Cabin Crafted

Author: Cabincrafted1

  • 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.

    Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, indoor
    Photo credit Kyle Griffin

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

  • Voyeurism II – Nov. 8, 2019

    In March 2013 when I was just beginning to blog, I did a post that I have revisited to read many times. As the trees have lost their leaves for the most part, the week of several hard freezes at night beating down the underbrush, our hay field having been brush hogged, being able to see the deer, turkey, and occasional coyote reminded me of the post. Though much of my archives are trapped in the ether, never to be seen again, I had some of the early ones saved. I am going to revisit parts of it here.

         The overcast weather brings the wildlife out into view.  The week has brought a large flock of wild turkey repeatedly out to forage the hay field for bugs and seed.  Each late afternoon and often early mornings, a herd of deer seemingly materialize from the edge of the trees, one at a time to graze in the same field, and a doe with her twins from spring frequent the area around the barn each evening. They seem to know that we are safe and do not flee when we are out around the house and going over to deal with the chickens. They raise their heads, look in our direction, and return to grazing on the still green grass.

     With the pups indoors and the lights inside kept low, we can sit and watch them.  When there is snow cover in the woods you can see them as they move among the trees before entering the field.  So far we haven’t had more than a sublimation snow shower, but may get a little early next week. At this time of year, the deer coats are dark and when they are still, they are perfectly camouflaged in the trees.

    It is currently deer hunting season in this county. Bow season ended and black powder season is active. This time of year, I don’t like to walk our property or the country road off which we live even wearing a blaze orange vest and hat. Too many hunters are afoot and though we have our property posted, that is not always a deterrent. Our familiar neighbors are respectful of this and if a wounded deer from a non kill shot crosses over to our farm, will ask permission to look for it.

    We always worry a bit about our dogs during hunting season. Ranger, the mastiff is apricot color. He is a 200 pound dog and though he isn’t built like or moves like a deer, we don’t want him to be mistaken for one. Shadow is a German Shepherd and moves farther afield, though usually staying on our farm, but with the abundant number of coyotes/coywolves/coydogs in the woods, we don’t want her mistaken either. The alpha we see most is as large as a German Shepherd and is black. As a result, the dogs get much more supervised outdoor time during hunting season.

    Each season here on the farm brings different aspects to enjoy. The spring budding of trees, the young bunnies and fawns. Summer is haying, gardening, and enjoying the beauty. Autumn brings bright leaf color and and cooler weather. Winter, the voyeurism, warm fires, and hot cocoa or tea while wrapped in a hand knit shawl or a warm quilt.

  • Olio – 11/7/2019

    Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

    We hired a contractor to do the log erection and rough carpentry on our retirement home. Our eldest and his family moved to the area to oversee that work and be our representative on site, eventually taking over the closed shell and doing all of the interior carpentry and interior and exterior stone work, including a very tall chimney from stone from our property. His wife worked with him, various student’s from the university, a cousin, even I assisted on parts I could do. All of his work is steller, open upper cabinetry, hand made doors, beautiful stone work. The contractor though wasn’t totally honest with him when he interviewed him and represented that he had built a log home before. Having never built a house before, we didn’t know whether to go with his flat estimate or go with cost plus. It turns out that with cost plus, if he worked, he paid himself so effectively getting paid twice. It also turned out that maybe he wasn’t quite as good as some aspects as he let on. One issue that we have had is leaks around roof vents, and one roof vent that failed due to sliding snow (not really his fault). We had snow strips added to the edges of the metal roof to slow down the slide, had that vent repaired, and the other vents resealed. Twice they have been resealed in the dozen years we have lived here and about 5 Christmas holiday’s ago, son tore down the dry wall soffit in the basement that we had only recently had finished by another contractor because of the leak. Son rebuilt the soffit with siding in a manner that I can quickly remove a panel to put a catch pan up there when the leaks begin. We recently after a long dry summer started having rain and a new leak. The panel was removed, the drip pan put in the ceiling, and roofing estimates gathered. That was frustrating as several roofers said they would come out and then called and said they couldn’t. One did come, he had been recommended by our daughter after she had to have her roof replaced after a wind storm, and he noted two issues. The vent stack boots were the type for asphalt shingle roofs, not metal ones and they were set in seams instead of between them. Two men climbed a very long ladder this morning, up on the three story part of the roof, loosened the metal panel where the two suspect vents were, and replaced the boots with the proper kind, sealed them with the proper kind of sealant (not silicone on a metal roof), and safely climbed back down before the afternoon rain. Hopefully the leak is stopped. I will monitor it through the next few rains before I screw the panel back in place.

    Facebook denied my page name change for the third time with the same form letter. The page is gone. It will be difficult for me to leave Facebook entirely as I get notification from my re-enactment group and the museum where I volunteer through it, but I am going to become very inactive on it otherwise.

    Last weekend, when my friend and I were demonstrating spinning in costume at Booker T. Washington National Monument, we were also allowed to vend. A gentleman approached and saw my hand spun, hand knitted fingerless mitts, realized I had a pair in men’s size, tried them on and liked them. He picked up a skein of hand spun yarn I had for sale and asked if it was possible for me to make him mitts from it. It is hard to turn down a request like that, but I really don’t like to knit the mitts from fingering weight yarn and the skein was fingering weight Coopworth with lots of color variation and texture. I have spent the week knitting the mitts two at a time so they will match.

    I need about 1/2-3/4″ more of ribbing at the top and the thumbs and they should be on their way by the end of the weekend.

    Saturday, I will don the Revolutionary War costume and demonstrate spinning at the Museum of Western Virginia for part of the day. It will be cold, again, but at least it will be indoors.

  • Facebook Rant – 11/6/2019

    For those of you who follow this blog on Facebook, you should take advantage of the subscription link on this page. As you know, I have a small from home craft shop with the registered name Cabin Crafted. This shop can be found on Etsy by going here Cabincraftedshop.com. In order to promote the shop, I decided to start a page on Facebook. I went through the entire process and when it posted, it posted with the name “1947.” I did not choose that,but I don’t know why Facebook came up with it. I had requested Cabin Crafted, obviously. I submitted a page name change and they instantly denied it. I appealed the request with the explanation that I did not choose that name, that my friends and customers knew Cabin Crafted, and the appeal was denied. I have tried one more time. If they again deny the name change, that page and my profile from Facebook will be deleted and you will only be able to get to my shop through this blog or Etsy or in person at events. You will only be able to read my blog by subscribing to it. You will still be able to reach me by commenting on the blog, by email, phone or text if you are a phone friend.

    I am about done with Facebook. I know that they have rules, many of which seem arbitrary or fueled by interest groups, but too many of my shepherd friends have be blocked from selling their fleeces because of the rules. A young relative posted a rant because she was not allowed to post a link to a legitimate medical site because of the rules. Yet offensive posts, political or otherwise pop up constantly.

    This may be the last post from this blog that appears on Facebook. I know I have said it before, but I think I can do without them in my life.

  • The Chair redux

    Those of you who have read my blog from the beginning may remember a post called “The Chair.” Because of the loss of the archives, I can’t provide a link to it for you to read, so here is a brief summary. Many, many years ago, maybe 20, hubby fell in love with a huge chair in Sams Club. Every time we went to shop, he looked to see if it was still there and sat in it for a bit. Near Christmas, daughter and I set out to buy that chair and bring it home, hide it, and put it in the house for his Christmas present. It didn’t fit in my car in the box, so daughter and I unboxed it, loaded part of it in my mini van, I left her standing in the parking lot with the rest and the box while I took it home and returned to get her and the remainder of the chair and the box. We hid the chair in a neighbor’s garage until closer to Christmas, recycled the box and got it in the house as his gift. That chair moved when we sold our house to build this home to the rental we were in for a year. Then I moved here to a new job, into an apartment, and “the chair” moved to an apartment until hubby retired to move here. He and our youngest son lived in that apartment for 2 years then moved to a better apartment for 1 more, then hubby and “the chair” moved to the mountains to sit in our loft in front of the TV. His chair.

    Eight years ago this December, our mastiff was born, 8 weeks later, we drove to Pennsylvania to get him. As he grew, as mastiffs are prone to do, he would back up to “the chair” when hubby was sitting in it and sit on the edge, eventually getting big enough that he would manage to curl up in hubby’s lap.

    That chair as you can see from the arm, was failing and shortly after this photo was taken, it gave up and we bought a “new chair.” The “new chair” as we discovered was pleather, and not very good quality pleather. Where “the chair” lasted about 15 years and 4 moves, the “new chair” failed after about 4 year and the “new chair” wasn’t big enough for the beast and his master to share. Now understand, our dogs do not get on furniture, except the beast and his master’s chair. Because Ranger couldn’t get on the chair with hubby, he would try to sit on the edge, finally pawing at hubby’s leg to get him to come down on the floor with him. This is another mastiff trait. By this morning, there was no pleather on the seat, the back of the cushion had come unstitched and the stuffing was coming out, the chair has been covered with a fitted sheet for a month and hubby showed signs of allergy every time he sat in it.

    He has been promised a better chair for Christmas, but the old one needed to go now, and the loft thoroughly cleaned of the pleather dust, stuffing, dog hair bunnies, spill stains under furniture. The loft also contains my chair, various spinning and weaving tools, a desk, a file cabinet, a love seat, and two small tables. It was decided that the “new chair” now old and decrepit was headed to the dump and he would use the love seat until Christmas. With much effort, it was gotten down the steps, into the back of the SUV and hauled away. The loft has been vacuumed, dusted, floor hand washed, and rearranged as the love seat was not where he could see the TV.

    It isn’t the best arrangement, making it difficult to get behind the seating to the desk and printer, but it will do for a few weeks.

  • Podcasts – 10/30/2019

    I am a recent listener of Podcasts. The first one I heard was an edition of 99% Invisible while riding in the backseat of eldest son’s car on the way from their house to the Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA to see my first play there. I am not a daily listener, I don’t follow but a few and I don’t listen to all the episodes, I pick and choose. I follow 99% Invisible, The Moth, The Way I Heard it, and some of the Ted Talks episodes. I also follow a local sustainable farmer’s podcast, Can Your Beans Do That?

    Some daily/weekly tasks around the house I enjoy and find meditative, cooking and the prep is one. Some I find very onerous, laundry being one. Some get neglected until I can’t stand the dust or dog hair bunnies and then pull out the dust cloth or vacuum. That task is one that is neutral. To get through the more onerous tasks, I often listen to a Podcast. Folding T-shirts and socks seems to go more quickly if my mind is otherwise occupied.

    On morning when I am up a couple hours before my spouse, and have finished the daily animal tasks, I will sometimes sit and listen to a cast or two through headphones so as to keep the house quiet until we are both moving about. When I am home alone, the television never is turned on, instead music or podcasts provide my entertainment and sometimes a level of education.

    On a visit to son’s house, I asked how he downloads them to listen offline as in the car. When traveling I listen to NPR until I lose the station and then switch to downloaded music. I thought listening to a few of my favorite Podcasts might make the trips seem shorter. He gave me a lesson, I thought I had it and prior to my last trip up to help them, I downloaded 5 podcasts to help pass the 3 1/2 hours it takes to reach them. Alas, as I stopped for an iced tea to travel with, I turned on my Podcasts to play through my tiny Bluetooth speaker, the only way I can hear downloads from my phone (my car is 14 years old and the sound system lacks Bluetooth, the cassette play no longer works, the CD player is intermittent) . There were no downloads there. I must not have learned the lesson well. I guess I will get him to try again next time we are in the same location together. It would have been nice this morning as I cleaned the chicken coop. My WiFi doesn’t reach that far, so the one I was listening to while folding laundry was suspended until I was back in the house.

    When time comes to replace one of our ancient vehicles, it will come equipped with technology that far exceeds our current knowledge and a new learning curve will be presented.

  • Between Gigs – 10/29/2019

    Last weekend was the start of the season. As a volunteer at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, I am usually the spinner. Sometimes events stack and I have to be elsewhere. Sometimes, my role is different. The last weekend of October, they plan a Spirits Along the Wilderness Road event. It isn’t a scary event, instead a Percheron pulled wagon travels a path through local history with stops for the “Spirits” of actual historical figures from the region to share their moment in history.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    There were many spirits, Colonels, soldiers, gamblers, slaves, Seminole indians, founders, shop keepers, Politicians, a tiny Werewolf, and more. I portrayed an older Mary Draper Ingles displaying her angst at being away from the ferry and her home as dark descended.

    Photo credit April Martin, Wilderness Road Regional Museum

    In all there were 9 wagon loads of visitors, one every half hour and we could have filled more if there had been space and time. Last year the event was rain delayed to a week night and was less successful, but this year was especially great. The period depicted for my part was just after the Revolutionary War, so I wore that period clothing. As folks could wander the museum before or after their ride, I also was able to share some fiber history and demonstrate spinning on one of the old Walking Wheels that I helped restore to use.

    The upcoming weekend, I will be with a friend demonstrating wool and spinning at the Booker T. Washington National Monument again in costume, but this time closer to the Civil War so a bit of change up to the clothing items. It will also be outdoors and a chilly weekend, so there may be some hidden woolen layers under the two piece dress, and my Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em huge shawl and fingerless mitts to help try to stay warm. At this event, my friend and I can also vend, so yarn, knits, soaps, and salves will accompany my spinning wheel and baskets. When demonstrating in costume, I have a canvas seated wooden folding chair (a period camp reproduction) and a Jacob sheep pelt that I sit on. If I get too cold, the pelt can be in my lap.

    After this weekend, there are a couple of weeks off, then the craft shows for the holidays begin in earnest with Catawba Valley Farmers Market Holiday event on November 23rd. The Blacksburg Farmers Market Holiday markets the first 3 Saturday’s in December. The first two Saturday’s and Sunday’s in December, I will also be back at Wilderness Road Regional Museum in period clothing, demonstrating spinning and vending at their Christmas Bazaar in the old German Barn during the Wassailing and tours of the museum in Christmas greens and candles.

    This is such a fun time of year, never knowing what the weather may bring or the crowds that may show up.

  • Old Dog, New Trick – 10/26/2019

    Depending on the trick, this old dog can be taught a new one. About 2 years ago, ads for the Instant Pot or it’s other brand variations were prevalent. I suggested to hubby that it would be a good birthday or Christmas gift (those events are only a month apart). He didn’t know what one was and I had a coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond that was about to expire, so we went looking. They had a different brand that I didn’t like all the features on it, and we had to go over to Target for something else and they did have two sizes of Instant Pot brand on sale. I didn’t get it for my birthday or Christmas, he told me to go on and get it right then as it wasn’t very expensive. It has totally changed the way I cook. To be able to cook dry beans in 40 minutes, stew, or brown rice in about the same amount of time was luxury. I have used it for making yogurt, but that is as easy in a cooler. I cooked a dozen eggs for deviled eggs, but a steamer works just as well. The Instant Pot gets used about 5 times each week. Now that I know it’s features and how long it takes to make a recipe, I have begun to experiment with other recipes.

    One that I used to make for the family is Greek Stew. It takes hours to prepare, but is delicious and even better as left overs. The farmers market had green bell peppers and the last of the season’s eggplants today, both are ingredients necessary for the stew.

    Because I needed the kitchen for one last soap session, but because I wanted to prepare the stew while the ingredients were fresh, I set about altering the recipe for the Instant Pot. The recipe starts by sauteing onion quarters until golden. It has a feature for that. Once the onions are spooned out, stew beef dredged in flour and cinnamon is browned, again the saute feature. The browned beef and onions are added back together with tomato sauce and beef broth and simmered for several hours to tenderize and cook the meat. Instead of hours, 40 minutes on the pressure setting will handle it. Then you add raw rice and cook til the rice is tender, the Instant Pot has a rice setting. Then you add cubed eggplant and cook for 20-30 minutes which can be done on the low saute setting and finally 10 minutes with large chunks of green bell peppers. Instead of more than 4-5 hours, this stew will be ready in just a little over an hour.

    The beautiful pottery bowls are from a local pottery and friend, Dashing Dog Studio, the wooden ladle is from Chester P. Basil’s Wood, purchased at a craft fair at least a dozen years ago.

    Sometimes, I don’t know how I cooked without it, but if necessary, I can still cook on the stove top, the top of the woodstove, or the gas grill when Mother Nature takes out our power.

  • Jack Frost’s visit – 10/25/2019

    Jack Frost made his arrival 14 days after the average frost date for our area in the mountains. And he returned the next night too. Though neither frost was a “killing” frost, it did burn the leaves on the pumpkin vines, revealing the 4 dozen fruits hidden in their midst. Most are still green, but Google says they can be set on a sunny patio and will ripen. There are no more frost dates in the forecast for about 10 days (of course that can change in a blink), so they will sit and cure or ripen until it looks like the weather requires they be brought in to the root cellar.

    These are Seminole pumpkins. They remain small and turn tan when ripe. Being a moschata variety, they are resistant to vine borers. I feared there wouldn’t be any as the vines took so long to take hold and grow, but in spite of the frost, there are still a few flowers blooming.

    The frost wasn’t enough to totally kill off the remaining peppers, but to make sure they weren’t wasted, the last of them were picked, along with a handful of sheltered Calendula flowers.

    The Calendula still has many buds and because of it’s sheltered position along a south facing stone wall, I may be able to continue harvesting them to dry for salves for another month or so. The peppers were all cut in half lengthwise and for the next couple of days, the house will be piquant with the scent of capsaicin as the oven is used as a dehydrator to reduce the moisture in them for storage.

    My longterm to do list includes an arbor for the grape vine and a solar dehydrator. Short term, I need to clean up the mess that was my garden this summer. A few handfuls of weeds and spent beans were tossed to the chickens to pick through.

    The asparagus tops need to be cut back and their bed mulched with hay. The spent sunflowers need to be cut or pulled and the bed nearest the compost turned and fed with shovels of compost in preparation for the garlic and onions in about a month. The beds that had the tomatoes and the overgrown mint bed are full of mint and weeds and need serious clean up and mulching. The bed that was peas last spring, that I planted oats, field peas, and vetch in as cover crop and then the chickens scratched up has a few of the cover crop plants in it, but is mostly weeds, so it too needs to be pulled up and covered with hay. I tried to control the mint with a tarp which failed miserably. Maybe the weed wacker will bring it down and I can cover it with a thick layer of newspaper and cardboard, a thicker layer of hay and let it sit dormant for a year. The mint that has escaped the bed is growing over the top of cardboard in the aisles and is fairly easy to pull up.

    Each year in April, the University has a Saturday where you can sign up to have students come help you with projects. I am going to try to catch that date and see if some students can help me rebuild my boxes and reset my fence so that it doesn’t look like a drunk erected it. If I can get the posts set where I want them prior to the student’s arrival, perhaps we can get a tight run of 4 foot welded wire around the garden, the gate hanging hardware put in the wooden post that has the solar charger on it, and the gate moved. Both of my solar chargers need new batteries, perhaps that can get done this winter so it will fully charge and once the fence is repaired, new electric can be strung along the top to discourage the deer. There is a lot to be done, but the weather is cool now and not so onerous to be outside working. A couple hours a day over a few days should get the garden put to bed for the winter.