Christmas 2007

We had a lovely holiday, with a big, beautiful tree that reached the ceiling, lots of presents, good food, and the joy of being together.

True, we missed our extended family members who were far away and could not be with us, but we had a wonderful time with our newly combined (and therefore enlarged) immediate family.

On Christmas Eve we sat together on the couch and read the Christmas Story from a set of little books that The Boy was given when he was very small. The kids asked what frankincense and myrrh were, and to their manifest surprise, I had samples available! Several years ago, I went to Frankenmuth, Michigan, where there is the most wonderful Christmas shop called Bronners. I had picked up a small package of "the first gifts": it had charcoal (wrapped in gold foil: to keep things affordable, there was no actual gold in the box) and small bags of frankincense and myrrh. We had a fire going, so we used charcoal from the fireplace to heat up some frankincense and the smell filled the house. Next year I think we'll try the myrrh.


Before bedtime came we ate some of the cookies that Gram had sent to us, and picked out two for Santa to eat. The kids were very concerned that the reindeer might feel left out, so we promised to tell Santa that the reindeer should help themselves to the hay outside. After being tucked in for the night, I could hear Princess Girl fiercely whisper to her brother "SHHHH! We have to go to sleep so Santa can come!"

Sure enough, Santa did come ... the kids said they were sure they heard Bob and McKenzie barking in the night, and it must have been because Santa was here!

Santa, being the smart man that he is, put a bottle of ibuprofen in my stocking. You see, Santa knew that this was the first Christmas morning that I'd have three small kids in my house - two of whom wake up *very early* all by themselves. I took one about an hour and a half after I got up ... but to be honest, the headache was coming on even before I got out of bed. Still, I sure appreciated finding that magical stuff in my stocking!

We had a wonderful morning enjoying the chance to give and receive presents - we all really enjoy giving just the right thing to someone, and there were a few of those moments this year.

My Boy gave me a set of rosewood double-pointed knitting needles (the kind you use for mitts and socks). I received a bag of alpaca fibre, ready for spinning, from Princess Girl and Dinosaur Boy. Right after I opened that, Princess Girl opened her present of two scarves, hand knit from fibre that she helped me dye. Her exclamation was priceless: "Oooh! I got fibre tooooo!"

Dinosaur Boy was suitably impressed by his Dragon Scarf ... The Reluctant Farmer was pleased with the new digital photo frame he received from his kids ... I was ecstatic to receive a new iPod of my very own ... The Boy was amazed to find a quadripedal robot under the tree for him ... and the dogs were all spoiled rotten with snacks and treats and leftovers.

All in all, it was a lovely day.

Merry Christmas to you, too!

Fingerless Gloves

I found a lovely pattern for fingerless gloves and have made a few of them now ...

The pink ones are for a girl from 4-H, whose family gifted me with three sheep in return for some farm-sitting while they go on a holiday (I really think I'm getting the better part of that deal but who am I to argue with such generosity?). These are made from hand spun wool, dyed bright pink with Kool-Aid.

The brown ones (which are actually the first set I made from this pattern) were shipped to my brother-in-law in Lithuania .... where the city decides when the central heating in your apartment will be turned on - and the city never seems to think it's cold when normal people think it's cold - resulting in chilly apartments and cold hands. :) These are made from some naturally brown Corriedale fleece that I purchased in raw form: I washed, carded, spun and knit them, and I'm very happy that they fit!

A House Bunny

A while back, we acquired a house bunny.

Since Duggan has become an outside dog (much to my amazement, believe me), we figured we had room indoors for a house bunny. On Kijiji, we saw a lovely light brown dwarf lop bunny looking for a new home: he was already house trained and very friendly.

So, Charlie came to live with us.

He is terrifically entertaining, poking around the living room and then suddenly tearing off at a run for no apparent reason. And, he's very cuddly. :)

"You need to come take a look at Bob..."

After dinner tonight The Reluctant Farmer got his boots on and said, "You need to come take a look at Bob. He has a lump on his neck: I didn't get a good look at it when I saw him earlier but you better check ... bring a flash light." The dogs do get tangled in barbed wire fences every so often, and it wouldn't be the first time we had a puppy with an infected scrape.

So, I got a flash light and my parka and my boots, and we headed outside. The dogs came trotting over to us when we reached the shed, and I quickly grabbed Bob's collar. I felt around, but didn't feel any matted fur or anything. The Reluctant Farmer felt around the opposite side and said, "Oh, here, it's right here ...."

... and from under Bob's collar, he pulled a silver ring.

"Will you marry me?"

I grinned.

I also said yes.

The ring's a temporary placeholder: he had seen some pretty ones on line but since he was going into town today he decided to just pick something out at a jewelry store in town. After visiting six different places and finding nothing in my size (nothing at all ... I have very tiny fingers), he settled on a plain silver band from Walmart as a placeholder.

We did just find the perfect long-term band online, and it should be on it's way from Ireland in short order.

The wedding will be in Canmore on May 17, 2008.

Marriage: I've finally found the person I want to annoy for the rest of my life.

Windows: warmth and cold, both

Big windows are a wonderful thing in terms of passive solar gain. The big windows on the south side of the house absorb a lot of sunshine during the day, and provide us with lots of free light and heat.

However, at night, they leak cold like you wouldn't believe.

The white sheer drapes that filter the blinding daytime sun don't really keep the cold at bay once the sun goes down.

So, today I hauled up the serger, the sewing machine, and a stash of fabric from the crawl space and proceeded to make the first of several window quilts. A window quilt is just what it sounds like: a quilt (complete with filling to make it warm) that fits inside your window.

The first part of the adventure was to create something to hang the quilt from: I had a long length of inch-and-five-sixteenths doweling, so I created supports for each end of the dowel and mounted those inside the window frame (our windows have deep frames, so there's lots of room in there). That gave me a long rod that won't bend or bow under the weight of the window quilt, and it's positioned inside the frame so there won't be any room for drafts to leak out the sides.

Then it was time to make the quilt. I wasn't very energetic or creative with this one ... it's just a series of strips of fabric sewn to each other, no fancy patterns, nothing particularly interesting. I did manage to use up some interesting scraps (bits cut from the bottoms of another set of curtains, and some blue paisely fabric that was never going to be made into anything in particular, as well as some lovely quilting cotton that I had purchased in a fit of insanity when I thought I might actually make a fancy quilt). The middle layer is some cotton quilt batting, also found in my stash, and the backing is a pale green sheet that had no mate. All of the layers were hastily stitched together, and a few experiments were done in an effort to find the best way to hang the completed quilt from the rod. It turns out that a strip of fabric sewn to the top of the quilt in such a way as to form a pocket for the dowel rod is the best way to mount these things in my windows - particularly if you can manage to make the strip wide enough to leave a bit of a 'topper' above the dowel rod, filling in the gap between the top of the curtain and the top of the window.

So, we have one window that is much warmer than the others tonight, and others will follow in their turn. I'm thinking of denim for the one in The Boy's room...

Winter cold, tea and wool

Yep, winter has arrived. We have snow on the ground and temperatures between -15 and -20 most days, cooler at night. The stock tank heater has been installed, we've gone through nearly three bales of hay already, and the trucks are complaining about starting on chilly mornings ... as am I. Somehow I always have much less energy in the winter - the darkness and chill seems to drain me of strength.

Still, a mug of tea for the drive to town does wonders to improve one's morning, I have discovered, as does the heated seat warmer that Princess Girl and Dinosaur Boy gave to me as thanks for chauffeuring them to and from school.

In the evenings, I like to do my spinning or knitting, as the warmth of the wool is somehow warming to more than just my hands. I have done more experimentation with Kool-Aid and wool dyeing, and have managed to come up with a neat variegated skein of greens, browns and beiges that reminds me of Vancouver Island, as well as more pink (no matter how hard I try, things seem to end up shockingly pink).

I've been knitting up some new projects, too: I found a lovely set of fingerless gloves and a beautiful cabled sweater to make from some lovely blue wool that my parents brought back for me from a trip they took to PEI a few years back. It's been waiting for just the right pattern to come along, and so far, I'm pleased with how it looks!

I think I'll go work on it some more right now, in fact.

The beginnings of winter

Winter is officially on the way ... we have snow on the ground and frost in the air. We got our hay delivered just in time!

Construction on the addition continues, the electrical installation is nearly complete which means insulation will be up next. Once windows and insulation are in place, we can turn the heat on ... and once the heat goes on, some of the things that are crammed into this tiny space can be shifted over to the addition and we'll have a bit more breathing room! It is lovely to have everyone together, though, so it's worth the hassle and crowding.

I've been doing a bit of spinning, a bit of knitting, and some reading - I finally finished the last Harry Potter book. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series: the Harry Potter tales manage to look the pain and sorrow of loss straight in the eye, and they inspire faith and courage in the midst of difficult times. It may be that the sheer intensity of the emotions in the stories resonates with me, but whatever it is, I come away from the books with a sense of gratitude for all that life has given me.

Ah, books are a wonderful thing. In fact, I think I'll go turn on my audiobook (the current one is a story of a spoiled prince stranded in the jungle where, in the course of his travels, he learns to be a real human being) and see if I can get a few more rounds knitted on my other mitten.

Check out www.audible.com - I'll bet they have a story for you, too!