Feeling Chatty Part 1

It's been nearly a month since my last post and as Cindy pointed out, "It's not motorcycle weather.", so I have not that excuse. Really, time just gets away from me. It's hard for me to believe that it's November 8th already! Someone mentioned to me today that loss of memory was one of the signs of aging, I just can't remember who. (ba dum bump! applause) Well anyway, I've decided that I'm just going to pick up where I left off last month and do a long rambling post and try to catch up to today. I may have to suddenly break if off to start another post, but that depends on how much blogger can take. ;)

To simplify I think I'll do a list and add photos as necessary.

The following has happened since the last post.....

O.K., I just went to "my photos" to see what's been going on in the last month and there is NO way that's all gonna fit in this post. I think we need to break this down by category or something or you all will be here forever. Yes. All three of you. And really, Cindy, I know you have stuff to do....lol So although there will be numbering....it may not mean anything other than as space makers.)

1) The GARDEN! ---Thankfully I've just re-read the last post and deleted the paragraph that I typed here to tell you how the garden went. Ya, I know you got that last post. So here are some pics.

Raised beds, cleaned out with the exception of one broccoli plant that I made an agreement with (it must produce or out it comes!) and seeded with a cover crop. Please ignore the untidy gravel pathway as much of the top left of the picture is strawberry plants that hopped the bed and are moving to my Mom's in the Spring. I couldn't bear to kill them and she's not ready for them yet, so they'll stay with me till then. ; ) It's not really a problem as there's a motorcycle (Virago) that needs to move sitting on that pathway too. lol

Here's the sunflower that didn't quite make it before the seasons changed. It was not planted by me, as I didn't plant any. One of the wild birds or rodents must have stashed it here.

The tires I decided not to seed with cover crop as I'm going to change out 1/2 their soil next spring before seeding. In this picture you can see the Lavender (that I've always wanted to grow but didn't get transplanted yet) and the Mints that should already be in the mint bed but that requires moving some other flowers first. My gardening life resembles a slide puzzle. "move piece a, slide piece b, move piece c into space vacated by piece a," etc.

And the bean/pea bed all cleaned out and ready to grow.

This is my pride and joy from that weekend. Just looking at this picture makes me smile. I've been wanting to clean out the area behind the shed and behind the lettuce bed and lay shavings since I built the lettuce round bed. It was always part of the plan. At things progressed, and there were more important things to do, that project fell by the wayside. Even though I knew it would save me time and effort, even though I knew it would mean eradicating a natural shelter for rodents, snails and slugs. Finally, this Autumn, when the ground was so moist that the natural weeds just peeled off like a blanket, I was able to complete this task. It was amazingly simple, but oh so satisfying! This is the spot I stash my extra fencing, my empty pots, my extra whatever. It will be so nice to not have to cut whatever-it-is-I-need out of the blackberry vines and weeds to be able to use it next spring. What a grand Spring surprise that will be because I promise you, after the winter snows, I'll forget I got that accomplished!

I've already made one resolution for next years garden. "I am only going to grow what we normally eat!", and I mean it. Even if it means three boxes of the same ole, same ole. It's ridiculous to grow food that we 1) don't normally eat (meaning, I'll buy it at the grocery) or that is 2) a royal PITA to store. ;) So next year will be a bit interesting with me trying to curb my "let's grow everything in the known universe" mentality! Come back and enjoy the ride!!! This means I should NOT be planting Turnips. Can you help me remember?

o.k. at this point in the evening, I'm working on the second coming of this post. My dial up connection has already failed once, deleting 2/3's of this post and I've just re-created it. If it fails again, I will be forced to give up and go to bed as I cannot be held accountable for my reaction to a post being eaten up by blogger twice in one evening due to dial up issues. I'm only noting this as the last time it crashed it posted my unfinished post and if you are reading this and it's wonky...that's why. k?

2) The next grouping of pictures were downloaded on the 26th. They included the 21st of October, which was the hubsters and mine 17th wedding anniversary. As we were wedded on our two year anniversary, it marked the 19th year we have spent together. I was completely floored to receive a flower arrangement delivered at work. I NEVER expected that, and was so wonderfully surprised that I was speechless for a bit. It truly effected me for days. I'm still floored. It was arranged differently from both sides and I loved it completely! As it happens, I had a guild meeting with some prior responsibilities that night and could not miss the meeting, so we had our usual guild night of deli oriental for dinner. I believe he had other plans, but made up for it later in the week.

Here's a shot of the other side! This beautiful arrangement lasted at least two weeks. I've yet to toss the dead heads as I'm waiting on the last of the bloomers. I hate to let something like that go!

3) Oh yeah, and I broke out this old friend from the cupboard. During grocery shopping one day I noticed that the price of "decent" bread was so high that I could make it myself at a significant savings. Yes, I own a bread machine and yes, the initial out go was more than a loaf of bread, but even making the two loaves a week required to meet our needs, we're saving money. I made that up the second week I made 7 grain bread. I think the bread tastes better, and I know what's going into it, so I know it's healthier. There have been a few mishaps like miss-calculations and all that is normal to a new routine. It must be sticking though as last Monday (My day off) I had a batch of bread going, the food dehydrator going, and a crock pot of soup going all while I carded fiber. Wow! What a wonderful and happily repeatable day!! If I could do that each day and stay home, I'd feel truly productive! ;) (Oh, what a dream!)

4) Oh, and last but not least for this post. Some time around here I loaded up His Royal Highness Tucker the 1st and we visited the "walk in clinic" to get an accurate weight. He wanted me to post his weight as I was guesstimating him a little heavy. He's only 156.8 lbs. NOT 160. I know, I know, but can you argue with this?

Love him dearly and can hardly believe he's almost 2!

Oh Crap!

Before I get to the "Oh Crap!" portion of this post, let me rain a little happiness on you all. Well, the happiness for you spinners anyway. ;)

This would be, and is, another of my blending tests. So far it's a hit with everyone that's seen it. (Yes, all three of us. But really, that does make 100% satisfaction and if the politicians can get away with this, so can I!) This is the red/gray/blk sample on the wheel. I decided not to blend the batt a second time on the carder, but to strip off the colors from the batt and to spin the colors as individually as possible. (Yes, I know, it's kind of mucking up the "blended" batt tests if I don't blend the batt fully.....but, well......it didn't want to be blended. So sue me. I'll try to blend a mix of these colors later. Really. I will.) So here it is on the wheel and looking ever so lovely with it's separate color sections! ( And don't you just love the sheep peering up from the wheel at you?!!!)

After completing the single, I then wind it into a center pull ball and ply it back on itself, giving myself a two ply yarn and no left overs. This plying technique's name escapes me at this time (small voice in head says "Navajo" and large voice says "nope, you're wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong!!") I'll look it up later. The shot of whiskey in the tea says, "Keep typing and ignore all other voices." Sounds like good advice to me, so I'll continue on and hopefully look up the required info later. Back to they plying technique... Besides it's name escaping me it's a technique that I'm not overly proficient at. Hopefully by the time I'm through with these "tests" I'll be better at it and more comfortable with it. One of the downfalls of it is that I have to start and finish the plying in one sitting as my fingers on one hand are keeping the stuff from knotting up, it's important that I don't put the center pull ball down, but keep plying until done. Thank goodness I have no children and no one is likely to knock on the door, requiring me to stop the process.

OK, so now the happiness. Here's the finished skein! It is 1 oz Fire Engine Red, .5 oz Silver Grey and .5 oz Black ALPACA. (I havn't washed it yet to set the twist so I have no yardage info as of this time. Future post to be sure.) Yep, I cheated. I figured, why take perfectly good white wool and dye it black when I have absolutely fabulous black alpaca.....and I do mean BLACK Alpaca that is clean and super soft and would make nummy gloves. Ok. You caught me. The husband tried to claim this as his...to go with the red/black/grey sock yarn I dyed that he claimed.....but I beat him to it. 'Tis MINE! Mwaaaa haaa haaaa!!! I do believe I'll have a whole wardrobe of glovies for this winter!!!!

Which reminds me. Do you remember these? The first finger-tip less gloves I knit last winter. Well, it was Feb of this year which technically was last winter. Anyway if you remember, I typically wear these to drive the car in cold weather cause my hands are becoming cold weather wussies. A couple of weeks ago I got them out of the glove box on a particularly cold morning and as I was leaving for work the dufus pup managed to catch a fang on one of them and I was sure he tore the yarn and caused a run. There was much swearing and planning of his funeral as I headed to work. Driving down the country backroads is not conducive to checking hand knits for runs and broken yarn so it had to wait until I got to work. The "run" was so tight it took me quite a bit of time and two bent paper clips to clear it up and lucky for Tucker......the yarn was NOT broken. So...he lives. Anyway, this incident lead to them being lovingly washed (as they had not been properly washed at completion but had been hastily worn and then stored!) and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed again. I was getting worried due to the color coming off in the rinse water. The third rinse recieve a huge glug of vinegar and clear rinses followed. Oddly enough, they pretty much look like the above pictures so I don't know where the color came from. lol After they dried they were placed in a convienient spot awaiting frosty weather. Well, I must have been sensing the seasonal change cause they've been put to work this week for sure. Just this morning I was thinking that I couldn't wait to cast on for another pair! One for every day of the week would be nice! hehehe

The pooch is enjoying this very seasonable change in weather. He's very much a cool weather dog and loves to play in the rain and roll around in the frost. With the cooling temps he's wanting to play more and is begging for more attention in the evenings. As I was trying to unlock the door tonight he was nibbling on my ankles, which tickels no end, making it very difficult to get in the house, especially with my arms full! He's quite the ham when he wants attention to be sure! It's time to start shopping the second hand stores for new bedding blankets for him and to hastily put a roof on the dog house as he's finally decided to use it on occasion and of course it leaks from him climbing on it. Nice of him to wait until the end of Summer to make that determination! lol My mom came over last Monday and he rode in the car to pick her up. I think she was quite suprised to see how large he really is and now understands why we don't take him many places anymore. I do believe he out weighs her by at least 10 lbs! lol He was so happy to see her though and gave her many kisses in the car on the way home. She hasn't seen him in quite a while and I don't thinks she understood me when I said he took up the whole back seat of the car but she seemed delighted to see him. All went well, he showered her with kisses and made eyes at her through the living room window like the handsome flirt he is. I've gotten rid of some house plants and he can see more fully into the house now. He's a liken that!

I'm still working on Mom's shawl and yes it's still a "sshhhhh!" item. It's moving right along and I've just finished row 199. Placed marker for row 200 and I am ready to move on. Now for the "Oh Crap!" moment. Why? I ask you WhY? I've been a good knitter. I'm knitting this for someone else, with yarn I bought, for goodness sake, in the colors THEY like. This is NOT for me! So tell me....why is it that I reach this milestone of 200 rows.......with every other one growing two stitches......only to find a nasty mistake about 25 rows back?!!! This is a gift!!! Why?! Why?! Why?!!!
Why? Well, I'll tell you why. This happened because it's a holiday gift for someone special. It's because it's my FIRST true lace project of any size. It's because I was knitting along so splendidly fast that I could complete it before the actual date required! (I KNOW!!!! ShOCK!) It's because it causes me to stop and think about what's important to the receiver vs. what's important to me. It does irratiate me that there's going to be errors in this shawl, but there's a voice in the back of my head saying, "It's your first lace, your first shawl, cut yourself some slack!" (But then again, that could be the whiskey in my tea.) Part of me wants this to be P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Another part just want's it to be done. I'm trying to make sure that I balance the one with the other and not be such a perfectionist that it doesn't get completed, but not so lax that the quality is crap. I paused the knitting process on it to look over my options. I could riiiiip it back. (Aargh. Rip off skin instead please!) I could try the knitted lace "oopsie" fix that I've seen on a more talented bloggers site, but really, I know I'm not skilled enough for that yet, so no I can't. ( Sigh ) Or, I could knit on and realize that the reciever isn't going to care if there is a mistake in it. She'll see it as a sign of the hard work that went into making it. She'll recognize the love and the sweat and the tears and the frustration of learning a new skill to make something special for someone else. Hell, she may never even see the mistake if I don't goof up and show it to her myself! So, I knit on. Hopefully tomorrow will give me enough hours to start row 201 and I do think it'll be time for a pictorial update after that.

Today was day two in row for frost in the morning. That means "Good bye Garden" for me. As soon as I got home I was out in the garden harvesting up the last of the summer squash, beans and the tomatoes. It's been a rough gardening year to be sure and there have been many let downs. While I was picking tonight I was thinking about the fact that it's October and I'm harvesting still. Granted the squash were all dinky this year and the plants didn't produce much, but really....they produced right up until frost. That's something to be grateful about. The strawberries were wonderful and I've gotten some in the freezer as well as blackberries. The green beans did wonderful this year and I've been able to put some into the freezer, so that's saying something. There are turnips out there waiting to be harvested, and the carrot I picked as a test tonight was wonderful! So not all's a complete loss. ;) It was a bit sad to not have the garden fresh tomatos this year. The tomato plants did fine as I thought ahead and had them in a more sheltered spot this year, but the weather just did not warm up enough, long enough for them to ripen fully. I had several hit the deck (literally) before they were even ripe due to the weather conditions. So I stewed on the problem.(no pun inteded.) Did I mention I'm slow mentally sometimes? Well I am. I only lately discovered that I could dry the tomatoe, green ones and all, in the dehydrator. Wahoo! So tonight I harvested the last of the little beasties off the vines. It felt good to know they wouldn't go to waste. I can use them later in soups, stews and breads and have the added pleasure of knowing that they were survivors of the "rough" gardening year.Don't they look purty!?! I fully plan on harvesting all the food out of the beds and planting with a cover crop this year. This excludes the raspberry and strawberry beds of course, but the other planting beds need to be harvested and cover cropped asap. I didn't do this last year and I think that failure combined with the weird weather and possibly some over agressive weed management caused the partial crop failure this year. I got the last of the beans tonight, so that bed can be cleaned, turned and planted. I've just got to harvest the turnips, carrots and the left over broccoli and those beds can be done. The squash tires can be cleaned out and cover cropped as well.

I'm planning on setting down and making two plans for the yard for next season. One is the food/herb plan including when to start certain plants and herbs for next season. The other is an overall plan to reduce the amount of yardwork required to maintain a pleasant yardscape. (Large words for how to make the crappy yard work disappear so I can ride the motorcycle more next year without guilt!! lol) This plan will largely include removing plants and replacing them with bark and easier care periennials or shrubs. It will also (hopefully) include a Monthly To-Do list (weather permitting!). I'm hoping to take advantage of some of the "not-nice-for-riding-but-great-for-yardwork" weather but I'll be honest with you, that weather often looks just like "perfect spinning/knitting" weather and I get confused easily. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed that it works out! ;) There's always plenty to do and often times at this time of year, I'm more inclined to work inside than out. Oh well, it's not a contest and I don't have any kids to tell me I'm doing it wrong. Lol.

Well, I do have a lot of other stuff to talk to you about, but it's nearly midnight and I'm tired so I'll wind this down and head to bed. I'll try to get some more pics to post soon. I hope all is well with all of you and that you and yours have enough to see you through. I'll be back soon as this blog has been on my mind lately. More and more I think..."I should blog that!" lol That's a good sign I believe.

I harvested veg from our garden yesterday. It was sad. Evidently I bought mini squash plants when I bought the replacements for the seeds the birds kept eating. I'm sure they'll be tasty, and they are very cute, but they really are not going to go very far! I was feeling that the garden is pretty much a bust this year until I went out today to take care of some stuff. I was surprised to see some bush beans I planted actually coming up! If they do well, and the climbing ones do well, we'll at least have beans in the freezer. It's about time to replant lettuce and spinach for fall. Maybe our fall crops will be better. ;)

Here's a pic of Abbie on the prowl. She's looking for her favorite grocery sack to sleep on. I moved them out of her sight so I could get them loaded back into the car. She wasn't happy with me at all. She was even less thrilled with the hairball remedy squirted between her toes. Evidently the new food they're eating isn't doing the full trick. At least today she started taking the sticky stuff off my hands so I don't have to wrestle with her anymore.

I leave you with a pic of the worlds cutest dog. He was pretty sure that day that he needed to go for a ride. We didn't go that day, but we did go last Thursday. I'll come back and tell you all about it later. Gotta get dinner on the plate! ;) Take care all!

Hello Dear Friends!

Let's just bypass the usual "I know I haven't been around in awhile.......here are my reasons......please forgive me....." and get on with the greetings! I was going to title this "Hello Old Friends" but some people I know are getting uptight about their ages and would take the "old" to mean age and not length of time that we've known one another. So, being ever PC (snort!) I changed it.

I have no wonderful pics to show you. To be honest, I just ran out and snapped a few of the dog, bikes and the garden to have something to put on here. I haven't really been doing anything worth photographing lately, so no good ones to share. ;) The husband, however, has been taking pics like a mad man lately as he's been out on rides as much as possible. I've been teasing him that I'm going to have to make him a "honey-do list" for his weekends off just to make sure chores get done. VBG. To be honest, we've had some really great weather this last week, and I don't blame him for using the time to get in some great rides. I rode to work a couple of times this week, and I think I've worked the kinks out of the "helmet hair" issues. I will admit freely that I much prefer riding his bike to mine, and am actively campaigning for a switcheroo. I'll even give up the green paint job if that's what it takes!!! Otherwise I foresee some $$$ going into making "my" bike feel like his.

Today we went out to breakfast, as per usual for Sunday morning. During breakfast we decided to go out to Snohomish to take a look at the Classic Motorcycle show they were having there. (Snohomish is great for stuff like this.)We were on our motorcycles and whenever we go for a ride together, I prefer that he leads. That way I don't feel like he's being held up by me and besides that, he knows all the roads pretty well. Having grown up in the area, I can find my way home from most of the back roads between here and Snohomish, so I wasn't too worried should we get separated. Don decided on the really twisted round about scenic route between GF and Snohomish so it took us three times longer to get to the show than it normally would. No complaints...the ride was beautiful! Once we got into the show area, it was obvious something was going on. There were motorcycles E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.! I've never ridden in much traffic, nor in a large group, so it was interesting for me, to say the least. We were lucky enough to find some parking spots down a side road close enough to walk into the show. The show was much larger than either one of us expected. We had planned on spending an hour looking around, but to see everything, we would have had to spend at least three times that amount of time. So...we kept to the main drag of the show, and didn't see everything, but Don snapped a huge number of pics. We did see some really cool bikes and WOW, the people watching! It never fails to amaze me what people will do/say/wear in public. lol After we were done with the show, Don led me home via Monroe. Those in the know, will understand that's not the most direct route...but it's a beautiful ride. All told, I put over 70 miles on the bike today. I know that doesn't seem like much, but when you consider I don't usually ride that much, it seems like a lot for me. Just for comparison...Don put over 150 on a ride this weekend, by himself. lol Talk about buns of steel! heheh

So I'm still working on the fab Monkey socks. I haven't been knitting much since I cut my finger. Finger is pretty much healed up, thanks very much. Just a little scab left. I've been amazed at the regeneration of skin cells in that area. I was expecting to have a dent in that part of my finger, but it looks like it will look pretty normal once the scabs gone. Yeah! So, not much knitting or spinning going on, but lots of cleaning. Ironically, and sadly, I couldn't do the fun stuff injured, but could slap on a glove and clean. Sucky, sucky, sucky! Oh well. It's nice to have some clean areas of the house for a change. ;) I'll get the Monkey Sock done and the Mermaid fiber spun up soon enough.

One of the great results from all the cleaning has been the number of items I've been able to find new homes for. YIPPEE! I'm part of the Freecycle system in our county, and when I've got stuff I want to get rid of, I list it on there to give it away free and then it goes to a new home. If no one's interested, I take it to the second hand store. I've offloaded so much stuff in the last month, it's been amazing! I'm trying to de-clutter the whole house to make it easier to clean and maintain. That, combined with getting the yard put together in an easy maintenance way will free up more time for us to have some fun. Right now, it's the work phase, but I can see the fun times phase not far off. ;) I've started going through my craft supplies and resources to weed out what I really don't need. This could take awhile. lol Anyway, that is part of the reason I've not been knitting. I've been using my knitting/spinning time to sort through some stuff. I'll get it done, and then have more time to play.

OK! So after the bike show and the ride we came home to work on chores. I was able to get some more seeds planted and the area around the tires weeded and cleaned up. We decided to cover the gravel in that area with shavings this year to see if that changes the growth on the plants there.

This picture shows the pathway that the tomato plants are going to go on, once it's cleaned up. ;) From this pic you can see the strawberry plants that have jumped ship into the pathway. Later this year, I'll build a new strawberry bed and move them there.

OK, that's pretty much all for now. Oh! Yes, Tucker is on a tie out cable in that first picture. Before you rant at me for tieing him up, consider this. He has a "thing" for the lawn mower. He's disabled it a few times and likes to "attack" it. Don was mowing the lawn. It's much safer for Tucker to be tied out when Don is mowing the lawn. ;) Usually the beastie is running free as he's a much more effective theft deterrent when he's running around. ;) Thanks for caring!

The Post--Some Gorey Parts

I intended to post last Sunday night but for reasons I'll explain later, I didn't get around to it. First I give you a pic of the first Mermaid single. I'm working on the second off and on. It's coming out pretty nice and I'm excited to see how the complete yarn turns out. The picture is blurry, but you get an idea of what the colors are.

And now a picture of Tucker wrestling with his new Monkey Stick. This is his third so far and he really loves this toy more than anything.

And just to be weird, here's a picture of a piece of Tucker's food. (penny for size reference.) He eats Royal Canin Giant Breed Dog food and loves it. I imagine the kibble size is to help prevent "gulping" of food, which very large dogs are prone to. Tucker's never really been a gulper and chews up his food really well regardless of size. The picture though is to give you an idea of what the Stellar Jay had to deal with when it tried to steal Tucker's food. While it was amusing for me to watch, I had to feel bad for the poor thing. With it's beak wide open trying to fly off with this hunk of food. It dropped it several times before disappearing with it. lol

OK this next part has some slightly gory pictures in it so if your timid at all, scroll past them to the last two. (Yes Maria, I mean you!)

The weather here has been a bit erratic to say the least, but from what I'm reading on other blogs and in the news I don't really have much to complain about. Last Sunday was going to be iffy weather wise, so after our usual breakfast in town we hustled home to get our lawns mowed. I'm trying to rejuvenate the smaller back yard and wanted to get some seed tossed down to fill in the bare spots. While Don mowed the front yard I moved into the veggie garden to start getting the beds weeded, with plans on planting seeds during the week. I usually have seeds planted by then, after all it was the end of April. But with the late snows and bad weather falling on my days off, last Sunday was the first day I was able to get out to the garden. I managed to get the lettuce circle, the long bed and the carrot bed cleaned out. The bulk of the time was spent on the carrot bed as I had let carrots over-winter in it and had to finish harvesting them out. I finished this up just as the rain started falling again and headed into the house to clean carrots.

Yep, I had a sink full to clean up before prepping them for the freezer. It was wonderful to smell fresh carrots so early in the year! They scrubbed up pretty fast and with the aggressive bristles on the brush I was using I didn't have to peel any of them before slicing. I have a mandolin slicer that I used to make carrot rounds and then I vacuum pack them for deep freezing. While I was slicing up the last handful of carrots, the carrot popped off of the slicer and I cut my finger. To me, it was a deep cut and pretty gory. It took nearly an hour to get it to stop bleeding and hurt pretty bad. It was a good thing I had Don to help me, to be sure, and he doesn't "do" blood. ;)

I snapped these two pics on Monday after work to document what it looked like. I discovered then how hard it is to take a picture of your own right hand, left handed, when you're right handed to begin with. So sorry for the blurriness, but you get the idea of how much and how deep the cut is. I can only think how lucky I was not to have it be my finger tip. It's been bad enough, but at least I can type.

This is a pic Don took today. It's healing up nicely, even if it's still pretty painful. I can certainly tell when I've done too much with my hands. It pretty much put a stop to knitting and spinning. I did try to knit some, but it was awkward and slow not using my index finger and when I did use my index finger I'd end up stabbing the cut with a needle or something equally stupid like that. So not much progress there.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, here's what my garden and lawn looked like Wednesday morning. Yep, more snow. I think that's quite enough now, don't you? Let's get on with warmer weather!


Garden
Lawn

Well isn't that special! For some reason, I'm unable to put a title on this one. The title field box is there, and blank but I am unable to get my cursor there to type a title. Oh well, I'll move forward and we'll see if Blogger let's me title this one later.

In the interest of trying to keep this from being a huge blog post I'm going to break this one down in an "update" format. There's not much to tell today so this should be quick.

Tucker Update: He is FINE, really! He has recovered just fine and is back to being what passes as normal for him. Stuff like running around the yard with a large bucket or planter on his head, sleeping under the truck, howling at sirens, chewing on me, chasing the bugs, etc. Yep, he picked up right where he left off. Sorry for the crappy pic of him, but he would NOT sit still. So, as you can see, he's doing dandy. Me? I'm ready to use the sedatives on him again lol. We took him on a walk today on a paved public trail that we've used before. I was reminded of something that I had forgotten by the Hubster.(A good thing too! I had totally forgotten this.) For some reason unknown to me, Tucker has a dislike of people on skates. He would love to run with the joggers and the cyclists and I hope one day to train him to run while I bike. But if some one goes by with skates on, he gets all upset. Today his back hair came up and he barked at the skater. Luckily Hubster warned me the guy was coming and I had a good hold on him! He doesn't normally bark so I was completely surprised by that.

Tour de Fleece Update: OK, I'm off and running now. Or rather, off and spinning lol. For this update you get two pictures! The first is the first 4 oz of brown/gray Lincoln. I have to admit that I am forcing myself to spin this. I've become so spoiled with the Alpaca, and this is so much coarser that if I don't force myself to spin it, I'll never complete it. It's really a nice single though. I've already started on the other half of it and will ply the two together when I'm done. I'm not sure what this will become, but it's whispering that it really should be an outerwear garment. I don't have enough of it to make anything outerwear that I'm aware of, but I'll think of something. In some lighting it looks gray, in some it looks brown. We'll see how it looks next to the white Lincoln I have in the basket to spin up this month too. Next up is the Alpaca. Then I think I'll work on some of the smaller bundles I have there. (Just so you don't think I'm some sort of machine......I started this 4 oz before the official start of the Tour. The next 4 oz should take me longer. lol)

Garden Update: OH MY! Where to begin?! OK, with the heat wave that we've been experiencing lately the garden has taken off like crazy. The cucumbers are still behind, but I think that's because they were being stunted by some overgrowth near them. The pumpkin plant is getting tall enough to lay over. That will probably happen this week. We've been eating some of the young zucchinis and turnips. Also we've been using the lettuces, radish and spinach. With the heat, the spinach is bolting so that will be done, but the lettuce is pretty well protected and growing great. Some of the tomatoes plants have actual tomatoes on them now and the peas are showing pods finally! yeah! The beans are pathetic, but are starting to pick up. (I think I planted them too early.)

Other updates: 1) There's been no noticeable amounts of knitting or crocheting. :( 2) There's been the minimum of cleaning. lol 3) Clean laundry has piled up again and I really must fold it tonight. 4) I'm going to learn to ride a motorcycle! 5) All the other kiddies are doing well. As proven by the following pics. (Abbie declined her photo op today, she's found a nifty new hidy hole and didn't want Salem to find it. So another day.)

Garden Time

I had taken pictures a week or so ago of the garden so I could update here but never posted them as I got busy. I'm rather glad I didn't as I've been able to get some more work done out there and the pathways look much better. There's still raking of gravel and leveling out of the path by the house and much more clean up to be done, but it's progressing nicely. The most exciting thing is watching the little plants spring up out of the ground. The first round of peas, beans, carrots and radishes are up and can be seen here. The second round of these were planted at the end of last week...just a bit later than planned. The warmth and sunshine we've been getting lately have done wonders for the plants!

The first planting of lettuce is on its way and the bunching onions planted in between the sections are coming up nicely. I'm hoping to get the ground cleared up around this bed and the second set of lettuces growing. It's getting time to thin out some of the plants. I'll admit to being a bit nervous at thinning out as I hate to see any of them go away and I certainly don't want to cause any problems. I am looking forward to being able to get the salad from the garden soon though!

This picture shows the three square beds and the raspberry/strawberry long bed at the end. The long bed blends in with the pathway shavings so it's not so clear in this one. I'll have to take a picture of it later today as I seem to have missed that one. But you can see that the gravel or stone pathway is cleaner and at least usable now. lol It's nice to be able to drag the hose along that path for watering and not have to worry about it jumping the beds and taking out plants on it's way. I've brought home some hose guides to install at the corners of the beds so that the hose will move better around the corners should the need arise. I'm hoping to get those installed today. It's time to plant the seconds in these beds as well. The third bed out has yellow keeping onions growing in half of it. They were a last minute add in and are doing great. Not nearly enough of them to keep us over winter, but I've never grown onions like that and thought I'd give it a try.

This is the lone plant that survived from the transplanting of the vines...so sad. It's a zucchini and is doing great. I need to replant the cucumbers, pumpkins, and summer squash today. I also need to cleanup behind this area again. The wonderful weather is sure helping the native growth next door too! I will probably be transplanting tomatoes this weekend. It's time to get them settled into their outside pots so a little hardening them off is in order for the rest of the week. I had already done the cherry tomatoes and they are so miserable looking I bought three plants from work to hedge my bets. Those tomatoes are my favorite salad maters and I'm most concerned about them. lol. There is also a flat of marigolds that are wanting to move outside today...they will probably have to wait until Sunday for the planting part though.

Last, but not least, I give you the beginnings of the herb garden. I was able to get the herbs transplanted and most of them look good. I do need to direct seed some more out there and there is some more clean up to be done here too. I cut down the pyramidalis that was deformed by the last two years of snow. I was reluctant to do so at first but sometimes hard decisions have to be made. I still need to dig out the root ball. Removing this tree opened up the whole area, bringing in the late afternoon sun. I think that the herb garden will really take off now. We'll have to have a bonfire soon to clean up some of the woody debris I'm accumulating though. lol There is always so much to do and too little time. I've yet to start weeding the flower beds and seeding in new flowers. Yikes time flies!

Ahhhh....To Be Caught Up.

Or not.....as the case may be. As soon as I typed that title I thought of at least 3 things that I'm behind on. Isn't that the way of it though? Just when you think you've caught up, you realise what you let slide to accomplish what you just completed. (Did that feel like a "house that jack built" sentence to anyone else?)

So the sweater being completed last night, I jumped right back into DH's socks. I'm pretty sure he was convinced he'd never see it again and was thinking I was nothing but a sock tease. Poor, poor man. I don't think he knew what he was getting into when he married me. lol. I am determined not to work on any other knitting/crochet projects until his socks are done. It's quite the pleasure to be knitting a smooth yarn, even if it's thin....and on smooth needles as well! I feel like I'm zipping right along, but then again, if I were......I'd be done. So there! U am able to knit at a faster speed on the smoother yarn, so I've got to be making some progress. I'm working on the heel of the first one and I'm not convinced that it's going to fit so I'm pretty well comfortable with the idea that I'm going to have to frog the whole sock and start over. It's a toe up pattern and I really really like the whole toe up part....but the rest of the sock is basic knitting, and I'm not convinced the heel will work out. We'll see. If it fits, and he likes it...I'll make the other...If not, we'll work out another pattern.

Today was a day of working in the garden. The weather was beautiful and after Tuckers walk, we got into the garden prep. It felt good to be finally planting in the garden today. I've had years of anticipating planting and today was finally a day of planting! We had some turning of the soil to do...and it was definitely time to get the starts in the garden. The cucumbers were flowering in the house for goodness sakes! No, those are not alien pods landed in the garden. lol I decided to cover the pumpkins, zucchini and the cucs with a plastic cloche that I can roll up in the morning. This way they are are protected at night and can acclimatize during the day.

I planted from seed peas, carrots, radish, beans, lettuce, bunching onions, and spinach. I still have more to plant, but that gets me started. (Please oh please...let them grow!)

Tucker did well at his 3rd puppy class. We were using the new Gentle Leader...and it worked wonderfully. He's learning the commands really well. Everyone was impressed at how long he can sit and wait considering he's only a 4.5 month old puppy! He's doing very well and caught his first rat this week. Just like Mow....it was dead, and flat...but not a mark on it. That means he played with it to death. (I know that's not the most wonderful thing to most people...but when you live rural like we do, rats are a fact of life and if he can hunt them without being vicious...I'm happy.)

I currently have NOTHING on the wheel. It feels strange to have nothing in the spinning process. I did complete the Llama yarn and just need to wash it. (Pics to follow that.) And I did get the green silk/merino re carded and re blended (Thanks a million honey!) on the improved reconditioned drum carder. And I do have some other dyed wool that could be spun or carded and then spun. Lately I've been spending most of my free time knitting on the sweater, so there's not been much spinning going on, and I've not chosen the next fiber for the wheel. Something will call to me soon and I'll be off in that direction. ;) Right now I'm off in the direction of B.E.D. I worked a bit too hard today me thinks..... lol.

Garden, Spinning, Knitting and Life

OK, so today's "update" is going to be a bit sloppy and informal. (I know...HUGE surprise there huh?!!) Cut me some slack...I stayed up way, way too late, and did too much today. Really, anything more than napping was going to be too much. lol

Last night was Scrap Night with Maria and Tracie. Maria hosted this one and evidently we were all needing to let our hair down because all three of us showed up with a bottle of wine! lol There was lots of food and laughter.

I did get to a point where it was just too hard to put the page kits together as each one had at least one picture of Mowgli in it. It's been nearly 5 months and even though we added Tucker to our lives, I still miss The Mo everyday. It's getting easier....but those scrap pages will just have to wait a bit longer.

Today was filled with "whatever" type stuff. After I achieved my goal of not having to cook breakfast, but scarfing down a huge breakfast nonetheless; I set about accomplishing I could today. Laundry, of course, was high priority. As was roughing up the pup and wearing him out in general. Then it was time in the garden.

I managed to get three of the 5 planting beds turned under and the cover crop chopped up. I'll try to get the other two done after work one of these nights. Then I'll cover with black plastic for a couple of weeks before planting so that the soil heats up. This will help the cover crop to start breaking down as well as making the beds a nice warm place to put the seeds or transplants into. ;) The last task out in the garden today was to transplant the raspberries and the strawberries. That done, I picked out the very few weeds in the walk ways and spread out the last of the pine shavings. Now I can break down the old strawberry boxes that are on the soon-to-be-again gravel pathway next to the house. That will give me the space to clean up the gravel walkway and rake that out nice.

It felt nice to be outside working in the garden again. I've been wanting to start weeding for weeks, but the weathers been so wet or cold or both that I've stayed indoors. Today was so balmy that I thought about going back out to work on the rose bed. However, I don't want to over do it to bad as I have a growing pup to keep up with. ;)

I'm still have the silk blend on my Traveler and am STILL working on the sweater. Don's sock has been placed in the bottom of the basket as I think I need to frog some of it. I will have to sit down and talk out the pattern and look at the as yet completed rows before I make the decision, so the sock is on the back burner.

I'll need to make some room in the knitting basket fast though as our Guild Meeting is Tuesday and that means dyeing sock yarn! I should be coming home with a skein of dyed---ready to be steamed sock yarn and it should be a self striping pattern! After it's all done, I'll take pics of the board that we received through this class and the results. Hopefully I remember to take pics of it BEFORE it's dyed. lol

Well, I better wrap this up as I still have Tucker's post to do and laundry to fold. And I'm tired. How tired am I? We had our Corned Beef, carrots, baby reds and cabbage today instead of yesterday. I didn't steam the cabbage. Totally forgot it. Completely. Ah well. It's will make a fine treat with the left overs, won't it now? ;)

Garden Update

It snowed bunches today. It was nice in the fact that I can no longer see the weeds that I wanted to pull. lol I know that it will pass soon. Good thing too cause the seeds I planted in the house on sunday are already up! YEAH!

In a Whirl Wind

Spinning

I've finally been able to get some spinning done and today was able to get the pics taken to prove it! There is a completed skein of white drying right now that I didn't take a picture of. I believe it's destined to be be dyed for a pair slippers.....not positive yet though.

In this picture Abbie is modeling my first attempt at Navajo plying. The fiber was some from the jar dyeing experiment last year. I'm not altogether pleased with the yarn. The colors stayed nicely separated, but the yarn itself is over twisted in my opinion. I'm considering running it through the wheel again and removing some of the twist. The colors themselves are o.k. and it's asking to become a felted bag. We'll see how it feels after a bit. It may change it's mind if I remove some of the twist and soften it up a bit.
Here is a picture of what's on the wheel right now. This was suppose to be black, but the fiber split into teal, purple, gray and pink. In it's carded roving state, it's a bit grotesque. It has to be in just the right light for the colors to stand out. So far it's spinning up nicely and very thin. It's fascinating to see the colors change as it spins up and I'm interested to see what it becomes. I'm thinking of spinning a single of something solid up and plying this with it. I just haven't decided yet. The trouble with this fiber right now is that I cannot get a true color picture of it. In these pic it shows purple but really .....it shows almost black at a bit of a distance. Maybe when the sun comes out again I'll be able to get a good color reading outside.

Knitting

The sock is not getting any real amount of work on it at this time. I've hit the point in the pattern when I'm starting the shaping for the heel. It seems so long compared to the other socks I've knit but then again, it is for the hubster. The only real time I have for knitting is right before bed and I'm at a counting point in this pattern, so right before bed's not a good time for that. I need to take a bit of time and get past the heel so I can get back to basic knitting and can work on it more often.

These pictures are proof of two things. First, Abbie will do anything if I will just lock the puppy outside for awhile! As long as she gets some time under her lamp she's a happy cat! Second, I've been making progress on the sweater. I'm between 4 and 6 inches away from completing the first half of the front. In the second picture you can she the arm hole shaping decreases, and the stitch holders that are currently holding the pocket in place. I'm anxious to work on this regularly but really feel pulled in so many directions right now.

With Spring fast approaching I've got many household projects waiting as well as gardening to get going. It sure is nice to be held back a bit so that I can work on these knitting projects and spin a bit. Before you know it, it will be wool washing time again! ;)

Garden

Yep, it's begun! This is the beginning of the gardening season. We've started some flowers, herbs, and veggies in the house to be able to transplant in the garden this year. There are several things that will be planted in the garden this year as seeds. I'll be picking out some more flowers this week to start in the house for hanging baskets.