Author: Cabincrafted1

Monday Morning Chores

I am always the first up in our house and as the current farm animals are mine, the responsibility of them and of the pups falls on me each morning. It is definitely winter, gray overcast sky, snow flurries, and windy, bone chilling windy.

First up, the pups are turned out to romp and do what pups do after being indoors all night. The coffee pot is set up and turned on so that there will be hot coffee when I return to the house. Barn boots and barn jacket are layered on, the bucket for the chicken’s water is filled with tepid water, the feed scooped and since my hands are full of wet buckets and feed scoops, no gloves are added. It is cold enough that the water is dumped each night to prevent their dish from freezing, sometimes it has a skim of ice by coop up time. I have foolishly been dumping it near where it sits which is right off the front corner of the coop and several times there have been slips and near falls on the mud or ice that has formed there. The chickens get their water, their feed bin is filled and a partial scoop of feed and scratch it tossed out into the pen as they are single file exiting their snug coop. The reward for my now freezing fingers is checking the nesting box and finding 2 to 4 still warm eggs to hold in my cold hands as I walk back to the house. The girls are always thanked for their gifts.

Once layers are removed and pups are brought back inside, I am rewarded with a cup of hot coffee and the preparation of fresh scrambled eggs for pups and me.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

December 16, 2013
Sunday Thankfulness – December 15, 2013

Today, I am thankful for a warm home;

Daily eggs from my hens;

Pups who love us unconditionally, even when they were left for more than a week in boarding;

A freezer full of homegrown vegetables and chicken to nourish us this winter.

The health and funds to travel twice this fall and winter, the opportunity to see the Bahamas and to revisit Mexico.

The love of my hubby and our children and grandchildren.

December 15, 2013
After Paradise, Winter

Snowy morning, white roof, icy windshield, freezing rain.

Chickens hiding, dog are romping. Christmas shopping.

Still need a tree and a wrapping session.

Knitting progressing. It will be here before we are ready.

December 14, 2013
This Moment

A single moment, no words, from the past week that I wish to linger on and savor.

December 13, 2013
A Week In Paradise

This blog has been silent for slightly more than a week because we jetted off to a week in paradise. On Tuesday, December 3rd, we put the pups in boarding and drove to Northern Virginia to spend the night with our eldest son’s family prior to a 6 a.m. flight out of Dulles International Airport for Mexico, via a layover in Detroit. Don’t ask me who thought that was a good route, but it is the way it happened. We landed in Mexico City in the early afternoon and did the customs/immigration business, had a light lunch in the airport while awaiting our air shuttle hop over to Zihuatanejo, located about 150 miles north of Mexico southern border on the Pacific Ocean.

It is located on a sheltered bay and is a small fishing village with hotels, boutique hotels, restaurants, and recreation opportunities surrounding the bay. Our destination was Casa del Platero (http://www.casadelplatero.net/ ) owned by our cousin and his wife, who we were visiting. When they are not there visiting and performing maintenance, the house is a vacation rental, just check out the link above.

Their home is beautiful, set in a secure walled setting with gardens of tropical plants, a lovely open dining porch and an open napping porch for the downstairs house, a tiled infinity pool overlooking the bay shared by the upstairs and downstairs houses and colorfully cushioned seating throughout.

The house sits just above Playa la Ropa, a beach of white sand with available sailing, parasailing, swimming and fishing right there.

Hubby parasailing

The next beach over, a short walk on a rocky path or a quick hop on a water taxi is a row of vendors of food and equipment for snorkling with strolling musicians and Indians hawking their wares from handmade shell and stone jewelry, Mexican pottery, baskets, to fresh tropical fruits on skewers and lots more white sand.

We walked, sailed, snorkeled, swam in the pool, ate and rested until there was no stress to be found. The village and surrounds have restaurants that serve seafood, traditional Mexican food, Italian, Thai, even American hamburgers. There are Indian market stalls selling painted pottery, silver jewelry, T shirts and embroidered Mexican shirts, leather goods, coffee and vanilla. We were there during the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe and saw parades on the streets and the water, entertainment every night on the waterfront and fireworks.

It is a beautiful location to visit and our cousin’s home has a delightful couple that serve as caretakers and cooks for guests staying with them or renting their home. If you need a place to unwind in the tropical weather, this is the spot.

We arrived back last night to snow on the ground in Northern Virginia and along our route back, evidence of the ice storm we missed and awoke today to a balmy 23f degrees. I think it is already time to go back.

December 12, 2013
To Make Gifts Special

We have 3 children with significant others and 5 grandchildren and each other for whom we prepare Christmas gifts. We have long ago discussed and decided with our siblings and my Dad that the children are more important and as each of us had children then grandchildren and in my Dad’s case, great grandchildren, that we would quit giving gifts to each other. That is not to say that one of us will occasionally surprise a sib or parent with an unexpected token of our love, a “Just Because” gift.

Each of our children are trying to instill the true spirit of Christmas in their children and have asked us to not be too generous in our giving. They also, all requested of us (hubby) that there be no electronic toys this year, nothing that requires batteries or makes noise by itself. Two of the mom’s have asked for something knitted.

The granddaughters like finger puppets. One is getting a book and handknit finger puppets of the characters.

The other granddaughter is going to Disney World with her big brother this winter when they host a homeschool weekend. She is enamored with Mickey and Minnie and I am diligently working on the design to make finger puppets of those two characters. I think I have Mickey ready to stuff and sew together as soon as I embroider the rest of the face. Minnie will be basically the same but with a polka dot skirt and “hair bow.”

Daughter informed me that her son made the statement that he didn’t have anymore of grandmom’s hand knit mismatched socks. He is a Batman fan and my local yarn dying friend quickly dyed me two skeins of sock yarn to convert into Batman themed socks for him.

His little sister will probably also get a pair of mismatched socks, but of different colors.

Along with books, some sports gear or Legos. Some costumes for pretend play for the girls, the kids are nearly done. Their parents are always a bit more challenging and hubby is the toughest this year since we went on a cruise, we decided to go cheap on each other, but the one item I want to get him as he is now riding a motorcycle is not inexpensive. Oh well, it is Christmas and it is only money.

December 2, 2013
Traditions and Memories

Our daughter was due the day before my birthday 31 years ago, but she lingered until November 29. I would never decorate for Christmas until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but with that birthday, sometimes Thanksgiving came the day after my birthday, which meant I could technically begin decorating on November 22, but once daughter was old enough to realize, she made an edict that we couldn’t decorate for Christmas until after her birthday. I would sometimes put the outdoor wreaths up before, but would otherwise wait and still do.

As I started pulling out boxes, the reminiscing began. My sister in law quilts and cross stitches and many of the decorations were made by her.

One of my dear friends has given me many hand crafted gifts over the years.

When our children were young each Christmas my hubby would help them buy a Santa or village piece to add to the collection. My favorite Santas and the only ones out so far, are Tom Clark gnomes.

As I handle and place each piece I am flooded with memories of Christmas past and anticipate Christmas futures with our grandkids. Due to scheduling, the tree with it’s collection of a dated ornament for each year of our life together will have to wait for another weekend.

November 30, 2013
This Moment

This idea is from SouleMama’s blog and will be a new feature on my blog page. A single photo from the past week, no words, that I wish to remember. If you are inspired to do so, leave a link to yours in the comments for others to see.

November 29, 2013
Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving. In our family, it is a time for family, falling between my birthday and my daughter’s and her daughter was born on Thanksgiving Day two years ago. When our children were young and still at home and we still lived on Virginia’s east coast, my Dad and I took turns hosting Thanksgiving dinner, including as many family members as we could.

This year, my Dad and stepmom are in the midst of a kitchen rebuilt due to a dishwasher leak and the discovery of old asbestos floor tiles, so they will be having dinner at my stepsister’s house. Our daughter and her family spent last Thanksgiving here from Florida, we recently spent two weeks with our youngest son and his family. Our eldest son and his family are currently on a bus travelling here from Northern Virginia to spend tomorrow with us.

Yesterday, it rained and rained and rained after an ice storm the night before and today it is snowing. We are hopeful that this weather doesn’t impact their travels. The preparation for a turkey dinner with all the fixings was begun and the house was cleaned up to help reduce son’s allergy to the dogs.

The pumpkin pies made with the last pumpkin, cooked and frozen last winter. The fixings are all in the house and we are awaiting their arrival.

The chickens were let out this morning, poked heads out of the coop and drew back in. We are experiencing very high winds and the morning temperature of 31f was the day’s high, it has been blowing and plummeting all day. Normally, I don’t have food or water in their coop to keep the rodents from visiting, but today I took pity and though the pop door is open and they can go outside, they are holed up with food and water indoors.

We wish you a happy Thanksgiving from our farm to your home.

November 27, 2013
Crispy morning

A wintry mix,

Crispy grass, slick deck, mini icicles;

Fog, rain, ice pellets, and snow and snow for tomorrow.

Hope my kids on the bus tomorrow are safe.

November 26, 2013