Major Knitter

Thanksgiving - or Dia das Graças

What should you do when your favorite holiday is approaching and your boys are going to be with their father?  You don't really want to cook a turkey and all the fixin's for you and your husband and sit at a table for two.  You know that it could be a little depressing.  OK... a LOT depressing.  So if you're really lucky and you have the best husband in the world... you go to a country where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving!  That's exactly what we did.  It was wonderful.

We traveled to São Paulo, Brazil and visited our friends.  I called it our Friend and Food tour.  That's all we did - and it was fabulous.  We visited with dear friends and ate, and ate, and ate some more.

We went to people's houses and they prepared the most delicious food.  One friend made a traditional Brazilian seafood dish - Moqueca de Camarão - with fish and shrimp.

At another friend's house, I was enthralled with a pair of handknit gloves displayed lovingly on the wall.  These belonged to a Norwegian grandfather and were his ski gloves.

We were in São Paulo for five days which allowed for a culinary sampling of many wonderful foods.  Our Thanksgiving buffet was a steak and pasta dinner.  

It was delicious!

I wish I had taken a picture of the view from our friend's backyard which is high on a hill and overlooks the Morumbi soccer stadium.  It was one of the most peaceful views of São Paulo I have ever seen.

So there you have it.  Other than the one picture of São Paulo's Jardim Europa neighborhood, I only took pictures of friends and food... and one knitting item.  It was the best way to spend Thanksgiving!

Feeling Very Lucky

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone and I must say we're feeling very, very lucky.  We lost power for five days.  We had a tree down on the wires, branches down everywhere, part of our fence down, and no school for the entire week (which some might see as a good thing) - but other than that, we did just fine.  So many others were not nearly as lucky.  

Thank you all for your notes of concern and well wishes.  Now that we've survived Hurrican Sandy, we're hunkering down once again for a nor'easter.  Unfortunately, this one is tauted to come with lots of rain.  In Connecticut, lots of rain, coupled with high winds is never a good combination for the trees.  Our soil is very rocky and the tall 70 foot trees have root balls that are usually less than three feet deep.  They literally topple over like dominoes in these conditions.  Fortunately, we removed all the trees that could possibly hit the house so I feel safe and sound.  Of course, I have my mad camping skills and an endless supply of personal Marine Corps and Scouting equipment that I feel very prepared.

My heart goes out to them and to all those who are still without power... or who just got it back... and are now likely to lose it once again.

Hurricane Preparations

Hurricane Sandy is on her way.  She's going to hit New Jersey, but her tail is going to whip around and wreak havoc across New England.  We're prepared.  In fact, today, we even took a walk to see how things looked so far.

The town has been busy taking down trees as a precautionary measure.  This is not a knee-jerk reaction to Sandy, it's par for the course for living in Connecticut.  I especially liked the way this tree trunk looked with the English ivy vines formed around the trunk.

The leaves are at the height of falling... and this is dangerous as it can clog up the storm drains.

We were surprised at how many people still have their boats at the Compo Beach Ned Dimes Marina.  This picture was taken at 8:00 a.m.  It's 5:00 p.m. now... perhaps many of them are already out of the water for the season now that Sandy is knocking at our door.

The town has been busy yesterday and today creating a huge sand berm as a barrier against the high tide and storm.  I felt like a two-year-old boy, excited to be watching the big trucks at work.

Here's a bench to give you a better sense of size.  These berms are 8-10 feet high!

The stairways were barricaded with a plywood and sand barrier.  Very interesting to see.

The tide is very high, making the flood threat even more dangerous, but this morning, it was still the calm before the storm.

Just to give you an idea, here's a view of the trees on my street.  See how many of them still have their leaves?  I suspect that by this time tomorrow there won't be a leaf to be seen... on a tree.  

Everyone is encouraged to clean out their storm gutters and their drains.  If these get clogged up, with the amount of water they're predicting, we could have the greatest amount of damage from clogged drains and gutters.  I just hope that I can keep them cleared.  

Stay safe everyone!

 

 

 

How to Succeed in Business

Today I took the Boy Scouts to the Pray Achievement Center where Malcolm Pray showed the boys his amazing automobile collection.  

His favorite vehicle is this De La Haye that was in the 1939 Worlds Fair - and the subject of his admiration that got him interested in cars in the first place.

He talked to the boys about finding a passion - and following that passion.  He told them about the basic tenets that are required to make one successful in business and in life.  He calls this his "How to Be a Millionaire" speech.  The basic point is that there is NOTHING IN LIFE YOU CANNOT ACHIEVE, and no matter what you do, you will be in the PEOPLE BUSINESS, and that your REPUTATION IS THE GREATEST ASSET THAT YOU HAVE.

• Think About A Career       
• Understand How Business Works       
• Study History
• Know About Our World       
• Be Organized       
• Get Along With People
• Learn To Sell Yourself       
• Be Trustworthy           
• Value Your Reputation
• Take Pride In Your Appearance               
• Take Pride In Your Conduct
• Stay Away From Liquor And Drugs       
• Learn The Value Of Money       
• Be Patriotic
• Dare To Achieve               
• Dare To Dream           
• Do Not Be Afraid To Fail

I wonder what each individual took away from this amazing experience!

 

 

 

Fall Camporee

I always love camping.  I love getting outside in the fresh air and seeing my friends.  I love sleeping in my tent.  I love the comments I hear from my non-camping friends "You're camping in this weather?"  People always assume the weather is worse than it is.  It rained most of this past week.  The weather was pretty yucky.  But it was forecast to stop raining Friday night and be partly cloudy until about Saturday at lunch.  The forecast did not lie.  It was a gorgeous fall day.

The fall foliage was gorgeous.  The Scouts had a great time playing the Scout skill games we had for them.

Look at that gorgeous October day!

My Assistant Scoutmaster and I posed for a picture.

And for the last competition, our boys made Campfire Tin Foil Bananas Foster.  Click here for the recipe.

Mmmm - Bananas Foster.

I had a great weekend.  How about you?

That's What Friends Are For

My friend Caroline posted a dark picture of her new socks on her bunk last night.  It was dark - so it's really only two feet... that third looking foot is really a shadow.

"Oh yea who got hand knit socks from majorknitter, Jennifer Jackson at Woodbadge?!? Oh yes this girl did!! Cosy:-D"

Camping socks and good friends make a great combination!

A Work of Art

I like to think of my knitting as a work of art.  Today, I presented my good friend Caroline with her very own pair of hand knit socks for camping when I went to teach the Leading Change class at Wood Badge.  Our photo backdrop took center stage, though.  I think you can see why.

This larger than life painting of Scouting's founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell is utterly fantabulous!  Our mutual friend Dave and his wife painted it for this course and it is simply stunning.  I'm hoping Dave will make a smaller recreation for our upcoming fundraising auction to support our five camp properties.  I bet it will be a top seller.

Wear them well Caroline!  Here's wishing you many cozy nights of camping!

 

Chichester the Pigs Take D.C.

BF and I spent the weekend in Washington, DC.  I love driving because it offers me uninterrupted knitting time for at least my share of the time as a passenger.  So I brought two projects.  My current blanket project and my little Chichester the Pig pattern and project bag.

We were barely on the road when I finished the first Chichester.  OK, technically, since I had finished one last week, this one is Chichester II.  He liked his perch on the dashboard.  Can't you just hear him squealing "Road Trip!"?

By the time we got to DC, I had made two little pigs.  Chichester II and III were ready to take on the town.  

The pigs' first tourist destination was Marine Barracks 8th and I - located at, where else? 8th and I Streets in Southeast DC.  You can *just* make them out above the Marine Corps emblem.  I hadn't been to this part of the city in ten years and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it had become.

While waiting for our friend to arrive for dinner, BF snapped this picture of me knitting Chichester IV at an outdoor coffee shop in the newly gentrified neighborhood.

And before you could say "Three Little Piggies" there were a trio of knit porcine critters.

Day Two of our travels found us in Quantico, VA at the National Museum of the Marine Corps where the pigs were excited to test their mettle.  Did they have what it takes to be part of The Few, The Proud...

Why yes!  Chichesters found that they were actually a part of the museum's history.  The answer to this question was: Continental Marines brushed their teeth with toothbrushes made out of course hog hairs attached to wooden handles.

Chichesters Three were happy to discover that lunch at Q-town's authentic Japanese restaurant did not involve pork of any kind.  They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

At night, the Three Little Piggies crashed Ethan's shabbat dinner.  Fortunately they managed to pose for this picture before going into hiding.  No one was the wiser.

Saturday morning, the pigs did some more sightseeing, this time in lovely Old Town Alexandria.  The decided to examine this industrial sized coffee roaster at a local coffee shop.  Note:  While I always love coffee shops with these oversized coffee manufacturing props, but the businesswoman in me just sees wasted table space.  

A close up of Pigs at Work.

The pigs explored the Farmer's Market in Old Town.  They were humbled to discover that "The Farmer's Market at Alexandria City Hall is thought to be one of the nation's oldest continually operating farmer's markets. Farmers and artists have been selling their products since 1753."  Wow! That's "Some Pig!"

Next on their itinerary was a stop a Fibre Space - a Yarn Universe - where they felt right at home in the cashmere and silk.  

Without realizing it, we happened upon Miss Babs' trunk show at this LYS - and Miss Babs was kind enough to pose for a picture with us.  Awwww.  Two skeins of her gorgeous sock yarn may have been purchased as souvenir yarn.

Sometime during the afternoon, Chichester V was born.  He made his debut just in time to crash the bar mitzvah.  But he couldn't find his name anywhere.  Can you?

Chichesters II-V thoroughly enjoyed themselves and posed for this relaxing picture after dancing the hora.

 

Sunday morning found us visiting friends on their miniature horse farm (the horses were miniature, not the farm) in Maryland.  Our hosts were kind enough to pose with Chichesters in front of their purple barn.  

P.S.  I LOVE the purple barn!

One of the miniature horses (not to be confused with a Shetland pony) was curious as to our arrival and came to see who we were.  I'm pretty sure the horse was thinking something like this:

"Ooh - visitors. I wonder what they have to feed me. What? Knit pigs? I don't eat knit pigs! I'm outta here!"

Seriously, he did an about face and went back out to the pasture.

Chichester VI was born on the ride home.  He was thrilled to be welcomed home by the rest of the pig pen at our house (minus the original Chichester the Pig, who seems to be MIA). 

And after a very exciting three days on the road, the pigs, all nestled in their pen, could only be heard singing their favorite Mother Goose rhyme

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

Good night Chichesters.  Sweet dreams.

 

Powder Horn 2012 - Day Two

After an extremely vigorous day of outdoor activity, we woke up bright and early on Saturday morning for Round II of fun in the sun.  

We started off with the High COPES courses.  My group beat feet for the Giant's Ladder which requires a team of six + participants to climb, belay, check and guide as the two climbers work together to try to climb to the top of a swaying 30 foot high ladder.

After the first team of agile adults climbed to the top, Michael and I gave it our all.  We worked together to both climb up each rung of the ladder.

We felt successful and were all smiles.

Another group climbed the sheer rock wall.

A view from the top of the rock wall.

There was more great teamwork on the climbing and rapelling course.

There was a tree top COPES element that included mastering a fear of heights and possessing great balance.

Agility was needed to cross the elements.

Don't worry, there were plenty of safety precautions in place to include spotters, belayers and more - on the ground.

After all that excitement, and lunch, we had a few hands on classes in the afternoon

We learned the importance of the Leave No Trace principles

We learned some neat tricks for building a fire without damaging the organic elements of the top soil.

We had a great nature hike to learn about conservation and flora and fauna

Frogs, toads, snakes, hawks, great blue herons, sparrows and more participated as if on cue for our nature hike.

Even the birds, and the bees, the flowers and the trees got in on the game.

We learned so much, that I walked away with the realization of how much more I don't know and can learn.

After a session on Wilderness First Aid (very important when you do high adventure treks in remote areas), we played an adventure game of geocaching.

Our clues included some history, some coordinates, some cryptology and required some great teamwork to find the actual cache when we arrived at our coordinates.  Fortunately, our team of ten worked well together and we found our treasure relatively quickly.  I won't give you more details in case you want to find this one, too.  It was a Take and Replace cache - so we left some Scout patches and goodies for the next group.

Are you tired yet?  I hope not - because it's only 4:30 in the afternoon and we've got plenty more to do before bedtime...

Secundogeniture had so much fun, he and I went with the instructor to help hide some extra caches.  Sssshhhh!  Don't tell anyone where we hid it!

After dinner we had a session about cycling.

We learned about cycling - both mountain biking and road cycling.  

Then we got to go out for a spin.

Fun was had by all!

Our final session of the night was about Expedition Planning.  Our instructor talked about his personal trek to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

He either inspired me to someday do my own expedition, or to never, ever try it (and if I do try it, to be fully prepared and in the best possible shape of my life!)

After his presentation, he fielded lots and lots of questions.  This looks like it could be his next group of climbers!

The ending to an unbelievably wonderful day were the deep fried Oreos.  Now for a good night's sleep to gear up for the final day of adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powder Horn 2012 - Day One

This weekend was just an average run of the mill weekend filled with activity... NOT!  It was my Powder Horn training.  This is a course is designed to help the troop, team, or crew by exposing older Scouts, Venturers, and adult leaders to safely conducted outdoor/high-adventure activities of a fun and challenging nature. The very first thing we did was take a group picture in our official course t-shirts (while they were still clean).

The adventures started off with some icebreaker games to get everyone to work together in a fun way.

We quickly moved on to low COPE courses where you must work together as a team to successfully solve a challenge.

The COPE course obstacles provided mental and physical challenges and required cohesive teamwork.

After our lunch and myriad safety briefs, we spent the afternoon at the shooting ranges sampling all sorts of firearms.  Here we are at the pistol range.

We got to try the rifles - in the most challenging position - the standing position.

There was fun to be had on the archery range.

Except for the experienced hunters, the shotgun range may have proved the biggest challenge.  

We were able to practice on the training shotgun before actually stepping up to shoot.

And here's a great shot of my very first attempt with a crossbow.  Sweet!

After a full day of new adventures, we had dinner and some classroom instruction on Emergency Preparedness

and the Sweet Sixteen of BSA Safety (something you really need to keep in mind when you're doing high adventure activities).

Our final activity of the first (yes this was only the first) day of excitement was a night of stargazing provided by the Astronomical Society of New Haven.  

Imagine a group of highly motivated astronomers with ginormous telescopes (seriously, one looked like it was going to be used to shoot a person out of a cannon)... 

and a wealth of knowledge showing us everything to be seen in the Connecticut night sky.

Using myriad astronomy apps for iPhones and iPads we were able to look at the stars through the telescopes and see the constellations and compare them to the pictorial graphs of the images (e.g. Ursa Major actually looking like a bear.)  The highlight of the night for me was seeing the Andromeda galaxy through the telescope. 

When I tell you this training was out of this world, I guess you can probably agree.  And this was only the first day.  Stay tuned for more of the most fun an adult can have in Scouting...