Sewing & Stitching Update, March

 As far as sewing goes, there's been a whole lot more thinking than sewing (or quilting) going on.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Or, rather, the brain is guiltily thinking about all the sewing that is NOT getting done.

Stitching, though, has been happening on Tuesday and Thursdays--the days I babysit Faline in the afternoons--and I am feeling like there's progress being made there.  I am working on the Sew By Row pattern from Lori Holt (that I bought early last year? Or late 2020? and finally pulled out to work on).  This will be a project that I will keep for myself, to hang in the (hopefully actually created this summer) sewing/crafting room down in the basement.

285,000

 That's what the odometer on the trusty rusty Suburban said at the end of February.  I'm glad we got to that mileage.

This time last month, I wasn't so sure.  The first week of February, it made an unexpected foray into a ditch with DD2 and wedged itself up next to a bunch of trees in snow up to the bumpers.  We'd had a huge snowstorm the day before, and, while the roads were not good, it wasn't anything she hasn't driven through in the past while living in the Upper Peninsula and Alaska. What she didn't bargain for, on her way home from a doctor visit that had all ready been rescheduled twice (hence why she was on the crappy roads), was the idiot driver coming at her from the opposite direction but traveling in the center of the road.  When she attempted to move over closer to the shoulder to get out of that driver's way--because they weren't getting back into their proper lane, she hit a drift and got sucked off the road.  (And did the other driver stop to see if she was okay?  NO!)

Anyway. . . 

While the wrecker we called pulled it back onto the road, the rear window on the passenger side got broken by a tree limb.  Going into the ditch and trees had all ready dented the front fender, and a little of the front passenger door, torn off the fender molding and passenger side mirror, bent the antenna and broke the front passenger door handle.  Had we had full coverage insurance on it, given the age (2005) and mileage (284,500+), our car insurance company would have considered it totaled and that would be that.

a little crunched, and missing the molding

no mirror, and an antenna with a jaunty angle

the biggest ouch

But, we have PLPD insurance on it, and so it was up to DH and I to decide whether it should be scrapped, or repaired.  After about six hours of looking online at what used and brand new vehicles were currently available, we started calling scrap yards for prices on the parts that needed replacing, and an auto glass place for a quote on replacing that broken window. There was absolutely nothing on the market within 500 miles that we wanted to take out a loan on in order to buy.  I have to admit, I'm kind of set in my ways about what I want to drive, and the current SUVs are not it.

Plus, I really, really didn't want to junk the Suburban.  I've been driving it for 17 years now, and have a goal of hitting 300,000 miles.  We're getting so close to that target, I just couldn't see throwing in the towel.

DH spent a few Saturday afternoon hours at the salvage yard acquiring a new door handle and mirror. then installing them on the Suburban.  He also straightened the cockeyed antenna.

new mirror, and antenna straight

waiting on the glass repair guys

The rear side window was replaced in a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon by a local mobile glass repair service for less than $500.

A new fender is going to wait a bit; it's perfectly road-worthy with the dented up one.  We're holding out for a black one to match instead of just going with the non-matching colors currently available locally.

Less than $600 and about a week later after the ditch incident, the suburban rode again!

When You Can't Buy It, Make It

 The ongoing weird grocery shortages are really beginning to bug me.  For the most part, I'm a patient person, and I try to be flexible.

BUT, there are some things, simple things, that make life better.  And having frozen diced green peppers is one of them.  Having a bag of peppers in my freezer just makes homemade pizza better, and omelets better, and spaghetti sauce better, and sloppy joes better. . .  Makes my state of mind better, to be honest.  

Peppers were hit and miss in the garden in 2021, and we've all ready run through the ones I diced and froze last fall.  Honestly, we ran through those by the end of November.  Thinking I'd just go back to purchasing them, I put them on my grocery list.  And then couldn't find them in any of the (few) grocery stores near me that I frequent. Since that's pretty much a 20 mile radius, that meant no frozen peppers for me.  I do have limits on what's reasonable to drive for one grocery item.  So I adjusted my meal plans to just be without that little zip that green peppers bring to a recipe.

And so it went, all through December, and into January.  Still no frozen peppers.  In fact, all frozen veggies seemed to have disappeared.  No companies processing them?  Was this a shortage caused by all the tons of fresh produce left to rot in the fields last year due to a shortage of workers?  

Who knows?  But I wanted some damn blasted frozen diced peppers.  And, I can be really good at workarounds. So in January, when I found fresh green bell peppers on sale, I bought 4, took them home, diced and froze them myself.  

Guess what.  4 peppers worth didn't last long.  I started, again, in early February, to peruse the frozen veggie aisle at the store(s).  Still no peppers.  And so it went, all month long. For the record, I haven't seen frozen peppers in any store since last summer, when I had enough fresh ones in the garden that it didn't occur to me to stock up yet on frozen ones.

This week, still no frozen peppers.  But, fresh green bell peppers went on sale again!  So, I grabbed four more and repeated my stubborn process of making my own durn frozen diced peppers.

Cream cheese has been another MIA item for several months. We're almost out of it at this little place here, and today I pulled out my book on home cheese making.  Cream cheese sounds simple enough, I just need to check to see if I still have starter and rennet. . . Milk and heavy cream so far have been easy enough to pick up whenever I'm at the store.

Knitting Update, March

 Like everything else seems to anymore, February went fast.  I don't think I got as much knitting in as I had intended.  Sock #2 of the Rickrack socks I'm making as a surprise for Mother-In-Law is in the heel gusset decrease stage.  I'd kind of hoped to be grafting the toe by now. . .

But, I do like how they are turning out.  And there's not a whole lot more hours of knitting left to do and I will be working kitchener stitch on the toe, then weaving the ends where the colors got cut, and they will be officially done.

I didn't do a whole lot of reading in the past few weeks either.  I finished reading the Lager Queen of Minnesota by J Ryan Stradal, which was pretty good.  I especially liked that there was knowledgeable stuff about beer and microbrewing in the story, not just buzz words to fit into a trendy genre.  As someone who has brewed, and does know more than a little about the beer making process and chemistry, it was refreshing to read stuff that was correct.

After that, I read 101 Ways to go Zero Waste by Kathryn Kellogg, most of which was redundant as it's things we've been doing for years.  But, if you're not 50 or over, super frugal, and raised a bunch of kids on not a ton of money, there's probably lots of suggestions in it that would be new or of interest to you.

I also read Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons.  To me, it was an okay book.  Not terrible, not great, and maybe it just wasn't the right season of life for me to read and enjoy it.  I think I was just expecting it to be a little more than it was.  Or, maybe it was the three questions at the end of each chapter that were intended for personal reflection. . . kind of made it feel to me like a "read and discuss" book (sort of like high school literature class) which I never cared for and is probably the main reason I've never joined any book clubs.

Hopefully you've had copious amounts of knitting and reading time lately.  I'd love to hear any book suggestions you might have.

Riding Update, February

 There has been fairly consistent riding, finally!  Like at least once a week for several weeks running.  Camaro and I have even done some cantering, and I have to say it is better than the cantering we had last fall before I took my physical therapist imposed riding break.

We're still battling the scary door boogie man, but that is getting better.  I've found that if I can give Camaro enough things to think about as we head toward and through that end of the arena, he's less apt to spook.  Which means I have to be on my A game right from the time I get in the saddle so that I can keep track of all my and his body parts (am I holding the outside rein enough?  Is my inside hand drifting?  Is my seat encouraging him to swing through is back and go forward into contact?  Am I tensing up anything in anticipation of a spook? What is his inside shoulder doing?  Is he starting to suck back and lose engagement?  Is he on the bit or lifting his head and losing contact?) while asking him a bunch of questions at the same time: 

"Can you go more forward?"

"Can you NOT lean on my inside leg?"

"Can you take a step sideways toward the wall?  Toward the door?"

"Can you do a 20 meter circle here?  A 10 meter circle?"

"Can you halt for 4 seconds then trot off?"

Whoever thinks that dressage is just sitting there doing nothing while the horse goes around and around really ought to try it sometime.  It's kind of like rubbing your head and patting your stomach at the same time, while singing the Star Spangled Banner.

In other horse-related news, Camaro is shedding.  Let Spring begin!

Sewing Update, February

 I couldn't resist stitching another beaded Santa.  I know, I know, we just got done with Christmas, and next Christmas is a long way away.  But, I had a perfect Santa to make for our South Carolina girl, K2, and her birthday is in February.  So, perfect!  I could make it now, gift it for her birthday, and she'll have it to hang on her Christmas tree in December.

A beachy Santa for our coastal Carolina born K2

I finally put borders on the black, bright & batik quilt blocks (from a swap many years ago) that I'd sewed into a mostly finished top back in 2019 or 2020, I don't remember for sure when.  I also got the backing sewn.  Now it just needs to be sandwiched smoothly and quilted, then bound.  It will finish up twin sized.

I'm finding that sandwiching quilts larger than crib sized (or, slightly bigger than crib sized that I make for my grandbabies) is difficult in the space I have.  Kicking around the idea of researching how to design a portable (thus, storable) frame for stretching the layers onto and then having DH make me such a thing. Because I know I want to make more bed-sized quilts and will need somewhere to layer them wrinkle-free.

Knitting Update, February

 The Fallreep socks for Mom are finished!   I was amazed at how fast they seemed to knit up.  

I actually finished them over a week ago. Since then I mended 10(!!!) knitted dishcloths that had gotten a hole in them (from washing super sharp knives, I think) and started working on another pair of socks.

These socks are intended as a gift to Mother-In-Law.  Last fall, she saw me working on the socks for my Dad, and was amazed that I could knit with two separate colors.  Of course, I immediately knew that I wanted to make her a pair of socks with a design in them--two colors!  The pattern I chose is Rickrack Socks.  In the photos it looks more like a checkerboard design, but when you stretch them (as if wearing) it most definitely looks like rickrack.

I've done a little reading since the January update, finishing two books:

Daughters of Northern Shores by Joanne Bischof, which I really enjoyed.

Live and Let Pie by Ellie Alexander, which is another great Bakeshop mystery and I devoured it in just a few days.

I recently started The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal.  I kind of like it and kind of don't, depending on which chapter I'm on and which character is the focal point of that chapter.  Overall, I'd say it's interesting in a real-life midwesterner kind of way.