Life Got In The Way

Of blogging for a while.  Did ya miss me? 

Things got a bit crazy here and something had to give for a bit. It was blogging or what was left of my mind.  I’ve popped in every week or so on your blogs attempting to stay in touch, but I know we’ll be into winter before I catch up.

The garden kicked my rear this summer.  Honestly it was nearly ignored after it took off with our early season rains. We had a business trip to Milwaukee in June & I stayed for a week to visit friends….while I was gone the weeds took off & I was never able to gain control again.  I keep the girls during the day & they would be playing or “helping” while I weeded.  Well, I made the mistake of taking Miss Alix on a walk with me with me down to the mail box…after that when every my back was turned she would take off down the driveway.  Let me tell you that 18 mo. old can run!   I was ready to tie a rope to her.  Our once very quiet road has become super busy now that there are 2 subdivisions on the other end & cars just fly down it.  We have a hard time not getting hit pulling out of the driveway.  The days I was kid free were in the high 80’s or 90’s….I’m not falling out for tomato’s!

I’ve not canned at all so far.  Everything has gone in the freezer.  It was to blasted hot to have the stove on. I figure by this time next month I’ll be up to my elbows in canning jars & have a warm house when the heat will be appreciated.

So, Mr. Fix-It had been going for PT on his arm…well it helped for a while and he gained movement… but then got worse. To the point the vibration of Fred (the riding lawn mower) created all kinds of pain. Making a 18mo long story much shorter…it was a frozen shoulder due to a nerve issue. Yes, good times, mine was getting better and his got worse.  Late August he had surgery.  They knocked him out, forcibly manipulated his arm to break the “frozen shoulder”, removed gobs of scar tissue in the shoulder socket which was creating the nerve pain.  They also removed the little tip of the socket and few  bone burs in there.  When we were leaving they kept telling us he was going to be in sooo much pain that to be sure and keep him on pain pills.  Honestly?  He said the discomfort from the surgery was much less than the constant nerve pain!  No wonder he’s gone grey this past year! 

Know what that dork did the next day? He felt so good… he went to work!   I know a lot of women complain their hubby’s are big babies when they are sick or injured….I almost wish he would get some of that.  Now he’s pushing his healing…trying to play catch-up around here before winter. Can’t slow a good man down.

In the good news department my shoulder is nearly 100%.  Well enough I was released to use my bow again. Last weekend Larry took me to an archery shoot. And, to toot my own horn (keep in mind I’d only shot it about 3 times all year).  Well, the course as it turns out is one national archery champs use to practice. Out of 150 possible points I scored just over 100. Towards the end my arm was pretty shaky but finished with what I felt was a respectable score.

  Next year that course is MINE!!!!

Since it’s 2 am I’m crawling off to bed.  I’ve a list of gardening questions to ask so grab a cup of coffee next time around or skip that post! LOL!

Have a wonderful day

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,healing,catching up

Playing Catch up

We are home from our trip and playing catch-up big time.  Apparently it rained like crazy while we were gone because the garden has taken off like crazy! The beans are heavy in bloom and the squash has just gone crazy! When we left, this plant was knee high on me…keep in mind I’m 5’9 and have a 33 inseam.  Right now it’s hip high!

Glad I spaced these further than normal because it’s just huge. Now, we’ll see if these blooms fruit.  Last year I needed to hand pollinate them all…realllly hoping that’s not needed this time around.

The raised beds needed some serious work. Most of the lettuce has bolted & I’m letting it go to harvest seed.  The asparagus transplants appear to be a success.  There were about 6 new shoots popping up….which I munched on while weeding.  

My tomato’s are slugging along…very slow growing this year.  At this rate I’ll still have green tomato’s come the first frost

The potato’s are doing pretty well. I’ve needed to hill them twice this week. I added a layer of straw to help retain the moisture in this 90 degree heat streak.  I’m really hoping they do well this year.  The second potato bed is starting to show signs of growth as well. It’s my first year with them in the ground & both beds went in late…but it’s looking good so far …really hoping for some spuds this year after the last 2 yrs. fiascos!

Hmm, my rows don’t look to straight! I’ll have to run lines next year…lets hope those taters don’t mind LOL!

 

The strawberry bed…after all the rain & week of absence is a hot mess. Before I left it was weed free.

Nice,

Pretty blooms showing through all those green leaves.

What we came home to?

Looks like I have a few hours of work with the hand trowel in front of me.  We went through the bed picking what we could salvage and tossed over a gallon of soggy/rotting berries.  I’m so thankful the bed it tiered or it would be a rotting mess rather than just needing a serious weeding.  Think once I have it cleaned up I’ll add a bit of straw to those bare spots to  help slow those weeds down.

The heat is up this afternoon so we caved and came inside till it drops under 90.  Looks like the laundry and dust are calling my name.

Maybe I’ll sew a bit or knit instead!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,gardening,catching up

 

Still Kickin!

Just moving slower

There seems to be a theme across most of my bloggy friends of bloggers block or apathy..  Not sure what it is.  Could it possibly be we go 150 miles an hour in the spring through summer with the gardens & into fall with canning and food preservation?  Then like balloons we seem to deflate physically and emotionally come winter.  I know with the election and state of the economy we all have higher emotional stress levels we try to bury and it’s seemed to catch up.  I keep thinking I need to post or, that would be a good post…but it seems to take to much energy right now.

So, let me recap the past month or so…

A few highs,

My sun oven came in! I was so excited about it and then rained for a week after arrival, Thanksgiving, family events…it seemed like one thing after another kept me from using it.  This week we should have a few clear-ish days to break it in.

We also picked up a smaller solar panel & inverter.  We have a hand crank emergency radio and a few other things that can be hooked up to it our next power outage. 

We’ve been looking at solar power for the house but again other things have taken priority for a while. When we lived in VA we had solar hot water & I loved it. We had 8-12 children living with us at any given time & NEVER ran out of hot water with laundry, showers and dishes. Right now it’s time and $ to do it. 

My Father in law is recover well.  Early September he started really slowing down, just not feeling well in general & had trouble swallowing.  After a month of Dr’s appointments to find out what was going on, his knee just swelled up…. ballooning, red & painful.The knee he’d had replaced 3-4 years ago.   My brother in law took him to the  VA E.R. out of frustration/worry…  Turns out he had some type of bacterial infection that nearly killed him. They said he would not have made it a week longer.  They immediately admitted him and started a full workup in CCU.  Thankfully/weirdly the infection settled into the pin that connected the knee together.   Surgery to replace the pin and clean the knee out kept him in the hospital for a 10 day period over Thanksgiving.  4 weeks into a 6 week course of IV antibiotics has him feeling nearly himself again. We’ve still no idea how the infection was started.

The odd thing was his knee itself had been fine.  The infection just happened to settle there…what a blessing a replacement knee turned out to be in more ways than one!  He was feeling well enough he attended our company Christmas party Friday night and stayed the entire time.   First outing since September!

The hunters have been hunting with some success.  There are 3 deer in the freezer and we are hoping for 3 more (we supply family meat also) to have a cushion.

We got hit with that flu bug that ran through ours and Erika’s & the kids, then back to us, then back to a few of the kids a second time.  I think that has been the majority of our problem as it leaves you tired and sluggish for weeks….like your get up and go is on vacation LOL!

 

For not having much to say I’ve gotten pretty windy here!  I’ll catch up more next post

Have a wonderful weekend

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Solar Oven,preserving,family

Studio Space…It’s coming together

My shelf unit is done!  

Well, actually it’s been done but needed painted. 

  Larry built this unit based off of another I have in the kitchen for the crock pot and other larger appliances.  Aside from the trim on the face of the bins, all of the wool and materials used were salvaged from one project or another.  Years ago, when I worked at a local fabric store, they did a major remodel & tossed out a bunch of displays.  We hauled off as much as we could as it was super sturdy & good wood.  The top of this is from some of the last of the display wood. It weighs a ton and is sturdy enough to climb on (not that I’ll be doing any climbing) but it will probably out last me!

Our neighbor has a body shop and offered to give it a good paint job & we wanted to wait till he had the the paint booth free to do it. White car paint and 2 clear coats over the entire thing.

I don’t think I’ll be leaving any coffee cup stains on this one!

The shelves above he took down from a unused bedroom in the basement. 

My next issue was what to do with the wire shelf rack I’d bought and the wall of bins…I was so overwhelmed with how to create use-able space I was ready to walk away for the evening.  Trying to gain more functional space Larry suggested a counter….so we decided to use the rolling bins as a base & create a counter top above them.  In my mind I’m figuring how long it will take me to save for counters and….Larry heads out to the garage. 

  Simple frames stabilizing the counters over the bins

For a while this summer, the dealership rented a building for all the hail damage repairs to be done.  In the building there was quite a bit of odds and ends.  The owner was cleaning it up a bit and was tossing out these boards….which went against Mr. Fix-It’s grain (yes pun intended).  After looking at them he realized they were side rails to a bed frame 2 inches thick and 10 inches wide …he tossed them in the truck….to use someday.

Placing the 4 support frames and leaving a space for the electrical outlet

We shifted the wire bins up on the counter giving me

SPACE!!!!

I’m pretty sure I know where most things are now, I’ve shifted stuff around trying to see what works best & I’m sure I’ll be moving things around a bit more before I’m satisfied.  Not all of the sewing tools and quilting tools are together, But right now I know where things are, I have floor space, I can reach the radio,(one of the kids old stereo’s) I can walk to the window as the floor is cleared of boxes! The room, or this side at least feels 10 times bigger.

I’ve already used the sewing table a few times to make skirts for dresses & started a Jelly Roll Quilt.  It was so nice having elbow room.

 

I’m planning on using the cubby spaces for customers wool and my planned projects.  Boy do I have a lot of plans!   I may need to scale back somewhere as there are only 24 hours in a day but, those bare walls are starting to drive me crazy..er

It’s not done but all in all I’m pretty happy with it & very happy we’ve been able to stick with repurposing what you have and free materials!

Now to work on the wool side of the room

Hope your having a productive day

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,crafting,sewing,repurposing,recycling,storage,organizationally challanged

Behind

In everything it seems

.When ever I get off track in one part of my life it seems to follow to others. I’d like to get back in the routine of blogging & it’s a matter of organizing my time….and organized I’m not!  Routines this year have gone out the window and I desperately need to get back on track. 

This past month has been spent trying to catch up meeting myself coming and going…I think we’re all that way at times.  So I decided to stop trying to catch up and just move on with it.  Where I am other wise I’ll always feel behind.

There have been so many of you that have asked about my son’s recovery and I’m pleased to say he’s doing well.  Very well. We knew his head injury was potentially life changing but I also knew he did not really understand how bad it was…until he visited the VA Dr.  Who, proceeded to explain his injury is classified as in the top 5% worst head trauma.    When AJ walked into the office unassisted the Doc was shocked.  He explained with this type of injury most need assistance dressing, eating walking etc. & told him her was a walking miracle & That Aaron had resumed full time classes after the injury floored him.  Are there side effects from the injury?  Yes.  Staying focused or the ability to focus has been impacted.  His calculus class in which he had a 4.0…lets just say he’s taking over.  his balance is effected somewhat.  No alcohol, a toast of champagne at his sisters wedding had the world spinning.   Yes, he was cleared to fly 3 days before the wedding so he was here. 

What a gift to his sister!

Rachel, New Son in Law Justin, Danielle, Erika & Aaron

He was only able to be here for 2 days but, he was here.  Flew in Friday night and we took him back to the airport Sunday afternoon

Bitter sweet to say the least but it was wonderful to see him.

Well the days to-do list is pretty long so I better get busy.  Have a great Monday

Katie

 

 

Technorati Tags: Katidids,faily,weddings