Tardis close call... Szwoosh!

Well, my geek senses went into overload, and now I am on the hunt...

One of my geeky enjoyments is Doctor Who.  I wrote a blog that I want to make a garden shed out of a Tardis.  (Stupid spell check doesn't know what that word is... Hmph.)

Anywho, I was on Craigslist, the bastion of all things cheap, interesting, or generally unwanted, and found this.

This is the item on Craigslist.

Thumbgal (This is what the Tardis looks like, for reference)

Ack!  It was plastic, it was cheap, it was the right general shape, it was cheap, and it was lightweight.  

Oh, and it was cheap!

I called.  

"Sorry, we have someone coming over right now."

I thanked him, hung up. And grumbled.  I decided to look it up online, to see if I could find the same thing... 

Husband suggested I call them back and ask what brand it was.  I did, and they said it probably was Home Depot, or Wal Mart...  It had been some time ago.

So, I looked, and tried different ways of describing it, I have found:

• Rubbermaid makes something close, but not close enough to do the doors correctly.
• Google Image thinks what that first image is a "door", and while there are some lovely doors in the Interwebby World, it wasn't what I was seeking.
• Google also doesn't discriminate well, I asked for images of Plastic Cabinet, and it came up with wooden cabinets, plastic bins, doors of various types, and for some odd reason, a tan couch.

So, I will keep my eyes open, this would make a neat 'shed' for what I want, and it would save me so much work.

(I think Doctor Who just threw his scarf over his shoulder, waved, and closed the door on the Tardis, but I will keep trying...  And for any of my geeky friends, Your Doctor May Vary...)

The Rroundup...

Husband was on a Craig's List binge again... I was dutifully ignoring him, the last two or three things he'd gone after had been sold as soon as he'd called. (One thing I have learned about Craig's List, the old axiom "he who hesitates is lost" is SO true!) At any rate, I figured he had another on his list of "Hmmm, will this work on the boat/welder/car/whatever?"

Until he called for me to come look at what he'd found. Four beautiful, if unkempt, fuzzy faces looking at me from the screen. The ad said 4 llamas, free to good home, we are moving. Husband called. I, ever the optimist, figured they were long gone. He, ever the real optimist, found out not only were they NOT gone, we were first in line to get them. We made arrangements, and borrowed a friend's horse trailer, (didn't think Husband's flatbed would be really all that comfortable for them...)

We arrived at the place, after about an hour and some drive. There they were, in a BIG field, and not fenced in. Hmm. We buzzed up to the house, met the people who were very nice, but then they asked, well, have you ever caught llamas before? I shrugged, Husband shrugged, uh, no... She smiled, "well, this ought to be interesting, neither have we, and these guys are almost wild again." Uh, oh.

Husband and I walked to the llamas. They walked away. We wandered to them again, they wandered away faster. Okay... The gal's husband started to make for one of them, and after about 30 minutes of struggle, got it, snorting and blowing, and at least one spit, into the trailer. I was looking at Husband, mentally asking "Are we going to be able to DO this?" He must have passed Mind Reading 101, as he seemed to know what I had telepathied, "They got one, let's give them a chance to get the rest corralled." Uh. Ok... ?

I watched for the most part, as I am not able to run much, and that was the basic plan of the guys. Run fast after llama, then throw rope over neck, walk to trailer while feeding sweet mix, then push llama in trailer. This, surprisingly, worked rather well, except llama #1 kept wanting to LEAVE the trailer, as we were putting #2 and #3 in. This was prevented by a unique method, push nose of llama #1 back, put dog fencing on rear of llama #2 and push like holy... uh... heck. Then came the last one. #4. OY VEY and a half!

Llama #4 had a halter on. The gal said, oh, this one has a little attitude. Meanwhile, in the trailer, llama #1, male, was trying to get it on with llama #2, female, and she wasn't having any of it, HAWKSPITOOOOO!!! His face, his neck, and most of the front window of the trailer were now covered in greenish spit goo. He stopped. Quickly.

I watched as the guys ran her round and around and around, and behind the house, down to the fence, back up, behind the fence again, finally, someone blocked the fence entrance off. Llama #4 then had a rope put round her neck. That's when all hell broke loose she showed her attitude a bit. She proceeded to start snorting, grunting, and pulling on the rope. They told Husband to back the trailer up close so she could get in quickly, because they wanted to keep from being stomped to death wanted to keep her from stressing out too much. Her? Stressed? This coming from the guy that was mud brown from the knees down, and llama spit Green from the chest up? Uh, sure...

I was busy picking up straps and ropes and getting our stuff back to the truck, when I heard it. The llama is REALLY furious, and is going to bite gonads if people don't let her loose, yesterday scream. Oh, goody. We are bringing this demon from the lowest depths very self-assured animal HOME? I had visions of her vaulting across the yard, spitting to blind, and kicking to paralyze! But, they managed to get them all in the trailer. We waited a few minutes to let them calm down, while I got some information about them (the previous owners had 'dumped' them on these people, who gave them food, but not much attention, then moved from the place we were at, so needed them gone, as the new place wasn't suitable.) Husband looked in the trailer, and 2 of the 4 had sat down, and the other two were calmly sniffing the food on the floor. We took that as a good sign, and headed home.

We arrived, and after scaring up an extra gate, (we wanted to fence them out of the chicken yard, as we found out they adore grain, and we leave the door to the hen house open, where the grain is stored), we let them out. They jumped out, and looked around, incredibly confused. They had gone from half inch high, washed out grass, to belly high dark green grass. The confusion didn't seem to last to long, they figured out it was "good eats", and started munching away. The chickens on the other hand, nearly had simultaneous apoplexy when all these llamas started barrelling out of the trailer. In fact, they all fled to the hen house, and peeked out occasionally, squawking in abject terror when one was close.

They have been here about 3 days now, and the chickens are still wary of the llamas. After an intense stare session by the llamas, they just ignore the chickens now. And I have been able to feed the male. And Miss Attitude. Maybe there is hope for us yet!

So, I now introduce... (PUN ALERT! Yes these are the actual names I chose for them!)

Lorenzo, the male.


Rama...



Lama...



And she of the attitude, Ding-Dong.


So, I now have 4 furry friends for fiber fun! (Oh, good grief, that was bad, even for me. But they are my new spinning buddies. Or at least they will be after we get the matted mess cleaned up. Wish me luck!)

Craig's List addiction...

So, I haven't been too reliably regular about posting. Some is indeed my fault, wandering off to new projects, not having a clue what to write about, running off to get things done, the usual suspects.

HOWEVER... I am finding I have to compete against Husband for computer time.

Why?

The nefarious Craig's List, the bane and temptation of all who are not neat, orderly, and are nefarious collectors of 'stuff', i.e., "PACK RATS". (Yes, I know, I called Husband a pack rat. Shush.) Now, if you are desperately in need of wrought iron gates, a 10 foot boat (some work needed), or have something to give to the fine person who needs "large amounts of fill dirt or compost, clean" ( clean compost???), or need a date, a job, a house, or spinning lessons (yarn OR bike), this is the place for you. Husband reads the boat section daily. And whatever section is the mechanical 'stuff', oh, like welders and tools. Don't know that he calls on all that much stuff, but it's like getting a catalog, and looking through it. Except this 'catalog' has new pages every few hours... And Husband loves to get the occasional item, clean it up, then use it for various and sundry things. Which is fine. Except when I realize he's spent more time on the computer than I have... By HOURS. Eeep!

So, Mr. Craig Person, I am not really happy with you... Hey, what's this? Farm and Garden section? Hmm. Twisted Willow, Large. Chickens? Sheep? LLAMAS?!!???

Excuse me, I need to go, uh... Check something...

Finally!

I have been working for about the last HALF HOUR or so to get the Blogger system to first realize that, no, I do NOT have cookies on non accept, I don't have it on the new system, and finally, that I DO have a blog! I realize I don't write on it often, but come on... And really, I have to get in now, as Husband has found Craig's List. And now has to check it several times daily, on the off chance something new was put on since the time he checked it, oh, 10 minutes ago. And a website called "Fish Sniffer". I wasn't quite sure if Husband had gone 'round the bend, but it turns out it's about boating, and fishing, not someone with a very straaaaaaaange fetish... But with only one access to the internet, it gets interesting, so I will still be catch as catch can. I am beginning to think setting a clock for Midnight might be a good time...



This is the official first flower of spring at our house. It's a race between the crocus and some tulips called "Ice Stick". This year, Ice Stick was late out of the gate, and the crocus are crocussing alone. But when the Ice Stick gets "on the stick", so to speak, there are going to be a LOT of them! I think they tripled during the off season!

I have been knitting. I have been going to make a yarn swift, too. BUT, Husband decided HE wanted to make me a yarn swift. Lovely. Ok, fine, let him feel all warm and fuzzy because he made me something. But it's been about oh, 2 months now, and no swift. I have been relying on an organic swift right now, in fact. (Thanks, Mom...) So, news as events warrant, but I am not exactly holding my breath that the swift is going to be... swift in coming!!!



This is a new batch of yarn I had bought. Expensive (for me) yarn. I get snarls in yarn without a swift. THIS IS WHY I WANT A SWIFT. The snarl in the above picture doesn't look like much, I suppose, but if you realize it took me nearly three hours to get it unsnarled... And since my normal method of unsnarling consists of pulling out my Leatherman blade and cutting off the part that is causing me problems, (I am a true believer in Occam's razor, thank you...), you will probably figure out that I am not a very patient person. I was screaming and crying by the time I finished getting the snarls out and the ball wound. (No, Husband wasn't home, why do you ask?)

I have been knitting, hats and socks mostly. Dulaan stuff. I might knit myself a pair of socks, I have some really soft fire engine red wool, once upon a zillion years ago, it was going to be a felted hat. But, I decided that I want socks, and don't really care about the hat. Now I just have to find a nice sock pattern. Hmm. I will have to put up some pix later of it, but am feeling lazy and don't want to dig out the camera at the moment... Now that I actually have some material for blogging (I think, anyway), and Husband is going to be working for a couple days, maybe I can get in some pages. Hope springs eternal!