My Bountiful Ozarks Farm: November 2013

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Murphy's Law weekend

This is supposed to be a HAPPY weekend, right? Because right now, it's late Friday night, and I'm at my wit's end. I'm sure I should be thrilled, but right now, I'm just wiped out and worn out and struggling to pull together for what is promising to be a very long next few weeks. Oh, the news isn't all horrible, really.

Quentin got the call for his rehire interview Tuesday night, with the interview Wednesday. With Tyson, interviews are pretty much just a standard Q&A kind of thing, like "Can you stand on a concrete floor for eight hours a day?" or "Can you handle knives and scissors safely?" Basically, pro forma, and as long as you pass the medical screening, you've got the job. So by Wednesday evening, we knew he was rehired (YAY) and starting Monday night. This is good news.

It's not even that bad in the house, despite the cold outside. Thursday was foggy as all heck coming home, and I do mean foggy. There were a couple of spots that the wet fog was so horribly bad that I actually had to turn the headlights off and drive with just the DRLs on the car, because even as low as the regular headlights are, they were bouncing off the fog and reflecting to where I couldn't see five feet in front of the car. Coming home, I had to watch the white line on the right side of the road pretty close so I'd stay on the road and out of the ditch. NOT a lot of fun.

And while it was drizzly all day today Friday, and it's cold enough out right now to chill the drizzle to ice on the deck and stairs, it's not that bad in the house. We got groceries tonight for the most part, because we still haven't quite decided on dinner for Thanksgiving other than NOT turkey (after working for Butterball, we can't even look at the stuff without wanting to gag, conditions were just so unsanitary there), and so of course, Quentin insisted on bringing everything in so I wouldn't have to fight the slippy deck. Considering the afternoon and evening, which I'll tell about momentarily, it's not that bad in that particlar respect, either.

The house is okay. Of course, the rooms we closed off for the winter are awful darned cold, the kitchen is barely above freezing, the living room and bedroom/bathroom are cozy .... and I'm curled up in bed under the afghans and enjoying the warmth. It's only about 29F outside right now, but it's cozy in the house, at least in the parts we use all the time. So that's a good thing.

So why am I so flummoxed, so out of sorts? It's because of what happened at lunch. I called Quentin as I usually do, to chat for a few minutes while I get lunch out of my lunchbag and settle down for a quick nosh. I hear we have a problem, potentially a big one. Oh dear. Ok, what's wrong? The truck won't start, saith he. Oh crap. Matt, a friend of ours, had come to where the truck (well, the van, but we call it the truck) was at, at the Alpena PO. It might have been the fuel filter, so Matt took Quentin to the local O'Reilly's Auto Parts, got a new filter, took it back and they put it on. (Matt is a darned good shadetree mechanic, and a heck of a buddy to have in a pinch like this.) Still won't start. By this time, I'm done with lunch, and call back to see how things are coming, do I need to take a half-point and come to get hubster and go from there. I surely do.

So after about ten minutes of running around like a headless chicken, I find all the appropriate people, get them notified, and get my happy butt in the car to go get hubster and see what is to be done. After some running around and making arrangements with the guy we're buying the truck from to charge the necessary part at O'Reilly's, we run back to there and get the module. Matt meets us at the truck and the menfolk go about trying to get it on, only to discover that, no matter what O'Reilly's says, the truck doesn't HAVE an ignition module. So they start tinkering, and Matt says next thing to check is the battery. It comes out of the truck, and goes in the car with us for a quick trip to, you guessed it, O'Reilly's, since they do free battery testing.

Then comes part of the fun - return of the unneeded module plus core charge on the old battery leaves about $65 for the battery. Good thing we are being allowed to charge this particular part so we can hopefully get the truck running now. Because the old one apparently sparked when tested as well as testing to have low charge and from the looks of things, a plate inside shifted and is touching another plate, thus the sparking. Ooops.

New battery installed and trying to start the truck, there is now audible a low wheeeeeing sound in the motor block area. Great. Just great. NOW what? Matt diagnoses it as the truck has jumped timing. The thing he said at the beginning he hoped it was not, because up till then it could be a bunch of other things (like the battery) that were fairly cheap and quick fixes. Of course not, not with the kind of luck we have. So we call O'Reillys and order the parts needed to get the truck back on the road (about $50 all told with tax and freight, as the gasket set needed had to be "special ordered" - of course, this just can't all be easy, can it?)

So now we have to figure out a way to get the truck towed to Matt and Kim's place, Kim being Matt's wife. That way, when the parts all come in, Matt can fix the tuck at his place and have it ready to go. Unfortunately, and this is where my stress levels are now going through the roof over all this, we can't get any of the parts until TUESDAY. Quentin starts orientation MONDAY, and if you miss day one of orientation, you're screwed for a year.

What are we going to do? Well, tomorrow, we have to stop by Bill's place, he being the older gentleman we are buying the truck from. Transportation for work is a bit tricky, but doable, is we don't mind splitting sleep up into a couple of long naps instead of a whole night in one shot (which at our ages, we rarely manage anyhow). It means we both have to use the car to get back and forth to work, and on different shifts, until the truck is fixed. How are we to manage that?

Quentin will get up with me and go with me to work, then come home and take a nap. He'll get up and get ready for work, then come to the plant and park. Any errands needed he'll have to do. He starts when I get done with my shift, so he'll be there and parked well before shift change. I'll take the car and come home, eat supper, relax a tad, and get a nap in, getting up about 1 AM to head back to the plant to get him. He'll drive us home, I'll go back to bed for a few more hours rest, he'll eat and relax and get a couple-three hours nap, before getting up to go with me to work ... repeating as necessary. It's not ideal, but it will work for awhile as needed, until the truck's back on the road.

So there's good this week, and bad, and not a lot of homesteading going on because, honestly, between work, house chores, getting Quentin back to work and now this, I just don't have it tonight. Night all, it's sleepy time for this middle-aged homesteader wanna-be. I need to get up early tomorrow to get stuff done, so I'm off to bed on this Friday night.

****
Saturday evening, about 5PM

I have determined that I do desperately need a new laptop. Several of the keys on this one are sticky and don't want to type the letter when I am busy, because it's a few years old, I'm hard on laptops because I tend to eat around them (I know, shouldn't do that, but I do clean it out regularly), and I've kind of worn the darn keypad contacts down on certain letters. So eventually, it's going to have to be replaced.

As to the truck and Turkey Day. I'll tackle Turkey Day first, because it's easiest. We settled on summer sausage, extra sharp cheddar cheese, crackers, sweet gherkins, olives, some shaved virginia ham all for snacking. Dinner is green beans, two kinds of mashed taters (he wants to cheat this year and do instant, ugh), brown gravy, my homemade herb stuffing, and ham steaks. We got four different kinds of ham at the Wally World deli, trying them all before buying. A couple he liked better, a couple I liked better, so we got them to slice ham steaks of all of them which I'll brown up in the electric skillet with pineapple on them for the meat. I'll eat the pineapple, as Quentin likes the flavor on the ham but not pineapple itself. Me, I'll eat the whole durn can by myself as a snack given half a chance. Stick it on top of some cottage cheese and I durn near have a meal in the summertime! So we got enough food for us (no company this year) and that's it for dinner.

Now for the truck. We got to Bill's today about lunchtime, and got with him and one of his mechanics, Randy. We explained what had happened and what we'd done so far, where the truck was, what it's doing, etc. Randy also thinks it may have jumped time (sigh), and tomorrow, Sunday, Quentin will be coming to McQuack's with me to start. Around noon, he and Randy will meet at the truck, figure out how to get it on the flatbed car hauler, and drag it back to Bill's, where Randy will tear into it and figure out what's wrong. If it really is the timing, and it's cheap enough to fix, parts are on order already, so no biggie. If it's something else or not so cheap, Bill's going to do a swapout with us for a different vehicle, crediting the money paid on the current truck (the Ford van, but it's basically an enclosed truck, so we call it the truck), and putting that money towards a different vehicle, which we'd then pay off under the terms of the old contract.

Bill's about ready to just do that anyhow and sell the van to the scrapyard, because, as he put it, he's tired of getting vehicles sold and folks get them just about paid off when they break down for good. It would help if he wouldn't get older vehicles in that respect, but then he'd have to charge more for them and demand bigger payments, plus folks would then have to pay sales tax on them when they bought them. He keeps his prices low enough that no sales tax is due on the sale, to help his customers out. So right now, it's one vehicle, shared commuting as I mentioned above which is not going to be fun or easy, and trying to get everything done that needs doing.

Oh yeah, and to top off this incredibly lovely weekend ... the radiator on the car has sprung a small leak. It's not bad, and honestly, a bottle of the radiator stop leak is enough to do the trick so it will hold until we can replace the radiator. But it does mean checking the antifreeze every time we go to start the car when the engine's cold for a while. Oh well ... that is a minor annoyance compared to the current fiasco with the truck, and I knew something like this would start to happen because the Aveo is a 2006 model and pretty much everything on it is still factory original, including the radiator. And it's lasted longer than expected, considering the car's been through the wars, mileage-wise, and has 136,000 miles on it! So the radiator's had it's wear and tear, that's for certain.

And I finally managed to get some more done on the online money making book I'm working on under a pseudonym ... which means once I have internet at home again, I can start even more work on things like ClickBank products (they don't just have diet plans and junk stuff like some folks think, there's a lot of home and garden and green/organic products and craft stuff and such like on there, too ... so there's that as a money-maker for helping with at-home income from the farm, too.) So there's a lot going on in bits and pieces, and I'm happy about that.

But nobody emailed or commented or anything on what their Turkey Day traditions are! How'm I supposed to have a great blog post for you guys if you don't cooperate, lol! I've a lot to be thankful for this year, including a working car so we can both get to work, Quentin getting his job back, the house being reasonably comfy to live in this winter, a repaired or different vehicle for Quentin is in the works, the online income is picking up a tiny bit, one bill got paid off this past week, we have plenty of food in the house, Thanksgiving dinner is planned (other than having forgotten the gherkins the other day, so I guess it's a good thing we're near the store today), we have our health, Mom is doing okay other than a cold, Amber's doing ok and doing well in college, and all is generally well in the short term at the least.

And hey, at least the baby's socks are done, barring doing the toe on the second sock and weaving in the ends on that one.

Anyhow, I'm off here because it's Saturday and I want a nap before dinner and movies. See you next week!

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Ohhhbrrrr

Yes, I know. It's "Oh, brrr." But lo, these many years ago, when I was but a young woman fresh out of high school and in her first semester of college at the local community college, I became friends with many people of diverse ages and backgrounds. (Yes, that's deliberate, I'm in an odd mood. Go with it, ok?) Yea, one of these friends was an older woman named Louise, whom we all called "Lou." She was bright, articulate, and incredibly humorous. She also invented ohhhbrrrr.

One early winter's day, whilst the gang, which included your humble diarist (stop laughing, I can hear you laughing!!!!! and saying, "HUMBLE? Since WHEN?"), was gathered in the basement of the student union, where the college had so thoughtfully provided us a cafeteria and canteen, and we were all sitting at our usual table closest to the canteen and furthest from the numerous and incredibly cold in the chill of a mid-Michigan winter floor-to-ceiling windows on the outside wall, who shouldst we spy but Lou? Waddling towards us like a penguin, all bundled up for the weather as she was, she got to our table and announced, "Ohhhbrrr." Why, asked we, did she say that when the phrase is clearly two words, not one. Perchance she mispoke herself? (Okay, I admit it, I pulled this part together deliberately so I could use "perchance." I've wanted to throw it out there for a while, just for larks. Okay, I've wanted to use "larks," too. So shoot me. *giggle*) Nay, respondeth our querent. "It's too bleeping cold out there to make it two words. One will have to do." Thus the title of this week's post, which I'm starting on Wednesday night, purely because I'm bored and need something fun to do.

That and we've got a cold snap here in the Ozarks right now that is pretty awful. It's not horribly bitter like it was last year for three months that seemed like they'd never end, it's just awful darned chilly. Thank goodness for the heaters. The radiator heater (electric) in the bedroom works a treat to keep that room and the bathroom comfortable, even at night. Last night we hit a low of 19F and we were still comfy ... a bit cool, but that was the worst of it. The living room has a quartz heater going in it till we can get the propane heater and get it up and going. More electric, but it's keeping the living room comfy, too.

The "tool room" and the front bedroom are both closed off, we don't get into the broom closet or pantry unless we have to, the windows are all sealed up for the winter, and the insulated blackout curtains on the doorways into the living room from the kitchen and hallway are both dropped down instead of tucked up now. The blanket in the bathroom door between the bath and the bedroom is up when we need to heat that room up a bit for showers and such, and is down the rest of the time. No sense heating up rooms we aren't using. The kitchen is the worst of the lot. I could see my breath in there this morning, but what extra insulation we could put in this past summer that was taken from the Merlot went to rooms we would use more frequently than not over the cold months - bedroom, living room and bathroom, and to fix up the interior of the water heater closet (no insulation, it's a typical mobile home one with outdoor entrance and a METAL door, so you KNOW that sucker let in a heck of a draft to the bathroom!).

The rest of the trailer got shortchanged, but we don't use the rest much anyhow, so no biggie. Even as bad as the kitchen is during the worst of the cold, we aren't in there more than 10 minutes at a time anyhow, even with cooking something. It's pop in to stir, out to the living room to stay warm, back to stir, and so forth. Even doing dishes in there isn't that bad ... fill the dishpan with stuff to soak for 10 minutes, go warm up, pop back to wash them (and rinse in the other dishpan), stick another panful to soak, back out to stay warm, etc., till they're done. That way, I'm not in there long enough to get all that chilled!

It's awful nice to climb in bed under all those afghans and slide between flannel sheets, and be cozy and warm all night long. We do keep the bathroom door to the hall cracked for the boys, and the bedroom door to the hall shut all the way, so that we can get in and out without letting all the heat out of the bedroom as well as let the boys get to their food and water and litter box in the living room. A bit of old boot lace with loops in the ends and a couple of screws (one into the door and one into the door frame) solves the issue of keeping the door open only so far, and no further.

The days are flying by. Just one more day to get through as I write this part and Quentin can finally apply for rehire. One of his friends is going with him to the library that morning so he can do the application as early as possible, without me having to take time off work to help him, especially since we can't really afford me to do so until he's back to work and getting paid again. (If the friend can't go, then he's already arranged with the librarians to help him, and they've promised he can have all the time he needs due to being computer illiterate and needing to get his application in. You gotta love small-town librarians!) Today at work was pretty rough, though. Being November, we all have to go through ethics retraining, and it's a two-and-a-half-hour class of mostly boring videos with a Q&A thing at the end that you have to answer the questions with a clicker. I about fell asleep during mine today, because it was right after lunch. Me, a full tummy and a dark room generally means one thing - naptime. I had to fight to stay awake and ended up with a headache and a crick in my neck.

On top of that, one of the important pieces of equipment we use in my department to get the legless birds, what we call "footballs" because they're about that size, to the various lines for the meat to be cut off, decided to keep breaking down. Six times all told in an eight-hour shift. So it made for a bit of a rough day to get through, even if the time in that class was paid time sitting on my butt. I don't mind training time like some people do. Sure, I'd rather be doing my job, but the training we do is important. I may work for Big Ag, but at least they do try to keep us safe from harm. (Unlike some companies I can name ... *coughButterballcough*.)

Our goal every day is to have none of what we call "recordable accidents," which just means things like going to the doctor to get a prescription or injection, having surgery, or something of that nature. General booboos don't count in recordables, but do count against us in our overall safety score. We all want for every single employee to leave in the same condition we arrived for work. Tired and a bit sore maybe, but that's to be expected from a good, solid day's work. But we all are expected to do our part to leave with all our fingers and toes intact.

One fellow recently wasn't doing his part, ripped off the end of one pinky in one accident, and broke his foot in another. This lack of care on his part got him bumped down to what is called a Class 1 job, which is the level I work at also. It's basically the easiest jobs out there, that pretty much anybody can do, even if they are barely medically cleared to work in the department. There's a LOT of Class 1 work that goes on that's highly important. Like mine - I'm either sending breast meat through an x-ray machine to have it check for bones or I'm trimming them out. If the people on the line do their jobs right, when I'm rotated down to trim, I get to essentially stand there and half-doze for that time. If not, I'm busier than all heck. We joke on my section that it's essentially a snoozer job, but it's an awful important snoozer job. Seriously, if you have to buy your chicken at the store instead of raise it yourself, wouldn't you rather it be something you know is not going to have bones in it? I know I sure would.

Let's see, as I write this part on Wednesday night, the baby's blanket is almost done. I finally got it big enough, more or less, to call it done, and so I switched back to the border color and have that done. There's just the binding off stitches to do, and I'm partly done with those. I just had the urge to write tonight instead of knit! Eric and Bobbi know that I'm making something for the baby for Christmas, but not what. Shhhhh! Don't tell them, it's a surprise!!!

*****
Thursday night. I'm sitting here, having a blast. The blanket finally got done tonight, and I'm working on a five-hour baby sweater to more or less match it (the borders will match and the insides will be a hodgepodge). I have to go through toddler sock patterns and find some socks I can whip up for the baby and do the hat so that the true toddler set is ready for her. The crocheted sweater is just a six-months baby sweater, not really that big or anything, but the five-hour sweater is being made on bigger needles than called for with doubled yarn so Elizabeth can grow into it. I adapted the pattern just a bit so it's all done in stockinette with a proper buttonband border, so all the blasted knit 2 together in one row then increase in the next to get back to the same number of stitches I HAD is not happening. Ditto the socks and hat. (I have this thing about wrapping babies and small children up in woolies, they get cold so easily!)

I'm also having fun because Smudge is curled up near me on the bed (Quentin's watching wrestling on TV, so I'm in the bedroom with the laptop knitting). And in between bouts of knitting, I'm paging through my newest seed catalog. I never really understand why so many places keep sending me catalogs, as the only place I really ever seem to order from is Pinetree. Good prices, lots of heirlooms, lots of all kinds of things, and you get a lot in a seed packet - enough for a home garden but not so much you get overhwelmed. About the only thing they don't have going for them is the bulbs - I do love my bulb flowers like daffodils and tulips and iris and so forth. I have a catalog or two around here from last year I think that are full of nothing but bulbs, so it's going to eventually be interesting to buy stuff to tuck away for when a place is bought. I'm not going to invest in planting permanent stuff here if it ain't being bought. I also need to put in an order with a horticultural place that sent me a catalog - they have the cell packs I want.

And since tonight it warmed up enough to rain cats and dogs, it's a good night to settle down with my pen and that Pinetree catalog and pick out heirloom and open-pollinated veggies, and herbs and flowers and whatever tickles my fancy. Once Quentin's back to work, it's bits and pieces of order, order, order, even if I have to hang on to stuff for a bit. So that's it for tonight. I'm back to the catalog, sorry folks. Too many goodies I want to take a peep at in there!

*****
And it's now late Saturday night, nearly to bedtime, and I'm writing again. I should note that there's no photos this week, mainly because I just plain forgot. We haven't yet heard from my brother-in-law on the obituary or anything else, since he and Quentin had the big dustup the day their Dad died. I still find it hard to believe people can be so horrible venal (I think that's the word I want) about things, versus being sad that someone is gone forever from their lives. Shoot, my Mom dies, somewhere down the road, I know I'm going to be a freaking basket case for days or weeks. The weekends will be the worst at that point, knowing it's time for our weekly phone chat and not being able to call and hear her voice anymore. Like I said before, there's a few things I want when she goes out of sentimental value, and anything else is just extra stuff. If there's more to come with it, fine. If not, I'll be satisfied to get the memories. She's done so much for me over the years, that more would just be ... I don't know. Kind of seems like I'd be almost being ungrateful for all the helps she's been, you know?

Anyhow ... fall around the Ozarks has settled in with a vengeance. The trees are completely naked for winter. That comes from daughter Amber when she was about eight or nine. We were driving home one night from something in late fall, and the trees at the roadsides had all lost all their leaves. She looked out the car window and said, "Look, Mommy! The trees are all naked for winter!" And it stuck - fall now to my family is when the trees are naked for winter. Period!

Mid-week it was mighty chilly, and here it is the weekend, and the weather's done another turn. Warmer temps in the high sixties, near to seventy, and lots of gusting wind to boot. If I had a wind turbine, the thing would be spinning like crazy right now, because we're getting gusts up to 50mph this weekend. So of course, now that the fall rains have sort of stopped for the moment, the county road crew now decides its time to get out the graders and do some roadwork in general, and our road being one of the in particulars. It is nicer now, with the two rises in the road no longer being the equivalent of human bobblehead runs, but it's a bit weird, too, because we've all gotten so used to the bouncing and jouncing!

But it's cozy in the house, even with the wind and rainy sprinkles that are going on right now, and no worries about anything other than when the heck Quentin is going to get his phone call for the interview that's essentially a Q&A session to find out if he can do the job or not, and get his butt back to work at Tysons. He actually surprised me and made me proud of him. He's completely computer illiterate, yet he went to the library Friday morning, and with the help of the librarians to get things done, did his application online pretty much all by himself. I'd set him up a gmail account for email a couple of weeks ago, and took some screenshots of the app process up to the point of actually creating an account and all without doing so (because it would have pushed his eligibility back even furhter), so he kind of knew what to do to get started, but not the whole process.

He managed just fine - we went to McDonald's Friday after I got off work anyhow with the laptop to double-check his information at his insistence, because he wasn't sure he did it all correctly. He did perfect, barring misspelling the name of his high school, so we also had a chance to find out his app is "in process" and hopefully early this upcoming week, he'll get that all-important phone call. Until then, it's hurry up and wait!

I do apologize for no photos this week. Like I said, I plain forgot. It's been that crazy getting Quentin stabilized after his Dad's death and all, and ready to do his rehire app, so it's been a nutty week. Though I did get a lot of knitting done, it's just too late and I'm too tired to take photos of that much. Next week for sure, because I hope to have the last of the set done by then for the baby!

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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sad news

Sad news

It's been a good week overall, despite Daylight Savings Tiime kicking in last weekend, and I really don't like it. Instead of driving to work when it's starting to get daylight, and getting home just as it's starting to get dark, now I leave in full daylight and get home when it's full dark. All because of an hour's change of time. It's kind of silly at this end of time to keep on doing it because it's what we've done for well over a hundred years in the USA, to help farmers have more daylight for working. What I've never understood is how it helped to have more daylight for working. Didn't we still have the same amount of daylight, no matter what? It's not like it gave us more time in the day, after all. And these days, with technology the way it is, and most Big Ag relying on equipment that has GPS and lights and who knows what on it, it's not like Big Ag farmers have to worry about "saving" any daylight at all. It's annoying for the rest of us, I think, more than anything else.

What bugs me is that now, when I get home, instead of being able to drop my lunchbag and hang up my heavy apron that I wear for work to dry on the clothesline overnight, and then have enough daylight for half an hour or so of outside stuff, I get home and it's already pitch black and I have to worry about hitting a deer all the way home and up the road. Nearly got run into by Bambi, Faline and one of Faline's friends Monday night on the way home, and Friday, another doe was running up the mountain road ahead of me for nearly a quarter mile before she dodged off the other side of the road. So I'm not real fond of DST when it interferes with getting anything done. Thus, the only outside stuff that got done this weekend was on Saturday, when I got outside and cut some wood up that had been laying around for a while needing trimming up and cutting to stove length.

I don't blame Quentin this week for not feeling up to doing anything Friday. The rest of the week was nice enough and nothing got done, but Friday he became a basket case. He got a phone call early in the day, not long after my shift started, from his brother saying that his father had died. So I got yanked off the line to go take an emergency phone call because Quentin was bawling and halfway to hysterical over it, so I had to take some time on HR's phone to get him calmed down so he could make it at least till lunchtime. If he wasn't settled some by then, I was going to have to go back to HR and do quick paperwork for a paid half-day for bereavement time. Tyson is pretty good about that - you can have up to three paid days off for a death of a close family member if they are local and you are going to the funeral, or a week off with three days paid if you have to go out of state for it. I called Quentin at break and he was doing better - numb but at least past the hysterics. He told me Friday night that he slept the better part of the day, and honestly, right now, I think that's best for him, because he'll be able to sleep out the worst of the shock.

He's so stunned by this happening that it's like having an adult-size toddler in the house. He quite literally right now has to be told everything to do, from "Go to the car," to "Come sit down and eat your supper." So I hope for a few days that he does pretty much nothing but sleep. (No, we're still not getting along and are still playing the avoidance game for the most part to avoid big fights and such, but in this, somebody has to take care of things, and it sure isn't him, the way he's feeling right now.)

His father died of a massive coronary infarction, as best we can find out. He lives (lived) in a small apartment and one of Quentin's cousins, Carma, goes over every couple of days to clean for him and his neighbor lady. The neighbor told Carma Friday morning that it was awful odd that my father-in-law, Ronald, hadn't gone out for at least four days, when it's his habit to hop in his truck and go to the local diner at least twice a week for breakfast with the other farmers and ranchers in the area (Ronald still owns, or at least partially owns, several head of Black Angus up there in Cedar County, MO). Plus her floor in her kitchen was getting wet and there wasn't any reason for it. So Carma went around to the other side of the building where Ronald's place was, and there's water flowing out from under his front door. Uh-oh. She let herself in, and found the kitchen sink overflowing with the tap on and water everywhere an inch deep. She found Ronald in the hallway on his back, and it was rough from there on. Phone calls, family coming over to play vulture with his things, and so on. Yeah, I've got GREAT in-laws.

I'm horribly bothered by his family, specifically his brother, Pete, and sister, Carla. They were willing to wire down some money for Quentin to be able to have gas to go up for the memorial service (Ronald is being cremated) on the 20th. Quentin's choosing not to go, because, I kid y'all not, Ronald wasn't even pronounced dead for twelve hours and they were fighting over material possessions. There will be a small inheritance coming to each of the three kids, but good night, at least wait till the will is probated in a couple of weeks before you start fighting over things! Sadly, Quentin doesn't even have many good memories of his childhood, because his parents divorced when he was young and his siblings are not, and were not, the most decent of people you'd want to know. I've never met my sister-in-law and from what others have said of her, I don't want to. My brother-in-law is an arrogant ... well, I can't even come up with words to describe him politely. Pete and Quentin had a big fight on the phone over whether or not Quentin was coming up for the cremation and then for the funeral because this Friday, the 15th, is the cremation and that's also when Quentin can first apply for rehire at Tysons.

Quentin doesn't even want to be there for the cremation, and Pete is acting like it's some kind of crime to want to be down here to put in the app since they're all online now anyhow. "You can put in an online app from anywhere there's a computer!" he says, and while he's right in that, Quentin's taking a shot at doing this himself, by going to the library bright and early Friday morning to see what he can do by himself, despite complete computer illiteracy, and with a little help from the librarian, so that hopefully, he can get it done early enough in the day that it's submitted and they maybe call him for an interview that day. If he can get that call, and they can squeeze in his interview and medical the 15th, he'd start the 18th, on the following Monday. Big if, but we can hope, because otherwise, it's likely Thanksgiving week before he starts back. Which would also mean that he'd be in orientation the day of the memorial service, and couldn't take time off - missing a day of orientation means immediate termination and no rehire for TWO years. He's not going to risk that, nor risk not making his interview, after as tight as it's been for a year. We're both tired of this and looking forward to him getting back to work.

So his family, specifically his older brother, is making life pretty miserable for him right now, and there's not a lot to be done to fix it. Though there is family that I told him he should keep in touch with, while just cutting ties with his siblings at this point, because if they're going to act like that, they aren't worth his time. His Aunt Judy, his Grandma until she passes, Carma and her husband Donnie and their kids, and a couple of others. Funny enough, I am an only child, and growing up, I always wanted a big family with lots of brothers and sisters. I married into a big family of sorts, and don't want anything to do with the lot of them.

I guess I'm lucky in that respect. I had a rough childhood, and while Mom did her best, she was rather overprotective, and it scarred me. I've been told by therapists that what I went through was akin to being a POW for eighteen years, and I'm lucky I came out of it as intact as I am. I do have a lot of really good memories, though, despite it all, and while Mom and I have had our differences over the years, and we went through a period when I was a young adult of not speaking at all for the better part of five years, we both regret that lost time, and I call her almost every Sunday evening to chat and catch up on news from back home, and tell her what's going on down here. I know she's got a will, my "Aunt" Liz (her best friend for 33 years, I often joke that they need to get each other traditional wedding anniversary presents because they've been together longer than most people have been married) is the executor, and everything is split between me and my two kids.

I get some things specifically that I've asked for, and that's in the will, same as the kids. I know I'll get some of the kitchen stuff if it's still there (she has these old heavy glass mixing bowls that were a set, but one got broken years ago that I definitely want! I MISS using those bowls!), the holiday decorations because it's tradition in my family that holiday stuff all goes to the oldest daughter (so there's stuff my grandmother didn't want anymore and gave to my mom years ago even though she's not dead yet, and all that Mom's collected over the years), Mom's record collection (mostly Elvis, but I grew up listening to those records!), all the afghans I made her over the years, and while I'm not into butterflies, I found a latch hook wall hanging of a butterfly years ago that I gave her.

Someone had it in a frame that had been painted flat black and then decided they didn't want it. I lived in Flint at the time and remember that I was VERY pregnant with Amber, and was walking home from the library to my tiny apartment. I saw it laying face up on top of someone's garbage pile, and looked at it carefully. It was in good shape, barring the ugly frame, so I grabbed it and got it home with me and my library books. It was hard to get it home because it was bulky and there was a slight wind, I remember, but I managed. Then I got out my paints, found some gold and a paintbrush, and very carefully used gold acrylic Ceramcoat, holding the latch hook out of the way, and painted the frame a color that accented the butterfly while not taking it out of the frame. It became a Christmas present for Mom that year. (Yeah, that was a really good memory, so I remember all the details of it.) And I want that butterfly to remember my Mom by when she's gone, not because I like butterflies as much as she does, but because it will always have a good memory associated with it. Honestly, Mom loved it. She still has it hanging on the living room wall right by the front door, and everybody says how nice it is. I can't understand why someone was willing to put something so pretty, that they'd put so much work into, and that was still in great shape, into the trash like that, but serendipity struck and it got Mom a Christmas gift that she treasures twenty years later.

So when Mom goes, hopefully not any time soon, it's going to be rough on me, too. But I know that there won't be any fighting, because that's just not how things are in my family. Everybody knows what Mom wants once she's gone, and Aunt Liz and Amber and I will, between the three of us, keep any vultures in the family from getting anything or even finding out about the funeral till after it's in the paper, if then. And by then, everything will be divvied up nice and neat. Why am I so sure things will be so quiet?

Because my mom's siblings acted like nimrods at their Dad's funeral many years ago, and Mom has not forgotten nor forgiven. She told me that day that when she goes, she doesn't even want them told about the funeral. They can find out she's gone if they bother to read the obituaries in the paper, but otherwise, they're not to be notified till after the funeral, because she doesn't want the shenanigans that happened at Granddad's funeral to happen at hers. She wants a nice, peaceful, remember the good times wake, not a bunch of family fighting over everything and anything, nitpicking over how big the obit was in the paper or whether the flowers were "too much, a plant would have done just as well" or anything silly like that.

So a very quiet week, but it allowed me to get a lot done on the baby's stuff for her first Christmas. Eric and Bobbie can hardly wait to see it, because even though Elizabeth won't remember it except from being told about it and shown pictures, it's important for a baby to have a good first Christmas, right? The sweater has only a few ends to run in and buttons to go on ....

and the blanket is coming along fine, in very soft cotton yarn.

AND I have enough of the stonewashed denim color to make plenty of other things, too.

I'm seriously thinking of making another sweater with the leftover cotton in the five-hour baby sweater pattern, only on bigger needles, just to make sure that baby has plenty of hand knit woolies (or in this case, cottons) to dress up in. A baby can never, EVER have enough hand knits, and seeing them get worn to bits is always a knitter's or crocheter's hope with making something for someone that's wearable. You really do want to see it worn and worn out. It shows that somebody cares enough about it to put it to use. I can't tell you how many times I've made dishcloths for folks for gifts, only to have them tell me they hung it in the kitchen in a place of pride to display it, because "it's too pretty to be used." It's MEANT to be used, and it's pretty because I personally don't like using ugly things in a kitchen. Or anywhere in the house.

Maybe it's just me, but I think a house, in the public areas, should be neat, clean, and just plain pretty. Save the messy for the private home office area and the bedrooms. Kitchen, dining area, living room/family room area and the bathroom, and any halls, should be clean and decorated in a way that makes people feel welcome to come in and stay awhile. I guess I'm old-fashioned in that way. Heck, when the kids were little the rule for their bedrooms was that they didn't have to make their beds or put their clothes away, they could live out of the laundry basket if they liked. The floor could be a disaster. BUT the door had to be closed so other people, mostly me, didn't have to look at the mess, and there was to be no opened food or dirty dishes left in the room. If the door was open, or there was food or dishes, it was an invitation to me to come clean it up for them, and they didn't like it when I cleaned.

So they had their rooms their way, doors shut at all times, and no food or dishes left in there. And we had a happy house, full of love and laughter and loads of things that made the place welcoming. I still like to have a few extra afghans and a couple of pillows in case of company, to make up a bed on the sofa for them, and there's always time to put the kettle on for tea or instant coffee or cocoa, and always some kind of finger food like cookies or coffee cake or what have you around for company. Errr, yeah, I'd have to say I'm somewhat out of date in that respect. But it's nice traditions like those that help to make a house a welcoming home for the family.

It's not traditions like fighting over who gets what before the corpse is even declared for twelve hours that bring family together, as Quentin's is doing. It's only splitting them apart to where he feels he should be there for the cremation and memorial service, but he doesn't even want to go because of all the infighting. I can't blame him, so he'll mourn privately, and go on with life, and wait for the executor (his Aunt Anita, thankfully one of the nice, intelligent folks in the family) to divvy it all up and send him a check for his share of the inheritance. It won't be much, and Quentin'd really rather have his dad around instead of the money, but it's a lot better for him than dealing with family that acts like vultures.

I could go on and on about traditions, but one I love in my family, and miss with being here in Arkansas rather than "back home," is Thanksgiving dinner at my Uncle Jim's and Aunt Helen's. EVERYBODY shows up for what Uncle Jim calls "lots of food, lots of BS, and watching the Lions lose again." We all get our plates, pile them high with food and sit around the big TV in the family room at their place and watch the Turkey Day feetball game with the Lions and whoever, and watch our home team get beaten. Usually very badly. All while we make all kinds of horrible jokes about the game and how it's going and armchair quarterback the whole thing. It's a beeeeg, beeeg shebang, and I miss it alot. I'm there in spirit anyhow, and given half a chance, even when it was just me a few years, I put out a spread and a half, because you never know. Somebody could drop by on a whim and need a plate of food, right? (Many times, somebody did, too. I rarely have leftovers from even a big Turkey Day dinner.) In a couple weeks, with Turkey Day right around the corner, I'd like to do a post about YOUR Turkey Day traditions, if you're in the US (or Canada, you guys have a Thanksgiving, too, don't you?). Drop me a line at hrauschenberger@gmail.com, tell me all about your Thanksgiving traditions, and I'll put them together into a weekend before Turkey Day blog post.

So this started out a good week if a very quiet early fall week, and ended up with tragedy. I'm off here to get other things done. See you next week, but until then, there's freebies for the Kindle below.
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FREE KINDLE BOOKS FOR THE WEEK

40 Easy Soup Recipes - Top Soup and Chowder Recipes For the Whole Family
30 Paleo Fish Recipes - Simple & Easy Paleo Fish Recipes (Paleo Recipes)
Top 30 Most Popular And Latest Portuguese Recipes That You Will Never Ever Forget
35 Chicken Soup Recipes: Cozy Chicken Soups And Stews For Your Soul On A Cold Night
How to Vertical Garden: What You Need to Know About Vertical Gardening & Creating a Beautiful Living Wall (The Jonah Green Gardening Series)
How to Grow Beans and Peas: Planting and Growing Organic Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, and Heirloom Dry Beans and Peas
Worm Composting: & Composting Ideas for use in Organic Gardening & Growing of Vegetables & Herbs
The How to Book on Creating a Beautiful Container Garden: Grow Robust Flowers and Produce All Will Envy (The Jonah Green Series(What to Plant in Pots & How to Plant in Pots)
Best Ever Fruit Cobbler & Crisp Recipes (Best Ever Recipes Series)
Best Homemade Shortbread Cookies (Delicious Shortbread Cookie Recipes For All Occasions!)
Southern Comfort Casseroles (Breakfast, Brunch And Dinner Casseroles)
Natural Gardens and Landscapes (Gardening and Landscaping with Native Plants)
29 Gluten Free Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes - Easy Slow Cooker Recipes (Gluten Free Cookbook - The Gluten Free Recipes Collection)
Tips and Tricks for Creating and Caring for your Garden
The New Green Family Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Going Green as a Family (Green Matters)
How to Save Energy at Home - 101 Great Home Energy Saving Tips
The Low Carb Cookbook Boxed Set: Fabulous Ideas for Delicious and Nutritious Meals You Will Love (The Low Carb Diet)
Cupcakes (Cupcake And Frosting Recipes)
Homesteading - Self Sufficiency. A Beginners Guide: Canning & Food Preservation; Raised Bed Gardening; Raising Chickens; Growing Organic Vegetables; Vermin ... Bites' 5 Book Bundle (K.I.S.S Quick Bites)
35 Easy Pasta Recipes - Delicious and Traditional Italian Pasta Dishes (The Italian Cuisine And Italian Recipes Collection)
How To Compost Manure
Fresh Salad Recipes: 21 Classic Italian Salads - (A Delicious Collection of Italian Salads)
Sizzling, Smacking Good 4th of July Grilled Pork Recipes
Hydroponics: Hydroponic Gardening Basics
Collection of 30 Top Class, Most Popular And Super Tasty Vegetarian Breakfast Recipes In Just 3 Or Less Steps
Wheat-Free Classics - Breakfast and Baking Recipes
Collection of 30 Top Class, Most Popular And Super Tasty Vegetarian Lunch And Dinner Recipes In Just 3 Or Less Steps
A Slice Of American History: The Best Cake Recipes From America's Sweet Past
The Happy Container Gardening Book - How to Create an Easy Indoor or Outdoor Container Garden for Flowers, Vegetables or Herbs
Best Dinner Recipes (Family Favorites)
30 Delicious Apple Dessert Recipes (The Ultimate Apple Desserts Recipes Including Apple Pie, Apple Cake, Apple Cupcakes, Apple Cookies, Bread, Muffins & More)
51 Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes - Fabulous Easy Vegetarian Slow cooker Recipes (Vegetarian Cookbook and Vegetarian Recipes Collection)
Latest Collection of 30 Top Class, Easy, Popular And Mouth-Watering 5 Ingredients or Less Gluten Free Recipes For Your Perfect Health
The Best Cookie Recipes (My Favorite Cookies)
50 Easy Frozen Yogurt Recipes - The Frozen Yogurt Cookbook (The Summer Dessert Recipes And The Best Dessert Recipes Collection)
Top 50 Delicious Desserts From All Over The World
40 Top Chicken Slow Cooker Recipes - Easy One Pot Meals For The Whole Family
Go Vegetarian - The Chinese Way!
The Container Gardening Book - How to grow easy flowers, herbs and vegetables in containers
Garden Decking - Getting Started
Indian Food For Beginners - 24 Authentic Indian Recipes
7 Secrets Grow Delicious Herbs Indoors (Your Herb Garden)
Unusual Medicinal Herbs (Herbal Medicine from Your Garden or Windowsill)
27 Pasta Easy Recipes (Easy Pasta & Easy Pizza Italian Recipes)
A Diabetic Friendly Cookbook: You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!
Dessertlicious: 26 Delicious Dessert Recipes
Tasty Tidbits of Casseroles!!! (Easy Cheap Comfort Eats)
The Best Diabetic Holiday Cookbook
Super Delicious Mediterranean Lunch Recipes: Latest Collection Top 30 Selected, Recommended And Super Tasty Mediterranean Lunch Recipes
Latest Collection of 30 Top Class, Easy, Popular And Mouth-Watering 5 Ingredients or Less Salad Dressing Recipes For Every Single Person
Save Money While Cooking for Your Family

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Fall color came and went

In about three days, which is typical of the Ozarks. There was a good splash, and boom, gone again before you could really enjoy it. The trees are already brown and dropping leaves like crazy. I got a few photos, but when your camera is only 1.2 megapixels, it doesn't do overly great on photo taking after it's a few years old, but at the time, it was what I could afford. So I make do.

But I did get a few shots around here that I think turned out ok.

This one I took in the parking lot at work, facing away from the factory (because you can't legally take photos of my workplace without permission), when it was sprinkling one evening after work. You can juuuust see the rainbow in the middle.

Trees down by the cow pasture with some color.

More of the cow pasture, the hills behind it, and hopefully the color comes through a bit.

The sunset behind the cow pasture. It came out just like I hoped, with lots of dark shadowed stuff of the landscape, and the sunset behind it.

And this one came out just about perfect. Trees at the side of the road on the way up the mountain.

There were a couple of comments on last week's post, and I'm grateful for commentary. I do appreciate your thoughts. Just please, until you have to walk in my shoes, don't tell me to stay in a marriage that is not working out. There's no hope counseling would help (he doesn't want to do it), the Incident Of Which I Do Not Speak from this past summer cost me my best friend and my trust in him, and I'm honestly tired of the foul language and spoken to in a crude manner all the time as has happened for quite a long time now. I won't even go into the expansive details, but let's just say that I have my reasons for wanting out, and it's horribly sad, but even the chaplain at work that I'm working with for myself has said that there's not a lot of hope and I'm likely to be better off on my own for a while, and it may take that to help Quentin to realize what he has in our marriage and what he's costing himself. And that's all I'm going to say on the whole matter of our marriage.

As far as the hardships here, they're not really hardships so much as serious inconveniences that you learn to live with if you're going to homestead from scratch. Around here, rent-to-own properties are not commonplace, but inexpensive property IS, if you're willing to start from scratch with it. So it's not so bad, it's just annoying more than anything, though when your partner wants to put the propane tanks in the house!!! instead of outside, because he worries that "the valve might freeze", there gets to be an issue of safety going on. I am all about safety ... not nanny-state type safety, but being as safe as possible in what is done around here. Not jury-rigging if it's avoidable, especially on things that could possibly kill somebody.

The baby's stuff is coming along great. The blanket is about eight inches along, so it'll be done in a few more weeks. I still need to do the hat and booties, but may skip those so that Elizabeth Marie has time to wear the sweater before she outgrows it!

At least Quentin's eligible for rehire in a couple more weeks, so hopefully soon, there'll be some time apart other than when I'm at work, for meditation and reflection. Hopefully, there'll be internet at home soon, so I can get more things going that need doing around here, in the vein of the internet stuff. Anyhow, time for this week's book deals, because I have a ton of things I need to get done this afternoon, and there's only so many hours in the day.

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FREE KINDLE BOOKS FOR THIS WEEK