THOUGHT I WAS DONE....

Glorious SNOW came in and over 14 inches! It was cold, below zero cold and as 2020 would have it, our furnace was not working! We spent 36 under quilts with winter jackets on until the heating guy could get to us. Warm now!

I thought I was done 'putting up food' for winter but then this beautiful Hubbard pumpkin was on my counter. Hubbard pumpkins are BIG and make the best pumpkin pies, bar none! 

This smoke cloud was over the city for several days before the snow began to fall on Saturday night! 

So much destruction! 

Fall here in Northern Colorado has been a real trial. Few days spent out on trail walks, (or any walks), fall colors not seen, no Indian summer days experience, no savoring the last days before winter hibernation. 

Again, 2020, I am looking forward to seeing you in the rear view mirror!

FILLING TIME

Time has become almost surreal 6 months into this pandemic, a National Disaster for sure, that just keeps cycling around with more bad news. In the West, the more bad news - the fires! We have two burning, one within 10 miles from us, the other 40 miles. Both are burning hot enough for the smoke to block out the sun, almost daily. It's nearly impossible to sit for 20 minutes on the porch, fresh air, not at this time! Daily temps. are hanging around 99-100 degrees, we need cold and snow! The RNC is not helping my mental health

 with all the HATE they are spewing on TV! Oh, 2020 you have been one hard year!

But, a little break yesterday....Caitlin and I canned Roma Tomatoes. Jason first roasted them,    (4 cases in less than 10 minutes), never again will I do the blanching method to remove skins.

I thought we were going to make tomato sauce, the kind that is ready to pour and use for pasta dishes. Caitlin wanted to can whole tomatoes, because they are so much more versatile, open a jar, make sauce (by adding garlic and spices), open a jar and use the whole tomatoes poured over a roast, or make soup, spicy V-8 juice.......

You get the idea! So whole tomatoes it was and it was fast. We started at 1pm and I pulled the last jars out at 6pm. Not bad for a winter supply of deliciousness! 

The Brown and Pink quilt is on the machine and it is going to be slowing going!  Though it will be beautiful when completed and I have the time! 

Reading: 

~Caste: This is a hard read for me, but a much needed read for me! Please, if you are interested in Race and Race relations, this is the book you are looking for, get it, read it slow and digest the information. 

~The Mountains Sing- Is about a family in Viet Nam that survives the years of wars from the French through the Americans and last-the Communist Party. WOW. 

Connecting with Kat and Unraveled Wednesday

ONCE A WEEK

SOAP

Smoked Ribs, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Salad

Getting to 'trace' with soap

Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

This new blogger, I am not having fun with! I can't move my pictures around and blogger won't load them in the order I try to put them, sooo, I get this mish mash sequence of pictures! Ugh....

A couple of weeks ago, Caitlin and I decided to 'make' one day a week. Our first week was...

Canning Pickles. We put together Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We forgot to put horseradish in the Dills, ( just something to rachet up the flavor, oh well next time.)

The pickles came out amazingly! It's hard  to let the jars sit and the spices to do their magic, but patience is a virtue, so I am told.

The second week, we made SOAP. I love homemade soap, I love making it and the only thing I love more, is to make SOAP with Caitlin. Of course, while making two basic batches of soap, we are planning our next batch....Goat Milk, and what essential oils to use. It is endless our plans and Caitlin has already found a local source for that goat milk!

Two year olds can be sooo funny! Gus walked into the kitchen and told his Mom, "I going to the library to pick up books and I have my mask on!" Cuz, you know all the germs out there. 

Kids, they will never know how much sunshine they spread in this crazy world.

After replacing all our appliances , I have been cooking and Eric has been smoking. 

I will say this stay at home thing, it has allowed us to cook some yummy, comfort food. And right now, I need comfort food a couple times a week!  The other thing in the kitchen happening is making dishes from scratch that before would of  been bought ready made at the store, like potato salad and all salad dressings. The hits have been, potato salad, cole slaw, and several salad dressings. The one pictured about, not so much, its Creamy Cucumber, needs some work. 

Are you cooking? I would love to hear all about your kitchen experience. 

99 days to November 3.

Last week was a tough week here at Little House. We had to say good bye to our 'fat boy Sam! He blew his back out, not the first time, but this time the drugs were of no help. He became paralyzed and in so much pain we had him put down. I am grateful for having the decision to calmly  put a dog down, but what a decision to make, gut wrenching! Sadie, Sam's sister is here and she is lost without her mate. Just one more thing to get 'use to' in this age of weird 'get use to' COVID time. 

Friday, my daughter and I canned! I love canning and taking pics of all those jars filled with color and food. We did Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We each had 10+ pints to put away at our home.  WE are planning one day a week 'making/doing' something in the kitchen. This week will be Lye Soap. 

Other things on our list:

Pasta noodles

peaches

raviollie with peas, or cheese or meat, etc.

dumplings, (Caitlin is a great at Chinese cooking)

Tamales?

Salsa [canned] 

etc, etc,etc.

99 days to VOTE- TRUMP -OUT -OF -OFFICE!!!!!!

UNRAVELED WEDNESDAY

It's a burst of energy in the MAKING department. First up is the little red sweater knitted last fall for a 4 year old, who wore it camping and got it full of dust, dirt, river water and paint.(don't ask about the paint...uggg). I soaked it for about 30 hours and would you believe, it came out with no paint and clean, clean, clean. 

The variegated yarn is being knitted into a fall sweater for the 2 year old. The yarn colors remind me of 'Indian Summer', a favorite time of year for me. I am religiously using up yarn in my stash during my COVID knitting time/experience. I have had fun pulling out bins of yarn and finding the perfect skien/s for what I have in my mind to knit. Maybe by the fall I will feel the urge to buy some new yarn but for now I am very satisfied with my stash. 

The gold and maroon yarn I frogged from a project 3 years ago. Love the yarn, just not the pattern I had chosen to use the yarn in, I may be having that same issue again! I decided to use this color combo for the Through the Loops Mystery Knit and I am not sure I like my choice. The pattern is amazing, but such contrasting colors, perhaps not. I think maybe 2 color yarns that blend together may have been a better choice for me. I am going to hold off knitting any more on the Mystery shawl and see how it turns out for the other participants. I hate giving up so soon and have had fleeting feelings of failure, then I come to a screeching mind halt and scream, "This is knitting, not a failure but accepting what I like and don't like."  I have never done a Mystery knit before for fear of not liking the end product and using up all that time and material that I could have been making something else that I do like.  Well, first mystery I guess is a bust for me.

The pink and brown quilt is a pattern out of Quilt Mania, that I started a year ago. I had finished 6 squares when I pulled them out 3 weeks ago. It took me all of 4 days to finish the last 24 squares and set in half triangles,( 2 weeks spent finding the magazine with the pattern).  Next the borders will go on, then the machine quilting will commence. 

Books:

Song Yet Sung   *****

I think this is one of the best books I have ever read!

The Last Runaway ***

Interesting, I liked the characters and the descriptions of the quilts. The story , so so.

Looking forward to finding some joy in the my next week of COVID life.

Joining Unraveled Wednesday with Kat

YARN ALONG MAY

Continue to stay at home, being in the higher risk category, (higher risk due to age). 

Yes, we go to the grocery store, pick up occasional to go meals, and best of all we are seeing the kids on a limited basis. We are waiting to see the COVID stats mid May, if numbers are going down, will re-evaluate going out more, if numbers go up, tighten up our 'stay at home' regiment. I don't have high hopes that numbers will go down with so many people NOT wearing masks, feeling it infringes on their constitutional rights. Selfish, selfish people!

In the mean time, getting in daily walks. Taking pictures of amazing things in nature, I'm not sure I would of noticed before 'stay at home'.

Reading: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone  *****

Dark Money *****

Knitting: Notice

yarn ; Holst Garn

Are you on 'stay at home' restrictions? How is it going ? How are you using your time?

Wearing a mask when out?

Joining Giny at Yarn Along

Kat Knits; Unraveled Wednesday

HOBBIES

Deep End

The first, started and finish during COVID19

Scrap quilt using scraps most sane quilters would toss out...not me!

Eric's flying tying in full swing. He is making a few dozen for a friend.

Easter snow.

Anyone need some blue food dye? Oye Vey!

Amish quilt hand quilting.

Snow clouds building in over the Rockies, expecting 4-9 inches tonight and through tomorrow. We will see.

How has your week been? I feel calmer this week, getting out walking is soo helpful. Also, coming to terms and stop fighting-what I have no control over is helpful. Sometimes it is difficult to work out what I can control and what I cannot control, and lets face it, we really have so little control  in this world. The control I have, is how I react to situations that is thrown in my path.

I have been thinking a lot about when this 'stay at home' and life returns to normal, (whatever that looks like), what things have been removed from my daily life and what things I want to bring back. I have moments of feeling this isolation thing is a real gift (not the part of sickness and financial instability), but the gift of slowing the outside world down!  What else but a virus could do this and who ever thought in their life time this could happen?

Not me!

 I want positive lessons to be learned from this situation.

We all have time to ponder :

what is good in our lives

what to not let back into our lives

what to let in occasionally

what to change personally

what to work toward.

You?

THE PAST WEEK reviewed

Last week for me was-anxiety that was days spent on the couch in my PJ's.

Knitting, meals and maybe one walk was completed last week, but as the US total number neared 80,000 the more still I became. I did get lots of laughs from my daughter sending pictures to me of what the kiddos were up too...MISCHIEF! 

Missy cut her hair all by herself! She is now accepting clients that would allow her to hone her skills on, no charge of course.

Next up, the two of them were set up with paints and HUGE pieces paper, why use paper when one has a beautiful face to paint on. 

Parents: We quit!

Me: You can't, until your dead!

Parents: Oh, that was not in the parenting books.

Me: Don't I know it.

Parents: New bar, I'm OK with anything they do as long as it does not involve a ride to the hospital.

Me: hahahahaha.

Sure do miss those cuties!

What are you cooking while on stay at home orders!

Not wanting to waste food, after making spaghetti, we used the left over sauce and made pizza on hamburger buns. It was actually really good! 

Things we are making to eat:

Spaghetti

potato soup

hamburger soup

scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes 

salads

clam chowder

oven fried chicken, wedge potatoes

Interesting to read and see, we have eaten A LOT of potatoes this past week. 

This week it will be a lot of brussel sprouts since that is what came in our fresh veggie/fruit bag. Any good recipes for brussel sprouts out there. What are you cooking this week?

The quilt is one my MIL made back in the 70-80's. She loved to cross stitch and then would send the quilt out to be quilted by the church ladies;-]

And, I had a finish this past week-Socks! Fastest pair I ever knitted, done in 2 weeks. My general time is about 1 year. Stress--oye vey!

Things I am not doing anymore:

Listening to trump talk!