Good bye May, Hello June!

May ended with a beautiful day...hot, humid but sunny.  Jeff had been invited by the tech who drew blood from him this week to visit her home and pick up some chunk wood so we decided to do that this afternoon (beat working in the garden or mowing the lawn).  But first we checked out some garage sales and it was a good thing we had hooked up the trailer coz  there was a corner computer stand at the first sale that Jeff liked.  He had seen a similar one last weekend but it was on the 3rd floor of a house and he didn't feel like carrying it down to the car.  This one was marked $5 but since I've been watching American Pickers on the History Channel I knew enough to make an offer and we got the stand for $3!  He also got a box of drill bits and assorted tools for next to nothing and he saw a piece of counter top...for free...that would work in the laundry room covering the cupboard unit that is between the washer and dryer.  We stopped at 2 other sales on the way home and I bought him a 6-prong pitchfork that needs a new handle for $1.50 (they were asking $3).  He said he needed a pitchfork with more than 4 prongs like the one I have to turn the compost.  We went home and unloaded the trailer and refilled our ice tea bottles and headed to Ilion.  Mohawk is having village wide garage sales this weekend so we went thru Mohawk and stopped at another sale.  We finally made it to the wood pile and loaded up the trailer.  There was a jon-boat there that was slowly being eaten by termites and Jeff asked if it was for sale.  The tech must be in a big hurry to get rid of it coz she called her son...who owned it...and tried to make a deal for us.  No luck.  Maybe if we go back for more wood he will have changed his mind.  

The sneaker on the left had been nibbled
on before and repaired with duc tape.

We made it home around 6pm to find that Fanny had gotten bored or scared or lonesome coz she ate 2 sneakers...one each from different pairs...and a box of Kleenix. Now all these were on my bed side table in the corner farthest from the bed meaning she had to stand on the table to get them. I don't know why she does these things but I'm down to my good pair and my garden pair of sneakers...and I keep them up on a shelf when I'm not wearing them.

Wally came over from next door while Jeff was unloading the wood from the trailer and I was cooking supper.   He offered to help Jeff take the rest of our trash to the town garage tomorrow.  Not everything Wally thought we should get rid of is actually trash so Jeff had to sort out the pile beside the garage and  I started cleaning out another closet.  I'm sure we'll have a trailer load tomorrow morning.  Poor Jeff, though.  He's not a morning person and tomorrow is the last day of the open collection so they'll have to make an early start. 

I finished my six months baby sweater this morning.

 It's kind of cute and it definitely went fast...I started it Thursday after supper!  Got to get the hat done now.  I want to do a 6 month pale blue set,  too, before I go to Cooperstown next Thursday.  I have an appointment with my cardiologist to make sure my artificial heart valve is doing it's job and I thought I stop at the shop and restock afterwards.  And I may just treat myself to a slice of pizza from Sal's on Main St.  Mom always said the sauce there tastes like someone's mother had made it.

What a Storm!

 We had a terrific thunderstorm around supper time.  Jeff was just finishing another box bed in the main garden and Fanny was hiding under the kitchen table when it hit.  TV had warned of quarter size hail but there wasn't any.  The rain barrels that Jeff had emptied out today when he filled the compost tea bin were refilled quickly!  Later we found out that a couple of trees in St Mary's Cemetery... by our house... had come down.  Looks like the cemetery guys will be busy tomorrow!  Jeff wants to see if he can get some of the wood chips from those trees.  Looks like they'll be replacing some of the fencing, too.  Part of Herkimer is without power tonight, too, no trafffic lights and some businesses closed. 

We really got lucky...nothing came down at the house which is within walking distance of the cemetery...not even the bird's nest that is being built above the door on our stoop!  This is the 3rd or 4th year a nest has been built there.  This year they're using a lot of moss...making the sides quite high. Maybe Fanny can help keep the squirrels away.

Rain rain go away....it's Memorial Day Weekend!!

Yesterday was cold and wet and I worked in the shop in Cooperstown.   There were a few people walking around in the rain and the finishing touches were being put on the traveling Vietnam Memorial that is spending the weekend in Doubleday parking lot. All those names...very moving.  I know one name that is on the Memorial (Phil Cirilli, who lived on the street we did in town...I later worked with his sister at the library.) but it was raining too steady to look for it.  I wish I had had more time.  From the shop window I watched a man about my age knee in front of the memorial with his dog.  Couldn't tell if his face was wet from the rain or....  And a young father stopped with 2 little girls and it looked like he was explaining what it was about.  All very

moving.  The memorial is about 300 ft
long and about 6 ft high in the center, tapering down to 2 ft at each end. If the man in this photo(r) kept walking ...and jumped the memorial at its center...he'd be in front of the shop.  The memorial will be there until Tuesday.


Here's that size 6 yellow shrug (r)...paired with a wonderful sundress made by Sharon, another talented shop member.  You can see a white shrug in the display, too.  My biggest customer

Skipper Stripe Hoodie, size 6mo,
finished on Sun., 5/26

 of the day asked if I did a smaller shrug...to go with the dress she was getting for her granddaughter.  She said she'd be back during the season to see if there were any more so I started a size 3 in a lime green when I got home last night.  I finished it watching TV tonight (l)... 11:30 pm!  Tomorrow it'll be back to my Skipper Stripe hoodie.  I had planned on getting a photo of my Little Girl Chic sweater set but happily, it had sold this week.  Have to do another, I guess.

Fanny and Jeff seemed to have enjoyed a day off from gardening yesterday, napping off and on all afternoon.  The crockpot of chili sure smelled good when I got home!  And I was actually thankful we didn't have to drive to Speculator to camp this weekend.  I miss the place when the weather is good but I've spent enough cold, wet Memorial Day Weekends up there to last a lifetime!!  (Just saw on the 11pm news...White Face Mt got 18" of SNOW!)

Starting the Garden

Jeff has taken a break from cutting wood and started planting this year's garden.  He's cleaned out last years raised bed/boxes besides building some new ones. This is one of the new boxes that he planted this week.  That's a

Mr Stripey tomato in the corner...the skin and inside are suppose to be  orange stripped.  We got 3 of them  planted in different places around the garden.  This box has a base of purchased compost...from the transfer station/dump.  The second is in a box with our compost and the third is in a box out front in the main garden.  (The old clothes drying rack in the other corner is support for beans.) 

  
This is the horseradish in blossom.  We

had forgotten exactly where we had planted it but know now! Now can something that looks so pretty be so spicy??  Since we planted it last year and it's in full bloom, it's marked for relocation/harvest in the fall.

All the boxes are now planted for this season except the herb box.  A lot of the herbs wintered very well and are going strong...even some that are suppose to be annuals in this area!  I want to cut parsley, oregano and basil and put them thru the dehydrator before crushing  and dry vacuum packing them. The blackberry bushes I got years ago from a friend's mother are budded out ready to bloom.  Just got to keep the birds from enjoying them before I do!  The ones we bought and planted last year are growing but haven't shown any buds yet.  Our next door neighbor trimmed one of his apple trees and offered Jeff the branch. I tried to drag it over on to our lawn but couldn't budge it!  Jeff got it moved and will cut it for firewood after it dries a little.  I notice that it had sprouts growing across the branch so today I cut a couple and we put them in a mixture of compost and soil to see if they would root.  If they do, it will be a couple of years before they go into the ground and even more before we get any apples.  My neighbor's parents always had a lot of apples and if they were sprayed annually were pretty decent.  Spraying has lost favor in the last few years so I don't know how good any apples would be.  We didn't get any apples from our tree last year because the late frost killed the blossoms but the year before our apples (both of them!!) were perfect.  Our tree hasn't blossomed yet this year...I think it's starting to bud now.  It's an Empire and they are late bloomers.

Jeff found some volunteer plants in the boxes and around the bean towers when he planted yesterday.  He's not sure what this is but thinks it's a purple kohlrabi   Since it is blooming he decided to let it go to seed and see
what he gets. 

I have been trying to work on my Skipper Stripes hoodie but to be honest, it's been too hot and humid and I've been too tired to get much done.  I'll take it with me tomorrow when I work in the shop and maybe I can finish it. (All I need is the 2nd sleeve and the body.)  

Cooperstown should be busy this weekend.  There is the annual Hall of Fame Classic (an old timer's game) on Saturday, a Memorial Day parade on Monday and the traveling Vietnam memorial will be in Doubleday Parking Lot all weekend. If only the weather cooperates!

Time Keeps Rolling By

It seems as if there are not enough hours in a day  to get everything done lately but we keep trying.  Friday Jeff and I worked outside and finally got all the cut wood stacked in the new wood shed.  There was even room to move the 

stack that was behind the garage into the shed!   Good thing, coz Jeff wanted to unload the trailer and didn't think stacking pallets against a tree looked so good. I also trimmed 2 of the lilac bushes and managed to trip over a silver maple root sending myself forward on to my knees while carrying an armload of branches.  I cut my right arm on the fender of the utility trailer and bruised both knees. I'm trying to get my mortgage refinanced and the appraiser was due that afternoon.  We showed him around the yard and inside the house and he took many photos. Jeff had just changed the filter on the water system so the smell of sulfur wasn't too noticeable   Now we just wait for the verdict.  We think there's about 50-75 pallets cut up and stacked...and that's only half of the wood shed.  When we start working on the 2nd half, I've been instructed to count and keep track of every pallet.  We started to rake off the garden too, but ran out of steam!

Saturday we went garage sale hunting.  Jeff got an antique shingle hatchet (the lady who was selling it had to ask him what it was!)  Early in the week I had said something about changing the ceiling fixture in the kitchen and Jeff found a brand new fixture at a sale for $3.  He thought it would take 20-30 minutes to switch fixtures but he didn't figure in dealing with frayed 70 year old wires.  He had to replace some wire... luckily we had some or it would have meant a trip to Lowe's...and there was enough slack to pull thru from the switch for the other.  Those dark spots on the ceiling are scorch marks from the old fixture (l).  Mom always wanted the biggest light bulbs she could get in that fixture.  The ceiling tiles were so dry and brittle!  We were very lucky not to have had a fire. The new fixture (r) is a little smaller but looks very good...even better when I got the right size chandelier bulbs in it.  Now the ceiling is asking for a new coat of paint. Some time this summer, I promise.  Jeff suggested 

 

painting the cupboards and walls, too.  He doesn't like my color scheme.  Got to start looking for the wallpaper border to use above the chair rail first.

Today we finished raking the leaves off the garden.  Besides being raked up, they had to be picked up and dumped next to the compost bin. (Jeff decided to use the trailer instead of the wheelbarrow so it was just one trip...and he backed it up without any trouble.)  I don't think I was much help but I raked what I could.  Yesterday I discovered that while I am right handed, I lead...or rake...with my left.  I have a stiff neck and sore left shoulder from yesterday's raking.  I think tomorrow may be a day off so we can go back to the Brick House Greenhouse outside of Frankfort and get some tomato plants that weren't ready when we were first there.

I had started another size 9mo hoodie, this time in a Bernat Baby Boucle (a blue and white self-stripping called Skipper Stripes).  It works up very much like terry cloth and is a real bitch to rip out but so far looks pretty good.  If I finish it before Friday I'll have 3 sweater to take to the shop.  All I sold last weekend was a  pumpkin hat.  Things have to get moving down there...soon.  All the stores are complaining about lack of sales.  I hope it wasn't a mistake to order the cotton yarn for those adult tank tops.  Maybe they'll be a good seller.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning has been intense around here.  With Mom at Valley Health I took the opportunity to clean out the closets...which haven't been done in 20 years!  Yesterday morning I took 2 42 gallon plastic bags to Goodwill  full of my old blazers, skirts and slacks...in a wide range of sizes. Almost like I had my own department store in that closet! Then in the afternoon we loaded the utility trailer with 14 of those contractor size bags and went to the transfer station in Utica.  Jeff was careful to keep the load level as he loaded the trailer and Subaru performed beautifully with no trouble.  He was sure we were near our weight limit but the scale at the transfer station said we had only 320 lbs ($18). That worked out to roughly 25 lbs per bag but let me tell you some of them felt a lot heaver as I was dragging them out to the trailer. And there was no way I could lift them up into the trailer!  Not all had soft trash, there were shoes, books, a lamp or two...general household trash.   Last year Jeff noticed  that the solid waste authority sells compost so he decided to get some this trip.  The cashier explained that 12 bags would be the same as 1 bucket load ($20) so we got the bags.  Mistake.  The 12 bags put about 3" on the bottom of one of the new raised bed...not nearly enough.  He wants to go back and get a bucket load.  Now if I can clean out the last closet before he does he can take that with him...or I can wait until the end of the month and just take the bags over to the town garage for the semi-annual big trash collection.  

Fanny who is normally afraid of her own shadow, was terrified at the transfer station.  A small dump truck pulled up next to us as Jeff was unloading the trailer and Fanny hid...crouched on the floor in the back seat as it dumped it's load.  We stopped at Lowe's in Riverside before heading over to Jeff's sister's house to get some wallboard for her and construction on the arterial made for an interesting trip.  Between closed exits and city drivers...but we finally made it.  Jeff's getting quite good...with practice and a replacement set of tail lights...backing up the trailer.  Sherry's driveway is long and narrow and Jeff slid the set up back with no trouble.  Monday he had insisted I drive the set up over to his friend's house in Schuyler.  Now I use to tow our boat when we went camping so I do have experience but the boat trailer was longer and I think easier to tow.  Jeff was doing the navigating so we went 'the back way' up and down a couple of hills before getting on Rte 5.  I don't think I went over 45 mph the entire trip.  The trailer does pull well and there wasn't any trouble but Jeff did drive home...at bit faster than 45 mph.

Jeff's trying to get the last load of pallets cut up before getting another but there're a couple of nice piles at the places he usually picks and he doesn't want to lose them so I don't know if he's going to collect pallets today or not.  I'm going to mow some more lawn this afternoon.  He started Monday doing a practice strip after getting the lawn mower out and I cut along one side of the house.  I use to be able to cut the entire lawn in one day but now it takes 2 or 3.  Does that mean I'm slowing down or am I just getting old? 

I ripped out that yellow shrug and finished it a 3rd time...finally achieving what or close to what I intended.  I also got a size 9mo hoodie finished...except for the buttons. I don't like what I bought at Walmart but I'm smart enough 

Hoodie in need of buttons

Shrug finished at last...3 times is the charm!

not to ask Jeff to take the trailer over to New Hartford Shopping Center to JoAnn Fabrics for buttons.  Maybe I can find something in Cooperstown next week.  I got a new KnitPicks catalog in the mail last week and finally decided to order some yarn and try something new.  Since I have a good amount of baby & children's stock in the shop I thought I'd try some ladies fancy tank tops in cotton.  KnitPicks has a very nice fingering or lace weight cotton blend at a good price (about $9 for what I need) so I ordered enough for 4 tops.  (Free shipping on orders of $50 or more....)  We'll see how they go.  In the meantime, while waiting for the yarn to get here, I started another size 9mo hoodie...this time in blue and white terry.  Very soft and a real pain to rip out so I've got to be careful and not make any mistakes.  Oh, yeah.
    

Mother's Day

The nursing home where my mother is a resident invites family members to join the residents for certain holiday meals...Mother's Day being one...so when I made the reservations for Jeff and me, and told Mom on Wednesday that we were coming to dinner she seemed glad.   But this morning I woke up with a bad feeling about the event.  The only other time we went to dinner with her was for her birthday and that time she greeted us (Jeff, me and my cousin Ed) with "I hope you're not staying long, I want to take a nap."  Today she announced that she wasn't going to eat what they were serving.  And she didn't...except the dessert-- cheesecake.  She had a long list of complaints about everything from the air temperature to the staff, and an equally long list of what she wanted me to do for her.  Let's just say, she's not a happy camper. Basically, she is jealous of what other residents can and do do.  Mom can no longer walk or transfer alone.  It takes 2 staff members using a Hoya Lift to move her from bed to wheelchair to toilet etc so she sometimes has to wait for assistance...which she doesn't understand. The arthritis in her ankles has started to calcify making it painful for her to put any weight on her feet limiting PT.  She does enjoy some aspects of being there...like attending the religious activities and making new friends.  I know that's the right place for her at this point in her life.. and so does she...but when she's feeling sorry for herself it's a little hard to handle.  I think this may have been the last dinner event we'll share. No one enjoyed it.  (Notice I haven't made an issue of the food.  While plated attractively, the plates sat too long under the heating lamp and the twice baked potatoes and chicken cordon bleu were rather dry. And the asparagus, while over cooked, was still woody. We both agreed with Mom on one thing...the cheesecake was very good. No comment on the coffee.)

After we got home and had some 'real' coffee, Jeff decided to move firewood out of the garage into our new wood shed/hut.  He had found the plan online and the total expense so far has been $22 for a hog panel.  (And an interesting ride home with it in the utility 
trailer going under the railroad bridge on South Washington St. that had a 10'11" clearance.)  By the end of the afternoon the wood shed had
gone from this (l) to this (r) with almost all the cut wood stacked inside.  And there's more than enough room for the rest of the pallets waiting to be cut up.  The hut is about 8' wide, 8' high and 4' deep...plenty of head room for Jeff to stand inside even with the pallet floor!  We're planning on extending the hut forward with another hog panel and hopefully, when they are full, we'll have enough of wood for next winter.  There are several down trees behind the hut...and a few standing...that may become firewood, too.  I'd like the design as a greenhouse, too.  Since we wanted 2 near the garden, it's a choice for #2.

Supper was a much better even if simpler meal (meatloaf, gravy and baked potatoes) than dinner. Then I finished my size 9 mo hoodie while watching 2 episodes of Call the Midwife on PBS.  I'll add the photo of it after I sew on the buttons in the morning.  I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow:  collect pallets or ready the utility trailer for a trip to the transfer station (i.e. dump) in Utica later in the week. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to move in the morning.  That was a lot of wood we moved today! 

The Ramp is Gone!

It was my turn to work the shop in Cooperstown yesterday and when I left for work Jeff and Fanny were still planning their day.  When I got back home there was another raised bed-box almost finished and...glory be!...the ramp was gone.  Actually it had been reduced to piles of it's parts which will be re-used in other projects.  That ramp had been built for me in February 2009 when I had a cardiac episode (resulting in needing a new heart valve) and fell breaking my right leg in 2 places.  My cousin, Bill, built it during my stay at a rehab facility that March and when it was finished I planned and carried out an 'escape' (self-discharge w/o medical approval) and went home. The ramp was handy for me then, and when Mom broke her hip, Jeff extended it.  Over the years it has developed 'slime' which has to be power washed off or else it becomes a 'slip and slide' when it rained.  I can't begin to say how many times I landed flat on my back going down the ramp or on my knees going up it. (A indication it was time to get out the power washer!)  Since the doctors keep telling me I have osteopenia or low bone density I don't think I should keep taking chances about breaking something else

The Old Stairs that were under the ramp

on the ramp. Jeff used some of the long 2x4's for the frame of the raised bed-box and even found some metal L-braces that he used re-enforcing the utility trailer box.  Not to mention the bolts and nuts and assorted screws!  The planks will come in handy, too.  It's so nice to be able to drive right up to the steps and unload groceries, etc from the back of the car. Now I've got to give it a coat of Thompson's....

The shop looked good yesterday and the aroma of lavender wasn't as strong as the last time I worked. I was able to keep the door open all day and that helped, too.  Someone had raised the seat on the stool behind the desk to it's max and I couldn't figure out how to lower it so I felt like I was sitting on a mountain peak! I finally finished my Baby Girl Chic sweater set.  Jeff wanted to go fishing Monday so I worked on the hat while sitting along the Canal at Lock 18...a really beautiful spot. (We even found a vinyl gutter with 1 end cap and 2 braces along the curb... waiting for the garbage truck... on the way over and picked it up on the way home. Nothing wrong with it so it will become part of the gutter garden.)  The hat wasn't coming out right and I was running out of yarn so I ripped it out and tried again yesterday finally finishing it. The batteries in my camera chose that time to die so I wasn't     
able to take any photos of the sweater. I'll do it when I work in the shop again if it's still there...hopefully, not!  I also worked on another  crocheted pig.   Judy thinks the pig's eyes are too big and Jeff thinks the ears are too low but I think it's cute!  The one I worked on yesterday is purple with a polka-dot bow. I sewed the ears on a little higher and just got to do the eyes and it's finished.  And I started a hooded baby jacket in a Red Heart acrylic hombre called French Country...yellow, white, and 2 shades of blue.  Got the hood finished and this morning I'll start the body.  The shop was actually busy in the afternoon and I just knitted between customers.

Saturday Jeff and I went to some garage sales.  Kind of disappointing until the last one...at my friend Fred's house. (Fred's working in China and a cousin of his rents an apartment at the house.)  He got 2 Coleman camping

stoves...both with folding table legs, a Coleman lantern, 2 food choppers and I got the 2 metal seamstress rulers in the pig photo all for $10.10!  After a couple of hours of work, the stoves and lantern work like new. Good deals!!  We'll try a couple of more garage sales this weekend.

Oh, with the warm temperatures the windows are open and the sweet sound of chimes..inside and out...are delightful to fall asleep or wake up to!