Tag Archive | life stuff

Starting over…

Jun1
I started my work out yesterday. Both my doc and the gym guy recomended the ‘sit to stand’ excersize, where you sit, then stand without using your hands. I used to do that without even thinking about it. Not anymore. So I did 2 reps of 10, then on the third set I only made 7 before I could not do more. But a good start, I thought. Guess what? I really need to build muscles. What’s left of them after my stint on ozempic. I’m off that now, with my docs agreement. But those leftover muscles in the front of my theighs are very sore this morning! I’ll give them a couple days to rest but then they’ll get to try again.
Tim, the gym guy from New Zeland, recomended a couple sites to me and i thought this email tnis morning had a lot of sensable stuff.
And about diet, I was thinking about my Grandparents. Pop’s English side, they were both slim, all their lives. Grandpa was a dairy farmer  & Gramma  farmers wife. Here they are on their honeymoon.
Even in the ‘fashions’ of the day she still managed to look slim. I think I took more after Momma’s German side, heftier women. I have to admit they did work hard, life was more physical back them than it is now, but neither ever gained that middle age fat most people now days do. Grampa did all the farm work, using a team of draft horses for most of his life. Gramma  grew the kitchen garden, tended the hen house. made her own bread, cooked on a wood stove for most of her life. They did not have an indoor bathroom until Pop and Uncle Walter insisted and put one in for them I was a teen by that time.  Yeah- outhouse. Gramma’s by the garden, whitewashed, limed, no spiderwebs, smelled fine. Grampa’s out but the barn… don’t go there!
But gramma cooked good meals from scratch. I remember Creamed Onions. First time I had ever thought of onions as a vegtable! They were very good. We had big meals with potatoes and veggies cooked with bacon or ham. Hot fresh bread, fried or stewed chicken- big meals. With dessert, usually pies but also cakes or puddings. Good eats. Nothing was forbidden There was always a picther of fresh raw milk and a pitcher of thick cream in the IceBox and gramma ate with us and never gained a pound. Well, this is my diet, nothing I can’t eat. Our garden is growing, I picked the first peas this morning. The tomateos are setting fruit, the squash plants growing in the warm weather. I bake bread at least once a week  and eat potatoes, both white and sweet. And ice cream and chocolate. Like I said, nothing forbidden but it’s mostly what is popularly call Real Food. Yeah, I keep processed stuff in the pantry or freezer. Some days I just don’t want to cook. But this is pretty much how I lost most of the nearly 70 lb before ozempic came along for the last 20 and most of my muscle. I should have paid more attention to the fact that that stuff took meat as well as fat. Yes, they tell me now, you need to up your strenght workout with those drugs. To be fair, I have to say, maybe someone did tell me, but iI was excited about an easy way to lose weight so I ignored it. Maybe.
Anyway, I’m on a mission now to fix it if I can. I was always strong and want to be again. Wish me luck!
I’ll never be as yomg or as firm as I was in 1964 but if I can just get some muscles back, I’ll be happy to live with the wrinkles.
 But today the sun is shinning, We’re leaving tomorrow for FiberFusion NW. Maybe I’ll see some of you there!
Hazel

Makeing progress… I think.

Apr25

I got the edging finished & laid them out. It made a rather tiny rectangle so I decided to space them a bit more. I’ll go out to Le Shed and go through the bin of Rosy’s small skeins. I’m sure she spun somthing that will go with this. The problem will be to find a compatable wool, size, and yes, color. Sis didn’t often spin  for a project. She spun because she enjoyed spinning. In fact, she enjoyed making yarn, often starting from skirting, washing, carding, & dying, and of course the spinning, but she like to experiment so finding yarns that go together can sometimes be a challenge. It turned out that for this layout I was one square short but I manasged to find enough useable bits to weave another square.

So  this is where the ‘free time’ project is today.

Trial layout.

Using up the bits for one last square.

Weave a restful day!

A different way of looking at it.

Apr24

I don’t nap in the bed. That is until today, and when I go to bed at night, I feel my way there, my night vision being negligible and all the lights out since He’s usually abed and asleep by the time I get there these days.  But the point of this ramble is that, yes,  I know there are spider webs on this window but as I cannot reach it, I don’t worry about it. And the dirtier it gets, the less the full moon will be keeping me awake each month. At least that is my attitude. But laying there this afternoon, I saw things from a different point of view. I laid there because I thought it might help straighten my back which gets pretty hunched by this time of day. Looking up I saw a really impressive net of webs in front of the glass. I’m glad I can’t see the ledge under this window because I have feeling that it’s probably littered with bug corpes!  These ladies are pretty good at keeping the webs clean of this sort of thing, tho they do get dusty and instead of running their little vaccums they just weave new clean nets. Ah well. I tend to go for the easy cleaning also. I spotted 4 of them sitting patiently waiting. I think they are going to get hungry before more meals fly in since it is not getting very warm and we have another week of clouds and possible showers so nothing open for fliers in. For perspective, this is a shot of the head of the bed and the window he fell in love with. I tired to get it in the LR but there wasn’t room with it’s lower cieling. It’s way too much light for a bedroom but he can sleep with any amount of light and I have a black sleep mask.

bed room window

view frommy pillow

One of the interiour decorators.

In other news, there are just 2 more squares to edge on the last posted project.

Is it spring… or not!

Apr23
I “reorganized” my yarn shed recently and found a ball of my hand spun wool in a box that the silverfish had gotten into. One of the few really fine yarns i’d managed to make. Most of my handspun tends to be bulky ‘art’ yarn so I was bummed to find this in bits. The bits were reasonably long so i wove on the 4″ Multi loom, joining as I went. Now I’m working around each square with some of Sis’s handspun. I’ve never done a slip stitch edge, but trying new stuff here. I’ll likely use a different yarn to assemble these. Don’t know now many i have but probably a smallish project. Katt may get a new chair pad. I’m going to toss it in the washer once assambled. There may be damage i didn’t find so figure a bit of felting could be a good thing. Maybe a time waster project, but it relaxes me not to have a Goal! It’s free time!
Meanwhile we are making looms, getting trips to fiber fairs set up. Things like reservations for the trailer, fees and classes, you know.  And hoping we can afford diesel for those trips!  And, of course, the garden.
We started “spring” with a warm spell which got me all excited to be sure I was not late late last year, so I planted peas and cabbage but also started tomatoes and peppers. Then it got cold and rainy, a couple times even snow. Them it would warm up for a few day befpre going back to rain and or frost- and a lot of wind this year. So needless to say, those tomato and pepper plants are reaching indoor limits! They are practically trees! We are going to have to plant them out today. He has covered cages for them but they are not  likely to be happy. I’ve started a few more in hopes that they won’t out grow the pots before summer happens! When it comes to weather these days  “You can’t win for losing” sure applies!
Hope you get time to both garden and weave. Both enjoyable…when they aren’t being stressful!  lol

April 1!

Apr1

Well, I made it through another year. I think I’ll bake myself a cake today! Pineapple upside down is my favorite. My late girlfriend used to make a really yummy Chocolate Cherry cake for me but I never got the recipe from her. Too bad. Ah well… today is a lovely rainy day, just misting at the moment but we needed this rain. We need the predicted snow also but not in my yard in April. Up There it’s still needed, and that’s fine.  But meantume, I’m enjoying the cool and damp.

Anybody else have a holiday birthday? DH has Earth Day, girlfriend’s is on halloween. A niece in law was born on Xmas eve. Two other people in this little mountain community share my day.

How will I celebate? After 85 of them, it’s really just being happy to be here and be reasonably healthy. I can still move, still think, usually remember! Doing fairly well, I think. Hope you all are, too.

Is it Spring again?

Mar30

I thought it was. I mean we didn’t have much of a winter but it felt like spring and Nature seemed to be agreeing, but now the Weather Wizards are predicting snow. Yes, we need it, but Up There, please! I’m passed wanting it down here now. Already have garden seedlings growing, just give us regular rain showers this spring, Mother Nature, please. It’s a bit chilly in here today. Shall I make a fire and chance it getting too warm or just put on a heavier sweater and wait until evening?  What worrying problems I have to deal with these days! Maybe I should just bake something, that would solve the problem, too.

Ah well, I think I’ll just ignore the whole thing and go oil a few looms. I’m sure he haas the shop nice and warm. We sent a weaver a special order last week. She wante a Bobinga fine sett loom. I couldn’t remember what that wood looked like. It turned out to be very beautiful. He said he only had a little bit left so we asked about whether it was still availaable when were were at Beavertooth Hardwoods in Medford. Yes, they did have some…$30 a board foot! Yikes! The wood for her order we probably bought 10 years ago. Can’t remember what we paid for it, but I can gaurentee it was way less than that. She got a deal on her lovely loom and no one else will be getting one as we decided not to restock it. No one seems to be buying special woods these days except for Tennessee Red Cedar, always favorite, one of my favorites.

I’ve ben weavung 12″ squares using soome of Rosy’s hand spun. I think it was the last she spun and dyed. She started a scarf with it but told me she didn’t like it and would find smething else to make  with it. She didn’t have time to do that so I thought I would do it for her. It’ll be a baby blanket, I think. I’ve been using differnt lace patterns. They’re pretty and more interesting to weave than just plain weave.

So, did you march with the No Kings? I’m not a marcher but I agree we don’t want a king, or a dictator. Or a president who can’t seem to keep his promises. Can’t afford to fill my gas tank and when I did get to the grocery store… Wow! Even chicken, the cheap meat has gone up! How is that making things more afordable? Meanwhile, he can make a gold plated ball room where as I’m lucky to afford a tin foil lined cooky sheet! Bah. And he wants the Nobel Peace Prize while attacking other countires and starting wars all over! Bah.  I’ll be 85 on Wednesday. Seen too many wars already.  Can we survive another one? Can we stay safe over here while he starts wars over there? One day we won’t be so lucky. Bah.

But in case we do get another Spring I have seedlings waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. And my peas are sticking their little green noses above ground!

   Happy April…..

Looking forward to Fall!

Aug16

We had a couple trips in the spring, to Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival in Utah and to Washington for Fiber Fusion and then we had the summer off. Well, kinda. There’s the garden! Don’t want to be without my fresh, pesticide free veggies, which means canning in the hottest part of the year. But it’s worth it when I see my pantry stocked so prettily!

Made cucumber relish yesterday. For today I’ll put some of our huge crop of green & yellow beans in the dehydrator,  already canned plenty of those, and make a Buckle. I found a recipe for that old fashioned dessert. I have peaches for it unless he brings me more black berries. I have a stock of blackberry jam, of course, and had to tell him stop! lol But only temporarily until I got caught up with what he has already brought. I have them for lunch with toast or in my breakfast cereal.

        

Too many beans and cukes, they out produced all the rest! I am pleased with my onions this year. I’m sure Rosy is proud of me. I always got my onions from her as I never had any luck with them. But now I have to do it on my own so tried extra hard. They aren’t going to win prizes at the fair but they are the best I’ve grown so far! There are red ones in the bottom. We’ve used quite a few already

  And I actually grew some okra this year. I thought that this big it would be tough, but it was not!

But back to trips! Heading to Washington again end of September! I have the kits ready for the Spokane classes. If you are in that area, check out https://spokanefleeceandfiberfestival.com/. It’s a new Festival but Katrina is working hard to make it a good show. I have two classes but there are other good teachers having classes there too, not to mention a flock of vendors with fiber goodies you’ll want to check out!

 

Well, it’s clouding up which makes it a nice cool day. Which after the heat of last week is rather enjoyable! But I have to spend some time in the shop, too.  Weavers are waiting for their looms!

Hope you are seeing signs of fall at your place! No red leaves yet but the asters are blooming!

Wishing you happy!   Hazel

 

 

 

A little Post Script.

Apr12

It must really be spring this time!  Look at all the sunshine and blue sky! It hit 79 today! The cottonwoods are leafing out. So is my weeping willow. The oaks are always conservative and wait, just in case. Phooey on them! It’s spring!

 

We planted the tomatoes out this morning and planted peas and beets, too.  Onions and Kale next as soon as he gets the bed ready.

     

Yes, I know it’s early yet. We will have covers for the toms at night, just in case. But it’s nice to sit on the garden bench and feel too hot!

The other thing is packing for the Great Basin Fiber Festival in Farmington, Utah. I think we leave on the 20th.

  

Okay… Hope you’re having some spring at your house!  (or fall if you’re in the other half of the world!)

Hazel

Oops… I have been slack again. Sorry!

Apr6

It’s already April. My birthday is passed. I thought I had a post for that in the files for later but if so it seems to have disappeared. Oh well… But I had two parties this year! My Bunko to host is in March but only a week before my birthday. So I used the occasion to give myself a Surprise Birthday Party! I was a little nervous about how the 11 would take it but they all seemed to get a kick out of it and helped me eat my self-baked birthday cake and sang the traditional song to me while I blew out the single candle! I wanted to put all 84 on it but as the event was held at the Fire Hall I was afraid I might be arrested for arson!

Happy Birthday to me!

My 2nd party was lunch with two friends at the Trailhead café. It was two days before my April 1 birthday since the café is not open full time yet. That was fun and I got a Chocolate Cherry torte with another candle on it and gifts, too! The best gift was lunch with friends, of course! And on my birthday, Hubbie made breakfast for me to start the day right. It was a lovely day, too. I hope I get another one next year.

Lately I seem to have mostly been dealing with business emails and teaching at fairs stuff and email program fixes so spending too much time on the computer. I have ignored all work related stuff the last couple of warm sunny days and have been out pruning and pulling weeds and trying to clean up the mess in my flower beds. This winter was hard of growing things! But there are daffodils and crocus blooming in the lawn. The snow last week pushed the daffies faces in the mud, as happens every spring about this time! Tradition, I guess you could call it, but they sprang right back up when the sun came out the same day and melted it all off again. The last puff of winter, I hope! We’ll still have frost but the white stuff should be staying Up Top now.

Himself is getting the garden ready. He does the heavy work out there. My tomatoes which I planted a good month too early need to go in the ground soon. They’ll have to be covered but I hope they’ll survive it.  Other than that I am trying my hand at making Orange Marmalade. Never tried this before but I ended up with more oranges than we are likely to used before they start drying up. And I do like it so it seems a good idea. I hope it is!

It now has to set for 12-18 hours my Ball Blue Book says. Interesting.

As for weaving, I’ve been working on getting things ready for the classes I have signed up to teach.  Several peg looms classes this year and a few others. Our first fiber fair this year is in Farmington, Utah. The Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair. We missed it last year but this year I will have two classes, Beginning Peg Loom Weaving and Beyond Plain Weave, a class for weavers who already know how to use the continuous weave looms. We’ll take a look at pattern weaves, colors, a bit about how to design your own patterns and some lace weaving, too.

The next fair is Fiber Fusion NW in Monroe, Washington. I’ll do the same two classes there since this is further from Farmington than most weavers want to travel, it’s not going to be a double for weavers. Then Lambtown and Oregon Flock and Fiber Fair in October. But between all this will be a bigger garden this year. The garden did not do well last year so I didn’t get much canning done. I don’t really look forward to canning in the hottest part of the year, which is when stuff gets ripe, of course, but I do like to have the pantry full come fall!

We stopped at the going-out-of-business sale at Joanne’s, of course, and while I was looking at potentially useful sale items he bought this rose for me. He says he went though them all to find the most real looking one. I guess he found it, as my friend  thought it was real when she saw it the other day. Of course she was across the room from it, but still, it is a lovely rose. And a lovely thought from Himself!

I hope you are all enjoying some signs of Spring where you are! My Sis in Florida is moving into summer already! I’m not ready for summer yet, gotta work up to that but will be delighted to see Spring!

Meanwhile, keep your looms polished and your garden gloves dirty!