Ruffled Feathers and Spilled Milk

Farming with ducks and dairy goats, chickens and children.

Multi-tasker.

Posted on | January 26, 2015 | 1 Comment

It’s still raining.  Which is better than all the snow they are forecasting for up north.  So I won’t complain.  Especially since The Other Half and Middle scrubbed the bathrooms this weekend, leaving me with just the usual vacuum and mop for today.  Obviously I won’t get to cutting back the asparagus ferns, weeding the creeping phlox, or cleaning under Harvey’s bunny cage on the deck.  Not in the pouring rain.  Good thing my house is loaded with unfinished projects.

I had 2 bags of carded fleece that I was saving to make these felted owls from Woolbuddy. Although I want to make mine with mostly natural colors and just a few bright touches.

The problem was that Pretty and I started felting the owl bodies and lost our patience after about 30 minutes or as soon as the episode of Modern Family was over and switched to hugely inappropriate and alarming Mom.  One of the dilemmas with getting needlework completed is the lack of quality free television to watch while spinning, felting, or knitting.  You people with Netflix have no excuse for having an entire closet of unused fiber.

Luckily I stumbled upon some directions for felting balls in large batches using pantyhose and a front load washing machine.  So I pulled out 2 space-sucking bags of fleece that had been carded into rolags.  I pulled the rolags into wispy strips….

wrapped the strips loosely around my hand to make a pile of ball shapes, including a gray pile….

and a brown pile with lots of authentic VM  for a, um,…rustic look.

Next I shoved the balls into old pantyhose, separating each ball by knots, and washed them in the hot/cold cycle in the washing machine.

Voila!

63 felted balls ready for turning into owls.  All done in just a couple hours.  And it cleared up an entire shelf in the wool closet.

While the balls felted, I finally tackled the gourds that I had been moving from the deck to the patio to the garden to the flower pots for the past year.  Big drilled entrance holes, drainage holes, and hanging holes in the gourds for me so I could make birdhouses.  After that I scraped the insides and scrubbed them down with soap and water.  Then Big added door canopies for me with hot glue.

I had doubts about the longevity of hot glue left outside all year but I figured if I slathered it with exterior paint, it stood a chance.  So inbetween checking the washer and clipping balls free from pantyhose, I applied layers of primer to the birdhouses.

As I worked, I chuckled to myself.  Because my work partner recently told me there was no such thing as multitasking.  He’s a man.  Apparently there are “scientists” with “research” to “prove” there’s no such thing as multitasking.  Also men.

I thought it was amusing as I checked the fridge and freezer while waiting for the paint to dry, then cruised the internet for a dinner plan using what I had available.  Having settled on pecan-crusted flounder and the some leftover sweet potatoes, I started an Amish Crazy Quilt pie for dessert.  While I was in the barn getting eggs for the pie, I stopped to top off the birdfeeders (which were taking a hit during the drizzly day).

And I paused to decorate the house for Valentine’s Day before coming in.  There.  Done.

Once the pie was prepared and in the oven, I slapped another layer of paint on the gourds.  The felted balls and the primer coats on the birdhouses were all done by the time the pie was cooked.

I was just finishing the mopping when the kids arrived home from school.  They sampled the pie and determined it was delicious.  So I had no idea that anything was wrong until I opened the microwave to reheat the leftover sweet potatoes.  There was a stick of butter.  I blinked at it.  Who put a stick of butter in the microwave?  Then it dawned on me that I put a stick of butter in the microwave.  A couple of hours ago.  In order to soften it.  For the pie recipe.  Which called for a stick of butter.

Oh.

Stupid frontal lobe.

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

One Response to “Multi-tasker.”

  1. Jill
    January 28th, 2015 @ 7:02 am

    SOOOOO, you created a new recipe while doing way tooooooo many things at once. Cute owl; would love to see a finished one. No hurry; I’ll wait. 🙂

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