Good News and Bad News

whaddya want first, they always ask. The good news or the bad news?

Well, I'm gonna sprinkle it around cause there's 6 bad news'es and 1 good news. Here's Bad News #1. Yes, it's real. No, it's not brown, it's really orange, yellow and green, and yes, it's on the ground and it wasn't yesterday.

Exhibit #2 and 3, 4, and what the heck, the rest of my "leaves on the ground at the beginning of summer" pictures:

Ok, here's the good news:

SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I got a part time job!

This one is sooo cool. I still have my 2 or 3 depending on the week full time jobs, but this one brings in a bit of extra money without requiring any change of plans, current employment, or location!

I am going to be the new Knit Blog Editor for CraftGossip.com!

Not sure when it starts yet, but how cool is that?????

More of the bad: Yeah, it's not all that unexpected, it's the middle of August and all, and on my way to work this morning, I did notice a few of the trees were starting to show some color. Ugh. Better get my spring planting done, eh?

After completeing my chores last night and noticing that all 3 of my turkeys seemed to have disappeared into thin air, I kind of figured that that's exactly just what they did; disappear into thin air. I'm thinking they heard the call, and all, and flew off to join some of their less-than-domestic cousins. Grrr. So much for Thanksgiving dinner this year. I really don't want to buy a turkey, maybe I'll do a ham instead, but here I am talking about Thanksgiving at the beginning of summer. What's up with that. Seems like I should be getting ready for our annual 4th of July celebration!

Tonight I have to fix the chicken coop, as my little houdini's are endlessly proving to me that they don't deserve to be penned up.

And, yes, I'll knit some more. My GD's sweater is almost done, and soo pretty. I love this pattern. I used a women's small, even though she's only 10 she's very tall. And instead of the size 7 and 9 needles, I used a 6 and 8, to make it just that much smaller, and a tighter knit. Very nice.

And.... hockey season is but a mere 6 weeks away!!!

Gotta get to job #1!

I'm so excited! My brother from Colorado will be here today. He'll be here until Wednesday. There is lots of garden, home improvement, critter enhancement... projects scheduled. But... the most important is the obligatory day long bike ride. Last fall we did this on a day that was gorgeous, he rode Hubby's bike and I, of course, rode mine. It was Mid-October, the leaves were in full color and flying all around, and it was around 80. Unseasonably warm for October, but the day was just perfect. We both still talk about that day, so this Holiday weekend we plan to redo it.
Maybe we'll ride over to the Big Lake for lunch.

No, the chickens and turkeys did not get put outside. They stink, they smell and they're flying and running and &$%^-ing all over the bathroom, but last night was knit night so, we do have our priorities. Besides, it's really something that's a two person job and hubby was out playing too. He likes to do the go kart thing and last night he and his buds were playing go karts. So, chix and turks are still inside. Tonight doesn't look good either, I'll probably be with my brother, and hubby will be go-karting again.

Look at this yarn!!! This is my latest score from Yarn Of The Month Club. It's the bamboo ribbon yarn that I hated but couldn't live without. It's soooo soft and when it knits up the drape is just perfect. I don't know what this yarn wants to be when it grows up, it hasn't told me yet, but someday it will make me a real nice something or other.

Update on the Blueberry Issue. I've filed a claim with paypal. I hate to do that, but it's been almost 3 weeks since I've sent my money or even heard from the guy. I'd still rather have the blueberries than my 30 bucks back, but we'll see. I really don't hold out much hope for either. The picture above is the spot hubby cleared for them, guess they'll be for the strawberries now. Next week, probably, we can start putting stuff outside, so I'll get those planted right away.

Our youngest called from Iraq yesterday, he's doing well, things are quiet for now where he is. I'm still pretty scared about the whole ordeal, but with the addition of N and her Monkey to our household, I've been even more distracted than I normally would be. And that's bad. In a good way.

Tomorrow night, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I'll be there! Go Wings!!

The Zoo Expands!

This afternoon this (see left) is going outside!

As is this:


It's warm enough with lights that they can go outside. They can go and stink out there! It's time! The time has come! No More! Baby birds that aren't really all that small anymore can live outside (with lights). The Condo will be moved to the side yard in a fenced in area, complete with old truck topper and the windows in my bathroom will be opened, at least for long enough to air it out. It's getting bad, you walk into the house and you can smell them all across the whole house. You can smell them upstairs. They are smelly in the basement. My house smells like chicken poo! Yuck! It's time.

I don't think I'm going to restain this desk. Of course, that means that I won't get my workroom cleaned up, the walls torn down between the workroom and laundry room, the washer and dryer relocated and the whole she-bang painted. Guess that sequence will have to wait until my next pseudo-project (which will come soon, as Ace (future son-in-law) scored a DEEP DEEP sink at a Habitat For Humanity store for only 10.00. Along with the new sink, I have a new faucet, well, it was new when I bought it, not so much anymore, but it even has one of those fancy sprayer thingees! I love sprayer thingees! And a spot for a lotion or soap dispenser. How cool is that??? But, before that, I have to get a new counter, cause, well, you can't put in a new sink and new faucet and not update the counter, can you? Ok, maybe it's do-able. It's been about 17 yrs since I put in a sink and faucet, maybe that will be a good Next Time Hubby's Gone For A Few Days project.
And, I have help now!

My Monkey LOVES PaPa's slippers, she is soooo cute. It's so much fun to have a youngun' in the house again. Last night she helped me collect eggs when I did chores, put them in a basket and had to run out to the garage to show PaPa. Didn't realize an 18 mo old Monkey could run that fast. Yeah, the eggs never made it to the house, but that's ok, it was too much fun watching her!

Herding Chickens

The Bu-Dawgh needs a job. He's totally entranced by the chickens and turkeys that terrorize him all day. Why can't he play with them? Well, he's a bit rough, being a puppy and all. Ok, how about the barn kitties, they are fuzzy and like to play. They just don't like to play with him. That's no fun. The only thing left is the baby chix and turks we have in a box in our bathroom. Yeah, our bathroom. Up here it's still too cold to put them outside, they're just feathered out so I can leave the lights off for awhile now and then, but it's still too cold to store them outside. This gets to be a creative way to see how many boxes you can tape together to give them the space they need, without taking over the house.
Another couple of weeks, then they will go outside, under lights. It's just too cold yet.
So, the Bu-Dawgh still needs a job. Or maybe a pet. That's it, I can get him a pet. When he comes to work with me, he plays with the Puff-a-Fluff all day, those are good days. But when I ride my bike, (and hubby has yet to build me a sidecar for him) he has to stay home all by his little self, and he's bored. If he had a pet, he could have someone to play with when he has to stay home.
Actually one of the remedies for mild depression is to get a pet. Since he's the Poster Puppy For Separation Anxiety, that would classify as depression wouldn't it? So there, medical research that practically shouts: GET THE BU-DAWGH A PET!!
Well we discussed it, he and I and he would pretty much be happy with anything, anything except a porcupine, he tried to play with one of them once and didn't win that little game, so no porcupines. Besides, when it's bring your pet to work day, and he brings his porcupine, and The Puff-A-Fluff wants to play, how in the world would we tell which was porcupine quills and what was just more hair?


Got lots of tomatoes and some peppers coming up, they really sprouted this weekend. The asparagus is all weeded and the rhubarb is just about ready for picking. Haven't gotten my blueberry seedlings yet, hmmmm, strange, the first time I got them almost immediately, now it's been 1-1.5 weeks. Hubby cleared a space for them, and I'm anxious to get them going.

We're still about 2 -3 weeks away from our frost date, although the weather has been so weird this year, it's hard to tell what is gonna happen.

Tonight? Gotta work with the Bu-Dawgh on the shock collar thing, the Red Wings play game 3 against the Dallas Stars and so it goes without saying that there will be lots of knitting accomplished, and well, all the other stuff that a homestead/farm/home requires. Like sweeping the floors now and then. And taping boxes together to make elaborate condos for the baby birdies.

I love baby birdies, but they don't love the Bu-Dawgh!

Wednesday Night Nothing-ness!

I got nothing for you today. So let's take a wander around the Little Brain and see what pieces we can pick up, shall we? After all, leaving pieces around for Little Brain to trip over is not exactly the recipe for anything good to happen. At all.

First of all, the sweater picture you see is a project that is definitely on my to do list. I actually got to pet the sweater, I tried not to drool over it, and the shop owner, Peg, from Tawas Bay Yarn Company graciously allowed me to photograph it. Not saying it will be the next project, just that it will definitely be on the list.

Let's see, here's another piece: Little Brain and I went to our favorite store last night after work, Tractor Supply, to aquire little buddies for our sole hatchling. They didn't have any meat birds, have to special order those, but they did have lots and lots of cute bronze turkeys and "miscellaneous straight run chickens". So of course, we had to buy our daily supply of cute and picked up 9 "miscellaneous straight run chickens" and 3 bronze turkeys. Just because. I didn't really need them, didn't really want them, but Little Brain won out on this one, they had to come home with us just to keep the sole hatchling company.

Awhile back, on ebay, I bid on and won 25 blueberry seedlings, which arrived in perfect health and as soon as I planted them, died. This was my fault, totally, as it was too cold to plant them outside so I stuck them in a few buckets of compost, and didn't water them enough. I wrote back to the original seller to ask if I could purchase more and he very very kindly offered to replace them for the cost of shipping. I won't do this, it was my fault, totally, not his, so I will send him what I originally sent him for the 25 plus shipping and expect in return another batch of gorgeous blueberry seedlings. How great is that? I've had a lot of good stuff happen with ebay and a lot of bad stuff too, but this guy went above and beyond and deserves an A+++++++++++++ rating. Here is a link to his "stuff". Seriously, this guy rocks! http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZjohnnynoseQQssPageNameZMERCQ5fVICQ5fRCRXQ5fPr4Q5fPcNQ5fQ5fSI

Along the same lines, kind of, in a berry kind of way, Tractor Supply was clearancing out some strawberry plants and I scored 30 of them for 15.00! I also got more tomato seeds that need to be started, jalapeno seeds (finally found them), and cilantro seeds. Can you say yummy salsa? Got to get some onion sets too.

Tonight is knit night, and I'll continue to work on granddaughter's sweater. I really have made some progress on it, tonight being knit night AND my Red Wings play a late game I should get a good 4 or 5 hours to knit. That ought to be good for a couple of rows anyway! Then tomorrow I'll post pics of both the sweater and my new birdies. I love baby birdies!

Go Wings! Take that Colorado Brother! (cause they are playing the Colorado Avalanche, in case you're just tuning in and are, GASP, not a hockey fan!)