Ragna, Partially Assembled



It's actually wearable just like this, isn't it? Well, maybe if the ends were worked in. I am quite pleased with the fit - this may be the best fitting sweater I have ever owned. Since I can try it on as the sleeves are worked, getting them just the right length isn't going to be a problem either. Now, the sleeves are mostly in reverse stockinette stitch, so they are a little bit less interesting to knit, but they do go fast. I have gotten quite a ways on the first sleeve, but it is too dark right now to get a decent picture, so that will wait. Would you like to see three-needle bind-off in progress? Click here.

Has it been a week already?

School started this week, on Monday officially, for me. I already told you that I am going back to school this year, and it is pretty exciting. I am taking four classes:

• FHD 3120 Abuse and Neglect
• PSY 4210 Personality Theory
• PSY 5200 Introduction to Interviewing and Counseling
• PSY 5910 Independent Research

I haven't been to a class yet. My first one is at 8 PM tonight, and that will be my only class that actually meets. That one over satellite. Two classes are web-based, and the way they work is not much different from the Viking Society class I took last spring from Gotland University. And the fourth, of course, being independent research, doesn't involve meeting in a class. I'm actually working on a project with a professor and a couple of other students and keeping in touch with them by e-mail. It is strange being enrolled in school full-time and not having classes to attend. It feels a little bit unreal and a little lonely.

The homework is real enough though. One class has an assignment due today. The books only arrived the day before yesterday, but I'll get it in, even though I think I would rather knit than read about Sigmund Freud right now. The guy wasn't all bad, and you can't argue against his theory (he would just say that you are in denial, or if you say that you have not experienced the things his theory claims, in that case you have obviously repressed it). I really feel that other theorists have made significant improvements over Freud's Psychoanalysis theory, but that's the way it works and he did give them a foundation to work from. And his defense mechanisms do explain a lot.

Well, I have not blogged much this week since I have been busy getting all set up with school. My financial aid still hasn't been posted - hopefully that will be done soon! Besides my stuff, there are the kids too. Carol starts school on Tuesday, but we started homeschool on Monday. If I'm in school, the kids are too. So there - I'm a mean mom. And that includes everybody who is here, even if they aren't going to do home school this year. Carol wanted notebooks and other school supplies when I passed them out, so she also gets work to do in them. She doesn't need them to take to school since the public schools in Utah provide all the school supplies. Kids never have to take their own paper, pencils, crayons, or any of that stuff, and neither is there a charge for it.

This week's friday five questions are about school. Some of the questions you already have my answers to, but some are new, so I will go ahead and do it.

1. Are you going to school this year?
Yes, I'm back in school after being out for 12 years.

2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate?
Utah State University. I technically didn't graduate 12 years ago, although I did walk across the stage. I don't have to take more classes in order to graduate, but I want to apply to graduate school and don't expect anybody to remember me, so I'm taking classes this year just to get back into things.

3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?
I always liked the social sciences - cultures, languages, people, as well as literature, writing, music, ... Obviously I like psychology, since I am a psychology major. I liked psychology enough that I completed that major when my actual major was something else, and added psychology officially as a major during my last year.

4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?
I didn't like math and the hard sciences as much, although those were what everyone said I was good at and I took honors classes in those areas. The class I absolutely hated was P.E. Fortunately, I didn't have to take P.E. after my Freshman year in high school because marching band participants were exempt.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?
My third grade teacher was pretty good. I liked her enough that at that point I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I think that the reason was because she told me that I had potential, even though I didn't stay on task very well, and she worked pretty hard at finding ways to motivate me.


Ragna

Pictures will be forthcoming! I finished the front, but didn't take many pictures of that. It's about the same as the back - the only difference being the neck shaping. I have a question! I think I will answer it myself, but of course I would also like to hear your opinions. Why do knitting books explain techniques and recommend them, but not include those techniques in the pattern instructions in the book? For example, Viking Patterns For Knitting includes an explanation of three-needle bind off, but the pattern instructions all say to bind off each piece as it it completed. I think that knitters are becoming more innovative and thinking for themselves, and authors are recognizing this trend and encouraging it. I think that they expect us to make our own knitting decisions and so they aren't coddling us anymore by telling us exactly how to do every little detail in the patterns. Since I'm going to do it my own way anyway, I appreciate this attitude. Since I do like three-needle bind-off, rather than casting off when I finished knitting the back of Ragna, I just put it on another circular needle to wait until the front was knitted so that I could cast them off together.

The instructions direct me next to knit each sleeve, knitted flat and from the cuff up. That is not what I am doing, however. Since the shoulder seams were done, knitting the neck was irresistable and is also done. It is in cabled ribbing, which I like.

Oh, another question: Why do we dread knitting ribbing, but not cabled ribbing? Yes, it's prettier, but on the non-cable rows it is still just K4 P4 around. Admitedly, K4 P4 goes faster than K1 P1 or even K2 P2, but it is still repetitive. Besides appearance, what is the real difference between cables and ribbing anyway? Cables are generally wider than most ribbing, and manipulating the cables adds interest. That's it though.

Back to the plan for completing Ragna. Having finished the neck, I will next sew the side seams and pick up stitches for the sleeves, which I will knit from the top down, circularly. It does look like it is going to fit! (I used a smaller guage because the pattern was given for one size only, too big for me). I made it significantly shorter than the given length, but I'm happy with this length or slightly longer and I have a feeling that blocking is going to add length.

News Break

I am actually answering the friday five on Friday for once! It is Friday today, isn't it???

1. When was the last time you laughed?
I don't really laugh. If you get a smile out of me you're doing really good. Sometimes somebody sends me a really funny e-mail though (yeah, those things that we all forward to everybody in our address books) and I do remember actually laughing at one of those, but I'm not sure when it was. I do remember who sent it to me.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with?
I really don't argue either. I just give in. Or I present my point of view in a non-argumentative fashion. LOL (As an aside, when you write LOL did you actually laugh out loud or just think that something was funny enough to laugh out loud? I'm curious.)

3. Who was the last person you emailed?
The last thing in my sent items box (which was sent yesterday) is one of those things that we forward to everybody in our address books. I don't actually send them to everybody - just a select few that I think might appreciate it. It was pretty funny, and one that I hadn't seen before. Okay, here it is:

Home Remedies

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic.
   Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto!
   The blockage will be almost instantly removed.
   
2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by
   getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.
   
3. Avoid arguments with the missus about lifting the toilet seat
   by simply peeing in the sink.
   
4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for
   awhile, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.
   
5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent
   you from rolling over and going back to sleep when you hit the snooze
   button.
   
6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then
   you will be afraid to cough.
   
7. Have a bad toothache? Hit your thumb with a hammer, then you
   will forget about the toothache.
   

4. When was the last time you bathed?
Well, a couple of weeks ago we bathed the goats we were taking to the show, and they, uh, shared the water. I was mad 'cause I had already had my bath for the month. No, I really did just shower. I still have a towel on my hair. Or do you mean a sit-down bath? That would have been last April.

5. What was the last thing you ate?
A cold glass of red zinger herb tea (unsweetened) and one of these:

A red one. I ate too much yesterday (took the kids on a picnic with my MIL and all the cousins, and then ate ice cream after I got home - it was low fat, but I put hot fudge sauce on it. So I skipped breakfast. I'm getting hungry though. Think I might get a bowl of granola with some yogurt and call it brunch.

A Few More Pictures



You wouldn't think that turtles and snails were so interesting, but they do have their moments. The turtle is actually pretty active, although the snails don't do a whole lot. They make a difference in keeping the tank clean. Well, the turtle's shell gets pretty slimy so I shouldn't have been too surprised to find a snail latched onto the turtle's back eating the slime.



Jitterbug needed her picture posted. Here she is being milked. With one lone milker we are still getting plenty of milk, and hers tastes really good. It's rich and creamy - none of that low-fat stuff. I haven't had hers tested since we haven't been on milk test during her lifetime, but her mom consistently tested at 6 percent butterfat. People ask if you can tell the difference between goat milk and cow milk by taste. Well, since so many people are used to skim or low-fat (that's what I grew up on) and average cow milk is 3 percent butterfat but the so-called whole cow milk they sell in grocery stores is standardized to 4 percent, you will notice a difference if you taste our goats' milk. If you're used to whole milk you probably won't notice. The difference is actually better quality though. The flavor is the same - this is just richer. Sometimes we do skim it, but since goat milk is naturally homogenized it takes a long time for the cream to come to the top (up to a week in the refrigerator and it would go bad before it separated if you left it out), and we don't have a separator. The fat in goat milk is said to be digested differently than other fats though, so for reasons I don't understand it is okay.



Ophelia and Emily couldn't be left out. Now you see the goats we are keeping. I should be featuring sheep that still need homes. Maybe I will start doing that.

I had a bit of unexpected time available today since I was supposed to go demonstrate soap making and spinning at Relief Society but it got cancelled at the last minute, so I wound up with some blogging time. I added a few more links over to the right too. There are a bunch more that I plan on adding. I really should do a links page. I do try to link to people who link to me, as well as other sites that I like too.

A while ago there was a discussion about the etiquette of linking over on Wendy J.'s blog. Bloggers all want to be heard - isn't that why we are doing this? So, of course who links to whom can get to be a touchy issue. Here are my thoughts on it: I don't expect people to reciprocate links when I link to them. Not everybody even has a list of links on their blog and if they do I respect their judgement in choosing sites to include according to their own tastes. However, I always appreciate it when anyone links to me and I usually link back to them. I don't think that there is anything wrong with asking someone to exchange links with you either, as long as you can accept "no" if that is their answer. Links are what make the internet run! I have heard that if you know where you are going you can get from any page on the internet to any other in no more than seven clicks, due to everybody interlinking so much. That's amazing, isn't it! If you want more traffic, though, there are more efficient ways to get it than asking everybody to link to you. There are webrings, and directories such as Aortal and Globe Of Blogs. You can register with search engines although I never have and they pick me up anyway. Then, there is always paid advertising. What do you think about all this?

Pictures!

I usually make you wait too long for pictures. Well, I guess I'll surprise you this time by posting them already.

Ragna



Here is the back.



And this is how far I have gotten with the front. Some rows are faster than others. Rows 5, 9, and 13 of each pattern repeat just zip right along since there are fewer cables to do. The even numbered rows are all easy and fast since there is no cableing, even though I am knitting backwards. My backwards knitting speed is about equivalent to my forward knitting speed now, or faster since it is usually less complicated.

Yes, those are tents you see in the background. My kids have been sleeping out most of the summer. They think it's fun. Well, what can I say? They're kids. Nosie sleeps with them sometimes, but Taz always wants to come in the house for the night, even if Jonathan is out. Taz and Jonathan are best buddies and they are so cute when they curl up together.

Andean Plying

Ply: to bend, fold, or double

That is the actual definition of the verb, "to ply." Did you know that? In many standard plying techniques you just take two (or more) bobbins of yarn and twist them together, creating a two-ply (or more) yarn. But in Andean plying you actually fold the singles yarn over in the middle, doubling it over. It fits the definition so much better that way, don't you think? But how do you do that without making a mess, you ask...

I promised you pictures of Andean plying, didn't I? Well, here they are:



First you tuck the end of the yarn into something at your left wrist. It may be the cuff of your sleeve, your watch, a distaff, or a bracelet. You need to do this so that you can find the end again. Then you wrap the yarn around your hand and finger as shown, being careful not to wrap too tightly. If you wrap too tighly once, you will learn your lesson. Not only can it cut off your circulation, but it also makes it almost impossible to slide the loop off of your finger. The crossing pattern keeps the yarn from getting tangles. Well, in theory anyway. It's actually not that bad. Okay, once all the yarn is wrapped onto your hand, you slide the loop off of your finger, keeping your hand in the center of the ball of yarn. You can then attach both ends of yarn to the spindle and begin plying. You will get a feel for how to manipulate your hand in order to let the yarn out. It's hard to describe but you will just know.



Why use this method? It has its advangages. You only need one spindle to spin and ply the yarn and don't need to wind any yarn off onto something else for storage. It tangles less this way than in center-pull balls. It also comes in handy when you are plying from two bobbins on the spinning wheel and one runs out before the other does. Just use the Andean plying method on the remainder of the yarn and you will not be left with little bits of singles on the bobbins that will never match up quite right. Don't try to use it with an entire spinning wheel bobbin full of (especially fine) yarn though. You will regret it. I speak from experience here.

Angora Bunnies



These two really needed plucking and we did that this morning. I bet they feel a lot better now. Aren't they cute? Puppies turn into dogs and kittens turn into cats, and lambs turn into sheep, but a bunny is always a bunny. Even when he grows up and gets an attitude. Ike (the English Angora - note the fuzzy ears) is a little devil who can open his cage at will. Well, you've met him before. Bluebell (a black Satin Angora buck) growls. What can I say - they have personality.

So much for going to bed at a decent hour. It is midnight. Good night!

Summer Heat Getting To You?

Go practice swatting mosquitos. It's absolutely useless, well, unless your kids need to practice their mouse skills or something. It would be great for that! If you miss them, they just keep getting bigger and bigger. Eew, it made me itch though just battling even virtual mosquitos. With the West Nile Virus spreading so fast, we need a way to get back at those pesky creatures. They're bad enough anyway.

People

If you watch the news too much you tend to get a warped view on the nature of people. They mostly show you people who are only out for themselves and who cares about anyone that gets in the way. That's just not the way most people are though. I've met so many nice people lately. On Saturday I went to a homeschool convention, and everyone there was so nice to everyone else. Several of the people there were people I already knew, but most of them I hadn't met before, and everyone was just like we had all been friends forever. Most of the on-line communities I frequent are like that too. The knitting bloggers and other bloggers, most people on most of the e-mail chat lists I am a member of, people on a couple of message boards that I frequent. There are exceptions of course, and maybe a few of those people are only pretending to be nice and if you have to deal with them in real life they would be different, but almost all of them I believe are genuine.

Maybe it's easier to be nice on the internet. If you're nice, people will be nice back to you. But isn't that true in the real world too? Have you found that it's easier to make friends through your computer than it is in real life? I really have. Part of it is just that I'm quiet and I don't stand out, and I just get overlooked. The internet equalizes us and if I have something to say I can say it and people are just as likely to read what I say as what anyone else says. I really have gained some really good friends through e-mail too, and even met a couple of them in person. While it's easy to get carried away with the internet and neglect real life people and responsibilities, it has been a great tool for me.

Since I am rambling about the internet, maybe I will answer the friday five questions from last week afterall. I know, I keep getting later and later. I looked at them Thursday night when they first came up and they didn't grab me so I didn't do it. Then I kept thinking about it and decided finally that I will afterall.

1. How much time do you spend online each day?
Adding it all up would be hard. Maybe I am on the computer a little bit too much. With this really spiffy wireless internet connection it's so easy to stay busy doing internet stuff. I have to check my mail and stuff in the morning of course, and also before going to bed, and I'm back and forth between the computer and whatever else I'm doing pretty much all day unless I'm actually doing something that takes me out of the house for the day. And I do have withdrawal symptoms if I don't have internet access for a while, whether it is because I'm not here or because the internet service is down or power is out or whatever.

2. What is your browser homepage set to?
Flylady.net Otherwise I will forget to look there, and I do need the reminders.

3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?
No, I don't use instant messaging. I have in the past used ICQ, but it just got to be a pain, and we had too many things on the computer and were tired of ICQ jumping in all the time when we didn't ask it to, so we canned it. If you need to get ahold of me or want to chat, use my Tagboard or send me an e-mail. I check my mail pretty often.

4. Where was your first webpage located?
We had an old Geocities site that Mark set up for me. You can look at it if you want to, but it is a cobweb site and I don't think we even can make changes on it anymore.

5. How long have you had your current website?
Seven months, since January 15, 2003. And as of today I have had 2900 visitors!

Summer Is Winding Down

We're getting ready to go back to school. Ashley and Jonathan are signed up for an exemption to homeschool, and Carol wanted to go to public school this year in order to make new friends, so we got her signed up today. I registered for classes too, but got purged because my financial aid didn't arrive yet so I will have to do it again. I'm already involved with a research project though, and have been busy working on getting it set up! If you are wondering how I will manage to homeschool and go to school full time myself at the same time, two of my classes are web-based and two meet once a week each in the evening, so I will just be studying along with the kids here during the day. And the research project is pretty much as I schedule it. It will involve time away from home during the day, but it will work out. Ashley is old enough to babysit for a little while. Even though she and Jonathan sprayed down the whole kitchen with the water sprayer from the sink while I was registering Carol for school today, I will have to trust her to refrain from similar lapses of judgement in the future.

The days are getting shorter too. It's just 6:30 (the posting times on here don't allow for Daylight Savings Time) and I already had to turn on the light. It gets dark outside by 9:00, and really fast too, and noticeably earlier each day. In effort not to have a repeat of last winter, I have gotten a light box and have already been using it for about two weeks (before getting on the computer). It is making a difference in my sleep patterns. I am naturally a night owl and would stay up later and later every night, and then avoid getting up in the morning as long as possible. About every third or fourth day I would actually lose a night because I would just not bother to go to bed since it was already getting light outside before I started getting tired. Then I would start over again. Now I actually wake up, voluntarily, well, pretty much, sometime between 6 and 7 in the morning! Wow! I like using the light box too, because I have a gauranteed 30-45 minutes of knitting time every morning and if anyone comes looking for me or wanting me to do something I just tell them I can't because I have to sit in front of my light until the timer goes off. So there. I am getting about six rows of Ragna done each morning, plus whatever I get to do during the day. The back is finished and the front is half way there. No, I haven't taken many pictures, but I will.

Having talked your ear off and finally gotten around to a small mention of knitting at last, I will close for now. I promise I will get more pictures up soon. For today I guess you will have to settle with a bunch of links.

The New Goat



Although we sold all but one of the goats on Saturday, a new one came home with us so we have two La Manchas here. This is Midnight. She comes to us because of a trade arranged several years ago for a daughter out of her mother in exchange for a buck I had. Midnight is sweet. She belongs with us too - her parents were each son and daughter of my two foundation La Mancha does and one of my old favorite bucks too, making Midnight a cousin to Jitterbug - the other doe we kept - and also a cousin to most of the members of my herd that were sold.

Red Yarn



I did finish spinning the red Merino/silk blend that I have been working on. It looks good on the ladybug spindle, doesn't it? There is only a little bit, but it is yummy. I think I might use it for contrast in a project with the llama/soysilk yarn. I have a couple of pictures showing the Andean plying technique used to make a two-ply yarn with only one spindle, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. It is past my bedtime now.

Whoosh!

That's how the weekend went. We took two goats to the goat show and they both placed last. Actually, one was a single entry in her class, so you could say that she was first, but she didn't look so good in comparison to the other goats at the show. I have to admit that my goats simply were not in show condition - they are genetically as good as the others that were there, but I have been letting things slip around here even more than I realized. Seeing the other breeders at the show, which was the first we have gone to since State Fair three years ago, was bittersweet. Some of them are very nice, and I always wanted to belong to that group, but I never did fit in.

I sold my herd (except for one doe) to another breeder at the show. My goats will be in a prominant herd where they will be well taken care of and shown, and I will have an option to get replacements back when I am ready. It really couldn't have worked out much better. I know it is the right thing for me. Still, I cried all day after making the deal to sell them. I felt even worse for my kids, who will miss the goats even more than I will. We did keep one doe, and also took home a new one that was offered to me as my part in a trade from several years ago. It was just too hard to let go of all of them at once.

That leaves the sheep. For my birthday, DH said that I can keep four sheep afterall, which is a relief since I just couldn't let them all go. This year we finally got some of the colors we always wanted. In case my involvement with going back to school becomes such that I can't keep any animals at all, I do have a friend who has offered to board those that are left for as long as needed in exchange for babies born while they are boarded with her. So I have a security net. There are still several very nice sheep that must find a home.

Carrot Cake

For my birthday I got to make one of my favorite kinds of cake. I tinkered with the recipe and it turned out pretty good IMHO.

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon (optional)
• 3 cups finely shredded carrot
• 1 cup applesauce
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
  

Mix the dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Bake in a greased and floured 13x9 inch pan at 350* for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

You will notice that there is no oil (I substituted applesauce). In coarser textured cakes such as carrot cake I find that whole wheat flour works just fine too. The cake is as moist and flavorful as you could want. I didn't put nuts in the cake since I had my wisdom teeth removed last Tuesday and I'm still afraid to eat hard or crunchy foods.

The frosting is what makes a carrot cake so good. Here's what I did for frosting:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 1/2 cup soft goat cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• powdered sugar
  

Mix butter and cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla and enough powdered sugar to desired consistency.

Frosting just isn't that hard. I don't know why we think we have to buy it pre-made in the little tubs. Well, except that it probably costs more to buy the ingredients and make it from scratch, doesn't it? You could use cream cheese instead of the goat cheese if you like, or experiment with other soft (spreadable) mild cheeses. How about flavored cream cheese or even something like ricotta?

My Latest Friday Five Yet

I was just too swamped to get the friday five done, so here they are three days late since they were good questions this time. I did notice that several other people posted theirs today too, and maybe I won't even be the last.

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
If you have been following my previous entries, you already know that would be the camping trip to California. (The goat show was right here in Vernal.)

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?
I guess the time we took the Greyhound bus to California for my sister's wedding. Greyhound really does not care about your belongings. We got off the bus and the driver didn't unload our luggage. We told him it wasn't there and he said it must have been taken off at another stop then, and just walked off - wouldn't even look for it! But he also didn't bother to lock up the luggage compartment, and we looked around in there and found it.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
Norway. I'm planning to go within a year from now.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
I would really prefer to be able to teleport instantaneously, but since I can't, plane would have to be my choice. I usually travel by car though due to financial constraints. Lately you can fly for less than gas costs a lot of the time if it is just one person travelling, but if you are taking the whole family, plane tickets add up. I would really like to be able to travel more than I am able to, since there are so many places where I would like to be and people I would like to visit.

5. What's the next place on your list to visit?
It depends. I am planning a trip to Norway, but I don't know that I won't be going someplace else between now and then. My brother is going to be getting married sometime soon (no, he's not engaged - it's just fairly obvious that it is going to happen) and I wouldn't miss it. It wouldn't surprise me if that happens fairly soon. Then again, if travel is defined as in question #1 above as going outside your home state - I live in the corner of Utah and could wind up travelling to Colorado or Wyoming pretty much any time even just to go for a drive. They are right there. Going most places in Utah is more of a major trip for us - it takes 3-4 hours to get to Salt Lake City from here. I've done my share of travelling, having lived all over the U.S. and also in Spain, but there are times when I don't get out of Vernal for a year at a time.

The Next Phase of My Life

It's official. I am going back to college this fall. Although I could have graduated twelve years ago, my degree was not officially awarded even though I walked across the stage with the rest of my class and had all the requirements met, because there was a one-credit non-required class I took for the honors program that had a grade of incomplete entered at the time of graduation. I was supposed to re-write a literature review or a proposal for a project for a senior thesis in Communicative Disorders, but they asked me to withdraw from the honors program because after I got married and got goats they didn't think that I was focused enough or something. Besides that, it was winter quarter and my grades were dropping a little (down to a 3.5 GPA). My grades were always lower in winter quarter. It seems pretty obvious now that it was directly related to seasonal affective disorder, but even though I was aware of the pattern then I didn't put a name to it until just this year. Anyway, after being kicked out of the honors program I never did find the motivation to finish that paper I was supposed to write and it kept my degree from being awarded. I could have reapplied for graduation at any time, but didn't for two reasons. (1) A bachelor's degree in communicative disorders or psychology (I majored in both of those) is not a qualification for employment. It is really only a qualification for further education. Since I was also turned down for graduate school in Speech Pathology, and was not in a position to re-locate in order to apply to other schools, there just didn't seem to be any point in it. (2) They were recommending that I go back for a bachelor's degree in something else. Once a bachelor's degree is conferred, you can no longer get federal grant money for further education, so it seemed to be to my greater advantage not to have a degree.

It turns out that I was right at least on point number 2 above. I have applied for re-admission and for financial aid and I will be getting it. Since I have been out of school and not working in a related field for 12 years, I don't have any current references for a graduate school application. That's the main reason why I will be taking classes this fall - to get back into it and establish new academic contacts. I think it is going to work out just fine.

However, something has to give. I'm not going to have the time or money to run an ever-growing farm (which has not yet managed to start meeting its own expenses) and be a full-time student and mother to three kids all at the same time. We have been consuming hay at an alarming rate and just aren't able to keep up with it. Therefore a drastic reduction in farming activities is in order. All of the sheep and all but just a few goats are for sale. I want most of all for them to have good homes - I hate the idea of just taking them to the auction. If anyone would like to get into farming, this is your opportunity! Tell me what you want and make me an offer. I'll probably accept it if you can give my babies a loving home. At this point we are planning to keep Dolly - the llama, the two angora goats that have not been sold, and one dairy goat. A year from now I don't know where I will be (hopefully starting graduate school) and may not be able to keep even those few, but we'll make decisions then when we know what is going to happen. I could easily be in school for 5-6 years, but afterwards I do hope to be in a better position to have animals again.

This weekend (tomorrow and Saturday) we are going to a goat show. It's been three years since I have shown goats, but the show is here in Vernal so we just had to do it. It will be my last for a long time. We're only taking two goats to the show - that's all I had the energy to get clipped and groomed in the proper style. Wish us luck! Maybe we'll meet up with somebody who needs a few more goats to take home with them.

A Couple More Vacation Pictures

(I told you they would be trickling in for a while.)



This is another tree. What kinds of creatures can you make out of all those gnarls? We had fun with bubbles too. This kind are extra strong and they just don't pop. Maybe we are easily amused.



We went back and found another beach, this time with the rest of my family. My other two sisters, Jennifer and Kimberly, are sitting by Jonathan, who doesn't seem to mind being buried. You already know Joe and Andrei - they made it into quite a lot of my pictures. I don't see any reason to just take pictures of scenery, since I could just pull those off the net somewhere. If you are going to take vacation pictures, there may as well be people in them. Since Joe agreed with that philosophy, he got used to being asked to stand next to something to make it worth taking a picture. I could have used my kids for that purpose, but they are a little bit harder to catch, unless they get buried up to their necks in sand of course.

A Busy Weekend

All of my weekends are going to be busy for a while, it looks like. Yeah, and it's Tuesday before I have gotten around to posting, so I guess that tells you something about my weekdays too. What did I do yesterday? Oh yeah, I had a lot to catch up with on the computer, including filing my financial aid application so that I can take classes this fall. It looks like I am in fact going back to school. Although I haven't applied to any graduate programs yet, after being out of school for 12 years the thing to do seems to be to just take some classes and work back into it. I need to establish some new references, etc. anyway. Okay, blogging was the next thing on yesterday's to-do list, but I ran out of time, so here I am now.

We went to an SCA event; Artemisian Games, which is an annual local event.



Didn't you always want to know what I looked like as a Viking lady? I am in my element in this setting, and it's a good time to get some spinning done too. That red stuff has been waiting forever it seems. No, it's not done, but a little more of it is spun now.



The kids have lots of fun at these things also. They got their faces painted, and made new friends, and got to play with some old friends too. Since Artemisian Games has such a relaxed atmosphere it's a great place for kids to just be kids.

Making Jewelry



This is the necklace that Peggy helped me make, using some freshwater pearls I bought a few months ago and was trying to figure out what do do with. I like making jewelry, and I used to make a lot of earrings with seed beads. I also do the hemp necklaces and bracelets. I just needed to know what I needed to get for working making this kind of necklaces. It isn't hard to do, but there are some tools and supplies I need to order. Then I'll probably be doing a lot more of it. There's always room for one more hobby, right?

A New Friend

I want to introduce you to someone I have met recently. She is a brand new blogger, and I've been helping her get started. It's a nice feeling to be in a position to help someone else figure this out, especially since people helped me just a few months ago when I was getting started. Go visit Peggy. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the necklace she helped me to make (I just don't have it uploaded yet).

Vacation Picture of the Day



This is a redwood tree in Big Basin State Park, where we camped. It is taken at an unusual angle; from the inside of the tree. The tree is hollow and yet it is still alive. This tree burned a number of years ago on the inside. The resilience of the redwood trees is simply amazing! They remind me of some people I know.