Tag: Weather

Time flies

A friend commented that she missed my blog, which tells me, I haven’t been posting as often as I used to.

While we were away, it rained heavily and our dirt and gravel sloped driveway took a beating. We came home to deep gullies and evidence that someone other than VDOT had attempted to smooth the state road so getting to our mailbox was a real challenge. Our tractor has a blade attachment on the back and I am getting quite adept at smoothing out the mess. I no sooner got it improved than we had another two days of heavy storms and my work was destroyed again. Again, the tractor and I tackled the mess and got most of the driveway smooth enough to not drag bottom on the car coming in and out. When the fiber optic crew was here before out trip, laying the new line, one of the guys on a small backhoe dug out the ends of our culvert for us. The rain now has a better path, but the steepness of the driveway still allows serious run off. The state road is hazardous to drive right now and the ditch below our culvert is filled with gravel from the road.

The weekend we got home, our eldest local grandson (not the eldest of all of them) was graduated as a distinguished scholar from high school. As his high school is in the process of being significantly enlarged, they held the graduation at the basketball stadium at Virginia Tech, so each student had unlimited guests. He had many, some from as far away as Florida come to cheer him on. Daughter and SIL threw a party that afternoon for everyone and many of his friends as well with lots of food and cupcakes. He will enter Virginia Tech in the Engineering School in the fall. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments as a student, with the robotics team Fabrication co-leader, and in Taekwondo as an instructor and as a 3rd degree senior black belt.

Last weekend, our spinning group had it annual spring porch party always hosted by the same couple. About 20 of us gathered for an afternoon of socialization, spinning, and an awesome potluck. I brought out my spinning wheel for the first time in a while and started a very colorful braid of Organic Pohlwarth which I finished a couple of evenings ago.

All of these weekends have thrown our usual routine out the door until this weekend. We resumed our Saturday morning breakfast out, followed by the Farmer’s Market and good local food to supply our freezer and refrigerator.

Soon I will be able to harvest peas, some volunteer new potatoes, and garlic from our garden. The tomatoes and peppers are growing, green beans and corn getting taller. We are about at the end of asparagus season (hubby says Yay, though I don’t serve them to him.)

I do need to week whack the paths again.

The other craft I have dug out, is to set up my sewing machine and make a couple of simple summer tops as the weather has been in the 80’s and humid. As you see, I’m not a good selfie taker, but this is one of them.

All is well on the farm. Holding out hope the rain doesn’t mess up the driveway again until I can figure out what is causing the tractor to stall out repeatedly. I may have to have the repair folks come and get it and give it a once over.

June 8, 2025
Olio May 20, 2020
Olio: a miscellaneous collection

Ruminations of a housebound mind: Do you ever hear a voice on the radio or a podcast and “see” that person in your mind’s eye, even if you have never seen that person before? I do that all the time and am usually so far off base when I see that person’s picture. One of the podcasts that I enjoy is “The Way I Heard It” by Mike Rowe, a face everyone has seen and I see his face when I listen to the podcast. Another one I like is “99%invisible.” Now this is where my mind’s eye played serious tricks on me. After listening to the podcasts for a couple of years off and on, I googled Roman Mars, the host and let me tell you, he doesn’t look anything at all like I envisioned. Funny now when I listen, I see the picture I googled, but it just doesn’t fit. If you have never listened to this podcast, do, but start with some of the very early ones that were short with less advertising.

Today is Day 2 of ugly weather, not drizzle, but downright miserable. It is cool, blowing from the northeast and cold, heavy rain.
Critter chores left me soaked in minutes even in rain boots and rain jacket. They are getting lots of use, last night about the time I was going to get ready for bed, the time the pups get their last potty run for the day, I smelled skunk smell. I was inside the house, so went down with a flashlight to see if I saw the critter in the front yard. The smell was really overwhelming on the front porch. There was no way those dogs were going out there unrestrained to have a meet and greet, so again, the rain boots and jacket were donned and the pups taken out in the cold blowing rain one at a time on leash to do their nightly business. The odor was gone by this morning, fortunately, I had feared the skunk had taken refuge under our front porch.

I had been reading a book that clearly is or will be a series. It was a free selection from Amazon Prime and the story was one of those that you were supposed to accept as believable, but no way could the actions in that book have gone unnoticed by law enforcement or be forgiven by law enforcement and the ending let you know that there is more to come. No thanks. A friend posted on Instagram that our public library is doing curbside delivery of books you put on hold. I will soon run out of re-reads here at home, so I may have to browse and hold a couple from the library.

This is my May, social distance spinning. Everything below the rainbow fiesta is spun on those three spindles. The red, orange, and yellow of the rainbow were also spun on the larger one, but I quickly tired of it and spun the green, blue, and purple on the wheel, then plied it on the wheel. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought those 4 punis (rolags), nor do I know what I will do with 2 ounces of chain plied fingering weight rainbow. It is only 132 yards, maybe enough for a cowl or skinny scarf. It is not sturdy enough wool for socks, enough for fingerless mitts if I want to cut each color apart, then divide in half so they are more or less matching stripes. It is drying now, will be skeined and set aside until it becomes a plan.

Yesterday was fresh bread day. Two loaves started first thing yesterday morning and baked by noon of half whole wheat yeast bread for sandwiches. I love my cast iron bread pan that hubby gave me for Christmas and since I always make bread two loaves at a time, I ordered a second one which should be here before next week’s bake.
Before the pandemic, bread baking here had all but disappeared except for pizza dough and occasional biscuits. It was a staple in our house when the kids were growing. It is a pleasant activity to have returned to now that we are eating all meals in, and there is nothing better than the smell of fresh bread baking.

Stay safe out there as the world begins to reopen. We will continue to stay at home with a few curbside delivery outings as required, wearing our masks for your protection (and ours if you are wearing yours.)
May 20, 2020
Go Away, Just Go Away

Spring is just around the corner, I know it is. The calendar shows First Day Of Spring in just a couple of weeks. I know that we will have continued periods of cold, even snow flurries well into April and can’t put most things into the garden until mid May, but winter needs to stop already. We had a reprieve for a day or two and last week’s snow mostly melted, but between the melt, the roof drip off and the rain, the county is now under a flood watch. This isn’t a problem for us as we are high on the side of the mountain and our creek flows into a sink hole that when flooded, rushes down the west side of our property, still well below the house.

The roadsides that are steep from blasting to put the 4 lane main road through the valley are seeing minor mudslides, but the ground is totally saturated and pudding soft, so the fear of a more major mudslide that could block our ingress to town is possible.

Yesterday it rained, then sleeted, then rained and sleeted again and this is ongoing today. The high for the day, right at freezing and headed down about 30 degrees by midnight is turning the rain to more freezing rain and sleet with another 5 inches of snow due by nightfall.

The trees and shrubs are ice coated and if we really get a few inches of wet snow, there will be branches breaking and threats of loss of power. We have enough firewood to get us through a couple of days, but that is all. The grill’s propane tank is about half full and we have plenty of beans, rice, and frozen foods to make meals.

When I went over for chicken chores this morning, I realized that a small 5 year old dogwood near the side of the house has been seriously gnawed, probably by hungry deer. It was sleeting out and the ground is still too hard to try to pound in stakes to put a piece of fence around it, but I was able to force a couple of fiberglass poles around it and drape a piece of row cover fabric over it to thwart more chewing until I can get a fence around it to try to protect it. Perhaps I should check my fruit trees as well.

March 5, 2015
The Great Chill

Our Virginia born daughter who has lived the last dozen or so years in Florida and her Florida born children arrived as an Arctic blast hit our region. The first two days they were here, we saw highs of around freezing and lows 10 or so degree lower. They are cold, to the bone cold and the next two days are colder. We awoke to 20°f (-6.67°c) and that is today’s high.

We have a wind chill advisory for the next day or so. It is snowing, mountain snow showers. The kids want snow to play in, but not this event.

When I took food and water to the chooks, the wind cut through me. I filled the PVC feeder that hangs inside the coop and realized that even the water in the coop was frozen solid. The waterer was brought in to thaw and a pan of water put in the coop. I opened the pop door, they ran out into the yard, turned and back into the coop, where they will likely stay today.
Other than trips to the coop to check for eggs and thaw water, we are going to hunker down indoors with a fire going, games to play, knitting, planning and reading.

My knitting is an Ouroboros Moebius from Margaret Radcliffe, a local knitting designer and author, a friend knit out of Green Dragon Gradient sport weight in Teal which I will treasure as this other local friend is no longer dyeing yarns. Son#1 and family gave me the Organic Seed Grower for Christmas and my two favorite seed catalogs arrived during the busy holidays and I haven’t had time to even look at them.
The day will be fueled by a pot of stew or vegetable beef soup and maybe a pan of bread.

January 7, 2015
Flip flop

Today is gray,
Cold is back on it’s way.
Granola is baking.
Chickens are grazing,
Residents are lazing.
A good day to knit, read, drink tea.

Sorry, not much of a poet:D

November 5, 2014
Olio – October 28, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

We have had two absolutely gorgeous days in a row with mild nights. It has been windy off and on, but Mountaingdad has had two great motorcycle outings, probably the last two of the season. Tomorrow we return to fall weather, late fall weather, if the weather prognosticators are correct we will see snow flurries on Saturday. I am definitely not ready for the white stuff or any frozen form of precipitation. If it does happen, the pumpkins vines will finish dying off and the rest of the harvest will be made, the pepper plants and tomatillo plants will be tossed in the chicken pen for them to pick over. I really need to get the garlic planted and well mulched before the ground freezes.

While Mountaingdad was off riding, I was enjoying quiet time at home. Having planned on running errands and perhaps getting lunch out, instead I read, ate leftovers and did a bit of yard and garden work. Late yesterday, a package I had been awaiting arrived, a Turkish Spindle from Snyder Spindles on Etsy. I learned to spin on a top whorl spindle and wish I had learned on a Turkish spindle. After watching a You Tube to see how to set it up, I was off quickly spinning some maroon colored Merino. I love the way you wind the single on the spindle to create a center pull ball that can then be plied with another ball or plied off of itself. Though most of my spinning is done on a wheel, it is nice to have a spindle that is portable to take when visiting our kids. A few ounces of fiber and the spindle take up little room in my bag.

As I was spinning the fiber, I realized how similar in color it is to the yarn that I am using to knit the fingerless mitts to go with my hat and scarf. I had hoped that the mitts wouldn’t be needed for quite a while yet, but they may be welcome in just a day or two. I was unhappy with the first one and selected a different pattern to make it over and make the second one. I don’t really have enough done to show them off yet.

On Sunday, we were notified by one neighbor that another neighbor who we knew had been sick and hospitalized but released and home for a few days had been taken back to the hospital by ambulance and his prognosis was poor. This saddened us as he was one of the first neighbors we met and though we were wary of him at first, he and his wife had become friendly with the strangers in their midst. We were even more saddened to learn yesterday morning that he had passed Sunday evening with his family by his side. He and his wife are our age contemporaries on the mountain. He has had several health issues over the past couple of years and their cumulative effect were more than his body could take this time. Our hearts go out to his family at this time.

Today we found out that the company proposing the pipeline has filed their preliminary paperwork with FERC, so letter writing will occupy our time for a few days. Tonight we are attending a meeting on our legal rights. There may be nothing we can do, but we are going to fight to the end on this project. As oil prices drop, fracking become less desirable and new wells aren’t drilled. Keep hoping that the oil prices drop low enough to stop this. A sign we saw in town says it all, “Stop the fracking pipeline. Preserve the NRV.” If you want to read more about this issue, go to http://www.preservethenrv.com. While you are looking, do a search for the pipeline explosion in Appomattox, VA in 2008 and look at the photos of the damage that a much smaller pipeline explosion wrought.

October 28, 2014
Sunday Thankfulness – September 14, 2014

My thankfulness is rich this week. Son #1 came again to try to stain and though yesterday was dismal and he woke with a headache, once he was feeling better, he diagnosed my stove burner problem, moved the burner of the same size from the back right to the front left (being a southpaw, that is my preferred burner position), went online and ordered a new burner to replace the dead one and will install it the next time he is here.

After dinner, a homemade Mexican feast, he serviced both Mountaingdad’s and my bicycles so that we can enjoy the fall weather riding on the Huckleberry Trail to prep ourselves for a longer ride a bit farther afield.

Romeo met his harem and it went very well. He is so calm and gentle, he wants to be petted and loved by humans. I was putting the meatie chicks to bed last night and turned around to find him behind me on the other side of the fence wanting some of my attention too.

This morning though still mostly overcast, is dry enough for Son #1 to get stain on the high areas and with a cool mostly clear dry week, I will work downward from what he gets done and get the garage doors done as well. It is so nice to have him here, even for such a short time.

As we were waiting for the surface to dry enough to get started, I canned another 7 quarts of tomatoes for his household. The vines are almost totally dead and the green tomatoes are starting to drop to the ground, so I will either bring them in to ripen on the counter or make a green tomato salsa with the remaining ones. The peppers are producing large quantities. I thought my cabbages were safe from cabbage worms this late, but one of them has gotten quite lacy. I guess the chickens will enjoy that one, the others and the broccoli and kale don’t show the damage.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

September 14, 2014
Olio – August 23, 2014

A few days ago in the pouring rain, we pressure washed the deck and porch in preparation for resurfacing them with one of the new deck resurface products. As the outdoor cats often settle on the front porch and have their supplemental food on that porch, it was all moved. One of the garage doors was open and the dog crate that is used to move the cats to the vet for rabies shots, used to transport chicks when they are purchased locally, but otherwise stored in the garage was sitting on the floor. We prepared to leave to buy the deck resurface paint and went to close the garage door. This is what we found. . .

This guy is our sickly male who is about 5 years old, much older than we were led to believe that he would live as he was born with Feline Aids before we rescued him. The healthy female bolted for the barn as soon as the powerwasher was started. I would give him access to stay there, but the 2 week old Rainbow Ranger chicks are in the brooder in the garage. There is an old window screen over the top, but that wouldn’t stop a dedicated cat.

In spite of the rain, or maybe because of it, we have had some spectacular sunsets. We would love to get the decks painted, but the forecast calls for one more day of rain before we finally get a period of dry days, hopefully enough to get the job done.

Tonight as I surveyed the refrigerator for dinner, I remembered about a quart of beef stew made earlier in the week and not wanting another meal of just stew, I added some vegetables and a crust and made one of my favorite comfort foods, pot pie. Usually I make chicken or turkey pot pie, but the beef stew was just too tempting.

Broody Girl finally gave up her empty nest sit, but she still hasn’t begun to lay. We are getting 3 eggs most days from the 13 hens and pullets. Hopefully, we will start seeing more eggs soon. The pullet eggs are getting larger, but as the only laying hen’s eggs are speckled, I can still distinguish who is laying. I need at least 3 extra dozen a week to break even on their feed, since we are also feeding 15 Rainbow Ranger chicks. The chicks are rapidly outgrowing the water tank we use as a brooder. I am at a loss about what to do with them. They are only 2 weeks old and still need a heat source. The chicken tractor is hardware cloth on the lower half and I can’t get power out to it or I would consider putting plastic sheeting on the lower half and moving them there. If any of my readers have good brooder pen idea for 15 rapidly growing meat chicks, I would love some ideas.

Most Saturday mornings, though not for the past few weeks, we travel into town, enjoy breakfast at Joe’s Diner, a local landmark then wander the Farmers’ Market for goodies. Today we were able to get potatoes, onions, carrots, and green beans (ours are still not producing). Some beef and pork from our favorite meat farmers and flowers for the table were scored as well. It is such a pleasure to visit on Saturday mornings and chat with friends, pet pups and supply with goodies we aren’t producing. Today was a bit crazy in town as this week has been move in week at the University and the town is bursting with new students and parents who are bringing or returning them to school. The summer of being able to eat at the local restaurants without a wait is over until Winter Break, but the energy they bring to the town is worth that inconvenience.

We love life on our mountain farm.

August 23, 2014
Olio August 16, 2014

Olio: A miscellaneous collection of things.

On Thursday, I returned our eldest grandson to his home. He had been with us since July 3 and it was a wonderful 6 weeks. He enjoyed playing with our dogs, learned to ride his bike, traveled to Florida with us to visit his Aunt and Uncle and cousins for a week, swam, had outings with Granddad to the batting cage and several movies. He and Granddad played catch in the yard and had batting practice. A few times, he cooked with me, learning to make his favorite blueberry muffins and getting some math practice with measuring and calculating which measuring cups would give him the quantity he needed. It was a relief to his Mom and Dad to not have to try to find summer care for him and figure out how to get him to and from that care when they both left very early for their jobs.

Yesterday after playing with his neighborhood friends, showing off to his Mom and Dad his new bike riding skills, having Grandmom take him to his guitar lesson, they all left at 9:30 last night on the Metro to Union Station to catch an 11:30 p.m. Greyhound bus to Virginia Beach, where he and his Mom will spend the next week with her parents. Our son will return home to Northern Virginia on the train tomorrow so he can be at work on Monday. His Mom’s summer job has ended and her school begins just before Labor Day. I returned to their house to spend the night before traveling home this morning. As I was avoiding the interstate and taking a leisurely cruise down the Skyline Drive this morning, I received a text from son saying that they were stuck in Richmond, VA, only a couple hours from their home and a couple hours from their destination almost 12 hours after leaving on the bus. Their 4 hour trip lasted 14 hours. There is something truly wrong with Greyhound’s business model that passengers with tickets can not have a seat on a leg of their trip. If they hadn’t had to disembark at the transfer station in Richmond, they would have been at their destination in the early hours, not the next afternoon.

After enjoying about an hour and a half of scenic drive, I got back on the interstate, so my 4 hour trip wouldn’t take all day and like Thusday, was again stuck with the semis.

I followed these two for miles and miles doing less than 60 mph in a 70 mph zone. Behind me was a line of at least a dozen more.

It is amazing how quickly chicks grow. These little guys and gals are a week and a half old. They can almost get out of the brooder which is a huge stock watering tank. I guess I am going to have to put a screen over it soon. They are all darkening and growing wing and tail feathers. The one center front is the one I named Chipmunk because of the dark stripes on his back when I uncartoned them from the Hatchery.

Egg production is picking up. The pullets are getting the hang of the laying bit. In the past 6 days, we have gotten 7 pullet eggs, so I know that more than one of them is laying. We also got 5 hen eggs, though Broody Girl is still insisting on empty nest sitting. This has gone on now for over a month. Perhaps I should get her some fertile eggs and just let her give it a go.

The pullet eggs are so small compared to the hen eggs. At least we are getting some again.

The garden loved last week’s rain, the tomatoes are ripening in the sun, peppers are swelling and I am nearly overrun with Tomatillos. I haven’t looked under the row covers to see how the transplants are doing, but they will have to be watered today or tomorrow.

My purple thick skinned grapes are ripe. Perhaps I should attempt some grape jelly.

The weather feels like fall already. I shouldn’t get too excited, it will probably get hot again soon.

This week, we tackle power washing the decks to re-stain. I’m trying to figure out how we are going to keep the outdoor cats off while they dry and how we will get the dogs in and out. I guess they will have to go through the garage, but neither of them are used to doing that, so it may require leading them out on a leash til the decks dry.

Hubby took off early this morning on a ride on his BBH (Big Bad Harley) with the Hog Club from where his bike came. It is a ride to just get there, over an hour. They were going to have breakfast then ride into West Virginia. He texted me that he did go and that he was in West Virginia. I guess I will see him later this afternoon when he returns.

When I was in Northern Virginia to pick up grandson in early July, I bought some variegated yarn at a local shop. The yarn is one that isn’t available around here and I knit a Hitchhiker scarf from it. I decided that I wanted a cardigan sweater of the same yarn and returned yesterday to the shop to try to purchase it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough of it to make a sweater, but I did get a worsted weight solid that coordinates beautifully with it. As soon as the weather is cool enough to sit with the bulk of a sweater body in my lap while knitting, I will make myself a sweater to go with my scarf.

Though it is only mid afternoon, I am tired from my travels and contemplating a short nap. Life is an adventure!

August 16, 2014
Spin cycle

The Vernal Equinox found us yesterday with clear sky, warmer temperatures and wind. It was too windy for Jim to ride, too windy to want to tackle adding ventilation holes higher in my coop, too windy, but so welcome. Today is warmer and calmer. We have three beautiful days as the calm before the next predicted snow event. I get anxious each year to start being outside more, to dig in warm soil, to plant, but truly, it isn’t safe to put much in the ground here other than cold weather crops until Mother’s Day, so I have to wait. I did start my peppers and some of my tomatoes in flats yesterday. I ran out of medium before I ran out of pots and seed.

My new spinning wheel arrived at the shop yesterday, but alas, it isn’t open on Wednesday, so I am meeting the owner in town today to pick it up. I’m excited to put it together and give it a spin.

Today the chicklets are 2 weeks old. I keep waiting to go into the basement and find them everywhere as they are developing feathers and starting to hop and flap higher up the sides of the brooder.

Socialization continues with them, with “The Hand” that appears over the side of the brooder and then teases with wiggling fingers, rings, or a small pile of their food to teach them not to fear me. I don’t handle my birds except when necessary like Wednesday night when 3 got out of the pen while I was out and couldn’t get back in to coop up for the night. When I arrived home around 9 pm and went over to close up the coop, I found Cogburn and two of the hens in a pile huddled together where the fence joins the coop nearest their ramp back inside. Each was picked up, slightly ruffled and put inside on a perch none the worse for wear.

Because of the lack of a spinning wheel and to try to have my sweater finished before the storm next week, I have been knitting only on Estelle. Last night I finished the second sleeve and picked up and knit the first 2 rows of the feather and fan band.

I am pleased that it will probably be finished tonight. Then I have to figure out where the marker goes in my honey cowl and how much of a row I have to tink to get it back on track. My sock needles that I ordered are in route, so I can finish the never ending pair of socks. My yarn came from Quince and Co. to make the Lola Shawl in the issue 9 of taproot magazine and I still have the Unplanned Peacock Botanical dk skein to make into something beautiful that will show off it’s wonderful colors.

We are off to enjoy the spring day, Jim on his motorcycle, me to pick up my wheel then work on the coop and run, maybe get a real gate in so that they can’t escape again unless I let them out. I also need to relocate some of the extra hay that seems to have all worked its way downhill to the end of their run, putting too much mulch around the peach tree and shrub in the run and none up where I enter their pen.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 21, 2014