Friday, January 22, 2010

One Step Forward

The dogs have serious cabin fever. They want to come back in if we let them out, and then they turn right around and stand at the door, begging to go out. We're fortunate to have received minimal precip from all these El Nino storms that are pummeling California. They just don't push up and over the Sierras, which is why we live in the Rain Shadow.
We were thrilled to see the sun today. The wind has been teriffic, causing the power to go out seven times yesterday. The important thing is that it came back on. We are Project Runway fans and were stunned when we lost power mid-way through the show. Ian found another time and has it on Tivo for us tonight.
The coyotes are abundant and vocal these days. It drives the two herding dogs crazy. For the bird dog, as you can see, it's a big ho hum. Buster and Eddie bark their lungs out. They make us crazy. Yesterday Ian and I watched three coyotes playing at the bottom of our property. They were where I haven't been in years. It's hard to get down there and I have no reason to.
I went upstairs this morning to see if I could weave the warp. I couldn't. I was going to cut it off but Ian looked at it and said, you can always cut it off. Is there anything else you can do? I walked away, did some laundry, made the bed and realized that, yes. I could try but it would be horrible. It was. I pulled the warp completely to the front into a tangled heap, clamped the raddle back on, re-spread the out-of-order warp and then slowly wound it back on, detangling every couple of feet. I'm too embarrassed to tell you how long I spent on it. But I will be able to put the reed on tomorrow and get to serious woik.



Granddaughter Alexia has a new celebratory word. Hah-lay-YOU-lah! I think that just about sums it up.

7 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

Yay! Congrats on taming that warp!!! I try to tell myself while I recover from a mistake that I'll never make THAT mistake again. Thing is I keep finding new mistakes!

My dogs have always gone nutty if they can hear coyotes. Even when they smell them in the woods.

We're missing the rain too, and I'm pretty glad of that. I think one of the storms will find its way here late Sunday though.

Sue

Jody said...

I luv to see the pictures of your unusual (to me) landscape.

Valerie said...

One of the weaving things I was taught to do early on was: keep notes of what worked, what didn't, and how to solve the problem.

Congratulations on persevering. And did you write yourself some notes?

Kathy said...

Sharon, do the coyotes try to get to your sheep? I'll bet Ian's concerned about his boyz. :)
And a solid "Good onya, mate!" for handling that dog on the loom. It's easy to say soemthing like, "Well, this is to teach me patience.", but I think a glass of wine helps more than anything. I just hate those warps....but they do make good fire-starting material. ;)
I hope you're sending some of that sun our direction. We could sure use some.

beadlizard said...

We've all had [multiple] warps like that. Oof. Good for you to buckle down and fix it.

Love hearing about the different ways your dogs react to the invaders. I sure don't miss dealing with coyotes, though the domestic dog packs were way worse. Good luck!

bspinner said...

So happy that you got your warp under control. I think we've all done the same thing at least a couple of times in our weaving lives but didn't tell anyone. I know I have.

We had coyotes at our sheep only once. It was in the summer with all our windows open. I just happened to use the bathroom, it was in the middle of the night and heard them howling. We must have scared them off because they never came back. On the other hand one of the neighbor's kids did get a dog we had problems with a few years later.

Your photos are beautiful!

vlb5757 said...

I love the pictures of the snow and the dog on the deck. Mine are that way in the summer here. They go out for an hour in the sweltering sun and then come in and flop down on the cold tile. Then it's back outside again. I really think they do get cabin fever like humans. DH walked the boxer today and she was so excited! Since my schedule at work has changed, I will have time three days a week to take her to the dog park or for a nice walk. That will make her so happy and get me outside too. Not a bad thing!