the blog.

So, here it is the end of the year and I haven't posted in what seems forever! I am soooo sorry. I vow that I will do better in 2011.

Since I last posted, TONS of stuff has happened. Let's see if I can sum up...

May was busy in that we had D3's birthday, our 17th anniversary, Mother's Day, my 40th birthday, a couple of graduations and a vacation in Colorado.

We spent a week in Pagosa Springs. My mom and step-dad drove up from Glendale and Duane's brother Dan and his wife, Beth, came down from Bailey, Colorado. We went fishing and Grady skunked us all.

I entered a few things into the Dodge County Fair, and everything I entered got 1st place. 1st place in most categories earns $1.50 in premiums... I won $5...just enough to buy a funnel cake!! YUMM!

I entered a few skeins of handspun yarn into Nebraska State Fair. Two earned 1st place Blue Ribbons, and some money. I won the special class "Best Use of the Color Purple" with a pair of socks (that came with a $20 monetary award.) My "Bombshell" sweater (of which you cn see a part ==>) won 2nd place in the adult sweater w/sleeves.

This is the first year the State Fair was in Grand Island. They did a pretty good job of renovating a horseracing venue. I went to a couple of spin-ins. It is so interesting to me that males are more interested in spinning wheels than females. They are so intrigued with how the twist holds everything together. They stand and watch and ask questions. It's pretty awesome.

October brought a trip to Branson, Missouri. Duane's mom and step-dad joined us for the week. They live in Kirk, Colorado. We did some shopping, we saw some shows. Six is probably the best show I've seen, ever. It's a group of six brothers who sing a capella and are phenominal.

November obviously brought Thanksgiving. Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Muffaletta for dinner. Man, the only thing that would've made the day better is to have had more family around.

December saw some birthdays. My sister Ginny, my Mom, and Duane's on the 21st. He took the day off. We kinda hung around. He forwent his usual birthday cake of Red Velvet and had me make cinnamon rolls, even though I was going to make some four days later for Christmas morning.

Which catches us up to.... NOW! LOL yay!

I will have lots to blog about as I keep track of the diet I'm starting Friday. I know, who starts a diet during the holidays? Well, the way it's going to work is that the first two days, (Friday and Saturday) are "loading" days where I can eat whatever I want. Sunday starts the hard part... 500 calories a day.

I have heard awesome things about this. My sister Ginny is on it as well. She lost 33 pounds in 34 days. I am hopeful that my results are as good.

Sorry for the huge post, but now we're all caught up and we can go forward from here. Next time, more fibery stuff.

May you all (the two of you who I know follow... thanks Kris and Teri!) be safe ringing in the new year!

Peace... Gina out!

it's the middle(ish) of march already?!

I know things have been crazy around here, what with all the recruiting of applicants for the Census Bureau I have been doing. (I saw at least 48 people on Saturday the 6th, but only submitted 38 applicant folders).

It seems that I have more things I want to do in a day than there are hours... especially if I want to sleep, which is among the top things I love.

I was going to do the Ravelympics and knit a sweater in 17 days, but that kinda didn't happen. I cast on 2 days late, then wasn't getting gauge, so had to cast on again. Then, I was going gangbusters on it and things were looking good. I was at a point where I should've had 250 stitches. And I didn't. I didn't even have the same amount of stitches in the sections that were supposed to be the same. I don't have differently sized arms. I tried to unknit it, stitch by stitch, until I found where it was that I went so wrong. It proved to be more than the 5 increase rows with a row of plain knitting (okay purling, because that row happened on the WS) in between. I finally gave up and ripped the thing back and cast on AGAIN!!!

I cast on the 66 stitches, did the set up row, bringing the total to 74, and then "went to town" knitting away. I did do something differently this time... I set up not only a Row Counter, but a Pattern Row counter AND a STITCH counter!!! So, as long as when I get done with a RS row, the Row Counter is twice plus one what the Pattern Row Counter is and the Stitch Counter is 8 more than the previous number (and that when 8xPRC + 74 = SRC) everything is good!!! Yes, it's a lot of redundancy and there's quite a bit of math going on every couple of rows, but damnit, I want this sweater to be awesome!!!

The laptop took a dump this past weekend... So, I'm down in the basement on the big computer. I have to say, the monitor makes it worth it! It's HUGE compared to the laptop. And, the space heater by my feet make this area quite cozy. Granted, I can't watch the shows on the tape in the VCR upstairs, but Duane will get over me not watching my shows, again. It's not like it's something new. There are actually days that the TV doesn't get turned on. That's because sometimes it's distracting to my blog/Ravelry/whatever reading!

That was all a lead in to this: I went out and took pictures with my cell phone of the smashed bunny play pens. But, I forgot to bring the larger card thing the micro-SD card in my phone fits into so that I can put it into the cardreader slot in my computer so that I can upload it to Flickr so that I can link it to here to show you the smashedness of the bunny play pens. Let's just say, where it was about 30" tall, it's flat on the ground. Smashed by the weight of the snow.

Christmas... and blizzards

Living in Nebraska as I have for the past 12 years, you'd think that I wouldn't be phased by a little snow. I'm not... not if it's a little snow. It started raining on the 22nd, laying down a sheet of ice. The rain finally turned to snow on the 23rd. It snowed clear through the 26th!! Sure there were times when you could barely see the flakes and others when the flakes seemed as big as half dollars. No matter their size, they all add up! Add winds to the mix, which at times were gusting to 50 miles an hour, and you have a blizzard!



We had snow, in spots, that had drifted to within 4 inches of the top of a 6ft fence! Of course that was right next to the bunny barn.

When the snow clears, I will have to post pics of what it did to the girls' little play pens...

Trip to Po’ipu, Kaua’i, Hawai’i

So, every other year (odd years), Duane and I spend a week in Hawaii. This year, Duane’s sister DeeDee and her significant other, Lawrence, came with us. (in the picture below, I’m not trying to elbow Duane out of the picture, he’s helping me regain my balance… I was trying to fall! LOL)

It was so awesome. It was like we have friends! LOL  What I mean by that is that we had another couple to do stuff with… go to dinner, hang out, play cards.

The past couple of times we’ve gone, we didn’t really do “tourist-y” type things. Sure we did some shopping, but I don’t do helicopters or boats, so the helicopter tour of the island and deep sea fishing were out. Duane doesn’t swim in the ocean and grudgingly will hang out on the edge of the swimming pool (as long as he can see the TV at the poolside bar.)

This time, Duane, DeeDee, Lawrence and I went on an ATV tour. We rented “mud bugs” which are like go-carts on steroids. They are a little sturdier with chunky tires. We went Wednesday afternoon. It had rained A LOT on Tuesday and had been sprinkling on and off Wednesday.

Duane, DeeDee and I had bought white shirts to get dirty and Lawrence didn’t care, so he just wore a black shirt and one of the company’s over that.

 

Everyone all clean at the beginning.

DeeDee and Lawrence all squeaky clean

Look at those bright white shirts!!!  Not for long!

Almost at the half-way point. You can see where the seatbelts were.

At the very end… We all look like muddy drowned rats. But it was FUN!

Okay… that’s it for this picture heavy post.

Stay tuned for more Hawaii pictures!

Hoping to win a give-away...

I haven't ever blogged about a give away before, but the two entries on the Phat Fiber blog that I am interested in winning are

Into the Whirled who has awesome stuff. She can be found on Etsy and intothewhirled.com

The other is from FiberFancy. Yeah, she has some fancy fiber alright! I love Purple Rain. She is on Etsy as well.

Making it from scratch

It has been quite some time since I last blogged and a LOT has happened!

Just look at the pictures at the top of this post! From top to bottom, they are Bonnie Blue, Adella (who is now called Pearl), and Flipper D'Skippens (Who I call Flipper or Flippy, and Duane calls Fluffernutter)

They are all French Angora rabbits. Flipper and Bonnie were born 3 days apart this past May. Bonnie on the 26th and Flipper the 29th. So they are almost 5 months old. Pearl was born in 04, so she is 5.

Flipper is red, Pearl is pearl (white) and Bonnie is blue. While they are all lovely and have excellent bloodlines, they each have something going on which makes them "fiber bunnies." Bonnie and Flipper are unshowable. Bonnie because she is what is known as "Vienna Marked" with the white spots on her nose, head and toes. Flipper can't be shown because she has no tail. Apparently her mama got a little carried away cleaning her up when she was born. Pearl's "problem" is that she is barren, and hadn't been being cared for properly. But that is all changed, now!!!

I bought a 10x10 TuffShed to house them. I painted the plywood floor to seal it. Yes, it is purple. Why do you ask? LOL Of course it's purple! We were having some problems with pee on the wall and floor, so I bought a remnant of vinyl flooring and stapled it to the wall and underneath the cages. So much easier to clean up now! It also makes it easier to sweep up the hay that falls.

Right now, they are all trying to shed thier coats (molt), so I am collecting that fiber. Since Bonnie and Flipper are losing their baby coats, and that fiber is really delicate, I will have to either blend it with something else or just ply it with something else. Like Pearl's fiber. I am so excited that I have a direct source for awesome, really soft, luxurious fiber! And making it from scratch. I get to be in on the whole process. I get to watch it grow and feel it and snuggle with it in its raw form. The I get to "harvest" it. The grooming is a good time to bond. Then comes the spinning and knitting of it. So. Freaking. Awesome!

These girls are so cute. They are so different from each other. Flipper is always trying to get out of her hutch if the door is left open. Pearl is kind of stand offish, and Bonnie is always looking for something to eat!

People keep asking if I am going to breed them. Here's the answer: Not yet! Let me get used to taking care of these three. Obviously, Pearl is out. She's been tried 7 different times with 5 different bucks. With Flipper's missing tail, it's possible that she could prolapse (have her insides become outsides) and that wouldn't be good. So, that leaves Bonnie. Oh, the possibilities... Because she is VM, she carries the gene to make Blue Eyed Whites (BEW). And, because she is blue, she could also throw blues and blacks! And lilacs!! Bestill my heart. Purplish bunnies! But all that is in the future!

Right now, I have enough cages for 2 more rabbits. There's every chance that Bonnie could be like her mom and have a litter like the one she was born into... 11!!!! There were so many babies that Bonnie's mom couldn't take care of them all, and one had to be fostered with another doe. So, if I were to breed Bonnie, I could possibly have to come up with the monies for 9 more cages!!! And I would have to do some serious re-arranging in the barn!

Okay. So. What do you think of my "girls"?

Gotta love summer in Nebraska

Okay, here it is the 24th of June and we're under a heat advisory, but it's only 77 degrees. It's almost 12;30 and it's dark like the sun is getting ready to set. Every so often, you hear thunder boom, and the dog is freaking out.

I was out in the back yard where I opened three sides of the gazebo and was just chillaxing in one of the the new patio chairs we bought. I hear rain drops on the top of the gazebo. It was more than one or two. I sit there for a few more minutes and it starts to sprinkle a little harder and Chance is bugging me to go in. So, I zip up the sides and go into the house. It has since stopped sprinkling!

I was looking at the cilantro that has natualized in the "herb garden" up by the house. It's coming along just fine. I also see that there is a tomato plant growing in almost the same spot where there was one last year. It didn't produce the best tomatoes, but hey, I didn't have to buy it and it didn't take over the garden like the big yellow monsters I planted in the "south 20." We'll see how it does this year. Also, I noticed that there are "volunteers" in the south 20. You know, those plants that grow from the tomatoes that have fallen because you didn't get to them in time, or that the bugs got to, so you just leave them there.... So, I'm hopeful that we will have some yellow cherry tomatoes and some romas from those. The plant by the house is a roma. Mmmm, nothing like fresh salsa. Oh, and Caprese Salad (fresh mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil, fresh garlic and basil!!!)