September 5th, 2006

ary and family came over and we dispatched 2 roosters this morning. Mary is thinking maybe they have to raise chickens strictly for eggs. We decided not to have them for dinner tonight. "A" came over at the point of the second rooster and she is the one who wanted to do that one in order to learn how to butcher chickens. She gets over zealous and pulls off the killing cone from the 2x4 it is attached to and then complains my knives are not sharp *S*.. she preferred the paring knife, so paring knife it was.

So we then took a trip to the 'local' dump and come across ALOT of fresh bear poo as someone tossed their garbage there instead of in the bear proof HUGE dumpsters.. either that or left them open.. There was a pair of skis there and since it was summer we decided that maybe no one had been attached to them and had become a bear snack. We were NOT impressed with whomever did that as there was now bear attractant all over the parking/unloading spot. It makes it dangerous for the rest of us. We know that bear had been in the area due to more than a couple piles of evidence.

Passed my bf on the way home from the dump and he was hauling water to our house.. told him where we were heading to.

"A" and I then went over to Mary's house to go get cattails for a project and a whole schwack of us went in the back of my truck as we are bonsi-ing all over the property in my little truck. First though we unloaded Mary's wringer washer out of the back of her truck. And tried to put more kindling into her woodshed.

After cruising about her property.. we met the guy who is haying her land and we got permission to pick up a half dozen or so bales in case she got a goat. So the kids and Mary got a taste of a bit of bucking hay.

Just as we were unloading hay into one of her sheds, my bf shows up at Mary's and he got a quick tour of the place and even started walking around in their original homestead. He then climbed that scary ladder and checked out her insulation when I mentioned something to him and he says they have plenty up there. We hung out for awhile until "A" decided she needed lemonade at our house (and food), so we went back to our house to get her some sustenance so she did not pass out or something.

Later in the afternoon Sue came back up to our house and it was hot again so I tossed her a pair of shorts and we went to the creek down the road to go wade in it, since my favorite river was too far away. we cooled off up to our knees anyway.

By the time we got back, Mary and crew were here, so we started taking raw sheep fleece and I showed them how to wash and rinse and tease the wool.

Then I had them picking wild plant material here and there and some of jon's marigolds as dye plants.. and we dyed 4 batches at a time in the kitchen. I should have taken a picture of it as 4-5 of us were around the fleeces teasing the wool to get it to dry faster.

My bf made a wonderful casserole which we all ate and with all the major as well as the minor food groups in it, it was a well rounded meal and nothing else was required.

The evening consisted of evening chores which Mary and Sue helped me on and then resuming teasing more wool. Then it was sad as we said our goodbyes to Sue and until she comes up again is the last we will get to talk to/see each other than through OHG and emails.

Once again it is nearly 1 am.. and I have stuff on the list again which makes me have to get up early, including sending kids off to school.. YIPpppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!