It fell and fell

"The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did, hushed, solemn." - Patricia Hampl

Yesterday it snowed all day.  We would have a period of snow and then it melted, more snow, more melt.  This continued until the late afternoon and then it was all snow and quickly accumulating.  My son called when his power went off about 7:45.  We were feeling quite smug in out lit house until about 8:30 when ours went out.  We got out the generator and watched tv until about 10:15 when the electric came back on.  We reset the bedside clock and the coffee pot.  Whereas I was looking forward to getting up and making a perked pot of coffee the man is all about having his coffee steaming hot and waiting for him before he crawls out from between the covers.  The electric went off and on all night.  About 5 o'clock we got up to a wonderland with 8 inches of snow!

When the man left for work, #1 daughter and I shoveled paths around the house.  We shoveled an area for the chickens to come out.  Although the snow is wet and heavy this time, there is no wind making it quite comfortable to be outside.

The electric played havoc on all electronics until it warmed enough for the snow to fall off the branches. After breakfast and more news watching, #1 daughter decided to leave for home today because this is our forecast...

 A SECOND...AND PERHAPS MORE POWERFUL STORM...IS EXPECTED TO

IMPACT THE REGION FROM LATE TONIGHT...THROUGH THURSDAY... AND

INTO FRIDAY. A PERIOD OF HEAVY SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE ON THURSDAY

AND THURSDAY NIGHT...AS A STORM CENTER INTENSIFIES NEAR NEW YORK

CITY.

STORM TOTALS OF A FOOT OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING.

ALSO...STRONG GUSTY WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP FROM THURSDAY

AFTERNOON THROUGH FRIDAY...LEADING TO SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND

DRIFTING AND POSSIBLE WHITE OUT CONDITIONS.

Whereas this past storm really only accumulated in the three eastern counties, this next one is going to be more wide spread.  If she didn't leave during this small window she would be here well into this weekend.  Now she will be home in time to have a short nap from the stress of driving and then be awake for Sir T to take her to dinner!

We have been busy while she was here.  Lots of molding got stained and during breaks she baked an awesome Paula Deen apple cake and I baked bread. The real yeasty, knead it, let it rise, punch it down, six loaves at one time type of bread!   It was my mother's recipe and I had always wanted to try it but chickened out and did the Artisan Bread in 5 instead.  I made some mistakes and it didn't rise as much as when my mother made it, but everyone loved it.  Now I just have to get to the store for more flour as I can see this being a continuous thing.

And I figured I am going to spin up all the gray wool.  Maybe when the gray is gone, Spring will be here.  I am picking up needed supplies for starting seeds this weekend so it better get here soon.  Hopefully this storm will be Winter's last hurrah.  Now I have to go fill up water jugs and bring in more firewoods...just in case.

FYI:  Only 18 days until Daylight Savings Time

"Frühjahrsmüdigkeit"

As a translation of the German term "Frühjahrsmüdigkeit" (lit. "Spring tiredness), Spring Fever is the name for a temporary mood typically characterized by a state of low energy and weariness experienced by many people in springtime. It is not in the category of a diagnosed illness, but rather a phenomenon thought to be initiated by a change in the season. ~ Wikipedia

I  thought it was Spring fever but now I am leaning toward the Spring tiredness or maybe it is winter tiredness.  I guess it is similiar to SAD except I don't have starchy food cravings.  All I know is I really don't feel like doing a damn thing.  I fell blah.  I force myself to get off my ass and motivate...make the bed (again) do dishes (again) do laundry (again) cooking (again) dust (again) mop floor (again) vacuum (again)it just seems so monotonous.

And the biggest tv news according to the news reporters is that they are going to preempt all shows for Tiger Woods.  A famous person who has just about everything gets caught in a scandal (again), oh my, yes definitely the best news going.

It is not time to get things into the greenhouse because it is not heated.  Snow is predicted for the coming week and I have yet to see a robin.  Blah.

But I have been spinning more of the Shetland

and I started the rug punch. 

I should have chosen a different color for the back ground as the "pine" tree really doesn't stick out but it is a first so it is a learning experience.  I have it set to do the shortest pile and I still find myself not going all the way down.  I also need to buy a different hoop.  I am using a regular embroidery hoop and I find I need something that holds it better.  But I will finish it and then I want to try locker hooking but designs seem a little more limited. 

So two things will hopefully pull me from my frühjahrsmüdigkeit...

1)  the weatherman said that in less than three weeks sunset will go from 5:43 to 7:08 with the average temperature going from 38 to 48.  I am sure to see a robin before then.  Right?
AND
2) #1 daughter is visiting for 10 days. I know she will make me get up and do things.  Hope I have the energy to keep up with her.

This Could Be The Start Of Something Beautiful

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

I am finally ready to start playing with the needle punch.  It has been languishing since I bought it at Rhinebeck.  There were excuses such as I had to finish Christmas presents, I have other projects started etc, etc, etc. But now I have no more excuses.

This weekend I finally finished the scarf.

I now know I should have used a k1p1 on the sides.  I thought the ribbing would keep it from rolling but it does tend to roll a little.  And the bind off end flairs more than the beginning.  I will have to block it and see what I think then.

I have also reached the end of my rabbit knitting.  I finished with five and didn't start on the eggs as I realized it was just another excuse.  Heck #1 and I even painted my bedroom. So now I am off to surf the net for some design that will spark my rug punching nerve.  Something easy, cute but not too cute, country-ish, maybe whimsical, using what I have, and useful as I don't need another project to throw in a box....should be easy right?  Thankfully, #1 daughter and Sir T came this weekend and gave me a laptop.  Now I can sit in the comfort of my chair near the fire and find exactly what I am looking for.  Wish me luck.

How Do I Love Thee?

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day with the oft quoted poem....

How Do I Love Thee ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Oh O-R-E-I?

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~e.e. cummings

I didn't want the day to be wasted so I thought I would give you something to laugh at...

 

#2 son recently went to the eye doctor.  He needed glasses, which he received.  We discussed contacts because of his participation in sports.  He got fitted, wore them for a week and went back to be evaluated.  He had trouble putting the contacts in at first but after two weeks of me putting them in for him he got the hang of it.  We put in an order for a years supply.

The other day, the youngin' was sitting in his gaming chair playing Xbox.  He had a couple of Oreo's lying on his lap.  He looked down to grab a cookie, threw the cookie in his mouth whole and looked back up to continue playing his game.  As he starts chewing, he quickly realizes that something is wrong, he can't see right.  And then he swallows and something sticks in his throat.  He starts coughing, pauses the game, checks his eye in the mirror and then he realizes he swallowed his contact.

 
He comes running out to the living room coughing, laughing and crying, asking what should he do, he swallowed his contact!  We did not believe him, but the coughing continued, his contact was missing and he doesn't give up his time on Xbox for nothing!  He coughed, he gargled and after about 15 minutes, it became unstuck but he did not recover his contact, if you know what I mean.  The man jokingly asked him why would he swallow his contact, and #2 said he didn't mean too. 
 
Then yesterday we went to pick up his year's supply.  If you bought a year's supply, you got a $30 mail in rebate.  When we arrived home the man told #2 that the eye doctor needed back the contacts that he was originally given before we could get the rebate.  #2 said he only had the one and what he suppose to do.  The man told him he had to retrieve it.  #2's jaw hit the floor and he asked how was he suppose to do that!  The man told him he would suggest using a pair of the disposible gloves that I have for canning.  #2 was so upset, he said that he couldn't do that, food digests in 8 hours and it had been more than that.  The evil step father said he would have to continue to check for a few days because maybe it got stuck like it did in his throat!  Poor son argued that they were disposible lens and then went and read the whole rebate form almost in tears.  When he was finished he did not find it humorous as it never stated he needed to return them.
 
How we kept a straight face while discussing this is beyond me.  Poor son has evil parents...but he still loves us and I am sure will get even with us in our senior years. 

The Blizzard That Wasn't

"There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the
still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig,
is clad with radiance."- William Sharp

They called for snow and I really was looking forward to it as we haven't had a good ole fashioned dumping in a while. I went to bed knowing when I woke the world would be covered...well in truth, we only had a dusting when I got up. But it did continue. The seed pods on the Rose of Sharon filled

   and the buds of the forsythia got covered.

Then the roads started getting a little slick.

The kids had the day off and the nephews were in and out. The snow continued and eventually it was the "still ecstasy of nature".

The schools cancelled for the second day fearing the reports of continued snow accumulations until 10-midnight....but it never came. We only got 8 inches.

 After every storm the sun will smile;  -William R. Alger

And the next morning was no exception.  Things were definitely looking up.

The sheep went out, their trails proof of their wanderings

The chickens were just that..chicken. 

They did eventually go out later but didn't venture far.

So while we didn't get hammered like was expected and for some strange reason wanted, we did get enough to make the kids and myself happy.  Of course there are parts of the east coast that feel...

"There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year."- Kathleen Norris

So I guess we were lucky, we got enough to make everyone happy but not so much that we hate winter.  And somewhere under the tent of snow lies the seeds of Spring.

Hopping Around

"Some bunny loves you"

That was the saying on a t-shirt that #1 daughter received along time ago from her grandmother.  I can't remember if she got it for Valentine's Day or Easter.  And why, you might ask, is this on my mind?  Well it started on Sunday.  I was merrily knitting away on a scarf.  I saw a design for a bag, but didn't want the bag so tried to do it on a scarf.  I was going to do a keyhole scarf with it but got caught up and went further along.  As I am "always forward, never reverse" I decided to make it a full length scarf. 

So, I was working a way when the Super Bowl came on.  And for some reason K4 P2 and then P4, K2 on the return was too much for my brain to comprehend while yelling at men on the tv that get paid millions to play football, that I know more than they do.  Ignore the irony of that.  But anyhow I pulled out the felted bunny pattern that I found on Ravelry.  I had printed this out to do some for #1 so she would have some Easter things for her house.  It is very easy with knit stitches only so I figured I could handle it.  By the end of the game I had finished one of the bunnies. 

Thinking he was kinda cute, I started a second one.  I have tried to squeeze a couple of rounds in when I  ran upstairs/inside to get a cup of coffe or use the bathroom.  The man finally caught on though and back to work it was for me.  Huh.  You would think he is on vacation and trying to get things done.  The nerve of him!  Well I am now on my forth one. 

They are very rustic, use very little yarn so scraps are good and for some reason that is making me happy.  I have to do their faces and since I didn't felt them I am going to needle felt a tail on them.  Eventually I will end up back on the scarf but I think I am going to make a couple of more and maybe some Easter eggs.

So now I have to ask...We woke this morning to a beautiful sunny day....

but we are due to get somewhere between 4 to 20 inches of snow (you have to love meteorologists)....so is it wrong to want the 20 inches so we couldn't work outside and that we lose electric so we can't work in the basement so that I can knit more?  Yeah, I thought that was wrong to wish for too, and seeing as how #2 daughter is home with the stomach virus, I don't want to tempt fate so I am going to bring in more firewood. 

The Past and Heirlooms

The past is not a package one can lay away. ~Emily Dickinson


But today it was.  In my never ending quest to organize my treasures,  shit, stuff, I dug out some boxes and started going through them.  One box I opened had belonged to my aunt.  She was an avid gardener, crocheter and seamstress and when she died, we cleaned out her house and I "inherited" some of her belongings.  Today's box had Flower and Garden (now defunct) magazines from 1970-74.  As a gardener I love to look at old seed catalogs and magazines which is why I had stashed this box away.
 
Looking through them was quite enlightening.  Back in 1970 Don Adams (aka Secret Agent Maxwell Smart) was touting the magnificence of a garden hose manufactured by Monsanto.  In my gardening lifetime, I have only associated Monsanto with GMO's, Roundup, Agent Orange, PCBs, DDT, Bovine Growth Hormone and Aspartame.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have associated them with anything as innocent as a garden hose!

 

Then there were vegetables that I grow because my mother had grown them.  Some I thought of as heirlooms.  I was shocked to know they had been introduced after I was born.

 

In 1971 Cinderella pumpkin and Better Boy tomato was first introduced. I knew Better Boy to be an F1 hybrid but though it was older than that.  Also new to the gardening world in 1971 was Green Isle Beans and Blue Lakes 141 beans which I have grown a time or two.

 

In 1972 Silver Queen corn was introduced as were Beefeater tomatoes and Ebony acorn squash.  I thought my parents had grown Silver Queen fooooorreeeeeevvvverrrrr.  I know prior to 1974 she sold enough corn (at $1/dozen) in one season to buy herself a freezer which still runs!

 

In 1973 Patty Pan squash, Wonder Boy VF tomatoes, Green Arrow pea, Golden Zucchini, Green Ice lettuce and Giant Beefsteak VF tomatoes.

 

So needless to say by this time I am feeling my age.  If I considered seeds heirlooms when they were only introduced in 1971-74 (when I was 7-10) then I am heirloom also!  But then this advertisement sent me over the edge...

8 track tapes, records and cassettes offered by RCA Music!  And I knew almost all the artists Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner w/ Dolly Parton, Engelbert Humperdinck, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, Brenda Lee, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Conway Twitty, the soundtrack to the Sound of Music, Jimi Hendrix, Three Dog Night, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash AND Young!

 

OMG I do believe that package should have stayed in the past.  I am too old to garden this year.  I think I will just wrap up in a shawl and sit in the shade and take a nap.

2010 Groundhog Day

"Away in a meadow all covered with snow

The little old groundhog looks for his shadow
The clouds in the sky determine our fate
If winter will leave us all early or late."
- Don Halley

And it has been determined that we will have six more weeks of winter.  We are due for some snow tonight and we might get some this weekend so I had pretty much devised that without his assistance. We have not really got hit hard...yet.  It did not stop me from getting some pictures of the first inklings of Spring while I was out and about.

The daffodils, which the chickens will peck at as soon as they find them.

The snow drops

And if you look real close, I tried putting in arrows, it is the start of the bleeding heart.

I am okay with waiting.  I have lots to do before it arrives...like more spinning.

But really starting Sunday the man is taking a weeks vacation so that we can start getting things set up for when real Spring does arrive.  Maybe we will even get the tree down.

Early tradition

~ Tradition is an explanation for acting without thinking ~ Grace McGarvie
In all actuality a lot of thinking goes into this tradition.  Many years ago Cyndy told me my seed order had to be by Groundhogs Day.  I have religiously followed that. 

The catalogs arrive before Christmas and are tucked away until the hustle and bustle stops.  Then with a steaming cup of coffee, curled up in a chair next to the woodstove we crack the covers.  Immediately dreams of the perfect garden go swirling through my head...an illusion...but one I succumb to yearly.  I write down what I want to plant that year...less tomatoes but more beans, no cabbage this year, try celeraic instead of celery etc etc etc.  I don't have a garden big enough for all the things I would like to try so I have to keep it to things that are going to feed the family. A whole list is made and prices compared catalog to catalog.

Then the catalogs and list sit and marinate while I do the daily chores....for days and sometimes weeks.  The stack moves from the kitchen table to the coffee table in the hopes I will be motivated to finally finish.  Ahem, I have been known to procrastinate a little.  Then after #2 son's birthday I finally dig out the old seed packages and saved seeds and find out what I really need.

Yesterday being his birthday and tomorrow being Groundhogs day, I knew what was on my plate today.  I did not save any tomato seed from last year and I will not use my potatoes as seed so I thought that I was going to buy most of what was on my list.  Surprisingly I have more than enough leftover seeds from last year and seeds that I did save to not warrant putting in a seed order.  I will need seed for green beans, peas and cabbage but those I can pick up when I get the seed potates at the feed store.  

And now that I have participated in this annual ritual, daily life can resume.  And daily during this time of the year means fiber.  I tried the combs and spun up some of the shetland but found it to be so much easier to just toss the wool through the carder.  The two don't even compare in softness but I have not been known for my patience either and when I do want to spin I do want to spin...NOW.  So into the carder it went and now I have lots to spin.  I also washed up the rest of the alpaca blanket from Louise.  This was Amigo's from 2007!  How the hell did that much time go by?  I was almost done carding the shetland when the kids came home.  In anticipation of the nephew's coming up, I decided to pack it up until tomorrow.  However, before I finished I carded up some alpaca.  Beautiful. 

Then I took the dog for a walk.  While out there I decided to check the daffodils and they were up!  I never got back to take a picture but they are up about 1/2 inch or more.  I will have to pay more attention while strolling around the yard, looking for the first robin and checking to see what else is coming up, before the snow falls tomorrow.  Until then I have some fiber to spin.

"The Story of the Trees"

The oaks and the pines, and their brethren of the wood, have seen so many suns rise and set, so many seasons come and go, and so many generations pass into silence, that we may well wonder what "the story of the trees" would be to us if they had tongues to tell it, or we ears fine enough to understand. ~Author Unknown, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938


Years ago my ex husband and I traveled to Annapolis, MD for him to take his arborists license.  We walked the grounds of St Johns College identifing trees which would be on the test.  We came upon the Liberty Tree.  It was the first time I had thought about what a tree must have seen and heard in it's life time.  Then I had children and read them the stories of  The Little Tree Who Wished for Different Leaves and the The Giving Tree.  Since my whole family did tree work in one form or another, when a tree was cut down I only thought of it as a paycheck, lumber, or firewood.  
 
My younger brother still does tree work.  Along with tree removal, trimming and topping, he digs up trees and plants that are "blemished" or did not grow as fast as the homeowners expected.  He brings them home and transplants them in one of our yards  There have been dogwoods, arborvitae, blue spruce, crab apples, rhododendums and azaleas.  Some needed a little TLC but then ended up beautiful.  It has saved me a pretty penny and I am lucky to have this source available.
 

Along with the trees and shrubs he gave me, I have black walnut, hickory, butternut, apple, forsythia, elderberry, winterberry, nanking cherry, white pine, witch hazel and a chokecherry.  Recently I have been hearing alot of tapping.  Today, as I was perusing the seed catalogs I looked out to see this guy in the chokecherry.

                                     

This tree was already fighting what I think is black knot and for several years we had wrestled with the idea of removing it.  However, Spring comes, the leaves hide the cankers, it starts shading the back yard and we decide to keep it.

But as I sat there, I was very concious of the woodpecker wrecking havoc on the tree.  I went out to look and there are large holes in the limbs and upper trunk of the tree.  I don't need one breaking off in a wind/snow storm and hitting the cars or kids.  I guess Mr. Woodpecker was letting me know that this has to finally be dealt with - the tree's story has to come to an end. 

The Past

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment. And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new. Right now. ~Author Unknown

Many moons ago the man had a relationship with a woman which produced a daughter.  They seperated and the woman and daughter went to Florida.

Fifteen years go by, the man is married with another daughter when Social Services contacts him for a paternity test for a child they have in foster care.  The DNA test proves that the child is indeed his daughter from the first relationship.  He wants to move said daughter into his present family but that relationship which was rocky to start with crumbled.  She did not want his past coming around and dirting her life.  So one child stayed in foster care and one went to private school.  The divorce was final and shared custody of #2 was decided.

This is where I enter the picture.  The man had #2 daughter every weekend so as not to disturb her schooling.  One weekend, he took #2 daughter to meet #1 daughter and had a great day.  Then one weekend we go to pick up #2 daughter and she is not there, the phone calls go unanswered and then phone is disconnected...she is gone.  Child support will not give out any information, said to hire an attorney to deal with the custody issues, which financially we were unable to do.

During this time the man was in and out of the hospital with back surgery.  He gets a phone call from Social Services saying #1 daughter has run away, has he heard from her?  We hadn't and kept in contact with the foster family until she was found.  Plans were made to visit but then the child support check was sent back.  When he called to find out why he was told that the foster parents had turned her back over because she didn't want to be there. #1 daughter was lost in the system and they didn't know where she was so had no place to send the money too.  He was so upset as he had only gotten to see her six times...not much to make up for 15 years.

Seven years go by not knowing where either of his children are.  During that time he became step dad to my children.  He was t-ball coach, batting coach, soccer coach, assistant girl scout leader, boy scout leader, taught the older two to drive etc etc etc.  All things he could have done for his own children.

Then we find out the ex had signed over guardianship to a woman in NC.  She was to send the child support to this woman to support the child.  When this didn't happen, the woman with guardianship contacted child support to have the money sent to her.  This is how we found #2 daughter. 

The man took time off work and went to NC to get reacquainted with his daughter. This being the daughter that he had seen everyday for ten years.  She wanted to stay in NC, didn't want to live with him and although he still had joint custody he decided not to fight it.  She was 17 years old and figured she had been thru enough and as long as he knew where she was and could have a relationship with her, he was okay.  Child support was re-routed and it was hoped that a relationship could be forged from the pieces. 

We mailed art supplies she needed,  birthday cards and packages, christmas cards and packages, sent $$ to have her own room built downstairs, sent flowers to the guardian on mothers days and Thanksgiving....and got nothing back.  We would leave phone messages and weeks would go by and we were told nobody answered the home phone so don't bother using it, we left emails and were told she never really checked them, we signed up for skyp so he could IM her because she didn't like AIM and she would sign off when he signed in or say she had to go do homework or eat dinner.  It was so frustrating watching him ache for a relationship and her block it.  She never mailed him or emailed him a fathers day card, birthday, Christmas...nothing.  No Thank You's verbally or notes for anything.

When she initiated contact it was to bitch him out "because the least you could do is pay child support" when her guardian screwed up her checking account so bad that she didn't realize there was over $500 in bounced check fees which were paid for by his child support deposit.  To her credit she did email him back to apologize.  She contacted him once more to get his financial information to go to college and then called to invite him to her high school graduation.  He took time off of work, went to NC, gave her money and got promised pictures. 

The next weekend was Father's Day...nothing.  He was so upset as it was a one sided relationship.  His child support payments ended.  She called in August stating she needed money as she was going to college.  He called back, got no answer so left a message.  She called again asking for money and he called back to find the number disconnected.  Since then we have not heard from her.  He gave up going on Skyp or checking her MySpace.

Saturday while he was at work the telephone rings, caller ID says the mans last name.  I answer and a girl says she is looking for the man and that she is not sure if I had heard about her.  I called her by name...it was his first daughter.  She is 23 now with a six month old son and another on the way.  For the past five months she has been living 12 miles from us.  She said her mother had passed away, and seeing as how she didn't have family around when growing up she wanted her son to have some family.  She didn't have much information but had been trying to find the man for some time.  She did run away from foster care and stayed with friends until she graduated from high school.  She has been on her own since and she is a terrific mother. She had been told the man didn't want her and just wanted to know if that was a lie and if there was a chance he wanted to be part of her son's life.  We spoke for over an hour and then when the man got home we all met at a resteraunt.  Later we came home and talked some more.  Sunday we went to see her and her boyfriends house.

Monday she knew the man had a medical test and called to check up on him.    He has always wanted his children in his life but for more than just the paycheck aspect.  He had hoped and still hopes that when they grew up they would try to find him.  The man is cautiously optimistic now. He would love nothing more than a new relationship with his daughter and grandchildren.  And if the man is happy then I am happy. 

Happy Cooker

“Cast iron is so superior for cooking utensils to our modern aluminum that I not only cannot grieve for the pioneer hardship of cooking in iron over the hearth, but shall retire if necessary to the back yard with my two Dutch ovens, turning over all my aluminum cookers for airplanes with a secret delight.” ~Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, 'Cross Creek' (1942)

My parents received a complete set of stainless steel pots and pans as a wedding present and took care of them. These and her cast iron dutch oven and skillet were the only pans she ever had. When my first husband and I got married we got what we could afford which was the non stick. I thought this was going to be so much better than my mothers. I stuck things to the non stick. When his mother passed away we got her corning glass pots and pans…..well…..

Years passed, my cooking improved. I got two cast iron griddles from my grandmother’s house. One was 10 ¼ and the other was a 14 inch and both needed lots of TLC so the man took them to work and sand blasted them. I loved them but wanted a dutch oven. So my mother bought me a Vollrath cast iron dutch oven for Christmas one year….loved it. Then she went out and bought me the Lodge reversible cast iron griddle/grill. Later I acquired a 10x7 oval griddle a friend was throwing out!

When we were getting rid of the trailer we were living in to build our house, I packed everything away. And then things took A LOT longer than expected in the building area. I couldn’t remember where the dutch oven was so #1 daughter bought me a Lodge cast iron dutch oven. When we moved into the house and started unpacking it was like Christmas all over again as I found it all. And then the children started doing dishes. They would leave water setting in them and brillo them. Then they started cooking. Let me mention right here I love my children.

While we had company camping here, they used my two round griddles on the campfire. As they always cleaned up, I thought they had cleaned them and put them away but I found them while mowing. I love company too.
The only pans I had left in usable condition was a 10x7 oval griddle and the griddle/grill. I loved cooking on the wood stove with them. I loved owning something my grandmother cooked for my father on, I loved the forever-ness of them…I missed them. I begged the man to take them all into work and sand blast them. He put them in his truck and I waited. Months passed. Christmas came and #1 daughter knew I missed them so bought me a larger cast iron dutch oven with an enamel lining so I don’t have to season it or worry about the kids leaving it sit in water or scrubbing the heck out of it thinking they are helping. They did drop the lid on my stove and took a chunk out of the enamel top but we won’t go there. Just remember I love my children.

Last night the man came home with every single griddle/dutch oven completely new again. I was ecstatic! Yeah I am easily pleased. So this morning I put the lard I rendered to good use and started seasoning them. I can’t wait to reacquaint myself with them but that has to wait for another day as I am going out to dinner tonight.

Righting Wrongs

"Why is it that hate comes out so easily, yet...love? It gets trapped inside.”

Sometimes life makes you feel like this air bubble under the ice

…trapped.

And that is how the man and I felt recently.

Add to that the fact that

1. both of us are stubborn,

2. we are not always the most diplomatic,

3. the children sense an non-uniform front and take advantage of that, pushing lots of buttons

4. when at this point we tend to make make stupid decisions while trying to avoid others

5. we both attack problems from different directions. Although slow to anger once there I am an in your face type of person. The man usually very vivacious, tends to become silent. He tries solving problems by doing long waited for chores….aka staying out of shot of me!

This could be a volatile mix but for the most part the man and I almost never fight. However, about every three years we make up for it by having a whopper… To the point that I would rather be living in the streets than married to this man much longer.

We are frick and frack, complete and total opposites. He is an extrovert and I am an introvert. He is a jokester and I hate to be the butt of the joke, he is tall and thin where as I am short and fat, he likes to be hot and I like it cooler, he falls asleep at the drop of a pin and I lie awake, he likes to sleep in and I am an early riser, he likes hot and spicy food and I see no reason to burn every taste bud off my tongue and call it dinner, he doesn’t mind being late and it grates on my very last nerve because there is no excuse for it when you know the time to be there before hand, he likes TV and I could cut the cable without even blinking an eye, I can eat a salad and call it dinner but there better be something that previously mooed, clucked baaed or oinked on his plate for him to do so, I like country music and classical rock and he will listen to heavy metal and whatever the kids are listening too now and trying to pass off as music, he loves watching Funniest Home Video's and I am horrified that people getting hurt is funny.

So you see how we can get to the breaking point. The past week, the honey-do-list was dwindling quickly.  Things were definitely politely icy around Happy Acres. 

We were heading full steam into a block wall when #1 and Sir T made their announcement. Shortly after they left for home on Sunday, we hit that wall. And the only reason I am not out on the street right now is because after all of that, I am madly in love this man and luckily he loves me too. We blow up, we pick up, patch up and make up.

I guess it took knowing we would be hearing… “To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part”… real soon to finally push us to the point where we had to realize what was important. We tend to get so wrapped up in work, animals, kids and everyone else’s woes that we don’t have time to take care of each other.

You would think after years of this we would be better at it and recognize the early warning signs. But then I forgot to mention the one thing we do have in common…we are both dimwitted.

Sir T and his Lady

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
~ Dr. Seuss

                                      Sir T proposed today!

 #1 daughter said yes!

Ring is gorgeous!

We are all happy!

Congrats Sir T and Lady T

Starting

“We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...give us the tools and we will finish the job.”

~Winston Churchill quotes

I seem to have startitis.  I started a 3/3 rib shawl with the mohair that #1 bought me at Rhinebeck.  I started a sweater shawl I saw somewhere.  And I started a pair of mittens and only finished one.  I want to start working on the rug thing but wont until I finish the on going projects....why did I start them?  I think sometimes the ideas get bottlenecked between my brain and my hands.  I don't know what to work on so I start things hoping that is what it was.  Similiar to opening the fridge 10 times and still not finding anything that would tickle your tastebuds.

And let's not forget the fleece.  And I have spun what I washed originally.  I finally finshed washing it Thursday and got the combs yesterday.

Add to that there are things I want to do around the house.  I can not spackle a ceiling so I am waiting for it to be done so I can paint.  And there is a list of  things like that.

Oh well in the meantime, I look out and finally see sunshine.  Unbelievably it actually gives off a little warmth and the temps have gone up a little.  While out with the animals I thought of how often I had been sucked into the delusion of Spring at times like these only to have them dashed with another coldspell or snow.  So I just kept walking past the greenhouse and garden and came inside...they will be there still when the real Spring comes down the pike.

Until then I will go back to the projects started and finish them off since I have the tools...before I start another.

Wood Anniversary

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Today is my blog's 5th anniversary.  Who "wood" have thought it!  Cyndy got me into this (like alot of other things) and at first I wasn't sure but it has been a hell of a ride.

2005 -we said goodbye to #1 when she went to Mississippi for training, I learned to knit,  knit my first pair of socks, got my first fiber animals (2 angora goats), went to MD S&W for the first time, my chickens hatched out chicks for the first time, went to MS to see #1 before she left for Iraq, she got to Kuwait on June 24, I went to Endless Mt for the first time, went to Rhinebeck for the first time, first Christmas without all my kids.

2006- bought my Ashford Traveller DT and carder, #1 son moved out on his own, got a new greenhouse, #1 came home on break, got a used Ashford Traditional cheap cheap, friend lost her son in Iraq, got two Finn ewe lambs, got a romanov wether, #1 came home from Iraq, spent my birthday in Puerto Rico courtesy of #1, mom had kidney removed and found out she had kidney cancer which had metastasized, did my first stranded hat, got my WoolieWinder, Denise needles and lots of knitting books, man started new job.

2007-I taught myself to knit in 2004 and learned I was knitting the wrong way and fixed it in 2007, made my first pair of gloves (other than sideways ones),  #1 son moved to NC, I had a mini stroke (TIA), #2 daughter broke her knee cap and got stitches in her knee,  #1 son moved back home and bough a motorcycle which he later flipped, knit the first of three hemlock ring afghans, got a Finn ram,  joined Ravelry, got married.

2008-knit with beads, did first sock with short row heel, lost my aunt, knit the ice queen both ways, experienced lambing season and subsequently gave my ram away, got a puppy, #2 son got lymes disease, learned to make bread, canned my first homemade sauerkraut,  truck hit by uninsured vehicle, first Christmas in the new house even though we were not moved in yet.

2009- moved into the house, #1 daughter moved back home temporarily, the man got in a fight with a rooster and the rooster won, we lost mom, #1 daughter moved away, #2 son started football and ended up with a mohawk, lost my uncle, hosted first Thanksgiving in the house, lost my cousin, hosted first Christmas dinner.

And in between, there was girl scouts, boy scouts, huge rotation of doctor appointments, soccer games, band concerts for #2 daughter with clarinet and #2 son with trombone.  We bought animals, sent some off to the butcher, lost some to fox/coyote, planted lots of seeds, harvested/canned lots of food.  I have screwed up and conquered...seen my kids do the same...and hope we learned from both. 

And since there is still breath in my lungs there is a long list of things I want to learn, (rugmaking and cheese making, being a few), I would love to have a dairy cow and I have a yard to landscape and....#2 daughter gets her license this year.  So even if nobody else read this it has been a great way to chronicle the the good and bad day to day events we call life.

Thanks Cyndy

Our Canine Crew

"Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer."- Plutarch, Moralia

It is cold but thankfully it is not THAT cold here. I might be wimpy but I would think it is not "fit for man nor beast". The chickens have not ventured far from the coop and make short work of the warm milk and bread. In a "while the cats away the mouse will play" time the wild turkeys took advantage and ate their fill at the feeders.

The sheep and goat don't venture far from the barn and quickly belly up for feed and hay. The cat sleeps all day as close to the wood stove as she can get without becoming cooked. The dogs quickly go out, do their business and return scratching at the door to get back into the warmth.  And since I rarely have dog pics, I will introduce the canine crew.

Shadow is the old dame of our canine family. She is an 18 year old black lab X Springer spaniel with selective hearing. The man had her when we met and she is aptly named. I cannot walk out of her sight without her following me. If I walk into a room and turn to walk back out I have to wait for her to turn and then wait for her to walk. She is afraid I will change my mind again so keeps looking back over her shoulder after every step. I have fallen more times than I would like trying not to fall on her. She of course gives you an apologetic look and moves on.

As winters are long and we are easily amused, I sometimes walk in large circles just to see if she will follow...and she does. Other times I stand up and she stands up, then I will sit down just to see how many times I can get away with it before she gives up...I give up first usually. When you run she runs, her whole demeanor changes and she looks like one of the Lipizzaner horses. Her head goes up, her steps get high and her chest goes out...she actually looks young again.

When the younger dogs start playing, she stands up and starts barking at them. Every time she does it she reminds me of a frustrated school teacher with a class room full of rambunctious boys....scolding them and nobody listening. I know what she feels like because I could swear the kids are deaf sometimes.

I am surprised the makers of Rogaine have not found me and kidnapped her. I have never seen a dog loose so much hair and not be naked. You know at Christmas time when you go to a tree lot and then stomp the tree on the ground and all the needles fall off....well every time she stands up, she shakes and hair just drops off. She must some impressive hair follicles to keep up. My vacuum hates her.

The next fur ball is Digger, an eleven year old Keeshond. This is #1's favorite pooch. The man and I rescued her from the pound. She is a nipper though if things get loud so I am not sure what happened to her before we got her. She is double coated fur ball with the daintiest feet.  I have spun her fiber and made #2 son a pair of slippers from her. In the spring when her second coat lets loose, we go outside to brush her and if it is windy, it looks like she exploded all over the yard. Again we are easily amused.

She is the mouth of the canine family. Every time you tell her to go lay down or call her away from what she wants to do, like go in the trash can, she talks back. Usually it is just growl-ly low drawn out barks and if you continue talking to her she will continue to talk back. The man and her go round and round like this.

And the last is Cooper a one year old redbone hound. He was a mother's day present. #1 will tell you he is spoiled and she will say he is loved more and in some respects that is true. He is the only dog I ever had from a puppy.

He hates rain, is afraid of the dark and swears to God he is only the size of a Chihuahua which is very delusional of him as he weighs 110 pounds. This is the little man squeezing himself up small enough to lay on a hassock in front of the woodstove. 

And boy does his bark echo throughout the valley. At night he sits on the back porch, under the light and waits for sinister things like Bambi to come out of the woods. When this happens he starts barking, we open the door and his ass tries beating his head thru the door because sinister Bambi might pinch his butt! Then he spins around and gives several more deafening bellows from inside the house, sure that he has taught that Bambi a lesson.

So while some people will still go skiing, ice skating or ice fishing when it is only 3 degrees, I will remain inside with the canine and feline members of the family, laughing at their antics. All of us cozily sitting around the woodstove...until I get up and try to walk.

Thump thump Thump thump

“Life is one of those precious fleeting gifts, and everything can change in a heartbeat.”

Heart or heartbeats have been on our minds alot recently.  The man and I celebrated our second anniversary and he still makes my heartbeat faster, which is a good thing.  However when the man's started beating wildly and he ended up in the hospital last month, we set to getting him set up with a regimen of doctor appointments.  He is just tickled pink about this!!!  Monday was his first appointment and so far he is the picture of perfect health. He has an appointment on the 14th where they will schedule him another and then if everything is okay he is free until next year.

Another thing that has us thinking of our heart is our WiiMii.  #2 daughter got Wii for Christmas.  She also received the Wii Fit.  On Wii Fit you set up a WiiMii (animated person that you design to look like you).  Now the WiiMii's all start out thin.  After entering your height, age and doing a few excercises it weighs you.  This will give you your Body Mass Index (BMI). This is the scary part as your WiiMii grows or shrinks with this info.  Suffice it to say mine grew....sideways.   Using this info and doing somemore balance testing you get your Wii Age.  I was scared because I sometimes feel real real old.  Oddly enough I came out 8 years younger than I really am!  I made #2 daughter come witness that little tidbit as they all came out older than their actual age.  Yeah Mii!

Not to be over confident (and to take my Mii down to a more svelte Mii) I started some basic strength training and yoga.  At first I thought this was slightly boring so I raised the reps a little and kicked my own ass.  This morning, I squated down to put wood in the stove and my legs screamed.  I guess the lunges actually were working!  Now to just keep it up.  I may not want to go back to being 20 but I wouldn't mind feeling like I was.

#1 daughter bought #2 daughter the first of the Vampire Academy books.  #2 fell in love with the characters and with another gift (Border's card) bought the rest of the books that are available.  I, of course, had to read them and have to agree her, they are better than the Twilight books.  Poor Rose had her heart broken. And now I have to read #2 son's books, the Shadow Children series which will probably tug at my heart more so than the vampire books.

And then hearts started being crocheted.

I saw these and saved the pattern for "later"...sometimes "later" never comes but this time it did.  Being in the duldroms somewhat in the knitting department and wanting to work with something other than gray wool,  I sat down with some leftover yarn and started crocheting.  They are a quick, mindless crochet and just what I need right now.  Once I get bored doing them I will send them to #1 as I doubt she has many Valentine's decorations.

But now I have to go warm the cockeles of my chickens hearts and bring them their morning treat....bread soaked in warm milk.  They love it and I love their eggs.  Win win situation.

Cold Gray January

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." - Bill Watterson

I am not savoring a bad mood, but the cold, gray is making me savor the heat from the woodstove.  When we were designing the house I said my spot would be right by the woodstove.  My chair sits in a corner with windows on both walls so I have awesome views.  Sometimes it gets obnoxiously hot there and I am forced to grabbed whatever I am working on and move to a less scorching area.  But when the high temps are only in the teens, there is no place like my chair. 

I sat there yesterday while the menfolk (the man, sons 1 & 2, brother and nephew) were trying to act like a bunch of neanderthols and stood out on the ice in 20-30 mph winds in 16 degree temps trying to get a fish to eat a worm.  Of course when I got up to finish dinner they had no problem jumping in to my chair.

Now less my sitting sounds lazy I must defend myself and say that things get accomplished while I am ensconsed in my chair.  For instance, since the new year more of that beautiful gray wool was spun.  When the kids left for the bus this morning,  I finished carding up what I had washed so I am ready to spin some more. 

I have also managed to knit a pair of socks for a friend whom, if you ask her, has waited eons for me to make her another pair.  She is trying to stop smoking so I decided she deserved a treat and I knit her up a pair of socks.  She likes heavy socks to walk around her house in so I made her a pair from Patons Merino with #5 needles, easy one day socks.

While I was talking to  #1 daughter and telling her I was making that pair of socks, she informed me her (aka a pair she requested be made for a friend and then decided to keep for herself) socks accidently went thru the washer and dryer and now sat lower than no-see-ums. HINT, HINT, HINT.  So I just finished making her a pair of socks....I used some more Patons Merinos because #1 likes to keep her house cool so will appreciate the thickness of the socks.  They will be sent out today when the man gets home.

But now I think I have to grab something brighter to work on as the grayness is getting to be too much.  Oh wait, #1 daughter requested a pink hat, scarf and gloves...imagine that.

Happy 2010

“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

The past year was extremely rough losing my mom and then my uncle.  The holidays loomed, our goal was to just get through them and to make them as good as holidays past.  Thanksgiving went fairly well and then Christmas Eve day I was informed of the loss of my cousin and getting through just got harder.  But we perservered and the holidays were professed to have been one of the best and that things just seemed "right".  I think it was because we took the time to appreciate each other and we were more intuned to each other - less of the flippant remarks which can unknowingly sting even when they weren't meant too.

And now a new year has been set before us, plenty of opportunity for us to continue to grow closer and to put more meaning into everything we do.

Because we didn't make it until the ball dropped, the New Year started fairly early.  I was up, had coffee, then started carding, spinning and then knitting a friend a pair of socks.  After the chores were done, the man and I left the kids at home and went out to breakfast...something that is basically unheard of for us.  Upon our return, #2 daughter and I spent the day dismantling and storing Christmas until the end of the year.  The man worked on organizing the basement and #2 son hauled some firewood.  Friends came for dinner and took #2 daughter home with them. 

#1 son called to say hello and talk me into letting #2 son go on Xbox so they could play together.  When they got on line, Sir T was on also and the three of them spent time playing video games.

A pretty boring beginning to the first chapter in our book but it was time spent together.  I can only hope the rest of the year follows suit.