Hobbies

I have many projects in the works.  Today is a windy winter weather day so I will be flitting from one project to another amongst laundry and maybe cooking up some comfort food…chili and cornbread or soft tacos and a warm cheesy Italian sausage dip…decisions…decisions.

I need to weave in the ends of Harlow’s blanket. He is a month and two days old so he can still use a blanket!   I finished crocheting it last night whilst the bachelorettes raked The Bachelor over the coals and whined because they weren’t “the one.”

I have completed five of next years Christmas Ornaments… they are painted and just lack a eye hook and some ribbon.  That project is a go.  It takes me about 90 minutes to carve one…and another 30 minutes to paint.  They are a labor of love for sure.  75 to go..at least we have lots of time.

I needed a bead crimper. A gal must have a few tools.  It is a tool that crimps a small metal bead onto a wire to stop other beads from moving.

I am making something out of some wire and beads that I have collected over the years from garage sales.   I am still in R & D mode with this project…will it work?  Time will tell.

I am working on a new design for a bead bracelet…but here is the one I finished up.

The colors felt like spring to me.  The diagonal design was fun to do.  I use Japanese Delicas they are very tiny beads.

Back to crocheting my weird yarn with the fur balls.  That project has been frogged (torn apart) many times…I have my doubts that it will ever be anything.

Smile!

On Saturday I took some photos of my niece’s children.  She has four girls ages 10 to 2..  It is a busy household.  Taking photos of little ones is good practice for me.

They were on their best behavior and even had a wardrobe change.  It was a little windy so hair blowing across their face and eyes was an issue…but I still got some great shots.

Hold still!

The littlest…ringlet gal!

After the session they were allowed funny face photos.  It was very hard for me to stop giggling so I could take a photo.

The third born.  I think perhaps she has been practicing in a mirror.

Are you smiling yet?

 

Hello March

It feels warmer now, it was snowing last night.  Some fresh white snow to cover up the dirty snow. It always warms up to snow…it is like a Minnesota Rule…that and when it is clear in the winter at night it will be cold.

With the warmer temperatures ( 20 F and – 6 C eh!) I have been getting out to take some photographs.  That always cheers me up!  That and it is staying light until 6:04 PM and next week when the time changes that will be 7:04.  We have eleven hours and two minutes of daylight now.  The sun was out two days in a row!  What simple things make me more cheerful less cranky.

We took Chance to visit some of his friends. Winter is long for our pets too.  Chance knows where his friends live and when we drive by without stopping he seems sad.

Putz an Australian Shepherd

Odda a Bernese Mountain Dog

The photo ops were great. Chance had a good visit!  We have known these dogs since they were pups…so we are always greeted like long lost friends.  You would be hard pressed to find two dogs as nice as these dogs are.  Both have had  forms of Lyme Disease just like Chance.  Odda is thinner this winter and seems more ouchy than she was.  Those darn ticks anyway.

Since the snow was gently falling to the ground instead of arriving sideways at 40mph I would say March is coming in like a lamb!

Filthy snow

The snow out in the open is filthy.  Top soil is in the ditch. It is good for the wildflowers!  Thank you corporate farmers for plowing and disking your farm land so it can blow into the ditch where the wildflowers grow!

Not exactly a winter wonderland…although many are wondering where the snow is…especially those snowmobilers.

This is a field kitty-corner catty-corner diagonally across from us. 

This field is right across the road.  It was a small grain field and it was not plowed.  The turkeys are helping out by eating leftover grain and fertilizing…both activities turkeys do best.  We didn’t count this time because no one got the memo that I was out taking photographs and everyone else should stay off the my road. There must have been 50-60 turkeys maybe more.

We saw a herd of five deer but they were too far off to get a good photo.  Chance and I really enjoyed our afternoon drive.

We went to town, the accountant had our taxes done and they have been sent off electronically…cross something off the list!

Good-bye February…I won’t miss your icy wind chills or your sub zero temperatures for days on end.  Your gloomy grey days weren’t very much fun either.  The snow and dirt in the air (snirt) was a real blast.

Shopping

Shopping is not an activity I like but sometimes you do what you have to do during the long Minnesota winters.

First stop Craft Supplies!  Some of my paints had either gotten all chunky or partially dried up.  I also need a bead crimper and some beads to crimp for another project that is still in the design phase real deep down in my brain.   My brain is a cluttered place…so many projects.  Many started…non finished.

Second stop Guns!  I am looking for a small handgun….I wanted to see what they had and how well they fit my hand.  I found one that may work for me, it has a pretty red trigger.

I have an antique five shot revolver…my other baby brother looked at it and declared it unsafe.  I shot it about 30 years ago….seemed safe enough to me back then, I pulled the trigger and could hit the target and didn’t blow off any important body parts like thumbs, fingers, hands or feet.   Between my other baby brother and my husband they have convinced me that I need a new hand gun.  So I am shopping.   I need something with a clip, to quote my brother “Sis you better be real good at loading those shells in a revolver because if you aren’t real fast someone will take that gun away from you and shoot you.  You need a gun with a clip.”  Alrighty then.

One step at a time.  I am also shopping for a light weight shotgun that I can use for Skeet Shooting.   I am not any good at it but it is sure fun to try.

 

 

sNOw report

We don’t have much snow.  The snowstick shows four inches. A pitiful amount for us.

I took this photo late in the day yesterday February 25, 2015.

It is brutally cold.  The wind chills are between –25 F and –45 F recently.  No fun. We might not have much snow but what we have in cold makes up for it.   Many people have frozen waterlines and sewers.  Thankfully we have been spared…so far.

We have been staying home only going out with Chance and to feed the birds.

The deer have been coming in to eat the corn that we keep spread out for the rabbits and squirrels.

I am crocheting and doing some beadwork….working on another new bead design I thought up in the middle of the night.  Since finishing up winter cleaning the kitchen I haven’t started any other huge cleaning projects. 

Wistful Wednesday: Recipes

I stopped a few minutes when cleaning out that cupboard that holds my recipe boxes.  Tucked into the back of the oldest box were two very special recipes.

I am almost positive that Trica wrote out this recipe in grade school. She loved anything chocolate.

The second recipe must have been Jennifers from Home Economics when she was in Junior High.

She had it all down step by step.

Put books on desk                                    Leveling spatula

Put Apron on                                            1 measuring cup

Wash hands                                                Paper towel

Find ingredients                                         Baking sheet

Sifter                                                          2 Coffee Cups

Bowl Two

Liquid measuring cup

Rolling pin

The list continues on the back.

Baking Powder     1 tsp and half of a tsp

Vooden spoon

Both the recipes took me back in time and made me smile as I tucked them back into the old recipe tin.

The donkey arrived!

It is a miracle.  The Medicare Card finally arrived.   Far Guy about fell over.

He made me look at it twice to make sure it was the real thing.  Seventeen days to get from Baltimore Maryland to Osage Minnesota.  Maybe we should go from donkeys back to Pony Express it was faster.

Monday Musings

It is still very cold here.  Sunday’s HIGH temperature was –6F or –21C  eh.  The wind chills ranged from –20F to –45 F  that is –28C to –43C.  Chance and I were outside for a short time, I threw the ball three times and then he went to the door.

I guess we are weird.  I heard so much about the SNL 40th party that when it was rebroadcast on Friday night I watched part of it.  I watched the first 45 minutes and laughed only once at Chris Farley…and then I turned the channel.  Far Guy watched with me for the first 25 minutes and then he muttered “It isn’t funny like it used to be.”

I finished the kitchen!  It is winter spring cleaned, cross it off the list!  It only took me a month from that first junk drawer to the last cupboard. Three large grocery bags of “stuff” went upstairs to be marked for a rummage sale and to be packed away.

We gathered together expired prescriptions and over the counter medication to take into the Sheriff’s office they will dispose of them properly.

Survivor and The Amazing Race start this week and I am so excited!   Finally something decent on TV!  I have a crochet project that I will work on while watching!

Last night we watched the Oscars for awhile…we still know the old actors.  We haven’t seen any of the movies.  I wonder about some of those dresses with the long trains dragging along the ground…are they ever really clean again…or maybe it doesn’t matter. 

Someday Project

Whilst I was cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and drawers I finally got to the cupboard with the recipe boxes.

The box in front holds small recipe cards and a post it…that pink post it is Far Guy’s Impossible Italian Sausage Pie. ( He knows right where to find it.)  Brown up a pound of Italian Sausage then put the cooked meat in a 8x8 baking dish.  Mix together 1/2 Cup Bisquick Mix, 1 Cup Milk and 2 eggs dump on top of sausage.  Top with your favorite cheese.  Bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.   The alphabetical system looks like it might work but it doesn’t…all the favorites have been pulled to the front of the box.  That is my Spaetzle recipe in front.  I bought this box in about 1976, it was a winter project and there was a chain letter recipe swap going on and I needed someplace to put the recipes.  It was one of those chains where you added your name to the bottom of the list and then sent out some recipes to the top person on the list. Eventually I must have reached the top of the list!!

How many recipe boxes do you have?

This one is full of recipes that are favorites or ones that could be favorites. I bought this box in 1995 to organize recipes that wouldn’t fit into my other recipe box.

It is full to overflowing with handwritten recipes…and computer printed out recipes.  Some are cut off packages…some are used all the time…some have never been attempted.

This is the someday project.  It was a Christmas gift a long time ago. 

Someday I will transpose all the favorites from the scraps of paper.  The cards are there…ready to go.  I added two favorite recipes on larger index cards that were just hanging around in the cupboard…homeless.

I must be a recipe hoarder.

Partial Success

Well it was a long week.  Friday morning brought us partial success.  Some mucky muck finally said “enough.”  Far Guy was able to get his new ID card and according to the SS website he has Medicare coverage.  His health insurance has been reinstated and his prescriptions have been recovered from the cancelled file and some were supposedly shipped today. 

Thursday night he asked me “How long should we wait to panic on prescriptions?”  He would have run out of medications completely on March 20.   I said “ March 6 then we will panic.”  He has not slept well all week…he doesn’t do stress well…it keeps him awake.  Me on the other hand …stress exhausts me and I have been so sleepy I can hardly stay awake until afternoon nap time.

We made the trip over to Fargo to get his Military ID Card updated…it had expired 20 days ago.  (You are supposed to have your old ID card, Drivers License and your Medicare Card to get the updated ID.) Since we were minus the Medicare Card everything was on hold…and still would be except for the mucky muck saying enough.)   Friday was the warmest day this week to travel it was 24F  or  -4C eh.

One of my readers has a fix on the Medicare Card. “Scribes could handwrite each card and letter for Medicare and bring it there by donkey in four weeks.”  We are awaiting the donkey, hoping he escapes ice storms and blizzards and no one captures him before he gets here.  He left on February 6 2015.

Once if when the card arrives and prescriptions are delivered and not cancelled we can put an end to this saga.  MAYBE…SS sent a letter saying they took two months of Medicare out of his February 18 check…guess what?  If you guessed that his amount remained the same and nothing was deducted you would be correct….unless of course the bank is in error.  Even when they send you a letter saying what they will do they don’t do it. 

An F 4 D that blew out an engine because some yahoos wanted to go someplace in a blizzard…. ground crews walked the  aircraft to the runway for take off.  The engine blew and it ended up on this pole on display.

Chance: The Sock Monkey

I HAD a Sock Monkey.   It sat up by Far Guys books.  Far Side would get it down every once in a while and throw it in the air and I would make it squeak.  She would make me give it up when I started to play rough….you know growling and shaking it to smithereens.  The Sock Monkey was safe up there…until  this week Far Guy just gave me the monkey… jackpot…or maybe it was a brain fart.

I had a blast…Far Side grabbed her camera.

I ripped out the stuffing and the batteries and all the plastic innards that made those noises.  I made a big mess.

My Sock Monkey is much thinner now.

Do you know how bored a Border Collie can get cooped up inside when it is sub zero weather?  Pretty bored.  I got my ears cleaned this week and my toe nails clipped…seems play time ends in grooming time. I helped Far Side clean out my drawer in the kitchen…I supervised and watched so she just cleaned and straightened up…no throwing my stuff away.  I smelled everything to make sure it was still good, and counted all the extra balls. 

 

Cold

How cold is it?  Darn cold.  Freeze your butt off cold, makes your boobs ache and your legs hurt.  I still went out with the dog for about ten minutes so he could play ball and poop.  He is used to going for a ride in the afternoon and playing ball outside after supper.  Playing ball in the kitchen works but it just isn’t the same.  Border Collies establish habits and they don’t like anything messing up their “job” schedule.

Far Guy is busy all day on the phone with various government agencies trying to get his Medicare Mess straightened out.  No headway yet. Picture him beating his head against a brick wall.  Painful to watch.  There are a whole lot of people out there not doing their jobs at the Social Security Office and at Medicare…of course Medicare just passes the buck to Social Security where the average wait is 45 minutes or more or you can leave your number for them to call back…but everyday a number has been left no call has been returned…I told Far Guy he must be on their do not call list.  So he waits and waits on the phone patiently and sometimes not so patiently…yesterday until the office finally closed.

I cleaned some more cupboards in the kitchen, I can clean cupboards and throw the ball for the dog at the same time, except when I am on the step ladder.

I am ahead on laundry…a load or more a day gets washed in hope that more water will make the septic system less likely to freeze up.

I have not been out of the yard since Monday.  When it is so cold I just want to stay at home.  Actually I just want to sleep until the weather warms up! 

Topaz Pink and Bombay Dark Blue Scaevola  Summer of 2014

Perfect plant for a hot spot in your yard, a few pinches here and there and it becomes a moundy trailing plant that will bloom all summer, summer seems like a long way off…only four months to go.

Wistful Wednesday : 1952

This is a photo that speaks of the old times.  Far Guy and his sister sixty three years ago…

Photo taken in 1952

Awww isn’t he cute?   Behind the cute smile lurks a very active boy who would be harnessed to the clothes line…but would learn to unhook himself and go play with neighbor kids and then go back home and hook himself back up again just like nothing happened.

They are sitting in a big old chair ( he thinks the chair was dark green) right where the television would have a permanent spot for years and years. In 1952 there was no television in the house or it was in a different spot.  You can see the doorbell chimes…not that anyone ever used the door bell.  Eventually the back door bell would stop working and no one ever used the front door.

To the right is the coat closet that was kitty corner to the front door that no one ever used.

In the hall off to the left there is a small table that sits right below the telephone.  The phone number back then was 261J.  About that same time my phone number was 12F120…country numbers must have been longer than city numbers.

Did you have one of those old phone numbers?  Do you remember what it was?

Brrrrrr

It is cold.  There are wind chill warnings out. Ya da ya da  ...freeze body parts…ya da ya da. –25F to –35F wind chills or –31C to –37C  eh.  Lovely weather we are having here in Minnefreezeyourbuttoffota.

I cleaned the inside of the oven yesterday and the oven racks are spotless.  I cleaned it all by hand as the last time I used automatic clean we had to call Mr. Fixit….I did not want a repeat.  The south and west sides of the kitchen are all done…walls washed cupboards cleaned out and all the dust catchers are sparkly again.  The north wall is left to do. I may or may not tackle that project today.   I am tired of working in the kitchen.  Why is it that the kitchen seems to take forever to do?   I should strip the grout between the tiles on the floor again and reseal it…maybe.

Or maybe I will watch a couple of movies or read a book…my other baby brother sent over a book for me to read.  A nap..for sure I will need one of those…hibernation is sounding better all the time.                                              Marine heliotrope summer of 2014.

Corny solution

It is cold…below zero and windy so the wind chills are unbearable.   Seems like we are stuck in this below zero weather pattern for a few days.

The only respite for me is picking a cleaning /organizing project or several every morning to complete. Then I get most of the rest of the day to hibernate and do what ever I want.

The best thing I did last fall was to find some flannel in my stash and sew up some squares.  This is leftover fabric from my flannel valance in the kitchen…I finally got that part of the kitchen cleaned and put up the flannel valance over the weekend.  It makes the kitchen seem warmer somehow.

Anyways back to my creation…I sewed up three sides and most of the fourth side, turned it right side out and put a bunch of whole kernel corn inside from the Farm Supply Store.  Then I sewed up the opening…it’s not fancy.  If you throw it in the microwave for three minutes you can be toasty warm under a down comforter.   If you microwave it longer than three minutes it starts to smell like burnt corn. 

I take one of these to sleep with me most every night, I have arthritis in one leg due to an old injury and if I am cold or my leg is cold I cannot sleep.  It is also perfect for extra warmth whilst watching a movie on Netflix in the afternoon…of course the warmth usually sends me off to napland!

Happy Medicare Birthday!

Someone is 65 today and should have his Medicare Card but he doesn’t.  Whilst checking on our Health Insurance site yesterday we discovered he has been dropped from their enrollment…but I am still there…go figure.   The last couple of weeks Far Guy has been walking around mumbling  “This country is just moments from imploding upon itself.” I am beginning to believe him.  I swear Tuesday heads will roll…and he better not get sick and require Health Care whilst he is in this no mans land of no Medicare and no insurance.   All the automatic refills for his medications have been discontinued also.  How long do you think that will take to get straightened out???

I told him to try to relax and have a good weekend.  He is doing his best…but those Type A’s MUST worry.  What a freaking mess.   What was supposed to be all automatic sure is a pain in the butt.

Well anyways..he is older.  We may go out for supper to celebrate his birthday.

Far Guy and his big sister in November of 2014.  The smallest inset photo was taken in the summer of 1950.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Heart Day

Oh the sappy sweetness started early at our house. Yesterday I said “How about breakfast in town before we run errands?”  Good idea…breakfast out is one of his favorite things to do!

The roads were yucky in spots… and the wind was blowing.

I will cook a lovely dinner at home for Valentines because it is cold and windy and wind chills are dangerously low… it is  safer just to stay home. Perhaps he will offer me some of the dark chocolate that he hoards in the cupboard.  Last year he took me by the card aisle in Wally World and let me read some cards…this year he joined me in the most fun of all a quick walk down the candy aisle with all the heart shaped boxes…well if it was good for him then it was good for me. 

So I will make oven steak and spaetzle…one of his favorite meals.  Then I will let him listen to the hockey game.

As you can tell we are both hopeless romantics!