Carson and the Cows

The past couple of weeks have been a bit unusual, especially for Carson. He wants to get in there with the cows so badly! He spends hours just sitting at the end of the dog run...watching the cows on the other side of the fence. He has never been a patient sort so the pictures are a bit unusual...he's sitting there, hardly moving...the anticipation and need to be with them is almost palpable. The cows? They totally ignore him...


I've been knitting some the past couple of weeks....Sock Wars IV started last week. I've mailed off my weapons of death to my target...and she should have them by Tuesday. I'll post a picture once she's 'dead' - in case she's lurking I don't want her to see them yet...

I've also been doing some test knitting for a girl in Canada. She altered a crochet pattern for this little bag shaped like an acorn so folks could knit it. As some of you know, I adore acorns - don't have a clue why they intrigue me, they just do. What was it that I told my friend, Sonya one day - oh yeah, "acorns are my signature nut!" Anyway, this little bag is just big enough to put a small knitting project in - like socks. It is fast, fun, really easy to make, and way-too-cute.

I used the buttons from John's old Navy peacoat. It was kinda spooky when I had it turned about 1/4 of the way to the right, it looked like a cricket head staring me in the face! I've never been a test-knitter before and it was kinda fun!

Expecting more storms this week - today we are experiencing rain and thunderstorms (I LOVE thunderstorms!)

I worked on 4 quilts yesterday...got the bindings sewn on and will get some pictures up as soon as it stops raining and I can get them outside for pictures.

Thanks for stopping by.

Walking in the Tall Grass

John and our neighbor finished all the fencing this past weekend. They had to do some complicated rigging of fence on the far east side of our property where there is a wash. The ground is very uneven and it was hard to set T-posts and string barbed wire with the dipping of the wash and the running water that resulted from the recent rains. Thankfully, they are both prior military so they are used to rigging whatever they require for the job and the result is what you see below.

The only thing they had left to do was install a small 'man' gate on the south side of the pasture, just west of our bedroom window. That went in right quick! And at 8:10 p.m. on Sunday nite, John opened up the gates to allow the cows access to the north pasture and the tall grasses!

Sorry for the bleary view...can't get a really good picture that late at night with no flash that will go out that far.

On Monday morning, this is what I saw out the back door, from the deck:

They had all managed to find their way into the north pasture and were grazing in the tall grasses. Who said California was the only home of happy cows?

Just wanted to share our little piece of heaven with our family and friends.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's called Derecho

It appears that the weather we endured on Friday is fairly rare. It's called a derecho, which comes from the Spanish meaning straight. Yes, the winds were straight-line winds ranging from 70 mph on the front side of the storm to 80 mph on the back side. No wonder the tornado sirens went off for over 2 hours! As I said, we only had one treetop come off...here is the photo. See that 'v' between the left hand tree and the others? That's where the top snapped off. Here's a close-up. We didn't even have any damage to our old barn. What a blessing.

John and our neighbor worked all day yesterday on the fencing. They completed the west side and the south side of the north pasture. Here are some pictures of the completed fencing.Here you see the north fence, the west fence, and the southern fence of the north pasture. The south pasture connects at the end of the field, right there in line with the barn in the third picture. The road on the left of the first picture is Wilderness Dr., turn left at the corner of our property, and follow the road in the center picture to the end. You can barely see it down there...that's our driveway on the left. And the house sits smackdab in the middle of that 10 acres. Nice and green now that we've had some rain - more expected this week, too. John spends the hours between getting home from work and sundown mowing the circle drive and the meadow you see to the right of the 3rd picture there.

I finished the first sock of round 4 in Sock Madness. Even though I'm no longer competing, I decided to try the sock since it contains some elements I've not tried before. Here is the first sock.

It's called Lucky Diamonds. The designer used a toe-up pattern, with an afterthought heel (not sure I like that yet) and two different colors of yarn - one striping yarn and one solid. I'm not altogether fond of tons of moss stitch which is what constitutes the centers of all the diamonds - k1, p1 that seemed to be endless! I've decided that this sock will suffer from Second Sock Syndrome for the time being. For those of you who've never heard of this - it simply means I'm not going to knit the other sock to the pair. I've had all the moss stitch I can take for the forseeable future!

Happy Mothers Day to everyone reading this. I've heard from the kids in Utah - everyone is happy and healthy and that's all a mother could hope for! John made me breakfast and gave me some plants for the front garden, along with a prmise to plant them later this week.

Thanks for stopping by. More later.

Tornado? We are fine!

For those of you who may have heard about our severe storms this morning, we are fine. Both of us went to our respective jobs this morning. I got to work and the electricity went out. John had some power outage as well in Springfield. Niether of us experienced any tornadic activity, although the sirens went off here and I spent about 20 minutes in the bathroom with the Director, another employee, and the custodian. The winds were up to 80 mph. Once the sirens were off, we went about our business at the library, without power. At least all the books are shelved! We've got power back on, all the computers are working, and most of the staff is breathing normally again. It's just part of living in the Ozarks that you will have tornadoes and winds and rain from May thru November.


Noon: Same day - I'm told we have a tree with the top snapped off just west of the garage....John is on his way home from work since they have no electricity...checking on family members...so far, so good!

Checking In

This is what I saw when I left home on Friday afternoon to run errands "in town". It's not like I can just drive to the market or the post office...the nearest place the I go is work which is 6 miles into town. The post office is in town, as well as a couple of little markets. Walmart is about 10 miles away. Now, if we still lived in SoCal, 10 miles would be nothing...but here in the Ozarks, 10 miles is as good as 100! I go into TOWN (Springfield) about once a month, maybe twice. That's where the quilt shop is, Joann's, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Petsmart, Sam's Club, and Braum's (where we get milk). John usually does the Sam's Club and Braum's stops before he comes home from work since he works in Springfield. So I don't need to go into TOWN all that often.
And we are still doing our major marketing only about once every 8 weeks at the Army base 60 miles east of here - that's the way we did it all the time we were in the Navy and it's one habit that's hard to break.

On the right is the north side of our property.The rain ispummeling down onto the windshield. And I got to drive in it all the way to TOWN!

On Tuesday, after my dentist appointment, I went to the yarn shop to knit for a while. The owner, the intrepid and marvelous Lisa, said she was driving down to Mountain Home, Arkansas to see a friend. I asked her if she wanted company. John was at work and after a call to him to let him know what I was doing, Lisa and I took off. We took some back roads thru the misty rain and encountered lots of cattle grazing in the fields, dogs, trucks, and one lone tractor. This tractor was going about 5 miles an hour on a state highway. Slow enough that I was able to get a great shot of him with my mostly point-and-shoot digital camera. Notice the stays on the side of the load? That's tree limbs holding the feed on the bed of the trailer.


And last week I failed to make it into Round 4 of Sock Madness. But I receive all the patterns for socks in the entire competition, regardless of whether I am competing in later rounds. Round 4 started last week and it was an intriguing pattern, to say the least. Lucky Diamonds is a toe-up pattern using two different yarns, and includes what is known as an afterthought heel. Here is my progress shot. I really like this sock. I may only knit one of the pair - no one says you have to wear matching socks! I'll post a picture once the sock is done....very cool sock!

Well, I suppose that's all for now. We are expecting sun this weekend so Mr. Wonderful and his friend can work on fencing both days....not much more to do till we will have 2 pastures to stage the cows in. That will be a wonderful day!

More later. Thanks for stopping by.