Saturday, June 22, 2013

 Just because I love looking at the woods so much I take pictures all the time, watching how they change with the months.  This is certainly a spring picture, so nice and green.

We've had so much rain lately that everything is growing in abundance, especially our weeds.  Not so much knapweed.  I think it likes the drier weather, actually hot and dusty.  Right now they are green and tender shoots that you can even pull.

I like this old rotted stump.  Its so serene and peaceful looking.  This is where the deer and moose come down to irritate the dogs I think.  Its just on the other side of our back fence.  We've never fenced it off, really no need to right now.  And we like the wildlife using it and keeping it as natural as possible.  A logger friend really cleaned it up a few years ago, getting rid of all the dead, dying and down trees.  Most of it got used for firewood.

A nice way to clean house!


The woven baby blanket for my niece is getting there, very slowly.  I couldn't figure out what colors to use so decided it will remain white, unless I come up with something in the mean time.  You just never know.  Sometimes I wake up in the night with a really brilliant idea.

Of course its always more meaningful for me at 2am than during the next day.  But ... you never know.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 something.  We were enjoying nice weather until last week when it turned very cold (40-50's) and rained.  Did I say rain?  You can bet it didn't stop for several days.

This next week rain will be back, but only for about three more days.  Then summer.  We always have a nice couple months right after the 4th of July.  Let's hope that happens this year too.


Saturday, June 15, 2013

 Our garden is already a non-entity.  The chickens have eaten the seeds we put out, and whatever plants have grown to any size have been nibbled to death.  These on the left are just about the only ones we have left right now.  They are red potatoes planted early this spring.  I guess I got a picture of my daughter's little dog at the front.  She's a pure bred chihuahua, but looks like she's a little chiweenie.  Under five pounds, and a little ball of dynamite.

We also have a bunch of other potato plants that are what we call volunteers.  Ones that we somehow missed last fall when we were digging them, or possibly pieces of potatoes left in the frozen ground until they woke up and decided to sprout.  Those were the purple potatoes we had so many of.

They must be very hardy.  Our winters are usually dark, cold (around 0 degrees) and pretty long.  I have to admit that last winter was a pretty nice one by our standards, but still.  To hang around all that time and still be able to grow six months later is pretty remarkable.

Also still growing is the tiny little whats-left-of our rhubarb plant that has been rototilled nearly to death the last few years.  And it was so pretty.  Finally moved it to a pot and will try to grow it as a potted plant.

The picture on the right is some our blueberry bushes that yield the most glorious berries you've ever seen.  The are as big as your thumb, dark blue black and sooo incredibly sweet.

We had so many a few years ago that I froze them unwashed on cookie sheets, gathered the frozen berries into several very large zip-lock bags and tucked them into our big freezer in the carport.  We have enjoyed them so much.

Just take enough for your meal out of the bag, put into a colander and rinse under cold water to wash and also thaw them.  They are not mushy or too soft and you can sprinkle them right on your cereal in the morning, or eat them right out of your hand if you prefer.  I know you're probably not impressed with the way these bushes look, but every little round spot on them is a cluster of delicious blueberries.

One more note, at the top of the blog is a picture of some awesome dark clouds.  We took this picture this last Thursday as a storm was rolling in from the west.  I'd never seen these types of clouds before, at least not this low or close up.  It looked like you could reach up and touch them.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

 Driving near our house every day there is a beautiful bison ranch just off the highway.  Silly me, I should have lowered the window in the car before taking this picture.

See how green and fresh everything is this time of year.  And these bison are LARGE.  They move them around to different pastures as time goes on.  Unfortunately I waited just a little too long to get the picture as last week they had been up closer to the road.

But you can just barely seen them over near the lake.  What a life!

 Ahhh, sweet little Emmy, my daughter's dog.  She is almost two years old now.  What a doll.  She is good natured, thinks she is a real meanie but she's not and isn't afraid of hardly anything.  When the Great Pyrenees and the border collie start barking at something outside, she is the first one at the door.

And she's the only one who gets to come into the chicken yard garden area.  She runs into their coop to see what morsel she can find.  Fortunately she's not much on the 'organic' kind if you know what I'm talking about ... the kind the chickens leave behind.  But she will find scraps of food and veggies they've missed and carry it around in her mouth.

At under five pounds, she is a little stick dynamite on four legs, very quick, very loud and verrrrry sweet.

Ok, so here's the start of my next weaving project.  I always mount my warping board (the big square with the round pegs) on the back of my Ashford loom.  Its just the right height for me and doesn't make my shoulder hurt going back and forth.

To warp (measure your length) you have to figure out how long your project will be and wrap your warp threads back and forth over the pegs.  You can see the cross at the top I'm doing.  This is all to keep the warp threads from getting tangled when its taken off until its ready to wind on the loom.  I will be taking some short pieces of a different yarn and tying these cross threads.  This will help me keep everything straight and tidy when I'm getting it from the warping board to the actual loom (which in this case is currently connected to the board).

Tune in later for more.