What Happened To My Summer?

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!!!!!!)

Vern Lives!

"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!

Vacation Woes

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...

Nothin'

I got nothin' for ya today, so I'm gonna ramble. Ready? Are ya sittin'? Ok, here goes.



My Red Wings lost last night. Not a biggie, we still have 2 more games in which we have to win one of them. But desperation is a big factor and the Penguins are desperate. They played hard last night, and my Wings fell short. Triple overtime. Game ended at somewhere between 1 AM and later than that. I'm not sure, I tend to shut down about 10. (one of the reasons my brain is lacking today).
Too much fun - two of my brothers (one from Calif. and the other from Colo) were watching the game also, so we texted back and forth. That's the high-tech way to watch a game. So, here's a shout out to the other two - 8 pm EST on Wednesday night - on NBC! I expect you to join us.

I LOVE texting. On the average I see my brothers between 1 and 3 times a year. That is really hard, my brothers are among my best friends and I miss them badly. But. With text we can all watch the same game and virtually be in the same room. It does make going to the fridge for a beer kind of challenging though. Doesn't make sense to have 3 people make 3 trips to the fridge for 3 beers when one is going, but again, it's better than not being able to share! And M, next time we are up 3-2, with about 45 seconds left in the game and you text me to tell me to go get hubby a sandwich, there will not be enough space between Michigan and California to protect you from me! Just remember that Mr.!

Next..... it's raining today, or it should be. It's cloudy. If it's cloudy, it should be rainy eh? Makes being outside rather hard (and wet). Since Michigan's state bird, the mosquito, is out in force, you risk life, limb and serious blood loss if you stay out for too long. No, Deet has nothing on these critters, they have been evolved to a point where they laugh in the face of a shot of bug spray. "Bring It On", they say. "Give me all you got", they taunt. And when you're all sticky and slimy from the chemicals that are supposed to protect you from these awful creatures, they come and bite you anyway. "No Fair. Take that oh Mosquito God. No Fair", says I! And everyone knows that when I say something, well, we'll just leave it at that!

Tonight..... I have to pound some more nails in the new chicken coop, fix the hay feeder for the horses and remove some fencing from the garden area. Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny, so with all that done, I can start roto-tilling my 1/2 acre garden. And if it rains or the mosquitoes threaten to carry me away, I'll stay inside and maybe sweep some floors or something. My life is so exciting!

My baby calves are finally getting off of milk replacer and starting to inhale grain by the major amounts. They are so cute and so cuddly. I could spend all day out there talking to them and cuddling with them. My social life is probably not what it should be, but hey, if it's not the calves I'm talking to, it's the baby buk, buks. (baby chickens to everyone who's not into the unique language of a 2 year old).


Knitting is going slow. My arthritis is acting up and knitting is hard, but I will push through. You lose it if you don't use it and all that garbage!

So, onward, upward, forward, ahead, sideways and once in awhile backwards, but it's all good!

later.......