PVC Free!

Hoosier Daddy?

Caution!

Grumpy. That's me today. I am not usually grumpy, so today is notable.

On my to-do list was to vacuum and mop the kitchen and living room. Although the shop vac has sat idle for a year or more, I thought it might be the ideal appliance to suck up the voluminous amounts of bunny poop and wool that I am blessed with. And it was - until I opened the clean-out door for the chimney and summarily dealt with a peck of creosote. That was when I realized that there was no filter installed inside the shop vac. A gray haze floated about me, and a thin coat of gray soot appeared on every surface in the kitchen. Futhermucker!!!

So, okay. Take all of the equipment outside to rinse at the spigot.

While waiting for it to dry, I reckoned it would be a good time to clip a bunny or two. Kelly Bob was next on the list and she behaved very well, thank you.

Oscar Wilde Hare, on the other hand, was not so compliant. I once heard that if a rabbit breeder's arms aren't all scratched up, then they aren't doing it right.



I must be doing it right. (It looks worse in person.)

I then attempted to gather up Winehouse so she could be with her young'ns in the back yard and so enjoy all of nature's delights. The bitch bit me! I have learned, the hard way, not to instinctively pull my hand or arm away from a bunny bite, (it only makes matters worse) so I only have this momento. And it will leave a mark.



Several scratches, a bite, and a kitchen that needs a top to bottom. Damn right I'm grumpy!

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A little eye-candy.




Winehouse's baby, called Cleo.

Open on Sunday

Meant for yesterday. Still cannot upload photos.

I hope you took at least a moment today to think about all the many servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in our various wars and conflicts. Whether or not you believe in war, the fact remains that these folks did what their government asked and died in the process.

Their parents, family and friends loved them and mourned them. They were individuals, like me and you. War is so tragic to so many people. Let's try and stop it, okay?

So.

The Old Bardstown Fiber Festival wasn't quite as horrible as anticipated as I did make some money, mostly from the fine members of the Friendship Spinners Guild. The company of Lynne, Brigitte, and Martha was good and I really did have a good time on Saturday. And I didn't go back Sunday.

Amy Winehouse's babies are doin' great! At a little over 3 weeks old, they are starting to eat solid food. I reckon that by this weekend, they will begin to live outside. All four of Claudia's babies are still around! Since Floppy is no longer in the enclosure, they consider it their home base, although at least one is beginning to roam to the field across the alley and behind the church, close to The Evil Neighbor. Sigh. It seems that the females are the ones to stay close to "home" while the fellas have to leave to seek their own territory. That is the scary part.

Memorial Day is the symbolic first day of Spring, and today felt like it. Hot and humid. Thunderstorms are possible tonight.

Not for Resale

The sporadic blogging this week is because I have been fretting over a couple of things.

One thing happened on Wednesday whilst visiting friends Jerry and Jean. All of a sudden, my heart began beating fast, hard and loud, (loud to me anyway,) and for no apparent reason. It freaked me out because I firmly believe that hearts are important.

The really unnerving thing was that it didn't stop. Thirty minutes later, after drinking water and resting, it hadn't stopped.

Between my friends' house and my home is my doctor. Everyone took this slightly wild-eyed, yet strangely calm, woman seriously, and a time slot was found for me. At 4:30 in the afternoon. That is one of the really great things about living in a small and rural county. I have always been able to see the doc quickly without having to go to the urgent care facility or the hospital emergency room.

I wasn't able to see MY doctor, but I got to see A doctor, and he was A doctor that I knew because he's Sweetie's doctor.

Long story short, I had some blood work done and found that my cholesterol was higher than last time, had an EKG which was well within normal, and for 24 hours I wore a heart monitor. Just in case, since my mother's half-sister died of congestive heart failure at about the same age I am now. (The monitor was awful! At least the tape used to attach the five wire things. I have five angry pink areas on my refrigerator-white-bellyandchest-flesh.)

Yet, I am fine! Yay!!!

My other Fret Fest has been about this first Old Bardstown Fiber Festival this weekend in Bardstown, KY. I just have a bad feeling about this event , the details of which I won't spell out just in case I am wrong. (Except that I am particularly worried about their seeming lack of organization.) At least my friend Blue Acorn will be there, along with her strong son, He Who Can Tote Heavy Things. And I'll go because of Martha at The Weaver's Corner, who lives down in that neck of the woods, and who will also be there. You know, if it is a bad scene, I will just leave and come home to Sweetie who will have tomorrow off, and we'll eat pizza and watch DVDs.

Keep Dry

more graph humor and song chart memes

Use Under Adult Supervision

Visiting Jean and Jerry and showing them the joys of Blogland!

May Cause Upset Stomach

Zippiknits asked about putting the partly knit shawl on a thread. Yes, I took it off the needles and placed it on a long piece of yarn. Not toooo scary, and I made only two, easily fixed boo boos in the process. But I had to do it. Not knowing how big it had become was driving me to crazy. (Crazy: Take exit 112)



The Azalea pattern is about the easiest lace pattern I've done. It is a twelve row repeat, and every other row is plain knit. Very sweet. And the six rows of pattern are so logical that I have not made any mistakes. That I know of. (Ms. Kinzel is known for her well-edited patterns.) There are 4 row patterns that I seem incapable of doing. But this? Piece o' cake. Really! Lace is not that hard, it just looks like it.

Bought a new weed eater this weekend and I took pictures of the pretty yard. Also took a snap of the barn. I looked for and found an actual photograph of the same barn from when we moved here, 1994.

We may not have fixed it up as much as I would like, but at least we have not let it deteriorate much.



Back then, the barn, and the back yard, contained so much junk and nasty stuff that we got $500 off the asking price because we said we'd deal with it. When I pulled a deer leg, old and dirty Pampers, and moldy bags of clothing out of a trash pile, I wished we had paid the extra money. My stomach is strong but some of this stuff was way past narsty.

Just Add Water

Knitting News! Yes, I do knit!

Finally placed the purple cashmere shawl on a thread, just to see how big (or small) it really is. Each morning, I am only able to complete two rows (or less) and I was despairing of ever completing the thing, let alone by August. State Fair Time, ya know. (The pattern is Azalea by Marianne Kinzel.)



So, I was happy to see a piece that measured almost four feet at its widest, in a quick pin out session on the bed. It looked so little while on the needles!

Now I know that I have plenty of yarn to finish and enough time that I can spare some mornings to work on socks. Yay!

It has been grey and damp here, but my window plants are loving it.

My former in-laws collected Hummell plates, as an investment, don't you know, and I secretly swore to never ever own anything Hummell made.



Then my dear friend Blue Acorn gifted me with this delightful pair of bunnies. Aren't they cute? They were marked, and I googled because she said they might be collectible, and - yep, they were made by a subsidiary of Hummell - early seventies. And I don't care. I love them!

Here is Hairy - or maybe Hairiette - in the back yard.

May Cause Dizziness

This is a post I received about my blog entry yesterday. The author did not want to be identified. I had heard this sad tale before, and that is why I didn't call the law or make a huge fuss. I hate it, too - but life ain't fair and it often sucks. Great big donkey dicks.

"Once upon a time, I too believed that every dog deserved another chance to not be a bad guy and have his owner be responsible so he wouldn't kill and destroy.  

I also thought that problems between neighbors could be solved.  I was wrong then, and it cost me my best friend and riding coach, my peace of mind for months, the ill-will of several other neighbors and friends, and thousands of dollars in the sale of our house at the wrong time as we made an escape from the range war that was created.  

I went to the neighbor who owned the dog [that killed my sheep], and when he refused to confine the dog and I got huffy, he began to threaten.  Our attorney (another neighbor, by the way) said that was terroristic threatening, and I must not allow it, and should press charges. When I did, all the other neighbors stopped speaking to me, as "one simply didn't do that. Pressing charges against a neighbor goes too far."  We eventually sold and moved, incurring large losses.

In the wake of that, I learned that bad as it sounds (and feels), you can't be fair to every dog.

It's not his fault, but just plain bad luck to end up with an irresponsible owner.  Some dogs pay for that bad luck with their lives, as we now follow the 3-S rule, sometimes called the Kentucky rule, Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up.  If you've never complained, no one will suspect you, and no escalating feuds are started.  This goes so against my grain it's not even funny, as I've always been a dog lover, a proponent of the fair shake, and a believer in the rule of law.  But there it is, you can't always follow your instincts and life's just not fair, and it sucks."

Nuff sed.



I discovered this blog today and have added it to my RSS feed. That means that the current blog entry is posted as an email to me. If a person has high speed internet, it may not matter. But if you are like me, and two or three other people, and have dial up it is great. Some sites take for-fuckin-ever to load. Take a hint, you all, and make your photos more appropriate for web pages. I'm just saying. I would visit you more often.

For the computer-impaired go to your favorite blog. After it loads, there should be an RSS button located to the far right of their URL. Click this. Shortly, you should see a link at the side that says "Subscribe in Mail". Click that. And wait until the site loads. You should then see if there are new posts by goint to your email.

Now. This works on my Mac. I don't do PCs. You guys are on your own.

We do love our babies!

Void where prohibited by law

I love the months of April and May.

I am able to sit on the front porch and not be pestered by the skeeters. Soon, I will have to drench myself in bug repellant in order to be outside. A major drag. I hate being so sensitive to mosquito bites - I welt up and itch like crazy. I detest the repellant, too. Damn allergies.

Winehouse's babies are thriving! A few have their eyes open, and most have erect ears. Itty bitty ears. Adorable, they are.



Outside, 8 little bunnies have been discovered living under the methodist church that abuts our back yard. Four white, two brown, and two black. Jackie Brown is the alleged mom. They have the itty bitty ears, too. Good neighbor Nancy keeps track of and feeds many of the outside kids.

The Thursday evening before my fiber event, Floppy was killed by a neighbor's dog, Red, in my good neighbor Nancy's yard. I was distraught. Floppy had just figgered out out to get of the backyard enclosure the week before. Because of her wry neck, she was not the most swift of bunnies, but still. This is not the first time that Red has summarily executed one of my kids. On my property or on my good neighbor's property. I cradled her warm body in my arms and visited Red's dad in tears.

"Jerry," I said, "Look at what your dog has done." (Again)

What followed was a drunken diatribe that boiled down to his opinion that it was my fault. Not his or his dog's. I did not threaten him, his family, or his dogs, but he did threaten Buster and my bunnies. Hearsay is that he also threatened me and Sweetie - not to my face but once I had left the area. A BB shot cracked one of our upstairs windows shortly thereafter, but we cannot prove a thing.

City dwellers will say that I should have called the police. And I did consider doing that. In the end, I decided not to involve the sheriff's office.

I did not want a tit-for-tat redneck feud.

Sweetie says he will take steps that this will not happen again.

There are times I absolutely hate this town. And this life.



But I do love my bunnies.

Not for Home Use

Back and recovering from the fiber festival weekend. The over-stimulus of these events does me in every time. The drive to Troy, Ohio was longer than I anticipated and the rain and horrible traffic didn't help. I arrived 90 minutes later than planned, wrung out. Hippie Art Chick (HAC) and I made the wise choice of a Super 8 Motel over camping in the rain and cold. The machete was not needed after all.

The show was good for me; I made my nut and more. Other vendors were not so fortunate. Fuzzarelly Fibers was the only booth offering brightly colored angora blends, plus discounted knitting needles. There were a lot of dyed sock yarn and roving and one interesting booth with arty totes. HAC has the best designs for rug hooking that I have ever seen.

The fairgrounds were nice. (I wish my county had such nice facilities!) This was the second annual Upper Valley Whatever, and I think I will return next year when it will be earlier in the year and a two-day thing.

My wares are not cheap (but not outrageous, either) and they are different. Those that drooled but didn't/couldn't buy may very well save their pennies and buy from me next time. Time it takes, young Jedi.

The only thing I bought was a sock darning egg-on-a-handle from the folks at SisterMade. (Maid?) Sweetie is hard on his socks, and we are frugal, so I do mend the ones I hand knit for him.

Zippiknits asked - what in the world did I do to my arm? It happened whilst I was clipping Sugar last week. With small, very sharp and pointed scissors. (If you would like a pair, let me know as I am a Gingher dealer. Then you too can stab yourself in the arm.) Somehow Sugar jumped and I grabbed and the next thing I knew, the scissors had jabbed me and the blood fountain began. It didn't get an artery, but rather a vein - possibly. I think the stab was maybe a half to three-quarter inches deep. Thank goodness that I have that padding of fat that comes with Ethel Merman underarms. The wound isn't infected so I expect the bruise will be gone shortly. When folks asked about it, I told them that I cut myself shaving.

Winehouse's babies are thriving. All of them. Amy has taken to chasing the cats - Millie especially, which just cracks me up as Millie is a constant torment to Reese's. Turnabout = fair play.

Hand Wash in Cold Water

More Web Plagarism

The federal government is sending those who qualify a $300 - $600 rebate:
• If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, or on cheap useless crap, the money will go to China.
• If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.
• If we purchase a computer it will go to Taiwan.
• If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
• If we purchase a good car it will go to Japan.
• The only way to keep that money here at home is buy to the only products still produced in the USA -- prostitutes, cabana boys, weed, beer and tattoos! Do your part!

“When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of
sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do
not have sex with the authorities.”~ Matt Groening

Best Name for a Fiber Group:

Rustic Tarts & Old Farts Gathering in Martinsburg, WV

Reduce Speed

Well shit. Somehow I deleted the post I just spent a half hour writing.

Long story short. Stabbed myself in arm. Sweetie says not to worry about taking a machete this weekend, as I am not to be trusted around sharp and/or pointy things for awhile.



Two of Winehouse's babies.



And Winehouse on the lookout.





And here is something I found on the Interwebs -


THE HILLBILLY'S TEN COMMANDMENTS
Posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Gainesboro, TN.
Jes’ One God
Put Nothin' Before God
Watch Yer Mouth
Git Yourself To Sunday Meetin'
Honor Yer Ma & Pa
No Killin'
No Foolin' Around With Another Fellow's Gal
Don't Take What Ain't Yers
No Tellin' Tales Or Gossipin'
Don't Be Hankerin' For Yer Buddy's Stuff

This Side Up

I am strangely not psyched about this weekend's fiber festival in Troy, Ohio.

Part of it must be anxiety about going to a new place. (I'm not a great traveler.) I've been going to Greencastle, either as a buyer or a vendor, for 8 years. The first time I went, I was in the care of several veterans. So now, there are no surprises. This weekend, however...

Hippie Art Chick and I will be camping, and that is out of my comfort range. I think I've camped out before - I just can't seem to remember when. She has the tent and sleeping bags and stuff; all I need to bring is my pillow. Sweetie wants me to take a hammer or machete - you know, just in case. Geez. (Amanda, I promise not to freak or anything.)

I will get over this and I will be fine. I don't know why I am surprised at my unease, except - isn't this what the drugs are for?

On the plus side, I have dyed some of the merino/angora mill roving and cranked it into batts. Nice! I've spun some of it, too. There are teeny tiny neps in it, from less than ideal length angora, but in the spinning it matters not. I also had the brilliant idea to sell four ounce balls of the plain roving! du-u-u-h! I am the marketing jeenyus.

I may or may not do another show before the Fiber eXchange Guild's gig in October. (Which is The Best!!! and is a Must Attend!!!) There's a show in September in Illinois that I may do. I really should be more gung ho about selling, but at the moment, I am having a hard time leaving the house. Maybe Sweetie, (or Amanda,) can come with me to Illinois. I don't even go to my Fuzzarelly.com website to update. My head hangs in shame. Luzer!

Received the Placating Tax Refund today. It will help pay for some work we had done on the barn. A retaining wall began giving way several years ago, and structural damage to the barn was imminent, if not already underway. This was a must do.



The barn is old, extremely well built, and definitely worth saving. Here's the work in progress, with our house in the background.

We voted today. How strange it is that today's outcome in Indiana actually makes a difference! I hope you all voted and plan to vote in November!

Strike on Box

I got nothin.

Had an allergic reaction something, something I think I ate. Taking Benadryl and sleeping too much and still not feeling chirpy.

Sweetie is working way too much and I miss him.

Winehouse had her litter - 5 white, 1 black and 1 white with black eyes.

I will be in Troy, Ohio this Saturday for a fiber fest.