Deborah's Doings - Proverbs 31-13

Late Winter Harvest

2011-04-21T13:46:00.004-05:00

I've been shamefully absent from my blogs for some time now. It seems the Spring gardening takes more and more of my time the older I get. I have little energy for anything else this time of year.

We've been harvesting our winter vegetables for some time now. Today I picked the bulk of our remaining cabbage.

I took a 6 gallon bucket with me thinking I'd pick some early beets, turnips and other veggies at the same time. Even without the outer leaves, the cabbage filled my bucket to overflowing. (The chickens got treated to the outer leaves this morning.)

I did manage to pick a couple beets and turnips. I thinned my carrots and clipped a few little shoots of broccoli from plants that bolted long ago. I also picked a few snow peas and some mustard greens.

I thought I'd make another batch of sauerkraut today. I plan to throw the colander full of veggies in with the cabbage to make a different kind of sauerkraut. I already have a 10 liter crock of ordinary sauerkraut fermenting on my counter. I think this batch will require my 15 liter crock, the one I got for making pickles. It takes 6 weeks to ferment a batch of kraut; I sure hope I won't need my crock before then for pickles. We might have to eat a lot of cukes before 6 weeks are done.

We are planting a fairly large garden again this year. I would love to grow enough vegetables for our family's use during the year. If we could get extra, it would be great to start selling at the farmer's market. Especially if I could get the Brix values of my vegetables high enough to have something really spectacular. I'd love to show my neighbors down here in the south just how good organic living can be!

Snow Day

2011-01-09T14:43:00.002-06:00

One of the dearest, most selfless friends I've ever had lives in Brewton.

Back in December, I really wanted to take the kids to Foley's Christmas in the Park Festival. Unfortunately, the festival was scheduled on the same day as one of the craft shows I planned to attend to sell my soap, sewing, weaving and other items. Kurt had to study for a test and I didn't know what to do. Enter my wonderful friend Darlene. She drove all the way down to Foley to take the kids to the festival and keep them for me while I spent the day at the craft festival. I am so blessed. She also took pictures for me so I wouldn't miss all the fun.

Every year Foley has a special Christmas Festival. This festival is particularly special because it snows in the park every year on that day.

Well, this is how we do snow in the coastal south - we make our own. It was funny to think about snow with the 70 degree outside temperatures that day. It was also rough deciding how to dress the kids.

Of course the kids think snow is great fun. I mean, how great is the snow when you can have it and beach weather at the same time.

Michael has always wanted to make a snow angel.

Immediately when he got into the snow area, he dropped to the ground. (Next to someone wearing flip-flops, lol.) Since snow melts pretty fast at 70 degrees, it was too icy for a snow angel. So he discovered his next favorite snow activity.

Michael discovered he could throw snow at people without getting into trouble like he would for throwing anything else. And boy did he throw snow.

He showed Darlene's son, John Mark, no mercy. He even went after Darlene too.

Fortunately, both Darlene and John Mark are good sports.

Gregory had lots of fun snow fighting too.

So did Gabrielle.

Though I think she got more than she gave.

Of course with Gabrielle, it is always more about meeting new people than the activity itself.

As for Gregory, he was all about the fight.

He took aim at anyone he could hit.

And had a blast.

You can tell my kids have a knitter in the family. Each one of them wore wool mittens. You can't just walk into a store around here and get wool mittens.

The kids had an amazing day and we thank God for our great friend Darlene!

Baby Hats and Salsa

2010-11-20T16:26:00.003-06:00

Despite being more busy than normal launching our fabulous soap and craft business, Finchwald Homestead, I managed to knit a couple of little baby hats for a shower I missed last week when I had the flu.

I love these little fruit hats.

I modified the strawberry slightly so it would have white seeds rather than green. I think it looks better with the extra color. (Under the hats, you can see some knitting I am blocking for a friend who commissioned me to make a hat and scarf for her daughter. I will blog about it later on the Finchwald Homestead blog.)

And because these little hats are such a quick knit, I thought I'd go ahead and knit a second one, a dewberry. Dewberries grow wild here in southern Alabama and the purple yarn I used from my stash was perfect. The above picture shows good detail, but the color is too light. The actual hat looks more like this:

I added a band of ribbing to the bottom edge of the hat for a slightly different look.

I sure hope the new mom-to-be thinks babies with fruit heads are as cute as I think they are. I suppose it is possible some people wouldn't appreciate a fruit headed baby, though I can hardly imagine.

Meanwhile, my Fall garden has given me plenty of purple peppers and some tomatoes. The bugs always seem to get the tomatoes when they are ripe, so today I fooled them and picked the tomatoes green. I added them to the batch of salsa I mixed up today. I sure hope green tomatoes taste okay in salsa.

I also added some purple peppers (and their more dangerous red incarnation) to the salsa to make it deathly spicy. I love spicy food. After 6 weeks fermenting in my Harsch Crock, I should have some super tasty, healthy and not-for-the-faint-of-heart salsa.

Finchwald Homestead

2010-11-07T15:48:00.002-06:00

After many years thinking about sharing our homemade food and crafts via a home-based business, we finally did it! Please come visit me at my brand new blog: Finchwald Homestead. Thanks!

Stumped

2010-10-16T19:13:00.002-05:00

With Kurt not presently working, I thought I would finally get some projects done around the house. Today, I asked Kurt and Gregory to dig out the stump from the middle of my garden. They dug off and on throughout the day and late this afternoon, they pulled it out with our tractor. The whole thing went beautifully. Then Kurt spied a large root. He thought he would pull it out too. He didn't do any digging first.

He tipped our tractor on its end just like Mater did in the movie, "Cars." Of course, the kids thought it was the funniest thing they ever saw.

And while Kurt finally worked to dig out the root with a shovel,

The kids posed with the tractor.

Gregory wanted a picture that made it look like he had been driving when the tractor tipped.

Kurt and Mr. Chris finally managed to dig out the root - without the help of the tractor.

They also located a large fire ant mound with their feet.

And for the record, Kurt sent the kids to fetch me and the camera. HE was the one who wanted to preserve the moment in pictures.

By the way, it doesn't take much to right a tipped tractor. Kurt thought he would need to crank it back down. He tied a line to the front axle while standing in the "fall zone" and when he gave the line a little tug, the tractor came crashing down. Kurt had to jump away from the falling tractor TWICE this evening. My heart is pounding still.

Sad Times

2010-10-03T14:54:00.002-05:00

I haven't had the heart to post to my blog for a long time now. Times have been rough on the Gulf Coast.

The largest oil spill in our nation's history pumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. That oil began washing onto the pristine Alabama shoreline shortly after my mother's visit and our early morning beach trips. Instead of sugar white shores, we now have beaches marred with oil and chemical dispersant. At times, increasingly rare beautiful white sand covers the oil and at other times, waves and wind expose the hidden, buried oil. The beaches may never recover.

If the oil wasn't bad enough, millions of gallons of hazardous chemicals have been applied to the oil to sink it out of sight. These chemicals, called Corexit, are hazardous to life and health and they fill our local waters and beaches. Corexit is more dangerous than oil in part. because it is not readily seen. Local testing has uncovered Corexit on the beaches and in the local waterways.( Testing Finds Oil and Dispersant) Local beach residents have seen planes continuing to carpet bomb local waterways with the chemical despite official statements to the contrary. (Stress of Oil Spill Still Lingers) People cough and wheeze and suffer from congestion, including my own family. No one knows whether we are suffering from chemical exposure or unusual allergies or a really bad cold season. (Covert Spraying of the Gulf) A few people, who could afford blood testing, discovered oil and chemical residues in their bodies. (Gulf Coast Crud) The rest of us, if we think about it at all, are left to wonder. The media has been banned from all clean-up operations and the government wants us to believe the crises has ended. Yet oil and toxic chemicals still bathe our shores.

Many people here are out of work and businesses are failing. Our area relies on tourism and fishing for much of it's economy. Who wants to eat poisoned seafood or vacation on a toxic beach? Some do. Those who believe the propaganda. My family won't be returning to the beach or eating seafood for many, many years. There is no joy in living in this area any longer except for the company of the few good friends we've made in the year we've lived here.

Finally, our own family is feeling the pinch of these economic times. We have joined the ranks of the unemployed. Kurt has been out of work for a couple of weeks and we are currently a zero income family hoping for unemployment insurance to kick in and relieve some of the pain. It would only cover about a third of our bills, but we are praying. We know God has a plan in all of this and He will provide. Even if we lose our home and everything else material, we know God will protect us and provide for our needs. We wait upon Him and send out resumes whenever we see something even remotely fitting. We have also sent resumes out of the area, though those are few. My dream in all of this would be to be able to move to a cooler region in the country, one unaffected by oil and dispersant. Kurt would like to be able to go to school full time and finish his degree. Finding work begins to feel like an elusive dream.

If you think about our family over the next days, weeks and months, please pray for us. Pray for our coastal communities too.

Obama admin bans press from filming BP oil spill areas in the Gulf

2010-07-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

Busy Spring

2010-05-30T17:49:00.003-05:00

Days, weeks and now months have flown by in sit com speed, though problems are certainly not resolved as quickly. And we have been busy, very busy.

My mother visited.

I even managed to finish her sweater on time.

And best of all, it fit. Note to self: Don't offer to make a sweater for someone based on a highly modified pattern, when that person lives far away.

My Mom's sweater started with the Minuette pattern and I changed the yarn and the sleeves. I love the way it turned out, but it provided hours of stress as I worried it wouldn't fit my tiny mother. I'm so glad it fits. More glad than I can possibly communicate.

My mother visited right after the Gulf Oil Spill. Praise God the oil hasn't reached us yet.

Several mornings during my Mom's visit, we awoke at dawn and hit the beach before the sun was strong enough to reduce me to a burnt pile of blisters.

We all had a blast.

We brought our breakfasts to the beach and the seagulls did their best to steal it, and often managed.

My Mom and I agreed the one legged seagull appeared to be running a scam. He made you feel so sorry for him that you could not help but share your food. Of course the kids couldn't wait to get into the water and so they happily dropped some of their food.

The kids loved the waves best of all.

Gregory rediscovered the pleasure of body surfing.

And Michael lost all fear of the water.

Gregory was absolutely fearless.

And enjoyed laying down and letting the waves carry him around.

The kids kept going out farther and farther.

And I had to keep calling them back.

Which really interfered with my knitting time.

Though I did manage to get a little sock knitting time in each morning we spent on the beach, which was very nice.

And then the kids would be right back out in the deeper water in no time.

I wouldn't mind so much but Michael can't swim.

And we saw yellow and red flags flying.

Michael also likes to chase seagulls.

And I let him chase them after one of the little terrors stole my breakfast muffin right out of my hand.

We've been processing our meat chickens over the last month. In fact, my mother had the opportunity to experience the origin of her chicken dinners twice during her visit.

We got her to pluck a couple feathers just to say she did it. We are raising turkeys too and they are growing fast.

The garden is all planted.

And the soil in our new house turns out to be not so fertile. I've been cleaning out the chicken coops as much as possible to work on that problem, but there is only so much that can be done in a first year. I'm hoping we can improve soil fertility quickly despite that we are attempting to garden on a slope.

I've had a few things, like the beets, garlic and onions, sort of fizzle, so I buried them under piles of chicken coop bedding.

We have been getting some snap beans and tiny squashes so far.

We've also had a few new potatoes. I'm harvesting them because there is a bad wilt or blight killing the plants. I suspect verticillium wilt and that is bad. Very bad. I'm not really sure what I can do, organically speaking, other than improve my soil as much as possible and raise as healthy plants as possible.

We have plenty of one thing in the garden though.

Why do we always have so many fire ants? I hate those things. We compete for the produce. We had a bit of a dry spell and the ants got right in and attacked the plants for their moisture.

The bees have been very good this year. We have pulled off probably a hundred pounds of honey.

The extractor still wobbles and we still need to find a better solution than Kurt flinging himself on it.

We are also harvesting wax and will need to figure out what to do with it.

I would like to grow some herbs and make some salves. I still need to build an herb garden.

We had the opportunity to attend the wedding of some friends back in Brewton. It was so nice to go back and see so many people very dear to us.

Gabrielle had a great time dressing up in the skirt I recently made for her and curling her hair. The wedding was a much anticipated event for us. We're a little sad it is over. We had fun looking forward to it.

We still don't have our goats. It seems every time he is off work and ready to build our fence, we get rain or bee issues.

I like all we do, but I wish we weren't so busy so we could do all the other things we want to add to what we do now.

Spring Frenzy

2010-04-08T13:09:00.002-05:00

Spring exploded into a frenzy of activity a few weeks ago and I've barely managed to keep up with it all. For a couple of weeks our bees swarmed constantly.

We managed to rehive three swarms, so we now have seven bee hives total. Two swarms congregated on branches so high in the air we could not possibly get to them. They ended up joining the ranks of feral bees in our neighborhood and I hope they prosper for the good of all.

I don't know how many swarms we missed. A couple of our hives swarmed over and over again. The bees would pour out of the hive and then swirl into the air. Bees would climb all over themselves getting out of the hive.

The pile would grow and grow.

Until the bees would launch themselves into the air filling the sky with their buzzing.

Most of the time we would discover the swarm from the loud buzzing. Even my neighbor said she could hear it on her own property. We also witnessed a mating flight early one morning. At first we thought it was a swarm, but then the bees all went back into their hive. They swarmed for real a couple hours later.

Finally, unprepared, out of spare equipment and exhausted, Kurt opened the repeatedly swarming hives and eliminated the queen cells to give us a bit of a break. In the meantime, we've built a couple more hive boxes, frames and started our goat barn.

I don't know why, but apparently the Lord thinks we need dairy goats. We've wanted them for a long time, but something always stopped the process. That is no longer the case.

Recently, when Strider, our LPG dog kept getting out of his fence and we were so busy we prayed for the Lord to keep him inside, I told Kurt I thought the Lord was getting us ready to finally get our goats because we were learning all about building secure fencing. Literally moments later the telephone rang. Out of the blue the people from whom we always wanted to purchase goats called wanting to know if we wanted to buy some goats. We definitely wanted to get the goats, but after months of fixing our new house and building chicken coops, we were as broke as we've ever been. So we prayed.

Still feeling the Lord's leading in this we told the goat people we were going to go forward though we had no idea how. But first, we had to finish building the meat chicken coop for the chickens that had already been ordered.

As we discussed how were were going to manage the whole dairy goat thing, we considered robbing the kids' piggy banks for goat money. Then we got an anonymous gift of money so we could buy our goats. It was exactly the amount we thought we would need. God definitely provides.

As we started looking around for materials to build a goat shelter, we realized we were going to need much more money than we expected. Then someone told Kurt she and her husband had built a horse shelter on rented property and then got rid of the horses and were planning to move. They told Kurt he could have the shelter if he wanted to disassemble it. He did. God's provision continues to amaze us, though I don't know why. By now you would think we would be perfectly familiar with God's love and goodness considering our history. But we continue to be amazed anyway.

The horse shed ended up being a tremendous blessing, way better than anything we could have ever imagined for ourselves. We needed to replace the roof, but so far everything else is working.

Gregory and Kurt started assembling our new barn in the front yard, where we plan to pasture the goats.

A couple of times the Lord sent friends over to help out when we most needed the help. He is so good.

They have now finished the outer structure and we are going to have to figure out how to build the inside part next. We also need to buy fencing materials and get our pastures ready. Everything seems to take such a long time.

As we were building, I noticed the tree next to the barn has wisteria dripping from its limbs.

I love experiencing our first Spring in our new house. There are so many surprises to discover.

Yesterday, as I worked in my garden I paused to listen to the cry of the seagulls. I glanced back at the woods by the creek and noticed something different. So I went to explore.

I discovered a wall of flowers cascading down from the highest tree branches on the edge of our woods.

It was beautiful and looked like something you would find in Hawaii.

The annoying vines constantly cropping up to strangle the trees and block our access to the creek had burst into bloom.

The blooms were not only beautiful, but smelled divine.

The blossoms are fairly large and Gabrielle knew what to do immediately.

The flowers are quite delicate looking.

And they do look like a large dogwood blossom with five petals instead of four.

A friend suggested they might be wild dogwood.

I'd sure love to know what these are if anyone knows.

In the meantime, I've planted most of my garden. I've been busy taking care of our meat chickens and turkeys. I've done a bit of knitting. In fact, I finished making the fingerless gloves I promised to Asa.

He loved them and I am very glad. I hope they help keep his hands warm next winter.

I've also done some canning. A couple days ago I cooked and canned four and a half gallons of turkey soup with the turkey carcass left over from Easter.

I love stocking our pantry with homemade food. And home canned food works as fast food around here.

Today we got rain and so we are inside. But we will be back to the Spring frenzy soon with more gardening, bee chores, chicken and turkey raising and butchering and preparing for our dairy goats. I also promised my Mom I would finish her sweater by the time she visited next month. Whew! We are going to be busy for awhile still.

Goodbye Mr. Winter

2010-03-09T14:13:00.004-06:00

We've had more winter this year than I can remember for some time. But I finally believe it is over because the bees know. And one of our bee hives swarmed.

In the Spring before the "honey flow," bees sometimes get it into their little heads to swarm. A strong colony will divide itself into two smaller colonies and the Queen and a bunch of bees will leave their hive in search of a new home. Some bees will remain in the old hive and will raise up a new Queen, who must then mate and begin growing up the hive again.

The swarming bees will all of a sudden pour out of the hive entrance in a massive swirl, filling the air with a tornado of bees. They will find a branch or something similar and will congregate into a mass that looks like it hangs down from the branch.

The bees will "hang out" for a limited period of time while they determine where to move the colony. As beekeepers, we have our own ideas about where they should live. In fact, Kurt had a new beehive just about ready. Unfortunately, the bees settled on a fairly high branch and we weren't prepared to recover a swarm that high in the air. Kurt called a beekeeper friend and then raced to collect a swarm grabbing tool - a bucket on a stick. He had to get back before the bees left once and for all.

Our friends came with the bucket. James went after the swarm.

After cutting down some lower branches, James eased the bucket under the swarm. Then he smacked the branch.

The vibration dislodged the cluster of bees. They dropped into the bucket and James closed the lid with the attached string. Kurt and James dropped the bees into a new hive box and if all goes well, we will have five hives of bees instead of the four we had a couple of days ago.

Granted, the bee swarm rearranged our priorities yesterday but we are very excited about the new hive. Gregory quickly reminded everyone he was promised the first swarm of bees so the new bee hive will be Gregory's. He wants to raise honey and sell it to earn money. I hope he prospers with it. Especially since he will have to reimburse us for the equipment first.

I finally finished Asa's sweater and it fits perfectly.

He loved it and I am glad. I loved the lack of fabric bunching in his arm pits. Little people just don't have clothes stores to shop. Everyone should have at least a few clothes that absolutely fit. I am so blessed I was able to give Asa his first custom piece of clothing.

I'm so grateful the Lord gave me that nudge a few months ago, even if the sweater did not get finished until Winter finished too.

A New Addiction?

2010-02-26T13:44:00.002-06:00

I think I might easily fall prey to addiction. I'm showing the early signs of an irrepressible urge to bring treadle sewing machines into my home and it needs to stop. I don't have the money or room.

Now that I have positively affirmed my choice to be responsible forevermore, I will post about the road trip I dragged the kids on yesterday.

Kurt procured a lovely Singer Model 27 sewing machine for me for my birthday. Unfortunately, it was in pretty rough condition and I doubted my ability to ever get it into working, usable condition. So I started haunting Craig's List looking for parts or for other Singer Model 27 sewing machines. I didn't actually intend to buy another sewing machine; I was simply looking.

Yeah right. Last week, I found this Singer Model 27:

The table was in beautiful shape for a sewing machine manufactured in 1903. My pulse raced every time I saw it. I made several phone calls, requested more pictures and finally made a ridiculously low offer to buy the machine. Knowing I was quite a drive away from Ariton, Alabama, the owner of the antique store decided he would sell me the machine for what I offered if I was willing to make the drive. I think he'd had it in his shop for awhile. The sewing machine has lovely "pheasant" decals I believe.

I really couldn't believe I would be able to get such a lovely machine for so little so yesterday, I grabbed the kids and we headed out for a small town in Alabama whose name I'd never even heard referenced before. I don't have GPS, but I did print out a map from Mapquest. The map would have been sufficient had I not missed a turn early on in our journey and traveled many miles before discovering my mistake. In the end, Gregory learned how to read and navigate from a printed map, which comprised our homeschooling lessons for the day. We created our own route from faded gray lines representing "secondary" roads without names on the large United States Map Book I've had in our car since our last trip across country to visit family. Secondary roads are interesting. There is almost no traffic on secondary roads which I like, and fortunately we had no car problems while in the middle of nowhere, for which I prayed the entire time. We also saw a lot of cows. We even saw a pasture full of miniature cows. I had no idea Alabama had so many cows. I suspect we might have more cows than people.

Despite all the wrong and missed turns and the long trip and all the cows, the machine was every bit as lovely as I'd hoped for a 107 year old sewing machine. I think I should be able to get this machine into working condition, though I feel rough and clumsy around it.

Before traveling to Ariton, I asked the proprietor of "Not Too Shabby" antiques (a LOVELY store by the way) if the Model 27 Singer had any of the attachments with it. He told me no, but that he had another treadle machine in his store that had lots of attachments. If the attachments fit the Model 27, he would let me have them.

Another TREADLE MACHINE? Why wasn't I told???

He tried, but the attachments wouldn't fit. I got the serial number for the second machine and my research told me it was a Singer Model 66, supposedly a good work horse machine that can handle fabric as thick as leather. It sounded interesting. I thought my trip would be a great excuse to learn about another model treadle machine. So upon arrival, the kids and I innocently asked to see the second machine.

While not as ornate, the table was in pretty good condition for a machine manufactured in 1924. I casually asked the price. It was more than I was willing to pay and I walked away. Gregory moaned and told me since we'd come so far, we really should bring both machines home. It was a lovely "red eye" Model 66.

In the end, the man made me an offer I couldn't refuse if I would take both. And I did.

I didn't know how to tell Kurt because he tends to be too practical to understand my love for antique tools beyond what I "need." I did call him and reminded him he loved me very much. I reminded him 3 times so he knew something was up. In the end, he took the news very well and helped me get the Model 66 out of the car. (I did a bit of damage trying to get the Model 27 out of the car with just Gregory's help. It made me sick to my stomach although it is fixable.)

I think one of the things that excites me most about the Model 66 is all the accessories.

I see what looks like a hemmer. I haven't looked at anything too closely yet to determine what else might be there. I decided the clean up of these machines will be my summer project once it gets too hot to garden. I can hardly wait.

Of course Gregory, Kurt and I are now sick today with something that is going around. I'd hoped to get some more seeds in the ground, but don't have the strength for it. Lousy germs. But my new sewing machines are happy things despite colds and flu and work left undone.

Ready for Spring

2010-02-20T15:17:00.002-06:00

After a very long winter (to us Southern folk anyway), we are itching for Spring. I've ordered my vegetable seeds for the year and I signed up for a tree grafting class. I planted potatoes.

In Brewton, my potatoes generally rotted before growing. I think the heavy clay and winter rains conspired to kill my potatoes year after year. The soil in our new house does not appear to be as full of clay and I'm hoping we will get our first potatoes this year. I planted gold, red and white potatoes.

Next up will be lettuce. The weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow so I will have to wait until later in the week to plant my salad garden.

In the meantime, I am trying to finish my knitting projects because I don't get to do much knitting in the Spring. I finished my Farmhouse Monkey socks.

And I've been knitting as much as possible on Asa's sweater.

Normally I would not knit something with skulls. We don't like to celebrate death in any form around here. But, I do think Jesus meets us where we are sometimes. Asa is a neat kid in our new neighborhood. He has a growth disorder which makes it impossible for him to buy clothes that fit. Ever. After seeing him in a new jacket with sleeves almost double the length of his arms, I felt the Lord whisper to me to knit something warm for Asa. Something that fits. So, I pulled out my budding design skills and worked up a pattern for someone who doesn't fit within typical pattern proportions (proof that all that math I had to learn in school had application to my life after all). And since I was designing the sweater from scratch anyway, I thought I would design a yoke pattern that would appeal to the young man for whom I am knitting. He likes the whole pirate and skull fad so I'm knitting skulls.

As creepy as the skulls look, I have to admit I'm pretty proud of the way they are turning out. I have one more round of skulls and the yoke will be done.

In the meantime, we actually saw another forecast for snow a week or so ago. Since Brewton got three to four inches of snow the snow forecast before, I thought I'd be ready to travel if snow arrived again. Both Michael and Gabrielle have mittens, but Gregory only had fingerless gloves. So I let him choose some yarn and I hurriedly knit him a pair of wool mittens - just in case.

We didn't get any snow near here after all. Oh well, I'm really clamouring for Spring anyway.

Winter Keeps Hanging On

2010-02-09T13:09:00.002-06:00

Winter keeps going and going and going this year, sort of like the Energizer Bunny. Our new house cannot keep up with it's lack of insulation and gappy doors. For us, winter means lots of rain and the rain keeps coming. We've found a couple unrepaired roof leaks that are fortunately not too bad and my gardening efforts have been on hold.

Last Fall, I did manage to plant some garlic and onion bulbs. They are peaking through already.

I haven't done any soil testing at all yet. I did throw a bit of chicken manure into the ground when I dug the beds hoping for the best. Eventually I'll walk the more scientific path. In the meantime, I plan to see what will grow in the native ground.

It rained again last night and the creek once again overflowed its banks.

A small bend of this creek cuts through the corner of our property. I think it is quite pretty.

I would love to build a little deck by the creek with a porch swing structure or something. It would make a lovely place to sit outside and feed the mosquitoes in the summer.

Originally I wanted to truck in a load of sand and make my own private beach. But everyone keeps telling me the sand would wash away in the rain and during these times when the creek overflows its banks.

But first, the house needs work. Lots of work.

I thought I was done with big remodeling projects, like ripping up floors, tiling, grouting, etc. But apparently not. A couple of days ago, my oldest child sat on the toilet. A couple of minutes later, we all heard a big crash.

The side of the toilet bowl literally disintegrated and fell to the ground. Fortunately for my son, the toilet seat remained intact. Ugg. Now we have to replace the toilet. But the prior homeowner laid the floor in that bathroom and instead of doing it properly, he carefully cut around the base of the toilet, custom fitting the floor to the broken toilet. There is probably no way we are going to be able to find a toilet with a big enough base in exactly the shape to fit the opening. And since I always figured we'd have to redo that floor eventually, we figure we better rip out the bathroom floor when we replace the toilet. Fortunately, we have just enough tiles left over from the kitchen floor, if I don't mess anything up, to tile the bathroom. And then the room needs painting, so I should probably go ahead and paint before I install the new floor and toilet. Nothing with this house is ever easy.

During the brief period of time between things going very wrong in our house, and winter keeping me inside, I did manage to finish my Christian Artisans Stash Sock Club socks.

They are Monkey Socks. I liked the Monkey Sock pattern so much, I actually started a second pair.

I'm knitting this pair from stash yarn too. It is Socks that Rock in the Farmhouse colorway. When I look at the yarn I can see an old red barn sitting in a golden field under a blue sky. This is the first yarn I've used where I think I can glimpse the dyer's vision.

I'm actually very close to finishing my second pair of Monkey socks. However, Gabrielle has me distracted. Gabrielle told some new friends that she could sew skirts and they asked her if she would sew a skirt for each of them. Gabrielle readily agreed. It finally got to the point where the girls were going to each have a matching skirt. Every time Gabrielle saw her friends, they asked her about the skirts. I knew the project was really beyond Gabrielle, so I thought I'd help her out and do them for her. So, that has been my afternoon project for the last few days.

We found some fabric in my stash. (It is not actually so bright.) I had barely enough. Unfortunately, I don't have adequate light yet in my sewing corner so I can only work on them when the sun is right. I'm hoping to be able to finish them today or tomorrow.

I finally started combing out the beautiful wool Caroline sent me for our Queen Susan spinning. The fiber is just beautiful!

I'm a little concerned about the range of colors in this fleece. While I love the colors, I'm not sure they will work for a lace shawl.

I hate the waste combing produces.

So, I started carding up the waste pile and spindle spinning a waste yarn. It feels bumpy and rough, but I'm sure it can be used for something. Otherwise, it is nice to be spindling again. I haven't picked up a spindle in a long time.

I'm really tired of being cold all the time and I want to eat fresh garden food again. However, I really enjoy the knitting, spinning and sewing time cold, nasty weather affords.

Happy 45

2010-01-27T15:47:00.003-06:00

With every spare dollar going into house repair and remodeling, I had very low expectations for my birthday this year. But Kurt blew me away with a birthday present I've wanted for quite some time.

He found a Singer treadle sewing machine a couple of months ago and had been keeping it at work until now. I literally couldn't believe my eyes when he called me into the family room to see "something."

I'm so excited and am really hoping we can restore it so that it can be used again. My dear friend Caroline has restored these before and has promised to help. Actually, it is funny because as soon as I saw the sewing machine I told Kurt I needed to talk to Caroline.

In its day, this Singer had to be something else. Under the wear and age, you can still see its beauty. Beautiful and intricate design work once graced the metal portions of the sewing machine and it is all metal - no plastic parts here! I just love this machine. I love just looking at it.

The table has a place where you can apparently store the sewing machine. It even has a small drawer in it.

I've been looking for the serial number so Caroline can help me figure out the manufacturing date. But I can't find it.

It has a bobbin winder in the front and an gold emblem behind it. No serial number though.

The lower right part of the machine has the Singer name wrought into it, but still no serial number.

Unfortunately, while looking for the serial number, I discovered broken pieces of metal.

I really hope these broken pieces can be fixed. I so love my "new" sewing machine.

As a side note, I saw a beautiful sunset the other evening.

I had a hard time getting a good picture because I didn't have time to set up a tri-pod. I would love to have some yarn in the brilliant peachy pink color of the sky that night. Or perhaps some fabric to use with my sewing machine.

Plodding Forward

2010-01-24T16:27:00.003-06:00

The rhythm of life moves slow and steady as winter slowly releases its hold on the South. One at a time I empty boxes and move the empty ones to the front porch until they can once again be moved into the burn pit. Meals are cooked, kefir and kombucha cultures bubble on the counters and the kids have settled into their new school semester. I painted the living room, hallway and dining room, mostly. Many rooms still need paint. I've managed to squeeze a bit more knitting into my routine. Cold weather demands knitting from me as much as it demands hot chocolate or coffee or tea from others. And it has been very cold here lately. In fact, the pool froze over a number of times during the last couple of weeks.

The growing cover of ice continually amazed our southern family. We rarely see ice forming on large bodies of water where we live and our pool is rather large. One day, the pool remained icy all day.

At sunset we found a good cover of ice on the pool. Unbelievable. We never did get snow, but we sure got cold.

Oh, Strider started using his doghouse. It only took one cold day with rain for him to change his view of dog houses. He has used it regularly since.

I finished the beret I agreed to knit in exchange for hay.

It turned out nice though I found out later Ms. Kitty wanted one she could pull down over her ears. This one may not be quite that large.

I may try to make her a larger one later. In the meantime, I hope this one will work for her. It fit her head fine and looked lovely on her. She looks lovely in hats and I think she liked having a wool/silk beret anyway. They have already delivered one roll of hay and have promised a second one soon. Since we have meat chickens and turkeys on order, we really will need the hay. We typically spend a great deal of money on hay in the spring and it will be nice not to have to do so this year.

I managed to add another inch to Asa's sweater and will be casting the sleeves onto my needles soon. And I finally finished my Riverrun socks.

I am so glad to be done with these socks. I love the colors in the yarn, but I really didn't care for the pattern. I started these socks before we moved and had little time since to work on them. I am so glad they are finished.

I've already started my next pair of socks, randomly selected for the Christian Artisans Stash Sock Club. They are going to be Monkey socks knit from Creatively Dyed Yarn, Luxury in the Salsa colorway.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to start spinning my fiber for the Queen Susan Shawl. I'm still unpacking spinning stuff and am just not there yet. I can't wait to convert my unpacking time into fiber time. I hate unpacking.

I received another fabulous gift from Caroline.

I love bags and boxes and neat little things that hold stuff. I've never found a good container for my stitch holders. Caroline said she was sending a sample of our target yarn for the Queen Susan and she did, in this fabulous box. She also sent some of her homemade stitch markets and a neat pair of folding scissors.

Caroline has long been an inspiration for me and she is also a sweet and generous friend.

The kids had a slumber party of sorts last week.

Our neighbor had an early morning doctor's appointment so we took the kids for the night and following day. The group had a blast.

They played karaoke on the Game Cube and danced to the music.

They played computer games, ate popcorn, watched movies and played more karaoke.

My kids never wanted it to end. The neighbors are supposed to be coming again this week and my kids are very excited. I'm very grateful we have a nice family living next door.

Kurt celebrated another birthday Friday.

We celebrated with a tribute to Kurt's sweet tooth. We made him his favorite German Chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting (yuck), ice cream, cinnamon and pecan rolls with cream cheese frosting for breakfast and Gabrielle made him pralines. The kids have been on a perpetual sugar high for 3 days now.

Kurt also took Gregory hunting for his birthday and had great fellowship with some really nice men from church.

As winter finally releases its stranglehold on our normally mild temperatures, I realize I need to get serious if I am to plant a garden this year. I don't have a space yet claimed for my garden and it is already time for planting cool weather crops. The weather forecast predicts too much rain for much soil work now, but I'm hoping to explore some of the local feed stores and nurseries for seed potatoes this week. I'd hoped to have been unpacked before the busy Spring season, but I still have a bit to go. Apparently Spring starts earlier in Foley than it did in Brewton.

Extraordinary Cold and Hangover Projects

2010-01-07T13:21:00.002-06:00

Unusually cold weather forced its way down from the North a couple of weeks ago and took up residence here in the South that is south of the Deep South. We have seen crazy cold temperatures, lows in the low 20's and highs in the 30's kind of crazy. The weather forecast people say it might even snow tonight.

I awoke this morning to the sound of my neighbor using a chainsaw. Then I remembered they don't have heat at their place though I suspect they installed their wood burning stove. We have heat, praise God, but only because we replaced the unit when we moved into this house. I just wish we had functional insulation. I don't know how the people up North manage every winter, though I suspect they are much more prepared for it.

When we first brought Strider home, we found an old, barely adequate dog house in some junk left behind by the former owners of our house. We put it out for Strider, but he would never use it. Kurt and I always felt bad about Strider not having adequate shelter so when the weather forecasts started mentioning hard freezes and snow, I knew something needed to be done. I couldn't wait for Kurt to have time off so Gregory and I decided we would build a dog house for Strider last Monday. We only had a couple warm hours to do it and had to use supplies scavenged from the various piles of junk strewn about our property. I've never built anything in my life.

In three and a half hours, Gregory and I built a very Red Neck doghouse for Strider.

Granted, most of the wood we used was in poor shape, but I thought we did an amazing job, all things considered. I don't know how to cut stuff to build something, but I've used a chainsaw before. So I cut things after they were in place. We sunk 5 posts and then I used the chainsaw to cut them down to size. Then we attached pieces of scavenged plywood and cut off some of the excess when we had to. The rest got left for wind breaks. I did use Kurt's circular saw for some of it. Gregory fretted the whole time because my methods were quite unconventional, but in the end, he agreed that we did a pretty good job. We installed a brick foundation of sorts and Strider even got a window.

The window came about due to the shape of the piece of plywood we found for the southern wall.

We finished the doghouse off with a floor of hay and our old, King size electric blanket. The house is warm and cozy and Strider refuses to go into it, even though it is plenty large enough for him. He likes to sit on the hill and stand guard over our property and I don't think he is comfortable being where he cannot see everything. At least he now has an option if it does snow tonight.

The hay we used for Strider's dog house and for the chicken coop came from our neighbor across the creek. We brought some goodies to them at Christmas and as we were talking, Gabrielle told her I knit Michael's sweater. That conversation moved to how much she, Miss Kitty, wanted a black beret. She offered to pay me to knit one, but I needed hay. They grow hay so we agreed to a barter. They delivered a roll of hay and I started knitting the beret.

Miss Kitty said we could have all the hay we wanted. I just need to hurry and finish her beret.

I also have another knitting project with a looming deadline. Longer ago than I like to remember, I started knitting my Mom a sweater. I don't have much left, but she plans to visit this Spring and I need to get done.

I've already finished the front and the back and am working on the sleeves. I pick this project up from time to time, but it requires thought and I just haven't had much time to concentrate lately, with all the moving work going on. I really do need to focus however. I need to finish this sweater before my Mom's visit.

I tend to keep a pair of socks on the needles no matter what else I am doing because socks are such easy to transport projects. I started a pair of socks before we moved and am still working on them.

I don't really care for the pattern and have modified it extensively. I love the colors in the yarn though.

Back in November I started a special sweater. I thought I could finish it pretty quickly since it is all knit and in the round. Within a relatively short period I knit it up to the underarms.

At that point I decided I needed more yarn. So I placed an order in mid November. The yarn FINALLY came a couple of days ago! Unfortunately the sweater has been on hold long enough that I need to figure out once again, what I am doing.

In the meantime, our Christian Artisans group decided last month we would do a Stash Sock Club this year. We've talked about it for a couple of years and decided we would finally go for it. To that end, we are making kits by matching stashed yarn and patterns that we will randomly select throughout the year to knit. It will be a great way to use resources we already have. I made up my kits last week.

I used some of my favorite yarn for my kits and can't wait to get started.

In addition to the Stash Sock Club, we've been talking about the Queen Susan Shawl. Several of us want to knit it so we thought it was something we could do together.

Caroline suggested we spin for the Queen Susan Shawl. Talk about a challenge! But I decided if Caroline wanted to spin for the shawl, I would too. She said she would send me a sample of the fiber she intended to use.

She ended up probably sending enough to do two shawls, depending on how the CVM wool combs out. I loved opening the box and seeing all the flattened fiber. It sprang to life almost instantly.

I couldn't believe the difference a couple of seconds of air made.

Caroline sent black alpaca fiber from her favorite alpaca, Got Milk. She also sent some CVM from her stash. I've never spun CVM before and am looking forward to the opportunity.

I think there is about a pound of each type of fiber. I'm not sure how much I will need to do 7,000 yards of 60 to 70 wpi double ply yarn. I'm also wondering how long it will take.

The fiber continually beckons. I wish I was done with all house stuff. Last weekend, Kurt took Gregory hunting. With fewer family members to feed, I decided to move the stove and grout the kitchen floor. I also grouted the master bathroom floor. Once Kurt reinstalls the trim, I will finish painting in those rooms. In the meantime, I got the paint for the dining room, living room and hallway. Cathy will be helping me get started with that painting on Saturday. I can't wait until everything is done and we are simply living in the house. In those days, I will be able to spin and knit more regularly.

Christmas 09

2009-12-30T13:57:00.002-06:00

We had a really lovely Christmas this year. I expected the opposite. We've been moving and remodeling and unpacking and remodeling some more. We've been building for chickens and the dog. We broke ground for part of the garden and planted. Normally I knit for the kids for Christmas. We don't have much of a budget for Christmas and they enjoy getting things made especially for them. But with so many house things going on all Fall, I did almost no knitting, aside from a special project for someone outside the family. And since Gregory got an expensive present for his birthday, he had no money left in the budget for Christmas. However this year we decided as a family to really focus more on giving to others. It is the day we celebrate Jesus's birthday and we know He loves people. We've been so inspired by our friend Bob the Builder, who has given so much to us over the last couple of months. So the kids decided to buy presents for each other from the little bit of money they each had and we spent a good chunk of time baking presents and visiting neighbors.

Their generosity with each other filled the space under the tree with presents.

The kids excitedly gathered in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning this year, eager to give their gifts to each other.

Each gift, while not expensive, resulted from a great deal of thought and planning.

Gregory couldn't wait to give Michael a dart gun of his very own. Michael constantly played with Gregory's old gun and the single dart remaining from the original collection. In fact, Gregory spent a good portion of the money he had been saving for a special computer game to give Michael a deluxe dart gun with plenty of darts. Gregory's thoughtfulness really touched me because my kids don't get much money to spend on themselves. They really have to save for a long time for the things they especially want.

My lovely daughter enjoys giving to others more than anything. She started the Christmas present shopping and infected Michael. Gregory quickly caught the giving bug later.

I asked Gabrielle what she wanted for Christmas. For a long time she wanted the last 4 books in a set she'd started reading a couple years ago. By the time she asked, the publishing company had gone out of business and the books were out of print. Fortunately, a few months ago I purchased the last few books knowing they would soon no longer be available. Gabrielle couldn't believe she finally had the chance to discover how the story ended.

We also got Gabrielle a charging station for her iPod. I'm hoping this will keep her from losing it. Now she has a place to keep it.

I stumbled upon a sale at Toys R Us the week before Christmas and found a Transformer toy for Michael. When Michael opened it he told us he always wanted one. How convenient.

Since Gregory didn't get a Christmas present from us, we let him open all of the general gifts.

One of our neighbors sent over a gift and I had picked up a couple movies for the family as well.

Grandma sent gifts to everyone including a nifty multi-tool for Kurt.

Kurt had a tool themed Christmas. I purchased a set of tools when we moved which Kurt has been using during our home remodel. These were an early Christmas present.

Kurt found a lovely vintage cedar chest at his store which he thought to give me for Christmas. However, Kurt couldn't finally decide to get the chest because he wasn't quite positive I would like everything about it. Then one day I visited his store while he was out. As I waited for him to return, I looked around and found the chest, which I bought on the spot. I'd been wanting one for a long time. In the end we decided it would be my Christmas present anyway. It needs to be refinished and I am hoping Kurt will put it in the queue of ongoing projects and get to it soon.

Our home remains my favorite Christmas present by far. Bob the Builder recently brought over another surprise.

I had mentioned I wanted to put up some 2 x 4s along the wall in the kitchen where no cabinets would fit. I told Bob I could use the small shelves for canning jars. Apparently when I turned around he rolled his eyes and started measuring. He told Kurt not to tell me, but he would take care of my canning shelves.

Bob the Builder amazed us once again. These shelves completely outdo anything I could conceive. They are beautiful and the gleaming rows of jars look fantastic in my kitchen. I love being able to see what I have canned too. It helps me plan.

The sun room is very close to being finished.

We still need doors to close the hole between it and our bedroom and we need a new ceiling fan. My warping board still sits under the coffee table stowed until I paint the wall upon which it is to be mounted. Even still, I LOVE my sun room. It reminds me of the lanai in our old Gulf Breeze house. And Michael got me a little table top fountain for the sun room for Christmas, like the one we had in Gulf Breeze. Yes, we had a very good Christmas indeed.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-12-23T13:28:00.004-06:00

Like always, December rushed by in a whirlwind of busyness. Gregory's thirteenth birthday sprang upon me despite my firm belief he could not possibly have grown so old.

For more than a year, Gregory wanted an iPod Touch.

But he dared not hope for one. They are out of our budget. Little did he suspect I found a good buy online. Of course, we didn't want to be too obvious.

I'd sort of suggested Gregory could expect a new computer game for this birthday. After all, an iPod plugs into the computer and you do play with it.

Gregory's last iPod died after being sent through the washing machine no less than 5 times. Either Apple makes an amazing product to survive 4 washings or my front load washing machine cleans marginally, if at all. Unfortunately, I suspect the latter.

Gregory swears there is no way this iPod will go into the laundry. I suspect he may be right because he never puts it down long enough to forget about it or wash it. In fact, I told Gregory I would need his iPod on Christmas Eve so I could put it under the tree. The iPod is also Gregory's Christmas present. At first he wanted something under the tree, but now he is not certain he can part with the iPod even overnight on Christmas Eve. I'm glad he is happy, though I'm not too happy about seeing him constantly wired to the thing.

Despite all the distracting work of moving and renovating, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of having a teenager in the house.

Nevertheless, I had to put 13 candles on his cake. Unreal. It really seems like he was just a little guy not that long ago. I realize all parents say that, but it is really true.

And my little fellow, who once could not blow out the few candles on his cakes, easily blew out all 13 this year. Happy birthday Gregory.

Squeezed in between the holidays, our friend and hero Bob the Builder and his mighty son Adam spent a couple of days helping us with a couple of tiling projects.

This time I got to use the wet saw so now I think I could tile by myself if I had to tile by myself. And since we have some tile left over and there are no floors in two of the closets, I anticipate tiling by myself eventually.

Kurt also got a few lessons in tiling.

Kurt worked with Bob in both the master bathroom and the kitchen. Not only is Bob amazing when it comes to building and installing stuff, but he is a good teacher as well.

Bob also taught me how to do the grout part of tiling. Grouting isn't hard in itself however, being hunched over freezing cold tiles in the dead of winter in a room without insulation when one is no longer young can be a bit of a challenge.

After grouting and incidentally after Bob left which is generally when things are likely to go wrong, I tried to seal the grout with a couple different products. The grout never actually sealed according to the descriptions on the products. Kurt and I sought help and we couldn't actually find anyone who had successfully sealed their grout to the place where it wouldn't absorb water afterwards. I now suspect grout sealing is not real. I think someone is making a lot of money with an idea that just sounds good. However, if someone has actually sealed their grout to the point where it is no longer absorbent, I'd sure like to hear about it.

Gabrielle and I decided to continue our Christmas baking tradition this year despite not being very moved in yet.

So we spent a couple of long days making candy and cookies.

And we piled the goodies onto 25 plates, which was the number we thought we needed.

Kurt brought a couple of the plates to work and the rest went to our new neighbors and friends at church.

The kids and Kurt were relieved to find plenty of left-overs. We ate them pretty fast though.

Gabrielle decided to participate in the Christmas program at church this year.

The kids were all so cute.

At first Michael said he wouldn't participate. He has never liked being in front of a crowd.

Everyone wanted him to be the donkey.

They didn't have anyone to play the donkey role.

But every day, Michael refused, until the morning of the production.

Finally, Michael agreed to be the donkey. (I think he had such a great time meeting our new neighbors the day before when we brought our Christmas goodies around the neighborhood that he finally decided people were fun.)

Although Michael told us he would be in the Christmas production, he told us he would NOT sing.

And he didn't. Gabrielle did a great job in her angel role and sang beautifully, which is not a normal thing in this family. We really don't have good voices in general and mine is absolutely terrible.

While Michael looked bored and sleepy. (I love that Michael still fits into the Dale sweater I knit for him a couple years ago. However, this will be the last year he will be able to wear it.)

I don't know why he refused to sing.

Since he sings all the time at home.

But that is my quirky little guy.

Sugar Cane and Turkey

2009-11-30T20:45:00.002-06:00

All moving and remodeling things must pause for harvest and holidays and we've had both this last week. After unpacking as much of the kitchen as possible in the couple of days I had available, I took a break for Thanksgiving and for harvesting our sugar cane. We finally faced the challenge and cooked one of the giant turkeys we raised this year. It fit into the oven just fine.

However, there was a bit of an issue getting it into a pan.

Even after thawing, the turkey sat on top of my roasting pan, obviously way too big for the largest pan in my house. So Kurt ran out Thanksgiving morning and brought home the largest disposable pan he could find.

It just fit and we bent up the sides for extra holding ability. But the pan was shallow. Too shallow. I used a cookie sheet for support and to catch any drips AND I installed an oven liner.

Praise God we were able to cook the thing. I wasn't sure we'd be able to do it there for awhile. And really, the fire that happened when the shallow disposable pan filled up with juices and overflowed caused very little damage to the inside of my new oven. And really, had I seen the instructions warning against putting the liner on the bottom of the oven, we may not have had any damage at all from the fire itself.

Several people suggested I cut up the turkey to cook it, but I wanted to stuff it and stuffing a turkey cut into pieces just didn't seem right.

Besides, I'd made my own bread crumbs for the stuffing already and really wanted to use them. The stuffing turned out really good and I am glad we roasted our turkey the old fashioned way, though I really am going to have to find a larger roasting pan for the future. We gave two of these giant turkeys to friends and both of them had extra large roasting pans from their mothers. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't have one for me. I'll have to figure out something else before Christmas or cook a smaller turkey.

We were very blessed to be allowed to harvest the sugar cane from our old house in Brewton last week. We pulled a borrowed trailer to Brewton and cleared the field in about three hours with a single machete. We pulled the cane home and the day before Thanksgiving, while I baked pies, the kids stripped off leaves.

Stripping leaves is not an easy job because the leaves are sharp and will slice up your arms. Gregory has really made a huge effort to be a good and reliable worker lately (after a couple talks with Bob the Builder and his parents) and he did the bulk of the stripping work.

I am so proud of Gregory. Not only did he work hard and make sure all the leaves got stripped in a single day,

but he maintained a really good attitude throughout a very long work day.

I really appreciated his attitude since Gregory doesn't even like the cane syrup. He is the only one in the family who doesn't like it.

Gabrielle helped without complaining as well.

Michael sort of helped.

But mostly he just played.

The kids only had one day to strip leaves instead of the three they had last year if they didn't want to do it on Thanksgiving. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we traveled back to Brewton to press the cane at the Wilsons' house.

I love the Wilson family. They are such great people. I really respect the lifestyle they lead. They raise lots of their own food and work together as a family. And they have THE BEST way to cook in winter.

The have a fully functioning, intended for the job, wood-burning cook stove.

I LOVE this stove. It keeps their home so warm and cosy (though I think they have a wood burning stove in the living room for heat as well). And they cook on it too! How cool is that???

Pressing the cane this year was much like last year.

Mr. I.J. drove the 4-wheeler down to the pasture with the cane mill to watch.

Though this year he selected a few stalks of sugar cane to plant. He told me he wanted some cane for "chewin and a bit of juice".

While some of the men piled up the cane and then fed it into the mill. Mr. John David once again spent hours driving round and round keeping the mill cylinders in motion. While I wasn't at the house visiting with the Wilson sisters, I sat and visited with Mr. I.J. I enjoy the stories about his younger days in Brewton, especially the stories about raising and processing sugar cane. He told me they used to make Whiskey from the cane juice skimmings. He told me about pressing cane and boiling it down late into the night and about selling the syrup. He told me a little about the mule that once powered the mill. Some of the whiskey stories made me laugh. Part of me wanted to know how to turn skimmings into whiskey, not to drink it or anything, but just to know how to do it. And really, it is not like I would ever try making it. I just like knowing how to do things, things people don't do so much anymore. In the end, I never screwed up my courage far enough to ask how.

The men took shifts, straining to push the large canes in between the pressing cylinders.

Jason walked over to say "hello" and took a shift as well.

Gregory took frequent shifts throughout the day.

The men had to be ever mindful of the beam going around and around. It got me a couple of times before I remembered I did best visiting with people instead of trying to push sugar cane into the mill.

Gregory had an enjoyable chat with Mr. I.J. over one of the turkey sandwiches I'd made for lunch. Gregory also borrowed Mr. I.J.'s cup and drank a whole lot of the cane juice. He doesn't like the cane syrup, but Gregory drank more cane juice than anyone. We were warned the juice has a bit of a laxative effect, well quite a bit, but it didn't seem to phase Gregory.

He worked all afternoon with few breaks.

And I think he only got bonked once.

Unlike me. I should have sat in the chair like Kurt or stayed away all together. You don't really get hurt or anything since the pole proceeds at a slow, steady pace. You just get pushed and then embarrassed.

The entire time we spent with the mill, the Wilson sisters played with Michael.

They are such sweet ladies. At one point Miss Wanda pushed Michael on the swing.

He told her "yes" when she asked if he wanted to go high.

I really don't think he knew what "going high" meant. Either that or he changed his mind quickly. But he never said a word and Miss Wanda didn't realize how terrified Michael was until I said something to her - after I took a blog picture.

Once we got home with our eight and a half, five-gallon buckets of sugarcane juice, I started the race to boil it into syrup. Sugar cane juice spoils rapidly so it needs to be condensed to syrup quickly. Cane syrup is shelf stable and lasts for quite awhile.

When we moved into our Foley house, we upgraded some of the appliances. I saved the old stove with the idea we could build an outdoor kitchen of sorts for cooking cane juice into syrup. We still need to build something to protect the syrup from falling leaves and bugs so this year we once again boiled the juice in the house. I talked Kurt into bringing the old stove back inside (since we have room where the refrigerator is supposed to go after the floor gets installed). Then I convinced him I should use both stoves to process the cane juice faster. Kurt simply had to convert the cord on the old stove to work with the dryer outlet, which he did. I love my clever husband.

Working with two stoves cut the process from four days to two, much to my relief. It also kept the juice sweeter which makes for better syrup in the long run. I told Kurt I like having two stoves and want to keep both of them inside for now. He doesn't like the idea but I figure as we get stuff put away and messes cleared up, there might be room for the extra stove in the laundry room.

Each five-gallon bucket holds enough juice to fill up a large stock pot.

And with four stock pots going at the same time, condensation filled the house pretty quickly.

And naturally that meant "rain" once again dripping from fixtures, vents and even the ceiling. I thought a dehumidifier would help so Kurt dug ours out of the workshop. We've had it stored for at least four years and I was glad to have a reason to use it again.

I meticulously cleaned up the dehumidifier and plugged it into a kitchen wall outlet. The small explosion and burst of flame flipped a breaker and ended my hopes to remove moisture from the air. Kurt tried to fix it, but a mouse had long ago attempted to establish residency in the inner workings of the machine. Either the nest or the mouse snacking on the wires caused the dehumidifier to short out and the explosion made it permanent. Lousy rodents. I'm glad we have cats now and I hope this particular mouse became dinner for one of the cats at some point.

Kurt thinks our "barn cats" have been overly tamed by the kids, but we still see them with mice periodically. They are doing their job and I am glad they are around, no matter what they do to the screens.

After a good 12 to 13 hours, the sugar cane juice foams more orange and with smaller bubbles, signaling that it has become syrup.

We got five and a half gallons of syrup this year. I'm so grateful to have it around again. We ran out a couple months ago and oatmeal is just not right without it.

I had to stay with the syrup all day, each day again this year, but didn't get much knitting done. While I did a little knitting on the second day of processing, on the first day I cracked and shelled the bag of pecans the Wilsons gave to us as we were leaving.

I'm so grateful for the people who share things like pecans with us. I wish we had a producing tree ourselves, but since we don't, I am grateful for friends who share.

On the pet front, Strider has become a much happier dog.

He likes to sit on the top of the hill left from our pool installation and sometimes chase chickens. We are trying to break him of the chicken thing. He is supposed to protect them. Silly dog. I'm really going to have to pray for the means to distract him with dairy goats as soon as possible.

Ongoing Projects

2009-11-22T15:11:00.002-06:00

Although remodeling related tasks continue to absorb a great deal of our time in our new home, we are starting to settle into a more normal life. (Though if you ask Michael, he will say, "I want to go back to normal; boxes aren't normal.") I'm not as picky (though I will confess the piles of boxes are starting to drive me a bit batty). Kurt and I are finally sleeping in a bedroom and for me, that feels nice and normal.

We've been sleeping in our bed in our own room for more than a week now and I just love it! In the morning, dancing beams of sunlight reflect off the pool onto the ceiling in our bedroom to greet me. I love the look of sunshine reflecting off water and praise God the swimming pool ended up in exactly the right place.

I've started unpacking kitchen stuff in earnest.

I love my new kitchen so much. I've been doing all sorts of cooking just because I can. I've made homemade pasta more times since I got my new kitchen than I ever did the whole time we lived in Brewton.

I've discovered homemade noodles are wonderful cooked in the chicken broth left over when I boil a stew chicken for ginger chicken.

I love all my counter space. I probably don't have any more counter space than I had in prior homes, but I've never had it all in one long run and the sheer length of it makes all the difference.

I love my kitchen. I love the impractical "Shoreline Green" color on the walls and I love, love, love the counter tops and cabinets Bob built. And it just keeps getting better as Kurt builds my pantry space in the laundry area. God is so good. By all rights, considering our own resources, I never should have been able to have such a nice kitchen. But I do.

We brought home our new livestock protection dog last week.

He is still a puppy. A 55 pound puppy. We brought him home hoping he would keep our chickens safe from predators and would put us closer to raising dairy goats eventually. But "Strider" is such a cute little guy and we've all spent too much time playing and interacting with him. I suspect he would rather be a big pet than a working farm animal.

But poor Strider was so sad when we brought him home. He missed his goats and his family and it just broke our hearts. In fact, Strider managed to get out of the fence his first night with us and we despaired of seeing him again. But lots of prayer and God's mercy brought Strider home the following morning. We are so grateful.

Even though Strider looks forlorn in these first day pictures, he is starting to become much happier with his new home here. We are very glad.

In the meantime, Gregory has done a great job returning dirt to the back deck foundation by the pool. However, when it started raining a couple days ago, we gave him an inside job.

Gregory is removing Thinset from the concrete sub floor in the kitchen. On day two of the job, today, Gregory recruited some help.

Michael really loves helping and really threw himself into the project. I love the way my children want to be a part of the projects around our home.

Progress

2009-11-11T15:26:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I can hardly imagine we have been living in Foley for almost a month. From an unpacking stand-point, hardly anything has changed. Every day or two we rearrange stacks of boxes to find something or move them out of the way for construction, but we've unpacked very little. However, the house itself has changed a great deal.

We finally saw the end of stump 1 and stump 2.

The large machine in the back of the above picture quickly ground the stumps into the beginning of my new compost pile and the Bobcat hauled it to the new garden site.

After triumphing over the stumps, the pool installers quickly built the pool.

I like the idea that beach sand sits under the pool, though sometimes I think it would be nice to have a beach too. I wanted to create a beach by the creek at the back of our property but everyone I know insists it will wash away when the creek floods during heavy rains or tropical weather. Sometimes I hate practical details.

Once the pool contained water, the kids decided to try it out. Had it not been so cold, I might have been tempted to join them since to this day we have still not added chemicals to it.

But I am a wimp and wouldn't even get in for poor little Michael who wanted to swim so much. He ended up being a good sport about the whole thing and watched from the deck when I assured him the water freshly pumped from our well would be too cold.

Our kids and our neighbors' kids convinced each other to brave the cold for a good 45 minutes. Dallas, our neighbor, watched his kids freeze in our pool, probably grateful his kids could swim well enough that he didn't have to get in himself.

We love the fact the stumps required so much earth to be removed because now the pool is in a perfect position relative to the deck. However, because so much dirt was moved from the foundation of the deck, we are having to fill in the area between the deck and the pool with some of the removed earth. This is no easy job and Kurt and I figured it was a great opportunity to develop the kids' work ethic.

Actually, we gave the job to Gregory and he recruited his siblings. He even put Michael to work. Michael loved helping and for awhile, worked harder than anyone.

Normally Kurt and I would help, but we have so many projects going right now. Fortunately, God has graciously supplied help for our many projects.

For example, until a few days ago, several people worked very hard to put as much dry-wall dust into the air as possible. And, the more dry-wall dust in the air, the more dry-wall dust on all of the surfaces and in all the cracks and crevices in the house. Multiple applications are best for full coverage.

We have some wonderful friends who've been helping us tear down and rebuild our home. Our neighbor Dallas is one of them. He got sucked into our house remodeling projects when Kurt needed some help removing a wall and applying final coats of mud.

(I won't go into the pleasures of sleeping on the dining room floor next to the area where walls are coming down and dust is being set free. You will have to imagine how fun it is to have such work take place next to you during normal human sleeping hours.)

I will admit I really like the open look of our kitchen now that the structural wall separating it from the living room has been removed. I especially liked it when the ceiling didn't come crashing to the ground. Especially since it was 2:00 a.m. and I was trying to sleep next to the area in question. I will confess I worried when Kurt and Dallas wanted to hurry and remove the wall before "Bob the Builder" saw what they were doing. (Bob has been pretty much in charge of projects and keeping us reasonable during the whole process here.) I recalled when we talked to Bob about the wall, he said something about structural walls and then sort of ignored it afterwards. However, even Bob liked the end result when he saw it.

When Bob arrived about a week ago for a 3 day remodel marathon, things started moving fast. He brought the most BEAUTIFUL counter tops and open cabinets for our larger kitchen. (He built the cabinets and the counter tops in his home workshop and is a custom cabinet maker [and homebuilder] by trade. If you are in the Pensacola area and ever need cabinets [or a custom home], you really NEED Bob's telephone number!)

For hours, all I could do was stare at them. They are so pretty and there was a time when I really feared I would have to live with the dilapidated pink counters that came with the house. Once the counters went down, Kurt helped install a brand new sink. I'm so excited about all of this I won't even let Gabrielle do the dishes. I don't think she minds.

Bob also sort of taught me how to install tile in the sun room. I helped with the Thinset anyway; he did all the hard parts.

Before we started the floors, Bob removed the wall the prior home-owners installed in the doorway between the master bedroom and the sun room. Eventually we'd like to add French doors to the opening.

Unfortunately I had to order the grout I wanted for the sun room tiles so the work in that room stopped. But we were able to move everything from the master bedroom into the sun room so work could start there. I started by painting the walls a nice pretty green and right before he left, Bob gave me a quick lesson in laying the snap together wood floor.

I got about 5 rows down when I noticed the floor had started unsnapping. So I pulled it apart and tried again. And again. And again. My neighbor Dallas saw my distress and he came to the rescue. But he made the mistake of trying to teach me. And once I started helping, the floor had to be pulled out and redone because all of my work started coming apart. (Dallas says it is not my fault, but I don't know how he arrived at that conclusion.)

In the end, on the seventh try, Dallas and my husband got the floor down, including the closet.

Kurt started reinstalling the molding yesterday. Today I noticed a couple rows of floor in the closet coming apart. I care, but I'm sorta wishing I hadn't noticed it maybe. . .

While we were still trying to install the floor, my friend Cathy from church and my neighbor Donna came over and helped paint some of the kitchen.

The kitchen still needs work, but I already love it a great deal. When things get crazy and they do, it is my happy place in the house.

Michael and the other kids are getting tired of living out of boxes. Gregory says it is like a camping trip that never ends. I agree.

The Big Move

2009-10-23T14:42:00.002-05:00

After two weeks of crazy, surrounded by the best friends people can have, we moved into our new Foley home last weekend and started a whole new kind of crazy. Despite my firm belief we could make two runs with a rental truck and be moved, we took several runs with the van and a borrowed trailer, filled our friend's trucks, trailers and vehicles at least twice and took 4 runs with the rental truck to move our stuff. We lost all of our stuff just 5 years ago in the hurricane and it is incomprehensible to me that in 5 years we could accumulate so much. But looming piles of boxes tell me we did.

Apparently moving large chest freezers full of food sucks. They are heavy and cumbersome. Then there is the ever present problem with things thawing if you aren't quick enough.

In order to get our largest freezer onto the trailer and then off again, the men in charge piled up the contents on a box.

After putting the freezer in place, everyone then quickly returned the pile of poultry to the freezer. And then when the door wouldn't close, I got called in to rearrange things so they would fit.

Now I realize organizing the freezer was a breeze compared to the house.

And I can't get anything done. The family room (above) is filled up with stuff, much of which belongs elsewhere. Some of Gregory's bedroom furniture is here. But Gregory's room is full of his stuff and Michael's stuff. I can't move Michael's stuff until I paint Michael's room. So far, I've only painted the ceiling. And I did a lousy job at that. I've decided I don't like painting. Except when my friend Kathy is around. She loves to paint and she is good at it. Her good attitude infects me and then painting is okay. I'm having a hard time getting to the painting because there are so many people at the house doing stuff and I have a hard time isolating myself in a bedroom when there are strangers around my children.

Much of the master bedroom furniture likewise sits in the family room. But I can't really move anything (more) into the master bedroom because it doesn't have a proper floor and flooring work is imminent.

The master bedroom floor sits in the family room next to the floor for the master bathroom.

Because we ran out of space, we did put some stuff into the master bedroom. Most of the stuff is fragile or expensive. We also stored the furniture destined for the sun room in the master bedroom. We couldn't put anything into the sun room because the sun room floor was so bad it had to be completely removed.

In fact, our friend Bob, the best of builders, had to jack the sun room onto blocks in order to repair the bad foundation.

Fortunately, Bob performs miracles these days and he not only fixed the foundation and the sub floor, but he retro-fitted some sort of flashing that should prevent future rotting issues. He is my hero this week.

But I still can't move the furniture into the sun room because the tile for the floor is in boxes.

I have to install the tile. But to do that, I need to learn to install tile. Hopefully it isn't harder than knitting or sewing.

Since we can't sleep in the master bedroom, we have set up temporary sleeping quarters in the dining room.

The dining room is probably too small for our dining room furniture anyway. But for now, we've set up a temporary dining room in the living room.

The living room also holds a bunch of boxes. One pile leans precariously over Gabrielle's chair.

I'd like to unpack some of the boxes, but most of them hold kitchen things. And of course, the flooring for the kitchen is in the family room.

And the kitchen isn't habitable.

The cabinets and counter-tops are in pieces. Any time I try to unpack something into the kitchen, it gets moved for work being done. I've given up trying to unpack the kitchen for now.

There is some "light at the end of the tunnel" however. I entered all the receipts for everything to date and we're basically out of money. Thus, construction will be done very soon. I can't believe how fast it spends. It feels like we've had a black hole attached to our bank account.

Of course we had a bit of a drain before we moved. Everything started breaking. Kurt replaced the pool pump and then the dishwasher quit and had to be replaced.

All day today, we've had an air conditioning repair person fixing the broken units. Apparently the quoted price is just a starting place.

Every time I turn around, there is a new expense. This air conditioning thing could turn the bank account inside-out by the end of the day.

On the day we closed, we hit an end of the season sale and bought an above-ground swimming pool for the new house. We had one at the house in Brewton and our family just loved it. And I was glad to have paid for it in full, in advance.

Well, that was until the installers were stumped.

Meet stump one.

And stump two.

When pool installers discover large, live oak stumps, pool installation cannot proceed and big, expensive equipment must be rented. Guess who pays for the extra expenses. . .

And what would be a pool installation without cutting an underground power line?

At present, the workshop has no power and the poultry freezer is plugged into an extension cord running into the house.

But God is good and at the moment the power problems surfaced, our friend John was in our attic fixing some other power issues.

Final score at the end of the day? We're poor, but Jesus is still mighty in our lives.

Michael's Fourth Birthday

2009-10-23T13:48:00.003-05:00

For some time now, the computer drive that allows me to upload photos from my camera hasn't worked. Today it worked. Thank God because I truly need a break from the chaos of life today.

Almost a month ago, we celebrated Michael's fourth birthday.

He remembered opening presents from last year and couldn't wait.

He got a little confused when we didn't put up the Christmas tree. He insists we had a tree last year. Despite the confusion, I thought his memory quite good for a four year old.

Michael got a cool truck with tools and a set of his own Legos from us.

Grandma sent a train and this year's noisy toy.

With so much of their own stuff already packed, all the kids were glad to see some new toys in the house.

Michael desperately wanted an ice cream cake for his birthday.

He loves ice cream, but cake is not his favorite.

So I made him one. It was very good.

Michael loved the whole idea of blowing out candles.

Though he really had to work for the last one.

Michael had a great time on his birthday with his presents and cake and homemade pizza. For us, it marked a transition to our new life. On Michael's fourth birthday, we finally got the call telling us it was time to close on our house in Brewton. In fact, we closed two days later and the chaos began!

In Need of a Fix

2009-09-08T11:04:00.004-05:00

Today I want to play a little game. I am going to post pictures of an impossible kitchen and a crazy bathroom and see if anyone can come up with remodel ideas to make the rooms more functional. I'll start with the kitchen.

I snapped this picture from the dining room. As you can see, the bar extends from one side of the kitchen to the other, completely cutting off kitchen access to the dining room. Food must be brought through the living room to get to the dining room or passed over the bar.

Seen from the other side of the kitchen, the bar has more cabinets built into it than the rest of the kitchen combined. The kitchen is already too small to be practical and we simply cannot afford to lose any cabinet space.

In fact, the kitchen is crazy tiny considering the way I have to cook. With 2 children who cannot tolerate gluten, I need a decent size kitchen and a functional space.

The bar also provides a majority of the counter space in this tiny kitchen.

The bar attaches to a small wall that forms a part of the living room. This small wall also holds up the kitchen ceiling and is thus, load bearing.

We would like to remove this load bearing wall and open up the kitchen a bit, but cannot figure out how to do it without sending the kitchen ceiling crashing to the floor.

There is a small corner of the bar poking out from the wall and I know with all of the trips back and forth past this wall bringing food from the kitchen, through the living room and into the dining room, I will gouge holes into my legs eventually. I would hate to leave this hazard unfixed.

It would be nice to have some sort of bar area where the kids could sit while I worked in the kitchen. Otherwise they tend to end up in the kitchen itself, making it hard for me to work.

The dining room is rather small as well and there is no breakfast nook for extra space. I don't think we could expand the kitchen into the dining room effectively. The prior homeowners converted the sun room into a dining room by boarding up the wall between it and the master bedroom. The job was poorly done and we plan to reopen the wall.

It would be weird to have master bedroom access to the dining room through French doors.

I have wondered about moving the dining room into one side of the living room.

The family room is quite large and will probably be our main living space. I really don't have furniture for the living room and might use it for my computer area.

Perhaps a combination sitting area and office area along with a dining room could free up the original dining room for kitchen expansion? But I don't know how that would work with the French doors opening into the sun room right in the middle of the space.

We think the best idea for expanding the kitchen would be to move the water heater and expand the kitchen into the first utility room. There are two utility rooms in a row off of the kitchen, the original one and the new one. Both have room for the washer/dryer and we could eliminate the first one pretty easily.

It is not a large space, but we could add cabinets and additional counter space. It looks like the divider wall would come down easily.

The master bathroom is the other crazy room in need of restructuring. It is a small, "L" shaped room divided into cubicles.

The sink and vanity hides at the tip of the "L" farthest away from the master bedroom.

Stepping back from the vanity and past the full length window, you reach the toilet cubicle. The toilet faces the half wall at one end of the bathtub cubicle.

The toilet is in the angle part of the "L" and the bathtub is under a window. It extends almost to the door between the master bedroom and the master bath. However, the craziest part of the master bathroom is the shower. Look behind the door.

Tucked behind the bathroom door is a tiny shower, seemingly the after-thought of a home-owner who realized one couldn't build a master bathroom without a shower.

I tried to get a picture of the shower, but my camera couldn't focus in the cramped, dark space.

Personally, I don't know how the glass shower door hasn't been broken by a door slam or the door knob.

We haven't even started trying to wrap our minds around fixing the crazy master bathroom yet.

We managed to resolve some questions with our lastest trip to the Foley house. I also took a couple pictures to stimulate ideas.

I grabbed a quick picture of the master bedroom and the window overlooking the deck.

I think Kurt agrees it would be nice to create door access to the deck through the window space.

The deck area outside of the master bedroom is nice and the sun room creates a little niche area.

I would love to put a hot-tub on the deck outside of the master bedroom, but our budget is already stretched beyond capacity with necessary house repairs. We already probably won't be able to do everything that needs to be done.

We would like to get the kids another above ground pool. The one here in Brewton has been a blessing. Not only do the kids have a way to cool off in summer, but they get plenty of exercise and have great swimming skills. I would feel much safer if all three children could swim well with the property backing up to a creek and with us living so close to the ocean.

We've been trying to figure out where we could put a round, above-ground swimming pool. Kurt thought we could do it right off the back deck where the bird bath resides presently.

While I would like to have the pool close to the house, I have a hard time visualizing how it would work with the steps to the right of the area.

I think Kurt plans to take those steps out of service since there are two sets of steps.

I do think the back of the house would look nicer with a pool rather than all of the weeds and I could use it if it were in the shade since I burn like crazy in the summer.

Kurt would like to build an access gate from the deck to the pool. I just hope the pool will be level with the deck.

The tree in the deck is close to the area where we want to put the pool and could end up being a nice little sitting area eventually.

We looked for an area for the kids swing set and think it would work on the side of the house by the master bedroom.

There is a little bit of a clearing with a flat area and plenty of shade.

While we were at the house, I snapped a picture of the area I think we will use for a garden.

We will have to remove a tree or two, but it should provide a nice space for growing things.

Kurt asked me to get some pictures of the overhang behind the workshop.

Kurt thinks the tractor will fit beneath the overhang and be protected.

I hope he is right. There doesn't seem to be much head room.

I hope the homeowner removes all of her stuff from the area too. I'd hate to have to deal with all of it before we can store our stuff out there.

I figured I would take some pictures inside the workshop too.

In addition to the tools and building stuff, the workshop is the only area where I can think to put the chest freezers. I hate to have to brave the weather to get our food, but I just can't think of a better place for the freezers.

At least there is power.

And some wall space.

And I just hope the seller removes her stuff before we close.

Now that the seller has moved out of the house, I saw some more issues that had been hidden behind boxes and furniture.

Here in the school room the base board is missing from one wall. The same problem exists in the master bedroom.

And then there are cobwebs and dirt everywhere. I'm going to try so hard to really clean our house good before turning it over to the buyers.

I didn't think I was going to need any shower curtains in the new house, but I do after all.

I can't imagine using the shower in this bathroom though.

And despite everything and all of the busyness, Gabrielle and I managed to put up a dozen or so jars of pears.

Due to the sugar in them, I haven't tried them, but the family loves them.

Today our buyers are doing their final walk through and I have to get busy and clean up. Last Thursday morning, we heard we would be closing this Thursday. Thursday afternoon we were told "maybe." We're supposed to close in Foley on Tuesday and I don't know if that is going to happen or not. This has to be one of the most stressful moves we've ever had to make.

Contractor Day

2009-08-09T11:03:00.002-05:00

We spent another Friday at the Foley house. This time we brought contractors to give us an idea how much more we will have to spend fixing new house items flagged by the house inspector the week before. We're going to try to get the amount taken off the price the house so we can fix things like the air conditioning, rotten sub-flooring, roof leaks, etc. In the meantime, I got some pictures of the master bath.

There is good lightening in this otherwise small and awkwardly shaped room.

I really don't like the blue counter tops.

It is such a dingy space. (Can you tell I've been watching lots of home improvement television?)

I suspect a simple coat of paint will make a huge difference.

The tub is a nice size though it's proximity to the toilet is somewhat odd. I guess I'm used to toilets being next to tubs, but I've never seen a toilet that faced the tub. That just seems weird.

From the entryway, the master bathroom is a long, narrow, "L" shaped room with a small linen closet.

I got a couple more pictures of the master bedroom.

I think this room has a lot of potential.

It has a long window facing the deck. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to make that window into a door. It would be nice for Kurt and I to be able to access the deck from our bedroom without climbing out of the window.

Looking back toward the door, I noticed the last vestige of an old built in vacuum cleaning system. I suppose it is no longer necessary since the master bedroom is the last room with carpet in the house and I hope to get rid of that carpet too. Carpet is bad for allergies and I would like to get rid of it all.

I got a better look at the tile in the kitchen.

I hate grout with a high contrast from the tile. It turns out the grout is just really dirty and not high contrast. I wonder if it can be cleaned adequately. This house definitely has a high yuck value for all the dirt.

Our Fixer Upper

2009-08-01T11:21:00.002-05:00

Today I am doing a tour of the house we are buying in Foley with particular attention to the problems we will face after moving. The downstairs master bathroom is particularly bad, but somehow I missed getting pictures of it. Otherwise, I've done a pretty thorough job.

Starting with the back of the house, you can see a lovely complex system of decks. The sun room, turned into a dining room, sits directly on the deck to the right.

I love the stairs going up to the deck by the kitchen. And there is a tree growing right up through the deck for shade.

I really love the back yard. There are tons of shade-giving trees, including some live oaks. I've missed the live oaks since moving away from the coast.

I love the secluded, private feel of the back yard.

Yet I can see a sunny spot that may become a vegetable garden in the future.

Somewhere behind all the trees we are supposed to have a creek. We've never found it.

There is not a great deal of brush in back, though a line of it has started to grow by the workshop.

The workshop is a small structure behind the house with a wall unit air conditioner.

The sellers have been using it for storage for awhile and it smells musty. You can see graffiti on the walls. I just don't understand why people would write on their walls.

The seller's children have apparently been allowed to run free and they have done some damage as can be seen from the paint hand prints on the side of the workshop.

Unfortunately, the eves are open so the workshop is not weather tight.

There are built in shelves for storage, but I don't know if anything will be safe from dampness. And dampness seems to be a problem everywhere.

The small front porch has some rotting columns.

Apparently someone tried to fix one of them. This will all need to be repaired for real.

We've been told there are multiple flashing and roof issues.

The deck in back has damage as well.

I really love the tree in the middle of it however.

The sun room/dining area has some major issues. The door frames are rotting.

And so is the underfloor. In fact, the tile in one corner ripples over rotting beams beneath.

Slapping a sun room right on top of a deck was probably not the brightest move.

The kitchen is small and old. It is in the original portion of the house and needs a lot of attention.

There is a tiny pantry however, which is better than none at all.

The grout between the kitchen tiles looks stained, though there is so much dirt around it is hard to be sure of anything.

The kitchen counter tops are all ruined.

The air conditioning in the original portion of the house does not work and the vent in the kitchen was removed and boarded up.

I cannot figure out how the color got rubbed off the counter tops.

The dishwasher looks older than the house and looks like a truck ran over it.

The cabinets look cheap and scratched.

The original dining room opens off the kitchen. It isn't really usable at this point since there would be no access to the sun room if a table were placed in it. I can put my buffet in it and that will leave plenty of room for chairs for the bar.

The living room has a small coat closet.

There are hard wood floors throughout the house, which I love.

I really don't have furniture for this room, but I have no place for the porch furniture so it may end up in here.

There are lots of water leaks all over the place. I think this one was in the original master bedroom.

The wall in the master bedroom where the seller has her bed used to be a door to the sun room. Construction here is shoddy and I think I'd like to turn it back into a door.

I really love the school room in this house. I think it was originally the second bedroom.

There is a nice closet I can use to store some of my fabric and fiber.

And it is a nice size room for the kids' desks and computers for school.

There are two utility rooms, one with a water heater and one for laundry.

There are apparently problems with the water heater and lots of ceiling stains above it. We don't know if that is from defective plumbing or defective roofing.

The laundry room provides additional access to the family room so we don't necessarily have to walk through the school room.

There may be room in the utility rooms for some of our freezers and/or an extra refrigerator. We've been wondering where we would put them.

I think there may even be room in the laundry room for another pantry like the one we have now.

The pantry would have to go behind the door and that could be a problem.

I'm not sure if we could use some of the family room area for freezers or not. There is certainly no place outside and the family room is where the garage used to be.

There is a great deal of damage from water in the utility rooms so we will need to address that right away before filling the rooms with freezers.

There is a complete bathroom with a shower, downstairs by the school room.

The sink counter is the same as the one we had in our master bath in Gulf Breeze. I still really miss our Gulf Breeze home.

The family room is just a converted garage.

It is quite spacious and full of windows.

I'm thinking I'd like to turn one of the windows into a fireplace.

The sliding glass door from the family room to the deck sits in a little area that may eventually house my loom. I just don't know if my loom will block the door too much.

The family room floor is just stained concrete. I really like it. Unfortunately, the concrete was never properly sealed and there are crayon stains everywhere. Of course that matches the crayon marks on the walls and stairs.

I'm wondering if the corner under the stairs would be big enough for my sewing machines.

The old driveway outside the family room would make a nice patio. I'd love to cover it and screen it in.

Despite all the Spackle all over the walls evidencing repairs, there are plenty of holes and gouges everywhere.

The top of the stairwell was apparently never painted. It should be a real challenge getting up high enough to paint.

It is very far up.

The stairs themselves were installed, but never finished. There is a bunch of dirt ground into the bare boards now and crayon too. We will want to stain and finish the stairs, but have no idea how to get rid of all the dirt first.

And there are so many repaired areas and gouges in the walls. Everything will have to be painted.

There is a short hallway upstairs with more kid damage.

The upstairs bath is the nicest one in the house.

There is a separate tub and shower.

Though I think the broken window is in here.

The shower has doors which will hopefully keep the kids from getting so much water on the floor. This bathroom is a second master bathroom which can be accessed through the upstairs master bedroom as well as the hallway.

Gregory has already laid claim to the upstairs master bedroom. His closet will be bigger than mine and I will have to share mine with Kurt.

The room has a great deal of potential and Gregory better keep it clean since it will double as the guest room.

Gabrielle will have one of the closet sized rooms with a super small closet.

The whole bedroom is 11 feet by a little over 7 feet. I've never seen a room so small.

Michael claimed the red room immediately since red is his favorite color. I will have to repaint this room since someone cut out and shoddily repaired a portion of the ceiling. I suppose I better paint it red again.

Michael too will have a very small closet and a very small room.

Our friend Tim has been helping me to design built-in upper bunks for Michael and Gabrielle. My goal is to raise the sleeping area off the floor so there will be room for other things in their rooms. If I do this, it will be my very first building project. I'm watching lots of DIY television for motivation. I think our soon to be house would be a good subject for one of their shows.

Moving!

2009-07-30T13:15:00.004-05:00

More than a year ago, over the Fourth of July weekend, we listed our Brewton house for sale and decided to move south, to the Foley area. Believing the Lord would have Kurt take a promotion and move us to Foley, Kurt moved to Fairhope in October or November of 2008. When the economy fell apart, we wondered if we would ever sell our house in Brewton.

A couple of weeks ago we got an offer for our house. It wasn't as much as we'd hoped, but in this economy we were ready to take just about any offer. So we did!

Taking a lower offer on our Brewton home meant finding a home in the higher priced Foley area would be impossible without the Lord. Fortunately, we are not without the Lord. After a week of haggling, we entered into a contract for a house in Foley, 5 miles from where Kurt works. And we got it for the same price for which we sold our Brewton home. Granted, the house needs work, including a revamp of the whole septic system, but we think it is worth it.

Our new house.

We will only have a little more than 3 acres, but we just couldn't afford to get the house with the adjacent parcel (where the septic tank for the house happens to be). However, we believe we can live a moderate homesteading lifestyle with 3 acres and Kurt will be very close to work. That alone will be a tremendous blessing. Our church will be about a half an hour away, but we will be so close to where Kurt works.

In addition to the septic tank issues, we will have to finish the wood stairs and paint.

The house looks like repairs have been ongoing.

There are two master bedrooms, one upstairs and one down. Gregory has been positioning himself to get the upstairs master bedroom and not to share it with his brother.

And. . .

The house technically has 4 bedrooms, but the 3rd and 4th bedrooms look like one normal sized bedroom that someone walled down the middle to form two. No one's furniture will fit in either of these rooms. One solution is to build platform beds, like upper bunks to increase room for dressers and things. The other option is to remove the center wall and turn the house into a 3 bedroom home. I think the latter makes the most sense, but Gabrielle and Michael insist they want the tiny bedrooms. I suspect Gregory of being behind it, but I cannot prove my suspicions.

The upstairs bathroom is lovely.

I don't remember if it has a shower. I'll have to look tomorrow when we have our home inspection.

The downstairs master bedroom and bath is part of the original house and needs a lot of work. And Kurt and I will have to share a closet, which is no fun.

Kurt likes to lay his clothes out in the closet instead of hanging things up and that will simply not work if we have to share.

The area under the stairs is open. I'm trying to figure out how to turn the area into a closet for wool and fabric.

Between the kitchen and the great room is a small room I believe was once a bedroom (before the addition). We will use it as a school room for homeschooling.

I love extra rooms without assigned functions.

The great room is quite nice.

It is quite large and has a beautiful deck in the back.

There are actually 2 sections of deck off the back of the house. The other part extends toward the dining area.

The original dining area is a bit small, but a sun room has been built on the deck which can provide additional dining room space.

The kitchen is a bit small, but not too bad and the kids love the bar.

Fortunately, the counters are in bad shape and will need to be replaced. They are pink and I really don't want to have to live with them.

Outside is a small workshop area.

And across the yard is a chicken coop.

Unfortunately, it turns out we don't own the part of the yard with the chicken coop.

In the meantime, I've done a very little bit of knitting.

I finished my second pair of Rivendell socks and gave them to a lady at church who ended up in the hospital with heart problems.

I love the cuffs on these socks and can see making another pair one of these days.

And despite my complete neglect with everything else going on, the garden continues to provide us with fresh fruit and vegetables.

I added one of our home raised chickens and some mashed potatoes to yesterday's harvest and we had a very nice dinner.

The kids and the adults are excited to be moving, but sad to be leaving so many friends behind.

Early Harvest and New Bees

2009-05-07T17:50:00.004-05:00

Since I have been taking pictures periodically, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted to my blog until I started looking at the pictures on my camera. Apparently it has been awhile.

We've been very busy in the garden over the last few weeks. With all of the rain falling in the area, I've worked long and hard on the dry days. Fortunately, we had a multi-week dry spell in April and I planted most of the garden during that time.

The lettuce has been growing well despite hail and flooding rains. We even managed to get some nice salads from thinning the lettuces a couple weeks ago.

We are now starting to enjoy salad more regularly from full grown salad greens and have even had enough to share.

There is something about eating fresh out of the garden that just can't be beat.

I think the only thing better is perusing the garden for fresh vegetables and salad and then serving it with home raised chicken or turkey.

I really like the homesteading lifestyle.

Some of the warm weather vegetables have started growing. The corn is up.

And the sugar cane looks great.

I love looking out over the garden.

Our pool deck rises above the garden and provides views of the woods and our neighbor's pasture.

Our neighbor runs sheep and miniature horses in the pasture.

The horses are just beautiful.

And this year a baby plays around the pasture to the delight of us all.

He really is the cutest little thing.

And so curious.

We've added some new livestock to our homestead this Spring.

These are organically raised, small cell bees.

We ran into trouble with our last bees when hive beetles and wax moths attacked and we didn't want to use chemicals. The bees came from a standard commercial apiary where chemicals had been used and the bees couldn't make it without them. This time we are starting with bees raised in line with our own anti-chemical beliefs.

Everyone has been excited about our new Russian residents. They are not supposed to be as gentle as the Italians we formerly owned, but so far Kurt has been working the bees without his bee suit.

And the kids enjoyed helping to set up the hives. All the frames needed wax foundation before they could be installed. Gabrielle got the hang of the work quickly and Michael decided pushing pins into the box was help enough.

The kids are growing up so fast and I'm glad we've been able to raise them in the country.

Of course Gabrielle told me today she hasn't yet decided if she is a country girl or a city girl. So far she thinks she'd like to live in the country, but close to a city.

Michael has really grown.

And he tries to micro-manage everything in the house, driving us all batty. He's a bit too smart for his own good and already thinks he knows everything.

We took the kids to a barn party a couple of weeks ago. The party was a work thing for Kurt. We all had fun.

Michael spotted the jumping thing immediately and couldn't wait to play, unlike in times past. In fact, he wanted to stay when I returned to the barn. Normally Michael glues himself to my side.

Of course he wasn't alone since I had Gregory and Gabrielle keeping an eye on him. Still, it was a big step for Michael.

My favorite part of the evening involved catching up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile.

Since leaving Gulf Breeze, there are people I just don't get to see very often. Barbara is one of them. She is a dear friend and I miss her a great deal. I loved getting a chance to see her for awhile at the barn party.

Lilly

2009-04-21T18:45:00.002-05:00

It has been a very sad day today. We lost our Lilly.

She had been with us for a lot of years. None of the kids can really remember a time when she didn't live with us. She was with us in Gulf Breeze. She traveled all over with us during our Hurricane Ivan evacuation. She was there as we picked up the pieces afterwards. She's gone for walks with us and on camping trips. She joined in as we started our homesteading adventure.

She will be missed.

All Hail Spring

2009-04-14T14:49:00.005-05:00

At 4:30 a.m. yesterday, everyone jumped out of bed in terrified response to the jack-hammering golf ball sized hail battering our house. Hail fell in torrential sheets, while frequent lightening flashes showed us glimpses of a foreign, ice filled landscape. I have never seen anything like this hail storm. I prayed the windows and cars would survive the battering ice while the children prayed for the roof. About 15 minutes later, the ice turned to rain and we waited for sunrise to survey the damage.

Kurt left for class as the sun rose early in the morning. Creek water rushed over the small land bridge that forms the only way in or out of our property and no one knew if he would be able to get home later that day. Not much road survived the last wash-over and we didn't know if we would survive this one.

Praise to God's grace and mercy, damage was not as bad as it could have been. Enough road remains for us to get in and out of our property. Garden plants were smashed and trees defoliated, but the house remained sound as did the vehicles. (Except for a traveling crack in my windshield.)

Despite wind and rain throughout the day yesterday, leaves pulled down by the hail cover everything. Once these leaves dry we will need to sweep out the children's trampoline.

After struggling to survive flooding rains over and over this last month, the garlic suffered bravely through yesterday's hail and flooding rain. However, ice flattened much of it.

The onions fared worse.

Much of the sugar cane looked battered.

And torn.

Leaves snapped.

And bent over.

The smashed radishes have begun to rally, though it looks like bugs have started attacking the weakened plants.

The horseradish looks very sad.

Under all of the fallen leaves this bed was once filled with baby spinach.

The banana trees around our house look pathetic with their shredded leaves.

Our apple trees had finally grown to the point of producing abundant blossoms this year. Not many are left and those that are have few petals remaining.

Even the chicken wire covered coop yard sported a leaf covering. The turkeys and chickens are still trying to figure out if the leaves are good for food.

Our meat chickens are growing fast and eating tons of food every day.

The 70 of them also drink about 7 gallons of water each day.

They are already huge for only 4 weeks old.

The turkeys too are big.

Our rare breed chicken has feathered out as expected.

He looks a bit like Elvis.

What do you think?

He looks tiny surrounded by the giant meat birds while waiting his turn at the waterer.

Last week, I gathered the poke weeds for the first time and cooked my first poke salat.

I've never actually cooked greens before and didn't realize how little I had picked. We only had enough to just taste it. My recipe needs work. I don't know if I like poke or not yet. It takes a lot of work cooking it "in 3 waters."

Last week we got a couple deliveries from the power company.

As the power company trims their easements, they shred the plant material and will provide it free of charge for composting. I'm hoping to get a great deal more before Spring turns to Summer.

I cooked one of the turkeys we raised last year for Easter Sunday. After we picked the meat from the bones, I boiled the bones overnight with some onion, celery, garlic and bay for turkey broth. Yesterday, I canned 24 pints.

I love stocking my pantry with home grown and prepared food.

I have done a little knitting during the last couple of weeks.

I finished my Rogue Roses socks.

And I finally started my Rivendell socks. I have loved the Rivendell pattern for a long time and I can't believe it took so long for me to get started. I'm on the second chart and am already thinking I might need to make a second pair.

All in all, we're having a normal, crazy Spring.

My Beaded Sock Obsession

2009-03-28T13:55:00.003-05:00

I love sock yarn. And I love beads. And I've discovered I love mixing the two together.

It all started a month or two ago when I knit my first pair of beaded socks (and gauntlets). I loved the look of the rich sock yarn colors and beads together so much, I knit another pair for a friend.

And then another pair for another friend.

And then I thought a fun, beaded pair of socks might cheer up my sister who has been having a rough time lately.

I can think of lots of other friends who might like beaded socks too, but I finally got to the place where I needed to try something else again. Something new.

But I keep thinking it would be fun to have a pair of warm, beaded stockings to wear under skirts in the winter.

One of Those Weeks

2009-03-19T12:27:00.006-05:00

It has been one of those weeks. One of those testing weeks. One of those weeks when you stop and think carefully whether you've been praying for patience.

After weeks of dry weather, we finally got rain. And more rain. Probably 8 to 10 inches of rain. After a couple of days, the garden looked wet. Really wet.

Many of the new beds created by Kurt and Gregory looked like islands.

My salad greens, carrots, beets and radishes looked waterlogged.

And while my garlic and onions appreciated a deep watering, I can only imagine they are starting to look like fingers after a long bath.

I really hate when this happens though we plant in beds because this generally happens a couple times during the spring and summer. And worst of all, fire-ants float around in the water keeping you from getting into the garden to do any kind of damage control whatsoever (a bigger problem during harvest).

At least I won't need to hand water for awhile.

I took these pictures while we were still expecting another couple of inches of rain. In an act of desperation, Kurt and Gregory got on the tractor, in the rain and plowed a hundred yard trench from the worst part of the garden, across the yard to the creek. Probably 50% of the water drained off through the trench. Our yard looks like we have a problem with giant moles. But we have some hope of the garden drying out before the next rain.

If a flooded garden isn't trial enough, my computer has been acting up in the worst way. It freezes up constantly. Lately, it hasn't rebooted at all. Unless my husband is around or I take it to the repair shop. Then it works perfectly. Sometimes it scrambles stuff.

But I out-smarted my computer. I took a picture of it misbehaving and figured out how to use the display on the camera to show Kurt.

Because the kids can't do school without my computer functioning (it is the server), Kurt came home from work a couple days ago to see if he could fix the problem. He figured out the fan on my video card had gone bad. (He is a very smart man.) Yesterday he bought a new video card for my computer.

The new video card is defective.

It wouldn't work in my computer and it wouldn't work in his. Finally in an act of desperation, Kurt slapped his video card into my computer. The kids can do school if Gregory works on my computer, though Kurt cannot do his homework. But he bought the video card out of town and we had to get the kids back to school.

Today, instead of finishing up with the computer problems, Kurt shopped for a scope for my 22.

We have another fox killing our chickens. This one is brazen, attacking chickens in the middle of the afternoon with the family on the porch. Gregory, Kurt and I took shifts last evening/night with the 22 hoping to end our fox problem for the year. Gregory got a shot at it, but without a scope to guide him, he missed. He has never fired a gun the old fashioned way. Kurt took the early night shift, but the poor man has been working so hard fixing things around here and not sleeping while he commuted back and forth from work that I found him asleep when I went out for the late night shift. I am a good shot without a scope, but without light (the fox wouldn't cooperate and go into the area we lighted up and baited with the chicken carcass left over from dinner) or young eyes, I had no way to aim when I got a chance at the fox. We are hoping tonight will be better for us and worse for the fox.

Things sure never get boring around here.

An Unexpected Start to the Day

2009-03-15T11:27:00.004-05:00

We received a completely unexpected telephone call this morning. Barely awake, I was preparing to make breakfast before church. I knew Kurt had awakened, but he continued to lay in bed, nursing the last bit of sleep out of the early morning. And the telephone rang. Since my mouth didn't feel like it had started working yet, I grabbed the phone and handed it to Kurt. The caller ID told us the U.S. Government was on the line. Sounded like a call for my husband to me.

Turns out the post office wanted us to pick up the chickens we had ordered and were expecting tomorrow. Kurt heard "chickens" and "post office" and jumped out of bed. I pulled on my "work" clothes and we started our day. I quickly put together some muffins for breakfast and Kurt slogged through the sodden, flooded yard to start getting the coop ready for an additional 65 chickens. (Moving? Us?)

We actually expected our chickens last week. But they were delayed a week. We did get our 15 turkeys and the 14 surviving ones had been in the coop for the last few days. This morning we had to bring things "backwards" to be ready for day old chickens.

While Kurt went to the post office, I cleaned out the feeders and waterers and finished preparing for our day old chickens. (I also called my friend Darlene and told her we probably wouldn't make it to church. She had never heard of anyone getting mail on a Sunday.) Finally, after an unusually long time, Kurt returned from the local post office - empty handed. No one was there.

I grabbed the telephone and called the number from our caller ID. I kept feeling like the subject of a practical joke. I got a recording that listed the post office hours. Nothing on the recording suggested they kept Sunday hours. Crazy.

A few minutes after Kurt returned home, we got another call from the "U.S. Government." This time I took the call (being able to sufficiently speak thanks to the coffee I'd been drinking). The woman wanted to know if we were picking up our chickens. ???

Turns out we'd received a telephone call from a neighboring town's post office. The lady swore she told Kurt to go to her post office in Evergreen. After getting directions and securing a promise to wait if Kurt got there after 10:00 o'clock when they closed, Kurt took off again in search of our chickens. He finally got home with these:

To the 14 resident turkeys (we ordered 15, but one didn't survive) we added 52 meat chickens (they sent an extra 2), 10 Buff Orpingtons, 6 Rhode Island Reds (they sent an extra 1) and a mystery rare breed.

The poor turkeys didn't know what to make of it all.

This one decided to plop down in front of the feed and secure his spot:

Probably a good idea since meat chickens are little piggies with the feed.

We think we figured out which chicken is the free rare breed: (He is on the left, sort of in the center.)

From the look of the little bump of fuzz on his head, we're thinking we've have another crested chicken. Our best guess is a Golden Polish Chicken.

Gabrielle is very happy about having another crested chicken. Personally, I understand why the little funny looking half blind things are rare. The last one we had kept trying to mate backwards. None of the other chickens could tolerate the poor little thing and one of the roosters finally drove it away. Gabrielle likes to think that little chicken lives happily on his own somewhere in the vast woods next to our house. I let her think that if it makes her happy.

Our Biggest Garden Ever

2009-03-14T12:38:00.002-05:00

Kurt took a week off to spend time with us. He decided to help me out in the garden. Boy can that man work!

He took over bed-building while I added minerals and soil nutrients and planted. Gregory helped with bed-building too and almost all of the beds without hay were constructed by my guys in about 2 days.

I planted the hay covered beds in front with onions, garlic and salad greens. On the side I planted beets, carrots, radishes and more salad greens and spinach. Most everything has started coming up. The hay by the trees covers 3 rows of potatoes which I hope will grow despite being planted a month late. Kurt and Gregory made beds for our warmer weather produce, which I will start planting in a couple of weeks. Almost all of our time lately has been spent outside.

We have a new "weed" or wild plant growing around our property. It reminds me of a mustard. I'd sure love to know what it is and whether it is an edible green. The chickens have left it alone so it probably is not edible. One of the plants grew flowers. I snapped some pictures this morning.

The leaves are sort of purplish.

The flowers are a whitish purple color.

Anyone know what it might be?

The Spring Rush

2009-03-03T09:50:00.003-06:00

Spring is a busy time of year, even if it still looks like winter. Which it does. We actually drove through snow (in the air) to get to church on Sunday. The temperatures dropped into the mid 20's last night and the Weather Channel says we will see below-freezing temperatures again tonight. All of this weird weather confuses me.

Normally by this time of year we would be finishing with the planting of our cooler weather garden plants. But I just can't bring myself to put seed in the ground when I wake up to frost in the mornings. I have started forming my beds and rows and have amended my soil with good things for my plants for the year. I suppose I can keep working on my beds until the weather decides to behave. Soon it will be simply too late for cool season planting though. What to do, what to do. I have garlic and onions planted in the beds in the upper right part of the picture, under the hay, but nothing else so far.

In the meantime I have been squeezing in as much knitting and sewing as possible because soon, the garden will need all of my "extra" time.

I finished a new dress for Gabrielle.

I made it from some red velvet in my fabric stash and made it big enough to last a couple of years I hope. We've been listening to "The Little House on the Prairie" books on cd (we don't have many audio books and listen to the same ones frequently) and Gabrielle says her new dress is her new "winter's best." This dress taught me my automatic button hole maker doesn't work very well on velvet (no matter how I might layer my stabilizer). In fact, it got so bad in the end that I made most of the button holes with the "manual" feature and at least part of one button hole on Gabrielle's dress completely by hand. I suspect I too have been influenced by "The Little House on the Prairie" audiobooks.

I've spent some time working on my Mom's sweater. I posted a picture of my progress in my last entry. That picture depicts my first attempt with this sweater. I had knitted up to the arms or thereabout, when I finally had to admit the sweater was going to be too small. So, I ripped out all of my work and started again with a bigger size. I am using a lighter weight yarn than the pattern recommends so I needed a bit of time to figure it all out. I don't purl much and this sweater is based on the purl stitch so my gauge evolved as I fell into a knitting rhythm.

It doesn't look like I have done too much, but this is only my progress on the front. After ripping out my prior work, I managed to complete the back a couple of weeks ago.

I think I've finally found a pattern that works with the yarn we have. It is not easy to find the right pattern to showcase variegated yarn in a sweater and match my mother's taste for feminine looking clothing. I think the Minuette works perfectly. I still have to rip out the back and part of the front from the complicated Aran sweater I started with this yarn previously. That is going to hurt. But Aran doesn't work with variegated yarn. It looks pretty for a little while. Then it gets crazy. I won't make that mistake again.

Not to be bested by a pattern, I started another "Queen of Beads" pair of socks. (My last too small pair ended up as fingerless mitts, which I love.) Last night I finished my socks and they fit perfectly.

I like them so much that I decided to make another pair.

If I don't wear myself out in the garden (freezing to death) today, I hope to cast on this evening. These will be a gift I think.

The Knitting Life

2009-02-07T11:50:00.003-06:00

Pretend for a minute you are knitting a pair of socks. You knit for a few inches and realize the socks are going to be way too big. (And yes, you hit gauge dead on.) Not liking baggy socks, you unravel everything telling yourself it is better to have socks you love, than socks you finished quickly. So you start over with the smaller size in your pattern. At the point you get to the heel flap, you can no longer deny the fact the socks are way too small and cannot comfortably fit over your heel without risking damage to the cuffs. But you knit an extra repeat making the cuffs longer so you have a lot of knitting time and effort invested. And the pattern called for beads and they are rubbing the yarn each time you move them up or down. What would you do?

When facing this exact scenario recently, a brilliant idea popped into my head as I fell asleep late one night, tossing and turning over the fate of my beautiful socks.

I could add thumbs!

I now have a really pretty pair of beaded fingerless mitts or gauntlets, just in time for the weather to warm up.

It is funny, I've been thinking about making myself a pair of fingerless mitts ever since the weather turned unusually cold this year and I discovered I couldn't knit very well with super cold fingers. I couldn't decide upon a pattern though. And now I don't have to decide because I finished the job without nary a thought about it.

I do really love the sock pattern and the yarn though and I plan to try knitting the socks again. I think I will go back to the size medium in my pattern and try them with a smaller needle since gauge isn't getting me anywhere with this one.

After my brilliant success (I am quite proud of myself), I started looking at other abandoned projects with a creative eye. A couple years ago I started working on a pair of socks and discovered they were too small after I turned the heel.

I pulled this long abandoned sock out of the bottom of my knitting bag for a look. I could add a thumb and have another pair of fingerless mitts, but I don't like the yarn enough for that and I am so past knitting only one sock at a time. I like doing 2 socks (or gloves, etc.) at a time so I don't have to think about making them match. They match because I do them together, row for row. If I go too far, they both go too far and I can ignore the deviation if I want. And I don't have to count rows, which is good. I never got a proper grasp on row counting. So, I'm still not sure what will become of this sock. It may work its way back to the bottom of the knitting bag.

While rooting around at the bottom of my bag, I found this:

I started this a couple years ago from a pattern in the book, "Victorian Lace Today" and got distracted by another project. Well, I have a confession. The pattern got really boring. I seem to go absolutely insane when I try to knit projects based upon the feathers and fan pattern. Normally I can do mindless knitting for awhile, but feathers and fans make me nuts. It is too bad really since I intended to knit with homespun yarn and I don't do that as often as I should.

While visiting the ghosts of knitting dreams past, I pulled out the Minuette sweater I started for myself last winter.

I had thought I'd try the pattern out because I have been looking for a pattern to use to knit my mother a sweater. She picked out some pretty and colorful yarn awhile ago for me to use and I've struggled to find the right pattern for it and for her. But the gardening got in the way of my knitting last year and the project languished as projects for me often do. But since I can't keep waffling about the sweater for my mother since I promised her one an embarrassingly long time ago, I plunged into the pattern with her yarn yesterday anyway.

I'm a bit nervous because I already knit the complete back and part of the front to a complicated, over-sized aran sweater before acknowledging it looked awful with the multi-colored yarn. I'm hoping the yarn will look good with this more simple pattern. Otherwise, I will be stumped.

Back in the kitchen, I received my new dehydrator and have already pressed it into service.

I selected the updated version of my older one and am pleased all of my old trays fit on it as well. Now I have 12 trays I can use.

The Little Things

2009-01-31T11:39:00.003-06:00

I don't feel I've accomplished much lately due to lots of little things getting in the way. For example, I spent the entire day yesterday, with my three children, in Florida, so my computer could spend the day "in the shop." It has taken to freezing up periodically. Often times, it will not reboot after freezing, but will play dead for hours at a time. I thought it had died once and for all Thursday afternoon. It made some very bad noises and then, did nothing.

Naturally my computer rebooted with no problems Friday morning at the shop. And after a full day of testing I received a bill for services rendered and was told nothing could be found wrong with my computer. At least nothing fixable and those were the only tests run.

I had my knitting with me yesterday, of course, but I had to spend the day with children who are not used to being confined to a car or being ferried around running errands. (I had to try to redeem the waiting time after all.) So no knitting got done which in my world means I had a lousy day. There have been way too many knit-less days lately.

Despite all of the little things conspiring against my knitting, I have managed to complete a few of the projects I needed to get done. I finished the socks for John, my husband's landlord in Fairhope and Gregory's beloved Sunday school teacher.

These are my favorite basic ribbed socks for men from the book, "Vogue Knitting, Socks 2."

I also completed a pair of socks for John's wife, Cindy. They are "Simplicity" from "The Eclectic Sole" in Tia Dalma from Enchanted Knoll Farm.

I couldn't get a good picture of the color of these socks. They are actually quite lovely. I struggled with giving these socks away while I knitted them. I just love the purple and teal with a bit of pink and blue and the soft superwash merino yarn. I might try to hunt down another skein of this yarn in the future. Well, that is if things stop breaking around here. Did I mention my dehydrator broke the other day? The one we use a couple times a week? My husband Kurt managed to get it running again by substituting a wire heddle from my loom for a burned out part. While Kurt feels confident his fix will work indefinitely, I immediately ordered a replacement dehydrator. That way if the house burns down from a defective dehydrator at some point in the future, I won't have to deal with our insurance coverage being invalidated because we knowingly used an improperly constructed appliance. But then I think about stuff like that. A lot.

The saddest bit of knitting I finished is a chemo hat for my new friend Clara at our new church.

My prayer is for a miracle that will keep her from needing it.

I've continued to spend lots of time in the kitchen. We cook almost everything from scratch in order to accommodate various dietary issues and that keeps me in the kitchen. However, I like convenience foods as much as anyone, so I make my own. Last week some friends from church gave us some more venison. I used a portion of the meat for chili.

I added between 3 to 4 gallons of chili to my pantry shelves. I love a full pantry.

Now if I can only keep from eating/serving all the pantry foods immediately because I am too tired to cook from all the little things that keep demanding my attention.

Slowly in January

2009-01-24T11:13:00.002-06:00

Things are seemingly moving at a snails pace and it feels like I cannot get even a fraction done of those things which must soon be done. Spring planting looms and we are still amending the garden beds with leaves and compost.

Actually, I have bribed my 12 year old. Since Michael, my 3 year old wakes up grouchy and demanding and early, it is tough for me to sneak out in the mornings to work in the garden as I like to do this time of year. So Gregory, my 12 year old, has been getting up to work in exchange for which I get up and prepare him a big, fancy breakfast. He likes to read "Farmer Boy" from the "Little House" series. The story line revolves around a young boy growing up on a family farm and food and eating. Lately, Gregory fancies himself an old fashion farmer boy and enjoys working in our "fields." The "food for work" arrangement works out well for both of us, though I feel like most of my time lately is in the kitchen.

In addition to preparing lots of large meals to fuel Gregory's "farm work" and fatten the rest of us, I've been doing a bit of canning. I grabbed one of my 6 gallon stock pots and cooked up a pot of chicken soup a few days ago.

I ended up canning 4 gallons of soup for the pantry and freezing some as well.

Some friends from church blessed us with some deer meat and I picked up the ingredients to make chili the other day. I hope to can some chili for the pantry soon.

Kurt celebrated his birthday on Thursday. I made him a hat with the same pattern I used for the children at Christmas.

Since Kurt had to work over his birthday, we were not going to see him or help him celebrate. Not liking that idea, we made some arrangements with one of the ladies at work (she organized a pot luck) and then the kids and I baked Kurt's favorite birthday cake, the one he had requested for this weekend, and showed up at his work for a surprise birthday party. Kurt said it was a very good birthday and I am glad. He still wanted me to make him another German chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting this weekend since he had to share the other one with so many people. So I've baked two birthday cakes for Kurt this week.

I experimented with sprouting some soft white wheat to grind into flour for Kurt's cake. Since I can't stand coconut, I haven't had any of the cake, but I understand the soft white wheat made a huge difference in the texture and taste of the cake. I will have to get some more of that type of wheat for making cakes and pastries in the future.

With all the gardening Gregory has been doing lately, he has been feeling strong. Michael emulates Gregory in most everything. The other day Michael found my 3 pound weights.

Raising them up and down over his head, Michael told me he was s t r o n g.

He is a funny little guy.

Flower Garden Stole and Eggs

2009-01-13T10:08:00.003-06:00

Periodically, Kurt and I ponder whether the eggs laid by our free ranging chickens are truly superior to any we can purchase. Usually such ponderings occur during the heat of summer when coop bedding must be cleaned out and replaced or after a trip to the feed store in the winter when our bank account takes a hit because there are no excess eggs to sell to offset the cost of feed. This winter has been particularly rough. Our chickens are more than 2 years old and laid few eggs while the days were short. In fact, we had to buy eggs for the first time in 2 years shortly after the start of the New Year. We bought expensive organic eggs from the grocery store thinking they would be equal to ours.

Our chickens finally started laying a bit again and I used the last of the organic store bought eggs yesterday morning while making muffins. In fact, I cracked 3 eggs into a bowl, 2 store bought and one of ours.

Understanding the healthier the egg, the deeper the color of the yoke, I am once again completely convinced we can raise eggs superior to any we can purchase. The difference was obvious.

Now I just need to remind myself how great our eggs are and how great chicken bedding is for vegetable gardening when the heat of the summer comes and it is time to clean out the coops.

I finished weaving my Flower Garden Stole a couple of days ago.

I used 5/2 Perle cotton from Webbs for the warp and hand dyed cotton yarn from Heritage Yarns for the weft.

I used an 8 harness pattern I found online that is supposed to be little diamonds with flowers inside. The weave pattern hides behind the color pattern however.

I really like the stole and Kurt couldn't say enough good things about it. Even Michael wanted it.

Now I just have to figure out how to wear a stole. I have a few of them but can't seem to figure out how to get comfortable in one. I tend to be more of a shawl person. But I really like weaving these stoles so I am going to have to figure out how to wear them comfortably soon.

For my birthday, Kurt was going to mount a new light on my loom. He picked up a really nice one in town. However, I didn't know about his plan and the really expensive light I had been balancing on the castle of my loom toppled off and on top of me while I wove my stole, shattering the "too expensive to replace right now" light bulb. So I bought a cheap light from Wal-Mart for Kurt to mount. In the end, Kurt mounted the light I bought (I thought smaller would be better) and he is returning the one he purchased when he gets back to town.

I feel bad about ruining the surprise he had planned for my birthday, but I needed light and my birthday is still a couple weeks away.

And now, to plan my next weaving project!

New Year's Gifts

2009-01-03T11:33:00.004-06:00

I love yarn stashes. And today I really love destashing. Other people's destashing that is.

Carolyn is an amazing knitter, but apparently decided a little while back she is not a weaver. After reading about Gregory's and my beginner weaving efforts, she sent us what remained of her weaving yarn stash. I've been waiting for the mystery box to arrive all week. The mail woman brought it this morning.

Wow! Such pretty colors and so many fibers I've never tried. I can't wait to get at this beautiful yarn.

Someone around the neighborhood is burning something BAD. Putrid smoke fills the air creating a haze around and within me. The migraine resulting from the poison in the air awoke me in the middle of the night, just prior to Michael waking me up to crawl into bed with me, apparently with the intention of beating me all night while he thrashed about. My world is a nightmarish place of sickness and dizziness right now. I feel cut off from the world, lost in a haze, trapped with a mind reeling in smoke and toxins. The pulses of pain at the base of my head threaten to spread around and in front. My stomach can barely hold onto its contents and I have allowed the children access to unlimited time with their Christian movies in my desperate attempt to escape noise and movement. And through my confusion, pretty weaving yarns greet me and beg me to come play. What a delight in what will otherwise be a really bad day.

That sounds pretty melodramatic, but I will let it stand. It is a melodramatic kind of day I suppose.

I finally started Mr. John's socks.

Mr. John allows my husband to live in a house on his property in Fairhope while Kurt works in Foley and we try to sell our Brewton house. (Or even our Gulf Breeze property.) Mr. John and his wife Cindy are wonderful people and a total blessing to us. Mr. John wears wools socks while hunting to keep warm. I'm hoping a hand knit pair of wool socks will bless him and remind him how much we appreciate them.

I just need this headache to go away so I can think and knit and weave!

A Finished Sweater and A New Warp

2008-12-31T10:42:00.002-06:00

I finally finished Michael's new sweater and it turned out larger than I thought it would.

I worried about making Michael's sweater large enough to fit for a couple of years and it definitely should. But even big, Michael loves it and I am glad. Funny thing though. I planned for the sweater to be just a little bigger than the last one I made and I thought I hit gauge. But it is so much bigger than I thought it would be. I suppose my poor math skills could be to blame. Since I don't know why it happened, I don't know why it happened. Oh well.

I wound my large warp on the back beam of my loom, threaded the heddles and sleyed the reed.

It took me all day. I don't know how Kimberly weaves so fast. She can warp her loom before her kids awaken and finish weaving several items in the same afternoon. One day perhaps I too will be able to weave so fast.

I found some sock yarn in my stash for the next pair of socks I plan to knit.

It is Lisa Souza's South Pacific sock yarn. I promised a pair of socks to someone after Christmas and I'm eager to start. Well, I actually started last night until a headache caused me to mess up so bad I pulled everything off the needles for a fresh start today. Lousy headaches. (Gabrielle has been suffering from migraines lately too and I feel so bad for her.)

With the new year about to start, we are planning our garden. We've been spreading leaves and compost over it to enrich the soil. We will till that into the ground and then I will mineralize. Hopefully we will have better soil and better results this year. I love all the possibility a new year possesses. And perhaps this is the year Jesus will return???

Christmas Aftermath

2008-12-28T10:09:00.005-06:00

I failed to finish Michael's Christmas sweater by Christmas and I am okay with it. We've been having tropical winter weather so who needs a wool sweater right now anyway. Despite a high yuck factor (a pile of wool on my lap in the sweltering wet heat because I refuse to use the air conditioner in December), I have set a new personal knitting record for sweater knitting. I accomplished this in one week:

Granted, Michael wears a pretty small sweater. However, I think I've done well for a week's worth of knitting considering the last sweater I knit for him took 3 weeks and that was last Christmas and an even smaller sweater. I am fairly glowing with pride over the whole thing. And since I promised my Mom a sweater a little over a year ago, I need a good boost to my sweater knitting mojo. (I actually knit an entire back and a portion of the front to a sweater for my mom before I decided I didn't like the way it looked and accepted the fact it was too big anyway. It has been sitting and waiting for me to unravel it ever since. I have a new pattern in mind and plan to cast on for it in the very near future.)

Yesterday I wound a warp for a wrap for me. I wanted something long and wide and cozy.

I bought the weft yarn in front from Heritage Yarns a couple years ago before Kurt finished repairing my loom. It is a discontinued yarn called "Cloud 9" in the "Flower Garden" colorway.

I'd planned a 520 end warp and ran out of Perle cotton at 475 ends. Although I did the math before starting and should have had at least 20 yards left over after winding my complete warp, I think the string I cut to measure my warp stretched as I plotted my course around the warping board resulting in a longer warp then planned and an insufficient supply of warp yarn. Fortunately, I should be able to reduce the width of the wrap and make due with what I have. If I am careful not to pull in the sides of the warp as I weave, I am hoping I can reduce the take-in and have a wrap as wide as I want it. The recent scarves I've woven have had almost no take-in at the sides when finished so I feel the odds of success are good. Otherwise, I'll have a crazy fat scarf on my hands.

We have a new wireless Internet modem and all is well on the computer front right now. I am so glad.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T00:38:00.004-06:00

Any minute, our new wireless Internet modem could go up in flames. Seriously. We've been unable to connect to the Internet all day except in bits and pieces. However, in an amazing feat of obsessive-compulsive behavior, I've managed to upload a dozen Christmas pictures over the last few hours of trying.

We had a nice Christmas. After sitting up to watch Star Gate SG1 with the children until an irrationally late hour on Christmas Eve (I have no idea what we were thinking), everyone slept in this morning. Well, not Kurt. He generally gets up insanely early. This morning was no exception. He got up and tried to be helpful. Putting the dishes away. Or so he says. I awoke convinced someone had crashed Michael's new wagon into the wall separating my bedroom from the living room.

Originally we planned to open presents after breakfast. However, I gave in to the children's pleading when I realized I could probably escape cooking an entire meal if we had breakfast AFTER presents and ate dinner a bit early.

I gave the children the coordinating hats I knit for them.

Gregory's favorite color is blue. Gregory actually got excited about getting a hat after I told him I wouldn't knit for him anymore until he took better care of the stuff I make. We'll see how he does with his hat.

Gabrielle's favorite color is pink.

And Michael flips over the color red.

Unfortunately for Michael, green wagons cost less than red ones.

One of these days I will have to face him when he discovers wagons are supposed to be red. Oh well.

I think I finally picked a Christmas gift for one of the children of which Kurt approves. When I told Kurt I got Michael a wagon, I suggested we could teach Michael to transport bags of feed from the workshop to the chicken coops. Kurt liked the idea - very much.

And while I shopped for improperly colored toys for Michael, we picked up a blue Lightning McQueen car.

The whole blue thing confused Michael temporarily. However, he discovered the blue car shoots missiles and he got over the whole red thing rather quickly.

Michael really loves his red hat. In spite of sweltering tropical weather, Michael wore his wool hat all day and then hid it under some Christmas decorations so I wouldn't take it and put it away.

Gregory loved his new digital camera, though the rest of us are starting to become very annoyed with it.

After a few hours, the constant flashing (he had to replace the batteries in his camera half way through the day) started to set off a migraine. Silly kid. He keeps taking pictures of me and telling me I'm beautiful and then shows me the face of someone much older and flabbier than I could possibly be and so I make him erase the pictures. The whole thing is quite tiring.

I managed to distract Gregory temporarily with weaving yarn.

I got him a couple cones of 10/2 Pearle cotton so he can try some of the intricate drafts he loves to pick out. Once we get the Internet actually working again, he will probably update his blog as well.

Gabrielle got her Christmas present a couple of months ago (her sewing machine) so there wasn't much for her under the tree today. We let her open the family presents her grandparents sent.

She handled the whole "limited presents thing" very well and in fact used her allowance to buy everyone else in the family a present. She maintained an "others" focus that was very sweet.

I gave Kurt the scarf I wove last week and I think he likes it.

He put on the scarf and the socks I knit for him immediately. With the sweltering heat, the woolen gifts seem out of place. It is hard to believe we were breaking ice off the windshields just a couple of days ago.

Kurt gave me a lovely gift today.

600 yards of textured alpaca yarn. He actually tracked down the one yarn store within 50 miles and bought me yarn. I love it. I'd like to weave it into a scarf I think and I'm wondering if I can use wool knitting yarn for warp. Like some Jaggerspun wool and silk lace-weight perhaps.

Superpowers Lost

2008-12-23T10:21:00.003-06:00

I can't believe how fast I've been knitting. I finished a couple Christmas watch caps in record time, Michael's red hat being the latest.

Michael loves the red hat so much I cannot find a place to hide it where he can't find it. I put it on the back of my dresser behind the baby scale until I could wash and block it. Michael climbed up a stack of Christmas boxes, climbed on my dresser, ferreted out the hat, brought it to me and asked if he could wear it. He figures if it is red, it must be his. By the time he gets it on Christmas, he will hardly be surprised.

I started and finished another pair of socks for Kurt to replace the giant ones I sent to my brother.

And of course I finished the weaving I blogged about a couple days ago. I had really given up the idea of completing a present for everyone on my list by Christmas and yet I finished late Saturday night. Illness had given me knitting superpowers!

With my new superpowers I dared the impossible. Late Saturday night (or early Sunday morning in some parts of the country), I cast on a sweater for Michael. Never mind that I've never even finished a pair of socks in 4 days, I had superpowers.

And then it happened. Not kryptonite. Not catastrophe. Health.

I regained enough energy I could no longer justify refusing to cook for my family or do basic housework. They too were regaining health and looked to me to provide for their basic needs. All of a sudden, my knitting time shrunk back to a normal hour or two a day of constantly interrupted and distracted knitting. Despite all of the optimism I can rally, I start to suspect I won't finish Michael's sweater by Christmas.

Part of me believes a project undertaken without a pattern can be completed faster. So I am making up Michael's sweater as I go based on the E.Z. percentage system in her book, Knitting Without Tears. I have a couple skeins of compatible yarn in a few Fall colors and think I'll knit a stranded design around the yoke, if I can find one or create one I like. I'd like something with leaves. Today is Tuesday. I have until tomorrow night to finish. Sadly, I don't think I could do it even if I got my superpowers back.

Yesterday morning, winter blasted through the area. It has been warm for a week or so with temperatures in the mid 70s during the day and mid 50s at night. The Weather Channel predicts a return to warm weather tomorrow. We've spent the last 30 hours trying to cram in all the cozy, warm fuzzy Christmas stuff we could.

I turned on the fireplace (a gas fireplace just seems wrong though I sure love not having to haul wood) and made hot apple cider.

I use the apple cider found in the grocery store produce section as a base for my cider. I scrub an orange and stud it with whole cloves. It all goes into the cider in a crock pot. I also add a few sticks of cinnamon. I keep it hot in the crock pot and we help ourselves throughout the day until gone.

I love cold weather (the kind we have on the Gulf Coast, not the real kind). I love being bundled up in a shawl sipping cider or coffee and knitting. Even if my fingers do get slow from the cold. And they are cold and slow right now.

There probably isn't any way I'm going to finish that sweater by tomorrow.

Still Focused

2008-12-20T13:09:00.002-06:00

The family's head colds turned into chest congestion, resulting in whiny children and low energy for me. As a family we've pretty much abandoned all order and responsibility around the house under the guise of rest and recovery. Somehow our current philosophy ended up with Gregory and I having a loom warping contest.

Actually, Gregory started warping his loom before he got sick and stalled out. He uses some of my equipment. I wanted to weave a Christmas scarf and told him I would be taking my stuff back if he didn't get going. Somehow, that turned into a race.

I tried something new.

I tied the ends of my new warp to my old one since I wanted to repeat the last pattern I used. Gregory considered it cheating though it didn't save me too much time. Knotting all those threads took awhile.

Gregory finished his warp first so I declared a race for finishing our scarves. (I didn't bother to tell Gregory how much fatter my weft yarn would be compared to his until after he accepted my challenge.)

I used alpaca yarn from Knit Picks while Gregory used Perle cotton for both warp and weft.

I won.

In order to weave with the Christmas tree blocking my natural light source, I tried something a bit desperate.

I balanced a very expensive lamp on the top of my frail castle. It almost crashed to the floor only once and then I managed to catch it with my pinkie. Although the resulting pain stopped me from weaving briefly, my sense of competition carried me though in the end.

With the exception of the first section of the scarf where my selvages are a bit messy, I really like how the scarf turned out. I'm hoping the recipient will appreciate the warmth and ignore the rough edges on the one end. I can't wait to start my next weaving project now that I'm getting the whole selvage thing down!

The Cold Before Christmas

2008-12-17T10:21:00.003-06:00

I have a head cold. A bad one. It is no fun. But I learned something the last few days.

I can actually knit much faster than I thought I could. I started this blue hat awhile ago and had just finished the ribbing before I got sick. I figured it would take about a week to get through the stranded portion. Then a head cold gave me focused knitting time. I finished the hat in a day.

I realized I normally behave like an ADHD child when knitting. I knit for a couple minutes then jump up to do something else. I tend to my preschooler's needs. I prepare meals. I do laundry. I clean up. I intervene in squabbles between kids. I assist with home school. I do a hundred different things while trying to work on the stitches of my knitted items. As I compare my speed to others, I always end up feeling slow.

This week, almost all of us are sick. No one is eating much. I made three or four days worth of muffins for breakfast and the kids help themselves if they want them. We've been sort of skipping over lunch. The kids grab an apple or baked potato if they get hungry. For dinner, we've been eating out of the pantry. I have jars and jars of homemade chicken soup. The freezer contains loaves of a variety of breads and vegetables. Preparation time is minimal. Most of our time is spent in front of the television or guarding our horded stashes of tissue. (Incidentally, we are going to have a tissue crises here if something doesn't give soon. The Kleenex is long gone and we have nearly decimated the toilet paper supply.)

The kids have little energy and I've allowed them unlimited afternoon television time. They've laid in bed, enthralled by their rarely watched video collection, for hours at a time. The boys sniffle and sneeze and periodically send Gabrielle, the only healthy one, to replenish the stash of videos. In the meantime I've been huddling on the couch, wrapped in my favorite shawl, listening to The Little House on the Prairie audio books and knitting. Yesterday, I started another hat.

I finished all of this in a single day. Who'd have thought I could accomplish so much. Michael went absolutely nuts when he saw me pull out the red yarn. He loves the color red. He paws and clutches at my red knitting whenever he sees it. He wants it, oh how he wants it. Fortunately, I'm making the red hat for Michael for Christmas. And thanks to my cold, I may actually get it done.

Right before we all got sick, we built the Christmas tree and started the ceremony of decorating it.

I get a sense of awe every time we bring out the decorations. A few years ago, after Hurricane Ivan stole most of our possessions, my Christian Artisans sisters sent me Christmas tree decorations. Many of them were handmade. As I lovingly unwrap each precious ornament, I remember the love my sisters in Christ poured out during the difficult time following the hurricane. I am reminded how blessed I am. There is nothing so sweet as true fellowship among Christians. Christmas reminds me not only that "our Redeemer lives", but that we belong to a world wide family when we opt into salvation through Jesus Christ.

For at least a year, I have wrestled with the idea of stashing some Socks that Rock sock yarn in the "Lunasea" and "Jailhouse Rock" colorways.

I finally gave into the temptation. These yarns are so pretty, so much prettier than I expected when I saw them online! I love the colors and can't wait until I am in a position to knit some socks for me again. I have a sock pattern called "Rivendale" that just begs to be knitted in the "Lunasea" yarn. Who knows, if my head cold lingers, I may actually get to it soon.

Pecans

2008-12-13T10:15:00.003-06:00

We got a call from friends at church yesterday asking if the kids wanted to come pick up pecans. The storm we had this week knocked most of the pecans from the trees.

Within a half an hour, Gregory and Gabrielle picked up a full 5 gallon bucket of them!

Now I have to get them all shelled. But I have a new strategy this year so we will see how it goes.

While I sat inside by the warm wood burning stove in Mabel's house (which I will admit to coveting), I shelled pecans and watched Michael. Miss Mabel let me bring the pecans we shelled together home with me.

That was a huge blessing. I stayed inside with Michael because he woke up with the start of the croup Gabrielle had a couple days ago.

Gabrielle seemed to be miraculously healed overnight from her croup. She went from barely able to draw breath to completely fine. We had prayed for her to be healed, yet it is amazing how tough it can be to accept it when the healing takes place. How frail is my faith.

While not as sick as Gabrielle was, Michael feels pretty lousy. He had a temperature of 104º last night and ended up crawling in bed with me shortly after midnight. It is time to pray for him too I think.

Michael wanted me to take his picture yesterday. Here he is just getting sick. He has my eyes. They appear green when he is sick though they are normally a blue-green. Gregory has the same eyes too. Our eye color changes depending upon what we wear or how we feel. Weird.

Otherwise, I've been getting in some knitting here and there, but not much. Gregory has kept me busy with HIS latest weaving.

We finally got his floor loom set up and ready for weaving. (Gregory had been weaving exclusively on a rigid heddle loom before.) Gregory started with a sampler and fell in love with the floor loom. I know he wound a warp for a scarf yesterday. He is starting to make me look bad with his weaving accomplishments. I've been planning a scarf for awhile, but haven't managed to get to the warping board yet.

December Marches Onward

2008-12-10T11:39:00.004-06:00

We've survived the first third of December and sort of survived Gregory's chocolate birthday cake.

In fact, we finished the cake yesterday. However, in the wee hours of this morning, Gabrielle woke me up telling me she was sick and couldn't breathe. The family always gets sick around this time of year after the kids start eating sugary stuff on Thanksgiving and it continues through Christmas until the end of January when Kurt and I have birthdays. I haven't faced the scales yet and hope not to have to do so for awhile. But I did finish 3 of the size large skirts I started.

They ended up being a bit too big and I like to think it means I am getting smaller. I took an inch off of one of them and wore it to church last Sunday. I would like to see the day when they are all way too big to wear.

Yesterday I managed to plow and disc up all of the weeds in the back yard gardens before it started raining. I'd like to start planting again in a couple weeks, but everything is very muddy right now. It seems things always end up very muddy this time of year. You would think all of the 4 foot high weed debris I plowed into the ground would improve drainage.

I finished another pair of socks.

These are a better size than the last ones and are to be a gift for one of my husband's friends. I decided I am probably not going to be able to knit Michael a sweater for Christmas this year since I haven't started it yet so I will be starting a hat for him soon. Red is his favorite color and I have a cone of red yarn in my stash. Considering how late I am in getting started, I suppose I won't be doing much Christmas knitting this year. I think the MS4 being so much later than other mystery stole KALs threw me off schedule this year. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

A Birthday and Lace

2008-12-06T11:00:00.003-06:00

My little guy turned 12 today and can look at me straight in the eye because our eyes are at the same height.

His grandparents all sent cool gifts. He got a really neat musical instrument and some books from one and a compass and headlight from the other. He loves these gifts. He told me he would be wearing his new headlight to lock up the chickens at night. He never likes going outside across the yard in the dark. Of course with his light, he may see eyes in the woods and like it less.

We gave Gregory the Rip Stick he wanted since trying a friend's during the church camping trip.

Gregory didn't think he would get one of these after Kurt and I pointed out we had no concrete on the property nor anywhere close. But the boys play with them at church in the parking lot and we figured he would enjoy his present on Sundays.

Since we don't have concrete, Gregory practiced his balancing in the front room.

He got pretty good, pretty fast. We also got him safety gear, including an adult size medium helmet.

Unfortunately we are a big headed family and Michael was the only one who fit into the helmet.

Gregory will have to learn to ride without falling on his head until we can find a helmet large enough for his head.

In the meantime, I finished blocking my second MS4 stole.

This one will be a gift.

I made it from Zephry lace weight in the suede colorway. I love this color and the beads are so pretty against it.

In fact, I like this color so much I may have to find a new lace project I can do for myself with it. That is if I can complete some of the other projects I have on the needles.

By Necessity

2008-12-04T14:54:00.005-06:00

It is a week past Thanksgiving, all the left-overs are gone and I bravely faced the scales the night before last. Normally I would have continued to ignore the silly thing until after the holidays, but I had a bit of a reality check Tuesday evening. When I tried to put on an outfit to go out with my husband, it was too small. This same outfit fit only two weeks ago. So I got on the scales to ascertain the damage.

I have blood sugar issues. With diabetes on both sides of the family, gestational diabetes diagnosed during my last pregnancy and other signs of a present problem, I really do know better than to eat sweets. But Kurt suggested cinnamon rolls for breakfast Thanksgiving morning and he asks for so little. So I made them. Homemade cinnamon rolls. In addition to homemade pies. And ice cream. Once it was in the house, I had no ability to resist. I can usually resist store bought stuff, but I am helpless in the presence of homemade treats.

All tap dancing aside, my little confrontation with my scales revealed a 15 pound weight gain in less than a week. Now I know most people simply cannot gain this much weight in so short of a time eating a normal holiday diet (i.e. I truly did not over eat, well not much, really). I am different. I really do gain weight like this when I eat sugar. It is real. It will come off over the next couple of months if I am very careful and if I am not careful, it will attach itself permanently. Of course Gregory turns 12 on Saturday and wants a chocolate, homemade cake. And then there is Christmas. And then Kurt and I both have birthdays in January. . .

I have a problem in the short term. I have no decent clothes to fit me at this weight. (I lost almost all of my clothes in the hurricane and then ended up pregnant a couple of months later. Literally 70% of the clothes hanging in my closet are maternity clothes. After my pregnancy I never quite lost all the weight I wanted and never bought clothes as a result.) Bottom line? I have to go to church this Sunday and literally have nothing to wear.

Yesterday I came to terms with my problem. Today, I cut out the fabric for four new skirts. I have some turtle neck shirts I can wear still and with some new skirts, I will be able to manage for awhile. As long as I do not repeat my Thanksgiving mistakes I will be okay.

I've been knitting for consolation. (You'd think I'd exercise, but instead I engage in more sedentary activity.) After my last sock issues, I thought I'd do some real basic socks for a break.

These are for a friend of my husband's. I won't finish them until I have my husband's feet for measuring. I also cast on another pair of socks to keep me from mindlessly allowing the others to grow beyond human dimensions.

I started some mittens for Christmas awhile back and haven't touched them since.

The patterns are different on front and back.

I had intended them for Christmas for my daughter. But after she threw all the hand knit woolens I made for her last year into the washer and dryer and after Gregory lost the hat and gloves I knit for him last year, I told my kids they would get no more hand made presents from me. Now I have to decide if I mean it.

In the meantime, the house is strewn with half done projects and I just got a call from the real estate company telling me someone wants to see our house on Monday. Uh-oh.

Mysteries

2008-12-02T09:51:00.003-06:00

Broadband. Wow. What a great idea.

Kurt takes classes at the university and they expect students to access the Internet. Gregory and Gabrielle have a computer based curriculum which requires Internet research for projects. Dial-up made school more and more difficult for everyone. Excuse enough. A quick trip to our new super Wal-Mart brought wireless broadband Internet into our lives and we may never be the same. Right now we're still updating our computers. Nothing could be automatically updated with our slow Internet connection.

To celebrate our technological advancement, I updated my blog template. I started blogging in the beginning of time as far as blog technology is concerned. So many advancements had been made since then. I generally don't like change, at least not since Hurricane Ivan made me deal with so many changes all at once, but I like this change. But change brings struggle and I keep struggling to figure out how to make things work. My blog template now makes things easy yet I only know how to work with the html I needed before. More growth and learning are in store I suppose.

I've been knitting mysteries lately. I finished both of my MS4 stoles and have blocked one of them.

It is pretty enough. It is quite long and plenty wide for a stole so I might actually wear this one. The color is lovely and I like the beads.

I have a hard time adequately photographing lace. It can be challenging to display it and not photograph little messes around the house at the same time. Oh well.

I finished another mystery too. I'm not sure what I was thinking as I knit Kurt's Christmas socks.

But my husband does not have big feet. These socks are a good 2 inches too long. I knit these while boiling cane juice into syrup and perhaps the fumes affected my judgment. Or perhaps the Lord thought my brother David in bible college in Germany needed them more. (He has big feet.) I had planned to make socks for my brother and worried about having enough matching yarn. I had actually selected some other yarn for his socks. But now it looks like the problem is solved and I am finished.

Thanksgiving and Tractors

2008-11-28T09:48:00.004-06:00

The hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving preparations have come to an end and for that I am quite thankful. I normally prepare most of our food from scratch and this year was no exception. Raising our own turkey did not add any real work to the holiday preparations, but I was probably lacking wisdom when on Wednesday I cut up a couple pumpkins to cook into puree for pumpkin pie. Needless to say most of the activity over the last couple of days involved cooking.

Yesterday I awoke with a pretty bad migraine. Unfortunately, this delayed our meal since I didn't get the turkey into the oven until almost 11:00. (One might question the wisdom of cooking the neck and gizzards into a broth and then starting on the stuffing to put into the turkey. But I figured I had a pressure cooker to speed things up.) Fortunately I had prepared homemade cinnamon rolls which after a final rise and baking, made a delicious and decadent breakfast.

Unfortunately, I hadn't made lunch plans for the day and so I left Kurt to entertain the kids until our Thanksgiving meal finished cooking. Kurt handled the hungry children problem like a man.

Kurt simply cranked up the tractor and let Gregory drive the kids around the front yard.

It started with Gregory and Michael in the seat, but Gabrielle didn't want to be left out of the fun.

Being a very resourceful girl, Gabrielle simply jumped on the back of the tractor.

Of course I had asked Kurt to put the plow on the tractor for me. I'm still hoping.

In the end, the kids had a great time and hardly noticed they didn't get to eat until 4:00 p.m. Thanksgiving day.

As we sat around the table sharing the things for which we were thankful with each other, it turned out we were all thankful for the simple country life and the new job for Kurt with which the Lord has blessed us.

Goodbye Mr. Tom

2008-11-25T10:41:00.003-06:00

Yesterday morning at dawn, after the pancake breakfast I made when Kurt woke me up way too early, we dispatched our Thanksgiving turkey as well as one for my friend Darlene. I didn't photograph the process since posting blood and gore pictures goes beyond this blog's parameters.

Over breakfast, we discussed turkey dispatching methods. Some friends recently processed turkeys and decided they were much more difficult to pluck than chickens. Wanting a quick death for the turkeys, while at the same time trying to mercifully imitate recommended methods for loosening feathers and because my friend Diane in Alaska does it, we decided to use a gun. It worked well. We were able to pluck and clean our couple of turkeys in record time. I think the turkeys ended up being about 20 pounds each.

Darlene came over to help process her own turkey. Darlene is a hoot. She did not share my compunction about photographing the process and threatened to create a photo journal about the life and death of her Thanksgiving dinner to share with her guests. (Her mother has strictly prohibited it so it will be interesting to hear about what she does.) Darlene took her turkey's feet home to show her teenage son. (She called me later to find out if I knew how to properly preserve turkey feet - yeah, right.)

This year I am going to try brining my turkey. I've never done it before but my Las Vegas family members swear by this method.

Today, I need to turn some garden grown pumpkins into puree for pie. I love growing towards self sufficiency!

Making Cane Syrup

2008-11-20T11:08:00.004-06:00

I'm finished! I woke up this morning with a song in my heart rejoicing. I didn't have to hastily face the cold morning. I didn't have to strain sugar cane juice. I didn't have to spend between 11 and 13 hours stirring and skimming at the stove. I am happy today.

Every day for the past 4 days, we lugged heavy 5 gallon buckets into the kitchen to strain the juice into large stock pots.

We brought 7 full buckets of un-strained sugar cane juice home from the Wilson homestead last weekend.

Miss Wanda told us to strain it with a cloth diaper. It took at least 4 of them each day to strain one 10 gallon batch. A colander easily supported the cloth.

We had to process the cane juice as quickly as possible before it soured. The Lord blessed us with very cold weather all week providing natural refrigeration. However, we still tried to get done quickly.

After talking to Miss Wanda about the need to process the cane juice quickly, we started Sunday after church. I have 1 six gallon stock pot and started with 5 gallons of syrup. I finished my first batch of syrup at 3:30 a.m. Monday and learned I would need to speed up the process. I cleaned out my water bath canner and inducted it into the process. I also used the lids to the pots to bring the juice to a boil faster.

Each bucket completely filled a pot with juice.

As the juice heated up, debris would foam to the top. I had to continually skim the foam from the pot as it rose up.

My husband searched the internet and told me not to skim the foam until after the juice boiled and the bubbles first broke through the foam. I tried that one day and found the churning caused some debris to sink back into the pot. The batch of syrup I did following this advice is not as clean as the batches where I started skimming before the boil. Mr. I.J. Wilson told me Saturday one did not learn farming from books. I will have to tell him he was right.

My husband Kurt also read the skimmings from the syrup making process could be used for natural fertilizer. This makes sense so I saved the skimmings.

Of course I don't have anything growing at present and I'm afraid to save the skimmings for long because I am sure they will ferment and turn nasty. I think I will mix them with the mulch I hope to spread on the garden beds after plowing under the weeds.

Each day, the cane juice slowly receded toward the bottom of the pot,

filling the house with steam.

Despite unusually dry conditions outside, humidity levels in the house remained high. Throughout the house, the windows stayed foggy.

By the 4th day, the kids reported rain in the house as condensation dripped from light fixtures and doorways. Thinking about it, I turned 35 gallons of juice into 4 gallons of syrup. This means I sent 31 gallons of water into the air! I begin to see some wisdom in processing syrup outdoors.

As the process of turning cane juice into cane syrup finalized, the liquid bubbled with an orange color. It also developed an orange tinted foam.

At this point I scooped a little syrup into a dish and cooled it quickly in the freezer. If the cool liquid had the consistency of honey, I turned off the heat and ladled the syrup into clean, warm jars.

Cane syrup needs no further processing and can be stored without refrigeration. I'm guessing it is shelf safe because it is a kind of dehydrated food.

In addition to the inside rain, there were a couple of challenges I faced while processing the sugar cane juice. The condition of the cane juice deteriorated as it sat, to the point my children no longer wanted to drink it. (I believe some of the sweetness disappeared as it started to sour. I'm thinking souring is simply a form of fermentation.) However, the juice never soured to the point of tasting sour and I can not really taste the difference in the final syrup.

Another challenge involved my 3 year old who didn't like having his Mom a prisoner to the stove for 4 days. (I ran to the bathroom once and my syrup boiled over. It really needs to be watched, especially while it is foaming during the first few hours and at the end.) In the end I compromised on my principles and allowed Michael to watch television during the day.

Normally we only watch a little television at the end of the day as a family (and then only dvds). However there are times when having a copy of "Chicken Run" in the house is a good thing.

My family presented another challenge. Seems they like to eat regularly. I am very glad I keep my pantry stocked with homemade foods. So, last night for dinner for example, I squeezed a sauce pan behind my stock pot and reheated a couple jars of homemade chicken soup.

I also took some homemade banana bread out of the freezer and re-baked it for a few minutes so it would taste fresh.

We survived on such fixings all week. Of course now that I am finished making syrup, I'm burned out on cooking and behind schedule. I really needed to bake some bread this morning, but all I did was make coffee and warm up some gingerbread I'd baked earlier this week (with some of our own cane syrup substituted for the sugar and molasses) for breakfast. Instead of making salsa with the tomatoes aging in the refrigerator, I spent hours at the computer catching up with email. With Thanksgiving coming, I really need to get back my cooking mojo.

Pressing the Cane

2008-11-18T12:00:00.005-06:00

On Saturday, we pressed our sugar cane and had a great afternoon of fellowship with a family at church we didn't know very well before. I had a blast, though Kurt says that is because he worked and I watched. Perhaps.

We arrived at the Wilson homestead with the back of Kurt's pick-up truck full of sugar cane. Mr. David helped Kurt unload.

The Wilson family grew and processed sugar cane for many years, but they haven't had a crop in probably 10 years. I asked whether they would be interested in getting rid of their cane press, but they are not. These old machines are almost impossible to find and if you find one, the owner's are typically not willing to sell them. I think I'm going to pray for one anyway and see what the Lord might do.

Mr. I.J. and Mr. David gave Kurt a quick lesson in using the cane press.

Mr. David connected his old Farmall tractor (just like ours) to the pole connected to the press for leverage and drove in circles around the press to power it. Everyone kept telling us, almost apologetically, the mule that had once driven the press, died a few years back. It was as though they thought we would somehow think the tractor a poor substitute. Like we would know the difference.

We brought a lot more cane than anyone expected. I thought we had about a hundred stalks and that is what I told the Wilson family. Turns out we had closer to 300 stalks of cane, proving that my estimating skills are severely lacking. Apparently Kurt has been right in this regard for some time and I can no longer deny it. The Wilson's were very kind, even when we had to work until dark to get everything done, contrary to what they had anticipated.

Mr. I.J. is the family patriarch and can tell some great stories about growing up in this area. His family has been here for generations. He rode the 4 wheeler to the pasture to watch the work.

He checked on our progress from time to time.

We were able to provide Mr. I.J. with a favorite treat and one which he had not had in quite a while, fresh sugar cane juice. His daughter brought him a cup and he drank some straight from the press. (Later I went back to the house and asked for a pitcher and filled it for his refrigerator. I sure hope he has thoroughly enjoyed it this week!) Michael got a taste of Darlene's juice and didn't want to give the cup back.

Kurt, Gregory and eventually Darlene fed cane into the press while Mr. David drove the tractor round and round.

Those feeding the cane into the press had to duck each time the tractor went around or they would get a smack in the head.

Kurt got pretty good at alternating ducking with working.

Gregory forgot once.

But never again.

As the pile of sugar cane shrunk, the guys figured out they could work squatting and not have to duck.

After awhile, my friend Darlene wanted to feed the press. Darlene is a great deal of fun and loves trying new stuff.

It didn't take a whole lot of ducking before someone came up with a revolutionary idea for Darlene.

Someone sent Gregory off for a chair.

After hours of driving in a circle, I couldn't believe Mr. David didn't keel over from being dizzy. However, once he started standing up to drive the tractor,

I realized his tractor didn't have a seat cover. I figure the pain from sitting on a metal seat must have kept him from getting too dizzy. He sure was a good sport about it all. He expected to fill one or two buckets with juice and in the end we left with 7 full 5 gallon buckets. (I had to run home to get more than we originally brought. Thank the Lord I hadn't restocked on wheat for awhile.)

Years ago when the Wilson family grew and processed their own sugar cane, they would press their cane early in the morning and then spend the afternoon boiling it down into syrup. They processed their cane juice over a fire in a large pan outside.

Sugar cane juice is best processed immediately because the juice sours quickly, especially without refrigeration. The Lord blessed us though with unusually cold weather. Our juice has been sitting outside on the porch in buckets while I boil it down 10 gallons at a time on the kitchen stove. It takes 12 to 13 hours per batch this way to turn it into syrup. God willing, I should be done with it all tomorrow at bedtime. It must be watched throughout the cooking process and skimmed and stirred. Yesterday I found out why when a pot boiled over while I ran to the bathroom.

I think I particularly enjoyed our time at the Wilson homestead because Gabrielle and Michael played in the yard while Miss Wanda shelled pecans and watched them. Usually Michael will not be separated from me and he will certainly not stay with someone he does not know extremely well, but he LOVED his time with Miss Wanda and I loved the break she gave me.

Michael and Gabrielle visited the pressing operation when Miss Wanda brought a cup for her dad to taste the juice.

When Michael is away from me, he says I am "lost." We could barely get him to leave at the end of the day. (He especially enjoyed the wood stove.) In the car on the way home, Michael asked if I could bring him back and if he could lose me. In normal words, I think he told me to take him back and get lost.

It is Always Something

2008-11-15T08:51:00.002-06:00

I had big plans for yesterday. After working so hard this week with the sugar cane and finally finishing a new dress for Gabrielle, I was going to burn off the weeds in the garden and play catch-up in the kitchen and make salsa and sauerkraut.

I should have known when my only hairbrush broke first thing yesterday morning to go back to bed and skip the day. But I wanted to be productive. So fighting nightmarish paranoia, Gregory and I went outside to burn off the weeds. The weeds look like dried prairie grasses and there is dry brush everywhere, for miles. I just knew I'd start a forest fire or burn down the pool deck.

When we finally started after a great deal of time wetting down the areas we didn't want to burn, we couldn't get the weeds to burn. We dragged tons of pine cones and dried branches over and built bonfires strategically throughout the garden. The branches burned. The pine cones burned. The dead weeds did not. They did however, scratch us up and give us allergy symptoms. In the end, we allowed the fires to go out and dirty and smokey, we returned to the house for showers.

I discovered the dead hot water heater right after stepping into the shower. Praise God it was hot enough outside to prevent a cold shower from feeling like torture. In fact, I suppose the timing on the water heater's demise was good since a cold front is due to blast the area with winter weather today. But we sure don't have the money for a new water heater.

I probably should have figured out something was going wrong when my laundry room and home to the water heater kept flooding yesterday. But Kurt blamed it on a probable hole in the hose to the washing machine. (Kurt still thinks there may be problems with that hose since the flooding stopped when I turned off the water to the washing machine. I suggested we focus on getting back the hot water before chasing other problems.) I really should have stopped to think when we kept running out of hot water the last few days. We never run out of hot water.

Wondering if we could put Christmas off a couple months without the kids noticing, I called Kurt in Foley. He arranged to take the day off today to fix the water heater. (Living in a small town is so different than living in a city. When things break, you can't just call someone to fix them. There may not be anyone with that job description in the area. No wonder people in the country are more self sufficient - they have to be.) We planned for Kurt to pick up a new water heater and bring it home. Then I called my friend Darlene and told her my tale of woe.

Darlene tried to convince me our power company gave away free water heaters. I told her I thought that unlikely and I convinced HER there were no free water heaters. So Darlene's husband Mark got on the phone and told me to call the power company for a water heater. I still couldn't imagine it. So I called Kurt to try to get him to call the power company. He wouldn't do it. So sheepishly, I called, expecting to be embarrassed.

The power company actually does give away water heaters! Granted, I had to pick it up and we have to install it, but fortunately, Darlene's husband has a pick up truck and the two of us got the water heater home. I'm still amazed. Of course Kurt immediately pointed out the lack of an energy star rating. Moreover, the water heater's label clearly shows it is a bit of a power hog. Kurt figures the power company is actually selling these things on time. You pay for it with higher power bills.

Right now Kurt is in the middle of figuring out how to install one of these and I am hoping for a hot shower before too long - especially since we are supposed to take our sugar cane for juicing this afternoon. The whole thing worked out well because we need Kurt's pick-up truck for the sugar cane and but for the water heater, the truck would have been in Foley. Today was the only day we have access to the cane juicer. God is good and truly does work all things for good!

The old water heater looks exactly like the new one. I'm wondering if we could build a smoker out of the old water heater. It looks like a smoker. I wish I had more tool skills. I have lots of good ideas and little talent for implimenting them.

In the meantime, I finished Gabrielle's Christmas hat.

I also started a new pair of socks.

I can't believe how quickly Christmas is coming. Knowing how much I want to make before then, I really need to focus. And it would be nice if things would stop breaking around here.

A New Dress for Gabrielle

2008-11-14T10:34:00.003-06:00

I finally finished a new dress for Gabrielle. Originally I planned to give it to her for an Easter dress. Of course I never specified which Easter.

Gabrielle loves her new dress and couldn't wait to try it on. I wish she could have avoided laying it in a water puddle before getting it on, but that is my daughter.

I embroidered and pin-tucked the bodice and embroidered the upper sleeves on my Bernina. I "fancy" up plain fabric with my sewing machine rather than investing in expensive trims. My daughter loves fancy clothing, but often ruins them in her play. She ripped the only silk dress I ever made for her running around the church parking lot. Now I use less expensive plain polyester-cotton fabric for my rough and tumble girl.

Here is a view of the back. I'm so glad my daughter is slender because I started sewing this dress almost a year ago. I don't follow a pattern, but make it up as I go. Since the skirt is one of the last things I do, I added a couple of inches to the length before ripping it (rather than cutting - makes for a straighter skirt). Everything else fits fine. We are all re-reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books and Gabrielle thinks her new dress looks like a fancy prairie girl dress. She is quite content.

Bringing in the Cane

2008-11-12T15:08:00.004-06:00

We finally finished getting the sugar cane stripped of leaves, cut and out of the weather just a few minutes ago, which also was about the time the rain started. Whew! What a job. Who knew swinging a machete around could make so many sore muscles.

We started piling the cane into a super large box we had. The idea was to keep the cane inside, protected from freezing temperatures, until we could select planting cane for the new house, once we move.

We quickly filled up the corner of our dining room to the point Gregory can no longer fit at his place at the table - and we have a fairly large dining room! So we cleared a place on the porch, next to the house, for the remainder.

We have a large porch and the pile grew to the point it was hard to walk around. It won't be as protected as the cane inside, but we plan to cover it later this week when the temperatures are predicted to fall below 32º. And now that we have the cane all in, we will be able to make final plans with the Wilson family to use their cane pressing equipment. I'm hoping we can do it when Kurt is home with the pick up truck. Otherwise, I don't know how we are going to get the cane into my mini-van.

Sugarcane Harvesting

2008-11-10T14:22:00.003-06:00

We finally started the process of harvesting our sugarcane. I thought to do it a month ago, but after poking around the Internet I gleaned that the leaves of ripe sugarcane start to die. We hit that point a week or two ago.

I took out my machete and sharpened the long blade as well as I could with Kurt's sharpening stone. Michael asked if I was going to kill them. I've got to do a better job monitoring what the child watches on television I suppose and we don't even have television service. Amazing what a child can pick up from Veggie Tales.

I started cutting down stalks of sugar cane with my machete and it worked well.

It didn't take long for me to figure out this was hard work.

We started with a small sugarcane jungle.

After a couple hours I had most of the cane cut. I told Gregory and Gabrielle their job would be stripping the leaves from the cane.

Stripping leaves is also a tough job because the green leaves can leave cuts similar to paper cuts. Fortunately most of the leaves are now brown. Even still, the kids are less than enthusiastic.

I told the kids to strip the outside leaves and then pile up the cane. When they are finished I will use my machete to cut the top leaves off the cane. That reconciled them slightly to the task. I mean they are glad to have the sugarcane to harvest, they just wish it would involve less work.

I was very glad to be finished with the cutting job and left the kids to their job while I posted these pictures.

I started cutting the tips off the cane, but the kids couldn't keep up so I came inside.

Many of the canes are bent because an early season wind storm knocked them over and they regrew up from the ground. Sugarcane is an amazingly hardy crop.

The kids really slackened their pace once I left, though Gregory is pretty self directed in general. I did leave them with some supervision however.

The turkeys showed up as we started and kept waiting to see if we were doing something that would involve them getting a treat.

When I left, the turkeys were starting to peck at the cane tips I'd just removed. We're going to have to stack the cane inside the fence until we can process it. Some people at church have an old timey cane press that works under mule power and they are going to allow us to bring our cane over for squeezing. I will take the juice and boil it down into cane syrup for cooking. I can't wait to see how that will turn out. I'm so grateful for the Lord's provision. I love how He provided the means for us to process our cane. I never expected such a big harvest from the few canes we planted and my original idea to use my juicer for processing would never have worked.

Basket Weaving in Baker

2008-11-01T22:12:00.003-05:00

The family followed our new basket weaving friend, Mr. Frank, to a heritage festival in Baker, Florida. Mr. Frank promised to teach Gregory how to finish his basket at the festival and he could hardly wait.

We arrived in time to watch Mr. Frank finish one of his own baskets, or at least get it to a good stopping point. Then he and Gregory went to work on Gregory's first basket.

First they finished the sides of the basket and scrunched everything down really hard.

Next Mr. Frank showed Gregory how to clamp on a rim.

Finally they twisted more wood around the rim to secure it all. Gregory is delighted and plans to take his basket to church tomorrow to show his friends.

In the meantime, Gabrielle befriended a lady who taught her to make pine needle baskets.

It started when Gabrielle showed the lady her sun bonnet and the new skirt she just made.

It ended up with Gabrielle starting her first basket. I will need to find some raffia for Gabrielle to finish her basket, but she received the materials to get well started. We were so blessed and Gabrielle is as excited as Gregory about her basket weaving.

Michael, of course, got pretty bored, pretty fast. He couldn't do any basket weaving being only three.

He wanted to poke around the country living booth, but I hastily removed him when he knocked down some wooden chickens. He climbed around the log cabin a bit, but for the most part, he played around in his stroller and practiced being contrary.

I tried to take his picture and he hid his face. I had to trick him to get a picture at all. Crazy kids.

Pondering Christmas

2008-10-29T12:57:00.004-05:00

I finally got the care package of warmth off to my brother in Germany. I'm so glad I finished. He tells me the weather has not been too cold yet so perhaps I am in time. Now it is time for me to start thinking about Christmas knitting.

I loved the patterned watch cap I made my brother David so much that I immediately cast on another one in pink and white for Gabrielle for Christmas.

Christmas knitting is so challenging because the kids are always around. Gregory has asked no less than 3 times what I am working on and I have dissembled. Gabrielle has not inquired so far.

I'm still working on my two MS4 stoles. The first one is for me and I finished through clue 5 before the KAL ended. I have one clue to do and then the grafting. The stole has been sitting idle since I found out about the grafting. However, the second stole is supposed to be a gift and so I have taken it from clue 2 to almost the end of clue 4.

Once I have both stoles to the same place, I will tackle clue 6 and the grafting. I am not looking forward to that day. (Week? Month?)

I finally pulled the first skein of yarn made from the mystery fiber gifted to me by Denise last year off my spinning wheel.

I love this yarn. It is Navajo plied and was both spun and plied on my Wyatt Pegasus wheel. I still have another bobbin full of singles to ply.

After I finish my mystery fiber, I think I may spin the Romney Michael and I dyed when Kurt moved to Foley. I love the way it turned out.

I still don't know what I can do with a pound of this, but I would like to make something for me since these are some of my favorite colors.

The kids finally re-skeined their yarn and they both have fabulous skeins from our dyeing day. Who knew you could get such nice colors from food coloring.

They want to make socks, but their sock knitting is going slow. Sock knitting wasn't as easy as they thought it would be. They are still knitting their flat, garter stitch pieces and I am glad they are still interested in knitting. I suppose one is never too young to start a knitting stash.

After church last week, I brought home some more of the material Mark scored from the closing factory where he works.

I gave everyone a chance to get what they wanted and then grabbed the remaining pink fabric. Now my fabric stash is larger than the storage facilities I have for it. I guess we'll have to move.

I'm thinking I'll do some sewing for Christmas. The only problem with sewing is that it is even more obvious than knitting. Gregory wants a vest for dressier occasions (like Christmas) and I was thinking I'd like to make them brother, sister, brother outfits for Christmas. I just can't figure out how to do stealthy sewing though. But Christmas is coming and I really need to get a plan together for it.

To Germany

2008-10-25T14:54:00.006-05:00

I FINALLY finished the items for my brother David's care package destined for Germany where he presently attends the Calvary Chapel Bible College. I know it is cold and I feel bad that it took me so long to get done. However, I hope to have his package in the mail by early next week.

In addition to the blue hat I finished a month ago, I knit another hat in black and gray with black fingerless gloves to match.

Here is a closer view of the fingerless gloves.

This is the same pattern I've used the last couple of Christmases to make presents for my husband and oldest son. But the hat was my first time through the pattern and I love it.

It is from the book, "Hats On" by Charlene Schurch. I loved the pattern so much I have already cast on for another of these hats in pink for Gabrielle for Christmas. Moths got into the hat and mittens I made for her last Christmas. (Didn't know we had to worry about those critters here in the south.)

I also wove a scarf for my brother.

This is the Heritage Yarns free pattern called "Calvary Twill." I don't see the crosses the printed pattern depicts, but I like the pattern very much all the same.

While I will admit the weaving is amateurish, I love the scarf all the same and hope my brother will like it okay too. If he gets cold enough the scarf is made with alpaca and that is warm.

My friend Darlene came over this morning with a lovely surprise. Her husband works for a clothing manufacturing company which has moved to South America. They are closing everything down here in the states and throwing away lots of fabric remnants. Her husband Mark saved some from the trash bin.

These are mostly stretch fabric. Not pictured are a couple rolls of sheer black material like a fine netting. It would make a pretty over skirt. One of the natural colored rolls has a fleece like backing and would make nice sweats.

Darlene then took me to church where Mark had deposited lots more fabric for anyone who wanted it. I tried to restrain myself but came away with probably 100 pounds.

The turquoise fabric in the brown paper is a 50 pound package and I'm sure the rest of it, pink, purple and white, equals that. They are all medium weight knit. I had been in the middle of ordering a dress pattern from Butterick that required knit fabric when Darlene arrived and through her the Lord provided plenty of the required fabric before I'd hit the "send" button. I love the Lord's provision! (And I left far more than I took so I didn't deprive anyone else at church who might want some so I don't feel bad at all about it even if I probably have more fabric now than I could sew in a lifetime. And Gabrielle insists that I share with her anyway.)

The turkeys are out free ranging today. They are very social so while we unloaded the fabric from the car, we were surrounded.

They look so big right now.

I keep thinking they must be ready for the table. But Kurt picked one up and they are only about 10 pounds. I want them to be at least twice that by the time we process them. In the meantime, Michael loves to talk to them.

If you say "gobble, gobble" to the turkeys, they will respond in kind. It can keep Michael entertained for a long time.

I've been doing a great deal of weaving lately and Gregory has been watching. He is ready to learn to use his floor loom too. But we can't figure out exactly how to tie and wind the yarn onto the back beam.

I don't have a sectional back beam so we are learning together. I suppose we have to tie on to the rod in the picture, but that would seem to create a lot of loom waste. We don't have a spool rack or a tension box, but Margaret from Heritage Yarns tells me we don't absolutely need one to use the loom. Gregory is so excited he has already wound a warp. I think it is going to be too small if we have to tie directly to the beam rod. He only intended to do a sampler, but still.

My calender says Christmas is coming. Now that I am ready to send off my brother's care package, I need to figure out what I am going to do about family Christmas knitting. Or weaving. . .

More Camping Pictures

2008-10-23T12:26:00.003-05:00

It has been awhile since I updated my blog, but I spent time last week, and part of this week, in "The New AT&T" hell and haven't been online much as a result. "The New AT&T" took over as provider for our telephone and Internet service. I'm not sure they are any better or worse than anyone else, but when my telephone service (and thus Internet service) went out last week, it was hell.

First of all, my telephone line just went dead. Right in the middle of trying to get online. I spent hours doing as I've been taught by the phone company in outages past. I unplugged all the telephone jacks. Then I plugged them back in. When that didn't work, I unplugged them all again and also moved furniture (including a heavy computer hutch) and unplugged all the electricity to anything with telephone line access. I tried the line. Nothing. I unplugged again and left everything off longer. Still nothing.

We've become very frugal over the last year and as such, we have no cell phones or anything other contact with the world. So I loaded the kids into the car and drove to church to use a telephone to call for repairs. After the customary computer system automated service and lengthy hold time, I finally got a live person who told me in no uncertain terms the phone problem was my responsibility. She ran a check and could find nothing wrong on her end. She said I did NOT have coverage to have my inside wiring checked and if I dared to want such service they would have to empty my bank account at a minimum. She then told me to go home and unplug everything and when I plugged it back in, all would be fixed. I could almost see the smug expression on her face when she told me it was in all likelihood my computer messing up the phone lines.

The kids and I drove back home dejected and I wondered if I had anything I could pawn in order to afford the cost of bringing out a repair person. I meekly followed instructions and unplugged everything again. I waited well over an hour before plugging anything back in. Still. Nothing.

Since my husband now resides in another town and only comes home on Sundays, I couldn't call him for help. I had to do something. I thought I could get a cell phone and just cancel the phone service since it was obviously never going to work again.

I finally decided I would call the telephone company again and figure out a way to pay their exorbitant fees since I was obviously incapable of the simple maneuvers that would restore my telephone to service.

I loaded the children back into my car and we set off again. This time I noticed one of my neighbors was home. I knocked at her door and asked to use her phone. At least this time the unreasonable hold time gave me a chance to visit with my newly retired neighbor.

After finally reaching another live human being, I begged for a repair person to be dispatched. Warned again of the imminent financial ruin which must accompany such a request, I felt my stomach turn. But, I committed. I asked when I could expect a repair person and was told it would be anytime within 48 hours. I got the impression I should have been grateful to be scheduled for a repair at all and should not dare hope for the courtesy of a more definite time.

Finally, at the end of the window of time given, the repair man knocked at my door. Convinced the problem was mine, he tested the inside lines. Shock took over his face as he determined the problem was not mine, but theirs. He "ahemmed" and coughed and told me he would look for the problem. He found it in a span of line between the poles.

Telling me he had not brought wire to repair the problem, he would make a temporary fix and call someone to come out the following week. The temporary fix was funny. He left a long orange wire, like one of those outdoor electric cords, strung over bushes and across the road connecting the lines at the two telephone polls. We had to drive over it anytime we left the house. My friend Darlene noticed it and said it was the most "red necked" repair she had ever seen.

More than a week after the problem began, all is now ostensibly fixed. We won't have to pay all the crazy fees about which we were warned and I am praising the Lord for that one.

In the meantime, my friend Darlene, who joined us on the Calvary Chapel Fairhope camping trip, brought me a copy of her pictures. I thought I'd post them today. She got pictures of things I did not.

This is a picture of our campsite. The grounds were quite lovely.

We were all impressed with the tent which sprang out of our box. We had replaced our former tent after the hurricane and I hadn't paid much attention to more than the number of people that could fit in it. It turned out well. Our tent had a hallway with two completely separate rooms off of it. Kurt and I were able to have some privacy from the kids and we relished it.

Michael is wearing the Dale sweater I knit for him 2 years ago. I made it big and am very glad.

Early each morning, Mr. Mike brought his "famous camp coffee" around to all of the campers.

I tried it, but it was NOT to my taste. I found out later the famous coffee was simply whatever was cheapest at Wal*Mart.

Early the first morning, Mr. Mike took the kids fishing. They had a blast even if no one caught any fish large enough to eat.

Mr. Mike patiently taught the children the mechanics of fishing. I don't know if I will ever want to camp again without Mr. Mike. What a blessing he was to all!

Along with the camping gear, we brought bicycles for the kids to ride.

They had a great time with them in between all the other fun. Of course the greatest fun, for my kids at least, was kayaking.

Gregory fell in love with kayaking at the boy's camp out a few months ago. He was happy to see the kayaks once again.

I suspect kayaking on the tranquil Alabama River was easier than on the sea.

Unlike the last time, all were able to kayak on the camping trip.

Even the adults got turns. (Except for me because I had to take care of Michael.) But there was one of us who wanted to Kayak more than anyone.

Gabrielle never got a chance at kayaking at the last event and was determined to do so while camping.

She had a great time and loved it almost as much as Gregory.

Gabrielle's favorite activity is hanging out with other girls.

She loved visiting the Decker campsite where the girls often gathered.

Of course Michael could not participate with the older children, but he had fun as well.

This playground was next to the bathrooms and on every trip Michael insisted on playing a little while. He had no fear and a great deal of fun.

The slide gave us a laugh. Every time Michael slid down, the static would cause his hair to stand on end.

I enjoyed the praise and worship best of all. Michael however, was a bit distracted.

Kurt and I kept him between us and fortunately, he was not too distracting.

On the final day, Darlene had enough of the fallen tree which separated our two campsites and requested it be chopped up and moved. Mark taught Gregory how to use the axe and Gregory eagerly complied.

I was glad to see the tree go since it had tripped me the prior day and ripped the cuff of my pants.

Sunday ended up being much better than expected. Rather than having to rush away before noon, we found out we could stay until 3:00. So Darlene shared the food she had for lunch and we all enjoyed another meal together.

Both of our families are looking forward to the next camping trip. Especially if Mr. Mike comes!

Point of No Return

2008-10-14T13:25:00.002-05:00

We have hit the point of no return. Awhile ago, Kurt decided to take a promotion that would require us to move to Foley, Alabama. There is a Calvary Chapel in Fairhope and we are definitely Calvary Chapel people. There is no Calvary Chapel where we live presently. After visiting the church and the area, we knew we would love living in the Foley area. More than that, we'd been praying and believe the Lord would have us move. The move would certainly seem to solve some financial problems we'd faced as gas prices rose and Kurt commuted so far to work each day.

After accepting the new position, we fervently prayed our house would sell quickly. The economy fell apart. But we still believe the Lord would have us move, so we wait in faith. However, there came a point when Kurt had to choose to continue in faith or turn around. We chose faith.

On Monday, we hit the "point of no return." Kurt started his new job in Foley. He had to move there without us. We are very sad.

We asked the Lord to provide Kurt with an affordable place to live if He wanted us to continue with our move to the Foley area. A family at our new church in Fairhope told Kurt they had a house he could live in for free. Another sign to move forward no matter what the circumstances seem to scream all around us. But we walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor. 5:7)

The kids and I wait in hope for our house in Brewton to sell so we can join Kurt in the south. We are trying very hard to focus on the Lord and not on the economy. And in the meantime, we are trying to distract ourselves with a little fun.

Gregory and Gabrielle have been learning to knit. They have wanted to try some socks. I came up with a surprise to distract them from the fact their Dad had to move without us.

I picked up two skeins of "Bare" sock yarn from Knit Picks for the kids to dye and then knit into socks. Then I mixed some plain food coloring into vinegar and water. The kids had a blast planning and dyeing their yarn.

Gabrielle used lots of colors and tried to get plenty of pink tones into hers while Gregory preferred blue colors.

Not wanting to leave Michael completely out of the fun, I scrounged around my stash of fiber and found some undyed Romney wool that we could dye too.

I dyed a full pound of it. We've never dyed yarn before so we had a fun and educational time. I learned it takes a great deal more food color to dye yarn and fiber than I expected and I should have picked up more than one box of coloring. That being said, we've decided we like the bits of natural coloring in our designs.

We had a tough time waiting for the yarn and fiber to steam so the color would set.

After rinsing and washing the dyed yarn, we all named our creations and took pictures.

Gabrielle originally called her colorway "Flower Garden" but changed her mind and named it "Flower Power" instead.

Gregory wanted a name fitting for the sea colors in his design.

He decided to name his creation "Sea Reef."

While taking skein pictures, I tried to sneak a picture of Michael. He only wanted to make silly faces and run.

Both children are very happy with their colors and cannot wait for their skeins to dry so they can knit with them. However, I anticipated this and prepared.

I knew the kids needed to learn to knit socks before they tried their special hand dyed yarns. So I gave them each skeins of sock yarn and sets of circular needles to hold them over while their other skeins dry.

After dinner, I taught the kids to do the purl stitch (they had only learned to knit previously). Using their new stitch, they each did a swatch with their new circular needles.

They both did great and the swatch allowed us to plan their socks accordingly.

Gregory even got his socks started.

Kurt called us while we were all engrossed in watching Star Trek and knitting. Instead of the children telling him how much they miss him, Kurt got to hear all about dyeing and about the importance of gauge. We do miss him so very much, but my efforts to distract the children yesterday were very successful.

I hung my Romney wool up on the fire place to dry and the kids decided it looked like "The Companion" from Star Trek and thus named it.

I love the greens, teals, pinks and purples in my wool. I'm trying to figure out a good use for a pound of hand dyed Romney. I just love the colors.

Keeping with the episode where they got the name for my wool colorway, the kids say the yarn must go on.

I guess you had to be there.

Krull Lake Heritage Festival

2008-10-11T19:37:00.004-05:00

Once again our family enjoyed a day at the Krull Lake Heritage Festival.

We started with a hay ride from the parking lot into the festival grounds. Almost immediately, Gregory found the blacksmith.

He talked about blacksmithing and discussed some of the information he'd learned from reading blacksmith books during the past year. The kids also did their usual.

They shucked corn.

And sawed lumber.

Gabrielle made a shingle, though this year I wouldn't let her keep it.

The kids scored some sugar cane. Gregory chewed on it for hours.

Gabrielle admired the corn husk dolls and tried to get the maker to teach her a little about making them.

Gregory actually kept a straight face while telling me he still wanted a $70 whip. The man told us it was a "herring bone plait" and I told Gregory he better google for directions.

Michael being too young to appreciate the heritage crafts, constantly attempted to escape the supervision of his parents. I suspect he feels confined by the limits we place on him. We have rules. Like no throwing rocks at pedestrians. And other similar things.

A bee keeper had a booth at the festival this year. Kurt had a great time talking bees with the owners.

We lost our bees to hive beetles and swarming and will need to start over once we move. We figure we should get as much input from successful bee keepers as possible. And when we found out they raised their bees without chemicals, we bought some honey.

At the lathe, we ran into some new friends from Calvary Chapel Fairhope.

We also ran into some old friends from Gulf Breeze, but I got so engaged in conversation I forgot to stop and grab a picture. Okay, part of it was that my brain was completely engulfed in envy. Melanie has had 6 kids, one more recent than my youngest and she is pretty much my age. I've been using Michael as an excuse for carrying a little too much weight. I saw Melanie and she looked absolutely stunning. Sigh. I was certainly NOT thinking of cameras at that point in time. I will be starting the Master Cleanser fast on Monday.

There were several new things for us to do. Kurt got a quick dulcimer lesson.

Within no time he was playing.

I stopped to see my spinning friends.

Most everyone was out seeing the sights. Fortunately Theresa had remained behind. I loved having a brief time to catch up.

The kids got some hands on basket weaving time.

And Michael did his best to keep people from touching him.

He is so cute and everyone always wants to touch his hair. He HATES it.

The best time all day involved the oak basket maker.

He remembered Gregory from last year and knew Gregory loved the idea of making baskets.

He actually showed Gregory how to prepare the oak and then to strip it for basket material.

He showed Gregory how to smooth the strips and how to get them ready to weave.

He then sent Gregory home with the pieces of wood and instructions to weave a basket from them.

Gregory was one happy young man.

Since Gregory got most of the attention today, I let Gabrielle get the sun bonnet she wanted so very badly. She has been wearing it since.

The kids hated to leave the festival, even though we were some of the very last to go.

Kurt was just glad I agreed to ride the shuttle back since originally I tried to get everyone to walk. It was a good day.

First Annual Family Camping

2008-10-06T09:49:00.002-05:00

This weekend, we joined Calvary Chapel Fairhope's First Annual Family Camping trip on the Alabama River.

We had a great time. The church had a group of campsites down a little road from the river.

Plus one site on the river itself to facilitate kayaking and water play. We were a little distance from the bathrooms, which challenged us a bit, but it was a lovely walk.

During my first daylight morning walk to the bathroom, I discovered the beauty of the Alabama River.

The fog wafting up from the water created an aura of mystery, and I loved the reflection of the trees on the water's surface.

We haven't been camping since before Hurricane Ivan. At that time we lost all of our camping gear. We replaced the tent and other big items after the hurricane and have picked up other odds and ends for camping along the way. This weekend we had an opportunity to try out the new gear.

Kurt had to set up most of our stuff new out of the box, which meant the set up went slow.

In fact, Kurt didn't finish setting up until after dark. By the time we were set up, we had little energy and decided to make a simple supper and go to bed early. None of us slept very well since we were unable to get the air mattresses we needed for our sleeping bags.

While the adults set up, the kids played.

The Regehr family from our local church joined us for camping and had a great time too. Megan introduced Gabrielle to Pick Up Sticks Friday afternoon.

We woke up early Saturday morning because Mr. Mike promised to take all the kids fishing at dawn, down by the dam.

Mr. Mike blessed many families during the weekend. Not only did he and his wife Jeanette plan and organize the entire trip, but they spent a great deal of time supervising the many children on fishing and kayaking expeditions.

After a couple of fishing trips with Mr. Mike, Gabrielle caught a fish Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Mike suggested Gabrielle throw the little thing back, but she was determined to eat her fish, since this was her first time fishing. Several other campers suggested she might like to keep her fish as a pet. Gabrielle promptly named her fish, "Dinner."

In the end, Mr. Mike cleaned and cooked Gabrielle's fish for her and she ate it with her pot luck dinner Saturday evening.

The kids had a great time running, biking, fishing, kayaking, skate boarding and playing with the other children.

The group campsite rented by the church provided ample playing room for the kids.

Michael enjoyed spending lots of time outside and was much more content than I'd hoped he would be. He found the balls Kurt packed and had a good time.

We had a nice little campsite right across from the group site.

One of the guys brought a game he invented and named "Washers."

Kurt and the other men had a blast playing the game.

Mark said it was a fun game to watch too.

Plenty of people seemed to enjoy watching the various matches. In fact, I think our friend Mark hopes to have one of these games for our church here in Brewton very soon.

I tried to squeeze in a bit of knitting, but between exhaustion from lack of proper sleep and trying to keep an eye on Michael, I ended up undoing most of what I knit.

Kurt and Darlene discovered a common love for playing card games and spent a portion of their Saturday afternoon sitting in our screen house at the Regehr card table playing.

In fact, the card table followed us across the street to the the Saturday night potluck

and so did the cards.

I brought and cooked food for our family since food issues usually prevent us from being able to eat at pot luck meals, but we joined the group for eating time.

After dinner everyone played games

even the grown ups

or sat around the campfire.

There were plenty of marshmallows for roasting.

And lots of really good fellowship.

Even Michael had fun sitting around the fire.

And watching the bigger kids play games.

Cindy blessed us all Saturday night when she brought out her guitar. We spent a couple of hours singing praise songs around the campfire. Most of the worship team from church camped with us so the music was excellent.

We had a simple church service again on Sunday morning with a devotion and more praise and worship time.

These were my favorite times of the whole weekend. Once again I've been wishing I could play the guitar. I've some teach yourself books, but haven't been very successful with them so far. Probably because learning an instrument requires consistent practice. Maybe when Michael gets just a little bit older. . .

The final group activity for the weekend was sheer brilliance on Jeanette's part. She had all the kids gather at the gazebo and handed out bags.

Then she sent the kids out racing to gather as much garbage from all of our campsites as they could find. She gave prizes to all participants and double to the winners with the most garbage.

I can definitely see us doing the whole camping thing again. But not without air mattresses.

Gingerbread

2008-10-01T10:21:00.002-05:00

A couple times a week, I make gluten free muffins for our daily breakfasts. Today was such a day. Since my sister Michelle must now eat a gluten free diet, I thought I'd share my muffin technique with her and anyone else who can benefit.

The first step is to grind flour. I love my Country Mill hand grinder, but after several months of grinding flour by hand, especially in the quantities we use since I make all of our baked goods from scratch, we went electric. (I still grind grains by hand from time to time. It is good exercise. And I don't need power for flour if it comes to that.)

Even though sprouting my wheat allows Gregory to eat it, he still prefers the rice flour baked goods on which he grew up. So today I did a batch of rice based gingerbread and a batch of sprouted wheat gingerbread. (Michael prefers sprouted wheat and he is my other gluten sensitive child.)

While the Nutrimill grinds the flour, I preheat my oven to 400º and butter my baking dishes.

(Sometimes I will actually use muffin pans, but they are more work and harder to clean.) Most of the time I use a large glass baking dish and just cut the muffins into squares.

While I am waiting for my flour, I also make the almond milk for Gregory's rice flour gingerbread. Into my Vita Mix I place about a half cup of "raw" almonds. (Almonds are no longer "raw" in the pure sense because they are now required to be pasteurized, rendering them less nutritious, but that is a post for another day.) Add water to the 2 cup mark on the Vita Mix wet container. Process on high for a couple minutes.

I set the almond milk aside until I need it.

This morning, I started mixing my dry ingredients together while continuing to wait for my flour to grind. Rice flour takes longer than sprouted wheat when grinding it fine.

Into a medium to large bowl, mix:

3 1/2 cups of either brown rice or dried sprouted wheat, ground into fine flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons (or 1 heaping tablespoon) baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 Tablespoons ground ginger*
2 to 3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon*
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cloves*

(*I like my gingerbread spicy. You can use less, e.g. cut the largest measurement in half.)

I never get all of the brown sugar blended thoroughly into the mix and that is fine. It is okay if the batter ends up slightly lumpy.

Next, mix your wet ingredients. I start by melting 1/2 cup butter in the microwave.

I understand microwaves are nasty, unhealthy things, but I'm still lazy and use it on occasion. I have cut back with my use of the microwave dramatically however.

Wet ingredients:

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk for sprouted wheat batter or 2 cups almond milk for rice flour batter
1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup black strap molasses

I use 3 eggs from our own chickens (which are not typically of uniform size).

This morning they were also green. Since I never actually measure my ingredients for the most part, I sometimes will add additional moisture to get the proper consistency in the end. Smaller eggs might require more moisture to be added in the form of other ingredients. I normally use a little extra milk or even a bit of water if necessary.

When mixing the liquid ingredients together, add the butter last.

The butter will start to solidify again as the other liquid ingredients cool it down. After mixing the melted butter into my other liquid ingredients, I then immediately add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones.

Stir the ingredients with a large spoon. You will note the rice flour and almond milk batter requires an extra half cup of liquid. This may be because I measure the grain rather than the flour. Or it could be that the almond milk is creamier than the regular milk. The resulting batter should resemble cake batter.

[Rice flour batter pictured above.]

Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake in the 400º oven for 35 minutes or until done.

This gingerbread is quite good served with a couple spoonfuls of applesauce on top. For a desert type dish, you could top the applesauce with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Although today I made gingerbread, I use the basics of this recipe for many types of muffins. The molasses, cinnamon, ginger and cloves make this gingerbread. You could substitute any number of additional ingredient combinations to make any number of different kinds of muffins and I do. (E.g. blueberries and lemon peel or raisins, dates, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg or bananas and pecans.)

Michael's Third Birthday

2008-09-29T11:14:00.003-05:00

My baby turned three yesterday. Despite knowing it to be the universal lament of parents, I still can't believe how fast he is growing up.

My poor little guy woke up sick and grouchy. After giving him some juice to perk up his blood sugar a bit (he too seems to suffer from morning blood sugar lows) we let him open the presents from his two elder siblings.

Gregory worked very hard to knit Michael a little yellow teddy bear.

Michael loved his little bear and Gregory took great pride in it. Gabrielle had started a knitted gift for Michael too, but in the end, she raided her personal stash of stuffed animals for a birthday present for her little brother.

Because all three kids awoke with colds to one extent or another, and Kurt and I felt like our own white blood cells valiantly strove against invading viruses, we decided to skip church and have a restful day.

I suppose feeding the kids my abortive cake effort the day before for lunch lacked wisdom. But what are you going to do with half a 3D bear cake? I discovered too late, parts of the bear cake pan had been looted after the hurricane along with most of my cake decorating stuff and tried to make due. Making due resulted in a small oven fire, a house filled with smoke, a disembodied chocolate bear head cake and a frustrated me. So, I slapped the bear head on a platter, cut it into wedges and told the kids they could have it for lunch. They thought it a fun idea and since the smoke in the air choked them as they ate, they barely noticed the smoke flavor in the chocolate cake.

After giving Michael a decent breakfast, he felt a bit better and we let him open his remaining presents.

He got a red car from Grandma. He particularly enjoyed this gift since the car had room to perch his little "guys" inside and drive them about the house. And since Michael constantly grabbed Gregory's "guys" for play, we got him some of his very own.

Aside from Mr. Potato Head,

Michael received cars and "guys" for his birthday. They are his obsession. Of course Mr. Potato Head is sort of a "guy" though Michael ended up storing his "guys" inside Mr. Potato Head calling him a "bottom house."

I think Michael loved the Cars movie racing set best.

He raced Lightening McQueen and the King most of the afternoon, though the King always wins.

I think Michael really had a great time playing with his toys despite his runny nose and watery eyes.

In fact, I think the day would have been ugly had it not been Michael's birthday and had he not been distracted by all his new toys.

Of course, Kurt got to play too.

I think he spent a good 45 minutes building this race track before discovering the cars didn't work. Then he spent a couple of hours re-boxing the set and returning it to Wal-Mart. He replaced the race track with a Lightening McQueen radio control car, another hit with Michael.

In sticking with Michael's car obsession, I made him a gluten free chocolate car cake. I had planned to decorate it but with everyone sick, I decided to serve it plain (with real ice cream and coffee flavored whipped cream I made myself). Michael never really eats the icing anyway and mostly likes the ice cream best.

Michael had been talking about eating cake with ice cream and blowing out candles while the family sang "Happy Birthday to Michael" ever since Gabrielle had her birthday back in July.

He proudly blew out each candle one at a time and we didn't have the heart to tell him he should do it any other way.

Today, Michael asked if he could turn 3 again with more cake, ice cream and presents. Then he dragged the "Cars" race track toy into my bed next to me and played loudly with his cars while I nursed my early morning allergy/sugar crash headache.

Did I mention the track makes racing noises and plays sound clips from the movie?

Harbingers of Fall

2008-09-24T09:09:00.003-05:00

Amazingly, cool breezes and falling lows announce Fall comes early this year to the Gulf Coast. The weather is glorious, even if my allergies prevent me from enjoying it. The kids have found reasons to spend time outside once again and I keep wishing I could do likewise. It is actually cool. Comfortable. Amazing weather for September. The weather people report we are to see a low of 53º tonight. But they also inform we are under a high pollen alert. Sigh.

It wouldn't be Fall without something to harvest. Rising above even the most determined weeds produced during the hot months of summer when we simply could not keep outside long enough to keep up with them, the sugar cane looks ready to harvest.

Of course I am assuming the sugar cane is ready to harvest since I've never actually seen it growing before. But it is a good 10 to 12 feet high and surely must be tall enough.

And I remember the farmer from whom I brought my original cane telling me it would be ready in late September to early October.

Now I just have to figure out HOW to harvest sugar cane and what to do with it afterwards. Growing sugarcane sounded so cool last Fall. Now, I'm not sure what I am going to do with piles of the stuff.

While trying to get a good picture of the sugarcane, I inadvertently stepped in a fire ant mound.

These things are a terrible nuisance. And they are everywhere this year. Rain makes them swarm and Fall makes them swarm and sometimes they just swarm. It gets to the point where we can barely walk across the yard. There are some good bait products for fire ants, but I dare not put them out because our chickens will eat anything sprinkled on the ground. Fortunately for my sandaled foot, this was a relatively new and small mound. When you step on a fire ant mound, the little monsters will instantly swarm all over you and then in seeming answer to a secret command, they will begin, all at once, to sting you. For me, the problem is compounded by my grass allergy. The feel of grass, especially grass seed heads, on my skin is about the same as fire ant stings. So sometimes I don't look right away if I am standing on grass. Like this morning when I snapped my sugar cane pictures. The fire ants began their assault before I took my last picture. I figured the wind had merely blown the grass against my bare leg and foot. Wrong.

Our turkeys have grown big enough that I started thinking about a butchering schedule.

Then I had the opportunity to pick one up yesterday. (I let them free range from time to time and getting them back into their coop is not always the easiest chore.) The little runt couldn't have weighed more than six or seven pounds. I suppose it will be a few more weeks until they are ready for our freezer. Since I made the mistake of getting attached to them, I'll admit I am rather relieved to put the task off to an indefinite date in the future.

After piling priority knitting projects onto my "to-do" list, I did very little this week. I got sucked into "editing" novels for the children. I think I went through six 300+ page novels with a black permanent marker. They were delightful stories about dragons and the people who care for them, but every once in awhile the author stuck stupid stuff into the story. Stuff unnecessary to the story line, but stuff my kids didn't need to be reading. But in all, I had very little marking up to do and only ripped out one page. The kids had a grand time reading their new books. They are insatiable when it comes to reading. Of course they get that from me which explains how I got sucked into the task so easily at such a bad time.

I did manage to complete the third installment of my first MS4 stole.

I really like this pattern, though I would have liked to see more beads in the middle parts. I can't wait to see how it turns out. Blocking will make a huge difference too.

I also started the weaving for my brother's scarf.

I had a bit of a time getting my picks per inch straight. I think I've got it now. Since my struggle produced an obvious stripe, I decided to turn it into a design detail and will attempt to make 8 tighter repeats on the latter end of the scarf too.

I'm having such fun with my weaving that I am already thinking I might do a couple woven Christmas presents in addition to my normal knitting. That is the one rough part about Fall. It reminds me Christmas is coming. And there is so much to do. . .

Knitting Insanity

2008-09-18T10:56:00.004-05:00

It is official. I set up a standard and met it. I am completely insane. After determining I had imposed more knitting on myself than sanity could possibly allow because all of it was to be completed within a month, I immediately started knitting a second MS4 stole in Jaggerspun Zephyr lace weight wool and silk in the suede colorway.

I love the rich neutral tones interspersed with iridescent gold lined beads. I've finished clue one and hope to start clue two today. Tomorrow clue three comes out. I wish I could finish clue two before then, but that is not to be considered, not even under my present delusions of grandeur.

I have managed to squeeze out a couple more inches on my brother's fingerless gloves.

I'm finished with the thumb gussets and am continuing on up the hand. All of the lace I'm knitting makes these a bit boring, but I'm so glad to be able to make them for my brother. Snow is just wrong somehow. And temperatures below 40º. And to face all of that without wool? May it never happen to the family member of a knitter!

A few days ago, my nine year old daughter Gabrielle decided she wanted to learn to knit. At first, I suspected a plot to distract me from my goals. My children have the idea they are entitled to a large part of my attention. All three of them to different extents. And I've tried to teach my kids to knit in the past. Many times. It never ends well. I end up fixing tons of mistakes on impossible projects. But she persisted.

I bought both Gregory and Gabrielle Dale "Learn to Knit" kits a couple of years ago. They've since used the quality wool yarn to tie each other up and for any cause requiring string or rope. I gritted my teeth and tried to look the other way. How I suffered at the thought of that poor innocent yarn being tortured in the hands of ruffians. But for 3 days in a row, Gabrielle brought her knitting over to the couch while I knit and joined me. After a couple of days, Gregory couldn't stand it and asked me to remind him how to knit as well. Again I suspected a plot. I thought Gregory intended to wrest Gabrielle's attention to himself and turn the entire thing into a game involving space ships and world domination. I continued to suspect their intentions even when my husband Kurt caught them up in the middle of the night, huddled on the bathroom floor quietly knitting together while we slept. There have just been too many past disappointments. But amazingly, they both finished projects.

They started with the "Pocket Troll" pattern in their books and then went on to other patterns. They dumped their pieces into my blocking pile before weaving in their ends causing me great consternation. There is no way I'm doing THAT task for them. No way.

Gregory knit the pieces of a teddy bear for Michael's birthday at the end of the month.

Gregory even wove in his own ends after I took these pictures.

After spending some time day dreaming about the wonderful times we would have knitting together and enjoying productive hours as a family, Gregory broke into my reverie with something I hadn't considered. He wondered if he could use the knitting needles I use for sock knitting. Egads! I'm not sure I'm ready to put something so precious into the hands of a kid who can't remember to put his clothes in the hamper after a shower. I'm thinking a trip to Knit Picks before Gregory's upcoming birthday is in order.

I finished warping my loom yesterday for my brother's scarf. I did it in about a week, which is record time for me. My last project took a year to warp.

If I can figure out how to keep my youngest two children from severely injuring each other or screaming me into another headache, I may be able to get to some weaving today. In between all of my knitting. And parenting. And keeping the house in reasonable condition. And those other things reasonable adults are supposed to do every day.

Rounding the Bend

2008-09-15T12:15:00.002-05:00

Fall knitting season is in full swing and I am zipping right along. My trusty companion helps me keep pace.

[Cafe DuMonde coffee and chicory with cream and a dash of vanilla in an over sized cup]

Sometimes, September ushers in seasonal weather changes, which bring migraines to the household. While these once plagued only me, both Gabrielle and Gregory are starting to suffer as well. Even Kurt has had more headaches than normal. That means very little gets done on many days. Right now the kids are in bed with headaches. They are not doing school, which means I am not grading their work. They are not making messes, except for Michael who is doing his best to mess up the house on behalf of his siblings, and I do not feel compelled to do much housework. No one is really eating much, so meals are iffy, though I made homemade rosemary chicken and potato pizza last night and have plenty left over for today if needed. And I have pretty much mastered the technique of knitting through my migraines since sleeping during the day causes all sorts of sleeping problems the following night.

I've finished clue 2 on the Mystery Stole 4 project.

I'm starting to think I might like to start another one of these. I like all the beads, though the pattern is more dense than I usually like in lacework. However, living in the south, I've figured out this stole might be the perfect weight for our coldest weather. But with all of the projects I need to do in short order, I'm concerned about the lack of sanity behind thoughts of starting another one of these. The second one would be a gift if I did do it. I wonder if I have another set of size 3 circular needles. . .

I managed to cast on for my brother's fingerless gloves Friday evening and over the weekend, got through about half of the thumb gusset increases.

I'm hoping to finish these soon so I can cast on for another hat. Since my goal is 2 hats, a pair of fingerless gloves and a scarf, I am doing quite well.

Progress on the scarf continues though not as fast as I'd like. I managed to thread the heddles of my loom over the weekend.

After threading the heddles, I decided the scarf was too wide as designed so I pulled out 2 pattern repeats, one from each end. That should leave 12 inches in the reed and about 10 inches for the width of the scarf. How wide should a scarf be anyway? I don't think I've ever owned a scarf before having lived all of my life in the southern portions of the country.

Today is rainy, the older kids are in bed with headaches, Michael has unrestrained access to his toy box in the bedroom he shares with Gregory and I think I'll grab a glass of kombucha, put on the next "Lord of the Rings" audio book disc and get back to my projects.

The Knitting Race

2008-09-12T09:41:00.003-05:00

The great September 2008 knitting race has begun. Not only am I trying to keep up with the clues posted to the Mystery Stole 4 group,

[Clue 1 completed.]

but I am trying to send as many woolen items to my brother in Germany as my knitting needles and schedule will allow. I finished the blue hat I started last Sunday.

I'm hoping to be able to cast on a pair of fingerless gloves for him before the end of the day. Of course I also have to take the kids to the library and start clue 2 on my Mystery Stole. I found another hat pattern I'd like to try as well. The blue hat is a size large and we are a big headed family. To be on the safe side, I'd like to do an extra large hat too. The pattern I found is by Charlene Schurch in her "Hats On" book and is for a stranded watch cap. I haven't done any stranded knitting in awhile and a hat will be fun. I figure I'll do it in black and gray since my brother says he likes clothes in these colors.

On the weaving front, I resolved to use my brother's need for warmth as an excuse after all. Really, I spent little time in conflict. I know that I should be moving things out of the house to make it more marketable, but I decided Jesus was bigger than a little clutter and the house will sell in His timing whether or not I leave the loom in the living room. So a couple of days ago, I wound the warp for a scarf.

Yesterday I got the warp onto the loom's back beam and ready to start threading through the heddles.

Unfortunately, there is no good light by my loom and I am thus limited to weaving during certain times in the day when there is enough natural light streaming through the windows. It can get tough weaving around the sun's schedule. Lighting is on the "to-do" list, but who knows when we will get around to the stuff not related to selling the house.

I'm using a free pattern and the planning sheet from the Heritage Yarns website to plan the scarf and that has made everything much less intimidating. And actually, I'm using warping instructions from there as well.

I want the scarf to be as warm as possible so though I am using cotton for the warp, I went through my stash of knitting yarns for the weft. I found some alpaca and silk yarn left over from knitting a baby sweater for Michael when I was pregnant 3 years ago.

The yarn is next to the skin soft and the alpaca should be plenty warm. Based on my planning worksheet, if I keep to no more than 16 picks per inch on my 18 epi warp, I should have enough yarn for weft for a 6 foot long scarf. Now if the scarf will turn out as planned, I will be happy. I'm very nervous about gifting a weaving project in light of my lack of weaving experience. I'm really praying my selvages will be straight enough for my brother to wear the scarf. I don't want to send him anything that looks dorky. Somehow I feel doing mediocre work will contribute to the stereo type of the relative that makes lousy homemade gifts and thrusts them into the hands of poor victimized relations.