I'm doing reasonably well for the most part, but some days everything just catches up to me.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the day that escrow closes, but as far as I know it's in limbo if not actually cancelled.  The people wanting to buy the ranch have been waiting since they put in their original offer in January.  We keep going around in circles with the three banks: (1) our first mortgage holder Bank#1, a fully owned subsidiary of Bank#2, but definitely not on speaking terms! (2) Bank#2 who holds our second mortgage and (3) the buyers' Bank#3.  If the banks could just get out of the way and let us complete this transaction, it'd be done already!

I think the foreclosure auction is scheduled for next week if the sale that hte banks are doing their best to scuttle doesn't actually go through.  I suppose we could get a real estate lawyer to get that delayed, but at this point, I'm just so very ready to have it all done with, which means I'm not being very sensible on this subject.  Any of you want to buy a lovely ranch (2.8 acres, 3-BR house + studio and outbuildings)?

I've got a ranch-related mystery.  I got email from the guy who's been doing yard maintenance for us.  He'd gone over there Saturday to see when he might need to mow again, and found the pool empty and the pool filter running.  He threw the breakers and emailed me.  I called and talked to the guy who's been taking care of the pool for us.  He'd gone over there as usual last week and found the pool "dry as a bone", in other words drained, probably by being pumped out.  Who did it and why remains a mystery.

Another mystery is why the IRS is upset that my 6 year old didn't file taxes for 2006.  I'm curiously awaiting the papers I'm told by my MIL are going to be sent to me by the broker who handles Nadya's education IRA (and who refuses to discuss the IRS papers with said MIL).  As far as I am aware, that account (started by her grandparents [said MIL] before her first birthday) and the $6 or so from the Tooth Fairy were her total financial empire that year.  Though she and a friend *were* talking about starting a business "blowing bubbles and popping them for money", I don't think that got off the ground.

The roof's leaking.  Third year in a row.  If we can just get through the whole ranch fiasco, maybe we can actually afford to get the roof here replaced.  The people who shingled the roof were idiots.  It's been patched at least three times since we've been here, all in the same section, though not the same place.  With the low slope, it really should have been roll roofing or something like that rather than shingles.  And if they were going to do shingles, they could at least have done them well.  The surprising thing here isn't that the roof's leaking again, it's that it hasn't leaked more. 

I'm glad I cleaned out the gutters and did all the yard cleanup this weekend.  Nothing's plugged (so far) and drainage is good.  With all the wind blowing the leaves out of the trees, it'll likely need repeated, but shouldn't be as big a project the second time.

Today's our family's official start of the Holiday season.  It's a cousin's birthday which means we have to get cracking to get ready for Halloween, which means it's practically Nadya's birthday then an Aunt's, which means it's practically Thanksgiving which means we have a *slight* breather before it's Katrina's birthday and the next week is Christmas (and Chanukkah comes somwhere around then as well) (and my Dad's and Grandpa's birthdays) and then it's New Year's Eve/Cousin's birthday, New Year's Day/Aunt's birthday, day after/Cousin's birthday, then my Grandma's and my Mom's birthdays.  I'm pretty sure I've left something(s) out as well.  Lots of fun.  I *like* having a schedule.  I wonder why things are so scrunched together, though.

I've decided not to drive over to LambTown today.  The idea of a 2 hour drive (each way) just isn't appealing, especially since I know that I really shouldn't spend money or acquire more fleeces right now.  So instead, I'm going to do fibery things at home.

A long time ago (months?), I washed up the mohair and hair sheep fleece that I was given by the lady who boards my sheep.  I weighed them before washing, and just never got around to weighing them after that - until today.  The figures are:  Mohair: 2 lbs 1/8 oz unwashed, 1 lb 9.5 oz washed;  Barbados: 12 7/8 oz unwashed, 7.25 oz washed.

I have finally started washing some of the wool I sheared in July.  I've got some random weight of Lightning's fleece in sweater bags soaking in 5 gallon buckets of hot soapy water in the bathtub.  It's just about time to drain that water and do a second wash.  When I first put the fleece in, the water immediately turned brown, so I know I have to do at least a second wash and possibly a third.  I think I'll go grab a third bucket to put the fleece in while I'm running water so I don't accidentally felt it...

Another thing on my LambTown Lite agenda is to try to organize my office/craft room so I can actually find things.  Also, perhaps if I know what's in my stash, I'll use them.  I know I have a lot of fleeces in different colors and from different types of sheep.  And other animals.  I want to play with them, and that'll be so much easier if I get organized.  And maybe set up an area where I can safely leave a project out without it getting trashed by two dogs, three cats and a toddler (the older two kids being *reasonably* afraid to mess with Mom's projects).

Rowena's body decided to celebrate the autumnal equinox by starting up with the asthma again.  Whee.  I can't really even tell a difference in the weather to account for it.  Perhaps she has more triggers than just the viruses. 

She's not too bad.  I haven't had to take her to urgent care or anything.  We've done the nebulizer 4 times today.  Right at the end of spring, I spoke to the doctor about changing her medication, so this is the first time we've given it a real trial.  What happened back then was this.  We were giving her albuterol.  And she was getting hyper, aggressive and violent.  It suddenly clicked that I was *avoiding* giving her her medicine unless her breathing was *dire*.  That kind of made things worse, just in a different way than actually giving her the medicine.  The doctor told me there was a similar medicine that's often better tolerated.  It's actually the mirror molecule of the albuterol, if I understood correctly.  So far, so good.  She's hyper, but not agressive or violent.  And it really is easing her breathing.

With any luck, she'll sleep well tonight, and perhaps even sleep past dawn tomorrow.  I can dream anyway.  Toddlers...

Other than the mortgage fiasco, life's not too bad.  The girls and I are back into a school year schedule.  There has only been one tardy so far.  Nadya and Katrina both have great teachers and are enjoying school.  I'm organizing the Scholastic Book Club orders for both classrooms and it's more of a project than I'd imagined.  But fun.  And a little expensive as in past years I could forget to put my order in in time, and this time I just *know* we're going to find books every month that we just *have* to have.  For example, Nadya's needing more advanced Spanish books.  Katrina can work her way through the basic readers we already have, but she'll want a few books of her very own, too.

My back's getting better again.  I'm adding a tiny bit of exercise in, which will help strengthen it so this minor flare-up stays minor.  Rowena and I have started going to the little park ("Tot Lot" according to the sign :) about 3 short blocks from our house.  She rides her bike there, so I have to scurry a little to keep up with her.  Then she plays in the sand, with the other kids, and on the climbing structure while I sit at the picnic table and crochet. 

I've finished the baby blanket for the school fund-raiser, and I have started an afghan to be made in strips of double-crochet filet.  The yarn is a wildly variegated set of autumnal colors, which makes me think very much of a certain friend.  I don't know whether he'll end up with this blanket or not, though he greatly admired the baby blanket. 

Sunday I had an afternoon off.  I went over to another friend's house and we spent the afternoon being adults rather than parents.  So nice to talk at that level!  Lunch out, an hour spent in an electric massaging recliner, shopping, chatting, just relaxing!

Some of you know we've just entered escrow to sell the ranch (finally!).  The two banks owning our mortgages finally got their act together to agree that the people who put in an offer in January could buy the ranch for less than we owe on it (a "short sale").  They worked out the numbers and the first mortgage would be paid off entirely and the second would take less than is owed:  if they got $X, they'd allow the sale but we'd owe them the balance, and if they got $(X + 30K), they'd not only allow the sale, but would forgive the outstanding balance.  We're pretty sure we can scrape together the $30K.

Well, the universe seems to hate to see me happy.  The bank lending the buyers money did an appraisal of their own and got a value for the ranch that's about $45K less than what our banks got 2 weeks ago.  They're looking to rewrite the offer to be that much less.  MortgageBank#1 couldn't care less as they still get the full amount owed them.  MortgageBank#2 is holding firm to $X and $(X + 30K), meaning in order for us to even close the sale, we have to come up with $45K, and to close the sale and have the outstanding balance forgiven, we have to come up with $75K.  I just don't know if there's any way we can do that.

Man, so F-ing close!  The sale's supposed to be closed by October 14, ahead of the scheduled foreclosure sale (October 24, if I remember). 

I need to schedule a visit to a friend with a very absorbant shirt as I badly need to cry buckets.  Without the kids in tow.  I'm so very tired emotionally of holding everything together in front of them.

Still playing games with the short sale.  Both banks have agreed to let the sale go through.  Bank#1 is getting paid in full.  Bank#2 has come up with 2 figures - one amount is the minimum they need to get to let the short sale go through.  That one is met by both offers.  The second is the amount that they want to get out of the transaction so that they'll forgive the rest of the balance owed.  That's *not* met.  *sigh*  Our realtor talked to both of the other realtors, and neither of the buyers are willing to cough up the difference.  As I understand it, their lenders would probably not agree anyway, as that would then be somewhat above the amount the house can currently be appraised at.  Now we need to try to find some money lying around that we can give Bank#2 to meet that second figure.  Otherwise our options are let the foreclosure sale happen in October (Bank#1 gets whatever proceeds, Bank#2 gets ?what? certainly not what we're currently offering them) or let the short sale happen and continue to get hounded by Bank#2 for the outstanding balance of the mortgage (not for the difference between the two figures, but a much higher amount).  *SIGH*  Can this be over yet?

So very hot....  I am having trouble keeping the weeds watered enough.  They're drying out as badly as the marigolds are.  Pretty much all of the pumpkin plants are toast.  A few still have some green leaves, but none of them look at all happy.

The section of the front garden that gets afternoon shade from the plum tree is doing better as it doesn't dry out quite so severely.  The tiny little corn plants are sending up tassels.  I don't truly expect that they'll produce before winter, but I wouldn''t mind being wrong. 

Tina's one little corn plant from preschool (in another part of the yard) has at least one baby corn swelling its stalk.  She's terribly excited.

The green beans are producing nicely.  I like the "Lazy Housewife" beans' flavor.  And the girls just gobble them up as fast as the plants can produce (which isn't very heavy).  They're big fans of raw green beans where I *really* like them cooked.

I don't think I'll get enough tomatoes ripe at the same time for making spaghetti sauce, so I tossed the half-dozen from last week into a pan with a bottle of commercial sauce, and it was pretty nice.

I turned the compost bin again today.  It's very nicely cooked.  I really need to sift out the big/newer stuff and use this lovely compost.  I think that will greatly improve the health and welfare of all the plants in our yard.  I think the soil isn't very rich, and since I haven't enriched it much, that's a large part of why nothing's really taking off.  This fall, I need to dig up all of the beds (possibly excepting where there are rose bushes - just add compost around them) and totally mix in lots of compost, then plant all new stuff.  I suppose I should be excited about getting to (more or less) totally redo a garden, but it just makes me depressed.

We picked the first fruit off our lemon tree out front.  We think it's a pommello instead.  (Came with the house).  There are other huge fruits on the tree, but also normal lemon-sized ones.  So perhaps it's a fruit-cocktail tree.

Today I took all three kids to the Exploratorium all by my lonesome.  I went in with three kids.  I came out with three kids.  They might even be the same three...  We had a lovely, if messy and wet, time.  I navigated the streets of San Francisco without batting an eye.  Then we kidnapped a friend for dinner and hung out with him for a while until it was time to rescue Bela from the airport.

Tina likes that Chip (our big dog) can't eat corn.  He's got a food allergy *just like her*.  She's not the only one in the house that always hears, "oh, you can't have that - it has X in it..."  He's a comrade in arms, so to speak.

More mortgage-foreclosure-short-sale fun today.  I have such a headache and I'd like nothing better than to have this whole mess over and done with.  I don't even care how it turns out.  I just want to be able to spend my time on more important stuff like raising the kids!  I have had two full years to mourn the loss of the farm and I would really prefer not having my wounds ripped open and tap-danced upon every few days.  Then maybe I could get on with my life.

I dropped the girls off at Bela's office on my way to the orthopedist's office (close by) so I actually got a 1.5 hour vacation.  That made the whole office visit much more enjoyable for everyone (possible exception of Bela, who looked a little frazzled when I retrieved the kids.)

First there were the standard forms to fill out describing the injury.  Then the nurse debriefed me.  Then I got to chat with the Physician's Assistant who showed me the bone chip on the x-rays.  It's just above the joint, and I'd have bet (from the way the wound has felt) that it was just below.  I took off my splint and she examined both hands from every angle and had me do various flexes.  I couldn't bend the broken finger more than half-way to making a fist at first, but after about 10 minutes, it seemed to be warming up and I could get it 3/4 of the way into position.  

Then she went to get the doctor.  They both came back and the doctor started by checking for tender spots.  From where she found them, she thinks a tendon was also involved, as well as the bone chip.  That's very common.  Often the bone chips are caused by a tendon ripping it loose.  She had me do some more flexing, and I nearly managed to bend the finger fully when I made a fist.  Since it loosened up so quickly after being removed from the splint, there's no need for physical therapy (hooray!).  And I can get rid of the rigid splint (hooray!) as she wants me to be able to keep flexing my ring finger, though with the support of being taped ("buddy splinted") to the pointer (hooray!) for the next two or three weeks as I think it needs the support.

I'm pleased to report that I also managed to crack up both the doctor and the physician's assistant (twice).  I always try to spread a little cheer.  I imagine a lot of their patients aren't feeling very well and might tend to be grumpy.

There are good reasons I don't change the girls' beds as often as I should:
Nadya's top bunk is difficult to get into and maneuver around in; also contains 6-8 ponies and misc junque.
Tina's bottom bunk has low clearance and a difficult side rail; also contains 12 lovies and misc stuff.
Rowena's toddler bed is always buried in her 38 lovies and the "tent" built over the top from a blanket.

Tomorrow I see the orthopedic hand specialist about my broken finger.  I'm hoping it'll be a matter of "Yeah, it's healing fine and you should be able to take the splint off in a week".  I'm dreading "What kind of an idiot doesn't notice she has a broken bone for *five weeks*?!?!" ++  It'll probably be somewhere in the middle.  This is nearly 7 weeks since the break now.  Can I be done with this and have my finger back?

++ In my defense, I thought a broken bone would hurt more, and more constantly.  And it seemed to be getting better until the 5th week when it first got discolored and started swelling.

Today during my "free time", I shovelled out the van.  It's been bad for a while.  Here, for your amusement, is a list of what I removed:

( (List of Stuff) )



Now there will be enough room in the van (I hope!) to pack everything for a weekend at a friends' house *and* Take Flight for Kids (spinning wheels are rather bulky, as are kids and sleeping bags).

Typing is going to be hard for a while.  A month ago I hurt my left ring finger trying to catch one of my dogs that one of my kids let out the front door.  He escaped and came home about 15 minutes later.  I wound up with a sore finger - very sore.  It seemed to be getting better after the first few days.  I taped it to my middle finger for support at times.  This past week, though, it's started hurting more, developed a red section and began a small but noticible swelling. 

I finally had it x-rayed yesterday and it's my first official** broken bone ever.  The doctor issued me a crappy spint that actually made the finger worse.  It prevented front-to-back movement, when what hurts is side-to-side.  And aparently during the month it was broken, I got very good at "ducking" my finger when it was likely to get bumped to the side.  Couldn't do it in that spint.  I found I was constantly and painfully catching it on everything.

Last night I whittled a popsicle stick into two sides for the spint and that made a *big* difference.  And today I got an even better splint fo $5 at a local pharmacy.  This one has metal top and bottom of my finger and foam wraps around the sides to velcro closed.  Much more convenient than taping the pieces on, especially when I need to have my hands in the water so often.

So, I did all the canning, all the spinning and all the shearing with a broken finger.  I think I deserve an extra gold star for that! 

Tomorrow I will try to discover how the splint affects my spinning.  I'm supposed to do Take Flight for Kids in just a week!
I need to dye some roving and find all my colorful scrap yarn.  I bought a big box of "craft sticks" (do you think there are people in a factory somewhere eating popsicles all day...?) with the idea that the kids could make god's eyes as well as learning about spinning.  I think I remember how to make them.

**  This is my first official broken bone, but might not be my first broken bone.  There was one incident in high school.  During PE, Nels (built like a bear) landed on the top of my foot during a basketball game.  I always thought it broke a bone or two.  Never did anything about it and it seemed to heal.

I never knew why my Mom always called him "Little Nels".  I assumed it was because his father was also name Nels.  Then I met "Big Nels".  Nearly 7 ft tall and 3 ft across.  Oooooookay.

My reward for completing the Tour de Fleece (other than all the lovely yarn and experience):




I haven't done any spinning today.  I sent a long overdue chatty letter to some Russian friends.  I got the girls to and from art class on time.  The older two have art class afternoons for the next two weeks and we're rather out of practice with getting somewhere on a shedule.  Better to practice now than when school starts (29 days and counting).  Mostly I took it easy today.  There's so much that needs done that I hardly know where to start prioritizing.

This weekend I learned about a great yarn store only 5 miles from my house.  I looked them up online today, and they're closed on Tuesdays, so I don't get to visit them until at least Wednesday.  I'm hoping to get some acid dyes for making rainbow wool for Take Flight for Kids.

For now, it's off to bed.

J'ai finie!  I have met my goal and then some.  I have spun 22.25 ounces of wool into 1001 yards of completed yarn requiring more than 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of spinning in 22 days.



And that doesn't count the 2 ounces of orange I spun yesterday nor the small amount on my drop spindle.  I decided to try again to match the rosebuds I like, so I dyed some more roving this morning.  It's a paler shade of orange with more red and yellow sections, so I think when plied with the very orange first attempt, it'll come very close to what I'm intending.  I plan to keep spinning, but at a more moderate rate!  I've pretty much dedicated all my free time (that being defined more as anything more than minimum needed for feeding and clothing the kids and keeping a roof over our heads) for the past 3 weeks to the Tour and it's been great fun and a wonderful learning experience.  But there's so much that needs done such as repairing doors, organizing various rooms (including figuring out what is actually in my stash), patching the shed roofs (rooves?  na...) before the rains come, canning the pears which have just come ripe, getting the kids ready for school in a month, sorting and washing the fleeces from the recent shearings.  And maybe actually doing something with all this wonderful yarn I've made!

Stats:
Today:             3.25 ounces                98  yards  completed yarn (329 yds spinning)
Total:             22.25 ounces             1001  yards  completed yarn (3179 yds spinning)
Remaining:       Goal met and then some!

I couldn't resist spinning the brightly colored roving today.  I took it with me to a friend's party and sat there in their lovely garden enjoying everything.  I spun most of the 2 oz and will finish that little bit tomorrow.  I have a slight problem.  What am I going to ply it with?  I suppose I could ply it with plain grey or white.  What I would like to do is to dye some more wool, perhaps a lighter orange base with stronger bands of red and yellow.  Then, plied together, it'd be even more like the rosebuds I like so well.  I think I will leave it on the bobbin for now and deal with that later, because if I dyed the roving right now (and I'm too tired for that), I doubt it would be dry in time to spin for the Tour tomorrow.

Back to plain old Lightning tomorrow.  The last day.  Lots to spin still.  If worse comes to worst tomorrow, I suppose I can simply Navajo ply the orange wool.  It'd be lovely, if not quite what I had imagined, and that's a large bit of my remaining goal.  Tomorrow I plan to post a picture of all my yarns.

Stats:
Today:             0 ounces                0  yards  completed yarn (1.75 oz spinning + half oz from yesterday)
Total:             19.0  ounces             903  yards  completed yarn (2787 yds spinning)
Remaining:       3 ounces in 1 days

I took it kind of easy fom spinning today.  I decided that I'll do the last 3 ounces with Lightning's fleece for a break from the interminable grey Thunder fleece.  To be honest, I've nearly finished that fleece.  There's only a couple ounces left anyway.  But I dug out a new bag of Lightning roving this morning.  It just happens to be from the last shearing before we moved off the farm 2 years ago, the last time they were sheared before this time.  We got the boys sheared right before the move, then I mailed the fleeces (along with some other older ones I found in the garage) to Morro Fleece Works for processing with instructions for her to take her time and mail them to the new house.  That worked very well.

Oh yeah, I was getting out some more fleece this morning...  Right.  I weighed out 3 ounces for the Tour.  And then I weighed out 2 ounces for dying.  I couldn't resist.  I spent most of the time this morning when I would normally have spun removing the worst of the vegetable matter from the roving.  (Don't think she did a terrible job.  I sent her some horribly contaminated fleeces and she did an amazing job of removing most of it!)  Then the girls and I used food coloring and made some very pretty, very not-grey roving.  Lots of pictures here.  Okay, here's one to whet your appetite:
 


I did do some spinning this afternoon after staking the beans and sunflowers and watering the garden.  Lightning spins very differently from his twin.  Thunder's much more double-coated, and it shows in the feel of the wool.  Lightning is so soft and downy.  He also has much more trouble with felting and burrs stick to him more.  But the yarn will be nice.

Stats:
Today:             0 ounces                0  yards  completed yarn (maybe half an ounce on bobbin?)
Total:             19.0  ounces             903  yards  completed yarn (2787 yds spinning)
Remaining:       3 ounces in 2 days