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KNITTING NEWS! I finished the Seaside Cardigan! (Pattern found on Ravelry.) Still need to block it, but otherwise, it will be wearable this weekend at our Friendship Spinners retreat at Shakertown in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. I have been doing little else but trying to finish this for the last few days. Am I that slow of a knitter? I know that I am a deliberate knitter, as I am not a knitting machine, and because of this, I have no problems with my hands or wrists when I knit a lot. Touch wood. So far anyway. I modified the sleeves, and made them straight instead of bell shaped. I think blocking will do it a world of good. You can't really see it, but the front bands were finished using a 2-stitch I-cord, and it's one bind-off I will absolutely use again. 

The color is more true in the first photo. I wonder now if green is a good color for me, but I will liven it up with some magenta and purple knit flowers. Those are more my colors. I'll wear my usual black underneath. I can always dye it a darker color. Nah, this has a nice, subtle tweedy look as it is.

So, Sweetie is gone to the new job. I miss him. He says things are going pretty well, though, and he has a line on a rental house for him to live in instead of the motel, until our house is ready. We are in suspense about everything as nothing concrete is known about anything. (How's that for a sentence?) 

In the meantime, workmen have been here for the past three days, putting in a new subfloor in the laundry area and bathroom, replacing some outside wooden siding and clapboards, and a few other niggling little matters. The practically new toilet I got for free on craigslist last fall has finally been installed! It's a shame that we didn't have this work done before we knew we were moving. So it goes. This relatively small investment has assuredly made our house easier to sell. 

I haven't sewn on kites in three weeks, and I hope that I can tomorrow, now that my plate is less full. 

Answer yes or no

So.

Sweetie leaves tomorrow, to begin the new job on Monday. It's been nice having him home these last two weeks. He'll be staying in a motel until he can find a short term rental apartment or house. What is it with people not returning phone enquiries? 

The really good news is that when we met with the loan officer at our bank yesterday, she assured us that with our good credit, we are a shoe-in to get enough of an equity loan to not only buy that house we're interested in outright, but to also pay off our current home equity loan and the mortgage. We won't have an answer for about three weeks, though. Sweetie said he never in all his life imagined owning three houses, much less two of them outright.

We removed some suspect samples of non-friable asbestos from the new house, and I sent them off for testing. The insulation from the house siding is clean, (yay,) but some of the wallboard in the shed and basement is high is asbestos. This is the bargaining chip we were waiting for. (Non-friable means that as long as it is not cut into, crushed, etc., the asbestos poses no danger.) We'll be making an offer on the house this week.

In the meantime, we had a nice Thanksgiving on Wednesday past. Today, I have disposed of all meat from the turkey; turning it into soup with homemade noodles, and turkey salad. The chickens ate the giblets and I will let them have the skin and fat, too. The poor girls are finally acting less spooked, although they seem to be shunning Fried Chicken, the rooster. He continues to roost on the front porch at night, while the girls are in the tree out back. He calls them to food, and they don't come. Very sad. Still not sure if I will move them out west, but I don't have to decide right now. If I could give them to good homes, it would make my life easier. I am feeling the same way about my houseplants.

We use only the finest ingredients.

The price for the house we like in Missouri has been lowered by $5000. Just that much closer the the offer we plan to make. 

Today, I decided to go ahead and make the feast, as it is cold, rainy, and dreary. A day early does not unthankful make me. 

Roast turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole w/marshmallows, cornbread and pumpkin pie. Seating starts at 4:00.

The chickens have been released from the barn to take their chances with any stray dogs that may or may not be around. Because? Monday night, a critter, (and I assume it was a raccoon,) slithered its way into to the secure barn loft, and took one of the wyandot hens. Piles of feathers here and there was the only sign. They all must have been traumatized.

I thought they were safe, but they were mere sitting ducks, so to speak, being cooped up. 

A live trap was set last night, with some excellent pork barbecue as bait. This morning, the meat was gone, the trap was overturned, yet not sprung. It was for sure a raccoon. 

The chickens, however, were safe in the tree near our bedroom window. Sweetie spent a restless night, with shoes on and a gun in hand, just in case. 

Me? Last night, I snored away on the couch.

Today? I am thankful.

House in Montgomery City

Sign and return.

Received a text from Good Neighbor Nancy on Saturday afternoon, saying that Omelet had been found safe and mostly sound!  I was so happy I positively cried. How that little hen ended up 100 feet behind our barn in some woods, I don't know and may never know.  Maybe the dog snagged and then dropped her, or maybe she ran/flew back there to escape the Evil Beagle. I was so glad the the two neighbor boys found her and then, since I wasn't home, took her to Nancy.

Omelet is now in the back yard enclosure with her sister Buffalo Wing, her mom Henny Penny, (who is sitting on 5 eggs,) Howard the Duck, and Sugar the Angora.

Also, we may have found Our House in Missouri. Not modern and fancy, but spacious and nice enough with a huge corner lot at the edge of town. The sidewalk literally ends at the front door of this place.  Hardwood floors, a full basement, a big outbuilding, and mature trees. It is the lot that I like a lot, in fact. It is near to town, but not with neighbors too close by, and it has become the yardstick that other properties have been judged by and come up short, truth be told.

So much to do this week. And I even bought a turkey for us to have at Thanksgiving, along with pumpkin pie.

Sweetie starts work a week from tomorrow.

The 4-Way Stop Dilemma

File this under the It Could Have Been Worse file. Had made plans to take a quick trip to Missouri early this morning, to firm up some short term housing. 

It was early when I heard the horrible sound that chickens make when they are in distress. By the time I made it out the front door and into the yard, Roostifer was already gone. It was a stray dog, a beagle, one we had spotted yesterday, and mistakenly thought we had run off. 

That incident happened just at dawn, and by 9 a.m. we had captured Fried Chicken and 4 of his hens and placed them in the old bunny loft. Two hens were too quick for us, so we took a break from the chasing. About an hour later, one more hen was taken, as well as Omelet, who had ventured out into the yard from her usual safe enclosure. This time, Sweetie got a shot off with the pellet gun, and he hit the dog. 

Enquiries were made, it was indeed nobody's dog; from around here, anyway. Sweetie tried to track it, but the neighbor's said the cur was hauling ass-over-head down the road after being shot.

So. Looking at the bright side, we could have blithely left home for a day or two, only to return to no chickens at all. And I was able to snag that last hen a little bit later.

I'm sad for little Buffalo Wing, as her only friend now is Howard the Duck. But, unlike the folks in John Prine's song, I do know how lucky I am, living here in a semi-rural area, to have not lost any other chickens to predators this year. 

So it goes.

Feed daily.

One thing I haven't said a word about, until now, is Foxy. She has found a new home! It's been a week that she has spent with a young couple in Ft. Knox, and I haven't heard boo. In this case, no news is good news.

I have three pair of hand knit socks, 2 hand knit afghans, one blanket, and one pillow to mend because of her.

My left elbow is healing nicely, thank you, now that Foxy is not constantly yanking at her leash. 

My blood pressure is surely lower.

The only dog left is Princess, who is such The Good Dog! We have been taking her for car rides again, and we took her to Missouri a couple of weeks ago, too.

I am wondering whether I should just re-home the chickens or try to take with. Then there are the outside bunnies to consider. No need to decide right away, as I will be staying here in Indiana for awhile yet.

I emailed the Insubordiknit last week, as I knew she had moved to Missouri a few years back, from New York, if memory serves. She replied with a nice note and a list of fiber guilds and groups for the state. What a relief to know that I have friends there waiting for me.