11/11

From the Daven:

Yak wars: The Saga Continues....

On Saturday (11/7), the guy purchasing the yaks (hereafter: YakGuy) finally showed up, after four failed attempts. He then proceeded to drive in the one part of the pasture I warned him against, and got his truck & trailer bogged down in about 12" of mud. After a few hours of disgusting labor, we were able to get the truck unstuck, and he headed home.

On Monday, he came back. 1.75 hours of effort (still disgusting), and we freed the trailer. We got Squeaky, Millie, and Minnie loaded up. Kai & Maria were not having it. So we decided that YakGuy would take the 3, and come back later for the other two.


A few minutes after he left, YakGuy called me to say his truck was broken (stuck in 4-wheel drive Low, could not get above 25mph), and he was going to have to drop off the trailer & 3 yaks in my pasture. So, he came back. And I fixed his truck by punching it. Seriously, I punched a part of his truck, and it popped out of 4-wheel drive. Go me.

So, we are currently down to Kai & Maria, and YakGuy will acquire them in a few weeks.


Yak wars: Side Quests

1. YakGuy did not have his credit card, so had to ask if I had any cash so he could fill his truck up to drive home.

2. Kai was very angry, and charged straight at me down a chute (no room for me to move or get out of the way). Thankfully, Kai is a very good boy and likes me, because he slammed his face into a post in order to avoid goring me. He then skittered past me. If he had not moved his head, I would likely be dead, either from goring or having my sternum crushed.






So, this isn't really going as planned at all. At least no one was sent to the hospital, and we're down to just two yaks for the next 3'ish weeks. Oy, vey.






In other news, giant baby is wearing 18 month onesies and is painfully cute, though I am biased:

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

After 5 years of having our herd of yaks, they are going to be sold and move on to join other herds on October 21st. With the addition of Alaric, I have neither the time nor the inclination to give them the attention they need, and Daven's work may require travel in the future, so he won't always be available.

Yaks are neat animals. They are smart and affectionate, but they are also big and can really hurt you, even by accident. Daven ended up in the ER twice due to yak injuries, one of which involved a CAT scan, so...yeah, I'm not thrilled with short stuff being around critters that big that can be unpredictable. We're also batting around the idea of moving closer in to town, since I remember as a kid being sad that my friends wouldn't come visit my house, with it being so far out. Over an hour on the bus, it being a pain to stay after for any activities...I still want to raise him somewhere with a bit of land, but I can see the advantages of being in a more neighbourhood type setting. Most of my neighbours, though they are nice folks, are in the grandparent realm, rather than the parent realm, so there aren't any kids for him to possibly play with as he gets older.

The sale of the yaks is the first step towards possibly moving. I'll miss them, but I haven't been terribly close with them for a couple of years. I won't miss having to pay for lots of fodder, or having a hard time with getting a pet sitter if we wanted to go anywhere. I hope they have good lives in their new herds.

I made this!

Introducing Alaric Magnus Davenson Williams. Born June 24th at 08:43. 9 lbs, 3 oz, 21.75" long. At just over a week old, he's already fitting into 3 mo onesies. He's a big boy. :)

 One day old

6 days old

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date...

Well, technically, I am not yet late. Today is the due date according to the magic math that doctors do. But...Yeah. No wee viking yet.

So, I'm distracting myself! Specifically, I cast on the Dreambird Shawl on Thursday. I went to the Estes Wool festival last Saturday with my newly transplanted sister-in-law, and picked up a couple of colour gradients from Fiber Optic Yarns that were simply drool worthy. I really wanted to use one of them, thus, spiffy gradient shawl.

I'm currently 5 feathers in, and it is a very fun knit. Excellent distraction, up until the time that my hands are filled with a more demanding project. The colours I'm using are Turquoise to Tangerine, with a main colour of a very vibrant royal purple.

I also finished knitting the Rose of England shawl, which turned out beautifully. The photos don't quite do it justice, as I blocked red on a red background, but you can get the general gist of it.

Madness

444 hexipuffs. Just short of a year in to this project. I should be able to finish 6 more before its actual birthday on April 1st. We figure I'll need about double of this to make a queen sized bed topper. Also, INSANITY. Daven pointed out as we were laying these out that the cat is going to love this blanket so much he won't know what to do with himself. I don't doubt it. So...at least another 400-450 or more puffs, then I get to put them all together. Holy crap.

Puffs, pic, pregnancy, projects

Puff count: 406. Binge watching Face Off has been great for my hexipuff production. I really need to clear off the guest bed and lay them all out so I can get a feel for how big this is thus far.

Pic of the wee Viking's sweater:

Pregnancy: Amazingly, the placenta previa that I've been stressed and :( about since the 9 week mark has actually resolved itself. This is awesome news, as it takes me from being a high risk pregnancy to a regular pregnancy. Hells. Yes. :D Also, somewhat astonishingly, I'm only 2 weeks out from the third trimester. The time has gone WOOSH.

Projects: Well, more of the puffs, obviously, but also another baby sweater; maybe this one will be less enormous when it is done. Also, I finished most of the main quilting for the baby quilt; I need to put a border on it and do a bit more edge work, but it is boppin' along. I'm also periodically poking at the Fox Paws pattern, in scarf format, made out of some of my kool-aid dyed yarn. I have a pair of toe up socks knit on a long dpn at work that I poke at whilst people are filling out paperwork, or I'm waiting for clients, as well. So, as usual, lots of stuff going on. And never you mind the classes I'm prepping for and teaching. Phys 1 is going well on its first run through, which is nice for my confidence. Another session of Phys 1 and two of Phys 2 will be spinning up between now and my due date. Oh, AND (there are so many ands) I finished my Reiki master training this last weekend with a 3 day retreat. I has a busy, not even counting my whole "running my own small business" thing. Is good. Am happy. Am also very tired. Yes yes. Tired.

One last and: We did sell two of the yaks. Our big boy Grunt went off to be a stud at a bigger herd, and his godsawful mean offspring Monster went off to no longer trouble anyone. Yes, it was hard to sell one of my critters for meat purposes, but dear gods. What an unpleasant beastie. A herd of 5 instead of 7 should hopefully allow the land to recover a little bit from overgrazing. They seem much more mellow with Monster gone, and generally fewer bulls to compete with. We are likely still going to sell Maria in a few months to join another herd; we'll see where we're at in May.

Tiny pillows

My hexipuff count is up to 351, up 140 from my last count in July. Obviously, I have not been working on that steadily, but we recently discovered the joys of Castle, and have been binge watching it. Whilst we watch, I make hexipuffs. Sadly, we are on season 5 of 7, and I still have another 400 puffs to make, conservatively, so it will not last. Let's just say I'm in it for the long haul. We'll see how much I get done before the wee viking appears. I'm still working on other projects; eventually there will be photos of both the sweater I made for myself and the little one I made that ended up being more appropriate for a toddler than an infant.  The knitting portion of that has been done for several weeks, and I just located buttons for it, so once those are on, I'll take a photo. Oh, and I still need to finish the quilt, but cats keep falling asleep on me, so it's hard to work on. Everything will get done, eventually. Just pluggin' away.

Yes, yes, knitting. That's a thing that happens.

I knit myself another blue cardigan, because I have a subconscious obsession with them. No photos, because, well, I do not feel cute lately. Eventually that'll happen.

And because we are now at 20 weeks (Eek! Halfway!) I'm finally casting on some yarn-based goodies for the tiny viking. This, in size 6-9 mo, which should work with my giant math.  Starting with the sweater, in a dark blue/purple, with a light ivory/pink/green contrast colour, then mittens and socks, skipping the trousers, and eventually a hat, though I'll likely reverse the colours and wait until after we find out how big kiddo's head is. (Daven has a big head, I have a freakishly small one; no point in knitting a hat until we have an idea who he takes after.) Using some Jitterbug that I bought back in 2007/8 from Nature's Yarns for knee high socks, before I realized that no pattern in the world believes in my calves, especially when the pattern involves colourwork. So, tiny person clothing, it is. Amusingly, the colour of my most recent cardigan is almost the same as what I'm using for the tiny cardigan. I clearly like this colour!

Another WIP

Though, admittedly, this one is a little less hands on than my knitting projects. For those folks who aren't on my Facebook, I've got a project I'm working on. It should be ready around June 20th. Or, "he" would be more accurate than "it". Yup, I'm pregnant. :) I have not yet started binge knitting baby clothes, but I have no doubt that will happen at some point.

Also on the baby front, we had a random yakling born when I was back in North Dakota a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, we finally got a girl! Her name is Minnie, and she is fluffy and adorable. She's Millie's first daughter, and the first girl we've had born on the farm who has survived. (Even with a nasty cold snap of -20F earlier this week, she was fine, thankfully.)