As I looked out the kitchen window this morning, I was reminded of a poem I have always loved.

Fog

BY CARL SANDBURG

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

It is always beautiful to see as it moves up the valley and through the hollow where we live, the ridge to the south disappearing then re emerging, the woods blurred. It isn’t a freezing fog today, the temperature barely dropped 10 degrees last night and will stay stable today and tonight before dropping back into the teens tomorrow night.

The February spinning challenge is spinning colors to earn BINGO cards that we are filling out online. Last month, 25 g of spun fiber earned a card and two cards could be earned. Though I have little interest in winning a prize, a pattern download of my choice up to a certain value, it is fun to play along. As hubby gave me a gorgeous double batt of a dark red wine colored gradient wool for Christmas, I spun half last month and am working on the second 55+ g this month. While I am playing along, I decided to use the rest of the breeds that didn’t get spun for my breed blanket last year and spin enough to do a second smaller lap blanket. There was one square last year that ended up too small for the blanket, so I used it as the center of the new one and have been picking up stitches and knitting a log cabin type pattern around it. There are 5 breeds represented so far and a 6th spun but not knit on yet. It is only 12″ square so far.

There will be no walk today, it is very dismal and wet, a constant rain varying from drizzle to downpour.

About two years ago, we replaced our mattress. The old one was more than a dozen years old and with aging bodies, was no longer comfortable. We spent entirely too much on the new one to find it no more comfortable. Testing one in the store just isn’t the same as sleeping on it for a full night. Yesterday, we wrestled the queen mattress from the downstairs guest bedroom up to our room, took our mattress off and stashed it against a wall, put the other mattress on to use last night. It isn’t as comfortable as ours and ours is memory foam, that one isn’t, so every movement by either of us was felt by the other. I’m not sure what the solution is, but I guess the guest mattress will move back down and ours placed back on the bed. Maybe a down pillow topper cover.

Yesterday’s fan/light situation has not been resolved. We drove to the big box hardware store two towns over and purchased a switch. Once home and I had disassembled the light unit to get to the switch, it is a 4 wire switch, the ones they sell are 3 wire switches, the colors on the old switch are green, tan, black, and gray, so I don’t even know which is the “hot” wire. The switch was returned, and the man working in the electrical section tried to help me, but the only option other than replacing the entire fan and light unit was a rewiring using a single switch instead of two switches that operate the two parts of the unit. I am not comfortable attempting that, so it has been put back together unrepaired for now. He wasn’t even able to tell me which of the colors in the fan was the hot wire. So we drove about 90 miles to not fix the problem. Son 1 says he has had this issue before and we will be able to resolve it later. For now we will dine by candle light or early enough that there is still some level of daylight coming in the French doors.

Still cold in these parts, but not as cold as last week and only liquid precipitation expected this week so maybe the rest of the white stuff will wash away until the next winter storm arrives.

My post yesterday caused my hubby to worry about me. He fears that if the day comes that I am here alone, that I will become a hermit. At this point, I am mentally intact enough to know that I have to have some socialization to stay sane and there are foods that I don’t grow that I will have to go purchase, so some trips to town will still occur to the Farmer’s Market and the Natural foods store at least. My daughter and sons will make sure that I don’t end up needing to be cared for by others.

As I was walking up to check the mail, all 13 hens fell in behind me like I was the Pied Piper, sure I was going to give them a treat. I wondered how far up the almost quarter mile driveway they would follow.

They are crazy animals. Though they spend all day free ranging, if they see me they come running for kitchen scraps or scratch. At least they have provided eggs all winter since they are just now turning 1 year old. Next year they will molt in the fall and eggs will be few and far between during the winter. I guess old school farmers had it right by culling out a few each year and allowing new ones to be raised by the hens so there was always a fresh crop of young hens to continue laying. If our barn was more convenient to the house and in better shape, so they could expand their roosting area, we could have that arrangement, but the coop is too small as it is and I don’t want to raise chicks a couple times a year to keep the rotation going. I don’t have a rooster, so there are no hen born and raised chicks here.

The month’s spinning challenge ends in a few hours, I have finished everything I had on spindles, a total of 97.41 g, the wine colored BFL is singles, the second ply to be spun in February, one of my Christmas gifts from hubby who kindly indulges my love of wood, wool, and tea. The two whites are plied Shropshire and Norwegian both to be added to the second blanket.

For now, I am going to finish a very disturbing book I wish I hadn’t begun, but now I can’t not finish it.