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!

Great Balls of Yarn!

Pics taken in Venice, Italy the summer of 2005.

I'm still knitting the same things - the red/black sweater is coming along but I might have to rip it out because I'm not really getting gauge. I have to decide if it will be big enough even if it's smaller than I planned. The sheep bag is up to the second color of green and the intarsia between the two greens is done, finally. I remember why I quit knitting intarsia. I need to start a pair of socks or something else simple to take along with me next weekend. Either that or I need to rip the black/red sweater and start it over. Maybe I need to do both.

Meanwhile, some flowers. First is passiflora amethystina - which is pretty and fragrant, but small (only about 2" across). Then we have citrina which is smaller and not fragrant, but a non-stop bloomer as long as you keep it in the shade and it's not too hot. Last, we have a passion fruit on Lady Margaret. I didn't pollinate the flower, so I don't know what it's crossed with but when I sent a girl out to take pics, she came back with a pic of it.

And this last pic is of a Halloween costume. Not sure exactly what the costume is, but it's pretty neat and someone likes it a lot.

Phone Check!!!!

All of you with cell phones:

Check your phone!

Is it turned on?

Is the battery charged?

Do you have any messages?

Do you want to talk to people?

Not Knitting News:

The Divine Miss M didn't have school today (and again not tomorrow). She and her dad went to the beach, but they came back last night. So, she and I picked a good but distant friend up from the airport and went on an adventure. We spent the afternoon wandering through the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and had a lovely time. The weather was terrific - not too hot and not the least bit cold. The plants looked a lot greener there than they do in my yard.
We've been in the Fuqua Conservatory many, many times and have heard the frogs but have never managed to find any of them (except the ones confined to tanks in the entrance). Today, Miss M and the friend found a lot of little jumpers. And they were really, really little - between 1/2" and 3/4" long and very easy to miss. The two of them followed the sounds and found the little buggers. I looked and looked and couldn't find any until got lucky and saw one moving out of the corner of my eye.

This is the biggest Mickey Mouse Taro I've ever seen. That leaf had to be well over 2' and closer to 3' long. It was a really nice looking plant. That's Miss M's hand at the end of it, to give perspective.