It just occurred to me

What if its not the recipe at fault here, but something I miss-measured or forgot to put in when I was putting the thing together?

But the flavor was the same in both bags... so it was something I did more than once.


Ugh.

I don't think I'll do those again. Well, maybe in my own kitchen...Then I could set up stations and get a few friends together to help. And re-read the directions over and over again.

brownies

so, our ward does one of those ultra craft days where you can make something like 6 different items and most would make great Christmas presents.

This year they offered some great stuff, some ok stuff, and some good values.

The good values were in the form of brownies in a bag, and pumpkin muffins in a bag. At 50 cents each, this was a good value.

I ordered 4 of each. I thought these would make great co-worker and neighbor gifts.

I showed up at the activity to make my mixes. they even provided a cute holiday themed bag!

Anyway, I think we gave 6 away and were given one.

So a few nights ago I thought, yum, lets make some of these brownies. Since we had a choice we decided to keep the brownie mixes for last just in case we didn't give them all away.

So I followed the directions, except I used a substitute for the buttermilk. Seriously, who keeps or buys buttermilk on a regular basis? So I bought one of those containers of dry powder that you use to replace buttermilk. It was in the cooking isle.

So I followed the other directions to a T. I put it in an 8x8x2 pan and dutifully set my oven to 400 degrees and my timer to 40 minutes.

At 40 minutes my fork didn't come out clean. (I was out of toothpicks). It was so bad that I set the timer for another 20 minutes. After that it was still not clean.

I set it for another 10 minutes.

After that, I think I went for another 5 and then it was finally done.

The top of the brownies were slightly burned, but the brownies were done!

And the result. They just weren't very chocolatey despite the extra chocolate chips that were in the mix. Even my hubby didn't like them.

Well, tonight I decided to try them again. This time I put them in a 9x13 cake pan.

I wasn't certain that this would solve the problem that I had the other night, so I set the timer for 35 minutes to hopefully avoid overbaking.

At 35 minutes they were almost there and I set them for another 5 minutes.

they were done.

And they weren't very good! I thought that because they were made with chocolate chips and buttermilk that they would be extra yummy. And they were just not very good.

I'm totally surprised and a little bummed because we have another mix on the cupboard to be used. I guess if I throw it away it was only 50 cents.

So the moral of this story is this - if you make a mix at a super activity, try it out before you give it away. Lucky for us the only person we gave the brownie mix to was a bachelor and will most likely never make it, or will re-gift it.

I'm mildly worried about the pumpkin muffin mixes we gave out....

Life

So, here it is. New Years Eve.

Our big plans? We're going to stay home, go to bed at our normal time. I guess we're just boring.

Hubby has tomorrow off.

AND!

Tomorrow I get to pick up my spinning wheel!! Hooray! I've been waiting nearly 3 weeks. It had to be shipped from New Zealand.

Anyway, I'm super excited about that.

C and A had a great Christmas. They've been playing madly with their new Christmas toys and only destroyed about half of them so far.

I still haven't decided if I like the whole 'buy my own Christmas gift' thing we did this year.

I was told I was going to be released as a nursery teacher a few weeks ago, but that didn't happen. Yesterday they gave me a roster of sorts for next year. so I guess I'm staying. It had my name on it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Each week my back hurts and is sore for days after nursery. I think that had to do with all of the bending and lifting. I'm going to try and stay in the game for a while longer. I like nursery. Just don't care for the pain.

Our nursery is going to be down to about 5 kids (YAY!). We were up to 14 when everyone was there. But that didn't happen often. We averaged about 10-12. I'm hoping with the reduced number of kids there will be reduced pain. If so, I'll stay. If not, I'll try to stay a few months and then I'll ask to go.

If last week had been this week, and the older kids had already moved on to Sunbeams, we would have had 1 kid. It sounds like a vacation to me! I think we may take the time to clean out the toys closet and organize our other suppplies.

Hubby and I also serve with the 8 yr old scouts. so if I ask to be released from nursery, its not like we're slacking.

Anyway, I really hope that it all works out.

Look what I made!

Golf Club covers. 3-9 irons and one pitching wedge.



Yes, I am married to a rabid BYU fan.

Onions

OK, so I wear contacts. cutting onions? No big deal.

Today I hadn't put my contacts in yet and was making hubby's favorite Green bean tator tot cassorole for a special treat. My eyes were also tired and a little irritated from a late night. I was about 1 minute into dicing an onion when it hit me. First the pain and then the tears. Then a moment of relief as the tears helps. then pain again. It was about 5 minutes of this cycle. When I finally finished I just wanted to find somewhere to sit and not open my eyes for a while.

OUCH

I really feel for anyone who regularly cuts onions and don't get to wear contacts.

Remind me

Remind me never to obsess about something over and over and then expect people to not know what the big mysterious gift coming is.

:)

I guess I should have realized. I also mentioned the mystery to another of my sisters and she was like, "oh, you're getting a spinning wheel?".

Yeah, no surprise. Oh well. :)

So yeah, I'm getting a spinning wheel for Christmas. A Majacraft Suzie Pro. It has to come all the way from New Zealand so most likely won't be here for Christmas since I ordered it on the 12th or sometime around there. It probably won't even ship until today. I was hoping for a tracking number, but most likely won't get it. I ordered it from my local yarn shop/sheep farmer (support your local farmer!), and it will be shipping to them, and I'll be picking it up from there.

Anyway, in family news Mom and Dad keep trying to freak me out by saying their mission call could come by early Feb and they would leave soon after that. Really, its exciting. The reason I'm freaking out is that by virtue of living next door to them, as soon as they leave we are responsible for feeding the 2 goats and making sure their pipes don't freeze (whoa, how will we do that? They heat by a fireplace and oil furnace. Oil is expensive... sorry, tangent) and we still haven't figured out who will pay their bills, or how it will be done.

It is exciting. Really. I'm really pleased that they are going on their mission. I hope they get a call that uses their skills. Dad is a bit of a jack of all trades, and Mom can play a mean piano, and anything musical, as well as great management skills. I know that wherever they get called, they will love it.

so change of subject.

Christmas is a little wierd to me this year. I know exactly what I'm getting. I even chose my stocking present. A clover needle felting tool! Purchased from my local yarn shop!

On one hand its great! I know what I'm getting and I'm loving what I'm getting. On the other hand, there isn't the normal Christmas excitement or something. there is an element missing somehow. I haven't decided if thats bad yet. :)

Just to explain - this year we decided to tell each other what we wanted. Hubby has a birthday near Christmas as well and we decided that he would tell me what he wanted there as well. The weird part was that he didn't even tell me. He just went shopping a couple of times on his lunch hour and bought some new clothes. I argued that he needed them, so they didn't count and he said they counted. So... I guess they do.

So that is the weird part. I didn't even have a hand in getting him a gift. Weird.

And his stocking. I was going to fill it with gag gifts from the dollar store, and maybe a few things from the regular store ($10 doesn't go far) and then he said don't bother. I'd rather have some nice chocolate. But then he says he's going to buy a new baseball hat for a bowl game he is going to and I told him that at ~$21 that could be his stocking gift.

So yeah, this Christmas is a little weird this year.

sheep Sheep and More shEep

We went ahead and bought 2 more sheep for a total of 4 sheep. Its fun to keep them. Sheep seem to be easy keepers. They don't try to get out. They can be friendly.

The first 2 sheep we bought were bottle babies and are used to humans around. One even comes and plays with the kids. He would follow them around the yard if we let him out. today C had the container for the chicken feed and Charlie the friendly sheep wanted to see what was in it. It startled C a little and so she ran, but was giggling the whole time. I was watching carefully just in case it became a sheep attack of some sort. But C was giggling the whole time. I did step in front of Charlie and slow him down at one point . Just to make sure he didn't actually catch C. I wasn't sure what he was going to do. I was probably being overprotective. The only thing Charlie ever does to that chicken feed container is try and see if there is food in it and then he nibbles on the container.

I'm glad we got the animals. Even if their only benefit is to give the kids experience with animals, since we don't think we'll have any inside animals. We don't like the shedding. At one point we did have a yellow lab. But that thing shed year round. We had yellow hair on everything. While moving (4-5 years after we found him a new home) we pulled out a blanket and it was covered with hair.

The sheep will give us about 5+ pounds of wool each. The Chickens give us 3 eggs most days. They take about 1 day off a week. The rabbit...well, we are halfheartedly trying to find him a home. She will give a couple of ounces of really soft fur in the spring. But I've been questioning if it is really worth it. The poor thing sits inside her cage all day. She's afraid of people. she's afraid to be out of her cage. I don't know what to do with her. But I don't feel great about her being outside in this really cold weather.

So an announcement.

Something big is coming to our house for a Christmas present. I'll keep you in suspense until it arrives!

Happy holidays!

Enchanted

So I was reading a favorite blog the other day and they had posted some Youtube videos from Enchanted and said that the songs were stuck in their head.

I was watching them and the kids came in and they were mesmerized.

If you haven't seen any videos from Enchanted, here are a couple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv350WPnBNk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KObgs81QyR4&feature=related

The movie looks like a lot of fun. Probably one that we will have to own one day.

now for a real post

sorry about that last post. I was typing on a computer in the same room my hubby had been asleep in for 3 hours. you'd think he'd be sound asleep, but somehow I woke him up. so I was trying to finish my post and was super concious of every single key stroke. Therefore use of backspace was denied. Anyway, here is a real post.

We have a new neighbor. Not a big deal. The only thing is hearing heavy machinery for the next few months. and then again when he builds his house. But he seemed like a nice guy when I (nosy neighbor) shouted through a space in the trees and introduced myself. He seemed like a nice guy.

Our other neighbor whose house has been for sale for a few months now is another story. He bought the house last December right out of a divorce. He lived there for a few months and then moved in with a girlfriend. That was ok because he had some strange friends over there from time to time. Then his sister moved in with her hubby and 2 kids. She seemed ok, but her hubby was a little different. One day he road their 4 wheeler around and around in some water from their above ground pool that they had drained. I think there might have been some drinking involved. He did that for about 3-4 hours. And then there was the 2 week period where they kept having bonfires in the backyard at 1-3 in the morning. Not a big deal you say? Well, out here in the somewhat country there are not as many things in the way blocking the sound. My parents (with my property in the middle ) were kept awake by their noisy antics. I was woken up a few times, but Mom is more sensitive to noise at night due to her working nights half the week. Anyway, after Mom called the cops at 3am, they only had one more bonfire.

This was not huge for us, not a party, but bearable, until we realized that they were stealing wood from our woodpile in order to fuel these bonfires. Ok, I don't know if they stole more than one log (they put it back on our woodpile half burned) but that was enough. Wood costs money! And that is how we heat our home in the winter. So if I had had the guts (and not cared about neighbor relations) I should have marched up to their front door and demanded payment. But I didn't. all I did was put up a 'no trespassing' sign to replace the much worn one. I hoped that they would get the drift.

Anyway about November first the sister and family moved out. The house was still for sale. Strange thing was that the owner never did any clean up. There were still a large pile of garbage near the back door from the sister moving out, and a huge pile of broken cement and junk on the side of the property. For me and other members of the family, this was weird because when you are selling a house (especially in this market) you have it spic and span. Repaint and clean the carpets. The yard needs to be immaculate. Nothing like that ever happened over there. And we have to pass this place every time we leave home.

So yesterday the for sale sign had a new addition. It said 'short sale'. So I called the realtor to get the scoop. I had met the realtor when the owner bought the house. He had come and introduced himself and asked about the neighborhood and also the former owners. Also about the well which is shared with my parents home. Anyway, nice LDS guy.

He filled me in that after the owner had moved in with his girlfriend he married her and then got sick for a few months. This was a problem because he owned his own buisiness and was unable to work and so no income. So then his sister became unable to pay the mortgage, and that was when he put the house on the market.

He has it listed at 184,000 or so, but I know he bought it for around 160,000. So he must have borrowed more than he needed for upgrades and improvements. But now he can't afford the house, so the bank has to deal with it. Anyway, in today's market the house, although on 1 acre is probably worth $120,000. It has a huge 3500 worthless shop in the back that is dark, drafty and scary and it just needs to be knocked down because its taking up valuable real estate.

The house is a wreck . It was built in the 60's and not taken care of. When I met the realtor I begged for a tour of the house and shed. It was very small. Had 1.5 baths, 3 bedrooms. One bedroom was about the size of my closet. The other bedrooms are about as big as my kids rooms, including the master (what master?). The floor under the washing machine when stood on, you could bounce. If you tore down the shop, stripped and redid the house from the studs, floors included, could be worth a decent amount of money. But I don't think there is any profit in it. The people who owned it before this guy were house flippers and they barely got out with their shirts. They probably lost money. Also, the house has a one car garage that is very very sad. Made out of old mobile home material. Get my drift? This place is sad.

Well, I've got to go and pick up C from preschool.

New neighbors

We recently discovered that our neighbor sold his front acre. Its the one right next to the street. It makes his house back from the road, and once the new neighbor builds it will make it so cars driving by can;t see his house.

So we aren't unhappy about it. There is a thick row of trees between the neighbor and us so it's not like we can see him.

Anyway, that is all on that subject. I think I'm keeping hubby up with my typing.

The birds!

So about this time every year we reenact scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Its kind of cool. And no, we don't have a problem with poop. I don't know why. Maybe its because the birds like to hang out in the trees that are in the neighbors yard instead of ours?












All I can say is that these pictures don't show anywhere near all of the birds we have hanging out around here. But it gives you and idea.

We also had our first snow a few weeks ago. Just a skiff.



We also went to hubby's company Christmas party! We had a whole lot of fun!

Question

should we buy more sheep?

Are 2 enough?

I think the thing that is really bothering me is the fact that these are Cormo's are excellent sheep and the price is 50% of what we would normally pay.

Do I want to feed them all winter...

Do we want to sell Bertha and Lucky? (The goats) That would give us more pasture, and Dad would probably feed the sheep since the pasture is so close.

I'm also a little nervous because I don't know all that much about sheep care. They need hoof trimming like horses. I've never done that. Also, is it expensive?

So many costs!

Also, do I want to pay $8 each for shearing of more sheep.

Maybe I can get a deal. But would I be getting in over my head?

These are the thoughts I'm consumed with right now.

Oh, and I've figured out I'm not feeding the chickens enough. so egg production is down to 1 egg a day. I've increased feed. If I don't see an increase in egg production, I'm decreasing it again. Not starving them, just decreasing it because they don't need to eat as much if they are not laying an egg every day.

anyway, I love all the animals around here. The kids love the sheep. Charlie (the fixed sheep) is so nice! Callie (the female) just follows him around.

I've also decided to stop obsessing about a spinning wheel. I don't really need one. I mean, my spindle is working just fine right now. I don't need to spend at least $400 on a spinning wheel at this point in my life. (unless I find a used one close by and for a good price) :)

Old McDonald had a .... chicken?

Well we did it again. We've expanded out menagerie. We now have 4 chickens.

This time it was hubby who wanted them. He built the coop with a little help with our wolf scouts (passing off the 'build something' arrow point). Then we couldn't find any chickens to buy!

So I advertised a few times on craigslist.org and finally found 3 rhode island reds. Of course after I found them there was a whole week where chickens were available nearly every day.

Anyway, our research showed that Rhode Island Reds do well in cold weather, lay brown eggs, and are pretty hardy. Most of these chickens are heavy layers, laying 6 days out of 7. Also, they don't tend to slack off as much during the winter as most other breeds do. Something about it being colder. Anyway, they lay on average somewhere around 260 eggs per year.

The person we bought the chickens from also threw in a black silkie who lays white eggs, but not yet because she's to young. She said something about how anyone who has chickens should experience this kind. I should take some pictures of them all, but especially the silkie. It looks like it has a mohawk or something.

Anyway its been a lot of fun. The kids helped me feed it, and I may let them help a little with egg collecting.

We put the hen house and run inside our pasture. So the 2 sheep keep the chickens company. I've also moved the bunny inside the pasture, next to the hen house. We had it on the back porch and had some poop catchers under its cage, but man that thing is a poop machine. so I say let it poop in the pasture. I just have to figure out how to make the cage more weather proof. The bunny is long haired so seems to stay warm. I just worry about it once it gets really cold.

So the hen house has 3 nests. Hubby needs to build a 4th one so that the silkie has one.

Each nest has a little door that has a hook keeping it closed. Well Charlie the sheep figured out how to open it. Actually, he just nosed around enough to make it open so he could investigate. So hubby looks outside and says 'the chickens are out'. We raced outside and figured out that only 2 chickens were out. We chased them around the pasture and finally got them back inside. We tightened the hooks and are hoping that we're good now. If not, we may be getting different closures. We really don't want to chase them around anymore.

I'm really excited about the eggs. Today was the first time we got 3. So finally all 3 chickens are laying. I had heard that when they get moved around (or chased around :) they tend to take a few days off to get accustomed to their new surroundings.

The strange thing is that instead of all 3 chickens laying in the morning like most chickens do (according to the internet), we have lazy chickens who lay throughout the day. This morning I fed them at 9:30. Only one egg. I checked again around 11am (we had been getting 2 a day, so I didn't want to miss one) and there was another egg. I checked once more before church for fun and there was another egg! I hope these guys know that I'm not checking 3 times every day!

The other thing we are dealing with is that its been so cold lately that everyone's water keeps freezing. Yesterday i had to use an ax to chop through the ice on the sheep's water trough. The chickens keep stepping in the water, making it filthy and then it freezes. The bunny's water bottle (supposed to be weather tough) has been freezing solid.

My solution? pour hot water on the chickens water. this melts a little of the ice and fills the bowls the rest of the way. The bunny has a water bowl that I've been doing the same to. I fill it with hot water every day. The water bottle is useless. (weather tough, my foot).

The girls love to help. They love that hubby installed a new gate in the pasture so that feeding and caring for the animals is super easy now. It is literally a hop skip and a jump from our back door.

On to other things. My parents next door have 2 goats. One is sort of ours. We tried to give her away last summer, but things got complicated and we took her back. Then the neighbors intact nigerian pygmy goat hopped the fence and we thing bertha may be pregnant. If she is, she is due the first week in Feb. Its hard to tell for sure with goats, but her stomach is very different that it used to be. Lots of strange bumpy angles and her tail is at constant attention. I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to it if she is pregnant. I don't know if I'm up to a delivery!

Mom and Dad are in the process of putting in their papers for their mission. They could have a call within 3 months. Its exciting and scary.

They could stay in the area, and at home. Or they could go anywhere. We are pretty sure that because of Dad's allergies they would stay stateside. But you never really know.

So that is the excitement in our lives. I'll try and post chicken pictures soon.

Some of my adventures in Dying!

I'm finally having the fun that I thought I should have in my dyeing! When I first started dyeing, I wasn't sure how serious I was about spinning, etc. So I thought I would just use Kool-aid. It is said to be colorfast when using vinegar, but will fade with washing. I was making and felting a bag, so I thought that would be ok for what I was using it for. I mean, how often do you felt a bag? Anyway, I posted pics of that in previous entries.

I was a bit dissappointed with kool-aid because it seemed like the colors were really bright and it didn't seem like I would be able to produce a variety of colors.

Well I've since decided that spinning is for me. Just look at our two adorable sheep!



They are Cormer. A girl and a boy who is fixed. They come from a registered Cormer dad and different mothers.

The other day it was raining and I thought 'poor lambs!' and went out to pet them. They were wet, but if you looked deeper into their coat they were dry and warm. I'm so excited to use that wool! It has a great crimp to it and it's so soft.

Don't tell hubby, but the next thing for the sheep is coats. This makes the wool that much nicer and keeps trash out of the wool, and is supposed to improve your yield.

So back to dyeing. I decided to stay with food based dyes. They can fade over time, but I really like the thought of this being safe to use around my kids. The only thing I have to worry about is staining fingers and clothes. Chemical dyes you have to worry about inhaling and it looks like you have to be careful with it, and of course your kids can't help! So food dyes work for me at this time in my life.

Another thing I've learned is that yes, red yellow and blue are primary colors. But its really hard to make all the colors you may want from them. Using icing colors works great when you want a specific color. And its much easier!!!

Anyway, Here are my adventures from dyeing from today.

All of these results were obtained in the microwave. The wool was soaked in water for 10-15 minutes to wet it. Then the wool spent anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes in the microwave. I just kept cooking it until the dye was exhausted, or nearly exhausted. :)

I also added about 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar. I didn't measure this.

First up is hot pink!

I used 1.1 oz of spun wool and Wilton icing paste, color pink. 1/8 tsp. Way to intense. Doubt I'll do this one again.



Next up is blue and purple tie dye.

I used 1.4 oz of spun wool and 1/8 tsp of Wilton icing paste, color delpinium blue.



Next is a pretty rosy pink
I used .9 oz of spun wool and 1/16th tsp Aster Mauve wilton icing paste.



Next is another hot pink. Just a little lighter.
I used .9 oz of spun wool and 1/16th tsp of pink wilton icing paste. I was trying to get the pink just right.



Next is something I made up myself! It turned into a pretty light pink.

I used 1.1 oz spun wool and the Neon food coloring kit from Mccormick. 10 drops of purple, 2 drops pink and 1 drop blue.



I tried to take a picture of all of the pink colors I created in my quest for the perfect pink. It didn't turn out well, but it does show the differences in shades.



Next I made another sort of tie dye blue/purple.

I used 1 oz spun wool and the neon food coloring kit from Mccormick. It was supposed to be sky blue. 12 drops blue, 6 drops purple, 2 drops green.

Washing wool

I've been washing wool for about 24 hours now.

The first time I washed wool (2lbs, looked very dirty) it was a breeze. It happened just like the instructions said it would. Thank goodness.

This time, it has taken forever. And I'm very happy we don't have to pay for our water, because I have used a ton. I just worry a little about our septic system.

Anyway.

This time I followed the exact same instructions as last time - If you are a first time wool washer, please don't follow these instructions. I'm leaving a lot of "don't do this" and "do this a certain way" out of my post because these are not instructions, rather this is what I did in general. (there are other websites with great instructions available).

1. very hot water. Add dish soap of choice (nothing with bleach) about 1/3 cup to each pound of wool. Soak wool in this for 1-2 hours.

2. drain water, add fresh water.

3. step 2 again.

By this time you have clean wool.

Well this time after step 3 I noticed that there were areas of the wool where there seemed to be a slick and sticky substance. This is known as lanolin. If left in your wool it will make it hard to card and eventually make the wool stiff and sticky.

So its late, I thought I'd be done by now, and I'm tired.

So I add all the wool together and start at step one.

I let it soak all night in this.

This morning, same spots of lanolin.

So upon further research I decided to try super washing soda from Arm & hammer. Also, I've switched my tubs of water and big laundry sink full of water for my washing machine. At this point, since the wool is pretty clean, It's ok. But I would never use the washing machine from the beginning. To much sheep poop on the wool. Yuck.

Using the washing machine means that all of the wool has to be bagged so that no fiber can sneak into my washing machine parts and cause me to have to buy new parts.

So I just filled the washer and put in 1/8th of a cup of washing soda per pound. Since I have 9 pounds, I put just over 1 cup in.

I let it soak for no longer than 20 minutes. Washing soda can harm your fiber if left to long.

I just put it through the spin cycle. This is safe because unlike the agitation cycle, it doesn't move or agitate the wool.

When I pulled the wool out of the machine (never refill the machine while the wool is still inside!) I noticed small brown dirty looking, slightly greasy small blobs. These lightly coated the inside of the washer and the pillow cases that I have all the wool inside.

I wiped down the inside of the washing machine, but couldn't do much with the pillow cases. As long as I keep the water hot, this yucky stuff shouldn't redistribute onto the wool. As long as its not hanging out on the wool, I'm ok with this.

Anyway, the wool is currently soaking in dish liquid again. Since the wool is pretty clean by now, it won't soak in there very long. I'm thinking about 1/2 hour.

The next rinse I'll use vinegar. Washing soda is very base, so you need to bring the wool back to somewhat neutral I guess. Anway, after the vinegar I may rinse one more time. I'm not sure how necessary it will be though.

Please cross your fingers for me that I didn't somehow felt the whole 9 lbs. I would die.

Oh, and we'll be getting 2 sheep on Monday. More on that later.

I'm so excited!

I just arranged to buy 9 pounds of wool this evening.

Help me think of great colors to dye it and projects to use it on!

I'm already seeing pretty pink slippers from Santa for the girls. Maybe I could figure out how to cross stitch (or iron on) princess. They are so into princesses!

I found Snow White at the DI today. $4 seemed a little over priced, but I know it would cost me more at the store (if they are even selling it). I guess I was spoiled by that awesome garage sale a few months back where movies were .25 and .50 each.


I'm liquidating my Nintendo collection.

I was amazed to learn that I have 2 super nintendo systems, 1 super nintendo game

2 rf's
2 power cords

5 NES systems
20 NES games
13 NES controllers

Also 2 Atari systems
7 atari games
2 Atari joy sticks
1 Atari rf

I actually think there is another box of NES's around here somewhere.

I know there is a box of 5 or so new replacement connectors for the NES.

If anyone wants one, they better speak up!

I ramble on answering machines

I'm sorry!!!

cute kids

C and M are sitting here next to me discussing hubby and my's wedding photo.

M says " Mommy" pointing to me "Daddy" pointing to Daddy. "Daddy is a nice boy" :)

She is putting together words very well now. Lots of 3 -5 word sentences.

"daddy fall down on my feet" the picture is on the ground now

"I fall down. I fall down Mommy" She is laying on the ground.

C says "your so silly M." and "I have Mommy and Daddy right here." holding the picture.

Now its "Mommy I Hungry" from M which means that I must feed the troops.

M calls C "honey". I think its because hubby and I call each other that. Occasionally she will say C's name.

Way to much to say for one entry

There is now way to explain what has been happening with just one blog entry. So I'll start with my new passion. Felting!!! And Spinning! And all that sort of stuff.

So, I recently got back into spinning wool after not doing it for about a year. I guess I was to busy with life and moving and building a house and landscaping and .... well I could go on, but I'll stop.

But I've gotten back into spinning. I started out spinning on my spindle again


and then decided I wanted to take a class. There is a local place called the sheep shed where they offered a spinning class for $40. the class is around 4 hours so I thought it was worth it.

The class was fun and while maybe not worth $40, it was a lot of fun. The lady who taught it is recovering from cancer and she and her husband are in their 70's. She spent the first hour or so going over wool quality and types of wool and gave us a lot of pointers on buying quality wool and types of sheep that produce that wool. Also what to look for when buying wool (veggie matter, etc).

We also spent about 1.5 hours spinning on various spinning wheels. Of course I liked the $700 wheel the best. That's not going to happen!

Anyway, after having so much fun, I came up with all sorts of possible money making ideas that would make it possible for me to really get into spinning.

After much thought, of course none seem really feasible.

Anyway, for my birthday my hubby gave me the latest Nancy Drew game !!!! and said that I could spend $50 over at the Sheep Shed. I decided that if I was really going to get into spinning, I should think about getting some sheep eventually. So if I was going down to that level, then the best thing for me to buy for my birthday would be some carders for combing and blending wool. When I called the Sheep shed to make an appointment, Cleo , the owner said that she would give me some wool to play around with as well.

Well, when I got there, she pointed out a huge back of yucky looking wool. There was a lot of it though. So I felt like I should spend a little more money in her shop to help cover it. So I spent another $15 and bought a Niddy Noddy for winding spun wool.

Hubby thankfully wasn't upset when I came home having spent $73 instead of $50. He was little surprised though.

Anyway I weighed the wool. To my surprise it was 2 pounds. Wool typically sells around here for $5/lb, so Cleo really gave me a great gift. Anyway, before washing the wool I thought for sure it was multi colored brown colors. I wasn't super thrilled, but was excited to try washing and carding wool.

I put the wool in a huge bucket of hot water and dish soap. After that, I took it out and gave it 2 rinses (1-2 hour soak) in hot water. This rinses out the rest of the soap and lanolin.

Imagine my surprise when the wool came out off white. Now I should mention that each sheep varies in the shade of white that it produces. Also each sheep's wool takes dyes differently. So you typically dye all the wool at one time, and probably try and limit the sheep involved. A fleece from a sheep typically weighs around 5 pounds.

Anyway, I dried the wool next to the fire for the next few days. Then I started to card the wool.



after carding, it looks like this



It took about a week to get through all of that wool.

I should probably mention that you can dye the wool at two different stages in the process. You can dye it after washing it, or you can dye it after spinning it. I chose to dye after spinning it.

It took about 2 weeks to card and spin the wool.







In the meantime a project had been suggested to me. My parents are going to serve a mission for our church in the spring and Mom would need a sturdy church bag. I forget where I got the original idea from, but it got me excited. Now I remember. From this blog - http://letsknit2gether.com/blog1/

So after the wool was all spun, I had to figure out how I was going to dye it all. For wool (or any animal fiber) the best dye is a protein based dye. If you go this route, you need to buy pots, pans, measuring stuff, and stirring spoons specifically for this. You can never use these things again for food cooking.

Since I don't have that kind of disposable income, I opted to go another route. Kool-aid. Now, this dye does have its problems. It will fade over time. But for my purpose, it seemed ideal. A bag doesn't get washed very often. So the only way for the color to fade seems to be regular use, and maybe the sun.

So I bought several colors of off brand kool-aid and a couple of packets of real kool-aid blue and dark red that weren't available in the off brands.

I experimented with these colors in the microwave and then showed the results to my Mom and let her choose. I have to admit I sort of talked her into my favorite. Purple. the purple wasn't that dark purple you might think of. I'll add a picture once I have it. She was leaning towards a dark red or blue thinking they would hold up better. I was thinking more about what color would go with more outfits. :)

Anyway, it took me a couple of hours and every packet of purple I had to get the right shade. Even then I had to grab a couple packets of blue and red and mix them to get the right shade and add them to. I really liked that effect. It made the purple more reddish. It was nice.

Anyway, after that, I hung it all up to dry in my laundry room and almost overnight it was dry enough to start crocheting.

After looking at bunches of patterns on the web, I couldn't find any I thought would hold up to what my mom needed the bag for.

So I decided to design my own. This resulted in a week or so of crocheting and re-doing. This was partly because of design stuff, crochet errors, and even running out of yarn.

Anyway, after a week I was ready to felt. Here is the result.

With a box for shape -


Without the box -



I think Dad is going to put a cardboard square into the bottom of it for shape.


Now I'm really into felting. Since the first bag, I have crocheted and felted a purse for me



I haven't decided if I like it yet.

2 soap holder thingeys for use in the shower from this website - http://bricoreandfamily.blogspot.com/



and a pair of slippers for C that I will felt today.

before -


After -


I'm not sure if they are felted enough. I think I'd like to try and felt them some more.

Now here's the problem. I'm out of wool. Without wool or some other fiber from and animal, I can't felt.

What am I going to do? I am going through withdrawals!!!!!!

Mcleods daughters

yes, I'm addicted. I just am. They showed Seasons 1-3 on the We channel a few years back and now I've been catching the current season.

I've just got to rant.

If Mcleods daughters was to be taken seriously, then the crime rate in Australia must be out of this world. A few episodes ago the girls were kidnapped when they knocked on a farmers door in order to get water for their overheated radiator. Last week Rose fell and is now in a wheelchair and should walk after a lot of rehab (and in this episode tries to kill herself due to not wanting to live without walking). The week before that Rose narrowly escaped being date raped after being given a drug. The preview for next week shows Rose being held hostage at Drovers Run while some random guys search the house.

These episodes are 4 in a row. (kidnapped, date rape, accident, hostage). I can swallow all of this happening over maybe 1 season, but 4 in a row? Come on! seriously!

What happened to this show being about relationships? Family and romantic.

I still like the show, but am just finding it a bit hard to swallow at the moment.

so much to say

Heres the Readers Digest version of what I've not felt like posting about.

The day we got the occupancy permit for our home, my husband decided to move in. This was Mid-December. The next day I awoke to find that I had herniated a disc in my back. Lovely.

After much pain, and after trying a visit or two to the chiropractor, I decided to visit my normal doctor and get the good pain meds. My real doctor was out of town for 2 weeks, and so I had to go to another doctor. He prescribed a pain med, anti inflammatory, and a muscle relaxant. I was in bed for a week and things seemed to be getting worse. One day I forgot to take my pain pill (hey, I was on 3 different pill schedules!) and ended up in the ER because I was in so much pain. The sad thing was that after I got there, they made me wait so long to get in, my pain pill FINALLY started working. Although it was making me very nauseous. Anyway, the ER doc prescribed me a heavier hitting pain med for emergencies like that one where the pain was just awful. I never ended up taking it, but held on to it just in case.

By the next Wednesday I was spending more and more time out of bed. I still had 3 or so relapses, but was doing all right. I started going to and have since graduated from the physical therapist. I also started going to a chiropractor who practices kinesiology, and acupuncture. It was ok. I don't know how much it actually helped. And, this guy has since turned his practice over to another guy who is just awful. So I'm thinking about going to another chiropractor because about 2 weeks ago I had another setback and am having major sciatic pain again.

My husband has been a real trooper and has supported me through it all. He is going to school, working full time, and helping with the kids and doing dishes and laundry.

Since spring arrived we have been working hard. I think this might be what has been leading up to this latest setback.

We've had grass planted, planted trees, planted a garden, planted shrubs and flowers, etc, etc. We've been very busy.

We've also been very busy helping my parents. They are having my sisters wedding reception in their yard in July and of course they have to whip everything into shape. We haven't actually done all that much, but we have helped out.

My hubby and Dad work together really well, and help each other out physically, and with coming up with solutions.

Anyway, we are also Wolf leaders in our ward and are having a lot of fun with it.

C has a new friend who she has play dates with.

C and A are hard to keep from Grandma and Grandpa's house. If they see Grandma or Grandpa, they always have to say hi and go and see them. I think G & G might finally be getting tired of it. Last week Grandma started talking about rules at Grandma's house.

I'm sure there is more, but that was the basics.