Cabin Crafted

Blog

  • Chores and Crafts

    Yes, I am a senior in the upper half of my 70’s, but I can still work when needed. We have a couple of days of thaw and temperatures in the mid 40’s and we have about 25 fireplace logs unsplit from dead Ash trees that our south neighbor took down when he was fencing along the south border between our farms. A lot of smaller branches were cut by him and stacked for us, but the logs were in 10 foot lengths. Our young hay guy, a great and helpful man, came to remove an oak blow down that was in one of the fields he hays. While he was here, he cut the Ash into fireplace lengths and stacked them where they had been laid. We have some brutal cold expected Monday through Wednesday or Thursday of next week with single digit daytime temperatures. To be prepared to assist the heat pump and hopefully just be a supplemental heat (as long as the power stays on), I tackled the stack today and managed to get about 6 of the logs split, hauled down to the house and stacked on the front porch. The rolling wood rack was filled with older wood from the wood stack and also moved to the porch. This was an additional workout as there is still snow and ice from the past couple weeks of nastiness which makes doing anything a bit of a hazard.

    This pile is about twice as large as when the photo was taken and the rolling wood rack is on the other side of the doorway.

    All of this effort was followed with a coop clean out. They spent about 10 days without ever even peeking outside. Every day has required carrying a 3 gallon bucket of water over to them and bringing the frozen one back to thaw. The coop is a few feet higher than the garage with a several foot dip between so it was trekking up the hill without slipping on the ice. As that is the east side of the house and the house blocks the hill in the afternoon, the ice lingered.

    The driveway is finally thawing and more ground and gravel is seen every day. With today’s slightly warmer temperatures and sunshine, the ice is becoming mud. Tomorrow evening we have rain then a couple inches of snow, but hopefully warm enough to not turn to ice.

    The cold icy weather has allowed a lot of crafting time. The December “Fibre Snack” scarf has been the primary knitting project and is now about 2/3 finished. The base color is running out, it is wheel spun and there is more unspun that I will have to tackle it soon to finish the scarf. It is going to be generous, warm, and colorful when finished as I have used the daily December snack in the order they were spun.

    It has gotten too large to take to hubby’s appointments, so it is an at home only project. Spindles and fiber travel to entertain me while I wait. And it often entertains many others in the waiting rooms as well.

    Tomorrow before the rain begins, more wood will be split and covered to keep it dry in case it is needed next week.

    Stay safe, stay warm. Take care.

  • Snow and Ice, Spinning and Knitting

    This week has been true winter. Night temperatures have been in the teens, day temperatures in the 20’s. We had a snow and ice event that turned our driveway into an ice slide. We had to get out one day during the first storm and drive to Roanoke, nearly an hour away, it took about twice that long. The cover was still snow at that point. Once down our mountain road, the roads were fairly clear, but there was heavy fog on the way there and snow on the way home. I attempted to walk up to the mailbox on Wednesday and ended up sitting in the snow and ice and eventually sliding down the hill seated to get back to the house without getting anywhere near the mailbox. Getting over to the chicken coop with water and scratch each day has been a challenge as it is an uphill walk with a 4 gallon bucket on ice. With effort, and driving half on the driveway, half in the grass, we were able to get out this morning for hubby’s PT and back home before today’s snowstorm began. It isn’t supposed to be quite as cold tonight and may actually get above freezing tomorrow and up to 40 on Sunday and Monday, so we may see some thawing. I hope. We won’t attempt to get out again until the sun comes out and the temperatures rises above freezing. Hopefully it will thaw before the next Arctic blast midweek.

    During the first 25 days of December, the Jenkins Spindle group participated in a fiber sample exchange. In October, 59 of us mailed 4 ounces each of a fiber of our choice to one of two “Elves” who spent a couple of days together dividing the fiber into 5 gram samples, packaging, labeling, and wrapping each sample. The 25 samples were then mailed back to us to be opened one each day on the day of the sample’s number.

    Each of the samples were spun on one of my Jenkin’s Turkish spindles then plyed on a spindle and skeined into a mini skein that I labeled with the sample label adding the day and yardage. After finishing the spin, I returned to the knitting of the Icelandic Nordic Star scarf that I was making with the yarn daughter and SIL brought me from their honeymoon in Iceland.

    When it was finished, I started knitting the scarf that uses the spun samples and a skein of handspun Shetland wool that I had on hand. I am on Day 8 of the samples, knitting them in the order they were spun, alternated with the gray Shetland. This is a fun project, using up the little skeins about 1 each day.

    We are looking forward to returning to more normal daily routines, getting back to my trainer for my health and flexibility, and hoping to see an end to the healing of hubby’s clavicle break. Spring outdoor walks are still a dream and wish.

  • Winter Hit Hard

    Fortunately it isn’t going to last long and has been dry except for snow flurries, often with the sun shining.

    We had a wedding and reception here last weekend with about 45 guests. The bride, groom, their sons, and her parents stayed here for 4 nights a few extra guests for dinner the night before and lunch the day after and it was cold, but not as cold as it became a couple of days later. We haven’t gotten up to freezing for several days and a few mid teens nights. It is supposed to temper back to more normal for this time of year weather for the next week.

    I have mentioned that the deer population seems to be extremely high this year and they must have figured out that they can’t get shot if they are on our farm.

    As I was preparing dinner a day or two ago, I looked down the hill to our lower hay field and there were at least 20 deer grazing down there. The hunting around here doesn’t seem to be reducing the impact. With chronic wasting disease and hemorrhagic disease in deer both spreading across Virginia, it will reduce the load, but will make it more dangerous to take the meat through hunting. So far there is no evidence that the prions from chronic wasting disease has or can be spread to humans, but if it does, it would produce the same type of brain deterioration that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease does. Wisdom would require that deer taken for meat should be checked and if infected, not eaten.

    The monthly Jenkins challenge is two fold. Those of us who wanted to participate, sent 4 ounces of fiber to one of two “Elves” who spent a couple of days together preparing small 5 gram packages labelled with the first 25 days of December and returned them to the participants. Alternatively you could just spin for 15 minutes per day. I elected to participate in the Fibre Sample group and have enjoyed the surprise and pleasure of opening the little package each morning, spinning, plying, and skeining it into a mini skein. At the end of the month, I will need to find a plan for the 25 mini skeins of yarn from different breeds, different breeds, and a variety of colors.

    Along with the daily spinning, a couple of Christmas gifts are being made.

    This afternoon, Christmas cards were written and prepared to be mailed tomorrow. The house is finally decorated except for the tree which I still need to set up and decorate. Most of the gifts have been purchased or made, but a couple still are undecided. The ones that had to be mailed have been. Christmas is coming up too fast.

  • Whew, end in sight

    On November 28, hubby took a spill in the road where a pedestrian crosswalk sign had been run down and only the rubber base remained. This spill resulted in a 2 cm displaced clavicle fracture, very near the shoulder end. Eleven days later, he finally had surgery to implant a hook plate to pull everything back together. Today 4 weeks post surgery he was told to stop wearing the sling and begin gentle use and schedule 6 weeks of PT to restore strength and range of motion.

    The past 5 1/2 weeks have required sleeping in a recliner, eating most meals on a tray in the recliner, and having assistance to shower and dress, mostly in pull on workout pants and shoulder surgery snap up the sides and shoulder shirts. When the weather turned cold, we bought him two button up the front flannel shirts and worked gently and carefully to get it over the injured arm and shoulder before putting the good arm in the shirt.

    Today for the first time, he put on the fleece jacket over the flannel putting both arms in the jacket as we were leaving the surgeon’s office. This is good because our high of 44 was at 4:30 a.m. and the temperature has been in free fall every since, aiming for 17 degrees f tonight. Tonight, we will attempt getting him comfortable in our bed, another step in the healing process.

    Soon, we will begin walking laps in the mall to start building his stamina back. When he stumbled, he had just walked 5.5 miles and was feeling great.

    I immediately contacted the town and reported the sign issue, it had been missing for weeks, and the next day, it was replaced. As we haven’t been walking there since the accident, we don’t know if it is still there, however, it seems to disappear regularly.

    We are both grateful that healing is happening and progress is being made in regaining normal use of his arm. The only positive, was it wasn’t his dominant arm and hand.

  • Preparations for love and joy

    November 19-30 are days filled with birthdays, Thanksgiving, and a wedding. The birthdays begin on the 19th with our newest granddaughter by the marriage of daughter to her new hubby in October, this one leaves her teens and turned 20. She is followed by my stepmom, me, granddaughter, daughter.

    On Wednesday, eldest son (the groom), his bride, his son, her son, and her parents will arrive to stay with the us for the long weekend of celebration. Daughter will host Thanksgiving for 16, with contributions of help by son to spatchcock and season the turkey, me to provide some sides, relishes, and pies, and extra chairs.

    Friday we have a traditional Ukrainian pre wedding dinner for those staying here and a few other guests and meeting up with daughter to give her a birthday card. The wedding will be in our home on Saturday with a light meal reception following. Sunday will have a traditional Ukrainian post wedding lunch.

    Today, all guest beds have been made with fresh sheets, all floors swept and mopped. The cheeses and crackers for the cheese board were purchased. Other food purchases that I am providing will be made as the week goes by so they are still fresh when ready to serve.

    Tomorrow, cranberries will be cooked, no canned cranberry sauce here, a couple of pumpkin pies also prepared and cooked. The brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes will wait until Thursday morning after breakfast for all the houseguests is done.

    Such an exciting time. Then on to preparing for Christmas. Family tradition forbids me from decorating until after daughter’s birthday and this year, the wedding in the house. Next week, the bins of Christmas decorations will be hauled upstairs and the house will be festive for that holiday for a month.

  • Indulgence

    Almost two decades ago, I began my trip into the fiber world rabbit hole by taking a beginner drop spindle class. I was already a knitter and crocheter, though both of those now are secondary as they aggravate the osteoarthritis in my almost 8 decade old hands. The drop spindle fascinated me and making yarn was absolutely magical. Of course I quickly wanted a spinning wheel and have owned several over the past couple of decades including the antique great wheel in the header.

    Along the way, I discovered Turkish cross armed spindles and the rabbit hole deepened as they were so very portable and because of their construction, allow the spun wool cop to be removed without having to wind it off the shaft of the drop spindle. Several different makers spindles were tried until I discovered the Jenkins spindles and over the years, a number of them have entered my supply of tools. Several as gifts from my husband, my fiber indulger. He also buys me wool.

    During the shut in period of Covid, I returned to spinning mostly on the spindles, including a very inexpensive plain top whorl one that I use when I am at the museum doing living history for class groups. Spinning yarn on the spindles slowed my production down to a manageable level.

    Recently, while demonstrating at the Fall Festival, since I was outside on uneven ground, I spun almost entirely on the top whorl and realized when I got home with a spindle full of singles, that my yarn ball winder would wind it off the shaft quickly, making a ball I could ply from both ends or if I wanted to ply with a second strand, I could slip a toilet paper tube over the ball winder shaft and wind it on to that.

    There is a maker of very quality top whorl spindles, Golding, and I stumbled on one I loved. With a November birthday, my love purchased the spindle with it’s bright brass ring and brass heart on the whorl as a gift for me. The spindle came with a generous sample of wool blended with silk and I have had a glorious cold snowy day using it to spin the sample and then ply it using the two ends of the ball of singles.

    This morning, before devoting myself to the new spindle, I finished knitting a pair of fingerless mitts, and spun for a while on one of my Jenkins Turkish spindles. The basket with them in the picture is a spindle basket by Susan Preuss that was a generous gift from a friend a few years ago. It is perfect for holding a top whorl spindle and some wool, or tucking a small Turkish spindle inside with some wool.

    Today has been a quiet, peaceful day of crafting, and preparing a delicious, easy dinner of mushroom and butternut raviolis in sage and garlic browned butter. Topped off with the most decadent dark chocolate truffle cakelet that was gifted to me by another friend. A good day.

  • Insecurity and fraud

    I am extremely careful on the internet, social media, with online purchases, and very judicious with the use of a credit or debit card out in the world, yet once again, my credit card has been breached. We belong to USAA and they are great at catching the fraudulent use, catching 3 attempts to use it for about $1600 worth of ticket purchases in Houston. However, they did not notify me this time, we saw the declined attempts on our statement when another suspicious pending charge appeared. My card has yet again been shut down and a new one being processed for me. This is a tough time of year for it to happen, with the holiday’s approaching, as I don’t like to shop, don’t care for crowds, and currently due to DH’s injury, don’t leave the house for any length of time short of quick grocery or med runs.

    Then to add to this frustration, today we went to pick up a regular prescription for DH to find that with the Rx insurance for which we pay dearly, the 90 days refill was more than double what it was last time it was refilled. Without insurance, the med was less than the old insurance cost. So we pay almost 3 times the med cost to use the insurance that we pay for to reduce or help pay for the medications required. I don’t understand how the insurance companies get away with that. It approaches fraud. How can the co-pay be much more than the cost of the medication.

    How can other countries provide free or inexpensive medical care and free or inexpensive medications while our costs continue to rise.

  • Still here, I think

    Toward the end of October, my love tripped over the base of a broken sign on a public street and broke his collarbone enough to displace it 2 cm. It took them 11 days to schedule surgery to put in a plate to hold it together. It has been a week since surgery and he is still only minimally functional, requiring lots of assistance. Fortunately it was his non dominant arm, but is still very uncomfortable for him. He is 18 days in from the injury and facing several more weeks of wearing a sling. We hope that the pain settles soon so we can begin to get him out and walking again. He had just finished a 5.5 mile walk when the accident occurred. We don’t want him to lose all of the good he had done for his health since last spring.

    The 18 days have mostly been home confinement and as I don’t want to leave him here alone while he requires assistance, my ventures out have been short and necessary such as picking up online ordered groceries or prescriptions and bandage material for the daily incision care.

    This has allowed a lot of reading time and crafting time. A gal that does history education with me at the museum is a self published author and I have gone through 3 of her historical novels. I finished spinning a skein of yarn, spindle spun the start of another, knit about half of a Nordic star scarf with wool my daughter and SIL brought me from their honeymoon in Iceland (I was the teen supervisor for her kiddos), and started a hat from some previously spun yarns.

    The weather has turned from mild and dry to cold and wet this week. The rain is much needed, though we only got a little more than an inch. There is some more predicted in the next week including our first snow shower possibility. As Thanksgiving approaches, the seasonal cactus is showing it’s beauty.

    This is the month of family birthdays, with Thanksgiving crammed in the midst and a wedding to add to the festivities. We are hoping that though hubby will still be in a sling, he will feel well enough to fully participate in all of the celebrations. It will be fun having everyone together here and at daughter’s home.

    So life goes on here, though my blogging as been sporadic.

  • Another Month gone by

    This month brought cataract surgery for hubby. He can now see better than he ever has in his life and no longer needs glasses, except low strength readers in some instances.

    It took me to the podiatrist regarding my summer long foot discomfort and those two visits were unproductive as I had already done the elevated resting, ice, better supportive shoes, good arch supporting insoles, so she really didn’t know what to say except my 76+ year old feet have arthritis, some bony overgrowth that comes with age, bone spurs on my heels, and to keep doing what I have been doing.

    Helene was kinder to us than so many millions of people. We got a lot of rain, wind gusts to 60 MPH that took down trees in the region, but none on our farm that we have seen so far. The ones on our road and the road leading down the mountain have at least been cut back, though many trunks are still leaning over the roadway. Our state maintained gravel road has a 12 to 14″ deep rut that runs from the neighbor above us beyond the one across and down from us. It ran gullies down our driveway that slopes down about 200′ elevation from the top to the house, but I have already regraded with the tractor and blade and improved it, not repaired it. We did lose power for 56 hours. The refrigerator freezer was not opened and the meat in the bottom bin with blue ice blocks remained frozen. Some of the bagged veggies and fruit higher in the freezer thawed and was thrown out. The bags of tomatoes were beginning to thaw so the skins were slipped off, the tomatoes put in a large pot and today I have finally tackled the job of canning 9 pints of them. A bucket of apples was picked, sliced and cooked down for applesauce. The large pot to the right of the tomatoes ended up 6.5 pints of applesauce. The half will be served with tonight’s homecooked meal, the first since Thursday night. The two quart bags of chili paste used as an enchilada sauce base were cooked down and put in half pint jars that will go in the freezer as I don’t have a pressure canner.

    The power was out for 56 hours. With no power, we have no water as we are on a well. We do have a gravity fed yard hydrant down near the bottom field, fed from a water catchment system near the house that contains the rain water from the roof. Though that water is not potable, 5 gallon buckets were filled and hauled up to the house to use for handwashing and toilet flushing. Our daughter, 25 minutes away didn’t lose power and she fed us Saturday night, though now since they are are town water, they have a boil notice. Today, we had an appointment in the county seat and the parking lot of the little shopping center had about 25 power company trucks, all from Oklahoma. We made sure to go by and thank the guys standing in the lot, probably awaiting their next assignment as some left while we were there. They seemed surprised that we were thanking them and not yelling at them. That has to be a tough job, working 16 hour shifts in the rain only to be yelled at by people who didn’t get their power back first.

    As I said, we were lucky. Several communities in our county and adjacent counties along the New River were flooded and roads blocked off. There are a number of semi permanent campgrounds and people lost their campers, some vehicles, and houses close to the river. It crested as much as 17 feet above flood plain. The news said it is the second highest since records have been kept, the highest was in the 1940’s. The creek at the bottom of our mountain flooded, but didn’t breach the bridge. When will people realize that climate change is fueling these more intense storms. I have friends in western North Carolina that are totally cut off due to washed out bridges and roads. Long lines at grocery stores, taking only cash, and no fuel for generators. We all need to be thankful if we are safe and send good thoughts, goods, and money to help those who have lost it all.

    On to a new month tomorrow. Hopefully no more severe storms aimed at the areas already suffering.

  • Another Week Passes Us By

    The week has been a teaser of autumn to come. The week plus in the sturdier shoes and insoles has allowed me to walk a couple miles about half the days this past week. Two of the days wearing long pants and a light sweater. I’m sure we will have more hot weather before it settles into autumn, but I’ll take last week and the upcoming week for now.

    We managed to get to the Farmer’s Market yesterday in spite of it being a home football game day. Every parking lot near campus is closed to public parking and reserved for paid football day parking and tailgating. That makes the market a challenge.

    The week has been used making 9 batches of cold process soap. If you have never made soap, cold process soap is still hot, the lye solution is hot, the oils and plant butters have to be melted, so it seems a misnomer, but the processes are different. Nine batches makes more than 80 bars of soap, and no we don’t personally use that many a year. A big boxful goes to Son 1 for gift giving and their use. He gets me large containers of some of the oils in exchange. A batch goes to a friend in town, a batch for SIL, and some for our annual use.

    The 4 boards cover 4 molds just prior to being covered with the towels to saponify overnight. Beyond them are 5 batches already cut and curing from yesterday and earlier in the week. They have to cure for about a month before they are hard enough to not just dissolve with use. The longer they cure, the harder they become. The next couple of weeks will be used making the labels for most of them.

    Last night when the kitchen scraps were taken out to the chickens, I realized that the day lilies leaves have all been eaten to the ground by the deer. The day lily bed is right up against the east wall of the garage. This morning, I saw these two and another doe just a few feet behind the house devouring the Tithonia that used to be where they are.

    Periodically, the doe would pounce toward the fawn who would then do zoomies around the back yard before returning to the doe.

    Also out there was a large groundhog. It was a frequent visitor during the spring, but has been absent since the hay was mowed in July. The hay is tall again and it was back.

    The tomatoes are reaching the last few. This basket has been bagged and put in the freezer, the Ghost peppers are infusing in olive oil with garlic and sage. And the cayennes and remaining Ghost peppers strung to dry. Some day soon, all the bags will be hauled out of the freezer, the tomatoes peeled, and a big pot of sauce made. Probably left plain so that it can become chili with peppers added, pasta sauce with onion, garlic, and herbs, or cooked down for pizza sauce.

    This week, the tomato vines will be pulled down and chopped for compost, that bed weeded and covered with hay for winter. That leaves the sweet potatoes that went in so late there may be none to harvest before the first frost. It is about time to chop the corn and sunflower stalks down and call it a year unless I can get some winter greens in a bed that can be covered for the early frosts.

    And this week, I can get back to some crafting. Some knitting and some spinning have been done. A lot of reading, trying to finish The Rose Code before it is due back to the library. It is an interesting historical fiction, I recommend it.

    Have a good week.