Farm Day!

I got to go up to Nettie's house outside of Woodland and learn how she makes her Dilly Beans. I got to try them from Lisa a couple years ago at June Faire.

I helped with picking all the ripe things in the garden. Seeing the chicks and the ducklings. Turning around to find that I was being stalked by the young turkeys, they're curious birds. Meeting the sheep and the goats.

Then we worked on the dilly beans! Once you fill up the jars with the beans and onions and garlic and spices, you put them jars in the sink that has been filled with hot water. That way when you add the hot brine it doesn't break the jars. We ended up having to make a second batch of brine to fill all the jars. You pop the lids on as soon as the jar is filled with brine and you don't have to process the jars.

While the jars were cooling down we tried to go pick blackberries but where she thought they were plentiful, they turned out to be gone. The deer probably enjoyed them. ;-)

It was a lovely day spent talking and working together. I look forward to going up and visiting again. She was so generous that she sent me home with a bag of frozen blackberries so I can still make jam. I had brought a few jars of canned stuff, one of them some duck broth. There were some jams and some canned soups - turkey and chicken.

First - Brandon's birthday socks. I likes them and wears them to keep his feet warm. They're house socks.

He's shy of the camera, but has some incredible bat wing ears

I turn around and the turkey is just there!

Nettie feeding some of the goats and sheep

Can you find the four chicks in the photo?

He likes having his photo taken

This is his girlfriend, she doesn't mind either

She's preggers

He's all alone and used to having the other chicks with him. So he started calling for them. 

There are the Yoda ears!

Everybody out of the pool! The young ducklings

Bits and Bobs

Thursday evening, SCA friend Dafne walked down with her dogs Homer and Tige to introduce them to Leeloo and Norbert. We were testing the waters to find out if Homer and Tige could stay at our house for West War.

I was so busy keeping an eye on the interactions I was lucky I was able to get one picture:

Tige playing with Leeloo

Norbert got in Homer and Tige's faces a couple of times. Dafne thinks that he would do fine with another visit. Leeloo did really well with both of them. She even played chase with Tige for a few minutes.

With the construction going on behind us, and they often work until 7pm or later, I'm missing some of the changes in my backyard. I almost missed one of my daylillies:

Love that rich red!

I found a white half sheet and put it down in the living room and took some pics of the handspun Barn Raising Blocks in a nine-patch setup. Meaning I tried to group the colors in groups of nine with similar colors.

All of the blocks

Top row: Blues on left, Greens on right

Middle row: Naturals on left, Purples on right

Bottom row: Oranges on left (need two more!), Blues/Purples on right

I think that I want to do the quilt idea of outlining the blocks in a color. I had thought black, but think that white might be better? The three rows of nine patches is long enough for a blanket, but two columns isn't wide enough unless I want to keep it as a couch blanket. If possible, I'd like it bigger!

47 blocks done.

Meet Meme!

Nicole came over with Meme, a two year old spayed Pug-Miniature Pinscher. She has a pretty severe underbite issue where her bottom teeth show, but it doesn't inhibit her eating at all!

Nicole and Meme in her Angel Shirt (it has wings.)

Meme in one of Leeloo's t-shirts

That spot in the grass that smells good enough to roll around in....

Checking that Leeloo is just watching and not going to try to take her spot...

Doggie bliss

Meme came to stay a week with us to see if she and Leeloo would play with each other. Leeloo tried really hard but at first Meme's barking scared her and then they both just kind of shutdown around each other. Norbert kind of snarked at her over food issues and so she spent much of the week snuggled up against me sleeping. Leeloo would come bark at her and bring toys to try to get her to play and when she was ignored, bark at me in frustration - Make her play with ME!

Brandon also stuck to his rule of only two dogs that we own, so since it wasn't a perfect fit, Meme went back to Nicole. Nicole picked her back up from me Friday night and we could all see how happy Meme was to see her again. She's back where she belongs. Though if the perfect home became available, Nicole would let that happen. Meme has a luxating patella in her right knee. It doesn't pain her or really slow her down. She just lifts it up and goes on with the other three. Meme would make an awesome agility dog, if she had the surgery done. It's not something that Nicole has the money for, and since there isn't pain, not a priority.

Norbert showing off his fresh haircut

Does that look like the face of a 9-1/2 year old dog?

She loves her back yard

Meme is a smidge taller than Leeloo, she's all legs!

Little puppy baking in the sun

Hair in the face, showing mom she needs a trim. She loves laying out on the patio in the sun for a bit while waiting for a bird to chase out of her yard.

Leeloo has been very affectionate since Meme has left. I'm not sure if she's trying to show me how happy she is that things are back to 'normal', or if she's worried that she might 'go away' too. Lots of kisses and requests to snuggle on my chest. 

Listening to nature

I've become inured to some of the sounds of our wildlife. The jays with their brash braying, often when they've become used to feasting at the feeder and its empty - fill the damn thing you lazy human! Sometimes they are complaining about the squirrel invading their hazelnut territory and there's some mutual chittering back at them.

The woodpeckers with their call to each other, we have a family of them living in the hazelnut orchard behind us. In the spring the young will try out the area just above the gutters on the roof to see if they can build their next home nearby. Tap, tap, tap.

I think the mourning doves have increased in population but since I can never get them to visit all at once I'm not sure. I like their cooing they do. Cooo, cooo, cooo.

We've had young hawks in the area trying to hunt the doves but they are rare and those noisy jays help dissuade them from lingering for long.

Since we've moved the computers away from the back of the house, mine does sit next to a window and I hear some of the birds with it open, I don't see the robins and the nuthatches or chickadees unless I stand at the kitchen window and look out. I had noticed that this morning that I was hearing a repetitive call from someone but it wasn't truly sinking into my early morning mind (I'm not a morning person people!). Brandon and William had already left and Nessa hadn't yet started her 'fish tv' and I was going to start counting the wraps on my swift for the Embarrassment of Riches yarn. I startled a Blue Heron out of the backyard, it was actually a mutual startling.

It of course had also started sprinkling and I'm still in night clothes but there I am pushing aside plants to try and find/count our fish. Luckily they were smart and keeping under cover of the plants or in the case of the smaller ones shoving themselves under the bio-filter. I think I'll finally get that brick house for them that I've been asking Brandon to put in since that's one of the suggestions I've found this morning.

I think we'll be making/purchasing a 'deer chaser' (Japanese version is Shishi-Odoshi) to our pond. We do have an extra pond pump so that won't be a problem. I get to do research locating one in the area.

Apparently heron's are pretty smart. You can't get a decoy and plop it next to your pond and be safe. If you try it you have to move it around. There's the 'scarecrow' method which really isn't a scarecrow but a motion detecting (yeah right with dogs this would be smart) system that then makes a loud noise and sprays water in a 90 degree arc. Mary, the nice lady we got our gold fish from had this netting system over her pond. Not terribly attractive in our opinion and truthfully I had wondered about it. The neighbors were asking about raccoons and we haven't seen those in the years since we've had the fence up and the dogs. Throw in a dog door that allows easy access to the backyard and the dogs hear anything out of the ordinary (yes, they failed this morning with the heron) and they're taking up the 'charge!' to go bark the snot out of anything stupid enough to cross the barrier. No, I can't help if there are suicidal squirrels or cats, though both species seem to have an impressive ability to go vertical when needed.

So the moral of this story is to listen when nature is trying to smack you upside of the head with a wake up call.

ETA: Brandon got home and put a brick they had found last night in the pond and we did a tail count and only found 5. One of the orange fish is gone. It was one of the one's with a white tail, darn it.

worst day for a migraine

Today has got to be one of the worst ones for having a migraine. Neighbors letting off noisy ear drum piercing fireworks, okay they've been pretty good and with dusk starting it's starting to get noisy.

I think though with full dark and the neighborhood display that I will go back to the bedroom and continue reading Kim Harrison's Outlaw Demon Wails. The flash of fireworks would not set well and since I have also been strangely nauseous today with the migraine, not something I want to unbalance further.

Migraine does not equal knitting. Too difficult to concentrate well on stitches. Sigh. I also haven't done any of the planned work on my drop spindles so I can start trying them out for Tour de Fleece.

Speaking of Tour de Fleece, yesterday I must have had the precursor for my migraine because I totally missed that it goes through the month of July. I was thinking it was only three days. Oh well, this does allow me to improve. I have my two slivers and I've checked - Stitch Jones has at least one or two rovings that I like the colors of and she's local. I can arrange to drive over and pick one or two up. I could also get a hold of Carrissa Marie for one of hers too. Her punk pink and purple/black looks cool.

Dogs and I are off to the back bedroom....

knitting, spindles-stitchmarkers, yarn, swaps & dogs-

Knitting - I've finished my Yarn Harlot inspired socks - Lacy Mock Cables, started anklets based off of the pattern "Express Lane" and also started my Shaun the Sheep. I just have to put his legs on and do his 'knitting' project and he'll be done. I also made a kitty for Jenna's first birthday. She had fun playing with it. You can check out photos here and here. I'm going to do one for Bailey, so have it started also. Need to finish that second anklet soon though!

Spindles & Stitchmarkers - let's see....I acquired the dowels of various sizes. Then stained them. Marked them to the size I thought they should be so Brandon could cut them. Sanded the ends. Brandon then used an epoxy to attach the stone donuts to the dowels. The next step is to apply a finish to the dowels and again with Brandon's help attach a wire hook. A little longer process than first thought but hopefully others will also think they look nice. I have some photos of some of the stone donuts, and the current state of the spindles here. At the same location are some pictures of stitchmarkers that I made recently. Some are being gifted and some are a reuse of former bead earrings I had made.

Yarn - I finally have photos and space on Flickr for my Knit Pick Summer Sampler packs I bought, so they are in my stash. I added in the Shibui sock yarn (wyvern socks), the Habu bamboo (cleopatra wrap), and Malabrigo Lace (falling water scarf) from my inventory $$ at Knit/Purl. Okay, a good portion of the Shibui I paid for but the other two were totally inventory money. Knit/Purl has been using volunteers to help them with their inventory of the store. I had fun doing it three different times and have the yarn/roving to show for it too.

Swaps - I have participated in my first swap. I sent a package of items to a lady in Denmark. Hopefully she'll like them. We had a $15 cap, that I went a little over. Which kind of made up for the postage that it took to send it - $24. Oh my! That after spending just a few dollars to send the Blanket Buddy to Belgium. It might have been the little jewelry box I used to put the stitch markers in. Live and Learn.

Dogs - Nessa is doing much better. I still need to have her blood re-checked but our vet $$ have gone to Norbert this month. He had been having an allergy reaction to a food I tried and that caused an 'aural hematoma' on his other ear. We tried treating it ourselves but it quickly became apparent it wasn't going away on its own. So a trip into the vet who said that she needed to do surgery and use buttons to get it to heal was the only way to go. Yes, buttons like on your clothes, go figure. Plus his teeth in the last year have gotten bad due to the kibble, or he could have been hiding those back teeth from me. So that meant a teeth cleaning, and a check of a tooth that had enamel missing from it being broken. Thankfully not broken to the point of needing to remove the tooth. He also has molars that didn't grow completely and are smaller than normal and soft so those had to be checked. End result, no teeth removed, but now clean. He's hiding out in the soft crate with his 'cone of doom' with 2pts for annoyance. Norbert I'm sure is thinking of it as the 'cone of shame'.

I need to finish eating my dinner that mom called in the middle of and then feed the dogs and go from there. Just happy to finally have all the photos taken care of and some updates at Ravelry with the projects and yarns.

knitting, plants, beads and prom

We were up early enough to arrive at the Tualatin Valley Garden Club plant sale and purchase some large tomato plants. Last year by the time we got there, there were a few of the larger tomatoes, luckily a couple of the Romas I like to plant. Brandon picked out a third one that I can't remember the name of to add to the two Romas I picked up. We also from that vendor got a pumpkin, crook neck squash, green zucchini, colossal pepper, egg plant, anaheim chili, and giant jalapeno. There are a few other plants for the yard but for the most part we held back from making any purchases for things in the yard. I want to do a major revamp of flower beds so it didn't make sense to buy anything when I'm not sure where they would live.

From there we went into the Gem Faire that was in the building close to the plant sale at the fairgrounds. Brandon found some coins he can string and make a bracelet that he has been wanting. I found a a nice selection of stone donuts that I can make into drop spindles. I do need to make a few additional purchases before they can be put to work though. I don't have any pictures of them yet, but I'll post when they are available. I also found a nice selection of size 6 beads that I can use with knitting. My bead needle broke so I'll have to get a new one of those too. With the beads I was able to get I think I figured out $32 worth of beads for $17. Pretty good savings!

I also checked out the new location of Kathy's Knit Korner. They were supposed to be having a Grand Re-opening sale but the two skeins of yarn I purchased weren't given any sale price and I didn't see any signs on particular yarns to know if I should have asked about it or not. I was also disappointed that no one could answer my questions about the cotton-soy blend. No one knew if there was a smell issue with the soy or not, I thought I had read somewhere about it possibly being smelly with body heat. Since I was planning to use the yarn for a couple more Scalloped Edge Beaded Necklaces as gifts, I didn't want 'smell' to be part of the gift.

Sunday morning Will mowed the lawns, Brandon got the veggies planted and I attacked the weeds in the flower beds in the back yard. Brandon too attacked the weeds and mistook my day lily as a weed. I'm now owed a day lily replacement. We just now need to get some bark dust for the flower beds after I decide what is staying and what is going. I suspect there are a number of things going or moving. The rosemary didn't fare well over the winter and it is gone.

Will and I met Luke and Jyneal over at Men's Warehouse for tux rentals. They are both dateless through no fault of their own except waiting too long to ask a girl who didn't already have a date. It does make it a cheaper event for them though. Will went with a red vest and tie and Luke with a navy vest and tie. They'll both look pretty snazzy. Prom is next Saturday at the Melody Ballroom downtown. Jyneal offered the boys the use of her car since they don't have dates, so they'll just have the joy of trying to find parking in that area.

Today and tomorrow I'm subbing at Evergreen Middle School as their In-school Suspension officer. Means I get to watch kids how got in trouble but not enough to have a parent come get them. I knew it was going to have the potential to be terribly boring so brought along a book and my sock. I did get a lot of work done on the sock as well as a lot of pages read in my book. I may even get the sock done tomorrow, so I'll have to be sure to bring my written instructions for kitchener stitch with me.

Tonight Brandon is going with Sean to finally see Ironman. Will and Luke went on Friday as part of a group. Luke went again on Saturday with his parents, and Will went again on Sunday with his dad. I have had absolutely no interest in seeing it, so frustrated Brandon. I told him I'm totally signed up for the new Indy movie later in the month though. I have a Grad Nite Party meeting - graduation is a month away!!! Plus Will wants a haircut before prom, so it's a busy evening all round. I'm even going to try to squeeze in a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs tonight if Brandon is up to it after the movie.

I forgot that I was supposed to have an author start at the beginning of the month. I tried adding her to the group last night and sending out a welcome post, but nothing else has been posted to the list. This is a popular author so I need to check in with her. I also still need to read a few dog books that have come in to be reviewed. Sigh. It interferes with knitting. ;^)