Remember that canoe trip I told you about? It was supposed to be a three hour easy thing down Juniper Creek. But no one had bothered to go down the first part since Ivan, so it was chock full of trees and logs and new rapids. Several places you had to get out, shove your boat over the log and then hop back in. Because of all of this it took SIX hours to get down this creek. We gained a little more experience than we thought we would.

This is everyone stopped for a breather. The green boat is ours!

We took the canoe out in the water in front of Mary Esther, too. I discovered this in my camera when I got home! Uncle Bruce must have taken it from the porch. He’s cool that way.

I didn’t end up taking any of my Works in Progress with me to Mary Esther. Instead, I visited the Target across the street and picked up one of those “Knit This” kits. Just to see. I got the yoga bag one – it’s rated a “3” on the difficulty scale so I figured it might be moderately interesting.

And it is. Here’s all the stuff that comes with it.

I haven’t watched the “How To Knit” DVD (I know about that), but the instructions appear to be clear. The pattern spells out how to do the stitch (it’s fairly complex) as well as giving the abbreviations. I thought that was a nice touch.

For some reason, even though this is not a tricky project for me, I’ve had to start over twice. It’s a little embarrassing and my only excuse is that I’ve got a lot of other things on my mind: SUUSI, Dennis, Starvin’ Marvin (the Hunting Dog that we were feeding*), and the little Kitty Boo** that we found out in the woods while we were tending to Marvin. So this is as far as I’ve gotten:

My biggest complaint is that there is No Way you could get 114 stitches on the 12 inch needles that come in the kit. But I am sure that they work just fine for all of the other projects. I’m going to send the bag to my Darling Sister if I ever finish.

And for all you Weather Nerds, Cindy is mostly gone from our area. It hasn’t rained for several hours but it is still Quite Grey and Seriously Breezy.

*We pick up a lot of strays. About half of the ones we find have families that are looking for them. When we discovered Marvin at the end of the dirt road to Great Gran’s house, he looked like a shrink-wrapped skeleton. We fed him for four or five days (Did those days make a difference!) before animal control could come and pick him up – he wasn’t a Vicious Animal. In fact, he is a Darling Sweetie Pie, but not fond of leashes so we couldn’t get him into the truck. He IS a hunting dog so what do you expect? They don’t learn to do the leash thing. Animal Control came for him yesterday and the fellow mentioned that if Marvin didn’t have a family, he had a buddy who loved Hunting Dogs. So I think Marvin will have a happy ending.

**Kitty Boo (a nick name – I am not all allowed to give her a real name since we are supposed to be finding her a home) was out there screaming and wouldn’t come close to us. So we ran back to Great Gran’s and got tuna and White Socks’ carrier and lured her into it. Kitty Boos are naive that way. Now she is in Michael’s office bathroom (his office is off of the garage). Full of kitten food. And purring.

Here comes the soapbox. You don’t get them often, but sometimes I just can’t help myself:
It takes the Lowest Kind of Person to be mean to an animal. Humans spent hundreds of years domesticating animals – making them dependant on us! – it is our obligation to take care of them now. Report strays. If you have animals that you don’t want: DON’T JUST DROP THEM OFF, take them to a shelter! They can’t take care of themselves. Donate to your local shelter (if you need some knitted ideas, google for “Critter Knitter”). Support “no kill” shelters if you can find them. Spay and neuter your pets. Feed those feral cats (and capture/release spay/neuter them if you are feeling generous – this gets pricey). You don’t have to take one home with you to make a difference.