Farm country

The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm
country slowly changes from the summer
cottons into its winter wools. ~Henry Beston

Yesterday while sitting at the barn waiting for a friend with a trailer to come and take the pigs and steers to the butcher I had time to take notice of these changes. The road to the barn with leaves brushed to the side by the truck...

The evergreens full of pinecones...

The back field holding it's own...The squirrel getting ready for winter... And back at the house the nature daughter has successfully "hatched" her monarch butterfly....And for some reason this time of year makes me think more of family, even those that are gone. These are hops that my grandfather planted. I found them after I had gone out and bought some. I don't know what kind they are, why he bought them or if he ever made beer from them I just know they have to be over 50 years old and they will stay where they are. I tried to make a simple hops beer with mine....I need a better recipe, enough said!These are farm implements that we found while cleaning up the farm. I didn't want to throw them out as they remind me of those that used these tools, so I started hanging them on the side of the milk house. I am the third generation to have animals on this farm. The barn, most of which fell down and we cleaned up, was a one room school house. The chicken coop was the coal shed for the school. My mother has the deed from the school board to my grandfather, it was only a couple of dollars. Alot cheaper than today's prices!!So the food is canned, the garden is done except for the weeds. The sheep and goat are sheared. The pigs and steers went to the butcher. And now the frost and snows can come and I can sit inside and spin and knit. Another good harvest year put to bed.

Trying to catch up

Last week we were so busy with doctor visits, boy/girl scouts, school dances, soccer and canning that by the time Saturday got here I needed a break. So Saturday morning I took some Chai tea and the wheel and sat outside and spun. I spun up the metalic looking mohair that I dyed, then plied it and wound it off. It was heaven on earth!

By the time I finished it was time for the kids to go to their soccer game...they won! That's not something they do on a regular basis so they were wired. Not long after finishing the rain came again.

The weather is up and down but no frost yet. But this just seems to have spurred on the "so much to do and so little time to do it" feeling. Last week we canned salsa and tomato soup. Today we made three batches of green tomato relish and tomorrow we are going to make blackberry jam. If there is time we will also make salsa with the last of the tomatoes. The man is going to go pick the highbush cranberries tomorrow and we are going to try making sauce and jelly with them the next day.

We also got the sheep and the goat sheared today. Everytime we wanted to shear them it rained and you can't shear when they are wet. The weatherman was calling for rain today but lucky for us it held off and it is suppose to be warm for the next couple of days so they won't freeze their butts off. I went and cut some of this years blackberry canes down and gave it to the sheep and goats to appease them for the torture I put them thru today!

One good thing about driving around is that you get to take pictures of the season coming in.
Here in the river valley the leaves have lightened up but haven't really changed color.

Even at the top of the mountains looking out you don't see much change in our area.

But 20 miles away you can see more and more trees showing their colors.

My sister is coming home for a week. Fall was always her favorite season but living in Puerto Rico she hasn't seen falls display in years so she will enjoy this. If we get frost it will speed the color change along a little and also get rid of the gnats which are awful right now!

Monday Blues

Maxine says it best!I saw that and just knew what she meant. We are feeling kinda blue today because my computer's DVD writer/CD writer is not working. So I called Compaq, as it is only 8 months old, and ask them if they could get this working for me. So I did this and that like they said and nothing worked. Then they offered me an extended warranty for two more years, "special price just for you" for only $129.00 "that's one-two-nine". I say no thanks lets just fix what is broken now and so they tell me I have to do a complete system recovery and bring my computer back to "just like day you bought it". I said that means I lose all my pictures (LOTS), documents (lots), favorties, and address, right. "Yup, just like day you bought it". I said I don't want to lose all that. She says to "take to company and have them make back up for you". I said "I have to drive a 60 mile round trip and pay someone to backup my files and then what" She said "then we do system recovery and bring it back to just like day you bought it" To which I ask "Then it will be fixed"? To which she replied that if that didn't fix it they would give me a new DVD writer. I said why can't they just give it to me so I am not inconvenienced because they have a shitty product. She puts me on hold and then says "my senior technician told me you have to do system recovery to get new DVD writer"
By this point I am now seeing red. Now I am sorry, this product was $1500 of my money, it is only eight months old and I barely ever use the drive. It is still under warranty, but unless I spend my time and money or unless I am willing to lose all my informtion I can't get it fixed under the warranty!!! So you ask how did this end....Well at this very moment they are putting gi-normous red lettering ...Psyco Bitch, talk to with caution!!! all over my file.
So I call the closest computer place and ask how much for a backup....$66.99. So I have to pay $66.99 or lose my info to get this fixed under warranty. And what are they going to repair it with ...someone else's repaired piece of sh*t. Oh and here is the catcher, I look up Lite-On DVD writer/CD writer combo (which is what is in my computer now) at http://www.bizrate.com and I can get one *new* for $35.00.....Hmmmmm what is wrong here? I think I will just buy an external one and write a nice long letter in English and hope they understand they are all a**holes! No wonder they offer you the extended warranty mid-stream. If you wait to the end and find out the one you have is worthless who would extend it.

More dye jobs to document

So I know what I did next year I will write this out. I will of course not add measurements as I never measure, but at least I have the general idea of how I got what I got.

I redid the pokeberry dye. I clipped the berry branches into a steamer about 3/4 full. I added about 3 inches of water and put them on the side burner of the grill. I let them cook for about 20 minutes on low. I let them sit overnight. This AM I strained it, added some salt and a glug of vinegar. Then I added some white cormo wool, the fleshy color from yesterday, and some gray mohair roving. I put that on the burner on low and left the lid off for about 30 minutes. I let it cool down and then put on some gloves and rinsed it. And this is what I got...
The white is on the left, fleshy in the middle and the gray on the right. I love the way the gray came out. I took more gray roving, wrapped it from my hand to my elbow and put the one end in the pot to soak and left the other end out. Tomorrow I will see what it looks like and maybe simmer it for a bit to add more color if needed.
Then I was still in dye mode so I took some of the gray mohair and used food coloring...
I love the results. This picture makes it look real bright and it isn't. It came out teal, green, bronze metallic-y looking. The man says it looks like chrome illusion paint for cars. I said it looks like oil on the road when it has just rained. Whatever you want to call it I will try to make more of this.

Now I guess I should get spinning some of this. I finally realized I had more than one bobbin even though they sit right in front of me so now I have no excuse. In knitting news I finished one of the sideways gloves. Hopefully I can finish the other tonight.

Dyeing to find out if it worked!

Okay instead of spinning yesterday, I reorganized the knit stuff and looked thru patterns to find what I want to do in the coming weeks. I also messed with some more dye.

First was the kool-aid dye. I took lemon-lime and added water and a glog of vinegar in the bottom of a jar. I added some gray mohair roving and then mixed the grape kool-aid with water and vinegar and added that to the top. Here is what it looked like in the jar...

And after it had sucked all the dye out of the water and was rinsed it looked like this..

And here is the goldenrod...
Boiled, strained, alum added to dye pot, dry cormo added while still hot and left to sit all day and night. After rinsing this AM this is what I had

When I was done hanging out the goldenrod cormo, I took some of the gray mohair and added that to the left over goldenrod dye pot. This picture doesn't do it justice as the red plastic Folgers can is changing the color in the pic. It actually came out a nice green color and I like it.I would show you a pic of it when it was done but the green doesn't show up in the picture I took.

Then I did the pokeberry. I clipped the berry branches off into a pan, then boiled them. I strained it and added salt to the brew and added dry cormo roving and this is what it looked like. I let that sit all day and night and this AM I checked it and when I squeezed a little bit the roving was just slightly pink. I dyed lincoln last year and it came out gorgeous but I remember that I simmered it so I simmered this and still only got this...

Then I went and got some Hopi Red Dye Amaranth. I didn't use this last year but I replanted this year just in case. So I saw it when I walked into the garden and thought okay we are going to do something with this instead of it just taking up room in the garden. I tried calling Cyndi because she has used this before but she wasn't home so being impatient me I fudged it... I cut the flowers and stems into pieces and put them on to boil. I poured off a gallon and added alittle more water and let that boil. Then I started thinking about the alum they recommended for the goldenrod and the vinegar they recommend for the plants. So I put vinegar in the first jar and alum in the second and added the dry cormo. The left jar is the second cooking with alum and the right jar is the first cooking with vinegar. This AM they didn't look like they were accepting the color so I decided to simmer them and this is what I got with the vinegar - it ended up looking like butternut (which I liked) and with alum it ended up looking like a pale flesh color. I don't like it so we will overdye that one. I went and clipped more pokeberry and boiled that up. Tomorrow I will try to get the same color that I got last year. I think I will add the salt and vinegar this time. I guess I should have documented it but that ranks right up there with swatching!!! I guess I like banging my head into the wall!

Time passing

Yesterday at the kids soccer game my mother told me that 9/16 would have been her 50th wedding anniversary had my father still been alive. Later that afternoon as we were driving to my daughters house I was looking out and seeing the leaves that have already changed color and I started thinking of that and time passing. Just yesterday my father was alive, I had no kids, I was just starting to plant the garden...or at least it seems like yesterday. I think of the past 42 years and how fast they seem to have gone but seem like they haven't moved quickly at all. Then I remembered reading this....

In a race against time…
Quickly! Must leave
As much of myself behind

so then my mind went in that direction...do we spin, crochet, knit, weave, create so that something of us will be left behind? I think we do. I keep telling my mother to make a baby outfit and afghan for each of her grandkids to have for their first child so in case she is not here, there will be a piece of her for the next generation. Then they will know about her.

My youngest daughter keeps taking all the gloves I make. She looses them all the time and I said why do you take them if you are only going to loose them, I will go buy you some at Walmart and won't care if you loose them. To which she replies because you made them and I want to be close to you. I can't argue with that....we could of course ask why she keeps loosing them but we won't go there.

So in my effort to leave a piece of myself behind, I made this for my oldest daughters friends child. My daughter looked at the last sweater and said it wouldn't fit so I made a different one. Their family hunts and so I knit him a camo

sweater and then crocheted him a vest and hat to go over it. Hopefully it will fit him. I dropped it off yesterday.

The kids lost their soccer game but we did have some of this

which we haven't had in a week. That there is blue sky, not much but I will take what I can get!!! Today is suppose to be nice so I decided to dye some roving. I did a one gallon jar of kool aid dye in green and purple on the gray mohair roving. Then I boiled up some golden rod, strained it, added some alum (yes I know I should have mordanted the wool in the alum) and put in some cormo roving while it was still hot. Then I boiled up some pokeberry. I held the pot under the bush and clipped the branch of berries into the pot. Then I added some water and boiled it. I strained it, added some salt and then the cormo roving while it was still hot. Will this work...I don't know but I will take pics.

Now I am off to finish spinning the silk I got from Cyndi. Later hopefully the sheep and goat will be dry enough to shear before it rains more. Oh one more thing....Today is my elder sisters birthday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Now if she would just update her blog!

My Alone Time

The kids were in school, the man is in VA for the NASCAR race and I was so blissfully alone for 8 hours. It is not often that I have this much alone time. Sadly I had a ton of things to do and couldn't just sit and knit.
The little man went and had both tubes in his ears replaced yesterday. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to have this done. Him and I both still sound awful when we cough. I finally went to the Dr. and yes we both had brochitis. When I was talking to the hair dresser while they were getting their hair cut for school, she said she is on her third prescription for brochitis and that it won't go away. I hope this is not like hers because I hate to take medicine.

So what has been going on....
We made elderberry jelly with all those elderberries I had picked. Then I got some more (what the birds hadn't gotten) from my usual spot and I made 6 pints of syrup for pancakes/french toast this afternoon.
I made some spaghetti sauce the other day and froze it. Today I made salsa as we go thru alot of salsa. It came out sweet before the heat hits. I didn't add sugar so it has to be the tomatoes because the spaghetti sauce was a little sweet. I am using Amish Paste, Early Girl, Better Boy and Beefsteak. There are alot of tomatoes out there so tomorrow I am going to have to just put some thru the squeezo and freeze it to catch up. That way I can deal with it when I have the time.
I made some blackberry wine to which I had to add more sugar today. There are still more blackberries and I was going to leave them all for the birds but then this morning I went and saw them all there and so because there was a bucket sitting there so handy like I picked enough to make blackberry cordial. If my sister ever gets around to updating her blog I might send her some because she really liked it last time I made it.

We got rid of all the male ducks that we hatched and the two little roosters and traded them for six hens which should start laying soon. The resident chickens are moulting and the eggs are few and far between.


We bought two steer which have been grass fed and now will get fattened up until mid October when we will take them to the butcher. The man is keeping them on his farm for us and we are buying the grain that they will be eating for the next 6 weeks. He said why move them when he has the space, how can I argue with that. I know we can sell 1/2 if not a whole one to the same people we sold half the angus to, but we still might have to buy another freezer as we have the pigs to do in November.
I have found time to knit. I knit a cardigan for the son of my daughters friend. He is two. I hope it fits as I am not a big swatch person. I know you are suppose to but I usually just go ahead with the pattern and hope for the best. I also started a seamless raglan done from the top down. I am about at the point where you would take the sleeve stitches and put them on holders. I should be able to get to that point tonight. It would be nice to finish it this weekend so I can spin. I am really itching to spin as I haven't in over a month.

The Wee Aran Knit

I FINISHED IT!!!! I am really excited about this as it is the first sweater I have ever done. Yes I know it is small but you have to start some where. It took about ten days of knitting here and there. I thought I might set it aside if the cables got to be a pain but there was just enough to keep me wanting to get to the next X or the next O finished.

I finished knitting it last night and today after the little man's doctor's appointment I kitchnered the underarms and tied in the ends. I didn't do it the way it is suppose to be done because I got to the short row wraps and my eyes glazed over and my head began to spin. I asked my mother and Cyndy and they couldn't help and I don't know any one else other than those two that would know how to do it. So being me (ever so slightly impatient) I knew it had to be decreased so I started decreasing the double seed stitch area's during the last 3 decreases (Row 23, 35, & 27 I think) and then decreased evenly some more on the purl round and then did the rows of ribbing. Will it fit? I don't know I don't have anyone to try it on. I kept saying I am knitting it for my grandson. I don't have grandkids and my older children didn't get the hint as they don't want kids now and the younger one's are too young.

Little man has bronchitis and his doctor said I should go see mine because it sounds like I have it also...and here I thought it was just allergies. So he is on meds to get better before he has to have his tubes done otherwise we have to reschedule that.

#1 daughter has decided (after one day) that nowshe doesn't want to go to college...after everything we did to get her in last minute...zippppp That was me zipping my mouth shut. I am making her up soups to freeze for her new apartment so she doesn't starve or go in debt to the fast food places. What I am really doing it is expending all that mouth energy that I am keeping zipped up in the kitchen. I got chili and chicken tortellini soup done so far and I am starting the stuffed green pepper soup now. She called last night with requests for jars of salsa, pickles, jelly and jams. I guess I was delusional when I thought it got easier when they got older.

I love the country life

I have to say, I love the country life. Every once in a while you have to take a moment and realize how good you have it. Yesterday was one of those days.

It was raining in the morning and we thought we would be stuck inside but it stopped and we decided to go back to the secret spot to get those elderberries. The man and kids fished while I went for a walk. Came upon this and wondered what happened to make this live branch fall.
Went down to check it out and saw that lightning hit the tree and cracked it right down the trunk. It must have made a heck of a noise.
It had rained earlier in the morning so we thought that maybe instead of just fishing we would be catching. Well we did...







Not much meat on those bones! We did end up catching four nice size ones to bring home.

Yes I know there are only three in the picture it was taken before we caught the last one. By the time we walked out of the woods it was 4:15 and we were all starved. We got home and cooked up two of those fish and gave the others to the neighbor.

We spent the night watching tv, knitting and getting all those berries of their stems. The perfect end to a really good day.

Got up this morning and extracted the juice from the elderberries. I should be making the jelly now but we have a soccer game to go to so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now I am going to learn how to do short row wraps or that baby sweater will never get done.

The past week

Monday started with the weather man telling us there were only 125 days till Christmas. He said "it" was here. He meant this.... which I saw when we went fishing at the "secret spot" which you get to only by going over the river and thru the woods. I love it back here except for the rattlesnakes.

While there I found hazelnut, highbush cranberry and elderberry!!! As they fished I got all the ripe elderberry and we are going back tomorrow for the rest of what is there. We will have to wait for the hazelnut and highbush cranberry. We saw the fish (but sadly went hungry as nobody caught any) and we saw frogs and little man scared an eagle away when he fell in. The man picked me a flower. Gotta love him he puts up with so much from me and my kids and keeps asking for more...he must be mentally unstable!!!

Monday night we took the chickens and turkeys up to the butcher.

We did the turkeys ourselves one year but we were slow and it is so much easier to pay this old couple that do it for extra money. Their place is immaculate and they have all the equipment. They charge $2/bird and you drop them off one night and pick them up all wrapped the next day.

Helped #1 daughter shop for things for her new apartment and paint some on Tuesday. Today we went to her college and got everything ready for her to start on Monday. When I finally got in and sat down the younger two started yelling to come see....The Goodyear Blimp was flying over. I don't know where it was going but the kids thought it was cool.

I haven't spun anything lately but I have been working on the Wee Aran Knit
and today I joined the sleeves to the body. Not the best picture but you get the idea. I would love to have it done this weekend but canning and soccer will come first. The tomatoes are coming in and need to be dealt with along with those elderberry.

Canning Season

Canning season is here... We did two batches of Onion Reilish on Monday, did 22 pints of grape jelly and did all the chopping for two batches of pickle relish on Tuesday, Mom did the last two batches of grape jelly and two batches of Bread and Butter pickles Wednesday morning while I was picking blackberries and then we finished the Pickle Relish which was soaking for 24 hours.
We are freezing the blackberries and we will do them all at once when we feel like it!
Took little man to the Ear Nose and Throat Dr yesterday and his one tube is falling out so they are going to remove it and insert another. He is happy because they scheduled this for the day after school starts so he will miss the second day of school.
I finished the little afghan I was making #2 daughter and I am starting the Wee Aran Project found here.... http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit/ck-patterns/wee.aran/ This will be the first sweater I have ever done so wish me luck. I don't have anyone in mind for this except some future grandchild maybe but I know I would never finish a large version. I will get a picture of the progress next post. I also finished one of a pair of mittens for a child, possible Christmas present we shall see.
Tonight we have soccer practice and a friend and her two girls are coming over. We plan to camp out in the field. Campfire and smores here we come.

I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz...

I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz….Although Puerto Rico was great, for me there is no place like home. We stayed in a townhouse in Palmas Del Mar which was gorgeous (Thanks Julie & Rick), we ate, drank and explored but I am glad to be home.

Luckily the tropical storm went north and we missed it so the plane ride was uneventful. The most terrifying thing was the ride from the airport to the townhouse. Think New York City traffic on acid…I think every car down there has a dent or scrap or is missing a light. They blare their horns at you when you fail to run a red light but they are very nonchalant about you cutting them off.

On Thursday we went to Fort San Cristobal which stands guard over Old San Juan. The fort covers 27 acres…it was raining so needless to say we didn’t cover all 27! We then walked through Old San Juan where the streets are made out of the ballast that was on the ships from Spain. We were going to take a ferry to the Bacardi factory but were told that there was no bus from the ferry to the factory so we drove there. Tour is free and so are the two drinks per person!!!! After that we went to the mall where a group of artists got together and opened a store. My sister wanted me to see the bobbin laceworker. She did absolutely beautiful work. In an insane moment I thought of buying the kit to try bobbin lace but quickly remembered I am an instantaneous gratification type of person and that bobbin lace and I would never make it.

On Friday we drove up into the mountains. We stopped and shopped and had lunch at an outdoor pig roast. We stopped and had drinks at roadside bars, which are all over the place. At the top we stopped for dinner at a restaurant with it’s own outside bar which had an awesome view. We sat outside and ate and drank pina colada’s.

Saturday we went to my sister’s house. She invited friends over and we spent the day relaxing and went back to the townhouse after dinner.

Sunday we sent the man out on the dock to fish. He had a pelican trying to tell him how to do it but he must not have listened as he didn't catch a thing. We walked the beach and watched him fish then went to the casino to give away our money.








Monday we were to go to the caves but they were closed so we went to Ponce. We drove to the summit of El Vigia Hill, where scouts once scanned for attacking ships. We couldn’t go up in La Cruz del Vigia, a 100-foot observation tower












because although Ponce is a dry and arid area it poured while we were there. We did get to go on a tour of Castillo Serralles which was the residence of the makers of Don Q rum (it's beautiful)









and saw Ponce’s fire department. Then we went back to the casino and actually walked out about breaking even over the two times we were there.

Tuesday we left Puerto Rico and returned H-O-M-E!!! We picked up the kids on Wednesday, got into the garden and picked then went to the fair. Thursday we spent the day grocery shopping, buying feed and doing laundry and Friday was berry picking and the kids going to their friends or having them come over.

I would have more pictures but my computer is not reading the cd's I have them on. They play on the dvd player but not my computer and the computer is only 8 months old...

I did get to knit a pair of mittens during my time there and on the planes. It was kinda strange sitting on a tropical island knitting wool mittens but this morning you almost needed them!! It was 40 degrees and they say it will be colder tonight. Oh I also got books for my b-day...I got a knitting encyclopedia which I can't remember the name of and my mother currently is looking through, I got Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook and the Yarn Harlots Knitting Rules. I haven't had time to get into them yet except the Knitting Rules which I read a little of on the plane.

Today we need to pick more blackberries, the grapes and dig up the potatoes and then tonight I will wonder why I am ready for bed at 8!!

On the way to Puerto Rico!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay I decided to update before we leave for Puerto Rico, so here it goes….

The Garden…the peas are still coming in, broccoli is still producing side shoots, cabbages are heading up nicely, the beans need picking every two days, the cucumbers are coming in, the corn is boob high and the assorted squash, pumpkin, melons are looking good but not producing yet. The tomatoes are loaded and hopefully will wait until we get back. The potatoes are struggling..we had a major infestation of potato bugs and we thought we had them licked when all of a sudden they came back again, as there were too many we resorted to chemical means to get rid of them and hopefully break the cycle on the garden. The blackberries are loaded and the thornless ones are just starting to turn. We have friends that are going to pick them for us while we are gone so we don’t loose this years jam/cordial crop. The thorned ones that run for about 100 yards in the back field are already black. We picked some of them yesterday.

The little barn by the house…the baby ducks are adorable and are getting big. If I could find someone to butcher a duck I would send a couple out but nobody does it anymore and I don’t want to dry pick them. The chickens and turkeys that we bought as meat birds are going to the butcher when we get home. We lost two baby ducks and three chickens to what we first thought was a fox but now know was a bobcat as we saw him and chased him away. He was easier to chase away than this big guy would be. This bear we saw on the way into town but we have one hanging around here dumping over everyones trash cans.

The big barn….The pigs are annoying. This years pigs keep getting out, they don’t go no where they just don’t want to be confined! We are thinking that 6 is maybe two too many.
The finn sheep from Grace are growing so pretty- they have the most incredible eyes. We recently added to the menagerie by getting a Romanov yearling wether. He is black and silver and will look so pretty mixed with the mohair from Storm. The guy I got him from gave me his fleece to play with. He also gave me some fleece from all of his sheep…rambouillets, cheviots, Jacob, Shetland and Suffolk. He just raises them for meat and sale and doesn’t take the time to keep them clean. Mary and I went through the 17 feed bags of fleece and came out with enough to fill six bags and threw the rest.
The roosters are too many and we will be sending some of them up to the butcher also. The fox hasn’t been a problem so far this year (knock on wood) as we put a 6 foot fence around everything. I will definitely have to get new chicks next year.
Once when the pigs got out they got into the chicken coop and ate the eggs that the duck was setting on so we don’t have new ducks up there.

The fiber area…I don’t know if I posted that I finished the wool from Grace, I spun up two bobbins of the mohair and plied that and I crocheted two afghans for a friends grandkids. That's them in the picture. I am now working on mittens as I was told that you can take bamboo needles on the plane as the scanner doesn’t pick them up but to have a project started already.

The house…we have had a set back on the house. These complications stopped progress until people could come, different scenario’s worked out etc. The problems have been fixed now and now we are leaving. Hopefully we will come back refreshed and ready to go but after listening to this mornings weather we might not make it there. As my luck would have it there is a minor disturbance which popped up out of the ocean last night and became a tropical storm (Chris) at 5 am. The projected path has it hitting the east coast of Puerto Rico at 2 pm Wednesday….my plane lands at 3. If the weather doesn’t ruin it we have plans for the rum factory (!!!!!!!) a trip up to the mountains and into the caves planned right now. My sister is calling my mother no stop….I think she is excited! I packed the recharger so I will have plenty of pics on my return.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!

There is so much to update and being it is Independence Day we will start with this….#1 Daughter came home from Iraq. The adjustment from military life to home life has been a little rough. After her life being put on hold for a year and a half she doesn’t seem to know where to start to pick it back up. But it is great to see her every day.

The flood of 2006 didn’t affect us personally but did a job on the area. It will be awhile before some of the roads open. Last time it took over 6 months for this one road to open and only a shoulder was washed away. This time both sides of the road is washed away in certain spots leaving just enough for people living on the road to at least get in and out.

The garden is getting full, we have tomatoes bigger than marbles, the potatoes are in bloom, the beans are in bloom, the cucumbers should be able to be picked today. I am waiting on the broccoli which doesn’t seem to be doing anything but getting leaves. Cyndy is already getting broccoli and has been kind enough to share! Not wht was this is going to work is that everything is going to start coming in the week we are in Puerto Rico!

The kids did the week of boy scout camp and had a blast. Luckily it didn’t rain while they were in camp.

On the little farm the new finn sheep from Grace are settled in. The pigs are getting bigger. The one duck hatched out 10 little babies and another is setting. The hen has so far hatched 4 and has more eggs under her. The turkeys are getting big and follow you around looking for treats. I am going to breed the Saanen this fall and I was thinking of breeding the finn too. I think I have to wait on that till Spring because of their age.

In fiber, I was doing a fair isle hat but started to do the pattern in reverse color from where I started and so I have to rip it out. I was holding the yarn in two hands! I don’t do it the exact way the video at Philosphers Wool says but I get it done in my own weird way. I have knit up little things and crocheted little capes for a friends grandkids but nothing major. I got back my mohair from Storm which I had washed and carded with some border Leicester that I had. It is so soft and gray. But I have decided that I need to finish one before I start on another fiber. I finished the Jacob fleece and I am finishing the finn/alpaca from Grace and then I will start on the mohair. It is hell being good!

Notice I haven’t mentioned the house…I am taking a cue from Thumper …If you can’t say nothing nice don’t say nothing at all!!!”