Rainy days and Mondays...

For those of you NOT on Facebook, I have some photos of the storm damage at Liisa's house from Friday afternoon/evening. The old maple tree in the back yard lost half its crown in the straight line winds, taking down Liisa's power lines, ac unit, fence, and putting holes in the roof, along with lost shingles and gutters. The power mast to the house is damaged and she is awaiting info from insurance, the power company, et al on the order she needs to get things done: she has had no power since Friday.

 View from the back door...

What is left of the top of the tree still standing...

Needless to say, it's heartbreaking. Tony and Zack took a chainsaw to the branches in the yard on Saturday, and tarped the holes in the roof.  Now it is just a matter of organizing what needs to be done and getting it done. 

We had storms down here all weekend too, so we didn't go riding on the motorcycle as I had hoped. We did go see Man of Steel and it was good, although I thought the fight scenes and damage was over the top. I started with another sore throat on Sunday, almost identical to the one I had for round one of that viral crud, and today am congested, coughing, and frogged voice again. Obviously the antibiotics helped the sinus infection the original turned into, but my resistance is apparently low enough that I have round two on the virus...  Really sucks!

Eric is working his long week this week, and we are waiting to hear if we will be making a fast run to MN to pick up a friend of mine for a couple of weeks visit. She has some things going on and isn't sure yet if she is able to come down, but hopefully will have a better idea in the next few days. We could potentially be a busy household over the next 6 weeks--for sure from mid July thru mid August. I. Am all set to resume coursework on the 8th although I still need to order my books. 

Life is never dull, that's for sure.

Happy Father's Day!

This is a picture from 1970, taken on board the Lake Champlain ferry, in New York. My dad was almost 41, and he died just shy of his 64th birthday. I miss him so much. I had a really rough night the other night and when i finally fell asleep dreamt I was at my parents house. For whatever reason, in my dream I decided to lay down on my parents bed, and as I drifted to sleep, I felt my father's arms wrap around me and hold me close, like I was a little girl again. The sensation of being held was so vivid, and felt so real that the next morning I asked Eric if he had held me in the night without my being consciously aware of it, and he said he hadn't; it makes me smile to think my dad knew I needed comforting and hugged me in my dreams.

This is a bit different Father's Day for us because Eric is working today and his dad is in the hospital with pneumonia in IN. The viral crud he had while here never fully left him and settled into his lungs, so he was admitted for some iv antibiotics, fluids, and breathing treatments for a couple of days. It sounds like he is doing ok, for which we are all grateful, and we send him lots of love and prayers to be better soon! Everyone here is still coughing as well, to a greater or lesser degree, dependent on when it started, and given how rapidly it spread, I am so glad Eric took the two days off he did when he was at his worst. The VA hospital didn't need that stuff floating around...

Patrick and his girlfriend decided to be in charge of dinner tonight, which is very nice of them, so I have been doing laundry and working on my appliqué squares (Cat Academy). Now that the rain has quit I have a few other things to do as well, and my spouse is on the phone, so it's time to get going.

Wow, June has passed by quickly!

Tis is what I have been working on over the past month or so, to relax from all the partying and traveling we have been doing.

 

This is called a spun single. It is part of the first half of the hand-dyed braided fleece I used to spin on this spindle. 

These are the completed spun singles I did, about 5,580 inches of spun fiber. The ball on the left is thicker and smaller than the one on the right.

This is the ball on the left plied with itself on the spindle to make my very first two-ply yarn. Some of it looks more like colorful rope than yarn, because it took a while to get the hang of spinning singles and keeping them consistent, but ball two turned out significantly better.

These are both balls plied with themselves, approximately 74 yards of two-ply yarn. It fluctuates between being really chunky to being more worsted weight, which is closer to what I wanted.  I soaked them per instructions to set the twist, and now they are drying in the bathroom. When dry, I will wind them into balls and use them to make something:).  I can now officially call myself a spinner. Not an expert by any means, but a spinner.

That is what I have spent a bulk of my free time doing lately; that and reading. We had a lovely visit with Eric's parents over last weekend, however we all came down with a nasty, communicable virus that swept the household, so things were pretty low key while they were here and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in bed, and part of yesterday still hanging in my room. Other than Aurora, who is still pretty miserable, the rest of us are on the mend, and Eric went back to work today. She had yesterday and today off, so hopefully will be on the mend tomorrow when she is scheduled to work again.

Today I have spent some time sitting in the yard, and I am going to start focusing on some specific projects here in the house, things I am committed to getting done this summer. I had to enjoy the gorgeous day thou, because rain is predicted for the rest of the weekend.