Back from the Dead

Believe it or not folks, I am still alive out here. Not posting a whole lot as you can see. And currently I am a little lost in the world of the dead as I am completely caught up in Stephanie Meyers Twilight Series. I started the fourth book two days ago and am now about 400 pages in. This is the first time I have been able to put it down without feeling like I was going to vomit. It has really been making me sweat!
But I am here and there are lots of happening as spring comes to the Farm. The perennial beds are a constant source of joy and excitement, as well as a constant source of work! There are new flowers coming up every day - many surprises as this is my first spring here - and I am starting to see the green shoots of some of my old friends from last summer. Here are some pictures - if you want to see more, come visit!
Love, Turtlewoman

Okay, so Buttercup and Crocus may not be REAL flowers, but they sure are cute right? Croakie is one of our newest babies!

More Happenings

So another thing that I did these past two months was have guests . . . a lot of guests! But that is part of why I bought this big 'ole place after all. So who came to visit? Well, you already know that these two came . . . and when they came back for a SECOND visit I was able to snap a shot of them:

Luckily the weather was a lot better for their second visit!



July also brought a visit from the Fennema family:

They came all the way from Holland to help me break in the farm. And break it in we did! We herded goats, chickens, and geese. We collected eggs, we played Harvest in the Heartland, and we watched the Backyardigans until we dropped. Best of all, we spent lots of time reading, chatting, relaxing, and knitting on the newly dedicated "Fennema Porch": They were seen in this position many a time during their stay. =-) Of course when friends come all they way across an ocean to visit, it means you can usually scare up more friends to come by to see them. This is how we lured the Sainio crew up here:
After much protesting, Heath had a great time hanging out at the farm. Craig is one of the happiest babies I have had the pleasure to meet so far. Unfortunately he was having a combination of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety when he came to visit, so I only got to admire him from afar. I made him laugh bunches and he tricked me into thinking he was going to let me have snuggles a few times . . . but alas it was all a big baby tease! In addition to the Sainios, that weekend was also Chesley and Alec's second visit - they were nice enough to bring Connor and Peter along so that we could visit with the entire Flotten Family!
Alec got to show big brother Connor around. They had fun splashing in Sabattus Pond together. Connor invented a new game called "Goose Roundup". I don't think the puddlers knew what to think about that, but they sure did get a work out and so did Connor!

August brought even more friends around. Christie, Aaron, and Peanut all came to visit! I didn't manage to catch Aaron in any of the pictures, but here is a nice one of Christie and Sam! Sam wasn't too sure about the animals, but she really liked playing with all of my turtles and we had a blast blowing bubbles in the garden!

And my most recent visitors were Cindy and Libby. Libby is almost 2 years old now! (So is Sam!). She ran all around this farm like she owned the place. I think she had a pretty good time. Cindy and I got to spend a little time catching up on the swings by the lake.
I have also had visits from my brother and sister-in-law, my Aunt Tracie and cousins Tomas and Ariel, my aunt and uncle Erin and Richard and their daughters Molly and Melanie, Gram, Aunt Sherry, Karen, Melissa and David, Dave and Yvette and their daughters Jessica and Olivia, a cameo appearance from Scott and Mindy (they live across the lake!) and Lisa! I also have frequent visits from Polly and Al, Polly's mom Anna, and I met my neighbor Marianne and another neighbor, Mrs. Greenwood, from up the street. I just didn't manage to catch them all on camera . . . and don't forget of course the parents and the sister . . . although they are here so much they practically live here so I don't think they are guests exactly.

Wow. When you type it all out like that, it really is a lot of people that have come by! The house is well broken in for guests. So come visit won't you? Next weekend is the first annual Knitting Margarita Sleepover Party at the Farm (definitely needs a better acronym . . . have to work on that). All knitters invited!

Love,

Turtlewoman

Catching Up

Wow. I did a really good job of keeping the blog updated in July - but who wouldn't with a month free of obligations? But go back to work and good-bye blog! The sad thing is that so far I am not really even working that hard. Definitely not when compared to the standards of the past four years. All the same, I am getting up on time in the morning again, going to a place of work, staying there for the day, taking overnight call at least once a week, and then coming home again. Just the rhythm of it all makes me stray from the blog . . .

And now the problem is that there is SO much to tell, I don't know where to start. It is overwhelming really. We all know how well I do with overwhelming right? Can you say "hide in bed as much as possible and do everything BUT what you should be doing" three times fast? I owe Megan, Heather, and Debbie about six hundred e-mail responses alone. And that doesn't even count everyone else out there that I owe responses to. Sigh.

So I think the best approach will be to make short posts and try to get caught up on the events of the last month . . . I think we will start with the progress on Sprout. After ripping Sprout out FOUR TIMES I think I finally am making a sweater that will fit my mother. As you can see:

I am now down below the underarms and I am also about halfway through the waist shaping. You can get an idea of the size based on how it falls on the chair. It is looking pretty darn good. Still gotta finish the bottom, then do the sleeves, the button bands, and the blocking. But I am making slow steady progress.

Love,

Turtlewoman

The Eagles Have Landed

The packages have arrived.

In other words, Sophie is here! And Bart and Lila too for that matter . . .

They arrived today and we have already had a full afternoon of eating, talking, touring the farm, fighting with Tankie . . . it has been great. I will probably not post much while they are here as I am planning to fully enjoy their visit as much as I can!

Can't wait to see C+G and the fam this weekend! And hopefully we can coax Chesley and Peter and the fam down too . . . for a real live farm party!

Love,
Turtlewoman

Mystery Guests

Today I had mystery guests. They managed to spend most of the day at the farm without me snapping their pictures. Mostly this is because I was charging my camera battery - not that they are shy. But maybe you can guess who they were?

Clue #1: One of the mystery guests was able to help me figure out that my sprout is STILL not going to fit any adult person I know . . . because my gauge is way off. Oh, you mean gauge really matters? Actually, I thought I had done a proper gauge swatch for this and everything, but apparently I did SOMETHING wrong because instead of having 4.5 stitches per inch I actually had 5.75 stitches per inch. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but trust me it was . . .

Clue #2: The other mystery guest had a lot of fun with bubbles, throwing sticks in the water, and cartoon network (once it started to rain).

Clue #3: The first mystery guest ALSO pointed out to me that I "purl twisted". I have heard of knitting twisted before, but not purling! And I had no idea. Turns out that I have been knitting a lot of things in the round . . . . so no purling . . . so it hadn't shown up. Since Sprout is worked back and forth, I was purling every other row . . . twisted the whole way . . . giving my sweater a very interesting texture as it turns out. So now I am purling the correct way (and my knitted fabric is a lot softer for it).

Clue #4: Both mystery guests have hair of a reddish hue.

Clue #5: Mystery guest the first is also working on the Seascape KAL with the TKE group. Hers is blue/bluish green/greenish blue.

Give up yet? It was Chesley and Alec! They came over to tour the farm, have some lunch, and spend some time hanging out. We had grand plans for a swim in the pond, but they were interrupted by a rainstorm. So we watched Cartoon Network and did some knitting instead. I knit about four gauge swatches and we decided that I actually need to knit Sprout on size NINE needles. Holy moly. Two sizes up. Well, that might help a bit don't you think? So now I need to start over again . . . they say that beauty requires pain and it would appear this is the case.

Thanks, Chesley and Alec, for a wonderful day! And for the knitting tips too! I can't wait for you guys to come back and hang out with me again!

Love,
Turtlewoman

Take Two

But wait . . . wasn't this sprout bigger yesterday? And starting to look like a sweater? Well . . . yes and no.

One of the other things I learned during my visit to "The Big Farm" yesterday was that my Sprout, though beautiful, was never going to fit pretty much any adult human I know. Probably not even my very slender almost-adult little sister. It also became clear to me that this color was CLEARLY meant for my mother (whose shoulders I draped it over to get a feel for the size). So I ripped the whole thing out and started over, switching from the small size to large size. It goes a little faster the second time around, especially since I now have the inset pattern memorized and can cruise along. I have to say that it was VERY tempting to just finish it the way that it was . . . I was already seven inches in after all . . .but there was something about the thought of giving my first sweater (in merino and silk) to one of my seven year old cousins (undoubtedly the only people it would fit) that made me just cry on the inside a little. I feel like this is going to be a really nice sweater, in a really nice yarn, and it maybe ought to go to someone that will appreciate it. And when my dad saw it on my mother he couldn't stop talking about what a good color it was for her (which it is - makes her blue eyes sparkle more) and that was it for the first sprout attempt . . . so now here we go again!

It also helps that I am reading the Harlot's new book and it seems like something she could really get behind - tearing apart a sweater because it wasn't suiting your needs.

Wish me luck!
Love,
Turtlewoman

The "Big" Farm.

My dad said something the other day about The "Big" Farm. I assumed he meant my house. But he set me straight - he and mom have the "Big Farm with the little barn" and I have the "Little Farm with the Big Barn". So now that we have THAT all straightened out . . . yesterday afternoon I went up to the original "Life is Goat" farm (aka the BIG Farm) to visit. There are kids running around everywhere! The oldest one is Barley's Nutmeg (Meggy for short):

In this picture she is nibbling on my leg. She acts just like her father (Tankie) . . . loves to be right up in your business all the time and LOVES attention. She practically came and sat in my lap for snuggles when I sat on the goat deck. Her mama, Barley, knocked any other kids that tried to steal my attention out of the way! Brown must be a recessive trait . . . Barley, Aphidia, and Maybeth are all white and they are Tankie's first generation (crossed with white Angora goats). Now that these girls have been crossed back to their father (NO, this was NOT intentional! What can I say? Tankie does what he wants . . . why do you think he now lives on my farm with no girls???) we are seeing a crop of brown babies. They are so cute! Which brings us to the youngest kid, Chickadee:

Here she is getting in a little nursing time with mom. Remember Fiddy (Aphidia)? My first grandkid? Well now she is raising a kid of her own. Guess that makes me a great grandmother. Sigh. I knew I felt old. Chickadee is only a few weeks old. She still staggers when she walks. She loves to drive her mother crazy by sneaking out from under the fence and wandering around in the yard where Fid can't get to her. She is awful cute to watch though!

Rounding out the kid cuteness are Zoeboe's twins:

Bulgar and Semolina II. My mother likes to call Bulgar "booger head" because he is always trying to get into trouble. Semolina was also the name of one of Zoe's triplets from this winter, but she didn't make it through the winter. She was a bit of a runt and Zoe just didn't have enough steam to take care of three kids. We loved the name though, so have recycled (much to my sister's disgust). These two are much more skiddish (must be the Angora in them) than Meggy or Chickadee, but they will still come nibble on your pantleg if you stand still long enough. And they are still small enough to escape under the fence and eat the goose food.

On the way back to my house I saw five moose last night. I didn't get any pictures since they were running pretty fast and it was pretty dark out, but it was fun to see them anyway. One was a baby (much bigger than these goat kids though!) and he had a very soft fuzzy brown look to him.

Love,
Turtlewoman