Always Work on the Farm

      I decided to splurge today for supper and bought some ground beef at Hannaford's... $6 for 1 1/3#'s but it was good and we haven't had hamburgers in this house for quite awhile.  My cousin Ed and Jeff's sister Sherry had come over for supper yesterday, Memorial Day,  and we had an inside picnic with oven fried chicken, potato salad and veggie salad both from Hannaford's (hey, either I'm domestic or I knit.  Can't do both at the same time.) and corn on the cob.  Jeff and I finished the salads and corn with our burgers tonight.   For dessert yesterday I had made a pineapple upside down cake but forgot to put in the brown sugar and it wouldn't come out of the pan so at the last minute I made my cousin Carol Paul's oatmeal squares.  A 9 x 13" pan of them with coconut and white chocolate bites which were a big hit coz by the end of the day there were only 2 squares left in the pan.  Of course, a couple were seen leaving wrapped in paper napkins and stashed in pockets....
   This afternoon I was knitting a lavender rose for the hat to a pink size 9 months sweater set when Judy called to let me know I had sold another sweater set yesterday... making 7 sets this month...and the last 2 baseball hats I had in the shop.  After supper I knitted a baseball hat and got about 3/4 of the embroidery done on it before I started to lose track of what I was doing and put it up.    The time gap between finishing the rose and supper was spent mowing the lawn...or at least part of it.  I did most of the front...in 2 stages...after Jeff started the lawnmower both times. I just couldn't get the damn thing to turn over when I tried pulling it!  I usually take that as a signal not to mow the lawn right now but at this rate it will take me 3 or 4 dry days to get all the way around and a hay mower may be more the thing to use than my Craftsman mower!  Jeff spent the time between starting the lawnmower for me with filling garden boxes.  He tested the pH and got the stuff he used last year to acidify the soil...the bag says it changes hydrangeas from pink to blue but we don't have any hydrangeas.  With all the oak trees around us you wouldn't think we'd need to do that. Then he watered the garden so of course it rained...but not much or for long.  It always seems to rain after he waters it.

Gone Without A Trace

   I noticed last week that something was loose under the car allowing my Subaru to sound like a souped up dragster but we couldn't see where.  Friday I had to work in the shop and by the time I got to Cooperstown part of the exhaust pipe (from the catalytic converter to the muffler) had broken loose and was hanging. Since there was no one around to wire it together I had no choice but drive it back to Herkimer the way it was.  There were a lot of troopers around on the ride home and I was sure I was going to be stopped and ticketed for the noise but they were more interested in stopping speeders.  I made it home without mishap...I thought...and Jeff came out to see what part of the exhaust I was loosing.  Make that lost.  It was gone. Without a trace.  The catalytic converter and muffler were still there but the pipe that connected them was gone.  Today we took the car to Marvis/Cole and for $249.99 I got a new muffler (the old one had a crack the length of it) and the missing exhaust pipe.  The muffler has 'a life of the car' guarantee so is the last one I'll have to pay to have put on that car...but there goes my new lawn furniture...again.  
   Last week after my doctor appointment in Cooperstown I had taken 2 new sweater sets to the shop and by Sunday night I had sold one of them plus 4 others (5 sets in all) so this week I was trying to produce replacements.  I managed to do a twin set with a knitted circular skirt and hat and another set all in size 1 in 4 days developing a terrible stiff neck with a lot of pain along the way. One of the shop's jewelers stopped in Friday while I was working and after seeing my limited mobility and asking some questions showed me some exercises for my neck that made a big difference.  So yesterday and today I've tried to knit for 30 minutes, do my exercises and do something else...like wash dishes or sweep the floor. I still have the neck pain but it's not as bad as it was.   Jeff had given me an aluminized polyester emergency blanket for my birthday (that reflects body heat because I'm cold all the time) and a corner had torn off it so last night I rolled up a small dry towel in the torn off corner and wrapped it around the back of my neck.  That worked better that any heating pad ever!
  Jeff put in another 4x4' box in the front garden and added dirt/compost to two of the bigger boxes in the back.   He's found potatoes, carrots, and other root veggies growing in the compost bin!  He's planning on building a couple more 4x4' boxes for the front garden.

Oh, What A Week!

Oh, what a week this is turning out to be...and it's only Tuesday!  Actually, it started last Friday when Jeff and I went to Bassett in Cooperstown for my appointment with Dr Gregory Cummings, a neurologist, as a follow up to my 'incident' last month.(see March 28 posting)  Neither of us thought we'd learn anything since I've been having these incidents for over 30 years!  Anyway, we were wrong.  Dr. Cummings was very nice and asked us both a lot of questions about what happened and eventually it came out that I have had auras and migraines since I was treated for Hodgkin Disease over 30 years ago and these incidents were probably related.  We left with a script for Topiramate and unless I have another incident, an appointment to come back in a year.  We stopped at the shop to drop off the 2 sweater sets I had made before heading home in a hell of a downpour.  What a ride home!  With nothing waiting to go on the needles I took the night off...which might not have been a good idea.  By Sunday evening I had sold 5 sweater sets in the shop and have been knitting nonstop since!  I'm scheduled to work in the shop this Friday and hope to have 3 sets finished to take down. Good thing they're baby sweaters! My left shoulder hurts if I move my elbow more than 3 or 4 " away from my side.  And just to even the soreness, yesterday I tripped over some broken blacktop and fell when I went for the mail.  Scraped my knee and hurt my pride. 
   Jeff's been busy with the garden, planting corn and beans, and repairing shovel handles.  Tomorrow he may get some pallets to cut apart and use to build more raised boxes.  He used most of the compost left in the burnt out bin and was surprised not to find a single worm in it.  We think they may have been burnt out??  Fanny was playing in the garden with him today chasing toads, bumblebees and a garden snake.  Jeff relocated the snake to the wood when she wouldn't leave it alone.  After a trip to his sister's to unsuccessfully service her lawnmower, Jeff got ours going so I'll be able to cut the lawn next week.  Gee, something to look forward to!
   

The Garden, 2014

   Jeff's been busy in the garden the last week or so. He's cleared the boxes, tested soil, added nutrients and finally, started planting.  He's put in onion, garlic, tomatoes, and green peppers.  Some things wintered well and we have carrots that he'll allow to go to seed, and radicchio that he tells me is good in salads.  Since I'm not suppose to go overboard with greens.... Yesterday Jeff started tearing apart pallets to reuse the wood for more garden boxes.  A load of manure seems to be in order, too.  He had the oil changed in the Forester and that seems to be running well.  Not bad for a "totaled" vehicle.
  I've been knitting (as usual) but I've gone back to children's sweaters.  Last week I did a size 1 black sheep sweater & hat set in a raspberry acrylic. The size difference between a baby size 6 months and a size 1 is unbelievable!   This week I'm trying to do another size 1 set in a cream colored acrylic with a little open work and embroidery on the front.  I'm toying with the idea of adding socks to each set...with the yarn of the embroidery (pale pink for the sheep and purple for the open work set). Of course, buttons should match the embroidery, too, so today...since we're headed to Sherry's so Jeff can attend to her lawnmower...a quick side trip to JoAnn's is in order.
   I've been taking photos of the garden and got them downloaded...to Window Photo Gallery.  Now I've just got to get them up on this blog!

Ah, Spring...at last!

   Happy birthday to my oldest friend, Fran Davey. We grew up together on Dewey Ave in Herkimer and when we moved out here to the little house in the little woods 52 years ago she use to take the public bus to visit. (...getting off at the cemetery! Now that got looks & comments from other passengers!)   And she use to come camping with us (to the public campsites in the Adirondacks and the Walhart's camp in Canada.(The things the 'grownups' hid under our pillows in the back seat!)  One time Fran and her husband Larry drove up to our campsite at Moffit Beach in the pouring rain, rolled down a car window and announced 'if you were dumb enough to stay, we're dumb enough to join you.'  Ah, those were the days. Now the mere forecast for rain and I start aching.
   Tonight Jeff and I went out for fish fry to our favorite local place  (Donna's on Rte 5)...actually it's walking distance from the house but we didn't walk...but Jeff and I did walked around the garden later with Fanny racing around the raised boxes (she uses the garden as an agility course!)before finding something interesting enough to roll over and over. Ah, the fun of having a white dog.   A lot of things wintered that I didn't know would...radicchio?!?  Jeff's making mental lists re what has to be done in the garden before planting time. Monday is suppose to be a decent, dry day so maybe he can work outside while I work at the shop in Cooperstown.  I've spent the last couple of wet, damp, cold days sitting by the fire knitting.  I've did some baby hat and sock sets that have turned out cute.  I sent a Ladies hat with a knit rose and a big bow on the side...kind of 1920's...down to the shop Thursday along with a couple of baseball hats (hey, they sell!)  Sales for April were good...actually, twice as good as last year!  Hope that's a good sign!!
   Had another blood drop test Tuesday to check my clotting factor...with the same results as last week...so I had to have blood drawn again.  This time it left a nice bruise.  My numbers are really screwed up...over 4.2 which means my clotting factor is low. (My nurse told me to stay away from knives!)  The doctor is trying to adjust my dose of rat poison (warfarin) without much luck. At least now I know why I'm so cold and tired...thin blood will do that to ya.  Hope things get regulated soon.  I'm tired of being tired.