The snow began around 9 last night and dumped about 7 inches on us overnight. We have had some flurries today and are expected more through part of tomorrow. It is pretty to look at, but other than a couple trips out to give scratch to the cooped up hens, filling the bird feeders, and clearing snow from the satellite dish, I have stayed in spinning with my feet up in front of the fire.
After posting yesterday, the mail brought me a form that caused hours of stress and tears as I had to go back a year and find every item I had sold and used Paypal as a means of receiving money and then trying to find when and how I purchased it (or received it as a gift or trade) with date and cost. That on top of a year where I spent way more money in personal property taxes and fees for Etsy than I made on Etsy resulted in me making a decision to close the online shop. I haven’t decided if I will do any live events after Covid allows or whether I am done. My experience with Paypal has had too many unpleasant moments, so I am done with it as well.
I did finally get most of the seed I was seeking for the gardens. We have a nice local nursery that gets their plants from a local grower and will get the tomatoes, peppers, and anything else that requires a good start from them. it seems odd to be planning a garden when you can’t even see where it is today. But it is nice to have a day with no where to be and the inability to go there if there was. Dinner will be simple, just stuffed baked potatoes and a salad. If I had planned ahead, I could have made a loaf of bread, but I didn’t.
Time to go throw logs on the wood stove and fireplace to keep the home fires burning, not because they need to, but it is nice.
This has been an interesting week. It started out moderately warm, then snowed. Of course it snowed the night before I was finally scheduled for my first COVID vaccine and I feared that we wouldn’t be able to get down the mountain and to the center two towns over in time. We did get a few inches over a thin layer of ice and I got an automated call that the vaccine was delayed by 90 minutes, so we left almost as early as we had planned to allow time to go very slowly down the mountain, trusting that the highway would be in good shape and allowing us time if we had no issues to run a couple of errands to the bank and a USPS drop off. Our road up to the paved road and the paved road to the highway were a bit dicey, but we made it and got to the center set up by the health department in plenty of time. I walked up to pick up the paperwork from a volunteer handing it out near the door, just as they allowed us to move inside, 20 minutes earlier than they had said they would begin. I had my vaccine before the time they had rescheduled and was in and out within 30 minutes. I have an appointment for round two the end of February.
The frozen precipitation from the last storm hasn’t all melted yet because it has stayed between the low teens and 30 for several days and we are expecting 8-12″ of snow and ice beginning tonight through Monday morning. After the usual Saturday morning run for drive through breakfast and the Farmer’s Market, it was time to prepare for a cold, snowed in couple of days. A good supply of wood was hauled in to the basement for the woodstove. The rolling wood cart and wheelbarrow were filled for the living room fireplace, and put in the garage which currently has lots of room in it because the car that died was sold as is and we haven’t gotten a new one yet. Later in the day, I will scrub out the downstairs tub and fill it with water for dogs and toilets and hope that it isn’t necessary.
Week before last, the Olive Eggers started laying eggs again, then at least one of the big red hens has also begun. I get from zero to 4 eggs a day right now from 8 hens, so I am no longer having to purchase them from the Farmer’s Market.
Yesterday, in response to an email to daughter and her kiddos about their garden this year, they called and we discussed what I had seed wise, what I needed to get for us, and what we would buy already started. I figured that getting seeds in January would be a breeze. NOT. Much of what I wanted from one company was sold out, but they will send me an email when it is available. The other seed company I use isn’t even taking orders this weekend. I was able to get some of what we wanted from the Natural Foods store in town this morning. We will make it happen somehow. I thought that onion sets and seed potatoes would be bought from one of the reputable organic companies, but only perennial onions which produce tiny onions were available and seed potatoes were much more expensive than buying many pounds of potatoes at the Farmer’s Market, or were out of stock. Last year’s potatoes were from organic potatoes from the local grocer that had sprouted and I have a few pounds of Farmer’s Market potatoes in the basement that have sprouted, so I will plant what is locally available and keep looking for the onion sets. The bush winter squash seeds, 2 packages, cost a bit over $10 and they wanted to charge me $8 to ship them, I finally found them from another seed company, seeds and shipping are reasonable. This process is getting more difficult by the minute. Last year, I saw some really clever plastic templates for spacing seed in a square foot garden for about $10. I almost bought it for my grand daughter that I help with her garden, but didn’t. I looked for them today and they are now $27 for the exact same tool. I think a DIY event is in order. I can envision a 12″ wide acrylic/plastic cutting board, one of my power drills, and a few small jars of model paint and I can make the template for a few dollars.
The month is about to end and I have accrued or reserved 23 breeds of fiber for my breed blanket. I know what one of my February spins will be, I have to decide on the other. This week, I began combing locks of Gotland, so I may just go on with that.
If the power doesn’t go out during the storm, some obligatory snow shots will be shared in a few days. If the snow isn’t wet and sticky, I may haul out a sled and my ski clothes and play in it. Until I visit again, stay safe, and stay well.
I blog when something pops in my head or when I have progress on a project to report. Right now, because of a text conversation with a friend, two very different ideas are bouncing around, so I will address one and refine the other off line until I am ready to put it out in the world.
Many of the books I read are because of recommendation of friends and family. When my Dad was alive, we had a weekly phone call, usually on Sunday evening, and part of our conversation was about what we were reading, and many, many books I have read and enjoyed were his suggestions. Once in a while there would be one I just couldn’t get into. I miss those conversations and suggestions. When we last had a socially distanced meet up with Son 1 and Grandson 1, two weeks ago yesterday, Son 1 told me he was reading a book that he thought I might like, though he wasn’t too far into it. During that week, I checked the electronic library app for our public library, and it was available, but only in an audio book. I have several friends who swear by audio books, especially when travelling, but I do most of my reading at night before bed and I like holding a book, either paper or electronic, immersing myself in the story, and creating the voices of the characters in my head, so I had never listened to an audio book before. I checked it out on my tablet that lives by my bed and began listening to 30 minutes or so each night. The loan for was 14 days, the book just over 5 hours of narration. The book, “The Housekeeper and the Professor” by Yoko Ogawa, translated into English and narrated is a wonderful story, beautifully written and the narrator had a very soothing voice. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but I still prefer to read not listen. Some of the names in the book would have given me trouble, but so did some of the names in Tolkien and that never stopped me, but the math references would have been easier if I could have seen them instead of hearing them. At any rate, if you have the chance to read or listen to this story, it is worth the time.
Yesterday, while hubby was watching play off games of football, I sat with headphones on listening to a knitting podcast and working on the last block of my January challenge for the Breed Blanket Project. I finished knitting it and proceeded to make such an amateur mistake I was kicking myself. To save time, I chose not to bind off the block on the side that had to be attached to the cast on edge of the adjacent block and to use the live stitches to graft to the cast on edge. Somehow I managed to twist or fold or some foolish mistake and since it was bunched up in my lap, I didn’t notice until I was done. The yarn is a longwool with lots of halo and trying to pick it out without losing the live stitches was a challenge and once done required that I bind off and sew it on like I should have done in the first place, tripling the time it took me to do the finish.
That puts the January portion of the challenge in the books. The 4 quadrants this month included the one from last year’s yarn that was the test knit and became the base, two quadrants of the dyed BFL soft fiber that DH gave me for Christmas, and one quadrant of the light gray Masham longwool. Not every month will have 4 squares, but to use 24 breeds, there will be at least two squares added each month. I am hoping for a blanket that is large enough to be useful but not so heavy that it just stays folded on the bed.
To give me something to spin for the rest of the month as I can’t begin my new breed until February 1, I am spinning a Coopworth/Alpaca blend that can be knit into something for the shop when it is finished. Today, I await the mail as I sold a spindle to a new spinner and bought a spindle at the last update, so one is flying north and my new one is out for delivery by our rural carrier.
As I took the one I sold to the local village post office and pulled in next to a man with a hand full of mail, he got out with no mask, entered the post office to be greeted by the attendant who also had no mask. I didn’t even go in. As we had to deliver a form in town, we went to the larger USPS there where everyone inside was properly distanced and masked. It is such a simple solution. Our little county is only about 15000 people, many older as is the case in many rural areas, and we are approaching 1000 cases. So much resistance to something so simple to save a few lives. Generally when I have a package to mail, I print the postage at home and don’t have to enter the post office, however, our printer quit over the weekend and the new one ordered won’t arrive until tomorrow or the next day. And I still await a call to get my first vaccine and hubby awaits a call to schedule his second.
