Almost a month since the last post. It's hard to get into new habits. Now that canning is FINALLY over, we're getting ready for winter and settling in. The days are markedly shorter and definitely colder. I can no longer enjoy sitting outside on the deck. I'm trying to make myself do some sewing each night (and, of course, on weekends). I'm matching some of the gazillion 5" square charms that I have been receiving in swaps for the last year, as well as ones from at least 15 years ago, into HST sets, cutting them into triangles and sewing them together. I do the matching during my lunch hour at work (good light), then cut, then sew, press and trim to size. I've been doing these in batches and it's now getting difficult to find good matches. I may have to give this a bit of a rest while I cut something else out to sew together. Once I get sewing, it's nice to have some mindless piecing to do. I have matched some 4 and 5 sets into 9 patches. But, this is just leader-ender stuff. I've almost caught up on my bee blocks - one more September block to do, and then start on October's. I promised to do some Harry Potter paper-pieced blocks that are somewhat daunting, but I know they probably won't be as difficult as I fear. I just need to get started.
Fall is rapidly moving on to Winter - the trees were gorgeous for a very short while and are now mostly on the ground. Frost is present most mornings when we leave the house.
The 15yo has made it onto Student Council which he enjoys, so far. (I'm so very proud of him!) He seems to be keeping up with his homework. He is also in some demand up here on the Hill to assist in getting ready for winter. He's been helping Uncle A across the street put in extra insulation and doing lots of yard cleanup at home and at Grandma's. His language is terrible and he seems to think he can say whatever he wants. I usually yank him off of whatever game he's playing and send him outside when it gets too bad. Since the DF's mouth is at least as bad (and as uncontrolled), it's difficult to try to break him of the habit - although I blame the games mostly. I think some further emphasis on confession with Fr. A might be appropriate.
The 6yo is doing so well in school, too. He brought home a progress report of 100% and a spelling test with the same grade. AWESOME! He seems to enjoy his homework and is very diligent about doing it. His entitlement attitude seems to need some adjustment, however. He doesn't seem to realize how lucky he is to be living up here, to be surrounded by people who love him, to have all the toys and possessions he has, etc. He just wants MORE and throws horrible kicking fits if we don't react to suit him. The constant whining is very trying on the nerves.
Our very small house is going to get even smaller VERY QUICKLY as winter sets in if some of these attitudes aren't eased a bit!
So far, so good!
Oh, canning totals: 46 qts of tomato sauce (spicy and not), 8 pints of apple butter, 7 of apple plum jam, 9 of grape jam, 8 of apple raspberry jam, 12 lbs of frozen corn, 5 gallons of frozen tomato stock/juice. Have I missed anything?
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Here's to the birthday boy!
Whew, we've now made it fifteen years and counting! The brand new high schooler turned 15 years old yesterday. He's been looking forward to it for weeks. And, I have to say, it came off well. We had quite a crowd at our little bitty home - the four of us and about 7-8 others. For the first time, he had company near his own age at his birthday party and not all of them were cousins. We had his requested meal - spaghetti wtih sub rolls (I also added salad and garlic bread) - plus the birthday cake and ice cream. I thought, given the number of people and our tiny house, as well as the lovely day, that we should set up on the deck. We so and... almost everybody froze. Once the sun went down it was VERY chilly! I'm not used to the fact that it no longer feels like summer even if it is (barely) still actually summer. I've made a mental note to remember that for next year - birthday party must be inside because it will be COLD. All the boys, at least, seemed quite comfortable - mostly because they were either running around outside or inside playing video games. It was just the grown-ups who were shivering and, unfortunately, I didn't really realize it until too late because I was standing over the stove until time to actually eat.
(BTW, the spaghetti sauce was made fresh from the garden and was the reason I only canned 5 quarts of sauce this weekend.)
Anyway, that was yesterday's excitement. It was nice to visit with the relatives for a few minutes. We speak to them all often enough, but usually just for a particular reason, not so much to just chat and, well, visit. I enjoyed it. It was also nice to see the DF's good friend and his sons. I was very glad that my precious boy enjoyed his birthday and it was nice that he had a good turn out at such an important milestone. He certainly cleaned up with the presents!
Oh, forgot to mention, the DF was trying to get his rifle sighted in off the back deck. That was VERY loud, despite the wargame videos the boys were playing. He'd set up a target just past the apple tree and next to the lower field. It wasn't until I looked down at the target that I noticed an old door just standing next to the fence line, for all the world looking like it went somewhere. According to Grandma, it used to separate one enclosure from another back when the two fields were part of the old deer farm. (I'd forgotten about that, actually. I wonder if the fact that those areas used to be a deer farm helps account for either the obvious fertility of the soil where the gardens are and/or the fact that the deer don't bother the garden much? Hmmm...we still see deer in the lower field, but not in the upper one where the tomatoes are.) Anyway, the door looks to be an old storm door so you can see through it to the brush and woods behind it. Rather Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe looking, kind of... And, no, it hadn't been standing there all along. The DF was mowing and bush-hogging down that way this weekend and stood it up from where it had been lying out of sight. Perhaps the next time I'm picking down in the lower garden, I'll look more closely at it.
TTFN - :-)
(BTW, the spaghetti sauce was made fresh from the garden and was the reason I only canned 5 quarts of sauce this weekend.)
Anyway, that was yesterday's excitement. It was nice to visit with the relatives for a few minutes. We speak to them all often enough, but usually just for a particular reason, not so much to just chat and, well, visit. I enjoyed it. It was also nice to see the DF's good friend and his sons. I was very glad that my precious boy enjoyed his birthday and it was nice that he had a good turn out at such an important milestone. He certainly cleaned up with the presents!
Oh, forgot to mention, the DF was trying to get his rifle sighted in off the back deck. That was VERY loud, despite the wargame videos the boys were playing. He'd set up a target just past the apple tree and next to the lower field. It wasn't until I looked down at the target that I noticed an old door just standing next to the fence line, for all the world looking like it went somewhere. According to Grandma, it used to separate one enclosure from another back when the two fields were part of the old deer farm. (I'd forgotten about that, actually. I wonder if the fact that those areas used to be a deer farm helps account for either the obvious fertility of the soil where the gardens are and/or the fact that the deer don't bother the garden much? Hmmm...we still see deer in the lower field, but not in the upper one where the tomatoes are.) Anyway, the door looks to be an old storm door so you can see through it to the brush and woods behind it. Rather Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe looking, kind of... And, no, it hadn't been standing there all along. The DF was mowing and bush-hogging down that way this weekend and stood it up from where it had been lying out of sight. Perhaps the next time I'm picking down in the lower garden, I'll look more closely at it.
TTFN - :-)
Monday, September 20, 2010
Wow - I'm a blogger!
Well, I guess it's about time. I've only been reading other people's blogs for YEARS now. That's about par for my adoption of new technology - dip a toe in the water periodically for years before finally stepping in up to the ankle.
Anyway, it seems like a good time to do this. We've been up here for a year now, but it seems appropriate to catalogue the differences and keep some sort of record for what has been (and continues to be) a major change and learning experience. In addition, I'm suddenly (and delightedly) revisiting interests and skills that were in the forefront years ago, before more children, the reality of life and the necessity of steady employment encroached on my time. Namely, quilting and other "old school" crafts and skills.
Where to start? Just over a year ago we moved from inner city Richmond, Virginia to about as far north in Northern New York as it is possible to be without crossing the St. Lawrence into Canada. It's very rural and we live on a few acres at the top of a hill outside of town. To clarify: We're further north than Toronto, the nearest airports are Ottowa, Burlington VT or Syracuse (all a couple of hours away), and the nearest interstates are almost that far. We're on the northwestern edge of the Adirondack Mountains in one of the least populated counties in NY (there is only one city here - of about 12,000 people - and that's about 30 miles away as the crow flies but takes close to an hour to get there on our 2-lane back roads). Despite the isolation, however, there are 4 universities within a 20-mile radius of us.
Now that I no longer commute from one side of the city to the other to get to work, daycare, etc., there is more time to do other things and I have taken up quilting again. I last did so approximately 15 years ago and so much has changed that I hardly believe it. The internet and the various quilting blogs that I follow have excited such interest in projects that I shelved so many years ago, but would still like to do, and ideas for new projects that I can hardly wait to try. (Ooops, mis-statement, I'm not waiting for much of anything, I started quilting again just this past winter and how many new WIPs do I have now? Oh, yes, that number is 14!!!!) NOTE TO SELF: Striving for honesty and accuracy in a journal is GOOD thing.
Where was I? Oh, yes, quilting. Well, that is currently on hiatus as the garden is coming in now. This garden was an experiment. We had gotten used to our urban garden WAY down south. We heard tales of shorter growing season, deer and rabbit predations, too much rain, etc. So we dreamed big, planted smaller, did not fence anything and waited to see what happened with very little in the way of expectation. The locals laughed at the DF's tales of 6' tomato plants down south. HAH! We live on a hill ("The Hill" from now on) and drainage is good. Nobody's grown anything in those fields for decades. The deer (for some reason) don't like our tomatoes, (although they don't mind sampling the squash). We are on the DF's family land and the other houses on the Hill are inhabited by sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmas, etc., but most are older so they haven't utilized the local voluntary abundance very much in years and most has run wild.
RESULTS? I've made LOTS of pints of applesauce, grape jam, plum apple jam, and raspberry apple jam. I froze about 10 lbs of corn (OFF the cob). I'm STILL canning tomato sauce (past 30 quarts now and still counting) and making tomato juice. I've been picking 1-2 five-gallon buckets of tomatoes every 2-3 days. Some of the squash ran rampant, which I didn't discover until I tripped over a 5-lb zucchini and followed the vine trail to 3 more just like it. I also just found out that there are potatoes down in the lower field that I wasn't even aware of. At the moment, I'm looking FORWARD to the cold snap that's coming so I can STOP canning and get back to quilting!
Last but in no way least, the children I brought with me are THRIVING up here. (Alas, I left two grown children behind in the south.) The youngest started school up here, and the older has now started high school up here. They both have had opportunities to participate in summer and after-school activities that were not possible in our previous inner city setting. On top of that, there are trees and woods and a pond with fish just outside our back door. They live on the Hill surrounded by family, instead of inner city tenements, gangstas and drug addicts. The relief we feel for their sale alone at being up here is unbelievable!
So, now that I've started this project, I hope I'll continue and I hope that continuing will keep me working on others of my WIPs. There's too much going on to let anything slide for long and living the life we live up here is too marvelous not to enjoy it to the fullest and to memorialize it as best I can. So, ta ta for now. :-)
Anyway, it seems like a good time to do this. We've been up here for a year now, but it seems appropriate to catalogue the differences and keep some sort of record for what has been (and continues to be) a major change and learning experience. In addition, I'm suddenly (and delightedly) revisiting interests and skills that were in the forefront years ago, before more children, the reality of life and the necessity of steady employment encroached on my time. Namely, quilting and other "old school" crafts and skills.
Where to start? Just over a year ago we moved from inner city Richmond, Virginia to about as far north in Northern New York as it is possible to be without crossing the St. Lawrence into Canada. It's very rural and we live on a few acres at the top of a hill outside of town. To clarify: We're further north than Toronto, the nearest airports are Ottowa, Burlington VT or Syracuse (all a couple of hours away), and the nearest interstates are almost that far. We're on the northwestern edge of the Adirondack Mountains in one of the least populated counties in NY (there is only one city here - of about 12,000 people - and that's about 30 miles away as the crow flies but takes close to an hour to get there on our 2-lane back roads). Despite the isolation, however, there are 4 universities within a 20-mile radius of us.
Now that I no longer commute from one side of the city to the other to get to work, daycare, etc., there is more time to do other things and I have taken up quilting again. I last did so approximately 15 years ago and so much has changed that I hardly believe it. The internet and the various quilting blogs that I follow have excited such interest in projects that I shelved so many years ago, but would still like to do, and ideas for new projects that I can hardly wait to try. (Ooops, mis-statement, I'm not waiting for much of anything, I started quilting again just this past winter and how many new WIPs do I have now? Oh, yes, that number is 14!!!!) NOTE TO SELF: Striving for honesty and accuracy in a journal is GOOD thing.
Where was I? Oh, yes, quilting. Well, that is currently on hiatus as the garden is coming in now. This garden was an experiment. We had gotten used to our urban garden WAY down south. We heard tales of shorter growing season, deer and rabbit predations, too much rain, etc. So we dreamed big, planted smaller, did not fence anything and waited to see what happened with very little in the way of expectation. The locals laughed at the DF's tales of 6' tomato plants down south. HAH! We live on a hill ("The Hill" from now on) and drainage is good. Nobody's grown anything in those fields for decades. The deer (for some reason) don't like our tomatoes, (although they don't mind sampling the squash). We are on the DF's family land and the other houses on the Hill are inhabited by sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmas, etc., but most are older so they haven't utilized the local voluntary abundance very much in years and most has run wild.
RESULTS? I've made LOTS of pints of applesauce, grape jam, plum apple jam, and raspberry apple jam. I froze about 10 lbs of corn (OFF the cob). I'm STILL canning tomato sauce (past 30 quarts now and still counting) and making tomato juice. I've been picking 1-2 five-gallon buckets of tomatoes every 2-3 days. Some of the squash ran rampant, which I didn't discover until I tripped over a 5-lb zucchini and followed the vine trail to 3 more just like it. I also just found out that there are potatoes down in the lower field that I wasn't even aware of. At the moment, I'm looking FORWARD to the cold snap that's coming so I can STOP canning and get back to quilting!
Last but in no way least, the children I brought with me are THRIVING up here. (Alas, I left two grown children behind in the south.) The youngest started school up here, and the older has now started high school up here. They both have had opportunities to participate in summer and after-school activities that were not possible in our previous inner city setting. On top of that, there are trees and woods and a pond with fish just outside our back door. They live on the Hill surrounded by family, instead of inner city tenements, gangstas and drug addicts. The relief we feel for their sale alone at being up here is unbelievable!
So, now that I've started this project, I hope I'll continue and I hope that continuing will keep me working on others of my WIPs. There's too much going on to let anything slide for long and living the life we live up here is too marvelous not to enjoy it to the fullest and to memorialize it as best I can. So, ta ta for now. :-)
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