Claudia, Ravelry, and Squirrels

My friend Claudia is doing her annual fund raiser for MS, despite not being able to ride this year due to her DH's broken ankle.  I'm contributing a prize and cash.  It is very important to me that we do everything we can to sustain medical research, to educate ourselves and our physicians, and to support people with chronic syndromes and/or fatal diseases.  I have not always been a fan of conventional Western medicine since I have had some truly horrifying experiences, including multiple [fatal] misdiagnoses.  However, I am also, courtesy of Western medicine and some splendid doctors and physicists, alive today. 

If you can't donate this year, please read a medical website or journal a bit each month to learn about nutrition or another health-related topic, then see if you can add twenty minutes to your weekly exercise routine.  Your best defense against illness is health.

I have also been actively working on Claudia's BAT/KAT project, logging some serious miles on foot and public transit and accepting rides only when the load to be carried exceeds my limit of 25 pounds.  And yes, the bike panniers can carry more than that, but I can't handle the bike when it's loaded heavily, yet.

I am learning my way around Ravelry and have joined Helen's Seasons of Lace group.  I think my first season's project is going to be Jatta's Zetor Scarf in light burgundy Alpaca with a Twist Fino.  This particular shade of red doesn't irritate my eyes, and I never was able to finish that red/orange project in January, so this will be a substitute.

Fina is coming along.  I passed the 33k mark and 150 rows yesterday and will soon finish the calculations to figure out at which points I can elect to start the border pattern.  I still have quite a bit of yarn left, but I don't think I have enough to do 48 repeats/180 rows/48k stitches before starting the border.  Maybe 42...  It's a nice piece of fabric now, not just a blob, but even with a hard blocking it's still too small for DD's shoulders. 

I am still enjoying knitting with the Yarn Place Gentle yarn.  It's soft, it has great cush in this stitch pattern, and I'm having very little splitting even with a very sharply pointed KnitPicks 2.25 mm needle and walking or riding bumpy buses and trains while I knit.  A tiny but of the cashmere has worked its way out with all the abrasion as I have crammed this project in my backpack or grocery bag for many weeks, but slippery fine fibers will do that and the quantity of fuzzing has been minimal and it hasn't pilled, just simply shed a bit.  It has been such a pleasant experience that this is one long project I will actually miss when finished.

I was wondering if anyone could make suggestions of ways to deal with a thriving squirrel population.  My particular nemesis is black with red highlights and very agile when sprinting along the top of the fence.  He likes to harvest tender leaves and shoots, to dig wherever I water, and to dig where I've been digging [and planting].  All input most welcome, especially in the realm of starting a vegetable garden.  Thanks in advance!

Comments

[Sharon]

Re/medicine - there's a great collaborative website the the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Medicine www.medlineplus.gov for updated information. For proactive health and nutrition info, there's www.nutritiondata.com that tells you exactly what's in your foods. I was in it today to see if avocados are a good food - they are, thank goodness.

[Laurie]

If you are vegetable gardening, alas, I've seen the chicken wire cages...tall enough sides to have a top on it so you can walk in it. I don't recommend trying to take a shorter top on and off.

I stopped growing snowpeas because the rabbits got the tender tips and flowers Every Single Time.

[sil]

Thanks for such a great shout out to my sister's fundraiser! I know how much time and money she puts into this and want her to raise as much as possible for the cause.

Re: squirrels, I don't garden at all but maybe leave some little thimbles of beer out for him so he gets sleepy? Is that animal cruelty?

[Beth S.]

I don't think I realized that you were knitting Fina on such tiny needles. No wonder your stitch count is so impressive! :-)

[claudia]

Thanks Syl!

I've got nothing for you on squirrels. Here, bunnies are the munchers of planted life.

[Betty]

I know exactly how frustrating squirrels can be for gardeners. We were overwhelmed by them when we first moved to our cabin. The only thing that kept them at bay was when we got cats. My major gardening nemesis now is gophers. I literally gave up my vegetable gardening because they would eat at least 2/3 of my crop just as it was getting ready to harvest. Then the went after my roses. Using wire baskets when planting helps for quite a while, but they will eventually break down. Either that or the gophers will eat through them.
But we still have cats and we still don't have a squirrel problem.

[Marie]

You've been "me-me'd" so go to my blog and read the rules. If I had to do it so do you!