Knee Socks

I have some new socks I'm working on. They are very basic with stockinette feet and a 2 x 2 rib for the cuff. All I know about the yarn is that it is a cotton sock yarn; I bought it on eBay and it didn't have the label with it. It was one skein that I divided in two by weight with the ball winder so I knew how much yarn I could use for each sock. My first sock, which isn't quite finished, started out as a pattern until I decided the yarn was too busy for the pattern; so there are some inconsistencies in the sock. Since they are for me, I don't care; I doubt anybody will get close enough to my legs to see them.



On this sock I started at the top of the cuff and knit for as far as I thought was safe without running out of yarn, knit in the waste yarn where I'd put the heel, knit what I thought would be the rest of the foot but stopped where I thought the toe would start. I have a lot of the #2 sock needles that I'm using so I went back to put the heel in and tried the sock on before finishing the toe. After getting the entire sock done with a perfect fit to my foot I still had a lot of yarn left so I unraveled the cast on and proceeded with lengthening the cuff. (This caused another inconsistency in the cuff, but not too noticeable.) As you can see in the photo it has become a knee sock, which I am thrilled about since I don't have any. I stopped before running completely out of yarn just in case I don't get as far on the other sock before running out.

On the second sock I cast on at the ankle, knit a couple of rows, knit the waste yarn in, and I'm now knitting the foot. I'll use the other sock for the pattern where to start the toe, I'll then knit in the heel, I'll unravel my cast on (it I had really been thinking I would have used an invisible cast on), and the rest of the yarn will knit the cuff from the bottom up.

It all sounds more complicated than it really is. I'm doing everything I would be doing anyway (except the unraveling) just in a different order. This way I should be able to use all the yarn and I can easily match the length of the socks to each other. I can't wait to wear my first pair of hand knit knee socks.

PS. I tried on the first sock and it isn't quite to my knee yet.

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas festivities are over for this year. Last night we celebrated with Aliya and her new husband, Chad, at my in-laws. My mother-in-law, Sandy, goes way overboard on this holiday. Every room is heavily decorated, even the hallways and bathrooms. She also likes giving mountains of gifts to everybody. You just never know what you might unwrap. I think Chad was overwhelmed, just as I was at my first Christmas with the Dean's.

I didn't do very well in the gift giving department this year. I just couldn't come up with any good ideas so rather than give items that would find their homes in attics and garages I tried to think of everyday useful things. I hope the recipients weren't too disappointed; maybe I'll be better inspired next year.

I even had a hard time with Rocky; I used up all my good ideas earlier in the year so he got a pocket radio for the Duck games and an elk wall hanging. He scored points with me though. He gave me a Light Wedge and a chair massager. I guess I'll have to let his forgetting my birthday slide.

Aliya gave me the most perfect gift, novelty yarn. I was quite surprised, delighted, and touched. I haven't been given a Christmas gift like that since my mom died. I have no idea what the yarn wants to become, but eventually the perfect pattern will come along for it. I'm sure it will be beautiful whatever it will be, coming from a lush, soft yarn like this.

Of course the most important part of Christmas is just being with and hearing from loved ones. Not only did we get to spend a fun evening with the Dean's, but we exchanged phone calls with three of my brothers and one of my aunts. For the perfect ending to a perfect holiday Rocky and I are spending the day home alone in our sweats and our hair uncombed.

Merry Christmas everybody.

It's Almost Here

Here it is, just three days before Christmas and I am ready. We always do the gift exchange with Rocky's family on Christmas Eve so we lose a day there, and there were a couple of things I was going to make for gifts, but I've decided I don't really need to if I don't get around to it; so that means I'm ready. I even have everything wrapped; actually I mostly used gift bags so that was easy.

Fortunately my family gave up gift exchanges a long time ago so we have no worries there. It does seem that since my parents are both gone my family has kind of grown apart, and I do miss being with them on holidays. (We do exchange phone calls and keep in touch.) That's probably why I don't find much pleasure in the holidays anymore. Now I think the perfect holiday would be for me and Rocky to hide away on a warm sunny beach somewhere and overindulge in more relaxing ways. Well, a girl can dream.

Now I'll don my rain apparel, Fa la la, la la la, la la la. and feed the livestock with a carol, Fa la la, la la la, la la la. I can't figure out how to fit scooping poop into the song so I'd better quit.

Nice Surprises

I forgot to tell you about the friend I ran into last week. I was shopping at Costco and here comes Melissa Locke and her youngest daughter up an aisle. Her name is not Locke any more and her daughter is the youngest of six children. Melissa and I were classmates in middle and high school. The real surprise about running into her is that she lives in Papua, New Guinea where she and her husband teach. I have only seen Melissa one other time since high school. It made my whole day to see her.

Yesterday I had another nice surprise. When Rocky and I took Aliya on her graduation cruise a couple of years ago we met a nice German man named Kilian. Kilian was on the cruise alone so we invited him to join us for dinner one evening. Since then we have sent letters and holiday cards back and forth. When Rocky and I got home from work yesterday there was a message on our answering machine from Kilian thanking us for the Christmas card we sent and wishing us holiday cheer. It was so nice to hear his voice, I only wish I could have been home to take his call. This is the photo taken during our dinner together in December 2005:

Forks

We went to the annual Fork Christmas party on Saturday. For those of you who don't know I was adopted and found my biological family, the Forks, about nine years ago. (Maybe I'll start writing the story about it on the blog.)

Anyway, it was pretty low key this year. Most of the children are now teenagers and they did a game exchange. The adults didn't exchange gifts this year, but Dotty (the oldest sibling) made surprise gifts for everybody. Earlier this year my biological father passed away; he was a Harley Davidson nut. Dotty took his Harley t-shirts, cut them into panels, and made everybody a quilt.

As you can see, they are very cool; she backed them with polar fleece.

On another warm note, we are trying again to get out pellet/corn stove to work. It is finally burning well, since we can actually buy wood pellets this year, but we keep having smoke issues. It might have something to do with the fact that it is a free standing stove that we are trying to use as an insert. Who knows? I plugged in a CO detector just in case.

Non-Event

Yesterday, yours truely turned 39; it was totally a non-event. Rocky and I were eating breakfast when my brother, Gordon, called to wish me a happy birthday. Gordon NEVER calls me, so Rocky asked what he wanted so I told him. His response was, "Is today your birthday?" We've only been married for 13 years so I guess I shouldn't expect my husband to know when my birthday is yet.

I actually had a pretty nice day. I got a lot of work around home done and only had to get one phone call from work. I also received a call from my brother, Dave, and one from my aunt, Debbie, whom I have not heard from in a couple of years.


I finally washed some of that yarn I've been working on:

I'm quite pleased with the results. It is white baby alpaca plied with a variegated rayon embroidery thread. I don't have any plans for it so I'll put it in our booth and hope some knitter or weaver will have the perfect project in mind for it.

Boring

Life has not been so interesting the past few days.

Rocky came down with a cold the day after Thanksgiving so we stayed home and watched movies. Rocky had to see 300 because Dr. Laura (the radio talk show psychologist) recommended it; I don't. In my opinion the acting was mediocre and the warriors abs were obviously painted on.

We Are Marshal was a good movie about a college football team trying to recover after almost the entire team died in a plane crash. And last night we watched Arlington Road which we enjoyed. It is about a professor of US history thinks his neighbor is a terrorist.

Yesterday the Eugene Spinners' Guild was here for lunch. We crammed 13 of us (most with wheels) in my living and dining rooms. We had a nice time and the potluck lunch was wonderful. I am working on a yarn that is turning out nicely. It is white baby alpaca in which I am plying two strands with two strands of a variegated rayon thread. I plied the first skein last night and am quite pleased with the results. I'll try to get the first skein washed soon so I can show you.

Winter Weather Already

Thanksgiving was another non-event for us this year. We went to Rocky's parents for dinner and that was it. The plan was to head to John Day for elk hunting today but Rocky decided to catch a cold instead; so we're just trying to keep warm.

Last weekend was non-stop rain, but at least it was warm. This long holiday weekend is beautiful and sunny, but freezing cold. We've been waking up to white frosty mornings with frozen water buckets. I'm so ready for summer to get here again; I want my cake (dry weather) and to eat it too (short sleeve temperatures).



I think sitting by the wood stove working on my stocking cap is the order of the day. Here is a photo of the hat from the Cabela's catalog:

I'll take a photo of my version of it when it is finished. I think my yarn is smaller so the hat might end up child sized, mine is alpaca so hopefully somebody will be able to wear it.

Nonsense

There has been a lot going on over the past week, but mostly stuff I don't feel I should be posting for the public to see. Stuff dealing with work, law suits, and scumbags. I have learned that our justice system is seriously broken and benefits lawyers above all else. I am clinging to my belief that what goes around comes around and justice does eventually get served. I wonder if a voo doo doll would speed things along.

Tonight I am enjoying the house by myself for a little while longer until Rocky gets home. He received a "fishing emergency" phone call from a friend last night and they were off this morning to see what they could catch. I just hope it isn't poison oak this time. I saw the cutest stocking cap in the Cabela's catalog that I'm going to try to knit if I can figure it out without a pattern.

3-D Experience

This weekend my sister, Dotty, came for a visit. While Rocky was watching the Ducks win another game we went to dinner and a movie. We went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas, the 3-D movie that is out right now. It's not very good. It is a musical which took away from the story and they didn't make much use of the 3-D technology available. The best 3-D affect happened before the movie even started.

Oh well; we had a nice visit anyway and I was glad to see her.

Deer Hunting

Today is the last day of the western buck season in Oregon. Rocky and I went hunting yesterday and Wednesday to no avail. For those of you who know me know that hunting is not my passion, it is not something I dream about, ever. Rocky would eat, sleep and breath it if he could.

The following are my observations about hunting:

• There are way more roads in the forest than you would ever imagine, and they seem to criss cross and repeat themselves frequently. I can not count the number of times we passed signs that read "16 LP". I know there had to be more than one of those signs, because we passed them over and over again. We couldn't have been running in circles; could we?
• Always take spare knitting needles. I broke one just as we arrived at our hunting area the first day and I can tell you that passing those "16 LP" signs gets very boring after about two hours.
• The autumn leaves falling make more noise when you are hunting. We kept hearing what could have been the footsteps of deer, but when we would look in that direction all we would see were the leaves falling, and they made the same noise as the deer.
• It is impossible not to step on twigs when you are trying to look for deer. I was given the instruction to stay very quiet and keep an eye out for deer. Well, in order to step quietly in the woods one really must keep their eyes on the ground. The deer could have been right next to me, but I would have never known it unless they wanted me to know as I was being very careful not to break twigs or rattle dry leaves.
• Deer hunting is not good exercise, don't let your husbands tell you otherwise. I was instructed not to take more than one step per minute and it is important to stand perfectly still for at least 15 minutes at a time about every five minutes. I wasn't told so, but I think blinking and breathing are allowed. Oh, and I guess that passing gas isn't loud enough to scare deer, but try not to cough, sneeze, or hiccup.
• Three point turns are not good enough on forest roads. We were required to execute many seven and nine point turns. Actually Rocky did all the driving, and if I were being totally honest, I tell you that my eyes were closed during most of these turns. Many of the dead end roads we traveled ended on the tops of mountains. The tops of these mountains were only as wide as the road.
• Afternoon naps in a warm truck are essential to finding the deer.

What did I learn from this hunting experience? My purpose for going hunting with Rocky is to try to keep him safe, by having 911 programmed in my cell phone. I don't know if that does any good since cell service is scarce in the mountains, but I know that two people is better than one in case somebody needs help.

Another Screw Up

Sometimes I just amaze myself about what I am capable of screwing up. Last night Rocky decided he would like to watch a Pay Per View movie. For some reason he thinks that movies we pay extra for are better than the ones that come on the channels we subscribe to.

Since he hasn't quite figured out how to use the on screen guide to find programming it was up to me to find out what is on Pay Per View and order. Of course, the two movies he really wants to see were not on last night so we narrowed it down to The Condemned, which we decided didn't sound that great, and Perfect Strangers, which is a Bruce Willis movie. So Perfect Strangers was the final choice.

We settled down with our dinner all set to enjoy a movie, but as we were watching it I realized that I wasn't seeing Bruce Willis and the plot didn't seem to match the description I read about the movie. I managed to order The Condemned! It only took about five minutes into the movie to realize it was not going to be very enjoyable, but we had to watch it since it was going to get billed to our account. I do not recommend this movie to anybody unless you really enjoy graphic violence; and I mean really graphic.

On a lighter note, the Ducks beat USC on Saturday, and ESPN is coming back to Eugene for this weekend's game against Arizona State.

Go Ducks!

Girls' Weekend Getaway

Now I can tell you about my weekend. Let me start by telling you that Rocky thought I was taking a weaving class.

As a surprise gift I decided to take a class offered by ODFW to "Build Your Own Fly Rod" with the finished rod being Rocky's birthday gift. (How many fishermen have a rod their wife built for them?) When I was thinking about signing up for the class I told my friend Sharon about it and she wanted to take it as well; so we both signed up. Sharon's rod is for her, however it was going to be a surprise to her husband that she build her own rod.

The class was held in Central Point, Oregon where there also happened to be an alpaca show last weekend. Sharon and her mom drove down together and set up their booth at the show. Sharon's mom, Bonnie, had to work the booth by herself all weekend. After set up on Friday we went shopping at Harry and David in Medford. We had a coupon worth $10 off if we spent $75. Well, we were a little short so we did some more shopping. That's marketing at its finest.

Saturday Sharon and I had to be at our class at 8:00 so we all got up early. Bonnie had to go down to their car for something and discovered a dead battery. Les Schwab was able to make it there and replace the battery with just enough time for us to still make it to our class in time.

The class was held at an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife facility that was filled with mount of animals found in Oregon. They were a lot of fun to look at. Upon arriving at the class we were given our very own coffee cup and a bag full of goodies. One of the "goodies" was an Outdoor Woman magazine with an alpaca on the cover!

Our class started with reaming. The cork handle for the rod has a hole that is way smaller than the rod, so we had to ream the hole out to fit the rod. After determining the spline of the rod (the side the rod naturally bows to) we glued the reel seat together, then we glued the cork and the reel seat to the rod. That part of the rod was placed in a stand to dry for about three hours. During this time we learned how to do wrappings and got started with them. Wrappings are what hold the guides to the rod. We used nylon thread (Sharon used metallic) a little heavier than sewing thread that you wrap very carefully around the rod and the feet of the guides. Since we had ten guides to secure this took the rest of Saturday to complete.

Saturday was the most fun. Reporters from the Mail Tribune came to take photos and interview us for an article in a new magazine called Outdoor Oregon they have coming out in December. The local news station was supposed to drop by, but they didn't make it until Sunday.

Sunday wasn't as exciting; we put the finish on our wrappings first thing in the morning and then we had to turn the rod a quarter turn every 15 minutes for about four hours. We got in a lot of visiting and Roger (one of the instructors) brought a couple of bamboo rods that he made so we could practice casting.

We had a great time and ODFW http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ did a wonderful job organizing the workshop; I highly recommend their classes, they are a bargain. Sharon had her camera and promised to share pictures so I'll post some as soon as I can.

Here are some photos from Sharon's camera:

Sharon's rod is on the right

Working is for the Pits

I worked full time at my part time job Wednesday through Friday, it is Sunday today and I just now feel like I'm getting rested up, but I have to work three more full days before I'm back on my normal schedule. When we moved out to the farm I was working full time; I don't know how I managed it. I didn't even make it to the Duck game yesterday, I stayed home and napped.

I don't have anything interesting to share this time and I'm not sure when I'll be making my next post. Next weekend I'll be out of town so Thursday and Friday will be spent getting caught up and ready to go. Rocky doesn't get to go with me, it will be his turn to take care of the animals for a couple of days. My little trip is taking me to Central Point, OR. There is an alpaca show there where I'll enter a fleece, but I can't tell you the real reason for my trip until I get back; it is a surprise for Rocky, who's birthday is today.

Weekend Alone

Rocky was gone on a hunting trip this weekend and even though I missed him I had a nice relaxed couple days to myself.

I decided I would spend some of the weekend working on a new weaving project. I took a shadow weave class this spring and thought one of the patterns used in class would make nice placemats for our table. The pattern was done on a 16 shaft loom, but since my big loom is only a 12 shaft the instructor, Jannie Taylor, was kind enough to figure out a similar pattern on a 12 shaft.

I got the project all mapped out the previous weekend that Rocky was gone and this weekend was spent getting the loom ready. I've had this loom for a couple of years now, but haven't used it yet. I bought it used and it came with all the heddles in a box. (Heddles are the wire things that the warp threads get threaded through. So every thread running in one direction gets threaded through its own heddle. The weft is wound onto bobbins that fit into shuttles and it gets woven into the warp.) I've spent the last three evenings sorting heddles and fitting them onto the shafts; I still have nine shafts to go, but the heddles are all sorted. I also need to figure out how to put a back apron on the loom, but I think I'll have Rocky help figure that out.

During all this heddle sorting I got to watch some really good movies that Rocky would think were boring. I really recommend The Boy Who Could Fly, Mermaids, and Shall We Dance. I might make Rocky watch Shall We Dance the next time it comes on.

On Saturday I decided to make a run to my local craft store since they were having a sale on something I thought would make nice Christmas gifts. While I was out and about I checked out the St. Vincent de Paul that I noticed the other day. It just happens to be across the street from the http://5stmarket.com/ so I headed over there next. Well, it just so happened that they were having their 1st Annual 5th St. Public Market's Harvest Crush. Many of the local vinyard were there doing wine tasting and a lot of the markets were having samples and demos. I wish I had known about it ahead of time as it would have been fun to go with a friend even though I don't drink. I was kind of wondering around trying to decide what to look at next and a lady came up to me and said, "You know what? I'm leaving and you can have my last three tickets for wine tasting; and here, you can even have my glass." I thought that was very kind of her. I didn't use either, but I did bring the wine glass home; it's a nice glass with the Market's logo on it.

On the way home I hit another thrift store and found a new/used barn coat; then I followed some signs to a Holiday Boutique in the country and picked up a couple more Christmas gifts.

Now it is Monday, Rocky should be home this evening, and my goats found another escape route.

This is Mini and Otto. Mini is the runt of the pygora triplets and Otto (short for Silverado) is the angora. Notice, they are behind the fence. Good goats!

This is kind of hard to see, but Billy is out. The little white arrow is pointing to his head. Pearl found her way back in all by herself, I had to open the gate to let Billy back in.

Rainy Day Event

Yesterday morning I woke up the to sound of rain on my window; it was also very cold in our bedroom so I decided to cuddle down in the covers for a while longer. At 7:30 I decided that there would be no more sleep for me and it was time to quit being lazy and get up. After rolling out of bed I peered through the slats in the mini-blinds like I do every morning and the first thing I saw was Cierra (our black female who's due to deliver any day) standing obediently over her very wet and shivering cria! Now, Cierra is known to pop babies out when we aren't looking, but the rule is that alpacas deliver their crias between about 8:00 am and 3:00 pm. This is the second cria for us that didn't follow this rule.

I quickly got dressed, gathered up towels, rubber gloves, iodine, and bags and headed out to check out the new baby. I'm assuming that she was just born so I was a little surprised that when I stood her on her feet she stayed. In fact, she immediately started looking for her milk supply. Usually it takes a half hour or more before they can really stand. I gave her a quick rub down with the towels and then proceeded to strip the plugs off Cierra's teats; they were already stripped! No wonder this little girl (yes, I said, "girl") already seems to know what she's doing. I wonder how long she's been doing it. I look around and there is the placenta, all there just as it should be. This was way too easy. All I needed to do was dip the navel, put a coat on her, and lock them in the barn out of the rain.

The poor little thing shivered so much yesterday that I ended up putting a second coat on her. When I went out to check on her at 5:00 pm she was still shivering so I gave her another good rub down and left a towel draped over her and her coats. At 8:00 pm I checked on her again, this time I took a hot pad made out of a two gallon zip lock bag with a couple of dish towels soaked in hot water. Sure enough she was still shivering so I stuck the hot pad under her coats for a few minutes then I wrapped it around her head, ears, and neck for as long as I could hold her still. I repeated this just before I went to bed at 11:00 and she finally quit shivering. When I went to check on her first thing this morning she was not shivering and the rain had stopped so I let her and Cierra back out in their pasture.

After the pasture started getting direct sunlight I was able to take her jacket off and this is what she looks like:

I think she is what we call a dark rose grey, which is something between brown and grey; kind of a dusty brown. The surface of her fleece looks like a Berber carpet. I can't wait to shear her in the spring!

Cria photo

This is our youngest cria, he is about two weeks old here. Now, we're waiting for the 6th and final baby of the year to arrive. So far we've only had boys so we're really hoping for a girl.

Space Shuttle

I received an email today with the following link:

http://www.texasjim.com/NASApix/NASA%20pix.htm

It has photos from the space shuttle that are pretty neat.

Photo

Finally. Here is a photo from Aliya's (Rocky's daughter) wedding last month:

It was a beautiful wedding held outside at the church just down the street from us. There were lots of trees with christmas lights and gazebos with curly willow branches and tulle to decorate them.

The news of the day involves my goats. We have a friend named Ricky who is a handy man and will come out for various projects. When he was here on Friday we were lucky enough to see where the goats were escaping. Turns out that it wasn't the place the Rocky repaired at all. So Ricky was kind enough to repair the spot where they got out as we were watching and all was well until this morning. As I was getting ready for the day I happened to walk out on the patio and here come the triplets while poor Otto (the angora) was still in their pen. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to see them escape tomorrow; if not I'll start toting hay and water to the other ditch line before my original plan.

Goat Roping

In addition to our alpacas we have four goats; three pygoras and one angora. We have two ditches that run through the middle of our property; we fenced them in and the the goats keep them mowed which is a huge help to Rocky since he always runs the risk of getting the tractor stuck or flipped when mowing close to steep ditches.

Right now the goats are in the ditch closest to our house, even though the other ditch is getting over grown I am trying to wait until the rainy season starts before moving them back there. I can stretch a hose across the driveway to fill their water bucket right now, but the other ditch is quite a little hike from the barn so it is easier to have them down there when mother nature can help keep the buckets full. Well, I should say that the goats are supposed to be in the ditch by our house.

For the past week or so they've figured out an escape route. Rocky fixed it a few days ago, but that has only managed to keep the angora from getting out, the pygoras (which are triplets) are smaller and have horns that grow backward rather than outward were still able to escape. Fortunately, when they get out there is so much green grass, blackberry vines, and wind fallen apples for them to eat that they haven't gone anywhere. Getting them back in their pen has proven pretty easy so far. I cut up some apples or squash, open the gate, and throw the pieces far enough inside that they clear the gate, but not so far that they can't see where it falls. This technique works like a charm, but now I'm afraid I just taught them that escape means treats. So last night after work Rocky did a better repair to the fence and this morning when we got up they were still in the fence. That lasted just until Rocky pulled out of the driveway to go to work. The triplets are still escaping. I guess it is time to move them to the other ditch and I am just going to get more exercise packing water out to them.

New Blog

Well, here is my first attempt at blogging. I've been reading and enjoying other blogs for the past few months so I decided to try my own. My time is a bit limited so I won't be a daily poster, but I'll try for weekly and see how it goes.

Yesterday our hay arrived. All the guys were here promptly at 8:00 am, but the truck was a little delayed. The trucker always stops at the store parking lot just down the road from us to leave one trailer while he delivers the other trailer to us. It just so happened that the church had it's men's breakfast yesterday and somebody was parked on the side of the road where the truck turns into the store. The driver thought he could make the corner anyway, but was wrong. The truck and first trailer made the turn, but the second trailer with our hay on it ended up with the wheels centered over the ditch. This meant that he couldn't continue forward or back up without one set of the tires going in and our hay getting dumped.

A very nice man came out from the breakfast, said he lived just up the road and offered to go get his own truck that he uses for hauling dumpsters to back the trailer out. For some reason, only understandable to truckers, his truck was able to do this while our trucker's wasn't. Anyway, he came back with his truck and hooked onto the trailer hitch with a chain. I stood across the street in the church parking lot praying, holding my breath, and stopping traffic as I watched him expertly guide the trailer to the safety of the road asphalt. Just as all sets of trailer tires rolled back onto the street, I let out my breath, and started to cheer I heard a zing at the trailer and then a ping a few feet behind me in the church parking lot. A link in the chain they were using broke with such force that it flew across the street over my head to land about 15 yards behind me. I held my cheer.

They hooked the truck back up to the trailer with two chains this time. It took a little jockeying back and forth before the guy could finally make the turn into the store parking lot with the trailer so our driver could hook up to it with his truck. I finally cheered. I left to come back to the barn and let the guys know that the hay was finally on its way, and it arrived just after 9:00 am. I asked our driver if he got the neighbor's name that was so kind to help and he said he didn't. He offered the man money for his troubles, gas, and chain; but the man refused and said, "Someday you'll help somebody else out."

It took the guys just about two hours to get the hay stacked in the barn. We had an Oregon Duck football party to attend at noon so I got showered and was just headed out the door when Rocky noticed the goats were out. No time to check the fences so I cut up a couple of apples and threw them in their pen to get them back inside, shut the gate and hoped they'd still be in when we got home.

We had a nice afternoon visiting with friends, the Ducks beat Michigan, and the goats were still in when we got back home. All in all, a pretty nice day.

Today was too hot to do any real work so dyed some fiber, got in some knitting, and watched the Seahawk beat Tampa Bay.