Cabin Crafted

Category: Farm Life

  • Chores

    After a weekend away, it was back to work.  Bed and bath linens needed changing and laundering. Clothes from our trip also needed laundering. The house was in need of a serious vacuuming to rid it of a thick layer of dog hair and that also necessitated dusting.  We definitely need to get our fall HVAC servicing so we have a new filter.  They unfortunately aren’t ones we can go buy locally and the accumulating dust tells me it is time for a change.  The kitchen was given a thorough cleaning and reorganization of a couple of drawers and cabinets.  The laundry room where my outdoor boots are stored and where we feed the dogs was scrubbed.  One of the closets and bedrooms being readied for daughter and grands is done.  There are still some items in the other closet that I need to relocate and after Son #1 and family are here for Christmas, we will move the dresser from that room and eventually get twin beds so that the grands can share the room at least until they are comfortable living here.

    We didn’t leave the house today except to let the chickens out this morning and lock them up this evening.

    I finally got our Christmas cards addressed and signed, they will be mailed off tomorrow.

    There has been no knitting or spinning today at all.  I finished the body of my sweater in the car on the way to Norfolk on Thursday and started on the sleeves, two at a time only to discover after about 3 inches that I had picked up the wrong needle size.  That was ripped out and begun again once we were at my Dad’s house and between my knitting there and on the way home, I have about 8 inches of both sleeves done and most of the decreases.  If I can get the last few inches knocked out in the next couple of days, I will have another hand knit sweater to keep me warm this winter.  I do need to go out and find a large button for the single button neckline and while looking, see if I can find some new buttons for my winter coat.  While in Virginia Beach, DIL asked me if I could repair a pair of baby mitts that I had made when the 3 year old was an infant. For some reason, one of them unraveled about an inch and the I cord holding them together had frayed and nearly come apart.  As I had my needles with me, I reknit the end of the unraveled mitt, cut and spliced the I cord and handed them back to her.  She thinks they got in the laundry with a load of clothes and said she would hand wash them if they have any more kids that will wear them.

    Instead of crafting, I’m off to a clean bed in a clean house, with my book.

  • Creeping Deadlines

    This month is flying and so much yet to do. We still don’t have a tree.  Maybe next week.  As I was going to bed down the chooks last evening, and to collect 5 very cold eggs, I was being gently pelted by small frozen pellets.  Our table sits in front of the French doors to the back deck and we watched during dinner as the stained wood was coated and turned white.  We weren’t really expecting much in the way of bad weather last night, the Nor’easter that was pounding up the coast to New England  wasn’t going to hit Virginia too hard and we were catching only the westerly edge of wind and moisture, chilled by our winter temperatures.  Awakening this morning with it still heavily overcast, the cedars, pines, and other firs looked like they had been sugar coated.

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    All fog and frosting and totally enchanting.  After feeding pups and me breakfast, it was chicken chore time and on my way back from giving them their morning portion of grains and kitchen scraps, a glance in the same general direction showed a beautiful mountain phenomenon.

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    The clouds breaking up but clinging to the hollows in the mountains, producing a floating ridge.  The sun will quickly melt the frosting on the trees, but it made for a beautiful holiday scene.

    Last night I knitted until my hands were cramped, but met my yesterday’s goal of getting the body of grandson’s sweater finished.  Today’s goal is the hood and a desperately needed bath.  It has picked up dog hair and dust as it has been lugged around the house and in the car in an effort to get it completed.

    A sweater

    The hood is a simple 9″ long stockinette rectangle the width of the neckline plus a few stitches.  It should be done in a couple of hours then stitching up the seam to close the rectangle into a hood, stitch up the underarms and a quick wash.

    The missing gift that is in the mail was near here according to tracking, perhaps to arrive today, so the box of Christmas that must be mailed away should be ready by tomorrow.

    Back to the knitting goal.  Must get on it.

  • An Odd Situation

    We own two vehicles, though we rarely leave the house without each other, it is comforting to know that there is a back up available if one breaks down or needs servicing or on the rare occasion we go in different directions.
    Son#1 and family, living in Northern Virginia with public transportation to anywhere they need to go, don’t have a motorized vehicle, bicycles yes.
    About twice a year, to facilitate them being able to visit both us and DIL’s family on the other side of the state without totally breaking their budget as train and bus fares are much higher during the holidays, we loan them my car.
    It seems strange to not be able to hop in my car and go off without too much thought. Of course I can take the other one, but I don’t like to leave Mountaingdad feeling stranded. He has the BBH but that is not transportation in a cold rain, dark of night or snow and ice, nor can he transport more goods than his paniers will hold. He is off alone right now, I am quite comfortable staying here by myself without a car and wonder why I don’t like leaving him alone. Perhaps the two extended hospital stays he has had since retiring here, both that should have been much shorter, but extended due to negative reactions to meds the hospital administered or due to his immobility after breaking his humerus near the shoulder. I don’t hesitate to go off to babysit or help one of our children for days at a time if he has a car or worry if he is away on his bike or in the car, even for hours or overnight.
    Today I stay home and clean and wrap gifts that need to be mailed. To make the two doll quilts still waiting on my sewing table.

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    Two random scrap tops, but my backing fabric is too busy for them, so a trip to the fabric store must be made to finish the project.
    Tomorrow, he will stay and watch football on TV while I go resupply our wrapping station with boxes, ribbon, tape and tags and get the fabric needed to finish the doll bed quilts. For now I will return to knitting and try to finish the third Christmas sweater, second The Wonderful Wallaby, this one for one of the grandsons, the one soon to be moving here.  Pictures of it will be posted once it is finished.  Since a package mailing is in order to them, I really must finish.

  • Joyful Holiday

    The snow lingers, three inches of wet snow on Wednesday took out the power to thousands in this region, including us. Son #1 and I stacked the cord of wood that had been randomly tossed out of the truck, placing the old wood on top. We got fires going in both the wood stove and the Rumford fireplace, so the house remained comfortable. As it was above freezing that morning, the roads were OK so we all went into town for a few forgotten supplies and lunch. Once back from town with the realization that it might be a couple of days without power, we debated how we would do Thanksgiving. The gas grill with it’s side burner was dragged around in front of the garage to a more level and convenient spot, a pound and a half of the Moroccan pork was dumped into the small cast iron dutch oven and set on the now hot wood stove to heat for dinner while the debate wore on. Should we split and grill the pasture raised turkey or wait til Friday or even today to have Thanksgiving? The temperature fell, Son#1 took Mountaingdad’s hunting rifle and went to sit in the hayfield rock pile and wait for a deer. We stayed in the house and kept the fires going. As it darkened, we cut winter squash and root veggies dusted with seasoning and olive oil, wrapped in a foil packet and tossed it on the grill. A jar of the home canned applesauce, one of the kraut I had made and some kimchee were put out, the oil lamps lit, table set and we awaited the hunter’s return. As we were about to sit down to a great meal cooked without the benefit of electricity in a cozy house, lit by oil lamps, the power came back on and the Thanksgiving cooking debate ended.
    The hunter has sat the rockpile every morning and evening and nothing of sufficient size with a safe clear shot has appeared.

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    If you enlarge the photo, you may see his orange clad head hiding in the photo.
    Thanksgiving meal was well worth thanks. Vegetables from our garden, turkey from a local farm, homemade rolls, relishes and pies were enjoyed as we sat in the warm cozy house with fires burning to supplement the heat pump as the temperature for that day and the next hovered in the twenties,  with flurries and light snow fall.
    The snow will likely disappear today with rising temperatures for a few day before the next round of wet cold.
    We are thoroughly enjoying having one of our kids and family here for these days and wish the others could be here also. Today we celebrate from a distance, the birthday of Daughter.
    Loving life on our mountain farm.

  • Treasures

    The beds were all made with fresh sheets, blankets, and quilts in anticipation of our family. The house vacuumed and dusted, bathrooms scrubbed, and even organized and cleaned up my “space” for crafts. That space is one of the dormers on the front of the house, the other two are in the soaring ceiling of the great room. A couple of years ago, we contracted with a local wood artist to make me a walnut table to fit the space for my use as a desk and a sewing table. The lamp on it, a Christmas gift from Mountaingdad years ago, is hand thrown pottery.

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    We like Trev’s woodworking so much that once the basement was finished, we bought another of his tables for there.

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    Much of our furniture is loved family pieces, handed down, or local craft work. The basement also has 3 walnut burl stools made by Phoenix Hardwoods, also a local craftsman.

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    The little narrow wall hiding the side of the refrigerator from the front door begged for this little cedar bench, handcrafted in Appomattox, Virginia.

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    It sits beside an antique treadle sewing machine with a leather drive band and it works, even when the electricity is out. We have Mountaingdad’s mothers cedar chest as a coffee table, a little pine chest from my grandmother’s family as a side table and other similar pieces with stories of our family attached.  The great room also has a handcrafted rocking chair of reclaimed woods and an oak jelly cupboard from a Tennessee craftsman that we bought to store my pottery at least 30 years ago.
    I love the warmth of wood, it’s a good thing since we live in a log home with log and wood siding interior walls.
    The morning was spent cooking pumpkins for holiday pies. The small Seminole pumpkins we grew are perfect for pie, sweet and a good texture. Unsure how much one would yield, I baked 3 and ended up with 8 cups of fresh cooked pumpkin.

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    Way more than I need for a couple of pies so the extra was frozen in 2 cup bags. Four cups seasoned with freshly ground spices await the eggs, sugar, and milk to be poured into pie crusts and baked on Wednesday afternoon. The aroma of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves mingling with the vanilla scent in the simmer pot and the Morrocan spice on the slow cooking pork has made the house smell so of the upcoming holidays.
    We look forward to having one of our children and family with us for Thanksgiving.
    Lovin’ our mountain farm life.

  • Doing What I Love the Most

    An early start to a busy day, fueled by my super oatmeal with chia seed, walnuts and honey, I’m saving the eggs for the family visit and to send some home with our student family. Prep work for their visit requires a good house scrubbing as Son#1 shows signs of allergy to the pups. Beds which are left unmade to discourage stink bug hiding, must be given clean sheets, blankets and quilts. They are threatening us with accumulating snow on Wednesday or Thanksgiving, so wood must be stacked on the back stoop for the wood stove and the garage or front porch for the fireplace.
    While Mountaingdad still slumbered, bread was started. I had nearly forgotten what a pleasure it is to make bread. I used to make all of our bread but we have been buying artisan loaves at the Farmers’ Market for a while now, but it is up to $9/loaf and with five of us eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 4 1/2 days, it seemed much more economical to make it. Two loaves and a pan of rolls are in the works.

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    The kneading bowl was a Christmas gift from Mountaingdad, handmade in November 2006 of cherry wood by Glendon Royal. It was often used in the past and brought out of display for bread making today. There is too much dough in it to allow a good initial mix and rise, so another treasure was put back into use.

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    This enormous hand thrown pottery bowl was thrown by Rob Podd of the Poddery. It is one of my early pieces from them. We met them at a craft show as they were just getting started and with our purchase of a small dish were given an invitation to their first annual kiln opening to be held the weekend before Thanksgiving which falls on or near my birthday. It became a tradition to go for my birthday and let me pick out a piece of pottery as my gift. There are mugs, a honey pot, plates, bowls, pitchers, and casseroles added a piece at a time over the years, all treasured, used and loved. This piece isn’t dated. Later at the request of the opening guests they began dating each piece. The scramble to get a piece warm from the kiln was fun as folks leaned and shouted to be able to have first refusal on the next piece touched. I don’t know if they still hold the openings or not, we live too far away now for the annual visit and I have all the pottery I need. We only missed two openings, the year I was over due with our daughter and hubby dared not take me 2 hours from home and the hospital and the year they didn’t have it because Karen was due momentarily with one of their children.
    Such memories. The bread is rising for most of the day to make it light enough for the grandson’s tastes. Sandwiches, French toast, dinner rolls for Thanksgiving, I await drooling over the thought.
    It is time to get back to mopping, scrubbing, sweeping, bed making all while enjoying the bergamot and vanilla infused water in the tiny sauce size crock pot simmering and filling the house with delightful scents until the bread can fill the house with it’s enticing aroma.

  • Market and Turkey Day

    Yesterday, I was silent, it was a birthday, another senior one that I am ready to ignore.  Mountaingdad took me to breakfast at our local diner, gave me an LLBean, leather Healthy Back bag and let me sit around and knit and read until dinner time, then took me for the best dinner at one of our local more upscale restaurants.  Usually when we go out, we skip appetizers and desserts and I typically get soup and salad or a veggie plate.  Not last night.  We shared a Charcuterie plate with a delightful whole grain mustard and an onion/hot pepper jam.  They had homemade mushroom stuffed ravioli with hazelnut butternut squash sauce, adorned with toasted pepitas, white raisens and asiago cheese.  It was delightful.  Makes me want to learn to make my own pasta.  A glass of Malbec, and ended with a shared slice of New York Cheesecake and a scoop of pumpkin ice cream.  I left stuffed and happy.

    Today was both Farmers’ Market day and the day we drove to a county about an hour away to pick up our freshly killed and cleaned pasture raised turkey for Thanksgiving.  I cleaned out a market stall of all of their remaining Yukon Gold potatoes and picked up some pork for us and for son to take home after the holiday.  He is still hoping for a successful deer hunt while here and we have a few chores that we need help with, repairing a strip of log siding on the back of the basement and reattaching a downspout that has come loose and may be the cause of the strip of buckled siding.  We also got a cord of seasoned hardwood dumped but not stacked and we need to do that in preparation for the cold and occasional power loss due to ice and snow.

    Knitting is progressing on Granddaughter #2’s Christmas sweater, a Wallaby.  It looks like a knitted hooded sweatshirt with the pouch pocket.  I am about to finish the body and start on the hood.  The sleeves are on as this is a bottom up sweater and most of the loose ends are woven in.  I had lots of knitting time between yesterday and the two hours of car time going and returning for the turkey.  Granddaughter #2 called me a couple of days ago and asked for mittens too.  I thought I would have enough of the sweater yarn to make them, but now I don’t think so, so we stopped at one of my favorite yarn shops on the way to get the turkey and bought a skein of a tweedy yarn with the same color in it to make them.

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    We came home with a 14.5 pound fresh turkey, a 2.5 pound Boston Butt Roast, 2 pounds of ground pork, 4 chops, a pound each of Garlic Brats and Hot Italian Sausage.

    Once this sweater is finished, I need to make her big brother one of a different color, then I will tackle her mittens and hope it all gets done in time for their Christmas.

    Today was a balmy day compared to the recent weather, tomorrow is to be about the same but rainy, so I will tackle cleaning up my craft area, vacuuming the whole house, make guest beds, and make bread and prebake the rolls for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Tuesday morning, I will drive to Northern Virginia, pick up son’s family once they are done with their school and work days and we will all drive back to the mountains for some family time.

    Love our life in the mountains, our local products, and my ability to make warm cozy sweaters and mittens for family.

  • We May Be In For It

    … This winter that is. It is still November and we experienced the coldest night this season with an even colder one due tonight.

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    This was 2 hours ago. The wind howled all night, yesterday’s rain turned to snow flurries during the night and everything was frosted this morning. It is bright and sunny, but there is no warmth in it. I failed to bring the chooks waterer in last night and it was frozen solid, fortunately there is a spare since there are currently no culls or meat chicks.
    It is supposed to warm back to normal by early next week, so Son#1 may not have to wear everything he brings plus Mountaingdad’s barn coat to hunt next week. He is hoping to put a deer in the freezer to supplement the chickens for their winter meat. Their three student budget is tight so meat is a luxury for them. I don’t eat venison and Mountaingdad isn’t a big fan either, but we have the freezer space.
    I’m hoping for tolerable weather on Saturday as we will drive two counties over to pick up our freshly killed and cleaned, pasture raised turkey for Thanksgiving. As I was making the menu and grocery list, I was pleased at how few items we must purchase between our garden’s produce from summer, last week’s Farmers’ market and our local turkey. Olives don’t grow here and I don’t have a cow for cream, nor do we have a cranberry bog, but the rest will be local, homegrown, and homemade.
    Lovin’life on our mountain farm, even if it is frigid.

  • Dreariness

    It is cold and raining.  Not the biting cold of last week, that is due again tomorrow, but cold enough to make procrastination on outdoor chores inevitable.  I cuddled in bed with my book until the Shadow, the German Shepherd was dancing cross legged by my side of the bed, Ranger, the big guy still lazing on his pad on the floor by Mountaingdad.

    It is wet enough that the pups didn’t want to stay outside very long, not long enough for me to finish prepping their eggs, so they hovered around and behind me while I cooked.  The recalcitrant hens producing barely enough eggs to have for home use and as I used one of yesterday’s 3 eggs to make cornbread last night for a meal we shared with our recently widowed neighbor after the Pipeline Opposition meeting, there were only two to cook this morning.  Once I carton a dozen and put them in the refrigerator for neighbors or friends, I leave them alone and only use from the bowl on the counter. This left me with no egg today, but I had leftover cornbread, a wedge lightly buttered and toasted in a cast iron skillet is a treat to be savored, with or without an egg.  The pan was heating to cook the pups eggs, so I got my cornbread first.

    With the house critters (including me) fed, it was getting harder to stall about layering up in gumboots, coat and gloves and finally making the wet, chilly walk over to let the chooks out and to feed and water them.  Their sloped run, bare of a single blade of grass and with the hay scratched and washed off was as slick as ice.  It is too wet to uncover the big round bale of hay to throw more down at the gate, hopefully later it will quit raining long enough to accomplish that task.  Their coop hay tossed to loosen it up for insulation and turned to facilitate the deep litter composting that produces heat for them, their feed served in two metal dog bowls to keep it from being trampled into the mud and a quick check of nesting boxes for cleanliness and I found a surprise.

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    Three fresh, warm eggs to keep my hands warm as I slogged back to the house.  I haven’t seen morning eggs in weeks and am luck to find 3 or 4 cold eggs in the evenings.  It would be nice to get back to going out and finding more than I can carry in without a basket, but maybe not until springtime.

    If it is going to be wet and cold, it should at least be white.  I’d settle for the mountain snow flurries that fall for days on end with no real accumulation, just the dusting on gardens, roofs and cars.  Cold, rainy winters remind me of winters on the coast, you are supposed to have snow in the mountains. I know, I should be careful of what I wish for, we may find ourselves snowed in without power later in the winter and we haven’t laid in wood for the stove and fireplace, having only a bit left over from last year.  I suppose we should set in an emergency supply at least.

  • Autumn Surprises

    Today started sunny and at mid day, it is in the mid 60s.  A great day in the mountains.  We started out early to vote, hoping we will get someone in office who will help fight the Fracking Pipelines and came home for Mountaingdad to get in one of what he knows to be last rides on the BBH before it gets garaged for the winter.  It was a good day to work on more of garden close down and to get the garlic planted.

    The bed that had contained the peppers and tomatillos hasn’t been used before for garlic, so it was raked to remove the fallen, rotting tomatillos and the stray pepper or two that didn’t get thrown to the chickens or brought into the house.  The bed was weeded with my awesome garden tool, smoothed and furrows dragged through the surface.  The bed was planted with 74 cloves of garlic.  I don’t know if I waited too long last summer to harvest, didn’t wait long enough curing time, but we have a lot of cloves that desiccated in their skins, as much as half a head.  If this year’s crop isn’t better, I will start over with new seed garlic next year instead of using cloves from what was harvested.

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    planted and mulched
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    covered to keep the chickens from digging it up again
    While out there and after a couple more nights of freezing temperatures, I found more winter squash.  Most of these will go to the chickens, but there were several Burgess Buttercup and they are so delicious they will be kept. One was pared and cubed last night, roasted with Italian sausage, red onion,a green Ancho pepper, some whole garlic cloves and a few pieces of broccoli.  A meal in a pan and it was great.

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    Several small pumpkins were tossed to the chooks.  After finding Broody girl #2 on the nest again yesterday, but not having the heart to dip her hindparts in cold water, I just isolated her in the meat chicken pen for the day and left her there until dark. Once it was dark, I moved her back in the coop on a perch.  She nested herself once today but stayed outside after I removed her from the two eggs she had parked on.  Another one of the girls is molting.  The run and coop look “feathered” and the egg production is down to a maximum of 6 a day out of 12 hens.  Hopefully things will settle back into production soon.

    Today I decided to start making my own whole grain chicken feed instead of buying the very unappetizing pellets.  I am finding that the chooks aren’t eating all of the pellets I put out for them and it is such a waste.  They never waste the 5 grain scratch which is a good start on home mixed food.  Add some flaxseed, sesame seed, oats, kamut, lentils, kelp and brewer’s yeast and you have a mix that is high enough protein for the layers, they like it, and it doesn’t turn to mush if it gets damp.  They don’t eat quite as much at a time either.  Since they get free range time for most of each day, they are also getting fresh grass, bugs and totally decimating some of my perennial herbs.  I had to put a low fence around one bed that they have decided is a good place to dig, dustbath, and just lay around in.

    Another surprise in the garden was secondary broccoli.  The primary broccoli heads were harvested a few weeks ago but I left the plants in place.  With the freezes, they were relatively cabbage worm free and enough was harvested for a meal or two.

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    As a bonus, the chooks got the remaining plants tossed in their pen for their entertainment and whatever nourishment they can get from the leaves and the few cabbage worms lurking there.

    The day has clouded over, though we aren’t supposed to get rain until Thursday.  It was a good day to be outdoors for a while.