Updates.

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!