Good Morning Monday-Ramblings

 Happy Monday and New Week!

   Missouri gets crazy weather this time of year, over the weekend high 80's F full sun, but no wind. Today is to be another high 80 F degree day but storms are coming n, so it is very overcast and eerie out there and very calm at the moment. Lots of fisherman on the lake since dawn this morning. Overcast is good fishing weather.

  I did need to turn the air conditioner on last night. We had gotten up to 87 degrees f  on Sunday and the house was quite warm. Needed to cool it down for Larry's heart health. Hopefully we will not need it again for awhile.

  I didn't get out to do what I wanted to over the weekend in the flower garden area. Hot sun is not a good time to transplant. This morning would be good though-no sun. We'll see. 

    We find out this morning when the supervisor stops by if Larry is approved for more physical therapy-hoping so since he is coming out.

  Not to complain, but I am hoping my eyes get better. Sometimes I think the drops are making them worse, and still getting used to the new stronger prescription for my glasses.

 I did sign up for the free trial with Amazon Prime over the weekend-but scheduled to cancel last night. These streaming services have such old material-old movies, old tv shows that are the free services. I get free shipping at Amazon when I buy $35.00 minimum so I just save items in my wish list til I have that amount. Their shipping is always fast too even without Prime.  We live rural so their free grocery delivery service can't be used here. If we want to listen to music we turn on the radio so their music is not worth it to us. It just doesn't fit us for the money.  I cancelled but they kept the free trial open for the 30 days before they cancel. Also could not get their service to load on the app on Larry's tv so I just checked it out on my computer  We each have a tv-Larry's in the bedroom and the one I use in the living room area. We watch completely different programs and we don't turn the tv's on til evenings. I felt guilty about this for a long time, but I had a friend at work that told me that's what her and her husband do  since their interests for tv shows were totally opposite-that's us..

  Before we moved to the lake we had used Directv since they first came on the market-thinking over 25 years. I called them about their streaming service and would get their Premier package do to all the sports and movies. The sale price would be locked in for two years. They would send that plug in like roku has for the back of the tv through the mail-so no techs which is nice.  .The first device is free but the second device would be 7.00 a month (usa dollars) so that is that wasted money for rental.  I am actually ready to just go with this service but Larry still wants to talk with roku to understand the pricing.  What a "pain" to even have to deal with this haha  We have a year but I would rather just do this and be set up going forward. This Directv package is loaded with movie channels and sports channels and my Hallmark channels and DIY shows so I am ready to go back to them..

  The hot weekend finished off the early lilac blooms, and the later flowering lilacs are in full bloom now.  I was so happy when I found these lilac bushes blooming that first spring we had moved here

This is the ground cover-this one really grew  had bought this a few years ago from the Amish greenhouse. I think it is phlox

However the second one is the one I need to move-the creeping thyme is choking it out-I should have moved this last fall after I had gotten the left side of this rock wall area prepared to plant I may just take some of the above one to transplant as well

I took a photo of the bison fiber blended with shetland wool. the bison fiber was sold as a soil amendment so I went through it and ended up with one pillowcase "bag" for the soil and two bags I thought I could spin,  Blended with my hand carders with the shetland wool it came out pretty decent. Once this niddy noddy is full of the spin yarn-I am going to really soak it in warm soapy water and see how it holds up.  It is bulky but that's ok for weaving something with it.

     I still had a couple packages of baby back ribs in the freezer since last early summer. Yesterday was the perfect day to make one of these.  I did them in the oven and they turned out soooo delicious. I need to write down how I cooked them.

Happy new week every one

Update: whoo hooo Larry got approved for twice a week physical therapy for the next three weeks. They found out that if they ask for once a week physical therapy,  insurance turns them down because they think it is not really needed just maintenance..  I was surprised when a month ago they dropped Larry to once a week.  So this is good news, especially since Larry's latest setback.

 I so much appreciate your continued healing thoughts thank you

Buffalo Fiber Progress

   Good morning Sunday (or Monday for my European friends)  Today it's full sunshine and headed to the 80's F for a couple of days-then it will drop a bit for awhile but still spring temperatures.  Of course this up and down is wrecking havoc with my sinus's.

   Since Friday I have been playing with fibers. I started off with my blending board but did not like the results. This is a fun tool to layer fibers and them make into a long roving for spinning, but I forgot it doesn't really blend the fibers together. So I took apart what I had spun and redid it using my carders.

  The buffalo fibers being extremely short made a mess of my board too. This is what was left behind-so I cleaned this up with a flicker tool and put this away. 

This is a flicker and looks just like the one I have. 

So getting out my carders-first I put too much fiber on, so since I am not a super good spinner,couldn't get the fibers drawn out enough to make a yarn that was not super bulky. So took that apart and put much less fiber on.-the shetland wool fiber first and then the bufflalo fibers. You can see that the buffalo fiber is just a "mat" of very very short fibers. I can see why it will be good in the soil. 

  It took a few trys but by late yestereday this was going fairly well. Spun up, this is a coarser fiber which I am thinking I could use my mini loom to weave table mats or perhaps coasters.

 I am not happy that blogger has changed how to add photos to my blog. Instead of going to my photos like always-I now have to drag them to my blog-I am not good at doing that so what a process ugh The photos above went in but now they won't ugh. Will have to figure out how this works easier

  Ok I am back haha  Still not liking that google changed how to add photos. wonder why they did this? perhaps catering to cell phones? dont know as I don't have one of those.

Below fibers taken off the carders and then it is carefully rolled up,  and then carefully I pull the fibers out to spin which gives me a long piece to spin

My camera I am realizing takes blurry photos when I zoom in a bit. There is still bulky yarn on here, but the last of what I did is getting better.

  I am going to spin to fill this drop spindle up and then put it on my niddy noddy, get wet and then when dry see how the yarn is

 

  I made two loaves of gluten free pumpkin bread, for the sweetener the recipe uses maple syrup but the bread when baked has just a hint of sweetness.Of course I spread on some cream cheese to our slices-smiles.

    I am using the last quart jar of maple syrup that was gifted to us when we were still having deer camp at our woods home Our friend lives near Green Bay Wisconsin on his farm and he harvests his own maple syrup He had brought a large box of his maple syrup-such a generous gift-I gifted over half of it to friends at the time.

  Tomorrow I finally have my appointment to the eye doctor.My eyes have gotten so bad over the last year. Next week is dentist check up and then after that family doctor and blood draw that we do every 6 months-not sure if Larry will be able to manage the steps for that-we are just taking one day at a time.

  Have a good new week ahead everyone

Buffalo Fiber in the Mail & Daffodils

   After I purchased the big bag of buffalo fiber, I got to thinking-"what was I thinking??" Shhhh I didn't tell Larry about this one-kinda crazy I know haha.  Reminds me back when I was quilting more the girls would hide their fabric purchses from their husbands. I never hide stuff-but this purchase I did so far.

    I got the 5 pound bag because it was such a better price point-especially since they had a good mark down on it, and then another 15% off  on any order, plus free shipping. The free shipping was a big savings. I had been looking at this for a couple years now and the price was just too expensive before, and they have not offered free shipping before that I remember, so thinking they were spring cleaning their warehouse. .

  I also bought another pair of their "Boss" short socks made with buffalo yarn-I had bought a pair a year ago and I love them These socks will last the rest of my life time for sure.-perhaps even the fiber smiles.

  The first thing I did was to get this fiber out of the plastic bag, and then I grabbed old pillow cases from my craft room. Fibers need to breath-I never store any form of fibers or fabrics in plastic bags. 

   Well 5  pounds Is Allot of fiber-4 stuffed bags full haha.   The fiber is very very clean which I am very happy about, and allot of it was in wide rolls. This is supposed to be the waste fiber and more coarse. It is actually not extremely coarse.  The fibers are very very short which I had expected, but I almost think I will try carding it with another fiber to see if I can spin some of it.  I also thought it might just make a nice stuffing for little pillows too. I will also use some of this fiber in the soil too this spring as I work on the perennial areas.

  These photos came out a bit dark-sorry

  

    I got to thinking this week while waiting for this to get delivered that 5 pounds is allot of fiber-Yes it is-- fibers do make me happy though and I need happy right now.

   I have had in the back of my mine to create another framed fiber picture using wools and needle felting fibers-this will work for that project too, although that won't make much of a dent in this.

We got up into the 80's F temperature today but will crash to the low 20's tonight with wind rain t storms-typical for Missouri some years. 

   Late this afternoon I got outdoors for a bit. That sewer ditch project we had been working on before Larry's fall over the stone wall created allot of good soil. I spent hours seperating out the rocks from the soil-we needed the rocks to put on top of the sewer pipe.  This is a slow project for me fill a big bucket half full with this soil and carry it down the steps- I did a couple hours of that-but good thing I stopped at 2 hours.

  I did see a few daffodils beginning to bloom- that was a surprise  I was not able to work in these areas before winter last year after Larry's fall-so I have much to do to get these areas sorted before they grow too much I am hoping what I planted last year will return this spring

The storms have just begun while I type this--Have a good rest of your week