springtime walk in the woods

Took a short walk in the woods earlier this week (18 April, 2009).

Winston runs after me



What our yard looks like today



Redbud blooming





Winston is spooked.



Grrrl in the woods



On the way back




Violets

Freakish weather; I'm not complaining

Wowie, wowie.

When I woke up at nine this morning the thermometer on the front porch read 53 degrees. Now, that may not mean much to you tropical types, but here in my world it means last night before bed we didn't refill the woodstove, and this morning the slider is standing open and the animals are lolling around on the porch. We humans may do some lolling on the porch later, as well.

I know Spring is still eleven weeks away, and a Spring-like December 27th is only a sign of global warming, but it sure feels good to me. The thoughts in my head are all about starting seedlings on windowsills, washing windows and finishing projects.

Finishing projects? I've hauled Trellis and Henley out of the WIP box. Maybe...?

Can't sleep

Been up since 2:30.
This'll make for a rough Tuesday.
Supposed to snow pretty much all day today.

early morning weirdness

After feeding the cats, letting the dog out & back in, and fixing my cuppa tea, I sat down at my computer, which faces a corner where two windows meet. I saw a large dark shape detach itself from the top of the apple pine walnut tree to my left (east) and sail into the neighbors' yard; I thought, "Hawk" and worried about cats, theirs more than ours, because while ours are all full grown theirs include a crop of kittens...

In just a minute I saw the large dark shape walking around under their birdfeeder --definitely turkey-shaped. "Aha," I thought. "We have some pretty tame wild turkeys." But I already knew that; witness the photos I've taken of the flock walking around in my backyard; they seem to see me more as an annoyance than a threat and only when I persist in coming closer and closer do they head for the woods.

(note to self: put turkey flock pix up) ...here's a link to last year's turkeys:
MeowMom: turkey weather?
(and Banjo/Boots pix)

Well, these neighbors with the crop'o'kittens and birdfeeder have also two dogs; the elderly Banjo and the younger Boots. Wasn't long before Boots came tearing out in attack mode (fetch mode?) and yon turkey went into take-off mode: it taxied for a short while, then lifted off, then currrvvved upward-- and, I presume, flew back into my apple pine walnut tree to roost once more.

There's still snow on all the north-facing slopes, by the way. I expect we'll have that till April or so...

snowday

At 730 this morning the world outside my windows was white; even the road had a glaze. I took a couple pictures with the cell phone but the signal strength today hasn't been enough to send a multimedia message. (sent later, see below)

Before a trip into town I had a nice long soak in the tub, with the book I'm currently reading, Mary Roach's Stiff, which is a very funny nonfiction about what happens to corpses after death. Really. Funny.

We went to the nearby new Tractor Supply (it's in the old Mal~Wart) this afternoon (and I forgot to bring the cell phone, therfore the snow pix still didn't get sent), and learned they carry all the cat and dog food I've been driving 80 miles to Barboursville to buy. Yea!

Also dropped off stuff at CSS and books at the laundromat, and had lunch at Shoney's.

Still haven't jacked up the wood stove with the unistrut I got for that purpose, so we still don't have a fire in the stove. The electric bill is gonna be high...

Home!

Home Sweet Home.

Had a lovely vacation; got home late last night, collected Klutz and Grrrl from the drr today. Was 16F here this morning according to google weather, 22F according to the front porch thermometer. South Florida had a cold snap too: Monday afternoon dropped into the upper 60's.

The first thing Klutz did upon getting home (if you'll remember, she was kenneled b/c of all her missing teeth -- they fed her "soft" food all week) is dive into the dry catfood bowl.

brief everything update

We spent early May painting and reflooring half the house and now we're "destashing," to borrow a word from fiberholics. Both of us have tossed our closets a couple of times, weeding out more and more of the unused space-takers, and will continue to do so till there are open spaces everywhere. I have shredded and composted years worth of unnecessary paper. We have freecycled and goodwilled and passed on to family members furniture, furnishings, and books. Everyone's breathing easier, the house is easier to clean, things are easier to find and we're having more fun and more time to have fun in.

The garden looks good. This year it's closer to the house and already I can tell the weeds and rocks we made war on last year (organically: picking by hand) are not as persistent this year. The perennials all seem to have survived (maybe not the torch lilies), even the tiny yellow rose bush. We've cut back roses and apple trees. The yard looks better than it has in years.

The hummingbirds came in early May, and judging by early numbers it looks like we'll have more than ever.

Th'Mr is getting his health back and is back to work, with two separate projects going, and I'm looking into getting an advanced degree when my own work schedule calms down some. I love what I do, but some days I can really tell I'm not a kid anymore. The degree I'm looking into will get me out of the "bull work" of the trade and into the fine tuning: away from the mechanics of the operation and into the (climate controlled) control rooms. It's all good.

Spring flowers make me happy

2007 and 2008.

In 2003 (I think; may have been 2002 or 2004 though) this plant was just a little twig I dug up from a hedge down the road.

If I had my way, Spring would last ten months. Then we'd have two weeks of 110 degree summer, then a month of beautiful fall colors, then two weeks of two-foot-of-snow on the ground winter, then back to Spring.

Changes

Thursday they fired the best friend I had at work.

Friday I decided to go home instead of work - I'd finished up two weeks as foreman while Scott was on vacation, and Scott was due to return to work Friday, AND we had a winter storm warning, and I was still mad about they way they did Kelly (had the cops waiting for him when he left the parking lot, which we got around by my driving him home in my van, instead of him taking his car), so I felt 3x justified in taking the not-required overtime day off. May not work Monday, either.

(K's wife & kids left him Thursday, and he came in to work drunk, that's what they fired him for. He's barred off AEP jobs for 6 months. Maybe just this particular AEP job. Unless they have trouble manning it, in which case he may be back next week. Rules change at whim around here.)

Good thing I came home Friday morning. The snow rolled in and by Saturday morning we had several inches. Enough I loaded the sandbags in the van and blessed Roy for selling me the snow tires I'm running on the back. A trip to town to fill prescriptions was fun, especially getting back up the driveway afterward. I bet I was throwing roostertails of snow ten feet high all the way from the road to the house.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Since I was coming home Friday, th'Mr called UPS to drop off the fridge, which they did late afternoon, and he and th'neighbor and the driver and I loaded it onto the dolly I'd rented and slid it off the (full sized, semi) truck (without a lift gate), then th'neighbor and I pulled it up the driveway. It's a big fridge. At the mo it's in the garage.

The place I rented the dolly from was so busy in the snow, un-stucking cars, that they asked would we please keep it till Monday instead of returning it Saturday. 'K. Then I decided why don't I just take off Monday and try to get the other appliances then. Though we got out in the Astro in the snow I didn't want to take th'neighbor's truck out in it, especially not with new appliances in the back, and Monday we're supposed to be back up in the fifties.

We're still on winter storm watch; the temp's about 15 out there right now and everything's covered by more snow than I've seen this winter.

I heard my phone's alarm clock -the daily alarm I don't bother turning off for the weekend- go off in the laundry hamper (must remember not to wash the cellphone), so I'm up for a little while, tending the wood stove.

short short weekend, long long week

Following one more Monday in January I didn't go to work (Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday), I returned Tuesday (after work) to the apartment to find icicles hanging out of the kitchen and bathroom faucets, a solid block of ice in the commode, and the shower hose broken off and lying in the shower stall.

Sigh.

This was not how I'd planned my Tuesday evening. I thought I'd grab a quick shower, then head to the KCYC for a little knitting companionship. Instead I'm off to the hardware store for a shower and a pair of channelocks (since my eleventeen pair are either at work or at home). By the time I got back to the apartment all was thawed and nothing broken, so I guess I got off easy.

Wednesday and Thursday must have been uneventful, as I don't remember them. Thursday night the temp dropped to 8 or lower, and Friday morning I let Astro-the-van warm up longer than normal. Then I drove to work. Arrived totally shivering, the van's heater was blowing only cold air. Thank the gods they keep the break room heater cranked up to eighty, and the 4/10ths mile walk in from the parking lot tends to warm me up too.

Friday evening I carried out tools for any eventuality and took US60 instead of the faster (but more dangerous) interstate, but Astro took me to the apartment without incident. One unexpected bonus came of driving the "back" road: I noticed a trusted chain auto parts store had a new sign up, proclaiming "now open 24 hours." I took down the phone number. No matter where I break down, I'll be able to call that number and find out what store is nearby. Smart, huh?

Saturday morning instead of letting the van warm up (not gonna happen with cold air blowing, anyway, right?) I cranked her up and put her in gear and drove right to work. If I'm going to blow a radiator hose apparently (judging by Friday's performance) it isn't going to happen in under an hour.

A lunchbox with all those tools AND lunch in it is heavy at 6:30AM.

Saturday afternoon --we only work eight hours on Saturdays-- I finally got a clue and checked the radiator for water. And added two and a half gallons. I'm so ashamed. But I am now home, 100 miles from work.

Still blowing cold air. Th'neighbor said he will replace the thermostat today.

Today's my birthday. Forty seven. I woke up at 6:30 (two hours after the alarm goes off during the week) and first thing drew a hot bath, lay in it reading for an hour. My apartment is adequate, but I do wish I had a tub there instead of just a shower stall.

Tomorrow I go back to work.

he's home!

They completely backed off the idea of a pacemaker and instead took him off a bunch of the pills he'd been on, and cut the dosage on another. Tomorrow we still have the appointment to see the dietician and diabetes doctor, and now next Monday we'll be seeing the cardiologist. The general broad overview of a diabetic diet seems fairly easy to follow (most of the time, anyway); that's pretty much how we've been eating anyway (sometimes).

After the blizzard this time last week, now it's pushing 70F here. Beautiful weather - teeshirt weather.

Happy Holidays; here's how mine were spent...

Two five-day weekends in a row.

Last Thursday I came home, we left Saturday for Muncie, had a real nice Christmas with all th'Mr's family (Saturday was great traveling weather - temperate, and not much traffic at all; Sunday and Monday were ice cold, windy, snowy; and Tuesday was again great traveling weather), drove home Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning I went back to work.

Sometime Wednesday afternoon I realized I'd neglected to bring the apartment keys with me, so Wednesday night I drove home again and Thursday again made the 200-mile round trip to Charleston, but now I'm home again for the weekend.

After work yesterday I went to the apartment to pick up a few things, most notably the Christmas ham AEP had given out. The bird feeders were dead empty, and I keep the birdseed in the freezer (there's no good reason not to: if there are mice it'll keep them out and there's really not another good spot to keep a big bag of seed in that small apartment), or I'd never noticed the power had apparently been out while I was away. Three pounds of bacon and another three of hamburger were completely thawed, and though there were some small chunks of ice cubes left in the big container I dump the ice trays into they were in a big pool of water.

The uncharitable thought that comes to mind is the neighbor (or whoever it was that came in over Thanksgiving weekend and drank cokes, moved the liquor bottles, used a huge glop of electricity and took an unopened bag of Hershey's cherry cordials), on discovering his key no longer unlocks my door, turned off my power for spite (since it was probable I would be gone all weekend). The electric panel is in the "basement" under the apartment, to which the neighbors have access.

Some more charitable (and less paranoid) thoughts are simply there was a power outage, or the freezer malfunctioned, or the breaker controlling the fridge was accidentally shut off for a while.

Last night on the way home I stopped at Target and filled th'Mr's Christmas list --yeah, I know it's late, but why risk duplicating what someone else got him, this is a better way to do it-- and this morning before he got out of bed I wrapped all the loot.

In Muncie we stay at th'MrSr's house and Christmas morning we go to Sis's place for a big breakfast and all the unwrapping. Before noon we were headed back home, and on the way home I started craving Christmas dinner (note above; we had breakfast, not dinner at Sis's), but not even Shoney's was open Tuesday, so today I'm fixing a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and anything else I can find in the cabinets (or send him after). The turkey, an 18-pound Butterball, is now nearly thawed, giblets and neck are simmering and most of the other stuff is ready to go in the oven when it's time.

Th'Mr has taken Astro to get my snowtires balanced, and I'm taking this brief break from kitchen to catch up on this most necessary blogging.

Take care.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig...

Finally got home last night, after almost three weeks away. This schedule depresses me, not least because after all that time away, after paying bills & such I end up with near zero bux in the bank.

Astro still coughs and chokes - maybe he needs a fuel filter? but now has two new snow tires on the rear, a gift from a co-worker. Sort of a gift. When I tried to pay for them he told me to wait till I could afford to. At this rate that could be a while.

Since last I blogged, I rediscovered the yarn shop in Kanawha City and have visited several times. Saturday they're open till five, and if I work Saturdays it's only till 3:30, so I got in a couple of hours knitting in the company of other knitters before heading to the apartment where th'Mr had arrived for another weekend.

Aranmor has been put on hold while I knat up a pair of fingerless gloves for Mom's birthday and housesox for Dad's Christmas. Now I'm 3/4 through with a scarf for the brother-in-law and plan to crochet a bear, fishing, for the other BiL before making th'Mr's requested housesox. Then I can get back to Aranmor, and to the worksox I've been wanting for myself.

I'm not in a very good mood. I don't like December. It's dark, and cold, and often wet, and traffic is nuts and everyone's in a hurry and the commercialization of Christmas drives me batshit (and like it or not, I get caught up in it too), and I never feel like my gifts to others are adequate and all this nifty stuff I'd like goes on sale but I don't buy for myself because I figure someone will gift me with the same thing (which never happens). January's just as bad with my birthday at the end of it, but this year by gawd I'm going to get myself something neat for my birthday.

Tomorrow we drive north for the holiday. Tuesday we'll drive back home, and Wednesday morning I'll head back to WV to work for two days, THEN I'll have a four-day weekend at home. I like the relatives and like seeing them on holidays or any time, but what I'd really like to do is just come home and hibernate, covered in cats, for a few weeks. I feel like I need healing.

Tuesday?

It's been over a week since I was home. Worked M-T-W-Th-F-Sat (th'Mr came up Saturday evening, went shopping with me Sunday, took my laundry to wash Monday and drove back home today.) Looks like I'll be working the same schedule this week, and so far the plan is he'll come pick me up Saturday and bring me back to work Monday morning.

Astro, my old van, is not doing well. On advice from R, my apprentice this month, I unplugged the overdrive from the transmission housing, but that same day the weather warmed up and I can't really tell if that solved the problem or not. My suspicion is it didn't, and what needs to happen is someone (probably me) needs to drain the transmission and clean the filter. I used to do that every 10-15,000 miles on my old Ford, but these days I'd rather spend that time doing something else (knitting, maybe?), and wish someone else would just take over the automechanic position for me.

Or I could win the lottery and buy a nice car. One that doesn't need transmission work yet.

Knitting - I finished the modular for the grandnephew last Friday, after a few frantic emails back'n'forth because I'd lost his measurements. I ended up adding four inches (!) to each sleeve and then improvising gussets into those same sleeves. Photos will have to wait till I get film developed; my computer access here at the Charleston library is limited, and I don't have the digital camera with me anyway.

More knitting - I finished the front of Aranmor and began the back. Can't wait to finish so I can start another, though I haven't yet decided what the next will be. Fulmar? Bavarian Twist?

wintertime

Saturday.

Tuesday the temps here at home and there at work were highs in the mid-seventies, lows in the upper forties.

Same Wednesday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the temperature began to drop. Early in the morning th'Mr & the neighbor Mike went to get a tree that had been leaning across the entrance to our family graveyard for a while. Hickory, I think. Nice firewood.

Yesterday (Friday) when I got up it was flurrying, continued to flurry off & on all day; th'Mr & I pulled the wood splitter our from the barn and put in a new spark plug. Tried to start it. Th'neighbor came & blew in the gas tank (clogged fuel line?) and got it started, but it's running just on "choke" setting; he'll have to look it over today.

Last night th'Mr built our first fire of the season.

This morning I've spent relearning how to properly feed this new woodstove (the old one was easy: shove the wood in.) Every year I go through this, first mistakenly just shoving in the wood in the order I pick it up. After a while the fan goes out. I open the damper, then open the door. Look at the wood. Realize I ought to rearrange it for better air flow. Do that, then sit and wait for an hour or more till it finally gets going again and the circulation fan kicks on.

This morning I spent that "hour or more" going through the bills and paperwork that pile up on my desk whenever I'm not here to deal with them frequently. What began as a scary stack of paper turned out to be not too bad after all - when all was done and rearranged I had only two small stacks, a fist full of glossies for the trash, and a huge stack of scrap paper for the fire :)

Which I did: fed the fire with it, and the fan finally, gratifyingly, kicked on.

My belated Thanksgiving:
That th'Mr & I are alive, together, and healthy.
That we live in a 90-year-old farmhouse that's not too expensive in upkeep.
That little things like burning our paper and cardboard to keep them out of the landfill, and composting (ditto), give me pleasure.
That we heat with wood when it's coldest, keeping the electric for "backup."
That we have great neighbors, who are always glad to help.
That cats keep our laps warm by day and our feet warm by night.
That the view out my back window includes nobody's land but our own.
That to the south our land is bordered by National Forest, to the east and west by great neighbors, and to the north "town," and the interstate to "city" are just 10 minutes away.
That there's an interstate rest area between us and a mall, in every direction.
That I have a decent job and the respect of my coworkers.
That people seem to like me (I still can't figure that one out).
That there is yarn.

It's snowing

First snow of the season. Wednesday and Thursday we had a high/low of mid-seventies/upper-forties.

Yesterday --Thanksgiving-- we did nontraditionally. Since I didn't know till the last minute if I'd be working any of the four-day weekend (I'm not, none of it) th'Mr didn't get a turkey. We both agree I can (and do!) bake a turkey any time, not just on holidays, so he decided he'd like to do a couple nice steaks on the grill. Our Thanksgiving dinner was:

New York Strip Steak
Steamed Asparagus
Green Bean Casserole
Stuffing
Strawberry Cheesecake

Today I need to take Astro to the car shop for a tune up - she's chugging and gasping - and we need to get groceries (last night the dog ate catfood and the cats ate tuna). But right now I'm going to sit here and watch it snow.

surprise!

It's Monday, and I'm not at work.

It is really hard for me to leave home Monday mornings (and easy for th'Mr to convince me not to go). Imagine how hard it would be if I were leaving every morning, instead of just once a week!

It's not a great idea financially, though. At least I don't have to worry about losing my job. I'll have that till it ends, unless I really screw up (fail a drug test, get caught with a camera, etc).

Haven't seen any hummingbirds in three or four weeks, but I'm leaving the feeders up a little longer for stragglers. The goldfinches are all now brownfinches. Overnight temperatures have been in the forties. The leaves are turning -- maybe it'll be a pretty fall. Maybe the cold weather will pass as quickly as the summer seemed to. I'm already ready for spring, and planting.

So fast...

I wonder if there's a reason time goes by faster the older you get. If one's heartbeat slows ...or something... it would make sense for it to all be relative in some way. Thirty - thirtyfive years ago the ten (?) week summer vacation stretched on for six months of "now" time. I'm writing before coffee again; not a good idea if I don't have thick skin. Not used to writing. I like what I do for a living --well, I enjoy my job at the moment-- but I think it kills brain cells. After three months at it I'm not as (searching for a word here) as I was before. Literate? Able to express myself. Good with language.

Yesterday was a nice break: Every Friday now two journeymen will work to support the boilermakers, keeping the power on to the welders, and power in general. My crew is small now: Kelly, myself, "Benny," and Roy. We have yet another new foreman; Scott. The crew got big enough to support a second foreman and Isaac is now running "production" while Scott has taken "temporary." That's what we are, temporary (no pun intended). Our mission is to light up the areas others are working in, to supply enough places for them to plug in their grinders, drills, vacuums, to hook up the welders and replace them when they go bad (which happens quite often; the welders get hard use), to keep the air conditioners running so it's not unbearably hot between the hoppers.

To that effect we have "bangboxes" that supply 120 V power, "disconnects" the air handlers are fed off of, "six packs" and "eight packs" of welders. I spent yesterday afternoon drawing diagrams of where everything is fed from, so that Vince and Dooley, who are this week's two Friday journeymen, can quickly deal with any problems that arise.

I think I did a bang-up job with my maps. Wish I had scanned them. (As if. As if there's a scanner I could use at work. Feh.)

Yesterday's low was 45. Tomorrow's will be 36. Almost frost. I've been taking my jacket out in the evenings and wearing it in in the mornings; it's almost too cold at 6:30AM for just a tee shirt. The seasons change so fast.

convince me

Well, some time between mowing, pulling weeds in the garden, refilling the hummingbird feeders, shredding cucumbers for cuke salad, planting my bamboo-that-is-not-really-a-bamboo and having a beer, I decided that six months from now we won't even notice the roughly twohundred dollars I'll miss by not going to work tomorrow, and that there's really too much left to do to declare the weekend over. Simple as that.

Laundry is still unfinished, I haven't unpacked/repacked, I have a pork roast thawed that I need to cook, have to finish making the cucumber salad, liver is thawed to feed the cats (I don't like to refreeze it once it's thawed), still have two netflixes to watch, haven't done the first bit of knitting or cross stitch this weekend, my back hurts, I want a nap --a real nap, a daytime nap, not a night-- and a drink, I haven't found the gloves I brought th'Mr from work, haven't done any cat brushing this weekend, Nameless Roadie and Grrrl still need their flea dope doses, haven't been to the grocery yet, I have the light in my bedroom closet still to replace and I'd like a long soak in the tub...

th'Mr tells me the Perseids meteor shower is going on tonight, and if it's clear out we ought to drive up to the Enex Cemetery (where we got married, yes, in the woods, at the cemetery) to watch it. Because that's far enough away from city lights & so forth, which is one of the reasons we got married there -- no traffic noises, etc. So I hopped on line to see if it's clear or cloudy out. Really, right now it's in that grey area between daylight and dark you can't tell if the stars will come out or not. Simplest is go to my google home page and see what the weather says.

hot week

It's been in the nineties and muggy all week. At work they finally gave us some relief: "cool vests" which are canvas vests with velcro straps, containing re-freezable ice packs, and "cooling bandannas" that when soaked in water for 30 minutes will retain moisture for up to two days. It's still stifling out, and the vests are heavy. We keep the break trailer down around 65; I put on a heavy quilted jacket whenever I'm in there, and am glad to feel cold enough to need a jacket. Wednesday before afternoon break I went to the "trough" to wash my face & hands & arms and ended up impulsively filling my hard hat with water and dumping it over my head, twice. What a difference that made --especially a few minutes later in the break trailer.