Team Work

 The Mister is one lucky guy. Look at this mess.

 There is no way one person could deal with the amount of work that needs to be done to get the yard cleaned up from all those huge trees we had cut down.

 He's lucky because I'm the kind of person that would learn to use a chain saw to help out.

I am also the kind of person that would spend all day in 38 degree weather loading wood into the new cart.....

 ....and then learn to drive the new cart across the hilly yard to where he wanted to put yet another wood pile.

I also unloaded all that wood and stacked it while he worked at splitting those giant logs. This is half a tree. Half. If we burned wood all day every day we would never burn all the wood we are going to end up with. Do people have yard sales for wood? We need to.

At the end of the day he likes to go up on the deck and look at all the progress we've made.

 Yesterday we could finally see land again in the side yard. I chain sawed and hauled away all of the smaller trees that were over there. That's a good feeling. Something's done but there is still so much to do with those giant trees.

Beer helps. This is going to be a very long haul-literally.

Another Belated TNT

 Tuesdays seem to sneak up on me.  Over the weekend I had used my tiny needles so I would have something to post about and of course I forgot. Until now.  I finished one more section of Daddio's last paper pieced project. I have three more to go and then I can I can use the tiniest of all my tiny needles to put it all together.

 I also finished the March block of the Sheep Virtues. It's not quite finished in this photo that I took on Sunday but it is now. All done.

I dug out this oldie but goodie to work on since I am not feeling the April Sheep block quite yet. I need a break from all the sheepy goodness for a while and am going to challenge myself to get this section of a floral border done by next Tuesday. I bet I'll get it done.....and I bet I'll forget to post about it.

Road Trip to Nowhere

After being in the house all weekend and since it was too windy to work outside we thought we'd take a trip to the courthouse to get The Mister's driver's license renewed. He had gotten this scary document in the mail a few weeks ago and had a heads up from Facebook friends saying that the process isn't what it used to be thanks to new federal regulations.
It isn't.

 If I tagged along I was promised a trip to Joann's and lunch. It's a good thing I dressed comfy because I spent the entire day in the car waiting.  I took two naps.

 This was my lunch. That's not too terrible because I had been very naughty watching the Oscars the night before. Let's just say it involved a box of Whitman's dark chocolates and a bag of chips.

Pup was also along for the ride. We took several walks. The whole process took four hours. FOUR. He was one of the lucky ones. Many who waited that long were turned away because their documentation wasn't satisfactory and tempers were flaring inside the little office. I went home and ordered a certified birth certificate for when it's my turn because mine doesn't have a seal on it. It cost me $40. Argh. Even though my license does not expire until 2023 the people at the DMV said everyone's has to be replaced with the new "secure" ID before the end of 2020. Argh. I'm not looking forward to it.

 Since it was dinner time when he finally got out of the place we headed straight home. It wasn't a total loss of a day. I do love car knitting and thanks to Daddio I'm an expert at killing time when waiting in impossible situations.

Anytime I can knit in bright sunlight is a plus. I have a new found respect for this yarn that looks so drab at home. It really is pretty when you can see all the colors.

Weekending

 I had the most glorious weekend. It rained. It was dark and miserable and I had plenty of time to do whatever I wanted to do. I added another two blocks to the winter quilt pile.

 I made good headway on the loom. I'll be weaving in the very near future.

I ordered more wool for Mr Snowman. I need to do the background now so I need a lot of one color that I don't have.

I added several loaves to the soap collection. I've made 15 batches in all. That's 135 bars of soap. Whew.

 I made bread. I made a lovely challah.....

....and a pot of matzo ball soup. You have to have bread and soup on a rainy day, right?

I also started a new Audible to stitch along to. It's a true crime podcast and it's addicting. It was supposed to be my March/St Patrick's Day listen but it won't last until then. It's that good.

Speaking of stitching, I am almost done the March block. The sun peeked through on Sunday afternoon just long enough for me to get it close to the finish line.
What a great weekend.

Something Big

 My giant blanket is one step closer to being done. One of the skinny vertical borders is finished. I just have one more to do and it's a done deal.

 It's too big to work on comfortably anymore. I'm not sure just how big because it's all pushed onto long cables wires. The whole outside perimeter is live stitches which will have to be dealt with.

 Then there is the back. The weaving in is not too scary but I hate the back . It's ugly. I was thinking about a backing but I think it's too big to wrestle with.

Whatever. I just want it done. It's been sitting next to my bed to shame me into working on it since 2010 and I'm really tired of stepping over it.

Sad Deserted Shore

Nothing much is happening at the beach. It's gray and gloomy.

 The only thing moving were these ducks who discovered that bird feeders are good for a snack.

 Pup doesn't care. Between the rain and the snow she's just happy to be outside.

 She can't go on the beach. That's a no no even in the off season.

She can't go in the coffee shop either but she can wait outside with me while The Mister runs in for some scones. She loves a good scone. These were lemon and almond. Yum.

Knit Wit

 That Polwarth handspun is on it's way to becoming a cowl.

 It's striping up nicely which is good because I picked a pretty simple pattern.

My remaining on the needle socks are at their heels. I'll be glad to see the end of them.

The lining of the Snowflings are almost at the place where I have to do some knitting gymnastics. You have to finish the thumbs before you close up the top so you can weave in the ends. Wish me luck. This scares me.

And....yet another one of my childhood crushes has left the planet. Peter was my Monkee. My sister even texted me her sympathies yesterday. No matter what we were doing it all stopped when The Monkees were on TV. RIP dude. Thanks for the memories.

Spring Interrupted

 You can't tell today but The Mister and I made a big dent in the brush hauling when the weather was on our side.

 We've been cutting up limbs and piling them in woodpiles that we have all over the yard. Pushing the wheel barrow filled with wood was not fun.

Last Friday we went down to the local Tractor Supply store and picked up this big cart. It can attach to your riding mower so if and when the weather ever clears we'll be able to haul the big stuff without killing ourselves.

 In the meantime I spent the day catching up with my little snowman.

He's been gathering dust all winter but his time has come. I think our snow days are running out. At least I hope they are. We've got trees to cut up-before the bugs wake up.

More Soap Tales

 I should have mentioned on my last soap post that there will be a giveaway with all my newest soapy creations using my Brambleberry fragrance samples. Look for it at the end of March. I want you to be able to pick your two favorites so pay attention when I am showing them off. This is Moroccan Mint. It's not like peppermint. It's softer with a hint of black tea.

 I've made Blackberry Sage before with another brand of fragrance. This one is different. Less fruity. More sage. I like the other one better but this one isn't bad.

 Cucumber Melon is never a favorite of mine. It usually smells like rotting garbage to me but this brand isn't too bad. It's sweet. More melon than cucumber but I actually like it.

How about Sun Ripened Raspberry?  It's not too fruity. It's slightly herbal and smells like a soap not a dessert which is always a plus with me.

Finally, I have Lemon Zest which is not a fragrance from the samplers but an oldie but goodie. When I was cleaning out the soap closet I found a stray bar of this and used it and fell in love. Ever since Love put out their Fresh Lemon scented perfume back in 1969 I've been a huge fan.

I've got about 5 more batches to go before I can finally say I worked my way through all the spring and summer fragrances. Having said that I know there are still a few summer beachy type fragrance in my bins that deserve a go. It never ends.