WHAT HAPPENS TO TIME?

I was amazed when I saw when I last posted.  What happened?  Did I space-out a total week?  Where did the time go?    
I thought I had posted just a couple of days ago.  


No, my last post was a week ago!  


I think we have been very busy, busy, busy.  And it shows around here.  


Last week, we ticked off job after task after task.  Just a small amount of work is left for completion this week.  Little things, like polishing the counter tops, hanging a few paintings, moving a couple pieces of furniture, washing windows, and staging the house for "show and sell."  



If all goes the way we have planned, one week from tomorrow, the house will be listed with Century 21, Scheetz in Greenwood, Indiana.  Dan Nichols will be our agent.  


This past week was a good week.  We sold the truck.  I sold my weaving loom.  We sold quilting fabric!  John sold wood turning tools.  Whew, that sure helps to remove things from our to-do list.  


A lot of quilting fabric remains.  And this makes my studio a bit messy.   I am trying to decide if I just want to donate the fabric to a quilting guild in the area or continue to sell it.  Hummmm, a conundrum it is.  


It is time to move some things into the motorhome.  My Schact Matchless spinning wheel,  the CSM or Circular Sock Machine are waiting to go to their new motorhome home.  


John's Tie Flying materials and equipment will not take up ten percent of what my two occupy. How much space can fishing hooks, feathers, wire, thread, foam and dubbing materials and fur take up?   But to make up for the discrepancy, we are going to buy US a new weaving loom.  It will be a loom that will fit into the motorhome and not occupy a vast amount of space. 


With the weather turning warmer each day, and the daffodils blooming and the grass and weeds beginning to grow, we will be obligated to remain home and care for the farm until we have a sale.  


I think I have John convinced to apply landscape fabric to all flower beds then cover with mulch.  There is no way we can weed all the flowerbeds that he has created in the last few years.  


If we can limit ourselves to a minimal amount of weeding and take care of the mowing of pastures etc., we should be able to get away from here for a few days at a time.  That must suffice for the time being.  


In two weeks, I do have a Crank In (where people with circular sock machines come to crank together, learn new techniques, and just have fun. We will take the motorhome, I will be cranky and John will be in knots (tying flies).  We are so looking forward to getting away from here for the first time since the first of November.  



I believe this brings you up to date.  The Mocking Bird is singing his heart out, the Doves have returned and are cooing, the Wrens are flitting around the birdhouses.  Now we are waiting to hear the frogs croaking in the pond.


Until then,  God bless you all....

A Day of Challenges

Today's challenges have not been monumental.  They are just challenges.  But for some reason, they bug me today.  The heat, the air quality, the sock machine, the silk worms, the grass to cut, the weeds to pull, the motorhome floor to finish, the kitchen to finish as well as painting the house so we can sell it.  That's all. 

Today, the heat has been oppressive and the resulting air quality has made for a difficult day for John with his emphysema.  Working on the motorhome floor is impossible after about one o'clock in the afternoon.  He is so eager to get the flooring down and it is discouraging for him.  He pushes himself further than he should and this is a concern for me. 

The sock machine and I had a round today.  I am using a new / different yarn and am having a terrible time making all the adjustments.  I've knitted and ripped out more times than I can count!  As I have said before, this is a HUGE learning curve.  On the positive side though, I have found the perfect number of rows to fit my foot.  The first socks were too large for my feet, but the last pair.....just right.   What is so funny is that as I was ripping out a sock for the umteenth time, I was thinking that maybe I should get my spinning wheel and spin.  I had to laugh at myself.  When I was learning to spin, I would think that maybe I should just go felt something.  Nothing like wanting to take an easier road.  

The silkworms.....I have three very stubborn fellas.  They just don't want to stop eating those mulberry leaves and make their cocoons.  I have had cocoons for four days now, but these guys keep hanging on and eating.  I still can hear these three chewing on the mulberry leaves.  At first, as wee babes, they needed the youngest, most tender mulberry leaves.  Now they enjoy the large, mature leaves.  When I go out to cut more branches, I see those young, tender leaves and thing, ooooh they will like these.  I put the leaves in the silkworm container and what do these fellas want?  The old, hairy, tough leaves.  I guess my love of the spring mix for salads does not equate here.  I love the young and tender.

You can see the two coocoons and the worms here. 

I am tempted to reduce the amount we are cutting.  With the price of gas, I feel it is a waste of money.  It takes a lot of gas to cut 5 acres every 3 or 4 days.  The grass is still growing at a speedy rate and with most of our grass being out of sight, why not? 

And the weeds.  I just wish everything were level and we could just cut it all down....The woes of summer and home / mini farm ownership. 

We did have a cool visitor today.  I really do not know what it is.  It looks a bit like a dragon fly, but I don't think it is.  "He" was resting on the side of our house and I saw him as I was sitting at the circular sock machine.  Maybe you will be able to tell me it's name. 

Dinner is ready, time to go.....God bless all tonight~!

Catching up on Home Duties

Laundry and other chores are about completed.  We are working on the mowing and oh my gosh, the rain brought out the weeds.  How it makes me long for the open road.  Let the highway road crews mow and take care of weeds with their huge tractors and bush hogs.  You go fellas! 

I've been looking at inventory and checking it twice....to order more inventory.  Hum, vicious circle, isn't it.  We have a short break until the next show.  This affords me to get fiber artwork done for art shows and to work with the circular sock machine......knitting socks.  The dye pots are also coming out.  Lots of  work to prepare for the coming shows. 

It has cooled off a little and I am thankful for that.  We actually were able to shut down the air conditioning and open windows to sleep.  I love a fresh breeze as long as it is cool. 

The silk worms are growing, and growing.  We have increased the size of their habitat four times.  The runt died yesterday.  He had a case of failure to thrive or something.  He/she just did not grow.  So, now we are down to 26.  The day is coming that they will be spinning their cocoons of silk.  Then the cycle will continue.  They survived the traveling.  Mulberry trees are everywhere, so we had a good supply of food for them. Collecting stems of Mulberry trees created quite a few questions though, and the critters had quite a few inquisitive observers. 

Good wishes go to Marilyn and Ed, The Happy Wanderers /www.mytripjournal.com/travel-607759  You can read about their RV fire and see the photos of the damage. 

Thanks to God for the successful surgery of Gene Woodard.  Gene's wife, Barb is a fellow sock machine cranker and had asked for prayer.  Gene's surgery was yesterday and he wants to go home today~!  God is good!

Blessings to all, God speed till next time.   ..............