Halloween Fun

First, A collection of Halloween games
http://www.freehalloween.com/

Garfield's Scavenger Hunt #1:
http://www.dedge.com/flash/hunt/scavenger.html

Garfield's Scavenger Hunt #2:
http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavenger...engerhunt2.html

Halloween Hangman:
http://www.dedge.com/flash/halloween/

Cat Bowling:
http://www.brandextract.com/catbowling/

Pumpkin Simulator:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html

Mom's House inside

Here are the pictures of the inside of mom's house. There is one looking down the hallway past the kitchen and into the bedroom and one looking down the hallway from the bedroom looking through the living room and out onto the deck.

I decided to upload the floorplan so you would have an idea of what the house looked like. You can use your imagination and fill in the photos with the rooms.

Mom has the optional shower, no ladder or loft, does have the drawers in the closet and the space for her washer/dryer in the bedroom.

Where it says tv below mom is putting in a fake fireplace this weekend. In the photos it is right next to the bookcase even with her sewing machine.

Mom's house is absolutely adorable and you should all come and see it in person. Her couch is a hide-a-bed and with my boys gone, I have a spare bedroom or even two (depends on which boys are home). We would all love to have you visit us here.

SAFF - Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair

Some pics from my recent visit to Asheville NC and SAFF. This is our second year going and it was more fun this year than last. Last year, we drove up on Saturday morning and came back on Sunday afternoon (well, we got lost, so it was Sunday night, but it was SUPPOSED to be afternoon). We didn't take and classes last year, just shopped, did a little sightseeing and had a wonderful dinner in town. This year, we took classes - lots of classes! (Pics of those and the results later.)
The first pic is an overview of the main sales area in McGough Arena. There was another big sales area in the sales barn - lots of vendors out there with lots of good things.

Some angora goats - big and little . . . .

Some Jacob Sheep Rams:

The big gray boy is a Romney, not sure what the baby with the brown around his eyes is, but he was cute!

This is a Finn ram lamb that was for sale - very cute little guy.

My favorite tho had to be Spencer, pictured with his 11 year old girl in the last shot. The young lady bottle fed Spencer, and he seems to think he's her baby. My travelling companion and I were admiring Spencer when his girl showed up. She put her hand thru the bars of his pen and his little stub of a tail started wagging like crazy! She opened the gate to the pen and he tried hard to come out to greet her. She went in and he couldn't contain himself - wagging his tail and rubbing on her. When she ignored him, he leaned on her and, as you can see, he's not a small or lightweight animal. The entire time she was in the pen telling us about him, he was rubbing on her, nudging her hands, leaning on her or somehow touching her and encouraging her to touch him. He was more like a dog than a sheep.

Mom's House - The Prequel

Everyone knows that the prequel comes out after the main event. Here is a taste of how mom's house got there.

First we picked out a site tucked under the trees for shade and protection from the winter winds, with a view of the trees.

Then we got a bunch of slave labor - I mean strong healthy young men - and had them dig and dig and dig. Dig for the sewer connection, the electrical connection, the water connection.

We set mom down and made her supervise the digging. We let Alf and Fritz supervise the digging and we let them dig a little also. We let Fred supervise the digging. They let me take the pictures because I wasn't qualified to supervise.

When it got very very hot, we went inside, the boys lay all the pipe and filled in all the holes in the yard.

Mom's House

All of you have been waiting anxiously to see mom's house here in Idaho. Your wait is finally over. Mom has a wee log cabin situated with picturesque views of mountains and trees. She has a place for company and would love to have any or all of her children come to visit her.

You may not know this, but planes, and trains, and buses, and roads all go to Idaho. We are quite civilized these days and even have a store or two.

On the front of her house, Mom has a deck with four rocking chairs. Fred installed a ceiling fan on the deck for additional breeze on hot muggy nights. As you can kind of see, her house is nestled in amongst pine and walnut trees, supplying a breeze on summer nights and protection from the wind during our winters. One of the pictures shows the front deck from inside the house but was taken before my husband got the rockers assembled.

Between her front deck and her back door is her garden. It is filled with irises, fruit trees, fringe tree, and other stuff we planted but I forget the names of. If you came in the spring you could enjoy its colors.

In the one picture you can see my husband picking up the last of the chairs from mom's birthday party (which none of her other children came to).

Alaska, the final chapter.

At one port we even rode the life boats in to make sure we could go shopping. It was really chilly and we stopped for coffee, stopped to shop (a yarn shop of course). The picture of mom by the fire hydrant is in Vancouver. The big yellow bag is her shopping. As you can see we shopped until we dropped. Then we went back onto the ship and had one more in a long line of amazing meals.

The end.

Alaska part 2

On board the ship we did a little knitting. We watched the coastline for animals and icebergs and anything else interesting. When we went on shore we did a little sightseeing, and a little shopping. So many things from Russia because the towns have such a huge Russian influence.

Our cabin was on the second row of balconies, the second balcony from the front. We aren't standing on it in the picture because we are on the dock taking the picture.

Trip to Alaska

Mom and I went to Alaska on a Cruise ship. There was a very nice cabin, life raft drills, icebergs, and shopping.

We had an amazing view from our balcony but mom thought it was too cold and too windy to have breakfast on the balcony.
The room was great, our life raft was just down a flight of stairs from our cabin, the views were splendiferous, the shopping was fun and the breakfasts were terrific even in our cabin watching the view through the sliding doors.

We elected to have breakfast in our cabin because we were on vacation and woke up leisurely. Other meals were either in the dining room or up on the Lido deck. These were miles and miles and miles from our cabin.

The shopping was wonderful. We found a yarn shop in every port but we also looked at local stores with this and that, at jewelry stores, and Del Sol with all its color changing wonders.

this 'n that

Spent the entire weekend cleaning the girls' rooms, but finally have it almost completely done. It's always a trial getting them to give or throw away anything that they've ever touched. Even baby toys that they haven't played with in ten years must be saved because they have sentimental value. What gets me is that toys and craft kits that they didn't like even when they got them are still in their rooms and they won't give them away because they might, someday, change their minds and like them.

So I got them new shelves and storage boxes and all other things that they might need/want to organize. Then I went in each room and took out old furniture. And then I told them that whatever they couldn't fit on the new shelves plus old shelves had to go.

It was very difficult, especially on the younger child, but it's done. The big green trash can was filled several times and there are at least 8 big cases of stuff to go to charity and the rooms are almost completely clean and organized. We still have the new fall clothes to put in the rooms and a closet and some surfaces to clean up - oh and one bookshelf still needs to be gone thru. But it's a huge accomplishment to have gotten this far - finally!

So, today, you get pics of critters and not knitting. First, we have Casey who wants to play. She always wants to play. She always brings a toy with her whereever she goes, just in case you might want to play, because you never know . . . you might want to play. Then we have Jess, hiding under a chair. This is her house and she goes where the chair goes because it's just the right height and width for her. She gets a bit snitty if you move the chair and she doesn't really like it when you look under the chair (the next shot is of her tail when she left.)

And last, of course, is cat. She's just crazy. But she's cute and she knows it and so she poses nicely for pictures for about 2 minutes before she runs under your feet and across the room and up the walls and then back down and back to where she started. She's also very good at opening doors. She can move a box with at least 4 times her body weight and she can open latched doors at will. She's special like that.

One more pic - this of my wheels, which are now behind a huge wall of boxes of stuff meant to go to charity. I'm heading out to SAFF in a little while and while there, I'll be taking a class in spinning. I got the wheels out this summer and tried to spin. I can still make yarn, but it's no longer nice and smooth and consistent yarn. I know that mostly what I need is practice - several hours of practice - but I figured it couldn't hurt to take a spinning class and get several hours at one time. And it just happened that the friend I'm going with was taking a fabric dyeing class that I had no desire to take (don't sew, ya know) and so I signed up for a spinning class. When I get home on Monday, I'll have to move that wall and pull out a wheel and start playing. Then I won't have to spend all my spare money on yarn . . . I'll have to save some of it for fiber for spinning!