2013

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

When December 21 came, Old Man Winter knew he was free and clear to come pay us a visit.   His long fingers dipped down from the North bringing us a white Christmas.  It was only a dusting but was worth crowing about!

Then as if to let everyone know it was not a fluke he blew down a little more snow and ice for us!  It was wonderful!

Then it got windy as he decided to blow the stink off of 2012 and bring in 2013 crisp and clear.   

The day after the man left for work and the kids for school…peace and quiet reigned once more on ye ole home front.  For three days I had several hours to myself to reflect, take down the tree, clean (and have it stay so for a short time) and catch up on laundry.

And now that the holidays are over I can show some things I made as gifts.  Decorations for A and #1 daughter, they had already received their gift so this was just something for them to have under the tree and open on Christmas day.

Then there was a beard and an owl hat for Baby O.   

There was also a fish hat for #2 daughter, socks for A and an ear warmer for #1 daughter.  I even found time for a pair of mittens for myself from some old homespun thick and thin!

It was exhausting leading up to the holiday's but awesome in the end.   

Baby O who in no way shape or form got spoiled got a sled last year for Christmas but down in Philly they didn’t get much opportunity to use it so #1 and Sir T brought it up with them when they heard white Christmas.  Come to find out Baby O likes to pull the sled more than ride in it…independent little cuss!  He got a pair of mittens too and he is not impressed with them.  Yanked those off lickity split.

So a new year and a new book, some future chapters are already known such as #1 daughter and Sir T having a baby in April, #1 son and A getting married in June, #2 daughter graduating in June and #2 son possibly leaving for basic training in June.  The rest is yet to be discovered.   

So far a new page in January's chapter was homemade pierogies…a little time consuming but delicious!  

 Way better than store bought so I have to wait until everyone goes to work or school to make up a ton to freeze for later use.

In fiber I am looking forward to the PA Farm Show Sheep to Shawl this week.  I am crocheting the tiramisu baby blanket for #2 grandchild and I have a bunch of stuff on my Pinterest fiber arts board calling my name.  It looks like the book of 2013 is going to be a rather full one.

Christmas Memories

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.

~Deborah Whipp

The house and tree are decorated , the oven has been working overtime, the two sticks rubbing together to produce presents are showing scorch marks…must mean Christmas is right around the corner.

I love the holidays…not the shopping part but the family and tradition parts of them. There are recipes that I only make for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Each year while making them reminds me of years gone by and the people that occupied those years.  Using recipes from both my grandmothers, I can hear echo’s of my mother’s voice  telling me how far apart to space the cookies or my uncle who made the best gravy reminding me to get the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan.

While the holidays are deeply seated with tradition, some traditions change because we lost a member or new ones came along so we incorporated theirs with ours.

This year we start a new tradition as we are all going to #1 son and A’s house for Christmas dinner.  I have been cooking Christmas dinner with or without my mother for 20 years.  We always had ham and cold salads (macaroni, potato, coleslaw).  This started when I was young, we had a dairy farm and between chores and driving my grandmother to her sister’s house and my father working nights, time was limited.  One good thing is we never got called away from playing with our gifts as we could eat when we felt like it, although we usually always ended up eating together.  Then in 2006 #1 daughter decided she wanted duck for dinner so we started making a ham and a duck and it turned into a more formal dinner.  

This year the menu is still up in the air.  #1 son and A have a Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, Mario Bartali appetite but then usually follow with a Sandra Lee Semi-homemade approach.  Cooking from scratch is not their forte but we all know this …should make for some good joking.

So we have a time and place  …the food may or may not all make it onto the table at the same time but that will only serve as another memory, a new tradition .  It really doesn’t matter, we are all together, we will eat eventually and I don’t have to do the dishes!  So while appreciating the past, I can get into these new traditions.

 If I don't make it back on here before the day, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with love, family and friends.

Secrets

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” ― Roald Dahl

I love Christmas secrets, everyone hiding and working on something that gets shoved aside/covered when you walk in to a room.  I love watching their sneaky moves, tapping on their doors and listening to them scurry around thinking you are going to enter! 

I have the luxury of working on and wrapping gifts while the house in empty.  

I inherited a need to disguise gifts so that the recipient won’t know what they are.  My mother was very good at it.  Me, I do it because I know I love to shake gifts and try to guess, it adds to the giddy anticipation of Christmas. 

So I have been busy making gifts along with baking.  I have a couple of things to pick up this weekend and then next week I should be done with everything.  Yeah, I put that in writing so you know the little demons are going to wreck havoc upon my plan for sure!

The weather has been very un-December like.  We had a quick 4 inches of snow that was melting soon after it fell.  Yesterday the temperature was 56 with a little rain.  It is the one damper on my otherwise festive season.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for a white Christmas…it can melt the next day, I just want that one day.  And NOAA seems to agree with me.  According to their map we have a 50-75% chance of a white Christmas.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We went to the annual Hunter’s Bingo held by the VFW and we cleaned house this year.  We even won one of the guns they were raffling off!  So far as hunting season…my freezer sits empty. 

The unthinkable happen ...I ran out of flour!  I buy it in 25 or 50 pound bags so I though there was more in the pantry but boy was I disappointed.  So I guess today I am finally going to start to decorate.  We are going to a tree farm this weekend to cut our tree.  Tonight the man and I are wrapping presents.  I have everything boxed up ready to go.  He will  be wrapping one of his own gifts and wont even know it until he asks what name to write on the label!  For some reason that makes me giggle! 

Blessed Luckier Fortunate

A couple of days before Thanksgiving I was writing out a short list of things we would need, cat litter for the grand kittens, French fried onions, pecans, Welch’s sparkling grape juice, things that are not normally on my shopping list.

I went on the computer to check the time DMV was open as I was combining a run into town between grocery shopping and getting #2 son his driver’s license.  When I sat down at the computer my facebook page was up and this is a post from a friend of mine.

Seeing as I was going shopping for Thanksgiving, a day of giving thanks for all we have, it did make me pause. 

People say they are rich in family, friends, land or even spiritually.  But how many of us would stop and consider ourselves part of the healthiest, wealthiest and wise?  I was sitting there writing out a shopping list for cat litter of all things and not even thinking  that there are those that could not afford to feed themselves  on a daily basis yet along a pet…or be able to write out a list. I am thinking of the china and silver, thankful that my four children will all be under my roof, but not grasping the enormity of how thankful I should be because I take so much of my life for granted.  The fact that I can worry about the mundane  things because the larger stuff is already taken care of is probably the largest.

So this Thanksgiving I didn’t sweat the small stuff.  If the food all got done on time great and if it didn’t we could yet it the next day. If  we didn’t eat at the designated time and you are whining, than eat a cracker and wait like everyone else.  The rolls got a little too dark on the bottom? I don’t want to hear it, cut the bottom off. Ironically  it was the most relaxed day.  By not sweating the small stuff which sometimes made it more of a chore than a privilege,  I was able to appreciate all the rest.

So I printed that little sign out and hung it beside the computer to remind myself.  In the long run the leaves still in the gutter, headache I have medicine for or the garden which still needs to be completely cleaned up will not matter so I shouldn’t stress. Que Sera Sera  I should pay attention to the bigger words in that  big picture “blessed, luckier and fortunate”. 

Good Thing?

Is there ever too much of a good thing?  

William Shakespeare asked "Can one desire too much of a good thing?" (Act IV, Scene I of As You Like It) and later Mae West answered “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!”

In this instance I am going to discuss Pinterest.  My daughter got me started on Pinterest way before it became the mega bulletin board that it has now become.   I am not sure if I should thank her or disinherit her!

For those of you who knit or crochet and remember your first introduction to Ravelry….Pinterest is the same.  It is a huge time suck.  With Ravelry it was a place to organize your fo’s, your books and yarn, a place to view a multitude of patterns done in different colors and yarns.  There were hours spent queuing future projects.  Pinterest is the same but instead of queuing knitting/crocheting projects you are queuing home projects, recipes, craft projects, gardening projects, planning your kids birthday parties until they are 18, planning weddings, baby showers, menu’s for every holiday ever thought of, hairstyles, a gazillion ways to paint your nails or put on your makeup, and a use for every item you had destined for the trash/recycling bin.  You pin and pin and pin and smack yourself in the head continuously saying “why didn’t I think of that?”

I use to make my own laundry soap…now I make my own stain remover, fabric softener and glass cleaner for pennies.  Pinterest taught me to make my own salami,  vanilla extract, orange extract, lemon extract, clean my stove burners to almost new with ammonia after the marathon summer of canning and made scoops from milk jugs.

In canning it gave me Spiced pear cardamom butter, homemade chocolate syrup, steak sauce, most of the lemonade concentrates I made and showed me that a Parmesan cheese lid fits on canning jars.

In the garden it showed me how to use cinnamon as a substitute for rooting hormone, easier ways to do things and gardens to drool over and strive for.

My fiber arts board is future projects, a library of stitches, yarn related tattoo’s, humorous signs and bumper stickers.

Grandkid ideas...(there is another on the way, due in April!!!!!)…is a mass of things I wish I would have known to do with my kids, like wrapping up Christmas books for the month of December.  Each night they get to open a “present” and that book is read to them or they get to read it.  On this board there are also plans for a picnic table, playhouse, sandbox with a lid that turns into bench seats and kitchens made out of old tv cabinets.  This is also were I  learned to limit my buying for grandson.  I found a rule that states to buy…one want, one need, one wear and one read which I intend to follow for Baby O and subsequent grandchildren.  As much as I want to spoil the hell out of him I need to remember I am the grandparent and not the parent.

My “I am hungry” board makes the man very happy.  Last weekend we made pumpkin pancakes, 

pumpkin snickerdoodles, and pumpkin whoopee pies. 

Candy canes have been tossed in the food processor and now get sprinkled on cups of coffee and cocoa. 

Today found me slicing and dicing to put a Winter's Solstice drink a brewing…brandy, oranges, vanilla beans, cinnamon, star anise and peppercorns.  

Also brewing is candy cane vodka.  

Next up is Apple Pie Moonshine.  I don’t drink except for a wine cooler or two during the summer and some spiked eggnog at Christmas so most of this will end up as Christmas presents but I am looking forward to taste testing!

Pinterest has been called the virtual hoarders paradise and it probably makes hoarders out of people.  You know as soon as you toss something that Pinterest will show you a use for it!

But this all leads back to “too much of a good thing”.  I spend my weekends making things I normally would not make  foodwise but found great new recipes.

Economically it is a boon for those unemployed.  With less money and too much time on their hands there are millions of ideas for gifts and home projects on the cheap.  The reduce/reuse/recycle boards are amazing, the ingenuity astounding!

So why am I wondering if it is too much?  I only have 23 bulletin boards.  #1 daughter has 95 boards, 9418 pins and 1,162,498 people that follow her boards.  I guess I wonder if the time suck pays in the long run.  Do I really need to make these things?  Does the money I save balance out with the time lost or is Pinterest a huge advertisement making me see something and want to make/produce/try it/buy it?

I guess I will try to figure it out while I am making snowman face ornaments from old canning lids, knit little gnome santa ornaments, making gift baskets and getting snookered  on the homemade booze!

Oh look a ton of ideas for old pallets …must go look…I might want to make something else I do/don’t need.

November grew wings

"Cornstalks from last summer's garden now lean toward the kitchen window, and the November wind goes through them in a shudder.  Their thin tassels spread out beseeching fingers, and their long bleached blades flutter like ragged clothing." ~ Rachel Peden

Taking down those cornstalks is still on the  “to do list”.  Time is passing to quickly to get everything done.  The fact that Thanks giving is only two weeks away is astounding.  It will be a busy two weeks for sure but the weather is expected to get better which should help.  #2 daughter is jaunting off to Florida with her senior class so will be of no help for most of time….#2 son better step up and do more than eat to help out.

The chickens I purchased in the spring have started laying so I am enjoying the bounty.  The ducks even started laying again.  Thankfully there will be enough for all the holiday baking and eggnog.

 The Christmas cactus seems to be in line with the stores and is trying to rush the holidays…

My body is finally adjusted to the time change.  I appreciate the extra light in the morning while doing chores even while not liking the early evenings.  The ice on the water buckets outside the barn keeps getting thicker with each passing day.  The snow that made matters worse for the hardest hit areas of Sandy missed us entirely.  But it will only be a matter of time before the white  stuff pays us a visit.  I hope it is not a hard winter since there are almost no berries left on the barberry for the birds.  The acorns, while numerous, all fell during the storm and if we get snow with ice it will be hard for the deer to get to them.  I have held off feeding the birds for fear of the bear but they are flying into the barn and raiding the chickens bulk feeder during the day.

Inside the house I have knit a Thomas the Tank hat for a friend’s grandson and I have been spinning.  I got hooked on a book so fiber arts took a back seat until I finish it. 

And canning will be put away until after the holidays.  I just finished 9 pints of steak sauce and all the paraphernalia will go down into the basement and out of site.

For my own reference I will add this years list

Product                  Quart     Pint         ½ pint     ¼ pint

Strawberry/  

Rhubarb Jam                        7              3

Strawberry/

Apple Jam                              5              4

Onion Relish                         1              5

Mustard Butter                     7

Brown Mustard                     10

Apple Jelly                             19            5

Mango/Peach                       2              3

Strawberry Jam                    5

Mixed fruit Jam                    5

Apple/Currant Jelly              4

Taco Soup                      7      14

Chicken stock                        28            1

Kidney Beans                        11    17

Onion Soup                           11

Steak Sauce                           17            3

Chocolate Syrup                    5              5

Apple Pie Filling           19

Rhubarb/

Lemon Concentrate              14            4

Wine Jelly                              1              4

Sweet Tea Jelly                      5              1

Lemonade Concent.     1      9

Straw/Lemon Concent.        6

Black Beans                           12

Lard                               8      3

Blackberry Jelly                    29            4

Blkby/Lem Concent.             8

Rhubarb Pie Filling     15    1

Bottled Hell                           8              6              1

Green Beans                  15    50

Pickled Beets                         6

Salsa                               13    30

Cowboy Candy              2      15

Elderbry/Blkbry Jelly           2              1

Elderberry Jelly                     4              2

Tomatoes                       51    7

Mango Jam                           1              6

Carrots                           4      24

Blk Cherry Pie                1      4

Straw/Kiwi Jam                    2              5

Mushroom Soup                    12            1

Mango Chutney                    7              2

Grape Jelly                             2              3

Grape Juice                    11

Vege Mix                         19    2

Grape/Elderbry Jelly                            2              2

BBQ Sauce                             8

Tomato Soup                         11

Cuke Relish                            7

Pear Jam                                               6              2

Jalapeno Pickle Relish        2              3

V8                                    10    2

Carrot Cake Jam                   2              4

Pears                               1                      1

Maple Syrup                   7

Pepper Jelly                            4              5

Pinto beans                   7

Pinto W/ jalapeno        3

Red Raspbry Jam                  5              8              2

Banana Butter                                     8     

Green Tomato Relish            12

Pumpkin Butter                    7              6

Sumr Squash                         7      9

Grn Tomato slices         5

Butternut squash          5

Sauerkraut                    12    6

Baked beans                          19

Chili Sauce                            6              1

Chix dipping sauce      1      5              2

Swt Potatoes                  14

Apple Butter                          6              4

Cardamon Pear Butter        3              11            2

Salted Caramel

Pear/Apple Butter                 4              3

Along with all the frozen broccoli, corn, zucchini, rhubarb, and apples

I tried a lot of new things this year.  The kids love all the different lemonade concentrates and they are so easy to make.   I am trying to can the mundane everyday things like mustard, bbq sauce…just need to find a good ketchup recipe.  The convenience of buying dried beans and canning them is great and I will continue to do so.  I would have liked to have canned potatoes like I did last year because they came in handy in a rush situation…maybe after the holidays.

For now I best get moving as the kids will be home in less than two hours. I can't let them find me sitting idlely by after I tell them how hard I work!

Lucky

“The thing that a lot of people cannot comprehend is that Mother Nature doesn’t have a bullet with your name on it, she has millions of bullets inscribed with “to whom it may concern” ~ Unknown

Given the enormity of Hurricane Sandy it is unbelievable that we got off with just a scratch but we did.  We have been extremely lucky.  The view from my window’s  has changed a little as some trees went down but we had no flooding and the electric was off for less than 36 hours.  All around us people suffered far worse but again nothing compared to Jersey.

School was closed for the whole week while community after community slowly got electric restored and roads were made accessible.  Our school district encompasses 300+ square miles so I am sure Monday will still dawn without everyone having power but the power company has been spot on when it gave times for repair.

“Man masters nature not by force but by understanding.  This is why science has succeeded where magic failed, because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature” ~ Jacob Bronowski

I don’t believe man has mastered nature or this disaster would never have happened.  And understanding?  I don’t understand it, the amount of damage is mind boggling.  I do think that science was able to predict the hurricanes path far enough in advance so people were somewhat prepared for it and that doing so saved many lives.  Now if only there were a magic spell to cast to help those devastated by this force.  

Festive Wool!

“Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.” 

 ~ M. Scott Peck

I attended the NY Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck, NY on Saturday.  We got an early start as it is a two hour ride.  The days temps started in the 50’s so it was beautiful.  

Fog accompanied us most of the ride

 and later could be seen just sitting in the valleys. 

A little toll booth,

 a little Hudson River, 

getting closer, and then pay dirt.

We arrived to find the parking lot filling up but nothing like what it will turn into.  

We had purchased our tickets early so we didn’t have to stand in line.  An hour after opening walk ways were filling but the buildings were becoming gridlock!

I didn’t have much time as I had told a friend I would watch her kids for several days while she attended a wedding and got a little time away with her man.  I did however get to meander through most of the buildings.

The first festival I attended was the MD Sheep and Wool and what a shock.  I bought and bought and bought trying to bring as many different types of wool home to try to spin.  This time I only purchased 2- 8 oz packages of roving.  The man felt my forehead as he assumed I was sick!  We spent more on food than on wool! 

MD Sheep and Wool happens in May when everything is starting to bloom and after a long cold winter it is so refreshing.  We drive south and trees are green already and it is warmer than where we left from.  NY on the other hand has dealt me some freezing temps or rain but yesterday it was 70!   Inside the buildings it was getting darn right hot.  All the wool hats and fingerless mitts came off, the wool scarves came off, some took off jackets but left their wool shawls on and for those who showed off their beautiful work on a sweater dress I sweat for you.

While there are a lot of knitters/crocheters/weavers/ rugmakers/spinners out there who worship all things wool it is nice to just go see the different styles.  Cobweb lace spun so incredibly fine and knit into such intricate designs, someone’s first socks, wool spun on wheels that each bobbin holds two pounds and knit on needles larger than broomsticks into rugs that I would never let anyone sit on yet a lone walk on.  Wool needle felted into animals that from a distance you would be hard pressed to identify real from wool.  

It is a heady feeling being surrounded by so many fellow wool lovers and talented people.  It is inspiring.  We left with just enough time to get back to pick up the kids. Next year we will have to stay longer...or both days!

Winding down

“Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.” ~ Faith Baldwin

  

We received our first frost/freeze on the 13^th.  It officially put an end to my gardening but not my canning as I was given some sweet potatoes and apples.  I canned some sweet potatoes, apple pie filling and apple butter.  The rest of the sweet potatoes are in storage and the apples are a daily snack.

With canning slowing down I am now cleaning.  I started to take the screens off and do the windows but then it warmed up again and those lady bug look a likes tried squatting in my home ….evicted!!

Farm chores have slowed considerably.  The three little pigs went to the market (aka butcher) along with two ducks, two geese (because the one attacked me on a daily basis) and three turkeys.  

So with some extra (ha ha) time on my hands I have been knitting.  After the candy corn hat for grandson, I made a pilgrim hat

and a turkey hat so he can switch them up. 

Now I am knitting him moccasins.  Excuse the picture quality and the camera strap in the way as it was not my camera.  I have a hankering to start a more in depth project I just haven’t had one grab me yet.  Till then I will  find little things to knit and maybe make a nick in the stash of roving waiting to be spun since I am going to Rhinebeck this weekend.  I don't know how it happens but at every venue such as this some roving/yarn inadvertently falls into my bag.  I have seen others with this same problem and they are not complaining so  won't either!