Monthly Archives: January 2013

by

Pieces of Eight

Yesterday, we adopted a cute little Nigerian Dwarf wether. He is five-months old and cute as can be!

Goat 1

He is so dang tiny! The Hound is nearly as tall as the tiny goat. I haven’t picked him up, so I’m not sure how much he weighs; but it can’t be much.

Goat 2

The children said that he was sneezing green snot, after we got him home. I didn’t see any snot, but I did see him sneeze. This morning, his nose seems clear and dry. We’ll keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t have a cold or get pneumonia. He is eating and drinking just fine, and when I checked on him after getting up this morning, he was laying under the manger (on top of the fallen hay) chewing his cud. He seems to be as active as he should be. So, I’m not too worried.

Goat 3

He doesn’t have a name… You might be able to see the tag on his collar. He is number 8. I’m kind of partial to the name Moose, myself… Any ideas?

by

Get a Job!

I have been out of work since September. I’ve put in over 100 resumes and/or applications and have had several interviews, but no luck… Until now!

Today was my first day at my new job. I am the new Marketing Director for a local resort-town property management company. Let me tell you, I am pleased as punch!

Decent money, nice title and my own (tiny) office! I couldn’t be happier!

by

Humbug!

So, I started making an afghan, on my new sweater machine. I just wanted to get to know it, nothing fancy. Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn in pink and brown. Stripes of different widths… No muss, no fuss. Pure stockinette heaven.

Because I only have one machine, I can only work with 120 needles at one time. No worries. I’d make three strips and sew them together.

I got strip number one finished last evening. It only took me a few hours to machine-knit 300+ rows. I was quite impressed! My back was hurting at the end of it all and I decided to stop for the night.

After a bit of internet surfing, I went in and made some changes to my work space (which had been commandeered from my dresser top) and cleaned things up. I got it all neat and tidy and organized. Just the way I like my work space!

Today I go in and begin on the second afghan strip and wouldn’t you know it… I had problems from the first row. Well, evidently, in the course of attempting to knit, I broke one of my keyplates. The #4 keyplate, which is the smallest plate that works well with worsted-weight yarn. Incidentally, it is also my biggest keyplate. Ugh.

I proceeded to try and do some knitting with the #3 keyplate. I knew better than to try, from my previous test swatches… Well, that didn’t work too well. Why was I surprised??? Dropped stitches all over the place. *sigh*

So, I’m left with a long, brown and pink, unevenly-striped scarf. I guess I’ll just crochet a cute edging on and wear it. Well, it won’t keep me warm on the sofa, but it’ll keep my neck warm when I go outside.

Bah…

UPDATE: Because my ISM is so old (from the 80s) they no longer make keyplates to fit. So, sweetie told me to get the “upgrade” kit! This consists of a new carriage (different design) that comes with keyplates that include half-sizes! So, now I’m going to have a wider variety of yarns I can use! Yay!

by

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and joyful start to the calendar year!

We didn’t stay up until midnight, but went to bed at about 11:00. Yeah, I guess we’re getting old…

Our weather has continued (for the most part) to remain cold and snowy. We’ve been in the negative temperatures (Fahrenheit) several times, in the last week. Yep, winter has arrived.

I haven’t been doing any crafting and have spent much of the last week healing from a back injury. I went to the chiropractor (for the first time ever) a few days ago and I believe that I am on the mend!

I’ve spent a lot of my free time reading. I got started on the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Totally addictive! I’m currently on book four. These books are adventure/romance. I’m not a great fan of the romance genre, but these have enough adventure to keep me interested.

We went to my father’s house for our family Christmas celebration, this evening. It was fun. We do the gift-giving game White Elephant/White Horse. We came away with a Kobalt double-drive ratcheting screwdriver set. I love ratcheting screwdrivers and have been eyeballing that particular model on the TV commercials. Glad to have won it!

The animals are doing well. Frank is still being a jerk. Our neighbor has agreed to take the two does, as soon as she gets a suitable pen built. She has a friend that is a spinner (no, not me) and she will give her their yearly fiber ration. Once the girls have been re-homed, we will take down the sections of fence that act as a barrier between the two pens and once again have everyone together.

On our way to my dad’s, I saw a miniature donkey. I think I want one… I know that they aren’t great guardians, because of their size. And because of their size, I’m a bit concerned about having one in with the goats… It certainly warrants further thinking. We had already thought of getting a donkey, but the minis are just so dang cute!

Time to start planning the gardens. This year, I really want to put in a medicine garden. I really want to learn how to make medicines and get our medicine chest (figuratively speaking) stocked. I haven’t decided what all I want to plant, but I’m starting to look into it. I got the book Herbal Antibiotics by Stephen Harrod Buhner – it’s a good one. I have other herb books, but they’ve been in storage for so long, I don’t remember what they are. I really need to get my boxes of books out of the barn and into the house!

I hope this post finds its readers well!