Pumpkin Patch

Alright, here is the promised pictures of the pumpkin patch we went to on Saturday before heading on to Greensburg.
The Punkinator: an air pressured cannon on a decommissioned fire truck, will launch a 10 lb. pumpkin a 1/2 mile. Very impressive, you can barely see the pumpkins, just little black dots in the sky.

Mini version, Corn Cannon. DH's Dad and youngest nephew getting ready to shoot. The 4 yr old hit two targets while the 12 yr old missed totally, I find it funny and tease the 12 yr old about it!

See the scarecrow on the windmill and hanging out of the barn window?

Different barn, more scarecrows.

The 4 yr old couldn't reach the pedals, so Techpriest helped. Can't really see it, but these trike bikes have a third wheel in back. You steer by one person pedaling more than the other. As you can imagine, these things are dangerous. You never knew when you would have to jump out of the way of them! I took my life in my hands being this close to them, though I was safer directly in front of them than off to the side!

Even a scarecrow needs to get her hair done. In the building behind her they actually had scarecrow kits, make your own scarecrow!

Barrel ride, you had to watch out for this one too.

The actual pumpkin patch, fairly depopulated.

Techpriest's Mom, Dad, youngest nephew hiding behind him, 12 yr old, and Techpriest on the hay wagon ride.

Aren't we a cute couple? :)


They had some many other things too. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the animals though, guess I was to busy petting them! Pigs, bunnies(so soft!!), cows, I actually forget what else! We all had a good time, about froze for while though!

Time Out

It looks so innocent, just lying there. Pretty even. But I'm here to tell you that this sock is evil, evil I say! This is the Damn sock, otherwise known as Miranda's socks. I finished the heel, thought it looked funny so tried it on. No go. So, I'm gonna put it in time out till after Christmas.
Miranda, you are NOT getting this for Christmas, at least not this year. Maybe next year if you are lucky.

See? That heel looks funny, doesn't it? Pattern is a modified version of the Monkey socks from Knitting Sutra.



Zoey loves the reflections on Star Wars poster. Isn't the new afghan pretty? It is smaller than the first one so it went together very quickly!

"What does this square smell like?" Seemed like she smelled each and every one.

Just had to take a picture of this pose. And here is a fun little video of Zoey and me playing.

Greensburg

Techpriest, his Dad & Mom (divorced years ago), his two nephews (one with each of his parents) and I headed out Saturday into the Kansas wilds(west and south). First we hit Turon's Pumpkin Patch had lots of fun, I'll try to post some pictures later. After we wore ourselves out we headed to Pratt to eat lunch. My mother went through nursing school at the community college here and my brother attended for a while too. Mom and I had a lot of fun playing in the Wizard of Oz at the college. She, of course, was one of the wicked witches. :) I was just one of the soldiers of the Emerald City. The adults ate at a Chinese place, the kids had to eat at McDonald's, which took 35 minutes. Then, Techpriest's Mom was in a fender bender, someone pulled out in front of her. We finally managed to get out of Pratt and head on out to Greensburg.

I had left a comment on Prairie Dreams that I would be there Mon. and wondered if Anita could get together. Well, by the time we got to Nickerson to met up with everyone else, the plans had changed and we were going yesterday. Anita was nice enough to go along with the change. Heading into town from the east as we were, at first you don't see the damage. Then, all of a sudden, hardly anything is standing. It was quite dramatic. We met Anita, conned her into driving around with us, and let Techpriest take the kids to the park. It is on the northeast side of town, so was untouched, but it will be torn down along with the swimming pool so the highway can go to four lane.

No pictures this post, it didn't really seem right, kinda rude, ya know? Didn't want to take pictures of someone's heartache. I actually didn't think about it either, to busy absorbing it all. It is totally different seeing it for yourself. Except for a few buildings, the whole town is gone. The kwik shop survived, one brick shop building downtown of a row of shops was still up, a condemned house made it through. The bar and liquor store survived, yet none of the churches did. The courthouse looked alright, but the roof had gotten torn off and set right back down again, exactly where it was. So water had gotten in and caused a lot of damage. Probably be a year before it is up and running again. I saw a house missing, but the garage just a few feet away still standing. By the lake was a car upside down in the trees. We kept asking her "This was all houses?" because it was hard to tell until you got close enough to see the holes of basements and the foundations lying there. Sometimes there were flowers still growing in the flowerbeds. A few houses made it through, and there is some new construction. It was odd, a new house right next to a gaping hole where a house used to be. There was still rumble in lots of places. Some of the street signs were pieces of plywood with the street names spray painted on, some of those had nicer signs stapled to them. A lot of the street signs had been replaced though. It seemed like those street signs said a lot. Anita was raised in Greensburg, yet she said she had to count blocks to know where she was after the tornado. All the landmarks that used to be there are gone. I bet they really needed those spray painted signs. I wonder how difficult it was to figure out which street was which in the beginning. There were things spray painted on the house left too, made by rescuers to know which houses had been searched. Some of these little things hit me more than the big stuff.

I really don't know what else to say, but if you want to get an idea of the devastation here is Anita's list of photo galleries to look at.

MSNBC.com
Wichita Eagle
1133 photos
Ultimate Chase
New York Daily News
National Geographic

Though I haven't looked through all these pictures, I know they don't tell the whole story. They don't show you what it looks like now. Though the majority of the rumble is cleaned up, there is still so much left to do, so much left to rebuild. And it will never be the town Anita remembers from her childhood.

Thank you so much for sharing with us Anita!

What a week

• The Harmony needles showed up, they are pretty. But one of the #5's must have a crack at the tip, wool keeps getting caught in it.
  

• Prairie Gumbo is playing Pay it Forward and I thought it was a great idea too! This is the "Pay It Forward" exchange, based on the concept of the movie where acts of kindness are done without expecting anything in return...just passing it on, with the hope that the recipients of your kind acts will pass it along to someone else. Here's how it works: I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what the gift will be yet, and it won't be sent this month and maybe not next month either, but it will be sent within 6 months and that's a promise! What you have to do in return then is "pay it forward" by making the same promise on your blog. Sound like fun? I might knit something or sew or I might even break out the polymer clay!
  
• Last Saturday I met up with Laura at the Newton Beadery to switch my completed afghan for another packet. Very nice store with a very nice lady that talked to us for quite awhile, even told us her name, too. Unfortantly though, I have a mind like a steel sieve instead a steel trap. Laura being the good blogger she is, remembered to bring her camera. Me, I didn't even think to look halfway decent, let alone bring the camera. I should have remembered what the Yarn Harlot said, bloggers are dangerous, they always have their cameras.
  
• I have already finished the second afghan, but no pictures yet. Hopefully soon.
• Tuesday I had an eye app. and had my eyes dilated plus wore contacts for the first time in years. Not good. Besides having an awful time driving the two blocks home my headache jumped way up there to an 8. I didn't even feel up to knitting while I watched tv. The next day got it back down to a 5, but Friday I went and ordered my glasses(that's another story) and wore contacts again to be able to pick out a frame. Went to the monthly knit in that night but had to leave early I was hurting so much. Not long after I got home it went up to a 9. Today it is firmly hovering around a 6. Pretty sucky week.
  

• Techpriest's Dad and nephew are coming for a visit next Thursday, I hope I'm up to it.

That is all I remember that I wanted to tell you, but remember that steel sieve....

Why yes, we did buy a new camera.

Why do you ask?
Here is the afghan, Zoey thinks it is comfy.


So pretty!


It is kinda hard to see the basketweave, but it sure is pretty, though the 8 ends I had to weave in sure wasn't!


Love this one too.


Zoey was holding the afghan down for me, she is such a helper!


The back side, you can clearly see the whip stitch.


Front side, doesn't look to bad I think.


Weasley sweater ornaments, this one is for Dad. I plan on making 20 of the little suckers, good thing they are so quick!


Mom's ornament.


Left to right: my brother(Nathan's Daddy), our Dad, our Mom, and she is holding Nathan of course.


Mom and Nathan. Miranda had a party for her mother's 50th birthday. We all had lots of fun and chocolate cake.





Chewing on the camera strap.


Techpriest found a cat website, that is a little bat flying around.


Who threw out a perfectly good kitty?

Techpriest saves the day!

Hey, I (ok, Techpriest helped, by which I mean he saved my sanity)got the buttons to work! Really! Go mouse over them, I'll wait.

Did you see that cursor change to a hand? Isn't that just the most awesome thing ever?
I feel like a big kid now! :)




Something else Techpriest did for me. Found out I won't be able to scan from my computer anymore, but as the last time I scanned something probably at least 6 months ago I don't really see that as a problem. Isn't the little froggy cute?

Greensburg Video

From Prairie Dreams, a surviver of the tornado, telling her story of recovery.

Got Money?

I'm done with the Greensburg afghan, hooray! No pictures of course, booo! I don't like being unable to document my FOs! We need to stumble upon some money somewhere! Laura has made a list of where the squares are in the seaming process and packets(squares, seaming yarn) that need to be adopted here. The main post about it is here. You do want to adopt one, right? They are really cute! And it is not really seaming since all you have to do is whip stitch them together, it goes pretty quick. She will be adding more packets as she gets them sorted so check back!

It seems like I can go ages without really wanting anything, then all of a sudden I want everything all at once. The camera is a given, I've already told you about the dpn shortage over here. I ordered the Harmony's on Sat by the way, can't wait to see them! I need a haircut, which I really could go ahead and get, but getting some red highlights sound like fun right now too. And I want a purse, a purse with pockets even! Looking around for a purse I am astounded again by their prices, course I'm cheap about purses, I don't think I've spent more than $30 for a purse in my life. I've looked around on Etsy and really like the style of this shop's purses, but the fabrics are too loud for my tastes, but I could probably ask for one in denim. Her prices aren't too bad either. I also like this style, but would not pay that much for it. I could make that without too much work.

But what will cost the most is a Yarn Hop the shops in central Kansas are putting on. I plan on catching a ride with Ann and Marlene from Yarns knit night. From north to south the shops are:

1. The Yarn Peddler
Minneapolis

2. The Shivering Sheep
Abilene

3. Yarns: Sold and Told
Salina
(my home away from home)

4. Laura May's Cottage
Lindsborg
785.227.3948

5. Yarn
Hutchinson

6. The Newton Beadery
Newton
316.283.9199

7. Heritage Hut
Wichita
316.682.4082

8. Twist
Wichita

More than I realized there was! The yarn hop is November 9, 10, 11. Besides special surprises at each shop, if you go to every shop you will be entered to win a big basket of goodies.
I was going to just scan in the flyer they gave me, but we have changed computers since the last time I scanned anything in and now I don't know how to work it. It will have to wait until Techpriest is unbusy.

Hey, did you realize Kansas has a fiber mill? Me either.

I'm trying to figure how to link to a button, not having much luck. The example over on the right I can get to work, but when I cut and paste my info in to the code it just doesn't work. This will be the first thing I will have Techpriest work on when he gets unbusy. Until him or I get it figured out I'm gonna leave the ugly example button up on the right. Maybe I'll get tried of looking at it and it will force me to have another go.

I think that is all I have to say, seems like I always forget something....

Book meme

I copied and pasted this from someone's knitting blog, if you remember let me know!

• 1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? either, unless it is a book I know I'll reread a lot, then I prefer hardcover
  
• 2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... I have no idea, and if I thought about it, it would take forever, because it would have to be just right!
  
• 3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is... The one I can remember is Glorfindol (sp) saying "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." about Gandalf from LotR of course
  
• 4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be... Well, Tolkien, Anne McAffery, or right now probably Robert Jordan
  
• 5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be... an omnibus of Lord of the Rings, or omnibus of all the Hitchhiker books
  
• 6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that...read it aloud for me, while I knit
• 7. The smell of an old book reminds me of... Safety, peace, hours spent in another world...
• 8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be...Probably Menolly from the Pern series, to bad she doesn't have a dragon..
  
• 9. The most overestimated book of all times is...The Catcher in the Rye, why bother banning it when I couldn't even get through a quarter of it?
  
• 10. I hate it when a book...is boring, doesn't engage me
  

Now for the tagging.... how about anyone who wants to ?