More of the Same

7:30 am

                Feeling slightly better and I actually slept pretty well. We’ll see how it goes at Prairie Home tonight. We need to leave early afternoon and it will be a long day so I had better take it pretty easy before then.

                Took it pretty easy yesterday. I did manage to get enough spun and ready to ply 3 more skeins. Of course they are just tiny 1 ounce skeins but still. And the 2 hides that I put out to dry are looking pretty darn good. I think I will take out a few more.

                Today I had better work on papers. As usual there is a nasty big pile there in the kitchen. Bills and what not. And then I will start in on reviewing fair stuff to figure out what I need to do for that. At least it is not feeling all rushed and arranging meetings with fiber folk and about workshops should be fun.

                Yesterday I managed to get some roofing. I couldn’t get more of the stuff I got before, no one carries it, but I got the wider stuff and what I’ll do is use what is now over the long temporary baby cage for the new roof, and put the wide stuff over the babies. I might be able to use it for the smaller roofs. I need to measure them. We talked yesterday about looking at what is in the garage at the rental house and taking some of it to the dump, so that may have to be done this morning. I kind of wish K could do it himself, but he will balk at that. He will need me to accompany him. That will take up time and energy. And I also need to pick up stuff for our picnic. Maybe I will go to Atkins for that stuff since they are struggling so much with this re-routing and we should all support them.

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Blahs

7:30 am

                Now I am truly feeling sick. I think that today I will spend the day being sick and not worry about accomplishing anything. Not that I necessarily accomplish much when I am trying to, but today I won’t worry about it at all. I will read, rest, maybe spin, maybe not.   

                What did I accomplish yesterday? I did a lot of spinning – finished 3 more skeins of the blue and washed them, then measured out the rest of the blue and started in on more spinning. There is still a lot to go. I washed and dried the grey angora for L – now I need to mail it off. I fed buns (twice!) including cutting greens for them in the afternoon/evening. I did lots of laundry, including hanging several loads outside, then bringing them in and sorting and putting it all away. I made garlic scape pesto which is harder than one might think. I used sunflower seeds instead of wickedly expensive pine nuts, and they had to be toasted. Then I had to grate the cheese, and I tried grating the garlic scapes, but that did not work. I finally cut them up and put them in the blender, but it took a long time to get them to blend. It came out pretty good, though there is a solid base of fiber which, after chewing well is kind of left behind to be spit out. Sounds lovely, eh? I also printed out that work eval which I must sign and send back to them.

                Tigger is having gas trouble. And every time he farts he jumps up in a panic. Poor guy.

                I am still doggedly working on The Ambassadors, but I think I might have to get started on Foreign Bodies if I hope to finish it for book club next week.

                I am not especially looking forward to going to PHC tomorrow. I know K would be really disappointed if I don’t go, so I suppose I’ll have to just kind of straggle along, but I imagine I’ll feel like crap. K did agree to look at the stuff in the other house garage, so that is good and I hope I have the energy to do that this afternoon. And go pick up the piece of roofing that I need. I guess I’ll have to call Farmers Supply to see if they have it. And for supper I think I’ll just make pasta to have with the pesto. And salad, there is always lots of salad. But really today, I think I’d just better rest. After I do the buns which is one of those things that is done rain or shine.  

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cold, memory, spinning

7:30 am

                I am indeed continuing on my path to the nasty cold. If all goes as it did with K I’ll be in the throes of it on Saturday just when we are supposed to go to Prairie Home. Blah. And my way of dealing is to be quite stoic as opposed to K’s version of telling me every last detail of every sensation and stumping about all hang-dog making miserable moon-eyes. And taking handful after handful of pills of various kinds. Well. Whatever.

                Can I think of more cheerful things? I finished spinning the gray angora yesterday. I need to wash and dry it and then send it off to L. I very slowly got started with putting the roof on the rabbit cage. I need more roofing now, since the piece I have is covering the long baby cage. Can’t exactly pick up a piece on my bike, so it will either have to wait for tomorrow, or I go buy it at Farmers Supply and have them leave it out to pick up after they close. I could stand to get another bad of oats, too. I think this morning fairly soon I will rinse off some of the hides that have been tanning for a long time and start them drying. And I think I should get back to spinning the blue stuff, there is still a long way to go with that. I divided up some fawn – very pure and light – angora yesterday so I can spin it, I think there are about 9 ounces worth.

                I started some oat bran cooking and got my psillium and pills together and thought of some interesting thing I wanted to look up on line while I took all that, and by the time I got over to the computer and turned it on, I had forgotten the interesting thing I was going to look up. Oh brother.

                If it gets really hot today, I will deal by going down to the basement and seeing if I can figure out the warping of the loom, and also start sorting the fabric. One thing I wanted to talk to Kent about, but did not last night once all normal communication broke down, was to suggest that we go over just the big stuff in the other garage to decide what could be gotten rid of, so I could start moving some of my stuff over there. With the hope that he would then be encouraged to move some of his stuff. Or I guess I could then suggest it…….

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cold

7:30 am

                Well. I don’t know how this day is going to play out. Basically I think I am coming down with the really nasty cold that K has been dealing with all week. And it is nasty. It started out very bad with him feeling awful. I’ve heard the full play-by-play all week, all the details of exactly how he feels. Now I guess I get to feel it. Penance perhaps for not showing enough sympathy.

                Last night I was very productive. I drove over to the rental house and pulled out all the boxes of fabric that we stuffed there 2, 3? years ago when we did the basement work. The idea now is to go through them, choose the fabric I want for the rag rugs I have got the loom warped up for (well, almost), then get rid of the rest. If I decide to make more rugs, I’ll have to get more fabric. THEN we can start to move some of the stuff from the garage at this house to the rental house, making this garage less of a disaster. There is a lot more stuff at the rental garage that needs to be gotten rid of. Especially some really nasty looking furniture. And there is a lot of boxes of books and paperwork belonging to K, but I will not deal with any of that. I suggested that we could move his Spring Break tools and all the First Responder stuff to the rental house, and he got huffy and said that sometimes he needs to work on that stuff (….like when??) and it would be like me having my booth stuff at the other house. Which then got me thinking, that in fact I could move my booth stuff. After all, it is only being stored. I don’t need it day to day, and I could pick it up from there before a fair. An idea.

                I am starting to feel like crap. And it is cold and rather miserable outside today. I had thought that I really needed to get the roof on that rabbit cage today. I have a bunch of babies in 2 big cages, but one group has started fighting, so I need to separate some. It will involve cutting a nailer board and screwing that into place, then cutting the metal roofing and screwing that on. Shouldn’t be too huge a job, but with my feeling not so great, I don’t know. I may end up spending the day reading and sleeping. We have tickets for Prairie Home Companion on Saturday so I can’t be sick then. K got sick Sunday and is at least functional today, so I guess there is hope.

                I started the gray angora for L yesterday and may be able to finish that. I guess right now I had better feed buns while I can still function.

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running with martin

1 pm

                No mp’s today. Instead I went for a run and then to breakfast with K. And while I ran, I listened to Martin Chuzzlewit which is very enjoyable. Once home, after going to the library and cvs, I spun up the last of the brown/orange crazy stuff, and messed with tanning hides. They are a bit of a mess. I made 2 new tanning baths and put some of the nasty ones in the new baths. I think some of the older hides are ready to come out and be dried and stretched/pulled. Another job, another day. I also made 2 loaves of bread – baking now, and started some more buttermilk so I can make more quark.  I think I will now spend a concentrated bit of time spinning some angora. L wants 3 skeins of grey for her friend’s wedding.

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Thunderstorm!!

7:45 am

                Whew! In spite of all our efforts the meeting yesterday went a lovely 4 (FOUR) hours. Mostly because of all the picky changes that “had” to be discussed and made to the treasurers report. I’m sure there was never this level of detail paid when D and whoever preceded him were doing the books. Still, it “should” get progressively better. Of course, as the meeting went on I kept saying “I’ll do this” “I’ll call him” “I’ll check up on that” so at some point today I must go over my notes and make a clear Fair ToDo list. And I already have quite a long general list, starting of course with doing buns as soon as I finish writing and I will hope before it starts raining – I heard thunder. Then I have a dentist appt at 9:30. I was hoping to bike, but I guess that won’t happen. At least I have the car, as K doesn’t go into work today. Which is also a good thing because he is sick as a dog. Though why it is dogs that are always the reference point I do not know. Dogs are not always or even usually sick. And certainly not with the kind of cold/flu that K has. He is dragging himself around looking as miserable as can be and every now and then hacking up fistfuls of who knows what. It is nasty. I meanwhile am washing my hands every 3 minutes.

                Hey, I think I really had better feed those buns before it starts to pour.

                Bunnies are done, thunder is getting worse, but so far so good. Another few minutes?  Ooo, now some lightning! I think I will go inside…….. ok. Came in. closed windows, now the entire house is incredibly dark. Looks like it is going to let loose any minute. Well, I have plenty to do inside, like laundry laundry laundry, cleaning the kitchen, putting stuff away from the week, and spinning up the orange/brown crazy mix-up stuff I carded Saturday. I only have 4 ounces, so it will not take long. When I go to the dentist, I will also need to do some shopping – groceries and I think I will stop by Michaels to get supplies for my class. Not really supplies, just some samples of things to try out. I want to find some sort of easy thing they could do with locks of wool. Glue might work, or sticky contact paper, or I was thinking of some sort of mesh card that they could stick locks into. And I thought of a way to warp a piece of cardboard so one could end up with a bag, sew up the bottom and weave a drawstring through the top. It would be nice after dentist and shopping to go somewhere like black sheep, but I think I will be alone, Kent is not going anywhere. Not that that is a problem, nothing wrong with black sheep by myself. Or Raos. Or somewhere.

                I sure am glad I took time to go up in the woods a few times. It leaves me with such good images to play over in my mind. It is so beautiful there. When I went up Sat afternoon I grabbed some lichen bits that had fallen from the wind earlier. I will try boiling them. They look like the stuff that the woman at Woolapalooza said dyes well w/ no mordant, and no putrifying like the rock tripe.

                Time to drink psillium and have some oatmeal. Wooo hoooo.

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