What I've been up to

I have no idea where summer and autumn went. Well, I do, but those details are not for here. I was happy to finish this baby jacket and hat and booties for my new nephew. It was made with Swish Tonal worsted, named Kindling, a super soft merino yarn from Knitpicks. I have a few other things going, socks and mittens and such, a scarf and a blanket, but how to find the time to work on them? I always have such high hopes of providing my loved ones with high quality hand knit and crocheted keepsake garments and accessories, but its rare that any of them are done on time. This set, however, was. 


We opened the first jar of black raspberry jelly, since the ground is white with snow. Is so fun to taste summer when temps are in the single digits and the snow is cold and crunchy on the ground. Andy is out hunting, and the kids and I can't seem to drift away from the warmth of the wood stove. I am excited to start a project today that I hope is done in time for Christmas this year. I have high hopes. 

A shortcut to . . .

Virginia Bluebells? No, that's not what we were after. 

But what a show! Ringing in spring, honeybees happily hovering among the blue blossoms.

But not what we came for. 

Still don't see any, and these bluebells are very distracting. In a good way.

Yellow violets? Is this what we came for? How cool are they?! Violets are yellow, the ground is brown, but what we actually came for is yet to be found . . . (does spring bring out your inner poet?)

 

Oh! There they are! Do you see them? There are two, and I'm not talking about the purple violets, no matter how charming they are. 

There's another one! Oh joy!

Most of what we found were grays. What a treasure!

I think we have finally rid ourselves of winter. 

Storm clouds

From a couple of weeks ago. 

You should try this: Individual Baked Eggs

Ready? Set your oven to 350 degrees F. Get out a pound of bacon. If you don't have some on hand, you should seriously resolve to never let that happen again. Cook it partially; it should not be crisp, but still flexible. Shape the bacon into the greased (I use cooking spray, butter flavored) cups of a muffin tin. No, mine isn't tin. Its very well used and seasoned stoneware from Pampered Chef. 

Next, crack an egg into each individual cup. Lightly salt and pepper. If your kids are helping you, keep plenty of paper towels on hand. If you live near me, please come and get some eggs. Our hens are laying more than 20 per day. They are free-ranging, grass-eating, and fed all natural grains. End of commercial.

Bake  for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they are set the way you like them. The original recipe from allrecipes.com suggests to top each with cheese. That might be good, but we didn't miss it.

 Such a happy breakfast! Very tasty served with Grandma Vi's banana bread. Now that you know how easy and fun this is, go and try it!

Winter is always coming.

A friend of ours reported to Andy that an oak tree in his pasture had been struck by lightning and needed to come down. So, with the kids and I at a safe distance, he started the process of bringing this giant down.

First, Andy got the initial wedge out. This was how he controlled how and where it fell. Then he dabbed at it strategically with his chainsaw, until just a fist-sized chunk of wood was all that was keeping it up. By this point, there was an enormous loud crack, and I yelled 'GO!'

By the time I yelled, Andy was already a tree-length away in the other direction. 

The scary part over, now was the time to start disassembling it.

Many hands make light work. We told them, anyone who enjoys being warm in the winter time has to help.

With Andy running the saw, me running the splitter, and the kids carrying and stacking, we filled up the truck. It took a good 6 or 7 hours. We probably have 2 or three more loads like this to retrieve yet. 

Argus

Ah, spring. Ideal time for some hoof trimming. We took advantage of a recent warm day for some caprine pedicures. We got the girls done up all nice and trim, then it was time for the boys. Andy came up with an ingenious way of immobilizing the bucks so we could get their hooves trimmed quickly and comfortably. It went amazingly well.

But how could we expect Argus to be led humbly back to his pen with all those pretty ladies around?

Andy spent some time letting Argus work out some of his pent up energy, and then they took turns leading each other down the hill to Argus' pen.

Its not every afternoon that we get this level of entertainment.

Still friends, and such a good accomplishment.

BLIZZARD 2011

What a crazy storm! We figured, after all the hype, that it would fizzle and slink by, hoping we wouldn't notice. Boy were we wrong, and definitely not disappointed.

The wind started picking up Tuesday afternoon, driving the snow in. By nightfall, while we were all snuggled in the living room having family TV time, the wind was howling. Then there was a bright flash . . . lightning! Thundersnow! We were pretty thrilled, and were sure at that point that the storm meant business.

As we prepared for bed, school had been called off for the following day, and we slept, not knowing what kind of 'snowmageddon' we might wake up to. But since Andy had brought in a good load of wood, we stayed toasty warm.

We awoke, and tried to get our chores done the best we could. Andy went right to work to clear the drive, and Emily and I waded up to the barn in knee-to-hip deep snow to get the milking and goat care done.

Note the drift on the porch roof.

Well into the late morning and after chores, Andy continued to clear paths. The children delighted in going out to play in the snow.

There were tunnels to excavate, forts to build, and sisters to pummel with snowballs!

The morning turned to afternoon . . . .

And no sight nor sound of a snowplow. Which is why most of us out here have at least one 4WD vehicle. But they did come to dig us out later on in the afternoon.

I had had enough of the snow and cold for the day, and came in to enjoy the snow day, watching the bird feeders and putting my feet up by the fire.

The children got two snow days out of the deal, in addition to the early dismissal Tuesday afternoon. We estimate we got between 12" and 16" of snow, but it was hard to tell with all the drifting. The day following the storm, we fell into the below zero range temperature wise, and endured a wind chill advisory. As I write this, temps are climbing into the 20s, which sure feels like a heat wave. The sun is shining, and life goes on.

sewing in a zipper

I do knit, and have crocheted forever. I don't sew. When my sis in law announced the impending birth of her fourth, I started on a bunting. I don't know why I do things like that; it wasn't done when he was born. As a matter of fact, I just finished it this past weekend. But I did conquer it. I don't sew. But I did sew in a zipper.

The first thing I did was pray. The next thing was look at a couple of online videos on how to stitch a zipper in to a knitted garment. I stretched and flattened it out on the dining room table.

I made sure to tie the two front panels together evenly.

And since I know myself so well, I cut a piece of cardboard to size, and inserted it between the back and front. I could just see myself stitching the front to the back!

Pinned in place . . .

My slipper orchid cheering me on . . .

My important implements!

I discovered the comfort and security of a basting stitch. Thanks to my trusty cardboard, I did not stitch the front to the back.

Backstitching. I'm pretty happy with how straight it ended up.

Zipper installed, and fully functional!

The lucky recipient. I'm trying to convince myself he doesn't have the same expression that Ralphie did in The Christmas Story. But I feel like I really conquered and accomplished something by knitting that bunting and teaching myself to sew that zipper in!

Stay tuned - tomorrow, there will be photos from the BLIZZARD OF 2011!