a moment of serenity

liam had testing this week. yes, we homeschool-but we belong to a homeschool charter-which means-we still are funded by the public school system-which is how i get to spend $500 a semester on music lessons, curriculum and other fun classes. which is also why i agree to testing so our school can get funding. here's the kids dissecting an old rotted log-we found tons of life forms and learned the importance of the log returning to the earth.
i love our school. so anyway-i decided to spend a few hours just for me! a cup of tea and knitting at a coffee shop. how decadent!!!! how peaceful, how wonderful. i've been going thru my yarn stash and found a bunch of this yarn i dyed years ago at one of our fiber guild's dye days. perfect for my mr. greenjeans sweater.

spring seems to have come and gone. i was bloody hot today. my arugala bolted a month ago! dang-we need more rain and not 80 degree temps. it's not even may!!!! i had a bunch of spring pictures for you-i better post them quick before things change. here's a happy tree frog coming out to welcome spring awhile back:a sure sign of spring is the girls sharing nesting boxes as they just can't wait for an empty one-eggs galore!the "hound's tongue" is blooming:liam is finding lots of poisonous mushrooms-here's a destroying angel:tomorrow i go to watercolor painting class. i'm nervous- as i really want to be able to do it-but afraid i will suck at it. i've tried in the past-and really really sucked at it-but i failed miserably the first time i tried to learn to knit but the second time with a different teacher a differnent state and a different knitting style-was a charm. bonnie at the yarn barn in lawrence, kansas-was able to teach me to knit-bless her! so hopefully the 2nd time will be a charm again.

i've been dying and spinning getting ready for the rebel ridge annual plant sale-birdsong and i are having a booth! sorry no pics yet. the sale is next weekend!

my first lace!

i'm so happy-i finished my very first "real" lace knitting project!!!!! the forest canopy shawl. here's the photos-step by step.

looks good on my very old couch too!i think lace knitting could become addictive!

dye day

last week i chose to go our spring fiber guild dye day instead of the california women's roller derby championship in sacramento. i always wanted to be a roller derby queen! i had dreams of starting a league on the ridge-hubby thought i'd get killed and i didn't get many takers except for neighbor rhodie.instead i had a wonderful day of non-violent happy fiber fun. but my results were less than desired. first of all i didn't bring enough fiber. then i didn't listen to directions. i just assumed it was like years past. soak your wool the night before in warm water, soap and vinegar. not so. we needed to soak our wool in straight vinegar when we got there-for the acid dye.-sounds like a report card-"does not follow directions." the beautiful roving that i named watermelon rind-when i rinsed it- was paler than pale. it looked liked antique lace that i dropped in the driveway and stomped on it in the dirt with my boots. maybe it was not steamed long enough or because of my vinegar problem.
then i tried to dye my handspun yarn in a gorgeous misty muted scotland highland purple-single malt- and i got this: heavy sigh-what ever-maybe i should have done roller derby?

Insulator finally has a home

for those of you who don't know-i promised hubby "no roosters" when i wanted to have chickens. well-the odds were against me and we ended up with three. we were able to find homes for banjo and daddy long legs. no such luck for insulator-named by our younger son(he collects glass insulators.) i found many folks that wanted him for "dinner." being that he was a nice rooster i wanted to give him the chance of the happy stud-ly life of big daddy-o. cock of the walk -you know what i mean? but he was crowing at all hours and his favorite hens were getting bare backed from all the spring time testosterone kicking in.

finally my wishes and hopes of insulator having a new home were answered. jenny brown-a wonderful woman of high sierra beef was interested in him after reading my "chicken chronicles" in our local paper. she lives about 20 minutes from here and has a wonderful situation-she raises grass fed beef with no hormones or antibiotics. she has a farm store selling beef, local honey, local butter etc.-all her stuff is local! she has local artisans selling their wares too-now i have a new place to sell my handspun yarn and dyed rovings!!!!! yipee!!!!
have you ever tried catching a rooster who doesn't want to caught? damn! not an easy feat! it took us 2 weekends to accomplish this crazy idea.-along with lots of yelling and swearing - a marriage counselor would have come in handy too. we didn't get it on video- too bad-we would have a million hits on youtube.

finally-equipped with goggles, gloves, fishing nets and a box we caught the little bastard! we drove over to the farm store-missing spinning saturday but worth it! i was immediately full of joy that i waited to find him a good home instead of letting him become thanksgiving dinner. sorry roy that it took so long to get rid of him-but what a place! 14 acres to free range, ponds to drink from and only one other rooster to deal with- a banty. we let him out of the box-and the crowing wars began. here he is running to meet the other "man."
here we are at the farm store-happy to find insulator a good home-thank you jenny!

thanks!

i want to thank you all for your kind words about chelsie. i feel i need to clarify also. chelsie was run over by a car "last" year on easter sunday. i was so distraught as i was the one to take her to the emergency vet hospital and had to make the decision to put her down. she had a shattered pelvis and surgery would have been $$$$$$ and they told me even after surgery she still might not be able to walk. she was my girl-i couldn't even post her picture on my blog. this past week was the 1 year anniversary of her passing and i wanted to post the picture i was unable to a year ago. here's a picture of hubby, carey(who is now 6 feet 2 inches tall) and chelsie howling on the couch together.
thank you chelsie for the joy you brought our family.

in memory of our dear sweet chelsie-4/8/07

we love you and miss you!

75 years ago-today

april 7th 1933:

BEER flowed once again-legally. thanks to president roosevelt. today is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the end of prohibition. 3.2% beer was allowed to be brewed sold and consumed!!!because it was considered not to be an intoxicant. during the depression this made many jobs for people at the breweries. listen to the news story on npr. we celebrated by bottling hubby's cocoa porter.cheers!