A light dusting of snow settled between the blades of brown grass.
Gray sky, cold and bleak.
A flock of Robins, harbingers of spring, feeding along side of snow juncos, a winter resident.
The chickens showing little enthusiasm for their morning release from the night’s captivity.
A head cold, compliments of grandson last week.
If we aren’t going to get real snow, I wish winter would go on and exit.
The return to the farm has brought with it the return to Virginia winter weather. Today’s high occurred early this morning with a chilly day and frozen night in the forecast. With dusk last night came rain all night long, creek flooding rain and snow possible as the day wears on. The ridge behind us shrouded in low thick clouds.
Last week when I was babysitting in Northern Virginia and available regardless of the weather, it was sunny and warmed to the 40s and 50s, today they are on the rain/snow line of this storm and likely having to deal with another weather closure or delay. That problem, I remember well, having three children and both of us having professional level jobs that were difficult to miss.
It is good being home, watching the antics of the dogs. Ranger the English Mastiff romping with the German Shepherd indoors and out, but having much less stamina and collapsing on his back outdoors, or into this position next to Jim when he is spent.
The only place he is allowed to do that in beside hubby in his oversize worn out recliner.
When I got home yesterday afternoon, I went out to check on the chickens and do a bit of coop maintenance, I don’t ask that of Jim when he is chicken sitting for me and finally caught a Buff Orpington sitting on an empty nest, so now I know which eggs to set aside for brooding when one of the hens gets broody this spring.
I don’t know which breed is laying the pinkish tan eggs far left, the Olive egger is obvious, the nearly white tan eggs are the Buff Orpington (at least one of them though I think the pinkish ones might be the other one. The darker brown even colored ones are the Red Stars, nice sized consistent eggs with good yolk structure and flavor, and then there is the girl with the faulty sprayer that lays a brown egg, sometimes speckled always with a color distortion on the wide end and the girl that lays extra elongated pointy eggs. I may never know though, because as soon as there are 14 Buff Orpingtons including Cogburn or his descendant, the rest will go to freezer camp and my eggs will be boring, but my flock self sustaining.
This past week was one of my visits to Northern Virginia to aid with childcare for L (eldest grandson.) As RT (eldest son) had driven my car up there on Christmas to get their gifts home and to have some transportation for a month. Living in that area and on near a Metro line, they don’t own a car. Where they can’t get on the Metro, they go on their bicycles. If it is too far for that, they just don’t go. On Friday evenings, L has his guitar lesson for 30 minutes and RT manages to get their grocery shopping done and they load it all on their tandem bike or take the bus home. Having my car makes the whole process more convenient.
Because of the car already being there, I went up on the Amtrak train out of Lynchburg. It will be more convenient when it comes into Roanoke. I generally take the MegaBus, but there were no seats available on the day I needed it. The train ride was an interesting experience, I haven’t really ridden a train since before Jim and I married and prior to that taking it to college. For some reason, the train car was so hot, I stripped down to my t-shirt and slacks, but I wasn’t sharing a double seat, so I just piled all my snow layers in the seat beside me. Having not slept well the night before due to worrying whether we would be able to make the 109 mile drive in the snow that fell that night and having to get up at 3:30 a.m. to make the trip, I spent a good part of the 4 hours dozing.
Normally, L and I try to find outings together, but he opted to go to the School Aged Afterschool Care program one day to go roller skating and didn’t feel well the next day. Yesterday, he, RT, and I planned an outing to Chinatown in Washington DC to watch the Chinese New Year’s parade, fighting the traffic to get there and realize it was today instead. We used the time we had put on the parking meter to get some lunch in a Chinese Restaurant (surprisingly one of the only ones in Chinatown) then did the art scavenger hunt in the Luce Foundation part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
This morning, my car loaded, and breakfasted with bagel sandwiches made by RT for us, I pointed my car home and had an easy trip with little traffic and no bad weather. That is supposed to begin later with a bit of everything predicted this week, rain, ice, sleet and snow and one model showing us getting our first major storm this season with 18″ or more of snow. That will shut us in for a few days.
I enjoy my trips to help them, but am always glad to be home to my own schedule, our bed and routine.
I have always been a minimalist when it comes to packing. This began when I was a backpacker and whatever I needed was carried on my back. I am a tallish, thin woman, not Charles Atlas and did not want to tote around 35 pounds of gear, it leeched my stamina and left me at the end of the day with a headache. My solution was to learn ultralight backpacking and when I gave up that activity after my sons grew beyond scouting age and our Old Farts group disbanded, the practices I learned spilled over to suitcase packing. For the three years that Jim and I commuted across the state to see each other every few weeks, the travel to visit and help out with one of our kids, our annual ski trips and most recently, our cruise and then the trip to Mexico have been in one carry-on suitcase. My preference is a small hard side suitcase except when skiing where I carry a two compartment case that holds my boots, two changes of quick dry ski wear from skin out, ski pants, gloves and helmet. Incidentals on those trips go into another case shared with Jim.
As the process has evolved, there are items that live permanently in the case, a small stuff sac with a USB charger port that holds 4 cables for phones, tablet and camera; a travel clock, book light/flashlight combo, a hand wash clothesline. Also there is a quart zip bag with a bar of my handmade soap that is used for body and hair, a Toob brush that is a toothbrush with a small tube for toothpaste or toothpowder inside, a widetooth comb for my long hair, and a deodorant stick, none of this needs to be removed for TSA checks. There is a pair of folding ballet flats for slippers and a fleece that rolls compactly. When I am ready to pack, the climate is considered. If laundry facilities are in question or will cost, quick dry layers are packed that can be hand washed and hung overnight to dry. Rarely are there more than 3 under layers and shirts packed, one change of pants, a skirt if dress up is needed and a sweater.
With this bag I carry a leather tote with my tablet, phone, wallet, a shawl or scarf to be used as a pillow, blanket or shoulder cover on a train or plane, or as a shoulder cover in a restaurant, a solid lotion bar, my knitting project and my camera.
When the northern Virginia trips are scheduled, half my case is packed in doubled insulated grocery bags of frozen chickens and venison for their freezer.
My minimal packing allows for the packing of these supplies for their family and I returrn home with a lighter case.
Several times each academic year, she travels 4 hours northeast to have quality time with the eldest grandson. He is an active 8 year old, she has two score and 18 on him, but young at heart. Her primary purpose is to provide daycare on his non school days when his parents both have school and/or work. She supervises his homework and guitar practice on those days and gets to enjoy one on one time as well.
Often, an outting or two is planned, weather permitting, the winter being the most difficult to find things to do. His house is less than a mile from the Metro train into Washington, but the temperature is too cold to endure the walk and finding parking there is nearly impossible as it is a terminal commuter station. She seeks alternative activities.
Today he went roller skating with his School Age Child Care Program, thus giving her half a day of solo time. Time spent helping out the family with some household chores, buying a few groceries to have the rest of the ingredients for chicken enchiladas for dinner, utilizing some of the meat that her son helped put in the freezer last spring or fall.
Tomorrow, they will either brave the cold, though somewhat warmer and visit one of the Smithsonian museums on the mall or brave the traffic and visit the Space Museum near Dulles.
Family time will be enjoyed Saturday and she will return to her hubby and the farm life on Sunday.
The snow was nearly melted from Saturday’s unexpected coating. Sunday had dawned with an expected warm up which occurred as the weather prognosticators had predicted. By the end of the day, the field looked like tan leopards with white spots and for the first time in weeks the faucets in the utility room did not have to be left dripping. The dogs were disappointed that the snow was nearly gone.
Monday’s high was at 6 a.m. and there was a 41°f drop during the course of the day, but no precipitation was expected for several days. Tuesday was frigid, never climbing above the mid teens with strong and gusty winds and snow flurries. The east coast was bracing for a major snowstorm that was to go east of the mountains. This was good, as she was to catch a train the following morning north to go babysit for a few days. The train station 109 miles away and the train departing at 7:38 a.m.
As evening fell, the snow started, again unexpected and several inches suddenly predicted. What to do, already they were to leave home by 5 a.m. to make the train and with dogs that couldn’t be left for more than a few hours, making the drive that night wasn’t an option. Instead alarms were set an hour earlier in hopes that the roads would have been treated overnight. The mountain descent was snow covered and a bit slick, but the highways in most places were fine.
The schedule was met and this is the morning view.
The world is again white, the sky clear and the sun is shining. The dogs again have snow in in which to play and the chickens won’t come out until it melts from their straw. Today and tonight are frigid, then it warms to normal winter weather, until the ice storm on Monday. She better get home in her car by the weekend. He drives home alone to the company of the dogs and becomes caretaker for the chickens today and for a few to come.
A few days ago, I posted about the lace cowl that I was knitting and feeling good about finally successfully completing such a project for the first time.
That success and a desire to have another knit hat for winter, urged me to design and knit a hat using the same lace pattern in the body of the hat. The yarn for the cowl was too thin for a warm hat, so I held a strand of it together with a strand of Green Dragon Sock yarn in one of the colors in the cowl yarn and set to work Sunday night.
The lower picture is in daylight and shows off the true colors.
The hat was completed in a day. Now before I can post a pattern, I either have to determine that the lace pattern is open source or get permission from the cowl designer to use her lace pattern in my design.
I am pleased with the finished hat and that it’s colors will blend with the cowl and with another triangular scarf that I knit a couple of years ago.
If the rest of the winter remains as cold as the past few weeks, I am sure it will get much use, alternating it with my Ruby hat and scarf and my homespun hat and scarf.
Next up is a cardigan of Quince andCo. Lark in Delft color way yarn and one of their patterns, Estella. Love, love their yarn.
We purchased our farm/homestead in January 2005 and spent the next several months getting the perk test for septic, drilling a nearly 800 foot well, laying out the floor plan and getting the custom log kit put together for us, hiring a contractor and finally breaking ground in November 2005. In June 2006, I left my husband and recently graduated high school youngest son in an apartment on the coast and I took a second apartment in the university town halfway between where we were building and my new job. This started a 3 year commute every few weeks back and forth across the state for hubby and me, sometimes meeting somewhere in between to see each other.
During the construction, before our eldest son (RT) who had moved to the area with his family to oversee the construction, could take over for the interior work and the weather would permit the stonework, he repaired our old pole barn. It is a simple structure of a central closed room with a sided lean-to off each side. One side stored the old farm equipment that we bought with the house and is low enough that we have to be careful walking in it to not hit our heads. The other side is tall enough to park the tractor inside and to store the plow and auger and has a hay rack, so was probably used at some point to shelter cattle kept on the land or for the miniature horses that were grazing here when we purchased. The barn was in disrepair, the doors were rotting and falling off, the roof had been the target for many shots from a neighbor’s yard and the metal roof, already in poor shape was riddled with tiny holes. Son rebuilt the doors after repairing and shoring up the frame, roof cemented and painted the metal roof in a color close to the red of the house metal roof, making it a functional place to store the utility trailer, our kayaks, and tractor equipment. It may soon become hay storage for the horses and cattle that should be added within the next year.
Also during this time, RT and his wife constructed a tremendous garden,6 huge compost bins, and orchard area. This area was much larger than I can manage and has been reduced to about a 60 X 60′ vegetable garden and berry beds, the chicken coop and run, and an orchard with apple, Asian pear, and peach trees and two less compost bins. This is an area that I can manage. The vegetable garden has been a work in progress as I started building 4′ square beds for parts of it and 4′ wide strips of beds for other parts of it. Two years ago, I added a row of blueberry bushes, a row of thornless raspberry bushes, moved a grape vine that a neighbor had given us, but was just growing randomly and not well on the edge of the garden and added another of a different variety and gave them the northern most row of the garden with trellis support. I have tried different varieties of vegetables to see what grows best in this soil and climate, have discovered that radishes and turnips get riddled with little white worms and aren’t worth my effort, I just buy them in season at the Farmers’ Market. The remainder of the garden provides us with beans, peas, greens, tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, potatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers and sometimes when Mother Nature allows, pumpkins and squash. Some years there is enough to get us through the winter. Other years there is enough to share with RT’s family as well, and a few years, it has only been part of our needs and we have had to supplement from the Farmers’ Market or even the grocer.
Almost a year ago, I wanted to add chickens to the homestead, mostly for eggs and the compost they generate, and RT asked that I also raise some meat birds, that he would do the deed and butcher them. I didn’t know that they couldn’t be raised together, that the layers would brutalize the slow heavy meat birds and that the meat birds couldn’t get up in the coop. I also learned to be careful when buying birds. My first chicks were day old chicks from two different Tractor Supply stores and there were lots of young cockrells in the first chicks. Then I bought two from an animal swap that were both supposed to be pullets, one is my big rooster Cogburn. I bought half a dozen from a local gal that was on Backyard chicken forum, she swore she didn’t know their genders and all 6 were cockrells (I’m sure she laughed all the way to the bank with my $30). I got two more pullets, Buff Orpingtons like Cogburn and decided that they would be the heritage breed that I raise. RT came in late spring and we put all the cockrells except Cogburn, the meat birds that survived and a couple of pullets in freezer camp. It was not a pleasant task, but I participated to the extent I could tolerate. The rest of the flock continued to mature as I looked forward to the eggs they would produce later in the summer. In August, I raised a second brood of day old meat chicks, this time in a chicken tractor that RT had build for me during the summer, keeping the laying flock and the meaties apart and in October, they were dispatched to freezer camp with a higher lever of my participation this time, though I still find it very unpleasant.
Around August, the layers, one by one began producing eggs and everything I read said that I needed to increase their calcium intake so I purchased oyster shell to offer to the hens that wanted it, then had an Ah Ha moment when I read to feed their egg shells back to them. Some sources say to just remove the membrane from inside the shell, wash, dry and crush. Others say the shells must be baked. I have learned that there is no right way to do anything, that you do what works best for you. My hens get their shells back with the membrane removed and heated in the microwave for 2 minutes, then crushed. I learned not to totally clean out their coop weekly, but put a thick layer of straw inside and turn it daily, adding more when needed. This starts a composting inside the coop which provides winter warmth and surprisingly it doesn’t smell, then thoroughly clean and scrub the coop out come spring and good weather. I have been told to keep the chickens in a secure run with chicken wire buried to keep digging predators out, but that idea doesn’t work here as it is difficult to even hammer in a post without hitting a rock in this county and alternately to let them free range. I prefer the free range method, but there are too many dogs, coyotes, hawks, etc in the area to totally do that, so they are in a pen, not too secure, inside the orchard that has electric fence around it, but they usually get a few hours of free range time each day when there isn’t snow on the ground. And I have learned that I want a pure flock of heritage birds that can self sustain, no more brooders in the garage for baby chicks.
This has been a learning experience, lots of instruction, usually contradicting someone else’s instructions. So far, we are producing most of the vegetables we need, we have lost only 2 very young chicks and no adult birds that we didn’t harvest (hope I didn’t just invite a pack of predators), have purchased and learned to use a tractor with brush hog, bucket, and auger (still haven’t gotten the hang of the plow), have planted an orchard, a berry and grape supply, landscaped with plenty of perennials for summer cut flowers and love the mountain farm life.
Next up we add horses and cattle and hope that goes as well.
Life is good on our mountain farm.
Yesterday it snowed off and on all day. The forecast had been for light snow showers to begin in the late afternoon and end shortly after dark. It started just as I was coming in from the chicken chores, having finally lured them out of their coop with warm mash and fresh straw over the snow. This allowed for some much needed coop “cleaning.” It snowed hard for a couple of hours, depositing a new inch or so on the snow remaining from a few days before and then we had snow showers through out the day. Nothing was accumulating on the roads so we didn’t worry about leaving the mountain. Just at sunset, the sun peeked out of the broken clouds while it was showering and I stood on the back deck in the 28°f temperature to see if we would have a snowbow.
As it appeared to be clearing, we decided to travel about 20 miles to the Mall to see American Hustle, feeling safe that the roads would be okay on the way home. The movie was pretty good, hubby liked it a lot and when it was over we exited the multiplex theater to find a mini blizzard going on. The roads were covered with about 2-3 inches of new snow and it was coming down so fast it was hard to see the road. This is the mountains and most folks up here have either all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive if they are permanent residents, but it is also the area of the state’s largest university and it seems that most of the students have cars and many of them are not appropriate for snow driving in the mountains. Even town is not level with rises and dips and as we drove through on our way back to the main highway out to our home, we watched as people, mostly college students slid around corners, fishtailed trying to climb the rises and slid as they foolishly applied brakes going down hill then applied them more firmly to thwart their slide, which caused more sliding.
Once on the main road for the last 12 miles, the road goes up two mountains and through two passes and this is where it got really dicey. There were cars that couldn’t make it up and had slid into the guardrail, some sideways, some spun around in the wrong direction, some perpendicular to the road. There were people with 4 wheel or all wheel drive that thought they were invulnerable and were passing each other and driving by the spinouts too quickly and following each other too closely. It was a terrifying ride, even as the passenger in hubby’s Xterra with the 4 wheel drive on. When we got to the last 2 miles, going up the mountain on which we live, there were only 2 sets of tracks. We made it home safely, but very tense.
To unwind, I chose to work on the lace cowl that I posted about a few days ago. I never thought that I would say that knitting lace would help me unwind, but I had added stitch markers after each lace repeat after “tinking” two half rows and it was going along smoothly. I finished all but the last three rows, staying up way past my bedtime.
Today is supposed to be warmer, the sun is out and the wind is calming. After chicken chores which involved more new straw to coax them out to the snow and preparing breakfast for me, feeding the dogs and starting some laundry, I have knit the last 3 rows and bound off. I am stoked, this is the first time ever that I have successfully finished an entire lace project of any complexity and it is beautiful. It still needs to be blocked but I can’t wait to show it off.
From this
To this
and finally to this. Now I feel confident and am thinking about trying to create a hat to go with it using the same lace pattern.
Ever since I met my husband, James Stafford, more than 37 years ago, he has wanted to be a writer. After we married, he wrote a book, I typed it on an old Olivetti manual typewriter that I had been given as a high school graduation present by my parents. The book was edited and retyped again on the old typewriter shortly after our first child was born and then retyped yet again once we bought our first computer, on the big floppy disks. After that, due to family responsibilities and job responsibilities, it got set aside. When he retired a couple of years ago, he rekindled his spark to write and publish, so he dusted off the old paper copy of the book, revised it, changing its course somewhat, decided it was way too long for even a historical novel and broke it into three parts. Again, we worked together to get it typed on the computer and he edited and rewrote and edited again.
As of yesterday, I am proud to announce that he is now published. The book can be obtained here http://goo.gl/5JL2mW on Amazon and here http://goo.gl/GOFUjc on Kindle store. (I don’t seem to be able to make these simple links, but if you copy and paste they go to the correct sites. Alternatively, you can go to Amazon or Kindle and search for the title, Mfecane.)
If you are a reader of historical fiction, or just want to help out a budding new author, please buy and read a copy either the paperback or the ebook and share it with other readers. You can check out his blog at Jamesstaffordauthor.com.
Cabin Crafted 