Sunday, March 29, 2009

Suka's Snowball Fantasy


This is Suka. He found the largest snowball he could find to play fetch with. It doesn't even fit in his mouth. And of course the snow was about 6 feet deep so it kept getting lost when we threw it. Amazingly he found it every time, although he had a really hard time getting back with it, due to the snow levels. We should get him a snorkel or something.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

F*ing Armwarmers

So... I'm probably retarded. I have been knitting on my arm warmers/sleeves/fingerless gloves for SOOOO long. I finally reached the end and bound off. All that was left to do was put some finishing touches on them and make the thumb holes.
That is when I realized that I made both thumbs on the same side. Yeah... figure that one out.
Ok. So both thumbs on the same side. Undo one and fix the thumb. Put it on the other side and do it back up. Easy, right?
Not.
I have been working these with no pattern. I have been making it up as I go along. And not writing anything down. So it would be a huge pain in the ass to go back and undo the thumb and try to figure out what I did and replicate the other one.
So I decided that my best option would be to undo both of the things down to the same point , redo the thumbs completely and then work them back up.
Luckily, it only took me one day to undo, redo, and work them back up almost to where I wanted to be. I fixed the thumbs. They look great and are actually on the correct, opposite sides. And I even fixed another thing in the stitch pattern that was bothering me.
So...
Yay for me!!! I was patient enough to do it right and everything worked out better than it did originally!
I feel very accomplished right now.

Another knitting lesson to learn... I went to Stix to pick out some really cute soft baby yarn for some booties I am making for my sister. I went home, found the pattern online and printed it off. Later on in the evening, I decided to start working on them, so I got out my needles and the pattern and my yarn and cast on and started knitting away. I made it maybe 3 stitches when I realized that I never even looked at the pattern to see what kind of yarn it called for. That is so necessary! Look at the pattern first. Find the yarn it calls for. Find the weight of the yarn, THEN go to the yarn store and compare other kinds of yarn. Try to match the weight unless you are ready to do some serious swatching to find the right guage.
Well, I didnt' do that. I bought the yarn first and didn't even think about the pattern. Honestly, I was only thinking about finding the right color. (Which is also important, but not as important.)
All of that would be kind of ok except for one thing... I HATE SWATCHING! I hate hate hate hate it! I do not have the patience for it at all.
Another thing.... I don't have the size needles the pattern calls for. Close, but not the same. And I'm leaving really soon so I'm not going to buy them.
So I have to do a swatch. Miserable.
But guess what! The larger weight yarn worked perfectly with the smaller size needles and the guage matched on my first swatch!
Moral of the story... I have learned my lesson. Next time, save some stress. Print the pattern first, THEN buy yarn. And... learn to like swatching.
Poop.

Monday, March 23, 2009

'Gone to the Dogs' or 'Hot Mom on a Tin Roof'

A couple weeks ago we took our friends Armando and Raul, from Chile, to Yellowstone Park to soak in the Boiling River. This is Suka being buddy buddy in the car. Another Chilean, Bastian, is in there also, but he fell asleep.



This is the trio under the entrance arch. They didn't really know why I was yelling at them to get out of the car, but I think this is a picture they might appreciate showing their folks back in Chile. If not, then at least I got a little laugh out of it!



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As my mother's farm has started to blossom and grow into a community project and CSA, so has the number of dogs on the property. So... Build we must! Started yesterday, this is the new dog kennel from start to almost finish. I think they got one person working for every dog it would house.
(There are now 6 dogs living on the property and at least 3 a day visiting. )

Sunshine's mom on the roof.


Project manager Jodi lending some support.



Post hole digger John, digging some post holes.



Almost the entire crew stretching out the wire. (There are two more folks off camera)















Joe overseeing the progress from his comfortable seat on the tractor.



Wayne the chainsaw master stopped by for just 15 minutes to do some valuable chainsaw-ing.







The project was almost completed with the addition of a little tin roof. I do believe all that's left now is the door.



An amazing amount of work was done on this beautiful, slightly overcast, spring day.
Unfortunately last night it dumped about 6 inches of wet, thick, heavy, cold snow, postponing the finishing work for a couple days. I'm sure we will be able to finish next weekend.
Good work team. Let me know next time you all need help and I will make sure to be readily available with my trusty camera.

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And Bubba gets Doggy-Of-The-Day. Look at that cute old farm dog face.
I think he looks kind of excited for that new kennel to be finished.


Saturday, March 21, 2009

Texting

I just realized that all of the text on my blogs is incredibly small. The last blog I posted, I changed the text and then couldn't get it back to the standard basic. Ooops. I don't know how I did it, but it made me realize that everything has been very small up until this point. Can anyone even read that?

Friday, March 20, 2009

Downtown Explosion


Well... I haven't yet had the balls to actually walk to that block of Main Street and look at the pile for myself, but this is the picture that was in the paper a couple days ago. I love that I keep hearing "Boodles and LillyLu were demolished and surrounding businesses were severely damaged, including the Rocking R Bar, Pickle Barrel, an architecture firm, and the Legion".

Here are my thoughts... Yes, Boodles and LillyLu were completely destroyed. But the immediate surrounding businesses weren't severely damaged... they were also just straight up destroyed. I think 'severely damaged' implies some sort of serious fixing. But there will be no fixing. They will be torn down and rebuilt, because there is nothing left to fix. If some building is so far gone that you have to tear it down and rebuild it, I'm pretty sure that counts as being completely destroyed.

Look at the picture. That green framework on the left... is the Rocking R Bar.
It is all just so sad. It is unbelievable that only one person perished and no one was hurt.

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Shaun and I have one month and 4 days left of working at Dave's.
That's like...34 days.
I don't even know how to express how I feel about that, but I'll give it a shot...

WHOOOOOOOOOOO YEAAAAAAHHHHHH WHOOOOOP WHOOOOOPPPP!!!!

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Harvey got a new collar yesterday. He was SO good in the pet store. He did tricks for the ladies and laid nicely on the floor as I tried on multiple different collars. I was kinda bummed out that none of the styles I liked looked good on him at all. I went for hemp, hippy, weaved, bright, manly flowers, and even leather. None of them looked good. Finally, as I was putting all those ones away, I saw a striped one that was kind of preppy.
I didn't like it too much, but it had orange in it, which is a color that typically looks good on Harvey. I put it on him and it looked SO good!

Ok, so Harv has clean preppy style and I'm kind of a hippy chick. I guess I have to accept that we may never share the same taste in collars. But he does look hella sharp!

We bought Suka a new collar today also. He wasn't fortunate enough to go into the pet store with us, but that's only because we didn't go the the pet store. Suka's new collar is custom carved leather with a brass buckle and his name hand-tooled on top.
OoooohWheeee! Yeah Suka. One week from now Suka will be rocking that fine piece of work.

Gee. I get so excited over pampering our gods...oops...I mean dogs.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Getting Anxious

Well...70 days left. And a lot less than that until we leave Bozeman. I am kinda nervous. Time is ticking down and all of a sudden I realize that I have a lot to do. I better get on it. Harvey got a new collar today, since his was lost somewhere. Those damn tags are so hard to get on those little rings...
Too bad I only have 2 minutes left on this library computer. I guess I don't really have much to say anyway.
I am really enjoying spending time with these two guys from Chile who are traveling here. I'm really learning how to party South America style... and learning some Spanish.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

This One is HUGE

Well. This post is giant because so much has happened in the past week and a half. First of all, March 9 was my little brother's birthday. Since all of us kids were together in one place, we took some pictures. Just look at that good looking gaggle of Davis children!
Dylan, the birthday boy is in the back there.



A whole bunch of friends came over to celebrate with us and my mom made up two really delicious apple pies.







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March 4 was a huge day for Bozeman's history. A gas line in Boodles exploded at 8:12 in the morning. Everything within 2 blocks was evacuated and closed, including Dave's Sushi where I work. Since I couldn't go to work, I was stranded in town with no car, no phone, and no money. One of my friends lives down town 3 blocks from the site of the explosion, so I sat on his roof and watched the fire burn all day.

This is the scene two blocks away.



It took almost 3 days to get the fire put all the way out.



The blast broke windows 5 blocks away. Almost every store in down town Bozeman had a window broken.



The view from 2 blocks the other direction.











Almost unbelievably, only one person died in this deal. It is so sad, but we are so so fortunate. So many people work and live downtown and 5 businesses and lots of apartments were completely destroyed and even more are seriously damaged.
Amazing.

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In other news. Joe got a hair cut.






























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And of course Suka finds the mess and lays in it.



Jefe sleeping on the floor. So cute.


Tuesday, March 3, 2009

When The Cabin's a Rockin' Don't Bother Knockin'



The cabin is finally finished (almost) and we are all moved in! I haven't had a day to myself for a week, but the work and the move was totally worth it. It turned out way nicer than I imagined it would. It is cozy and homey and small and cute. The dogs love it on the farm. They are muddy and wet and dirty and tired and full of all the bones they can possibly chew. It is great! I have seen a bald eagle every day since we moved out here. And some days I see two.



We put up some nice cloth on the ceiling to cover the blue board insulation. The finishing step for that is to find a nice thick hemp rope to edge it with. it will be beautiful.
I made curtains so all the family won't see my bare butt walking around, but I haven't put them up yet.




The stove works amazingly well. In fact, the cabin gets WAY too hot at night and lately we have been leaving the door open when we go to bed. Shaun has been chopping lots of wood and we have a nice pot of water with smell goods in it. The cabin actually doesn't smell like Hauntivirus and cat piss anymore.






Harvey and Suka's kennels fit great under the bed and the few things we will need for our trip are stored nicely behind them. Also, if you look closely up in the corner, you can catch a glimpse of our kick ass surround sound system. That is probably currently my favorite feature. A few nights ago we fell asleep with some really great relaxing music on. That was the best night of sleep I've had in years! I am attributing it to the comforting vibes of the surround sound.



I am SO SO happy we decided to make this move and I finally feel like all the work we put into this has really paid off. Not to mention all the extra $$$ we've been able to bank in just the past week. By the time we leave for our trip, the two months of no rent will really be worth it.


Since I seem to have a 'dog of the day' on all of my blogs, I thought I would put this guy on.
This is Kody. Short for Dakota.
He is a Newfoundland. A very big Newfoundland.
Those of you who know me are aware of my uncanny ability to find a different stray dog every week. If you didn't know, you should be aware of the fact that I tend to find lots of stray dogs, about one every week or two, and I always take them home. I don't really understand why they all come to where I am. I have found them at work, at the grocery store, and a couple of them have even come into my yard and scratched on the door to be let in. Maybe I smell good. Fortunately so far I have found all of their homes.
Kody is the most recent one. Luckily one of the 7 phone numbers etched on his tags worked and the big guy only spent one night with us.
I was happy to see him go home, but I wish I could have spent a little more time with him. Newfoundlands are SO sweet. They're just giant lovers.