Jack Maxwell

Jack is now 9 days old.  I don't know what kind of Grandma that makes me... waiting a full week plus to tell the world about his arrival. But I've been busy!!

Jack was born October 18th at 8:30 a.m.  He was 8 1/2 pounds, 21 1/2 inches, and three weeks early.

Peter was unable to get away - but I was in the car headed south as soon as I could manage.

My son seems to have fallen in love with HIS son

My daughter, despite her general aversion to babies, seems to have fallen in love with her nephew

And then there is me..  quickly falling under Jack's spell.

Mary, Jack's mom is doing well and recovering quickly.  Unfortunately, seeing as how we all hogged Jack - I don't have a photo with HER in it.  How rude is that??  She was very understanding though, and for that I'm grateful.  It's not every mom who so willingly shares her new baby.

Chickens smell..

...and not because they have noses. After three weeks of having Carmen, Lucy and Carmen sleeping and living (and pooping!) in my garage.. it began to smell quite.. uh.. icky. Yeah.. icky is a good way to describe it.

Peter was here over the weekend but he had to learn about brains all weekend so he wasn't able to help me finish the coop and get my chickens outside. He did help me see his vision. As beautiful as it was - I could not quite implement his "exact" vision. I understood it.. but still.. so temporary coop #2 is now in place. At least they are OUTSIDE. And quite happy and safe - I believe. And Sparky - who liked them just fine when they were in the garage seems quite perplexed that they are now outside.

Last night Jill (and two of her friends) and me (and one of my

friends) went to see the Lion King in Portland. It was fabulous. It was in honor of Jill's 17th birthday. What a fun way to celebrate!

I highly recommend this play. Go. Have fun. Don't let the elephant step on your toes!

The egg, Jill, & I

Yesterday we played tourist on Whidbey Island. We prowled around Coupeville. We saw an orca spouting, We went to Ebey's Landing and poked around Isaac Ebey's house - which I love. We went to Fort Casey and explored all the ammunition chambers and assorted dark cavernous spaces. It was a good day.

Sadly, we had to come home today. Jill talked me into bringing a little bit of rural life with us. We brought home 4 (cross your fingers) fertilized chicken eggs. The two little ones would be the chicks fathered by the little white rooster on the banner. The two bigger eggs are, well, obviously from the bigger chickens and the bigger rooster.

We also brought home an incubator. What an adventure this will prove to be. Eggs need 21 days to hatch. If all goes well we'll be having a little birthday celebration about May 3. Are you excited? I'm excited. Jill is more excited. She's reading the book and she's assured me she'll turn the eggs and monitor the temperature and the humidity. I may be the chicken queen - but she is running the chicken nursery. Jill the chicken nanny.

What a day, what a day...

My mom is doing well. Uh.. TOO well. I'm sure you want to know HOW that can be possible. Well here's the thing. I've been purging, and reclaiming my house and it's contents as my own. My mom has started asking for things that she now remembers. The other day she decided she wanted "those flowered towels" that I had secretly given to charity. I quickly changed the subject. Now she is deciding she wants to call people and she wants her cell phone back. I got rid of that too! I got problems.

Not to mention that my little Honda seems to have a big target painted on it. It was sitting peacefully in a parking lot when a big Chevy Suburban decided to smash into it. My daughter was behind the wheel, watching the action in her rearview mirror, honking furiously trying to alert the driver to know avail.

Knitting is going fabulously. I think I have callouses forming on my fingers. I'll include a picture of my projects once they are done. I have two in the works. I'm still so fascinated by the whole felting process I just can't get enough. Yay.. it's fun!

Get real!

We had an utterly wonderful weekend! (you need to appreciate that I didn't say udderly). Jill and I went to Peters on Friday.

Saturday was wonderful. Usually it's all work.. but the weather wasn't cooperative for outside work. Instead, Peter made breakfast for us: bacon, shrimp omelet & wonderful, delicious coffee (I taught him how to make it a couple years ago). Then off we went to this delightful yarn & quilt store in Bellingham called "Lynda's."

Unfortunately Lynda is disposing of the yarn end of her business. Fortunately, all the knitting stuff, yarn included, was on close out. I scored. Unfortunately, I don't get paid until Monday and I've already spent next month's disposable income.

Barnes & Noble was our next stop, to get a book on spinning yarn. Kyle has access to gobs of raw wool (straight from the sheep) and he's going to bring me some tomorrow.

There is a goat farm not far from Lynden that sells cashmere goats so we HAD to make a stop there. I talked quite a bit with the owners of the farm. I'm sure they think I'm a complete goon from the city since I asked such stupid questions. I was standing there in inch-deep muck with high heels and actually asked "how often do you shave cashmere goats?" I new the word was shear. Honest I did. But "shave" came out of my mouth. The woman I was talking to looked at me and said, "Shear. we SHEAR goats." I wanted to crawl under the car, but the muck kept me from it. The adorable kid to the right was one of twins. He's for sale. Or will be in a few weeks. I realized I am SO not ready for goats! Plus, this kid will grow up to be a Boer goat - not the kind I'm looking for at all. Didn't stop me from falling in love though. He was very hungry and sucked on our fingers looking for satisfaction anywhere he could find it.

I think I've decided to start with two cashmere and two dairy goats. (breed of dairy goat as yet undecided). But my dose of reality is that I'm simply not ready for goats. Plus, there is no reason to jump right into the deep end of the goat pellet pool. I've decided to postpone the goat portion of my plan for a few months or maybe a year, until everything else is well settled. Goats are a HUGE responsibility and I'm not sure I want to jump immediately into that after I leave here. I will need to construct shelter and prepare pasture before getting them as well.

After the trip to the goats (and a nap) we actually did some work. My little house & garden here in Salem has an abundance of iris and strawberries. Peter has rescued at least 200 iris and over 100 strawberry plants from here. Saturday we potted strawberries.

But the day wasn't over yet. After tea with Peter's mom, we went to Aldergrove, BC for world famous 5-pin bowling. Peter won the first game. I slaughtered him on the second game. Not only did Jill get the first strike, she shared some of her personal issues with us during bowling. It was a very special family bonding time.

After bowling we drove around Aldergrove pointing out to Jill all the Canadian things. "Look Jill, Canadian Houses." "Look Jill, Canada has dogs!" "Look Jill, Tim Hortons!" We also stopped at an ice rink and watched some Canadian boys play hockey. "Look Jill, Canadian boys!" As Peter said, we "smelled" Canadian Hockey. Such fun.

And as always, it was very disappointing to have to get in the car and head home. I don't belong here. I belong there.

Mutella-Sportwolle Staufen-Wolle

I don't know exactly what that means but I went second-hand store-ing yesterday and found three hanks of the stuff for 49cents a hank. It's not the prettiest color and I later found out it means wool (I was pretty sure it did) but what a score! I'm certain I shall find some perfect use for it. I also bought three sets of knitting needles and an etui. I did not pay over 49 cents for anything.

I started a project Thursday night and finished it this morning. It was an exercise in learning new techniques. It was the first time I made something in pieces and then had to assemble it. Can you see the bumps in it? Those are knots that I had to learn how to make. The pattern called for chunky wool yarn (something I just can't find locally) so I tried using two smaller strands together - a purple and a white - yet another technique I had to figure out. I think it came out very nice. I just have NO idea what to use it for.

My house needs cleaning though. I wish someone would come and do it for me so I can concentrate on my knitting and not be so distracted by the chaos and clutter surrounding me. The laundry is piling up, the dust & dog hair are getting deeper and someone keeps dumping junk mail in a heap on the kitchen table.

I did get away from the knitting and the cluttered house today. Jill and I went to Ikea. 3 hours of wandering around in a daze in a maze. A person could get lost in that store. It was awfully fun. I bought a wire whisk. That's like going to Costco and only walking out with a bag of potato chips. It's unheard of. But, in fact, we also bought a plastic grocery bag holder/dispenser and a bookcase for Jill's room.

Yesterday I took mom out to lunch and to get her nails done. She's still looking for small trees in her food. You know.. the community trees. And she's still telling amazing tales.

Recently her 80-something year old friend Dorothy has gotten pregnant through some experiments (and some midnight rendezvous in a field). She also recently purchased the facility my mother lives in AND she's apparently turned to "working the night shift" (wink wink) in order to support all of her babies because the daddy to all the babies is a deadbeat. I asked my mom to think about it carefully and to decide if it was really possible that Dorothy had babies right now. My mother's reply in defense of Dorothy was "if Dorothy wanted to do it, she'd find a way!"

Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese

A loyal and faithful reader found this book and suggested it. It looks fascinating.. and it IS Christmas season... I'm just hinting.. :)

Speaking of Christmas season. Last night was the McKay High School Band concert. I have a video.

Tomorrow the McKay HS marching band is marching in Salem's Festival of Lights. The temperature has not been over 32 degrees here in a week (this morning it was 12). But fortunately it's been dry. Tomorrow it's supposed to start precipitating with freezing rain. Poor Jill. Poor Sharon and Peter who must go stand out there and watch. brrrrrrr..

There is a mathematical formula I'm working on.. If you take the ambient air temperature and divide it by the value assigned to the precipitation (freezing rain=2, snow=3, regular rain=1), minus the speed of the wind you come up with the temperature of my butt.

I'm figuring tomorrow my backside will be about (22/2)-5=6 degrees F. If they gave us relevant questions like this in high school algebra I probably would have gotten a better grade!