Thumbscrews

The husband’s truck accident was in February 2022; his work truck and the dump trailer he was towing were totaled by the insurance company. We received payment for both items from the at-fault driver’s insurance company (Safeco/Liberty Mutual) within about four months. We also had submitted a list of damaged/destroyed tools for compensation. That list got batted around for over a year. We were assigned to claim agent after claim agent—five in total—and each one wanted the list and documentation, sometimes multiple times. Finally, around February, I was told that the claim had been approved and we would be getting a check for $6000.

Then, nothing. I e-mailed the agent, only to be told that we were being assigned to ANOTHER agent. The new one also wanted documentation. (I had all of this scanned into a file on my computer, so re-sending wasn’t a big deal other than the ridiculous repetitive requests.) He hemmed and hawed and delayed, telling me he would follow up on the claim and get back to me.

Around the middle of April, I’d had enough. I e-mailed him back and threatened to report him to the Montana Insurance Commissioner. I got an immediate response via e-mail. Could he call and discuss the claim? I was on my way to Tennessee, so I gave the date when I would be home and said I would expect a call that week.

Did I get a call? No. And when I tried to contact this agent to set up a phone call, I got an out-of-office reply. I noted the date when he was supposed to be back in the office and tried again. I got another out-of-office reply, so yesterday morning, I filed my complaint with the Montana Insurance Commissioner, e-mailed the backup address given in the automatic reply, and attached a copy of the complaint, helpfully provided in PDF format by the insurance commissioner’s office.

And then I went to town.

The Bernina Meet and Greet Event was great fun. I had listened to an interview with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina, on the Sew & So podcast about a year ago, and yesterday, I got to meet him in person. Literally all I got to do was say hello and shake his hand, because he and the district sales rep were only there for an hour and I was busy demo-ing the L890 serger. The store had set up stations with different machines for customers to try, and put together pillowcase kits so that anyone interested in trying the serger could make one on the machine. I would have chosen a smaller and less complicated project, but I made it work. I got people lined up and churned them through, so that by the time we were done, about a dozen customers had made pillowcases on the serger.

[This was despite being told by one attendee that I was “doing it wrong” when I was showing people how to roll up the pillowcase burrito-style to make an enclosed seam. I am not unfamiliar with this woman; she seems to have a need to parade around the store and show off how much she knows. Her method works, yes, but so does mine, and I’ve made probably a hundred of these things.]

I had something of an epiphany yesterday while watching all these customers make their projects on the serger. There seem to be an awful lot of people who were taught by their sewing teachers to hold their fabric in front of and behind the presser foot and guide the fabric through the machine, except “guiding” sometimes morphs into “pulling,” which makes me very nervous, especially on a serger. Pulling the fabric as it’s going through the machine increases the likelihood of deflecting the needle enough that it will hit the throat plate instead of going down into the hook area, and that increases the likelihood of damaging the timing of the machine. (Judging by the number of chewed-up throat plates I have seen on sewing machines, this happens frequently.) I also had a couple of customers who were pulling on the top layer of fabric—a technique I’ve seen used on the sewing machine to keep the layers even when sewing—but that method isn’t necessary on the serger. My preferred method of serging is to hold the layers of fabric loosely with my right hand and support them with my left hand, allowing the serger to feed the fabric through.

After the event, I ran a few errands and came home. Guess what I found in my e-mail inbox? A response from another agent at Liberty Mutual, apologizing profusely for the delay in processing our claim. He attached a copy of the check for $6000 and said that it would be mailed today.

I also checked the tracking info for the sewing machine—the system sometimes recognizes the tracking number and sometimes not—and found a note that the freight company is holding the machine in Missoula, where it has been since the middle of last week, until they find out when I would like it delivered. Has anyone contacted me to ask? No, they have not. I e-mailed the company and said I would be home all week and that I’d be happy to take a phone call to arrange a delivery time.

The level of incompetence out there stuns me anew every single day.

The blog needs a picture, so here is one of yours truly with Jim, one of our dedicated helpers—he is on the fire department with the husband, too—at the plant sale. Those things on my arms are my Farmer’s Defense UPF sleeves for sun protection. The apron is one I made from fabric I bought at Sew Expo.

I will be planting the garden today as we’re supposed to get periodic showers for the next several days.

Bags and More

The Juki 1541 hasn’t even arrived yet and I am already taking reservations for repair and alteration jobs. One of our volunteer firemen came to the plant sale on Saturday and asked if I could fix a boat cover for him. On the list of jobs this week is cleaning the sewing machine area of the old garage and making a space for the machine. I still don’t know when it will arrive, though, as the freight company hasn’t updated the tracking information.

I also want to make some bags. I’d like to make another stack of canvas grocery bags because I still get requests for them. And I have a stash of waxed canvas begging to be used. I bought this Spencer Ogg pattern last week:

Do I need a pattern for something like this? No, I could figure it out on my own, but I like to support fellow designers and there is something to be said for not having to reinvent the wheel.

I’m thinking ahead to the craft sale and to having items available that other people aren’t making.

I bought a Husky rolling tool crate last fall for hauling my serger supplies to class when I teach. Tera has something similar, and we both took ours to Sew Expo where they worked beautifully. The husband and I were watching a Den of Tools video a few weeks ago where the Tool Bear—he’s out of costume now—mentioned that these tool bags were getting harder to find. I went ahead and ordered the 16” tote that rides on top of the rolling bag:

Now I have additional storage, or a smaller tote to use when I don’t need the large one.

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I did not stay for the potluck and congregational business meeting after church yesterday. I was “peopled out” after the plant sale and needed some alone time. Rain was in the forecast, too, and I wanted to cut the grass before the rain moved in. I mowed the garden perimeter with the push mower and mulched the rest of the potatoes with grass clippings. I then worked on the yard around the house—on my John Deere tractor—which took a bit of maneuvering as my mowing route has been altered by the work the husband has been doing on the property. The stupid ground squirrels have done a lot of damage, too, making new holes and tunnels in the front yard. They won’t be around much longer because the husband is systematically demolishing all the ground squirrel condominiums out in the woods. They live in piles of logs and downed trees, and those are either getting cut up for firewood or burned if rotten.

The yard still needs some trim work but I ran out of juice. It will have to wait. As the husband reminded me, though, we’re not trying to be on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The woods, where he has been working, are looking great. Our neighbors across the road are having some clearing done on their property, too. We’ll be as ready as we can be for fire season.

A Good Kind of Exhausted

Yesterday was a busy day and I came home fairly worn out. It was a good kind of exhausted, though, because the plant sale went extremely well. We had an exceptional group of volunteers making light work of all the tasks. The weather was stunning. We got to visit with friends, neighbors, and lots and lots of customers. And a preliminary tally of the proceeds shows that we exceeded even my loftiest fundraising goal.

Our volunteers putting plants out:

We displayed plants by variety, with signs that Susan and her grandson made:

Susan, Elysian, and I had a planning meeting early in the year and decided who would grow what. It’s not an exact science, as some plants didn’t germinate or grow well and some did, but it gave us a good selection of most everything. I was pleased to note that many people came looking for heirloom varieties. We were able to tell them that most of our vegetable starts were heirlooms, including many from which we save seed each year. Sarah contributed quite a few unique tomato varieties and said that she will do more next year.

This is the event I most enjoy being in charge of and I plan to chair it again next spring.

Planting my own garden begins in earnest this week. I went ahead and scheduled a massage for a week from Tuesday, because I think I am going to need it by then.

Susan brought me two apple trees on Friday that she grafted for me. She has a Duchess of Oldenburg tree and I love that variety for apple pie filling. Now I will have two of my own grafted from cuttings of her tree. I also bought a Spokane Beauty apple at the plant sale; she is not sure that we will get apples from it as it ripens late in the season, but I said I was willing to try it.

The husband spent the day cleaning up the property and burning slash piles. People comment to me that “He works all the time—does he ever relax?” without understanding that for him, that kind of work IS his form of relaxation. Neither of us relaxes by sitting around doing nothing.

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Our Mennonite conference annual meeting will be held in Portland in June. Elaine and I plan to drive over together. We have rented an Airbnb for two nights and will be joined there by Libbie, who is finishing her term as our Leadership Team chairman. Our interim pastor and her family also plan to attend. Miriam was raised and ordained in the Presbyterian faith, but she is a Mennonite at heart and I think she will find a warm welcome in our conference.

After the conference, Elaine and I head up to Seattle for a couple of days. I will visit DD#2 and Elaine will stay with her sister.

When we made our plans, we did not realize that one of the conference days was set aside for gatherings of credentialed leaders. Elaine could attend those meetings, as she is a credentialed pastor, but I am free for the day. I think I will be doing some fabric shopping. I’d love to go downtown to Powell’s Bookstore and wander around for a few hours, but Portland—and Seattle—are no longer the tourist-friendly cities we used to know.

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I received a very weird blast from the past the other day. This showed up in my e-mail with a note:

TKGA has developed a logo for you to use as you market yourself and/or business. It will officially and visually demonstrate your achievement in earning the status of Master Hand Knitter. Please do not share this logo with anyone else.  It is for your use only!

I’m not sure when or where I would use this now, and truly, I thought TKGA was defunct. Oh, well. I appreciate them sending it to me, for what it is worth.

Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation Plant Sale

Today is our 3rd Annual Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation plant sale. This was Elysian’s brainchild and it has been a consistent fundraiser for us every year. She and I raise the bulk of the plants in my greenhouse:

Susan provides a goodly number of plants, as well, and we get donations from community members who have extras to share. The local elementary school has a plant sale on the two days before our sale and gives whatever plants are left—usually flowers—to us. When our sale is over, we donate whatever plants are left to the local food bank.

Yesterday afternoon, a crew of half a dozen people ferried plants from the greenhouse up to the Community Center, then went to the school and picked up their unsold stock. This morning, we’ll set everything out and wait for customers. The weather is supposed to be fabulous today—about 80 degrees and sunny—which is a far cry from last year’s cold and overcast day. We’ve done a lot of advertising on local social media sites, so I am hoping for good crowds. The first year, we raised $1500. Last year, we raised a little over $2000. We’re getting better at this every year.

The greenhouse looked very empty after we moved the plant sale stock out. The only plants left are the ones going into my garden and Ali’s garden. I’ll be starting more corn and beans for myself and Anna this week. They won’t take long to germinate and should be ready to plant in a week or two. I’ll also start some lettuce to put out in the garden. The indoor lettuce system is still producing well and we’ve been eating those greens this week.

Planting happens this week. It’s supposed to rain Monday, and I’ll be at the Bernina Meet and Greet that day, but Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be partly cloudy before more rain moves in. This is perfect planting weather.

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I’m still not sure when my sewing machine will arrive. The freight company—XPO—has a spectacularly awful tracking system. Sometimes I can’t access the tracking information at all because the system tells me it doesn’t recognize the number. Sometimes the tracking information still says the machine will be delivered on May 17. I do know that the machine is in Missoula, but it could sit there for another five days. Once it arrives, it will take the husband and me a few hours to get it set up for sewing. I’m trying to get all the planting done this week so I have time to play with it next weekend.

Visiting with Friends

My friends take good care of me. Robin said she would come over this week to help me with anything I needed because I had mended a dress for her granddaughter on my serger. She showed up mid-morning yesterday bearing lunch. I had already been out in the greenhouse for a few hours labelling and organizing plants for the sale, so I suggested we go in and sew. I pulled out the blocks for the king-size quilt I want to put in the craft co-op sale, dumped the strips of fabric onto the bed, and we got to work. I sat her down at my Janome 6600P—she has the same machine at home—and I sewed on my little Necchi. The two machines sit perpendicular to each other, so we were able to sew and visit at the same time.

When we started, I had 36 of 64 blocks made. When we finished, around 3 pm, we were up to 49 blocks with another half-dozen started. Getting this quilt done for the sale is well within reach now.

She brought the most delicious chicken dish for lunch. It has three ingredients: diced chicken, a jar of jardiniere vegetables, and rice. That’s it. So simple, but so yummy that I had two helpings. I may have to add jardiniere vegetables to my list of things to can up this fall.

After she left, I did chicken chores, tidied up the sewing area, and threw together a meatloaf for the husband for dinner. At 4 pm, I went across the road to my friend Anna’s house and we sat and drank lemon balm tea with lavender honey and caught up with each other. She has a small garden plot in front of her house and wanted some suggestions about what to plant there. We did a bit of brainstorming and I am going to start some beans and corn for her as soon as everything is out of the greenhouse.

I don’t often have a day like that, but in the midst of all this madness, it was a welcome break.

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We are getting the smoke from the Alberta wildfires. The husband called me outside yesterday morning to “look at the orange ball in the sky.”

The picture doesn’t do it justice, although you can see how smoky it is here. This is bizarre for mid-May.

My new sewing machine appears to be stuck in North Dakota. The tracking number goes to a page that still says it was supposed to be delivered on May 17, but its last known scanned location is May 12 in West Fargo, ND. If I don’t get an updated delivery date soon, I’ll call the store and see if they can find out what is going on.

It is supposed to be in the 80s through the weekend before a cold front comes through and drops the temps a bit. Considering that I was wearing my wool peacoat at last year’s plant sale, I’ll take the weather this year.

Watering and Pest Management Systems

I’m in the process of getting the watering system set up in the garden. Our rainy months are May and June, and we’re already behind in rainfall for this month. If June isn’t rainy, we may be in a world of hurt for the rest of the summer. It isn’t uncommon to go through July and August with not a drop of precipitation. There will be moisture in the atmosphere, but it will evaporate before it hits the ground.

The peas went in yesterday morning—finally—and then we got a couple of hours of rain after dinner, so that worked out well. I also filled in the empty spots in the strawberry bed with runners from a few of the more vigorous plants.

We likely will have to resort to shooting at some point, but I am trying to give the rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys an opportunity to see the error of their ways. I am auditioning a variety of pest management systems this year. (Bugs are the least of my worries.) The fake snakes are over by the peas. I bought a fake owl, put crushed walnut shells in it for weight, and set it by the ground squirrel holes:

I am supposed to move it around every couple of days.

I’m also putting decoy strawberries in the strawberry bed to confound the turkeys:

The husband does not believe this will work. We shall see. In any case, painting rocks is very relaxing.

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Knitting peeps, did you hear the sad, sad news that XRX, Inc., has filed for bankruptcy? So many great memories from the days of Knitters magazine and teaching at Stitches events . . .

Yesterday’s mail brought the gift of a pair of lovely spiral cable needles from Mama Sauce (Nicole Sauce’s mother).

I had the great fortune to spend time relaxing and knitting with her at the LFTN Spring Workshop a few weeks ago, and now I am feeling the need to cast on a project so I can try these out.

However, once this plant sale is over and the garden is in, I am devoting a couple of weeks to sewing. It has been almost two months since I have worked on anything substantial. I’ve got inventory to finish for the craft co-op sale—including a quilt—projects I want to make on the new machine, and some clothing patterns I want to try. I have about three currently-not-scheduled weeks on the calendar and I am going to do my level best to keep them clear for sewing. I should be able to get quite a bit done if I put my nose to the grindstone.

I’ll be at the Bernina Meet-and-Greet with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina, next Monday at the Quilt Gallery. I offered to help out as I was planning to be there anyway. I will be assisting customers with the sergers.

To Be a Pig

We didn’t raise pigs last year, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy having them around. They keep me company when I am in the garden and their antics are entertaining. This group naps a lot:

Joel Salatin talks about “the pigness of pigs,” meaning that animals do best when they are allowed to express their inherent natures. The pigs’ favorite activities are rooting up the pasture and napping—wash, rinse, repeat. We try to give all our animals a good life.

[I may be going to Self-Reliance Festival in Camden, Tennessee, in October. The keynote speaker at that event will be Joel Salatin. (!!!!!) The husband suggested that if I go, I take our copy of Everything I Want to Do is Illegal and ask him to autograph it.]

It has been annoyingly windy here lately. I don’t like wind. It sets my teeth on edge. The wind seems to have subsided since last evening and I’m hoping it stays calm this week. People are already talking about fire season as it looks like we’re in for above-average temps and below-average precipitation this summer. And given that we seem to have a lot more stupid and selfish people living here now, the odds of someone doing something that sets off a big fire are increasing.

I know I sound like an old fart, but the makeup of this valley has changed drastically in the past couple of years. Apparently, many of the transplants came here thinking “Montana = no laws and I can do whatever I want.” Wandering dogs are a huge issue. One of our neighbors’ goats was killed by a dog belonging to another neighbor. Montana law allows landowners to shoot dogs that harm or kill their livestock. The owner of the goat shot the dog, and the owner of the offending animal was given a hefty fine.

Trash is everywhere. I’ve seen video of people dumping trash in the woods. People hit and damage vehicles and fences and just drive off. Theft is commonplace. Last week, a 71-year-old man was beaten up in a road rage incident south of us. He ended up in the ICU. (I heard he has been released, but the assailant is still at large.) These kinds of incidents used to be rare here. And then there is the case of the San Diego couple who built a house on MacDonald Creek up in Glacier Park without getting the requisite permits, because who needs permits in Montana? Surely one can do whatever one pleases, right?

It’s hard to watch a place you love being destroyed. Our road used to be a slow meander along the mountains, perfect for cyclists and walkers. Now, drivers get to the north corner of our property, make a slight turn, and accelerate to ridiculous speeds down the straight section past our house. (I wish spike strips were legal. That would resolve this issue.) People drive as though they are the only ones on the road.

We’re failing as a society.

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This week will be spent getting ready for the plant sale on Saturday. There are always a thousand little details that have to be attended to. I’ve got three pages of running lists for all the projects I’m managing at the moment. I spent a few hours in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon, making up labels and organizing plants. Some of what is in there will be planted in our garden, so I need to have those trays of plants separate from the sale inventory.

I haven’t sewn anything in almost a month. I’ve been knitting more, just because it’s portable and easy to pick up and put down. I’m looking forward to sewing again, though, especially on my industrial machines (lockstitch and serger).

Ready to Plant

We may have had a cold spring, but we’re ahead of schedule on garden prep. The husband helped me yesterday. (I do as much as I can, but some jobs just need extra muscle.) We burned a small pile of brush early in the morning and he fixed the south fence line, which has decided that this would be a good year to fall apart. We moved some black plastic to a different spot, then moved a billboard tarp to the part of the garden that will be fallow this year. Once everything was in place, I cut the grass perimeter and used the clippings to mulch the potatoes. The garden is looking good:

The potatoes are on the far left. Next to them will be the zucchini and other squash, on that piece of black plastic. The bare spot will have rows of beans, lettuce, and the brassicas—cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. Just out of the picture on the right side is the row of berry bushes. Next to them is the raspberry patch, then the strawberry patch. The berries occupy the middle of the garden. On the other side of the berries is the lavender hedge and then the spot where the tomatoes will go this year, along with any squash that does fit in the first section. I like to give the vines room to spread out. I also try to plant the potatoes and tomatoes on opposite sides of the garden if I can.

I started laying out hose, but that’s a big job and I need to think about how to set up the switching system.

Today, though, I am going to rest and do things that don’t require heavy lifting, like making labels for the plants for the plant sale.

Since about the middle of March, these are the projects I have been involved in:

• The husband and I ran the equipment sale part of the fire department fundraising auction.

• I wrote the quarterly newsletter for the homestead foundation and Susan and I made 2400 copies for mailing.

• I made chili for and served chili at the spring pie social for the homestead foundation.

• I have been planning for the plant sale (the majority of the inventory is in our greenhouse) and co-chairing a picnic fundraising event to be held in August, again for the homestead foundation.

• I have continued my ongoing duties as chairman of the homestead foundation fundraising committee, webmistress for their website, and pianist for our church.

And during that time, the only things I really did for me were to teach a couple of serger classes and attend the LFTN Spring Workshop. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to see the imbalance in my schedule. I’ve already passed off the fire department job to someone else. I told the homestead foundation board that I will not chair the fundraising committee next year. I may not do the newsletter, either. I will agree to chair the plant sale and continue website maintenance and that’s it. Hopefully, the picnic fundraiser will be a success—my co-chair is a ball of fire and the planning for that has gone smoothly. Although I believe strongly in its mission, I am no longer willing to allow the homestead foundation to be an unpaid part-time job. I took on some of those responsibilities when our pastor retired from our church and also from his work on the homestead foundation board because I didn’t want us to lose momentum. Now it’s time for others to step up.

I’ve also said no to chairing our church’s leadership team, which would have been a four-year commitment. Truly, I am tired of being in charge.

[I did agree to be on the pastor search committee, but that is a time-specific commitment and one I was willing to make.]

Once the garden is in and growing, I want to spend time working on sewing projects. The word of the year is NO and I am putting that into practice.

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I’ll have to see how the week after the plant sale shapes up. I’m feeling the need for a road trip, maybe to Missoula. On Monday, May 22nd, the quilt store south of town is hosting a meet and greet with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina. I’ll be in attendance for that one.

Berries

Our raspberry patch was horribly overgrown. I’ve been trying to clean it up over the past couple of seasons but it has been slow going. The canes took a beating from all the snow this winter. I decided that was a blessing in disguise. I cut almost everything back to the ground, even the bearing canes. That means foregoing a berry harvest for a season or two, but the result should be a neater raspberry patch that is easier to manage. I can dig out the quackgrass, too. And the ground squirrels will lose any cover from which to launch their mid-garden assaults—for this year, at least.

Down in the right front corner of that photo is one of the currant bushes Cathy gave me. It produces prolifically every year.

I pruned the grapevines and saved the cuttings for my friend, Ginger. She makes lovely wreaths out of them.

The new strawberry patch is looking great. That spot had potatoes two seasons ago and was mulched with a lot of rotted straw. Last year, I put down black plastic and planted three rows of strawberry starts in holes. Yesterday morning, I cut the black plastic, folded it back, and anchored it down so that it continues as weed control. Now the plants have a bit of room to spread out:

Black plastic has been a game changer for weed control. I haven’t found anything else that works as well, and judging by the number of gigantic earthworms I saw yesterday, it doesn’t seem to hurt the soil. The snakes also like to sun themselves on it. I am waiting for the big Montana racer snake to put in an appearance.

I need to put some painted red rocks in the strawberry bed to discourage turkeys from eating the berries. The turkeys are becoming almost as much of a pest as the ground squirrels. This is what the ground squirrels have done over by my grape vines:

They live in the woods by the house, but this is their off-ramp into the garden. That post is holding up my grape vine trellis. (The husband put it in, so it isn’t in any danger of falling over.)

The guys finished work a little early yesterday, so one of our employees came over after lunch to get a few more hours on his time card for the week. He helped me dig out some unwanted raspberries. We also spread out the rest of the black silage plastic. The garden is now ready for planting.

Hopefully, peas will go in today. I also might try to get a row of lettuce and some cabbage and broccoli starts into the ground this week.

This physical activity feels good. I am tired at the end of the day, but it’s a good tired and the work keeps me limber.

The pigs are thrilled to be out rooting around the pasture all day. This group is still rather skittish around people. If I crouch down on the ground and wait, though, eventually one or two will come over to see what I’m about.

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The Juki 1541 is scheduled to arrive next Wednesday. It may be another week or so before we get it assembled and running, depending on how things go. I ordered a whole slew of industrial and outdoor fabric swatches from Seattle Fabrics to keep in my swatch library. I have some thread on hand, but I need to go through it and organize it according to size. I am hoping that once the garden is in, things will ease up enough for me to do some sewing again.

A Thursday Roundup

I attacked DD#2’s bedroom yesterday and got the bed taken apart and moved out. Along the way, I dusted, vacuumed, washed curtains, and rearranged the layout. I still need to move one more piece of furniture to storage and put up a shelving unit, but already I can tell that the workflow will be much more efficient. And if we ever need to put guests in that room, I can fold up the cutting table and put an air mattress down on the floor.

I wish I could be like those people with minimalist lifestyles. I can’t. I am not a hoarder, but I do like to have enough supplies on hand to do the things I want to do when I want to do them. And it seems that the minute I toss or donate something, I need it again. I’ve decided that the best I can do is to be as organized as possible and have everything sorted and labeled clearly. I’m also going to be better about not saving every tiny scrap of fabric. I’ll donate what is usable and won’t tie myself up in knots about putting smaller pieces in the trash.

Cleaning and organizing the upstairs rooms will be an ongoing project over the summer.

The potato seedlings are starting to come up:

I have a lot of work to do in the garden this weekend.

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Have you heard about the 75Hard program? I know a few people who are tackling it. This is a program intended to help develop mental toughness. It is a fairly rigorous program. For 75 days, participants are required to adhere to a nutritional diet with no cheat days—their choice of keto, carnivore, vegan, etc.—abstain from alcohol, work out twice a day for 45 minutes per session, one of which must be outside, drink a gallon of water every day, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, and take a progress picture every day. If one or more of the requirements is missed, the whole program resets back to day 1.

The husband and I were talking about it over dinner last night. I have nothing but admiration for people who are willing to improve themselves in whatever way they find most helpful, and some people need programs with a lot of structure. It occurred to me that during the summer, I follow this program reasonably well. Working in the garden certainly meets the physical activity goals. The husband and I both gave up drinking alcohol almost a year ago. We eat good, nutritious food, although I am not above having some chocolate or other treat every day. I stay well hydrated, and I always read before going to sleep.

[I don’t get as much exercise in the winter, although I certainly am not sitting around, either.]

Food for thought. After everything I’ve been through in my 57 years on earth, I think I’ve got the mental toughness thing mastered. The husband mentioned that he signed up for The Daily Stoic e-mails. Every day, an e-mail meditation on stoicism is delivered to his inbox. He said that I should sign up, too, and then we could have a discussion group on each day’s topic, because that is what we do for fun here at Chez Schuster-Szabo, LOL. (I did sign up.)

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We let the pigs out into the pasture yesterday evening. They needed to get out and run around and they also needed to become familiar with the electric fence. It did not take them long to go up that learning curve.

They are packing on the pounds. Already, I can see a difference in size from when we brought them home on Saturday to last night.

The hummingbirds are back—almost a month late—and the husband spotted Little Bunny Foo-Foo chasing another rabbit around the yard. He suspects we will be overrun by baby rabbits shortly. I continue to be entertained by the determined tom turkeys with all their feathers up, trying to catch the attention of the flocks of hens. No bears yet, but I know they are out.

I Ordered a Machine

I had my choice of industrial machines narrowed down to two brands: A Juki 1181 or 1541 and a Consew 206RB. The Juki 1541s are popular with bagmakers and Jukis are good, solid machines. My industrial serger is a Juki. The older Consews are fairly sought after but hard to find. I messaged my friend Cristina, who makes bags and bag patterns under her label Bumbleroot Design, and asked her opinion. I know she has an older Consew 206RB and loves it. (She also has a Necchi industrial just like mine.) She said that if the decision came down to a new Juki versus a new Consew, though, she’d choose the Juki. That was the direction I was leaning and it was good to have that confirmation.

We have a Juki dealer here but he’s a slimy operator with dirty sales techniques. I won’t patronize his business, so thank you, Melissa, for the Juki Junkies recommendation. I phoned them yesterday and had a lovely conversation with Boki. (Once I decide to pull the trigger, I don’t waste time.) She asked a lot of questions about what I wanted to sew, which I appreciated because I wanted to know if the Juki 1181 would be a better fit. Ultimately, I decided to go with the more powerful 1541. (Photo from their website.)

Boki placed the order for me and got me set up with extra needles and bobbins. I added the needle positioner option because I have automatic needle up/down on both my Janome sewing machine and my Bernina serger and I like that feature.

The machine will ship from New Jersey. It comes with the table fully assembled. I expect it will arrive within the next two weeks and then I can get started on the list of things the husband wants me to make, LOL.

I am now a Juki Junkies fan—they offer great service and that is hard to find these days. I also joined the Facebook group.

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I got my summer tires put on yesterday morning. Even though I was on the list, I had to wait two hours. I don’t mind the down time. The tire place has a nice seating area, so I just take a book and some knitting with me and the time passes quickly.

When I got home, there was a message on the answering machine from the copier tech. He wanted to stop by and look at my copier. (I noted that it was Tuesday, not Monday, but whatever.) I called him back and said he could show up anytime. About an hour later, a young guy pulled into the driveway. He cleaned and inspected the machine, which probably was built when he was in kindergarten. He told me he had never worked on a machine that old. He agreed that the fuser should be replaced, but then launched into a song and dance about how it would be better for me to buy a new copier.

I don’t want a new copier. I like the one I have, and besides, I would rather put the money into fixing something that was built to last more than five years. He promised to give me some options once he got back to the office. For now, the machine is working again.

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I’ve got the to-do list down to just a couple of items. It has been raining since yesterday afternoon and that will keep me in the house for a bit. I have some homestead foundation website and publicity work to do this morning followed by an alteration/repair job. The repair is not complicated, but I need to look at it closely and decide how best to proceed. If the rain lets up and it isn’t too soggy, I’d like to plant peas this afternoon; otherwise, that will happen tomorrow. I repotted more tomatoes yesterday afternoon.

I woke up around midnight and the husband still hadn’t come to bed. That usually means he is focused on some project out in his shop. We have had Sarah’s Volvo here since Saturday night. He has been doing routine maintenance on it and replacing worn parts, but one of the parts he thought he needed turned out to be for a different model. I sent that one back Monday and the correct part came yesterday, so he stayed up to finish the job. If he ever decides to stop doing concrete and work on cars instead, I suspect I will have to get used to him keeping odd hours. He is most definitely a night owl.

Down the List

I’ve finally reached a point where my calendar is empty, but I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that have to be dealt with. I made a list yesterday morning and then started hacking away at it. I am hoping to have everything crossed off by the end of today. I’ll have to go into town for a bit for an appointment and to get my summer tires put on. I checked with the tire place yesterday morning—shortly after they opened at 8 am!—and they were already booked. I am on the list for this morning. Most places won’t take appointments, but this particular shop gives preference to their long-time customers.

I spent yesterday afternoon repotting tomatoes. Being responsible for growing the inventory for this plant sale has been weighing on me. It has been a cold spring and plants either didn’t germinate or they germinated and grew slowly. Our greenhouse is not hermetically sealed, so even though we can heat it, the environment isn’t entirely like a commercial greenhouse. I am hoping the predicted warm temps coming this week will encourage some of these plants to get bigger.

The plant sale is May 20. We will have a good selection of different and interesting varieties; they just will be smallish plants. This weekend, I’ll dig some of the established plants out of my old herb garden.

The piglets have settled in; they will get electric fence training soon and we will let them loose in the pasture. I contacted the processor yesterday about getting onto the schedule for this fall and am waiting to hear back.

Getting people to respond to calls and inquiries has been a huge source of frustration lately. I filed an insurance claim for last week’s accident but have yet to hear from the insurance company. I am still fighting with another insurance company to get them to pay the last part of the claim from the husband’s accident in February 2022. I have made three phone calls in the past month to the copier company to try to get the fuser replaced in my copier. I have to deal with a place in Missoula. The first call was to see if the part was still available (yes) and to have a service ticket created. The second call was to see if there was any update on the service ticket. The third call was last Thursday, to find out if I could get a date on the calendar. I said to the husband that it was obvious that the guy on the phone was pulling stuff out of his armpit because he said, “Oh yes, we’ll be in Kalispell in May—wait, that’s Monday,” and when I said I would be home all day Monday, he said," “Okay, we’ll come fix it then.” Did I get a phone call yesterday? Nope. Did anyone show up to work on the copier? Nope.

I’d order the part and do it myself if I thought it was something I could tackle, but I’d rather have the machine serviced. Calling them again today is another item on the list.

I’m also at the place where I’m about ready to order a new industrial sewing machine. Used ones are rare in this part of the country. The ones I have been able to find need—at the least—a new motor. Some of them need new motors and tables and who knows what kinds of service and adjustments. The closest machines are in Spokane, and without someone to help me, these machines are too heavy to load into my car. I was discussing it with the husband yesterday morning and I commented that there was something to be said for the big brown truck of happiness pulling up to deliver a machine that was all ready to sew right out of the box.

[I am not an impulse buyer. This is both good and bad. It means I don’t spend money unnecessarily, but I also take forever to decide on bigger ticket items. The husband used to tell me that the new model year of vehicle would be out by the time I made a decision to buy the current year’s model.]

I’ve got it narrowed down to three machines, and I’ll probably knock another one off the list soon. The husband said he could make me a spot in the old garage for an industrial sewing machine and my industrial serger. He even installed new lights in that area. We’ll see. If a used machine doesn’t show up soon, I’ll go ahead and order one.

Piglets and Pies

The husband and I picked up piglets yesterday morning. Cathy referred me to a friend of hers some years ago after our first pig supplier flaked out on us. This woman brings in bred sows from the Hutterite colonies east of the mountains and supplies piglets to a lot of the 4-H kids. We have always been more than satisfied with the quality of the animals she sells.

We decided to go up to eight pigs this year. Usually, we do six, but I’ve had so many people ask me about pork that we don’t think we’ll have trouble selling two extra. Kalispell peeps, if you want a half or whole hog, get on the list now. I’ve already taken several reservations.

The piglets settled right in.

They are Duroc/Landrace crosses. We’ve raised those in the past and they finish out nicely. We’ll keep them inside the Piggy Palace for a few days before the husband takes them out and trains them on the electric fence.

Yesterday was a cold, soggy day. After we came home, I left the husband to manage piglets while I came inside to heat up chili. We serve homemade chili, quesadillas, and pie and ice cream at our spring pie social. I happened to be at the grocery store one day a few months ago when ground beef was on sale for $1.98 a pound, so I bought all I needed, made my roaster pan of chili, and put it in the freezer. I moved the chili to the fridge Friday morning so it could thaw out.

We wondered what attendance would be like at the pie social because of the weather, but people came anyway. (This is Montana.) We went through almost four roaster pans of chili—no surprise there. And we had a great selection of pies. Sarah went above and beyond by making more than two dozen herself.

I had a slice of her raspberry/tomatillo pie, which is one of my favorites. I really like the zing that the tomatillos add.

My serger class on Friday went reasonably well. Teaching a new class for the first time is always a bit nerve-wracking, but everyone got their tops done or done except for hemming, so that was good. We used the New Look 6555 keyhole top pattern.

I can see the light at the end of my five-week marathon. I won’t overschedule myself like this again next spring. I’ve already let several groups know that I am giving up some of my leadership positions because I am no longer willing to allow the volunteer responsibilities to take priority over other things I want to do.

[I’ve come to the conclusion that I have a different definition of “leadership” than other people do. I’ve always thought of leadership as being the process of providing a vision and an organizational structure that enables other people to come along and pitch in with their time and energies. I appreciate the people who do come along and pitch in. I have decided, though, that most people define “leader” as “the person who is going to do all the work” so that everyone else can sit back and enjoy the results. Please don’t ever say to me that the best way to get something done is to ask a busy person, because that will get you a guaranteed “no” in response. The busy people are tired of picking up the slack for the rest of the world.]

One of the things I want to do this week is to clean and organize. I can’t be productive in the midst of chaos and my environment feels chaotic right now. The weather looks cool and rainy for most of the week, so it should be a good opportunity to tackle that project. If the forecast holds, though, we’re supposed to get a heat wave after that, so I want to get the peas planted this week. And the husband and I are planning a date night in the garden with the shotgun soon because the ground squirrel population is running amok. I will not tolerate them eating their way through the garden this year. Little Bunny Foo-Foo is back, too, but it lives over here by the house.

People Talk to Me

The LFTN Spring Workshop ended Saturday night. I asked Bob and Deana to drop me off at the airport early Sunday morning so I could decompress. I can do social activities for a weekend if I get some time to rest and recharge. I have no problem sitting by myself in an airport for a few hours or even an entire day and always have something with me to occupy the time. Because it was so early, I couldn’t drop off my bag and go through security to the gate, so I found a seat in the ticketing area and sat down.

I’m still making hexies and had a stack of them to sew into hexie flowers, so I took out my project bag and got to work. All of a sudden, I heard a woman exclaim, “She’s making hexies!” and two older ladies bustled over and sat down next to me. They had been at the Paducah Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky, and were on their way home to Edmonton, Alberta. They assumed that I, too, had been at the quilt show.

We chatted for a bit—mostly, they talked about the quilt show—until two more quilting friends of theirs came over. I offered up my seat and excused myself to go find some coffee. What I really did was to go down to baggage claim to find another place to sit. My reasoning was that people in the baggage claim area are in a hurry to retrieve their stuff and leave, so no one was likely to talk to me.

I found another quiet spot and sat down. After a few minutes, a woman joined me a few seats away. I could tell she was watching me. Her curiosity finally got the better of her. “What are you doing?” she asked. I explained the process to her. She said that she wanted to learn how to quilt because she works with women refugees in Roanoake, Virginia, and thought quilting would be a good activity for them. We chatted for a bit until I saw that it was time for the Alaska Airlines counter to open, so I excused myself to drop my bag off and get through security.

When I got to the gate, I sat down and took out a book to read. No one talked to me there.

I must look approachable, because this happens all the time. I’ve had people start up conversations with me in the middle of Tool World, at Lowes, when the husband and I go on date night. DD#1 says tourists in Ketchikan often stop her and ask her to take photos of them.

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Deana has a blog and did a fun write-up of our week together at their house and the spring workshop. She also has better pictures. Go check it out. I borrowed the pic of the three of us just before the workshop started:

I should mention that Bob and I have been friends for 43 years. We sat next to each other in high school band when I was a freshman and sophomore and he was a junior and senior. He is an excellent musician and a much better trombone player than I am, although that bar is pretty low, especially these days. The three of us had a lot of fun hanging out together. Deana also sews, cans, crochets, (and knits! because I taught her at the workshop), and is a most awesome cook.

I knew April was going to be a marathon month—and it was—but it hasn’t let up much. My schedule should ease a bit next week. I got a text from our pig supplier while I was at the workshop, letting us know our piglets were ready. We had asked for piglets around June 1, so that was a bit of a surprise. I told her I was traveling and we wouldn’t be able to get them until this coming weekend. The husband spent last weekend getting the pig pasture ready. We are getting the piglets tomorrow morning. Our homestead foundation pie social is tomorrow afternoon, although the weather forecast is for cold and rain, so I suspect attendance will be down. And then it’s back to playing piano at church on Sunday. Our next big event is the homestead foundation plant sale on May 20. After that, it will be time to put plants in the garden!

I am the Fun Boss

The husband sent the employees here yesterday to keep them busy while he checked out some jobsites. He told them I had a list of things for them to do. They spread some mulch around one of my lavender beds. We moved a billboard tarp over to the old vegetable garden to kill everything there—I have been looking at a mess in that garden and the old herb garden for three years and decided I want to do something about it. I had them move some furniture out to the storage container. We hung the porch shade and they put my wind chimes up for me. I wanted to get some well-aged chicken manure over to the garden, but that required moving the plow truck in order to get to the tractor. The golf cart was in the way, as well, so they got it started and then one of them drove it around the yard for a bit. I drove the tractor out. They hooked up the wagon and filled it with gas for me and then shoveled three loads of chicken manure into the wagon and shoveled it out into the garden. It is some nice-looking chicken manure:

By that time, they were ready for lunch. I pulled a bag of cookies out of the freezer and one of them said to me, “Work would be a lot more fun if you came to the jobsite every day.” I told him that their boss likely would fire me the first day for causing trouble, LOL.

I am delighted to have some of those jobs done. We have one more day of nice weather before a front moves in. Unfortunately, it looks like rain for our pie social on Saturday, followed by cooler temps for a couple of weeks.

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I’ve been sorting all the stuff I brought back from my trip and looking longingly at some new fabric and patterns. I don’t have time to sew right now. I may not have time to sew again until the fall.

I bought this Sallie Tomato Hudson Tote pattern:

This is a small insulated tote, or it can be used to store craft supplies. It looks fun and challenging.

[I used my Klum House Slabtown Backpack during the workshop last week. That was the perfect bag for that event and I’m glad I had a reason to use it.]

I found a Burda top pattern for a blouse that is very similar to the one I tried on at Kohls that was too short. I’ll experiment with the pattern at some point, although I scored big in the Liz Claiborne section at several JC Penney stores on this trip and my wardrobe has quite a few nice blouses now. I even found two dresses that fit well, which hardly ever happens, and they are bright green. Yay!

Joann Fabrics continues to be a huge disappointment, although I did discover that they are now carrying that elusive 60/40 poly/cotton T-shirt blend. It is labeled as cotton interlock, which is incorrect, and it only comes in neutrals and sad pastels, but they have it nonetheless. I also scored three nice pieces of knit fabric—two pontes and one rayon/spandex—from the mystery remnant rack at a couple of Walmart stores along the way.

Is It Homesteading or Lifesteading?

Amy Dingmann, whose Farmish Kind of Life podcast is another of my favorites, suggested in this week’s episode that perhaps we’re not homesteaders. Perhaps we are lifesteaders. Specifically, she said,

If homesteading is the process of building a homestead, lifesteading is the process of building a life.

Amy describes her podcast as “big thoughts from a little farm” and I appreciate her ability to convey those big thoughts so well. I told people that I was going to Tennessee to present at a homesteading conference because that was a context most people understand, especially people who know me. I’m that weirdo who was born 100 years later than I should have been, the woman who has acquired a skill set far better suited to Little House on the Prairie than life in the 21st century. If the grid went down tomorrow, I’d still be able to clothe and feed you. After last weekend, though, I no longer believe that homesteading is the right word for what those of us in that community are doing. Plenty of people who were at that event live in the city. Or the suburbs. Some have gardens, some don’t. Some raise livestock. Most don’t. What we all had in common was that we were building the lives we wanted, in whatever form that took. And Amy, as usual, nailed it with her observation that we are lifesteading, not homesteading.

It’s a subtle distinction, but an important one. “Homesteading” has been a useful description because it conjures up visions of people rejecting modern lifestyles in favor of simpler ones, although anyone who has done it will tell you that homesteading is not simple or easy. However, I wonder if perhaps the term has outlived its usefulness.

Here are a few more highlights from the weekend:

Did we eat well? Yes, we did. All meals were included. As much as possible, Nicole feeds attendees with food she has produced or sourced locally. This was our dinner Thursday night:

Wee had pierogies—Nicole’s neighbor Knighthawk did a seminar Thursday afternoon on making pierogi, which I missed because I was teaching, but they were served up as part of our dinner. These were fried, not boiled and drowned in butter, bacon, and cheese a la Grandma Szabo. They were delicious nonetheless. I had one stuffed with mashed sweet potatoes and it was yummy.

Top center was sauteed Swiss chard, another favorite. I had two servings of the Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy because it was SO GOOD. And of course, I’ve never met cauliflower I didn’t like. At the bottom right is a quail leg. Quail is a popular homestead animal. We also had salad at lunch and dinner every day.

I was highly entertained by this chicken, who took “free range” to a new level.

She spent the whole weekend wandering through the event attempting to steal food from people’s plates. She almost succeeded in getting some of my lunch companion’s soup, which was in a mug on the ground next to his chair, but I saw her coming for it.

Nicole’s mother, Mama Sauce, sat with us everyday and knitted. She made this gorgeous shawl for Nicole out of some ribbon yarn:

Parts of this event were videotaped, although the videographer had car trouble and didn’t arrive until Friday afternoon. As far as I know, my presentations on Thursday weren’t recorded. If anything shows up on YouTube, I’ll let you know.

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Yesterday was spent catching up on paperwork and managing a case of weather whiplash because it was winter when I left but summer when I came home. I took down all the insulated shades. I need to clean the little porch fridge and plug it in so the eggs can go in there. The husband put away my porch lights for me, but now I need to get out and hang up the windchimes and the porch shade. He shut down the wood boiler for the summer. If we need heat, we’ll use propane. I have to get my snow tires taken off and summer tires put on. We are firmly in the summer routine now.

Living the Life You Choose

Several years ago, the husband said to me over dinner one night, “I found a new podcast I think you would like. It’s by some woman in Tennessee. She’s a homesteader and a libertarian.” I said I would give it a listen. I started with the now-infamous July 23, 2017 “squash episode” detailing the many ways to use an abundance of squash from the garden. I was hooked. Since then, Nicole Sauce’s Living Free in Tennessee podcast has stayed at the top of my list of podcast favorites. Other podcasts have come and gone, but Nicole has put out consistently great content for six years. Along the way, she has built an amazing community of doers all over the world. The tag line for her podcast is Living the life you choose, on your terms.

Nicole hosts a workshop weekend at her homestead in Tennessee every April. Last fall, I hatched a plan. A dear friend of mine from high school moved to eastern Tennessee with his girlfriend five years ago. They also have become fans of Nicole’s podcast, so I asked them if they would like to go to the Spring Workshop with me. They agreed. (It is a testament to the longevity of my friendship with Robert that he let me plan this trip for them.) Two weeks ago, I drove to Seattle and flew to Cleveland to see my mother. Robert’s dad lives around the corner from my mother, so Robert and Deana arranged to visit his family that same weekend. The three of us drove back to Tennessee together. I stayed at their house for two days, and last Wednesday, we drove to the middle of Tennessee for this:

This plan had a second component. When I knew we were coming to the workshop, I contacted Nicole and offered to teach some classes. These kinds of homesteading events are typically heavy on things men want to do, like firearms training, animal husbandry, infrastructure projects, etc. Nicole’s mom—known to podcast listeners as Mama Sauce—helps her plan this workshop as well as the twice-yearly Self-Reliance Festival. Mama Sauce is also a knitter. The two of them thought that having some classes on “girly stuff” (yes, it’s sexist) would be great. I packed up a box of textile supplies, including everything I needed to teach knitting, sewing, and spinning, and shipped it to my mother’s house to have ready to take with me to the workshop.

I’m still trying to process my thoughts about the weekend, because it was one of the most amazing events I’ve ever attended. Nicole sells about 65 tickets. Attendees are welcome to camp on her property; the three of us stayed at a “cabin”—more like a condo—at the nearby Edgar Evins State Park. I got to meet half a dozen people I’ve gotten to know from the homesteading chat group. We made new friends, including a woman whose husband bought her a ticket to the workshop for Christmas. She wasn’t sure she wanted to embrace the homesteading lifestyle, but she agreed to come to the event with an open mind and I am pretty sure she was persuaded by the end of the weekend.

We listened to presentations by entrepreneurs, content creators, and others who had crafted the lifestyles they want to live. At least three self-made millionaires were in attendance, including one who slept in his car because he doesn’t believe in living lavishly. I gave a 45-minute presentation, participated in a roundtable discussion, and taught several people—including a few guys—how to knit, spin, and sew. “Happy hour” in the late afternoons usually included a group of us sitting together knitting and visiting. Robert helped with the solar installation project. Deana went to a couple of canning presentations and to the talk on women entrepreneurs. (She used to own a daycare center.)

I can’t do justice to describing what it was like to be in that environment for three days—and by environment, I mean being surrounded by other people who are so single-mindedly determined to set the course of their lives rather than allowing life to happen to them. The husband and I have fielded various reactions over the past 30 years about to our decision to move to Montana and create what we have built together. Not all of those reactions have been positive. Being able to be with other people with the same mindset—knowing that we did the right thing for us—was wonderful.

I will post other highlights from the trip in the coming days, but I wanted you all to know where I have been for two weeks. I flew back to Seattle from Nashville Sunday night and drove home yesterday. Unfortunately, the trip back was not without incident. I was traveling eastbound on I-90 just outside of Ritzville, listening to music and minding my own business in the right-hand lane, when some idiot in a white Chevy van trying to merge onto the highway hit the right side of my car just above my back tire. (I hadn’t moved over because there were other cars in the left-hand lane.) I heard a loud “bang” and felt the car swerve. I thought I had blown a tire. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind not to slam on the brakes and managed to avoid a bigger accident. I slowed down and eased over to the side of the road, called 911, and a state trooper showed up within a few minutes. The other driver was cited. He admitted fault and we have his insurance information, but now I have one more thing on my to-do list this week.

It was 34 degrees and snowing when I left two weeks ago. I arrived home yesterday to 84 and sunny. The snow is gone. Everything is looking great in the greenhouse and we will have plenty of inventory for the plant sale thanks to Elysian. I’ve got a mountain of paperwork on my desk to sort through and piles of laundry to get done. I’m teaching a class at the quilt store Friday, we may be picking up piglets on Saturday morning, and the homestead foundation pie social is Saturday afternoon, but this is my life and I am happy to be back to it.

Goodbye and Good Riddance

The husband had his own to-do list to tackle yesterday, beginning with troubleshooting a water issue. The water coming out of the hot side of the tap has been lukewarm, at best. (I’ve been taking three-minute showers for the past week.) He suspected a mixing valve issue. I am not sure what he did to fix the problem, but we have hot water again. Yay.

The next item on the list was the Starlink dish installation. He decided not to put it up at the ridgeline of the roof, because getting the forklift over to that side of the house is tricky. I think its position will be fine:

Running the cable down into my office required that he drill a couple of holes, one in the porch roof and one in the wall. He built the house, so he knew what he was doing. After we got the cable through the wall, I plugged it into the router, the dish oriented itself to the satellites, and within about five minutes, we had internet service from Starlink.

And wow, is it fast. It is significantly faster than what we have been getting with CenturyLink. The only issue is that I can’t hook it up to the Orbi mesh system without an adapter, which I didn’t realize we needed. The Orbi is a secondary router with a main unit in my office and satellite units in the basement and upstairs. It extends the range of our wireless network. The Starlink router provides decent service to the TV in the living room—the device that is furthest from my office—but without the mesh system, the husband cannot get wireless service out in his shop.

I ordered the adapter. Hopefully, that will solve the problem. We will keep the CenturyLink service until we make sure that the Starlink service is working properly, but so far, we are very impressed. And I will not be sorry to say goodbye to CenturyLink.

It was almost 2:00 pm by the time we finished the Starlink installation, so we had a late lunch and then went out to plant potatoes. I try not to put crops in the same place in successive gardening seasons to minimize pest and pathogen problems. This year, we planted potatoes in a part of the garden that has been fallow, with black plastic over it, for two years. And rather than prepare that spot with the roto-tiller—the husband’s favorite method—I requested that he just dig some trenches. Tilling really does seem to exacerbate the weed problem. We have far fewer weeds when we disturb the soil as little as possible. The black plastic got moved to the spot where we had potatoes last year, on the other side of the garden.

We put in fingerlings, Red Norlands, Clearwater Russets, and German Butterballs. After covering the potatoes, we put strips of heavy landscape fabric between the rows.

The weather today is supposed to be even nicer than yesterday. (Don’t get excited—it is forecast to snow on Tuesday and be in the 40s all week.) I am going to try to get the rest of the garden cleaned up this afternoon. We’re still at least a month out from planting everything else, but the grapes need pruning and I need to decide where I want to put the other crops.

Blog posts may be few and far between for the next two weeks. I have something going on that will preclude regular posting. I seem to get a lot of concerned inquiries if I don’t post every couple of days, so I’m giving fair warning now.

Spring Snow and a Bit of Piecing

We woke up to snow yesterday morning; it was gone by lunchtime, but the weather stayed chilly enough to keep me inside. A quick peek at the weather forecast for next week shows that it’s not going to get much better. Last spring was cold, too, but this year seems to be even worse. And now the weather people are talking about the fact that we are moving into a strong El Nino pattern, which will bring a drier winter and warmer spring next year.

Thank goodness for our greenhouse. The plants inside are nice and toasty.

After breakfast, I sat down at my desk and knocked items off my to-do list one by one, which brought my stress level down considerably. I discovered long ago that procrastinating on anything never helps me. I can’t formulate a plan until I know the exact scope of a problem, and that means tackling it head on. I had a few items on my list that had potential roadblocks in the way—roadblocks not of my making—and I needed to figure out how to get around them. Those problems are either solved or have a plan of attack in place.

My reward was to spend the afternoon making four more 12-1/2” squares for a cream and white string quilt. This is a great project for when I want to sew and not have to think, as it doesn’t require any measuring. I just sew strips of fabric together until the block is a bit bigger than needed, then trim it to size. The block looks like this:

This is the quilt I made for our bed. The block is a variation on a Log Cabin that starts with a small square in the corner. Strips get added to two sides alternately. I need 64 of them for a king-sized quilt. I’m up to 36.

The number of blocks needs to be a multiple of four in order to be put into this setting:

This is one of the blocks I did yesterday:

(It is square, even though it doesn’t look like it in the photo.)

I could do an alternate setting with a different number of blocks. We’ll see how many I get done. I’d like to put this in the co-op sale in September, and it would be nice to have it be at least a queen-sized quilt.

All the baby quilts have been delivered to their destinations—thankfully, before the babies arrived. I put the red churn dash quilt back on the Q20 to work on as I have time. The forecast is for slightly warmer weather today, so the husband and I are planning to get the potatoes in the ground. He also has “fixing the hot water system” on his list. For some reason, our limitless supply of hot water has dwindled to barely lukewarm over the past week or so. The hot water heater is barely 18 months old, so he suspects the problem is with a mixing valve.

What Survived the Winter?

I’m under a deadline right now and feeling the stress. I went to town yesterday morning to do the errands I didn’t get done on Wednesday. The husband wants to plant potatoes this weekend and I promised to pick up seed potatoes. Sometimes we use leftovers from the year before, but sometimes we eat all the potatoes and don’t have any for seed. I got German Butterballs—we did those last year and they were great—Clearwater Russets, and Red Norlands. We have enough fingerlings left to use for seed.

I also went to Costco and discovered they had apple trees! Most of the trees in our front yard orchard came from Costco 10-12 years ago. They have done exceptionally well, unlike the trees we planted on the rental property around the same time. Those were bare root trees we ordered from a supplier and they have not produced a single apple. I want to replace them.

I haven’t seen apple trees at Costco for several years and always assumed that I missed the one week when they were in stock. I only go to Costco once every 4-5 weeks. Yesterday, they had Winesap, Norland, Haralson, Northern Spy, and Lodi trees. I have a Winesap and a Northern Spy. I also have a Lodi but I bought another one because I like that one for pie. I didn’t buy a Norland or a Haralson, even though I don’t have those, because Susan is grafting several apple trees for me and I like the interesting varieties she gets.

I was supposed to attend a birthday party luncheon yesterday but I came home instead. I was too peopled-out from teaching and choir practice. Some days, I just can’t do it. I also knew it would be hard for me to enjoy the party while I was thinking about everything on my to-do list that wasn’t getting done.

After lunch, I went out to the garden to begin cleaning up the mess. I raked dead vegetation into a pile to be burned. I pruned all the lavender hedges. I propped up the pea trellis, although it needs a more permanent fix. I wandered around and looked at everything. The two peach trees—Halehaven and one other whose name escapes me at the moment—survived the winter and look good.

The hollyhocks I put in along the fence last year also survived the winter:

This is a black variety and I hope they get big enough to bloom this year.

I think my rhubarb plants are done for. I couldn’t find any rhubarb and it’s usually the first thing to come up. I had a very robust one when we first put in the garden, but it got some kind of fungal infection and died. Ever since then, every rhubarb plant I’ve put in had has struggled. Growing rhubarb should be as easy as falling off a log. Oh, well, I know my friends will share.

I’ll clean up the other half of the garden this afternoon and prune the grapevines.

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I’ve just about given up on our Joann Fabrics store, and on Joanns in general. I was there yesterday and saw that their adult Gildan T-shirts were on sale. I need to replace some of my work T-shirts that are old and falling apart and I like these because they are long enough. The sign above the T-shirts—literally, three signs all saying the same thing on that aisle—advertised the shirts as “3 for $14.” I picked up three in my size and went to the register.

They rang up at full price. When I asked why, the woman at the register said, “They aren’t on sale.” I said, “Well, the sign says otherwise.” She insisted they weren’t on sale because the sale price wasn’t in the computer. She sent another employee back to check the display, but I didn’t want to hold up the (long) line of people behind me over a few dollars’ difference, so I just went ahead and paid for them and walked out.

That kind of thing happens regularly there now. I don’t know what’s going on, but that company seems to be falling apart. The computer system is as slow as molasses in January and the prices never match what is supposed to be on sale. Perhaps it’s just our local store, although the stores in Spokane aren’t much better. In any case, I’ll start my shopping at Hobby Lobby and only go to Joanns as a last resort.