RIP Woodpecker Tree

I slept through the arrival of the cold front Tuesday night, although I woke up around 10 pm and heard the generator running. I came downstairs to see what was going on. The husband was in the kitchen. “Your woodpecker tree blew down,” he said. “I was out there cutting it up with a chainsaw.”

The woodpecker tree was so named because it was a favorite perch of the pileated woodpeckers. It was a tall tree, but it’s been dead for 20+ years. The husband has been wanting to cut it down for a long time—“There are other dead trees out there for the woodpeckers, Janet”—but I protected that tree with all the zeal of an environmental activist. Now the woodpeckers will have to find another tree.

It rained all day yesterday. I am not sure we ever broke 60 degrees. I had a meeting in the morning (here) and spent the afternoon making another 14 quarts of apple pie filling. I plan to do seven more this morning and will call it good.

We finally got the pigs sorted. The husband talked to one of the mixer drivers last week who used to raise pigs. This guy recommended a processing facility in a town an hour and a half northwest of here. Even better, he is going to haul our pigs up to that processor next week in exchange for a whole hog. I consider that an excellent trade. We will be glad to have that crossed off the list.

I don’t think we’re going to raise pigs next year. If we do, we might only do two or three. Until the processing bottleneck locally gets resolved, it’s simply too much of a hassle. The processors want growers to make reservations a year in advance, which only works if you know when you’re going to get weaners. I asked for weaners around June 1 and we ended up getting them a month earlier because that was when the supplier had them.

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I had one student in my serger class on Tuesday. She came with an early-generation Brother, inherited from a cousin who upgraded. This poor student was so nervous when she got there because she didn’t know what to expect. I assured her that the machine was fine. It was in good shape and probably the easiest serger I’ve ever threaded. After she relaxed a bit, she was able to thread and re-thread it herself. I think she’ll do fine; in fact, I told her that she might well outgrow that machine before long. And she registered for a class I’m teaching in October.

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And what about the secret project? It is still coming along, but you won’t hear more about it until the middle of the month. The next 10 days are full up on my schedule.

I also don’t see much sewing time in the near future. I’ve got to get beans into the greenhouse to dry, cut all the cabbage, collect the butternut squash and pumpkins—I’ll probably can some pumpkin, too, for pies—and finish off this year’s batch of tomato sauce.

The pattern companies are releasing their fall collections, but I haven’t seen much to inspire me. I might pick up this one the next time Joanns has a sale:

I think pants sewing will be a focus this winter because I also have a top-down, center-out trouser pattern I’d like to try.