I Killed A Pillow

It has been a very long week since we got home from Alberta.  There were many loads of laundry to do as I was gone almost a month plus we brought all the bedding, etc. from the trailer. 

I usually do fall cleaning instead of spring cleaning so had that on my mind as well.  We also bought several light fixtures, so Barry had those to put up too.

I revived my sourdough from sitting dormant in the fridge for a month and baked a double batch of bread.

There were carrots to dig and leaves to rake.  The herb garden and ground covers needed to be put to bed as well.  Lots of odd jobs inside and out.

Anyway, back to the pillow.  A feather pillow came back from the trailer stained, as I think it was the one my son used when he had a slight nose bleed.  Now this was not the first time I washed a pillow.  But unfortunately it was the first (and last) time I washed a feather pillow in the same load as a set of fleece sheets.  My mind was elsewhere when I was loading the washer much to my later dismay.

Now Barry loved these sheets and they kept him warm in the trailer on cool nights.  Ever since we got them, he has commented again and again how much he likes them.

Anyway, when I opened the washer after the load was done I found it full of feathers.  The pillow had exploded.  Now I'm sure I don't know how all those feathers fit in one solitary pillow (a fairly skinny one at that).  The machine was full of wet feathers and there was water in the bottom when we lifted out the sheets.  (I think the feathers had plugged the drain.)

The sheets were heavy with water and full of feathers, and I do mean FULL OF FEATHERS.  We took them out to try to shake the feathers off and to wring them out with not much success.  All that happened it we got feathers stuck to our pants and cold, wet hands.  So we left them sitting outside while we tackled the washer.  It took a long day to get enough feathers out so it started working again.  But for many washes after, it still spits our feathers onto the clothes - all clothes - knit sweaters, fleece pants, socks, you name it all come out a bit feathered.

We tried to rewash the sheets to get out the feathers but the sheets still looked bad and now we had to clean the machine again.  The dryer took many feathers out of the sheets but you can only run them through so many times on fluff.

The only way they will be usable will be if I sit and pluck each and every feather out by hand.  (Barry tried a lint brush and the vacuum with little to no success.)  That may be my winter movie watching project but we'll have to see.  I hate to toss them out as they are very new but really don't want to spend hours plucking the sheets either.

Oh well, some lessons are learned the hard way.  Hope you week was better than mine.  ;)

On the Road Again

Well I'm finally on my way home after almost a month away.  I started out by visiting Barry near Sundre, AB and cooking half a turkey (that's all that fit in the trailer oven!) for Thanksgiving.  He had days off so we just vegged out - eating, snoozing, reading, etc.  It was a nice restful break.

Then we took a trip to Battleford, Sask. for a funeral before I headed to Saskatoon to visit friends and relatives.  I had lots of time to visit mom and dad during the week I was there.  I went over to Michael's several times to visit the new grandkiddies.  Josie, Mikhyan and I decorated the windows for Halloween with skeletons, pumpkins and more.  We then made cheese biscuits cut in Halloween shapes to go with Becky's chili.  What sweet kiddies!  I had so much fun! 

I also had time to visit a number of friends, catching up on each others lives since we last got together.  I had some teary moments talking about Lulu.  I can usually talk about her but still get teary-eyed on occasion.  I ordered photos and made the photographer sad when he learned about Lulu.  He wrote some thoughtful words on their Facebook page under Lulu's photo (originally dated June 21). 

I took a day trip to Shellbrook, Sask to visit Kim and Marj (she wrote the poem about Lulu).  We had Marj's homemade soup and Kim's homemade bread for lunch.  Yum!

I went back to Saskatoon for a few more days to fix a few problems. I had just replaced my windshield before I left and got a big stone chip right in my line of vision the first few days of the trip.  I got it fixed in plus got my car stereo replaced as the cd player quit working and radio reception in the mountains is sparse. 

When I left for Sundre again, I met wet snow and slushy roads starting near Hanna, AB so the trip wasn't much fun.  I needed to wash the car when I got to Sundre because of an unexpected 4 mile detour on soupy gravel roads.  The car was covered with brown ice and mud.  What a mess!

I stayed in Sundre and packed up the trailer as Barry will be coming home for awhile and everything freezable needs to be removed.  We then took a day to visit Barry's brother in Lacombe, AB who had just got out of the hospital a few days ago.

When we woke up Sunday to start home, we found over a foot of snow had dumped overnight.  We decided to stay one more day so the roads would get cleaned before we head out.  So bright and early Monday we are on our way home.  I hope we don't have snow at home because I left carrots in the ground, not expecting to be gone so long.

Anyway, winter arrived on the prairies and I am heading home.