Fanny got her dates mixed up!

   Tuesday morning I had an appointment to have my taxes done so I left Fanny and Jeff sleeping and got up early to make the coffee.  Don't know if the aroma from the brewing coffee woke him first but suddenly there was noise in the bedroom:  Fanny was waking Jeff up with doggie kisses!  Not something he enjoys but Fanny seemed to like it.  Must have thought it was Valentine's Day.
   I've been having my taxes done by the volunteers from AARP for the last couple of years.  There's less of a mob at the Ilion Library so I've been going there.  It takes some time...this year about an hour...but the return is worth it.  And they can efile for you so I should get my return in about 3 weeks.
   When I got home I did steak and eggs for brunch and we watched TV all afternoon with a nice fire in the wood stove.  I got the 2nd sock for Steve's wife started...after a couple of false starts to get the 'self' stripes in place...hope to finish that today.  Then it'll be back to cotton socks for the stock bag.
   Judy called..Skyped...from Cayman yesterday.  They were having a heavy rain...unusual for them in winter.  We talked about the floor plan for the shop and decided to meet with a couple of other members April 2nd.  Changing things around will mean a couple of days of hard work.  The shop layout hasn't changed in a couple of years and it's time.
   Watched a little of the Olympics yesterday...Ladies short program in figure skating.  Then watched a NCIS marathon on USA that was dedicated to Ralph Waite who played Gibbs's father.  He also played Booth's grandfather on Bones at the same time.  Does that make Booth and Gibbs related?

Valentine's Day

   Valentine's Day was bright and sunny and not very cold...temps were in the mid 20's.  (Amazing how you can appreciate the little stuff.)  We spent this afternoon moving snow and wood:  Jeff got the driveway and the alley...the area between the house and the garage and the path around the house...clear of yesterday's snow and I cleaned the snow off my car and moved firewood into the house.  Jeff clearly worked harder...and longer...than me but I did have a pot of coffee ready for him and a nice fire going in the stove when he came in for breaks.  Fanny stayed outside with Jeff most of the time and when we went out for supper she was stretched out across the bed half asleep.  (Unfortunately, she did not stay asleep. When we got back, she had the bag of red potatoes on the kitchen floor...a half eaten raw potato was on the bed with the torn up empty egg carton that she had taken out of the garbage.)  We had tried to go to Liz's Diner in Mohawk but it wasn't open so we ended up at Donna's Diner on Rte 5 near the house.  Their fish fries are very good.  Today's sides included macaroni and cheese and cole slaw...both delicious but I should have know better than to have them together.  Oh, well, I always said as a kid that milk made me sick.
   I couldn't find anything of interest on TV so I concentrated on knitting socks.  I've got 2 pairs going (one for my stock bag and the other's an order) and I took turns working on them both.  I'm waiting for the yarn for a hat order.  I wish it would get here...I'm a little tired of socks but since I think it's suppose to snow again tomorrow I guess I'll be working on socks.  Jeff's got the latest Die Hard dvd and I can knit faster with a good action movie on.

Another Snowy Day

   It's another snowy day with accumulations predicted to be between  5-8".  Jeff took our 3 month old snowblower down to the repair shop yesterday. Last week he hit a pile of frozen doggie do-do and the shear pin did not break like it was suppose to...instead, the auger bent.  The guys at Collis' (where we bought it) said they'd try to fix it quick and they did!  Got the phone call this AM that it was fixed...and 'under guarantee', so 'no charge'. Now that's a couple of the reasons we shopped locally and bought small.   Jeff got a package of shear pins and I think several on the machine were changed, too.  He finished the pass he was doing when the auger bent and is ready to do it again tomorrow...if we get more snow tonight.  And since it is snowing steadily right now, I think he'll be busy tomorrow.  I promised to take him out for supper tomorrow (Valentine's Day) in payment for all the hard work...especially for lifting the snowblower onto the utility trailer!!

   I've been spending these wintry days next to the woodstove with my knitting.  I'm on the 4th ladies cotton tank top, 4th pair of cotton socks and 2nd pair of tea gloves (fingerless, of course.)  I've been watching a lot of History and Smithsonian...some interesting programs on the Great Wall of China and the Battle of the Alamo.  Programs I can listen to and not have to watch the screen.

   Heard that my cousin, Chris and wife Denise, are expecting their first child this summer.  Got to put something for them on my knitting list, too.
   I made some meatballs the other day and I think the dog and I will finish what's left for supper tonight. I don't care what Jeff (and my grandmother Molinaro) say...I'm Italian and you can't beat a good meatball!

   Ah, snow!  We got about 7-8" on Wednesday and Wally, from next door, had plowed the length of the driveway Wednesday after it stopped snowing. Thursday I had to go to Basset for an PT-INR (a blood test of my clotting factors) and I knew I could drive out to the mailbox without any problems but I had to shovel to and around the car to clean off the window so I could see where I was going!  I got as much as I could off, then drove into the driveway and cleaned off the rest.  I got bogged down at the mailboxes but the Subaru did it's thing and we got un-stuck without having to do any digging.  (My INR was 2.9...which my doctor thinks is near perfect for me.) After that I went to Hannaford's and did a little grocery shopping, got some cooked chicken at the salad bar there and went home.  Had a little trouble backing up into the driveway between the house and the garage but managed to get in finally.  Yesterday Jeff gave me a lesson on using the snowblower.  It's not that difficult but I don't want to be an independent woman that much!  We both know that I can do it if I have to, but I'm not going to unless he makes me. He finished the driveway and the path around the house(past the stove chimney and heating fuel intake pipe) but then something went wrong and he broke a pin or something and that ended the snowblower's usefulness.  Today Jeff was going to stop at Kenny's to find out exactly what the guarantee will fix for us.  Remember, it was new in November!!   

I was happy to go back to my knitting.  I've got 3 tank tops and 2 pairs of ladies socks finished.  I started a pair of tea gloves (fingerless) with a keyhole on the back of the hand and a button closure, lacey little things.  Ladies sweaters and socks take a lot longer to knit that babies and children's.  I was going to spend a month on them, but haven't got as much finished as I wanted to so I'm going to keep  working on them for a couple more weeks.  I know I can do 2-3 baby sweaters in a week, and a pair of baby socks in 2 days, so I can wait until March to start working on them.  In the meantime, I've worn holes in both my index fingers working on the small sharp pointed needles.  I will be glad to get back to the blunt size 8's!  
   The Canadian TV station in our cable system has been showing the Olympics live...so is NBCSN...but I haven't found anything exciting to watch yet.  Oh, well, back to the comfort of the wood stove and my knitting!  Can't wait to find out how much the snowblower repairs will be.

A Little Excitement

  We had a little excitement here yesterday.  I noticed that the wood stove pipe had separated just below the inside elbow and told Jeff.  When he put  the pipe together again he noticed that it really needed cleaning. So that what he did...took the bottom cap off the pipe outside and cleaned it.  Then he took the elbow apart and cleaned the upright section and then the firebox, putting all the soot into the ash bucket. After he put the pipe back together-again, he emptied the ash bucket into the snow covered compost bin. And we sat down to supper (Italian stuffed peppers...a great recipe from an old friend, Liz O'Brien).  After supper Jeff went into the den to check the wood stove and suddenly started yelling.  He told me to look outside and when I did, I saw what he was yelling about.  The compost bin was on fire!  Flames were 3-4 ft into the air!!  Jeff grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran outside. He was soon back in the house filling the ash bucket with water and telling me to fill the pressure canner...it's the biggest kettle we have! When I handed him the canner he said to call the fire department!  He managed to knock down the fire but he was afraid there wouldn't be enough water in the well to put it out.  East Herkimer Volunteer Fire Department was soon racing down our road and Jeff was waiting for them at the mailboxes to direct them to turn and not go sailing past us. (We tend to have that problem with emergency vehicles and repair trucks.)  They brought all 3 trucks (!!!) and the fire was soon out.  They pulled the sides off the compost bin...that's what was burning...but the contents were solid ice!  Jeff was worried that the fire would spread to the wood shed but, thankfully, that didn't happen. We were both a little edgy afterward, thinking that it might start up again, but we made it thru the night ok. Still don't know what started the fire if the contents were solid ice.  Maybe methane

gas escaping thru the chimney's in the compost piles.  I think it doesn't take much to start that. Anyway, this is what's left of our compost bin.  But the plastic on the woodshed didn't even melt!