Currently I do not have a wreath. A few years ago I purchased one for my front door. It was stored in the garage and I'm not sure where it is now.
So I present to you a round cross stitch ornament. It has a cute bow!
However, I do have a wreath story. ...
And it involves this girl. Photo taken of my "sweet" CeeVee girl back in 2010.
About 20 years ago my husband's boss' wife gave the family a beautiful wreath. Ribbons, baubles and lights. My mother-in-law hung it up on her living room wall.
This naughty kitty wouldn't leave it alone. The wreath was new, shiny and full of interesting smells.
We chased CeeVee away from that wreath so many times. True to being a tortie (and possible part Siamese) she wouldn’t leave it alone. She skulked around and kept going back to the wreath.
One evening, the lot of us was sitting around my mother-in-law's kitchen table chatting away. Suddenly, there was the crackle of electricity, the lights flickered and I heard a meow-screech and saw a flash of fur as CeeVee went running for the bedroom.
That little brat chewed the Christmas lights cord and shocked herself. She chewed through one of the wires, not both, thankfully.
I went after her, to make sure she was okay. I looked under the bed and coaxed CeeVee out and gave her a once over. No major damage. One blister on her lip.
There was spittle on the wall where she chewed the cord. My husband was able to repair the cord and the lights worked once more.
Needless to say, CeeVee never bothered the wreath again. She ignored it and acted as if it wasn't there.
I don't have furry friends. I have squirrels that tear up my yard and chew on things they ought not to be chewing on.
My son has a little mini rex rabbit named Feffer.
Feffer is a good, sweet bun. He likes to chew a lot. And he likes to pretend he's an independent bun. However, he loves running up and seeing if you have any goodies for him.
He knows he's cute and adorable.
However, I have chickens. One little hen in particular has me wrapped around on of her fingers. ... toes?
My sweet little Miss Furby June.
Furby is a house hen. She was attacked by a predator bird in fall 2020. She convalesced in my kitchen and she was not able to reintegrate back into the flock. She has limited eye sight and she was easily intimidated by the other birds and how fast they moved. At least that is what I think is what happened.
She lives in the house now. She's got a pretty cushy life. She's got her tote and she has no interest in wandering around the house. I've tried. She doesn't like walking on the hardwood floor, and she HATES wearing a diaper.
Furby roosts on her tote and she keeps her back end from hanging outside of the tote. She has her food and her water in the same place, always, so she knows where it is. She's a tidy bird. I haven't figured out if she's trained me, or if I've trained her.
I've learned when she wants something, or if she wants her favorite youtube channel on. Yes, she has a favorite youtuber. She throws a fit when she wants to hear it, too. I have witnesses!
Furby's about two-and-a-half years old. She's made a pretty big impact on me in the short amount of time she's been with us.
Well ... people who know me know that I love a good cup of coffee.
Now that it's wintertime and snow on the ground and all that, I love a good cup of cocoa. A dash of cinnamon, a splash of cream, and some whipped cream on top. Yum!
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Today was our coldest day of the season. When I woke it was zero degrees out and reached a high of 12 degrees.
I had to go digging a little bit. Scroll, scroll, scroll through my phone camera roll. I took this photo back on Nov. 12. It was the first real snow of the year and it hung around for a few days. I was walking around the homestead and taking photos.
A few more photos from the day ...
Cedar swing by the garden.
Grape vine trellis.
Entrance to the garden.
My little greenhouse.
The chickens were not too happy to be out in the snow.
Even my angel looked sad.
I was tromping around in my Mickey Mouse boots and pajama bottoms.
Should we pretend that I didn't just drop off the face of the earth for, like, two months? Yeah ... let's do that.
I'm not active on Instagram anymore. I still have an account because I can't just go and look at something shared on there without having an account.
Anywho ... I went on Instagram a couple times yesterday. The first time I regretted it because I saw some knitting community drama. Boo!
When I went on the second time I saw something about a "Holiday Homestead Share."
"I can do that!" I said to myself. Then I laughed.
But seriously, I need a prompt to get my writing muscle going again. I figured I could do this.
This is the list.
Day 1 is a selfie.
I hate selfies. I swear I've reached a point where I just look drunk when I try to take one. Or I look really crabby.
Soooooo, ... I decided to share this photo from October when I harvested a buck from the back 20.
Yes, I do have a story for this feat.
My facebook post said this on October 14: My best deer ever! It was an 8-pointer.
Patience paid off! My husband helped me track and found him. It started snowing right after I took the shot and he took off. I was worried we were going to lose the trail and it was getting dark out.
When I saw this guy step out in front of me I was steady. I remained calm. When I thought about this afterwards I was amazed at myself. No buck fever. I almost didn't take the shot. Which, looking back, I can't believe I even thought that.
We found him about 100 yards away. It was the craziest weather that evening. He provided a lot of meat for the freezer, and I played around with pressure canning venison this year. I wish I had thought about canning venison sooner. The meat is so tender.
Well, if you are on instagram, you can follow the hashtag #holidayhomesteadshare. I'm debating on posting this on Instagram. I don't really miss being on the site, because of dramas and whatnot. I do like seeing people's stuff when I'm looking for inspiration. I'm also frequently clueless when I see something posted on Facebook.
I realize it's been about a month since I shared my WIPs. To see my last update, please see it here.
Project Name: Vanilla socks
Started: July 2022
Finished:
Designer/Source: My own pattern
Yarn:Knit Picks Felici
Colorway: Captain Nemo
Colors: blues
Required Amount:
Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)
Gauge: beats me
Made For: Myself
Dye Lots: 18510
I've been working on this while we are in the car and a little bit when I'm watching tv. I got to a point where I knew I was super close to finishing the first sock, so I concentrated on it and finished it up on this past Saturday. I brought this with me for the few appointments I've had recently Naturally, I didn't have "extra" time to fill.
The cuff ribbing is all done and now I can cruise along the leg for a while.
Project Name: Stars and Stripes
Started: July 16, 2022
Finished: Oh ... I finished it a bit ago. Sometime in August.
Fabric: 14 Count Aida by Zweigart, in "toast." Pattern originally called for 36 count linen, in a light mocha color
Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC
Stitch count: 74 x 122
Size: Too lazy to do the math right now
Needle Size: size 26
I finished the main motif of the chart and realized my aida cloth wasn't large enough to put the border on. Bummer. If I had turned the aida cloth and worked it the other way, I'm sure there would have been enough room. I'm deciding if I want to put a simple border on it, or not. Also, how to FFO it? I was thinking about making it into a little pillow finish. Or, maybe finish it with a hoop?
I am making slow progress on this little cutie. It's the evenweave. I'm getting used to it, bit by bit, but I still can't go *zoooooooom* on it. I'm gonna love it when it's done, though.
Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 6 (4.0 mm) and U.S. 8 (5.0 mm)
Gauge: I got 17 stitches over 4 inches; and 23 rows over 4 inches. Just a little under the recommended gauge.
Made For: Myself
Dye Lots: 202227
I have a new knitting WIP. I started it this past weekend. The weather is changing and I felt the urge to cast on a sweater. I was scrolling through the Craftsy sweater classes and saw one that I thought would be good for me to practice my sweater-making skills on. It is a Lion Brand pattern, called My First Raglan Pullover.
So far I have 11 inches knit up on the back piece. Yes, I'm knitting it flat and will be seaming together. Since I have access to the Craftsy class I'm hoping it will help me through any issues that may arise.
I have to knit until it's 15 inches long and then start decreasing for the shoulders. I've been knitting on this in the mornings, before work, and for a little bit in the evenings, once I'm settled in. It seems to be going quick. I anticipate that feeling will last until I have to make the sleeves. I'm crossing my fingers that this time around, the sweater won't stretch out like the grey cardigan did. People make clothing items out of acrylic yarn all the time, and store bought sweaters are made from acrylic yarns. What did I do wrong? Should I be hand washing these pieces like my wool pieces?
On one hand, this is *very good.* Not a lot of people, traffic or planes flying overhead.
On the other, it leaves us with not many options for Internet.
We have had DSL since we moved out here. Recently Starlink became available for our area.
The family has struggled for many years sharing the DSL. Our top speed DSL speed is 11 mbps. When you have a son who loves streaming and gaming, and then us watching shows online, everyone is unhappy.
My husband and I talked about it, at length, and decided it was time to upgrade our Internet game. Or, at least try to upgrade it. We have a lot of large, mature pine and oak trees on the property and I'm unwilling to cut any down just to have faster internet.
Thankfully, we don't have to do that.
I placed the order for the Starlink installation kit on Friday, Sept. 2. Over the weekend, or the following Monday, I received a notice that the kit shipped and would be here on Friday, Sept. 9. Wow! The installation kit shipped way faster than I thought it would.
My husband used last week to research how others installed it, and looked for any tips on the best way to set it up to get the best possible signal. There was no one Internet hub that had all the tips and tricks, so I thought I'd write down what we did, and maybe it will help someone else down the road.
Friday afternoon the FedEx man showed up and carried out a box smaller than I expected it to be.
I have never researched Starlink. I didn't know what it was going to look like.
The satellite is much smaller than I expected.
I watched the how-to video that was sent when the order for the kit was confirmed. Then I looked at a couple of YouTube videos, to learn what some of the numbers meant when you are supposed to scan the sky and all that other stuff.
Then I set the satellite up in the driveway.
After about 15 minutes, like the app says, the satellite settled on a direction. I did a speed test and was astonished to see what the numbers were. While the satellite was on the ground and surrounded by huge, mature trees.
I'm used to seeing a top DSL speed of 11 mbps, and an upload speed of .5 mbps. Not joking even a little bit.
Wowee!
When my husband got home he went up on the roof and set up a ladder for the satellite to temporarily sit on.
More speed tests were ran. We were seeing numbers I never thought we'd see.
This isn't the highest speeds we've seen. There have been a few times it was over 200 mbps.
I thought I took a photo of the satellite on the ladder, all by itself up on the roof, but I can't find anything on my camera roll. Surprisingly, we didn't notice the bright yellow ladder up on the roof when we drove up to the house after making a trip to town.
Saturday morning my husband and son set up the pole for the satellite to go on.
In my husband's research, he learned that you can use the top rail of a chain link fence. They are very sturdy and much less costly than something that is specific for setting the satellite on. We got ours at Menard's and at the time of this blog post it was $19.79 before the 11 percent mail-in rebate.
Stats on the piece we have: 1 - 3/8" x 10' 6" galvanized chain-link fence top rail. Model number 9900210600. SKU: 1715301.
My husband also purchased from Menard's a RCA 3-foot TV antenna tripod to support the pole. My husband said the RCA 3-foot tripod was very sturdy.
Model number VH130R. SKU 3012956. At the time of this writing cost is $33.99, before the 11 percent mail-in rebate.
So, like I said, on Saturday my husband and son went up on the roof and started setting things up for a permanent spot.
Thankfully it wasn't raining, like it was on Friday, and it wasn't too warm out. I think they moved the ladder a few times and ran speed tests, to verify things. I was in the house and moving the modem around to a few different spots, to see where we got the best wifi coverage. Even out in the she shed! The she shed gets at least double what the DSL gives us. I was a happy girl when I realized how decent the signal was for out there.
A different angle so you can see how hard my guys were working,
At some point my son crawled up into the attic, to catch the cord that was brought into the house via the ridge line, so no holes had to be drilled into the roof.
My husband cut the rail pipe down to 6 1/2 feet.
Then we had to figure out how to mount the satellite onto the pole. Do we wait for the adapter that we ordered from Starlink, or go with something different?
Stats for this is model number 1715307. SKU 1715307. Price as of this writing is $3.60 before the 11 percent mail-in rebate.
With this piece my husband was able to secure the satellite to the pole. He had to make a few holes to put screws in to secure it all together.
I forgot to mention earlier that a piece of cedar was put down between the roof and the pole, so no damage is done to the roof.
In these last few photos and video you can see just how big our trees are, and why I thought Starlink wouldn't work for us.
The ultimate "test" will be when my son's DSL adapter arrives and he can play his online games.
Here's a final video showing it all off, in all of it's glory.
I hope this blog post helps someone out there. If you considered Starlink, but was unsure because of trees, give it a go! You have nothing to lose, and you may be just as pleasantly surprised as I was.
