Now, for something different

The last time I wrote, I was caterwauling about the constant snow dumping my area was experiencing. Well, we still are experiencing snow fall, but now the temperatures are warming up and we get to experience the joy of rain on top of the snow.

Seriously ...

The top topic in local news now is the potential flooding.  Well, not "potential," exactly.  We all *know* that flooding is going to happen.  It's just how quick is the water going to flow.

My husband is already making a game plan for moving water, once things start moving.

There is talk of rain today into tomorrow, with it gradually shifting over to snow. (Can you believe it?)

This past weekend was the first weekend with decent temperatures and beautiful sunshine.  I took my first walk outside in months.

Pictures really don't do it justice.  You can't see how high the snowbanks are.  The deer really struggle to climb through all the snow. The snow banks are taller than they are. 

What have I been doing in between snow cleanups? 

Well, I've been crafting, particularly this weekend.  I wrapped up a bunch of languishing projects and can check them off the list. 

Why haven't I been podcasting?  That's a fair question.  We've also been doing battle with cooties.  Each time I thought it would be a good day for recording, someone was home sick, or I wasn't feeling well.  Or, it was so darn dreary out, that I know the lighting wouldn't be very good.  

I've been holding onto everything I've been working on, and not sharing on social media.  I want to save everything for the podcast.  

Meanwhile, I am going to share a few homesteady things with you. 

What could we possibly be doing, you might wonder? 

Well, on March 4 this happened. 

Eggs in the incubator.  By the end of the month we will have babies. Pretty soon we should be able to candle them, and check for viability. 

This also means that once the chicks hatch out, no more sewing for me. Which is fine. ... I guess.  Sewing and quilting are the current hobbies I've been doing. 

We also have Shadow in the house.  I'm fairly certain she's pregnant.  I've been keeping an eye on her since her last pregnancy and she certainly looks pregnant.  She's also crabbier than hell, eating constantly and getting pretty chubby. When she wants more food, she throws her food dish around. 

One night, when my son checked on her, he said "How are you doing, girl?"  She threw a towel at him and hit him in the eye. Yeah ... 

I thought I had the timing right, but I guess I was wrong about the length of rabbit pregnancies. Another week, maybe?  In any case, she's in the house for a while.  Feffer has been picking on her a bit, so she needs a break from him.  In the meantime, I feel like I have the rabbit version of April the giraffe living in my son's room. 

All the other rabbits are doing well and thriving. 

The chickens are ready for spring, too.  They try to bum rush the door every time I open it to go in. The baby roos have officially reached manhood. They are busy trying to, *ahem* spread their DNA around.  Killer has finally realized there is more testosterone in the coop.  He's doing his best to keep them in line.  

So, in conclusion (ha, ha, ha) my life has been snow, more snow, cooties, hauling wood and crafting when I can, but not driving myself crazy about it.

Can we time travel to June?

I think my son said it best when he asked me tonite if we could "time travel to June?"

Snow. Then more snow.  And more snow, with some more in the forecast later this week.

The last few weeks I've spent a lot of time shoving snow around, shoveling it and clearing it away. I'm tired.

About five years ago, when we had a *really* bitterly cold winter, I had heard an interview of a WWII vet on a canning and preservation podcast. The interview was extremely interesting. It also gave me a whole new perception on what I would define as a "cold winter." The podcast can be listened to here.

As a result, I don't complain about the cold during the winter. At least I don't think I do. I'm very mindful of it. Anything I experience now cannot compare to what the soldiers experienced during that winter.

My biggest pet peeve, however, is the mailbox.

It snows.  I take care of the snow in the driveway, the front yard, etc., and the mailbox. Living in a rural area means we have our mailbox out on the road. It needs to stay cleared of snow so the mail person can easily drive up to the mailbox and be able to open the mailbox.  If it's not easy for the person to reach the mailbox, they don't have to deliver our mail.

So every time it snows, I go out and shovel out the mailbox.  I think I do a pretty good job, too.  I shovel out around the mailbox and move the snow at least three feet on each side. I shovel and push the snow off the top of the snow banks, so it doesn't get too high, and I still have a place to push snow to.

However, every time I've shoveled out the mailbox, within a few hours, the plow comes by and pushes snow right back in front of the mail box.

I feel like Sisyphus, rolling that *bleeping* rock up the hill, over and over.

*ahem*

This past weekend we spent some time doing snow clean up.  Or, as I sometimes like to think, my husband cleaned up my messes.

We also had a TON of snow up on the roof.  No kidding.  Hubby and my son went up on the roof and knocked some down.

So much snow ... Did I mention we have more on the way? 

Then I went around the house and cleared out the snow off the deck and the stuff that wound up in the driveway, along with the stuff that fell around the front stoop. 

Ohhhh boy.  I can't wait for this next round of snow. 

Episode 09 - Farewell to January

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell. 

It's been a few weeks.  Time seems to go by so fast right now.  

Works In Progress

Vanilla socks on 9-inch needle

Needles: U.S. 1 (2.5 mm)

Date started: Beats me. 

Yarn: Knitpicks Felici

Colorway: "Eclipse"

Crochet topped dishtowels

Started/Completed: January 2019

Hook size: G, 4 mm

Yarns used: Leftover Red Heart and Carons Simply Soft acrylics. 

In Stitches

Pat Sloan's Solstice MQAL from a few years back. I did my own thing with this idea/pattern/squares.  Made enough 12 inch squares to make a throw-sized quilt. 

Cross stitch

Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery MSAL from 2016.  The "Happily Ever After" sampler. 

Weaving

I've started two more tea towels. Not much progress since I've started. I have 15.5 inches on the first one. Using the same Peaches and Cream cotton I used in the first set I made. 

Books

Was listening to "The Cottage in the Woods," by Katherine Coville. I'm waiting for it to become available again.

Started listening to "The Dragon in the Sea," by Frank Herbert.

Next in the queue will be "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer. I forgot they made a movie!  I hope they don't wreck the story. Here's the trailer. 

I'm currently reading "The Big Kitty," by Claire Donally. It's a new-to-me-series. 

Coop news

One of the baby roos is crowing.  He's got a deep baritone crow. 

From the hutch

We have two new rabbits. Loki and Thor.  The dark female is Loki.  Thor is the tawn-colored male.  Both are very sweet. 

Nature notes

Sick of the winter and cold. I chat about the birds who are visiting the feeders. Deer know hunting season is over. 

Homestead news

More venison sausage. 

Barefoot in the Kitchen

Not a lot going on.  The day I recorded I made a batch of Pain au Chocolate and a copy-cat version of Pizza Hut deep dish pizza.  Both were delicious. 

I forgot about my Pampered Chef stoneware.  I'm making an effort to use it. 

Coffee talk

This is a sample of what I chattered about.

Watching plenty of tv while we wait out the cold snap. 

Rediscovered an old movie. 

I chat about what I've done on vacation.

My son's birthday. 

A quick little tea break

I've been on vacation for most of this week.  One of those "use-it-before-you-lose-it" deals. I'd love to be able to say I've spent all my days doing absolutely nothing.  Reality is I've been spending the days catching up on stuff and working on projects that have been lingering far too long.

Today I recorded a podcast episode.  I've got it compressed.  Now I just need to find a good time to upload it. Since the files are so big, they take a while and we use our internet pretty heavily.  I don't know if it will be posted this weekend or wait until I get back to work and use the faster internet there.

Anywho, I took advantage of today and made Pain au Chocolate from scratch.  I was fortunate enough to have bittersweet chocolate in the cupboard.

 

It turned out delicious!  I don't dare make this too often.  It's so filling.  It's been several years since I last tried making it. The cup is an early Valentine's gift from my DH.  He showed it to me, on a lark, and I asked him when he was going to order it for me.


Today turned out to be a gorgeous and frigid day. It doesn't seem fair that a day with a sky as beautiful as this should be as cold as it was today. It was nice to see some sun, though. We just had a snow storm in my area.  The sky was a weird grey before the snow hit.

 

I spent some time outside shoveling around the mailbox and making a trail from the house out to the coop.

The day wasn't all chores and baking. Today someone mentioned Roger Moore. That made me think of James Bond. So I watched Thunderball in the morning (Yes, I know that's a Sean Connery movie) and then I watched a couple Pink Panther movies in the afternoon, when I wasn't trying to be lazy and take a nap.

There was a surprise in today's mail.

A real honest-to-goodness letter.  I can't think of the last time I received a letter in the mail.  The letter writer has letter wax and stamps.  It's so fun to get a letter sealed this way. I'm excited to write back to her.  It's from a gal that I've known on Facebook for several years.

 

Things have been sort of quiet on the home front. Weather and vacation time hasn't helped much.  I've also been a bit brooding and in my head.  Lots of pondering going on.

Before I forget, I didn't mention this on the podcast.  I wasn't sure  if I wanted to share sooner or later, but last week I had a car accident. (Last Tuesday) Low speed impact.  I was driving to the village, and a deer came running down one of the side roads.  I saw it coming and hit the brakes.  Unfortunately the roads were slippery so I couldn't stop in time. The deer couldn't stop in time and nailed my passenger front quarter panel. The deer then jumped up and took off.  No chance of me trying to catch it. I felt a bit concerned seeing it take off, because I don't know what kind of internal damage it received.

This is my first car accident in almost 20 years.  So many close calls with the deer, living out in the county. It was finally my time, I guess.  Remarkably, I was calm and had no adrenaline rush, or nervousness. Probably because I knew it was inevitable that deer was going to crash into me. Acceptance before the event occurred, maybe?

Fortunately there is an auto body repair shop that is somewhat close to me. The car is going into the "spa" next Monday. So, it's been good that I have been on vacation and not needed to drive anywhere. 

Episode 08 - Getting back into the swing of things

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting and letting me chat at you today. Grab your favorite drink, and come sit a spell. I have a lot of crafty things to chat about. 

Works In Progress

Vanilla socks on 9-inch needle

Needles: U.S. 1 (2.5 mm)

Yarn: Knitpicks Felici

Colorway: "Eclipse"

Finished Objects

Crochet blanket
Started: Oct. 25, 2018

Finished: Dec. 2018
Hook size: 9 m.m.
Yarn: Red Heart
Colorway: Black and the "Favorite Stripes" colorway.
Crocheting two strands together. 

Vanilla Socks
Started: Around Oct. 22, 2018

Finished: End of Dec. 2018.
Needle: US 1, 2.5 mm 
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici
Colorway: Lost Lakes

Ashville hat (ravelry link)
Started: Early December 2018

Finished: End of December 2018.
Needle: US 9 needles 
Yarn: Knit Picks Brava bulky
Colorway: Solstice Heather

This was a test knit for my friend.  Proceeds from hat sales will go towards buying items for her angel bags, which go with the hats. Many thanks to my friend who sent me bulky yarn. 

Cabled Tassel Hat (link to Lionbrand)

Started: Early December 2018

Finished: End of December 2018.
Needle: US 13 needles 
Yarn: Lionbrand Hometown USA
Colorway: Azalea colorway

Still trying to decide if I should put a pom pom on.  Is one better than the other? 

Forbidden Fiber Co Mystery Advent KAL

Started: Dec. 2, 2018

Finished: Dec. 31, 2018.
Needle: US 7 needles 
Yarn: Forbidden Fiber Co DK weight yarn
Colorway: variety of colorways

I've spent entire days with this lovely draped around my neck. 

Yarn Talk
I got new ChiaoGoo shorties. There was a learning process for me. 

I also signed up for a year of BluPrint (Formerly Craftsy)

I got a weaving loom for Christmas.  It's a 32-inch Kromski Forte Harp. Thanks to my friend who sent me a warping peg. Major thanks to my husband for finding the deal of the year. 

My first project ended up being a table runner. I used Red Heart acrylics. 

My second project was a set of tea towels. Yarn used was Peaches and Cream dishcloth cotton. I don't know the name of the colorways. 

In Stitches

I got the itch to quilt. Two summers ago I started a quilt for my son. I completed it Jan. 12, 2019. Hooray!  My son is thrilled to bits with it and has slept with it every night. 

Here's the diagram my son made, to show where he wanted the different squares. 

Book Chat

I did finished listening to "The Rosie Project." Such a fun book!  

I'm almost done listening to "A Corner of White." This is my second time listening to the story. 

Coop News

Nothing too exciting going on with the girls.  They aren't too happy with the cold weather.

From the Hutch

News about Shadow. She's no longer itty bitty and sweet.  She's large and in charge!

Barefoot in the Kitchen

Not much has been going on in the kitchen. The busyness of the holidays has thrown me off kilter, a bit.  I'm slowly getting back into routine. 

I did make a banana cake recently.  Very good!  I got the recipe from Sugar Spun Run. 

I did make one modification to the cake recipe, and one to the frosting recipe.  I reduced the sugar by one-quarter cup. I do recommend using the tin foil, to prevent browning and drying out. 

This is the recipe, with my modifications. Follow the link above, to see the original recipe.

The Best Banana Cake

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter softened

¾ cup canola or vegetable oil 

1 cup light or dark brown sugar 

1/4 cup sugar

4 ripe bananas, peeled and well-mashed (this is about 2 cups mashed)

2 large eggs lightly beaten room temperature

¼ cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese softened

1/4 cup unsalted butter softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray or lightly grease and flour.  Set aside.

Combine butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric mixer). Beat until well-combined and light and fluffy.

Add oil and beat to combine.  

Stir in mashed bananas.

Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Gradually add to wet ingredients until completely combined.  

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake on 350F (175C) for 45-55 minutes* or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with few moist crumbs.  Allow to cool completely before covering with frosting.

Silky Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.

With mixer on low-speed, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined.

Add heavy cream and gradually increase speed to high.  Beat on high for 30 seconds.  

Spread over completely cooled banana cake.  Top with chopped walnuts (if using).  Slice and serve!

Notes

*Important -- keep an eye on your banana cake as it bakes.  30 minutes in, check your cake to see if it's becoming too brown on top (pay attention to the edges, if they're getting darker in color and pulling away from the edges), if so you may lightly tent with foil before baking the remaining 15 minutes.  I had this issue when baking in a glass dish but not in a metal one (which was opposite of what I expected).  

Nature Notes

It got cold out.

My Happiness This Week

Jayme Closs was found! 

Or, after almost two years, I finally completed the quilt I promised my son.  He's thrilled to bits with it. 

I lived in a snow globe

Around New Year's Eve/New Year's Day my neck of the woods had some odd January weather.  Temps rose high enough that we had some rain.  Then the temps dropped and the rain started freezing and gradually turned to snow.

I woke up to a winter wonderland.  Too bad hubby and I had to move all that blasted snow.  He did an awesome job clearing it away and making paths to all the necessary places.

It was something to go to bed with no snow on the ground, and to wake up in a winter wonderland. 

When I took a drive I randomly stopped and took some photos.

The weather is forecasted for another round of this rain/sleet-turn-to-snow weather again, starting tonite.

In other news, back to work went all right.  My first day back was a work-at-home day. That helped ease the transition back to work after more than a glorious week of vacation. 

I've been puttering around with my knitting, weaving (squee!) and quilting.  I thought I was done with all my quilting squares.  Turns out I need to make four more. I've trimmed all the squares done and sewed together all the pieces and rows that I can.  My hope is that I will get those last four squares done this week, and the entire top sewn together. Then I'd like to have it completely done by the end of the month.  Crud, I just gave myself a deadline. 

Sorry for being MIA

I'm sorry for being MIA and not saying a peep about it. Once Thanksgiving happened, life went crazy.  As it tends to do this time of year.

I know I'm not the only one who has life and routine go totally off the rail at the start of the holiday season.

And the time went so swiftly! It is sort of hard to believe it's the new year and 2019.

Wow.  It's 2019. *sigh*

This last week I've been on vacation with family and we've been running here and there, trying to take advantage of the nice December weather.

My boys have discovered ice fishing. I sit in the truck and knit and watch videos on my phone.  Until the weather got *really* cold.  Then I stayed home.

What to say ... so  many things going on.

We had a lovely Christmas with family on the Sunday before Christmas.  Christmas Day we had a meal at home, with just the three of us. My main Christmas gift was a Kromski-32 inch rigid heddle loom.  Can you believe it?  Never in my dreams did I think I'd ever want to weave.  Something clicked in November and I decided I wanted to do this thing. 

My husband found the loom for me on Ebay, for a really great price.  Felt like it took forever to finally arrive.  I've already made one project on it and I have a second project on it.

Here's Shadow, helping show off my first project. I'm amazed at how quick it goes. Naturally I did something wrong, and warped it backwards. ... Among other things.  But I took some time and fixed it.  It could be a small scarf, but I'm using it as a table runner.

 

Here's the warp of the next project.  I'm trying to take my time and do a good job.  I'm learning a whole new skill set, and a whole new vocabulary. 

My husband's main gift was an ice house for fishing, along with all the new toys, tools he needs to ice fish.  My husband and son have been spending a lot of time out on the lakes and they've pulled in some really big fish.  I don't have any pics on my phone, otherwise I'd share.

Oh, wait.  I do have one. ...

Anywho, tomorrow it is back to the grind.  I feel ready, so I know I've had a long enough break. You know how it is. I don't take enough time off and I get into burnout mode. Thankfully this year's Christmas break was a bit on the long side, so it was good. 

You'll have to excuse me, I'm writing a bit stream of conscious right now.  Knitting has been happening.  I did complete a few projects.  But I'm going to save that stuff for a different day/post.  I'm hoping to record another video within the next week, or so.  It's been well over a month and I think I could fore more than an hour easily with just the crafting stuff. 

I noticed today on Facebook that a lot of people were sharing their goals and resolutions for the next year.  I haven't done any of that stuff.  Mostly I'm just looking to get back into some sort of routine. I've realized that I'm a creature of habit and routine.  Anything that knocks my routine off kilter, and the whole ship goes down. 

Quilting!  I've been cranking along on some quilt squares for a quilt I promised to make my son ... two summers ago. I've got four squares left. I want to get that all together before it's time to start hatching out chicks. I'm not sure if I want to tie the quilt, hand quilt it, or try my hand at some sort of machine quilting.