Oil for spinning wheels from the gun shop??

You find out the most wonderful things at Ravelry.com.  DakotaSkipper, one of my favorite Ravelers, recently posted that the Gun Oil, Ballistol: 

Ballistol can be used On virtually anything! It does NOT damage wood or leather, it cleans metal as it lubricates and it can spread very easily into the smallest areas. It is also biodegradable. AND it does not build up into a hard, black gooey mess either.

Cabela's !  Yea !  Any of those stores, including Bass Pro are some of my favorite places.  The one has "stuffed" animals and the other has a huge, I mean Humongous, fish tank.  There were even live wood ducks in the indoor waterfall at one years ago.  My older kids, born when DH & I were college students, would think they had gone to the zoo and the aquarium on Saturdays when we went from Cabelas to Bass Pro to Pet World, sometimes we even stopped at the animal shelter and volunteered to walk doggies and socialize with cats.  All good fun and no cost.  The kids eventually caught on and had to reconcile the differences between their classmates zoo experiences and their own. ;-)

Last fall, I went with the boys and perused the hunting caps and sweaters as they shopped.  I got some great ideas for their knitted Christmas gifts.  Got great deals on "knit in the dark" flashlights for the DDs & nieces, too.

But NONE of them has EVER bothered to clue me in on Ballistol.  And THEY have been the first to complain when a squeaky wheel disturbs their Surround Sound.  Must be because they're all the nerd/geek bow hunter photographer nature hiker woodcutter types instead of the gun toters.  It astounds me how a squeaky wheel can disturb the soundtrack of a Star Wars movie or the explosions of a Die Hard Terminator Zombie Apocalypse.

Tote Bags from Bird Feed bags

Since the subject of Bird Feeders has come up, I think it's time to mention making tote bags from Bird Feed Bags.  They looked really good at the Middle School Craft Fair.  The bags must be made of a very durable material, it takes forever for them to disintegrate if they blow away and get stuck on a barbed wire fence.  We're going to have several of them very soon at the rate these birds are eating.  Aside from the cost of the bird feed, they're "free".  By the way, name brand bird feed definitely comes in more attractive and tote-worthy bags than the generic.
One of the many pages of directions can be found here:  http://www.curbly.com/users/stephee/posts/2064-make-a-bird-seed-bag-grocery-tote

Notes that might help:  Heavy Duty Sewing Machine with Heavy Duty Needle only
Reinforce stitching based on intended use:  If you're going to carry heavy stuff, sew more lines of stitching.
Some of these can survive a machine wash, cool water, delicate cycle.  But I wouldn't throw it in with anything you don't want it to fade on.

Bird Feeders or Hanging Trash?

It's winter. 
I want to feed the birds.
Bird Feeders from the store are expensive.
So, we could make our own.  Searching on the internet results in many directions for how to make birdfeeders from household materials including:  peanut butter jars, milk jugs, detergent bottles, sticks, coat hangers, all stuff we have around the house.
So far, the three kinds I've tried are difficult to make, more difficult to refill, and, quite frankly, ugly and look like trash.

Forced Air Central Heating is AWESOME

Well, after several weeks of tinkering with it ourselves, I finally got the DH on board with calling a certified repairman to work on the furnace. 
Liquid Propane is not a gas to be trifled with, if you didn't know.  Being heavier than air, a gas leak can fill a basement with fumes.  From that point, the ignition of the furnace or a water heater, or any number of other things can cause a catastrophic explosion.  The only upside to such an explosion is that it usually "blows itself out", whatever that means in "Volunteer Fire-ese". 
Now, How?, you might be asking, does this apply Beige Recyclables?  Well, in researching the furnace online while we were trouble shooting to find out what its problem was, I discovered that the poor little furnace is actually a Mobile Home furnace.  Oddly enough, made by Coleman, the camping people.  And, yet, somehow it made it's way into the quasi-basement, glorified crawl space of a 1911 Four Square Craftsman farmhouse with about 2500 sf of living space.  Hmmm, I'm thinking my Engineering friends would go pale if asked to do the calculations on that heating load.  So, it's probably a miracle that it has kept us this warm for this long.
And, I am so glad that the repair-guy could find a part to repair it at all, and really thankful that the whole saga added up to a little under $1000 when all was added up.  It could have been so much more.
So, we'll be taking as much advantage of those Insulation Tax Credits as possible.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.........

Christmas already!

Wow, just finished another awesome Christmas with the family!
One more thing to be grateful for this year.  Family.
Love them all, every one of them.
The tall and the small, the young and the old, the loud and the quiet.
Christmas Eve service with everyone holding a candle with a little paper collar.  Staying up too late talking and rocking babies that can't get to sleep 'cause they're not home in their own bed.  Christmas Sunday service was an added blessing this year.  Can't remember very often that a Christmas has been on Sunday.   Lots of Pew-time made the matriarch of the clan extra proud and happy.  She deserves it, she's earned it.
Movies, and singing and games.  The Kids:  the kids that were little ones just a blink of an eye ago and now sharing their newborns with us.  So many kids in this family that the generations overlap with Cousins having toddlers that are older that the youngest of the Cousins.  How can anyone ever grow up with out Cousins? 
The weather was sooooo mild here this year.  No Snow at all.  Sure, it was muddy out in the field, but the kids could run all over the farm.
Turkey & Stuffing and Riced Potatoes, home canned green beans, warm bread, and Jello Salad and Chex Mix, Pies (6 kinds), holey moley CARB OVERLOAD. 
Sorry we've lost the family members that had such problems with Diabetes.  Mindfull that the Diabetic Train is shining it's light at the end of my genetic tunnel. 

Raising Hope TV show

Have you seen Raising Hope?  Does it strike a chord?  Is this more reality than anyother show we've seen for a long time?
  They have a whole episode called "Dream Hoarders".
  Hitting way too close to home...........

Weekend Project Tip of the Week #2

Have you ever been to the "Instructables" website?  I personally love it!
So, this week's Weekend Project Tip is how to make a Center Pull Ball of Yarn; By Hand (with No Tools At All).  Actually, this was supposed to be posted last Friday, and I guess I hit Save instead of Post.

I have wanted a "ball winder" for years.  Drooled over them in catalogs and in yarn shops.  They seem so magical.  But, they're expensive. 
The other option is a Nostpine, Nostepin, Nostepinne - How is it supposed to be spelled anyway?  Which can be a beautifully carved piece of exotic wood - or a stick.
So, when I found this instructable and started using this technique, it solved so many problems.

1. It's free!  God gave me the fingers and they still work
2. I can't loose it, or pack it away, or forget it at home.  Fingers are always with me (so far).
3. The parts won't wear out, get jammed up, or chewed by the dog.  Well, the fingers will do all of those things, but, you know what I mean.
4. I can make the ball of yarn any size that I want to.  All the storebought ball winders that I have ever seen have a specific size ball in mind with their design.  What if I've got a tiny bit of yarn that I want in a ball?  What if I want to wind a whole pound of yarn into one huge ball?
5. I can use even my own lumpy home spun yarn that I did myself.  The mechanical ball winders can be very finicky on what weight of yarn and the texture of the yarn they will handle.

Yeah for Free !  Organic, Green (well kinda beige actually), Reusable, Multipurpose, ........