Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

Oh nooooo.... So sorry.

The ducks apparently spent most of the day inside their coop; I found feed uneaten and the water dish was only half empty when I came home. Same thing again today, although they did venture forth for a short time in the afternoon while my son was chipping ice off the walkway. I guess they know they are fairly safe if one of us is outside.
Murphy's Law- it appears that the hawk got the only hen that was laying, I haven't seen any eggs for the past 2 days.

In other disappointing news, I was working on knitting the ribbing for the bottom of the sweater and I had to rip it apart again. I have to make the ribbing separately from the main body of the sweater, because I knitted the body on the bias and the ribbing is straight. I was knitting the ribbing in the round, but my largest cable was too small- I had to bunch it up to fit- and I didn't notice that I had gotten the join twisted so I was knitting a mobius strip. It wasn't until I was about 1 1/2 inches into it before it became obvious. 1 1/2 inches doesn't sound like much, but when I say I had to cast on 400+ stitches to fit my fat a**, and this yarn knits up at 8 rows per 1", you can see that represents a lot of work. I did find a tutorial on how to make my own cables though, and I ordered the parts I didn't already have (not much- some narrow tubing and some tiny screws and a driver) which should get here in a couple of days and then I can make a cable that is the right size to prevent this in the future. In the meantime, I finished some fingerless gloves to match the hat and cowl that my girlfriend made for me for Christmas- I received yarn from another friend in the same color as she used so it worked out perfectly. Now I'm doing a few crocheted washcloths to keep my hand in on the crocheting.

I had a contractor come in to look at the house and figure out how to install the woodstove we bought. He's pretty busy right now, so he won't be able to get on it right away, but I don't mind- it gives me some extra time to clear the junk out of the way. It looks like the piping is going to be the most expensive part of the whole installation

Tonight is Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Brown Gravy, Broccoli and Green Salad.

Sorry you lost your duck. I read that you can put wire up above their pen and it helps keep flying predators at bay. I'm talking something like hot wire. Also, any old shiny "disc" attached the blow around. Guess when they see a few wires, seems like an entire fence to them when diving.

That's why I have the netting over my chickens.

Unfortunately, the ducks were out free ranging when it happened-- can't cover the whole area. Now they are terrified to go out; they come out of their coop for short periods of time- just enough to eat and drink the barest minimum, and then back inside. And yet another day with no egg, so it's pretty definite that my one laying duck was the unlucky one.

Millie (the Great Pyrennees cross) has a vet appointment today; she is due for her 3-year rabies booster and annual check up. Should be interesting to see how much she weighs now.

whew, finally caught up with you!
Oh no on the knitting! I KNOW how much work that is to have to rip out that much! That isn't fun at all! It is amusing that it turned into a mobius loop, but so so frastrating to have to redo it. Can you pick up the stitches on the bottom of the sweater instead of attaching the ribbing after the fact? I am working on a baby sweater that the hood is knit as a triangular shape, and then you pick up the stitches from what was the side of the triangle in order to attach the sweater. Hard to explain, but I hope that makes sense. I'd rather knit it together than hand stitch it on later.
So sad on the duck. I hope your other ducks get more comfortable with going back outside again soon. That isn't good for them!

Lots of catching up to do! We didn't have any extreme weather here, like those of you in the East; but we did have on-again-off-again snow and rain. I got stuck in the embankment on the road just outside our driveway (embarrassing!).

Millie weighs 117 pounds! The vet says to not let her gain anymore as she is at the top end of healthy weight.

I got sick with a bad cold going around here; some people are missing as much as 2-3 weeks of work because it acts like you are getting better and then whams you with a relapse. DS took care of me until he had to leave for house-sitting again but by then I was mostly ok.
The good side is that I finished my sweater! YAY! I did some reading in one of my knitting books and found the technique you mentioned @hqueen13 and was able to do that; it worked very well. I promise a picture, but I can't take a good selfie that actually shows the sweater, so I have to wait for DH to get home. I wore it yesterday to coffee and everyone complimented me.
I decided I'm going to make DS's sweater with new yarn, and use the old sweater yard to make a lap blanket or something. I will have to order the new yarn though, as the craft store didn't have enough skeins on hand. I've noticed they almost never have enough skeins of a particular color to complete a large project like a sweater or afghan at this store; I guess they figure people will want to use multiple colors?
In the meantime, I've done a couple of small projects, and have started another large project.

(sorry about the poor focus! It's hard to take pictures on a moving planet...) The blue gloves were made from some yarn I received from one friend as a Christmas gift, and the yarn happened to be an exact match for a cowl and ear-warmer that another friend made for me as a Christmas gift, lol. The white gloves were made with a bit of scrap yarn because I found this pattern - Mock Cable Rib, that I wanted to try out.
My large project is a shawl-collared jacket; it's going much faster than the sweater did because I'm using a bulky-weight yarn instead of fingerling (5 rows = 1", vs 10 rows on the sweater)

We haven't heard from the contractor as to when he will start work on the wood stove, but I am going to start clearing out the space so we aren't caught flat-footed. I have determined that this year I will get the excess junk cleared out of the house and outbuildings. I'll probably hold a couple of yard sales (more likely at my friend's house in town as she will get more traffic than I would at the end of a dirt road in a rural area.)

I ordered a new computer tower to replace our old computer- The monitor and keyboard still work fine so we can keep them. I backed up everything on the older computer that we are getting rid of onto an external hard drive, and I got the word that the tower should get here either Friday or early next week. I will be nice to have a computer that will be fast enough to get online easily again. This one is over 6 years old, I believe, and I have never been happy with the Vista OS.

I need to vacuum the house today, as no one has done it for almost 2 weeks, while I've been down. I got drifts the size of rhinos in here!

I don't think I want to fix a complicated dinner tonight as I don't have all my strength back yet, so I think I'll pull out some canned turkey and make something like turkey and noodles in gravy. Maybe a salad of Hearts of Palm in vinaigrette, and pears with chocolate sauce. That won't tax me too much.

I spent today puttering around and getting several small projects done.

I made a 40" cable for my Boyle Interchangeable Knitting Needle set following a tutorial I found online. I'm currently waiting for the glue to dry.
Then I started dehydrating a batch of frozen mixed veggies to store for dog food use; Cash N Carry had a sale on 20# boxes. My dehydrator will hold 10# at a time so I have the rest in the tank house staying cold. I also picked up a 1# bag of fresh basil which I turned into 4 batches of pesto in the freezer.

Then I took my Oregon Food Handler's test and passed it so I was able to print out a food handler's card for tomorrow. I volunteered to help do food prep for a group that is doing demos every Sunday this month. They are concentrating on healthy vegetarian meals for low income people. I figure I might pick up some good recipes too?

We haven't heard anything from the contractor about coming out to install our woodstove. Oh well, that just gives me more time to clean things up in the living room.

So now I need to work on dinner. I think a simple Pasta dish with chicken and broccoli in a wine and dijon mustard sauce. Maybe after that I'll be able to bottle the kombucha. It needs to be done very soon or it will be too vinegar-y.

Cute on the wrist warmers! I love wrist warmers! They are so much fun to wear when its a little chilly but you don't need real gloves.
Glad you got the sweater finished and it was easier to pick up the stitches than to attach it. I think it creates a better look even though I am frequently cursing as I try to get the stitches to pick up evenly and get the right number. I guess it only matters when you are trying to do a pattern that must have a specific number. I'm still plugging away at my niece's sweater that was supposed to be a christmas present. I hope she doesn't get too big to wear it...
Glad you're feeling better, but its great you were able to get projects done in the down time too!!

Just getting caught up w/this. Love the wrist warmers! Learning how to knit in on my bucket list. I used to crochet, but haven't done so in years. I need to get back into it. I want to make some afghans this year for Christmas presents, so I figure I should be starting soon.