# FAC - February 2014



## Marchwind

Sorry I'm late with the FAC but I have a good excuse. I am now a foster mom of an 8 week old puppy  she was pulled from the pound yesterday and handed over to me.

This is the FAC (Fiber Arts Chat). We use this space to come together and talk about all things in our lives, not just the fiber related stuff. If you are new to the Fiber Forum please take the time to introduce yourself. You can do it here or start a thread of your own. If you prefer to sit in the back of the room and just watch and read, that's fine. But we would all love it if you would take the time and tell us about yourself. You are under no obligation to post but we do like to know who we are talking to. If you ever need help with anything please do NOT hesitate to ask. There is nothing that we consider a "stupid question", we all started at the beginning. There are no or very, very few absolutes in the fiber arts, so be prepared to get lots of advice, some of it may differ . Remember we LOVE photographs. You don't have to be an expert at photography, just post a photo. It really helps to motivate people and inspire them. It also helps if you have a question about something if you can post a photo of it or provide a link to what you are talking about. Lastly, enjoy the forum.

Not too many fiber activities going on here other than me working on the KAL socks. I planned a weekend of working on them but with this puppy I haven't had a chance to pick them up once. They will go into my bag tonight so I don't forget them again tomorrow. I think I'm getting a sinus infection. I've been using my neti pot a lot this weekend. I'm hoping the infection doesn't set in. We are in another winter storm warning. We have already gotten about 8", I shoveled late this afternoon but the roads probably won't be good in the morning when I have to head out to work. As long as I don't get stuck I'll be fine. I don't know why the picture is upside down and I don't know how to fix it.


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## Kasota

Marchwind, I sure hope you are feeling better soon. We have a lot of people out of work with colds/flu/sinus/ not to mention several out with broken ankles or knees due to slipping on ice. It's been a rough Winter! 

The puppy looks adorable, even upside down! 

I spent a chunk of the day being domestic and catching up on all the things I can't get to during the week. Spending some time this evening with WIHH's spinning vids.  Dreaming of some really pretty gray fleece that I have yet to find.


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## frazzlehead

Puppyyyyy!!!

We have a new pup here, Ben, he is just over a year and is a shi tzu poodle cross. He's smaller than one of my cats! It's funny having such a tiny dog, we have always had bigger dogs, but we knew we needed an inside companion and thought someone who could sit on your lap without squashing you might be a good idea. He's settling in pretty well, though it is a fair bit of work. He was barking too much in shared housing at his last home, but here there is much less to bark *at*, and we are better equipped to teach him what he needs, I think. Plus the other dogs have been showing him the ropes and that's helping. 









I sold a whack of art yarn to a lady who is using it to make doll hair: 









And I made a spindle bag ... finished it today. It was fun, I think I might make some more and put them in my Etsy shop!


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## BlueberryChick

Awwww, puppies! They are both adorable.

Take care, Marchwind! 

Kasota, have fun with the videos and your wheel.

Frazzlehead, that spindle bag is gorgeous.

I went to a yarn shop this morning. It is the ONLY yarn shop in Columbia, SC, and it's closing! There are only two other shops within 40 miles of my house, and they both specialize in needlepoint/embroidery/cross stitch, not yarn. Sigh. It's online shopping for me.


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## hotzcatz

Puppies! How cuters! Just as cute as baby bunnies! Isn't there some sort of puppy football game on this Sunday? There's some sort of football game on that everyone is getting excited about.

Here's your puppy right side up, Marchwind:








He (she?) looks cute either way.

Fun looking yarn, Frazzlehead! Great colors.

Not too much fibery going on here. Got a new batch of Hula Bunny yarn back from the mill. Need to label it and get it out to the stores. Need to shave a few more bunnies and send fiber back to the mill so there will be another package of yarn to wait for. Other than that, knitting some socks for a friend. Wish I had more one legged friends! At least they aren't dog socks, though, then there'd be four instead of merely two.


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## Marchwind

Thank you Hotzcatz! The puppy is a she. Sorry for the blurry picture, most of the good ones are on my phone. The Puppy Bowl is what you are thinking of I think.

Kasota, it has been a hard winter, lots of people getting hurt or sick here too.

Frazzle love the spindle bag and your art yarn.


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## Kasota

Frazzlehead, Ben is just adorable! Love your art yarn and the bag, too! 

BlueberryChick - that's just so sad that your only LYS is closing! :sob: There is nothing like being able to feel the yarn before you buy it. 

Hotzcatz, I think the puppy football game is on Animal Planet. How many bunnies do you have? 

I am feeling decidedly lazy today. I went to bed early enough but stayed there sitting up in bed crocheting. Might have to take a nap today. There is something especially nice about a Sunday afternoon nap.


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## Geoprincess55

Ground Hog Day. Has he seen his shadow? If he says 6 more weeks of winter like this I may have to go out to PA and shoot him! Snow, bitter cold, snow, wind, everyone at work crabbing at each other, more bitter cold. I had a bad case of winter blues for a while - didn't want to post, talk to anyone, or go anywhere - but I think I'm coming out of it. Mostly, just been hunkering down inside, lovin' on my wheel and needles. It was great to read all the posts on counting our blessings! Thanks; it helps to remember to keep thoughts and minds on the good stuff in our lives.

I'll be having my 4th hand surgery next week :grumble: but then heading down right away to Texas to visit sister and from there to Florida to visit in-laws. Might as well recover where it is - well, where it SHOULD be - warm and sunny :sing: Any HT fiber friends in the San Antonio or Fort Myers area? Any suggestions on "must visit" spots for a fiberaholic?

I'm really looking forward to the big game tonight. My DH will go to his friend's house to watch it, so it will be just me, my wheel Arwen, puppy Natasha, and Bollywood at my house. Oh, and lots of really bad-for-you snacks!:happy:

BTW, Frazzelhead, your pup looks like he could be my Natasha's twin brother - are you sure he is not Maltese? I'll have to get a photo of her posted so you can compare. Love the spindle bag! You sell them, hmmm?


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## Miz Mary

CUTE puppies !! 
LOVE your yarn Frazzlehead !! I will be watching your shop for spindle bags ! --- my new supported spindle is looking for a " home" just like that !! What are the dimensions, roughly ?! 

Planning my garden already , putting it in a new area this year ..... have my seedling tomatoes on my windowsill !!


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## Kasota

MizMary, I have been following your garden thread...and looking forward to seeing how it goes! From my back bedroom window I can see my raised beds and my apple tree. I doubled the number of raised beds last Fall and loaded them down with good blended soil and compost. Can't wait to plant! It will be a while before I can start any seedlings...


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## Kasota

GeoPrincess...hope your hand surgery goes well and that your visit with family is all that you could hope for!


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## Taylor R.

What a looonnng weekend this has been. My hubs and I decided to take the kids to an indoor waterpark/hotel Friday. We got a package that included waterpark passes for 2 days, hotel room for a night, and an arcade credit. We (miraculously) arrived safely at the hotel despite an absolutely horrid drive through downtown KC in yucky sleet and rush hour traffic (I don't drive in the city if I can help it, so it rough for me). We went to the waterpark for a few hours, then went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. When we got back to the room, I wasn't feeling very well...and then the puking started. And then it continued, and then my husband started in puking as well. All the while, we were having a lovely ice storm outside. Instead of spending a second day at the waterpark, I had to drive us home on icy highways, still feeling pretty darn miserable.

Thank goodness that's over!! I had to work today, but thankfully felt MUCH better (but for some reason no one was happy to have my recently sick hind end in the office today :shrug


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## Geoprincess55

Taylor - I'm so sad for you; what a disappointing "holiday" for you and the family! Glad you and your DH are getting better. As the docs always say, "rest and push fluids until you are completely back on your feet?" Will pray that the kids stay well. Hopefully, they had a good time despite everything.


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## Taylor R.

They had fun Friday, but were a little upset that Saturday didn't go as planned. I'm thankful that whatever we had going on was short lived and that the kids aren't sick!!


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## Kasota

Taylor, I'm so sorry your outing didn't turn out as planned but thankful you are feeling better. 

I'm wondering how Cyndi and Woodpecker are doing. 

Today I have been having fun watching the vids WIHH loaned to me. But I want to know one thing. Where do you buy those magic fleeces that seem to spin themselves? LOL!!!


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## Woodpecker

This is a big month for me. I am hacking my first PET scan since my new prognosis at the end of the month. On the upside I ordered quite a few herbs and I even ordered some new anew Hampshire Red chicks for me to give to Loretta when they are old enough. I plan to move out of mom'a house April 1st and into my own. I really need good news with this PET scan, God willing.They shall be very entertaining company until it's time for them to play with Loretta. She's doing great too thank God. I realized that knitting bright colorful yarn makes me happy. I was also wondering how our Cyndi is doing?


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## frazzlehead

Colourful yarn makes me happy too, Woodpecker! So do chickens. Chickens are just funny creatures.  and eggs! I had farm eggs for supper, yum.

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the spindle bag! It's easily big enough to hold a wine bottle: I know that most of my spindles are 'shorter than a wine bottle' so I use that for my estimating. Leaves enough room for plenty of fibre plus the spindle that way! This one is quite big, I will likely make them in a variety of sizes. They are fun and quick ... I'll let you know when I have 'em up!

Right now I'm felting a pair of boots: I'm doing a swap with a local girl who did some buckskin ... hard physical labour traded for hard physical labour! Pictures of both the buckskin (destined to become moccasins) and the boots here.


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## hercsmama

Geo, Had you been heading to San Antone' a year ago, we could have met up!!
There is a great little fiber shop down there, off Military Drive, I believe, called Yarnivore, look it up. If ya'll are wanting an AMAZING breakfast, there is a place called The Magnolia House, Sunday brunch is holy moly fantastic there, but you need to get there early, about 10 ish, or the line gets crazy long.
Look up a Delicious Tamale store as well, can't beat 'em!! 
OH!! also, head out to La Verna, right brfore you get there, on highway 1604, is a place called Texas Pride. Dh and I used to hang out there on Thursday nights for bike night. Although this time of year it wouldn't be that big a deal, but the food!! OMGoodness!
Their ribs are amazing, and the brisket just can't be beat..
making myself a bit homesick here....:ashamed:

Well, the medical supply place hasn't even called about picking up Daddies hospital bed yet. I know that several pieces of his equipment, we had to purchase. I didn't know that at the time, found out when we wanted to return them, and I'm wondering if we bought this bed. I'm going to call the hospice this morning to find out...
The business is going fairly well. There have been a couple days the guys couldn't work, due to weather, otherwise it seems to be full steam ahead. We have enough coming in to pay the boys, and our bills, so that's about all we can ask.
I am looking into getting a grant from the USDA for a hoop house. Kind of exciting. You have to agree to sell whatever produce you grow to the public for a set number of years, I think it's three, and they pay for the structure. Pretty sweet deal really, as we can sell either at the farmers market, or, what I'd like to do is use the produce in the restaurant...it's part of the USDA's Know your Farmer, Know your Food program, we'll see if it all works out..
On the fiber front, just working on my shawl. I also have a scarf and am finishing off an unexpected baby sweater today.


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## weever

Taylor, what a disappointing weekend. 

Woodpecker, good to hear from you. 

Nothing fibery to report, other than we hope to bring our Suffolk fleece across the state for processing this week. if the snow machine cooperates...


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## Callieslamb

Ah...talking about gardens when it's -3 this morning! Not fair! I try so hard to be positive, or at least no whine, about the cold. It's getting harder. Our furnace went out yesterday. We have all the preparedness items that keep us and our water lines from freezing, but not freezing isn't warm. Oh well, the repairman is in town and should be here eventually today. We're glad to not be the emergency at least and that they can get to us today. We hope they don't need to order a part.

I've been cleaning up some fleeces that I washed a few months ago. I am now monkey grooming them, which takes hours. I decided to send my bags and bags of fleeces to a mill (or two) and let card them into rovings and batts for me. I might even have some spun into yarn. It's too slow the way I'm doing it and I find myself buying yarn all the time. Not that that's bad, it just seems a little backwards when I have a barn full of sheep and a basement full of fleeces that have been washed.

Stay warm everyone!


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## Taylor R.

Debi, that grant thingy sounds awesome! I hope works out!!

Woodpecker, as always, you're in my thoughts. Sending positive vibes your way for your PET scan.


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## Wind in Her Hair

callieslamb, what mill are you using?

I have a bag of three fleeces (a ewe and her two daughters - so the staples are pretty consistent) and I am planning to send them to Ridgely Reichert at http://www.bluehillsfibermill.com/ in Wisconsin. His prices are really competitve and I have seen his work and it was lovely. 

My fleece is washed so we're looking at $5.50 per pound for making it into roving. I think that is QUITE reasonable. 

I usually love working with fleece but last summer was NOT condusive to cleaning fleece. :sob: I am a little concerned about my nice fleeces sitting in their grease for too long.  I don't like the grease to harden so much on the fleece because I think it makes it a little harder to get it clean. Since I prefer to use as little scour as I can (hoping to keep a nice handle) it seems logical to get it clean as fast as possible. 

And so, I think these fleeces are going to the mill. That way I can focus all my precious free time to spinning that roving and then knitting with it.

Woodpecker, I am mustering all my positive thoughts and energy, and sending up prayers on your behalf. 

Everyone else that is recovering from illness, injury and struggling with furnace and family and health issues, hang in there. It's February - I can see the end of the cold dark snowy tunnel - (okay, I realize that for most of you, spring will come in about 6 weeks and for me - I am looking at...the end of May :sob: - but spring WILL come, it always does.)

Try to enjoy every day- -even the (unspeakably bitter) cold (beyong belief) dark white ones. I am. trying. :grin: This has been a LONG long long winter. 

Geoprincess have a great trip - sorry about your surgeries.


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## Geoprincess55

Hercsmama - thanks much for the tips. I wish I'd have gone down when you were there; It would have been great to meet. I'll like to try to get to at least a couple of places you mentioned.

Callieslamb - so sorry about the furnace - hugs to you; it is this most awful ever winter. Yup, it is so hard not to whine! If it gets to zero degrees, our horses act like it is spring. Our little tractor froze up Saturday so we had to push/pull it from the barn to our heated garage and let it sit overnight. It thawed out but then we had a hard time getting DH's truck to start the next morning because it sat outside all night. What a pain. But my seed catalogues arrived so I too will start planning my garden. I keep reminding myself that spring will come someday. This year I need to increase my bulb garden so there will be even more spring flowers next year.


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## Geoprincess55

WIHH - I really like English Gardens Fiber Mill down in Southern MN; haven't sent them a fleece so don't know what her prices are. However, have bought roving and top from her (Mary) and some of the nicest I've ever spun. Just an FYI, in case you are looking for options.


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## Wind in Her Hair

geoprincess, I have to check out that mill!


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## MullersLaneFarm

Thinking warm, healing thoughts for you this week, GeoP.

Woodpecker, you're never dar from my prayers.

Me? I have a leg straight from a Dr Suess book!

Photos of naked leg in graphic thread


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## Woodpecker

I pray you get better fast Cyndi.

We got hammered with snow today. We already have about 5" and it's still coming down. Unfortunately I am not as strong as I used to be or would have stayed for some good OT. They closed school early this morning. Besides I had to check on Loretta.


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## Mrs. Thankful

I have been a lurker but want to add a hello! I have been praying for all of you as this has been a hard season for most. 

Cyndi- I am your comrade in leg issues  A week before Christmas I broke my leg, ankle and foot but thought it was just sprained. Anyhow, on Christmas eve I went to the ER (8 breaks, dislocation and loads of nerve damage). Multiple surgeries later, I feel much better but am still not ambulatory. I think of you often.

As for FA, I have finally learned to cast on using a YouTube video. Soon, I will be on my way to knitting


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## Kasota

Woodpecker, we will all be saying prayers for you that the PET scan goes well and that you get really good news. (((hugs))) It has got to be so difficult waiting and wondering. Try to breathe between the spikes in your stress levels. When will you get your new chicks? I'm glad to hear Loretta is doing ok! 

Frazzlehead, thanks for the link to the boots and buckskin! It will be fun to watch the progress! 

Debi, sure keeping you in prayers. You have had so much on your plate for so long. It can be hard tying up the loose ends. Glad to hear the business is going well. That's great! I had no idea the USDA had grants for hoop houses! I hope that works out for you! 

Weever, I peeked at your blog. You have a bit of snow! Do you raise just the Suffolk? I thought someone said you also raise Polypay...

Callieslamb, bummer about the furnace. Were you able to get it fixed? Hopefully it was not too expensive. I had to put in a new furnace a couple years ago. It was an endeavor. I had an old coal burning furnace that was enormous. It had been converted to natural gas but it finally gave up the ghost. They had to cut the thing to get it out of the house. What kind of sheep do you raise? 

WIHH, it sure HAS been a long Winter and we are not done with it. I am still drooling over the seed catalogs that are arriving in the mail. 

Mrs. Thankful, welcome! I'm glad you came out of lurker mode. Keep us posted on your progress in knitting. I am mainly a crocheter but have recently picked up my old knitting needles. I pester everyone with questions...


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## Kasota

So the woman at the post office looking into the spinning wheel I had shipped back to the seller told me today it is probably either lost or damaged. They cannot seem to find it. She asked if I happened to have any pictures and I said that I did so she gave me her email address. That whole thing has been one frustration after another. She said all they can do is file a "Locate Lost Package" work order. Once that is filed they cannot call or email...they just have to wait to see what they find out. That process takes 6-8 weeks. I also have to decide if I want them to try and deliver it or if I want them to just send it back to me. I really don't know what to do. Paypal closed my case and will not give me my money back because the package has not been delivered. 

If the post office finds it and they deliver it and it is damaged then the seller is just going to file a claim with PayPal against me and keep my money. I can't say that I would blame her. Or she could simply refuse to sign for it because if she doesn't the post office returns it to me...and I am still out my money. The advocate I am dealing with said that I have to decide to have it returned to me or request an attempt to deliver at the time she files the work order. I'm not allowed to wait to find out what shape it is in and then decide. It could be lost and just fine. It could be damaged. 

Either way I am thinking I am simply out the money. If I tell them to deliver it back to me at least I would have it back (assuming they find it) and I could possibly do something with it. Maybe order parts. Who knows? UGH! What a pain.


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## hotzcatz

Since you're gonna be out the money any way it goes, you may as well have them send it back to you, Kasota. The parts shouldn't be too hard to make as long as the wheel is complete and true. Heck of a way to get a spinning wheel, though. Was it insured? Will they repay you the money if it stays lost? That might be the best thing to hope for. Since it was damaged to begin with (or at least missing parts) then how would the seller be able to file damage charges? Aren't they keeping the money anyway since it didn't get back to them within the designated time? Have you found a different spinning wheel yet?

What's the puppy's name, Marchwind? Or are you not keeping her? Although she could still have a name anyway.

How many friends will Loretta be getting, Woodpecker? Will there be any roosters or just hens?

Hope your hand surgery goes well, GeoPrincess. You can get fashion tips here on the forum on the proper colors to wrap it in after the surgery. Cindy's got a great hot pink and bright purple fun look going on. Hmm, maybe something knit in a big fuzzy yarn? 

We don't have any groundhogs in Hawaii so I guess we don't have to pay attention to what they say about the weather. 

I had hoped to have the back lanai (deck/patio) finished so there would be a nice big flat spot to pick fleeces, but it's been almost steady rain since Christmas. Instead of being finished, it's sort of soggy:







But, once it gets done if anyone wants to have a fleece pickin' party, just drag them on over!

The garden needs more fertilizer, too. I suppose there's no particular reason I couldn't go out in the rain and dig out the bunny berries from under the bunny condos and put it on the garden but it just doesn't seem fun without sunshine.








This is actually a vegetable garden, but since it's in the front yard there are pink flamingos and flowers added so it won't look so vegetable gardenish.

There's twenty three bunnies out there at the moment, Kasota. If you've got time on your next Hawaii vacation, you could drop in and visit the bunnies if you like. They are kinda damp and grumpy at the moment but the rain can't last forever.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Hotzcatz, seeing all that lush green brings a song to my heart. 

Not too much green around here. That fence is over 3' high


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## MullersLaneFarm

Oh Mrs. T, that sounds so horrible. Much worse than what I'm dealing with. Any more surgeries or are you on the final mend before PT? 
I keep telling myself this is the best time of the year for this to happen & I'll be able to incorporate preparation of the garden with my PT. Spinning should also be good PT. 
Hmmmm, do you think Medicare would consider a new wheel as a medical device or fiber as medical supples?  That  would be cool!


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## MullersLaneFarm

Kas, definitely have the PO return it to you. The good thing about Asford wheels is how easy it is to get spare parts. I am so sorry this has happened to you. It has just gone from bad to worse. I'll be praying that it will find its way back to you, that you will be able to put it back in working order ... who knows, it may just become your favorite wheel. It should have a name like Destiny.


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## Wind in Her Hair

Hotzcatz, I have to know - are those bananas hanging from the rope in the lanai picture? and what are the purplish things on the table in the bunny picture? 
That tree line behind (or is it front) of your lovely home looks like something out of "Lost" - like the big scary black smoke monster might come out of it at any moment!


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## SvenskaFlicka

You know, Kas, I'm working on putting together an Ashford order, so if you decide you need parts, I could probably add them to my order. 

This whole situation sucks. I am so sorry you have to deal with this-- I've dealt with some "winners" on e-bay too!


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## Woodpecker

Kas the new chicks should come the week of April 9th. Since I plan on moving in on the first I decided that was enough time for me and Loretta to get settled. They will keep me busy.

Hotcatz I had to order from MyPetChicken so I ordered 3 hens for Loretta to play with. I'm really not even supposed to have the hens not to mention a roo. So Loretta will play with Alice Lucy and mom wants the other one to be named Ethel. I was going to do Thelma when I had Louise but no longer have the heart. We keep getting hammered with snow. I dislike winter.

Mrs. T Welcome.


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## Geoprincess55

MullersLaneFarm - the spring horse in the snow in your photo makes me laugh! A far cry from the prior photos of that same horse at the 2013 homesteading weekend. . Oh, and love the Dr. Seuss cast. Heal quick and when it is time - work really really hard at physical therapy; it can really make a difference in the long run though a big PAIN at the time. (My Physical therapist told me PT really stands for "Pain & Torture")

Mrs Thankful, welcome. Sorry about the injury; hope you heal faster than expected too. Whereabouts in PA are you? East or West? I lived in Western PA for 3 years.


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## ejagno

Glad you ladies are on the mend and most importantly, have such a wonderful sense of humor. Physical therapy is NOT supposed to be excruciating pain. They do push you and there will be times when there is a bit of discomfort but in all reality it's more mental than physical because of the fear of being back in terrible pain like you were when the injury occurred. You'll both be fine and if you give it your best you will be up and at it in no time.

I've been home bound with hubby since yesterday with pleurisy and possible pneumonia. He started hurting really bad since Friday but of course he wouldn't go to the doctor until he just couldn't breathe anymore. I'm beginning to wonder if the illness or the meds are worse. The meds are giving him terrible headaches and hiccups..........which in turn hurts the rib cage even more. I'm just thankful that he finally went to the doctor and maybe we caught it before it turned into full blown pneumonia.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on my baby blanket pattern that Kasota was so kind to share with me but I'll soon get back to it hopefully.


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## MullersLaneFarm

pleurisy with pneumonia is tough! I had to do it when I was in my late 20's. Owie, owie! Poor hubby.


The therapists for my PT after my ACL replacement also called it pain & torture. I know it is going to hurt. Stretching muscles that haven't stretched in 3 months won't be a picnic and it will be physical pain, not mental pain. I'm actually looking forward to it though.


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## Kasota

Prayers, surely, for all those who are ill or need healing or facing rough days. Our fiber family has taken it's share of lumps and bruises this Winter. I am glad we have this place. 

Today I got home to find a notice from the post office to pick up a parcel. Low and behold it was the missing spinning wheel. It was also marked UTF and had several stamp marks on it and a "return to sender." I talked with the manager of the office and she said that the stamps on the parcel and the notation means that the person had moved over a year ago from the address she gave PayPal as a return address for me to ship the wheel to. She said the post office will forward mail and packages for 12-18 months and that this person had lived at that address at one point but the time had expired for her to have any mail or packages forwarded. That is why it was marked UTF - Unable To Forward. She was nice enough to provide me with a signed letter stating that policy and she date stamped it as well. 

I was on hold for almost 90 minutes waiting for PayPal resolution center. I am hoping that given that the person knowingly provided an address that the package simply could not be shipped to that they will simply refund me the money and let me keep the wheel. Wishful thinking, I know, but honestly - I am not about to try and ship this to this person again. I am already out the shipping money on it and I have a wheel that needs some pieces and parts. If they gave me the money back it would at least let me fix the wheel. 

I have reached the point where I feel sorry for this wheel. I honestly do. It needs to be put together and the broken pieces mended or replaced and the missing piece ordered so that she can be what she was supposed to be. Maybe I am a little crazy, but I seriously feel sorry for that poor wheel shipped about and bounced about and refused a home. 

So I am going to make her all better. And that is simply the way that it it is going to be. If Paypal tells me I have to try shipping her again they can go take a jump in the lake even if it means they keep my money and don't honor their "Buy With Confidence" guarantee. 

Svenska, thank you for the offer. That is so kind of you. I will likely take you up on that offer but I have to figure out what it is that she needs. I could possibly make a copy of the parts list with the pictures and send it to you telling you which is the missing piece. Depending on how expensive it is, I might have to wait until next payday.


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## MullersLaneFarm

I'm glad she's home, Kas


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## Kasota

So now I have two wheels. Who woulda thunk? 

You will all think I am nuts. I was moving the box into my room and I set it next to my Minstral. I said aloud, "So now I have two of you and I don't even know your names." The wheel in the box whispered in my heart, "My name is Hope." and then the Mistral whispered "And I am Faith!" 

I am going to bed now. I am honestly all teary eyed over these wheels.


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## mamajohnson

Awww Kas, I am so glad she came back to you! That wheel needs you, she was yours all along. Hoping - praying - and crossing my fingers that a fix is easy, and paypal gives your money back!

Welcome Mrs T! Great to meet you, can't wait to see your progress and posts and such.


Everyone that is ill, get better please! Mrs T & MLF - PT is a PAIN! after my hand injury and resulting surgery, it was immobilized and in traction for a couple of months. Those first few PT sessions made me cry. They knew it, had kleenex boxes right there. The worse part, I couldn't take a painpill before hand, I had to drive myself there and back, 45 min one way. I am thankful for the therapy though. Because of those ladies hurting me I can knit, type, milk goats etc....I was so excited the day I got to put my wedding rings back on. 


Can't believe it is February! It got here way fast. I have been steady working on these crazy alterations. (I have 24 complete and 40 to go!) The date got moved up to the 14th for delivery (oh joy.) Except there are 12 outfits they won't need for another 2 weeks, so that helps. Then DDIL calls and says....can you come out a day early, we have a few more to be done...and can you bring your sewing stuff to do them the night before the fittings.....sure.....why not? LOL This payday is going to be awesome. I am looking for a good washing machine....

Other news...pressure on the job is excruciating. Since I do past due collections the bosses are putting the screws to me. Guess they need funds. We only have 9000+ customers.  I think a small % is in collection status, but that is still a high number. My boss and I figured call the oldest would be 958 customers. The CEO emailed me a plan for calling the oldest past dues....yeah... he wants me to make about 500 phone calls a week. He figured that was one call every 4.5 min. So...no coffee breaks which is good, cause then I would have to go pee and then I wouldn't get all the calls in.....:help:
It ain't happening! I have so many OTHER things to do, like take phone payments, enter the ACH payments, issue credits, send invoice copies and statements, etc etc. 
Told DH yesterday, if I get fired, I am printing business cards for alterations and visiting all the locale dry cleaners and dance studios. :cowboy: So, I stopped sweating it, and now I just do the best I can. We shall see....

Next week we get the first disability check for DH. We shall be rich! 
DH is going to get two tanks of propane right off. We have been rationing the propane for heat...maybe we can get the house above 60* now! I know I am not as cold as most of ya'll, but 19* here is a killer! There has been several days in a row it hasn't gotten over 32.

Looking forward to getting these alterations done so I can have more knitting time...


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## SvenskaFlicka

Kasota, I think that wheel belonged with you all along. Poor wheel, bounced around and broken. No wonder her name is hope. 

(See, I told you, wheels will tell you their names, if you listen closely.) 

I'm not in a rush over here to get my Ashford order in. I just need to get hand carders on my website again!


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## MullersLaneFarm

And here I still sit well over a decade after I got my first wheel & they all remain nameless.

But my wood stoves have names ... the parlor stove is Grace & the cookstove is Abigail ... that's what they told me anyway!

So, nah Kasota, you're perfectly normal


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## hotzcatz

Whoa, that's a lot of snow, Cyndi! Great house even if the yard is too cold. Very classic "farm house". It's perfect "farm house"! If we lived on the mainland in the MidWest somewhere, I'd want a house like that. Although, that snow, I dunno. Does it do that every year? Kinda hard on the garden, isn't it? 

I don't know if the green here is all that lush, it looks like it needs fertilizer, IMHO. The rain washes out the fertilizer pretty quickly so we always need to add more. That's just one of the troubles of gardening around here.

Yup, those are 'nanners, WIHH. I made the mistake of fertilizing them with bunny berries last year and they have been going nuts ever since. They always go off in big bunches. That's about the fourth or fifth bunch of bananas since Thanksgiving, too. We've been having a lot of banana smoothies. Probably time to dry a few of them, the freezer is already full. I'll take about three quarters of the ripe ones to quilting group tomorrow. Along with a pile of avocados. That's those purplish things on the table. I just pick them up out of the yard and put them there so they will be handy to give away to who ever wanders by. Lately we've been taking them to the little local farmer's market and swapping them for tomatoes. There's a lemon tree around the corner for going along with the avocados to make guacamole, but I really need to plant a lime tree.

That misty spooky looking tree line is sort of off to the side of the house, the "front" of the house faces the ocean and the "back" faces the street. My DH grew up in a beach house and he says the front of the house always faces the ocean, in my world, the side facing the street is the front. Oh well, at least we can agree which ones are the sides. 

Those trees are plantation eucalyptus, they were supposed to be for paper but the paper mill was never built after all the trees were planted. When the big sugar companies went out of business in '96 (thank you, NAFTA) nobody had any work along this coast and our little town almost died. Somebody got the bright idea to plant those trees to make into paper but then the folks who were going to built the paper mill, Oji Paper in Japan, said they wouldn't build it unless there were twice as many trees and everyone had already planted as many trees as they were going to plant. So, now fifteen years later, the trees are finally being harvested and shipped off to the paper mill in Japan. No jobs for local folks and our land is covered in trees that don't have a lot of value. Hopefully, once the trees are harvested, they will plant something else, but I suspect they are just going to leave the stumps there and let them sprout again. That's gonna be a mess. But the town has recovered and is doing well, even without a stinking paper mill. Diversified farming is much better choice than paper, IMHO.

That smoke is just afternoon fog, we get them occasionally. The garden likes a bit of fog now and then, it's good for orchids and tree ferns. The only scary monsters in those trees would be the occasional feral pig and those are tasty if you can catch them.

Oh, woe, Ejagno! Hopefully your hubby will get better without becoming grumpy along the way. Maybe there will be some knitting time while he's resting and recuperating.

So, will your third spinning wheel be "Charity", Kasota? Those would be good names for chickens, too! We had a flock of the virtues once. Hope, Faith, Charity, Chasity and a few more. The flock after them was the Spice Girls, then the Flower Girls.

The top bar on an Ashford is the same on each side. And if you need dimensions, just ask since there's a wheel here I can measure if necessary. I don't suppose there is any instructions for assembly? Here's one online, it's kinda fun with lots of pictures and happy faces: Assembly Instructions Although, that looks like a new wheel, yours will probably have a different way of attaching the treadle to the footman. 

Here's the old style leather method of attaching the footman to the treadle.









And, if you like, you can store the bobbins on the top rail by adding some big finishing nails, lengths of dowel or stiff wire:









Alice, Lucy, Loretta and Ethyl, eh? Sounds like a bunch of my Aunties. There was an Aunt Olive, too, should you need more Auntie names. Do you think they should all be "Auntie" whoever? Auntie Alice, Auntie Lucy, etc? 

Mamajohnson, sometimes you can find broken washing machines at where ever folks leave them when they are broken and frequently it is just a $10 plastic part that connects the motor to the tub. That plastic part frequently breaks and then folks throw the washer out. We've never paid retail for a washer yet and if you were around here, we'd probably just give you one.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Those are avocados?? Wow! They're Huge! Now I'm craving some avocado slices

It is an old farm house, built prior to 1900. We saw a house plan in an 1895 Montgomery Ward catalog that was very similar to our house. It didn't have a bathroom when the house was built and our bathroom is what looks to have been a small storage area under the stairs. there were a total of 2 closets in the house, both upstairs) when we bought this place. Only one is original to the house. The cellar is a true old fashioned limestone cellar that has a ceiling height of perhaps 5'10"-12". It was a sand floor down there before we bought it.

We added on to the back of the house, a 20'x42' area. 20'x12' is the laundry room/back porch/main entry way (back door friends are best, eh?) and 20'x30' is the great room with the kitchen/dining/office. It is completely open to the old part of the house. The old part of the house doesn't have much in the way of insulation ... just some tar paper!

The snow is great for the garden, especially the perennial plants out there. The snow acts as a great insulation against the cold. Our soil is mostly sand so any type of moisture is a blessing. Now if we had clay, it would be another story!!

I loved the story of your town, it was very interesting!

MamaJ, my little mama had her bebe last Saturday morning. I found out Friday from a mutual friend that she had a car accident the Sunday before (hit on the driver's side ) She was okay but doctor ordered bed rest until baby was born. I called her up and (after laying on a guilt trip about not telling me about the accident) insisted that she give us a call when she needed a ride to the hospital. She's only a mile down the road from us. (She's a proud, stubborn latina and has a hard time accepting help.)

She called at 10:30 that evening. I was planning on catching a ride with her, but it had started to snow & it was dark & I was having dizzy spells so I stayed home while Paul took her in. Another good friend of ours, sue, met her at the hospital so I was able to 'be there' through Sue.

I detest our local hospital when it comes to the birthing center, or even the OBs. The OBs associated with the hospital will not take on a patient that has a doula or mid wife. The hospital has banned doulas ... it makes it easier for them to talk the soon to be mom into a c-section. The hospital has about a 45% C-sec rate !!!

Mom was dilated to a 7 when she got there. By midnight she was at an 8. At 1:00 she was told that the baby wasn't descending correctly so gave her pitocin ... of course, pitocin raises the baby's heart rate. At 1:45 they were prepping her for a c-sec!!!

Now this is her 6th child. All other births have been vaginal with no complications and they were getting her ready for a c-sec just a few hours after her arrival at the hospital! I had warned her about this and she kept telling them No, No, No, No .... she had her baby boy vaginally shortly after 2:00 (did I mention she was stubborn?) 8 lb 9 oz, 22". I already have a sweater knit up for him.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Kasota,
I was thinking Hope was an older Traveller ... is it a Traditional??

Traveller mk1 1977-1980

Traveller mk2 1980 - 1996


Ashford Past Assembly Guides in case it is not one of the above.


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## ejagno

MullersLaneFarm said:


> pleurisy with pneumonia is tough! I had to do it when I was in my late 20's. Owie, owie! Poor hubby.
> 
> 
> The therapists for my PT after my ACL replacement also called it pain & torture. I know it is going to hurt. Stretching muscles that haven't stretched in 3 months won't be a picnic and it will be physical pain, not mental pain. I'm actually looking forward to it though.


I'd shattered my kneecap as well as tore the ACL, PCL and meniscus in my left leg. I underwent physical therapy for almost 18 months. In my opinion the ice packs were far worse than the therapy. LOL I hate being cold.

DH's rib pain seems to be better but these headaches and hiccups after taking the meds are becoming a problem. I've been up since 3am with him having a hiccups attack again this morning. This lack of sleep is starting to wear on me and I'm not the one sick. I do not understand how a grown man sound asleep with a C-Pap machine can be waken up with such violent hiccups (the ones that sound like their coming from his toes up). I gave him a teaspoon of bitters that stops the hiccups immediately but the heartburn that results from the bitters only creates a new issue. Poor thing, I'll be glad when he's better.


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## Woodpecker

So happy you got that wheel back Kas. Now you can put all that stress behind you.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Ejagno, WHAT! Shattered knee cap, ACL, PCL, meniscus .... we're a tough bunch! 

I had one of those circulating ice water machines for my knee . It was mid summer with no AC so I just loved it! 

Poor hubby. Is he sleeping sitting up or propped up? Gaviscon really works well for us for acidic type heartburn, like a foamy extinguisher.

Good morning, Dreamy! Have a terrific day today.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Just got back from the chiro & I feel so much better!


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## Mrs. Thankful

Kas~ My daughter is named Hope  I am a writer so my first instict is... we need to write a story about this wheel!

Cyndi~ Beautiful house. I don't know about any more surgeries. Everything is always a surprise LOL They just keep x-raying and looking then let me know. I hate it!

Also, if you were serious about being on Medicaid, be forewarned that the air cast is not covered and was $125 for me. 

hotzcatz~ I am so jealous! I could live off of bananas and avocados  

I cannot look back to see who asked but I live in Philadelphia, PA now. We are doing the homestead in the city thing until we can get a true stead. And yes, everyone thinks we are crazy.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I am working on doing the next row after the cast on and its pretty hard, but I'll get it


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## SvenskaFlicka

Mrs. T, my husband and I are also doing the homestead in the city thing. It works, somehow, even with an apartment! (I mostly can things in summer and look forward to living in the country again!)

Of course, all this will be changing when we move to Sweden for a year.


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## Geoprincess55

Kasota - so happy about the wheel!

All these leg injuries! A few years ago I was vacationing with my DMIL in Vermont and pretty much shattered my right leg. I won't go into details but let's just say a horse was involved. What I remember most from the emergency room was my MIL interrogating the orthopedic surgeon to determine if he was competent to repair my leg. LOL! He did an awesome job. It was summer so instead of cast warmers, I made a bunch of cast bracelets to match my mood. Didn't spin or know about art yarn back then, but betcha some core spun yarn would make awesome cast bracelets.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Mrs. T, 
MediCARE not MedicAID .... MediCARE is the health insurance part of our Social Security. 

Too funny GeoP!


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## Mrs. Thankful

Cyndi- from what I understand its both Medicaid and Medicare that will not cover it. 

We had private insurance until Obamacare then when we went to sign up or switch, they said we qualify for Medicaid so we applied and are still waiting to hear. I have paid over $12,000 cash from my 401 so far on this medical issue  Should have kept the other insurance. In 2010 I lost my job due to grant funding and have been paying high, high Cobra prices but should have kept it.

My mom has Medicare and it was not covered for her either.


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## PKBoo

Hi all - checking in from an ice-covered no power house! What a scary morning! I woke up at 5:00 from a tree branch crashing on the roof right above my head (no damage), but it freaked both me and the dog out - I don't even remember jumping from the bed and running to the bathroom haha! 

So I started the coffee, jumped in the shower, and as I was brushing my teeth, there goes the power. No surprise there. So it's been out all day. Power company saying some time this evening, but a neighbor came by and got our generator hooked up (DH is out of town, and of course, I haven't been 'trained' on how to use it  )

The sounds of tree branches, and whole trees crashing to the ground this morning was very unnerving! Every few minutes, you could hear the 'popping' and crashing of branches. Scary! 

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers - Friday I am scheduled for surgery to have one of my ovaries removed. I developed a hemorrhagic cyst in December, and it's been causing a lot of side pain, and back pain, so it's got to go! 

But the Dr office called today, and my EKG came back abnormal, so I have an appt with a cardiologist tomorrow morning. I haven't been in the hospital since I had my appendix out in 4th grade! So they don't know if it's normal for me, or something going on. Hopefully it's normal, and they'll be able to do the surgery Friday. 

Recovery from the surgery should be relatively fast - I'm only taking three days off work next week. There's so much going on here, that I need to get healthy, so I'm going to really take it easy for the first few days, and follow the doctor's recommendations, as hard as that's going to be! 

DH has been travelling a lot for his job, and our move, but he'll be home for the next month. We have so much to do to get ready to put this place up for sale. Ugh- packing. Don't even want to think about that yet... 

Phew - between everyone's issues, and the crazy weather across the country, we all need some sunshine and warm temps!! :grouphug:


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## Marchwind

Well I went to the doctor this morning. I have bronchitis, apparently I have a fever too, which is odd because I didn't feel feverish. I have no aches or pains which I usually associate with a fever, no chills or anything. But I have a low grade fever. The doctor put me on Z-pac and told me to take it easy. So I called work and told them I would not be in tomorrow. Now I have the whole weekend to get better since tomorrow is my Friday. I hope to make some progress on the socks.


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## Kasota

Hotzcatz, I love the pictures! I can't imagine being able to go out my back door and pick a banana. Simply amazing! I need to find some bunny poo for my gardens!!! And now that you mention it... a third wheel named Charity might just be the thing. LOL!!!! 

Cyndi, you sure do have your share of snow! Your house reminds me a little of my BF house in Ohio. I wanna know if the spring horse has a name. How did your appointment with the chiro go? Wasn't that today? 

Mrs. T and cyndi - sure hope the PT helps! You and my mom had the same thought. I do a bit of writing also and my mom said, "You have to write a story!!" LOL!! 

Ejagno, prayers for your hubby's speedy recovery! Is he feeling any better? Hope you can find some time for the blankie!

MamaJ - that is just rotten they are putting you under so much pressure at work. I have one person working for me now who used to do collections work and she just couldn't handle it anymore. The pressure to collect from the higher ups just got to her. I'm so glad your DH is finally geting his disability. That will surely take some pressure off! 

Svenska - I think you are right. She belonged to me all along. I will let you know what the piece is that I need to order as soon as I figure it out. 


Cyndi - CONGRATULATIONS on another baby in the family!!! I'm glad she was able to escape the C-Section! What did they name the little one?? Are we going to see pictures soon? 

Marchwind - I'm so sorry you are sick. ugh. I hope you feel better soon!


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## Kasota

So here is the deal with the wheel. I have the instructions that came with her. For some reason my scanner is not working so I tried to take pictures of them. 

This is a double drive or single drive Traveller. I think. I am not sure. She was sold to me as a double drive that would also be single drive. If you look at the picture there is the piece that has the knob on it (brake band tension knob) and under that there is another piece of wood. That second piece of wood that sits under the piece that holds the knob is missing. There are also supposed to be hinges to attach it to the upper piece of wood - those are missing as well. Maybe she is a single drive? 

The whorl has a big chip in it. I think I can fix that with some wood filler or wood epoxy that I can sand smooth. A couple of the bobbins came apart - like one end came off the dowel part...but I can glue those back on. 

I will have to consider carefully how to finish her. The wheel had something applied to it. Maybe it was just the wax that came with it, but it looks perhaps a little darker than what I might have expected from that. I can do a test on the underside of the treadle to see if what I have will match up. Otherwise i will have to come up with something else. 

There are other bumps and bruises, nicks and such from being banged about the first time she was shipped to me with no packing but I can either sand those or say they are marks of character. 

I hope this makes sense to someone.


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## SvenskaFlicka

Oh hey, your Hope is just like my Evangeline! 

So with my wheel to look at, lots of googling, an Ashford price list, and your description as a basis, I think you are missing the maiden bar assembly. I can indeed get it. I'll send you a PM with details.


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## Marchwind

That piece of wood that is missing, not sure of the name, is pretty important and has nothing to do with whether it is a single or double drive. The tensioning of the drive band is adjusted by the knob on top. You need that wooden piece with the hinges so you can adjust that tension and so you can adjust your Mother of all (MOA). I can take pictures of mine although it is for a Traddie it will most likely be the same. Or Cyndi could take a picture of hers and maybe send you specific measurements. The older bobbins fall apart all the time I've had tore glue mine many times. I wouldn't test the wood under the treadle, it a different wood, plywood I think. Test the wood under one of those horizontal wood pieces.


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## Kasota

You guys are just the best! And I may even get to meet Svenska in the process of all of this! 

Marchwind - what you say makes sense. I do have the big piece of wood that the knob sticks in to but not that piece under it with the hinges. Svenska may be able to get it for me!! Woot! I will test on the underside of the wood on one of the other pieces - thanks for that advice! 

You know - for all the pain, trouble and heartache I have gone through with this wheel - I think it has all ended up for the best after all. Who knew I would end up with two wheels? I will also have one that my sister can borrow because she wants to learn to spin, too. It will be a good thing for her, too. 

Is there anything better to use for glue on those bobbins? Regular wood glue? Gorilla glue? What have you found that works best?


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## SvenskaFlicka

Some of my bobbins came apart, and Philip fixed them with hide glue-- the stuff you need to cook. He says it is the BEST for woodworking because you can wipe excess away with a wet cloth and it can be undone if things get too messed up. Also, it will grow and shrink with the wood from dryness to humidity. So far, you can't even tell they ever had to be fixed. 
Sometimes, though, when Philip doesn't feel like cooking glue, he uses Elmer's wood glue. Probably easier for those who don't feel like cooking glue. ound:


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## Kasota

With my luck, if I were cooking up some hide glue my mom would get confused and try to turn it into soup. I can just about hear her. "I thought I would tweak your soup a little - but I don't think I helped it any. It smells funny." 

She has been so cute with this whole adventure with Hope. Yesterday when we were talking about missing pieces she sat up real straight in her chair and held up one finger and proclaimed, "I know! Call those Kromski boys! The ones who live in Poland and build things out of wood. Send them a teletype and see if they can make you that missing piece. They probably have a good wood shop out in their garage. They must if they make wheels. I'll bet it's even a double garage! They must be good boys if they make such fine things as your other wheel and I'm sure they would help you."


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## MullersLaneFarm

You're missing the *top rail* that sits on top of the maiden rod supports.

Yours is an earlier model than mine. Your flyer whorl is the same piece as the flyer and at the front of the wheel. The flyer whorl on mine is separate and at the back of the wheel. I can give you the measurements from mine if you want

You just need a piece of wood that can be screwed down to the maiden rod supports (pre-drill through the top rail), then a couple of hinges to connect the top rail to the maiden bar.


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## Kasota

Cyndi, that would make sense. But the flier whorl on the directions I have say the flier whorl goes on the back side...it has you putting on the bobbin and THEN putting on the whorl....

When I get home today I will take a picture of the flier. I think they are shaped differently...?


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## Kasota

Ok - the picture I posted from the directions on the wheel are different from what I have. What I have does have the bobbin sliding on first and then you put the whorl on and the whorl is at the back side. It appears there are also two different kinds of bobbins. When I look at sites featuring Ashford bobbins there are ones for double drive and ones for single and I have two of each. 

I hope this makes sense.


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## IowaLez

Hi Peeps!

I have been absent, and just haven't had time to post much of anything.

It's minus 20 here as I write this, at 7am. So far we've had 3 blizzards, not a lot of snow falling, but the winds of 40 mph blew it into huge drifts. The street corner here had a drift a good 8 feet high, maybe higher - it was as high as the top of the giant plow blade on the road maintainer. We were shut in for a good 24 hours, until a sand truck with a big blade on it, punched thru it, after backing up in front of our house and making four runs at it. So we had one truck-width open for three days. The moment the road was opened, all the men on this road jumped in their trucks and SUVs and actually, literally, formed a convoy going up to the highway. Some actually had errands to run, but some drove out just because they could. Then the county sent out the maintainer, the truck, AND a giant snowblower. It was a giant vehicle, with an auger snowblower a car lane wide on it's front end, and they spent THREE HOURS cleaning up the intersection and moving the snow farther back. It blew the snow a good 70 feet out into the fields along the road. The miantainer has been by each day now, and the neighbor said they were making sure they had room in the ditches to push more snow, after the next storm. Photos of the front and back of the maintainer attached since some of you don't know what it is. It has three blades on it.

Abbas and I have been Skyping, and I've met his wife, Farahnaz, and his daughter Mashad and son, Mahbod, 20. They don't speak English. He sent us all candy from Iran, and it's so stupid, he can't send it to me directly, he has to send it through his best friend's daughter, studying for her PhD in Calgary. So that makes it Canadian candy, I guess. I am attaching a photo of him and his family. Beautiful kids, and his wife is pretty too.

Okay, so here's a little funny. I am going to crochet my handspun into cowls for him and Farhanaz. They have Winter there and can use them. I asked him last Skype, what her favorite color is. He said, "Oh, she like blue, and green, she wear red, she like colors! ALL colors! I hate black, HATE black! No black!" I said, But what color does she like best? And so he spoke to her in Farsi, lots of discussion, and he says to me She says she wear 2 X! She wear 2X!! Two X she says! And I said "No, Abbas, what COLOR is her FAVORITE, the one she likes more than any other?." And so they had another discussion, but this time the 2 kids joined in. It went on for a while, and so finally he turns to me on camera and says "She likes brown!" And I'm sitting here thinking "All that talk, and the best we can do is brown????"

I'm feeding the birds, and so far have gone thru about 200 pounds of seeds that I hand mix from 50 pound bags. I have about 100 bird here each day, all day long, cramming their little gizzards full. Sparrows, goldfinches, juncos, blue jays, only 1 woodpecker this year, and a pair of doves. Our wild rabbit comes to eat what falls on the ground. One neighbors spread some hog manure in the snowy field, and a bald eagle was there feeding on it.

I am in the midst of seed selling for 2014, and just got the SSE Yearbook yesterday, so I'm shopping rare beans to add to my collection this year.

Had 34 gallons of wine in the fermenters in the kitchen, and have 12 gallons left to bottle today. 10 gallons were for the liquor store owner and his wife, from their Concord grapes, and boy it turned out fabulous! We saved 11 bottles for ourselves. The other 24 were from pear juice from a neighbor with a huge tree. They got 70 gallons from the fruit.

Stay warm, and safe everybody, and I hope any of you affected by the storms, hope you get your power back on asap! And stay safe from the trees!

Pics coming when I get hem ready to load up to this forum!


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## IowaLez

Road maintainer, too long to get in one photo, going south, then the other side of it, going north. Built by Caterpillar. And the blizzard out my bedroom window. It is white and blurry from the snow flying past it. The young trees ended up buried in a drift with a few branches sticking out.


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## IowaLez

Family pic.


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## MDKatie

Mrs. Thankful said:


> I cannot look back to see who asked but I live in Philadelphia, PA now. We are doing the homestead in the city thing until we can get a true stead. And yes, everyone thinks we are crazy.


You're only about an hour and a half from us. I keep telling DH I want to drive to Philly to get a cheesesteak! :grin:



Hope you're all doing well! I don't have a ton to write about. I'm waiting on lambs...I think my ewes are about a week away, perhaps one of them is a bit longer...3 weeks maybe. I've been studying udders and monitoring them, and my pens are built in the barn so I'm ready. I'm not wanting to rush it, since the weather has been so nasty lately...but I'm excited for lambs.


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## Wind in Her Hair

wow, Lez, so good to hear from you. Love the blizzard pics - it is hard to capture the whiteout from inside - but it sure is cozier inside! 

I am somewhat surprised by Abbas' family photo. They seem so "western" in their dress - especially the young ladies. 

I had a friend that lived in Iran when we were in high school and she had to wear a burka and head veil- of course - that was during the reign of the Shah and then the Ayatollah. 

Your roads look a lot like ours but of course, we have the tall pines to break the wind a bit - but then again, they don't let any sunshine in to do any melting.  

We have been "skating" on the roads the last couple of days as the snow gets packed and polished and I think we are at 55 days of 0ÂºF or below 0ÂºF and it has been snowing a little bit every third day or so. 

Folks are starting to get a little grumpy. 

I may have to go find a tanning bed and make myself an umbrella drink soon. Or at least a sauna. :grin:


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## Taylor R.

3rd snow day in a row for the kiddos at my house. We got about a foot of snow Tuesday into Wednesday morning, and temps were between -15 and -20 before the sun came up this morning (not counting the wind chill, which is REALLY cold around here). As much fun as I've had baking special treats and playing in the snow (then washing and drying the snow clothes, of course ), I'm ready to get back to my routine.

On the upside, since no one has left our house, we've all stayed well for a few days! I'm going to get started on the owl's wings today, so eventually I may actually get that shawl done :teehee:


----------



## Woodpecker

PKBoo said:


> Hi all - checking in from an ice-covered no power house! What a scary morning! I woke up at 5:00 from a tree branch crashing on the roof right above my head (no damage), but it freaked both me and the dog out - I don't even remember jumping from the bed and running to the bathroom haha!
> 
> So I started the coffee, jumped in the shower, and as I was brushing my teeth, there goes the power. No surprise there. So it's been out all day. Power company saying some time this evening, but a neighbor came by and got our generator hooked up (DH is out of town, and of course, I haven't been 'trained' on how to use it  )
> 
> The sounds of tree branches, and whole trees crashing to the ground this morning was very unnerving! Every few minutes, you could hear the 'popping' and crashing of branches. Scary!
> 
> Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers - Friday I am scheduled for surgery to have one of my ovaries removed. I developed a hemorrhagic cyst in December, and it's been causing a lot of side pain, and back pain, so it's got to go!
> 
> But the Dr office called today, and my EKG came back abnormal, so I have an appt with a cardiologist tomorrow morning. I haven't been in the hospital since I had my appendix out in 4th grade! So they don't know if it's normal for me, or something going on. Hopefully it's normal, and they'll be able to do the surgery Friday.
> 
> Recovery from the surgery should be relatively fast - I'm only taking three days off work next week. There's so much going on here, that I need to get healthy, so I'm going to really take it easy for the first few days, and follow the doctor's recommendations, as hard as that's going to be!
> 
> DH has been travelling a lot for his job, and our move, but he'll be home for the next month. We have so much to do to get ready to put this place up for sale. Ugh- packing. Don't even want to think about that yet...
> 
> Phew - between everyone's issues, and the crazy weather across the country, we all need some sunshine and warm temps!! :grouphug:


It's good to hear from you. I will keep you in my prayers.


----------



## MullersLaneFarm

Perfect sense.

Check out the thread on a plying wheel. I have multiple pictures of my flyer assembly there.


----------



## hotzcatz

Remind me not to complain about the rain and the lawn that needs mowing. There may be breaking tree branches around here soon, but it is from too much rain creating too many tangerines on the tree instead of ice.










That picture was from several weeks ago, the tangerines are bigger and heavier now. Guess I should go put some sticks under the branches to hold them up. Can you make wine from tangerines, IowaLez?


----------



## IowaLez

Yes, you can make wine from citrus fruit! 

There is one made with lemon juice, you can substitute your tangerines I am sure, and it's called "Skeeter Pee". You can find the info on Jack Keller's winemaking website. Google him. He is very well educated on wine science, has won competitions, and the recipes are reliable. I have printed out MANY pages from his site and put them in plastic sleeves in a 3 ring binder. The Skeeter wine does involve things like yeast nutrient, as only grape juice and beer wort from barley malt has the complete nutrients and stuff needed for the yeast to function right. Some wine yeasts are more fruity than others, some more dry and mineral-ly, so choose your yeast carefully to make the wine taste more the way you want it to be.

Most of Jack's recipes are for 1 gallon batches, but I generally do 5 gallon batches so I multiply them, and if we like them, great we've got 2 cases, if we don't like it, we chuck 'em, or sometimes somebody else likes what we don't, so they get it all. Only $ cost is yeast and sugar.

Don't bother with dandelion wine, or celery wine. For all my hard work, 4 hours of picking the flowers and pulling off the petals for half a gallon of them, Yuck! For my coffee wine I used 2/3 decaf, but it will still keep you awake. The spearmint wine I made is REALLY nice. Pumpkin wine came out great and neighbors loved it at Thanksgiving and Xmas.

The local liquor store couple save bottles for me for free, but they love my wine from their grapes, so for that, they bring me cleaned bottles that I just have to sanitize to use. An alcoholic beverage bottle is only worth 5 cents in IA, so getting bottles to use isn't exactly difficult for them to do for me. Actually, their grape wine was more than 10 gallons after sweetening it before bottling, cuz we got 41 750ml bottles out of it; 5 gallons is about 25 full wine bottles or about 52 beer bottles. When Stan took them the cases of wine, I asked him to try to trade for a 5th of Bombay Sapphire London Gin, the very best and my fav, very "spendy", and rarely had in my hot little hands. So Stan asked about it when the man wanted to reward our work, and his wife went to get the bottle but he waved her further on the aisle, saying No, get the BIG bottle! And holy Moly! it's 1.5 LITERS! It's this gorgeous pale blue glass bottle, as always, but this is like a big ol' trophy!

If you need any how-to advice I can certainly give you that, and I have lots of reference materials for both beer and wine. 

Please use only food grade HDPE or LDPE (High or Low Density PolyEthylene) plastic items like buckets and siphon hoses. The acids and alcohol can leach nasty things out of other plastics that aren't rated for chemical action on them.

It is important that you use actual wine yeast, not bread yeast, cuz it will affect the taste negatively, and is easily avoided for a few bucks. It isn't hard to do a respectable job of it, truly, you don't have to be a hack. I can help you with good, reasonable sources, and I know one big supplier that has ability for can't-get-any-lower, low cost dry-yeast-only mailing, but you can't do it over the web.

And don't forget to have fun doing it!


----------



## IowaLez

Wind in Her Hair said:


> I am somewhat surprised by Abbas' family photo. They seem so "western" in their dress - especially the young ladies.
> 
> I had a friend that lived in Iran when we were in high school and she had to wear a burka and head veil- of course - that was during the reign of the Shah and then the Ayatollah.


The one daughter posted a photo of them all at the airport in Tehran, and they did not have anything Islamic on, other than some loose headscarves. When Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi was in power, he was modernizing their country, and he decreed the women could be totally Westernized in public. The Ayatollah had been his enemy since the 1950's. Here is a photo of just the kids. They are 36, 34, 22, and 20 yo. the girls actually look pretty HOT, don't they?!!! And then, as for being just like us, Abbas and I have a regular time of day to Skype, when it's 9.30pm there, and noon here, cuz he's home from work, has had supper, read his newspaper, gotten into comfy clothes, and is in his recliner watching tv. When he said that, I was so surprised! I felt so dumb for not thinking they are the same as any of us.


----------



## Wind in Her Hair

PKBoo, I missed your post! Hugs to you and good luck on the surgery! You will be in my prayers. 

Ice storms are the worst! Stay safe and dry!
and yes, Lez - they are quite a handsome family.


----------



## PKBoo

Thanks WIHH! 

Cleared for surgery! Had an appt with the cardiologist this morning, and she thinks that the abnormal reading was just from 'lead placement.' Breast tissue can get in the way and cause these abnormal blips, so they just needed to check it out. I'm going for an echocardiogram at the end of the month, just to make sure. 

So they ovary comes out tomorrow yahoo! That little bugger has been causing havoc the last two months. :shocked:

Question about recovery - the nurse said I shouldn't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the first four days, and no bending. She said to put the pots and pans on the counter so I don't have to bend for them. Heck with that - DH is cooking!

Anyway, I asked her if I could spin. It's just sitting moving my feet up and down. She was basically clueless. :smack:

What do you think? Will I be able to spin? :shrug: 
It is such a minor surgery that I think I'll be fine...


----------



## Marchwind

Yes I should think you can spin no problem. Just avoid bending over to pick things up off the floor. Same with knitting.


----------



## Kasota

IowaLez, good to see you post! We've missed you! Sounds like you have really been hammered by the weather. UGH! You will have fun making things for Abbas and Farhanaz. They will love them no matter what color you make!  Crocheting and making wine... what a grand combination for nasty Winter weather! 

MDKatie, please post lamb pictures when they arrive! 

WIHH - people are getting grumpy here, too. Winter has just been so darn long and one of the coldest I can remember in a goodly long while. 

Taylor, sounds like you are making good use of the snow days! Pictures please of owl wings!  

Hotzcatz, I love seeing pictures of your place. The green is so.... GREEN! All I see is white and gray when I look out my window. What a wonder to have tangerines in your back yard! I have an apple tree that I regularly have to brace the branches with 2x4's when. 


IowaLez...ROFL!! "Skeeter Pee". "Come in, sit down, pull a chair up. Would you like to have a glass of Skeeter Pee?" 

PKBoo, good luck on your surgery! Keep us posted. I'm sure you will feel better once the offender is gone and you heal up. I would sure think you could spin. If it causes you pain, then don't spin, but you should be ok. 

I sent all my evidence (photos and such) to PayPal. Now to see what they say. Hopefully I will get some $ compensation. I would really like the whole 300.00 back but either way Hope remains. Svenska is going to order parts.  

Cyndi - I checked out the pictures on the other thread and while I don't have the jumbo flier - that is exactly the set up with the wheel I have. Many thanks! Those pictures were the perfect thing. 

It is going to be bitter cold again tonight. But tomorrow is FRIDAY! 

I felt kind of sad today. My mom had the giggles because she was getting dressed today and all in a tizzy because my brother was coming to take her to an eye appointment. She said she was sitting there, all dressed, or so she thought...but feeling like something wasn't right. Then she realized she had put her pants on over her jammie bottoms. The she said her sweater felt funny and she realized she forgot to put her bra on. She was laughing at how funny the whole thing was...but it made me sad because sometimes those things are harbingers of things to come. I am going to talk to her doc and maybe get a medication review. Nothing has changed - but she is not getting any younger and her body might be reacting differently to something. She said her blood sugars were fine when she tested them.  

Well, tomorrow is a new day! Hopefully Springtime will come before we know it!


----------



## Woodpecker

Tomorrow I go to get blood work done before treatment Monday. This is such a pain, I hate this!

ETA: If I could get some knitting done I'd feel better.


----------



## Kasota

((((Woodpecker)))))


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## Geoprincess55

PKBoo- saying prayers for you today, that you will have an uneventful surgery and a rapid, pain-free recovery.

And continuing to pray for you, Woodpecker.


----------



## Marchwind

Keeping you in my thoughts WP


----------



## Wind in Her Hair

Kasota, just watch your mom- especially around her meds. 

I got word last week that my former MIL accidentally took 40 Tramadol.  She sets her meds out every night, takes one from each bottle for her morning dose and puts them one by one in an empty pill bottle. In the morning, she "shoots" the contents of that bottle and swallows it down all at once.

Last week, in prpepartion for a medical procedure, she was given that prescription of Tramadol to be strared after her surgery. 

She set that prescription bottle beside her others and instead of "shooting" her daily meds, she accidenatlly "shot" down the 40 Tramadol. 

She realized her mistake as soon as she swallowed, and her son loaded her up and got her to the ER 35 minutes away- she started seizuring in the ER and they nearly lost her. 

She is being monitored closely and is recovering in the nursing home for a few weeks but that was a close one.

With elderly adults, one can never be too vigilant.


----------



## Kasota

WIHH, that is good advice, yes. Thankfully, she doesn't have too many that she takes but it only takes one OD like your former MIL had and there's a tragedy... 

I am so glad that it's the weekend! I will be glad when this whole paypay thing is settled one way or another. They give me an email to send documentation to and after I do they tell me to send it to someplace else. And so on and so on it goes. 

Tomorrow I am forced - FORCED - to go yarn shopping. I need to make a baby afghan and I haven't the right color in my stash. It's for a baby shower that is in March, so I have time to whip it up. I can't believe my stash of baby afghan yarn is so depleted!


----------



## PKBoo

Hi all. Keeping me overnight. Took 4 hrs instead of 1. Have endometriosis so things were all glued together. Ureter shut down so called urologist in. Everything's working now but keeping overnight to make sure. 

Left ovary was actually 'glued' to bowels from the endometriosis. Might have to have uterus out if pain continues. Probably not laparoscopic though. Blah. Dr said it was like cement in there. Never any symptoms except this back pain starting in dec. 

Comfortable and dozing off and on. Nauseous. Very very thirsty. They made me ginger tea which is AMAZING!! Ginger ale warmed up and tea bag steeped in it. Great!

Saving battery on phone. Will check n tomorrow. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers


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## Kasota

((((PKBoo!!)))) Saying extra prayers for you this night! I am glad everything is working!


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## Marchwind

Great news that they got it. Sorry it took so long. You sound like me, asymptomatic when there should have been major symptoms. Glad they got you taken care of, hopefully you won't need the uterus taken out. Rest well and pain free my friend, sweet dreams.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Paula, comforting prayers of healing. Take it easy and allow your body to heal.


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## Woodpecker

PKBoo said:


> Hi all. Keeping me overnight. Took 4 hrs instead of 1. Have endometriosis so things were all glued together. Ureter shut down so called urologist in. Everything's working now but keeping overnight to make sure.
> 
> Left ovary was actually 'glued' to bowels from the endometriosis. Might have to have uterus out if pain continues. Probably not laparoscopic though. Blah. Dr said it was like cement in there. Never any symptoms except this back pain starting in dec.
> 
> Comfortable and dozing off and on. Nauseous. Very very thirsty. They made me ginger tea which is AMAZING!! Ginger ale warmed up and tea bag steeped in it. Great!
> 
> Saving battery on phone. Will check n tomorrow. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers


Thank you for updating us. I have been thinking and praying for you all day.


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## frazzlehead

Hang in there pkboo, you rest up and heal quick!

Glad they got you cleared out. Fingers crossed it stays that way and no more needs done!


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## hotzcatz

Warm fuzzy thoughts your way, PKboo! It's not often folks have good things to say about hospital food, you must have an exceptional hospital.

Will have to keep you in our thoughts, too, Kasota. Poor thing, forced to go to the yarn store! Oh, the horror!


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## hercsmama

Pkboo, so glad all went well. Gentle cyber hugs to you. Now just get lot's of rest.


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## ejagno

PKBoo, get well soon gal. You are in our prayers.

Any of you that use a C-Pap machine listen up. Over that past 9 days my life has been flipped upside down and inside out when DH went from pleurisy, pneumonia, bronchial infections to sinus infections. The bacteria was spreading faster than they could treat it. It finally spread to his heart which became enlarged quickly. Several doctors and 4 hours later I was asked to bring in his C-Pap machine. Sure enough, there was the source of the bacteria. It allowed them to start the proper treatments and within hours I could see color back in my husbands face for the first time in over a week. 

DH has always been terrible about routinely cleaning his machine. About a month ago he ran out of distilled water and used our well water in his machine. I told him that I'd bought 4 more gallons and it was in his truck. He kept forgetting to get it until days later. So not only did he put well water in his machine but after continuing the distilled water that had sat in his truck for several days in our heat it too was contaminated. Their is already high counts of bacteria in most well water but when heated by the machine it multiplies. Combined with the contaminated distilled water full of bacteria and his body had become saturated. We couldn't figure out why he would get a lot worse every night after only an hour or two of sleep. 

Folks, he was in serious condition. I almost lost my husband. After talking to doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and several other people I now realize that there has been a lot of deaths related to c-pap contamination. Oh, it's nothing with the machine. It's all about the care and maintenance of the machine, or lack of. If you are someone you know uses a c-pap make sure that it's cleaned regularly and only properly stored distilled water is used. This is nothing to play around with and can be life threatening. If our experience prevents just one person from going through this then it's worth sharing.

I replaced all of the filters, hoses, water reservoir, and mask yesterday. DH slept through the night for the first time in over a week without fighting and gasping for his next painful breath. I laid next to him just listening to him breathe normally and the beautiful color return to his face this morning. God is great!


----------



## Kasota

Ejagno, oh I am so glad they found out what was causing the problem! I can only imagine how frightening it must have been. Thank God he did not lose his life!!

And thank you for posting this! My brother uses a C-Pap machine. I'm going to talk with him today about your story! I had no idea there were deaths associated with contaminated machines. 

((((Hugs)))) I'll bet listening to him sleep peacefully was music to your ears!


----------



## Marchwind

Oh that is so scary Ejagno. There are so many people who use those c-pap machines. I will pass your message on to people I know. I am so glad that figured it all out and hopefully your DH is now on the mend and hopefully no permanent damage to his heart.

Kasota make sure you take pictures of your new stash for us to see. Which yarn store are you going to? Is there still that one in the Fitgers (sp) building?


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## Kasota

Marchwind, I am not sure if there is still one in the Fitger's building or not. I actually did not know there was one there in the first place. LOL! I moved out of Duluth when I was 19 and moved back in 2006. Since 2006 I kinda pretty much go to work and come home to take care of mom, so I don't get out much. So there is likely a lot in my back yard of which I am totally oblivious. 

This one has been requested in Bernat's Baby Coordinates. I have a pink one with the heart fringe made up in that yarn already and they loved it - but this is a boy baby...so I have to go find blue. I will use 40% coupons, one per day unless I can get my sister to go with me. It's the only way I can afford to sell things at the lower price that I do. I rarely ever buy a skein of yarn unless I can get a good sale price. So I can get this at Michaels. 

There is a nice yarn store up the north shore (Playing With Yarn http://playingwithyarn.com/) that has way nicer yarn. More expensive, yes, but fun to go to for better quality yarn. There is also Yarn Harbor http://yarnharborduluth.com/ Those are the only two that I can get to. Playing with yarn is a hike for me but I have a friend who lives up there and once in a while I can get away for part of a Saturday and get up there. Yarn Harbor is a lot closer. 

Mom is hoping for an outing today. Maybe she would like to run up to Yarn Harbor!


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## Wind in Her Hair

PKBoo- thank you for checking in- now you get some rest.
Woodpecker- always amazed at you- depsite all that you are going through, you still remember to think of others :grouphug:- you are the best. :kiss:
Ejagno- yikes- that was a terribly close call- so glad y'all figured out the source of the problem! 
Kasota- I need yarn, too. :teehee: Okay, I cannot believe I said that. Actually, what I mean is, I have a knitting project that I don't have the proper/washable wool and acrylic yarn for. Wish I could justify a trip to Duluth ( 100 miles each way) but I can't. :sob: Not today. 

Have fun at Yarn Harbor! LOVE that store and always come out lighter in the wallet.


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## Miz Mary

Ejango, thats really scary , I'm glad everything is better !!!

PKBoo, heal quickly, prayin for you !! 

Woodpecker, hope your doing well also !!


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## Taylor R.

Ejagno, that is terrifying. Thank goodness they figured out what was wrong.

PKBoo, rest, rest, rest!!

I'll be spending the day working on owl wings, again. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of yarn :teehee: before I finish them, so I'm trying to work another way to use the other color to finish them. Either I figure it out or I may be making a trip to my LYS today, too.


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## SvenskaFlicka

My grandpa passed away early this morning. He was 95, would have turned 96 on the 28th.

Please keep my family in your prayers.


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## Woodpecker

Wind in Her Hair said:


> PKBoo- thank you for checking in- now you get some rest.
> Woodpecker- always amazed at you- depsite all that you are going through, you still remember to think of others :grouphug:- you are the best. :kiss:
> Ejagno- yikes- that was a terribly close call- so glad y'all figured out the source of the problem!
> Kasota- I need yarn, too. :teehee: Okay, I cannot believe I said that. Actually, what I mean is, I have a knitting project that I don't have the proper/washable wool and acrylic yarn for. Wish I could justify a trip to Duluth ( 100 miles each way) but I can't. :sob: Not today.
> 
> Have fun at Yarn Harbor! LOVE that store and always come out lighter in the wallet.


Thank you WIHH for such a sweet complement. I love our fiber forum and would be lost without you.


----------



## Taylor R.

Thinking of your family in these tough times, Kelsey.

Anyone having trouble signing into Rav today? It magically signed me out and now won't let me sign in. When I hit the 'sign in' button, it goes right back to the sign in screen. ETA..worked on my Kindle. Maybe it's just my computer being weird.
ETA again..it was my darn privacy settings. I changed them the other day, then apparently set them back too high.


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## Kasota

Svenska - I am so sorry to hear that your grandfather passed. ((((hugs))))

WIHH, if you ever need something from Duluth I would be happy to pick it up for you and mail it off. 100 miles would be a hike for some yarn.


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## Mrs. Thankful

Ejango: I am so glad that you all have figured it out. Praise God.

PKBoo & Woodpecker: Sending special healing prayers to you.

SvenskaFlicka: I am sorry for your loss. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

Kasota: I am not a Dr and this is not medical advice BUT I worked with the elderly when I was young and many times when someone would get foggy/forgetful, they would give them extra calcium and magnesium rich foods. I don't know the why of it but I thought I would let you know. Mind you, this was over 20 years ago.


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## Mrs. Thankful

Can't figure out how to edit but I meant $1,200. :lookout:


Mrs. Thankful said:


> Cyndi- from what I understand its both Medicaid and Medicare that will not cover it.
> 
> We had private insurance until Obamacare then when we went to sign up or switch, they said we qualify for Medicaid so we applied and are still waiting to hear. I have paid over $12,000 cash from my 401 so far on this medical issue  Should have kept the other insurance. In 2010 I lost my job due to grant funding and have been paying high, high Cobra prices but should have kept it.
> 
> My mom has Medicare and it was not covered for her either.


----------



## Kasota

Mrs. T - 1,200.00 is bad enough. Ugh. I'm glad it wasn't 12K. You may be right about the calcium and magnesium. We are already watching those things for her and she has an appointment in a couple weeks to have the tests re-run. They have been a bit off, though not horribly. Waiting to hear if the doc wants her to come in early. Today she seems just fine, but I am watching her like the proverbial hawk.


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## IowaLez

Mrs Thankful, 

Medicaid is different in every state. Every state has it's own set of rules as far as income you have affecting eligibility. Each state also is different in what medical stuff they cover. Some are not so good at that, others are great. Part of the problem is that people think the receivers of Medicaid are getting this great free ride, when the fact is most state's payments to doctors is so poor, and so hard to collect and have paid, that they won't take patients with that coverage. Also many medical centers and hospitals won't accept Medicaid for payment.

People who think people receiving assistance use ERs because they are lowlife or misusing resources, don't understand that if no doctors will take that state's Medicaid for payment, then there IS no other way to get help, BUT in the ER. 

In most states no dentists will accept Medicaid for dental work payment either, not even as a kindness for kids. 

Medicaid is also different if the person is disabled and receives SSI, state by state. Some states call stuff assets that others don't, and that applies to all of them.

And with the elderly, for instance, some states are far more aggressive as far as collecting that back from the deceased's estate that received Medicaid payment for nursing home care. Oregon is one of the very worst at that, there are a few of them like that. Not that it is the standard operating procedure, but my Aunt died at a nursing home 3 years ago in Salem, OR, the state capitol, and she had only been there two and a half years, and a chunk of that was paid for with the money from selling her home. The state got her last $4K and they wouldn't even pay for a tombstone out of that, nor opening the grave, and the funeral home had to keep her ashes a few months just to get a cheap urn for them.

Just my 2 cents.


----------



## PKBoo

Got home from the hospital today around noon, and have been resting (i.e. knitting) all day  DH is wonderful, and is taking good care of me. I hate not being able to do anything - Cyndi bless you!!!! Mine will be for only a few days, not weeks! 

Marchie - do you have endometriosis too? No symptoms? This is the oddest thing - no indication whatsoever that I've had this. But apparently things were so cemented in there that he couldn't even get the left ovary out. I was supposed to get the right one out, and he did get that one, but the left one was attached so securely to the intestine, that he didn't want to risk it. 

So I have to wait a few months, and if I'm still having pain, then I'll have to make the decision for another surgery. And it won't be laparascopic 

I haven't had any of the back pain that I was having before though, so I'm hoping that life can just return back to normal! And menopause should be here ANY DAY (I'm yelling to make sure my body hears it!!!). And that should stop any more tissue from forming. 

Back to the fire to knit. I am making a swiffer cover, and it's almost done. Since I can't clean, at least I can make things for cleaning (ha - like I clean anyway!! I'd rather play with fiber!)


----------



## Marchwind

No I don't have endrometriosis! I meant that I tend to be a symptomatic in conditions that most people have serious symptoms as indications. For example when I had my appendix out I have no pain, no fever, my blood count just prior to surgery was perfectly normal. My only symptom was a low grade crappy feeling that I had had for a long time. The doctor said when he go inside of me that my appendix was so hot he was almost afraid to touch it. I just have to to be very aware of my body and any little thing that changes.


----------



## hercsmama

Kelsey, I'm so sorry for your loss.:kiss:


----------



## Marchwind

2014 has been a really rough year for you SvenskaFlicka. Hugs!


----------



## MullersLaneFarm

Dreamy, Praying for you today as you prepare for tomorrow.

Kelsey, Oh darling, I'm so very sorry about your grandfather.

GeoP, what time is your surgery tomorrow?

Paula, I'm so happy your back pain is gone!! I hear you about menopause, every month is different.

Lez, Medicaid and Medicare are not the same thing. MediCARE is the government health insurance associated with Social Security. MedicAID is a whole 'nother animal.


----------



## Kasota

PKBoo - so glad you are home from the hospital! Prayers for full healing and no more surgery! I understand that feeling of wondering if you will have to have more and having that stress over your head. I have diverticulitis. Last bout I had the doc told me that if I have another severe episode inside of 6 months that they are going to remove a section of my intestines. UGH. I sure don't want that and it's stressful just knowing it's a possibility. So I'm keeping you in prayers that this will be the end of the surgery for you! 

What a rough year for the fiber family. I'm so glad we have this place.


----------



## Geoprincess55

SvenskaFlicka - so sorry about your loss; praying that you and your family have wonderful memories of your grandfather that will comfort you in the upcoming days!

PKBoo - glad you are home and healing.

Woodpecker - will be praying for you tonight and tomorrow, of course.

IowaLez - great to see your posts! Was on ravelry too and was so happy to see that you working on the yarn judging for Shepherds' Harvest. 

Ejagno - glad your DH is getting better! Thanks for the warning about CPAP machines. You may be saving more lives than you know by alerting us to this problem. Yup, God is great!

Kasota - I love your mom. What a blessing and delight she is! As for yarn stores, if you need a outing/road trip, check out The Yarn Gallery in Grand Rapids sometime. Let me know if you do and maybe we could have coffee - I'm up there pretty often.

My hand surgery is at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Even though I know it is not a big, complicated surgery, I still always get a bit nervous.


----------



## Mrs. Thankful

Geoprincess555: Praying for your hand surgery.

Good new about the insurance though... I didn't realize that already paid my premiums in advance so my injury is covered! And I will get the $1,200 back whooohooo! Even though we qualify for Medicaid, we just bought private insurance. 

I took the cast on row off because I wanted to make it longer but I couldn't find the same YouTube video, so I will try it again.

Between trying to knit and trying to sew and quilt, I am keeping my hands occupied so I don't snack as much


----------



## Wind in Her Hair

Hey GeoPrincess55- I &#9829; Carissa and Yarn Gallery in Grand Rapids! Let me know if you are headed that way and I will plan to meet you there. That only about 60 miles from me!


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## Kasota

Oh, that would be fun to meet up. We could shop for yarn and then chit chat over a cup of coffee somewhere...


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## Kasota

Mrs. T that is great news!!! So glad you are getting your dollars back! I find the same things happens with me...if I have projects going I can't snack. 

GeoPrincess...saying prayers!! I hope all goes well with the surgery!


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## Geoprincess55

WIHH- I would be great to meet up in Grand Rapids. I love The Yarn Gallery and Carissa, but I am quite biased. I think you may know, Carissa is one of my DDs. She has done an amazing job with TYG. When we first opened the shop, I was up there about every other weekend. Now I go up about once every month or two. There is a pajama party and yarn tasting on Saturday, March 1, so I might be up that weekend - not sure yet, but can let you know. It would be so fun to see you again.

Kasota - thanks for the prayers! Yes, let's do coffee and shop for yarn! There are some other fun shops in Grand Rapids too. Next door to TYG is a stained glass shop on one side, and art gallery on the other. Of course, you could also join the pajama party if you wish. I think info is on the website and/or Facebook.

Thanks, Mrs. T. For your prayers. Hope you are doing well.


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## MDKatie

I hope all of my fiber friends are doing well this morning! It was a beautiful sunrise, I hope you all got to see it (and hopefully yours were as beautiful)! :grouphug:


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## hercsmama

Talk me down ladies. I'm having a major stress out morning.
Stupid thing really, I have a dentist appt.
I have a major dental phobia. It's the only thing that scares me in this world. The Dentist is the Devil as far as I'm concerned, and a panic attack is underway....
I am getting top dentures, I'm a rampant teeth grinder, and have no choice. I can accept that, but do we really have to stretch this out into four appt.s?
I got through the first one, fairly well, only cried for a minute, amd kept my hands tightly clasped together to keep from hitting anyone, and today I left off the mascara as I know what is going to happen...
First I start sweating as I walk in the door, then shaking as they call my name, then crying as soon as I hit the chair..it's so embarrassing.:sob:

I'm a real hard ----- about most stuff, seriously, nothing phases me, but this reduces me to a 5 year old, and I hate it.
So while I realize for most, if not all of you, this is stupid, just think good thoughts for me this morning, I really don't want to punch anybody in that office, but it's all I can do when I'm there not to.....:sob:


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## MDKatie

hercsmama said:


> So while I realize for most, if not all of you, this is stupid, just think good thoughts for me this morning, I really don't want to punch anybody in that office, but it's all I can do when I'm there not to.....:sob:


I only don't mind the dentist because I had braces for years and had regular appointments so got very used to sitting in those chairs with peoples' hands in my mouth! 

I totally understand you hating it though! Could you tell them how you feel and perhaps they can give you a mild sedative to take the edge off? There's no reason to torture yourself when there are meds that can help.  Or can you take some really soft, squishy yarn to hold in your hands while you're there? And maybe some headphones with good music or an audio book? I'm sorry you have to go!


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## hercsmama

Katie, they know. My dentist is awesome actually, very patient really.
I had braces too, that's where this all came from. My orthodontist was a horrible man. 
I just have to get over it, it's me I know that. Suck it up and muscle though.......:sob:


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## IowaLez

I DO understand and know the difference. I was replying to statements about qualifying for it as not being identical in all states. That's all. I wasn't replying to your posts, but others making statements about it.



MullersLaneFarm said:


> Dreamy, Praying for you today as you prepare for tomorrow.
> 
> Kelsey, Oh darling, I'm so very sorry about your grandfather.
> 
> GeoP, what time is your surgery tomorrow?
> 
> Paula, I'm so happy your back pain is gone!! I hear you about menopause, every month is different.
> 
> Lez, Medicaid and Medicare are not the same thing. MediCARE is the government health insurance associated with Social Security. MedicAID is a whole 'nother animal.


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## Wind in Her Hair

hercsmama - have you ever asked your dentist or physician about taking a mild sedative before dental appointments? 

I WORK for a dentist and even I have to take a little something before dental appointments or I freak out - have a panic attack and am pretty sure I might die. (Once I was ambulanced out - now THAT is embarrassing! :sob: ) 

Also, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) could be your best friend. I would not even consider TRYING to get in the dental chair without nitrous oxide and a little sedative. But thats me. For me - sucking it up and getting through it on my own is NOT an option. I need help and so I do nitrous and a sedative.

GeoPrincess55 - I HAD NO IDEA CARISSA WAS YOUR DD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have GOT to be kidding me!!!!!! She is totally awesome and my only regret is that I am not closer and don't get to go see her as often as I'd like. She is a doll! And her store is wonderful and she creates such a wonderful atmosphere for knitters and spinners alike. And she is just precious. Wow. I had no idea she was yours!!!! Cabin Fever read the message about the Pajama Party and who knows...I just MIGHT!


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## Taylor R.

It makes you that anxious and they don't pass you a few Valium, Debi??! You'll be in my thoughts today. I know how hard it is to suck it up and do it despite the anxiety (says the woman who has a very difficult time eating at all on my jaw's 'bad days' because I've been too terrified to get the surgery to fix it but it's too bad to wear a night guard to prevent my grinding/clenching).


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## MDKatie

hercsmama said:


> Katie, they know. My dentist is awesome actually, very patient really.
> I had braces too, that's where this all came from. My orthodontist was a horrible man.
> I just have to get over it, it's me I know that. Suck it up and muscle though.......:sob:


Well that stinks that you had a bad orthodontist! Shame on him! Good luck today!


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## Miz Mary

Debi, praying for you today ...I been there done that ..... HATE the dentist too !! Just remember to breathe .....


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## tlynrue

Hi everyone! I've been lurking for awhile and now that I have figured out how to say hello, here I am! 

My name is Teresa, I live in central Illinois (originally from Ohio). I've been knitting for just about a year. I have a two year old (in two weeks) son, two step-daughters (7 and 11), and a furball Aussie named Gunner. 

Right now I am working on a chevron baby blanket for friends of mine, hoping to post pictures soon!


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## MullersLaneFarm

Welcome Teresa!

I'm in NW IL (between Rock Falls & Tampico). There are a few of us on this board that are in central IL.

So glad you figured out how to say hello. Hope to see you posting more often!


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## Woodpecker

Praying for all of us in need.

My treatment went well and I found out more info about the PET scan and what's the next step. My oncologist told me that God willing everything will be fine and we will continue what we are doing and then at some point instead of going once a month I will get to go every 3. So I have to make a PET scan appointment and will see my doctor next month. Thank you for your prayers.


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## Geoprincess55

Hi everyone! Surgery went well and am back home; felt a bit weak and shaky afterwards this time but it is resolving. Thanks again for the strong prayers. I'm just sitting on the couch now watching TV. My left hand is out of commission of course, and already my right hand doesn't know what to do with itself. I am ALWAYS knitting when when I watch TV. Wonder if I can crochet.... 

Welcome, welcome, Tlynrue. Looking forward to getting to know you.

Glad to hear the treatment went well Woodpecker!

Anyone interested in a trip? Check out fibergarden.com. This is the lady who taught me to spin. Or better yet, ballycastleknits.com. I am so going to be saving my pennies!


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## hercsmama

WP, keeping you always in my thoughts.
GeoP, so glad it went well, give it a rest for a few days, then try to crochet.
tlynrue, Welcome!!!

Well, I SURVIVED!!! Actually, it went rather well, I didn't even start sweating until I got in the chair. I was so proud of myself.:grin:
I go back on Wednesday, so hopefully, today was a sign that I'm getting over this whole phobia. Keeping my fingers crossed!


----------



## Wind in Her Hair

tlynrue- WELCOME!!!! (waves "howdy" from frigid northern MInnesota :cowboy: :bouncy

good to have you along!

GeoPrincess55 - so glad surgery went well! If you can't knit or crochet -maybe you can fluff off on the internet - thats what I do! I also bought a peg loom just for those days when my fingers don't want to knit anymore. I usually turn to spinning but once in a while it is nice to do something "bigger" with my hands.

Hercsmama - you DID it! CELEBRATE and reward yourself for a job well done! Next time will be a snap!

Woodpecker - sending more warmth and more good thoughts and prayers your way! 

Thinking of SvenskaFlicka that is likely headed back to Nebraska to bury her granddaddy.


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## Marchwind

Welcome Tlynrue, welcome to The Fold! I'm glad you figured out how to post, it really isn't that difficult. We would love to see pictures of what you have knit.

Yay Debi!!!! You did it!

GeoPrincess glad your surgery went well

WP it is nice to have a doctor who will explain things to you. I think that does a lot to ease fears.


----------



## MullersLaneFarm

Love hearing everyone's good news! 

Keeping Kelsey in prayers as she travels.

I'm at the doctor's office. Just got the cast cut off. Waiting for the staples to come out & new cast on.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Doc says come back in 3 weeks to get my cast off



For good!!!!!!!


----------



## Taylor R.

Cyndi, you're healing like a champ!!


----------



## Woodpecker

Lots of good posts on here today. God willing that willing continue.

Praying for Sven.


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## Taylor R.

This is so WEIRD!! I'm sitting in my house..completely alone. Even the dog left. It's only for an hour and a half, but I'm going to make hay while the sun shines (or in this case, get out the good chocolate while no one is home to beg, pick up my owl shawl, and watch a TV show that isn't kid appropriate).


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## SvenskaFlicka

We made it safely to Nebraska mud-afternoon. (I, my husband, and my second cousin.) visitation was tonight, and the funeral is tomorrow.

It's been okay so far. Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts.


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## BlueberryChick

So happy that there's some good news here! Prayers for those of you healing from surgery and other "procedures". 

Woodpecker, still thinking of you often and keeping you in my prayers.

Welcome, tlynrue!

We are preparing for Ice-pocalypse. The local (Augusta, GA) weatherman used the word "historic" this morning to describe the ice storm headed this way. He says be prepared for up to an inch of ice, no snow, just ice. We are on well water with a electric pump, so when the power goes we don't have water. I've got lots of containers filled with water as well as the tub.

My biggest aggravation with no water is that we can't take baths. DH and I are supposed to be flying out of here on Friday, headed to New Zealand. I had planned to take a shower Friday morning, just before leaving, because we won't get another chance for almost 2 days!

Also, our children will be staying home. One is over 21 and another grownup friend is coming to help, but I dread leaving them if things are a mess. All that is assuming the airports around here are open.


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## Taylor R.

New Zealand?!! That's quite a trip. I hope they manage to keep your power on, BBChick. Maybe you could rent a generator? We have a local rental place that rents them out for $20 a day, plus a deposit. Before my dad had one, I'd call and reserve him one as soon as they started forecasting ice so that he wasn't stuck without water.


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## BlueberryChick

Taylor R. said:


> New Zealand?!! That's quite a trip. I hope they manage to keep your power on, BBChick. Maybe you could rent a generator? We have a local rental place that rents them out for $20 a day, plus a deposit. Before my dad had one, I'd call and reserve him one as soon as they started forecasting ice so that he wasn't stuck without water.


Yes, Taylor, it is really, REALLY, far. :shocked: I made the mistake of looking at a globe. Yikes!

I think it's too late to find a generator, but I'll mention it to my husband.



ETA: The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore is nearby. We're toast.


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## Kasota

Welcome, tlynrue! 

Debi - congrats on making it through the dental appointment! My mom takes an anti-anxiety pill before she goes to the dentist. She hates taking pills but they help so much she's happy for that one. 

Woodpecker - keeping you in prayers!!!

Thinking of Svenska and holding her in prayers as well. 

GeoPrincess - how are you feeling today? 

Cyndi, that's awesome news about the cast! Wooot! 

BlueberryChick, sorry to hear about the storm headed your way. UGH! Maybe the power will stay on and you can take a shower before headed to New Zealand. How long will you be gone? Sounds like a great adventure!

I hope I didn't miss anyone...if I did forgive me. I'm a touch under the weather.


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## tryskal

:bouncy: Hi! My name is tryskal aka Tracy. Just wanted to re-introduce myself. I am a self diagnosed yarnaholic. Not to mention a crochetaholic, textaholic, facebookaholic. And I am becoming a homesteadingtodayaholic.

It's been a rough year. But I am almost back into the swing of things. Haven't had a chance to catch up on everyone's posts. But I will.


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## Marchwind

BluberryChick hoping Mother Nature will hold off so you can get out of the country. I have to say that I am very jealous, NZ is one of my dream trips I want to make. I want to go to Ashford's store and factory, I want to walk the fields of beautiful sheep,I want to visit as many fiber shops and farms as possible. Maybe send home a wheel or two and lots of fleeces. It my dream although I doubt I'll ever be able to achieve it I have fun dreaming about it. 

Take loads of pictures, I will be living vicariously through you.


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## BlueberryChick

Hi, all! Power went out about 5:30 this morning. No phone, no light, no wireless Internet-where are Gilligan and the professor when I need them?!


I'm sitting by the fire and planning a day of knitting and spinning. And hoping for a shower before Friday.

Will update as I am able.


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## Taylor R.

Oh no! Maybe because it went off so early they'll be super fast and get it back on.


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## Wind in Her Hair

*Tryskal*- how are you? Have you been enjoying the ice in your area this winter? 

*Kasota* - feel better soon! (I am right there with you, feeling a little less than 100% myself - I literally had to DRAG myself to work after my third night of "no sleep" :sob:. My poor Oomingmak (Cabin Fever) had to help drag me - and this is QUITE the role reversal for us - usually it is me doing the dragging.) At least the sun is shining after last night's snowfall- but we do have more on the way. Where are we gonna put all this snow, Kasota? It is REALLY piling up out there.

*BlueberryChick* - we lived in our off grid cabin before we built our house and you CAN take a shower and bathe without a traditional shower room/bathroom situation. :thumb:

We have a sandpoint well and we pump water by hand "the old timey way". We used to heat up a pot of this water on our woodstove, then pour it into a garden sprayer (the kind you pump up by hand?) then we added a kitchen sprayer nozzle to the end of it and sat down in a plastic trough made for mixing concrete by hand. That plastic trough was our bathtub. My knees were up under my chin as I sat there right in front of the woodstove - and I sprayed myself, then soaped up and scrubbed, then rinsed myself. The final rinse was done as I stood up. 

Washing my long hair took two of us. :grin:

and summertime bathing was done outside - I put the sprayer up on the porch and I stood on a wooden pallet and used the sprayer out there. I have to admit - outdoor bathing was more enjoyable than inside by the woodstove.

In the meantime, hang in there!


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## Kasota

WIHH, I have no clue what is going to become of all this snow. If we get any more it's going to be tough to shovel the walk because I have no place to put it. The bottom steps on both the front and back steps have been buried under packed snow. 

This picture was taken earlier. The snow is now up to the top of the yard light! UGH! 

Hope you are feeling better, too!


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## Miz Mary

Hi Tryskal ! Love yarnaholics ..... do you spin ?!


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## MullersLaneFarm

Does anyone have Kelsey's mailing addy they coukd PM me? I don't want to bother her right now.


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## Kasota

> Hi Tryskal ! Love yarnaholics ..... do you spin ?!


If not...just give it a little time. There are professional enablers here. 

Oooops... I forgot to say WELCOME!!!!


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## Falls-Acre

Checking in. We are pretty much in the heart of this southern winter storm, and getting hammered. All my northern friends make fun, but we are seriously not setup to handle this much snow! The last time we had this much snow in a single storm (2009), it resulted in some pretty horrible disasters... think along the lines of building collapses. One of them was a school gymnasium, with people in it (who thanks to one very observant guy, were able to escape in time). That year I had an entire row of rabbit hutches collapse, with rabbits inside. They were all fine, just had to dig them out. But the point of all that, we just aren't built down here for this much of it. At last measure, a couple hours ago, we were right around 14 inches. It's still pouring out of the sky and is expected to last throughout the night and well into tomorrow. Culminating in around 2 feet of this stuff.

The plows have given up even trying to do anything about secondary roads. It's all they can do to keep up with the interstates and major highways! Fortunately, unlike many places farther south, most of the folk around here do have some sense, so when the governor and mayors requested folk to stay home as much as possible, it's been heeded... for the most part anyway. I did go into work for a very brief 15 minutes when the storm first began, but after a hair-raising drive in, the Big Boss decided it was in everyone's best interest to shut the operations down. No small decision, I assure you. They'll likely be closed down tomorrow too. Unfortunately, that put every one of us out on the rapidly deteriorating roadways. It took my over an hour to get back home (standard 10-15 minute drive), white-knuckled the whole way. My vehicle was not made for these conditions! I seriously didn't think I was going to make it, especially when it almost slid sideways into a guardrail once or twice.

Now it's a waiting game. We're trying to keep the walkways clear. Tomorrow I'll clear a path to the neighbor and check up on them. The snow is a powder at the moment, so that's good. There's just so much of it!!

On the positive side, I get a paid snowday! Woohoo!! LOL And I get to crochet "on the clock" as it were. I'm working on making a 'nest' for the cats, but the pattern I was following doesn't finish off smoothly, so I'm having to sort of re-write it on the fly. I'm accustomed to doing that, honestly. There are very few designers I've found where I don't have to re-write at least part of their pattern. I don't think some designers actually test their patterns before releasing them. If I really want a good solid, no-need-to-fix-it pattern, I stick to my fave designer: June Gilbank. She, unfortunately, only does a few types of patterns. So stepping outside of that and I'm on my own! It's really fine though, I could (and have actually) probably design my own patterns anyway. It's just so much more time and work when I have to modify.


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## Kasota

Falls Acre - prayers for you to stay safe and warm! Bless you for checking on your neighbor. Hope you enjoy your paid crochet day!


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## Marchwind

Cyndi if you go to her website for her business I'm sure it would be on there. If not let me know and maybe I have it on a box I just got from her.

I'm glad to hear those effected by the storm are checking in. Falls Acres be safe and keep us posted. BlueberryChick keeping my fingers crossed.


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## tryskal

Nope. Not a spinner....yet. But I am seriously interested in it. Right now I have 4 projects going. So, no more on my plate just yet.

WIHH - I am sick and tired of the cold & ice. I know we Texans don't have it anywhere near as bad as a lot of you guys. My heart goes out to you all. I HATE snow & ice. Give me my 120 degrees summers.

Oh yeah! Projects I'm working on: 2 market bags (got the pattern off of Ravelry), 1 chevron blanket for myself (purple & oatmeal) and 1 hat/scarf set for myself (made up patterns). Nothing fancy. Just things to work on after everything else gets done for the day.

Got to get ready for my whopping 4 hours at work tonight (Target cashier). Can't wait to get my Correctional Officer job back.


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## Wind in Her Hair

tryskal, are you at the Target in Temple or Waco? I forget!


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## MullersLaneFarm

Got Kelsey's addy. Now to send _and sometimes Paul_ off to the store for ink for the printer.

Waiting to hear from some of our southern folks in the midst of this storm. Be safe!


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## hotzcatz

Sorry to hear about your loss, Svenska. I hope you have many happy memories of him.

It sounds like everyone else's surgeries, illnesses and dentist visits are doing well. It is always good to do things well even, although more better - especially, if they aren't things you really want to do. If they are done well, hopefully they won't have to be done over.

It really sounds like you folks over on the mainland are having a very ferocious winter! Maybe we should have a knitting retreat over to here, do you think? I've been building the back lanai although it's not quite done yet.















I suppose some railings and chairs would be useful before throwing a party, huh?

However, I suppose, if we wanted an actual knitting retreat, we could find a better place than the back yard. Maybe rent an entire house and stock it with fiber folks? If folks would want to do something like this, I could inquire about costs of various things. If it were tightly organized, then everyone could fly over on the same plane, too! That would be a hoot, a whole plane full of knitters on their way to Hawaii. Should we get a huge pile of folks, we could even rent a bus although I'd think a van might be more likely. 

There are knitting cruises where folks go on cruise ships and knit. This could be sort of like that except without the cruise ship. We could stay at a lovely retreat, visit the yarn shops (we have three) plus the alpaca farm and visit with the angora bunnies, too. There's always the volcano and beach to see, one can take knitting there, too. Hmm, everyone fly to Phoenix and meet up there for the direct flight to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. Then get gathered up in a van and off to the retreat. There are three different ones I can think of right away, nice B & B type places where we could rent the whole place. Would folks bring their own projects with them, do you think, or should a yarn store visit be scheduled right away? Well, it's just a thought. 

This has been a marathon knitting project and kept me out of trouble for the past week. There was actually three socks in this series, but the first one just wasn't right and got ripped out.










It's my friend's birthday on Friday and she has long skinny feet and hasn't been able to find warm socks to fit. We were at a yarn store several weeks ago and she picked out some yarn so hopefully these will fit. It almost looks like I may have gone overboard in the length department and I really probably should have made a pattern that went crosswise instead of longwise. She's already a bit less than pleased with the length of her feet, this may just make them look longer. Oh well, we will see how they look in a day or two. She may actually be surprised and pleased if the socks are actually a bit too long for her feet, that doesn't happen often in her world.

I think when yarn is made one should take notes. Trying to recreate matching yarn is tough. The little ball of yarn is all that's left on the shawl project and the next batch is much thicker. What was I thinking spinning so fine before? Argh! Well, maybe the shawl will just migrate to a thicker yarn for the wider portion of it.










And the new Sea Island cotton has sprouted! Yay! 










Five seeds were planted, two sprouted well, one; well, it sprouted. After they get bigger I'll put them out where the King Sago palm used to be. This will be a huge improvement over a stickery plant.


----------



## Falls-Acre

It's finally stopped! We topped out around 2 feet of straight snow. I dug out the neighbor's driveway and walkway. They are in their upper 70's and need to be able to get out in an emergency. I'm not even going to try to dig my van out yet, it's pretty much completely buried. But since I have nowhere to go, it's not that big a deal. 

My dear spouse dug a path for me down to the barn and around the rabbits. It took me about 3 hours to get the snow out of their hutches, and to bundle them down with food, water, and hay. Their hutches are pretty solid, and covered with tarps will be just fine in this weather. However, the pigeons I moved into the barn. They were literally standing in snow! They didn't even put up that much of a fuss at being moved inside. The ducks had to be chased down... which wasn't really that hard since they kept sinking in the snow! LOL But they and the geese will bunk down in the barn too. Everyone is just settling in for this mess.

As for me, I'm just glad I have a wool coat, wool gloves, and wool socks! I think though I'm going to usurp one of the wool spiral hats I made to sell. My old acrylic gift hat just doesn't quite cut it in this weather!

Everyone else dealing with this mess, stay warm and dry!


----------



## BlueberryChick

We are safe and at DH's brother's house. The roads weren't bad once we got out of our place. Thankfully, we have two paths out since one was completely blocked with fallen trees.

It sounded like the first day of deer season in the woods this morning, with so many trees snapping. Fortunately, no big trees overhang our house.

We are closer to the airport here, so we should be able to make our flight. The children should be able to make it home tomorrow to check on things and see if the power is back on.

We got about 3 inches of sleet and freezing rain covering the ground. The branches on our trees and shrubs had 1/4 -1/2 in of ice coating them.

I heard that our county was hardest hit with 90% of homes without power. I hate being part of the crowd.

I hope to post pictures of my adventures soon!


----------



## Woodpecker

We got hammered here by the storm too. On top of it I started getting sick last night and had to use one of the few sick days I have left. Hurry up spring! 

Prayers for all.


----------



## SvenskaFlicka

We are safely back in Minnesnowta. It was a good trip down and back, and the funeral was nice. I don't remember much of the actual funeral except for that my cousin's kid was absolutely screeching right behind my ear the whole time because she couldn't have her candy/toy car/run around the church. And it was deathly cold out at the cemetery. I'm going to miss my grandpa so much. We were pretty close, and had a lot of fun together. But I guess at 95, almost 96, it's time to leave this mortal coil and join his family in heaven. 

I got to see a lot of family and friends when I was home, and gather a few more things from the burnt house. 

What a rough start to the year. 

On a side note, my dear husband has entered an axe design contest. As far as I understand it, if he wins, the company will put his design into production and he'll get the first one. The winner is the one with the most likes on Facebook. So go ahead and like it here, and share it if you feel like it: Autine Axe Contest


----------



## Woodpecker

So glad you got home safely Sven. I am so very sorry for your loss and keep you in my prayers.


----------



## Kasota

Svenska - glad you are home and safe and sound. I know you will be missing your grandfather. ((((hugs))))

Woodpecker, so sorry you have been sick. Ugh. I will be glad for Springtime, too! 

BlueberryChick - Prayers for a safe flight and a wonderful trip! We're all looking forward to pictures!  

FallsAcre - glad to hear the buns are safe and dug out of the snow. Sometimes it's hard to know where to put it all! 

Hotzcatz, you have been busy!!! Congrats on the sproutlings! Your yarn looks so soft! It would be fun to come visit and have us all sitting in your lush green yard, spinning and knitting and crocheting. I would have to win the lottery, but we can sure dream!


----------



## PKBoo

Kelsey - so sorry for your loss - you've been in my prayers

Woodpecker - get better soon! You don't need this now

Blueberry Chick - enjoy your trip, and don't worry about what's going on back here! Lose yourself in the moment!

Falls-Acre - glad you were able to get all the critters cared for. I know how difficult it is for folks not used to this mess!

hotcatz - your deck looks like an awesome place for all of us to gather and knit/spin! Your description of a Hawaiian 'knit-away' made me smile - we can all dream!


Snowbound here too - we got 10-11 inches this morning, and another 4-5 tonight. Our neighbor used his tractor and bucket to plow our driveway, so that was a big help! :bouncy:

I've done NOTHING since surgery, and it's killing me! Well, I've been able to knit, thankfully. Tonight I feel better than I have all week, so that's good. 

I'm using some yarn that GAM spun from a fleece study a few years ago from a few of my sheep. She spun it laceweight, then dyed, and it's gorgeous! :bow:
A simple lace scarf: 

This is more indicative of the color:


Here you can see the lace pattern better, but the color is washed out from taking it at night. Lace patterns are hard to see until they've been blocked, but you can get an idea:


Marchie, have you been able to master lace yet? Don't remember seeing anything that you've tried. This would be a great pattern to try - very easy!
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scarf-for-beth

I also finished the point twill scarf - I had the weaving done before surgery (no using those treadles for another week or more), but I cut it off the loom, and twisted the fringes. These are not my colors, but I'm so happy with how it came out!


----------



## MDKatie

First lambs of the year were born tonight! :bouncy: Triplets, all boys! I'm thrilled, and lambs and ewe are doing fine! These babies are 3/4 Southdown and 1/4 Romney.


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## sweet_mae

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, we are expecting a few more inches of snow today. I have finished a few projects that I will post pics soon. I don't always get to post but always know that you ALL are in my prayers. Have a great day everyone


----------



## raccoon breath

Sweet_Mae - Happy Valentine's Day to you too. Can't wait to see the pics. I do love looking at everyones' projects

MDKatie - Congrats on your triplets. They are beautiful and I hope they all do grow and thrive.


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## Marchwind

SevenskaFlicka glad you are home safely. 
WP take care of yourself.
BlueberryChick have a great trip, safe travels
Baby lamb season . I think we need a thread just for the pictures of the babies to be born 
PKBoo I'm slowly learning. The only real lace I've been successful with so far is the various socks we have done here. I learn something new with each one and have more ah-ha moments, like learning to read holes  I'm building my confidence level. Your scarves are beautiful.

I got my Trindle back in the mail yesterday. My dog had gotten hold of it last summer and crunched the shaft. The shaft on mine was wood. They are guaranteed so I sent it to them and just got it back, I'm so happy.


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## hercsmama

Such busy people we all are lately.
Sven, been thinking of you.

I have so much reading to do!!
I got a package fom Amazon the other day. I splurged a bit, and got myself some spinning books.
I got, The Fleece and Fiber Source book, The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs, Homespun and Handknit, the 1987 edition, and a copy of The Complete Guide to Spinning Yarn.

I'm hoping for some lousy weather soon, so I can have an excuse to tuck in and read....:gaptooth:


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## bryncalyn

I must say that I am enjoying learning how to knit. I have been able to just keep watching watching just keep watching watcha watcha watcha Nemo with my kids and knit on my first scarf instead of feeling guilty while just sitting with them. And then there was trouble while watching Thomas the Train - I decided I didn't like the cheapo yarn I am using and want nicer yarn. So now I want this project done with!  I want new yarn!


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## Woodpecker

Over all we got 14.5 inches of snow from Pax. I did get some knitting done last night and feel a little better but not much. Stay warm!


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## Kasota

Bryncalyn, I am so so happy that you are enjoying yourself and having fun! There are so many beautiful yarns out there! You'll have bunches of fun picking and choosing and building up a stash. Make sure to share pictures!


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## Kasota

Woodpecker, that is a whole lot of snow! Hope you are feeling better!! ((((hugs)))))

I had my annual review today. Have to say it was hands down the best review I've ever had....and I'm just doing a happy dance.


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## Marchwind

Congratulations Kasota!


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## bryncalyn

I have a question for the knitters out there. I am working on my first project - a scarf. One reason I don't like the yarn is the way that the scarf bulks up and isn't as soft and flexible as I would like it. BUT I also want to make an throw and several scarves for Christmas 2014. How do you deal with the results of the knitting while knitting? Do you pin it somehow or just let it fall everywhere? How do you handle it when it doesn't want to be handled?

Thanks!!


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## Kasota

Bryncalyn, you might try knitting some test swatches with different sized needles and see what gives you the feel that you want. Also, sometimes people who are just learning have their tension too tight or too loose. I crochet more than I knit. I'm just picking knitting back up. However, I have found with crochet when I am teaching a person their hands have not learned to relax and have steady tension. Sometimes they crochet so tight that the end result is very stiff. Moving them up to a larger hook size can help. 

Some yarn is simply more stiff than other yarn. It will never have the nice feel and drape to it that we so love in our projects. I had someone give me some Red Heart Super Saver yarn a while back for my project of making scarves for the shelters. This yarn tends to be more stiff. It is simply a less expensive yarn. I found it was horrible when I used my size G crochet hook - what I usually use when making scarves. It worked up MUCH better when I used a size H crochet hook. I also noticed a huge difference with that yarn depending on the color of the yarn. There was a carmel color that worked up really pretty nicely. The navy was stiff as a brick. 

A better quality yarn is more likely to give you the results that you are hoping for. 

So try some test swatches and see if that makes a difference. Buy a better quality skein of yarn and do the same thing. Try different sized needles on your test swatches and notice the difference. 

We put so, so much time and effort into our projects. I always try to buy the nicest yarn I can afford and I use coupons whenever possible. It's much more fun to work with a quality yarn than one of lesser quality. Sometimes money is tight and I can't buy what I want - but with a careful eye to coupons and sales I can find something that works for me. 

I hope this helps!


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## hercsmama

Bryncalyn, I have the same issues when I use pure acryl-ick yarns.
Next time, try finding either a blend, natural fiber/acryl-ick, or just go with a natural fiber.
There are alot of really not so bad acryl-icks out there as well. Lion Brand makes a decent one, actually, I think it's a blend, call Wool Ease. You might like that a lot better, and it washes in the machine, and goes in the dryer. It's what I generally use for baby and kid-let gifting.


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## Woodpecker

Kasota said:


> Woodpecker, that is a whole lot of snow! Hope you are feeling better!! ((((hugs)))))
> 
> I had my annual review today. Have to say it was hands down the best review I've ever had....and I'm just doing a happy dance.


Congratulations! It is snowing again now, we are supposed to get 3-5 inches. I am so sick and tired of this. I think this is the worst winter I have ever had in my adult life. Spring really can't come fast enough. I can't wait to play in the dirt!

ETA: tomorrow I will take some pictures so you can see all the white stuff. I know how much you all love pics.


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## hotzcatz

Congratulations Kasota, good reviews are always a great thing.

Bryncalyn, sometimes if the yarn is stiff, a bigger needle will loosen up the feeling although some yarns are just gonna stay stiff. Another work around is to knit a bit more loosely which is sort of the same thing as bigger needles.

Oh, dear, Woodpecker! It does sound like too much snow there on the mainland. I don't suppose a cup of hot chocolate will fix it? Isn't the snow good for the rainfall totals for the year, though? 

We've had a wet winter and there's snow here, too. Although it stays neatly up on top of the mountain and out of everyone's way. Well, except for the folks with pickup trucks who go up to the top of the mountain and bring snow down to the beach for the kids to play in. The mountain is too tall so young kids aren't supposed to go up there because of the lowered oxygen levels. So folks bring snow to the kids instead of kids to the snow.


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## Marchwind

Bryncalyn I agree with everything the others have said. Do you have a picture of your scarf you can post. Sometimes we can look at a picture and help to diagnose what might be wrong. As for what you do with all the already knitted fabric. Generally I will pile it next to me or just have it in my lap.


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## tlynrue

So I've finished my baby blanket.... And now.... I don't know what to knit next!! I'd like to do something relatively small but I can practice some intermediate stitches. 

Any suggestions?

Also... Here's the finished product!

View attachment 23099


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## Kasota

Congratulations!!! Wooot! 

What would you LIKE to make? Something to wear? Something for the home? 

The "whatcha working on" thread has lots of ideas and things people have been working on. 

How about some leg warmers? You could do one with a cable in it and it would give you a chance to practice that. Or how about some sort of a knit bag? That would be a smaller project and you could work different stitches into different rows.


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## tlynrue

Thank you, Kasota!!

I think that's my issue... I'm not sure what I would like to knit! 

I think leg warmers sound like a good idea!


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## ejagno

On the 8th I posted the warning about the C-Pap machine. That night I was rushing DH to the ER when his condition worsened considerably. We just got him out of the hospital. At one point I looked up at the IV tree and there were 9 bags of various meds, antibiotics and fluids hanging up there. He wasn't healing because much to our surprise he'd developed diabetes on top of everything else. Wow, I never dreamed our lives could be changed so quickly. He's never had a shot in his life (not even immunizations) to know giving himself insulin shots twice daily. I wanted to hide in a corner and knit but I've been so tired I couldn't see what I was doing.


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## Marchwind

Ejagno oh my! I cannot imagine the panic and heartache you must be going through. You also need to take care of yourself through all of this. Take the time to nap and knit when you can. Hopefully they have it all figured out with your poor DH. How very scary.

Big cyber hugs to you. ((((((((((((((((((Ejagno))))))))))))))))))


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## Wind in Her Hair

ejagno- so sorry about your husband's illness- sounds like he is on the road to recovery and together- you will both be learning all about the journey of the diabetic. 

I have a friend that is the diabetes educational director for her group of hospitals. She is an insulin-pump dependent diabetic herself and she really knows all the tricks, justifications, and tools for dealing with her disease. AND she is a self-avowed fine food "foodie" and wine connie-sewer :grin: . She teaches classes at her group of hospitals for the newly diagnosed diabetic. And she manages to live a pretty darn normal life- complete with gourmet food and wine tastings and "farm field to table" dinners, etc. 

Make sure you ask about diabetes education classes at your hospital- they are super informative and make living with diabetes a much easier task and the cooperation of family members is so vital to making good nutritional choices in a diabetic household. As crazy as it sounds, you will all be healthier for it.

It is terrifying at first- but after a while, it will all settle down.

Everyone else, stay warm~! We're expecting another snowy week here- but what else is new? :shrug: It is February in Minnesota! :grin:


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## SvenskaFlicka

Well,this has been a tiring weekend. I came down with a bad cold Friday, then had a jam-packed weekend! Saturday was the Nordic Ball, which we left early because I was worn out. Then Sunday we drove up to Duluth so I could give a talk on women in the Viking Age! The local FOX news even showed up with a camera to interview me and film my program! No one expected that! And a local professor teaching a class on the Vikings brought his class too!
And I finally got to see a Great Lake. It was, unsurprisingly, a sheet of ice.

But now I'm just wiped out. DH let me sleep late this morning, and told me when I woke up that I didn't look good. I might have also had a low grade fever last night. 

Oh well, there's still sewing to do! Onward!


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## SvenskaFlicka

Oh, and WIHH, the son of the guy who made your Norwegian wheel was there. He told me that his dad would have loved to see my talk. I was just flabbergasted to meet him and hear first hand stories about his dad!


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## Wind in Her Hair

Svenskaflicka - I am so glad that he (the son of Earl Oman) is still around!

I had heard that there was a son and/or grandson that was planning on carrying their father's traditional spinning wheel making! I would LOVE to reach him! I think I could be talked into a custom castle wheel in lilac wood! 

I will have to try and find a way to contact him! 
Feel better soon!


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## Kasota

Ejagno, I am so sorry for all that you are going through. Ditto what others have said about taking care of yourself!!! I also agree wholeheartedly with the diabetic education. My mom is diabetic. She is not insulin dependent but some years back they wanted to put her on medication. Instead she went to diabetic education. She learned a lot AND she put it into practice. Years later she is still off all medication. I think for her the hardest thing is that she is such a baker. She really had to learn the substitutes and how to balance carbs and proteins...all that. She was depressed for a while because she didn't know what she could eat and well...didn't like the restrictions at all. However - once we got used to the "new normal" it was a lot easier. There are also lots of good diabetic cookbooks out there. The transition is really hard - but it can be done! 

Svenska, I am so sorry I was not able to get to your talk!! I really wanted to go. Sometimes life with momma takes on it's own pace and I was needed at home. I am going to stalk the local Fox News tonight. Did they tell you what program they would have you on? Sometimes they have these shows on weekends about things that have been going on around town or maybe you will be on the news... 

And how very cool about meeting the son of the man who made WIHH's wheel!? 

WIHH - If you need to be talked into another wheel you are at least in the right place. We should all start up a little musical group. We could call ourselves The Enablers. :drum:

Wonders never cease. I spent a goodly chunk of the weekend going round and round with PayPal over that wheel. They wanted me to start all over and try shipping it back to the seller again. Then they said they would not give me anything at all. Then they said they wanted me to re-send to them all the documentation they already had. Then they said they would pay for the parts that need to be replaced. Then they said they would not pay for any parts. Then they said my appeal time had expired and I had to start all over again. Then they said the documentation was not enough. 

I almost went bald. 

Finally I sent off an email response and I copied every single email addy I could find for both PayPal and Ebay regarding customer service, consumer relations, etc. I even found the email addy's for some people higher up the ladder. I said that I could only conclude that PayPal was not serious about resolving the issue, that their actions gave the appearance of being obstructionist and it appeared they were not negotiating in good faith. I told them that their request that we start all over again was unreasonable and that I was willing to settle for simply receiving the funds necessary to replace the broken and missing pieces. I also told them that if they could not come up with some sort of reasonable resolution that I would be left with no other course but to take the matter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the BBB and my state attorney general. Yes, I was peeved. This whole thing has been a time sink. Mainly it was the principle of the whole thing. Asking me to start from scratch was the last straw and all the conflicting emails was the last straw. 

Lo and behold - today I get an email saying that they apologized for the frustration and trouble and that they would credit my account for the full price of the spinning wheel as well as the shipping fees. I will believe it when I see it - but I think someone decided I was not worth the trouble and it would be easier to get rid of me by just settling. 

I have been told that I am stubborn.


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## Miz Mary

Kasota, thats FANTASTIC !!! It really pays to stick to your guns, keep everything logged , and be nice but persistent .... YOU GO GIRL !!! 

tlynrue, I adore your blankie !! The bow really sets it off !!! 

Woodpecker, maybe you better get some tomatoes going on the window sill ... thats what I did when I was done with winter !! They are now about 3" tall !! Hope your feeling better as well !


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## SvenskaFlicka

They put the newscast online for all to see! 
Fox Duluth Newscast

I like the quote they picked. :viking:

WIHH, the son said one of his nephews is interested in continuing the tradition, and has made one wheel, but doesn't have the patience to make them like Earl did. Earl had a patience and attention to detail that showed in all areas of his life, apparently. He was known to send wheels through the table saw and feed them to the wood stove if they had even the tiniest wobble!


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## Woodpecker

http://s299.photobucket.com/user/dr.../IMG_20140215_155204_588_zpse3606083.jpg.html

Pic of the snow as promised. I like the tomato idea Miz Mary. I need to put in an order for Jubgs anyway. That sounds like a great idea to cheer me up. Thanks!


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## MullersLaneFarm

FINALLY! A day above freezing!! We're melting, we're melting!!

13 days until the cast comes off. Seeds are on order & I'm set up to get them started. C'mon spring!!


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## Taylor R.

It's gorgeous outside today so I have been cleaning all day. I also finished the wing fill-in on one side of my shawl. It's amazing how a little sunshine can brighten my mood and restore my motivation so quickly :sing:

I'm checking out some chicken coop plans for my dad's house, also. He decided to get some chickens (here I am thinking a few laying hens and a batch of meat birds) and asked me to price them for him. Instead, he was thinking about 100 birds. My kids are totally excited about it, and they've asked for a little coop for 'their chickens' and of course their Papa said they needed to pick out a design and he'd get to work on it. Things like this make me wish we could just plop a house down out there next to his so he isn't stuck doing all the chores himself (he works 70 hours a week, and I take care of a lot of things for him, but daily chores aren't something I can help much with).


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## Kasota

Taylor, there are some WONDERFUL chicken coops plans to be found. I'm sure you will have lots of fun! 

We are going to get....you guessed it....MORE SNOW!!!! :sob:

I don't know where I am going to put it. They are saying we may get 8 inches. Maybe less maybe more - depending on which report you listen to. I am already tossing snow OVER the height of my head when I shovel the walk. I am running out of places to stack it up. 

Today will be warmer and some will melt...but egads...this has been a loooong snowy cold Winter and it's only February. We have weeks and weeks left of Winter. 

Hi ho, hi ho...it's off to work I go....


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## Miz Mary

Taylor, here's one we made ..... I would suggest putting the nest boxes LOWER , on the bottom of the coop ..... chickens tend to roost in them if they are the same height as the roosts ..... oh , and this website is addicting !!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/9...plan-nice-one-too-on-the-purina-mills-website


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## Taylor R.

That one looks simple enough, Miz Mary. Hopefully they'll pick something that is possible with my husband's skill set. Dad is going to have plenty of chicken houses to build without the kiddo's extraneous request!!


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## Miz Mary

Well, we are musicians NOT carpenters ! HAHAAA !! Took us 4 days or so to make this !


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## Taylor R.

I'm sure it'll take us a bit, but so long as we're capable!! My dad finishes entire buildings by himself in a 48 hour period, but I have no desire to uphold his speedy standards


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## MullersLaneFarm

I actually sat on the porch today and knit for a while. It was 50*F out there!!

More snow, Kasota?? I couldn't imagine it.

Gratuitous birthday picture of Punky. Now that she has turned four, when anyone asks how old she is, she responds, "Almost 5." Yup, she's an imp!


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## Marchwind

It was 40* today with lots of melting. I was actually able to get out and walk the dogs. It isn't lasting though. Today is supposed to be about 50 with rain and thunder storms shifting over to snow and ice then the temps will plunge back down below freezing with some subzero temps over night. I'm so glad I don't have to work tomorrow but I'm not looking forward to the next several days.


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## Kasota

:sob: More snow. More and more snow. Now they are saying up to 12 inches. :sob:

You know it's going to be bad when the local news shows people at the grocery store buying milk and bread. It's kind of what we do. Thunderstorm? Quick! Run out and get milk and bread. Snowstorm? Buy milk and bread!! It is never bread and milk. It is always milk and bread. You would think it would be the other way around because then it would be alphabetical. Milk is more important than bread if you have small children so it gets top billing. Even people who are lactose intolerant will buy milk and bread when there is a snowstorm. You never know, your neighbor might run out and not have any for the children. You buy a gallon just to be on the safe side. Besides, it just wouldn't be right to run out in the face of impending snowpocolypse to just buy bread. Your neighbors would look at you like you were strange. 

This one could be a doozy. They are talking snow falling at very heavy rates this afternoon and 40 mph winds. That means white out conditions. I will get to work just fine. Getting home is going to be more problematic.


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## Wind in Her Hair

Kasota - I FEEL your pain. Looks like we will be just on the edge of this storm - and you, my dear, will be smack dab in the middle of it. 

I guess I am weird - :teehee: (big news there, heh?) but I don't rush out and buy nuthin'. I avoid the market like the plague before a snow storm. 

Down south, I lived on the Gulf Coast and when a hurricane was headed our way- we DID run to the store for "milk and bread". It was the 1960's and "white bread" (sandwich bread or "light bread") was a big deal - it was the best thing since, well, you know! :grin: Now days, we don't EVER NEVER EVER buy white bread - a loaf of crusty Italian once in a while and some artisan bread or pumpernickel - but NEVER EVER white bread. Funny how times change.

Since we have no neighbors, and since we are admittedly "preppers", we just kind of plan to burrow down and ride out any "snowpocalypse". It should hit there this afternoon and all we have to do it get home from work this evening -then we don't have to venture out again until Monday morning. If worse comes to worse, I have about 10 pounds of dried powdered milk. 

Are you on the hill in Duluth? or down on level with The Lake? I don't envy those folks that have to go up and down the hills near the University. Yikes.

Stay safe and warm!


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## Marchwind

Our weather is turning nasty starting today and lasting until 7 pm Friday. I attached a screen shot of the radar. We are the red dot. Rain, freezing rain, then snow, and more snow, and freezing rain.


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## Taylor R.

We had thunderstorms last night that knocked our power out twice (right in the middle of cooking dinner, and sometime while we slept). It was...weird, with the snow and the rain and tiny hail all on the ground at once.

Unfortunately (or very fortunately as far as my bank account is concerned) I somehow ended up with 40 scheduled hours at work between this afternoon and Monday morning after only working one 10 hour shift a weekend the last month. I mostly like my job, but I hate the drought and flood nature of my schedule sometimes.


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## Wind in Her Hair

It just started snowing.


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## Miz Mary

Batten down the hatches Marchwind !! I have family in Bay City ..... worrying about flooding !!

Here its RAIN ...and more RAIN ..... flooding .....


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## hercsmama

What a night!
Taylor, ya'll got the rain and thunder, we got nuthin' but 50 mile an hour winds and snow. 
It was crazy, couldn't even see across the road, total white out.
But this morning it is already melting off, so that's awesome!
Did anyone else here get the latest issue of Vogue Knitting?
I just cast on the white sweater, with the open work bands, for Ddil. I'm working it up in a cotton/bamboo blend, in a turquoise blue color. Not for any reason really, just because I can.
A bit of getting ready for summer knitting to help me think warm thoughts!

:whistlin:


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## MullersLaneFarm

Rain, snow & wind here. Lightening & thunder last night! I can actually see the ground in some places ... well pooled water over the ground at least.


----------



## Pearl B

My sympathies to all of you dealing with the cold & knarly weather. Its been un-seasonably warm here. Which is alright for now. I have a feeling its gonna be a miserably hot summer. Honestly I think at times I would rather deal with the cold than too much heat for too long.

Ive been wanting an Ashford Elizabeth 2. Well, shes ordered & on her way here. Ive already named her, The Grand Lady!
While Im waiting Im going through my stash of spinnable fibers. I have way more than I realized. Funny how it builds up. 
I think Im gonna set all of it out & let it suggest to me what it wants to be!
Im really drawn to making complete sweaters, start to finish, at least right now.

I ordered this one with a finish, so it would be ready to bolt together permanently out of the box. Unlike my Traveller which has never been fully tightened together till I get whatever finish Im going to put on it, actually on it.
I have a little electric I was putting a finish on myself. That hasn't been very successful. Interesting lesson in what can & cant be done.
My little Prelude I still battle with on & off. I cant seem to get the leathers on it oiled up enough at times, & the treadle & footman keep separating on me. I finally got rid of the leathers & put a zip tye on it!

So in a way it kinda feels like my 1st complete spinning wheel.


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## Miz Mary

WOW Pearl , how EXCITING !!! Boy theres alot of new wheels around here, thats fabulous !! Cant wait to see pictures !!


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## Kasota

PearlB - congratulations on the new wheel! Woooot!!!! Oh, you must be so excited! When do you expect The Grand Lady to arrive? 

It really is exciting to see all the new wheels! I'm so happy for people. It's been fun to read about people wanting one, hoping for one, trying to figure out a way to get one...and then later on see those oh so happy posts about new wheels! Gives me warm fuzzies. 

WIHH - I live up on top of the hill. Our offices used to be down at the bottom of the hill in West Duluth but we moved into the newer building so at least I don't have to drive up and down the hill anymore. That used to sometimes be challenging. 

Right now it is snowing, blowing and snowing some more. The weather reports are all over the place...some saying we are going to get 5-8 inches overnight and others saying we are going to get 15-17 inches. Make up your mind already. LOL! I wish I could just stay home and hunker down. I'm hoping for a snow day but don't expect to get one. Duluth is pretty good about getting things cleared and passable before the morning drive time so unless it's really awful...I will be at work. 

I would rather stay home and get Hope out of the box and start sanding down the scratches and dings and figuring out exactly what is needful so that Svenska can order some parts for me.  

Prayers for everyone to stay safe and well and warm!


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## Kasota

Local news just said 10-18 inches with 40-50 mph winds. Potential for power outages. Blech.


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## hercsmama

Kasota, time to tuck in!

Here's the sweater, it's the first one under the Jet Set theme, too cute!

http://www.vogueknitting.com/magazine/spring_summer_2014_fashion_preview.aspx#2


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## Pearl B

Kasota,

I can hardly wait!, next Thursday by the latest! 

Good Luck with the weather. 

I wish I could put some of mine in a box/bottle & send it to all of you experiencing the cold & snow. Stay safe everyone! eep:


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## Kasota

Debi - love the sweater!  

PearlB - do you have a tracking number? If you do - how often do you check it? LOL!


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## Lythrum

SvenskaFlicka said:


> They put the newscast online for all to see!
> Fox Duluth Newscast
> 
> I like the quote they picked. :viking:
> 
> WIHH, the son said one of his nephews is interested in continuing the tradition, and has made one wheel, but doesn't have the patience to make them like Earl did. Earl had a patience and attention to detail that showed in all areas of his life, apparently. He was known to send wheels through the table saw and feed them to the wood stove if they had even the tiniest wobble!


About what time mark was it? I scanned through it several times and couldn't see it?


----------



## Pearl B

Kasota,

I just checked. Ups says Wednesday! I will start checking heavy though on Tues, & Wednesday morning. I just love "Out for delivery"!!!!


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## Kasota

Oh, my ever loving!!!! The snow we got is really mind-boggling. UGH!!

I've been up for hours. Could BARELY open my door. Had to put my shoulder behind it. The dog looked at me as if to say, "Are you serious?" Then she cocked her little head and the terrier in her woke up and she launched herself. Hilarious. 

The snow on my sidewalk is literally up to mid-thigh. I shoveled my way out to the street and it's "only" up to my knees except on certain edges and where it has drifted and that is upwards of 3 feet. Looked down the road and saw a couple 4 wheel drive trucks stuck in the road. Shoveled for an hour and now I'm taking a wee break. 

I am ready for Spring. 

My boss texted me and said the building will be open (there was an emergency meeting this morning) and we later talked on the phone...so she knows that there is no way I can get down the road until a snow plow comes through...and then it will be a couple hours trying to dig my car out. 

I will take pictures as soon as the sun comes up.


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## Wind in Her Hair

oh kasota- I spoke too soon- the models we saw with the snow track "wobbled" sometime during the day and we got slammed, too. 

MORE THAN THE 6" we were anticipating- more like 10" as near as we can tell in the dark. Getting home was "interesting" last evening. So glad to be home!

It is windy and drifting and there is a hard crust UNDER the snow from the wintry mix that fell first last evening when temps were about 34ÂºF. AND we are still getting a little light snow this morning.

I chatted with Iowa Lez over my lunch hour yesterday and they were hunkering down and preparing to get slammed, too. 

Cabin Fever will be plowing later this morning and thankfully, we are both off of work today so we don't HAVE to go anywhere. :dance:

I shoveled the porch off this morning to bring in the firewood (we keep a stash ON the porch all winter long and only have to venture out to the woodpiles along the tree line every three weeks or so to replintish what is on the porch) I now fully appreciate the Nordic tradition of building homes UP several steps to allow for the snowdrift. 

I will be knitting, spinning, cleaning, and colling- we have company coming this weekend (weather permitting) - During the week, I got three Olympic beanies knitted and in the mail, I am working on the fourth and waiting on the mail for the yarn I ordered to knit the fifth!

Stay safe and warm, Kasota- and enjoy playing with your new wheels, yarn, patterns, and projects, everyone!


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## Kasota

WiHH - I'm so glad you have wood up on the porch and that you don't have to go anywhere. Bummer that you got slammed with more snow. Hope IowaLez is doing okay and everyone else in the path of that beastie. 

I got my little car shoveled out. I am tired of shoveling. Shoveled a bath one shovel wide to the street and then slogged it to the parking pad that I have for my car. Took another 40 minutes or so to shovel out a path for my little car to get to the road. A snowplow went by...so at least there is one pass on the road. 

I *should* be able to make it to work. Getting home - the roads should be in better condition. Right now I'm taking a break and having a cup of coffee while my car runs and warms up enough to melt the 1/4 inch of ice that's on the windows. 

On a sad note - and I'm honestly trying hard not to think about it - the roof on my brother's pole barn collapsed. No critters inside as it was more shop and storage - but all his stuff is buried under snow and steel and rafters and beams. So is all of my stuff that I had stored in there from when I sold my farm. Some is some antique furniture pieces. The desk that my mother had as a young woman that she gave to me. Tools, and oh so so much more. I would cry if i were not so tired from shoveling. I'm just glad no one was in that building when the roof went. UGH.


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## hercsmama

Oh Kas, that's terrible. Hopefully your things didn't sustain any, or not much, damage.
Here's something that may make all of you feel a bit better about this winter weather.
Yesterday I saw huge flocks of Snow Geese heading north. Also, the Sand Hill Cranes are back. So with any luck, all this icky weather will mellow out soon.


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## Kasota

Thanks, hercsmama. 

I am actually hoping that it doesn't melt until we can dig out as much as we can from the buildling. It is a mess. I don't know how we will get at it without causing more damage to stuff inside. At least if the snow didn't melt it wouldn't be WET as well as buried. If that happens...get a dumpster. I think we will be getting one as it is. I am hoping that at least my treasures that are stored inside heavy duty rubbermaid bins may have survived. The antique book shelf? I don't know. I had hundreds of canning jars in there...they may be broken or may be ok. No way to know yet. UGH. 

Well, I am going to sally forth and see if I can make it to work. 

God bless all!


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## Marchwind

Thunder and lightening, rain and sleet! Thamkfully there was no freezing temps and the snow went north. It has been so warm I didn't turn my heat up this morning, the house hung on to most of it in the night. I'd say it is at or above freezing outside and wet. When I went out in the back yard with the dogs, the patio fur nature was becoming uncovered, I was still standing about 2 feet above it though, it seemed odd. As I was headed out to my PT appointment the wind was starting, holy moly :shocked: it's hoping to be a rough ride today. Big huge trees are bending in the wind. Temps are supposed to drop and we may get a bit of snow, the wind is going to be the big thing though.

I have my spinning group today and I'm really looking forward to that. Tomorrow a friend and I signed up for a mosaic knitting class. I know most of that but I wanted her to take it and she wouldn't do it alone. It will be good just to attend a class and to be with others. We will be making a hat.

Everyone stay safe and keep in touch if you are able.


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## Marchwind

Kasota am sorry about your brothers pole barn. Hopefully insurance will cover costs, although some of that can't be easily replaced. Maybe you will get lucky and nothing will be lost or too badly damaged


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## Wind in Her Hair

Kasota- so sorry for you! 

Sadly, I think there will be lots of roofs caving in around these parts this winter. 

here is our house this morning (imagine me in my fuzzy bathrobe and fleece jammie bottoms wearing my husband's huge camo parka and my fur Mad Bomber earflap hat and furlined muklkuks slogging through the new snow with my camera in tow at 2ÂºF to take these pictures just when the first morning light makes everything "blue"- yea, I am a sight to see!)


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## SvenskaFlicka

We got ten inches of snow in this go, according to the National Weather Service. I had to bundle up and run the shovel out to DH this morning because he had to shovel his work van out of the parking lot. The mail is also late to pick up my packages to ship out. (For the first time this week, lol!) 

WIHH, your cabin looks so lovely. 

Kasota, I hope your things are not badly damaged and that you can get them out. However, as my mom always says (and her house just burned down), "It's just things." You can't take things with you to heaven, and eventually they get destroyed or rot away. It's life, it sucks, but it's true. At least no one was hurt!

But I also have to say, having just had a bunch of my things go through a house fire, it's amazing what survives! I'm sure you will be surprised at what does survive once you start to dig. (And maybe the center of the roof collapsed, and your stuff was along the walls?)


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## Miz Mary

So sorry Kasota .... wish I could help you shovel snow ! I hop this winter lets up for y'all soon ......


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## weever

Lots of roofs (rooves?) collapsing here, too. So sorry about the mess and the loss, Kasota. 

Old Man Winter is furiously hanging on today... Icy roads, unmanagable wind gusts, and blowing, blinding snow. 

Next Saturday is our annual shearing day event. PM me for the address if you're in West Michigan and want to come. West of Grand Rapids.


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## Wind in Her Hair

weever- when I was growing up they taught us that it was "rooves" - recently that has changed and now that is considered archaic- it is now "roofs". I even looked it up and everything! :grin: i guess I am "archaic", too!


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## Kris in MI

I say 'rooves' too, as well as 'hooves' and 'beeves'. 

My weather the last couple days has been just what Marchwind described. Yesterday we started with snow, then thundersnow, then sleet, then rain, then the wind kicked in. Today is dry, but hovering around freezing and the wind has been absolutely howling all day. Supposed to stay windy all night long too.

My 20yo son is going to school up at Michigan Tech in the Upper Peninsula. He texted me last night and said "Under a blizzard warning for next 24 hours. 9-13 inches new snow coming. Some of us are talking about building an igloo and sleeping in it."

Today he texted "high wind, low visibility, not as much snow as predicted. Class canceled at 2, so watching Olympic hockey on the projector."

Apparently he and his friends nixed the igloo idea; I asked how that went and he said they decided rather than going for the satisfaction of being manly yooper men in a blizzard, they'd rather have the satisfaction of not being buried underneath the remains of their igloo. He baked brownies instead!


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## Kasota

Hello, all! 

Oh, what a blustery day! I finally got in to work at around 8:30 which is pretty good considering circumstances. Duluth is good about clearing snow. I had been up shoveling for about 3 hours just to get my front walk and the drive cleared enough to get my car out. Bless my brother who plowed out the rest of the parking area while I was at work. 

Thank you all for the kind thoughts about the pole barn. You are all right - it is just stuff. I'll take a drive up there tomorrow and see what the damages look like. I am just so glad he was not IN it. It is close to his house and is his shop and garage and storage and houses boats, atvs, etc etc. He is in and out of there all the time. I am glad we are not trying to dig HIM out!  

We got 17-18 inches in my area. I took some pictures. One is from work taken inside the cafeteria. The area outside is our patio where we have tables in the summer. You can see some of the snow we got and yes it is drifted there - but it gives you an idea of what we were contending with today. Shoveling my sidewalk has become a pain. The snow banks are taller than I am so I have to toss it shovel by shovel over my head. The last pictures is taken through my sliding glass door and shows all the snow on the deck.


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## featherbottoms

I am so glad we live here in the desert SW. We may have pretty high winds and drought but I don't think I could handle living where it snowed like that. I'd go mad. Literally.


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## Pearl B

Kaota,
Oh my goodness! Glad you made it out & back safe, Good luck with it all!
Im amazed how people manage to get anywhere with that much snow.
Im glad your brother is safe too! I know its just 'stuff', still, that a bummer.
I hope the good stuff is alright!

WIHH,
Your place in the woods is so very lovely!!! If ever there was heaven on earth, I think its your place! Someday if I get the wherewithal, I would like a place just like it, in the PNW.

Good Luck to all dealing with that kind of weather.


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## weever

Kasota, we've got a bunch of snow. But you win!


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## hotzcatz

Wow! That's a crazy amount of snow!!! And they still expect you to somehow get to work through all that stuff? Do you get hazard pay or anything for leaving the house with all that snow everywhere? 

Hopefully a lot of your stuff will have survived the pole barn disaster, but where are you going to put it now? How can stuff be moved in all that snow? 

Do folks put skis on their cars? Can you ski to work?


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## raccoon breath

That's a lot of snow Kasota. I've been wondering where our snow is since it stopped in Dec. Usually in February, someone with a pickup truck is running around here mowing down innocent snowmen. :Bawling: Each year during the storms, the locals kept in touch online each time our roads were closed down and we were low priority or no priority on the county's plow route. The county plows up to about a mile and a half from my house. That last 1.5 miles we plow and its a rough road. Sometimes, it takes days to regain access to the outside world so never really all that bad. Its not like The Shining here  During a bad storm 2 years ago, we got 4 ft in a week. We all kept in touch online for the most part. You know its getting rough on people when locals start talking about building a wikiup in their front yard they can use as a sweat lodge. Its a really bad time of year to build a grass hut when the closest grass is 4 ft under the snow  We talked her through it. She bought some alfalfa hay (grass not available) and lost interest while digging the hole. Glad your family is okay Kasota


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## Wind in Her Hair

Kasota, this been quite the winter, hasn't it? I moved here in 2001 and that winter and the next were fairly "mild" :hysterical:- well, at least as compared to what was coming down the pike.

We have gotten lots of snow- but we do have a walk behind snow thrower for our walkway and pad in front of th garage and we have a Western snow plow on our old truck and that is how we move our snows. Also, being in the woods, the trees do help keep the drifting to a minumum for us. In town, however, it looks just like yours.

Yesterday after snow plowing our place and despite Dept of Transportation warnings, we drove into town (just 5 miles) and ran a few errands. Hey, they were having a BIG sale at the hardware store- :dance: road conditions were TERRIBLE. The slush had refrozen and there were huge ruts in the ice that woudl throw you truck off the road if it caught one. 

and we also stopped at the grocery store/deli and shared a fish sandwich. As we sat there, we looked out the window, we saw exactly what you saw out your cafeteria window, snow up to our eyeballs. 

it is REALLY piling up but you folks "up on the hill" in Duluth really are getting more than your fair share and what is worse, is that you have no place to go with it.  We can shove ours out into the woods- which is exactly what we did in anticipation of this week's snowstorm.

raccoonbreath- I would truly welcome a sweat lodge retreat about now. The best I can look forward to is a sauna at the hotel that is hosting our fiber retreat in a few weeks. 

I keep telling Cabin Fever that we NEED to build a woodfire heated log sauna. We'll see how far I get with that. :kiss:

here are a couple of pics to give you folks an idea of the terrain in Duluth. It is an absolutely gorgeous city on the greatest if the Great Lakes but winter driving can be treacherous especially on "the hill". 

Hazardous duty pay :hysterical: - that's a good one, Hotzcatz...:hysterical:


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## Marchwind

WIHH those pictures don't do the hills in Duluth justice. Some of them are as steep as San Francisco easily. In the winter it can be tricky to get up to the top of the hill. I had my OJTn Duluth, they put me up at a hotel at the bottom of the hill and every morning I had to drive to the top to get to the airport. I did that for 3 weeks in February with a stick shift


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## Kasota

Thanks for posting the pictures of Duluth! Yes, it really does have a lot of hills and they can be challenging. I grew up driving on these hills so I suppose I am used to them. And I don't even have 4 wheel drive. Good snow tires, though!  

On the flip side - this is one city that knows how to move snow. They are fast and efficient. Last week, in preparation for the impending big snow they had long rows of vehicle picking up snow and trucking it off the main emergency designated roads so that there would be room for the snow that would need to be plowed in a day or two. The first was a big grader that moved snow from the edge of the road and made a furrow. The next was basically an enormous snow blower with a chute that would move the snow from the furrow to a dump truck behind it. The group I saw had at least 8 dump trucks waiting their turn to be filled. 

By the time I left for work at 8 or so - the roads had basically been cleared. Not the alleys. Not the smaller side streets...but the main roads were all open and most of the bigger side streets. By 2:00 in the afternoon it was back to business as usual. No muss, no fuss. That's 17 inches of snow plus the blowing and drifting - cleared in less than a day. I WISH we could have hazard pay. Work did give people 2 extra hours to get to work without being tagged as tardy. 

What I will do with all the snow in my yard is a whole 'nother matter. I suspect there will be some flooding this year. 

These snows seem like what I remember from growing up. We had a few years recently where it was much milder - as WIHH said - but this is really more normal for us from a historical perspective. I think...


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## hercsmama

My Mom was born in Iowa, but grew up in St. Paul Minnie-sota. She used to tell stories about when she was a little girl, back in the 30's and 40's, and my Grandaddy would make her forts out of snow taller than he was. Mind you, Grandaddy was 6'7", (ridiculous sized Norwegians) and the drifts he dug out were much bigger.
When I was little, we used to go up there for Christmas, this would have been back in the early 70's, to see an old Auntie. I can remember the snow being like your pictures Kas.
We are supposed to get a bit tonight. They're saying just 6-8 inches though, nothing like what you have. LOL!


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## Kasota

Here is a tip for those living in places with snow. PLEASE remember to clear the snow from around your gas regulator if you have one. Gas regulators have vents on them and they need to "breathe." If they are covered in snow or ice they can get clogged and you can get a build up of pressure on the gas appliance - which can be disastrous. Keeping them clear can save your life. 

Yes - I just finished digging mine out. I wish it were not on the OTHER side of the house! LOL!


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## Miz Mary

S E R I O U S snow ....holy moley ...... cant imagine driving in it !! .....and you have it for weeks at a time ?!?! We drove through Duluth last summer ... beautiful place for sure !!


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## Kasota

Debi, we used to make snow forts like that when I was a kid. We would also build igloos if the snow was right and then bring buckets of water out from the house that my mother had colored with food coloring. We would pour the water on the forts and they would freeze into these cool colors. I remember one year my brother made a snow dinosaur for me and colored it green and blue. I used to sit on it and pretend I was living on another planet where people rode them like we ride horses.  

Miz Mary - yes - for weeks and months at a time. Not all years have this much snow, though. In some years it can start snowing as early as October but mostly it is November. Unless we get an early Spring, we will have snow on the ground in April. I usually cannot plant any veggies until the end of May. Memorial Day is our "safe" date - but we can plant cold weather things earlier than that.


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## raccoon breath

WIHH - I'm sure lots of people long for a sweat lodge retreat during the winter. Around here, sweat lodges are not super popular. I'm not far from Sedona, where people died in '09 and it was all over the news, along with the trial stuff of Mr. Ray. We get quite a few people moving here from Alaska and they love small saunas at their homes. Instead of me building a wickiup, I'm more interested in building a wood heated hot tub. I got the 500 gallon stock tank a couple years back, but my plans went up in smoke that summer as some neighbors added water, a few water lilies,and then there was the pina colada mix. :buds: Now it's a lily pond/swimming hole


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## Taylor R.

Work work work, for me. I had a short day today (only 9 hrs), and a 14 hr shift tomorrow. I'm trying to squeeze as many hours out of them as I can while the getting is good. The woman I've mostly been covering for may be back at work next weekend, which could mean serious cuts to my hours. I'm thrilled she's healing and I've missed her a great deal, but my pay checks will hate having her back


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## Kasota

Taylor, that is always hard to lose hours. Hope you are able to take care of yourself, too, whilst working such long hours!


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## Woodpecker

Does anyone else want to live in a place that just has 2 seasons, Fall and Spring? Those are my ideal seasons. It's been warm the last few days and I have been tasking advantage of it. I have been steadily but surely digging myself out. I am so sick of snow and my heart goes out to you all in the North.


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## hotzcatz

Fiber retreat, WIHH? With saunas, even! (Wouldn't that warp your knitting needles?) Where is it gonna be? Someplace with snow?

A hot tub filled with pina colad mix? That's impressive, RB! I've seen 55 gallon mai tais for the crews at the end of the TransPac sailboat race, but I've never seen one as big as a hot tub! Water lilies instead of silly paper umbrellas is a great touch, too!

You can move over here, Woodpecker, we only have two seasons. Rainy season and tourist season, although tourist season seems to last all year.

Poor Kasota! There's getting dumped on and then there's getting dumped on and it just doesn't seem to end! Well, in your honor we designated today as "Take The Knitting To The Beach Day", although we ended up at the landing inside the harbor area instead of the beach so the kayaks could be easily launched. It's also easier to just "beach" from the back of the van instead of lugging beach chairs over the rocks and through the sand to the water. Guess we are lazy here. 











Gray Hula Bunny angora/merino/silk yarn being knit into a shawl. Still not sure what sort of edging it will have but I'll figure it out when I get there.










Half the neighborhood out in the water.











This is the beach on the other side of the parking from where we launched the kayaks in the harbor. A bit of surf today (although it's not in the picture) and quite a few folks out catching a few waves, although they weren't very big. Other than size, the conditions were great. I was thinking a fishing pole instead of just knitting might have been an idea, although all this sort of happened with no planning.

A neighbor moved back to the mainland to be with his kids and grand-kids about eight months ago. He found out that living in the same town with them he still didn't see them that much so he moved back here and will see them on vacations instead. The poor guy looked like he'd not seen the sun for months! Plus his stuff is still on it's way over here so he organized everyone off to the beach this morning so everyone would take enough beach toys that everyone would have some to play with. Such ulterior motives! We all had a great time, though, we don't go to the beach often enough.


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## raccoon breath

What a beautiful day in Hawaii. 

We didn't turn the 500 gallons into pina coladas. ROFL We didn't have enough crushed ice but it's an interesting idea! We sat in the water and enjoyed our drinks while the blue and white tilapia nibbled our skin gently. I raised them for meat and tossed a bunch in the tank to handle the bugs. They were yummy! The fish, not the bugs..to be clear..lol


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## Wind in Her Hair

hotzcatz, Cabin Fever's cousin is there in Hawaii for 6 weeks 

Now THAT'S what I call a winter vacation!

hercsmama- we had a couple of big snow falls last May and my asparagus was pushing up THROUGH the snow- that's how long into spring we still get snow.

I never will forget, I took a picture of snow piled down in a shady ravine in Tower, MN in July. I kid you not. 

and...I have gotten my first killing frost on July 26th- so our "summer" can be quite short. 

Still, the more snow we have, the less likely we are to suffer from drought and forest fires. I live in the forest, therefore, I &#9829; more snow.


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## Kasota

Hello, all! Oh, it has been so wonderful to see the sunshine today! It is not snowing!  

Did I say how happy I am that it is not snowing? LOL!!

I have been buying yarn online. Founds some delightful deals on cashmere blends of the sort one would use to make a shawl, and some silk/cashmere/wool blends of the sort one might make booties out of...and such lovely colors! I found some laundry bags for delicate items that I can use for washing fleece. I am pondering some mohair.

If anyone hears of a used blending board for sale let me know. I am in the market. 

I was STUNNED while looking on Ebay at yarn to see what some people are paying for lots of ummm less expensive acrylic stuff. Partial skeins included. Sometimes people are paying more for it than they would if they went to Michaels and paid full price. 

Gotta go get domestic and catch up on laundry and such...

I would rather crochet....


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## Kasota

Hotzcatz!! LOL!! I cannot imagine a day at a beach like that.... I have never actually been next to the ocean...any ocean. It's on my bucket list.


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## Woodpecker

Kasota said:


> Hotzcatz!! LOL!! I cannot imagine a day at a beach like that.... I have never actually been next to the ocean...any ocean. It's on my bucket list.


What are you waiting for? Come on over!


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## SvenskaFlicka

Kasota said:


> Hotzcatz!! LOL!! I cannot imagine a day at a beach like that.... I have never actually been next to the ocean...any ocean. It's on my bucket list.


Kasota, I have been to Germany, I have been to Sweden, I have been to Washington DC, and I have never yet stood on a beach and looked at the ocean. It's on my bucket list too... 

Philip wants to go swim in Lake Superior this summer, though!


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## raccoon breath

I was born and raised in Arizona. I didn't see the ocean until I was 20 years old. When I saw it, it was so blue and never seemed to end. It is a memorable experience to stand on the beach for the first time and look off at the ocean. Seeing the ocean is a great bucket list item. 

I spent a majority of my life living in the warmer parts of the state where gardening is so easy. When I moved here about 15 years ago, WOW, what a change. We frost as late as the first week of June and frequently get our first snow by the first week of Oct. I love gardening, so I got myself a hydroponics system. I can grow 132 plants in the big system on the porch. I wrap the porch in plastic when it's cold and heat it if necessary to extend my growing season. All summer long, we are eating lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, cucumber, tomatoes and more. Very fun way to grow food when there's snow on the ground too  Since our growing season is so short, I'm starting plants in the house early to go in the ground and I always keep my plastic handy to cover them. It's pretty tricky here. If the cold and the wildlife don't kill the plants, a surprise gust of wind will blow in and snap the little plants in half.


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## Miz Mary

hotcatz , I just LOVE your pictures !!! 

I have grown up 1 hour from the coast ( Pacific ) and 1 hour from the Mountain ( Mt Hood ) in the other direction !! Its so fun to take people to the ocean for their first time !!!


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## Marchwind

I was very fortunate to spend a good deal of my childhood and some of my adult life near, or in the ocean. It is spectacular. I can honestly say that anyone who can't get to a coast to see the ocean can go to one of the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan on the Michigan side has beautiful sand beaches and even some surf (there actually are surfers out here). Lake Superior, SvenskaFlicka does Philip have any idea how cold Lake Superior even in the hottest of summers? Last year or was it the year before (?) was the exception to the rule.


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## BlueberryChick

I'm back! We got back from New Zealand last night and I'm staring down a mountain of laundry. I had a great time, although I only found one yarn shop, but it was wonderful! She had lots of merino/possum blend yarn as well as merino fiber for spinning.

We lost a day on the way there due to the ice storm. Our Charlotte-Los Angeles flight was cancelled. We ended up going through San Francisco, but we missed our flight to Auckland. We had to take the next flight, which was a day later. On the upside, I got to spend the night in San Francisco!

The sheep shearing demonstration at Walter Peak Farm was so much fun to watch. The guy sheared the sheep, while talking us through the process, in about a minute and a half. I had never watched a shearing and was amazed the the fleece came off in one piece, like a rug! So cool. There was no spinning demonstration the day we were there and I was disappointed. If we had not been with a group, I might have volunteered to do it.

We went horseback riding on a local farm. It was a great way to see some rural country, as well as the farm animals. They had sheep, cows and deer. They harvest the antlers each year for the Chinese medicine market.

I was surprised that my favorite thing was a jet boat ride. The jet boats can run in as little as 4 inches of water, perfect for the shallow Dart River. The water is very clear and comes from glaciers melting. 

Now, to get caught up on this thread...


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## Taylor R.

I've never been south of Dallas, north of Des Moines, east of Branson, or west of Garden City, KS. Some day, we'll get around to travelling...somewhere.

ETA..BBChick..we NEED pictures!!!!


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## SvenskaFlicka

Marchwind, yes, Philip knows how cold it can get. But nothing phases him. :teehee: He wants me to someday do a polar bear plunge with him. I think that would just be painful! 

Taylor, I've never been south of the Mason-Dixon. Seven foreign countries under my belt, and never been south...


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## SvenskaFlicka

By the way: Philip has decided what his next project after the Doctor Who scarf will be.

Saint Olav and His Men










"This pattern tells the story of King Olav II who became Saint Olav. He was killed at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. He tried to unite the country of Norway and introduce Christianity."

All this after the Doctor Who scarf and a hat...


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## Marchwind

Beautiful sweater. If he does swim in Lake Superior I want you to take a movie. Eons ago when I was married we went sailing in the Apostle Islands with two other couples. Two of the guys, my husband was one of them, decided they were going to go get clean in Lake Superior. They took their shampoo, soap and towels and wore their swim trunks. I swear I have never laughed so hard in my life. They walk out together into the lake and at the same time they both dunked themselves down into the water. Both of them shot straight up in the air gasping for air and their bodies were trembling . Of octopuses they has to continue their ablutions. I got smart and heated some water on the stove and washed my hair in the sink.


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## Kris in MI

Svenska, you _must_ swim in Lake Superior. Yes, it's cold, but you have to do it at least once just to say you did! I have swum in it several times, the most memorable of which was during a week-long rustic camping trip in mid-June where the weather was cold and gloomy for days and days. The day the thermometer hit 65 degrees (air temperature!! not water temp) DH and I took all four of our kids to the beach and insisted everyone have a bath in Lake Superior. Fastest bath on record, I bet!!

As far as doing a polar bear plunge goes, that is something on my bucket list. Dh thinks it's crazy, especially because I get cold really easily, but it is one of those things I feel I just need to do! Besides, if I plan it right it will only be a minute of shockingly freezing cold, then I'll wrap up in a bunch of warm fuzzy stuff and drink lots of hot chocolate! And know that I'm tougher than dh is  :hammer:


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## Wind in Her Hair

Svenskaflicka - that is an AMAZING sweater- almost like the Bayeaux Tapestry in the tale it tells! :clap: :bow:

A few summers back we took my son and dil to Lake Superior - walking towards the Lake , you could feel the rush of cold air coming off it - the water temp was 42ÂºF and it was mid July. 

I read where a kayak capsized out there in July one year and a man died of hypothermia in 20 minutes ...in July. In July, folks. 

That is one cold Lake.


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## Kasota

Svenska - what a beautiful sweater! I can't imagine how one does such a thing. 

Welcome home, BlueberryChick-I am glad you are back from your trip safe and sound. Sounds like you had a great time! 

I grew up swimming in Lake Superior. We didn't have a car so mom would gather us all up and take us by bus to Park Point. There is a trick to it. You want to pick a warm day where the winds are such that they are blowing the warmer surface water toward the beach.  It helps, honest. Even so, we often looked like plucked chickens when we got out of the water because of all the goose bumps. The sand on the beach would literally be burning our feet and our legs were bluish from the cold water. 

If you do decide to swim in Lake Superior please have a care for rip-tide warnings. There are places especially along the north shore where you can get yourself into serious trouble. 

And whatever you do - don't feed the seagulls. Don't let them see so much as one french fry or you will be bombarded...in more ways than one. LOL!!! 

My son called today and said he got a job. He has been out of work for some long months. The longer he was out of work the harder it got to find one because a lot of places would not even look at an applicant if they were out of work. It has been really demoralizing. However - today he is back in the ranks of the employed! Wooot! My pocketbook will be happy. His other job kept everyone just under 40 so they were considered part-time and they didn't have to pay unemployment when there were layoffs. So I have been keeping his boat afloat. He's happy. I'm happy. God is good.


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## hotzcatz

Yay on the employed son! 

Yay on NZ pictures!

Great sweater pattern!

Brrrr! Cold isn't so good unless you can keep it in your mai tai. Small kid time, there was a sauna out in a snowy place and a pond nearby to plunge in. I remember folks would rush out of the sauna, blast through the snow, jump into the pond and then levitate back to the sauna again. I'm not sure if that's all that good for the system or not. I suppose it would cull the weaker members from the herd. Ack! I don't even remember exactly where that sauna was, somewhere in Michigan, I think. My brain was probably frozen.


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## Wind in Her Hair

well, it is NOT snowing today - yet (we had flurries last night) but the bottom just dropped out. 

It is 10:00am and only -4ÂºF. They say we can expect -27ÂºF tonight (or worse) and nothing above 0ÂºF all week long. :sob: and we get winds and wind chill in the -30ÂºF - frostbite in 15 minutes. 

I &#9829; the snow, I &#9829; winter - but this extreme cold is not...fun. 

We are helping a friend move on Saturday up to Kasota's snowy part of the state.  Frostbite in 15 minutes. This could be interesting.


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## hercsmama

:badmood: Humph!

I have just spent the best part of this morning on taxes. I'm maybe half way through, and ready to just shoot myself in the head.
I hate tax time. But best to get it over with, and move on.
I'm going to take a break now, and work on a bit of Fiber Therapy, my shawl is calling me, and Uncle Sam can just go pound sand for a little while.:catfight:


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## Taylor R.

Uncle Sam usually takes it pretty easy on us come tax time with our three sweet little tax deductions. It's Papa Kansas that puts the screws to us. How a decidedly Republican state can have such extremely high taxes, even for the lower middle class, is seriously beyond me. We pay in a fortune throughout the year and we still end up owing the state every single year.


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## Kris in MI

Oh hercsmama, I know how you feel. Last night DH and I sat down to "finish our taxes". This is after he has spent weeks making spreadsheets, filling in numbers, and doing calculations so that all we have to do to "finish" is plug those numbers from the spreadsheets into the actual tax forms and hit submit. And after I spent about four hours last week with him verifying figures.

At 8:00 p.m., I turned on the laptop, handed it to him, and sat down next to him with the file folder of W-2's, 1099's, 1098-T info for our two college students, property tax receipts, charitable contribution receipts, HSA info, etc. This was to "finish" remember, and finish = plug pre-verified figures into the electronic form, then submit. I'm thinking an hour tops.

11:20 p.m., DH finally hits submit. Yes, 3 hours and 20 minutes later. Did we need to change any of our figures from the all-ready done spreadsheets? Nope. It just takes him that long to plug them in, because he feels the need to re-read the line by line instructions again for every single form we needed to fill out (6 I think, by the time we got the 1040, the Schedule A, the tuition credits for each college kid, the non-cash charitable contributions itemized form, and the electronic W-2s done). He's a slow reader.  And he finds tax forms confusing.

Meanwhile, I'm looking like this :flame::flame::sob::facepalm: because I read really fast, and can look at the tax form once and usually know exactly what is needed where (and what qualifies and what doesn't qualify). There were actually several sections where I'm like "this is what we've done here for the last five years, so unless the rules changed this year. . ." or "nope, we haven't qualified for that since 2002. . ." But he still felt it was necessary to read again (two or three times last night alone) each of those things, and double check (again) that we were correctly understanding the instructions. 

I was like :hair:hair because I'd read them this year once (and last year, and the year before and the year. . . ) and was good with it. Besides, we'd all ready prepped and verified everything last week.

So, hercsmama, I feel your pain.


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## Taylor R.

Oh jeez, Kris. I can't imagine my husband helping with the taxes!! It takes the man an hour to do a sink full of dishes. The taxes would take him 3 days! I love him bunches, but his dawdling tendencies only compare to those of my father (you really do marry your dad, eh?).


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## Kris in MI

Lol Taylor. My dh is an engineer, hence the spreadsheets. He really is excellent with excel.

Whereas me, I'm not that great with computers. I did start to study accounting (two semesters college accounting), but that was back in the days of paper ledgers and entries written neatly in ink. . . If I could do everything that way it would be so much faster than me doing this dreadful e-filing all by myself.


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## Wind in Her Hair

Praise the Lord, my husband Cabin Fever does the taxes. He is the most organized man I know. :kiss: (He also pays all the household bills. He is awesome! He does what he is good at - and I'll do what I am good at - when I figure out what that is. :grin 

He has a big file drawer with a big red hanging file folder marked for each quarter of the year and he files all receipts at the end of every quarter. All I have to do is bring him every receipt and put it in a tray on his desk. 

That's my job and and I do it- faithfully. 

Every tank of gas - every grocery receipt, every YARN STORE or FIBER FESTIVAL RECEIPT - :shocked: every PAYPAL, etsy, ravelry purchase -everything.  
And ya know what? It works for us! :dance: :bouncy: :kiss: Complete and total honesty - even when it comes to money. 

Our taxes are all done - both state and federal - now we wait til the last minute to send in the bit we owe. He is really great about figuring out whether we need to have more withholding, etc so that we don't get stung April 15th.

He does not like e-filing, though. Twice a much work, according to him. I just try to be quiet as a mouse, I keep his coffee cup full and I rub his shoulders every now and then. :kiss:


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## Kasota

Tax time is the pits. I have mine done. Thankfully they are not too difficult to do as my financial life is about as simple as it gets. 

I have to do my mom's and my sister's. Then I will be done. 

Hopefully I will have them done and out of my hair this weekend. BLECH! I hate doing them.


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## Pearl B

Well according to UPS, she arrives tomorrow. :buds::rock::banana:
She is in Phoenix now. I hope I can sleep tonight. I stayed up a bit late working on my shawl & then slept most the day, oops. Oh well at least it took away the boredom of waiting all day.

The stockinette part of my shawl is turning into a bit more than I bargained for. Its getting to be more than the last few sweaters Ive done. :stars:

I think Im going knock off adding stitches about 20 rows early. Im a pretty small girl/frame, so Im thinking I should be able to get away with it. :happy:


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## Kasota

PearlB - oh I am so happy for you! I'll bet you can hardly wait!!!!!  :sing::happy::clap::sing:


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## Pearl B

I can barely wait!! Im mentally rearranging the furniture in the living room. I think shes gonna be a big girl!!!


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## Pearl B

Ive been practicing drawing & drew this. I cant believe I could draw something like it! 

Im wondering if maybe I can transfer the image onto the treadle & burn it in with my woodburner


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## BlueberryChick

Yay, Pearl B! Keep us updated.

We went to the grocery store tonight to replace all the food we lost when the power was out. It stayed out for 5 days and we lost everything in the freezers and most of the food in the refrigerator. Anything in vinegar made it--pickles, relishes, etc. Even worse than losing the meat was all the garden vegetables that had to go--yellow squash, shredded zucchini, blueberries, corn. Sigh.

I am so grateful that my sister-in-law and DH's brother came over and cleaned it out for us. Otherwise, we would have been doing that as soon as we got home from our trip. Yuck! My SIL said it made her sick to throw out so much food, but she's a good judge of what's safe, so if she thought it was bad I trust her decisions. 

Bonus: the old freezer no longer needs defrosting!


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## BlueberryChick

Pearl B, that's excellent! I am amazed at talent like that.


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## Pearl B

Blueberry Chick

Me too!! Its a wonder to me also :stars::hysterical:

I like this website: www.dragoart.com
Its got bunches of drawing tutorials that cover just about everything!

Im sorry about your freezer. That was wonderful your relatives got rid of it before you came home. That would be horrid to come home too!

I will definitely put up pics when I get her altogether. This is the tiome I start watching ups website. She should be moving sometime tonight out of Phoenix & to their little facility up town. Im hoping shw will bw here abour 11:30 - 12:30 pm tomorrow.


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## Marchwind

I'm excited for you Pearl! Can you use your drawing as a stencil to transfer the picture onto the treadle?

BBChick how sad to throw all that food away. I know how sad I get when I find something in the crisped drawer I had forgotten about, I cannot imagine having to throw out a bunch of stuff. Were the kids all alright while you were gone?


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## BlueberryChick

Marchwind said:


> I'm excited for you Pearl! Can you use your drawing as a stencil to transfer the picture onto the treadle?
> 
> BBChick how sad to throw all that food away. I know how sad I get when I find something in the crisped drawer I had forgotten about, I cannot imagine having to throw out a bunch of stuff. Were the kids all alright while you were gone?


Marchwind, it was sad. When we got home, I started to try and make dinner and kept thinking, "We can have...wait, no we can't. Or maybe...no, not that either". Although it was tough to get rid of so much, I'm thankful that we are able to replace enough to get by. We won't have as much variety until the summer vegetables grow again, but we won't go hungry.

Thanks for asking about the children. They are 22, 12 and 8. They stayed with DH's brother and his wife (the ones who cleaned out the freezers and refrigerator) until the power came back on Monday. At that point, a good friend of the 22yo came over and she helped with everything. She took care of the younger ones while their sister went to work, even getting their homeschool lessons done. She has come several times to help out when we were away.

We are blessed with such good friends.:angel:


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## Pearl B

Blueberry Chick,
Its so wonderful to have friends like that!!

She's "Out for Delivery" Who hoo.... :sing::sing::sing::dance::dance::dance:

Im cleaning up & out the living room.


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## Taylor R.

BB Chick, we had that happen once, then I decided to add the fridge and freezer insurance to our renter's insurance. Now they'll pay up to $750 to replace food that is damaged in a power outage (or any other disaster). It still isn't enough to cover everything we have stocked, but it'll keep us from taking a huge hit for under $1 a month.

Pearl, get the camera ready!!!


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## Pearl B

I started a new thread for her.


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## hotzcatz

Today was kinda a misty drizzly rainy sort of day, although I suppose I really shouldn't aught to complain. There were some weird "chuck chuck chuck" noises out side the front door (which we don't use much) so I thought I'd see what was making that noise. Turned out to be a momma turkey!










Katie the Pest didn't think turkeys should be in back yards. Border collies are fussy about that sort of thing. They had words across the fence. 










Katie the Pest wins! Never argue with a border collie when they have some sort of "this is the way it should be" sort of things stuck in their head.

My neighbor saw the momma turkey going out the back of her yard followed by six tiny little fluffballs. However! After the momma turkey left, the hedge was cheeping! CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP! Momma turkey came back and made more chuck noises, the hedge didn't divulge any small fuzzies so momma turkey went back to her six babies and they wandered out the back of my neighbors yard. Dunno where they went.

The hedge is between our two houses and on our side of the hedge it's got horse fencing (wire fence with 2" x 4" tall openings) on their side of the hedge is a 12" tall board which makes weeding the hedge pretty easy. The baby turkey had gotten between the fence and the board and the mom turkey couldn't find it and it couldn't figure out how to get out. Well, the little guy is now in with Dozer. He's a bunny and will hopefully keep the little turkey warm. Both of them can eat oatmeal and bunny pellets so we will see tomorrow morning if there is still a small turkey out there. Dunno what Katie the Pest is gonna think about that!


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## hercsmama

Hotzcatz, how's the new addition this morning?

Well, the taxes got filed yesterday afternoon, thank goodness that disaster is over for another year. We ended up owing, naturally, but it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.
Today I have the big dentist appt, and ya'll know how I feel about that. But to be honest, I'm not as freaked out as I was the last time, so that's good.
Can't wait to just have all this dental stuff over and done with.....


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## Kasota

BBChick, so sorry to hear about the loss of all that food. You are surely blessed in the friends you have to help you!  

Hotzcatz, your photos are too funny! Katie is surely doing her best to keep the world ordered according to her standards. LOL! How is the little cheeper doing? 

Debi, hope your dental appointment goes well and you are soon done with all the work. I had to go this monday. My dentist is so funny. He is in a very old medical arts building downtown and plays music from the 80's. It's kind of a blast from the past. 

It is soooo cold here today! UGH! It's -20 and with the windchill...feels like -42. This has been such a loooong Winter.


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## Marchwind

Hotzcatz I hope your little charge is doing alright. Will you keep it or try to return it to mom if she shows up again?

My life has been so busy and crazy lately. Between work, my volunteering, doctors appointments and PT I barely have time to eat and sleep. I love the fact that I have a new doctor who is very conscientious. We are working on getting dosages right for a new med I'm on or maybe changing to another one, so IM having to see him once a month until we get it right. My PT is great, I love my therapist. I've been going 3 days a week but it is going to be a long road. They are doing some myofascial release, the joint was all seized up, now they have movement, the swelling is better but still pretty bad. We have had to back off on strengthening as it is just too much right now. Managing pain and getting movement and keeping the swelling down are the main goals now. It was injured 6 months ago so it isn't like this just happened. If my other doctor (the one I left) had not dropped the ball I probably wouldn't be in this situation. The good news is I can knit and spin for longer periods of time now before I have to stop and rest or quit for the time being.

My foster puppy was adopted last week. Her new dad is a retired doctor and has had Pit Bulls for 30 years. He brought his adult guy to meet the puppy and they got a long really well. She is a fairly dominant little thing and this big guy just let her dominate him, lol! I may get her back for a month to babysit her, the doctor was contacted by Doctors Without Boarders. I only have two foster cats left and I'm hoping I can get them adopted before the really nice weather hits.

It is back to being cold here, nothing like MN, but we will be having some single digit temps. Some snow last night about 4" I think. As much as I love snow and winter I'm about ready for some warmer temps. All the snow piles are dirty and gross looking, they are just dirty ice mountains now :yuck:


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## Taylor R.

Hooray for your foster pup and his new family, Marchwind!! At our shelter, it seems the fostered animals have a really hard time getting adopted because people tend to forget they're there. I helped my grandma make super flashy bulletin boards to put all over the shelter so people couldn't miss that there were dogs they couldn't actually see that were also waiting for adoption.

Our weather folks are forecasting another couple very cold weeks, and then it ought to warm up. We're expecting winter precip (either ice or snow, they haven't decided) tomorrow and Sunday.

Also....I have a weekend off work!!!!! Finally! I have to work tonight and Monday, but I actually get to spend the weekend with my family.


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## Wind in Her Hair

Just finished one hour of shoveling and chipping away at the packed ice and snow that drifted and packed overnite in front of my office. 

This is no way to start the day. 

I am absolutely soaked with sweat and freezing at the same time. Lovely.

AND....

this was the temp on the way to work (and while I was out shoveling and chipping and  )

this is actual air temp - not windchill - let's not even GO there.


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## SvenskaFlicka

Cross your fingers for me... I just applied to be a vendor at Shepherd's Harvest! 

They have to vet me, and have a jury select me, and make sure I have "unique fiber items" for sale. I hope I didn't overly emphasize my family's Icelandics. They give preference to shepherds. I have _some_ fleeces for sale... 

Wish me luck!


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## Kasota

WIHH - I hope you have warmed up! Egads but it has been cold. 

Marchwind - I'm so glad you have good doc and therapist to help you. Congrats on the pup being adopted! Yay! 

Svenska - Oh, I do so hope you can be a vendor at Shepherd's Harvest! I am going to be there - can't wait! 

Taylor - congrats on a weekend off! Woooot!  

Debi - glad the tax man didn't hit you as hard as was anticipated. How did the dentist appointment go? 

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday!!!!


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## raccoon breath

Had to do one of those things I dread this week. A tooth went ugly, got infected. It hurt so bad that my crafty side has been incapacitated. The tooth is out now and just have to wait for it to heal up. I'd swear I have a giant jaw breaker in my cheek. Hubby says I look like a squirrel with a cheek full of nuts. lol 

Hope all are well


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## hercsmama

Kas, it went.:hohum:

I have beautiful shiny new teeth on the top, but it is crazy sore this morning.
Dh says they look amazing, I say they look funny, dh said it's just the swelling and that they will "settle in" in a week or so.
But I can't talk right, I sound like I can't hear or something. I sure hope this was worth it....:hohum:


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## Kasota

RB - ouch! I sure hope you heal up quickly! (((hugs)))

Debi - wow! I knew you had major work being done but didn't know just how major! Good for you! From what I hear you will get used to the new shape/size etc and be talking like your old self in no time. 

Prayers for quick healing for the both of you!! 

I hate to think of all the money I have had to spend over the years on dental work. Genetically our family simply does not have strong teeth and it's a pain - literally. Someday I will probably end up with dentures. I don't even feel sad about that. lol! 

I'm so glad it's Friday! Way too much stuff to do at work today or I would have taken the day off. I need a mental health day.


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## BlueberryChick

Hope everybody is healing well! Goodness, all the dental work--we are fortunate to have strong teeth around here, although one, maybe two more sets of braces are in our future.

I feel for those of you who have so much anxiety about going to the dentist. I do too, although not nearly as incapacitating. I had a nightmare of a pediatric dentist. When I was 17, my last visit to this guy, I was the only kid back there NOT crying. 

Now, my children and I all go to the same dentist. His father was my grandfather's dentist and he couldn't be a nicer person. We drive an hour each way to see him, but none of my children have ever been afraid to go. He's worth it.

SvenskaFlicka--good luck! 

I am going to be a vendor at SAFF this fall, with my project bags and storage baskets. I need to contact them, though. My email address isn't correct on their website. Also, I applied for a particular building, but they have me somewhere else. I'm hoping that will change.


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## Wind in Her Hair

LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like I can see daylight (or green grass) at the end of the tunnel. Sort of. :teehee: It is almost MARCH (traditionally our SNOWIEST month ) and we already have 54" of snow recorded this winter - most it still on the ground (but compacted). 

Yesterday it was -30ÂºF- today it is already up to -6ÂºF! :dance: :bouncy: nanner:

I have an impromptu dr appt later this morning for an annoying digestive complaint that "could be something". I will take my knitting with me so I can knit while I wait. We shall see and I have a half dozen errands to accomplish today. 

Then tomorrow, we drive north and help my friend *AriesGoat *move just a lttle further away. :sob:

Thankfully, my loss is *Kasota's* gain.  

*GeoPrincess55*- turns out I will likely be at The Yarn Gallery earlier than I thought! Maybe around 1 pm or so, depending on moving trucks and loading, etc. 

Maybe I will see you there! 

Kasota, if you have a chance, tomorrow is The Yarn Gallery's Anniversary in Grand Rapids (Minnesota)- let me know if you might be headed down there and when!


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## Taylor R.

Soooo tired :yawn: I wound up at work 2 hours after I was supposed to be off last night (this morning?), which put me in bed at about 2:30 am, asleep at approximately 3:30 am, and back up and at 'em getting the kids ready for school pictures at 6 am this morning. This morning would have gone smoother, but when I asked my husband to pick out clothes for their pictures yesterday, he apparently thought I just meant cover 'em up. He set out a holey pajama t-shirt and jeans for my oldest, and wind pants and a tye-dye tank top for my son  With my son's sensory issues running rampant this morning, I finally gave up on talking him into slacks and let him wear the dang wind pants, then changed his pose to the one that cuts off at the waist. Now, it's coffee time, and then off for a little fiber therapy at the Yarn Barn.


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## weever

WIHH, I'm shocked and amazed. You live in the frozen tundra and only have 54" of snow so far this winter? That must be a typo. 

We are considerably south of you, in lower Michigan, and we've had 144" so far.


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## Miz Mary

Debi, the swelling will go down , and things will start feeling better ........ in about a year , you will be eating popcorn, apples and nuts with NO problem !!! ( YAY, the worst part is OVER !!!! )

WIHH, why are you OUTSIDE in that nastiness ?!?! Goodness dont get hypothermia !!


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## Wind in Her Hair

weever, many times it is "too cold to snow" in our world and so we don't get as much snow as you or other places along the lake. We just seem to keep it longer than most folks. Our frost has now gone down to a depth of 7' under plowed streets  - and city water systems are freezing up. (Thankfully, we are on a well and our lines are insulated by all the snow) but this is the first time in 100 years that frost has gone that deep!

(It is snowing now)


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## tryskal

Finally figured out how to add an avatar. Yep. That's me. Now I just have to figure out how to add pictures. They are on my hard drive, not on any web service. Maybe I need to add them to one of those picture sharing thingies?

My Dad's scope/biopsy went well Tuesday. Took some crochet along to do and didn't get a bit of it done. Ended up visiting with another lady in the waiting room. I really enjoyed our conversation. Back to my Dad! We'll find out the results this next Tuesday. The Doctor said that if the cancer has returned we have caught it really, really early.


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## BlueberryChick

Tryskal, glad to hear things went well for your dad--praying for good news.

WIHH, how was your doctor appointment?


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## Pearl B

Tryskal,

Im glad your Dads biopsy went well!

For photos, under the post box there is a thing that says manage attachments. Click on that. Another screen opens. Click browse & select the folder the photos are in, then you should be able to find the photo & just click on it, then on the screen click upload.
Hopefully that will work!

I hope everyone is well! My heart goes out to those of you dealing with teeth problems. I had a nasty extraction awhile back. Ouch ouch ouch. I hope you all heal up soon!


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## Kasota

Hello, all! Oh, I am so glad it's Friday!!! I am utterly exhausted from work. Maybe if I could sleep for a week I would feel normal again. 

WIHH - hope your doctor's appointment went ok. I am glad you are getting your digestive complaint looked in to. Wish I could make it to the Yarn Gallery's Anniversary but I am just so flat worn out I'm getting cranky which is not like me. I am hoping I can get some rest this weekend. Have to take the pooch in to the groomer tomorrow and there is a baby shower to go to on Sunday (my nephew and his wife are expecting their first) - and mom has been particularly fussy. I think she has cabin fever in the worst way but there's not much I can do about it. When it's cold she just doesn't go out. She will be going to the baby shower, though, and I'm hoping that outing will help her. 

Taylor - I hope you can get some rest!

Tryskal, praying for a clean biopsy report! These things are always so nerve wracking. 

Mom is baking some home made bread right now. The whole house smells delicious!! I have some elderberry jam just waiting for that bread to be done! I can't wait!


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## Woodpecker

Monday we are expecting more snow. Yuck! On top of that my PET scan is scheduled for Wensday. I have never been so terrified, I think its best I get this over with.


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## Miz Mary

Praying for you Woodpecker ..... 

Kasota, I like your Avatar !!! 

Trskal, good to "see" you ! Hope your Dad feels better soon ! Praying for his outcome !


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## weever

WIHH, too cold to snow? This winter has been awfully cold (go ahead and laugh). I don't mind the snow, but you can keep the cold.

Shearing day tomorrow. I just need one more day to finish getting ready. Not going to get it, since I'm off to bed for a good night's sleep.


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## BlueberryChick

Woodpecker said:


> Monday we are expecting more snow. Yuck! On top of that my PET scan is scheduled for Wensday. I have never been so terrified, I think its best I get this over with.


Praying for you, Woodpecker.


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## Woodpecker

Thank you all for your prayers. I think the fact that I slipped on ice wendsdsy and fell and it hurts is making it worse. I am almos sure that is why it hurts so much, usually it dosent bother me. 

For those that are new here I will give my background. I am fighting breast cancer that has spread to the bone.

As a matter of fact, I think we should all tell everyone about ourselves, inintroduce yourself if you will. What does everyone think of this idea?


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## Marchwind

The new FAC is up. Please post there from now on. Here is the new link http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/co...ts/509628-fac-~-march-2014-a.html#post6981449


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