mid-June. The smell, wet dog. Finally, the weather has changed bringing with it some rain, some snow and some pretty darn cold temps. This morning it's a whopping 27 degrees F (-5C?). Let's just say cold.
While Rube, the outdoor wood fired boiler is dead cold, the little Morso Squirrel stove is working its heart out. It's a tiny thing but manages to reasonably heat the whole downstairs and part of the upstairs where the pipes go up. We paid a small fortune for this stove when we built the house and it was worth every single penny. It's small, can go close to a regular wall and is the easiest stove to adjust I've ever used. Plus it's got an adorable squirrel relief cast into it's sides. The cat thinks it's pretty nice too and until I went to get the camera I had two dogs sharing hearth space with Rodger.
The last few days I have been busily procrastinating on the painting ( one more coat of trim and it's done!). In place of brush in hand I have played with the horses,
done a little shopping, some spinning and some weaving. So for all you folks who think I'm productive, it's a myth! :-) Gene also abandoned me for some more training. All I know is that 250 firefighters and communications folks are meeting in Corvallis, complete with bomb and cadaver sniffing dogs and he's having a ball. Before he left, he scraped the upstairs bathroom ceiling, cleaned, skim coated and primed it. The paint still needs to go on. It's out of commission for use so we're getting to know our downstairs shower again! He'll be home today and I'll take my wood sniffing dog out to show him a heap that needs to be cut and split! :-)
The white scarf came off Hey Baby yesterday. It needs to be finished and pictures will follow. A new warp has been started. Gene informed me last week that with the Harvest Festival and New Fire House Open House, there will be a silent auction for the fire and rescue department. Could I weave a little something? So, Foxfibre colored cotton has gone onto the loom for some thick and thirsty waffle weave towels.
I've been playing with demo programs on the computer and think I've finally made my choice for the Official Theresa Christmas list. I try to make things easy for DH at shopping time by throwing together a few ideas. I don't expect them all and often he has something completely different in mind, but occasionally I am insistent and this will be one of those occasions. For all those also looking, I'm putting the ProWeave program on that list. Like all programs there is a learning curve, so I can't say if it's hard or easy, I have no lexicon for comparison, but the ProWeave folks have been attentive and exceptionally helpful with questions. Very good customer service.
Shopping happened on Friday. I had a few places to go downtown and while window browsing on the way I spied a bag that just HAD to come home with me. I've been using a basket for all the roving I keep by the spinning wheel. It looks nice but almost daily I see a dog with a wispy beard in the exact color of whatever roving is on top of the pile. The pink was quite noticeable I might add. Something had to be done and this was a fun and inexpensive solution. It's made of a sturdy coated paper like material and such fun graphics! The zip top was the most important element along with it being very very roomy.
Farm news is scant. No Bond break ins so far. The other morning in the dark either a bat or a bird flew into me. It felt awfully big for a little brown bat, but it was so swift and out of my headlight quickly I couldn't say for sure what it was. No doubt it was roosting or resting on the goat fence, my opening the gate disturbed whatever it was.
Two nice looking 4 point bucks where resting just outside the paddock, horses sleeping on one side of the fence, deer on the other. Today it's obvious that I'll need to put out the heated buckets and collect all the errant fly masks.
Bea had her follow-up appointment on Tuesday and is released for just about everything except jumping and running flat out. She can walk up and down stairs and yes, the low sofa is okay. There will be days when she appears lame but not to worry, the new ligament is solid. She'll be like a lot of the human population and have a predicting knee that reminds her of both weather changes and when she's over done it.
For 15 days post-op I'd say the old girl has come a long way.
9 comments:
Love the new bag!
Cold here too this morning - right now it's still 33 and it's almost 8am. Wood has been piled up next to the front door for a couple weeks now in anticipation but the house is still plenty warm inside for us still.
What a beautiful horse! We have already had the first snow here, but it vanished almost immediately again. But I think we have to change to winter tires this weekend.
That's great news about Bea! Dogs heal so quickly. Glad she's off of most of her restrictions.
That's great that ProWeave is on your Christmas list. Even though I've had my weaving software for a while now, I expect to use it much more this winter than I have in the past. Maybe we can learn together!!
Foxfire waffle weave towels sound great! Nice donation for the auction!
Beautiful horse pictures!!
Sue
I love your little wood stove. We had a Hearthstone, gray soapstone with red enameled trim. It heat our entire house. We don't miss all the work that goes into feeding it though. We have been enjoying the colder days and walks in the Fall sunshine. Poor Twill got wet and was actually shivering so she came inside. The wet dog smell in a small RV is something we will have to get used to! Plenty of wet where we came from but Twill had the mudroom to dry out in.
Glad to hear that Bea continues to heal nicely. -Renee
Loved your 'state of the union' adress....seems life is good on the farm.
Where do you get your foxfibre from? I'd like to weave with that sometime soon....
Susan
What a great little stove! I've never heard of them. 27 degrees, eh? And I thought our recent ow of 42 was chilly!
I'm very interested in what you think about ProWeave too. Hopefully its at the top of your list. :)
Leigh, we're very happy with the wee stove. Morso does have a web site it's here:http://morsona.com/
The Proweave is the list, so top bottom and middle!
Sue, you're on with the computer weaving labs!
Susan, I get the organic color cotton from Chamomile Connection, there is a link on this blog. The trade name I think was changed to Verses or something like that.
Renee, Poor Twill! He'll adjust to the temps soon enough. Next year don't be surprised if that winter coat is substantially heavier than this year. We lived in a 29 footer for a year with 7 dogs.. It had a back door also so we were able to construct a temporary pen for them. It was a lesson in futility trying to keep it spic and span. Why do they put carpets in trailers when really a scrubbable surface would be much better.
Charlotte, He IS beautiful isn't he! He's also a lot of fun. I've had him since he was 4.5 months old and it's never been a dull moment.
Our snow didn't stick either.
Cindie, next time I'm cold with no wood, I know where I'm heading. I can just stuff the gang of 8 into the car! :-)
27F???? Snow???? Oh my I was flinching for the high of only 60 here next week. Mentally, I am so not ready for it to be 27F - for us that's WINTER!
It always those last bits of stuff that are so hard to get done. I probably would have chosen to play with the horses as well. How beautiful he is!
I'm glad to hear Bea is doing so well!!! How Wonderful!
Well, you sure seem productive to me, compared to me. We too have that smell in our house. We've had a continuous fire in our Jotul since we got home. It was 32 when I walked the dogs this morning. It doesn't bother them. In fact, they seem more frisky, but it bothers me - makes my face run.
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