Life can be so much fun...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but things have been busy.

My husband's brother and his wife came from Southern California to visit us and their parents for 5 days and left this morning to head back. We went wine tasting, we ate at the best restaurant in this area called the Whoop 'Em Up, which has 5-star cuisine. I had a rare ribeye steak Cowboy style (really delicious), hubby had Jumbalaya, BIL had blackened catfish, FIL had a blackened catfish poorboy, SIL had a fried oyster poorboy, and MIL had a Frisee salad with chantrelles, poached eggs and some other stuff in the salad. Everyone was pleased, but my SIL commented that she never thought Walla Walla and the surrounding area would have a restaurant like this, and that Walla Walla was completely different than what she thought it would be, in a good way, of course. After dinner, we went to my in-laws and we had some wine and watch Brokeback Mountain. It was so sad that I cried. We took them up to the Elk preserve in theBlue Mountains above Walla Walla, but although we didn't see any elk, we saw mule deer, white tailed and black tailed deer, so it wasn't all a loss, and it was a fun drive.

I sold 6 lambs/sheep this week, so I'm very happy...it's always nice to have an unexpected windfall. The people will pick them up the end of October/beginning of November.

We finished roofing one of our bale boxes. A box that holds a bale of hay with a small portion of a cattle panel cut to fit on top of the bale to keep the sheep and alpacas from wasting it. Before we built them, they probably wasted about 1/3 of a bale just because they wanted the sweet flowery/leafy part of the alfalfa hay. Now they graze from the boxes and there is little or no waste, so we're saving more money that way, but we'll still need to get two more tons of hay soon so we have enough to last the winter.

I'm spinning some white Corriedale wool into yarn and it's very soft. Sometimes, the type of wool I'm spinning isn't as soft as I'd like, so then I felt it after I'm finished or I make a rug out of it. Either way, all my yarn goes for good things. I sell as much of it as I can and I sell quite a bit. My peers say I'm doing well based on the competitions I've entered, so I believe that my yarn is worth the price I sell it for. I keep working along.

I'm working on a shawl, not sure if I mentioned that before, but it's coloring is merlot red, silver gray and white with black under strand. I'm creating a new patterns and this is one, so what I'm working on is a prototype... If it looks good when I'm finished, I'll type it up, take a pic and make a copy so that I can enclose it in a plastic sleeve that you can put in a 3-ring binder and sell it. I'm also working on a domino rug with various colors of rug yarn, but that's to use up some rug yarn stash I've had for years...time to get rid of it, and if I can use it or sell it, I will.

I took my SIL foot measurements so that I can make her a sock to wear with her first pair of Birkenstocks. She's excited. I have a sweater for Lance, my hubby, that I've been working on for a year that is made from Moe's fiber, a nice silver gray. Because I spun the wool from the lock, it's striiping naturally and is so goodlooking that I'll probably have to make one for his brother even if it doesn't get as cold down in SoCal (Southern California) to wear a sweater. It does get chilly in winter, but most of the time it's temperate to hot, mainly hot. I don't know why, but I rarely make anything for myself. I sell most of the stuff I make or give it as gifts to family and friends. I think I'll make a nice skiing set for when we go to Sun Valley this winter to go with my ski outfit.

I learned to downhill ski right after Lance and I got married almost 9 years ago, and though I'm afraid of heights, I do it anyway. I just do more "esses" down the slope if it bothers me, usually if it's really steep like a double diamond or double black (it depends where you are as to what it's called). Lance just goes Banzai down the steeps like it's nothing...but it's where he gets his speed fix. he's been skiing for 14 years. I can hardly wait until we can go skiing though...we need a vacation. We both work really hard and haven't had a real vacation, other than one weekend, since we both became self-employed.

My 35th high school reunion is next year, so we are taking time off to do that. I want to show him off to my classmates--my younger man--he's so handsome and funny. LOL In truth, I'm 4 days older than he is, but we play like it's a big deal becasue it's fun and besides, I always wanted to marry a younger man and I got my wish. Though I can't say that the 4-days I'm older won't beat the statistics that say a woman should marry a younger man because me die sooner than women do... I still am happy I'm older than he is because I look younger.

Well enough chatting for today. I'll be back again later in the week...

Ciao for now,
Jet