Meanwhile. . .

I mentioned yesterday that we had been without power for approximately 92 hours.  Lack of a full and regular electric supply (we did run the generator, just not all the time; a few hours here and there each day to keep fridges and freezers cold enough and allow the well pump to run and replenish the pressure tank) caused us to adjust our daily activities somewhat, but that doesn't mean we didn't accomplish anything.

What I didn't do:

• laundry--uses a lot of water and power from generator
• baking--oven uses too much power, we don't use it while running on generator power
• canning--I have a gas stove top, so I can keep cooking through a power outage, but canning uses a whole lot of water

What I did do:

• knit
• all cleaning that uses manual tools (sweeping, dusting, decluttering, etc)
• harvest onions
• cook down tomatoes for totally fresh and from scratch tomato soup (versus canning them; they were to the point by day 3 of no power that they were going to turn to mush on the counter)
• put up hay

Yep.  Put up hay.  That big storm might have caused widespread power outages, but it also brought in a 4-day stretch of beautiful sunny, slightly breezy, warm and dry weather.  The family who custom bales my hay stopped by on Saturday morning, while I was in the garden discovering some storm damage, and asked if I'd like my second cutting done right then.  

Would I?  You betcha!  I mean, first didn't get done until mid-July, and now it's early September and second has grown enough to be worth baling.  Besides, it's September; we're running out of hay weather, which has been especially hard to come by this year.

So, while I was finding this in my garden:

1st bean pole blown to 45 degree angle

2nd bean pole snapped off by strong winds

my hay field was getting mowed to look like this:

a beautiful sight

I also harvested most of my onions (the red zeppelins aren't quite ready yet, but the ringmasters and copras all had tops that had fallen over, indicating ripeness).

a few of the copra

row of ringmaster

I think I will just go ahead and pull out all the pole bean plants.  They aren't done producing yet, but without the poles as supports, they are a tangled mess, making picking beans very difficult.  I've got enough canned and frozen to last us until next summer's beans are ready.  Rather than considering it a loss, I've decided to think of it as getting a jump on fall's garden clean-up.

DH and I also spent quite a bit of time on the phone with both of our sons during the power outage .  Big changes coming for each of them, and also for us.  More on that in a future post.

Yarn Along 4: Between Storms

Joining in with  Ginny  for the Yarn Along once again.

We finally got power back mid-afternoon yesterday after being out since the storm Friday evening.  Approximately 92 hours of no electric service.  It wasn't horrible, being summer and having the generator to run occasionally so the fridges and freezers stayed pretty cold and we had water to use sparingly.  But, you know, when you're supposed to have something and it's just not there. . . gets old after a few days.

Especially knowing that the weather forecast for today is another big storm, supposedly similar to the one that went through on Friday.  So we're all thinking that now we finally have power restored, there's a good chance it is just going to go out again before tonight gets here.

I  have a lot of catch-up baking and canning to do today while I have the chance.

I did manage to do a bit of knitting in the past week, and start a new book too.

The book is Beverly Lewis's newest one, The River.  She is one of my favorite authors, so when I heard she had another book coming out, I requested it from the library.  Which means, when it gets to me, I have 7 days to read and return it. Last week was not exactly the best time for it to arrive at the library, but, it is what it is and I'm trying my best despite power outages, putting up hay, canning tomatoes and whatnot, to get it read before I have to return it at the end of this week.

Knitting wise, I finished sock #1 of Mom's Christmas socks  and have finished the ribbing on the cuff of sock #2.  They are moving right along on schedule, to be done by the end of September so I can cast on Christmas socks #2, which will be this pattern for DS2.

Having fun with Septembers KAL dishcloth .  The design is starting to be visible now, and I'm trying to figure out what exactly it is.  Doing a new two rows each day adds to the suspense.

Also in the picture is a new project.  Done in pink and dark grey stripes, I am making this for K3.  The pink is a little washed out in the picture, in real life the contrast is better and more girlish without being over the top girlie-girlie.  It has knit up surprisingly fast; the hood itself is finished and I have cast on for the attached scarf.  This should be a FO (finished object) by the end of this weekend.

What are you knitting and reading this week?

We Had a Bit of a Storm

Friday was the hottest day of the summer.  Ironic, being that so many people keep saying it's fall since school is back in session.  But, it was. We finally hit 90 degrees (it's been a cool, wet summer overall).  And, of course, having a hot hot day like that meant that some volatile weather came our way late in the afternoon.

It was after dinner, actually, when I felt the wind change and pick up.  I went out front, since front is west and west is the direction most of our weather comes from.  What I saw sent me back inside for the camera.

I could tell the front coming in was going to be good for a strong storm.  Especially, as it got closer, I could see clouds not just scudding toward the east, but also see updrafts and some partial rotations form.

You say "rotation" in reference to a storm, and most people go inside to shelter.  Me, I got excited and stood in the yard, camera pointing up, trying to get pictures of the spots where the rotations would form, then break apart.  Of course I was watching for any signs of funnel clouds all the while; I'm not totally stupid.  ;0)

I did get one good picture that you can see some rotation in the clouds. That was looking straight up, at the underside of the cloud.

But it didn't develop further than that.  No funnel descent.  About then the sky broke open and I scurried indoors to shut the windows so my wood floors didn't get wet.  Inside, I did take a few more pictures, mostly of the trees getting lashed by the wind and rain.

Once the storm had passed, I started scouting around for damage.  All I found was this:

One piece of wooden siding had been ripped off the chicken coop by the wind.  It was lifted over the stuff in the foreground, and I found it resting, unscathed, on top of the brush hog.  DH and I put it back on that night (in the pouring rain which started up again half-way through our endeavor.)

Other than that, our only lasting sign of the storm is this:

Yep, power's out.  Running the generator a few hours a couple times a day to keep the fridges and freezers cold, as well as let the well pump run and refill the pressure tank so we can have some water to use sparingly.  

Challenge #32: Stop Procrastinating

I almost titled this one "Challenge Yourself" as in Make-Your-Own-Challenge.  But, I figured when it came right down to it, what I was going to tell you was to stop procrastinating.

You know, that one project (or maybe two) that you kept saying you were going to get done, but so far this year it hasn't happened yet.   If it's an outdoor project, in need of warm and dry weather, you are probably running out of time.  So, you should just bite the bullet and get it done.

For example, we were going to stain the deck and the front porch.  Last year.  DH power washed the deck in preparation to stain it.  But then he never got around to figuring up how much stain we needed to buy, so I never went and bought it.  And then suddenly it was winter.  Can't stain the deck, in Michigan, in the winter.  So, we put it off for this summer.

Early this summer, DH power washed the front porch in preparation to stain it.  We were really going to get it done this time!  In fact, we were going to do it before hosting the family reunion in late July.

Uh-huh.  We were.  Honest.  But, you know, it's still not done.  Still haven't bought the stain.  DH still hasn't figured up how much we need (and I really, really suck at that kind of thing--figuring linear feet and translating that into volume of liquid needed to cover the area).

Just the other day he was telling me that we need to get the stain bought if we were going to stain the deck and the porch this year.  We're running out of good weather.  We both know once October gets here, a colder wetter season sets in.  A season in which you don't get a dry deck and a warm day to stain and a couple days of no precipitation/heavy morning fog for the stain to dry well to happen all in a row like that.

I reminded him that he needs to do the math and let me know how much stain to buy.  Otherwise I'm going to have to do the best I can with that kind of geometrical figuring (I hated Geometry in school, it hurt my brain much more than advanced algebraic functions did) and we'll either end up with way more stain than we need, or not quite enough.

He and I both need to stop procrastinating.  I really could look up exactly how to figure how many gallons and parts of gallons it would take to get the project done.  Or, he really could take all of two minutes and do the calculating himself.  Either way, we'd be able to go buy the stain, and be ready to apply it while the weather  is still favorable.

What have you been procrastinating about?  How much time would it actually take you to get it done if you stopped dragging your feet and making it into a mountain rather than the molehill it probably is.

Stop procrastinating.

The Ones Left Behind

Got a child who left for college this fall?  Got more children still at home?

This time of transition doesn't just affect the one who left the nest.  It affects Mom, Dad, and younger siblings too.  The ones left behind.

Let me share with you what I found as each of my three older children left home.

DS1 left home for the military. We'd had months to prepare for his departure; he'd enlisted in January of his senior year, with an actual leaving home date of Labor Day.  When Labor Day came, DH, DS2, DD1, DD2 and I dropped him off at the local recruiting station with just the clothes on his back, and a Bible. That was all he was allowed to take to boot camp with him, as once there, he would be issued new clothing and his head would be shaved (regulation, to make all the newcomers equals and to build bonds in the platoon). Other than a phone call to let us know  he'd arrived safely, we would have no contact with him other than through letters sent by U.S. mail for the next 13 weeks.  We all gave him hugs, told him how proud we were of him, how much we all believed he would succeed in the Marine Corps, and then we left.  It was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do up to that point, and honestly, I think there hasn't been anything since that day that was so tough for me.

Back at home, DH cried (in private, with me, never in front of the kids).  He was filled with doubt, worried that he had somehow not been a good enough father to DS1. Regretting all the missed opportunities for more one-on-one time with him. I was totally unprepared for this reaction, and it unbalanced me.  I had been prepared to be sad, myself, at our eldest child leaving the nest. And, oddly, I had a profound sense of accomplishment:  "I did it, I raised one to adulthood; I am a good mother!" (Hadn't known I'd been carrying in my head and heart negative words thrown at me 18 years prior by someone who had been trying to convince my pregnant teenage self to abort the baby--DS1).  But I was thrown for a loop by DH being so overwhelmed with emotion.  I hadn't been prepared to comfort him, to need to comfort him, as the son he'd often butted heads with left home.

Chores got split up between the three kids left at home, each taking on an additional chore (DS1's share)  than they were used to being  responsible for.  DS2 became the family 'trashman'; the duty of taking the trash out to the end of the driveway on pick-up day now fell to him as the oldest child in the house.  DD1 toughened her attitude a little bit, as she thought was fitting for the sister of a United States Marine.  DD2 cried.  For weeks.  Every night.  As if her heart were breaking.  Another response I was not prepared for.  It made me realize that to her nine year old self, DS1 had almost been a third parent; the stand-in grown-up to take care of her and protect her when Mom and Dad weren't around.

Then we had four years to get ready for the next offspring to fly the nest.  I thought we'd be ready this time.

When we left DS2 standing excitedly in his college dorm room 500 miles from home, I could barely see to make it down the four flights of stairs to the parking lot because of the tears that filled my eyes.  One glance at DH told me he was having the same problem. The girls bounced joyfully down the stairs ahead of us, chattering about could one of them have the boys' old bedroom now so they wouldn't have to share the girls' room anymore, (the answer was no, DS2 would still need a place to sleep when he came home on breaks), and DD1 saying how she couldn't wait til the following year, when she would leave for college too.  In the Suburban, DH looked at me, swiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and said in a quiet voice "The hardest part is knowing that we're not leaving him; he's leaving us.  He's all grown up, he doesn't need us anymore."   And it was true.  That's what made our eyes so full of tears; knowing that our most independent child was so ready for this day, so ready to wave goodbye to his parents and tackle adulthood on his own.  It was three weeks before he even called home to say hi.

Meanwhile, back at home, the chores that once upon a time got split between four kids were revamped.  Some I took back, the rest were split two ways between the girls.  DD1, now the eldest child at home, became the family trashman.  She bore it less than gracefully, constantly reminding DD2 that it was only for a year, then DD2 would have to be the trashman for three full years before she graduated and left home.

With DS2 leaving, DH had no doubts about his fatherhood performance.  Instead, this time, he seemed to draw away from the three females in the house, insisting there was "too much estrogen" now that he was the only male on the premises.  I'll be honest, this hurt me deeply.  The girls, too, developed a little bit of a chasm from their father.  DD1's boyfriend became her priority for spending time with instead of her father, who had always held the place of honor in her life.  And, while DD1's boyfriend is about as model of a perfect boyfriend you'd ever want for your daughter, DH became almost antagonistic toward him.  (The boyfriend is still around today, and, after more than 3 years of dating DD1, is convinced that DH doesn't like him despite DH now warming up.)

The following year, DD1 got her turn.  We left her 750 miles away, happily arranging her dorm room with her new room mate.  She was excited, having finally arrived at the college she'd dreamed of attending since 1st grade.  We were excited--Yay us, another child left home and on the path to a successful adulthood.  I honestly don't think DH or I cried that time.

However, that very night DH texted her.  And the next day he called her.  And every day after that, his first words to me upon returning home from work each night were  "did you talk to DD1 today?" Talk to?  Usually. Get a text from?  Always.  Several times a day.  Unlike my sons, I didn't get a chance to miss her because she was still in contact with me.  Almost more than I wanted her to be.  The first time we didn't hear from DD1 for more than 36 hours, DH insisted I call her to make sure she was okay.  Was it any wonder she ended up moving back home at the end of the semester?

But before DD1 came home, DD2 and I had spent four whole months running the house as smooth as clockwork.  We split the chores, she and I, all those chores  that once upon a time had been the work of four children, and they all got done seamlessly.  If it was her chore to do dishes and she had an after school event that would keep her out late, she asked, usually two or three days ahead of time, if I would do the dishes for her in exchange for her doing one of my chores (usually dishes) on a different day.  If it weren't for her intense hatred of being the family trashman (and me reminding her just about every week to take out the trash on your way to the school bus!!!), I would have wondered what impostor had slipped into the role of my youngest child.

And then DH let DD1 quit the college she had been attending, move back home, and attend the community college here.  Oh, he was happy as a clam to have her home again.  DD2 not so much.  After a month of screaming and fighting, I split up the two girls, not just to different bedrooms, but to different floors of the house:  DD2 retaining the room that had always been the girls' (that DD2 had slept in since she was 5 years old and as the youngest was supposed to keep until she left home), and DD1 having a room set up in the basement for her.  That helped somewhat, but chores were a huge problem.  DD1 didn't do hers, mostly.  And she only had two:  dishes twice a week and clean the bathroom she was using.  DD2 and I had the rest.  Oh, now and then she would with much badgering, but mostly she would put them off, or completely blow me off.  And then DD2 got into the act because why in the world should she have to do chores if her sister didn't have to?  So, while DH was happy, and DD1 was fairly happy (except when I was reminding her of her responsibility to the household of doing her chores on time), DD2 was not happy and I was carrying the complaints of them all.

DD1 leaves home, take two.  She just left again a few weeks ago.  Much closer this time, only about 90 miles away.  She can come home on weekends if she wants to (DH likes this part especially).  It's been amazing how suddenly, with her sister gone, DD2 has become the sweet, responsible, and helpful person she was for the four months that DD1 lived out of state two years ago.  Chores are done, on time, no complaining.  She requests chore exchanges, in advance, for the evenings she won't be home until bedtime.  I'm happier again.  Not that I don't love DD1, because I do; I don't have favorites of my children, but everything is just so much smoother now with her out of the house.  Something about personality differences, about parental expectations, and about how DH still wanted to treat her like a child, sort of (when it came to what I expected of her as an adult in my house) and how DD1 wanted to play this to her advantage at times, but fight over it at others, that just makes her moving out a positive, easy transition for me.  And, apparently, for DD2 as well.

How will it be next August when the baby of the family, DD2, leaves home?  We will only know for sure when it happens.  But, I don't anticipate feeling lost like you often hear from mothers once their youngest leaves the nest.  I think DH probably will go through another regret phrase like he did when DS1 left, he butts heads with her almost as much as he did with DS1, but I don't see that happening with me.  I have a long list of things I've been waiting years to do, to explore, once my motherhood duties were completed.  I've spent the vast majority of DD2's life at home when she's home; I've spent a lot of time with her.  Sure, there are a few things we never did that I had wanted to do together, but I'm not filled with regret for those things.  Right now, I'm mostly trying to remember to grasp onto the senior year of high school things that I did with her siblings and make sure I do them with her too.


I hadn't intended this post to be so long, or so mostly about my family when I started.  I just wanted to bring up the point that when there are siblings still at home, it's not just Mom and Dad who have to adjust to a child leaving for college or the military, it's also the younger brothers and sisters left behind that will go through a transition.  If you have children at home, don't forget that they, too, are feeling the change, the lack of a family member's presence.  They too need a little time to adjust, and probably will need some more of your attention in one way or another, until everyone gets used to the new family dynamic.

Yarn Along 3: 2 Done, and 2 In Progress

Joining Ginny at Small Things again this week for the Yarn Along.

I finished the dish cloth that I was making for the August KAL.  It turned out to be a flip-flop, and, while I personally hate flip-flops (all that flapping on the bottom of my feet and the thong-y part between my toes--OUCH!), many people love them.  So, I can see myself making several more dish cloths in this pattern to give as gifts in the future.

Not the greatest picture in the world, what with the dish cloth lying all wonky and the color being washed out, but, well, at least you get the idea of how the design looks.

I also finished the Irish Mesh cowl.  I was surprised by how fast it knit up; being 220 stitches per row and all.  Just might find time to do another one of these to keep for myself; this one is slated to be a Christmas gift.  Since I just finished it last night, it got included with today's pictures of my WIPs  (Work In Progress, for those not in the know of crafty lingo, LOL).

Still working on the socks for my Mom; sock #1 has the heel done and about 1" of the foot so far.  It should be finished by this time next week, with sock #2 cast on as soon as this one is done.  I really like the way the colors of the yarn are working with this pattern, and I think Mom will love it.  She wears a lot of these tones, which is why when I saw the yarn it screamed "socks for Mom" at me.

My other WIP is another KAL dish cloth.  If you want to join in, you can find instructions here.

I gave up on the book I was struggling with last week.  Once upon a time, I would force myself to finish every book I started no matter how dry it was or if it turned out to be not my genre or writing style.  But then, a few years ago I realized I was reading for myself, not for a class, not for a work assignment.  So why in the world would I force myself to finish a tome I just wasn't into?!? That was the day I gave myself permission to drop a book if after a good long chance (roughly 100 pages if it's a largish book, 50 if it's short) I wasn't liking it.  Happy Wives Club, I just wasn't liking the writing style, so about page 80, I said "bye-bye" and took it back to the library.

Phew!  On to more interesting books, like this one:  Dressage Tips and Training Solutions, which is right up my alley.  Instructive, with good descriptions, not dry or overly wordy.  And lots of diagrams and pictures.  Best of all, it's sparking my interest in riding again, which is something I used to love but somehow let other things get in the way and drag me down until riding wasn't such a priority anymore.

September is Tomatoes

Despite what the media (and therefore, now pretty much everyone else you run into) tells you, summer has not ended.  Nor will it end tomorrow, when Labor Day weekend is over and all of Michigan's kids enrolled in public schools start a new school year.

Summer does not end with the beginning of September.  Summer break from classes might end, and vacation time for most workers might end, but summer is still going strong.  Summer does not end until the autumnal equinox in late September.  The growing season does not end until we've had a series of frosts in October.

At this little place here, September is still summer, still the growing season; and because it is still summer, the garden does not end yet.  Nope, not hardly. September is when the garden cranks out tomatoes left and right.  They begin, the first tentative orangey blushes, in mid-August, but the plants don't really get going with the vermilion orbs until September.  September is tomatoes.

Currently, my kitchen island (which is 6 foot long by 3 foot wide) is completely covered in tomatoes.  All of which were picked in one day, just the ripest ones, and leaving the almost ripe ones for a few days in the future (say, tomorrow since these were picked yesterday).  That's a lot of tomatoes.  But it's really just the beginning of the tomato harvest for us.

Friday I made pico de gallo. Saturday I made and canned a batch of tomato sauce and a double sized batch of salsa.  Sunday we ate BLTs for lunch, the cumulation of which used up all the tomatoes I had picked up to that point.  Sunday afternoon DD2 and I picked more tomatoes, filling the island.

Today I am making more tomato sauce to can, and canning chopped tomatoes.  I started the day by making omelets with tomatoes, and also made a fresh batch of pico for snacking on.

Pick tomatoes, process tomatoes.  This will be my two-day rotation for the entire month. It doesn't stop until the first killing frost comes in October.  September is tomatoes.