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!