Rain, Rain and More Rain

     This is a wet weekend!  And a busy one!  Yesterday I was scheduled to work in the shop in Cooperstown (Cooper Country, 2 Doubleday Court...adjacent to the parking lot at Doubleday Field for those who don't know) and invited to my cousin's daughter's graduation party.  (Both sides of my family have dwindled and Diane and her brother are my only relatives on my father's side so there was no question about attending.)  I was lucky enough to find someone to split the work day with me so I opened at 10am and Theresa (who with her husband does french rolling pins, salt and pepper grinders and other beautiful pieces of turned wood) came in at lunch time.  I had a busy morning with brisk sales...even one of my pumpkin hats sold!  In fact, it was a repeat sale.  The buyer had gotten a pumpkin hat about 6 years ago (had to have been one of Josie's) and needed another for a gift.  
     I had gotten one of the new cotton newborn sweater sets and a couple of newborn hats finished, as well as a regular baseball sweater, so I had plenty of stock to put out.  The new 'All Natural' display is looking good with bibs, quilts, blankets and now my sweater and hats.  Hope they sell!  I thought about ordering more 100% cotton yarn last night but decided to wait until something sells from the display.  Even tho the yarn comes from England it gets shipped quickly...in fact, the first order arrived within a week!    This 2nd order will be worsted weight instead of baby yarn.  My hands do not like working on such fine yarn and small needles!  Or maybe they don't like the rush jobs I was doing.  I finished the shawl for the graduation present on Thursday and picked up a shawl pin in the shop yesterday that really finished it off.  I had sent Anita, the jeweler, an email with a photo of the yarn so she could coordinate the color of the beads with the yarn and she did a fantastic job.  She made 2 pins...my choice...and I couldn't decide which one so I bought them both and kept one  for myself.  That will make me do a scarf for myself!  Hey, I'm worth it!!
    Jeff and I...with Fanny waiting in the car...went
to my cousin's graduation party late yesterday afternoon.  Of course it had to rain but they had gotten a tent and at least it was dry.  There was plenty of food (catered by Piggy Pat's) and that was our supper!  My cousin's sister-in-law who lives in Texas told me she still has the sweater I had knit for her daughter even tho she's out-grown it.  She's keeping it for her daughter's daughter.  (It will be a long wait, the kid is about 12!!)  Diane's other sister-in-law wanted to talk about valve replacement surgery...she had it done this winter and wanted to know how my surgery affected me (the surgery nothing, the warfarin I have to take limits the amount of greens I can eat and leaves me cold most of the time).  Melanie, the graduate, had finished 8th in her class at Frankfort and is going to the University of Buffalo in the fall.    We stayed at the party for about an hour and a half...long enough to totally chill me to the bone... before going home.  We were both beat...Jeff had cut wood most of the morning...so it was an early night.  I watched an episode of Pie in the Sky from AcornTV and went to bed about 9:30.   Slept until Fanny woke me up at 5:30am to go out!  I guess I'll finish the 2nd newborn sweater today and do some regular baby hats so Steve can take them down on Wednesday when he works.  Or maybe I'll just make a cup of tea and read a book. 

p.s.  The rain has done some good:  the large geranium that I brought home from camp in 2009 is blossoming again.  Does that make it ...an annual...a perennial?  Thanks again, Joanie O!  It's as beautiful as always!    Photos will follow...I promise.  The dog knocked into the Kodak digital and jammed the lens, and the Jazz digital needs new batteries...and not ones from the dollar store! 

Hurray for HP

      My pc finally had a fatal seizure...at least, Jeff hasn't been able to totally revive  it yet.  At the same time, he has been working on getting a friend's rebuilt HP to recognize and play discs (dvd's, cd's, etc) without much luck...making it useless for the friend.  We asked Len if I could borrow his HP until I get a new pc...to see if I like HP's before I spend the money for one, and Len...being such a good guy...said of course.  Today Jeff set up the HP...monitor and all, and even plugged my HP printer into it.  Now, I was positive that wasn't going to work coz the printer had stopped working with a snap, crackle and pop several months ago but the HP column and the HP printer made nice-nice and it worked!  (It may have been a driver in my E-machine column that snapped, crackled and popped and not the printer.)  The monitor is huge (20" diagonal) and makes watching AcornTV even better...no wonder Len wanted to play dvd's on this machine.  The keyboard is a gaming-board and lights up...a little distracting.  So far the HP column and monitor are at the top of my list....I just have to learn how to upload photos.  Unfortunately, I haven't found Spider Solitaire on it yet.

Keeping Busy

   Yesterday was Fanny's 3rd anniversary with us. (Seems longer.)  To celebrate we decided to get
subs for supper...no dishes or pots and pans, right... so, how come the sink was full of dirty dishes this morning...I never win.  Oh, well, it was worth it...and so is she.
   Jeff will be picking greens again today and I'll be steaming them and putting them in the freezer to use later.  The Romaine really started to grow after the first harvest. x We mix the Romaines with spinach and lettuce...and I don't know what else...and just steam and freeze them.  When we want greens, I just defrost and drain them very well, saute them in olive oil with onions and garlic, put in some hot peppers, pepperoni or salami, grated cheese and salt and pepper.  Yum, they are good even if they mess up my INR(clotting factor for you non-medical/non-warfarin folks.)
   The potatoes are doing well. x Jeff thinks we'll be digging potatoes in about a month.  Then he's got to
put something else in their place.
    We've decided to try an all-cotton corner in our baby section in the shop and I had to look online to find a yarn company that had 100% cotton yarn that wasn't for dishcloths.  I found one...LoveKnitting and ended up ordering 6 skeins of 100% cotton yarn...and a short size 8 circular needle to spend the $50 that gets free shipping...in pink, blue and mint. The   packages...2 of them...arrived this week and last night I put aside the shawl I'm doing as a graduation present for my cousin's granddaughter (the lace border is driving me crazy and I'm running out of time) and made a baby hat...newborn size...in the delicate pinkx.  Not bad.  Now it's time to get that shawl finished.  Oh, LoveKnitting is in West Yorkshire, England.  The yarn comes in neat drawstring net bags with a piece or two of hard candy.  The mailing bags are pink plastic...so cute.  And the yarn seems good, too.

x-I'll post photos tonight but right now it's time to knit.

Happy Anniversary, Fanny

Today is Fanny's anniversary.  Three years ago I 

posted this to Facebook:

Fanny 

'Picked up the new dog after work today. She's an 8 month old Australian Cattledog mix that we named Fanny. We made it home, checked out inside and outside the house, met my mom w/o fuss, did not seem comfortable on the pulley run Jeff had put up for her and proved it. Got tangled around a leg of the table on the deck, pulled it with her as she ran and pulled the hook out of the door jam peeling the vinyl molding with it. (Remember this is a 22 lb dog right now) Took about half an hour of coxing to get her back on the deck to go inside. We used that door a couple more times tonight but she's still leery of it. Liked the ramp door better.'

Now she thinks that door is her private entrance and weighs close to 80 lbs.  And she spends most of her time off the run...finally learning what 'stay in the

yard' means.  Turned out to be a great addition to the family.  If you're ever looking for a pet, don't 

forget to check out the local animal shelter.

(pc problems again...this is being written on my
netbook...the keyboard is too small for my hands so its one finger typing)

The Garden Is A Bloomin'!

      The potatoes are doing great in their boxes.
Jeff added another round of side boards last week
and is planning to add another round this weekend.  The potatoes have even started to blossom!  I have never heard of them blossoming this early!  Jeff thinks it

might be due to the corrections to the pH and additions
to the  soil he's made.  The photo to the left is of a white potato and the one to the right is of a blue.  The blues have a lot more smaller flowers than the whites.  I think both boxes will make nice photos when they're in full bloom.  The beans and peppers are

flowering and forming fruit too.  I think these are banana peppers.  Don't know if they're the hot or sweet ones.  the corn is almost knee high...and it's not the 4the of July yet!And I tried to get a photo of a dragonfly on a leaf but there wasn't enough contrast to see anything.  It was a plain dragonfly.  I'll keep trying for one of the bright colored ones!  We also have strawberries and raspberries trying to form fruit but the critters are enjoying them!   The squash (zucchini, yellow and butternut) are coming along, too.  We're doing melons (cantaloupe and watermelon) again even thou we've never gotten one to ripen.  Maybe this year? And of course, carrots!  But this year we decided to skip tomatoes.  We always get a beautiful crop...right up to the time they're almost ripe and ready to pick when blight hits and within days it spread to the entire garden.  So this year, we're skipping it.  Hope blight skips us.

Uncle Sam is still greeting people!

A Perfect Day to Mow the Lawn

       Although it is beautiful outside, sunny and warm...a perfect day to mow the lawn... I am following strict orders and not touching the lawnmower.  It has been spitting oil and making a clanking sound that means the blade is loosening and ready to falling! (And Jeff thinks I don't listen to him!)  So, instead of doing my share of lawn chores, I am knitting...going cross-eyed, stiffed necked and downright crazy...working on 2 shawls. (Photos when they are finished.) One I want to give as a graduation present, the other will go to the shop.  I'm not sure which is which because I like them both.  And they both seem to dislike me equally.  I keep losing my place on the chart for one and screwing up that pattern, and forgetting how to count with the other one and not increasing evenly...and I haven't even got to the chart for that one yet!  I think I'll have to buy more yarn for both...hope Walmart gets it in soon...or all the time and pain I've put in them will be wasted.
     I told Jeff I thought I'd like a Husqvarna lawnmower so today he went to Lowe's to check them out.  I thought a simple one...pull-start, rear bag, 'human' propelled...would do, but Jeff thinks a self-propelled would be a better idea.  We'll see.  I can just see me hanging on for dear life as this powerful machine goes roaring around my yarn...if I let go, will it go on alone??  At least we agreed to forget the electric start.  (How many baby sweaters will it take to pay for one?  Hope June and July's sales stay as strong as April and May's were!)
   Oh-oh, Jeff is outside giving the old Craftsman lawnmower CPR!  He had it running and got most of the back yard mowed when it suddenly died.  Must be he had zero luck restarting it coz now he's got the weedwacker going and is trimming around the trees and boxes along the driveway with that. I think that Husqvarna just went to the top of my wish list!

More Than Just Veggies

        Here's my basket of  'Million Bells' after a couple of days of thunderstorms and downpours and 1 fall from it's branch.  Not too bad for the experience.  It still attracts the hummingbirds and looks good hanging in the pine tree.  The peppers and potatoes are really blossoming, too!  They say the more flowers you get on the potato plants the more potatoes you'll harvest.  Hope that's true.  The Blue potatoes have lot of flower buds.  I hope I can get a photo when they open!   The blackberry plants have a lot of little berries on them, too.  Just have to fight the birds and creatures for them!
   Right now (11:48pm) the wind is picking up and there are rumbles of thunder in the distance.  This storm has my permission to bypass us...and Fanny's too!  During one of the downpours yesterday I found out that Jeff was right about the rain barrel next to the deck not filling because the gutter had clogged up again when water was gushing thru my kitchen window...and over the window sill with some of it actually going into the sink but most of it running over the counter on to the floor.  I couldn't get the damn window closed fast enough!  It's a wooden sliding window that my mom had put it when she first had the kitchen done back when my parents bought the house.  Real high tech...for 1964...but it's hard to open and close!  I closed it as much as I could and stuffed a dishtowel there to sop up the water that still was coming in.  I had a few not so nice thoughts about Farmer Day...if he thought the gutter was clogged why didn't he do something???  Any way when he got here he closed the window completely...now it's swollen shut and I can't open it at all!...and cleaned the gutter again.  There were a lot of leaves and pine needles that the wind had blown in during these storms.
   Tonight Chef Day was busy putting together a stew that he left on the stove simmering...with me in charge...for supper tomorrow.  It's a beef stew with carrots, onions, celery, corn, broccoli, potatoes and peppers.  My mom always said Jeff put too much in his stew, but boy, did she eat it!  I asked for some chips to go with it.  Let's see if he remembers.  I think it's cooked long enough for tonight.  I'll turn on the burner again tomorrow morning.  It really smells great! 

Farmer Day's Garden

    Jeff's garden is growing nicely.  The corn (rear left box) is higher than that in the farmers' fields I've seen around here.  There are beans in the boxes under the tower in the background and peppers in the bags in the kiddie pool. Both are doing well...the peppers have started to blossom...that's the white flower you can see on the plants in this photo below.  I don't know which ones are hot or sweet right now...after the fruit forms I think I can tell...I hope.

  That's chives in bloom in the photo to the right (rear right corner) and to the right (upper left corner)in the one below.  Such pretty lavender flowers!  Jeff hasn't gotten around to recovering the greenhouse, yet, but he will.  He wants to reenforce  the ribs.  Maybe he'll   

 put some tomatoes in there. The lettuce is doing well in the long box to the left.  There's peas in the row behind it that have just started to reach for the trellis.  This is our first year growing peas.  Jeff's built up the   potato boxes and is alternating layers  of leaves,

mulch and dirt when he hills them.  Some people just use hay or straw to hill their potatoes so we'll see what this combination produces. 
The leaves on the ground between the boxes helps

to keep the weeds down and Jeff only has to use the weed-wacker a couple a times a month.  The box arrangement also makes it easier to drag the  hose thru to water the garden.  He's going to put in a 2nd outdoor faucet...on this side of the house...to make it easier still.  He found an pipe entrance that isn't being used so he won't have to drill a hole in the foundation wall.  That's next month's project.  Before then Jeff's got to build a couple more boxes for the melons and sweet potatoes that are still in the TV room.

(This use to be the first lawn people saw when they drove up to our house and usually needed to be mowed weekly.  As a garden there is a lot less grass I have to cut.  I like it a lot more.  Jeff can add as many boxes as he wants!)added 6/9/15

June is Busting Out...Finally!

     June's here and the garden is coming along nicely.  Today we went shopping for more (!) plants.  We got watermelons, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, eggplants and more sweet corn.  Jeff's just about filled the boxes he used last year and is planning to make a few more.  I think he's still looking for more veggies!!  I snuck in some flowers and a couple of whirl-a-jigs.  When we got back home I put the new whirl-a-jigs in the front corner boxes and we tried to put the  'Uncle Sam on his bicycle' whirl-a-jig back together with parts from one of last year's models.  He's up and spinning...but I don't know how long he'll last.  I 
 think he's at least 5 years old, kind of faded and taped together.  I'd like to get another one but haven't seen any like him. 
   The lilac tree next to the driveway has a beautiful twisted trunk that I've trained over the years.  This year I've been saying that it needed to be pruned because it had a half-dead branch but Jeff maintained it was ok because it still had leaves and flowered.  Today I decided to be an 'independent woman' and trim the tree myself because I was tired of walking into the half-dead branch. I got the hand saw and cut off part it.  Then I started the 2nd cut but since it was over my head, I had to ask for help. Jeff took the saw and started to finish the cut when the entire branch fell off...at the trunk.  It was rotten... and proving my point...was half-dead. 
    After supper we went to the annual ice cream social sponsored by the ladies auxiliary of the East Herkimer Fire Department.   Jeff skipped the ice cream but had 2 helping of the baked goods.  I had a brownie sundae...over did it on chocolate but it was worth it.  Tickets were only $1.50 each but we got ours free from the lady at Annutto's Greenhouse where we bought some plants today.  Hope we remember to go again next year...even if we have to pay for our tickets!

   The shop was good to me in May...even better than last year.  That means I've got to keep knitting to keep my display full.  This is a jeans jacket and hat set that I did in With Love from Redheart on US 5 & 7's.  It's a size 2.  The hat didn't go with the jacket but I liked it and put them together.

I changed the pattern a little because it called for too many pieces to be sewed together and I don't like...no, hate...sewing pieces together.   Hope it sells. 

Here's the Jeans Jacket & Hat Set as it was falling off the hanger!

   It was warmer today than it has been the last couple of days but it's starting to cool off.  I think it's time to close the windows and get comfortable, turn on AcornTV and go to Midsomer, England and try to solve another murder mystery with Inspector Barnaby.  Maybe I can finish that jeans jacket tonight.