possum...doing what possums do

This is a totally unknitting story:

We live out in the sticks, and have quite a few wildlife guests through the year. Recently we have a possum that can be seen frequently strolling through our yard, as well as our neighbors. *And according to animal control, possums rarely get rabies, and there is no known case of them spreading it to a person, I know this because I've called. Possums are supposed to be noctornal. So a daytime strolling possum was cause for alarm from us with dogs*


Saturday we let the dogs out to run while Mr. Drake and I lounged on the porch. As our crazies are wont to do, they bolted around the side of the house. I decided to check out their adventures. When I came around the corner, I saw two dogs crowding around a grey fuzzy thing on the ground. I called the mutts back (many times, they were really really interested in the fuzzy lump!), and then went over to investigate. There in the grass was our possum...dead as a doornail. Oh gross! I called Mr. Drake over, and informed him he would have to dispose of said dead creature and please do it soon so it's not too disgusting. He agreed to rid the yard of the fuzzy thing when dusk came (so he could just sling it back into the woods).

Dusk came and Mr. Drake grabbed a work glove (for grasping the tail) and I grabbed a flashlight so we could find the thing. We walked to the back and I swung the light around the ground in the approximate area I had seen the fuzz earlier. We walked back and forth, and saw nothing. Our first though was that something big had come to dispose of the possums body before we got there. Ah well. Atleast it's not in our yard. And then something accurred to me! To Mr. Drake I asked, "Hey, don't possums play dead?" Well they certainly do! And they have a very convincing act! It certainly fooled me! The dogs probably came upon it while it was strolling, and dead it played until we and the dogs were away...then I'm sure it hopped right back up and resumed it's strolling! What I would give to have been there to see that happen! I'm just glad I was able to restrain my urge to poke it with a stick!

Now for the knitting
I don't have any pictures. I hate my dialup at home, it frustrates me, and so while I take pictures, I just don't upload them. I will post more pictures soon, I have many. I just need to face the monster that is our slow as molassess dialup connection.

Saturday I went thrifing for sweaters to recycle. I have a few goals in mind. I was shocked to see that Burlington had about 13 thrift stores in the phone book. I jotted the addresses down and set out. At about the third store, a thrift shop that benefits battered women, I bought two sweaters both shades of blue. One was a cotton acrylic mix, the other a cotton, angora, acrylic mix. Both will be used for summer tank knits. One honeymoon Cardi, and one that I just might design myself (we'll see). My other goal was to find a natural colored 100% wool sweater to frog and dye with kool aid. That I did not find. But I also did not hit 4 thrift stores that were on 4 random streets. So in a few months maybe I'll try again. I did find one store with tons of what looked like old dorm room furniture and lots of housewears. Another was more of a "this box fell off the delivery truck, we picked it up and now are selling it to you" type place. I bought Mr. Drake two pair of work gloves for a buck each. I'll be checking back on that place too!

I've just started the cream hearts on my CheesyLove sweater, and it's looking pretty decent. I'll take a picture of that once I'm a bit further into the hearts. I've not decided if I'll do it with sleeves or not...it might depend on how well I estimated my yarn yardage!

And in a couple of weeks I'll be going to the spinning class, and I'm really excited...the walnut husk dyed wool is seriously calling to me!

Now, March starts tomorrow. And hopefully March will be the month I find out I'm accepted to nursing school. At the latest it will be mid April (UNC says end of March, beginning of April, which means mid April in translation).