Altivo

Or something like that, at least judging by the feel of it.

Spinning guild this morning, supervised the drop spindle "race" which went well with seven contestants and a fair amount of fun for all. A clear cut winner was easily identified and it was agreed that we should do it again some time.

Came home and baked foccacia with caramelized onions to take to the retirement pot luck in the evening, then we had a visit from two of Gary's friends from his Civil War historic recreation events. They had some musical instruments for him to evaluate, and got a tour of the farm and the animals as well as a look at my weaving setup.

Took Tess out to the pasture for her hour, then dashed off to the party, which was very pleasant with too much delicious food: several salads, a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini dish, some excellent wine, and then cake, coffee, and butter pecan ice cream. We presented Karen with a custom made bench for her garden and listened to a lot of reminiscences about weird events in the library's past. (Four of the attendees at the party had a combined tenure of 84 years, so they have a lot of memoires they could write. It would make a very amusing book if they did so.)

Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow I'll have to squeeze in a whole weekend's worth of normal activities, like grocery shopping, laundry, etc.

Did lots of stuff today, which kept me out of touch with news for a few hours. So, has the obligatory conservative religious loudmouth pronounced that the Chilean earthquake was God's judgement on the world yet? Have the right wingnuts tried to blame it on Obama like everything else?

For a change it's not terribly cold outside. In spite of a biting north wind all afternoon, right now it's just barely below freezing. And here I brought in a wheelbarrow full of firewood and stacked it in the garage so as to avoid a cold night. ;p

I think art is going to happen again. I got some paper ready using the proper sort of gummed kraft paper tape that I prefer, and two new sponges. A blue one for "has glue" on it and a green one that "is clean." See how small things can amuse me. One does have to avoid smoothing down damp paper with a glue-contaminated sponge though.

While we were out shopping this afternoon I hunted for Pitt or Copic artist's pens but found none. Guess I'll have to mail order them. I picked up a set of four black Prismacolor pens that will do for now, but they really aren't as black as I'd like. The ink is indeed waterproof and doesn't smear once it's dry, which is the big consideration. And they have nice points of varying widths and softnesses. Reading the label, I was amused to learn that Prismacolor is now owned by Sanford (who once upon a time made nice fountain pen ink and pens but now mostly make cheap office supply pens) who are in turn owned by Rubbermaid. Rubbermaid? Eeek.

Fed all the horses, cleaned up after them and the sheep, doctored Tess' dry hooves with Hooflex. Did not go out for lunch, but had weird ramen instead and then tonight Gary made Thai for dinner. That was good. Laundry is going, bread is rising, paper is drying, and I'm going to bed I think.

Happy Christmas to all my friends. I hope you are safe and warm, with friends or loved ones, and able to enjoy this special time of the year at least a little.

Our power did come on this morning just before seven. I had put a teakettle on top of the woodstove to boil so I could make coffee by dripping it through the coffee maker. It boiled, I carried it to the kitchen, and the lights came on. The outage was over 30 hours, probably the longest we've had at this address. (We once had a 48 hour outage at our house in Chicago, many years ago.)

I can't tell you how good it feels to have running water again. Especially hot water in the shower. With the generator hooked up and running, we do get running water but only cold. This time of year you have to be desperate to take a shower in that.

Today we stayed home, though it wasn't just rest. Chores had to be done, of course, and we feared a flood in the small barn again if all the predicted rain materialized. So we had to clear drainage channels in the snow to let water drain off even if the remaining snow freezes hard where it is. The rain didn't happen much, though. Now it's snowing, and they say we'll get up to three inches before it ends tomorrow.

Supper today was a bit too classy for this kind of lazy day, but it was good (so far, haven't cut the pie yet.) Cornish game hen stuffed with oranges and backed in a clay covered pot with orange juice as liquid. Mashed sweet potatoes; Brussels sprouts; Home baked bread; red wine; tea and home made mince pie.

For any bird fans out here, two fuzzy pictures of a mystery bird that was outside our dining room window this morning. My best guess is that it was a Carolina wren. See discussion in photo captions.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=157367&id=1577055232&l=6960f5e969

We might have a white Christmas or we might be rained out. A major storm is apparently headed this way, but just like the one two weeks ago, the NWS seems to have no idea exactly where it's going or what it's going to do. The forecast for the next 48 hours or so reads like a catalog of possible precipitation, starting with snow, moving into sleet, freezing drizzle, freezing rain, heavy rain, and then backward through all of those to snow by Christmas morning. We are under heavy obligation to drive to Chicago and back on the 24th, and are hoping and praying that it will either be rain or snow at that time and not an ice storm.

We're already half-expecting to close the library early tomorrow. If it's as dead as it was this afternoon, no one is going to complain. I am relieved of having to work the evening shift, in any case, because of the weather. I'll go in at 8:30 and work until 5 unless we close earlier than that. Judging by the conditions of roads coming and going today, that will be a good thing.

I just thought I had wrapped all my gifts, then put all the paper and tags away, came back in here and found another box under the desk that I'd forgotten. Must be getting old. Wait, no, this happens just about every year.

The kitchen and dining room are awash with cookies at the moment, as Gary cranks them out for gift boxes to his family and nearby friends. Frankly, I'm tired of it all now and wish it was Friday when we get to just be home with the critters and relax.

Despite a gloomy weather forecast, the sun shone nearly all day, and actually dried some things out a bit though it has started to rain again now. Tess got to go out to the pasture, I did laundry (always a landmark event, usually when I run out of clothes to wear,) and baked rolls and pizza. The temperature made it to 60F, so I even tried to put Rain-X on my windshield though that may not have succeeded. The container of little wipes with the secret chemical on them seemed rather dryish, though still damp. I cleaned the glass and rubbed it on anyway, and with all the expected rain this week, we'll see soon enough whether it worked.

Gary has been working on his map project for most of the day, so not much has been heard from that quarter. He seems to have learned to turn off his e-mail and facebook to avoid distractions, which is good.

I spun a couple of bobbins full of wool, but didn't start warping the loom as planned. Soon, though. It's a matter of putting other stuff away first, always a chore.

Also got some research in and requested a few books for more study on the subject of werewolves. I'm pretty sure I'm doing something about a werewolf for this year's NaNo, though I intend it to be about as unconventional as I can make it. Turns out that a lot of my ideas have already been tried at least once before, but that won't stop me. There's even a book where a wolf gets bitten by a werewolf, and as a consequence he transforms into a human once a month. ;p I'm more interested in making a werewolf who is a sympathetic character rather than a horrible thing to be feared. Remus Lupin was one of my favorite characters in the Harry Potter stories, for instance.

Gary made it back from his long odyssey to Michigan City this morning. None the worse for wear, mostly and thank goodness.

We went out for lunch and did some shopping for animal food and our own food. Rearranged the feed storage in the two barns so that Tess has her special feed in the same place where she lives. Duh. For years her feed has been stored in the other barn. It just happened that way, don't ask me why. This should be much simpler.

I had a scare, too. Since the sun was out this morning, and it wasn't for sure whether it would change to rain again in the afternoon, I put Tess out in her pasture first thing, at 8:30 am. Normally she gets to be out for three hours, no more than four. I'd figured on bringing her in at 11:30 or so. Well, I got distracted, and forgot. This hasn't ever happened before, believe it or not. We got all the way to Woodstock and I looked at the sky and wondered if it was going to rain, then suddenly realized that she was still outside. Not that a little rain would really hurt her, but her grass consumption has to be limited for health reasons. This is new growth, too, because of all the rain we've had. So we drove back home and put her in. She seemed fine. By then it was about 1 pm, so she was out for over four hours. I kept worrying about it because the grass is lush and green again after all that rain this week.

So tonight when I moved her from her pen to the stall, I checked her feet. (The problem she gets from too much fresh grass is called grass founder, and causes swelling and pain in her feet. Not good, since there's no place for the swelling to go inside a hard hoof.) Her hooves felt warm, though no more so than the rest of her. Still, it was worrisome. I went back to the other barn to check the boys, and their feet were warm too, even though they had not been eating grass all morning. Finally it dawned on me that the outdoor temperature was only 57F, which makes a horse's body temperature of 104F seem really, really warm. So I trust she will be OK, though I have to check her carefully in the morning. If she won't get up and walk, it means an expensive emergency visit from the vet.

Gary's making English muffins at the moment, and they smell really good. Earlier this evening he baked bread.

Big, fluffy flakes drifting down all afternoon. I don't think any of it lasted on the ground but it was kinda pretty. Woodstove going at a low rate makes it much more comfortable in here.

Finishing bits on the foot paws for Argos are done. They are now wearable, though I could do a little more if I get time. Finishing up his tail now, then I start on the hand paws. Those are simpler than the feet were but require plenty of hand sewing just the same (no pun intended.)

Someone at Gary's church gave him a bag full of pears last week. Turns out they are probably Kiefer, an old variety that has a coarse and gritty texture. Probably good to make perry out of but we don't have enough for that. I made a pie from them, it's in the oven now.

Nano on hiatus for the moment, though I do still intend to finish if I possibly can. Need to do fursuit stuff first.

( Bonus meme under cut )

Actually, farriery first. John was here today and did everyone's manicure for us. No problems found, yay! Tess was on her very best behavior, too. I never would have believed that she could be so well behaved and cooperative, but she is now. It seems that our really big mistake was tying her. If I stand and hold her lead, she's a perfect lady. The worst she does is lick and nibble at my shirt pockets. No kicking, no pulling her feet away, no leaning on John. Of course this means she gets done in record time, which even she must appreciate.

A discussion on shadow_stallion's journal got into the topic of fruitcakes. Yes, I know, it's fashionable to hate them, but I happen to really like home made ones. Ultimately I promised to share my mother's and grandmother's recipes, neither of which bears any resemblance to the commercially produced and marketed "sticky bricks" that are so often sold or given as gifts in the US.

( Recipes under cut )