Wilson River Gal

Time to process apples! Our apple trees (one each of braeburn, rome, King Cole, and spitzenburg) have out-done themselves this year. We've had one branch on the spitzenburg propped up for most of the summer - its applies are huge and heavy, so propping was necessary to keep the limb from being damaged. We finally remembered that we've got a perfectly serviceable food dehydrator in the garage. In this year of full freezers (and having to make room for half a beef next month!), we're now drying stuff to keep from putting more into the freezer. We've got a bunch of pie filling and applesauce stashed away, so, we're happily drying apples. The spitzenburgs seem to make the nicest dried apples: large slices, with a sparkly zing and plenty of sweetness. King Cole apples are drier than the "spitzs" - at least this year, anyway - and are good dried, but have a more subtle flavor than the spitzenburgs. The slices are sturdy, leathery. The coles seem to be a good ba...

  Hot off the needles: a pair of wool socks for me. Knit in Laura Linneman's "Footpath Sock" pattern - at least for the stitch pattern anyway, I did my "own thing" for the cuffs, heels, and toes - the yarns featured were some Malabrigo fingering (the dark purple-blue) and some handspun 3-ply that I happened to have a big cake of. The cast on is a stretchy Italian cast-on. The heel is a Balbriggan heel, and the toes are the standard wedge toes. Malabrigo yarns often bleed when they're washed for the first time, so when I was finished with the knitting and finish work, I soaked the socks in lukewarm water with a bit of Retayne in it, to head off any dye running. Worked a treat! No color in the water. Rinse, "squoze", and dried the socks on sock blockers. Done! What's new on the needles? The Cozy Quilt Socks using one strand of blue and one strand of cream. Shocker: this time I'm actually following the pattern! Pictures when I have something w...

Hi.  I used to blog on a WordPress site, but eventually it stagnated and got quiet because I couldn't think of anything more to say.  I don't want to discard those previous posts - dating back to March, 2015 - so I am incorporating them here under the label "Back Catalog". You might find them easier to read in chronological order: filter to "Back Catalog" then scroll to the bottom of the list and read them in bottom-up order.  Thanks. 

Today's a recovery day for me, so I'm off from work. Not exactly sitting around watching Hulu in my bathrobe  - at least not today, anyway. Early summer in the forest, all the berries are ripening all at once and demand to be picked and preserved for the long wet winter. Saturday morning I went out and picked raspberries and blueberries, which went right into the freezer. Last evening, after supper, B and I moseyed around the upper end of our road and up Lester Creek Road a bit and picked thimbleberries, early huckleberries, some blackberries and some amazing salmonberries - including a bunch of purple ones (they're so sweet!). We picked just enough for a batch of "bumbleberry jam" - which is a mix of wild berries. This morning, after B went to work, I went out and picked an additional 3 pounds of wild blackberries (brambleberries, for those that know about these things). It's great having berries growing adjacent to our compost pile! I barely left th...

  Treatment #5 is history. Yay, team! Dr. Dan sent me in for another CT scan today to check something going on in my left cheek. Could be related to a minor-league sinus infection on the right side, but we don't know. We'll see what's up when we get the results of the CT (aka Cat) scan. Meanwhile, we're still in the market for one or two good barn cats. The moles, voles, and other assorted varmints are practically eating us out of house and home outside, although the chipmunks and squirrels haven't shown up yet for some reason. Perhaps the weasels have eaten them all. :) So - if you hear of anyone local with a surplus of barn kitties - send 'em my way! And no, weasels don't eat barn cats. Cat scan item #3: the new color work cap is coming along slowly, given the only time I work on it is when I'm home by myself and can concentrate. The second part of that equation is the problem, of course. I've got a raging case of oatmeal brain going o...

I like to spend time futzing around in the garden. Weeding, planting things, helping things grow. All kinds of things: veggies, flowers, herbs, trees, whatever. It's not so much that I like to eat (but I do!) but that I like to grow things. I like the feeling of accomplishment I get when gaze out over our nicely-kept garden. This season is pretty weird for me. As much as I want to have a beautiful garden with lots of vegs, flowers & herbs tucked here and there, it just isn't happening. And that makes me sad. I just don't have the energy for it, although I have plenty of will. But will's just not enough to get the job done. I went out for an hour this morning, pulled a half-wheelbarrow full of weeds from the main garden and weeded the new asparagus shoots. I deadheaded the roses. I planted a flat of seedlings that needed to be in the ground nearly a month ago. I watered the asparagus and newly-planted area by hand, after running the soaker hose in the raspbe...