Family

Picnic dinner at our house with my extended family.

Ben and Bekky were visiting from Colorado, so it seemed like a good time for a get-together. 

Seems like a lot of people, but we were still missing a few grandkids.  

Father's Day

We spent Father's day at my nephew's house in Minneapolis.  

It was like herding cats to try to get a picture, but I finally snapped a couple.  Girl of the House, my Dad, my brother and my nephews.

Cutting the steek

We made it out to Sioux Falls, SD this past weekend for a goodbye party for Paul's brother and his wife. They've had it with the northern cold and are moving to Georgia. (A fabulous job promotion helped to weight the scales in favor of the move.)

We'll miss them immensely. Sioux Falls is only a four hour drive. Georgia will take a bit longer, but we'll get there!





Anyway, there was lots of road knitting time.

The Lopi sweater reached the point of steeking. Tonight I took it to the sewing room.



See the two purled stitches in the center? That's where I'll sew.















Two rows of stitching. I prefer to use a small zig zag stitch - it catches more yarn.







I cut carefully between the two lines of stitching.









Now it's ready for adding the button band and collar!








These were some of the colors I auditioned for the contrast on this sweater. I ended up sticking to my original choice.

But if I want more Lopi knitting, now I'm ready!

Beauty where you find it

Dad made it home from the hospital on Friday. He's doing very well.

Mom, however, is another story...

Saturday morning Mom went into the hosital with what appeared to be a bad GI flu.
They needed to call the ambulance to bring her in, as Dad being postop recovery,
can't drive yet. I drove to Wisconsin to check on the two of them.

Once it seemed that Mom was stable, and would need to be treated for a day or two, we headed back to their house. We sat on the deck, enjoying the amazing November weather. It's always lovely overlooking the lake.

This morning, Mom called before we got to the hospital to visit. She had chest pain during the night and apparently had an MI. They were shipping her to St. Paul by ambulance for more treatment.

Currently, she's comfortable in CCU, awaiting an angiogram in the morning. Treatment will be planned based on the results. Dad's staying with me, and my brother will bring him to the hospital in the morning.

Waiting is always the worst...


It helps to have something for the hands to do though, doesn't it?

Happy Fiftieth Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

We celebrated my parents fiftieth anniversary last evening with a family dinner.

We had discussed going out to dinner, but there is nowhere you can put 14 people in a
restaurant, and still be able to talk to everyone.

So we did it here. It turned out well, because everyone got a chance to visit with everyone!



My folks.

Married October 25, 1958.











Almost the entire family!

Paul took the picture, so he's not there.

Two of my brother's step-daughters weren't present.










Table viewed from the other end.













Mom and Dad serving the gorgeous cake, baked by Heidi.









My brother, Bruce, and his wife Heidi.












The oldest grandson, Nic, with his significant other Megan.

Nic is Bruce's oldest boy.







Bruce's next boy, Chris, with his S.O., Amanda.









Ben and his girlfriend Bekky.











Girl of the House and the youngest Girl of the House at Bruce's.









We had a magnificent prime rib, some shrimp, and a few assorted side dishes.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves! I know WE did!

new address

I finally, after purchasing the domain name more than a year ago, managed to figure out how to link my blog to the domain!

Yes, I DO currently work with computers for a living. (wince)

My new location for the blog is 20AcresNoSheep.net.

Cool, eh?

If you continue to log in at Tonyiasblog.blogspot.com, it will still direct you to my new domain.

Paul and I took the dogs for a walk this morning in the arboretum.

We have a few geocaches in the arb.

We walked out to check one of the geocaches.
Unfortunately, in this fall weather, there are lots of burrs and sticky seeds!

Poor little Chip got a snootful of little tiny ones.

Guess that's why he belongs to Girl of the House. She can remove the burrs!

Then we headed to Paul's folks for birthday dinner.

Both of his brothers, and families, were there.

The two youngest grandaughters discussed the birthday candle placement with Grandma.




We had a fun dinner, and then were home in time to sit on the deck to relax.


I sampled up the new CVM fleece. Three different styles of yarn. Pictures, possibly, tomorrow.
(They're hanging, drying, in our bath.)

Lots of smileys

I finally rescued the sundyeing fiber from the deck.

A quick rinse and spin, and it's hanging on the line to dry.











We planted our tomato and pepper plants late this year.

So we're ecstatic to see this little jalapeno peeking out. It's even red already!

It's a small garden, but we'll have fresh goodies yet.





Bedtime reading.

They're finishing the Chronicles of Narnia series - the final book "The Last Battle".


Makes me so happy every time.

Look what happens when you puppysit

When Harlan and Coleen came to pick up Khaki, look what they brought! Lovely flowers for the Girl of the House, the recent recipient of a nifty flower press. (A gift from H&C for her 12th birthday.)

Coleen also brought lots of pictures from our recent Snowbird trip.







I had requested pictures of the felted clogs I knitted them for Christmas. Luckily, our condo had a washing machine, so I was able to felt them to size while we were on our trip! I made Steelers clogs for Coleen, and Wild clogs for Harlan. (Does she take artistic pictures, or what!!)


The Cobblestone pullover got blocked this weekend.

Here, it's just hanging out doing the last bit of drying.






Baby scandinavian sweater received one button band. I'm contemplating tearing it out and making it a bit tighter/shorter. I did end up improvising the knitting of the band. I picked up along the edge and knitted the band to it. At the same time, I knit 3 stitches behind where I attached it, to cover the steek. It was a bit of futzing, but not too bad.

I'll take some photos of the left side as I knit it. I like it - it minimizes sewing, and that's ALWAYS good!

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing,

wind braces up, and snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin (1819-1900)


No fresh resolutions from our household, just a peaceful welcoming in of the new year.

Ben returned to college, and the house is quiet, and a bit lonesome, again.

We had visitors this morning. Harlan and Coleen came by, with their big pup, Khaki.
They bought new snowshoes, and wanted to walk in the arb.

They were out for more than 2 miles! Guess those snowshoes work!





They had a party to attend in the afternoon/evening, so they left Khaki with us. They left their snowshoes, too. So, we tried them out. These are wonderful things, these snowshoes! I like them much better than cross country skis.

Our dogs went out with us. We walked about a mile, just out in the pasture.





The view of the yard from the back of the property. Winter always gives me a new perspective...










All of the boys were hungry for their supper, after all that exercise.

Khaki's settling in very nicely.







I keep putting off a few projects.

Now, I MUST do them.

I'll start back on my carry around socks.

Not sure I want to continue two socks on two needles. It's a bit more futzing around than I want right now. Moves it away from totally mindless knitting.





The scandinavian baby sweater needs its button band. I'm not sure why I dread it so.

But I've got sweater fever. I bought the Rogue pattern, and I'm dreaming of the perfect yarn.

So, I MUST FINISH THIS LITTLE BABY!!!