Happy Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. The weather had tricked me into thinking we had more time.

The news is frightening, the world is spiraling out of control and there is talk of WW3.

Thankfully the poets have found the words that I am unable to find as my thoughts are all a jumble.

So this Thanksgiving besides my wonderful family, I am thankful...

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

And I wish for all of you to find the peace of the wild things....

The Peace of Wild Things ~ Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Old me, New Year

“Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities.”  Women’s Home Companion  December, 1915

Oh a new year, new beginnings, new hopes and aspirations…why does it come at that time of year when I just want to burrow in with a warm afghan, a book, a mindless pattern, old movie or tv series.  Yesterday it was the Waltons and McLintock while sitting by the woodstove knitting…the simple life.

After the spring and summer of gardening and then harvesting/canning I move into holiday mode of making presents/baking/cleaning for company etc.  I need this little bit of down time to just vege.  Consider it my two week vacation, inside where it is warm.

After a short time of doing nothing but keeping the house and laundry cleaned and inhabitants fed I will emerge ready to face this  new year.

I will look through the canned/frozen goods and choose what seeds I want to plant this year and where I will put them. 

I will look at what the year has planned (so far just #2 son’s graduation) and decide if we should raise our own pigs again this year.  I could use a few more layers and will have to decide if I want meat birds too before I place my order.

I would like an orchard up by the barn and have even thought of a couple of trees for Christmas's year down the road.  I would like to move extra raspberry and blackberry canes up there along with elderberry but have to think of fencing to keep the deer out.

I will look through the patterns that peaked my interest and decide if they are something that still interests me.  I know I need new dish cloths and socks so they will go on the to do list.

I have lots of roving but I also have 6 fleece that I might send out to be spun for me as I will have 6 more come April.

Decision, decisions, decisions….only time and finances will tell.  Right now I have at least one more week of mental/physical hiatus.  Till then some randomness....

 Grandson stocking

Grandson stocking

Work with me...it looks like a heart right?

Summer resident only!

Grandson O in bubble heaven

 

 

 

 I hope everyone one had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 

Boy a nap sounds wonderful right now.....

Happy Groundhogs Day

If the sun shines on Groundhog Day;

Half the fuel and half the hay.

Living in Pennsylvania, Groundhog Day is a huge deal.  And as you know by now Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter.  And if this winter continues to be like this…..

BRING ON SIX MORE WEEKS!  The kids are even excited for more winter because they have not used a single snow day.  As it stands now, barring no use of snow days, they will get an extended Easter vacation and every Friday off in May.  A whole month of four day school week!  Hell I would have loved that as a kid too.

So what has been happening….

my little puppy (all 163# of him ) had a tumor on his leg so he was left at the vets Thursday night.  Having never been alone he was very stressed out.  Friday morning found him in surgery which went great.  I took him back in for them to check on it on Monday and he has to return on 2/9 for stitch removal and we will find out the pathology results.  

While he was in surgery I was taking #2 son to the Doctor.  He had a sinus infection and an ear infection.  

Sunday we went to see #1 daughter, Sir T and Baby O.  I did not have a sniffle before I left but while there my nose was like a broken faucet.  We left early and my sickness continues.  The sinus part has now lowered it sites on my throat and chest. Yippee!!!  But I can finally breathe through my nose again so I am not complaining!

#2 son turned 16 on Tuesday.  He is my baby and it is so hard to believe he is 200 pounds and over 6 foot.  We are holding off the cake and ice cream until this weekend when #1 & Sir T are here to attend. #2 daughter will be doing the cake decorating as she has been learning how in foods class.

While being sick I haven’t had the urge to knit or spin.  I have been reading though.and organizing seeds. Groundhog day is usually the day I have the seed orders in by.  This year I went through my saved seeds and older packages and I didn’t place an order.  My local feed store offers seeds from most of the catalogues I get including the heirlooms.  So I am saving on shipping and using the stash. 

Christmas Hangover

Urban Dictionary describes a Christmas Hangover as “The day after Christmas, December 26th when you wake up realizing all the fun is over and you have to wait another 365 days until Christmas.”

I am a creature of habit.  And as much as I love Christmas or any holiday for that matter, it throws a monkey wrench into my normal boring hermit-ish existence. 

So ...I do not like to pick fights or anything but I think that definition is wrong.  I think as an adult it could best be described as the exhaustion one feels from having…found or made the perfect gift for everyone on your list, wrapped it, labeled it, packed it, shipped it or delivered it, bought the tree, decorated the tree, decorated the house, made the nog, the dinner, the cookies/pies/stollen , cleaned the house from top to bottom  for all the holiday guests….several times because the kids, husband and dogs thought you had too much time on your hands, prepared for family and their animals that stay over, tried to prepare for any “unforeseen” that usually happens, and after weeks of this the exciting finale of watching them open presents finally came and you are still going at mach speed… 

All those later than usual nights, earlier than usual mornings, having all these people in and out of your usually quiet abode, the extra laundry, the excess food consumption (or alcohol) that your body is not use to finally takes its toll and you become mentally and physically exhausted.  And yesterday when everyone left I could only sit.  I could not concentrate enough to knit, I could not read, I just sat like a lump on a log and watched something on tv that I don’t even remember…and then more friends came over … and tonight we will have company … Wednesday night into Thursday #2 son is having three friends coming over that love to eat … Friday life will semi return to normal only to have the New Years activities.  If I can make it until then, New Years day the tree and decorations will come down so that Tuesday when the kids return to school I can sit in my everything is back in it’s place, empty house and … take a nap!  Actually this is when I will get to really enjoy my gifts.  I have ebooks to buy and a kickass kitchenaid that was insulted when all I asked of it was to whip up a dozen eggs.  Trying to redeem myself in the eyes of the mixer earlier I had it working on a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  It was amused but is asking for a real job… I am thinking bread might make it happy.  I know it will make the man happy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas that left you with a enough of a hangover to know that you had a good time with family and friends but not so bad that you don’t want to redo it for another 365 YEARS!!!

Uncritical Small Children...I hope

“The best thing about doing needlepoint for very small children is that they are so uncritical. They don’t say things like, ‘I see you’ve missed some stitches over here on the leg, was that intentional?’ or ‘Was this creature blinded in a fight?’ They will clasp it in their little arms and love it besottedly, inseparably as the thing becomes more and more rancid.” ~ Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus.

Let’s hope that carries over to knitting also. I finally finished Baby O’s stocking.

I am so happy it is done. I know I should have done his name in white also. Trying to find graphs that would fit into the stitches cast on, trying to not make it too baby-ish so it will grow with him, trying to make it large enough that his mom would be happy, trying to knit stranded …was very trying! Size wise I over compensated and his parents will have a very happy child! And no I did not do that on purpose.

When I wasn’t able to work on that stocking I just did plain knitting on this one to keep my fingers busy and use up yarn. I did an afterthought heel for the first time. I like it but should have used more stitches.

Now to finish the lap-ghan. I have 8 more rows, 4 lace 4 plain , before the seed stitch border so I know it will be done before Christmas.

I did some baking this weekend but #2 son had two friends over and they ate. Needless to say nothing is left for Christmas! But almost all the decorating (other than the tree) is done. Boys come in handy for high places and carrying things. Guess that is why they were soooo hungry!

And it has finally gotten cold and feels like December. Woke to 16 degrees this morning next to the house. No snow left to make it look like Christmas outside but it sure does feel like it.

Put a Little Holiday in your heart

Feel the cold wind blowing-winter's coming on

'Tis the season, so they say

If you need help believing 'cause your spirit ain't

Too strong

Hold my hand - we'll push that cloud away

Put a little holiday in your heart

It'll put a little shuffle in your step

Give you a song that you can sing

With a melody you can't forget

And if you wanna join in a little harmony

To keep the world from tearin' apart

Well you know where to look

Yeah - you gotta put a little holiday in your heart

~ Lyrics Put a Little Holiday in your heart

Remember I said I didn’t like to bake but didn’t mind it during the holidays? Well I was on the phone with #1 daughter making two loaves of rhubarb bread. Later, I pulled them out of the oven and threw in two loaves of orange cranberry and when they came out I tossed in holiday bread (think cream cheese, cherries, almond extract deliciousness). When I pulled the holiday bread out I noticed they didn’t rise. I check the recipe and I didn’t add in the baking powder. I call it a day and clean up the kitchen. I opened the fridge to get lunch and there sits a measuring cup full of rhubarb….it never made it into thebread. The man and kids ate the no rhubarb rhubarb bread but I have officially quit baking until my bruised ego recovers from my stupidity. Definitely put me in a scroogey mood and I needed a little holiday in my heart.

And as if to answer my prayers it snowed. Now it was 40 degrees yesterday and raining all day but it cooled down, the snow started and the slush froze. Snow definitely means holidays tome. I sat up knitting and watching it snow until 11:30. Thank goodness the kids had a two hour delay.

Walked the dogs this morning and it seemed funny to see the forsythia blooming with snow on it.

The snow is almost gone but tonight the man brought up all the Christmas boxes. The washing machine is running with all the table runners, place mats, shower curtain, table clothes, mug rugs etc. Tomorrow we start to decorate. It is a slow process as I pack away whatever is currently occupying the space needed.

As this is the last weekend of deer season I figure we will hold off getting the tree until next weekend. We always get live trees. With the woodstove sucking the very life out of the tree and the dog’s tails attempting to knock it down I try to not have it up too far before Christmas.

The man found out today that his company is having a Christmas party after all. They originally said no but plans are on for the 16^th. He will have to work ½ a day on Saturday so we won’t be out long . When he gets home we can go chop a tree. The lady we went to for years closed and we have been buying a tree at Home Depot but I found a place in NY where you can cut your own. We will be going over the river and through the woods to get our tree!

Who knows if I watch a couple of more Christmas movies and keep listening to carols, I might even try baking again this weekend.

Let the stress begin...21 days and counting

I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become….but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress. ~ May Sarton

I use to be such a Christmas nut…now sometimes sadly it is an effort. I love going to church on Christmas Eve. I love driving around and looking at the outside Christmas lights. I love walking, preferably in snow, to find the perfect tree. I love the wrapping of the presents. My mother was a master at disguising gifts so it has become somewhat of a game. The guys are downstairs now working on something…I love to make believe I am coming down and listen to them holler! I love the music…Bing, Frank, Dean, Nat. I love watching all the shows on TV. I love reading all the Christmas stories. I love turning off all the house lights and just watching the blinking tree lights dance on the ornaments and create shadows within the branches of the tree. I love going to bed on Christmas Eve with butterflies of anticipation. I love watching people open their presents. I love when the presents are all open and everyone is so absorbed in what they got. And even though I don’t particularly like to bake I don’t mind it at Christmas. I made two batches of cookies today. It is a start.

I don’t however, like to shop on a normal day. Add to that snarky people vying for the biggest, best or last gift to be had and I hate it even more. When forced to enter a store during the holidays I get nauseous and before I exit I have a headache. If I have someone with me and I have psyched myself into it I can laugh off their rude obnoxious behavior and after they have rammed their cart into me…again, I can smile at them and say “And a Merry Christmas to you too”. Only once was that followed by calling her a female dog. That being said you know that I was NOT shopping on Black Friday!

I got most of what I wanted before Thanksgiving. However,some people don’t give you ideas early enough to make this happen….and those I try to cover by shopping on line or I’ll grab the man and psych myself up.

Thankfully it is early enough that when I had to go into town on Thursday it wasn't all that bad. There were more people but they were still pleasant. Now the best part of shopping is when I come home, stoke up the wood stove, make a cup of tea and sit down to work on my grandson’s stocking…and all the tension of shopping just slips away with the stitches off the needles. I have finished three presents ...these are another pair of fingerless mitts for #2 daughter as she looses them all the time and the dead fish hat for Baby O.....

Besides the stocking I have two more projects in various stages of completion. If time allows there are some other gifts I could work on but if it doesn't happen it is not a big deal.

I only have a couple of things left to pick up including the duck for dinner. Oh yeah and the tree. But that can all wait a while because tonight is another one of my favorites of the season….VFW yearly prize bingo. My mom and I went every year and now my kids are all going. The proceeds go to the children’s Christmas party. My kids use to love going to the party but now they are all way over the cut off age. It is by no means a serious bingo game. The men buy or get donations of prizes so a lot of them include booze in some form. If you are not lucky enough to win something you want, most people are willing to swap for something you won! I have won dinner at a local restaurant, money off my phone bill, free hair cut, free oil change, $25 gift certificate at grocery store, bird feeders and a whole lot more over the years. Cheap fun for a good cause and one of those saving graces that makes up for the downside of the holidays. Now when I was outside earlier a bird flew over and pooped on my shoulder....that's good luck right?! Oh well if it isn't please send me some!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life…a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year – and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God. ~ Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson)

On New Year’s Eve most people reminisce on what the year has brought to them. I find myself doing so at Thanksgiving. My mind skims over the good, the bad and the ugly of everyday life. I could take up pages of what I wanted to accomplish that didn’t get done or I can be thankful for what we were able to get done. I can bemoan the plants that didn’t grow or serve up those that did. I can cry over those that won’t be with us or welcome the new ones to the table. Sometimes in the daily grind it is hard to always realize the upside of things.

And because others can say things so much more eloquently than I...

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

For pleasant shade of branches high,

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

For this new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wishing all a very Happy Thanksgiving

Preparing for the holiday

Music with dinner is an insult to both the cook and the violinist. ~G.K. Chesterton

Now music while preparing the dinner is perfect. My mother and I always started listening to Christmas carols while preparing the meal for Thanksgiving.

Today finds #2 daughter and I making pies and listening to Christmas carols. That is something I love about the holidays and that I try to keep alive…the little family traditions which you later realize are so meaningful even to those that you thought were oblivious to them.

Now to get her to wash the china without breaking any…maybe I will do it myself!

Eventually

“Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know everything happens for a reason.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

As the weather changes there is so much to do and like when the holidays are looming I start to get antsy. Everything falls into place eventually so why all the drama? I don’t know! It is as traditional as pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table.

So when I was babysitting I was thinking of all the things that still had to be done. Coming home there was catch up. Then a sick kid, diagnosed with strep and given horse pills to swallow which always makes me just shake my head.

But I am calmer because amidst all the chaos things are falling into place. On the farm…the pigs go to the butcher on Saturday, the turkeys and broiler chickens are in the freezer, we have enough hay to get the animals through the winter and we have been stocking up on feed so we don’t have to make runs when the roads are bad.

In the garden/yard…the potatoes are dug and most of the leaves are off the yard. The trees still have to be wrapped , the garden completely cleaned and blackberry canes cut. One days work and it will be done so I have calmed down there.

The Vehicles…are as winter ready as they can be barring any unforeseen mechanical problems. The registrations have to be renewed before December so will be done with the next paycheck.

The house…my brother delivered more firewood, I had broken the glass in the woodstove and I got that replaced, I have stocked up on sugar and flour for holiday baking, the screens are off the windows but there is a whole lot of cleaning that needs to go on. But I am still canning…#2 and I started sauerkraut this weekend and that will take a couple of weeks to ferment. I did sweet and sour red cabbage and 28 quarts of potatoes (for quick dinners) this week. Someone posted a recipe for summer sausage and I made that and it is pretty good. Two pounds went into the freezer.

Yesterday I put most of the canning stuff away and will only pull out what is needed until my canning list is complete. I have started cleaning out which will not make the trashman happy! Now I have to turn my attention to cleaning up!

So for the most part I am ready for the flurries we are suppose to get today. I can’t say I am ready for Christmas but my Christmas club monies are in my account waiting for when I am. My Christmas cactus is in full bloom….

It seems the cactus is just like the stores, thinking Christmas and forgetting about Halloween and Thanksgiving! There is still 58 days until Christmas.

Welcoming in 2011

“New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights” ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

I think we all hope that whatever bad there was in the year going out will end and that better things will happen in the coming year.  For some reason I have approached this years end with a few other illusions...

We spent the day with the family and then the man and I went shopping and out to dinner as it is our anniversary.  We stopped at a shop which sold items on consignment to look at a crock we had seen there.  Sadly it had a crack in the bottom which made it useless to me.  But while walking thru I found this...

My uncle did beautiful wood work but only when he felt in the mood to work on it.  It was a hobby and he did not like it becoming a job.  I did not understand that until recently.  Anyhow, many years ago I had driven him to the VA hospital.  The younger two children were babies at the time and it was a heck of a day with no where to sit, cold outside, and an all day affair.  He wanted to pay me and I would not accept the money but told him I would like a coffee grinder.  He said if I bought the parts he would work around them.  I bought the parts and he kept telling me he was going to get to it but sadly he never did.  This one is unfinished so it gives me the illusion that he did work on it.  I have butcher block wax which I am going to finish it with.  I threw a couple of beans in and it works great.  So I don't have one made by my uncle but I have a substitute which makes me think of him.

We stopped at several other places and then came Dick's Sporting Goods.  Fishing poles, ice augers, hunters camo and... socks with balls of yarn on them! 

The man argued they were soccer balls, which the one on the left  is but the others look like yarn balls.  I brought them home and without coaxing I asked the kids and they said it looks like balls of yarn!  I will wear them proudly as yarn socks and to heck with anyone who disagrees. 

And to further add to the illusion....I bought a lottery ticket for the Mega-Million! Well actually it didn't cost me anything since I had winning tickets which were given to me for Christmas.  I have the illusion of winning and getting the barn I want, new truck for the man....  Oh come on it is New Years eve, one can dream anything is possible in the new year! 

I hope all your dreams for the new year come true.

Singing my song

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? ~ Rose Kennedy

Two definitions of storm are...an atmospheric disturbance manifested in strong winds accompanied by rain, snow, or other precipitation  OR a strong outburst, as of emotion or excitement.  We have had both of these....a snow storm which dropped only 4 inches by us but covered #1's area with 12 inches and the storm of Christmas excitement.

So today I delight in the calm that comes after the storm.  The man is at work, the older kids have gone home and the younger are visiting friends or getting good use out of their presents. 

I read a blog where she perfectly describes it as a day of self indulgence because we don't have to knit, cook, or bake a thing.  It is also a planning day, what are we going to do with all the extra time we have on our hands?  I was looking at patterns since I now have time to work on projects for my grandchild.  May is coming quick.  I am working on a pair of socks

until I pick up yarn tomorrow for the baby project. Grandma here ain't gettin' any younger and I need to stay warm!

I am also trying to find out how to use new gifts...Canon's PowerShot SX130is!  Love it!  Smaller than my other but more megapixels.  I missed out on a class they were offering to get the full potential from your camera so I have to see what is available in the Spring.  I took lots of test shots but people had their hands in front of their face or moved when I was trying to take the shot.  Birds are much easier to photograph

or inanimate objects.  My daughter who doesn't crochet made me this doily. 

The very first project I ever did was a red doily for my mother.  My neighbor LouLou, who was like my grandma, helped me with the pattern.  She made me rip, redo, rip and redo until I got it right.  I never did do another project until years later when I was married.  #1 did a great job with no help and included a poem with it.  I am going toblock it and frame them as soon as I can find the frame I want. 

Later in the week there will be plenty of time to clean, put away the gifts, clean out the fridge and other mudane jobs but for now I am going to bask in the aftermath of the a wonderful Christmas.  Tomorrow their are appointments but for now....

 

Traditions

Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends. ~Margaret Thatcher


#1 and I were talking about traditions recently. In her married life and with a baby on the way, they are forming their own traditions. They are combining some traditions from both of their childhoods and forming new ones along the way.

Last year when we were still scarred from losing my mom and uncle, everything HAD to be done the way Mom did it. I was never the baker and here I was trying to make all her foods without her recipes. I was making my own gift tags, making my own cards, making a lot of the gifts and making my own wreathes. Everyone was trying to deal with their own grief and different traditions held different meanings for everyone. I tried anticipating it all and drove myself ( and possibly others) nuts while trying to do so. I came to realize traditions are great but they are nothing without the family. And with that fear of trying to perfectly replicate the Christmas’ past removed,  I was free. The traditions are still there but I can do things my way and if need be cheat along the way.

So this year went easier…I bought wreathes for home and the cemeteries, I had gift tags left over from last year, this year’s cards were easily printed out, and I had a year of baking mistakes under my belt. If all the cookies burnt then there was always the bakery. I made some gifts.  If I had something in mind but the pattern was driving me crazy, I sat it aside and didn’t force myself to work on it. If the project gets done it can be put away for another time or even another person.

So, the decorations are all up. I have all the shopping done. A few gifts are still in shipping but will arrive before Christmas but if they don’t they are not any of the important ones. I have everything else wrapped. The breads are made. Almost all the cookies are made. The meats have been taken out.

And now instead of spinning around like a mad woman, today I am watching Christmas movies and finishing off a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend. If time allows I would like to make her a pair of slipper socks, if they don’t get done on time, her birthday is in February!

The kids came home early from school and the man has tomorrow off so instead of trying to do it all I can pawn off various jobs on them! 

So the traditions are still there but not at the expense of family or my sanity.  Everything is right on track but if it goes a stray it could become a new tradition.  And to make sure I don't forget my lessons and worry to much about the traditions and not enough about the family is the newly knit Shelf Elf.

So I wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with friends and family.  Keep the traditions close but the friends and family closer.

Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show.

The secret lies in an inner glow.

It's lighting a fire inside the heart.

Good will and joy a vital part.

It's higher thought and a greater plan.

It's glorious dream in the soul of man.

~ Wilfred A. Peterson

"Lovin' from the Oven"

“The smell of good bread baking,
like the sound of lightly flowing water,
is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight”
– M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

The warm temperatures of this past weekend did not stick around for long.  The seeping ground water is making ice sculptures and sheets are floating down the river.  But still no snow to speak of.

So with Christmas fast approaching and the daily highs barely hitting  20 degrees, I decided to warm up the house with some baking.

Yesterday it was 2 loaves of Orange Cranberry bread, 2 loaves of Holiday bread, 1 loaf of Banana bread, 2 loaves of Zucchini bread, and 3 loaves of Pumpkin bread. 

Today, I hope to get the Date Nut bread and some chocolate chip cookies done.  The Caramel Nut are already mixed and frozen, they just need to be sliced and baked.  This is a job #2 daughter wants for this weekend.  She also wants to bake Peanut Butter, Choodles, Sugar cookies and Almond Crescent's.

Tomorrow I have to make three Cheesecakes for a Christmas party.  Then I will be done baking for a while except for regular bread. 

Tomorrow night we will finish our Christmas shopping.  Then it is just the count down....8 days!!!!!!!

The Unexpected

The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations. ~Eli Khamarov, Surviving on Planet Reebok

Yesterday was a gloomy day.  It slowly warmed up but was rainy with 2-3 inches expected.  I had to go to town and I stopped in the thrift store for shits and giggles. 

I walk in and was greeted by...

it reads "The Joys of Winter Never Melt Away".  He is happily ensconced on the oak bench as you enter my house.  Cooper (the coon dog) stares at him and whines because he thinks it is one of his play toys.  He is not going to get him.

Next I spied this little towel

which goes with my curtains so I HAD to buy it.

I maneuvered through some shelving units and came to the side wall full of kitchen paraphernalia, pots, pans, dishes, coffee pots, bread machines etc.  I look up on the top shelf and there sits a beat up box that reads pressure canner.  Well I have a pressure canner but it is a 23 quart and sometimes I only need to can a couple of pints.  I open the box and the canner is pristine as in never used.   The weight had never been removed from it's envelope, everything was there including the book and warranty papers.  It is a Mirro 8 quart canner.  The original price tag says $55.95.  I couldn't find one of their price tags and was walking toward the counter to inquire what they would want for it when I thought to check the bottom....$7.99!  Where it wasn't the best bargain I have ever found, it was one that made me extremely happy. 

In other news, #2 daughter turned 16!  We need to get her a driver's permit.  The teaching will fall into the man's lap.  When I ride with anyone I usually knit as a distraction from becoming a back/side seat driver.  I don't particularly like to drive but I am also not comfortable riding!  This should be loads of fun.

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  Thirteen of us ate till we could eat no more.  We did without the holiday buying spree and sat at home together on Friday.  Saturday we did venture out to cut a tree but when we got there they were only selling pre-cut ones so we left.  Our old cut your own place closed and we have to find a new one because cutting it yourself just adds to the whole season for me and it is something we all look forward to.

#1 daughter and Sir T sent pictures (sonogram) of the baby.  I say it is a boy but his mom says it's a girl.  Since they won't find out we will have to wait and see.  I need to finish the little coat just in case his mom is right.  Either way I have to get knitting since Christmas comes first and that is only 23 days away.

A Conglomeration of Things

THING 1

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedy beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

~ Scottish Saying

My brother recently put a trail cam behind my house and here are a few things traveling my woods at night...

It is a little hard to see but behind the bush is a big coyote, which is probably what got my turkey this spring.

It was either that or the bobcat I chased away from my hens.  Years ago I worked nights and once when I pulled in the driveway, I swear I saw a mountain lion.  My uncle believed me but most other people just scoffed at the idea.  Before I had the dogs the coyote use to come down during the day and rub up against the hickory tree.  He would be standing outside when the kids left for school. 

I love watching animals in their natural habitat and I try to stay out of their area.  I use to sit and watch the red fox pounce  in the field covered in snow trying to get the field mice and moles deep underneath.  It was very interesting how he would tilt his head to hear them scurrying around.  Then he started trying to get my chickens and he wasn't so cute anymore.  Or the bear in the yard running around and climbing trees...adorable....until he started heading toward the chickens and then we had to go scare him away.

But moving on, this is what my brother hopes to get during hunting season, a big eight pointer.  I have been told there is a 10 pointer up there too.  I usually just see the does with fawns and occasionally a spike, when they take their daily walk out of the woods. 

THING 2

"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."  ~ Mark Twain

So true and so hard for the man. He likes coffee, the occasional beer, and meat.  It doesn't matter what kind of meat or how it is cooked just make sure there is meat with those other things on his plate.  Yeah the vegetables that he eats with a bite of meat to disguise their taste.  He is worse than a picky kid sometimes.

The headaches continue but the meds they gave him are helping.  The memory issues continue but as I said before he actually started catching himself and he is thinking before he speaks!!!! I know, unbelievable but true!!!  He catches himself and tries to bluster his way around.  The guys at work are watching him since any mistake he might make could be detrimental to them all as in BOOM...he works with propane.  I am still worried but he got a clear bill so he won't even listen because the doctors know more than I.  So we just try to add more good things to his plate and hope his mental issues make him not notice!!!

THING 3 (THE BEST THING)

When a child is born, so are grandmothers. ~Judith Levy

or maybe this one...

Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you're just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric. ~Pam Brown

In May I will be a giddy prehistoric woman.  #1 daughter and Sir T are finally making me a grandmother.  I have waited and waited years for this to happen from one of my two older children.   Thankfully they didn't make me wait until I truly was prehistoric.  I think I will be able to get down and build towers out of blocks or legos.  I think my fingers are still nimble enough to button those small buttons and snaps on Barbi's clothes (or I will make some for her that don't need to be buttoned!)  I honestly think this pregnancy will pass longer for me than my own did!  They won't find out the sex but I say it is a boy.   Thankfully you can make things that can be worn by both in case my grandma radar is off.

THING 4 (THE INEVITABLE THING)
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale

I love this time of year.  People actually try to behave like they should the rest of the year.  So those that don't know....


Countdown Clocks, Christmas Countdowns at WishAFriend.com