Christmas 2017

It's 5:00 AM on Christmas morning.  I woke up at 3:00... I guess when you fall asleep in your chair at 7:00 PM. waking at 3:00 gave me 8 hours sleep.  I'm turning into an early morning elder...

This has been an interesting year.  Thankfully.  No surgeries this year.  No money crunches.  No car issues, house issues, pet emergencies... It's been a good year.

As I get older, I'm finding I "need" less.  And what I do need can't be bought.  Hugs.  Love. Smiles.  True friendship. Honesty & compassion.

We accomplished a lot this year, as I look back at it.  The garden didn't produce as well. But we did get some wonderful produce to eat.  Josh wants to leave the garden unplanted this coming year - work on building up the soil.

I didn't get into the "Christmas knitting" this year.  That was a relief, really. Some years I started focusing on gifts in October & finished in February.  That's a long Christmas.  This year, I made several batches of hats to send off, and now I'm working on a blanket for friend Lloyd.

We don't decorate for Christmas.  We're just not into it. 

I baked fruit cake, gave some away.  Lloyd & his brother brought over a pecan pie last night.  Looking forward to having some.  Josh & I processed some venison & made brats.  YUMMY.

Gardens, grandkids and crocheting

My son Joshua and I made a quick trip to East Ellijay, Georgia to pick up my granddaughter, Ariel.  She's 11 now, growing up fast!  She was 2 1/2 when John and I got together.  That first year we were together, we lived in East Ellijay.  Ariel's mom Tammy lived right next door and Josh lived next door to her.  We were all within shouting distance.  John's brother Jim and family lived a few hundred yards away.  Brother Joe and family lived across the street.  John's mom and stepdad lived just up the road.

Then we found our home in Arkansas and moved.  John had always wanted to live in Arkansas.  Tammy and Ariel came and stayed with us the first 2 trips we made out here.  Ariel came to spend the summer when she was 6 and 7.  The next 2 summers we weren't able to take her, but she's been here last year and this year.  Good memories in the making.

Who knows what we'll get into this summer.

The garden is growing, very weedy at the moment.  I spent 2 hours out there this morning and got 1 row done.  Here's what it looked like before I started.

I finished the crocheted baby afghan for my niece Tricia.  She's to have her baby in July. Raven, I believe is the name of the little one.  Now I have a birthday present to get done.

I also promised to finish a lockerhooked rug.  I enjoy making rugs.  But they do get hot and heavy after awhile!

A cool, foggy morning

We've had a nice week so far.  Mild temperatures get me in the mood for looking at seed catalogs!  What to plant?  We usually have garlic, onion, asparagus (not old enough to harvest yet), rhubarb, tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, cayan peppers, carrots, beets, turnips, collards, okra, musk melons, cantaloupe, Cranshaw melons, yellow squash,acorn squash,  zucchini, Jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers... A few years ago we also had popcorn.  That grew really well.

My friend Michelle and I took a day trip to Baker Creek Seeds last year.  Baker Creek Seed Company     That was fun!  I hope we're going to go again this year.  Michelle and her husband Jerry are coming to visit today, so I'll talk to her about that while they're here.

Here's a picture from a few years ago, just the harvest one morning.  Things were growing really well!

Here's what our garden looked like last spring when we plowed it, getting ready to plant.  This was taken April 10th last year.

My niece Tricia is having her second baby in July.  I've picked out the yarn and pattern I want to use to crochet her an afghan.  You can see it on Ravelry, link is here...  Tricia's baby afghan.  I've got to print out the instructions, then I can get started.  I love starting a new project!

Cricket and I took a walk down the hollow to the stream.  It's running, slowly but running.  This is the melt from our sleet/ice/snow storm earlier this month.  We're supposed to have rain this weekend.  That would be nice!

I spent part of the day burning leaves yesterday.  My back is aching today from raking!  I originally hurt my back while I was raking leaves, back in May 1999... and believe me, it really hurt!  I blew out 3 disks!  OUCH!  My back went POP! I fell down on the ground and just laid there for about half and hour before I could even try to get up.  That was the pits!

We're finally able to go outside!!!

It's been bitterly cold here in NE Arkansas.  Ice and snow on the ground, driveway frozen over... and overnight temperatures in the mid-teens!  Dang, this is the SOUTH!

We finally had a chance to get out onto the highway last Sunday for the first time in 10 days.  It's not that we NEEDED to go to the grocery store... but you have to replace what you consumed at some point.  So, when it got up to 30 degrees and the sun was shining we decided to make a trip to the grocery store (14 miles round trip).

What kind of things did we need?  Milk, half & half, dog and cat food, frozen burritos, potatoes, a beef roast, coke (for my hubby...), flour, juice, ice cream.  What we call "consumables".  Could we have gone another week without going to the store?  Sure.  Do I like putting canned milk in my coffee?  Not really.  I could.  But I'd rather have half & half.  Sure, I'm spoiled.  I admit it.

We're in the process of forming a Co-op group, to place an order for dried fruits, grains and such from Country Life Natural Foods.  Country Life Natural Foods  If you're reading this and live in our local area, let me know if you want to be involved.

I finally got a chance to take Cricket for a walk yesterday.  We walked down to the bottom of the hollow, on the north end of the property.  She really loves her long walks.

It was exactly 40F when we left the house at 4:15 PM.  We made it to the stream and back before sunset.  By the time we got back to the house, it was 35F.  The low last night was 34, the first night above freezing since 1/31.  That is really odd for Arkansas.  And now, it's supposed to warm up to 60 by Monday.  Very odd!

This morning, it's 36F and we're having drizzle.  I won't be going outside to play in the woods this morning!

I've been crocheting an afghan for my stepdaughter's partner.  It's going well.  I've got 3 more blocks to crochet.  Then I get to sew all the pieces together.  Fun!  I've been posting my progress on Ravelry, if you're interested... Circle Dance afghan crochet-along

Spending time indoors

The weather has been cold the past few days.  Since I'm spending all my time indoors, I'm working on finishing some of my knitting and crochet projects.

I finally finished my Year in Temperature scarf on Monday 1/19/14.  That was a project I'll never do again!  Too many ends!  One of the colors I picked ran out before I was done.  It was discontinued.  So I had to find a replacement - not easy!  The color I picked was very close to a color I was already using... and not to the one I needed.  Frustrating.  But, I finished the darn thing anyway.  I gave the scarf to our friend, Jerry Friend.  He loves it!

I saw that my cousin, Terry Knorr's wife Maggie was starting a new crochet project.  It's called Circle Dance.  There's a knit along group and a blog.  Very cool.  Since I need to crochet a blanket for my stepdaughter's partner Rickey I thought this would be perfect.  So I ordered the yarn from Knit Picks.com.  Knit Picks

I posted this project on Ravelry, if you're interested in following along.  My Raverly profile.  Here's the blog for this project.  Carolyn Christmas Designs: Circle Dance

Cricket and I went for a long walk yesterday.  We hadn't been walking the past few days because it was so cold.  We walked for about 2 hours.  It was only 35, but I bundled up.  She didn't seem to mind the cold, as long as we kept moving.  When I stopped, she whined and complained.  She sure is making me get in shape!

I've had Parkinson's now for 10 years...  and walking in the woods really helps!  I have to concentrate on every step.  All the rocks and downed branches/trees,  and holes make me really pay attention.  I think it's helping my gait.  I don't seem to hesitate like I was.  Or maybe it's just that moving so deliberately makes me feel less unsure.  I still can't run or jump.  But I can walk with confidence.  Once I start getting tired, I trip a lot more.  But I don't fall down like I did last summer when Ariel and I started walking in the woods.

Here's where Cricket and I have been walking.

The little pool at the bottom of the spring on the East side of the property

A cool pile of rocks on the NE side of the property

Michelle Friend, Cricket and I took a long walk on Monday morning.  Then our 2 families piled up in the living room, watched TV/You tube,  enjoyed food and conversation. I really like it when they come and visit.

Summer is here!

Well, summer is finally here.  We've been having hot weather this past week.  The high's have been in the mid to upper 90's.  It was 98 at one point in the day yesterday.  That makes for a lot of sweating!

John, Joshua and I spent some time talking with Ariel yesterday.  We all went out in the driveway and demonstrated many ways to actually start a fire.  She's 10 years old now, old enough to learn how to handle a lighter or matches safely.  She learned how to stack her tinder.  How to feed a fire.  How to restart a fire.  Build a fire bundle to take somewhere with her.  And most importantly, how to put a fire out.  We also made sure she understood that she should NEVER leave a fire unattended in the dry woods at this time of year.  Running for your life from a forest fire is horrifying!

I recently finished a crocheted baby blanket for my youngest niece, Felicia.  Her baby's due in September.  I made it from 100% pima cotton.  It washed up nicely, and should last the baby many years.

Crocheted baby blanket

I used Knit Pick's Crayon yarn.  It's a great yarn!  Too bad it's discontinued.  Oh well.  I have a pretty good stash of it, so I can use it for some time to come.

I've been teaching Ariel some baking skills.  We've made soft pretzels, strawberry shortcake, made some ricotta cheese and then baked whey bread and cinnamon rolls with the whey.  She's really liked them all so far.

We bought some fresh, dressed rabbit from a local lady on Tuesday and I made some fried rabbit.  Leftovers went into rabbit stew the following day.  Both were very yummy.  We still have another rabbit to cook and I think I'll try some hasenpfeffer.  Hasenpfeffer.

All the chicks that hatched 2 months ago have gone to their new homes.  We still have 2 bantam chicks and 3 week old RIR chicks.  Very cute, all of them.

Rhode Island Red chicks

Bantam chicks