Stages of Done

Time to Start the Garden

2010-02-18T11:03:00.002-05:00

No, really, it's not too early to get going again. We're almost out of vegetables from last year and it's really very sad. I've come to the conclusion that the supermarket, all supermarkets, kind of suck. Produce that ships over long distances just doesn't taste good. No wonder no one wants to eat their vegetables.

On the bright side some of my favorite things are also the earliest ones. Starting as soon as march I can be planting peas, chard, lettuce and spinach. I'll have to be careful if it's going to frost and run out there with some coverings but we had to do that last year and it's not much of a pain.

I finally finished cleaning out the basement over the winter and I decided this year to be a little more organized with seed starting. Flipping though seed catalogs after Christmas I kept seeing the most amazing looking lighted stands for plants. Of course amazing comes with a hefty price tag that it just was out of my budget. So I decided to make my own. I already had a couple 4 ft fluorescent lights so all I really needed was some kind of support shelving. I found a large free standing shelf on sale at the warehouse store and bonus it had a coupon. It was a mere $65 and it fit the lights perfectly. My Papa had a couple more lights he wasn't using in his basement so I slapped those fixtures in as well. I did have to buy bulbs but those aren't too pricey. For less than $100 bucks I now have a large and organized space to start all my plants.

I know I haven't blogged all winter but it's been incredibly busy around here. I do have a fast and dirty list of what's been going on around here since September.

Apple Picking
Making and Canning Apple Sauce, Apple Butter and Apple Cider Jelly
Making and Canning Cranberry Sauce
Christmas Knitting
My Niece Turned 4
Christmas with the Family
Snow
Teaching My Niece to Use the Big Toilet
Pet and Baby Sitting My Niece, 3 Cats and 2 Dogs all at Once
Getting a Pressure Canner for Running a Zoo for 3 Weeks
Splitting Half a Steer with My Sister
Pressure Canning Beef Stock
More Snow
Ordering Seeds
You Guessed It, More Snow
Valentine's Day
Ordering Seeds

Well that pretty much sums it all up.

Back on the Blog Wagon

2009-08-08T21:55:00.011-04:00

At least I hope so. I've been brutally busy lately and at the end of the day all I want to do is plop on the couch and stare at the TV. This is not like me at all really and I think it's been the weather. I hate the muggy August weather and it drives my allergies to insane levels and I think it effects my sleep. Today it was warm, dry and lovely out and last night it was quite cool and I slept like a rock. Today I worked in the garden, made veggie lasagna from scratch and even threw together a peach caramel sauce for the ice cream we had for dessert.

So what have I been doing to be so busy? Mostly saving the garden from the ravages of the June and July weather. My sworn enemy is fungus. I'm finally on top of it now and now that it's almost gone the garden is back on track.

Even the hot peppers have managed to pull through and are growing like crazy. I hope they have enough time to fruit before the frost kills them. I may try bringing them inside if they're close come fall. While the grow lamp I keep for seed starting aren't anywhere near sunlight they might be enough to ripen up peppers that are close.

The CSA has been crazy the past couple weeks. I've given up on trying to photograph the whole share, it's far too much. So sis has been taking her half home and I've been managing to fit my half within the frame. The fruit shares have started and for two weeks it's been peaches and blueberries YUM.

Week 5

Week 6

I've also decided that a good place for my camera is in the basket where I keep my weeding tools. I've gotten a few really neat photos in the past week. That's all I can think of for now, hopefully I won't go so long between posts.

I haven't blogged because...

2009-07-27T23:12:00.003-04:00

Yep almost two weeks and not a peep. Well, it's because stuff keeps pissing me off. Frankly, some of these people should suck moose balls, they deserve it for being one or more of the following ... stupid, liars, selfish, famewhores, deluded, vile, evil, and generally asshats.

Jessie and Ronnie from BB11. Totally turned me off my one guilty pleasure of reality TV. It's the rat turd review. Where do they find these people? I want to know where not to be, EVER. Don't try an tell me any of these idiots aren't like this in real life, if they were that good at acting they'd be getting academy awards not squatting on a set all summer for pennies.

President Obama. Seriously, blindly backing your buds is for frat boys and organized criminals not high elected officials. That shit belongs back in Chicago, you're in DC now, try to find your A game, you look like an idiot. Also, just like when you were 5 "I'm sorry" really does fix most things. Try it.

The weather. Specifically the god damned non-stop rain. I'm sick of battling the fungus and slugs now. My hosta leaves look like they're made out of lace and I swear I can hear "help me" from the zucchini at night.

My sister. She can't seem to drag her ass out of bed and be less than 2 hours late dropping of the baby. I got my ass up you an certainly manage to haul yours out of be before noon. Grow the hell up already.

People who proselytize door to door. Don't come in my yard means DON'T COME IN MY YARD! I got all the crazy I need already. Seriously, if you're religion was any fun you wouldn't need to sell it door to door. Last time I checked God was not a crappy vacuum cleaner.

People protesting outside women's health centers. Go the hell home! No one wants to f*ck you anyway so you really have zero to worry about. Before you go let me know when and where your next prostate exam is so I can show up and scream like a lunatic with a sandwich board. Don't act all offended when I give you the one fingered salute out the car window, have you seen the picture on that sign you're carrying?

There's more but I'd drone on forever if I kept going. It's not fun when all you run into for weeks is sucky people, making sucky decisions, imposing on my already sucky day. Blah.

Look Up It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No, It's

2009-07-15T00:46:00.006-04:00

THE SUN!

It's still shining, has been for a week with only a couple showers at night. I'm amazed!

The plants are really starting to catch up now, lots of flowers and little tomatoes on the plants. The cucumbers have taken off like crazy and even the hot peppers are looking like they might pull through.

I picked a couple zucchini and a summer squash for dinner last night. Yummy.

We've had blueberries for over a week, at least a handful a day.

Finally it's week three for the CSA and it was a nice haul. There was kousa squash, zucchini, 2 kinds of lettuce, basil, shelling peas, a salad cucumber, scallions, a Chinese cabbage and a bunch of diakon.

CSA Week 2 and New Garden Photos

2009-07-07T23:04:00.004-04:00

It's week 2 of the CSA and we got all kinds of goodies. There was hakurei turnips, radishes, lettuce, peas(shelling), scallions, zucchini, kousa squash, cilantro, cucumbers, chard, and purslane. The rain isn't messing up things too badly which is good.We had a couple sunny days in a row here, I know I couldn't believe it either, so I managed to get some new photos of the garden. The summer squash, zucchini and cukes all seem to be loving the weather the hot peppers not so much. Most of them seemed to perk up and bud some new leaves in the sunshine but now it's raining again so I'm not sure what will make it long enough to give us any fruit.
The blueberries are ripening and we've gotten about a handful a day for about a week now. Once they're gone I can take the bird netting off and let them be shrubs until the fall feeding. They're pretty low maintenance and I'm happy with the number of berries considering we just planted them this spring, of course next year they'll be more berries as long as I keep them happy this fall and winter.

The CSA started today!!!

2009-06-30T21:31:00.003-04:00

FINALLY!!!!! We got zucchini, green leaf lettuce, chard, spinach, a salad cuke, radishes, cilantro, pea pods and garlic scapes.

We grilled up one of the zucchini and sauteed some of the radishes to go with the grilled chicken tonight. I also put a couple of the scapes in the food processor with a little salt and olive oil to mix into some plain rice. It was a very yummy dinner. Hubby and I both missed the CSA all winter.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2009-06-29T10:55:00.002-04:00

There's less but still too much and no where near enough sun. We did get a little over the weekend and it was enough to perk up the plants. This morning when I went out to the garden there was a ton of male flowers on the squash plants so I decided to pick a few and make some brunch. A little leftover rice, herbs and ricotta cheese stuffed into the blossoms before they're dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried and ...... bingo! You have a nice little meal.

Name That Plant!!!

2009-06-24T00:26:00.003-04:00

We have a mystery bush / tree folks. It's by the driveway and we were going to remove it and then bam, it fruited. It never did that before. So now I want to know what it is before I decide to rip it out. Is it edible, poisonous, invasive (OK I KNOW it's kind of invasive), worth taking some cuttings for another part of the yard?

All I know is that it's hardy to zone 5/6a, has berries, and some branches are almost 10 feet tall.

Guesses?

Worms Have No Shame

2009-06-18T22:33:00.002-04:00

So it's raining...AGAIN and the plants are starting to look a little worse for wear. We need a week of dry weather soon so everything can dry out.

The rain does bring out one thing in the garden that's pretty cool, the worms. Hubby hadn't seen the little garden helpers out in the night rain before so I grabbed a flashlight and brought him out to the garden to see the worms. Well the worms were out got sure but ummmm not like last time.

I proudly shine my flashlight into the garden to show hubby and we see mating worms. That's right all the wormies are getting busy tonight and making little worms. ALL of them. There are right now at least 2 dozen humping worms in the garden bold as brass.

There will be no pictures this evening.

Tomatoes in Bondage

2009-06-15T21:15:00.004-04:00

Yay! The trellis is up and the tomatoes are tied. The trellis is about 7 feet tall and all 14 plants fit nicely along it. It did take 3 people to get the top on but I think we figured out how we can do it with 2 next year.

The blueberries are starting to turn blue so it's time to put some netting over the bushes. What a pain in the neck this stuff is. It's hard to see, it sticks to itself and it's very floppy and annoying. It does keep the birds from eating all the blueberries, they don't seem to like to share.

Now, it if would stop raining long enough to get some weeding done I'll be all set.

Happy Tomato Plants Growing and Growing

2009-06-14T00:33:00.004-04:00

So you may have wondered how much can a tomato plant grow in a week in Massachusetts, OK maybe not. I have an answer anyway. They can double in size! Pretty neat huh? I really need to get the trellis up tomorrow.

I also managed to get three of the evergreen shrubs planted, bedded and mulched. I set them a little off because the variegated one is going to mostly grow sideways. The one in the back will get tall and the one on the left will be round and medium sized. I think they'll make a great little feature when they start to fill in and I can sculpt them a bit.

Here's the plants on the deck, they pretty much take up the whole bench now which I kind of like.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm beets. Nuff said.

Now, a problem. My mother decided to show up with six strawberry plants today for the baby. I really don't want to have to clear a strawberry patch area so I'm thinking of containers. Anyone done strawberries in containers before? Can you winter them over in pots or plant them in the Fall to winter over? Should I bite the bullet and try and find a spot for them?

Sarah Palin Get Off My TV!

2009-06-12T10:23:00.003-04:00

Seriously STFU. I was sick of you before the election was over.

There's no point complaining about comedians making mistakes about which kid they were talking about everyone knows already. You know, you're just looking for an excuse to get free face time on TV.

Fact is no one would ever say flat out what the real deal is. Your kid got knocked up because she's an idiot who couldn't figure out keep your legs closed or use birth control just like every other teen mother who's moms don't happen to have the attention of news outlets. That whole crock cooked up over the election about her getting married because they were really in love? No one bought it then and wow, reality check, it didn't happen. How's that abstinence only sex ed working for you now? Same way it works for everyone else, not at all. Your family is not part of the teen pregnancy solution it's part of the problem.

Trotting the kid out on the morning shows to talk about how she wishes she had waited blah, blah, blah makes her a public figure and fair game. Next time THINK about consequences before you do something... and while you're at it you might want to teach that teen mother kid of yours the same thing. Fact is in the old days your kid would have been labeled a whore and the baby a bastard and no one would have come to their defense in the press or anywhere else. Using this whole situation to get free press sure gives hints as to your real priorities, perhaps those priorities contributed to the whole mess to begin with?? Maybe?? Just a tad??

So STFU and stop taking valuable news time with your stupid ranting. Make better use of it and teach the rest of your brood about rubbers before we all have to hear and see about this whole mess repeating itself. Frankly, you should be glad it's just late night jokes because I for one would be more than happy to bring back shunning.

OK enough on that, more about the garden over the weekend.

The Worms Come Out at Night

2009-06-09T23:11:00.002-04:00

The worms come out at ni-hi-ight.

The worms come out at night.

OK enough weird retro music references. I was out in the garden looking for what's been munching my radish leaves. Alas, the critter still eludes me. I did however find something kind of cool, dozens and dozens of worms out in the light rain. They're fast buggers too, as soon as the flashlight hits them they zip back into the ground like greased pigs. I decided to use stealth and the flash on my camera to capture them in their wormy glory. I suspect they may be one of the reasons for the great growth I'm getting in the garden even though it's new.

Happy Garden Dance!

2009-06-08T22:57:00.002-04:00

I see summer squash! It's itty, it's bitty and I had to squish an aphid that was trying to suck on it but it's the first one in the new garden and I think it's very cool.

I also noticed the jalapeno plant blooming today. The flower is prettier than I thought, I like the little purple around the edge of the petals.

I still haven't gotten the shrubs in but I've been busy doing a rain dance. All last week the rain scooted North, it scooted South but it never rained here not a drop. It's really odd since 5 miles in any direction they got at least a little rain. I have high hopes for tomorrow.

The squirrel learned a new trapeze act today. He hung by his hind legs over the suet feeder and then dropped down free fall onto the swinging feeder. I've decided he's either determined or nuckin futs .... perhaps both. Either way he earned a treat and since playing with the feeders keeps him out of the garden I'm cool with the 1.50 a week for new suet blocks. Although when I have enough trays saved from the store bought ones I'll be making my own. I do have 20 pounds of home rendered suet tallow in the basement after all.

The End is Near!

2009-06-06T21:48:00.006-04:00

Seriously, the end, the end of the crazy amounts of work getting this garden put together. Today the blueberry bushes went in. I made them a nice bed framed with red brick and tucked them in with some pine bark mulch. They also got a nice dose of fertilizer that should keep them happy until the fall. They look really cool from down the path between the two large veggie beds.

I decided to get some friends for the boxwood that my niece got at the beginning of the week. Rather than have them solo I picked out some friends for them. I'm not a fan of multiple plants all the same all bunched together, hedges give me the heebee-jeebees. I do however like different specimens of the same kind of plants in small groups. Since I had boxwood I decided to get 4 different evergreen shrubs and make two groups of three plants. Each group will have a low, medium and tall shrub and they all have different colors and textures. I'll be planting them tomorrow and over the week and they'll be getting the same red brick as the blueberry bushes.

I love how the garden looks from the deck. I can stand back and see how close it is to being done. I also noticed some little buds on one of the tomato plants on the deck. Buds mean flowers and flowers mean tomatoes.... SOON!!!

Never Take a Toddler to the Garden Center

2009-06-04T23:33:00.008-04:00

Seriously. At least not if it's my niece. Kid's weird.

My sis and I went to the Home Depot the other day to pick up some odds and ends and my niece decided to put a couple 6 dollar plants on the cart. We thought "how cute!"

She’s 3 and since they were pretty cheap we let her have them. All I noticed on the tag was perennial and sun or part shade so I figured we could find a place to put them easy enough.

When we got home I read the tags more carefully ….. Boxwood … 3 - 10 FEET! Of course they're also two different varieties. What kind of three year old picks shrubbery over all the pretty flowers in the garden center?! Kid's weird I tell you, weird.... and cute.

After much thought I decided to put the smaller one next to the compost bin. It's a Green Velvet Boxwood so it'll be about 3 feet and on the round side. I might toss in a couple annual flowers in a semicircle to give it a border. For sure I need more mulch to finish the section, and maybe a couple of interesting perennials. I started out wanting a veggie garden and somehow I've ended up also putting in a fairly formal garden with boxwood and blueberries.

I took some new photos of the garden this afternoon. The summer squash is flowering like crazy.

The tomato plants are really going now, and the trellis is mostly built and just needs to be installed.

The dwarf sunflowers the little monkey planted are looking happy.

The Armenian Cukes are coming along, those should be interesting since they're supposed to max out at 3 feet long.

I hope to get a lot done this weekend, at least the blueberry bushes planted, bedded and mulched. If I have enough time I'll clear and clean a spot for the other boxwood.

Pretty Cool Day

2009-06-01T22:52:00.004-04:00

Something weird and interesting happened to me today. If you've ever shopped for teas online at Adagio.com, and if you haven't you should, you might have seen their Adagio TeaV video reviews of people's individual tea blends. Today one of mine got picked for a funny video review. It's my OMG I can't get to sleep and I have to be somewhere in the morning herbal blend. I called it A Book st Bedtime and you can see the review here. Buy some! Kidding. Maybe. Anyway it was kind of entertaining to show it to the hubby.

On the garden front I got a bit of work done today. I thinned the lettuces out a bit and I'm pretty much finished planting into the cinder block holes. All that's left is to put up the tomato trellis and finish mulching between the beds. Cool new garden picks below.

Moving Right Along

2009-05-30T21:15:00.004-04:00

OK, first off I have poison ivy again. I must have leaned against or sat on something that had poison ivy on it when it was still damp from the rain. I have it on the back of my thighs and my rear end. It sucks .... and itches.....and people look at you funny when you scratch your ass at the Home Depot.

I started on the tomato trellis today. It's made from 1 1/2" pvc and is going to be 8 feet high and 20 feet long with 3 support posts in the middle. I decided PVC was ugly so I grabbed a can of that spray paint for plastic, red of course. It has to cure overnight and I wanted to see how it works so I just did the elbows and t's today and the long pipes will go tomorrow. I think it'll be pretty neat looking when it's all done.

I managed to track down a few herbs today that I hadn't been able to find. I got rosemary, bee balm, lemon balm, greek oregano and some lavender. Being the cheapskate I am I split and took cuttings from all the plants. That way I have more than enough to space out among the cinder block holes, share with my sister and pot up.

I finally found a use for the tray with no pot my mom brought over out of Nana's basement. It's an uber tray for the pots with no trays. A few stones and hey it looks pretty cool. The vast majority of what we used to get the garden going was out of Nana's basement. Papa is too old for a large garden and Nana had started reducing her amounts of stuff long before she got sick and passed away. I'm amazed how much I remember from being a kid and helping in Nana's garden, it came back like I had learned it all yesterday. I think she'd be proud of the garden and happy all the stuff got put to good use.

Radishes and Rice

2009-05-28T17:04:00.002-04:00

The first tasty bits from the garden were part of dinner last night. I love cooked radishes and radish tops are amazing mixed into rice.

It's been two days of rain and it looks like one more to come so not much can be done outside. Except for making sure none of the container plants are drowning by emptying their trays I haven't been outside at all. There's still things to do for the garden though. It's pretty boring, propagating rosemary and soaking nasturtium seeds, but at least it keeps everything moving along.

Saturday will be another big garden day. I want to plant in the rest of the cinder spaces in the last bed and build and paint the tomato trellis. The tomatoes are growing noticeably each day so the trellis is the first priority. I might be putting in a couple more blueberry bushes as well.

Wow that was fast!

2009-05-25T13:23:00.005-04:00

The garden must be happy because when I went out this morning I noticed a few things. First there was this pretty zucchini flower peeking out from under the leaves.

Then this lovely blossom on the pea plant I was sure was going to die.

Finally, and this one is really a shocker, I've got blueberries on that bush my BIL bought a couple weeks ago. I knew it was a self pollinating variety but berries?? Seriously??

I've got to mix up some fish & kelp for feeding this afternoon. I almost forgot because today is a holiday but I picked Monday because it's easy to remember to feed at the beginning of the week. I'm thinking that everything is happy so far so I must be doing something right.

I'm still drawing out ideas for the tomato trellis. The only thing I've decided is that it's going to be pvc. I can't decided if I want just a flat wall or more of a row cage. If I spray paint the pvc the sun shouldn't destroy it too quickly and I'll get a few years at least out of it. PVC is also super cheap and I like the idea of being able to take it apart and store it easily. I'm not sure if I'm just going to get tomato cages for the potted peppers that need it or do something more creative. I was always a big Lego fan so maybe I'll build some contraptions there as well. Decisions, decisions.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Garden!

2009-05-23T20:51:00.010-04:00

I played in the garden all day today! Well maybe not played, more like worked. In two days I've managed to get 80% of the plants into the ground or in planters. I'll be finishing up tomorrow and Monday is clean-up day.

Since the hot peppers are more fussy then some other goodies I've mostly kept them to planters on the deck. Hubby and sis are HUGE pepper fans so I got a number of different types and heats. I used the planters to create a wall-o-fire along the edge of the deck.

The deck bench sucks for sitting but it's great for planters. I've got radishes at all stages and more hot peppers below.

The long beds are just about finished, they're the last bit of planting I have left to do. The left one has one long row on tomato plants and we'll be making a trellis wall for them next weekend. The rest is a mingling of things that are happy together. The bush is a blueberry bush my BIL bought on impulse, yeah weird huh? It ought to be pretty happy in the spot I picked, it's where the huge pine we had removed dropped it's needles for a few decades very acidic. Actually it's almost spot on the kind of place blueberries pick to grow wild in the woods. I gave BIL the OK to get a couple more bushes. Maybe next year they'll get joined by some other berries.

Busy Busy Busy

2009-05-21T23:13:00.006-04:00

What a day!! It's been a crazy week but the garden is almost done, well as done as it can get right now. This weekend the last of the plants go in and the rest of the summer is maintenance. I got a couple amazing packages in the mail today, one for the garden and one full of fiber and yarny goodness.

I managed to score a Phat Fiber box this month and today it arrived. The samples are just amazing! I haven't gone through it too closely yet but at a first glance everything is just beyond cool.

The second box was from chileplants.com. I got a dozen hot and sweet pepper plants. I didn't want to risk starting hot peppers from seed and I wanted single plants of the super hot ones so I went with purchased plants. I was just floored at the amazing condition they arrived in considering they sat in a hot UPS truck all day. Hubby is thrilled, he's a huge hot pepper fan. I've decided to keep most of them in planters on the deck so I can baby them and bring them in if we have a cool night.

I finally discovered who'd been munching the sunflower seedlings and raiding the bird feeder. It's the one and only star of cirque du squirrel and he puts on quite the show. I'll be replanting the sunflowers on the OTHER side of the yard and let him have his little playground since he amuses both the monkey and her puppy pal right before nap time.

I should have some pics of the garden all planted in a day or two, I can't wait. I'll also be talking about how we ended up with a blueberry bush and some other random stuff in the garden.

Frost Warning!!!

2009-05-18T22:55:00.005-04:00

Yep, May 18th and we have a frost warning for tonight. I've seen it snow so I guess it could be worse but it still wasn't fun bringing in all the plants. We haven't planted much out so covering up for the night didn't take too long.

This week has been hell with family stuff, mine and hubby's, along with 4 birthdays that needed either cakes baked or travel or both. At least it's over, I just want to play in the new garden.

We finally finished up the long beds. Pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Unfortunately I botched the topsoil estimate and we need 10 more bags on Saturday to finish up. It's supposed to be nice weather and it's a long weekend so hopefully we'll get everything planted out as well.

Remember the hosta I raked out and mulched a mere three weeks ago?

Look at them now! One of them between the stairs and the bulkhead is 7 feet across and looks like a plant from when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

These are the hardened off babies waiting to get in the ground. I have way to many tomatoes so I can really pick the best of the best. Hot pepper plants will be arriving this week sometime. I've decided to put them in planters on the deck so they can get the royal treatment. I got a few fussy ones that I want to be able to bring inside if it gets too cool, LIKE TONIGHT!

It's Almost Time

2009-05-08T08:42:00.003-04:00

The tomato plants are looking quite happy and it's almost time to stat hardening them off. Since the basement is naturally about 62 degrees I'm more worried about sun than temperature. That makes it a touch easier as I can leave them out overnight and just move them to progressively sunnier positions over a couple weeks. Unless there's a freeze predicted I can skip the bringing them in at night part which I find to be a pain in the neck.

I'm still going to have to find homes for a bunch of plants since I had 100% germination on the tomato plants and as of now I have no less than 60 of them. Most of them are Romas, I planted Speckled Romans (they're the curly leafed ones) and Martino's Roma as well as some Burpee's Big Boys for my Papa. Even though I'm planning on putting up a lot of tomatoes this year I'm thinking 40 plants tops is all I can manage without losing my mind. So some are going to have to get given away.

I'm putting out the pumpkin seedlings today in my niece's small bed. It's going to be overcast but thankfully not raining so It's a good day to move them along. I might start the sunflowers by the deck as well, it depends on how long the rain holds off, yes there's supposed to be more rain tonight.

Tomorrow we start leveling and filling the last two beds. Now that the evil poison ivy is gone it's safe for people with skin to be over there. I also have to build a dirt mound over the stump and replace the compost bins which got moved during the eradication.

Hubby will be raking out the last of the dead roots and starting the mow down the weeds in the back so we can smother a large area back there over the summer. I got a 20 x 100 foot piece of 6 mil black plastic that should survive at lease one New England winter but I do hope it'll be reusable for another section next year. It's pretty tough stuff and weighs in at almost 60 pounds all rolled up.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2009-05-06T07:03:00.004-04:00

It's rainy and raw and has been for a couple days now. I like the rain, we need the rain, but I'd prefer if it rained at night not all damn day for days on end.

It's Wednesday and no sign of itchies from Sunday's major poison ivy grubbing event. The decon procedures seem to have worked. So what if they involved running through the house nekked from the washing machine in the basement to the shower, we're all family right? I'm not sure if it was the super careful covering up or the Tecnu showers or the combination but I'm glad no one is scratching three days later.

We did manage to get all the roots out of the area I want to place the new vegetable beds. It took several hours and we filled seven contractor sized garbage bags with roots. Yeah you read that right seven bags. We also found the mother root attached to the old tree stump I had put the compost bin over to rot it. It was one scary monster and had made a hole for itself at the base of the tree. At least it explained why there were so many poison ivy runners to pull, it had been there a long time and had a very large root system to try to survive with. Now it's dead, dead, dead and rotting in big black garbage bags until I figure out a safe way to dispose of it all.

There's still some plants left but they're far enough away that we sprayed with roundup and will just rake everything back to dirt this weekend to pull up those roots. We're going to smother / solarize the next large section of the yard we want to add to the garden. I got 2,000 sq feet of 6 mil black plastic to lay out over it once we've removed the big stuff and mowed. I plan to leave it until next spring so if the summer heat doesn't get everything the lack of light and water will. Next year we'll just get a truckload of fresh earth and cover the whole dead area. I'm planning on grape trellises back there and a few more raised beds.

The hardening off of the seedlings has begun. I've planted out the peas and cucumbers already but we have to finish leveling and setting the last two beds before much more can go into the ground. Hopefully we'll get to that on Saturday.

I also have to make a new plan for rotting the stump. If we missed any of the poison ivy roots they'll love trying to grow up into the bin so I think that's going to have to get smothered as well. I'm going to mound dirt over the whole stump then cover with plastic topped with mulch before I put the bin back. A couple holes in the plastic right over the stump should let enough water through to encourage rotting without encouraging anything to try and grow.

An Early Reward for Working in the Yard

2009-05-02T19:30:00.002-04:00

Well, I started grubbing up the poison ivy. What a pain in the ASS. Some of those roots are as thick as your arm.

Here's the thing. We had a huge pine removed in March before it decided to fall on the house in a storm. Too many branches had fallen during the ice storm last winter and it was a dead tree walking. It was almost 2 grand and took a bucket truck, 150 crane, chipper truck and a log truck over two days to get it out around the power lines and taken away. Did I mention is was HUGE?

Well there was a poison ivy vine growing up it for a long time, LONG TIME. I had hoped being cut at the ground before the ground thawed would kill it, no such luck. All it's roots decided to send out little runners last week. So while there's suddenly a whole lot of poison ivy in the yard where I want to put the last two raised beds, they're all connected so you just dig and follow the roots back to the tree stump. I got like a third of it done in a couple hours today, tomorrow I'll have helpers and we'll finish up quick. The good part is it's fairly contained and when you get rid of the roots you get rid of the poison ivy for good. Any little bits of root we miss can be easily pulled if they decide to sprout but there won't be a massive infestation again.

After I went through decontamination (a shower, washed clothes and tools) and had some lunch I did some propagating. Someone hubby works with dug up a bit, quite a bit, of spearmint from her garden for us. I got 13 good planted cuttings from it and I had some sprigs leftover that were just lovely so a decided to treat myself to a little gardening reward, mojitos. Hubby's working tonight so it's just me, the tv, and a couple delicious cocktails. Sweet reward!

We Have a Winner!!!!!

2009-04-30T11:29:00.004-04:00

According to random.org it's post #10 and that makes Bannahleigh the winner of the drop spindle. Bannahleigh will be planting lots of sunflowers, I love sunflowers and we're going to have some midget ones in the monkey's little garden.

Bannahleigh, just PM me on Ravelry (BratKnits) with your address and I'll mail out your spindle.

Now that the fun is over there's some bad news. I found this growing by the area where we want to put the new vegetable beds. We're going to have to pull it out because you can't grow food if you use the uber herbicides. More later when I've stopped twitching and swearing.

It is April Right?

2009-04-28T21:03:00.005-04:00

I mean I look at the calendar and it says April but it felt like late June today. It was over 90 degrees today. Even in the house it hit 80 which is a tad uncomfortable when it's supposed to be more like 65. Even the little monkey thought it was too hot and kept trying to get away with stripping down and running around bare assed.

The lettuce and radishes I planted on Saturday were confused as well. They sprouted.

At this rate we'll be having salads before it's safe to plant out the tomatoes.

The thought of fresh salads is very exciting especially after a long winter.

This weekend we'll be putting in the large beds so I can start hardening off the seedlings as they're ready and the last frost date approaches. I did manage to get some carrots, beets and onions seeded before it got too hot this morning as well as a couple more pots of radishes with the little monkey. Tomorrow will probably be more potting up various things, I inherited a lot of nice plant pots from Papa's basement, so I plan to fill the deck.

Don't forget to leave a comment to my April 19th post to get a chance at a drop spindle. I'll be picking at random on Thursday during the monkey's naptime.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

2009-04-26T22:17:00.012-04:00

We had some unseasonably warm weather this weekend and it did two sort of unpleasant things. First it made working in the yard suddenly more like work. Second it made for some sweating which in turn made the last dregs of the poison ivy rash WICKED FRIKKEN ITCHY. We still managed to to get quite a bit done.

My niece's two little beds got made. My mother brought a surprise for her, a shepherd's hook and her own bird feeder. Seems the kid fell in love with the bird feeders at the Maine house when she went for Easter weekend with Nana and Papa. She was very excited and promptly started to plant the bird seed when they came over this afternoon to pick up her puppy (we were dog sitting this weekend). She started some flowers last week and I have more for her as well as some Easter Egg Radishes to sow in a large pot tomorrow. I'm not sure what to put under the bird feeder but we'll come up with something.

One thing the warm and wet was good for was the hosta. They're coming in fast and looking great now that they have tidy mulched beds to live in. Even the transplants are doing great.

We also finished tilling and cultivating the large area for the big beds this weekend. Hopefully we'll have good weather next weekend to build them. After that the hard work is pretty much done. All I'll have left is to harden off the seedlings and get them into the ground over the next few weeks. Just a couple more days to enter for my spindle giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment to my April 19th post.

Tons of Fun... and Dirt... and Cement... and Work

2009-04-24T21:32:00.003-04:00

So the material to build my garden beds arrived today, on a pallet, on a flatbed truck. It's amazing but when you think about 80 cement blocks and 30 bags of topsoil being well over a metric tonne but it is, trust me. If the groaning of the forklift didn't tip me off, unpacking it certainly did.

I decided on cement blocks for a couple reasons. First off they're cheap, cheaper than wood or stone certainly. Secondly they last a lot longer than wood in New England where the weather is freaky and hard on materials. Finally, carpenter ants, my husband is obsessed with them and the tree next door got infested with them and then came down in a storm. Without some fairly toxic treatment wood wasn't going to be ant-proof.

As an added bonus we can plant in the holes. Some of the companion plants we're putting out can be a tad invasive and the holes will keep them contained but close. We almost finished the first bed today, it's the small one we're calling salad central. It's for spinach, lettuce and in the holes a few radishes (if they can go inna pot they can go inna hole) and some herbs. The other beds on the side of the house will be about four times as long.

Tomorrow the frost tolerant stuff starts going into the ground. I'm going to start some of the lettuces but not all and some of the radishes. Since it can, and has, snowed here in mid-may I'm still going to play it pretty safe. On the bright side seeds are cheap.

Don't forget to enter my give away under my April 19th post. Less than a week before I pick someone at random for the drop spindle.

Outside Progress

2009-04-22T12:36:00.006-04:00

OK, I know it looks like big wads of dirt but it's actually some major progress. Before I can build the beds the tilling has to be done. It's not hard and I didn't feel like renting a machine plus shovels, rakes and elbow grease are free. We got most of it done in just a couple hours with breaks to take the little monkey across the street to play in her friend's new mini bounce house.

While sis and I were digging the hubbies went off to Home Depot to get some of the other supplies. We're going to need a lot more topsoil to fill the raised beds but this will get us started and 4 bags of manure ought to be more than enough. I've changed a couple things about the raised beds but I've got some pricing and thinking to do before I make a final decision.
The seedlings are coming along nicely. The tomato seedlings are starting to get the first sets of true leaves so they'll need to be transplanted in the next couple days into their own little pots.
My sweet peppers FINALLY germinated and started to sprout. I'm going to start these a couple weeks earlier next year. They're healthy and happy but I would prefer they were further along than they are. I'm not sure why peppers have a reputation for being difficult to grow from seed they're really just SLOW.
This Jurassic looking thing is a spaghetti squash seedling. I hadn't planned on growing them this year but my mother brought down two peat pots with seeds so I'll find a spot for them somewhere. I like them but hubby isn't a big squash guy, if nothing else they may be tempting to my niece who's on a no veggie kick right now.
The leeks are super happy and due for haircuts soon. They can go outside before a lot of other things along plus they're shade tolerant. I'm going to stick them into the smaller bed with the lettuces and beets.I started my cukes inside rather than out because I want them in planters out front. They're odd looking things but we eat a LOT of cukes and we didn't get anywhere near enough in the CSA last year.This is my basil, well some of it. We're planting 3 varieties an Italian, an Asian and Lemon. We use a lot of basil around here and it's a good companion plant so lots and lots of it around the yard is not a problem.

Don't forget to let me know what you're doing in your garden and enter to win a drop spindle just leave a comment to my April 19th post.

Everything Old is New Again

2009-04-21T22:44:00.003-04:00

I love Arlo! Click it, you know you want to...

More garden stuff tomorrow, it rained all day.

A Spring Giveaway to Celebrate the Garden

2009-04-19T12:29:00.004-04:00

I've been working my butt off in the garden lately and poison ivy and sprained wrist aside I'm loving it. Now this is my first garden, at least the first one that's all mine, but my grandparents had a huge garden my whole childhood that even included grape vines for making wine. So when hubby asked if we really needed 30 tomato plants I gave him a very loud YES!

I've gathered my Nana's old canning equipment and I plan on putting up a lot of tomatoes this summer. Plus I started plants for various family members as well. I figure 24 roma plants in two varieties, some cherry tomatoes and a couple of good ole Burpee Big Boys (requested by Papa for his planters). With the exception of some chile plants I ordered, everything is starting from seed. It honestly it never occurred to me to buy plants, it's really outside my experience, but I'm told most first timers go that route.

In addition to the tomatoes we'll be planting lots of herbs, bunching onions, leeks, eggplants, squash, zucchini, carrots, radishes, beets, lettuce, pumpkins and sunflowers. We're doing at least 3 large raised beds totalling almost 200 square feet plus pots and smaller beds around the yard. Hubby and BIL have the assignment of picking up over a half ton of topsoil and a good amount of manure tomorrow so we can start building and prepping the beds. I really enjoy working in the yard and my niece is still at the age where it's fun and not work for her so she's having a blast over here while sis and BIL are at work all day. She's even going to have her very own small bed of flowers to tend.

Now the fun part. I want to know what everyone else is planning on growing this year and I have a little incentive for you. Leave a comment telling me what you are growing this year and you get a chance at this peach quartz whorl drop spindle. It weighs one once so it's better for fairly fine spinning, it's about 9 inches long and the hook is sterling silver. I started making these this past winter, I just love them. I hate to do this part but money is tight so US and Canada only please, the shipping overseas is just not in the budget. I'll pick the winner at random on April 30.

Warning : Gross Photo Ahead

2009-04-17T10:14:00.004-04:00

OK I warned you and yes it is G R O S S. It's my incredibly itchy poison ivy rash and it's slowly making me insane. I wouldn't be so bad if it were anywhere else but behind my knees.

Now before anyone goes into how to avoid poison ivy, I already know, I didn't get it myself but second hand from the hubby. Well not directly from hubby but it was indeed because of hubby. Hubby was doing some yard work in the way back of the yard and broke my cardinal rule. He didn't strip naked at the door and toss his clothes into the basement the very second he walked into the house. I have this rule for a very good reason, we're fighting a never ending war with poison ivy while we clear the back and it's been going on for years, even before we met an married it was a problem (this used to be Mom and Dad's house) and it was and it a big problem.

So when hubby came back in the house I was still asleep and he decided to check his email. He checked his email but sitting with his poison ivy oil covered jeans on the fabric chair at the desk. The chair now had a lovely supply of poison ivy oil right on the edge where the back of your knees touch it. So the next morning when we were in jammie shorts we both sat on the chair and three days later we had an itchy surprise. We both have it right on the backs of our knees.

On the bright side I figured it out fast enough to wash down the chair several times with lots of soap and while wearing gloves so we don't get exposed again. Still I'd like to strangle him with a poison ivy vine for the brain fart that made him forget the through the door drop trou rule.

The other thing, while not gross is still annoying, that is my sprained wrist. See the cool brace? All the cool kids are wearing them. I somehow sprained it while sleeping, I suspect it was by hooking my thumb in the blankies then rolling over or something else equally as odd. This one is all my fault because instead of taking it easy, as soon as it would feel better I'd be out in the yard working and the next day it was hurting all over again. I finally decided to put a brace on it and not do any yard work for a few days until it heals up significantly. Everyone has orders to stop me if I pick up any yard implements because I'm not so good at "taking it easy" and this thing has gone on too long.

It looks like we found a used car, it was my Nana's car before she passed away last summer. We'll be taking it off my Papa's hands tomorrow and while it's more than we wanted to spend it's a good car that I know has been meticulously maintained and has very low mileage. My only worry is that I know it's going to smell like Nana's perfume and I'm afraid I'll start to cry. Hubby said he'd clean the upholstery so the scent isn't there as soon as we get home, so I guess he's sorta forgiven for the poison ivy because that's very sweet and wonderfully understanding of him to do.

I see, I see.....Dead People!

2009-04-16T22:28:00.003-04:00

OK, got me, I don't see them but I DO SEE .... TOMATO SEEDLINGS!!!!!

They're coming along under the lights and I think I may have overdone it a tad. When I learned to garden you always put several seeds in case some didn't germinate but I'm batting 1,000 here so far. Either they're VERY good seeds or I've made them VERY happy or a combination of the two. (They're not yellow-ish as they seem in the photo, the grow lamp is screwing up the colors on the camera and I can't seem to fix it, they're a happy bright green in real life.) Either way I'm going to have to move them into pots sooner than I'd like or they'll get crowded fast. I'll probably do it Saturday if I have time or Monday when it's raining and they'll be no outside work to do.

My mother also sent some seedlings she'd started WAY TOO EARLY. I'm not sure how I'm going handle them, they really can't go outside for another 3 weeks minimum but they're getting big. I think I'll grab another set of grow lamps for the shop lights we keep in the basement and move the lights so I have two over the table. If I move things a bit they can have tiers and they can all be happy until it's time to go outside.

There's news on the car front. It went to the crusher. I might have a line on a used one we can sorta but not really afford, we'll see. I hope we get a little good luck for a change.

The Yardwork Continues

2009-04-15T21:11:00.003-04:00

So I finished cleaning up the hosta on the other side of the stairs today. My niece has so much fun "helping" I wish she could stay 3 forever. Even carrying the raked up leaves to the wheelbarrow in little handfuls is very fun for her, she always has a great big smile with each trip.

This yard work and garden are on a budget and that budget, considering the car is on it's way to the crusher, is seriously ZERO. So what can you do for zero?

Those aren't pricey flagstones folks, look closer.

Those are old cinder blocks I found an smashed with my handy dandy 4lb baby sledge hammer. Yep, old nasty cinder blocks and smashing them was fun. My niece laughed through the whole process while shouting "smashie, Auntie, smashie".

She also enjoyed lining up the pieces to make the border, she was quite proud that she could follow the shallow furrow I made as a placement guide. The whole front of the house has happy hosta in new beds and they're tucked in with fresh mulch. Next step, raking the yard and filling up the compost bins.

Flipping Fate the Bird

2009-04-14T21:05:00.003-04:00

I really want to, really, really, really want to tell fate, God, what have you, to take a long walk off a short pier into a steaming pile of sheep sh*t. I've had enough this year, seriously, ENOUGH, and if you don't cut it out I'm going to find you and kick the living cr*p out of you.

Anyway, just when we we getting ahead, and ahead enough that I was comfortable loaning my sister a couple grand to move (she always has to wait on HUGE ass security deposits thanks to 3 kitties), the MOTHER FU*CKING C*CK SUCKING EXHAUST SYSTEM FELL OFF THE CAR ON THE HIGHWAY while hubby was on his way to work. Oh and the bearings are shot and also it won't pass emissions. It's 12 years old with a quarter million miles on it but why oh why couldn't it have just lasted another 6 months.

Now add in that thanks to Crapmerce insurance and the ice storm last winter we don't have a backup car. So hubby has no way to get to work. Well he has a way for a few days after some serious shuffling with other sister and BIL but we're going to have to raid the savings and find a used car quick. Not good. It makes it harder to shop smart and we had hoped to squirrel away a LOT more money and get a better car than we're going to have to buy now. So not only do we have to put off the plumbing repairs but now we have to budget even tighter. Good thing the seedlings for the garden are doing well, at least we'll have food.

Speaking of the garden, we cleared some more sunny space and took out our frustrations at the same time by killing a tree. It was too close to the deck anyway and it cast a shadow where I want my tomatoes and ....... it looked at me funny when I was ranting about my car. It had to go.
The part that sucks the most? I had actually managed to put away a few bucks to get a couple paperbacks off my Amazon list and to buy some spinning fiber, now I'm going to have to use it to buy a POS. If you're so inclined please feel free to aim you middle finger at the sky and give 'em the bird for me.

Yes I DO LIKE Being the Neighborhood Freak

2009-04-13T15:21:00.003-04:00

...and the hubby man is starting to like it as well. Fact is, I'm just cooler than the rest of them so ummmm suck it you old coots.

So I built be some compost bins while hubby was at work with some old shelving I found in the basement.

And then we found some ancient half buried bricks and I played with the hosta in the front.

Next week we plant the vegetable garden, in the front yard. See my little leek sprout?

I refuse to live in a little box with pretty trim.

Happy, Happy, Happy!!!!

2009-03-24T17:35:00.002-04:00

I don't know why this makes me happy, and it probably shouldn't, but it does.

Madoff "Victim" Looks Strangely Like Nigerian Scammer

Yep, I'm sick!

Why Does Stuff Have to SUCK?

2009-03-19T10:42:00.008-04:00

I really hate it when things I enjoy start to suck. I hate it even more when the suckage was completely avoidable. I hate it the most when the suckage gives people who otherwise could be completely written off as insane an actual, rational, reasonable point. I'm looking at you Ravelry.

This month marks the first mass bannings in Ravelry history. It all started with a right wing nut job group being disbanded for being a pain in the neck. There was the usual whining, teeth gnashing and blogging as well as the inevitable starting of their own little off site group. Seriously, who cares. Then things took a turn I don't like so much.

First off there was a lack of transparency on Ravelry, that sort of thing always bothers me but that's my issue, I can handle it. Then came the mass banning with no warning. This bothered me a little, some people got axed by accident but it was going to get straightened out. Then things took a turn I really didn't like with the "lawyer letters" vs. the site "site statement". They didn't quite gel.

On the one hand you have Ravelry claiming that people were banned for being disruptive and on the other you have the banned claiming it was for associations and political beliefs. Well knowing how nutty right wingers can act I wanted to give Ravelry the benefit of the doubt until I saw people posting the "lawyer letter" on some personal blogs.

"We have compiled numerous examples of certain users, including you, from the offending website using our Website’s posting, flagging, and voting features, amongst other tactics, to disrupt and harass our legitimate and serious users."

OK, seriously, this bugs me a LOT. Mostly because, with the possible exception of the last bit, there's a very large and very popular group of "Gawkers" who does this every single day and they are sill live and kicking on Ravelry. In the interest of full disclosure I'm going to admit I despise them every bit as much as the right wing nutters. They are like a pack of jackals who attack then retreat into the safety of their own little group the rules of which both protect the members and restrict the recourse of their targets. Additionally, there seems to be an inordinate number of moderators who are members of this little clique so if you have an issue good luck, they stick together. They basically have an untouchable status.

"However, I will advise that if you were a member of www.bunkerboard.com we will not consider your appeal."

WHAT?! Guilt by association? Seriously? So much for the benefit of the doubt I was giving Ravelry, this bit really sucks. It sucks because it give an actual, valid, reasonable point for those damned right wing nuts to make!!!! I don't want them to have a valid point to make but now they do and it SUCKS! The "Gawkers" have an off site, members only, not so secret chat and they get to stay but this group gets nailed for the same thing? I don't want to agree with the right wing zealots but they have an actual point now, dammit!

Lastly, carbon credits. Where do I even start? OK, here goes, carbon credits are BULLSH*T! Seriously, I'm a dyed in the blue, from the bluest state, CSA joining, food not lawn planting, Sean Hannity's the devil incarnate, LIBERAL but, I'm sorry, carbon credits are stupid. Taking excess donations to Ravelry and buying carbon credits was bound to annoy right wing donators, they really HATE carbon credits ( not for the right reasons, mind you ) and I'm not surprised some people took this as a slap in the face.

I like the idea of donating extra funds a lot but there are really a lot of better places the money could have gone besides a completely unregulated, oversight free, give us money to alleviate your guilt, scam like carbon credits. How about a local ( for me Ravelry is local btw ) charity for the poor like Bread and Roses. The economy is in the toilet and they could really use the help. If you wanted to give money to help out the environment why not a local organization like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution? They can always use a little extra cash I'm sure and they have great educational programs. How about Cape Wind? Anything but stupid carbon credits.

I'm really disappointed in the way in which this whole ordeal was handled. It taints Ravelry and has me thinking about my opinion of both the site and the owners and that makes me sort of sad. I liked the idea of a free sprinted, fun, mature, silly, down to earth site and now, I'm not so sure that's what Ravelry is. Left wing nuts are just as vile as the right wing nuts but to treat one group differently really rubs me the wrong way. It flat out sucks.

Here's the thing.... I keep trying to decide if it's a good idea to post this on the web at all. I guess I'm mostly disappointed and disillusioned at this point and I hate that feeling. I guess I expected more, different and better from people I had come to respect a great deal. I'm also not sure I want to leave Ravelry, I'm still hopeful all sides will pull the sticks out of their rear ends long enough to come to a fair and rational conclusion. They way things have progressed lately, there's now a little part of my brain that's afraid I'll get banned if someone takes issue with my opinions. Yes, I'm afraid having a contrary opinion will get me booted from an otherwise amazing knitting site..... and that sucks most of all.

And Don't Let the Door Hit You...

2009-01-28T12:25:00.006-05:00

Good, no great, no amazing awesome unreal news. WBZ-1030 has brought back Steve LeVeille and Boston has live, local talk at night again. I'm trying to feel bad for Jon Grayson but it's not happening, he sucked. If that's what passes for talk radio in middle America I'm glad I live on the coast. So bye-bye monkey-meat man and don't let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya on your way out of Boston's radio waves.

So what else is new? Not too much I'm still waiting on the estimate on the 79 Thunderbird repairs. A real one from a real body shop not some weird cobbled together joke by a clueless claims adjuster. I fear she may be totaled but that's better then the slow death she'd face with bad repairs. She's complete and original and bad repairs would be worse than just parting her and letting other 79's live on. We'll have to see what the numbers say. On the home front I made doggie cookies this week for my niece's puppy. She helped with the cookie cutters and was quite proud to make treats for her furry friend. I used this recipe from KAF. The smell of the poaching liver and the liver puree in the blender was really gross but Miss Maggie loves the cookies so it's worth it. On the fiber front I've been spinning a bit on my spindles. When we were stuck in the house in the ice storm I actually made a few with some oak dowels and leftover jewelry supplies I had in the basement. I don't do well in the dark and cold with nothing to do. I think it this one came out pretty well. I made the bowl everything is sitting in as well, I miss working clay. Maybe if I hit the lottery I'll put in a pottery studio out back.I'm now off to clear the driveway and walkway of snow. Did I mention it's snowing? Again? Several inches? Again? This Winter is a whopper. I think hubby should do it since I finished him a pair of socks over the weekend but he's at work. On the bright side I get to play with the snow thrower and don't tell but it's kinda fun.

Mistress Mary Quite Contrary How Do You Scour Your Wool?

2009-01-19T14:00:00.011-05:00

I finally finished scouring all the fleece my sister brought be at New Year's. After lots of experimenting this is what worked out best for me. If you ever decide you do your own fleece scouring experiments a free garbage bag of fleece will be MORE than enough to try out a bunch of methods.

First I do a cold water soak for about 24 hours. I was amazed the amount of gunk that settled out of the wool in just a cold bath.

Then I mix up my sudsy stuff. I think a lot of the issues people have with scouring wool with handmade soap come down to not dissolving the soap BEFORE adding it to the tub. It just won't dissolve fully that way most of the time.I use 1/2 cup of handmade soap flakes and top it with 4 cups of boiling water from the kettle. Stir it a bit and let it sit.It only takes a few minutes to dissolve completely. If it cools off it turns into a gloppy gel that still dissolves really easily in the tub but it is also kind of neat to play with.I also add something on the old fashioned side to the first soapy bath, washing soda. For me a 1/4 cut in the first bath is more than enough and doesn't seem to hurt the wool any. The second bath is just soap. I finish with a plain water and then a water/vinegar soak. I don't pour the soapy soaks down the drain, I put them outside. There's a lot of lanolin in that waste water and while it won't hurt the plants it might do a number on the pipes. Think bacon grease. I have enough plumbing issues, I'm not game to bait the tiger ( read hubby ) by gunking them up before we've saved enough to get the needed plumbing work done.

More Fun With Free Fleece

2009-01-12T23:43:00.005-05:00

I decided to try spinning from dyed locks. I scoured up some of the free fleece and dropped it into the dye pot. I thought hey chartreuse, acid yellow and purple. They fleece took the dye very well. Unfortunately my color sense took the day off and I ended with colors reminiscent of something putrefying.

"Oh well" I thought, I'll spin it up anyway. Thankfully it mellowed out quite a bit once it was plied. I ended up with a couple hundred yards of a funky but passable bulky weight.

Even close up it's not so bad. I'm curious to see how it knits up. I'm thinking a hat and knucks. Maybe some super warm mitts.

I'm still going to call the color "putrid".

Boston Radio is Dead!

2009-01-08T09:49:00.004-05:00

Some people are trying hard to save it. You can help.
Please visit the following sites and pitch in.

BringBackSteve.com

BringBackSteve Blog

Buy a Bumper Sticker or Cool T-Shirt

The No Monkey Meat Graphic is available HERE for anyone who wants to use it.

A Quick List and Free Fleece

2009-01-04T19:27:00.014-05:00

Since I last blogged...

Ice Storm Destroyed our 1979 Thunderbird

I learned to HATE Commerce insurance and ignorant claims adjusters

It Snowed and Snowed and Snowed and ...

Christmas on a budget

My niece started to "get" the idea of the potty

New Years

and

My sister brought me a garbage of free fleece from her boss' farm.

It was dirty, unskirted and had been barn stored for a couple years but it was you know free.

The boss man calls them Merino "Mutts" aka he really breeds them for eating and never got around to thinking about the fleece part.

Did I mention a GARBAGE BAG FULL?

Not too bad once I pulled it out.

Hey it might be workable.

Let's load it up and see what happens.

Hmmmm. Sheep are dirty. It looks better, perhaps a second and third dunk. Yeah that works. It does come clean eventually. Ohhhhh kind of fluffy. Not super soft but workable for outerwear for sure.

Yay, YARN!!!!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

2008-12-19T20:19:00.002-05:00

Where Have I Been?!

2008-10-20T22:32:00.015-04:00

Yeah it's been a month and yeah I've been up to something WAY cool which is why I haven't posted. It all started with my dad telling me, reminding me, about Uncle Henry's. They live in Maine now and Uncle Henry's is the Mainer place for finding anything from classic cars to livestock. Seriously, anything goes for sale, trade or free.

So I started checking every morning, alas I have no money buuuuuuut I'm checking anyway. I see several things come and go but I'm trying to be good and some of them are too far away. Then it happened, someone put up an item at a price I could manage and bonus it's 10 minutes from the parents place. I called right away, did you know it's OK to call people at 8am in Maine? They get up early up there. I called mom at work, she's in a meeting with the Governor WHOOOPS, but dude who knew mom would have a meeting with the Governor?!? So mom calls back and out of fear that the item would be gone decides to pick it up after work and bonus she's coming down on Saturday anyway so she'll bring it. I call hubby at work to "ask" if I can borrow out of the emergency fund. OK ask is not really the word, there was pouting and begging but when I pointed out it was less than half what a new one was going to cost in a couple months he caved.

I spent the next month learning, swearing, practicing, swearing, reading, swearing and well there was a lot of swearing. It's part of my learning process so shoot me. I did finally figure it out and well I love it. Want to see?

It's a used Louet S15 that came with a skein winder for $200 bucks.

I've been making some yarns.

I've even been knitting it up.

How cool?! I gots me a new skill in just a month.... now to convince hubby a couple sheep would really love to live in the burbs. I mean we have a lawn and eating is sort of like mowing right?

There are two kinds of women in the world...

2008-09-18T11:43:00.005-04:00

Seriously, I'm convinced it's that black and white. Know what else? I think it's all our mom's fault.

One the one hand you have the whiner, complainer, living in fear, so shrill they're almost out of the range of human hearing types.

From them you get " it happened because I was a woman", "don't use that term it's insulting to women", "he might hit me because he's a man and I'm a woman".

On the other hand you have the doer, fighter, fearless, usually don't get along with a lot of other women types.

From them you get "it happened now how do I fix it", "call me whatever you like but I get to do the same", "go ahead buddy take a swing see what happens".

I'm really starting to think the division happens VERY young and most people don't notice. I've been watching my niece since she was born and now that she's a toddler she's started to play with other kids. There is a HUGE difference in how adults react to things that happen on the playground between boys and girls. Girls get doted on and "saved" a lot more than boys.

When my niece falls or takes a tumble I wait before I go over to her. I wait for a couple things. Is she crying? Has she called me? Does she look hurt? My sister does the same. Nine out of 10 times there's no reason to run over there in a panic. It's just a tumble, all kids take them.

Guess what? It's making for a really independent kid who likes to try things. When she falls off the bike she dusts herself off and gets right back on and gives it another go. She's not even 3 and she's all try, try again with no prompting. She never gets pushed around or pressured by the older kids, she stands her ground, smiles and says "no" or "share". When there is crying if over quickly, a hug and a little reassurance and she's ready for more. She doesn't mope and she doesn't demand to go home. She also forgives quickly and wants to play again.

Then I watch the other style of kid rearing and the results. Those mothers that can break the 4 minute mile for every spill their kids takes. Most of the time the poor girl isn't even crying until they see panicked mom running at them half hysterical. Seriously, someone making that face coming at me at mach 2, I'd cry and wet myself too and I'm 35.

These girls start to cry for anything that doesn't go their way. Fall off the bike? Cry for 20 minutes and then they don't want to get back on. It's really learning that failure and fear go hand in hand. They end up not wanting to try anything without cajoling or prompting. They're also the first ones to start excluding others and forming those cliques that all women remember from school. When something happens that they don't like the first thing you hear is a demand to go home.

I'm convinced these girls grow up to be the whiny, PC feminists that always presume to speak for me and mostly just really piss me off. I can see it happening almost like a photo progression. All the strength, defiance, curiosity and joy melting from their faces. They take on this weird aura of victim-hood, they're just waiting for the next bad thing to happen to them for being cursed and born female. It's really sad.

Then I look at my niece who's already trying to walk up the slide instead of the ladder, refuses to be fooled when she knows she's right and wants to play with anyone willing to play with her. People comment a lot on how she's always smiling, always happy and always willing to try anything with a boldness that astonishes. I want to tell them it's because we didn't suck all the self confidence out of her by treating her like some delicate flower. I'm afraid that one they'd be insulted and two they might think I'm nuts.

It's like learning to swim, some people need water wings and floats some people just say screw it and jump in the deep end. I'm glad I, like my sisters, was raised the latter. I'm THRILLED my niece is coming along nicely.

Clod is Catchy

2008-09-05T22:38:00.021-04:00

So I'm finally developing my mom's klutz genes. I had hoped to escape but alas they stuck on Tuesday night while I was making dinner. I was chopping herbs and hubby did something weird with the grill tongs out the corner of my eye and I flinched. I quite neatly sliced the fingernail off my left forefinger. An hour and a half in the ER later, I was behind all the people with sniffles and tummy aches that the new MA universal heath plan crap was supposed to stop with my bloody dish cloth (Hey FU Mitt your great universal health plan sucks like everything else you start and then bail on ass-hat no wonder no one wants your for pres., gov., or veep), and I had a nice tetanus shot and what I can predict was a $400.00 band aid. At least I already ate my ins. deductible for the year. On the bright side it hurts like hell and it'll take a long time to grow back. Now if I can just figure out how to knit like this I'll be all set. I could spin but the ER co-pay is going to more than eat my roving spending money.

I'm halfway through the CSA share I'm splitting with my sister. As the summer has gone one the bins have gotten better and much bigger. For $22.50 a week, that's $11.25 each, I think it's turning into a great bargain in addition to all the usual advantages of a CSA.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

It's Been a While...

2008-08-11T12:39:00.011-04:00

... so time to catch up a bit. I've started the Christmas knitting, a little late but I'm cranking along. This year it's mostly hats like the one above. The last time I was at the Classic Elite Outlet I found a ball of Rowan tweed and four hanks of Montera Hand Dyed in the dollar bin. It's discontinued and they were probably the last hanks in existence but for a buck who could resist. All four became hats.I like the way the yarn spiraled around the hats. Usually I hate pooling but these came out pretty cool.

The yarn is very soft and VERY warm. I may have to buy some of the regular Montera to make a sweater. Of course that will be next year, my yarn budget is now officially zero until next year.

I also finished a pair of socks I started last April. They've been my carry around socks, living in my purse getting worked on now and then. I won the yarn on the block of my favorite online sock yarn shop( http://www.simplysockyarn.com/ ) and I'm in love with the socks now that they're finished. They might go in the Christmas stash but I'm leaning towards keeping them.

This is the fourth Monetera dollar hat and the only one I'm not super happy with. I just don't like how the colors pooled. On the other hand someone might love it for the same reason I hate it so it'll go into the Yankee Swap.

I did manage to finish two lace projects so far this summer. I had made this Adamas Shawl pattern before but I've given them away. This one is just for me. I love the warm colors and the contrasting edging. I wore it for the first time, well more on where I was the first time I wore it at the end of the post.
I also finished my Baltic Sea Stole. It's in Twinkle Kid Mohair by Classic Elite. I grabbed this with the dollar bin Montera the last time I was at the outlet. It cost less than $10 in yarn to make but it looks like a FORTUNE. I've always had a love hate issue with mohair but this project tilted the scales a lot. I love it to death and I want it to be fall so I can wear it. As much as I love the stole, mohair and August in New England just don't mix.

Now, the bad news. My Nana passed away at the end of July. She was one of the most amazing women I ever knew. It wasn't unexpected, her cancer diagnosis was in January, but it was really fast at the end. She went from doing OK to dire in a matter of days. I think we were all relieved when it was over, she suffered a lot at the end and that isn't how she should be remembered. She did get to die in relative comfort and in her own home and that is at least something.

The usual craziness followed with the wake, funeral and mercy meal. I was really glad to have thought ahead and made sure everyone had good clothes ready to go, except of course my father but that's dad. It was the first time I had been to Mass in years, it was very pretty actually, I really liked the priest who did the Mass and graveside service. The one who came to the wake was a total dud and NO ONE liked him.

One of my mom's cousins hit me at the wake, shut up we're Italian. I made the grave error of telling her son, who I don't think I've seen in a decade, that I liked his full sleeves of tattoos. I guess she HATES them but seriously, they were STUNNING. My hubby didn't like me commenting on them either but I think that was less to do with he tats and more to do with that cousin being just strikingly handsome with really fantastic Italian facial features. Hubby got a big ole "dude that's my cousin" speech.

I've been trying to keep half an eye on my Papa for his sake and my mom's. He's almost 90 and hasn't been on his own for the over 65 years he and Nana were married. He's always been on the klutzy side, that's where the rest of us get it, and well, 90 is kind of old even if you're healthy and active. Also, two weeks after Nana died one of his little, by little I mean 80, brothers passed away and we're kind of worried about his emotional state. Hubby and I try and do what we can without being invasive or coddling him like a child but it's a really fine line. We live closest by almost an hour's drive so checking on him from time to time and some light yard work is the least we can do. Winter worries me a little but I'm sure we'll have a sort of routine before any big snow.

My Papa told me at the wake he wants me to have Nana's cookbooks. The thought of it makes me cry on and off. My Nana taught me most of what I know about cooking, baking, sewing, etc. and I'll be really glad to have them. We're having hubby's BIL make a book case just for them, something nice not a crappy MDF allen wrench thing. I'm sort of avoiding picking them up, when I do that she's really gone and I miss her a lot.

What Happened to Feminism?

2008-07-21T09:35:00.002-04:00

There was a time when feminism was about empowerment and equality, when women wanted an equal chance to win or lose as long as the rules were the same for all. Women didn't want to be dictated to, coddled or protected. They discovered that they could accomplish anything men could...do any job, be the boss, run a company, fly a fighter jet. So, when exactly did women decide to take a 180 degree turn into whining, fear, need, and blame? I must have missed the memo.

More and more I've noticed that people who identify themselves as feminists fear and demonize men. Men are scary, men will hurt them, men need to learn that they are scary vile creatures who need to behave in certain ways so as not to frighten the delicate sensibilities of women. Wow, flashback to the Victorian age.

Now, I got into an argument along this line over at a certain web site and after just having my mind blown by the responses and wanting to "be nice" I simply gave up. This is my house, and I don't have to be nice so here's the thing .... some of these women are so entrenched in the culture of victim-hood that every offense is and attack and a victimization. Basically, they blame men for their own failings and behaviors. They place expectations on men that they themselves would, hopefully, bristle at immediately.

One example is the idea that one can sexually harass up the chain of command. Can't happen, it's about power and the one in power cannot be harassed by an underling unless, and here's the crux of the matter, they allow it. If someone works for you and they're being crude you need to be assertive and use the authority of your position to correct their behavior. If you allow it to continue unchecked IT'S YOUR FAULT. If you cannot function because of an irrational fear of men who work for you attacking you after an admonishment you need medication and therapy. You also have no business hiring anyone for anything. Seriously, is you need that much hand holding just have someone do these things for you so as to save yourself and everyone else a whole lot of unnecessary grief.

Another fine example, OK there's nothing fine about it really, is that men should behave in particular ways to avoid frightening or offending women. I actually saw pulling over in a car referred to as a "scary male behavior". Excuse me but feminism started with the ideal that men could not dictate to women how they should behave just because they were women. Now it's OK to dictate to men? Respect runs both ways. If they can't dictate to us we can't dictate to men. It's called equality. Wasn't that a core belief of feminism at one time? When did a double standard and demonizing men become the rule?

Then there's the fear factor. When did it go from take back the night to living in fright? The idea that any man at any time can turn on you is not only irrational it's bigoted. It also sounds frighteningly familiar. It sounds like what southern whites said about blacks in the dark days of slavery. Feminism was based on the idea that bigotry based on sex was wrong. That includes bigotry towards opposite sex, ladies.

All the evil in the world is not the fault of men. Criminals commit criminal acts, merely having a Y chromosome is not a factor. If you cannot Girl Up in any given situation it's not the fault of men, it's yours. Your fear, your failing, your inability to function cannot be blamed on whatever man happens to be handy. Bad things happen to everyone, some people cope and some don't. To try and rationalize blaming men for your inability to cope isn't feminism, it's the antithesis of feminism. Please do me a favor and call yourselves something else. I'd suggest man-hating castrating harpies. Wait, isn't that what men feared most the movement would become way back in the 70s? Congratulations you've set the movement back over 30 years. Seriously, turn off Lifetime, put on your big girl panties, and stop whining. I want my movement back.

Knuckles and Marrow and Shanks OH MY!

2008-07-15T21:13:00.006-04:00

Well, I went to pick up our yearly beef and pork this past Saturday. There's good news and bad news. Let's start with the bad.

My sister moved so we tried a new farm. We found one in NH halfway between us and ordered a whole cow and a whole pig. I sent in my deposit and the Monday before our scheduled pickup the woman who runs the farm called to go over the cuts. Strike 1 - the price went up 20 cents a pound. Now last time I checked I sent a deposit at a set price and that should be my price. She said it was the butcher that went up and felt bad, etc. OK I'll let this one pass because small business have it tough in a good economy and energy costs are through the roof and I'm not surprised the butcher went up those freezers cost big bucks to run. My sister wanted to put the date off for 2 days but the farm was unable to do so because of freezer space so I told my sister she better figure it out because my freezer won't hold a whole cow. Freezers, remember the freezers.

On Wednesday I called my father's mechanic, he's had the minivan for 3 weeks it only needed an inspection and I REALLY need it on Saturday. Well he FORGOT and said he'd take care of it ASAP except his inspection machine is broken. OK dude you've had it for 3 weeks and I really needed for Saturday because there's no way I'm fitting 800 pounds of meat in a Thunderbird. Did I mention Dad also flaked on the date? I have to pick up his share as well as mine. I only sent the freaking deposit in the Spring, it's July now, the date hasn't changed.

Mechanic man promises the van will be ready by Saturday, I should mention he fears me, this has to do with me pretty much kidnapping him from the garage when a van he just fixed died in the driveway and I dragged his butt to the house. There's nothing quite like a 5 foot 2 inch chubby Italian housewife ordering your ass into a car in front of your customers and employees and reading you the riot act. He pretty much tries to avoid pissing me off.

So, now it's Saturday morning and I send hubby down to get the van. Hmmmm it was taking a long time then my cell phone rings and the part for the inspection machine has just arrived. A half hour tops he SWEARS. OK, I'm miffed but it's manageable we still have a hour until we have to leave. I started getting the coolers ready to load into the van, we have 4 large coolers to keep the meat frozen on the drive. Hubby of course isn't home in an hour, did I mention the garage is less than a mile away? WTF is going on down there? My sister has called 3 times, my father twice, we're late and there's nothing I can do about it.

Hubby finally pulls up a half hour after we are supposed to be on the road. Apparently the car threw a belt as he was trying to leave the garage. They had to wait for the part and now we're good to go. Well not good, hubby says not to call the garage Mechanic man was VERY sorry and owes us a favor. In other words Mechanic man and hubby fear my wrath at this point and they're covering for each other a smidge. I make sure hubby has told Mechanic man that I need this van for moving hundreds of pounds of melting meat and I'm not pleased.

About 40 minutes into the drive my sister calls again, she's bored, I tell her 10 more minutes we'll be there. She says there's another issue. Strike 2 - the meat is NOT, I repeat NOT, FROZEN. OK WTF didn't I HAVE to pick up this meat today because they didn't have freezer space? Wasn't the price hike for the energy costs going up for the freezers? Oh, and the pork isn't ready. It was supposed to be but it's not. Sister dearest asks what she wants me to do and I tell her I have to think and we'll talk about it face to face in 10 minutes.

Now, I'm usually pretty fast on my feet but I've already had a heck of a morning and my brain was a little fried. At this point I'm also pretty cheesed off. In fact, I'm about ready to tell the farm lady to go perform an unnatural act with one of her animals and hand me my deposit back or I'll see her in court. Seriously gas is over 4 bucks a gallon and this isn't a short drive. On the bright side I had 10 minutes to cool off before we got there.

Of course it didn't last long. They said the butcher had a freezer issue and while the meat is quite cold it's not frozen solid yet. OK I paid for FROZEN MEAT. I dunno where this lady found this butcher but he really needs a slap and a boot in the rear. Next, in order to try and appease me, they offer to hold the meat at the farm until it's fully frozen. W T F?! Didn't I just HAVE to pick up the meat today? Weren't they short of freezer space? Didn't I go through a morning of hell with this stupid POS van of my father's to even get here today when I HAD to be here? Oh and let's consider the money in GAS I used for the freaking drive. I'm now approaching apoplectic and hippy health nuts or not I'm plopping my fat rear outside the front door and having a smoke while I consider my options.

After some negotiating and a LOT of apologizing we got a 50 credit off the bill for the gas and a promise that this would NEVER happen again. Here's the thing, not every customer is willing to write a 3,000 check for meat, I have a little leverage, they want to keep me. So we load up my van and sister's van and go off on our merry way. Thank god for the coolers and my thought to being ice packs JUST IN CASE.

Think it's over?? I wish, just wait.

So my sister drives off and hubby backs out and steers us towards home. Suddenly there's a weird but ominously familiar flappy thuddy sound from the engine. The noise is quickly followed by a funky smell. We threw a belt. Same belt that got put on that morning by Mechanic man. Just some advice here, NEVER let the BOSS fix your car. Have one of the employees do it, the boss always does sucky work. So I have hubby turn the van around and go back, we only got about 100 yards anyway. I call my sister on her cell and scream for her to come back. I scream because I'm losing my cool and my mind at this point and the super spotty cell service is not helping, she can barely hear me.

So my sister pulls up beside us and we pop the hood. It's not easy to see into the engine of a van and while we can't spot the problem the funky smell is pretty strong. Did I mention I just loaded this van with hundreds of pounds of beef that cost me thousands of dollars and that it was supposed to be frozen but isn't? I should add here that despite the fact that they had months to anticipate the cost of the meat neither my sister not my father actually had the money. I had to write a whopper check to cover for everyone, who needs to pay the property taxes anyway right? I'm also going to point out that the above family members make SIGNIFICANTLY more money than hubby and I'm a housewife. It's been a good month if he have money leftover for McDonalds, seriously we're kind of poor.

I didn't want to risk losing the meat if the van didn't make it home so we loaded the hundreds of pounds of meat into my sister's van, she of course lives in the OTHER DIRECTION, and head towards my house. Poor hubby is left on his own to wait for AAA. Just when I'm thinking nothing else could possibly go wrong the light at the only intersection we have to get through goes wonky and my mother calls. So while my sister is trying to navigate the intersection my mother is playing 20 questions the spotty cell service version. Move 2 feet no signal, 2 more it's back, fun for the whole family. It finally ends with me telling my mom that I left the door open and she needs to go in, sit on the freaking sofa, turn on the freaking TV, and wait for further freaking instructions. I did not actually use the word freaking. She hung up on me. My sister and I laughed hysterically, it was just that kind of day. Yes, sometimes I talk to my mother that way, you'd have to know my mother to understand why it's on occasion acceptable.

So I finally get home with the meat and we carry it through the bulkhead to the freezer in the basement and pack it in tight. I had to crank the freezer all the way to igloo, yes there's an actual picture of an igloo and it's a setting on my freezer. My mom heads to her mom's and leaves her Bichon Frise at my house. Nice of people to ask if I want to dog sit the worlds clingiest, hairiest animal in the heat of July. My sister speeds off with her repacked with more ice meat towards her house. Me? I go outside to get dizzy watching the electric meter spin because I just set the freezer to igloo to freeze the meat that was supposed to be frozen when I picked it up. Hubby made it home eventually, the mechanic was apparently both chagrined and frightened to see the van come back on a wrecker. I told hubby to negotiate a freebie or I'd have to talk to the mechanic myself, and NO ONE wants that at this point.

There is some good news. The meat is pretty good and all my butchering was done how I wanted it. I also got lots of knuckles, marrow bones and shanks to make stock. I love home made stock, once you have it store bought will never do. So Sunday I decided to make up the first batch of the year, I have enough stock stuff for three batches and I have a pretty big stock pot. It takes all day but it's not like you have to watch it closely, it mostly just simmers solo. The hardest part was roasting the bones, I hate using the oven in July.
At the end of the day I had a gallon and a half of lovely, dark, delicious, gelatinous stock. It makes great soups and sauces and once it cooled down in the refrigerator I put it down in the freezer. I even remembered to turn the freezer back down from igloo.

Tried Something New Today

2008-07-07T15:14:00.005-04:00

I baked pita bread. It's pretty easy as bread baking goes. I was even able to do whole wheat pitas. The hardest part was rolling them out nice and thin.

Then you have to put them in a really hot oven on a pizza stone. Like magic they puff up, I thought it was pretty cool. Halfway through you give them a turn so they get toasty on both sides.

They deflate as they cool and ta-da better then store bought and cheaper as well. I'm thinking about variations already. Rye, herbs, etc..... who knows. Not bad for a morning's worth of baking though.

A Winner and Tallow Making

2008-06-22T12:21:00.020-04:00

Yay we have a winner!!! I decided to use a random number generator and count from the bottom just to make it "more" random and we got a 7. So the winner of the soap is .... geek knitter!!! Woohoo! Just email me fotobrat at aol dot com or PM me on Ravelry BratKnits with your address and I'll mail out your soapy goodness

Now onto the tallowmaking. But first, some complaining. I've been sick for a week, really sick, sicker than I've been since I was a kid and my tonsils came out to stop the damned ear infections. Funny thing is my tonsils grew back. Weird and freaky I know but my Papa's did too so I'm not completely shocked. Guess what else came back, ear infections. I caught a cold from my niece and about three days in my ears started to itch on the inside. The next day, they HURT. So I call my ear doc, who seriously I haven't seen in 17 years and he fits me in that morning. Dr. Arrigg ROCKS!!!! I have a "rippping" ear infection and have to take antibiotics which I haven't taken in I can't remember how long, I never get sick. It's not completely gone but it's cleared up a lot and I feel like a dork for having a ear infection in my 30s.

Anyway, I don't do sick very well. I hate being in bed and I feel like a lazy slug so by Friday I HAD to do SOMETHING useful. I decided to render out the tallow as new stuff is coming in three weeks. At least I could take breaks if I got tired and mostly leave it to do it's own thing. So I gathered everything I needed - suet, a large pot, water, salt, cheese cloth, a strainer and a large plastic tub.

Now, there's a lot of books out there on how to render tallow. Get one, read it, read it again and think long and hard before you do it. This is how I make it, not a complete set of instructions, so if you follow them and screw up and burn your house down, set the dog on fire or something it's not on me. Cool? OK here we go.

This is the suet, the fat from around a cows internal organs.

Step 1 is to cut it up into 1 inch chunks.

It can then either go into the pot or into the grinder. If you use a grinder keep the suet as close to frozen as you can while you grind or else it gums up the auger and makes a mess.

Next the chunks or ground suet goes into a pot with a few inches of water and some salt. The water helps keep the suet from overheating and smoking or worse catching fire, it is grease after all. Have the lid handy JUST IN CASE. But if you add water as everything cooks it should be fine. I keep the heat at a slow simmer.

Warning cooking suet into tallow SMELLS BAD. Do it on a nice day with all the windows and doors open. The smell fades fast but while it's cooking it STINKS. If you didn't grind you get some floating chunks of trapped fat like these. I turn off the heat and put my stick blender in the pot to chop them up real quick. Of course then I pick the sinewy bits off the stick blender and clean it really well. It's better to just grind the suet in the first place.

When it's all melted and cooked time to strain. I use cheese cloth layered in a strainer and I strain into a plastic tub.

When the tallow is cooled it will be tallow on top and water on the bottom. Sometimes there's some fine meaty bits that made it through the strainer so time to scrape the bottom.

Make sure it's cooled all the way through or you're going to have to call a plumber to degrease your pipes. I flip the whole thing over into the sink and the water, gelatin and other nasty drains off. If there's anything NOT tallow I scrape it off and throw it away. You can then either freeze it or clean it again. I usually clean it again by remelting with less water and straining through coffee filters just to make sure it's as pure as possible.

After the second cleaning I let it cool until it's solid. When it's mostly cool i stick it in the fridge to get really firm before I wrap it in freezer paper for storage.

Once it's happily wrapped and dated the tallow is ready for the freezer. I made soap and candle from it all the time. Since we get our meat by buying a cow once a year we're already paying for the suet so I figure we might as well use it.

It's Wicked Hawt So I'm Giving Stuff Away

2008-06-09T17:27:00.006-04:00

As well as disgustingly humid and generally gross. It doesn't feel like June at all, more like August. Alas, electricity for the AC is pricey so it stays off until bedtime. I try and keep busy to take my mind off the heat.

First off I finally got a meat grinder. Not one of those fancy schmancy ones, not an attachment for my kitchenaid but an old fashioned hand crank meat grinder. I've been trying to track one down for a while and finally managed to wrangle one. My husband took one look at it and stated that he wasn't cranking it, we'll see how badly he wants what comes out of it.

I need a grinder for a few reasons. First we buy our meat locally from a farm. My sister, parents and I split a whole cow and a whole pig once a year. We get it butchered but some things need a little more work than your basic kitchen supplies. I need the grinder because it also stuffs sausages and hot dogs. Have you priced those lately? I'll make my own and ummm no recalls.

Second, a cow doesn't just come with meat. There's all sorts of other "parts" that you're paying for so you might as well use them up. Organ meat gets cooked, ground and baked into doggy treats. Bones and tail get made into stock for soups, WAY better than canned.

Finally there's the fat. Now pork fat becomes lard, great for pie crust and no transfats. The fat from around the cows organs, suet, becomes tallow. Now neither of these things come easy or quick. Both have to be cleaned and rendered (boiled) so you end up with nice clean stuff at the end. The grinder will help this process immensely. The smaller you can get the pieces the easier it is to render.

I use the tallow, along with some coconut oil, to make one of my favorite house cleaners, soap. Yup plain ole soap grated into flakes. Mix it up with some hot water, maybe a little borax or washing soda and you can clean just about anything. Follow up with a vinegar or water rinse and stuff just shines. OK it's not PLAIN soap, I add tea tree and citrus oils. It smells good, kinda clean. Even hubby likes it. It's green, it cleans, and it smells nice what more could you ask for?

Of course there's a lot of tallow to be had from a whole cow, and it makes a lot of soap. Since we're picking up our annual meat supply in about a month I've got to render out what's left in the freezer from last year and make more soap. Of course I still have a lot of soap left from last time so I've decided to give some away. It's all grated and good to go and I'll ship 1 pound of it to a person chosen at random who posts a comment to this post. The cutoff is June 20th at 5pm.

My Husband Screams Like a Girl

2008-05-26T14:02:00.008-04:00

OK well maybe not entirely like a girl but he did let out one loud EWWWWWWWWWWW when he was cleaning out the fireplace. We're finishing up the last of the spring cleaning and the duty of cleaning out the fireplace with the wet/dry vac fell to him. Inside was the skeleton of some poor bird that must have flown down there months ago. We didn't use the fireplace this winter so I guess it could have been a year or more. We just never got around to cleaning it because shoveling the ashes is such a pain in the neck. The new wet/dry vac has made that job and a few others a lot easier, if not less... gross. For sure we have to go up an replace the wire around the chimney so this doesn't happen again.

Along with spring cleaning I've been doing some spring knitting. I finished up my mom's Mother's Day gift. It was late, I had to rip back a LOT because I dropped a stitch and didn't notice. Then I decided it was a good time to use up some odds and ends leftover from other projects and made this cute little felted bag.

I'm doing great on my stash-busting, of course poverty helps. Between gas and grocery prices we're really tightening up the budget. Lucky it feeds into the green thing we've been doing lately. It has become kind of a game to see how little water, electricity and gas we can use in a month. We see it as a challenge and get to tease one another when a light gets left on or timing showers. Hey it's free fun and if it saves on the bills and the environment all the better.

We Had a Puppy Play Date

2008-05-18T16:48:00.003-04:00

We had a puppy play date today. It went on like this for 5 hours. I'm thinking they'll both sleep well tonight. Me? I'll be cleaning up the destruction they left behind. It currently looks like a bomb went off in the living room. At least I remembered to put my knitting away BEFORE the battle.

Barbara Walters Isn't Just a Media Whore...

2008-05-07T23:29:00.005-04:00

...she's an old fashioned whore as well. Now, I've been losing respect for Walters over the years but this latest just washed what was left completely away. Like a lot of other people my appreciation for Walters started to wane with her appearances on The View. Call my expectations high but a well respected journalist deciding to join a daily hen peck just struck me as wrong.

This woman was a ground breaker for women in media, she did some of the most memorable interviews in broadcast history. When she started doing The View I did try and watch a few times but I mostly saw otherwise intelligent women clucking away and simply couldn't stomach it. Over the years I did catch it on occasion when I saw a promo for an interesting guest but it was often painful to watch.

Then the cast DRAMAS started. I say cast because a panel would be more fun and hosts a little less trite than the reality of this daytime turd. Between TMZ and the other gossip rags as well as legitimate media on a really slow news day we were all treated to an inside look at the behind the scenes workings of the view. It was more than I really wanted to know. I can honesty say I was equally disgusted with the treatment of Star Jones (hate) and Rosie (adore) by Walters. She showed herself to be less of a journalist and more of a diva entertainment "personality". My respect dropped further encouraged by a series of softball puff interview "specials" when there was no sign of the woman who got THE INTERVIEW with Fidel Castro.

Now we have the new book out and Walters is revealing a thirty year old affair with a married man. One of the justifications for the inclusion of this tidbit in her book, given tonight on FOX News, was that times have changed. Sorry Babs a whore is a whore is a whore. Even thirty years later, I'm sure his wife agrees. Then as I watched a woman I used to respect justify whoring on cable news I had a terrible thought. What if all the disrespect and sniggering Walters received when working her way up in the news biz wasn't sexism, maybe it was deserved. Maybe they knew then what it took the rest of us decades to figure out. Barbara Walters isn't a talented journalist, she's just a whore looking to cash in. I'm disgusted and worse very disappointed.

May 9th Edited to add : Even though I don't like Star Jones I really admire her restraint this week. If someone went on national TV and said I was too fat to walk around my workplace I wouldn't just hit them in the press I'd hit them with my car.

Someone Needs to Put on Her Big Girl Panties

2008-05-04T12:00:00.007-04:00

AND STOP WHINING! Massachusetts politics has always been and will always be one of the roughest trades around. It's full of arm twisting and threats and a whole lot of backroom dealings. From the local level up to the state legislature it isn't for the faint of heart or the weak of will. Traditionally a man's game, Massachusetts politics has produced some amazingly tough and full-on ball buster female politicians. Women who learned to play the game as well if not better than than the men. Massachusetts' female politicians were to be admired, respected and even feared. That is, until this week.

As reported on TV, in the Globe and the Herald Jennifer Callahan decided to give a half choked almost tearful report of a "threat" she received from another state Representative while speaking to the house. Thankfully Speaker Sal DiMasi closed the session immediately and saved all women from further embarrassment. Seriously I was embarrassed to be a woman after this little bit of whining.

Someone needs to tell Jen how things work she must have missed the memo. She obviously doesn't have the backbone to do her job. Jen, if you get pushed... PUSH BACK. Don't whine, don't cry and for the sake of all that is holy if you are going to whine and cry DO IT IN PRIVATE! You are an elected Massachusetts Representative time to put on your big girl panties and ACT LIKE IT! I was disgusted and embarrassed by your display and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. Madeleine Albright and Margaret Thatcher never whined and they were threatened by bigger and badder men with, you know, WMDs. Stop being a baby. I can only hope you are the proud recipient of a ginormous pair of skivvies at the St. Pat's breakfast next Spring, maybe then you'll get the hint.

Now on to some fun stuff. It's Spring and that means it's time to air out and mothproof my wool yarn and sweaters. Last year I found a munched pair of gloves and went the scary chemical route and mothballed everything. I never found anything else munched so if they were here they're dead now. I dislike chemicals in the house. For one a lot of them are pretty toxic and unnecessary. Second I have allergies and I really think a lot of over the top chemicals in the house make them worse. So while the natural alternative won't kill the little buggers I'm going to see how well it at least deters them.

I dug out some heat seal jumbo teabags, my iron and a bunch of herbs and EOs that moths don't like. I mixed up a huge batch and filled and sealed about two dozen sachets to tuck in with all the wool. They smell pretty good and it didn't take much time. I'm always on moth patrol so I'll know fast if they don't work. Plus it was fun to do something crafty for an afternoon.

Puppies Poop .... A Lot ... Frequently ... Everywhere

2008-04-30T20:25:00.004-04:00

OK, so I shouldn't be surprised. I kinda knew puppies pooped. What I can't figure out is WHY MAGGIE POOPS EVERYWHERE BUT ON THE PAPER?!?!?!?! Here's the thing, she pees on the paper all the time. She's had maybe one pee accident in the past month and she was really, really excited at the time. Not only does she pee on the paper but she pees exactly dead center of the paper, bulls-eye. I've actually seen her squat near the edge of the paper, stop, look around and MOVE to the center of the paper before going. So why on earth won't she poop there? It's little itty bitty puppy poop, not a huge mess, and I do put it on the paper and show her. She still goes off and hides to poop. Hubby's opinion? She's shy, gee thanks hun. Any suggestions? Anyone?

Besides the pooping she's great. She's even learned to go in her travel bag when prompted which is great because now my niece can "help" by zipping her in or out. The two of them are inseparable, just what we were hoping for when we got Maggie. They even call out to each other at night when one or the other is awake and should be sleeping. Tala in her crib and Maggie in her crate. OK, this is probably annoying but since niece and puppy go home in the afternoon and become their parents' problems I can think it's cute.

Haven't been getting to much knitting lately, Mom and Dad FINALLY moved to Maine. They even took all, no most, OK about half their stuff. They'll be picking up the rest here and there and I twisted their arms and got a solid "you can toss it" list. There was no way I was paying for the house until their crap was GONE. Have I mentioned I'm the child of packrats and slobs?? Two people who are organizationally and cleanliness challenged shouldn't marry, they reinforce each others bad habits. At times this house has looked like one of those homes on "How Clean is Your House", unfortunately I'm not joking.

I think it's a teacher thing, all the teachers I know have homes that look like a bomb went off. Mom, Dad and one of my sisters. Everyone else in the family, myself and my other sister border on being neat freaks. In fact, when my Mom went to her parents' house to pick up a dining table my Papa was there to make mom take the boxes from his garage of her stuff. Seriously, my mother has been married for almost 40 years and she still had crap in Papa's garage. PACKRAT!
So, mostly I've been cleaning and purging. I'm not talking grab a mop and do a quick run trough the house. We're talking full on washing the walls and ceilings, removing and polishing the hardware from the furniture, and tossing or donating a TON of just stuff that my parents accumulated for reasons I can't fathom, THEY don't even want it.

One thing they left and I found a purpose for was a china hutch. Well, I don't have "good" china, I kinda hate "good" china. I'm also very anti-knick-knack, even though my mother-in-law gets us them for about EVERY holiday (don't get me started), but I do have some nice teapots. Tea pots border on knick-knacks, they walk a very fine line. Thing is I USE my teapots and I use them a lot. I also like teacups, not sets of teacups like "good" china, I get them one at a time and none of them match. Each cup is unique so they can't be "good" china. I like things with a function first and everything else second. My hubby... well he comes very close to being a knick-knack person like his mother sometimes, it scares me.

Other than teapots the only thing I have in abundance is yarn and knitting books. So they went into the hutch with the teapots. I mean I spent a whole day cleaning this thing I should get to put what I want in it. OK it did take a bit of convincing to get hubby to understand why a hutch full of yarn and teapots belonged in the dining area but in the end he saw the light. I think it looks pretty cool.

We Have a New Puppy!

2008-04-17T12:21:00.003-04:00

Alas, Tilly is moving North with my parents and after having to put Roo down last summer we weren't big on the idea of Tala not having a dog. Losing two dogs in a year is a lot of heartbreak when you're two even if one of the dogs comes to visit occasionally.

Enter our family dentist who started dropping hints LAST MONTH. She had a new litter of puppies you see and one of them was called Maggie Waggie because her whole body wags not just her tail. Now, I forbade my mother to even lay eyes on any puppies, she lacks the self control to not take one home. That's how we got Tilly.

Then mom got the new job. Hmmmm maybe a puppy isn't a bad idea. I however don't want a god right now and neither does my husband, it's just not the right time. So the nudging aka nagging started. My sister needed a puppy, the baby needed a puppy, my sister's husband needed to get a puppy for the baby else he be the worst dad in history. Overstated? Maybe, but not by much.

My mother aka Nana-Spoils-A-Lot took Tala to the dentist to have her teeth cleaned. She was very good as we told her afterwards she'd get to see puppies. Then they went to Donna's house and two by two the puppies we let into the yard with the baby to see how well everyone got along. Of course, as predicted, Maggie Waggie took to the baby instantly. She followed her around the yard and didn't nip or cry and the less than gentle proddings of a toddler trying to pick her up and kiss her.

Now, I have two little monsters in the house all day. Part of the deal I seem to have missed is that Maggie will be arriving daily with baby for Auntie Care. It's OK, it's kind of fun having a puppy to play with and then it GOES HOME. All of the fun, none of the poop pick-up duty. And she's just cute as all hell.

Swap Socks are FINALLY DONE!

2008-04-04T12:07:00.003-04:00

I finally finished the socks from the yarn Sarah sent me in the Knitter's Tea Swap last year. They've been my purse project for a while now but this week I caught a cold from my niece, I love when toddlers share, so I needed a bed friendly and easy to drop when sneezing project to work on. I love how they came out.

The new furnace is in, YAY! It works great and is very quiet compared to the old one. We put in a new thermostat too that's programmable so we don't forget to turn the heat back up in the morning and wonder why we're FREEZING. I loved the contractors Home Depot sent, they were friendly, on time and did an excellent job. They also we're nice enough to help hubby put in the new thermostat even though that wasn't officially part of the job. The old thermostat had a mercury ampule in it, they too it away for disposal for us. It's such a pain to get rid of mercury properly I was really thankful. They more than deserved the coffee and scones I made them for sure. They're so getting my next call when we need something done around here. A great experience with a contractor who'd thought it could happen?

Knittng, Construction and Baking

2008-03-24T09:48:00.006-04:00

Wow, over a week and not a peep out of me.

Well, it's been busy as all heck here. The furnace is not-quite-dead but on it's last legs. It is over 40 years old so time for a new one. The gas company couldn't find time to come out with an estimate for a new one but Home Depot did soooooooooo, we're getting a Trane. Thing should just about pay for itself in not too many years. It seems our old furnace was about 65% efficient and the new one is going to be 92%. We'll see that next winter for sure. Mom and dad still technically own the house so they have to foot the bill on this one. Maybe it died right on time.

Grandma came through with the CD she gave us on our wedding day. We're going to redo both bathrooms. They need it BAD. There's a leak upstairs and the downstairs one is so far gone it needs to be ripped back to the studs. They're both small so I may be able to keep within the budget. Just in case, if you want something from Amazon click through a link on here, yeah I'm begging. Plus hubby and I can do the finishing and detail stuff ourselves. Have you priced toilets lately?? What the heck are they made out of?? They cost almost as much as a new tub, that just seems wrong.

I made my first ever Hot Cross Buns this weekend. Nana's not up to making them herself this year but she wanted them so the request came to me. They came out pretty good. Mom, Nana and Papa all loved them. The only thing is, everyone else hates hot cross buns, including me. So we have a lot left over that went to work with Mom this morning.

Nana gave me one of her cookbooks this weekend and a chafing dish. I'm grateful for both, the cookbook had Nana's notes in it, I love that. I think this is the quickening of a trend at Nana's though. The past few years she's been giving away a lot of the stuff she doesn't use anymore. Now that she's doing hospice and letting the cancer run it's course I think she's trying to empty the house so it's not a task left to Papa when she's gone. I can't decide if it's practical or morbid. There's only one thing I'm super concerned about and I told mom to hint at it. Nana's sewing machine from the basement. I learned to sew on that Singer and when I got married Nana and I made my wedding dress on it. I want it and I'll scratch the eyes out of any cousin who even looks at it. Selfish maybe, but that old machine has a lot of my best memories for me of Nana and I want it.

I've been knitting away on some smaller projects lately. I just finished a couple shawls, I'm doing the lace thing. Now that hubby and I are going to have the house solo money's going to be tight so no buying yarn until we adapt to the new budget. I have lots of yarn in my stash so I'm starting with the lace weight and I'll move on from there. Of course people are grabbing things as they are finished, eventually there's going to be a spat so I'll just keep going until everyone has something they like.

Birthday's are Bad Luck

2008-03-12T10:17:00.002-04:00

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...

Every year on my birthday some major catastrophe happens almost without fail.

This year I figured the fates would give me a break. I mean it's been a tough year, a real doosie. Guess what I got for a birthday surprise?

Are you ready?

Can you hear the drum roll?

The furnace croaked.

Death, Dying and Nana's Bad Jokes

2008-03-06T22:44:00.012-05:00

Well there's not too much going on around here lately. I've been knitting away and putting up stuff for my mother to take to Nana's. She's been in good spirits but I can already tell it's not going to be a long time before she goes. There's a odd sort of look to her lately, a weakness in her movements and her color has changed a lot. She's comfy though, no pain and that's what worried us most.

One thing I find odd about this process is the humor. Nana has always had a sort of "off" sense of humor for someone in her generation. Now that she's looking at the end of her life she's pulled all the stops as far as self editing goes.

Now, I find Nana's death jokes honestly funny. They are direct, observational, somewhat inappropriate, and flat out hilarious. My mother on the other hand finds them upsetting and morbid. She'll laugh at Nana's but then come home and cry.

I'm left to wonder if it's because I'm a generation removed or if it's because my sense of humor has always been very close to Nana's. My mom's always been a weeper and I'm more of a stewer. Is it possible the jokes aren't actually funny? I guess it doesn't matter as long as Nana thinks they are.

Oh yeah knitting. Have you noticed my current obsession with knitting hats? I think it's self-therapy. They're easy, quick, and they clear out the odd single balls of yarn from my stash. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with them all but they keep me busy when I get stressed out.

When is Enough, Enough?

2008-02-25T22:52:00.002-05:00

My Nana came to a decision this past week. She's decided to discontinue chemotherapy and let nature take it's course. I don't blame her, the chemo was leaving her a wreck, worse than the cancer. It's not like it was going to cure it, just stave off the inevitable. She had said before it all started that she felt if it was her time so be it and I respected her decision then so I have to respect it now. Somehow it's more real all of a sudden.

This is truly a quality vs quantity of life situation. She's 85, has up until now has been in good health as well as independent, and pancreatic cancer is terminal. It's still weird to me to think of her as dying. We're all dying, she's just going at a faster clip. My mother is an emotional wreck, she always is in a crisis. I'm more like Nana, kinda rational and appreciative. It's not that I don't love her, it's not that I won't miss her, it's that I feel really lucky to have had her around all these years and I'm glad she gets to go out as in charge as she's always been.

The tough thing is there's nothing I can really do to help out. I can do little shit, I knit her a few pairs of socks because she likes them and she's been feeling colder than usual because of the chemo. I can go visit or call but I do that anyway. My Nana taught me that when something needs doing, fixing, making you just jump in and get it done. Here, there's nothing to do and it can't be fixed and it leaves me feeling sort of lost.

My Nana also taught me to be really practical and some really old fashioned manners. So, one of my thoughts today was, my god my husband doesn't have a suit for the funeral. Now, some people might think that it's a little sick that this is what's going through my brain right about now, Nana would think it was funny. She'd also ask me how come he doesn't already have a suit for such an occasion and cluck at me. I really don't have a extra few hundred bucks for a suit for hubby but I also don't want to be running around looking for one last minute. This is what happened when my Dad's father died and I was up all night doing alterations so pops didn't have to wear a light blue suit to his father's wake. Maybe hubby's brother has one he can borrow in a pinch, but we really should just go buy one.

I am dreading Mom's coming reactions to things Nana is going to be planning. Mom is a cryer and Nana is going to want to have some things just so. Some time soon she's going to bring up her own funeral plans, what she wants to be dressed in, flowers, etc. and my mom is going to lose her mind. I'm also dreading my father's behavior, since his heart surgery he's had the emotional age of a toddler. Dad got very used to being "sick" and now that he's good to go he gets pissy when he's not the center of attention. It's already come up once or twice and I'm told it's not uncommon, just annoying. My husband has come really close to slugging him a couple times this week when Mom's been over stressed with Nana and Dad decided to throw a tantrum because he wasn't getting the attention he wanted.

On the bright side my sisters are coming this weekend and we're going to visit Nana, a ladies afternoon. Then we're going to a yarn sale at the Classic Elite outlet in Lowell. I get to spend the rest of the week planning some nice treats to make and bring, stuff I know Nana will like. I'm really going to miss her but I couldn't have ever asked for more or better, she's always been the best.

Cancer is Not Fun

2008-02-13T10:41:00.010-05:00

I'm really annoyed on a lot of levels about a lot of things lately. First off I'm angry with my grandfather, he lied to me. My Nana, at 85, has cancer. They've always been very independent people for their ages and when my mother was going to cancel her vacation to stay home and help them out they refused and told her to go. I wasn't worried, my sisters and our hubbys had a plan and we knew we could handle anything that came up. For six weeks I called every other day and asked Papa do you have clean clothes and groceries, did you get plowed out, does Nana have her meds, etc. I was told over and over that they were fine. The couple times we went over there everything seemed fine. Then mom came home.

She goes over there to discover my Papa has been feeding me a line of complete bullshit. The linnens on the bed haven't been changed, they're out of clean undies and there's rotten food in the fridge. All things easily and quickly remedied, and they were. Yet, my Papa lied to me. I know that they don't want to be a burden to their grandchildren but I called EVERY OTHER DAY to offer help, I was even kind of pushy about it, and he lied to me. I'm pissed.

On the same topic, and I know this sounds hateful, junkies should die. Yep I said die. No rehab, no jail, just do the world a favor and step in front of a train and die. Getting Nana's pain meds is kind of a pain in the neck and it's because of junkies. Here's the thing, junkies rob pharmacies around here so they don't keep some pain meds in stock in volume anymore. You have to call ahead and doctors write small prescriptions with limited refills. It's not that you can't just call the doctor if you need more, you can, it's just hard to explain why that is the process now to someone who's elderly.

My Nana was suffering and doling out her pain pills because she thought she could only have 20 and she should make them last. The idea that she was feeling pain needlessly because some worthless junkies have changed the system for everyone really makes my blood boil. These selfish wastes of space don't just impact themselves or their families, they impact everyone. Even something like Claritin is now behind the counter and requires ID because of junkies. Why should my Nana, myself, or anyone else have to jump through hoops to get needed medication because of these people. I don't buy this "it's a disease" crap, it's just selfishness. Their high is more important to them than anyone or anything else in the same way that a drunk driver's buzz is more important than someone else's life and family. If these people have a disease it's chronic self-centeredness. Rich or poor these people are stuck in me, me, me mode and that's all. It's entrenched in our culture, a sense of entitlement goes with it, and it sucks.

Now that I've vented on to some cheerier things. I made a couple pairs of socks for Nana, she likes my hand knit socks and asked for some because the chemo makes her feel cold. I also finished my first lace shawl and I'm very happy with it.

I've been trying to beat back my yarn stash a bit so I bought a couple of one-ball knitting books. The projects are fast and easy and they use up leftover yarns that are just sitting around. I'll be putting most if them in my Christmas Stash, a hand knit hat or scarf is always a great last minute gift

Also, I made some yummy cupcakes on Monday. I went all out and frosted them with a pastry bag and tip, very pretty. I even put a chocolate button atop each one. I think they're almost bakery-worthy. I love to bake but so much gets tossed because we just don't eat it before it goes stale. I've been sending the extras with hubby to work but I've been busy for a couple weeks and haven't sent anything. Yesterday a co-worker asked where the snacks were, I guess they like them.

Awwwwww

2008-02-08T23:37:00.001-05:00

Felted Heart Pot Holder and Hot Pad

2008-02-03T18:55:00.001-05:00

I got one comment and a couple emails asking what pattern I used to make these. I made them up myself as I went just to see if I could make a heart shape from the center out. I did however take notes for a change so I'll happily share.

Needles : size 10.5 DPNs and 10.5 24" circular
Yarn : lambs pride worsted, you can get 2 out of 1 skein
Gauge : who cares it's felted

Instructions : Using DPNs cast on 8 stitches and join in the round, knit into the front and back of every stitch. Place Marker(16)

Row 1 and all odd # Rows - Knit
Row 2 : (Kfb, K) rep until end of row (24)
Row 4 : (Kfb, K2) rep until end of row (32)
Row 6 : (Kfb, K3) rep until end of row (40)
Row 8 : (Kfb, K4) rep until end of row (48)
continue adding 1 stitch between increases and moving onto the circulars when needed until you have 120 stitches total.

LOBES AND POINT ARE WORKED BACK AND FORTH

Start Lobes :
Row 1 : SSK, K36, K2tog (38)
Row 2 and all even numbers rows : Purl
Row 3: SSK, K34, K2tog (36)
Row 5: SSK, K32, K2tog (34)
Row 7: SSK, K30, K2tog (32)
Row 9 : SSK, K28, K2tog (30)
Row 11 : SSK twice, K22, K2tog twice (26)
Row 13 : SSK twice, K18, K2tog twice (22)
Row 15 : SSK twice, K14, K2tog twice (18)
Row 17 : SSK twice, K10, K2tog twice (14)
Row 19 : SSK twice, K6, K2tog twice (10)
Row 20 : Purl
Bind Off

Reattach yarn and make second lobe in the same way with the next 40 stitches on the circular.

Start Point :
Point is worked on the last 40 stiches on the circular.

Reattach yarn.
Bind off 5 stitches at the beginning of the next 4 rows. (20)
Row 1 : SSK, K16, K2tog (18)
Row 2 and all even rows : Purl
Row 3 : SSK, K14, K2tog (16)
Row 5 : SSK twice, K8, K2tog twice (12)
Row 7 : SSK twice, K4, K2tog twice (8)
Row 9 : SSK twice, K2tog twice (4)
Row 11 : Slip 2 knitwise, K2 tog, PSSO and pull yarn through.

Weave in all ends and FELT. The straight sides will want to pucker in a smidge just tug them into place when you lay it flat to dry.

To Make Rings : Alternate colors every 2 rows and carry up the back side.

Edited : Cuz, I shouldn't try and write out patterns while watching football!

P.S. : If you want to share my little pattern here please link don't copy. It's MINE! Sharing is GOOD stealing is BAD. =) All Other Rights Reserved. So Ask First.

Busy, Busy

2008-02-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

I'm finshing up lots of projects lately. OK they're easy projects but they're DONE just the same. Lets see I did a hat for the Christmas stash, yes I start in January, a couple trivets for the kitchen, and some slippers for my niece for Valentine's Day. I love, love, love the little felted slippers. I have leather scraps to cut and sew on the bottom so they don't slip too much on the floors. The hardwood gets cold this time of year and socks just don't cut it when the little monkey is over here. My sister loves them and wants me to make another pair for her to have at home.

AFTRA STILL SUCKS. Nuff said.

The Pats are playing in the SB tomorrow so the cooking started tonight. I want to actually be able to watch the game, and be ready to cover Tala's eyes JUST IN CASE. We're having pizza, veggies and dip, herbed monkey bread, salad, artichoke hearts and olives, and I baked a chocolate pound cake that's going to have bittersweet chocolate sauce. My BIL is bringing the hotwings. I'm trying to decide if I want to make the pizza and monkey bread dough tonight and let it chill out in the fridge.

I did manage to make a big dent in the cleaning today. Got the kitchen catch-all AKA table cleared off and the counters as well. Hubby did most of the living room. I even managed to get the desk cleaned up and all the papers filed, paid or tossed. Yay for me. Maybe I'll make the dough in the morning and spend tonight with my knitting in front of the TV. Torchwood is on and Adult Swim has new anime on Saturday nights.

AFTRA Boston Sucks!

2008-01-29T16:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry, just had to say that first. I'm none to happy with their version of "negotiating" right now. There was a day when unions fought for their members until the bitter end. There used to be a time when all one needed to negotiate a contract was some day-old pastry and bad coffee. Now, I'm thinking of sending the "negotiator" some KY, it's a little more in tune with the current strategy.

I say this as the fourth generation in my family to have depended on a union to get fair raises and benefits. Yes, FOURTH. My Great-Grandfather was a part of the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA in 1912. These people we're threatened, arrested and beaten for refusing to work for less than a fair wage. My grandfather was IBEW and both my parents members of the teacher's union, I've seen a lot of union activity and more than a few strikes. I've NEVER seen anyone from any union try and argue "lets take it now or they might offer less." This guy needs to have his head examined less S*^T is still S*$T and if all they're offering is S*$T you get tough not wuss out. If this guy had nads bigger than a gnat they'd be planning to cancel the contract and taking a walk NEXT TUESDAY.

Face it, the wives should be negotiating, we know how to pull those short and curlies HARD. I have no qualms whatsoever about pointing out if this exec. spent more time running the company and less time sniping with the other exec. / daughter while that exec. boinks then marries the freakin help and puts her to work so much everyone's sick of her then maybe, just maybe the stock wouldn't be in the toilet and there'd be some money for raises that actually approached the cost of living. Who exactly do these people think they are? They're destroying a reputation that spans 80 years and let's face it the "Tiffany" is tarnishing fast. What do they care, they still get their bonus cash and stock every year, oh yeah how's that class action going? You SUCK too. You try working for less than half what the guy who delivers you packages makes but you have to work odd hours, be ready to come in at a moments notice and have a college degree. On second thought you don't just suck you SUCK WEASEL WANG.

Now, on to happier things. I took a photo of my cool Noro Kureyon tea cozy. Cute huh? I love tea, not that I can afford much of it lately, maybe if I toss that nadless negotiator into the Harbor. I'm really trying to burn through my yarn stash lately so I'm working up a lot of quick projects.

Hmmm, maybe I'll send micro-nads some of the old faberware I found in the cabinet, someone ought to have a pot to piss in when this is all over.

100% Done!

2008-01-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well the stars aligned, hubby's vacation ended, and my niece caught a cold so I've had a couple of unexpected days to myself. Kind of nice, it almost never happens so I decided to finish up a couple projects.

First I finished reorganizing the pantry, I just don't get how people fail to put thing away. If you bought peas put them with the other peas. How complicated it that? The pantry looked like a bunch of starving apes had gone through it so everything came out and went back on the shelves in proper order. Aside from a couple frighteningly expired items that got tossed it wasn't too bad.

I finally chose the buttons for my cardigan so sewing them on was next. I went with wood, very New England-y in my opinion. I've already worn it a couple times and I just love it. I also finished up hubby's "Man-Ghan". I decided to change to a less sewing intensive pattern. Those blocks make me nutty after 1 row and dropped stitches in that fisherman's rib pattern were insane to pick back up. He likes it anyway and the arrowhead pattern I ended up with is still pretty masculine in the colors he picked out.

I also had time last night for a quickie project, a tea cozy in Noro Kureyon. It's a free pattern from Knitty and called of course the Kureyon Kozy. It only took two balls which is good because the yarn is kinda spendy. I love how it came out, I'll probably put up a couple photos later. I can't decide how much I like the yarn yet. Everyone raves about it but I'm torn. The colors are beautiful but they can be a little garish and the wool isn't the softest in the world before washing. I'm going to try a couple of felted coasters with the leftovers before I decide.

I tried a new recipe this weekend from my King Arthur whole grain cookbook. I needed something to bring when my sister and I went to visit Nana and I wanted to bring something sweet but not too unhealthy. Nana is starting Chemo this week and she was told her stomach might be queasy so I wanted her to have a homemade treat before the treatment started. They were pretty good, kinda sweet for my taste but if you like bars they tend to be really sweet. I was surprised how nice the texture of the crust and topping were being whole wheat and oats. They are a couple other bars I want to try in there, I think I'll do the citrus one next.

Button, Button, I Hate Choosing Buttons

2008-01-14T12:23:00.000-05:00

OK, so I knit a sweater and sew it together. Then I put it on the dressform and block it all nice and pretty. Now, I'm stuck. It needs buttons. I hate picking buttons. They really can make or break a sweater. If they're too flashy they look stupid, if they're too plain the whole sweater looks boring, too fancy and it looks pretentious. So, what kind of buttons does this sweater need?

It's got a hood so it's kind of casual, but it's also got cables and lace so it's not really a "grubby". I need 18 of them to run straight down the front so nothing too overpowering for flashy will work. It'll likely spend most of it's time unbuttoned so nothing that will catch on stuff easily.

Anyone else have problems choosing buttons? Is this another neurosis exclusive to me? Maybe I have a problem finishing things, buttons are the last step. So anyone have any ideas what kind of buttons go on this sweater? I'm stumped.

It's January in New England again today. The warm weather from last week is gone and we have ...... SNOW. Lots and lots of snow. We've been trying to teach my mom's Bichon to potty OUTSIDE while she's on vacation. So far, so good once we put one of her puppy pads out in the yard. Yeah the neighbors already think we're the Munsters so this latest oddity probably doesn't shock them. Alas, Bichons are short and the show is deep sooooooo she couldn't figure out how to pee in the snow.

Hubby to the rescue, he grabbed a shovel and made, well he made a dog toilet. Grumbling about spending his vacation digging snow latrines for dogs. Tilly wasn't going to squat without a clear space so it had to be done. At least I remembered to put her doggy sweater on before we sent her out there otherwise she'd blend into a drift like camouflage.

Oh Baby, Have You Seen My Baby?

2008-01-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

Isn't she gorgeous? We're getting some big snow tonight and tomorrow so hubby is off to give her some exercise. The delicate flower she is we pay for a storage locker in the winter months so she doesn't get all road-salty and rust-slushy.

Ever hear "There's no such thing as a free lunch"? Well, there's no such thing as a free car either. My sister and her hubby once owned our girl, bought her from the son of the original owner, but alas classic cars are not for the faint of heart or tight of wallet. My hubby always drooled over this car and when my sister sold her house way up in Maine she gave it to him for his birthday. To be completely honest she had to get it off the property before they closed on the house and it was hubby or the heap as having it towed and stored was going to cost a fortune.

Well the bucks added up fast anyway. The old girl decided an hour into her trip that she wasn't going to make it back to MA. So she got towed anyway. My sister, in her usual way, forgot to mention that when she said "all original" she meant the tires as well. Dry rot was not part of her lexicon at the time.

We got the girl home, well to our garage, later that day. Our mechanic made a face I've never seen before but being the good sport he is we left out girl with a promise he could get her back up to spec in a week. Well about $1,000 later our girl had her some shiny new shoes, white wall tires to the uninitiated, as well as a slew of new belts, hoses, etc. Anything that was worn, tired or looked like it might be worn or tired. Hubby went to pick her up and pay the bill, I think he clutched his chest a little, and brought home our new "free" car.

She's a lovely mint and jade, 1979 Ford Thunderbird with off-white leather interior. She has power windows and a cassette player as well as AC and a few other goodies. She's also a real boat, over 18 feet long with a huge wingspan when her doors are open. They all work except the cassette player which died about a month later so if you see one for sale let me know. We hunt parts for her when we have time, NOS preferred. We're always looking for extra tail light lenses, baby's are unique the only year Ford used them and they're hard to find and PRICEY.

Our girl does have a downside or two. She's a 1979 American made luxury car which means she eats gas like crazy. I feel a little guilty about this, I keep pretty green, but we only use her for special trips and in the summer months and she represents a bit of automotive history sooooooooo I offset with other things. Maybe our next everyday car will be a hybrid to make up for the baby's bad gas mileage.

This year we want to have her repainted. We're saving out pennies, lots of them, because you can't just take baby to Macco. We want her paint matched to the 1979 special order Jade Glow she is. New carpet on the floors might be needed too, it's looking a tad worn in spots. For 30 years and LESS THAN 35,000 miles baby looks great, a real head turner. So we'll tuck her back in her locker after a little ride and give her a little freedom as the Winter allows until Spring when she snow goes and the drive-in opens. Baby loves her a Summer night at the drive-in and we love to take her.

Out with the Old, In with the New...

2008-01-08T09:47:00.001-05:00

The new and constant major problems that is, so much for the new year being better than the old. At least Christmas is OVER! Yippee! Hubby and I need a new plan, there was WAY too much traveling and too many events this year, it's just too stressful. We had places to be from the 24th straight through until New Years and it started to suck. I had one day off in all that time and I spent it getting a breast ultrasound, not fun, not as bad as I thought either. On the bright side no cancer, recent boob issues seem to have been caused by stress.

When the doc asked me what was going on in my life so I told him, I got kinda a blank stare in return and "Yeah I'd say that's stressful". I felt like asking him ... What doesn't everyone have their mother-in-law, fall and break her arm, sewage backup in a blizzard, Christmas, and Nana in the hospital, brother-in-law's dad get an 80,000 lien on his house from unpaid property taxes, and Christmas all in a month??? I don't ask, because their next question is.. "Why do they all call you?!" I don't know, they just do. My mother claims it's because I'm the "Family Anchor", I say S*%T rolls downhill.

On the bright side I got a little knitting done last week, my cabled cardigan is almost done. Just needs seeming and buttons. I'm not sure what kind of buttons yet so it's been put aside for a while. I had enough yarn to add a hood rather than the collar from the pattern and make the length 30 inches, I like it a lot. I made it from Classic Elite Wings, my favorite yarn but it's discontinued. I got this charcoal color for 15$ a bag two years ago (yes a BAG of 10) when they had the huge 5th floor sale at the outlet in Lowell, MA. So I made a wool/silk/alpaca hoodie cardigan for 30 bucks ... beat that bargain hunters!

I also got a new sock book from winning a contest in my Knitter's Tea Swap. The post office did something too it, it was way late the the package looked like it took a brief tour through Iraq. It survived mostly in tact save a couple coffee stains but who cares I like the patterns it's a very cool sock book from Sirius Knitting. Thanks!

My next project is underway, I'll get photos up when I'm a bit further along. It's a bulky weight afghan for hubby who swears all the ones I make are "too short". Well I'm a foot shorter than he is so I think they're just fine but he wants one for just him. I took him to the store with me so he could pick the colors for his "Manghan" and we ended up with dark brown, tweeded hunter and tan. It's a striped pattern done in blocks so it looks like a Roman Steps quilt. He always picks something I'd really rather not do like sew a billion blocks together. It won't kill me and it's bulky so it'll go fast. One picky remark though and he's getting a wifey smackdown.

The End is Near

2007-11-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

Just a couple more things to be knitted before Christmas. Mom decided that my niece and the puppy needed matching sweaters for Christmas. This is the final proof that she's finally become "that crazy old wop" she always poked fun at. It happens to all Italian-American women as they age. It starts with wearing increasing amounts of jewelery and ends with wanting to dress your grandkid and your dog in matching sweaters. Time to move to Arizona with the rest of them, Mom. They even have Dunkies out there just for the old New Englanders.

What actually making the sweaters says about me I'm not quite sure, but hubby is scared. I think it says I didn't want to argue with mom about how freaky it is to dress them both the same. My husband fears it means I've started down the path of "that crazy old wop" a little early in life. Mostly I had a lot of yarn left and why not make Mom happy on Christmas.

I'm also almost done the Christmas shopping. Just a couple more people and some gift cards to pick up. I try every year to be done by Thanksgiving, I can usually make it. I'm one of those people who starts Dec. 26th for the next year. Why? Because I'm damned cheap.. umm frugal, OK poor. Not like living under a bridge poor but like most everyone else lately every buck counts. Plus there's a certain satisfaction in finding a bargain and we have a pretty big Christmas list. Also, I make a LOT of gifts and i like to keep everyone kinda equal. I can't make something for just one person, it doesn't seem fair.

I never suffer the "oh s*%t I need to bring a gift" crisis. I have a whole closet full of goodies I can tap at a moments notice. I've bailed out a lot of family members with my "gift closet" over the years. There's always some last minute event or invitation and you really ought to be bringing a gift. I dislike regifting so I have my closet.

We don't really regift in my family, we kinda have a grab party. This is the result of having a lot of educators in the family. When you teach you get a LOT of little gifts at the holidays. We usually open them "shower style", one person opens while the others catalog for thank you notes. There's usually doubles or triples of a lot of things and the whole family enjoys them.

While I'm on the subject of teacher's gifts, and because it's my blog, I'm taking this opportunity to offend a lot of people by saying WHAT HE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU INGRATE CHEAPSKATES?! Seriously, I was reading Consumer Reports about average holiday gifting/tipping and the people you entrust with your kids rate lower dollar wise than your dog groomer and hairdresser? I was at a craft show once, in a very affluent area, and overheard someone say they didn't want to spend 25$ because it was only for a teacher. I about dope slapped the woman. Here's the thing, teachers make NOTHING compared with equally educated people in other fields. Out of that pittance a lot of them have to reach into their own pockets for class supplies or go without. Show some appreciation! If you have money to spend at the holidays try spending some of it on the people who deserve something nice for the holidays for sacrificing all year for the good of YOUR kids.

I'm not talking about people who don't have much money or are hardcore poor. Believe it or not they are the most generous with what little they have. They appreciate the teachers far more than the snotty folks with the bucks. I've seen both my mom and sister brought to tears over a small 3 dollar gift or a handmade card with some homemade cookies from a family with nothing simply because of the appreciation it shows when money comes so dear. I've also seen the same 3 dollar gift come from a VERY WEALTHY family and what does that say about how much they think of an educator. Priorities people! This is another example of why I didn't go the family route of education, if I want to be taken for granted I stay home with my family =)

Strike! Strike! Strike!

2007-11-08T08:55:00.000-05:00

Three cheers for the WGA, leading the way in getting everyone paid for new media! The studios make money off it so should the people who did the actual work. Lets hope SAG, AFTRA and the DGA follow.

I've seen a lot of stupid *^%$ on the web this week about this strike. Someone actually put on a blog that if this strike messed with "Lost" they were gonna thwap Tina Fey with a strike sign.... I only have one thing to say to people of that mindset and it's not for polite company. You get paid for your labors so should people in the media. TV beams into your little rikki tikki brain for free 24/7 how dare you presume to comment on what a writer or anyone else should make for putting there, ingrate!

There are very few secure jobs for writers, a lot of them are one shots deals or freelance and even if you have a regular gig there's always cancellation. Residuals pay the bills folks. They pay for insurance, heat, food, retirement and everything else the rest have to pay with your weekly check. The studios make a ton of money on DVD's and new media they just don't want to share. There's more money in the DVD's than box office now but they want to pay the same and keep the rest for themselves. If your boss wanted you to do more work but not give you more pay you'd tell him to go sit on something sharp. Same goes for the writers, their work is being used in all sorts of new media but the studios don't want to pay them for it.

For those of you who are of the opinion that "they're just writers, anyone can write a crappy TV show"... TRY IT. Go ahead, give it shot big mouth. There's a reason Hollywood is coming to a grinding halt without the writers, they cannot be replaced. Writers create the characters and stories you all are so addicted to and it's hard work.

You want your TV back? Call or write the studios and tell them to give the writers what they want and deserve. In the meantime, go buy a few dozen box lunches and deliver them to a picket line. To those of you who can't appreciate the work of the writers and see the validity of their demands.... bite me you deserve a bunch of reality and game shows.

Stormy Saturday

2007-11-03T15:10:00.000-04:00

It's cold, wet and windy here today. The remains of a hurricane are moving through coastal New England but it's a good excuse to cook and nap the day away. Lucky for me my Brother-in-Law brought down our share of the side of beef we got from the farm. If you've never bought meat farm-fresh, you ought to try it. They're from small farms not giant corporate ones. You know who is slaughtering and cutting your meat, their family eats it too so they have a vested interest in cleanliness. You pay by hanging weight not cut, so while it might be per pound pricey for ground and chuck it's VERY cheap for steaks and roasts. The cows are free range and organic. They get to be happy cows while they're growing and you know what's being fed to them. The meat is cut and packaged to your specifications. Hate making roasts they'll grind them, want a prime rib they'll leave the bone-in, only cooking for 2 and they'll pack in small portions. We get pork this way as well.

One of the best parts of buying meat this way is you get EVERYTHING. That includes the fat, suet, organs and we take some of the bones as well. The organ meat goes to the old-timers in the family who have trouble finding heat and tongue nowadays. Grandma always wants the pig's feet, I say yuck but she's and old Italian and she misses having them. The beef suet gets rendered and made into some of the best soap on earth for hubby and laundry and the fatback from the piggies I brine into old fashioned salt-pork a must have for baked beans as well as lard for pie baking and soap. My sister handles the sausage making and does up some hot dogs as well. Waste not, want not is a big motto around here and there is something to be said for hanging on to traditional skills.

Now for what's in use today, the bones. I got a nice sack of meaty joints delivered into my hot little hands Thursday and they went straight into the oven to roast for stock. If you've only every had beef stock from the store, you have no idea what the real thing is like. Real stock makes a rich, thick and out of this world stew like nothing else. It's a little time consuming but worth the effort. Older cookbooks usually have stock making directions so go hunting at the library but it's pretty straight forward. Roast the bones and some onion, celery, and carrot. Dump in all in a pot with cold water and simmer for oh 8 - 24 hours and skim it every so often. Then you strain it simmer it and maybe repeat depending on how you'll use it. When it cools, if you've done it right, you have a clear, brown jelly-like substance that freezes well and has a million uses.

Today I made beef stew. Doesn't it look yummy? Real stock also has some extras that store stuff just can't say. It's fat free, you skim and skim and then when it's cool the fat makes a solid disk on top that you lift and toss. There's calcium and other minerals from the bones that we mostly take as vitamin pills. It's loaded with natural gelatin, remember that stuff they always told you to eat for nice hair and nails, it's in there. Plus it tastes wonderful. You also get the satisfaction of knowing you minimized a lot of waste and utilized every bit of the cow who died to feed you and your family and the knowledge that it was well treated before it hit your plate.

There's another recall from one of the super-farms today on ground beef. I never have to go hunting to see if something i got at the market is going to kill one of my family members. I know exactly where everything came from and who handled it. My suggestion, buy a deep-freeze for your basement or garage and try buying meat direct. It's well worth the time and effort.

Is it Friday Yet?

2007-10-31T21:22:00.000-04:00

Not quite? OK, I can make it couple more days. Hmmm I haven't posted in a week, let's do a quick recap...

I was supposed to sleep late, first time in months, my crazy grandmother let herself into my house to complain about dad and woke me up early anyway.

I went to a brutally SLOW craft show that went until 8pm, sales sucked.

I went BACK to the brutally slow craft show, it still sucked. Someone hit my van in the parking lot and left without leaving a note. They also screwed it up big time and locked the real wheels. I waited 2 hours in the dark and the rain for a tow truck.

The final day of the craft show, it still sucked. I dropped mom off at the airport before I went in the hopes that she could find a van to get all dad's stock home. Mom got lost on the way to the show, I threw my phone at a policeman and said she was driving me insane. he calmly gave her directions. I gave him free stuff because he was so nice and putting up with wrong-way-mom is so NOT in his job description, he tried to refuse, I insisted. Some F*&$%#G A^&U&%E ripped some poor woman's rear hatch off in the parking lot because he was too stubborn to wait 10 seconds to leave. He laughed when he got out of his car and everyone had to wait while the police took a report. I yelled at him for being a subhuman, empathy lacking, self centered, waste of carbon. We finally got to leave the craft show. The Red Sox won the World Series.

I did the receipts for the weekend. Had Chinese food for dinner, I was too tired to cook.

Had my niece overnight so my brother-in-law could surprise my sister with tickets to a show. We carved a pumpkin and she had too many bubbles in the tubby. She went to bed without too too much fuss. She slept straight through the night.

Halloween! My niece loved her fairy princess costume and handing out candy. We gave out giant pixie sitx, I think some parents stole them from their kids. Some parents know no shame and asked for one too, it was fun. My hubby followed my niece, sister, mother and Tilly dog all over the neighborhood with the video camera. Everyone's exhausted, and happy.

Soon it will be Saturday, I will have a day off. My brain will work normally again.

The Good, the Bad, and the @$^&%#* Dog

2007-10-25T23:49:00.000-04:00

First the good, I got my goodie box from the Knitters Tea Swap yesterday. Just look at all the goodies Sarah in AZ sent me. There's coolest sock yarn, it's brown with blue, pink and orange and it self stripes in a trippy pattern, I love trippy socks. She also sent me a set of DPN's , a vanilla lip balm tin, two different organic teas, Raspberry and Black Chai, a little round tin of pomegranate green tea perfectly purse sized and that's just where it's heading. There's also snacks, Walkers shortbread, lemon cookies, a tin of spiced caramels and a roll of gummies for my niece. There was also a beautiful set of stitch markers with turquoise beads and a new knitting journal. I feel so special, thanks again Sarah!

Now, the bad, I broke 8 of 10 fingernails today cleaning the stove. I HATE breaking them, they never get really long but at least I can usually get them about a 1/4 inch past my fingertips. It's just annoying that I'm the ONLY one who seems to clean around here. On the bright side the stove is shiny and like-new spotless, at least until morning when someone burns something again.

Finally, the @$^&%#* dog, she ate ANOTHER set of DPNs that makes 5. There must be something about the bamboo Crystal Palace uses because those are the only needles she touches. Never ones of birchwood and never the rosewood ones. They're starting to wonder at the LYS what the hell I'm doing with all these sets of 2.5mm DPNs. I'm going to have to talk to the vet about some new training methods because Tilly isn't catching on, TO ANYTHING. Maybe it's Bichons in general or maybe, and this gets my vote, Tilly is just STUPID. We had a dumb dog once, really dopey, but at least she wasn't destructive. She keeps doing the same things over and over. She's a puppy, yes, but that excuse only goes so far for so long. Perhaps she needs a formal puppy school over Christmas vacation, it'll be the first time we've ever had to resort to that but I can't take too much more.

Just to end on a happy note, look at the photo my sister sent me. That's Chaos the kitty meeting dinner shortly before it hit the pot. For those of you away from the coast a 3 1/2 lb lobster is a big'un and I should note that cat weighs a good 15 lbs. He's not chubby either just HUGE, bigger than the dog. He's better at playing fetch than she is too, yeah cats can play fetch, they just want to fetch balls of yarn.

Socks, Socks, Socks

2007-10-23T08:51:00.001-04:00

The last of the Christmas socks for the nieces and nephews is DONE! That makes 15 pairs so far this year into the stash. The socks for the boys as always get an easily replaceable afterthought heel. You can see in the photo what it looks like after I've removed the waste yarn and picked up the live stitches.

I still have a couple things left on my list to knit but I've got 2 more months so I should be OK. I want to knit a sweater for my 2 yr old niece. Baby ones are fast, so that should only take a week of evenings. A dog sweater for Mom's Bichon, also a quickie. Last but not least, more felted catnip mice for my sister's three cats. They LOVE the felt catnip mice. It took them all year to rip the heads off last year's batch. I think it's because the texture of the felt is pretty close to the texture of a real mouse but I'm not going to check. Is it sick that I feel bad we didn't get any field mice in the house this year for them to hunt when they visit? They just look so proud when they catch them and present them, it's adorable.

We'll have them a couple weeks this winter while my sis and her hubby go on vacation. Amazingly, they adapt well to switching houses several times a year. Hopefully the dog we had to put down's smell is out of the house now. Last time kitties came to visit one of them spent a week sniffing and mewing in Roo's usual spots. He didn't understand where she was, it was really sad. Odd though, he's the cat who always messed with her and he was the one to really missed her most.

It will be fun to see the Bichon put "back in her place" by the female cat. Kitties have their favorite perches at this house and they decided last time that this new interloper was a little big for her britches. Acadia is phased by NOTHING. She has her favorite perch on the back of the sofa to look out the window and no puppy is going to move her. Last time she was in her spot and Tilly was right behind her barking up a storm and got NO REACTION, not even a glance of acknowledgement. Not too many cats are stubborn enough to ignore a barking dog 6 inches behind them, Acadia she's gotta set of brass ones. Also Acadia loved Roo, she even slept with her doggy cousin at night when she was down here and I don't think she was happy Roo was gone and there was a new, and annoyingly loud, puppy.

My First Sourdough Rye

2007-10-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

Isn't is beautiful?? It's a pumpernickel rye and next to it is a plain sourdough sandwich loaf with some cracked wheat for crunch. I love sourdough bread and the idea of using the little yeasties that are floating around naturally. My last starter died from some too curious person messing with it in the fridge but I got a new one last week. After a few feedings I was ready to go.

Rye breads have always given me problems, bad rise, bad texture, less than RYE flavor but I was determined to beat it. The first loaf was a disaster but the second one, traditional shape was good enough to be eaten in two days by the family. This one is sandwich shaped by request and I think it's just lovely.

I started the sponges last night and let them go through the first rise during the Red Sox game. Once I got them shaped and into the pans I covered them and stuck them in the fridge over night to really slow down the second rise, it's supposed to make the bread even more sour. I let them come to temp for a couple hours on the counter this morning then into the oven they went. I was surprised now nicely the rye loaf rose. I'm thinking the fridge trick might be part of it but more experiments are required. Meanwhile I finally got a good rise out of a rye and a sourdough one at that so I'll be doing the happy bread dance for the rest of the afternoon.

It's Almost Halloween

2007-10-21T00:20:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh, a weekend off, nice weather, a Red Sox win, and shopping... what could be better. I gathered the rest of the goodies for my swap today, it was fun. Just have to wrap them and mail the box-o-goodness.

I was at the Classic Elite factory store today and I brought a treat to my niece on the way. Yummy gingerbread muffin, she was very excited. She's NOT spoiled! We're trying to teach her to say "trick or treat" there's not much time left before Halloween. Her costume is all finished just have to finish the dog's, she's going trick-or-treating with her. They're so cute together.

I got my huge box of stuff from King Arthur Flour Thursday. I made my first loaf of pumpernickel bread. It came out great and it's almost gone already. Everyone wanted sandwiches for lunch and supper. I'm going to try to make a sourdough version tomorrow. My new starter is bubbling away happily. It's had three feedings since I got it so it should be good to go. It was so satisfying to toss a ton of old pans. Anything not going to AZ with the parents when they move is now fair game. A little at a time it should be manageable. I don't want to end up renting a dumpster when we buy the house because they've gone and left behind 40 years of junk even they don't want anymore. I come from a clan of packrats.

Tomorrow is for sewing and baking, at least until the baseball game. Then it's snacking and relaxing. I can only hope that if they win they don't tear the city apart. People up here get a little nutty with the Sox. OK, they get a little nutty and a LOT DRUNK. Hubby has to drive into Boston Monday morning for work and I don't want him to have to sit in traffic and take 8 detours because the city's turned into a cage-free zoo of drunken primates. There's been some bad incidents over the years, it's like the Darwin awards.

Boston is weird. New Englanders are weird. I noticed something tonight that outlines the weirdness. All popular songs about Boston are about how Boston sucks. Who celebrates suckage?? We do! Two glaring examples are 'Dirty Water' and 'Charlie on the MTA'. Every Red Sox game they play 'Dirty Water' and everyone sings. No one notices they're singing about how famously nasty and polluted the Charles River was, still kinda is, but it's better. Yay everyone sing a song about swimming in a sewer!! Gross and ... well weird.

'Charlie on the MTA' is about how some poor working stiff has to stay on the train forever because the rates went up after he boarded and he can't afford the exit fee. Seriously, they're celebrating that it's painfully expensive to live around here. Think that's weird?? Try this. They finally went from tokens to swipe card passes for the trains and trolleys and they call them CHARLIE CARDS! Right on the front is a drawing of good ole Charlie who's been on the freakin' T for about 60 years now. Weird.

Combine this mentality with Boston being the only city where you'll get directions that include the words "take the illegal left turn..." and you get a taste of what it's like to grow up here... and why people so passionately LOVE growing up here. We're weird. it's fun!

Mutts and Moms SUCKS!

2007-10-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

Anyone who would take a dog away from children needs a serious dose of empathy and common sense. All this BS about not giving small dogs to small children and having to return a dog to a rescue rather than finding it a good home where you can still visit just rubs me the wrong way.

First off small dogs and small children get along great same as big dogs and small children. Kids and dogs go together. My mother's Bichon puppy and my 22 mo. old niece are inseparable all day. Yeah, there's a learning curve. Tilly needed to learn not to nip Tala and Tala needed to learn not to pull on Tilly's ears, took a week of extra monitoring, not a huge investment. Now, they watch out for each other and share everything from binkys to lunch.

When Tala takes a tumble, as toddlers do, Tilly rushes to bring her toys, bottles, anything she knows Tala likes to soothe her. When Tilly's bowl is empty Tala has been known to try and get the dog food bag to fill it up again (I am glad she can't quite reach the water dispenser on the fridge). I once found Tala starting to swing from the drapes Tarzan style from the back of the sofa but Tilly was stopping her buy grabbing on to the back of her pants by the waistband and holding fast. Even at this young age they watch out for each other.

As for returning the dog to the rescue rather than finding it a good home I call BS on that. Their argument is that sometimes these animals end up back on the streets. If they gave the dog to someone who would do this, didn't they fail to find a good home in the first place? Anyone who takes the time and expense to get a dog from a shelter, go through the interview and application process should have proven enough trust to find a home for an animal should things not work out. Sometimes things just don't work out, particularly when there are already pets in a household. There's really no predicting it.

All the TV stuff aside these women are shrill and mean. I wouldn't trust anyone who would so strictly adhere to rules that they tear a beloved dog from children. It's damaging to the kids and to the dog. Aren't they supposed to be worried about the dog, at the least?

I've always had reservations about some of these private rescues as opposed the the local ASPCA or Humane Society. There is always a story about some woman who "just wanted to save animals" getting arrested because the neighbors couldn't take the smell and called the Health Department. Some of these people are just weird. They have so little in their lives, or worse a mental illness, that they exert control over these animals as a last ditch effort to salvage some sense of self worth.

Every dog my family has ever owned has come from the MSPCA or from someone who got a dog and couldn't keep it for whatever reason. They've all had very long, very happy lives, and I cannot imagine what I would have done had someone shown up at my door to take one of them because they were second hand. Someone probably would have gotten seriously hurt.

We just had to put down a dog after a wonderful 16 years and when we're ready my husband and I will be adopting another one. After seeing what these private rescues are really like, we won't even be considering a dog from one of them. We'll stick to the MSPCA and wait until there's a dog there that fits with our family. Maybe we'll just luck into one, like Mom's Bichon, she came from the dentist's office.

Bichons are NOT Purple...

2007-10-15T22:26:00.001-04:00

Unless they live here as best friend to a very sneaky toddler who's favorite things are said Bichon and the color purple. What's wrong with this picture?

Need help? Look closer. Yep that's a purple dog. Crayola marker purple to be exact. It's discovery what shortly followed by the words "Nana is going to kill you when she gets home".

Thing is, while Crayola makes a great product that washes out of most everything it doesn't seem to wash out of Bichon fur, which is more like hair. Very fine, very soft, usually very WHITE, and very dye friendly. Of course the dog doesn't care she loves the evil little monkey and any game she makes up. My niece doesn't care she loves the dog and purple so she's happy as can be. I don't much care, it's almost Halloween and well, it was kinda funny when it happened because it was really FAST and we were video taping the baby playing with the dog.
My mother, Nana to the evil little monkey and mother to the VERY EXPENSIVE dog that she dresses and carries around in a bag is MAD. Mostly because she just paid 75$ to have doggy groomed less than a week ago and now she has purple racing stripes.

The whole thing went down something like this. My husband says "lets tape them playing." "Look how cute." "They're best friends." "Is that a MARKER?!" "IS THE CAP OFF?!?!" "OH MY GOD SHE'S GOT PURPLE STRIPES!"

So really it was just another day around here in the bizarro world I call my life. Did I mention someone broke into my brother-in-law's car last night to steal ... wait for it... it's so strange .... a box of diapers! Somewhere in Lowell, MA someone took the time to steal a box of diapers out of the trunk of a POS old Toyota and left the stereo and anything else of value. Even the cop was confused. So if you ever park in Lowell don't leave diapers in your car. Heck, just don't park on the street in Lowell if you can avoid it, there's a gang of weirdos in desperate need of diapers roaming the streets there and the cops have no leads.

On the bright side my swap shopping is going nicely, got tea, got goodies, gotta plan to go shopping for the last few things I want to put in there on Saturday.

The Car Sold!

2007-10-11T11:30:00.000-04:00

Finally! I'm off shopping restriction! OK, not like a millionaire but I can have some fun money now. I have a list of things I want at King Arthur Flour, now that the cool weather is here I can bake bread again without heating up the house. Home baked wheat bread is soooooooooooooo much better than anything from the store, and a lot cheaper. You also get to put just what you like in a loaf as far as oats, seeds, and grains.

I've been dying for some new baking pans since I've yet to unpack most of my wedding gifts, yes 3 years later, and I've been using my mother's 30 yr old pans. If she would just RETIRE already and take Dad out west where he wants to be, I wouldn't have to share the kitchen and I could really unpack. My greatest fear is that they won't take all of their stuff with them when they finally go.

I think my mother is afraid of retirement, she's too used to having a secretary to clean up after her at work and, since dad got sick, me at home. Before that it was my Nana, I've checked, Mom's always been a SLOB, the clean gene seems to skip a generation. My parents have been married for almost 40 years and my mother STILL has stuff in her parent's garage. The sick thing? She used to tell us kids that it was our fault when the house was a wreck, and we believed her until college. Some people are just wired to put something down wherever they happen to be when they are done with it. There's something odd about saying to a parent, "you're not going to just leave that there are you?"

At least I get to do some shopping. I'm in a swap and I'm excited, picking out and packing goodies is a blast.

I Don't Like Being Serious on Here but...

2007-10-10T14:02:00.000-04:00

August 1939, prior to the invasion of Poland, Adolf Hitler said :

"I have issued the command -- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Not the Turkish Government
Not the ADL
Not President Bush
Not the US Congress
For this they should be ashamed.
FoxNews
Learn More

I Hate Frogging

2007-10-07T22:15:00.000-04:00

I gave up temporarily on my gloves. I got close to "done" the first one before I realized I need different needles. They're a hair too snug for my comfort on US 2/2.75 mm needles but they'd be too large on US 3/ 3.25 mm ones. Sooooooooooo I need the one thing I don't have US 2.5/ 3mm needles. I know Crystal Palace makes them but I'm going to be good and wait. I frogged the one I did already and I'll just put them aside for while.

I worked on my niece's Halloween costume this weekend. Isn't it cute? The hem is the last step on the dress and I made the wand today. OK, I put pink paint and glitter on a dowel but once I put a stuffed topper out of leftover fabric on the end it'll be a wand. I'll do the wings when I get a chance they're easy, make a casing and stuff in the wire.

I've been good about the not spending lately, that's why I'm waiting on buying needles. I'm doing a swap though, spending money on OTHER people doesn't count! It sounds stupid but hubby bought it so it's approved. I've already started gathering things up that are local and I'm trying to get hubby to grab some stuff at work if he can. He works at a VERY representative place to out locale so I'm crossing my fingers. I hope I get a swap buddy from far away, makes it even more fun. I love packing goodie boxes.

I have tomorrow free of the baby, YAY! School holidays rock for auntie-daycare, my sister teaches so when she's off so am I. I'm not complaining, I love watching the little monkey but I need a break, the terrible twos are getting to me. Friday I had to separate her and the puppy, they were fighting over a toy. There was ear and tail pulling, pushing and one little nip. Of course once they were apart they immediately started crying for one another. The baby calling out for the dog and the dog crying and howling.

I think I'll make soap tomorrow since I have the house to myself. It's been too long and I'm a little behind. Besides I want to make a few experimental batches before Christmas.

Who is Hurt by Bootleg DVDs and Illegal Downloads?

2007-10-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

Me! Yeppers me, me, me. I do not feel bad for Jammie Thomas, Fox News , not one little bit. Our heath insurance is going up again and the benefits are headed south. Why? Why else? Money.

Now before you say "it only hurts the big, mean, nasty record companies and movie studios" ... STOP, you're just wrong. You're wrong because of residuals and media unions. My husband is in one of the media unions and our insurance is through it.

Performers don't get paid just the day they show up, they also get income when something is aired, put on DVD or CD, or downloaded. It may seem small, and really the performers cut is small, but it adds up. This is how people can afford to live and maintain insurance between jobs, most media jobs are not 9-5.

I'm not talking about big stars. I'm talking about the work-a-day actors, voice actors and a lot of behind the scenes people. When someone gets income from a performance or residual they pay into a Health and Retirement program, Pension Fund, etc., just like most everyone else. So when you buy a bootleg DVD, illegally download something or otherwise steal media you aren't screwing the "big bad corporations", they already have plenty of money. You're screwing me and my family.

The less money everyone pays into the collective funds, the more expensive heath insurance gets for us all. It also gets harder to negotiate contracts for fair wages. These companies can cry poverty because of all the lost revenue and use that as an excuse to pay people less. Not everyone who works is radio, TV, films, etc. makes the big bucks, the vast majority barely make a living. They work for a union negotiated MINIMUM.

So the next time you see a folding table of cheap bootleg DVDs and CDs on the sidewalk do me a favor, don't buy one and call the cops. Next time you think it's not worth $1.99 to download a song you can steal for free, think about someone waiting too long to see a doctor because the co-pays went up again. Don't even get me started on the Chinese imports on eBay.

I Will Not Go to Classic Elite this Weekend!

2007-10-04T08:25:00.001-04:00

I will not go, I will not go, I will not go.... Once again the guy who was supposed to buy my old Ford Taurus failed to show up. I want to get rid of this car! Don't get me wrong, it's a nice car but I don't need it and I don't want to pay to insure and store it if it isn't getting used. I certainly don't want to shovel a spot for it come the snow. Plus I promised myself I wouldn't buy any yarn or new baking stuff until I sold it. If he doesn't show by Friday I'm giving to the next best offer, I'm tired of waiting.

I'm being responsible, it stinks. But the credit card is too high from 2 years of vet bills and medications for Roo, my poor dog, and it has to come down BEFORE the Christmas shopping starts. As much as I loved her I'm a little mad at her that she sucked all my money and then we had to put her to sleep anyway for the one thing we couldn't treat. Though you can't put a price on 16 years, yes 16, of love and loyalty. She was the best dog.

What's killing me is that I haven't been the Classic Elite factory in months. For those not from Eastern Massachusetts, Classic Elite yarns is in Lowell, MA, 15 minutes away from me and 3 blocks from my sister's house. They have a real factory store, in a factory building, you have to go in a freight elevator up to the 4th floor and the area is a little sketchy but ohhhhhh the prices. It's actually my closest LYS, I admit it, I'm spoiled. One and a while they have a sale, we're talking a long plus-sized cabled Duchess cardigan for 80 bucks kinda sale, shhhhh it's for one my sisters for Christmas. I once got a cone of Premiere, enough for a whole lace sweater for 11 dollars. I want to try the new alpaca sock yarn they have but I can't until the stupid car sells! Oh well patience is a virtue.

I think I'm loving these gloves I'm working on lately. I don't need another pair of gloves but the yarn just wanted to be gloves and the peacock iridescent beads match so well (they look much better than they photographed) I had to do it. Not too bad for a pattern I'm making up as I go. This time I remembered to take notes so the other glove will be the same for a change.

I Need to Find Family with Smaller Feet

2007-10-02T23:27:00.001-04:00

Enough with the men's size 12's! My husband has them, my nephews have them, and my BILs have them.

I finished these tonight. I like them a lot. This pair goes into the Christmas Stash for one of the nephews. I only have 1 more "must get done" pair then I can work on some "would like to get done" ones.

Tomorrow I'm going to introduce my niece to pumpkin carving. She's not quite 2 so no knives for her but I think I have a plan. I'm going to newspaper the whole kitchen floor, cut the top off the pumpkin, and let her have the scooping duties. She's getting to the age where she wants to help a lot and she can take directions now so putting pumpkin guts in a bowl should be just her speed. Hopefully I'll get some cute pictures to for my sister to send to her in-laws, they're so far away they only get to see the little monkey a few times a year. I'm spoiled I get to see her every weekday during the school year.

I Took a Weekend Off

2007-09-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

Finally, and mostly because I'm still a little sick, I took a whole weekend off. For me this is quite rare and I did cave and do a few hours of "work" but the rest of the time I did NOTHING. I even have tomorrow off as my sister took the day off and my niece doesn't need watching all day.

I think I'll work on her and the dog's Halloween costumes. They're both going as fairy princesses all in shades of pink. At least the dog is a Bichon, they're not "quite" as strange to dress up in a Halloween costume and for some reason they don't seem to mind wearing them.

The new sock pattern for my knit along group is coming out tomorrow but I can't play this time around. I'm broke for a while so no yarn purchases for me. I have other things to work on though so it won't be too bad.

My happy thought for the day...there's a new "American Dad" on tonight. I know it's crass, rude, offensive and juvenile but... that's why I love it!

All I want for Christmas is Lead Poisoning...

2007-09-27T17:03:00.000-04:00

No, it doesn't sound right to me either but today we have .... wait for it.... MORE RECALLS. Before that an apology to China!!

The devil you say, but it's true the big toy company said it was sorry, China, that you make crappy junk and are so irresponsible and uncaring to your own people and our children.

No, that's what they should have said, they mostly said sorry we made you look bad China it was all our fault please don't cut us off from the very profitable slave and child labor you got going over there. I am disgusted. I'm also boycotting and Christmas is coming, nuts to them.

Lookie, lookie, at what I'm doing instead. I'm MAKING a toy for Christmas. I found this old bag of plain wooden blocks ( made in Maine ) and I'm painting them with letters and stamping little puzzles onto them. Pretty cute huh? A couple coats of non-toxic, made in America, water-based varnish and they're all done. Guess what? My 2yr old niece won't know the damned difference and she'll still be happy with a new set of letter blocks. I'll know she can chew on them till her adult teeth come in and not drop dead or get brain damage.

Looks like we're all paying the price for outsourcing labor. Let's face it the toy companies don't really care, they care about getting caught. If they really wanted to know what was going on in those factories they wouldn't send Western clothed, English speaking, executives. They'd send native speaking Chinese "spies" unannounced and get a real look at what was going on in those factories, not the show they put on when the foreigners are coming to town.

OK, ranting over. Oh, and if you want to make some of your own wooden blocks go here http://www.craftparts.com/. They're in TX, they can tell you where EVERYTHING they offer was made, and they're wholesale. Get together with friends to meet the minimum order. Have a painting party. Just try making one gift this year, it's fun and SAFE.

Less Sick is Still Sick

2007-09-24T23:40:00.001-04:00

At least I'm getting a little knitting done between naps. This sock is a really simple one. Self striping yarn and around and around on the needles. You can see the contrast thread where I'm going to open it up for an afterthought heel. They're for my nephew and I use this heel on almost all the socks I knit for men. It can be ripped out and reknitted quickly when the inevitable hole shows up. Just a couple more pairs after this one and the socks are done for Christmas this year.

I Hate Being Sick

2007-09-23T20:42:00.000-04:00

I thought it was so cute when my niece wanted to share her soup with me on Monday. I feed her, she wanted to return the courtesy. Except, the very next day, she came down with one nasty cold. Tuesday I was OK, Wednesday I was fine, Thursday I chocked it up the seasonal allergies and Friday I was in denial. Saturday and today .... I'm SICK. I rarely get sick so I'm not very good at it. My husband has taken to chasing me with a ruler and the threat of a swat every time I dare get out of bed. There is just too much I KNOW isn't getting done while I'm down with a cold. I made a list, I hope at least some of it got done while I was napping away all afternoon in a NyQuil induced coma. At least I put some emergency meals in the deep freeze so I don't have to cook for at least a couple days. Leftovers will also be on the menu.

At least I negotiated some computer time and my knitting basket into my quarantine. Tomorrow I'm going to try the evil, yucky, burns your throat and nose, ginger cure. Tonight I'm a hot white needle tea and lots of lemon girl.

What Can You Do While the Cable Guy Goes Nuts?

2007-09-22T13:31:00.000-04:00

Well I made a whole hat. Yep, either I'm the worlds fastest knitter he took a REALLY long time. More like a combination of both. Took the poor guy 3 hours, 2 cans of Coke, 4 calls to the office and 1 attempt by my niece to trade her stuffed pig for his wire strippers to get the cable upgraded yesterday. Comcast, fearing Verizon's arrival in town, decided to offer everyone a bundle two weeks ago, our uber-cable package, DVR, phone and broadband for about 60 bucks less a month than we're paying now if we opted in for a year.

Of course being Comcast nothing went smoothly. It's not the poor installers fault, his work order was wrong and we have some funny old wiring plus we were only converting one phone line in the house to the broadband phone. I don't want to lose a land-line just yet and this seems to have thrown everyone for a loop, even though I went over it thoroughly with the girl who came to the door with the offer. Ok, I admit it I grilled her like a salmon, but I thought she got it in the end. Needless to say the poor installer who came to do the work had a hard day. He was very nice, very patient and I must add one of the best they've ever sent out here. I'm blaming the office for the snafus.

So what do I do in the meantime? I knit a hat from the new Fall Knitty. http://www.knitty.com I used some handspun from my stash and added a picot bind off. It went really fast I was surprised. I have enough yarn left to make a matching scarf in the lace pattern and maybe mittens for a complete set. It's all going into the Christmas stash. With 8 nieces and nephews, my sisters, their husbands, my husband's 4 siblings and their spouses it's a BIG stash by December.

Now it's time to see if I can figure out how to set the new DVR to record my anime tonight. Wish me luck.

Another Pair Finished

2007-09-21T18:34:00.000-04:00

Just in time for my weekend goal. Time to decide if I want to start the next pair or take a break with something easy like a hat. I like how these finished out but they're a bit fussy for a project that needs to be "completely" done at a specific time. They spent over a month in the "mostly" done category.

Guilt Free Pizza Dough

2007-09-20T11:55:00.000-04:00

A few people have asked for this recipe so here goes.

1 cup skim milk
2/3 cup water
2 tbsp dried herbs (I use 1 dried whole rosemary 1 granulated garlic, or use Westminster Whimsy Sundried Tomato Dip Mix)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar (you need this to help the dough rise)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast ( or 1 packet active dry, proof it first)
1/4 cup flax flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 to 2 cups all purpose flour

Mix together the milk, water, herbs, salt, sugar and flax flour. Add 1/2 the whole wheat flour and the yeast and mix well. Mix in the rest of the whole wheat flour. Add enough of the all purpose flour to make a soft but not quite sticky dough. (I use the dough hook on my kitchen-aid mixer on low for mixing and most of the kneading)

Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes or until supple and stretchy. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled 1 - 2 hours.

Cut dough in half and roll out each piece on a floured surface. Roll edges and pinch to make a raised crust if desired. Brush with olive oil and top as desired. Bake in a 475 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is browned.

Makes 2 - 12" pizzas
Careful with this one if you take insulin, there are a lot fewer carbs to jack your sugar and my dad bottomed out the first night I made it. His nurse LOVES this recipe though.

I make this once a week, it's WAY cheaper than delivery pizza and MUCH healthier. Most people won't know it's whole wheat unless you tell them.

Time to get ready for Halloween

2007-09-20T10:29:00.000-04:00

I love these shades of pink. What could be cuter for a 2 yr old and her dog for Trick-or-Treat than matching fairy princess costumes with sparkly wings. I think my niece is going to be thrilled. Sewing silky fabric is kind of a pain in the neck but it's a small project and it only has to be worn once so there's no need to be spot on perfect. I'd much rather make a costume than buy one that was made in China, who knows nowadays if anything imported for kids is safe.

The Christmas Knitting Goes on and on

2007-09-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

I've been working of this pair of socks for 6 weeks now. I keep putting them down and making other things. They're not particularly difficult or frustrating, maybe I need to work on something more mindless for a while.

Between the first and second sock, I made 2 other pairs and a hat. Perhaps it's the coral color, it was nice in the Summer but now I'm more interested in warmer Fall tones. I'm determined to finish them before the weekend.