Grateful, November third Sunday

 (Oops it's Monday all ready.  Forgot to schedule this for publishing yesterday--Sunday)

My gratefulness post today is about how much better my knee has gotten in the past month.  Or however long it's actually been (somewhere close to a month) since DH's last trip that took him out of town for a week or so.  At that point, I was still having troubles doing my own chores and no way could have taken on any of his (like stoking the wood boiler).  This time, I'm probably at 75% capacity in my own heavy lifting, can actually do stairs like a normal person, walk a good 1/2 mile with no soreness or gait issues, AND I stoked the wood boiler! 

I confess, toting and swinging large chunks of wood into the opening of the firebox did cause a bit of pain the first few days, but by the end of the 10-day trip that DH was away for, my knee was no longer complaining about this task.

Physical therapy is coming along. Still doing strengthening and balance exercises, but they are way different and have increased in difficulty level compared to what they were a month ago.  And I'm down to once a week for PT instead of twice.We're getting there!  Hopefully in another month or so I'll be full steam ahead.

Riding Thoughts for November

I've been in the saddle at least once a week since my last horse/riding update.  Mounting is getting easier; more fluid, less twinge in my left knee.  Encouraging.

Both Camaro and I need want to do more than walk, so I've devised a plan for rising trot in 'sets'.  Kind of like when I am doing physical therapy exercises for my knee and the therapist has me repeat an exercise 10 times, then rest, then do 10 more.  I began with posting 10 strides of trot, then sitting 10 strides. Which also is great to work Camaro on sitting trot and relaxing at it because he finds me sitting to be worrying--probably because in his previous life as a hunter pleasure horse sitting trot was only done right before canter and canter is was a stressful thing.

I interspersed my 10 rising/10 sitting strides with 10 rising followed by 10 walking and also got a little work on upward/downward transitions.  As my knee allowed, I pushed the 10 rising strides into rising on long side of arena, sitting on short side, rising on long side for circuit or two in each direction.

My most recent ride I felt good, Camaro felt good, and for the heck of it, I asked for a canter depart on his easier (left) side.  Lovely, calm depart hooray!  Nice balanced canter, keeping it to half a lap of the arena, and then I asked for the downward transition into trot.  It was a nice downward transition but somehow jolted my knee and made it irritated for the rest of the day.  Hmm.  

I'm still thinking on the biodynamics of what happened in that downward transition.  It really wasn't a bad transition, not too abrupt, not rough or dumping on the forehand.  Perhaps it was just that the energetic trot we went into (love how canter improves the impulsion of the trot!) was more concussion than my knee currently has shock absorption for.  For a great part of the summer I had absolutely zero shock absorption in my knee, and if I bumped my foot on anything, that would cause excruciating pain to shoot up my leg.  As my knee heals and strengthens, the shock absorption is slowly rebuilding.  Very slowly.  It's only recently started to come back and is at maybe 25%

I guess you could say that in my current state of limited physical riding, I'm spending more time mentally riding.  A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I haven't needed to do a half-halt in a while.  Not because Camaro was so wonderfully balanced and obedient that I didn't have cause to half-halt him.  No.  The real issue was that in my weakened and painful state before I stopped riding in late summer, and in my being super careful with my knee state now that I've resumed riding, I've allowed him to just kind of coast along.  Get doggy.  We're lacking the proper amount of forward energy.  You can't half-halt if there's nothing there in need of the 'halt' portion.

This revelation led to another: if Camaro was quicker off my leg, as in more sensitive and obedient to it under lighter pressure, my leg also wouldn't tire as quickly.  Oh-ho!  And so for a few rides now I've been carrying my whip and backing up my nicely applied leg with a quick (and not stinging) touch of the whip.  He's a quick learner; typically one light tap of the whip is all that's needed and he remembers for the rest of that ride. His peppiness has been refound.  And, as a result of that more forward and closer attention to the touch of my leg on his side, leg yields are improving--we have more correct lateral steps in a row.

We might not be doing anything fancy in our rides,they are still short and mostly walk.  We probably won't be back up to full work load (at least equal time in trot as in walk, and working on canter briefly in both directions) for a few more months, but we're making progress.  Because working on basics is always a good way to improve the tougher stuff.  Forward in contact with a relaxed swinging stride is the name of the game.

Grateful, November second Sunday

 This growing season was kind of rough, with what seemed like a week of heat and humidity without rain followed by a slightly less hot week with a deluge of rain, followed by heat/no rain, followed by literally 3-4 inches of rain in a 24-36 hour period. Repeat, repeat, repeat.  There were many times I uttered the words "welcome to the tropics of Michigan" because of the ongoing humidity and heat.

Having my knee out of whack added another level of difficulty to keeping the garden weeded.  Not only was it sometimes too hot, sometimes too humid (hello potential heat stroke), sometimes too darn wet to even step in the garden (sink in mud to my ankles); bending and pulling weeds really made my knee hurt and swell up.  

So did bending and picking veggies when they ripened.

It was overwhelming quite often (depression high, blog posts low), trying to work mornings, babysit two afternoons a week starting mid-August and still find time to pick, can or freeze the veggies (and sometimes fruits too), plus make meals every day and sort-of keep up with housework.  And rest my knee, of course.  Starting in late July the doctor told me to stay off my feet as much as possible (I laughed and said that wasn't very possible given the time of year).  

Even with all those challenges, it was still a productive year in terms of growing and preserving food. The  cellar is quite full.  

Here we are in mid-November and the bulk of the food producing work is done.   And for that, I'm grateful.  A bountiful season.  A full cellar. We will have lots to eat this winter.

Firearm deer season starts tomorrow.  I'm also grateful for that.  It's time to harvest some red meat.

Sewing/Stitching Update, November

 Since last month, I made very little progress on the quilt that is intended to be a Christmas present for my parents.  I'm using the Disappearing Hourglass pattern with a size modification to make a couch sized throw. I'm also using just three colors. I did get the blue and green fabrics cut into 10" squares (the neutral fabric is a pack of precuts).  And then it sat untouched for a couple weeks.

This week, I've slowly started pairing the squares and doing the first step: sewing them right sides together with a 1/4" seam on all four sides.  I will sew all 25 blocks together like this before I do to step two, which is cutting and then pressing them open in preparation for step 3--more sewing.

Right now, there are four sewn squares, and 21 to go!

Meanwhile, I started another counted cross stitch kit as my nap-time project while watching Faline.

This one makes a small banner, and came with a little metal hanger.  It cost me nothing, as it was in with a whole bunch of crafting stuff that someone gave my mother-in-law, and she then passed along to me thinking there was mostly embroidery floss and plastic canvas stuff (I'd said yes to both) in the boxes.  This kit, unlike a few others in the same box, was complete and unopened.  It is also a perfect size to stitch up quickly and give as a Christmas gift to DS1 and K2, who purchased their first house this Fall!

It does say their last name, but in my anonymity policy for the blog, 

I edited that out of the photo

It is about 2/3 stitched at present, and I foresee no issues getting it completed and on it's little hanger in the coming month.

What are you sewing and/or stitching currently?

Grateful, November first Sunday

 Gratitude is actually something I've been trying to focus on for several months.  Seeing several blogs where the author is trying to post each day in the month of November about something they are grateful for got me to thinking more about what I am grateful for.  I know, realistically, there is no way I'm going to manage a post a day for the rest of this month.  But, perhaps, I can do a post each Sunday.  

Here is this week's attempt at that.  Maybe, if I can get through November, I'll try continuing it in December.  Because gratitude isn't something that's restricted to only the month in which we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.  

This summer, DH finally helped me to get our porch swing from the basement--where it had been stored since our kids gave it to us for Christmas in 2019--up to the garage where I could stain and seal it.  

I had always wanted a swing on our wrap around porch, in fact, that was the main reason I wanted a wrap-around porch in the first place back when we were designing this house in 2001 before we started building it.  Took quite a bit longer than I'd thought to actually acquire that swing, but here it was, in July 2021 sitting  on sawhorses in the garage awaiting my perfectionistic DIY touch.

swing half stained

tilted backwards so I could stain the underside too

Once it had cured and was weather-proof, DH hung it on the south end of the front porch one day while I was away from home.  It was such a great thing to walk around the corner and discover.  The perfect little shady nook that catches a good breeze more days than not.  Exactly what I had always envisioned for spending a relaxing hour or two with a good book.

Relaxation is not a skill that I come by naturally.  It's one that I have to consciously pursue, otherwise I'm constantly chasing after this task and that that need to be done, or helping other people until I'm so tightly wound I can't think straight. Having my swing finally is helping me learn to take a little me time now and then. Even better if I can convince DH to sit with me on the swing, although it's not really his kind of thing.

I'm grateful for this swing, my outdoor relaxation spot.  I'm grateful for DH, who carried it up from the basement so I could finish it, who also put the supports in the porch rafters so it could be hung, and then hung it for me.  I'm grateful for my four kids, who orchestrated the purchasing of this swing (and bought it as unfinished bare wood so I could stain it the exact way I wanted it to look) because they figured that after this many years DH wasn't going to prioritize this particular want of mine.

Knitting Update, November

Faline's stocking is off the needles!  That's my big knitting accomplishment to share.  I've made the three i-cord hangers for the stockings, and all that's left is the sewing (folded cuff edge, attach i-cord, put on beads and star buttons).  These will actually be done by Thanksgiving with no serious stressing and sweating involved.  Hooray!

I have also taken notes and made copies of the (cross stitch turned knitting) charts that I subbed in the areas where the original pattern were blank or didn't provide the exact chart.  Yarn colors are written down, so in the future, if there is an addition to DD1's family, I can make another matching stocking for that person.

3 stockings, unblocked, with 3 i-cord hangers unattached

Sock #1 of the Rubia socks for my Dad has been done for quite a few weeks.  The second sock is more than half-way through the leg portion. It should be done by the end of this month and ready for Christmas gifting.

There will be another knitting project cast on soon, once the stockings are embellished and they are in their new home.  I have a few ideas in mind for my next project; I just have to give an honest look at what time I'll have between now and Christmas and decide if I'm starting another Christmas present, or doing something that will take into 2022 to finish.

My current read is Jambusters   by Julie Summers. I've only begun chapter one, so I have no idea if I'll like the book enough to read all the way through or not.

Other books I've read recently are :

• The Beginning by Beverly Lewis.  Honestly, while I've been a Beverly Lewis fan for over 20 years, I really didn't like this newest book as well as I've liked her others. I can't quite put my finger on one particular thing I had issue with, but I finished the book and felt just kind of ho-hum about the experience.
• Sons of Blackbird Mountain by Joanne Bischof.  Loved this book.  Can't wait to read the sequel, and more from this author.
• The Cure For What Ales You by Ellie Alexander.  After waiting all year for this book to come out; like the above mentioned Beverly Lewis book, I just didn't like it as well as I had the author's previous books in the series.  Not a bad book, but was a little lacking, I thought.  It deals mostly with the mystery of where did Sloan come from, and not a whole lot of actual brewing-related story.