City of Carver and other news.

Big ass tent in front of our house Steamboat days 2013.

 Lets start this off by showing you this picture of our house during Carver's Steamboat days.  Yep, as you can see our house was completely cut off by four barricades.  We couldn't go to our house unless we parked a block down and walked there.  The music was at 94 decibels at the farthest part of the house from the tent. The music goes till 1am and there is no where to hide from it, if we wanted to stay home.  My Autistic son really can't handle the noise.  We were sent to a hotel by the comity, and no other negotiations will be had. The Mayor himself just said. "We wish your house wasn't there." They will not move the tent.  They will not stop the music at 10pm when their noise ordinances would require them to.   The true statement that the City of Carver doesn't care about the people of their town when money is on the line.  I thought living there was going to be good, now I am questioning it.  We have gone to the State Attorney General's office, and was told of our rights under the laws of the the city.  The laws that the City feel free to ignore.  If I had the money I would sue. I like my home and don't like feeling bullied out of it.

Jerid and Justin riding the Elephant at MN Ren. Fest. Festival Friday
Sept. 2013

So lets talk about a happy topic.  We went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, it was a beautiful day.  This year I came prepared, I brought the camera!  Jerid did it again and this time I got proof, he road the elephant!  So proud of my (not so)  little guy! He hates most things with four legs but he seems to really enjoy riding the elephant.  He seemed more scared of the horses this year so he sat on one but no luck on the riding. Still proud.  He is now in 9th grade and almost 15 years old Yikes!  Time does fly when having your having fun.

 So it's almost that time of year again. Thinking of Halloween and our loved ones who have passed. Eric Dibble (Jerid's Father)  was a lover of Halloween.  The day that he died we were talking about who we should invite to a Halloween party. He was 26 years old, he died due to a heart condition caused by Gaucher s disease.  I miss him very much.  Eric Bryce Dibble passed away 10-17-01.

Please, feel free to comment on the ones you are thinking about.

           Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!

Adventures in roofing and bees with some music.

TJ Windows adding a new roof to our home, pic. taken by
Justin Hartley

 So let me start off by telling you this past month has been a plethora of excitement!  I would like to say we, after a year of dealing with a tarp for part of our roof, got a brand new shiny roof!  It is so exciting we couldn't contain ourselves, Justin broke the zoom lens on our camera taking so many pictures of the progress from tarp roof to new roof, it took them three days to replace, removing one layer of ceder shakes and two layers of shingles and having to replace some of the decking and having to replace the trim.  Most of it is done except some specialty pieces that have not arrived yet.  But it has rained a few times since we have gotten a new roof and it sounds wonderful!

In addition to getting a roof Jerid got a therapy swing for his room.  It took a few tries to get the swing to get it up but with my Dad's help and a few 2x4's a piece of our old bunk bed from when I was a kid it was put up.  We think he likes it because he has used it allot and has helped us help him with some of his anxiety and gives him somewhere else to hang out in his room other then his bed.

Jerid also has already had a couple of weeks of summer day camp at Mount Olivet Rolling Acres and summer school so far so good, no major upsets. Except he has been not wanting to swim.  For the last few months he has been not wanting to go to or be in a pool, water parks he's been cool with but swimming not so much, I don't know if I should be worried or not.  It's not his usual behavior.

Now for some other news...We went to ConVergance this year as we do in most years, Justin has made some prints of his artwork as greeting cards and I made a quilt for the Art show, he sold a couple of cards with the print of Straganona vs. the flying spaghetti monster.  I sold my Tardis quilt.  Which as always is great news!  We also got a long time friend to join us, she was very reluctant but in the end she was happy and met new friends along the way.  

The sad part is we have decided that this is our last ConVergance, do to the fact that it is a longer con and there for more money.   Also trying to get care for Jerid for two night requires the caregiver to take him over the fourth of July weekend.  Though my Mom and Dad have been taking him he has been proving to be more and more challenging for them to take him, besides I really am sick of the same arguments every year of, "I didn't know I would be taking him for Fourth of July weekend for the rest of my life."  So we are on the look out for other smaller cons that we can take him with on or one that doesn't fall on a holiday weekend and is not a four day con.  I could rant allot about it but the end result is the same.

For the weekend after ConVergance we planned a "Interplanetary folk  music festival", in our back yard.   It has been thrown around to be an annual thing.   That isn't the fun part, so the Monday after Con, we had swarm of honey bees in our house, we thought it was do to the new roof.  We had bad boards and hornets nests, birds and squirrels, so Honey bees are not too surprising, we thought they were trying to find a way out, well to our surprise they were trying to move in.  Tuesday the queen arrived.  Two of the musicians have extreme allergies to bees.  So we had a few bee keepers, one was a contractor who keeps bees on his off time and the other was the head bee keeper from the Mustard Seed,  that were interested in getting them out of our walls but apparently once bees move in it takes allot for them to want to move out.  So we told everyone about the bees, and told those allergic how to get to the nearest Hospital from our house and staked out with caution tape where they hive was and had the out side concert anyway.  Which turned out to be a beautiful day with only one flash flood warning and one set moving into the house then moved promptly back outside since it did not rain and only one person who was rushed to the hospital, do to a broken arm, not the bees.  Eric and Lizzy who came all the way from Iowa that they had a lovely time and would love to do it again.  So that is counted as a win!

We are now awaiting the specialty supplies to get the bees out, by removing the outside boards and digging into our walls then hopefully they will be removed by next week.    Way to late for the festival but better late then never.  

As for knitting I have been milking a the same projects as last time with an addition to starting to spin again.  I had gotten a lovely fleece from my friends the Beth and Jon and Alpaca from Missy and Jerry, so I've been taking my time to learn how to clean fleece and make it into roving.  It has been quite the Adventure.  

Also since the new roof we have been doing more cleaning of the up stairs I am hoping that my future sewing room will be cleaned out and ready of fixing by fall.  

Justin is still working on his illustrations for his  kids book,  'There is more to Life then Monsters'  he is on his second illustration and it is looking amazing!  To see any of his art work check his Ogsnartsarts on Facebook. 

I would also like to say that the shop will be open this weekend starting on Thursday til Sunday please stop by.

Summer Brake

MN river morning in Carver MN.
Pict. taken by Justin Hartley

Wow, June 10!  Time flies.  Justin is working on his illustrations for the book he has written. I'm so proud of him.

   Jerid is off of school, Jerid's last day of school was at Valley Fair.  I wasn't impressed with how they treat their disabled guests. First off I would like to point out that if you have a PCA, Parra, or Support Staff to go with you for your day of fun to Valley Fair, they do not get in free, they are not discouted, full price or bust. (last year they were aloud to get in free, not this year)

To establish that one of their patrons is disabled is frustrating enough they expected us after getting the proper paperwork taken care of they expected us to go back out side and wait in line to get in, when the pass allows the disabled party to bi-pass all lines.  When argued with they seemed annoyed that we pointed it out but aloud us to bi-pass the line.  Next on the sheet of paper the ride conductors are allowed to turn the disabled person away to come back at a different time.  Most of these kids have to go against a crowd of people coming off the ride to get to the ride then after they are so close to the ride, are made to leave to come back 20 minutes later, WTF?  My son is pretty easy going, but he's not above a tantrum hell at that point I'm not above having a tantrum.  What difference does it make that a disabled person cut in line now or twenty minutes from now?  So I'm warning all that want to go to Valley Fair who have a disabled child or client that it may not a good idea.  Other wise we had a pretty good day.
 
   So summer brake is here we are trying to establish a groove at home.  School usually gives us a window of time without Jerid, so we can get the things Jerid hates to do, done without him.  Summer does not allow such things to happen as easily.  Before the start of the brake we had gotten the loan taken care of for a new roof.  YaY! No word yet on a start date, but we did sign papers with dotted I's and crossed T's so we just have to rely on mother nature to have a few days without rain, because they put us on the list, the more clear days the closer and faster they can get to us on that list.  I've been racking my brains to figure out what I'm doing for ConVergance this year.  I'm thinking about making a quilt, don't know if it will be done by then but I'll be working a little bit on it day by day to see where it takes me by 4th of July weekend.  Temperance Arts and Gifts now has an Etsy site!  www.temperancearts@etsy.com check it out, not much is there, ideas are always welcome.

Justin and I are hosting a house concert, The Feng Shui Ninjas, Beth Kinderman and the player Characters, possibly Candles Enough and Cheshire Moon. July 13,2013.  In Carver MN.  for more info check out www.fengshuininjas.com, www.bethkinderman.com or check them out on Facebook.

So not much more to report.  Thanks for reading.

April Snow and other things.

Bug Bee Hive resort, front door of our cabin
April 2013.

 This past week has been exciting for me in Minnesota, this past weekend I went on a retreat with the Nokomis Knitting group, also know is the Clickity Chicks, to peaceful Bug bee Hive resort in  Paynesville MN.

Per request, no pictures of the knitters have been taken this year, but this was the view from our front door of the cabin we were in.

To clarify, this is a picture taken in April of this year, and yes that is about six to nine inches of snow on the ground.   It snowed most of time we there, but then the sun came out and melted most of it then it would snow again.  Every one got there safely and returned safely as well so it was a good weekend.

tree in my parents front yard 4-23-13

Most people left the retreat revitalized and with a little less unfinished projects on their needles.  I made two chemo hats and finished socks for my mom.    I just wanted to take the time to thank all of my friends who make this weekend possible, and put up with me for the days we were there.

I've been dying yarn lately. (as my previous post has shown.)  I also have received another sheep pelt.  I have to clean it, but Justin has been heavily hinting on getting me a carder.  I've been saving up, and tax money may be helping in this investment.  The Minnesota Shepard Harvest Festival is coming up on Mother's day.  So we will see if it is in the cards by then.

We need to see about a roof for our house first.   House comes first then the fun.

Carver road left completely covered in snow, right almost melted
4-23-13

Jerid is doing well with his schooling, he is following directions so much better then he has in the past.  He now has home work to do.  Which he is like most kids not willing to show us, but we have to take it out of his bag and make him do his sentences.   He will be going to high school next year so his paras have been gearing him up for the transfer.  His teachers have expressed that they will be missing him.




Justin has been working on his illustrated  book about monsters, finally got past the writing and  mapping out process, now to the making of the pages!  I am so excited to see him do this.



The shop in our house is still there.  We get allot of traffic in Carver, just have allot more antique hunters, then handmade junkies.  We were open this past weekend.  Thanks to Karen, of  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Larsenstitches/307418729306601?ref=hl who made that possible, while I was on retreat.  

So thanks for reading.  Till next time.

Busy busy busy

Updates on my family since Thanksgiving last year.  So sorry I haven't updated in a while, I have been  busy busy, not many pictures this time.  Sorry, I do have pictures of my latest projects.  You've guessed it, hand dyed yarns!  It is exciting for me because it was something that I have been thinking about for years and I am afraid that I don't want it to stop.

Justin has even joined in on the fun as well.  He still will not knit, but he likes painting and dying the yarn, I guess it is just one step at a time.  It will come. I know it.

On the family front so far things are going well.  My brother, who was diagnosed with Epilepsy, has now gotten his diagnoses changed to a Seizure disorder.  I am not so sure that is a better diagnoses, but it has been changed.  Prayers for him and his family are always welcome.  Over Christmas we were all sick. The flu ran us all down.  Jerid had a double ear infection to boot.  He hadn't had an ear infection in years now he is going threw his second one in the past three months.  Poor kid.  He has his I.E.P. meeting this week and he went skiing with his class mates, hope to have pictures to share.

The shop as had some set backs last month.  Our drainage pipes froze last month when the store was supposed to be open.  Well we had to close because we had no plumbing and Justin had to be there to talk to the plumbers and Jerid needed someone to get him off the bus.  The schedule  was not working in our favor.  Now it will be the weekend to be open again, and another cold snap, keeping my fingers cross to make it threw this one.  Not much more to report.  Enjoy the pretty pictures of yarn till next time.