Thank you Louise!

I really should have taken photos of the beautifully tissue wrapped packets Louise sent to me in Montana...but somehow my inner child took over and began emptying these packets before I thought about the photo. Just look at the delicious tea AND the fabulous Teavana mug/brewing system. That thing is way cool! The little sheep is a tape measure in disguise...how cute is that?! Dark chocolate...you were way braver than I was...you will just have to keep in touch with me so I can send these Bronco bars your way when the weather calms down.

Did y'all see the Salted Nut Roll and Nut Goodie? They are made in Louise's home town! These swaps certainly make our world a smaller place. There were also kitty cat stitch markers...but I can't seem to make the digital camera take a close up image, drat. Then we are on to the YARN!



Isn't this skein amazing? It is Dream in Color - Smooshy sock yarn. How could I not love this stuff? Now, you may notice there is an empty space in the upper picture...that was because I knew there was another skein of yarn, but as I got the pakage last Monday, and I had to go across the mountains for a memorial service for my brother...well, when I came back on Thursday, I couldn't find that skein for ANYTHING. I wondered if I had taken it with me (things were a bit of a fuzz), so I cleaned out the vehicle, unpacked the suitcases, and still didn't find it. Next, I started house cleaning and looking in all the semi-normal places I could have placed this beautiful skein. The hubby just let me be, he probably thought I just needed to release steam over the family events...which I did, but I was avoiding even thinking about that by looking for this yarn. Finally, I moved my husband's motorcycle jacket...and there this lovely was!




That is the jacket behind it...the velcro had grabbed it so when I picked it up from my dining room table (I don't think he would have put his jacket on his mother's table...but I won't pick on him too much) it stuck and I couldn't see it. Luckily, I made him hang it up...and there was the yarn!

Thank you so much Louise ! I'm so very lucky!

dobarah

Senior Pictures are in the plans

Somehow, time has flown by, and we find ourselves looking for places for these pictures to be taken. I need to remember my 'good' camera the next time we go hiking, but perhaps a few of these will be okay.

Try these socks!

I like the look of these socks: Matrimony Socks. The perfect June Socktopia sock!

Dish Rag Tag Participant!

I'm so thrilled to have joined this great swap before the halfway point of 200 was reached. It will be great fun!

Also, I see my Socktopia button has gone AWAL. I'll have to fix that!

New TV towers at the Hills

The last 2 days have seen helicopters over our area. This time it wasn't for homeland security or Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, no this time it was for cement! Rick and the kids headed up the switch backs to take some photos of the process. Here is a look down the hill...our home is off to the right, but many of the strips you see are our crops.


Going up toward the top. It is a bit of a climb.


The clouds often made it impossible for the cement to be delivered. (But there was a storm coming in so it had to get done!)


Headed back down the hill.

Now if I can figure out how to get the photos from my camera phone. I took a couple of shots when the helicopters were at the 4H camp grounds.

Knitting Meme

Mark with bold the things you have knit (or are knitting), with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.
Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting (may have done this once unintentionally – does that count?)
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan (zippy hoodie)
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (- yeah, right)
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton (tried once, doesn't really count)
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
RugKnitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Gryffindor Wins the House Cup!

Yippeee!

Felting Fun

My next experiment will include before and after measurements...that way I can calculate the % shrinkage!

Quidditch - final round

Trivia

1. I was the first student to find Potter standing over Justin Finch-Fletchley after he was attacked in my second year. I accused him of being the attacker. What is my name?

Ernie MacMillan


2. I support Lord Voldemort wholeheartedly and my husband is a Death Eater. I constantly have an expression as though I have dung under my nose, according to that piece of filth: Potter. One day my master will finish him off and I would be glad to help him. Who am I?
Narcissa Malfoy


3. I owned an ice-cream parlour in Diagon Alley until I went missing in 1996. My shop showed many signs of a struggle. What is my name?

Florean Fortescue


4. In Deathly Hallows which Dursley will have something more revealed about him or her?
Petunia


5. Which Weasley character will get married in Deathly Hallows?
Bill

6. Who is the Slytherin Ghost?
Bloody Baron


7. What animal can Professor McGonagall transform into?a cat

8. In the Goblet of Fire despite being underage, Harry's name is drawn from the Goblet of Fire to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. Hagrid takes Harry with him on his way to a meeting with Madame Maxime in order to warn him about the first task, battling a dragon. On the way, Harry notices that Hagrid is wearing something rather unusual (unusual for Hagrid, anyway!). What is it?
A flower in his lapel


9. In the Goblet of Fire the Triwizard Champions' first task is to face one of four dragons. Harry draws the Hungarian Horntail – the nastiest of the bunch. What does he use his wand to summon in order to help him with this task?

Broomstick


10. In the Half-Blood Prince Luna is commentating the Quidditch match, ". . . but now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from, her, I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble — no, Buggins" What was the Hufflepuff player's name?

Baggins


Picture Scavenger Hunt
You can either upload the pictures to your blog or you can link the pictures. Please show us . . .

Lord Voldemort
Lucius Malfoy


The poster from movie number 5


Dolores Umbridge




Ginny Weasley

Trivia Time!

"Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies."
- Voldemort -

Quadratic Weaving Part II

I found this technique in an article in a Middle School Mathematics Teacher Journal by NCTM. This journal revolved around ways to connect my two favorite subjects. As most teachers of this age realize, these students are all at different developmental levels. Although a few students may be prepared for abstract quadratics, the majority would rather clean their rooms. (Sorry, I just glimpsed my son's shambles he calls his room.)

I plan on playing with more of these equations over the summer, but as a launching point, we used nice perfect quadratics. Each part of the quadratic is transferred to a set pattern. We used the yellow for addition, light pink was our a, dark pink was our b. Three strands on the weaving frame would be for each of the parts of our quadratic. This translates x^2 to six threads of light pink, + is 1 strand of yellow, ab becomes 3 strands of light pink and 3 strands of dark pink, another + gives us 1 strand of yellow, and finally b^2 becomes 6 strands of dark pink. Our frame was large enough to get this repeat, from left to right, wrapped vertically on there twice. Once these strands are in place, the horizontal weaves begin. (The technical terms are warp and w??p, but I will have to learn those terms before they come easily to my typing.)

With the vertical strings set, now we use the same pattern working it from closest to us and upwards. After Brianne struggled through this weaving using a box and oodles of stick pins, I purchased a lap frame. Hopefully, I will be able to gain enough frames to let the each student in the 8th grade create one during the 1st quarter. It would be a great concrete introduction into a formula which is used so often in their classes!

Sunday morning fishing trip

What do you do on the rare day Rick decides to not work? Well, you go fishing! We loaded up the white dodge with all the stuff we thought we might need to fry up fish and potatoes. Although we forgot a few items, we didn't need the peanut butter I brought along in case we didn't get any fish. Silly me, we almost didn't need poles...the fish were ready to get out of that pond!





Delaney got back into the swing of casting.



Garrett had first fish honors.



It was a GREAT outdoor picnic. We may even remember the tinfoil next time!



Sandy found a porcupine...and she got a little too close. Poor kid.

Hauling Cows

June 2nd was travel day for our cow/calf pairs. The evening before, we brought them down to the corrals, then our day began after 5 AM Saturday morning. There were 6 total Semi trucks...that is a lot of cattle! This was their view when the cows came off the truck. Not too bad, especially after you remember there was a huge fire here last year. In fact, the timber is black just off to each side of this shot...you can tell how lucky we were.