Wood Stove and Other Things

The special thimble for the new wood stove is finally in place.  The wall is thicker there  because of a dead air space and false wall on top of the actual wall.  And, because we decided not to go thru the roof/eves we had to clear the eves making for an extra long run of pipes.  Jeff's not satisfied with the support he build to hold up the pipes outside.  And we have to clear the peak of the room so we'll end up with a high stack that may need stabilization of some kind.  It's raining today so that will have to wait until tomorrow.    

  Fanny has been having a ball chewing on everything she can find...and running around like crazy!  Yesterday I heard her thundering around the house and when I went outside she was on lead.  She had decided not to come when called and Jeff was proving a point.  Several times during the afternoon he let her loose for a few minutes then called her to come.  If she didn't respond he put her back on the lead.  By supper time she was coming quickly when called.  Since the lead is about 35' on a trolley she has a large area to roam and finds a lot of interesting spots to check out.  After supper we all played tug of war with an old beach towel that we knotted up.  Fanny's managed to untie the big knot a couple of times!  Never saw that happen before.  (Jeff's told me of a dog he knew who could unscrew the lid on a jar of peanutbutter!)     Eventually she got tired and went to bed...mine!  Hey, at least she warms it up for me!

   This is the pumpkin sweater set...just a plain v-neck caridgan with rolled cuffs, pumpkin buttons & hat...  I made for the shop and took down Wednesday.  It got a lot of favorable comments from the customers but no takers.  Oh, well, it's a month before Halloween....  I managed to get only other 1 pumpkin hat done for Wednesday so I've got to get busy and do some more.  Got a lunch meeting at the shop on Tuesday so I can take down what I get finished then. Now I've got to start on Christmas!!                        

Keeping Busy

It's been a busy week.  We decided to get a new wood stove and after we paid for it and arranged for delivery, Jeff found out that he couldn't move the stove we had alone.  Luckily we were able to get 2 teenagers...the son and a friend... of one of my mother's aides...to come over and between the 3 guys they were able to get the old stove out of the room and the new one in. (The delivery man had used a mini fork lift to get it off the truck and onto the ramp where he left it.)  We had to replace the thimble in the wall to fit the stove pipe and that required enlarging the hole, and since Jeff didn't want to cut thru or into the eves so it's been a bit of a challenge to get things to fit. He's been very carefully fitting the pipe so it's taken longer than expected.

I picked green beans for supper tonight.  They were good size and there are more still on the vines.  I picked a watermelon, too, but it wasn't ripe when I cut into it...very disappointing.  There are 3 or 4 others so I guess I'll just wait until there's a frost warning.

My pumpkin hats sold out at the Pumpkin Fest last Saturday in Cooperstown.  I took 5 down with me when I worked on Wednesday and there was 1 left from the last batch and they all sold! That hasn't happened in a couple of years.  I finished one today and should get a couple more finished before I go down to work again on Wednesday.  When I moved the part of my yarn stash in the den to make room for the new stove, I found some pumpkin buttons.  Of course, this was after Pumpkin Fest but I decided to make a dark green sweater and use the buttons on it anyway.  It'll be a size 9 months so I'll make a pumpkin hat to make it a set.  It's not actually a Halloween sweater so it might sell yet.

Fanny has been getting into a lot of trouble this week. Thursday afternoon she destroyed a wooden spoon, and Friday afternoon she picked up one of Jeff's screwdrivers and chewed about 1" off the handle.  Today she picked it up again and took off another 1/2".  We haven't been able to catch her stealing the things...just chewing on them...but she does sit on my bed and take things off the night table to chew so she might be just taking them off a table in another room. Last night she woke me up 3 or 4 times and I let her go outside but still managed to do her "toilet" on my bedroom floor this morning!

If you're wondering why I have a hotmail address now I've had some trouble getting into my gmail lately.  Can't do it on my pc but there's no problem with Jeff's.  I decided to change my password to see if that would help but couldn't do it. (Gmail asked for a credit card #...eventho it's a 'free' service... to verify my identity)so I opened another Hotmail account and transferred my contact list to it and when I did that my gmail...and this blog...opened up again.  I don't have to understand what happened as long as there aren't any problems with that.

Is it still September?

It's another brisk 'autumn' morning. Sunny but chilly. It's suppose to warm up this afternoon...hope so or I'll have to shut the windows again.

Today's program includes canning some meat. Got to make room in the freezer! And besides it's so much easier to just open a couple of bottles when I want to make chicken and biscuits or chili. Jeff's got 2 bottles of meatloaf (?) on the shelf and last night he was talking about dry canning (using the attachment to his Seal-a-Meal) some polish sausage. We still haven't gotten that 40lb bag of onions he wants to dehydrate. The peppers he did Thursday night ended up in a pint jar! He'll use all his dry veggies to make soup mix that he'll dry can with his Seal-a-Meal attachment in individual bottles. While we're making a good stab at being 'off the grid' we're both glad to use these modern conveniences!

Got to start knitting again...or moving yarn. Can't begin to install the new wood stove until all the extra stash is relocated! When I talked to Judy last evening I found out that there will be a Scavenger Hunt during the Pumpkin Fest next Saturday and one of my pumpkin hats is the item to find in our shop. For the last 2 weeks my pumpkin hats have just sat there not generating much interest from customers. She's worried there will suddenly be a surge for pumpkin hats and by next Saturday there won't be any on the shelf. I assured her I was bringing half a dozen with me Wednesday when I work so I guess I better get busy(2 are done, 1 is OTN). I want to get another Pin-stripe set done by then, too. Got the yarn but not the ambition.

Jeff consolidated the gutter garden Thursday leaving just 1 pair running. All the pails with live plants fit on the other pair and things are still growing. I now do not have an excuse for mowing the lawn again. (Again, just no ambition.) Thursday evening I mowed between the house and the garage and around the garden. That's where it seems to grow the best...must be the extra water and nutrition Jeff is giving the garden leaching into the lawn. My lawn mower is acting funny...or else I can't pull it hard enough fast enough. It's started belching black smoke before it catches. Jeff's afraid to change the oil...not sure when or if it was every changed before. So we just keep the oil full and the air filter clean and hope it lasts another season. The way I keep hitting small logs and rocks Fanny's playing with in the yarn, the blade will have to be changed soon. (I know when it was changed last...about 4 years ago when a friend did it for me and cut his hand.)

If we get some work done today maybe we can go fishing tomorrow.

Fall is in the Air

There is definitely a touch of fall in the air...the house has been cool...no, cold...in the morning and at night lately and yesterday during breakfast the furnace came on! Not exactly a good thing with so many windows still open so Jeff and I went wood stove shopping yesterday. When my father built the den on to the house 30 years ago we ordered a wood stove thru the JCPenny catalog for a couple of hundred dollars. ( I got to put the fire bricks in it!!) It was a good little stove and did a fantastic job of heating the room. Eventually we moved with the times and replaced it with a pellet stove and then with a propane stove...both types also worked well but those 40lb bags of pellets got heavy and now propane is getting expensive so we're looking at wood again. A trip to the store where we got the pellet stove and the last propane stove 18 yrs ago gave us many ideas...beautiful stoves and unbelievable prices. We stopped at our favorite big box store on the way home (Lowe's) and found a similar stove... just not as pretty... for half the price. I'd really like the high end stove but the price!! So I think we'll be getting the stove at Lowe's in the next couple of days. But first I needed to clean the den and get all my yarn organized again. I have so many needles that have lost their pair this summer...they are either on the floor under the end table lost in the yarn or I have more OTN projects that I want to admit to. And I know that a simple afternoon project will take a couple of days as those OTN projects surface! Jeff suggested a couple of sturdy garbage bags will hold it all since there is room on the trailer for the next trip to the dump....

We've been busy with the pressure caner and dehydrator this week. There still are hot peppers to dehydrate but...in self-defense...the unit will be moved into the garage before we start that! And Jeff wants to do a 40lb bag of onions while it's out there, too.

I've taken some time off from knitting...to read...and I think it's probably time to get those needles clicking again. Pumpkin Fest in Cooperstown is coming up in about a week and I want to get some autumn sweaters set done before that. Since I've been selling mostly size 9 months sets it's shouldn't be too difficult a task.

A Lovely Afternoon

Spent a lovely afternoon at Lock 18 where the river and canal rejoin while Jeff tried to entice some fish to give his lures a chance, or least drown some worms in the attempt but without any luck. A couple jumped in front of us but just weren't interested. Several good-size boats went thru the lock while we were sitting there prompting a 'what if' session. (Jeff would rather have a houseboat than a cabin cruiser and I'd be happy as long as it was a pontoon.) Neither of us are likely to get our wish granted soon but it's still fun to play. We're sitting on the lock wall looking across the water to the north river bank. My house is about a half mile north... at the far left of the right photo...as the crows or in this case, ducks fly. We can see the old Salada water tower just out of the picture frame in the right photo and if you magnify the photo you can just make out an old silo on Rte 5.

When we got home we found that we were not the only ones playing this afternoon. Fanny had chewed a down-pillow and my bed...and room...were covered in feathers! Mom said she never saw or heard the dog after I left and wondered if she was actually sleeping. Well, she wasn't. I kept my cool and didn't yell or chase the dog around the house threatening her. Oh, I did say if I had a cup of tar it wouldn't have been so quite. Jeff just laughed and said I told you not to let her get on the bed. Yeah, right, as if I could stand there all day guarding the bed. Any way I swept up the feathers and shook out the bedding and Fanny thought they were a new ways to play the game. She looks so dumb sometimes it's hard to stay mad at her.

After supper (zucchini...from out garden...lasagna) Jeff decided it was time to cut up the tomatoes he's been picking to save from the blight. We had gotten a Vidalia Chop Wizard when we got the utility trailer but never got around to using it. It took him longer to cut out the rotten parts than to chop up enough tomatoes to fill 2 gal ziplock baggies. He's going to dehydrate it and use it for soups and stews. His tomatoes are large and there is a great variety but the blight is moving in and most of the crop will be lost again this year. He wanted me to cut up cucumbers for pickles but I refused. I'll do the green & purple beans and pickles tomorrow. I always feel lazy after an afternoon in the sun near water.