Extra time.

 I have never really thought about leap year before. Never thought how we have a whole extra day. 24 hours. Who started this? How do people who were born on Feb. 29th, celebrate their birthdays? Do they even get to have birthdays when there isn't a Feb. 29th? I am going to have to do some research on this. But anyway, we have a whole extra day to do whatever we want to! I think this day should be a holiday. Everyone should get this day off to do something special.  Don't y'all think that's a great idea?

So this is what happened to the bird condo. We have had SO much rain and wind, that it pushed the tree over.

Thank goodness there's a maple tree in the corner that caught it. Or it would have fallen right on the shelter. And the fence. I don't see how it's holding it up, but it is so far.

So my brother is coming over this afternoon to help us figure out how to go about getting this poor tree down. The birds are still going in and out of their little holes.  My husband has wrapped a heavy chain around the trunk and I think we'll use my 4wd Trooper to pull the trunk and get it to fall. It's going to fall on the fence. There's no way to avoid that happening. I have a cattle panel I can put there til we can fix the old chain link fence. But in the mean time, the sheep cannot go over there. We will have some extra firewood from all this. Looks like we'll need it tomorrow. We are in for some nasty weather Tuesday afternoon. Hail and wind and rain. And it's Super Tuesday. And my pottery class too.

Looks like March will be coming in like a lion!

And with all the crazy weather, we have leaves coming out on some things. My elderberry bushes.

And the blueberry bushes are getting lots of buds on them!! I hope I get some blueberries this year. Last year, the darn chickens got them all.

This is what I've been spinning at Mrs. T's while I'm at her house. I love this natural color. Almost like a linen or tweed. It's really beautiful. I left my niddy-noddy at Mrs. T's yesterday, so I can't take it off yet.

Me and the goats and dogs went for a walk out back. It's not our land, but they don't mind if we walk back there. This was the first time I took the goats for a walk. I used to take all my other goats back there all the time. I picked some daffodils and the dogs went swimming in a few ponds. It's a beautiful day.

My oldest grand daughter, Chloe, is taking guitar lessons at a music school on Saturdays. Coryn, the middle grand daughter, wants to play cello. Or violin. Since I have a violin, she can start on that. And I want to learn too. Chloe's teacher has it right now, checking it out and putting new strings on it. He said we could take a class together. How fun! I really want to learn fiddle though. Coryn is in band. She's in 8th grade and has been in band since 6th. She plays clarinet. She want to play in marching band when she gets to high school next year. She will be the first to do that and I am really excited! Dade Co. High has a really good band program. They are planning to go to Chicago next fall to perform in a parade.

Ok, enough rambling. I have stuff to make. I need to get busy and make things for this show coming up in May. More about that later.

So I hope you all have a great extra day today! Have fun and do something special with it.

Wednesday ramblings.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day. My brother is here for a few weeks. He's staying at moms, helping her get some things done there. Wednesdays me and mom always go to lunch and then do a little shopping. We had to bring Mark along with us. And we met Abby and Jason, my daughter and her hubby, my other daughter Heather and my husband, at a really good Mexican restaurant over near where Abby and Jason work, for lunch. Had a good time with the family.

Mark, mom and I then went over to a really big thrift store so I could look for a filing cabinet for my little office at home. I did find a nice big 2 drawer with sides in the drawers! The one I have in my studio has no sides. So I can't hang those hanging files in it. My brother said they make those little cage like things to put inside the cabinet to hang files in. So why don't all filing cabinets have sides? I think that's just crazy. Anyway, I just paid $15 for it. And it fits perfectly where I had in mind to put it. Now I just need a nice warm rug. There's concrete floor in there, and it's cold!

After I left mom's, I went back over to the pottery studio, to practice. One of the guys, David, was there and only one other person. So had the whole wheel area to myself! I got some really good help from David. And I got to throw 2 really good pieces that I felt good about keeping. He said not everyone has the guts to smash the first things they make, but that's a good sign of a good potter when they can start over. And over and over. He was a really big help to me. It's funny how everyone has different ways of teaching. Like the lady who first tried to teach me to spin. She just was not the right person for me.  David took pictures for me and was supposed to post them on their FB page, but I don't see them yet. I made a little bowl that I will use to scramble eggs. He made a little pouring lip on the side for me. I love it! Then made a little mug like cylinder. I'll see what it becomes in a few weeks. He also said I should make several balls of clay ready for next week, so I don't have to spend so much time doing that. So I feel better about pottery now, just having that time yesterday to practice more.

And my friend came yesterday morning and got Big Red, the rooster! I caught him the night before and had him in a crate on the driveway, ready for him. When I got home last night, my husband said I gave them the wrong roo. It scared me because I just knew I grabbed Big Red, not Black Bart. But he said that rooster crowed ALL day, right outside the window where he sits. The roo and hens love being up at the house, right under the living room windows, where he crows all the time. He follows me around, crowing too. It really hurts the ears.

So I am home all day! I will hopefully finish that shawl. I did go to the yarn store. I had to buy another cable. She said she wouldn't trust it to hold much longer. So now, I have to transfer all those 1000's of stitches over onto the new cable, then knit a few more rows, then bind off. Then weave in all those ends and block it. Can't wait to see how big this shawl will be. Probably big enough to wrap around me twice at least!

I've been spinning the last of Buttercup's wool. I had so much on this bobbin, it would not turn anymore. I ended up with 217 yards. That was way too much. So far, I have 197 yds, 148 yds and 217 yds. And I am working on the last bobbins to get ready to ply. Then done with Buttercup wool! It is SO soft and pretty too.

Oh no!

A few days ago, I am knitting on this shawl, which I am just a row or 2 away from binding off. I am counting and was at 330 when I was pushing on what I had just done and the cable broke! Oh my goodness, I almost screamed. There were at least 30 dropped stitches, just hanging there, as I am trying not to go crazy. I got my glasses on real fast, but carefully, so I wouldn't lose it all together. Got all the stitches back on, with a few little mess ups that I hope to be able to fix. And I got the cable back in as far as I could. But there's still probably a 1/8" that should be inside the little metal thingy. It's rough. I can't do anything right now. So I will take this little mess to my little yarn store in Chattanooga this afternoon and see if they can fix it for me. It's the longest cable too, because I think there must be 1000 stitches on there. Geeze, it's going to take me a month just to bind this off!

                                              The owls look really worried, don't they? I am too.

And in other news, last night was my first pottery class! I was SO excited! There are 7 of us, all women. With a man instructor. He wanted us all to practice working with the clay, pounding out any air bubbles on the table. I tell you what, that first cut of the clay to get a bit off was amazing. I had seen people do it, but to do it myself, well, that was really cool. And the clay was so soft and smooth and felt so good on my hands too. Just a cool thing right there. I was amazed the whole night really.

So we went to our little wheels and plopped that cone of clay down in the middle and practiced centering it. That took awhile. And I'll tell you again, my left hand hurt! So got mine centered real good.

Then the fun part! Making a hole. I just really enjoyed every part of this experience. He wanted us to make a cylinder. Well, we were all over the place! Every one of us. We had bowls and plates and all kinds of shapes. But no cylinders. Mine was pretty much a wide cylinder, with the bottom way too small. I was going to keep it, but after getting it off the wheel and onto a board, the more it sat, the more wonky it got. By the time I was ready to leave, I went over and smashed it up.

I did get to practice on another piece. Did pretty good, but smashed it too. It's hard! I had no idea. But the instructor, he was whipping out bowls and cups and tall cylinder-like vases and cups. Then he'd cut them in half so we could see the way ours should look. Then he'd smash them up and start on another piece. Oh to be like him some day. But it will take SO much practice. They encourage us to come during the week to practice so believe me, I will be going! I really want to do this. I want to make yarn bowls.

So this is the ancient pottery wheel my friend Daryl gave me. It's heavy. And foot pedaled. What fun, right? We just have to figure out how to get it all together. And what is that half round piece of metal for? Can't figure that out and Daryl couldn't remember either. And it needs a seat. We can just make a seat out of plywood I think. And then I might can practice more on this.

I just hope we don't all float away from all the rain we've been getting here. I woke up early this morning and it was pouring. Thunder and lightening all around. And more rain to come! Yay! I guess this is a good thing. For ducks maybe. And rivers and streams and lakes. But I am sort of over it all, thank you. And I have got to get new boots. Plastic bags don't last very long.