“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen
nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds,
annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
Charles Dickens – 18th century

I am over the top thankful for so much. But most of all this morning when Bean woke me up by singing to herself in the bathroom:

“Gray skies are gonna clear up! Put on a Happy Face!”

“Brush off the clouds and cheer up, Put on a happy face!”

Yep, not much you can gripe about when you wake up to that.

I’m making plans to incubate and hatch some of these for next year. It’s our newest project. I just hope we’ll be able to hack it when it comes time to butcher.

So last year at this time I was waiting for my dad to die. This year I have random meltdowns in Sam’s club ’cause they are playing early Sinatra Christmas songs over the PA. No fun to be bawling next to the floor cleaner in a warehouse store. No fun. No fun at all.

Plus now I gotta repaint my kitchen and possibly make new curtains too because Mae is yellow and doesn’t really go with my barn red backsplash so I am thinking I need to change it to a slate or norwegian blue color and I would really like to paint it with milk paint. Like this or this .  This is the color I ordered. Soldier Blue. These are Federal Blue, which is close but a little too dark I’m thinkin’.  But you get the idea. So if I paint it with milk paint, I need to rip off the beadboard backsplash and put up a new one because the milk paint won’t adhere to the latex paint that is on there now. And, if I paint the backsplash an antique blue, do I then need to paint the island too or should I leave that red? See? Problems, problems.

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edited: now in looking at it, I might paint the island black, but distress it so the red shows through. Like this: Click here.

After my big washing machine melt-down, I decided I have had enough. Enough of the mechanical things I own that are run by computer mother-boards. Now you would think this is ironic considering I am a web developer and work on the computer all day long. However, that very fact has led me to this conclusion. I know, first hand, how often computerized stuff breaks down. A lot. And it ain’t easy to fix when it does.

I admit — I got caught up in the big ole keep up with the Joneses scenario. When we built our house, I bought all the top of the line appliances: a huge garden tub with the extra $2K jacuzzi system installed (I love the tub but have used the jacuzzi part maybe twice), a stainless-steel side-by-side fridge with all the gadgets in the door (it’s already broken once and shows every tiny fingerprint known to man. I hate it). to a luxury stainless-steel Italian range. This last one is my current nemesis. Again, it shows every tiny fingerprint. If you even just look sideways at it BAM! there’s a fingerprint. It never gets hot enough, when it does heat up the heat is uneven so cookies in front will burn while the rest don’t get done, the racks are awkward to use and the stupid top flames don’t adjust down enough to simmer anything. This is the first one to go. I hate this range above all others.

What is the alternative? Well, my friends, I have done some research. I had pretty tough criteria. One: it has to be designed well. Two: It has to be proven to WORK. Three: It has to have no computerized parts, even the clock. Four: it has to be something that if it breaks, Mark can fix it. Non-negotiable.

The solution? One of these! If Rachel Ray is using it, and it meets my four benchmarks, it’s good enough for me. But where the heck to I find one?

Enter Craigslist and a “barn find” (you know, Johnny goes off to war and leaves his mint condition Martin Guitar/Chevy/Fender Strat covered in the barn only to be discovered years later when the barn is cleared out?).
Here is the story: A young couple both enlisted in the Navy in WWII meet and fall in love. They get married and splurge on a new Chambers Range, top of the line, for their new home. They buy one in the pretty buttercup yellow color because the wife, Mae Evelyn, is a little bit “artsy”. They settle into their new home and happily cook on their new range for a year. Then they move to a house that is all electric, and the pretty buttercup yellow Chambers goes into storage. Mae and her husband have a boy who never marries. . He goes off to Asia to work for Habitat for Humanity, so he has no need for it. Finally as the couple get up in years, they realize they need to downsize and their son, home from Asia for the holidays, helps them sell their extra stuff on Craiglist.

So that’s how I found her. And as all good Chambers owners give their ranges a special name, I am calling her Mae. Mark is going to take her apart, clean her up (not that she needs much), restore what needs restoring, add a safety system for the oven and we’ll install her in the kitchen. I lurve her. I can’t wait to cook a roast in the nice, even heat of the oven! And the best part? If she breaks Mark can FIX her!

Oh, and if you want a crappy, stainless steel Italian range that looks impressive but doesn’t work for crap let me know. I’ll make you a deal.

I thought this picture was worth a thousand words. Sighted driving through Wyoming, south of Cheyenne this weekend. It’s a large pic, but if you click to make larger you will see the “new” windmills in the background.

The Fjord horses are all — HEY! They are EATING our HAY!

Of course they run away when we go out with the camera, but there was a herd (flock?) of about 50 turkeys messing around in the big round bale of hay we have for the horses. Unfortunately, harvesting them would be poaching, but they were sure fun to look at. And listen to. They have a really neat call. Especially the babies.

Mark and I got to get all dressed up schmancy-like and go to the Marine Corps Ball this weekend. We actually got a babysitter (thanks Rae!) and went out TOGETHER. We don’t do that much. Here we are all ready to go:

I got to hob-knob with dashing men in dashing uniforms.

And watched while they cut the birthday cake with a sword.

There was much wine drunk and lots of toasting to do — it’s neat to hear them call out “here here!” to all the toasts to the fallen Marines.  I got to thinking about how these kind of formal affairs are a rather dying art. I thought about how it must have been right after WWII, with knights and their ladies fair. It is still kind of magical — that’s kind of how it felt to me anyway.

It wasn’t as large a turn-out as usual because of the blizzard. The Northern hills got socked in, and in some places school is still closed today. I went up to the local air force base to do some commissary shopping on Sunday and the drifts were as high as some of the houses. It was crazy! We got off relatively easy in the southern part of the hills.

I told you it was cozy in here.

I got my little “perk” from Dell for all the hassle they had to put me through with the new laptop. It is a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet. This puppy is FUN! I am still really green in learning how to use it — but hey! Sketching in the computer! What’s not to like?

This is my first attempt. It is somewhat awkward to look up at the screen, instead of down at what I am sketching, and I still don’t feel really in control of the pen, but the more I sit with it, the easier it gets. I just need to play and play and play to get the feel of it. Next, I’ll have to try color instead of shades of gray.

The cat stretched out by the fire is the perfect model. The only movement is the occasional flexing of her little cat toes.

We are having a real life blizzard today! Everything is shut down. Roads are all closed — no travel anywhere! Luckily we are quite ready for this, nothing much changes around here. We have had power on and off all day, but we are warm with a fire in the stove, cooking a roast in the cast-iron spider over the fire. Chickens are hunkered down in their little house (Bean keeps checking on them to make sure they are okay). The horses are VERY furry already — and the dogs and cat are all stretched out side-by-side in front of the fire. They have it good!

The twins are bummed ’cause they don’t get a “snow day” too. They still have to do school work.

I opened my little Swedish calendar book: Bilderbook (picture book) and turned to November. Very appropriate!

This is my brother’s dog. This is my husband, rated #1 heavyweight wrestler in the WAC for the Wyoming Cowboys “back in the day”. He was the number one rated heavyweight wrestler, slated to go to the olympics instead of Rulon Gardner who did go and take gold– except my poor husband got sick and was in the hospital during the big wrestling show-down. He coulda been a contenda! Except he got sick and now is reduced to wrestling with my brother’s dog.

Side note — one reason my husband and I ended up married is because I had a small moment of being nice to someone, and even though we barely knew each other I brought him chocolate chip cookies while he was sick in the hospital. That clinched it for him.

Here is me, sitting and knitting in my brother’s only piece of furniture — the camping chair*** — while the crazy dog is looking for something new to chew up.

So yeah. This dog of my brother’s. I felt sorry for him so decided to take the big dofus running with me. The dog, not my brother. So we are running along and all of a sudden I am tripping over his big yellow feet and falling, not running. I don’t even realize what is happening until I am sliding across the pavement on my face.

I can tell you I really look like a princess now. Big ole black eye. Road rash all down my left side and my leg is positively purple.

And the dog? He had a great time licking my face and wagging his tail while I was laying there deciding if something was broken.

So tell me I am crazy as I have agreed to keep the dog for my brother while he is getting settled. As long as he doesn’t kill chickens and our own dog, Lena a.k.a. Devil Dog, a.k.a. LenaHalloweena doesn’t kill him.

*** the camping chair was my favorite place at my brothers. I just parked it in front of the fireplace, set myself up with hot chocolate and my knitting and sat on my butt for a solid week. It was nice!