Hanging Red Shirts Outside

I usually put all of my laundry in one big load at the laundromat. Therefore, it is NOT a good idea for me to include red shirts. I always wash those by hand and let them drip outside. In really cold weather, either they don't get washed right away or I have to wash them one at a time and hang them in the shower.

A couple of days ago, I washed three shirts. The sun was shining - at the time - and I figured I could get away with my usual practice.

I went out in a couple of hours to see if the shirts had stopped dripping enough to bring them inside to finish drying.

Well, they had, in fact, stopped dripping. Here's why:

I guess it was a little too cold to hang them out. LOL

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

Angela and the Dogs 2014

Every year that Angela visits, I take pictures of her on the couch petting the dogs. This year it was a little trickier than usual, since Bear is new and had never met her before, Abby snuggled right up the Angela and stayed as close to her as she could for the entire vacation. Bear took some time and is still only tentatively willing to relax by her.

Here is the visual record of this year's Thanksgiving visit.

Asd you can see, Bear gradually improved, Hopefully, he will be more inclined to love her the next time Angela stays for a few days.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz

Gift for an Old Friend

Long ago and far away, I was good friends with one of my male classmates. He's married and living in St. Louis now, retired (I'm jealous of that) and keeping busy with several pet projects.

Somehow we connected on LinkedIn. He gave me the address of our 8th grade teacher and I gave him the address for our fifth grade teacher.

I also asked him what colors he and his wife would like if I were to make them an afghan. He told me maroon and gold. You probably won't make the connection, but those were our college colors. He's decorating his house with our COLLEGE COLORS!!!

Anyway, I made an afghan in one of my quickest patterns - a granny ripple. It looks like this:

or if you prefer

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to anyone who might be reading this in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

Roadblock

Some days you run into roadblocks.

For the last month, I've been writing. Some of it is simply finishing a story or article that I started some time back. In one instance, I put out a picture book that I wrote in college. My professor told me that I should get it published. Tastes have changed since the early '70's and that book is not likely to be picked up by a traditional publisher. So I posted it on Kindle, illustrations and all. I even finally used the pen name that I've been playing with for decades.



http://tinyurl.com/m9np3x8

Well, Amazon has thrown me a loop - which may be a small thing or maybe not. I hope everything goes well. I had my choice of two options when I posted my last article. I may possibly have chosen the wrong one in relation to that article. They emailed me the issue; I responded. If they accept my answer, all will be well. If not, I will learn a new thing which I will probably enjoy just as well.

In the meantime, if you want to see my author page and all of the things I've been publishing for ereaders, here's the link:
http://tinyurl.com/ofo3ydq

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

S.A.B.L.E.

I have a good supply of yarn. Some might call it S.A.B.L.E. - stash above and beyond life expectancy. lol
I got tired of rummaging through boxes to find the colors I was hoping/pretty sure that I had on hand. This is a little more critical now that I sell stuff on www.etsy.com. (Please see my shop if you are curious - www.etsy.com/shop/AvidYarnArtist)

I came up with a plan. I can't say that I originated it as I have seen other people do something similar. I had gotten rid of a bunch of books (gave them to Friends of the Library) and emptied a set of gray shelves. I cut out pieces of cardboard and set them in the sides of the shelves to hold the yarn securely and sorted the yarn more or less by color.

Here's how it came out:

The skeins in the plastic bags came from a couple who have a semi trailer full of yarn. They go every so often to one of the Carolinas and pick up Red Heart Yarn mill ends and then sell it out of the trailer or at various events.  Les and I went to their place about a year ago and bought a carload of yarn - and I mean back seat and truck full. Notice that the number of bagged yarns would not equal a carload. I have worked up most of what I bought from them. Some of the rest was given to me and some I actually paid for. Gasp!

The bulk of what I crochet goes to wedding gifts, baby blankets, and hospice care. I have been making hospice lap robes and prayer shawls in patterns that I make up or rework from others' ideas and posting the patterns on etsy. I'm still getting the hang of selling crafts online. Stay posted.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Big Bear

If you check out my older posts for the middle of January, you will see the first pictures I took of our baby Bear. Well, the boy has grown since then.  Here's what we have now.

He currently outweighs Abby by a few pounds and stands a couple of inches taller than her.  As he is only 8 months old, I expect he will probably grow a little more before he is finished. Big Bear!

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Cemetery in Leaf

I showed you photos of the cemetery where we walk the dogs in spring when there weren't any leaves on the trees. Right now, it is completely park-like. There are some gravestones that are built as benches for people to sit and "meditate?", "reminisce?", or something. I enjoy the shade on hot days and the atmosphere anytime.

Thank you for visiting with me,

Kathi

Straw Bale Garden Update

I'm getting produce off of my straw bale garden. I haven't dug out any potatoes yet, but we're eating small tomatoes and big green peppers. The peas are almost done, and I've ripped out the lettuce as it gets bitter in hot weather.

This is definitely my new favorite method of gardening!

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Inkle Weaving

On Wednesday, a person from Canada asked me for a rush order for 9 inkle woven belts. I had a couple of them on hand listed in my etsy shop, but he wanted several with this bar pattern in certain colors. I wove until midnight and then woke up early on Thursday to finish.

This person sent me the exact description of what he wanted. English is not his first language. I wrote back exactly what I understood that he wanted so I would be able to give him the right merchandise. He agreed to what I wrote.

After I had woven these three belts, I sent him this photo.  He said, "No! I don't want brown, I want black and orange." I took a deep breath and started fresh with the colors he really wanted.

After the order was sent out, I took the ones he didn't want and a couple I had made just for fun on the days preceding this order, photographed them and posted them on etsy. So nothing was lost and, hopefully, something will be gained.

If you want to see the ones I posted, click here:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/AvidYarnArtist?ref=shop_sugg

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Straw Bale Garden

Back in April, I had empty hay bales with a little hay growing from the seeds in the bales. Now look!!

I put in entirely too many potatoes. They are taking over the whole project, but I'm going to have a bushel of potatoes. The lettuce is making us good sandwiches and salads. The spinach is stuck in a dark place under the overreaching potatoes. I can pick a few spinach leaves, but am not getting much of a yield from the poor things. 

The peas are climbing up into the sunlight on the mesh I wove between the posts. The tomatoes are climbing up and doing very well in spite of having to vie for space. The last bale on the right has three green pepper plants. I tied the potatoes up a little to give the peppers more space to grow. And I am not fertilizing anything for a week or two until they start to set fruit. I don't need more leaves and vines! 

I haven't had a single rabbit hop up there to eat my plants. 

Who knew this would work so well after several years of complete frustration with in-ground planting? This is my new favorite way to keep a garden.

Blooming potatoes

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

New Project

A good friend of mine encouraged me - strongly - to start posting projects on a website called www.TeacherspayTeachers.com. I've joined and posted my first project. I have a list of ideas and will try to keep posting my teaching ideas.

If you are a teacher or homeschool teacher, and if you would like to post your teaching plans or teaching aids (in a place where you could be paid for your work), please do my the favor of signing up under this referral link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:katcan51

Thanks. You would be doing me a great favor, adding to your own bank account, and helping other teachers all at the same time.

Kathi Linz

New Tree

You may remember that we had to take down the magnificent 92 foot tall tulip poplar tree in front of our house a couple of years ago. It was our last tree of the five that we had when we moved here. Tornadoes and Hurricane Ike did bad things to them and we took them down, each in turn.

This year the lilac bush is gone as it was rotting inside. The bush on the west edge of our yard may not have survived the vicious winter. The verdict is still out on that one. Which pretty much leaves our yard denuded. We still have a young rose of Sharon bush and a couple of bridal veil bushes, but they are set way back on the property. Also the dogs will have no place to rest in the shade in the summer.

So we decided to get rid of the satellite dish that we haven't been using for over a year now. (I'm sick of mowing around it anyway.)

 

And since the hole was already available, we went out and found a tree that won't endanger the power lines, but will be big enough to cast a little shade.

 

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi



 

A Walk in the ... Cemetery

There are a lot of dogs in our neighborhood and not all of them are fenced. When we take the dogs out for a walk, we like to drive about a mile or so to the big cemetery in town and take a lap there. It's about a mile around the outside of the cemetery and many optional routes through and around. The paths are all blacktopped so we stay mostly clean and dry while the dogs sniff all the spots they wish. It's a well-used dog walk and jogging place and really rather pretty.

 

 

The dogs love coming here and I appreciate not having to worry about loose dogs or being run over in the streets. Today it was busy. We met several walkers and another dog.

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi

Last Project of the Season (I Hope)

 

 My pastor gets cold when he fasts during Lent. This year he asked me to make him an afghan like this because it is a particularly warm type of stitch. I took it to the church today and dropped it off. There's not much of Lent left, but I did the best I could.

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi

Recent Projects

 

All given away.

 

The hats went to my coworker who shaved her head for St. Baldrick's Children's Hospital.

 

I'm on my last crochet project before I hang up my hooks for a while. Now that I have the capacity and ability to upload my books to Kindle Digital Publishing, I'm trying to spend more time on my writings. I've written (or nearly finished) many manuscripts that ache to be put out in public. I finished and published two last week while I was on vacation. I would have finished more except the local hideous cold that's going around laid me out for most of the week. It's a wonder I got anything done.

 

Anyway, I'm back on the trail - a pun tied to my most recent effort - "When I Was Your Age...": How Things Change - hoping to finish at least one more this weekend.

 

 

Here's the link to my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/kathilinz

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi

 

Northern People, Spring Is Coming

And here are the pictures to prove it:

 

Trees blooming

 

Tulips coming up

 

 

Even my hay bale garden is sprouting. I'm growing more hay so far, the bales need more conditioning before I plant my vegetables.

 

Thanks for visiting with me.

 

Kathi

 

 

A Simple Solution

I have a Kodak camera. As you know, Kodak no longer functions as a company. When my laptop crashed back a ways, my camera stopped talking to my computer, so I couldn't download any photos to the laptop. The photo program still worked on the desktop, so I would download over there and email the pictures to myself to move them to the laptop. I can't blog on the desktop unless I run Google Chrome - which I prefer not to do.

Then the word came down about Windows XP being at risk. That pretty much turns our desktop computer into a word processor.

It eventually occurred to me that I would not have any place to download my photos and I would have to get a new camera. So I went to Walmart on my usual shopping expedition yesterday. I checked out the various cameras and picked out a couple that I would be willing to pay for. A lady came over to help me. I was about to tell her which ones I wanted to look at and I started by saying, "I have a perfectly fine camera which still works, but it's Kodak and won't talk to my computer."

She stopped me almost in midsentence and said, "I have an adapter for your memory card. You'll be able to send your pictures directly into the computer."

It works beautifully and I saved about a hundred bucks.  Cool!!

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Abby's New Friend

After Buddy died, Abby was sad in the extreme. I walked her every day and we put her on doggy Prosac, but she really needed another dog to be with her when I was working or we were out. Buddy left us in September and, by Christmas, I couldn't watch Abby be sad any more.

We tried looking for a couple of older dogs. Pocono was  a 6 1/2 year old boy with glowing reviews on Petfinder.com. We traveled a fair distance with Abby in tow to meet this dog. He had horrible manners and we left him right where he was.

Next, Paula, one of my college roommates, told me about a dog her brother had fostered for a while. We applied to get Gunner, a 2 1/2 year old lab mix. Our application was well received, but the foster family decided to keep Gunner.

Finally, I popped into the library to check the paper for any possible "free to good home" dogs. My supervisor asked if I had checked with one of our local shelters. She pulled up the page on facebook and clicked on photos.

There across the top of the page were four pictures of labbish looking puppies - three blondes and a black boy. We called the lady who was fostering the dogs and saw the black puppy the same evening.  Abby was uncertain about having a baby dog in her back yard and in her house, but she tolerated him pretty well. We arranged to adopt the baby after his puppy shots were finished.




We call him Bear. He learns everything the first time we tell him. I'm astounded at how smart he is. Abby loves him.

Looking at this picture and comparing him with the  dog currently sleeping on the dog bed, I think he's about one and a half this size. He's grown like a weed in the last couple of weeks. I've had to loosen his collar a little over an inch. He hasn't had an accident in the house for about 5 days. He walks on a leash like a champ - although we are still working on which side he should trot. He and Abby wrestle and spar and love each other already. I keep leather chewies scattered around so he won't eat the furniture. He loves to snuggle with his humans whenever they get down to his level.




I'm sure he'll be posted several more times in the future.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Too Much Winter

Winters in southern Indiana are usually moderate. Two years ago, we had thirteen snows. As recall, the schools didn't have a whole week of school for two months. Here, a couple of inches of snow will cancel school.

This year, it's been both snowy and very cold. The polar vortex managed to creep all the way down here. We lost a pipe and had to turn off the water for two days. I discovered that I am able to wash my hair with about a quart of water when necessary. Hopefully, I won't have to do that too often.

One of our Illinois friends slipped on the ice during the deep cold, hit his head, and was dead by the end of the day. It makes me angry that the ice only lasts a few days, but dead is forever.

Last Thursday, most of the snow was gone. I put on my comfy walking shoes (for which read "no tread") and set out for a walk with the dogs. The operative word in that last sentence is "almost". I skidded in a patch of slushy snow and was on the ground before I could think twice. I should have landed on my behind, but I twisted and ended up with my right hand bent under me. It was only sprained, but not having the full use of one's right hand is annoying to be kind about it. Les had to help me with my socks for a couple of days. I couldn't crochet at all for over a week and typing was slow using only my left hand. It was boring not being able to fill my time in my usual ways.

Anyway, I'm nearly back to full use of my right hand. It aches a little when I overuse it or poke at it. It's nice to be back.

This winter can be over anytime soon. I borrow a picture that has been going around on facebook:

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi