A Whirled Yarn

I have ulterior motives...

He may think he is just amusing himself...but I see a job beading plying thread in his future.

Oh, don't think I haven't gone there too!

Life can be puzzling...

especially when you are three.

It's finally time...

Yay!  Shop update day!! Go check them out here.

I had a fantastic weekend.  The powers that be read my blog apparently.  They (he, she, it?!?) got tired of my whining and bumped our temperatures up into the 60's *F.  No bucket cracking for 2 whole days!  Yay!  To keep me from being too pleased with myself however, the PTB also have been buffeting us with about 30 mile an hour winds...but oh well, I'll take it.

It was a Harveyville Spinster weekend too!!  I took some great pictures...but left my camera in Harveyville, so you'll just have to wait on pins and needles for those.  So here is more new yarns to fill in the space...

We'll call it Fiber Fix Friday...

It's too bad she has no interest in yarn except to pose with it...oh, why was I given fiberphobic children?

So just like a man...

It's been cold.  So cold that even a born and bred North-easterner like me is complaining.  Below zero is cold, even for upstate New York standards.  Well, maybe not for way upstate...but we prefer to call that Canada, so it doesn't really count.  Kansas regularly reaches 102*F in the summer ( a little fact they hide from you before you move here).  So to reach  negative anything*F in the winter is just a cruel joke by Mother Nature.

Another cruel joke by Mother Nature is ...the rooster.  We are lucky because we have the world's most benign rooster.  Roosters can be feathered bundles of vicious, testosterone fueled terror, that sneak up behind your back and attack you with 3 inch spurs.   Our rooster pretty much ignores your existence unless you are a chicken.  (Not Chicken, thank goodness or we'd be in trouble).  He is also impressively large and handsome. However, he is not the quickest to get the cricket, so to speak.

Chickens hate snow with a passion.  They absolutely refuse to put their scaly little feet into the stuff.  So when we started to get another few inches the other day, all the sensible hens returned to the barn.

Even the barn cats had snuggled in for the duration.

Where was the rooster however?  Since it was horribly cold and getting dark, with the snow falling thick all around, he did what any male of any species would do...he headed for the garage.  Which is where I found him...

...cleverly hiding from the snow behind stored summer toys.

Here is the embarrassing rescue, after being caught by the tail, and just before being returned in shame to the women.

Well at least he has these impressive spurs...

 

How to get a 3 year old to sit still for 2 seconds...

You know its darn cold...

...When snow won't melt on a cow...

Do you enjoy unusual weather patterns?  Last evening I was watching "Ask Your Legislator" from KCPT public television.  The 3 old, white men legislators were blabbing about how Kansas needs the new Sunflower Electric coal fired power plant. (Go here if you've never heard of this before).  A caller asked why Kansas needs this plant if over half of the power generated will be sold to other states?  The OWM legislators calmly explained to us simpletons that Kansas can make money exporting energy to other states as a product, just like we export beef.  They also pointed out that coal plants can be built to burn cleaner than they have in the past.  Never once did they say that the particular plant in question will be built that way. In fact they carefully avoided saying that (and cleaner, by the way, in no way means clean!).   I wanted to know if Kansas will be exporting the health and environmental problems and pollution to other states as well?   ...Or do we get to keep that all for ourselves?

I did email...but they apparently didn't have time for my question.

Do you live in Kansas and believe they should find other options to building a new coal-fired power plant (and, as an aside, don't you think we've had enough of old, white men running, and ruining, the world?)  Go here and find your legislator...

....let them know we are watching them carefully...

Spinning love

I've been spinning and spinning!  New yarns should be coming on Monday, yipee!  As you can see, I've had Valentine's Day on my mind.

Speaking of Valentine's Day...what do you do when you are the room parent for your daughter's 2nd grade class and you have lost the only list of party volunteers? (After solidly reassuring the teacher that you would be extremely careful with it...this is just way to much pressure for a volunteer position.)  So far I've done this....&*^#@!@^$#@#**^@#!!!!!!

(For some reason Typepad is insisting my swearing is a link to somewhere...click at your own risk.)

Anyone got time for 20 cupcakes and a party game by the 14th?

Why I love winter

The incredibly informative Phelan at A Homesteading Neophyte, has done a series of posts on tools needed for all kinds of homesteading activities, from butchering chickens to harvesting your garden.  So I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and share some of the tools that I can't live without here on the Settlers Farm homestead.

This time of year my most critical tools for survival out here on the frozen prairie are....ta ta ta taaa!

The Heavy Iron Bar that came from who knows where ( and believe me it is really heavy) and the Scoopy Thing.  How are these very impressive looking tools used you may ask?  Well I will be happy to show you with this handy, illustrated guide!

First grasp with Heavy Iron Bar with two mittened hands. Then curse, swear and blame your husband because it is frozen into the mud.   Center yourself, breath deeply, give it a heartfelt kick, then wrench it from the earth.  Drag it to the paddock and smash it into the frozen solid Big Rubber Bucket.  (Think of how many times you have #$@!# frogged that %#@! sock you've been working on the past two days while you smash...it helps). 

Then comes the crucial Scoopy Thing.  If you leave all the ice chunks in the Big Rubber Bucket, they will immediately freeze back together again...I swear I've seen it happen.

The Absent Minded Professor (formerly Mr. Whirled, now tenure King, baby!), claims the Scoopy Thing has a formal name and was an essential piece of ice fishing equipment.  I say it is still an essential piece of ice fishing equipment.  Get it?!?  Hee, hee...I can so crack myself up!

On occasion, the ice is too thick or too big for the Scoopy Thing to handle.  In such cases I reach for yet another tool...

 

  The Felted Mitten.

And let us not forget the best cold weather/frozen bucket weapon of them all...

An exasperated woman with Sorrel clad foot!

For those of you who are reaching for your keyboards to point out how this could all be avoided by an electric bucket warmer...I really don't want to talk to you.

Our neighbors...

 

They live across the street.  They have been good neighbors. Yes, they do have the tendency to commence with a whole herd sing-along in the wee morning hours, and they have been know to...oh, how do I put it delicately...attract flies.  But for the most part, they just keep to themselves.

However, if you go on over to say howdy...

They just rudely stare... excuse me!