FOG

Darn it, I hate fog... woke up to very foggy morning... don't mind it during the day, but really hate it at night... I feel like i have been dropped into a hole, the tempature has sure risen.. +2 this morning... can't believe the change.. 
I am off to Kamloops this afternoon for eye tests, 2 pm appt, but that means that i have to drive against the lights coming home after drops... oh well i can always put my sun glasses on... should be a quick trip... no shopping to do.. only one gift to buy... and it is an easy one, a gift certificate for the youngest son... he is so picky with his clothes that there is no way that i can buy him anything that fits or that he likes, so the family has decided to buy him gift certificates, that way he buys what he likes...he has very expensive tastes..
The hens are laying really well... think we have 17 hens (one died yesterday, she has always been sickly) and we are getting 14 eggs a day... we started feeding them hot mash which they just love...helps keep them warm..but Larry's chickent house is nice and toasty warm.. almost too warm...
Got a Christmas present from my cousin in Wales(we have never met in person) a cook book with Welsh reciepes, funny book, one half the page is in Welsh and the other half is in English... what a strange language (welsh that is) some very interesting pictures...
Oldest son Joe is off to the coast today, going to spend a few days with Grandma..I was talking to youngest son the other day, I guess Joe is driving him nuts, Matt says he likes it better when Joe wasn't talking to any of us..(pre separation days), but I keep reminding him that Joe is lonely now..he works 4 days and then has 4 days off..so he kind of moves in on  us on those 4 off days..I imagine he will be here over his Christmas days off..We are going to friends for dinner on
Christmas day... Joe wants us to stay home, but for years we never saw him but for a few hours on Christmas day, so we started sharing dinner with friends who were also alone..and it has gotten to be a tradition, so he will have to come with us... I will cook a turkey on Boxing day so that we have left overs...i will have to get Larry to cut one of the turkeys in half, they weigh about 24 lbs... too big for us... well had better get dressed and go feed the chucks...

MINUS -20C

Minus 20 C... sounds really cold but it is actually only -4 F... I can remember in our early marriage, we managed   -45 F with no problem... we had no running water so that meant no flush toilet so that meant putting on the pants, boots, parka, hat and gloves just to go for a pee at 2 am... lucky for me in those days I was much younger and my bladder much stronger so those night trips were few and far between.. That house had been a grainery at one time, it had wood shavings as insulation and cardboard (painted blue) on the walls... having a bath was a real chore... we had an old cast iron bathtub in a back room with no HEAT...so we plugged in a heater, and fill up as many buckets that we owned (about 6  i would think) we would have to go down to the hand pump, fill up two buckets at a time, pack them up thru 2 to 3 feet of snow, put them  on the wood stove, crank up the stove and wait a couple of hours.  By the time the water was almost boiling, the tub room was at about 30 degrees F..just around freezing.  you have got to remember that that tub was cast iron and it was cold... so now we had to move really fast...empty the buckets into the tub... the buckets must have held around 2 to 3 gallons, so you were looking at about  12 to 15 gallons in a tub that probably held 100 gallons, so you had about 4 inches of boiling water in the tub... it was too hot to get into, so then you had to rush down to the pump, pump two buckets of water, rush back up to cold tub room, very gently add the cold water and hope you didn't put too much cold in.. of course the cast iron really sucked up the heat... you had to have everything ready, hop into the tub, wet up, soap up and rise as fast as you could.. never washed my hair in the tub...took too long... so always washed it in the sink...We feed 150 cows a day while we lived there, and we went snowshoeing every weekend, no matter how cold it was..We lived there for 2 winters, and of course the spring that we left there, the owner put in a real bathroom...with heat... Summers were great up there, we rode on the cows almost everyday... cut firewood and sold it, dug earthworms for the fishing camp, and generally had a great time...

Gave my agiltiy instructor her 60th birthday shawl on Friday nite, and she was very happy with it...i was really happy with the beads.. It is the Swallow tail pattern..the fibre is superwash BFL.. which i really love... the colour was a bright pink that i didn't like so i did up a light blue dye pot, and overdyed the bright pink, then i was happy with the colour...

Sorry but i can't  download anymore pictures..dumb program... i really like the MS Live Writer, but it is acting up and keeps putting my new blogs in March 09 ... weird.. I emailed them a couple of weeks ago and still haven't heard from them...  better go and get my act in gear... even feed the wild birds this morning.. they weren't out of feed, but like to see a full feeder... see ya soon............

Two days into December

Full Moon and two days into December, and it is cold out there... -9 C this morning...Guild had our Christmas lunch at Annie's in Logan Lake..very Christmasy house..i think from where i was sitting i could see 4 Christmas Trees, and all very decorated.. full of bobbles, bells, angels, and lights... very nice...Annie also collects dolls and there were dolls everywhere...and spinning wheels..i think she has 8 of them...But believe it or not... there were 9 of us there.... AND NOT ONE DESSERT...........can ya imagine... food was good..lots of it...  Bernice is having a hip replacement next week, so we made up a basket full of wrapped gifts..so when she comes home, she gets to open a gift a day as long as she has to stay at home.....and there must have been atleast 20 gifts in there...she figures that she will be out and about before she runs out of gifts..but i would hate to fall on the ice and snow...

This is ROO, an Australian cattle dog,(blue heeler) she is on the teeter... the idea is that the dog must ride the teeter to the ground, in other words be in control at all times, but as you can tell... there is no control... and the look on her face is  "oh my GOD".. this is one of the pictures from the Calendar my friend made us...

Took my knitting to the lunch today, i needed help to decide what to do with it... it isn't big enough..so will start over again..i have knitted it about 28 inches long... lenght is good, but width isn't... so i will start over again in a bit, after i get over my disappointment... I was doing so well... oh well... will take a picture of it to show ya before i frog it.......... better go do some spinning...

Poor Old Bod is falling apart

I have been having trouble with my Microsoft Live Writer..won't take my font, and kept giving me a March 09 date... so emailed them and am waiting for a reply on how to fix it, as i really do like it and it downloads the pics so fast.

Went to family doc on Friday as my right hip has been hurting again..only at nite when i lay on it, and i know when it is getting really bad when no matter what side i lay on the right side hurts..and my shoulder has been acting up, getting more and more painful as the days go on... Dr figures it is a Rotor cuff (spelling) problem... where that came from i have no idea... so went for xray on shoulder and coristone shot in my hip (which hurt like a b***h), and probably shot in shoulder during the week after they read the x rays..Also had H1N1 shot at Dr on Friday... arm was a bit achy but only for a day..

Larry and i just finished putting netting over the chicken run today... started yesterday, but didn't get it finished... silly hens keep escaping, and Jackson(bouvier) likes fresh chicken for his supper..so now they(the hens) are pissed off as they can't get out of the pen... they are laying okay about 13-14 eggs a day... sack of lay pellets gave us over 240 eggs.. so the cost of pellets and hen scratch, about $24, the cost of the eggs were about $1 a dozen, so if i charge $3, i should make $40...
Guess i have to go find a picture for my December blog pictures..one of the girls who does agility with us gave us (the ones who trial their dogs) a calendar with pictures of all the dogs in it... there was about 6 pictures of Jesse, one was about 4x5, and the rest about business card size..and every dog had page, two dogs from the same family had to share a page... just love it, there is one pictures of an Austrailian cattle dog like Levi, but she is blue, she is coming over the Teeter, and she is in mid air, and the look on her face is 'OMG'... i have asked Karen for a picture of it, so i can put it up here..guaranteed you will laugh...

Guild is having our Christmas Party on Wednesday, up in Logan Lake, at Annie's, she used to be a floral designer, so her house will be magical..it is pot luck, so had to figure out what to take, have to remember there is only 9 of us, so much not make too much... going to make Spinach salad, and sweet and sour chicken....
Quit knitting on my jacket... i am not sure it will be big enough...will take it up to Annie's and get the guild to help me decided if i should "frog it" or keep going and if it is too small GIVE IT AWAY... Well had better go get supper going... nothing special, just chilli and bread... have a great day... Sheila

Almost December

Morning, sure don’t know the time flies these days, i had a good week, Guild meeting on Wednesday, with a new young spinner… she caught right on… now we have to find a wheel for her to use… i have my old Ashford, so will dig it out of moth balls, tune it up, oil it up and get it delivered..  Finished spinning up the Quivit i got for my gift at the retreat, 2.2 oz, 63 grams, and i got 400 plied yards, just enough to make something..i love the quivit, but i don’t like the colour, so i dyed it yesterday “cranberry”,  don’t know what happened to that sentence… silly computer does its own thing sometimes..  It has been acting up since Larry started using it… thank goodness he (we) have figured out how to use it… he is getting much better at navigating himself around.. he has figured out ebay and several sites he checks out every day… He almost has his “old tin” engine finished..just two pieces left to come..i will take a couple of pictures of it… he has done a nice job, i won’t tell him that though..

Had friends over for cards on Saturday, only one couple, instead of 2.. so we played a new game, Canasta, but a different variety..”Hand and Foot”… the guys whined when we decided to play it, but they did like it by the time we were finished..a lot more thinking with this one..a lot higher points… but a bit more complicated..it was fun… girls won both games…we used to play it years ago, again it was different, i find with canasta everyone has their own rules…

Levis and i had an okay time at Agility on Saturday, he loves to be with me, but he isn’t that excited about going over jumps… he loves the teeter, the A frame and the dog walk, and is fast on all of them… the instructor was standing the middle of the run, and he just quit.. that is not good, as when we run in a trial there are volunteers sitting around the edge of the arena..I was thinking of putting him in a trial the middle of December, but i don’t think he is ready yet..so i guess i will wait till spring..and try to get him more excited running the course… i would love to be able to “Q” Qualify, in every class i run first time around..Jesse and I took almost 18 months to get all our “Q”s, I haven’t seen her since September… and i really do miss her… but Levi keeps me busy keeping him out of trouble..I have been really surprised that he has been really quiet at the classes, he is usually very vocal when he can’t get to me, but he is the quiet one in the class, just sits and watches..  Weather has been good, had a bit of snow yesterday, but it was gone by 10 am..poor Lynne R is snowed in… Started knitting on my vest again… shoulder and arm have been aching so i thought i would take some time off knitting, but that didn’t work… still aching, guess i will have to go to the Dr to figure out what is wrong, although i am staying away from there with all this flu going around. 

Sun,Rain, and Snow

In the last 30 minutes we have had sun, rain, and now it is snowing… Levi and i headed out for our walk, and the sun was shining and the breeze was warm, 5 minutes down the road it started raining, and by the time i got home, it was pouring, came in and dried my hair, and looked out the window and now it is snowing, and now it is raining…I walked across the field, and after 24 hours of rain, (which we never have) there wasn’t any water laying in the fields and the ground was firm not sloppy with rain…Spuis Creek is 10 times higher than it was a week ago, and very muddy…In the 30 + years we have lived in the area, we have never had so much rain in 24 hours… at least 3+ inches, can ya imagine how much snow that would be… 10 inches of snow to a inch of rain..but we sure needed the rain… spoke to Andrea this morning and it had snowed 3” up there, she is quite a bit higher than we are…

Donna and i are revamping the door prizes for the Spring retreat… it kind of got out of control at the Fall Retreat…everyone was very generous and brought all kinds of stuff for the door prize, enough so that everyone got a gift..think this spring we will have 2 or 3 baskets full of very nice gifts, and just raffle the 2 or 3 baskets off..and use the raffle $$ to purchase gifts for the next retreat…

Just looking out my bay window, before i headed for my walk, there was no snow on the small mountain to the south… now the rain and snow has stopped and the sun is coming out again… the top half of the mountain is covered in snow..

Larry replaced the bathroom taps yesterday, sure are nice… we will need a new sink soon.. we have been in this mobile for 20+ years and it was 10 years old when we got it… would love a new house, but we do have a roof over our heads and it is paid for…have to win a Lottery before i get a new house…

Played cards on Saturday nite, we played two great games, the Losers(the guys) won the first game and we(the Lovelies) won the second game…they both were real cutthroat games…but i love those kind… I won us the last game…i didn’t have high enough cards in my hand to meld, so was able to play all the small cards i had, except a lonely pair of 4’s and Dave was sure that all the 4’s had been played, but guess what, I had 2… won the pile and was able to make 3 red canastas worth 500 points each…. what a giggle..

think i am going to have to quit knitting for a while, my elbow has been acting up, only when i knit though… so will spin for a few nights..

Had oldest son Joe over for supper last night, he comes for supper as least once a week now that he and his spouse have split up…we had home grown chicken, now that the boys have left home, we finish the chickens off at about 3 to 4 pounds… with him here last night, there is hardly enough chicken left for supper tonight..so now i remind why we finished them at 7 to 8 lbs when they were at home… this is a picture of my Mom taken several Christmas ago at my brother’s place, why she is wearing a gas mask i have no idea, but thought you might like to met her, and see where i get my goofy ideas from This is what she looks like (one on the right) without the mask… this was taken in Whiterock right after she finished her chemo for breast cancer…don’t we look alike… the other is her friend Grace, who used to be a teacher in Pemberton..they live in the same mobile home park in Langley..  The SUN is shining again…. see ya soon……. sheila

OH what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day

Good thing you can’t hear me sing, as i can’t carry a tune in a bucket…Both yesterday and today are just beautiful, must have been up to at least +12 yesterday and right now it is +6, and i have the front door open…took Jackson for a walk yesterday, he sure enjoyed it… he must have peed 10 times by the time we got to the end of the driveway…he gets his nose to the ground and just goes… but he keeps looking back at me to see where i am… took him down to the creek, he loves water, but won’t drink or wade as his nose was working overtime… we have always thought he would make a good tracking dog, but his one knee isn’t great, and i don’t think he could handle charging thru the bush.. then went to town, and had lunch with Andrea, she is on her own this month as her hubby is off to the Antarctic again… for 3 trips this time, but we had a good chat… did a bit of shopping and then home…

Took Levi for his walk this morning, been using the “haltie” on him… it is like a horse halter, keeps good control on an dog who thinks he is boss.. you can pull on him, and it brings his head down and around, so you have much more control on him…

Larry has been after me for some “date and nut loaf”, so am doing all kinds of loafs today.. cherry loaf, lemon loaf and date and nut… got the cherry loaf in the oven..lemon loaf half made and the nuts chopped for the date and nut…

It has been so warm that i think my currant bush is got buds on it..sure hope this weather lasts… and we don’t need the expensive snow tires… needed to add a picture so found one of the noisy bird…his newest words are “don’t be a guinea” and ‘Yankee’s a guinea…’  right now he is carrying on a phone conversation… the side he hears… “hi, how ya doing, okay, I'm fine, okay, what's that, ok man see ya…”  wish you could hear him…

 

this is old Willy, he has to be about 18 years old… and looking every year of it…. see ya soon