My first crochet hat...

So, I first started crocheting again last year and I hate to say it but my first blanket that granddaughter Annie received was a disaster and luckily for everyone else I have made gifts for...I have shown improvement. Maybe I should make another one for Annie this year?!? Anyway, I have mostly been making scarves and I even kept one of the last ones but this is my first hat.

When my near-daughter, Amanda, came for a visit this last Thanksgiving I re-taught her how to crochet as she had learned as a child from her Granny but didn't remember how to get past the chain. She took off like a banshee and went home and made like seven scarves for presents by Christmas...I was amazed at her ability for sure. She started making hats to go with those scarves so I asked her for a lesson!!

She sent me a You-tube lesson on making hats "in the round" as they call it and last Saturday (a week ago) I sat down with the computer and my yarn and got started. By Tuesday, I knew I had done something wrong as it looked like a scarf for a two headed dragon...

While in the backseat of my parent's car going to a doctor appt in Albq. I unraveled and unraveled and got back down to the 6th row of the round and started again. By Wednesday evening I had a lot of yarn left but was back to the length I had got to by Tuesday's unraveling fest. Thanks to Deb for helping me to untangle all that yarn that I hastily wadded up in the car!!!

So, last night I said to my honey...I think it is still too big and trying it on asked him what he thought?? He said it looked good and I should just wear it as is and be done with it. So I agreed to stop where I was and try it out and if I don't like it I can always unravel, unravel and unravel some more.

So, here I am with my just a little bit too big, first ever home-made hat! And now that I am done? It is 70 degrees and I just put on my first pair of shorts for the year so I won't be able to try it out quite yet. Never fear though, this is Datil and at 7600 feet I am sure we will have a few more "hat days" before summer!! Now, maybe a scarf to match...

The Best Dog in the World

As you may have heard...my bestest beastie has been diagnosed with Pannus, an autoimmune disorder that some dogs get that can cause blindness. Even though people have assured me that blindness in dogs is not the end of the world and that as far as the senses go...sight is #3 for dogs, still and yet, I don't want it to happen if at all possible. We are giving him his prednisone drops to both eyes twice a day and there is an improvement already but I investigated the situation and it so happens that where we chose to live, love and play is probably the worst environment we could chose for this condition. Since we won't be moving any time soon and no...he is definitely not leaving us to go live somewhere else where the light might not be such a problem I invested in some Doggles. Today, we got to try them out. I must say that at first I thought I had just wasted $25 but I was persistent and he figured out I meant business and after several attempts at trying to take them off he submitted. I am only going to insist he wear them for our walks for now as most of the time he is outside on his own he naturally goes for the shade...even in winter with snow on the ground. If all goes well I might be able to get him to wear them more often but for now he thinks I am mean enough so I don't want to push it...

                          So, here is to our Bubba aka: Roly-Poly Catfish. We love you and want you to know that you look really cool in those shades!!!

Our New Toilet (the outhouse is the in-house) and what did you get for Christmas?

This is the finished project and one we made for ourselves as a holiday gift at the end of 2010. What used to be here was a store bought version which lasted a whole 5 1/2 years and that cost $1000 and that is the lower end cost of these things. Why do we have a composting toilet in the first place? Because we live at 7600 feet above sea level and this particular home site I believe is 7600 feet of ROCK!! None the less, we couldn't have put in a septic tank if we wanted to so we did the alternative...composting toilet. I will put this in perspective here and show you the plastic piece of SH@% we bought:

The thing started leaking a long time back so the boards underneath are there to try to level it but that didn't work most of the time. In the back corner you see the battery that we devised to make the fan work...there is a very small solar panel on the roof that allows the electricity to be stored in said battery but the set-up was just plain ugly! The bucket there on the right contains the "flush" that we use...you may have heard the rhyme: if you pee let it be, if you poop add a scoop? Well, that is the scoop contents...again, just a tad bit unsightly. But the toidy itself just started falling apart, hence the next photo:

The seat broke, the cover was falling off and on the right upper side of the base was a growing crack...did I mention this cost us $1000???

So, finally one day I said to my hubby (who wanted to build our own toilet in the first place mind you but noooo, I wanted a "real" one)...can we please build our own now? Live and learn. So, David and I started researching sawdust toilets in general on the world wide web and low and behold most of the sites recommend...you guessed it, store-bought ones!! There is even a site out there telling the 5 reasons you should consider buying over building. I can debate every one of them but that is another story. So, how do you build your own sawdust toilet you might ask...well, you probably won't ask but should you want to know...I am at your service.

David took measurements, cut out all the holes and you will notice that there isn't just one hole on top. He planned it so that the flush bucket, the battery and a switch to turn it on and off are all planned for. The back hole is for the venting pipe that came off the old one. We went on Christmas eve and bought the pretty blue paint, door pulls and hinges!! I got to paint it as I usually "get" to paint most things around this homestead.

So, here it is ready to put all the necessary pieces together. David wired the fan that goes in the vent to the battery and then we were ready to finish the installation.

And yes, he did clean up the battery before installing it but isn't that just the coolest thing?? It has it's own door and the little light switch above it is all we need to turn it off and on...awesome!!

Now the flush bucket was installed so it is handy for that second part of our rhyme. Oh, and I forgot to mention the toilet seat that we had to purchase so let's see we already had the wood, slush bucket, and many 5 gallon buckets (that are also hidden cozily away) from our recent re-stuccoing of the exterior of our home last summer so all we had to purchase was the toilet seat, white hinges, door pull and the paint! Not bad compared to our previous $1000 flop. I am very happy with our new toilet and have enjoyed immensely sharing the experience with you!! One last peak at the finished product just in case you want to try this yourself!! 

Happiness is a homemade toilet for the holidays!!

Something to consider

First of all it is not a mosque it is a cultural center. Second of all it is not at ground zero it is two blocks away. Thirdly, they already have a mosque 10 blocks away that no one seemed to worried about. Forth, is the fact that a McDonald's is closer to ground zero than the proposed Islamic Cultural center and if you think the golden arches is sacred then just stop reading...

You would think by these 4 things that I am in favor of the cultural center being built. On principal I am. We in NM have an Indian Cultural center in Albq that is rather nice and very interesting to visit if you are so inclined. It is rather spread out and I imagine if located in NYC would probably be 4 stories high. How did the Indians of NM build a cultural center? I do not know for sure but I imagine some of the funds came from Indian owned casinos and the sale of cheap cigarettes they sell to white people...is that bad? No, as American as apple pie. So, where do the folks wanting to build a cultural center 2 blocks away from ground zero get their funding? WHAT??? They don't have money to build it?? Don't they have casinos and cheap cigarettes? Oh, I see...lets start a national controversy so that the Christian conservatives will get all filled with hate and then the liberal bleeding hearts can come in and save the day with donations...wow, why didn't I think of that?? Have you read, said or otherwise listened to the Pledge of Allegiance lately? I was recently at a city council meeting where it was recited by most everyone in the room. One word stood out to me as the biggest joke of the century... INDIVISIBLE. That is the end of my rant. I think that if you think about that word and how divided our country is that you too might think it is all just a joke. I saw a writing of the Buddha today that said "when you realize all is perfection you will look into the sky and laugh" I really like that quote. Maybe this is perfection and maybe soon I will start laughing!!

Mountains in May

I wanted to share the musings going through my head on my walk today, the 4th day of May. On the first day of May in these west central mountains of NM I was a bit sluggish after having gotten home late the night before from a conference in Albq 150 miles away so I didn't walk until the afternoon. It was a coolish day with clouds and snow in the forecast for the morrow. I went on my usual 3.5 mile route in my "subdivision" you have to take that pretty loosely compared to city type subdivisions but those of you that know where I live know what I mean...dirt roads and hills to climb in every direction. So, there I was on the high road when I came upon the same snake I saw a week or so ago and he was none too happy. The snow flakes had just started falling- only flurries mind you but the snake thought that winter was over and he was pissed! I left him alone this time...I had given him a couple of pets on our last encounter but I didn't think he would appreciate human interference at that time. It snowed on me again a couple times but not too worry it was really okay weather for a brisk walk. Got home and we started a fire and watched our weekly movie and all was ducky! Next day, the 2nd of May...it was really supposed to snow so I waited on a walk to let the temps warm up and the snow to do its thing. I made homemade macaroni and cheese...the kind you bake in the oven and drool over. It was gluten free of course and quite yummy. I also made David his black walnut cookies, cleaned up a bit and watched the snow off and on all morning. About 2:30 it looked a little dark out there but nothing was falling from the sky so I bundled up good as the thermometer showed 36 lovely degrees out there. Just as soon as I stepped out the door flakes started to fall. By the time I got to the end of the driveway the flakes were starting to cover the ground...and cover...and cover. I made it down to the end of the road (1/3mile) and said to no one in particular except my faithful mutt Roly that I was an idiot and was turning around. I had to hold both gloved hands up to my face to try to ward off the stinging snow pellets that were accosting me and I was completely covered in the white stuff so much that I looked like a human snowman. None too happy I made it back home without frostbite even though it was now 29 degrees. I changed into warm/dry clothes and made myself a cup of hot cocoa and sat looking out the window from which I could see nothing but white. Still grumpy I whined to my Facebook friends about the weather here and got zero sympathy! We went to bed that evening with the snow still coming down in bursts with a grand accumulation of only a couple of inches. So, that brings me to day 3...Monday, May 3rd. I had a lunch date as a belated birthday present with friends and neighbors so I decided to take my walk early and to do an extra bit since I had got ripped-off the day before. With the sun out and the ground covered in snow I set off pretty well bundled. It was beautiful and awesomely quiet as only snow can bring to the world. Roly and I and a few birds were the only people out and my walk was blissful for the most part...as I took such a long walk things (dirt roads in particular) were starting to melt so I got in some resistance training as well by carrying around 2-3 extra pounds per boot of mud. But even the mud didn't ruin my walk...it was simply wonderful. I have the benefit of being able to work from home so after my wonderful lunch out I worked most of the afternoon then worked on my crochet in the evening and life was just good!! Now, for the last day of this incredibly long diatribe. I had a doctor appt in Reserve which is an hour away but a gorgeous drive from here. On the way home I had the sunroof open...did I say sunroof after just yesterday walking through the snow?? Yup, it got into the 70's today. So, after planting my birthday card from big sister (have you ever seen those cards with wildflower seeds embedded?, thanks Jo) I went on my daily walk with shorts and sandels on...can you believe it??? So, anyway, I am walking up a hilly dirt road that no one lives on and here comes a rarity...a car. Census workers looking for some directions...that done I moved on up the hill but as is my unfortunate custom I had to pee...never can make the whole walk without that little task and since I had just seen actual people on my walk I thought I would go off road a little more than usual. So, here I am in the required position for females when I hear this clomp, clomp coming down the road. I looked up and there was a Pronghorn (antelope) loping along the road all by himself. Now this is so rare as I have never seen an antelope this high up...they are plains dwellers so you can just imagine my surprise. I was going to ask Roly about it as he had walked on ahead of me and had probably scared up the poor pronghorn in the first place but he wasn't talking!! After I caught up with him a raven flew over my head startling me and him on his way to the juvenile heard he was hanging with. Ravens are not like crows as they usually mate up when adults but in the teenage years they tend to congregate and we kept scaring them up for the rest of the walk so we got a lot of raven cat-calls, if you will. From the high road you can see a long ways in all directions and the plain is not green but the mountains are and that too is a rarity in the spring. We usually see green only after the summer rains. It was just gorgeous up there except that the bark beetle has infested some of the pines and if you didn't know they were dying it almost looked like fall foliage. Now I am sitting in my new lawn chair that I got last week but couldn't put it out due to our wintry weather...so much can change in a day. Still have on the shorts but the wind is picking up and I am about to head inside. David planted one row of corn and one of beans today as a test run. The month of May can hold many surprises up here in these mountains and no one can say this beautiful day in the 70's can hold out. I do hope we are done with the snow for this spring though....

I have to work the next 2 days and no telling what adventures I will have on my walks again starting on Friday...hope they are as fun as the first 4 days of May!!

Burl

I came across this tree walking today

David says it is a burl...not sure about spelling

For you Tara

A view from a nearby canyon

A snow covered winter's day...every thing is beautiful...in its own way...

That forest green roof in the center is ours and to the left is Tom and Ruth's place