mangofeet

How quickly they forget...

2012-01-19T23:49:00.000-05:00

Or at least I do.
I forgot my own blogiversary. Jan 12 marked 4 years of happy blithering, and I missed it by a week.

I didn't even get any cake...

Oh! Oh Oh! Oh Oh Oh!

2012-01-17T16:46:00.002-05:00

Madman to the Rescue! (As Always...)

2012-01-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

I had to go to work this morning, because retail and weekends-off have nothing in common. Madman graciously started my car for me as he was out doing chores, letting it warm up while I finished getting ready.
Now, I seldom bother to zip my coat. It's uncomfortable to drive with it zipped up, and since it's a quick dash from the house to the car, I usually just hold it closed for the 30 seconds necessary.
But this morning it was cold and, with a windchill firmly in the negative, I took the precaution of zipping up and donning gloves, knowing I was going to have to clean ice off the car before I headed out.
I chipped and scraped and grumbled the icy crust off, then hopped into the relative warmth of the car, reaching for the coat zipper as I sat down. After fumbling for a moment, I took my glove off for better dexterity, and fumbled some more.
The zipper pull was missing.
I believe I said some bad words at this point.
I tried tugging on the zippy-runner thingy to no avail. I tried pulling the top of the coat apart, hoping the zippy-runner thingy would just slide down on its own.
Nope.
There were a few more bad words. They were louder, too.
I finally located the zipper pull in my lap, but it was too bent to stay in the little hole where it belonged. I managed to pull the zipper open about 2 inches, but it wouldn't go further. I needed 3 hands - two to hold the zipper above and below the pull, for leverage, and one to tug with.
I was short a hand. Luckily Madman has some, so I trudged back through the snow and went in the house.

"Sweetie?" I called from the door. "Can you help me a minute?"
"Sure," he replied. "What do you need?" he asked as he came toward me.
"Will you please get me out of my coat? I'm stuck."
He had the good grace to only laugh once. Love that guy.
He promptly zipped it up, losing the precious 2 inches I'd gained out in the car. I'd been figuring that, worst case scenario, I could (with his help) pull the coat off over my head, but with it zipped all the way up, I was going to lose some skin off my chin.
While I tried to keep tension on the zipper, he tugged and re-inserted the pull and tugged and re-inserted the pull and tugged, until finally finally it zipped all the way down.
By this time, I was courting being late for work, so a big "Thank you! Thank you!", a quick kiss, and I dashed out the door and out to the car.
I arrived with zero time to spare, instead of the comfortable 5-10 minutes I try for.
I'm still trying to figure what would have been said if I'd been late and my only excuse was "Sorry. I got stuck in my coat."

Here ya go

2012-01-10T22:28:00.001-05:00

Remember the Piggy Hat? In case anyone's interested, here's the pattern:

Yeah, it's a post-it note.

(If there are any mistakes in the math, don't tell me. It's way too late...)

Okay, so it's going to be one of those kind of years...

2012-01-01T19:08:00.003-05:00

It all started innocently enough. Madman was out of town (we'd been invited to friends' for a New Year's Eve party, but since I had to work, he'd gone by himself - hours away, so he'd stayed overnight.), so I did morning chores. All quiet on the critter front.
I got ready for work and headed out to the car. Goldie was blatting up on the hill, but she's always blatting, so I was ignoring her. ("Hey! Mama! Hungry sheep up here! We haven't had grain in at least half an hour! Hey!")
But as I was starting the car, it started to sink in that she wasn't blatting "I'm hungry" - it was her "OMG, it's the End of the World!!!!" blatt.
I looked up the hill toward the sheep pen.
There was a sheep outside the pen.
And the gate was flat to the ground.
Orion, our newest sheep, our new little expensive registered ram, was outside the fence. Standing in the garden. Our new little difficult-to-catch-because-he's-sweet-but-dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks sheep is standing in the garden, and I need to leave for work right now, and I don't have time to deal with this.

Crap.

Or words to that effect. I may have been a little more vehement.

I sprinted up the hill, through the snow, in my running shoes, because after all, I was ready to go to work, so naturally I would have my work shoes on. My worn work shoes with very little tread left on them. Because I thought I was just going to go get in my car and head for work.

Crap.

Naturally, as I scrambled up the hill through the snow, Orion dimly realized that he might have done something wrong. He headed off around the pen, just in case he was in trouble.
I slowed down, trying to exude calm. "Orion... Come here, sweetie... Let's go back in the nice pen. There's a good boy..."

Nope.

I grabbed the Big Blue Bucket that we feed him his grain in, opened the can we keep the grain in, and scooped some in for him. While I was at it, I scooped some grain into the other sheeps' dish as well, just in case they were getting any crazy ideas about joining Orion in his adventure. (They were still inside the pen, mostly staring wild-eyed and appalled at Orion. "We're being good, Mama. See how good we're being? Not naughty like him. Aren't we good, Mama?" )
I shook the bucket to make the grain rattle, trying to entice the little ~~jackass~~ sweetie to come closer.
He wasn't buying it. I don't know if he sensed a trap, or if he was just too dumb to make the connection between the sound of grain rattling in the bucket and 'hey, I could be eating grain.'
I advanced a few steps, and retreated a few steps, trying to get him to follow the bucket. He did, but when he was almost within reach, he bolted again.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally, I lured him close enough to grab hold of a horn.

I'm very glad we raise Shetlands, which are very small sheep. Because a really big sheep would have dragged me even further through the snow than Orion did.

I was desperately trying to keep my feet under me, while he was backing up at a pretty good clip, shaking his head all the way.
He totally ignored me as I tried to explain that I really didn't have time for this.
I finally dug in enough to slow him down, and then inch-by-inch dragged him toward the still-open gate. One last Herculean effort, using the gatepost for leverage, and I got him back inside.

A couple of minutes that I couldn't spare were consumed in Emergency Gate Repairs, and I was finally off to work - out of breath and my shoes full of snow.

Yep. Gonna be one of those years...

Happy You Know What!

2011-12-31T23:48:00.000-05:00

Here's hoping 2012 is better than 2011.
Happy New Year, all!

And I finished Madman's Double-knit sock. Even with the double layer of kitchener. Wrap your brains around that one for a minute...

Here, Piggy, Piggy...

2011-12-29T18:40:00.000-05:00

So I can now reveal the secret knit project, since it has been gifted to the happy recipient.
It's double-knitting again, since I seem to have been bitten hard by this particular technique.

Behold, the Pig Hat:

A fully reversible earflap hat. With pigs.

I designed it on the fly, since I had the wonderful idea for it way too late to actually finish it in time. By starting with the earflaps, I was able to work out what my gauge was, and then do the calculations for the body of the hat from there. The pigs are a re-work of some charts for a sock in the Socks, Socks, Socks book, altered from the 3 colors of the charts (meant for duplicate stitch) which I changed for 2 colors. The stripes are just because I like stripes, and they make it easy to count rows. I finished weaving in the last end after supper at the giftee's house, after making her hunt me up a yarn needle. (Because I'd forgotten to bring one. Preparedness is not my middle name...)

The recipient is my wonderful Wicked Good Stepmother - since she and my dad raise pigs, it seemed wildly appropriate. I told her that with one side out, it shows Yorkshire pigs, and the other side is flashing Red Durocs.

She was pretty pleased with the hat...

Happy happy ho-ho!

2011-12-25T08:48:00.000-05:00

Happy merry jolly holidays, all. May your days be filled with joy and light!

Would anyone mind if I ripped a hole in the Space-Time Continuum?

2011-12-23T18:09:00.000-05:00

Because that's the only way I'm going to get everything done...
Baking and wrapping and secret knitting don't leave me much time, energy, or fodder for posting.
And working full-time in retail is NOT helping my Christmas Spirit. (At this point in the madness, the only ones out are the desperate and the truly truly angry. Help me.)

Okay, quick show of hands

2011-12-10T20:21:00.000-05:00

How many people thought I'd have to rip out the first version of the toe?

Yeah. I guess that was pretty predictable, hunh...

Someone cover me - I'm goin' in!

2011-12-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Time to attack the toe.
Someone's gotta do it...

Hey! It's December 1st!

2011-12-01T23:34:00.000-05:00

Which means I made it through another NaBloPoMo alive...
I did have an early glitch, which I fixed by posting twice on the same day later.
So my stitch count came out okay, even though my gauge was off.

Pssst! Don't look around...

2011-11-30T15:08:00.001-05:00

Today was my day off, which means laundry, errands, cooking, etc. You know the drill - more work than if I was at work.
Grocery shopping was one of the things on the to do list, and I got a wicked good deal. Leg of lamb for less than hamburger. It was even less than the marked-down-for-quick-sale-oops-we-ground-waaaay-too-much hamburger.
It's a lot of lamb for just Madman and me, but I'm already thinking ahead to the leftovers: lamb stew, lamb curry, stuffed grape leaves, real shepherd's pie.

Just don't tell Goldie and the gang...

Fraternal gussets

2011-11-29T23:13:00.000-05:00

It occurred to me that yesterday's photo of the gusset was taken from the other side of the sock than I'd shown previously. Because there's a surprise in the gussets - one is black

and the other is green.

Because the 48 stitches of the sole could only be divided into an even number of stripes, the first stripe and the last stripe (from left to right) are opposite colors, which meant the gussets wouldn't match. I knew that going in, and knew that I could do some fancy number juggling to compensate, but I decided it just wasn't worth it. I plan to knit the second sock with the sole stripes reversed, so that the socks will mirror. Then for the pattern it will be knitter's option whether they knit matching or mirrored socks.

I'm also trying to figure out the topology of turning one sock inside out. Would it then match or mirror? (I'm an empiricist, dammit. I'll have to knit the second sock, then play with turning one inside out...)

You say you want a resolution

2011-11-28T22:41:00.000-05:00

We-eell you kno-o-ow, we all want to knit a sock... (Sorry. Channeling old Beatles songs lately. It's either a function of my age, or some sort of mental protest against all the "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" that's already spring up. Grrr.)

So, the gusset has resolved. (Which is where all that resolution came from.) (Again, sorry.) I like the stronger lines I got by working it this way.

Double-knitting, for me, seems to involve a lot of mental chanting. "Green/black-green/black, black/green-black/green". Over and over, in various combinations. It's the only way I've found to keep going without getting hopelessly confused.
Makes it a little hard to have a conversation, though... "Hey, sweetie, green-black, I stopped green-black at Agway black-green this black-green morning and green-black they had green-black a new black-green kind of black-green chicken feed."

I hope calling Murphy's Law doesn't cancel Murphy's Law...

2011-11-27T21:34:00.000-05:00

No deer today, the last day of rifle season. But there's one more week of bow season in early December.
Venison would make such a nice change from chicken...

I needed a foghorn...

2011-11-26T23:33:00.000-05:00

Just got home from work - the store is already keeping whacky hours in preparation for the holidays - and it was so foggy that I was mostly driving by memory...
The weather has been warming up again, which is causing all the fog. Maybe it'll bring Madman good luck in his Quest for Deer.
We figure Murphy's Law will work in our favor this year - the freezers are chock-a-block full of chickens and garden veg. We have absolutely no room for venison. Doesn't that sound like he should get a really really big deer?

Woo and Hoo

2011-11-25T20:20:00.001-05:00

Last month I was spinning this luscious stuff - a Corgi Hill Farm merino/angora/silk blend. And we're talking serious love with this fiber. It's blue-green at one end, shading down to yellow-green at the other, with white laced through it so the colors shimmer between light and dark.
But then something awful happened - my wheel suddenly developed a horrible clunk. It took me forever to track down where the sound was coming from, but I finally realized that the pitman rod was hanging up at the top of its arc, making a small clunking noise just before it reached the top and a louder one just after, as the whatchamacallit that turns the axle went up and over. (You know how I love all that technical talk.)
I would grit my teeth, and try to spin for awhile, but the noise was rapidly driving me batshit. I could tolerate a few minutes - and I desperately wanted to spin that CHF temptress - but then I'd have to put the fiber down and ~~run~~ walk away from the wheel. I was afraid that I'd have to call the wheel-doctor to get my baby fixed, but money spent on doctoring is money that can't be spent on more luscious fiber, so I put it off.
I didn't spin for a couple of weeks. But I missed it. I really really missed it. So, last night I sat down at the wheel, thinking "Well, I'll spin as long as I can stand the noise, then go knit or something."
I dabbed a few drops of oil behind her ears, just like I always do, and started to spin.
Silence. Or nearly so - just that gentle hum of a wheel working smoothly.
I kept spinning, hoping it wasn't just a fluke.
Still with the silence. Wow.
I finally said to Madman "Ya know, this isn't helping any with my irrational belief that things will heal themselves if you just leave them alone for a while..."
"What?" he asked, turning away from the computer.
"Do you hear any clunks?"
He listened for a moment. "Hunh."

Over the river and through the woods

2011-11-24T11:13:00.002-05:00

To Grandmother's house we go!
Have a happy Turkey Day, everyone!

Madman's socks

2011-11-23T22:39:00.000-05:00

So, I was knitting away last night on the double-knit socks. Madman looked over and asked "Socks?"
I smiled and said "Yes."
"That looks really cool. Can I feel it?"
And again I said "Yes." I'm always pleased when he takes an interest in the knitting.
"Wow! This is really thick!" he said. I showed it off, explaining double-knitting, and showing that it was reversible.
"Oh, wow. I want a pair of these."
"Sweetie, you haven't been reading the blog lately, have you?"

Oh, yes, that's much better

2011-11-22T21:27:00.001-05:00

Here's the new and improved gusset - much more what I had in mind:

As opposed to the first version:

I guess I should have rotated one or the other of those photos...

For those of you keeping score at home

2011-11-21T20:26:00.000-05:00

The pullets are nosing ahead again...

Yes, that's four (count them, four!) pullets standing outside the coop door, trying to figure out how to get in.

One of the ~~less stupid~~ braver ones actually edged past me while I had the door open, filling feeders, and got inside. A second one I cornered, grabbed, and boosted over the fence.

The other two are still out there milling around somewhere, too fast for me to capture. (Madman tried to find them when he got home, but since it now gets dark in what feels like mid-afternoon, it wasn't possible to find two chickens by the light of a headlamp.)

We honestly can't figure out how they're getting out. And apparently, neither can they, since they can't manage to get back in.

Gusset, Rip, Repeat...

2011-11-20T18:25:00.003-05:00

And repeat again.

I decided that I didn't like the way the gusset was going to resolve when I finished the decreases (naturally, I was almost at that point when I realized it), so I ripped it back to the picking-up-stitches part and started again.
And then realized that I'd made a grievous calculation error (because apparently I can't count past four without making a mistake) and had to rip it out again.

On the silver-lining side, I'm getting very good at picking up the two layers of gusset stitches...

Lured away

2011-11-19T22:51:00.001-05:00

I was going to post about something, but made the mistake of dropping by Rav first and got diverted by this thread. (NSFW, btw)
Now I can't remember what I was going to post about...

I've never been afraid to bite off more than I can chew...

2011-11-18T22:58:00.002-05:00

I bought the Fall Vogue Knitting issue for one pattern.
This:

It's Nancy Marchant's Crossing Over - a hat made with two-color brioche cables.

I want to knit this hat.

Never mind the fact that I've never done two-color brioche cables.
Never mind the fact that I've never done two-color brioche at all.
Never mind the fact that I've never even done one-color brioche. Brioche is unexplored territory. I have never brioched.

I want to knit this hat.

One of my Favorite Movies of All Time

2011-11-17T22:30:00.002-05:00

In 30 seconds.
With bunnies.
Yes!

Maybe they have your favorite movie, too...

And in my spare time, I want to try this...

2011-11-16T22:09:00.004-05:00

This is origami on a whole new level.
And if you click on 'my diagrams' on the left sidebar, there are diagrams and videos to show you how to fold your own.

Like this beauty.

I need to buy some paper...

A-Gusset We Will Go

2011-11-15T22:17:00.001-05:00

Hi Ho the Derry-O...

As the Heel Turns

2011-11-14T19:31:00.002-05:00

I've turned the heels on the Double Knit Sock -

so the stripes have started on the sole.

Actually, I'm a bit further along, since I've now got the gussets going, but no photos yet in case I change my mind and have to start over. (What I visualize isn't always what I end up with. Knitting is a lot like life in that respect...)
The heel turning went a lot smoother than I expected, and picking up stitches for the gussets involved a lot less swearing than I was prepared for, too.
I had some truly spectacular words all lined up and everything. Pity they were wasted. Oh, well, better to be over-prepared than surprised, I guess.

The Home of Weird Blog Fodder, or Mr Stinky's Revenge

2011-11-13T16:26:00.002-05:00

RIP Mr Stinky. Your ~~aroma~~ memory lingers on.
The good news is that the skunk is out of his misery. The bad news is that we won't be out of ours for awhile.
Yes, skunks do spray when you shoot them. (Good thing Madman is a swift runner.) (Doubly good thing that he got that knee repaired last year so he could be a swift runner again.)
So the chickens are safe again for the time being. Until the next predator moves into the neighborhood, anyway.
Though the skunk smell might hold them off for a bit...

Last Stay of Execution

2011-11-12T20:33:00.002-05:00

The prisoner is enjoying a hearty Last Meal. But Chicken-Eatin' Varmints gotta go.
I don't anticipate getting a call from the governor...

Anybody want a slightly-used skunk?

2011-11-11T19:34:00.003-05:00

One owner. Low mileage. All the bells and whistles.
Must be picked up, as we will not deliver.

Seriously, what do we do now? Neither of us is willing to put the trap in our vehicle to haul it away. We're trying to talk someone with a truck into doing the hauling, but everyone is remarkably reluctant. (Can't imagine why.) Not to mention there's the problem of how the hell to get the trap into and out of the truck to begin with. (I'm not touching it...)
I suggested he hitch the trap to his garden tractor and drag it up to the woods.
"And what, let it out so it can just walk back down the hill to the chicken yard?"
"Of course not. You should shoot it."
He gave me That Look. (You know the one. The "Are you daft?" look.) "It'll spray and stink up everything."
"So?" (Thinking that a smelly trap wasn't necessarily a bad thing.)
"It'll spray and stink up ME."
Oh.

And tomorrow is the first day of hunting season. No way is Madman going to head for the woods reeking of skunk...

Oh, $hit. That's not a kitty...

2011-11-11T08:30:00.002-05:00

Madman had put out a Hav-a-Heart trap, trying to catch what we thought was a fox or a weasel that had been lurking around our place, raiding the compost pile and bothering the chickens.
When he checked it this morning, he thought he'd caught one of the neighbor's cats.
Until he looked closer.
He's now got a very large, very pissed-off skunk in the trap.

Good thing he's got today off...

Heels checks? Check.

2011-11-10T22:20:00.002-05:00

I've started work on the heel flap. Checks R Us...

(The flash throws off the colors, but no flash does, too, and is blurry besides.)

I briefly considered running a couple of horizontal stripes before starting the checks, echoing the top border, but decided against it. The checks start nicely right off the tops of the zigzags.

One thing I like about knitting a checkerboard on a heel flap is that it makes it really easy to count the rows...

The chickens aren't happy with the return to Standard Time, either

2011-11-09T19:12:00.002-05:00

I always bitch this time of year about the return to Standard Time. (The only reason I'm not griping right now about the difficulty of resetting my watch, is that my watch died a while back. Probably committed suicide to avoid going off Daylight Saving Time...)
I get out of work at 5pm and am home around 15 minutes later. In total Darkness. So when I go out to the chicken coop to feed and water and gather eggs, the chickens have already settled in for the night. They're pretty grumpy about me wandering around with a head lamp, peeking in nest boxes.
"Hey! What the hell?!? Trying to get some sleep here. Bug off!"

At least the rabbit is happy to see me. He's a little more nocturnal.

And the sheep just cuss me for being so late bringing their supper...

Plotting and Planning

2011-11-08T17:46:00.004-05:00

Step 1: Find a pen that works.
Step 2: Find a pen that works for longer than a minute.
Step 3: Take the only working pen in the house and start a shopping list. (First item: pens.)
Step 4: Start drawing socks. (Actually, I cheated - I found an image on the internet, reduced the size, and traced it a whole bunch of times. All's fair in sock-knitting.)
Step 5: Start filling in sock outlines with permutations of stripes, zigzags, and checkerboards.

(You'll notice that the 'filling-in' sort of petered out towards the end. Not to mention coloring in checks...)
Though I like some of the short row heel options (top row), I think that'll wait for another design. I'm more intrigued with the flap/gusset heel configuration, though it's going to be harder to wrap my brain around. I think I have it figured out how to do it (it works in my head, anyway), but I'm questioning my ability to write it out in a fashion that a normal person would be able to follow.
At this moment, I'm favoring the one in the bottom row, second from the left. Still have to decide if I want wide or narrow stripes on the sole.

When I get it done, I might be calling for test knitters. You don't necessarily have to be normal to volunteer...

Ooops...

2011-11-07T19:00:00.003-05:00

Totally forgot to post yesterday. Which means I blew NaBloPoMo in the first week.
*sigh*
I think I'll play a Get Out of Jail Free card, and ignore it.
Intention is nine tenths of the law, right?

Still knitting on the double-knit sock. It looks the same as the last photo, only longer, so I won't bother with another pic yet.
Will have to start making decisions about the heel soon. Short row? Flap and gusset? And patterning - the checkerboard or a stripe pattern? And then what about patterning on the sole?
I have the day off tomorrow and plan to do some sketching of options. As slowly as double-knitting progresses (since I'm knitting two stitches for every one, after all) I've got time to consider, yet.
All options are still open...

More Mayhem

2011-11-05T18:29:00.002-04:00

Too tired to post. We butchered the last of the second batch of meatbirds today - twenty-some of the little blimpoids. (We were victims of our own success on the first batch - we ended up selling so many that we didn't get any for ourselves. Had to raise a second batch, and even then we could have sold most of them.) (You know you're on the right track when you have to beat customers off with a stick.) ("My chicken, damn you! Let go! Mine mine mine!")
Anyway, I just finished stuffing the last of them into the freezer. And I had to lean on the door slightly to do it... (There had to be a general purge of the freezer about mid-afternoon. A lot of things went to the compost pile. Bananas-that-would-have-been-for-banana-bread-if-I'd remembered-I-had-them-at-any-point-in-the-last-several-months, chicken carcasses that I'd intended to boil down for stock, etc. And several unlabeled items that I decided that if I couldn't identify it in less than 20 seconds then it should probably be thrown away...)
(Note to self: Label things that go in the freezer. No, you are not going to remember what they are later, no matter how firmly you believe you will. No, seriously, label things.)

Chicken for supper tonight. Gotta go start some pilaf...

Testing... testing... One,... well, just one...

2011-11-04T20:29:00.003-04:00

Since Alison so graciously told me I could post my test-knitting pics, I'll let you see.
She's designed this great pattern for warm, cushy socks, and let me test the pattern. Truly, you are going to love these socks -

They have a thick squishy sole that's pure luxury to walk around on.

Of course, I only have 75 percent of a pair of socks, so far...

Actual knitting content

2011-11-03T19:27:00.004-04:00

Not much has been accomplished on the knitting front lately. Other than a test-knit for a friend (and I don't know if I'm allowed to show it or not. I'll wait for the go-ahead from her, then I'll be pleased to show off a wonderful pattern!), the needles have been pretty quiet.
I do have another project underway which I can show. (And I had to finish a pair of socks that I'd started last year, in order to free up the needles.) (And, duh... it occurs to me that I should probably take a picture. I'll get on that. Soon.)
This started out as a Crimbo present for Madman, but I realized there was no way I would get them done in time without knitting them under his nose. So I've decided they're going to be an Ice-fishing present, instead. Ice-fishing presents don't have to be secret.
Here's a shot of the knitting in progress:

And I'll just flip the bottom up so you can see the inside:

Yeah. Double-knitting. Socks, to be exact. Because I'm clearly not crazy enough.
I'm going to be designing this pattern as I go. Madman needs really warm socks - and what could be warmer than double-knitting? And I need to knit socks for him (cuz, you know, love and all that), but he's always been resistant to hand-knit socks because the purl bumps bother the bottoms of his feet. Double-knitting = no purl bumps. Win-win, right?
Well, except for the crazy part...

Big Blue Bucket

2011-11-02T20:38:00.004-04:00

So, our new little ram, Orion, is fitting right in with the gang. Except for one thing.
He's a grain hog.
Our sheep live on a diet of grass and hay, supplemented with a little grain. Shetlands are a hardy breed, and actually do better when not on too rich a diet. So, morning and evening chores involve chucking some hay at them, then giving them some grain - hand feeding it to them when we have the time (and it's not 40 below), otherwise just dumping some into a big food dish.
Our original three managed to share fairly nicely, with the occasional disagreement that ended in a butting contest, but usually things worked out pretty fair.
Orion, however, thinks he should get all the grain, and elbows... well, horns, actually, the others out of the food dish. They stand around going "Hey! Hey! That's for everybody, ya know. Hey!" while he guzzles all the grain.
So, I tried an experiment. I grabbed their spare water bucket, shook a little grain into the bottom of it, and set it in front of Orion. Once he was engaged with that, I put grain for the other sheep into their food dish, and stood back to watch.
It worked like a charm. Orion, with his head in a bucket, couldn't see the others eating, and thought he was getting the grain all to himself. The other sheep finally were getting their fair share.
My only concern was the bucket handle - I was afraid of it getting hooked on Orion's horns, with him panicking and dashing around the pasture like a... well, like a sheep with a bucket on his head.
Good thing I was worried, because getting his horns caught is exactly what happened. I was close enough to intervene before he realized he had a problem (he was still distracted by the grain in the bottom of the bucket), so I was able to work the handle back off his horns before we ended up with a situation where the other sheep were laughing at him and calling him 'Buckethead.' (It's so hard to maintain any ramly dignity when your flock refers to you as Lil' Buckethead...)
The next day, I came up with a better bucket - a big blue one without a handle.

Much better.

Goldie, Onyx, and Merlin can now enjoy their supper without getting a horn in the snoot.

And nobody has to be a Buckethead...

神聖的睾丸・ Shun-SHENG duh gao-WAHN

2011-11-01T21:28:00.002-04:00

Because it IS Tuesday, after all.
I was going to save this one for later in the month - it's NaBloPoMo time again, after all - but who could resist a perfect combination of Tuesday and Nerdiness?
Go here to find out what I'm talking about.
Any other Browncoats out there?

That's Frahn-ken-steen!

2011-10-31T17:10:00.004-04:00

One morning, shortly after we got the last batch of meatbirds, Madman came in from morning chores and asked, "Have you noticed one of the chicks has a weird crooked neck?"
"Oh, yeah," I answered. "I've been calling him Igor..."

Meet Igor, all grown up. Still looking at the world sideways (and slightly-from-the-right.)

At least he seldom trips over things...

It's a Puzzlement

2011-10-30T10:36:00.002-04:00

Orion was a little puzzled this morning.

"What is this white shi... er, stuff... all over the ground?"*

But I distracted him with hay, and that made it all better.

* He was born in April, in Indiana. I don't think he's seen much snow...

We win! We win!

2011-10-17T22:19:00.001-04:00

It's been a week since any of the pullets have gotten out of their pen!
(Stupid chickens...)

Catching up

2011-10-09T20:43:00.004-04:00

Just a few more words on the Vt Sheep & Wool Festival and then I'll hush about it until next year.
First, I did buy yarn - just one skein in a fabulous color, with a stealth project in mind. (So, no sharing. Sorry.)
And I have to keep laughing to myself about our ram purchase. The very nice man (from Indiana) who sold Orion to us offered to help us load the sheep in our trailer. Then he looked around, saw our car, but realized there was no trailer. The look on his face as we said, "Oh, no, we'll just put him in the back of the car. That's how we always haul sheep." was priceless. I can just imagine him returning to Indiana and telling everyone out there about crazy Vermonters who drive around with sheep in their cars...
And lastly, to the anonymous woman who handed me toilet paper under the stall door - a Thousand Blessings on you and your house.

What The Flock?

2011-10-04T19:14:00.004-04:00

I knew y'all wanted a few more sheep pictures, so I headed out with my camera yesterday. But the sheep were way too interested in what I was doing, so I kept getting pictures like this:

And this:

(Well, you did want a closeup of Orion, right?)

Or, I'd get a nice shot lined up, and suddenly there'd be a sheep butt in it...

(Notice how gray Onyx's back and sides are since her shearing. After a bit of research, and talking to some Shetland raisers at Vt S&W, we think this means she's a shaela (here's a link that talks about the shaela color) though she might be an iset. (Which is actually a marking rather than a color. Shetland colors and markings are confusing...)

Anyway, today I got smarter - I pitched some hay into their paddock first, so they'd have something more interesting than me to hold their attention.

Chew, Goldie, chew!

In all those photos, from left to right we have Goldie, Onyx, Orion, and Merlin. (Notice that Onyx never once raised her head out of the hay. Great powers of concentration, our girl, especially when it comes to food...)
You can see how much bigger Orion's horns are than Merlin's. (And someday, Orion's will look like this. He's only 6 months old, so he's got a heap of growing yet to do.) Merlin was wethered at a young age because his horns were turning in, toward his skull, rather than out like they're supposed to.)
This photo shows what I'm talking about:

We had to have the tips of his horns cut off at shearing time because they were almost to the point of touching his skull. Because he's gelded, his horns grow slowly, but they do still grow. We can keep trimming them for awhile, but we can't go too far up, because there are blood vessels involved in the horns (it's actually a cooling mechanism) and cutting into that part would be purely ghastly and horrible. (It's the kind of thing best left to a vet.) In the meantime, we keep a close eye on them. (If only there were orthodontic devices for horns...)

Best Festival Ever

2011-10-02T20:57:00.005-04:00

Well, it did rain. And we did slog through mud. And more mud. And even more mud, since it rained all day yesterday, too.

But.

Here's the official clue list:

1. I spent more money than I ever have before at a festival. (As a matter of fact, I think I spent more money than I did if you added together every festival I've ever been to...)

2. The back of my car is full of smelly stuff. (Again.)

3. We had to explain the "Sheep can't call Shotgun" rule. (No, not even rams.)

Figured it out yet?

Meet the newest member of the Mangofeet Menagerie:

This is Orion, a registered Shetland ram.
He's a sweetheart - took the ride home like a trooper (though he blatted less once the windows fogged up and he couldn't see outside. I don't think he'd ever been for a ride in a Subaru before...) and has started to settle in with the other sheep.
Notice how everyone's eyes lit up when they saw each other:

Actually, I had to give up on the picture taking. It was dusk by the time we got home, and pouring down rain, to boot. Most of the pictures were blurry, had glowing eyes, or both.
I did get one good one:
Notice how Orion is already chatting up the lovely Miss Goldie. We have high hopes for lambs this spring...

Vermont Sheep and Wool

2011-09-30T23:33:00.002-04:00

I'll be going on Sunday - anyone else?

(And for the record - still finding two or three pullets out every. single. morning. It's impossible to tell if it's the same culprits every time, as all the pullets are pretty identical looking. Short of paint-balling each of them a different color, there's no way of telling them apart. (And don't think we haven't been tempted...))

Just who is thwarting whom, anyway?

2011-09-26T16:50:00.002-04:00

Bullwinkle had it right in her comment on my last post. I'm starting to wonder just who is the thwarter and who is the thwartee. (Or is that thwarted?) Well, someone around here is full of thwarts.
Seven pullets out this morning - five back in their old pen and two out and about in our yard. I managed to catch five and stuff them back into the yard they're supposed to be in, but after innumerable scratches (Chickens have claws. Big sharp claws.) and splatterings with mud and other detritus you'd find in a place with chickens (On my face! Ewwww! On my face!) I finally gave up and went back inside.
I think Houdini came back as a flock of chickens...

Finally Thwarted. (We think)

2011-09-25T20:32:00.004-04:00

Madman opened the coop's outside door this morning, figuring the pullets had had long enough to acclimate to their new digs.
When I left for work at noon, there were 2 out - one in the old pen, and one wandering around the edge of the garden. (The pullets were under the mistaken impression that they were free-range hens. When they first started getting out of their pen, we'd go to the trouble of chasing them down and putting them back, but we eventually gave that up. They'd be out again before our backs were turned. We got to the point that we'd see a bunch of chickens out and just heave a sigh as we got on with whatever project had brought us outside.)
Madman went out a little later, found six back in the old pen, gathered them up, and put them back where they were supposed to be. He then sealed up the hole in the netting that he thought they were using for an escape route, and called it good.
A couple hours later, there were six out again. He repeated his previous efforts, and this time making the chicken yard so escape-proof that Houdini would have despaired.
When he went out at suppertime, no chickens were out.
Though there were several standing in the chicken yard in a group, glowering at him and the fence...

If at first you don't succeed, fly fly again

2011-09-22T21:33:00.002-04:00

Madman just came in from capturing the last of the pullets and moving her to the main chicken coop with everyone else. He'd nabbed most of them last night, but this one had evaded him somehow.
This was the second time he'd tried to merge the flocks - adding this year's pullets to our main group of layers. (Read about how it's done here.) He tried a couple of days ago, capturing all the pullets while they slept, smuggling them into the main coop, and setting each one on the roost.
But when we woke up the next morning, all the little chickeny brats were right back in their old pen. They'd found some way to escape and had headed back home...
Since we want their pen for our new group of meat birds, we really really need them out. This time, we're taking no chances. The main coop's door to the outside is closed, and will remain so for a couple of days, until the pullets forget about the old homestead and settle into the new.
There's a reason that the expression is not "A chicken never forgets"...

So let's get this show back on the road...

2011-09-17T16:02:00.004-04:00

I've come to the conclusion that I'm always going to be busy and tired, so I might as well try to squeeze in a post.
We had a light frost last night - not the Jack Frost's Revenge kind of killer frost, but a good strong nip. Luckily, the weather service had predicted it (and they were right for a change) so Madman had bustled out after work yesterday and hauled in everything he could grab out of the garden. We've spent the day (except for the morning, where I got called in to work to cover for a sick co-worker. Damn my Team Spirit - it causes more trouble) packing stuff into the freezer.
First the greens (chard and beet), and then the beans (green and yellow). Peppers are next, and then a big kettle of tomatoes is going on the stove for sauce as soon as we can free up a burner. The onions are spread out to finish drying down. Cucumbers are everywhere there's a spot open to set down a cucumber. (Look first before sitting down on the couch, just in case...)
The brussels sprouts are still out in the garden - a couple of frosts will actually benefit them rather than harm them. And the carrots (what few germinated) are safely underground, hiding from the cold.
Garden '11 is winding down. We're already planning Garden '12.

How odd...

2011-09-01T22:45:00.003-04:00

So, my oldest daughter and I were having a phone conversation today, discussing the hurricane damage, when it occurred to both of us at the same time that it was a very odd conversation. She lives in Florida, I live in Vermont, and the hurricane damage was on MY end. This is just so wrong...

We're okay!

2011-08-31T18:06:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post to let y'all know we're okay. We personally had no storm damage, but our internet has been down until this afternoon. And that was the worst thing that happened to us, other than the beer store being closed on account of high water...

The chicken yards give a whole new meaning to mud... Trying to walk out there will suck the boots right off your feet.
And the sheep are still damp and bedraggled.
The garden is fine. The animals are fine. And we're fine, too.

And now with internet! I'm probably about 900 posts behind on Google Reader...
Hope I didn't worry anyone too much. I ended up feeling guilty for having no internet. Modern times...

Goodnight Irene

2011-08-27T22:24:00.005-04:00

The media has everyone so panicked up here that everything is getting cancelled - the county fair will be closed tomorrow, the local college put off starting classes from Monday until Thursday, every event/meeting possible is being postponed.
The local electric company has announced that if power is lost, they refuse to even consider going out to fix it before Monday.
All the stores are out of D batteries and nearly out of flashlights.

And we haven't had so much as a drop of rain or a breath of breeze, so far.

There are a lot of mountains between us and the coast. I'll be very surprised if we get more that a bucket of rain.
And as for the power going out? This is the Northeast Kingdom. We lose power if anyone even whispers the word 'storm.' We're used to it. Those of us who have lived here for a while know enough to keep a ready supply of candles and batteries on hand.
If you don't hear from me tomorrow, I'll just be up here spinning by headlamp, waiting until Monday when the power company guys dare to go outside...

Have Hub, Will Travel

2011-08-24T19:40:00.005-04:00

A quick visit to Radio Shack on the way home (my only nearby source for computer bits) put an end to my plug-unplug-plug-swear-unplug-swear-plug antics. Hurray for hubs!
And now we return to our regularly scheduled blithering...

So.
In early August, I made a trip with my youngest daughter to upstate NY to visit my dad. My oldest daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids drove up from Florida to be there at the same time. (And not-coincidentally, it was my birthday. A very happy birthday for me, to have both my daughters with me at the same time!)
Daughter-the-younger and I arrived the day before the rest of the crew, so we had a chance to settle in and check out all the cool critters.
There were freshly sheared alpacas

and some spiffy new Barred Rock pullets.

And piggies! These are either a week old, or two weeks old. (I got confused after a certain point. There were pigs everywhere - multiple litters in multiple colors in multiple barns.
My favorites are the polka-dotted ones...

On Sunday, while we were waiting for Older daughter and Co to arrive, we had some big excitement. Dad has cameras on several of the pens, in order to keep track of what's going on out in the barns. One of the young sows (who wasn't really due for another couple of days) was in labor and had already had two piglets. Which she was chasing and trying to bite. Naturally I grabbed my camera and headed out to the barn with the rest of the troops.
As a first time mother, she was irritable and confused. Here she was, hot and in pain, and suddenly there were these pesky things that were plaguing the hell out of her, snuffling and nuzzling and squeaking. We finally had to pull them from the pen, because she was too agitated to do anything but stomp around and try to boot piglets. Once they were gone, she settled back down and laid down again.

After about half an hour's wait, Piggie number 3 made an appearance.

Followed by Number 4.

By this time, she had her butt up close enough to the wall of the pen that I was afraid the babies were going to be born with concussions...
As each piglet was born, my WickedGoodStepmother would give it a chance to try to nurse, until mama pig got too agitated, then would rescue it and drop it into the bin we'd set up for the babies' protection.
These little squirmers are all looking for something - they don't know what it is, but they're sure they'll know it when they find it. They're sucking on each other's noses, tails, and ears, because Mother Nature had promised them that there'd be food. Gives a whole new layer to "Got Milk?", doesn't it?

Older Daughter & Crew arrived about that time. The grandkids were fascinated by the bin full of baby piggies.

The count mounted. Here we are at seven. I love the variety.

After about the 10th one, Mama just didn't give a shit anymore. So we pulled them out of the bin and returned them to her, where they proceeded to clumsily look for spigots.

This little guy finally figured it out.

And eventually, so did the rest of them. But by that time, my camera's batteries were out of juice...
*sigh*

Sending up a flare...

2011-08-21T09:45:00.002-04:00

Urgh. Since I got back from my mini-vacation at my Dad's, (I've got pictures! I swear! Grandkids and flowers and baby pigs!) we've had nothing but computer problems. First Madman's computer picked up a virus which necessitated reinstalling Windows (and it's Vista. Weep for me...), then all the rear ports on my computer went on strike. So, we're in the process of re-installing software on the newer computer, and I had to get a USB keyboard for the older one, and since there's only one USB port on the front of it which has to be shared between keyboard and mouse, doing anything on it involves a lot of swapping and swearing.
As soon as I can figure out what to do with either computer, I'll process a ton of photos and pop them up, along with commentary about all the fun. (I've got pics of baby pigs less than 3 seconds old...)
In the meantime, I'll just be over here, inventing new curse words. The old ones just aren't enough anymore...

Just Dew It

2011-07-27T10:13:00.004-04:00

When I went out to feed the animals this morning, I saw little white patches scattered here and there in the grass. A closer look revealed spiderwebs covered in dew.

It was early enough that the sun hadn't reached them yet - later on in the morning they were almost invisible.
I ran inside for the camera, of course.
I think there's a spider lurking in the little funnel-shaped hole. Using a blade of grass, I tickled the edge of the web, trying to draw her out. Either I can't imitate a trapped insect very well, or she's too smart to fall for such a shabby trick. I was disappointed that she didn't appear, since I really wanted to see the spinner.
Here's another web, with the toe of a size 8 Muck boot for scale. (It's actually Madman's boot - I wear them for chores. I walk like Sora of Kingdom Hearts in them, but love them just the same.)

And as long as I had the camera...

This is a Riesentraube tomato plant that I raised from seed and transplanted in a Tootsie bucket.
Check out how many flowers there are on one stem:

(The white is more dew. Maybe I should take a picture during a drier part of the day?)

And for the flower lovers, here are some of the false sunflowers that are spreading all over my flowerbed.

I really need to go out and clear some of them out, since they're too tall for the front of the bed and are masking and shading out some of the shorter plantings. But it just goes against the grain to murder flowers...

Four, Five, Six... What's up with this?

2011-07-18T23:30:00.002-04:00

This is my clematis.

It's been growing happily at the corner of our deck for a number of years, its beautiful 4-petaled flowers brightening my day whenever I look at it.

But.

This year is different.

Four petals:

And five petals:

And six petals:

Wait, what?
How can the same clematis vine have totally different flowers on it?
Any botanists out there?

Woohoo! I have empty bobbins!

2011-07-15T17:30:00.004-04:00

I've finally finished spinning up all the Goldie fleece that I had washed up. (There's still more in my sewing room. And that's last year's fleece...)

Fiber: Goldie 2010 fleece -(that's Shetland, for anyone who hasn't been keeping score)
Weight: 3-ply worsted - 11 wpi (or maybe 10. How close is close? How squished is squished?)
Yardage: 1580 yds.

The yardage is before washing and thwacking, but even with some shrinkage I have enough for a sweater, which was the goal. (And if I run out, there's always spare fleece still kicking around...)

I'm calling this done.

Tour de Fleece, goal one - finishing the Goldie Project. Woohoo!
Now to decide on goal two...

You know you're a Knitter when...

2011-07-12T19:28:00.003-04:00

I was on my way home from work the other day and spotted a convertible on the road ahead of me. It was a gorgeous day and the driver of the car was taking full advantage - her hair fluttered in the breeze as she rolled along, the car open to the sky.
Her license plate said TOPDOWN.
My first thought was of socks...

Chicken Butchering 101

2011-07-04T11:27:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was the big day for doing in the first batch of meat birds, and since I've had requests for documenting the process (mostly from folks who want to convince their partners "See how easy it is?"), I ran around with the camera like a chicken with it's... well, like a busy little photographer.
For the squeamish and the vegetarians in the crowd - you might want to skip today's post. For the curious (and the morbidly curious), here we go...

We're going to be taking something that looks like this:

and turn it into something a little more barbecue-ready.
To start with, the chosen ones were closed in their coop the night before, with lots of water, but no food. This was to ensure that the poop-pipeline (so to speak) was empty, making for a much cleaner process the next day.

Necks broken, heads removed, the chickens are hung up to bleed out.

Next, they're dunked in a water bath (in the 140-150 degree range) to loosen the feathers. We keep a big pot of water heating on the barbecue grill, with another pot preheating on the kitchen stove.

While I was waiting for Madman to dip the chicken, I got distracted by a garter snake on the rock wall surrounding one of my herb beds. Isn't he cute?

The big innovation this year was that Madman and his Dad went in halvies on a chicken plucker! Yay! (You may remember from last year that the plucking was the big bottleneck in the operation. Not that there's anything wrong with plucking chickens for Thirteen.Frickin'.Hours.) This machine is practically magic.

You have to keep a tight grip on the chicken, however, otherwise it tends to launch...

Just in case you were getting tired of looking at chicken butchery pictures and needed a break. This is one of my bush roses.

With feathers removed, it's time for those big stompin feet to go.

And now we're ready for the gooshy bits.

Here's a lupin.

Cut around the anus, then cut up the abdomen towards the breastbone.

Remove all the goosh.

You definitely deserve a flower after that bit. This is my rugosa rose. At the rate it's spreading, you'll be able to see it from your own front window in another year or two.

We use a bone saw to cut the chicken in half. Here's where Madman and I differ - I start on the back, he starts on the front. Either way works.

And all the way through.

Here's where I took over the process. I did the final washing and packaging, and cutting some of the chickens into quarters. See where my thumb is? Right at the tip, there's a depression where there's a weak spot in the spine that even a crappy knife can cut through. This is where to cut to divide the front half from the back half.

A good aggressive rinse, and they're ready to go in the freezer.

Our chickens were so big that whole ones had to be packaged in 2-gallon sized freezer bags. We could fit one half-chicken or two quarter-chickens in a 1-gallon size. I did some spot checking on weights as we went down through, and they weighed from a little over 7 lbs to a little over 9. (That's dressed weight, so about twice the size of the average supermarket chicken.) One chicken makes many meals for 2 people.
And here's one more of my roses - another rugosa in a frilly white. It's nowhere near as aggressive as the deep pink one, so you'll just have to settle for the picture.

Purple Roadside Toilets, Or The Case of the Invisible Blogfodder

2011-06-30T18:13:00.003-04:00

A couple of days ago, as I was driving to work, I spied a new Art Object by the side of the road. I had to look away, blink, and look back, because I wasn't entirely convinced that what I was seeing was truly there. (It had been one of those mornings. I had had to leave the house in an undercaffeinated condition.)
Someone had spray painted a toilet bright purple (a very bright purple), stuffed both the bowl and the tank with a flower arrangement of purple silk flowers and silver spiky bits, and set it next to their driveway at the side of the road. Lots and lots of silvery spiky bits. And fringe. And festoons.

And me without my camera.
So, I vowed that the next day, I would either bring my camera, or, at the very least, get a cellphone picture of this ~~monstrosity~~ Art Object, and share it with y'all. Because who wouldn't want to see a purple and silver toilet floral arrangement.
But the next day I couldn't find it. I couldn't remember exactly where along my route I'd seen it (I did mention that the original sighting was during a period of extreme caffeine deprivation) so I assumed I'd missed it and would try again the next day.
But I still can't find it. (And it's pretty darned impossible to miss...)

So the way I see it, there are four possible explanations.

A) The original ~~perpetrator~~ artist finally sobered up and reconsidered.
B) A kindly neighbor/friend/relative persuaded the ~~perp~~ artist that the object was ~~an eyesore~~ ~~inappropriate for roadside viewing~~ vulnerable to theft in such an exposed position.
C) Someone actually stole it. (The mind boggles.)
D) I hallucinated the whole thing.

What do you think?

Three Bags Full

2011-06-27T21:30:00.004-04:00

Those three bags of fleece have been sitting in the living room, taunting me all this time. Today I decided to wash up at least a sample of each of the fleeces.

On the left is Merlin, and on the right are two lumps of Onyx. (I washed a second batch of Onyx's fleece because the first seemed almost self-felted. I'm hoping that picking will loosen it up.) (Missing is Goldie's sample, which I'd done first and which was already dry. It looks exactly like last year's fleece, so you're not missing anything.)
Onyx's fleece from last year was all black, with streaks of red-brown at the tips. This year, though, the fleece is laced with gray. We'd noticed that after she got her haircut this year, she had turned into a gray sheep, rather than the black we were used to:

I don't know if this is an effect of maturity (she's two, now) or if she's just doing it for attention.

As long as I was standing around a sheep pen with a camera in my hand -

Here's Merlin enjoying a big mouthful of hay,

And Goldie trying to decide if she should run and hide from the camera.

Onyx never runs and hides from the camera.

Madman said "Hey, sweetie, you should get a picture of this!" and grabbed a handful of grain.

Madman and his Amazing Trained Sheep...

I need someone to talk me down...

2011-06-25T11:52:00.003-04:00

The new Knitty is up!
And I want to cast on for these Right This Very Minute!
If I cast on one more project, my head will explode. Or my house. Or both.

Help...

I need a direct Brain to Computer Interface

2011-06-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

I don't understand it. I keep writing all these great posts in my head, but they don't turn up on the blog.
I wonder if they have something at Radio Shack...

Fuzzy Wuzzy Wasn't Fuzzy, Was He?

2011-06-08T20:19:00.001-04:00

Finally, it's sheep shearing day! The drippy little fuzzlumps finally dried out, I had the day off, and the shearer was available. The stars and planets lined up, and the sheepies got a haircut.

Of course, in order to shear a sheep, first you have to catch one...

That's Madman on the left, the shearer on the right, and the panicky sheep all over the place.

Closing in...

Gotcha!

Goldie was first. If you'll remember from last year, she's so skittish that we have to make sure she's done before anyone figures out what's going on, otherwise we'd never be able to catch her.

Here's Madman, consoling Merlin. He was very worried about what that man was doing to Goldie. (Onyx is hiding under their sunshade. She didn't even want to look...)

One down. Now to catch another.
Another merry chase. We kept trying to convince Goldie that she didn't have to run anymore, but she wasn't buying it. If there's sheep-chasing going on, she's all over it.

Finally, Onyx was snagged. Look close at the picture - yes, that is his thumb in her mouth. There's a gap between a sheep's incisors and molars that is the perfect width for a thumb, and keeping a gentle hold on the lower jaw goes a long way toward persuading a sheep that we want to go this way.

And off comes that heavy hot wool.

Freedom!

Merlin checks out the girls' new hairdos.

No pictures for the last chase. Madman had to head for work, so I was the assistant chaser. No way I could take pictures while jumping, shifting, feinting, and driving.
We finally nabbed him. Well, the shearer nabbed him. I just urged Merlin in his general direction.
First the mani-pedi. (All the sheep got one. I just neglected to get pictures.)

Look how light the fleece is next to his skin, as opposed to the part exposed to the outside world...

And look! Three naked sheep!

Just in the nick of time, too. The temperature today shot up to 90. Such a delight to have shucked off those heavy wool sweaters!

They spent the rest of the day trying to stay out of the sun, and looking vaguely embarrassed.

Oh, no!

2011-05-29T22:36:00.004-04:00

I hear thunder out there.

We've had major frog-stranglers for the last 3 days running. (For those of you who didn't grow up in Kansas - a frog-strangler is a huge rain storm. Buckets of rain. Huge quantities of water falling out of the sky.)

Our sheep have an appointment with ~~their hairdresser~~ the shearer this week.
Sheep can only be sheared if their wool is dry.
Our sheep don't have sense enough to come in out of the rain.

I am NOT going out there with a blow-dryer and a really long extension cord...

What's that thing with the string and the sticks called again?

2011-05-27T14:51:00.006-04:00

Oh, yeah. Knitting.
I'm still plugging away at the Drops sweater, knit with my handspun Cotswold. It's not going quickly, but it's going.
The sleeves are done:You can see the tie about midway up where I connected them in order to knit them at the same time.

And I've started the back:

The little pink scraps of yarn at the sides are marking my last decrease row, so I have an accurate point to measure from. ("Dec 1 st each side every 1 1/8 inches.") (Or every 3cm, but my metric ruler has gone missing, so inches it is.) (It's just as well, since I can only think in inches anyway...)

And speaking of all things wooly, here's some fuzzlump pictures I took the other day. (On one of those rare days when it wasn't raining...)

This last one is a self-kinnear:

Chicken Liberation Day!

2011-05-21T23:40:00.003-04:00

Yeehaw!
To tumultuous cheers and a hail of confetti (which was actually just a bunch of wood shavings that I'm still trying to vacuum up), the meat birds moved outside today.
Madman had prepared their new home, complete with copious amounts of food and water

and a luxurious canopy that can be folded down at night for privacy and warmth.

In the picture above, you can see both chicken yards - the laying flock's yard is behind the meatbird domain.
And as if all that luxury wasn't enough, we found a surprise perk growing in the chicken yard.
Volunteer lettuce:

Cuz what's a really great chicken resort without a salad bar?

Alas, no festival for me...

2011-05-14T19:28:00.002-04:00

Car still broken, no one to go with.
Sometimes life is just sad.
I'm hoping I have better luck when VT Sheep and Wool rolls around.

Second hardest Mother's Day, ever...

2011-05-08T23:20:00.002-04:00

Normally I work Saturday, and am off on Sunday. But since I mistakenly thought this was NH Sheep and Wool weekend, I'd requested to work Sunday (Mother's Day) in order to have Saturday off.
Oi.
I swear, we had the biggest lot of jerks, cretins, and dumbasses in as customers today. People throwing merchandise on the floor, and other people walking on it (and pushing their carts over it) instead of going around (0r, heaven forbid, picking it up!!!!) People changing their minds about merchandise and stuffing it behind things in a different department, instead of taking it back where they found it, or just handing it to the cashier and saying "I changed my mind." People asking questions, then arguing with the answer. People pulling things out of packaging, then shoving the mess back (sort of) onto the shelf. (Curtains, for example. Do they honestly think that we go to some kind of 'Curtain School' where we learn to fold curtains so they'll fit back in the package?!?) Running screaming kids being ignored by their parents. Running screaming parents being ignored by their children.
In other words, a day in Retail Hell.
So what, you ask, could be the worse than that? The Hardest Mother's Day?
That would be the year I was working as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. It was a lovely restaurant - great food, fun people to work with. I loved my job.
When customers were celebrating a birthday, the celebrant would be comped a fried ice cream with a sparkler happily sparkling, as a gathering of waitstaff sang Happy Birthday.
For Mother's Day, the owners decided that it would be a lovely gesture to give a free fried ice cream (with sparkler) to every mother. Or everyone who might be a mother, or could someday be a mother. (At least we didn't have to sing...)
What this boiled down to was that any female, 15 or older, was to be gifted with a fried ice cream with sparkler.
Now, our normal modus operandi, as waitstaff, was to grab a handful of paper napkins before we lit the sparkler and headed for the table. We'd use the napkins as a pot holder to pull the red-hot wire of the burnt-out sparkler, drop said glowing wire on our tray, and carry on with our duties.
Like I said, this was a great restaurant. We were busier than shit on Mother's Day.
All of us waitstaff, at some point during that horrendously gloriously agonizingly busy day, ran out of napkins to use as potholders.
We started pulling those red-hot wires bare-handed. And once you'd done that a couple of times, it no longer mattered. One track mark of sizzling skin, or twenty tracks, it was all the same.
The smarter of us were using our off-hands for wire-pulling. The others were blinking back tears as they were holding their pens to take orders from subsequent tables.
It was a really really long day. Many many mothers (and potential mothers) (and possible future mothers) visited that day.
There were a lot of sparklers.

At least working Mother's Day in retail doesn't give me third-degree burns.

In the beginning, there was dirt

2011-05-07T20:27:00.003-04:00

Which over the last couple of weeks, (when it hasn't been raining. Which days are few and far between.) we've been getting ready to plant.
Today was the day. I finished weeding the asparagus bed, and rummaged around in my main herb bed enough to plant some more bunching onions. (I keep a running bed of them at one end of the herb garden, but the last couple of years they haven't overwintered well, so I cast out a bunch of new seed to start over.)
Madman planted lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes, and the first row of peas.
Let Garden 2011 begin!

Disappointment is my new middle name...

2011-05-05T20:08:00.004-04:00

Every year I request the Saturday before Mother's Day off, so I can go to NH Sheep and Wool. I go with my mother-in-law and my youngest daughter, and we have a lovely 3-generations-of-knitters day, ogling the sheep and the wool.
But this year, my daughter can't go.
And my mother-in-law can't go.
And my car is in the shop since the transmission is trying to commit suicide, so I can't go either.
*sigh*

(ETA: What what??? It's NEXT weekend?!? Woohoo!!!!! Pressing Restart on Festival!)
(Yippee!!)

Spring Sprang Sprung

2011-05-01T18:54:00.006-04:00

Hey, it's finally spring up here! For certain definitions of spring. That doesn't mean we won't get another snow or two before summer arrives (or even after summer arrives), but for up here, this is as good as it gets.

The tulips are up! No buds yet, but soon...

The first daffodil up is almost ready to bloom. There are a few more daffs lagging behind, but I'm surprised any of them came back after a guest weedwhacked them last year, thinking they were some kind of heavy-duty grass. So I'll take what I can get and be happy.

I hadn't checked the rhubarb yet this spring - it's going all kinds of crazy. Rhubarb pie, rhubarb dumplings, ginger rhubarb jam... Lovely stuff, rhubarb.

Today's big project was putting up the greenhouse that we acquired from friends who are moving away. One of Madman's buddies showed up to help, which was a wonderful thing.

The sheep's pen is next to the garden, and Goldie spent the whole afternoon trying to cajole the guys into giving them more food. Because why on earth would humans be outside if they weren't actively feeding sheep?

They got the walls up and a couple of the roof trusses attached before they had to call it quits for the day.

Once the structure is complete and the plastic is on, we'll be able to set out our tomato and pepper starts and gain about a month on the growing season.

The chickens have been taking advantage of the warmer weather by spending lots of time outdoors. But there's a serious hitch in their enjoyment.

Over the last couple of years, several new springs have bubbled up in our yard. Each year, more and more water is gushing up out of the ground and heading down the hill. This year, half the chicken yard is now a bubbling stream. Once the greenhouse project is done, Madman will go to work trying to channel the water into the trench he's been carving to handle all the water runoff. We really didn't need a babbling brook running from the upper end of our garden, through the chicken yards, and down our driveway...

Here's one of our spring-molting chickens. I think she looks like a Skeksis...

One of the day's smaller projects was removing the Rhode Island Red chicks from the Big Box o' Chix and putting them into their own little habitat. The CornishX chicks have entered the stage where they spend all their time eating, and they were starting to elbow out the smaller Red chicks.
Here you can see the size difference. The Red chick is actually a day or two older than his mutant brethren, but is half the size.

Madman had actually started the transfer before I realized what he was doing (I was still absorbing coffee, so not too quick on the uptake.) I ran for the camera since I wanted to get that size comparison picture.
The Red chicks were a little spooked, as they were getting scooped up one or two at a time and whisked away to the other box.
Here's one trying to hide in the crowd.

("Shhhh... He'll never see me in here...")

Here they are, happy in their new home.

No more having to fight through a crowd of big hungry buffoons just to get a bite of lunch.

The pitter patter of little feet

2011-04-20T10:53:00.005-04:00

Well, maybe it really IS spring, after all...

The surest sign of spring at our house is this:

We've got 77 of the little fluffballs busily eating, sleeping, pooping, and peeping, happily at home in a recycled refrigerator box in our living room.

Fifty-two are Cornish X -

and there are 25 Rhode Island Reds.

They all hunkered down under the light for a few minutes to warm up,

then discovered the food.

They were actually supposed to arrive yesterday, but there was a glitch at the hatchery - the CornishX chicks were a day late hatching. The company said that they'd arrive either Wednesday or Thursday - probably Thursday.
But when I woke up this morning to the sound of rolling thunder and pouring rain, I had a feeling they'd be here today. Oh, yeah...

They're all warm and cosy, but I'm still dripping.

Because he's the Birthday Boy,

2011-04-10T21:32:00.003-04:00

as is the tradition in my family, Madman got to pick the menu for dinner.

Beer battered fish. (He caught them himself.) (The fish, not the beer.) (Though he is the one who went to the store for beer, so I guess he did catch that as well.)
Homemade french fries. (Actually, I picked these - as long as I had the deep fryer fired up anyway, seemed like a good go-with.)
Maple-glazed carrots. (I would have gone lazy on the veg, and concurred with a previous administration but Madman really loves maple, and we need to finish last year's syrup off anyway.)

For dessert, he didn't have any special requests this year, so I made him an apple-upside down cake.
(BTW, follow the link - her picture is way better than mine...)
It was well-nigh a miracle, but I actually followed the recipe exactly as written, even down to cutting a circle out of parchment paper. (This is rare for me. I usually read a bunch of recipes, then wing it. Or start with a recipe and modify as I go.) It was worth it - the cake is delicious!
And the parchment paper is a wonderful neat trick. I've had some ...umm... interesting experiences with the flipping of an upside-down cake.
Like the time we ended up with peach inside-out cake...

Gettin' Thrifty again...

2011-04-08T18:51:00.005-04:00

Long time readers might remember this post - cuz I am all about the thrifty.

While thumbing through a recent KnitPicks catalog, I saw a great idea - a box/bag for holding circular needles. Perfect!
But.
My intrinsic ~~stinginess~~ thriftiness dragged its little heels. Hmmm... I thought. $23? Pricey...

So, I got this:at the store where I work. After my discount, I paid about $3.20.

I've already stowed a few circular needles. Now I just have to finish a few things in order to reclaim the needles.
Is this the first step toward being organized?

Travel-Addled or Work-Addled... Addled is Addled

2011-04-04T15:11:00.006-04:00

And it's kind of fun to say. Addled addled addled...

But, in a effort to get my brain settled and back on track, here's a few highlights from my sorely-needed mini-vacation:

First, after waaaaaay too much of this crap:

my color-and-flower-starved soul got to feast on this:

Azaleas were in bloom. Everywhere. Glorious mounds of honest-to-goodness flowers waving in the sunshine. I gaped, slack-jawed, in every direction. Of course, there were dogwoods and other things blooming, too, but azaleas... Bliss.

One of the things to love about Florida is a general quirkiness that pops up in businesses. (I guess when you're not wasting a huge portion of your life shoveling snow and battling ice, you have time to put a little whimsy into practice.)
There was the little eatery with a handpainted sign defining the levels of spiciness you could order - starting with 0 for no spice, 1- A little, 2 - A little more, and ranging up to 9 - Don't order this, and 10 - No refunds.
There was the pizza place with a funky art gallery on the walls, all manner of crazy stuff suspended from the ceiling, and an outdoor seating area that was a recycled VW microbus with a picnic table in the open rear cargo area. (The pizza was very good, btw.)
And there was the salvage store with tons of vintage toys and oddities for sale, that was decorated all over with everything imaginable glued or cemented to every available flat surface. The really fun parts were out in the parking lot, however. Like this fountain:

Trickling water spins the bicycle wheels with plastic cups and tin cans fastened to them, while the base is covered with every plastic/wood/metal object you can imagine.

We had a grand time playing a game with the kids that was a combination of Where's Waldo and I Spy. "Okay, I see a toaster. Who can find it?" and "Does anyone else see the blue squirrel?"

And this charmer of a windchime. Yes, those are hubcaps. Yes, it's honkin' huge...

We spent a wonderful day at Universal visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, wandering around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

(The fake snow on the roofs gave me pause, but I tried not to look at it.)
Lunch was wonderful at the Three Broomsticks - real food cooked in real ways! (Not the typical boiled hamburger we've grown to expect at theme parks. Hopefully it's an idea that will catch on...)

We wandered briefly through other parts of the park (Dr Suess!!) and I snapped this picture for Madman.

(He's a big Wolverine fan.) (And that's a total stranger in the lower right corner. He wandered in just as I hit the button.)

Here's just a small piece of a roller coaster we passed by. We were on a bridge over a stretch of water - the ride went under the bridge, around in whacky loops, and then back over the bridge and disappeared off in the other direction. I tried to get a picture of the cars as they went by, but they were going really fast. And there was a lot of screaming.

And there was yarn. My daughter and I went to her LYS and I oohed and aahed over lots of pretty stuff, and tried to remain firm in my resolve not to buy yarn. (I have yarn. I also have fiber that will be yarn. I don't need yarn.)
But the 4th time I picked this stuff up to look at it, I knew I was a goner. It's Marks and Katten Fame Trend - something I've never seen before. It's a single, and the colors are gorgeous, though this picture doesn't do them justice. (IRL, the colors are much deeper and richer. And apparently impossible to photograph...)

So I bought it. It's souvenir yarn. And it's sock yarn. Totally doesn't count as yarn.

Sometimes it's really hard to keep a straight face

2011-03-25T21:13:00.002-04:00

We had a customer apologize today - he'd broken off the tags on a lot of the oven mitts. He'd been trying them on to make sure they weren't for the wrong hand...

I'm home. And Mother Nature threw a snow storm in my honor...

2011-03-21T19:02:00.003-04:00

I hear the weather here was nice while I was gone - up until today. Cuz Mother Nature has such a whacky sense of humor, she made sure I had to drive home 2 hours through a snowstorm, to make up for my 4 days of sunshine and warmth and green plants and flowers and sunshine and did I mention warmth?
I had a blast, and even remembered to take a picture or two. Once I'm not so travel-braindead, I'll post all about it, but some of the high points were Harry Potter at Universal, lots of Dr Seuss, azaleas everywhere I looked, knitting with my daughter and granddaughter, Shaun the Sheep, barbecue, found-object art, and a 3-yr-old with a bagful of graggers.
And I got to hug both my daughters on the same day (though I had to fly 1300 miles to do it.)
I challenge you to come up with a better weekend...

Madman's turning the car around for me

2011-03-17T07:12:00.001-04:00

And I'm off to the airport.
Sun. Warmth. Family.
It's going to be a great weekend...
(I'll try to remember to use the camera.)

Optimism can be a Serious Character Flaw

2011-03-14T18:30:00.002-04:00

Ask me how I know.
Today started innocently enough. I hit 'snooze' a few too many times (well, maybe three. No more than four. Certainly not five, though I admit I wasn't thinking too clearly) because I really didn't want to get up. I should have taken it as a sign, called in sick to work, pulled the covers over my head, and gone back to sleep.
But I didn't.
The next sign I should have twigged to was when the chickens got out while I was gathering the eggs. I'd pulled the coop door closed behind me, but big Mr Rooster pushed his way out anyway. And where he goes, the hens are sure to follow. I moved carefully out the door, scooping up hens and pitching them back into the coop, while trying not to spook the rooster so he wouldn't panic and head off cross-country. Meanwhile, he was helpfully making 'Come on, girls, let's go have an adventure' noises, so more hens were trying to go outside. Finally, I got out ahead of the pack and shooed him back inside.
"Well, that could have been worse," I assured myself optimistically while I headed inside to get ready for work.
Then the real part of my morning kicked in. I'd actually made it to the top of the driveway last night when I got home from work, and was quite excited about it since it was the first time in weeks I hadn't had to park at the bottom and trudge up the hill.
I should have known better.
While trying to turn my car around at the top, so I wouldn't have to back down (and we all know how well that would have gone - see previous post), I got stuck. I'd pulled the nose of the car up to the snowbank, then shifted into reverse, figuring I'd have to do that same maneuver several times to turn around in the tight quarters at the top of the drive.
Instead of reversing, however, one of the tires just started spinning on the ice. I tried rocking the car, but only succeeded in digging myself in. At this point, I called work and told them I might be a little late, explaining the circumstances. They wished me luck and told me to be careful.
(Last time I got stuck, Madman discovered that my all-wheel-drive isn't functioning. The car is supposed to work like a front-wheel drive until one of the tires starts to slip, then the rear wheels are supposed to kick in. My rear wheels refuse to take up their rightful duties, so my car is basically a front-wheel drive. No wonder I haven't been able to get up the driveway all this time...)
I tried everything. I put stuff under the tires, trying to get a little traction. Didn't work. I chipped ice out from behind the (increasingly deeper) hole that the tire was grinding for itself. Didn't work.
But I was sure that at any moment I was going to pop right out and be on my way. Optimism can be so ugly.
More grit, more chipping, repeat, repeat, repeat. Finally I felt the car starting to move, starting to lift itself out of the hole... and then the other tire started spinning.
You can imagine the words that were coming out of my mouth by this time. But I was still sure that I was going to get out. (I'd called Madman a couple of times by this time, but he was working in a town that's basically a dead zone, so my calls just went to voicemail.)
I started working on the second tire. Grit, chip, grit, chip.
Suddenly it started spinning freely, without even making contact with the ground.
That can't be good.
I discovered that my bumper was now hung up on part of the snowbank that had been below bumper-level when the whole disaster started, but since the car's level had dropped as it dug itself down, it was now high enough to add to my problems.
I got the snow shovel and started chipping away. This snowbank is plow-pushed stuff which has frozen and melted numerous times after being packed. It's only slightly softer than cast iron.
That part wasn't much fun either. By this time, part of me wanted to just go in the house and get drunk, but the Little-Miss-Optimist part insisted on keeping on.
Finally got the snow cleared, and went back to rocking, chipping, gritting, swearing, because after all I was going to just pop right out any second now.
Eventually even I had to give up. I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in the car window as I was getting in for the bazillionth attempt - I had crazy hair, and not only was there dirt on my face, there was blood from my bruised and bleeding knuckles. Optimism over.
(Madman and I discussed it later - where optimism stops and too-dumb-to-know-when-to-quit starts. I admitted it's a fine line, and I often don't know which side of it I'm standing on.)
I called Madman's mom, who was the only person I knew who could even possibly have been home at that moment. I told her the problem, said I was now 3 hours late for work, and she offered to come give me a ride.
Madman picked me up after work and drove me home. He'd gotten my messages, and had gotten my car unstuck for me through a combination of hot water for ice-melting and sheer determination. It's presently parked at the top of the driveway, turned toward the road so I don't have to do anything in the morning but press the gas and go. (He's offered to turn the car around for me for the rest of the winter, pre-supposing I ever get it up the driveway again...)

I think I've mentioned a time or two how much I hate winter. Do you think it's dangerous that I'm going to Florida this weekend? As in, 'Why should I come back?"
Oh, yeah, there's Madman...
Do you think he could learn to love palm trees?

I'm just glad I have today off

2011-03-07T11:41:00.004-05:00

The view from my front window. (I was going to go outside and take pictures of this little blizzard, but then came to my senses.)
The initial forecast was for 4 to 6 inches, but it was updated later to 1 to 2 feet. We're currently close to the 2 foot mark and it's still snowing hard. Sideways, I might add. Snowstorms are soooo much more thrilling with high winds.

It's been a nasty couple of days all around. March is a cruel month in Vermont. February brings feelings of doom and despair, but March is full of Epic Battles as Winter senses its demise in the lengthening days and brings in the heavy artillery.
I had Saturday off, so volunteered to do the errands and grocery run. Rain was predicted for the early afternoon, so I wanted to get out and going before the mayhem started. Unfortunately, I'd made it almost to the top of the driveway on Friday, so I had to back the car all the way back down.
I do not have good backing-up skills. In point of fact, when it comes to reverse, I totally suck. While my hand-eye coordination is perfectly good for normal usage, it totally deserts me as soon as I move the gearshift to 'R'. I don't understand this, but I accept it to be true.
And while I can usually manage to back down the driveway in seasons other than winter, without courting a trip to the breathalyzer, the white on white of snowbank/non-snowbank makes for needless added complication.
I backed right up into the snowbank and got stuck.
Madman heard the sound of me trying to work the car loose, with tires-spinning sound effects, and came out and got the snow shovel. (I'm pretty sure he was already putting his boots on as soon as I started the car. He knows me.)
It took him a good long while to dig the car out. Never let it be said that I'm not thorough in whatever I undertake.
Finally he got the car free and back out into the driveway. Then he offered to back it up the rest of the way down to the road ("Oh, please, would you?") and turned it back over to me as he hiked back up the drive. (Which was very very kind of him, and also? Saved him having to come out and dig me out again...)
Two hours and three grocery stores later (one of the drawbacks of small town life is small town grocery stores - not one of which carries everything we need) I got home in pouring rain and made if far enough up the driveway that the three trips to carry groceries weren't as awful as they could have been. (*sigh*)
It rained all night and was still raining on Sunday when we got up. The packed snow of our yard and driveway was now a huge sheet of water and slush with a solid ice layer under it.
Madman had plans for the morning, and I didn't have to be at work until midafternoon, and since my car was blocking the driveway anyway, he used it instead of his own, parking at the bottom of the driveway when he got home so I wouldn't have to back down again.
Walking down to the car, however, was a recipe for disaster. Watery slush on top of ice is slipperier than greased owl ...umm... snot. I kept to the edges of the drive, hanging on to whatever branches and small trees I could catch hold of, as I babystepped/slid down that long long ramp.
Finally, I reached the car. Hallelujah! At that moment, I realized I'd left something off the checklist.
I always keep my carkeys in my coat pocket.
Madman had used my car that morning. Which involved using my carkeys.
There were no carkeys in my coat pocket.
I looked back up the driveway and felt tears welling up in my eyes.
Cellphone. I called Madman. When he heard the quaver in my voice as I said I couldn't face walking back up, he said he'd be right there with the keys.
He came down quicker than I would have dared, and I was off to work.
The rain turned to snow a lot earlier than predicted and the ride home was treacherous, involving slow speeds and white knuckles.
At least the driveway was now hike-able with all that fresh snow on top of the slippery stuff. I parked at the bottom and gladly trudged uphill, thinking as I went that the snow should taper off soon.
I didn't know at that point about the change in forecast...

With deep regret, ribbit...

2011-02-27T19:03:00.003-05:00

I'm going to be traveling in a few weeks (It will be warm! There will be sunshine!) so I'm trying to plan some traveling knitting. My current project, the Great and Powerful Niebling, is much too complicated for airport/airplane knitting, let alone visiting-beloved-family knitting, so I've been trying to come up with an alternative.
Of course, the urge to cast on something new is a powerful force to contend with. My queue runneth over (both on Rav and off) and I have yarn in the stash that is practically shouting at me.
But.
There are stacks of bags in my craft room, full of UFOs, that are also shouting at me. Guilt is also a powerful force to contend with. Projects that were once best beloved, now unloved, smothered in plastic bags.
I need to finish something.
Or, at least, continue something.
The one that pulls me hardest is the sweater I started with my handspun Cotswold.
The reason it ended up abandoned in a plastic bag is that my gauge swatch lied. That, and an overwhelming load of sentiment.
I cast on the sleeves just before I flew to KC in 2009 to say goodbye to my mother. I knit while I sat at her bedside, keeping vigil through the days and nights. Even when I realized that the gauge was off, that it was going to be way too large, I knit on, keeping my hands and mind busy with the soothing routine of stitch by stitch, row by row.
When I got home, I couldn't continue with it. I knew it had to be frogged, but by that time it was all tied up with the loss of my mother. There was no point in knitting on, but I couldn't face ripping it out, letting it go.
I folded the knitting gently into a plastic bag, and set it aside.

I'm ready now.

This

turned into this

turned into this

and into the water it went.

It's time. I will begin again.
Though the original stitches are gone, the yarn and the sweater will always be connected to my mother. It will be a hug from her that I can always hold in my heart.

Happy to be a wiener

2011-02-21T21:58:00.002-05:00

Cuz what I wiened was this:The wonderful kmkat , who cracks me up on a regular basis, decided that I cracked her up as well, so she sent me this book as a reward.
Given my general failure at spinning a yarn heavier than sport weight (if I'm not extremely vigilant, I'll end up with laceweight every damn time), this is the perfect book for me. Lots of lovely patterns knit with skinny skinny yarn - yeehaw!

And while I was processing pictures, I saw that Madman had taken pics of the last fish he caught.

It was a very tasty lake trout. (That's a big knife and a huge cutting board, for size comparison.)
And the perfect part? Going fishing is part of his job. Only my Madman could figure out a way to be paid to go fishing...

Just shooting off a flare to let you know I'm still here

2011-02-17T23:41:00.004-05:00

Work seems to be sucking every last bit of energy out of my tired little body. Add in the February I've-Lost-The-Will-To-Live blues (It's cold and gray and gloomy and thus it has ever been and thus it ever shall be...) and we've got a serious lack of post-worthiness going on around here.

I manage to knit a few stitches on the Niebling in the evenings, but progress is slow and unphotogenic. It's now a slightly larger lump of bumpiness. (Or bump of lumpiness. It could go either way.)

I'm still spinning Goldie's fleece, but it's just more and more of the same the same the same.

I need sunshine. I need warm weather. I need to not have to put on a hat and a coat and boots and a scarf and gloves just to go outside.

I need to stop whining and just let spring come in its own good time.
(Which up here is May.)
*sigh*

Alex, I'll take 'Winter' for $100, please.

2011-02-05T22:11:00.003-05:00

And the answer is: 'No'

Alex, that would be 'Does Gayle want any more snow?'

Correct!

'Winter' for $200, please.

Answer: 'Two complete circuits, clockwise'

Ah, that's 'How many times did Gayle brush off her car tonight, since the snow was falling too fast to keep up with?'

Correct!

'Winter' for $300, please, Alex.

Answer: 'Thunder and lightning'

'What's going on right now at Gayle's house, right on top of the several inches of fresh snow that's just accumulated?'

Absolutely correct! And the rain is such a nice touch.

Alex, let's skip ahead to 'Winter' for $500, please.

Answer: 'Mother's Nature's ass'

Alex, I believe the correct question is 'Where would Gayle like to shove up a snowshovel?'

What would be the point of a weekend off if you don't end up with critter pics?

2011-02-03T14:51:00.008-05:00

After all the auto angst, it was a smooth trip there and back, with nothing whatsoever exploding. Yay! (If only it wasn't an 8 hour trip. Each way.)

And I promised pictures...

First up, piggies!
I've mentioned a few times that my dad raises pigs. A lot of pigs. (He told me his New Year's resolution this year is not to build another barn. Those of us who know him think this is totally hysterical.)
I tried to make friends with these little cuties, but they weren't having it. I couldn't even tempt them over with corn. Every time I moved, they'd scatter, then inch closer as long as I was perfectly still. Even so, they kept a strict distance between me and them. I was disappointed, since I really wanted to scritch them behind the ears.

Hard to believe that something so small grows up to be something so big...

Anyone who is currently breastfeeding might want to skip the next couple of pictures - they'll give you nightmares. Or maybe you'll want to look, and think about how happy you are that you're human and not swinish...

Yep, that's two layers of piglet goodness.

While I was trying to get closer for a better shot, one of the little piggies panicked and made a noise. Mama heaved herself up to see what was going on. The little ones vanished -

and hid behind her.

But they were way too curious to stay hidden for long.

All these little ones are about a week old. They're just at the point where they've started to run and jump and spin around dancing. I could have watched them all afternoon, but there were other critters to see...

My Wicked Good Stepmother has an alpaca collection. (She started with 2, then suddenly found herself with 6. She's not entirely sure how that happened. She's back down to 5 now, as one of her original ones passed away last fall, but who knows how many she'll have tomorrow.)

And you know me and the chicken pictures...
Here's part of Dad's motley crew -

As you can see, there's plenty of variety in that pen (and I only got about half of them in the picture.)

There's also some molting going on. Poor raggedy looking things...

Woohoo! Made it there and back again!

2011-01-31T20:32:00.002-05:00

And no more crazy car disasters.
Though my youngest and I were in two similar almost-accidents in two separate cities at about the same time on Friday, as the last of the ill-luck still tried to prevent our trip...
I've got pictures of piggies and alpacas and chickens to flash at ya, but it'll have to wait till tomorrow. I'm way too tired to try to cope with pictures tonight.
There. Christmas 2010 is officially over. I can start my Christmas knitting for 2011.
(Yeah, right.)

Well, it is Thursday...

2011-01-27T18:54:00.002-05:00

My oldest daughter pointed out that my life is starting to show signs of Jasper Fforde-ishness. My youngest daughter and I have long planned to go to see my dad this coming weekend, for a belated Christmas celebration.
First her car blew its hood off on the interstate. A week or so later, my car tried to drive a sparkplug through its own hood.
As my oldest pointed out - "Are you really sure you should go, when not one, but two cars have blown up in order to keep you from making the trip?"

On a high note (I think. Or I thought. I may have to think some more...) my car got fixed today. Youngest daughter's car is still in the shop and may be ready tomorrow.
Should we take that as a good sign, or a bad one?

Well, the good news is that the temperature is up to -8F...

2011-01-24T10:56:00.003-05:00

Which is considerable warmer than the -30F we woke up to.
I'm not a fan of cold.

Part of the bad news is that we're down to no working cars. Madman's car went into the shop Friday with a leaking gas tank and spent the weekend there. Sunday my car blew a sparkplug right out of the engine, stripping the socket so a new plug won't hold. It's going into the shop today, if we can figure out a way to get it there. (She currently won't start. We don't know if that's due to the cold or the engine malfunction.) (And she's not happy running on 3 cylinders anyway, and there's a serious lack of compression from the missing plug.) (And what is it with me and exploding cars?)
We'll rescue Madman's car today, which is at least drivable as long as he keeps the gas tank less than a quarter full. Not at all convenient, but at least possible. (The garage is hunting up a replacement gas tank, so can't fix his car for a bit anyway.)

*sigh*

The Joy of Living in the Deep Freeze

2011-01-21T22:24:00.003-05:00

The temperatures for the next couple of days are predicted to be Frigid with a capital F. As in, if we want anything warmer than zero degrees, we're all going to have to go outside with flamethrowers and other incendiary devices.
Since our pipes frequently freeze when it's that cold, I've taken the precaution of filling the coffee maker with water, as well as the chickens' waterer, the sheep's bucket, and the jug for the rabbits, all ready for the morning.
Now if only I could fill the shower...

I think I just hurt myself laughing...

2011-01-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

I was here. You should be, too.

Ooops. I cast on ANOTHER project.

2011-01-16T20:09:00.004-05:00

Startitis is really chewing on my butt. In the last week, I've come across at least a dozen projects I want to start right now, and to make matters worse, the new Knitty just came out.

*sigh*

I finally succumbed and cast on. But no one will fault me, I think.

I'm making one of these, in hopes of writing up the pattern.

Anyone interested?

We've brought another one over to the Dark Side...

2011-01-14T20:50:00.003-05:00

Check out this blog of a brand new knitter. While you're there, please say something encouraging.
Oh, and tell her Mom sent you and sends her love.

And now I are 3!

2011-01-12T22:02:00.003-05:00

It's my blogiversary. Three years ago today I started this strange journey.
When I wrote that first post, I thought that I would post a couple of times, and then the blog would end up tucked in a plastic bag in a corner somewhere, just one more UFO in my collection.
Who knew I'd still be here 3 years later?
I love the blog, I love the friends I've made, I love reading the comments on my weird ramblings.
Here's to the next 3 years!

New year, new camera

2011-01-10T10:45:00.003-05:00

Madman gave me a new camera for Christmas. Being me, I was resistant. Nothing wrong with the old camera. (Which took me two years to figure out how to use, btw.) No, no, this one is better! New features, new capabilities! (Two years, remember? That was for simple. That means my learning curve on this new camera will be at least five years. Maybe more. By which time he'll probably have bought another new camera...) (sigh) (Don't forget I'm the Luddite who wants a cell phone that only makes phone calls.)

So, I've started playing with the new camera. Here goes nothing. (I'm having nightmares of posting pictures the size of a house...)

First up, a size comparison of the eggs we've gotten lately. (The chickens have started to lay again! Yay! )
This is the largest next to the smallest. The little fella is a 'pullet pellet' - a young hen's first egg. The largest is from one of our older hens. (And makes me cringe just looking at it. Oh, that poor chicken...)

And look! I knit something! And finished it and everything!

First FO of 2011.
Yulie by Grumperina.
Yarn - Lion wool
Mods - only one. I used tubular cast-on, which is my standard start for any 1x1 ribbing.
A quick easy knit. Love the hat, love the pattern, love the spiral that is formed by the knitting. I'll probably make this again - maybe a slouchier version.

Now, off to make egg salad for lunch. (Yay!) (Remind me in a month or so, when I'm whining about "egg salad again?!?", that there was a time when I was happy about that.)

Happy New Year! (Or, at least, Happy Old-Year-Is-Finally-Over!)

2010-12-31T21:30:00.003-05:00

We will not miss 2010. We had heart - breaking losses, an exploding car*, and nasty injuries.
And that's only the stuff I told y'all about. There was more...
(In trying to find a bright side, at least this year we only lost animals, and no people.)
(There's always a bright side. Or so they say.)

I'm a little depressed looking back over my knitting for the year - I don't think I completed a single project. Lots of starts, no finishes.
(If I made New Year's resolutions, I would probably have to address that.)
(Luckily I don't make New Year's resolutions.)

I did finish some spinning, though. Of course, that was in January.
Now I'm really depressed...

* Technically, the car exploded the end of last year, but all the repercussions were this year, so I'm counting it against 2010.

Point of interest - this was my 400th post! Though apparently I don't do anything to post about...