A little Thankgiving irony

Our turkeys, eating cranberry sauce. Does anyone else see the irony in this?

 

Yes, we did eat a local turkey for Thanksgiving, just not one of ours. Maybe next year... We had a lovely Thanksgiving, and thanks to the locavore group on Ravelry, I attempted the "100-mile Thanksgiving," in which almost everything we ate came from a 100-mile radius. And I did manage to eat pumpkin pie with gusto, so I guess I'm all better now!

Milo weathered the Great Neutering of 2007 without a hitch. (We had it done at the house, thanks to a wonderful visiting vet service.)

My younger stepson came home for Thanksgiving and Milo was pleased with that:

The cat's even been loving up the big dog lately, as shown in the following series (taken last week when it was sunny):



This kinder, gentler side of Milo is misleading. He is still a ruthless killer and ankle biter and has become so gluttonous that we have to lock him outside during dinner to keep him off the table.

I have been busy spinning and I finished a large skein of the alpaca 3-ply I hand-dyed. But the skein is soaking right now so all I have is a shot of the partially finished bobbin of singles:

More subtle than I had planned but nice nonetheless. Final skein shot to come later. I have also been doing a little more gift knitting and working on Rogue:


Milo, the attention hog, had to join in:



I have a set a goal of finishing this sweater by Sunday. I've been stalling even though all I have to do is finish the sleeve caps, seam the sleeves, and sew them in. I want to get back to gift stuff. (Did I mention my fickle husband did a 180 and now DOES want a handspun heavy sweater? He may not get it by Christmas, but he'll get one. It's just the the Opus 2007 project really should be finished in 2007. Maybe by New Year's.)

Since I can't share most of the fiber stuff I've been working on, let me throw in some animal photos.

The calves are doing well.

They still want to suck on your fingers (or gloves, as the case may be),

but they've figured out how to drink out of pails, and even know which pail is whose:

We got two more piglets the other day, so now we have 2 teeny ones, 2 little ones, and 2 huge ones. The babies:



Sassy is hopefully With Piglets by now, but we won't know for another two weeks or so. If she doesn't get bred, I'm not sure what we're going to do with her. Here's my husband adding some hay to the pig bed and giving Sassy her daily ear scritching:


Fudd, our loaner boar, is now our own. His former owner really doesn't have the room or the shelter (at all) for his pigs, so my husband and brother-in-law asked if they could keep him in exchange for a little work. Done deal. He's a big boy, but very mild-mannered.

He LOVES a good backrub. It's too bad the pictures don't show him shimmying back and forth to get the full benefit of every scritch. He almost falls over he leans so far from left to right and back:



Last week, before the snow started falling, I brought the goats and sheep a load of cornstalks and cobs. They had a ball.



JJ preferred not to join in. He likes to hang with guys.


My husband's been spending a lot of time around the sheep barn, in order to install this:

A frost-free water spigot = No lugging water buckets through the snow!

I won't go into the details of what happens when an unqualified man uses his new tractor to dig up the  yard with abandon. The bottom line is (a) the water line is now fixed, (b) the sewer pipe is now fixed, and (c) the tractor is now fixed. What more could a girl ask for?

Last: There is going to be a small shop update soon, featuring the last 6 or 7 skeins of Real Vermonter yarn in stock. (Seven if I don't keep one for myself. Most likely 6.) Although I'm feeling better, getting back into a routine has been difficult; it takes a while to build up inventory and make enough money to buy more. I promise I'll be back on track soon, so again, thank you for your patience.

I hope everyone's enjoying a leisurely long weekend.

Comments

[Kathy]

That's too funny -- the ?? is do the turkeys see the irony? I'm thinking not, they are turkeys after all.

Glad that you are feeling better. Your Rogue looks terrific.

[Dave`]

Whoa, I can't get over the size of Fudd. That's one big pig. I'm glad you're starting to feel like yourself again!

[valerie]

mmm....Love the green Rogue!

[margene]

I love visiting your growing farm.

[Marcia Cooke]

Loved all the pictures (ironic....no, hysterical!) and especially your Milo. Who looks sooo sweet now, cough. I know the type!

[trek]

Wow, what a busy update! Sounds like lots of fun up north.

[Carol]

Wow! What a biggun', and Milo is looking all grown up! You guys have done so much this year! It's fan-tastic. Glad you're on the road to 100% :)

[Heide]

Thank you for sharing all of the wonderful "family" pictures. Hope you enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving. Rogue is jetting right along.

[Mia]

I don't think the turkeys carry about the irony. And Milo is just showing off by being nice. Although maybe he will settle down now that his hormone levels are set at a fixed level. And Mimi was in the kitchen begging for turkey as soon as it came out. So at least she isn't as bad as Milo. And boys like to play with their toys. Of course the bigger they are, the more expensive it is to fix their "mistakes."

[lindy]

Milo is growing into a big snuggler, neutering may help, but, i think he's going to be a big boy.

When does hubby find the time to do his real, lets be paid for it job?

You know what happen when a boy realises that he can use his toys to do a job, qualifications don't come into it. It's best to go inside, out of ear shot from the language and just make coffee! One of their friends can usually be relied upon to be able to fix the f#*^# ups.

Glad that you, the family and the animals had a happy thanksgiving

[Kristen]

Wonderful photos. Milo and the stoic dog are precious, and the four pig derrieres are too funny! Good for you having a locovore Thanksgiving, it must have been especially delicious.

[jill]

I understand the snuggly afterdinner glow, BUT, wish you were here...Trivial pursuit went lots of rounds over...you deffinatly qualify as a homestead, Sun Valley was the mentor,rah the 70's...next the two acre garden!!!miss you lots xojill

[Helen]

One of my oaths is 'Oh, pigs' bums!', so it's nice to see it brought to life in a photo. It's actually a shortened version of something that I won't sully your Comments with, but I find it quite satisfactory on its own. Now I will always have a mental picture to go with it.

I wonder if there would be a market for pre-cranberried turkey, like pre-salé lamb?

[Carrie]

LMAO @ the tractor thing. My DH mentioned doing some plumbing this weekend and I'm still worried. (The man is a menace with plumbing. *I* am better at it than he is.)
Fudd is freaking huge. I had no idea. What a lovely boy.

[Jessie]

Ditto Valerie's entry...I love visiting your growing family and friendly family. Love the husband's hat too...made by you, I suspect? Happy Thanksgiving, Jess.

[Jessie]

Ditto Valerie's entry...I love visiting your growing farm family and friendly human family. Love the husband's hat too...made by you, I suspect? Happy Thanksgiving, Jess.

[DebbieB]

That is a fabulous hat! I also love the soft, warm single on the bobbin.

"With Piglets". Heh.

[donna lee]

I had no idea pigs were so big. It takes so long to get over a bug when you have so many demands on your time and energy. The only way to realy recover is to rest. Ha. I know how hard THAT is to do. Glad you are feeling better.

[juliet]

Milo has suddenly become enormous compared to his first photos - he looks massive. The Turkeys are fabulous but I love the face of the dog - now there is a dog that has experienced great (cat-related?) suffering in life...

[JessaLu]

Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving!

I waited too long to call the vet for Jazz and we are now enjoying a dog in heat. Fun times.

[yvette]

I love all your new family photos, its a perfect way to start my Monday morning, that and tea of course. Your Rogue is looking great and I am glad you are feeling better, happy knitting.

[Stephanie]

Reminds me of the time my dad tilled my mom's garden and got the electric cable caught in the tines that went from the house to the well. That was just this year!