The weekend's work

 I did find the present I wanted:

 It's one of those ball-chucker things. The balls float and the whole thing glows in the dark (and it glows pretty strongly as I saw when I brought it into my dim house from the car trunk). 

I did also go to the yarn shop. I had not PLANNED on it, but then decided that since I was going to Albertson's and they are only a couple blocks away....

Yes, I bought more yarn

 it's the start of the North Texas yarn crawl, and they had a spinner doing a demonstration with an electric wheel (I had never seen one, just the foot-treadle kind) and they had a dyer selling her wares - a new to me line, so I bought the "Tiger Lily" fingering weight (the one on the top there) and the "Rhubarb" dk weight - that yarn actually comes from the sheep the dyer owns, which is always kind of a nice thing.

Apparently this is going to be one of the new lines they carry when they move to their new space (same building, but a larger suite, so they can carry more things and I presume have more space for classes and knit nights) in early June.

So that's hopeful.  Maybe even if tariffs grind down on the ability to import yarn there's still enough US made out there that there will still be yarn? Because I feel like "yarn will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no yarn" (I feel the same about books)

The dk there will be for a hat, I think - it might be just a little bit not-soft-enough for mitts. And the Tiger Lily will be socks, in fact, I may do the "Hocus Pocus" cabled pattern I had in mind for some Hobbit themed yarn (which is probably too dark to show cables well) with this one instead.

 

After I got home (and Sunday after church), I spend some time working outside - I mowed the lawn (it needed it, after all the rain) but first I had to take down another cracked part of the yaupon holly (we had a brief windstorm Friday morning). At first I was afraid I couldn't do it myself and wondered if I could text Dana to come help me, but then I figured it out - I cut it to pieces using my Japanese folding saw and then I was able to reach the top part (which had snagged on the main trunk) and maneuver it down

 I had to drag it around to the back yard; the city no longer does free yard waste pickup and I'm not even sure you can pay them to pick up now; I will have to either hire someone to haul off the brush or enlist someone who has a pickup truck and/or open trailer to help me get it to the dump. (Very inconvenient, but it seems like "fewer services for the same cost" is the law of the land now)

I kept going. And wound up with quite a pile; this is about 5' tall and there's still more to go. I think of the Bluey episode "Stumpfest" and yeah, you know? Cutting brush is kind of fun because it's satisfying to see the area get cleaned up.

I will have to be careful the next go I take at it; I saw some poison ivy back behind the next batch I have to cut and I've *already* had a case this spring (probably contracted from some field equipment that was contaminated with the oils). 

But right now, it's raining, so no more Stumpfest today or tomorrow.