Knock offs

I like to use looms to knit on, these are the round or narrow plastic looms with pegs on it that you wrap the yarn around.  There are a couple of manufacturers of them, but if you look online or in looming books, the main ones used are "Knifty Knitters".  I have read that the company that makes these (based in Provo Utah) was discontinuing them.  So I have a set of the round looms, but I wanted to get a set of the long narrow ones, which a number of patterns call for.  I went on eBay and found very few sets available, but there were a couple that were listed.  I won the bid on one of them, not realizing until I went to PayPal to pay for them that they were located in China.  I don't doubt that the Utah ones were actually made in China too.  Anyway, it has been 2 months or so, and they arrived today in the mail, all held together in rubber bands and tissue paper inside a big bag that was tightly taped together.  They look fine; but there is no name on them and the "how-to" instructions are without any brand name.  I think I have inadvertently bought a knock-off.  I have had a lot of opportunities over the years to buy name-brand merchandise at what had to be knock-off prices, and I never buy them; I feel it penalizes the original seller and causes them to raise prices to cover the costs of "outing" the pirates.  That having been said, I can't think of anything to do to  mitigate this error on my part.  They may break down while still new, and that will be my penalty for not paying attention to this.

We have survived the last gasp of winter earlier this week, when we had a lovely snowfall.  That is, it was the kind that sticks to the trees and leaves the roads clear.  But along with it was a 25 degree low that night, and our jonquils, ready to bloom, froze, even though they were covered.  Drat.  Every fall we resolve to put in more bulbs than the bunch next to the steps, and every year we forget until spring, when everyone else has loads of flowers and we have 12 or so.  If we don't plant bulbs this fall, then we probably won't even have that many.  And to be really strange, it is time to mow now, and some of the neighbors have done that today.   Strange weather.

The horses have been outside mostly this week.  We have been unable to find a source for wood shavings to put in their stalls, and so they need to be out as long as the weather is not brutal.  They have cover to go to where we feed them hay and grain, and although they don't have the brains to come in out of the rain, they could if they wanted to.

One of our neighbors recently got two beagle pups to train for hunting (what?  I don't know.  Rabbits?) and they are in a kennel with a dog house nearly all the time.  When they see anyone - the kids playing, other dogs, etc. etc. - they bark.  Not really bark; they howl.  It is driving me crazy.  The odd thing is, we borrowed the kennel when our Newfs were puppies, so the one-year old pup wouldn't get too rambunctious with the 10 week old one.  We alternated who was in and who was out, and moved the kennel every couple of days to be in the shade and on un-trampled grass.  We really appreciated the use of it, but the neighbor has yet to move the kennel to a fresh spot, and about half the time the pups have their doghouse upside down.  I'd like it if they moved them to the back of their property, so the howling would be muffled somewhat, but I know that won't happen.  And just so you know, our dogs have about one acre fenced and none of it near the neighbors, and they don't bark unless someone is in the driveway.  If then.

Back to the laundry.

Bumper sticker of the day:  "Wouldn't it be great if we could put ourselves in the dryer for 10 minutes and come out wrinkle free and three sizes smaller?"

P.S.  I changed the font here, as I found the original too hard to read.  I think I like this one, but I'll have to get used to it.  What do you think?