Changes in Plans – Nov. 11, 2019

Sometimes plans change. My audiology appointment was at 8 a.m. and the new hearing aid is definitely a learning curve. My voice is an echo in my head. When I arrived at the office, the reflection of my car in the windows showed I had a headlight out, again. After my appointment in a very quiet office, standing by my car in front of AutoZone was a major assault on my hearing, almost causing me to remove the new aid until I was in a quieter place. I have made it all day without removing it, but have avoided noisy environments.

After lunch, we took advantage of the nice day to take an exercise walk. I could hear people behind me on the trail talking, hear the squirrels rustling in the leaves off the trail, and only bothered where the trail crosses a roadway via a footbridge with the cars below was I assaulted by too much background to continue conversation with hubby.

When we got home and I was going to go work in the garden to finish what I started yesterday, the farmer that hays our fields showed up with his big tractor and 10.5 foot brush hog to finish mowing our fields. I didn’t want to have to deal with the noise or the dust that would be the environment, so I postponed the garden until after the approaching Arctic Blast. We should awaken to light snow in the morning and temperatures falling into the low teens by tomorrow night. It may be next week before I can get out there with a hoe, a stack of old newspaper, more cardboard, and the bale of hay, but it isn’t going to grow now, so it can wait.

Sometimes the best of plans must change. Instead of garden, it has been a knitting, cooking, and reading day after a nice walk.

Another pair of fingerless mitts and a few more inches on the scarf, both for the Holiday Markets.

And You Thought Garden Posts Were Done for the Year – Nov. 10, 2019

The last few nights have been very cold for this time of year. A couple hovering around 20 f but today the day time temperature is above 60 f, the sky clear and very little wind. With one more day similar to this due tomorrow, it seemed like a good time to prep the garden for winter and to get the perennial onions and garlic planted.

The bed that was designated for it is a 4′ x 4′ raised bed that had sunflowers and cucumbers in it this past summer. It was cleared of stalks and a few weeds. Each time I put straw or woodchips in the chicken run, they scratch them into wonderful compost mixed with their droppings and some of it gets kicked out the low end of the pen. I was able to gather a full wheelbarrow full of this rich compost to add to the bed.

The alliums were planted, a thick layer of hay spread over the top and mesh fencing laid over the top to hold the hay in place in the wind and to keep the chickens from digging that bed up when I let them scratch in the garden during the winter.

While I was in the garden, I pulled the Creeping Charlie from the Blueberry bed, removed the deteriorated tarp from over the mint bed, grabbed armloads of mint, dead pepper plants, and weeds to throw to the chickens. Cardboard was placed over the mint bed. I am going to add another layer to it when I can get some, place heavy rocks to hold it down and put hay over it too. Maybe I can regain control of that bed.

Each morning, I go to the coop to let the hens out. They get free range time for several hours until the dogs need to go out again. Once I release them from the coop, I look in to see the cleanliness of the coop, to check to see if their water is frozen, and make sure their 5 gallon feeder still has feed. They have been only providing 1 or 2 eggs each day now for a couple of weeks, or so I thought. When I looked in the coop this morning, I saw an egg in the back corner opposite the nesting boxes so I climbed up in the coop to get it. Tucked in a neat nest there were 11 eggs. Sneaky birds. And I actually bought eggs yesterday at the Farmers Market.

Having an extra dozen around with Thanksgiving coming is a good thing. Eldest son and family will be here for a couple of days so breakfast will be needed for 4, hubby doesn’t usually get up for it. Pumpkins pies will need to be made, so more eggs will be used than the usual amount. I cook an egg for the dogs each morning and sometimes one for me for breakfast or dinner. Now that I know they are being sneaky, I checked the coop while out in the garden and sure enough, there were two more in that corner, plus one in the nesting boxes. I guess I am going to have to check daily.

If tomorrow proves to be another good day as forcast, after I go for my hearing aid fitting tomorrow morning, I will weed a couple more beds, cut back the asparagus tops and get hay on that bed as well. It is fenced off so the hens can’t get in it. Then the hens will be given time in the garden to scratch for bugs and seeds to help keep the weeds down in the spring. I still want to get help to redo the fencing and posts, but the garden is getting bedded down for winter.

History – 11/9/2019

Today I was scheduled to demonstrate spinning at a museum in a near city. The museum was one I had never visited before, but was familiar with the road on which it was located, or so I thought. In order to facilitate getting there as promptly as possible, it is nearly an hour from home, I loaded the address into Google Maps. As I approached the exit from the Interstate, I activated the Google voice to guide me. There ended up being a bit of a problem. The road that Google insisted I turn on was 3 blocks beyond and on the opposite side of the rail tracks from where our group was set up, and that road was blocked off for the Veteran’s Parade. I knew where the Transportation Museum was located on the side of the tracks where I was, so I stopped there to ask directions. A bridge over the tracks and another right turn brought me back where I thought I was supposed to be, but alas, due to the parade, parking was scarce. I finally parked in the museum employee parking, hoping not to get a ticket. My wheel, spinning basket, and tote of costume were loaded indoors, changed, and set up to spin only to discover that I had failed to bring either wool combs or wool cards with me which meant spinning from clean Jacob locks all day.

We had one friend with two tables of Colonial games and toys, another friend with her tape loom weaving tapes. A fiddler, various soldiers with kits and uniforms, and me spinning. The admission today was free, the Museum of Western Virginia has displays, talks, and snacks for the visitors and they were excited that quite a number of families with children came. Normally they have very few children visitors.

Many photos were taken, none by me. It was a good day and interesting just spinning from locks and getting a pretty even yarn, though it should be fun when it is plyed as I didn’t bother to separate colors and since it wasn’t blended in any way, it isn’t gray. About half a bobbin was filled. Since it is not spun from roving or even rolags, I will finish the bobbin from locks and ply it to display with the skein of combed Jacob that I usual put out with my spindles, lucet, Nosepinne, bone knitting needles, and niddy noddy. Usually I am sitting on a Jacob pelt, but since they were providing tables and chairs, I did not take it.

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Photo credit Kyle Griffin

Many photos were taken of me today as is always the case when dressed in Colonial garb and demonstrating.