How Time Flies

   Well, here it is, 2011 already. I noticed when Tim and I started having kids, that time went by really fast. Being a grandparent speeds time up even more. When I was a teenager, I couldn't even imagine being a parent, yet alone, a grandparent. You know the saying "time flies when you're having fun"? Well, I can honestly say, it wasn't all fun, but the time did fly.
   I didn't stay up to see the New Year in. My movie ended about 10 and I finished my book about 11 and boredom set in so I went to bed. If you've seen 1 New Year in, you've seen them all. At least up here, there were no guns being shot off, like there is in the city, which is odd, since we hear gun shots all the time up here, what with target practice and hunting.
   I decided in December I was really going to make a big effort and loose weight, eat better and hopefully get in better shape. I figure, since it was in December that I decided this, it's not a New Year's resolution. For me, New Year resolutions last about a day, so I just don't make them.
   I have more things to crochet for Myrna. She says she's going to keep me in business. I guess if that's the case, I should get organized. I'm not very good at being organized. I start out well and it goes down hill from there.
   We still have snow and it has been in the teens and 20's for our highs and in the single digits and teens for our lows. More snow is expected.
   I saw an immature bald eagle fly over the house the other day. This time of year, we usually see bald eagles flying by. In Wolf Lodge Bay, Idaho, you can go and see many bald eagles as they catch the dying salmon. January and February are the best times to see them. We never manage to get up there in time to see them. Maybe this year, but icy roads and snow aren't good traveling conditions. Also, in February, up in Utt,WA the trumpet swans stop by on their way up to Canada. I'd like to go and see them again, too. It's closer to us, so the possibilities are better.
   I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I hope the New Year is good to everyone. I'm off to a good start. I actually folded the towels, just in time to wash more. Maybe I should make folding clothes my resolution, since the clothes folding dryer hasn't been invented yet.

Michaela's Bear

    I finally finished Michaela's bear. It's 15 inches tall. Since Michaela isn't even born yet, it might be bigger than she is. I even made it so it stands up by itself.
   Tim told me teddy bears are suppose to be brown, but I told him it was a polar bear. Yeah, I know, polar bears don't have blue eyes, but I thought I'd be different.
   I am going to make a bear for each grandchild, so I need to make 3 more. I wasn't sure if Micheal was too big for teddy bears since he's 5 now, so I had Alyssa (his mom) ask him if he liked bears. Micheal said no "because they get you dead." When she

asked him if he liked teddy bears, he said yes.
   Since the other grand kids are boys, I think I will make one tan with camo overalls and some hair on it's head. I haven't decided about the other 2, but one might be a panda bear. Since I don't care who gets which bear. I think I will wrap them and just let the boys pick one.
   There is no way I will have 3 finished before Christmas, since I haven't started on them yet. They will be "just because" bears.
   I saw on the National Weather Service site that next Monday night is suppose to get down to 5 and the high for Tuesday is suppose to be 18. There will be some snow thrown in there, too, so I'll have plenty of time to work on them.
   I also have 2 more hooded scarves to make for Myrna. One of these days, I plan on trying to make enough crocheted things to try to sell. I'm not having much luck lately.
   I bought some Smartglo crochet hooks. They glow in the dark. Supposedly they make crocheting dark yarns easier to see, and make it easier to crochet in dim light. They glow nice. I don't know about the rest. They did have some rough spots on them that I needed to sand down.
   I have been downloading a lot of old time radio shows off of the internet. I like listening to them. Right now, I am downloading  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I am trying to see how much music and radio shows I can put on my 16gb mp3 player. If that gets full, I can always put more on my 4gb mp3 player. What I really need to do is burn them to discs so I don't loose them and I can change the shows.
   I made 7 more half pints of cherry preserves today. I am getting better at it. I have enough cherries in the freezer for one more batch, so I think that is tomorrows project. I also have to make more potato soup mix. Tim is going through a lot of it.
   Oddly enough, I don't have any towels, or anything else, to fold, so I'm doing good.

Chip And I Were Feeling Crafty

   Chip and I were feeling crafty today. Chip couldn't figure out how to spin. Sometimes, having paws isn't a good thing. Chip has figured out how to unwind the bobbins of yarn I had spun. I'm not very happy when he does that, so now, all bobbins with spun yarn on them, live on the loom.

   While Chip was trying to figure out how to spin, I was crocheting baby booties. I got the pattern out of the June 2010 Crochet World.

Booties about 3 1/2" long

Front view

Side view

   I even managed to fold that clothes basket full of towels. Too bad, I couldn't get the pictures side by side.

This Winter's First Snow

   I saw snow on Mt. Spokane today. Well, briefly, I saw snow on Mt. Spokane. I can usually see Mt. Spokane from our windows, but, for the most part lately, it's hiding behind low clouds and fog. We even had a few tiny snow flakes this morning, but they didn't stick. Tim stuck the snow gauge in the ground, so I'm ready. I have plenty to keep me busy, and I'm really good at wasting lots of time on the internet.We are getting rained on right now. We have had almost nonstop rain since Sunday. Tomorrow looks like the only non rainy day for awhile.
   Poor Jake doesn't like getting his feet muddy, so getting him to go out is a battle. That dog must have a huge bladder. Chip, on the other hand, tromps through every puddle he sees. Last winter, since Chip was still a puppy, we didn't let him play in the snow much. I bet he'll have a blast in it this year. Jake used to like snow, but he's turning into an old man dog. Either that, or he got smarter. Both dogs like to eat snow off of the floor, and Chip really liked eating snow outside. So much so, that he forgot why he was outside.
   I finally finished putting up all the onions and corn. I have lots of carrots and potatoes left. I need to do something with most of the carrots before Dec. Our oldest daughter is having a baby and I will be in CA for the event, if the baby cooperates. This will be my first trip anywhere all by myself.
   I made chunky cinnamon apples and some chunky apple butter using pumpkin pie spice. Both turned out really good. I still have 7 apples left. I haven't decided what to do with them yet. I used Jonagold apples. I really like them. They are a very juicy, all purpose apple.
   Today, I made a chocolate cake that uses leftover mashed potatoes. It's pretty good. I have been making cherry cobbler lately with some of the cherries I have stashed away in the freezer. I have 3 gallon bags of cherries left. I thought I only had 2. I wonder why I don't seem to be loosing a lot of weight lately?
   I finally finished crocheting my sister-in-laws hats and scarves. Now, I need to finish a baby blanket and make 1 more bootie for the upcoming granddaughter. I'm slowly making progress. I'm also going to make Michaela a crocheted bunting doll. I really don't think she'll care if they aren't all done when she's born.
   I do have another load of towels in the clothes basket waiting for me to fold them. I bet you couldn't tell I don't like to fold towels. I don't know why. They aren't hard to fold. I guess I'm waiting for the clothes dryer that fold, hangs up and puts away clothes.

Farmville For Real or 100 1/4 Pounds Of Veggies And Growing

   I have been very busy lately with everything from the garden. I know, people that have bigger gardens, maybe even smaller gardens, could be busier than I have been. So far, since August until now, we have harvested 100 1/4 pounds of produce. That doesn't include the odd tomato, ears of corn, few pea pods.
This is my second year of canning. So far, so good. I made cherry preserves, that turned out kind of thin, but they are good on my granola and waffles. I think I have that problem figured out. My big stainless steel pot isn't quite big enough, so I didn't let the cherries boil long enough after I added the liquid pectin. It was about ready to boil over, and that would have been a big mess that I didn't want to clean up, so, it's good, but thin, preserves.
   I'm pretty sure we don't need to plant any onions next spring. We still have some in the garden. I have a gallon bag full of small onions that the deer said we needed to harvest early. I have 1 quart jar of chopped dehydrated onions and 5 quarts of dehydrated onion rings. I have figured out the best way to slice the onions to dehydrate. I peel the onions and leave them whole with the root end still on. I use my handy dandy slicer and hold the root end when it gets to the part I usually toss anyway. My slices are nice and even this way.
To chop them, I put the dried rings in a stainless steel bowl and use my pastry cutter to chop them up. This method works great.
   We thought we were coming to an end with the zucchini, but they keep on coming. We haven't had very many patty pan squash, because the deer, or the porcupine that's around, find them quite good.
We have been harvesting some of the potatoes. They are very good. We had 2 big potatoes ( they are the more expensive white potatoes you get from the grocery store), that had brown spots in the middle. We read that was because they had too much water. They were very juicy potatoes. I used the good parts. They were good potatoes.
   I've dehydrated some the way you are suppose to, according to dehydrating sites and my dehydrating book, and the potatoes still turned brown. Good still, just not pretty. I ran across several sites the other day that said cook them whole until a bamboo skewer pushes through easily, yet the potato doesn't fall apart. Cool the in the fridge over night because you want the firm to slice or shred. Peel them and then slice or shred for hash browns. You can freeze them or dehydrate them this way and they aren't suppose to turn brown or black. If they do, you didn't cook them long enough. Anyway, this is the way I will try next.
The carrots are ready to harvest. It's odd that some of the ones Tim has pulled up are red and others are orange. The seeds came from the seed package. I guess next year, I should save the seed packets after I plant the seeds. I've just been tossing them when I used all the seeds. I figured I didn't need them.
The deer, or porcupine, are eating the tomatoes now, as well as eating the plants again. We still hope the weather stays warm enough for them. The tomatoes, not the critters.
   We have had 28 ears of corn. We cut most of the corn off of the cob and froze it in bags in 2 serving size portions.
   The watermelon has melons. Way more than we need.
   Our cucumbers just keep on coming. They are not pickling cucumbers, but, I made sweet pickles yesterday using them. 9 pints of them. It was the first time I've made them. I used a mix. I thought I did a pretty good job for a first attempt, but Tim came home from work and ask if I put too much juice in them. I packed the jars with the cucumber slices like the spice package said. When I got the out of the boiling water bath, the were floating, with a lot more room for slices. 9 seems to be the amount that I end up with. I always have one jar that doesn't seal, or is iffy. Tim tried a SWEET pickle this morning and said it tasted just like a DILL pickle. They had crunch to them. I have no idea what we are going to do with all these pickles since I don't like pickles. Next, I guess we ( I ) are making Kosher Dill Pickles with a mix. I wonder how many people we can pawn pickles onto?
   We have a porcupine. We kept finding these droppings, but didn't know from what kind of animal. I found, and bought, a book called Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains. When I was looking at the book before I bought it I found a picture of the porcupine, droppings and track. Good reason to buy it. Tim saw a huge porcupine here last year. Now, we really have to keep an eye on Chip if he goes out without his leash on. He'd decide he'd need to play with the porcupine. We think Jake is smart enough to stay away. He stops chasing things when he's told to. I hear some dogs don't learn about porcupines, even after more than one run in with them.
   I finally finished the last afghan my friend Terry hired me to make. Now, she has paid me to crochet animal slippers. She has another friend who is having a baby in January and says she wants me to make one for this one, also. Now, I am working on one of 2 hat, scarf, and mitten set for one of my sisters-in-law.
   As usual, I have clothes in the basket by the dryer to fold, and towels in the dryer waiting their turn.

I Think I've Got It!

   I made my 3rd batch of yogurt yesterday, and, at long last, I think I've got it. I used the recipe in my original post, but  I added 1 package of unflavored gelatin to the milk before I heated it. I first put only 1 tsp. of the gelatin in the milk, but I added the rest of the package before I let it cool down to 110 degrees. I do think I need to add more than 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract, because I like it with more vanilla flavor.
   In the picture, the yogurt in the spoon is before I stirred it. After I stirred it, I deemed it the perfect consistancy for me. Nice and creamy and smooth.
  I have plenty of time to play around with yogurt experiments, because it's raining and it's never going to stop. I like rain, but it's been raining most of May. On the plus side, I don't need to water the garden. Things are starting to grow. It would be nice if we could finish planting. Finally have the tomatoes out in their walls of water. I hope they work. Tim says guys at work swear by them.
   Lately, I have been in the sewing mood. I started sewing squares of flannel together by hand way back in high school (in the '70's), to make a quilt and I think I will take them apart and sew them together with the overcast stitch, so hopefully they stay together without unraveling. The squares would also be the same size. Next, I'm trying to decide who thick to make it. I'm leaning towards pretty thick, since it gets a might nippy up here.
   I also found a pattern for a cute teddy bear with a sleeper to wear in the same box as all the flannel. I have some flannel I was going to use for who knows what, and I was thinking about making at least 4 teddy bears out of it and using the scraps to add to the quilt. One teddy bear for each grandchild. I will probably have to make me one, too and maybe other family members. Big plans and I hope I finish them. I seem to lose interest half way through things.
  There will be another grandchild in Dec. and I did start crocheting afghans, but I'm not in the crocheting mood now, and I do have until Dec.
   I could also be cleaning house since Amy and her future fiance (?) are coming in a week and a half, but I got to thinking, if Daniel is going to be a member of this family, he can take us as we are, dust, clutter and all.
   For now, I guess I'll fold the towels I washed yesterday. I really wish someone would invent a dryer that hangs and folds clothes.