Monday and I'm melting

in which our plucky heroine grasps at straws...

On my way home from the needful trip this morning to drop off my EBT biannual forms, I stopped at Goodwill on the way home. A brand new older copy of the classic Knitting Without Tears will be a good addition to my resource library.

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Though often riding transit is an exercise in grim determination, today there was a small bright spot. A woman got on with a child in a stroller, with two balloons with the words "Happy Birthday", and "It's today!" written on them in magic marker. Once they were settled in their seats, I started softly singing happy birthday to the little girl, and gradually more and more people on the bus joined in...

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There is continued progress on assorted crafty projects - have completed 35" of the current tablet weaving, almost finished another interstitial block for the fabric printing project, and am currently in the middle of repairing an old favorite dress that needs the seams reinforced. I got tired of doing many many small patches, so am applying Hug Snug to the seams as a kind of decorative band effect... not ideal but far faster than my previous attractive but very slow hand stitching. I have decided hat it matters to save handwork for garments that will not wear out before the repairs do...

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The terrible evil daystar persists in the current rampage, or perhaps this is just the new normal. The only physical activity I have managed to do today is my basic indoor PT. I am going stir crazy not being able to do outdoor things, and no relief in sight.

The combination of over 100F and intense sunlight have me entirely dysfunctional. Tried to ride my bike last night but it was well above 80F at 10:30. I may try and get up just before dawn to ride my bike, if I can get up that early. My chickens may be too hot to lay eggs, since they went from two a day to none, despite my bringing them fresh cool water in the afternoon

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wool apron dress	planted tarragon	yard waste bin
2	large border block	LED light shield	venetian blind
3	Thora mousie block	harvested garlic	-
4	interstitial block	garlic braided	-
5	x	-	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine appreciates kindness, and continues hiding from the sun...

It is going to be terrible hot again today. Got up at 5 so I could be at the farmers market when they opened at 8. Decided to splurge and get a piece of fish from the fish booth, and when I told the nice man I had over an hour on the bus to get home again, he kindly gave me a hardfrozen ice pack ("good for at least 4 hours") to keep it safely cold.

I love that I can double my EBT purchasing money there, which lets me get special things like fish, or berries, and puts that money directly to local and regional producers. Got home again before it was too hot to deploy the box fans, at least a little bit. I run them until it is warmer outside than in, and then close the house up tightly until the situation reverses or I fall asleep at night.

Decided to splurge and get a piece of fish from the fish booth, and when I told the nice man I had over an hour on the bus to get home again, he kindly gave me a hardfrozen ice pack ("good for at least 4 hours") to keep it safely cold. I love that I can double my EBT purchasing money there, which lets me get special things like fish, or berries, and puts that money directly to local and regional producers. Another booth had haricots vert, and little new potatoes smaller than hens eggs... I forsee a lovely summertime potato salad (adding in some yard herbs) to go with the special fish treat!

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Happy to have figured out how to do the base for the Mindy camp kitchen cupboard: use thin boards parallel for the base, then use 2-by boards as cleats on the ends and for the risers underneath, so I don't need to cut a large plywood rectangle. Can use "screen molding" for the locator stops along the upper edge.

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Current tablet weaving - 1 repeat takes about a half hour, and is about 5 inches in length

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I had a weird adventure dream last night... Bill, and Eva, and I were all having a sort of odd picnic/sleepover in an outdoor garden, where the trees were actually huge tomato plants. We had made up our bedrolls from these vintage quilts, and were settling down with bowls of vegetable soup...

I suspect the subconscious influence of the Oregon Country Fair.

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Discovered a bag of blueberries in the depths of the chest freezer... this makes breakfast a lot more appealing this time of year. Add a few chopped nuts, some yoghurt, and a spoonfl of rolled oats for a freezy museli morning treat

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My sleep wake has become entirely disordered. I prescribed napping, and so today was mostly a massive siesta once I got home from the farmers market (and put the laundry out on the line to dry while I napped). Now that I am finally awake again, shall attempt the rest of the chores list, and scout around the house for things to declutter.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wool apron dress	planted tarragon	yard waste bin
2	large border block	LED light shield	-
3	Thora mousie block	harvested garlic	-
4	x	garlic braided	-
5	x	-	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine attempts to become crepuscular (in the zoological sense)...

Summer heat has me hiding indoors whenever possible, though it isn't always an option. Though I am not ever an early morning person, afternoon napping mitigates at least some of the exhaustion.

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The other end of my tablet weaving setup - the weighted spools that hold the warps from each card.

This makes dealing with accumulated warp twist as fast and easy as can be (just push twist to the far end and let each spool twirl as needed) which makes doing complex weaves with irregular turning, like those in Applesies and Fox Noses, so much less troublesome. I am using porcelain ceramic electric fence insulators, one to hold each set of warps, and an additional one on each to add extra weight.

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Further progress on the central linoleum block with Thora's heraldic motifs. I have decided that I much prefer the grey lino to the tan, as the tan lino keeps cracking/chipping off in small details and edges. (which is odd, since the tan blocks are advertised as being of "superior quality")

I have had to break out the epoxy three times so far, some of which is visible in the lower left of the tree roots. This also happened when I carved the confronted horses block, where the horse ears fell off and needed glued back into place. Fortunately the glue seems to hold up so far in use, but I shall avoid any further purchased of the tan linoleum blocks...

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wool apron dress	planted tarragon	yard waste bin
2	large border block	LED light shield	-
3	x	harvested garlic	-
4	x	garlic braided	-
5	x	-	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x