Cabin Crafted

Category: family

  • Saturday with the Grands

    After my post yesterday, the grands and I set out to finish the pruning task. As soon as we got out there and started on the big peach, we spotted this:

    This was the biggest Eastern mole I have ever seen and it has been tearing up the yard. It was in the grass and I had leather gloves on, so I picked it up to remove it away from the yard, away from the chickens and the neighbor cat. It was removed to the woods, but will surely return. Did you know that moles bite. Fortunately, not hard enough to get through leather gloves.

    We managed to get a good portion of the pruning done, except one very over grown apple tree that has a badly damaged secondary trunk. The top was broken out and there was older damage farther down that trunk. It had two thumb thick branches that bent down and were rubbing the damaged trunk. Tall grandson, on a step stool was able to remove the broken top and cut off one of the bent branches. We finally decided that the trunk needed to be cut below the damaged areas and worked on it, but it was getting to be dinner prep time and our fingers were frozen. We quit for the day, but will have to return to finish removing the damaged wood. The burn barrel is full and there is a huge pile of branches to be removed away from the orchard.

    This is just a portion of what was cut. This was a task that was years past due. More will have to be pruned next year to bring these trees back to good condition, but the inside of each crown is opened up to allow more airflow and light. No more crossed branches, no more water shoots. Guidance says not remove too much in one year. Hopefully, once they are in healthy condition again, it will become an easier annual task. There is still a dead peach tree to remove, it has been dead for several years and is small, but has never been taken down.

    While we were out and about, we saw the local Maine Coon cat who decided that he could tackle a full grown free ranging chicken. The chicken is slightly injured, it looks like a puncture wound near her breast, the cat is ok according to his owner. Unfortunately, the injured Buff Orpington is the one hen who won’t let me anywhere near her to pick her up and try to assess the damage. It occurred to me to get her from the coop last night after dark, but forgot. This morning, as usual, she wouldn’t come out of the coop with me in the run. There are a few bloodied feathers on the lower left side of her breast but above her thigh. She is moving with no impairment. Monitoring her over the next few days is in order and if necessary, just close her in the coop after the rest have departed and try to catch her in the enclosed space to see the damage. They are free ranging again today since the run cover failed, the run doesn’t keep them in and they need to be able to get in and out of the gate. If one flies over the fence they are too stupid to realize they can fly back in.

    Sunday morning hot blueberry made from scratch muffins have been consumed by hungry kiddos. A plan to entertain them is in order for the day. Tonight we return to their house so I can get them off to school tomorrow and help with evening schedule until their Mom gets back around bedtime. I love having this opportunity with these kids.

  • Life’s Joys amidst stress

    The state of the world right now is at the least stressful as we watch a world bully attack civilians without regard to anyone but his own ego. You can’t ignore what is going on, can’t escape the barrage of disconcerting news.

    All I can do is focus on more positive things. This weekend, we are enjoying two of our grandkids, spending the weekend with us so their Mom can have a weekend away with friends. They are 10 and 15 and both really great kiddos. We did the usual Saturday morning breakfast out, egg delivery, then took them by their house to pick up a couple of missed items, then off to do a couple of errands. After that, with no complaint, they shared our walk, a 2.7ish miles. This evening, we will prepare dinner together, using it to help granddaughter study fractions as she has a test on them on Tuesday, then we will take them out for ice cream, even though it is the middle of winter and cold out, but a request that was made in front of their Mom last night.

    Also a distraction has been knitting bulky yarn hats this week. So far, 3 have been made and added to the shop.

    And of course, spinning with my spindles. As I am going to be offering a class at the local rec center in spindle spinning this spring, I ordered a basic top whorl spindle to use for demo purposes. It came with a second smaller one that I can make available to a grandchild or to someone in the class that comes without one.

    I need spring time so I can get out in the garden. The seed came today. The granddaughter that is here is the one I help with her garden, so I think we will spend some time working on her garden plan this weekend as well.

    Thank goodness for the joy of having family.

  • Our Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • It didn’t happen the way we planned

    Son 1 left for his dwelling and job at 6:40 this morning, arrived there on the bus, train, and his bike and let us know he made it back. Son 2, who owns his on medical transport business ended up on an ambulance today due to employees calling out in the snow/ice storm the coast of Virginia received, so they couldn’t come.

    While Daughter, Son 1 and grands were here on Friday for lunch, they taught me to use Zoom so I could join in the Zoom session that my Jenkins spinning challenge group does on Saturday afternoons and I did join them for about 35 or 40 minutes yesterday. It was delightful to see live faces and real voices of people that I have communicated with online for the past couple years. There were only 16 of us but one was in Germany, two in the Netherlands that are “neighbors” close enough to walk to each other’s homes, and from one coast to the other in the US. Such fun, I will try to join them more often at least for a while each Saturday.

    We took another cold walk on the Huckleberry as it is the only route we usually do that isn’t still covered in ice, and snow flurries are supposed to happen tonight for a couple hours, but I doubt it will amount to anything. I can’t remember the last time snow and ice was still on the ground a week after it fell here. After our walk, I followed through with the plan to bake bread and make soup that was to be for a dozen or more, but just made less, and Daughter and her two came over to share the meal with us. Hot Herb and Onion bread, fresh cornbread, and a pot of delicious soup for a cold winter evening. We sent them home with the extra milk and juice purchased in anticipation of more family here, and one of the two loaves of Herb and Onion bread. There is still a part of a loaf and part of the cornbread for us to enjoy over the next couple of days.

    I continue to work on the dark wine colored fiber that hubby gave me for Christmas. By spinning it on the spindles, I can enjoy it for longer, make a finer yarn, thus more yardage and then enjoy it again as I make myself something warm to wear and enjoy. The January challenge as I mentioned before, changes every couple of days and today and the next two are just to spin at least 2 grams a day and take a photo. While bread rose, then baked, and soup simmered, I sat in a sunny spot in the dining room and spun my bit for the day.

    It isn’t quite as dark as it appears, but I waited until dark to take the photo.

    There is some babysitting in our plan later in the week, first at their house, then bringing them to ours for a couple of days. Last time I did this, the kids and I got snowed in for a day. I hope I didn’t just jinx us.

  • Hey Guys, it is cold outside

    Awoke this morning to this:

    My photo memory from 3 years ago, it was 9, so it must be the time of year.

    The weekend plan changed some when we realized that, 1) I obviously can’t read a calendar as Son 1 is leaving tomorrow morning early; 2) that Son 2 who lives on the coast of Virginia is getting the storm this weekend instead of us and won’t be coming after all. But Daughter and her two came for homemade pizza lunch yesterday as the icy roads in the more rural parts of the counties caused their school to be closed. I shortened her Taekwondo pants for next week’s National testing and the tournament she is in, fed everyone, we visited, then we all went for a two mile walk in 27 f temps and a cloudy day, so it felt colder than that.

    Today is again very cold, but sunny and Son 1, hubby, and I set out to do a walk at the pond near us, but the road in, the parking lot, and the start of the path down looked like an ice skating rink and ski jump. We altered plans and walked a different section of the Rails to Trails Huckleberry, a 2.5 mile round trip. Part of this section goes through a rock cut where the rail used to run and the icicles dripping from the rocks were fascinating.

    A failed attempt to catch a falling drip.

    Though the temperature when we walked was a few degrees colder than yesterday, with the sun, it didn’t seem quite as cold.

    The vegetable soup and homemade bread will still be made tomorrow, in a smaller quantity and Daughter and her two will come share it with us for Sunday dinner.

    It is always delightful to have one or more of our children here to be with us, to share meals, for family visits. We will try again to get them all together at once the weather cooperates a bit more.

    The ice is finally melting off. I am glad because the trip up hill to the chicken coop and back down to the house has been a threat to my health and safety for the past few days.

    When we got home from our walk, enough had melted off that the hens had finally ventured away from their coop to the relative shelter of the naked Forsythia bushes. I was able to walk over to gather early eggs before they froze, without feeling my safety was at risk.

    The upcoming week is going to be more seasonable with most days above freezing to the low 40’s and nights in the upper teens to low 20’s. I think there is a day of rain chance in there, but not freezing precitipation.

    Hubby looked out the back window and said, “I’m ready for winter to be over.” Usually he doesn’t make that statement for at least 3 or 4 more weeks.

    I am perusing the seed catalogs, making plans for spring and summer when two bee hives will be added and maybe a mushroom bed.

  • The Switch was flipped

    December was so warm and dry, January has been just the opposite and though there isn’t much snow forecast for the next 10 days, there is some bitter cold weather. Yesterday was comparatively mild, getting up into the low 40’s and we got out our driveway for the first time since Sunday, up the gravel state road that had been plowed yesterday morning, and down the mountain to deliver a birthday card and gift to the local grandson who celebrated his 15th birthday yesterday. It seems like I just drove to Florida where he was born to help daughter out in her first week post partum and deliver an Amish made rocking chair and high chair to her. I love that they are now living within 20 miles of us and we see them weekly, not a couple times a year.

    The prissy hens finally came out on the hay mat I threw down for them. When I dug their outdoor water tub out to fill it yesterday, it was buried in a foot of snow that had drifted into the run. Walking on the hay mat, I now sink several inches each time I go over. Taking advantage of it being “warmer” and not windy, I cleared the wet straw from their coop. I need to figure out how to seal the drop down window on the east side for winter. Though moisture rarely comes from that direction, there is no eave overhang on that side of the coop and the weekend snow storm blew in that direction making a small snowdrift inside the coop that melted with the heat they generate and soaked their straw. With fresh dry straw in there, I need to protect it. While tossing the damp straw into their run, a few hens ventured out on the straw surface and out the gate, only to realize that it was cold and white outside the run, so they retreated back onto the straw and hay. Fortunately they are still laying eggs, though now in the quantity they did last summer.

    Overnight, it rained for an hour or two and this morning, the snow pack is thin and brittle, beginning to show grass patches through in some areas. Today is much colder again and snow flurries are the moisture of the morning.

    While we were in town yesterday, we supplied with milk, juice, fruit, and soup veggies as we will have all three of our children and a houseful of grands for Sunday. I am going to make a huge pot of vegetable soup and a couple loaves of bread, a pan of cornbread (because that is the only “homemade” bread on of the grands will eat) and feed a dozen or more folks dinner. Homemade muffins for breakfast, probably pizza for lunch. Daughter and her two will only be here for dinner. This will be the first time in a decade they will all be here and there are many more of us now than there were then. I am beyond myself with excitement to have them all together.

  • A different routine

    It isn’t often that I am solo at home and when it happens, the routine is so very different. I am an early to bed, early to rise soul, dear hubby stays up until the wee hours of morning and sleeps until late morning. There are certain chores I won’t do while he is still sleeping, anything that makes loud noise, like the vacuuming. The laundry room is far enough away that if I can gather the dirty clothes in the dark room, I can start laundry, but bed and bath linens must wait arising. I rarely leave home when he is not here, quite content to be the hermitess on the mountain.

    And meals are quite different also. He is a born Texan, beef and starch, pork and starch are the preferences which I will usually eat so as not to prepare two different meals. I enjoy beans, bean or legume soups, potato soup with cheddar cheese, or one of the Asian inspired creations of late. In cold weather, I can eat soups twice a day and be very content, add a slice of good bread and it is even better. When together, we often go to get a newspaper (delivery is sporadic at best), run errands if there are any, and pick up lunch out, usually eaten in the car.

    Because too many large doggie landmines were discovered by visiting grands under the snow and since much of the snow has melted and another round is due this afternoon and overnight, I went out and cleaned up dozens from the front and side of the house. I also brought in another load of logs as we went through most of the rack on Monday. It is supposed to be cold tonight, cold tomorrow, and frigid tomorrow night, so I want to be prepared if the heat is needed.

    Linens are laundered, vacuuming is done, bathrooms are cleaned, landmines disarmed, and I even made a very quick trip to the big box hardware store to pick up inside of the exterior door mats and a long non-skid runner for the utility room as the old guy is having more and more difficulty on the tile floor where his food and water are placed. The inside the door non-skid mats are to slow the tracking of water and sand onto the hardwood floors.

    When the grands were here playing in the snow, the big old guy was isolated in the utility room so as not to get stepped or fallen on by toddlers and he would park hard up against the door to the garage so coming and going had to be through front or back doors, both entering onto the hardwood. I have a boot park inside the utility room, but you couldn’t get to it.

    The chickens finally came out of their coop late yesterday and this morning, but I’m guessing that they won’t tomorrow again for a day or two.

    I’ll hunker down with my book, spinning, knitting, a cup of coffee or tea and watch it snow again. I think I’ll go pick greens first.

  • Hello Winter, finally

    January 1 it was 70 f, yesterday it was 53 f and wet, this morning it was 31 f and this happened.

    It was raining at 2 a.m., but changed at some point. We got about 4-5″ of wet, heavy snow, pretty to look at, but not to play in. The trees are heavy with it and the wind has kicked up, so fires are going in the wood stove and the fireplace, just in case it takes the power out.

    I didn’t even bother to walk over to the coop. They have food and water inside and wouldn’t come out even if I did open the door.

    Tonight is going down in the mid teens. Most nights this week are similar with single digit expected on Friday night. It is January, this is what winter is supposed to be, not the warmth we have had for the past several weeks. Today is a good day to stay in, watch the fire, spin or knit and enjoy the snow from the warmth of the house.

    Yesterday afternoon we had a call from Son 2 that he and his family were on there way here for a few hours. We enjoyed having dinner together here, some snuggles and chats with them and some of the grands. They fled trying to beat the snow in the wee hours, but it caught up with them and took them longer to get home than they had planned, but they arrived safely. It was great having a visit with littles running around and loving on us and the pups.

  • An Old Guy

    This fella turns 10 today. Now 10 doesn’t sound very old, but he is an English Mastiff.

    This past summer he reached the point where he could no longer manage the stairs and in the past couple of months it has gotten to where he needs help getting to his feet. We use a beach towel folded lengthwise to make a sling slipped under his belly to provide him some lift. It hurts our souls when he moves around after he is down as he pulls his back end around with his front legs. It doesn’t matter whether he is on the wood floor or the carpet, he just doesn’t have the strength in his hind quarters to get himself up. Each year, the pups get new beds for Christmas and we got this thick orthopaedic one for him this year. He will put his front half on it, but even if you get him to walk up on it and lie down, he will end up working his back legs off. You would think it would be so much more comfortable than the hard floor. He is still a very loveable old curmudgeon, demanding of attention if you sit down in the living room where he now lives.

    We laugh at some of his quirky ways. For his entire life, he and the German Shepherd have been fed in the utility room with the tile floor. As he grew, we raised his food and water on a feeder stand and this year, bought a taller one so he doesn’t have to bend down as far. The German Shepherd inherited the shorter one as she too is approaching 10 years old this spring, but is still fairly spry though with much less energy than she used to have. When Ranger goes in to eat, he has plenty of room to turn around to walk back out, but has always backed out of the room until he is in the much narrower doorway then turns around. Of course, we provide the “beep, beep” sound of a backing truck when he does it.

    When a Mastiff wants your attention, they will paw you. His paws are as large as my hands. As a young pup, we were told to do everything a child might do to him to aclimate him to pokes and prods. You can mess with his paws, ears, pull his tail, check his teeth, step over him and he patiently accepts it. He isn’t a fan of nail trims, but even that can generally be done without too much reaction. As a young dog, you would often find a grandchild laying on the floor with him with their head on his side. He travelled to Florida with us one year with his head in grandson’s lap most of the way. He considers the grands as his kids.

    The March we picked him up from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, hubby was instantly in love. I was a bit more cautious, especially when the owner of the parents called up to his welding shop and told them they could let the dogs come down the hill to us. I saw two freight trains with flapping jowls barrelling down the hill and wondered what on earth we had just done. We couldn’t have asked for a better dog.

    Happy Birthday, Ranger, old man.

  • Another year is closing

    Today marked the last Farmer’s Market of the year, as the next two Saturday’s are holidays. It also means that some of the vendors are finished until spring and I will miss being able to do the bulk of our weekly groceries locally sourced, regeneratively and/or organically grown. There will be a few vendors through the winter when travel from their farms allow and some products still available, but it is always sad knowing this marks the beginning of real winter.

    Today was also the last Holiday Market as well and this year I didn’t participate for several reasons. There are more and more vendors selling similar products, and competition is good unless your handspun, handknit hat is competing with bulky knit acrylic one. And the uncertainty of Covid sent me in a different direction last year, slowly spinning on spindles and knitting a blanket for us instead of product for sale, so my stock was low. And the cost of participating was too great for my stock availability. I limited my events to three at Wilderness Road Regional Museum, and one outdoor event at Montgomery Museum this past year and not until I was fully vaccinated. At times, I wonder if that adventure should cease and just donate my time spinning at the Museum or heritage craft events without vending. With this in mind, some of my equipment is being sold off and keeping only that which I love and use. Now with the new variant spreading like the wild fires of the midwest and western states, we are again wearing masks even in crowded outdoor venue, and I guess will stop going in restaurants again for a while, though that had only resumed occasionally.

    This week hasn’t felt much like winter, with warm daytime temperatures and mild nights, but tomorrow is supposed to be more seasonable. Today it is raining, yesterday too, but we squeezed in a walk only getting a light shower during part of it. I don’t think we will get one today. We won’t have a white Christmas this year, but it may be cold enough for a fire in the fireplace. We won’t be totally isolated from our family this year either, but still only a tiny gathering. We were so fortunate to be able to meet up with Son 2 and his family week before last and enjoy their children.

    One of my hydroponic gardens has not been doing well, so this morning, I broke it down, totally cleaned it, reset the plants that were growing and started some new salad greens. The other one has gotten off schedule with maintenance power outage by the power company and power flickers due to wind. I may put both of them on an easy to control power bar with a timer as the internal timers on the units can only be reset by getting up very early and restarting them and they don’t run for the same number of hours.

    I will end this not very positive missive with a holiday photo.