Checking out a new feature of Blogger

Time for Ovaltime and off to bed. I wish!

Here it is all by itself. It's still as lovely as the day you made it.

This is not the right color but my camera likes to do this every once in awhile. Maybe it was the white balance I played with.. Sigh.... That is your doilie Laura.

Yikes... Knitting.. this is a knitting blog!

I finished the first pink sock up to the bottom of the leg. This confused and contorted verbal picture comes about because I knit top down socks. Piccies will follow if you promise not to be too critical of my lace. ;o) I'll just scrunch it up so you can't count the rows very well.

Quartzite trip pictures

Now these are mineral specimen and bookcase rocks. And a few little things for the kids. There are even people here who sell socks and kitchenwares. It's really a great place and the weather is usually pretty good. The wind is a killer but it hardly ever blows at the time of year for the Q.

This is inside the QIA building and shows a large area of the vendors. See the beads? heehee. I love beads. They sell finished jewelry here also. QIA stands for Quartzsite Improvement Association or something like that. Believe me, Quartzsite as really improved over the years.

This is very typical of the gathering at Quartzsite. Tables full of all sorts or rough lapidary materials or huge displays of beads with someone's little ( or Huge) wheeled vehicle home behind it. This man is selling cabachons he's cut from the Lake Michigan area. If you get a chance to go out to see Quartzsite, give it a go. It was fun to do for many years.

A Quartzsite Sunset. I will miss these as we no longer go to Quartzsite. We've got every bead I need there now I think. Lol

Another Bounder Tale.

Everyone who has ever had an RV has several of these tales.. Here's the worst one I ever took the time to actually chronicle.

Well, the trip to Quartzsite was an adventure. It was a lot of stress that took a few days to recover from ( where is a screaming room when you need one?). I've learned that it is NOT TOO LOUD here at home with the new traffic noise from the freeway. I now know what loud is... LOUD is your mufflers blown out and going south because of bad repairs to the carburator. LOUD is being parked for two whole days between the railroad tracks with freight trains rumbling by every hour of the day and night, and a busy commercial highway with huge trucks, replete with Jake brakes, in the traffic mix. I'm sure that my husband is mad enough now to retaliate and he will. I leave it to him, as he can do it so much better than the screaming hizzy fit I could lay on them. At one point, I told him I felt that I we were being tortured to death by mechanics. This has been going on since before Thanksgiving, as you know. It only got slightly better out in Indio.

Anyway, the trip out started with a rush because we got the Bounder out of bondage at 4pm, and we were leaving the next day. They said it was fixed. We thought since they had replaced the coil, distributor,and completely rebuilt the carburator TWICE, and thoroughly detailed the interior after trashing it, we could trust that the problems were solved. Hubby and the mechanic drove it all over the half acre, and it worked just fine. Not to be...

We were meeting friends out at Buckman springs in the mountains near here to caravan with them as we didn't have time to take the rig on a real test trip; Quartzite it was. We got about 6 or 7 miles from there, and it started the same old thing..starving for gas,bucking, wrapping pipes, etc... We limped into Buckman, turned off the engine and Hubby ran to phone the garage. "Bring it back!"...so HE talked me into leaving with our friends and he would come out later when they solved this problem. He didn't make it that day... after replacing the plugs, wires, fuel pump, fuel filters and a coil, it ran like a champ and he started out the next day, arriving to applause from the camp at around 3:45. We had been able to keep in touch with each other via two other rockhound friends' cell phones. The Bounder was now "running well all the way out", he said.

It was a terrible thing to sleep on the hard couch of MJ and J's Bounder, but now I don't want that couch so much either! That ain't no bed! Anyway, Bob found one forlorn couch pillow here, at home, to rest his head because ALL the rest were in our Bounder. I take them all..hee hee. Here's a woman who loves her comfort.

We had fun at the big Q cluck cluck for the next week, til we left to go home...

As I was saying, we had loads of fun, at least until we left to go home...I found three Indian broomstick skirts that match the "reformed 60's jewelry seller's" shirts Bob bought me for Christmas. (The ones that just scream," Counter-Culture!") They were $15 Dollars each, and I think it was because they have to be hand washed. Snowbirds should dig "hand wash" but anyway, they are so pretty. You can never tell what a snowbird will buy.. One is dark rust, one is eggplant purple, and one is cranberry.

We visited with the publisher of Wired Magazine, who happened to be in one of the tents. She had a young woman who made chains in there with her, and I've never seen more perfect handmade chains. That kid has a future! This tent is the one in the pictures, where the Brazilians were; the brazilians had absolutely enormous specimens of quartz crystal and some other strange baubles that were actually selling. Anyway, you never know what a snow bird will buy....

It was a United Nations at Cloud's this year. I think the jewelry industry comes the closest to being the informal arm of that agency of any other industry save one-- telecommunications. Nearly every culture and ethnic group was there including Zimbabwe. Absulutely fabulous! I'm looking for Tibet and other Mongolian Plains people next year....

Anyway, though it's a buyingfest, I didn't do too much damage to the family budget with beads buying, we didn't find the sorts I really wanted. The prices are better at Tucson, but we never go there. Judy, didn't find anything suitable for making supported spindles. Wahh! I was hoping to send you little surprises!

We drove out of Quartzite on Tuesday morning and expected no trouble. Were we ever wrong. What is normally a 5 hour drive home turned into 59 hours. ( A lot of that time was spent parked in Hell on Earth, otherwise known as the commercial district of Indio.)

Tuesday night we knew we'd never make it over the mountains, so we stopped in a desert town where we had a friend with a really big driveway and stayed there. The next morning both mechanics he knew were too busy to see it that day, so we decided to try to limp home going North to go around the mountains. We broke down once for two hours along a highway, with huge double eighteen wheelers trying to punish us for parking on their shoulder.

We finally got it started again..actually we found out later that it cooled down long enough. We limped into Indio and we just had to eat and so shut it off. Of course it wouldn't start again, though we waited 3 and a half hours. We called emergency road service and the nice tow truck driver was there in 15 minutes. As an after thought, Bob turned the key....rhnnnnnnnn! So, we jumped back out of the Bounder, and I told the driver that I'd bet he never thought he was that scarey before! He had us follow him to the mechanic anyway....

Now Indio is a very pretty little desert town, but we weren't in the pretty part. There WERE lots of palm trees across the noisy highway...a bit of beauty, I suppose, but the railroad nearly came through the middle of the house, as the song of the same name says. This was something we didn't find out about until dinner time when the first freight rumbled through and the soup nearly jumped out of the bowls. We thought we'd been thumped by a 5.1 until the tell tale clickity clack reached our ears and the obligatory tooting of the train whistle at the crossing. By this time our hearts were in our mouths and our knees were quaking right along with the Bounder floor. I knew it was an Ambien night, otherwise I would never get to sleep. I was beginning to wish for some Prozac.

Poor Jazzie's first encounter with the two vicious sounding pit bulls right on the inside of the fence we were jammed against convinced him that absolutely nowhere on this side of the highway was suitable for the deposition of his urine or his poo. 3 am in an incredibly strange town found DH leading him a quarter mile each way and then ACROSS the highway to go pee!

The next day, two separate garages sent the identical wrong part and neither one before noon. With the prospect of staying another night there and with a very sick little red dog on my hands I'd decided to rent a car and come home when the right part finally arrived. The mechanic, who was practically falling down dead with some omminous virus and whom we felt both compassion and aversion for, hammered a coil out and a new one in, put everything back on and off we went on a semi-successful test drive. It was running, starting again when turned off, and there was no way this side of Hades we were staying there any longer!

We drove gingerly home with the deafening roar of a really BIG hot rod ( 28 feet, slightly dago'ed) in our long suffering ears. The mufflers are nearly gone, Sisters, but our ears have recovered. I tried to protect Jasper's ears but you know dogs just don't stand for any of that.

PS. Jazzie seems to be OK now, but if stress could kick him over into a disease, he'd have it. This little doggie and the two of us have been to hell and back.

Center of the Universe Issues

Of course, you are not. But it feels that way when everything written in a blog is first person singular. Well almost everything. Everything revolves around yourself in these things and bringing in the larger world is difficult, at best, when you don't want to have the public exposure of full disclosure.

So, trying to keep the "I"s farther apart, and using dry chronology, last night the little pink sock got another set of pattern rows knit into it; it's going better than it was and taking on the full beauty and character of it's being. When it's fully knit out to the end of the leg part, the woman who runs this will take it's picture and, again, to the delight of sock maniacs like herself, and the utter boredom of any who would rather read about a freaky water tower that caused a HUGE controversy, complete with pictures. Yes, it exists and yes there will be pics.

The sock and the kitchen and other chores are now screaming for attention and must be quelled. Dear daughter number 4, I would love to have some sock pictures for here so just bundle them up and send them please. Cat and rabbit photos most welcome, too.

Eating Habits of Tortoises

Oh Karen, Oh yes, they are voracious. They will eat anything, Eppies, orchids or lilies, succulant plants, etc, that are in their reach. They eat the flowers and the leaves of the roses, but at least they leave enough for me to enjoy. The rose bushes have a neat trim line underneath them as far up as the torts can reach. But, sadly, they eat any lily, including my wonderful orientals down to a nub. The little brats have caused me tears and cost real $$, especially if you know the cost of oriental lilies.

I've learned that tortoises can't be kept out except with high walls too knobbly and straight (if it's inclined, they will get up it) for them to get a toe hold on. This afternoon Poko had gotten onto the deck from the rose bed and was eating the succulants that hang over the edge of the big wooden planter. Happily there are plenty of those to go around. I am not so generous with my giant Swartzias. They are too few and far between so I must save them from tortoise encroachment.

A small wall and a great victory

The tortoises are very cute, but they are sort of like slow goats. And, since they look a lot like cobblestones, and cobblestones are the most prevalent lith in our gardens in San Diego, it's hard to keep track of them when they are making their slow march toward the flowers. I mean it's not like a yellow dog heading for grass to lie down. Your periphal vision just isn't going to pick up another rocklike thing or send messages to your brain that say, "Oh No, there goes the Rose Bush!" Day lilies have suffered the worst in our garden because of the tunneling that tortoises do, and also because they will eat them down to a nubbin.

The full name of these little fellows is California Gopher Tortoise. They dig! They can't be stopped from this tunneling instinct with anything less than a cement floored enclosure. Who, in a hotter climate like ours, want's to live on cement? Our solution is to build little walls that make it very unpleasant for them to try to scale them. If tortoises fall on their backs enough times they finally will get the message. Days may go by until they get the message, but hunger drives them to eat the weeds which is what they should have been eating in the first place. Two years in a row the day lilies didn't make it to blooming. Then we built them a wall of their own. I think they are lovely little things.

The tiny brave Day Lilies with their Tort proof stone wall.

Bounder First time out in the Rig Story

Some time ago, when Rock hounding in a "Rig" was new to us, Hubby and I decided to go out to Wiley's Well for the first time. This is a favorite winter dig in the desert east of the L.A. Basin.

We were looking at the map and figured that we were supposed to turn up something called Milpidas Wash out on one of the desert highways. This State highway, a two lane road, was very narrow in spots and even served as a sort of sand collector for the many wintertime "gullie washers" below the numerous arroyos. When we reached Milpidas Wash, which was clearly marked as a road on the BLM map, we thought nothing of the fact that the sand seemed a little bit loose. This was a Bounder, built for this travel on unpaved roads! Yeay!

The Bounder was not yet loaded to it's full capacity. We were new to this "Rig" thing, so we had yet to learn about all the cubbyholes that could be filled with the minimal "Ten Thousand Things". This is probably what saved us, that and my husband's good driving. Maybe it was Beginner's luck, or that "fool's rushing in where Angel's fear to tread" thing, etc, etc.. Anyway, off we went and we were on our way up this "road". This was the most spectacular dirt roading experience we'd had so far. This was what a Bounder was built for!

As we went further and further, the going would get a little steeper and rockier in places and then settle down to sand. It was also getting later and later. The sun was getting lower, and we were starting to think that we wouldn't get off this road until after twilight. It was supposed to be an easy drive to the campground from the highway. So, we just kept at it. We couldn't even find the road in some places but we got out and used our best Indian tracker skills to locate scratches on the shaley rocks, anything for a clue about where this alleged road was supposed to be. Heehee.

We came to a rocky shelf. The views were spectacular, but we were really out there and it didn't look like this "road" had been used recently so we began to wonder why. Out came the map and sure enough this was marked as a properly maintained dirt track that was suitable for less than four wheel drive. We'd already driven about 40 miles on it, and that part didn't make any sense but with these maps some things never do. It did get very narrow and rocky and hard to clear in places, and it still didn't look like it had been used at all on this normally busy weekend in the winter. Now, we were driving a 28 foot vehicle, made for dry camping but not for off roading. Our brows began to furrow. As we looked at each other with brave smiles, the unspoken question was, "Are we lost?"

Finally we came to what we knew was a proper road and started down it, thinking we would see the pie pans and our own clubs little signs on the right hand side of the road because we were supposed to see them there. Rockhounds put out brightly colored pie pans and paper plates on sticks driven into the ground to point the way into a dry camping area.

About 5 more miles down this new road I glanced back at some pie pans on the left, and there they were, our clubs signs. We had arrived! We stopped and went to the next turn out and backtracked. Soon after we stopped the sun set but not before our friends all rushed out and started saying things like. "Wow, we saw your rig sail by from the wrong direction and couldn't believe it! You came up out of nowhere!"

So we came to find out that we had taken a road that had been closed earlier in the week to all but four wheel drives because of washouts and flash floods, and we had driven across nearly 30 miles of desert arroyos that had been washed over and obscured Milpitas Wash Road between one highway and the another. And, we had done this "closed to all but four wheel drives" trek with a vehicle the size of a school bus. Welcome to Rig ownership!

We still don't know exactly where all we wandered around in that wash. Perhaps someday our tire marks and scratches will be read by other lucky fools.

Another day another row of knitting

I have managed very little knitting in the past several days but I did get about two sets of pattern rows done on a sock. I'm cleaning out things in my work areas and in the garage. Isn't it shocking how many fixer upper projects accumulate in very expensive space( according to the real estate markets)? Right now I'm going through things that have been gleaned to recycle and are stored in there. There is one hard wood frame chair that might actually make the cut! I just saw a similar one for sale at an import store. Yes, I got this from a neighbor who was tossing it. The hardwood frame drew me in like some sort of wood sniffing termite. How could I allow hardwood to go smashing to the dump? Is the re-cycle gene a curse or a blessing? Re-cycling can get any packrat inclined person into deep Kim Shii.

Speaking of ancient oriental cabbage, I know my chi is not flowing right. I was told this in a dream. So, keeping that in mind, I will now search out Chi on the web, and will find it if that is actually how it's spelled, and will be able to do something about the problem above. I will tell you what I find. This dream must have arisen because of spending so much time in Zorai last night, Dear Daughters. That can be the only explanation. But, I don't often remember dreams so this one is going to get the full glare of attention it obviously deserves. Stay tuned while I tune up my Chi so that it flows properly.

That pesky SSK and Multi tasking

Ah! It does give a different look and instead of going to the back of the needles, seems to come forward. Or maybe it's vice versa. Anyway it looks different. A new slant. So, I would say that it's a keeper.

I used to be a multi tasker, and now I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Somehow this has been very good for my stress level but of course you don't get as much done. At this point in my life, I don't really care anymore how much I get done.

Time for a nap. Just kidding.

I"m working on it! Or, "What I've been up to."

I've pretty much freed myself from obsessional web connected activities and am enjoying all the time to pursue things related to actually getting something done in craft! It's always interesting to read about what others are doing and that's why forums,chats, and blogs are so interesting. The rest of it can steal your life, however, and I'm beginning to see how and why nothing is getting done. I've worked in my garden aka weed patch over this week, and gotten an amazing lot done in the studio. Letter writing fell away during my obsession with forums, but Mefkure, a letter is on the way! Surprise!

Meffie is a knitter, too, and we have been friends since she was an exchange student at my high school in 1959. We have been writing ever since.

Well, time to feed the zoo, start the laundry and to work on the desk top so DH can see what he's doing to set the drain in the polishing machine tonight. We are going to take the extra ring out of the large floor kiln so that it can be made ready to fire glass. The small kilns are just test kiln size and a bit old, but they are good for burn outs and other things. The floor kiln has a nifty spiffo controller that ramps up, soaks and ramps down and soaks automatically. What a time saver! It will be fine for the glass.

OK the SSK!

Ah!
Slipping knitwise gets you to the twisted stitch, and then they are knit off both together and have yourself a little twisted stitch. Or at least that's how it seems right now. I will have to try it. My visualization had to be fed a few neurons and some micro minerals from Chocolate in a quiet environment, but it looks like a successful outcome. We will see.

Animal Rights

I am a strong supporter of animal rights. It's in my lifestyle and always in the forefront of my heart. It's something that I don't give an inch on, and also something that I keep abreast of to the best of my ability. I don't mind saying that I support animal rights with my dollars as well, and will always find out before I buy any animal derived product, how the animals are treated and what their lives are like. If I find that those little lives are not respected, the producers don't get my money. This is the only power I have, other than to join organizations that fight for those rights, to cherish all creatures great and small.

If we don't respect all life, and have values that incorporate the good treatment, in all ways, of all sentient beings, then we have failed in our charter with our creator to care for and take care of the earth. This has been part of my mind set from the time I was a child. Though not instilled in me by my parents, who were both raised on small farms, it was something that came naturally to me from my mother's attitudes and own behavior. To all of my animal rights friends in Australia I want you to know I support your efforts to make the changes there that you want to make and as soon as possible. Judith and Chris, Kevin and all the others, I thank you!

The Search for baby pictures goes on

Darling Vi, I must tell you that after searching through nearly all the pictures and even the ones not in albums, the only tort picture I've come up with is the one of a very small Churchy, the baby tortoise's father. It was taken decades ago, when he was about ten years old.

I think he's supposed to be about 70 now. But, that just isn't possible so someone at Turtle and Tortoise Society has got to be wrong. He must be only about 60 because my sister is five years old in the picture. I will keep looking but now we are down to the slides. Hoooo boy! They could possibly have been scanned and then sent away to various relatives! I can make no more promises about pictures, especially if I know they were taken with a conventional camera. They could be stored in the garage under DH's work bench or even in a box in the pantry. I need to go lie down just thinking about the brainwork necessary to track something like a ten year old photo down.

I've done a few rows on the pink sock and for once I'm feeling not so lost in a lace pattern going round and round! It's really looking very pretty. Karen I hope that you have figured out SSK so that you can tell me what the bloody heck it is!

Happy Birthday To our Darlin DD2

Sweetie, we wish you a day that is beautiful and we are wishing you a very Happy Birthday with whipped Cream on top. Enjoy your special day and your mini vacation doing just whatever you want to do. Lots of Hugs come right along with these wishes from afar.

Happy Birthday to our Pook!

Cami Knit-a-long

Ladyv linked to a Cami KAL that I think is pretty fabulous and thought I'd put that link here but, since I am notoriously link-making deprived, I will just put up the URL for you to copy and paste. Someday I will have the time to learn how to do this simple thing that will take me hours!

Sorry... Now broken link goes absolutely no where so I removed it.

If this works I'm going to celebrate with a big piece of chocolate!

Yeay! It worked. First I went to my own web page and played with the cursed source code for 45 minutes. NOTHING DOING!!!! Then I did a completely THOROUGH search of Blogger help, found the tiny piece of code and A! VOILA!

*Bows before falling on face......*

Happy Birthday Nautilus!

Happy Birthday to My Sweet First Born Daughter!

This Special Day has rolled around again, and every birthday is important, so I want to share my joy at getting to celebrate another family birthday with one of my beloved daughters.

Today I'm just going to knit the sock, and have already watered the side yard. Amazing bit of energy there! But I also wanted to share an idea I had about how to keep my lace sock pattern straight and not forget where I was in it. I've copied the pattern out of the original, printed it out LARGE and then put that paper into a plastic sleeve. I'm marking the sleeve with a special brush off pen so that I can mark where I ended on the needles and the row I was on, and come back to it later and pick up right there. I'll let you know how it works out but right now it's working well. Just so I remember to brush off the old mark and not the new. heehee.

While in the Mountains I made these stitch markers for the Aran Sweater. All materials are available now for them at Michaels so it really is lots easier now than it was several years ago.

That darn sock

Ok. There it is. See how it is spreading out despite the fact that I've not really added a single stitch? It's not going to do anything but bag out I fear. So, I will frog it probably tonight and seek another pattern that knits up tighter.

WEE UDATE:

I just stuck a couple more needles into it, put it on the foot, and decided it won't flare out like the slouch sock it looked like it was becoming. So, I will knit it out. It's time to search out a Jane Austin movie adaptation to rebuild my confidence in the womanly ways. hehe

Pink Lacey top Sock..so far..

This is right before you cross down into what might be the headwaters of Kitchen Creek. I have to get the map out to be sure.

This is before you go into the little creek glade. This is above kitchen creek.

Sunny part of The Pacific Crest Trail

These pictures that follow are a few of the parts of this trail. The Pacific Crest Trail starts near here and runs clear up the State with only a few breaks. People like to hike it like the one in the Appalachians. It's very pretty right now. Sun and shade with all the flowers along. Lots of flowers.

The New Burnt Rancheria.. When this campground nearly burnt out several years ago, and during the time it barely missed being burnt again two years ago, plans were made to make sure it was safer. This "urbanization" isn't too popular, but it's one of the ways that the parks can be made to last. I have definitely got mixed emotions over all this. But, the fires were so horrible themselves that anything that can preserve as much of the wild lands as possible while keeping them safer is about all we can hope for.

Giant dandilion seed ball.. it's the size of a tennis ball. These were all over the place. The seed heads closed up are the size of the last two joints of your little finger. Body measurements are variable, but you can get a good idea that these are big dandilions!

These are more natives. My tiny native lilies piccies didn't make the cut, nor did the Indian Paintbrush. They were too blurry. The reason they were here at all was because of record rainfall and cooler than normal weather for May.

Morning Glory But is it a Native? Those tiny yellow star like flowers are though.. I will tell you their names soon.

Jasper is always looking for a lap. I've never had a dog so much like a cat in my life. I hope he lives a long time because I love this little guy. He is nearly nine years old now.

DH's Kitchen. A couple of years ago DH started to make coffee out here for himself and his buddy Jim who is also an early riser. We two wives sleep a little later than the crack of dawn. Anyway, now I cook some dinners out here on the little stove. It's perfect for the coffee pot, tea kettle, toaster and stir fry pan as well as the tiny fry pan for small steaks for Jazzie.

Shrooms on a Pine tree. We didn't taste, but it was temping.

This is my favorite kitchen. Small, compact and tidy. The rocks, shells and drift woods behind the sink are all from our travels here and there. Ooops.

This is Kitchen Creek Valley. It is gorgeous now, since it hasn't been burnt out recently. It did suffer a huge fire several years ago. This is at the very southern end of Cleveland National Forest. Cleveland is a mixed forest of Conifer and Oaks.

This is a very rare butterfly and it's wings, when open are a gorgeous irridescent blue. I think it's called a Laguna Blue. If you hold your two thumbs together you will know that your thumb nails are the size of this little guy.

The Candy colored socks go Camping!

We went to the Mountains for a weekend and That Ugly Pink Sock.

We spent some time with family in the great outdoors in the nearby mountains. No Karen, only 7K feet. Lol.

I have a few wildflower pictures and a few others that might be interesting. DH's outdoor kitchen and my indoor one. A moose.. Just joking! We only have mountain lions here and thankfully did not meet up with any!

Also, I have no ideeeeea what the flowers are so must look them up in the Audubon guide and give them a name first. We have a home away from home called a Bounder that we bought used 7 years ago and we use it so that my hips don't collapse on me. There is nothing like tent camping but those days are over for me.

This pink sock saga.. It started out as a pink ribbon sock and then transmogrified into a cable sock. Then I saw a pair of lovely lace socks to make but they are now so UGLY in real life I can't take it. I'm frogging them and knitting a plainer top to wear with my platforms. What can I say. I love lace but this isn't for me. The tops will not stay up... I can tell this already. Sooooo... I think maybe back to the little cables? I'll get piccies up before I frog them. Don't look too closely. hehe