Friday, August 30, 2013

Loose Ends

Second box of completed comfort scarves for the charity group Handmade Especially for You. Waiting to be mailed.






One-skein cowls (neckwarmers), a work in progress. The Leche Yarn is knitting up beautifully: super cozy and next-to-skin-soft, silky sheen, and a wonderful drape.  Dare I say Christmas?


Milk Cowls
  

Another Wurm hat, this one bi-colored, looking for a head.


Cascade 220 Superwash Gray and Mocha


On second thought, I'll keep the hat for Z.  It looks like he's planning his return visit by leaving his magazines and toys with us.


Z's stuff


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Red Hot August Nights

Atascadero is a small town with a small town feel to it.  Summer evenings are celebrated with concerts in the park, movies outdoors, and cruisin'.  So on a Friday evening we all came out for the 21st Annual Hot El Camino Real Cruise Nite to watch the classic cars, flashy hot rods, and anything else on wheels drive up and down the main drag, El Camino Real.


Cruise Night 8/16/13


Central Coast Roller Derby Team -vs- Classic Cars


Last year we sat on the grass.  This year I was more prepared with a blanket for the grass and a cooler of food: oven fried chicken, grilled corn on the cob, musubis (rice balls), fresh fruit, and popcorn w/arare.  We also brought along our favorite car enthusiast, Jerry's grandson, Z.

~ ~ ~

A few nights ago, The Man and I were enjoying our usual nightly activity -- sitting out on The Vista watching the stars come out.  All of a sudden a green dot appeared about six feet downslope of us.  It bounced around for several seconds before I realized what it was.  I said, "Cover your eyes!"  When I dared to look again it was gone.  The Man saw the actual beam, the green dot touched him, and it flashed in his face.

Somewhere, out in the dark, someone was wielding a very powerful laser.  A laser that could burn our eyes and cause retinal damage.  We didn't stay out much longer after that.


The Vista View

 
Today, The Man did some calculations of where the laser beam possibly originated from (yeah, I know, he's kinda geeky).  





Laser Pointers?


These houses are 1.7 miles away.  Next time, if it happens again, I'm calling the Laser Police.



Sunday, August 18, 2013

Newbies

Chickens are the greatest.  Who would have thought?  The Man says, "You feed them garbage and they provide you with delicious eggs."  (Garbage?  I guess he doesn't notice that I wash all the veggie scraps carefully and chop them up into beak-sized pieces.)

After BeBe died it just didn't seem like we were getting enough eggs.  I think I've mentioned before that the Red Leghorns are great layers, the Speckled Sussex not so much.  I felt like we needed more chickens.

We checked our local Hay and Feed stores and kept an eye on Craigslist.  We wanted fully feathered chicks so we didn't have to deal with a heat lamp.  I wanted to get two so they'd have each other to stand up against The Girls.  I was pretty sure Sophia was going to give them a hard time.

We found just what we were looking for a few weeks ago in Craigslist:  Buff Orpington and Barred Rock pullets.  I wasn't sure if I wanted two Buffs or two Rocks.  Since these Peeps were together we brought home all three.


  



First Look


It's a little nerve-wracking to watch Sophia establish dominance.  The Man has been calling her "The Hag".


Sophia with her evil chicken stare


The Newbies spent five days in quarantine (chicken wire around their crate) and another few days in the garage without the wire before we moved them down to the Pen.  We kept them locked up in the Pen during the day and brought them back to the garage at night.

The Newbies are now free range during the day and sleeping in the coop at night.  

The Man was finally able to get the livestock out of his garage.



It's not a farm, it's a zoo.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Carton of Milk

Uh, oh, another super-duper yarn sale from Little Knits.com.  And who could resist 78% off list price?  Not me that's for sure.  I may have bought 63 skeins.  What was that?  Yes, 63 skeins: six "full bags" of ten skeins each plus three more skeins thrown in to qualify for free shipping.  A total of 6867 yards . . . (ahem) 3.9 miles of yummy yarn.


Queensland Collection Leche:  40% Extrafine Merino Wool, 30% Microfiber, 20% Milk Protein, and 10% Silk.

That's it.

I'm going on a yarn diet.

Really.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Snake Committee

"If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes."  Ross Perot

I'm not afraid of snakes.  It's probably just because I don't know any better.  Growing up in Hawaii, where there are no snakes, you don't develop fears from bad encounters.  Over the past year we've had numerous close encounters:

Almost touched this guy while reaching for the garden hose ~




Mele's first encounter ~




Hey, Mele, it's not a stick!


It was already getting dark last week when we started our nightly walk down the driveway with The Goaty Boys.  Just a few feet in front of us I saw a large dark shape slowly moving across the driveway.  It was too dark to make out what kind of snake it was but The Man ran back to the garage for his "varmint deterrent" while I kept an eye on Mele and The Boys.  While I was chattering about "good snakes" The Man stopped this one once with .22 birdshot (and then another two times for good measure).






Too close for comfort (or safety)


Our neighbor, Rod, said he's seen two rattlesnakes in the seven years he's lived there; our other neighbor said she's seen two in thirty years.  I'm not sure if I count myself lucky to have had two rattlesnake encounters in less than two years.  And, unfortunately, it's not the same snake I met last September.

The Committee on Snakes voted unanimously that venomous snakes were not welcome.


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Simply Savory

(Savory: pleasing to the sense of taste especially by reason of effective seasoning.)

Last week, we were treated to another wonderful Lebanese meal prepared by our favorite chef, Jon.  He sent a care package which included mountain bread with za'atar dipping oil, green olives in a peppery oil, and lamb kibbeh wrapped in mountain bread and pan-fried.  We added our CSA watermelon and a Greek salad.  Simply delicious.