Knitting Socks Is Contagious

Hey, Erin!

I just finished a pair of hand knitted socks, too.

Huh?

Whadda ya mean, mine don't count??

A Very Restless Night

Both hubby and I look like something the cat dragged in this morning. (And feel 'bout the same.) It's just barely getting light outside and we're preparing our tired, energy-less bodies to go out to do chores and see what damage the winds have done.

It's still raining, the wind is still howling and images of being blown away kept us both awake most of the night.

The temp didn't drop lower than the mid-30s overnight and we had no snow although the forecast is calling for a couple of inches today so I'm assuming the thermometer is scheduled to drop some more.

Grid power is still on which is amazing considering the wind storm and how many trees must have gone down during the night.

I'll check in here when we get back in from morning chores.

* * * * * * *

Okay, we've made the rounds outside, come back in, gotten out of dripping rain gear, and even had a bowl of hot oatmeal. Here's the report from a very wet, cold and blowsy venture into the elements.

Yes, there is a Toyota Tercel under the tree in the picture above. Two good things: It's a vehicle that has been relegated to spare parts status for a couple of years, and the trunk of the tree that whomped it was only about 6" in diameter. One bad thing: The main part of the tree trunk landed smack on the upper right hand corner of the windshield which will probably cause leakage into the car's interior.

This little copse directly behind the house took a bit of a beating. That'll have to be cleaned up as soon as the storm is over.

A portion of electric fencing around the poultry yard went down most likely from a combination of the saturated ground and the wind.

This solarium-type covering on a 16' x 16' framed pen was securely fastened down . . . but apparently not securely enough. On the other hand, maybe the fasteners kept it from being blown all the way into Canada.

Up near the house here, this small tree went down over the driveway. We haven't yet gone all the way out the drive so don't know the status of the rest of it.

All in all, we haven't seen nearly as much damage as we were expecting.

We're hearing reports of power being out both west and north of us in the county, but so far we're A-OK here.

Great day to be able to stay home warm, secure and dry. Gotta go put another piece of wood in the stove. Ahhhh . . .

Welcomed Rain

Since yesterday morning we've gotten 1-9/10th inches of rain. It's almost stopped now, but we've just heard heavier rain is to start again later this afternoon.

We had a steady drizzle all day yesterday which was perfect for settling the new material on our driveway. Since the ground was so dry, the gentle rain we had yesterday was just right for soaking into the parched earth rather than a heavy downpour which most likely would have run off causing erosion.

Yesterday's rain became heavier over night accompanied by strong winds. This morning we heard reports of trees coming down in the wind.

Our friend B (lady carpenter) called early this morning to say she was going to stop by to drop something off before going on to another job. When she called she had just returned home after being called out before dawn (she's a volunteer fire[wo]man) because a tree fell on an electrical transformer and started a small forest fire. But between the rain and the quick responders, it was put out quickly.

When we opened the door for B a short time later, she greeted us with mock indignation and said, "The reason I'm all covered with sawdust is because I had to cut up a large popple tree that was blocking your driveway."

After she left was when we decided we had better don rain gear and go take a tour to see if anything else had happened on ye ol' homestead.

This is the road back to our wood working area. Hubby didn't need quite that high of a boot, but it was wet.

Our pond is fed by run-off from the hills behind us and got very low the last part of summer. You can see by this picture how high the water line usually comes. After this rain, it has come up about a foot already but still has a ways to go.

We've had a whole herd of wild Mallards hanging out and resting on the pond for a couple of weeks. They frequently come all the way up into the chicken yard looking for the scratch grain we throw out twice a day. I counted 19 of them this morning.

Zoey the Wonder Dog was (for a change) eager to get back in the house after our morning walk. At 13-1/2 years of age, she's starting to favor a good snooze by the wood stove rather than a romp in the cold rain.

What Happened To This Day?

It's past my bedtime but here I sit, trying to get caught up on computer work. 'Twas a busy, busy day, and I wish there were about six more hours of it.

Went to my much-enjoyed handwork group this morning. Usually the conversation is on the light side and we laugh a lot. Must have been something in the air today because we got into a rather heavy discussion on religion. Very interesting. I found it heartening to realize some of us held strong differing opinions and yet felt free to express them without anyone taking offense.

Then home for a quick lunch of soup, cheese bread and applesauce for hubby, me and our good friend and lady carpenter who was here for the day to help install a door from the new kitchen area into the pantry. We had cut the rough opening (and the wall didn't fall down!) but there were a couple of tricky obstacles to overcome so we called in the big guns.

After our quick lunch I left for a dental appointment (just cleaning and a check-up --- my mouth has finally stopped hurting now some eight hours later) while hubby and B worked on constructing the wall in the garage which will divide off the larger work/car parking area from the workshop area which should make the workshop much (much, much, much!) easier to heat this winter. The scavenged door we thought was going to work there isn't (for a couple of reasons) so we're probably going to have to purchase a new one. One more item to add to our growing list for our next trip to the big city. Good thing we have a truck because we always manage to fill it to the gills whenever we go!

Got laundry finished in the afternoon after I finally came home for the last time.

Had picked up some fresh fish in town while doing some errands after the dental check-up. Made the fillets with green beans from the garden (frozen) and our first sampling of the white potatoes from the garden which I baked. We both commented that although they have a good flavor, the texture is noticeably drier than our reds. (I suspect that's why we've always preferred reds over whites. But I planted both this year because last year our reds got lambasted with the blight and the whites didn't. You've heard the expression never put all your potatoes in one basket? No?)

After dinner I did the week's ironing and then headed back here to my desk to catch up on the day's computer happenings.

We've had a drizzly rain all day today which is much needed. It's still raining now and I wouldn't mind if it kept up for a couple of days. It would be great for the ground to have some good moisture in it before the frost sets in.

Now . . . it's creeping up on 11 p.m., and I'm tired. Past time for a little shut-eye. Ugh. Tomorrow morning is gonna hurt.

Oh, Ya!

It's another wild Saturday night on the old homestead for sure!

One more box (why did I save the biggest for last?) to do tomorrow.

Last year we ran out of applesauce about the first of December.

There's not going to be a repeat of that this year!

Kinda Like Housework

Early this past spring, we had both our wood sheds plus our kindling bin full up to the very tippy-top.

This is the kindling bin (if you can see back into the dark recesses there) today. Yikes, it's only half full! What the heck happened to all that kindling I spent hours and hours splitting?

Truth to tell, this happens every fall. We use more kindling prior to actually starting the serious heating season than any other time of year. This is because we start so many small fires which, of course, requires kindling each and every time. When the cold weather sets in, our fire rarely is allowed to go out so there is no restarting of a fire first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

We've been at this wood burning thing for so long that we've got it figured out. (Mostly. I think. Sometimes.) A couple of months ago, we went to our pile of slabwood . . .

. . . from which we make our kindling.

We cut up and made several bundles of them which we put under cover so they'd dry out nicely. Now all I have to do is take the pre-cut dried lengths of cedar, split them and toss into the kindling bin.

What is currently left in the kindling bin would probably get us through until spring, but I have this thing about needing to feel ahead of the game so will be happier if I get the kindling bin filled back up to the top right now. Then there will be no question of having plenty to last until our heating season is over next spring/summer.

Our wood sheds are in great shape. Above is the smaller of our two sheds and we've used only a little over one tier of wood. The first three or four tiers are poplar from trees we took down early this spring that were too near a building or fence or vehicle parking area. This is soft wood which doesn't give off nearly as many BTUs as hard wood so spring or fall is a perfect time to burn it when you want just a small fire to take the chill off. The majority of the wood in this smaller shed is maple for serious winter time heating.

Our bigger wood shed which is chock full of maple hard wood hasn't been touched and unless we have an exceptionally frigid winter probably won't have much of a dent put in it this year.

Early this spring, it looked as if I had the kindling bin done, complete, finished, topped off, all set. But now I see that it's just like housework. You work hard and think you're finished, but in short order you've got to start over again!