It's Autumn

Hello folks,

It's Autumn here in the Pacific Northwest. In my neck of the woods the colors are great. Reds, yellows, golds, coniferous greens. The rain has washed away the summer dust allowing the leaf colors to glow.

Two kids, two educational centers, three campuses. Trying to keep track of schedules is challenging. the oldest is taking college physics and college upper level algebra. The youngest is taking college level writing and Shakespeare, Greek drama, trigonometry, American history, clay, and more.

Maude, my youngest is taking about exploring internship opportunities with you. Stayed tuned for more on that later.

I am spinning and knitting. I added much more to my stash at the Sock Summit in August and OFFF in September. I have given in to the fact that I am a colorholic. In a hopefully not to vain attempt to save my wallet contents I have photographed my stash and set up a screen saver that uses these photos in random order. The intent is to remind myself just what fun colors I have immediately available for use.

I frogged a few items that have been nagging me with their incompleteness. What a relief. Other than gift knitting I am trying valiantly not to start anything new before finishing something already in progress. We will see how that goes.

A couple of finished items:

A sweater for a co-worker's new daughter















Helena from Knitty - Summer 2008


Socks for one of my nephews:















Tree Frog colorway from Sereknity Yarn and Fiber purchased from The Loopy Ewe.
Toe-up, short row heel, ribbing at ankle and cuff. I am always amazed to see how the color changes differ depending on stitch count, and stitch type.

That is it for this morning. Off to the dentist for the semi-annual checkup.

-Mavis

Pouty Mare Syndrome (PMS)

Yes, that's correct. Izzy has Pouty Mare Syndrome (PMS) and tends to be a very irritable girl when this happens. The first time we didn't expect it and she sent DS1 flying as she got him in the rear. Today she was PMSing again, but she didn't get the great response she wanted. However, it was interesting to watch DS1 bring Izzy across the field to get up to the house to be saddled. She tried to rear, buck, and bite. However, this time DS1 was prepared and keep his rear end pushed against her shoulder and keep a close hold of the lead rope to hold the head down so she couldn't bite or rear. Once saddled she was actually not to bad to ride. She had a couple of irritable moments, but over all she was good.

Tini seems to not have Pouty Mare Syndrome quite as badly. However, running water is a totally new experience for her and she is having to learn how to go over it. Getting her out of the pasture and up to the house requires crossing a stream (normally dry except when we've had rain). Today I bribed her with a little food in the food bucket I was carrying. While riding she wasn't bad through the boggy areas and even went over the first creek ok. But the second was one that she refused to go across for any reason. So after way too many tries we ultimately walked her up stream until we found a place she was willing to go across. Her bad luck really because it meant she had to cross 3 more streams her way versus one the way I originally intended. The only thing with her is she's now decided to jump over streams, which wasn't what I wanted as I was taking her back to the field. She jumped right at me after I crossed the creek and I had to jump quickly out of her way.

The joys of living on the homestead.

-Myrtle

From one of the deliquent blog owners

OK all, where are you. I'll update you all on my life if you'll do the same for me.


Two days ago I picked the final harvest of hot peppers from the garden. The bag contains 13 pounds of chilies, Serrano, and jalapeno peppers. I cut the tops off all them, ran them through the food processor, and then froze them in freezer bags. I still need to break up the freezer bag contents into smaller (more usable portions, since these are HOT!)

I also picked 9 pounds of the remaining sweet peppers that I need to slice along with some of the onions from earlier this year and freeze. That way we'll have the pre-cut makings for fajitas in the freezer for faster dinner preparations.

Now I just need to finishing picking all the tomatoes (this has been a very poor year for tomato harvest here.) Then I'll see about canning a couple more jars of pasta sauce. I've canned 15 jars quart of tomato soup (plus we've had tomato soup 4 times for dinner this fall) and 2 jars of pasta sauce. Last year at this time I had over 100 quarts of tomatoes canned. As you can see we just haven't had a great tomato year.

We picked the last of the beans. The boys are tired of eating them fresh, but I'm sure they'll enjoy them again in a few months. We froze 12 gallon bags of beans, so those actually did well growing in the garden from just a couple rows of beans.


Knitting wise I've finished several pairs of socks that I posted last time and a couple of scarves and a shawl. Now I'm working on a pair of socks that has become my nemesis. I've taken them out more times than I can count and finally redesigned the foot because I couldn't figure out the pattern. For knitting time, these socks have taken me more time than my very first pair of socks that I knit 8 years ago.


I also a finished a pair of hand warmers that DS4 was given on his birthday. He was ecstatic when he discovered I'd made him a pair and wore them for two days straight.


Now I'm working on a hat knit from my first ever spun yarn. The yarn is definitely over spun and varies more than I'd like for diameter of the yarn, but most of it would probably be between dk and worsted weight. It's taken me several tries as well to get it going, but now is close to being finished (although the picture I'm posting is of the beginnings of the project.) I ran out of hand spun yarn, so am finishing it with some left over yarn and doing a seed stitch with that to make it look more intentional than it did when I just switched yarn.

I hope you all are doing well. My goal is to post weekly for the the next couple months. I miss you all, but am glad that Mavis and I saw each other last weekend as our 16 year olds had their first official campus visit.

-Myrtle

Latest Socks Finished

Well, I finished my latest pair of socks at 5 am this morning. I used the Mystery Sock pattern off the September sock challenge on Ravelry. They are a Nancy Bush pattern called Fox Faces.

I knit them for DS4's birthday. I'm sure he'll like them because they are YELLOW, his favorite color.

I also took all the lace edging off my girasole this weekend and started knitting it back on with a size smaller needle. I'm hoping to complete this project this week and then I only have on project left on the needles. Yeah.

-Myrtle

I can't believe I've been so inactive

September is almost finished and I can't believe I haven't talked since the middle of August, so I will update you all on my life.

I've taken my first seminar for the PMA program. The seminar is called Highlights in Luke and was originally suppose to be finished in two 2.5 hour sessions. However, after 5 hours of class time we'd only made it through the first 8 books of Luke. We now have two more classes which the professor has kindly agreed to do for us, so we can hopefully make it farther through Luke. He's taught me so much so far about the time frame in which Luke is writing and how to read Luke more as you would a historical fiction than as a history book. This was a totally new perspective for me and I'm loving the seminary because so much is becoming clearer for me as I reread Luke.


I've been knitting for the past 6 weeks as well. I knit two pairs of socks as a test knitter for the SassySheep podcast. The first pair was huge through the leg when knit according to her instructions. I decreased the number of stitches when I got to the foot or they would have slide right off my foot. I ended giving those socks away to someone who loved them more than I did.


After giving my ideas back to the designer, I tested knit another pair using her rewritten pattern for those of us who have narrower feet and legs. I like them better, but I think the pattern needs some more work.


Added to this I started on (and nearly finished a girasole shawl). I thought I'd have enough yarn for the pattern since it called for 1050 yds and I had 1400 yds. However, I ran out a foot shy of finishing the lace border. The shawl is now sitting and waiting on me to decide how I want to redo it. I'll probably take out the entire lace border and one row of the last pattern and then re-knit it using a size smaller circular needle.


I've also knit the shawl from the most recent spinoff, making it narrower to be a scarf using two strands of two different colors of lace yarn. I found as I knit this, that it was DS1's colors, so now I'm trying to find yarn in this colorway, so I can knit him socks.


At the beginning of September I joined a mystery sock kal and finally finished and posted those socks on that blog. I'd started the socks and then volunteered to do the test knitting for the sassy sheep. Hence, the socks were off the needles for awhile as I test knitted. For these socks I redesigned the toe pattern. I'm not completely happy with them, but I like them better this way then how they were originally designed.

Now I'm starting my lemon yellow mystery socks, that need to be done in 4 days for another kal I joined.

Well, I best be off. I need to go and watch two soccer games.

-Myrtle

I've Been Accepted

I have been officially accepted in the the Parish Ministry Associate (PMA) Program through the Central States Synod of the ELCA church. I received my letter today. Yippee!!!!!!! After years of sew sawing back and forth on whether I would continue my theological education and deciding that yes, the time is right. I then spent months researching options which would work for my family and myself at this time. And for me, that means the PMA program where I can serve in many ways with in the church without having to go to seminary. That is still an option that I'm considering, but this is a good first step in that direction, plus in a smaller congregation I could serve as a pastor with a pastoral mentor if I ever decided to go in that direction.

Now I wait to see when my first class begins. The classes happen in various parts of the synod depending on the location of the instructor and the majority of the students. So now the waiting begins on when the first class will be, where it will be, and what the topic is. There are a total of 9 classes (27 credits) that I have to take in the next 3 years to complete the program. There are also required PMA convocations I must attend as well. But I'm so excited. I feel like I'm finally going the way I've been called for years. (The thought of seminary has been on my brain for almost 20 years now.)

-Myrtle

Spinning

My first official try at spinning on my new drop spindle went fairly well. I learned several things as I was going along but the biggest was don't try to spin until you complete all your prepared. It just doesn't spin well when the spindle is full. That is when I started having a lot of fiber that wasn't spinning completely. I'll probably try spinning that portion again.


However, after taking it off the spindle I could tell that my first spinning on it was quit good and consistent, even if it might really be tighter than it's suppose to be. Next time, I plan to only spin about half the amount on the spindle that I did this time, so my spinning will remain more even and not have fewer unspun areas.

Now to just figure out what I'm to do next with what I spun. I know that people set the twist, but I'm not sure what they do to do that. Off to the Internet for research. (Note: after searching the Internet I found this site which explained the steps well for me to understand how to set the twist. Setting the twist.) Now I just need to decide if I really need to learn how to ply or just enjoy my singles for now, most likely what I'll do, and learn to ply some other time.)

Oh, and for those interested the drop spindle is a Schacht Hi-Lo Spindle from the Loopy Ewe. I actually spin in the high whorl position, but want to learn the other way as well to decide which works best for me.

Portable Pasture

Today we set up a portable pasture area. Basically it's plastic stakes with spikes on the end, which you put into the ground. Then you take electrical wire and string it on the stakes and hook it up to your electricity. In our case, it's a solar powered electrical panel. Once set up and turned on it works like a charm to give extended pasture areas to the horse. In our case it's a way to graze down areas around our pasture without having to hold the horses on a line as they do it.



As you can tell in the picture, they are happily munching the tall grass and weeds. When this area is grazed down, we'll unhook the electrical fence, move the stakes and put them in a new area, rewire it all and start again. It took maybe 2 hours to set up a 1/2 acre area and now that we know what we are doing it will be faster the next time.

NOTE: Cibola has learned quickly that the wire is not to be touched. She tried running under it and shocked herself. She now looks on it with respect. :)

-Myrtle

Pests

Living out in this beautiful area I have discovered the down side of nature living so close to me. First it was the black snake eating my first guinea chicks to hatch from the brooding hens. Then we discovered huge (1.5 inch long) horse flies with in hours of bringing Tini and Izzy home.



(Note: the reins are .5" in width and the fly is wider across then the reins are.)

And finally I have lost my entire corn crop to the squirrels. They made my corn patch appear as if a mini tornado had come through.


(Note: the corn in the foreground was 5+' tall two days ago. It's now maybe 18". The corn in the back part of the picture (where the ground looks barren), was maybe 4+' tall and now is a few inches off the ground. The squirrels decimated the corn, stalks and all.)

Children in Common Socks

These are the socks that I knitted up over the past 3 days to ship off tomorrow for Children in Common. They are knit with donated tapestry yarn using about 120 yards for each sock. The sizes range from 6-7" in length. I'll be shipping them out priority mail tomorrow.

Now back to my regular knitting.

-Myrtle

Multiple 'M's

Margotlotta and Manchego


Manchego guarding the yarn



Montague and Magnolia
















My daughter decided that since I have the blog ID of Mavis that the other members of the family needed blog IDs beginning with the letter M as well. Introducing daughter Margotlotta, son Montague, dog Manchego, cat Magnolia, degu Moonstruck (and her deceased sister MisStella), and fish Marauder-of-the-deep.

-Mavis

pet photos by Margotlotta
human + pet photos by Mavis

Lots of Babies

Well, I'm feeling better today. Yesterday we had a few babies which had hatched after the unfortunate black snake incident. Today we have LOTS of new babies. I have absolutely no idea how many because mama guineas don't let you near and it's been a challenge just to make sure the little ones have constant access to food and water, much less trying to count. I do know they don't like me picking the little ones that get too far astray up to put back with them. And the mamas have VERY sharp beaks.

So today I'm feeling less stressed by the black snake, although I don't want him to return. And excited about so much new life in the coop.

-Myrtle

Frustration with Wildlife

I love living here. I enjoy watching the wildlife on our property and feel it's where I belong. However, when the wildlife invades my animal space I feel totally at loss and frustrated with what is their natural behavior.

Last night we had a 6-8' black snake invade our coop. It ate the newly hatched guinea(s), upset the birds, and wanted to stay around for another snack or two. DH removed the snake (not far enough away for me), righted the turned over feeding and watering containers, and tried to calm the birds down as he locked things tighter down to keep the snake out.

Now I know snakes eat baby birds. It's just the way life is and I accept it. I have no problem with keeping this snake alive to eat mice, baby rabbits and squirrels, and even wild birds. But I DO NOT want it in my hen house attacking MY birds, especially my newly hatched ones that had no fighting chance.

This morning life in the coop has calmed down, but the broodie guinea hens are still agitated although back on their nest. I continue to hope for more chicks to hatch for them. But now to figure out how to keep the black snake from returning for further snacks without killing it. I'd much prefer the black snake to copperheads, but personally I'd like them all to stay out of my sight. I'm just not a snake person.

-Myrtle

Brooding Guineas

I discovered a new baby in the coop today. The first of the brooding Guinea chicks has hatched. I will admit I was surprised because he was under the hanging feeder and I thought at first I had a mouse in the hen house only to discover a newly hatched chick. I maneuvered her back to the moms, without getting my hand pecked to shreds and she was immediately put back under one of the broodies, so I couldn't get a picture of her. Now I get to wait and see how many more eggs hatch and if any of them end up being the chicken eggs that were laid in their nests.

-Myrtle

Two New Blessings

After multiple delays and a very long day, DS2 and I arrived home from Oklahoma with two new blessings at 4:50 am for our homestead. We like to introduce you all to Tini and Izzy. They are 3 year old Palomino Quarter Horses, who happen to also be half sisters.

First is a picture of Tini. She has several large with patches and appears as if a painter accidentally spilled a can of paint on her. At this point she also is the more out going of the girls and enjoys coming to her name and getting her head rubbed.
And then there is Izzy. She is a little more shy, but has a gorgeous white diamond on her pink nose.


DS4 had fun today as he was lead around the pasture multiple times on Izzy. DS4 definitely was enjoying himself and seems to have a nature ability to ride with the horses gait.



Not to be out done by his youngest brother, DS1 took multiple loops around the pasture on Tini. As you can see even I can handle the idea of leading two horses at once and Cibola enjoyed her new friends.


After the girls had been lead around numerous times by different humans inhabitant, they were bridled and had some learning time with bareback riders. Izzy, who feels fairly comfortable with the bridle and how it works, spent time with DS2 riding her around the pasture. At times she was uncertain about what was happening and decided it was time to practice backing up with DS2 really was trying to turn her, but over all she did well for her first time exposure here. However, Tini is still learning about bridle etiquette and especially that humans are truly suppose to be on you and not only nest to you. Hence, DS1 worked on having Tini feel the appropriate rein directions, while I listened to his directions and used the lead rope to ensure she listened to his directions.

Both Tini and Izzy will spend numerous more hours learning appropriate responses to their human leaders over the next year, but it was a good end to a long journey for today.

-Myrtle

whole lot of knitting...

There is a whole lot of knitting going on here - at least if you look at the list of projects I have going on. 3 shawls, 2 scarves, 3 sweaters, 2 pairs of socks. If you look at the actual progress on the projects wellll...

Two of the shawls are for friends of mine - twins who will be 50 in September. One is in fingering weight wool and one is in lace weight silk. One twin in Washington state and one in Hawaii. I let you figure out which shawl goes where. :-)

One sweater is for a baby due in September. Just the hems and the button band to go on this one, but it has been stalled out for the last 6 weeks. The other two sweaters are very long term projects. Let's just say it is a good thing my children have stopped growing.

The rest of the projects don't have due dates so no urgency is going into the knitting. Pick up and knit one of them when I get tired of the birthday shawls.

I have spinning on the wheel. Same roving that has been there for the last month. This too is a bit by bit project without a time line.

On the work front - still two jobs. Lots of overtime and additional responsibilities in one. Becoming an FTO (field training officer) has severely cut into my daily knitting time/moments.

It is hotter than heck here in the Pacific Northwest. As I work outside for much of the week I don't have energy left to do much of anything at the end of the day. No A/C in our house. Most years we don't need it more than 6 days out of the summer. This month alone it would have been nice for at least 14 days so far.

-- Mavis

Sign of Love

DS4 made me a pipe cleaner tulip last night and put it behind my ear. I told him I loved it and he asked if I wanted real flowers. I said they are nice and I always love flowers. He ran off to pick flowers. I wondered where he was getting them from because the only thing I could think of blooming in our yard right now are hibiscus.

He came in a little while later with a beautiful arrangement and had even put it in a vase for me. I absolutely loved it. The flowers are various weeds growing in our yard which I haven't gotten around to pulling yet. He took those weeds, which I would never seen as pretty, and created a gorgeous flower arrangement. He had seen the weeds for what they really are, God's beautiful creation, and not something obnoxious that needed to be removed.

I am thankful for his showing me true love, by creating something for me from God's glorious nature.

-Myrtle

Surprise

Late last night we noticed a new guinea chick hatching. After several hours and only getting his beak out, DH and I helped him escape his shell. The membrane around him was starting to dry onto him, so he was not able to free himself. I felt bad and helped, even though I knew I wasn't suppose to. DH and DS3 are hoping for a few more chick hatchings. I personally don't think there will be, but then again I did not expect these to be born either.

I add a second chick from the first batch back to the incubator so he would have a friend and hopefully recover from the stress of the hatch. Well he must have and this must have helped another hatch because this morning there was another new hatchling in the incubator.

In the above picture the one with the white chest is two days older than the other two.


These are the ones that hatched two days ago. You'll notice a second chick with even more white then the one above. We believe these are crosses between our one white guinea (male) and one of our pearl guinea (female). They are the only two which are easily distinguished from the rest. What's funny is none will look like they do here when they are adults. The pearls will have white heads, which in the sunlight appear blue. But they are cute here. Later they become so ugly that they are cute and obnoxious with the noise they make. It makes you wonder about my sanity because I've added 22 new ones to my mix now and have more under 4 broodie guinea hens and one broodie chicken in the coop.



And here is a photo of the lavender guinea chicks I purchased. They have grown a lot and are starting to get the long, thin necks like the adults. However, they are still cute.

-Myrtle

7 Guinea Chicks So Far

So far there are 7 live guinea fowl chicks in the incubator. We are now approaching our 25% hatch rate when the one I allowed to die is included. I just need 1 more chick out to have 25% hatched. I started with 35 eggs, I was tossed because it had broken and gone bad, so only 34 could possibly hatch from what I started with.

I love watching them hatch. It takes over 2 hours from when we first see a shell starting to crack before the chick emerges. When it finally starts pushing the shell apart, it can still take 15-20 minutes before it's ultimately out. They look so exhausted from the process and just lay there as they start to dry up.

Now I'm starting to wonder if we'll get any out of the newest clutch of guinea eggs which are being brooded by 4 guinea hens and 1 chicken hen. There are several (possibly a dozen chicken eggs) mixed with the guinea eggs and divided between the 5 hens. They are now about 2 weeks into their brooding. The last two times they quit brooding around 23 days and need to sit for 28 to hatch the guinea eggs. Chicken eggs actually take only 21 days so who knows, we might get those even if the others ultimately leave their nesting site.

-Myrtle, who is excited about being home for all these births. Imagine me when I have goats.

First Guinea Fowl Hatched

We had our first guinea fowl chick hatch last night. Unfortunately I was stupid and had tuna cans of water in the incubator to try and keep the humidity levels up, so the chick ultimately died of drowning. However, we've had 2 more chicks hatch since there.

I'm happy because this time I'm finally getting to watch the hatching process. If my cell phone ever starts getting it's act together, then I can send you the hatching sequence of the 3rd chick. It was great to watch.

When we did the chicken eggs we had 1/4 of them hatch. At that point the incubator was still air and no automatic egg turning. With the guineas I had installed a fan and automatic egg turner, so I'm hoping for a higher hatch rate.

-Myrtle