A Brog...Bragging Blog

I have to brag because I am very proud of my two kids. They signed up for the ARC Bike Hike. It is a continuous bike ride of 25 1/2 miles. The furthest they had ever ridden was a mile. They both finished it! Baby Girl finished last but she wouldn't stop even when asked if she wanted to. They did awesome!

OK now motherly pride aside. This weekend has been fantastic. We got the fencing moved for the goats. The garden got 1/2 way rototilled. We finished raking the flower garden and hauled that all away. We drove and got baby turkeys and two more female ducks as it was 1 against 4 and she wasn't enjoying the odds. The lawns all got mowed. I plyed the bobbin of wool but only got two more rows knit so far. And now we are preparing for friends to come over for steak on the grill, so it should be a nice relaxing evening. The perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Week summed up

Today I learned that the huge flag that had been hung on the side of the mountain, in honor of a Marine that recently lost his life in Iraq, was ripped down in pieces. Then while reading the Hugs Group posts I read this....Poor is the nation that has no heroes. Poorer still is the nation that has them and forgets" I hope that this town never forgets and that another flag will be put back up if not in that spot than in another.

In happier news I finished another bobbin of the Jacob roving. I have wanted to start spinning the finn/alpaca mix I bought from Grace http://antique-spinning-wheels.blogspot.com/ It is so soft compared to the Jacob. So far I have persevered, we will see what the weekend holds.
I have also started to knit a ponchette, capelet what ever. I have about 5-6 inches done on it. Very easy except for some cabling on a front panel, not that it is hard, it just makes you watch what you are doing for a second.

In the garden, some plants got transplanted as they had become a problem in the old area. The biggest thing to happen was that it got rototilled.

I got a call from my niece that I will be staying with for the MD S&W. She recently celebrated a birthday and said all she wanted was trees for her yard. So I have decided to buy a PA tree to take down to her, PA being her state of birth. I have also decided to go to my Grandmothers house and dig up some columbine, cowslip, peonies and whatever else I can find still growing over there. These plants have stood the test of time and three generations, hopefully they will survive her black thumb! Almost all the plants in my yard are from my grandmothers, mothers or friends yards.

And saving the best for last....two duffel bags have returned home and a foot locker is on it's way!!!!!! YAHOO!!!! Time is ticking down!!! She thinks she might be sent back to MS for debriefing...I don't care, just as long as she is back on US soil I will be fine. Funny that I wrote that, a friend today told me that means f***ked up, insecure, neurotic and emotional. I think that would sum up anybody with someone over sea's.

FO's from a Wet Weekend

The man took the kids to the Shriner's Circus with the Boy Scouts on Saturday. I didn't go because we had a small guest staying over and the tickets were already purchased, so I stayed home and finished the shrug. Their favorite part was where the elephant sat on a kid and the kid was fine. Our neighbor was a Shriner and I use to go to all their picnic's with him and his wife. They were like my grandparents. I made my first crocheted project at her house. It was a doily for my mother in red. I did an embroidery project there also, which hangs at my mom's. They even took me to Montana with them for a pow-wow. A long long time ago.

Anyhow I did the ribbing, the lace on the cuffs and then sewed it together (need practice there). But it is done except for the steam blocking they call for.










Then I got in the mood to spin. It's odd how the moods strikes and I have to spin, nothing else satisfies me until I get in front of that wheel. So I wound off the yarn jokingly called bozo vomit and I plied the mohair I had spun up and came up with 125 yards of 2 ply at 14 wpi.









Then I moved on to the Jacob roving I got from Copper Moose. I wanted to do a lopi style but it wanted to be spun thin. I had an idea in mind for this yarn but the color was more gray in the ad than what I got so maybe it is best it didn't spin to what I wanted. Even in this pic it looks gray but it is really brown with gray in it.

We also took the kids to see Ice Age 2 the Meltdown. They loved it. Our guest had never been to the movie theater before so for her it was a grand adventure. She loved it!

And now the kids are back in school again, Boy Scouts tonight, school play on Wednesday, Girl Scouts on Thursday and then we will be back to the weekend again and both kids in the Bike Hike on Saturday. But for now I am going to go ply the jacob before the sun comes out and puts me back in the garden.

The above was written yesterday but Blogger was being a pain in the tush to be nice. Since then the bobbin has been filled, the yarn plied into 175 yards and the pea's have been planted. Oh and I was on IM with Jess for almost 2 hours. I love that thing but I like hearing her voice more....61 more days.

Earth Day

Mother Earth is giving a great big sigh of relief right about now. She is singing "Oh what a relief it is!" It has been so dry that the counties have issued burning bans. But last night it started to rain and it has continued today. We are suppose to get two inches.

I went and picked up the rototiller from the service place this morning and now I have to cool my heels until the ground gets dry enough. The cabbage is up and some of the tomatoes.

The other night we sheared the goat. What a difference having the right/sharpened tools makes. We used a great pair of shears of Mom's with new blades from Caprine Supply www.caprinesupply.com What awesome service extremely quick shipping. He was done and over with in 15 minutes. And what beautiful tweedy looking mohair yarn it will make. It is all different shades of gray. I am going to send it out to get processed into roving as I don't have the time right now. I got two of the three rabbits done also.

Other than handling the fiber animals I have the shrug done except for 3 inches of 2x2 ribbing which I should be doing now while everyone is gone!

Belated Easter Wishes

I hope everyone had a great Easter. Along with it being Easter weekend it was also our first day of trout season. We went fishing. After little success (one fish in two days) in the river we ventured into the woods to a stream


to try our luck on brook trout and came upon this......

I have contacted the DOI to find out about it. It interests me because

1) I found this on State Game Land which was privately owned in 1965

2) I wonder what information they were trying to find at that time and why at that spot in the woods

3) are they still getting information from this site

4) What did they use the information for.

The fishing and the garden have take time away from the fiber. I have only knit four rows on the shrug but the broccoli is coming up and so is the asparagus!!! It is suppose to rain later this week which should give me knitting time.

Good Friday

I have finally planted something! Mom and I have been outside working in our yards, listening to the birds and getting lots done.

Yesterday I moved inside the greenhouse and got some broccoli and tomatoes planted before we went for a walk. Today I need to plant some more tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and pepper.

We got a little rain which made a double rainbow but wasn't enough to stop the burn ban from going into effect. I knew this burn ban was coming but that didn't motivate me to rake the leaves out of the pond garden until yesterday when I was no longer allowed to burn them. Now I have to haul most of them away as it is too much for my compost bins. Then the full moon came out and that made a pretty picture.
In fiber I got the second bobbin spun and ready to go on the loom and I got 1/2 the sleeve knit on the shrug. Fiber is always struggling for attention when Spring comes. The fact that I hate to wear gloves when in the garden also makes it hard to handle the fiber. I do use gloves when pulling the briar only because I am not into pain. Each time I go out I put them on but then I have to get a better grip or something and off they come and I walk out of the garden with hands looking like a roofers.
The younger kids left for the weekend and that makes me home for this holiday with no kids. I can't wait till next year when we will all be together again. Only 10 weeks (73 days actually) to go before we are all together and then they can all start squabbling again. It is much easier to deal with than the tears. The younger ones send her emails and she calls me saying tell them to stop sending sad emails. I said what do they say..and she says they write I love you and miss you, when will you be home! I think someone is a bit oversensitive right now and time is ticking too slow for her but after 1 1/2 years of not being home I guess that is to be expected. This is why she is the armored marshmellow, tough as nails on the outside but mush on the inside.

Iraqi Liberation Day

Today is Iraqi Liberation Day. I just read a comment that said the Washington Times is the only paper mentioning this - http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060403-122152-1985r.htm

I am free

JWB's funeral was today. During the ceremony an eagle flew over and then flew away. I was talking to his mother and she said on the way to the funeral home two days in a row an eagle was sitting in the same tree on the same branch as they drove by. As he watched over America I guess the American eagle was now watching of him. They made up a collage with this poem in the middle..... http://www.antelope-ebooks.com/RELIGIOUS/free.html I met the Marines that were his honor guards. When they found out Jess was Army they asked if I knew what that stood for and I said no and they happily told me it stood for Ain't Ready to be a Marine Yet. They told me to tell her that when she called next time...I can only imagine what she is going to say!!! But on the flip side a Navy guy gave them a ziploc of bread crumbs to find their way back as some of them got lost. Told them that was why the Navy took them every where! Touche' Good hearted rivalry.

In fiber I have gotten about 1/3 of the shrug done, spun a bobbin of mohair and a bobbin of some stuff I dyed a while ago. And I got some more packed and the kids are doing their rooms tomorrow. Work on the house which was put on hold this week will begin with the new one. And as the weather is getting colder again I being the back assward person that I am is thinking of finally getting something started in the greenhouse.

A little of this and that

Things are still in an uproar around here. The whole town is stunned but the news is slowly setting in. As there is nothing else that can be said I have decided to show some pics of things that have happened in the past week or so.


I live in a valley. I live at the base of the mountain on one side. That is a zoomed in shot of snow falling on top of the mountain on the other side of my valley. We got nothing, but if you went a mile up they had all this snow. It was amazing watching it snow that close and even better that I didn't have to shovel it!






This is a picture of chicken eggs we got one morning. One of these things ain't like the other...I was told it could be a wind egg. So I looked that up and found this...A wind egg is any soft-shelled hen's egg, laid before the harder shell is formed. In the Middle Ages, they were often called cock's eggs, and the influences of the planets, the vagaries of the weather, or ill winds were blamed for them. The eggs were considered barren and unfit to eat.
The egg was hard shelled so I continued the search and found....A wind egg (sometimes windegg) is a name used to refer to an egg that is somehow lacking. Just how or what it is lacking seems to be a matter of great disagreement.
E. Cobham Brewer's 1894 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says it's an egg laid without a shell. A popular superstition is that such an egg was fathered by the wind, as were the Thracian Mares. The usual cause of such an egg is that the hen is too fat.
Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary defines a windegg as one not impregnated or one that does not contain the principles of life.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary calls a wind egg ,"an imperfect, unimpregnated, or addled egg" A

A little too much information? Well we did crack it open and it seemed to have two shells, one on top of the other. The yolk was nothing more than a dot. We tossed it, nobody wanted to eat it!


This is some of what I should be looking thru but instead I have spun up some of the mohair from Storm. I finished the shrug from Interweave Knit. I misread the directions and sewed it together before doing the lace so I used a lace pattern for a sock instead. I have started another so I can do it right this time and this shrug is a mindless stockinette stitch which is right up my alley right now.




This is what I was really excited about when I saw it in the mail. I took a breif glimpse and put it aside. Before I get there I will have to plot the course I am going to take to get what I want in the smallest amount of time. Crowds and me don't get along. It would be nice if they could spread it out more. By this I mean the inside of the booths. They are so crammed full of stuff to buy that you can't get into look. But then the vendors would be required to pay more for the bigger space and would add that on to the price of their product. I am a want it my way person aren't I?

Well I did the kids taxes and now I should go pack some more boxes but I think I will make chili instead and knit. Then sit and watch Narnia when the kids get home so I can watch American Idol tonight.

The Unimaginable

My friends son was killed yesterday in Iraq. We went to counseling on Wednesday, he called her on Thursday and she came home from work on Friday to find the Marines waiting at her door.
I know we both were worried about our kids being over there but we just kept saying "Believe" Believe they are fine, believe they will come home. And I think we both did believe that, that they would both come home safe. We live in a small town, nothing like that could happen here. How naive we were.

"And When He Gets To Heaven,
To Saint Peter He Will Tell;
One More Marine Reporting Sir,
I've Served My Time In Hell"
- Part of the Marine Corp Cadence

Rest in Peace JWB.