Better late then never

Let's start this little entry with some chickens:



This is (clockwise from top) Barbecue, Swiss Chalet, and omelet. There are 4 chickens, but the 4th Wiley, whom hubby has claimed as his, was rather recalcitrant about the photo shoot. Come to think of it, she is recalcitrant about everything. If there were to be a chicken revolt, she'd be at the forefront waving a banner for chicken freedom and first arrest and dragged off in leg irons (chickens not having hands for handcuffs, of course) for trying to poop on the feet of the riot control police. Wiley and I don't get on well.


As for being better late than never. I believe I mentioned in my last post that hubby would be going back to work for the group home. He has, and not only did he go back, he went back at a raise and as the case manager. He also went back in the middle of a huge restructuring. and a move. They moved the home to a farm. (They plan to keep goats. Give me time, and I will whisper in the directors ear enough and they will make that angora goats, it will only be a matter of time before I convince them of the sheep and alpacas too!) Unfortunately for him and I , it also meant that he did not have a single day off from the time he started until this past Thursday. It also meant that for me, during the busiest time we have at work, that I have not only been putting in overtime, But upon my return home, I've been trying to hold together the house. To sum it up, it's been exhaustion city lately. No excuse, I admit, but it is the reason.

So now that the explanations are over, let's do some gratuitous fiber shots.



First lovely shot Is the beautiful knitting journal I received for my birthday from my Secret Pal. It came with some awesome designer chocolate, and unfortunately it was a bit melty when I received it, so I firmed it up, and It didn't even make it to picture taking time. It was delicious though, I can assure you. She really is the sweetest, She also recently sent me a lovely postcard saying hi that I keep with me in my ever-present novel that I carry with me for times when I'm idle and don't want to knit. Thank you again Secret pal, you really are the best, and thanks for your patience with the blog of emptiness for the last month.



Next up are the treats that my mom brought me back from Washington. She went out for my Uncle's wedding and stayed for two weeks. I have to say, she is getting better at choosing yarns for me. They are all lovely, but eventually I will break her of the novelty yarn habit, there were, however, two lovely chocolate brown skeins of cascade 220. They Kona Bay is nifty too, very soft. I never even knew they made yarns. I've lusted after their asian print quilting fabrics for years though. I'll have to find something neat to make with them. Maybe use them as trim for a couple cardigans?



Finally, a sample of the roving that I hand dyed for my secret pal. She just got herself a spindle and I love to enable people, so after a quick and dirty questioning, she should be receiving 3 balls of hand dyed roving in blue and berry colors for her spinning enjoyment.

Whew. Well it's time to get back to playing catch-up on the house, and still manage to get in a bit of time in the craft room.

Big Changes and birthday update from my Secret Pal!

So much has happened in the last week or two that I haven't had even a moment to sit down and write about it.

First a little background. Hubby and I are from Utah. (me in a slightly more roundabout way than him) I moved to VA to come help out with my parents, hubby joined me later after 8 (yes you read that right) years of divorce. I guess we finally grew up enough to be together. (yes, we are morons, thanks for asking).

Anyways, VA is not the home of our dreams. In fact where we live we can only afford because my parents gave us their old house and bought another. We pay the mortgage on their first home. Without this house we'd heave to rent an overpriced apartment or try to figure out how to buy a teeny townhome for a half million.

Dad gave us the news earlier in the year, he is retiring on March 31, 2007 and he and mom are moving to East Tennessee near my godmother. My uncle is coming up to join them. Although hubby and I would LOVE to move there, the economy is very depressed so jobs would be difficult if not impossible to find. My uncle and parents will have their retirement income and mom and dad will have the income from the sale of their homes to buy another house with.

Originally our plan was to move to another location of my company, probably Buffalo New York. Then I saw a few of the listings that my parents were looking at in TN. 4 acres, working farm. 17 acres, perfect for farming. etc.

They are buying acreage! Or at least looking at it. When I told the folks that we could not move to TN they seemed disappointed, but they understood the reasons. When I looked at the listings I jokingly told my mother that we would just move down and work their acreage for them. Our ultimate goal is to own a farm anyways. Mom reacted a little differently than I expected.

"Is that what it would take to get you down there with us?"

I tell her perhaps, and I will run it past hubby. After much deliberation we decide that if the folks get acreage we will find a way to farm it for them. But on the other hand, if the can't find decent acreage, we'll still have to go to buffalo, or we may look for a co-of homesteading type are and get some land there. Either way of course, this means some big changes at home. We've started to thin out our crap, tried to figure out ways to save money and last but not least, my birthday present from hubby.

4 Welsummer Chickens. YAY! I get fresh eggs this summer when they start laying!!!!!!! They are so sweet, we named them omelet, Wiley (the fast runner, like Roadrunner!), Barbecue, and Chalet (after Swiss Chalet, for those of you who aren't familiar, it is a Canadian restaurant chain with the Best. Chicken. Ever.)

I'll admit, we know very little about farming, but we are willing to learn. hubby even struck up a deal with a local alpaca farmto trade labor for learning. This also means though that we will need to be saving up a lot of money to get rid of old debts and get us through the first couple of years. Hubby has decided to quit working at the hotel where he made a pittance salary, and go back to the group home where he was making really good money, but worked longer hours. On the upside, the group home is moving to a working goat farm, and we will be able to learn a lot from that too. Besides that I miss the boys.

We have checked out so many library books on self sufficiency and homesteading that I'm sure we are on a government list somewhere but we've been learning more and more. And I can't wait to give it a start!



In knitting news...

Well, Honestly I haven't knit much at all. I knitted my drag queen yarn from a previous post into a lovely but still in progress scarf. I'm just dead on inspiration for knitting lately I guess. I've been spinning a mot. But even my results with spinning have been less than satisfactory lately. I guess with everything else going on, my heart just hasn't been in it.

My Secret pal though, wa so lovely! Not only did she send me an ecard, I got a package in the mail containing a knitting journal and designer chocolate! The chocolates are even wrapped with Knitting ribbon! I will hopefully have pics up soon.

Thank you Secret Pal!!!!!!!!!

Well, off to scour more fleece.