Cabin Crafted

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  • Pre Thanksgiving Prep

    Thanksgiving is now hosted at our daughter’s house, a relief to me as I get to be a contributor and guest. Today is a cold, slightly windy day with the first snow flurries of the year. We ventured out to get breakfast, make a Farmer’s Market run, do a few chores, take an indoor walk of a couple miles of mall laps, and deliver eggs to daughter’s household. Once home, it seemed a good day to get some prep work done. Last year, I mistakenly purchased fresh cranberries twice, so there were extra bags that went into the freezer. Instead of just cooking one batch that would have filled a pint or so jars, I decided to cook both bags and can them in half pint jars. They will then be there for Christmas as well and extras for spooning into winter oatmeal.

    They are done and cooling on the sideboard. Any that don’t properly seal will be put in the refrigerator and used first. They are now shelf stable for a year or so.

    A couple of the pumpkins from the garden had begun to soften and were given to the chickens to peck and before any more softened in the heat of the kitchen, two were cut, scooped of seed, and roasted then pureed for pies and soup. Once pureed, it is being measured into 1 cup souper cubes that will be frozen until needed. When they are fully frozen, they will be stored in an airtight freezer container.

    Forgive the state of my 20 plus year old oven. As I had taken my largest roasting tray to daughter’s house for turkey cooking purposes, only one pumpkin could be cooked at a time, but as one cooked, the cranberries were canned and the second one is finishing up. Between them, there will be about 8 cups of pumpkin puree to freeze and as a pie only takes 2 cups, there will be plenty for Christmas pies and a couple batches of soup. The remaining two pumpkins are tiny, somewhere between navel orange and cantelope size and they will become chicken treats when I tire of them as decoration.

    The next few nights will be in the 20’s, so I expect the fall pots of mums, coleus, and whatever else was blooming in them will freeze off. The plan is to cut some evergreen branches and stick in the pots with some pinecones and a holiday bow to decorate the winter front of the house. The herb pot that looks hearty with oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, and a small parsley will be tucked into a larger pot with a straw layer insulating it and a cloth to cover it at night in hopes that fresh herbs will continue for a while and more hope that the sage and rosemary survive the winter. It is currently on the deck up against the south facing dining room doors and up a floor, but will probably be moved to a sheltered area on the south side of the house against the stonework of the back of the utility room and the garage that form a corner, just about the right size.

    Laundry is done and put away, a roast is in the already hot oven, and the cow is in the front yard, so off to run her south and then sit for a while.

    Be kind to everyone you meet, remember, we are all the same color on the inside and predjudice is a learned behavior that can be unlearned.

  • I HAVE A COW

    A big yellow cow. Well she isn’t mine, just a visitor. She lives next door and has a calf. Did you know cows can jump fences? Well she takes after her mom who could jump fences.

    She seems to enjoy grazing in our hay fields without the competition of her herd (I guess they can’t jump fences).

    I find her antics amusing and enjoy seeing her visit. Sometimes she comes over and grazes a while and goes home. Some days she stays most of the day and goes home at dusk.

    Her owner keeps coming to get her and tries to prevent her visits, but I think it is just giving her owner exercise.

    The cow is named Penny or Bad Penny according to her owner. Once in a while, Penny comes too close to the house and if I walk out with a garden stake or walking stick and approach, she ambles back to the farther fields. After all, what are 30 acres of farmland, mostly hayfields for during the fall and winter, but to feed the cow? And she is willing to share the field with my free ranging hens.

  • An FYI

    An FYI

    This blog was started as a personal journal and a link to the Cabin Crafted shop. That shop is closed and the link removed from the blog. If you find items for sale by Cabin Crafted, please note that they are not from me. As this blog has been published as Cabin Crafted for years, it will continue to be published that way. I do still live in a cabin and do still craft, though only for gifts and personal use.

  • A Fruitless Year

    The mountain climate was very unkind this year to any garden and orchard production for putting by for the winter. Just as the plum, apples, peach, and pears began to bloom, we had a killing frost. As a result, there were no peaches, no plums, a pear tree died, the other produced nothing and between the 4 apples, there were no more than 2 dozen tiny misshapen apples. The fig looked great this year and had dozens of figs, but before any could ripen, we had an early frost two nights in a row. The only fruit from the orchard was about a gallon of Muscadine grapes that did produce after fermentation, about a quart of nice wine vinegar.

    The peas blew down in a heavy spring storm and never produced any peas. The greenbeans did come up and though I picked from them a few times, both a medical emergency and bean beetles took out the rest and the second planting got eaten to the ground by the rabbits that got through the fence. The season was not kind to the tomatoes this year and the only peppers that did produce were the jalapenos and Aneheims. About 3 1/2 gallons of Jalapenos were pickled and the ones picked just before the frost are ripening in the house with hopes of fermenting some to hot sauce. We did get pumpkins and gourds, the pumpkins are smaller sugar pie pumpkins tat will be used for holiday pies and maybe a batch of pumpkin soup.

    Pre frost harvest

    With the household medical issues, walks have mostly been kept close to home. Fortunately we live on 30 acres that are not flat, so a good walk can be gotten by walking the perimeter and the view from the south edge always amazes me.

    Cools days, chilly nights are the norm now. It was the week of Fall on the Frontier at the museum where I volunteer as a pioneer fiber producer/spinner. We had 4th graders for the week, groups of about 60-65 kids per day and it is always a pleasure to dress up in Revolutionary War era clothing and teach the children about flax, hemp, and wool growing and processing, along with the history of the oldest building in the village, the loom house since 1830. The building itself built in 1769 as a home, later the clerks office, finally the loom house.

    I know I have been absent for a while and likely will be again.

  • Another month passes

    Only a few more days of September and the week has been so beautiful. The days mostly clear and temperatures we would expect in late September in the mountains. Our average first frost date is mid October, when I see that night approach, the rest of the peppers and the late tomatoes will be harvested. I don’t see it in the two week forecast, we even have three days in the low 80’s later this week.

    Much of the week has been near home as hubby continues to recover. We did a short stop over at our daughter’s house yesterday to drop off eggs and see their finished outdoor Halloween decorations.

    Evenings have been spent doing some mindless knitting and a little spinning, finishing rereading Braiding Sweetgrass and beginning Pilgrim of Tinker Creek. The later published about the time I finished my MS Educational Counseling degree and the author, who grew up near here and received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees locally, died this month. Though I do read fiction on occasion, I tend to go more often to non-fiction and have a small library of favorites, all that have been read at least twice.

    Today after lunch, while hubby is watching football, I tackled the garden clean up in preparation for winter. The pumpkin and gourd vines were pulled along with all of the tall weeds, some of them woody and an inch in diameter that had grown up through the vines and the asparagus as well as along the chicken’s fence. There is now a huge pile of dead pear branches, vines, and weeds that will be burned when they dry more and it isn’t windy as it is today.

    The cleanup, revealed three more small pumpkins, two not ripe, and another bottle gourd. They will be added to the decorations and soon a couple of the pumpkins will be baked to make pumpkin puree for holiday pies.

    The asparagus aren’t quite dry enough to break them down yet, and the line trimmer isn’t sufficient to cut them down to accelerate the drying process. They are hosting some critters. This large grasshopper was just hanging out as I pulled horse nettle from the bed.

    While I was working in the garden, with the gate open, several of the hens joined me, enjoying the disturbed soil and searching for good things to eat. Once I was ready to move on to some weed whacking, I opening a section of fence for the hens to be able to get in and out of the garden for the winter. They have either slowed down laying with the cooler weather or they have found someplace outside the coop to lay. They are getting lots of free range time with the nice weather.

    I hope you aren’t in the path of the nor’easter crawling up the east coast. I remember one in the 1960’s that causes so much devastation to the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach coastline. We lived in Virginia Beach then and due to the time of day it hit, it became difficult to get us kids home from school in some areas. Hotels ended up with water, sand, and debris on the ground floors, the fishing pier lost most of it’s length, and homes were lost on the north end and Sandbridge area.

    Stay safe out there, enjoy the changing weather.

  • Officially Autumn

    We have passed the autumnal equinox, the days are getting shorter and the weather must have been waiting for the magic date. We finally started getting some rain. Some of it extreme thunderstorms with wind and heavy downpours, some of it just light rain and sprinkles, but it started Monday night and continues intermittently still. It is much welcomed. The rain also brought more seasonal temperatures, yesterday about 70, today only 60, and Thursday-Sunday, the nighttime temperatures will drop into the 40’s.

    Temperatures in that range are when the houseplants that have summered on the front porch on tables and hanging are brought back into the house. The hanging plants have found places, the two large floor plants need better spots, and the holiday catci are on the shelf at the end of the counter. All have been given a fall feeding and a good watering. All were carefully checked for stinkbugs before coming in the house, we have enough trouble with them finding their way indoors without helping them in. The only other ones brought in were the two begonias that daughter gave me for mother’s day that I potted together and have tried to keep pruned. They may or may not produce more foliage in the kitchen window, we will see.

    We haven’t been out much since getting home from hubby’s most recent surgical procedure on Monday. A venture through a drive thru for fast food and back to the comfort of his recliner. When out today, we saw that gasoline prices have jumped another dime per gallon, now at $4.29/gallon, so we may skip lunch out for the next couple of days and dine on leftover stew and the chili I am currently making for tonight’s dinner. We had a chicken a few days ago and part of the leftovers from it were made into two individual pot pies Monday evening. The rest needs to find a use within another day or maybe just freezing it diced for a later meal.

    The most recent basket of jalapenos from the garden were pickled, making 1.75 gallons of them in the refrigerator for hubby’s pleasure. He eats one with almost every dinner. There is probably at least another half gallon on the plants. I may just leave them to ripen to red so that a sriracha style fermented sauce can be made. The serano peppers turned out to be Anaheims, so I’m not sure what to do with them. I know they are used for chile rellenos, so I may try making them one night or drying them and using them in homemade enchilada sauce.

    When we get past the much needed rainy period, all of the vines and weeds that have grown up through them are going to be pulled to dry so that they can be burned off with the dead pear branches. It is much more pleasant to work in the garden when it is a bit cooler.

    For now, I will sit and enjoy the sound of the rain and the cooler days and nights, cook, read, and craft.

  • A Week On the Farm

    A Week On the Farm

    Autumn is definitely here, but the thermometer doesn’t seem to realize it yet. The upcoming week has a few days that are the temperatures we expect in late September. The promised rain has not materialized, it keeps getting pushed off another day, then yet another.

    The garden is done except for a few pepper plants that are prolifically producing Jalapenos, and two Ancho pepper plants with a little fruit on them. The bunnies got in the fence and ate all the fall beans that had gotten half a foot tall and it is too late to plant more.

    This morning, before it got too hot, I ventured through the weeds to pick a basketful of peppers as I was making some Tomatillo/Jalapeno jam and needed a couple peppers. Seeing the pumpkin and gourd vines almost completely dead, I spotted 3 more small pumpkins and harvesting them and the huge bottle gourds.

    That makes a total of 11 pumpkins with three that were eaten by or damaged by the chickens and insects. Some of these were taken to our daughter’s house along with their weekly eggs and found them putting out their Halloween decorations. They do more for Halloween than I do for Christmas and it is so fun to see.

    After our visit and daily walk, we returned to Lowe’s to get a third pre potted fall flower combo. Two had been purchased along with two new pots about 10 days ago and placed on the stoop in front of the house. After we got home, I realize I had two more pots just like the ones we had just purchased, though one has a potted fig in it. Being inspired by daughter’s family’s efforts, it was my turn to decorate.

    About 30 years ago, my Dad made me a decorative wooden wheelbarrow. It generally has potted flowers in it for the spring and summer, but I never got around to it this year. It has been repaired a number of times, and today I moved it to the front porch, using one of the matching pots and the new flowers, part of a bale of hay I already had, and some of the pumpkins and gourds, the front is decorated for fall and Halloween (except the Halloween banner and wreath with the ghost, pumpkins, and turkey ornaments will wait).

    A few more weeks, probably after the first frost, the dead pear tree branches, pumpkin vines, dried asparagus tops and other weeds will be burned in place in the upper part of the garden. The plan is to move the metal boxes to the top edge of the garden and use the center portion next year for a three sister’s garden. Before that is done, the fencing needs to be replaced using rabbit fence and since the hens are getting mostly daily free range time, their run will be reworked too. This is going to be a multi day job involving whatever help I can enlist. It is also going to require the acquisition of a lot of corregated cardboard, a trailer load of mulch, and a roll of the fence wire.

    The garden will be put to bed for the winter and the months of bare trees and chilly days will begin.

  • Olio -9/18/2026

    I am the eldest of three, all now senior citizens. Today is the birthday of the “middle child,” my little sister. Happy birthday, Sis.

    This week has been one for the record. We have had 3 medical appointments between us, one a routine annual visit, one a follow up, and one for an upcoming procedure. Added to that, I taught a grown up version of the Herbal Medicine class that I did for summer camp to a bevy of ladies last night. As I was “teaching,” I have no photo, but we had a good time.

    The week began with soap making lessons for a couple that are friends of mine. I have been making their soap for a number of years and have asked repeatedly if they wanted to learn. This year it happened. Two batches were made with my instruction and supervision, but their hands on experience. They went home with one of the batches and the basic equipment to make more at home. The friend that taught me about a dozen years ago sent me home with a batch and some equipment and I have tried to continue paying it forward with the promise that once they are comfortable with the process and several successful batches, that they too will pay it forward. The second batch joined 3 other batches that I had previously made in the past couple of weeks for my SIL and our home use.

    It is curing in a back bedroom until it is ready for use.

    The week also started with me finishing the second Christmas stocking, one of which will go to the grandchild expected later this fall.

    Because they are stranded knitting in the round, the design is on both sides, requiring keeping the chart section of the pattern close at hand and well tracked. It also requires that the stocking be lined with fabric of some kind to prevent the carried strands of yarn on the inside from snagging. The linings are peeking out the top right now as the name needs to be duplicate stitched on the top before the lining can be hand sewn in place.

    The pumpkin vines and gourd vines are dying back now, so pumpkins have been cut. They are a smaller version for pies and baking, and after the ones in the photo were brought in, another was found. One grew through the chicken run fence and they ate it. Another grew close enough to the fence that they ate one side, and one I found had insect damage and was fed to them, so out of two vines, I got 8 pumpkins. It is possible that more will be found when the vines totally die off. The bottle gourds were the only gourd seed that germinated and they will be harvested soon.

    Here in Virginia, the drought has resulted in a state of emergency issued by the Governor as it has severly reduced the hay harvest both in the spring and now in the fall. Our fields produced only about half the usual amount and this week the fall hay was mowed, baled and taken to where it will be fed to cattle this winter. Neighbors that raise cattle are talking about possibly having to sell off some of their herds if they can’t locate hay to purchase. The lawn is brown and crispy, so no mowing is needed. We do have some rain in the forecast for the upcoming week, but if it is only isolated showers like we have had all summer, it won’t help.

    One section of the rails to trails paved area we walk for our daily walk has several Virginia marmots, aka groundhogs, woodchucks, whistlepig holes and tunnel some on the trail side of the fence, some on the airport side. This hefty fat guy was munching grass today and very unconcerned that I was taking his photo.

    Now to toot someone else’s horn. My husband just published his second book. It can be found on Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle as an e-book, the title is The Judas Priest, by James Stafford. He also has a blog with articles about the background and a sample on WordPress as JamesStaffordauthor. Go check him out.

  • Summer is drawing to a close

    It is meterologic autumn according to the weather prognosticators, but it went out with a bang. The daytime temperatures last week were in the 90’s every day. That is nearly unheard of here in the mountains, especially in September. It finally cooled down today to near 80 with similar weather expected all week, the highest day in the mid 80’s. Though I don’t like to take our daily walks when it is that hot, I did, picking the shadiest areas of the rails to trails walk we take each day.

    The garden was a major bust this year, between the drought, the extreme temperatures, and several intense storms that blew peas and beans to the ground before they produced much. Animals that can get through or over the fence ate down most of the peppers, except some that were already too tall to munch. There have been many jalapenos to pickle, some seranos are turning red and will become hot sauce. There have been a few tomatoes, mostly the black cherry ones that are wonderfully sweet, and the pumpkins and gourds are doing well. The raccoons got the few ears of popcorn that did form. Unless I improve my fencing, or build a tunnel (which won’t happen), that problem will continue.

    I did cover the grapevine with deer mesh this year, so I got a half gallon of Muscadine grapes which were crushed and fermented, strained through a sieve and fed some sugar, so now there is red wine vinegar. It will be strained through cheesecloth and bottled soon.

    While visiting with daughter and son in law, when they came over and repaired part of the chicken coop for me, he mentioned he was low on the soap I make for him. That was a reminder and initiator to begin this year’s soap making. I can thank a friend who more than a dozen years ago invited me to her home to learn how to make soap myself. We made several batches that day and she sent me home with my first batch and some supplies. Her generous teaching has instilled the each one teach one mantra to me and I have taught several others to make soap. Next Sunday, a local friend and her husband for whom I have been making soap for several years, will join me to learn, and like my friend did me, they will leave with the basic equipment to make more at home later. I would gladly continue to make it for them, but they can make it themselves in an hour for half what she pays me. SIL’s batch was made early in the week, then a batch of unscented Calendula/Turmeric soap made, and yesterday, Peppermint with French Red Clay.

    While we have the equipment out next weekend, I will make one more batch of the same scent they will be using as that is also the scent that my SIL prefers. This will be a year’s worth of soaps for our use, for the Barn Bazaar at the Museum, for a few gifts, and for SIL. For now, it is curing in a back bedroom until it can be deliverer, or labelled.

    I mentioned traditions in my last post, and have begun a second Christmas stocking, the first is appropriate for a little girl, this one is more boy themed, the appropriate one will be finished with the name, lining, and tag when I know the information. We are still about 2 months from that reveal. I have asked for a photo of all from that family lined up together when Christmas decorations come out.

    The leaves are beginning to turn yellows, reds, and oranges, only the early trees, but it is a sign of shorter days, cooler weather, and hopefully some rain.

    Haying has begun up here, we expect our fall hay to be cut and baled soon. It looks like it might be a better cut than the spring hay was.

    Try to stay safe and healthy, until next time!

  • Traditions

    When we married almost 49 years ago, I started what would become a tradition. When our first child was expected, I crocheted my husband and soon to be Dad a Christmas stocking and as my old felt childhood one was faded and torn, also crocheted one for me. They say Dad and Mom on them. Our three children each got a crewel work stocking that I did.

    When our daughter had her son she asked me about 6 weeks before Christmas if I was going to make him a stocking. I did, but it was quilted. Then youngest son and his wife were expecting and daughter was expecting her second, and by then I was knitting, so I got to work. He had adopted his wife’s son and they had a daughter as did my daughter, so I knit 3 different stockings that year.

    Between remarriages, adoptions, and more births, we are now grandparents to 12 grandkids and one on the way. Along the way, I knit two for someone basically for cost, something I won’t do again, but I am currently knitting my 15th stocking. The eldest step grandson, we have only met a couple of times, and he doesn’t have one I made, but his sister does.

    I try to have one for the child’s first Christmas in our family. A couple have been their second Christmas, but each one is lined with quilting cotton and has a small cross-stitched tag that reads “Made with love, Mom or Grandmom and the year.” And each one has their name duplicate stitched at the top.

    Each one is different. As I don’t know if the one due before Christmas is a boy or girl, I am making two and will put one away once I know and have a name to add.

    I wish they could all be lined up together for a picture