Sorry, Been Busy
I haven’t had time to write in a while. I’ve missed sharing with you. Of course, I haven’t had any emails or phone calls wondering what’s happened to me. I could take that two ways. First, you have been busy, or, no one reads this crap.
I’m choosing the first one.
The truth is I have been busy and I haven’t had time to write. The summer is coming to a rapid end, and I have had lots to do.
Living on a ranch raising animals we experience a bunch of “cause and effect”.
Cause: Rattlesnakes near house. Effect: Get guinea fowl to drive rattlesnakes off property. Cause: Get guinea fowl to drive rattlesnakes off property. Effect: Monner needs to build larger “chicken/guinea coop” to house new guineas.
Elaine and the kids purchased six guinea “babies”. The young guineas were kept in a tub in the laundry room while I procrastinated.
Let me tell you folks, waiting until the guineas are flying is never a good time to start building their home. I waited until the kids suggested, “Hey Monner, we will help you build a new coop!” That was like a slap in the face! I was thinking, “Oh-oh, People have noticed I am procrastinating, and now they want to help!”
Cause: I did not start building the coop. Effect: I will now have my children “helping” me. Cause: I will now have my children “helping” me. Effect: The coop project will take twice as long.
Having your children help is great, EXCEPT when it is easier and quicker to do it yourself. I really don’t mind when they “help”. It’s really nice they show an interest in work around the ranch. Ivy’s great! She really likes to help her dad with construction projects.
So anyway, instead of writing these wonderfully entertaining stories, the kids and I have been building a new coop. The twins helped by being in the way, asking questions and arguing about who was “helping” the most. Ivy helped with measuring and nailing. She mentioned several times she could be more efficient if she had her own tools. We could have run to town and bought her tools, but we decided to have me use the hammer and then hand it to her. We saved money not buying tools and we doubled our time “working” together. See, everyone wins!
I mentioned to Girl Twin, “We are almost finished for the night, why don’t you go inside?”
Girl Twin: I’m not going inside, Monner! Me: It’s OK, I’m almost done. Girl Twin: I need to stay here and make sure you don’t get hurt!
I’m not sure what I think of that.
While building the coop at night, I got behind in finishing a house at my day job. I said that I got behind but it really didn’t have anything to do with me. Our electrical contractor put the house a ”little” behind schedule.
Cause: Electricians put house behind schedule. Effect: Homeowners, realtors, and mortgage bankers start to panic. Cause: Homeowners, realtors, and mortgage bankers start to panic. Effect: Monner wishes he was dyeing yarn again. Cause: Monner wishes he was dyeing yarn again. Effect: Ivy panics, “Oh No, he’s coming back!”
It is amazing how snippy people can get when they think their house is not going to be finished on time. They say things like, “We have given up our apartment, we will have no place to live” and “If we aren’t finished our loan will expire.”
I think it scares some people when you tell them, “If you stop talking to me, I could finish your house.” We finished the house with three days to spare. No one said thanks.
On top of that, the store is involved in the Hot August Knits Yarn Crawl. Nine stores in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming unite to introduce customers to their stores. I’m not really involved in that, but I usually dye a bunch of yarn for the Yarn Crawl. In previous years I was involved, but since Elaine and Ivy insisted this year that I get a different job, they are doing the Yarn Crawl without me.
I’m thinking maybe the Yarn Crawl will flop and I will be invited back next year.
Our crazy lives!
Monner
