Oreo, the Pig-herding Dog Saves the Day

Last night was one of those "crazy life on the farm" nights. Passing the back door window, Oreo's bark caught my attention. And what did I see? A beagle dog herding two piglets. Not your ordinary back porch sight, especially when you don't raise hogs!


Now the neighbor across the street does. He hasn't had any for a couple months. I didn't realize he had gotten more in, but he had. And two had somehow left their building to take a stroll around the farm. That's not really a good idea because we live on a state road, cars zooming by at 55 miles per hour.


Somehow Oreo saved the day. Natural instincts took over, and he was on a mission. I'm not sure how he kept the two together and herded them across the road. But he was intent on bringing his charges home.


And this was definitely a case of nature working better than humans. Because once the girls and I got involved it looked a little like a greased pig-wrestling contest. Actually piglets run very fast and turn sharper than pro-football players! My baby caught the first. (It was all the practice of helping her best friend with 4H pigs.) She scooped the littlest piglet up and ran it to the garage.


Then the fun began! My Eldest had to chase the second about an eighth of a mile through a field and back until  Baby daughter and I were able to help trap it in a corner between a fence and building. She carried this escapee squealing to the garage followed closely on the heels by a barking Oreo dog.

Pappy arrived with a dog pen a few moments later. The piglet were soon contained where they happily went to sleep after such a great workout. Oreo jumped up in the back of the van to make sure all was well and safe. (He's never been willing to get in a car before. But this was important! He had to make sure the job was complete.)


The end of the story is that the neighbor farmer wasn't home, so our two escapees spent the night at our farm happily sleeping cuddled together in a dog crate. I'm sure they're back home now appreciating their temperature-controlled housing complete with specialized diet,... that is far away from the Pig-herding dog, Oreo.


Hooray! Oreo saves the day! (I knew you were good at something besides jumping and barking, Oreo.)

Hats for Haiti Update

Wow! After the craft and bake sale, along with a spaghetti dinner, our group raised $1000 to help pay for our trip to Haiti. My knitted hats, bags and shawl brought in over $150! My favorite hats from above sold except for the striped one. And shoot...it's too small for my head.

This is the shawl I sold. It brought in $50 all by itself. It's a pattern called the Daybreak Shawl by the incredible designer Stephen West. Check out his website: http://westknits.blogspot.com/. I made it for myself, but decided at the last minute to give it to the sale. Now I get to make another one in a whole new color scheme. :)

After yesterday, the oldest daughter and I have raised all the money we needed for the trip. And fundraising is over. Yeah!

Hats for Haiti

For the last two months I have been furiously knitting one cotton hat after another. My oldest daughter and I are going on a missions trip to Haiti this July, and tomorrow is a craft fundraiser at church. We are going to help at an orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti. I'm really excited to be going on this trip. It's been a long time since I've done a missions trip, since college, in fact. Centuries ago! Going with my daughter is special. As a mom, I want my girls to grow up learning to serve others, to think of others above self and to follow the path God has set for them. So I'm excited to see how God uses and changes us. And I'm glad we get to experience this together. (Now if God would just change Haiti's July climate and cool it to about 70F, that would make it all perfect.)

 So, the hats...I love to knit hats. The striped blue, green and white is my favorite. But the cherry one is super cute too. It's from Susan Anderson's book, Itty Bitty Hats. I think the pink one with the ribbon is the best constructed. The white one is delicate and would look so cute on a little baby girl. I just had to include a picture of it.

 In the past two months I have knit 16 hats and 5 bags, putting all other projects on hold. I can knit a hat in two nights, so they are done pretty fast. I even knit nearly an entire hat at the movie theatre a couple weeks ago. But tonight I'm ready to move on to something else. I'm excited to see how much money we raise tomorrow....and to get back to my Everyway Shawl.

Entering the Blogger World

Hello, world! I'm glad you found your way to my blog. I hope you stick around a while and get to know me. I've actually been blogging for a while now at http://bethgormong.wordpress.com/. Take a few minutes sometime to hop over there and read past posts. 


But I'm so excited to be a member of the Blogger world now. I have heard it's easier. I actually grew up before computers so I'm in need of something easy to understand! I must be ancient, eh?


So who am I and what will I be blogging about? I'm a wife and mom who lives in the Midwest and out in the country. I love to knit, read, write, organize and find healthy meals for my family. I struggle balancing the love of knitting and the hatred of housework. I'd rather sit at the park and read than walk the trails. (My body says, "Walk!" My heart says, "Read.") I'll write over talk any day. And search hours for recipes only to speed through the drive up window. Can you relate? What are those areas that you want to be priorities, but can't seem to make time for?


That's me. That's what I'll be blogging about...my life as a mom of teenage girls, my desire to knit when I should be mopping, my love of writing and my fear of conversation, my newest organizational find or yummy recipe, what I'm thinking about life, and my faith. I'll have lots of pictures of knitting and maybe a few of the county life.


I hope you come back to visit me again and again...and again.


beth

My Amazing Noro Striped Scarf

I decided to make a Noro Striped scarf when I visited Jared Flood's blog, http://www.brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/. I fell in love with his scarf! But then, how could I not? The scarf pattern is so simple. It's unbelievable how two different skeins of yarn can make such a beautiful scarf. But that's Noro Yarn. Have you even seen anything less than spectacular when made out of Noro?