if he knew how close he came

HI..the wimp is still sick, and is really starting to drive me around the bend... he asked me to "Shoot" him last night, if he only knew how close he came to having his wish granted..i sure hope this awful flu bug skips over yours truly, i don't need to get sick... i have to go out and load up his pick up with fire wood today...we are almost out... Had to make a flying trip to town, got a cheque from a client on Friday, and found out today that they are going bankrupt.. so called the bank and they called the other bank and client had $$ in their acct so i flew into town and hope it will still be there when the cheque gets deposited, saw my friend at the bank,( she is the manager) with her hubby, their well pump has quit and he is getting the flu, she was ready to shot him already..
that has happened to us before, no water, so no toilet,(joys of country living) so i had a fit and insisted that i get an "outhouse", i can tell you that has been a god send more times than you can imagine... what an awful entry today... so sorry... i am sick of my life right now..

so glad i stayed home

hi... the guild is off to the "fancy yarn workshop" this weekend... i decided to stay home as i wasn't too sure how Larry would be on the ice that makes up our yard this month... anyway on Thursday, he came home sicker than a dog... every bone and muscle in his body ached..and he has been in bed ever since...in our 40 years of marriage, i have never seen him spend so much time in bed..in bed for 4 hours, up for an hour and back to bed...he would have been way too sick to do the chores and stoke the fire..he is just really sore and achey...

Crazy parrot is learning new words every day... latest was "Yankee's a gooooood boy", and today he is trying to say "you're so sexy" and it comes out "you're see", he have it figured out soon... last nite he said," you heard me"... exactly what i say to L when he asks me to repeat myself, which drives me nuts..

Agility was good yesterday... Dixie is driving me nuts, she just decides that she won't do as i ask her..just stands and looks at me...i try to stay positive and keep her happy, but by the time the class is over, i am ready to shoot her, and then in the next class Jesse does just what i ask her, and is waiting for more instructions... one of my class mates want to run her, cuz she looks like she is so much fun to run..which she really is...we have one more trial the middle of March, hopefully we will do better...
Another beautiful day, ice is melting slowly, and is very slippery, even the dogs are slip sliding around.. no lambs yet, i hope the ram did his job, i haven't seen him bred anything for awhile, so i am sure the job is done..just later than usual.. take care

another good day

this is Roxie the Lab, at the agility trial..she is a rescue dog, and has found a great home

This is Benjie, the poodle, a real cute little mooch.. don't ya love the flying ears

This is Lexie, a lovely black standard poodle..i ended up with a dozen pictures of the tire that she won't go thru... none of our dogs liked it.

I didn't get any pictures of "jesse" the rat dog, which was a good thing..

I took a couple of pictures of that Jade green i finished spinning, but it looks more like teal, so will try again tomorrow, and take it out side..

Had a good guild meeting, lots of laughs as usual.. Larry made two of the girls 'warping reels', and did they turn out great... he has one more to finish, so i will make sure i get a picture of it to show ya...

Several of the guild are thinking about going to Olds too this summer..it should be fun.. did everyone see the Eclipse of the moon tonight.. had a great view from our deck, thru the trees of course...

Cats knocked the ducting off the furnace last nite.. so we woke up to a very cold house this morning... i have been awake since 4 am..with no afternoon naps today...so will get the coffee set for morning and head to beddie bye... nite nite..

First agility trial

Well, we did it... went to our first agility trial with son's dog Jesse, i have been training her since January 2007, got brave and entered in our first trial, well we screwed up majorly our first run... she wouldn't do anything, wouldn't go over the A frame, the tetter, or the dog walk, things that she has never missed on... I was nervous and i know she pick up on it... we messed up so badly on the first run i wanted to quit, but my instructor was yelling at me, "ya paid your money, finish it" so i did... we got a 3rd place, only because there were only 3 dogs..the time for the run was 65 seconds, and we took 175 seconds... so that shows how bad we were... couple of hours later we ran the second run, and she did much better this time, i was calmer and she was calmer... so this time she got a FIRST...made some mistakes, but we did finish in much better time... the fellow handed me my leash as i left the ring, and congratulated me with a " much better run this time"... and my friends were all there cheering me on... what a great bunch they are... so supportive..we had one more run to do, and i almost scratched her from it, but they all talked me into trying, and we did well, got a 3rd out of 9 dogs... didn't get home till 9 pm... it was past Kamloops, 1 .5 hour drive... and we stopped for supper..just to relax and get some energy back... but i am still recovering today... if you ever get the chance to see an agility trial, go watch, it is so much fun to watch the dogs... there was a little and i mean little, poodle, i bet she didn't weight any more than 5 pounds and was hardly 6 inches tall, and she ran like a little trooper.. going as hard as she could... she was so little she had to sit on the end of the tetter and wait for it to go down..she is 10 years old..her handle was an elderly man about 6 feet tall,what a sight they were and she did everything he asked... then there were the border collies, and most of them get what they call "the zoomies" and that is just what it is... they zoom all over the ring taking anything that they like the look of..it is so funny to watch them..and then there are the barkers... who bark so much that they can't hear the handlers.. it was a great day, and i plan on doing another the middle of March, there is one the first of March, but i want to go to Fibre fest the next weekend, so that is pushing it to go away two weekends in a row... thought i might go down a day early and visit my Mom..haven't seen her since Sept ... I have finished the green merino for my next shawl... will take a picture of the skein before i start knitting it... now have to make the final decision about what pattern to use.... Guild meeting this week...they are off to a 'fancy yarn workshop' in Cache Creek with Louise Smith from Lumby on Friday...i'm not going... don't feel i can leave Larry for that long yet... i still stoke the fire during the day and at night..and this place is like a skating rink..i went to gas up this morning and slide right past the gas tank...even the dogs are slipping and sliding around.. better go get supper started.... hugs

Where does time go

Hard to believe it has been 5 days since i sat down to write to ya all...the weather has been great, above freezing day and nite, snow is melting, water and ice everywhere... only problem with the snow melting that it shows up all of Jackson's toys, buckets, rope and any thing plastic he can get his mouth around..
Got the premium list for the Agility trial on Sunday... and of course i am first in my class, why couldn't i have been 2nd or 3rd..but everyone in our group will help me out...I can't expect too much from us.. this is our very first trial..I just have to remember to have FUN.. i decided to give Dixie a break on Saturday. and just run Jesse the day before the trial... running two dogs wears me right out..and i need to be fresh on Sunday
I got the shawl almost finished, just have to do the lace edging... I had a real mental block yesterday, I wanted to do another set of patterns, it called for 800 yards and i had 900, so thought i would make it fine with enough left over to do the edging... but my mind didn't agree...I made dozens of mistakes in the first 6 rows of the extra set of patterns... the very simplest rows..a definite mind block... so i just quit it and casted off... then i was to add the lace edging.. and can you imagine that i can't figure it out..it has to be very simple as it is a very simple pattern... think i will leave it for a few days and let my wee mind take a break... I do have some lovely jade merino on the wheel..so will work on that...
Went to the food bank yesterday, what a busy day... we had almost 50 clients yesterday...and 3 new clients.. wore me right out...
Guild is having their fancy yarn workshop on the 22nd...won't be going as i just can see myself leaving Larry yet, he is still using his crutch, so his ankle must be hurting... i would hate to go and then him fall or just hurt his ankle..
Of course i missed Dreamspin in Lake Cowachin last weekend... they only missed me as i didnt bring the homemade Carmel corn..they called me Friday nite... after several bottles of wine...just to say they missed me... what a goofy bunch they are, but i did miss going, although the Coq was closed and is still closed so i would have had to go the Fraser Canyon, and that is extra dangerous with all the truck traffic..Hwy 8 between Merritt and Spence Bridge was closed since last nite with a mud slide between us and Spence Bridge..
I am listening to the "Westminster dog show" encore.. love to watch it.. and see if i can pick the winners.. I did watch some last nite, but got too tired to watch it to the end..better go get my year end for the business done... take care and hugs sheila

Spring is coming...

Hurrah... it is warm outside, has been for 2 whole days, does that mean spring is coming..sure hope so... i want things to melt really really fast, and dry up just as fast... going to take the dogs for a walk this afternoon... plus 4.4 degrees... i can start lambing anytime now...
I called Olds and registred for 3 classes, 'spinning self striping yarns, ' and 'Color and fibre blending' and a two day workshop on "silk road spinning'......... i called Olds about accomodations and all the town houses are gone already, but there are lots of dorm rooms..so guess i will do that...I have heard so much about Olds, that i can hardly wait... Larry is just fine with it...as always. I am missing two retreats this month... Dreamspin this weekend, and our guilds "fancy yarn workshop" at Cache Creek Feb 22 weekend... Larry just isn't ready to pack bales and heavy pieces of wood for the fire, he figures he is, but i would hate it if it got icy and he fell just cause i wanted to go spinning..i just couldn't do this again, it has almost been a year (in March).. I have been knitting 2 hours a night and spinning 2 hours a night... getting near the end of the 60th birthday shawl... hope i have enough yarn to finish it... it will be close... i can always pick up more fibre at "fibre fest" as Loralee will be there... so no big deal... and i am spinning up some beautiful jade colour for a shawl for a friend who's hubby just passed away..

have you check out this blog http://simpleknits.blogspot.com/search?q=simple+knits she has a list of 300 + shawls,(they are listed on the right hand side of the blog) about half are free, some i have never seen before... I also got the shawl pattern for the "heartland buffalo fibre shawl"... a free pattern if you email them, but i have it if anyone is interested..

Off to agility tomorrow, only two more classes before the trial.. i am getting nervous..but the girls keep telling me that they all screw up..Amy. one of the girls from Dixie's class told me that her dog, "Frank", a big all Canadian breed, has bone cancer... he is only 21 months old.. and a real character, i really like him, and he just loved agility, it is spreading really fast so he doens't have much time left... a friend of Amy has a border collie looking for a home, Amy is worried that she will get a Dixie dog... SLOW... but i told her Dixie is getting faster... so we laughed about that... after a shedding a few tears about Frank... Frank made us laugh every class..where does all this cancer come from in dogs these days, our neighbour down the road lost two Goldens to cancer, other neighbour lost a St Bernard and a Newfie to cancer too... and our Gyp dog too...
I sure missed him the other night, went to feed the dogs and there was 2 mice in the dog food can... i used to pull the can down and he would catch them... he was a better mouser than any of the cats..that was his great joy in life... mousing.... sniff... sniff..
Mom is having a memorial for my step grandmother(who passed away last week) on Saturday, none of my side of the family will be going, Joe works, Matt is in class, I'm at agility and Larry won't go... oh well... some of the rest of the family will be there...

Larry is off to Physo therapy this morning, first time... he can walk and drive on it, but can't work yet, still needs the crutch when he gets tired, so things are really looking up... talk to ya soon................ sheila

Olds Fibre Week

Hi... i have just this minute decided to go to Olds for Fibre week at the end of June... i have wanted to go for years, but when we operated the Tulahead retreat, the dates were just too close...I was trying to decide if i should go to the Black sheep gathering in Oregon with Lynn or to Olds... decided on Olds as the courses are out . I talked to Andrea as she was planning on going, and we thought we would share a townhouse, i just called Olds and the townhouses are all booked already, so i guess we will go with the dorms...should be fun anyway.... so i think i will call tomorrow and register.. going to take a two day workshop on silk spinning, my all time favorite fibre..one on spinning strips and one on colour and fibre blending... that should be interesting, anyone else like to come...

i needed some spring... so i found this picture of my "golden showers rose"... made me feel good just looking at it....

see ya

what good kids

hi... seeing it was our 40th anniversay , our two sons and daughter in law took us out for supper on Friday, as Joe, the oldest had to work on Saturday, the actual day of the big 40...the meal was 'crap', Merritt doesn't have any good places to eat anymore..anyway... they surprised us with a gift certificate and reservation for the nite in the "Four Points, Sheraton Hotel" in Kamloops with $100 gift certificate for a meal in "Ric's Grill" in the hotel..our youngest , Matt came up to stay here, feed the sheep and keep the fire going, so we left here at 4 yesterday, we made arrangements with friends to go with us, as they had just had their 25th annivesary right when Larry had his second surgery and we had planned a meal in Kamloops with them... so we met them at the Hotel, they came up and left their coats in our room, which was by the way the "HONEYMOON suite"... what a giggle.. very nice room, two rooms, two TVs, two bathrooms, (a guest bath and a master bath), and a jacuzzi in the bedroom and a huge California King bed, and a fire place...the meal was to die for... very nice... and very expensive, but i just love a good meal out... they left about 8:30, i had a bath in the jacuzzi, and we crashed about 10 pm... i took a book and knitting, didn't knit and read two pages in my book... we even slept in this morning, and then breakfast came with the room, so we had a nice breakfast and headed home, it was a great nite out, and we both enjoyed the time away... especially with no chores...we were very lucky when we adopted these two boys, they have been good over the years, no problems with them at all... no drinking, no drugs, good marks in school, considerate of others, good with animals, great with their grandmother, and grandfather, and both have good jobs... good kids all the way around... we really lucked out.... L is snoozing on the couch... getting old...
Oh yeah... Dr Z his surgeon told us on Thursday, that he could start putting weight on his ankle.. he was just too funny, he was ready to throw the crutches away, so he started walking about 3 pm and by 8 pm he wanted me to go out to the truck and get his crutches... just like a man, put way too much weight on it too soon...so now he uses them most of the day, and it is getting stronger every day.... he even drove to Kamloops yesterday, much to my delight... i get tired and need to snooze... take care all......... hugs Sheila