Cleaning out the stash

I am a fiber junky.  I have a stash and I talk fiber with my spinning and knitting buddies.  We talk WPI (wraps per inch) and TPI (twists per inch).  We talk dye pots and needle size, yarn overs and PSSO.  The problem with being a junkie, is that most of us are collectors as well and things pile up.

A while back I went through a cathartic phase and hoed out the closet and dragged my fiber friend Barb over here with her mini van.  I de-stashed and she, good friend that she is, collected a hole host of stuff and carted it off to her fiber studio.

Now she is doing the same and gave me a call to come pick up my stash.  Filled the back of the truck. I have gone though the books and will keep some, some will go the 4th of July Library Sale tomorrow.  Along with an Ashford tradional spinning wheel, a lazy kate, a knitty knotty and  two dress dummies. The local library needs money for an expansion project. Worthy cause.

I have listed my Wild Fibers Magazine collection on Ebay and will try to entice you all to check out the new page on the blog called  Cleaning Out the Stash (it is in the header bar at the top of this page in case you are looking.)

After backing into Bub’s truck last week and completely totaling the back of my car, (thank goodness for an insurance deducable of  500.00 becasue the damage billed out at 2775.00 Ouch! )we are a tad tight for the trip to Ohio now and Bubby, being the worrier that he is, had decided not to join me.  So basiacally, if I can sell the totes and the magazines, a bit of wool and maybe some stash stuff,  I can get Bub his ticket.   Hope you all will help and forgive the shameless direct marketing.

Clarity

Last night we had a treat of seeing a young bear near the house.  I love bears and enjoy catching a glimpse, which generally happens at least once a year.  Sometimes off rt. 12 heading from Elmore to Montpelier, sometimes in Ed’s upper pasture.

We had heard last year that there was a bear that had been sited below the sheep pasture, down by the beaver pond.  I wonder if this is the same one, or perhaps her cub.

This bear seemed pretty small.  We were able to watch her for about a half and hour, spooked twice, running off then coming back to her place.  And when she spooked, she was fast and nimble.  Bub got her to stand up and look to snap this picture.

Bears have been a totem I have appreciated and watching one last night brought special meaning.  I have been struggling in a few areas, work has been in an upheaval lately and a bit frustrating.   Home and heart has had a few bumps as well. The sighting of the bear was an affirmation of the strength of my inner knowledge.

“The power of the Bear totem is the power of introspection.
The answers to all our questions lie within us.
Each of us has the capacity to quiet the mind, enter the silence and know.”

Bub and I also had a golden eagle sighting at our home two Sundays back.  Two very powerful totem messengers, both seen by both me and Bub together.  I spotted them each first and called Bub out of his world to come watch with me.   Each sighting lasted much longer then a quick glimpse.   It was my first sighting of a golden eagle.  I have seen bald eagles in Maine and once over by the New Hampshire border, but never a golden eagle and never one that flew so closely over the house for such an extended time.    The eagle is a connection to a higher spiritual understanding.

About two or three weeks before that I saw a moose on the pasture above our house.  I scurried home and got Bub and we went back up to watch her for a while.  This was the second long moose sighting I had this year.

All three animals are seen as powerful as totems.  All are symbols of insight, intuition and balance.  Feminine power with the moose and the bear.  I have been examining my heart and my path at work lately.   I have also been in a process of finding and reconnecting with my father’s family.

I have made the decision to take my birth name back, Alexandra Jump.  I am to Ohio in August, where I was born and my name will change.  I have the papers and will file them today and get the date when I have to stand before a judge.

Issues at work are settled and issues of the heart have been looked at and settled as well.   I don’t understand the timing of all of this, but I am appreciative of all gifts I have been given.

Summer Storms

Storm Brewing

I love summer storms.  The air is thick with so many possibilities, so much so I feel heavy and weighed down at times.  Then the clouds gather and you know that shortly change is going to come.  The air will move again and the cool winds of clarity will blow in.

Several days of hot and humid, thick weather.  The rain has come, but the humid days returned.  Today it was rainy and finally it has cleared tonight. There is a cool mist that is rising from the beaver meadows and the valleys down below.  A certain clarity that has come with it.

Running Sucks

I hate running.  But I hate being overweight even more.  So I run and walk and have been now watching what I eat more closely.   I ran a bunch and on a regular basis last year and between that and farming, I didn’t watch what I ate because I didn’t have too.

I twisted my ankle the week the lambs were delivered to their new home in late September and between being in active and continuing to love my diet of whole milk, cream, butter type foods, I managed to put on 20 pounds over the winter.

My friend Lucy is in so much better shape then me and she eats a lower dairy fat diet.  I didn’t admit it to her then, but our visit at the lake and seeing photos of me in a bathing suit was enough to get my act together.

I have been walking with Lili for a while and we can do a comfortable 5-8 miles, but not always having the time, good old fashioned running is what I gotta do.  I found this website called sparkpeople that lets you put the weight you want to loose, along with the time you want to loose it and then add your exercise,  you end up with a calorie range to eat each day to lose weight in a reasonable way.  I get 1200-1500 calories a day with 30 minutes of walking exercise 3x a week to loose 20 pounds by the end of November.

The first week, nothing happened on the scale, but I became more aware of what I was eating and when I was eating it. Last week went better and I seem to be losing.  YEAH.  Bub says I look better, but he is required to say that due the fine print in the marriage contract.

The point of this is that I managed 3 miles, from Campbells Corners, to the Four Corners to just below Connies Kitchen in about 30 minutes.  I also got caught in the pouring rain and bailed when the lighting began.  I looked so pathetic, that getting a ride to my in-laws on Stagehouse Road was a snap.   But I booked it, up block house hill which is a nasty long grind of a hill, and up the hill by the Four Corners.

It was pretty ugly, and I am not sure if I can really call it running, lumbering maybe, and running sucks, but I did it anyhow.  Thank you Miss Lucy for the inspiration.

Vermont 251

Today will be a good day to join this group.  I am heading down to Rupert and Sandgate Vermont for work.  I get to go down and spend the night and visit hopefully 5 farms.  Tomorrow I will be heading to Sheep Camp over in Addison, so since I am heading down and mousing around, I thing signing up for 251 is a good deal.  Thought about it, now gonna do it. Why not.  Sounds neat to be able to say that you have been in every town in your state.  Shout out to Texas family… how many towns there?  How many in Ohio?

The southern part of the state is sometimes refereed to as the “banana belt” by folks up North.  I don’t know what they call us, but I am sure they do have some sort of slam of a name.  Woodchuck comes to mind.  Redneck, Doyah (rhymes with toy) might be a couple.  But I don’t know, so I will ask at the Inn I am staying at.

I love the North East part of Vermont, called the Northeast Kingdom or the Kingdom by many, as long as I have known it.  However when I was little, living in suburban Boston, my little friends would all trek off to “the Cape” for the summer and I would head to the Kingdom.  Didn’t I get teased!  So today I am going to part of the state that I am largly unfamiliar with, the South West.  Been thought Bennington on my way back from the Dutchess County Sheep Show, aka as Rhinebeck.  But have never moused around.   I think for the 251 club you have to get out of the car.

Bottom left corner surrounded by Massachusetts and New York State.  I have googled the map and it is about 3 hours and a smidge from here.  Waterbury, Randolph, Rutland, Danby and Rupert.  No direct way but up and over the mountains and continue down the West side of the Greens.

Got my camera ready.  I love living in this state.