Computer Blues, Processing Blues

When my son, AJ, got his National Guard signing bonus he bought me a new computer. That was three years ago. I think it's kaput. It is giving me all kinds of fits. I can't log on to my email and it's Friday night. All weekend with no email? It's enough to send me into some kind of withdrawal. And my blog? The thought of not documenting my existence for three days until I can get back into my school computer was almost too much to deal with. Then I succeeded in logging on to my blog through Frontier net, which comes with the phone company. So the problem is my Yahoo. Could it be the fact that I have almost 3,000 pieces of mail in the inbox? I bought more space from Yahoo. Kelly tried to show me how to put things in folders, but I must have been thinking about sheep, or wool, or soap at the time. It didn't stick. My special ed director gave me a brand new Dell lap top, which, coincidentally, only works in one corner of one classroom in the school. I will bring that home and plug it in here. The keys are so tiny I can hardly type, but at least I can get my email. So here we are. It was HOT today. Great for the people who are getting their hay in...but tractorless me is not doing that. I still think I should have gone down to John Deere and leased a tractor, but Matt said no. All the farmers with multiple tractors around here and we couldn't find a single person to cut and bale our hay. We are still trying. I want to believe them when they say they are just too busy. I hope that's all it is...I have a lot to do this weekend, including cutting out more bags and making some buttons. Matt is out bidding a job in West Winfield, only half an hour from here. A lady with a beauty parlor wants to change her house into a B and B. She had three contractors come and take a look but none of them even called her back. Enter Matt...I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm hoping he doesn't have to go back to NJ to work this winter. My cold is going away and I am coughing up the residual gunk. Good riddance. The goats and a few sheep showed up this morning after staging an escape last night. I wonder if coyotes scared them into coming home. I am washing yarn I had spun by Duck Flats Farm. I'm not impressed. I wanted to support a member of my sheep club from NJ but after sending her beautiful roving it came back a dark, muddy color with a tinge of purple. Don't know who would buy this stuff. There are many unspun spots. She gave it to Matt at GSSB and told him the short fibers gave her trouble. Hmmmm, I think that is a common complaint of processors when things don't go well. There were plenty of nice, long BFL fibers in this roving. The skeins were rock hard to the touch. I don't think she washed them before giving them back to me. I have them soaking in the bathtub now and will try to "full" them myself, which requires whacking them against something hard to fluff up the fibers. The giant lot of dyed and natural colored wool and angora I sent to Zeilingers to bring to me in Vermont is a disappointment too. They SHREDDED the beautiful long fibers. It looks like mattress stuffing. It took me a week to sort, pick, wash, dye, wash again and dry that fiber...AND a lot of money to send it to them. All to save on the return postage because they were going to Vermont Sheep and Wool and so was I. I keep trying to lower my carbon footprint by using people who are closer and can deliver processed wool to me, but Deb McDermott in Michigan still reigns supreme as the best spinner, in my humble opinion. Can't wait to get my sock order from her. OH, how I wish I could afford my own equipment, but that doesn't look likely in my lifetime.