Again, it's been ages since I've blogged. Good thing I never promised you that I would blog daily! John and I are leaving on Saturday, way too early for most normal people, to drive to Utah for Christmas with the kids. While I will have access to a computer, I doubt I'll have time to blog much. For that reason, I'd like to take this time to wish family, friends, and even strangers who happen by the most wonderful of Holiday Seasons and a prosperous 2008. Take care of yourselves, rest, be merry and I'll let you know how the holidays went when we get home.

Holidays are Joyful!

Happy Holidays to you all! I've been knitting up a storm to get ready for the trip to Salt Lake City and the family. Finally got everything done this past weekend. I only need to wrap gifts and I am golden! John still needs to do his own shopping but that's his problem! Mine is done, done, done, DONE!

We had our first 'storm' of the season yesterday. Cold, cold, cold (below freezing) and rain = ICE. I went out about 1/2 hour before I was due off work and scraped off about 1/4 inch of ice from my windshield...then another layer once I finished work. The drive home that normally takes 6 minutes took 15 minutes to allow for slippery road. But all is well today - temp is in the mid-40's. A heat wave! While it is cold, it is also dry! Might rain a bit later today but the temperature will keep the ice away.

Am making sugar cookies with John's sisters tomorrow. They get together each year to make cookies together and this year they invited me. I think they had to invite me so they could use my kitchen! Not really, folks, they love me. My house is kinda centrally located and it's big enough to accommodate all 4 of us, plus plenty of counter space to hold cooling cookies.

Sorry this doesn't have any pictures this time....I've been knitting and not taking pictures and NO, I'm not posting pictures of the Christmas knitting projects - at least not till after Christmas.

Happy Holidays to you all if I don't say it later. Ho, Ho, HO!!!

Having no computer is no excuse!!!

My home computer is toast, thanks to an electrical blink 4 weeks ago. John is trying to fix it and it's taking an eternity! Add to that, my computer at work is also toast, thanks for a software glitch that crashed my hard drive. Someone mentioned they might be ordering me a plastic bubble to live in if another computer goes south. Needless to say, I'm gunshy around electronic things this week! I'm at work, at the front desk, and they are trusting me to use the computer there....hah! Silly people!

Fall has fallen here in the Ozarks. John and I were looking out the window toward our grove of trees on the north this morning...what should calmly walk out but two male deer with beautiful antlers (albeit small ones). First time I've seen antlers on the deer on our property.

Gilligan is now a gentleman! He had his surgery yesterday and is walking a bit drunkenly and gingerly but at least he gets to live inside for the next 5 days. He currently lives in our bathroom and bedroom...sleeping during the day on the dogs' pillows near our bed...drives Carson nuts to smell a cat on his pillow at night...not sure where that cat is! Haha - cat is sleeping in our bathroom, behind that closed door!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends. We miss you all! Hugs,
Sally, John, Carson, Briscoe, Gilligan, Ruby, Tippy, and Huevo!

Knit a Tit!

Saturday was the most wonderful day. We had about 35 folks show up to knit tits! So far we have around 50 boobs to donate to the American Cancer Society. And more are coming in. One ball of yarn will knit 4 boobs and some of the ladies took leftover yarn home to finish knitting. We are so blessed here in the Ozarks (and frankly, everywhere I've lived) to have such giving folks. Thanks to everyone who participated. Our T-Shirts said "Save Second Base". Appropirate, don't you think? Lisa (the owner of One City Market, my local yarn shop and favorite hangout) said she never wants to do another fund-raiser like this again....but until they find a cure for breast cancer, she will do this each year. I told her I'm with her! I've donated several Longaberger® baskets for door prizes and will do so again next year.

Back home again!

I'm back home again. That is such a great feeling. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my grandchildren and my mom and my kids. The trip to Utah was wonderful and I'd do it again....after I wait 3 months to nap and regain my strength! In the meantime, home is where I want to be.

I'm frantically knitting some things for the grandkids for Christmas...obviously, I won't tell here what they are cause their parents read this blog. But I will say that the things I'm knitting are neat!

I keep a list of the things that I want to make for the Utah family....mostly quilted or knitted items. Jill occasionally adds something to the list. My list was down to a measly 3 things before I left for Utah. Now it's up to 10. Emily even added something - a smaller version of the purse I made for Jill a couple of months ago. Even Jill's neighbor got into the act...she's in line for a purse as well. I'm absolutely NOT complaining. Isn't it wonderful to have folks value you and your skills so much that they clambor to be the next in line to receive something you've made? I love it!!!!!

I'm participating in a fundraiser for Breast Cancer this weekend. It's called Knit-A-Tit. My favorite yarn shop is sponsoring it. We will be knitting breast prostheses for women who have undergone mastectomies and are unable to afford the prostheses. These are knitted ones. They are so cool! I've done several and have been designated a Tit Tutor for the event. We have prizes for the most knitted during the event, a Booboku Puzzle, food, drink, music, neat t-shirts....it should be a wonderful event. I'll post pictures if I get a chance to take some.

Thank you to everyone who reads this silly little blog. I wish I could remember to post more often, not that I have anything to say!

Reading as a family

It seems one never gets too tired to be read to, or to read out loud. Emily is off-track for this week and the following 2 weeks but is required to read at home each night. She spent the weekend at her dad's house so didn't get a lot of reading done. So, Nana instituted nightly reading. Most of the time, Emily reads to my Mom for 30 minutes while I am getting the two younger ones ready for bed. Last night we all sat down so Charlotte could read to us. Notice Will is enthralled! We are having a wonderful time with them. Charlotte is a typical 2 year old and Emily is 7 going on 30 and Will is a wise old soul! John and I are truly blessed!

I'm Sleeping

Well, I arrived in Utah on Friday, Mom was already there. Jill and the two youngest grandchildren met us at the airport. It will be a full week taking care of them while John and Jill are in Hawaii. By the time we get the baby down after his final feeding of the evening, we are both ready for bed! Today, both of the younger ones were down for a nap and Emily was on the floor coloring with my mom. Evidently I fell asleep in the chair and this is what Emily (with my Mom's encouragement and help) came up with. The sign says: "Go away, I'm sleeping and I'm grumpy! " and then under it says Emily made this with Grama Betty! They were giggling so hard it woke me up! That 10 minutes sure did revive me. NOT! Anyway, Mom and I are having a terrific time with the kids. They are delightful. John and Jill have done a wonderful job of raising these children! We are so proud! More later.

Cosmic Accord

My friend, Peggy, and I worked from February to November last year to complete a quilt for a competition in the Fons & Porter Challenge. We sent our entry in and, I'm sure this is due to a judging error , we did not win! Neither of us were used to working with anyone on a project and the year proved a wonderful stretch for both of us...we planned and sewed and frog stitched and sewed some more until finally we had something that we both could be proud of. Folks, here we have.....Cosmic Accord. It's 27" by 27". Each block is 3" finished. I asked Peggy if she minded if I entered the quilt into another competition. This time, I entered it into the New England Images 2007. This show is a juried show (They used to accept 300 quilts and this year they only accepted 130 quilts!) While we were accepted into the show, we didn't win anything. It's an honor to be accepted into this prestigious competition and we couldn't be prouder!

On another topic, I taught a quilt class in Cathedral Windows this weekend. For those of you who are not quilters, this pattern looks like little stained-glass windows and is traditionally done by hand. There are those who have figured out how to do it by machine but I learned from a very nice young woman (who learned from her grandmother) how to make this by hand and that's the way I teach it. I had 8 students, all who wondered if they would be able to complete the class project. I guaranteed to them that they would. I had 2 students who completed the entire project (4 windows) and the rest had at least one window done by the time class was over and we needed to vacate since the store was closing for the day. I am so proud of them! For some reason this class is quite popular at Merrily We Quilt Along and often asked for. I never fail to have a full class.

I often get questions regarding quilting here at the library ( the people I work with consider me the Quilting Queen). I also get questions regarding the military, and I'm always being called up to the front to interpret for the deaf folks who come in. Of course, the computer classes are always full, as well as the lectures on eBay. They are always sending folks back to my office who want to know about eBay!

I'm off to Wichita on Sunday the 16th to hear the Yarn Harlot! I simply can't believe how lucky I am! Lisa from One City Market (my favorite yarn shop in the world!) is going and has room in her car for 5 more...I'm one of them. I'll let you know how it went when I get back.

In the meantime, have a great week. Watch out for the bad guys, keep your stick on the ice, and buckle up!

Pig Heaven

Pigs eat like, well.....pigs! Over the course of 146 days, 6 pigs ate a total of 5000 pounds of grains. Yes, 5000 (thousand) pounds of grain. No more! Last Monday John and our neighbor took 6 pigs to the butcher. Two of them were ours! We now have almost 400 pounds of lovely pork in the freezer. And that isn't even the smoked portion! That should be coming in another week or so. Admittedly, about half of that is going to our son and his family when we visit them later this year. And, how does it taste, you ask? It tastes so delicious! We have roasts, cutlets, ribs, chops, tenderloins, and sausage. And soon, we'll have hams, ham steaks, and bacon! We've got two guestrooms and lots of pork! And John just loves to cook and BBQ!

Missing Castaway

We had a horrendous rain and wind and thunderstorm last Friday late afternoon. The two kittens were on the front porch during the whole storm.....I thought. Evidently, MaryAnn decided to either explore or run from the noise. We still haven't found her. Gilligan, on the other hand, has stuck close to home. Went outside the other evening to play and Gilligan was nowhere to be found...I called for him and heard his loud Meow from atop the elm tree outside my studio window. He was at the top but skittered down so fast I thought he'd fallen. He came running up to me and leapt onto my lap with his motor going full blast! The only thing I don't like about this little guy is that he has the sharpest little claws! Tell me, friends...do I look like a scratching post? I've got a couple of scratches that tell me my left leg looks like a scratching post to Gilligan! Ouch!

Country Vets

Some of you will remember that I moved to the Ozarks kicking and screaming...well, moaning and dragging my feet at least. This city girl is just having a tough time assimilating into country life. (At least the attitudes of country life) Anyway, I found something that made me feel a bit easier about living in the country. Our new calf, Huevo has come down with pneumonia and was in danger of perishing. We called our vet (he is about 20 miles away) and described the symptoms...Dr. Michael diagnosed pneumonia and told us he would meet us at the clinic and give us the meds Huevo needs. I expected to have to load him into the trailer and haul him to the vet. Darned if he didn't meet us at the clinic at almost 8 in the evening, hand John 3 HUGE (think the size they use for episiotomies, ladies) syringes and told us that should fix him up! We went home and John gave Huevo 2 of the shots and the other one he gave him the next day and let me tell you, that little calf is up and rarin' to go! He ate yesterday - the first time in 4 days (Mama's really glad!) and his breathing is not so labored. For those of you who like to know these things, it seems that July and August are the worst times for calves to be born...the dry air of July followed by the wet of August causes them to have more instances of pheumonia than any other time of year. Who knew?

She's a WInner!

Well, I picked up my two entries in the Ozark Empire Fair on Monday....they were both entered into the same division, just different categories. My little machine-embroidered FlipFlop quilt took 1st Place in it's category. Arnold took 1st Place in his category...and then Arnold took Champion in the Division! Here is a picture that includes not only Arnold, but the FlipFlop quilt and Danny, the original Moebius basket that I entered into the Webster County Fair and took 1st Place as well. I'm feeling kinda proud!

Gilligan - Not Ginger

We are not animal people...can you tell? It seems that young kittens' sexual organs are not prominent, like humans. So when we named our two new kittens Ginger and MaryAnn, we honestly thought they were both female...NOT! Evidently, Ginger is really Gilligan! They are growing and thriving at Pieceful Harbor!We 'lost' MaryAnn yesterday...seems she followed John down the road to our neighbor's house and then couldn't find her way home. Gilligan raised a noisy ruckus till we found her and brought her home. She ended up almost 200 feet away from home! Quite far for a bitty kitten! Hope she stays close to home for a while.

Ruby's Firstborn son....Tippy

The continuing saga of Tippy - The Unweanable One! Tippy was born in May of 2006. We named him Tippy (short for Tri-Tip- so he wouldn't get any ideas of being anything other than food!) Mama Ruby was bred again in October of 2006 and that was a good time to wean him. Actually, it was well-past time to wean him. So he was sequestered in another field for a month, in my opinion, not long enough, but I'm the city girl so what do I know? When Tippy was brought back into the field with his Mama and big sister, he immediately began nursing again. This is NOT usual! So in April of this year, Tippy went to what we fondly call, Summer Camp. He is with all males and can't nurse. We brought him home last weekend (almost 4 months without nursing) and he went straight to his Mama and began to nurse. His baby brother, Huevo, was in the way and Tippy stepped on him. Poor baby limped for 2 days. Needless to say, Tippy the Mama's Boy is back at Summer Camp, what I like to call Boarding School till he goes to the butcher in November! Our friends, the McThompsons, where Tippy is staying, say they've never seen a cow continue to nurse after they are weaned. Ah, well, leave it to the Knotwells to come up with a perpetual nursing cow!

Arnold! Not the Governor!

As a lot of you know, I've been knitting a lot lately. I took a class on knitting a basket with a twisted handle all as one piece and then fulling it in the washer. Well, the original basket was cute (I just received a first place ribbon at the Webster County Fair for that one) but I wanted a much bigger one for practicality purposes. So we did some calculations and came up with what we thought were instructions to double the size of the basket - NOT! What we ended up with was the equivalent of the Arnold Schwartzenegger character in the movie Twins - my first basket being Danny DeVito and my second one being Arnold. I've entered Arnold in the Ozark Empire Fair and we will find out sometime the end of the week if I won anything for it. In the meantime, here is a picture of him all decked out with 18 balls of yarn for the fair. I needle-felted the quilt squares on the side to tie it in with my love of quilting.

New Calf

Ruby finally had her calf. On Friday, the 20th of July she presented us with a large male calf. No wonder Ruby looked as though she was going to have twins. He is quite large. Probably over 50 pounds already. He is absolutely beautiful. A truly white face, with red rims around his eyes. I'm told that this is a good thing because the color around the eyes helps to prevent pink eye on a cow. We've decided that his name is Huevo (cause he won't have any once they band him later this week and that will be the only reminder!) I know, that's sick....whatever! I went over to see him yesterday and to get some pics and when I was out in the field, he came right over to me and got his nosed scratched...he has no shame! Or fear, for that matter.

Newest Additions to our Household

No, Ruby hasn't had her calf yet. We heard Carson barking like mad on Saturday. John went out to see what the commotion was and found that he had 'cornered' two very small kittens in the dog run. It seems that someone dumped 4 kittens near our frog pond on Friday nite and they managed to make their way up to the house during the night and into Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, Carson didn't like small animals in his run and since they are way too small to elude him, he disposed of two of them. But the other two managed to get somewhere under the deck that he couldn't go. John and I now have 2 barn cats! Since they were cast away into our yard, we've named them Ginger and MaryAnn. They only weigh about a pound each and are probably somewhere between 4 and 6 weeks old. They currently live on the front porch in the kennel that we got to housetrain Carson. Within a week or so, they will be moved down to the barn. John couldn't resist them and I have to admit, they are adorable.

Torrential Rain!!!

We got a torrent of rain on Saturday, along with a frightening Tornado Warning...while John calmly watched the news on TV, I zipped thru the house, packing radio, flashlights, medications, water bottles, cell phone chargers, dog bones and leashes, pillows and blankets. then I took the camera and shot these pics of the amount of water we had coming down and 'raining' off the roof of the barn. The tornado missed us by several miles. The rain and wind did not miss us at all!.

Kitty Centinel

Most folks know we don't own a cat! But we have a barn that has no mice at all. A neighbor has a siamese cat who likes to sleep in the window of our hayloft...it drives our dogs nuts!

It's got no fear as long as our dogs are in the run and the cat is not.

Bambi's kin

Every time my mother comes to visit, we tell her she will get to see the deer that live in our woods. And every time she goes home without seeing any deer. Last week, the dogs went nuts at the door to the back deck...when I went out to see what was making them crazy, some of the deer family were grazing near the burn pile. I got the trusty camera and now here's proof that we have deer on our property, Mom!

Wicked Weather

We sometimes get some wicked weather here in the Ozarks. It's not always easy to tell that the weather is going to change. But on Saturday, it was easy to see that we were in for some fierce winds and rain. This monstrous shelf cloud began to slide in from the north about 7:30 Saturday nite and left quite a bit of moisture in its wake.

Goodness, Time Flies!!!

I can't believe it's been so long since I last blogged...no excuse except time! It simply flies out the door! And what have I been doing? Sewing, knitting, sleeping, eating, and then turning around and doing it all over again.

John loves his new job! He is still on probation but I figure they are going to keep him on since they bought him tools earlier this week. And they are talking about sending him to a school in Georgia in August. Of course, considering the weather in Georgia in August, he may be being punished!

The weather here is heating up along with the rise in humidity. Thank goodness for a/c! I'm off to the studio to sew...maybe a Christmas wallhanging will cool me off!

I met my favorite author!

Ok, I met my favorite author - IN PERSON - yesterday! And here is the picture to prove it! My friend Peggy and I drove 3 1/2 hours to Conway, Arkansas to attend a book signing by Debbie Macomber. What a delightful lady! Charming and gracious and funny! I've been reading her books since the early 1980's and she has helped me get thru numerous military deployments. She writes stories that are so near to a woman's heart...you feel as though she knows you personally. If you've never read one of her books, pick one up at the library or buy one and start your own collection of her books. Unless you like blood and gore and gratuitous sex, you won't be sorry. A good place to start is with her Cedar Cove Series. Or for cancer survivors or knitters (I know those two don't quite go together but once you read the books, you will understand), try the Blossom Street series. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with any Debbie Macomber book! Have a great week, friends.

Mothers Day

John and Jill and the kids noticed that all the plants they gave me last year for Mother's Day perished in the ice storm. They went out and got new plants for my front garden. John planted them all on Saturday while I was at work. What a lovely surprise!

John started his new job today so no telling when he will have to time to work in the garden again.

Visit from Utah

Well, John and Jill and the kids spent a wonderful week with us. We got to meet our newest grandchild, William John Knotwell IV. What a darling child. He is so mellow. And Emily and Charlotte just melted our hearts! We went to Silver Dollar City while they were here and they had a blast! They left on Saturday to drive home. We are so lucky to have this lovely family in our lives.

Time Flies!

My goodness, time surely does fly! Have been steadily getting ready for the grandkids to arrive this Saturday. Still need to set up the bedroom Emily and Charlotte will use but that won't take but a minute. And with two golden retrievers, will need to de-fur the entire house...again! I swear there's enough fur to make pillows each week. We've had plenty of rain this week and more expected soon. It makes for a lovely green rolling meadow out back...of course, John sees nothing but more grass to mow. Hope to get pictures up next week when the kids are here.

BURN!!!

Success! John set the fire on Friday and we have a pile of ash and rubble now. I never knew how pretty the meadow was on the other side of that huge pile till now. He has several more piles to light but it will need to wait till the wind dies down. Now it's time to dust off the riding mower and start whacking down the grasses that grow in the meadows. From now till mid-October he will be spend all waking hours on the weekends riding his mower. Have a great week. I am off to Paducah this Saturday for the annual quilt show!

NO BURN!

Evidently, there is a limit to the amount of rain you can get and still be able to burn. We reached and exceeded it! John set fire to the burn pile on Sunday and it proceeded to smoke...I mean it SMOKED! There was no great blaze, only a tiny flame and then a huge billow of smoke. It smoked for hours and hours...it was still smoking yesterday! It hasn't rained since Saturday so John was going to try to set fire again today. Fortunately, I am at work and won't see the blaze OR the smoke.

Burn

Well, we've had rain for the last 5 days and the ground is pretty wet. That makes it a perfect day to set fire to the burn pile. You see, folks, we don't use the trash man the same way you city folks do. We throw away the bottles and the plastic but we give the wet garbage to the pigs and we burn the leaves and dead branches and trees. The grass clippings we toss in the compost pile. John and our neighbor set fire to the burn pile a couple of weeks ago. It started out 10 feet high, 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Not all the pile burned though...one of the tree stumps was still fairly large. John has been working on clearing more of the underbrush in our woods along the road so he can start putting the fencing up. He's been putting all the cleared brush onto the burn pile and the darned thing is huge again. Today is a great day for burning (or so I'm told!) so they will set fire around 9:00 this morning. I'm going to sequester myself in the studio on the other side of the house so I can't see the fire.

January Ice Storm

We had an ice storm of epic proportions in mid-January. Unfortunately, it occurred during a holiday weekend when we had off anyway...no extra time off work! Here are a couple of pictures taken outside our house.

First Post

I was reading an email from my sister-in-law in Arizona and she asked me when I was going to start a blog so they could see what we are doing here in southwest Missouri. Our son has one that I check daily for news of our grandchildren. I never thought about doing one myself. So bear with me while I find my 'blog' feet. More later. And, in the meantime, Welcome, dear friends.