Ceiling fans, knitting, yard work, more knitting etc.

Thanks to all of you who have been so sympathetic about my moldy basement. Yes. It's a hassle. I've had many conversation and lots of good advice and information. Thanks so much. The bad new is: Jennifer says she has a dehumidifier in her basement that runs all the time and it sucks the electricity. The good new is: Lee says he can hook my dehumidifier up directly with the drain so I don't have to empty it every 8 hours.
Ah yes Lee -
Lee came during the week to check on the wiring for the third floor and to install two ceiling fans. Now, I could have done these myself but it was easier just to pay him. Besides, he said he could do it where the fan box is mounted to a joist rather than putting in a hanger (which is a pain in the neck!). So fine.
There are two unfortunately's:
1. Lee called to say, the fan for the bedroom is missing a bracket. I keep forgetting to take the box, and etc. back to Home Depot to say, I need this bracket! It's the thing that holds the blade to the motor. Kinda vital.
2. I put the wrong fan in the bedroom (sigh). Lee called me to tell me about the problem, and then asked if I wanted the wood side or the black side showing. I said, "oh I thought I had gotten white for the bedroom. He said, "No - this one is wood or black, which do you want." I didn't think much more about it, especially since it had been almost two months since I'd bought the fans and I figured I was having a massive brain cramp. "Wood," I said.
I came home to find this in the bedroom: And this in the living room:
Fer cryin' out loud! If I didn't put the wrong fan in the wrong room - darn it all!!! And of course they are already installed. GRRR. How irritating! But when I called Lee - he laughed and said, "Well, after your tenants destroy everything, you can fix it." Oh well. I can't worry about this.
We also talked about him coming and dealing with the new dehumidifier and hooking it up to my sewer line. That way I don't have to empty the bucket all the time. It is working though, which is great!
Jennifer also loaned me her (oh I can't remember the exact vocabulary) I think it's called a swiff and winder. This amazing contraption allows the avid (read crazed) knitter to wind balls of yarn, without the proverbial, two-arms-of-someone-else:
You take the skein, plop it onto the swiff and then use the winder to wind beautiful little balls of whatever you are using. (Daddy - hint hint - perfect Christmas/birthday gift!)
Like this: (before and after all in one shot).
I had a few skeins from Australia that needed winding, a few from ancient times and so it was great to spend an afternoon just winding stuff. Very satisfying. Thanks for the loan Jennifer!

My farms share was very rewarding this weekend. I got the biggest head of broccoli I've ever seen, can't wait for that, two squash, three bell peppers, cheese, eggs, ground beef, and ? Can't remember. But the squash - well...
I don't think I've ever had squash like this before. It's beautiful and really yummy! I roasted the other one for almost an hour. Had it for dinner with a little bit of pork loin, quinoa, and the squash with sauce. Yum Yum. The squash was really sweet! I mixed it with the quinoa, and drowned it with the "gravy." I had cooked the pork loin in onions, tarragon, lime and water. Talk about yummy. This morning I roasted the squash seeds. I really hope they are not poisoness, because I've pretty much eaten all of them.
And I was very unproductive this weekend. I still don't feel like I've caught my breath from returning, and hoping to get back into life. Maybe finally this weekend.
I spent some time knitting:
Don't be impressed, those are size 11 needles. I had to re knit the right side twice - I did that yesterday. Then I finished and I discovered that I dropped a stitch on the back, and I didn't really pay attention to the whole, right -side, wrong-side issues when knitting the front. I'm not doing it again.
I did get a chance to watch the rest of Season Two of my new favorite show EVER!
I hope you are all watching "The Big Bang Theory". Oh it's so wonderful! Four physics geeks are friends, and such dorks, and one of them is in love with the "normal" girl next door. Oh, these are people after my own heart. I think one of them has been nominated for an Emmy. I hope he gets it, he's wonderful. If you haven't seen this show, it's on CBS after "How I met your mother", but of course - since I'm a dork and don't have TV - it's available on Netflix.
And I did do one productive thing this weekend - I tackled the poke weed forest in my back yard.

Sorry - I stole this pictures from someone else, that's why it's so little. If you google Poke Weed, there are some interesting entries. Including this one from Wikipedia:

"Pokeweed berries yield a red ink or dye, which was once used by aboriginal Americans to decorate their horses. The United States Declaration of Independence was written in fermented pokeberry juice (hence the common name 'inkberry'). Many letters written home during the American Civil War were written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown. The red juice has also been used to symbolize blood, as in the anti-slavery protest of Benjamin Lay. A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin."

So, does the dye have to be made in hollowed out pumpkin? or will and old non-food pot work just as well.
And now I'm wishing more and more that I had harvested the berries. The problem is, that the birds really like the berries and then I find purple poops everywhere in the garden.

I had actually planned to only fill up one bag of garden stuff. But by the time I was done, it was, four bags, and four bundles. Oh well. The guys that pick up my garbage must think something crazy about me.