Can you feel it?

As I was driving home today I looked over and saw a tree had just a splash of reddening leaves on it. Fall colors may come early this year. Apparently the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a colder winter this year. They were hasty to point out in the story, colder can be only 3 - 5 degrees. But hey it sounds like my knitter senses are indeed tingling.

I cast on another sock the other night without even thinking about it. Walked over to the yarn basket found the yarn I was thinking about already caked up and some free needles. Bam! I had the start of a sock before I knew it.

This of course means that I am stealing time from the other two second socks on the needles but hey?! I was thinking the other day that I should not get pulled over because I would have a hard time explaining the contents of my purse. I had: two hand knit first socks, not matching of course; two lovely knitting bags each containing the start to a second sock, still not matching; a black tank top, don't ask; a deck of cards; and two glasses cases, only one of which contained glasses and is unfortunately leopard print. It is tough being a knitter's purse, I tell you.

Anyways back to the knitting. Except for the sneaky socks I am fighting casting on new knitting. I have both a shawl and a sweater calling out to me. It does not help that I have a voice in my head telling me that wool festival season is right around the corner and I need to clear out some places to hide put the new yarn. I even wrote up a list of the vendors I don't want to miss for the September festival. Yep I am feeling it!

I am however stoked to have two new sweaters to decide between as my Rhinebeck sweater. Who am I kidding? It is going to be the one called Rhinebeck the Second, whose yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. Good Golly woman what are you thinking?

Anyways I am off to have some dinner then to avoid being attacked by my yarn as I quietly knit something already on my needles. I will not cast on something new till I finish something old, I will not cast on something new.....

An Exercise in Frustration

Gus has been feeling off these last few days. Nothing to see the vet about but his standard, Mom I don't feel good. I struggle with this because I know I cannot fix him but I want him to be as comfortable for as long as I can make him.

Last night while we were outside he vomited, whole body racking vomit. I carried him into the bedroom, settled him down and gave him a few treats to settle his stomach. Later I gave him an anti-nausea medication and coaxed him into eating.

This is our normal method now. Everybody stays calm and things will get better. I work very hard on not hovering, but it is quite difficult to fight my true nature.

Around four this morning he seemed a bit agitated. We had a nice petting session including rubbing his stiff enlarged knees. He calmed and we all went back to sleep.

This morning I spoon fed him some sweet potato baby food that helps calm intestinal inflammation. Then he ate a good helping of his regular wet food mixed with water.

When I went to clean his litter box I found he had over shot the edge. Hey this happens when your insides are feeling a bit off.

Then I noticed something in his poo, well really I noticed that something else made up the greater part, a 2x3 piece of plastic bag! No wonder he was not feeling good with a big ole hunk of plastic bag in his intestine!!

I marched myself over to where he was lounging on the bed and asked if he was trying to kill himself. I told him Mommy was very angry with him and that he should not be eating things like plastic.

Then I gave him his morning treats and he forgot all about what I said, because you know Greenies solve everything.

I say again it is tough being the Momma!

I won't believe you

If you say that South Dakota is a flat, boring ugly state. I won't believe you because it is simply untrue. 

This is from a rest stop on the Missouri river. It is built on the hill overlooking the river.

Then we went over the river and headed into the grassland and haying part of the state.

Look at that big blue sky. Can you tell we share a border with Montana also known as Big Sky Country? We have a share of it too.

I really do love seeing bales by the side of the road. This year I saw a field so full of bales it was almost not to be believed. They must have had the perfect mix of rain and sunshine to get so many.

Somewhere around here we got the call about my Dad being in the hospital and I stopped taking pictures, and started worrying.

Dad seems to be adjusting to living in a nursing home. My Mom seems to be adjusting to it too. I think it is a weight off her shoulders. We all know that Dad is getting the care that he needs and that is a weight off our shoulders too.

On Baking

One of the things I picked up while I was home facing a crisis, was to do more of the things I want to do.

Easy right? Not always, but I'm learning. I want to do more cooking/baking. I like making things and enjoy eating tasty things too.

Last weekend while before our standard scones went into the oven I made two batches of oat yogurt muffins. I love these muffins because they're full of the things I think I should be eating. No I have not done any nutritional analysis so you'll have to forgive me.

This weekend I made a couple more batches, only this time I remembered to get frozen blueberries instead of the dried fruit it recommends. Much tastier with gushy blueberries. I started a couple of experiments with this week's batches. My intentional test was to add ground flaxseed.

My unintentional change up was to forget to add in the melted butter to the second batch. It was not until I opened the microwave's door that I realized any thing was amiss. I swear my microwave is a black hole when it comes to melted butter. This was not the first time I found butter in there. First time for my muffins though. They came out fine, maybe more like a baked oatmeal than muffin.

I had another oops moment when I forgot to add the walnuts to my zucchini bread. I remembered them 15 minutes into the hour long baking time. So being the creative person that I am I chopped them up fine and pressed them into the still gooey center. Well sort of, they mostly rested on the gooey top.

So I've been managing to bake even though I seem to be sabotaging myself. Guess I am just trying to gain some survival skills. No butter, no problem I can still make something tasty, if I have oats, yogurt, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, well you get the picture.

Knitting again

Today I am going to totally veer off from all that has been going on and talk about knitting. 

As you know I am a multi knitting project kind of gal. I've been seduced a way from some of my projects. Just the other night my basket of yarn beckoned me to come on over and wind up a skein. After I gave it a good tossing I resisted the urge and pulled out a couple of works in progress. 

This sock was completed before we left for SD but I was nervous about having enough yarn for the second sock. I did not have enough time to weigh the sock and the remaining yarn to see if it would all work out so they stayed home. 

 Poor lonely almost finished sock.

I've been on a bit of a greens and blues kick lately so I decided to add in a touch of red. Plus I wanted to make another sock from my Folk Socks book. I chose Socks with Clocks and thought it would look good in red too. 

Alas this project stayed home too because I wanted some plain knitting that I would not have to pay attention to. It is fine and good to think that I can knit more complicated things while distracted, but I've found that I like to keep things simple while traveling. 

This sock went to SD with us and got a finished mate while there too. D even wore them on the train home! I do love finishing projects while I am away. It seems like such a bonus to have new socks with you're away. It is just magical how knitting entertainment gets turned into more clothes just when you need them.

I did get a chance to weigh these before we left and did need extra yarn for the toes. But this time I figured it out before one of the socks was done. Now he has matching navy blue toes that really do match the yarn. At first glance you would not know I had an issue.

I took my little Zauberball along with me as a traveling instant knitting kit and cast on the day after I finished D's newest socks. I always think of these balls as perfect travel knitting. The yarn is wound and the colors are so interesting. Turns out I can knit about a half of a sock in a couple of days. Even working on it at vacation pace, which is much slower when you're trying to chase down where you should be on the train rather than riding it.

Now that I am home I am looking forward to finishing a sweater that is mostly done. The sleeves are tucked inside and all that is left is the ribbing on everything: cuffs, body and collar. I'm deciding if I want to go plain or try something fancy since the sweater is so plain itself. I'll leave that decision for another day and knit some more on a sock.

So Hard

We're back from South Dakota and I must say it was not the trip I thought it would be. We had a few issues flying in but nothing horrible. We had a lovely dinner and breakfast at my in-laws home. And we were a third of the way to my family's side of the state when I received a call from my Mom.

My Dad was in the hospital and it was all confusing for my Mom. She ended the call with "just get here." I went into panic mode till I realized this was the closest I've ever been when something bad happened. We were on our way and there was nothing I could do to get us there faster.

I got a hold of my brother in law, who explained things were not quite as dire as I had envisioned.

I can tell you it is surprising the first time you see a parent in a hospital bed. But my Dad still looked like my Dad. He was not talking like my Dad though. He was extremely confused and frustrated. He felt like no one was helping him, even though they were. He complained of being there "Damn near three hours!" when he had been there for over 24.

The hardest part for Mom was accepting that Dad needed more care than she could give. This means Dad is now living in a nursing home. I think she took comfort in the doctor telling her that with Dad's advanced age and a Parkinson's diagnosis of more than ten years, Dad had already beaten the odds.

This just confirmed what I had already known, Mom took care of him with all her heart and soul. And now it is time to step back from that role. She has done her part and it is at an end.

We're hopeful that Dad will continue to beat the odds for as long as he can.

I do have some pleasant stories for you but I needed to get this out here before I lost my nerve.
Pray for us please.

In a month

In a month my garden went from little plants shown freshly planted to...

Plants that need a little support and in bloom.

Look I have a pregnant purple pepper plant!

You just tried to say that phrase five times fast in your head didn't you?

 I have some wee tomatoes that are still safe from the tomato chomping husband.

My marigolds make me like yellow and orange, especially together.

All in all it feels great to be growing things again. We missed the recommended planting weekend by a couple of weeks this year but I got it planted. And that is all that matters this time. I even went to the farmers market by myself I was so determined this year. You can take the farmer's daughter off of the farm and you can tamp down the growing urge, but only for a couple of years then the farmer starts reasserting itself. Now I need to look into getting that electric fence so I can keep the hubby out of my tomatoes. Oh that is right he said he would stop paying the electric bill if I did that. Just save me a couple will you Hon?