Playing Tourist Again

First I wish to announce that the winner of the FREE copy of Judith Durant's One Skein Wonders for Babies book is.... Nadine Foster! (thank you random number generator!) I will be on touch soon to get your details so I can ship it out to you. Congratulations, and enjoy knitting for the wee ones in your life! 

We decided before we came here that we would take every opportunity of stuffing ourselves with as much of Massachusetts as we possibly could, knowing that we will probably move on from here to places unknown. And having never lived in the eastern part of the state, there's a lot of things we've never seen or done that I've always wanted to see and/or do. 

For example, I have always wanted to see a cranberry harvest. I have seen them on television before, but that's just not the same as BEING there.

This weekend was Columbus Day weekend, and there were festivals and celebrations a-plenty.  At the Cranberry Harvest Festival, hosted by A.D. Make peace Company (the world's largest cranberry grower!), there were activities, samples, crafters, and food trucks galore! There was live music, and a ton of things for kids to do from free pony rides to dry harvesting of cranberries and making your own take-home "bog in a cup". For bigger kids there were beer and wine tastings, and helicopter tours for a reasonable $50 per adult. The event encompasses two areas - the Frogfoot bog where the harvesting takes place, and the farm where the majority of vendors were camped out. 

After we paid our $10 per adult entry fee, we followed the map to the bus loading area bound for the bog. We boarded old-school yellow buses (flashback!) and headed into the unknown (or the woods, whichever). After a short ride we popped off of the bus outside of a barn containing a variety of cranberry related merchandise and a display of the photography of Robert "Grumpy" Conway. Conway was a longtime employee of the A.D. Make peace Company, and a nature lover and amateur photographer. There is even a race held annually in his honor - Grumpy's Harvest 5K Walk/Run - the proceeds of which go to the Cranberry Educational Foundation's Scholarship Fund. We bought some fresh raw cranberries - two pounds of them. They look amazing. It's not like I haven't seen cranberries before. I mean, I was born and reared in Massachusetts. But these berries look NOTHING like the ones found in the produce department in November.

They are full and bright and bursting with goodness. I can't wait to make them into something, although I have developed a habit for them au natural now, too. I ate about a cup of them by the end of the bog experience.

The Frogfoot Bog area hosts a bunch of activities and educational opportunities. We started with a ride around a bog in a tractor-drawn trailer; think hay-ride sans hay.

We got a great education about the berries and their history - cranberries are native to Massachusetts - about as native as it gets. The Wampanoag's taught the Europeans about them. They were essential as a food source, and were recognized medicinally as well. There are bogs in Massachusetts that have vines that are as old as 150 years.  A farmer rarely has to start a new bog in this part of the country, because the vines and bogs are well established. The berry requires specific conditions to grow, both in terms of the substrate they prefer to the climate, and while Massachusetts may be the home of the cranberry, they are now grown as far away as Canada and Oregon - although we, of course, still grow the majority of them.

Bogs are not water-filled during the growing season, and the berries do not grow in water. Rather, the water is allowed to flow into the bogs for harvest, so that the fruit can be parted from their vine hosts, and then the berries are rounded up and floated, then pulled into a giant vacuum (for lack of a better term). 

The water from that bog is then drained to the next, and the process is repeated. As the berries are lifted from the water by vacuum and hoisted onto a conveyor system, the water from the process is returned to the bog. 

I was surprised by the water conservation involved in cranberry harvest. Rather than "flushing it all down the can" so to speak, the machinery is all arranged in a way, and the bank tarped, so that as much water returns to the bog as possible. 

I love the process - berries released from their moorings, rounded up and sucked up, conveyed up and into waiting trucks, and on and on until the bog is empty and the next ready to be filled with water and beaten. My favorite part probably involved the handfuls of cranberries I got to munch down.

I've decided I like them better than raw rhubarb, and I like raw rhubarb pretty well. Maybe it's a tie.

Today, the conveyor - tomorrow a can of cranberry sauce on your Thanksgiving table. Thank your farmers. The guy who led our tour sells half of his berries to Ocean Spray and half to a farmer's co-operative. Literally, I may have seen berries that Gene will be snarfing down from a can in a few weeks. He does love his cranberry sauce (canned, jellied - not whole berry - and with the understanding that one can is one portion).

After we watched the wet harvest operation we took a short break for lunch. I had a disappointing cup of indifferent soup that tasted less like butternut and more like leftover macaroni and cheese. I ditched it after the first couple of bites. But I did get free Crasin samples from Ocean Spray, and a sample of their new cranberry tangerine juice.

And Gene had a fried sausage with peppers and onions.

Sometimes being an 80% vegetarian and 100% gluten free stinks - today was one of those times. At festivals I have a hard time finding anything other than french fries. No gluten, no meat...way too confusing. I am always glad when Gene pulls out the kettle corn.

Did I mention the free samples? Ocean Spray was giving away a stack of sample sized bags of various dried cranberry based snacks. Love a freebie. AND you got to build your "bog in a cup" here, too, layering rock and sand and adding a sprig of cranberry vine on top.

Also, Bigelow Tea was there with their Big Tea Bar handing out samples of hot tea and a bag to take home for later.

I got the Thin Mint tea (tastes just like the cookie!) and Gene got his favorite Pomegranate Green. I also tweeted from their and won a prize - a "tea-shirt"!

Then we went and saw dry harvesting - or more accurately, participated in dry harvesting.

Most of the berries in the supermarket bags are harvested this way. Instead of flooding the bog with water, then beating and rounding up the berries, in dry harvesting they are pulled from the vines with rake-ended collection devices, sort of like the Maine blueberry harvesting tools of yore.

We got to walk onto the bog, and experience dry harvest first hand. Kids loved this. I preferred to find a quiet spot and grab a handful and reflect on the humble berry that has probably saved countless lives, and assisted in the development of this country in ways we really don't fully appreciate.

We returned to the farm via shuttle bus, and wandered among vendors and displays and demonstrations. Johnson and Wales gave cooking demonstrations. One chef made a lovely seasonal plate featuring short ribs, kale with cranberry and pecans, and a root veg puree with a lovely little butternut pickle that I really loved. I was too far back in the pack to get the kale. He also lauded the glories of the VitaMix, which I also adore - AND I found out that any pan that a magnet can stick to can be used on an induction burner. So if I wanted to experience induction, I can buy a single burner and slap my cast iron on it just to try it out. Tempting.

We sampled some strange botanical teas from Vermont, a nice selection Vermont cheeses, and some wine from Westport Rivers Winery (may I recommend the Cinco Caes?). Then I found RIPE. They make craft juices. They also make craft bar juice. They were giving away sample bottles of both. As a general rule I do not drink juice. I don't like the extra wasted calories, I don't like that it usually is watered down or sugared up. This isn't that kind of juice. The cold pressed (never heated, never pasteurized, fresh, fresh, fresh) cranberry apple was just stunning and pure and fiberful and amazing. Madly in love. I also got a sample of 100% cranberry - nothing added! No sugar, just cranberry juice! We did get some Agave Margarita bar juice as well, but I've got no idea when we'll use it (we have 75-80 days, according to the website). We did taste a sample and it was pretty amazing, and there are recipes, both virgin and not so much virgin.

In all this was just a really fun day, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Between the free samples and the cran-u-cation, and the Johnson and Wales demo, and the oysters (I forgot about that - so there's these oysters around here from Big Rock Oyster Co in Harwich and they are just wicked freaking amazingly delicious and are probably the BEST oysters I have ever had in my life and I have eaten a lot of oysters - I've been stalking these guys at every festival and event all summer, and I got an invite to visit the farm and get a tour and learn to shuck!!) and the requisite kettle corn and sausage and pepper and onion thing (which has become a thing since Dad died and Gene now thinks it's his job to eat all the sausage that Dad would if he were still here) it was a really great day. If you're ever local to Wareham on Columbus Day weekend, I highly recommend it!

Next post maybe there will be some knitting or at least something handcraft-y. It's fall here and so easy to get lost in the season. The last hurrah before the long winter ahead. We're told it snows less here. But after last winter, I am not sure I believe.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!

I am gonna give it away, yes I am, one copy of this sweet book from Storey Publishing, edited by Judith Durant, featuring a collection of charming, knittable patterns for babies and toddlers - all using just one skin of yarn! 

Because there was a mix-up in shipping, I have an extra copy of this adorable book. And while I had no intention of parting with my own copy, I am willing to let the second one go. So we will have a giveaway. This contest (if you can call it that) will end one week from today - Monday October 12 at 6pm EST. Comment on this post and one random winner will be drawn - one entry per reader, please! You have a week (and about 46 minutes). Comment away! And be sure to tell all your knitting friends, so they can have a chance as well!

View and Re-View

It looks as if this is going to be book review month here at Ye Old Blog. It would have already started if I'd found my camera. If anyone sees my camera...give a shout, hey? Sorry in advance for the images - I am shooting with my phone for the time being!
As always, books that I review on this blog were given to me by the publisher but I will not review a book I don't like, or don't think has some relevance in the marketplace. If you see it here, it struck a chord with me. If I don't like them, I simply don't review them.

First up is a new release from Running Press that will be available in October titled Knitless: 50 No-Knit, Stash-Busting Yarn Projects by Laura McFadden, author of 1,000 Handmade Greetings (and others). Of course, you probably don't need a book like this. I am sure that none of my readers have yarn they just don't know what to do with, right? I mean, we all know exactly what to do with yarn. Even those big baskets of partial balls, and the remainder skeins stuffed into the recycled comforter bags under the bed, right? Right! Of course we do. No? Me either... until now. Now we have options!

With a wide range of projects, Knitless gives knitters (and others) a host of things to do with yarn, from the artistic and aesthetic, to the practical and functional - and in some cases a nice blend of both.

Take this, for example - coasters! Practical and functional. Pretty and useful. I can get behind that! And it isn't like I don't have enough yarn to make this happen. I can see these as excellent gifts as well, in a basket for example with lots of yummy coffee samples and a couple of mugs...

Do you have piles of loose earrings sitting around in piles? I know I used to before I stopped wearing them. This is an excellent way to organize them and use up some yarn in the process - a customized piece using a simple frame that can easily be coordinated with any decor.

Speaking of decor - custom art anyone? An excellent use for scraps - yarn painting. I love this idea!

But I really love this - probably my favorite in the book - a concentric circle rug created using paracord and yarn. I've been needing a new kitchen rug...and it isn't like I don't have any yarn with which to create this project! In fact I could probably make a whole new living room carpet out of these circles...

In most instances the yarn amounts are fairly small, making them perfect for those little balls left after completing of a project. Once you've filled all the empty glass jars in your house with random balls of this or that, and have run out of things to do, Knitless comes to the rescue with a wide range of projects for all skill levels and time investments, from wearable pieces to art pieces to functional items - I've just scratched the surface with the very few projects I've shown here.

The directions for these projects are very clear, and templates are included where needed. Whether you are making your own suspension bridge side table (LOVE it!) or yarn bombing a bike (because why not!?), Knitless may be just the book to inspire you to set down your needles - just for a MINUTE, mind you - and let your yarn do something new and different!

In all there are 50 uses for yarn divided into four chapters. The book is neatly sized at 208 pages, and handily paperback with flaps for page marking. Look for it in October - an excellent stocking stuffer idea!

Blog Tour - Day 5

We rejoin the blog tour today with Webs Yarn Store. I swear I did not pay them to be nice to me, honest. (Psst! Don't worry. The check is in the mail!). Webs is also giving away a copy of Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting!

Tomorrow;s stop was to be Lion Brand Yarn Studio's podcast, but due to circumstances beyond my control I was not able to get into the city for the taping. We will rejoin the tour on Wednesday. You can find the schedule below.

June 22 - Knit-a-While with the charming Ida
June 23 - Lorna's Laces with the talented Beth Casey who controls all of Gene's favorite sock yarn (Shepherd Socks, color: camouflage).
June 24 - i made it so with cross crafting wiz Ana
June 27 - The Woolie Ewe with Jenn, my buddy from Texas who knows just where to find the gluten free food.
June 28 - ShibaGuyz with the lovable Shannon and Jason
June 29 - Nelkin Design with Laura Nelkin who designs the most delightful, lovely knitted things from shawls to jewelry.
June 30 - Getting Stitched on the Farm with the brilliant and undeniably gifted Kristin Nicholas
July 1 - Go Knit in Your Hat with Carol "My Favorite Stalker".
July 2 - Sunset Cat with Stefanni, who is not only a talented technical editor, but also has the loveliest Tonkinese cats!

Propelled, I Am It!

This week marks the official, from my perspective, launch of Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting. Yes, it's been around since May. But for me, it's not really real until there's a small gathering at Webs of fans and friends and family and a sample knitter or two (they usually fall into the friend category as well!). And THIS is that week!

Here's the schedule of where you can find me in person over the next two weeks -

Thursday June 9th, 6:30pm - The official first event, a book signing at Webs in Northampton with samples to see, question and answer time, and me talking about the book.

Sunday June 12, 1pm - Book signing at the R&M Booth at TNNA in Columbus, Ohio. I will be bringing along some samples for this even as well!

Thursday June 16, 6pm - a book signing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York. If you've never been to this shop and live in the city, you really should get here!

And here's the blog tour schedule -

June 14 - Books, Yarn, Ink and Other Pursuits with librarian Kristi - and who knows books better than a librarian, really?
June 15 - OMG! Heart with Alice, who survived 2-at-a-Time class with me - and STILL wanted to be part of this tour.
June 16 - Jessalu Knits with the talented Jessalu - I love those bags!
June 17 - Rock and Purl with the energetic and ebullient Ruth Garcia-Alcantud.
June 20 - Webs Yarn Store with... you know, I am not sure who is going to be doing this entry. I hope it's someone who loves me. ;)
June 21 - Yarncraft Podcast with the delightful Zontee of Lion Brand Yarn Studio.
June 22 - Knit-a-While with the charming Ida
June 23 - Lorna's Laces with the talented Beth Casey who controls all of Gene's favorite sock yarn (Shepherd Socks, color: camouflage).
June 24 - i made it so with cross crafting wiz Ana
June 27 - The Woolie Ewe with Jenn, my buddy from Texas who knows just where to find the gluten free food.
June 28 - ShibaGuyz with the lovable Shannon and Jason
June 29 - Nelkin Design with Laura Nelkin who designs the most delightful, lovely knitted things from shawls to jewelry.
June 30 - Getting Stitched on the Farm with the brilliant and undeniably gifted Kristin Nicholas
July 1 - Go Knit in Your Hat with Carol "My Favorite Stalker".
July 2 - Sunset Cat with Stefanni, who is not only a talented technical editor, but also has the loveliest Tonkinese cats!

This is summertime. I live on a small farm. I have chickens of varying sizes (and types) coming out of my ears right about now, and a garden just beginning to really require my attention on a regular basis. For the next two weeks my time and attention will be significantly divided between home and work, farm life and yarn life, barn chores and trade shows/book signings, a run-down 4-Runner and airplanes.

To keep my head on a little tighter and make sure everything get done here at home, we are sticking with a blog tour to celebrate Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting. There are 15 stops on the blog tour, and each will offer up their own unique perspective on the new book. Some will be doing reviews, some interviews, and some a combination of both. A few are even knitting up projects from the book to give you an idea of the content. Pretty cool! Most blogs or podcasts will be giving away a signed copy of the book as well (YAY! Free stuff!). So stay tuned, jump on board the Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting Magic Tour Bus, and learn more about the book and about me!

She Cleans Up Well Enough

Although this seems like not-a-big-deal, I was very excited last week to order and receive a brand new fridge.

Isn't it shiny?! I am pretty low maintenance about appliances, in part because I tend to focus on energy efficiency which usually means fewer bells and whistles. I had said that we would not get a new fridge until we could afford to get a Sun Frost, a $3500 investment. And not likely to happen soon. But when we were confronted with 30+ eggs a day, and no room for the iced tea, let alone the vegetables we chow down in large quantity, something had to give. My plan was to buy a small used fridge for the garage for eggs. Well, plans are subject to change. The old fridge - not very old really, although it was here when we moved in it appeared fairly new - was very loud and had a bad habit involving dripping and the perpetual need for a bowl in the back to catch run-off from the freezer. Anyway, while on my new-used garage fridge quest I called Gene and explained that all the used fridges I could find were old enough to suck about ten times the energy of our current fridge. I told him how much new fridges cost, and we decided to change the plan. Buy new for the house, and move our old one to the garage for eggs. This pleased him well enough - the constant running and noise of the old one bugged him more than it did me. Well, the plan has now changed again! In my excitement to pick our a large shiny new metal thing for my kitchen, I failed to realize that I was procuring a fridge that was 2 cubic feet larger than ours. With just the two of us at home, our fridge use has declined. Upon moving this lovely new baby in we made a wonderful discovery. We can fit about 18 dozen eggs on the lower shelf. This means, for the time being anyway, there is no need to plug in the old one, now living in the garage! This makes my tree-hugging, energy-sipping soul SO happy! AND, after some research, it turns out that this new Energy Star rated fridge, even though it's bigger, will use about 40% LESS ENERGY than the old one did!
Over this holiday weekend we got to visit the farm where our beef comes from.Wheel View Farm hosted an open house and sale - which means we also probably came home with some beef.

This farm is so beautiful, I could sit all day and look out over their pastures, watching my future food on the hoof. We are so lucky to live in this valley.
After we visited Wheel View, we drove home through Leyden to avoid holiday traffic on route 2 (the "Mohawk Trail")and circumvent the Gas Engine Show in Bernardston. This show is an annual event that I used to take my kids to when they were small (and so was the show). It's a combination flea market and antique engine show. Living where we do now it is something we tend to avoid. For those who attend, I hope you have a wonderful time. it is a lot of fun to see the old engines, and prowl the flea market sales. I just prefer to stay clear of the traffic and chaos for those two days. FedEx delivered a package up here on Saturday morning and warned us not to go that way if we wanted to leave home. Seems he could not get off of route 91 for quite some time as traffic was backed up for a few miles leading to the Bernardston exit.
Last night we were carrying in the dishes from our little two person holiday picnic and the most horrible thing happened! I dropped my official wine cup!

Watching it fall was the saddest thing ever. I was carrying a huge pile of dishes, much to high for safety. Everything started to tip and Gene grabbed, and down it all came anyway, in spite of our best efforts. I have begged Malea to make me a new set. There is hope!
On Saturday I will attend the wedding of Meg's closest friend Maria. I decided that maybe a dress was in order. I have some, but none really appropriate for a June wedding. With this in mind I headed off and found two possibilities... this is dress #1:

And this is dress #3:

I don't need to show you #'s 2, 4 and 5, because I decided against them all pretty quickly. It took me a LONG time to choose between these two. I wandered around the store clutching them in my hot little hands, wondering if I could get away with buying 2 dresses when I never wear them after the event I buy them for. That is a thing which drives Gene crazy. I have tried to explain this bad habit to him, but I don't get very far. He has pants. He wears his pants over and over and over until they fall apart. Dress shirts; over and over. Ties, the same. But I digress. We were talking about ME! Although my hair needs to be spiffed up a bit, and a pedicure would not be amiss (thankfully you can't see that in the pictures) I think I clean up well enough. Guess which dress I bought? I'll tell you after the wedding! The important part is that for a few events in the next few months I will not look like a train wreck heading straight for "What Not to Wear"!
Stay tuned - in the second week of June we will begin the great 2011 Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting Blog Tour. We have a great line-up of hosts for this online event, and each stop along the way has been given a book to give away to luck readers! Some hosts are doing interviews, some reviews, and some a combination of both. Judging by the interviews I have done so far, this is shaping up to be a lot of fun, and informative as well.
Also, I just recently learned that I will be at TNNA's summer show in Columbus, Ohio signing books on Sunday June 12 at 2pm in the R&M booth. Come and find me and say hello! I will have samples from the book along for the ride as well. I'd love to see you!
AND, if you are in New York on June 16 at 6pm, I will be at Lion Brand Yarn Studio talking about the book. I'll have samples there as well, and will sign books and answer questions! If you'd like to attend, please RSVP to Lion Brand Yarn Studio at the link above.
But before that - the official kick-off signing and Q&A for Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting will be at Webs in Northampton, Massachusetts on June 9th at 6:30pm. Please register with Webs with the link above - we wouldn't want to run out of champagne ;) This event at Webs is probably the only one where I will have all of the garments and samples from the book along with me. You'd be amazed at how much space 16 projects, each knit in 2 yarns, plus swatches can take up in your luggage!
More soon - even some knitting!

Somedays it Just Feels Like Oy Vey.

Yesterday was, I think, an Oy Vey kind of a day. It started at 1:00AM. Maybe I should even back up a little from there...

First the pictures for those socks are not working well at all. I need a photographer or more feet or both. Seriously. The pattern is totally done. This is most annoying.

Second, there's a lot of proofing here. Proofing in the morning, proofing in the evening, proofing at suppertime. I read some, I mark, I take a break. I go back and I read more. It is important not to push myself when I get annoyed or bored because then I will miss things. And we don't want that, now, do we?

Third, my mother had not been well over the weekend. We went to a birthday party for April on Saturday and it was obvious right away that something wasn't right. She was complaining of some chest pain that seemed to her to be much worse than usual. She didn't want to go to the hospital. Then my dad needed a pretty straight forward procedure on Tuesday, but sometimes the way things work around here drama comes in clusters, so I was a little on edge. Once I spoke with my mother again and confirmed that she felt much better, and Yoshi and I visited her to make sure, AND we had a call from Dad saying he felt fine Tuesday afternoon, I relaxed a little.

I even cast on a Tomten (scroll down, it's there) in this pink yarn I have in stash - not with any baby in mind, just part of my new Use Your Stash movement. I haven't made it very far yet. More will be revealed. Anyway...

Once I confirmed that everyone was well I breathed a big sigh of relief and got back to the grind of proofing this book so that everyone can have a copy, eventually.

A lot of proofing has taken place. There's been a lot of reading and scrawling in margins and marking with green highlighter, some emails back and forth with publisher and tech editor, but I feel like we're really winding down here and there really will be a book - and soon. It feels good.

I went to sleep Tuesday night with peace in my heart. Peace and love and contentment.

And then the phone rang at 1:00AM Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night, depending on your perspective). You know that foggy haze that you are in when you're awakened from a deep (Benadryl induced to compensate for the end-of-book insomnia...) sleep? When you are on auto pilot and answering with one syllable words and occasionally grunts? That was me. I could hear my son, Private Dan. I could hear what I thought was his wife in the background (it was). He sounded distressed. She sounded distressed. He was asking for advice at 1:00AM, which cannot be a good thing.

This is a good life lesson for anyone reading this, not just for Daniel. When you book any kind of transportation, especially if you are using a discount provider, be very, very, very certain to double, triple, QUADRUPLE check your dates before you check out. Check again, I mean really check. Get a hard copy of a current calender, check the date on your phone and computer, check the date you're booking for, and then check them all again. And even again.

Otherwise, you will find yourself on the phone to your mommy at 1:00AM asking for advice about how to get to Texas within just under 24 hours when you're in Massachusetts, and that cheap non-refundable plane ticket you bought last week turns out to be for MARCH 23, not FEBRUARY 23. Oh, and you need to be on base today. Which as it turns out IS February 23rd. This thing about calling your mommy? It is not a threat. It is a promise.

Once the details and the rather critical nature of this situation crept into my brain I sprang into something like action (there may have been stumbling). I grabbed my Amex and my pc and started surfing. Find a flight, I thought. Anything. Just get the soldier to the base before he's AWOL. Not the best way to begin your life as a soldier, now that Basic and AIT are done. "Oh, hey, I thought I'd just be, you know, late. That's ok, right, Army Dudes?" Not.

I found a flight, or really a series of four flights that began in Hartford and ended in El Paso, TX at 11:55PM on February 23rd. The fact that he's be in five major airports and on four airplanes in 18 hours, with lots of layovers really didn't matter. All that mattered was cheapest, fastest way there. Indirect is fine. Just GET there.

Drama. We HAZ it.

I spent most of yesterday not doing much of anything. I was exhausted. After bailing the kid out I spent about 4 hours ruminating on the whole situation, falling asleep just in time for the alarm to go off in the morning. Wait, did I say morning? That wasn't morning. 1:00 AM, now THAT is morning, my friends.

I did let Yoshi blog yesterday about responsible dog ownership, which is in my opinion the best piece he's written so far, and a vitally important one at that. The doggy in the window is so charming and cute. People rush in, buy, fall in love with and live with regret when they don't get what they expected. Shelters are stuffed to the gills with dogs who could tell you all kinds of stories. It's a topic that is near and dear to our hearts.

This brings us to today, which is Thursday. Tomorrow, Friday, is supposed to be egg day. Snow is predicted. I do not drive in snow. If it falls, I do not drive. The bad news is I will have a lot of eggs. The good - I can move on with proofing and get it done and in the mail on time, I just have to finish up and drive a half an hour to the nearest staffed FedEx location. God I love this valley.

Tomorrow I am going to cast on and begin knitting something with Artyarns Cashmere Glitter. Stay tuned... you're going to want to squash your face in this one!

Gratuitous Puppy Shot:

Because nothing can possibly be cuter than Yoshi in an orange raincoat!

How can I Blog without any Pictures?

I can't. So I went and took some just for you.
Summer is in full swing here, which means things are insane. The Armageddon hive bees have filled three supers, or nearly filled three supers, so there will be a mid-summer honey harvest very soon. Meanwhile, the baby chickens aren't so much "baby" any more, and some of them will soon find their way into the Featherman Special and others will be laying soon. The Fayoumi and Lakenvelders who are the smallest of the batch were the first to crow and the first to run out the door to the fresh grass once I opened it. They are tiny and indomitable. The bigger birds hang back. I love this about chickens, their personalities and tastes and attitudes. And yes, I will still eat them. Some of them are jerks, which makes it simpler. A tiny cockerel who's flying at your legs and attacking your boots at 6 weeks or age is asking for it, and I can oblige.

This was a couple of weeks ago, their first box of veggie trimmings from the kitchen of New Fortune (my current favorite is the Greenfield Roll - light and perfect for summer!), which they attacked with great relish and vigor, as did their olders and betters

The hens still are a mess. Although two roosters for 32 hens should be within a range that might make life good for the hens, it is apparently not a good ratio for these two particular roosters. They spend a lot of time fighting over hens, and even more time on hens. But the hens put up with it and even encourage it at times, so if nothing else I am respecting the natural behavior of the animal. Chickens reproduce. It's not a glamorous act, but they have a job to do. Candles and wine have no place in the barnyard, unless the farmer and her husband are having dinner on the deck.
The garden is ridiculous, with garlic already in the mudroom waiting to be laid out to cure tonight, green beans already in the freezer and more to come.

We've had more than a few dinners culled from our own garden, which makes me very happy. I lost all berries to chipmunks, moles, and either a fox or a bear, I am not sure which. Whoever it is, they sneak in the night after I say "Tomorrow those will be ready for picking!" The currents and gooseberries just never had fruit, which stunned me. They were so prolific last year. It's an odd year. Not odd and moldy like last year, but odd in new ways. My Bee Balm is tiny, and the roses just never had flowers. But the peach tree wants to topple under the weight of it's offerings and we had our first cherries (4) and first apricots (2). We were very excited. We also have our first hazelberts, maybe 4 or 5 of them. These trees are all young, so any productivity is a shock.
Last night I rode to Northfield's farmers market, since I'd missed my own for a Natalie Merchant concert (a worthwhile event to be certain). I saw Kristin and Julia with their freezer full of lamb (yum!) and the folks from Coyote Hill Farm and Chase Hill Farm and a lady sitting under an umbrella selling raspberries for $3 a pint, and a few other vendors scattered around. I bought a pint of berries, of course. I would have bought them all but that seemed excessive.The Northfield market also has live music and they open the church kitchen and cook up burgers and dogs, or salads, or ice cream by request. It's a longer ride, but a more entertaining experience than the market in my own town. I miss living in Northfield, and I think I would go back in a heartbeat if we could arrange it. I grew up there, I reared my kids there, and I miss it most of the time, in spite of their abject stupidity in removing the last remaining gas station from town.
And I am writing a book. No sweat. Did I mention the part where I neglected to look closely at my calender and managed to not realize I had a deadline in July? Oops. One sneak peek. This is a scarf that will be in the book; the yarn is Lorna's Laces Pearl which I am unbelievably in love with. Love love love. The drape is amazing, it runs through your fingers like butter.

In other news, or in the interim while you want for more scintillating sneak peeks into the new book, I knit a sock for someone else. The pattern is written Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time.

The yarn is Black Bunny Stella, which is sparkly with silver (mmmm) and very, very ballet pink. Super-girlie sock, perfect for farm chores I think.
The yarn came from Dye Dreams for me use to design for their Four Seasons sock club. October shall be my month. I had to choose a color from one of these.

I did, but I am not telling you which yet. You can guess or wonder, as is your wont. More will be revealed.
I bought Very Expensive Firewood.

This is a mushroom log; an oak log that's been drilled in spots and filled with shiitake spore. It has so far produced 3 mushrooms. It's not in it's final home yet, so really I am not expecting a lot. And it was so bloody hot the last couple of weeks I am surprised it's even trying. 98 degrees and mushroom culture are not compatible.It's in a shady spot, but really should be further into the woods I think.
Mostly my life revolves right now around this:

Two bins stuffed full of yarn, stacks of reference books (apparently I was Knitting in the Old Way recently? Or just scrounging sources for percentages on which to base a sweater design, more like) and stitch dictionaries, every circular needle I own and...a wooden hand. Not really sure why that's there. And my remotes, so I can watch things like Shakespeare plays over and over and over while I write and draw and swatch.
There are moments in the process of composing a book that I come to despise it, question my sanity, ponder my future, contemplate a return to nursing and wonder if I just gave back the advance could I be done now? This has happened every time, just as it generally does with patterns. I have adjusted to it and make allowance for it now. In the beginning it scared me. Once the patterns are written and put to bed I can relax again for a while. Until the next book, or next flood of produce or honey or eggs, or the next chicken or human canine crisis.
For now it is errand day, and there are eggs to deliver and dog and cat food to be obtained and chinese food veggie scraps to be retrieved for my starving chickens (not really, but like the dogs they regularly think they are).

Where Oh Where...

Noella mentioned that she missed me at Cummington this weekend in the comments. Unfortunately, due to the craziness on the farm that sometimes happens in spring, Barb Parry was not able to attend either the NHS&W or Cummington, so I was unable to sign. I debated attending and just roaming, but then the farm asserted itself here as well, and wisdom seemed to advise staying home and working.

I've had a bit of sore throat for the past few days, and had a bunch of chaos here between times. I will admit to taking advantage of the opportunity to stick close to home. There's been a lot of non-chicken related drama here too, and I am worn out, more or less. Maybe more. Besides. Wouldn't you take a day to hang here?

I wrote the first two books on a 13 inch MacBook I bought for 2-at-a-Time Socks, from a relatively comfortable recliner chair I inherited from my Great Aunt Blanche after her death, or from my Ikea Poang chair. I like the recliner better, sorry Ikea. It's a tiny thing and I fit in it properly. Not many chairs fit me. I am short, and my spine resembles a corkscrew more than anything else. I loved the portability of the laptop. When I was working on Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks it was winter. Not a fan of the cold, the ability to move my entire workspace to six inches from the woodstove made me a very happy girl.
The book I am working on now doesn't allow the sort of laid-back slacker attitude in writing location. No laptop this time - instead a 22" monitor screen with a smaller 13" beside it. And a new keyboard. And it's not a Mac. So, the day after the book launch I set up the new PC in my office. In a normal office chair. Any notes I had made for this new book were safely stashed in my Macbook. I spent a couple of days just trying to transfer files, with a deadline over my head and malfunctioning USB devices, and you get the picture? There was swearing, there was whining (a LOT of whining) about the chair, my back, my shoulder, the stupidity of computers, the difficulty of adjusting to a new keyboard, a newer version of Word and the mental blocks that accompany writing projects. This thing happens where I just sit and stare at the screen as if I have forgotten American English, and then all of a sudden words come flying out of my fingers and poof, 7,600 of them appear as if by magic. Then I have to edit, sort, rearrange, fuss over and fix until at last I can shoot them off to an editor and patiently wait their return.
I am still not adjusted to this keyboard, really. I have got to get used to this thing. And the mouse. And the whole PC thing in general. I have not touched a PC for more than five minutes in about four years. When my office machine turned into a brick there was no point. But now, one capital investment later, I have to touch, have to remember, have to be the old dog luckily just relearning old tricks. Close the window on the right. Expect little warnings popping up. Don't delete anything with a .dll extension. And so on.
Today is Memorial Day, which always makes me pause and consider the sacrifice of the women and men who've died giving birth to and defending our freedom. Although there have been many active servicemen (yes, all men) in my family, none has been lost in the line of duty. God willing none ever will be. My son just joined the Army, and leaves for Basic training and AIT in September, I believe to Fort Jackson. This wasn't a sudden decision. It has been on his radar and in discussion for about five years now, maybe longer. Knowing that it wasn't an abrupt decision makes it feel alright somehow. Not great mind you. This is my only son, and the Army is not exactly known for keeping it's members out of harm's way. But then he could get killed crossing a street, or maimed with rogue fireworks, or who knows what. I am a fatalist, if you want to call it that, although really it's more a function of my spiritual beliefs. I believe we all have a time, and then yours is up, it's up. Joining or not joining the Army will not make that time come earlier or later. It's easier to live fearlessly if you believe this. It's how I get on airplanes. If God wants me down, then the sucker is coming down and there's not a darn thing I can do about it. If I don't get on the plane, he can just as easily take me out on the drive home.
Besides, maybe Daniel's duty post will be someplace terrifying for mothers, like Germany. All that beer and bratwurst. Scary times. Regardless of where he goes or how this all turns out, I am exceedingly proud of him. This is something I do not say enough to my kids, that I am proud of them. I am proud of who they are, of who they are becoming. I am proud to say I had a hand in their rearing. I am mostly proud that although I at times disagree with what they are doing (this is not one of those times, I am simply stating this as a point of reference) I am always and forever proud that they follow their hearts and their dreams. I like to think they get that from me.

One Month and Not Much to Say Except Buk-AWWK!

It has been super busy here. It is spring and spring is always crazy. Chickens, gardens, project, and some work now and then as well. First, 95 baby chickens came from Sandhill Preservation. I ordered 50, but got very lucky and instead of a refund for the excess shipping I paid, I got bonus baby chickens instead. I'd ordered meat birds and layers. Man do I have meat birds and layers.

There they are, still in their shipping box. Sometimes people are amazed when I explain how they come. They come in the mail. I pay extra for express shipping but you can use priority, too. I like them to spend as little time in transit as possible. Now, I wasn't exactly prepared for so many, and I spent a quick morning running around gathering supplies, assuming I had 36 hours before they arrived. Wrong. The call confirming shipment was at around 7pm. They arrived the next day at 11am. We had no power as a result of a kicking spring storm. The babies were cold. They needed to be warm. 90-95 degrees warm, which is usually accomplished with a heat lamp.

Instead we pulled the stock tank I use for brooding babies in front of the woodstove and fired it up. I don't think this house has ever been so hot. We managed to keep them around 80-85 degrees. It's where they should have been, but it had to be close enough. As we headed into evening, still with no power, I became anxious for them. Really anxious. And the launch of Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks was the next day. The idea of spending the night with an alarm clock every hour or so to wake me so I could check chicks and stuff the stove had no appeal. In the eleventh hour, just as the sun was setting and the temperature in the house was dropping, and I was beginning to berate myself and Poor Gene for not forging ahead sooner with the solar panels, the power came back on. I set the babies up in the mudroom with their lamp and headed for bed.

I needed to be rested for my party at Webs! Kathy gave me an wonderful introduction that made me get a little bleary.

My father would say this is genetic. We cry at everything. Hangnails, kleenex commercials, birthday parties, you name it. I talked for a while, a little about chickens and a little more about knitting. I sipped some champagne, and I signed some books.

Oh look. A rare image of me with my MOUTH OPEN. How surprising (sensing sarcasm? You'd be right). It was a wonderful evening. Friends were there, which always makes happiness, and knitters too! One friend brought me two of these:

Coolest. Chicken feeders. EVER. Now we're all stylin' with our vintage kit! I love the feeders. They are super heavy duty, and big. I am going to need big feeders around here. I have a lot of chickens. 140 I think. It's hard to count. They move so fast. And they grow so fast. Fluffy little babies change into little kids...

there they are at two weeks old, feathers popping out all over. The only way to get pictures is to corner them and snap away.

Or scare them by putting them on a child. That is my granddaughter April, for whom a pair of socks in the new book are named. Everyone say "Awww!!". Tack on a "My Gosh, Melissa, she's beautiful!" for extra points. Not that I am biased or anything. Tell me either of the grand kids are beautiful or handsome or amazing or brilliant and you've got me. The chicks sit still when terrified or small human fingers, for a minute anyway. It's effective.
There's a lot of them. And more even now, because somewhere in there I agreed to give hatching eggs to a local elementary school's first grade class. I had this great plan to separate a rooster and some hens specifically for meat birds, but time got away from me so in the end I sent along 18 random eggs from the previous day's batch. 21 incubating days went by like a shot, and in the end nine more babies were added to the farm a week or so ago. I know that they have one of four fathers. I know that they have one of 28 mothers. Beyond that, no clue what they'll look like. They'll lay if they're girls, and will go down well if they're boys. That's all I know.

I have completely lost track at this point of how old who is and so on. I think these guys are now two weeks old. I call them the gang of nine. Today we finished the last chicken room in the barn. It was clean for about five minutes before I started moving babies in.

MMmmm! I love laying down in it when it's like this. It never stays this clean for long. Eventually feathered people move in, and things change. Poop flies. Food gets scattered.

Feather dust fills the air. But for a moment it's heavenly. I love that they have this whole huge space now and all they want to do is lay in the sun. They're very funny. I don't know how many are in this room now. I lost count. The only time to really count them is at night.

I tried counting them while I was moving them, but some jumped out of the can after being counted and others jumped in, so I just filled the can and moved them. No counting. The purple tail is a bird who's been nipping excessively at it's own butt as the big feathers grow in. It's itchy. Grown up feathers are not like baby pin feathers.

There are just so many of them. I think I am slightly unhinged at times, considering this. 140 is a really lot of chickens. They're everywhere. And they've grown. Now just a month old, these are the same baby chicks from the picture at the top of the post, the sweet fuzzy babies in a cardboard box. Now they're gawky teenagers. Now plucking order is established. Bullies come to the fore. Adorableness occurs in new ways.

The environment is fully explored. Boys begin to act a bit more like boys. Girls begin to be a bit more retiring and shy. Nothing is set in stone until someone crows. But I begin to notice things.

The gang of nine has been mixed in with some of the smaller 4-week old chicks. I separated them by size - bigger birds in the big new room. Smaller guys in the small room. It works. The integration went very well. I had concerns. One of the little guys, named Meatball by the first graders, will not shut up about the change but everyone else is pleased. Meatball may be, possibly, a bit of a whiner. He'll get sorted soon enough.

This is Celia, in a rare appearance out from behind the nest boxes. Celia is an old girl, about ten. She's a Silkie hen that Meg got somewhere along the line. Although Silkies are known for making great pets, Celia is a complete and utter freak. She lives by the rule "Always Flight". No fight or flight for her. RUN. PANIC! Note the 4x4 I put down to ensure she has access to food during the day while the big chickens are out on range. We worry about her a lot. If she gets out, she sometimes will not come in. I occasionally use her as an Auntie for chicks who are too young to go out yet. If nothing else, I know she's safe inside for a while. She makes a great auntie. I keep saying I am going to give her some eggs someday and let her hatch them.

Well, that's it for now from the farm side of things. There's also been a lot of planting, watching of hives and there has even been some knitting, and a whole lot of writing about knitting. I may be able to post some projects in a couple of days that aren't related to any book, and therefore can make an appearance. I get into baby things between projects. One might even say obsessed with baby things. They're like socks; a palate cleanser, portable, fast. I am not knitting any socks right now - crazy, huh? - because I have three sock projects in the works that are "work". Time for more of that on Tuesday! For now, I will enjoy the day as it passes by planting more things and checking in on my 140 feathered charges and the 100,000 winged ones. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!