Good thing it's my blog...

and I can do whatever I want! HAH!!

BedheadFungus
Plush
Stump
Mushrooms
Hen (Ameraucana)and, finally, Chicks:

Somebody Stop Me...

Really. I may need a 12-step program. (Tammy - still on auto, or outdoor. I am still, at this point, doing nothing but point, focus, shoot.)
Bug Catchers - later in the day they turned into garden-eaters. We need a fence.Hawk - click on this, and look closely at her left foot. She's doing this with one leg really out of commission, and there's 3 babies in that nest. No clue how she's getting it done. I am in awe of the determination of instinct.
Not a honeybee, but a bumble, says Girl.Bee Balm, because it's there.Mr. Wonderful's new best friend (NOT!).I promise that's it. Next time there will be knitting. Promise. Really really promise...I am so excited and cannot stop shooting things. I love the Nikon D40, the entry-level DSLR of my dreams.

Brought to you by eBay

This was the objective of al that yarn selling - a new camera so I could take pictures of hawks. Click on them to make them bigger. OK, really it wasn't about the hawks, it was about taking pictures of garments and stuff, but I have to play for a while. First pictures were of the hawks when I saw Momma catch herself some breakfast in the yard. She was off and gone, but the babies were not.I know, I know, not great pictures, eh? But give me time. There's some learning DVD's and stuff, and before you know it I'll be snapping awesome pictures...by which point the hawks will be grown up and gone.
Next up - baby chickens!! (or maybe pictures of grass, I haven't decided yet...) I know. I could take pictures of the chicken poop on the floor of my office (sigh). Where chicken poop does not belong. Just. Ever. Speaking of which, this whole taking pictures of hawks things has totally distracted me from what I was doing, namely cleaning out my office of residual baby chicken foof, fluff, poop and dust. I moved them into the brooder house, and gave them a nanny. More on that later. Wait till you see the nanny.

Low Maintenance Woman

Mr. Wonderful is a lucky man. First, I was willing to wait for years before getting legally married - although I have to say that my views on the involvement of government in marriage are a little biased against, so it wasn't that much of a hardship, but still. I mean, we knew we were married from the get-go. We just neglected to inform the government, pay a fee, and stand in front of a complete stranger and say words out loud. But I did want the party, and the ring. Second, I shop at the Salvation Army whenever possible. Third, I will relentlessly pursue a deal on a vacation, or a car, or what have you. Fourth, his lunch is made nearly every morning and neatly packed into his lunch box. Coffee is generally on tap as well. Fifth, I do not ask for flowers, tokens or jewelery (well, not with any regularity. I did ask for more diamonds last year, but twice in 17 years and the second time as a celebration for writing a blessed book is, IMO, not very often). If you are broke long enough, it becomes a force of habit to recycle baggies and tin foil, and slap the hands of people reaching for paper towels when there's a drawer full of rags. This is not to say I am without cost - I have a cell phone, and I did demand satellite internet and a car that shifted when I told it to. However, taken as a whole I am cheap as heck and darn proud of it. It helps that I spent the majority of my childhood surrounded by Depression-era women and most of my adult life living hand to mouth, or worse. I think he must know how lucky he is, because Monday he came home with a present for me, something he knew I coveted deeply, the ultimate gift for the woman who beats her former type A self into submission on a regular basis yet dreams of a spotless house and cupboards that rival those in "Sleeping With the Enemy". A LABELER OF MY VERY OWN!!!I made a label. This was the first. And I think there is a gesture under that hat (he hates being photographed) but we'll ignore it because we are SO happy to be able to LABEL EVERYTHING!! I made more after this, but I won't force you to sit through a series of images of labels announcing things like "CAT", "DOG", "BIKE", "CHAIR", etc. Now that the (stinking, gross, 88% humidity, only a lizard could love this) weather has relaxed it's grip, I can spend the weekend labeling everything in my kitchen. I cannot wait. Can-Not-Wait!!
I sat in the basement and waited for the heat to go away, and worked on this while I did so. See, I can't tell you what it is yet. But soon. Very soon. Just, trust me...it's so awesome! I am going to start Flow for myself today, hopefully completed before Mr. W. and I go to NY.
Oh. Girl is officially going away to college in the fall. This is a good thing, but a sudden decision, so we're all adapting. We'll make it work. We're not sure exactly how yet, but we're going to make it work. She's gonna be awesome!
I broke a toe yesterday. It was...interesting. Boo got up and came over for love, and I was petting him and walking at the same time (in a bit of a rush, really, heading for the sandbox), and he was blocking this large base on a partition in the basement. I felt it hit, baby toe, left foot. I heard a craaack. So did he, and he jumped. So now I have a 100+lb nervous dog between me and the bathroom, in a fairly tight space. And if I freak him out by, say, screaming, it is likely that he'll step on the toe, or the other foot, or something that will likely result in my being hurt more, or might just scare the daylights out of him, which is never a good thing. So I reverted to Mommy form, calmly spewing monologue, "Well. That is pretty painful, if I do say so myself. Yes, indeed. So, Boo, can you move, so momma can get by you? Because, you know, momma's pretty sure she's about to howl and you're going to be pretty scared if you don't move sweetie..." There may have been swearing in there. Yeah, probably swearing. Within an hour or so it was all puffy and gross. Today it's less gross. I'll tape it to it's next neighbor and move on. Baby toe, phew. Could have been much worse.
Chicken news - I ordered a dozen eggs from eBay (who knew???). I got 6 Welsummers and 6 Auracanas. If this works out, we'll order more of a larger breed in the spring; I am hoping for Delawares which are one of my favorite breeds. Or I'll just order chicks. The plan is to expand the chicken outfit and have two houses; one for layers, one for dual purpose birds (that means meat for those of you who are not in the know - the squeamish may make faces now).
The brown are the Welsummers, the blue are true Auracanas, not the Ameraucanas we've got now. Auracanas are adorable, true tufted, rumpless birds with big mustaches. They lay blue. The Welsummers lay a rich terracotta colored egg. I put them under Eleanor and put another dozen in an incubator that Girl bought me (I love these people. Perfect gifts for mom: labeler and incubator). After about 36 hours of faithful egg-sitting, Eleanor looked around her, tipped her chicken-head and said "Hey. Wait a minute. Didn't I just Do this?? This is DUMB. I don't want to SIT here for three more stinking weeks. Hatch your OWN eggs, lady!!"So now we're got an overstuffed (not really, but it feels it) incubator in my office, right next to:
five old babies. Ancient!! SMELLY!! Soon to be moved outside to a brooder house with a heat lamp and more space!! Note: four heads are carried fairly low. One head is up above the rest, looking intently at the camera. File this under "How to tell hens from roosters". Also - um - the girls are all starting to get odd little puffs on top of their heads. This is not bad in and of itself. It does mean their father is probably Bedhead. And it means they may have...uh...bedheads. Hope that's ok with Mr. and Mrs. Betsy. Especially since they're not pure-breds? This may be the most bizarre looking group of hens ever. You can still change your minds, and see what comes from the next hatch. But I say, go big or go home. Who wants normal looking hens when you can have something truly spectacular?? The talk of the neighborhood! And Polish lay like banshees, as a rule. Eccentric is totally the new cool. Right...?

Hawks, Chickens, and maybe knitting...

Katy asked how the hawk was, and did she hatch her eggs. We were not sure, although Mr. Wonderful had been watching the nest and occasionally incurring the wrath of momma hawk when he tried to chop wood - the wood pile is right under the nest tree. Last week he brought in a pale blue egg with tan spots, but really that could be one of my own eggshells stolen from compost by a scavenger. Well, finally, we have evidence.
Baby hawk noggin. Now, here's the cool part - we think there's three of them. This guy is all about making his presence known, and had no compunction about hopping right to the edge and staring down at Mr. W's curious camera wielding head. I assume he's planning for the day when he can fledge right onto that human and teach him a lesson. His mother, I bet, would have other feelings about his forward behavior.
Girl and I hit the local farmer's market this morning. We got fresh garlic and garlic scapes, beets and beet greens, kale and some tarragon and basil. My basil does not look so hot and my tarragon got eaten. Speaking of eaten. Something cleaned out my garden. Not everything, but enough that he or she has to go, whatever he or she may be. Ate the tops of the brussels sprouts, made headway in cabbage damage, and ate the tops off the green bean plants. I am not happy. Whoever he is, he's going down.
For Mister Betsy - more ch*ck shots -
Although attached a bit to Tutta-Two, Girl has accepted that it would be kind to share Momma Tut's love with the world. So, if the little white ch*ck is a girl, she can go and live with Mr. and Mrs. Betsy, as long as they fully appreciate the amazing-ness of this particular chicken. Tut the first has been incredible, totally a pet, sits on one's lap, etc. Tutta-Two seems headed in the same direction. She enjoys sitting on hands, quietly. When we check them she's the first to run to the side and asks to be removed from those creatures we've left her with (as if she were one of them?).
I have been knitting. Furiously, really, on one of these projects. I can't tell you what it is yet though. It's This One.The yarn is Sterling, hand dyed by Gail Callahan, and available in her Etsy shop. It's very lovely, really - color and sparkle in one! Oh, and she's apparently having some kind of summer sale on selected items...I'd check that out.
And then there is This Other One, which I also can't tell you about.But I can tell you that this new Berroco yarn, Pure Merino DK? Lovin' it, thank you Cirilia Rose, yarn genius.
Back to the grind. Or, really, since it's a holiday weekend, back to slacking and knitting anything I want that's not work.
eBay auctions ending soon - totally a bummer that a lot of the sock grab-bags don't have a bid. We're talking awesome deals, here. That and...what do I do with it if it doesn't sell?! I...I had not thought about that...!
Is this me??

Poor squeegiep

She listed 56 items on eBay, filled 5 dehydrator trays with herbs, made a couple of meals and now? well, now squeegiep wants a nap. Tomorrow, more items, and maybe the revelation of how the username 'squeegiep' came into being, since it sounds nothing like melissaknits. Say "skwee-gee-pee", accent on the first syllable, think thing used to clean windows, with P on the end.The good news? I think we've made a dent in the listings. The better news? People already like bidding on the yarn! That means it will go way and Mr. Wonderful will be so pleased. The bad news? How the heck do you ship coned yarn?? I am afraid to list it until I have a good idea of how to do that. Oh. I may know some people who could advise me on this.

Got Yarn?

Want more? Go to eBay and search seller name "squeegiep" (yup. really.). The listing has begun!!

The Great Stash Excision Event of 2008 is over. It was much easier than I expected. Everyone was amazingly supportive of my little yarn habit, and eagerly waiting for the part where they got to toss the "go" pile on personal quests. It was so wonderful after to watch everyone sift through and choose yarn. Not at all painful, and today I just feel so clean, if tired. When I look at the eBay pile I get kinda queasy, but by this afternoon, when some is listed, I'll feel better. First I need to make piles and lots and things. There's a lot of Cascade 220, single skeins, many colors. And a lot of Valley Yarns single balls, or partial balls. I think I am going to make up a few Valley Yarns Samplers, so if anyone is unfamiliar with the yarns they can play a little and see what some of them are like. And there's amazingly small amounts of novelty yarn, as the last time we did this Girl was pretty forceful about the novelty yarn taking a long walk. There will be some full bags of cotton. I kept all of the Noro. Exempted were cashmere, the Bohus kits, class samples and designs, and anything for book 2.
Here's how the evening went. After some chatting and wine sipping and chip munching (Rue makes a lovely spinach and artichoke dip, and Mary-Alice's pineapple salsa makes my heart sing. Then there was Katy and Traci's cheese and crackers - rice crackers even - and amazing hummus, which was the richest creamiest hummus on earth) Dena came to me, eyes alight with anticipation, and said "It's time!" We turned to confront the stack of yarn piled behind me. This is, by the way, not all of my yarn.
Mr. Wonderful stopped a bit short, and I felt like something was missing, so after this was sorted Dena and I went downstairs and found 3 more big bins and a lot of cones. I did not get pictures of them. I just needed to be DONE.It was just like that show, Clean Sweep? Where there's three piles, keep, go and maybe? Same concept. We had runners taking yarn from in front of me and placing new yarn for me to decide about. All I had to do was sit and be rational and not develop or remember intense emotional attachments to this or that skein or cone (example: first yarn I ever bought at Webs? Still here, on cones, intact). Things moved fairly quickly. I had made a deal with myself before that if I could not remember the yarn, or could not remember my PLAN for the yarn, it had to go. This was easier than i expected it to be. I will never really have the time to knit ALL of this into what I want it to be.
So let it go, let someone else enjoy it. And maybe watch blogs to see what people do with it - that would be awesome. I was making decisions pretty quickly and harshly. Not a lot of room for changing my mind, as Rue had set a 5 second limit - if no decision was forthcoming in 5 seconds, it went into the maybe pile.I believe in teaching by example. Watchful Girl got a good taste of self-discipline and control here, I hope. Maybe she'll never have a stash of anything this large to purge; that would be the real lesson!Sock much? This is the tip of the sock iceberg. Most of it is going. Some is partial balls, leftovers. And there's a LOT of it. Then came the fun part:
Sample Knitters Have At It...
and without even any bloody battles!! I was so proud.
Favorite picture: "Whatchoogot?" I can just hear it.It was easier with people and food and wine.
and the assistance of the amazing labeling Dena!! We sorted the "keep" while everyone rolled around in the "sell". This morning, however, I am confronted with this. Sell. Sort, organize, photograph, list, sell.It didn't look so bad, until I rounded the corner...and saw what was behind the couch. My week is already over. This is gonna be it. List, photograph, sort, organize. I'll post a link when it's all up. I got rid of way more than I expected to. Which of course means only one thing.

I need more yarn.

(I also need a labeler). Now, in the realm of oddities and non-knitting content, I just remember this last night. Every once in a while they throw me a curve that I am not sure how to handle. Last week I found this in a next box.It's not uncommon in the first year of lay to see some insane looking things. But thing is, none of these hens is a first-year layer. These are old ladies, seasoned hens, who should be laying things that do NOT look like suppositories...and...well...what's IN there?We have to know. I mean, don't we?? I had to...White. Just...white with a little smudge of yolk. Chickens are a never ending source of amusement around here. of course, it doesn't take much to amuse me. Maybe more baby pictures tomorrow. They're beginning to feather, getting pushy and big and bright-eyed. Personalities are emerging. But more about those silly birds tomorrow. I hear eBay calling me. Loudly. Screaming even.