Pip Pip Hooray

We have a pip in Decorah! Thanks to Prairiefirewind and the Decorah mods for their hard work getting this very brief moment. D26 is on the way! Video: https://youtu.be/BN5Var9p8ys

It has been 37 days, 21 hours, and 36 minutes since Mom laid egg number one in Decorah this year.

Bible Journalling

I attended a district meeting Saturday.  The program was about journalling in our Bible.  When I was a child I thought if you made marks in your Bible you would go to Hell.  Afterall the Bible is a sacred book and you should not deface it.  It is the words of Jesus, not a book to color in.  It took me a very long time to realize it was ok for me to mark verses, words that meant something to me, passages I would go back to when I need them, etc.  So Saturday I listened to the speaker talk about why she journals in her bible, drawing pictures that show how she feels when reading it, marking passages with ribbons or tags, etc.  I came home and of course went to Pinterest because everything about everything is on Pinterest, who needs Google.  While many pages were so journalled you could not read the words, some of them were simple additions to make a passage mean more to the person reading it.  I have 3 Bibles and they have very thin paper and not much room in the margin to do anything with.  My main Bible I read has underlined passages and stars by certain verses, but doing anything more I fear would tear the pages.  I got to thinking about why would I want to journal in my Bible.  Some people have a journal for their Bible which is separate book so they don't mark up too much of their Bible.  I found a Journal Bible on Amazon and ordered it.  I am not a drawer, I can barely draw a stick figure but I can make it so the words that have certain meanings to me are more visible.  This morning as I was working on the catalog for the church library I got to thinking that people scrapbook their life of events that mean something to them and "scrapbooking" or journalling in my Bible was my way to scrapbook my life with God.  So I can't wait to have my new Bible arrive and start a new journey of my life with God.

I Would Not Chase Him if I Were You

This morning the Blue Jays were going nuts.  I looked out in the back yard and noticed Mr Hawk caught himself a nice big juicy lunch.  He finally took off and what did the 2 in the tree do, they chased him.  Really your buddy just became lunch and you are going to chase the bird who did this to your friend?  Not real bright.  I have a lot of Blue Jays this year and now I guess I am down one or maybe 3.

They are SuperStars

Iowa PBS had a viewing of the new Decorah eagles story last night.  Of course they were fund raising and I am sure this was a lot of help for them.  If you would like to view it here it is:

http://site.iptv.org/video/story/26184/eagles-decorah

April

I keep seeing the stories about April the giraffe who is supposedly past her due date or they got it wrong.  Anyway last night one of my friends said at 8 my time they feed her.  Giraffes have always been one of my favorite animals so i tuned in.  Big mistake, now i can't decide whether to watch her or my eagles.  The eggs won't hatch for another month so I guess I will switch back and forth and see what is going on in the animal world.  If you want to watch April go here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyQfWCX-bAg.  They feed her at 9pm eastern time.  She is so cute.

Hygge Cal

I finally have week one done. I think i screwed up on the dark blue row which got me off on the rest. I am not ripping it out. I also think because I am using a fingering weight yarn my bobbles don't pop as well. After the yellow row I found that if you carry the dark thread behind instead of catch it in the bobble it makes the bobble pop, so I will remember that if we have more bobbles. I think their fingering weight is heavier than ours like their double crochet is what we call single crochet. I am off to week 2 and see how that goes. This is all about learning and whatever the end project looks like, it will be ok.

Decorah 3rd Egg

Mom laid the 3rd egg last night.  The nest cup is so deep I have not see it but here is the video of her laying the egg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRnALjELSC4&feature=youtu.be

Decorah Egg Two of the Season

Mom barely gave us notice this evening. She all of a sudden stood up and starting swaying back and forth and chirping.  Quick everyone come look cos egg 2 is on the way.  Perhaps she knew the snow storm is on the way.

Decorah First Egg of the Season

Mom Decorah laid the first egg of the season last night at 7:30pm nest time.  She kept us going for about 2 hours before it finally came.  If you have never seen this being done, it will make you appreciate nature even more.  Welcome to the newest Decorah family member.

I'm Not Much of a Hooker

I am sure that got your attention.  I knit and i crochet.  I have to admit I can make a mean granny square in crochet but that is about it.  I have taken a tunisian crochet class but need to get back to it and work on that skill.  So along comes this cal to make this shawl with lots of colors and lots of different stitches and skills required.  I decided why not, I need to advance my crochet skills, so i bought my yarn and decided to jump in.

You can find all the beginning directions here:  https://itsallinanutshell.com/

I am doing the rainbow colorway but using knitpicks yarn because I did not want to pay $21 to ship across the seas and wait on m yarn to get here.  Today is the first clue and I have leaned to do intarsia with crochet which is pretty cool when the lightbulb finally comes on.  There is a clue ever Wednesday and today is clue 1.

So I have the pattern printed and am off to get my first clue done.

It's Almost Time

This morning you can really see the nest cup being built.  Dad continues to sit in it and shimmy down to round it out and make sure it will be sufficient for the eggs.  The crib rails are up, mom and dad have been in the nest after dark probably shooing the owls out and it would appear we are a few days from the first egg being laid.  This will be my 6th  year of watching this nest.  What nest you ask?  Decorah of course, the famous mom and dad that lure in millions of watchers from across the world.  We have a window into nature that is just fascinating to watch the nest built up in winter to the eggs being laid in Feb and then watching them grow into sub-adults and leave the nest by end of June.  It is very calming to watch and learn about these magnificent raptors who represent our country.  Join me as we welcome more eagles into the USA.

Mrs Wilson's Knitting Circle

Today was the first meet of the year, this is the 3rd year.  I was very much looking forward to being back after a few months with no meetings.  I have no idea what today's lecture was about. It was very discombobulated and I have no idea where the lecturer was going.  At first she started talking about how much there is in the digital library of the WW1 museum and then she took off in a direction that left me clueless.  It appeared she was trying to tie the black americans who fought in the war to something because it is Black history month, but she never really got there.  She talked about Woodrow Wilson but never really tied it to anything.  I came away with nothing today which is a shame because her lectures before have been very good but today she hit a goose egg with me.  I hope the rest of the year gets better.

Loopy Academy

It is time to enroll again in Loopy Academy.  This semester we are doing beads and buttons and buttonholes and color-work.  None of those are for the faint of heart.  I am doing 2 pairs of gloves and a hat.
Fabric is a tunic or shirt-dress, a lap quilt or baby quilt and some project using pre-cut pieces.  I have my projects picked out.
It takes longer to find what i want to make and the supplies than it does to make them.  Stay tuned to see how the semester goes and I wonder what the extra credit projects will be.
I am in my Junior Year Spring Semester for yarn and Sophomore Year Spring Semester for fabric.  Go to the Loopy Ewe and check their blog for more information.