August in Ohio

Our sweet Rowdy spends most of his time seeking out the coolest spots in the house.  I am sure he is dreaming of laying on the porch on a 10 degree F night.  Otherwise, his favorite time of day is mealtime.  He eats very well and is getting regular acupuncture to help with his arthritis.  He has more coat than he has ever had and since he doesn't swim in the pond anymore, it is staying relatively nice.  We cherish each day with him.

I think I don't have much to post about, and then I realize I really do.  August has arrived since my last post, but before that, Grover and I attended a 2 day agility trial in Dayton.  We are "chasing the MACH" as an agility friend put it.  We needed 72 points going into that trial and we came out still needing 60.  It was not our best trial.  Grover was NQd in standard both days by his reluctance/refusal to get on the table, of all things!  That was almost 2 weeks ago and tomorrow we leave for a 3 days weekend of agility in Niles, Ohio once again.  60 points is doable, but it will require us to be flawless.  Will we MACH this weekend?  I suppose anything can happen.  If not, there is always September in Zanesville.  

We have had an ongoing project at the guest house since January or thereabouts and it is about to be finished.  Labor Day weekend is a little over 3 weeks away and we will have lots of company.  The 2 bedrooms that needed drywall have been drywalled and all 3 bedrooms and the living room ceiling (which needed repair) have been painted.  Clean-up has commenced and carpet is scheduled to be installed Friday.  While I am away.  It will be like a new house.  I will post "after" photos next time.

In addition to that, I decided to re-do my kitchen, starting with countertops.  We remodeled our kitchen in 2002 and put in laminate countertops and an acrylic sink and they were getting pretty shabby.  So here's the before  >>>>>>>>>>




And the after :

I will be painting and putting up a mosaic tile backsplash.   Before Labor Day?  Maybe.  


Also keeping me busy has been the garden, though I have neglected it to get painting done.  We are now enjoying corn and tomatoes and peppers and cukes, along with fresh herbs. 


 
 The tomatoes are just starting to come on and many of the plants are as tall as I am.  Or taller.  I also harvested garlic this past week, though I am disappointed in how little I got.  We got a lot more last year and actually still have quite a bit, so I doubt we will run out.








This past weekend, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of our first corn on the cob, grilled in the husk, along with bruschetta made with roma tomatoes, garlic and basil all grown right here, atop toasted homemade baguettes.  It really doesn't get much better.  Though the next night was just about as good with corn on the cob and BLTs with nice garden fresh tomatoes.  Yum.

While I was away the last weekend in July, Sam pushed the wooden remains of our 2 bridges  that were destroyed in May's flash flood into the now dry creek and burned them, along with the debris pile that was deposited in the wake of the flood.  It is amazing to see the wash out on both sides of where the bridge used to be.  I'm not sure what Sam's plans are on getting a new bridge put in.  He has also been really busy with the construction project at the guest house.  It will happen.

 In addition to everything else, I have managed to work on some fiber-y projects, though lack of air-conditioning in my studio limits my time out there to late evenings these days.

I have 2 more selvedge rugs off the loom and ready to be hemmed and then I will tie a new warp onto the ends of the old warp and weave a couple more in a different color.

I also have black and white tencel scarves on my smaller loom.

There will be 2 of these and I am not sure if I will add a third color into the second one or stick with black and white.  






I am also carding some batts of 60% alpaca and 40% silk.  Each batt is about 2 oz and I have done 5 of them and should have enough of this alpaca to card up 2 more.  I will probably spin that and then dye it.  Or will I dye it and then spin it?  I have not decided.

I also spun up about 4 ounces of some dyed roving I bought at a farm market in Grand Rapids Michigan a couple of years ago.  I spun it long draw and it went really quickly and made a nice lofty woolen yarn.  I think I have enough for mittens.  I also  have another "bump" of dyed roving in a different color from the same vendor that I am looking forward to spinning.

And the last thing I will post about today is a sweater I think I posted about before.  I have made a little progress, but not a lot (I can't imagine why!).

 
 I am at the point of just knitting in circles with thin grey yarn.  It will likely go to the agility trial with me this weekend for hotel room knitting.

I think that will do it for this post. I will end with a lovely photo of my very first sunflower bloom of the summer.