360 degrees

It has dawned on me that where I live is a mystery to some of my favorite people:   My brother and his wife who will be out to visit next spring, my friend Sherry who I keep inviting up to visit, my daughter-in-law and other dear people I know.  I talk of ditches and bachelor pads and border crossings.  So here is a quick tour of my new home:

I took these photos standing on the foot bridge that crosses the ditch.  The ditch is fed from a lake in Canada and was originally a creek.  For some reason, when they put in the road, they decided to split the creek in two and run it on each side of the road and re-name it a ditch.  Salmon spawn in our ditch.  I don't think it's actually a ditch at all.

The ditch occasionally floods.  That's a bad thing.  The bachelor pad is built on a cement slab at ground level.  That's not such a good thing either.   We're trying to create landscaping and such that will direct the water away from the house.

Looking North:

Looking West:

Looking South:

Looking East:

Now you know where I live.  Stop by anytime.

ThermosKat

It's cold here at my little house on the ditch. It snowed overnight even.

brrrrr..

We built a fire in the woodstove this morning to take the chill off the house. We have baseboard heat (eww!) but the fire is so much nicer. The house was nice and warm and even Kat thought it was toasty.

As the morning progressed, the house cooled and it came time to add wood to the fire.
I bet you're wondering how I knew when it was time to add wood to the fire. I'll tell you how. I have a rare, environmentally responsible ThermosKat. Most people just have thermostats. I'm ahead of the curve on this one.

The house is a comfortable temperature:

Time to add wood to the fire:

I'm thinking of a whole marketing campaign around this clever idea and selling them at the Lynden Farmer's Market in the spring. There could be a whole line of ThermosKats: Scottish Fold ThermosKats, Siamese ThermosKats, Tabby ThermosKats, and for those of you with deep pockets, Persian ThermosKats. Preorder yours now! (production takes about 15 weeks - and two cooperative felines)

If you would like a rare, environmentally friendly ThermosKat - just send your check or money order to "My Little Goat Shop."

Baby Wolf's first run..

I took my baby wolf out for it's first run today.  I decided that rather than starting from scratch I would try to use what was already on the loom.  It wasn't a mess - but it was sure something I couldn't figure out.  So I undid all the heddle threading the previous owner had started.  I unwound all the yarn and THEN I ended up with a mess.  The cats were quite intrigued by the process and really wanted to help.

I eventually got it straightened out.  Not an easy task.  There were 99 warp ends.  (that means 99 strings - see I'm learning the lingo!)

I decided on a simple basic basket weave and began pulling the warp ends through each heddle as appropriate.  I finished a third of them before I figured out that I had neglected to find the middle.  You MUST center the threads on the loom or everything goes whacky (no .. that's not official weaving lingo).  It was an important lesson learned that I shall certainly remember in the future.

Finally - everything was threaded and ready to go.  Seriously - 5 hours into the project I finally had it ready to actually weave.  I feel confident that as time goes by this process will be less cumbersome.

I hope. 

20 minutes later I had actual fabric!  How exciting.  The process began going much faster and I'm quite pleased.

And..  miraculously within a few hours I had an actual thing.  A thing I tell you!

Now I want to figure out how to set the treadles and heddles to create a twill.  So far I'm not understanding the drafting of such a project.  There is a weaving guild that meets in the same place as my spinning guild that I shall maybe have to join soon.  They can probably help me over the rough edges.

I am now faced with a daily conundrum..

Should I knit?
Should I spin?
Should I weave?

My life is so complicated!!

flooring - day 3

We scraped all the glue and goo from the kitchen floor.  It took hours.  I have blisters.

Here is a shot showing the nearly done floor - and all our junk.  Don't look at the junk.

So tomorrow (maybe) I'll move all the stuff out of the bedroom into the living room and get started on THAT part of this project. Of course I'm thinking if I can get doors on my fiber studio we could move stuff there.  Minimal fiber studio construction may need to be done first.  Decisions, decisions.

Batchelor pad floors - day 2

Today started out so promising.  We actually got started putting flooring down on the floor.  Then Peter had to go to work.  At this early stage the job is much easier with two people.  I mean I COULDA gone on alone - but it just didn't seem like a wise choice.  We got this far before Peter had to go.

While he was gone I took a nap.  I know.  I should have been working, slaving away on this project but a nap called to me.  I am unemployed - an official "laze-about" and I have to take advantage of the few perks I can get.  After my refreshing nap I started scraping up 40 year old linoleum.  What a job!  I worked at it for hours.  Peter came home from work and (still in his work clothes) he poked at the floor just long enough to get his picture taken. 

By the end of Day 2 we got the living room almost completely done.

Tomorrow Peter does not have to go to the office.  Tomorrow we should be able to finish up these two rooms.  I'm looking forward to it!

Batchelor pad floors - day 1

The time has come for the floors.  This is exciting because once the floors are done in the living room and kitchen - we move out of the bedroom, get it done and get moved.

Peter had to go to the office this morning (why does that seem to always be the case?) so I started the morning by clearing out the living room.  This was the hardest part because we just don't have room for all this stuff.  We are going to have to move it all back and forth like we did for the walls.  Right now all the stuff that was in the living room is shoved into the kitchen and the bedroom.

I cut the carpet into 4 pieces and hauled it all out to the barn. 

I quite like the reddish color of the carpet pad. But it had to go too.  As well as the tack strips and all residual glue and gunk.  I managed to get the pad up in one piece - I even managed to get it to the barn in one huge chunk.  I think I'm getting muscles.  Peter came home just in time to help me get up the last of the tack strips and goo.

We brought the boxes of flooring in from the car preparing to get to work.  Cleverly, we read the directions first, and they stated emphatically that the flooring be installed at room temperature.  Sigh.  House:  65 degrees (ish), car: 40 degrees (ish).  Whoa Nelly.  Stop the presses.  Hold everything.  Keep your pants on.  Cool your jets.  
 
So now, the flooring is inside and nearly everything in our world is displaced until the stupid stuff warms up.  sigh..
 

 
Tomorrow we should be able to get serious about laying down the new floor in the living room.  Then we'll need to move all the stuff from the kitchen to the newly laid floor in order to work in there.  It's like we live in a Cuisinart.

Everybody needs a little Salt and Pepper..

Meet Salt and Pepper

I went to Lynden Farm and Garden to pick up some chicken feed.  That's all.  Just chicken feed.  But Debbie - the clerk there - had brought in three young silkies to sell.  They are such a cute breed.  They have feathers that look like fur that even cover their feet.  The three she brought in were white, black (which might be a male) and buff.

I walked away without them.  I mean I'm crazy.. but I have my limits.  It seems though my limits stretch a little too easily.  After a brief consultation with Peter, I went back to get the three silkies the next day.  On my way in I named the buff colored one -  "Buffy the Grub Slayer" and I pondered names for the white and black one, settling on some lame ones.  Just as I walked in - there was a young woman at the counter paying for the buff colored chicken.

Grumble grumble.  I considered taking the woman down.  But her father was with her and I decided against it.  Given that I only had the pair - I decided my lame names needed to be replaced with a "set" of names.  Thus:  Salt and Pepper.

This morning Pepper decided to wake the universe with several very loud "Cock-a-doodle-doos!!"  yeah..  He's a boy.