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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.

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.

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.

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.

December 9, 2014
Progress

Today, after a trip to the fabric store, I finished the two doll quilts with pillows. These are my first two quilts that weren’t made from a kit and the tops are made from my scrap basket, many of the blocks from dresses that I made for one of the grand daughters who will receive a quilt for her babies for Christmas. That granddaughter is getting a doll bed for her babies from Santa. Each of these little three year old girls, different families, will also receive a little dress-able soft doll with doll PJs for them. The girls each have a hand knit sweater from us, very filled with love gifts.

Boxes, tags and another roll of wrap were also purchased today and the gifts that need to be sent off soon are wrapped, except for an item that hasn’t come in the mail yet and a grandson sweater that is close, but will still requires another couple of days of dedicated knitting. Hopefully the missing gift will arrive, the sweater finished and a box packed for mailing by mid week.

We still have some closet clean out to do, a tree to get and put up and the month seems to be speeding by. I better get back to the knitting.

December 7, 2014
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.

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.

December 6, 2014
Happy Chaos

Our household is in turmoil, but happy, giddy turmoil. About a dozen years ago, our very young adult daughter left Virginia and moved to Florida. The why is unimportant now as are all of the ensuing dozen years. For a few years now, she and her family have longed to move back to Virginia, this time away from the coast and to the mountains near us. Much has had to be done to allow this to happen and much still must be done for all of them all to be here, but daughter, two grandskiddos and the dog will be here before school starts up again after Christmas. SIL will stay in their house and his jobs until they get a firm offer on the house and then he will transfer his job here as well. For now, daughter and grandkiddos will live with us, and though we have the extra bedrooms in the house, we have been using most of both closets for storage.

Yesterday, in delighted anticipation, I tackled a major clean out and reorganization, finding items that we moved here 8 years ago and didn’t even remember having. Large shopping bags were lined up in the hall and items I never use went into a bag for donation. Party items that are rarely used were relocated by reorganizing the hutch, jelly cupboard, and kitchen cabinets to find places for it all. One of the closets held the boxes of Christmas decorations. When we moved in, they were stored in the basement, but when the basement finishing began, they moved to that closet and have stayed there. The under-the-stairs closet in the basement was cleaned up and space made to store those boxes back down there, empty now of their decorations, but full after the holidays. Dresser drawers that held seasonal linens were emptied, some of them stashed in another big plastic bin in the basement closet, others such as table cloths and napkins folded and stored in part of the hutch. A shelf is going to be added to one of my base cabinets in the kitchen to allow for more organization.

Bags and boxes were donated yesterday and more will likely follow. Closets and drawers are being made available. Holiday decorations that were being neglected are being displayed. Excitement is in the air.

We hope for a quick successful sale of their home so SIL can come up too, for a job opportunity that has evaded daughter in Florida will come up, that we will get to know those grandkiddos better than twice a year visits have allowed and we are grateful that all three of our children will be back in one state.

Yesterday and today have been perfect weather for working in the house. The sky is like a dark curtain hanging over us, raining off and on for days now. The creeks are roaring.

The chicken pen, having a slight downward slope from the gate has been treacherous to enter to let them out and close them up. Though it is gray this morning, I uncovered one of the huge round bales of hay and threw down a layer from the gate to the pop door of the coop and a fresh layer in the coop. This is always new entertainment for the chickens as they scratch through it looking for treats and spreading it farther and farther away from the gate, but at least I will be able to enter the pen without fear of falling.

Two days ago, we came home to find this…

half of the wood that Son#1 and I stacked in the snow at Thanksgiving had toppled. I don’t know if something tried to climb it or if as he suggested, the ground thawed in the rain just enough to cause it to shift. It has been much to wet to want to go out and re-stack it. If we get a dry day, I may begin on it . . . or wait for him to come back at Christmas to help me.

For now, I must get back to household preparation to keep my excitement under control. I booked a flight after Christmas to go down and help her drive back with the kids, the dog and a trailer of kids clothes, toys, sports gear and hopefully bicycles. The rest of their goods will be moved upon sale of the house.

December 5, 2014
Effort, Disappointment, and a Delicious Surprise

Mountaingdad and I began our morning with a group of others from our county to form the core group of Preserve Giles County to oppose and fight the proposed pipeline. We met for two hours, introduced ourselves and I found that this made me very emotional as we each spent about 5 minutes giving our name and why we were there. It was the first time I have introduced myself to these people and talking about the fact that I was born here, my grandfather was born here and though I grew up in the eastern coastal Virginia, retired here. That our home is a labor of love, Son 1 spending two years of his life doing carpentry and stone work on our house. I installing wood siding, beadboard, cedar and doing flooring and baseboards. That we are invested financially, physically and emotionally in the home we built. The meeting was productive and will move on to a point where we feel we are fighting as a group, not as individuals with a common goal.

The disappointment came when I realized that of the 5 1/2 quarts of broth that I made with the turkey carcass, even though they were chilled overnight in the refrigerator with plenty of head room in wide mouth jars, all 4 that I put in the freezer, broke the jars and all 4 quarts of turkey broth are ruined. The remaining quart and a half were used to make gravy for turkey we have eaten since Thanksgiving. To try to salve a disaster, the remnants of the thighs and the meatier parts of the wings that weren’t really done enough to suit me are currently simmering in another 3 quarts of water. The meat will be made into pot pies and casseroles, the broth frozen in vacuum sealing bags this time for use in soups and future gravies.

The delicious surprise came just a few minutes ago as I went to collect eggs and do a quick survey of the garden plot after last week’s 20 something degrees and the wet snow. The row cover over the garlic had blown free from one end and I wanted to re-secure it. There was kale that had perked back up, not a lot, but certainly enough for a meal, maybe my favorite African Chicken with Hot Greens. And a berry bucket of turnips that weren’t large enough to harvest a few weeks ago. I’ll bet they are as sweet as honey after last week. We will enjoy them within the next day or two as well. The chard is gone, the wormy cabbages went to the chooks with the turnip tops that were too wilted to try to cook. With any luck, we will get one or two more meals of kale, then I guess it too will be pulled for the chickens or heavily mulched with hay for maybe some spring regrowth.

The chooks laid just enough eggs while the kids were here to provide us with a delicious breakfast each morning and to make the pumpkin pies. Yesterday there were only 3 and today 6. It seems that the dozen hens are not really going to be laying enough for me to sell many this winter, but should keep us fulfilled.

Love our life on our mountain farm.

December 1, 2014
It is too quiet

Our family has left to return home in my car, full of pork, chicken and vegetables, canned and frozen to supplement their budget as they finish the last couple of weeks of first semester. DIL#1 has only one more to her BFA. Son#1 returns to work and spends any time he can budget to work on his PhD. Grandson#1 plods along as a reluctant 4th grader. He is so bright, but such a footdragger. It was so great having them here for more than a night or two and look forward to a few more nights with them here at Christmas. Not having Grandson#1 rough housing with the pups or begging for someone to come to the basement to play ping pong with him is already missed.

They always appreciate the good food that we grow and I prepare for them. Son#1 always gets a few tasks done that we either can’t do or find difficult. This trip we got the weatherstripping back up on the garage doors, he does most of the work, I am the gofer and holder. He reconnected a downspout to a gutter that gets damaged every time we have accumulating snow. Come spring, the end of the snow and the restaining of that section of the house, we will have to hire a real gutter person to come and fix that whole section, putting snow spikes on the upper roof at the same time. That is yet another error on the contractor’s part, not making the upper overhang longer than the lower one or at least putting the snow spikes on that upper section of roof. Son#1 and I got the load of firewood stacked and this morning, he, Mountaingdad and I switched the futon from the loft to the basement and brought a double recliner up to the loft. Having the futon in the loft gave us an extra bed before we finished the basement and added the 4th bedroom down there and the loft is where I sit and knit or spin and Mountaingdad watches TV and writes. Having the seating here and the extra bed in the basement greatroom made more sense, we can put 4 people down there and 4 on the main floor of the house, so two of our kids with their families. If we have all three kids and families, we will put the adults in the bedrooms and have a great sleepover for the 5 kids in the rec room with pads and sleeping bags.

When our daughter lived at home, she made a rule that I couldn’t begin to decorate for Christmas until the day after her birthday which is November 29th. Sometimes that is only two days, sometimes a week. I would comply except to maybe put up the outdoor wreaths. After the kids left, I pulled out the first couple of boxes of decorations and put out the holiday linens, the wreaths, and my miniature village. There are two large plastic boxes of Santas that each must be unwrapped, the shelves thoroughly dusted, statues places and though I love them, I dread that and later putting them away after Christmas. We will wait to get a tree for a few more weeks and then decide whether to to go to a cut your own location or try to find a live tree that can be planted after Christmas. We have a small grove of them between the house and the barn from Christmas past. Until we decide, I always put up a 2 foot artificial tree with Hallmark mini ornaments and lights on my jelly cupboard between the dining room and living room. The decorating will continue for a few more days, saving the tree and enjoying the rest.

Love my family and our mountain home.

November 30, 2014
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.

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.

November 29, 2014
Thankful

Today is my thankfulness post as tomorrow I will be silent, cooking and enjoying family time and NO, none of us will be patronizing stores opening on Thursday for Black Friday sales, nor will we join the throngs shopping on Friday.
I am thankful for safe journeys yesterday though long and traffic filled. Our return trip took about 7 hours to make the 4+ hour trip including an hour to travel 7 miles due to nighttime construction on the interstate. We beat the weather home.

This morning’s beauty.

For a silly grandson and the beast who love each other.
For having part of our family here to enjoy this week.
For delicious food, mostly grown locally.
For frequent contact with our other children, my 91 year old Dad and my siblings.
For wood in the garage to keep fires burning today for warmth and coziness.
For health.
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving from the snowy Virginia mountains.

November 26, 2014
A quick peek

Last night I finished grand daughter #2’s sweater for Christmas, that leaves her brother’s sweater on the needles. It was saved for last because it is going to require more fiddling to get the size right. He is tall enough for a larger size, but so thin, he requires a smaller size. Daughter is sending me length measurements and I am using a smaller size to go around his thin frame. If his takes only slightly longer to make, I should have them all done and the mittens too by deadline. Granddaughter#2’s sweater was given a wash this morning and is now blocking on the dryer top.

The pattern is Cottage Creations Wallaby, the yarn Universal Yarn’s superwash worsted. This is the 5th or 6th time I have made this pattern for a grand, they love it and the areas that I found frustrating the first couple of times are a cake walk now.
Big brother, is also getting a Wallaby in a darker shade of blue.
Now I’m off on a round trip to Northern Virginia to pick up Son#1 and family for Thanksgiving. I hope the bad weather holds off until we are safely back here and tucked under warm quilts for the night. Tomorrow I bake pies and more rolls, I wasn’t happy with the first batch. The bread was perfect, the rolls not so much.

November 25, 2014
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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

November 24, 2014