Yummy Desserts and a Small Project

Well, there were no drink tickets last night, but instead lots of yummy desserts! Mmmmm fruit tarts.

Today was a day of laundry, laundry, vacuuming, and laundry. Pete took T-bone swimming at the Y, and later played some football and soccer with E-man. Don took us to Truxton's for dinner, which was delicious as always--though both boys were not nearly as well behaved as they were the last time we had dinner there (uh, 3 weeks ago).

Meanwhile, I managed to find enough time to do a small crochet project. I got some D rings and plastic rhinestones at Joanns yesterday, and today made this dog collar.

 

This is for our neighbor Sonja's new doggie. Heidi is a cute little 6 pounder (Maltese? I don't know dog breeds) and won't get a whole lot bigger. I just hope this collar fits. It fits Tioga, who is one chubby 13 pound cat, so I have hope!

Same Time, Same Place

So, after all these years of genealogical research, I have finally put a branch of my family and, apparently, a branch of Pete's in the same county at the same time. I was so sure that if this happened, it would be in North Carolina, sometime before 1840. But no, it's Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 1700s.

So, for probably 10 years I have been trying to determine the parents of Pete's 3g grandfather Hampton, whose name I haven't even nailed down. He usually appears as RT, but in the 1860 census he is "Rukehill". In 1850 he and a brother, WG (William), both born in VA, are living in Warren Co., MO, with another family from Virginia. I've been trying to figure out if the Jane Hampton nearby in Montgomery Co. was their mother. She is listed as head of household in both 1840 (when other household members were not named, just counted) and 1850.

Well, a wee bit of poking on ancestry.com led me to Jane's cemetery record, where she is listed as "wife of SH". More poking led to a marriage record for Samuel H. Hampton and Jane M. Godley in Pittsylvania Co, VA. Could this be them? Hmmmm.... In 1830, guess what the name of the 1 Pittsylvania Co. Godley head of household is in 1830? Rockhill Godley. Rukehill=Rockhill. He was named for his maternal grandfather.

But for the real whack with a wet noodle, guess who is 2 doors down from Jane Hampton in 1840, Loutre T., Montgomery Co, MO. Yes, Rockhill Godley. All these years, and he has been right there, and is buried in Bedford Cemetery, with several other Godley family members (including his wife Sarah). Jane is with the Hamptons in White-Hensley. S.H. is nowhere to be found, but I suspect his stone is lost from White-Hensley.

So, I haven't confirmed any of this (other than a 1700s will of Edward Rockhill, who names his daughter and son-in-law, who was a Godley), but the Godleys and Rockhills were in Hunterdon Co, NJ. As was my Kise family, also in the 1700s. The Whitenacks were in Somerset (immediately to the east) but also Hunterdon.

So, maybe we will connect yet. Though or anyone who knows our families, the funny part of all this is that this is my Collett family--the really German part of it (descended from Michael Andreas Weidknecht from Adelshofen in Germany). And Pete's Hoereth line--the really English part of it (looks like the Rockhills were Quakers)!

Other than this big breakthrough from yesterday, we have had a busy day. T-bone and I went to Tree Musketeers' Trees to the Sea, and we weeded, picked up trash, planted trees, and had some pizza. E-man and Pete played games and had a visit from pete's high school friend Chris. I ran some errands, and now I should be getting ready to go to the Mar Vista silent auction. Not for fun, to work! Though it is fun :) We help close theirs, then they help close ours. And they give us drink tickets.

Gnome is Home!

T-bone finished his gnome today in handwork class! He is sooooo proud of himself, with reason. It looks fantastic! I love his color choices. He has been anticipating this day for weeks. And so have I, since he has been expecting to finish for each of the last 4 handwork classes.

The gnome is the big second grade handwork project--they started back in September with the body. They picked colors, knit and purled, changed colors, stuffed, and sewed. 

He knits better than I do! He really is going to have to teach me.

Rat-a-Cake-y & Building Bird Feeders

Last night we went to T-bone's cub scout pack Blue & Gold Banquet. Which meant that Friday night dad and T-bone baked a cake and then Saturday day they decorated it (which involved waaaay too much red food coloring). This year's theme was Chinese New Year, so T-bone drew a great rat for the year of the rat--the cake design was all him, as was much of the decorating. E-man found much of the evening exhausting (other than when the magician turned 4 birds into 1 rabbit, and the noodles and pot stickers got a thumbs up too!), and still hasn't recovered from not getting the giant Hot Wheels basket in the silent auction. Especially since T-bone won a Climb Mt Everest game as a door prize. No, we haven't tried playing yet!

E-man had a better Saturday last weekend. Both boys went with dad to the Lowe's Build N Grow to make bird/squirrel feeders. T-bone did his all by himself--all reading, finding pieces, hammering, everything. E-man happily hammered away with daddy. We gave these feeders over to the squirrels, who will be chubbier than ever now. This guy approves.

Where was I? Manning Miss Julie's 2nd grade class during another OCS open house. Which means I spent two hours talking (which my sore throat did NOT appreciate!) while simultaneously keeping toddlers brought to the no kids event from feeding the class's forced bulbs to the bunny. And I crocheted 4 afghan units!

Sledding!

So, for the long weekend we went to visit Pappy at his place near Shaver Lake. We made the right choice picking the boys up at lunchtime on Friday--we got stuck in no traffic! The lovely view above greeted us, though the boys were mostly interested in the icky road snow that was left.

So, of course, on Saturday we had to go up the road a bit to play in the snow. After a bit of a bust in town (icy snow, too many people, and always the possibility of sledding into the lake), we found a nice lonely spot on Dinkey Creek Road. Hills perfectly sized for both boys, no people, and lots (maybe too much--E-man kept sinking!) of nice soft snow. E-man was not thrilled with getting a bit of air, though, as he also got a faceful of snow.

We went back there Sunday. And we all got in some good sledding. With a little help from mom, he also braved the saucer alone again, and made a snow shark. It's eating a fish!




The boys also had some fun exploring the rocks at Pappy's place. There were some pretty and chilly trickles coming from the granite. T-bone liked the small (very small!) waterfall, E-man liked the squishy moss and slippery algae. All in all, a fun weekend with Pappy!

Sidewalk Paint!

This is probably no surprise to anyone that knows him, but T-bone went nuts when I showed him the homemade sidewalk paint in the last issue of Family Fun magazine. (Who would have thought a Disney mag would be my favorite???) So, while E-man took a snooze on the couch this afternoon, T-bone and I made sidewalk paint. White, green, and yellow. And he proceeded to paint an entire road system on the patio and driveway. What you see above isn't even half.

Note to self: start buying cornstarch at Costco.

E-man's Sweater is DONE!

Yup, That's a happy boy. Happy because his sweater is done, and washed, and with the cuffs rolled up, fits! And it will fit next year, too. In spite of my gauge issues caused by substituting a cheaper and machine dryable yarn (still a DK wool superwash though), it all worked out in the end. Does that mean I know what I'm doing? 

Now I need to start T-bone's. First I need to figure out what size to do. He wants it yesterday...

Cooper the Hawk

Here he is, Cooper, our resident neighborhood hawk. He's a Cooper's Hawk, to be precise, but we are just so clever around here he is named Cooper.

Pete got this photo and several others the other morning--yesterday?--after we left for school. Cooper was looking and looking, this way and that, and there were no birds or squirrels in sight, and the outdoor cats (several frequent our yard since our kitty stays in!) were slinking for cover.

E-man and I recently saw Cooper sitting on our power pole, calling. We both thought it was pretty cool, though it made me glad I'm not a rat!

Illusion crochet square

So I joined a book club group on Ravelry. I sometimes miss being in a book club--but I don't miss the one annoying person every book club has, I don't miss conflicts with other meetings. And within the meetings. And being as it seems I'm already out of the house 2 nights a week, I don't need another meeting. So an online discussion group is kind of cool. No meetings to attend or miss. Reading messages whenever I want. Nice. 

The fun part of this particular book group is a mini-contest at the end for the best original 8x8 knit/crochet square based on the book. Fun! And 8x8 is just one evening's work.

So I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Great book. And I spent the whole book thinking about a square. Which I completed last night and posted there today. Without too much in the way of spoilers, since so much of the book is about hiding things (Liesel's learning to read, thefts, Max), I opted for Illusion Crochet (my first attempt--it involved lots of ripping). It's in black and white, which is meant to be the accordion keys, but can also stand for black letters on white paper. Here it is:

And here's the illusion:

Ta-da! A bit lopsided due to a wee miscount, but I was done with ripping.

The next book is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Which I am not enjoying yet. The writing style is way to contrived for me. We'll see.

A crafty rainy day...and a great book

Yet another rainy day.

T-bone and I went to Michaels today to get spray paint for his Pinewood Derby car (er...truck), being that it's that time of year again. I also needed (really!) some yarn (black and white in sport weight) and thread (for a project already going, and I'm running out!). More on those in the future.

When he heard we were going, E-man demanded "One of those wood things!" I had no clue what he meant til we were there. Of course! The $1 wood craft kits. So, we chose a semitruck for E-man. Which meant T-bone had to have...a semitruck. That is them in progress above. I am painting E-mans, of course (to exactly match the box, no less), but he painted on the glue to put it together. T-bone needs no help. He is painting some logo--looks familiar, but I can't place it. And just what we need, more completed wood craft kits roaming the floors...

I also started my Ravelry book club afghan block (that's what I needed the b&w for) for the best book I have read in a loooong time. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. What a great book. I had never heard of it, it is marketed as a Young Adult novel. A wee bit more intense than Harry Potter. I'll post my square when I'm done, I've already frogged it twice. Hopefully the third time's a charm.

On a chilly day

There is nothing quite so nice as snuggling on the couch with a warm cat! T-bone is now in charge of Tioga's food bowl. He is a bit overly generous with both the crunchies and the snacks Santa left her. She appreciates it!

I am still plodding along on E-man's sweater. I was hoping to have it done and posted by now. The ribbing is slooooow going. Hopefully I will get it done this weekend. Hopefully.

What's up in the yard?

gWell, it has finally stopped raining and there is no more standing water in the yard. Finally. We have radishes and carrots up and still alive. They were underwater for about 2 days, but seem to be fine, even if they haven't grown in a week.

The peach tree and lavender are both blooming. I need to cut the lavender back again, it takes just forever and I put it off, making it all worse. Of course. We haven't seen a hummer today, but they love the lavender too. If I can just get it cut back it will bloom even more.

And of course, the lesser goldfinches are everywhere. They eat the niger, they eat the sunflower chips, they eat dandelion seeds, they are hungry, beautiful, singing little guys. I'm hoping to get some good pics of our other birds, but they are so much more skittish.

We need to do some more planting, but the ground is so saturated that we can't plant anything right now. And the ground is so saturated that with the last storm one of our downspouts sent water into the garage instead of the lawn. We'll see how long it takes to dry out!

Another day, another road...

...and track system. Am I the only person over the age of 10 who was thrilled to find the Plan Toys road piece that links into Thomas tracks? Our guys had just about outgrown Thomas (OK, T-bone had), but being able to integrate actual 2-way roads in (Mr. Infrastructure never could handle the 1-way only Thomas roads) has extended the use of Thomas tracks for months and months. Yay!

I hope I don't step on this later.

It's not camping season yet, but...

...we're getting ready!

The boys and I finally made fire starters today. I've been meaning to do this all month. A great project for yet another rainy day. This is something I first did in girl scouts more years ago than I'd care to admit. Pete laughed at me when I first made them; now he is a convert. They are great, and use nothing you don't already have. If you need wax, don't go buy paraffin or wax for making candles (it's crazy expensive). Go to goodwill or garage sales looking for candles or candle ends. Ugly is fine and probably cheaper! One 6-in pillar candle is enough for about 48 fire starters.

Ingredients: dryer lint (cotton with limited pet hair is best), paperboard egg cartons, old candles and candle ends, 1 empty tin can, saucepan, range, popsicle stick to stir with (or anything else you don't care about), cookie sheets to put cartons on, oven mitts.

First, put your dryer lint into the egg-places of your egg cartons.

Be sure to put your cartons onto your cookie sheets. This will protect the surface underneath.

Next, melt your candle blobs. Put an empty tin can (I like a 28 oz crushed tomato can myself) into a saucepan with about 2-3 inches of water. Put your candle blobs into the can. Don't overfill! You don't want wax dripping into your water, too much will just make it messy now and harder to pour later. Bring the water to a boil, then turn down to medium so it's still simmering. Use a popsicle stick to stir a bit if you want. Don't leave the room--just keep watching. It takes awhile to melt. 

When the wax is all melted, it is time to pour it. Put your oven mitts on. Carefully lift the can out of the water and pour onto the lint in the egg cartons. You want a fair bit of wax in the lint--it should soak through the carton a bit. Try to cover all the lint in each egg spot, but don't pour too fast. When you are done, it should look about like this:

Now leave the cartons to dry. It takes longer than you'd expect, put doesn't need supervision. When they are done, they even have their own handy storage/carrying cases!

To use them, just tear off 1 or 2 egg spots. Put them under your firewood, then light the carton corners. You will still need some kindling, but these burn for awhile (like candles!). We use 1-2 for a fire in our backyard table firepit, 2 for a fire camping in a standard campground firepit. 

Enjoy your s'mores!

Rain, Scouts, & Stitching!

We're supposed to get another big storm tonight, so T-bone decided today would be a good day to check the water level in his rain gauge.

Almost 2.5 inches! He made this and we taped it up 5 days ago. It's actually pretty cool. I saw it in a magazine somewhere (can't find it again...). You cut the top of a standard water bottle off, turn it upside down and put it into the bottle, making a funnel that you then tape down. Anyway, he watered the houseplants (nothing outside needs water!) with the collected water and we taped it back up.

Pete took the boys to the Lowe's Build and Grow this morning, and then it was off to the Petersen Automotive Museum for a cub scout event. Needless to say, they had a good time and stopped at Pann's on the way home for lunch. 

Lucky me attended El Segundo Blue's Superbowl of Stitches, with a new project by Margaret Bendig. I nice day of stitching and lunch. I would like to finish this project, but we'll see :)

Crochet crochet

This is E-man's Turtle Sweater. The back is done, the front is done, 1 sleeve is done, the other sleeve is started. I might actually get this done while it's still chilly! Of course, then I get to start one for T-bone. Both are out of Knitpicks' Swish Superwash DK. E-man chose a dark and light blue (there is contrast trim), T-bone picked green and red.

This sweater is actually pretty neat, because it is done side-to-side, which gives it a fair amount of horizontal stretch. It has some variety, with a pattern of sc, flo sc, dc (which I changed to hdc to get gauge), and flo dc (hdc if you're me).

I have also made a lot of progress on the doily I'm doing to see if I can (using size 30 with a 10 hook). I have no idea what I will do with it, not being much of a doily person and all. They are pretty fun to make, though. I nice change of pace from yarn. I also finally started a long-overdue baby afghan, but I can't discuss that here. Though since I haven't announced this blog, no one is reading anyway!

Hoping to get help on the progress bars from some Ravelry genius.

Argh...progress bars (or not)

So I have spent way too much time today trying to add Ravelry progress bars to my sidebar here. Even Pete tried tonight. And we have gotten nowhere, unless you count error messages as being somewhere.

Progress bars are these cute little...bars...that show how far you are on crochet (or knit, but that's not me) projects entered in Ravelry. I've got my API. I copied the code, I pasted the code in the head, I got an error message. I searched the forums for more info. I found a patch. I found the offending code. I removed it. I pasted the patch at the end as per instructed. I got an error message.

I don't have time for this. I remember back, before kids, when I actually knew my computer inside and out. When I deleted/changed code to save corrupted files. I now realize this was a good twelve years ago. How embarrassing. Now I can't even get a section of "copy this" code to work. *sigh*

And now it's jammie time, story time, bedtime, and crochet time. I can handle these.

It's raining...

it's pouring. And there is no better time to SCOOTER. E-man and T-bone could not resist the lure of the rain. Meanwhile, I can't get warm after spending 2.5 hours in a cold room sewing crayon holders at school this morning. I think we will be having minestrone for dinner. Nothing like hot soup on a cold damp day.

T-bone made a rain gauge (for a cub scout belt loop) on Monday, and he is very very excited about all the rain he is collecting. Yes, he was steered to this week for a reason...

Lettuce

Yum. Fresh, organic lettuce right from the garden. T-bone will actually eat lettuce on a sandwich as long as it's from our yard. So at 6:45 this morning I was in the rain picking lettuce, in my jammies. Unfortunately, lettuce is one of many things E-man has decided he no longer likes.

Even better is the fact that we didn't even plant this. It reseeded from the lettuce we planted last year. I used a lettuce mix from Renee's Garden. Their seeds do really well here. All in all, a happy success--the boys and I love to suddenly discover lettuce growing amidst the weeds. The weeds have now been pulled, several times! 

Eagle Rock

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and we managed to get out. After a bit of a detour to Solstice Canyon (closed til May), we ended up at Topanga State Park. Where we should have gone first, since it is so much closer and really nice. We took sandwiches, saw some deer hopping fences, visited the nature center, and then took off on the nature hike. And then to Eagle Rock. Yes, both boys walked all the way to and from Eagle Rock. With a bit of whining, but they thought the shale outcroppings were way cool.

It was such a nice day we weren't the only ones to have this idea, but we did get a spot in the lot. And of course, this is one of the parks good old Arnold wants to close. It already doesn't accept the state parks pass (what exactly is the purpose of a pass when it's not accepted by the same dept selling it?). What is this guy angling for? Other than slashing public school funding, again, I mean.

On a completely different note: the radishes T-bone and I planted last weekend are up!