Life Goes On

I always dislike the end of October and this year is no different.  It means t-shirts and shorts have to be put away until next May...or June...or July, and I have to find socks that don't bind my right ankle.  (You'd think that after nearly 5 years, my right ankle would be shrunk back to normal instead of still swollen at the double breaks?) I'm always cold (thanks to the Warfarin I have to take to keep my blood thin enough to flow thru the mechanical valve in my heart) and my fingers ache (that might be due to the amount of knitting I've been doing.)  The yards are covered with leaves that are demanding to be raked up (or is that Jeff demanding I help rake leaves for the compost bin?). Add in the fact that the Forester is still at the body shop so we're behind in hauling wood and our great idea of renting a leaf vacuum is on hold, too, coz the Forester has the hitch for the utility trailer. 

Jeff and I both caught colds when my mom was in the hospital at the end and while I manged to keep mine to just sniffles and a sore throat, Jeff's turned into a full-blown head cold...which he shared with me this last week. Now it's been my turn to be sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose.  I've spent the day feeding the woodstove, knitting and watching TV. (Not a bad way to spend a cold, windy day but the woodpile on the porch is getting low.)

Monday I worked in the shop in Cooperstown and restocked my shelves with another Little Girl Chic gray and pink sweater set and a couple of vintage 50's sets in navy and pink...for a girl, and navy and tan...for a boy. And a couple of roll brim hats with knitted flowers.  (I came home to find that Fanny the Dog had eaten one of my last 2 pairs of Crocs, and the remote control for the TV/cable box.)  I got a skein of pink yarn to do another Pretty in Pink set but haven't found the mojo to start it.  Instead, I finished socks for Jeff and me and dug a couple of more skeins out of the box to make us both more. (Sock yarn doesn't really count as part of a stash coz it's kept in it's own box.)  I may even use up some leftover yarn to make baby socks.  

Jeff and I picked most of the garden this week.  There's baskets of zucchini, green beans, peppers, cabbage and beets waiting for Jeff to start canning again.  He's still got to dig the sweet potatoes, carrots and more root veggies that I care to know about. Now if we can only get tomatoes to ripen....

Josephine Molinaro Terico

My mother, Josephine Molinaro Terico, of Smallsbush Rd, Herkimer, died today at Valley Health Services, Herkimer.  

Born January 13, 1914 she was raised and educated in Herkimer.  She always enjoyed sewing and worked as a 'waistmaker'...sewing machine operator...in various Valley dress factories starting with Derby Sportswear and Joy Taylor in Herkimer and Focus Dress in Little Falls, retiring in 1973.  After her retirement, she and her daughter made fabric dolls and toys, selling them at area craft shows and at Cooper Country Crafts in Cooperstown until her sight failed. Josie was proud that her work could carry 'the union label'.

On April 15, 1948, Josie married Tony Terico.  He died in 1993.

Besides her parents, Joe and Marta Molinaro, and husband, Tony Terico, Josie was predeceased by brothers Louis and Peter Molinaro, sisters Rose Molinaro Salerno, Mary Molinaro Fiala, Caroline Molinaro Fiore, Antionette Molinaro and Francis Molinaro Osredkar, nephews Louis (GiGi) Salerno, Francis (Chick) Fiala and Francis (Joe)Fiore, and nieces Rosemary Fiala Verruck and Caroline Fiala Paul.  She is survived by her daughter Mary and her friend Jeff Day, nieces Mary Salerno, Josephine Fiala Morgan and Marti Molinaro Millen, nephews Edward Osredkar and Peter Molinaro and the great grand-nieces and nephews of the Molinaro, Fiala, Fiore, Verruck, Millen, Morgan and Paul family. 

There will not be a public services.  Memorial donations in Josie's name may be made to the Frank J Basloe Library, Herkimer, earmarked for the audiobook fund.

Where has Time Gone?

This past month...September... has been hard to write a post.  Nothing's physically wrong, just nothing happening that I wanted to write about.  The garden's been having a hard time existing   Blight and bugs attacked the tomatoes and eggplants, peppers didn't seem to want to grow.  Jeff dug the potatoes and got about half a bushel...mostly reds.  He found out that white potatoes don't produce in hills like red ones do. We still don't know if there are any sweet potatoes. As long as the green tops keep growing, he's not digging them up.  We got 3 small cabbages...that were rotten inside when he cut them open to use in soup.  The green beans and zucchini were great and we're still picking them!  The wax...or yellow...beans are plentiful but don't seem to ripen.  The herbs did ok in the beginning but bolted in September.  This month I've come to understand why so many pioneer women had nervous breakdowns.  A lot of hard work goes into a garden with no guarantees. 

Jeff still feels raised bed boxes are the way to go so he's built more raised bed boxes...with more to still build...but it's getting more difficult to fill the boxes with soil & compost. The t-boned Forester is at the body shop getting a 'face lift'.  When it's repaired, Jeff will be back in business hauling pallets, compost, and probably even some dirt that we will have to buy. He's also got to get a couple more hog panels to finish the wood shed and rolls of plastic to skin the green house. I refused having a trailer hitch installed on the Outback...at least right now...so that's put a stop to a lot of projects.  Jeff's spent some of the free time fishing and I've enjoyed going along some of the time but those hot days turned into cold nights that I didn't enjoy.  Cool temperatures or lots of flying bugs...I don't know what I dislike more.

I've kept busy knitting, selling 11 baby hats and a couple of sweater sets in September, but I'm running out of steam! September was a good month in the shop and October's staying strong so I'm trying to knit on a schedule to keep my stock up.  I've started rewarding myself with a couple of chapters from a mystery book if I finish something during the day!  I did a couple of pairs of wool socks for the wife of a cousin in Wisconsin, and worked on another pair for Jeff.  I even worked on socks for me!  I'm trying to decide what designs to use for holiday knits for the shop. 

My mother is doing well physically but is not happy at Valley Heath.  Most days she knows that's where she belongs now, but some days....  My cousins came from Detroit and Milwaukee last week to visit her and she was pleased the day before and the day of their visit but the day after she was looking for a fight...with me and the staff!  Oh, well.

September's Almost Over

I can't believe September is almost over!  It's gone by so fast!!  Most of the month I've been busy knitting pumpkin hats for Pumpkin Fest last weekend in Cooperstown.  This is the first year I've been knitting by myself. When Mom moved to Valley Health last winter she gave up knitting so it's been up to me to produce the baby hats...besides sweaters and socks.  She use to make 15-18 hats for September and October alone and sell most of them!  There were 6 pumpkin hats in the stock bag this spring when we opened for the season and they actually sold one a month.  This season every time I did a baby sweater set I did an extra hat for the bag.  Then for the 2 weeks before the festival all I did was hats:  at least 2 pumpkin hats every day! I went to the festival with 12 pumpkin hats...and 2 flower hats in my bag!  There are 6 pumpkin hats in the bag so I can restock my display when I go down to work this Sunday.  I need to do a couple flower hats and baseball hats before then!  Sweater sets have been selling well so I should finish the black sheep sweater I'm working on before I work the shop again.  I also have 3 pairs of self-striping socks on needles that I took to demo on at the festival. Should finish the pairs before then, too.

The garden has been producing zucchini and green beans but the green peppers haven't given up much. The tomatoes blighted and we were able to pick about half a dozen ripe ones.  The beets are the size of softballs in one raised bed and golf balls in the other. Jeff picked 2 cabbages yesterday...one softball size, the other tennis ball...but something's been eating the cabbage, so he pulled out most of those plants.  He dug up about 5 lbs of red potatoes and maybe 1-2 lbs of white potatoes.  We learned that red potatoes liked the tower method but white ones didn't.  The sweet potatoes are still growing so maybe we'll have a good crop of them and the carrot tops are tall and thick so there may be a good crop there,too.

The white Forester went to the body shop last week.  It should be ready for a new windshield in another week or so. It will be nice to have 2 cars...especially one with a trailer hitch!

Fanny's been getting into trouble lately.  Monday she took a bra off the pile of clean clothes I had left on my desk chair while I took a shower and chewed off one of the straps.  This morning she came into the tv room and laid by my feet and started chewing on something hard.  I looked down expecting to see a piece of firewood to discover she had destroyed the phone from my bedroom...I had left it on the bedside table when I got up.  I've been taking her with me when I go out...trying to cut her free time alone in the house but it doesn't seem to help.  Can't wait to see what she destroys next.  Will she outgrow this???

September Begins

September rolled in with a boom Sunday and Monday with some serious thunderstorms .  One of the bean towers got blown over and some of the taller tomatoes needed more stabilizing afterwards but there wasn't any hail so damage was minimal.  Electrical service in Herkimer got knocked out but we were ok out here in the little woods...losing a few branches.  The change in weather...or the side effect of the cholesterol pill... is bothering my right leg and some nights the pain travels from the screws up and down my leg.  I took a pain pill before I started writing this and I'm beginning to feel a little loopy...may have to finish it later.    

The veggies are starting to ripen and we've been picking broccoli, green beans, hot and sweet peppers and zucchini. Jeff's cantaloupe and cabbage have finally gotten bigger than golf balls so we may even enjoy them this year!  And, there are a lot of green tomatoes.  The potatoes (white and sweet) are blossoming...a sign that there may be potatoes there.  The 1 ground cherry plant is doing well but we won't get enough for a pint of preserves.  Carrots aren't very big but there are quite a few of them and they may get bigger yet, and the beets, turnips and parsnips seem to be growing.  On the whole, the box-beds are working out quite well and Jeff wants to build more.  

The t-boned Forester is scheduled to be fixed at the end of next week and when that's done Jeff will be able to take the utility trailer to town for supplies.  (Right now he's comfortable driving the car as far as Gary's horse farm for composted manure but doesn't want to risk taking it on the highway...with the cracked windshield.)  I'm happy with the Outback but that has always been my favorite Subaru model anyway.

Sales from the shop in Cooperstown picked up in August and I've been busy knitting and planning how to spend the money I'm making.  I was going to buy a new monitor to replace the one I had but  a friend offered us one.  It was too big to use on my computer desk so Jeff gave me the one he had been using and he took the big one. (He likes to watch videos and wanted a bigger monitor.)  Now I'm going to treat myself to a new camera.  Got a sock order from a cousin and this morning I'm going to go thru the stash to see if I have some sock yarn I could use.  The prospect of actually going to JoAnn's and buying some sock yarn is very inviting to me right now, too.  The stash has faded a bit...not the actual yarn just the attraction of those skeins.  I've been very good and have been knitting from the stash most of the summer so I feel that I deserve a yarn trip.  Besides the check I picked up yesterday is calling...begging for some of it to be spent on yarn--at least a little!

We've had our annual rodent invasion Wednesday...a distant relative of Mickey Mouse has joined us in the house. I've seen it twice. The first time we bumped into each other in the hall.  I screamed and stomped my feet, Fanny barked and the mouse ran behind an open door...so I kicked the door a little and told it to get out.  Later that day we had an encounter in the living room and this time the mouse ran in circles before running back into the attic hall.  I guess he wasn't taking the hint so I got some D-con and put it in the attic hall.  I wonder if a smashed up warfarin pill would work? After all, having a large woman screaming, stomping her feet and kicking a door...not to mention a dog barking all at little you...probably made the mouse's bp go up and have an a-fib episode. And warfarin is referred to as 'rat poison' by those of us who rely on it to stay alive.  (Check a D-con label some time...warfarin is the main ingredient.)

Cooperstown was quiet yesterday, not many people at the ball games.  Some of the seasonal stores have closed already...like the ice cream shop across the parking lot from us....and the metered parking is off on Main St until Spring. The next big event is Pumpkin Fest on Sept 21 & 22.  That usually pulls a good crowd.  If you can, you should see some of these giant pumpkins!  They're brought into town sitting on mattress on utility trailers, wrapped in quilts! Some of them have been 'babied' all summer--grown on pillows, shaded by umbrellas and tarps!  The winner goes on to the next level and some of the losers get carved into boats and floated in the Lake on Sunday in the Pumpkin Regatta. Hope I can decide on which camera to get by then! 

As summer winds down...

August is coming to a close with a wide variety of weather.  It's been hazy, hot and humid; clear, sunny and breezy; and stormy and wet.  The garden has finally started to produce.  We've been feasting on broccoli;  green beans, peppers (hot and not) and onions; and zucchini. There are tomatoes but most are still green. The 3 Mr Stripey plants...that I paid $2.99/plant...have a total of 4 tomatoes on them and one of them has to produce seeds for next year. Jeff's raised-from-seed varieties are doing about the same. And the volunteer plants--from last year that self-seeded---keep popping up in unexpected places and are producing, too.  Jeff's got 3 or 4 cantaloupe the size tennis balls that may actually ripen! The red cabbage has finally started to form heads and there is one white eggplant that may end up as Parmesan. Most of the greens (lettuce, escarole, kale etc) didn't make it. There are a lot of carrots...now if only they would grow. I'll just mention in passing that the beets, turnips, parsnips and rutabaga that are doing well but since they are not on my list of favorite veggies....  The one sunflower plant that survived is now taller than the miniature apple tree and has bout 2 dozen flowerbuds on it!  Jeff is discouraged with the garden but we're doing so much better than other gardens we see that I won't complain too much.  He's still building and filling the raised bed-boxes (next year we'll have the area between the boxes covered with wood chips) and spending his free time fishing down at Lock 18. Fanny and I go along sometime but I think I'm better off staying home. There aren't any 'facilities' at the lock and I never got the hang of going behind a tree.

My sales in the shop in Cooperstown have been pretty good this summer.  Baby sweater sets and novelty hats keep selling...that may have something to do with keeping my space full since I worked 3 times in 10 days!  I'm scheduled to work again next Saturday and I'm trying to build up my stock of baby socks and pumpkin hats. Of course, if a sweater or 2 sells this weekend I'll have to do something about that, too. Jeff got me hooked on the writing of Craig Johnson (modern western/mystery) thru the cable tv show Longmire.  I've been treating myself to a book break between knitting projects (I think Johnson is on par with Tony Hillerman...both have Native Americans as major characters) but I'm without a book right now so that means I'll keep knitting!

Today's Plans

Plans for today called for me to use the recently acquired Outback to drive to Cooperstown to work in the shop while Jeff got to drive the Forester (with the smashed in passenger door) with the utility trailer down the road to our friend Gary's horse farm for some manure. Well, as the say, the best laid plans.... I stopped at Subway and got my lunch (a 6" sub, 21 oz soda and small bag of chips) for less than $5 and headed south on Rte 28.  There was enough construction on the hill to slow things down...a lot...so I made it to Cooperstown shortly after 10 am. I opened the shop and watered the flowers boxes before filling the 8 empty water gallons I had brought with me.  By 10:45 am I was settling in with my knitting, waiting for customers.  That's when the plan changed for me.  A guy walking by the front of the shop came in and told me I had a flat tire.  Yep, it was definitely soft, if not totally flat. I called the roadside assistance number on my insurance card and tried to explain what was happening and where. The operator connected me with a tow service in Cobleskill who didn't want to make the trip to C'town to just change a tire and handed the call back to the operator. Try #2 got me connected with a service in Oneonta...who also didn't want to come to Cooperstown so I was handed back to the operator. This time she asked for the number where I was and that was a good thing.  (While the shop does not carry long distance service, the phone does accept calls from outside of the service area.)  In the middle of trying to explain where Doubleday Court was, my cell phone battery went dead.  A few seconds later the shop phone rang and it was the operator wondering what happened.  She promised roadside assistance would be there within 90 minutes and gave me the driver's cell number.  About 75 minutes later he called and said he'd be there within 20 minutes.  About 30 minutes later he called again and tried to tell me I wasn't in Doubleday Court.  He had turned too soon and was on the other side of the batting range.  We got that straightened out and he came over and took the flat tire off the car. He had to take the spare...one of those 'donuts'...to get it filled with air but was soon back and put it on the car. The car would get me home.  The rest of the day dragged on with very few customers until the last half hour or so.  I finally got packed up and headed for home about 5:15.  Both Jeff (whom I had called while waiting for the tire service) and the tire service guy had warned me not to go over 50 mph while driving on the 'donut'.  So I drove home slowly for me (Zoom-Zoom is my middle name.) half expecting the 'donut' to blow or at the very least, go flat but I made it home ok.

Jeff's plan of action for today had also changed.  Since it was raining off and on all morning, he decided that instead of going for a load of manure or working in the garden, he'd clean the garage.  By the time I got home he had one side almost empty and the other side straightened up nicely.  He found a couple of things (like the Coleman Lantern stand that he thought was in his sister's garage) and had the recycle bin completely full.  Just need a 'floor magnet' to pick up any wayward nails from the garage floor and the Outback will be dry this winter.

After supper, Jeff checked the 'flat' tire for a puncture (didn't find any) and a cracked bead (found 2) by soaping up the tire and using the compressor to put air in it.  We got two sets of bubbles where there shouldn't have been any.  Then he filled the tire with air, put it back on the car and we went to Advance Auto to get a can of fix-a-flat and...fixed the flat. Jeff was going to swap tires between the Forester and Outback, anyway, since the Forester had newer tires, he'll just do it a little sooner than planned.

Fanny had not been the good dog she usually is with Jeff.  She had found a scent and went out of the yard hunting thru the brush behind the house...and would not come when he called her eventho they could see each other. (That's the way she usually acts when I have her outside off-lead.)  When she finally decided she better come home he put her in the house...with a swat to her tail end...and left her inside alone for awhile. She was very happy to see me when I got home (lots of licks and jumps) and quickly 'forgave' Jeff for putting her inside. She's got to learn.

OTN:  I spent all of today working on an adult version of a baseball hat.  Since I don't have a pattern for a rolled brim beanie to fit an adult I had to make things up as I went along.  (That's the usual way to design a pattern but when you're working with white yarn there is a definite number of times you can rip things out!) I got the circumference right on the 3rd try and the crown right on the 2nd.  Now I just have to do the embroidery....