Ruminations

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a small book at our second hand resale shop called The Little Book of Christmas Joys - 432 things to do for yourself and others that just might make this the best Christmas ever.  Written and compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr., it's another in the series of "little books" by this same author of Life's Little Instruction Book, Live and Learn and Pass It On and several others.

Anyway.  I decided to save the Christmas Joys book to read closer to the holiday season, maybe right after Thanksgiving.  But seeing this new-to-me book of his caused me to pull my copy of Life's Little Instruction Book off the shelf and page through it as I've done many times before.

Here are a couple/few of the gems he puts forth:

Give to charity all the clothes you

haven't worn during the past three years.

Good gosh.  I have clothes in my closet I haven't worn in the last twenty years.

Why is that?  It makes no sense to keep them when they obviously either don't fit into my current lifestyle or they aren't comfortable enough to wear or I don't like them enough to wear them.

Do you follow this rather sensible seeming rule of thumb when it comes to your clothes?

Don't take good health for granted.

I've had a serious illness, I'm fully recovered and don't think I'll ever, ever, EVER take my good health for granted.  I feel grrreat (said in Tony the Tiger's voice) 99% of the time for which I shall always be grateful.

Have you ever experienced a serious illness or breakdown of your health in your own life?  Did it make you appreciate good health?  (Is that a silly question?)

Don't smoke.

Easy enough to say, but a really tough one for anyone addicted to smoking.

I smoked for somewhere around a year starting with my first year in college (about 75 years ago).  Criminy, the dorm I lived in even had a large, comfortably furnished room on each floor called "The Smoker."

I was fortunate I didn't continue the habit and was never really hooked.  It was more of a way to fit in socially at the time.

Have you ever smoked?  Do you currently smoke?  Have you tried to quit or are you contemplating doing so?

Never give a loved one a gift that 

suggests they need improvement.

I don't think I've ever done this.  (Hoping this is true.)

However, I have received such a gift.  Even now, several years after the fact, I still do a slow burn when I think about it.  Especially since the person gifting me could have benefited from the particular subject of the book more than I!

I know the "gift" was given to me in good faith; I know the giver did not intend to be hurtful or mean.  But still.

Have you ever been guilty of doing such a thing, thinking you were being helpful?  Or have you ever been on the receiving end of such a gift?

End of my ruminations.  I'd love to hear your reactions to these bits of wisdom as put forth by Mr. Brown. 

Settling In For A Do-Nothing-I-Can-Avoid Weekend

Just checked the weather forecast for the weekend and am actually glad to see more rain in the offing.

It's been drizzling on and off all of today, and even though the outside temp has reached the 40s, I've been a wee bit chilly inside.  I'm just too stubborn to push the thermostat on the L.P. furnace up a notch, but did put on a zip-up sweatshirt over my turtleneck and crewneck sweatshirt.  It's not too cool in here; it's me.  I know I'm a bit run down.

Haven't been sleeping well the last of this week and when I am zonked out, my dreams have been wild and exhausting.

As soon as I get the dishes in the sink taken care of, myself in and out of the shower, and my flannel jammies and robe on, I'm parking on the couch until bedtime.  I'm not even going to try to knit, but rather just grab the book I'm reading.

I took this apple coffee cake (for the weekend) out of the oven a while ago.

We had an easy meal of cream of cauliflower soup with some wild rice added for our second meal of the day.

I've already caved and made a small fire in the living room wood stove.  This will be my view from the couch in a short time.

I'm going to try to do nuthin' but relax most of the weekend.  (Wish me luck, please.)

Tell me, dear readers, what do you do to recharge your batteries when your body tells you loud and clear that you're running on empty?

Why I'm Not In My Quilt Room Yet

After an especially busy weekend ending with our little butchering project on Sunday, yesterday didn't seem to slow down one bit.

I know I'm a stickler for it, but Monday is my laundry and ironing day so I was up and going at 6 a.m. getting that started.

It was my turn to have my handwork group here at 10 a.m.   There are seven of us gals but, of course, not everyone can make it each time.  Yesterday six of us crowded into my quilt room (hey, I did spend a couple of hours in my quilt room!) and, per usual, the chatter (and the handwork, honest) was non-stop along with a lot of laughter and very good natured giving-of-a-hard time to one another.  (What else are good friends for?)

In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, I made a (Tootsie Pop and kleenex) ghost for each of the gals and had the bunch of them in a jar as a  centerpiece on the table.  (The ghosts, not the ladies.)

In the afternoon, Papa Pea asked if I would do a couple of errands in town so after changing yet another load in the washer, off I went.

Since I was there, I couldn't resist stopping in at the library (I love our library) to pick up a couple of novels.  No real need to do so as I'm not even 1/3 of the way through the one I'm currently reading.  The only time I read is if I manage to get into bed at night before my better half, and then I usually can read maybe 10 minutes before I conk out.  I'll bet I've brought about 100 books home from the library in the past year, but have managed to actually read through probably only four.  Sigh.  (That's gonna change this winter though.)

When leaving the library, I remembered our local resale shop has already gone to their winter hours and is open only three days a week, Monday being one of those days.  And, boy howdy, am I glad I took the time to go there! 

We've been looking for some long-handled tongs for a while now for grabbing birds out of the scalding pot prior to plucking the feathers.  This set was just what I've been looking for.

I also found a brand new insulated coffee carafe exactly like the one I already have.  (New one on the left, old one on the right.)  Yesterday morning for my handwork group, I first served from a pot of coffee, then they drained the one carafe filled with more coffee, and I definitely could have used more.  Well, now I'll have a second back-up carafe next time they're here!

Okay, that just about took care of yesterday.  Did I mention I was in bed asleep before 9 p.m.? 

This morning we dug our potatoes.  Not the best crop we've ever had but we guesstimate we got between 125 and 130 pounds.  The number of Yukon Golds were a bit of a disappointment (the light colored ones in the picture), but the ones that did grow were quite big.

All of the potatoes that were very small or had holes in them where slugs had munched will be cooked up on Papa Pea's garage wood stove and fed to the poultry.

This afternoon we harvested apples.  No, not from the paltry number on our trees this year.  Those same few apples that Blue Jays have nearly decimated.  Is that sad or what?

These apples are from a tree in the yard of good friends of our daughter.  It's a very big, old tree that was planted by the husband's grandfather.  No one remembers the variety, but it is a beautiful, healthy tree that had about a gazillion apples on it this year.  It isn't sprayed with poisons or insecticides, yet the tasty apples are unblemished.  What beauties!  Countless people had already come to pick as many apples as they wanted from it and only the ones on the very tip-top were left, but we were offered them if we wanted to take the time and trouble to pick them.  Did we ever!

With the combination of an apple picker on a long pole and an extension ladder, we got about 3 bushels of them.  Considering we thought we were going to be darn near apple-less this year, we're so very appreciative of this couples' generosity.

Now I'm trying to do my weekly ironing (okay, I'm fluffing off getting this post written) and heating up leftover soup and making some garlic bread for our second meal of the day.

And that's why I'm not in my quilt room yet!  (As said by Lily Tomlin in her "Edith Ann" voice from Laugh In.  Anybody but me old enough to remember that?)

Good, Satisfying Day

We've been having night time temps that are slightly below freezing, but we haven't had any rain (or snow!) in the last few days.  So 'twas time to get out into the garden this morning and see if we could get some more compost added to the soil.

Papa Pea spread it on the raised beds that hadn't gotten their dose late this summer . . . the beds I'd first cleared of vegetation.  Before noon I was able to get the compost on four of the beds tilled in.  I know I could just leave it on the surface over winter, but I do believe the little bit of oozing into the soil it does before spring helps if it's incorporated now.

He was surprised to find corners of the compost bins slightly frozen.  I also noticed the very tip-top of the soil in the beds to be kinda crunchy.  Jack Frost is starting to get a grip.

Yesterday I finally got my garlic planted and covered with mulch which is held down with a cattle panel.  We're still living in The Land of the Big Winds so I didn't want to chance all that mulch blowing into the next county.

This coming week promises a warm-up with no more frost for several days, and that's a good thing because . . .

. . . we still have to dig our potatoes, and which we will definitely do this week.  The above picture shows a part of one row of them I planted in the "new" patch.  Looks as though we still have more rocks to pick up in that area.  I cannot believe how many times we've filled buckets and buckets from there already.

This week, I'll also dig and store the gladioli corms which are 6" under the soil and won't have been harmed by this light freezing.  

The foliage of the glads still shows a lot of green, but I'm thinking they have to come out now.  (Would you agree, Karen?)

Oh, yes, I almost forgot that we still have to cover the strawberries with a good blanket of mulch.  (Does the gardening season sometimes seem to go on forever, or is it just me this year?)

We also did some fence mending this morning and got the inside of the garage all set for butchering this afternoon.  Blech, a necessary chore nobody looks forward to.

We have only six geese to do and we're going to skin rather than pluck them so we're hoping we'll be done before midnight.  (That was a joke.  I hope.)  Our good neighbors are coming over to help as we offered the meat to them.  D loves to make jerky (and is good at it), and says he wants to experiment with making it from the ground goose meat.  

Time for me to get going on this afternoon's activities.  Toodles. 

Words of Wisdom (Not Mine!)

Spending odd moments lately, trying to go through and clean out, sort and organize my desk, I came across a slip of paper smooshed at the back of one drawer.  On it I had copied down the following wise words.  My sincere apologies for not listing the author as I failed to note the same on the scrap of paper.  Perhaps they were listed as anonymous.  I know not, but at any rate, they struck a chord within me, and I wanted to share them with you.

Strive to live more slowly.

Keep watch for the first snowdrops,

walk outside in the rain,

and listen for the return of the swallows.

Share stories and seasonal feasts around campfires.

Scribble ideas and illustrations

on an adventure in the woods,

on a mountain hike, 

or on an early morning

stroll around your garden.

Choose local, handmade and sustainable.

Try your hand at 

weaving, whittling, foraging

and bottling.

And every day, venture out and

CELEBRATE THE SEASONS! 

Speaking of Handknit Socks . . .

Below is the first pair of socks I knit for my husband.

These are the gargantuan holes in the heel of one sock. 

This was after last week when I meticulously darned a hole in the toe of the same pair of socks and accused him of not cutting his toenails short enough.

The yarn was (what I thought) a good quality, but you can see it's already started to pill more than one would like.

It seems that this pair of socks held up for about two months, being worn once a week, but is now rapidly falling apart.

The other two pair I've knit him he wears regularly (different yarns) and seem just fine.

I don't know how you tell, but beware of sock yarn that doesn't hold up.  Or perhaps I should say beware of sock yarn that does hole up.  (Haha.)

Drat and darn.  (Pun not intended as I'm not going to waste my time darning these socks anymore.  For all I know, the way things are going, next the cuff may fall off.)