TODAY'S JOURNEY WAS SHORT

A night of not sleeping well and an early morning make for a slow working day / journey.  After a visit from a sales person, (yuck) we tackled the painting of the last two beams  and the fireplace in the family room.  Actually, John tackled the beams and did a super job.  I attacked the fireplace.  


I am so pleased we decided to paint the fireplace brick again.  It looks so fresh now.  But that was all we completed today.  I was able to finish between the mantle and the hearth.  Below the hearth and above the mantle is on our to do list for tomorrow.  How can such a simple project take two days to finish?  


Tomorrow, the furniture is returned to the family room and we will start the kitchen painting.  Not much there.  Only the bulkhead and the space between the counter top and the underside of the cabinets.   After that, only the guest bath remains!  All should be completed by Saturday afternoon! 


Oh my gosh, we are soooo close!  I can hardly believe it. 


Excuse me while I hyperventilate!  


Wow!


Ohhhhhh, rats.......


We have the little barn (30' X 60') to empty!  Hummmm, that has been used only for storage of "stuff."  Stuff we have forgotten, lived without, forgot that existed.....


I think we have just decided to ditch everything!  Of course we will ditch after we sell the antiques, weaving loom and send the best llama fiber to the mill to be processed into yarn.  The "seconds" of the llama fiber will be sent to Texas to be woven into rugs to sell.  


BUT  the finish line is in sight!  


Probably, tomorrow we will think of more things we want to do, but for tonight......we are encouraged. 


Thanks for stopping by....


After you finish laughing at us, feel free to leave a comment.


God bless you on your journey!

CHINA STRIKES AGAIN WITH CHEAP, UNSAFE PRODUCTS AND OUR DAY OF REST

I am still on my soapbox so watch out, folks!

The following paragraphs are taken from Penny's Tuppence's blog.  I feel that the information is important enough to pass along.   The links will not work as this is a copy and paste. 

"Alert for Chinese Treats.

"The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) has notified the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) of reports of possible toxicity with chicken jerky treats from China.
The recently reported Fanconi syndrome-like symptoms in dogs are similar to those documented in 2007 by the AVMA, also associated with chicken jerky treats made in China.

The AVMA issued an alert to its members, state veterinary medical associations and allied organizations to 'remain vigilant for illness possibly linked to chicken jerky treat consumption.' "
Dr. Becker recommends you not feed chicken jerky treats to your dog. Select an all-natural, protein based treat like Beef & Bison Bites, or another healthy treat made in the U.S.
As with any treats, they should be fed only occasionally, not routinely. This is especially true for small-breed dogs."
More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/07/26/avma-issues-alert-for-chicken-jerky-treats-from-china.aspx"

Karen in the Woods left a comment this morning.  She asked if the chicken in the chicken and noodles I fixed last night was from the chicken that hitched a ride under the motorhome.  Nope Karen, as far as I know, the girl is fine.  Three people said they would give her a home and we did not see her wandering around as we left.  

It has rained all day making it a lazy, lazy, sleepy day here in the John Bryan State Park.  The deer come and go at will.  Some with their camouflage spots fading.  They seem so small to be going into winter.

There are only 5 campsites occupied tonight.  Couple that with the campsites being quite large and the pads being blacktop for nice, level parking, what else could we ask for?  


I have found some new dyes to try.  I am ordering them over the Internet and looking forward to their arrival.  They are dyes that contain no heavy metals and are so good to the environment.  If I like them, I will be selling them on my website and at fiber events.


I am going to be more scientific in my dyeing.  Thus far, with my acid dyes, I have been a throw the dyes in the pot and see what I get type of person.  


Now that my hand spun and hand dyed yarns are selling, I want to have larger lots of colors for people to create larger projects such as wraps, sweaters, etc.  Just more of expanding our business to provide our customers with the best we can find.  

I love it that my hand spun is selling, but that means I need to be spinning, spinning, spinning.  And that's not all bad....well....that's not bad at all!   I just wish that I could spin, crank socks and felt at the same time!  I wonder if the Bionic Woman was able to do that...hummm....thinking....it hurts!


We did not find a weaving loom that we liked at the Wool Gathering.  We will be looking at them at SAFF in  Asheville, North Carolina in a few weeks.  I am patient, I can wait, I think....


I am also looking for a yardage counter for my yarns.  Right now, I wind the yarn around the lip of my felting table....then I must rewind the yarn into a ball or cone in order to package it or to knit on my circular sock machine.  


Have I ever told you I love all things fiber?  Can you tell?  There is only one problem....my weight never goes down.   


That's all for tonight!  Be safe out there!


God Bless!

RUN OVER BY A MACK TRUCK!

That is exactly how I feel this evening.  The last three days have been, what can I say......excruciating?......busy?......hard?......tiring?......really, I have no word to describe them.  

Tuesday:  pack the  motor home.  Run errands, Pack the motor home more.  Pack, load, pack, load....bed.

Wednesday:  Stock refrigerator.  In  other words, ....  Pack food and load refrigerator and freezer.  Finish getting clothes into motorhome closets and drawers.  Since the temperatures went from ninety eight degrees to fifty in a twenty four hour period, we had to pack for cool and hot temperatures.

We pulled out of the drive about three hours later than we wanted.  We need to get fuel.  Pull up to the pump and I discover that my business debit card is not in my purse.  Can you spell getting testy?

Exit BP station, drive back home, up the drive, go to green barn to look for the card that I think is in the Miata...not there....walk to house to look for missing card...oops!  It's in my book bag from my trip to the library and Tuesday's errands.  

Back to motor home that John has turned around and is poised, maybe a bit impatiently, waiting for take off.  Back to BP...fill up with gas and we are off and two hundred dollars porer. (we did not fill up)



Now, to make things interesting, we are now entering the rush hour madness.  We cannot take Interstate 74 west since there is a major road construction effort underway, including a HUGE detour.  So we decide to take the south loop of I 465 to I 70 then cut up on state highways to 74, thus missing the detour.  Right..sure...have you heard of Murphy????

Traffic is not toooo bad......UNTIL.....we get around Interstate 70 and I 465, out by Indianapolis Municipal Airport.  Just as we commit to that and voila, a traffic jam.  Not an ordinary traffic jam, but for over 2 hours there was no need to use the accelerator.  Just take foot off brake and let the rig creep up five or six inches, hit the brake and wait for about ten minutes and repeat!  That does wonders for our m.p.g! 

We finally reach the state highway that will take us up north to I 74 and we are off!....., Not so fast, buddy.  THAT road had a detour!...just a small one though.  But..... we decide to take another road that actually takes us through the town that NASCAR drive, Jeff Gordon is from.  

Pittsboro is the name of the town and it has a restaurant that serves great catfish.  We love young catfish, so we stopped at Frank and Mary's for our first F & M's catfish in fifteen years our so. We had our dinner, which did not live up to our memories and off we went on our trek to Wisconsin.

The drive from our driveway to Frank & Mary's would normally take us a little over an hour. Then our meal would last an hour - maximum.   Our driveway to the Indiana / Illinois state line takes about two hours.  So that would mean that if all conditions were good, we would arrive at the state line in three hours.  That would be seven o'clock.  

We arrived at the state line at nine!  You get that?  NINE O'CLOCK! 

Mapquest said this entire trip would take six hours and fifteen minutes and we were at the state line in five hours.  Can you say, we...are...running....late?  

Well, we drove until about midnight, stopped at a new Sam's and Wally world complex at the intersection of I 39/I90 and WI 26.... (nice) and fell into bed to wake up at nine this morning.  Are we having fun yet?  

We awake bleary eyed...I wonder why???   After a drive through at Micky D's, we drove a short, short distance to Jefferson Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. Ahhhh, finally achieve our driving goal. 

We were fortunate enough to be able to drive the motor home right into the building and unload.  I think that is our first good break in over a week!  God is good!

The booth is set up and if I must say so myself, looks great.  I have an antique Canadian Production spinning wheel for sale and a gently used Schact Matchless spinning wheel in our booth to sell.  There are the knitting / plying / warping bowls thrown by our friend and potter John Todd, aka PawPaw Pottery.  Then we can add our fiber, knitting lights, needle felting and wet felting supplies.  


I am looking forward to meeting fellow blogger, Mad City Mike.  Hopefully, Karen in the Woods will also show up and introduce herself.  If there are others in Wisconsin or traveling through the area, please come to the Country Market - West building, north west wall, come buy and introduce yourselves!  


But right now,  It's 8:06 and I am going to bed!  Night all!


God bless and hold you in the palm of his hand.