Happy Six Months to Miss Patty!

Miss Patty has been here 6 months today! I am letting her hair grow out through the winter. She is happy, healthy, and getting so much braver than the first time I showed you her photo.

She is now spending a lot of time outdoors during the day by herself. A lot of time means maybe 20 minutes. When your bravery is measured in minutes, that is a long time.

I think I have finished all my outdoor chores for the Fall. I am always getting myself into some kind of mess that reminds me that I am now in my sixties, and there are reasons to call someone to do chores. But -no!- I can do this one myself! Yeah! Right! It took me all day long to do this chore.

I have always wanted my gas cylinder bell in a different location, but my neighbor snuck over in the early morning hours of my first week in the house and hung it in the tree by the deck. When there is full leaf on all the trees, it does not catch a good wind. I have full knowledge that it is very, very heavy, and hard to hang. So I left it.

When I went to Taos I found two galleries that had these same kinds of bells-just fancier, of course- and that made me want mine in a good wind place. So I have been studying this for a month of where to put the silly thing. There are no trees, except the one that it was mounted on.

And how am I going to mount this thing. So I found this cast-iron thingie that I thought would be sturdy enough. Then I decided I wanted it in a place that someone would not be able to steal it.

Sunday I climbed up my extension ladder about 13 feet off the ground and tried to screw in the cast-iron thingie. Well- the screws just would not go in, and it took many trips out and up the ladder to finally get that done. Then I decided maybe it really wasn't strong enough, so I put something over the support piece to support that.

Okay! Now I had to remove the bell from the tree location, and I got out the eight foot stepladder. That took a lot of effort, strength, and at least three trips to do that. I mean this sucker is heavy! I rested a little bit, and contemplated how I was going to carry that heavy thing up my extension ladder 13 feet and get it onto the cast-iron thingie!

But it is done. Everything groaned a bit when I placed it onto the support. It held. If it falls, nothing will break. I would just have to repair the wood. But my god, it took me all day to do this. And I really was shaky in the arms by the time I finished this last part.

I got the stalks cleaned out of the garden, and the pokeberry stalks cut back. I got some grass cleaned out of the front bed. It is too dry to pull out much grass. I got the rain barrel and spout cleaned out of all leaves and gunk. I disconnected the rain barrel for the winter. I cleaned out the gutters this morning of leaves directly under the tree.

A little bit of spinning going on. This is the orange, happy yarn that I finished last week. I am spinning on my sage dyed Romney right now , and I am not working really hard. I am finished with my toddler-sized socks, and almost done with the last pair of fingerless mitts.

I am starting to get labeling done for the Fiber Extravaganza at Mt. Magazine.

Oh-speaking of Mt. magazine, my son RC and his fiance HJ are getting married at Mt. Magazine on January 22, 2011. And yes, it will be cold! And yes, they want to have the ceremony at the scenic gazebo outdoors!

So back to work. Did anyone see the Conan O'Brien American Express commercial in India making his curtains for his show? Too funny!