Life

Peacock and Robin at the Farm

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Every year I try to get the first robins of the year as they return in the spring. However the last several years I haven’t been able to get the first ones, I see them when I am driving and can’t stop to get a picture, it’s like they know I want a picture! But my son-in-law grabbed this picture last Saturday at the farm because I was helping someone and my camera wasn’t being nice to me. My son-in-law is such a great guy! 🙂 I am seeing a lot of lone males looking for a mate that they aren’t finding in the last couple of years, where are all the females, or did these males just arrive much later than normal and the females were all taken?

Also, while I was at the at the farm, the peacock decided to show off a bit. Isn’t he pretty :). He’s fully mature this year and so next year the peahen should start laying eggs. This year she is still ignoring him, lol. It’s amazing how well they fly even with very long feathers. My son had to pen them up in the aviary he built for them because he has spurs and trys to defend the hen from anything, even us! I tell people he has an attitude! I didn’t realize they lived so long, 15 to 25 years in the wild and up to 50 years in captivity!

New WIP, New Tee!

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The project is the Brick Work Baby Blanket , it’s a free Ravelry download. Have a new little one due from a friend at Church. It’s too warm for a sweater and sweaters really only fit for a few months so I chose a blanket again, takes longer but I was more in the mood to knit a blanket than a sweater. I chose yellow in the Crafter’s Secret Big Idea 16 ozs 810 Yards. It’s acrylic for easier washing. It should hopefully be plenty, it calls for 700 yards but I’m using the needle it calls for US size 8, 29″ cable, and I would normally, because of the gauge I get with my style of knitting (combined continental) I knit a little loose and generally go down 1 size needle, hope I’m not going to be playing yarn chicken. If I think I am I’ll end it early :P. I’m still on the top border (yeah they are starting on the top border instead of the bottom – tho I can’t think with this pattern it will make any difference which is top and which is bottom) and again this one starts row one on the wrong side of the work, so it won’t confuse me this time!!

I did buy another shirt, I just love these funny shirts (this was a picture on Etsy). Honestly I could cross off the ignore part and it would still work :P. One more shirt and an another pair of jeans and I should be good to go with clothes for a couple of years. The shirt and jeans will be next month’s purchase, clothes are expensive!!

Winter Tree in the Spring!

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This tree does actually have leaves and flowers when it’s not winter :P. Pretty pink flowers. I wish my neighbor would quit feeding the deer with the corn she puts under the tree. We have deer running all over the place in town, makes it not safe to drive at night!! Time to cull the excess deer around here, it makes it safer for the people driving at night and stops diseases in the deer like the wasting disease for one.

Happy Easter 2026

/ LDSVenus

He’s Risen!!

I love General Conference Weekend. General Conference is generally the 1st weekend in April and Oct every year. It’s listening to wonderful spiritual talks by our Prophet and Apostles and other leaders of our Church. The peace and council help ground us and remind us of how much our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ love us all. We are all brothers and sisters and knowing that helps in a chaotic world. We are here learning lessons of forgiving and serving others like our Savior did so that we can learn to be like him, not always an easy task, but necessary.

Hope you will join in listening to this General Conference. If you miss any of talks and want to go back and listen they will be on the Church’s website.  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org  Saturday they are central time 11am to 1pm and 3pm to 5pm, the same times tomorrow (Sunday.)

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter as we think about the Savior.

Three New Shirts

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

I thought I would lighten the mood with the 3 shirts I bought over the last 6 weeks. Needed new shirts and thought it would be fun to wear shirts that made me laugh or smile. Added bonus it makes others laugh or smile too!!

I’ve only been able to get online here and there as my internet service is having a problem tracking down the problem, looks like it’s one of their cable inside my wall somewhere. So they are meeting with my landlord to talk and see if it’s something my landlord has to hire a contractor to fix or something they have to fix. Sigh. The only other option, after checking out the other internet services in my area, is starlink. It’s only $50 to $80 a month depending on the speed you need. (Sorry dad, my dad always taught me to never use money and only in the same sentence :P). They said the lower amount was fine for streaming, the higher for businesses that need more.

Winter Weather!

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I decided to check the weather to see if the snow from last night was done, but NOPE! Here was an alert on my computer and I took a picture of the snow now coming down. Only suppose to be an inch or so, but with the snow we got last night and the winds that will be coming soon, they are telling a blizzard from blowing snow. I rarely get a good picture of it snowing, but you can see the snow against the tree in the 1st picture!!! Also we have an extreme cold warning from the high winds and the colder weather, making it down to a possible 40 below, ack! I’ll be staying inside, nice and toasty warm!!!

A Buck, Finally a Picture of that Blanket I finished, Some Pictures of Alpaca Stuff

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I showed you a picture of a doe that was eating under a tree in the snow before and I took a picture of a Buck a couple of days ago eating under the same tree. They sure are pretty but pretty pesky here in town.

I finished the Look for Happiness Blanket by Fifty Four Ten Studio a few weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to showing it, so here it is. I made the medium size for a lap blanket. I still need to wash and block it. Hope she will like it. It took me some time, but I found it a peaceful knit and enjoyed this pattern, so I didn’t hurry through it. :). Taking pictures at night sure doesn’t give true color, lol, this is actually a denim color so it’s a little darker and brighter than it shows up. Maybe someday I will master taking pictures for my blog, or not.

The next two pictures I took last week at the Farm’s annual open to the public Christmas celebration. I neglected to get pictures of the alpaca who were wearing candy cane horns, tho I have to admit most of them managed to get them off, lol. But there were cookies (an alpaca cookie I managed to snag). I accidentally broke it on the way home (breaking things seem to be my thing), but it still took a pretty picture and his reg farm hand drew a picture in the snow of an alpaca before people came out, I thought it was cute. Along with the cookies there was also hot chocolate for the people who came out. They also had Santa who asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and he gave them all a gift bag with alpaca goodies. Because it was cold we didn’t have a ton of people, but they had put together 50 gift bags for the kids and they were all claimed ;). I think everyone had fun. They are debating, for this next Saturday because of the Alberta clipper that is heading this way with very cold temps, on rather they will open, don’t want little ones getting frostbite. They would still keep the store open for people wanting to shop for Christmas. It will depend on if the clipper arrives on time or is slower moving. It is supposed to be -30 with the wind chills by Monday, winds from 30 to 50 miles per hr in some areas of IA, ugh.

These minus temps are our late Jan and early Feb temps, I can hardly wait to see what they will be in Jan and Feb :0. Even our mid winter thaw (warm up) is coming early, the week before Christmas, according to the weather man, sigh. We need it tho, in 2008 there was no mid winter thaw (we always get one, but not that year, it’s generally in Jan) so the snow on the ground did not melt and when it melted in the spring there was so much snow melting from the top of IA on down that the Cedar River flooded big time, over flowing 5 miles on each side of the river. Rail road cars had been put on the tracks that go over the bridges to try to keep the bridges from being washed away, but the flood was so high it took the rail road cars that had been filled with big rocks to weigh them down more, right off the bridge. A Dairy Queen that was a few blocks away from the river was flooded over the roof. So we need that mid winter thaw. Maybe it means spring will come sooner! I’ll just keep that thought.

Stay warm!!!