Welcome Late Harvest & Farewell Dear Friends

Today's mail yielded a wonderful bounty. This beautiful skein of fibery goodness is none other than Mama-E's first offering in her C*EYE*BER Fiber Sock Fall club. It is appropriately named, Late Harvest and I'm in love with this. Thank you Mama-E. You really out did yourself this time around!


This happy delivery helps soften the blow of saying goodbye to our beloved chickens. Today my ladies will go live with a nearby retired couple who have many free-roaming animals on their farm. The chickens will have a long and good life there. I'd like to think that they will miss us, especially Peeper. From left to right they are; Peeper, Spotty, Ariel and Raven.

Peeper came to live with us when she was only 2 days old. She was blind and her fate had been death until we begged the sellers to let us have her. Her eyes were crusted shut and we had to wash them several times a day to help them open. Her right eye still weeps sometimes. Raven came to live with us several weeks later to keep Peeper company. Spotty and Ariel had belonged to our neighbor and he gave up raising chickens and two came to live with us.

FALL!

Today is the first day of Fall. Welcome to pumpkins, Halloween, brightly colored leaves, cranberry harvest at my parents' and a big happy 9th birthday to Karen's daughter, E! It seems like just yesterday that Karen's husband called to tell us about her unexpected early delivery.

Because A3 is home with a stomach bug today I've had some time to assess our household. And "Fall" for me translates into "I've managed to FALL behind... on just about everything."

And since pride goeth before the "fall", I humbly present some of the "behinds".



First is the SKB. Production ceased on this sweater because I ran out of beads and Michael's is temporarily out of stock of the ones needed.



Next up, unmatched socks. Mates for many of these probably reside in the pile, but I've not taken the time to sort them.

Another often-neglected chore here is the mending. Here are some of the clothing items my daughters have left for me to repair. The last pile sat unmended until they were finally donated to charity.

The laundry room remodeling came to a screeching halt when it came time to install the new cupboards and cut and install the molding. My arms just won't seem to hold anything over my head anymore so once again, my dh must complete what I've started.




Another knitting UFO to add to the SKB and the Liv Sweater is this lone sock. I temporarily misplaced the needles to complete its mate.


I've mindlessly knitted a few cotton dishrags because while I was looking for beads to finish the SKB sweater I happened across this gigantic skein of cotton yarn that matched my Fiesta dishes. But these are just adding to my "falling" behindedness .


I don't want any of you to get the wrong idea though, and avoid me in case this lack of finishing is contagious. Over the past 24 hours I've finished an entire tub of Lloyd's Shredded BBQ'd beef, a bag of Dove's Dark Chocolate Promises and another Janet Evanovich novel. So I do manage to complete some things.



And now for something completely different... a while back I purchased a new pair of circular needles. Because my LYS was out of Addis in the size I needed I tried some of the Crystal Palace bamboo circulars. I HATE these and will never buy them again. Not only did the plastic strip between them bend and kink horribly and permanently , but there is a knot near the connecting point of the needles and the plastic strip. This knot caught on the stitches something fierce, resulting in language inappropriate for small children. This knot is visible near Bonny's paw. We both give these a big paw's down.

Happy Birthday A2!

Today is my middle daughter's 8th birthday. Here are some facts about A2.

She is the spitting image of my late MIL except for her coloring... she has blonde hair and blue eyes like my mom.

Not one day of her life has passed where she hasn't cried.

She's worn glasses since she was two years old.

She's extremely athletic

Bird watching is one of her favorite hobbies

She's an amazingly talented artist

She can make "armpit fart" noises with just about any part of her body.

She intimidates some adults by calling "bullshit" on things and questioning authority. She has NEVER believed in Santa and at the age of 6 she even questioned the existence of God.

She frustrates her dad more than any other person on the planet.

She loves all animals and insects.

She would be really mad if she knew I was posting this picture. It was taken when she was two years old. She was playing dress up and put this fairy costume on all by herself. The back of the skirt was folded up and obviously fairies do not wear undergarments. I sneaked this picture in while her back was turned and have since dubbed it "Fairy Tail".

I love you A2, Happy Birthday!

New House Pictures

Here are some pictures of the house we're buying down in Ridgefield, WA. I'm very tired and have not taken the time to list these individually so they may not be very clear/big or if they are then it may take some time to download. After the girls are in school and I'm caffeinated then I'll try listing them individually.