Cabin Crafted

Author: Cabincrafted1

  • Where is springtime?

    A windy warm walk yesterday, an inch of rain, high wind, and a 35 degree temperature drop overnight and it is still falling. Snow flurries while dealing with the chooks this morning.

    Even the Thanksgiving cacti are confused.

    Both of them are blooming and the Christmas cactus has buds.

    Yesterday was repair day. There have been some issues in our bathroom for a while and it was time to replace and clean out, a great excuse to give that room a deep cleaning too. Plumbing doesn’t intimidate me like electricity, so taking a trap apart or replacing toilet parts is no issue. Hubby’s tub is a giant jacuzi style that is not jetted but spa sized. To clean it, I have to get in it which I don’t like to do with cleaner sprayed all over the inside. I read you can use dish soap and a broom, but I can’t imagine how you would rinse it all out. As for electricity, I gave up on the dining room light after a conversation with Son 1 who concluded we have a short in there somewhere, not a switch issue. It is off and the switch taped to prevent accidently switching it. Next time he visits, he will examine it, repair it if possible, or replace it with a new fan and light if not. In the meantime, we moved dinner time a bit earlier so we can see what is on our plates.

    I finished plying and skeining the Christmas gift wool. It ended up 492 yards of 18 WPI yarn. I’m still trying to pick a pattern for it and toying with spinning a complementary color to use with it to make a generous wrap. It is a pretty, subtle gradient and very soft.

    A few years ago, I knit a pattern that was popular at the time called “Free Your Fade,” using 5 distinct colors that you blend with alternate rows as you are ready to change colors. It is one of my favorite wraps, it is huge, can be worn as a shawl to cover shoulders or a generous neck wrap over a sweater or coat. With the gradient, I wouldn’t have to alternate rows except to change skeins if I can decide on the coordinate skein. It wouldn’t be quite as large, but still a nice size.

    It is too overcast to capture the colors from gray on the left to wine on the right, but you can see it’s size.

    It is pruning time. The fruit trees, the grape vine, and the rose all need pruning. Not today, it is too cold outside to want to work out there. It is still falling toward a 25f night, the forecast says it feels like 21f now. By Sunday it warms back up into the 50s for a few days, maybe I can get it done then before the 4 days of rain expected next week. I’m not sure what I will do with all the clippings though as we have a burn ban in place. They can be hauled to one of the areas we can’t mow or hay and leave them to become part of the floor of the woods at some point. There are two small trees that have fallen into the haying areas, the tractor can pull them out of the way.

    Yesterday, on our way home from the hardware and our walk, we drove on along the upper edge of our property on the road. We hadn’t done that for a long while and some jerk has dumped a huge upholstered chair and a broken cooler into our property down the hill almost into the creek. I think we can put a tow strap around it and haul it back up to the road using the tractor, but then I don’t know what we will do with it. Neither of our cars can pull the trailer any longer. We may have to enlist daughter’s help to pull the trailer to the dump. People can be such inconsiderate slobs.

  • Our Day

    Some people don’t like Valentine’s Day, a related contact on social media posts a meme of Cupid face down with an arrow in his/her back every year. I love Valentine’s Day, the day my love and I married 44 years ago. He picked the date, 6 short weeks after our engagement. Over the years, we have gone out for nice dinners at some fine restaurants. When the kids were small, my parents or a babysitter if it was a weekend would take over their duties so we could go out. Sometimes when it worked out, we would stay overnight in a hotel to extend the evening. Later when the kids were grown, we would often go to a B&B for the weekend closest to our anniversary.

    Four years ago, we took a cruise to the south Caribbean, swam with dolphins and skates, took a tour of Belize City, another of Tulum, and rode horses on the beach in Honduras. We did the Chef’s tour on the ship one night and ate all of the tiny portions they kept bringing out until we were miserably stuffed and then were treated to an anniversary dessert.

    Last year because of COVID restrictions, we bought BBQ dinners from a local restaurant and ate them from Styrofoam boxes in the car sitting by the river. Tonight we will go to a local, nicer restaurant that is limiting seating to 50% and eat out, something we haven’t been doing much lately. And my love gave me a gorgeous new spindle as a gift.

    It is a special day in our lives and I hope there will be many more.

    Yesterday, I made two batches of soap that is saponifying in the utility room window.

    The little dish on top was extra from one batch and will be used as a travel bar if travel is every on our agenda again. Later today, they will be unmolded and cut into bars to cure. One batch is for a friend to have part of, the other, my go/to bath/shampoo bar.

    Last night, during the Super Bowl, I sat and wound the 4 ounces of wool that hubby gave me for Christmas into a ply ball, then plied it on my wheel so it would be one nice gradient skein instead of 4 smaller ones that I would have to have to ply on my spindles. It ended up a fine 18 WPI yarn before it is bathed. My experience with this breed is that is doesn’t bloom too much, so a light lacy scarf pattern will be selected once I wind it off and see how many yards I am working with.

    The spin started with the dark end of the gradient and ended with the lighter end, so it plied in reverse with the darkest part on the outside of the bobbin. It is a perfect color of wines and should make a pretty scarf.

    There are more fibers to spin, several spindles to spin on, now 3 gifts from the man I love who indulges my hobbies.

    Happy Valentine’s Day to the lovebirds out there. May you have many, many more happy years together.

  • Market Day

    We have snow showers in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. They salted the roads yesterday which will send everyone scurrying to the grocer to buy up all the bread, milk, and beer (it is Super Bowl Weekend). I don’t drink, don’t need milk, can make my own bread or get it at the Farmer’s Market, so I will avoid the grocer. We supplied up on dog foods earlier in the week, but are having difficulty getting hubby’s preferred cola. The shelves have been stocked with lots of options, but not caffeine free diet and this has been an off and on problem all fall and winter. I don’t drink soda either, but it is his preferred beverage. I’m not braving a grocery today for it though.

    My preorders were be ready at the Farmer’s Market and I scanned the other vendors to see if there was anything else I want. The Market was a zoo, too many people for my comfort level. Hubby wanted one thing for breakfast out that could be picked up and eaten in the car, I didn’t want that and figured to just get breakfast at the market. All of the lines were too long to wait, the local coffee shop near the market had people out the door, the local bagel shop near where we drop off eggs was mobbed. Fortunately, after trying two other places, we found one that I could get a bite and coffee. Weekly eggs were delivered, we took our walk and came home. There are a few chores to do like vacuuming, but there is an obstacle in my way.

    The old guy won’t get up on his bed, but he does use it as a pillow and since we have to use a beach towel under his belly to help him get on his feet now, I don’t want to disturb him.

    We may or may not leave the house tomorrow depending on whether we get a dusting or several inches, there is no need at our ages (or any age) to risk going out on snowy roads when unnecessary. I can always make chili for lunch or dinner. And since I got fresh cornmeal last weekend, corn bread is always favored, hot from the oven. I once ordered a tiny skillet of cornbread that was topped with goat cheese, it was maybe the best cornbread I have ever had, but have never been able to duplicate it.

    This afternoon is Zoom day with the spindle group. A visit with them is in order as I missed last weekend because we went into town to get a pizza from a small chain restaurant but when we arrived the line was out the door. There was an indoor track meet with 4 Universities over last weekend and three hotels within walking distance. As we sat in an Asian fast food drive thru line instead, the waves of college students swarming around our car was a good indication that we had chosen the wrong night to get the pizza.

    The month is almost half over, we will celebrate our 44th anniversary on Monday. Four years ago we were on a cruise to celebrate the 40th. Maybe someday we will be able to safely travel again. With only the couple of weeks behind me, I have already nearly finished my batt of colored wool that was my February spin challenge, have finished 25 grams of another fiber for my second blanket, knit two breeds on to the blanket. I have picked another fiber sample new to me to spin and it and plying the fiber below and the one for my blanket will occupy the rest of the month.

    A relatively quiet weekend, just the two of us.

  • Mouse traps

    As you can see from my header photo, we live on acreage. The house sits in the midst of fields that in the past have been used for grazing, but mostly used to grow hay to be cut for local farmers use with their cattle. The upper part of the farm above the barn in an alluvial dump from the last ice age and is littered with rocks and boulders too large and too numerous to move and has been left alone since we bought the property. The prior owner had a herd of miniature horses and donkey’s here and they grazed down much of the brush and cedar trees. The area has a creek that is very dependent on rain across most of the width of the north edge of the property that joins with a creek that has never totally run dry since we moved here that serves as a water source for the house to the north of us and as it meanders back and forth under the fence line that divides us from the farm to the west, serves to water cattle before the two creeks merge and disappear into a sink hole below a rock face. The old creek bed runs just off the west edge of our farm and in heavy rain still carries the water that fills the lowest part of the sinkhole faster than it can disappear into the ground.

    The first thing we did after the land was turned over to us and the horses and donkeys removed was to plant daylilies and River Birch trees along the top run off creek to help stabilize it’s path and keep it from running out into the road beyond our house, and about a half dozen trees in the alluvial field, though I am unsure any of them survived, the Birch trees are gorgeous. But by not having grazers on the land, the alluvial field has filled in with volunteer oaks, Tulip poplars, cedars, maples, and some less desirable scrub like Autumn Olive and blackberries.

    The fields are hayed each spring and mowed or hayed each fall depending on the summer weather, but as hay fields, they harbor groundhogs, field mice, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels that run from one rock pile to another as each rockpile has one or more trees growing in it.

    The rodents except the mice stay clear of the house, because of having two large dogs in and out and a flock of chickens loose during all daylight hours. But the mice sometimes find their way into the house and evidence of them found usually in the cabinet under the utility sink in the laundry room, but very occasionally, one makes it into the main downstairs part of the house. This requires that they be removed. I am not putting out poison as I don’t want to kill the birds that might eat a poisoned mouse, nor will I use glue traps. If you have ever seen a mouse caught in a glue trap, you know that that is not humane at all. If I caught them in safe release traps they would just turn around and come right back in again. That leaves snap traps. Now PETA would have a fit, but a snap trap is quick and rids the house of the disease carrying rodents, but snap traps are tricky to load. I have never had one snap down fully on a finger, but have had them snap in my hand. Right now, there is a wily one that has gotten the bait off two traps without getting caught. This morning, rebaiting them I did catch the edge of finger on the nail. No permanent damage, but WOW, that stings a bit. I know PETA would say, serves you right. Let them live with mice in their houses, I won’t.

    You might say, have a cat, but when daughter and her family lived with us for a couple of years with 2 cats, there was no change in the number entering the house, and when we had a barn cat that slept in a box on our front porch, her food seemed to attract more than she caught.

  • Everyone is an Expert

    And all of their expertise is conflicted by another “expert.” In doing some research recently on several topics, one article or website or person will tell you it should be done this way, but the next gives just the opposite advice/instruction. It is no wonder that people are conflicted on important topics.

    As a retired school counselor with a science background, I try to seek out the science on topics, but even that can product conflict. Should you take your probiotic first thing in the morning or last thing at night? Should you allow 3 square feet in your coop for your hens or 4? Is this method better than that? Should you wear a mask and get vaccinated or let natural immunity win (if you survive)? And everyone who weighs in thinks their way is the only way and they are the only one right.

    Sometimes even those with science backgrounds give opposing advice. As we were discussing with the pharmacist yesterday about needed vaccines, one in question was Shingrex vaccine for shingles. We both had the single vaccine many years ago, but hubby still developed a mild case limited to his side and part of his back. The dermatologist immediately prescribed an antiviral medication and told hubby that having shingles was like a super vaccine. The pharmacist on the other hand indicated that having had it increased the viral load and the likelihood of a recurrence was greater. I got the first dose of the vaccine yesterday, but hubby has to wait because of the other vaccine he got, but to use a COVID coined over used phrase, “out of an abundance of caution,” he will follow up and get it also. BTW, it is an expensive vaccine, hope you have good insurance.

    Years ago, we were told not to eat real butter, use margarine instead. Don’t eat eggs or at least not the yolks. Both of those dietary advices have been disputed. Use this diet to lose weight, no, use this program or this diet. Or better yet, eat whole food and exercise.

    Every day I see an “expert” weigh in on a topic on social media and start an all out argument with the OP, if the OP choses to engage. I have removed a number of social media contacts and left a number of groups as I choose not to engage in such behaviors and don’t need the stress of reading them.

    Who is a person to believe? Back to my research on a couple of topics.

  • From Fog to Frigid…

    And snow flurries. Nothing extreme, no real accumulation expected, just the lightest dusting on surfaces frozen solid from the temperature fall into the teens. Yesterday morning it was 52 f when I arose, by the time hubby arose a couple hours later is was 43 f and it continued in that direction all day and overnight. It is 20 f and very windy now and not expected to get out of the 20’s today.

    I have to think seriously whether there is anything I need from the Farmer’s Market to go shop in these conditions, but feel I should support the vendors that brave the cold to come out and supply us. There are no fresh veggies this time of year. The vendor that provides them all winter from large tunnels decided to just vend from their farm store until spring. It is too far to drive to the farm store for $20 worth of produce. I have signed up for the “chose your own CSA” again beginning in the spring when they return. The support of the vendors won out over the comfort of home, eggs were delivered, cheese, fresh milled corn meal, potatoes and turnips, maple syrup, and some protein obtained. While in town, we found out that there was a shooting in downtown last night in a Hookah bar that left one person dead, 4 others wounded. This is not the type of incident we see in this small University town and it alarms me. The news reports hint that the shooter was not identified nor caught last night.

    Last night I pruned back all the lettuces in the hydroponic garden and harvested enough for 2 side salads each for us, but three of the plants were too bitter for hubby’s preference, so they were pulled and new ones started. It is nearly time to start tomato and pepper seedlings in that unit.

    The hens were really slackers this week, not even providing what is needed for the three households that get their eggs. Their coop needs cleaning again, but not until a warmer day this week, if there is one. A warmer day is needed to do some midwinter garden clean up as well or it will be over run with a weed that seems to be able to withstand the freeze. I have been saving newspaper and as I pull the weeds in an area, I am going to put down a thick pad of newspaper and anchor it with wood chips. The area that is the worst is above the bed that never got it’s 4th side screwed on last summer so never got cardboard and mulch applied. I guess some bagged wood chips will have to be on the purchase list sometime soon. I wish I could get a truck load dumped up here without paying a fortune for them.

    The second breed blanket is growing. I added a 5th breed and found a skein I had spun after the other was done, so a 6th breed is being knit on now. Some spinning is getting done, but not a lot. My friend in Sweden sent me more Jämtland wool, a lovely dark, soft brown and enough to do a blanket panel and still have enough to knit a hat and or fingerless mitts for myself. Her package arrived so quickly, I was amazed. I mailed one to her the same day, it will be interesting how long it takes to get to her. I think that will be my next fiber to spin after the wine colored batt. In December, one of our spinning group who is a contributor to a local community magazine, did an article on our group and the edition just came out this week. As I had been the topic of another article when I completed the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em challenge, I was not part of the interview, but when the photographer came a couple weeks later, I was putting my Breed Blanket together and my old hands working with the blanket in my lap was the lead picture. Photographed here with my second breed blanket progress and current spinning project. The spinning is really more wine colored than this photo shows.

    The sun is out, but it is still too cold to want to do any chores outdoors that can wait a few days until we get back into the low 40’s, so knitting, spinning, and reading will occupy my afternoon.

  • Fog

    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.

  • Changes

    We have had a couple of “mild” relative to last week, days. I sat on the south facing deck stairs in the sun this morning and had a phone conversation with an old friend. It was only 32 f but the wind was calm, the sun warm and no coat was required. By the time we left for our walk, it was in the low 40’s, but thick cloud cover had taken the sunshine and it felt much colder. Tonight through Friday morning, we will get the rainy edge of the winter storm moving northeast and our temperatures will again return to winter with the chance of ice or snow on Sunday. We still have snow in the woods and in more sheltered areas from the last storm. This is Virginia, not Vermont, Maine, or Colorado, snow never lasts this long. The paved rails to trails path we frequently walk was only about half cleared in the last storm and there are still areas of ice requiring you to leave the trail and walk in the grass on the edge. Much of the path is still only about half width with ice on the edges, making passing others going either direction a challenge, the path is only about 8 feet wide when fully cleared. We always drop into single file when we see a bicycle or approaching walker or jogger, and it amazes me how many people walking two or three abreast don’t both, eliminating any distance between you and them or even requiring us to step off the trail where possible. We don’t want to be aggressive and stand our ground, but the though has occurred to us and we wonder if they are so oblivious that they would walk into us.

    Though it is still cold, definitely winter, when I went in the Natural Foods store today, their spring garden seed rack is up. I’m still trying to decide what I want to plant this year and what seed I still have on hand. After going in Tractor Supply last weekend to get pet supplies, chicken feed, and wild bird seed and seeing how elevated the prices have gone, I may use more of my garden to grow some dent corn for the chickens and sunflowers to save the seed for the wild birds. I often give the dogs an egg in the mornings, provided by the hens, but don’t like the smell of eggs cooking in the morning, so I had become lazy about preparing them until I accepted it was much more economical than the various supplemental feeds we could purchase. To get around the smell issue, I steamed half a dozen last night while preparing dinner and put them in the refrigerator to use for several mornings.

    While sitting on the back steps, my friend was amused that I kept having to chase off chickens that came up on the steps to visit while I was talking. Those birds are really imprinted on me and come running anytime I am outdoors.

    Ooops there goes another … repair. I don’t like messing with electricity and it has been more than 25 years since I installed or replaced a fixture, but as I was setting the table tonight and turned the dining room lights on, they flashed on then off. I replaced a bulb and tried again and nothing, though the fan works just fine. That light doesn’t appear to be on it’s own circuit or even one with the dining room wall outlet, so it must be connected to a kitchen circuit as it is one room. I guess I will have to figure out which one during daylight hours and go buy a new light fixture for the fan and have a go at it. Definitely not something I want to tackle, but better than having to replace the entire fan and light unit. I hope I can match the finish or get a light that doesn’t show it’s trim very well.

    Last night as I was preparing dinner and watching for it to be dark enough to go lock up the hens, the light in the fields was an odd color. Stepping on the back deck, this gorgeous red sky was the reason.

    There was no red sky tonight, just thick clouds signalling the beginning of the upcoming round of wet weather. I guess there will be no walk tomorrow unless we can dance between the raindrops.

  • Hello Monday

    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.

  • The Hermit on the Mountain

    As Covid continues into it’s third year, my hermit tendencies have grown stronger. When hubby had to travel to a funeral a few weeks ago, I basically stayed home, ate soup, read, knitted, and spun. I had to leave the house once but not for long. Already an introvert, being isolated has just encouraged more isolation. Glad to have hubby here, daughter and her kids nearby, and Sons that pass through, to keep me connected to humanity. I started back to the local spinning group before Christmas, then the Rec Center where we meet was closed for two Thursdays and I haven’t managed to get myself out and back to the group since. Now there is another new variant loose and this being a University region with a new Governor who feels masks and mandatory vaccines shouldn’t be required, I am again fearful of joining in person groups. This in part has influenced a decision to not attend a fiber retreat that I have attended for years prior to covid. The people with whom I visit at that event are comfortable to be with and in the past, those that I did not know well were in a different area. Due to renovations at the venue, we would all be in the same room, which along with covid concerns add to my discomfort.

    Though hubby also has introvert tendencies, he often puts things I say in context of my being an introvert. The cheese lady at the local natural foods store is an extrovert and once, I asked for a particular cheese without first greeting her by name, which I know. She gently chastised me for not greeting first. He reminded me that extroverts talk for social reasons, introverts for purpose. I now remember to greet her when I see her whether I am buying cheese or not.

    When daughter and Son 1 were both here, they taught me to use Zoom. My Jenkins Spindle group online has a Zoom session every Saturday afternoon and for the past two weeks, I have joined them. It is fun to join them, “meet” people that I have interacted with by written posts for the past couple of years. I am glad I don’t have to work every day using online meetings, but it is great for an hour or two of socially distanced time with real people. I don’t interact a lot, but it is so much more comfortable than being in a group where I am uncomfortable and my hearing loss makes following group conversations difficult.

    I am struggling at being social and not truely becoming a hermit.