Ken always liked a deal. I also like a deal. Within a couple weeks two places have offered yarn discounted at 50%! That is a deal. And I took advantage of it, and bought several skeins of Merino wool for projects. When Ken was alive he held skeins so I could wind balls. Now he is gone, and a friend showed me her basic swift and ball winder. …
I love soup. Since Ken’s death I like making batches of soup. I can heat up a bowl and return quickly to the task at hand. Last Tuesday I made three batches: squash from a bland squash, cream of broccoli from some broccoli on the edge of freezer burn, and some chicken wild rice. Today it was lentil with onion, tomato, bell and hot pepper, carrots, and soup stock
During Wednesday’s sunny weather I sorted wood. Friends had cut 40″ wood to shorter lengths that would fit in the cook stove. It isn’t an even division, so I sort longer (but short enough to fit in cook stove) and stack. I am on the second rick of that wood. Short pieces go into bulb crates and come into the house for burning. I filled not …
We all have reasons to feel grateful. Best Wishes.
Well, it began this morning and before I did chores I ran upstairs to get out the blaze orange. No, I don’t hunt; I wear blaze orange to avoid being shot. There are conscientious hunters and there are drunken idiots out there. And this year I am not up to posting or policing. I started with Oscar. It is tough on a dog when 355 days in a year he is encouraged to roam and …
Before I left to visit my parents, I had been doing winterizing tasks to keep heat in the house (plastic on French doors appears as an earlier blog post). The last task was getting the hard sheets of plastic to act as a storm window over the screen door. So I got out the screw gun and a step stool and went to it! Done!
Since Ken’s death I have been cleaning, sorting and clearing. As I planned to visit my parents, I decided to skip to the top floor and clear a nice space for my farm sitter to sleep. The area was all torn up as I had given away a queen sized futon from a double bed frame (it was as Garrison Keillor would call it a deep valley bed). When friends took the futon, they offered …
Thursday was Ken’s birthday. It was a tough day for me. As I have said often this year, the firsts and the lasts are the most difficult: the first time I do something alone that we had done together for decades, the last time I eat something Ken grew or raised for example. Thursday I was coming home from visiting my parents. It was so good to see them. There was much …
Friends have been helping me cut wood for this winter – and maybe winters to come! When Ken died there were several piles of wood split and cut to 40″ for the side stoke holes on the wood pottery kiln. I had never used a chainsaw. Ken had bought a small one for me, but I couldn’t start it; Ken would start it and then use it… Since 40′ does …
Years (decades?) ago, Ken put wires in the concrete basement floor for in floor heat. It was wonderful, but like all the wire in floor heat we have heard about, it died mysteriously. And no one wants to hammer up the concrete. So last winter after Ken’s death I was completely dependent on wood heat – no back up. But I started planning and asking around. I decided off peak electrical heat storage was my …
