Author: Cabincrafted1

A Passing

This morning I lost a friend who was lost from me and then found again through Facebook. In reconnecting with him, I learned how parallel our lives had been, yet how different they were.

We both became educators, married about the same time for the second time each. Had children near the same age. Both built our own homes. When I reconnected with him, one of the first questions I asked was whether he still played the guitar and learned that treatment for Hodkins disease his senior college year had robbed him of the use and feeling of his left arm and that it had also caused other damage that ultimately caused other difficulties with his health.

He loved his teaching at Utica College where he had been since completing his PhD. He adored his wife and daughters and a grandson that he got to share only two years. He was well traveled and had many stories that he told in blogposts. He was planning on retiring at the end of this school term. Most of his posts he ended with, “I am a fortunate man,” and I believe that he, in spite of his disabilities he was a fortunate man.

I am going to miss his blog posts, his humor on facebook and his friendship. I was a fortunate woman to have known him. He will be missed.

February 10, 2014
The Editor

In January, my husband published his first book. This book was started 36 years ago, hand written on legal pads and typed by me on an Olivetti manual portable typewriter that I had been given as a high school graduation present by my parents more than a decade before. About the time he was ready to send it off, a well known author published a book not on the same topic, but based in the same region. Revisions were done over the next several years, allowing the famous author to come out with a new book and I again typed it on the typewriter.

In the 1980’s as home computers were just coming on the scene, we got a computer lab at the school where I was teaching and after a couple of planning periods in the lab, I was excited that I could create my classroom tests and exams on the computer, in Dos, saving the test questions for future use. My excitement led us to buy a Tandy for home and the manuscript was again typed and saved on the larger floppy disks, many of them. Now several decades later, with the development of Kindle, Amazon, Nook, etc. and those old floppy’s no longer readable, again I typed the first third as he decided the original manuscript was too long and he made a decision to develop the book as a trilogy. The section was given to him to rewrite and for me to read, as I can mindlessly type and not follow the content. My final act is to perform the editing and formatting which after several years of retirement, my Word skills are rusty. Today I was trying to relearn how to number the pages as each page has a header. We wanted the author’s notes to be in Roman Numerals and the body of the book in Arabic numbers and for some reason, in spite of adding section breaks, the title page and copywrite pages get numbered. My frustration level with it at this point has caused me to quit for the night. It took internet searches to get as far as I did and each time I deleted the numbers on those two pages, all of the numbers disappeared. Arrrgggghhhh!

February 8, 2014
Doctor season

February is the month. Somehow, over the years, I have managed to get all my annual medical follow-ups clustered around our Valentine’s Day anniversary.

Five and a half years ago, I discovered a small nodule under my left jaw bone. From Family Practitioner to specialist, CT scans,couldn’t find what we felt, but did find nodules/cysts on my thyroid. The specialist then sent me for needle biopsies of both the nodule in my jaw and those on my thyroid. The result was surgery to remove my parotid gland with the non malignant nodule and determined that the thyroid was probably cysts. This happened just as school closed for the summer, but it put my first followup in February. Annually, I have to go for a thyroid ultrasound and follow-up with the specialist.

About three years ago, I developed what I thought was another keritosis on my right shin. Family Practitioner shaved it off and sent it for evaluation as he didn’t think this one was a keritosis and it wasn’t. It was a squamous cell variant skin cancer and again I sent off to a specialist, this one who specialized in MOH’s surgery. After visiting with her and finding out how long I would be immobilized, we elected to postpone the surgery until after our annual ski trip to Colorado. After the trip, back to the surgeon again in February to have the cancer removed fully. This added an annual trip to the dermatologist for a full body check for the rest of my life. I was never a sunbather, but did work two summers on the beach as a lifeguard and I’m very careful to stay covered with long sleeves, wide brimmed hat and sunscreen when working in the yard, but my years as a lifeguard are catching up with me now.

In the middle of all of this, we will celebrate 36 wonderful loving years together with a nice dinner out at a local restaurant.

♥

February 7, 2014
Winter morn

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.

February 6, 2014
Back on the Farm

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.

February 3, 2014
Home Again

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.

February 2, 2014
The Compact Traveller

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.

February 1, 2014
The Sitter

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.

January 30, 2014
Weather misfire

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.

January 29, 2014
Success builds confidence

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.

January 28, 2014