look after 2 people, and assuming that one has to be on the road from point A to point B, we're still holding at 2 people looking after 2 people. This still works unless they have to switch places, which is what happens regularly.
This morning, after all the calling into work happened and my Mother left. I was at home with the 2 year old, who really, by all intents, just can't be left alone. It wouldn't be good. She'd, I don't know, get into markers or something. She'd probably have Bu-Dawgh tied up in the barn and all colored blue. She'd have a grand old time, but in this day and age, you just don't leave 2 year olds unattended. While normally she'd be sleeping until maybe 9 or 10, this morning, she decided to get up with the sun, so hubby had to watch her while I went out and did chores. Easy enough, put her in the tub, she's fairly well contained and old enough to sit and play.
Hubby can watch her while I go to Dad's and then The Mouth can come to my house and babysit the 2 year old while Hubby goes to work.
I need a chart. I need to speak to someone in Human Resources, because sometimes I don't have enough Human Resources to get this all done. You'd think that 5 people vs 2 people would be a hefty enough ratio to avoid all manner of glitches.

We pulled it off, The Mouth and I, got it all under control and now everyone is where they are supposed to be. I feel like I've misplaced someone, or forgotten to feed someone.
But what would life be like if it was all easy and predictable and stuff? It's always good, never boring, and most of the time, it's even fun.

And, this weekend, is the Northern Michigan Fiber Festival at the fairgrounds here. I can't wait. I've had all those bases covered for months. I will go. I will not be in charge of anyone. Let someone else do this for just 2 short days. I will be face down, drooling in yarn.
Deal with it!

In Which Cleaning Out The Barn is Crappy!

2008-09-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

It was a nice weekend. Beautiful. The sun was warm, with a cool breeze and the barn, after a hot summer was getting a bit on the stinky side. Hubby was home (so he could start the skid-steer for me) and I had all afternoon on Saturday to clean out the barn.

Backtrack a bit here. It is in my nature to take the most disagreeable task and get it done first, then move up my list, so by the time I'm ready to quit, the only things left on my list are so easy and so neutral that it's easy to get them done.

That's how it's supposed to work.

Back to the barn.

Obviously, (or maybe not so much if this isn't something you do on a daily basis), one of the most disagreeable tasks in the Cleaning Out Of The Barn festival we do twice a year whether it needs it or not, is actually donning the muck books and getting into the calf pen. The calves themselves are fun. They are convinced that the only reason I'd actually be in the pen with them is to play. They're not small creatures. When they play, sometimes it hurts. Especially when you're old.

So, we're (me and the calves - not hubby), are up to our shins in calf doo doo, with a pitch fork and old gloves shoveling (or pitching) calf crap into the bucket of the skid steer (or bob cat - happy li'l bro?). This is enjoyable, some of the hardest work on the farm is enjoyable because it's soooo physical, and not mental at all and there are actually tangable results. The bob-cat can't get the crap out of there by itself, because it's all one big mat, someone has to break up the mat so the bob-cat can haul it away. So the machinery loosens it, and then I, with my pitchfork and playful calves, fork the broken up hay/doo doo, and other stuff they've drug in there, into the bucket of the bob cat.

This is enjoyable, for the first 10 minutes or so.

Then things start to hurt, and it starts to get annoying getting butted in the butt by the calves whose only mission in life is to play. And it is annoying when you hoist a pitchfork full of cow crap into the air and have it fall off the fork. And it's annoying when hubby is laughing at me. And it's really annoying when the skies cloud over and start to rain, which makes things get a bit slickery. This isn't like horse crap. Horse crap you can throw on the lawn, kick it around and eventually it goes away. This doesn't go away. And it's waaaay to hot to put it on the garden (hot being a chemical term in this application). This needs to be hauled a long way away from where human noses are, put into a pile and then let set to "cook" for a year or two, then it will be nice black dirt.

And once again, I swear that I'm going to do this every other day, or at least once a week, so I don't have to do a marathon session twice a year. But I won't. It will take me that long to quit hurting.

And I actually put it on my list to figure out how to make bio-fuel out of this stinky stuff.

On a side note. We got frost. I don't know when. I'm going with sometime last week, at night. But it killed my tomatoes. Grrrr. Usually I get a heads up on these things, that's how distracted I've been lately. Usually someone from Southern California will tell me we're expecting frost, I'll deny it, then I'll hear it on the news. That and I can usually feel it coming. Oh well, so much for the Over Wintering The Tomatoes And Peppers experiment. No reason now to hurry on the greenhouse. The lettuces still look good and the peppers that were covered by leaves... are still ok, but the tomatoes are gone. I have room in the house for the lettuces and the peppers, so I'll start hauling them in.

Tonight, I'll get all of my pots filled with dirt (for spring seed starting) and find a place in the barn for them. This serves two purposes, it gets all of the planting stuff off the deck to make room for the firewood, and I'll have my dirt already in the spring. It's hard to find dirt to start seeds in March or April when it's under 3 or 4 feet of snow and frozen under that. This way, I'll have it already in the pots, just bring it in, let it defrost and then plant away!

Oh, and, out wandering yesterday... I found a whole gob (lots and lots!!) of grapes. So I gathered them up and now have to figure out how to make wine. That will be an experiment, but look at it this way, the next time I have to do a marathon crap forking session, I can ease the aches and pains by getting smashed on a bit of home brew!

Life on the farm is never boring. But it's alllll good!

They!

2008-09-18T06:03:00.001-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that "they" are not all that smart.
"They" have a death wish. I think that "they" do not fully comprehend the effects "their" lives have on others. "They" are secure in "their" own little world and believe that "they" deserve the space that "they" occupy.

Take last night.......

Hubby and I went for a nice long (read...cold) bike ride through the surrounding villas, on back roads, front roads, side roads, basically we went all over (and at one point under).

On one of these back roads (or it might have been a side road, can't really tell sometimes) one of "them" decided to make an appearance. Actually, there were several of "them" but only one of "them" had any effect on me. One of "them" saw me coming. One of "them" decided that it would be fun to beat me at my own game. And one of "them" looked me in the eye and said "Bring It". (I actually heard "them" say this).

OK, I know a challenge when I am confronted with it, so I did.
Bring it.
I really had no choice if I wanted to walk away with my head held high (or even walk away, as it were). There we were, racing side by side, down the road, break neck speeds were reached. G's were maxed out, I'm pretty sure at one point I was air born, what with all the wind underneath my wheels. It was a moment where history could have been made.
Eyes met. He looked at me. I looked at him. (I think it was a him, but at those speeds who can really tell). Challenges were non verbally issued. I could feel his breath, I'm sure he could hear my screams! Moments turned into eons and in the end, I emerged the victor. Yup. I won.

Now... what the heck! I've never had one of "them" challenge me for road space in this manner before. I pretty much make a habit of this not happening. I avoid it, and"them". But it did happen. And, I reiterate... (see I can use big words once in awhile)... I won. That's how I roll. I must win. We must not let "them" see weakness.

I won, and I did not end up eating venison last night, nor did he (or the road) end up eating me!

Walking To Work

2008-09-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

I was going to walk to work this morning, you know, walk and knit, walk and knit, walk and knit, and kick through leaves. AND RELAX!! But then the coffee didn't brew in time.

I can still make it though, if I can find my backpack. Nope. ok, plan B. I'll just use the Sling It Over My Shoulder bag that I used to use before I got my backpack. Ok, all ready.

Now, where are my de-structions for my knitting? Oh crap. Can't find those either. Why isn't the curling iron hot? Did I remember to do chores. Still no coffee.

So I'll drive, I still have some gas in my little car anyway. And since I already told Bu-Dawgh that we were "gonna go fer a..." he was not gonna settle for me riding my bike. Ok, I hope my de-structions are at work.

Now, back to the coffee. And the curling iron. Sigh. It's gonna be one of those days. It's already been one of those weeks.

Fall tends to be like this, there's always last minute scrambling to get summer projects done, get the farm ready for winter, get myself mentally ready for winter, get the house ready for winter, it's almost like busting through cement walls but yet still holding back and holding on to the warmer weather.

Whoever wrote "Summertime, and the livin' is easy" (I actually do know who wrote that, but can't remember it right now, it's from Porgy and Bess, anyway... this person did not live on a farm. Add into that the mental "nesting" urges that no doubt kept out hunter-gatherer forbears alive and you have a bustle of activity that drains even the most sturdy of us.

Time for that last bonfire of the season? Well, that would be nice except I never got the firepit cleaned out and moved from the beginning of the season! I guess we could have it in the driveway.

Do you see where I'm at with all of this? It's a very busy time of year, usually at work I can plan on taking a few afternoons off a week to do my canning... but not this year. Super busy at work. Super busy at home. Super busy on the farm. And no time for me. Poor me. I'll take some cheese with my whine!