SANDY

We spent much of the weekend preparing for Hurricane Sandy.  The forecasts warned of high winds and heavy rain with power blackouts thru much of the Mohawk Valley...first starting on Tuesday & Wednesday; and then as the system got closer on Monday & Tuesday.  Jeff cut up firewood and I stacked it on the porch giving us enough for 3 or 4 days in an easy-reach.  Got 24 gallons of drinking water and extra cereal, milk and bread. Jeff finished taking apart the garden braces and put them away in the garage along with the last of the lawn chairs, wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes.  We actually looked like we had 'batten down the hatches'!  The backdoor on the garage is easily opened by the wind, so Jeff braced it from inside and since we couldn't fit the car in the garage with everything else we parked it between the house and the garage in a protected area. He even put the garbage pails in the garage thinking there wouldn't be a collection on Tuesday morning. I remembered to take the remote garage door opener with me and we were all set.

When the kitchen was clean after supper I made another pot of coffee and turned on the Fox Report.  Things looked really rough in NYC and on the Jersey Shore and we settled down to watch the storm's progress.  Mom went to bed early as usual and while the wind picked up, it didn't rain.  I worked on a sock I'm doing for a swap and Jeff kept coming up with something else we should get before the next emergency
(a generator, a camp stove, lamp oil, etc.)  Every time there was a loud band or wind gust, Jeff went outside
to check if anything had fallen over.  He was worried that the stovepipe would be taken by the wind (and I was kind of hoping the fireplace chimney would be).  In spite of the heavy cloud cover it was so bright outside last night he didn't need a flashlight. around 9pm the lights flickered and went out.  Still no rain to speak of.  We sat in the dark talking until about 11pm and then went to bed.  The dog was nervous about the shadows caused by the flashlights and Jeff still jumped up with every large thud.  Around 3am he decided to make a camp stove out of a coffee can and heated up some of the coffee outside.  Still no rain and the night was still very bright.  The lights came back on around 5am and while the cable tv, phone and internet were still out (didn't come back on until 10am) we managed to get a Utica radio station and caught up with the outside world.  A fresh pot of coffee and it was soon nap time for us all.  Hurricane Sandy hadn't lived up to her predictions here but hadn't been so docile in NYC.  Jeff and I spent most of today catching up on our sleep.  I hope we don't have too many hurricanes but there is a nice stack of wood on the porch....

I had been so involved in knitting that sock last night I didn't notice I had gotten carried away and had to rip out a couple of inches this morning.  And I did not try to work on it after the light had gone out!

OH, WHAT A WEEKEND!

My cousin Mike and his partner Chris visited us this weekend from Detroit and while they don't visit often they do do the cooking...and cleaning up... when they visit, making them the perfect guests!  This trip the menu included a Killer Soup for lunch (photo l) that Mike put together while talking politics with Jeff.  Supper was a beef stew with dumplings that we all enjoyed, too.  Mike and Jeff grilled shrimp on our little firepit by the garden as the appetizer and Jeff and my cousin Ed, who joined us for supper, were pleasantly surprised how good shrimp can be!(photo r)  Again Politics was the topic of conversation during the meal...maybe the wine kept the opposing views in check!  (photo l)  We all cleaned up our plates and went back for seconds.  Or maybe it was the chocolate chip cookies Mike made.  My contribution to dinner was banana nut bread with monkey butter (bananas, coconut and pineapple cooked into a peanutbutter like  spread.)

While the humans in the house were clearly enjoying the good food, good

conversation and good wine, the dog was not!   When Mike and Chris stopped in Friday night after checking into their motel, Fanny hid in the bedroom and nothing could make her come out to say hello.  In fact, she wouldn't come out for over an hour after they left!  And she wouldn't go outside thru the door they used!!  Saturday I had to carry her outside coz she went back into hiding when they parked in the driveway!  Jeff got her to stay with us...at his feet under the table during lunch and outside next to him while he was tending the fire pit... but "ChickenLittle" went back into hiding when we went inside eat.  Even a full supper dish couldn't interest her!  Jeff eventually carried her outside where she tried to 'save' her supper by covering the bowl with leaves!  We finally gave in and she's been hiding since...all night long!  Such a brave dog we have.  We don't know what makes her so skiddish around strangers but the 3 extra men in the house this weekend really got her nervous! (Had to carry her to the door and push her outside this morning.  She kept looking around...expecting to find them still there!)

After everybody left last night I finished some leaf washcloths to include in a swap.  They came out bigger than I expected!  I used cotton worsted weight yarn on US7's and the widest part of each leaf is only 31 sts.  They needed to be blocked, too, to flatten them out.  I wonder if they'll stay flat when you use them?  Anyway, now those are leaves I don't mind picking up!

 We're trying to prepare for that 'perfect storm' that Hurricane Sandy is suppose to create for us.  Jeff wants to get more wood chopped and we've got to get some lamp oil for the 2 hurricane lamps we have... in case  the power goes out.  I got all the water jugs filled yesterday but I think I'll go back to Walmart today and see if there are any 3 or 5 gal bottles left in the Colligan Water display.  Jeff wants to go his sister's today to make sure  her sump pump is working,too.  We brought in 2 big plants from the patio...a purple pepper (l) and a 5 year old geranium
that our neighbor at camp gave me.

Oh, and the beautiful vase of flowers Mike and Chris gave my mother added a little charm to the house, too.  Look at the size of that yellow rose!

A Vacuum I Like

I finally found a vacuum (l) that I liked using.  It's a lawn vacuum and sucks up leaves and small twigs off the lawn.  No more rake and wheelbarrow for me!  Of course, we rented ours today...$65 for 24 hours...but definitely worth it.  Got the backyard and one sideyard done while Jeff tilled the garden.  (It usually took 3 days to rake & remove leaves in the backyard!!)   He filled both sides of the compost bin with those leaves I vacuumed and watered them with a weak 'compost tea' to help them breakdown.  The other sideyard and around the garden are about half finished and those leaves are covering (r) the garden.   Wally...from next door...was mowing his yard and contributed some leaves and grass cuttings, too. Jeff plans on finishing up tomorrow morning.  Fanny had a ball checking out the leaves after they were spread in the garden.  The sound of the tiller and vacuum bothered her for awhile...as did the Oil Man who was here cleaning the furnace.  Every time he came outside to get something from his truck, she ran around the house.  Our brave chickenhearted dog.  

I've been doing some leafy washcloths to put in a couple swap packages that I have to send out but that's about the extent of my knitting this week.  I've still got that sheep sweater OTN waiting to be bound off, and a pair of socks for a friend's wife that just need their bind-off  row ripped out and re-done with a larger needle.  Last night I got a phone call telling me I was out of baby socks in the shop and my last Yankee ballcap sold (the day after they lost the playoffs).  There is plenty to knit but I just can't knit, read, can and do yard work at the same time.  A 'perfect storm' (combo winter and hurricane) is suppose to hit this coming week so I'm planning on catching up then.

Halloween Swap

Found a Halloween swap package in the mailbox today. (The sun was shining.) Love the button on the towel!  Hid the milky ways!  Thanks Barb!

Just a Sunday Afternoon at Home

Got the market bag finished for an upcoming swap.  It easily holds 2 large boxes of cereal so I guess it's a good size.  It's cotton and machine wash and dryable.  Hope my swapee enjoys it.

The rest of the day was hard work...Jeff outside cleaning off the garden...he dug the sweet potatoes and got nothing...and me stuck cleaning beets. Definitely not my favorite job since it meant standing at the kitchen sink and, besides,  I do not like beets.  (There were enough carrots to fill 2 pint jars...one red one orange...which I did without complaint...coz I like carrots.)  I had stripped my bed and taken the sheets & blanket & comforter to the laundromat this morning to wash them all at once in a big machine.  Picked up the garbage bag of wet bedding to head home and saw stars!*!*!  Oh, my back!  And then getting stuck at the kitchen sink washing beets...ugh!  It was too much and I pulled a 'sympathy' fit (similar to a temper tantrum but with tears and no yelling) that got me nowhere but I felt better afterwards.  My back still hurts this morning.

Jeff's been reading on-line how to cook beets (in anticipation of a good harvest?) so last night we roasted whole beets for supper.  They were a lot better than beets out of a can...which really surprised me.  Very sweet.  But they are still not on my favorite veggie list.  [To roast beets:  clean whole beets removing top and tip. Place beets of similar size on a piece of aluminium foil, drizzle with olive oil, fold foil to form a packet and place in a hot oven...375-400 for about an hour.  They will be soft when cooked.  If other things are to be baked at a lower temperature, put the beet packets in with them and just raise the temperature when the other things are cooked...or let them cook longer.]  Now he's taking about doing 'fried beets' since we all like 'fried carrots'.  [To ' fry ' carrots:  boil carrots until soft. Mash and saute with olive oil, butter, garlic and any other spice you'd like.]  We'll see how that turns out.

More Swaps

 Found two swap packages...both from Wisconsin ..on the front seat of my car this noon. (Seems my postman is very careful about keeping the packages he delivers dry.  And yes, it was raining when he drove up.)  Both had delicious Halloween treats and beautiful sock yarn.  The red yarn in the photo on the left is for me from Stacy  Jeff can wait for a pair out of the faded denim yarn in the package on the right from Marguerite   I'll share the goodies! Maybe.

I had 'help' opening boxes and I just hope we didn't get the contents mixed up.  Thank you to both swap partners!  I can't seem to post the photos on the swap sites.

What's That Up In The Sky?

What's that up in the sky?  That bright shiny thing?  Oh, the sun!  So glad to see you again.  The damp rainy weather we've been having has been hard on both Jeff and me.  My problem is degenerate disc disease and his problem is multiple back surgeries.  We creak and groan to beat the band getting in and out of the car in this weather.  And Thursday Jeff picked up a load of free pallets and spend the afternoon and evening outside in the drizzle cutting it up.  These pallets were mainly oak and other hardwoods so they are earmarked for the woodstove.  The rest was split for kindling.  Should have enough for almost a month.

 We stopped at Lowe's on the way home and got a length of braided nylon rope to make a pull toy for Fanny.  A couple of knots at both ends and a loop in the middle and she was ready to play tug-of-war...until she decided to lay down and chew it.  Then she had 2 pull toys and I had blue and white nylon curls all over the house.  She's learned to play catch with it, too.  And there still enough left to chew on (l).

While Jeff was cleaning beets and carrots yesterday I was working on a market bag for a swap.  I've done this one before in nylon ribbon yarn and really liked how it worked up but I couldn't find the ribbon yarn anywhere so I did it in cotton.  It's working up rather well, I think.  The top and the handles will be navy blue like the bottom.  It's amazing how much this bag will hold!  If I finish it today maybe I can try to finish my sheep sweater and do a couple of those cute baby hats, too, but I think the boxes of beets and carrots will come first.

Customers, Books & Knitting

It was my turn to work in the shop (Cooper Country Crafts) in Cooperstown today.  I took with me the sheep sweater that's taken up residence on my Zyphyr acrylic interchangable size 7 circular needles thinking I'd finish it...which I could have before I realized I didn't have enough buttons.   I got bored knitting then so I switched to reading. Jeff had gotten a 3-part sc-fi series called The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne thru the public library and the jacket blurbs sounded interesting so I started reading them.  Sci-Fi isn't usually my thing, but the main character is a 2100 year old druid (The Last of the Druids) who's Irish, tall with red hair and a full arm tattoo.  I'm on the 3rd book and while the premise is getting a little tired, any book that has a dog (Irish Wolfhound) who mind speaks to the Druid isn't all bad.  There were just enough customers coming in and out of the shop to keep me busy waiting on them, reading and knitting.

This is the last of the baby hats that I did for the Shop Around last weekend.  Come to find out  those 'small sales' we made there were all these hats!
The hat is a simple rolled brim cloche done on US 8's in Red Heart worsted acrylic and the flowers are done on US 4's in left over washable wool sock yarn.  I didn't have any green sock yarn so the leaves are just grosgrain ribbon.  I guess I'll have to do some more before I work again on Halloween.

It was too late to do anything when I got home today so tomorrow Jeff and I will have to finish canning the veggies from the garden (mainly beans, beets and carrots). Not something I'm actually looking forward to doing.

Our Kitchen

We didn't get any canning done this weekend other than my carrots.  Yesterday was the annual fish & game club's chicken BBQ...Yeah!  Good food and No Cooking!! After that we prepped veggies...I cleaned beans.. Italian flats, purple, different green and scarlet runners. This scarlet runner (l)started out as a beautiful red flower and as you can see the bean pod grew!  It has a velvety texture and the pod holds 8-10 beans.  And it's not an exceptionally long example but the average size.  We'll probably husk them, run them thru the dehydrator and dry can them to use in soups. In some areas, scarlet runners are considered ornamental but they are edible.  Jeff cleaned hot peppers for dehydrating.  He set up the smaller round dehydrator in the garage and has it full of Italian Longs.  He learned the hard way not to dehydrate hot peppers in the house. (I believe onions should not be done inside either).  We have a large soup kettle full of peppers waiting to be processed.  Some will be dehydrated and others  pressure canned with onions.  We're trying to have a variety of veggies...and meats...in our pantry. And other things... Jeff found a link on line for dry canning and he put up 10 lbs of whole wheat flour in 1/2 gal mason jars.  It's done in the oven and is used to kill 'vermits' that nest in dry flour like weevils and other bugs.  The lids seal...and click...as they cool down just like in pressure canning.  With the price of flours forecast to soar due to the bad growing season this year he thought it might be worth a try.  It's easier than pressure canning but the jars are harder to find. Agway was the only place locally that carried them.  I think we'll probably do some more.

The shop around at the Brookwood School in  Cooperstown Saturday was a disappointment.  Not too many people attended and the shop's display had only a few small sales.  Oh, well, those hats I did for it will fill up my shelf space in the shop nicely...and I won't have to take much stock with me Wednesday when I work.  Still, it would have been nice if....

Found a swap package sitting on my car's front seat today for a Coffee and Chocolate Swap  from Anne in Canada.  Jeff thinks the dark roast coffee beans are nice and my mom claimed the Godiva chocolate.  I think I may use the project bag as a purse...it's to nice not to carry around every day!

Season's Ending

 There was a forecast for frost last night so Jeff spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the garden. All the green waste went into the compost bin filling up one side.  Jeff wants to till the garden over before covering it with leaves for the winter but that won't be today.  We've got beets, beans, carrots, kohlrabi, celery and bell peppers waiting for us on the porch to process (that's the old propane stove to the side). While Jeff was busy outside,  I picked...and cleaned...and cut up enough carrots to fill 9 pints and then Jeff walked me thru processing them.  It still scares me to use the pressure canner alone. There are probably enough carrots left(center left of photo) for another pint. These bell peppers(lower) are beautiful but this season was so screwy we had to forget about the dozen or so others that were just forming. They are big and heavy...rather like the ones that go for $1.59 each at Walmart.  I think today we will be busy canning the beets and beans.  Jeff wants to try cooking the beet and carrot greens or dehydrating them to use in soup but they're so high in Vitamin K I can't even think about eating any right now...my clotting factor is messed up again and we're adjusting dosage again.  Between my clotting factor and Jeff's blood sugar we can't seem to keep our numbers in the normal range for very long.

 Last night I made beef stew using our carrots and celery and it came pretty good.  Fanny got to finish the gravy on her dry dog food this morning!

We had a beautiful fire in the new stove yesterday...and the stove radiated heat long after we stopped feeding. We didn't even put a dent in the stack of wood Jeff had brought in.  We still have to get some hard wood for this winter.

Jeff and Wally from next door took the utility trailer loaded with trash to the Town Barn yesterday.  It's 'free trash' days  (got to get something for our tax $$'s).  Probably saved us about $30...plus gas...going there instead of taking it to the dumping station in Utica.  We still have paint cans...hazardous waste...to take up there.

The shop, Cooper Country Crafts, is doing a Shop-Around at the Brookwood School in Cooperstown today. (www.thebrookwoodschool.org)  I sent a couple of sweater sets, cotton pumpkin bib & hat sets, and some baby hats...about $100 of knitting.  Judy and Sharon were going to 'man' the booth and are taking a sprinkling of merchandise from the shop.  Since the shoppers at this are locals it is really an advertising event for us.  They asked for a donation for their auction and we decided one of the woodcarver's door signs would attract the most attention.   Hope they have a good day and a fair number of shoppers find their way back to the shop! When Mr Jeff lets me out of the farm kitchen I have to get back to knitting.  I got half of a pair of socks done for him, 3/4 of a sheep sweater set and more of the baby hats for the shop waiting for me.  I guess I better get busy!

AT LAST

The new wood stove has been installed...very carefully by Jeff with Fanny at his side.  It makes quite a difference in the temperature of the house.  We've had a fire in it the last couple of nights while we watched tv.  Now we've got to get some firewood. That corner has seen a small woodstove that we got thru the JC Penney Catalogue.  That's when Dad let me do the z-brick and slate work.  That stove was followed by a pellet stove and then a propane burner.  The technology of the wood burner has changed but the effects remains the same. Nothing beats a wood fire.  We've come full circle and it seems right.  Jeff put up the outside stove pipe by himself and it's 18" above the peak of that roof.  It wasn't easy going up a ladder with over 8' of stove pipe on your shoulder but Jeff did it and it draws nicely.  He put a T (r) on the top to direct the
smoke away from the house and it works! (I think it will need screening of some kind to keep the critters out but Jeff doesn't think so.)  He's already planning to clean the outside pipe just to see how much creosote has built it in the few times we've used it.   Fanny thinks it's a great idea to have firewood in the house and keeps taking pieces to chew.

I've been working on swap packages for the knitting forums I belong to. The photo on the left is for a coffee and chocolate swap.  I made a table mat and mug rugs...the green under everything...for that one. The one on the right was for a  Halloween swap.  My partner said she collects pumpkins so I did a dishcloth with a pumpkin design knit in and a set of pumpkin stitch markers to go with the dishtowel, pumpkin scrubbie (found that at JoAnn Fabrics), pumpkin soap (from Cooper Country), packet of kleenix and tissue pumpkins.  This swap was theme limited so I didn't have to include yarn and my partner requested no candy...that made it a little difficult.  Knitters usually love to get chocolate in their swap packages. I just mailed a color specific swap limited to dollar stores that was interesting to shop for.  The Christmas swaps have just been announced and they are always fun! Who doesn't like to get packages with yarn and chocolate in them??