Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday at dinner, daughter said she took today off to spend with her kiddos and they were looking for a hike. I suggested that they do Kelly’s Knob and I would go with them. I have hiked it twice with Son 1 and family, the first time a backpacking, the second time from the road to the Knob and back because my knees were so sore by the time we got there the first time, I couldn’t get out on the rocks at the Knob. I had forgotten that the 1000 foot elevation change happens almost entirely in the first .5- .75 miles, then the hike levels out along the ridge line with a couple of shorter ups and downs, but basically a gentle walk once to gain the elevation. The hike is a bit more than 5 miles round trip.

It hasn’t greened up that high yet, so the trees are still bare, the only green being the moss and lichens. We heard no wildlife going in but had a Chickadee serenade us on our walk back out.

It took Daughter and me to get granddaughter across the crevices to get out on that rock, but from there you can look through the gaps in the mountain toward Blacksburg and Christiansburg off in the distance. It was a bit hazy today to see much out at the distance.

I have definitely gotten my workout today. We returned to the house and made lunch with ham sandwiches or salads then moved the chicks to their new abode. I still need to drag the 110 gallon tank out and clean the pine shavings out of it and into the compost pile, wash the tank out and store it away until it is needed again.

I’m glad I can still hike with my kids and they are patient with me when it is steep and I get out of breath.

The past two days have been gorgeous. Yesterday I got most of the lawn mowed. This morning before hubby got up, the edging was done, then the rest of the mowing finished.

In a day or two, the chicks are going to be moved to the coop. Today they are out in the 110 gallon water tank in the sun with netting over the top to keep them from getting out and to keep anything else from getting in. They were going through the food in the smaller feeders, so the big girl feeder was put in the tank for them to get used to it. They also got the big girl water dispenser. They are funny dust bathing in the wood chips in the sun.

Yesterday when walking up to the mailbox, I spotted my first wild bee with full pollen sacs.

I guess it is time to put the bee house out. And in a week it will be time to put the Hummingbird feeders.

Easter meal prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up with daughter and her kiddos. Egg hunt was a success. Puppies got attention. Chicks moved back to the shelter and safety of the garage. I’m full and want a nap.

then run like hell to get it all done. The long awaited dishwasher installation was scheduled for today with the “you will get a call when they leave Lowes” message from the installation scheduler. Well, he called at 9 a.m. to ask me if I might have used a different name on the order. Uh NO. It was finally established that the extra parts, ie hose, power cord, counter clips were with my dishwasher, but mislabelled and he would be here after he did another installation. This company installs from Bristol, TN to Roanoke, VA and services 16 Lowe’s stores. He finally showed up at 2 and got the dishwasher installed.

After the very noisy GE we had that failed last winter, this one is so quiet I can’t even hear it running when I’m not standing beside it.

We had errands in town that were missed over the weekend or couldn’t be done until today, so as soon as he left, we hauled into town to get everything accomplished before 4:30 when a buyer for our treadmill was due to pick it up. We were on our way home when he messaged and asked if he could come early and he beat us home, but the treadmill is on it’s way to a new home and the basement has more room for ping pong when grandkids come to visit.

One of our errands was to pick up an alteration. I became enamoured with WoolX clothes a couple of years ago and wear them skin out year round. One of my favorite pieces is a heavy zip up hooded sweater/jacket, but it comes with a wimpy nylon coil zipper. The first one failed when the coil pulled off of the tape so I contacted WoolX and they sent me a replacement and the label to return the damaged one. Well the zipper on the second one failed in the same place, the same way, and again they replaced it and sent the return label. The third one had the same issue and they offered me a full refund as they were not in stock. I didn’t want to give it up, so they gave me a partial refund and let me keep the jacket, indicating they were going to have a discussion with their manufacturer about the zippers. I used part of the refund to pay a local tailor to put a real zipper in the hoodie and got it back today just in time for the not so springtime days coming up for a couple of midweek days and nights.

Somehow in the activity, I managed to smack the back on my left hand on the corner of a counter top and bruised it, then gouged a chunk out of the back of my right hand on the door frame trying to help the large man and his tiny thin daughter load the treadmill into the back of the pick up truck.

Yesterday on the way to Wilderness Road Regional Museum, I finished another square for my breed blanket. I have one more on the needles, to have finished by the end of the month, but here is a picture of the ones done this first quarter and a picture from Founder’s Day yesterday.

The one on the needles is from the same yarn as the bottom right, but the colors are slightly different as the roving had variation in it. There is only one more dyed wool to go in, the rest are white, gray, tan, and black so the colored ones will be spread out through more of the finished blanket when done.

Tomorrow is another sit and wait day as the John Deere Tractor dealer is coming to pick up our tractor to repair a rear tire that went flat and do an annual servicing. We have no idea when they will come.

Each day I see another news article about the amount of plastic in our oceans and our landfills. Another article that reiterates that every piece of plastic that has been made still exists. Another article, that most plastics can’t be or aren’t being recycled.

I drive by the local hay storage fields and see large round bales wrapped in non biodegradable white plastic. As the winter moves into spring, those fields are littered with the white plastic that was torn off of the bale before feeding it to the herds or flocks. I see that plastic in the streams and creeks that flow down to the New River, on to the Ohio River and the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico.

I try to not buy or use one use plastic plastic, but with Covid, you can no longer take your reuseable cup or mug to be refilled, if you want to eat out, it is take out and though we are seeing more and more use of cardboard containers, there are still styrofoam clamshells used by some food places. When you go in the grocer or even the Farmer’s Market, items are in plastic, so it is difficult to avoid.

Each year I stress when the garden starts providing food that doesn’t get canned in reuseable glass jars with reuseable canning lids, food that is destined to be frozen like peas and beans because the available containers are plastic bags or boxes. I tried wide mouth glass jars one year and had a lot of breakage. Yesterday an ad popped up for compostable 32 ounce bamboo fiber containers with snap on lids. They are hand washable, can go in the microwave or even the oven up to certain temperatures and when you are done, they compost in 90 days. That sounds like a winner. I can freeze peas in a smaller silicone bag and then remove them and pack several lumps in one container. Blanched green beans can be frozen on a cookie sheet and packed loosely. The snap on lids can be labelled with paper tap or written directly on the lid. I ordered a 50 pack to try this year. I hope that I have found a more environmentally friendly way to save my produce that I don’t want to can in glass for the shelves.

Our state has recently enacted legislation that will ban styrofoam and single use plastic by 2025. I see even Glad coming out with alternatives to plastic. I hope there is more of this type of restriction and innovation and less plastic in our future. I wonder how many of our health problems are the result of the rapid increase in the use of plastic in our environment and our everyday life. We already know that the industry has had to change the formulation to remove certain chemicals. Lets hope for change.

As a child we spent a week every summer in the Virginia mountains having travelled from the coast. It was a big “family” reunion, family being both biological and folks we saw but once a year, every year in the same cottage.

When we had children of our own, there were a few visits to the same location and other visits to Big Meadows on the Skyline Drive in the mountains of Virginia on the opposite side of the Shenandoah Valley.

Before children, I backpacked in the mountains with a Trail Club and then both sons became Scouts and I took up backpacking again, going as one of the troop adults on many weekend trips, a couple bringing us near where we currently live.

As our children became old enough to leave home or stay home alone, hubby and I began taking one weekend a year with my Dad and Stepmom to a B&B somewhere away from both of our homes near the coast, usually to the Piedmont of Virginia, they would plan one year and we would plan the next.

As retirement approached, we began looking for a place to build a retirement home and I wanted to move to the mountains. I was most familiar with the Shenandoah Valley areas, but land was so expensive there. Son 1 had hiked the Appalachian Trail and then rode his bicycle from New Orleans and both times coming though the south western part of Virginia. He suggested we look here for land and we found our farm in the Virginia Mountains, a few short miles from the Appalachian Trail, near the West Virginia line, in the county that was the birth place of my maternal grandfather. We built our home here.

I have learned old homestead skills, canning, spinning, raising chickens, making soaps, some herbal medicine knowledge to make healing salves. Along the way, got involved in the history of the area and began to do some 18th century re-enactment using my spinning and fiber history.

We have a lovely small University town only 15 miles away, trails to walk, ponds and lakes to visit, ever changing flora and fauna. I feel like I’m always on vacation in the mountains now.

Still too chilly to want to work in the garden, though the sun is out, if the wind would die down some, I would go start clearing beds and laying cardboard to begin the new beds. Next week is supposed to be warmer. More vendors are back at the Farmer’s Market, and it is starting to look like a real market again, though there was a fool who planted a chair on the sidewalk just outside the market entry gate with a megaphone, yelling an anti-abortion spiel (I think). Between his accent, the market noise, and the wind, I wasn’t sure what his message was, just that he was annoying. The market manager called the police and when I left, they were talking to him, or trying to as he continued to stand on his chair and shout into his megaphone. We left before there was any resolution. I believe in free speech, but I don’t want to have to try to talk to vendors or hear them when we are masked, over some fool shouting through a megaphone.

The local nursery opened for the season, yesterday, and though I don’t want to plant shrubs or pansies, we did go by to get me a planting flat. Once home with the week’s goodies from the market and the new flat, I moved two chairs that aren’t used at the dining table except when we need more than 4, set up a small table I use for craft shows, and started the flat with mesclun mix, spinach, kale, and several herbs. The flat is on the heat mat with the old grow light over it. That light is two small fluorescent bulbs and is fine for starting greens and herbs, but not so good for the tomatoes, thus the new LED hydroponic unit. The kitchen and dining area look like the green house we don’t have, with every available surface growing herbs or starting vegetables for the spring and summer gardens. I ordered some Thai basil and Cilantro seed yesterday, I probably could have gotten them locally as both the nursery and the natural foods store sell the seed I buy from the Virginia supplier.

On a fibery note, early in the week, I caught an update on my favorite spindle maker’s shop and purchased a spindle much larger and heavier than my others to use for plying. Most Turkish spindles have down turned arms. This one has upturned arms and every one made had a Road Runner etched into one arm. These spindles are named Road Runners. It arrived yesterday and I played with it some last night, trying to get used to the size and weight. Since the fiber that came with it, they always send a few grams of some fiber with their spindles, is organic Pohlworth. Since Pohlworth is one of the breeds I selected for my Breed Blanket Project and since what I had on hand is also white, I seem to have started three different breeds for the month. I’m about 1/3 done with the minimum of the one with silk in it, I will get enough of that done to count for the challenge and focus my attention on the three breeds for the blanket for most of my spinning.

I now have 6 Jenkins Turkish spindles in different sizes to serve all fibers and purposes. My poor wheels are totally neglected this year. But they look pretty sitting there.

Well, the chicks that are a week and a half old are getting wing feathers and beginning to try to test them out. I guess I should get on the project of making a lid for the box before they learn they can gain altitude by jumping on top of the water or feeder.

“Make America Great Again.” A statement made to win an election. America was great because of Democracy. It was what made us a world leader, a country to emulate, to count on. A country where repressed people could apply to become part of our great nation.

“Make America Great Again” was the cry of an unhinged man who wanted to be an autocrat, a phrase that meant “make America white again,” to stop immigration from any country that wasn’t “white,” to destroy the progress that had been made with civil liberties and rights of all Americans. To undermine the progress that has been made in race relations, in rights of Americans who are in the LBGQIA+ communities. To despoil the lands of the Native Americans, to reduce and despoil our National Parks in the name of dollars. The promises made were not kept, they couldn’t be. This is not democracy and doesn’t represent the majority.

A cry from a man whose goal was to line his own pockets with gold at the expense of the country he was supposed to lead. A cry from a man who doesn’t recognize the truth or doesn’t care. A man who abdicated his duties from the beginning.

What happened yesterday at his instigation, an insurrection, the violation of the symbol of our Democracy and the disruption of the Democratic process was unconscionable at the least. A criminal act by thousands of people who call themselves Americans. This doesn’t “Make American Great Again,” it makes us an international fool, it shows our weaknesses. And never during or after these actions could he stand up and tell them to stand down, that he lost a fair and honest election, that the people spoke, the courts upheld, and Congress was trying to certify.

I remain horrified by the turn our country has taken in the past 4 years, I hope our leaders can come together and work to heal, but to have 100 representatives still argue against certification after the coup attempt by people carrying Confederate flags, Trump flags, the black and white desecration of the American flag, breaking down doors and breaking windows to illegally enter the Capitol building, damaging offices of our elected official is not hopeful.

We don’t have to agree with our neighbors to remain civil with them. Violence is not the answer. We need to heal, to find peace, to find compromise. To attempt to rebuild our nation and hope that the damage that has been done in the past four years doesn’t destroy us as a nation.

I was shaken badly by this and fear for the America my children and grandchildren may be facing. Healing for our nation is not in the hands of one man, it has to come from all of us.

As COVID cases rise in Virginia, our Governor has tightened some of the restrictions which is a good thing. He has also allowed the Health Department more teeth in enforcement. I hope that being charged with a Class One Misdemeanor will get some of the local businesses’ attention. All of these changes go into effect at midnight tonight and we will see if anything changes.

Saturday mornings are a time for us to go get breakfast and go to the Farmers’ Market. We usually drive through for breakfast, but chose to go to the bagel shop this morning and I ran in to get the bagels and beverages to eat in the car. The Farmers’ Market first hour is supposed to be for shoppers over 55 and people with pre-orders. The market is outdoors and opens at 9 a.m. We arrived at 9:20 and the line extended down the streets on two sides of the market. There are dots painted on the side walk for social distancing and most people are adhering to that, but if it is a group of 4 or 5 people together, they are standing at one dot. I wouldn’t have even gotten in the line, but gone home except I am not only well over 55, but had pre-ordered from several vendors. The line in front of me was packed with young people, most who entered the market to get prepared food and beverages and mill around browsing. Only 50 shoppers are supposed to be allowed within the confines of the market at a time but there were many more today, with many vendors having 2 or even 3 sellers in their stall and as this was a Holiday Market, there are many more vendors selling crafts, so the number in this corner of the block far exceeded a safe number and the crowd made it difficult to quickly get my pick up orders and get out.

Because I have been a vendor at the Holiday Markets in years past, I appreciate the local shoppers, but because of our ages and underlying health situation, today I did not feel safe. When I got home, I did email the market manager and he kindly responded. The college students will be gone soon for the rest of the semester, so hopefully, the crowd situation will abate. If not, our Saturday morning routine may have to end like so many of our other routines. At least I can still do curbside delivery at Eat’s Natural Foods or Annie Kay’s Natural Foods and the local grocer.

When we got home, I de-iced the chest freezer, organized it and took inventory of what was on hand. I fear as we go into winter and cases rise, there will be another run on supplies and grocery goods or slots for curbside pick up will fill making even safe pick up difficult. Right now, between our garden supply frozen and canned and market goods frozen and root cellar stored, we are in pretty good shape, I even have the necessaries to have a full Thanksgiving for two and we will then eat turkey left overs forever.

I sure hope that the pending vaccines will make this go away. I miss going out. I miss my children and grandchildren. I want to feel safe again.