So yeah. I’ve been away but now I’m back!

Minnesota was awesome.  It was really more epic than I had anticipated.  My cousin drove up from Nebraska to stay a few days with me, I got to see my best friend for the first time in 4 years (way too long!), I met up with people I hadn’t seen in 10 years, and I spent a good amount of time with my grandparents.  My grandfather was diagnosed with alzehiemers last year and now that I actually have free time I am determined to see him more often while he still knows who I am.  Anyone who has experienced this terrible disease knows how hard it can be.  But to put it in the words of my amazing grandfather, “At least it doesn’t hurt.”

I had an excellent time having coffee with them, spending time with my most favorite cousin ever, and seeing my dad.  It can be hard having family live so far away but now that the Mr and I are finally free of California it seems as though we can actually make the trip more often.  I know this has a lot to do with being able to get time off and having more money.

I was lucky to be able to run around and play cameras with my dad.  Since he’s local he knows all the most fun places to shoot and I’m still editing photos.

Left to my own devices I will always to back to the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden to visit the giant spoon and cherry.  It’s a huge symbol of Minneapolis for me because we used to pass it all the time when I was with my dad.

While in Minnesota I got to see quite a few people I hadn’t seen in 10 years.  It was a little nerve wracking at first but it turned out pretty fantastic with the exception of one visit.  I went to my friend’s comedy show and was relieved that he was actually quite funny (I was worried because the first three before him were not funny at all), met at the Muddy Pig with my friend Erin to have drinks and laugh so hard we almost passed out.  Also we spotted a Collin Ferral look alike that I couldn’t stop staring at because it was SO ERRIE!

It was a fantastic time and I think I’m going back in the spring (I’ll never do another MN winter on purpose ever again).  I wore myself so ragged though that I needed a full week to recoup!  I was running around from 8am till 1am every day and frankly, I’m not cool enough to pull that off anymore!

It’s been a crazy year but I finally feel like we have all our feet on the ground and we are off and running. 

We now have a small farm with sheep, goats, chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, and two dogs.  It’s amazing how our life has changed.

The things that haven’t changed is just how much I love you and frankly, I know for certain that I love you more now than I did when we got married.  You are truly my best friend and really all that I need.

I don’t know if you realized just how crazy I was when you first met me but now I think that you secretly like the chaos.  Your my best friend, I love you more than I could words could ever express and you are truly the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  I’m lucky to know you and to call you mine.  Happy 8 years baby, here’s to the next 60!

So first she asked if I’d want to go to this graveyard she’d found where she had some family buried.  (It’s not as creepy as it sounds).  And being that I’m all for exploring I said yes.  We drove off into the country and pulled into a nondescript gravel driveway and pulled up to the woods.  We got out, pushed our way through thick trees with out a path to be seen and were then standing in a badly overgrown graveyard.  Light speckled through the canopy and everything was awash in deep greens.  It was beautiful, peaceful, and a little sad that this had been so forgotten.

It doesn’t take long for Oregon to take it’s land back.  It rains so much here that everything grows at an increased rate.

We then traveled up the mountain and went to the Timberline Lodge.  See, every time Monica said this and told me she wanted to take me there I only heard Timberline and associated it with the Outback-esk steak house.  I was wrong, as is often the case.  The Timberline Lodge was a ski lodge built by the New Deal.  It’s beautiful and amazing in all sorts of ways.  Also if you are skier it’s right at Mt Hood.

Everything in the lodge is hand caved and hand wrought.  It’s simply amazing.

Also, they have chipmunks inside!  I think that’s so awesome!

The outside of the building was used in The Shining (Monica told me this) as they were driving up.  I believe it.  It’s a huge impressive building and if there weren’t a million people wandering around I might have snapped a picture.  It seems though that no one can get out of the way for 30 seconds though.

To me the building seemed as though it were brooding, as though it was hunkered down on the mountain and watching you with narrow eyes as you went about your business.  I would easily believe there were ghosts in these hallways.

So as Monica and I were taking pictures these guys wandered down the stairs and I was all “OMFG” because they were so AWESOME looking.  I snapped a few pictures when they weren’t looking but apparently since Monica and I both had big cameras around our necks they assumed we were capable of taking their picture with tiny little snap cameras.  They lined up and Monica and I both fired off a few for their collection.  Apparently they had just hiked the 40 mile Timeberline train.  Amazing.  Then I snapped some pictures myself because they were awesome.  They looked tired and weathered and as though they smelled.

All I could think of when I saw them was my friend Phil who would have probably fit right in with these guys.  I wonder if that facial hair is a requirement? 

So in all, it was amazing.  I wonder if there is an off season for Mt Hood?  I doubt it but I still want to go back.

1982: HEY, I’m BORN & stuff.
1983: I’m pretty sure my parents made me wear tights on my head, nice.
1984: My mom has me on a horse before I can even ride a bike.
1985: This year had lots of clothing that matched my dolls.
1986: I remember my dad moving into an apartment.
1987: My mom got me a bulldog!
1988: I road cross country from Minnesota to Washington with my Buppa to visit family.
1989: Ug, I became a day camper, I dislike camp.
1990: I have a new stepdad!
1991: We went to Disney World and I chased down every adult in a huge disney character suite.
1992: I officially become completely awkward. *sigh*
1993: Aparently it’s awesome to rhyme my name with anything and everything even if it doesn’t actually rhyme.
1994: Teased teased teased then I beat up one of the coolest kids in school, mom was proud.
1995: What a bastard of a year, I’m currently the most teased kid in this school.
1996: Hello Shawna! You are now my best friend!
1997: Shawna and I spent the whole year dressing alike, it was dorky but in retrospect I think we were cute.
1998: I ran my ass off and lost a whole bunch of weight but was totally miserable about it.
1999: I had my first boyfriend and he was a looser.
2000: I graduated and played in Carnegie Hall in New York with my orchestra.
2001: I went to college and it kinda sucked.
2002: I won 5 grand off the powerball and was 1 number away from winning 42 MILLION dollars.
2003: I married my husband after dating for 4 months, best decision of my LIFE.
2004: Matt and I traveled up to the Russian River and had the most amazing camping trip ever.
2005: Our family business moved offices and we moved to Camarillo.
2006: WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK…nervous breakdown (or close to it).
2007: We moved to Ohio for business and I met my cousin Rebecca as an adult.
2008: We moved back to Ohio and I did have a complete breakdown, thank god for zoloft, but met AMAZING new friends who owned alpacas.
2009: Mr and I were both unemployeed and it sucked ass.
2010: We moved to Washington, met Monica in the flesh!
2011: Finished writing Mildred, started writing another story, have knitting patterns published in actual magazines!

2. I have decided to take a step back from designing knits.  I’m focusing on Mildred – though it seems I might have gotten her into a spot I’m not quite sure how to get her out of – and knitting for myself which I haven’t done in forever.  I had some disappointing news regarding a design I did for a magazine.  Basically I made the mistake of insuring something that was to be sent out of the country thinking I was doing something smart.  Well customs decided that the insured value of the package determined it’s physical worth even though it was marked commercial sample and the magazine refused the package because customs wanted like $150 for it.  So I’m waiting for it to come back.  It was supposed to be in the Winter 2011 issue but now if it comes back in any sort of decent time frame it might be squeezed into Spring 2012.

It’s kind of a blow to my ego.  Anyone who knows me knows I like to do things perfectly (if not better than everyone else) the very first time.  I’ve been working on chillin’ on that but it’s hard.  So I’m trying to decide on a sweater to knit and doing it just for fun.

3. Thank you all for your insightful comments on my last post.  You all raised some good points.

In the meantime here are some random animal pictures…

Oops is doing so much better!  He’s running around with the other goats but still reserved and quiet.  He just wants to cuddle which is adorable.

I have a turf war on my hands.  Something I never would have expected honestly.  I am pretty sure that the geese started it.  They have gotten used to pushing the chickens around so they might have tried to push the turkeys around.  Thing is…there are 8 turkeys and 3 geese.  The big tom has decided he’s not going to just take geese gruff so they chased the geese and the geese ran.  Today I actually had to jump over the fence from the back yard to the back pasture to make the turkeys stop chasing the geese.  The turkeys fly, the geese don’t so I don’t see this as being very fair. 

Poor turkeys have no idea that they are dinner (except for our breeding trio) and the geese are not.  The geese will probably have the last laugh but for now it’s war. 

Apparently this happens when a tom is really upset.

I think the geese are regretful for starting shit. 

I love the depth of field in this shot so much! Yay for new lenses!

The goats are so naughty!  Thankfully they are like Tank and can be deterred with threat of water.  I just point the hose at them and they scatter like it’s acid.  It makes me giggle like a fool.

The chickens are nearing egg laying age and getting prettier every day.

Earl is king of the roost.  He is definitely the head rooster but I don’t think Maurice minds.  Earl crows full length now while Maurice only does one little note.

The turkeys.  Those damn trouble makers.  They think they should be allowed to go where ever they wish, even in my garden.  Normally I wouldn’t care but this drives Tank nuts and then he bursts through my fence in the garden and walks all over my beans. *sad face*  Also, you’d think they would learn because Tank has almost grabbed them out of the air twice.

To enter just comment on the blog sometime between now and July 8th (the release of my newest pattern Weave It) and I will have the Mr do the random number generator thingy.

Here is what I’m going to be giving away.

1. A complete package of all my pay patterns published including Weave It.  (You can see the full scope here) 
Here’s a little preview…

2. Your own finished Weave It Shawl

OR High Desert Shawl

3. One braid of your choice of my hand dyed roving from my shop. (Full selection can be found here)
  

4. One Skien of Falkland Hand Dyed Sock Yarn

I won’t toot my own horn, I won’t even let you know there’s a horn to be tooted because as my mom jokes “that would lead to a big head” which in my family is the epitome of bad behavior.  I think this has also led to my personal perfection expectations.  Maybe I hope that if I do something amazing enough others will notice how great I can do something.  Many tears have been shed over such a silly notion of instant perfection.  More perplexing is that I am not actual a perfectionist.  I don’t keep a spotless house, I don’t mind dirt or the odd bug, my laundry pile must threaten me with a baseball bat before I accept imminent defeat unless I do something about it, and cooking is always a mish mash of what I have in the fridge, a bunch of spices that might raise an eyebrow of a chef, and frankly, a lot of broccoli. 

There were a few days last month where I lost my beans.  I mean total and complete mental explosion.  Thankfully no one was here to see it in person.  I slogged through and have put it behind me.  While trying to coax my 6 week old red cornish chickens into the coop for their first night out of their brooder in the garage and starting to get mad I realized something.   This was absolutely nothing to get upset about.  The chickens, with their brain the size of my thumb nail had no concept why they needed to be in the coop or why I was starting to fling (yes I do mean fling) them willy nilly over my shoulder.  Frankly my anger was making it worse, my own frustration was getting in my way.  So I relaxed as I do when I knit a pattern that just doesn’t make sense no matter how many times you read it.  I accepted that I could not understand it and just followed the directions.  With the chickens I relaxed, took a deep breath, and let the Mr actually help me (something I don’t do very often) get all those damn chickens in for the night. 

Later in the week my turkeys were out for the tenth time in so many days.  I have no idea how they are getting out and every way seems impossible.  They are wily birds and as I was trying to fight a large strong turkey back through the door to their run I realized once again my own frustration was making it worse.  I’m a bigger, better, faster person.  I like to do everything fast and better than really needs to be done.  I was trying to wrestle this damn bird back into the run and it wasn’t working, do I really need to get this turkey back in the coop in 5 seconds flat?  Does it really have to be so crazy all the time?  So I opened the door (which is not so much a door as a flap) and moved out of the way fully aware that any turkey currently inside the coop could easily now be outside which would only add to my perceived problems.  What happened when I relaxed and gave up some control?  That damn turkey went right in the run to be with his fellows and I was amazingly not frustrated or angry.

This realization should have come much faster for me (though I’m not always a fast learner).  I am never frustrated when I knit.  I never get angry when a stitch drops, my needle slips out of a row of stitches (in lace of course), or my ball of yarn rolls off my lap into a pile of dirt when I am outside.  I never worry that it won’t turn out, or that it won’t be perfect.  Nothing I knit is perfect, I’m a constant cheater, I rarely rip back.  Knitting allows me to be relaxed and free in a way I don’t allow myself to be with anything else.  If something doesn’t turn out I can easily rip it out and make something else and no one will ever know the difference.   I am peaceful when I knit and when I am peaceful things go much better for me.  So with this new knowledge in hand I’m going to try to make a pact with myself to always be as if I am knitting, to allow myself to “cheat” and take a little more relaxed stance.  It is not important to anyone else that I be perfect (which I am not) so why should it be important to me?  For now I’m going to breath before allowing the frustration to overtake me, I’m going to remember that it helps nothing and only makes matters worse (especially if you are working with animals) and give myself a break.

(BTW instead of flinging chickens into the coop I have now realized that if I put their feed in the coop 30 minutes prior to shut in all chickens will put themselves to bed, even those wee wily red cornish who caused such chaos).

Never so fully have I felt that I am where I am supposed to be.  I may not wear great shoes (though I love my Keen’s to death), my clothes may be covered in dirt, but I have never been happier.  I love working with roving, I love writing and tending my chickens. 

This is something I have a great respect for.  I don’t have the building gene as such.  Odd you’d think because my mom is an amazing carpenter (and was until she retired 8 years ago) in the a Minnesota Union.  That means she wasn’t just like a fnish carpenter working on houses, she built parking ramps and the federal reserve.  Serious stuff.  She’s the person I go to ask about tools because I don’t know anyone else who knows more.  When it wasn’t obvious how the skill saw blade was supposed to go on she knew you had to punch out the middle (to the Mr’s credit he figured it out just as I was asking her).

The coop is crazy.  Seriously the Mr built this building to last.  I can walk on and jump on just about every piece of lumber in there with out anything giving. 

I tell you, there was a lot of work that went into this coop but honestly it will easily fit many more chickens in case I decide I need more.

There are a few extra features that the Mr added just for me such as extra handles so that if I get all clumsy I can catch myself before I fall on my face.  That’s a larger drop than it looks, it’s a foot to the bottom of the wood.  He’s incredibly thoughtful that way.  It’s nice when the man you married and love knows you so well that he knows at one point his wife will trip and almost eat it out of the coop.

The ceiling is high enough that I can walk around with my head up and not hunched over which is really nice since I’ll be the primary chicken feeder and coop cleaner.

The roosts are all set up and there is even a chicken ladder so they can reach them. apparently big fat Cornish chickens are huge on roosting.  I guess they are honestly kind of lazy creatures.  I bought a large feeder today so that I don’t have to haul feed twice a day.  My laying chickens and turkeys don’t eat as much, but then again I’m not intending to eat them so they can eat less as long as they are healthy and eventually start producing eggs.

All we need now is siding and the chicken residence is pretty much done.

I can’t tell you how happy I am.  My girls have a place to live, it’s robust, and dependable, warm and free of leaks.  Also there’s a huge chicken run for them to peck and look for tasty bugs.  Some husbands buy their wives jewelry or cars, mine builds awesome things.

The ladies approve.  They seem to dig the space and are thus far giving me pretty good attitude.  A couple more pounds and they will be moving on.

In another week or two I’ll be moving the Marans and the Jersey Giants to the coop too.  Soon my garage will be a garage again and not a brooder.  I can’t tell you how much I’ve really enjoyed raising my chickens this far.  They are easy, funny, and interesting creatures.