Chickens Are Coming!

And the Chicken House is almost ready. Yay! The guys are converting one of the old buildings into a chicken house. It's right near the back door of the house. VERY convenient. The chickens will be able to free range the yard after they are used to knowing where they live. :) That is Phillip putting chicken wire on the frame so the chickens and chicks will be safe from the hawks we've seen flying around lately in the evenings. The front door is on the other side of the building. Miss Lisa will be bringing 2 roosters and a hen in the next 2 days. And then Mary in Snook will be sending up some more egg laying chickens for us. If all goes well. We'll add to that next Spring.

The Hats are In!

I had forgotten that I gave the PO Box as an address. I gave it because we were in the HUGE move to our new place. And here I was sitting all afternoon waiting for the mail lady to deliver the dreaded package. Knowing I was going to "be the one" knocked out of the competition. Instead here comes Deven walking down the drive with a pile of junk mail. I thought I was in the clear. Then on the way to Lou's 80th birthday dinner we stopped at post office. I received a fabulous red hat from UnfinishedKnits today (5:03PM). It seems my hat was delivered to her at 2:30pm so I get to go to the next round. Deven claimed it. It's his most favorite color.

Dinner was really good. My plate anyway. All the boys said no mushrooms, they got mushrooms. Derek is allergic. David has Celiacs (nephew) he ordered gluten free. It came with gluten. And Derek's desert has tree nuts in the brownie (he's allergic) so he had to skip the brownie. The boy is almost 16. In the case of the dessert he should have read the menu description. All in all we had a wonderful time. Its too bad everyone is leaving Friday morning. I love it when they come to visit. They are so well loved here. Hopefully they will still get to come back for Christmas vacation. Then we will have time to visit :D

Yarn Smackdown Update#1

I'm done! yay!! Too bad the PO is closed at noon and it's 4:30. My target is safe for a little while. haha. I really was surprised at how quickly it knit up after the ribbing was over. I used both the optional 6 stitch cables that were offered in the pattern. Even though the yarn Bernat Softee Chunky is rated Bulky, it looks and swatched worsted weight. The color is Nature's Way. It looks like hot chocolate, marshmallows, and blue skies. Deven says it looks like dirt and blue skies....Boys!
Here is a picture of the hat pic

Yarn Smackdown

Yes it finally started this week. The yarn I ordered for this STILL hasn't come in. So the Phillip had to take me to the store Wednesday night to get some so I could get started. After swatching I had the hardest time counting to 104. Finally today I am done with the 6 inches of ribbing. Yay!!! Now to start the cabling. Derek thinks this is the best pattern yet. He loves the whole Vintage WWII thing about it. So I guess I'll be making all my guys one now hahaha I like all the options that are available.

I can say I am not being as nutty as some of the people doing this, and staying up all hours of the day and night knitting non-stop until its done. I do have a other things like a family and those skunks to take care of LOL

Skunk Highway

Yes it's skunk season. We are seeing them dead on the road AND smelling them. But they are near us too. About a week ago one sprayed VERY close to my bedroom window. OUCH!!! Even though it was closed the smell permeated the entire house. Ugh! The only solution was to put on our coats and open the windows so the smell would flow out as quick as possible. This happened again the other night, but I think it was under the house. It was so bad my face burned. It was nasty. Now the dog smells like skunk. Ahh the joys of country living :)

Plants & Spring

We have 144 starter plants in those little mini green house things (2). Seems like they are taking FOREVER to get going. Can you say impatient? LOL The rest of our seeds are the direct in the ground kind.

One tree of ALL the trees on our property bloomed. It has pretty white flowers. I wonder if it is the mystery persimmon tree we were told we had?

An Easter Lily came out of the ground and bloomed out under my bedroom window this week too.

The grass is green and begging for animals :)

I won!

I was one of the lucky people to win a pair of ear rings in the Contest at Mompotter's blog. I posted about it last month. They will be in the mail this weekend. Can't wait to see them. She makes great looking jewelry. Can't wait to see what she came up with :D

More Seeds!

The last of Amishland Seeds and RH Shumways have finally arrived. Not all of them will be planted right away. I went ahead and ordered it all though. Some will be planted in the Fall. Some planted several times between now and then.
Here they are!

RH Shumway:
Spanish Peanuts
Bull's Blood Beets
Amish Muskmelon
Rainbow Bell Pepper Mix
German Beer Radish (Muenchner Bier)
Blackeye Peas (for the hubby :) )
Late Flat Dutch Cabbage
Six Shooter Corn
Golden Self-Blanching Celery
Cherry Belle Radish
Bloody Butcher Corn
White Popping Sorghum
Luffa Sponge

For FREE they gave me Beans, Peas, Tomatos, Cucumbers, Corn. All labeled "Early Bird Garden" Experimental Variety. In Ravelry there is a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) Group I am in and I saw there was someone asking for seeds. I think I will mail these out to her

Amishland Seeds:
Heirloom Eggplant Mix (long skinny kind dark purple, light green, lavender)
Radish Mix (many Colors)
Purple Italian Marconi Bean
Mixed Carrots (again was afraid there wouldn't be enough)
Thomas Jefferson Red Cayenne
Morning Glory Mix
Riesentomate aus Siebenburgen (tomato)
Eva's Purple Ball Tomato

Potatoes will be here in 2-3 weeks Yay! Garlic in Sept

Chickens

Looks like we may have a Rooster. A friend has a pet chicken (small breed) and her rooster she got is HUGE so as soon as we get the coop parts (tomorrow) we'll have a rooster sight unseen. The coop that came with our house is Ancient and if you lean to hard will fall over, so it's coming down. I think "The Guys" plans are to make a movable coop... similar to a chicken tractor that can be expanded later. End of the month the feed store near where we lived before will have chicks. Haven't found the feed store here.

I Love Ravelry!

I spend WAY too much time there too!!! Wow at the great people and all the great info. I joined "Socks Anonymous" the other night. I thought it would give me incentive to use up some of this sock yarn I have stashed away. Boy was I right! This months goal is to make a pair of Entrelac or a pair from a Pattern by Ann Budd. I found an Ann Budd pattern I liked and it will be great for some yarn I bought for the boys. Looks like Logan will be the lucky guy first. The yarn is Sock it to Me from Elann.com in Forest Green His favorite color is green so this works out pretty good for him. The pattern is the Diagonal Rib Sock. It got the "guy" approval from hubby so all is good to start ;) I wanted to try the Entrelac as well but couldn't find a pattern I liked /cry. But the really cool thing is there is a March Mystery Sock this month in the "Sockdown" at "Socks Anonymous". Guess what? Its Entrelac!! So I'm going to make a pair :D The lucky yarn is from Knit Picks. Its discontinued. (I've had it a long time.) Sock Garden Star Gazer Lily 100% Merino. It's Super soft. Several shades of pink and a teeny bit of pale pale yellow. (It's the top right picture). I'll be using #2 dpns on this. I have to start knitting this month and be finished by April 30. I can do this. I can...

Did I mention I am also in Yarn Smackdown? It starts March 19th. It's a hat "war" one on one. I think sign-ups end the 15th. You can knit or crochet. There is a yahoo loop for that if anyone is interested in joining it with me. yarnsmackdown@yahoogroups.com Or you can join in at Ravelry

Time to go cast on some socks!