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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Home at last. I love my visits to babysit the eldest grandson. I truly appreciate that they trust me with him so completely and that they appreciate my helping out. I am glad to be home though. After almost 8 years of living here in the mountains, the city makes me restless. At night here, we have total darkness, billions of stars and quiet, only night animal sounds. Their apartment complex has bright flood lights on the end of each building shining on the parking lots, Sodium Vapor lights in the courts, lighting the walkways and the apartment is never totally dark. They live near the street end of the complex with one row of buildings between them and a busy Northern Virginia road, so there are automobile, truck and emergency vehicle noises all day and night. After a few days up there, the city lights and noises don’t bother me as much as when I first arrive, but I am glad to be back in the rural mountain quiet.

It was spring break and the District of Columbia attracts tourists, so grandson’s and my visits to the museums and the zoo were frought with thousands of people. For the first time in the 3 years they have been there, the volume of people was so high that we had to wait in a block long line to get in the Natural History Museum. We had hoped to get a glimpse of the just delivered T Rex bones in the fossil lab, but they weren’t visible anywhere that we were allowed and there were so many other folks there because that display is about to be closed for a 5 year renovation, that we couldn’t even see the displays. Grandson wanted to go to the SPARKS lab in the American History Museum and it is closed until next year for renovations. There is a lot of renovation going on at the Smithsonian.

This was the crowd waiting to get in when we left at 2:45 p.m. on Friday.

We stayed so busy that I never even opened my spinning wheel, knitted, or took my carders out of my suitcase. I did read a book and a half though.

My journey home was uneventful, fortunately. The weather was good, the traffic tolerable. My first task after greeting hubby and the pups, and unpacking and checking on the chickens, was to put fresh clean sheets on the bed. It will be a delight to sleep in my own bed tonight and have crisp clean sheets too, they needed changing when I left.

April 19, 2014
Air and Space

Today dawned just as rainy as predicted and the day high temperature occurred just after daybreak and has been dipping to a freeze tonight as the day wears on.

I try not to depend on my car too much when here as I really don’t like Northern Virginia traffic, but I’m not a glutton for punishment either nor did I want to walk the Mall in Washington in the rain. Grand and I elected to drive out to the Udvar-Hazy Center and look at all of the planes, satellites, space vehicles and aeronautic history paraphernalia.

Grand in front of the Stealth bomber.

The Space Shuttle Discovery from the skyway.

The amazing structure with tons of aircraft suspended from the ceiling.

If you have never visited this center, it is certainly worth the time. Admission is free, though there is a $15 per car parking fee if you don’t take public transport out.

We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, except my grouchy old lady mode kicked in when a young mom with 2 young boys stopped to watch a 6 minute video on Discover’s last launch and stood behind me talking loudly on her cell phone about a real estate transaction with everyone around her glaring until I finally tapped her on the shoulder and gave the hang it up signal. She collected her boys and left.

April 15, 2014
A Zoo Day

Yesterday was spent in part driving for my week of babysitting the eldest grand. They like us have had a week of beautiful weather and it is delightful to have the windows open day and night. Tomorrow that is going to change with 100% chance of rain followed by a drop in temperatures to a spring freeze, then cooler more seasonable day time weather. Grand and I took advantage and bus, then Metro rode to The National Zoo.

The baby Panda cooperated and was hanging out in a tree in plain sight, one of the adults was in the yard as well. An elephant cooperated and let us get a photo.

The Otters, seals, sea lions and wolves were out and visiting, as were thousands of other visitors also on spring break.

Any indoor exhibit was so crowded you couldn’t even see the displays. We saw what we could, walked the length and one side and called it quits. After crowd fighting, we stopped for refreshment and rejuvenation.

He was done! But not to be so, we walked several blocks downhill back toward the Metro and I realized I had dropped one of the Metro farecards with more than $30 on it. This caused me a bit of panic and a jog back uphill to see if I had dropped it out of my pocket and fortunately it was right under the chair I had used. Back downhill to the train to discover they were having issues and we had to wait quite a while as the crowd grew and finally were packed like sardines, standing on the train. Before we got to our connector point there were so many bodies on the subway that you couldn’t move and could hardly breathe. When we got back to the station a mile from home, we had 30 minutes to wait before the afternoon commuter buses started, too tired to walk home, we waited.

Portuguese white bean soup is on the stove and I’m hungry and tired.

Tomorrow is rainy so we will take the car to the Udvar Hazey Space Center and maybe a bookstore. Later in the week we will venture back to the District to the Smithsonian American History Museum.

April 14, 2014
Spinning, not the exercise class

I have been spinning fiber for about 4 years now, starting with a drop spindle and switching to a wheel a couple of years ago. My first wheel was a restored Ashford Traditional that I bought from a friend who had restored it and learned on it and then won a new wheel. I learned on it, using it for a bit more than a year, sold it to mutual friend who is a fellow knitter that wants to learn to spin. When I sold it, I bought an Ashford Kiwi 2 as I wanted a double treadle wheel and used it for nearly a year and sold it to get a wheel that travels better for going to spinning group and for taking when I go to spend a week babysitting with a grand. My new wheel which I have only had for a few weeks is a brand new Kromski Sonata. Getting the new wheel inspired me to work through some of the fiber I had collected and have made undyed Shetland wool yarn that is for sale at Greenberry House (www.greenberryhouse.com) in Meadows of Dan. Then I finished 3 ounces of Merino, spun for a friend.

As spinning is going well, I decided that I was ready to start expanding the yarn making process and wanted to mix some of the Alpaca fleece that I have with some wool that I have, so I bought a set of hand carders from Strauch Fiber Equipment Co. (http://www.strauchfiber.com/) as she is a spinner in the group to which I belong. I have started blending the Caramel colored Alpaca with a light and dark Blue Faced Leicester wool.

Today Jim and I took off for a drive and ended up at Olde Liberty Fiber Faire (http://www.olfibrefaire.com/). From that I came home with a big red cloud of hand carded Tunis wool and a bag of dark colored Finn X Jacob to spin and a small pot of garnet red dye to try my hand at dyeing my own yarn.

Once I feel that I have a good handle on these skills, my goal is to buy a whole raw fleece, wash it and hand card the locks for spinning into yarn to dye.

I’m sure Jim would have rather spent the day wandering around the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Fest that we passed and watched literally hundreds of motorcyclist headed in that direction, but he spent the day with me.

Tomorrow, my wheel, hand carders, a suitcase packed with clothing, yarn and fiber are headed off for a week of babysitting in Northern Virginia while he stays home and critter sits the 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 20 chickens. I am leaving him with homemade stew, chili, and goulash so he doesn’t have to eat out each night.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm, and off of it when we take a day trip.

April 12, 2014
A Moment from the Week

Warm breezes,

Blue sky,

Dogs playing,

Perfect day to sit and read on the porch.

April 11, 2014
A Tale of a Lone Hen Protector

During his sleep last night, the lone hen protector had a terrible dream. Cogburn ruffled in his dream, but couldn’t awaken enough to figure out what was going on. In his dream, one at a time, his ladies were disappearing, until there were only three. But he knew he had nine, what on earth was going on. When he awoke this morning, he was startled to see that it wasn’t a dream at all, his coop only contained three of his ladies and a new wooden structure that obstructed part of his kingdom’s perches. He crowed mightily, hoping that the aliens that had abducted his ladies would return them.

Once the tall lady came out to let him out of his coop and give him food and water, he was even more distraught as the aliens had returned his ladies, but alas, he couldn’t get to them. How was he going to protect them from the shadows in the sky?

Then to make matters worse for him, that tall lady crawled into the coop with strange and noisy objects in her hands that didn’t look like food to him and she made lots of noise and commotion in his castle. When she was done, ten small noisy creatures invaded his castle, but he couldn’t get to them. What had happened? Some nearly invisible force field prevented him from surveying his domain and chasing those interlopers away. His beautiful queenly lady that lays the green eggs entered to survey the situation as well, she has always been a curious sort and as the tall lady had piled deep new hay under her perch, she made a nest, but the tall lady kept fussing at her and finally stirred up the nest she had carefully arranged. When the tall lady stirred up the nest, she was in the coop and this upset her king.

Since his kingdom seemed to be totally disrupted and this tall lady seemed to have something to do with it, he decided it was his noble duty to attack her, but when he rose to strike, she raised this long hard object and pushed him firmly away. Being rebuffed and defeated, he decided the only thing he could do was crow at her until she left.

It bothers him greatly that his other ladies seem to be doing fine without him in the other castle, they are even giving the tall lady their daily gems in the new and foreign nests she built for them. What’s a king to do?

April 10, 2014
Moving Days

We have a streak of warm days and mild nights ahead and the chicklets have gotten way too big for the brooder. They are able to cope in the garage without a heat lamp now and get absolutely frisky if taken out in the sun or on a really warm day. They clearly need more space before they start pecking each other. I hung a “Baby Block” toy/feeder in their brooder to try to help and put two perches in there, but they need more room.

They can foul that cage is less than a day. Preparations were made today to do some moving around.

The coop is 4 X 8 feet inside, discounting the 6 nesting boxes attached to the outside of one wall. Since the plan is to leave only the 2 Buff Orpington hens and the 1 Americana hen and possibly Cogburn, but I am leaning toward removing him as well, I have created a divider that will give the 10 chicks 2/3 of the coop and the 3 hens will have 1/3 with 2 nesting boxes for nighttime and egg laying. After they all go to bed tonight, Jim and I will remove the other 6 hens and Cogburn, maybe to the chicken tractor and temporary run.

This is going to stir things up in the pecking order. I installed two nesting boxes in the chicken tractor today, but I anticipate the girls going on strike and either not laying for a while or laying their eggs on the ground. After the coop is opened tomorrow and the remaining 3 hens go out to eat and drink, I will use the staple gun to erect plastic poultry fencing over the new framing and to close off the 4 remaining nesting boxes and the chicks will be moved into the coop. They will be able to see the hens, but for now, they won’t be able to leave the coop. After a few more weeks and some growth, I will make a passageway for them to leave the coop, but scoot back to safety if feeling threatened. For a while, they will have food and water in the coop with them. Once they are large enough to share the coop and run with the big girls, the netting and framing will be removed and they will share the coop. My goal is for the hens to sit eggs for future chicks, but that will either mean keeping Cogburn or another rooster, or buying fertilized eggs and slipping them under a broody hen for hatching. I’ll have to make that decision before eldest son comes in late summer to put the hens in freezer camp.

April 9, 2014
Pet Peeves
- To place an order in a restaurant and have the server come back later and tell you what you ordered is not available while your table mate’s order has been started.
- Having the driver in front of you change lanes without a signal, or worse, go from the left lane to the off ramp with no signal right in front of you.
- Automated voice services on all business phone numbers with no clue how to reach a real voice.
- Waiting in a bank for the next banker (not teller) and have the banker walk by and say they will be with you in a moment, then minutes later, walk by you and out of the bank to lunch while you still wait.
- In a store, find the item you want in short supply on the shelf, ask the clerk to check for more, find out there is plenty in the stockroom, but the stockroom clerk informing you that they won’t help you and to come back the next day.
- Sticky foods like peanut butter packed in jars with shoulders so you can’t get it all out or clean the empty container.
Did I experience one or more of these in the past day or two, of course? Are there more, oh yeah? What are your pet peeves.
April 8, 2014
On a Spinning Roll

I’m on a roll. In the past couple of days, I’ve spun 185 yards of natural white Shetland wool. The yarn weight is DK to Sport weight depending on which chart I use, it is 12 WPI (wraps per inch). As I want both skeins to be 100 yards, I am spinning the last 2 ounces of the Shetland. Anything that is left after skeining them, will go to my Funky Fiber skein that will eventually be a throw for cold nights.

This is the first 100 yard, 75 g skein, waiting for a wash.

Part of the last two ounces on the wheel.

The growing Funky Fun skein of various fibers and colors.

The hours spinning have cut into knitting and reading time. I have been on the same book for over a week and progress on my shawl seems to only happen when we are in the car. Even retired, there just aren’t enough hours to do all the fun things that I want to do.

April 7, 2014
Spring has come to the mountains, finally!

We are enjoying mountain spring at last. Days that are mild enough for long sleeves or a light sweater, nights still cold enough for a coat, but signs abound that Old Man Winter has finally moved south, way south.

Peach blossoms and green grass.

Garlic growing in the garden beds.

On one of my surveys of the outside of the house, I have found many Preying Mantis egg cases, two on one of the spent deck plants from last year.

They will be carefully cut off and placed in the new plants on the deck and we will try to catch the day they begin to emerge. It is interesting to watch the tiny 1/2″ long critters creeping around on the plant leaves.

Sunshine today and though it is only in the mid 50s outside, the 4 week old chicks got some sun time.

They are just past the dinosaur stage and look to have nearly all of their feathers. When out in the sun, they jump and flap, chase each other around the water trough that was their brooder. Today they went back into one of the wire dog kennels, but this time in the garage as they kept tipping the water and spilling it into the trough and the pine shavings were getting too soggy too quickly.

Tomorrow we are expecting heavy rain most all day, so Jim and I will go to the lumber yard and purchase the wood and a roll of chicken wire to create a coop divide. By the end of the week, the chicks will occupy half of the coop, perhaps still with a heat lamp for another week or so and the other half of the coop will be the two Buff Orpington hens and the Americana hen. Cogburn and the rest of his harem will be moved at night into the temporary pen and chicken tractor, tricked out with a new nesting box to keep them separate from the chicks and to isolate them until the day in July or August when they will be permanently removed from the flock.

After a few weeks of adjustment and a bit more size, the coop divider will be removed and the chicks will have to learn the pecking order with the three hens that we will be keeping.

April 6, 2014