I’m going to N.C. for the 4th of July weekend and wanted to pop in and say, Have a great weekend everyone!  They will be having fireworks on fri, sat, and sun.  and the new Town Point Park is done being renovated so they will be having Harbour Fest and the 4th of July celebration at the same time.  Too bad I won’t be here to see the fireworks.  S and P will be manning a booth representing S’s business called, Young Chefs Academy and will be selling cupcakes.  The sale of the cupcakes will go to charity.  Ya get a cup cake choice of some frosting in a baggie of which the tip is cut off so you can decorate the cupcake then you get a choice of sprinkles.  Ha, sounds like fun.  They invited me to help out but I’m outta here in the next couple of hours.  It would be a nice way to see the fest from the inside out so to speak.  Well, Have a great weekend everyone!!!!  TAYL

WOWZERS   Now that it hasn’t been raining as much we have been having these awsome cloud moments.  In the mornings its just awsome how the big fluffy clouds are up against the soft blue sky.  Just haven’t had the time to take any pics in the morning but here is a pic of a sunset from outside the shop.  P and I have been putting on our tennies and going for walks after work now that it isn’t pouring and flooding around here, LOL.  Wish I would have taken some before and after pics of the garden area I was working on.  Okay gotta get a hitch in my git-a-long since I should be out the door by now, ARGH………. TTFN

Happy first day of summer and Happy Fathers Day to all you fathers out there.  Today will be the longest day of the year and from then on the days will slowly get shorter, Wha .  I hate it when the days get shorter and it gets darker sooner, so will have to enjoy it while it lasts.  Was driving home the other day from work and thought to myself, wow its still lite out and then it dawned on me that its almost June 21 and the longest day of the year, Woo Hoo!  Today was wash laundry and hang it out on the line day, and it was a great day for it.  Nice and warm and breezy all day .  Then got busy and did some more sapling pulling up and weeding and then washed the siding on one side of the house, argh, me aching neck, LOL and also cleaned out the gutters.  Tommorrow I’ll be pulling up all the poison ivy that is out here.  Ha, I went and pulled up everything else and saved all the poison ivy for last so I can just throw the gloves away after messing with it.  Then maybe I’ll get around to edging.  I’ve been thinking about putting in bricks for a new edging but have seen how people just dig like a channel and bring the mulch up to that.  That would be good but all the straight edges are going to be soft curves from now on since its just plain easier to keep up when mowing etc.  Happy First Day of Summer you Xangans  TTFN

Yes, cruciferous.  Have you had your cruciferous vegetables today   Well, those are things like brussles sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, chinese cabbage.  Apparantly these are like really good for you and have been shown to help reduce the risk of cancer.  Duh, so like eating healthy natural foods is good for you.  LOL, it always cracks me up when a study comes out showing that nutrients from natural foods are found to be good for you.   That just seems like a given to me.  So eating all that processed stuff is like bad for ya, Who Knew, tee hee.  What’s all this cruciferous talk about.  Well, I’ve been craving cabbage (a cruciferous veggie) and have been making coleslaw.  Have made two batches lately and it is sooooooo yummy.  So far its been with carrots julienned in it.  Usually I make my own dressing but have found this Marzetti all natural slaw dressing and it is LIP SMACKIN AWSOME .  If you haven’t tried it and you like slaw then check it out.

Tada, here is a pic of the first add-a-bootie sewn up and waiting to have some ends darned in and it fits just right. These would be great schlep around the house/bed socks. 

Thanks spinnermom for your help and info on this project.  Now I just gotta make another one.  These would make great gifts.  Now that I’ve tried this on I can see its time to trim me toe nails, argh.  TTFN

WOO HOO, at exactly 5 minutes till 9am I saw this little like antenna type thing emerging from the snail shell and it was like emerging and waking up I suppose.  This here is the Betta fish that I decided to put by my bed on my desk.  At work there was this ivy bowl with pebbles in it in the back room and I saw it and thought well lets put some philodendron clippings in it so we can start rooting from the plant I brought over from my shop and get more plants from the mother ship.   So went and washed it out and got the clippings in it and thought, hmmmm, it would be cool to have one of those betta’s in here.  So P (friend at work) got to talkin and after a grewling day at work on sat. we went to PetSmart cause she needed cat litter and food anyway and I ended up getting a betta.  Ha, so we got back to the shop and the bowl had already been sitting with the water and plant clippings in it for 2 days already so I just put him in there.  He swished all around spreading out his fins and seemed to like his new digs .  Oh, also got a snail to go in there too.  A gold one.  Never bought a snail before but they had them in green, gold and black, who knew.  So got a gold one.  Then we plopped  in the snail and it just kinda sunk to the bottom and didn’t do anything.  Then we put in a betta food fish flake to see what would happen.  Well it took a few seconds for the fish to notice and then almost as if it could smell it or something it like perked up and got all excited and headed towards the floating flake.  Then it circled around and looked at it planning its attack and gulp we witnessed its first feeding, LOL.  You would have thought we were freeking 5 years old, LOL.  It was too fun.  It was all quiet in the shop and the lights were out except for the light from the window and we just sat there watching this fish.  It was so relaxing.  Ha, then the snail decided to go into action and made its way up the bowl and just sat there for awhile.  This will prove to be interesting when kids come in and they can see it and check it out while they are getting their haircuts.  Getting this one fish set up at the shop got me to wanting one at home so yesterday I went by the thrift shop and got another ivy bowl and then went off to the Petsmart and got another fish and this time some freeze dried blood worms.  I read about these fish online the other nite and apparently this is like a big treat to them.  It really is a lot of fun to watch them.  I mean the snail is a hoot.  Last nite he was at the bottom all tucked in his shell and I was like well if he’s dead then that is 2 dollars down the drain.  Ha, I can’t believe I spent 2 dollars .  But this morning at exactly 5 mins til 9am as I’m sipping my coffee looking into the bowl there it was a tentacle then another one and movement and it was like makin its way along the rocks and side of the bowl at a pretty good pace.  Oh, I named the fish at work Oscar and then P said we should name the snail Felix so then they could be like the odd couple.  LOL  So here’s a pic of the fish/snail set up at home.

It’s not the greatest pic.  The snail is the yellow thing that looks like a stone way over to the left in the pic and of course the fish is the blue thing floating at the top to the right and not being very co-operative for this photo shoot.

Okay, so I just had to go out and take in the laundry since it started raining again.  Had it out on the line all day yesterday and it just wasn’t quite all the way dry.  So early this morning went out and put it back out on the line.  Well in the middle of posting this it starts raining again so had to go and take it all in, LOL.  I am bound and determined to not use the dryer today.  So will just lay it all around since its just barely damp.  TTFN have a good week

P.S.  If you pay your taxes quarterly like I do then today is the day so don’t for get

Whew, its another day where its not raining.  It poured off and on yesterday and this morning but it not now .  So got up early and threw in 3 loads of laundry and put up the clothes line and got it all out swinging in the breeze, Ahhhhhhhhh.  One of the nice things about having all this rain, when you don’t have to be out in the floods it creates or driving in it, is that it cools things down in the evening.  I’ve been sleeping with my window open at nite and there is a nice breeze and with the gardenias that are floating in a bowl by the window it sure makes for a nice frangrance for when your drifting off to sleep .  Sunday is laundry day when the weather permits and I’ve been hanging it out on the line.  We got one of those roll-em up lines that all goes back into this wheel type thing when your done with it and then when you want to use it you just pull it out and I make a zig-zag formation on the back porch to and fro on some hooks.  It’s been callenging to get the clothes dryed with all this rain weve had off and on but it can be done and plastic hangers work in a pinch.  I really don’t like how it stretches out some of my t-shirts so sometime I’ll just fluff em a bit in the dryer, LOL. 

Here’s a pic of the carding set up that has been working out great!  

Finally got the carder out of the box that it was packed in and pulled out some karakul wool (a 5.7 lb. fleece that I ordered from Brown Sheep) this isn’t the challenge wool but wool that needs carding and so I went at it and almost got it all carded up.  It has an undercoat that is soft and fluffy and then parts that are quite long.  I just went ahead and carded the whole shabang together that way it will help bring some softness to the longer coarser wool.  Let me tell you it can take some time to card up a 5.7 lb. fleece, whew.  But it is so worth it and the results are so nice.  I can’t wait to use some of this on its own and also make some funky mixes with some other wools.  This louet carder is the bomb.  Still need to find just the right end table to get at the thrift store or yard sale but for now a cooler turned on its side works well. 

Here’s some pics of some roses a customer brought from his rose garden to one of the girls at the shop.  They were beggin to have their picture taken, LOL. 

The gardenia bushes are full of blooms so we are enjoying those.  We only got two blooms on the hydrangea and ma didn’t know not to cut off the, what looks like dead branches, of the hydrangea so it only got two blooms on it.  Oh well, next year we should have plenty.  I bought a shooting star hydrangea at the grocery store last spring and put it in a pot and its growing well but no blooms.  Hopefully next year. 

Here’s a Mexico pic.  That’s me doing the victory pose after having climed to the top of the sun pyramid.  It’s not that bad of a climb.  The steps are just higher than we are used to so your bunns get a real work out, LOL. 

This is the top of the sun pyramid in an area outside of Mexico City.  The moon pyramid is at the other end of a plaza that has smaller pyramids along each side leading to it.  In relation to where I am standing the moon pyramid would be directly to my left.  The plaza runs from my right to left directly behind me below.  There are some parts over by the moon pyramid that were amazing where a room and some murals were still in very good condition after excavations.  You couldn’t go all the way up to the top of the moon pyramid since there was a new discovery and it was roped off while excavations were going on.  The rooms that were so well preserved were amazing.  There was even some very well preserved parts of the floor that were as they were many years ago.  It was like a highly polished white plaster.  Our guide said that what we were seeing of the city is only 12 % of what was and yet still to be excavated.  WOW, .  I know I must have looked like a complete fool because I made sure I was right next to the guide so I could hear every word and so I could ask questions and my mouth must have been open half the time with wide eyes, LOL.  It was all so very, very interesting.  When I was younger I wanted to be an archeologist so this part of the trip was like candy to me.  The museums we visited were wonderful and I want to go back and visit the ones we didn’t have time to see.  The guide was awsome.  He was really pleasant and had a lot of information to share.  We booked the outing at one of the hotels near where our friends apt was.  You can go to the hotels and book with their tours and just go on them.  Of course there are people offering to take you along the way and outside of the hotels but I wouldn’t suggest it.  You don’t know who they are and they arn’t registed as employees with the hotel and its all just safer that way.  Any who, we were a group of 7 on the mini bus that took us for the tour.  It was Me, Robert, his nephew a newlywed Israely couple (so sweet and fun) and two young ladies from Brazil.  We also went to an area not far from where we were staying that they call the 4 stages of Mexico, the place where the Virgin Mother of Quadalupe was seen and is worshiped and to an artisan community where we saw where they made replicas of relics found through out Mexico at various archeological sites as well as how tequila is made and how all the parts of the plant are used.  But more of that later,  Will report back later with more on that,  TTFN

This restaurant called Bardo over near where I work was having a fundraiser.  They called  it the Bizzare Food Menu to help raise food for the Food Bank in our area.  Each entry on the menu was priced at $ 64.88 and all the money  went to help restock the already practically empty food shelves at the Food Bank.  This wasn’t the only restaurant doing this during food week as they call it and I didn’t go but thought this restaurant had a really creative menu.

Bizzare Food Menu

*  Spring green salad with leaf cutter ants, toasted weaver ant eggs, and blood orange vinegarette

*  Slow braised, sweet and spicy chicken’s feet with sticky rice

*  Duck Balute with sea salt and rice vinegar and thousand year old egg

*  Rocky mountain oysters served with pan gravy and toast points

*  Goby Fish “sticks” with red chilies and seaweed salad

*  Teriyaki pigs eye kabab with pineapple

*  Kill it and grill it scorpions with sweet hoisin

*  Oven baked cambodian tarantulas with spicy bananas

How about that menu.  I don’t want to know how in the heck they even got the pigs eye on the kabab.  I mean do they put it on there and then cook it or cook it and then put it on the kabab, Yikes

I decided to take this wool challenge from the Peace Fleece wool site.  I love their wool yarn and just love the whole site and its cause and philosophy.  So decided to take the Chiney wool challenge where you get a pound of the wool and see what you can make out of 1 lb. of Chiney’s wool.  As if I need another project, but I couldn’t resist.  So here is the wool in pics of how it was before being washed and after.

Ain’t it purdy.  It always amazes me at how it comes out all nice and fluffy once you wash out the lanolin.  I took a large bucket and filled it up with hot water then added a goodly amount of liquid dish soap then added the wool and let it soak for about 20 mins.  Then dumped it out into a big plastic strainer I got at the asian market and let is drain.  The strainer was sitting on a couple of bricks so the water could drain away.  Then took it into the house and filled the washer with hot water, added the wool, let it set in there about 15 mins and then put the washer on spin and did that twice to get the rest of the soap out and practically all the water.  Then fluffed it up to let it dry on this table.  So still debating on if I’ll dye some of it or not.  I tryed some out on the hand cards and it combs out so nicely.  Then there will be the matter of deciding what to make with it once it is spun up.  Decisions, Decisions

In the meantime while the wool was drying I pulled out my hand cards and some of the wool I got from www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com and started carding that.  Loving it !  Then that got me to wanting to find my drum carder so hunted around in the boxes for that and found it, WOO HOO, and can’t wait to set that up again to start using that again too.  Just finding the time to work on projects is a challenge sometimes but if I just make it a priority to do a little at a time then eventually things get done, PADOW!  Has any one been having less rain than we have.  Ha, its been like a little rain or threatening to rain for a good while now.  I really shouldn’t complain since we need the rain and its been good for the plants.  TTFN

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Ack, had to remove a tick for the first time .  I’ve had ticks on me before but always got them off before they sunk their little teeth into me.  Was visiting in N.C. and we were out and about all in the woods and guess it got on me there.  It was on my ankle and I thought it was a scab and then scratched it and noticed it was like hanging there and was ACK , its a freekin tick.  So got online to see how you take the bugger off. Went to this site http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/ento/facts/removal.html and followed the guide and shazam got the critter off and put it in an old pill bottle with alcohol incase I need to take it to have it analyzed.  It’s kinda weird when you grasp the tick at the base with the tweezers and tug gently it is like stuck like they say but as you pull gently it will give way after a bit but does take some patience.  So I’m going to get a better pair of tweezers the thinner kind like they have in the fact sheet to have around just in case, EWWWwwwwww.  It says that it take about 24 hours for a tick to transmit any disease if it has any and that all ticks arn’t the kind that transmit diseases like Lyme disease.  Okay, now go and see if any of those moles are really ticks in disguise, LOL……..TTFN