The countdown continues . . .

Yup, 24 days til Christmas! Seems like I've been crafting away and got tons and tons done, not sure where it is, but I've been slaving away. I did finish the 4 beaded ornaments and got them mailed out, my daughter loves them (Phew!). I've finished the 3rd snake scarf and I'm done with the knitted gifts. I may (after Christmas) make some more, but we'll see. This one is for a 'grown-up' friend - sure hope she doesn't read my blog or I'm in trouble!!! - There is a bell at the end of the tail, but it's not too loud. This one is about 5 feet long and will wrap around the neck nicely.

I've also been playing around with the button bouquets. I have 'some' bright colored buttons, but most of these are just part of the stash I've had for years. I thought maybe some felt leaves would help, but now that I see them, I'm not sure. They just don't stand out as much as the real colorful buttons do, and looking at the leaves . . . hmmm, I'm just not sure. I think I need to change the leaves a bit. Personally, I think they look better in person, but I'm not the recipient.

Then last Saturday, the 23rd, Dale and Candy had baby goats! They are sooo cute! They were born about 2:30 am - doesn't it seem that all babies come in the middle of the night?? In these pictures they are about 9 hours old. The baby in the top picture is about 14-15 inches long as she (??) lays.

We are having breakfast here. This one is the same size as the first. Just twins, boy and girl. The poor Momma was HUGE; it's a good thing there were only 2. She was the most uncomfortable looking goat I've ever seen (like I've seen a lot - LOL). She was having trouble just moving around. She would lie down and groan, she would stand up and groan. Even while she laid down she was groaning and moaning. She was almost as wide as she was long! She has turned out to be a very good Momma. The kids are now up and running around, being goats.

I had a very wonderful Thanksgiving at Dale and Candy's with TONS and TONS of food! There were about 14 adults and 3 children. Lots of fun, laughter and eating. I got home about 8:30, waddled around the house for a couple of hours and went to bed! I had eaten sooo much, I just could not get comfortable to do anything.

Lots of thoughts on everything to be thankful for; good health, roof over our heads, loving family and friends. I guess it sums up to be ENOUGH. Enough food, enough good times, enough love and companionship - ENOUGH! Of course there are things we would like to be thankful for, like a new house, a new car, more money - but you know what? We have what we need and are thankful for it.

I leave you with thoughts of Peace that we will be thankful for in the near future, and that all our servicemen and women will join us at our table next Thanksgiving!

(((Hugs)))

now 32 days . . .

I got the beaded ornaments, of the last post, finished with a name tag and the year AND got them mailed off to my daughter in Texas. Now I hope they get there in one piece! They should; I wrapped them in tissue paper, inserted them in a sandwich bag with air in there, and surrounded them with newspaper. The box and paper weighed more than all 4 ornaments together. I test shook the box and nothing rattled - that's a great sign.

The weather is gloomy today. Light rain and just 30 degrees as we "speak". After I finish my breakfast, I will start the wood stove and get some warm ambiance going. Once the fire has created some nice coals, I won't have to watch it quite as closely, I can just toss a piece of wood in now and then. The temperature can go up quite fast and I always open a window or two or three! Not wide open, but cracked 1-2 inch (3-5 cm), if I don't, then after a while it becomes very hard to breathe in here! There is a heat reclaimer on the stove pipe that has a fan in it that really, really blows the heat around. I have had the back door open and it is still near 85 degrees in the house, just way too hot for comfort - that's why the windows are open, it keeps it comfy.

The cat is hanging on the screen and wants in, so I'll let you go for now with this little message.

The things that come to those who wait will be the things left by those who got there first!

37 days

Do I hit the panic button yet? I have been really, really busy getting my Christmas gifts done, but there still seem to be more on the to-do list than on the 'done' list!

This is what I've been, and still am, up to. The balls are almost 3 inches across and the beads are little, itty, bitty things! Can we say "hard to see"?

These are going to my daughter to give as gifts.







I have also been knitting - not quite as hard to see since the yarn is worsted weight. I knit in the evening when the light is just too hard to bead by. These two scarves are about 4 1/2 feet long and 5-6 inches wide. I'm making another one for a "grown-up". I think that will finish off the scarves for now, but I thoroughly enjoy the process. As you can see, there are button eyes, and wood bead tails. Lot of fun!
I'm not sure what project I'm moving on to next, but I will keep going until I run out of time. I've really had issues trying to upload these pictures, so no matter how disjointed they look, I'm publishing them as they are. I think I need to question Blogger on this . . .

Like the title says, 37 days . . . and they will pass very,very fast.

Hugs to everyone!

Musings

I have this total fixation with the Nome, Alaska city web cam. I have had it as a 'favorite' on my computer since the Iditarod last march. During the Iditarod the camera was pointed at the finish line. Now it is pointed at the Visitor Center and Norton Sound. I check the camera on, at least, a daily basis, sometimes more! Today the sea and sky almost blend together in a steely gray and the ground is covered with snow. I don't know what the average snow amount is for Nome Alaska, but after the Iditarod, there was a row of buildings on the left side of the current view that I had no clue existed! They were drifted over.. But drifts are not snowfall totals, and with Nome's location right on the edge of the sea, I don't suppose they get that much - but I know I will be watching. The pictures update every minute - check it out here.

Well, we put the camper (almost) to bed for the winter. We just need to cover her up. Such a lonely sight . . .





And this was right after 'separation' . . . .






It is just sooo sad to me that another camping season is over. In a way, I wish I could camp all year, but this camper is just not built for winter camping. We 'almost' tried it during deer season when we never got above 40 deg during the day and had temps in the low 20's at night! It's just too cold for these old bones!

It is raining today, on and off all day is the promise. I like the rain, we can always use a gentle rain, but I get restless too. It is not so easy to pop out for a breath of fresh air, take a short walk with the dog, or just mosey around the property 'looking' at the scenery. You have to bundle up -right now it's 37 deg- so you don't get chilled, or soaked! Sometimes you can find a spot under the trees where it really isn't raining, but you can get lucky and find a spot where every drip in the forest falls from too!

Since the furnace just kicked on, I will leave you to your musings and go clean out the wood stove. Uggh, not fun. Then I will take a trip outside to dump the ashes, come in and start a nice fire. After that trip outside, I will need a nice fire! I have a wood box on the front porch that gets filled when there (hopefully) is no rain or snow falling, then I bring it next to the stove as needed. I think that the wood gets moved and carried a half dozen times before it is burned . . . and then again as ashes after it has burned. Yup, wood warms you up many, many times.

Have a good, warm day.

Fog

It has come and gone all day, just like the cat . . .


FOG

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

tidbits . . .

Yesterday was a productive day.

I cleaned my bedroom! Not totally, but enough to make a difference, and no, I won't show you a picture . . . I stripped the bed and vacuumed the mattress. I have to close the door to keep the dog out while I vacuum anything - she will attack the nozzle. Not in fear or anger, but in FUN! You try vacuuming with a dog's mouth chasing the brush. I have an old canister vacuum with a cheap plastic hose, holes and all, and a worn brush. I don't need the dog eating more of it - besides, I keep hitting her in the mouth! I made her bleed the last time I vacuumed. It was finally nice to get the job done without having to constantly yell at the dog - and it does little good anyway!

I also took the curtains down, washed them and the inside of the windows. I have no idea what had gotten into me! I also started on my drawers. I got 2 done with sooo much left over that I stopped. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the leftovers! Some of it will go to the thrift store, some will get thrown out and some will be re purposed. Not sure to what I'll make with these things, but it will come to me. In the mean time I will put them into a container and out to the shed.

When I get to the T-shirt shelf, I know some of them will become shopping bags! Cut off the sleeves, open the neck a bit more, sew up the bottom and I'm ready for the store! Not sure if I need to serge around the openings, but I guess I'll find out the first time I use one. I read about the idea on one of the blogs I follow (can't remember which, sorry!), and found the instructions on Martha Stewart's site. Love it! I have more t-shirts than I can wear in a year, so some of them will become bags.

I like to burn candles. I have a ton of those small tins with lids. I know they don't cost very much, but it irritates me that it will burn straight down the center and then I'm sitting with 1/2 to 2/3 of a tin full of candle wax. There has got to be something that can be done with that - without too much work involved. In the past I've scraped the rest of the wax out and kept the tin to use for 'stuff'. I have too much stuff to fit into one of those small tins. I guess I could put buttons in there by color..... I like to see the button colors through the jars that they are in - no buttons in tins. Then what? I also hate to put labels on the tins - they are so pretty just the way they are. Maybe on the bottom?

When I woke up this morning it was very foggy outside. The fog was twining itself around the tree trunks, moving ever so slowly, but within a few minutes it had drifted upwards and disappeared. It reminds me so much of the Redwoods along the Northern California coast. My trees are just Ponderosas with a few other pine and fir trees thrown in, but the fog was the visual that took me to the coast.

I am going to leave you with a picture of my cat Maggie. She was playing with a piece of dog food that disappeared under the stove, and when I brought the camera out, she came right over and wanted her picture taken!

a little bit of snow

Well, it happened. SNOW. I wonder how much we will get during this coming winter . . . this is looking northwest out my kitchen window. There is suppose to be snow falling all day, but I hope only in small spurts!

Joey, my cat, has to go out no matter what the weather, but how long he stays out is always a good question. All I captured this morning as he charged out the door was little paw prints. He will sit somewhere and watch the snow fall as long as he is not directly being snowed upon.


There always seem to be a lot of photo ops as soon as the first snow falls. Do you know how many snow pictures I have? Close to a gazillion!!! I just can't help myself when the first snows start falling, the views are so beautiful. Then about January, I've had enough of the snow to not want to take any more pictures. After that, I usually end up in the picture since I won't take any more unless they are very unusual. Or, to record the deepest of the season.


This was taken February 2008. By this time we had no where to put the snow! We had a neighbor come over with his tractor, scoop up the white stuff and toss it over the fence into the empty part of our next door neighbors yard. The roof in this picture doesn't look that bad, but I've already been up there twice to clear it off. The berm on the right is about 4 feet tall and about 6 feet wide!

OK, enough of this, I'm getting anxiety attacks just thinking about the coming winter, and climbing on the roof to clear it!

At least I have plenty of wood for the stove.....

Here's a seasonal hint for you . . .

Foggy Windshield? - Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

and so it goes . . .

Yesterday started out with a bang! Actually a phone call to say my dog had played Houdini and was now at Dale & Candy's house. I had let her out, per her request, and I guess I didn't hear her scratch at the door, so she decided to escape. Now, in the past when she's gotten out of the yard, she will sit on the front porch and wait, nope, not this time. I guess she thought she'd teach me a lesson. Up the hill she went - a full mile no less - and was waiting for Dale to come out. And happy as a lark, tail wagging, butt wagging - real happy.

I get up there and she is happy to see me! Imagine that! Usually she knows she's done something wrong, but nope, not yesterday. Happy, happy dog. A couple of cups of coffee later, we head down the hill accompanied by 2-18 packs of eggs. Now these eggs are pretty fresh right out of the chickens, and have all sorts of "stuff" attached - do I need to go there? Nope, thought not! I have a little over a dozen at home . . . and figure that all I can do is cook them up for easy snacks. There is no other way to get rid of that many eggs as fast.

As I was cleaning the new eggs, I ran across a little, itty, bitty egg. Not much larger than a quarter. Can you believe this? That is actually a quarter lying there, and the other egg is a duck egg about 5 times as big. When I was taking it out to clean it off, it slipped out of my fingers and cracked.

I decided to fry it up along with another, small to regular chicken egg, and enjoy it. Here is a picture of the egg in the pan with the 'normal' egg. It literally was bite size. It looks like all yolk, but there was only a tiny, itty, bitty one - about 12 o'clock. I was a bit skeptical about an egg that size tasting ok, but it was fine. What. there. was. of. it! The rest of the 2nd 18 pack had eggs in it that are about 2 inches long. I will cook them up this week too and make an egg salad for us to enjoy. It will probably take a dozen eggs for us each to have a sandwich!

We are so use to duck eggs, that to have this tiny little thing is a total novelty! I'm just in awe that one of Dale's chickens laid that tiny speck. There was another one, not as small, but very elongated . . .

Lets hope that by tomorrow night that we can visualize a moose head hanging in the Vice President's house!!!!

Time change

Ok, we changed the clocks back an hour - we are now back to standard time. I'm up a whole 'hour early' (by the clock) but the body says "yup, time to get up!" It is still as gloomy as it was yesterday at this time, but no matter, I feel that I've gotten out of bed an hour earlier. Some accomplishment! This is the time I try to get up every day - big deal.

We used the wood stove again last night; it was cold and rainy outside, and the gas furnace can and does cost lots of money when let run all day and night. With the new heat reclaimer it takes a lot less wood to get the heat going. The reclaimer has a thermocoupler in it that turns the fan on and off at certain degrees. WOW does it circulate the heat fast! Very nice, and we won't be using as much wood as we have in past years, even though we have enough stock piled. The way my house is layed out, the heat is blown both into the kitchen and down the hallway to my bedroom. The heat in the kitchen I can take, but I don't like to sleep in a warm room. I may have to try closing the bedroom door to see if I can keep it cool, but when it's time for bed - the door has to be open. I cannot sleep in a small room with the door closed! I need to hear what goes on in the rest of the house during the night. I also need to hear the animals.

I've been working on some beaded Christmas ornaments. This picture is hard to see as I did red beads on a red ball. It is not one of the gifts that will be given. It was improvised and is a bit 'wonky' , but it gives you an idea what I've been up to. It is also only 2 1/4" across; the ones I'm doing for gifts are almost 3". I need 7 ornaments by Christmas and only one is a small ball. I have spoiled a few people, and now they know (hope) they are getting a new beaded ornament. I enjoy making these and I've learned to count very, very well. Each loop on a row has to have the same amount of beads, but I've gotten to where I can carry on a bit of conversation even while counting.

These are not the only kind of gifts I'm giving this year, but since some are going out of state, I thought I'd better get started. The out of state gifts need to be done first. The ones closer to home can wait their turn. As long as I don't push it like I did 2 years ago! Yup, finishing up 1/2 hour before leaving the house! There will always be last minute gifts, but hopefully I'm more on top of it this year . . . I can always hope . . .

I will take pictures of everything I make, but I won't post them until after Christmas - I don't know how many people I know read my blog, so I'd hate to spoil the fun for them.

I will leave you with a clock change thought:

Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late!