Author: Cabincrafted1

Ruby Mitts

After several days of knitting, ripping, designing and trying again, I finished the fingerless mitts to go with my favorite hat and scarf. Several years ago I designed a hat to use a beautiful ruby colored skein of yarn that I had purchased from Unplanned Peacock Studio (http://www.unplannedpeacock.com/), an independent yarn dyer from our region. I published the pattern on the database Ravelry. After a year of wearing that hat, I approached UPP to see if she could duplicate the color so that I might make a scarf to go with the hat. She tried, but just couldn’t quite get it right. She had a hat of the same yarn and I thought perhaps she was trying to match it, but found out about a year later that her dog had destroyed the hat and she had no sample from which to work. Again, I begged and offered her the small remnant ball I had from making my hat and again she tried, and tried, but this time she succeeded and I bought two skeins, used to design and make a scarf to match the hat. Another period of time passed and I decided that I really wanted to make mitts or gloves to go with the hat and scarf. She still had a skein of the yarn and I purchased it. Tonight brought success. The Ruby Hat, Ruby Scarf, and Ruby Mitts are all free patterns on Ravelry and here, Ruby Hat (http://goo.gl/yAfQV) and later Ruby Scarf (http://goo.gl/uzjTFo), and Ruby Mitts http://goo.gl/C80YhQ.

This is what they look like

Finished just in time for this weekend’s cold, wet weather.

November 1, 2014
Pumpkins and Squash, Oh My!

It didn’t quite get to freezing last night, but we did get a light frost. Thinking that 20 something nights wouldn’t do the pumpkins and squash any good, a morning harvest was set in motion.
Last night we brought in 19, most of them seen here.

This morning I harvested 53 more. They were stacked around the perimeter of the garden as I debated how to get them all over to the house and the idea lightbulb flashed.

The two tobagans hanging in the garage awaiting grandkids and snow were put to use. I have no idea how many pounds of goodness are there but each was a challenge to drag them individually across the yard. This isn’t all of the year’s harvest, some were taken to NoVa, some to the neighbor that helped last night, several already cooked for us, a few damaged or small ones tossed to the chickens. Are there more out there? I am certain of it, many tiny baseball to softball sized ones, probably a few larger ones hidden in the jungle of dying leaves. Each time I go out I spot another.
A tiny white tailed denizen of the jungle was perturbed that I dared tromp through his habitat and took off through the garden.
Earlier this fall, I was certain that the Burgess Buttercup squash were the predominant winter squash and the Seminole Pumpkins lost to the overgrowth of leaves as none of the squash were turning the characteristic tan of the pumpkins. The harvest revealed very few Buttercups and predominately Seminole, most tan or tanning on the lower side. Next year they get the orchard to cover. We will enjoy the harvest as will our neighbors, chickens, and family.

October 31, 2014
A Tribute to a Mountain Man

Today a true mountain man was laid to rest on the hill overlooking our home. The banner photo at the top of my blog was taken almost from the spot where he was buried. He was one of the first people we met upon buying our land. He was wary of us and we of him at our first meeting, but he quickly became a friend. One of the characteristics of Appalachian men is to not to talk to women outside of their family. He, though shy, was never like that. He would stop when he saw me at our mailbox or mowing the top field and chat. A nature lover, he would point out the hawks or the baby raccoons that he could spot before we ever saw them. As a veteran, he was proud of his country and his service to his country, generally wearing a ball cap that stated Viet Nam Veteran. He was a simple man that didn’t care what other people thought of him, he marched to his own drummer, but would do anything for you if asked. In the past couple of years, he first lost a leg to circulatory issues and finally his life to Pneumonia on top of COPD, he failed fast and will leave a huge hole in his family and his neighborhood. His request was to be buried on his farm, on his hill where he spent many hours day and night, watching the wildlife or the stars. At his graveside, he was given a 21 gun salute by the local American Legion, VFW and National Guard. His family presented with the flag from his coffin. Like in life, he was buried in simplicity, in his hunting clothes, his Viet Nam cap and a simple pine box. He will be missed on our mountain.

His passing allowed us to meet people who had just been names to us since our move here. Our farm sits in the midst of hundreds of acres of farmland owned by his family, his brother and cousins, only a few of whom we had met. It is a sad way to get to know them, but nice to be able to put faces with the names we have learned.

After the service and a dinner at the chapel, we hurried home to try to harvest what was left in the garden, one of his cousins, our closest neighbor coming down to help and visit. We are expecting winter to arrive tonight and have snow flurries expected this weekend with nights in the 20’s.

Darrell helped harvest any pumpkins and winter squash that were hanging from the compost bins, the ones on the ground we left to see if the leaves will die off in the freeze. A box of mixed peppers, another of the remaining tomatillos and some greens were harvested, the pepper and tomatillo plants pulled and tossed in the chicken pen, the chard covered with row cover to try to save it for a bit longer. The two cayenne pepper plants were pulled and hung upside down in the garage to see if the rest of those peppers will turn red. He left after visiting and having a cup of tea with a box full of some of the goodies. As we were cutting the pumpkins, we realize that there must be 35 or 40 more in the garden. I need to find more recipes other than soup and roasted winter squash.

October 30, 2014
Olio – October 28, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

We have had two absolutely gorgeous days in a row with mild nights. It has been windy off and on, but Mountaingdad has had two great motorcycle outings, probably the last two of the season. Tomorrow we return to fall weather, late fall weather, if the weather prognosticators are correct we will see snow flurries on Saturday. I am definitely not ready for the white stuff or any frozen form of precipitation. If it does happen, the pumpkins vines will finish dying off and the rest of the harvest will be made, the pepper plants and tomatillo plants will be tossed in the chicken pen for them to pick over. I really need to get the garlic planted and well mulched before the ground freezes.

While Mountaingdad was off riding, I was enjoying quiet time at home. Having planned on running errands and perhaps getting lunch out, instead I read, ate leftovers and did a bit of yard and garden work. Late yesterday, a package I had been awaiting arrived, a Turkish Spindle from Snyder Spindles on Etsy. I learned to spin on a top whorl spindle and wish I had learned on a Turkish spindle. After watching a You Tube to see how to set it up, I was off quickly spinning some maroon colored Merino. I love the way you wind the single on the spindle to create a center pull ball that can then be plied with another ball or plied off of itself. Though most of my spinning is done on a wheel, it is nice to have a spindle that is portable to take when visiting our kids. A few ounces of fiber and the spindle take up little room in my bag.

As I was spinning the fiber, I realized how similar in color it is to the yarn that I am using to knit the fingerless mitts to go with my hat and scarf. I had hoped that the mitts wouldn’t be needed for quite a while yet, but they may be welcome in just a day or two. I was unhappy with the first one and selected a different pattern to make it over and make the second one. I don’t really have enough done to show them off yet.

On Sunday, we were notified by one neighbor that another neighbor who we knew had been sick and hospitalized but released and home for a few days had been taken back to the hospital by ambulance and his prognosis was poor. This saddened us as he was one of the first neighbors we met and though we were wary of him at first, he and his wife had become friendly with the strangers in their midst. We were even more saddened to learn yesterday morning that he had passed Sunday evening with his family by his side. He and his wife are our age contemporaries on the mountain. He has had several health issues over the past couple of years and their cumulative effect were more than his body could take this time. Our hearts go out to his family at this time.

Today we found out that the company proposing the pipeline has filed their preliminary paperwork with FERC, so letter writing will occupy our time for a few days. Tonight we are attending a meeting on our legal rights. There may be nothing we can do, but we are going to fight to the end on this project. As oil prices drop, fracking become less desirable and new wells aren’t drilled. Keep hoping that the oil prices drop low enough to stop this. A sign we saw in town says it all, “Stop the fracking pipeline. Preserve the NRV.” If you want to read more about this issue, go to http://www.preservethenrv.com. While you are looking, do a search for the pipeline explosion in Appomattox, VA in 2008 and look at the photos of the damage that a much smaller pipeline explosion wrought.

October 28, 2014
Pumpkin Soup
I thought the pressure canner had been stored away for the year, but then the winter squash started appearing through the jungle of leaves and I realized that I had so much more winter squash than the two of us will ever eat. Mountaingdad likes pumpkin pie at holidays and will tolerate about two small baked pumpkins stuffed with rice, sausage, etc. each winter, but that will hardly put a dent in the harvest. Last night I texted Son#1 and asked for suggestions and he was quick to suggest pumpkin soup, and if I canned it, he would eat a couple quarts a week as he takes his lunch to work with him. This seemed like a splendid idea as soup is my favorite food, if it is not commercially canned soup. We have a local restaurant that always has chili and two soups made fresh at the restaurant and they are unique and rarely duplicated on the menu. In the years we have lived here, I have only gotten one soup there that I did not like so I set out to make a creative pumpkin soup. Here is the recipe, I hope to soon be able to insert my recipes in a printable card, but not yet.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup
- 5 c cubed, pared raw winter squash or 3 c cooked winter squash
- 2 1/2 c vegetable stock
- 1/4 c onion
- 1 Tbs. oil
- 1 Tbs. minced ginger
- 1 Tbs. minced garlic
- 1 Habanero (may be omitted or use a less pungent pepper for a milder soup)
- 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin
- 1 tsp whole coriander
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 c dried milk
If you use raw squash, cook it in the broth until soft. Blend or puree the cooked squash and put it back in the soup pot. Retain 1 cup in the blender and blend in the milk powder until smooth and creamy.

Toast the cumin and coriander until fragrant and then grind. Saute the onion in the oil until soft but not browned, add the garlic and ginger until softened. (You may use garlic paste and ginger paste as a substitute, but just add it with the ground spices) Add the ground spices and the sauteed onion and stir to blend in. Add the puree with the milk into the soup and bring back to a simmer. It will stick if you let it boil. Yields about 8 cups

I doubled the recipe and the result is slightly spicy and delicious. With two cantaloupe sized pumpkins, I made the 4 quarts of the soup for canning and had just enough left over to savor myself.

I guess it would be a bisque as it is blended smooth and contains milk. My plan is to alter the seasonings with each batch for variety, make and can until I run out of jars again. Son#1 said we could bring down another load from his house when I go pick the up for Thanksgiving and they would help me peel and seed the squash and pumpkins to make more while they are here. It is rather time consuming, peeling and seeding 2 pumpkins, but it occurred to me after I was done that I could have just as easily split and baked them and used the baked flesh instead of boiling it soft, but I do like the flavor the broth added to the soup.

NOTE: canning failure. You can’t can pumpkin puree or soup, just chunks of pumpkin. The soup is in the freezer and will be enjoyed after thawing the jars. Lesson learned, I guess we just can the pumpkin chunks and make our soup later.
October 26, 2014
It keeps on giving

that wonderous garden of ours. I asked my favorite farmer friends at the Market this morning when our average first frost date was, because my memory told me it was around October 10 and they confirmed that we were past it, so far without a frost on their farm in our county or ours. They still have tomatoes and flowers growing! Of course I had to buy a tomato and a bunch of flowers. Don’t they look great on the fall table cover?

We are getting mid 30’s nights, but no frost and the garden keeps giving of bush beans, broccoli, peppers, tomatillos, turnips and greens. The big crop of harvest now are the winter squash.

Seminole pumpkins and Burgess Buttercup squash. There are so many out there that I still cannot get to and though the plants are beginning to die back, there are still flowers on some of the plants. There will be many softball size squash and pumpkins to feed the chickens over the next couple of months and many more larger ones that we will never be able to eat them all.

Though it was getting dark when I went out last night to lock up the laying hens, the sun setting behind the west hill and casting it’s last glow on the gold of these trees stopped me for a few moments of time to enjoy the chilling night and the beautiful color. By the time I walked back, the sun had set and the side yard was dark. It is indeed a beautiful time of the year, though it is short and soon the trees will be skeletons in the woods and we will be able to see lights from our nearest neighbor’s houses through the woods.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

October 25, 2014
Olio – October 24, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

Our internet issues seem to be finally resolved, many months and many mistakes later, we are back with our original cell provider and our original internet/phone provider. The lines have been repaired, the speed boosted as much as it can be boosted given our physical distance from the nearest booster from our small community cooperative telephone/internet provider. They also provide cable TV service, but their HD is not HD, so we opt to receive cable elsewhere. Life was so much simpler with an antenna, a house phone line, no internet and no cell phones; cheaper too.

The sweater was ripped out and restarted using a yoke pattern instead of a raglan pattern, the sleeves have been put on waste yarn and the body is being worked slowly. This pattern is from one of Ann Budd’s formula books, so it should fit.

The twisty rib pattern at the top is interesting. Hopefully it will block into a nice yoke for the sweater that is otherwise very plain.

As the sweater has already gotten too bulky to want to tote around with me when I am the car passenger, I finally started the mitts that are made of Unplanned Peacock Superwash Merino in a colorway named for me as it was dyed especially for me to match a skein I purchased from her several years ago and from which I designed and made Ruby Hat (http://goo.gl/yAfQV) and later Ruby Scarf (http://goo.gl/uzjTFo), both free patterns on Ravelry. Ruby Hat is my favorite hat and has its own story, but that is for another day. The mitts are also being made from one of Ann Budd’s formula books to wear with the hat and scarf or just around the house at night when my hands get cold. They are the perfect portable pocket project for the car.

I am frequently amused at questions I get from folks that I know have grown up their entire lives in this rural county. Today, the phone/internet installer saw my chickens wandering about the yard and ask me very innocently if my hens were laying now that the weather is cooling down. My response was yes, except for the one who was molting. I could tell from his expression that he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about and he said his egg production from 10 hens was down to only a couple each day. I asked him how old his hens were and most of them are only about a year and a half old, so experiencing their first molt this season, thus his lack of eggs. He also wasn’t feeding them any calcium, not even giving them back their own shells. He left educated by the city girl with a ziplock sack of crushed oyster shell to free feed his hens and a promise that once their feathers were back in that he would start seeing eggs again. He also was surprised that Son#1 and I could kill and process our culls and meat birds. He said though he could shoot and dress a deer, he wasn’t sure he could do a chicken. Our flock is enjoying their daily freedom to dig in the gardens, to look for bugs and tender blades of grass. When we need them safely away from the dogs or driveway, I just go out like the Pied Piper with my little cup of scratch that I shake and they come running and follow me back to the safety of the electric fence.

The pumpkin vines are dying back more each day and revealing more of the winter squash. I thought that only the Burgess Buttercup survived and that I didn’t get any Seminole pumpkins, but realize that it is a half and half mix, except the pumpkins for the most part haven’t turned tan. The ones that I picked and put on the picnic table are beginning to turn. The wormy ones get split with a hatchet and thrown into the chicken run for them to enjoy. A side benefit is that the seeds are a natural anti parasitic for the chickens. The peppers and tomatillos survived the cold nights predicted in the last post. I am letting the remaining fruits mature until we are threatened again and I will do another harvest. The last batch was made into another 4 pints of Tomatillo/Habanero sauce, the hottest batch yet. Maybe I should change it’s name from XXX to Insanity. I sure can’t eat it, but Son#1 will love it. The Farmers’ Market last week had many vendors of apples. I came home with another peck of mixed crisp red apples and realizing that they would not stay crisp until we finished them all, I used about a third to make another batch of Apple Cranberry Chutney (http://wp.me/p3JVVn-Ja), using 1 cup of honey instead of brown sugar this time. The shelves are full of goodies even after having taken two crates of canned goodness to Northern Virginia on the last two trips to return son and grandson.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm and continuing to gather knowledge to fight the pipeline.

October 24, 2014
Rippit, Rippit, Rippit

No, we don’t have a frog in the house. Rippit is a sound that knitters don’t like. There are times when a project just isn’t right. If it is a little error not to far back, you can Tink (Knit backwards) and correct your error. Sometimes you find a big error too far back and have to just rip it out.

The sweater that I have been making for myself to go with the lovely Hitchhiker scarf at the top of the photo had progressed to sleeves by early this week. By Wednesday night, half of one sleeve was complete and I tried the sweater on to check the sleeve length. What I found was a sweater a bit too large in the body with huge sleeves. I had followed the pattern and was very frustrated that the sleeves were so large. The Knit Night crew suggested not adding the stitches under the sleeve, but the pattern wouldn’t let you just knit around, so I picked up the stitches and did significant decreases in the first couple of rows in the underarm area. Once I had one sleeve long enough to try again, it was better, but I just didn’t like the size of the whole sweater.

This was on the heels of having just given away a sweater I made last spring that was too small through the back and shoulders. Rather than spend more hours finishing this sweater that I knew I would not ever enjoy, tonight’s decision was to Rippit. About half of the sweater is now rolled back into balls. The rest sitting in my lap awaiting the same fate. Rather than try this pattern again in a smaller size, I have found a different pattern. The new pattern will use much less yardage, but that is okay. I have two granddaughters who might like sweaters for Christmas, so I will just continue to Rippit. . .and then enjoy the process of knitting sweaters that will be worn.

October 19, 2014
Garden’s Swan Song

We are past our “Frost Date” and have had mild nights except a couple of weeks ago. The garden survived those two nights with row cover fabric draped over the peppers and tomatillos. We are expecting two nights in the 30’s tonight and tomorrow night and nothing is going to be done to protect what is left. If the plants survive, great, we might get a few more tomatillos and peppers, the greens will be fine for a while. If they freeze, it has been a good year.

To prepare, a harvest of 5 types of peppers, a basket of tomatillos, a handful of bush beans and two golfball sized turnips were brought in. The Jalapeños were pickled into two more pints for winter. The bell peppers sliced and frozen except for a few to stuff tomorrow. The Anchos have been put in the window sill hoping they will turn red and can then be dried for Enchilada sauce. The tomatillos and habeneros will be cooked down with onion and garlic for more of Son #1’s favorite XXX sauce.

With the garden waning, the chickens get to visit, eating bugs, weed seed and scratching around leaving chicken fertilizer. When they aren’t in the garden, they wander around the orchard, the yards and out into the fields, but not too far from the house.

They are healthy, producing plenty of eggs each day and live a good life.

On Saturdays, we generally go to town, have breakfast at the local diner then shop the Farmers’ Market. We came home with some beef and pork for the freezer, a peck of eating apples and some carrots and onions.

Between our garden goodness and the Farmers’ Market take, we will eat well.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

October 18, 2014
SAY NO TO THE PIPELINE

Last night Mountaingdad and I attended the county Board of Supervisors meeting in opposition to the proposed “natural” gas pipeline. We were heartened that the gallery was full to overflowing with residents of our county, the adjacent county, and the county that successfully blocked it. There were more than 100 people in attendance and 16 spoke, including Mountaingdad. Though this wasn’t a hearing on the topic, I feel the Board was given some good information, not just the sales propaganda from the Mountain Valley Pipeline people. We were also heartened to learn that we don’t have to try to start the resistance moving in our community, that there is already a group made up of folks from 4 counties and we just need to jump on the band wagon.

The statistics and data that we heard are frightening, regarding the dangers of even a smaller 30-32″ pipeline and they are talking about an experimental 42″ pipeline. The map showing the proposed route and the question and answer sheet that was provided from the presentation they made to the county representative several days ago, shows that they are not going to directly use the power line easement, but rather take land near it by eminent domain and depending on which side of the easement they choose, they could be on our land or very near our farm and perhaps will take our land for the road access as they come in to destroy a 125 foot wide swathe of forest and dig a 10′ deep trench through the rock and karst topography and along a fault line of our county. Needless to say we are alarmed. Construction blasting and digging or a pipeline accident with a pipeline of that size could wipe out from our home past the only major road through the county, virtually isolating some of the county residents. This in a large mostly rural county with only 4 small volunteer fire and rescue companies. The route crosses the New River and two major creeks feeding the New River numerous time, threatening over 250 historical sites including 2 of the 3 covered bridges. The estimated property impact is in the billions of dollars. This is for a pipeline to carry gas recovered through fracking (a groundwater destroyer) and they won’t guarantee that the gas won’t be shipped overseas instead of for domestic use. The estimated lifetime of this pipeline is only 20 years.

The Cascades

Bridge built in 1912 and designated as a Historical Landmark.

Built in 1916, designated as a Historical landmark.

Historical farmhouse

Historical farmhouse

The two bridges and the two houses are all within the probably easement as are many other historical sites.

There have been over 360 incidents resulting in at least $40,000 damage to property per incident (the figure that is put on declaring it an incident) in the US alone including one that killed 8 people and destroyed an entire neighborhood in California just within the past few years from fracking or the transmission of the gas recovered by this process.

This pipeline won’t even be giving jobs to our region as the installation of such a pipeline requires specially trained workers that are brought in with their own temporary housing during the construction.

Our county has been striving to present itself as a recreation, vacation and wilderness area with over 45 miles of the New River for kayaking, canoeing, tubing and fishing; the wonderous Cascade Waterfalls, Mountain Lake and Lodge, and more than 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail including one of the trail towns. The forest destruction will definitely impact the desirability of this area as a vacation spot or wilderness retreat.

If you are one of my local readers, please join the cause against this pipeline and share this information with friends and neighbors. We need all of the support that we can get. More info is available at Preserve the NRV on Facebook.

October 17, 2014