To The Rescue

Today as we were leaving our weekly Guild get-together Lupe got her car stuck. She was having trouble reversing on the slippery ground and tried to drive forward with her front-wheel drive Prius but the field in front of her was a marsh. Her front tire and bumper sank in the soft mud.

 

She contacted her Roadside Assistance Service to get a tow (declining my offer to call AAA). After waiting an hour - and two follow-up calls from Lupe - the Roadside Service finally said they didn't have anyone to send and were probably not able to send anyone for another two hours or so.

Lupe called her husband and I was calling AAA when The Man called and said he could stop by. 

Lupe cancelled her Roadside Service request and let her husband know he didn't have to drive out to help her.

She was deeply stuck and the 2001 truck did not like having to work so hard but The Man and the old truck got Lupe out of her muddy mess just fine.

 

 

 

While we were waiting Lupe said, "Cat. A cat got a ground squirrel." I looked out the door and we watched a bobcat walk by with a ground squirrel in it's mouth. It walked in front of her car and disappeared in the fallen pine tree lying next to her car.

I told her if I had seen it first I would have been more excited and she said, "I just thought it was a big cat till it got closer".

Point Taken

The Man has reminded me a couple of times that I'm not closing the door from the garage securely and I'm letting cold air in.

I see his point.

One Hand Mitt

I lost one of my fingerless mitts somewhere by the fallen oak branch and although I retraced my steps I couldn't find the missing mitt.

I knitted Clara Parkes' Maine Morning Mitts ages ago. The one I lost had a hole in it but I still wore it especially while doing chores down at the Pen.

I have work gloves I can wear but I like having my fingers free.

 

 

Our weather forecast is calling for another week of rainy weather. I think I need to make another pair of mitts, pronto.

If need be I can make do with knitting just a single mitt.

 

Cold, Wet, and Mild

 We woke up to snow on the ground.

Then it rained.

 

Jack and Zeke

Boots

Bitsy

 Then the sun came out.

 

So we headed outdoors to bask in the sunshine.

A Drizzly Rain

It started raining last night and it's still raining. Although it's been mostly a gentle rain it's enough to make the goats miserable. They don't like to get wet.

 

 

 

 If it's not raining too hard the goats will venture out into the rain, as long as I'm with them.

 

Weirder Weather

Only the second month of 2023 and the weather keeps getting stranger.

January's rain created torrential flooding and made our road impassable - no way in, no way out - which we discovered when we tried to leave for an appointment.

 

January 9, 2023

And, for February, this morning's early rain quickly turned to snow. Such a rare occurrence it was amazing.

 

6:40 am

 

 

 

7:39 am

The weather cleared by 9:00 am and although the sun came out our high was 47°.

By early afternoon the goaties were done with the cold and just wanted to go to bed.

 

2:49 pm

Like It Never Was

 

 

 

 

A Cold One

I asked The Man to bring up more wood to the house. Earlier in the day he had already stacked two rows and a full wagon but I didn't think that was going to be enough.

There is a Winter Storm a-brewing with the possibility of snow at 1000 ft elevation. We're at 1200 ft.

 

 

More Cake!

I had all the ingredients for Chocolate Olive Oil Cake by Deb Perelman aka Smitten Kitchen. I measured the dry ingredients by weight - because I'm fancy like that - made a cup of Keurig coffee and used apple cider vinegar.

I'm not a cake maker so I don't own cake baking supplies. I substituted a square 8x8 pan for the 9-inch round pan but tore the cake when trying to lift it with a pancake spatula. Oops.

 

 

Fortunately cake mistakes are still pretty darn delicious especially with homemade vanilla ice cream.

 

 

Happy Birthday UB and AL (thank you Charlene)

Safe

Yesterday The Man and I saw four coyotes running together on the ranch next door. At first we thought they were headed to the pond but the pack bypassed it and headed up the big hill.

Moments later groups of deer came running down the hill with the coyotes in hot pursuit.

Fortunately it's not fawning season so the coyotes were chasing deer with strong yearlings.

 

The big hill

 

Today I saw a group of deer grazing and lying about - relaxing - half on our side and the other half on the ranch side.

 

 

Except for an occasional and perfunctory chase from Mattie it's pretty safe on our side of the fence.

 

Road Trip

 

 

 The Way It Is

William Stafford

(1914 - 1993)

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

 

Keeping Tabs

Make Something Everyday - Make and Create - Made by Hand

Rigid Heddle Weaving - Tapestry - Pin Loom - Knit - Spin - Ply - Sew by Hand - Sew by Machine - Write - Draw - 4-Shaft Weaving - Design - Bake - Journal - Blog - iPhone pics - Jigsaw Puzzle - Explore Color - Cook - Sourdough - Yogurt - Handwritten Letters & Notes - Typewritten Letters - Paper craft - Fiber Prep

Yes, Yogt

I was able to gather a teaspoon of culture from Monday's batch for each half-pint jar. Processed for another 8 hours (not counting steaming and cooling down) and this is what Happy Yogurt looks like:

 

Note to self: Please try harder to keep your yogurt happy.

Pin Looms Collected

Speaking of Pin Looms, here's my collection:

Top row - Weavette 2" x 6", Weavette 2" x 4"

Middle row - Weave-it 4" x 4", Schacht Zoom Loom 4" x 4"

Bottom row - Miniloom in Maple 4" x 4", Traditional (3-Pin) in Cherry & Maple 2" x 2", Packing Fork in Purpleheart 2".

The last row of weaving tools are made by Bigfam15 on Etsy. They're beautifully-made and wonderful to weave with.

Cake!

Our Weaving Guild's Special Interest Group, "Little" Looms, meets once a month.

Today was Pin Loom Day.

Eighteen of us wove on an assortment of Pin Looms: Karen and I used my Vintage Weave-it looms, the majority in use seemed to be Schacht's Zoom Loom, and I saw one potholder loom as well.

Although the Pin Looms were great, the best part of today was the Black Forest Cake Nancy made to celebrate February Birthdays.

I didn't get a pic of the Pin Looms in action but I did get a pic of my slice of Cake!

 

Almost Yogt

I made yogurt today. Well, at least I tried to make yogurt today.

After eight hours in the Instant Pot, not even counting the time spent steaming the milk and then cooling it down, I produced maybe a teaspoon or two of yogurt floating in two pint jars of warm milk.

It's not the yogurt's fault. It's totally on me. I - er - may have neglected the yogurt since November. Yup, the poor yogurt has been sitting in the back of the fridge waiting to be fed and rejuvenated since November.

Luckily my yogurt is very forgiving and, like the last time I neglected it, I will take those precious teaspoons of culture and coax it along and make my yogurt happy and lively again.

Fly Away Fiber

Prepped some fiber today; sunny and cool with just a hint of a breeze.

I'm using this beautiful dyed fiber for the Pin Loom Project.

The fiber isn't the easiest to draft so to make it a smoother spin I fluff up the fiber on the Clemes and Clemes Lock Pop fiber prep tool.

 

 

I had to contain the fiber in a bag otherwise it threatened to fly away.

 

Rustic Mix

 Frozen Kirkland Three Berry Blend - raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries - defrosting (16 oz)

 

Experimenting with pie dough - Crisco (3/4 C) and Earth Balance Vegan Butter (12 tbsp)

 Potato and Leek soup (Talley Farms Fresh Harvest - 2 Leeks, 3 large Yukon Gold potatoes)

 Mixed Berry Galette with Homemade Vanilla ice cream (Homemade vanilla extract 1 tbsp)