One More Round of Snow and Cold

I tied myself to my office chair yesterday morning and finished all the tax prep. The construction company is a partnership and those returns were due March 15. We also have two LLCs—my knitting/sewing/teaching business and the rental house—and the accountant can’t finish our personal return until those are done. I wanted all of that off my desk and over to his.

I pride myself on the fact that we rarely have to file for an extension. I think the accountant appreciates that, too.

I was ruthless in canceling several of those “software as a subscription” programs in 2023. Companies are being greedy and I refuse to participate. I will go back to keeping records in Excel before I pay $720 per year per company to use QuickBooks Online. Those subscription programs are also insidious. Companies steadily raise rates hoping that no one notices.

I also canned up eight quarts of chicken stock and chopped up the meat for use later.

Our chickens are egg layers, not meat birds, so they’re always a bit on the skinny side, but I’m not going to waste anything. I’ll do a couple of canner loads of beans this week while I have everything out.

We got about an inch of snow yesterday. The low overnight tonight is supposed to be 16F before we get back up into the mid-40s this week and possibly even mid-50s next week. I’ve got all the seed packets out and ready to start planting tomorrow afternoon.

My sewing time likely will be nonexistent for the next couple of weeks. I’ll be busy in the greenhouse for a few days, then teaching on Friday. Next week, we are getting ready for our fire department’s fundraising auction. I have retired from helping with the fire department side of things—the husband is still running the equipment sale but we’ve trained some young people to take over the job I used to do—and I will be cooking brats with the Mennonites. A group of us from church staff a food booth at the auction so I will still be there, just in a different capacity.

After the auction, it will be time to get chicks. And clean up the garden. Yesterday, the husband cut up the tree that fell on the garden fence and got it out of the way.

Ah, spring.

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I have heard rumors of a new sewing app called Backstitch. Think Ravelry, but for sewists and stitchers. (I’m hoping it will come without all of the associated drama and BS that wrecked Ravelry.) Backstitch is in beta testing and I had to sign up to be on the waiting list. It’s also only web-based at the moment. A regular account is free but there is an option to pay for premium features. We’ll see how it plays out.

The Sewing and Design School in Tacoma has scheduled three fall classes with Kenneth D. King: Moulage Drafting, Trouser Drafting, and Building a Custom Dress Form. I am so tempted to sign up for the trouser drafting class. Just to be able to take a class from Kenneth King would be amazing. Maybe I can get Tera to go with me.

And WonderFil has some new products available, including their Rinse Away Design Sheet and some new colors of DecoBob thread. Their YouTube videos are always very educational.